The tower’s four wheels were each twice Kuiran’s height, broad and reinforced with iron to take the weight of the tower and there were a couple of sturdy access ladders attached to the rear of it to allow enemy troops to rapidly access the internal stairs when the tower was eventually pulled into position in front of Belvedere’s walls.
All around them, scattered over the ground, lay tools and pieces of timber, some ready to go into the construction, some off-cuts saved for future use. It was a nightmare negotiating a way through them all without making a sound. Eventually, after climbing an access ladder, they were standing in the belly of the tower where a zigzag staircase headed upward into the night, ready to take hundreds of soldiers over the wall sometime soon. Kuiran adjusted their plan and whispered to the others they had been too ambitious to expect to take out both towers and just this one would have to do.
Now came the most dangerous part. Kuiran made his way up the stairs and when he was high enough, pulled the lid off the pitch barrel. He came back down quietly, spreading pitch along the stairs as he descended until they were coated and running with the sticky black liquid. Most of the remainder was spread over the floor of the tower as Raleen, Cristal and Lareeta descended the ladder. Then Kuiran backed down after them, spreading the last of the pitch over the rear of the wooden floor. The big man quietly put the barrel down, picked up his staff and stepped back into the invisibility of the glamour.
“Ready Cristal?” She nodded. Just then a voice called out.
“Who’s usin’ pitch at this time o night?”
There was no reply, just a few grunts.
“Someone better take a look in the tower, might be a leakin’ barrel in there.”
The same voice again, closer now as the speaker came toward the tower. Kuiran signalled the others and allowed the man to approach. A gentle tap with his staff and the alert guard fell straight into Lareeta’s arms and was lowered to the ground.
“Now or never Cristal.”
A gout of green flame struck the pitch covered ladder and rear of the tower, igniting the tarry stuff. Flames spread rapidly. Another spear of green flame struck again, higher up the stairs with the same result.
It was enough for Cristal.
“Right. Let’s get out of here, now.”
Their retreat was almost too late, as soldiers sprang from their bedrolls tugging on boots and picking up weapons. The enemy forces ran toward the siege tower from all over and the four concealed plotters found they were being bumped into as they couldn’t get out of the way quickly enough. A soldier fell back from contact with Kuiran, snarling.
“What’s this then, Magic? I don’t see nowt there.”
He swung his sword where he thought the conspirators were, meanwhile yelling out.
“Magic, magic, they’re invisible.”
Kuiran gave him a tap on the head and knocked him out. Another soldier saw his friend fall for no apparent reason and took up the cry. The siege tower was well alight now, bathing the area in a brilliant glow so vision was no problem but there were still soldiers in front of them barring the way. Kuiran took the lead as he heard distant barking.
“Oh no, they’ve got dogs.”
With his staff Kuiran cleared the last few soldiers blocking their way and picked up the pace, heading back for the same corner of the city wall over which they’d been lowered. The dogs raced up from behind, baying and snapping at something they couldn’t see but could smell and hear.
Enemy soldiers followed closely and started shooting arrows just above the dogs. Kuiran dropped to the rear, walking backwards now, repelling arrows with his staff but it was a difficult task as he couldn’t see them very well due to the bright light from the burning siege tower shining into his eyes. Raleen held the rear of Kuiran’s trouser belt to guide him as he walked backward, kicking the dogs away and knocking the odd one out. The enemy soldiers were rushing them now and they still had a hundred or so yards to go to get to the corner of the city wall.
“Raleen, when we get to around fifty yards from the wall, you run ahead with Cristal and Lareeta and let Martine’s soldiers see me. I’ll delay them for a little while. Get as many men as possible on the end of my rope once you’re up there, as I don’t want to take too long going up the wall. That’s when I’ll be defenceless and vulnerable.”
Raleen started to protest but Cristal cut her off.
“He knows what he’s doing. Just trust him.”
