Atop the first hill, he lay flat and scanned the area. The castle was built upon a tall hill, and surrounding it on all sides were tents with the yellow rose waving from their banners. From what he could tell, only a limited amount of siege works had been built. It seemed Sebastian was confident of starving Arthur out…or that their commander was hesitant to sacrifice so many lives on such an assault.
“Soldiers, tents, and more soldiers,” Jerico muttered as he scratched his chin. “Of course things couldn’t be easy. That’d be crazy.”
The only time he’d been at the castle before was with Kaide, and they’d not entered through the main gates. Instead, they’d traveled through a tunnel built into the network of caves beneath the castle. Jerico wondered if he might use that same tunnel to bypass the army. He had only a vague idea where the entrance was, but he believed it to be outside the siege lines. Desperately praying he didn’t go from being one man’s prisoner to another’s, he hurried down the hill and farther away from the path.
Finding the entrance turned out to be easier than expected. Where it had once been carefully concealed, now he found the entire ground worked over, with dirt caved in and then covered with heavy rocks. Jerico stood before it and frowned. It seemed Sebastian’s men had discovered the tunnel, and when they couldn’t gain entrance to the castle that way, they sealed it over. Jerico thought of the traps he’d been shown, including the narrow bridge across the chasm he and Kaide had crossed. Kaide insisted it had been rigged to collapse. He wondered how many had fallen to their deaths before they gave up and just sealed it.
Jerico glanced about, and saw another worked entrance a hundred yards to his south. Kaide had said there were about twenty tunnels dug throughout the area. Was it possible Sebastian had found them all? More importantly, could he expect to find one that all the soldiers had missed?
“Oh no,” he muttered. “It just couldn’t be easy, could it?”
An idea came to him, and he sighed. It might work, but it could just as easily get him killed. But really, what else did he have to lose? At least if he died, Sandra might be spared. He’d tried not to think of her often, or of what continuing his fight might mean. Usually, he failed.
Jerico spent much of the day resting in the far hills, having moved away from the siege lines. He searched a bit for more berries, but sadly found none. He did find a stream, and drank until his stomach hurt. Crawling along, the day finally reached its end, and night came. Jerico returned to the hill overlooking the siege. He could see the faint outlines of men marching along the walls carrying torches, looking like miniscule lightning bugs. Still, tiny as they might be, he could see them. And that meant, just maybe…
He stood, took his shield in hand, and lifted it high. The front lit up, and as he prayed, it shone a strong blue-white. And then he waited to see who noticed him first. The eyes of the enemy should have been on the castle, while Arthur’s men looked out. All it would take would be one of them to realize what it was, and just one tunnel still intact.
A lot of ‘if’s. A lot of luck. Jerico tried not to think about that either.
“Come on,” he muttered, watching the men patrol the walls. “Come on, come on, see the big blue dot? Not a bug, not a fire, now turn and look!”
He held it for ten more minutes, then decided it was enough. If they hadn’t noticed his shield yet, then they might never. Holding it aloft any longer just increased the odds of the wrong party spotting him. Sitting down, he waited. And waited.
When someone tapped him on the shoulder, he nearly screamed.
“Jerico?” asked the man, caked with dirt. His hair was cut short, and his clothes were ragged.
“Damn it, man, can’t you make some noise when you walk?” Jerico asked.
The man looked about, clearly worried. If he noticed Jerico’s embarrassment, he didn’t show it.
“Follow me,” he said. “I saw a rider this way, and we have little time. Now hurry!”
The paladin thought he’d been far enough from the castle that no cave entrance might be beyond him, but he was wrong. His guide beckoned him to follow, and together they put their backs to Sebastian’s army and ran. There seemed to be nothing but hills and tall grass, but it was dark, and Jerico knew firsthand how well Arthur’s men could hide both themselves and the cave entrances. The man introduced himself as Jerek Wallace, talking in hurried, hush tones as they traveled.
“I fought alongside you at the Green Gulch,” he said, his furtive eyes always checking behind them. “Not with the bandit’s men, though. Arthur’s. It was our line you helped at the end, before the call to withdraw. Never forgot that shield of yours. A man swung at you with his sword, and it hit that light…” He slapped his hands together, then winced at the sound. “Sword shattered like it was made of glass. When Degan saw that blue light out here in the hills, I just knew it was you. Had to be.”
“Flattered,” Jerico said, and he was, though he also felt uncomfortable. All that adulation…did Jerek forget they actually lost that fight? “How far is the tunnel?”
“Not far,” Jerek said, guiding him through a minor valley between two hills. They all looked the same to him, and the castle was growing disturbingly far away. It certainly explained why no one had located the entrance like the others. His guide glanced back, then swore.
“Get down,” he said, grabbing Jerico’s shoulder. The two fell to their bellies. Jerico shifted about so he could look. Two men on horses rode perpendicular to their path, torches held aloft. They looked like strange phantoms, just black shapes outlined by fire.
“Can they track us?” Jerico asked.
“Depends on how good they are,” Jerek whispered. “It’s dark, but you’re not too light on your feet.”
“It’s the armor.”
“If you say so.”
Jerico’s hand drifted to the hilt of his mace for reassurance.
“Don’t worry too much if we’re spotted,” he said. “Two against me? They’d need a lot more men.”
“Like that many?” Jerek asked, pointing. Seven more riders joined with them, and they crisscrossed the spaces between the hills.
“Yeah, that’d do it.”
“Looks like Sebastian’s men remember you as well as I do,” Jerek said, getting to his feet. He kept his back hunched and his body low. “We stay here, they’ll find us eventually. Follow me, and for the love of the gods, don’t put so much weight on your heels when you step.”
“You an elven scoutmaster now?” Jerico grumbled, doing his best to stay low and follow the man. Jerek tapped the slender bow slung over his shoulder.
“Best hunter Arthur’s ever known. Said so himself. Now hurry!”
They rushed on, and this time Jerico joined Jerek in taking worried glances backward. But true to his word, they were not far, though Jerico could hardly believe it when they arrived.
“Here we go,” Jerek said, stopping at a strange circle of yellow mayflowers.
“Where’s the tunnel?”
Jerek gave him an amused grin.
“Right here,” he said, standing in the flowers’ center. “ By Karak’s bearded ghost! ”
The man dropped right through the ground and vanished. Jerico blinked and lifted an eyebrow.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” he said. He stepped into the flowers and stomped a few times. No give. Nothing loose. Sighing, he shook his head and repeated the words, foolish as they were.
“By Karak’s bearded ghost?”
He went from standing on grass to air, and he dropped with a surprised yelp. Dirt passed over his eyes, and then he was in pure darkness. His feet hit ground, and the landing jarred his knees. He started to fall, then his body halted as it struck stone. A thousand curses ran through his mind, and he wanted to yell all of them.