Then she was gone.
Snarls ripped through the mist. Will span around, braced himself against the door and lowered his spear tip.
A huge head materialised out of the bright white, bounding in great leaps straight for him, eyes wild.
Clunk! The bolt was thrown open behind him.
It was too late.
‘Keep it shut!’ Will screamed but the door flew open and a hand yanked him backwards.
The varg leapt, all foam-flecked fangs and blazing yellow eyes. Dagger claws stretched forward, jaws opening between them.
Will thrust his spear forward even as Bridget switched tactics and braced against his back. A shock like catching a falling cow shuddered up Will’s arm and drove them both a step backwards as twelve inches of spearhead punched through the creature’s flesh and taut muscle and into its ribcage. Will twisted to the left and the impaled varg smashed into the doorframe then tumbled off the wall, yanking the spear out of Will’s grip.
Another baying head leapt out of the mist, but Bridget whipped around Will and slammed the door shut. She hammered the bolt home just as the beast smashed into the wood.
The door held.
‘Come on,’ Bridget shouted. She pulled Will up and tugged him towards the opposite door.
They burst out onto the wall which ran on through the middle of River Fort itself.
There was no sign of Alston and the twins – they must have crossed through the fort already, out of the far tower and onto the bridge beyond.
The two of them ran as best they could along the wall. Tiled barrack rooftops glistened with mist below while alleys, deep in shadow, lay like chasms between them. The vargs howled at yet another locked door, their frustration echoing through the deserted silence of the fort.
‘No doggies… below,’ Bridget puffed, ‘we could jump… if we… have to.’
Will shook his head – they’d likely break a leg landing on a roof slick with mist and then crash down onto the flagstone alley floor.
Great - never say die.
‘Just out the other side of that tower and we’re on the bridge,’ Will panted.
Bridget flashed him a worried look. Will nodded. What if the lobbers had locked that one as well?
He peered ahead into the mist as the bridge tower began to emerge. It was almost twice as high as the normal towers – there was no way Bridget could climb this one.
Bridget started to slow down, her legs falling behind her body.
‘Come on, we’re almost there,’ Will said, linking arms to take some of her weight. ‘Rowenna will have the boats ready and waiting then you can rest.’
I hope.
Crazed howling and yelping burst out behind them – the vargs were through again.
Crack! The merlon next to him suddenly shot tiny stone shards into Will’s arm.
‘Sling stones,’ Bridget panted without looking back.
Phutt! Something sparked at her feet.
Oh good - crossbows too
Heads bowed, they put the last of their stamina into a rush for the bridge tower. A few more stones clattered around them and three crossbow bolts flew past and into the walkway. Luckily, the Picts must have been at least a hundred yards behind them, and mist obscured any clear shot. Crossbows took time to reload as well, even the small ones the Picts used.
The vargs fangs wouldn’t miss them though. The beasts closed on them with every desperate breath Will took. Their frenzied howling was no more than thirty steps away now.
‘Run… ahead,’ Bridget managed, her stride now as ragged as a toddler’s. She tried to pull her arm from his.
Will gripped her tighter. ‘If it’s locked,’ Will shouted as more stones dogged his steps, ‘we’ll have to jump for a roof… and go around the – ahh!’
A sling stone caught him in the back – even at this distance it was like being punched with a chisel. He mis-stepped and stumbled forward straight into the tower door.
He scrabbled for the latch and shoved.
The door didn’t move.
Chapter 13
New Legs
‘No!’ Will screamed and hammered on the door.
It flew open and he crashed through. Strong arms caught and span him gently to the floor as if he were a child at play and then twisted away to pull Bridget in and slam the door shut in one motion.
Will pushed himself up to a sitting position but couldn’t manage any more. In the faint light of the tower, windows shuttered, doors locked, he saw Bridget sink down against one wall.
