Guardians of Magessa (The Birthright Chronicles Book 1) (15 page)

In the next moment, time seemed to snap
back to normal speed. The dwarves crashed into the defenders and drove them
back a step or two, but they could not break through. Josiah parried a blow
from an axe and swept his own blade across the shoulders of the enemy, cleaving
his head from his body. Another dwarf took the dispatched one’s place, and when
Josiah killed him, another took his place. Josiah couldn’t tell how long the
encounter lasted, but no matter how many enemies he killed, more entered the
alley and continued the attack. He knew that the end would come sooner or
later. He was sure he would make one mistake that would allow an attacker to
land a fatal blow, and that would be the end. The mistake came, and Josiah
looked in shock as the axe of his opponent swung toward him in slow motion. He
heard running feet behind him and was thrown out of the way just in time. He
watched, unable to move, as the axe swung straight toward where he had been
moments before, only now that space was occupied by Terza. He didn’t even have
time to shout as he watched Terza try to block the blow. The axe knocked his
sword to the side and slammed into his stomach, splitting his torso nearly in
half.

Josiah stared as the dwarf jerked his axe
from Terza and turned to face another enemy. He recovered himself and began to
charge with a guttural roar, but before he had reached the dwarf, his enemy
dropped with a knife in his neck. Timothy pushed in front of Josiah and blocked
his charge.

“Don’t be stupid, Josiah,” he shouted over
the clamor of battle. “The men need you to lead them, so don’t go off and get
yourself killed. If you do, everyone here will probably die.” Timothy turned
and took Josiah’s place in the line of defenders.

Josiah stooped over to pant for breath and
for the first time realized how tired he was. He straightened up and looked
around, taking in the situation. While the dwarves to the south had not made
any headway at all, the dwarves to the north had killed at least half of the
defenders and were steadily working their way forward. The cadets were fighting
in an alley with nowhere to go but up the walls or through a door that had been
nailed and locked shut. Without a second thought, Josiah launched himself at
the door. He hit the solid wood and bounced off, rolling away. He rose to his
feet and looked at the door again. As he allowed himself to relax, his mind
slowly cleared, and he was able to think more clearly. He turned and grabbed
the sleeve of a massive cadet who was not engaged in the fighting.

“Open that door!” he shouted. It took the
cadet several seconds to comprehend who was ordering him around, but after he
realized, he immediately went to work. He planted his shoulder on the door and
pushed inward with all of his might. Nothing happened for several seconds, but
then the door gave way a fraction of an inch. Josiah planted his hands on the
door as well and began to push. The nails that were holding the door slowly
slipped loose until they slid completely out of the wood, and the door swung
open. Josiah and the cadet who had opened the door both tumbled inside, but
were back on their feet in no time.

“Stay here and block the door against the
enemy,” Josiah ordered. “I’m going to get the others in. Let the cadets pass,
but stop the dwarves.”

Without waiting for an answer, Josiah ran
out the door and commanded a retreat. Slowly the defenders pulled back into the
open building until the dwarves were almost to the door. Lemin and Timothy
stood side-by-side, blocking the doorway as the dwarves tried to force their
way in.

“Pull back inside!” Josiah shouted at
them, but they paid no attention. Josiah shrugged and motioned to the cadet who
had opened the door. The cadet slid his sword into its scabbard and reached out
and grabbed both Lemin and Timothy by their collars. With a snap of his wrists,
he sent them flying into the building. He spun back to the door and slammed it
shut just as the first dwarf was trying to enter. The door caught the body of
the dwarf almost at the waist, preventing the door from closing. The cadet
punched the dwarf in the face, dislodging his body from the door, and slammed
the entrance shut.

“The bolts—now,” Josiah ordered uselessly.
Already there were men sliding them into place. “Check the inside of the
building,” Josiah said next. “Make sure all the doors are fastened and see what
kind of a defense we have in this place. Also see if there is any way to get
from here to any of the adjacent buildings.”

As Josiah’s cadets spread out to obey the
command, Lemin began to count the cadets under his command. Only twenty-six
remained, and of those, three were wounded. Of the twenty-three that were
suitable for fighting, more than half were exhausted.

“Attention!” Lemin ordered, and the cadets
assumed orderly ranks as quickly as possible. Senndra could tell that despite
their speed, they were all too tired to face another attack. She could see
Lemin’s eyes roaming over the cadets and knew that he would arrive at the same
conclusion.

“I believe that, due to the state of our
soldiers and the size of the building, it will be easier if we move to the
second floor and defend it,” he said to Josiah.

“We’ll wait for the report from my men,”
Josiah answered sharply. Senndra could see that he was panting hard from the
recent fight.

“We must ascend at least to the second
level,” Lemin argued. “There are dozens of ways to enter the first floor of
this building, but probably only a handful of ways to reach the second floor;
at any rate, being one level up will give our archers better range and line of
sight.”

“I said that we wait until my men come
back with a report!” Josiah shouted.

Lemin glanced at Senndra and raised an
eyebrow. He motioned her over, and she crossed the room to where he stood.

“What was Josiah normally like in your
dealings with him?” he asked.

“He was quite nice and polite,” she
answered, “and not at all like he’s acting now."

"Or you were just too enamored with
his good looks to notice that he was rude," Timothy joked from his
position at the end of the ranks closest to Lemin. Senndra glared at him.

