Chapter 16 – Baiting the Enemy
"I wish the Archbishop was here," Mercedes said, looking out from the ramparts. "She would have a plan for this."
Annette silently agreed. Even when faced with impossible odds, their professor always steered them to victory no matter what. "So what now?" she asked, glancing at Dimitri.
The king's face was grim, as were those of the soldiers behind him. His eyes darted around the battlefield, searching for a solution. "We need a distraction of some kind. Something to pull them away." He pointed to a forest off to their right in the distance. "If we can create a temporary gap, the people could flee to the forest. From there, they could make it to Garreg Mach."
"What do we use to pull them away?" Annette asked. "They have the town. The only other thing I can think they'd want is you." Then she spotted that wild gleam of his. "Wait, hold on."
Too late. The crazy notion was firmly rooted in his thoughts. "I was supposed to be bait, remember?"
"To draw them out so we could ambush them. Not so you could have one last shot at your death wish."
"I don't plan to die today," he said, hefting up his lance on his shoulder and looking down at her. "But I'm also not letting any more of my people perish. So unless either of you have a better idea?" Neither did and Annette groaned, looking out at the large enemy force. "We better regroup with the others."
As they climbed down the stairs, Mercedes said, "The professor's going to be mad with risking yourself like this."
He flinched for a moment. "Well, she'd do the same thing. And she doesn't need to know about this. Everything will be fine. Trust me."
"Just as long as you let us help you. Don't run off by yourself."
He smirked and cocked his head at her. "Hey, it's me." That failed to instill them with much confidence in the plan.
"What about Felix?" Annette asked.
"We have to return to the castle for now," he said. "Besides, something tells me that Felix is making his way there too."
"But we can't leave him with those people."
He sighed and stopped at the bottom of the stairwell, sending the soldiers onwards. "I don't think they'll hurt him. Not right now. If he's the real Felix, then you may be right that he's been bewitched or they have control over him somehow. Which means they need him for some reason. If anything, he's safer than we are at the moment."
That thought comforted her. Still, she wanted to find him soon. Please stay safe. For me.
It didn't take them long to reach the castle by retracing their route, keeping watch for any rebels on the way. They picked up a few more civilians, sending them immediately to the infirmary once they were through the castle doors.
"My lord," Gustave greeted Dimitri with a bow. Behind them, the soldiers resealed the large doors with a thick, heavy drawbar.
"How many did you find?"
"Some seventy to eighty fighting men. And many more townsfolk. It seems the rebels rounded up the rest. We don't know where they're holding them hostage."
Dimitri glanced at Annette and Mercedes. They all had the same thought: the army outside the walls. Any prisoners must be there. At least they were alive for the moment.
"Gather Ingrid, Dorothea, and Bernadetta in the Great Hall. I have a plan, but I'll need their help. See that the main exits to the castle are guarded. The enemy may be here soon."
Within minutes, Gustave assembled the rest of the former Garreg Mach students in the Great Hall. He shut the door, securely locking it, and then nodded to the king.
"I'll share the good news first," Dimitri said, looking round at everyone. "We've secured the gate. Our own people are disguised as the enemy and are manning it at the moment." A collective sigh of relief swept through the room and everyone's faces perked up. "With careful movement, we should be able to evacuate the people to the nearby forest and send them to Garreg Mach."
Ever one to sour the mood, Bernadetta piped up. "What's the bad news?"
He bit his lip and leaned on the table in front of him. "The bad news is the enemy force is larger than we anticipated. Much larger and they're camped outside, waiting for us to try to escape. They might be holding the remaining hostages as well."
"Great," Ingrid said, crossing her arms. "What else?"
"Felix," he said. "We found him, but…" He glanced at Annette and she knew what he was about to say. Despite their hopes, he had to tell them exactly what they saw, for their own protection should they run across Felix. "It seems like he may have defected. We're not sure," he added quickly, cutting off the rising questions. "All we know is that he's with the enemy and seems to be working with them. So if you come across him, treat him as a threat
The bright-eyed faces quickly turned gloomy as everyone absorbed the news. Ingrid appeared as hard hit by Felix's betrayal as Annette. A childhood friend you thought you knew for years turning their back on you. Annette sympathized with her as best as she could and patted her friend's shoulder. Ingrid nodded a silent thanks.
