In Dreams: Red

The Tunnels Part Two

The men are discussing the first area we should attack from. The discussion immediately hushes when I enter.

“Don't mind me, let's hear what you've decided so far.” I motion at them.

“Well since we know that they will be storming the gates, it's logical to think they will try to spread out around the walls as much as possible to do the most amount of damage, particularly since Ives says he's pretty sure they've brought catapults.” Septimio says softly. I cradle my head in my hands. This couldn't possibly get any worse.

“It looks like they're headed for the hill on the east side of the castle.” Ives reports. Nope, I'm wrong, could definitely get worse.

“What is their plan there?” I ask. I know it could possibly give them a slight height advantage, but they would need powerful machines to manage to get anything over the walls. And getting those machines up the hills would be almost impossible, not to mention the scattering of trees made things a little difficult. But the worst thing about their position there was...

“It looks like they may have been informed about the tunnel opening there.” Ives responds. I suck in a breath. This is not good.

“So we do have a spy?” I whisper.

“Perhaps.” Reggie murmurs. “But we have to also take into consideration prisoners and torture. Maybe even someone who defected.” But I'm already on my feet.

“The prisoner...” I growl, intent on heading to the surface to end his miserable existence myself. Reginald catches my arm and when I look at him immediately snatches back his arm.

“My Lady, but how? He's not gotten any messages out that we're aware of, and he knows nothing of the tunnels. As far as we know, no one is familiar with him, and there have been enough looky-loos to by now surely have an identification if someone knew him..” Reggie offers placatingly. At least he's thinking more clearly than I.

“I think our Lady has it in for our prisoner friend.” Corwin jokes and I toss a stone at him, pegging him on the temple. He yelps. Thema pats Ives on the arm and then her hands spin into a blur.

“I say we start at the hill entrance. If we don't clear it, we may have soldiers on us at any time. We'll have to wait until it's fully dark to sneak out, but I think we can manage it.” Ives translates for Thema. “I actually agree with her.” Ives reports.

“I do too.” I speak up, and look around me. There are various nods of agreement.

“Aye.” Agrees Kornel.

“Then let's go.” I say resolutely and the other men stand, Ives taking the lead, and we quickly make our way through a twisting and winding path of tunnels as silently as wraiths.

My whole body itches waiting for the sign from Ives that it's dark enough for us to sneak out of the tunnel. He and Thema moved stealthily out of the tunnel exit, leaving us hiding in the dark. They ended up killing one soldier already loitering nearby. We got the impression that they weren't sure where the entrance was and were fanning out looking for it. Ives dragged the body back into the tunnels for the moment so it wouldn't be noticed, and in the dark, it was hard to ignore the smell. Blood, unwashed male, loosened bladder and bowels, dirt, mold, fungus. I try to distract myself by counting my blades.

“My Lady! If you don't mind! I know it's a nervous habit of yours, but in the dark, I can hear every movement!” Corwin sighs.

“Would you rather she checks their number by stabbing them in your torso?” Hisses Tyrus. Chuckles surround us in the dark, and then the sound of a bird's trill sounds twice. It's the signal.

“Ready?” I ask everyone and hear nervous shuffles and replies to the affirmative. We slip out of the tunnel entrance and spread out, sliding from shadow to shadow, tree to tree on the lookout for soldiers. I come across the first one within thirty paces. He doesn't see me coming, he's sadly chosen this moment to take a nap, seated against a tree. Blessedly for him, he'll never wake up, my silver blade across his throat assures that. It was a peaceful death. The next soldier must have been his partner, this worries me, if they were in pairs, where was the pair of the one Ives killed? He comes upon me from behind and luckily I'm already crouched down. I lower my front half to the ground, causing his forward momentum to carry him on over my body, with a little help from me, of course. He curses, but I'm on him in seconds, blade sinking into his throat, cutting off the shout he's building. I look around me quickly but see no other soldiers. I slip into the shadows again and dart to the next tree.

How long this goes on, I don't know, but eventually my arm is too heavy to lift and I slip back towards the tunnel entrance. I run into Corwin there, who is staying close-by to try to prevent any enemy entrance.

“Lady, if I wasn't intimately familiar with your figure, you might have been dead by now for not announcing yourself.” Corwin murmured, sneaking up on me.

“And if I wasn't unfortunately familiar with the sound of your loud, beastial breathing, I'm sure I would have felt the need.” I elbowed Corwin in the ribs and he coughed quietly as we entered the tunnel entrance.

“Is my Lady saying I breathe loudly?” Corwin wheezes.

“No, your Lady is saying you pant like a dog.” I respond and a chuckle in the dark lets me know someone else is there. My statement, however, has my brain elsewhere, namely, the prisoner.

“Ives?” I ask softly.

“Aye. Needed a breather myself. No pun intended.” Ives spoke from the dark. I groan softly as I slide down the wall to sit.

“How many others have come by?” I murmur.

