by Jeffrey Cook
Confident that her watchers would hold, Megan's eyes moved back to the fight with the dragon. She saw her father surrounded by skeletal warriors, and the dragon was raising a claw. Cassia was the nearest fae to him, but Megan wasn't sure if the satyress would reach Riocard in time to do him any good.
Riocard kicked back to his feet, narrowly avoiding attacks where he'd lain. His hands came together, then swept outward. Skeletons flew away from him in all directions, and when they struck the ground, they shattered into thousands of frozen pieces.
Free of the immediate assault, he noticed his sword lying on the ground. As he held out a hand, the sword flew back into his grip, even as the dragon stepped down. Cassia was still whirling and turning, her sword shattering bone and knocking opponents aside as she fought towards Riocard again, still not quite reaching him.
The undead dragon's foot came down, and Riocard held his free hand up. Instead of smashing her father, as Megan briefly expected, the foot stopped as soon as it hit the King's hand, like he'd caught it. He held like that for a moment, before Cassia reached him, and her sword-sweep hit the dragon's leg at the ankle. The foot shattered, and cracks ran up the massive legbones.
The pair fought a retreat away from the dragon before skeletal reinforcements caught up. As they did, others moved to reinforce them, including Cassia's cats and Riocard's wolf—the latter getting a glance from the King as if it had sorely disappointed him. Even so, as it reached him on the run, knocking aside more of the undead, Riocard swung back onto the creature's back, facing off with the dragon. Two of his original vanguard caught back up as well, moving to defend Riocard's flanks.
The din of battle picked up elsewhere as well. Inwar and his chariot were under full siege, but the general was still shouting orders, gesturing with his sword, and cutting down everything that came into reach. Others among the demoralized Seelie ranks, and even some of the Unseelie, responded to his call, cutting off their retreats or getting back into the fight, forming up to hold the ground they'd taken. Others moved forward from the back ranks to try to fight their way to Inwar, reinforcing the ranks and replacing the fallen. Throughout it all, Orlaith remained in the skies, engaging in a battle of sorcery with the wight on the walls.
Inwar shouted again, voice echoing out over the battlefield, and the next surge of reinforcements came. Orlaith wasn't alone in the air for long, as massive swarms of pixies and sprites blanketed the skies. They swept just above the field in a bright carpet of color, and where they passed, skeletons were tossed aside. Megan stopped the winds, trying to not disrupt the tiny fae, and started back into the fear-dispelling march instead, helping to restore morale to the shaken ranks.
The charge picked up again, Inwar rallying troops to him in a renewed push for the gates. With most of the field still in chaos, more and more of the fae moved to support Inwar's efforts, moving to engage the skeletons with the iron weapons, holding the gates against all comers.
Though the enemy archers shot down some of the tiny fliers, most of them reached the walls. Dozens of the skeletal bowmen were swept off of the walls in the charge, though those who approached the spellcaster atop the walls were met with flashes of greenish light, before being tossed away without reaching him or his immediate support.
Megan spotted a dark shape trailing the glimmers of pixies: Ashling and the Count circled about the field, gaining altitude, then diving. The winged fae dealt with many of the archers and finally attempted to sweep over the walls and enter the castle—but from the way they stopped in the air, they might as well have hit a glass wall. Some veered away in time, others hit the field hard. In the end, though, only a single dark figure made it through—and a few moments after he had flown right past the glimmers, the Count circled back around, trying to get back among those pixies that had dropped onto the city wall.
Within a few moments, Megan started to see the skeletons on the city wall drop their weapons and stumble into each other. Only a few fell off the walls, but in the meantime, the dropped and scattered pixies and sprites started to rise and rally
Inwar's charge stalled near the gates, but his efforts forced the enemy hand. The wight on dragonback shifted his attention from his direct battle with Riocard's company to guiding the forces holding the main entrance to the city.
