by Jack Porter
The ground below was growing.
Or rather, it was moving. It seemed to extend out beyond Goliath’s feet, rumbling over the crevasse, creating solid ground where there was none.
“What the hell?” I asked.
“He has an earth affinity,” Nya said grimly. “It’s very rare.”
“What does that mean?” I asked, even though I felt the answer was becoming more obvious with every foot of ground that grew over the moat.
“He can control the ground,” Ilana explained.
“And we can’t do anything to stop him?”
Nya shook her head.
The moat continued to close. As the earth covered it, Goliath moved forward, his hands still raised over the ground. The sorcerers followed, making sure he was protected.
Closer and closer, the earth formed toward the city wall. Horrified, we watched, and the feeling of powerlessness was worse than anything I’d felt so far. If I had known how dangerous Goliath was, I would have tried to kill him instead of returning to the castle.
But I had no way of knowing. What other horrors were possible in Hell?
When the ground hit the wall, the battlements shook with the force of it, like another earthquake. I couldn’t see Goliath then, for he’d moved out of my line of sight, but the wall continued to shake, and I guessed that he was walking along it, letting the earth cover the moat entirely.
“Jon,” Nya said, bringing me out of my shocked disbelief.
“Yes?” I asked.
“It’s more important than ever that we get people out of this section of the city.”
I nodded, and Ilana and I left the wall. With the moat closed, the siege towers could bring the wraiths to the very battlements.
And the entire battle had just changed.
50
Ilana and I crept toward the nearest tower, which would grant us access to a stairwell and the inside of the wall below. We made our way quickly, aiming for the fires we had passed earlier. Elves were still running through the streets, most of them armed. A few limped or carried someone else. Whenever I saw a healthy soldier carrying an injured one, I volunteered to help. We ended up supporting two elven foot soldiers who had been injured by projectiles. A raven-haired female and, surprisingly, the rare male soldier elf, who also had dark hair. His, however, was matted with blood from a gaping wound on his scalp. The female had fared better, but her arm was broken, and she limped.
“We are brother and sister,” the female offered as we helped them up the street.
The male elf staggered and acted disoriented. “Shyth!” his sister said.
I held up my hand. “I’ve got him.” Crouching down, I put Shyth over my shoulder in a fireman’s carry. With his armor pressing into my shoulder and neck, and the added weight from all of it, I almost fell myself, but I powered through, nodded to the two females, and we journeyed up the street to the second gatehouse. There, we were met by a bulky male Healer, who took Shyth from me and placed him on a cart, and his sister hopped up beside him.
“We’re leaving in ten minutes!” the Healer said over all the noise. “Bring us as many as you can!”
Ilana and I hurried away, traversing the streets now flooded with wounded.
“Jon,” the succubus said, “there’s no time for another trip unless we fly.”
I looked at her in shock. “You mean…”
“Do you trust me?” she asked.
“Of course I do, but you’re injured.”
She shook her head. “Don’t argue with me. I can make it.” And she stepped in close to me, wrapped her arms under my shoulders, and took off.
I lost my breath for a moment, caught up in the shock of being whisked into the air. Wrapping my arms around her waist, I felt every beat of her wings as we skimmed over the top of the foot traffic but still below the safety of the wall.
In no time, we were back at the fire. Ilana set me down, and without wasting time, we took off through a narrow stone street. The flames raged overhead as if the stones themselves had caught. And maybe they had. Pulling a rag up over my face, we searched the streets for any stragglers, those too wounded to get out.
In a corner under an open stall, I saw a small young female elf who looked no older than a five-year-old child. She sat crying beside a dead male elf that bore the same brown hair. When she saw us, she screamed louder. Ilana tried to approach, but the elfling backed away from the succubus in terror, brandishing a short but sharp dagger in her left hand.
“Hey,” I said, trying not to shout even though the roar of the fires around nearly made that impossible. “We’re here to help you!”
“Where is my mother?” the young elf cried. She still held the dagger pointed toward us, and I didn’t doubt that mother had taught her well how to use it.
“We’ll find her,” I said as soothingly as I could. “But that means we have to leave.”
She shook her head, her lower lip turning down in a pout. “I can’t leave Father. Mother told me not to leave him!” And then she began crying once more.
I dared one more step closer to look at the male elf. His head was nearly cleaved in two. I had no idea what had done it, but maybe someone had dragged him in here. In any case, we couldn’t leave the elfling. “We’ll find your mother,” I said, “but your father isn’t going to be able to come with us now.”
The elfling shook her head emphatically. The sound of a roof caving in further down the street jolted us into action.
“We’re out of time,” Ilana said.
51
“Right,” I said. “Sorry, kid.”
Darting inside the stall, I reached for the elfling, who looked at me in terror and took a stab with her dagger. Dodging the weapon, I grabbed her arm and then her waist. She kicked and screamed, but we didn’t have time to calm her down. I took a few well-placed kicks to the groin and was thankful for the minimal protection afforded by my leather pants. Even then, my eyes were watering as we ran through the abandoned, smoky street. Hot embers drifted down onto my face, singing my skin and eyebrows.
