OvidLemma
Hi, everybody! As always, thanks for reading! The image below is a portrait of Sabine Bonnikin, Ette's mentor, bondswoman extraordinaire, and all-around general-purpose badass. She's the older sister of Priestess Oestel, the priestess of the Vinzenno family's temple, and currently Niko's mentor in all things bounty-hunting-related. Sabine's hair is actually supposed to be done up in fairly tight 'battle-braids' like box braids or plaits, but I couldn't figure out how to get that to render quite right :/ . Also below is a detail picture of Nikoli 'Niko' Sturmhild, Val's striking (sometimes literally) girlfriend, and a fearsome combatant in her own right, albeit far earlier in her career in badassery.
36. Escape from the House of Bonnikin
Getting past the ducal patrols took some doing, since Val and Galvan had the enemy's armor and, in retrospect, they should have passed the patrol and then disguised their armor. Lesson learned. Val had magically blocked the bolts the patrol fired at them and then waved their guarantee of access, which was proving to do a lot of heavy lifting for them. After letting the patrol inspect the paper and carefully explaining that they were on an espionage mission and then demonstrating enough magic to convince the patrol that they weren't stupid kids way over their heads. They definitely weren't that.
From there, they skirted around the defensive wall, getting mud well up their shins as they traversed the river bank, and then passed into the enemy part of the city. Fortunately, the guards stationed atop the walls had managed to clear things for at least a hundred yards under threat of their bolt-casters, so Val and Galvan crept right into the city, into nominally-occupied territory. They made it half-way to Sabine's before they encountered their first barricade.
"Hey, boy! Don't you try to sneak into that alley unless you want a bolt up your arse!"
Val shot her hands up. "Apologies, sir! My friend and I are looking for the holy medallion of our master, Brother-Knight Obscurius of the Resplendent Order." She hadn't been able to bring herself to wear the colors of the Penitent Order, even though there were about five times as many of them than there were of the Resplendent Order or any other order of holy knights.
"Obscurius, eh? We've heard tell of his heroics," the guard said. "Didn't know he had a squire."
"Two squires!" Galvan said. "Um… I, too, am a brother-squire…"
"They're just called squires," Val whispered.
"A squire! Just a squire!"
The brother-knight in charge of the barricade snorted. "Figures those resplendent bastards would get two squires. All right, off with you, then. And don't be sneaking around in alleyways if you don't want to get yourself shot. We've got snipers on the roofs."
"Good to know," Val said.
They negotiated their way past one more barricade before arriving at Sabines, which had been defaced along the front of the building with a great, sloppily-painted, red, misspelled HAETHEN. Smaller and properly-spelled, an order of seizure had been nailed into the front door: This establishment commandeered for use by the Brothers of the Old Benediction. At least that was good news - unlike the penitent brothers, they weren't likely to ransack the place. It also meant, though, that they were better off not going in through the main entrance.
Val climbed right up the side of the building and through the open second-story window, nearly stepping over a convalescing soldier. The residential second floor of Sabine's place had been turned into a makeshift hospital but, fortunately, all of the wounded were distracted enough by their wounds not to notice Val's arrival. She waited a minute for Galvan to climb up far enough that she could haul him the rest of the way in - he wouldn't have made it very far in Monkey Squad.
"What are we looking for?" Galvan asked.
"Sabine's basement," Val whispered.
"Sabine hasn't got a basement."
"Hasn't she?"
They passed a monk busily spinning down phials of healing decoction. He spotted the two of them and pointed an accusing finger. "Boy! Take these to the injured in room three!"
"Yes, sir, thank you," Val said. She wasn't about to turn down free healing potions.
"Room three is downstairs, soft-pate!" the monk said.
She smiled sweetly. "Of course, brother." Then she and Galvan headed for the stairs… and they took them up.
She reasoned that, if access to Sabine's basement wasn't on the business floor or the residential floor, which took up the first two stories of the building, then it was probably on one of the two empty floors above. Neither was truly empty, as they'd set up for various training exercises in them, but Val didn't know of any secret areas, either. Of course, if they were secret, it only stood to reason that she wouldn't know about them.
Unfortunately, the floor wasn't currently unoccupied. A trio of monks stood about, drinking out of a wineskin and engaged in quiet conversation. They paid Val and Galvan no mind, but probably would if they started poking around for a secret passage. So Val waved and wandered up to them.
"Brother Cantilus in room three needs to speak with you immediately," Val said.
"Who's brother Cantilus?"
"He's new," Galvan said. Val nodded.
"Which one of us?"
"The laggards on the third floor, he said." Val shrugged. "Sorry. Something about the healing potions being weak, I think?"
They grumbled and headed down the stairs. And, with the floor properly evacuated, Val got to looking, eventually finding the plastered-over remnants of a dumbwaiter near the far wall. She and Galvan knocked their knuckles along the plaster - kik-kik… kik-kik… kik-tok… Galvan found a spot that rang hollow. There was no sign of a door, but Val noted that the carpet was a bit disturbed and, sure enough, there was a trapdoor right there in the floor leading to a crawlspace leading to the old dumbwaiter shaft. And then the three monks wandered back up, grumbling about having been pranked.
"Get in!" Val hissed, then she pushed Galvan in, hopped in after him, and pulled the trapdoor shut. Hopefully, the monks wouldn't notice the disturbed carpet. She might have just given the secret entrance away. "Hurry!"
