The War of the Grail

by Geoffrey Wilson

  And now, as Jack stared, he saw the black bulk of the giant avatar lumber over the crest of one of the hills. Smoke swirled about it, and its green eyes blazed on top of its head.

  He shoved the spyglass into his belt and turned to Fletcher. ‘Train all the guns on that avatar down there. And tell anyone else with a musket to line up along this parapet. We’ve got a fight on our hands.’

  ‘There are still those creatures.’ Fletcher motioned to where one of the men was knocking a centipede off the wall. The beasts were still constantly scuttling up.

  ‘All right,’ Jack replied. ‘Leave a few men to keep those avatars back.’

  Fletcher blew a whistle he must have kept from his army days. Then he waved his arms about and barked orders to the men dotted along the wall.

  Jack faced Elizabeth and Saleem. ‘Get your muskets ready. The enemy are coming up.’

  The three of them slung their firearms from their shoulders and Elizabeth placed Cecily down beside her feet.

  Jack felt his eyes moistening. It wasn’t right that Cecily was here, up on a wall, in the middle of what was soon to be a battle. But there was nowhere else he could put her. He couldn’t tell Elizabeth to take Cecily down into the fortress again. There were too many centipedes about. There was nowhere else for any of them to go. They would have to stand here and fight and defend the child as best they could.

  He glanced along the ramparts and saw the rebels lining up with their muskets. A few of them were loading their firearms directly from powder flasks – they must have run out of cartridges.

  He shifted his gaze over to the south wall for a moment and made out figures congregating along the battlements. It appeared the army were approaching on that side of the fortress as well. The rebels were caught in a vice.

  He turned back to the parapet and stared down the incline. The enemy soldiers were advancing into a saddle between the hillocks and the main hill. The avatar had surged ahead and had already reached the far side of the saddle, battering aside shrubs that got in its way.

  Elizabeth and Saleem could see the beast clearly now. Elizabeth stared transfixed, while Saleem was breathing heavily.

  ‘You both keep your heads,’ Jack said. ‘We can get through this, all right?’

  Saleem swallowed and drew himself up taller. He’d been through the Siege of London and managed to keep his nerve then. Jack was sure the lad would do the same now.

  Jack could hardly bear to meet Elizabeth’s gaze. He wanted his daughter to be far away, somewhere safe. If he had been a better father, that’s what he would have arranged. But he hadn’t been able to do that, and so now she would have to fight alongside him.

  Tears were brimming in her eyes.

  ‘Empty your mind,’ he said. ‘Don’t think about anything but firing your musket. And once you’ve fired, don’t think of anything apart from reloading. If you think about anything else, you’re lost.’

  Elizabeth nodded, blinking away tears and pushing up her bottom lip, her chin puckering.

  Fletcher returned to Jack’s side. ‘The guns are ready, sir.’

  ‘Then fire,’ Jack said. ‘And keep firing. Don’t let that thing get up here. And tell everyone else to be ready with their muskets.’

  ‘Right, sir.’ Fletcher bowed slightly. It almost looked as though he were going to do a namaste for a moment, but he stopped himself and instead began bellowing orders at the gunners.

  There were only five guns along the west wall, but there would have been even fewer if Jack hadn’t ordered more artillery to be moved here two days ago.

  The artillerymen touched their portfires to the guns at almost the same time. The vents smouldered for a second and then the weapons punched in unison, the serpent-headed muzzles blazing like fire-breathing dragons. The snake eyes glared angrily as the pieces kicked back.

  Balls swooped down from the wall. They overshot the avatar but battered the troops marching behind. When Jack peered through the spyglass, he saw several men lying dead in the grass.

  The gunners were already sponging out the pieces, reloading and twisting screws to adjust elevation. But now the enemy came alive. Horns blared, drummers bashed on kettledrums strapped to their waists and a sergeant raised a standard. The soldiers, who’d been advancing cautiously up until now, roared and charged across the saddle, heading towards the final incline.