There was a section of street littered with bodies. The trebuchet’s rocks had landed a particularly devastating blow to some wooden buildings. What wasn’t still burning was charred and broken. But the bodies were bloody and blackened. Although most were unrecognizable, some farther from the destruction still had faces.
Ilana reached out and snatched the dagger from the elfling, who was still screaming at the top of her lungs. I then used my free hand to cover her eyes as we ran. That was the worst part, hoping we didn’t run across her mother or someone else the small elf knew. Once we passed the worst section, I took my hand away from the little elf’s eyes and used it to hold her more steady.
We were away from the worst part of the fire now, and she calmed down. I didn’t know if she was in shock, or if she had merely screamed all she could. By this time, we were running along the outer wall, and the noise had changed from the roar of fire to the sounds of war.
Yells and screams reached us even down at the base of the wall, and the sound of metal clinking. The elfling whimpered in my arms, and I admit, I wanted to whimper, too. The inner gates were offset some ways from the first, and my lungs felt like they were on fire from all the running and the smoke.
The street went steadily uphill, around the base of the mountain. When we reached the inner gatehouse, though, the cart was gone. The guards were closing the gates and portcullis as if they anticipated the wraiths breaching the outer wall at any moment.
“Wait!” Ilana and I said together.
But we were too late. The outer portcullis closed with a clang.
I was spent, and dizzy with lack of oxygen. Letting the elfling down gently, I kept a hand on her as I set her on her feet. She didn’t try to run away though, but stared with wide eyes at the closed gate. On top of the gatehouse, soldiers were readying for battle.
“They don’t think the outer walls will hold,” I said. “We need to get up there and help.”
“What should we do with the little one?” Ilana asked.
“Jon!” someone called.
I turned to see Syn running toward us. “We need everybody we can get,” she said as she reached us. “The wraiths are swarming the walls.”
She raised an eyebrow at the small elf.
“We can’t just leave her,” I said.
Ilana held out her hand. “Give her to me. I’ll get her over the inner wall and to safety, then meet you back at the outer curtain.”
I looked up at the inner wall, which was every bit as tall and imposing as the outer one. Ilana would be a target if she tried to fly over it.
“I’ll be careful,” she said.
I waved to the guards on the towers above the gatehouse, but they weren’t watching us.
“It’s too late to open them,” Syn said. “The order to close them has been obeyed, and they won’t open again until the battle is won.”
I looked back at Ilana.
Without another word, she took the elfling’s hand from mine. The small thing looked as if she wanted to run away, but Ilana smiled as she picked her up. “Don’t worry. We’re going to find your mother.”
Then she beat her wings and took off.
With no time to waste, Syn and I ran back to the tower entrance to the wall. I dearly hoped I could find some water up there because my throat was burning worse than my lungs.
I wasn’t disappointed. A bucket and ladle sat at the top of the stair, and I grabbed a quick drink before nodding to Syn.
“You still have your sword?” she asked.
I opened my cloak and patted it. Then, thinking of my cloak, I pulled it off and tossed it in a corner. No sense in having it get in the way. There was no time to consider if I would die or not. Probably I would, but Syn looked out the small barred window to check for immediate enemies, and then thrust open the door for us to get out.
52
The ramparts were sheer pandemonium. One of the siege towers had succeeded in getting near enough to the wall to allow its wraiths access to us. Everywhere I looked, black-cloaked wraiths fought tall valiant elves with spears, battle axes, and swords. Embers drifted over the walls, making visibility limited.
Syn charged in with an ax in her hand, slashing down the first wraith to cross her path. Remembering my sword, I lunged toward a group of wraiths that had backed another elf against the wall. One of them plunged a spear into her belly, and I rushed forward with my sword in front, forgetting everything I’d been taught and doing my best to thrust it straight through the wraith.
The sword did its job, slicing through the wraith’s back like the well-known hot knife through butter. I yanked it back out, and the wraith fell at my feet. Remembering not to leave it alive, I delivered an awkward chopping blow to the wraith’s head that took it clean off its spine.
As its dark blood pooled over the stone, I lunged for the next wraith. But the gang of them had already taken down the she-elf. She lay prone against the wall, her body bleeding from too many wounds to count. When the wraiths tried to mutilate her body further, I grew so angry that my focus zoned in on the enemy.
I felt a hot rush of anger, and as if I was in a tunnel, I swept over the wraiths, shredding their bodies with my sword. It nearly sang as it sliced through the bone and flesh and cloth of my enemies.
It was almost like a battle song.
I beheaded one wraith and swung around to gut another. Blood spattered everywhere as I cut down the wraiths in front of me. Sliding through blood and piss, I worked deeper into the fray.
Wraiths continued to emerge from the siege towers, and I fought toward the thickest part of the battle where Nya stood surrounded by wraiths and fallen elves. She was holding her own, but slowly her enemies were gaining ground on her. I thrust my sword into another wraith’s head, yanked it back out, and cut off the leg of another. Then I stomped on its head while swinging wide to take the jaw off a Hellhound that had jumped from the siege tower.
