Dain pulled deeper on the Light, shaking with the strain. He added its strength to his own and threw Rollo away in one violent shove. Regaining his balance, Rollo started forward again. He held his sword high, ready for a powerful cut. Dain waited, then took a single step, swinging his blade from down low and shoving Rollo’s weapon up. Without slowing, Dain took another step behind the surprised Paladin, bringing his weapon around in a flat arc.
The blade took Rollo at the waist. He spun away and landed against a nearby wall.
Dain turned to look at him.
“Traitor…” Rolo sputtered, blood beginning to run from his belly. “You’ll never…you…” His mouth opened and shut once, twice, his eyes dimmed, and then he slumped against the wall, dead.
“You got him,” Kag said, coming up from behind Dain. He was breathing in great heaves and his face was splattered with red. “I wasn’t sure you could.”
Dain looked at the stairwell and the pile of bodies and broken armor that filled it.
“Zek?” he asked. Kag shook his head, and Dain’s heart lurched sickeningly in his chest.
“Didn’t make it. Took four of them with him. What do we do now?”
Dain turned to the wounded elf. He’d maintained his grip on his sword, but was down to his knees now. “I don’t know.”
“You have to get them to safety,” the dying elf said, then coughed wetly.
Dain recognized the voice. He rushed to the fallen elf and removed his helm. He knew the amber eyes immediately.
“Master Thave!”
“Perhaps I should call you master. I didn’t fare so well against your friend.”
“Hold on, Thave,” Dain said, his voice growing high, panicked. “I can heal. I can save you.”
Thave reached up and grasped Dain’s wrist. “No. You have to take my sister and her children to safety. Just get them into the forest. Honor my death. Make it mean something.”
“No. No, I can heal you,” Dain pushed, but Thave was shaking his head.
“I am proud of my finest student and the man he has become. Whatever else happens, know that,” Thave said. He smiled, and his breathing slowed, then stopped. His eyes stared, unseeing, at the ceiling.
“I said no,” Dain snarled. He raised his hand and pulled on the Light. Almost immediately the spark formed, and he fed it savagely, giving it everything he had and more. He slammed the spark into Thave’s chest. Nothing happened. He raised his palm again, and again the spark formed. He begged the Light for more power, more strength to heal his friend. Dain lowered the spark into Thave’s still chest. Again it did nothing.
“We need to go. He’s gone,” Kag said.
“No, I have to try again. I need more strength. Help me.”
Kag placed a steady hand on his shoulder. “He’s gone, brother. Even with all the Light in the world, death can’t be healed, remember? We need to get out of here. Chalmer will be coming.”
“Forgive me,” Dain told his master. Slowly, he lowered Thave’s body to the floor. He closed the elf’s eyes with his hand.
Thave’s sister, the queen, held her children tight against her in the corner. Her eyes were wild with fear.
Never before had Dain felt so much hate. He had to deny Chalmer his victory. He had to get the queen and her children to safety.
“Come with me,” he said, extending a hand to her. “More men are coming for you, and for them.”
After a moment of paralysis, she nodded and followed him as Kag led the way down to the hall’s first story and out into the street.
Oddly, the village seemed deserted. There were dead Paladins and elves scattered everywhere. It seemed his little group might be the village’s only survivors.
“Where to?” Kag said.
“The Anur,” Dain pointed. “If we can get them there, we’ll have a chance at escape. Then I’ll double back and delay Chalmer.”
The forest’s southern edge lay a half-mile from the village. They ran for it. Once they reached the trees, Dain saw the dust from Chalmer’s horses.
“I will fight with you,” Kag said.
“No. You have to stay with her and make sure she and the children get to safety. If you stay, we both die.”
Kag frowned and spat. “Fine, I’ll stay and you go.”
“No, Kag, the decision was mine. I chose to betray the Empire. I will stay and face the consequences. You need to get her away from here.”
“Are you ordering me to go? Cause I don’t have to obey your orders anymore. Our ranks are equal. We’re both traitors now.”
“I am asking you, Kag, as a friend, and the only person I can trust with this. As the only person left. Please, get them to safety.”
Kag looked at the frightened woman and her children, then back to Dain.
“Alright. I will do this for my friend,” Kag said. He clasped Dain’s wrist. “Good luck, Gladstone.”
“Good luck to you.”
Kag took the queen gently by the arm and led her into the thick tree trunks. She turned back once to stare at Dain—a long, measuring look. Then they were gone.
Alone, Dain waited. He backed into the trees, finding a spot behind a low bush to wait as Chalmer’s men finally found their trail into the woods. Only then did Dain step out into the clearing.
“That’s far enough, Chalmer.”
“Damn you. You let them escape,” Chalmer said, eyes burning with cold fire. Not smiling now, are we, Dain thought, wishing that the fact brought him more pleasure.
“No, I helped them escape,” Dain said. “I am no kidnapper. I took an oath to serve the Light and the Creator. I don’t see how taking those children serves those tenets.”
“Fool! You’ve cost me my kingdom.”
“I hope so,” Dain smiled.