"Cool it, Val," Galvan said. "I can't see a damn thing…"
"Right… let me get in front…" She tried to squirm past him.
"There's no… stop it… there's no space…" And he was right. There was no way she was squeezing past him in the crawlspace. She could only imagine how Ette had got through, as broad as he was.
Val cast a magical light and willed it out in front of Galvan. Of course, that meant she couldn't see where it was, but as long as he could, that's all that mattered. Footsteps paced the floor above them. Muffled voices. Had they found the trapdoor? If so, all they had to do was open it and peer down and they'd see Val's butt huddled about six feet past the entrance as she waited for Galvan to make progress. She looked over her shoulder, waiting for the door to creak open, but it never did.
"Hey, can you move the light?" Galvan hissed.
He'd found the shaft leading down. In addition to the remnants of the dumbwaiter mechanism, a ladder had been bolted into the wall. It was definitely an escape tunnel. Galvan started down and Val followed close behind. She pushed the little crate of healing potions in front of her as she crawled after him. Then she started down the ladder, leaving the potions at the top of the ladder since she couldn't really climb with only one hand. Her ears perked, just waiting to hear door open, to hear people above shouting about the hidden passageway. But those shouts didn't come.
In fact, the next shout Val heard was Galvan's about a minute later, followed by her own yelp as a strong hand gripped her ankle and yanked her down the shaft. Sharp, cold steel pressed against her throat. A middle-aged woman stared at her in the dim space, her eyes flinty and battle-hardened.
"Sabi-" she started. Sabine covered her mouth and pointed upward.
"Whispers only - they might hear us upstairs," Sabine whispered. She sheathed her dagger and helped Val to her feet.
"Niko!" Val whispered as loudly as she could.
She slipped past Sabine and embraced Niko, the two of them bouncing up and down on the balls of their feet in unison. Val was glad to find the others, obviously, but there was something special about finding Niko. They held one another, giggling, and Val made a happy little sigh. Now, she was absolutely certain that making the trip had been the right thing to do.
"Galv… what are you two doing here?" Ette whispered.
It was pretty crowded in the small space now that Val and Galvan had climbed down. Levin and Iselde were also there, bringing the room's total census up to seven. Sabine's safe room wasn't especially small, but it was crowded with supplies and weapons, and the pair of cots in the corner indicated its suggested occupancy was two. It was lit by a single oil lamp, casting everything in a ruddy, vaguely-romantic light. Val kissed Niko's cheek before skipping over to Ette.
"We're here to rescue you guys," Galvan said. "Also, don't call me Galv."
"Rescue us? I know your mother didn't send you, which means you did it without asking permission. Do you have any idea how dangerous it is in the city?"
"That's why I brought Val. She's handy in a pinch."
Val just nodded, because that was pretty obvious. Though, technically-speaking, she'd brought Galvan and not the other way around. She wasn't going to correct him and look like a whiny child. Not when there was rescuing to be done.
The five of them had been holed up in Sabine's since the defeat of the duke's forces in the eastern city two days before. However, after their sabotage of the trebuchets, the exit tunnel had collapsed and now what sounded like a whole company of brother-knights were occupying Sabine's. They'd been biding their time for the past day, though they couldn't bide forever, as about half of Sabine's stock of food had expired and it was only meant to sustain two people for two weeks. At least there was a privy and running water.
Ette laughed uproariously when he learned that Sabine's place had been turned into a hospital - or at least he started to. Sabine clamped a hand over his mouth and reminded him that even Ettebono Vinzenno had to keep quiet.
"Yeah, but we thought we were keeping quiet from a company of penitent brothers, not a coterie of healing monks and injured soldiers."
"And Val says there's a barricade about a block west of us. I imagine the Faithful Order of Convalescents is pretty capable of running for help."
"It's the Brothers of the Old Benediction," Val corrected. "Some of them aren't so bad. But, yes, I imagine they can run for help as well as anybody."
"But there were only three monks drinking wine up on the third floor?"
"That's right."
Sabine and Ette shared a meaningful look. "Then I suppose we head up the ladder, deal with the monks, and make our escape out the window. If Val is friends with the duchess, they should let us through to the palace."
+++++
Ette lead the way, since he had the most trouble fitting through the crawlspace. They figured that, once he got out, everybody else could be out in a hurry. Otherwise, their exit from the secret door might have extended over multiple minutes. Sabine was next, pushing Ette along when he got stuck and muttering curses about how stuffy the air was. Val was second to last, with Niko right ahead of her and Iselde right behind.
"Are you really friends with the duchess?" Iselde whispered.
"We're friendly, at least," Val said.
Ette pushed the door up, squeezed himself out, and everybody else piled out right behind him. Even though the trapdoor was at a semi-secluded spot on the floor, you couldn't miss the sound of seven people pulling themselves out of a cramped secret entrance. One of the monks popped his head around a support column and pointed. Then a dozen soldiers trundled up the stairs, swords at the ready.
At least they weren't brother-knights with their pikes and thick brigandine. But a dozen blades was a lot.
"Guess we aren't going out the window," Ette said. Then he and Sabine engaged with the soldiers.
A soldier flopped to the floor in front of Val. She couldn't tell whether he was already incapacitated or dead, so she kicked him in the temple to be safe and then ran to the window. Four or five men with bolt-casters were posted below, peering up at them and pointing. Ette was right - climbing out the window would be a very Bad Idea. Clearly, the monks had found the trapdoor and alerted their soldierly brethren. If the seven of them had exited the crawlspace a minute later, it would have likely been right into a deadly ambush.
