That is where you are wrong, little sorcerer. It will never be enough. There is not enough blood in the world to slake my thirst, but it will suffice for now. It was a good fight.
Azerick looked around and saw Wolf, Ghost, and Allister staring at him. He reached a hand down to help Allister to his feet, which the old wizard gratefully accepted.
“I am sorry, Allister,” Azerick said, abashed and frightened by his actions. “There are things I have neglected to tell you.”
Allister embraced his friend and clapped him on the back. “We will speak of it later, son. Let’s go help our friends first.”
CHAPTER 21
The gates split asunder under the ram’s relentless pounding at almost the same moment Allister and Azerick gated behind the wizards and their guard element. One-half of the gate tumbled to the flagstones with a heavy thump. The other managed to cling tentatively by one hinge near the top. The ram crew pushed the ponderous siege engine back away from the breach to allow the waiting soldiers access into the fortified compound.
The waiting cavalry pushed past their foot-bound brethren in hopes of gaining the honor of spilling the first blood. All of the side streets had barriers of wood and stone erected to prevent the enemy from running freely throughout the compound. The soldiers were unconcerned, trusting that their numbers were far too superior to allow any kind of successful ambush. The footmen chased after the swifter horses with battle cries of incoherent sounds and promises of death.
Wagons turned onto their sides littered the main boulevard, requiring the riders to steer around the obstacles. They slowed the horses down but only slightly as they raced to the large, open courtyard in front of the tower.
The experienced soldiers expected rows of pikemen or archers to try to break their charge, but the grounds seemed deserted. Many began to realize that they were preparing for the actions experienced soldiers would take and recalled that this was some sort of school or orphanage despite its apparent militancy.
It was likely that everyone was hiding inside the tower, as if they could find safety there. They would probably entreat for surrender and mercy but they would get none. The mercenaries had no time for such niceties.
The ram crew cleared away the shattered gates and forced the siege engine through the breach toward the sealed tower doors. The commander of the ram crew shouted for some of the infantrymen to clear a route through the wagons so the nearly non-maneuverable ram could get at the tower unimpeded.
Men pushed and pulled at the wagons, righting them so they could wheel out of the way, as the ram rolled inexorably forward while the commander shouted for the footmen and horses to clear out of the way.
The street was not much wider than the gates, which allowed little more than enough clearance for the ram to squeeze through. The mass of soldiers wanting blood actually hindered the progress of their own ram. Several men standing below the tower became impatient and began hacking at the doors with heavy axes.
Inside the tower, the children and adults listened to the pounding of the axes on the door, and many of the younger ones wailed in fright.
Sandy looked at the mass of children she was with and tried to reassure them. “Don’t worry, little humans, any bad men that get through those doors I’m going to bite and scratch them real good! They will learn what it means to anger a sand dragon.”
The ram had made it less than halfway to the tower when there was a screech of metal, a short rumbling, and a heavy thump behind them where the gates once stood. A few men in the open rear of the ram looked behind them at the sound and saw two massive stone blocks, with what appeared to be a dozen steel wheels beneath them, roll together from the sides of the avenue, slamming together and completely sealing the opening.
None of the enemy had paid any heed to the steel rails that were set flush with the flagstones running parallel to the gate or that the street here had been built with a slight decline toward the center. The two enormous stone blocks looked like nothing more than part of the wall until the retaining pins were knocked loose from a hidden corridor behind them. A chain with links the size of a ship’s anchor chain was attached to the ends of each block. The chains ran through the sections of wall that was now revealed. It would take a team of draft horses to reset each block to reveal the blocked egress.
The moment the blocks slid into place, defenders sprang up from the rooftops and began pelting the trapped army below them with arrows and large stones. From the crenellated rooftops and tower, a rain of arrows showered down upon the mercenaries who had shouldered their own bows and drawn their swords in anticipation of melee combat.
