The Hickory Staff Read online

  Laughing, an uncontrolled response to fear, Steven replied, ‘Sure, maybe she’ll take you home to meet her parents, but make sure you have her in by eleven, young man, or her brother will hack you to fishfood with his battle-axe.’

  Mark started laughing too. ‘Look, I don’t even want to think about where we are, or how we got here, or how we are both fluent in a language that doesn’t exist. Let’s just get untied, get down those stairs and find a way out of this building. Do you have your pocketknife?’

  ‘No,’ Steven responded, dejected. ‘It’s on the kitchen counter.’

  ‘Terrific. You jumped through a magic rug, a stolen magic rug, into a new world, perhaps even a new time, and you didn’t bring a pocketknife?’

  ‘Hey, I thought I was stepping to certain death,’ Steven said. ‘You were gone. I figured you’d been vaporised or some damned thing and I was sure I was stepping into oblivion. So excuse me if I didn’t figure I’d need a corkscrew in the afterlife.’

  ‘You’re right. It was brave, what you did. Stupid, but brave. Me, I just tripped on the hearthstone and fell onto the damned thing.’ Mark struggled to loosen the straps holding him to the beam. ‘If we work on these all night, I bet we can get free. We have to get out of here before the sun comes up.’

  *

  Some time later it began to rain, plummeting down as if determined to wash southern Rona out to sea. The strong winds they had felt on the beach earlier that day continued through the evening, blowing sheets of raindrops into the chamber through a broken window to puddle on the stone floor. The din of the torrential downpour coupled with the howling wind made it impossible for them to hear if anyone was approaching from the hallway, so Steven kept a tired eye on the broken door hanging between them and their captors. They persisted in their efforts to loosen or cut through the leather straps: one would rub his end of the leather thongs up and down against the beam a hundred times while the other rested, then they swapped over. Too soon they discovered that although exhausted, sleeping in one-hundred-second intervals was worse than not sleeping at all, so as they took turns wearing through the leather straps they counted out loud. Mark counted in German, in Russian, then backwards in German. He even tried it once in Ronan.

  ‘Ein Hundert,’ Mark called out over the roar of the wind and rain. When Steven didn’t take up the mantra, Mark nudged his roommate. ‘Hey, Steve. It’s your turn. Let’s try French this time. You took French in college, didn’t you?’ There was no answer: his friend had fallen into a deep sleep. ‘All right, all right, I’ll take another turn. You were up all last night, but don’t think I’m going past two hundred. I don’t know the numbers past two hundred.’ He thought for a moment then shook his head. ‘Two semesters of German and I can’t count past two hundred. Now Ronan, I can count to one hundred million in Ronan and I never had one class. Who would’ve guessed?’

  When Steven failed to answer, Mark continued his own monotonous efforts to break free.

  On Ronan number 2,564, he finally felt the straps holding him to the beam break. His wrists were bleeding and his lower back ached from the constant rocking, but he was free. Mark felt a surge of adrenalin rush through him as he stood up straight for the first time in hours. His hands were still tied behind his back, but he figured Steven could untie them, or even bite through those with his teeth if he had to. He looked down at his roommate: Steven had slept through the excitement and still lay slumped forward on the stone floor.

  Outside, the rain had slowed. Mark staggered to the window to see the earliest glow of dawn breaking through the thunderclouds.

  ‘Not much time. Steven, wake up,’ he said. Steven did not move, and he raised his voice. ‘C’mon Steven,’ he said urgently, ‘we can still make it out of here. Wake up.’

  Mark searched hurriedly around the room: a lightning flash illuminated the fireplace and he spotted several jagged bits of masonry. In the darkness he backed up against the stones and felt for a sharp edge, then leaned awkwardly into the fireplace and moved his hands up and down against the stone. He quickly developed a cramp in his shoulder; when he changed position he found a large stone that protruded outward from the masonry at about eye level. Leaning against it with his forehead, he called aloud to the empty room, ‘Why does this have to be so goddamned difficult?’