Raleen did and when the three women sped ahead, Kuiran was uncloaked from the glamour. A cry went up and Martine’s fighting men came at him with swords raised. The young giant fought desperately, walking backwards, not wishing to kill but having to. He dared a look over his shoulder and saw the three women being hauled up the wall, arrows hitting the stone around them. By now Kuiran had positioned his back to the base of the wall and Martine’s men formed a semi circle around him trying to hack or stab him to death. The fighting was frenetic as Kuiran defended himself to the very best of his ability but the odds were starting to become overwhelming. His hands were aching from swords sliding onto them, although the mailed gloves bore the slashes. He couldn’t stop to grab a rope and soon one of the swordsmen would land a mortal blow. It would be fatal; his healing belt wasn’t working anymore.
A voice came from above. Raleen’s.
“Kuiran, I’m going to try ‘pushing’. When I do, grab the rope.”
Kuiran fought on by the light of the burning siege tower, taking cuts and nicks where he played it too close. His mail saved his life at least three times but he was going to be black and blue if he ever survived. Kuiran was almost at the point where he could do nothing further to save himself, surrounded by a score or more of vicious fighting men, all wanting to kill the ‘giant.’
Atop the wall, Raleen pointed her hand at the knot of enemy soldiers surrounding Kuiran and mentally ‘pushed’. She was so concerned about Kuiran she didn’t modulate the strength of the magic and several of the enemy soldiers exploded into pieces while the rest were scattered like leaves in a gale. The thick rope tumbled down and a relieved Kuiran was rapidly hauled up, clinging to it tightly with one hand while the other clutched his staff.
From the top of Belvedere’s wall the view was spectacular. The siege tower was now engulfed in flames which darted hundreds of feet into the night, sparking, as sections of it collapsed inward. As they stood watching, Lareeta suddenly crumpled to the walkway and in the light from the burning tower, Kuiran could see a broken piece of arrow protruding from the back of her shoulder. She must have reached over and snapped it off herself. He thrust his staff toward Raleen who grabbed it from him before he bent to pick up Lareeta.
“Cristal, Lareeta has a bad wound in her shoulder. The arrow head is still in there and she’s lost quite a bit of blood. We have to get her home now and we need a Healer.”
Kuiran ran off toward the mansion, trailing blood spots on the white stones. Lareeta’s and his own. His giant strides carried him well ahead of Raleen and Cristal who hurried after him, oblivious to the cheering and whistling from the soldiers on the walls.
The Healer found the point of the arrow stuck in her left scapula and with Lareeta unconscious, it was soon out. No major blood vessels ran in the area so bleeding was not a major concern and the Healer was satisfied to pour a little salt water into the wound to irrigate and cleanse it before closing the torn flesh with a few stitches. Sensibly, the Healer left the wound slightly open for drainage before applying healing herbs and bandaging Lareeta. In fighting for his life, Kuiran had sustained a number of cuts, some of them fairly deep and stoically sat while the Healer stitched most of them closed after cleaning them. They would heal quicker that way.
After the Healer had left, Kuiran sat beside Raleen with his arm around her and shared a joke with her about the exploding soldiers.
Needless to say, the Empress Martine was livid, not only by being woken in the middle of the night but at the loss of a siege tower. Only the fact that one siege
tower still remained stopped her from ordering the slaughter of a large number of her own soldiers as punishment. Her fury boiled fiercely before settling to a vengeful simmer as she commenced her interrogation of witnesses. Martine knew they were too frightened to lie to her, as she was the most feared person in the whole camp. From what she could piece together, a small number of invisible people had come into the camp and set fire to her tower. Not only that but when her soldiers finally had a visible target, the big man with the staff, pinned back against the base of the wall, something had flung the attacking soldiers back, something strong enough to tear the closest soldiers to pieces.
A big man with a staff. He too was at Gildon’s Keep. The same group of people cropping up all over the place, interfering with her plans. They were like burrs under a saddle. An irritant she did not need.
If in doubt, lash out.
“Dark Mage! Dark Mage! Show yourself.”
This time the Dark Mage chose to lose his glamour and perhaps with some irony, chose to materialise through a smoke effect which billowed into the doorway of her pavilion.
