“Well, let’s hope our general can crush the orcs at the Akkin and return here before any enemy army descends on this ancient city.” He clutched his wife in his arms, and she melted as a heap into his security. She tucked her head into his shoulder, wrapped her arms around him securely, and all but squeezed herself into him. He felt her racing heart beat and trembling shoulders. He held her tight until he felt her fear subside and her heart stop pounding. He then pulled one of her arms free. They walked arm in arm back inside to their apartments, where he was finally able to get her to go to bed.
“You must rest now, my dear. You have exhausted yourself in your most excellent efforts to prepare Heggolstockin.” As he pulled her hand from his and tried to slip away, she grabbed his hand yet again and sat up in bed.
“What if the general can’t turn back those monsters at the Akkin?” She gasped and started crying again. “And our Amenibus, what if he should fall at Feldrik?” She looked up at him, sobbing. The duke took her hand again and sat beside her on the bed, patting her hand. She sobbed more, pressing his hand to her cheek.
“It will all turn out well, my dear. You must try to get some rest,” he said, rubbing her hand tenderly. She cried herself to sleep before he was able to get her fingers to release their grip on his hand. He tiptoed to the door and slipped out without a sound, ordering her attendants by gesture to watch her carefully while she slept. Outside, the duke found his chamberlain and got from him the state of the defenses.
“Lord Amenibus took the army to Feldrik, though the duchess pleaded with him not to abandon the city,” the faithful servant reported. “His lordship felt certain you would be successful at driving the goblin and his army back into the Akkin, so he took the army to aid Feldrik. He wants to make you proud of him, Your Grace.” The man bowed, but the duke just looked ahead, thinking of the consequences his son faced at Feldrik.
* * *
King Saxthor sailed up the River Nhy, across Lake Pundar, and on to Hoya, his fortress city that stood guard at the northwestern border junction with Sengenwha and Graushdem. General Sekkarian met him at the docks and gave the king a full review of the city and Castilyernov Hoyahof’s preparedness. The city was bustling with goods coming downriver and refugees fleeing the Heggolstockin war in the west. Also, supplies from the southern peninsular flowed north to support war demands. The city was abuzz with building defenses and stocking armaments. The castilyernov was well garrisoned. Sekkarian maintained frequent correspondence with the garrison at the Talok Tower and even with Graushdem’s southern fortress, Tossledorn. Saxthor noticed everyone, civilian and military, moved quickly, nervously about their tasks. There were few smiles on the faces these days.
After the review, Saxthor consulted with General Sekkarian in the former Prince Henri’s Hoyahof tower apartment. Amid the sad memories, Saxthor questioned the general on his feelings as to the state of the region. Tournak was again at Saxthor’s side on the tour since his timely arrival at Favriana. His preventing the destruction of that city’s defenses and its imposing new fortress made him indispensable.
“General, we believe you have on staff two wizards sent by Memlatec. Have them report to Tournak here and confer on a sweep of the city and the castilyernov to be sure there have been no new infiltrations. Since that wraith seized the city in the guise of my great uncle, we don’t feel easy about the city’s security. This is our first line of defense, and it must hold. Sengenwha is lost to Dreaddrac’s minions, and Hador is neutralized for the moment. Now the duchy of Heggolstockin is under attack in the west, and there are rumblings General Vylvex is marching on Graushdemheimer itself. If Graushdem should fall, our entire northern border across the peninsular would be open to direct attack. We’ve ordered an additional legion be brought up to support Hoya. It should arrive within a week. Have accommodations prepared for their disposition,” Saxthor said.
The general sent for the two wizards already stationed at Hoya. They arrived as Saxthor’s conference with Sekkarian and Tournak ended. The general left to arrange the accommodations as the two Hoyan wizards entered and bowed into the king’s presence. Saxthor made the introductions and placed Tournak in charge of the sweep of the city and the Hoyahof to check for any signs of Dreaddrac’s influence and infiltration.
