If Crows Know Best (Mage of Merced Book 1) (27 page)

Da, Wils and Perk naturally fell behind us on foot. We covered ground faster, and came to the town gate just behind the red wagon being waved through by the guard. “I hope none of them recognize Gevarr,” Annora said, giving voice to my fear. None seemed to note him as in truth one of their own, left for dead.

The sentry waved me to a halt where the stone wall cast a deep shadow. Bowmen paced the walkway above. “What business?” he said brusquely. His Mercedish was quite good. I supposed that was why he had gate duty.

I tried, “Relatives live here. We carry them to work at Everton Lake.”

“Women for the vineyards and orchards there,” Annora added, eyes downcast. I saw her hands twist in her lap in a curious gesture. Joren slowed ahead, and Gevarr looked back.

Whatever Annora did, the sentry shrugged and waved us through the iron gate and onto the cobbled street. Joren clucked to his team, and I rolled behind him.

My only experience driving a wagon and team in town traffic was the day Wils and Da marched away, and at that time we had not been in the tangle of streets near the waterfront, but more at the edge of town. Today I felt I would sideswipe passersby even in my narrow wagon. How Joren navigated his wide rig so easily, I could not but attribute to his skill as a driver. We were lucky to have him turn up. Or perhaps the gods knew we would need him.

Wieser sat behind the bench seat, and Annora sat beside me equally as calm as Wieser, but I felt my jaw tightening more and more the deeper we went into the town. I said to Annora, “There are far fewer patrols about than I remember.”

She nodded. “Many have been sent to find magic folk or guard transports on their longer journey. That’s why your da—” she stopped abruptly. “I have to remember not to talk too free.”

Joren Delyth had been instructed where to take us, I reckoned. Maybe this was the favor from the harbourmaster? I would ask Da once I could be told things again. I followed Joren up a ramp and through wooden doors slid wide apart, into an echoing warehouse interior, empty but for our two wagons and four riders. Or, no, a few crates lurked at the far end, stacked this way and that as if discarded. Joren swung about to face the doors, and so I did the same, as Beckta and Miskin dismounted and rolled the sliding doors shut.

Gevarr ambled his horse to our wagon’s side, and said to Annora, “I’m told you have been kept from harm?”

“Never threatened, so I did not have to fight anyone,” she said crisply. “And if it is not too much like bragging, I was needed to teach the code and message sending at the fort.”

“No doubt you were essential,” he said with a glint of amusement. “And you and Judian eluded capture by being elsewhere when the troops came for magic-gifted.” Here he nodded to me.

“How is it you are trusted enough to come along? And how do Virda and Morie fare?” I asked, a touch put out to be such an afterthought for him.

“Cobbel and I took them up to the caves when we heard of your success blocking the pass, and it was just in time to avoid the sweep of troops looking for any who were known for magic. I gather some in the village pointed Annora’s way.” He frowned at this. “So, Virda is installed as cook for the hale troops of Merced who have been arriving, and healer for the wounded who have been coming more slowly. Morie has been working hard to aid Virda, and talking everyone’s ears off their heads.”

From Joren came a call of, “Gevarr!” and a wave to bring him to the cargo wagon. It was the first time I had heard Joren use his name. Gevarr touched his forehead to Annora and went to the back of the cargo rig, where the other men were untying the tarp over the bed. As the heavy canvas was rolled back, soldier after soldier in green Mercedian tunics clambered to the dirt floor of the warehouse, stretching their backs and legs. I counted thirty men, all fully armed.

One of them proved to be Fieldmaster Behring, who strode over to our wagon and sketched a salute to Annora and me. “Donah Lebannen, young Judian, isn’t it?” he said. “You have been many places besides where I thought you were bound when I took my leave at the mountain.”

Nettled, I said, “Yah, and I hope you are finding my messenger birds and our code a better way to send information than your couriers. Still, I am glad to see you have been rescued from prison by us. What is going to happen now?” For I could feel tension building in all of them.

