The Prince of Exiles (The Exile Series) (65 page)

The Wolf had arrived to spring the trap.

The Prince rushed out of the tent, looking south.

In the distance, just cresting the horizon, was the advance guard of an army, flying the gray wolfshead flags of Tibour.

“Dysuna,” he whispered.

But something was different from the memories he’d gleaned from Tiffenal. The plan had been to trap them between the Black Wall and the approaching army, crushing the Kindred in a vice.

He spun back around and saw that the whole of the Kindred army was already inside the Outer City, the collection of Commons houses and shops that formed a ring around the Black Wall. In fact, it looked like many of the Kindred were already inside the Wall, no doubt securing the city itself.

They didn’t know we’d found a way into the city. They didn’t think we could take the walls this quickly.

There was still hope.

“Get everyone inside the Black Wall!” He shouted, running through the camp. He saw a man with the insignia of a captain on his chest and pulled him forward.

“Get all of your men, all the reserves inside the walls –
now!”

The man nodded and ran, screaming for his men. The call was taken up by others, and then still more. The Prince whirled around and dashed back inside the command tent, to find everyone still where they had been. Even Ishmael looked too shocked to move.

“Dysuna is leading an army, approaching from the south,” he said quickly, motioning to the under-captains by the table of maps and lists. “Get all of this, keep it
safe
, and get it inside the walls
now!
We set up a new command post there – don’t bother with the tent, it’ll take too much time.”

They were looking at him blankly.

“
NOW!!!”

They lurched into fervid, frenzied action. The Prince turned to Ishmael.

“Get the other Elders – Spader, Keri, and anyone else who’s with you. We can’t let another
sambolin
get captured by the Empire and we can’t let them ransom anyone of importance.”

Ishmael nodded and left.

“You!” Raven called, pointing to an Ashandel-Eshendai pair. “I don’t know who the hell you are and I don’t care – find every Rogue, Ranger, and Spellblade and get them up on the Black Walls. We need to hold them no matter the cost, and we need to clear out any last defenders
now
. We commit all our troops in a full-out assault, we have maybe one hour at maximum before the Outer City is in flames and we’re under siege. Do whatever you can to repulse the first attack, cover the retreat, and then fall back or we close the gates on you. GO!”

They ran, shouting as they left the tent. Others had come in, camp followers and servants, running, packing the maps and plans, breaking everything down.

The Prince looked down at dead Commander Wyck and the imposter General Oleander. Gates and Dunhold had fled, no doubt trying to organize what resistance they could. He needed people he could work with – he couldn’t run a whole army on his own.

I need Leah and Tomaz.

He ran from the tent and raced toward the city as fast as his legs could carry him. The strength he’d gathered from killing the Defenders was still with him, and he used it now to spur him forward.

He raced through the wall-less Outer City, watching as the Kindred rounded up the Commons and pulled them from their homes with only as many possessions as they could carry. The main gate was open, and the entire army was rushing through it. The gate itself was intact – the plan had worked, they’d been able to infiltrate over the walls and seize the city from the inside.

The main battle will be at the inner gate – the ones around the Inner City where the Most High live, where the Seekers keep their lair.

He raced under the enormous Black Wall that had stood for hundreds of years and had never been breached.

Until now.

He heard the sounds of fighting, but it was spread out and distant. He raced among the Kindred, shouting at them to get everyone inside the walls, shouting that an army was approaching from the south. His words and presence seemed to spur them all to faster motion, and he left swirling pools of action in his wake.

He rushed around the park in which he’d seen a slave auction almost a year before, moving in haste past the members of the High Blood and Elevated that were being taken from their houses and rounded up by Kindred soldiers.

The Inner City was before him, the one surrounded by an extra wall that separated it from any but the Most High and the Children. There was fighting in front of it – a huge man had managed to place himself beneath the lowering portcullis that closed the gate. His armor was hanging off of him and his shirt below was in tatters – he must have led the assault himself. The exposed patches of his body glowed with red outlines, as if coals had been placed beneath his skin. He held the portcullis up as Kindred fought around him, men and women in every color of the Kindred forces, fighting with a vengeance for control of the gate. One of these fighters was laying about her with two wicked daggers.

The Prince ran for Leah and Tomaz, feeling the weight of Aemon’s Blade in his hand. He raced into the fray and cut down two men before they knew what was happening, leaving them alive but out of the fight. A spear flew through the air, thrown for Tomaz, and the Prince leapt in front of the giant and cut the shaft in two, splintering it and sending it awry.

“
PRINCELING?! What in the seven hells are you doing here?!”

The Prince struck down two more men, smashing their temples with the flat of his blade and knocking them out cold.

“Shadows and fire!” Leah shriek at him. “How are you – what are – how –“

“DUCK!”