“It’s our wish that you three make a thorough search. Once before, a wraith managed to infiltrate the city and replace its ruler and all Neuyokkasinian forces with Dreaddrac minions. That must not be repeated. It will be hard enough to hold out in a siege without the city being betrayed from within. Are there any questions?”
“Majesty,” the senior of the two Hoyan wizards said, “we make such sweeps each week.”
“Do so again, this time with Tournak in your company,” Saxthor said. “Tournak, go with these wizards and formulate a plan. Commence the sweep tomorrow and report to me on what you find.”
Tournak bowed but said nothing. He started for the door.
“Your Majesty, we have just completed such a sweep yesterday,” the wizard who had spoken before blurted out.
Saxthor turned to Tournak and not the wizard. Tournak looked at Saxthor. Both knew all citizens knew not to speak to the king unless spoken to first. The wizard had breached protocol; both Saxthor and Tournak recognized the wizard’s stressed insistence that such a search was a waste of time. Saxthor withdrew Sorblade from its sheath; there wasn’t a green glow. The king nodded almost imperceptibly to Tournak, who returned the slightest of nods that apparently neither of the other two wizards noted. Tournak motioned the wizards to come with him, and the three left the king’s chamber.
Sekkarian returned, awaiting further orders from his king. Saxthor studied the maps of the city, its harbor, and the details of the Hoyahof itself. Sekkarian stood by the window, looking out over the city and harbor. He bent forward, straining to see something.
His movement attracted Saxthor’s attention. “What’s disturbed you, General?”
“Another log jam coming down the river. Those farmers and woodsmen at Girdane have been felling the forest on the heights above their town and the mountains of southern Heggolstockin, fearing the orcs might use the timber to build catapults and siege towers should they break through. They float the logs down river to sell them here. I see another jam building above Hoya. I must send troops to break it up.”
Saxthor went to the window. The two men looked upriver, visible only from the lofty heights of the tower, spotting the logs.
“What causes that shimmer above the logs?” Saxthor asked.
“I don’t’ know that I’ve seen that shimmer before,” Sekkarian said. His eyes squinted trying to focus on the logs and see the phenomenon. “Could be the sunlight.”
Saxthor looked down on the harbor and saw logs clumped against the shore opposite the harbor. Then, in the forest across the river, there was the slightest shimmer like he saw on the log jam up on the lake.
“Come with me!” Saxthor said. Sekkarian jumped to attention, his hand automatically on his sword hilt. The two men dashed for the door. Tournak was climbing the stairs to the tower apartment when Saxthor almost ran into him.
“What is it, Tournak?”
“I haven’t placed it yet, but there is something in the vicinity of the city that isn’t right. There is a strange energy around the city.”
Saxthor slid past Tournak and down the stairs with the wizard and general close behind. Delia, Saxthor’s devoted and constant companion, raced down the stairs behind the lot.
They reached the harbor, and Saxthor felt a heat sensation in the dragon ring. Its deep blue crystal was radiant, giving off a reddish hue like a tanzanite. Saxthor raised Sorblade’s hilt; the pale green glow was unmistakable. He looked across the river at the forest.
Delia nudged her way between Saxthor and the general and peered across the river where Saxthor scanned. She snarled. She stood defiant, looked up at Saxthor, and then back across the river, growling. Other dogs in the city began to bark.
“Sekka
rian, summon your archers,” Saxthor said without taking his eyes off the forest.
The general gave orders to the commanders that had hastily joined the king and general on the way to the harbor. They in turn dispatched runners to the barracks, and troops with bows and arrows quickly rushed onto the wharves lining the river. Citizens, seeing the military commotion, fled the area, some dropping their goods in their flight. The troops quickly formed orderly rows, awaiting the general or king’s orders.
“Look there, Tournak, across the river at the edge of the forest,” Saxthor said. “We dare not point lest we let them know we are aware of their presence.”
Tournak and Sekkarian peered into the forest. Saxthor studied their faces. Sekkarian squinted but apparently saw nothing. Careful not to point, Tournak raised his hand to the forest and felt the slight sizzle of energy concentrated at the forest edge.
“An invisibility spell,” Tournak said.