"I have a plan though to ensure everyone's safety," Dimitri continued. "The rebels are after me. That much is obvious. So I'm going to lure them out."
"You intend to use yourself as bait?" Gustave asked. "My lord, please-"
"It's no use," Annette said. "We already tried to dissuade him."
"As I was saying, I'll make it look like I'm trying to escape from the rear of the castle. That should draw most, if not all of the army camped outside to me and allow the townspeople to escape."
"And what about you?" Ingrid asked. "You're not going to get yourself killed like that."
"No, I plan to stay in the castle and defend it until they are far from the city. Once the people are safe, I'll fight my way out." Yet he didn't sound like he believed that possible either. "I'll not abandon Fhirdiad in its most desperate hour."
Everyone watched him for a few moments. Then Ingrid stepped forward. "Nor will I."
"Me either," Annette said, joining her. Mercedes and Gustave voiced their support too. Dorothea chuckled and shook her head, stepping up all the same.
At last, Bernadetta shuffled forward, moaning in remorse. "We're all gonna die."
Dimitri grinned and straightened. "Let's get to work. We'll need to move fast."
"If I didn't know better, I'd say you were leading us in circles," Pittacus grumbled and stepped over more debris. A few blocks behind them, Anaximandros and other groups of rebels checked any still standing houses, searching for hiding citizens or soldiers.
"Next time, don't raze the city," Felix said. "First you say the king left the castle, now you say he returned to it. It's not my fault we have to go the long way around all this." He waved a hand at yet another pile of collapsed rock and wood that blocked off a normally long, simple path down the road. He turned left into a cramped street and scanned the signs, trying to recall the best path to the castle.
"A little less complaining, a little more navigating," she shot back.
Felix wasn't keeping as much an eye out for the king as he was the king's companions. Word reached them that the king was traveling with a contingent of soldiers, a priestess, and a red-haired mage. Felix only hoped that all of them returned to the castle, lest Annette get caught in the fighting somewhere around here.
After all, despite Anaximandros' promise, more citizens and soldiers died here and there. The rebels swore those killed hadn't surrendered each time.
Suddenly, someone shouted from behind them. Felix and Pittacus stopped with their own band of soldiers, turning around. Anaximandros and Dolofonos approached them. The way Dolofonos stayed a few steps behind shook Felix. It was typical of an assassin, but he had a strange sensation of Dolofonos somewhere else. A room with nobles, waiting in the corner, and someone important in the center. A child with a knife at their throat.
The music blared, almost drowning out Anaximandros. "Word from Chilon. Looks like the king's making a break for it."
"Where?" Pittacus asked.
"The rear of the castle." Then he faced Felix. "We need to hurry. Bias is already mobilizing a bulk of our force outside to cut him off."
"Right, follow me."
They navigated the narrow streets, doubling back a few times at dead ends or streets still on fire. Even Anaximandros cursed the destruction and Felix threw him an "I told you so" look.
They had a little luck at a market square that was relatively untouched. The detachment sprinted through it, some of the rebels smashing market stalls or throwing aside wagons for the thrill of it. Felix didn't bother reprimanding them. Their goal was in sight now.
As they left the square and returned to the twisting streets of debris and burning houses, Felix spotted a figure darting from house to house. Followed by another, then another. Not the king. No, the first was a soldier and the rest were townspeople.
He slowed down, letting the others run ahead, and stepped to the side. From his angle, he saw the soldier beckoning from behind a partial wall. More people ran to the soldier and hurried onward. Felix realized that they were escaping.
Bringing up the rear were older citizens. An especially elderly man leaned on one of the soldiers for support, shuffling along as fast as his cane would allow.
"See something?" Anaximandros called back to Felix.
He turned from the sight and shook his head. "Thought I did, but it was just my imagination." He wasn't about to give the hired thugs with them the satisfaction of torturing more innocents. Those people deserved the chance to escape the city. "Let's get going."
It occurred to Felix that with their army outside re-deploying, the townspeople had a better chance of avoiding capture. Dimitri intends to use himself as bait. A foolish move, like most of the king's decisions. Yet unusually noble. Did he have a change of heart now that he realized he lost? Did he plan to surrender?
Whatever the case, they pressed on, heading for the castle in the distance.
