The lord blinked at the Speaker in surprise. "But how? Where?"
"Listen to this." Sithas began to envision a solution, speaking his thoughts as they occurred to him. "Kith-Kanan still needs reinforcements on the ground. By Gilean, we were only able to send him four thousand troops this summer! And that left the capital practically empty of able-bodied males."
"If Your Majesty will remember, I cautioned against such a number. The city itself is laid bare. . . "
"I still have my palace guarda thousand elves of the House Protectorate, their lives pledged to the throne." Sithas continued. "We will form the slavesthe elven slavesfrom your mines into a new company. Swear them to the Wildrunners for the duration of the war, their sentences commuted to military duty."
"They number a thousand or more," Quimant admitted cautiously. "They are hardened and tough. It"s perhaps true that they would make a formidable force. But you can"t close down the mines!"
"We will replace them with human prisoners captured on the battlefield!"
"We have no prisoners!"
"But Kith"s counterattack begins in less than two weeks" time. He"ll break the siege and rout the humans, and he"s bound to take many of them as captives." Unless Kith"s plan is a failure, he thought. Sithas wouldn"t allow himself to consider that possibility.
"It may just work," Quimant noted, with a reluctant nod. "Indeed, if his attack is a great success, we might actually increase the number of, ah ... laborers. Production could improve. We could open new mines!" He warmed to the potential of the plan.
"It"s settled, then," Sithas agreed, feeling a great sense of relief.
"What about Than-Kar, Excellency?" inquired Quimant after several more miles of verdant woodlands slipped by.
"It will be time for retribution soon." Sithas paused. "You know that we intercepted his spy with a message detailing the formation of the Windriders?"
"True, but we never discovered who the message was intended for."
"It was being carried west. It was sent to the Ergoth general, I"m certain." Sithas was convinced that the Theiwar had joined with the humans in a bid for dominance of the dwarven nation. "I"ll keep Than-Kar in suspense until Kith is ready to attack, so he doesn"t find out that we"re onto his treachery until it"s too late for him to send another warning to the west."
"A fine trap!" Quimant imagined the scene. "Surround the dwarves in their barracks with your guard, disarm them before they can organize, and like magic, you have him as your prisoner."
"It"s too bad I promised to return him to King Hal-Waith," noted Sithas. "I"d like nothing better than to send him to your coal mines."
Suddenly they leaned toward the front of the cabin as the coach slowed. They heard the coachman calling out to the horses as he hauled back on the reins.
"Driver? What"s the delay?" inquired the Speaker, leaning out the window. He saw a rideran elf, wearing the breastplate of the House Protectorategalloping toward them from the front of the column.
The elf wasn"t a member of the escort, Sithas realized. He saw the foam-flecked state of the horse and the dusty, bedraggled condition of the rider, and knew that the fellow must have come a long way.
"Your Majesty!" cried the elven horseman, reining in and practically falling out of the saddle beside the speaker"s carriage door. "The citythere"s trouble! It"s the dwarves!"
"What happened?"
"We kept a watch over them as you ordered. This morning, before dawn, they suddenly burst out of the inns where they were quartered. They took the guards by surprise, killed them, and headed for the docks!"
"Killed?" Sithas was appalledand furious. "How many?"
"Two dozen of the House Protectorate," replied the messenger. "We"ve thrown every soldier in the city into the fray, but when I left six hours ago they were slowly fighting their way to the riverbank."
"They need boats," guessed Quimant. "They"re making a break for the west."
"They sniffed out my trap," groaned Sithas. The prospect of Than-Kar escaping the city worried him, mostly because he feared the dwarf would somehow be able to warn the humans about the Windriders.
"Can the house guards hold until we get there?" demanded the Speaker.
"I don"t know."
"Dwarves hate the water," observed Quimant. "They won"t try a crossing at night."
"We can"t take that chance. Come in here," he ordered the rider, throwing open the coach door. "Driver, to the city! As fast as you can get us there!"
The gilded carriage and its escort of a hundred mounted elves thundered toward distant Silvanost, raising a wide plume of dust.
"They"ve made it to the river, and even now they seize boats along the wharf!"
Tamanier Ambrodel greeted Sithas on the Avenue of Commerce, the wide roadway that paralleled the city"s riverfront.
"Open the royal a.r.s.enal. Have every elf who can wield a sword follow me to the river!"
"They"re already there. The battle has continued all day." The royal procession had arrived in the city with perhaps two hours of light remaining.
Sithas leaped from the coach and took the reins of a horse that had been saddled for him on Tamanier"s orders. He quickly donned a chain mail shirt and hefted the light steel shield that bore the crest symbolizing the House of Silvanos.