“Why have you chosen to summon me?” he asked with thin-lipped hauteur when the smoke effect had dispersed.
“Because I wish to attack Belvedere in the next few days,” she spat. “Something is going on and I no longer want to wait outside the walls, sitting here until someone destroys my other siege tower. You will help by making sure the fire they used so effectively against the Reavers on the harbour waters does not burn and destroy Reaver ships again. If we can mount a two pronged attack in concert with the Reavers, I can take this city in no time.”
The Dark Mage would have liked nothing better than to see Man killing Man but the final arrangements were not yet in place. If Martine launched an attack now, it might fail. He tried to soothe her.
“The remaining tower will not be ready in two days, it will be more like two weeks and we have yet to confirm a date with the Reavers for them to attack the harbour again. I’ll place a guard spell on the remaining siege tower and we’ll plan for the attack on Belvedere as soon as possible. Believe me Martine, our goals are in accord.”
The Dark Mage smiled with evil satisfaction as Martine’s temper cooled and she saw the wisdom in his words. Time was on their side. They had food and fuel to burn while Belvedere ran dry of both.
The afternoon sun was warm down at the harbour, where they sat out of the breeze. Kuiran’s staff thrummed with suppressed energy, one end dipped into the sea water as it was. It was Watermagic he supposed, coming from the salt water just as Escarion suggested it would. Raleen sat beside him on the quay, leaning against his bulk, as he felt the vibrations coursing through the wood of his staff.
“Is anything happening? After Escarion’s explanation I thought there would be more to see.”
In answer, he took her hand and placed it on the staff.
“Oh, I feel it, the staff is reacting. What does it mean? Can you feel any power?”
“No, apparently I don’t have very strong Watermagic and wouldn’t know it if I did feel anything but the staff seems to respond well.”
At that moment there was a swirl of water at the end of his staff and a dark shape rose to the surface. It looked like a large seal. Kuiran was amazed to see it in the harbour as no one had told him of seals here. He was even more amazed when it spoke.
“Iss one of the Wyalon, far from home. I felt the Watermagic change sso came to ssee who ssummonss.”
Kuiran and Raleen sat stunned, staring at the seal which had just spoken to them. Kuiran collected himself.
“I didn’t know I was summoning. Sorry. My name is Kuiran and this lady is Raleen.”
“You are Wyalonian big Man. We are friendss. I am Ssarista. It would be an honour to help you.”
Kuiran pondered, how could a seal help him? He had never spent much time near the sea and felt a little uncomfortable with the immense amount of water stretching off to the horizon. Even so, others in this war were using the sea and were waiting to launch another attack on Belvedere through its harbour.
“Are there a lot of you around here?”
“We iss in all the sseass. There are a few of uss around here. Why?”
“The people of this city are in danger from bad men who would kill them. They will come in ships sometime soon and enter this harbour. I would like them stopped if you can. Some of the people in this city are my friends and I don’t want them to die.”
Kuiran hoped he was understood as the seal’s head bobbed up and down and it rolled onto its back, flippers crossed on its chest. It had breasts just like a woman. In fact, the more he looked at the seal, the more it appeared to him as a beautiful woman. Kuiran shook his head in disbelief as he felt an echo of something stirring in the back of his mind, beating in time to the waves and blinked hard a few times to clear his sight. The seal was back to being a seal but it still had breasts. Ssarista gave him a knowing seal smile.
“Who iss the bad men in shipss?”
“Draakon Reavers, black ships with red sails,” he replied. Ssarista spat seawater, her face grimacing. At least that’s how it appeared.
“They iss bad. Sspear uss they do if we go near their black shipss. Treat uss cruel. We will watch for you.”
“There will be a lot of ships, maybe fifty or sixty. Can you defend against that number?”
Kuiran hated having to say it but he was doubtful a few seals could help them, even if they were descendants of Watermagic wielding Hirondae.
“Kuiran of the Wyalon, resst your mind. The Draakon shipss will be sstopped before they reach the harbour. We will watch. You and your friendss will be ssafe. Now, sstand and put your sstaff back into the water.”
