* * * * *
For ten minutes nothing happened as Bryn looked through his spyglass to where the rope hung down from the city wall. It was a dark night but the moon was half-full and the lights from the city spread outward from the wall,allowing him to see a little.
“They’ve been captured too,” Jal said from where they crouched down behind some boulders on top of the ridge overlooking the city.
“Give it time,” Rodden said.
Then through the glass Bryn saw Trey and Flint stand up as if they’d heard something, and he saw the rope move.
“Something’s happening!” Bryn said excitedly.
As Bryn watched, Flint grabbed the rope around his waist with both hands and planted his feet firmly in the ground. A few seconds later Jurin came over the top of the wall, pausing for a moment to look back down the other side before starting to climb down toward Flint, dropping the last few feet to the ground. Trey helped him up, and it was obvious to Bryn as he looked on that Jurin was injured. He held his right side and wasn’t moving very fast. Then suddenly Halam came up from behind the wall and came down the other side. He sprang to his feet after dropping and immediately went to Jurin, putting the man’s arm around his shoulders and helping him toward the road. Willem was over immediately after and also went to Jurin’s aid. A few more tense moments passed while he waited for Pader and Wen to appear. It looked like Trey called something up to the top of the wall, and then a moment later Wen was visible. He swung over the wall and dropped down to the ground, motioning and talking quickly to both Trey and Flint. Trey began running to catch up with Halam, Willem, and Jurin while Flint started to untie the rope from around his waist as Wen pulled it over the wall.
“They don’t have Pader,” Rodden said when it became clear that Wen was pulling the rope back over the wall.
As Bryn looked on Wen tensed. The rope was caught on something, or someone. He gave it a few more yanks, but it wouldn’t budge. All of a sudden a different man appeared at the top of the wall, the rope in his hands. He stood up on the wall and pulled a loaded crossbow from behind his back, took aim, and fired. The quarrel dug itself into Flint’s chest and he collapsed to the ground. Wen had already begun to take the bow from behind his back at the sight of the man and just as Flint hit the ground an arrow embedded itself into the man’s chest, quickly followed by another. He toppled backward off of the wall and into the city. Wen crouched down to examine Flint, but just as quickly stood back up. He began pulling on the rope once again, this time bringing it up and over the wall. After coiling it into a circle around his arm he ran across the ground toward the road.
“Someone else came over the wall and shot Flint!” Bryn said. “I think he’s dead.” Bryn suddenly felt a little queasy.
“No!” Conn shouted, snatching the glass from Bryn’s hands to have a look. It wasn’t easy to see in the darkness, but Conn saw enough to convince him that Bryn spoke truly, and he handed the glass back wordlessly, a look of shock on his face.
“Let’s get moving toward the road,” Rodden said. “We need to meet the rest of them.”
They got up and began running. Trey was there to meet them and Halam, Willem, and Jurin weren’t far behind.
“What happened?” Rodden said to Halam when they got close.
“We had to fight our way into the building,” Halam replied between deep breaths. He was breathing heavily and sweating as he and Willem helped prop up Jurin.
“We managed to free Pader and Jurin,” Willem said, “but in the fight to get back outside, Pader was killed.”
“How many men are after you?” Jal asked.
“There were more men in the building, but we blocked the door before we went after Jurin and Pader. It kept them off of us long enough and Wen shot some, but I’m sure they’re out by now,” Willem said. “I don’t know how many he might have killed so can’t be sure how many are still after us.”
“One came over the wall behind Wen and shot Flint,” Bryn said.
The four men looked at him for a moment and then Trey spoke.
“Is he dead?”
“Aye,” was all Bryn said, looking down at his feet.
Before anything else could be said Wen came running up.
“Let’s move as fast as we can,” he said. “More are behind us on foot, and it won’t take long for horsemen to come as well.”
They raced down the road as fast as they could. Jurin even managed a slow jog, his eagerness to get away from their pursuers overriding any pain he was feeling from his multiple bruises. Bryn could see the faint outline of some trees ahead and Wen steered them off of the road before they reached them. They headed south for a while over rocky ground, the mountain walls getting closer and closer with each step. It was incredibly difficult to see in the darkness, even with the moon high above them; Bryn could not imagine how Wen managed to guide them. It was all they could do to stay close together so they could follow the man directly in front of them. Finally they were at a steep mountainside. Wen took the coiled rope from around his shoulder and began to pay it out on the ground. He handed one end to Halam, then tied the other around his waist.
“I’ll have to climb up this wall and anchor this rope at the top. It’s about one hundred feet up,” he said while he took off his boots and handed them to Willem.