  The change in the avatar was even more dramatic. Before, it had been ambling slowly. But now it expelled a jet of steam and bounded like a dog towards the west wall. It gave a high-pitched wail that sent shivers down Jack’s spine. The cry seemed to unnerve the men along the ramparts, as many of them lowered their muskets and began muttering amongst themselves.

  ‘Get ready to fire!’ Jack shouted. ‘Present!’

  The five guns thundered again, spewing smoke and flame, and hurling balls at the beast charging up the hill.

  Two balls struck the ground immediately in front of the creature and bounced over its head. A further three clanged into its rounded back, but glanced off, doing no more damage than denting the carapace slightly. The avatar howled, but it didn’t even slow its pace.

  Jack cursed under his breath. Kanvar had said the creature’s armour was strong. But the beast had just been hit by three round shot and had barely been harmed.

  The enemy soldiers had reached the edge of the saddle and were scrambling up the final scarp. But the avatar was racing ahead. It was now only around a hundred yards away from the wall.

  Jack lifted his musket, stared along the sights and aimed at the creature. ‘Fire! Fire at the demon!’

  Jack’s command rippled along the battlements as it was passed between the men. Jack waited for a second and then pulled the trigger. At the same time, the line of rebels along the parapet fired their muskets. The firearms popped and coughed, and bullets rained down on the avatar. Scores of balls rattled against its armour. But as the smoke cleared, Jack saw the creature was again undamaged and still charging up the slope.

  The artillerymen were firing out of time now. One gun blasted a ball at the avatar’s head, but the beast batted it away with its claw. Another round shot chimed against its side, leaving a small scrape but nothing more.

  The beast screeched and raised its claws. It was close enough now for Jack to make out its whirring mandibles.

  Jack joined the rebels along the wall as they reloaded their muskets and fired. The weapons flared and spluttered, and bullets teemed in the air. The hail of musket balls clattered against the avatar. But again, they did no damage.

  Jack bit open another cartridge and reloaded his musket. He was feeling weak with hunger and thirst, but he pushed his discomfort aside. He was about to fire again, but then he realised there was no point. Because now the creature was just a few feet away from the wall.

  Soon it would be at the fortress. There was no stopping it.

  31

  With an iron squeal, the creature leapt. It clattered against the wall about twenty yards from Jack, scrabbled to grasp the battlements and hauled itself up to the parapet. Its lurid green eyes, contorted head and flickering maw popped up over the crenellations. The artillerymen standing nearby cried out and abandoned their gun. The other soldiers fled along the wall.

  The beast dragged itself over the battlements and kicked aside the gun, which rolled back, careered off the wall and cracked apart on the ground below. The creature slid over the parapet and straddled the walkway for a moment. It was so large that its abdomen hung outside the fort, while its front legs scraped at the inner edge of the ramparts. Then it launched itself off the wall and plunged down to the ground inside the fortress.

  Jack cursed. The avatar would wreak havoc amongst the rebels.

  He swung his musket onto his shoulder, shut his eyes and called the Lightning yantra to mind. In a second, he had the design glowing in his head. He flung his eyes open and raised his hand. The avatar was clambering up the side of a ruined tower, perhaps in an attempt to get a better view of the rest of t
he fortress.

  Jack voiced the mantra and his arm shook as the lightning wriggled through it and shot out of his fingertips. The bolt snarled through the air and gave a metallic ring as it struck the avatar in the back. The creature jolted, bellowed and immediately swung itself back down to the earth. It circled round and charged back towards the wall, giving a deafening shriek.

  It was bounding straight towards Jack.

  Jack went cold for a second, but he composed himself and brought the yantra to mind again. He flung another bolt at the beast, smacking it just below its mouth. The creature skidded to a halt and shook its head, as if in agony. But this only lasted for a second, before it sprang forward, slammed into the wall and scrambled up the stonework.

  The people about Jack shouted and ran along the wall to escape. Jack grasped Cecily and shoved the child into Elizabeth’s arms, saying, ‘Get out of here!’

  Elizabeth backed away, but only a short distance.

