“What about the local rulers?” Jane asked, “What will their response to this be?”
“King Ruusolf has his own problems right now,” Fordessa said. “He is being pressured by Barassa to allow them to station troops here. He fears what that could lead to and has been strengthening his eastern border. The destruction of this temple will remove those applying the most pressure.”
“There are other factors at play as well,” Fel picked up. “Just be sure that you are successful, this will be an important victory.”
We both nodded.
“Do we know how many people are inside the temple?” Jane asked.
“No,” Fordessa replied, “but it has not been re-enforced by any significant numbers, or my priests would have seen it.”
“So go, and wreak havoc,” Fel said. “Destroy everything.”
We both nodded and fell back asleep.
We looked at the city from just inside the trees as the light of the false dawn began to light up the sky. Marland City was in two sections, the old town, which was walled, and the new town, which wasn’t. Marland was a fairly old city, one of the oldest in the region. A number of both wise and clever rulers had kept the city whole for a very long time, though its rule had changed hands once about a hundred years ago.
“Anyone got any bright ideas?” I asked, as we got ready to go.
“Yeah, lets not go in through the front door,” my sister said as she checked her weapons.
“Why not?” Jane asked.
“Because I’m sure they’ll be expecting it.”
“I don’t think the back door will be any better,” I said.
“That’s why you have me here,” She said smiling. “Hey Dezba, how high do you think these guys can jump?”
Dezba shrugged, “Four, maybe six feet, depends on how heavy the rider is.”
Nikki nodded, “We have a few people draw attention at the front door, and the rest of us go in through the windows.”
“Assuming here are any windows,” I said.
“Oh I’m sure there are. Though I’m sure we’ll have to break them first so the Wolats will be willing to jump through them. We may even have to build up something like a ramp under them.”
“They’ll see you doing that,” Jane said.
“Not if you keep them distracted.”
I pointed to an element leader, “Take your men and attack the front doors, but don’t go in through them unless you’re positive there aren’t any defenses.”
He nodded and saluted.
I pointed to another element leader, “Detail a few of your men to grab a couple of wagons when we get close to the temple. Empty if they can, we can push those up under the windows.”
He nodded and saluted.
“Other than that, I guess we just play it by ear. Mount up! Let’s go.”
We rode in at what I guess would be a canter. As we got to the outskirts the guards saw us coming, and when we didn’t stop, they quickly realized that the six of them were no match for the hundred of us and wisely decided to step aside.
We picked up speed then, I was sure an alarm would be sounded soon enough, and I wasn’t wrong. As we turned down the street that led to the square the Temple faced, I heard it go off behind us.
As we drew closer, I took in the scene that presented itself before us. The front door of the temple was well defended, there was a series of pikes facing outwards, twenty men behind it, and I think two priests behind two over turned wagons for cover. But the sides were undefended. And there were windows about six feet off the ground.
Nice Big Windows. They were made of colored glass and had designs in them. Very extravagant, a sign of the wealth and power of Tantrus.
I looked over at Nikki and smiled as I got a truly insane idea.
I urged my mount to full speed, to run straight at one of the windows in the middle of the building. It balked a moment, but I gave it a hard kick and a slap on the rump and it lowered its head and charged.
We started to take fire, there were archers on the roof, and everything slowed down as I sped up. Keeping my left hand on the reins, I pushed up off the saddle and stood on top of it, bending my knees. I’m sure my mount thought I was trying to kill it, and I know the others must have thought I was crazy, but just as my mount balked and stopped, its butt coming up as it splayed out it’s front paws to stop from hitting the wall, I leapt.
I had timed it just right and I went through the window dead center, shattering all of it.
My armor took most of the damage, but I still had to use a couple of healing spells to repair the damage. Looking around as my momentum carried me through the air I could see a lot of heads turning in surprise to look at what the noise was. Lucky for me I landed right on top of one of them, as he broke my fall.
I rolled twice, knocking down several more of them, then leapt to my feet and turning left I started to run for the altar. It was a big one, and there was a priest up there. Unfortunately for me I saw Benjiman on the steps.
“Well well well,” he said as I attacked. “Bet you didn’t expect to see me here!”
I heard another crash behind me, but I didn’t turn to look. Obviously, someone else had decided to try what I did, and I’d be getting some help soon. But I couldn’t look away as I had my hands full fighting Benjiman as well as the others who were drawing near, weapons at the ready.
I had to start giving ground almost immediately. I couldn’t press Benjiman and still deal with the others who were getting organized and starting to attack me from the sides and from behind, and with the priest up there healing people as quickly as I was wounding them, it wasn’t looking good.
“This time I’ll get you, you self righteous bastard!” He growled.
I was so busy fighting for my life that it took me a minute to realize that the screams I was hearing weren’t just from the men I was wounding. When I heard a wolat’s snarl I realized that others were starting to make it in.
Dodging back and turning to strike at the soldier behind me, I stepped away from Benjiman then spun back around to block his attack as he tried to get me from behind. I had no idea how many more were inside, but when Benjiman slowed his advance to look around I guessed that there must have been several.