Atop the tower, Aggie sent a bolt of lightning into a mass of riders. It arced between the invaders, slaying half a score of them at once. Rusty sent bolts of fire into the ranks of men in a continuous barrage, this time with full effect, raking it across one enemy after another. Joshua and Umair unleashed their own formidable magic against the press of mercenaries that were quickly beginning to panic amidst the magical killing storm that came crashing down upon them.
Maira, the former Black Tower adept, had a vengeful gleam in her eye while she directed more killing magic from another rooftop as she stood beside a half dozen younger boys wielding crossbows. The students knew that they could expect no mercy, and none knew that better than the former Black Tower apprentices did, so they had no qualms in not showing their enemies any in return.
Despite the sheer volume of killing fire, electricity, and magical energy, there was still an enormous number of enemies below them, and they could not hope to kill them all in a single stroke scores dying by the minute. Some of the cavalrymen used their horses to kick and tear down some of the flimsier wooden barricades blocking the alleyways between the buildings and fled down them in search of a way to reach the defenders.
The men on the ground found shelter where they could, darting behind the erected barricades, buildings, and sometimes kicking in a door or climbing through a window to escape the death being dealt from above.
Some of the boys next to Maira spun about in time to see a couple of mercenaries clamoring onto the rooftop behind them. They turned and fired their crossbows into the faces of the first two who breached the top, then threw them down and drew their swords as more of the enemy tried to gain the roofs. The same scene was unfolding across the roofs of several other buildings where more of the young men and women fought to defend their school and their home.
A huge mercenary wielding a massive double-headed axe finally chopped through the stout door leading into the tower. A few more swings and he had a hole large enough to stick through his large, helmed head.
“I’m coming, little kiddies! I’m gonna eat the flesh from your bones!” he shouted through the breach and resumed hacking at the portal.
Another minute, and the ruined doors swung wide, allowing the tide of mercenaries another route to escape the slaughter happening in the courtyard. The big mercenary with the axe took his weapon to the inner doors that lay at the end of the foyer. These were an ornate set of carved doors and were not built to withstand any sort of attack. A few swings cleaved the bolt securing them, and scores of frightened and furious killers swarmed into the reception hall.
“I found ya, ya little vermin!” the burly mercenary shouted gleefully as he looked at the top of the stairs where Ellyssa, Sandy, and a few other of the younger magus students waited.
“You have found only your death here, scum,” Ellyssa called down with only a trace of fear in her young voice.
The apprentice raised a slim wand and spoke a word of command. A small ball of fire streaked from the end of the wooden rod then detonated amongst the leering man and the first group of his murderous band that came through the door behind him. The fireball sent men flying in all directions, filling the reception hall with the sickly scent of burnt flesh and hair, but scores more began pouring in like water from a breached dam.
Roger and Missy raised their wands and sent lightning bolts and darts o
f arcane energy tearing into the rushing tide of bodies, but there was too many to be stopped. They were so close now that Ellyssa had to aim behind the men in the front-most ranks so as not to scorch her or her friends with the next fireball she unleashed.
The children were forced to scramble back up the stairs to avoid the swing of a mercenary who managed to clamor up the steps just below them. Ellyssa jumped back but tripped and fell over the step behind her and watched in terror as the man loomed over her, ready to plunge his sword into her young body.
A flash of glittering scales flew over her and struck the mercenary in the chest. Wings extended, Sandy sailed over the prone girl in a semi-controlled glide and sunk her four-inch long talons, the hardest and sharpest of almost any dragon species, deep into his chest. Her snake-like neck whipped down and took the mercenary in the throat, instantly ending his struggles.
The furious little dragon felt a flash of pain when another mercenary stabbed at her with his sword. The blade skipped off her hard, shiny scales but still managed to bite through enough to raise a line of blood. Sandy hissed in anger and darted forward with the reflexes of a pouncing cat before the man could recover. The sand dragon reared on her hind legs and raked her razor-sharp fore-claws through the attacker’s chain throat guard. Blood sprayed into the eyes of the nearest invaders charging up the stairs behind him when he spun away and tumbled down the steps.