‘Idiot!’ a familiar voice shouted down from the trapdoor above – Alston. ‘You could have let the beasts--’
Thump! The first varg hammered into the door and began tearing at the wood with its claws.
Puck leapt away in mock terror. He bent close to Will and filled his exhaustion-hazed view. ‘Sit here, get your breath back, we have to hold this tower for a little while.’ His voice was light and still faintly musical.
‘Where’s everyone else? Is Rowenna--’ Will started.
A high-pitched yelp sounded once, and the scratching stopped for a moment.
‘Got one of the dirty – gods!’ Wilfor or Wilfred’s voice. ‘It nearly reached up here.’
Puck pulled a quarterstaff as tall as himself from the shadows by the door. ‘Rowenna is just fine and dandy. They’re all playing hunt-the-boat-that-won’t-sink in the repair yards on the far side of the bridge.’
He hurried over to the step ladders and leapt lightly up them but paused at the top. ‘Keep a look out for them on the river – then we can leave.’ He nodded to a small shuttered window on the far side of the tower then disappeared onto the roof.
Will rose carefully and moved towards the window. ‘I didn’t know Puck could use a weapon.’
Bridget pushed herself away from the wall and began to shove the table over to the doorway. ‘There’s a lot you don’t know about him,’ she mumbled, ‘don’t think he’s your friend just because he hasn’t tried to kill you yet.’
Will helped her with the table. So, Bridget had worked out what Alston and the others had tried to do. Puck was nothing like them. ‘He just saved our lives – mine for the second time in a couple of hours.’
‘I wonder why – after hardly noticing you at court for the last two years.’
‘Maybe because we’re all thrown together and kind of fighting for our lives and—'
Outside, the snarling and claw-scrabbling intensified for a moment then suddenly stopped.
‘They’re running, the filthy curs!’ Alston’s voice shouted from above.
‘Only until the Picts smash the door down for them,’ Will grunted as they upended the heavy table.
He went over to the window and opened the shutters. The wall seemed to continue out into mid-air, over a fast-running river at least two hundred yards across. On the far side, it ran on, climbing in steps up a steep hill. The forest spread out as far as the eye could see but it had been cut down for a hundred yards on the Pict side.
There was no sign of Rowenna or the rest of the party.
Neither were there any boats. Wooden mooring spines stretched a short way into the fast-flowing water, but not even a skiff was tethered there.
‘I can’t see…’ Will began but a cacophonous blare of war horns tore through the air and a hailstorm of clattering hit the walls and door on the other side of the tower.
‘The Pict lobbers are here,’ Bridget said.
Really – how do you know?
Will shrugged, trying to stay calm. ‘We should be able to hold them off - Alston and the twins have got the merlons to shelter behind and the Picts are on an open wall.’
‘It depends how many are out there,’ Bridget said, peering through a thin crack in the shutters on that side. ‘I can’t see much through the mist.’ She dodged to the side as something hard smacked into the shutters.
‘They’re sneaking in through the fort,’ a new voice shouted from the roof. It was Gwen.
Not j
ust lobbers up there, then – Rowenna really wanted this place held. Will’s spirits lifted a little. The skirmisher Second was a superb scout and truly gifted in close-quarter combat with her twin seaxes. As a bonus, she didn’t seem to hate him as much as most Angalsax did.
‘And south of the…’ Gwen added but was drowned out by the blaring trumpets from all around.
‘Ahh!’ someone cried from above as another furious hailstorm of sling stones battered against the tower.
‘The floor!’ Puck suddenly shouted. His head appeared at the top of the ladder and one arm shot out to point into a corner of the guardroom. ‘Watch the…’
Suddenly there was a massive thump from the floor. Will rushed over to a small trapdoor as something smashed up into it again. It was bolted but the hinges screeched up half an inch from the stone. Will stepped on the door just as a thin blade punched up along one edge and whipped along the side until it found the bolt.