The beast snarled and fell back, and I pushed my advantage, stabbing it in the throat as it tried to take off my head with one bite. Its jaws snapped shut a hairs’ breadth from my ear, spittle flying into my face.
Pushing the hound back, I made sure to open the wound further to let it bleed out.
With my vision still zeroed in on anything that was dressed in black or had fangs and glowing eyes, I waded my way through to Nya. When I got there, I stopped another hound from taking a lunge at her, driving my sword through its eye. Nya saw me and nodded before turning to another wraith.
And still, they kept coming.
Never had I witnessed such raw power in action. Nya’s face was beautiful and horrifying at the same time. She cut through her enemies with the grace of a ballet dancer. I was a mere servant compared to her, worthy of only mopping the floors after her practice.
So that’s what I did. If she took an enemy’s arm off, I finished him with a killing blow. If she shoved one toward the wall, I helped him over it. In this way, we became a team, our songs combining into one.
Ilana returned at some point, and I saw her normally golden eyes turn fiery red as she clawed the eyes out of another Hellhound. Syn joined her, and they became another team.
From the battlements on the adjacent towers, the archers who weren’t besieged were firing at will. Most of them either loosed directly down at the invaders on the ground or at the siege tower. Some had lit their arrows on fire, but the Wraith King’s siege towers refused to be burned.
Nya and I were now directly in front of the tower on our end, clearing a path to the point where the wraiths were spilling over from the bridge. From this vantage point, I saw that the tower was made entirely of bones. Great ones and small ones, from beasts I could only imagine. The top of the bridge was set with human and elven skulls, however, and the bottom of the bridge clung to the castle wall with sharp iron spikes.
Then, I had an idea. Switching my sword to my left hand, I grabbed my whip, letting it uncoil. Aiming for the siege tower bridge, I cracked the whip over it. The tip caught the cheek of a passing wraith, which went tumbling to its death outside the wall. I cracked the whip again, and the sound reverberated over the ramparts. This time, the whip hit the bridge. It didn’t do any damage that I could see, but I saw a flash of light in the dark.
Quickly, I coiled the whip into my hand and surged forward, hopping onto the bridge to meet the enemies as they emerged from the tower.
I heard Nya call out behind me, but her voice was distant. Everything else seemed to slow as I cut down our enemies before they could get onto the walls. Pushing forward, I let the whip hang down again, then let it fly at the tower’s bones.
A burst of flames went up, so hot and bright that I fell backward.
Teetering at the edge of the bridge, I tried vainly to regain my balance. And the sight of the newly formed ground far below made me dizzy.
Then arms wrapped around my chest from behind, securing me to a warm body that could only have been Ilana’s. With a flap of wings, she flew me back over the battlements and set me down on my feet. I stooped over, panting at my near miss.
Beside us, the siege tower erupted into flames, trapping the remaining wraiths and Hellhounds inside. Their screams echoed out over the walls and the city below.
A wraith charged us, this one carrying a wicked-looking poleax. It made to chop at me, trying to catch me unaware, but Ilana whisked around to meet it instead. I grabbed my sword, and together, we cut down the wraith. When we finished, its eyes no longer lived in its sockets, and its throat had been torn out. Ilana had done that handiwork.
Oh, I had stabbed it a few times, too.
With the siege tower burning hotly beside the wall and no longer able to provide new enemies, this section of battlement began to clear. We met Nya and Syn, who together with the remaining elves finished off the wraiths in our section.
We hid behind the battlements for a moment, trying to regroup.
Panting and sticky with
blood, I looked at the three creatures who I had fought beside. They all looked as gross as I did, and yet Nya, Ilana, and Syn were the most beautiful beings I had ever seen. My heart swelled with pride at being able to keep up with these badass females.
Nya quirked the side of her mouth upward in her characteristic way. “What?” she asked, evidently catching the look on my face.
I shook my head, not sure if my thoughts would be appreciated right now. “I’m in awe of you three,” I said instead. “Fucking incredible.”
Syn grinned, Ilana smiled coyly, and even Nya managed a smirk.
Nya stood first. “No time to celebrate yet. We need to find out what’s going on in the rest of the castle.”
Syn moved beside her, cleaning off her sword on her leggings. “Last I saw, they still hadn’t taken the main gatehouse. Another siege tower was set on fire before it could release its wraiths. We saw the worst here.”
Feeling relieved, I risked a look.
The Wraith King’s armies were still coming. The tide had turned here, but more enemies arrived all the time with ladders made of bone, which they kept trying to throw up against the walls. Smoke rose inside and outside the castle, but as far as I could tell, the wraiths were still stuck at the walls. Although there was still a much large concentration around the main gates.
A stray arrow hit the stone next to my face, causing me to jump back behind the stone. “That was close,” I said.
“Come on,” Nya said, motioning me away from the wall. “I’ve sent word to meet the other rulers in the great hall. We need to plan our next action, and I think we’ve bought ourselves a bit of time for strategy.”
53
As we left the wall and went back out into the city, we saw that the wall had indeed held. Everywhere the wraiths attacked, they were being pushed back. I looked to Nya for direction, sure that we would take up the fight somewhere else.