“You won’t win!” He yelled, “I will have my revenge!”
“You may kill me, but you won’t kill all of them,” I snarled and took a step forward and cut him. He cut me as well in the exchange, but I could tell it surprised him.
“I can heal myself all day William!” He laughed, “But can you?”
I didn’t heal the cut he had laid on me, it wasn’t that bad and I knew I’d have to ration my healing. I could hear more swordplay behind me, and when I dodged to the right to impale the soldier over there I turned briefly to check my back, there were at least a dozen men inside and almost as many wolats.
I saw my sister.
“Nikki! To me!” I called and she turned and started to fight her way towards me.
“Desperate for help are you?” Benjiman snickered.
“I have someone I want you to meet,” I growled and knocking his sword aside, I jumped in and snapped as his nose with my mouth. He jumped back momentarily surprised, then growled and came back at me.
“You won’t get me with that again!” He said swearing.
We fenced back and forth for another minute, I was still giving ground. But much slower now. I had managed to take the heads off of two of the soldiers fighting with him, and their priests couldn’t heal that.
“Hey bro! What’s up?” Nikki said letting me know she was coming up besides me.
“Nikki,” I said trying not to pant, “I believe you know Benjiman.”
Benjiman laughed, “I’ll kill you both! My God reigns here! You will both die!”
Nikki laughed and rather smoothly took the head off the man to her left.
“Didn’t you say that the last time we met?” Nikki teased.
“Benjiman, allow me to introduce m
y sister!” I growled then and jumped forward, and Nikki followed my lead, we almost had him for a moment there, and I saw his eyes widen as he continued to give ground.
“There are two of you?!” He yelled out shocked, looking back and forth and noticing the similarities in our faces, our color, and our fur markings.
“Hey Dez!” Nikki yelled out, “Come join the fun! Only fair you get to kill him next!”
“Whatthehellisthis? A family reunion!” Benjiman screamed.
I could see the fear in his eyes suddenly, and then, he turned and ran.
“To hell with this! I quit!” He yelled.
Nikki laughed and I could see the soldiers and others around us looked stunned as their champion suddenly ran out on them.
We pressed in immediately to take advantage of our position and quickly running through several more, and then taking off their heads while they were staggered from their wounds.
We started to work our way towards the altar at that point. Dezba was teamed up with Jane from what I could see, and had killed a number of the soldiers and priests that were behind us. There were a lot of wolats running around, but even more down on the floor, dead or wounded. Ten of our men surrounded Dezba and Jane, fighting with them. Another dozen or so were protecting two archers who were slowly picking off the priests.
It was a tough fight and by the time we got within ten feet of the altar I had used up all of my healing and was bleeding from a half dozen wounds. I wasn’t sure I was going to make it to the end of this fight, the priest behind the altar was healing them as fast as we could wound them, only taking off a limb or their head had any effect at all.
My sister was rather impressive, she was using two short swords and moving so fast that the only word I could come up with to describe it was ‘cuisinart’. I could only guess that after four plus years of non-stop training, and never once being allowed to take place in any combat ever, was that she was letting it all out now.
I got stuck in the shoulder from one of the three I was fighting, so I flung a sword at the priest behind the altar, switched the one from my now useless arm to the other one and made a bull rush at the three in front of me that I was fighting. Yeah, dying would suck, but I was pretty sure that Nikki would be able to take advantage of my action and finally get that damn priest behind the altar.
I got stabbed again then by the one directly in front of me as I tripped him up I figured I’d hamstring the ones by my sister when I hit the floor on top of him when suddenly the one on the left sprouted an arrow from his head, and the one on the right got his head cleaved in half.
“Stop trying to be a hero,” Dezba yelled from behind me, and as I hit the floor killing the one beneath me I watched Jane ran by, and vaulting the altar she destroyed the cleric’s head with a sledgehammer.
Gasping for breath I tried to regain my feet, there were a dozen of our men left standing, who helped Nikki and Dezba made quick work of the remaining six defenders.
I stopped trying to stand and dropped to my butt on the stairs, and started to look for something to stop the bleeding. I heard Jane start in on the altar with the sledgehammer then, and I would have sworn I heard screaming as well when she hit it. After a moment, I heard a second scream as she hit it again, and then third.
Turning to look back at the altar the other two started on the altar as well and the sound of screaming was getting louder. The doors blew open, and I saw the two priests from outside come running in with some men behind them, but they were too late. I heard a cracking noise as Jane screamed out Fordessa’s name and then there was a loud explosion and I was picked up and tossed forward. Hitting the floor, I slid across it until I hit a dead body and stopped, stunned.
I lost track of time, but someone, Jane I realized quickly, propped me up as I regained my wits I realized she bandaging the worst of my wounds.
“What happened?” I asked.
“The altar exploded when it broke in two,” Jane told me.
I looked at her, she was covered in blood and had a nice gash on her face that was slowly bleeding. I guess she had run out of spells as well.