‘A little help here,’ Bridget said as she hauled the heavy table back away from the door. Will dashed over and they dragged it upside-down over the trapdoor. The rhythmic banging carried on regardless and even the table jolted up a little.
‘They must have a giant with a battering ram down there,’ Bridget said and stepped on the upturned tabletop.
‘We’ll try to keep them away from the door.’ Puck said from above. ‘Watch out for a blade through your foot.’ Then he was gone again.
‘Yeah – you wish,’ Bridget shouted over the banging from beneath her feet and the intermittent sling shot ricocheting off the walls and shutters. ‘Any sign of your lovely princess yet?’
Will leant out through the windows and jumped back with a shriek.
*** ***
A spider, it’s body as big as Osbert’s clenched fist, scuttled through the window and leapt for Will’s face.
Will twisted to the side and felt course hairs rasp his cheek. He spun around and backed up against the wall, whipping out Rowenna’s sword. Legs as long as his arm held up the creature’s bulbous body a foot from the floor. It stayed stock-still for a moment, staring at him with two big black glassy eyes and four smaller orbs underneath. Two others watched Bridget from either side of its head.
Suddenly, its legs flexed, and it leapt. Will slashed with his sword but even with the light blade he was too slow. A dagger flashed through the air and sank dead centre into the creature’s body. It knocked it to the side and sent a mess of steel, hair and black ichor splattering against the far wall.
‘The shutters!’ Bridget shouted. She couldn’t move as the table was now hammering up beneath her feet.
Will forced himself to dash to the window.
Two spindly, hairy legs were reaching around the stone. He shuddered but slammed the shutters closed and forced the thick brace into its brackets even as two legs forced themselves through a gap and felt for him.
Yells rang out from above.
‘By the gods…’
‘They’re huge.’
‘Hit it… ahh – get it off me!’
The rap of sling stones and heavier smash of crossbow bolts rang against the tower top defences. The cursed horns continued to blare and the hammering below Bridget’s feet doubled in intensity. She leapt out of the way as the tip of an axe burst through the bottom of the table. Wood splintered as the trapdoor was ripped away underneath.
Gwen suddenly slid down the ladder, furiously pulling at her hair. Her face was white with shock.
‘There’s nothing there,’ Will said as calmly as he could. He bent to pick out Bridget’s dagger from the mess of spider as the lobbers came clattering down the ladder as well. Will caught a glimpse of Puck on the roof, his staff whirling and sweeping over the trap door.
‘Lock it!’ Puck shouted, ‘I’ll jump down to the bridge.’
A spider got half its legs into the trapdoor before the tip of Puck’s staff whipped it away and his foot flicked the wood closed.
In the sudden gloom, Alston dashed up the ladder and drove the heavy bolt home.
CRACK! An axe head smashed halfway through the main door. It was pulled out and a sliver of sunlight sliced across the room.
‘Let’s go!’ Alston roared. He threw open the door to the bridge and dashed into the bright light.
Straight into a thick web.
He struggled madly, twisting back and forth and kicking out with both legs. It only made the web wrap more tightly around him. Half-inch translucent threads clung to his thrashing limbs, sticking fast to his face and body. The twins, a step behind their leader, backed away, faces twisted in disgust.
The door behind cracked as two more axe heads burst through and pulled back sending shafts of light slicing across the floor and piercing war-horn blasts echoing around the walls. Bridget leapt to the edge of the table as the axe bit through it again from below, jolting the whole table up and back down with a resounding crack.
Will pushed in front of the twin lobbers, his and Bridget’s seaxes in hand. He put both blades to the top of the door arch and then ran them down to either side.
The steel, sharpened keenly enough to cut through boiled leather armour, sliced through the web and Alston fell and rolled on the ground into a helplessly bound heap.
The twins barged Will out through the door and flat on to Alston then ran over his back and sped off along the bridge. Alston tried to grab Will for help, but his arms could only move inches. His eyes were wide in panic, but he was deadly silent - his mouth was glued shut under the sticky fibres. Will started to push himself off Alston but the web clung to him in a score of places. Loops and loose strands tangled around his limbs as he struggled, tightening with each move he made.
