Rick Shelley - Son of the Hero

"Right." I grinned back at him.

I used the stable door for the second passage. There wasn't much choice, but this door wasn't much wider or higher than the cottage's front door. Even Parthet could have spanned it without difficulty. Lining two doors and opening the passages took less than twenty minutes. Not bad, I thought.

When the men started coming through from Arrowroot and Coriander, I had new responsibilities. The biggest "command" I had ever held was captain of a tug-of-war team in high school. And all that meant was that I got to hold down the tail end of the rope and get dragged across the line last when we lost. We always lost. But now, I had the entire army of Varay to command, and the stakes were enormous, more than just getting dragged through the mud. I would have help, but everyone would look to me for a battle plan and for any tactical decisions. After all, I was the hotshot Hero, whether I was qualified for anything or not. Barons Resler and Dieth came through with their men. I expected Dieth to be helpful, but I wasn't sure about Resler. Annick didn't think he was worth much. And Parthet came through with the last of the men from Arrowroot. So did Baron Kardeen, with another score of Basiliers. And I had Harkane, Lesh, and even Timon with me again.

Kardeen set up a headquarters for us in the orchard close to the cottage. He had a large-scale map of the area right around Castle Thyme, both sides of the border, showing considerable topological detail. Kardeen took care of administrative details too, finding out just how many men we had-mounted and on foot, archers, lancers, that sort of thing. He was damn efficient. In thirty minutes he had messengers running and we were getting organized. I told him that we needed to find out where the Dorthini army was and how many men were coming. He got word to Baron Dieth and scouts were out in five minutes.

"How do you do it?" I asked Kardeen.

"Experience. I've been making sure that things get done for twenty-five years."

"You should be running this show instead of me."

He shook his head quickly. "I'm an administrator, not a general. But you tell me what you want and I'll find a way, or find the people who can find the way. If there is one."

I nodded. "Right now, a lot depends on how far off the Etevar's army is. If we've got time, it would be nice to get inside Castle Thyme before his main force arrives." I shrugged. "We probably won't have that kind of time, but just in case we do get the chance, it would help to know the layout inside the castle."

"Give me ten minutes and I'll have the floor plan." Kardeen laughed. "That's an easy one. Try something harder."

"Okay, how about a simple way to get inside?"

"That's military. I'll have to find you someone who knows the castle for that."

There was a commotion at the edge of the orchard, and I went to see what that was about while Kardeen went to find someone who knew Castle Thyme. One of our patrols had surprised a Dorthini patrol and taken a couple of prisoners. No one had escaped to carry the news of our presence back to Castle Thyme or to the approaching Dorthini army.

Our scouts didn't get back until midafternoon, and by then I was ready to start swinging in the trees I was so nervous. The early reports that the Dorthinis would reach us somewhat after noon hadn't been borne out, but I still thought that our scouts should have had time to find the enemy and get back… if any of them were going to get back. When the scouts did return, they brought both good news and bad news. The bad news was that the Etevar had four thousand soldiers. The good news was that they wouldn't reach Castle Thyme until the next morning. They were moving slower than expected and the only logical place for them to bivouac for the night would leave them with three hours' marching to reach the castle.

I went looking for Parthet and found him just returning from Arrowroot.

"Let's put together a think tank," I told him. "I want to find a way to get inside Castle Thyme before the Etevar gets here."

Parthet nodded, and we gathered the three barons, Sir Hambert, and two soldiers who had once been garrisoned at Thyme. My people were all there too, but only Parthet took part in the conference.

"I want to take Castle Thyme before the Dorthini army arrives, and I don't want the Etevar to know that we've done it," I started. "We get part of our force inside the castle and put the rest around it as if we have it under siege. The army outside retreats from the approaching Dorthinis tomorrow. Once the Etevar's army moves past the castle, we move the men inside out against the rear of the Dorthini army, put the Etevar in the middle." Turn the ambush idea back against him.

Everybody claimed to like the idea even though it didn't alter the fact that we would still be outnumbered by about three to one when the main Dorthini army arrived. A practical way to get inside Castle Thyme was harder to find. I was counting on Parthet, but his reaction to most of my suggestions was "I've got to be able to see what I'm doing to do it," and we had to make our move against the castle during the night.

"Other than you climbs the wall," one of the soldiers who knew the castle well said, "they's jest two ways in, the main gate and the postern. The gate's gotta drawer-bridge and por'cullis. Postern's jest a thick door. When they's fixin' to use that, they shoves a plank acrost the ditch or jest climbs down through it."

"The postern, it's a wood door?" I asked.

"Aye, wood a foot thick wi' a wood bar and leg-sized metal hinges."

I turned to Parthet. "If we get you close after dark, you think you could conjure us something to get us through that postern fast? Something like an explosion or a cutting torch?"

"Gots to be real fast," the soldier said. "That door's hard by the guards' room. They hears anythin' faster'n the Great Earth Mother can scratch her grabber."

"No light at all?" Parthet asked.

"We can't afford much," I told him. "No more than my flashlight, with some kind of shield over it."

He took a long time thinking. He shoved his glasses up on his nose. His eyes moved around as though he were studying the rims. "A flash fire," he muttered. "Once it starts, I've got light." His voice trailed off, but his lips kept moving. After a couple of minutes of that, he looked at me and nodded. "It may be possible."

"What then?" Kardeen asked.

"We probably won't be able to get a lot of men up to the postern in advance-too much chance of discovery-but once Parthet forces the door and we get inside, we'll need reinforcements in a hurry. Any idea how large the garrison is?"

"No, but we have a couple of prisoners who might be persuaded to talk," Kardeen said. I thought about splinters under the fingernails, hot branding irons, that kind of thing. I doubt that I would have objected to them, which bothers me now that I've got time to brood on it.

"I'm sure we can persuade them to chat," Parthet said before I could put in any comment. "I've got a jim-dandy truth spell that'll get all the answers we need."

There were thirty-two men left inside the castle. The patrol we had intercepted would be missed when they didn't return by sunset. Their orders were to get back before then, and orders weren't disobeyed lightly in the Dorthini army. The garrison had been drawn from the Etevar's personal guard, the men he had trusted to waylay and kill the Hero of Varay. My father. There were always three sentries on duty on the battlements, relieved every two hours during the night. The rest of the garrison was quartered in the keep, and there was always a sentry on duty there during the night as well. He would hear any commotion when the postern blew.

We spent the rest of the afternoon getting ready for the night's foray and the morrow's battle. I picked a dozen hard types to go with Lesh and me in the first "team" that night. Dieth furnished the men to wait in position to reinforce us as soon as the postern was open. We went over the plans of the castle that Kardeen provided. The layout was simple, straightforward, utilitarian. The keep was a small inner circle tangent to the larger outer circle of the curtain wall. A tiny courtyard. A dry ditch around the castle. We put together several ladders to speed our way into and out of the ditch.