by Lucia Ashta
“Quick, gargoyles, what do you see?” Albacus said.
It was the female gargoyle that answered first. “There are at least a dozen elephants with three riders. And other animals follow behind the elephants. It’s hard to tell what they are from here. They look like bears, or maybe very large dogs.”
I wondered how elephants could be coming our way, when there were no elephants in this part of the world. I’d never encountered one before.
One look at the army sworn to defend us pushed away this type of scrutiny. After all, I was entirely surrounded by creatures that weren’t supposed to exist.
“They’re almost at the foot of the mountain,” the she-gargoyle continued. “They’ll be ready to climb it very soon.”
Albacus and Mordecai snapped their heads down. A sudden, frantic energy took over. They might not have enough time to mount the defenses that were crucial if we were to hold the gate.
The brothers never looked more alike to me, as they raised their hands and began with a swirl of cloaks.
I could tell that Albacus was protecting the gate itself because logs that lay on the ground next to it floated toward it and fell into place in the slots behind it, locking the gate from swinging open. That was the only maneuver clear to me. The rest was a swirling and fluttering of magic sent down the mountain, to the sky above us, and many places in between.
Albacus and Mordecai turned this way and that, flashes of light and energy, the only hints of what they were accomplishing. The rest of us just watched, careful not to interrupt. We were as prepared as we’d get.
A few minutes passed in which I experienced an unexpected, profound tranquility. I gazed upon the brothers and their flurry of motion, completely unaffected by it, as if I weren’t part of an army preparing for battle.
Then the she-gargoyle spoke again. “They’ve begun their climb.”
By the brothers’ crestfallen faces, I assumed they’d erected magical defenses meant to prevent the enemy from climbing the mountain toward the fortress. Their plan of defense had listed that strategy as its main priority.
Our first attempt to thwart the enemy had failed.
Mordecai turned from his place at the wall near the gargoyles to face his army. “I used ancient, advanced magic to protect our mountain. No ordinary wizard could have stepped foot upon it. Yet, here the enemy comes. We’re dealing with a powerful magical force, my friends. Steel yourselves. Together, we’ll protect life and honor.”
“To life and honor,” shouted one of the dwarves. Somber cries of “To life and honor” followed, scattered across the crowd.
Then the stillness was back. We searched for our courage and, once we found it, we held onto it as tightly as we could so none of it would slip away. I feared we’d need every ounce of it before the sun shone upon Irele once more.
I squeezed Marcelo’s hand, wanting to feel him close, to assure myself he was still there. He was here, next to me right now, but would he be in just a little while? It scared me to think how fleeting life is. Any of us could die tonight.
I didn’t wait for an invitation. I drew myself to him. I let go of his hand, and I weaved my arms beneath his cloak and around his waist. I laid my head against his chest, and even through the thick wool of his sweater and cloak, I felt the regular thumping of his heart.
I’d surprised him. But he settled contentedly into my embrace, forcing taut muscles to relax their readiness. He rested his chin against the top of my head and pulled me closer.
He’d been in battle before; I hadn’t. He was aware of the dangers more than I was. He understood that he, or I, or both of us might die before this night was over. We had no choice but to face whatever would rise to meet us.
Hiding me in the castle to wait until this threat passed wasn’t a viable option. Without Marcelo, the castle and its tricks constituted as much a risk to me as the battle. The safer place for me was at his side because he’d do anything to protect me. I was sure of that.
The opportunity might only come once. Marcelo found himself forced to seize the moment before it passed him by, never to be lived again.
He breathed in the scent of me, and I wondered what I smelled like. I didn’t know that to him I smelled like a cool ocean mist (that was probably due to my years in the merworld) and the sweet scent of apple blossoms.
Then he whispered the words no other man, not even my father, had ever uttered to me. “I love you, Clara,” and I let the warmth of his words and his breath melt over me and travel the length of my body.
His unexpected words left me speechless, moved by a coming together of powerful emotions. There was the fluttering of my heart that recognized that Marcelo loved me and I would share a life with him—if we survived tonight—and there was the anxiety of knowing evil marched toward us, causing the well-being of people I loved to depend on a magic I’d only just discovered.
There was the magic, and that was the biggest thing. The five elements twisted within me in their beautiful knot, no longer dormant, but wide-awake.
I nestled my head further into Marcelo, and I pressed my chest flatly against his. Through our matching cloaks, our hearts pressed together, beating to the same tune: one of hope and love.
This is how I waited out the anguish-filled approach, until the shaking of the ground drowned out the beating of Marcelo’s heart.
Only when the elephants were upon the gate did I let him go. Only then did I draw my head from the safety of his embrace.
When I did, I stood next to him, with his hand in mine. His ring of promises of a future life together glowed almost imperceptibly on my finger. I felt its heat, but I didn’t take it off. I wouldn’t shy away from any aspect of my power.
The thundering footfalls of black elephants pierced the dark night. They sounded like war drums, and, in the same way that war drums brought fear to the hearts of the enemy, the footfalls that shook the earth shook us.
However, we all stood our ground. Not a single member of our army shrunk away from what was coming. Instead, I saw several of them seem to lean into it, waiting, waiting, waiting, in time with the footsteps, for the appointed moment to arrive.
