But right now there was no time for anything but fighting. My attack stopped the forward momentum of two of the beasts but they scrambled back to their feet. One had a hammer and shield, the other a javelin and short sword. Another body slam by me pushed the shield-bearing monster back off balance again but the other attacker made a savage thrust with the javelin, piercing my already-bleeding thigh (why was it always the same leg?). I grabbed the javelin with my empty hand to keep it from piercing any deeper and swung my club. Instead of fighting me for the weapon he wisely turned it loose and hopped back. He then swung his sword at my head. I yanked the javelin out of my leg and tossed it into the dirt, then quickly raised my arm and the metal forearm guard intercepted the sword slash. Undeterred he brought the weapon up overhead and into a downward thrust. I leapt back and the sword missed. His momentum turned the beast sideways and I kicked out catching him in the side. He showed agony in his face and started to crumble. I limped forward intending to cave in his head but by this time his fellow attacker had recovered his feet again and shoved his shield between us. It was the first time I had ever known one of the bastards to perform an unselfish act. Of course, he was probably more interested in keeping our fight a two-against-one affair.
The one I kicked came up behind him and shouted something to him. Tinker twitched and I raised my club just in time to catch the hammer as it came in from my right side. Then I hopped back again as the other Grey lunged in with the sword. Tinker had intuited their intentions and flashed me an image of their attack.
Now she sent me another image, this one of the javelin. The two were working their way over to where I had stuck it in the dirt. Obviously they had decided, correctly, that the best way to defeat me was from a distance. The javelin was the perfect tool for that job when properly used.
But knowing their intentions gave me a chance to feint to one side then swing back with all of my power to the other. My mace arced a path right over the grounded javelin. The Grey that had leapt out to grab it took the iron spikes of my weapon directly on the top of his head.
And then there was one.
The remaining Grey ran at me holding his shield high. Unfortunately this left his legs exposed and I took the shield on my shoulder and smashed his foot with my weapon. He howled and shifted the shield to cover his feet. I pivoted, preparing to take off his head but four arrows sprouted simultaneously from his chest and abdomen. He looked down at them. Then he stepped back, spit blood and dropped.
I turned with a smile to thank my helpers. The expression died quickly on my face. On the ground in front of the remaining archers lay two dead females. One was Layann. She was draped over the equally dead Grey who had gotten past me. Her dagger, buried in his throat, was still in her hand.
CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE
Enough
We made it back to the waterfall entrance without further incident. Since it appeared we were no longer being pursued, I insisted on carrying Layann. The remaining archers carried our other fallen comrade. I had taken my belt off and wrapped it around the javelin wound on my thigh. By the time we ducked through the waterfall I had lost enough blood from my wounds that I fell to my knees. My vision fuzzed and fought to focus but dizziness was quickly descending upon me. I struggled with all of my remaining strength to keep from dropping Layann on the muddy ledge. I would not let the mud defile her further. Getting her body back to Olvion was somehow critical to helping me forgive myself for leaving Waan and our other fellow warriors at the lake.
Just as I was about to drop her, two of the warriors that were guarding the tunnel lifted her from my arms and carried her deeper into the bowels of the walled city. They left me kneeling there. I fell back against the wet wall, still on my knees until I heard others coming for me. Tinker, who had stayed silent and unmoving through the entire trek back, crawled slowly out of her pouch. She climbed up to my shoulder and put her muzzle under my chin. Into my mind flowed a mild wave of sympathy and sadness. My little friend was telling me, without the benefit of words, how sorry she was. There were no words that could have conveyed her feelings more clearly.
“He’s through here,” I vaguely heard someone shout. The stone walls made the voice echo. Dwan came around the curve of the tunnel entrance. Her face was full of concern, her eyes brimming. She was taking in my wounds and physical condition even as she approached. Two men were with her. One was Ruguer. The other was King Zander. Even being in my weakened condition I still felt a little humbled that the king of this enormous walled empire was personally here waiting for me and my team to return. In a small way it took some of the hurt out of the experience of losing friends.
