“But the fire must be sustained long enough for the heat to deteriorate, or cook if you will, the meat, of the corpses. The eyes of the undead are not how it sees, so blinding, or burning the face is pointless. Also, there is a theory about. . .”
And so it went well into the night. Ultimately, Queen Willa ordered that the people would be evacuated into a tunnel, which led from a mock cathedral behind the palace, out under all of the city walls, into the foothills near Jenkanta. The tunnel was nearly two miles long, and wide enough for two wagons to pass each other. The dwarves had dug the passage ages ago. No one was certain why, but it was there, and they were going to use it.
The Blacksword soldiers from Jenkanta and the port cities were massing at the far end, to guard it from Pael’s soldiers. There were several collapsible sections, so if Pael’s undead came after them, from the palace end, the way could be blocked off. Willa’s intent though, was to pack the people into the passage, and use it as a shelter. Only in the event that Xwarda was about to fall, would she give the order for the Jenkanta guards to open the other end of the gate and let the people chance a run through the hills to Jenkanta. If it came to that, Willa knew that her people would be alone in their struggle to survive. The best she could do, if Xwarda fell, was guarantee that they weren’t being pursued when they started out of the passage.
While General Spyra and the Magi made their defensive and offensive battle plans, the Mayor, the Queen, and the Commander of the City Guard made the plans to evacuate the city.
Queen Willa insisted that the poor folk, the ones packed into the space between the outer wall and the secondary wall, would go into the tunnel first. Mayor Parooka argued that the merchants and the nobles of the city should go first, but Willa would not budge. Even as they worked out the details of food and water distribution, and relief stations for the evacuees, she had Commander Strate start the common folk in from the outer bailey.
Her reasoning was sound. She was sure that Pael’s undead army would be visible at dawn, exactly as he had promised. It would be better for the simple-minded people to be long into the tunnel, before the rumors of undying men, and dark-hearted wizards started coming down from the walls. The terror and chaos that would ensue, might turn riotous, and ruin any chance of moving troops through the city.
She told Mayor Parooka that it’s the duty of the noble born and the wealthy to take care of those that give them station, and coin, not the other way around. The Mayor could only nod in agreement, and hope to find a way to sneak the families of the men, that had already paid him bribes for protection, to the front of the procession.
Confident that her orders would be carried out, Queen Willa took her leave of the council, and made her way through the castle, down into its bowels, to the ancient temple of Doon.
It was only a small room in the depths of the palace’s main structure; hard to find if you didn’t know what you were looking for. The god of the underground was only worshiped these days by the few dwarves that lived on the surface, and a handful of others. Queen Willa wasn’t one of them, but she hoped to find Andra there, and she did.
The dwarfess was in the almost completely darkened chamber, sobbing, and huddled on one of the stone-worked pews. She was up near the altar, which was made entirely of carved jade, chased in gold and silver, and studded, here and there, with precious stones. It sparkled wildly under the scant flickering light of a three-pronged candelabra that rested atop it. It was the only illumination in the high-ceilinged room, and its light faded before reaching any of the walls, save for the one directly behind the altar. Andra’s sniffles and snorts reverberated up into the darkened heights, but stopped when the sound of Queen Willa’s footfalls came upon her.
“It’ll be all right, dear Andra,” Queen Willa said, stepping over Andra’s stumpy legs, so that she could sit beside her friend.
“Oh Willa, he’s out there! He’s outside the walls, with that elf, and all those dead men!”
She turned to the Queen and clung to her, burying her bearded face in the Queen’s bosom. Then she let out a sobbing wail of despair.
Queen Willa lovingly patted the dwarfess, and hugged her tightly.
“Come now. Dugak knows the tunnels as well as any alive. He will come back soon.”
Willa’s eyes were looking over Andra, and had settled on the shadowy shape of the horn that rested on top of the altar.
“But he doesn’t know to use the tunnels.” Andra looked up miserably at the Queen. “He and Vaegon don’t know about that horrible wizard yet.”
She sniffed, and with a child-like swipe of her forearm, wiped the mucus from her mouth and mustache, and tried to gather herself.
“If I blew the horn, would they come?” Willa asked absently.
Her eyes looked forward, but they were focused on another time and place, somewhere far beyond the walls of the darkened temple.
Andra followed the Queen’s eyes to the glittering altar.