  Jack grasped his musket as the avatar’s head leered over the top of the wall. It scratched with its legs as it heaved itself up.

  Jack’s heart battered in his chest. He was, once again, looking into the beast’s eyes. Did it remember him? Was it determined now to kill him?

  He lifted his musket. Perhaps he could hit one of those eyes and drive the creature back – for a moment, at least.

  But before he could pull the trigger a pulverising blast sounded to his left. Fletcher had wheeled a gun round, and now fired at the avatar. The muzzle flashed, kicked and launched a ball at the creature. The round shot pounded the avatar in the head, snapping off a stalk and bashing a large indentation in the creature’s crown.

  Sulphur-scented smoke blurred Jack’s view for a moment, but as it cleared he saw the creature groaning and shaking its head violently. Being pummelled at such short range seemed to have hurt it at last. It scratched wildly at the edge of the walkway, roared and thrashed about for a moment, then sprang down to the ground and bounded off into the fortress.

  Jack breathed out sharply. His heart was still racing.

  He glanced across at Fletcher, who was standing beside the gun.

  ‘We got the bastard.’ Fletcher grinned.

  That was true, up to a point. But Jack saw that the creature was now charging down the boulevard towards the courtyard. In one claw it held a struggling man. It lifted the figure up high in the air, then snapped its claw shut. The man was severed in two.

  Elizabeth gasped and Fletcher grimaced.

  Jack tightened one hand into a fist. The avatar could easily slaughter hundreds of people, but there was nothing he or anyone else on the ramparts could do about that at the moment. They still had to defend the wall.

  He spun round and stared over the parapet. While he’d been distracted by the avatar, the European Army troops had been pressing on up the hill. The vanguard was now no more than a hundred yards away.

  ‘Fire at them!’ Jack shouted to his men.

  Elizabeth placed Cecily back down on the walkway and stood beside Jack. Saleem positioned himself on the far side of her and raised his musket. The three of them aimed and fired at the swarm of men rushing up the scarp. At the same time, the other rebels along the wall blasted with their muskets. The firearms crackled and spat, and smoke blurred Jack’s view for a moment. When it cleared, he saw that scores of enemy soldiers had been knocked down.

  But there were hundreds more still clambering up.

  Jack, Saleem and Elizabeth reloaded and fired with the other rebels. Flocks of bullets battered into the enemy, cutting men down like wheat beneath a scythe.

  A powder flask further along the wall exploded and went flying through the air. It must have ignited as someone reloaded.

  The gunners began firing grape. The guns roared and sprayed the shrieking metal across the incline, flaying the soldiers rushing up. Men fell, surrounded by clouds of blood, but many more ran on fearlessly.

  Jack guessed there were about three hundred soldiers still charging at the fortress, and he now noticed many of them were carrying scaling ladders.

  ‘Keep firing!’ he shouted. But he hardly needed to. The rebels were blasting round after round at the enemy, slaughtering many, but not enough to stop the assault entirely.

  Jack noticed the splutter of muskets coming from the south wall. When he glanced across, he saw smoke smothering the southern battlements. The rebels there were fighting off a second assault.

  He turned and fired again into the mass of soldiers below, but the first troops had already reached the wall. The enemy soldiers began raising ladders and scrabbling up.

  ‘Get your knives out,’ Jack told Saleem and Elizabeth.

  The three of them clicked the catches on their muskets and the knives snapped into place. Jack studied Elizabeth for a second. She stood with her legs apart and her musket at her waist, the knife pointing towards the battlements. How could she hope to fight against trained soldiers? How had it come to this?

  The situation was unreal, and yet there was nothing Jack could do about it. They all had to fight for their lives. Elizabeth was no exception.

  The top of a ladder tapped against the battlements directly in front of him. He gestured to Saleem and Elizabeth. ‘Push this away!’

  The three of them slung their muskets on their shoulders and set about heaving the ladder away from the wall. Jack pressed against one side, while Saleem and Elizabeth pushed at the other.

  Soldiers were already battering up the steps, and the ladder shuddered in Jack’s hands. He ground his teeth, grunted and gasped. They had to get the ladder away from the wall before it became too weighed down with attackers.

