in mind?”
“We’re going to have to move fast,” explained Bart. “Once the last porter is off the steps and taken, we go. Here’s the plan…”
As he spelled it out, Kevik began nodding. “I think that might work,” he agreed, then sighed. He was growing rather tired. The exertions of the last few days were beginning to wear on him.
“Good,” replied Bart. Glancing back to the camp, he saw that the first two porters had been dealt with and were being carried to the large tent. The remaining two on the cliff continued down, oblivious to what was transpiring at the bottom. To Riyan and Kevik he said, “Let’s go.”
Wagon Master Coric was growing steadily impatient with the porters who had gone down to retrieve the last four crates he required before he could leave. They had yet to return. “I’ll skin them alive if they make me late,” he threatened.
The driver of the wagon waiting for the crates just shook his head. Wagon Master Coric was always threatening about this or that. Rarely did he ever follow through on it. Those who had been with him longest knew it was just his way.
Moving to the top of the steps, Wagon Master Coric looked down to see about his slow footed porters. He saw several men at the base of the steps beginning to make their way up. “About time,” he said.
All of a sudden, the view to the bottom grew obscured. He wasn’t at all sure what it was. Then a wind began blowing forcefully out of the canyon. “What?” he asked himself just as a wall of yellowish fog rolled over the cliff’s edge and enveloped him. He only had a moment to wonder at this strange occurrence before consciousness left him.
“Nice,” commented Bart.
Above them, Kevik had cast half a dozen of his sleep clouds. Then he had cast his wind spell to blow its vapors up and over into the stockade. With any luck, by the time he and the others reached the edge of the vaporous clouds, everyone in the stockade would be unconscious.
With the winds blowing, Bart led the way up the steps. Behind him came Chyfe then Riyan. Kevik followed closely with the twins and Chad bringing up the rear.
“Watch out!” Bart hollered as a dark shape plummeted down toward them from the top. It was a body, probably someone who had been too close to the edge of the cliff when the vaporous cloud of sleep had rolled over the top. When the man hit the side of the canyon wall on his way down, he failed to make any noise. He struck three more times before finally coming to rest at the bottom.
Riyan glanced upward to the top where the vaporous cloud of Kevik’s sleep spell was being whipped by his wind spell. Other than the movement of the cloud, the area was still.
“Come on,” Bart said as he resumed his climb to the top. Moving quickly, he took the steps two at a time as he flew to the top. He continuously cast glances for any movement up there, and was glad to find none. Bart finally came to a stop when he was within ten steps of where the vaporous cloud began. At this point, the wind of Kevik’s spell was blowing fairly strong.
On the steps far below, he could see Kevik bringing up the rear as he ascended very slowly. The magic user wasn’t in the best of shape for this kind of exertion, his kind rarely were. Already, Chad and the twins had bypassed him.
“Kevik!” Bart yelled down but his words were lost amidst the sound of the wind. When the magic user failed to respond, he grew frustrated. Just then, the wind spell came to an end.
With the roar of the wind gone, Bart was about to yell again when he saw the yellow cloud of the sleep spell begin falling toward him. Without the wind pushing it upward, the vapors began moving downward. “Kevik!” Bart yelled as he backed down the steps, his eyes glued to the wall of yellowish fog growing ever closer.
Ten steps further down, he heard Riyan yell, “Kevik! Cancel the spell!”
The fog was beginning to pick up speed and was rapidly overtaking Bart. If it hit him while he was on the steps, his fate might be the same as the man who had plummeted to his death.
Then it was gone. Glancing back down the steps he saw Kevik wave to him. Waving back, Bart once again took the steps quickly to the top. Riyan and Chyfe weren’t far behind. Then came the twins and Chad, with Kevik fifty steps even further down, huffing and puffing as he tried to keep up.
Two at a time, Bart raced up the steps toward the top of the cliff face. When he was ten steps away, he slowed his pace. From previous times Kevik had used his sleep spell, he knew that once it was dispelled, those caught within it would begin to regain consciousness. It could take up to ten minutes before they would completely rid themselves of its effects, but some overcame it faster than others.
Bart clutched a dart in his right hand, another three were gripped in his left. The top of the cliff was still deserted, and so he crept up the last few steps until he came to the top.
“Be careful,” advised Riyan from where he crouched on the step below his friend.
Not taking his eyes from the top, Bart nodded in reply. Then moving carefully, he edged forward and peered over to the top of the cliff.
Within a wide arc starting at the top of the steps, men who had been knocked unconscious by Kevik’s spell were beginning to stir. The fifth wagon they had seen in Kevik’s bowl, stood not far from the top step. Its two horses were weakly struggling in their traces to regain their feet since the sleep spell had affected them too. The driver lay across the buckboard, his head lolling to one side as he moved about feebly.
Movement caught Bart’s eye and he saw a group of seven men far off to the right. They were staring at the men lying on the ground with fear on their faces. The vaporous cloud must not have reached where they had been. Other than those seven men, everyone else looked to have succumbed to its effect.
Bart turned to Riyan and pointed off to the right. “Seven men,” he said.
“Guards?” Riyan asked as he peered over to see.
Peering over the top again, Bart looked and saw that only two were armed. “Two,” he said. “The others could be workers.” Beyond the seven men he saw a sight that filled him with joy. Four horses stood in a small corral. He would have preferred seven, but four was better than nothing. The rest of the horses that had been in the camp, including the draft horses for the wagons, had all been affected. They couldn’t afford to wait for them to recover, as by that time, everyone else in the camp would have too.
“Ready?” asked Bart.
Riyan nodded and gripped the hilt of his sword.
He turned his gaze back to the seven men. One of the two armed men was now kneeling at the side of another who was coming back to consciousness. In fact, the whole camp was stirring. Two men by the gate had already regained their feet and were shuffling about trying to help their comrades.
“Let’s go,” Bart said. Leaping from his crouched position, he landed on the top of the cliff and bolted to the right. Before he had taken his second step, the first dart was already on its way toward the kneeling man.
Bart saw one of the unarmed men take notice of him but it didn’t immediately register that he was a threat. But when the first dart struck and the man cried out, they knew.
“Attack!” one cried out. “We’re under attack!”
A dart struck the second armed man just as he was drawing his sword. Moving toward Bart, he only took three steps before the dart’s poison hit the blood stream and began to take its toll.
Bart threw another dart as the man stumbled and hit the ground. “Get the horses,” he yelled.
When the unarmed men saw the second man drop, they fled toward the far edge of the stockade. They didn’t stop until they reached the drop-off.
Not being a threat, Bart didn’t waste any time in subduing them. Glancing back, he saw Chyfe standing at the top of the cliff with sword in hand as he quickly took in the camp.
Bart got his attention and shouted, “Stay there and protect the others.”
Chyfe nodded. Moving to the top of the steps, he took position there to guard those still on the steps from any threat. Chad joined him after he reached the top.
Riyan was already saddling one of the horses when Bart joined him. Nodding over to a tent situated nearby, he said, “Saddles and tack are in there.”
“Right,” replied Bart. Hurrying within the tent, he soon emerged with a saddle and blanket. As he began to saddle one of the horses, he saw Seth and Soth appear at the top of the steps. They glanced in his direction and he pointed over to the gate. “The gate!” he yelled.
Seth nodded, then he and his brother raced through the rapidly recovering men on their way to get the gate