Just as it appeared that the fae were gaining ground again, the red light built up, and surged out from the city again. The fallen dead rose once more, and the fae ranks wavered, though they held better than the previous time. The pixies and sprites scattered, multiple groups splitting off from the main body. The injured undead dragon began to heal, going back on the offensive against Riocard and his group.
Amidst this, the Count apparently found Ashling again. The pixie pulled herself back onto the crow, narrowly avoiding an attack, and leaving the wall behind, heading towards Riocard.
Seeing the pixie coming, Riocard gestured, a spiky wall of ice rising between himself and the dragon. The Count landed on his shoulder. Riocard shouted something, then Cassia shouted back. He responded, and, reluctantly, the satyress turned, smashing her way through the battlefield and heading back towards Megan and the back ranks, with Maxwell, Jude, and the pixie and crow close behind, leaving Riocard and his wolf-riders to face off with the tactician wight and his dragon.
Megan was then somewhat distracted, if not almost mesmerized, by the sorcerous battle on the walls. Orlaith erected a fiery barrier against the wight's next assault, and turned her attention on the forces below. Fire rained from the skies upon the ranks of undead nearest the gates. While the cold iron weapons were unharmed by the fae magic, the same couldn't be said for the weapon bearers. However, despite the power of the spells, the flames wouldn't pass beyond the open gateway, seeming to strike the same invisible, impenetrable barrier that the sprites and pixies had hit.
The wight on the walls seemed, in turn, to be taking advantage of this spare moment to ready something complex. His hands were spread wide, each glowing with green fire, sparks arcing back and forth over his head. There was a hitch in Megan's breath as she watched the sheer force of the charging energy.
And then something shattered the top of the parapet right in front of the wight, a puff of shards of stone filling the air. Not only did the wight's spell fizzle, but when the dust cleared, he'd been knocked to his knees by the impact. Orlaith's next strike kept him there, his own magical shields flickering under the assault.
Megan glanced back to see Lani standing atop the frame of a trebuchet, holding tight to a stack of papers, doubtless full of scribbled mathematical calculations taking wind speed into account, while looking like she might break into a victory dance. The artillery crew, however, just loaded another stone.
Justin drew Megan's attention back to closer matters with a shout of "Incoming!" Indeed, a dozen skeletons were rushing their position, spears lowered. Megan's song faltered a moment as she looked at the oncoming rush, and was still looking when Cassia's sword shattered one of their skulls from behind. Cassia and Justin engaged the skirmishing party as Megan gathered her wits and picked up the inspiring melody again, just as the Count, Ashling astride, rocketed right past Megan.
When the two fighters had cleared the field in front of her, and Justin was catching his breath, Megan finally paused again and looked expectantly to Cassia.
“Hey,” Cassia said.
“Where did Ashling go?” Megan asked.
“She's getting Lani. You're all needed, Ric says.” She was cut off before she could explain further by another assault group.
A few more broken bones later—all of these fortunately belonging to skeletons—Lani was there.
“Nice shot,” Megan said.
“Aw, that's nothing,” Lani said. “You should see the next one.”
“No time,” Cassia said.
Ashling settled onto Megan's shoulder to shout into her ear, "They're making a show of hitting the gates as a distraction. We need to go!"
“Huh? Go where? What even happened
with you?”
“A dramatic roller coaster of emotional arcs—not to mention the physical arc off the Count's back; it should be recreated for Universal Studios. I'll happily tell you more about my complex experience of personal growth and how it should be franchised later, but it boils down to a couple of things. One is that that glimmer or no glimmer, the same trick that opens your window opens belts and bandoliers. More pressing is that there are some amazing wards against faeries covering all the inner wall trellises. So you're up!”
"So, just me, Lani, and Justin against whatever's in there?" Megan asked, feeling like that mostly meant Justin versus whatever O'Neill had planned, at the moment.
"Caw!"
"The Count says he should go,” Ashling translated. “I'll keep an eye on your dad. He'll need the help.”
“The boys are going too,” Cassia said.
