The Guardians: Book One of the Restoration Series

by Williams, Christopher

  The siege towers were monstrous wooden boxes, but with the base much wider than the top. They rolled on massive wheels, apparently being pushed from behind the safety of the tower itself. There were numerous slits in the wood, for archers inside to use.

  The siege tower worked, by getting in close to the wall, and expelling the goblins inside through a doorway at the top of the tower. Then more goblins could enter at the back of the base of the tower, and climb to the top to join the attack. While at the same time, goblins would be climbing ladders and ropes all along the wall of the fort. One siege tower could take the undermanned fort, not to mention three siege towers.

  “Get some archers up here! Now!” Flare yelled to the soldiers in the courtyard below the wall. He frantically scanned the crowd for Mikela or Enstorion. He spotted Mikela first, running toward the wall. “Mikela, find Enstorion, and get up here fast!”

  He turned back toward the towers. Even though they were going slowly, they were still moving way too fast to suit him.

  “What’s the plan?” Atock asked, having just reached Flare’s position.

  Flare turned and noticed Philip also. Shaking his head, Flare said, “We got to burn them, or we lose the fort today. Archers and the magicians are coming up.”

  Philip spoke up, “Do you think the magi can do anything against those towers? Surely, their magicians have also thought of that.”

  Flare shielded his eyes to get a better view, “I don’t know, but we have to try.” Turning back to the soldiers, he added, “I want you to get the archers ready to go, but hold off until I give the command. Make sure their arrows are lit before they loose them. All right?”

  Atock and Philip ran to their posts, just as Mikela and Enstorion reached Flare.

  “Damn! They want to end this thing now. Don’t they?” Enstorion said.

  Flare ignored Enstorion’s comment, “Listen. We got to burn those things before they reach the wall. Once they get here, we’re through. I need you to burn them using your magic. Can you do it?”

  “Yes.” Mikela answered, at the same time that Enstorion answered, “No.”

  “What do you mean no? All it takes is a simple fire spell. Those things will go up in flames, like a torch.” Mikela said.

  “Think about it. If it is obvious to us, then it’s obvious to them. They put this isolation spell to prevent me and you from getting the message out; don’t you think they will have protected those siege towers from magic flame?”

  Mikela sighed, “Makes sense, but we still have to try.”

  Flare interrupted Mikela, “Wait a second, you said they would protect the towers from magic flame, but what about normal flame?”

  “Well, it will work, but I don’t think you can burn that wood as quickly as you need to. It looks fresh, probably was recently chopped down. I’m sure it’s still full of water and sap.” Enstorion answered.

  “Yes.” Flare said with a grin on his face that was getting bigger as he spoke, “but can you help the normal flame burn it. I don’t know, can you dry the wood abnormally fast, so that the flaming arrows burn it easily?”

  “Yes!” Mikela answered, “That would allow you to burn the towers.”

  “Wait a second.” Enstorion interjected, “That kind of spell would take a lot of concentration and power.”

  “So!?” Flare asked. “If you don’t do it, then we’re dead for sure. No reason to be holding anything back.”

  “But in order for this to work, I will have to concentrate to take out one of the towers, and Mikela will likewise help take out another. But one of the towers will go unchallenged, and it will make the wall.”

  “How long will it take to burn one?” Flare asked.

  “It will take as long as it takes. Remember, we’re not used to dealing with normal flame.” Mikela answered.

  Flare thought for several moments, “All right. Mikela, go to Atock’s position. I want you to help them burn that tower, and have Atock send me as many reinforcements as he can spare. Enstorion, you go to where Philip is located, and do likewise. Any questions?”

  “You’re going to let this tower get through?” Mikela asked quietly.

  “You said one was going to get through, and I can’t ask my men to do something that I won’t. So, we'll fight the third tower.”

  Flare’s orders were carried out, but all too soon the towers neared the walls.

  As great as the walls were, they were not built very wide. This meant that once the goblins were onto the wall, they could pour reinforcements in, and push the defenders north and south along the walls. This would leave a huge breach in the forts’ defenses.

