Guardians of Magessa (The Birthright Chronicles Book 1) (14 page)

A loud report from over the wall brought
her gaze back around to the dwarf army. The catapults had fired, and their
missiles were headed for the wall. As the boulders approached the wall, their
targets became obvious, and the soldiers in those areas began to scatter. But
it was to no avail. Two of the shots dug into the ground before they reached
the wall and bounced harmlessly off its base, but the other ten boulders reached
their targets. Five of them hit about halfway up the wall; four of those did
little damage; the last one, however, knocked loose a part of the wall. The
wall creaked but did not fall. A few of the catapult shots hit the gatehouse
and bounced harmlessly off. The most damaging shots hit, with precision, a
tower to Senndra’s left. The boulders punched through the relatively thin wall
of the tower, and the whole structure collapsed. Thankfully, it fell in such a
way that left no breach in the wall.

An audible command was heard from down the
wall, and the trebuchets fired a return salvo. Most of the missiles landed in
front of the army and rolled into it, killing the soldiers in their paths. Two
of the shots hit the catapults they were aimed at. Debris flew in all
directions as the boulders hit, but the other catapults were already preparing
for their next attack. The trebuchets were ready first, and another salvo was
fired. This one destroyed another catapult, which in turn fired its shot
haywire into the army behind it. The remaining catapults, however, fired with
deadly accuracy and punched a hole in another tower. Again there was no breach,
but Senndra knew that it was only a matter of time before one was opened.
Several of the other shots hit the wall where it had been previously damaged,
and although it gave a tremendous groan, it still did not collapse. There was
another burst from behind the wall, but no more catapults were destroyed.

“Griffins!”

Senndra immediately turned to see a flock
of the magical creatures that she had only heard about in stories approaching
her position from the west. The origin of the first griffins was unknown, but
many people suggested that they had been created by Molkekk in his early
attempts to create a race of warriors for himself. They were a fusion of a lion
and an eagle. The front half of the beast was that of an eagle, complete with
wings, talons, and a beak, while the rear half had the back legs and tail of a
lion. The legendary ferocity of these beasts, along with their ability to fly,
made them a living nightmare for soldiers. Though they could not individually
meet a dragon in battle, in flocks they could certainly hunt them. And now, at
least a hundred of these terrifying creatures were closing in on the trebuchets
from the west behind the wall.

“Fire at will,” Lemin commanded in a
stone-cold voice. Senndra immediately turned, nocked her arrow, and targeted an
incoming griffin. She released her arrow, and it sped straight and true,
slamming into the griffin’s neck. Senndra immediately nocked another arrow and
took aim again. Just as she was about to fire, a shot from one of the catapults
hit the wall off to her right, and chips of stone rained down on her. Her shot
went wild but still managed to pierce the wing of a griffin. By the time the
griffins reached the trebuchets, their numbers had been cut in half.
Nevertheless, they were able to destroy four of the siege machines before
retreating. Senndra glanced over her shoulder and saw that only three of the
enemy catapults remained. The dwarves were charging now, with several hundred
ladders leading the army.

“Front line, about face,” Lemin called.
Senndra spun and faced the oncoming dwarves.

“Prepare to fire,” Lemin called. His voice
was still calm and controlled. Senndra drew an arrow and nocked it.

“Fire,” Lemin commanded, and Senndra
released her arrow. Even as she drew another arrow and placed it on the string,
she watched her first as it sped toward the army. She lost sight of it before
it hit and turned her attention to her next arrow. Another command to fire was
given, and again a wall of arrows flew out to meet the enemy. Senndra saw
several hundred of their number fall, but they were hardly noticeable as the
other soldiers trampled them beneath their feet.

By now the dwarves had reached the wall
and were leaning their ladders up against it. One was directly in front of
Senndra and others were close on either side.