Val wanted to apologize for getting them found. If she'd been a bit faster about finding the trapdoor, she could have got the carpet back in place and nobody would have been any the wiser. But she hadn't and, as a result, now they were fighting an unknown number of assailants. At least two squads worth and probably more. Apologies would have to wait until later.
Fortunately, they had fighting experience and magic on their side. Between the two of them, Val and Levin made a decent battle-mage. Neither of them could block arrows and slow opponents at the same time, but they could do whichever one the other wasn't doing. That way, they were able to limit the number of soldiers the others had to engage with while blocking the light bolt-casters that some of them carried. Niko's magical repertoire was pretty much limited to flashes of light, whooshes of wind, and little bursts of fire, but those could be plenty distracting, too.
Iselde wanted to help but, whenever she got close to the fighting, Ette would bellow at her to stay back. He and Sabine had already downed nine opponents - and whenever combatants got tossed or shoved Val's way, she had no problem dealing with them, either. Iselde retreated beside Val, fidgeting anxiously and stabbing the air with her dagger. When a soldier slipped through Val's magical net and tried to take Sabine from behind, she darted forward and jabbed her dagger right between the plates in his armor before retreating back to Val's side.
"Be careful!" Val said.
"That was careful!"
"They stopped coming," Galvan said. He hadn't so much as got his knife bloody, though he had got off a few shots with his bolt-caster and hit his target more often than not - a few of the fallen soldiers had been pricked with his little black bolts.
"True," Sabine said. "But that doesn't mean there aren't more of them. It just means the rest aren't stupid enough to fight us on our own terms."
Val glanced out the window. In addition to the marksmen below, several squads looked to be forming in front of the building, preparing for an incursion.
"Monkey Squad will go out the window as a distraction - I can block their bolts for a bit and we'll draw enough of them away that you can go out the front," Val said. She didn't mention that she'd already burned her way through about half of her useful magic and would fatigue herself if she tried casting after that.
Ette shot her an uncertain glance but nodded. "It sounds like we've got our tactics, then. But if it comes between helping us and getting away safely, you girls bloody well run for it, okay? Promise me."
"We promise," Val said. Iselde and Niko nodded.
Val peeked out the window and waved a cloth around, prompting the marksmen to fire. Since it took about seven seconds between rounds on a bolt-caster, that gave Monkey Squad enough time to creep out onto the ledge and work their way down the side of the building. Val was the last one down, grabbing the ledge with one arm and casting a barrier with the other, just in time to block the second salvo from the marksmen. Seeing the magic, the men below started to panic and call for help, but Iselde and Niko were already dropping down to street level.
Niko stunned them with a flash, giving Iselde time to scamper up, snatch a man's bolt-caster, and shoot him in the gut with it. By the time the others recovered to return fire, she'd scampered back behind Val's protective barrier.
"Run!" Val shouted. She released her barrier - she couldn't maintain it for more than ten or twelve seconds at a time, though she could cast a fresh shield not too long after. It dissipated with a faint blue pop and, before the marksmen could recharge their casters, the three of them had sprinted around the corner.
"Mages! Mages!" one of the marksmen shouted.
That sure got the other soldiers' attention. Val peeked around to see four penitent brothers and at least ten soldiers storming into the alleyway to assist. As cramped as they were in there, it hardly took any energy for Val to cast a magical net. Then, as the men all pushed into one another in an unworkable press of limbs and weapons, she let the barrier go and the soldiers toppled on top of one another, scrambling to get back up. Val summoned a great gout of flame beneath them and, at her signal, Niko coaxed the flame with wind.
The men screamed and danced, rolling to put the fire out or panicking. The whole alleyway was impassable with intense flame for five seconds. Then more soldiers charged over the fallen, two penitent brothers with pikes at the ready and swordsmen not far behind. Val tried to cast a barrier, but her energy was fading and it was too weak to do more than stagger them. Any more and she'd pass out.
"I'm tapped," she said. A thrown pike whizzed by her head, missing by inches.
Iselde tugged on her sleeve. "Come on!"
The three of them dashed down the alleyway past where the barricade would be out on the street… and toward a pair of onrushing soldiers.
"Niko!" Val signaled - she was about done for magic for the moment, but Niko probably had a few spells left in her, for whatever they were worth.
"Eyes!" Niko shouted - she was about to cast another flash.
Despite rushing toward to attackers, Val squeezed her eyes shut until she registered the pop of intense bright. That was a simple spell, but an effective one. Stunned, the soldiers stumbled and collided with one another as they tried to navigate the narrow alleyway blind. Val leapt to the right, Niko leapt to the left, and Iselde slid right between the larger man's legs. All of them made use of their blades. That move certainly hadn't been in any of their fighting drills. Both men collapsed behind them, badly injured and probably dying. Val didn't even slow down, resheathing her knife and dashing out to the street.
"Got 'im!"
The world lurched as Val found herself hooked around the collar and tossed to the street, sprawling half an inch before her mouth smashed into the paving stones. That would have been bad. Her gut screamed in pain when a heavy boot kicked her side and sent her tumbling backward. Even with the reinforcing action of her mail and the leather beneath it, she cried out in pain. It had hurt quite a bit. So did the pike jabbed right into her chest. Her whole body shook as the brother-knight tried to disengage the burrs of his spear from her jangling chain mail.
