Tales of Belrik - Rescued Again: Part 3 - Amongst the Crows

Sword & Saturday Post 3

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Part 3 – Amongst the Crows

Belrik had left his safe house after the sun had set. The streets of Crow’s Port were shrouded in shadows, there was still some light left but it wouldn’t long before the streets were encased in darkness. He wore his leather armor, over dark clothing with a hood and mask covering on his head and face. His coat of moons and stars had been left behind, it would be more of a hindrance tonight than anything else. The hand and a half sword he normally carried over his shoulder was also left behind. The sword was too distinctive, and where he was going the sword would be recognized. With any luck that sword would not be very much use to him tonight. If things didn’t go his way, then he knew the sword would make an appearance. He still carried his assortment of shorter blades

It was a strange thing to be given by a god, even stranger to have been given to him by a god of warriors. As useful as it had been to him, Belrik would still be sad to see it go to the person meant to use it. Kalimor the Sword-God, God of skill at arms and warriors had told Belrik that he was meant to give the sword to Kalimor’s Chosen when he met that person. Until that time the Sword-God had given Belrik full use of the sword and its abilities. He still wasn’t sure of everything the sword could do. The one thing he knew for certain was that if he was attacked then the sword would appear in his hands no matter where he left it. Beyond that it was a beautiful weapon, never in need of sharpening and it was always spotless.

He moved swiftly through the darkening streets. Even then Belrik was nearly silent as he moved. The little noise he did make wouldn’t be heard beyond a couple of paces. The time for absolute silence was in the Citadel itself, getting quickly through the streets was of more importance at the moment.

Belrik was quiet enough that he was able to avoid other people that were out and about no matter their intentions. Patrols of the watch were easy to avoid. They were loud and carried lanterns on poles. It was the other people out and about that he needed to look out for. Many of those folks didn’t have good intentions for anyone they encountered.

Even still it wasn’t difficult to avoid people. He would step into the shadows of a doorway or an alley entrance to await their passing by. Belrik and the shadows were one on this night, he flowed from one to another effortlessly. Even moving through the richer districts of the city closer to his target wasn’t difficult. People saw what they wanted to. People trying to mind their own business saw even less.

Soon he came to the foot of the walls for the King’s Citadel. Here the foundations of the walls were carved from the rock itself. Sometime in the distant past of Avellion some geologic catastrophe had left a column of black rock sticking up from the ground. The roots of that column of rock went deep into the earth here. Time had softened the edges of the exposed column and men had built a fortress there and tunneled into the rock. As happens that fortress had fallen into ruin. It was the ruins of that fortress that the kings of Crow’s Port built their much larger citadel upon.

Built for the honor of the people of Crow’s Port, it was none the less an ugly place as citadels often are. A massive gatehouse protected the sole gate into the city, crenelated walls ran from the gatehouse to a massive keep which sprawled across the top of the hill and entirely forming the rear wall. Belrik knew there were a half dozen sally ports scattered around the outer walls all hidden from the outside world. He also knew there were other entrances underneath the city, but none of those were close enough to where he wanted to go search for information to make using them worth the risk.

The walls here stretched some fifty or sixty feet above him to the top of the battlements. He had chosen this spot as there tended to be no guards here. The sea winds howled across the wall here, and in the winter, men had been known to freeze to death in those damp winds. Consequently, the guard posts were down the wall either side of him where the men had some shelter. With no moon visible tonight, he would have a much easier time getting to the top. He wasn’t too worried about being spotted from the wealthy villas and their guards. Nobody down there would be watching this way for intruders. Few guards if any would even be looking much above eye level. That was just how people were.

He stepped up to the wall and reached up with his hands. His hands found purchase easy enough and he was soon moving up the wall. The surface had spent countless years being scoured by the sea winds but that meant little to Belrik. He opted for silence over speed, so every movement was carefully planned and carried out. It took him about a half hour to reach the battlements at the top of the wall. There he stopped and listened. He listened for the whispers of leather on stone, the slight metallic ping for armor shifting as its wearer moved, to the sound of leather creaking as fingers flexed in gloves. He listened for anything that would indicate the presence of guards waiting for him.

Everything he had learned so far about what had happened to Valestrie could have all been an elaborate ruse designed to bring him to this place? He knew he had many enemies among the wealthy and nobles, but he had more than a few friends among those city folk as well. When he was sure that he had not been detected and there was nobody waiting for him he pulled himself up to the wall top. Slowly he lowered himself to the walkway on the other sided, looking around to locate all the guards.

