The Werewolves of Nottinghill

by J. J. Thompson

  Daniel looked over at the child and then back at Aiden with obvious amusement.

  Aiden rolled his eyes at the question, but tried to answer the boy in a way that wouldn't frighten him.

  “No, Drew, I don't. The werewolf curse has been cured. Now I only change into one when I want to, which is when the castle and you folks living in it are in danger. That's it.”

  Drew looked impressed.

  “Wow, that is so cool,” he exclaimed with a wide smile. One of his front teeth was missing. “So now we are protected by werewolves? Neat!”

  He raced off and Aiden shook his head in frustration. He caught the blacksmith's eye just as Daniel snorted and returned to sharpening the sword.

  “He's just a child, my friend,” Daniel said as he honed the blade. “Seven year olds can't process nuances. To him, you are either a werewolf or you aren't. There is no middle ground.”

  “Yeah, I know. And compared to some of the sillier questions I've had to deal with from some adults, Drew's was actually more reasonable than most.”

  “Good to hear. Listen, the fact that the boy felt comfortable enough to approach you and ask a question is a good sign. People are starting to accept your condition, which is what you wanted, right? Of course it didn't hurt that when the full moon passed a week ago, you and Malcolm didn't turn all hairy and start eating people.”

  Aiden laughed at the smith's statement and Daniel smiled and nodded.

  “That's better. Stop taking the words of others, especially children, to heart. It's been almost a month since we started the rumors about you two and look how far it's come. Sure, there are a few idiots who will never accept you fully, but then those people have always existed. They remind me of my parents, back when cellphones became popular. They never believed that they would catch on. Well, they were wrong, and the doubters are wrong about you as well. Just be yourselves and things will work out just fine.”

  “I never realized that you were such an optimist,” Aiden told him with a grin as he accepted the now-sharpened sword.

  “Me? I'm not an optimist, my friend,” Daniel said gruffly. “I'm a realist. And the reality is that Nottinghill Castle is better off with you and Malcolm than without you. And most people know that. Now get out of here,” he added as he waved Aiden toward the doorway. “I'm backed up with orders and your sword's as sharp as it's going to get.”

  Aiden laughed again and sheathed his blade.

  “Thanks, Daniel, for the sharpening and for the words of encouragement.”

  “Both cost the same,” the smith replied with a smile. “And are probably worth about as much.”

  “You're wrong,” Aiden said as he walked to the doorway. “They are priceless. See you later.”

  He ducked as he left the building and heard the blacksmith's low rumble of laughter behind him.

  He's a good man, Aiden thought as he looked around the courtyard. And we could use a lot more like him.

  “Aiden!”

  He looked up at the battlements, shielding his eyes in the bright sunlight as he tried to see who had called him. He saw someone waving down at him and recognized Tamara. He waved back to show that he had seen her and she motioned for him to join her.

  Aiden hurried across the courtyard to the steps leading up to the top of the wall.

  Now what's wrong, he wondered.

  Up on the battlements, he strode quickly toward Tamara. She was standing on the southern section of the wall, above the main gate. Beside her was her brother and they were both staring at something that Tamara was holding.

  “Morning, folks,” Aiden said as he joined them. “What's up?”

  Both of the siblings were wearing blue robes that morning, although Tamara's was a pale blue while Sebastian's robe was much darker. Next to them, Aiden felt pale and plain in his white tunic and black leather pants. He wasn't due to go on duty until later in the day, so he wasn't wearing his armor yet.

  “Good morning, Aiden,” Tamara said with a smile.

  Sebastian just grinned and went back to staring down at the mirror that his sister was holding.

  “Ah, you're using the Magic Mirror spell?” the warrior asked.

  “We are. And we're a little concerned. Take a look.”

  Aiden moved around to Tamara's left side and looked into the mirror. It was about twelve inches long on each side and framed in silver. As he stared down into it, its frosted surface cleared and Aiden found himself looking out to sea.