  As the tower drew near, Flare positioned heavily armored men with pikes in the front, near where the door on the tower was. They formed a semi-circle on the wall, hoping to contain the goblins. Behind these pike-men, soldiers armed with swords and axes waited for the goblins to get through the pike-men. Outside the semi-circle, archers waited to start shooting at the goblins. The soldiers waited for the goblins, crouched down, so not to give the archers inside the towers a target.

  The tower stopped rolling a couple of feet from the wall, and with a massive thud the door of the tower opened like a drawbridge, giving the goblins inside a bridge onto the walls of the fort. The door of the tower overlapped the battlements of the wall.

  Flare was ready for a massive number of goblins to come pouring out of the tower, but he was not ready for the black goblins. Up to now, the soldiers had only been fighting the man sized white goblins. But the tower expelled the much bigger and much meaner black goblins. They were near seven feet tall and thickly muscled, and covered with thick black hair.

  Flare hoped and prayed that the other two siege towers had been stopped, and then he turned his full attention to the task at hand.

  The first wave of black goblins ran straight into the pike men, impaling themselves on the long wicked looking pikes. The weight of the dead goblins drove the pikes into the ground, and left the men undefended against the second wave of goblins. In a matter of seconds, the pike-men were gone.

  As disgusted and dismayed as he was, Flare didn’t hesitate. Drawing his sword, he screamed, “TELUR!” and charged into the battle.

  An extremely large goblin had just killed a soldier, and didn’t even notice Flare's charge, until Flare drove his sword into the brute’s back. The goblin collapsed to the ground, wheezing and blowing bubbles of blood. The goblin was dead in a matter of seconds, but Flare had already moved on.

  He was near the edge of the wall, just to the north of the siege tower. The screams of the dying soldiers, and the screams of the goblins as they killed were sickening, but the sounds were lost as he fought furiously for his life. His second opponent was not distracted, and was waiting for him.

  The goblin studied Flare, “Elvvess, Hates em I do, but tastes good they do.” The goblin raised his evil looking single edged ax and drove it downward in an arc meant to cut Flare in half.

  Flare’s reaction was instinctive, and stupid. He raised his sword to deflect the blow. He deflected the blow all right, but his sword was knocked out of his hand and flew over the wall. He landed hard on his butt, with his right arm tingling from the impact.

  The goblin chuckled as he raised his ax for the killing blow. He quickly began his swing.

  Flare did the only thing he could think of, he struck out with his right foot, and kicked the goblin in his right knee. He heard a satisfying crunch, and the goblin's swing went wild, hitting the wall less than a foot from Flare’s head.

  The goblin dropped the ax, grabbed his knee, and fell against the wall, his back to Flare.

  Flare jumped to his feet, grabbing the ax. As sore as his right arm was, and as heavy as the ax was, he wasn’t sure he could even raise it. But slowly Flare managed to get the ax up over his head, and brought it down on the back of the goblin.

  The ax sliced open a large chunk of the goblin’s back, and the goblin fell onto its side. With his head lying on the blocks of
the wall, the goblin spit its last words, “Elvvess, Hates em.”

  Flare once again raised the ax, but this time he used the flat side of the ax to crush the goblin's head into a bloody gooey mass.

  Dropping the ax, Flare attempted to catch his breath. The goblins were quickly overrunning the human soldiers, with more goblins streaming from the siege tower. The battle had already moved away from the tower, with the goblins pursuing the human soldiers. The battle was lost if the siege tower remained.

  ‘What can one soldier do against that?’ Flare thought.

  ‘One soldier can do nothing, but one mage is more than sufficient.’ It was the same voice that had warned Flare not to go with Colonel Holt.

  “But, I know very little magic!” Flare answered aloud.

  ‘You know enough to do what needs to be done.' The voice answered.

