Chapter 33
The sound had come from one of the outer buildings in the cordon. Tenlor winced as it went off. Not because of how loud it had been, but because of what it meant. With a growl under his breath, he beckoned his two bodyguards and headed in its direction.
The rest of the Ascendants kept to their training, maintaining their position around the cluster of buildings, or continuing their search. They knew better than to defy orders over something as simple as curiosity. “What happened?” Tenlor demanded as he walked into the room that was the source of the noise.
Two Ascendants were already there, one on his knees with hands clapped to his ears. The other pointed to a tripwire already set off. “It was a trap, sir. A sparkpowder charge and tindertwig were set up next to the window. Not enough to kill, but enough-”
“Enough to alert the whole patch that we’re here,” Tenlor finished for him. With a disgusted glance down at the still-incapacitated Ascendant, he turned to examine the tripwire.
It was a simple enough design. Anyone with half a year’s training in sparkpowder use would be able to set something like that and leave it for a day or so, but despite all that, it had done its job. The rebels knew they were coming now, and would certainly try something desperate.
He turned to his guards. “Get in touch with Ontos and Tasaos. Have them stop moving forward and hold the line here. Make sure they understand that no one is to escape that perimeter. And remind them that if they see the Harbinger, she’s to be taken alive. The rest of them too, if possible. If not,” he waved a hand dismissively, “I’ll understand.”
As they both saluted and left, the remaining Ascendant approached him. “Sir, we don’t know how many followers the heretic has in there. I recommend we bring in more troops to secure the perimeter. That way we can close in on them without any chance of them escaping.”
Tenlor shook his head. “No, we can’t bring anyone else in on this. The more people who know, the greater the chance his spies will hear about this and arrange some kind of rescue. We’ll have to do this on our own.”
He spared another look at the spent trap by the doorway, and the emptied container of sparkpowder next to it. He was sure this hadn’t been the only trap set by the rebels. “But I might have a way of evening the odds.”
-.-
“I count at least twenty from here,” Arico reported grimly, looking down from the old bank’s south-facing window.
“More like thirty on this end,” Endu followed up from the other side of the room, in her usual, nonchalant tone. “Looks like they’ve got at least two squads deployed out there, surrounding us.”
Bloodeye grunted. “They knew we were here. That’s the only way they could mobilize so many against us at once.”
“I agree, but I doubt they know exactly who they’ve trapped in here. As long as we can keep them from identifying you, you still have a chance of returning to your patches safely.” Arico caught Endu’s eye. “And we’re far from helpless in here, if it comes to a fight.”
“They outnumber us at least three to one!” Kandiu protested. “They’re all trained, battle-tested, and armed to the teeth. We can’t hope to fight them.”
“We won’t have to,” Arico soothed him. “There’s another way out of here. Follow me.”
He led them downstairs, towards what had once been the ancient bank’s vault. Endu took up the rear, making sure they all went together. As they walked, Arico’s mind buzzed with possibilities. Bloodeye was most likely right: someone had betrayed them.
Alzhi knew about the meeting, but not which patch it was in. None of the dwarves who’d been to this patch would give up the location, not without days of torture first, and maybe not even then. Jaas couldn’t have betrayed them, either. She hadn’t even been told about the meeting until after she’d returned from… wherever she’d been, and she’d been under constant surveillance since then. And it couldn’t be Endu, of course. If she had warned the Ascendants, they would have bypassed the warning traps easily, and already be inside.
That meant one of the Bosses or Mayors themselves was responsible. Or one of their aides. Any of them could have told their own magistrate before the meeting had even started. That way the Ascendants could wait for them all to incriminate themselves by showing up, and then snatch them all at once.
Fortunately, none of them were armed. That was a condition wisely set by the Hauld as necessary for all attendees. Unfortunately, that meant they couldn’t put up a fight, either. Arico had his own gun, and his shortsword. He hadn’t brought them to the meeting itself, but he made sure to pick them up on his way downstairs. It seemed Endu had also brought her daggers and her own matchlock in her pack.