  Mark rested his eyes for a moment, waiting for the cramp to subside, then he felt the rock move. Shifting his forehead to the opposite side, he pushed against the stone with his temple. It moved again. Back and forth he pushed it, and with every push he felt it come looser from the fireplace. The cramp in his back gone, he now felt the rough texture of the large granite block rubbing his forehead raw. Back and forth, again and again, he pushed the stone with his forehead until finally it fell to the floor with a resounding crash. ‘Shit all over,’ he cried and listened for the sound of their captors approaching from the grand staircase.

  Hearing nothing, he turned and began furiously rubbing the leather thongs up and down against the sharp edge. This time it worked and within minutes, Mark had severed the straps and freed his hands.

  Faint daylight crept into their stone cell. Mark was about to wake Steven when he realised he would need to be able to surprise their captors if someone came to the chamber before Steven was freed and ready to travel. He hefted the large stone block from the floor and was about to push it back into the fireplace wall when he saw several pieces of folded parchment. They had obviously been hidden behind the stone.

  ‘What’s this?’ He leafed through the pages, but was unable to make out more than a few words of the foreign scrawl – Ronan was apparently easier to speak than read. He held them up to catch the light, but even so, the words were still too difficult to decipher. Mark shrugged to himself. It was probably just some long-ago lady’s love letters. He still had the matchbook he had taken from Owen’s two nights before: with this, they would be able to make a fire if they managed to escape safely to the forest.

  He stashed the parchment in his back pocket, replaced the stone in the fireplace and moved quickly to wake Steven.

  Lieutenant Bronfio ordered his soldiers to dismount long before they reached the edge of the clearing surrounding Riverend Palace, even though he was conscious that the increased Ronan opposition to the Malakasian occupation meant that soldiers on foot were vulnerable. Through the early morning light he watched as they unstrapped bows and checked that broadswords and rapiers were loose in their scabbards. Several men were already looking at him expectantly, awaiting his command to march on the seemingly abandoned fortress in the distance.

  The horses were tethered to trees in a small clearing. Bronfio raised one arm and gave the silent order to proceed. They would attack from the north, burning the ropes securing the palace portcullis so they could enter speedily. Bronfio’s orders were clear: they needed only one or two partisans for questioning. The rest were to be killed on sight, or taken as prisoners for public hangings.

  Looking towards the rear of his small company, Bronfio saw three men struggling to carry a barrel to the edge of the clearing. Although small, the barrel obviously weighed a great deal. The lieutenant indicated that Brexan should lend some assistance. Reaching the tree line, Bronfio ordered the platoon to hold their position for a moment while he watched the palace for any indication that partisans were indeed inside. The merchant had given him no idea how much resistance to expect, and the young officer disliked the idea of charging into the palace without knowing how numerous or well-armed their enemy were. The barrel was an equaliser; he intended to employ it before beginning the fight. Riskett had brought one along as well.

  Across the clearing, in the palace dining hall, Garec stirred. They had finished stacking the crates of stolen weapons, armour and silver in the old cistern only a short time earlier and now his friends lay about the floor, stealing a few moments’ sleep before sunrise. They needed to be away before daylight if they were to avoid being detected by the dawn patrols; Garec planned to sneak up into the hills a
bove the river and sleep the morning away.

  He wasn’t sure what Sallax had planned for their prisoners, but he shuddered at the idea of assassinating them. He wished Gilmour were around to tell them what to do next. Garec believed in their fight to restore freedom to the occupied lands, and he had killed for that cause – he’d always known that expelling the Malakasian Army from Rona would require extreme sacrifice. Killing unarmed prisoners was a different matter. He wasn’t convinced he would be able to do it.

  He sat on the floor and watched dawn begin to illuminate the stained-glass window that flanked the grand staircase at the opposite end of the hall. ‘We’d better get moving,’ he said to himself and began pulling on his boots.

  ‘I don’t think you’re going anywhere this morning,’ a voice answered softly.

  Garec whipped around, reaching for the hunting knife he had placed on the floor before falling asleep. ‘Who’s that?’ he asked, peering into the darkness.

  A warm glow – burning pipe embers: it lifted the darkness against the wall behind him. Garec detected the faint but familiar odour of Falkan tobacco.

  ‘Gilmour. Lords, you scared me.’ Garec lay back on the floor and looked at the glowing pipe bowl. ‘How did you get in here?’

