Son of the Hero

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 i

Thanks to Kardeen's efficiency, we had a hot supper, all thirteen hundred and more of us, even though I wouldn't let anyone light fires that might give away the fact that we were around. The kitchen people at four castles did the cooking. Mother and Parthet tended the doorways while the food was carried through. The meal wasn't as plentiful or varied as the repasts at Basil, but it was a decent enough meal, in both quantity and quality.

After supper, we went over the plans for the assault on Thyme again. Lesh, Hambert, and I would be the first through the door-underscore the I. Two men would escort Parthet to safety as soon as he blew the postern open. If he could. More soldiers would pour into the castle as quickly as possible, fa

Then there was just the waiting. We didn't want to move until we could expect most of the garrison to be asleep. I tried napping, but I was too keyed up to stay down for long, and anyway, every time I closed my eyes that dream from the night before was ready to jump out at me. I certainly didn't need that.

We didn't have a lot going for us in the coming battle against the Etevar, and if we didn't grab the castle, the odds would be insane… well, more insane. But taking Castle Thyme was no guarantee of success-not by a long shot. There was no way that one man, even a regulation Hero, could make up for all the numbers unless he had a few rabbits in his hat and a lot of luck. The Etevar had a better-trained and much larger army, and a better wizard. Parthet was the first to concede that.

"Let's get started," I said-somewhere around eleven o'clock. Keeping track of time was still a hassle. My watch had started ru

We walked from the orchard to the castle. Horses would only be a giveaway on this raid, and our army didn't have many horses to start with, only about three hundred. Most of our fighters were foot soldiers, infantry. We moved as quietly as you could expect several dozen men in armor to move. A

The castle was also silent. I didn't expect to hear carousing. A drunken debauch would have been asking too much of luck. Lurking in the shadows forty yards from the ditch, we watched one of the sentries walk his post on the parapet, visible only when he passed one of the crenels. The postern faced west, the main gate south. Two of my men scurried across the open stretch with ladders while A