“Are we that capricious, Malcolm?” Veronique asked with a smile.
The big man chuckled.
“No, you aren't,” he told her. “But while an emergency can bring out the best in people, sometimes it can also bring out the worst. I want to be clear, in front of everyone here, that if Aiden and I are in charge of the castle's defense, we will need all of you to cooperate with us, no matter what. Will you?”
No one said anything, but every human there nodded their heads. The elves appeared to be pleased with the group's response.
“There you are,” Tamara told Malcolm. “We all want to keep Nottinghill Castle and our people safe. You two are the most experienced warriors that we have and you are also our best tacticians. It makes sense for you to take charge of our defense. So you have the ball.”
She smiled teasingly at the men.
“Make sure you don't drop it.”
That was the end of the meeting. There was no time for long discussions. Things were moving too fast for that. And so, about an hour later, Malcolm, Aiden, Tamara and Chase found themselves standing atop a high hill looking out over the channel. The mage had Gated them to the location where the giants had made landfall, after scouting out the area in her mirror to find a safe spot to observe the monsters.
“By the Mother, they are even larger than I had expected,” Chase exclaimed as they spotted the giants.
“Yes, this isn't going to be easy,” Aiden said softly.
The hill rose about fifty feet above the surrounding countryside, an abnormal hump jutting out of the forest. It allowed the quartet a good view of the approaching giants. However, the distance did not make the monsters look any smaller.
Now that they were out of the ocean and exposed, the giants could be seen clearly. And the sight wasn't pretty.
Although they were humanoid-shaped, the immense figures did not look like people. Their pebbled skin was even whiter in the bright sunshine. Their faces were horrible and were made even worse by a total lack of expression or emotion. Their sagging, toothless mouths hung open and they drooled continuously. But it was their bodies that were the strangest sight of all.
They were oddly proportioned, with their arms hanging ape-like almost to their knees, while their legs were short and thick. Their feet were broad and they had no toes. They were naked but there were no sex organs to indicate that they were either male or female.
The pair were walking slowly along the shore. Their arms weren't swinging as they moved, making them look robotic and mechanical.
“It's as if the dark gods scooped up some mud from the depths of the sea, molded it roughly and then breathed life into it,” Tamara said with disgust. “Do they even have any intelligence? They appear to be completely mindless.”
“I have no experience with these creatures,” Chase told her as she watched the giants through narrowed eyes. “But the huge monsters that we have on our world are usually quite stupid. It is their size and strength that makes them dangerous, not their cunning.”
“Well, that's one advantage that we have over them,” Malcolm said as he sized up their enemies. “What do you think, Aiden? About seventy feet tall?”
Aiden tapped his lower lip as he squinted at the giants.
“About that,” he replied. “Definitely taller than the castle's walls. We'll have to stop them before they reach Nottinghill or they'll stomp through the castle like kids crushing an ant hill.”
“Suggestions?” Tamara asked as she looked at the three warriors.
“Blind them,” Chase said immediately. “Take away their sight and they might still be dangerous, but that danger will be blunted. They will stumble around the land blindly and we will be able to finish them off at our leisure.”
“Just like that?” Malcolm asked with a skeptical smile.
The elf chuckled and shook her head.
“Of course not. But we can see their route from here. They are following the coast at the moment, but I would guess that they will turn northward soon and head straight for the castle. If they continue to move at the pace they are now, it will be several days before they reach their goal. There must be other hills and high points where I can station my archers and as many of yours that want to join us. I assume that the monsters are infused with magic, but our enchanted arrows,” she patted the quiver hanging from her belt, “will be able to damage them regardless of that.”
She looked at Tamara.
“Lady mage,” she said respectfully, “if you or some of your fellow magic-users could join us and use your spells at the same time, I believe that it would do enough damage coupled with our arrows to blind those beasts.”
Malcolm and Aiden were impressed by the elf's quick assessment of the danger and her tactics.
“I agree with you, Chase,” the big man told her. “Tamara, we have got to keep those things away from Nottinghill. Obviously, even if we succeed in blinding them, we can't have them stomping around the countryside, randomly destroying anything they find. But our first priority must be to protect the castle.”
“Agreed. So now the question is, where should we stage our ambush? I don't know this section of the country well enough to know where the best spot would be right off the top of my head.”
“I can probably help with that,” someone said.
They looked up to see the speaker hovering a dozen feet over their heads. It was Ellas.
Her translucent wings glowed like stained-glass in the sun as they flapped rapidly. She smiled down at the group, her gown flowing in the breeze.
“Ellas!” Tamara exclaimed. “This is a surprise. What brings you here today?”
The sprite flitted down to eye level and twirled around to look at the distant giants. She stared at them in disgust as she replied to Tamara.
“Chao. You know that the silly man can't cast the shield spell very well yet, so he cannot use a Gate to travel safely. Because of that, he asked me to join you and offer my help.”
She turned back to look at the group.
