The Moon Stealers Box Set. Books 1-4 (Fantasy Dystopian Books for Teenagers)

by Tim Flanagan

  Two of the trebuchets remained where they were, whilst several of the smaller shorter range trebuchets moved slowly with the rest of the army. Ahead of them the black line of the queen’s army began to get larger. From on top of his horse King Conroy could see the taller shapes of grindels towering above the shorter, stunted forms of orcs and hobgoblins that formed row upon row of foot soldiers dressed all in black with rusted shields and helms. Donestre controlled packs of hyenas in the front row pulling desperately like excited dogs on chains, whilst from the back an iron cage was being pushed forward by giant armoured trolls. Inside the cage a creature was chained down to the base unable to move, but even in that position the size of it dwarfed the trolls. Its chains had been pulled through the cage bars and hammered all around the edge of the cart it was being transported on.

  King Conroy squinted, trying to get a better look at the beast inside the cage, but was distracted by Prince Chiron who was riding beside him.

  ‘The hyenas have been released,’ he said calmly.

  ‘Archers, forward!’ commanded the king. A line of Goraneans marched through the line of mounted soldiers to come to the front. Whilst the rest of the army stopped, the archers, together with a line of centaurs continued to move forward. King Conroy watched the packs of hyenas as they rapidly approached their position. He knew that the animals had been released early to create some fear amongst his men, possibly reduce his numbers, but only by a few, or cut through some of the soldiers, separating them from the rest of the army to become disorganised, but King Conroy had been expecting it.

  The archers stopped and strung an arrow in their bow. A centaur galloped along the line with a flaming torch, lighting the tip of each of the men's arrow. Together they released their burning arrows into the air to form a barrier of fire across the dry plains in front of the progressing hyenas. They then restrung an arrow and waited. Some of the animals had been put off by the firewall, but others leapt blindly through it and into a hail of arrows. A few managed to get closer, whilst some were running the long way round the firewall and began approaching from the sides. The archers calmly pulled another arrow and fired them at the remaining hyenas, followed by the thunderous hooves of the centaurs as they galloped over to finish this first wave of attack.

  What King Conroy had not anticipated was an aerial attack on his stationary army as it waited for the hyenas to be cleared. Whilst the attention had been on making sure that the hyenas were safely dispatched without loss of life, the queen’s army had been able to advance hidden behind the fire and smoke that had been created by the burning arrows. They had armed and released some stone boulders from a series of leather slings that had been rolled along the ground before being erected. The stones now flew through the smoke barrier, creating momentary holes in the smoke shield, before raining down on the king’s static army that had made itself an easy target. The soldiers scattered to avoid being crushed by the boulders, some of which struck the ground then rolled forward knocking the soldiers onto the ground, breaking their bodies and dividing the formation of the king’s army.

  Daughters of sirens also screamed from above, diving down to scatter more soldiers and grab others in their talons, flying high then dropping them to land on their fellow soldiers. The sirens' faces were twisted with evil sneers, occasionally a thickened black tongue would poke out from between their lips as the songs of the sirens tormented their enemy.

  Within seconds King Conroy’s army had changed from being an organised band of soldiers into a scattered and fractured spread of men, some of whom already lay dead or injured. King Conroy gave the signal for all of the Trebuchets to be fired, but the smokescreen prevented them from knowing exactly where the queen’s army had moved to. Archers began firing at the sirens, whilst the army began regrouping into two separate armies, safely away from the ground where the queen’s boulders continued to land.

  Suddenly, the smoke and fire seemed to disappear, fanned by magic that the queen conjured from the window of the upper most room within the Twisted Tower from where she watched the battle. She grinned as one of her secret weapons was released towards King Conroy’s unsuspecting army.

  Every Goranean soldier now stood and stared opened-mouthed at the sight in front of them. Every centaur and horseman came to a sudden halt, hooves skidding on the dry earth, whilst every dwarf and ground dweller lowered their shield and strained their necks to look up. From the dying flames a giant appeared to have been born, the caged animal had been a Horned Beast of Lucifer, a monstrous creature that stood like a man with the head of a bull, two massive straight horns protruding from above its eyes. It stepped over the scorched black ground and let out an enormous bellow at the army in front of it that was loud enough to make every bone inside the soldiers shake. The ground shook with every heavy foot strike that the beast made as it moved forward, choosing where to attack first. To the soldiers on the ground the beast appeared as tall as a mountain. The loose chains from the cage still hung from metal clasps around its wrists, ankles and neck, whipping dangerously around it as it leapt forward. In its hands it held the largest barbed axe that any soldier had ever had the unfortunate chance to be up against. Around its legs and forearms the beast was loosely covered with odd fragments of leather, hastily and crudely sewn together, but otherwise its skin was bare.

