Amendments (22 page)

              Noir was skeptical of the plan.  He thought there were too many things that could go wrong, but Finn was confident.  Noir had to trust the man if he wanted to have a chance to rescue his cousin and Nidhoggr.

~~~

              Snow covered the ground and glowed eerily in the moonlight.  Across barren crop fields and the wide Coda river rose the dark, stone walls of the Tierian capital.  Far inside the walls rose the spires and upper floors of Fort Estelar.  It was massive and intimidating and Noir couldn't believe they planned on sneaking into the place.

              Finn led his exhausted horse by its reigns and said, “There's a ferry ahead that will get us across the river for a couple tali.  The large bridge is south of the city and is well-guarded.”

              Ruith and Noir walked behind Finn also guiding their horses.  Noir questioned, “Why is the ferry not guarded?”

              Finn pointed at the barren fields around them.  “Look what's on this side of the river.  Fields, crops, and farmers.  Simple laborers who work diligently under the threat of din slaves and Tierian soldiers.  The king doesn't care about this area as long as food continues coming to the city.  No one guards these people, they only oppress them.”

              Ruith asked, “Who runs the ferry?  Will they be up working it at this time of the night?”

              Finn smiled smugly.  “The ferryman is a friend of mine.  He'll be happy to help.”

              Finn led them through some more barren fields to a clay farmhouse.  Nearby was a small dock and the large, flat ferry.  A long rope stretched to a patch of land in the middle of the river where another ferry waited.  Finn went straight to the door of the farmhouse and knocked.

              For a long moment, the three stood in the night in silence and waited.  Finn knocked again and said loudly, “Hey Kharon!  It's me, your buddy Finn.”

              Another long moment passed, then finally the door opened to reveal a short man with thick arms.  Light streamed from inside piercing the moonlit night.  The man peered out at the three of them.  Finn held out his arms and smiled.

              “My buddy Finn?” Kharon asked with a thick Tierian accent.  “My buddy Finn wouldn't wake a guy up at this horrible hour.  Who are ye'?”

              Finn laughed charmingly.  “You know it's me.”

              Kharon sighed and rubbed his eyes.  “Unfortunately, yes I do.  What do ye' want, Finn?”

              Finn pulled out a pouch of something Noir assumed was tali and said, “We need across the river, and we need you to not let anyone know we were here.”

              “Ye' need a lot o' things,” Kharon joked, but he took a step outside of his house and took the pouch.  “Ye' know it's a lot o' work gettin that blasted ferry across th' river, right?  I have helpers that do it for me during th' day.  I need to be well rested to work on my fields in th' morning.”

              Finn laughed.  “We both know it's winter, my friend, but I get your meaning.”  Finn pulled out another pouch of tali that was smaller than the first and handed it to Kharon.  “Plus you can have these three horses to sell in the city.”

              Kharon took the pouch and sighed.  “Gimme a minute.  Gotta get me boots.  Tie up th' horses to my porch.  I'll take care o' them when I get back.”

              Kharon closed the door and darkness again surrounded the three men.  Within a few moments, Kharon returned wearing boots and a leather coat that looked as though it would keep out water.

              The four walked onto the small dock and stepped tenderly onto the large, flat ferry.  Noir felt anxious as the flat raft bucked in the river.  Kharon used a wooden mechanism attached to the rope that stretched across the river to pull them across.  They boarded a similar one on the island in the middle of the Coda river.  The Tierian capital's walls loomed above them solid and imposing.  Finally they reached the opposite shore.  Finn, Ruith, and Noir plodded through the grassy mud and turned to thank the ferryman, but he was already pulling the ferry away into the night.  He sang a mournful song about sleep and the night as he worked at the wooden mechanism and disappeared across the water.

              The land was swampy near the river and Noir found himself wishing his Luxin boots were waterproof.  As they neared the large metal portcullis on the northern side of the Tierian capital, Finn made them wait until the road was completely clear.  There was not much traffic in and out of the city in the middle of the night, but enough that they had to wait for a while until there were no wagons or people walking by.  Eventually, Finn let them scurry onto the road, and then they walked toward the gates.

