The ghoulins had taken heavy losses, at least two or three thousand. But the creatures seemed unafraid of the fire, the falling stones, or the hail of arrows. My gut clenched as I saw the horrifying monsters begin to form the pyramid of bodies once more.
“Ready ballista!” Warrald cried.
Heavy boots thumped on the stone all around me as men raced toward the two ballistae on the edges of the platform. A glance to my right and left revealed fully twenty of the enormous crossbow-looking ballista perched at intervals along the length of the Windwall. All but three of them were angled straight downward.
My jaw dropped as three soldiers ran past carrying what looked like a fifteen-foot spear. It was at least six inches thick, with a wicked looking barbed metal head. The soldiers fitted the bolt into the ballista and secured it with a special strap that kept it from sliding out as they tilted the weapon downward. They didn’t hesitate or bother to aim before yanking on the lever.
The arms of the ballista snapped out, and the bolt hurtled downward to punch through a pile of ghoulins. Immediately, two soldiers set to work on the winch that wound up the ballista while three more men hurried toward the weapon with another bolt.
The two winding the winch had the ballista ready to fire before the bolt was delivered, and a third man helped them raise it to fire, then lower it to reload. The bolts were waiting for them when they had finished preparing the ballista. Clearly, the army of Windwall knew their business.
I peered over the wall at the mass of bodies below. Arrows littered the rocky ground like grass, and the long ballista bolts stood out like spindly trees. It had taken as many as two or three arrows to bring down the ghoulins, but the ballista killed four or five at a time. One bolt plowed through a forty-foot pyramid of ghoulins and ripped terrible destruction through twenty or more bodies.
“Archers!” Warrald cried again, and the high-pitched horn sounded a moment later. The archers appeared in the hole in the Windwall to rain their arrows down at the mass of creatures. The ghoulins died by the hundreds, and though many more came on, the ferocity of their attack seemed to have died down.
“Come,” I said as I held out an arm to Arieste and Irenya, “It looks like the Councilor here won’t need us to bail his ass out again.”
Warrald’s jaw muscles worked, and he seemed to be struggling to control his temper. “Captain Daxos,” he said in a tight voice, “escort Sir Ethan and his companions to the palace.”
“Yes, General!” The captain, a tall man with a soldier’s broad frame, strong arms, and upright posture, saluted. He turned to us, and I saw a hint of apology in his eyes as he motioned toward the staircase. “If you will accompany me, I will be happy to show you the way.”
“Why thank you, captain,” I said, then gave the Military Councilor a mocking bow before following Captain Daxos down the stairs. If Warrald thought he could order me around, he’d have another thing coming.
“How often do the ghoulins attack?” I asked Captain Daxos once we reached the ground level and were walking across the training yard.
“They test our walls every day,” Captain Daxos replied with a shake of his head. “But rarely this many. Usually no more than two or three thousand.”
The way he said that sounded so casual as if facing an enemy that numbered in the thousands was just another day at the office for him.
“So why do you think they’re attacking in force?” I asked. “What changed?”
“I do not know,” Captain Daxos said after a moment of hesitation. “Perhaps Emroth believes our defenses weakened by the loss of our army. Perhaps something else.” He shot a pointed glance at me.
I understood his meaning. Riamod had attacked Whitespire because it sensed the presence of Frosdar’s magic. If Emroth sensed the magic of both Riamod and Frosdar in the same place, there was little doubt she would feel threatened by the possibility of the two dragons working together to invade her territory. She would have seen Arieste flying over the mountains so had probably chosen to attack in the hope of defeating both enemies at once. Even a dragon could be brought down by a horde of ghoulins.
“And are the defenses weakened?” I asked to change the subject. “They certainly looked like they could handle the ghoulin attack.”
“This attack, for certain.” Captain Daxos’s expression grew pensive. “But how many more, that remains to be seen. Our supplies are not without limit. We can harvest enough stone boulders from the city itself, but the oil and pitch must be brought with great effort from Zaddrith’s land to the west. The wood for the arrows and ballista bolts as well. Even if not a single Windwall soldier falls today, this attack will do serious damage. We are reaching the end of our resources.”