“Almost everyone.” Corwin replies. “Except Horace.” I curse.

“Is it likely he's injured or.. dead?” I question.

“No, just likely he's not ready for a rest yet.” Ives laughs softly. I feel my muscles relax almost imperceptibly.

“Good.” I sigh.

A brief rest later and we're slipping back out into the dark, on the lookout for more enemy soldiers. I sneak up on a small group of four, discussing the fact that some of their compatriots have disappeared. I consider my options and purposefully break a branch to distract them, betting on the fact that only one soldier would separate off to investigate. I move to the side as quietly as I can as I listen to them argue about whether they had heard something or not. They sound afraid. This could be a good or bad thing for me. Fear makes soldiers incompetent, but that can also backfire on me and make me vulnerable to a poorly aimed attack. Finally, they send one soldier to investigate. Hopefully this works in my favor. He steps into the trees in the direction of the broken branch and pauses, eyes straining in the dark, trying to see me, but I'm crouched by the trunk of a tree in its shadow. He's not looking down, only at eye-level. Stupid. I resist shaking my head.

“Anything?” One of his compatriots calls. The soldier turns back towards his fellow soldiers.

“No, must have been an animal.” I wait until he is finished speaking and rush up behind him, slicing his throat. It's a stretch for me, because he's much taller than I, and he gurgles as he falls to the ground. I curse under my breath.

“Pollux?” One calls to his fellow. I quickly duck into the shadows of the trees to my left, easing into a crouch as the next soldier takes a few steps in our direction. It won't be long and they'll see Pollux's dead body. I curse in my head. This wasn't how I intended to take the small group down. “Pollux?” The soldier calls out again. I slip to my left a little further, searching along the ground for a stone, limb, anything. If I can lead him off in another direction before he sees his fallen compatriot, then he hopefully won't be able to raise an alarm before I can get to him. I find a heavy stone and heft it, tossing it over my shoulder, but too late, the soldier has seen his brother in arms on the ground, only now he's looking in fear in the direction of the thrown stone behind me. But he hasn't given a shout. I can work with this. The soldier doesn't see me yet, but if I move, he may notice me. How can I entice him in this direction quickly, and prevent him from shouting out to the others? I move as slowly as I dare, reaching for one of the blades in a pocket at my ribs meant for throwing. If I can reach them, I can take him down from here, surely. He takes a hesitant step back and looks down at the fallen soldier, then he crouches to shake him and see if he's alive. That was a mistake. I race across the few feet of space that separate us and drive my blade into the base of his skull with both hands, and ride his body to the ground to be sure the blade has completely severed the cord, ensuring his death. Two left.

I consider just charging them, but our whole purpose here is to remain quiet and kill off as many as we can without drawing attention, so I crouch and lean against the base of a tree and wait. The other two soldiers will notice their friends aren't coming back soon enough. Eventually I hear them discussing what's taking their two friends so long and one grumbles that maybe they'd found a forest nymph. I bare my teeth. If they only knew the kind of forest nymph that awaited them.

“I think we should go check.” One says to the other.

“Then go, nobody's stopping you.” The other replies.

“No, we. Just in case.” The first answers. The second grumbles, and it sounds like they're going to be coming this direction together. I grit my teeth and start circling them. Time to play my little game again. I snap a branch a few feet away from the dead bodies. One of the men curses and calls out the names of the two soldiers, yelling for them to stop playing around. I move a few more feet quietly and snap another branch. This time, I'm certain the hotheaded one will come towards me, and he curses again, and rewards me for my patience by taking a few steps in my direction.

“Wait.” Says the more reasonable one. “I really don't think we should split up. And I don't think we should follow that noise.” The soldier sounds nervous. I wonder if I should play up the fear and drive a further rift between the two. The angry one curses again, but listens to his compatriot. I curse under my breath and pull one of the throwing knives from my pocket. I dislike using this method, it is far less reliable. More suitable as a party trick. The scared one is more likely to scream for help, while the angry one is likely to scream from rage. Neither are suitable first targets in present company. This would be so much better if I could separate them. Or sneak up behind them. But I need to act quickly, because they're still talking about searching for the other two that were with them, and they're not splitting up. I move a few more feet and think this is as far I'm going to make it before these two discover their friends. So I sneak out of the cover of the trees and just run as swiftly as I can at the scared one. Unfortunately, the angry one sees me and swings a broadsword at me. I duck it, but not before it glances off my shoulder. I hiss as a wound opens up there. I pray the blade isn't poisoned and change my trajectory to attack the angry one first. I get within his arm reach swiftly, too close for him to swing the blade. He's too tall for me to go for his throat, so I stab at his gut, making him double over, and when he does, I strike for his throat, then turn for the scared one, who is nowhere to be found.

“Damn.” I curse. He must have fled. I hold a hand to my shoulder trying to staunch the bleeding and head back towards the tunnel entrance. I'll need someone's help to stitch this up.