The walls had emptied but for Austen's presence as Sasarai approached. The Harmonian army had little interest so far in engaging the fortress, and Salvisa worried that if they waited to use their last line of defense, it would be too late. She commanded the heated streams of metal and oil be poured down the hillside so that they would be no use to the enemy, and told the men guarding the walls retreat into the fortress. The scarred hillside smoked as hot liquid streamed down its face. Through the acrid black haze, Salvisa watched the forest. While it was all but impossible to see her own soldiers in the woods, she could tell from the movements of the Harmonians that they were moving to not just flank but surround as much as possible.
Geddoe had already departed to lead the breaking and routed ranks to some cohesion in retreat. The bearer of the True Lightning rune was a wild black shadow shrinking into the distance.
"Salvisa…" Sasarai said, breathing heavily as he dismounted his horse.
"You need to rejoin your troops." Salvisa admonished nervously.
"I know, I know. I will ride back with Geddoe as soon as I know you're safe. Get inside the fortress. I will use my Rune."
"What?" Salvisa shook her head in surprise, "No! You can't have come here for that- we have the stone-"
"It won't stand up to a seige." Sasarai said firmly, "With my True Earth Rune, I can reinforce the entrance many times over-"
"Sasarai!" Salvisa begged.
"I'll be able to rejoin the troops. Take your people underground. Protect them. I will take care of mine. Don't make that face. Remember, if you are besieged, you know that everyone else is safe so long as you are alive."
"Sasarai, don't squeeze so hard. You're hurting me." Salvisa said. She squeezed his hands back, but with nowhere near the strength. Tears were in her eyes. Sieges could last months or years. How long would she last underground?
"Go." Sasarai urged. "Austen, go with her. Please!"
Austen looked to Salvisa. She nodded. "Go."
Salvisa watched everyone disappear into the heart of the fortress before she hugged Sasarai tight, pressing his head against her chest. Tears streaked down her face against every ounce of her will. It felt like the end.
"Promise we'll see each other again." Salvisa insisted.
"You still have my ring, right?" he forced a smile. With a clasp around her waist that took Salvisa's breath away, Sasarai said, "I will always see you again."
Sasarai turned his head as they broke their embrace, wiping tears on the fabric of her shirt. She couldn't tell if he intended the motion or not.
"Let's go." Salvisa said.
Salvisa made the final steps past the stone that sealed the way from the antechamber into the fortress. The flames that lit the lamps on either side of the antechamber had already been quenched.
"I won't forget my promise." Sasarai said. The loamy smell of his magic was already ripening in the air.
"You had better not." Salvisa said. As hard as she bit down against tears, she still felt her cheeks pinch and eyes moisten. With a sudden fear, she burst out words that she was afraid she may never be able to say again, "I love you, Sasarai!"
"I love you too, Salvisa."
Already the stone that closed the entrance to the fortress at Manastash was rolling closed under Sasarai's will. As it fell into place, the rock surrounding it flowed and merged from every side until it was impossible to tell that there had been opening there in the first place. Torchlight flickered behind Salvisa to illuminate the only where there was to go: forward.
All around her people seethed with questions and worry. Siege was never a pleasant prospect, and their survival would depend wholly on how long they could last on what was stored inside the fortress. Even that supposed that there would be no outbreak of disease in these close quarters. She resolutely strode down to the main hall, waving off questions that peppered her until she reached the Tablet of Stars.
Standing before the Tablet, Salvisa said above the soldiers and civilians gathered, "I will not lie to you. The days ahead of us will not be easy. The entrance to our fortress is sealed, and it may be a long time before we are rescued. We may need to find some way of saving ourselves. But on my honor, I will not let any of my concerns come before yours. If the course of your opinion ever turns to surrender, my love for you will come far before pride. I will give up my life before I ever let any of you come to harm as long as you stand with me."
Her reception to that message was mixed, as expected. The questions from the crowd turned from a confused murmur of fear, anger, faith, and heartache to a unified demand of, "Where next?"
"We have stocks here for some three months." Salvisa said, calculating back from what she knew her quartermaster had said they had to support both the able fighters and the civilians. "If you wish to stay in the core of the fortress, we will survive for longer than that under strict rations. I will take scouts into the tunnels. There are signs that there is more than one way into Manastash Fortress, and whatever exit there is will surely be far from Crystal Palace or so unknown we may be able to crush our enemies from within."
The last statement brought a roar of relief. Salvisa kept her face as unreadable as she could. She could not rely too much on the tunnels being an easy strike upon Harmonia, or even escape. She was ready to surrender, but that would give the only way to keep the Rune of Decay out of the hands of the Bishops and to keep the Ashen Future at bay. And should she manage to escape again, would that fatal cheating of the Harmonians would be retaliated against? Could she sacrifice a city for the sake of the world?
