Chapter 12: Infiltration
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Nia was the first to break the silence. “We better look for a place to camp for the night.”

We found a small clearing in the forest. It was farther away from the path the harska had taken than I would have liked, but we didn’t have much of a choice. I started collecting firewood, while Nia prepared the food. Greenspring mentioned that he had something he had to take care of and left, leaving me and Nia alone. As the last rays of sunlight disappeared behind the thick trees, we started to eat our meager meal.

Dinner was nothing more than soup. We had run out of fresh vegetables and meat, so we used whatever we could find that wasn’t spoiled. The smell from the pot was vulgar, but we made it work. Not like we had much we could do about it. It stuck to the back of my throat as I tried to swallow, causing me to gag and spit out the vile concoction. Even after it was long gone I could still feel it sliding down my throat.

“I’m sorry, Norman,” said Nia, playing with the soup in her bowl.

“It’s not your fault. I should have packed more food before we left. When Greenspring gets back we’ll take a day and see if we can find something.”

“It’s not about the food.” Nia sat up straighter, placing her dinner off to the side. “I’m sorry for bringing you on this mess of a journey.”

“Don’t be. I’d have gone on this journey whether you and Greenspring had volunteered or not. They took my family, just as they took yours.”

Nia nodded. “Still, if I hadn’t introduced you to Tamara…”

I moved to sit closer to Nia, placing my arm around her. “Don’t blame yourself.” She returned the hug, squeezing the life out of me. I took a deep breath and held it, letting the air fill my lungs. “I don’t think I’ll get used to that,” I said, half-joking. Nia laughed.

The cold air blowing through the trees caused me to start shivering. I moved to my bag and grabbed a blanket out of it. Beth had knitted it for me after we got married. It still smelled like home. Nia seemed unfazed by the night air. She looked off into the forest with a worried expression on her face.

“I’m sure he’ll be fine,” I said.

Nia sighed. “I’m not worried about him. I don’t want to have to take his watch if he’s gone too long.”

We laughed, causing some nearby birds to fly out of their nest. After putting out the fire, we went to bed. Nia took the first watch. If Greenspring returned before it was time for the second watch, then he would take it. If not, then Nia and I would share the watch. Not much we could do about it, other than wait for Greenspring to get back. 

I had faith that he would return. He seemed like the type to go off on his own sometimes. You heard about those types of stories told over empty mugs that it almost became expected in a group like this. Nia didn’t seem to be worried, which did help me stay calm.

I laid down on my blanket, wrapping one side around myself, and tried to sleep. The cold air didn’t help, constantly blowing past the leaves and making them rustle loudly. I wanted to yell at the wind to be quiet. Greenspring might have had some ritual to tell it off, but he wasn’t here. Before I knew it, sleep had overtaken me.

It was a restless sleep. Images of my family came in and out of focus. Each time I thought I was close enough to see them, they were replaced by a glowing pair of yellow cat-like eyes. A hideous laugh echoed throughout my head. I couldn’t run from it, nor could I hide.

Greenspring gently shook me awake. I blinked and rubbed my eyes, trying to make sense of where I was. Moonlight fell through the leaves of the trees above. My hand grabbed a handful of damp grass. It was still night. Like most dreams, the visions I had experienced faded from my mind.

I smelled a sweet smell. Looking down, I noticed Greenspring had a basket of berries next to him. He smiled as his eyes followed mine. “They are for good luck,” he said, moving back so I could sit up. “Help yourself.”

“Thanks,” I replied, stretching to wake my tired bones. The longer I was awake, the more the fear that had gripped my dreams faded away.

“I came back at the end of Nia’s watch. Nothing happened during mine. Nia is asleep over there. Try not to wake us,” said Greenspring. He seemed tired. Dark bags hung under his eyes. Had he been hunting for berries all this time?

I thanked him and got started on my watch. It was a cold night, but the additional food did help raise my spirits. As the air started to warm from the rising sun, I felt a renewed sense of purpose. I will save my family. Once everyone was awake, we cleaned up our camp and got started on the day.