  “Where is this?”

  “South coast,” Tamara told him. “All of the mages have been sweeping the coastline on a daily basis, picking random spots along the seashore to look out across the channel. With the warnings that we've had about goblins, it seemed prudent to keep a watch in that direction. That is where they will come from, if they ever decide to invade England.”

  “Good thinking. So what am I looking for?”

  Sebastian pointed at the distant swells of water further offshore.

  “Keep an eye on that section,” he told Aiden. “There's something happening out there, but we can't quite figure out what it is.”

  “Okay.”

  The three of them watched the scene intently, keeping the sun at their backs so that they could see the mirror clearly.

  After a few moments, Aiden glanced at the mages and shrugged.

  “I really don't see anything, Sebastian,” he said as he looked back at the mirror. “Just big waves rising and falling. What did you...whoa!”

  A pale, domed shape rose just above the waves for a moment before disappearing beneath the surface again.

  “You see?” Sebastian exclaimed. “That's what I was talking about. I thought that it looked like an egg, or some sort of inflatable dingy or something.”

  “And I think that it's just some debris,” Tamara added. “The oceans are littered with it. What do you think?”

  “Hang on a second. Let's see if it appears again.”

  They watched and waited. After a minute, the dome appeared again. And then, a dozen yards away from it, a second shape popped out of the water for a moment and then dipped underneath the waves again.

  “Two of them?” Sebastian said in confusion. “I don't get it. They have to be pretty big for us to be able to see them from the shore. Dragon eggs maybe? Floating away from wherever their nest was?”

  “Do you really think that a dragon would allow its eggs to fall into the sea and drift off?” Tamara scoffed. “That's ridiculous, Bastian. But I can't figure out what they are. Aiden?”

  The warrior glowered at the mirror and held up a hand, gesturing for silence.

  Another minute passed and the domes appeared once again. Aiden narrowed his eyes and then muttered a curse under his breath.

  “What? What is it?” Tamara asked him.

  “Don't you recognize what you're seeing?” Aiden asked the siblings, his face suddenly pale. “It took me a minute to realize what they are just because of their sheer size.”

  “Well, don't keep us in suspense,” Sebastian said irritably. “What are they?”

  “They're heads, Sebastian. Gigantic bald heads. Watch again and you'll just be able to see the tips of their pointed ears rising up on either side.”

  “Giants?”

  Tamara stared at him, aghast.

  “But if those are their heads, and they are walking along the bottom of the channel, they have to be a hundred feet tall or more!”

  Sebastian shook his head.

  “Not necessarily,” he told her. “It depends on how close they are to shore. They may only be sixty or seventy feet tall.”

  “Only?”

  His sister looked at him in disbelief.

  “Sebastian, our castle walls are forty feet high, max. Even if those monsters are sixty feet tall, they'll walk through these walls as if they are made of paper.”

  “You're assuming that the giants are coming here,” Aiden told them. “How can we be sure of that?”

  Tamara lowered the mirror and frow
ned at him.

  “Aiden, we've already been told that the Chaos lords brought giants to life specifically to destroy Nottinghill Castle. We must assume that we are their target.”

  “Yeah, that's true.”

  He looked up and down the wall, staring at each of the ballistae in turn.

  “We'll have to wait until we can see their ugly faces,” Aiden said speculatively, “but I'll bet that our enchanted ballistae bolts would do some damage to them if we can hit their eyes, assuming that they have eyes.”

  The mages both nodded and Sebastian forced a smile.

  “That's true enough. And if Tamara and me and the other mages focus our spells on their heads as well, that could also inflict a lot of damage.”

  “Maybe. Let's watch for a while and see what we're dealing with,” Tamara told the men.

  The trio hunched over the mirror again and watched the waves. Now that they knew what they were looking for, the three of them easily saw more details as the giants rose higher and higher out of the water as they approached the coast.