“Well, that’s why I’m here!” I said with a grin. “I’ve come to take care of your dragon problem.”
“By bringing one of your own?” the captain asked. “I saw how you transformed the woman in white in the training yard. That is old magic, the sort once used by the mighty wizards of Windwall.”
That was the third time I’d heard mention of wizards since coming here. Yet in the few weeks that I’d been on Iriador, I had seen no sign of human magic of any sort. According to Nyvea, humans were incapable of using magic.
“Is she a dragon, too?” Captain Daxos asked as he cast a hesitant glance at Irenya.
“Yes,” I said with a nod, “but like Arieste, she’s on my side. Isn’t that right, Irenya?”
“You know it,” the woman replied. She gave me a little teasing grin, but I saw a hard edge in her eyes.
“The Council of Four will be discussing how best you can aid in the defense of Windwall,” Captain Daxos started, “but—”
“We’re not here to play defense,” I told him. “We’re here to take down Emroth. From what I’ve seen, you guys can handle the wall well enough, at least long enough until we kick that black dragon’s ass.”
“Indeed?” Captain Daxos’ eyebrows rose in surprise. “Well, I trust the Council will see that you have everything you need.”
He stopped as we reached the entrance to the black stone palace. Instead of leading us inside, he stepped back and gave a little bow.
“I must leave you here, Sir Ethan and companions. My duty is on the Windwall.” He grabbed a passing servant and gave instructions for him to take us to the council chamber.
“Goddesses smile on the three of you.” With that, he turned on his heel and ran back toward the Windwall.
I watched him go for a long moment before following the servant inside. Captain Daxos reminded me a lot of Boscoe, one of my fellow truckmates back at Station 52. The memory brought a little twinge of homesickness. Not for the first time, I found myself missing life back home in Chicago. Here there was action and adventure aplenty, but man, I really missed things like hot running water and Chicago-style deep dish pizza.
I pushed the feelings down deep inside myself as the servant led us through the corridors and back to the council chamber. The older man, People’s Councilor Danikel, sat talking with the thin-lipped Enton. Their faces revealed their worry, no doubt at the threat of the ghoulins.
“How fares the battle?” the People’s Councilor asked.
“Seems like Warrald’s got it under control,” I said with a shrug.
“Thank the Goddesses.” Danikel made that little three-fingered gesture and stood. “So, tell me, Sir Ethan Dragonrider, how do you plan to deal with Emroth?”
I opened my mouth to answer but hesitated. The discovery that the black dragon was invisible had thrown a bit of a monkey wrench into my plans to fly Arieste and Irenya to her lair. Emroth could be pretty damned hard to track, so I’d have to find another way of doing it. The problem was that no solution had occurred to me in the last few minutes.
“To be honest, I hadn’t figured that part out.” I sighed as I sat. “When I first saw the ghoulins attacking the wall, I thought I could just fly my dragons down there and kill as many of them as we could. But that’s really only a temp
orary fix for the real problem.” I glanced at Irenya. “Emroth can keep making more, right?”
“Indeed,” Irenya nodded. “I do not know how, but her abilities to create more minions far exceeded mine.”
“How exactly do you create more minions?” I asked.
“In truth, there is very little that I did to create more.” Irenya’s face scrunched up in concentration. “When I needed more, I simply had to return a portion of my magic to the altar in my lair. The more magic I returned, the more minions I created, but the more it drained me.”
“It was the same for me,” Arieste added. “If I created too many at once, it left me too tired to do more than sleep. So, I was careful only to create them in small batches.”
“And how did you decide what kind of creatures to create?” I asked. “Like why fire goblins or ice wolves?”
“We didn’t decide,” Arieste said with a shrug. “Just as our magic shaped the land we dominated, so too the magic shaped the creatures it inhabited.”