“Have you done this before?” Trey asked.
“Many times, but never in the dark,” he said as he walked to the wall and looked up. He climbed up a few feet and then looked back down to the ground, shaking his head. “Too dark,” he said as he climbed back to the ground, “can’t see enough to find good handholds.” He pulled a thick piece of wood from his pack and wound a damp cloth around it. With his curved sword he struck some sparks against the mountain wall and soon had the torch burning. After sheathing his sword he stuck the torch between his teeth and started to climb up the wall once again.
It was slow going while he searched for purchase on the jagged rock, but the torchlight helped and he steadily moved higher up, the rope dangling down to the ground behind him. Soon they were staring at a small circle of light high up above them surrounded by darkness. Several of the men looked from Wen to the trees behind them, not sure which sight made them more nervous. At one point Wen misplaced his foot and slipped, and the men collectively gasped, but he was somehow able to hold on and was quickly climbing once again. Bryn couldn’t say how long it took him to reach the top of the wall and pull himself over onto a narrow ledge, but when he did the rope came down followed by a shout for them to start climbing up.
Halam came up to Bryn. “You’ll go up first, lad. Just put one hand in front of the other and don’t look down.”
Bryn nodded, taking the rope gingerly in his hands. He began to pull himself up, keeping his feet on the rock wall as he did so. Shouts of “Aye, that a boy” and “You can do it” came from below as he progressed steadily up the side of the mountain. It was dark all around him and he couldn’t imagine how Wen managed to climb up this wall unaided, even with the light of the torch. By the time he was halfway up the rope Bryn’s arms ached something fierce and his legs were getting sore from constantly being stretched out in front of him. When he saw Wen’s face emerge from the darkness ten feet above him, he didn’t think that he could make it further, and Wen, as if reading his thoughts, pulled the rope up the rest of the way.
“Don’t worry, I’ve got you,” Wen said as he pulled Bryn up onto the narrow ledge.
The ledge that Bryn found himself on was less than five feet wide. The area was illuminated from the light of the torch that Wen had laid on a rock. Looking up, he saw that the mountain rose up further than he could see in the dark. Looking down all he could see was blackness. The rope quivered and he knew that someone else was climbing up. A few minutes later Rodden appeared out of the blackness and climbed the rest of the way to the ledge.
“My, that is some climb!” he said, shaking the ache out of his arms.
The rope still moved so
Bryn knew that someone else was coming up behind. A few minutes later Conn came up, followed by Jal a few moments after that. The men were not waiting any longer for each to make it to the top before another started up. In quick succession Trey, Iago, and Willem appeared. It was a few more minutes after that that Jurin appeared below the ledge with Halam right on his heels. They moved slowly and every time that Jurin put his right arm further up the rope his face contorted in pain. Halam voiced encouraging words behind him, and the rest of the men grabbed hold of the rope and pulled the others up the rest of the way. Wen went about pulling up the rope and coiling it around his arm while the others helped Jurin to the mountain wall. He collapsed in a heap against the cold stone, sweat beading his brow.
“What exactly happened in the city?” Rodden asked Jurin after he’d managed to catch his breath.
“They caught us almost as soon as we walked through the gates,” Jurin said as he wiped away the sweat from his forehead. “They beat us quite badly in the process then brought us to that warehouse and stuck us on the roof.”
“Did you catch any names?” Wen asked as he stuffed the rope into his pack.
Jurin gave him a hard look. “It was Leisu,” he said, and Wen stopped coiling the rope for a moment and looked up. He nodded, then put his attention back to the rope.
“They didn’t ask you any questions?” Iago asked.
“No, they kept us in a small room when we weren’t on the roof. No attempts were made to interrogate us, which I thought was rather odd,” Jurin said.
“We should get moving,” Wen said. “This spot isn’t known to many, but someone in the city surly knows about it and that means that Zhou will soon as well. We need to put as much ground behind as possible before it gets light.”
Halam and Willem helped Jurin to his feet and tried to support him but he shooed them off. He was adamant that he could walk on his own, but after his first few steps that seemed unlikely. They went to his aid again as he stumbled, but he halted them with a word, and was soon stepping well on his own. Still, Halam stayed close behind him to help if need be.
“We’ve a lot of distance to cover,” Wen said as he grabbed the torch and headed to the front of the column to light the way. “Most of it will be narrow ledges like this that climb higher up into the mountains. At a few spots we’ll need to climb the rope again, but nothing like we just did. I hope you got enough sleep last night, because you won’t be getting any tonight.”
The men lined up behind him and set out into the darkness.