  Flare quickly began running through the spells that he had learned from Cassandra. The first one that popped into mind was a wind spell, but he didn’t think it would be strong enough to overturn the tower. After running through the spells that he knew, the only one that seemed to apply was a force spell. Perhaps he could move the top of the tower away from the wall, causing it to topple.

  He was standing near the tower, and would be spotted soon. He needed time to try and work the spell. He looked around for a hiding spot, and noticed the door of the tower overlapping the wall. There was plenty of room under the door to hide.

  Flare quickly and quietly dropped to the ground, and made a dive for safety. It was somewhat cramped, but it was the best hiding place in the whole fort. He reached up and broke off a splinter of the tower door. He would need it for the magic spell.

  The magic spell was simple. It required three maxims to be chanted, and then two pieces of the two objects that the caster wanted to repel each other. The only problem was that the three maxims were not short.

  He closed his eyes and attempted to relax and tune out the battle. He had to focus his need, his desire, to make the magic spell work. He took a deep breath and began chanting as Cassandra had taught him. He remembered to be as quiet as possible, since goblins were still coming out of the tower over his head.

  Flare concentrated on the words of the spell. Quickly losing track of time. He allowed himself only a moment between maxims, before continuing the spell casting. When he spoke the last word of the spell, he slammed the splinter of wood onto the block of the wall.

  The tower began to creak and slowly pull away from the wall, and for a moment he thought the spell would work. But then the tower started slowing.

  Flare closed his eyes, and felt the magic aura around him. He could feel the weakening spell as it sought to overthrow the tower. He focused his need, the absolute necessity of the tower being repelled.

  Slowly, the tower began pushing away from the wall again. Flare could hear the shouts of the goblins as they tried to figure out what was happening. He continued to focus, even as his vision started blurring, and everything he saw took on a yellowish tint.

  Finally the tower reached a point of no return, and toppled over away from the walls of the fort. With a deafening roar, it collapsed, killing not only those inside the tower, but also a large number of the enemy who were around its base.

  Chapter 12

  Flare opened his eyes to see several people leaning over him.

  “I hope you’re happy. You about scared us to death.” Murleen's voice said from somewhere above him. “We thought you were dead.”

  Flare sat up, grimacing, “Are you sure I’m not?”

  Kara helped him up, “Your right shoulder looks to have been sprained, but I treated it. You probably will still have some soreness.”

  Flare mumbled his thanks and tried stretching his right shoulder in a rotating motion. It was definitely going to be stiff and sore tomorrow, but at least he could use it.

  He looked to the north, and noticed for the first time the burnt out husk that had once been a siege tower. He quickly looked to the south, and there too were the remains of a tower. He turned back to his companions, and asked, “Give me a report. Did any of them get through?”

  Philip answered, “No. Both towers burnt before they could get to the wall. But, what happened here?”

  Flare answered carefully, not wanting to lie to his companions, “We were beaten, and the black goblins were everywhere, with more coming through the siege tower. And then the siege tower toppled over, and I lost consciousness somewhere around then. Mikela. Did you or Enstorion topple it?” He had told the truth, or at least a portion of it. Lying by omission was not the same as outright lying, but it sure felt like it.

  Mikela looked confused, “No. Flare, neither of us did this. We were still engaged with the other two towers. We were hoping you could tell us what happened.”

  Flare didn’t make eye, “Could it have been the ground giving way beneath the tower?”

  Atock, looking over the edge of the wall, answered, “No. The ground is still packed and hard beneath where the tower was. It had to be magic that destroyed it.”

  “Well, if it wasn’t Mikela or Enstorion, then who could it have been? Are there any other magicians in the fort, or could it have been a magician from outside the fort?” Flare asked.

  “We're not aware of any other magicians. And why would one of the attacking magicians topple their own tower?” Murleen said in obvious confusion.

  “That doesn’t make much sense. Does it?” Flare agreed. “How many men did we lose?” He asked, quietly changing the subject.

  The soldiers looked at each other, before Atock answered, “Forty-three soldiers are dead. Another fourteen are injured bad enough that they are out of the fight for good.”

