The Tears of Kas̆dael

With a grunt, Ihra pulled herself out of the grate and rolled over onto her knees. Her hand lingered over her dagger’s sheath as she swept a hasty glance over her surroundings, but there was no one waiting for them. Instead, the narrow alley was shrouded in darkness, as the surrounding buildings swallowed up the last light of the dying day. No, although no one was waiting to seize them, the city was far silent. The wild clang of bells rang from all directions, loud, dissonant, and relentless, and she heard Marīltu curse as he pulled himself up behind her.

“Kruvas̆, they raised the alarm already? I thought Lord Sarganīl would want to keep my escape quiet.”

“They’re just bells,” she replied dismissively. “If we change our clothes, we won’t stand out.”

The commander shook his head. “You don’t understand. We’ll stand out simply because we’re on the street. When the bells ring, law-abiding citizens are expected to stay inside. As soon as they see us, they’ll know we’re suspicious.”

“That does make things more difficult,” she admitted with a frown, and then she remembered Erin and Asâta. And they won’t know that. “We need to find my friends, then, and fast.”

“There’s more of you?”

“Two more, yes…although, I don’t know where to find them.” It occurred to her then that they hadn’t set up a rendezvous point. Of course, Ihra hadn’t expected them to get separated, but that was the whole point of a plan - to predict and prevent the unexpected. Stupid. But there was no point dwelling on her misstep right now; dismissing it from her mind, she tried to decide where they would go. Would they wait for me at the bakery or return to Dūr-Sulmu?

“We need to get moving,” Marīltu nudged her shoulder. “There might still be a few citizens hurrying back to their homes, but the streets will soon be empty. Come on, I know a way out of the city.”

“We can’t go without my friends,” Ihra shrugged his hand off. “How close are we to the bakery that supplies your castle?”

“A couple blocks - but we don’t have time,” he started to say, but Ihra cut him off.

“I’m not leaving without them. Let’s swing by the bakery, and then we can take my way out of town, a tunnel from Dūr-Sulmu.”

“Fine, follow me,” Marīltu grunted, a scowl rippling across his features. “But if we get caught…”

She followed him onto the main street and found it was exactly as the captain had predicted. While a handful of citizens remained outside, most of them running for their homes, the place was almost deserted. Matching the pace of the running citizens, Marīltu began to jog, quickly darting across the street and around the corner, which led them to a street she recognized as the bakery’s.

“There!” Ihra breathed a sigh of relief as she spotted a person up ahead, clad in a familiar blue coat. “Erin!”

The scout jerked upward, and leaning over, pulled Asata up from the ground, where she’d been hidden out of sight behind him.

She reached the bakery a moment later, and, sliding to a stop, waved at him impatiently. “Come on, we need to get back to Dūr-Sulmu before the guards find us.”

“Are the bells your doing,” the scout asked, as he prepared to fall in line behind her, but a hand landed on her shoulder.

“Sorry, lass, but did you say Dūr-Sulmu?”

“Yes, that’s where the secret tunnel is,” she responded, trying to shrug his arm off, but the commander’s grip persisted.

“So Captain Maras̆s̆amas̆ smuggled you in?” he persisted. “But she didn’t respond when I asked for help confronting Lord Sarganīl.”

“I don’t know anything about that,” Ihra replied, “but the captain didn’t even know about the tunnel until we popped up in her dungeon.”

“That’s impossible,” Marīltu said bluntly. “It is the responsibility of every captain to know the escape routes from their fortress. I don’t know why she’d lie to you, unless…”

“She’s been compromised,” Ihra realized. "She might not even realize it, too. She said she didn't have any of those protective amulets.

“Maybe," Marīltu shrugged, "or maybe she’s just hedging her bets, waiting to see which way the wind blows before she commits to either side.”

“Either way, we can't risk going back to her," Ihra sighed. "So I guess you win. Where's this escape route of yours?”

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Ihra snorted, casting a disbelieving eye at the captain. “You want us to sneak back into the castle.”

While the streets were now thoroughly deserted, at least one thing had worked in their favor. The moon had yet to show its face in the heavens, and thus the onset of night had provided a myriad of shadows in which to shelter. Still, Marīltu's plan seemed crazy. “We barely escaped from there last time.”

“But that’s the beauty of it,” he argued back. “Right now, they’re spread out across the entire city, but the one place they won’t even think to look is right here.”

“And you’re sure this is the only way out,” she asked dubiously.

“Of course not, but this is the only way I know. So unless you want to take your chances with Maras̆ammas̆.”

Ihra grimaced. While there wasn’t enough evidence to definitively condemn the other captain, she had to admit, in retrospect, it seemed suspicious that the captain would have been aware of the tunnels in her own castle. “So how do we get in,” she replied begrudgingly.

“Well…we probably will have to rush the gate.” Marīltu saw the look on her face and hastily continued. “There’s only four guards there right now,” he pointed out, “and there’s four of us. It should be easy enough.”

“And when they raise the alarm,” she pointed out.

“We’ll do it sneakily.”

“Actually,” Erin piped up for the first time in a while, “I might have another way in.”

“How?” Marīltu frowned down at him. “The walls are too high to even land a rope on them, and there are no sally ports in Dur-Bihurtu.”

In response, Erin pointed to a scraggly tree that was clinging to the narrow bank on the far side of the moat. The walls towered at least thirty feet above even the wispiest of its branches, and the captain’s frown intensified. “You can’t possibly plan to climb up that.”

