Chapter 42 - Madman
"It will take about two days for the eagle to arrive, and six to eight for the Order to come," declared Thorin gloomily, wishing someone else would lead in his stead.
"What should we do until then?" Asked Regent Greg with no more than a hint of anticipation in his voice, lined with fear.
"Until then you must guard the entrance to the sewer where Mera and Pan fell, as well as the sewers around it, their main group will branch out among the remaining nine," said Thorin. "It would be nice if the regent could provide some men for the task," he pointed out.
"Of course, of course, this is my city after all," replied the regent with disguised distaste.
They then began to discuss how to secure the tunnels until the Order arrived. It took a long time but eventually they found a consensus.
The Regent would make two hundred of the wall's thousand men available to guard, as well as patrol, in case the Siaks left elsewhere.
Thorin wanted more, but the regent insisted that because his walls weren't made of salt, having too few guards on them was a risk to his people. Thorin understood what the regent meant and promised to make a request to wall Lurea to the Order, putting it to credit his contributions to the kingdom, which made the regent give up two hundred of his men and none more, saying he couldn't touch the castle's soldiers, as evil might want to attack them directly.
Which was just sophistry and of course, only fallen lords and above had enough intellect to strategize. And Thorin doubted that this was the work of a lord. If it had been, Lurea would have fallen before they could arrive.
As for the nine groups, they would stand guard in the sealed tunnel and at the outlying exits and close to it.
"Well, that's all, you're dismissed," Thorin gestured with his hand and withdrew.
The next day, Bjorn was parked in front of one of the sewer exits, stakes and detection traps set up the night before by the Regent's guards.
His group consisted of eleven now, he being the strongest of the aspirants, Thorin decided to give two of Pan's group to each other group and one to Bjorn who raised no objections.
"I thought Siaks instinctively hated liquids other than blood," commented the agile woman in Pan's group. Her name was Maria.
"That's why I don't read books about the fallen, they're all wrong," Jack replied proudly.
"Yes, of course, that's why you don't read, it's not like you're just a weakling incapable", joked Miguel mischievously.
"Want to fight you shit?" Jack replied pushing him without much force and raising both fists and jumping.
"Come if you're a man, spy, I'll hit you so hard that by the time I'm done you'll have lost an inch or two in height," said Miguel, also raising his fists with fake seriousness.
"Hush," ordered Bjorn, ending the gleeful banter.
His mood was not good, his instincts were completely against the situation. He was looking at the tunnel with a frown. Maria told that it was Pan and not the dozens of Siaks that knocked down the tunnel next to this one, not only did he do it, but he used a very powerful aspect of her own.
Bjorn couldn't believe it, just like he couldn't understand how he died, he always felt that Pan was more powerful than himself, not that he was able to fight so many Siaks alone, but he sure could run away and Pan didn't seem like the type that sacrificed.
Night soon fell and there was nothing, none of the dozens of Siaks reported by the seven. Making some doubt its veracity. But when the star was born again, one hundred and ten inhabitants were reported to have disappeared.
Which came as a shock to everyone, as it means that either the Siaks left somewhere else, or they passed the traps without stepping on any and passed where the snow had been cleared to leave no traces. Either case would be a far smarter act than they should be capable of. Not being able to do much other than patrol and guard, Bjorn and his group kept to the front of the tunnel.
"One man, one man," shouted the mad old man who was passing a few streets up, when night had fallen on the second day.
'This old man.' Bjorn thought of something. To be more exact, his instincts told him that the old man was not as simple as he seemed, insofar as being a madman carrying a lamp by day could be considered "simple".
Soon, making a decision, Bjorn snuck in unannounced to his group, in a strangely insidious move for such a large man.
He began to follow the old man who walked up and down the night, rambling on about all sorts of nonsense. He watched him until the veil held up half the night and there was no one else in the streets but himself, the old man and the guards.
Feeling tired of walking, the old man began to return to his abode. A big barrel, always busy and surrounded by dogs, he lay down on the straw, babbled some more, put out the fire and went to sleep.
It was dark and he couldn't see, but Bjorn felt the old man wasn't in the barrel anymore, his instincts were telling him nonsense over and over again. He saw with his eyes the old man lying down and with his eyes going to sleep. Not that his eyes would see much without the star.