“Okay, so they're not faeries!” Megan realized too late that she might sound overexcited about having that matter addressed.
“Yeah. They're mixed. Part actual leopard,” said Cassia, as if it were self-evident. Then she frowned again. “But if anything happens to them...”
“I believe,” said Justin, “that as Megan's champion, I would be responsible for taking any thrashings merited, but, to be honest, if anything were to happen to the cats, I would probably not be in a position capable of standing to take said thrashing.”
“Heh. Good point,” said Cassia. “Be good, boys.”
Chapter 34: Princess of Power
"There's way too much fighting up there, we'd never get through." Lani said.
"Which is precisely why Riocard is buying you time." Ashling answered cheerfully. "Ready for cookies?"
Megan and Lani both looked at the pixie, trying to parse the question without success. Finally, Ashling sighed. "You're not going in that way."
"I believe I understand," Justin said after a few more moments of thought. "This is the city of the dead, but also holds the King's stone. There's gates for kings, quiet doors for undertakers."
"So, there's just one exhaust port, hardly worth mentioning?" Lani asked.
"Oh, it will be guarded," Cassia said. "They're not going to be that dumb about it. But posting too many guards there would tell people where the hidden door is. We're going to get you to it."
"But if the walls are that warded, Ashling's guidance shouldn't work. How are we supposed to find a hidden door? The place is huge."
Cassia nodded. "There's actually a number of them. Ric knew where a couple were. He knew some of the undertakers, used to hang out and collect the occasional bookmark. He told me how to find one."
"Ok, but they're still going to see us coming. They've got people... ex-people... things on the walls all the way around." Megan said.
"No they won't. You're missing a very important part of 'we.'" Ashling said, gesturing the Count forward. The others followed further into the ranks towards some of the support staff, with Megan trying very hard to ignore the shouting and din of battle behind her as the red light renewed the enemy armies yet again.
Kerr met them amidst the support staff lines, bearing a plate of cookies. Kerr insisted they each take a few, before handing off the serving tray and letting a couple of other brownies help fit Kerr into a light armor vest, and a belt bearing a selection of cleavers and heavy knives.
"Wait," Lani said, as the armor was buckled into place, "You're a civilian."
Kerr shuffled a little, but finally gestured out towards the battlefield. "I don't think they care. Besides, you're an engineer, and you're going. I want to help my friends too."
Lani looked ready to protest further, but finally just nodded.
A new charge began from some of the reserves to draw attention as Kerr masked all nine of them with brownie illusions, and the group followed Cassia, circling around the faerie ranks and giving the battle a wide berth. It seemed to Megan to be taking far too long, but the only alternative she could think of would risk being caught up in the fight. When they'd cleared the main lines, they still passed skeletal patrol groups, some on foot, some on similarly skeletal horses or grouped with skeletal hounds.
Finally, they rounded one corner of the city walls, before travelling some distance along the side. Eventually, Cassia pointed to a spot on the wall with a patrol group staying near it. "There." she hissed.
The group moved quickly towards it, with Cassia explaining. "We'll take care of that bunch and draw attention. Figure out the hidden door and get inside. Kerr's illusion won't protect you once you pass the wards. Don't attack anything until you're in or they'll see you. Find O'Neill."
"And then force-feed him his organs, one by one," Ashling suggested, far too cheerily.
"Right, we'll... do something like that." Megan said, trying to focus on the door, and not the large group watching over it. Despite her worries, the illusion held, though Kerr seemed to be watching a couple of the skeletal animals on guard as nervously as Megan did.
The thought occurred to Megan that, over that much time, her father's memory might be faulty. She certainly didn't see a door in the wall. Before she could voice the concern, Cassia charged, rushing at the group. The first of the undead hounds shattered under the blow, and she was already on to the next. Kerr followed, somewhat less effectively, with Ashling shouting encouragement from the brownie's shoulder.
While the enemies were occupied, the teens and animals searched the wall, before Justin finally found a thin seam in the stone. "I think I found the door."