Salvisa dismissed herself and sent for Austen, Walse, and Celsian to join her in the war room. Walse was as dour as ever, though less so than the first time he and his village had been sealed inside behind the stone door of Manastash Fortress. That time had been a blessed false alarm, but still had given Walse only a begrudging faith in Salvisa. Celsian, the dwarf who had cleared that final rock fall and declared the air was wrong for a dead-end, even one with columns pierce through the earth for air. Salvisa couldn't tell north from south so far underground, but Celsian was able to predict not only direction but grade of the earth beneath his feet.
"You're pale." Walse said.
"Should I not be?" Salvisa snapped, her cheeks regaining a sudden color before she calmed down again, "Yes. I am. Either we are all saved or all doomed, which is why I have you three here. Walse, the people hear your words better than mine. I want you to know everything that Celsian and I discuss, so you may tell them the truth when they ask it."
Walse nodded.
"Thank you. Austen, I want you to help Walse choose his words if necessary. And help manage the fortress while I am gone. I must first see for myself what is ahead in these tunnels before I can ask anyone to follow. I will have at least Corbin on my team to get word back of whatever I find as soon as possible. What do you think?" Salvisa asked Austen.
Her young strategist looked uneasy. "There's no way even Dad would have known to attack through the woods."
"We're past that, Austen."
"I'm saying, Salvisa, we're compromised. Someone is a spy!"
Salvisa felt a jolt course down her spine. It wasn't a thought she wanted to start, or had any desire to go down the path to finish. "Well, then they won't have an easy time spying on us now." she said sourly. Underneath her hot reply she froze with fear and humiliation. Softly, Salvisa said, "Our traitor is either with us, or with Sasarai and our fighters. Let us hope it's with us, and that we can find him before we are more ruined. Walse, don't let this suspicion get out. We are too many people in too small a space, under too much pressure to deal with these accusations. Let Austen and I find a quiet way to find our spy."
Neither Walse nor Celsian seemed perturbed as they left the war room. Either they were entirely faithful in their leader's skill, or too clever to show they were not. Austen waited until the door was closed to speak more of his mind.
"Do you have any ideas who we may need to investigate?" he asked.
"I haven't even thought so far. Yuber? He's wild and a traitor, so I've heard. If him, then Lop as well. But…" Salvisa sighed, "Yuber is too plain with things. I can't see him harboring a secret, he would just switch sides. We've had so many people join us from Harmonia's second-class citizens, and I can't outrule third class citizens either."
Salvisa shook her head, admitting, "If we have a traitor, I don't think it's anyone I've travelled with. And I've spent so much time outside of Manastash, I don't know well enough who could be suspicious."
"I'll think of something then. When will you head to the tunnels?"
"As soon as I can find people willing to go with me. Celsian is a must, the others will need to volunteer."
Salvisa met the next morning at the mouth of the tunnel that led out of Manastash Fort proper. She had several ponies at her side, laden with supplies. There was no telling how far they might go, or how long it would take. Celsian waited with her while she waited for Lop and Corbin to join up. Unprompted, Celsian spent most of that time detailing what he had found and what he expected to see further on in the tunnels. Most of Celsian's words were mining jargon and types of rock formations.
What Salvisa understood encouraged her. What Celsian had seen of the tunnels ahead appeared to be a sort of ruins- Salvisa immediately leapt to the idea that they might have been the same Sindar ruins that formed the rest of the rooms under the hill at Manastash. Celsian spoke of smoothly paved stone and an aqueduct beyond the rockfall.
When the rest of the group arrived, Salvisa could only exclaim, "Freia! You too!?"
Her concern was more than that Freia was not someone she had requested to appear for an uncertain journey. Salvisa had suspected her recent weight gain to be a little more than returning health, especially given concerns from Freia and her mother about the young woman's monthly irregularities as of late. Salvisa had prayed that it was nothing more than stress, as Salvisa herself had known in her years in the Temple Guard.
"Yes. Me too." Freia said icily. "I've helped you before, why not now?"
Salvisa hesitated before saying, "I hadn't asked for you. If you feel comfortable with the risk you take, I will gladly have you here."
"Lop will keep me safe." Freia scowled.
"You can keep your own self safe too, I hope."
Salvisa grit her teeth. By now Lop and Corbin had arrived. She needed to make her way forward under Celsian's guidance as soon as possible. The threat of starvation and capture was the only thing that lay behind them. Blind hope lay ahead.