“Wait—we are not supposed to tell Judian the plans. The sorcerers are seeking him since he foiled them at the fort,” Annora said.

“
He
foiled them? That’s a tale I would hear when this night is over,” Behring allowed with a raised brow. “Is Paladin Lebannen far behind you?”

“Not far, just slower coming on foot. They will arrive before long, I think.”

“Judian,” Miskin called from the crates in the corner. I hopped down and went to him, hoping the crates might be full of weapons hidden for our use. Something was coming together, whether I was given a clue or no.

Miskin had me shift a couple of the crates with him, and we uncovered a loop of leather strap sticking up from the dust. He pulled it, and a trapdoor rose with a cascade of the covering soil mounding at the back. A dark hole in the floor with a crude wooden ladder lay beneath, and as I watched, Orlo arrived at the bottom rung with a lantern and a hearty wave.

“Hah, you made it back! I’ve got some more troops for your battle!” He ran lightly up the ladder, followed by a broad-shouldered soldier who lumbered up with a knife in his teeth, and more men behind him.

Miskin had evidently not been reminded to keep me uninformed, because he grinned, “We take back the harbour tonight.”

CHAPTER 36

I brought Orlo to our wagon and introduced him to Annora, since I had no other role to keep me occupied. All around us, officers directed by Fieldmaster Behring formed the emerging soldiers into ranks. They made no chatter, a Keltanese patrol passing outside would not hear the rumble of men’s voices.

“When the paladin comes, then the attack can commence,” Orlo told me, eyes bright. Annora shushed him and said he should not tell more.

So, I asked, “Did the harbourmaster’s son make it to freedom?”

“Yes! You have never seen a man more happy, Zaffis says. Harbourmaster Folio aids us now—” he broke off at Annora’s click of tongue and upraised hand. “Tell me what befell you on the road west,” he continued instead.

“Cannot tell that, either, until after … whatever this is,” I jerked my head at the massing troops.

“Ask your da if you can come with me when it starts. I’m to make sure as many women and children and old folks are below in the tunnels as possible, to keep them out of harm’s way.”

“Only you?” I said.

“Me and the rest of the smugglers,” he said. “Zaffis claims we’re practically law-abiding, of late.”

I caught sight of Perk and Wils slipping in from the street, followed a few moments later by Da. Soldiers fell on the seabags they carried, extracting torches and oil. Behring flew to Da’s side in an instant, saluting before clasping both hands around one of Da’s and smiling wide. A murmur spread through the gathered men, then they silently saluted, fists over hearts, in Da’s direction. He answered with a salute, and walked off with Behring to the tailgate of the cargo wagon, where maps were spread.

“That’s my da.” I nodded toward him. Then, “That’s my brother,” I said to Orlo, when Wils strode up and embraced Annora and kissed her.

“I’d kiss her before any other business, too,” Orlo said with a wink.

Wils turned to us, and said, “You and Annora are to go into the underground until the fighting is over. Take Wieser with you, but we need all three crows to carry messages. We’ll find you when the danger is past.”

“You mean I do not get to do
anything
?”

“He means you will not go out and engage trained warriors in a street fight,” Da said, walking up to us. He continued to Wils, “We will wait until curfew would have everyone except patrols indoors, so empty roads do not seem amiss. I need a crow to send to each of the other warehouses and the sawyer’s yard, so I need a runner to go to the chapel and make sure the apostate rings the bell to signal the troops who cannot see the fire.”

“Joren Delyth will know his way best,” Wils began.

Orlo stepped forward. “I can go most all of the way underground. Just tell me when to have him ringing, and I’ll see it done.”

“This is Orlo, I told you about him,” I said to Da. “Let me go with him. Annora can come as well. The chapel will be out of the way of the fighting, surely.”

“I’d have to call him brave,” Behring said at Da’s side.

Da looked at me with arms crossed. “That’s one thing to call him.”

“The apostate knows me. I went and asked him for help to start with.”

