The Enchanted Castle (Shioni of Sheba Book 1) (15 page)

T
hat evening was full
moon–the time Kalcha had promised.

On the slopes above the castle, the hyenas were gathering in greater numbers than ever before
. In the full moonlight their hunchbacked, mincing steps could clearly be seen, but they could not cross the dry, half-completed moat.

The first Wasabi scouts had arrived just before sunset
. Their numbers had quickly swelled as the moon rose over the mountains. Now a dark mass of warriors stretching the width of the valley raised their spears and began to chant war cries and blow rams horns and trumpets. A huge, booming
kebero
drum kept the musicians company.

Near Shioni’s position on the
low keep wall, General Getu and the King were measuring the invading force with experienced eyes.

“
Five times our number of fighting men,” the General said. “We should take account of the hyenas too, my Lord. I mistrust their presence.”

The King turned to
glare at Shioni. “Rumours of witchcraft are for scaring infants, not Generals experienced in war. This Kalcha is a woman like any other. Perhaps she leads that stinking rabble well. We shall discover.”

Shioni found herself wishing she had told Getu or Talaku the whole truth.
But it was too late now.

“Take a hundred Elite
s and test their strength, General. Two hundred if you’re afraid of those mangy curs down there.”

“My King
!”

The General whirled on his heel.

Shioni had been freed of her manacles–for the time being. Doubtless if she made a move toward the gate she’d find her way barred by a spear. Her job was to run along the wall, supplying the warriors with javelins and arrows. It meant she had a perfect view of the battlefield. Most of the other women and children were locked safely in the armoury. She would not have traded places with them for anything in the world.

The main gate, as yet unfinished, had been blockaded with rubble, stones and timbers roughly set by the masons and carpenters
. General Getu, Talaku, and two hundred of the Elite warriors therefore descended by rope-ladders hung from the walls behind the castle. These were quickly rolled up again.

Despite the King’s attempt to shame him, the General was taking no chances. Shioni knew that the King’s sharp eye
s had noted this fact. The Shebans rapidly organised themselves into neat ranks, bristling with spears and the tall shields held upright in readiness. To a man they were lean and muscular; all dark, leonine grace. Shioni could not help being impressed by their discipline as they came jogging in tight formation around the outer defensive wall.

At the sight of the Shebans, the Wasabi on the hillside
raised a roar to assault the heavens. The drum began to throb more urgently and the whole mass of men surged forward, spilling down the hillside like a dark wave rushing to the shore. But this was no disorganised rabble. As they drew closer to the Shebans, scattering hyenas to all sides, the drum sounded a different note and the Wasabi halted again. They parted in the middle.

Kalcha
burst through this corridor on her black chariot, pulled by the eight giant hyenas Shioni had seen before, their jaws belling and champing and frothing madly as she lashed them with a long, six-stranded whip. Her midnight robes streamed out behind her, and her eyes blazed like hot coals. Like thunder over the gravelly ground her chariot bore down on the Sheban advance party, who drew together at once and locked shields.

If she had hoped to scare the
warriors of West Sheba with her impressive entrance, Kalcha must have been disappointed. These men were veterans. But there was a hush now in the Wasabi ranks and amongst the Shebans watching from the castle; the sudden sense that something great and terrible was about to happen. The warriors braced themselves.

Kalcha threw back her helm,
loosening her long black hair to join the snapping of her cloak. Now her eyes seemed even more eerie than before, glowing as though she had lamps burning behind them. She sprang up onto the guard-rim of her chariot, an absurd bit of skill, and on that perch bore down wrathfully upon the Elite warriors of Sheba. She raised one arm and made a shooing gesture, as if she were shooing a thieving stray cat out of her kitchen.

The watchers on the castle first saw the
warriors fall like wheat under a scythe, and then there came such a concussion that people clapped their hands to their ears in pain. Of the two hundred, only one man rose: Talaku, and he was swaying as though the earth were rolling beneath his feet. He raised his axe.

“No!” Shioni heard the King gasp.