Though I had known Waan and Crain only one day I had done battle with them and, thus, would always think of them as my friends. Some of the people who died tonight did so without my even knowing their names. But they were still my comrades in arms. Their faces would always remain in my memory. Only soldiers, policemen and people in similar occupations know what I was feeling.
Dwan wrapped her arms around me and hugged my head to her bosom. After a brief interlude of comforting she tried to get me to my feet. She was pulled gently away by Ruguer and the king. They lifted me between them taking my arms over their shoulders and helped me walk through the tunnel. A stretcher-type apparatus was waiting in the anteroom beyond the tunnel. I tried to protest that I could walk but my vision started swimming. Zander put a hand to my chest and gently pushed me back down on the stretcher,
“You’ve done enough for tonight, Warrior,” he said.
Before I sank into unconsciousness I saw Dwan standing over me with Tinker held in her arms. Tinker’s big black eyes looked as concerned as Dwan’s.
CHAPTER TWENTY SIX
Slaughter
I woke up in the triage building with a warm bundle on my chest. I looked down to see Tinker lying there sleeping. Bluish curtains were drawn all around me. A young woman was in a chair at the side of my bed. The moment she saw my eyes open she stood and dashed off. I had a brief and ridiculous feeling that I had offended her in some way. I looked around but could see only curtains in every direction except the one in which the young woman had fled. There was a three foot gap in the curtains there and I could see other beds and other patients. Attendants were carrying trays and making beds. The place was dimly lit and had the feel of a large hospital that was expecting a lot of patients that had not yet arrived which, of course, it was.
Tinker stirred and sat up on her haunches. Her whiskers twitched. She moved closer to my face and chittered, that tail of hers swishing back and forth. She projected feeling of affection. I stroked her head and her eyes closed, enjoying the attention and my touch.
Dwan came in wiping her hands on a white towel. She smiled and bent over to kiss me. The young woman who had gone to fetch her looked like she didn’t know the direction in which to look. Dwan kissed me again, more intensely this time. I put my hand behind her head and held the kiss as long as I could. It was so good to see her again after the death and destruction of the last night.
“Thank you for coming back to me,” she said. There were tears gathering in her eyes. She carefully wiped them away. “Your injuries bled a lot but they were not really that bad. One of the thigh wounds was deep but it missed the artery, you’ll recover. I had to pack it to keep an abscess from forming. The others have been stitched. Next week we’ll take out the packing and stitch it up as well. Then we’ll decide how much worse I will injure you if you ever let yourself get hurt like that again.”
I laughed. She smiled. It was a sad little smile.
As she worried over me, checking my bandages and making sure I had feeling in all of my appendages, she told me what had transpired since I’d lost consciousness last night.
I had been out for about six hours. It was now daylight and the focus of the entire military corps in the city was watching the Grey camp for any indications that the plan had worked.
The highest point in the city was the war room of the castl
e. It loomed some twenty stories into the sky. From this room battle commanders had an almost birds-eye view of the valley in which our enemy was camped. Over the war room was a flat roof from which protruded dozens of flag poles. These were exploited by attendants raising and lowering flags of different colors, designs and shapes which were used to send directions to warriors in the field. It wasn’t the same as walkie-talkies but it was an advantage that the enemy didn’t have and could not (we hoped) read.
I knew Olvion had developed optics such as telescopes because I had seen them being used from the observation pits along the walls. Aided by these tools the walled city waited and watched, hoping that the sacrifices from the night before had not been in vain.
Once informed about what was going on I insisted upon going up to the war room and awaiting the outcome of our gambit. When that got me nowhere I began to wheedle and beg. She gave me her best attempt at firmness but eventually gave in to the inevitable and agreed to let me go. The only condition was that she would accompany me and I would be taken there in a wheelchair. That seemed even better to me than walking up all of those stairs but I wondered how we would get the chair up to the top. She told me to let her worry about that and that Olvion was not some back-water fish camp.