“That is true,” Orlo nodded. “When we released the soldiers, the apostate helped us get the wounded out first, and had the able men take the place of the infirm until we could take all the rest at once. He said Judian asked him to come to their aid in the prison.”

Da made his choice. “Once the fire is lit at the sawyer’s, you will see it from the chapel across town. That is when the bell is to be rung seven times. After you see to that, the three of you return to the tunnels and wait for us to come for you. You will do nothing else!”

We all agreed vigorously that we could be counted on to be obedient. No one laughed outright, these being serious times. Wils did draw me aside and say in my ear, “Be told: You let no harm befall her from you playing the hero, eh?”

“I just want to help, and she does, too. I’ll take utmost care.”

“See you do,” he said, and moved off with Da and Behring.

Perk helped us by lowering Wieser down the hole in one of the empty crates, and we were outfitted with torches and a lantern. I carried my bow and short sword, but as Orlo was unarmed, I shifted the sword to him and carried my obsidian knife instead. He whistled softly when the torchlight touched the black blade. “I have only heard of those in legend. You’d best save a lot of time to tell me your tales when this is over.”

“He does have tales to tell,” Annora agreed, and we set off into the dark shadows.

We were soon enough peering from behind bushes at the midpoint of the chapel hill, where an exposed road led up to the chapel itself at the top of the rise.

“I thought you said we could go most of the way below ground,” I complained to Orlo.

“This is most of the way. It’s just up there.”

“But we have to go right out in the open to get to it.”

“We could go below and tunnel into the chapel cellar—by midwinter.”

Wieser looked from one to the other of us. “At least if we had dark cloaks or something—” I started.

“Do you smell wood smoke?” Annora interrupted. “Could they have started the fire already?”

“Town always smells of wood smoke, what else?” Orlo answered back.

It was just dusk, barely so. They shouldn’t be lighting their diversionary fire yet, it would be too hard to see, I reckoned. “We have to cross the road and go up. I’ll go first, then you come over with Wieser when I signal,” I told Orlo. “Annora, I’ll send Wieser back for you.”

“I think she should wait in the tunnel,” Orlo argued.

“I think we should all walk up to the chapel like supplicants, right now before it is past curfew. Surely that is less out of the ordinary,” was Annora’s whispered opinion.

I closed a hand around the moonstone at my chest. “So be it. We go now.”

We all tried to walk up the road, instead of scurry like granary rats when the farmer shines a light on them, and made it to the chapel door. The apostate ushered us in, shushing us although we said nothing, and that with his lisp made Orlo and me laugh. “Thuth!” he said again, severe. It may not have been kind to make sport of him, but he might have chosen to say “keep quiet” instead. I said sorry, and Orlo dipped his head also. He barred the door to the street and drew us deeper within.

Annora kept presence of mind enough to tell him our task. We were to watch for the fire to the south end of town at the sawyer’s, and ring the chapel bell exactly seven times when we saw it ablaze.

“You thent me the firtht hawk,” he said to her fondly. “Has your young huthband fared well?”

“Yes, brother. By the gods’ grace.”

He led us to the bell tower and up the steps, and I bade Wieser wait at the bottom of the ladder to the belfry. We could see across the entire town and out over the harbour from the high vantage point. In the fading light I could make out the top of the wall the Keltanese had built. It looked beyond breaching, broad and thick. Torches lit the walkway, and wagons still rolled in and out of the town gates. The streets were otherwise emptying of folk except for the pole lanterns that marked the enemy foot patrols.

“What do you think, Orlo, are there half as many night patrols as before?” I asked, looking round at him.

“If that. When word came that the pass was blocked, they doubled the outriders at once. When you were here last, there was a Keltanese soldier for every third citizen, Zaffis said. Many fewer now.”

The apostate spoke, voice tight with outrage. “After the prithoners were found mithing from the warehouse, they marched the new arrivals to thips and anchored them out in the bay. I hate to think what our men are enduring there.”

