Ready? Spot asked. The rats all squeaked their agreement. Spot climbed, using the thick clouds for cover as he waited for his mother to begin her attack. None of the others could attack like she could, and the bow would only make her more powerful. Once her attack hit and the barrier began to adjust, he would use his fire to pierce a tiny hole somewhere else for the rats to get through. Gazing down at the mist that hid the fortress and marked the edge of the barrier, Spot waited for it to start. He didn’t have to wait long.
To him, his mother’s magic was the most beautiful thing in the world. It didn’t have the raw, untamed fury of dragon fire. It was something else. It reminded him of the sun and the stars, of a heat that grew and grew, blazing in the darkness and growing stronger the more powerful its enemies became. It was a fire that would blaze always and forever until the end of everything and beyond. Even from a distance, he could see vast, serpentine coils of magic expand from his mother and take on intricate shapes and patterns that only someone with sight like his could perceive. The bow took all of that power and shaped it, turning it from a sprawling cloud of power into a needle-thin shaft of pure heat and radiance with all the might of a raging inferno. In his mind’s eye, he could see two figures standing over his mother: a dragon with scales that shone like the breaking dawn and a phoenix with feathers of light so bright they burned. Spot banked and warned the rats to hold on tight as his mother took a moment to aim and then loosed her attack.
His mother’s attack lanced through the air, and the barrier exploded to life, an immense, glowing dome of emerald energy that was as solid and impenetrable as a mountain. White fire billowed outward from the point of impact, and the ground and sky shook. The trees around the base of the barrier ignited and turned to ash an instant later, and anything unfortunate enough to be in the air except Spot was instantly vaporised by the onslaught of heat. On his back, the rats cried out in a combination of awe and concern, and Spot was glad he’d shifted to turn his belly to the blast to better shield the rats on his back. The heat was incredible. He was a dragon, and even he felt uncomfortably warm – something that hardly ever happened. He bared his teeth in joy. His mother’s magic was amazing. The barrier crackled, and his keen eyes saw the magic that powered it begin to shift toward the point of impact as the blast went on and on and on, a seemingly endless maelstrom of heat and light. If anything, it seemed to be growing stronger, shining more and more brightly as waves of super-heated air buffeted the area, tearing trees out of the ground, ripping apart the clouds, and threatening to throw Spot off course.
Hold on. His eyes gleamed. Now was the time to strike! Spot dove and gathered his flame in his jaws. Rather than a wide-ranging cloud or a forceful blast, he honed his fire into a thin beam capable of piercing a tiny hole in the barrier as it grappled with his mother’s far larger attack. The wind howled past as he found the thinnest part of the barrier and unleashed his attack. A minute hole appeared in the barrier. It was only inches wide – barely big enough for the rats – and it immediately began to close.
Go! Spot streamlined his body and pushed his speed to its absolute limit. At this rate, the rats might not make it. They had to hurry. Go now!
The rats leapt off his back, their limbs tucked tight against their bodies as they used gravity and Spot’s momentum to hurtle toward the hole. One by one they made it through, with the last rat squeaking a curse as the rapidly shrinking hole threatening to remove some of his fur. Spot unfurled his wings and pulled up just in time to avoid running headfirst into the barrier. Instead, he skimmed the edge of it, and he gave a hiss of pain as the sudden shift in momentum tugged at his wings with painful force. The barrier crackled, but he’d managed to slow down enough to avoid triggering a counterattack.
Ouch.
But like any good dragon, the pain only served to motivate him. He climbed skyward and breathed a puff of healing fire over himself. The pain in his wings eased, and he tested them gingerly. Good. Everything was fine. In the distance, he felt his mother’s magic shift ominously. She wanted to fire another attack, but the idiot must have told her to wait until the rats gave the signal. Spot peered down again. He couldn’t see through the barrier at all, and there was no way he could break through it.
It was up to the rats now.
Chapter Five
Bramante was one of the demolition rats, and he was also one of Spot’s favourites. He was not the most gifted of their number when it came to devising weapons, but there were few – if any – amongst the rats who understood how to bring down buildings and other large structures the way he did. He was especially good at demolishing things with the bare minimum of explosives, and today, it would have to be the bare minimum. The corner towers were supposed to be extremely sturdy, and without Gerald to supply them with extra explosives, he and the other rats would have to make do with what they could carry in or store themselves. Admittedly, all of the ninja rats could carry around far more than normal rats, but their ability to store and conceal objects, while impressive given their size, was far, far less than Gerald’s. The bureaucrat’s capacity was so gigantic that he still hadn’t run out of space despite decades of storing things away. It made Bramante wonder if there even was a limit to how much Gerald’s magic could store.
Spot had done his work well. Bramante doubted if anyone else could have made such a swift and accurate dive. Certainly, the rats couldn’t have done it alone. The speed of the dragon’s descent had also left them in a perfect position to use their glider suits – a name Katie had devised after seeing them in action – to reach the towers. Bramante spread his limbs, and the flaps of durable material between them caught the air and turned his free fall into a glide. The others did the same, and each group of four rodents angled toward the tower they’d been assigned to. It was a lot quicker than travelling on foot, and time was of the essence. It was entirely possible that Lord Tarrick had already begun to evacuate with the princess. It all depended on how confident he was of fighting off Timmy and the others. Critically, the glider suit did not inhibit his clan’s ability to turn invisible, nor did it impede their ability to fight too much.
