7.
Northern Gates (Part 1) 10: Chapter 7.
Northern Gates (Part 1) 251 AC.
Tyrosh.
Irat Rexarion.
“This is bad,” Berik lamented, pacing around the dark alley we’d chosen as our spot.
“Really bad.” That was the last straw for the usually calm John.
He jumped up from his place and, closing the distance between himself and Berik, grabbed the latter by the collar.
“If you don’t shut up, I swear…” he began to threaten, grinding out the words through his teeth.
Magok watched the whole thing tensely, clearly ready to intervene at any moment.
The situation was starting to irritate me, and the extra noise my comrades were making wasn’t helping.
Any rustle now could draw the attention of the city watch, which we needed to avoid at all costs.
I took a few deep breaths to curb the anger building inside me, reasonably deciding that it, combined with the use of my power, would attract even more attention than these two idiots.
“Both of you, shut up,” I ordered, enunciating each word clearly, looking at the arguing mercenaries with grim determination.
“Or I’ll cut both your throats.” Surprisingly, they heeded my words and silently moved away from each other.
There must have been something convincing enough in my tone.
Or maybe they just decided not to test whether I meant what I said, thereby saving their worthless lives.
Looking at the summer islander, I noticed approval in his eyes.
Pushing aside unnecessary thoughts, I pressed myself against the wall of the building and carefully peered around the corner.
About twenty meters away, two guards stood in the middle of the street leading straight to the city’s northern gates, chatting with each other.
“How did it come to this?” flashed through my mind as I ducked back into the darkness of the alley.
I slid down to the ground and squatted, my back against the wall, recalling the events that had led to this moment.
Rob’s words had proven prophetic.
This wasn’t an ordinary contract.
The Golden Company had been tasked with capturing Tyrosh in a single night.
No matter how I looked at it, I couldn’t figure out how we were supposed to pull that off with only a thousand men.
But as Mark explained, all we had to do was open the gates so the rest of the company, who had landed on the other side of the city, could enter unopposed.
The captain ordered the thousand to disperse throughout the city and quietly cut down any guards or citizens unlucky enough to be nearby.
Slowly, we made our way toward the city walls, where each squad was assigned a different sector.
Our squad drew the task of opening the northern gates and letting the main force into the city.
But, as they say: “If something can go wrong, it will.” Shortly before this, our squad had been forced to split up.
We’d run into a large patrol of city guards.
To avoid getting bogged down in an unnecessary fight, Mark ordered us to split up and go around them.
Otherwise, we risked wasting time on a completely useless battle.
“This whole situation stank from the very beginning,” I thought, looking at the mercenaries who’d managed to reach the rendezvous point.
“And how are we supposed to take the gates with just four men?” Waiting any longer for the rest of the squad could end badly.
Not to mention that further delay could jeopardize the entire plan.
Peeking around the corner of the building again, I scanned the entire street.
There was no way to slip past the guards unseen.
That left only one option.
“Magok,” I called to the dark-skinned mercenary, getting his attention.
“Can you take out one of the guards?” The summer islander nodded, gripping his bow tighter.
“Good,” I said, pulling the knife from my belt, the same blade that had already claimed a couple of lives.
“We move on my signal.” Just as I was about to set my plan in motion, an indignant shout stopped me.
“Hey, newbie, since when are you giving orders?” Berik said, stepping closer and putting his hand on my shoulder.
Anger and irritation flared up inside me again, and I lost control.
I spun around, shaking his hand off, but I wasn’t done.
Grabbing him by the throat, I slammed him against the wall of the building, hard enough that his head thumped against the stone.
“Because someone has to,” I practically hissed in his face, pressing my knife to his throat.
“John doesn’t want to.
Magok’s too quiet for this.
And you, you useless idiot, can’t do anything but whine.
Got it?” “Gkh…” he wheezed, starting to turn blue, and I was forced to let him go.