“My da will set them free. The Keltanese have let themselves be spread too thin and he will turn it to our advantage.”

The sea winds shifted as the sun went down, and we four watched to the south where I knew the sawyer’s mill to be, high on the slope. We burned no light, so our eyes could accustom to the darkness that crept across the sky.

Annora was first to point to a growing glow on the slope, and by the time she lowered her arm, the fire had doubled in size. The men must have lit dozens of fires at the same moment. As quick as we could make our feet and hands find the rungs, we were down the ladder. The apostate gripped the bell rope, and gave a mighty yank. Orlo and I seized it with him, and together we tolled the great bell seven times, letting the ring fade between to set each apart for clarity. The sound was near to deafening, so close to the bronze giant.

Orlo barely let the last toll fade before clambering back up to the belfry. He called down to us, “Come see, our men are flooding into the streets!”

Maybe just a quick look
, I thought as I mounted the ladder.
Before we go back to the tunnels.
Annora and the apostate followed. A rushing torrent of men carrying torches neared the gated wall. Wagon teams reared and plunged on the road. Some horses bolted into the crowd of soldiers, scattering them like pebbles from our high view. We could see less of what was happening at the waterfront, but could see torches aplenty all around the docks. Shouts and sounds of running men carried on the breeze. Street to street, our soldiers overtook patrols while the fire blazed at the south end of town. At the city wall, our men gained the ladders. Some pitched over backward as the enemy sought to repel the onslaught, by knocking the ladders away. More and more came behind the fallen, swarming up onto the walkway to overwhelm the guards with wave after wave of men. How had we achieved such numbers? Then I realized, the enemy had marched our men down to the sea, rather than leave them in the countryside. Keltane had consolidated our numbers for us. All the able escapees must have trekked back from the mountain, to fight at Da’s command.

We stood above the melee, gasping in turns and pointing to skirmishes the others might have missed.

Annora seized my hand. “Oh, Judian, I think we will win!”

“Gods be praithed!” echoed the apostate.

Where were Da and Wils? They had not told me what role they were to play. Attacking the wall? Rounding up the patrols? Fighting on the docks? “Do you know what Wils and Da are doing?” I asked Annora.

“Fenn set the plan, but I think Behring conducts the attack. Wils and your da were to roust the officers at the harbourmaster’s residence, and obtain their surrender.”

I turned to Orlo. “Can you get us there underground?”

“Oh, aye.”

“Oh, no. Gods keep us!” said Annora, but I took it as more of a remark than a true protest.

“You’d best retire to your cellar,” I advised the apostate when we took our leave moments later.

“I think tho, too,” he nodded, and I heard him set the bar back in the chapel door as soon as it shut behind us. We asked Wieser to lead us across the road to the tunnel entrance when it was safe to leave the shadows, for we dared no light. Once within, all was quiet, and I lit a torch to hand to Orlo so he could lead the way. He did not hesitate, but cautioned, “We have a fair walk ahead.”

“Do you go underground to your work?” Annora asked, for of all of us, she seemed most discomfited being below ground.

“Nah, I just know all the tunnel network,” Orlo said, tapping his temple.

We went by twists and turns, and found caverns where women and children sat with their backs to the rock walls, waiting for word from above. We told them from what we had seen, the battle looked to be going our way, and this was met by joyful gestures but little sound. All seemed to feel it fitting to be quiet in the underground. Finally, Orlo slowed at one group, looking at faces until he found the one he wanted.

“Cook!” he said. “Have our soldiers come to the house?”

“I let them in the kitchen just as you said,” she answered, arms hugging her thick waist. “There was a dozen or more of them. I lit out for the tunnels as soon as they were through the door.”

“Annora, wait here. We should go up and see if they need help,” I suggested.

“I wager you would, too,” came Wils’s voice from behind me. “Da is turning everything over to our officers. We won the day! Or the night, more so.” Annora caught him round the neck in a fierce embrace. He laughed as he kissed her.