“Kill him!” Chalmer screamed.
Three Paladins moved forward with their swords bared. Dain sprang at the nearest and drove the point of his sword through the man’s eye. There was no room for mercy here. He pivoted and brought his blade into the chest of the second. The third tripped over his comrade, and Dain whipped his sword down across his helm as he fell.
“Too scared to try me yourself?” Dain taunted. He tasted blood in his mouth; old or new, he couldn’t tell and didn’t care. “Rollo was brave before I gutted him.”
“Bental, I order you to kill him,” Chalmer said.
“You think too much of yourself, Chalmer. By the Emperor’s decree, you don’t have the authority to kill me or anyone else of noble blood,” Dain said.
“Arrest him, then,” Chalmer spat at Bental. The lord rode to the front of the group. Slowly, he dismounted.
“You don’t have to do this. Gunter, he isn’t worth it,” Dain pleaded with him.
“No, he isn’t,” Bental agreed. “But the Order and the Empire are. Surrender, Dain. Now.”
“Please, sir. I’ll cut you down.”
Bental drew his sword slowly and moved closer. He swung, and Dain blocked it. Every moment we fight gives Kag and the queen more time to get away, Dain reminded himself.
“Don’t make me do this,” Dain said. “If we fight, he wins.”
“I have no choice,” Bental said. He thrust with his sword and Dain slapped it aside.
“Go find her,” Chalmer ordered a pair of his scouts. They dismounted and circled around behind Bental.
Dain shot forward. His sword met Bental’s and it flew aside again, then he spun around the older man and stabbed the first scout in the leg. The man screamed and the second blocked his attack. Dain elbowed Bental in the side and knocked him clear. His second strike killed the other scout.
He staggered as Bental landed a hit to his back. Dain struck without thinking. His sword caught Bental above the knee, and he fell with a pain
ed grunt.
“Get up, Bental, get up and arrest him!” shouted Chalmer.
“My lord, the elves are coming,” one of his men said. “We need to be away from here.”
“Dammit,” Chalmer hissed, looking for a moment as if he’d leap down from his horse and come for Dain himself. Dain wanted him to. “You’ve ruined everything. Kill them both,” Chalmer said, turning in his saddle toward the approaching elven army.
“No,” Bental said harshly. “He has surrendered to me. He must have a trial.” He had managed to climb up to his knees. “Haven’t you, Gladstone?”
There was nothing more to do. Dain saw the approaching cloud of dust. The elves didn’t know that he’d protected their queen, and even if they did they wouldn’t be there soon enough to save him. Chalmer would escape and he and Bental would both be dead, the truth of what had happened here along with them. Bental was a good man—one of the few Dain could call a friend. So many lives had already been ruined in this war. His own was forfeit, but why not save one good man if he could?
He tossed his sword at Bental’s feet.
“I surrender to Lord Bental, an honorable man, and one of the Order’s last.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Galena-The Present
For what seemed like the hundredth time, Sera stared out over the invading army from her home’s highest ramparts.
Cleeger had told her that a group of orcs and demons would arrive today, one that could alter the course of the siege. Twice a day, he or another of the shapeshifters patrolled a sweeping twenty-mile loop around the castle, reporting back on the enemy’s strength and movements and supplies. Dain referred to these as the golden army’s logistics.
Sera didn’t claim to understand war—not in the way her husband did—but she knew the signs of trouble going from bad to worse when they gathered at her door.
She hoped he and their children were well. Dain would be poring over every report, studying every enemy movement, and organizing the castle defenders for maximum defensive impact were he here.
He is needed at Lorthol, she reminded herself. If Koren won there, the outcome here meant nothing. Still, his knowledge and experience would have been welcome. As always, there was too much work to do and not enough help to go around.
Cleeger and Tem joined her on the ledge. They stood apart from her and Rhone, seeming to understand her need for space without her having to say it aloud. Studying the treetops to the north, she bounced Rhone on her hip and clutched him tight. For the thousandth time she missed the rest of her family—Dain, Jin, and the twins—and for the thousandth time she prayed they were safe. This morning, she’d felt the wards from the temple open. Dain and Jin were surely there, readying for Koren.
Merciful Creator, let it be them.
The sun was well short of its noonday zenith and the morning wind was cool and pleasant. If not for the army outside that wanted to wipe her and her people off the face of the land, the day would have been beautiful.
Movement between the tall pines along the old road drew her eye. She glanced at Cleeger. The big shapeshifter nodded.
As the movement drew closer, she could see the towers better. They slowed and then turned south into the invaders’ camp.
Sera could see them clearer now: four towers sheathed in black iron, each a good ten feet taller than the castle’s walls. Dozens of hulking demons pulled them as an orc with a great drum beat out a marching rhythm. Behind the four towers rolled a squat battering ram and a pair of catapults. Hundreds of orcs and demons brought up the rear.
“Tem?” she said, her voice sounding small to her own ears.
“They’ll be trouble,” the dwarf said. “We’ve oil and pitch to sling at them, and then we can try to fire them but, clad in steel as they are, those towers won’t burn worth a damn. I’ll bet you a gold mark they soaked the logs for a few days before putting them together, as well.”