She crouched down immediate and he swung through the space behind her, slicing into a man’s chest and sending him backward where another Kindred caught him and slit his throat.

“Gatehouse,” Tomaz grunted to them. “Get to the gatehouse. Can’t hold this much longer. GATEHOUSE – NOW!”

The Prince and Leah ran, dodging over fallen bodies. The door was barred. A Defender came at them and the Prince killed him. The man’s strength was added to him, and he used it to crash through the door, splintering the wood and depositing him on the floor inside. There were five men around him, but they stood no chance against Leah.

As the last man fell, they ran to the winch that controlled the portcullis and pushed it the other way. The Prince looked back out the door and saw it begin to rise. Tomaz quivered and fell to his knees, his huge muscle rippling and bulging. He had large, wide red marks on his shoulders from where the spiked edges of the gate had bit into him, but there were no cuts.

The Ox Talisman – it made his skin hard enough that nothing could cut it, only bruise it. Why is it working now when it didn’t before? What is different?

“Everyone!” The Prince roared, turning to them all. The battle was over for the moment; they’d won the gate. Half of the Kindred began to make their way into the Inner City, breaking down doors and dragging out the Most High who yelled and screeched in protest.

“Dysuna is leading an army from the south,” he said quickly. “We are about to be surrounded. All of you –”

He motioned to about half of the group, nearly a hundred men and women.

“ – go help secure the gate! We need to make sure everything is in place. We’re about to be under siege. The rest of you, find
every
last guard!
All it takes is one man to sabotage us and we’re done. Go! Now!”

They all bolted.

“Leah, Tomaz,” he said quickly, beckoning to them.

“Is this true – Dysuna is attacking us?”

“Yes,” he said quickly, “I saw it with my own eyes – she’s coming up from the south. I commanded the entire camp to break down and retreat inside the walls. Ishmael and the other Elders are arranging it.”

“What about the Generals? They’re helping, right?”

The Prince looked at them both and tried to keep his voice even.

“Henri Perci betrayed us. When he saw I’d returned and knew this was a trap he killed Commander Wyck and ran. General Oleander was a traitor as well – worse, he was a construct, a plaything of the Visigony and the Bloodmages.”

For a moment they could only stare at him, stunned.

“No … no that is impossible.”

“I swear it to be true.”

“How? And how did you know this was a trap? How are you even here in the first place?”

“We took Formaux,” he said quickly. “Tiffenal is dead.”

Their mouths dropped open.

“The
sambolin
– do you have it?”

“No,” the Prince said. “By now Autmaran has it though, I didn’t think to bring it with me. Look, when I absorbed Tiffenal’s memories I saw it all – Geofred was planning for us to invade Banelyn. He wanted us to come here, he wanted to drive us all here.”

“Impossible – how could he know that?”

“The Eagle Talisman,” the Prince grimly. “He can see the future. He can predict everything we do, every move we make.”

“You absorbed the memories,” Tomaz rumbled quickly, “did you absorb the Fox Talisman? If we had that, it could counteract the effects, make us more unpredictable, correct?”

“No,” he said heavily, “Davydd absorbed it. He stayed behind with Autmaran to secure the city.”

“Davydd – what – is he all right?”

“I think he will be,” the Prince said. “He was badly hurt, but Lorna was with him when I left, and he was alive. He has the Fox Talisman – he has luck on his side. He’ll probably outlive us all now.”

“But then what about Geofred?” Tomaz asked. “Where is he?”

The Prince closed his eyes and reached through the Raven Talisman, searching around him, feeling for life.

“I don’t know,” the Prince said. “It would make sense for him to be in the Eyrie, to be out of the way. He doesn’t need to manipulate any of this anymore, it was all –”

And then he broke off because he realized something. He turned slowly toward the Cathedral, feeling the bright light in his mind, the chilling blue glow of the Eagle.

“He’s … he’s here.”

He took off running. What was his brother doing here – what did he have lying in store? He didn’t have time to wait to find out, he didn’t have time to be cautious – soon they would be under siege by Dysuna. He needed to confront his brother – it needed to end now.

Leah and Tomaz were running with him, flanking him, both telling him to wait, but he paid them no mind. He reached the Cathedral doors and threw them open. He passed the threshold, the amazing interior lit with glowing candles that reflected off stunning glass windows. Leah and Tomaz came up beside him and froze as they saw the man before them.

The Eagle sat draped over the magnificent throne that crowned the altar. His legs were crossed, his head was pulled back, looking blankly into the air before him, and the blue markings on his shaved head glowed and pulsed. He was clothed in simple blue robes with loose white pants underneath, his bare feet and hands pulsing with blue lines as well, as he stared off into the future. Raven came forward, Leah and Tomaz flanking him, and as they approached the Eagle’s eyes cleared and locked on them as he released the Talisman.