  ‘Gilmour?’ Versen rolled over and yawned like a swamp grizzly. ‘Gilmour. Great rutting dogs, but it is good to see you.’ He clambered to his feet as everyone gathered around the elderly man.

  Greetings and embraces were exchanged as Gilmour Stow was welcomed back home. He was dressed in a wool tunic over leather leggings and boots, and despite the heat of the Ronan southlands, he always wore a hooded riding cloak. Bearded but balding, Gilmour was shorter even than Brynne, but he had broad strong shoulders and powerful legs. He was old – no one knew how many Twinmoons – but his bright eyes and frequent smile were boyish. His skin was a deep brown, tanned from constant travel, and he carried no weapons except for a short dagger Garec had never seen him draw.

  ‘What do you mean, we’re not going anywhere?’ Garec asked.

  ‘You are not— We are not going anywhere this morning because there are two platoons of Malakasian soldiers forming up in the forest just beyond the edge of the palace grounds,’ the old man said as he drew contemplatively on his pipe.

  ‘Pissing demons,’ Sallax exclaimed, and quickly moved from window to window in an effort to assess the forces mobilising against them.

  Mika grimaced. ‘How did they know we were here?’ he asked. ‘We can’t defend this place – or ourselves – against two platoons.’

  ‘Versen, Garec, Mika,’ Sallax called, ‘get those last two crates back up here and opened. We’ll need bows, and lots of arrows.’

  The three men leaped into action while Gilmour sat down, back to the wall, watching the frantic activity and enjoying his pipe.

  ‘Brynne,’ Garec shouted before disappearing into the cistern, ‘you’d better get those two down here. We might be able to use them if we need to negotiate our way out.’

  ‘Or as a shield,’ Sallax muttered watching his sister take the stairs two at a time.

  ‘What two?’ Gilmour asked, perking up suddenly.

  ‘Just two spies Garec and I found along the beach near the point yesterday. Brynne has them tied up somewhere upstairs.’ Sallax tossed the older man a longbow, which Gilmour considered for a moment and then placed gently on the floor at his feet.

  The winds had died somewhat, so Steven and Mark heard the girl coming. ‘Quick, back on the ground,’ Steven ordered as they heard her stop outside their room for a moment.

  ‘Right,’ Mark agreed, adding, ‘remember what Sallax said about that knife.’ When Brynne entered the room, she stopped and stared for a moment at the two strangers she had left tied to the support beam all night. A look of disgust passed over her face, as though she could not believe she was capable of such an act, but as quickly as it came, the look was gone. Brynne pursed her lips, drew her knife and moved towards the prisoners. As she reached to slash through the leather straps holding them against the wall, she gave a startled cry. With surprising speed Mark grabbed her wrist and squeezed with all his strength. He didn’t intend breaking her bones, and as soon as her knife dropped to the floor he relaxed his grip.

  Brynne tried to scream for help, but Steven clamped a hand firmly over her mouth and nose while Mark retrieved the blade. ‘Come with us,’ he ordered, speaking Ronan. ‘You’re our ticket out of here.’

  ‘I still don’t see them,’ Sallax shouted to Garec, who was busily unpacking swords, longbows and arrows from crates hauled up from the cistern. ‘The sun’s almost fully up. Why are they waiting?’ The Twinmoon winds had abated somewhat from their previous fury, though the trees still rocked and bent in the breezes that accompanied a perfect lunar alignment. Sallax frantically searched the forest for any sign of a coming attack, but it would be impossible to spot the occupation forces until they broke clear of the tree line and started across the palace grounds. He kicked angrily at a charred piece of ancient wood.

  Across the room, the old man tapped the ashes from his pipe and refilled its bowl from a leather pouch.

  Garec pulled himself out of the cistern and reached back down to take a small box of arrows from Versen. He saw Gilmour stand up and walk towards him, the old man’s eyes fixed on the grand staircase.

  ‘Well, good morning, my friends. I have been waiting for you for some time.’ Gilmour’s tone was one of pleasant surprise.

  Garec looked puzzled. ‘Gilmour, what are you talking about?’ The young Ronan followed Gilmour’s gaze, then shouted into the cistern, ‘Versen, Mika, get up here now!’ He grabbed a rosewood longbow, nocked an arrow and trained it up the broad staircase.

