“Anathema!” boomed a woman with a round, pale face and strands of chestnut hair peeping out from under her soaking wet blue coif. “Destroy the creatures!”
M
agpie hissed with pain. He had dodged the wrong way when the giant he was fighting swung its arms at him. It had taken him full on the shoulder. It felt almost crushed to pulp. Wincing, he squeezed his fingers. They closed, though the movement cost him agony. Not broken, thank the Father. Lucky it wasn’t his sword arm. He hopped back and forth, trying to get an opening where he could move in and stick his blade under the thing’s chin. His sword was almost too light for the job, but he’d decapitated one of the giants already. He had never seen anything like these creatures. They looked like toy soldiers made by someone who only had blocks of soap to work with. The sword threatened to twist in his wet hand. With his teeth he tore loose a piece of his sleeve and used it to wrap the hilt. Better. One of the giants swung at him. He ducked, and the thing’s hand slammed into the castle wall over his head.
Behind him, he heard cries. A male voice that he first took for the guard made him look up. Through the rain he spotted a flash of blue and white. To his horror he saw a strange man dressed in the livery of the Knights of the Word. He groaned. How could they be here? The first one beckoned, and an entire chapter’s worth of knights came pouring into the courtyard, with Sharhava at their head.
“Help us!” Rin bellowed.
Sharhava gave the centaur a look of pure disgust. She wouldn’t turn a hand to save what she saw as an unnatural species, but spotted the natural humans threatened by the stone giants, and made a sign over her head. The knights spread out across the courtyard, wielding sword and hammer or ax, and waded into the fray. Magpie felt relief. With the Scholardom’s help they might be able to fight their way inside and find the book.
His eye was caught by one of the newly arrived fighters. Near the wall was a shapely figure that he would have recognized if she had been
wearing a sack. Inbecca! The set look on her face when she spotted him watching her told him all he needed to know. The knights had followed his trail all the way from the castle. No time for the inevitable argument now. They were fighting for their lives.
Teryn and the others shouted instructions over the roar of the rain to the knights on the best places to strike the stone giants. A lucky thrust from her blade sent the head of one monster tumbling across the flagstones. A cry of acknowledgment went up, and the fighters began to angle for a position to take down the rest, all the while trying not to be crushed to death by the behemoths. It was not easy going. The giants seemed unmoved by the rain and lightning, and did not care which of the intruders they attacked. Magpie fought against one after another, shifting until he was striking away at the same monster as Inbecca.
“What are you doing with her?” he blurted out. “Why did you join the Knights?”
“What choice did you leave me?” Inbecca asked, flailing angrily at a stone simulacrum twice her height. She looked dignified and fierce, in spite of wearing a habit too large for her, and dripping with rain. “I was disgraced before the courts of five nations! Sharhava offered me a way out with honor.”
“I’m sorry,” Magpie said lamely. A stone hand as large as his head swung, and he ducked. A bolt of red energy blasted over his head and the hand melted. He pulled Inbecca back to avoid the steaming droplets that dribbled to the ground.
“I do not care,” Inbecca said, between gritted teeth. She pulled herself loose and glared at him. “All we want is the book. Where is it?”
Magpie pointed at the castle. “One of the Shining Ones has it. He caused these creatures to come to life. We have to survive to get it.”
“Then we shall,” Inbecca said, with a furious look at him. “After that, you and I will part
forever.
”
His heart sank. That was not the moment to convince her otherwise, though. The number of giants seemed to grow endlessly. The defenders found themselves being herded backwards toward the corner of the terrace. Two knights died as the press of stone monsters closed in on them, flailing with their enormous limbs. Another was caught by a stroke of bilious green lightning that met an upraised sword. The knight stood still for a moment, then toppled, his habit on fire. The giants walked right over him in pursuit of living quarry.
Magpie leaped up on the wall over which the knights had come. He
looked around for Tildi. He saw the smallfolk girl trapped in a corner. Four of the giants were beating against a cage of light in which she had taken sanctuary. The light around her was growing more feeble by the moment. He leaped down again, and thrust his way through the crowd of giants. He levered the head off the nearest one, then hammered at the others until they noticed him. The distraction was just in time. Tildi’s protection faded to nothingness as soon as they turned away from her. With a grateful look she dashed toward the two wizardesses. Magpie ducked blows from the circle of attackers, then made a face at them. They lumbered toward him, arms out.
