The Guardians: Book One of the Restoration Series (27 page)

Flare took up position with his troops, and awaited the attack. He was wearing chain armor and had a sword strapped to his back, but he was carrying a pike as his main weapon. The pike was a combination ax head and sickle head mounted on a six foot staff. It could be used to push the ladders away from the wall, or to strike at the goblins before they could get in sword reach. The sword on his back was in case the goblins got onto the wall. The sword would be much easier to wield in such close quarters.

The goblins attacked with a relentless ferocity that simply amazed and disgusted him. The goblins in the front immediately placed their ladders and began climbing furiously.

The defenders used the pikes to thrust the ladders from the walls. When a goblin got close to the top of the wall, the razor sharp pikes were used to hack at the goblins,
who
fell screaming into the throng below.

It was sickening to watch the goblins callously throwing their lives away. But for every goblin that died, another three seemed to take its place.

After two hours, Flare was exhausted, and his arms felt like they were going to fall off. He swung the pike and sliced the head off of a goblin,
who
had gotten too close, and then began searching for another attacker.

A cheer rose from the soldiers assembled on the walls, and Flare couldn’t believe his eyes, as the goblins began retreating. The goblins left their dead and dying piled in heaps at the bottom of the wall.

Flare set the pike down, and looked up and down the defenders’ line, looking for causalities.
He didn’t see any wounded, but he did see Atock and Philip approaching quickly from their respective directions.

Philip reached Flare first, with Atock close behind. “They didn’t even get a foot on the top of this wall, and did you see how fast they ran from the battle?” Philip said, grinning.

“But they will be back, and soon,” Atock said. “They probably thought we would fall apart. When they come back, they will not make the same mistake again.” His words smothered the relief that Flare had been feeling.

“He’s right. This fort was well constructed. They probably will attack differently next time.” Flare turned and look out over the western wall, “As long as we have a break in the fighting, let’s get the townspeople up here with some food.” He sighed before continuing, “The gods only know when we will get our next break.”

Much to
Flare’s
surprise; the goblins took their time and didn’t reappear until early in the afternoon. But Flare had been right in assuming that they would attack differently. Three monstrous siege towers rolled slowly toward the fort. They had been hidden in the edge of the forest.

The siege towers were monstrous wooden boxes, but with the base much wider than the top. They rolled on massive wheels, apparently being pushed from behind the safety of the tower itself. There were numerous slits in the wood, for archers inside to use.

The siege tower worked, by getting in close to the wall, and expelling the goblins inside through a doorway at the top of the tower. Then more goblins could enter at the back of the base of the tower, and climb to the top to join the attack. While at the same time, goblins would be climbing ladders and ropes all along the wall of the fort. One siege tower could take the undermanned fort, not to mention three siege towers.

“Get some archers up here!
Now!”
Flare yelled to the soldiers in the courtyard below the wall. He frantically scanned the crowd for Mikela or Enstorion. He spotted Mikela first, running toward the wall. “Mikela, find Enstorion, and get up here fast!”

He turned back toward the towers. Even though they were going slowly, they were still moving way too fast to suit him.

“What’s the plan?” Atock asked, having just reached Flare’s position.

Flare turned and noticed Philip also. Shaking his head, Flare said, “We got to burn them, or we lose the fort today. Archers and the magicians are coming up.”

Philip spoke up, “Do you think the magi can do anything against those towers? Surely, their magicians have also thought of that.”

Flare shielded his eyes to get a better view, “I don’t know, but we have to try.” Turning back to the soldiers, he added, “I want you to get the archers ready to go, but hold off until I give the command. Make sure their arrows are lit before they loose them.
All right?”

Atock and Philip ran to their posts, just as Mikela and Enstorion reached Flare.

“Damn! They want to end this thing now. Don’t they?” Enstorion said.

Flare ignored Enstorion’s comment, “Listen. We got to burn those things before they reach the wall. Once they get here, we’re through. I need you to burn them using your magic. Can you do it?”

“Yes.” Mikela answered, at the same time that Enstorion answered, “No.”

“What do you mean no? All it takes is a simple fire spell. Those things will go up in flames, like a torch.” Mikela said.

“Think about it. If it is obvious to us, then it’s obvious to them. They put this isolation spell to prevent me and you from getting the message out; don’t you think they will have protected those siege towers from magic flame?”

Mikela sighed, “Makes sense, but we still have to try.”

Flare interrupted Mikela, “Wait a second, you said they would protect the towers from magic flame, but what about normal flame?”

“Well, it will work, but I don’t think you can burn that wood as quickly as you need to. It looks fresh, probably was recently chopped down. I’m sure it’s still full of water and sap.” Enstorion answered.

“Yes.” Flare said with a grin on his face that was getting bigger as he spoke, “but can you help the normal flame burn it. I don’t know
,
can you dry the wood abnormally fast, so that the flaming arrows burn it easily?”

“Yes!” Mikela answered, “That would allow you to burn the towers.”

“Wait a second.” Enstorion interjected, “That kind of spell would take a lot of concentration and power.”

“So!?”
Flare asked. “If you don’t do it, then we’re dead for sure. No reason to be holding anything back.”

“But in order for this to work, I will have to concentrate to take out one of the towers, and Mikela will likewise help take out another. But one of the towers will go unchallenged, and it will make the wall.”

“How long will it take to burn one?” Flare asked.

“It will take as long as it takes. Remember, we’re not used to dealing with normal flame.” Mikela answered.

