The Jack of Souls (Multi-award winner!)

Chapter 34a - Desperation

We succeed not because we are strong, but because we are not alone.

—Attributed to Sir Willard after the defeat of the Old Ones.

Chapter Thirty-Four

A bell sounded, clear and loud as a ship's knell in the dissipating fog.

Caris stirred. Her eyes opened. The bell rang again, and kept ringing from the direction of the tower. "That's Abellia's bell. Something's wrong."

Harric's jaw dropped. "Bannus...". In the triumphant struggle with his mother he'd forgotten what he'd seen in his vision of Brolli at the pass: the siege tower was complete; Bannus would attack the gate at dawn.

"Bannus! Gods leave us!" Caris did not question how he guessed this. She jumped to her feet, hauling him up by the hand. They ran through the trees, the light of her lantern jogging crazily off the trunks. The bell clanged until they reached the tower, where Willard stood in the west window, hauling at the bell rope.

"Blast it, where have you been?" Willard shouted. "Bannus is in the pass and will breach the walls at daybreak."

"Are we retreating?" she asked.

"No, gods leave us. We should, but Brolli's still there. He sent Mudruffle to fetch us. The blasted chimpey thinks we can help hold the fort. He has no idea what he's fighting. Boy! Get up here and help me arm. Girl! Saddle the horses."

Mudruffle's horse walked out of the stable, his clay-and-wattle figure still buckled into the saddle. "My harness performed its function as anticipated," he honked, "but it requires certain adjustments I cannot perform in a timely fashion. Given the urgency of our situation and the straightness of my limbs, might I ask you to cinch up the buckle behind my back, Lady Caris? I — Oh! Thank you," he said, as she tightened and tested the straps.

"You are going back to the pass?" she asked.

"Indeed so, lady. I cannot ride as well as you can, so let your master know I have gone, and that you will pass me shortly on the trail."

"I will."

Mudruffle rode off, jouncing ridiculously, and Harric and Caris ran to their separate tasks. In the tower, Harric found Willard struggling with the buckles of his breastplate, while Abellia set out sacks from the kitchen, and fretted.

"This is food for some days," she said, laying the sacks by the door. "I am to be most sad you are going. I am hoping you come back."

"If we can, we will," Willard said. "In fact, we must; our horses aren't near enough rested."

 Working quickly and silently, Harric armed Willard. When Caris rejoined them, he helped her as well. The three of them mounted and rode out hard, holding torches to light their trail until the Mad Moon rose; already the clouds in the east burned at his approach.

They passed Mudruffle before they reached the lake.

"Do not delay for my sake!" he called as they galloped past. "I shall catch up, and if you must flee into the wild, I will guide you with my maps."

By the time he disappeared in the distance behind them, the Mad Moon had cleared the eastern ridge and painted the landscape in blood.

In the hour before sunrise, the three reached the river at the foot of the lake and followed it down through the canyon above the fortress. The growing murmur of the falls drifted to them up the canyon, signaling they neared its end. They slowed their approach. Soon Harric recognized the pile of rocks from which he and Brolli had peered down on the back of the fortress on the first night Bannus roared at the gates. "This is it," he said to Caris, pointing out the pile. Almost at the same time, Brolli stepped from the shadows at the base of the rocks. They halted beside him.