Her attacker reassessed - it wasn't every day that you faced against somebody with really good chem-hardening like Val's jacket had. A regular weapon just wouldn't pierce it… but Val's face was unprotected, so the brother-knight held her down with a heavy boot and made to jab her through the face with the burred tip of his pike. Then he slumped forward, blood dribbling from his mouth, and Ette hauled Val back to her feet.
"You alright?"
Val nodded. She was more angry than anything else. Angry that she'd nearly been killed by a damn brother-knight - maybe one with more skill and smarts than average, but that wasn't the point. How was she supposed to fight armored men so much bigger and stronger than her without magic? Obviously, Monkey Squad had dealt with a number of soldiers with the help of their battle-magic, but by herself and in the open, a battle-witch was vulnerable…
"I'm almost tapped!" Levin shouted, rushing past. So battle-warlocks were vulnerable, too.
Looking back, Ette and Sabine had apparently slaughtered everybody at the barricade and another few bodies lay in the street in front of Sabine's place beyond that. Monkey Squad had killed or seriously injured another dozen. But the Righteous Army was thousands strong, and more men were incoming.
"Heavy bolts!" Sabine shouted. "Run close to the buildings!"
A yard-long bolt zipped through the air, cracking a cobblestone to bits as it hit the street and then splintered. The things were tipped with alchemical charges that gave them serious piercing power - as soon as the bolt was released, the charge burned for four or five seconds, multiplying each bolt's already-considerable power several-fold. On the bright side, even when they didn't shatter on impact, they could only be used once before needing an alchemist to create a new tip. The Righteous Army must have had a whole company of alchemists.
Val didn't need to be told twice. She grabbed Niko and the two of them skirted along the nearest row of brownstones, heavy bolts zipping wide and crunching as they hit the sides of buildings, cracking stones and embedding themselves a foot or more into brick walls. As they rounded the bend in the road, the shots went wider and wider. They were less than a hundred yards from the safety of the palace perimeter when whispers hissed at the base of Val's brain, the tingle of magic being cast. At first, she thought it was Levin preparing one last spell. But the magic was coming from in front of them.
"Trap!" Val shouted.
It was too late. Sabine, Ette, and Galvan all dashed right into the clutches of an invisible magical net. Then the net rolled and pinned them to the ground. The enemy battle-mage peered from behind a nearby barricade and shouted orders to his troops - another squad with heavy bolt-casters, who proceeded to open fire on Val's helpless family.
The mage couldn't cast two spells at once, and the marksmen couldn't fire at two people at once, which meant they couldn't shoot the others as long as she presented a greater threat. Val ran right at them along a slant, startling the mage long enough to disrupt his spell. He turned his attentions toward Val just in time to miss Levin's own magical net, which pinned him and the marksmen down, sprawling Val flat at the edge of its effect. Rather than struggling to free herself from the invisible bands of magical force, she used the last of her energy to pinpoint the enemy mage and light up the earth beneath him, incinerating the man as he howled in agony, enveloped by white-hot flame.
Then Levin's net was gone and Val struggled to her feet, suddenly in the vicinity of three men with large bolt-casters and the urge to use them. Bolt-casters now pointed at her.
"Val!" Ette shouted.
He vaulted over the barricade, crashing into one of the marksmen, grabbing the man's weapon, and redirecting its barrel. With the crack of alchemical springs, it shot right through the second man, erupting out the other side of his body in a gruesome spray. Then Ette engaged with the stunned first man. Val went for the third man, but she was too woozy and leaden-limbed from expending all of her magic to do much more than stagger in his direction as he took aim. As she wobbled back to the ground, the bolt-caster clicked as its spring finished resetting and the next bolt charged and slid into place. The marksman grinned.
Sabine leapt over the barricade, colliding with the man. The bolt-caster cracked and both of them tumbled to the ground.
Val turned herself over just in time to see Sabine roll off the dead marksman, a bolt the length of Val's arm protruding all the way through her chest. Sabine gripped at it and gasped.
"Potions…" Val said. She'd stashed as many healing potions into her pockets as would fit on her way out of Sabine's crawlspace. She threw one at Sabine with a lazy toss. It clattered to the cobblestones at the bondswoman's side. Sabine was already on her back, coughing up blood.
"Sabi… oh gods, Sabi…" Ette cried out.
He rushed to her side. Spotting the potion, he poured it into her mouth and massaged her throat the way that you were supposed to when people couldn't quite swallow things. They'd got her the potion. She was going to be okay. Right? Sabine whispered something to Ette, and he nodded, whispering something back. Val wished she could go over to help, but she just had to sleep. Her eyes closed.
When they opened again, maybe only a second had passed, or maybe it had been a little while. Ette was still crouched over Sabine. Three empty potions lay upon the street beside them. Sabine wasn't moving.
"Please… please, sis… please don't go," he sobbed. "Please."
"Mister Vinzenno, we've got to get out of here," Levin said. "They'll be on us any minute."
Ette wiped his tears away and put something golden in his pocket. "You're right. You and Niko take the lead. I'll carry Val."