My mind whirled at this new revelation. I had sensed the magic within the fire goblins, rock trolls, and Snow Killers I’d encountered, but it still surprised me that the magic had chosen their shape. Even more, the magic of the altars changed the terrain around it. Was it possible that Riamod’s fire-blasted land hadn’t been the result of her wreaking destruction? Had Frosdar’s land of ice once been covered in green plant life before the magic twisted it? The memory of the petrified trees on the border between Riamod’s land and the forest returned. Was magic destroying the land?
“Anyways,” I said to Danikel, “as I was saying, dealing with Emroth’s minions is just like putting a Band-Aid-- er, a bandage over a gaping chest wound. We’ve got to get rid of Emroth for good to make sure Windwall is safe.” Once the threat of Emroth and her ghoulins had been dealt with, the Council would be far more likely to accept King Obragar’s request to send aid. Now, if only I could figure out how to find an invisible dragon.
“Imagine how bad-ass you’d be once you have her power!” Nyvea whispered in my mind. “You’d be able to sneak into the princess’s chambers every night.”
I tried not to blush as Nyvea filled my head with images of Princess Selene and our bedroom antics from the previous night.
“That’s not what I’d use the power for,” I told her. “Well, not only for that. Just think of how easy it would be to sneak up on the dragons, destroy their altars, and steal their powers. I’d be able to finish Barodan’s mission way faster.”
“Then you’d better come up with a plan quickly,” Nyvea told me. “If you can’t sense Emroth, you can’t track her back to her lair and find the altar.”
“I know, which is why I’m talking to you. Don’t you have anything helpful to add?” I asked. “Aren’t you supposed to be my guide?”
“The sky is up, and the ground is down. You are handsome and should have more sex with the two beautiful women that accompany you. There, I’ve guided you.”
“Thanks,” I said with a chuckle as I shook my head.
“Something amusing, Sir Ethan?” Danikel asked.
I winced as I realized I must look a bit foolish laughing to myself.
“I was just thinking about how awesome it will look to have Emroth’s head mounted on the wall behind the council table.”
“Ooh, quick thinking!” Nyvea mocked.
“A pleasant thought indeed,” Danikel said with a nod.
“Sadly, they’re going to be disappointed when you bring her into your harem of gorgeous dragon women instead. Of course, I won’t be disappointed.”
I ignored Nyvea’s voice and wiped the smile from my face.
“If I may be so bold, Sir Ethan,” the grey-haired People’s Councilor said in a hesitant voice, “perhaps I may have a solution.”
“I’m all ears,” I told him. “If you’ve got something that’ll make kicking Emroth’s ass easier, I’m game.”
Danikel hesitated a moment and shot a glance at Enton, who gave him an encouraging nod that nearly knocked the spectacles off his hooked nose.
“Many do not know this, but the city of Windwall was actually built atop another city,” Danikel spoke in a solemn tone. “An ancient city known as Ironfast for the vast iron deposits it contained. Our ancestors built the city deep into the mountain as a refuge from the first dragons to appear on Iriador. A maze of narrow caves, tunnels, and underground dwellings hid us from their senses and kept their minions at bay. There we prospered, growing strong in numbers.”
He drew in a deep breath before continuing. “The first human wizards of Iriador were also born to the people of Ironfast. Though we do not know how, they found a way to tap into the magic flowing through the world and shape it to their will. They forged many mighty weapons, weapons powerful enough to destroy not only the dragon’s minions, but the great wyrms themselves.”
Both of the women stiffened behind me.
“But one day, a foul creature appeared in Ironfast. Where it came from or what it was, no one knew, but it quickly became clear to the ruling council that they could not defeat it. Even the wizards’ magic could only slow it down. They named it Vozaath, a demon, and warned our ancestors to flee the safety of Ironfast. The last surviving wizards remained behind to face Vozaath. In the case that they failed to defeat it, they prepared a final defense: a door which could only be opened by magic from the outside.”