“Sandy, get back here!” Ellyssa shouted from higher up the stairs, ready to retreat to the roof where Aggie and the others were still pouring death down onto the forces below the tower.
Sandy took advantage of the mercenaries’ troubles as they slipped in the blood-coated stairs and bounded up to where her friends waited for her. Ellyssa looked down into the crowded reception hall and at the men swarming up the stairs and knew that they could never make it to safety. There were too many stairs to climb between them and the roof and only one flimsy door to slow them down. The men were simply too strong, too fast, and too many.
Just as a wall of mercenaries closed within a few steps of where Ellyssa was holding the door for Sandy, a translucent form floated up through the stairs, her shimmering robes and long spectral hair flowing about in a breeze that no one living could feel.
“Not my children!” the ghostly image of the woman shouted with rage.
The sudden appearance of the furious apparition stopped the attackers in their tracks, some of them jumping back so suddenly they tumbled backwards, knocking down several of the men behind them.
“Get out!” the banshee shrieked, the sound of her voice empowered with rage and the pain of her ancient loss.
The shout washed over the men on the stairs like a tidal wave, tearing weapons from hands as they were blasted off the stairs and over the heads of those down below.
“Get out! You will not hurt my children!” she shrieked as ghostly tears streaked down her anguished face.
Hearts froze with fear and the hair turned pure white on the men further away or partially shielded by those in the front. Again and again the banshee turned her killing voice against the men who dared threaten her home and children once again. She failed to protect her children in life, and she refused to fail them in death.
The ethereal lady shrieked her rage until nothing living moved within the reception hall. Outside, the dying sounds of battle made their way through the sundered doors and up the stairs of the eerily silent hall. The Lady floated up before Ellyssa and reached out a tentative hand toward the young girl. Ellyssa’s breath began to fog as the air around her froze.
“Thank you,” Ellyssa said quietly.
The Lady of the Tower touched a single lock of Ellyssa’s hair. Her already blond hair took on a pure silver streak, mirroring the one on the other side of her head where the spirit had touched her the first time they had met. With a smile mixed with joy and sorrow, the Lady sank back into the stairs and disappeared once more.
***
Azerick, Allister, Wolf, and Ghost ran toward the citadel. Azerick conjured a gate that opened atop the wall next to the colossal stone blocks sealing the entrance. The sorcerer let the other three pass through before he joined them on the wall to see how the battle progressed.
It did not look good. There were scores of mercenaries lying dead in the streets and courtyard. Dozens of panicked, riderless horses trod on the wounded as well as the corpses, seeking a way out of the killing zone. A huge number of men were swarming into the near-defenseless keep in a tide of murderous frenzy. Still more were gaining a foothold onto the rooftops where they fired their arrows at the defenders on the other roofs or engaged them in hand-to-hand combat.
Rusty and the senior apprentices were killing men like a farmer scything down wheat stalks, but it was not enough to keep the roofs free of the enemy. A powerful explosion rocked the tower from within.
“That would be your apprentice if I were to hazard a guess,” Allister said as he studied the chaos.
A crack of lightning followed the explosion. “Roger and Missy as well,” Azerick returned. “We need to defend the roofs and stem the flow going into the keep. The gods only know how many are already inside, but there are too many outside in mortal danger.”
“Don’t worry, lad, Aggie can defend that roof for some time yet,” Allister assured him.
Azerick was still concerned for his apprentice. Knowing her as he did, he doubted that she would be out of harm’s way on the roof with the formidable wizard. The sorcerer raised a thick mass of stone spikes just outside the foyer, damming up the flow of human bodies trying to press into the tower and brutally impaling those in the lead.
