“Here-she can rest here,” he explained. Halloran pushed past him and laid his wife on the mattress. Her chest rose and fell slowly from the movement of her breathing, but this was the only way he knew that she lived.
Her face had a dreadful pallor, and her eyes-those impossibly beautiful eyes, so deep and rich and dark-remained closed.
He wondered if he would ever see those eyes again.
The door to the shed opened, and a wash of yellow lamplight illuminated the dreary cell. Cordell blinked, waking quickly, and saw Rodolfo enter, followed by several brawny swordsmen. The time was some numberless hour past midnight
“Hey! No one’s allowed in here after dark!” objected one of the guards, climbing sleepily to his feet and standing in the navigator’s path.
The guard said nothing further as the metal gauntlet of one of Rodolfo’s companions crunched firmly into his jaw. The man collapsed while his two companions stumbled backward, stammering in surprise. The other intruders pressed the tips of their swords to the throats of the remaining two guards, effectively convincing them of the merits of silence.
“Don Vaez is sending most of the fleet back to Amn with
the gold,” the navigator hissed. “We’ve got to an now. He’s given orders to sail with this evenings tide.”
“The repulsive dog!” Cordell hissed quietly. “I made an agreement with him. I told him where the gold was buried, in exchange for his promise to send the cleric to lend my man.”
Rodolfo looked at the pallid, groaning warrior and knew immediately that Don Vaez hadn’t kept his side of the bargain.
“Quick-the keys!” Cordell said, pointing to one of the guards. Rodolfo’s brawny companion pressed his sword slightly, and the guard gulped, quickly withdrawing a clinking ring of keys.
“It’s th-this one,” he stammered, identifying the proper key.
In the next instant, Rodolfo threw open the door, and Cordell and his men stumbled from the cell. They stood together in the barn, blinking in the bright lamplight.
“Tie them up. Gag them, too,” ordered Cordell.
“Beg the gen’ral’s pardon,” said one of the guards, slowly backing away from the sword at his throat. Cordell saw that the man looked vaguely familiar.
“Name’s Millston, sir. I served with you against Akbet Khrul and his pirates. I’d like to come with.. that is… I’m on your side, sir. I’ve heard about the giant and the trolls and them others. Sir, the only way we have a chance is if you’re in charge. That prissy courtier’ll get us all killed.”
Cordell studied the man and then made his decision. If he was to be successful, he needed a lot of Don Vaez’s men to come to the same conclusion as Millston.
“Glad to have you,” he said, nodding to Rodolfo’s accomplice. “Give him back his sword.”
The conspirators extinguished the lamp. They brought the feverish Katl from the cell and made him as comfortable as possible on a bed of straw. The other two guards, bound and gagged, were locked in the cell for good measure.
Cautiously they opened the door to the barn. The headquarters house stood across the compound, and men were moving about everywhere. A series of bright lanterns illuminated the top of the rampart to the south, on the side facing the grassy savannah.
Cordell realized that Don Vaez had organized a work crew that now labored to excavate the gold hidden in the rampart wall. The fort was being destroyed, just when its greatest threat marched toward them in the shape of Zaltec and his monstrous army!
“What’s that?” Urgency hissed through Grimes’s voice as the officer whirled, raising his sword. “Chical!” he added with relief.
Cordell saw the Eagle Knight advance from the shadows beside the shed. He clapped his friend on the arm, his throat tightening with emotion.
“I came to set you free, but 1 see others have done the task before me.”
“I’m glad you came,” replied Cordell quietly.
“I bring news,” whispered the Maztican, quickly explaining about his meeting with Halloran and the plan they had formed. At the same time, they heard a commotion arise among the men on the work crew. From their vantage point, they looked over the field toward Ulatos and clamored in excitement and alarm.
“That must be them!” said the knight.
“Let’s go!” cried Cordell, leading his small party at a trot toward the high walls of the fortress. “Follow me!” he shouted to the rows of tents sheltering Don Vaez’s men. The workers and guards turned in surprise to see Cordell climb the sloping earthen surface of the wall, turning to face the courtyard.
“Listen to me, men of the Sword Coast’ 1 warn you of a great danger. A monstrous force approaches, one that will require all your valor to face.” The captain-general’s voice rang throughout the fortress. The men of Don Vaez gathered below, listening carefully.
“We can face it, but we need allies. I ask you now-look into the field before you.”
The men on the wall top, working to excavate the gold, had already seen the savannah. Now they shared their knowledge with their companions in the fort below.
“An army camped on the field!”
“I see a thousand campfires, all come to life at once!”
“There are twenty thousand men there!”
What they actually saw were the campfires, some six hundred in number, made by the desert dwarves, the Little People, and the Itza warriors out on the savannah. But the dark night made exaggeration easy. In a few moments, the overly observant lookouts had spotted a hundred thousand men, with elephants and chariots and huge catapults, all gathered before the fortress of Helmsport.
“Seize him! Stop him!” Don Vaez’s command urged his men toward the charismatic captain-general. Panic made the man’s voice shrill.
Beside the silver-haired adventurer, Cordell saw the cringing figure of Kardann in the lamplight. It figured, he thought, that the assessor would be on hand when the effort to dig up the gold was made. Now, in the midst of the confusion, Kardann groaned in fear. He took a long look at Cordell and then spun wildly, racing down the outer slope of the rampart to disappear into the darkness of the savannah.
Good riddance thought Cordell with dark satisfaction. It would suit him if he never saw the little maggot again
One man decided to take action in the face of chaos. Pryat Devane leaped onto his flying carpet, darting into the air. He began to mouth the words to a potent clerical spell, a casting that could have masked Cordell from all who tried to see and hear him.
But another form lurked in the sky. As the cleric raised his hand, his carpet soaring toward the captain-general, a great eagle swooped toward him from above. The priest screamed as talons ripped across his face, and his carpet twisted beneath him.
The eagle dove away but the cleric had already lost control. As his carpet careened toward the rampart where Cordell stood, the pryat desperately struggled to maintain his balance. He could not.
With a terrified cry, the priest slipped from his carpet and fell heavily to the ground, perhaps twenty feet below He
groaned and thrashed his arms, one of his legs twisted unnaturally beneath him.
“Men of the Sword Coast, hear me! These are my allies camped on the field beyond the fort!” cried Cordell, his voice pounding through the vast courtyard. “Join with me, with us, and we will stand against the foe and claim the victory and the treasure that we all deserve!”
The men working at the excavation scowled at Don Vaez, then looked again at the many fires twinkling across the field. They looked, to the imaginative watchers, like a sky full of stars,
Immediately several of the workers grabbed their erstwhile captain and dragged him forward. Don Vaez protested loudly, until one of the men cuffed him soundly.
“Cordell!” A shout rose from the men among the tents.
”Hail, Cordell!” It was echoed by the workers on the rampart above.
In the meantime, the captain-general descended from the rampart and crossed to the injured cleric. The groaning Pryat Devane struggled to straighten his leg out so that he could cast a spell of healing upon it.