“Should I mention that they have a design flaw? Of course what gnomish machine doesn’t?” Sara added, before Seth could respond.
“Take your time, we have all day,” Seth replied sarcastically.
“Their bellies leave the cogs that makes them move exposed. If you can somehow tangle something in them, or perhaps jam something in there, then they won’t be able to move.”
Sara was to be their savior, if only Seth could devise a way to get something under the machines. He looked around for something he could fling upon the field that might become entangled, but to no avail. On the mechanical creatures came, and still Seth couldn’t find a solution. Looking up and down the wall, it became obvious. All along the wall were his new troops. Formed from melding humans and rats. Rats that could burrow anywhere and chew through anything. Seth shouted his orders to the nearest werewolf, where they were instantly relayed. Then the wolves shouted to the rat children and down they wall they scurried.
It was an odd sight, all those bodies climbing head first down the wall of the city to dive into the defensive pits dug at random beyond the walls. Once in the pits, and out of danger from the fire from the gnomish mechanisms, his warriors began to burrow.
Down on all fours they scratched and clawed at the soil, working together to begin digging small tunnels near to the surface. Onward the mechanical demons came.
Seth could no longer see progress of the burrows visually, but switching vision he was surprised to see just how fast the tunnels were progressing. It was no wonder how the creatures found their way into just about everywhere.
Within moments the fire-breathing machines were too close to be in range of the ballista, and as such the twangs and clanks ceased as everyone watched to see what would become of the rat men’s counter attack.
The minutes passed slowly as the machines droned on, ever nearing the city, but when their approach met the burrows of Seth’s child troops, it became evident fast that he had made the right call.
Watching with his god vision, Seth looked on as his men did not shove something into the drive gears of the machines, unable to carry anything with them while burrowing. Instead, they themselves found entry into the machines from below, and judging by how quickly the gnomes were dispatched, Seth was left to assume that the gnomes had not been armed. One by one the machines began to act erratically. Some began turning in circles and others stopped in their tracks, simply spewing fire in whatever direction they halted. Still others began to turn and head back the way they had come.
Seth smiled. Children were bound to play with the giant toys after all, were they not? Apparently learning the basics of propelling the machines within a few minutes, many more began turning to lumber back in the direction of Sigrant’s camp as they each began to spew copious amounts of fire from their jaws. How nice of them to share with the enemy. Then, trap doors began to swing open from atop the creatures and out climbed Seth’s creations, dropping to all fours and scurrying back towards the castle. Just minutes later they climbed back up the walls and watched with their maker as the beasts were returned to Sigrant. More than one went off course, but the vast majority, it seemed, were right on target.
Seth was the first to see the commotion, the bloated aura of Sigrant himself, moving at speeds beyond measure. If it had not been for his god vision he would have seen what everyone else witnessed. The reptilian machines began to fly from the ground, exploding upwards like so many leaves upon the wind. Caught up and thrown, the things were flung one into the other like a great hand had descended from the heavens and simply swept the mechanical beasts away. In truth, Seth imagined that King Sigrant simply kicked and shoved and threw the things one at a time, but so fast as to look simultaneous. It was frightening, the power of his enemy.
* * * * *
Sigrant watched the gnomes go, every tedious second drawn out to a damned eternity. Inch by fucking inch the things crawled, to no end as far as Sigrant could tell. Leave it to the damned gnomes to annoy him further.
Impatient, Sigrant counted the hairs upon his arm as the things crawled across an eternity. One blew up and then another, but Valdadore’s pathetic defenses were nearly useless against the machines. Sigrant smiled, knowing all too well what awaited the defenders there. Once the machines reached the wall they would begin to heat the stone of the thing. They could not melt the stone, that was near impossible. But within the stone would be moisture, and if heated quickly enough the moisture would turn to steam and expand. Once it did, the stones would either crack or build pressure until they exploded. Then down would tumble the pathetic king and his smattering of more pathetic troops.
Sigrant watched the span of another collection of forevers as the mechanical weapons neared the wall. The anticipation was killing him. Literally. If the damned things ever reached Valdadore, he would likely be too damned old to see that far. If he still aged. He wasn’t sure.
Down came Valdadore’s defenders. They climbed down the wall, too far to distinguish details from his vantage. He weighed foraying a little nearer to get a better look, but uncertainty stilled him. If only he knew whether or not the prince still lived. Then, what seemed months later, the gnomish war machines stopped or turned while some began spinning in circles before eventually tuning back. Why were they retreating? Then they began spewing fire, before out climbed none other than the troops who had climbed from Valdadore’s walls. Damn the child king! He was resourceful if nothing else.
He watched them come, his anger seething from his every pore. As they neared he could take it no more. Rushing out to meet the machines, he began to fling them in a rage. Smashing some, and throwing and kicking others until they were all destroyed. For a moment he stood upon the field, looking for any sign of retribution, but none came. Damned Valdadore! He still did not know if the little dark prince lived.
* * * * *
Garret watched the demise of Sigrant’s apparent machines. Once again it had been his brother’s monsters to save them, and once again the defenders cheered. Did they not understand what he was doing to the people of Valdadore? How he twisted and ruined them? Cheer the victory, of course, but not the abominations. The sun shrank, ever nearing the horizon. Soon, the people of Valdadore would see just what monsters Seth had made.
