The Powterosian War (Book 5) (17 page)

“What relief is that?”

“That’s my worry; you just need to stop those things out there.”

“I’ll do my best, Majesty.”

“No best Tolalo, either you do or we’re lost.”

Grekenbach left the wizard with his slender finger perusing the great old manuscripts on his cluttered worktable.

I wonder how they work in all that dust from animal parts, Grekenbach thought. And all those dried things everywhere in jars, boxes, baskets, it would drive me crazy. He shook himself and dusted off unseen things from his uniform. He found the general at the tower, reinforcing the foundation by filling the basement room with rock and the warehouse rubble.

“Have the men planned for the sortie this morning ready again before dusk. If the wizard can find a solution to the tunneling, we may be needed for a raid to deliver whatever he devises.”

“As you say, Majesty,” the general said. He left to reassemble the men at the barracks.

The king sighed. He looked around the tower room and then out at the temporarily abandoned tunnels with their great mounds of soil and rock spread out in fans behind the gaping holes in the ground. The city may fall tonight, he thought. I’d best make preparations to refugee out the last of the royal family to Tossledorn for so long as that may hold.
He returned to the palace and rounded up the cousins and the Duchess of Elb to have them ready to abandon the capital.

“There is a tunnel leading from under the east wall to a wooded area further east. From there you can make your way along a ravine to Tossledorn, unless you’re discovered. There will be some soldiers accompanying you, but they can’t hold off a large force, Aunt Klekkenska. I wish you had heeded my warning and left the city a month ago while there was still time to escape without danger.”

“And if I had done so, it would have demoralized the citizens. They’d have seen it that I didn’t have faith in your ability to save them and that I didn’t have faith in you,” Klekkenska said.

“Well, at least you would have been safe in Tossledorn under the protection of King Saxthor’s army.”

“I’d not felt as safe as I do here with you,” the grand old lady said. She took his head in her hands and kissed him on the forehead. “You will save us and the city.”

“I wish I had your faith,” Grekenbach hugged her, not knowing if he would see her again, then left her to pack a bag.

As he exited, Grekenbach looked out a window at the sun whose brilliant rays shot across the sky to the palace like giant radial hands. He rushed back to the wizard.

“What have you come up with?” Grekenbach asked Tolalo.

“I can make a fire ball, from energy that will burn all night,” the wizard responded. He rose from behind stacks of manuscripts on his desk and went to the worktable in front of the wall cupboard filled with ingredients. He dragged to him the heavy mortar and pestle, grating over particles on the table. Into that he threw various ingredients and cast a spell over the mass. He poured the contents into an iron pot and placing that on the hook, pushed it over the fire. As it heated and steam swirled up from the pot, the wizard mumbled another incantation, holding a large yellow citrine in his hands. The crystal glowed.

“Will this thing you’re making burn us?” Grekenbach asked. The wizard looked up at the king with an indulgent smile. Tolalo put the crystal on the table and took his staff that was propped against the wall, continuing with yet another incantation. The crystal in his staff now glowed. The king felt queasy watching it.

Tolalo poured the black rubber mass from the pot onto the worktable and rolled the rubbery mass into a ball. Then placing the ball between the two crystals, he stood straight. It seemed to Grekenbach that the wizard’s tall, lean body swelled and grew right before him. His brilliant blue eyes actually sparkled as great sapphires! Grekenbach stepped back; he’d never seen the wizard so affected.

Tolalo moved the yellow crystal on the table next to the black rubbery ball and huge sparks drained from the crystal to be sucked into the ball. Tolalo looked up smiling at the king.

“How’s that going to stop those beasts out there?” Grekenbach asked. He fidgeted with his sword hilt. Tolalo said nothing in response, but took the ball in his hand and tossed it into a metal bucket near the fireplace. Then he took his staff and pointed it at the ball. Another command from the wizard, a thrust of the staff, and a blue flame shot to the ball which then burst into a large blue flame. Taken by surprise, Grekenbach jumped back. His eyes blazing but still calm, Tolalo raised his staff and the blue flaming ball moved through the air wherever the wizard pointed it too.

