“I will go to her. I can sneak out—,” Dain started.
“What about the demons and Risen?” Sera interrupted. “They prowl around the castle at night. They’ll catch you.” Her eyes welled up with tears, and Rhone began to squirm.
“I’ll take several of my Paladins with me. We can fight our way out.” Dain hoped he sounded more confident than he felt. The first demon they ran into would warn the others and they’d likely be swarmed from all sides and then torn to shreds, but he wasn’t telling Sera that. She needed to be as clearheaded as possible if the army succeeded in breaching their defenses, and no matter the risks, he had to take the chance.
“We’ll be fine.”
If they moved fast, a few might get through. At the Well, a few might make all the difference. Jin was the only ranger capable of wielding the Light. Tough and skilled as she was, she couldn’t face a group of them alone. I will not let Jin face Koren alone, Dain thought, his fists clenching and unclenching. Not again.
“Take some of the archers with you as well. Their eyes are sharp.” Sera’s voice was steady again, but her eyes were glassy and red-rimmed.
“We’ll go just before dawn. The rising sun will hinder the demons. Don’t tell Telar or Luren. They already want to do more than they should.”
Dain calculated the distances in his mind. If Koren was in the swamp, she had several days’ lead on them. They might be able to procure horses, and knowing the quickest paths would give them a big advantage. If he arrived at the Well first, he could prepare a few surprises for Koren and her entourage; anything to give them an advantage over her.
“I caught Telar shifting into a raven this afternoon. He was getting ready to fly out to Jin and help her.”
Dain gave Sera a half-smile. “Can’t fault him for bravery.”
An hour before dawn, Dain gathered six of his Paladins together. A clutch of rangers joined them. The plan was simple: they would slip over the south wall, cover the empty space to the forest on foot, and then link up with Jin for horses.
Dain checked the group’s gear. Every man’s buckles were tied down so they wouldn’t rattle. They’d smeared grease over the metal of their armor and any other surface that might squeak, grate, or catch the moonlight.
Razel and Sera waited to see them off.
“You sure these are enough?” Razel asked. “I could rouse a few of my best.”
“You and your men are needed here. Honestly, dwarf, I didn’t expect my goodbye to you to take longer than with my wife.” Dain shot Sera a smile and she returned it.
“Sounds like a problem between you and the missus,” Razel said in mock-serious tones. “Sometimes the furnaces of passion die out. Maybe you ought to see a healer about it.”
“Just try to keep everything together until I get back, Razel,” Dain said with a chuckle. He eased a leg out over the wall. “The bad people need to stay on the outside. Good people go inside. Think you can remember that?”
“I’ll try,” Razel nodded. The white teeth of his smile shone in the moonlight.
“I will remind him, Husband. Travel safe,” Sera said. She leaned close and kissed him one last time.
Clinging to the rope, Dain dropped away to the ground below. His boots padded softly on the gravel as he eased deeper into the castle’s shadow. His eyes scanned the darkness for demons or Risen. He heard the faint scrape of a boot on stone overhead, and then a ranger joined him. The hooded elf nocked an arrow and ducked beside Dain.
The last of the group landed, and Dain led them into the open space between the treeline and the castle. The sky had taken on a pink hue in the east as night yielded to day.
Fifty paces to safety, a demon howled. As one they turned north, eyes searching.
A pair of bows thrummed. The first demon screamed. A second throat howled from the shadows behind it and more bows sang.
“Keep moving,” Dain hissed. “We can’t afford to get pinned down here.” He broke into a jog as more demons wailed all around them. His men started to fall, and screams rose from demon, man, and elf alike. He drew on the Light and it flooded him with liquid fire. All around him weapons started to glow as his Paladins too called on the Creator’s Light.
Flashes and pulses of Light clashed with the sweeping, screeching shadows. Risen and demons and men fought and fell. Dain pushed on. He had to lead them out of here. Jin needed their help.
He lost count of the enemy, his sword spraying black blood with every stroke. He fought his way closer to the safety of the trees, then yielded when another snarling demon rushed him.
Only three of his Paladins remained, and none of the rangers. The treeline was just a few paces ahead. They could make it.
A fanged face rose out of the grey morning before him and he drove the charged tomahawk into it. The sharp edge dug deep, and the demon’s blood splashed across Dain’s face. He took two more steps and felt ragged claws scraping through his cloak and raking like fiery lances into his back. He spun to face his attacker, and something black as midnight flew over him. It slammed into the demon, rolling it up and then catching the demon’s throat in its flashing teeth.
The demon let out a keening wail, then fell still.
A pair of glowing yellow eyes regarded Dain. He raised the tomahawk again, ready. Whatever faced him didn’t look like a demon. It looked…furry.
Demons don’t have fur.
“We have to do something,” Sera said. She fought against the urge to panic. A ruler must not panic. In the growing light she could see the lifeless bodies of Paladins and rangers outside the walls. Demons clustered around several, claws and jaws bloodied as they fed. Her husband could be among them. “I will not leave them out there to be devoured or raised into enemies.”
“I’ve a group of men ready,” Razel said. “Say the word and we’ll charge out and get them.”
