“So, everyone who thinks that we should allow Ellas to summon her people back into this world, please raise your hand.”
As she looked around the table, Tamara saw everyone raise their hands, some more slowly than others. Even the parents caring for their children around the room raised their hands.
Tamara had to smile at their additional votes, but her amusement was fleeting. Chao had not raised his own arm and she took his reservations seriously. If anyone knew Ellas and her people, and the potential harm that they could do to the world, it was him. But what other choice did they have? Even now, Malcolm and Aiden were fighting for their lives to give the Council a chance to do something, anything, to save their people. If the two men were even still alive.
“No, we have to act and we have to act now,” she whispered.
Sebastian looked at her and raised an eyebrow. Tamara patted his hand and stood up again.
“Very well. The decision has been made. Chao, please go ahead and perform your summoning. Do you need any help?”
“Not with the ritual. That I must do alone. But I would appreciate someone coming with me for,” he smiled shyly up the table at her, “moral support. This might be a world-changing step that I am about to take and I would rather not face it alone.”
“I would be honored to stand with you, Chao,” Sebastian said immediately as he stood up beside his sister.
“As would I,” Dianis added as she also rose.
All around the table, every person followed suit, standing up in support of Chao. Even Shendal pushed himself to his feet, even though he looked pale and shaky as he stood beside the other Elders.
“We will all stand with you,” Tamara told the summoner. “This burden is on us as much as it is on you, and we will stand by your side to see it through.”
Chao bowed to the room.
“Thank you all for your support,” he said. “I will need to go outside to perform this summoning. The fay number in the thousands and when they re-enter this world, they will come upon us like a tidal wave.”
“Back to the roof?” someone asked.
Tamara looked over at Tom and nodded her approval.
“Good idea, Tom. That's about the only place where the goblins haven't taken over yet. And from there, we'll be able to see if Malcolm and Aiden have been able to at least slow down the enemy. Perhaps we can muster up enough energy to help them as well.”
With a clear plan of action in place, Chao hurried toward the main doors with Ellas fluttering excitedly above his head.
The others followed him, all except for Myklen and Shendal. The oldest of the elves was too weak to climb the stairs to the roof and Myklen decided to stay with him.
“Go, Dianis,” he said. “At least one of us should be there to witness this. After all, these humans know nothing of the fay, really. At least we know what they are like, and how much this world will change when they return.”
Dianis squeezed Shendal's hand.
“Should we have told them what we know?” she asked the two elves.
“No. What difference would it make?” Shendal replied, his voice thin with age and weariness. “The sprite was correct. This may be the only way to save the humans from our mutual enemies. Afterwards though, we will have to sit down with the Council and explain the true danger that they have unleashed. Now go, stand with Chao and represent our people.”
Dianis nodded to both of them and hurried out of the room.
“This could be the beginning of the end for the human race, you know,” Myklen said as he eased Shendal back into his chair.
“I know. Or perhaps it is just the end of the beginning,” the old elf replied. “We shall have to wait and see.”
When Malcolm and Aiden slammed into the ogres from above, their weight alone smashed two of the monsters into the ground hard enough to kill them instantly.
Before the four others could even react, both werewolves leaped into battle and tore through the ogres' armor as if it was paper. The goblins' tanks died before they even knew what had hit them.
Malcolm threw back his head and howled with delight. He was infused with the joy of battle and blood-lust and raced toward the closest group of goblins that were standing, dumbfounded, in the middle of the courtyard.
Aiden watched him tear into the enemy but, unlike his partner, he wasn't subsumed by his bestial side. The most dangerous of their enemies, the goblin wizard, was hidden somewhere, directing his troops and Aiden intended to find him. If their leader was taken out, the goblins would break and run. They were all cowards at heart.
But where was the damned wizard?
Aiden dashed through the courtyard on all fours, casually ripping goblins apart as he looked up at the battlements. The wizard had to be close by to direct the troops, but all he could see were the warriors.
He snarled as he felt sudden stabs of pain in his back and he whirled around, searching for his attacker.
Overhead, goblin archers mounted on their giant bats were swooping down over the courtyard, shooting down at both Malcolm and Aiden. As another missile struck his shoulder, Aiden growled in fury and crouched down, waiting for the bats to get closer. Then he sprang upward with his long arms extended and disemboweled the nearest bat. It screamed in agony and the goblin on its back fell to the ground with a wail of fear.
Without hesitation, Aiden leaped from the falling body of the bat a dozen yards to the next attacker. He tore both the archer and his mount to pieces and the other mounted goblins pulled up in a panic and flew away.
Aiden dropped back to the ground and casually killed the goblin that had fallen off of the first bat and then he raced to the steps leading up the battlements.
Behind him, Malcolm continued to attack the squads of goblin warriors that were running around the courtyard in fear of the raging werewolf in their midst. He was bleeding from a dozen superficial wounds, but he ignored them as he fought.
Aiden hesitated at the sight of the blood dripping from his partner's wounds, but he heard the twang of bows being fired from above and turned to race up the steps. He needed to protect Malcolm from the archers on the walls, because the big guy was too infuriated to even care about pain right now.