“First and second lines, draw swords,”
Lemin called. Senndra slung her bow over her quiver and grabbed her sword from
its scabbard. All around her, her comrades were following suit. Lemin's short
sword was still fastened to his back along with his bow, and in his hands he
held a massive two-handed sword from Saddun's armory. “Don’t let them take the
wall,” he commanded and brought his weapon down on the top rung of the ladder
near him. Just before the blade contacted, a hand reached up to grab the rung.
Lemin’s sword cut the fingers off the hand and rang as it bounced off the top
rung of the metal ladder. The hand disappeared, but was instantly replaced by a
dwarf body. Lemin ran the attacker through with his sword, but even as he
shoved the deceased dwarf off the ladder, another rose to take its place.
Senndra swung her sword and took the head off of the first dwarf that ascended
the ladder that was in front of her. Seconds later, a pike man used his weapon
to shove the ladder away from the wall. As he retracted his weapon, he
convulsed and turned just enough for Senndra to see the black feathers of a
crossbow bolt protruding from his plate mail. He fell from the wall, and
Senndra ducked below the crenellations just in time to avoid a barrage of
deadly crossbow fire. Dozens of archers dropped, some dead and some fatally
wounded. The remaining archers immediately began to return fire. Senndra
sheathed her sword, grabbed her bow, and stood up. She placed an arrow on the
string and targeted an enemy archer. She let the arrow fly and in seconds had
another arrow on the string. More arrows flew upward at the defenders, and more
archers perished. Senndra continued to let the arrows fly from her string even
as archers all around her fell. Immediately to her right, Timothy fired on the
enemy below, but his arrows seemed to do little against the enemy horde. Up and
down the wall, the remaining pike men scurried around trying to shove off as
many ladders as possible. But as soon as they dispatched one, several more rose
to take its place.

“Retreat to the first barrier!”

Senndra looked toward Lemin and saw that
he was already rallying together the remaining cadets from the academy of
Belvárd. She fired one last shot and hurried to join her friends. She glanced
behind the wall and saw that the trebuchets had turned to fire on the walls to
either side of the area where the ladders had been raised. They were cutting
the enemy off from the rest of the wall. Senndra reached Lemin and looked
around. Of the one hundred and six soldiers from Belvárd, only fifty-three
remained. Senndra tried to find Rita and Timothy in the throng, but couldn't
locate either. Everyone looked the same, dressed as they were in battle attire.

“Retreat to the gatehouse,” Lemin ordered.
“Anyone who volunteers will stay with me and cover the retreat.”

Without another word, Lemin turned and
stood on the wall, facing away from the gatehouse. One of the other instructors
led the cadets in an orderly retreat down the wall, but Senndra didn’t follow.
She slowly turned and looked down the wall to where the enemy was chasing an
army of cadets toward her.

“Senndra, what are you waiting for? Let’s
go,” a voice called from behind her. She ignored it and took her place beside
Lemin. He glanced over at her with a look of appreciation. He turned back to
the charging enemy and raised his sword.

Senndra glanced sideways and saw that
Timothy had come up beside her. His sword was still in its sheath, but he had
his bow out, and an arrow was on the string. The arrow flew down the wall, past
the retreating cadets, and into the dwarf army, felling one of the soldiers.
Within seconds he fired again, and another enemy fell. He exhausted the
remaining arrows in his quiver, slung his bow over his shoulder, and drew his
sword.

“Let the cadets pass, but do not permit
the enemy to get through,” Lemin ordered.

Senndra watched as the cadets reached her
and streamed around either side as she stood her ground. All too soon they had
passed, and there was nothing between her and the enemy. A glance to either
side showed that Lemin was doing his best to loosen up, while Timothy seemed to
be concentrating on something. Senndra turned her attention back to the enemy,
who by now were no more than twenty yards away. Suddenly, with an incredible
groan, a section of the wall in the middle of the dwarf ranks gave way and
collapsed. Dwarf bodies and chunks of stone dropped out of sight; perhaps a
hundred enemy soldiers had been destroyed, but more important was the fact that
most of the survivors were on the other side of the hole. Only about thirty
soldiers were left for the defenders to face.