“I am going with you,” Sera said.
“My lady, we need you to stay safe inside the castle. There’s no need for you to put yourself at risk. Dain wouldn’t want you to do that.”
“Dain is out there fighting, maybe dying, or those beasts are already feeding on him. I am going,” Sera said. To her surprise, her voice sounded hard enough to shatter stone.
“We don’t know that. I think a few made it to the trees,” Razel argued.
“Regardless, I will not allow those brave men to suffer. I will not allow their bodies to be desecrated. I will not allow it. And you can either help me or I will scale this wall alone. It matters not.”
Razel jerked his head to the army camped to the north. “They will see us. They’ll be all over us like wolves on a crippled deer.”
“I will take care of that,” Sera said. She held her hands above her head and reached out with her power. Nature heeded her call. Using the wind, she drew moisture from the roaring Wessen and pushed it high into the sky. Fear and anger fueled her spell, and in moments a black, billowing storm cloud raged overhead, mimicking her own emotions. She called lightning, and it flashed and struck into the invading army. Several tents went up in flames before their mages could react and raise their spellshields. Treetops whipped and broke under the roaring wind, rain fell in hard sheets, and visibility dropped to scant feet.
“That will keep them busy,” Sera said, her chest heaving and hands clenched at her sides.
“Alright,” Razel replied. He bowed his head and shook it. He muttered under his breath—a curse in a dwarvish dialect—and she was grateful not to have understood it. He turned to his men. “You heard the lady, let’s go!” he barked.
Razel used the same rope Dain had and lowered himself to the ground. A demon moved for him at once and his Light-charged sword dropped it. A second shrieked and bounded for him. Sera’s lightning took it mid-stride, and it dropped into a smoldering heap.
She cl
imbed down the rope and stood beside the dwarf.
“I’ll protect you,” she said, clasping Razel on the shoulder. More men dropped down behind her, joining the fight. She moved to the nearest body and bent over it. A ranger. Part of her was relieved it wasn’t Dain, and another part filled with dread that the next body would be his. Or the next.
“Take him to the wall and get him inside,” she called to a nearby Paladin. The man nodded grimly and shouldered the body.
More demons looked up from their feast, howled, and streaked for them. A burst of chain lightning flew from Sera’s outstretched hands, killing them in a clap of drumming thunder. The remaining demons faltered and drew back, howling and bumping into each other as if unsure of their next move.
Soaked completely, Sera’s dress clung to her like a second skin and her long hair was plastered to her head. She knew the rain was bone-chillingly cold, but with the power raging in her, Sera couldn’t feel it.
Razel moved to a body nearby. He lifted the shredded cloak from it, looked back at her, and shook his head. Sera checked another bloody heap; this one had been gnawed upon, but she could tell by the hair it wasn’t Dain. The men following them wrapped the bodies in their cloaks and scuttled back to the wall with the dead.
The bodies grew fewer as they worked their way to the treeline. Hope warred with reason inside Sera—hope that Dain had managed to escape.
Creator let it be so.
“My lady,” Razel said. The dwarf pointed north to where the invaders were camped. “They are coming. I feel them.”
Sera stared into the gloom. At first she saw nothing, then shadowed movement. A demon leapt into view, rallying the others with a harsh cry, and she flung more lightning at it. Then she saw the Risen. A large swarm of them were shambling in their direction.
“Hurry, we have to find him!” Sera said.
“He isn’t here, my lady. We’ve checked all the bodies. Found the last one in the trees, and he isn’t here.”
“We need to get to Jin, then,” Sera said. Blue-white lightning sprang from her hands again, and she sent it toward a group of Risen, shattering them apart. But for every one she killed four more sprang into view, and she was tiring now, her strength starting to wane.
“We’ll never make it,” Razel said. He wrapped a stout arm around her waist and tugged at her. “We have to get back inside.”
Sera focused all her remaining energy into her clawed fingers and raised the wind into a howl against the Risen. She froze the rain above into hail and hurled it at her enemies. They slowed, many stumbling and falling, but still they pushed on.
Razel’s right. Even if she made it to the treeline they wouldn’t get far. She and these men would all be dead, and who would protect the people then? She had to trust that Dain had escaped, that he would and could do what needed to be done.
Grudgingly, she turned and retreated toward the wall.
“Go! All of you,” she called. “I will hold them.”
Lightning flew from her hands anew, chaining from Risen to Risen, destroying dozens with each cast. Like a rising tide they kept coming, stumbling over the bodies of their fallen comrades. One, a robed monster, seemed immune to her bolts. The spells vanished whenever they touched it, and the beast loped toward her, gathering speed with every bound. Sera knew she wouldn’t escape it if she didn’t turn and run now. She glanced to the wall. Men were still climbing; they needed more time. She stood her ground.
Oh Creator, I’ve failed them all. Dain, Jin, Telar and Luren, Rhone…I’m so sorry.
Shaking, she redoubled her lightning; she called more hail down, and the robed Risen barely slowed. She raised stones from the earth and pummeled it and still it came on.
