A Darkness at Sethanon (46 page)

Amos said, “I
wouldn’t miss it,” and followed after. Arutha looked at
them, then followed.

While they were
climbing above the cave mouth, a rumbling beneath their feet could be
felt as a series of dull explosions sounded. Amos said, “The
lifts were set to fall when the tunnel was collapsed. They should
have ignited the barrels on each floor of the citadel, all the way
down to the cavern.” Another series of explosions could be
heard. “Seems the damn contraption worked.”

Suddenly the
ground heaved. A sound like the heavens opening rang in their ears as
they were slammed to the earth, and a concussion of enormous power
stunned them all for a moment. From beyond the edge of the prominence
they were climbing, an astonishing, roiling ball of orange and yellow
flames rushed heavenward. It rose at rapid rate, expanding as it
went, and in the terrible beauty of its glow they could see trailing
debris being lifted upward. Dull thuds rang through the ground
beneath them as the last reservoirs of naphtha began to ignite,
ripping the keep apart. Stones, charred fragments of wood, and bodies
were being sucked skyward as if some giant wind blew straight up.

Arutha lay upon
the ground, staggered by the display. A shrieking wind passed him,
then there came an immense blast of heat. For a moment the air burned
their noses and stung their faces, as if they stood within feet of
the mouth of a giant furnace. Amos had to yell over the noise. “The
storage below the citadel blew. We were venting it all day and night,
so it would become explosive.”

His words were
faint, as ears rang, then were drowned out by another titanic
explosion as the ground bucked and heaved under them, followed
instantly by a series of lesser detonations, the concussion of the
reports hammering at them like physical blows. They were still two
hundred yards from the cliff overlooking the city, but the heat was
nearly unbearable where they lay.

Guy shook his
head to clear it and said, “It’s . . . so much more than
we had thought.”

Locklear said,
“If we had reached the edge of the cliff we’d have been
cooked.”

Jimmy cast a
glance backward. “It’s a good thing we got out of the
cave, as well.”

They all craned
their heads around to look back to where he pointed. The ground
continued to heave and more explosions sounded as rocks and debris
rolled down the slopes past them. Below, the hillside had changed.
The entire contents of the tunnel had been blown clear by the first
massive explosion, covering the hillside opposite the cavern with a
litter of body parts and rubble. Then the ground heaved and pitched
as another massive explosion sounded. Again a fireball rose high
overhead, though not as massive as the last.

There was a
surging, rolling motion of the ground and a third tremendous
explosion came, then some minor trembling. They all lay still, lest
they be tossed down again by the shaking earth. After a time the
ground only echoed with dull thuds, and they stood. Still two hundred
yards or more from the edge of the cliff, they gathered and watched
as the utter destruction of Armengar was accomplished. In only a few
terrible moments the home of a people, the centre of their culture,
had been swept away. It was an obliteration unmatched in the annals
of Midkemian warfare. Guy watched the angry, glowing sky. He
attempted to walk closer to the edge of the cliff, but the heat, an
almost visible curtain of superheated air rising before the cliff
face, forced him back. For a moment he stood, as if resolving to
brave the inferno and glimpse the remains of his city, then he
relented.

“Nothing
could have survived that explosion,” said Arutha. “Every
goblin and Dark Brother between the citadel and the city wall must
have been killed.”

Amos said,
“Maybe his bastardness got caught with his pants down. I’d
love to think he had a limit on how much his magic could handle.”

Arutha said,
“His soldiers may have died, but I think he will somehow
escape. I don’t think that beast he rode minded the fire.”

Jimmy said,
“Look!” and pointed skyward.

The cloud of
smoke that hung above them was glowing red from the reflected light
of the fire below as a giant column of flames still rose toward the
heavens. Against that angry backdrop a single figure could be seen
riding in the air upon the back of a glowing red steed. It seemed to
be descending, as if running downhill in a circle, and it was clearly
making its way back to the heart of Murmandamus’s camp.

“Son of a
mangy bitch!” swore Amos. “Can’t anything kill that
dungeater?”