We continued through the forest. The air got colder as we approached the Sapphire Mountains. I looked towards those grey mounds of rock, peeking out through the leaves, hoping to be done with this trip. It had been far too long since I had relaxed. Too long since I had laid under a tree and told stories to my daughter.

Greenspring raised his hand. His wolf walked close to the ground, tracking whatever scent he had found. Hopping off his horse, Greenspring followed the wolf to a nearby tree. Nia and I watched in horror as he took off a bit of bark and ate it. The bark crunched loudly in his mouth.

“Did you have to do that?” whispered Nia.

“We are close,” said Greenspring as he spat out the bark. “Nasty stuff that is.”

We couldn’t see the base of the mountain from where we were, so the three of us tied up our horses and snuck forward. This would be the first chance we had to see who we were dealing with, and we didn’t want to ruin it by getting caught. Greenspring helped us sneak by blowing any debris away with his staff. A gust of wind blew from the tip, silent but effective. More druidic magic I had come to expect from the dirty-looking old man.

Using my mandolin, I was able to mimic the sounds of nature to cover our footsteps. It wasn’t a spell Piopus had taught me, it was something I had learned as a child. I wasn’t sure how I learned it, I only remembered knowing it for as long as I could walk. Back then, I would hum the spell so that I could sneak food. Beth and Zadona, my childhood friend, had also learned it from me. That was how Piopus discovered me, and why he chose to tutor me.

With the combined effort of my playing and Greenspring’s staff, we were completely silent. Nia watched us, attempting to commit to memory how we performed our magical tricks. I made a mental note to teach it to her once we were all safe.

In the distance, we could hear yelling and the sound of stone hitting against stone. I looked toward my two companions, who had similar faces of worry. The three of us knew what those sounds meant, they were the sounds of construction.

Our fears were confirmed once we broke the last line of trees. We stood on a hill looking down at the base of the mountain. In the valley between, a river cut lazily through the earth. It curved along the edge of the mountain, disappearing around the side of it. What was beyond the river terrified us. Built into the mountainside was a great fortress. 

Two towers stood tall at the base, with a wall connecting them. In the middle of the wall, stood two huge wooden doors. There was no doubt that they had some way to lock it if intruders arrived. For now, it stood half open, with harska swarming out of it like ants.

One of the walls connected to the mountainside looked like it had suffered some damage. Harska formed a line carrying stone bricks to the wall, placing them down before going back for more. From atop the towers, more harska yelled orders to their brethren down below. 

Others marched along the line with spears in hand. They wore shabby-looking armor made out of blocks of wood, yet they had an air of superiority about them. It didn’t look like the harska carrying the stones were slaves, they weren’t beaten down or bruised.

Nia tapped me on the shoulder and pointed out some archers on the wall. Their cat-like faces scanned the edge of the forest. As slow as we could, we snuck back into the safety of the trees. Already I had some worries about getting everyone out of there, and it seemed like my companions did as well. Once we were a good distance away, Greenspring threw up his hands in frustration.

“How are we going to get in there?” he asked, his brow furrowed. “I thought harska lived in caves, not dwarven fortresses! How did they build something like that?”

Dwarves were known to build their homes out of rock. Sometimes they built directly into the mountain. On the west coast, there was a massive dwarven town called Feaucu. From what I had heard, it was built in an active volcano. I had never heard of any dwarves living in the Sapphire Mountains, but it was possible.

Nia crossed her arms. “We’re going in there.”

“Do you have a plan?” I asked.

“Not yet, we need to watch them for a bit. See their guard rotations and all that.”

“Well,” huffed Greenspring. “I will be eager to hear how you plan to perform that miracle.”

Nia sat and watched for hours, taking note of every detail of the fortress. I was in charge of bringing her food and water. Greenspring watched our backs, though he was still a bit frustrated. He made sure to complain whenever I got close.

As the moon crested over the mountain tops, Nia snuck back to our little camp. Greenspring was on watch, so I missed seeing her sneak through the trees, but they woke me up as soon as she got back. We sat in a circle as Nia pulled out some parchment.

