Her eyes narrowed for a moment, “You’ve been keeping secrets again.”
“Just a few... Nothing dire, but you will have to play my part if I die before the time is right,” I told her.
“What is it?” she asked.
“Not yet, we have something else to take care of first,” I said meaningfully.
“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