  Archers released more arrows towards the beast, whilst the short range trebuchets were repositioned to fire towards the most immediate threat. It advanced with surprising speed towards a part of the army that was being led by Prince Chiron. A group of centaurs flocked around behind the beast and began a charge between its legs, but the beast turned and swung its axe into the line of centaurs. Some managed to leap over the blade and deliver a deep cut to the inside leg as they rode beneath, whilst others scattered either side. But, in one sweep the barbed axe of the beast had managed to cut through the centaur’s chest armour like it was butter, killing many of the horse people in one attack. By then the Trebuchets had been loaded and had begun throwing boulders towards the giant creature. Some exploded harmlessly against the muscular body of the beast, whilst others knocked it backwards. Brave foot soldiers took their opportunity and mounted an attack, taking their weapons and striking repeatedly at the feet and ankles of the beast. A dwarf appeared to have grabbed hold of one of the swinging chains and was now beginning to climb its way up towards the thick muscular neck of the beast, hoping to make a hero’s cut that would down the beast.

  Donestre, orcs, hobgoblins and grindels swarmed into the Goranean army. Every man was now engaged in fighting, but they seemed to be outnumbered, especially as so many were trying to fight the towering beast. Another couple of sweeps of its axe had killed a number of Goraneans and dwarfs.

  ‘Shoot at its eyes!' shouted Prince Chiron to the remaining archers who had been firing randomly at the beast. No arrow seemed to puncture the animal’s skin deep enough to wound it, but as the archers focused their attack on the eyes the beast was becoming distracted as it began trying to brush the arrows from around its head like flies around food. Some arrows hit their mark and penetrated into its soft eye causing it great pain as well as blindness, it was now fighting with only one eye open and had become more vulnerable. It failed to see Prince Chiron’s centaurs flocking around its back for another attack, this time approaching from its blind side. Every cut from each passing centaur drove deeper into the muscle at the back of the beast’s leg making it lame and useless. The beast fell heavily onto one knee giving each soldier hope that it could be defeated. Every foot soldier grabbed at the loose chains that hung from the beast and pulled it further down to the ground. More arrows flew at the beast’s remaining eye, while the long swords of the centaur’s continued to cut at various places.

  As the faerie queen’s army filtered amongst King Conroy’s, the fighting became more intense: swords swung and shields splintered. Bows and arrows became abandoned for swords and axes. The weapons of the dead were picked up and reused by every available soldier. T
he battle would only be decided when the soldiers of one side were dead.

  The faerie queen watched from her Twisted Tower, pleased with the way the battle was going so far. King Conroy’s army already appeared to be struggling against the onslaught of her soldiers and once she had won she would have total control of the Underworld.

  34. The Doorway to the Tower

  Deep beneath the Arenadra Plains, Bothelgrit continued to lead Edgar’s group through the tunnels of Dragonheart Cavern, the ancient home of the ground dwellers, on their journey towards the Twisted Tower. After leaving the kitchen area the tunnel opened up to many dark chambers that extended off the main corridor. Even the Light of Angelist wasn’t strong enough to penetrate deep enough into the chambers to be able to see all the way to the end, but they could see that along the walls there were row upon row of shelves cut into the wall and supported by planks of wood propped up by more pieces of wood wedged beneath. Old torn sheets hung from the shelves but many had tumbled onto the floor, their colours faded and dull.

  ‘These were the sleeping quarters for this section of the cavern,’ explained Bothelgrit as he swung the light into one of the chambers. Joe thought he saw the outline of someone sleeping beneath some of the sheets nearest to the tunnel, but when he looked again he realised that it was simply the skeleton of a long dead ground dweller, the flesh had melted away, but the white bones remained.

  At the end of the corridor they reached a series of doors, each with a shape cut into the wood like the one to the kitchen. Bothelgrit held the Light of Angelist up so that he could read the numbers that were scratched onto the wooden boards that hung above each entrance.

  ‘What are the shapes in the doors for?' asked Scarlet.

  ‘They tell you what is beyond each door,’ Bothelgrit replied. ‘On this door we have a flame so that tunnel would take you to the metal works and armoury, a wave for the washing area and an axe for the mines. We’re going this way,’ he said to the rest of the group as he pulled open the second door which had a thick wavy line cut into the wood.

  At the back of the group Edgar stood guard. He was still uncomfortable inside the tunnels and hoped that he wouldn’t have to come face to face with the Red Horned Dragon he had heard of in the stories. He kept Ethera drawn and ready should he need to fight and was carefully watching the tunnel behind them. Except for the chaos in the kitchen they hadn’t noticed any other signs of fighting or the unusual scratch marks in the ground. What was strange, though, was the distant roaring sound they had first noticed when they left the kitchen. It had been getting louder as they walked further along the corridor. As soon as Bothelgrit opened the door, the roaring was almost deafening.

  Bothelgrit stepped through, followed closely, but less confidently, by the others. Edgar made sure that the door was closed behind them. In front of them was a dazzling display of water cascading within a massive rocky underground cavern; the Light of Angelist danced and reflected off every crystal droplet of water that tumbled down to a river below them. There was a narrow staircase cut into the side of the rock to their right which would take them down to the river and pools below, but their route continued ahead. The path became a narrow walkway that would lead them behind the wall of water as it fell from above and was only wide enough for one person at a time. On either side was a terrifying sheer drop. The roar of the water that tumbled into the river below echoed off the cavern walls making it too loud for them to hear each other. Bothelgrit began walking towards the narrow ledge and to avoid being left in darkness the rest of them had no choice but to follow as well.