  Groaning at the effort, Jack managed to force his side of the ladder off the parapet. Saleem and Elizabeth only managed to shift their side slightly, but it didn’t matter. Jack had done enough to send the ladder sliding sideways down the wall. The soldiers cried out and tumbled back down to the ground.

  All along the ramparts, further ladders smacked into the wall. The enemy streamed up the rungs and the rebels struggled to shove the ladders away. Most of the attackers appeared to be European Mohammedans, but amongst them were a handful of Rajthanan officers wielding scimitars.

  Jack raised his musket and fired at a line of soldiers climbing a nearby ladder. He hit one of the men, who toppled to the ground, clutching a wound in his chest.

  Saleem and Elizabeth fired now as well, along with those rebels who weren’t wrestling with one of the scaling ladders. The bullets pelted the soldiers below, knocking scores back to the ground.

  The gunners angled their pieces down and blasted howling grape at the enemy.

  Soldiers managed to clamber to the top of one ladder and jump down onto the walkway. Hand-to-hand fighting broke out, but the rebels soon slaughtered the attackers and finally heaved the ladder away.

  Jack reloaded and fired several times, picking off soldiers one by one. He then flung a few lightning bolts at a group of attackers trying to raise a ladder immediately below him. A thick cloud of smoke suffocated the battlements so that he could see no more than a foot in front of him.

  And then the muskets and guns fell silent. The smoke drifted apart to reveal the hillside was littered with bodies and broken ladders. A few of the soldiers squirmed on the ground and cried out in pain, but most were already dead. A single Rajthanan officer was limping about in a daze, swinging his scimitar at imaginary foes. A musket cracked on the wall and the man collapsed.

  Now, not a single enemy soldier was left standing.

  Fletcher punched the air and cried out, ‘God’s will in England!’

  ‘God’s will in England!’ the rebels along the wall shouted back.

  Jack embraced Elizabeth, clasped Saleem on the shoulder and bent down to check on Cecily. The infant gurgled and stared up at him with wide eyes. Did she have any idea what had just happened? Did she know she was in the middle of a battle?

  He stood up again and surveyed the ramparts. There was no further sign of an assau
lt from the west, but when he looked back into the fortress he could see the fight was continuing elsewhere. Immediately ahead of him, many of the rebels were still struggling to repel the centipedes slithering up the wall. Further off, he glimpsed the giant avatar rampaging through the ruins. And to his right, powder smoke had completely blotted out the top of the south wall. Tiny dots of flame from the muskets jabbed the fog, while the guns continued to flash.

  Jack turned to Fletcher. ‘Turn the guns round. We have to be ready to fire into the fortress if the south wall is breached.’

  Fletcher shouted the commands, and the four remaining guns were circled about. Jack considered locating the winch and moving the artillery pieces to the south. But that could take hours, and the centipedes would make the task almost impossible. Furthermore, there was always a chance Jhala would send yet another wave of attackers to the west side of the fortress. Someone had to remain to defend it.

  Then Jack spotted a melee taking place at one of the gaps in the south wall. When he lifted the spyglass, he saw that a column of enemy troops had burst through the breach and were forcing their way into the interior of the fortress. Most of the attackers wore European Army uniform, but Jack also noticed several Rajthanan soldiers in turquoise tunics and turbans, along with officers carrying pistols and scimitars.

  Rebels streamed down from the wall or rushed up from the ruins to confront the invaders. But the enemy troops fought back with knife-muskets and blades.

  Then a blaze of green dazzled Jack for a moment. A second flash followed shortly afterwards.

  Lightning.

  Someone amongst the attackers was using Lightning.

  Jack stared hard through the glass and spied a Rajthanan in a purple uniform flinging lightning bolts into the rebel defenders. The man was clearly a siddha.

  Then Jack noticed a second man in purple. And finally a third man, half hidden by the haze, who was blasting bolts into the fortress. As this last figure strode out of the fog, Jack’s fingers tightened about the glass.