The parchment featured a sketch of the fortress. Nia had written down the approximate times of patrols, and how many came through the front gates. She had tried to find any secret passages into the fortress but was unsuccessful. Dwarves liked to hide their exits in case of emergency. They might have had some, but we weren’t close enough to check.

“Are you saying we have to go through the front door?” asked Greenspring, surprised.

“The front is the only way in. Not a single harska came from around the back, which tells me they don’t have an entrance or exit back there. We could climb up the wall, but that would be too hard with our current supplies. So yes, we’re going through the front door.”

I rubbed my chin as I examined the parchment. There would only be a brief window for us to sneak in. Even then, there was no telling if we could sneak out the same way we came in. “Do we have more time to gather information?” I asked.

“If you want to let your family suffer any longer in there, be my guest. I’ll be going in tomorrow. Come with me or not, I don’t care anymore. I didn’t come all this way to quit,” replied Nia.

“That’s not what I meant,” I said. “I think we should spend more time coming up with a plan. We have no idea what the inside even looks like. What if they have traps set up in there?”

“Then we get rid of them,” said Nia.

“You are missing the point,” said Greenspring.

Nia angrily waved her hand. “I don’t care what you think. Tamara is suffering in there, and I’m gonna rescue her. If you have a problem with that, keep it to yourself.”

“Nia, don’t be hasty,” I said, trying to sound sympathetic. “I want to save my family too, but—”

She grabbed her axe and started to head back through the trees. “I’m heading out at noon tomorrow, with or without you.”

Greenspring and I exchanged a glance, then shrugged. I certainly wasn’t going to let her go and kill herself. Greenspring looked like he thought the same thing. I took one final look at the parchment before going back to sleep. Staying awake all night worrying about it wouldn’t help.

In the morning, we gathered all the supplies we needed and headed out. Greenspring told the horses we would be back soon. They didn’t answer him, but he was confident they would wait for our return. The bottom of the wall extended into the riverbed. Along it were some thick bushes that we could hide in. We waited until noon to move, we needed every advantage we could get. The second the sun reached its peak in the sky, Nia began her descent toward the mountain.

It was difficult to keep up with the warrior. She would move quickly, then stop or go slow. We hadn’t had time to fully discuss the plan, so Greenspring and I were left to follow her lead. I was starting to get annoyed. The least she could do was keep a consistent pace.

The doors of the fortress stretched out before us. Though the harska were only half the size of a normal human, their architecture put ours to shame. My stomach ached as I looked up at the towers of wood. Taking a deep breath, I looked down at my feet. Greenspring began to get annoyed that I wasn’t moving and started to push me forward. 

Since the guards were trading shifts, the massive doors were slightly open. That gave us enough room to squeeze inside. Nia went first, while Greenspring and I followed closely. Once we were inside, we ran behind a pillar to take cover.

The front doors led into an equally massive entrance hall. Doors leading off to countless rooms covered the walls. At the end of the hall was another set of massive doors. We all assumed they wouldn’t keep prisoners near their leader, so we headed to the least kept door we could find. That was our best bet for finding our friends and family.

That door led us into a small closet. Tools for cleaning and fixing the outside walls were piled in the room. Before we left, I swiped a set of keys hanging on the wall. The next door led to another hall. This one was much smaller than the entrance hall. Fewer doors were lining the walls as well, but we decided to keep going.

We took the door immediately to our right. Call it luck or intuition, but we found a staircase leading up and down. From outside the fortress, it didn’t look like they had room to host prisoners above ground, so we headed down. The stairs were built for the smaller bodies of the harska, so we had to squeeze to fit in.

At the bottom of the stairs were three more doors. Nia cursed under her breath. “More doors? How many doors does this place need.”

Greenspring crouched low to the ground as he walked to the center of the room. He ran his wrinkled fingers along the stone floor, disrupting the dirt that covered them. Thin lines remained where his fingers had been. We watched in horror as Greenspring brought his fingertips to his mouth and licked them. He must have liked the taste as he went back for another.

