She rocked her head from side to side. “Gathering inside,” she managed.
Richard’s heart missed a beat. “They’re gathering men inside to attack the palace?”
She nodded again.
“Then we’d better get in there and warn them,” Bruce said.
“Adie,” Richard said to the old woman standing right beside the wagon, “did you hear all that?”
“Yes. The general be right here. He heard as well.”
Richard looked out from under the tarp. Off in the distance to the right a little he saw a pit where there were no lines of men and wagons.
Richard pointed out from under the tarp. “Look there, around that pit. There are men standing evenly spaced around the entire area.”
“Guards,” General Meiffert confirmed.
“That has to be where they found the catacombs—down in that pit. Look at the way they’ve halted all digging between there and the plateau.”
“Why would they do that?” the general asked.
“The catacombs would be ancient. There’s no telling what condition they might be in. They don’t want to risk caving in any of the tunnels running in under the palace.”
“It must be so,” Adie said.
“How are we going to get down into the pit?” General Meiffert asked.
“If we had more royal-guard uniforms we might be able to get down in there,” Bruce suggested.
“Maybe,” Richard said, “but what about Nicci and Jillian?”
Bruce didn’t have an answer.
“They certainly couldn’t walk in there,” General Meiffert agreed, “and a wagon going down into a guarded pit would obviously be cause for suspicion.”
“Maybe,” Richard said, thinking out loud. “Maybe not.”
General Meiffert looked back over his shoulder. “What do you have in mind?”
Richard gently shook Nicci’s shoulders. “Are there books down in the catacombs?”
“Yes,” she managed.
Richard turned back to the general. “We could tell the guards that, with all the trouble in the camp tonight, the emperor wants to bring a load of important books back to his compound to be sure that they’re safe. He sent this Sister along to see to getting the books he’s concerned about. You tell them that you need them to organize a contingent of guards to escort the wagon back to the compound.”
“They’ll want to know why we didn’t bring guards with us.”
“Because of the trouble,” Bruce suggested. “Tell them that with the rioting the officers didn’t want to risk any guards taken from the duty of protecting the emperor.”
Richard nodded at the idea. “While they’re busy going off to gather us some men, we slip down into the catacombs.”
“Not all the guards are going to leave the site to go gathering up men for you,” Bruce said. “It would sound awfully suspicious if we even suggested such a thing. Any men left in the area will see the two women—especially since we’ll have to help Nicci.
“Don’t underestimate these guards. See their uniforms? These are men the emperor trusts. I know what these men are like. They aren’t fools and they’re not lazy. They don’t miss much.”
“That makes sense,” Richard said as he considered Bruce’s advice. He frowned in thought as an idea came to him. He turned to Adie. “It’s windy out tonight. Do you think you could help the wind?”
“Help the wind?” Her completely white eyes gazed at him in the dim torchlight. “What be your idea?”
“To have you use your gift to stir up the air. Some random gusts, that sort of thing. Make it appear that the wind is kicking up stronger all the time. After General Meiffert has told them to begin gathering some of their men to serve as escorts, we move the wagon down into the pit. Then an even bigger gust of wind comes through and blows out the nearby torches. When it goes dark, and before the guards can bring more torches down there to relight the ones that went out, we slip Nicci and Jillian down into the tunnels.”
“All right, so we get down into the tunnels,” General Meiffert said. “There will still be guards down there and who knows how many troops. What do you propose about that?”
Richard shared a troubled look with the man. “We have to get past them, one way or another. But you’re right, there are liable to be a lot of them.”
Bruce propped himself up on an elbow. “It will be difficult to fight in tunnels. That helps to even the odds.”
“You have a point,” General Meiffert said. “To a certain extent it doesn’t matter how many guards are down in there. They can’t swarm over us. In such confined spaces they can only have a few men at a time fighting us.”
Richard let out a sigh. “But that’s still trouble we don’t need. We’d have to walk over every guard we kill and every one of the men down there will be trying to stop us. As we force our way farther in they can surround us from behind. There are sure to be countless chambers, giving them the opportunity to come in from the sides as we advance. It’s a long way. What with helping Nicci it’s going to be more than difficult to fight our way through.”
“What choice do we have?” General Meiffert asked. “We need to get through and the only way is to eliminate anyone who tries to stop us. It won’t be easy, but it’s our only hope.”
“Catacombs be black as pitch,” Adie said in her raspy voice. “If I use my gift to snuff out all the lights down there they not be able to see us.”
“But then how can we see?” Bruce asked.
“Your gift,” Richard said to Adie as he realized her plan. “You see with your gift.”
She nodded. “I be our eyes. My eyes be blinded when I be young. I see by my gift, not by light. I use my gift to snuff out their lights, then go first into the blackness. You all follow. We be as quiet as mice. They not even know that we be slipping through their midst. If I encounter guards, I find a way to slip around them by other routes so they not know we be there. If we must, we kill them, but it be better to sneak past them.”
“That sounds to me like our best chance.” Richard glanced at Nicci before looking to each of them in turn. No one offered any objections, so he went on.
“It’s set, then. General Meiffert talks to the captain of the guards. We take the wagon down into the pit while he goes after men for an escort. Once down in the pit Adie uses her gift to bring up a gust of wind to blow out the torches. In the confusion before they can light the torches we climb down into the catacombs. They’ll probably just assume that we started in on our work of collecting the books for the emperor. Once down inside, Adie leads the way and extinguishes any light we come across. She guides us through by the safest route. Anyone in the way who tries to stop us dies.”
“Just be ready if the captain of the guard is suspicious and wants to give us trouble,” the general said.
“If need be,” Adie said, “there be trouble. I make sure of it.”
Richard nodded. “We need to hurry, though. It’s going to be light soon. We need darkness to get down in the catacombs without any of the guards seeing Nicci and Jillian. After we’re down inside it won’t matter, but out here we need to make this happen while we still have the night.”
“Then let’s get going,” the general said as he headed forward to lead the horses.
Richard glanced quickly to the eastern sky. Dawn was not far off. He and Bruce pulled the tarp down tight as the wagon began to rumble forward. Richard hoped they could get down into the eternal night of the catacombs in time.
Next to him, Nicci wept softly, unable to endure the agony, unable to summon death.
Her suffering was breaking Richard’s heart. All he could do was to squeeze her hand to let her know that she was not alone.
Richard listened to the wind howl as General Meiffert spoke in muffled words to the captain of the guard.
Richard leaned close to Nicci and whispered to her, “Hold on. It won’t be much longer.”
“I don’t think she can hear you anymore,” Jillian whispered
from just on the other side of Nicci.