“We don’t have to do that yet,” she protested. “There are at least several hours still.”
“Yes we do. I don’t know what will happen from here on out. There may not be a chance once things get chaotic. We do it now, and then I’ll tell you what you need to know,” I said firmly.
“You kept those secrets just to have a bargaining chip didn’t you?” she said sharply.
In fact I had, there had been no reason to hide my final plans, other than to make sure she would cooperate near the end. “Not intentionally,” I lied, “but now that the time is here I’m glad I did.”
“You really are a bastard sometimes,” she replied sweetly. “Fine, how do we do this exactly?”
That was the one part of the bond I had paid close attention to back when Cyhan had been instructing her. “First you take out your sword and we hold it between us, then you simply ask, formally and in all seriousness for me to release you. You have to mean it. I will respond formally as well and then we have to let go of one another… in here,” I pointed to my chest. Her eyes started watering again when I gestured to my heart.
“Alright,” she replied, letting her head droop downward. She drew out her sword and held it across her palms facing me. When I had placed my hands over hers she spoke, “I, Penelope Illeniel, would break my oath and I ask you to release me from this bond we share.” Her hair had fallen, blocking my view of her face, but I could see wet spots appearing on the stone between her feet.
I took a deep breath and answered her, “I, Mordecai Ardeth’Illeniel, do release you from your bond.” I invested the words with power and inwardly I felt our spirits separating. A part of myself that I hadn’t realized had been her, slipped away from me. For a moment I was left with a feeling of incredible emptiness as for the first time in months I was just myself, alone. The sword we held glowed brighter for a moment and then shattered, as if it had been made of glass.
We stood quietly for a minute, neither of us daring to speak. We both knew the distance between us had become much greater than the scant inches separating us physically. Finally I broke the silence. “How do you feel?” I asked.
“Much weaker,” she said ruefully. “I had forgotten what it was like to be normal. How about you?”
“I feel empty. Like a man living alone in a house that has become much too large for him,” I replied honestly.
She gave me a serious look, gazing steadily into my eyes. Despite what we had just done I could see incredible strength of spirit within her. Every time I looked at her it was as if I had fallen in love all over again. “Your eyes are blue again,” she said wistfully.
“I think you look better with your natural brown,” I told her in return.
“So what secrets do you have to share?” she said, changing the subject.
I opened the heavy leather pouch I wore at my belt. As I looked inside I saw the gem that had been used when we created our bond. It was no longer glowing. I ignored it and brought out two cloth sacks that had been marked with ink. “This pouch holds the stones that will destroy the dam,” I told her. “When the time comes, destroy them. I had hoped to drive the enemy back into the valley first, but you’ll have to use your own judgment since I won’t be here.”
“What about the other pouch?” she asked.
“I’ll hold onto this one for now, but if I die before using it you need to claim it quickly. It holds the keys to the bombs beneath the field out there,” I pointed to the ground before us, between the curtain wall and the palisade.
“But that’s inside our line, why?” she said, confusion in her eyes.
“The palisade is a trap. I didn’t have iron but I had the men bury large stones beneath the earth, both inside and outside the palisade. I didn’t tell them what they were for though. They extend out to about a hundred yards from our earthworks. The closest ones are about sixty yards from the walls here. I was afraid if they were any closer they might destroy our walls,” I told her.
She shook her head, “I still don’t understand. Why not put them further out?”
“We had run out of iron. The stones are much larger and heavier. I didn’t have enough time to have the men dig great holes everywhere, and haul stones to them. The further out you go the more area there is to be covered. The only place I could be sure the enemy would be is here,” I pointed down to the area below us again.
“Then why bother building the palisade at all?”
“All part of the deception. The enemy probably won’t commit his men to a head on assault until they have breached our walls. The earthworks give them the impression that we are serious about defending the castle. Once they breach them they may assault us right away. However, if they wait until they have brought down the gate or one of the walls we have to hold them before they enter the castle yard itself,” I stated carefully.
“Why?” she asked.
“I don’t want to use our trump card until they’ve committed most of their men to the attack. We have to wait until most of them are at the walls here before we use it, otherwise we waste our only advantage. So if they breach the curtain wall before that point we have to hold the line here until they commit all their men,” I said.
“You should just let me have that pouch now,” she suggested.
“I’d like the chance to spit in their faces and blow them to hell myself. If I have to die I want to go with a bang,” I smiled wickedly. “You can take them from my cold dead hands if I don’t get to use them.”
“I really wish you wouldn’t talk like that,” she complained.
My heart felt lighter than it had in months. Despite the empty place it felt as if a burden had been lifted from my shoulders. “If I can’t joke about my impending death what can I joke about? Would you rather I go moping about?”
She laughed a bit, till her tears started again and then she held me. I felt a twinge of pain for her; it was easier to be the one dying. My journey was almost over, but she still had a long lonely road ahead… without me. For the first time since Marc had first given me the idea of lying to her about her ‘condition’ I felt guilty. I hoped she would forgive me someday when the truth finally came out.
They began the bombardment once the sun was fully in the sky. Now that I was free of the bond I found I could sense things at a much greater distance again. When the first stones came hurtling toward us I sensed them long before they arrived. On a whim I spoke a word and swept my hand sideways, striking one of the large boulders from the sky before it reached us. I was amazed at the clarity of my senses. After months being half blind my power seemed easier than ever to use.
“Did you see that?” Marc elbowed me. “One of the stones just went flying sideways. Was that you?”
I smiled. “We’ll see how they like facing me now that I’ve got my kid gloves off,” I replied smugly.
“Your eyes are blue again… does that mean what I think?” he asked.
“Your idea worked beautifully. No matter what else, you have my thanks for that,” I told him.
“I thought so,” he said. “Did she tell you what I told her?”
“Yes, and I appreciate it. I know it must have cost you dearly to say it.”
He frowned. “It didn’t cost me a thing, anyway, congratulations.”
It struck me as odd that he would congratulate me on the day of my impending demise, but I dismissed it as another of his odd jokes. “Just promise me you will make sure she’s alright, once I’m gone.”
His face tightened, “You didn’t have to ask me, Mort. Dorian and I will do everything we can for her, you know that.”
More rocks began falling, striking the palisade and bouncing across the ground behind it. So far none of our men had been struck, but I knew our luck couldn’t hold forever. The enemy troops were advancing now, approaching to within two hundred yards. The onagers were brought up behind them, allowing them to strike the palisade more easily. Some of our archers fired, though they had been told to save their arrows. Most of their shots fell short, and those that didn’t missed their marks.
I raised my staff and with a word I focused energy through it, a line of fire lanced outward and struck one of the onagers. It went up in flames. Repeating the process I began systematically destroying them until none were left. I considered doing the same to the men on the field but I knew I would exhaust myself long before I had made a dent in their numbers. I thought of the other pouch on my belt, the one I hadn’t told Penny about, but I quickly dismissed the idea. It wasn’t time for that yet.
The enemy withdrew to four hundred yards once the onagers were gone. I could still reach them at that