Once they reached the heavy stone doors of the vault, Arico slowly pulled them open. He slipped into the darkened room and pushed aside a broken wooden table in one corner. “Over here.” He fumbled with a tinger twig at first, and then finally used it to light a torch. The sudden light illuminated a stone passage under the remains of the table.
“My friends spent several weeks digging an emergency tunnel down here,” he explained quickly. “I saw how close the perimeter is. The other end of the tunnel is a quarter league to the south, so you should have a straight shot from there to the threads. If you can get to the place I first brought you, my friends will be able to take you home.” He handed the torch to Bloodeye.
“You’re not coming with us?” Bloodeye asked slowly.
Arico pointed up. “They’ll break through the front doors any minute now. Besides, that perimeter out there is dangerously close to the tunnel’s exit. Endu and I will stay behind and cause a distraction; draw them in a little. That’ll at least give you a chance to escape.” He neglected to mention that if there really was a traitor among them, it wouldn’t matter if they all got away. There was nothing he could do about that right now.
He’d expected Endu to stay with him, and she did so without a word. What did surprise him was how many of the others hesitated to leave as well. Bloodeye grunted. “Come on. He’s giving us a chance here. We can’t waste it.” At his urging, the rest of them entered the passageway and disappeared into the darkness.
Arico hoped they wouldn’t be too upset to see dwarves waiting for them at the threads. It was their only escape and they would know that, but he doubted it would help his case at all. If he made it out of this alive, that was.
“I hope you’re ready for a last stand,” he told Endu as they pushed the vault doors closed and headed back upstairs.
She only shrugged in response. “My boys are safe. That’s all that matters.” Despite her words, Arico thought he could hear something else in her tone. A hint of eagerness, perhaps? If she really was looking forward to this fight, he felt a little envious.
Just as they reached the door at the top of the stairs, Arico heard voices from the main room. They were already inside. From the footsteps though, it sounded as though most of them had already spread out through the building. They still had a chance to get out, if they acted fast. Arico loaded his gun and counted to three, before nodding to Endu and grabbing the door handle.
The moment he pushed the door open there was a blinding flash of light, and a concussive wave seemed to move through him. His ears rang, and his head felt like a hot spike had been driven through it.
Clutching his ears, he fought the sudden rise of nausea in his gut. Dimly, he was aware of Endu falling to her knees as well. Through the continuing ringing in his ears, he heard voices approach all around him. Heavy hands grabbed his wrists and clapped manacles to them.
-.-
Their captors lifted them both up roughly, and carted them into the next room where they were dumped unceremoniously on their knees. His head still ringing, Arico craned his neck and looked up… to see Tenlor Fisher looking back down at him, a mocking smile on his lips.
The effects of the spark-trap were finally fading, and Arico could now see and hear at least a little of what was going on around him. They were back in the foyer on the main level, with Tenlor and more than a dozen of his Ascendants. One of the guards had taken Arico’s sword and gun, and was rummaging through Endu’s pack as well.
“Sir, we’ve searched the bank top to bottom, and these two were the only people we found,” another of the soldiers reported, “but there is a small tunnel in the back of one of the vaults below that leads to the south. The others must have gotten out that way.” The Ascendant’s voice was deadpan and professional. If he feared punishment for failing to catch the others, he wasn’t showing it.
Tenlor shook his head. “No matter. We have the heretic at least. Send a half dozen men through the tunnel, and take the rest to search to the south of here. I’ll handle these two myself.”
The Ascendant saluted, fist to heart, and left with his men. Leaving just Tenlor and his two bodyguards.
“It’s Arico, isn’t it?” He inquired lazily. “I guess the name ‘heretic’ has to be getting old by now. I’m Tenlor Fisher, Commander of the Ascendant Guard, but you know that already, don’t you?” He lifted the remains of the spark-trap and examined it closely. “You’re clever, just like these little devices you left for my men. Dwarven-made, I assume.”
Arico glanced over at Endu. She seemed mostly unhurt, though still dazed. “Actually, I made them myself. So glad you approve,” he grunted.