Val's head pounded with pain and her vision went woozy. She needed to help the others, needed to get to safety. But first she had to close her eyes again, just for a second…
OvidLemma
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-Ovid
OvidLemma
Hi, everybody! As always, thanks for reading! The image below is a portrait of Sabine Bonnikin, Ette's mentor, bondswoman extraordinaire, and all-around general-purpose badass. She's the older sister of Priestess Oestel, the priestess of the Vinzenno family's temple, and currently Niko's mentor in all things bounty-hunting-related. Sabine's hair is actually supposed to be done up in fairly tight 'battle-braids' like box braids or plaits, but I couldn't figure out how to get that to render quite right :/ . Also below is a detail picture of Nikoli 'Niko' Sturmhild, Val's striking (sometimes literally) girlfriend, and a fearsome combatant in her own right, albeit far earlier in her career in badassery.
36. Escape from the House of Bonnikin
Getting past the ducal patrols took some doing, since Val and Galvan had the enemy's armor and, in retrospect, they should have passed the patrol and then disguised their armor. Lesson learned. Val had magically blocked the bolts the patrol fired at them and then waved their guarantee of access, which was proving to do a lot of heavy lifting for them. After letting the patrol inspect the paper and carefully explaining that they were on an espionage mission and then demonstrating enough magic to convince the patrol that they weren't stupid kids way over their heads. They definitely weren't that.
From there, they skirted around the defensive wall, getting mud well up their shins as they traversed the river bank, and then passed into the enemy part of the city. Fortunately, the guards stationed atop the walls had managed to clear things for at least a hundred yards under threat of their bolt-casters, so Val and Galvan crept right into the city, into nominally-occupied territory. They made it half-way to Sabine's before they encountered their first barricade.
"Hey, boy! Don't you try to sneak into that alley unless you want a bolt up your arse!"
Val shot her hands up. "Apologies, sir! My friend and I are looking for the holy medallion of our master, Brother-Knight Obscurius of the Resplendent Order." She hadn't been able to bring herself to wear the colors of the Penitent Order, even though there were about five times as many of them than there were of the Resplendent Order or any other order of holy knights.
"Obscurius, eh? We've heard tell of his heroics," the guard said. "Didn't know he had a squire."
"Two squires!" Galvan said. "Um… I, too, am a brother-squire…"
"They're just called squires," Val whispered.
"A squire! Just a squire!"
The brother-knight in charge of the barricade snorted. "Figures those resplendent bastards would get two squires. All right, off with you, then. And don't be sneaking around in alleyways if you don't want to get yourself shot. We've got snipers on the roofs."
"Good to know," Val said.
They negotiated their way past one more barricade before arriving at Sabines, which had been defaced along the front of the building with a great, sloppily-painted, red, misspelled HAETHEN. Smaller and properly-spelled, an order of seizure had been nailed into the front door: This establishment commandeered for use by the Brothers of the Old Benediction. At least that was good news - unlike the penitent brothers, they weren't likely to ransack the place. It also meant, though, that they were better off not going in through the main entrance.
Val climbed right up the side of the building and through the open second-story window, nearly stepping over a convalescing soldier. The residential second floor of Sabine's place had been turned into a makeshift hospital but, fortunately, all of the wounded were distracted enough by their wounds not to notice Val's arrival. She waited a minute for Galvan to climb up far enough that she could haul him the rest of the way in - he wouldn't have made it very far in Monkey Squad.
"What are we looking for?" Galvan asked.
"Sabine's basement," Val whispered.
"Sabine hasn't got a basement."
"Hasn't she?"
They passed a monk busily spinning down phials of healing decoction. He spotted the two of them and pointed an accusing finger. "Boy! Take these to the injured in room three!"
"Yes, sir, thank you," Val said. She wasn't about to turn down free healing potions.
"Room three is downstairs, soft-pate!" the monk said.
She smiled sweetly. "Of course, brother." Then she and Galvan headed for the stairs… and they took them up.
She reasoned that, if access to Sabine's basement wasn't on the business floor or the residential floor, which took up the first two stories of the building, then it was probably on one of the two empty floors above. Neither was truly empty, as they'd set up for various training exercises in them, but Val didn't know of any secret areas, either. Of course, if they were secret, it only stood to reason that she wouldn't know about them.
Unfortunately, the floor wasn't currently unoccupied. A trio of monks stood about, drinking out of a wineskin and engaged in quiet conversation. They paid Val and Galvan no mind, but probably would if they started poking around for a secret passage. So Val waved and wandered up to them.
"Brother Cantilus in room three needs to speak with you immediately," Val said.
"Who's brother Cantilus?"
"He's new," Galvan said. Val nodded.
"Which one of us?"
"The laggards on the third floor, he said." Val shrugged. "Sorry. Something about the healing potions being weak, I think?"
They grumbled and headed down the stairs. And, with the floor properly evacuated, Val got to looking, eventually finding the plastered-over remnants of a dumbwaiter near the far wall. She and Galvan knocked their knuckles along the plaster - kik-kik… kik-kik… kik-tok… Galvan found a spot that rang hollow. There was no sign of a door, but Val noted that the carpet was a bit disturbed and, sure enough, there was a trapdoor right there in the floor leading to a crawlspace leading to the old dumbwaiter shaft. And then the three monks wandered back up, grumbling about having been pranked.
"Get in!" Val hissed, then she pushed Galvan in, hopped in after him, and pulled the trapdoor shut. Hopefully, the monks wouldn't notice the disturbed carpet. She might have just given the secret entrance away. "Hurry!"