“And on top of the log jam now coming down the river,” Saxthor said.
Tournak turned his hand to the logs bobbing in the river.
“Another invisibility spell.” He turned to the king.
“General, order your archers here to shoot into the edge of the forest. Those at the end of the wharf are to shoot just above the logs floating down the river,” Saxthor said.
Sekkarian looked at the king, his puzzled eyes somewhat narrowed, his head cocked slightly, but he turned to his commanders and nodded. They in turn issued the orders to the troops.
Tournak flashed a wizard-fire bolt into the forest. It splashed on the shimmering only Saxthor and Tournak saw. Sekkarian jerked upright.
“It’s a powerful spell, Saxthor,” Tournak said. “There’s a wizard holding it in place. I can’t break it from this distance, but it’s an invisibility spell. It won’t deter arrows.”
“Fire!” Saxthor said.
The archers had been looking at each other, mumbling, asking their comrades if they saw anything where they were told to prepare to shoot.
“Fire!” Saxthor shouted. He looked to Sekkarian.
Delia was tugging on Saxthor’s pant leg. She stopped to bark wildly at the forest and again grabbed his pant leg, trying to pull him back.
An arrow flew out of the apparently uninhabited forest, missing Saxthor but felling the officer behind him. Sekkarian jumped in front of the king. Troops instantly surrounded Saxthor, hustling him backward behind bales of goods stacked on the wharf.
Giving orders, Sekkarian thrust out his arms, ordering the archers to fire on Saxthor’s predetermined targets. More arrows flew from the forest, killing soldiers along the wharf before they raised their shields. The commanders dashed along the lines, directing archers to fire into the forest or the fast approaching log cluster. Arrows flew back and forth from the wharf, forest, and the logs.
“That massive log pileup is almost at the northern end of the wharf,” a commander yelled. He raced down the wharf followed by his compliment of archers.
“Don’t let them land,” Sekkarian commanded. He turned to see the first bobbing logs almost slam into the reeds growing off the end of the wharf. The logs were bobbing up and down, something riding them moving to get to shore. There was a splash. An orc appeared, having rushed out beyond the invisibility veil. His progress was slowed immediately in the mud and reeds.
“Kill him!” the commander yelled.
Arrows instantly slammed into the orc, and he fell forward into the mud. More arrows flew out over the water and disappeared, falling into the logs. There were more splashes. Then an arrow struck the wizard holding the invisibility veil. The log jam and a full complement of orcs began to appear, riding the logs. Most couldn’t swim and held their positions on the logs, hoping to make landfall at the harbor. Others leapt from the floating platform, attempting to swim to shore.
“Fire at will!” the commander yelled at the head of his archers. He spun around between checking the logs crumpling into the reeds and his archers kneeling and standing behind him, firing arrows furiously at the orcs.
An arrow hit the commander. He fell over the side of the wharf, his body bobbing beside that of the face-down wizard killed holding the invisibility shield.
“Don’t let them get ashore!” Sekkarian ordered. He rushed to the head of his troops. The archers poured a shower of arrows on the exposed orcs, killing most still clinging to the logs. With that threat eliminated, the general turned his archers back to the forest, but the shimmering there was gone.
“The orcs in the forest fled back into Sengenwha,” Tournak said, his hand outstretched, reading the energy emanating from the woodland.
“You there,” Sekkarian called out to a new commander on the wharf. “Take two cohorts along the riverbank and hunt down the orcs that made it ashore.” He returned to Saxthor and Tournak.
“Are you wounded?” Sekkarian asked Tournak, who was limping slightly.
“No, General, old wounds.”
“I’m so sorry I didn’t see this coming,” Sekkarian said to Saxthor. He dropped to one knee and with head bowed, lifted his sword to Saxthor. “I’ve failed in my duty to protect your majesty. Please accept my resignation.”
“Nonsense, General, please rise and re-sheath your sword,” Saxthor said. “Your men responded quickly and well. You must rely on the wizards to identify threats from sorcery.”
The general rose and thrust his sword back into its scabbard. He stood at attention and jerked his head in a formal nod to his king.