With two hours before darkness enveloped the land, a pair of creatures leaped and bounded across the fields, racing towards Valdadore’s walls. The two moved too easily, too gracefully. They bounded entirely too far per stride.
“Archers!” Garret boomed across the wall.
With bows raised, Garret’s few hundred remaining archers took aim across the field awaiting the command to fire. Garret watched the creatures grow nearer and nearer, the sun at their backs. As they came into range, Garret realized that the creatures looked familiar, but barely more than silhouettes he could not be certain.
“Hold your fire!” Seth yelled, and the archers began to obey him.
“Maintain!” Garret boomed.
The archers raised their arrows once more and took aim.
“No!” Seth shouted. “Do not fire!”
“Fire!” Garret yelled, his blessed voice booming throughout the city.
Arrows unleashed, the vast majority following his order as they were supposed to. He was the king, not Seth. He was their master and commander, and none stood above him. A second passed as the arrows arced through the air, and began to rain down.
Suddenly, a great blast of wicked green and yellow flame lanced out from atop Valdadore’s wall. Reaching out with licking fingers of fire, the arrows were incinerated. Seth had opposed him directly. Then the pair of approaching, bounding bodies came to a halt below the wall and peered up at it.
“That’s some greeting,” the first of the feline girls shouted up to the awaiting ears of the defenders.
“Mind if we come in?” the second asked, before they too climbed the walls like the rest of Seth’s wicked creations.
Garret stalked off down the wall, his anger seeking t
o be unleashed.
Chapter Ten
Sara winced as the first twinge of power joined with her.
“She’s awake and feeding,” she told Seth, who gave her a compassionate look of understanding.
“I’m sorry, but this may be the only way. You should be there when it is time,” he told her.
“I will, my love.”
Without another word, unwilling to say goodbye, Sara stepped off the wall and plummeted down to the ground thirty stories below. Another rush of power, and she was racing down the city streets. Leaping over people, carts, and animals alike, she ran slowing only to round corners when needed. Another rush of power. It seemed that granny was getting the hang of it. Faster the power came, the space between them falling to just a minute or less between each one. She was taste-testing, enjoying the physical pleasure and the growth of her own power. Good.
Before Sara knew it, she was skidding to a halt outside the entrance to the underground temple devoted to Ishanya. Outside the temple a dozen of Seth’s rat troops stood guard, allowing no one to inadvertently release those inside. Even from up here, the screams from below and banging upon the other side of the door were heart-wrenching. Sara hated it. Hated that she had done it. Not just changed the old lady, but fed upon people just as she was doing. Now that she understood, the whole thing sickened her. But she had a part to play. Collisions and lives or not.
Standing outside the door like a solitary statue, Sara waited for the screams and pounding to stop and the ebb of power to cease. Then, and only then, would she open the door. Dismissing Seth’s troops with a word, she waited, praying that their plan would work.
The sun had already fled the interior of the city, its inhabitants frightened into silence within the mighty protective walls. No light for two nights and a day. The eclipse had always been an apprehensive occurrence, but with an enemy at the gates that fed on people, it was terrifying. Little did the people of Valdadore know, the monsters they feared were already inside. The screams below ceased.
Sara sprang to the door and, thrusting the giant timber from its hangers, she yanked the door open upon its hinges. Below, the scent of fresh blood wafted up to fill her nostrils and the desire to feed stirred within her. Sara refused it, watching the darkness for the monster below.
The old woman had fed upon hundreds, but even so was weak in comparison to Sara. So it was not with fear that Sara waited for the woman. If the woman escaped and was accidentally killed before they completed their plan, was the concern. Sara knew she was stronger and faster, but sometimes shit just happened. With that in mind, she crept slowly down into the depths, stepping upon the unconscious victims of her progeny. Somewhere down here was every child’s worse nightmare. A great grandmother with fangs and a thirst for blood.
Ahead, in a darkened corner she saw movement.
“Come for another taste of me?” the old woman asked from out of the shadows. “Or perhaps the smell brought you back. Want to help me drain them?”
Sara did not answer. She could taste the scent in the air and her mouth watered. She dared not open her mouth lest she lose control and feed. Instead, she moved toward the darkened corner, her eyes more than able to make out the woman trying to hide there. Fool.
Preparing to lunge at the old woman, and tackle her to the ground in order to subdue her, Sara was shocked when the lady attacked.
Screaming like a mad woman with her arms raised like claws, Sara nearly laughed at the granny before leaping towards her and grabbing her face. With her momentum she drove the old wretch to the ground and snapped her neck. That’ll take a few minutes to heal.
Picking the old woman up, who barely felt like a feather to Sara now, she carried her up to the awaiting mechanism and dropped her in. Pausing a moment, she looked upon the woman’s face and was shocked by what she saw. Where earlier had been a sunken wrinkled face, filled with lines and mottled with age spots, now appeared a woman of perhaps her forties. It was the same woman, of that Sara was certain. Her eyes and clothes were the same. But the change had transformed the woman, erasing years. All Sara could guess was that aging was basically your body breaking down a little at a time, and the change simply put it all back together.