Guy looked
about. “I don’t know, but now we have other worries.”
He began to climb down, and they discovered that the entire cavern
had collapsed beneath them. Where the cave mouth had been, only a
mass of rubble extending out into the gully could be seen. They
picked their way through the debris, passing beyond several collapsed
stone redoubts that had protected the city from attack from above,
and at last reached the wash leading down into a canyon where horses
were hidden.

Guy said, “The
first four or five canyons will have been picked clean by those first
to flee. If we’re to find mounts, we must look farther out.”

Arutha nodded.
“Still, we have a choice: west toward Yabon, or east toward
Highcastle.”

“Toward
Yabon,” answered Guy. “If help’s coming, we have a
chance of meeting it along the road.” He scanned the area,
looking for some sign of which was the most likely direction to
travel. “Whatever units Murmandamus had up here will likely be
disorganized now. We may yet get free of them.”

Amos chuckled.
“Even his larger companies will be reluctant to stand in the
way of a rout army. It isn’t exactly healthy.”

Guy said,
“Still, if they find themselves cornered, they’ll fight
like the rats they are. And at first light there’ll be
thousands of reinforcements up here. We have only a few hours at best
to get away.”

The sound of
movement from the canyon caused all to draw weapons and move back
into what little shelter was provided by the fallen rocks. Guy
signalled for everyone to be ready.

They waited
silently, and from around the corner a figure emerged. Guy sprang
forward, halting his blow in midair.

“Briana!”

The commander of
the Third Company looked slightly dazed, blood flowing from a cut
upon her temple. Seeing Guy she relaxed. “Protector,” she
said with relief. “We were forced to turn back. There was a
patrol of trolls at the lower end of the canyon who were attempting
to flee back to their own lines. We seemed to be fighting to get past
each other. Then the explosion . .. we were showered with rocks. I
don’t know what happened to the trolls. I think they fled . .
.” She pointed to her bleeding forehead. “Some of us were
hurt.”

“Who is
with you?” he asked.

Arutha stepped
forward as Briana shook her head to clear it, then motioned, and into
the glow from the conflagration in the city came two more guards, one
obviously wounded, and a dozen or more children. With wide, startled
eyes they regarded Arutha, Guy, and the others.

Briana said,
“They had been trapped in a draw by some Dark Brothers. Some of
my soldiers killed the Brothers, but we were separated. We’ve
been finding stragglers for the last hour.”

Guy counted.
“Sixteen.” He turned to Arutha. “What do we do
now?”

Arutha said,
“Every man for himself or not, we can’t leave them.”

Amos turned,
alerted by some approaching sound. “Whatever we do, we’d
best do it somewhere else. Come along.”

Guy pointed over
the rim of the draw and he and the others began helping the children
climb. Soon they were all above the canyon rim and moving off toward
the west.

Arutha was the
last to reach the rim, and as the others vanished out of sight he
dropped to his knees behind an outcropping of rock. Into view came a
company of goblins, moving cautiously as if expecting attack at every
turn while they attempted to return safely from their lines. From
their bloodied appearance, it was clear they had already encountered
some elements of the Armengarian rout. Arutha waited until he was
sure the children were safely along, then took a rock and heaved it
as far past the goblins as possible. The stone sped unobserved
through the dark and clattered behind them. The goblins spun around
and hurried along, as if fearing attack from behind. Arutha ducked
along the ridge, running in a crouch, then jumped down to the next
trail. Soon he overtook the last of their party, the man called
Shigga, acting as rear guard.

Shigga motioned
with his head. Arutha whispered, “Goblins.”

The spearman
nodded and they moved down the trail, following the band of tiny
fugitives.

A
rutha
motioned for a halt.

Everyone,
including the children, moved against the rocks, hiding from possible
observation. The entire party crouched down in a gully, one they had
been following for the night. Dawn was approaching, and after the
fiery destruction of Armengar, the hills behind the city had become a
no-man’s land.