Kalcha swerved the chariot toward Talaku. She grasped a flail in her right hand now, whirling it above her head as she drove the chariot with the left. The axe-head flashed. One of the hyenas screamed and tumbled beneath the chariot. Kalcha let fly with the flail. The metal ball struck Talaku flush upon the forehead of his helm, and the crunch made every watcher wince. He dropped without a sound.

High-pitched laughter bubbled from the witch as she forced the chariot into a tight, fast turn
. Turf sprayed up from the hyenas’ claws tearing the ground. Shioni knew at once what she meant to do. But she couldn’t close her eyes. The horror being played out before her was too overwhelming. She winced at every bump as Kalcha drove her chariot right over the bodies of the fallen Shebans.

“Dear God!” said the King in a low, shaky voice.

Having ravaged General Getu’s advance force, the witch now proceeded down to the castle at a more leisurely pace, taunting them in a booming voice:

“Is this your best, you cowards?
Do you think your walls of stone can stop Kalcha, rightful ruler of the lands of Abyssinia? You cannot hide from me!”

The warriors
stationed on the walls launched a volley of arrows, but they seemed to bother the witch no more than a swarm of annoying mosquitos. She batted them away with a casual wave of her hand. The Wasabi troops were swarming over the fallen Sheban warriors like ants excited by a tasty morsel. Shioni thought at first that the men would be butchered where they lay, but instead, saw that they were being trussed hand and foot like sheep bound for the cooking pot, and dragged down to the castle.

Kalcha
made a mock-bow. “How kind of you to provide my first sacrifices, o King. Now, will you open the gates, or must I come in and fetch you out myself?”

He struck his fists upon the parapet
. “Never! Sheba will never bow before your kind!”

But beside her booming tones, he sounded
feeble.

“My power
is already within the castle, you pathetic little man. Look to the baobab to see the mark of my curse upon your house!”

Shioni had seen it before, but to the castle’s occupants, the sight of a huge red-eyed python slithering up
the baobab was a fresh shock. So there
was
a way down though the trunk into the chamber! Several archers loosed their arrows, but those that struck home simply skittered away off the python’s armoured scales. The snake hissed, slithering higher. A peculiar sparkle began to radiate from the python’s body. Bowstrings snapped, feathers drooped off arrows, and many men simply laid down their weapons with groans of dismay.

A terrible heaviness
descended upon Shioni. She wanted nothing more than to lie down and sleep forever. What was the use of fighting Kalcha? She was too powerful. Her hands dropped to her sides. All was lost. She had failed all of her friends and all of Sheba too. Tears began to trickle down her cheeks.

Suddenly, far away in the hills, a lion roared…

“Never!” declared the King, but he had to hold the battlement for support. “Sheba will never surrender!”

“Is that your final word?”

“It is my final–”

Obeying
a hunch, Shioni had ducked beneath the level of the parapet. The King’s reply was cut off mid-sentence. There was a flash like lightning that lit up the hills around them. BOOM! He, together with all the men flanking him, were blasted backwards off the battlements. They dropped like slain sparrows into the courtyard below.

“I do so hate a long argument!” called Kalcha
, with another evil cackle. “I’ll be putting my boot on your neck in just a moment!”

Shioni scrambled to the edge to take a look
down into the courtyard. Thankfully, they had been stabling some horses temporarily in that area. But it was still an awful height to fall from. Over a dozen warriors had crashed through the roof of a shed, the King was sprawled on a patch of hay, and two warriors had splashed down in the water trough. A couple of men were groaning, having shattered an empty water barrel. But the King lay unmoving.

The lion roared again
. A lion roaring in the night… Anbessa? What… oh!

Shioni
leaped to her feet with renewed strength. She bounded down from the battlements two steps at a time and dashed across the courtyard, ignoring the din of the witch blasting her way through the blockaded entryway. She ran into the Princess’ room and reached into the space behind the headboard of the bed. Here, the Fiuri lay in a tiny box, carefully wrapped in cloths to keep warm. She looked utterly lifeless.

“So why
did
Anbessa send me to you?” she asked in dismay.

O
utside, there was a
detonation that made the walls judder and dust leap about on the stone floor. The strident tones of Kalcha were whipping her warriors, whooping and baying their eagerness to conquer the Shebans, into the castle. There were shouts, the clash of sword upon shield, whinnying horses, the screams of men struck by arrows, contrary orders being bellowed by various leaders. The Wasabi would be looting within minutes.