In the meantime, the riders from his escort had dismounted, readying for conflict.
"They"ve barricaded themselves into two blocks of warehouses and taverns, right at the waterfront. It seems they"re having some difficulties getting their boats rigged,"
explained the lord chamberlain.
"How many have we lost?" asked the speaker.
"Nearly fifty killed, most in the first few hours of the fight. Since then we"ve been content to keep them bottled up until you got here."
"Good. Let"s root them out now."
Surprisingly, that thought gave him a sense of grim satisfaction. "Follow me!" Sithas cried, turning the prancing stallion down the wide Avenue of Commerce. The elves of his guard followed him. He inspected detachments that held positions down several streets that led toward the wharf. Just beyond these companies, Sithas could see hastily erected wooden barricades. He imagined the white, wide eyes of Theiwar dwarves peering between the gaps of these crude defenses.
"They"re there," a sergeant a.s.sured Sithas. "They don"t show themselves until we attack. Then they give a good accounting of themselves. Our archers have picked off more than a few of them."
"Good. Attack when you hear the trumpets."
Sithas himself led the band of his personal guard toward White Rose Lane before leading them down a narrow thoroughfare that was the most direct route to the waterfront.
As he had suspected, the dwarves were prepared to meet them here as well. He saw several large fishing boats lashed to the wharf, while bands of dwarves wrestled several more into place. A st.u.r.dy line of dwarves blocked the street before him, arrayed four deep, armed with crossbows, swords, and stubby dwarven pikes. A barrier of barrels, planks, and huge coils of rope stood before them.
Behind these, Sithas saw the dwarven amba.s.sador himself. Than-Kar, squinting in the uncomfortable glow of afternoon sunlight, cursed and shouted at his guards as they tried to pull the largest of the boats against the quay.
"Charge!" Sithas cried, his voice hoa.r.s.e. "Break them where they stand!" Three trumpeters blared his command. A roar arose from the elves gathered along the nearby streets and lanes. Sithas spurred his charger forward.
A piece of paving stone had worked its way loose over many winters of frost and springtimes of rain. Now it lay on White Rose Lane, looking for all the world like the rest of the securely cemented stones that made up the smooth surface of the street.
But when the right forehoof of Sithas"s mount came to rest for a fraction of a second upon it, the treacherous stone skidded away, twisting the hoof of the charging horse.
Bones snapped in the animal"s leg, and it collapsed with a shriek of pain, hurling the Speaker of the Stars from the saddle. At the same time, a full volley of steel-tipped crossbow quarrels whistled through the air, whirring over Sithas"s head. He took no note of the missiles as he crashed headlong into the roadway. His sword blade snapped in his hand, and his face exploded in pain. Groaning, he struggled to rise.
The elves of the royal guard, seeing their ruler collapse before them and not knowing that his fall had been caused by a loose paving stone, cried out in fury and rage. They charged forward, swords raised, and began to clash with the dwarves who blocked their path. Steel rang on steel, and shouts of agony and triumph echoed from the surrounding buildings.
Sithas felt gentle hands on his shoulders. Though he could barely move, someone turned him onto his back. With a shock, the Speaker of the Stars looked up to see that the sky had become a haze of red smoke. Then a kerchief dabbed at his head and cool water washed his brow. His eyes cleared, and he saw the anxious faces of several of his veteran guards. The red haze, he realized, had been caused by the blood that still spurted from the deep gashes on his forehead and cheeks.
"The fight," he gasped, forcing his lips and tongue to move. "How does the fight go?"
"The dwarves stand firm," grunted an elf, cold fury apparent in his voice. Sithas recognized the fellow as Lashio, a longtime sergeant-major who had been one of his father"s guards.
"Go! I"ll be all right! Break them! They must not escape!"
Lashio needed no urging. Seizing his sword, he sprang toward the melee. "Don"t try to move, Excellency. I"ve sent for the clerics!" A nervous young trooper tried to dab at Sithas"s wounds, but the Speaker angrily brushed the fellow"s ministrations away.
Sitting up, Sithas tried to ignore the throbbing in his head. He looked at the hilt of his shattered weapon, still clutched in his bleeding hand. In fury, he tossed the ruined piece away.
"Give me your sword!" he barked at the guardsman.
"BBut, Excellency . . . please, you"re hurt!"
"Are you in the habit of disobeying orders?" Sithas snarled.
"No, sir!" The young elf bit his lip but pa.s.sed his weapon, hilt first, to the Speaker of the Stars without further delay.