Bramante signalled for the others to follow him. They’d been assigned to the northernmost tower. It was a massive structure, well over a hundred feet tall with thick walls of rune-covered stone and slitted windows to prevent more normal-sized attackers from climbing in. As he drew closer to the tower, he studied the rest of the fortifications. This was a well-made fortress. Although he had been born long after his clan had been forced to flee its fallen homeland, he had heard stories of the great fortress their former master had commanded. The Bulwark of Cherry Blossoms might not have possessed the most imposing name, but it had stood unbroken for more than a thousand years. From the stories passed down through his clan, only treachery had allowed it to be taken – the same treachery that had caused the downfall of their master. It had spoken volumes of their former master’s love for the clan that rather than order them to die at his side in a futile defence – an order they would have gladly and proudly followed – he had instead ordered them to flee.
“Flee,” he had ordered their ancestors. “Flee and live. Find a new master worthy of you.”
Long had the clan wandered, the shame of forsaking their master, even at his own orders, never ebbing until at last they had found another worthy master. Shaking his head, Bramante turned his attention back to the mission. Now was not the time to be lost in stories of the past. A bright future awaited the clan if only they had the skill and courage to seize it. This fortress was not the Bulwark, but it would not have looked too shabby beside it either. The walls were more than fifty feet tall and wide enough for archers, foot soldiers, and even horsemen to move atop it without difficulty. There were scores of soldiers on patrol, and they seemed to be well trained and ready to act should the barrier somehow fall. More soldiers had been marshalled in the courtyards below, and more were pouring out of multiple barracks. The commander of these troops must be skilled. Any
normal assault would be hard-pressed to succeed, and they must be on high alert after the attack on the compound.
The towers themselves were bustling with movement as mages and other specialists tended to the barrier. Bramante lacked the keen sight of a dragon or an elf, but his senses could still feel the shift in the magic around him as the barrier prepared to receive another attack. In a testament to their readiness, the mages had already begun to alter its properties to better weather another cataclysmic onslaught of light and heat from Avraniel. Yet this same preparedness would now be their undoing. The hole Spot had made had been too small and fleeting for anyone to notice unless they knew to look for it. Instead, everyone in the fortress was focused on the threat outside, never realising that the deliverers of their doom had already snuck in.
Bramante landed on the wall of the tower and clung to it tightly, his claws and the ancient arts of his clan allowing him to maintain his hold with ease. The barrier around the tower was currently at low strength. Had Avraniel attacked again, it would have flared to life, ready to defend the anchor within it from harm, lest the main barrier somehow be breached. Right now, though, it was only set to ward off incoming attacks. A quartet of rats was not enough to draw its attention, and they had passed through it easily.
The three other rats fell into place alongside him, and they began to climb, mindful of the windows, lest anyone with magic capable of piercing their invisibility happen to look outside. They were also careful of the magical defences woven into the very stone beneath them. Thankfully, those defences were aimed more at threats from the outside. So long as they kept their use of magic to a minimum and stepped lightly, they should be able to avoid setting off any alarms or triggering any of the more powerful defences. If necessary, they could even set aside their invisibility. They might become visible, but they were still rats. Few would notice a rat climbing up a wall in the middle of the night, especially with a threat like Avraniel lurking outside the barrier.
They reached the window they needed to enter, and he peeked through it. It was far too narrow for a human to fit, but a rat was another story. There was a small barrier over the window, but it was relatively weak, built more to deter projectiles like arrows and the occasional bolt of magic while the stronger barrier around the tower – the one he and the other rats had already passed through – handled the true threats. Carefully, he reached for one of the explosives he’d been able to bring. It was a simple shaped charge – a bomb that would direct its force in one direction rather than equally across all directions. With it, he could puncture a small hole in the barrier around the window, so he and the other rats could get in. He took a moment to prepare himself. The towers all needed to fall at the same time. Anything less, and the defenders might be able to sound the alarm. He would have to wait until the three other teams were all in position.
The signal came – a series of pulses created using the energy the rats used, which only the most sensitive of humans could detect. Bramante flung the explosive at the window. It detonated with a muffled whump, and he and the three other rats leapt in. The humans inside were alert and well trained. The explosion had all of them turning toward the window, but they had expected human assailants. In the split-second it took them to cast detection magic to deal with the rats’ invisibility, the rodents began their assault.
Bramante flung a needle. The poisoned projectile caught one of the defenders through the visor of his helmet. The man gave a strangled gasp and went down. He was dead before he hit the ground. Another needle felled a second man, but the third managed to turn his head in time for his helmet to deflect the attack. Bramante landed on a table and jumped toward the guard, his dagger at the ready. The armoured man tried to bat him away with one gauntleted hand, but the rat was prepared. He latched onto the man’s wrist and then flipped up onto his shoulder. The man wasn’t wearing full plate armour, and there was a small gap between the base of the neck and the shoulder. Bramante’s poisoned dagger hit home. The man gave a grunt of pain and then toppled to the floor. Bramante hopped off the dying man and looked around. The other rats had done well, and he squeaked some words of praise. In less than a minute, the number of living guards in the room had gone from twelve to zero.
