Bleached Bones in the Dust, page 7
Arnold gestured and three men stepped forward. They each grabbed one of their new captives and maneuvered them toward the nearest building. Montgomery didn’t struggle, figuring that he’d expected to die so he’d accept imprisonment.
Nick also went quietly, but Lomax fought his attacker and threw him off, forcing another man to step up and help the first drag him along. Lomax fought for every step of the way, but they still led him to the door.
The building was a large square construction which, when one man dragged open the door, turned out to have walls that were a yard thick, suggesting it had probably been an armory. Lomax’s captors moved to shove him through the door first, but when they were in the doorway Arnold called out for them to halt.
“Are you ready to listen?” Lomax said, the demand making Arnold snort with anger.
“Two will still die,” he said, pointing at Lomax. “When I open up the armory I will either have the truth about the gold or I will pick the ringleaders of your latest rebellion.”
Arnold gestured and the men pushed Lomax inside, where he went sprawling on his knees. Then they shoved Montgomery and Nick in after him and slammed the thick door shut behind them.
A heavy latch fell into place as the light level cut off to just the thin stream of light outlining the door. Lomax lay in that line of light, breathing deeply.
“You know what that taunt means, don’t you?” he said, his tone hollow and haunted.
“I understand,” Montgomery said. “Arnold wants blood and he’ll choose two people from among the townsfolk to provide it.”
Montgomery knew that threat should concern him but, since they had surrendered and then callously turned their backs on him, right now he couldn’t bring himself to care.
“I know, and those ringleaders will be two from Dean, James and . . . and Elizabeth.”
“If you really do live in Sunrise, that might worry you, so maybe you should save them and tell Arnold about the gold.”
“The truth about the gold is what Arnold put us in here to decide.” Lomax moved around until he was sitting facing them. He grinned. “The door is locked. None of us are going anywhere. So we can decide the matter between us.”
Montgomery nodded. For twenty years he had hoped he would one day get the chance to make Lomax pay for his crimes, and now it would seem that fate had provided him with that chance.
He nudged Nick, urging him to retreat into a corner. Then he moved along the wall into the shadows. Nick sighed and with some reluctance he did as ordered.
“Are you going to tell me about the gold first?” Montgomery said, flexing his fists. “So I can save my own life afterward.”
Lomax snorted with grim humor. “You won’t get the chance. I’ll be the one who explains the situation to Arnold, and your two’s deaths should satisfy him.”
Montgomery shook his head, words of anger on his lips, but they died when, with relish, Lomax reached to his boot and withdrew a short knife. The blade caught a stray beam of light, highlighting its sharp edge.
Lomax stood up and crouched with the knife thrust out. Then, with an eager gleam in his eye, he backed away to the wall behind him. He reached back and slapped it. Then he walked to the wall to his left and slapped that. His gestures made it obvious that they were trapped in this room and there was no way to avoid this fight.
“Stay in the corner,” Montgomery said to Nick.
Nick shook his head and moved over to stand beside Montgomery.
“If he’s got a knife, I’m not keeping back,” he said. “We can get him together.”
Lomax chuckled with confidence. “A man with a knife is worth two men without one.”
“But not when the man with the knife is as worthless as you are,” Nick said.
This taunt made Lomax shift his attention away from Montgomery and move in toward Nick. Montgomery reckoned that that had been Nick’s plan. If he could make him divide his attention between them, that would give them their best chance of avoiding the blade.
The room was twenty feet square. Montgomery’s eyes now having become accustomed to the low light level, it was clear that there were no obstacles or even dirt on the floor he could kick into Lomax’s face.
So he moved to the side, as did Nick. Lomax followed their motion and slowly the three men closed on each other while circling. They’d completed a full circle when Lomax made his first aggressive move. He darted in and swung a wild scything blow at Nick’s chest, who stepped to the side easily letting the blade whistle by several feet short.
Lomax laughed. “You sure are scared of this blade. I can’t wait to see you bleed.”
Nick gave a quick beckoning gesture. “I can’t wait to see you get your own knife stuck in your throat.”
Lomax moved in again, but this time Nick was moving past a corner. He had to press his back to the wall to evade the blade and then scurry off to the next corner to avoid reprisals. Nick’s ungainly progress made Lomax utter a confident snort of laughter.
Then he followed him, seeking to trap him in the next corner, but Nick scampered away. So Lomax stomped to a halt and then moved in the opposite direction, aiming to catch him when he came around to meet him.
Montgomery reckoned Nick had done enough for now in taking Lomax on. He spread his arms to get Lomax’s attention. Then he took slow paces toward him. Lomax stopped and shifted his attention back to him.
Montgomery halted just out of the range of Lomax’s knife arm, and then rocked from side to side looking for an opening where he could reach him without being stabbed. He feinted to Lomax’s left, but Lomax didn’t move and instead he favored him with a grin that said he knew what Montgomery would do next.
Despite his apparent confident air, Montgomery again feinted, and again he was ignored. He feinted to his right, and then, in a rapid change of direction he went to his left. This time he followed through.
He had aimed to leap forward and barge into Lomax’s legs with his body and topple him, but Lomax followed his movement and thrust his right hand down. The knife arced toward him.