"He's probably just scared and
doesn’t know how to react to what is happening around him," Lemin decided.
"I mean, giving a cadet command of soldiers is fine until you encounter a
battle. Then, those who were otherwise good leaders may fail miserably. I’ll
give him until his men get back from their reconnaissance mission to make a
decision. If at that point he makes a bad choice, I will pull rank and take
command of his men.”

"How do you like that?" Timothy
asked when Lemin left. "I knew that he had seen combat before, but who
would have guessed that he was this good. I'll tell you what, if he ordered me
to march off of a cliff, I believe that I'd do it."

"So, what about Josiah?" Senndra
asked. "You think that he'll be able to pull it together?"

"Well, he has until his men get
back," Timothy said. Both cadets jumped at a pounding on the door.  “And
then again, he may not have that much time.”

“Stations!” Lemin called from across the
room. Immediately the cadets jumped to their feet and drew their swords. Lemin
directed the freshest soldiers to the front of the group and took his place
with them. Again the door was battered from the outside, and the cadets tensed.
Every eye was on the door, and every nerve was on edge, so everyone jumped when
Josiah shouted from the back of the room.

“Dwarves have breached the building!” he
said. “Retreat to the second floor!”

“Commence retreat!” Lemin called, and the
cadets under his command scurried to obey. Mustering their remaining energy,
they ran through the confusing rooms of the building until they arrived at a
staircase. From every direction, the sound of dwarves crashing through the
rooms was heard, spurring the cadets to move faster. The stairs seemed to
spiral upward forever, but Senndra finally reached the top and stopped to catch
her breath. Lemin and his cadets stayed to defend the area while Josiah led his
soldiers down a hall a short distance to barricade another set of stairs.

“Block the stairs,” Lemin ordered before
she had time to inhale deeply even once. “Get whatever you can find—tables,
chairs, whatever. I don’t care what you get as long as it will stop those
infernal dwarves."

By this time, Senndra could barely walk
straight. Timothy, however, seemed to have an eternal supply of energy. He
dashed into a room that was close by and returned with a chair in either hand.
He carried them to the stairs, flung them down, and returned for two more. From
down the stairs, Senndra could hear the sound of dwarf boots running upward.
Adrenaline coursed through her veins, and she dashed into a room that was near
the stairs. She spotted another cadet trying to single-handedly move a table
and helped him carry it from the room. They dragged it to the top of the stairs
and, with a mighty heave, threw it down. It slid down the stairs and passed out
of sight, but Senndra could still hear it sliding. Finally she heard it slam
into a wall followed by a dwarfish curse. Senndra could only imagine the damage
the table had caused and went to grab a couple of chairs to add to it. She
pulled them to the top of the stairs and flung them down. This time they hit
other debris and came to a stop even before they had passed out of sight.

Several cadets had come across a rich
supply of nice heavy objects like books, dishes, and other odds and ends, and
were stacking them up by the stairs for use as weapons. Senndra only watched
them for a split second before dashing to another room and grabbing a small end
table. She hefted it onto her shoulder and carried it to the stairs. By this
time, there was a visible barrier of chairs, tables, and other furniture
extending up the stairs and into view. As Senndra watched, a dwarf struggled
into view, walking on the furniture. Without thinking, Senndra heaved her table
down the stairs at him. It connected solidly and threw the dwarf out of sight.

“Nice shot, Senndra,” Timothy said as he
walked passed her and heaved two chairs down at the growing barrier. After him
came Vladimir carrying several large quilts. He dropped them all at the top of
the stairs and, one by one, unfolded them and threw them at the furniture.

“I found a large table,” he said, turning
to Senndra and Timothy. “I think it’s big enough to cover the bottom half of
this doorway.”

Timothy and Senndra followed Vladimir into
a room where there was a long table that would seat at least twenty men.
Together they struggled to drag the thing to the stairs, where they stood it on
its side and blocked the bottom half of the doorway at the top of the stairs.
Then they gathered with Lemin and the rest of their comrades behind the
makeshift wall.

They didn’t have to wait long for a small
group of dwarves to come into view. Immediately the cadets rained a barrage of
heavy articles on them, and they retreated back down the stairs. Senndra saw
that Vladimir was not throwing things like the rest of the cadets, but instead
appeared to be deep in thought. Suddenly he rose to his feet and made his way
to where Lemin peered over the upturned table.

“If I may have a minute, sir, I would like
to talk to you,” he told Lemin. Lemin turned around and took in the cadet that
stood before him. Apparently the intense look on Vladimir’s face convinced
Lemin to grant the request.

“Certainly. And who am I speaking to, may
I ask?”

“I am Cadet Vladimir Peterson. I was
wondering what you intend to do now that we have successfully barricaded
ourselves in?”

“Do we have to do anything?” Lemin asked.
“It seems that we have the upper hand for the moment, and I think we will be
able to hold them off for quite a while.”

“But in fact our position is not secure,
sir,” Vladimir said. “All that has to happen is for the dwarves to get wise and
destroy our barricade from the bottom. My guess is that if a few choice parts
are taken out, it will all slide down the stairs. Even if it does stop the
dwarves from getting up here, when they try to attack several times and are
defeated they’ll withdraw.”

“Exactly. And we will have done what we
intended,” Lemin said as he nodded.

“You didn’t let me finish, sir,” Vladimir
said. “There is more than one way to skin a cat. They will realize that they
can’t kill us by attacking, so they’ll set fire to the building and burn it
down around us.”