The fall of the
city had been a victory for Murmandamus, but a vastly more costly one
than he had expected. The hills behind Armengar had been thrown into
chaos. The units already in place there had been overrun by the rout
army fleeing the city. A large number of goblins and trolls had quit
the hills and fled back toward Murmandamus’s camp.

In the first few
hours after the fall of the city, Arutha’s party had seen few
goblins or Dark Brothers, but it was obvious that Murmandamus had
ordered a large number of his units back into the hills. At first
Murmandamus’s forces had no clear advantage once in the rocks.
There was no coordination among commanders and not enough soldiers
had come into the hills to put the fleeing Armengarians at a clear
numerical disadvantage. Bands of goblins and moredhel ventured into
the gullies and washes behind the city in the darkness, seeking to
overtake the fugitives, but many never returned. Now, the balance was
shifting; soon the area would be entirely in the enemy’s
control.

Arutha glanced
back at the huddling children. Several of the little ones were close
to exhaustion from a sleepless night and constant terror. The problem
of finding a safe passage south was confounded by the inability of
the youngest children to move quickly. And at each turn they ran the
chance of encountering the enemy. Twice they had blundered into
elements from the city, and Guy had ordered them along on their own,
refusing to let this group become larger. Twice more they had
discovered corpses, from both sides.

The sound of
boots grew louder, and from the number and the lack of any attempt to
hide their approach, Arutha judged this likely to be the enemy. He
signalled and everyone faded back along the gully, until Arutha, Guy,
Amos, Briana, and Shigga crouched down in the shadows before the
huddling children. Jimmy and Locklear stayed in the midst of the
children, keeping them quiet.

The patrol, led
by a moredhel, consisted of trolls and goblins. The trolls were
sniffing the air, but the heavy reek of smoke confounded their
senses. They marched past the gully and down a large defile. When
they were past, Arutha motioned and the company moved cautiously
forward, travelling toward the west, away from the patrol’s
line of march.

Suddenly a child
yelled in fright, and Arutha and the others whirled around. Jimmy was
leaping past the children, Locklear at his side, weapons drawn as the
trolls attacked. Whether they had discovered the fugitives or had
simply decided to double back along the defile, Arutha did not know,
but he knew they must dispose of this patrol quickly or they would
alert others.

Arutha lunged
over Locklear’s shoulder and killed a troll forcing the boy
back. Amos and Guy passed them and soon the entire company was
engaged. Shigga thrust with his spear, killing another troll, while
the moredhel faced Guy. The dark elf recognized the Protector of
Armengar, for he shouted, “One-eye!” He attacked with
savage fury, pushing Guy backward, but Locklear duplicated Arutha’s
trick, striking past Guy, killing the moredhel.

Abruptly it was
over, with five trolls, an equal number of goblins, and the moredhel
dead. Arutha was breathing heavily when he said, “It’s a
good thing this is a narrow gully. If they’d got around us,
we’d never have survived.”

Guy regarded the
greying sky and said, “We have to find some place to hide. The
children are ready to drop, and there’s no place close where we
can move over the mountains.”

Shigga said, “My
kraal is not far, so I’ve travelled here, Protector. There’s
a trail a mile more to the west, not often used. It leads to a
shallow cave. Perhaps we can mask it. It’s a difficult climb .
. .”

“But we’ve
no choice,” said Amos.

Guy said, “Show
us.”

Shigga set out
at a trot, only slowing to glance around turns in the trail. When he
at last climbed up on the rocks next to the defile, they began
lifting the children. The last child had been handed up and Briana
had climbed up after, when a shout came from the west. A half-dozen
Armengarian soldiers were fighting a rearward action as a larger
number of goblins pursued them toward Arutha and his companions.

Guy shouted to
Briana, “Get the children out of here!” Shigga crouched
with his spear at the ready, while Briana hurried the children along
toward the cave.

Arutha and the
others joined with the Armengarians and blocked the defile, refusing
to yield to the goblins. The goblins fought with a frantic quality,
and suddenly Arutha shouted, “They’re fleeing from
someone behind them!”