She was standing just off to the side of the center of the courtyard, giving the mages room to Gate in their groups.
“We're holding our own against the goblins for now,” the cleric said to Tamara. “Finish bringing the rest of the troops home.”
By the time that they were done, Sebastian, Sylvie and Veronique were reeling with fatigue. Tamara felt the same way, but she refused to allow it to slow her down.
She hurried toward the nearest set of stairs leading up to the top of the wall, leaving the others to organize the archers once they had caught their breaths, but she was immediately blocked by Katherine. The woman offered her a steaming cup.
“Drink this,” the cleric ordered.
“Tea? Katherine, I don't have time for that!”
“Drink it, I said!” the older woman ordered.
She smiled at Tamara's expression.
“Trust me,” Katherine added. “Our genius chef infused this brew with enough caffeine to make the dead dance. It will keep your exhaustion at bay for a while.”
Tamara accepted the cup and sipped cautiously. The hot tea was very sweet and, as she swallowed, she felt the heat hit her stomach and spread throughout her body. Her eyes widened as the caffeine struck her system like an electric shock.
“My God,” she said breathlessly. “I may not sleep for a week after this!”
Katherine laughed and watched as the three other mages were offered the same beverage by one of the kitchen staff.
“Yes, it's not something that I'd recommend to anyone as a cure for insomnia. Now, Chao is up top and wanted me to send you to him when you were finished bringing the troops home.”
“What's he up to?”
“No idea, but that little sprite of his is in a foul mood. I'm steering clear of both of them right now.”
Tamara finished the hot tea, thanked Katherine and hurried up the stairs. She lifted the hem of her robe as she went to avoid tripping on it.
As she reached the top of the battlements, another boom echoed up from the main gate. Tamara muttered a curse and trotted along the wall in that direction. She spotted several of the monstrous bats circling the castle, but they were keeping their distance for now. Apparently the ballistae crews had brought down enough of them to make the others wary.
Chao was standing on the section of the wall directly over the main gate. He was peering down at the attackers, but Tamara noticed that he was being careful to not expose himself to the enemies below.
Ellas was hovering above his left shoulder and, even over the din of battle, Tamara could hear the sprite's chattering. She did not sound happy.
The mage approached the pair just as the man turned his head to look in her direction.
“Ah, lady mage,” Chao exclaimed with relief.
He stepped back from the edge of the wall and moved toward her. Chao bowed and Tamara nodded in return.
“Just Tamara, Chao. No need to be so formal with a friend. Hello, Ellas. What's up? Katherine said that you wanted to see me?”
“Yes indeed. We are in a bad way here.”
The wall shuddered under their feet and Tamara frowned at the small man.
“You don't say?” she replied dryly. “Chao, I've just gotten back. Please say what you have to say so that I can get on with assessing the situation.”
“Do not be so hasty, lady mage,” Ellas chirped. “Chao may not be bold enough for my taste, but he is clever in his own way. And he has a way to stop these horrible goblins and the disgusting ogres who are even now battering at your front gate.”
Tamara looked from Ellas to Chao and then hurried past them to look down at the front gate.
“Be careful, lady,” the sprite exclaimed loudly. “Those creatures have goblin archers guarding them as they bash in your gate.”
Tamara stopped and drew her wand. She quickly chanted a spell and an opaque shield sprang up around her.
“Ah, she is wise,” Ellas said to Chao. “You could learn a few things from her, you know.”
Chao sighed loudly and Tamara smiled to herself as she moved to the edge of the wall and looked down.
She had never seen an ogre, but the sight of them was even worse than the mage could have imagined. There were half a dozen of the massive creatures below and they were swinging a long, thick tree trunk between them, slamming it into the main gate.
The ogres were at least ten feet tall and thickly muscled. All of them were wearing heavy iron plate armor, including helms that totally covered their heads. Tamara couldn't see their faces but she could hear their loud grunts as they swung the huge tree trunk and smashed it against the gate again.
