Delver Magic: Book 06 - Pure Choice (6 page)

"We attack now!" Okyiq
ordered. "When I tell you to fire, all goblins with bows must attack and
continue to fire at wall and towers until raid is over."

The commanding goblin pointed to
two of his lieutenants.

"You two stay here. You are
in charge of all goblins at this hill. Make sure goblins keep firing. If they
stop, you die."

The order was a double edged sword
for the lieutenants. They were happy to stay behind as opposed to being part of
the raid that would cross the clearing that surrounded the town. It also
pleased them not to have to climb the wall, but the order was flush with other
potential hazards.

They were given the responsibility
of maintaining discipline among the goblin ranks in the hills, not a simple
task. Both lieutenants knew that if the human guards charged the hill with
cavalry, no goblin would stay at its post. Raid or no raid, the bow fire would
cease entirely as every goblin archer would scatter and head to the safety of
the forest.

Goblins hated humans on horseback.
A single guard mounted on a large steed was a frightful sight to the
meager-sized monsters. A charging horse was a vision of terror, a snorting and
galloping colossus. Goblins did not fight cavalry on open ground. They would run
in absolute horror or drop prone into the mud paralyzed with fear.

Thus, the lieutenants understood
the risk attached to their duty. They could order the goblins under their
command to continue to fire, but only for as long as the hills remained clear.
They lacked the force of Okyiq's stature and will. If the humans attacked, the
goblin archers would certainly flee and leave the raiders to face their own
daunting task without cover or diversion. If that were the case, the
lieutenants themselves would run as fast and as far as possible as well,
knowing that when Okyiq returned, he would rip them to shreds.

As for the goblin leader, he made
his own intentions quite clear.

"I go with first raiders. I
will make sure goblins climb the wall fast. Gate will be opened and all goblins
not firing at wall must come into town. We will take much tonight. We will let
the humans know this is
my
forest!"

It wasn't much of an inspirational
speech, but it established Okyiq's desires as well as his resolve. He would
lead the initial assault, putting himself in the greatest danger. He would be
the biggest target, but the heavy rain worked in his favor. He believed it
would be more than enough to protect him. He also believed that fortune
remained on his side. The night belonged to him, the storm a generous gift. He
would not accept he might die. He was too strong, and too smart... at least for
a goblin.

#

Two groups of soldiers moved into
position around the third rogue. One squad came from the eastern gate. The
other band moved in from behind Ryson. It was the same group that had helped
capture the first rogue.

In order to return to the fray,
they had imprisoned the first rogue and obtained a new iron net. They were
eager to be part of another encounter, especially the corporal. Leading the
squad responsible for capturing two of the rogues would bring him that much
closer to a promotion.

Ryson, however, was not thrilled
at the prospect of dealing with the outspoken corporal again. He decided to
address the first group, soldiers that clearly came from the east, to see if
they might allow for a change in tactics.

"Is the eastern gate still
closed?" the delver asked, but he already knew the answer. He was just
testing the waters, trying to gauge their willingness to agree to an
alternative plan.

"Yes," the squad leader
replied with no true emotion that Ryson could read.

"Any chance of getting it
open to let this thing out?"

"Town's sealed. All gates
remain closed."

And that shut down Ryson's hopes
for allowing the rogue to escape on its own.

"We have to be careful with
this one," Ryson warned. "It's already spooked."

At that instant, the corporal
decided to inject his own authority.

"We have two squads here and
the creature is on the run... in the open. We can take it from here."

"What are you going to
do?" Ryson demanded, not appreciating being dismissed so callously.

The corporal ignored the delver
completely. He turned his attention to the other squad leader who arrived from
the east. He outranked his counterpart and took command.

"Take your squad and circle
around the block. Cut it off from the far end of this street. Once we have it
between us, we can come at it from both sides with nets open. It won't be able
to get away."

The eastern squad leader simply
nodded and directed the soldiers under his authority down a side street. With
one quick turn, they were moving to outflank the rogue.

Before the corporal could turn
away, Ryson made his own concerns clear.

"That rogue is in a
panic," the delver repeated.

"Irrelevant," the
corporal replied, then swerved about—again dismissing the delver—to coordinate
his own guards.

Ryson cursed as he looked down the
street toward the rogue that was shuffling hesitantly from one hiding spot to
the next. The squad circling around would have no difficulty in cutting off the
monster, but he worried what might happen when the creature was caught in the
middle of the street between two groups of soldiers and no path of escape.

Regrettably, he knew the corporal
would not listen to reason, so he did not bother trying to recommend safer
tactics. The rain had become quite heavy, and though there were no further
reported sightings of rogues within the walls, he still had to search the
entire town to ensure that there were none in hiding. He was about to take off
to continue his scout when he heard several shouts in the distance.

Immediately, he issued a warning
to the soldiers nearby.

"Something's wrong!"

"There's nothing wrong,"
the corporal dismissed. "I know what I'm doing. We can handle the rogue
without further assistance from you."

"No, there's something going
on to the south... near the southern gate."

At that very moment, warnings and
alarms erupted across all guard towers. Signal torches revealed the outbreak of
another attack.

"Someone is firing at the
wall!" one of the soldiers announced after reading the signals.

There was not much more Ryson
could determine from the tower messages. There were requests for
reinforcements, estimates as to the number of enemy archers, but there was
nothing to indicate who or what might be behind the attack.

Standing far from the center of
conflict, Ryson drank in all the information available to him. His senses were
tremendously powerful, but in the heavy rain, he still couldn't smell the
goblins or hear the full extent of the clash. He was only able to pick up
miniscule traces, meager bits of activity—an odd scent in the air, a yell or
grunt echoing off a wall. He placed the details in context with the tower
signals, and his experience pointed to one conclusion.