“You’d win that mark,” Cleeger said. “They’ve also been pouring water over them constantly.”
“And the ram?” Sera said.
“The least of our worries. It’s useless on the walls, and the gate is spell-warded to withstand heavier blows even than the stone. I could whip up another batch of Birke’s mortar and put a layer inside the gate. That would really seal it, but we couldn’t open it again without a lot of trouble,” Tem said. The dwarf paced beside Sera.
“After the towers, the catapults are the biggest concern. At that size they can lob a hundred-pound shot anywhere from a hundred to a hundred and fifty yards.”
“Isn’t your range farther than that?” Sera asked.
“It is, but mine isn’t so mobile. It only twists a few degrees left or right. If they set up outside its firing line, it will take us hours to rotate it.”
“What do you think they’ll try first?”
“Catapults around the clock. Nighttime will be particularly tricky; the demons can see better in the dark than any of us, and who knows about the Risen,” Tem said. “They may try the towers then. All they need is a moonless night and they’ll be impossible to see.”
“The shapeshifters can help there,” Cleeger said. “We can watch during the night.”
“Agreed,” Sera said. “Myself or other spellcasters can also feel the golden elves’ shields. They will have their mages protecting the towers from us. I wondered why they hadn’t attacked the walls with spells. They were saving their strength for this.”
“Possibly, but the runewarding would have stopped any spells they threw at us,” Tem said.
“At dusk I will gather our own mages together. We’ll concentrate on a single tower and see if we can shatter it,” Sera said. “No use making it easy for them.”
“If I might offer a suggestion, Baroness,” Tem said. “Rain would help. The wheels on those towers are awfully small for the weight they’re carrying, and soaking the field will slow them down considerably when they try to advance.”
“It would also eliminate any chance of setting fire to the towers,” Cleeger said.
“That’s a slim chance already,” Tem replied. “As you said, they are soaking the wood daily.”
“What do you think of the mortar?” Sera asked.
“It’s held off the demons so far. Their repeated attacks have barely scratched it. Against a catapult, well—the theory is sound, but I’m skeptical of the application. I don’t trust anything until I’ve used it or seen it used with my own eyes,” Tem answered.
Two hours later, the catapults started firing.
It took the orcs four shots to get the range adjusted in, and then they pounded the wall without mercy. They placed the pair a hundred yards apart and at an angle from which Tem’s own weapon couldn’t strike. The dwarf cursed, throwing tools and weapons, as his crew worked to rotate it. He promised Sera they’d fire a return shot before sunset.
Sera took dinner with Neive and tried to ignore the heavy thump of stone after stone against the outer wall.
“Another message arrived from Galena today,” Sera said. She held out the scroll to the ambassador. “More bad news, I’m afraid. Drogan says again that this is an elven matter and he won’t have Galena dragged into it. He’s offered all the help he will and wants to know why the road isn’t open and the caravans aren’t arriving.” Sera chuckled.
Neive gave her a concerned look.
“I am beyond being upset with King Baylest,” Sera said. “We were fortunate that the men from Galena aided us during the last war. I thank them for that. This is our matter to decide.”
“Baroness, I cannot agree. You and the Baron swore oaths to Drogan. This land is part of his kingdom, and he should care very much about what happens to it. What will he do if Koren wins? There will be no caravans at all after that.”
“I suspect he thinks he can buy
her off. That he can negotiate a deal with the Golden like they did in years past. Or that he can fight them after they’ve weakened themselves against us and claim the land directly for Galena. If they harvested the forests and farmed the land, his kingdom could be almost self-sufficient.”
“That would not be wise,” Neive said. “He doesn’t have nearly enough people to settle this part of the valley. And if this Lorthol and its Well are what you fear, I doubt he could defeat Koren.”
“I do not underestimate the man’s arrogance,” Sera said. She finished off her meal and moved before the hearth. The nights were chilly and the fire pleasant.
“How is Regan?”
“Recovering,” said Neive, sitting back in her chair and smiling slightly at the mention of her son. “The healing he received was excellent—I thank you for that—but he hasn’t yet regained his strength.”
“I am glad to hear it,” Sera said. Another heavy shot crashed into the wall. “I’m afraid everyone will be needed soon.”
Hexen entered then, flanked by Tem. A fine white dust coated their rattling armor.
Sera turned to face Hexen. “You have news?”
“The mortar is holding up,” the Paladin said. “We dropped outside and checked. Little bit of powder, but that’s all.”
“Good news at last. About time we had some,” Sera said.
“In a few minutes more our catapult will be ready,” Tem said. “If you would like to watch.”
“I would.” She turned back to Neive. “Ambassador, if you would care to join us?”
“Regan explained how your contraption worked, master dwarf, but I would like to see it myself,” Neive said.
“Well, Razel was the expert,” Tem said, his gaze falling to the stone floor. “He designed it and led in the construction.”
Paladin's Fall: Kingdom's Forge Book 2 Page 39