“See to it the riverbanks are searched for orcs that may have escaped,” the general ordered to his commanders. “Send troops across the river. Search to be sure the enemy has abandoned that forest position across there. Have the naval contingent remove those logs and store what can be used within the city walls. Have them release the rest down river that they may be used by the garrisons at Favriana, Heedra, and Hyemka. Send word to those cities that the logs are to be harvested from the river or sent on before they can again form jams. The enemy may attempt to use the logs to ford the river. The waterway must be kept flowing and clear of such dangers.”
Saxthor returned to the tower, issuing orders that he not be disturbed. He needed sleep badly. Tournak followed. He stood silent guard at the king’s door with the formal guards. No one tried to prevent the quiet wizard from any movement.
* * *
General Vylvex took stock of his supplies and of his orc legions now assembled on the plain below Castilyernov Hador. The day was sunny and clear, though clouds ringed the fortress far above on the mountains. The great ogre was unique in his status as general, the other Dreaddrac generals being mostly goblins. He’d beaten his opponent for senior general, commanding the eastern armies of Dreaddrac by treachery and cruelty. Even his closest subordinates feared his unstable nature. Immolating the king, he had a tendency to kill those who made even minor mistakes that came to his attention and most messengers with bad news. He hated and distrusted goblins that were rare in his command, knowing they would be promoted over him at the slightest opportunity. So it was he alone who made the decision to march south on Graushdemheimer without waiting to open the under mountain passage and, thus, supply lines.
“I needs them whingtangs. We can’t take that capital without them whingtangs. Them walls is older than dirt, seventy feet high and fifty wide,” Vylvex said. His commanders nodded and shook their heads in agreement, but none spoke.
“The whingtangs didn’t get through the mountains, General,” a commander said.
“Course they didn’t,” Vylvex retorted. “They’s too big to get through the tunnel without they dig their way through. That dragon was supposed to have done brung’em over the mountains.”
“Magwaddle fought a mean fight with them Hadorians,” a commander said.
“Yes, but they done killed him,” another ogre said, stepping forward. He stepped back among his peers when the general, his hairy brows arched and his mouth snarling, looked up at him.
“Stupid dragon, he got
his mind fixed on destroying that city and forgot his orders to haul them whingtangs over them peaks,” Vylvex said. He threw his crudely made cup against the tent wall, splashing the contents that drained down like blood. The agitated general rose from his seat and limped slightly to the map on the animal skin stretched on a hanger near the tent flap. “We can’ts stay here forever without supplies, but we can’ts take Graushdemheimer without them whingtangs.” The general noted a Memtonite messenger standing at his tent flap.
“What’s a whingtang?” the allied Memtonite messenger, awaiting an audience with the general, whispered to a goblin commander standing just inside the tent.
A gruesome smile slid over the goblin’s face as he looked down at the shorter, stockier Memtonite. The messenger looked up, blinking, and trembled at the sight. Vylvex glanced at the two, hearing the whispering.
“The king bred the whingtangs. They feed on the monster camel crickets in the Ice Mountains’ tunnels,” the goblin said through broken teeth. “They’re like pangolins, but they stands thirteen feet tall and twenty-five feet long not counting they tails. They’re armor plated, have long pointed snouts with four tusks that jut out like a boar’s in each upper and lower jaw, well over two feet long each. We need the beasts here because they’re made for burrowing. He wants them to burrow under Graushdemheimer’s walls. The slashing claws on the front feet, they’re three feet long! Ain’t anything can touch them.”
“Whingtangs you say,” the messenger said, looking away into his thoughts.
“Come forward, Memtonite,” Vylvex said, resuming his seat behind his field table.
The messenger bowed to the general, slipping through the commanders to stand hunched before him. Vylvex looked the messenger up and down, intimidating him without speaking a word. After allowing time for beads of sweat to form on the man’s brow, the general spoke. “What news?”
“General, the Great Lord of the Memtonites sends his greetings and congratulations to the victorious General Vylvex.”
The Dreaddrac Onslaught (Book 4) Page 34