That evening, the party met in the stables, where their goods had been temporarily piled up in two stalls.
“All right,” Jerdren said. “We’ve maps, and we’ve been over what plans we can make up here, but a lot may change once we’re down, as most of you know. My suggestion is that you make certain of your goods now, see that everything’s done up the way you want it, and that you know where things are stowed. Then each of you get an early night, if you can. We’ll want one more check of the local stores tomorrow. No sense in losing your life out there because you lacked a single dagger.”
“Good point,” Eddis said as he glanced her way. “Tomorrow, we’ll meet for a midday meal, and after that I suggest we all rest until sunset. We won’t be moving all night tomorrow night, but we’ll need all the reserves we’ve got to get down the ropes and into the trees before moonrise. Questions?”
There were none. After an extensive opening and retying of parcels, checking of weapons and belts, leather bags of goods, and quivers of arrows, the party dispersed by twos and threes. Finally, only Jerdren and Eddis were left.
“All right?” Eddis asked finally.
Jerdren shrugged. “So far,” he allowed. “Ask me again, once we’re out there.”
5
The next night, at full dark, a party of twenty-four stood on the high east wall of the inner bailey. Thirteen of these wore dark, thick, hooded cloaks and carried packs of various sizes, as well as filled water skins, swords, and other weaponry. All but one wore armor of some kind, and Mead carried a sturdy leather shoulder bag that held his book of spells. Ten men in the dark blue of the Keep, Captain Mebros directing them, worked to secure five lengths of thick rope. The knots were checked twice, then five of the men descended to hold the lengths taut. Mardiak, the castellan’s sorcerer, stood back from the edge, watching the men’s efforts as he cast a spell to detect danger around the base of the cliff. A charm dangling from his right fist had already been used on the ropes and the knots.
Lets us save Mead’s spells for later, Jerdren thought. Chances were, they’d need all the spells the elf had, once they were out there.
The party had been blessed just before sundown by the Keep’s curate—a man as influential and important in his own sphere as the castellan in his. Jerdren, squatting on his heels atop the walls, didn’t feel any different for Xyneg’s blessing but had long since decided it couldn’t hurt anything. Most of the Keep armsmen going with them seemed more relaxed for having been blessed, anyway. His right hand jittered against his leg—not so much nerves, he thought, as eagerness to be on their way. The first of their men were already down, the second group—including Eddis and the elves—was on its way. The last of the Keep guards next, with more rope for the rest of the way down, and then he and the last of their party would finally be on the move.
He reached the narrow ledge without incident a short time later. To either side, he could just make out the shapes of men working to secure rope while others dropped carefully down the ledge. The meadow below was kept clear all the way to the forest, and it had been watched from the walls until well after sundown. According to Mebros, that didn’t leave time for anyone but a horseman at a flat-out run to cover open ground between woods and cliff. If anyone were to be down there, Jerdren told himself, we’d all welcome the fight. That would settle my stomach properly.
He could make out the nearest people in the gloom. Blor had already gone down, but there was Eddis and behind her one of the elves. Willow, he reminded himself. He and Eddis had worked out order of descent and order of travel back in the tavern. Blor and three of the Keep men were their most keen-eyed or sharp-eared men, and Mead went with them, a charm swinging from his neck. Eddis and her two men were among those who’d follow, while he, Willow, and the rest would bring up the rear.
He and Eddis had decided that earlier as well, comparing skills and reflexes as impassively as if neither were actively involved in this, and he grinned, recalling the bemused look on his brother’s face at the time. In blunt fact, Eddis’ eyes were somewhat better than his in the dark, her reactions perhaps a hair faster, and she was younger than he by nearly ten years, which would count both on the ropes and down there in the dark.
Truth is, he told himself gloomily as the first five moved quietly out of sight, you don’t like heights, Jers. Too bad M’Baddah’s idea for leaving the Keep in secret had been such a good one. At least it was too dark for him to see the drop beneath his feet. Yah. You got enough of an eyeful of the drop from up on the walls. He was still willing to wager that Eddis thought he’d been admiring the supposedly extraordinary view from the walls, rather than trying first to work past the fear—and then looking for the quickest and least distressing way down.
Willow tugged at his sleeve, indicated the ledge with a jerk of his head. Jerdren drew on his new, thick gloves, took hold of the rope held out for him, wrapped a heavy length around his forearm in case his gloved hands couldn’t hold his body up, and edged his way over the edge of the cliff, where he could clamp the rough hank between his legs.
Somehow, his hands and legs remembered how to get him down a rope—and it didn’t take nearly as long as he’d thought it might. Everything moved smoothly, even when his feet lost contact with the stone, and he swung loose over a drop for a heart-stopping moment. All at once, he could see dark shapes below him and felt Blor’s familiar grip on his leg. Thumb and forefinger first, to let him know it was his kinsman, before the entire hand grabbed hold to guide him to safety. His boots touched ground a moment later, last of the five in his final group. He freed the rope from numbed calves, stepped back, tugged twice, and felt a responding tug before the knotted length began to slide smoothly upward.
It was very quiet where they stood. They were sheltered from the wind here, or it had died away. Jerdren could hear the slither of rope against stone, and someone high above quietly urged his men to haul the hanks in. Somewhere to the north an owl wailed, the sound rapidly fading as the predator flew away from them. The air brushing the left side of his face felt chill and damp: water that way, and something began a monotonous, soft creaking. Frog or insects, Jerdren thought. Likely where the water was.
The sky directly overhead was a blaze of stars, cut off to the west by the bulk of the Keep and to north and east by tall trees and rising ground. No sign of the moon down here. It wouldn’t rise for at least an hour, and it was still short of half-full. They’d have plenty of darkness to get themselves out of the open and well into the woods for what was left of the night.
It wasn’t actually completely dark where they stood, Jerdren realized. His eyes were finally adjusting. He could make out the difference between pale expanses of grass, darker bushes, and stubby trees. Then he noticed individual faces, with the company so close around him. He stripped off the heavy leather gloves and stowed them as Eddis edged over.
“Mead’s checked already,” she said, “there’s no one and nothing close by.”
“Good. We’ll move out, then, in order,” Jerdren said, as quietly, and stepped aside to let the others go ahead. He’d take up the rear with two of the older Keep soldiers who’d hunted these lands with Lord Macsen himself. Both had excellent ears. Willow took the lead, M’Baddah on his right hand. The rest moved out behind those two.
The company reached the nearest trees without incident. It wasn’t any darker in the woods than it had been on the meadow, and Jerdren’s eyes had adjusted well enough to the gloom that he easily made out Eddis holding up a hand to signal a brief halt while Willow and M’Baddah went ahead a few paces. Mead bent over his charm, caught his breath sharply as the thing glowed a dull red against his hand. That can’t be a good sign, Jerdren thought, and reached for his sword as the mage hissed a warning. With a yell, half a dozen men leaped from the trees into their midst, and more came running from their right flank.