              Noir studied the walls as they approached.  Watchtowers rose on both sides. Each surely held at least a couple din slaves and their din handlers.  Perhaps even a Luxin in the employ of the king was watching them from above.  Noir was seeing the wisdom of Finn's carefully laid-out plan.  If he used lux, or if they tried to sneak in, it could mean doom for not only them, but his cousin and Nidhoggr as well.

              A Tierian guard stopped the three as they approached the massive gates.  “Why do you come to the Tierian capital?” the guard asked in a tired, monotone voice.  It was obvious he had been on duty for hours.

              “I am Finnigus Rolfen, wine merchant.”  Finn pulled a piece of paper from under his brown cloak and handed it to the guard.  The guard took the paper and looked it up and down quickly.  “I'm here to purchase more bottles for my winery.  My regular supplier mixed up my order and only gave me half what--”

              The guard pushed the paper back to Finn and said, “Fine.”  He turned to another guard sitting nearby.  “Finnigus Rolfen from Garmak.  Here for business.”  The other guard hastily wrote something on a large scroll on a table next to him.

              The guard motioned for the three to continue into the city.  Finn bowed deeply and said, “Thank you, sir.”

              The guard grunted in response and Finn, Ruith, and Noir passed under the gate and into the city.  Once outside of earshot of the guards, Finn insisted with a smirk, “See?  Easy.”

              Noir said, “They didn't even ask about us.  All that planning for nothing.”

              Ruith added, “It's the time of night.  The guards are tired.”

              Finn nodded and said, “More planning than necessary is always better than not enough planning.  Now, let's go sneak into the most heavily guarded fort in the world!”

              Finn led Noir and Ruith through the streets of the Tierian capital.  It was not much like the capital city of Chiron at all.  Chrion was dusty and dry with tall clay buildings standing haphazard in barren desert plots of land.  In the Tierian capital, everything was paved in dark gray stone.  Tall grasses and vines sprang out of cracks in the streets and climbed stone buildings.  When they would pass by larger streets, Noir would look down their length and see the outer walls dark and solid in the distance.  The amount of land and buildings within those walls was massive.

              Almost no one was out in the night.  The few they saw looked homeless or scurried along with lowered heads not making eye-contact with the three men.  Several times, Tierian guards would ask what they were doing.  Finn would hand them his paper and tell the same story about needing more wine bottles.  One guard continued to pester them about the wine until Finn handed him a full bottle.

              Finn steadily led them deeper into the city and toward another wall.  The upper floors and spires of Fort Estelar gradually became hidden from view the closer they got to the inner wall.  Once they reached the wall, Finn looked around for anyone watching, then ducked into a small alley between two tall stone buildings.  A homeless man lay in the alley and looked at the three as they entered.  Finn took out a small amount of tali and handed it to the man.  The man took it but looked at Finn questioningly.  Finn said, “It’s for taking your sleeping area for the night.  Our apologies.”  The man slowly stood, picked up his things, and walked away.

              Once the homeless man was gone, Finn turned to the others and declared, “All right, we’re here.”

              Noir looked up at the buildings above them.  One that was directly next to the wall was two stories, and the other was three.  The three story building reached most of the way to the top of the walls, though there was still a gap between the building and the wall.  “You’re right, Finn.  This is a good spot.”

              Ruith pulled a long coiled rope from his pack and  handed it to Finn.  While Finn started tying a grappling hook to the end of the rope, Ruith said, “You both know I’m over fifty, right?  I know it’s hard to tell with my scars, but I’m no spring chicken.  I might need a bit of help getting up there.”

              Noir frowned and said, “You didn’t need to come, Ruith.  Let me remind you that the only reason we are doing this is to save Aimee and release Nidhoggr.  That’s
it
!”

              Ruith nodded but did not meet Noir’s eyes.  Finn groaned a long, drawn out, “Oooookay.  I guess there’s another story there that I don’t want or need to know about.”