“What are you doing?” I whispered. “That’s disgusting.”

He shrugged. “Magic isn’t always songs and poems, Bard. Sometimes you have to get your hands dirty; or in this case, your tongue.” The druid smiled as his fingertips glowed green. Even thinner lines lit up from the groove he had carved in the dirt, spreading to all corners of the room. They glowed in different colors. Greenspring seemed to make some sense of it as he walked to the door to the west.

“Tamara is this way,” said Greenspring. “Keep close and keep quiet.”

Nia and I followed in silence behind the hermit. The glowing lines lit up the dark halls, allowing us to see. Like a wolf stalking its prey, Greenspring navigated the winding halls with ease. Even avoiding some basic traps set up for invaders. I was glad he had come with us. Without his magic, we would have never even found the fortress. At least, not within a reasonable timeframe.

With how little room we had to move, I was unable to play my mandolin to help us sneak. It didn’t matter either way, there weren’t any noises to mimic inside a fortress like this. Only Greenspring was able to move completely silently. I wanted to ask him how, but we didn’t have the time to waste.

Sweat dripped from Nia’s body as she willed every muscle to silence. Her large size made it hard for her to navigate the tiny halls, and even harder to stay quiet. Even I was having trouble avoiding noise on the stone surface. A wrong step and the sole of your boot could knock against the floor a little too loudly. I wasn’t sure how good harska hearing was, and I wasn’t trying to risk finding it.

A single door lay before us. Greenspring hurried to pull open the wooden door, still taking some care to be quiet. As soon as the hinges felt the first bit of movement, a horrible smell drifted from behind the door. It smelled like unwashed bodies piled together. I held my nose to keep myself from gagging, but couldn’t stop my eyes from watering.

The room was mostly empty. In the center was a large pit that descended into the darkness. Two chairs facing a table, pushed against the wall, were the only furniture in the room. We could hear groaning coming from the bottom of the pit.

I walked to the edge of the pit and pulled out a dead firefly from my pocket. The bug had dried a long time ago and felt fragile in my hand. I crushed the bug in my hands, rubbing its flakey remains over my hands. The remains turned into a grey powder and melded with my skin. I looked at my hands and raised them above my head.

“With your death comes a new rebirth,” I sang, speaking barely above a whisper. “Let the light of your ancestors shine again.”

My hands glowed a faint yellow color. Like water, that light dropped from my hands and formed into small balls at my feet. I grabbed the balls and handed one each to Nia and Greenspring. The last ball I tossed into the hole, watching it fall past the smooth carved stone. It landed with a soft thud at the bottom, illuminating a mess of bodies and filth.

From the distance we were at, it was hard to tell where one body began and another ended. All of it formed a moving blob that writhed in filth. At first, the bodies seemed hesitant to approach the ball, but they soon looked up and started to yell. I tried to gesture for them to be quiet, but they couldn’t see me. We waited for someone to hear the loud pleas of those in the pit, but no one came.

Those down below looked human, or at least some mix of the various folks that lived around here. They were all dressed in rags and covered with gashes and scars. I tried to look for Tamara, but it seemed that it was a lost cause. It was too far away for me to make anyone out clearly.

Nia took out some rope and dropped it into the hole. We weren’t quite sure how we were going to get all these people out of the fortress, but we couldn’t leave them there. I trusted that Nia and Greenspring were good enough fighters for us to escape. My music would give us some speed, hopefully getting out before the harska even knew what was coming.

The end of the rope fell to the bottom, where it was immediately grabbed onto by everyone nearby. Nia braced herself against the wall, digging her heels into the floor. The stench that wafted from the pit as we pulled the first person out almost made me gag. Greenspring also looked sick as he pulled with all his strength. 

We heard the door slamming against the wall as harska forces rushed into the room. Greenspring and I dropped the rope and rushed to defend Nia, but it was no use. The superior numbers of the harska tackled us against the wall. They tied our limbs and gagged us. Nia managed to let the person down safely at the bottom of the pit, before getting tied up as well.

I felt a sharp pain at the back of my head before it all went dark.

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