“That gate won't last much longer,” Chao said from behind her. “We are running out of time.”
Tamara continued to watch the activity below. She noticed that there was a squad of a dozen goblins, wearing their leather armor and armed with bows, standing several yards behind the ogres. One of them spotted her as she stared down at them and shrieked at the others. All of them raised their bows and shot a volley straight up at her.
Tamara stepped back as her shield flared at the impact of the arrows against it. She moved away from the edge of the wall until she was out of the enemy's view and then dropped her shield.
“You see?” Ellas exclaimed. “They are very dangerous.”
“I'm aware, Ellas. Thank you,” Tamara told the sprite shortly. “Now, I want to hear your idea, Chao, but it will have to wait for a few minutes. We need to get our own archers up here to deal with those blasted goblins. I'll get back to you shortly.”
And with that she hurried back toward the stairs, hoping that the chef's fortified brew would keep her going long enough to beat back the goblins.
Behind her, Tamara heard Ellas launch a blistering tirade at Chao. She hoped that the diminutive man could weather the storm.
Chapter 23
Malcolm wiped sticky blood out of his eyes with the back of his hand. His fur was splattered with gore and the smell of it was thick in his nostrils.
With a snort of disgust, he turned away from the body of the last giant to fall and loped toward Aiden. His partner was hunched over a small pool of water, a tiny pond under the trees, splashing himself to clean off some of the filth.
“It was easier this time,” Malcolm told him as he reached his side.
Aiden shook himself vigorously and turned his head to look at Malcolm curiously.
“What was?” he growled.
His voice was much deeper in werewolf form and it made him sound even more dangerous. Malcolm rather liked it.
“Killing the giants,” he replied. “They barely had a chance to take a swing at either of us.”
“Uh-huh. Look, can we celebrate later? Wash up if you want to and let's get back to the spot where we left our armor. I want to be ready when Tamara comes to get us.”
Malcolm snarled irritably, but he began splashing water on his face. Aiden was right, of course. In the end, the giants had been little more than a diversion, a way to occupy the forces from Nottinghill while the goblins attacked the castle. They had failed, but the battle was far from over.
When he was done, Malcolm raced off behind Aiden, both of them running on all fours through the forest. They reveled in their speed as the world passed by in a blur of color. It was almost intoxicating and Aiden could see how tempting it would be to spend more and more time as a werewolf. He knew better than to let that happen, but he wondered if Malcolm did. He'd have to make sure to keep an eye on him, just in case.
They reached their gear in mere moments. Malcolm picked up his chain-mail tunic and turned it over in his clawed hands.
“It looks so small, doesn't it?” he rumbled. “Small and useless. Do we really need armor and weapons now? We're the real weapons, aren't we?”
Aiden stared at him in alarm.
“Don't start thinking like that,” he said forcefully. “We may be able to become these things, but we are human beings, not animals. If you forget that, Mal,
you may end up no better than the monster you resemble. And you'll prove the doubters right.”
Malcolm looked at him, at the hulking creature who was the man he had accepted as his partner over ten years ago. Then he looked down at his own transformed body and nodded slowly.
“Yeah, you're right. Sorry. We are men first. This gift could turn into a curse pretty damned quickly if we lose sight of that.”
He dropped his tunic and closed his eyes, pushing the beast inside back into its cage. It was a struggle, but Malcolm knew that he would always win over the monster, as long as he remembered who he truly was.
A few minutes later, the two men were just strapping on their swords again when a crackle of energy announced the arrival of someone using a Gate spell.
“I think that our taxi is here,” Aiden said with relief.
Malcolm smiled.
“Good. I was getting worried that they'd forgotten about us. It would be a long swim back across the channel.”
“Ugh. I don't even want to think about it.”
To their surprise, it wasn't Tamara or Sebastian who appeared. Instead, Barnaby, the oldest of the junior mages, materialized in the center of a shower of sparks.