Allister sent a massive fireball into the crowd of mercenaries who now found their passage into the tower blocked. The archmage then sent single target spells against the men who were too close to friends or too loosely packed together for larger assaults to be safe or economical.
Wolf snatched a handful of arrows from a small barrel set at the top of the wall, dropped them in his quiver, and used the remaining ones from the barrel to fire at those below and on the roofs. Shot after shot found the vulnerable flesh of a mercenary. Ghost bounded down the stairs and disappeared into the shadows of the buildings. A loud snarl, a scream of terror and pain, and an occasional flash of black fur was the only sign of Ghost’s predations.
Azerick was amazed at the young half-elf’s uncanny skill with his hunting bow but had no time to waste in appreciation. He too was busy picking off attackers with lightning and magical bolts of energy as they gained the rooftops.
The throng of mercenaries was greatly beginning to thin out under the defenders’ relentlessness when an inhuman, ear-piercing shriek cut through the courtyard. Everyone, attacker and defender alike, dropped their weapons and clapped their hands over their assaulted ears. All sounds of battle abruptly ceased. Only the frightened whinnies of the horses and Ghost’s piercing howl could be heard over the deafeningly shrill cry. Several more times the crippling shout rang out over the courtyard, dropping the people nearest to the tower to their knees.
Then there was silence. Only the sounds of the horses’ nervous whickering and the crying out of wounded humans was heard above the ringing in everyone’s ears. The defenders stooped to recover their weapons as well as did a few of the mercenaries, but the invaders dropped them to the ground, no longer in the mood to continue the fight. No one man wanted to face more of the punishing magical assaults again. After that awful keening, none had the heart to do battle in this accursed place any longer.
After dropping their weapons, the surviving mercenaries went to their knees in supplication as the young men and women bound their hands behind them with whatever length of thong or cord they could find, including their own bootlaces and the laces of their captives. Jansen, bloodied and exhausted from engaging numerous opponents, ordered every captive relieved of weapons and boots before they secured them in one of the thick timbered classrooms. Azerick and the others would deal with them later.
Azerick an
d Allister ran down the steps to the ground while Wolf went in search of Ghost. “Allister, go get Aggie and the apprentices and have them meet me in front of the stables.”
The old wizard did not bother to reply, simply nodded, and headed into the charnel house that was once a rather grand reception hall, and bounded up the stairs. He told the older children atop the stairs to go meet Azerick at the stables in passing.
Sandy followed the apprentices out of the tower, hissing at a few of the corpses littering the floor. They found Azerick striding toward the stables and ran to meet him, glad to see that he was all right.
“Peck!” Azerick called out as he approached the stables.
The short stableboy came out of the stables at a run, a spear gripped in his hands, and a leather hauberk slung over his narrow shoulders. Peck had refused to leave the horses for the safety of the tower even when it became obvious that the mercenaries were going to breach the gates.
“Yes, Master Azerick?” Peck shouted before he came to a halt just before the sorcerer.
“I need every horse in the stable saddled and ready to go,” Azerick instructed the boy.
Peck’s freckled face broke into a wide grin. “Already done, milord. I figured once you was done tossing this bit of scum out you’d be wantin’ ta go and drive off the rest of them what’s beatin’ on the city walls.”
Peck’s exuberance pierced Azerick’s fatigue and foul mood. “Excellent work, Peck. In that case, grab some help, round up the rest of these horses, and secure them in the paddock before hitching up a team to reopen the gates,” Azerick directed with small grin of his own.
“Aye, milord, straight away.” Peck saluted and ran off after the mercenaries’ forfeited mounts.
“What are we going to do now, Azerick?” Ellyssa asked as they came up behind him.
Azerick turned and faced the small group. “I’ll explain everything when everyone else gets here. Is everyone all right?”
They all said they were fine. Ellyssa told him about how the spirit had killed all of the mercenaries that made it into the keep.
The Sorcerer's Path Box Set: Book 1-4 Page 137