“That will have to wait. There won’t be anyone to starve if we don’t get them to Washbrook quickly.” I told her.
“Calm down Mordecai, we can close the gates. We’ll have hours to move then, even without soldiers to guard the walls. Let me organize things, we can save most of our supplies that way,” she replied calmly.
“We’re not closing the gates,” I informed her.
“What?” she said in dismay.
“Just trust me, help me get these people organized. I need them all back in Washbrook within the hour. Leave everything behind.” I turned to Dorian without waiting for her response, “Take your men and make sure the gates are wide open, make it look inviting. Then I need you to help herd everyone over here. Also make sure no one is visible on the walls, the castle needs to look empty if they get here before we’re done.”
“But Mort...,” he started to protest.
“Just do it Dorian! Goddamn, I don’t have time to explain everything,” I told him sharply. His face flinched for a moment but he took his men and headed for the gates.
“Mort, it might help if you told us what you’re trying to accomplish,” Penny told me as we guided the next group toward the circle.
“I’ll explain as we go,” I replied and a moment later we were back in Washbrook. “Vendraccus... or Mal’goroth... whoever is running that army out there... they know I have a trap planned for them.” The people with us had cleared the circle so we teleported back to Lancaster. We began gathering another group while I talked, “They must think the next trap is at Cameron Castle, so they’re heading here... to bypass us.” We continued moving people and I spoke between jumps.
“If they besiege Lancaster we’ll be forced to react, in a way that will put us at a serious disadvantage. The only thing we have going for us is that they don’t know exactly what or where our next trap is,” I said.
“But you only have one more trap,” Penny reminded me, “the dam.”
“I have two actually, but your point is still valid,” I replied.
“How do you know they haven’t figured out where they are? They obviously know about the dam,” Penny responded.
“No I don’t think they do. They left their wounded in the valley, to distract us. It might be a decoy but I don’t think they would waste that many people just to fool me.”
Penny frowned, “So how does abandoning Lancaster and throwing the gates open help us?”
I gave her a wicked grin, “Arundel.”
“What?” she snapped. She had never been a big fan of mysterious explanations.
“I blew Arundel up when they used it for a base camp. Who’s to say Lancaster isn’t a giant bomb as well?” I transported us again, still smiling.
Penny gave me a strange look, “But there aren’t any of your magical traps at Lancaster... are there?”
“Nope,” I replied smugly, “but they don’t know that.”
It took us slightly over an hour to get everyone back to Washbrook, nearly four hundred women and children in total. Once we had them all safely back we returned to Lancaster. I left Marcus and Cyhan to manage the huge crowd of people and took Dorian and Penny with me. The three of us waited in the barn in Lancaster, watching the castle yard from the partly open door.
It was an hour more before the first riders appeared, cautiously passing through the main gates. Their posture made it clear they expected to be attacked at any moment. I didn’t envy them their mission. The strange nature of Lancaster’s open gate and empty castle must have left them fearing a trap, which of course was my plan.
“What do we do if they search the barn?” Dorian asked in a nervous whisper.
“Then we teleport back before they see us,” I replied. I was hoping they wouldn’t search the castle extensively, if we were forced to teleport back I would have to destroy the circle in Washbrook. That might make things more difficult later.
The riders made a slow circuit of the yard, one of them was sent back to report while the others dismounted and entered the now vacant main keep. Another went to check the gate house. Through it all we watched silently, hardly daring to breathe although they never came within fifty yards of the building we were in. Eventually they left.
“What now?” Penny asked.
“Next comes the hard part,” I said, “waiting to see if they come back.”
“If we stay in here we’ll never know if they’re gone,” Dorian groused.
His irritation amused me, which was a good thing, little else did lately. “Relax… I can sense them within five hundred yards or so. When they get beyond my range I’ll slip out and see if I can see them from the walls.”
I kept a watch on the men beyond the walls for over an hour. They sent several patrols in various directions, circling the outer walls and exploring the road in both directions. I could imagine their leader’s anxiety. The last abandoned estate they had found had blown up in their faces, literally.
Night fell and still they waited. Given the darkness I guessed they had decided to make camp. We would have to wait for morning to see if my gambit had worked. Eventually I sent Dorian back to report on the situation. I knew Marc and Cyhan would be biting their nails back in Washbrook wondering what was going on.
Penny and I spent the night curled up companionably. By companionably I mean she used me for a pillow while I got the dubious comfort of a rolled up cloth sack to cushion my head. We had found it in a corner and it smelled of dust and oats. While we rested I stretched my mind out to its fullest, but I learned little else about the enemy.
***
The night was black and draped the dead men along the valley road in a cloak of darkness. Most were dead but scattered among