All
of the hope that had carried her across a courtyard littered with wounded, groaning warriors, came crashing down as Shioni stared at the unmoving body with its outlandish antennae and curlicue patterning. But… Anbessa couldn’t be wrong! He just couldn’t! He was Lord of… whatever he had said! All the horrors she had seen, the sudden green shoots of hope, crushed–it was just too much to bear. Her hands cupped the Fiuri tenderly, and pressed her to her cheek.

Oh, the poor little creature
! To be knocking on death’s door, like everyone now…

T
ears of bitter frustration welled from her eyes. They splashed between her fingers and coursed over the Fiuri’s tiny body. Why had the disa’s nectar not worked? How long had she suffered in that bottle, trapped by Kalcha’s curse? Had the witch stolen her powers, and finally her life too? It was so unfair she wanted to scream, cry and groan, or rush out there and swing a blade at someone!

Tiny rosebud lips kissed her cheek
. There was a stirring within her fingers, a polite little cough. A piping cry: “I’m alive!”

Shioni
gulped. For an endless moment she stood, frozen with disbelief, until the voice added, with a more than a drop of impatience, “One tear is enough to work the magic, don’t you know? You’ve half-drowned me.”

A giggle bubbled up beneath her tears
. “Er… Fiuri?”

“
I do have a name. And a very pretty name it is too.” The Fiuri was kneeling on the palm of her hand, holding her thumb for support. She peered up at Shioni, blinking her huge, luminous jade eyes as though she had woken from a long sleep–which, in a sense, she had. Her wings lifted behind her, uncrumpling before Shioni’s wide-eyed scrutiny.

“Oh dear
. Are you my rescuer? You’re disappointingly human. I was rather hoping for a handsome boy-Fiuri.”

“I am,” she said,
telling herself to stop staring at the Fiuri’s exotic eyes and her bobbing antennae, which quite ruined her first impression that this creature was somehow related to humans. Was she dreaming? “My name is Shioni.”

“Humph.
” The tiny arms made a resigned gesture. “I suppose you’ll have to do.”

Insult or none, Shioni thought, it wouldn’t matter a
goat’s breakfast once the Wasabi overran the castle. “We’re in terrible danger–”

“
Azurelle is my name. Zi for short.” Her ears pricked up, and they were very sharp, pointy little ears indeed. “I hear the witch! And hyenas!”

“
If you’d just stop and listen,” said Shioni, banishing her wayward thoughts in a rush, “I’m trying to explain! Kalcha–well, I rescued you from the bottle in the cave with the python–Annakiya helped–and I went to get the disa to save you but found the Wasabi army instead and they came to attack the castle and the python climbed the baobab and now we’re in big trouble!”

“Slow down, peregrine!” said the
Fiuri, but there wasn’t a trace of a smile on her face now. “Kalcha is here?”

“
Yes! How do we stop her?”

“
She stole my magic! She… she
bottled
me! For years!”

The
Fiuri was trembling so violently that Shioni felt obliged to comfort her. But how could she comfort such a tiny creature without stroking her head like a pet bird? She was no larger than a finch. Shioni settled for pinching her hand between thumb and forefinger. “There there, Zi, you’re out now. I won’t let Kalcha trap you again.”

Azurelle was still snivelling
. “The beastly, horrible, rotten old witch! She bottled me…”

It was a
thought to sicken the stomach. But Shioni’s mind was racing now. “We can’t strike Kalcha, she just swats people like flies. But what would happen if we killed the python, Zi? No, we can’t, arrows just bounce off its skin…”

“
The python upholds the curse,” Zi said. “Did I tell you how glad I am that you saved me?”

“The eyes!”
Shioni almost shouted. “The power of a witch is in the eyes!”

Zi grabbed her
thumb in alarm. “What are you doing? Don’t shake me around or I’ll fall, Shioni–my wings aren’t working yet!”

“Sorry
. Arrows–ah, here,” said Shioni, scrabbling for Annakiya’s slim bow and quiver stowed behind the door. “We’ll shoot that python!”

