by Jack Porter
We were just approaching the main gate when there was a great rumbling sound and cries of panic.
“What the hell?” I asked.
Nya began to run for the gate. Syn and Ilana followed her. Being human and already worn out, I followed at the fastest jog I could manage.
When I arrived at the main gatehouse, I saw it had been overrun with wraiths and Hellhounds. They poured out of the wide-open gates, crawled over the towers, and already ran through the streets.
Nya and Syn were already engaging them in battle. The other elves, taken by surprise, were firing at them from the other towers and protected battlements that hadn’t been overrun.
Blackhold Castle had been constructed with just this eventuality in mind. As the wraiths tried to swarm the streets of the lower tier, they were met with arrows from both sides. The remaining archers hid behind the battlements facing the street.
This could have prevented the enemy from reaching the next inner gatehouse, but there were simply too many wraiths and Hellhounds to overcome.
The fight in the streets felt like a repeat of the one on the ramparts, with myself and Nya fighting back-to-back and Syn and Ilana teaming up to take out an impressive number of the enemy.
The difference was that the streets were much wider than the wall, and the number of foes was increasing faster than we could kill them. It was like trying to kill one ant at a time when the rest of them were swarming out of the nest.
And the bodies kept falling, piling up around us in a mound. Elves were dying, too, and what had been a hopeful situation suddenly seemed desperate.
“Fall back!” Nya yelled in my ear.
I turned to see her slice the throat of a Hellhound who was lunging for Syn. The elves were retreating to the base of a tower in the outer wall, and Nya and I fought our way there. Ilana got through the door first. Syn, who was now fighting beside us, made sure any other elves in the area could also get through the door. When it was just the three of us, Syn pushed Nya through, then grabbed my arm. I stabbed a wraith who had noticed our retreat, and then the she-elf threw me through the door as well.
Nya stood on the other side, ready to pull Syn through while another of Nya’s guard was ready to close the door.
But Syn never got the chance.
She was fighting three wraiths at once, and suddenly two more circled around and grabbed her from behind.
Nya cried out, ready to rush out and save Syn, but the hoard of wraiths was already carrying the captain of the guard away from the tower. Ilana and I grabbed Nya to pull her back while another elf slammed the door shut and barred it.
Nya fought us, but Ilana released her and said, “We can still save her.” With that, she ran up the spiral stair within the tower. Nya and I, along with what remained of her guard, followed.
When we arrived out on the battlements, the streets below looked like they had been swallowed by that hideous black tide. The archers weren’t giving up, shooting as many of the enemies as they could, but I questioned when they would run out of arrows. Had they saved up ten thousand arrows for such a day as this?
Amazingly, Syn was still alive, and we could see her. She had been disarmed, and by the way her body was being carried through the crowd of wraiths, if she wasn’t already injured, she would be with that treatment. The dark elf struggled and fought her captors with every step, but there were too many hands on her, and she could not get any good blows in.
Ilana took off, soaring over the battlements toward Syn.
As I looked for a way to help, though, something else in the sky caught my attention.
The second wyrm had arrived, and it was headed straight for the walls. I actually prayed that it wouldn’t see Ilana, but whatever gods or goddesses were in charge of Hell did not hear my prayer. The monster swerved right for the succubus.
I shouted a warning, too little too late, and the wyrm dive-bombed her. She saw it just in time, evading the jaws that snapped shut around the air where she had flown a second before.
“Syn!” Nya cried.
Already, the she-elf’s hair, no longer in a ponytail, was nothing but a white spot in a sea of black.
Ilana was still trying to get away from the wyrm, arrows were raining down, and more wraiths were pouring into the streets, which I thought was impossible.
“We’ve got to do something!” I yelled over the clamor. But I could do nothing as Ilana darted and swerved, trying to stay out of range of the wyrm’s fiery breath. Their dance led them upward, beyond the inner curtain and toward the castle keep itself.
And Syn was beyond my reach, as well. Nya and I stood for another second, staring at our lost companions until other immediate dangers drew our attention.
The wraiths were bringing in ladders for the inner walls, forcing us to fight once again. More brought axes to beat down the inner tower doors by sheer force of will. Soon, we would be overwhelmed. But my heart was with Ilana and Syn. They needed help, but I could see no way to them.
I imagined the dragon snapping its jaws around Ilana’s body, ending her life.
And I couldn’t let that happen.
54
There were only two sections where the outer wall connected to the inner walls of the city. Well, ‘connected’ might have been a strong term. The outer ring on both sides ran into the mountain face. From there, it was sheer rock upward.
A climber, with skill, equipment, and time to prepare, might be able to scale the rock face and then the subsequent inner wall.
I was a climber, and I had the skill. What I didn’t have was the equipment or time to plan such a monumental undertaking.
Not to mention, there would be a battle taking place directly below me.
Still, it was the only way I could see to get from where I was to where Ilana was. And, I couldn’t leave her to battle the wyrm on her own.
Quickly, I told Nya about my plan. Rather than being skeptical, she thought it was a good idea. “I’ll go with you,” she said. “I need to be on that side of the wall, as well. The other rulers are all there. But you won’t have to climb the whole way, Jon, we can have ropes thrown down.”