  Their skin was pebbled and pockmarked. It almost looked scaly. And it was corpse-white and slimy, as if the dark gods had raised the giants up from the depths of the sea. Perhaps they had.

  “We should see their faces any time now,” Aiden muttered. “Come on, monsters. Show us your eyes.”

  As if they had suddenly stepped on to higher ground on the ocean floor, the pair of immense creatures rose above the waters and their heads and shoulders could be seen clearly.

  “Dear God, they're ugly,” Tamara said with disgust.

  Ugly indeed. The giants' eyes were narrow and rheumy-looking, and as pale as their milky skin. They had long noses that flopped and bounced like rubber as they stomped through the water. Their mouths were open and drool dripped out of them like thick, gooey ropes. They appeared to only have a few rotting fangs behind their lips.

  “They look mindless, don't they?” Aiden observed. “I see no intelligence behind those eyes.”

  “How can we know?” Sebastian wondered. “How can we judge something that large? Perhaps they just think as slowly as they move? At least there's only two of them for us to worry about.”

  “Two of them so far,” Aiden said soberly. “These might just be the first wave.”

  He watched the monsters for another moment and then stepped back and looked south. Somewhere down there, the giants were about to make landfall. It was a frightening thought.

  “So now what?”

  Aiden looked at Tamara.

  “You're asking me?” he said to her. “Tamara, you're the head of the Council. What do you think we should do?”

  “It's irrelevant what I think,” she told him. “We are a democracy here. Sebastian, would you head down and ask a few of the staff members to round up the rest of the Council? We need to make a plan, right now. And ask them to invite Dianis and the other Elders as well, please. We're all in this together now.”

  “Got it,” her brother said. “It won't take long to gather everyone together.”

  He ran off and Tamara looked up at Aiden.

  “Where's Malcolm? I'd like him to be at the meeting too.”

  “No idea. He's been on duty all night. At this time of day,” he glanced up at the sun, “he's probably doing one final patrol around the outside perimeter. He likes to do one at the start, in the middle and at the end of his shift.”

  “Hmm.”

  Tamara looked down at her mirror and waved her hand over its surface. The giants faded away to be replaced by a new image. It was an overhead view of Malcolm, his long braids and large frame instantly recognizable. He was standing in a clearing surrounded by tall trees with his hands on his hips.

  “I know that spot,” Aiden said with a smile. “There's a break in the trees on the north side of the castle. Mal likes to stop there and just listen to the forest when he does a walk around the castle. He says it helps to clear his head.”

  “Well, we need him and his clear head back here on the double,” Tamara said with a chuckle.

  She tapped on the mirror.

  “Malcolm? Can you hear me?”

  The big man jumped and looked around.

  “Tamara? Yes, I can hear you. What's up?”

  “We need you back here,” she told him. “I've called a meeting of the Council and we need your input.”

  “Is it an emergency?”

  “Definitely.”

  “Okay, I'm on my way. Get someone to wake up Aiden, would you? His lazy butt is probably still in bed.”

  “I heard that,” Aiden said with a grin.

  “Oops!” Malcolm exclaimed with a laugh. “You're up.”

  “Of course I'm up, smart ass,” Aiden told him affectionately. “Now get back here. We're about to have some unwanted guests.”

  Malcolm's expression immediately became serious.

  “I'll be right there,” he told them. “See you soon.”

  Chapter 18

  The Council gathered quickly in the meeting hall. Sebastian had told the runners to let everyone know that it was an emergency and no one had wasted any time responding.

  Dianis, Myklen and the now-recovered Shendal walked in together, followed closely by Chase. The elven captain was wearing her leather armor and had a sword on her hip. She stopped just inside the hall and stood next to the doorway to watch the proceedings.

  All of the mages, plus Chao, Katherine and Daniel were in attendance as well. It was a full house.

  The last person to arrive was Malcolm. He strode in, his armor jingling, and took his seat next to Aiden. They exchanged a quick, telling look and then waited for the meeting to begin.