They closed the distance quickly, and in
seconds, Senndra was bringing her sword up to block the blow of an ax. A blur
shot past her through the air, and the head tumbled off a dwarf. Out of the
corner of her eye, she could see that Josiah had returned with a handful of
soldiers and was now staging a defense on the wall.

The soldier that had saved Senndra spun on
his heels and engaged three enemies at once. His skill with a blade was quite
evident, but Senndra could see that he was outnumbered. Running forward two
steps, she thrust her sword into the heart of one of the dwarves. Another was
approaching her from the side, so she spun and slashed at his torso. Her blade
scraped off his armor, and she found herself wide open to his attack. Air
whistled past her ear, and a dagger buried itself in the dwarf’s neck.

As quickly as the fighting had begun, it
ended with complete annihilation of the enemy force. Timothy stepped past
Senndra and retrieved his knife from the body of the dwarf that he had killed.
With a quick move, he wiped the blade on the tunic of the dead enemy and returned
it to its sheath. Then, by unspoken agreement, all of the defenders sprinted
down the wall toward the gatehouse.

A barrage of crossbow bolts whistled over
their heads, coming from the front of the wall, but they were too high to do
any damage. They reached the gatehouse and descended its now empty stairwell.
To the west, dwarves were pouring into the city through the hole that had saved
the defenders on the wall. Already, a clear route to the first barrier was
blocked off, so Josiah led the small group to the east. They headed for the
interior of the city and a section that had not been overrun with enemies.
Josiah led them between the buildings, through a maze of alleys that only a
native of the city would be able to navigate. Taking a roundabout path to avoid
the enemy troops, they slowly made their way south and east until they finally
came in sight of the first barrier. Suddenly Josiah stopped and motioned for
the others to do so as well.

“What’s up, Commander?” Cirro asked
Josiah.

“Take a look for yourself, Cirro,” Josiah
said, motioning toward the open area between them and the barrier. Cirro looked
out and swore under his breath. Only a hundred yards to the west, a group that
contained at least several hundred dwarves was parked just under the cover of
the buildings. Every so often, they would send out an attack party that would
be driven back by archers from the other side of the barrier.

“We can’t cross to the barrier yet,”
Josiah said. “Those dwarves are just too close for us to be able to do it
safely. That’s without even mentioning what our friends on the other side of
the barrier might do to us. After all, they could very easily mistake us for
dwarves. I guess all we can do is wait it out. Once we get to the other side of
the barrier, I know of a way to get behind our lines. But not from where we are
now.”

Cirro started to swear again, but stopped
himself.

“So you’re saying that we should just sit
here and wait? Do you have any idea what you’re saying? We’ll be sitting ducks.
We won’t have any cover and not even an ideal spot to defend in a hand-to-hand
fight.”

“I know that, Cirro,” Josiah answered,
“but we don’t have much of a…”

Josiah was interrupted by a shout from the
back of the group. He and Cirro spun around and saw that dwarves were entering
their alley from the north. The cadets drew themselves up into a battle
formation, but it was doubtful that they would be able to hold out against the
dwarves. Two arrows whistled from out of the group of cadets and dropped two
dwarves, but then they were too close for another shot. The first line of
cadets was engaged, and the sounds of battle filled the alley. The dwarves cut
through the first line but were held back as more cadets came to fill in their
fallen comrades’ places.

“Josiah, over there!”

Josiah turned to see Senndra looking at
him and pointing to the south end of the alley. Dwarves flooded in this end as
well, preparing to attack the undefended flank of the cadets. Quickly Josiah
drew his sword, and Cirro came up alongside him. They were joined by Senndra,
Timothy, and Lemin. All held their swords in various stances, but the same look
of determination was on all of their faces.

Josiah seemed to enter a dream world as
the dwarves drew nearer. He felt as though this was not real, but he knew that
it was. The closest dwarves came into focus when they were only a few yards
away, and yet they seemed to take an eternity to cover the distance. The sound
of metal shod boots striking the ground pounded in Josiah’s brain, and his
sword dropped a fraction of an inch. The faces of the enemy, many showing
expressions of fear and anguish, came into focus. Josiah knew they must be
feeling many of the same things that he was.