Unsteadily Sithas climbed to his feet. The throbbing in his head pounded into a crescendo, and he had to grit his teeth to prevent himself from crying out in pain. The din of the battle raging nearby was nothing compared to the pain inside his head.
His unfortunate horse lay beside him, moaning and kicking. From the grotesque angle of its foreleg, Sithas knew that the animal was beyond saving. Deliberately he cut its throat with the sword, watching sadly as its lifeblood spurted across the pavement, splattering his boots.
Slowly his head began to clear, as if the shock of the horse"s death penetrated the haze of his own wounds. He looked down the narrow lane and saw the ma.s.s of his royal guard, still pressing against the line of Than-Kar"s bodyguards. Sithas realized that he could do nothing in that direction.
Instead, he looked up the street and saw a nearby tavern, the Thorn of the White Rose. The melee in the street raged just beyond its doors. Sithas remembered the place. It was a large establishment, with sleeping rooms and kitchen as well as the typical great room of a riverfront tavern. Instinctively he knew that it would suit his purpose.
He started to hurry toward the door, shouting to those members of his guard who were in the back of the fight, unable to reach the dwarves because of the press of their comrades and the narrow confines of the lane.
"Follow me!" he called, pushing open the door. Several dozen of his guardsmen, led by Lashio, turned to answer his call.
The startled patrons of the bar, all of whom were standing at the windows to watch the fight in the street, turned in astonishment as their blood-streaked ruler stumbled in. Si
thas paid them no note, instead leading his small company past the startled bartender, through the kitchen, and out into the alley behind the place.
A lone dwarf stood several paces away, apparently guarding this route of approach.
He raised his steel battleaxe and shouted a hoa.r.s.e cry of alarm. It was the last sound he made as the Speaker of the Stars lunged at him, easily dodging the heavy blow of his axe to run him through.
Immediately Sithas and his small band raced from the alley onto the docks. The dwarves fought to reach their boats as bands of the royal guardsmen surged onto the waterfront from other nearby streets and alleys.
A black-bearded dwarf confronted Sithas. The elf saw that his attacker wore a breastplate and helm of black steel, but it was his eyes that caught Sithas"s attention: wide and vacant, like the huge white circles of a madman, pure Theiwar.
Snarling his frustrationfor he saw Than-Kar, behind this dwarf, scrambling into one of the boatsSithas charged recklessly forward.
But this foe proved far more adept than the Speaker"s previous opponent. The Theiwar"s keen-edged battle-axe bashed Sithas"s longsword aside, and only a desperate roll to the side saved the elf from losing his right forearm. He bounced to his feet in time to ward off a second blow, and for a few moments, the two combatants poked and stabbed ineffectively, each searching for an opening.
Sithas thrust again, grimly pleased to see panic flash in the Theiwar"s otherwise emotionless eyes. Only a desperate twist to the side, one that dropped the dwarf to his knees for a moment, saved him from the elf"s deadly steel. With surprising quickness, however, the dwarf sprang to his feet and parried Sithas"s next blow.
Then the elf had to ward off several hard slashes as the dwarf drove him backward for several steps. Sithas caught his heel on a coil of rope and tripped, but recovered in time to parry a savage blow. Steel rang against steel, but his strong arm held firm.
Then, behind the black-armored warrior, the dwarven amba.s.sador raised his head and gave a sharp call. The dwarves on the dock immediately fell back toward the boats, and this gave Sithas his opening.
The elf reached down and grasped the coil of rope. With a grunt of exertion, he hurled it at the carefully retreating Theiwar. The dwarf raised his axe to knock the snakelike strands aside, and Sithas darted forward.
His blade penetrated the dwarf"s skin at the throat, just above his heavy breastplate.
With a gurgling cry of pain, the warrior stumbled, his wildly staring eyes growing cold and vacant.
As his fallen foe slumped to the docks, Sithas leaped over the body, racing toward the boat where Than-Kar frantically gestured to his guards. The Speaker of the Stars reached the edge of the quay as the craft began to drift into the river. For a moment, he considered leaping after it.
A second look at the boat full of dwarves changed his mind. Such a leap would accomplish nothing but his own death. Instead, he could only watch in dismay as the Theiwar dwarf and his bodyguards, propelled by a timely breeze, made their way smoothly to the far bank of the Thon-Thalas River and the road to the west beyond.
23.
A Week Later, Sithelbec.
Kith-Kanan remained in Sithelbec for a week, keeping within the small officer"s cabin for the whole time. He met with Parnigar, Kencathedrus, and other of his trusted officers. All were cautioned to secrecy on their leader"s plan. Indeed, Kith made a point of asking Parnigar to keep the news from his wife, who was human.