“I see,” Grekenbach said, staring at the burning orb. “But that little sphere won’t stop one of those creatures out there.”

“This is a sample,” Tolalo said, “and though it’s small, it burns of energy not material. It doesn’t burn up but only out when the energy source is expended. No living being can pass such energy.”

Grekenbach stood motionless. The wizard flicked his finger to the ball and took the yellow crystal in his hand. He mumbled an incantation and a blue flame bolt shot back to the crystal. The black ball ceased to burn and the wizard directed it to the bucket again. His eyes dimmed back to normal and his presence seemed to shrink back to his former self.

“But we can’t get these balls into all those tunnels, and if we could, the beasts would just be directed to dig new ones until we ran out of those burning ball things and they undermined the walls.”

“You underestimate me, my king.”

“How so?”

“Those things out there are no different from any other creatures in that they do eat.”

“They eat?” Grekenbach repeated, “Yes they do eat, but they aren’t going to eat a burning ball, Tolalo.” The king grew grave in his frustration.

“Taste the ball,” Tolalo said. Grekenbach looked sideways at the wizard.

“You want me to taste that black ball thing that was just burning a blue flame? That thing that was made from I don’t want to think what?”

“Taste the ball, Majesty.” The wizard’s tone was imperious.

Grekenbach pinched his lips. If this doesn’t work we’re dead anyway, he thought. But I’m going to make the wizard pay for this degradation. The king stepped forward, hesitated, looked again at the wizard who was smiling and then pressed his finger to the rubbery ball. It felt soft and warm but at least not slimy. Grekenbach looked at his finger. It had just a brownish glaze on the tip.

“I’m to taste this?”

“Go ahead, but hurry, the sun is not too far above the trees. It will be dark in an hour.”

Grekenbach thought of the time and stuck his finger into his mouth, expecting a vile taste. His face pinched as if all was sour, but then he looked up at the wizard. “It tastes like warm roast!” the king said, he smacked his lips and reached to take another good sample. The wizard’s staff thrust between him and the bucket; the king stood back.

“It tastes like warm roast, but it isn’t,” Tolalo said. His face was stern. “The beasts will not be able to resist it. They will relish the taste and gobble it up. I’ll then shoot the energy from my staff to it and it will burn in the monsters’ guts the night through. They will not be back another day.”

“There are four of them left. Can you make four of these things in half an hour?”

“I shall,” said Tolalo, bowing to the king.

“Bring them to the north wall as quickly as possible,” Grekenbach said. He bowed slightly to the wizard’s power and resourcefulness and rushed to the royal barracks where his men awaited a call to the raid delayed from the day before.

“Have the men ready to leave in fifteen minutes. Have them at the north gate,” Grekenbach said. The group commander rushed off.

“General,” the king called to the man as he came up the tower stairs. “Tolalo is coming with a very precious contribution. See to it he is accompanied and that no harm comes to either him or his treasures.”

When the wizard came with the balls, Grekenbach, was fidgeting, watching the setting sun. Dusk fell as the sun’s rays disappeared, and in the distance, the great shadows of four whingtangs could be seen on the horizon.

“We must hurry,” Grekenbach said rushing down the stairs to his men, anxiously waiting at the gate with horses stamping the ground, sensing the impending trouble. The king rushed up to the wizard and thanked him. Two men held the basket between them containing black balls larger than the one the king had seen in the tower.

“You four men each take one of these balls. Keep it in the bag it’s in and roll it out of the bag into the tunnel your guide will conduct each of you to. Is that clear? Now divide into four groups. Each is responsible for guarding the bag carrier and getting him to one of the beasts’ tunnels. Is that clear?” The soldiers divided up and stationed themselves protectively around the carriers.