After the citizens left the castle, Dimitri set everyone to work shoring up the defenses. Whatever furniture wasn't nailed down, they packed against any doors and windows, blocking them off. Aside from the front gate, they allowed one side door open at Ingrid's insistence. "Once we've given the people enough time, we can get out that way."
Annette kept herself busy, carrying chairs, wooden beams, and whatever else back and forth throughout the halls. For whenever she stopped for a moment, she kept thinking of the approaching army. And Felix.
As Annette adjusted a dresser in front of a window and piled on top of it any heavy objects she scrounged up nearby, Dorothea took a seat beside her, fanning herself. "You're just full of energy, aren't you?" she commented, watching Annette lug an empty rusted chamber pot onto the dresser and load it down with books.
"Don't have time to rest," she said, stepping back for a moment. She spied a small footstool and snatched that up for the barricade. "And it keeps my mind on the now."
"Right, the army," Dorothea said.
"Yeah." Annette straightened and re-straightened the footstool on the dresser.
"Felix too?"
She glanced at Dorothea, who offered a sympathetic frown. Annette nodded. "Yeah, him too."
"And you don't know why? He didn't say anything?"
"No. Nothing. Well," she turned around and leaned against their barricade. "He has been acting strange ever since we found him. I thought it might be because of how long he was held for. But it wasn't quite that."
"What do you mean?"
She thought for a moment, trying to find the right words to describe it. "It was like he was lost." Then the perfect description hit her and she slowly added, "Lost part of his memories."
"Amnesia?"
"No, I don't think so. He remembered all of us. However, he didn't remember other things."
"Like what?"
Their first kiss. Their discussion about their relationship before his kidnapping. "Just things."
Dorothea seemed to pick up on the subtext and rubbed her chin sagely. "I see. Anything else?"
She shook her head at first, then stopped. "Yes. Headaches. He kept getting these bad headaches now and then."
"Random?"
"I don't think so. It only happened sometimes. Some were worse than others."
Dorothea leaned forward. "When they were worse, was it because of anything specific?" There had been the curio shop and she explained that to Dorothea. "Was there something unusual in the shop? Anything out of the ordinary?"
"Not really. We just looked around." She paused. "I was singing a little song to myself."
"Were you singing it any other time?"
"At the rebel's hideout in the mountains," she said. Felix had appeared in a terrible state there, but that was no surprise. Beatings and starvation would do that to any normal person. "Otherwise, he got little ones here and there. Why?"
The taller woman pursed her lips and mumbled to herself. "There was something Manuela once told me during our time at the Mittelfrank Opera Company. She believed there was a certain power to music. That it could uplift the soul, mend a broken heart. But she sometimes wondered if there was some magic to it."
"Magic in music?"
"She didn't know for sure. After all, she learned medicine from her various connections. But there were stories she heard that music could be used for some kind of magic. To break curses. Or inflict them."
"Was she ever able to do it?"
Dorothea shrugged. "Not that I know of. Have you ever come across anything like that in your studies?"
Annette pondered the question, running through every tome and document she ever laid eyes on. There was very little about music, but she did remember one tidbit of information. "It was speculated that long ago, there were rhythms used in some ritual spells. Like a chant or a mantra repeated over and over. Nobody seems to agree on what they could've been – sacrifices, prayers for a good harvest, or some other branch of lost magic."
"Is it possible then that Those Who Slither in the Dark may have used some ancient or lost magic on Felix?" Dorothea suggested. "Maybe then your singing is having an effect on it."
"So we need to confront Felix and all sing at him?"
"If that's what it takes."
A rumbling boom resounded outside, a blast of magic destroying something heavy. It sounded close to the castle. Too close for Annette's liking. "How are we supposed to do that with all the fighting going on?"
"We simply trap him and cut him off from his allies. If he's under their control somehow, then if we keep them from him long enough to break their spell, perhaps he would return to normal. Assuming he is under a spell and not, well…" She didn't voice the other worrying concern tearing at Annette's heart, but she understood all too well.
If Felix was truly a traitor, they would need to slay him. Yet if there was a chance, even the tiniest chance she could save him, return him to the man she loved, then she would gladly take it. "Let's do it." She grabbed Dorothea's hand and pulled her to her feet. "First, let's find Dimitri. We need to tell him too."