As he reached the top of the wall, Aiden ran into a dozen goblins armed with crude bows who gaped at him in surprised horror. He leaped at them while they were caught off-guard and began ripping into them. More jolts of pain from his back and shoulders meant that there were other goblins shooting at him from locations all around the wall and he kept moving as he fought, trying to avoid as many of the missiles as possible.
Aiden killed the last of the group by throwing him off of the wall and the goblin screeched in terror as he fell. Then the werewolf looked around the battlements, trying to spot the wizard. If the magic-user was nearby, he had to be above the fray so that he could direct his troops.
Several more arrows whistled toward him, but Aiden dodged them easily. He glared at the shooters who were shakily trying to draw their bows and then he began to move toward them, howling in fury.
Just as he'd hoped, the goblins broke and ran, scrambling to reach the nearest set of steps so that they could get off of the walls.
'Cowards,' Aiden thought with disdain. 'Just as we always knew they were.'
The air around him suddenly began to cool and the light dimmed. He looked up to see clouds racing toward the castle from all directions, building up into a dark mass directly over his head.
A rumble from the skies made his hackles rise in anticipation and Aiden whirled around, searching for the goblin wizard. This had to be his doing.
The storm clouds flashed and Aiden reacted by leaping away a dozen feet, just as a bolt of lightning smashed into the wall and exploded, sending shards of stone everywhere.
The clouds rumbled again and Aiden began to run. Werewolf or not, he had a feeling that being struck by lightning might actually kill him. It would certainly injure him badly.
A bolt slammed into the grou
nd behind him and he jumped and dodged as he ran, all the while looking around frantically for the source of the magic.
'Damn it, where is he?' he thought desperately. 'That wizard must be here somewhere.'
An idea suddenly occurred to him and Aiden looked up, searching the skies while trying to avoid any more lightning strikes. And then he saw it.
A bat was circling the castle, at least fifty feet above the wall. It was the only one that Aiden could see now and, even in the midst of the sudden storm, it calmly flapped and glided in a constant loop over the battle.
“That has to be him,” Aiden growled. “God, how could I have been so stupid! Of course the damned wizard isn't putting himself in harm's way. He's a coward like the rest of his kind. Crap!”
Unfortunately, as Aiden spotted the wizard, he became distracted and he slowed down for a moment. And that was when a blazing streak of lightning engulfed him.
In the courtyard below, Malcolm was mopping up the last of the goblin forces. He was covered with bloody wounds and a half dozen arrows stuck out of his body, but he ignored the pain. As he watched the last of his enemies race out of the courtyard through the main gate in a blind panic, the werewolf threw back his head and howled in triumph.
That howl turned into a cry of anguish as a flash of light caught his eye and he saw Aiden blasted off of the battlements by a bolt of lightning. He tumbled toward the ground, smoke trailing behind him as his fur burned and Malcolm reacted instantly, using his incredible strength and agility to leap across the courtyard and catch Aiden just before he hit the ground.
Malcolm lowered him gently to the paving stones of the courtyard and watched as Aiden transformed back into his human form. The skies cleared overhead and bright sunlight returned. Sadly, the light only revealed just how horrifically wounded Aiden was.
His long, shining hair was almost gone, burned off of his head by the searing heat of the lightning. His body was covered with open wounds and bruises and countless other injuries. It seemed like a miracle that Aiden was still alive.
Without conscious thought, Malcolm also returned to his true form. He looked down at the burned flesh and smoking wounds all over Aiden's body and felt each and every one as if they were his own.
“Hey you,” he whispered as he laid a gentle hand on Aiden's cheek. “Hey now, wake up. You're scaring me here.”
A jagged slash ran diagonally down Aiden's face from temple to jaw, but remarkably it hadn't injured his eye. Malcolm could see movement behind his eyelids and breathed a slight sigh of relief.
“Come on, Aiden,” he muttered. “Come on, lad. Wake up. The battle isn't over yet, you know. You can rest later.”
The prone body began to shake and shudder, convulsing as if the pain of his many wounds had finally reached Aiden's consciousness.
Malcolm cursed and carefully gripped his shoulders, holding him down so that Aiden couldn't injure himself even more.
“God damn it,” the big man exclaimed in despair. “What can I do? Someone, please help me!”
A door slammed open behind him and Malcolm looked over his shoulder with a snarl, expecting to see more goblins. Instead, a group of humans emerged from the castle, led by the cleric, Katherine.
“Katherine!” Malcolm bellowed. “Over here!”
She ran across the courtyard, holding up the hem of her robe as she dodged around bodies, broken blocks of stone and piles of debris. When she reached the two men, the cleric knelt down across from Malcolm and looked at Aiden.
“You're wounded,” she told the big man as she ran her hands over Aiden's body, just above his skin.
“It's nothing,” he replied curtly. “I'm already healing. The question is, why isn't Aiden? Look, that slash across his face isn't changing. We should be able to see it starting to close already, shouldn't we?”
Katherine nodded silently and gestured for Malcolm to remove his hands from Aiden's shoulders. As he did so, Aiden convulsed again and then grew still as the cleric laid her palm on his chest.