"Cool it, Val," Galvan said. "I can't see a damn thing…"
"Right… let me get in front…" She tried to squirm past him.
"There's no… stop it… there's no space…" And he was right. There was no way she was squeezing past him in the crawlspace. She could only imagine how Ette had got through, as broad as he was.
Val cast a magical light and willed it out in front of Galvan. Of course, that meant she couldn't see where it was, but as long as he could, that's all that mattered. Footsteps paced the floor above them. Muffled voices. Had they found the trapdoor? If so, all they had to do was open it and peer down and they'd see Val's butt huddled about six feet past the entrance as she waited for Galvan to make progress. She looked over her shoulder, waiting for the door to creak open, but it never did.
"Hey, can you move the light?" Galvan hissed.
He'd found the shaft leading down. In addition to the remnants of the dumbwaiter mechanism, a ladder had been bolted into the wall. It was definitely an escape tunnel. Galvan started down and Val followed close behind. She pushed the little crate of healing potions in front of her as she crawled after him. Then she started down the ladder, leaving the potions at the top of the ladder since she couldn't really climb with only one hand. Her ears perked, just waiting to hear door open, to hear people above shouting about the hidden passageway. But those shouts didn't come.
In fact, the next shout Val heard was Galvan's about a minute later, followed by her own yelp as a strong hand gripped her ankle and yanked her down the shaft. Sharp, cold steel pressed against her throat. A middle-aged woman stared at her in the dim space, her eyes flinty and battle-hardened.
"Sabi-" she started. Sabine covered her mouth and pointed upward.
"Whispers only - they might hear us upstairs," Sabine whispered. She sheathed her dagger and helped Val to her feet.
"Niko!" Val whispered as loudly as she could.
She slipped past Sabine and embraced Niko, the two of them bouncing up and down on the balls of their feet in unison. Val was glad to find the others, obviously, but there was something special about finding Niko. They held one another, giggling, and Val made a happy little sigh. Now, she was absolutely certain that making the trip had been the right thing to do.
"Galv… what are you two doing here?" Ette whispered.
It was pretty crowded in the small space now that Val and Galvan had climbed down. Levin and Iselde were also there, bringing the room's total census up to seven. Sabine's safe room wasn't especially small, but it was crowded with supplies and weapons, and the pair of cots in the corner indicated its suggested occupancy was two. It was lit by a single oil lamp, casting everything in a ruddy, vaguely-romantic light. Val kissed Niko's cheek before skipping over to Ette.
"We're here to rescue you guys," Galvan said. "Also, don't call me Galv."
"Rescue us? I know your mother didn't send you, which means you did it without asking permission. Do you have any idea how dangerous it is in the city?"
"That's why I brought Val. She's handy in a pinch."
Val just nodded, because that was pretty obvious. Though, technically-speaking, she'd brought Galvan and not the other way around. She wasn't going to correct him and look like a whiny child. Not when there was rescuing to be done.
The five of them had been holed up in Sabine's since the defeat of the duke's forces in the eastern city two days before. However, after their sabotage of the trebuchets, the exit tunnel had collapsed and now what sounded like a whole company of brother-knights were occupying Sabine's. They'd been biding their time for the past day, though they couldn't bide forever, as about half of Sabine's stock of food had expired and it was only meant to sustain two people for two weeks. At least there was a privy and running water.
Ette laughed uproariously when he learned that Sabine's place had been turned into a hospital - or at least he started to. Sabine clamped a hand over his mouth and reminded him that even Ettebono Vinzenno had to keep quiet.
"Yeah, but we thought we were keeping quiet from a company of penitent brothers, not a coterie of healing monks and injured soldiers."
"And Val says there's a barricade about a block west of us. I imagine the Faithful Order of Convalescents is pretty capable of running for help."
"It's the Brothers of the Old Benediction," Val corrected. "Some of them aren't so bad. But, yes, I imagine they can run for help as well as anybody."
"But there were only three monks drinking wine up on the third floor?"
"That's right."
Sabine and Ette shared a meaningful look. "Then I suppose we head up the ladder, deal with the monks, and make our escape out the window. If Val is friends with the duchess, they should let us through to the palace."
+++++
Ette lead the way, since he had the most trouble fitting through the crawlspace. They figured that, once he got out, everybody else could be out in a hurry. Otherwise, their exit from the secret door might have extended over multiple minutes. Sabine was next, pushing Ette along when he got stuck and muttering curses about how stuffy the air was. Val was second to last, with Niko right ahead of her and Iselde right behind.
"Are you really friends with the duchess?" Iselde whispered.
"We're friendly, at least," Val said.
Ette pushed the door up, squeezed himself out, and everybody else piled out right behind him. Even though the trapdoor was at a semi-secluded spot on the floor, you couldn't miss the sound of seven people pulling themselves out of a cramped secret entrance. One of the monks popped his head around a support column and pointed. Then a dozen soldiers trundled up the stairs, swords at the ready.
At least they weren't brother-knights with their pikes and thick brigandine. But a dozen blades was a lot.
"Guess we aren't going out the window," Ette said. Then he and Sabine engaged with the soldiers.
A soldier flopped to the floor in front of Val. She couldn't tell whether he was already incapacitated or dead, so she kicked him in the temple to be safe and then ran to the window. Four or five men with bolt-casters were posted below, peering up at them and pointing. Ette was right - climbing out the window would be a very Bad Idea. Clearly, the monks had found the trapdoor and alerted their soldierly brethren. If the seven of them had exited the crawlspace a minute later, it would have likely been right into a deadly ambush.