And then, it did.
Chapter 43
When the moment arrived, it wasn’t subtle; it thundered and crashed and rocked the earth as much as any bolt of lightning.
There was no need for the gargoyles to tell us that the enemy was at the gate. We heard it. And when the two front elephants reared up under the command of their masters, we understood what was coming.
Four huge feet with fourteen tons of weight behind them fell upon wood. Wood and magic splintered, broke, and split apart.
They destroyed the gate, but the path still wasn’t clear for the beasts to enter.
They rose once more, and that was all it took.
With their first steps into the courtyard of the fortress of Irele, the eerie peace and stillness that had pervaded our ranks gave way to chaos.
I lost track of who was doing what where.
Marcelo let go of my hand. There was no chance to give him one last look or to tell him that I loved him too.
What little light showered down from the moon died against the rich black hide of the elephants. As large as they were, they disappeared against the inkwell of concealed moonlight, moving with impunity.
Monstrous dogs spread like disease across the courtyard. These weren’t the products of nature’s perfect design. Dark magic was in play; it had to be. One look into any of these creatures’ eyes confirmed that conclusion. Their eyes were dark and depthless. The beasts were nothing but shells trained to do their masters’ bidding. There was no spirit within them to tell them otherwise.
While the elephants, far bigger than any animal that defended us, jumped, stomped, and threw their trunks around in efforts to subdue their prey, the dogs launched themselves at any creature that moved across their paths. Despite their disproportionately bulging muscles and long claws, the dogs seemed to be all teeth as they jumped w
ith lips pulled back, saliva dripping and foaming, evident even in the dim light.
The rabbits and wolves banded together to take on the dogs, not sparing a thought to their habitual differences. They moved in unison, rabbit and wolf intermixed for the first time in hundreds of years, as they acted in coordinated effort. The wolves crouched low and pounced, biting at the dogs’ legs. When their teeth connected with their target, they pulled the larger animal down and held it as still as they could while the dog thrashed desperately.
Sometimes, the dog would break loose. But other times, it wouldn’t, and then the rabbits would pounce on the downed dog, tearing at it with vicious teeth and claws.
Meanwhile, Rondel and his brother clones, the dwarves, the caterpillars, and Janice took on the elephants. There were many; they were massive and a terrifying threat despite the combined skills of Irele’s defenders. Several dwarves came together to battle an elephant that was stampeding and jumping in rage when a worm wriggled its way around one of its legs and clamped down on it. The elephant screeched in agony, harming everything it could thrash or step on.
The Rondels fell first. The elephants pounded them with great big sweeps of trunks that knocked them over. From there, it was easy for them to jump on the Rondels and reduce them to pieces, smaller even than the parts they began as.
The Rondels lost the life the brothers breathed into them within the hour. But in that hour, they fought bravely, and gave the opportunity to the caterpillars to wrap themselves around the elephants’ forelegs. Then the caterpillars squeezed, cutting off the circulation. The three elephants with bound legs screeched in agony, trying desperately to free themselves. Then the dwarves moved in and, like the caterpillars, assaulted the beasts’ legs in an effort to bring them down. One cut wasn’t enough to hinder these black, giant beasts. Their hide was thick and nearly impenetrable.
The elves remained hidden on the second floor of the castle, peering through the slits in the walls. Even with their keen eyes, they struggled to distinguish the moving forms of friend from foe. They trained their eyes across the courtyard relentlessly, and when they were certain they’d identified the large back of an elephant, they fired expertly. Unerringly, their arrows met their targets. But the elephants’ hide was too thick. In most cases, the arrows didn’t penetrate it.
Eventually, the elves gave up on firing upon the elephants to save their arrows for a better target; they just hoped they’d be given the chance to use them. They couldn’t fire upon the dogs, because they were too intermingled with wolves and rabbits, and they all moved too quickly, tangled in a blurring mass of fur.
So the elves fixed their eyes on the courtyard, waiting for an opportunity to help their fellow soldiers, an opportunity that may or may not come.
Like the elves, the gargoyles were looking for a way to help. They weren’t strong enough to take the big animals on their own, but by taking turns distracting either the dogs or the elephants, the gargoyles lent their comrades a real advantage. With their ancient wings spread wide, they swooped and dove around the enemy animals, who couldn’t help but whip their heads up to follow the figures that plunged toward them from above. Often, this moment was sufficient for a surprise attack. In this way, the combined effort of the army of Irele was deadly.
Overwhelmed by the terrible cries, both animal and human, I was unsure of where to go and what to do. I looked around me, only to catch snatches of action, glimpses of scenes, moments from the life of a friend or ally.
I saw a gargoyle fall from the wall, injured. A mammoth dog took on a rabbit, and it was difficult to tell who would win.
Then there was a shrill sound so powerful, so monstrous, that it forced me to cover my ears. It hurt and terrified me all at once. It made me forget all sense of hope and joy that I ever experienced in my life.
The wounded cries of dog and elephant faded into Janice’s perturbing one. The night sky was pierced, not by light, but by a single cry meant to unearth the fears within men.