  There was no small talk. Once she was sure that everyone had arrived, Tamara stood up at the head of the table and looked around somberly at the group.

  “Thank you all for coming so quickly,” she began. “We have a situation on our hands that requires your input.”

  “What's happened, Tamara?” Sylvie asked. “What is the emergency?”

  “A short time ago, Sebastian and I were scanning the waters of the English Channel, along the southern coastline, as all of the mages have done since we were warned by Dianis and her people that the goblins were planning to invade the country. And we saw something.”

  The tension in the room increased and several people leaned forward to stare intently at Tamara.

  “What did you see?” Dianis asked her. “The flying bats that our scryers warned us about?”

  “No, lady,” Tamara replied. “Not yet. We spotted what at first we believed might be debris floating on the sea. But it turned out to be something quite different.”

  She took a deep breath.

  “I can't believe that I'm saying this, but there are a pair of giants making landfall far to the south of Nottinghill even as we speak.”

  There was a long moment of silence as people digested Tamara's news.

  “Giants? Seriously?” Malcolm said with amazement. “So the elves were right?”

  “I'm afraid so,” Tamara told him. “Aiden was actually the one who identified the monsters. Sebastian and I weren't sure that we were even seeing something threatening. Well, we know better now. So the most pressing question facing us now is, what do we do?”

  “You figured out that there are giants on the way?” Malcolm asked his partner quietly.

  “Yeah, well, once their ears peeked above the waves, it wasn't hard to do,” Aiden replied with a shrug. “Tamara and Sebastian didn't identify them at first because they've never faced anything like them before. You and I have seen more monsters face to face than almost anyone here. Maybe it's given me a more open mind.”

  “Huh. Interesting.”

  “Dianis, do you have any thoughts or suggestions?” Tamara asked the Elder. “We have never dealt with a threat like this before. We've faced dragons, yes, but giants? This is an entirely new threat for us.”

  The elf stood up as Tamara took her seat. Dianis looked around the table, her
expression darkly serious.

  “We have never faced giants like the ones that threaten your people,” she began. “But we have fought huge creatures for generations. The tactics for defeating them are fairly straightforward. You will need to attack them at range and try to turn them away from your castle before they get close enough to smash through your walls. One trait that all gigantic earthbound creatures share is their speed. They are very slow. Slow to move. Slow to attack. Slow to react to being attacked. That is a weakness that you can exploit.”

  “Dragons aren't slow,” Daniel told her. “We've learned just how quick and nimble they can be over the years, often to our sorrow.”

  Dianis looked at him and nodded.

  “That is true, but I was describing monsters that cannot fly. Dragons, wyverns and other large flying creatures are anything but slow. But we are not speaking of them right now.”

  “Ah, I understand. Yes, I can see how they would be different,” the smith replied. “Thank you for making that distinction.”

  “Not at all. Now, Chase can work with your defenders,” Dianis said as she looked at Tamara. “And she can help them with tactics and whatever else they need.”

  The Elder glanced over her shoulder at Chase, who moved forward to stand next to her.

  “Chase, your archers are now at the disposal of Tamara and her people,” Dianis told her. “We cannot yet safely cross back to Trillfarness and request additional forces, so we will have to make do with what we have.”

  “It will be an honor, Elder,” Chase said respectfully.

  Dianis sat down again and waited for Tamara to speak.

  “Malcolm? Aiden? You are in charge of responding to this threat,” the mage told the warriors. “We can't scatter our efforts by having too many people giving orders, so you two will work with Chase and her archers and you will tell the mages, including me, where you need us and what you need us to do. All right?”

  Both men stood up together and looked around at the others.

  “Is this acceptable to everyone?” Malcolm asked them seriously. “Both Aiden and I know how powerful you mages are, and Chao as well. We may have to ask you to do things at a moment's notice and, frankly, I don't want to have to take the time to argue with anyone and convince them to do whatever we want them to do.”