“In
the eye? Great idea!” Azurelle gasped as Shioni darted out of the doorway and down the corridor. “Isn’t it up the baobab though?”

Shioni popped the
Fiuri–not without a squawk of protest–into her tunic pocket, and slung the quiver over her shoulder. She nocked an arrow to the bow. The bow’s draw wasn’t as strong as hers, but it was made in the same style and it would have to do.

The courtyard was a chaotic scene. Wasabi were everywhere, battling the warriors of Sheba. She saw Mama crashing a saucepan from her kitchen upon a Wasabi head.
Three Sheban archers on the battlements were calmly picking target after target, downing the hyena-painted Wasabi warriors as though they were enjoying target practice. But hordes of Wasabi were streaming into the castle now. Prince Bekele was backed into a corner, grimly holding off two warriors who were taking turns jabbing at his head with their spears. Fire licked hungrily around the stable doorway. And the witch was standing in the gateway, arms crossed, watching it all with an evil smirk upon her lips.

Crouching, Shioni
scuttled along the wall toward the baobab, trying to find a clear view of the python. Its wicked red eyes were glinting like unearthly rubies in the bright moonlight. To her mind it appeared to be gloating over the destruction of the castle and the demise of West Sheba.

“Wait!” Zi
shrilled. “It won’t work, Shioni. Give me your arrow–the tip of it.”

Shioni ducked down even lower
. “Er–what are you doing?”

“Hurry up, no time to argue.”

“Okay… here.”

Azurelle
seized the sharp arrowhead and pressed it against her arm. “I might not have much magic left, but I do have my blood.”

“Zi… are you sure?”

“You said arrows bounce off that monster, right?” Azurelle hissed as she pierced herself with the point. “This might be enough to pierce her spell. It’s all I can offer, Shioni. Now shoot!”

T
rying to shut out the mayhem around her, hoping against hope that the arrow would fly true, Shioni took aim at the python’s head. As she sighted along the shaft, she was distracted by the sight of the Fiuri’s blood glowing golden on the arrow’s tip and steaming slightly into the cool night air. Blood of liquid gold? How curious! She deliberately shut it out and concentrated on the shot. But the moment the bowstring twanged, she knew she had missed. The arrow flashed through the branches and disappeared into the night. She pulled out another arrow before shaking her head. “There’s just no way, I can’t make that shot.”

“Yes you can,” said Zi
. “You have to. Give me that arrow.”

“Zi, no
. It’s too difficult–”

“Give me that arrow!”
The Fiuri jabbed it into her leg. A furious Fiuri, Shioni thought inanely, transfixed by the sight of the arrow being withdrawn with a golden smear upon its tip. What on earth was a Fiuri made of? Nothing on earth, most probably.

But
as she took the arrow with a trembling hand, Zi’s smile was gentle and her voice as clear as a tinkling bell. “Think of the people you love, Shioni, and trust your heart. You can do this.”

Shioni wiped her eyes
. It took her several tries to nock the arrow. She forced herself to breathe slowly. She told herself there was no screaming, no fire, no women and children locked in the armoury, no fallen warriors, no witch, no tree… just the eye…

When she was quite empty, the arrow arced upward.

The python’s jewelled right eye shattered. The arrow pierced through to its brain, and the python exploded in a searing flash of fire that lit up the courtyard. Ash floated down from the baobab’s branches. Kalcha screamed. Clutching her heart, the witch screamed such a piercing, inhuman note, that it brought the whole battle to a standstill. Then she crumpled to the ground like a rag doll.

The Wasabi were stunned
. Some turned tail at once. Others milled about in confusion or dropped their weapons where they stood. But one group rallied around the fallen body of their leader, bundled her into the chariot, and bolted for the hills, along with the warriors still outside the castle. The Sheban pursuit was slow. Too many had fallen. Too many of the Elites were still injured and unconscious after their first clash with the witch. But those still standing within the castle quickly subdued the remaining Wasabi, and then poured outside to cut their comrades free.

The slaves fell to putting out
the fires and leading the horses to safety, while the women and children were let out of the armoury to find their loved ones. They began to line up the wounded in the courtyard and tend their hurts.

And so the
battle of Castle Asmat was won.