“A pity you won’t get to enjoy it,” Sara said, slipping the loops of chains around the elbows, wrists, knees, ankles, and neck. Then, slamming the great lid closed, she secured the clamps that held it shut and turned the knobs to tighten the chains within, turning each until she heard the snap. After all, if all her joints were broken, she couldn’t struggle to get out, and with the chains remaining she wouldn’t heal either. Then using her more than adequate strength, Sara pushed the incredibly heavy device over, burying the knobs and clamps beneath it. Now, no one without a blessing would be able to release the woman.
With the old woman secured, all that was left to do was wait for those within the temple to rise. Sara did not intend to wait around for that to happen, so instead she ripped the door from its hinges, assuring herself that none would bar it once more, blocking Valdadore’s only hope to defeat Sigrant inside. Looking over her handiwork to be sure she didn’t miss anything, Sara turned and ran back the way she had come earlier. Only this time she ran even faster than before.
* * * * *
Seth stood upon the wall, waiting for his pair of feline sisters to make the climb. His brother had tried to kill the pair, overriding Seth’s order to hold. He could not help but wonder if Garret had seen who they had been. Something in his brother had changed.
He watched Sara dash through the city with his god vision, at the same time he watched his brother stalk away and the feline girls climb up the wall. He smirked, imagining where and what the teenage girls had been up to. As they crested the wall, Seth gave the girls his best fatherly stern face, pointing to them both.
“You two should not just wander off on your own. Especially with all the fighting that has been going on.”
The pair just looked at him with their luminous eyes, each jutting out a pouty bottom lip that just did not look right on their feral feline faces. Then without warning they crawled to his side and clung to his legs like frightened children, rubbing the sides of their heads and necks upon his leg armor.
“It’s good to see you girls too, but if you hadn’t noticed, we sort of have a lot going on.”
“We know,” said the older of the two girls,
“That’s why we came,” said the younger.
“So you came to fight, or for entertainment?” Seth asked, assuming the latter.
“No we came to let you know that…” the older began.
“Another army marches towards the city,” the younger finished.
“What army and from where?” Seth asked quickly. The city could not withstand another enemy.
“But, master, you said you are busy so we will go,” the older girl said, and both of them made as if to leave.
“I am busy, but I still need the answer,” Seth said, perhaps a bit too harshly. “Apologies, girls, it’s just that I really don’t have time for distractions right now.”
He realized all too soon that the words he had chosen were all wrong. Though nearly as much feline as they were human, from their neck to their naval they remained nearly completely unchanged, their small, young, perky breasts still very much intact and completely visible. Upon hearing Seth’s plea, the girls clung to one another, rubbing and pinching and licking one another in every inappropriate way imaginable.
“That is enough, girls.” Seth half coughed the words, as troops from further down the wall began to gather for the show.
“But, master…” the older sister began
“You said that…,” the younger added.
“We were a distraction!” they said together, giggling.
“OK, OK… So please will you now just tell me what army marches for Valdadore?”
“Stinky dwarfs,” one replied.
“With puuurrrrty armor,” added the other.
The dwarves we
re coming to their aid! Seth sighed in relief, feeling as if a weight had been removed from his chest.
“How many?” he asked, praying for high numbers.
“Many.”
“Many, many.”
“Lots,” they said together again.
“Can you give me an idea of how many?” Seth asked.
“More than him.” The older girl pointed towards Sigrant’s camp.
“Many, many more,” the younger added.
“Do you know when they’ll get here?” Seth asked again, already hearing the whispers down the line that aid was coming.
“Soon.”
“Very soon.”
“Tomorrow,” they said as one.
He would need to hold out until tomorrow and then they would have reinforcements of more than fifty thousand men, if the girls were correct. Finally something was going in his favor.
“You are sure that more than fifty thousand dwarves will be here tomorrow?”
“Not if the…” the older started.
“Giants ate them,” the younger sister completed, licking her hand and then rubbing it down the side of her face.
“What giants?” Seth asked exasperated.
“Big ones.”
“Big, big ones.”
“Are the giants coming this way too?” Seth asked, beginning to feel like he was running in circles.
“Not unless they…”
“Are chasing the dwarves.”
That was enough for Seth, and out of courtesy he sent a runner to tell his brother of the news. Turning his attention from the feline girls, which was more than he could say about those men nearest him, Seth watched as the trailing edge of the sun vanished over the horizon. Within the hour the battle would begin.
“Borrik,” Seth said, looking over to his friend and guardian down the wall. “Set the fires.”
With a nod Borrik turned, as the order was relayed multiple times. Watching down the line he saw as all of his soldiers, both wolf and rat alike, alongside their human counterparts, began taking buckets of oil from the now refilled, great cauldrons upon the wall and carefully began pouring them over the sides of the castle to coat as much as was possible. When they were done, the oil would be ignited, and the gleaming white city would become a beacon of light in the middle of the darkened plains.
The Crowned (The Blood and Brotherhood Saga, Book 6) Page 12