The redhead looked around wildly and sagged with relief as he spotted the two men.
“Oh, thank God I found the right place,” he said shakily. “I did a quick check with a Magic Mirror spell, but Gating without getting all of the details of your target location is risky.”
“Barnaby! Hey there,” Malcolm exclaimed as he hurried over to the mage, Aiden trotting along behind him. “What's going on? You don't usually do transport duty.”
“No choice. The damned ogres breached the main gate of the castle,” the mage said, his voice shaking with exhaustion. “Tamara and the others did their best to stop them, but the goblins have a wizard, and a damned powerful one too. He somehow managed to counter most of the spells that they used against the ogres and now the monsters are inside of the courtyard. They're destroying everything!”
Aiden gaped at him in horror. The news was the last thing that he had expected to hear.
“And our people?” he asked quickly. “What about the Council? And the troops and the elves. Where are they?”
Barnaby staggered and Malcolm quickly stepped forward and put an arm around his shoulders to support him.
“Thanks,” the mage said weakly. “I'm a little done in. I'll be better as soon as I catch my breath.”
“Sit down before you fall down,” Malcolm said firmly. “You won't do anyone any good if you collapse.”
He helped Barnaby to sit down on the thick grass. The sun shone off of the mage's thick mane of red hair and made him look even paler and more fragile than he usually did.
Barnaby fussily adjusted his brown robe around his legs and sighed loudly.
“Thanks again. I think that I may have pushed myself a little too far,” he told the men. “But we're all doing that. Tamara and the other senior mages couldn't even muster enough energy to Gate here to get you guys. I volunteered to come in their place.”
Both Malcolm and Aiden got down on one knee so that they weren't looming over the mage, and Aiden watched Barnaby closely. He didn't like the gray tinge on the mage's face.
“You don't have enough energy to get us back safely,” he stated. “Do you?”
Barnaby opened his mouth to disagree and then caught himself. He shook his head.
“No, I don't. But I will if I can just rest for a few minutes.”
“Damn it!” Malcolm exclaimed furiously.
He stood up abruptly and walked off a few paces and Barnaby watched him, wide-eyed.
Aiden smiled reassuringly at the mage.
“Don't worry, my friend,” he said. “Mal isn't mad at you. He's angry at the damned goblins.”
The big man turned around and looked at Barnaby.
“Sorry. Aiden's right. Don't sweat it. Catch your breath, get your strength back and we'll head back when you're ready.”
He walked back and knelt down again.
“In the meantime, can you tell us how this all happened?”
“Yes, of course,” Barnaby replied quickly. “Well, I can only tell you what I saw. There was a lot happening all at once, and I was stationed on the east side of the wall. My God, there were so many of them. They were attacking the castle from all four sides. How did they get so many troops to Nottinghill so quickly?”
“The goblins?”
“Yes. They were like ants, scurrying through the trees and across the fields, screaming and waving their weapons over their heads like mad things. Our archers were amazing, by the way. Considering how few of them we have, they managed to kill a lot of enemies.”
“What about the elves?” Aiden asked him.
Barnaby's expression became grim.
“I didn't see it myself, but when your group returned to Nottinghill, Chase led her warriors out of the rear exit to try to flank the attackers at the front gate. I don't know how they were spotted, but somehow the goblins knew of their advance.”
The mage hesitated and Malcolm looked at Aiden and saw the same dread in his eyes.
“And?” he asked reluctantly.
“They were slaughtered. A handful made it back through the rear gate and sealed it, but just a handful.”
“And Chase?”
“She's alive, but Katherine says that her wounds are dreadful and that she may not last the night.”
Barnaby ran his fingers through his hair and pulled at it in frustration.
“Oh, it's all gone wrong!” he exclaimed in despair. “How could this have happened? And so quickly? We hear nothing about those beastly goblins for ages and then poof! They appear. If I hadn't seen the attack with my own eyes, I'd swear that I was having a bad dream.”
