Kiram was shuddering and clammy when he reached the street. Sunlight felt like a blessing as it touched his face. Far out across the city he spotted crows flying and thought he even heard their voices. Then he realized that the Grunito chapel bells had stopped ringing. Nestor's wedding was underway.
And the perfection of Donamillo's plan took his breath away. During the wedding Javier and every other Hellion in the chapel would be unarmed.
Kiram sprinted for the Grunito house.
Chapter Twenty four
Bar the gates!" Kiram didn't wait for the two footmen to respond.
He threw himself against the heavy wrought iron. The hinges groaned and squealed as if they hadn't been moved in decades.
"Soldiers are riding against the Grunito house!" Kiram shouted. "Help me get these gates closed, damn it!"
A young Cadeleonian footman opened his mouth to question Kiram but then, catching Kiram's expression, he and his companion simply threw their weight against the gates, slamming them closed. It took all three of them to lift the thick crossbars into place and lock them down. Even as heavy as they were Kiram knew the bars wouldn't hold for long, not against two dozen mounted soldiers.
"They're armed so don't try to fight them," Kiram told the two footmen. "But don't open the gates for them either. Make them break them down. We need all the time we can get."
Both the footmen blanched-their eyes were wide and scared now. One of them nodded to Kiram. He left it at that.
His lungs burned and his body was drenched with sweat, but he still raced as fast as he could for the house. Inside he caught a Haldiim servant whom he'd seen directing the household staff.
The woman looked alarmed by the sight of Kiram and even more worried when Kiram grabbed her arm.
"There are mounted soldiers coming to assault the wedding party," Kiram gasped at her.
"I beg your pardon, young Master Kir-Zaki?"
"Soldiers are riding here to attack the wedding party, damn it!" Kiram dragged in a deep breath of air. He didn't have time for this, but he couldn't do it all on his own either. "Someone needs to warn them in the chapel. The Hellions' horses need to be saddled and they'll need weapons. We have fifteen minutes, maybe less."
For an instant the woman looked as if she hadn't understood a single word Kiram had said. Then her eyes locked on his and realization dawned in her expression.
"How many soldiers?" Her face had gone gray but her voice remained calm.
"At least two dozen of the royal bishop's men. They've poisoned their blades and they're riding warhorses. They'll have the gate down in no time."
"Then we will need to be quick," the woman replied. Kiram nodded. His legs already ached and his head still pounded.
The woman called out orders to other members of the staff and suddenly the hall echoed with of shouts of acknowledgment and alarm. Men and women in the Grunito house colors raced to fulfill a flurry of orders: warning the wedding party, readying horses and securing the house for an assault. Wedding garlands were dropped. Trays of tiny cakes and Kir-Zaki sweets were abandoned to the dogs.
"You'd better be right about this," the Haldiim woman warned Kiram and there was something about her tone that made Kiram think briefly of his mother.
"I wish I weren't, but I am right," Kiram responded. "I'll gather the Hellions' saddlebags and their weapons. Can you send a few footmen up to help me?"
She nodded and Kiram bolted up the stairs. He tore through the Hellions' rooms, hurling their half-packed saddlebags to footmen and gathering the best weapons he could lay his hands on.
From his own trunk he only took the few supplies he could shove in his pockets. His bow, quiver and knives were far more important at the moment. He quickly strung his bow and slipped it and his quiver over his shoulders. Then he swept up Javier's saddlebags and sword and sprinted back down the stairs.
He ran for the chapel. He was halfway across the green lawn when a metallic scream wrenched the air. Men shouted threats and obscenities as the clang of hooves pounding down the Grunito gate rang out. Kiram saw terror in the faces of the servants as they ran for the shelter of the main house.
Ahead of him the chapel doors flew open. Elezar and Javier rushed out, both unarmed but standing at the doors as if they could defend the chapel with just the ferocity of their glares. The delicate beauty of their silk clothes struck Kiram as pitiful protection after seeing the heavy leather armor and long swords of the bishop's men.
"Go now!" Javier shouted back into the chapel.
Cadeleonian men and women in silks and jewels burst from the chapel. Kiram wove between them, catching glimpses of familiar faces and briefly meeting the terrified glances of strangers. Lady Grunito carried one of her young sons in her arms and Lord Grunito swept up another of the boys when he tripped. Kiram thought he saw Nestor and Riossa running side by side as he dodged through the chaos of fleeing wedding guests. He lurched out of the way of two beefy choirboys and sped through a gaggle of women in velvet gowns. At last he broke clear of the panicked crowd and reached Javier. He tossed him his sword.
"Well done, Underclassman Kiram." Javier gave him the briefest smile; then his attention returned to the grounds ahead of him.
"Take this." Kiram handed one of Majdi's long fighting knives over to Elezar. "Your long sword is with your horse. They should-"
Timoteo and several footmen sprinted past them, their arms loaded with gold chalices and jewel-studded books. They raced down across the lawn towards the house. Then Atreau and Morisio appeared at the doors.
"Everyone's out," Morisio told Javier. His face looked clammy with sweat and Atreau was pallid as a corpse.
Javier glanced to Kiram. "You were saying something about horses?"
"They should be saddled and ready by now," Kiram informed him. "I had weapons sent to the stables as well."
"Thank God for you, Kiram," Atreau whispered. And even Elezar gave him a nod of acknowledgment.
"There are other soldiers-" Kiram began to explain but Javier cut him off.
"Tell me on the way to the stable."
Then all five of them bolted for the stables. Kiram shouted what he had overheard of the captain's plans as they ran.
"So if we can get past these two dozen soldiers we'll still be trapped between the twelve mounted soldiers at the High Street and pikemen at the city gate." Javier shook his head. "This is a hell of a day to have a hangover."
Atreau simply moaned in response. Morisio gave a strained laugh.
In the stables Kiram found that Verano had been saddled for him to ride and that Nestor had saddled a roan gelding for himself. He looked oddly contradictory tightening a girth while dressed in a resplendent red brocade coat and dusted with gold powder.
"What do you think you're doing?" Elezar demanded of Nestor.
"Fighting beside my fellow Hellions," Nestor responded.
"You should be with your wife-" The rest of Elezar's argument was drowned out by the loud sounds of Atreau vomiting into a feed pail.
"You need all the help you can get," Nestor said. "And you don't have time to argue."
"He's right. The more of us there are the better our chances of taking the city gates." Javier swung up onto Lunaluz's back. He frowned down at Atreau. "Can you do this?"
"Certainly." Atreau shoved his black hair back from his face. Just looking at them Kiram felt sure they wouldn't last in a fight, certainly not against rested professional soldiers. Atreau looked dead already-his skin even more pale than Javier's. And then an idea came to Kiram.
"Javier, you and Atreau should change coats. And Atreau you should ride Morisio's gray stallion."
"What?" Atreau asked.
"Why?" Elezar demanded at the same moment.
Realization lit Nestor's face. "Brilliant! Atreau and Javier look enough alike that they could be mistaken for each other at a glance."