Danikel’s expression darkened. “No written accounts remain of what happened after our people fled Ironfast, but stories have been passed down through the generations of the terrible tremors that shook the earth. One story even mentions hearing faint pounding on the stone of that magical door. The demon seeking in vain to break free.”
“That sounds pretty grim,” I said. “But what does it have to do with Emroth?”
“Within the city of Ironfast are all the relics of the wizards, including their magical weapons and other enchanted items they made.”
That got my attention. “Any idea what kind of items there are?”
“More than an idea,” put in Enton. He stood and placed a cloth-bound object gently on the table before him. He peeled back the cloth to reveal a book, its leather wrapping cracked and its pages yellowed by age. With gentle hands, he opened the volume to a page marked by an equally ancient ribbon. “We have a complete inventory.”
“This book alone survived the exodus from Ironfast.” Danikel thrust a finger at the book. “It was written by one of the under-wizards, a young man by the name of Qin Shun. He was the archivist responsible for cataloguing all the enchanted items, along with their uses and abilities.”
Excitement coursed through me. I so badly wanted to get my hands on that book and see what sort of awesome loot was locked away in the city below, but the way Enton hovered protectively over the book made it clear the Justice Councilor would kill before he let anything happen to it.
“In the book, there is mention of a Circlet of Darksight,” Enton said in his nasal voice. “The wizards crafted it to help them see any creatures living in the deep, dark places beneath the mountains. They were firm believers in preserving the natural habitats of the beasts they encountered.”
“According to the book of Qin Shun, the Circlet of Darksight uses a sort of fire magic that allows its wearer to see not the physical form of the creatures, but the heat their bodies generate.”
My eyes flew wide. The Circlet of Darksight sounded like a magical version of the Forward looking infrared, or FLIR, cameras I’d trained with at the Academy. If I could get my hands on that Circlet, it would be a cinch to find Emroth. Such a huge dragon would let off a great deal of body heat. I could just fly Arieste over the mountains, and its camouflage magic would be utterly useless.
“You’re seriously considering this, aren’t you?” Nyvea asked in my thoughts.
“It sounds like the perfect plan,” I thought back at her.
“Minus the whole magic-proof demon, of course.”
“How long ago did your people
leave Ironfast?” I asked Danikel.
The older People’s Councilor exchanged a questioning glance with Enton. “Six, seven hundred years ago, I believe.”
The narrow-faced Justice Councilor nodded.
“You’re thinking the demon’s probably dead by now?” Nyvea asked.
“You know me so well,” I said. “If it doesn’t have anything to feed on down there, it had to have starved to death. Every living thing has to eat or die.”
“I love how crazy you are, handsome,” Nyvea purred. “It’s what makes you so much fun to be around. I never know what adventure you’re going to throw us into next.”
I could tell by the tone of her voice that she agreed with the plan. It might be crazy, but it was the best option. I was about to open my mouth to speak when I realized that there were two more people I should talk to first.
I turned to face Irenya and Arieste.
“What do you think of the plan?” I asked. They had both sworn to serve me, so it wasn’t like I needed their approval, but they were my friends, and if we were going to head deep underground to face a demon, I thought it would be better that they were in favor of the plan.
Arieste had gone a little pale, but she nodded. “I agree that it is a good option.”
“If it helps us find and deal with Emroth,” Irenya added, “I’m up for a jaunt into an ancient city to face an unstoppable demon.”
I couldn’t help chuckling. I liked the fire in Irenya that was so at odds with Arieste’s reserved demeanor.
“Hell yeah, team.” I turned to Danikel with a grin. “Show me the magic door I’ve got to break open.”
Chapter Five
“You do understand the risk you are taking by entering Ironfast, correct?” People’s Councilor Danikel asked with a nervous expression. “Perhaps I didn’t make myself clear—”
“Oh, you made it plenty clear.” I gave him a confident grin. “Door only opens by magic. Lost underground city. Unkillable demon and a treasure no one knows where to find. Sound about right?”
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