“I wish that's all it was,” Aiden told the mage sympathetically. “But this is all too real.”
“So Tamara and the survivors are where?” Malcolm asked. “Inside the castle?”
“Yes. They've secured all of the exists and barricaded the windows. All of the non-combatants, including the children, are in the main hall. It's the most defensible part of the castle. But how long they can hold out is anyone's guess.”
Barnaby pushed himself to his feet with a loud groan. He slapped some loose grass off of his robe fussily and rubbed his eyes.
“Well, I've wasted enough time,” he said. “Our people are in danger and they need you two, now more than ever.”
Malcolm looked at him dubiously.
“Are you sure that you're up to it?”
The mage just shrugged and forced a smile.
“I'll have to be, won't I? The thought of those helpless kids waiting in terror for the goblins to break in and slaughter them is more than I can bear. I'll be fine. Are you both ready?”
“Damned right we are,” the big man growled.
Aiden nodded. He put one hand on Barnaby's thin shoulder and grabbed Malcolm's arm with the other.
“Whenever you're ready, my friend,” he told the mage.
Barnaby nodded and took a deep breath. He chanted the spell slowly, as if he was afraid of making a mistake. When he was done, he glanced at both men.
“We'll have to land on the roof of the castle. If I try to transport us inside, we may materialize inside of a wall or another person. The roof was still clear when I left and one of your warriors is guarding the hatch.”
“Do it,” Malcolm told him.
“Right. Here we go.”
The mage closed his eyes and winced.
“Invectis!” he whispered.
And they were gone.
Barnaby almost got it right. The three of them managed to Gate to the castle. Unfortunately, they appeared about ten feet above the broad roof of the main building and dropped to the hard surface like a trio of stones.
Malcolm and Aiden landed and rolled with ease. Barnaby, however, slammed on to the roof and collapsed. As he struck the surface, there was a sharp snappin
g sound.
The mage lay still, staring up at the clear sky above them. He groaned in pain, but seemed to be too exhausted to even try to move.
Aiden hurried over and knelt down to examine him. The mage's right leg was bent at an unnatural angle and Aiden shook his head as he glanced over at Malcolm.
“Broken?” the big man asked.
“Definitely. I think Barnaby's lucky that he's almost unconscious. I doubt that he can feel much pain right now.”
Aiden easily scooped up the mage and stood up. As he did so, the man shuddered and went limp. He had passed out.
“He's fainted, Mal. Now, where's the hatch leading into the castle?” he asked as he looked across the roof.
“Somewhere near the center, I think,” Malcolm replied. “I've never used it myself. Come on. Our unconscious friend said that a guard was watching it. Maybe he'll wave or shout at us.”
The problem was that the roof was dotted with chimney stacks from the many fireplaces that heated the castle. It was like a stone forest and the two men had to zig and zag around them as they made their way forward. It was slow and irritating, especially given the circumstances.
It didn't help that they could hear the howls and bitter voices of the goblins surrounding the castle. It made them even more desperate to get inside and do something useful.
“Oh, to hell with this,” Malcolm said after a few minutes. “We don't have time to stumble around this damned roof like a couple of drunken idiots.”
He stopped and sucked in a great breath.
Aiden winced as he realized what his partner was about to do.
“Can anyone hear me?” Malcolm roared. “This is Malcolm. I'm with Aiden and Barnaby. Whoever is guarding the door to the roof, tell me where you are!”
“Cripes, I'm going to go deaf if you do that again,” Aiden complained. “And you almost woke up Barnaby. We want to keep him unconscious until Katherine can set his leg, remember?”
“Malcolm?” a voice answered faintly. “It's me, Tom. I'm this way. Follow my voice.”
“Ha! See? I knew that would work.”
Malcolm set off with a grin on his face, while Aiden rolled his eyes and followed more slowly.
The Werewolves of Nottinghill Page 30