“Now, haul her up now!” Razel roared behind her. Sera felt a tug at her waist and then her feet were off the ground. She soared upwards, watching as Razel alone stood below. The dwarf waved up at her and flashed her a white smile, then turned his attention to the Risen.
Razel’s axe glowed a brilliant white, and he started to sing—a deep, proud hymn. A demon rose up before him, and the axe flashed.
Sera had reached the top now. The men pulled her free from the rope. She leaned over the edge as they lowered it to Razel. “Step in the loop and we’ll pull you up!” she shouted down.
Razel ignored her. The robed monster she’d been unable to stop was on him now. Its fists glowed blue and it struck at the nimble dwarf. Razel dodged, and his weapon hit the Risen at the elbow. The monster jerked back and then swung again.
The rope reached the bottom of the wall.
“Razel, come on! We’ll pull you up,” Sera called again.
Archers grouped around her and they showered the Risen with arrows. The beast proved as immune to them as he had to lightning, but the archers succeeded in holding the other demons and Risen away for a time. Razel and the beast went around and around, striking and countering. Sera thought of throwing lightning down to help, but the spell could just as easily hit the dwarf.
Unless she was mistaken, Razel had stopped singing; he was talking to the monster now. She couldn’t make out but a few words.
“Verdant…remember…helping…friend…?”
The beast continued to strike, and Razel smashed him back with the axe, but the dwarf didn’t follow up with any counters.
For a single instant the Risen hesitated. It seemed to be struggling with something in its rotted mind.
Then it struck. Both glowing fists crashed into Razel’s armor at the chest. A bloody froth burst from the dwarf’s mouth. Razel brought his sword up to ward off the blows. The creature rose up and then swung down again, and Light exploded from Razel’s sword as it met the Risen’s fist.
It took a moment for Sera’s vision to clear. Razel lay on the ground, his sword shattered. The hilt fell from his hand in a clatter.
Sera’s breath caught. Still drawing on her power, she focused her senses on the fallen dwarf. She could have heard a butterfly’s beating wings all the way across the valley. Razel’s chest neither rose nor fell. His eyes glazed over and stared up at her, then drifted to the clouded sky above. He was gone.
Sera howled. She had made him go. The responsibility was hers.
The monster that killed him was still there, studying the dwarf’s broken body. She could kill it and avenge her friend.
She clenched her fist and called a great boulder up from under the earth. It rose from the wet ground and lifted until it hovered almost a foot off the ground. She commanded it to smash the monster, but her strength suddenly faltered. The boulder fell with a wet crash. A hailstorm of arrows clattered into the Risen as it turned its haunted gaze to her.
Swearing vengeance for Razel, Sera met its eyes, and in them she saw emptiness—and then a whisper of something else, something almost sad. Something almost like regret.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Dain awoke to crippling pain. His back hurt like a thousand tiny daggers had been driven into it and his right arm was numb below the elbow. With his left hand he felt at it and found a thick wrap of cloth around his wrist. Someone had taken the time to patch him up, and he doubted the demons or Risen had such kindly natures.
He opened his eyes and lifted his head, trying to determine where he was. White canvas hung above him, popping gently in the breeze. A thin strap of cord ran from the wooden poles one end of the canvas to the other, from which a tiny unlit lantern dangled. The breeze carried the scent of fatty meat cooking over a fire.
He tried to rise, but a hand clapped over his chest and stopped him.
“Rest, Father,” a voice said. A voice he knew well.
“Telar? Am I in the castle, then? Have you set up tents in the courtyard?”
“No. We made it out as planned. We are in Jin’s camp. Her sentries found us and brought us here.” Telar
leaned over him and studied his face.
That didn’t make sense. How could Telar be out of the castle?
“You snuck out. The fur. That was you that tackled me,” Dain said. Sera would kill them both when she found out Telar had left on his own.
Telar grinned.
“It seemed the fastest way to get you out of there. It was Luren’s idea.”
“Luren is here, too?”
“She’s out with Jin now.”
Dain groaned and closed his eyes. Add another name to Sera’s list. Rhone would be an only child when Sera got ahold of them again.
“How many others escaped?”
“Three. Another died an hour ago. His wound festered,” Telar said solemnly.
Three. Three wasn’t nearly enough to stop Koren.
Dain opened his eyes again, turned his knees over the bedside, and tried to stand. The muscles in his legs refused to cooperate. “Help me up,” he said.
“Jin said you should rest.”
Dain shot him a dangerous look. “If you always did what you were told you’d be in the castle now. Now help me up.”
Telar slipped a hand beneath Dain’s arm and lifted. Dain’s head swam for a moment, the world a dizzy blur, and then the pair passed through the tent’s flaps into the wood elf camp.
They were in a small clearing among the tents of Jin’s rangers. The wood elf castle was visible in the far distance, and the blue Wessen churned beside it. Thin bands of smoke rose from the golden elf army’s camp; likely their cookfires.
Dain lowered his eyes and studied Jin’s camp.
Wounded were everywhere. Pallets, cots, stretchers, even piles of straw all held bandaged men. Steam rose from a set of black kettles hanging over a fire in which strips of cloth—dressings for the injured—boiled away.
Paladin's Fall: Kingdom's Forge Book 2 Page 29