“We are going to rush out from the gate. Each group will make for a different tunnel. You there, take the one on the most extreme left, and you, you take the one on the extreme right. You take the one outside this gate and you over there, take the one to the right of that.”

“What of the other two tunnels, Your Majesty?” the general asked.

“Move the catapults and position them to fire oil bags into those tunnels. Maybe it will deter the monsters. The handlers should choose the available tunnels where the balls are. Now go to your assignments.” The general headed back up the tower stairs to position the catapults. Grekenbach’s stomach turned, the last light of dusk was passing and darkness spread by the minute. He jumped up on his charger, who reared up at the surprise.

“Open the gate!” the king ordered. The alerted sentries at the gate were prepared. They raised the great bronze, reinforced oak bars on the inner gate and opened the solid oak outer doors. The king charged through the opening leading his men across the bridge and into startled orcs camped by fires at the end.

The soldiers made quick work of the unprepared enemy already scattering due to fear of the approaching whingtangs. The great beasts snorted when the commotion in front of them started. They moved faster to the fray, their great claws mowing down the nearby orcs that hadn’t moved out of the way fast enough.

With swords and spears, the soldiers fought the remaining orcs, while the four groups of soldiers found their assigned tunnels. They tossed the black balls with sufficient force to make them roll deep out of sight of the enemy forces trying to steer the agitated beasts into the shafts.

“Retreat!” Grekenbach yelled. The raiding party rushed back into the city, leaving the field littered with dead orcs.

As the soldiers retreated, Grekenbach looked back to see arcs of flaming oil bags smash and burst at the mouth of the two remaining tunnels. Flames filled the burrows. It’s up to the wizard now, he thought. He dashed into the city as the great gates slammed shut and their security bars crashed down behind him.

The king jumped from his horse, tossing its reigns to a soldier nearby and dashed up the gate stairs two at a time to the turret. He was trying to catch his breath as he rushed up between the general and the wizard at the railing. Flames whipped up in front of the whingtangs at two of the tunnels. The beasts reared back refusing to enter. Their tusks slashed left and right in protest. The handlers obliged the still wild, barely controllable beasts and groups of ogres prodded them with spears to the unaffected tunnels where the plated beasts scrambled in.

“Well, they’re in the right tunnels at least,” Grekenbach said to Tolalo beside him, staff in hand. Tolalo said nothing but nodded to Grekenbach. His quiet confidence irritates me, the king thought. I dare not question the wizard’s ways or responses at this point. Better to remain silent, like the general, waiting for something to happen.

Tolalo’s piercing stare passed to each tunnel as if he could see something down in it. The king fumed, but held back.

“What’s happening?” the general finally whispered. He snatched a bow and arrow from a soldier to his left and shot an orc that had carelessly ventured within range of the walls watching the whingtangs.

“Watch the wizard,” Grekenbach said. “Be patient a moment longer; wait and see.”

Tolalo stood up straight, mumbling something and seemed to grow in stature and even size. Grekenbach looked at the general whose eyes swelled at the sight. The wizard’s eyes began to glow in the darkness that now settled over the city and enemy beyond, broken only by the flickering lights of the wall torches. A sapphire blue glow radiated from Tolalo’s eyes and the crystal in his staff discharged a silver-white cold fire. The wizard thrust out his staff and a blue flaming bolt shot from the staff toward what would be the middle of the tunnel down beyond the gate. The bolt smashed into the ground, showering sparks and throwing up a crown of soil.

“Is that all?” the general asked. His frowning face glared as he leaned forward searching for some sign of results.

The wizard slumped slightly, his glow diminishing from the power drain but then stood erect again. His eyes glowed and again the staff shot out, thrusting a blue bolt at the next tunnel and this was repeated twice more. Then the little wizard shrank back, his eyes lost the glow, and the sapphire rays dissipated. The thin little man nearly collapsed. Grekenbach grabbed him before he fell to the floor. Tolalo lay in his king’s arms, unconscious.