He questioned the two guards intensely for several minutes, gaining a basic understanding of the stronghold’s layout and learning where his father and the Sin’Rath were likely to be, then assigned them to lead the way.
They quietly passed many doors, some with muffled sounds of snoring behind them. These people had just fled the Regency in the dead of night, narrowly escaping with their lives. Isabel suspected they were all exhausted; the emptiness of the corridors bore that out. The two guards led them ever deeper, winding through some levels and bypassing others entirely. Where they saw guards, they were able to pass without arousing suspicion because of their uniforms and bearing … until they got close to the witches and Severine.
They came upon two guards at the bottom of several flights of stairs. The guards seemed willing to hear them out, waiting patiently as they approached, until they saw Trajan and Ayela and immediately cried out an alarm, drawing weapons. Their two fellow guards that had joined Trajan attacked them with clubs, knocking their swords aside and lunging into them, followed by two of Trajan’s men who took their weapons when they went down.
Isabel smiled as she approached the two men. They stood, held from behind, and looked past her like she wasn’t even there. She casually tossed a pinch of sleeping powder into each guard’s face. They fell in turn.
Trajan nodded his approval. Isabel knew it was about to become much more difficult to survive without killing. At least a dozen men were coming, footfalls in the distance, but getting closer, and quickly. Trajan deployed his men in a line, each loading a dart into his blowtube and facing the end of the hall. They waited patiently until ten soldiers and two witches stormed around the corner into the wide hallway.
Five blowdarts found five men, each of them toppling to the ground moments later from the potent paralysis poison coating the darts. Both witches raised their hands to cast spells over the fallen van of their guard force, but nothing happened.
“Look at what you serve,” Trajan said, pointing his club at the witches. “See the truth of them and strike them down!”
One glimpse of the true form of the Sin’Rath, coupled with the elimination of their magical charms, and the five men bringing up the rear of the witches’ guard set upon them with a kind of frenzied ferocity, as if killing them quickly might bring some measure of atonement for ever serving such loathsome creatures.
Two more of the Sin’Rath Coven fell screaming and cursing. That left seven.
After a brief conversation, the guards swore loyalty to Trajan and agreed to help locate Severine Karth and kill the remaining Sin’Rath. He sent one man to the upper levels to warn of the Regency’s approach, and instructed another to attend to the seven men left sleeping in the hall. He took the remaining three men with him, expanding the number of soldiers under his command to eight.
The wide corridor turned right without any change in size, then ran straight for fifty feet, ending at a large set of stoutly banded doors, closed and barred from the inside.
“Can you open those doors?” Trajan asked Hector.
“Not if the witches are on the other side.”
“They are, I’m certain of it,” said one of the guards.
They started to hear the muted sounds of fighting coming from levels above. Isabel felt helpless. Alexander would be able to see through the door, then open it with ease, but then, he wouldn’t be able to do anything without his magic. She was helpless because of the Goiri bone. With magic, she could burn a hole through the door.
“Hold this, Ayela,” Isabel said, handing her the Goiri bone. Ayela took it, nodding ever so slightly.
Isabel marched off toward the door … and then it hit her. When she stepped out of the null magic field, Azugorath slammed back into her mind. Isabel crumpled to her knees with a scream that filtered through the entire subterranean complex. Azugorath pushed harder and in several different ways than ever before, trying to capitalize on the first few moments of the attack to overwhelm Isabel … and it was working. She felt her control slipping. Azugorath was making inroads, moment by moment, worming her way into Isabel’s mind.
Then the psychic onslaught was gone … vanished in an instant.
Ayela raced up to Isabel, kneeling next to her.
“Are you all right?”
Isabel nodded, taking the cursed bone back from her and smiling sadly.
“I’ll be fine, but I can’t open that door.”
The muffled sound of the bar being thrown stopped them all, every eye on the doors as the bolt slid aside. The doors came open in a rush, twenty soldiers standing ready to charge any intruder. Seven witches stood behind them along with Severine Karth and several of his attendants, his man-at-arms, Erastus, among them.
Trajan stepped forth, his hands held wide, club held high.
“I am Trajan Karth, heir to the House of Karth, and I will be heard!”
The soldiers faltered … Trajan got closer.
“I only seek an audience with my father.”
“Attack!” one of the witches shrieked.
The commander looked to Severine for the order but the king hesitated. Trajan reached the line of soldiers and the men parted. With sudden quickness, he raced through the men and straight to his father.
The witches howled in fury, but they were too late. Trajan got close enough to his father for the witches’ magic to fail, revealing their true nature.
“Behold, Father,” Trajan said, pointing with his club, “the true form of the witches you have served for so long.”
Peti cried out to her sisters from one of the passages leading out of the room. “Come, we must flee!” Only two heeded her warning quickly enough.
With the spell over Severine Karth and his men broken, the witches looked around frantically for a way to escape. The battle turned very suddenly after that. Trajan marched up to the witch nearest his father and brained her with a stroke of his club, a line of black blood-splatter running diagonally across his face.
Then the soldiers set on the remaining witches, killing another three in moments before turning to pursue the three who had fled into the hidden passage. Isabel was still in the hallway. She’d withdrawn to the corner where she could hear the sounds of battle getting closer by the minute. The Regency was here and they were winning.
An explosion rocked the corridor, dust billowing from a room adjacent to the main room. The three surviving witches had collapsed the ceiling of the escape tunnel.
Isabel raced to the main room.
“Trajan, is there another way out? Regency soldiers are coming fast.”
Severine looked old and haggard, like something within him had broken when he learned the truth of the Sin’Rath, but his eyes cleared slightly at Isabel’s question.
“One level up is another escape route,” he said.
“Lead the way,” Isabel said, “we don’t have much time.”
They reached the level above and found a pitched battle taking place between two squads. The Regency were faring better, employing group tactics, fighting in a formation that took advantage of the limited area of the battlefield, using shields in conjunction with spears to present a united front.
The Karth guards were trying to breach their defensive line but only had numerous injuries to show for their trouble. Unfortunately for the Regency, Trajan and his men came up behind their shield line and attacked without warning or mercy. The battle ended very quickly.