“I'm happy to aid you in any way that I can. Those...” She pointed at the giants. “...abominations are the direct handiwork of the Chaos lords. They are a crime against nature and I will do whatever I can to destroy them.”
Her tone was more vicious than any of the group had heard her use before and Aiden nodded in agreement. He felt the same way.
“We appreciate that, Ellas,” he told her. “As you might have heard, we want to stop those creatures before they reach the castle. Can you scout ahead of them and find us a likely spot for an ambush?”
“Of course I can,” the sprite replied loftily. “I will find the best place to stop them and report back to you,” she looked at Tamara, “at the castle.”
And then she shot away in a streak of color.
Tamara looked after her with a wide smile.
“Very self-assured, isn't she?” she said.
“Yeah, that's Ellas, all right,” Malcolm told her with a grin. “Chao says that she is very old and a lot more powerful than her tiny size would lead you to believe. I guess that makes her a little arrogant.”
“She's not arrogant, Mal,” Aiden disagreed. “She's set in her ways, that's all. Personally, I'm just happy that she's on our side.”
“As am I,” Chase told them. “The fay races are ancient and wise, and the sprites are the most powerful of all of them. My people have great respect for them and I am delighted that Ellas has chosen to aid us in this.”
“Well, I suppose that we should head back home and get organized,” Tamara told them. “And then wait for Ellas to find a good spot for us to attack the giants. I just hope that we can stop them or at least turn them aside before they reach the castle.”
“We'll stop them,” Malcolm assured her grimly. “One way or another, we'll stop them. We have to. It's as simple as that.”
Once Tamara had Gated the group back to Nottinghill, Chase hurried off to organize her archers. Tamara went to speak with the other mages and Malcolm
told Aiden that he'd round up as many of the castle's best archers as he could.
Since that left Aiden alone with nothing to do until they heard back from Ellas, he decided to visit Chao. He had a question that he thought the summoner might be able to answer for him. In fact, he suspected that Chao might be the only one who could.
The smaller man looked surprised as he opened the door to his chambers to see Aiden standing there, but he graciously invited the warrior inside and offered him some tea as they sat down.
“Thanks, Chao,” Aiden said as he accepted a cup of the hot, sweet liquid and took a sip. “It's delicious.”
The summoner smiled and sat down on the long couch in his living room, across from where Aiden was seated in a large leather chair.
“Thank you, but it is the chef's recipe. I simply enjoy it as you do. So, what can I do for you, my friend? Did Ellas join you and the others down at the site of the giants' landfall?”
“She did. And now she's off trying to find a good spot for us to ambush them before they reach Nottinghill Castle.”
“Ah, good. Good. I was hoping that she would prove useful.”
Chao appeared thoughtful as he drank some tea. He was wearing a rather somber brown robe, quite out of character for him, and Aiden wondered if it reflected the man's mood. What was he worried about?
“Are you okay, Chao?” the warrior asked cautiously.
The summoner was a very private man and Aiden didn't want him to think that he was prying.
“Okay? Oh yes, I am quite well, my friend,” Chao replied with a gentle smile. “I am simply concerned, as I am sure you are, about this increased threat from the lords of Darkness. I have become increasingly curious about the reasons for it. Gods are immortal, unlike us, and they take the long view. They are patient. How could they not be? Yet now those evil beings are ramping up their attacks on us, a small group of relatively weak survivors. Why? Why the rush? And why now? Has something changed?”
Aiden was surprised by Chao's questions. He was so concerned about the immediate threat that he hadn't really been thinking about the overall war that the gods were fighting between themselves. The war that had destroyed humanity in the first place.
“Interesting question,” he mused. “I haven't considered that. Any ideas?”
“Perhaps.”
Chao set down his cup on a side table and stood up. He crossed the room to a lone bookshelf and ran his finger along a line of books until he pulled out a thick, leather-bound tome.
“I discovered this rather obscure text several years ago,” he said as he sat down again. “Lei and I were still struggling to survive in our native China and, like many others, we spent our days searching through buildings and ruined structures to find food and other supplies.”
Aiden nodded.
“I remember those days,” he said softly. “Scratching and clawing just to survive. If it hadn't been for Malcolm, I think that I would have probably given up eventually.”
Chao paused as he was flipping through the book and looked across at the warrior.
“Yes, I felt the same way. It was my brother, Lei, who kept me going. His strength seemed limitless even then. It was he who encouraged me, kept me safe, made me go on. It is sadly ironic that I am the one who now lives while he is gone, is it not?”
Unsure of what to say to that, Aiden remained silent, not wanting to intrude on Chao's memories.
“I came across this old book in what was left of a small library in some unnamed town. Its writing was unknown to me at the time, but I have been gifted since with the ability to read ancient languages and now I know what it says.”
He smiled shyly at Aiden.
“Most of it, anyway,” Chao added. “I assume that I was guided by the gods to find this tome, and taught by them to read it, for a purpose. And I believe that purpose has to do with events that are taking place right now, or are soon to come.”
“I don't understand,” Aiden told him in confusion. “Are you saying that the book is filled with prophecies?”