Val wanted to apologize for getting them found. If she'd been a bit faster about finding the trapdoor, she could have got the carpet back in place and nobody would have been any the wiser. But she hadn't and, as a result, now they were fighting an unknown number of assailants. At least two squads worth and probably more. Apologies would have to wait until later.
Fortunately, they had fighting experience and magic on their side. Between the two of them, Val and Levin made a decent battle-mage. Neither of them could block arrows and slow opponents at the same time, but they could do whichever one the other wasn't doing. That way, they were able to limit the number of soldiers the others had to engage with while blocking the light bolt-casters that some of them carried. Niko's magical repertoire was pretty much limited to flashes of light, whooshes of wind, and little bursts of fire, but those could be plenty distracting, too.
Iselde wanted to help but, whenever she got close to the fighting, Ette would bellow at her to stay back. He and Sabine had already downed nine opponents - and whenever combatants got tossed or shoved Val's way, she had no problem dealing with them, either. Iselde retreated beside Val, fidgeting anxiously and stabbing the air with her dagger. When a soldier slipped through Val's magical net and tried to take Sabine from behind, she darted forward and jabbed her dagger right between the plates in his armor before retreating back to Val's side.
"Be careful!" Val said.
"That was careful!"
"They stopped coming," Galvan said. He hadn't so much as got his knife bloody, though he had got off a few shots with his bolt-caster and hit his target more often than not - a few of the fallen soldiers had been pricked with his little black bolts.
"True," Sabine said. "But that doesn't mean there aren't more of them. It just means the rest aren't stupid enough to fight us on our own terms."
Val glanced out the window. In addition to the marksmen below, several squads looked to be forming in front of the building, preparing for an incursion.
"Monkey Squad will go out the window as a distraction - I can block their bolts for a bit and we'll draw enough of them away that you can go out the front," Val said. She didn't mention that she'd already burned her way through about half of her useful magic and would fatigue herself if she tried casting after that.
Ette shot her an uncertain glance but nodded. "It sounds like we've got our tactics, then. But if it comes between helping us and getting away safely, you girls bloody well run for it, okay? Promise me."
"We promise," Val said. Iselde and Niko nodded.
Val peeked out the window and waved a cloth around, prompting the marksmen to fire. Since it took about seven seconds between rounds on a bolt-caster, that gave Monkey Squad enough time to creep out onto the ledge and work their way down the side of the building. Val was the last one down, grabbing the ledge with one arm and casting a barrier with the other, just in time to block the second salvo from the marksmen. Seeing the magic, the men below started to panic and call for help, but Iselde and Niko were already dropping down to street level.
Niko stunned them with a flash, giving Iselde time to scamper up, snatch a man's bolt-caster, and shoot him in the gut with it. By the time the others recovered to return fire, she'd scampered back behind Val's protective barrier.
"Run!" Val shouted. She released her barrier - she couldn't maintain it for more than ten or twelve seconds at a time, though she could cast a fresh shield not too long after. It dissipated with a faint blue pop and, before the marksmen could recharge their casters, the three of them had sprinted around the corner.
"Mages! Mages!" one of the marksmen shouted.
That sure got the other soldiers' attention. Val peeked around to see four penitent brothers and at least ten soldiers storming into the alleyway to assist. As cramped as they were in there, it hardly took any energy for Val to cast a magical net. Then, as the men all pushed into one another in an unworkable press of limbs and weapons, she let the barrier go and the soldiers toppled on top of one another, scrambling to get back up. Val summoned a great gout of flame beneath them and, at her signal, Niko coaxed the flame with wind.
The men screamed and danced, rolling to put the fire out or panicking. The whole alleyway was impassable with intense flame for five seconds. Then more soldiers charged over the fallen, two penitent brothers with pikes at the ready and swordsmen not far behind. Val tried to cast a barrier, but her energy was fading and it was too weak to do more than stagger them. Any more and she'd pass out.
"I'm tapped," she said. A thrown pike whizzed by her head, missing by inches.
Iselde tugged on her sleeve. "Come on!"
The three of them dashed down the alleyway past where the barricade would be out on the street… and toward a pair of onrushing soldiers.
"Niko!" Val signaled - she was about done for magic for the moment, but Niko probably had a few spells left in her, for whatever they were worth.
"Eyes!" Niko shouted - she was about to cast another flash.
Despite rushing toward to attackers, Val squeezed her eyes shut until she registered the pop of intense bright. That was a simple spell, but an effective one. Stunned, the soldiers stumbled and collided with one another as they tried to navigate the narrow alleyway blind. Val leapt to the right, Niko leapt to the left, and Iselde slid right between the larger man's legs. All of them made use of their blades. That move certainly hadn't been in any of their fighting drills. Both men collapsed behind them, badly injured and probably dying. Val didn't even slow down, resheathing her knife and dashing out to the street.
"Got 'im!"
The world lurched as Val found herself hooked around the collar and tossed to the street, sprawling half an inch before her mouth smashed into the paving stones. That would have been bad. Her gut screamed in pain when a heavy boot kicked her side and sent her tumbling backward. Even with the reinforcing action of her mail and the leather beneath it, she cried out in pain. It had hurt quite a bit. So did the pike jabbed right into her chest. Her whole body shook as the brother-knight tried to disengage the burrs of his spear from her jangling chain mail.
