Lorik The Defender (The Lorik Trilogy) (10 page)

The next morning, the sun was forced to fight its way through a thick layer of gray clouds. The ground was covered in frost, and the world seemed bleak. Lorik chose twenty-two men to ride with him, including Vyrnon who had gotten cleaned up and proved himself to be an expert horseman. Vera and one of the camp’s cooks, an older man with a bad leg named Vanz, drove a large wagon with a meager complement of medical supplies and spare weapons. They would fill the wagon with food as they moved south and foraged for food among the abandoned farms and villages.

There were two dozen riders, including Stone and Lorik. They were all experienced fighters, each having trained with Stone. The only exception was Vyrnon, but Lorik knew from personal experience that the man could fight. The volunteers all carried spears, small shields, swords and daggers. There was no real armor to be had, although some had improvised greaves for their lower legs and some wore old battle helmets that were dented and rusty.

They left the camp quietly, riding through the weak light of dawn, the horses’ hooves crunching on the frosty ground.

“It could snow,” Stone said, as he adjusted his heavy cloak.

“Might,” Lorik agreed.

“You think the camp will be okay if it snows?”

“That’s Trinad’s problem,” Lorik said. “There’s nothing we can do about it.”

“You aren’t much for conversation in the mornings,” Stone complained.

“Sorry,” Lorik said. “I guess the weather has fouled my mood.”

“It is a bleary day to be riding off to war.”

They rode for two hours before coming to the first village. Most of the small town had been razed by the Norsik, but a few of the buildings were intact. They didn’t stop, since Lorik guessed that the foragers from the camp would have picked the small community clean of any sustenance. They had enough rations for two days, and Lorik wanted to make as much time as possible on the first day.

Shortly after they left the abandoned village behind, it started to snow. The snowflakes fell slowly, swirling on every breath of wind. The world went from bleak gray to white. It didn’t take long for the ground to get covered in a thin layer of snow, but luckily it didn’t seem to accumulate more than that. Just a snowy gilding that make the desolate winter landscape seem magical somehow.

They stopped at midday, or what they guessed was midday, since the sun was lost behind the thick clouds. They ate cold rations and walked their horses. Stone and Lorik tied their horses to Vera’s wagon and ranged ahead of the group.

“What are we looking for?” Stone asked. “Surely you don’t think the enemy will have made it this far already.”

“No,” Lorik agreed. “I don’t think they will have, buy I can’t say that for sure. Those flying horse monsters were still collecting people as recently as a week and a half ago. I would think that transforming them and then sending them north would take time, but who the hell knows. Maybe they’ll have wings too. I just don’t want to be caught off guard.”

“And what’s your plan once we do find them?”

“Ideally we could hit them and fall back. Make them cautious without really engaging in pitched battle. But we won’t know what we can do until we know what we’re up against.”

“How are you feeling about Queen Issalyn?” Stone asked as they jogged along.

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Rumor has it that the two of you are in love,” Stone teased.

“Shut up. You sound like a little girl.”

“Hey, I’m just trying to be supportive.”

“It sounds like you need to focus on keeping up. You’re starting to suck wind over there.”

“Hey, we can’t all be super king warriors, endowed with great powers from the forest elves.”

“I was always in better shape than you,” Lorik said.

“No,” Stone replied. “You were getting old and fat.”

Lorik laughed out loud. It was the first time he’d laughed in weeks and it felt good. Stone had always been able to keep things light, whereas Lorik tended to get too serious at times. They found a small farmhouse just a few hours before dark. Lorik and Stone stopped to investigate. They found sacks of ground corn, and enough vegetables to fill another sack. They waited for Vera and the volunteers to catch up, then they loaded the food into the wagon. Stone took Vanz’s place on the wagon’s bench seat while the old cook moved to the back of the wagon to investigate the new supplies.

They kept moving until just before dark. They made camp near a small grove of trees. The ground around the small grove was littered with dead sticks, enough to build several small fires to keep the men warm. The ground was wet from snow, but there wasn’t enough snow to make them all miserable with cold. Vanz stewed the vegetables in a large pot, then spent most of the night baking small round bread cakes made from the ground corn. They were a little sweet, but very hearty and the cook claimed they would last for weeks in the men’s saddlebags. Lorik stood watch and let his men sleep.