Chao paused in his page-flipping and appeared to be groping for an answer to Aiden's question.
“Not prophecies, per se. More like educated guesses. If the gods, either Light or Dark, knew the future, wouldn't they use that knowledge to become victorious over one another? No, this book contains answers that are more like 'what ifs'. As in, 'what if the lords of Justice gained the upper hand on the gods of Chaos? How would those evil entities react?' Or 'what if a third party got involved in the war between the gods? How would either side respond, depending on who was benefiting?' Situations like that.”
“Hmm. Okay, so you're saying that something like that is happening now?”
“Perhaps. Ah, here it is.”
Chao tapped the open book on his lap and began scanning the page.
“Yes, this is the proper section. The language is colorful and full of allegory, so let me paraphrase it for you.”
Aiden sipped his tea and sat back in his chair, trying to get comfortable.
“Please do,” he said patiently.
“Thank you. Now according to this, the dark gods are impulsive, erratic. They are prone to fits of pique and what we might call tantrums.”
“They sound like misbehaving children.”
“Yes, in many ways they are. The lords of Chaos were created after their counterparts, not at the same time. You see, Order cannot be defined without Chaos. Evil does not exist without the presence of Good. And the Light is invisible if you do not have Darkness. The universe as we know it seeks balance in all things, or at least attempts to achieve it. And the evil lords were brought into existence because of that universal need. The lords of Justice came into being and so the gods of Chaos needed to be born as well, to counter them. Unfortunately, Chaos has always sought to supersede that balance and put itself first, above the lords of Light. And so we have this eternal war of the gods.”
“I see. That's fascinating,” Aiden said as he weighed the summoner's words. “I've never heard it explained in quite that way before. But how does that explain the escalation of the war that the dark ones are waging against humanity? How does it explain the giants?”
Chao tapped the book again.
“As I said, this book describes what would happen if the divine war began to turn against the evil gods. It is my belief that this has happened. The lords of Chaos are beginning to panic. They are feeling their victory slipping through their fingers, as it were. And so they are responding by throwing everything they have at us in hopes of squashing our people and finally being able to enter this universe from the Void. It is a terrible thought.”
“I agree.”
“But I am hopeful,” Chao told the warrior. “Hopeful because it seems that there are other forces that have entered the fray. Forces that fight on the side of the gods of Light. Forces that are tipping the balance in our favor.”
Aiden leaned forward eagerly.
“What kind of forces? Who are they? Where are they from?”
Chao held up his hands with a rueful smile at the barrage of questions.
“I do not know, my friend. It is merely supposition on my part, brought about by hints that I have read in this book and others. But I believe that I am correct. You see, even though the Darkness was dominating the Light for a time, which allowed the evil gods to awaken the dragon queen here on Earth and begin the chain of events that eventually brought down human civilization, it could not continue to win forever. The two sides are too evenly matched. If the human race had been completely wiped out, then the Darkness would have swept over this world and out into the universe. But we are tenacious. Stubborn. We refused to give up. And the lords of Light helped a few of us by Changing our bodies to allow us to survive in an atmosphere saturated in magical energy. Our very presence blocks the Darkness' entrance into our realm, you see. Without eliminating us, the gods cannot cross over. The Light knows this, of course.”
“So that's why they did it,” Aiden said
softly.
“Exactly. And so the balance was slowly restored to a point where neither side could gain an advantage. But now we have new elements emerging in our own war with evil: the giants and other monsters that will soon be attacking Nottinghill Castle and whatever other bastions of human civilization are left in this world. So something new has been added to the equation. Some other force has entered the fray and it is fighting on the side of Light. That has made the evil gods desperate. And it gives me hope that perhaps we will survive in the long run.”
“Is there a way to discover what this new element is?” Aiden asked him. “Could some of your friends from other realms, maybe sprites like Ellas, not get that information somehow?”
“Ah, that is a very good question,” Chao told him with a grin. “And it is what I am working on right now. I am attempting to gather data from as many sources as possible. I hope that, with enough hints and rumors from diverse places, we might be able to collate that information and determine who or what this new factor is. It is slow work, though, and I doubt that I will have any answers before those giants reach the castle.”
“They won't reach it,” Aiden stated firmly. “We will stop them before they get anywhere near Nottinghill.”
“Let us hope that you are right. But I have taken over the conversation, and I apologize for that. You are the guest here. Did you need something?”
Aiden finished his tea and set down the cup. He smiled at Chao as he stood up.
“I thought I did, but you seem to have read my mind. I was going to ask you if you might know why the forces of evil had suddenly amped up their campaign against us. But you've answered my question before I even asked it.”
Chao laughed lightly and walked Aiden to the door.
“Great minds think alike, perhaps,” he said with a smile as he opened the heavy door. “Yes, we may be on the verge of a breakthrough in this war, my friend. But let us not get ahead of ourselves. You and the others focus on turning away those giants and I will do my best to see if we truly have new allies who will aid us in this conflict.”
The Werewolves of Nottinghill Page 24