Albacus, Mordecai, and Marcelo were familiar with Janice’s talent. They found her knife-like keen profoundly unsettling, but at least they knew what it was. They did their best to push the sound away from their awareness and allow it to do its work on their foe.
But it didn’t agitate the dark magicians as much as the brothers and Marcelo had hoped. Magical creatures with strange and unnerving ways were familiar to the dark magicians. They pushed away Janice’s cry with a visible shake of their heads, pulled their eyes into single-minded focus, and searched for their targets.
The dark magicians located their intended marks easily.
Albacus, Mordecai, and Marcelo were looking straight at them.
In the very moment that I realized the sound came from Janice, using her voice as a weapon, the young Marcelo of my vision caught me in his sights.
He focused his terrible, dark gaze and started for me, cutting the most direct path between us.
One of the worms, trying to intervene, coiled back and jumped at him as he passed. The young Marcelo sliced it in half with one swift motion of his sword.
I found it difficult to breathe.
The young Marcelo stared me down as if his look alone could kill me.
I tried to go inward, to find the knot of the five elements, but I didn’t manage to do much of anything before he was upon me.
I took a deep, crisp, cold breath, knowing it might be my last.
As if in slow motion, I watched him lift his sword toward me.
I did nothing.
I didn’t move. I didn’t prepare to protect myself. I stood rooted to the spot, frozen with terror. I’d already seen what this man was like in my vision.
He raised the butt of his sword and moved it toward my head.
Everything turned black.
I went from staring into the deep blue of my attacker’s eyes to seeing nothing at all.
Chapter 44
I don’t know how long I was lost to the all-consuming darkness that overtook my mind. When I woke, I was astride a monstrous black elephant. My head hurt terribly; blood caked along my temple and colored my vision. I blinked furiously, trying to wash away the red film.
I made several attempts to sit up. My head throbbed with each try. Finally, I managed to hoist myself up, using the muscles of my abdomen for strength, only to be rewarded with a radiating pain that shot up my arms and through my shoulders. My foggy brain grasped at the obvious detail.
My captor had tied me.
After knocking me out, he bound my arms behind my back. Then he lifted and carried me furtively outside the gate with the aid of his magic.
He didn’t have far to go. He and the other two dark magicians had left three elephants stationed, in case they were needed for escape. The elephants hid on the mountainside in a particularly dark patch behind a large, ancient tree and rock formations.
We would have eventually spotted their rides, but once the enemy attacked, no one, not even the gargoyles or Sylvia, had surveilled the mountainside. The attack was too pressing, the choice between life and death, everywhere.
And so the young Marcelo floated me out the gate without anyone noticing. From there, it had been easy. A spell of magic lifted me to the elephant’s back and tied me, this time to the beast, so that I wouldn’t fall off in my unconscious state.
We made our way down the mountainside. By the time I woke up, our surroundings were unfamiliar to me. I had no idea where we were or in which direction we were traveling. The crushing pain in my head and the dark night limited my ability to discern any clues about the path we followed.
The last thing I remembered for certain was that I’d been in the courtyard of the Castle of Irele. And now I was somewhere far away from anyone that could come to my aid.
As if all that weren’t bad enough, I was bound.
Albacus’ words came back to me. A witch couldn’t do magic if she was bound. Many before me tried and failed, often to their deaths.
Whatever magic I might have
been able to summon in my defense was now of no use. My hands were securely tied behind me. No matter how much I wiggled and wriggled my wrists, the rope gave no slack. My abductor had used magic to tie the knots that held me.
He knew what he was doing. He’d intended to bind me and, consequently, also bind my magic.
I was entirely at the mercy of a man whose eyes spoke cruelty more eloquently than any words.
Chapter 45
Time passed while the young Marcelo seemed not to notice that I was awake. I found illusory safety in the fact that he was unaware of me as I grew increasingly more alert. The terror I felt in the courtyard when I first locked eyes with him subsided.
There came a point when I realized that he’d speak to me eventually. He would look at me again. There was no getting out of it now that my magic was bound.
So I held on tightly to what little bravery I’d mustered and called ahead, “Why are you doing this?”
He didn’t answer me for so long that I wondered if he ever would. When he did, his voice was bitter and ugly. “Because I must. For as long as I can remember, I’ve trained for this night.”
I waited for further explanation, but none came. Silence resumed, the repetitive steps of the elephants were the only sounds to soften the heaviness of the night.
I didn’t know what would happen if I pressed him for more information. Perhaps, he’d kill me sooner, if killing me was what he intended to do, and I thought the odds were pretty high that it was.
I had nothing to lose and only understanding to gain.
“Why did you attack us?”
“To avenge my mother.”
Silence pervaded once more. It looked like I was going to have to pry every answer out of him, one question at a time.
“Why have you taken me?”
“To punish my uncle.”
I was surprised to discover that I could be frustrated by his lack of communication even in these dire circumstances. I thought that insubstantial things wouldn’t bother me now, so close to death. But they did. I couldn’t stand it when people peppered me with answers that only gave birth to more questions within me, and that had been happening a lot since I first arrived in Irele.