With the fight raging nearby, Lani still managed the concentration to figure out how to open the hidden passage. As soon as she pressed the right combination of bricks in the wall, a section of the wall slid open, if not quite as quietly as any of them would have liked.
Cassia, Kerr, and Ashling continued distracting and destroying the guards outside the walls, but more skeletal guards lay in wait inside the city, lifting their weapons when the door opened.
Justin and the cats led the charge through the door and into the city, while the girls and the Count followed behind. The sword proved just as effective this time, sweeping through everything in the way, skeletons collapsing if the sword so much as touched bone. Jude went low, taking the legs out from under a couple of the nearest attackers, while Maxwell feinted, drawing a swing and a miss from one skeleton before the cat pounced, knocking the undead warrior back into others.
Megan tried to keep her music quiet, going into her inspirational music to bolster Justin and the cat's efforts. It didn't feel like enough—especially when she was feeling like they needed to finish this quickly before reinforcements arrived.
Justin advanced into the ranks of the skeletal warriors, smashing down a couple more, leaving broken bones behind him. Once he did, Megan searched through the bones, drawing one of the swords, hoping to be able to possibly defend herself a little better. It felt odd in her hands, far heavier than she'd imagined. Still, she felt slightly better being armed, with so many skeletons, and all of the full fae left outside. The attempt at inspiration, being better armed, and her own shifting thoughts put her in minds of one of the stories of different types of bards Ashling told her. The Norse skalds still did the singing and inspiring but also helped with the charge.
The longer the fight dragged on, with Justin repeatedly forced onto the defensive, the more sure she was reinforcements would arrive any second. She was already rushing to help, wielding the sword in the closest approximation to Cassia's style as she could. She caught one skeleton entirely off guard, severing it at the spine as she moved to help Justin. Her first kill, or perhaps re-kill, with the blade convinced her to get more aggressive, try to help out more, and end the fight more quickly so they could move on. She was pretty sure Lani was saying something behind her but couldn't make it out over the fight.
Megan quickly regretted her aggressiveness when one of her swings deflected off a bit of rusted armor a skeleton still wore, and the flat of the blade struck Justin. He turned at the impact, reacting to
a perceived attack, barely stopping himself from hitting her. As he did, one of the skeletons struck him. The blow didn't penetrate his chainmail but did knock him to one knee. With more warriors coming, he shoved Megan away, out of their reach, and did his best to defend himself under the assault.
After crippling one of his own skeletal opponents by shattering one leg, Jude came to the rescue, pouncing on one of Justin's attackers, though the cat took a both a cut to one flank as he turned, and then a glancing blow to the head as he attacked—which might have been worse had it not been for the helmet. Maxwell, having rushed into enemy ranks, used to fighting alongside Cassia, wasn't faring much better, bleeding from a dozen wounds, but still fighting.
More careful with her attacks this time, Megan looked for an opening, then lunged in with her borrowed sword again, shattering the skull of one skeleton. Lani found another fallen warrior's weapon and joined in. Neither girl had any practice with swords, but managed, so long as they caught busy attackers off-guard. As soon as that changed, and the skeletal warriors turned their attention to the girls, both quickly found themselves forced back, retreating from swings until Lani stumbled over a couple of broken bones and went down.
Megan took a deep breath. “Thistle, Lavender, Mulberry, and Mauve.” The song developed into a burst of wind that caused the skeletons attacking her and Lani to stumble backwards. As Megan did her best to help Lani back to her feet, the skeletons recovered and advanced again, with a couple more joining them.
The two were backed up to the walls, fighting defensively. Megan managed to parry a sword blow, but found her sword trapped, even as another skeleton raised a spear. Before it could strike her, the skeleton's torso flew apart on impact from Justin's sword. In the time they'd divided the numbers, he'd managed to finish off those left facing off with him, and had rushed to help the non-combatants. He made short work of the attackers, and moved to help the cats destroy the last defenders.