Nya began running along the ramparts. We weren’t far from our original battle location, where the outer wall met the mountain. However, because of the way the defenses were designed, our trip required us to descend one of the towers, go outside, braving the horde of wraiths, and enter another door that took us up to an adjacent flight of stairs to the other side of the tower.
If it weren’t for Nya’s guard, we wouldn’t have made it. As it was, we lost one as we tried to sneak back into the foot of the tower. There was no time to mourn, however, and we pushed through the fighting still going on when we reached the last section of ramparts.
“We’re going to be exposed to arrows when we do this,” Nya said.
“I know,” I said. “How will you get a message to the elves on the wall above us?”
But Nya was one step ahead of me. She grabbed a bow laying beside a slain archer, found an arrow, and tore off a piece of her cloak. Her guard and I kept watch while she did this, to make sure no wraiths attacked her while she worked. At least now that I’d destroyed the siege tower, we didn’t have Hellhounds to contend with here on the battlements, and the ladders were still being pushed down. The elves weren’t done fighting.
Nya tied the piece of her cloak to the arrow, nocked it and aimed for the top of the wall high above. She had barely found a target before she let the arrow fly.
It soared up to the battlement above, and I watched it strike stone. It bounced, however, and looked like it still landed on top of the wall.
It had. In a moment, an elf was looking down at us, risking her life to lower ropes.
There was a section here where we still had to climb to reach the ropes. I wiped my sweaty hands on my pants and found my first footholds. The elves of Nya’s guard followed us up. With their sure feet and the inhuman way they clung to the rock, the elves were all better climbers than I.
But I didn’t care. All that mattered was reaching Ilana.
Carefully, I placed my feet and hands in what was the most challenging climb I’d ever done, bar none. For a few minutes, I couldn’t find more handholds, and I was still well below the ropes. The first of the Nya’s guard was there waiting, and they all watched while I struggled to keep my grip on the rock face.
It was the free climb of Hell. Literally.
“Go on ahead,” I told Nya. She was climbing beside me and obviously having an easier time of it.
She smirked. “Not a chance, human.”
So I pushed harder, focused on the climb, and found a way up.
My muscles were already exhausted from the night’s battle, and I barely made it to the rope that dangled in front of my face. With relief, I grabbed it, wrapping it around my leg for a bit of support. The elves on the wall were pulling us up to save time. And I was thankful because I knew I’d pushed past my limit, and even with a rope, I didn’t think I could climb the high wall.
I kept my feet on the stone as they brought me up, feeling relieved. And that’s when the first arrows hit. The wraith horde below had spotted us.
Two arrows bounced off the wall close to my head, and I moved my face away to protect it. I heard a scream and looked over to see one of Nya’s guards fall with an arrow in her back.
That was the worst part. We were so close that I could see the whites of the eyes of the elves above us. And yet I was terrified of not making it. Any second, I expected to feel the stabbing pain in my back.
Or maybe I wouldn’t feel anything. Maybe it would hit my heart, and I would just… die.
Nya was pulled over the battlements, and then it was my turn. I grabbed the hand that was reaching for me.
And then I felt it. A searing pain like hot pincers on my right side. I cried out, but the elves already had their hands on me and were pulling me over the top of the battlements. I landed heavily on my stomach, in pain. It hurt to breathe, but the good news was that I could breathe.
“Jon!” Nya said. She held me still while she looked at the arrow, which felt like it was still sticking out of my back. “You’re lucky,” she said after a moment.
The elves rolled me over to my left side, and I saw the tip of the arrow poking out of my abdominal wall. It had gone through mostly muscle, which still hurt like a bad fucker, but perhaps I had avoided organ damage.
Nya seemed to think so. She looked at her guard, who grabbed me to hold me still. I knew what was coming, but I still didn’t want it. “No!” I yelled.
But Nya was already breaking the long end of the arrow. “Sonofabitch!” I yelled. But that wasn’t the worse of it. When she pulled it from my side, I couldn’t help it. I screamed.
And then it was done. Nya lifted my shirt, and someone brought a cloth and wrapped the wound in a battlefield dressing. Panting, I looked down at the already blood-soaked cloth.
“You will live, human,” she said.
I nodded my thanks because that was all I could manage at the moment.
55
But my mission was only beginning. After I staggered to my feet, I still needed to find Ilana. Nya made sure I was all right, but then she disappeared, off to check on the other rulers as well as direct the battle from the locations on these towers.
I hadn’t gone far when I heard cries from the inner wall. The wraiths had broken through. It didn’t make any sense. Those gates had been tight. The walls secure. Had they simply overwhelmed the city with numbers?
In any case, it made my errand that much more urgent. Not only did I need to find Ilana, but I needed to stay away from the wraiths.
And already I could hear them behind me.
Racing through the castle was like trying to outrun a racehorse in the home stretch. The Wraith King’s hoard was close behind, I was exhausted, and climbing the hill to the keep felt like a form of torture. With my legs and lungs burning, I reached the inner bailey.
Expecting it to be locked down like Fort Knox, the doors to the keep stood wide open.
“What the hell?” I yelled.
