Blood of the Red

Chapter 43 - Ingold

Chapter 43 – Ingold

Ingold waited at the base of wall tower six. The wall loomed to either side of the structure was all that stood between him and a precipitous fall off the Rock. Bag Street ran straight and level before him, leading into the slums of the Outer City. At the far end a hot orange dot bobbed, growing closer.

Gartus!

Ingold began to run. They met close to the middle of Bag Street, in front of the Xyorn Inn.

"What in the hells are you doing?" Ingold shouted. He flashed a brief, bright smile at Dain, then focused his scowl on Gartus.

"You said to meet you at the tower!" Gartus said. He shifted Dain from his right arm to his left.

"I wasn't serious you idiot," Ingold said. He fell in beside Gartus. At the far end of Bag Street soldiers began to spill into the road. It looked as though the whole army had left the barracks.

"Ah," Gartus said. "How did you make it then?"

"I'm not sure." Ingold frowned and ran in silence for a moment. "I had a guardian angel. People kept dying around me. A friendly archer maybe? But I couldn't see any arrows."

They pulled up before the door at the base of the wall tower.

"We can't escape from here. There's no way down!" Ingold said, gesticulating in exasperation.

Gartus pushed the heavy door in. "Why did you say to meet here then?"

Ingold follow in, stepping over the splintered remains of the door. "I made it up on the spur of the moment to get you moving. I didn't expect to actually escape."

"There's a lesson in there somewhere." Gartus met a guardsman on the spiral stair and tossed him over his shoulder.

Ingold followed Gartus up a short ladder from the top of the stairs, through a trapdoor and onto the roof of the tower. "Alright, so I should give more thought to throw-away lines before heroic suicidal gestures." He glanced around at the city crowding the Rock to one side, and the open air to the other. "What in the name of fifteen fucking friars are we doing on top of this stupid tower? Why did you bring Dain here, you big, stupid..." He looked out over the low wall onto the dizzying fall over the side of the Rock. It reminded him of the fall from the priest's tower back in Thelim. They'd tossed him out not knowing that he'd stolen the circle-key. This fall was similar, but much, much further. In the distance below them pinpoints of light twinkled, torches held by men waiting for the hoist.

"You're forgetting something, Ingold," Gartus rumbled.

Ingold lurched back from the wall, turning away. He could see the soldiers on Bag Street, a black swarm of them, punctuated by the occasional glimmer of lantern beam or starlight on a sword blade.

Ingold glanced at Dain, "Sorry. Fifteen 'frolicking' friars."

"Not that." Gartus fanned his wings, bathing the tower top in orange light, "These."

Ingold took a step back in surprise. "You can fly?"

The fastest of their pursuers had gained the tower. The sound of booted feet, pounding on stairs drew rapidly closer.

Gartus waggled a broad hand from side to side. "Fly might be too grand a word for it. I can fall with style. There's no flapping involved."

"Of course not, that would be undignified." Ingold nodded absently and moved to defend the stairs, drawing his stolen sword.

"We found a way to the top of the Cloister," Gartus said. "I jumped and we glided over the Inner City wall, out into the market square."

"It was great," Dain put in.

"Uh huh." Ingold nodded. His 'guardian angel' story to explain his own escape had sounded weak, but the idea of Gartus flying...

The first soldier to appear around the turn of the spiral stair looked to be about fifteen. The antique pike in his hands probably had two generations on him. The look on his face as a glowing orange paw closed around the back of Ingold's neck and pulled him over the wall was comical. Ingold didn't have time to appreciate it.

Ingold fell quite some way before he remembered to start screaming. A stray thought rolled across his terror. I did the same thing falling off Thelim Keep ... only this fall is going to be much more fatal.

Gartus's wings gave a 'whumph!' as they caught the air. With a sickening lurch the giant bore Ingold aloft. The wind stole Dain's delighted yells. Ingold could do little but hang in Gartus's grip and watch the lights of Parsus City recede.

The broad sail of Gartus's wings rode the air currents. They lost height through a series of smooth turns. The seemingly gentle descent ended abruptly when the ground leapt at them over the last thirty feet, greeting them with unexpected speed. Ingold bounced over the frozen earth and came to rest amid a stand of thorny bushes.

"Well you were right about the falling part." Ingold spat out a twig, "And wrong about the style part." His fingers found a long thorn embedded just below his right buttock and worked it free.

Gartus stood, shaking off branches and dirt. He set Dain carefully on his feet. The glow coming from him patterned their surroundings with shifting shadows. Ingold took his bearings from the Dog Star and the Arrow Star. Sparsely wooded scrub stretched around them, rising to true forest to the west.

"They're not going to have any trouble finding us," Ingold said. "Unless a certain glow-worm can turn off his light?"

"Oh." Gartus frowned and gritted his razored teeth in concentration. The sudden darkness took Ingold by surprise and left him temporarily blind.

"Alright," Ingold blinked, waiting for his sight to return. "We should press on for a few miles. Get some more distance between us and the Rock. In the morning we'll get to the Little 'Racks."

"And then?" Gartus asked out of the night.

"And then you can take Dain back to your caves, and not lose him this time!" Ingold's words came out sharper than he intended.

"Jumping off the Rock wasn't suicidal enough for you? You're going back after Handelf?" Gartus asked.

Ingold couldn't answer. I hear her screaming Gartus. I see her corpse, twisted and black. How can I not go back? He strode off quickly, stumbling on the thorn bushes and cursing.

+++++++++++++++

Yes. It was a Toy Story reference.

**ALSO**  Red Sister came out in the US today! New story, new world. The phrase "his best book yet" has been repeated a few times. Give it a try!