It would have sliced into his shoulder if he hadn’t stopped his motion and converted it into a roll to the side and away from Lomax. Lomax jerked forward to follow him, but then Nick used the opening to attempt what Montgomery had tried and threw himself forward.
Again the quick-witted Lomax turned on his heel and scythed the knife around, forcing Nick to slide to a halt and then leap backward with his arms spread. The knife whistled through the air a few inches short of his exposed chest.
Montgomery was still lying where he’d landed. Lomax followed through with a second wild slash. This time Nick stood his ground and ducked away from the blow. The blade sliced through a trailing sleeve, narrowly missing flesh, but now, with them being so close together, Nick risked lunging for Lomax’s knife arm.
His fingers brushed Lomax’s forearm, but in his first desperate act Lomax tore his arm away and then thrust a short-armed jab at Nick’s belly. Only Nick’s hunched stance saved him and the blade merely sliced through his jacket to emerge short of his held-in stomach.
Montgomery was now rolling to his feet, but Nick didn’t wait for him to provide a distraction. He scrambled out of range. He managed a single pace, but in his haste his ankle turned and he stumbled to his knees.
With a cry of triumph Lomax darted forward aiming to stick Nick in the kidneys from behind, but the apparent opening took his attention away from Montgomery and Montgomery made him pay. He charged at him, giving himself no chance of moving away if Lomax turned on him.
He pounded for three long paces and then leaped forward as Lomax lunged with what would have been a crippling blow. With his feet off the floor Montgomery slammed into Lomax’s side and knocked him over before the knife could cut into the downed man.
The two men hit the floor and then rolled over entangled. When they came to a halt Montgomery was lying on top of him, but he didn’t have a grip of Lomax’s knife hand, so he raised himself while reaching for it.
Light flashed as Lomax tore his arm up from the ground and the knife came around, aiming for his neck. Montgomery flinched away, and then continued the motion and rolled. He expected to feel the blade stab into him from behind, but he rolled once and then twice without pain.
Then he fetched up against the wall. His head jarred against the stone and, momentarily stunned, he took valuable seconds to gather his senses. When he moved to rise he was too late. Lomax had followed him and was already putting all his strength into a slashing blow that would rip into his face.
Montgomery threw up an arm to take the blow while wincing. Instinctively he closed his eyes in expectation of being sliced, but the knife didn’t connect and when he opened them, to his surprise Nick had neutralized the threat of the knife.
There was nothing in the room they could use to take on Lomax, so Nick had improvised by removing his jacket and using it as a makeshift restraint. Now his jacket was wrapped around Lomax’s knife hand and Lomax was struggling to wrest it free.
Montgomery rose up as Lomax flexed his arm. Then, with a twist of his wrist, he wrenched his hand loose, but the movement was too brisk and he lost his grip of the knife. A streak of light marked the knife’s passage as it hurtled to the roof.
Montgomery didn’t need to wait for a second opportunity and with his head down he charged Lomax. He caught him full in the chest with a leading shoulder and then drove him onward across the room.
Lomax back-stepped for several paces until Montgomery’s relentless motion proved to be too strong for him. He went down heavily, to land sprawling on his back. Montgomery landed on top of him. With Lomax’s advantage gone Montgomery bunched a fist and hammered it downward with a pulverizing blow to the face that crashed the back of Lomax’s head against the floor.
“Have you had enough?” Montgomery demanded, settling himself on Lomax’s stomach with his fist drawn back.
All Lomax could provide for an answer was a bleated murmur. Montgomery checked that Nick had located the knife, and then moved his knees up to press them down on Lomax’s shoulders and pin him to the floor. He gave Lomax enough time to gather his senses and then drew his attention to the knife in Nick’s hand.
“Get it over with, if you’ve got the guts,” Lomax said.
“I’ve got the guts and I’m prepared to find out what color your guts are, but that’s not what I want.”
“You won’t get no answers out of me about the gold.”
Montgomery sighed. Then, with a contemptuous swipe, he thudded his fist into Lomax’s face. This time Lomax slumped. He waited with his fist held back for him to stir, but when Lomax didn’t move, he slapped his face.
His head lolled. He was out cold, and that was fine with Montgomery as it gave him time to think. Slowly, in case his apparent unconscious state was a trap, he rolled off him and dragged him over to the wall where he propped him up. Then he joined Nick, meaning to congratulate him, but Nick’s attention was elsewhere.
“We both need to keep an eye on him while we work out how we can make him talk about the gold,” Montgomery said.
Nick shook his head and pointed out what had interested him on the roof.
“We don’t need no answers from him to get out of here,” he said.
Montgomery narrowed his eyes and then smiled. When Nick had torn the knife free it’d clattered into the wooden roof. A chink of light was shining down like a small star where the knife had bored a hole in it.
“You could be right provided we can get up there before he wakes up,” Montgomery said, slapping him on the shoulder.
Chapter Twelve
Montgomery slid down the wall to the floor and then rocked backward to land on his rump, as he’d done on his last five attempts. The chink of light that had given them hope of escape was only a few yards away, but it felt farther.