The days followed in rapid succession, with each day much like the ones before. The landscape turned from snowy white to a muddy brown. The clouds sat heavy on the sky like a hen warming her eggs, only there was nothing warm on the long, wet marches. On the third day, they discovered an inn with four large kegs of ale. Lorik decided to stay the night there. They lit a fire in the big hearth of the inn’s common room and enjoyed a night of comfort before pushing on the next day. They traveled for ten days before they finally came within sight of the walls that surrounded Ort City. There had been no sign of the enemy.

“Well,” Stone said. “What do you want to do?”

Vera walked beside Stone and Lorik. Vanz drove the wagon, which was laden with food now. The other volunteers dismounted and began leading their horses.

“We’ve come south a good distance from the camp,” Vera said.

“There’s bound to be plenty of food in the city,” Stone said. “Water too.”

“And it’s fortified,” Vera said.

“You both think it’s a good idea to man the city walls?” Lorik asked.

“It makes sense,” Vera said.

“It’s a strong defensive position,” Stone agreed. “There’s probably even weapons we could use.”

“What if the enemy can fly,” Lorik asked, “like the Leffers? Those high walls will be useless to us then.”

“We could keep moving south,” Stone said. “But the farther we go, the more tired our men and horses will be.”

“And the farther you’ll have to fight to get back to the camp,” Vera said.

“Even if we just stay here for a few days, it would give us all a chance to rest and resupply,” Stone said.

“Let’s see what we can find,” Lorik said.

Ort City was a large, fortified town, with towering stone walls. It had been built centuries before and was on the major trade route north toward Baskla. There was also a well-maintained road that ran from the western coast of Ortis straight east to the Great Sea of Kings that lay like a jewel in the heart of the Five Kingdoms. All around the city lay the sprawl of the city’s poor. They built makeshift houses from discarded supplies. The poor were scavengers, pilfering the city’s trash each day and carrying it out of the city walls.

They led their horses through the muddy streets that ran between the huts and hovels, all abandoned now. It was hard to tell what had been destroyed by the Leffers and what had merely collapsed from poor construction. There were two main gates leading into the city, the northern gate was closed and locked, with a massive iron portcullis that was lowered from the gatehouse above to protect the massive wooden doors.

A smaller entrance to the side of the massive gates stood open. After closer inspection, it became clear that the main gate had been sealed, and the smaller entrance had been used by the people fleeing the city.

“I’ve never understood why a city would have such massive walls, and a fortified gate, only to have a smaller entrance nearby,” Vera said.

“During a siege, the gates remained closed,” Lorik explained, “but sometimes it is necessary to go in and out of the city. These smaller entrances were called Ambassador Gates. There’s probably a load of stone just over the door that can be dropped easily to fill this part of the wall with heavy stone.”

Vera didn’t like the idea of passing through the Ambassador’s Gate. Just the thought of all the stones waiting to drop down made her nervous. Lorik expected to find stragglers in the city, perhaps even guarding the entrances, but they found no one. Ort City was a well-laid out town, with a wide avenue between the massive walls and the shops that circled the city. Lorik took a second just to take it all in. The shops were well built, most made from quarried stone with living quarters built above. Many of the tile roofs were smashed and some of the older buildings had collapsed, but unlike many of the smaller villages throughout Ortis, the city was mostly intact.

In the center of the city, the royal castle stood like a silent watchman. A wall of ornate stone surrounded the castle. The deadly defensive mechanisms were artfully worked into the sweeping relief that stood out on the castle wall. The relief showed majestic rulers bestowing gifts on the masses that were carved below them.

“Wow,” said Vera. “That’s impressive.”

Lorik turned and saw that everyone was staring up at the castle just like he was. It was obvious that the city was well built to defend a massive attack, but unfortunately there was simply no way that Lorik’s two dozen men could defend it.

“Alright, enough gawking,” he said. “We’ve got work to do.”