Tenlor gave him a smirk. “Oh, I do. You stole sparkpowder from my father’s manor and used it against us at the Laentana. I figured a little payback was in order, so I decided to return the favor.” He shook his head. “To your credit, disarming and moving the traps wasn’t easy. Of course, I doubled the amount of powder in my version. I wanted you to have a little taste of what you did to my men. My father didn’t leave any particular orders to take you alive, but I’m looking forward to seeing what the sifters do to you. If I have a say, they’ll skin you alive.”
“Sir,” the guard interjected from the left. Gingerly, he lifted a gold-plated matchlock from Endu’s bag.
Tenlor’s eyes widened, and his jaw dropped fractionally. He crossed the room in an instant and took the gun in his hands. From his angle on his knees, Arico could make out tiny words engraved on the hilt.
Turning it over, Tenlor read the inscription on the side again and again. “This is… impossible! How did you get this?” He demanded harshly, turning to Endu.
Arico didn’t know what to think. Like anyone in service to the Hauld, Endu had been trained for marksmanship and given a gun to use. The standard model had only a wooden handle, though. He had no idea where she’d gotten that one.
Tenlor grabbed Endu by the throat with one hand and forcibly lifted her to her feet, slamming her against the wall. Her manacles ground against the stone behind her. “How did you get this?” He repeated, with a dangerous tremor to his voice.
“Shemra take you,” she said, and spat in his face.
Tenlor flinched away from her at first, but then struck her forehead with his own, smacking the back of her head against the wall. “How did you get my gun, stra’tchi??” He shouted at her, hitting her across the face with the gun’s handle.
Endu twisted her face away from the blow, lessening it a little. When she looked back, blood oozing from her mouth, she gave him a macabre grin. “Friend… stole it for me,” she choked out the words. “Replaced with… a fake.”
Tenlor held her there for a few more seconds before letting go and turning away. She swayed, but didn’t fall. As she coughed loudly, he examined it again more closely, before glancing back at her. “You expect me to believe that your… friend broke into my chambers in the manor, and instead of just waiting there to kill me or mine, he stole my gun and replaced it with a fake? Why in all of the Shemras’ dark hearts would he be so stupid?”
It was hidden from the guards by her body, but Arico could see a lockpick in her hands. She must have slipped it from her sleeve while being held up against the wall. Even now she was at work trying to loosen the lock on her manacles. Ruefully, Arico remembered his own lockpicks were back in the Enclave. She would need a distraction if she wanted to get the drop on the guards.
He opened his mouth to get their attention, but she gave him a quick warning look and cut him off. “I guess I don’t look familiar to you, Ascendant Commander,” she bit out those last words, and then spat out some blood. “You’ve killed so many people, but I thought you might at least see something in my face you might recognize. We stole your gun for one reason only. So that someday we could use it to kill you. Just like you did to my daughter, you festering waste of breath. You can call me stra’tchi all you want, but in truth, you’re the dirty one. Only for you the filth isn’t on the surface, but flowing through your veins!” Endu’s voice suddenly held such venom, such spite that Arico barely recognized it.
All he could do was stare at her. He had no idea what she was talking about. Alzhi had told him the story of their daughter Satya. How she’d died from a complication to the brand she received just after her testing. Her death had been horrible, yes, but accidental. Hadn’t it?
Endu licked her teeth and spat again. “I was going to make a special bullet for you, too, but I just didn’t have the time. I planned to carve my daughter’s name into it, just to make it more personal. Something tells me she would have liked that.”
Tenlor stared at her too, and Arico realized that somehow… it was true. Tenlor had killed her little girl. And here she was, finally face-to-face with him. It occurred to Arico that escape might not be her plan after all.
Suddenly Tenlor broke out into laughter. Long, incredulous bursts of it, shaking his head and looking at the guards still at attention. “Can you believe her? All this effort, and it ends like this!” As he started to wind down, he carefully loaded the gun. “I admire your determination, girl. I really do. To carry such a weight, for so long… it must have been unbearable for you.”