The wall had been well built and the cracks between the stone blocks were just wide enough for him to cram his fingertips inside. That didn’t give him enough leverage to support his weight and he’d not yet managed to get even halfway to the roof. Now the light level was dropping, making it harder for him to work out whether any section of the wall had crumbled enough to provide purchase.
“Let me try,” Nick said.
“You’re guarding Lomax,” Montgomery said. “I’ll deal with the escape.”
“Except you’ll never get us out, and I’ve had an idea.” Nick waved the knife he’d taken off Lomax. “We need something to help with the climbing, and this is all we have.”
Montgomery examined the short blade and then shook his head.
“That’ll never support my weight.”
“It won’t.” Nick smiled, letting Montgomery know he was resisting the urge to offer an insult. “So I’ll use it while you guard Lomax.”
Montgomery spread his hands. “You’ve got as much right as I have to break your neck.”
Nick nodded and moved over to the wall leaving Montgomery to kneel down and check on Lomax. He confirmed that he hadn’t moved since he’d slumped after banging his head.
Nick made better progress than he’d managed. He worked carefully, seeking to ensure he had to climb only once. He scraped out the dirt and mortar from between the stone blocks until he’d created a gap.
Then he lifted himself up. When he’d steadied himself he gripped the wall with one hand while scraping with the other at the farthest extent of his reach until he had a big enough gap to take his weight again.
Montgomery had to admit Nick had had both a good idea and was progressing with greater agility than he had managed. Within the time it would have taken Montgomery to fall off three times Nick reached the top of the wall and stood beneath the section of roof where the gap had formed. He tucked the knife in his belt and then tapped the roof, probing around in an expanding circle.
“The wood’s rotten, but only in a small area,” he said.
He scraped the roof with his fingers, producing a cascade of papery wood fragments, showing that either water had collected here and seeped into the grain or gnawing animals had done their work.
“Work quietly,” Montgomery said. “I don’t think any guards are outside, but don’t risk it.”
“I might not have a choice,” Nick said, breaking off to hug the wall. “This isn’t easy.”
Montgomery resisted the urge to provide more suggestions and let Nick concentrate on his work. For the next ten minutes Nick probed with either his fingers or with the knife, gradually widening the hole.
Then, with a sudden crack, a two-foot length of wood came away. Nick jerked away from it to grab hold of the wall while Montgomery ducked to avoid the falling wood. When he was sure no more pieces would follow it down, he picked up the broken plank, finding that it was solid for most of its length.
Nick had created a gap that was about a foot wide and two feet long. He was also shaking as the strain of holding himself up became too demanding.
“Come down and try again later,” Montgomery urged.
“I don’t reckon that’ll help,” Nick said. He poked the wood on either side of the gap. “That’s all that’s going to come down easily. The rest of the wood is solid. Even if I work on it all night I’ll never break through with this small knife.”
“That hole’s too small to get through.”
Nick sighed. “For you it is.”
Montgomery made a shooing away gesture. “Then if you can get out, do it. Just keep going and—”
“I’m not abandoning you.”
Montgomery set his hands on his hips meaning to argue, but he had heard the determination in Nick’s voice.
“Then do whatever you can while you’re out there, but if you can’t help, I understand.”
“I will return and I will get you out.”
Nick moved to throw the knife down, but Montgomery shook his head.
“You need it more than I do.” Montgomery brandished the wood. “I can defend myself with this.”
Nick appeared from the hunched set of his shoulders that he wanted to continue discussing the matter. Then, with a murmured comment to himself, he started to work out how he would get through the hole.
Experimentally he slipped an arm through the gap and he must have found something to grab hold of as he drew himself up and then scraped his feet against the stone as he sought purchase. With more noise than Montgomery would have liked him to make, he prized himself through the hole until only his feet were dangling.
Then he disappeared from view. A few moments later his face appeared on the other side of the hole. He offered a beaming smile and Montgomery returned a supportive nod. Then he moved away.
Feet pattered over the roof and then scraping sounded as he sought a way down. Then there was silence. Montgomery welcomed the quiet and for the next few minutes he continued to hope for silence as this meant Nick hadn’t been discovered.
How Nick would get him out he didn’t know, but at least he now had a chance. When, after some moments, he accepted that Nick hadn’t been discovered immediately, he turned to Lomax. Several minutes later Lomax groaned and then stirred.
“So you didn’t kill me,” he said, fingering his bruised cheek.
“Not yet,” Montgomery said.
Nick stomped to a halt to empty the sand from his boots. Then he resumed his steady trudge toward town. The sun had risen three hours ago and that had at least made his journey feel more cheering, but he hadn’t enjoyed his long walk.
Last night he had searched the fort carefully, but two men had been patrolling beside the main gate and they were close enough to the armory to notice him if he went in any direction other than away from them. He had then searched the unoccupied buildings for something he could use to get Montgomery out of the armory, but they had been empty.
By the time the guards had been changed he’d decided he wouldn’t be able to find anything useful. Sunrise was his only option, so he’d walked through most of the night, stopping for a few hours of intermittent sleep in the dead of night before resuming his journey.
