“You heard him! Line up!” snapped the Sword Knight, suddenly finding his voice.
“Yeah! Line up!” shouted the boy.
Jaymes reached over his shoulder and drew Giantsmiter. With the blade extended, he started away at a sprint, heading for the ruins that spoke of the elemental king’s passage.
He hadn’t gone halfway when he was startled by a familiar voice and out of the corner of his eye he spied a small figure, waving to him from beneath one of the city’s ubiquitous sewer grates.
“Jaymes-hey, Lord Marshal! Yoo-hoo!”
The voice, quite unmistakably, belonged to Moptop Bristlebrow, professional guide and pathfinder extraordinaire.
“What are you doing down there?” he demanded.
“Looking for you!” cried the kender. “And you won’t believe what I just heard…”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Jaymes, with Moptop in tow, accosted a Captain of Swords who stood with a small band of men at a barricade on the Duke’s Avenue. “I need to find the duchess!” the lord marshal announced. “Where is she?”
“She was commanding the left flank,” the knight offered. “I saw her come down from the tower before the giant stormed through. The garrison has a strong point at the Black Tiger Inn-the big stone house, there-and I think that’s where she went.”
Nodding his thanks, Jaymes took off at a sprint, skirting the plaza-still crawling with ogres-and heading through a narrow alley. The kender, unusually somber, trotted along, keeping up. They reached the Black Tiger a moment later and were both quickly passed through the gate into a large courtyard.
They halted to make way for a company of archers, all of them young men, scrambling up a ladder to take positions on the roof. A messenger came racing in the same door the swordsman and the kender had entered, shouting a plea toward the stables. “Ogres are flanking the Duke’s Avenue-a dozen or more, heading through the Silver District!” he called.
Four knights quickly mounted their horses and put spurs to the steeds, racing across the courtyard as a pair of men swung open the main gate. The riders clattered into the street, and the barrier was swung shut before they reached the first corner.
“The duchess has to be in there,” Moptop said, pointing toward the inn’s main hall, a large stone building on the other side of the courtyard.
Men in armor were coming and going through the open door to that hall, and the pair crossed over to it quickly. Jaymes entered the building and squinted as his eyes adjusted to the semidarkness. Moptop followed, sticking close by his side.
The duchess was speaking to some of her captains at a table. Lord Harbor was pacing nervously behind her. Brianna’s face was ashen, and she had a scrape on her cheek, but she was poised, her words commanding. He could see at a glance that her presence had a calming effect on the agitated men-at-arms who had gathered around the table.
“My Lord Marshal,” she said, looking up at his approach. “I’m glad to see you; we all feared you perished when the giant crossed the plaza.”
“Many did,” he said. “I was fortunate.”
“But what can we do now?” she asked, a hint of despair in her voice. “The elemental has destroyed blocks of buildings and roams unchecked through the city. At the same time, ogres and goblins are spilling through the gatehouse. I’m afraid…”
Her voice trailed off, but he could see the fear in her eyes. Her city and her people were doomed.
“The situation is bad, but we may have some options,” Jaymes declared, striding to the table. The knight captains made room for him at the side of the duchess and even allowed Moptop to push his way into the midst of armored men. “It’s true, we can’t fight the elemental. I don’t know what on Krynn could fight that thing. But we might be able to stop it another way. We might be able to affect those who are controlling it.”
“Tell me!” she said, her eyes suddenly bright. “What have you learned?”
Moptop spoke up, looking surprisingly subdued as he addressed the duchess and her captains. “Well, Ankhar has that creepy witch-doctor with him, and also a Thorn Knight-you know, one of the Gray Robes. They are all moving around together and making all the decisions about this army, and this monster-Ankhar called it ‘the king.’ ”
“The king? Of what?” one of the knights spoke up.
“I’m not sure,” Jaymes replied. “But I think it springs from far underneath the ground. It embodies many of the fundamental elements, and seems to be a kind of king of elementals.”
“A king? How can we fight a king of elementals?” Brianna asked.
“These three leaders of the enemy army are the controllers of the elemental. They are the key. They are moving about recklessly and are not themselves very well protected. They have a small bodyguard, according to the kender, and have remained well to the rear of the front line. But if we could get close enough to them…” Jaymes said. “I propose we try to strike them down. Their deaths cannot help but throw the enemy army into disarray, and I believe it may disrupt their control over the monster.”
“Assassinate them!” exclaimed Lord Harbor, frowning. “It is dishonorable!”
Jaymes quickly glared the man into silence.
“How could you get to them?” asked Brianna.
“The same way I found them-underground!” Moptop retorted.
“How do you know this?” demanded Lord Harbor. “And why should we trust the word of a kender?”
“ I trust him,” Brianna said sternly. Her tone softened as she looked at Moptop, her smile briefly flickering. “Still, I, too, would like to know how you came by this information, little one, and how you think you might be able to find these three behind enemy lines”
“I found them before-through the sewers! I was mapping the sewers-that’s what I do, usually. I’m a pathfinder extraordinaire. The White Wizard calls me that! And I was going along under the city, and I saw the giant go by, and then the ogres, and then came Ankhar and his friends. So I just listened real hard while they were talking. Kind of like a spy. A very brave spy who laughs in the face of danger. Ha!”
“I believe you are a brave spy,” the duchess said. “And I believe you are very good at finding things. I’m impressed with your boldness and would like to try your plan.”
The kender glowed, nodding his head and looking around at the other men in the room, daring them to contradict the duchess. Most of them, unfortunately, were looking at their feet.
The duchess raised her eyes, looking at Jaymes speculatively. “How do you suggest we proceed?”
“First, your forces must stand firm against the enemy army; any success against the giant will mean nothing if Ankhar’s troops are running amok in the city. The inn here is a strong point, and there are others around the periphery of the plaza. The first column of ogres is already heading down the avenue toward the palace, but there’s a good captain rallying some knights. They’ll try to hold them at bay. I just saw a small party of knights ride out to hold a side street. You need to keep up that kind of pressure on the enemy army while we try something to take away their chief threat-this elemental king.”
Jaymes turned back to the kender. “I want you to lead a small party through those sewers. We might be able to take Ankhar and his entourage by surprise if we can come up out of the ground, behind his lines, without warning. I’ll strike down the Thorn Knight first, he’s a magic-user and needs to be dealt with. Then let’s go after the half-giant and the witch-doctor, they’ll be trickier. It’s likely we will be able to disrupt their leadership and disperse the attack, and it’s even possible that we can turn back the elemental king.”
“How do you propose to do that-oh, never mind,” Brianna replied, nodding decisively. “I agree. Time is short, and the risk is worth taking.” She turned to one of her officers. “Sir Michael, what’s the latest word on the whereabouts of the elemental?”