              “It’s fine,” Noir dismissed.  “Let’s just get on top of this building.”

              Using the rough stone walls and the rope, the three climbed easily enough on top of the two-story building.  They then jumped and pulled themselves on top of the three story building.  Once on top, all three laid low on their bellies to not be seen.  Finn turned to Ruith and said, “Alright, you ready to make this grappling hook invisible as soon as it’s in place?”  Ruith nodded.  “And you’re ready to make the three of us invisible, Luxin Noir?”  Noir nodded as well.

Finn looked down and around to make sure no one was watching, and then crouched low and threw the grappling hook over his head.  It landed expertly to the top of the fortress wall.  It hooked on the opposite side of the battlement.  Noir watched a small flow of lux come from Ruith’s hand and into the rope and hook.  He saw Ruith bend the light around the equipment and it disappeared from his eyes except for the glow of lux.  Noir hoped no Luxins were nearby or the invisibility tactic would expose them more than hide them.

Finn grabbed the rope and jumped.  He thrust his feet out toward the wall and held tightly to the rope.  He swung and hit the wall with a soft thump.  Noir immediately created a flow of lux to bend light around Finn’s body.  Finn scurried up the rope and over the top of the battlement.  Noir forced the lux effect to follow his body as it moved.  Noir had to concentrate to keep the invisible bubble of lux around Finn and made a separate flow on his own body.  Finn whipped the rope out so Noir could catch it, then Noir repeated the same movements he’d watched Finn do as a yellow lux silhouette.  Noir pulled himself up and was glad of all the training he’d done in the wilderness near Talik.  It was not an easy task even with the rope.

Noir turned and whipped the rope out like Finn had, and created a third flow of lux.  He made Ruith invisible as well and felt his chakra begin to rapidly drain.  Maintaining three separate flows of lux also took incredible concentration.  Ruith caught the rope and swung over so he stood with his feet against the wall.  Noir was vaguely aware that Finn was pulling on the rope as Ruith climbed up, but couldn't spare the concentration for fear of messing up one of the invisibility effects.  A Tierian soldier walked directly beneath them and looked up at the sound of Ruith climbing.  After seeing nothing, he walked on.

Finn pulled Ruith up over the wall.  Finn fumbled with where he thought the rope was, found it, and immediately pulled it up.

Finn whispered, “Ruith, make the rope visible.  I can't see it to put it in my bag.”

“Ah, yes,” Ruith said.  Noir saw the yellow glow disappear and the rope looked normal in the moonlight.  Finn immediately bundled it up and stuffed away, presumably into his pack, though Noir only saw a yellow glow around the man.

“All right,” Finn whispered.  “We're in.  Now let's get off this wall before someone spots us.”  Finn put a hand out and gently grabbed Noir's arm.  “You guys are hard to see.”

“That's the idea,” Ruith said.  “Now how do we get down?”

Finn motioned with his yellow, lux shrouded head, and carefully pushed past the two blurry outlines.  Ruith and Noir followed.  Finn led them across the length of the wall toward one of the watchtowers as they had planned.  The walls in the Tierian capital were accessible only by spiral staircases that led from the ground, to the wall, and up to the top of the watchtower.

Finn crouched low and pressed himself against the outside of the opening that led to the staircase.  Noir and Ruith did the same on the other side of the entryway.  Finn held up one finger to his lips, pointed to his ear, then pointed two yellow fingers inside.

Noir listened and heard the voices of one man and one woman coming from inside.

“...told you I can sense it!” the woman warned.  She sounded anxious.  “It's very close!”

“There are several Luxins in the city, Luxin Alba,” the man said.  Their voices were getting louder as they climbed the stairs.  “You're probably sensing one of them.”

“No, it's strong, and it's getting stronger as we climb.”  Noir was suddenly aware of what the woman, whom the other man had named Luxin Alba was talking about.  She was sensing Noir using lux!  Noir immediately released the flows of lux around them and they became visible in the moonlight again.  Finn looked over at Noir and Ruith with confusion for a second, then his face changed to understanding.