Flare thought for several moments, “All right. Mikela, go to Atock’s position. I want you to help them burn that tower, and have Atock send me as many reinforcements as he can spare. Enstorion, you go to where Philip is located, and do likewise.
Any questions?”

“You’re going to let this tower get through?” Mikela asked quietly.

“You said one was going to get through, and I can’t ask my men to do something that I won’t. So, we'll fight the third tower.”

Flare’s orders were carried out, but all too soon the towers neared the walls.

As great as the walls were, they were not built very wide. This meant that once the goblins were onto the wall, they could pour reinforcements in, and push the defenders north and south along the walls. This would leave a huge breach in the forts’ defenses.

As the tower drew near, Flare positioned heavily armored men with pikes in the front, near where the door on the tower was. They formed a semi-circle on the wall, hoping to contain the goblins. Behind these pike-men, soldiers armed with swords and axes waited for the goblins to get through the pike-men. Outside the semi-circle, archers waited to start shooting at the goblins. The soldiers waited for the goblins, crouched down, so not to give the archers inside the towers a target.

The tower stopped rolling a couple of feet from the wall, and with a massive thud the door of the tower opened like a drawbridge, giving the goblins inside a bridge onto the walls of the fort. The door of the tower overlapped the battlements of the wall.

Flare was ready for a massive number of goblins to come pouring out of the tower, but he was not ready for the black goblins. Up to now, the soldiers had only been fighting the man sized white goblins. But the tower expelled the much bigger and much meaner black goblins. They were near seven feet tall and thickly muscled, and covered with thick black hair.

Flare hoped and prayed that the other two siege towers had been stopped, and then he turned his full attention to the task at hand.

The first wave of black goblins ran straight into the pike men, impaling themselves on the long wicked looking pikes. The weight of the dead goblins drove the pikes into the ground, and left the men undefended against the second wave of goblins. In a matter of seconds, the pike-men were gone.

As disgusted and dismayed as he was, Flare didn’t hesitate.
Drawing his sword, he screamed, “TELUR!” and charged into the battle.

An extremely large goblin had just killed a soldier, and didn’t even notice Flare's charge, until Flare drove his sword into the brute’s back. The goblin collapsed to the ground, wheezing and blowing bubbles of blood. The goblin was dead in a matter of seconds, but Flare had already moved on.

He was near the edge of the wall, just to the north of the siege tower. The screams of the dying soldiers, and the screams of the goblins as they killed were sickening, but the sounds were lost as he fought furiously for his life. His second opponent was not distracted, and was waiting for him.

The goblin studied Flare, “Elvvess, Hates em I do, but tastes good they do.” The goblin raised his evil looking single edged ax and drove it downward in an arc meant to cut Flare in half.

Flare’s reaction was instinctive, and stupid. He raised his sword to deflect the blow. He deflected the blow all right, but his sword was knocked out of his hand and flew over the wall. He landed hard on his butt, with his right arm tingling from the impact.

The goblin chuckled as he raised his ax for the killing blow. He quickly began his swing.

Flare did the only thing he could think of, he struck out with his right foot, and kicked the goblin in his right knee. He heard a satisfying crunch, and the goblin's swing went wild, hitting the wall less than a foot from Flare’s head.

The goblin dropped the ax, grabbed his knee, and fell against the wall, his back to Flare.

Flare jumped to his feet, grabbing the ax. As sore as his right arm was, and as heavy as the ax was, he wasn’t sure he could even raise it. But slowly Flare managed to get the ax up over his head, and brought it down on the back of the goblin.

The ax sliced open a large chunk of the goblin’s back, and the goblin fell onto its side. With his head lying on the blocks of the wall, the goblin spit its last words, “Elvvess, Hates em.”

Flare once again raised the ax, but this time he used the flat side of the ax to crush the goblin's head into a bloody gooey mass.

Dropping the ax, Flare attempted to catch his breath. The goblins were quickly overrunning the human soldiers, with more goblins streaming from the siege tower. The battle had already moved away from the tower, with the goblins pursuing the human soldiers. The battle was lost if the siege tower remained.

‘What can one soldier do against that?’ Flare thought.

‘
One soldier can do nothing, but one mage is more than sufficient.’
It was the same voice that had warned Flare not to go with Colonel Holt.

“But, I know very little magic!” Flare answered aloud.

‘
You know enough to do what needs to be done.'
The voice answered.

Flare quickly began running through the spells that he had learned from Cassandra. The first one that popped into mind was a wind spell, but he didn’t think it would be strong enough to overturn the tower. After running through the spells that he knew, the only one that seemed to apply was a force spell. Perhaps he could move the top of the tower away from the wall, causing it to topple.

He was standing near the tower, and would be spotted soon. He needed time to try and work the spell. He looked around for a hiding spot, and noticed the door of the tower overlapping the wall. There was plenty of room under the door to hide.

Flare quickly and quietly dropped to the ground, and made a dive for safety. It was somewhat cramped, but it was the best hiding place in the whole fort. He reached up and broke off a splinter of the tower door. He would need it for the magic spell.

The magic spell was simple. It required three maxims to be chanted, and then two pieces of the two objects that the caster wanted to repel each other. The only problem was that the three maxims were not short.

He closed his eyes and attempted to relax and tune out the battle. He had to focus his need, his desire, to make the magic spell work. He took a deep breath and began chanting as Cassandra had taught him. He remembered to be as quiet as possible, since goblins were still coming out of the tower over his head.

Flare concentrated on the words of the spell.
Quickly losing track of time.
He allowed himself only a moment between maxims, before continuing the spell casting. When he spoke the last word of the spell, he slammed the splinter of wood onto the block of the wall.