He did as he was asked and was totally unprepared for the yank on his staff. It overbalanced him and he hit the harbour water with a huge splash, still gripping his staff. Just before the water closed over his head he heard Raleen cry out in alarm.
Blue and chill, he should have been frightened as the weight of his chainmail dragged him down toward the bottom of the harbour but he wasn’t. It felt right somehow. Kuiran held his breath as his body started to thrum with energy, building and building until the sensation was almost painful. He opened his eyes and saw Ssarista holding the other end of his staff in her teeth. Her form wavered and he thought he saw a beautiful woman before looking again and seeing a seal once more.
Kuiran’s arms and legs felt strange and uncomfortable, muscles sore and stretched. Needing to breathe he kicked out, pushing for the surface, a lighter blue above him; only his hands felt strange. Looking down he discovered his hand had changed into a flipper. Trying not to panic, he looked at his legs and saw a seal’s body. He kicked for the surface and shot up and out into the air, taking a breath as he went. His chain mail had slipped off as had his trousers and tunic and he found he could communicate with Ssarista without words, their conversation occurring inside his head.
“What has happened to me?”
Your true nature has taken over. It is the sea water which causes the change. Come with me and practice using your seal body.”
“But I want to be me again. Am I stuck in this form?”
“No, once you leave the water you will become Man again.”
“Alright, wait for me here, I have to find my mail and tell Raleen not to worry.”
Kuiran the Sealie dived to the bottom of the harbour and retrieved his chainmail, carrying it in his mouth to the surface where he flipped it onto the quay. Raleen was verging on panic, running up and down looking for him in human form and it took a number of repetitions of her name to make her realise it was Kuiran. Eventually she stood looking at the huge seal in front of her, tears streaming down her cheeks.
“Don’t worry Raleen; Ssarista assuresss me I will change back when I leave the water. I’ll throw you the ressst of my clothes before I go for a ssswim to try out thiss new body. Will you look after my sstaff for me? I won’t be long.”
Raleen nodded dumbly,
too overcome with awe to speak, as Kuiran Sealie threw his tunic and trews onto the quay with his mouth and retrieved his staff from Ssarista, holding it out to Raleen, one end clasped between his teeth. She took it and stood silently, waiting, white-faced with shock. Kuiran felt guilty at her pain but could not miss this opportunity. He hoped she would understand.
“No longer than half an hour my love,” he said as he took a breath and rolled back into the water, twisting as he dove.
Ssarista was waiting for him.
The next half an hour was the most wonderful of his life as Kuiran discovered just what his changed body was capable of. The cold water was no problem and he glided easily over the sea floor, discovering all the debris a harbour collects over many centuries. Not only were there the burnt out remains of some of the Draakon Reaver boats which were sunk in the harbour but also wrecks of smaller fishing boats as well as the one remaining ship still stuck on the bar at the harbour mouth. He sensed when the fresher water of the Wandering River mixed with the water of the sea as the magic coursing through his body diminished a little. Ssarista took him out past the harbour entrance and he swam with fish through beds of water weed, twisting and turning around obstacles with ease. It was enchanting and he never wanted it to end but it could not be. He had Raleen and the troubles of Belvedere to consider. He hailed Ssarista.
“What can you do to help us with the Draakon Reavers?”
The answer he received was encouraging.
“I see in your mind that these ships could be a scourge to you and the Men in the city. I will send out a call for help and those with strong magic will come. Leave the Bad Men in ships to us; we will take care of the problem. Keep yourself well Kuiran Sealie, your parents made a great sacrifice and you should go to see them when these troubles are over.”
“You know my parents?” he sent.
“Every one of us Sealie knows your parents. So should you. Live.”
He could get nothing further from her as they made their way back to the quay and upon arrival there, Kuiran thanked Ssarista profusely before raising his head out of the water to look around. The light was starting to fade and Raleen sat silently on a bollard, waiting patiently for him. Upon seeing the large seal head break the surface she jumped to her feet excitedly, waving at him.
The Fall of Belvedere Page 20