Suddenly there was a swarm of movement all around the slave pen. Dark clad men slipped in to kill the remaining Tarmak guards quietly and quickly, and before the slaves really knew what was happening their rescuers threw open the gates and urged them to come out.
Linsha dashed into the pens. “Sir Hugh!” she called softly. “Are you here?”
Laughing and crying at once, the thin man in the rags came forward to hug her. “Gods, Linsha, I thought you were dead!” he cried. “And Callista! You are a sight for tired eyes. And… who are you?” he asked when a tall, blond man came to stand by Linsha.
“Lord Hogan Bight, this is Sir Hugh Bronan, Knight of Solamnia. Sir Hugh, this is the Lord Governor of Sanction. But you might know him better as Crucible.”
The knight blinked. He knew he was tired and sick and not at his best and brightest, but surely she didn’t mean what she said.
“It’s a long story,” she said dryly. “But now we need your help-all of you. We are stealing some brass dragon eggs that the Tarmaks took from Iyesta. If you help us, we will do our best to help you get out of town and join Falaius’s army that is headed this way.”
The slaves, made up mostly of prisoners of war, cheered raggedly. A few melted silently away into the darkness to make their own way out of the city, but the majority-nearly twenty men and centaurs-stayed. They quickly stripped the dead guards of all their weapons and dragged the bodies into the stalls. They also liberated a few horses housed in the stable. With a little luck the Tarmaks would be too busy to notice the pens were empty of slaves until it was too late.
Four male elves approached Linsha and Lord Bight and bowed low. “We will go with you,” the eldest said, “for no dragon eggs should be held by these Brutes. But once we are out of the city, we would like to go on to Silvanesti.”
Recognizing them as Qualinesti elves, Linsha returned their bow. “You may stay with us as long you wish. But you should know that the Knights of Neraka hold your kinsmen’s Forest.”
“Yes.” The speaker sighed. “We learned that the hard way. We were trying to escape from the Dark Knights when the Brutes caught us just outside Mem-Ban.”
Mem-Ban was another village located on the border between Iyesta’s realm and the Silvanesti Forest, not far from the King’s Road.
The elves, Linsha noted, were all young and had the look of warriors about them. She guessed they were stragglers from the main body of elves that had crossed the desert some time ago. Perhaps they had stayed behind in Qualinesti as part of a rear guard and only recently reached the Forest. What a welcome they had received, she thought.
Gathering together the freed slaves and the Legion men, Linsha led her small band toward the stone building that once housed the Treasurer’s Guild. The building was constructed from the image of the original two-story edifice that had stood in the old elven city of Gal Tra’Kalas. It was an elegant design with large windows, columns on the front portico, and spacious rooms for the guild members to meet and socialize. Beneath the guildhouse was a large vault, waterproof and strong, built specifically to hold the steel and coins of the city treasury and the personal funds of the members of the guild. The treasury had been stripped, Linsha knew, and much of the steel, gold, and silver had been sent to Ithin’carthia or spent by the Tarmaks on weapons, ships, and mercenaries. The only things of value in the vault now were the eggs. Or so Linsha hoped. She had not seen the eggs since the very brief viewing Lanther had allowed her before they sailed. But their placement looked permanent, and Mae had said the Keena were still using the place. Surely the eggs were still there.
In the deep shadows of an adjacent workshop across the street, Linsha and her company found Mae and the other two Legionnaires waiting for her. Looking pleased with themselves, they opened the wide doors of the shop and revealed a wagon hitched to two horses. Mae pulled back the canvas and revealed bows, which the elves and the centaurs happily took, and some swords and axes for the others. They also had a large bundle wrapped with canvas resting in the back of the wagon.
Linsha outlined their plan to the released slaves and watched in satisfaction as they spread out to obey her orders. Mae and Callista climbed into the wagon and took the reins to wait for the signal. For a few minutes, Linsha, Sir Hugh, and Lord Bight waited in the darkness for the attackers to take their position.
In that quiet moment before the attack, Linsha listened to every sound and she heard something she had not noticed before. Sir Hugh was having difficulty breathing. His lungs wheezed with every breath, and he was trying very hard to stifle a cough.
She moved close and said softly, “You are not well. Stay in the wagon with Callista. I will not lose you now.”
His teeth shone pale against his bearded face as he smiled. “I have a cold. That is all. You will not deprive me of a little revenge for these past wretched days. Besides, seeing you has given me strength. You must tell me what has happened, and why you say that man is Crucible.”
“Fair enough,” she agreed. She pulled up her hood. “Ready? Stay behind me, both of you.”
Tilting her chin up to its most arrogant angle, she stifled the nervousness in her stomach and marched out of the shop and into the street. The fire had been a distraction for the warriors in the city, but Linsha and the two men were to be the distraction for the priests and guards at the guildhouse. She walked boldly up the middle of the street where the Tarmaks could plainly see her. She behaved as if she had every right to be there and knew exactly what she wanted. It had worked before.
“Orgwegul!” she shouted in Tarmakian before the guards could challenge her. “Where is the orgwegul?”
The guards by the front door hurriedly conversed, then shouted something inside. A heavily-armed officer came out. “I am the orgwegul,” he said. “Do not come any closer, woman.”
Linsha threw back her hood and revealed her face and hair. “You will use a more respectful tone to the Chosen of the Akkad-Dar,” she snapped. “I am the Drathkin’kela and I have come to see the eggs.”
The guards straightened and lost the sneering expressions on their faces. “The Akkad-Dar has returned?” the officer demanded.
“Of course,” Linsha replied as if it were perfectly obvious. “He came ahead on a faster ship. We landed just a little while ago. But he is busy at the fires, and he gave me permission to see the eggs. I have the key.” She pulled the key out on its chain and held it up for him to see.
“And who are those two?” he sneered, eyeing the disreputable looking men behind her.
“My slaves and bodyguards, of course. They were all that was left. Everyone else is fighting the fire.”
The Tarmak officer stared thoughtfully at the distant glow on the roofs of the buildings in the distance. He could not see the harbor from where he was standing, so he could not confirm that a new ship had arrived. But he recognized the auburn-haired woman and the key to the egg vault. “Very well,” he grunted. “You may approach.”
Just then a black-garbed Keena stepped out onto the portico. “What is going on here?” he demanded.
Linsha and her bodyguards moved closer while the officer explained her errand. She held up the key for the priest to see.
But he didn’t look at her. He shot a look in the direction of the harbor. “But that can’t be,” he said, confused. “The Akkad-Dar’s ship was spotted just a little while ago. He couldn’t have landed yet.”