“How is my sister? Dezba?”
“Dezba is helping Nikki; she’s beat up almost as bad as you are.”
I nodded, “Help me up.”
“Just rest here.”
“I need to take a piss,” I growled.
She looked at me, “At a time like this?”
I laughed weakly, “It’s the best time, and I looked over at the broken altar.
Jane made a silent ‘oh’ with her mouth and then she laughed. “Sure, why not.”
She helped me over and I did my business, and then looked around. There were at least twenty dead wolats, probably more, and a lot of wounded ones as well. I didn’t see any of my men who were alive.
“Did all our my men die?” I asked shocked.
“No, but a lot of them did. The rest are outside getting healed. The priests don’t want to come in here.”
I nodded and started to hobble over towards my sister, who Dezba was helping up.
“And I thought you were the crazy one!” Dezba said to me as she got Nikki to her feet and then we all turned and started to head for the door.
“I’m not, not crazy, just deter, determined,” Nikki said still a bit stunned.
“All I know is I don’t ever want to fight her,” I said and let Jane help me.
“So what next Will?”
“Get everyone healed up, including the Wolats. Pull our dead out of there, and burn it down I guess. If it won’t set the town on fire that is.”
“Then?”
“Then I think we should get the hell out of here before good King Ruusolf decides we’ve overstayed our welcome.”
Dezba nodded and set about gathering everyone up and putting things in order. Once we got outside I leaned back against a wall and closed my eyes. I hurt everywhere, but I’d live and there were others who needed healing more than I did at this point.
“That was a pretty fool stunt you did,” Jane said to me.
“Yeah, but it worked. Who was the idiot that came in next?”
“Who do you think?” Nikki said laughing weakly. “I think I broke my nose...”
“So what happened after that?” I asked Jane.
“Well both of your mounts went in through the broken windows not long after, then the troops you sent off to get the wagons, came up with several. So with those under the windows a bunch of us just followed you in. After that?” She shrugged, “Mayhem.”
“That priest behind the altar was pretty powerful,” I said and yawned. “How many were up by the front doors?”
“Seven and we had a pretty hard time with them, but most of the fighters went off to protect the one you and Nikki were after. Which was pretty stupid. It allowed us to pick the seven off a lot easier than if they had stayed.”
I shrugged. “I’m going to take a nap. Wake me when we leave.”
“Sure, just don’t die on us, okay?”
“I’ll try,” I said with a grunt.
I was in the bar, and Fel was looking very pleased.
“I didn’t die, did I?” I asked Fel looking around. Things seemed more real than they normally did when I was dreaming.
“No, you just passed out from lack of blood.”
“Oh. Well, we got the Temple. Where’s Fordessa?”
“Celebrating, but then I am too.”
I smiled weakly at Fel, “So did Benjiman really quit?”
Fel laughed, “He most certainly did. He’s heading for a portal out of here; he’ll be off the plane and out of this sphere by nightfall.”
“Think anyone will pick him up?”
“No, he’s done as a champion, he not only abandoned his God, in his biggest time of need, but he abandoned his High Priest.”
I blinked, “What?”
“That was Tantrus’s High Priest you killed!” Fel laughed.
“What the... why was the High Priest there? That’s not
the main temple!”
“Tantrus couldn’t afford to lose that temple, especially not after losing that church the other day, two shocks in a short period of time would do too much damage.
“You see, the neighboring kingdoms have started to get wise to what’s going on, and they already have established religions within their borders. The other Gods have now discovered that Tantrus was playing a stealth game against them, he was sneaking underground churches into their territory.
“But most of them couldn’t do anything right away, as Tantrus and Barassa had become too powerful. What Tantrus didn’t know was that you’d get here before his re-enforcements showed up. They’re still two days march from there. I also don’t think he knew that there would be four champions attacking.”
“He had to know about Nikki and Dezba,” I said confused.
“Nikki yes, but Benjiman never saw Dezba. I think that’s why he panicked when Nikki called her over; he’s lost to you every time he’s faced you. He lost to your sister just the other week, and she was rather vicious when she killed him. If the High Priest hadn’t been there, the defense would have caved completely when he ran away.”
“I wonder if we would have won if he hadn’t run off?”
Fel shook his head, “I don’t know, too many variables with so many champions and priests involved.”
“So what happens to Tantrus now?” I asked curious.
“His priests are all powerless until he appoints a new high priest.”
“Well that should be easy, shouldn’t it?”
“Normally yes, but he just lost a church, a major temple, and his champion. It’ll be a few days before he can make his needs known to the clergy, and then they have to appoint one themselves, because he can’t tell them who he wants and there isn’t someone in a position to pick.”
I nodded.
“And while that’s going on, all of his temples, shrines, and churches will be easy pickings.”
“And I take it the other gods are going to be picking?”
Fel laughed, “Rather gleefully picking. If Barassa’s army wasn’t so large, I’d almost expect someone to try and invade.”
Portals of Infinity: Book Three: Of Temples and Trials Page 20