"Goblin raid," Ryson
declared.

The corporal could read the
signals, but that was all the information available to him. He lacked the
senses of a delver and his viewpoint narrowed on his experiences within Burbon.
Nothing in the tower messages revealed anything about goblins.

"How do you know?"

Ryson didn't waste time
explaining. Too much was happening too quickly. The rain, the rogues, and
goblins; the danger was growing and he had no idea if something else lurked in
the darkness.

"Get that rogue captured as
quickly as possible!" Ryson ordered.

The corporal suddenly lost his
desire to capture the creature. The rogue seemed a minor threat, especially if
there was a larger assault upon the wall to the south. He considered his
location and wondered if other areas of the town might also fall under attack.
He also reached his limit of listening to the delver's orders.

"No, the rogue is incidental.
We have to ensure the integrity of the eastern gate! I'm going to recall the
other squad..."

"You have to secure this area
first!" Ryson sternly interrupted. "There's nothing going on at the
eastern gate!"

"I'll know that when I see it
for myself!"

"And if the rogue follows you
to the gate and finds it closed, what's it going to do? It's trying to escape!
It'll try to break through and then you really will have a problem."

During the argument, the other
squad of soldiers came back into view and had cutoff the beast. They clearly
knew of the conflict to the south, but their squad leader kept his attention on
the pressing issue of the rogue.

"See?" Ryson asserted.
"They're not running off to the east gate. The rogue is inside the wall.
That's your immediate problem. Deal with it!"

Seeing the dark creature cutoff
and between two groups of forces, the corporal could hardly argue the contention.
He had the rogue where he wanted it. He just had to finish the job.

Speaking as if he had made the
decision himself, he called to the guards under his command.

"Pull the net across the
street and get that thing under wraps."

Believing the soldiers would
handle the third rogue, Ryson was just about to leave to make a quick scout of
the town. Turning his attention back to the towers, he read the signals to
determine if any other issues warranted his immediate attention. The
disturbance to the south appeared to be the only other concern , but a final
look back at the corporal gave him pause... and alarm.

The corporal took a position in
the middle of the street, holding the net at its center. He broke into a full
sprint as he demanded the soldiers charge toward the rogue as quickly as
possible. In essence, the corporal became the head of the wedge, the tip of the
spear flying at the panicked rogue.

The squad further down the road
also stretched its iron net across the street. They barred any path of escape
for the rogue, but they wisely left the center of the net empty. There was no
one in the middle of the road, just the iron mesh that blocked all passage.
They also did not race toward the rogue, but moved steadily, and carefully
forward, allowing the corporal the opportunity to ensnare the monster first.

With one quick look into the
rogue's eyes, Ryson saw the folly in the corporal's maneuver. The monster
panicked. The barking dogs continued their harangue all about the creature,
heightening its distress. Previously, it only wanted one thing... to escape
from the town, but its intentions quickly altered. It realized in an instant
that it was trapped and in danger. Both its focus and rage centered upon the
main threat, the corporal that charged toward it.

Even with all his speed, Ryson
could not reach the rogue before it was too late. The soldiers were just too
close to the river rogue. By the time the delver understood the looming
catastrophe, he was too far away from the point of conflict. Still, he rushed
forward even in a futile attempt.

The rogue, with no other choice,
moved to attack. With an inherent quickness that clearly surprised the
corporal, the creature leapt forward with its arms extended. The claws flashed
outward but without any slashing motion that would have entangled the iron
mesh.

The corporal saw the danger too
late. He tried to stop in time, but he was running with all his fury and could
not completely halt his progress. In one desperate action, he tried to toss the
iron net forward as he released his hold of the chains. The act succeeded in
catching one of the rogue's extended arms and bending it out of harm's way, but
the creature's other arm slipped between one of the holes of the mesh. The
corporal could not dodge the claws and found his left wrist in the grip of the
beast.

The strength of a rogue rivaled
that of a full grown mountain shag. Once it gained hold of a victim, it almost
never let go. Its claws dug deep into the corporals flesh, even as it pulled
the corporal closer. The iron netting fell upon it, weighing it down and
tangling its arms and legs, but it would not release its violent grasp on the
human it viewed as the source of its predicament.

Pain erupted up the corporal's
arm. He shrieked in agony as the claws ripped through the skin and sunk deep
into flesh and muscle. Pulling away from the monster only increased the
torment—and worsened the injury—but the corporal instinctively tried to escape
the rogue's grasp. His eyes widened in absolute terror as the monster grappled
and twisted against the iron net to draw him nearer to its razor sharp fangs.

As the soldiers worked to wrap the
net around the beast and pulled against the strands to hopefully knock the
fiend off balance, Ryson reached the side of the corporal. With one careful jab
of his sword, the delver found an open space between the netting and slightly
pierced the scaled hide of the rogue.

The Sword of Decree held many
enchantments, and it would burn the spirit essence of any creature the blade
cut. It might have been the only thing that would force the rogue to release
its hold on the corporal.

The creature would not relent so
easily. It screeched in pain, a shriek that matched the horrible cries of the
corporal. As the rogue tried to pull away from the blazing sword that caused it
incredible suffering, it made one last swift yank at the wrist still in its
grasp. With a sudden twist, a deeper slice into tendons, and a final heave of
fury, the rogue separated the corporal's hand from his arm, and the monster
fell backward onto the ground. The beast hissed and growled as it thrashed
violently against the iron chains that further entangled it with every angry
thrust of its arms and legs.

The corporal also dropped to the
ground, but he ceased all sound and movement. An expanding pool of blood
spilled across deepening puddles as a deluge of raindrops splattered the dark
red liquid in every direction.