The Fallen World

The House Wars - Part 3

     “This is war!” replied the soldier angrily. “Now get back to your friends!”

     He then ran forward to join his fellows, who'd formed a solid wall across the corridor street and were slowly pushing the Traldians back, leaving the occasional bloody corpse on the ground. The Traldians who’d been knocked out by the sleep spells were beginning to come round, but Thomas was relieved to see Konnen soldiers disarming them, tying their hands and leading them away. Lord Basil was keeping his promise, and the Konnen who’d killed the web bound Traldian must have been a rogue, disobeying orders. He strode back through the airlock, intent on reporting it to Sejanus.

     Lirenna screamed when she saw him, and Thomas realised for the first time that he was covered, almost head to foot, in drying blood. “It’s all right, it’s not mine,” he said as the demi shae grabbed him and ran her hands all over his body, checking for injuries. “I’m fine.”

     “You scared me!” accused the demi shae, hugging him in relief and unmindful of the blood thereby sticking to her own clothes. “Don’t do that to me again!”

     Thomas looked around for Sejanus and saw him about twenty yards away, emerging from his command post. The General was delighted as he listened to the battle reports, and hardly seemed to notice as Thomas reported the atrocity in an angry voice.

     “He will be disciplined,” he said absent mindedly, and then waved a hand dismissively as a Captain came back through the airlock and marched over to them, saluting smartly.

     “Sir, the enemy have retreated to a fall back position, another barricade positioned thirty yards back from the airlocks. We'll get through it, but the enemy are already bringing in reinforcements. Things'll be getting bloody up there before long."

     “Doesn't matter,” said the General, smiling with pleasure. “They’ll concentrate their forces here, so next time we’ll hit them at another airlock. We’ll wear them down, reduce their army a few men at a time.” He then turned to the three wizards. “You’ve done well. Now go back to the mansion. Rest and recover. A messenger will come for you tomorrow morning for the next push, so make sure you’ve got your spells ready.” He then turned and went back into his command post, leaving the three wizards alone and unattended in the middle of the corridor street.

     “Well, looks like we’ve got the run of the city now,” said Jerry with a sigh. “The Konnen half of it, anyway. So what do we do now?”

     “First, get a change of clothes," replied Thomas, looking down at himself. "Then take a look around. Get to know the layout of the city better. You never know when we might get a better chance. Sejanus implied that there are ways out of this city, into the tunnels of the old mines, and I’d like to find them. If we can free Shaun and Matt, that may be our way out of here.”

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     An hour later, freshly washed and with clean clothes on, they spent the rest of the day wandering around the four segments of the city controlled by House Konnen, following each of the four concentric corridors all the way from the front line with the Traldians to the still intact airlocks sealing off the dead segment once ruled by House Laxu. They also went all the way down each of the radial corridors from the sealed off park caverns to the mansions, but no matter which way they went they found only hundreds of small homes inhabited by the common folk, all of whom served the noble families in some way or another. They found no hint of any way beyond the circle of the city. Eventually, as the glowing globes of marble hanging from the ceiling grew dimmer signaling the approach of evening, they returned to the Konnen mansion and were let in by the guards on duty.

     The three wizards and Diana were delighted and relieved to see each other safe and sound again, but the wizards were angered to learn that the gentle cleric of Caroli had been forced to channel the power of Caroli up to and beyond the point of exhaustion, only being allowed to rest when she'd literally collapsed across one of the injured soldiers. She'd awoken a couple of hours later in one of the beds of the infirmary, her head still pounding from the morning's prayers, but she'd made herself get up and explore the mansion again in case there was some room or corner they'd missed earlier. She'd discovering nothing more than the others, though. If there was indeed some way out of the city, it had to be in one of the forbidden areas, guarded by grim faced soldiers who barred their way with evil laughs of derision.