Gwen was next out, jumping to one side. She glanced at Alston, tried a quick tug at Will to pull him lose, but then raced off after the twins.
Inside, wood slammed onto stone with a mighty crack. Bridget yelped and flew into view, catching herself on the door frame. She stared at Will, stuck in the web then back at the other door as an axe-head burst through it, splintering a plank in two.
Will held his breath. I should tell her to run.
Bridget glanced out across the open bridge, took a breath and leapt clear over Will.
And skidded to a halt next to his head.
‘Keep still,’ she ordered as she grabbed her seax from his hand and began to cut him free.
CRACK! Inside the tower, the whole door burst into splinters just as the table slid into view. Triumphant horns filled the air - the Picts were in from both directions.
A mass of firewood suddenly clattered down in front of the bridge-side door followed by Puck. The jester landed from the twelve-foot drop with barely a grunt. He held an open gourd and a burning torch.
The woad-painted head and shoulders of a massively muscled Pict appeared at the window and other warriors smashed through the splintered door, screaming for blood. Puck span the gourd into the wood and thrust his torch forward.
The wood, regularly soaked in oil and kept dry ready for a warning fire, burst into flame. The thick web around the door caught instantly and an intense inferno enveloped the walls, sending oranges and yellows flickering through the mist all around them.
Bridget sliced through the last few strands binding Will to Alston and he scrambled free, the flames burning just inches away from him.
Thick, acrid smoke swirled around them and filled the tower room. The Picts - shimmering painted demons through the fire - backed away, cursing and coughing. Two spiders scuttling between the roof merlons immediately fled from the flames.
The Pict war horns finally stopped blasting their victory.
Puck, Bridget and Will pulled away from the blaze, but Alston was still bound. The webs, some still stuck to the walls, grew tighter and tighter as he tried to roll away from the fire. Suddenly the fire caught a strand around his feet, and it flared up a sickly orange.
‘We can’t do anything,’ Bridget shouted over the crackling flame, ‘the fire won’t last. You have to lea
ve him!’
Will glanced at her as she backed away, signalling frantically for him to follow her. Behind her, the twins were almost at the far side of the bridge, Gwen sprinting hard behind them.
I can’t just leave him, not when there’s half a chance of escaping. We are in this together.
Will tore his blanket from his pack and leapt forward. He wrapped it over Alston’s legs, smothering the flames which had run almost up to the lobber’s thighs.
Will grabbed Alston’s feet and pulled them around away from the blaze. Puck joined him a moment later and they hauled the lobber to his feet. The blanket dropped away showing charred and brittle leather breeches, with the skin beneath an angry red. At least there was still skin.
With the web burned from his legs, Alston stumbled forward, hanging on to Will and Puck with a death grip.
‘Idiots!’ Bridget hissed but she ran to join them and yanked Alston’s bow and quiver from his back.
They stumbled onto the bridge just as the first Pict leapt through the dying flames, screaming a war cry.
Bridget notched and shot an arrow in one smooth motion. Will shot a look over his shoulder. The huge Pict strode forward, pulling Bridget’s arrow out of his chest in a splatter of blood.
She shot again, the arrow sinking deep into his arm this time. Then half a dozen more Picts came leaping through the dying flames and more appeared on the tower roof.
Will and Puck tried to run but Alston stumbled as his burned legs failed to keep up.
‘Crossbows – they can’t miss us,’ Bridget yelled as she loosed her last two arrows at the Picts.
‘The river!’ Puck shouted and swung Alston and Will around to the low bridge wall.
The first crossbow bolt whistled past and shattered on the stone a foot from Will. Pictish war-horns shook the air as huge shapes ran out of the mist and smoke.
The four of them stepped on the wall and jumped.
Divided We Fall Page 10