After helping me into the chair Dwan dampened her hands from the water jar by my bed and slicked back my hair a little. “Can’t have you going before the king with your hair looking like a haystack.” She wheeled me through the triage building and out into the sun. It felt warm on my face. Passersby smiled and nodded to me. Tinker was curled up in my lap like a big housecat. She was getting more attention than I, of course. Dwan pushed me into the castle proper and we took a circuitous route to a portion of the ground floor that I’d not been to in the past. We were in a large circular anteroom with a high ceiling. Several hallways led into and out of this particular place. Dwan pushed me up to a dull metal door and pulled it open. She then turned my wheelchair around and backed me inside a closet-sized room and closed the door behind us. I looked around to see two glow bulbs overhead and a hollow cylinder sticking out of the wall.
“Uh, what are we doing in here,” I asked. In the back of my mind I suspected (Okay, I wished) that she might be planning a naughty romantic interlude.
She ignored my question. She put her mouth to the cylinder and said “War room”.
The purpose of the little room revealed itself to be a primitive elevator. It rocked slightly and began to ascend. I searched the roof for a hint as to what was powering the apparatus. I couldn’t see anything but I did detect the squeaking of pulleys and wheels. I conjectured that it was probably human-powered or maybe used the strength of large animals pulling ropes or cables. It traveled quite slowly, occasionally knocking against the side of the shaft through which we were traveling.
“I’m a little amazed that this castle would have such a contraption,” I observed.
“Not all former kings were as strong as Zander,” She said. “In the past we have had kings that were disabled by combat injuries and some that were simply too old to navigate all of those stairs. And it would not be seemly to have a monarch carried up by others. We mainly now use it for people like you who are needed upstairs but too injured or otherwise infirm to make it on their own.
When the car stopped Dwan opened the door and got back behind my chair. She pushed me out into a short hall which ended at the Observatory/War Room.
I felt quite self-conscious as she wheeled my chair into the busy room. I saw Zander and Ruguer along with Pulg and about two dozen others. Zander was standing at the huge floor to ceiling windows which overlooked the valley in front of the castle. He had his hands clasped behind him and was leaning slightly to the side as he listened to Ruguer who was pointing at something in the distance. The smell of spiced tea was strong in the air.
Zander nodded and looked behind himself. He saw Dwan and me and smiled. He turned to us and beckoned us to join him. Ruguer saw his actions and he, too, smiled in welcome. As others in the room noticed us an impromptu smattering of applause broke out. My self-consciousness emerged and I could not imagine what they were applauding for. People separated and made a path for us to use. I looked back over my shoulder to see Dwan’s face, obviously pleased at the reception.
When we got to Zander’s position by the window he bent to take my hand but stopped as I placed my fist over my heart. He quickly returned my salute then smiled broadly and grasped my hand and forearm in both hands.
“Welcome back, Warrior. We have been told of your actions as the leader of the mission last night.” He nodded to his left where I saw Pulg sitting, his head wound bandaged. “Your teams showed amazing courage. In the next few hours we hope to see that the number of lives saved may be significant.” The King of Olvion knelt in front of my wheel chair to put himself level with my eyes.
“I know the effect it has on a person to leave friends on the battlefield. I conferred with Ruguer after he studied all of the reports from your…your surviving team members. He has told me your actions last night were impeccable. And impressive.” He stood. “This is war. We are besieged by inhuman monsters that must be stopped. Do not forget that. I guarantee you that any warrior in our service would gladly give their lives for that goal.”
Despite my best efforts I felt my eyes filling. For some reason I desperately did not want to display any embarrassing emotions in front of these people whom I so respected. The king seemed to understand what was happening and turned to look, again, out of the window. I quickly swiped my eyes with the sleeve of my garment.
I pushed myself up from the chair. Dwan surprised me by helping instead of trying to sit me back down. I leaned on her as I limped up to stand next to Zander.
