The Eighth Warden Bk. 05 Ch. 21-22

Back home--if it could be called that--Nedley washed up and changed into nicer clothing. Corec and Boktar had asked him to meet them at the tavern that evening, and he couldn't go smelling like he'd been sparring all day. Thankfully, the village's southernmost communal well had finally been repaired, giving him a shorter walk to get water.

When he arrived at the tavern, he paused in the doorway, finding a larger crowd than he'd expected--not just Corec and Boktar, but also Katrin, Treya, Bobo, and Ariadne.

"Come on in, Ned," Boktar said, then waved to Katrin's brother behind the counter. Barz brought over another ale.

"What's going on?" Nedley asked, taking a seat.

Corec grinned. "It's come to our attention that you turned eighteen while you were in Four Roads. We didn't want to miss your birthday again."

"Tonight is... for me?"

"Sure is, so drink up!"

"I'll buy a round for that!" called out Ezra from his regular spot in the back corner of the tavern. The shopkeeper had appropriated the table as a place to do business while he waited for the builders to start work on his new store. He was keeping his trade goods locked up in one of the old warehouses, and once or twice a day, he'd head out there to fulfill any orders he'd received.

A few of the other patrons cheered at Ezra's offer. He looked flustered for a moment, apparently not having intended to include the whole tavern, but then he just gave a shrug.

"I'm sorry we couldn't get everyone here tonight," Corec said to Nedley. "We didn't want to keep putting it off." Ellerie, Leena, and Shavala were all away in Terevas, and Sarette had taken the new armsmen on a long-range patrol to get an idea of their capabilities.

Boktar lifted a blanket-wrapped bundle from where it had been hidden below the table. "Ellerie asked me to give you this," he told Nedley.

Nedley unfolded the blanket to find a gleaming silversteel breastplate and backplate, in the same style as his current armor.

Corec chuckled. "Did you think we wouldn't notice you were bursting at the seams? It's just the cuirass for now--there should be enough room for you to grow into it. We figured we'd wait to see how much taller you're going to get before we replace the vambraces and greaves."

"But how did she...?" Nedley asked.

It was Boktar who replied. "We had most of what she needed already, and she brought back some more of that pure silver from Terevas. Corec helped her figure out the right size."

"I'm afraid we'll have to take back the old armor," Corec said. "We can't afford to just give away a full suit of silversteel. But I told you we'd do something if you outgrew it, so I wanted to make good on that promise."

"Thank you!" Nedley said. He'd worried he would have to give up his plate armor when it no longer fit, but it seemed his friends had anticipated the problem.

They had to pause their conversation then as other patrons in the tavern, some of whom had traveled south in Nedley's caravan, came over to offer their congratulations.

#

Corec waved his hand in front of Nedley's face. "You still with us, Ned?" he asked. The young man was glassy-eyed, having had a bit too much to drink.

"Wh - what? I'm awake!"

Boktar chuckled. "It's probably about time we break things up."

The party had gone on until late, giving everyone a rest from the work they'd been doing. It had felt like back in their traveling days, when they would stay in village inns night after night, spending their time in the common rooms.

Most of the customers who'd been in the tavern at the beginning of the party were gone, but others had arrived to take their place, including some Corec didn't recognize. Two tables were full of men he'd never seen before. While the newcomers had eyed the festivities with some annoyance, they'd kept to themselves. Corec figured tomorrow would be soon enough to welcome them to the village.

Bobo was snoring, slumped down on the table with his head resting on his arms. Treya tried shaking his shoulder, but he didn't wake.

She shrugged. "We might have to leave him here," she said. Bobo had lost weight during their travels, but he was still a hefty man.

Corec nodded. "I'll walk Nedley back to his place," he said, then tugged on the young man's sleeve. "Come on."

"Where are we going?" Nedley asked. It seemed he hadn't been paying attention to the conversation.

"You need to sleep off the drink."

"Oh." Nedley thought about that for a moment. "Yes."

Corec picked up Nedley's new armor and headed for the door. As he went by the nearest table of strangers, he got a closer look at them. They had a hard-edged appearance that seemed out of place, and two were wearing sword scabbards on their belts. The others had knives or walking cudgels close at hand.

Fighters, then, all of them. The other table looked to be the same. Were they just taking advantage of the newly opened roads, or had they come looking for work?

Ellerie had brought back enough gold that the group could afford to hire more soldiers, but Corec didn't like having this many unfamiliar armed men within the fortress walls.

He paused to talk to them. "Gentlemen," he started, and then chaos broke out.

The nearest man grabbed a cudgel from the table, standing up to swing at Corec's head. Light rippled as Corec's shield spell deflected the attack. He bashed the man with the cuirass he was carrying just as another fellow tried to stab him with a dagger. The shield barrier flared again.

After that, the whole room devolved into a brawl.

Corec threw the cuirass at the second attacker and drew his long knife--the only weapon he had with him--while his other combat spells snapped into place.

He slashed at the man, but then the flare of a different shield spell caught his attention. Someone had tried to attack Katrin, triggering the ring she'd taken from Tir Yadar.

Corec didn't know the ring's limits, so he rushed Katrin's attacker, barreling into him and knocking him to the ground, then stabbing him in the gut and leaving him to bleed out.

Another attacker approached but Boktar broke a chair over the man's back, then pummeled him with the remaining pieces.

Corec pushed himself to his feet just as two more men came at him. He took down the first, picking him up by the shirt and throwing him to the ground, then stomping the heel of his boot onto the man's neck.