None of the guards were close enough to cause him worry, but that would change if they heard or saw something out of place. He edged himself over the inside edge of the wall and then cautiously moved down to the courtyard. Here he had to watch for both the guards in the courtyard itself and the guards at the watch stations on the walls and towers. People tended not to look up very much, but they did look down an awful lot.

Belrik crouched in the shadows watching the courtyard and walls to see where the guards were patrolling and watching. People doing boring things like standing watch tended to fall into a routine. The same paths on patrol, stopping at the same places. Once you knew that, it was easier to get past them. The places he wanted to investigate tonight were in the keep itself, the offices of a couple highly placed government officials. They might have some letters or other records that would give him some information he needed. He might even make a detour and visit a couple of people in their bedchambers. That could lead to other complications like an alarm being raised.

Once he had the patterns of the guards memorized, Belrik moved from shadow to shadow making his way towards the keep. The side of the building facing the courtyard was far less militant looking than the others. Instead of arrow slits the wall was dotted with windows, several of them had expansive balconies. It had to be the influence of one of the former queens and her circle of maids, much like the expansive gardens on the other side of the courtyard. Something had changed about the façade of the building, for the moment he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. As often as he was in this building, he didn’t enter or exit through the front doors.

Getting across the courtyard took longer than he had planned. A pair of guards had changed their pattern. Belrik had barely made it to the shadows under a wagon before the two guards had come around a small outbuilding. He made himself as flat as possible breathing slowly through a slightly open mouth to reduce the noise he made breathing. The two guards paused beside the wagon. It looked like they too were trying to avoid notice of their watch commander as the guards huddled in the shadow of the building. They spoke quietly, but Berlik overheard enough of their conversation.

It did seem something was making people in the castle nervous. Extra guards had been roused from their barracks to stand watch, and nobody was happy. It seemed that not even the watch commanders were unclear as to what was happening. No threat had made an appearance, or the alarms would be sounding and the whole place would be swarming with angry guards. No, they had all been told to be on the lookout for anything out of the ordinary, which meant a simple sound could bring about the alarm. Still, standing watch for hours on end was a boring job. Not many of the guards would be all that alert.

The two guards moved on to avoid having an angry watch commander come looking for them. Belrik counted to fifty heartbeats before moving to his next objective. There was a corner where the keep and outer wall were close together which was dark with the shadows he would need to carryout the next part of the plan. He wanted to get a better look at the front of the keep.

Belrik moved to base of the wall then slowly inched himself along the wall until he could see the keep’s front. He studied the keep for several minutes. With an exasperated grunt he realized what had changed. All the vegetation had been removed. None of the plants had been allowed to grow tall, but they had been an excellent means of concealment when moving along there. The windows on the ground floor were built too low to the ground to be much defensive use Belrik knew that had been by design. The rooms beyond were death traps for any attackers, but to a person like Belrik those windows offered an easy means on entering the keep.

He moved back along the base of the wall until he was in the shadow of the keep again. Plans would have to be changed; he would now have to enter through the roof of the keep. That added an extra complication. Due to the length of time it would take for him to get to the roof, get inside and make his way to the first of the offices he wanted to visit, Belrik would be spending all of the next day in hiding somewhere inside. Once more, it wouldn’t be the first time he had so he wasn’t prepared for that tonight.

“No time like the present,” he muttered to himself and began the arduous climb to the roof. No sentries had appeared on a patrol of the wall. That was disturbing, he should have heard or seen at least one guard walking the length of the wall. The wall here was the height of the keep itself then gradually sloped down to the height of the gate house. The reason became apparent when he reached the roof.

Hanging just below the lip of the roof, he pushed himself up enough so that he could see across the top. He groaned once more in frustration. There was a score of armored Forsaken Ones on guard. Knowing they could see in the dark better than he could Belrik brought his head back down. All his plans just went out the window.

Almost half the night was wasted, and he still wasn’t inside the keep. The interior was likely guarded by the Forsaken Ones based on the number he had seen on the roof. That partly explained the increased guards in the courtyard and on the walls. Whoever was running the show wouldn’t want the two forces intermingling to avoid any misunderstandings.

The Forsaken Ones weren’t true elves, but most people didn’t understand the differences and considered them the same as any other elf. Belrik had never seen the true form of a Forsaken One, but he knew they had the ability to appear as a human or an elf—and they were able to change that at will. The only difference was that their skin color stayed the same jet black. They exhibited all the varied personalities that any other group of people did. The machinations of their various leaders were more long term. They rarely thought of what was going to happen next year or even five years down the road, a Forsaken One thought in terms of centuries. Whatever Valestrie had gotten caught up in was a long time in the making.