  As they took careful and cautious steps forward, they made their way towards the walkway in a line, Edgar remaining at the back whilst the children walked in the middle. Although the water fell in a constant sheet of reflective silver, droplets splashed onto the path as well as their clothes making walking heavier and slippery. They chose their foot placing carefully until they emerged from the other side of the waterfall onto another rocky platform. This time the path led upwards in a narrow series of steps cut into the rock face.

  Bothelgrit waited until everyone had reached the platform before moving on. The steps were narrow and the water that dropped from their clothing made them slippery too. To Bothelgrit and the children, their smaller feet fit perfectly compared to the width of each step, but for Ralphina and especially for Edgar, they had to place their larger feet sideways to ensure that the whole of their foot was planted firmly on the step, making it awkward and slow to move forwards. The steps snaked up the side of the rock, a drop to their right side would be fatal so they clung to the rock side on their left as much as they could. Slowly the roar of the waterfall lessened and they were able to talk once again.

  ‘Why is there so much water underground when there are dry plains above?' asked Scarlet.

  ‘The ground dwellers created the Plains of Arenadra. Many, many years ago the area above us was an extension of the forest, but we needed water below the ground to survive and bathe in, so we dammed the river and tunnelled it in this direction. As the course of the water changed, so did the shape of the landscape; the Arenadra Plains are dry because all of the water from the land is down here.’

  There was a deafening thud from the ceiling that made them all stop and turn upwards. Small trickles of dust fell down from somewhere above them.

  ‘What was that?' asked Joe.

  ‘The war has started. It is happening right above our heads,’ replied Edgar as more thuds shook the ground. ‘How much further to the Twisted Tower?' he asked Bothelgrit.

  ‘Not far. Come, we must keep moving! The steps are not safe to stop on for long.’

  They moved upwards once more as further thuds and bangs vibrated within the cavern from the war that raged above them. More thin trails of dry earth trickled down. Within minutes the trails became accompanied by small rocks that bounced or exploded off the stone steps around their feet. Despite the threat of the fall on one side, everyone seemed to find a renewed reserve of energy and began taking the steps at a quicker pace until they finally reached a platform that was wide enough for all of them to stand together once again, even though parts of it had fallen away. More rocks tumbled down from above, forcing them to push themselves as close as they could to the side of the rock face to avoid getting hit.

  ‘Look, there are more doors in the rock,’ said Scarlet as she noticed that the slight alcove that she had pressed herself into was in fact another doorway.

  ‘We need number seven this time,’ said Bothelgrit as he moved the light up to examine the numbers once again. He followed the entrances from one to another until he rounded a ledge. ‘It’s round here, but the ground’s not safe. It’s crumbled away in front of the door.’ He turned to Edgar as if he was looking for an answer.

  They all looked round the side of the rock face where sections of the ground appeared to have simply vanished leaving gaping holes as if it had been sliced away with a sharp knife. In front of the seventh doorway a wide gash in the ground had also separated it into two levels.

  The trails of dry soil continued to fall from the ceiling, but had now progressed into denser columns of never ending earth. The number of rocks falling had increased so much that it appeared to be raining stone. Edgar knew they had to move through the doorway as soon as possible before any more of the ceiling collapsed.

  ‘Let’s use the other doors as bridges,’ suggested Joe, thinking quickly as he dashed over to the one nearest to himself. ‘We can lay them down to make a wooden platform over the holes.’

  Edgar understood immediately what Joe was suggesting so went over to the nearest door and began pulling it open as far as it would go then pushing all his weight against it to break the hinges. Scarlet had now joined Joe and together they were doing the same with another door. Ralphina dragged the first door as close as she could to the first hole that blocked their way around the side of the rock face then slid it over until it bridged the gap.

  A deep rumble came from the
ceiling as a large rock dislodged itself and tumbled past the ledge they were on to crash into the river below. Above them they could now see a massive scar in the ceiling and other smaller pieces of rock were cascading from around it as more became loose.

  Quickly Edgar and Ralphina each picked up an end of the other door and carried it over to the first one that had been laid down. Cautiously, and as gently as possible, Edgar took a step onto the door that bridged the gap. Despite the wood bowing slightly, it stayed firm and held his weight as he made his way slowly onto the ledge on the other side. Ralphina moved across and they gently slid the second door over the deep gash to complete the path to the door. Edgar took the first step once again, making sure that the door was solid enough to take his weight then stepped into the entrance of the seventh door that opened into a narrower tunnel. Without Bothelgrit’s light, he couldn’t see any further than a few feet into the dark tunnel. Taking Ralphina’s hand he helped her over the bridge to stand beside him. Bothelgrit had already begun making his way across the first door leaving the two children and Raelyn standing by themselves on the ledge. Once Bothelgrit was safely inside the mouth of the tunnel Edgar beckoned for the children to follow. Both had a look of fear in their eyes, but they knew they had to put their trust in the strength of the wooden doors supporting their weight to allow them to continue their journey.