The second assailant slashed at him with a sword, but Corec's armor spell prevented the blade from penetrating. Then Barz was suddenly there, stepping in front of Katrin with the heavy cudgel he kept behind the bar. He slammed it into the fellow's face, crushing his nose and dropping him to the floor.

"Get under the table!" Corec shouted at Katrin. In the commotion, she didn't hear him. She was yelling at the attackers to stop, but if she was using bardic magic, it wasn't having any effect.

The battle had formed into two rough lines facing off against each other, but then Treya suddenly leapt onto a table and dove over Corec's head, landing in a somersault behind the attackers. She sprung to her feet in a smooth motion and jammed her glowing palm up against a man's jaw. He collapsed and she turned to find another opponent.

With a flicker, Ariadne joined her behind the enemy line. The Chosar woman had no weapons or armor, but she summoned a spinning shield of flame out of nothing, touching it against a man who'd backed Ezra against the wall. The shield dissipated on contact but her target shrieked in agony, burning to death in an instant. Before any of his companions could strike back at her, she disappeared from view. A moment later, another flaming shield appeared at the far end of the line, indicating her new position.

More strangers came through the door as the fight progressed, and the formations divided back into separate battles. A new, gaunt-faced man carrying a sword grinned when he saw Corec standing alone with just a knife. Before he could close the distance, though, Nedley appeared out of nowhere and dove at Corec's legs, knocking him to the floor.

"What the hell, Ned? Get off me!" Corec pushed the young man away and stood up.

Nedley had stood too, and was now keeping himself between the two of them, his arms out to his sides.

"Get out of my way, Ned!" the attacker exclaimed.

"Stop it, Bert!" Nedley shouted. "What are you doing?"

The door swung open again and Razai strode through, holding a man up off the ground by his throat. She bashed his head against the doorjamb and dropped him to the ground, then drew one of her knives and slashed open the nearest attacker's throat.

"Treya, red-eyes!" she yelled.

Treya spun out of the way of a dagger, then opened her mouth to shout. Only a clear bell tone came out. A flash of white light washed over the room and the remaining attackers collapsed where they stood. Taking a deep breath, she thrust her arms out to the sides and did it again. The flash of light was brighter this time, and the bell sound echoed outside the building to the fortress walls and back again.

It took a moment for everyone to realize the fight was over.

"There are more outside," Treya said. "They're down, too."

"I'll go get the men and some rope," Boktar said. A rivulet of blood ran down his cheek, but he didn't seem badly injured. "Can you keep them asleep until we have them tied up?"

Treya nodded.

"Barz!" Katrin shouted, scrambling over to her brother. He'd collapsed down onto one of the chairs, holding his hand against his stomach. Blood was seeping through his fingers.

Ana, who'd been peeking out from the stairwell, repeated Katrin's cry. The heavily pregnant woman made her way over more slowly, almost slipping on a puddle of blood, but Ezra caught her arm and helped her.

Treya held her hands to Barz's head and stomach, healing him. "You should be good now," she said, stepping back.

Katrin hugged her brother tightly, then moved out of the way so Ana could take her place.

With time to think, Corec looked around the room. Ezra wasn't the only villager still there. The others all appeared stunned by the sudden violence.

"Is anyone else hurt?" Corec asked. They slowly shook their heads.

Seeing their response, Treya relaxed. "I'm sorry," she said to Corec. "Something felt wrong, but I thought it was just the ale. I didn't realize what they were."

"I should have been watching closer, too," Corec said. "I thought they were looking for work."

Ariadne grabbed one of the fallen men's swords and took position to guard them.

That seemed like a good idea. Corec stepped outside the tavern and activated the binding spell linking him to his own sword. The blade burst out of his bedroom window on the second floor of the keep, knocking the wooden shutters to the ground. The hilt thumped into his palm a moment later.

He went back in and found Razai. "You came back," he said. She'd left for Deece a week earlier.

"Someone has to make sure you don't get everyone killed," the demonborn woman said with a scowl. "You're too trusting. You thought they'd attack during the day, in uniform, didn't you?"

"No," he said. "If they're really red-eyes, they've always tried to take us by surprise."

Razai didn't appear to believe him, and she wasn't entirely wrong--if the men had been wearing their normal black brigandine, it would have been easier to recognize them for what they were. And she'd warned him that the new compelled troops didn't have red eyes.

Making peace with Razai would take more time than Corec had at the moment, so he turned his attention to Nedley. The young man was biting his lip in worry, standing over one of the unconscious attackers.

"What did you think you were doing, Ned?" Corec asked. "You're not so drunk you couldn't recognize me."

"I didn't want you to kill Bertram," Nedley said.

"That's your brother?"

Nedley nodded.

Corec sighed. That would make things more complicated.

Boktar returned then, accompanied by Ral and Sargo. All three were carrying coils of rope.

"The gate guards are dead," the dwarven man said.

Corec clenched his fists. "Who?" he asked.

"Ludlo and Graeme. We found them hidden behind the gatehouse. Two of the mercenaries had taken their place--to keep people from getting suspicious, I would guess."

Ludlo had been part of Corec's ballista crew during the dragon fight. Graeme was a hillfolk mercenary who'd been helping the men with their sword work.

Why couldn't Rusol have just left them alone? It had been a year and a half since the last attack, and Corec had never tried to harm the man.

He looked around the room again. None of the villagers had left yet, all still watching him intently. They would need reassurance, as would everyone else once the news got out. And Corec would have to figure out what to do with the prisoners.

It was going to be a long night, and a longer day.

Bobo looked up blearily from the table where he'd passed out. "What happened?"