“You want us to search the city?” one of the volunteers asked.

“No,” Lorik said. “The city may be full of riches, but that’s not what we’re here for. Our job is to stop the army that is coming. We need to check the defenses of the castle. If my guess is right, there will be a secret tunnel that leads out of the city. I only hope it runs north and not south.”

“Why do we need to find a secret tunnel?” Vera asked.

“Because we don’t have enough men to defend the city,” Stone said. “If we can put up a good fight here, then flee, we’ll have a better chance of surviving.”

“Stone’s right,” Lorik said loudly. “Of course the city gives us a huge advantage in battle, but an army could surround us and trap us here. If we don’t find a suitable way out of the city, we can’t stay.”

“Well then, what are waiting for?” Vera said.

Lorik turned to her. “I want you and Vanz to find food.”

“We have a wagon full of food,” Vera said.

“I know, but it would better in the long run to eat the food here and save the food in the wagon for our retreat.”

“Alright,” Vera said. “You don’t want me in the castle for some reason?”

“No,” Lorik said. “You’ll probably find all the food we need in the castle or nearby at any rate. But the secret tunnels may have traps. I’d rather not worry about you getting hurt unnecessarily.”

“Good thinking,” Stone said. “Maybe I should help her.”

“You are going to find the armory,” Lorik told Stone. “I want every weapon available, especially spears and weapons we can throw down on our adversaries.”

“That makes sense,” Stone said.

“And once you find the armory, I want a complete report on the castle’s defenses.”

“You’ve got it,” the younger warrior said.

They made their way through the city, which was neatly laid out and easy to navigate. Broad roads ran from the castle out to the city walls in many directions, almost like a spider’s web. Lorik could tell the city, which was beautifully arranged, was laid out so that the town beyond the castle couldn’t be used to hide attackers. Anyone trying to lay siege to the castle would have to expose themselves on the city’s streets.

The castle gates were open. They were made from massive wooden beams banded together with large iron strips and decorated with bronze sculptures of a roaring lion’s mane and face.

“They must have been expecting us,” Stone said.

“I don’t think anyone’s home,” Lorik said.

“It wouldn’t hurt to find someone who knew their way around,” Vera said.

“Only they might think we’re looters or outlaws and try their best to kill us,” Lorik said.

“It seems so stupid,” Vera said. “Why do men have to always try to kill each other?”

“It does seem stupid to fight people when there are plenty of monsters to kill,” Stone said.

“I don’t care who we have to kill,” Lorik said. “As long as we’re ready when the witch’s army gets here.”

They split up once they reached the castle’s bailey. Lorik led most of the volunteers straight into the massive structure. The castle was huge, with high towers and thick buttresses sticking out from the sides of the huge, stone building, so that it looked like a toad waiting to jump after a fly.

Inside the main entrance, Lorik found a massive feasting hall. There were thick tapestries with colorful scenes of warriors in battle. The tapestries covered the walls on either side of the hall and in between the hangings were huge stone arches that supported the roof high overhead. There were windows high above each tapestry, but they were shuttered so the hall was dark and foreboding. It was hard not to feel as if ghosts were watching their every move in the abandoned castle. Lorik had his men spread out and began searching all the rooms that led away from the hall.

“The escape tunnel will be secret, so it won’t be obvious. Don’t try to explore any corridors that you suspect might lead away from the castle. They could have traps waiting to catch anyone who tried to follow the king as he escaped. Keep moving down, what we’re looking for won’t be on the floors above. And stay in pairs. I don’t want anyone getting lost.”

The men nodded and Lorik looked at Vyrnon.

“You’re with me,” he told the man.

Vyrnon was big, with powerful shoulders and a barrel chest. His belly was big too, but hard with muscle. Beside any other man, he seemed massive, but Lorik was bigger still. Where Vyrnon’s muscles were thick and round, Lorik’s were tightly defined, so much so that it was almost possible to see the muscle fibers. Lorik’s chest was wider than Vyrnon’s and his muscles were stretched flat, even though they stood out from his ribs. He was taller than his companion as well, and had to stoop through many of the passageways as they explored the castle.