Her attacker reassessed - it wasn't every day that you faced against somebody with really good chem-hardening like Val's jacket had. A regular weapon just wouldn't pierce it… but Val's face was unprotected, so the brother-knight held her down with a heavy boot and made to jab her through the face with the burred tip of his pike. Then he slumped forward, blood dribbling from his mouth, and Ette hauled Val back to her feet.
"You alright?"
Val nodded. She was more angry than anything else. Angry that she'd nearly been killed by a damn brother-knight - maybe one with more skill and smarts than average, but that wasn't the point. How was she supposed to fight armored men so much bigger and stronger than her without magic? Obviously, Monkey Squad had dealt with a number of soldiers with the help of their battle-magic, but by herself and in the open, a battle-witch was vulnerable…
"I'm almost tapped!" Levin shouted, rushing past. So battle-warlocks were vulnerable, too.
Looking back, Ette and Sabine had apparently slaughtered everybody at the barricade and another few bodies lay in the street in front of Sabine's place beyond that. Monkey Squad had killed or seriously injured another dozen. But the Righteous Army was thousands strong, and more men were incoming.
"Heavy bolts!" Sabine shouted. "Run close to the buildings!"
A yard-long bolt zipped through the air, cracking a cobblestone to bits as it hit the street and then splintered. The things were tipped with alchemical charges that gave them serious piercing power - as soon as the bolt was released, the charge burned for four or five seconds, multiplying each bolt's already-considerable power several-fold. On the bright side, even when they didn't shatter on impact, they could only be used once before needing an alchemist to create a new tip. The Righteous Army must have had a whole company of alchemists.
Val didn't need to be told twice. She grabbed Niko and the two of them skirted along the nearest row of brownstones, heavy bolts zipping wide and crunching as they hit the sides of buildings, cracking stones and embedding themselves a foot or more into brick walls. As they rounded the bend in the road, the shots went wider and wider. They were less than a hundred yards from the safety of the palace perimeter when whispers hissed at the base of Val's brain, the tingle of magic being cast. At first, she thought it was Levin preparing one last spell. But the magic was coming from in front of them.
"Trap!" Val shouted.
It was too late. Sabine, Ette, and Galvan all dashed right into the clutches of an invisible magical net. Then the net rolled and pinned them to the ground. The enemy battle-mage peered from behind a nearby barricade and shouted orders to his troops - another squad with heavy bolt-casters, who proceeded to open fire on Val's helpless family.
The mage couldn't cast two spells at once, and the marksmen couldn't fire at two people at once, which meant they couldn't shoot the others as long as she presented a greater threat. Val ran right at them along a slant, startling the mage long enough to disrupt his spell. He turned his attentions toward Val just in time to miss Levin's own magical net, which pinned him and the marksmen down, sprawling Val flat at the edge of its effect. Rather than struggling to free herself from the invisible bands of magical force, she used the last of her energy to pinpoint the enemy mage and light up the earth beneath him, incinerating the man as he howled in agony, enveloped by white-hot flame.
Then Levin's net was gone and Val struggled to her feet, suddenly in the vicinity of three men with large bolt-casters and the urge to use them. Bolt-casters now pointed at her.
"Val!" Ette shouted.
He vaulted over the barricade, crashing into one of the marksmen, grabbing the man's weapon, and redirecting its barrel. With the crack of alchemical springs, it shot right through the second man, erupting out the other side of his body in a gruesome spray. Then Ette engaged with the stunned first man. Val went for the third man, but she was too woozy and leaden-limbed from expending all of her magic to do much more than stagger in his direction as he took aim. As she wobbled back to the ground, the bolt-caster clicked as its spring finished resetting and the next bolt charged and slid into place. The marksman grinned.
Sabine leapt over the barricade, colliding with the man. The bolt-caster cracked and both of them tumbled to the ground.
Val turned herself over just in time to see Sabine roll off the dead marksman, a bolt the length of Val's arm protruding all the way through her chest. Sabine gripped at it and gasped.
"Potions…" Val said. She'd stashed as many healing potions into her pockets as would fit on her way out of Sabine's crawlspace. She threw one at Sabine with a lazy toss. It clattered to the cobblestones at the bondswoman's side. Sabine was already on her back, coughing up blood.
"Sabi… oh gods, Sabi…" Ette cried out.
He rushed to her side. Spotting the potion, he poured it into her mouth and massaged her throat the way that you were supposed to when people couldn't quite swallow things. They'd got her the potion. She was going to be okay. Right? Sabine whispered something to Ette, and he nodded, whispering something back. Val wished she could go over to help, but she just had to sleep. Her eyes closed.
When they opened again, maybe only a second had passed, or maybe it had been a little while. Ette was still crouched over Sabine. Three empty potions lay upon the street beside them. Sabine wasn't moving.
"Please… please, sis… please don't go," he sobbed. "Please."
"Mister Vinzenno, we've got to get out of here," Levin said. "They'll be on us any minute."
Ette wiped his tears away and put something golden in his pocket. "You're right. You and Niko take the lead. I'll carry Val."
Val's head pounded with pain and her vision went woozy. She needed to help the others, needed to get to safety. But first she had to close her eyes again, just for a second…
OvidLemma
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-Ovid
