Chapter 25:

Chapter 25: The Knight at the Gate

The Henchman Exchange Program

Frankie

By midnight, the bread had started a rebellion.

I had always respected bread.

The bakers’ carts left first, carrying loaves above tools and folded stretchers. Dren’s men checked them at the lower gate with the indifference of guards who had been watching bread arrive for years.

The guards who would have checked more carefully were on a different road, investigating a wagon that had lost a wheel in an unfortunate place.

The wheelwright expected full payment. I’d promised him double if we were alive to argue about it.

Mara’s messages moved through kitchens, washing rooms, and the little passages important men crossed without looking at the people who kept them clean. Red thread at a window meant the way was open. A closed shutter meant wait. No one carried the whole plan.

I stood beside Aldric in the old mill yard and listened to the town pretending to sleep.

“You have done this before,” he said.

“Moved goods without asking the government? Once or twice.”

“Changed the government?”

“First time without buying it an election.”

He adjusted his shield.

* * *

The culvert smelled worse than the plan deserved.

Hobb went first. He could crouch where the rest of us had to crawl, and he made remarks about the inconvenience of being tall until Brannik threatened to widen the passage with him.

Benny came behind me. Rosella stayed at the church to receive the injured and help hold the sanctuary. She had kissed him before we left, then made him take a second packet of bandages.

He had complained, but he’d taken them.

Mara found the service grate by touch. Brannik removed the bolts quietly. We came up into the old laundry corridor beneath the kitchens.

Warm air carried the smell of soap. A woman waited with a lamp.

Mara knew her name. Of course she did.

The woman pointed us toward the pantry and went back to stirring a pot as though this happened every night.

At the next door, a guard stepped into the passage.

He was young and living, and frightened enough to become dangerous.

I put a finger to my lips.

He looked at my suit, then at Aldric’s sword.

“The governor?”

“Not anymore.”

He swallowed.

“My wife is in the lower town.”

“Then you know why we’re here.”

He lowered the spear.

“Third stair,” he whispered. “It sounds the alarm.”

We stepped over it.

* * *

The alarm sounded anyway.

Above us, a bell began hammering. Orders and running boots followed, then the dry rattle of soldiers who had been excused from breathing.

“Keep moving,” I said.

Mara led Brannik and Liora toward the maintenance chamber. Hobb went with them. Benny stayed where the two passages met, guarding their backs.

Aldric and I went up to the gallery. Six dead men blocked the way, with more gathering behind them. Their armor bore the same crest as the guards I used to command.

I’d put men like these at my doors. Told people they were harmless unless you caused trouble.

Now they were coming for me.

Al raised his shield.

“Left,” I said.

He moved left.

I settled the Thompson into my shoulder and fired a short burst.

White sparks ran through the first skeleton’s ribs. It folded before I could correct my aim. The next lost its jaw and kept coming until a second burst struck the mark beneath its breastbone.

Then it went down too.

“That’s new,” I said.

“Keep your head down.”

Al caught a crossbow bolt on his shield. I fired beneath its edge. The living officer dropped his weapon and went to one knee, holding his shoulder.

The dead behind him came through the smoke.

Al took one side. I took the other.

His sword passed through a raised spear and into the body behind it. The light in the bones went out. I broke the next man’s binding with three rounds and stepped over what remained.

The officer tried to reach his crossbow. I kicked it away.

“Hand on the wound. You might see breakfast.”

He decided breakfast sounded good.

Al glanced at the smoking barrel.

“Effective.”

“You do good work.”

An arrow struck my chest.

It felt like being punched by a horse.

I hit the wall. The arrow fell to the floor, its head flattened against a shimmer that had already faded.

Inside my waistcoat, something clicked and went cold.

One of Brannik’s little plates.

“You are hurt,” Aldric said.

“The suit’s hurt.”

“Frankie.”

“Yeah, me too.”

He hauled me upright and kept me moving.

* * *

At the upper gate, Dren was arguing with his own lieutenant.

The lieutenant had eight men and a royal order, which he kept reading louder, like Dren was deaf instead of refusing.

Dren had five men and families below the walls.

We got there before anybody started counting bodies.

“Stand down,” I said.

The lieutenant pointed his sword at me.

“You have no authority.”

“Yeah. We’re trying something new.”

Aldric stepped into the torchlight.

Two of the lieutenant’s men lowered their weapons. The others hesitated.

He ordered them to attack.

Nobody did.

I gave him time to notice.

He lunged at Dren instead.

Dren struck him across the jaw with the butt of his spear and caught him before he fell down the stairs.

“Tie him,” he said.

The gate opened.

Below, carts began moving toward the church. The first injured came out of the lower streets. Dren’s men waved them through. One took a boy off a cart and carried him down himself.

The lieutenant shouted something from where they’d tied him.

Nobody went back to listen.

* * *

The message from Mara arrived as a kitchen boy sprinting up the stairs.

“The channel chamber. The ceiling.”

I didn’t wait for the rest.

We found Hobb beneath a broken beam with both arms braced above his head.

Stone dust covered his beard. The floor around him had split where the ward machinery tore itself deeper into the foundation.

Brannik was on the far side, one hand trapped beneath a housing plate. Liora crouched beside him, cutting her protective gloves into strips for a bandage.

Mara stood at a wall of silver lines, reading the labels against her map.

“Go,” Hobb said.

I knew that tone. Hated it.

“We ain’t leaving you under another roof.”

His face twisted.

Then Aldric put his shoulder beside him.

“Together,” the paladin said.

The beam rose an inch.

I jammed a broken iron brace beneath it. Benny drove another in with the handle of his knife. Hobb stumbled free, gasping, and immediately tried to help Brannik.

“Careful,” Liora snapped.

We lifted the plate. Brannik pulled his hand free, two fingers pointing the wrong way. Blood filled his palm.

He looked at it once, wrapped it, and turned back to the mechanism.

“Don’t,” Mara said.

“I can still read.”

“Then tell me what to do.”

He opened his mouth to argue, thought better of it, and started giving instructions.

* * *

The first channel went dark.

Somewhere above us, a bell stopped.

Mara traced the next line.

“This one feeds the lower houses.”