Ihra just grinned. “Oh, I think that will work very nicely. Perfect plan, Erin.”

“You can’t climb that!” Marīltu protested again, and she chuckled.

“Guess you’ll just have to trust us.”

“You could have told me he was a mage,” Marīltu grumbled as they stood beneath the tree, watching as the boughs lengthened and thickened to form a perfect, if still somewhat precarious bridge to the top of the ramparts.

“Wouldn’t have been as much fun,” Ihra shot back, as she leaned and tried to wring her hair out. The moat water was even worse than she’d expected, and despite her best efforts, the water left behind a coating of slime that made her skin crawl. As soon as we get out here, I’m tracking down a bath.

“We’re not here to have fun,” the man muttered. Ignoring him, Ihra boosted herself into the tree and scampered up its sides. It quaked beneath her weight as she reached the middle of the makeshift ladder but didn't break. Once she reached the wall in safety, she paused just below the ramparts and peeked over the edge, looking for any guards. A moving torch flickered on the far side of the courtyard, but none were close to her position. With cat-like agility, she flipped herself the edge and waved the others up.

She kept watch as Asata and Erin climbed up, and then it was Mariltu’s turn. Ihra held her breath as he reached the middle of the ladder. Each step was a struggle as it wobbled beneath the weight of the warrior who dwarfed them in size. As he neared the top, a loud crack broke the silence, and she threw herself forward in an attempt to grab his arm. Erin was faster though, and the man yelped in pain as the wood slithered up and around his waist in a makeshift belt.

He bounced in the air for a moment, the wood holding only thanks to Erin’s essence, and then Ihra managed to grab his hand. With a grunt of effort, she pulled him over the rampart with a bit too much momentum. As the two fell to the ground, their armor reverberated with a resounding clang, and the guard on the far side of the courtyard paused in his march.

Although they could see him due to the torch he held, there was no light in their position, and Ihra could only pray that the guard couldn’t see them. Seconds ticked by in slow agony as she waited to see if the guard would raise the alarm, but eventually, he turned away and continued on his previous path.

Once the guard’s back was to them, Marīltu clambered off of her with a hiss of pain. “Thanks for the hand, lass. You too, boy,” he added, nodding at Erin, “but, Selene’s grace, did you have to crush my balls?” He asked, massaging his groin with a rueful look.

“Sorry,” the scout shrugged.

“Let’s save the thanks for later,” Ihra cut in. “Where’s this tunnel?”

“The same place as in Dūr-Silmu,” the captain grunted. “Down in the dungeons.”

Following the captain’s lead, their progress was swift and certain. As he’d predicted, the castle had been nearly emptied out as the soldiers searched for the escapees in the city, and, since he knew the guard’s routines, it was easy enough to avoid the ones that remained. Within twenty minutes they worked their way down from the ramparts, into the castle, and to the entrance of the dungeon. That was where their luck ended.

“Any fancy plans this time,” Marīltu asked. “You aren’t hiding any other big secrets - a mage, an elf, the emperor himself?”

“Two of the three,” she responded with a small smile as she studied the room before them from their hiding spot. The castle’s dungeon was guarded with a heavy barred door, as well as six guards who sat around a table a few feet away from it.

Marīltu chuckled at her response, not taking her seriously, and she continued with a sigh. “But no. Unfortunately, I don’t see any way of sneaking past them, unless you can bewitch the table,” she asked, glancing over at Erin. She’d noticed, though, that the scout’s face was paler than usual, and he’d confirmed her fears with a shake of his head.

“Pretty much out of essence,” he whispered back.

“That’s fine. Marīltu and I will handle them. Asâta, stay in the back in case somebody needs healing.”

“Let me try to talk to them - wait,” the captain shot her double take. “You weren’t kidding? She’s also a mage-”

“A healer won’t help us here,” Ihra interrupted him.

“Right,” he dismissed his shock with a shake of his head. “Let me talk to them first, see if they’ll still listen to their captain.” Without waiting for her to agree, Marīltu stepped out of the shadows and approached the guards. They were too focused on their game to notice the intruder until his shadow fell across the table.

“Captain Marīltu?!” Chairs thudded to the ground as the men jumped to their feet, reaching for their swords.

“Wait,” he lifted his hands to show he wasn’t wielding his weapon. “How many years have you served under me? You know I’m not a traitor. Lord Sarganīl has fallen under the influence of a mind mage, and when I tried to free him, the mage turned him against me. Help me help him,” he pleaded.

The guards hesitated, clearly reluctant to act, until a man near the back shoved the others aside and drew his sword. “At least one of us knows his duty,” the man snarled as he darted toward Marīltu.

Before the captain could even move, the guard’s sword clanged to the ground as he clutched with both hands the arrow blooming from his neck. “No one else needs to die,” Ihra said, as she stepped into the room, flanked by Asâta and Erin. Confronted by the captain’s unexpected support, the guards’ resistance crumbled.

“We’ll let you into the dungeon,” the eldest replied, as he tossed his sword onto the ground. “Just don’t kill us.”

Before entering the dungeon, Marīltu insisted on pausing to heal the man who'd attacked him. Then, once he'd been stabilized, they tossed the six guards into an empty cell and headed for the tunnel. Within twenty minutes they were outside the city walls, and as the team left Birnah behind, Ihra, despite her exhaustion, couldn't help but exult. She'd done it - completed a job on her own, or at least mostly on her own. Maybe I'm worried for nothing.