Berik slid to the ground, greedily gasping for the air he so desperately needed.
I turned back to what I was doing.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the summer islander had already nocked an arrow and was just waiting for my command.
Peeking around the corner one more time, I made sure our scuffle hadn’t attracted the guards’ attention.
I nodded to Magok before stepping out of the alley.
Lowering the gravitational pull on myself below normal levels, I made my steps light and nearly silent and darted toward my targets, practically skimming over the ground.
Along the way, I picked up a small pebble and tossed it to the side.
The stone, hitting an obstacle, made a sound that drew the guards’ attention.
That was the moment I chose to signal the archer.
The barely audible twang of the bowstring, the whistle of the flying arrow cutting through the air, and the guard standing behind his partner crumpled to the ground like a sack of potatoes.
The sound of the falling body and the death rattle made the second unfortunate man turn around.
Unfortunately for him, I was already close enough to slash my knife across his unprotected throat.
The man, staring at me in disbelief, collapsed to his knees with a wheeze and tried to clamp his hand over the wound.
Blood seeped through his fingers, making his attempts useless.
After a few moments, he fell to the ground completely, a large pool of crimson spreading beneath him.
A familiar wave of vitality washed over me, bringing a surge of energy and what felt like renewed strength.
Shaking my head and pushing away the intrusive thoughts, I gestured for my comrades to come closer.
I crouched down next to the fallen enemies, thinking about our next move.
To take the gates with only four men, we needed a plan, even if it was a crazy one.
After examining the bodies, which were now soaking the ground with blood, an idea came to me.
When my comrades reached me, I was already searching the bodies for a flask of water or any other liquid.
“Magok, John, go ahead and scout the area,” I gave the orders to the others as I stood up.
“Once you reach the gates, don’t draw attention to yourselves.
Find out how many guards there are, what they’re armed with, and how many archers they have.
Also, if you can, figure out where the mechanism to open the gates is.” The two fighters nodded and quickly disappeared in the direction of the northern gates.
“And me?” Berik asked quietly, a hint of fear in his voice.
“You’re going to help me drag the bodies.” It took a few minutes to drag the corpses into the alley that had become our makeshift base.
Once we were hidden, I started stripping the armor off the guards.
“What are you doing?” the mercenary asked, surprised.
“This isn’t the time for looting.” “Shut up and strip the other one,” I said darkly, glaring at my ever-complaining comrade.
“What?” the man asked, even more surprised, taking a step back.
“Don’t make me repeat myself,” I said, tired and somewhat angry.
“Strip the other one, idiot.
We’re going to disguise ourselves as guards.” It took Berik about a minute to grasp the meaning of my words.
By then, I had already stripped the gear off one of the guards, the one I’d slit the throat of.
I tried to mask the bloodstains with a flask of watered-down wine.
The result was far from satisfactory, so I could only hope the darkness would hide the rest.
“What are you doing?” I heard a familiar voice as I was pulling on the wine-and-blood-stained guard’s cloak.
I turned toward the voice and saw a somewhat battered Rob and the hulking Ross.
“If you hadn’t noticed, we’re disguising ourselves as guards,” I said with a hint of irony.
“Where are the others?” “Edd’s dead,” Ross spat in frustration.
“As for the rest, who knows where they’re wandering.
But I suspect they’re in the same boat as Edd.” Rob, who’d been silent until then, walked over to Berik and took the guard’s uniform from his hands, pulling off his own gear as he did.
“What?” he asked when our gazes converged on him.
“It’d hang off Berik like a sack.” He pointed at the rather gaunt Berik, who gave himself a critical look.
“Good point,” I agreed, turning my attention back to Ross.
“So what happened?” “After we split up,” Ross began, averting his gaze from the changing soldier, “I ran into Rob, and together we found Edd fighting some guards.
We were just a little too late.” “Understood,” I muttered, adjusting the cloak.
“Sorry it turned out that way.”