He ordered the other rats to watch the door as he examined the structure at the centre of the room. This was the chamber that controlled one of the anchors for the barrier. Simply blowing it up wasn’t possible with the explosives they had, and the plans they’d retrieved hadn’t shown it in enough detail to devise a plan beforehand. However, by carefully placing explosives in the right places and detonating them in the correct sequence, Bramante was confident they could disrupt the controls and create a chain reaction that used the magic flowing through the anchor to amplify the explosion. It wouldn’t bring the tower down, but it should render the anchor inoperative for at least a day or two. With a small smile on his face, Bramante got to work. This was what he lived for. As he worked, one of the other rats kept a close eye on him. Each group had at least two rats in it skilled in communicating across large distances, and this rat was passing Bramante’s plan to the other groups. They were all good with explosives, but none could match him in the fine art of demolition.
A few minutes later, Bramante leaned back to study his handiwork. Good. Everything was in place. It hadn’t been easy to get all of the placements and timings correct, but it should work. Less than a minute passed before the other groups signalled their readiness. He lit the first fuse and gave the order for the rats to evacuate the chamber. As they drifted away from the tower using their glider suits, flames erupted out of the windows of the chamber – an event that was mirrored in the three other towers. The main barrier around the fortress blazed to life again, not from an attack but from a sudden loss of stability. Seconds later, the explosions from the chambers spread through the rest of the towers, feeding off the magic running through the anchors until flame and smoke poured out of every single window of each of the towers.
As Timmy had explained, the four corner towers each housed an anchor that helped share the load of channelling and managing the enormous quantities of magic required to operate the barrier. Without them, the central anchor, which was housed in the central building of the fortress, would have to carry the entire load. Against a weaker attack, that wouldn’t matter. But against a stronger attack, the system would fail, and the barrier would fall. Better still, the backlash should be big enough to disable any backup barriers as well. Of course, mustering an attack big enough to force the system to fail would not be easy. It would take a truly monumental attack. Luckily for them, they had exactly the right person for the job, and she couldn’t wait to do it.
He ordered one of the rats skilled in long-range communication to send a signal back to the others outside the barrier. Like many barriers, this one was mostly one-directional, so those inside could strike back at their attackers. The message got through without any problems, and the reply came soon after in the form of an absolutely colossal explosion that dwarfed even Avraniel’s previous attack.
The monstrously huge explosion rocked the barrier, and a hurricane of heat, light, and force raged around the damaged firmament. The ground shook, and the air burned. The shouts of alarm caused by the sudden attacks on the corner towers turned into cries of horror as cracks began to spread across the barrier. Mages and other specialists hastened to adjust the barrier, but without the corner towers, it was a futile effort. A piercing sound, like gears grinding against each other, filled the air. It grew louder and shriller as the conflagration outside the barrier intensified. An explosion shook the central building of the fortress as the system tried – and failed – to compensate for the loss of the corner towers. Curses rang out all over the walls as the cracks around the barrier continued to grow. Finally, with a sound like breaking glass, the barrier failed and shattered.
Bramante pointed at the ramparts. With the barrier down, the others would be arriving soon. The best thing the rats could do now w
as to target the anti-air defences and unleash as much havoc as possible. The soldiers on the walls could not target the others if they were struggling simply to defend themselves.
* * *
Timmy had to admire the professionalism of Lord Tarrick’s forces. Even with their barrier broken and the four corner towers in flames, they had not panicked. Instead, the majority of them had remained in position to deal with incoming threats while the others went to deal with the burning towers.
“Brace yourself,” Timmy warned. “This is not going to be a pleasant ride.”
As if to punctuate his point, a ballista bolt streaked through the air only a few feet away. Gerald gave a shriek of alarm before clamping his hands over his mouth and doing his best to battle a combination of mind-numbing terror and stomach-destroying airsickness. Another ballista bolt followed – and a third, fourth, and fifth were not far behind – but his zombie wyvern was already moving, transitioning from the smooth, easy flight it had used to reach the fortress to the sort of jagged, unpredictable movements needed to throw off the defenders’ aim. They were still out of bow range, but the ballista bolts were soon joined by magic as anyone capable of long-range attack magic entered the fray. Shafts of light, bolts of lightning, and even a few compressed orbs of acid raced up to greet them alongside blasts of fire, ice, shadow, and raw force.
“Be careful!” Timmy shouted to Katie. His apprentice was on the other zombie wyvern with Old Man and Amanda while Gerald and Avraniel were with him. It would have been easier to travel together on a large zombie drake, but they would need every scrap of the zombie wyverns’ agility to reach the ground safely. Every extra person meant more weight, and wyverns were simply more agile in the air than drakes, albeit not as large. “Watch the wings. They don’t need a direct hit to bring you down.”
Two Necromancers, a Dwarf Kingdom, and a Sky City Page 16