Below us we saw the enemy camp laid out in the distance. From this angle I could see that they were arranged in forty evenly-populated square groups. I recalled Ruguer telling me that this advance group numbered twenty thousand fighters. So…five hundred Greys to each square. The enemy blocks of fighters were spread out in a semi-circular arrangement. The two ends of the deployment came as close to the Olvion stronghold as possible without being so close as to invite quick attacks from within. The formation was simple but, at least to me, appeared effective. They were not here to attack us, only to hold us inside until the main body of the horde arrived. But I felt they had unwisely placed themselves on our side of the bluffs which would have afforded them some natural defensive advantages should we wish to attack. Thank God for small favors. It was obvious that they wanted to be close enough to be able to attack if an opportunity appeared.
The shops and other small buildings that had lined the entrances to the East side of the city were now abandoned, of course. Likewise Ruguer had withdrawn his warriors from the battlements and defenses that faced the valley. Some defensive constructs had been dismantled to prevent the enemy from employing them but most had simply been left. The arrangement of the defenses was such that they were only effective for defending against an attack from only one side of the valley. Any actions emanating from the city itself would only be strengthened by their existence. Very smart.
From where I stood in the castle war room looking out at the valley the Hound’s Teeth Mountains were on my left and the Kneeling Warrior range was to my right. The sun rose in this world in the direction in which I was facing so I call that direction to be the East. It sets behind me in the direction of the ocean that the Olvionis call Panoply. I call that West. With that established, the Hounds Teeth Mountains would be to be North, and the Kneeling Warrior Mountains to the South.
Behind me and extending west through the flat land between these two mountain ranges was “The Lion’s Road. If one were to follow it for a number of miles (at this point not yet known to me) you would reach the coast of the large ocean. Along that coastline, miles from each other, were the other three kingdoms: Aspell, Archer’s Gate and Northland. It was from these three locations that we were to be re-supplied and reinforced. I had no idea ho
w long that would take, only that my friend Vynn had been trusted with the task.
I took in the arrangement of the war room as we waited for some reaction to our efforts of the night before. The entire front wall, of course, was taken up by the observation windows. I could hear the wind at this great height pushing at the panes. To one side was a bank of tables manned by warriors, mostly women. They each had a work station under their control and a hollow cylinder, exactly like the one I’d seen in the elevator we’d taken to get up here. Every now and then Ruguer or a lower-ranked officer would comment to one of them and that person would speak into the tube. I surmised these to be the same sort of communication system that were once used on older boats to relay instructions from the pilot house to the engine room. It was a primitive but effective setup. From here I supposed orders could be relayed to the warrior commanders down below. I had no doubt that we had numerous legions of soldiers there fully equipped and awaiting the order to attack.
I noticed some movement over by the side of the window opposite where I was. Two warriors were passing a telescope back and forth between them and discussing something that I could not quite make out. One finally approached Ruguer and pointed. Ruguer examined something through his telescope and then nudged the king. Zander listened to a whispered comment then used his own telescope. I crept closer, Dwan still helping me stand steady.
Everyone at the windows was now looking in the same direction and commenting back and forth. I looked out in the general area where I saw the telescopes being pointed. Even at this distance I could just make out about six dozen brown objects that had to be water wagons like the ones we’d attacked last night. They were placed at different locations, spread out among the enemy encampment. I could see some sort of activity over on the Hound’s Teeth side of the valley but I was too far away to make out any details. The atmosphere in the war room began to change. There was an obvious excitement starting to grow. Observers at the window started giving orders to runners behind them who, in turn, delivered the information to the people manning the tables and voice tubes. I was growing crazy at not being able to discern what was actually happening. Ruguer turned to confer with two other warrior commanders. Zander could see me trying to figure out what was happening. He stepped over and handed his telescope to me.
The Olvion Reality (The Chronicles of Olvion Book 1) Page 24