Tenlor slowly turned the gun over in his hands. “I’ll be honest. I don’t even remember killing your daughter. They all blend together after a while. And I still can’t tell if this is a fake or the original. I’ll find out for sure when I get home. Either way, it’s an impressive creation. I’ll be sure to mention that to whichever dwarven craftsman made it. Before I kill them all, that is.”
He sighed, as he checked the gun to confirm it was loaded. “Ordinarily, killing stra’chi is just a chore to me. Just a job I do for the Council, which most of my men wouldn’t have the stomach for. I’m actually grateful that for once I can do it for a greater purpose. That I can at least relieve your pain while doing it.” He aimed the gun at her head.
Endu’s manacles hadn’t loosened yet; Arico had to buy her some time! With a yell he charged at Tenlor, intent on knocking him off his feet, but he never got there. The bodyguard next to Tenlor deftly slipped in front of Arico and brought a knee up into his stomach, hard. Arico doubled over, coughing, and vomited on the ground. From the floor, he saw Endu’s right hand finally slip free of her bonds.
Tenlor gave him a reproving glance. “Wait your turn, heretic. She’s going to die here and now, but you have to stay alive. Long enough to tell us who her ‘friend’ is, anyway.” Casually, he looked back at Endu and pulled the trigger.
Another bright flash lit up the room, but this time with a slight popping noise instead of the sound of a gunshot. Almost too fast to see, the gun came apart in his hand and a chunk of metal propelled itself backwards, burying itself deep in his left eye socket! He stumbled backwards, his hand still spasmodically pulling the trigger, and fell.
The guards both looked towards Tenlor in shock, and Endu made the most of that brief moment of indecision. Lunging forward, she swung her manacles into the nearest guard’s face. As he raised his hands to protect his eyes, she snatched his gun from its holster and kicked him between the legs. While Arico’s guard was reaching for his own weapon, she confidently cocked her stolen gun and shot him in the head. Blood sprayed past Arico onto the ground, and he dropped like a stone.
The first guard was on his knees, gasping in pain. Almost as a signature, Endu spun and swung the butt of the gun into his head, dropping him to the ground. A pervasive silence flooded the room, in contrast to the momentary violence. Endu just stood there, her face flushed and breathing heavily.
“Come on,” she said, springing into action again. She lifted the manacle keys from the unconscious guard’s belt and freed her other hand. “Some of them might have heard that.”
Arico stumbled to his feet again, still stunned, as she helped free him too. “You… rigged the gun to misfire? That wasn’t the original?”
“No. Alzhi tracked down the dwarf who made the original, and convinced him to make this sabotaged duplicate. Alzhi was going to plant it in this bastard’s chamber,” she kicked Tenlor’s body savagely. “Then all we would have had to do would be to wait for him to kill himself. But Alzh was never assigned to the manor in Sevvas patch, so he never got the chance. I’m just lucky I keep it with me as a reminder. I guess it did its job after all.”
Arico nodded, more out of habit than understanding. Regardless of what she’d done or why, this was hardly the time to stand here dissecting her actions. He couldn’t see anyone coming through the crack in the foyer’s door, but then most of the remaining Ascendants were to the south. “It’s clear for now.” His nausea seemed to be fading as well, thankfully. It seemed the dead guard had carefully moderated his blow to Arico’s stomach: it hadn’t done any lasting damage that he could tell.
As they moved towards the door, Endu paused again and looked back. Leveling the other gun, she pumped another shot into Tenlor’s body, splitting more of his head apart. “For my little girl,” she said viciously down at the corpse.
Arico gave her the moment, before taking her arm and pulling her outside. They slipped out onto the street and sprinted north towards the threads. By now it was fully dark outside, with clouds covering the new night’s moon. They heard a distant shout ring out as they ran, but it was nowhere near enough to be a threat.
“I didn’t know he’d killed your daughter. I’m sorry.” Arico said once they’d rounded a corner and slowed down to catch their breath. “But why did you lie to the Hauld and me? Why not just tell us?”
Endu’s face hardened up again. “I’ll explain everything, if you can get us back to the Enclave in one piece.”
“I’ll hold you to that,” he promised as they got moving again.