Running through the gate, I found out why. The five guards who would have normally fought and died to protect the keep lay slain inside the main hall, their throats slit wide.
Only one had been given a chance to draw her sword. The others still had theirs sheathed at their hips.
There wasn’t much doubt in my mind what had happened. Someone had silently killed these guards and then thrown the gates open for the invaders. Quickly, I drew my sword, which I had sheathed while I ran here. I wouldn’t be caught unaware.
And then more things clicked into place. The way the wraiths had entered the city at the main gates after we had driven them from the walls. The timing of the siege itself, how the Wraith King had chosen the exact moment when the elves were the most vulnerable to attack Blackhold Castle as if he had known exactly what our numbers were. And how he’d had an army of ten thousand ready to march on the elves.
And the attack on Ilana and myself on the ‘hidden’ forest path.
This had been planned from the beginning, and I could think of one person who could have plotted it. But I didn’t know why.
All of this rolled through my mind as I headed toward Nya’s tower. I knew where it was, and I would be able to see what was going on from there. Even here in the keep, the wyrm’s screeches shook the dust from the torch brackets and rafters. It was followed by a slightly inhuman war cry.
Ilana was still alive. This knowledge drove every other thought from my head, and I headed in the direction of the noise.
Looking out a window, I saw Ilana and the wyrm playing cat and mouse around the tallest tower. Alayna’s tower, not Nya’s.
I’d never been up there, but I knew the general direction. Several minutes later, after two wrong turns and one locked door, I found the foot of Alayna’s tower. It was unprotected, as I expected since she was supposed to be in the great hall with the other rulers.
Climbing the stairs took most of my remaining strength, but all that kept me going was the thought that Ilana was still alive.
Fortunately, Alayna’s tower was laid out similarly to Nya’s. Letting myself in, I found an impressive two-story chamber, with an upper level that had a balcony outside the windows.
Three of the beautiful panes had been shattered. Flashes of a red wyrm and a black succubus flitted in and out of view, and I hurried up the nearest spiral stairs and out onto the balcony.
A harsh, cold wind whipped my face and hair.
“Hey!” I yelled as soon as the wyrm circled the tower again. My wound hurt like a knife still working its way through my side, but I held my sword as steady as I could. “Hey!” I screamed at the vile creature that was trying to kill my succubus.
I had a vague thought that this was a foolish idea, that I was asking for death, but I didn’t have any other options right then, so I continued to yell.
Ilana seemed to spot me because she tried to lead the monster away from the balcony where I stood.
But she was too late. The wyrm had seen me, too.
I gritted my teeth against the cold as it swerved toward the tower, straight for me, its jaws wide open.
56
I dove out of the way and rolled as the first stream of fire blew out the delicate glass of the tower. Feeling the heat singe my hair, I staggered to my feet quickly, knowing that my one advantage over this dragon was my ability to shift directions quickly.
Ilana called to me, but I ignored her. I didn’t want her to get involved in what was surely going to be my death. Somehow, I felt oddly calm and detached as I watched the wyrm flap around for another pass at the balcony. The stone beneath my feet already glowed hot. Sweat poured down my face, but I didn’t waver.
The wyrm’s weakness was its eyes, and so I focused on them. Elven steel could pierce its scales, but I may never get close to do enough damage. So when the creature arrived in front of me, tail swinging down below the balcony, I seized my opport
unity.
The wyrm bent its head and opened its jaws, this time on target. It wouldn’t miss, and I was backed up against the stone railing of the balcony.
I threw my sword, hoping to catch its eye.
The sword hit the wyrm’s snout instead, leaving a gouge from its nostril to its brow. But it was superficial only, and didn’t even faze the animal. As the flames burst forth, I looked for somewhere to jump, but the ground was far below.
Then, a pair of strong hands seized me, and Ilana pulled me out of harm’s way at the last second. We flapped for a moment in midair. I breathed a sigh of relief, but it was premature. The wyrm rose in the air with us, and its powerful wing caught Ilana and I as she scrambled out of the way.
The force of the blow was so devastating that I thought for a minute that I had died and was having an out-of-body experience. Stars burst into my head, and I felt like I was floating over the tower and into the sky. But then I stopped floating and began falling.
The feeling of free falling through the air is not one I recommend unless you have a parachute attached or something extremely fluffy and soft to catch you at the end of your fall.
I had neither.
But I did have a tail to grab.
The wyrm didn’t even seem to feel me as I bounced down along its back, scrabbling for purchase like a mountain climber might in a rock fall. I finally grabbed hold of the armor-like plates along the wyrm’s spine and clung on for dear life.
Panting, I looked around for Ilana, but I couldn’t see her anywhere. Fear gripped me. If she’d been knocked unconscious, she would have fallen like a stone to the ground.
The wyrm was still slithering around on the balcony, though, as if it was looking for us in the air. All I could do was hang on and hope that at some point I could drop safely to the balcony or to a roof somewhere.
But it was not to be. The wyrm beat its wings and moved out from the tower, and then proceeded to set everything on fire. With giant streams of flame, it attacked what it could of Alayna’s tower, setting the inside on fire as well as the roof.