  Startled by the sudden commotion, Sallax also turned on his heel. ‘Rutting bastards!’ he shouted, drawing his rapier and starting for the stairs. ‘I swear this time I will kill you both!’

  Gilmour broke in calmly, ‘It’s all right, my friends. Come down.’ No one paid the elderly man any attention.

  ‘Not another step,’ Mark shouted, stopping Sallax several stairs above the dining hall floor, ‘or I will cut her head off by the time you reach me.’ Mark had Sallax’s hunting knife held fast against Brynne’s throat.

  ‘Take him, Garec,’ Sallax ordered, ‘take the shot. You can make it.’ Versen, armed with a longbow too, hauled himself out of the cistern.

  Steven huddled behind Mark, who was using Brynne’s body as a living shield. Although she struggled, Mark held one arm around her shoulders and one hand at her neck. With each attempt to break free, the young woman pulled the knife’s blade across her own throat; tiny rivulets of blood were running into the bodice of her dress. She cried out, more in fear and surprise than in pain.

  ‘Put the bows down,’ Mark called, and to encourage them to act quickly, he placed the point of the knife against Brynne’s throat and pushed gently until the tip pierced her skin. The insignificant stab wound was enough: Versen and Garec both dropped their bows to the floor with a noisy clatter.

  ‘What are you doing?’ Gilmour asked his friends. ‘They aren’t spies.’

  ‘What did you say?’ Sallax half turned to face him. ‘Gilmour, what do you mean?’

  He had no chance to respond as a small barrel filled to the brim with burning pitch crashed through the stained-glass window, showering shards of multi-coloured glass across the grey stone floor like myriad refractions from a damaged prism. Acrid black smoke began filling the dining hall almost immediately. Garec, seeing Malakasian soldiers through the gaping hole, retrieved his bow, nocked the arrow he had dropped beside it and fired out towards the soldiers as they retreated across the courtyard to rejoin their platoon. A cry of pain and astonishment confirmed that his arrow had found its mark.

  ‘Back upstairs, now,’ Mark said urgently to Brynne and Steven. He pulled at Brynne’s elbow, dragging her back to the upper levels of the palace.

  ‘Try not to breathe the smoke,’ Sallax called. ‘Quick, arm you
rselves and get to the windows. Mika, find something to cover this barrel.’ Water would not extinguish the burning tar; their only hope was to mitigate the effects of the smoke. His heart sank as a second barrel crashed through a smaller window at the opposite end of the hall.

  He shouted to Garec, ‘Try to hold them here. If the smoke gets too thick, take up positions along the second-floor landing, and at those windows. There’s a lot of room to retreat through this palace, but we don’t want to get cornered.’

  ‘Right.’ Garec hefted two large quivers and slung them over his shoulder.

  Sallax grabbed a battle-axe from the cistern’s edge and dashed up the stairs after the fleeing prisoners. ‘I’ll be right back.’

  ‘Leave them, Sallax. They can’t get out either,’ Versen called, trying to stop him, but Sallax was already taking the steps three at a time to the upper-level apartments.

  Steven rushed along the hallway until he found an intact door. ‘In here,’ he called to Mark, who dragged the struggling Brynne along and shoved her roughly into the room. He helped Steven to hurriedly set the locking beam and seal the chamber.

  Mark slid the knife into his belt and turned towards Brynne. ‘Listen, I don’t want you to think—’ He was cut off as the young woman slugged him hard across the face, knocking him back into the door. Mark’s knees buckled beneath him and he sat heavily on the stone floor.

  ‘You cut my neck, you horsecock!’ she screamed down at him, raising her fists for another attack.

  Steven moved between them and grabbed Brynne. ‘Listen, we have bigger problems than that right now. Who are those soldiers? Are they Malakasians?’

  ‘Yes,’ she answered, glaring at him. ‘Somehow they must have discovered where we’ve been hiding weapons for the Resistance. I don’t know how – maybe you two do.’ She crossed the chamber floor to the window and looked down into the courtyard where a number of soldiers had taken cover behind the battlements, waiting for the burning pitch to finish its job of choking or blinding the partisan group.