“There, there,” she whispered. “Easy now, my friend. Allow me to take away your pain. There. That's it. Breathe, Aiden. Just breathe.”
As Katherine worked, Malcolm was able to sit back on his heels and really take in all of his partner's injuries. And they were terrible.
Aiden was bleeding from a dozen open wounds but, as he watched, Malcolm saw them begin to close as the blood stopped leaking from them. But worse than the wounds were the swaths of burnt flesh all over Aiden's body. There was hardly an inch of skin that wasn't red and inflamed. Large blisters had already begun to form and skin puckered grotesquely all across Aiden's chest. He looked like someone who had been just been pulled from a raging fire.
“Damn that wizard,” the big man said furiously. “Just wait until I find him. I'll tear him apart, slowly.”
“Yeah, good luck with that.”
Malcolm caught his breath as Aiden opened his eyes slowly and squinted up at him.
“You're awake!” the big man exclaimed.
“Master of the obvious, as always,” Aiden replied with a faint smile.
Malcolm resisted the urge to hug him and instead took his hand gently.
“What did you mean?” he asked. “About the wizard?”
Aiden looked up past Malcolm and nodded slightly.
“He's up there, flying around and probably laughing at us. And we can't even shoot a ballista bolt at him. They've all been destroyed.”
Malcolm looked up quickly and spotted the circling bat, tiny and black against the clear blue sky.
“That's him?”
“That's him. Or her. Whatever. Either way, that is definitely the wizard. I'm not sure why he stopped hurling lightning bolts at us. Probably waiting to regain his energy or something.”
“Save your strength, Aiden,” Katherine told her patient. “And you, Malcolm, hold on to your temper. I do believe that the goblin wizard and all of his kind are about to get a big surprise.”
“What? What are you talking about?” Malcolm asked her.
“One of the junior mages, was it Amanda? I think so. Anyway, she was able to muster enough energy to cast a Magic Mirror spell for me. I wanted to check on the two of you. That's how I was able to respond so quickly when Aiden got blown off the wall.”
She patted Aiden's arm.
“Horrible sight, by the way. I may have screamed when it happened.”
He managed to smile at her with some effort.
“Your secret is safe with me,” he whispered.
“So what's this surprise that you mentioned?” Malcolm asked impatiently. “Are there more elves coming to our rescue? We could use them right about now.”
“That's truer than you know. Amanda also scouted out the countryside around the castle. This was just the first wave of goblins, I'm afraid. There are hundreds, perhaps a thousand or more of the beasts, racing toward Nottinghill from all directions. We think that they spent the night encircling the castle before they began the attack. And even if both of you were still perfectly healthy, there is no way that you could stop them. Not to mention that,” she pointed up without looking, “bloody wizard above us.”
“The surprise, Katherine,” Malcolm said pointedly.
“Oh. Right. Well, you can't see them from here, but right now the Council is up on the roof of the castle.”
“Really? Why?”
“Chao is going to perform some sort of ritual. I don't know any of the details, but apparently when he is done, the way will be opened for all of Ellas' people to return to the Earth from wherever they've been for the last few thousand years.”
Aiden had closed his eyes wearily, but now opened them as wide as he could as he looked at the cleric.
“The fay?” he said feebly. “All of the fay?”
“You know about them?” the cleric said in surprise. “Yes, all of them. There are supposed to be thousands. From what Chao said, not all of them are good either, but Ellas claims that, good or bad, her people all de
spise the goblins and will fight against them for us when they get here. I suppose that we'll see just how true that is.”
“Well, what do you know?” Aiden mumbled.
He closed his eyes again and went limp. Malcolm looked at Katherine in alarm, but she shook her head.
“It's okay. He's just sleeping. It's better this way. The healing will be painful and I'd rather he wasn't awake to feel it.”
The big man let out a long, slow breath and glared up at the wizard again.
“I wish that there was a way to reach him. Those allies of Chao's may rout the goblins, but I doubt that they'll catch that bastard up there. He'll just Gate away from any danger and live to fight against us another day.”
“Probably. But I don't see how we can stop him,” Katherine replied with a shrug. “Now I need you to be quiet, Malcolm. I have to concentrate while I try and stabilize Aiden.”
“Sorry. Should we move him inside, out of the sun?”
“Not yet. Any movement right now would only do more damage. I'll let you know when he'd ready.”
“Okay.”
Malcolm stood up and looked around. A handful of guardsmen had escorted the cleric outside and they were now standing near the main door. He hurried over to speak with them.
“I'm glad to see that you all made it,” he said as he approached the five warriors.
They all nodded back respectfully.
“We feel the same about you, sir,” one of them, a burly man with a shaved head, replied.
“Josh, isn't it?” Malcolm asked.
“Yes sir,” the man said with a quick smile. He seemed surprised that Malcolm remembered his name. “Sir, how is Aiden doing?”
Malcolm looked across the courtyard where Katherine was kneeling over his partner and he felt his stomach knot up.
“He's alive,” he replied shortly. “And he's a fighter, so he won't give up. I can't say more than that.”
He looked back at the guardsmen.
The Werewolves of Nottinghill Page 32