  “Fifty-seven!? That’s leaves us below the four hundred mark.” Flare said, his mood sinking. “We’re not going to last long at this pace.” He paused briefly, just long enough to rub his temples, “All right, we have got to get a messenger past those soldiers to the east.”

  “But how? Those soldiers are spread out with bonfires at night. What can we do to get a messenger past them?” Derek asked.

  Flare thought for a moment, and noticing the tired looks on the faces of his fellow guardians said, “Post sentries, and let’s hold a council over dinner. It’s hard to make decisions when you’re tired and hungry.”

  Just after sunset, the guardians gathered for dinner. They had seen to the injured, and checked on the morale among the soldiers. Flare was saddened by the looks on the faces of the young soldiers. It was a somber gathering. They ate quietly, mostly in silence.

  Flare was so tired and anxious that he hardly even noticed the food. He was relieved when the food was finally gone. He stood, “Okay, we have to get a messenger through the enemies’ barricade. Suggestions?”

  Enstorion broke the silence and answered, “Well we can’t use magic to get a message or messenger through the barrier.”

  “Couldn’t we magically change a person into the form of an animal, and get them through the barrier that way?” Flare asked.

  “We could shape shift a soldier, but ..” Enstorion started saying.

  “But, the spell would be broken as soon as the soldier hit the barrier,” Mikela finished.

  “Unless the shape shift spell was stronger than the barrier spell.” Enstorion said, interrupting Mikela in turn. “And if the barrier breaks a spell, the enemies’ magicians would know about it immediately.”

  “Does the barrier form a semi-circle above us, or could we get a messenger out through the air?” Philip asked.

  Enstorion shook his head, “The barrier meets in the air well above our heads. We can’t get a soldier out that way.”

  Atock leaned forward and asked, “And does the barrier run below the ground?”

  “Yes.” Mikela said, “As far as I have been able to tell, the barrier forms a bubble around us. We can’t get around the barrier; we have to go through it. We have to break the spell.”

  “But Mikela, we don’t have the power ne
cessary to break the spell!” Enstorion retorted, rather rudely.

  “Remain calm, you two.” Flare said, trying to soothe the nerves of his fellow guardians. “Couldn’t we shape shift our messenger, and change him back right as he approaches the barrier? That way the soldier can get safely to the barrier, but not alert the enemies’ magicians.”

  “That would get the messenger to the barrier, but they would still have to get past the soldiers on the other side. How do you intend to do that?” Derek asked.

  “To be able to change the messenger back to human form quickly, I would have to keep my concentration on him, and I wouldn’t be able to see where the barrier was in relation to the messenger.” Enstorion added.

  “Wait! If you cast the magic spell, I could watch the messenger and warn you when he got near the barrier, and I could maintain communication with him.” Mikela said, excitement starting to bubble up in her eyes.

  “Okay. We can get a messenger to the barrier safely, and we can get him though the barrier safely, but what about the other side? How does he get past the soldiers?” Flare asked while pacing back and forth. Excitement was taking hold of him again.

  There was silence for several moments, as the soldiers thought about the problem at hand.

  Finally, Callin spoke up, “It seems to me that the only way we can do this is if we have a messenger sneak through the barrier. And at the same time, we create a distraction that confuses the enemy.”

  “We could attack them with a small group of soldiers,” Derek said.

  “Anything short of an all out attack is too obvious a distraction,” Flare answered, shaking his head. “We have to think of another way.”

  “I have an idea,” Callin said quietly, “We could send one soldier as a distraction.”

  “One soldier? But what good would that do?” Philip asked, confused.

  Callin stood up and paced behind the chairs of his fellow warriors. He seemed excited. “Think about it! A small group of soldiers is an obvious distraction, but one soldier could be sent as a fake messenger.” The other guardians looked confused. “One soldier could be sent as a decoy. Pretending to be the real messenger, while the real messenger sneaks out magically disguised as an animal.”