Sallax, approaching the imperial grounds from the south, noticed that the broad, tree-lined park was full of square eight-person tents, wooden carts, fire-pits and buried latrine trenches. A half-rotten, half-eaten mound of hay lay abandoned beside a ramshackle corral, though none of the soldiers still quartered on the palace grounds appeared to have been assigned horses, and the army’s work-horses were stabled in a far larger enclosure out near what remained of the eastern pickets.
‘A Moon ago, this whole park was tents,’ Brexan said.
‘They don’t know what they’re doing,’ Sallax replied. ‘Malagon’s carriage hasn’t moved all Twinmoon. Most of the generals probably think he died in the explosion.’
‘Wouldn’t that be nice?’
‘They must be bickering about what to do by now.’
‘But surely it must be obvious to them that no major attack is coming?’ Brexan wondered. ‘Why stay dug in now that it’s so cold?’
Sallax knelt to slip through a breach in a hedge that looked like some enterprising squaddies had enlarged a natural break to gain easier access to the street. ‘There was an assault on the lines not too long ago,’ he said. ‘At the docks Sallax heard them saying several thousand partisans threw themselves on the Malakasian lines, after word spread that the prince was en route from Pellia.’
Brexan stopped. ‘Are you all right?’
‘Yes – why?’
‘You said Sallax.’
‘Never mind that.’ He thumped the side of his head. ‘I think I’m going to be just left of centre for a long time. I need to learn to live with it.’
‘What happened to the partisans?’ Brexan slipped through the hedge behind him.
‘Torn to ribbons, by Seron mostly, but there were rumours of worse: killer winds or rains, or something weird. It sounded bad.’
‘They were routed?’
‘I don’t know even if it went that well. I wasn’t terribly healthy at the time. I think I remember hearing that calling it “driven back” was too generous.’
Brexan looked pale in the moonlight. ‘There were many more soldiers here then, though.’
‘True. Actually, I’m surprised. I expected we’d have to work our way past more than this crew to reach the palace tonight. I’m glad many of these divisions have moved on.’
Brexan ducked behind a stack of hay bales near the first of the tent-camps they had to pass on their way to the palace’s southern gate. ‘More than this?’ she whispered. ‘I think there are soldiers here enough to capture, torture and hang us if we’re caught.’
‘We won’t be,’ Sallax said. ‘Jacrys can’t be planning on staying here much longer. Sallax hit him – there, I did it again – I hit him hard, but he’ll be recovered by now, and if we let him get back in the field, we’ll never find him again. He’s a ghost; you know that.’
‘I suppose you’re right.’ She craned her neck to see over the bales. No one moved inside the encampment. ‘Come on. Let’s go.’
Skirting the silent tents, avoiding the token guard posted near the watch-fires, they ran along the tall hedge that enclosed the park and closed out the noise and crowds of the city beyond.
‘At least we’re already inside,’ Brexan said when they slipped behind an enormous old oak tree that looked as though it had been there long before King Remond started construction on his Orindale home.
‘I didn’t think they’d have much of a guard posted, especially at this aven.’ Sallax pointed towards the south entrance. ‘They’ll have guards at the gates, and again at the doors, but from here we may only have to pass one sentry.’
‘Because no one would be stupid enough to plan an assault on the palace that meant getting through the entire Malakasian Army first?’ Brexan’s voice rose with her anxiety.
‘Crafty and brave enough, you meant to say.’
‘That too.’
‘When we get up there, we have to take the guard out silently. If there are two, we’d better do it together. Remember to be quick and quiet.’
‘What if there are three?’
‘Then we’re dead.’ Sallax crouched low to the ground and disappeared, soundless and deadly, into the shadows.
He was wrong. There were several guards posted along the stone walk running between the south gate and the tent-camp. Young, tough-looking, the three men and two women paced back and forth, talking amiably. Some smoked pipes, while others ate from a canvas bag open on the ground between them, fruits or nuts, maybe. The south entrance to the palace was well secured: they were obviously on watch duty for the night; despite whatever disagreements Prince Malagon’s generals might be having, this group were taking their night watch seriously. None of them even looked tired.
As Brexan watched them from behind a holly bush, she scowled. ‘We can’t go in here,’ she whispered.
‘That window near the back,’ Sallax answered, ‘that may be our only chance. We can worry about getting out once we’re inside.’
‘This is insane,’ Brexan said. ‘There has to be another way.’
‘We’ll be fine. This is the hard part. No one will expect us to be inside, because no one can get in. Once we’re in, we’ll be able to move about easily.’ He reached over and squeezed her shoulder. ‘Trust me.’
Brexan stifled a giggle. ‘We’re going to die.’
‘Someday, and far from here.’
‘Promise?’
‘As absurd a request as that is, I will grant it.’ He placed a hand over his heart, ‘I promise.’
‘How do we get in the window-? Stay put,’ Brexan said suddenly. ‘I have an idea.’ Without waiting for him to answer, she slipped away.
Sallax waited, straining to see back the way they had come. Save for the watch-fires, spaced unevenly where islands of tents remained after the mass military exodus, the park was in darkness. He could see no movement, and he couldn’t find Brexan in any of the shadows. ‘She has learned to vanish when she needs to,’ he said to himself. ‘A very talented spy.’
Soon Sallax began to grow uneasy. He had just about decided to go back and look for his wayward partner when he thought he saw a glow brighten the near side of the park, behind the first row of tents. He thought perhaps his eyes were fooling him, too much straining to see things that weren’t really there, and he shook his head and turned back to trying to work out a path between the sleeping soldiers – then Brexan was beside him.
‘Great whores, but you scared me,’ he whispered, certain the hammering of his heart was loud enough to wake the entire camp.
Brexan grabbed his wrist. ‘Back to the holly bush, quickly,’ she ordered.
Sallax didn’t argue, but followed her silently back to their vantage point. He looked at Brexan expectantly.
‘Just another moment now,’ she whispered.
‘What did you do?’
‘Hopefully, I managed to get us inside. The last sentry we passed, I think that’s him over there; he left his post back near that first row of tents to come up here and eat whatever that stuff is they’re gobbling down. He left that near patch of tents unguarded.’ Brexan looked back over her shoulder.
Sallax saw it now, an orange glow, only a few paces from where they lay nearly face down in the snow and mud. ‘You started a fire?’
‘I had a taper in my pack. I was worried that it might be dark when we got inside the palace. I went for one of the big tents,’ Brexan whispered, keeping as low to the ground as she could. ‘I tried to make it look like an accident-’
She was cut off by the first of many shouts from inside the tent; pandemonium followed. Soon the entire encampment was alive with soldiers rushing here and there, some carrying water and others simply moving about, uncertain what was happening and whether they should put out the fire or prepare for battle.
Is it an attack?
Where are they?
Partisans?
The fire, fools, the fire!
Over here, we need water over here!
The cries overlapped, creating a nearly incoherent wall of noise. Sallax watched, enjoying the fiery carnage, especially when the big tent finally toppled and ignited its neighbour. ‘You got two.’ He elbowed Brexan in the ribs, but the young woman ignored him; her attention was focused on the guards posted beside the south gate. Three had already dashed back into the camp to assist their comrades.