The Sword of Retribution

Fort Battleaxe - Part 6

     An hour later, they gathered in the main gateroom of Battleaxe Tower. Shaun and Matthew were dressed in fresh uniforms, straight out of the stores, while the others were dressed in their travelling clothes again and wearing the same backpacks they'd taken to Tas Lannea. Thomas and Lirenna had both written letters to their families, just on the off chance that it might be possible to deliver them sometime, and had handed them in to the desk Sergeant. Thomas had already gotten one letter off to his family in Tatria before the siege closed in, but no reply had come, and now it seemed unlikely that one ever would.

     Lirenna had also gotten a letter off to her family in the hidden kingdom of Haven, but had no way of knowing if it had gotten through, since the courier who alone knew the way to the hidden kingdom might well have been taken by the enemy along the way, in which case he would have killed himself rather than risk revealing the valley’s secret entrance. Still, the writing of letters was important psychologically, since they could tell themselves that there was a chance, however small, that their families knew they were still alive and well.

     This source of comfort was not available to Diana and her brothers, though, who had no way of knowing where their family was, or even whether they were still alive. Lirenna caught Diana watching her wistfully as she handed her letter in, and took the cleric aside for a bit of girl talk and comfort while Thomas and Jerry tried to cheer up the two soldiers. Jerry, on the other hand, had long since gotten used to the idea of being alone in the world, having lost his whole family in the goblin wars when he’d still been a baby, and seeing the pain of separation and uncertainty being suffered by the others, he wasn't able to decide whether that made him fortunate or unfortunate.

     The two women returned when an acolyte of the Samnian priesthood arrived to take charge of them. He was a few years older than the child who'd taken them to Resalintas and seemed to be further along in his studies and training. He was dressed as a priest of Samnos, except that the robes over his chainmail were white instead of red and his helmet had no spikes along its crest. These things denoted that he hadn't yet been accepted by the God of War as one of his own, although it was a widely known fact that very few of the young boys taken in for training by fully ordained priests were ever turned away as being unsuitable. The signs were there for the seeing from earliest childhood, and some of the eldest and most experienced priests even claimed to be able to pick them from the cradle.

     “Are you the people going to the Underworld?” he asked.

     “That’s right,” replied Shaun, staring at him curiously. Physically, the acolyte was smaller than most humans and lightly built, but even at his young age there was a hardness about him, a springy wiriness in his scrawny limbs, that made the woodsman decide that he wouldn't like to find himself on his wrong side.

     “Good. Follow me.”

     He led them through the tower’s entrance and out into the street, where they went down one of the city’s radial streets. Barricades were being erected across it, constructed of street benches and furniture brought out of nearby houses and tied together with ropes, and the acolyte had to show his pass to the soldiers manning them before they would let him through. They must be expecting to fight in the streets, thought Shaun in shock. They must be expecting the enemy to break through the walls, to reach the very base of the tower itself. He felt very relieved that they were leaving, and that brought on a new wave of guilt as he thought of all the new friends he'd made on the walls, friends he would probably never be seeing again.

     “Where are we going?” asked Matthew.

     “Before you can go anywhere, you’ve got to get out of the city,” replied the acolyte. “I don’t think the Shads’ll let you leave on foot.”