He ran back to the waist-high wall and leaped over it, looking for the path down into the city. The giants followed, more slowly but as inexorably as an avalanche. Instead of climbing the wall, they smashed at it with their hands and walked through the gap. Magpie changed directions and ran over the flagstones.
A burst of white light whistled past his ear. He flattened on the terraced pavement and looked up. Edynn stood over him. She threw another bolt. The centaur was there, too, kicking at the attackers. She had a bloody wound on the side of her head. The blond peddler woman laid about her with her club. Her braids had come undone, leaving her round face surrounded by lank streamers of hair. She was doing surprising damage to the giants for her size. Lakanta gave him a companionable grin.
“We’ll take as many with us as we can,” she said. “I fear we’re making little headway, though.”
“He can increase his army almost infinitely,” Edynn said.
“Can’t you stop him?” Magpie asked. “You’re one of the most powerful wizards in the world.”
“Our powers are not balanced as long as he has the Great Book,” Edynn said. “I can buy you some time, I believe. This will call for the most desperate of measures.” She glanced behind her. The defenders were being herded toward the castle doors. “Can we open those?”
“Consider it done,” Rin said. She leaned forward onto her front hooves, and kicked out powerfully to the rear. The ornate doors flew open behind them and banged against the walls. Inside was a vast room, empty but for a few statues. The company and the knights began to move inside. At Edynn’s signal, Teryn picked up Tildi and carried her into the castle hall.
“Go,” Edynn said, raising her staff and knocking back another giant. “Hurry, inside!”
“One thin door won’t keep those stone monsters out,” Rin declared.
“I will keep them back,” Edynn insisted. “Inside!”
“No, Mother!” Serafina shouted over the rain. Her eyes went wide with fear.
Edynn smiled at her, her long white hair plastered to her head. “We cannot deal with all three menaces at once. He can keep us out here infinitely, creating more and more giants, until there are none of us able to challenge him.” She reached up to touch her daughter’s cheek. “We all have our tasks, Serafina. This is mine. I may be wrong. We may all be wrong. Let it be so.”
“Please, Mother, let me stay here with you,” Serafina begged.
“They have no chance without you,” Edynn said simply. “Tildi has no chance. You must stay with her. Help her. Teach her.
Now.
Now is your time. Hurry!” She pushed Serafina’s shoulder, urging her inward. The majority of the giants had not yet reached them with their slow gait, but they soon would. Magpie gently urged Serafina to follow him. She pulled loose from his grasp, refusing to leave her mother’s side.
“Get everyone inside!” Edynn called to Sharhava. “Keep out as many giants as you can!”
The abbess made a spinning gesture over her head. “Scholars! Into the castle!”
The knights disengaged from their opponents, and made for the castle door with alacrity. Inbecca passed him, but Magpie did not follow her. Serafina was not going to go without help. Edynn appealed to him.
“Aid her now,” Edynn said. “The book must be secured. You have my thanks, prince and minstrel.” She turned to Serafina and looked deeply into the girl’s eyes. Her stern expression melted. “Ah, my child. I love you. Until the end of the world, remember that.”
An unseen force pushed Magpie and Serafina away from her as an entire company of giants lumbered up the ramp toward Edynn. The girl stumbled, and Magpie helped her to her feet. She rushed to get outside again, but the white-haired wizardess waved a hand. The massive doors slammed shut, leaving them in darkness.
“No!” she screamed. “Mother!” She threw herself at the huge double doors and pounded on them. Magpie pulled her away. She was weeping. Rin threw an arm around her and spun her about.
“Your task is here now!” the centaur exclaimed. “We are not free yet. Act! Do not waste time. She will buy us time.”
Serafina’s eyes were wild with grief and anger. She sought about her.
They lit upon Tildi, who huddled, soaking wet, against the inner wall of the keep in between the two guards. “You! This is all your fault! If not for you, I could be there with her! She did this all for you. As usual, I receive no consideration!”
Tildi stretched out a hand, offering the girl sympathy. Serafina glared at her, and returned to trying to open the double doors. She raised her staff, and red flame rolled from its jewel, outlining them, trying to burn through her mother’s spell. The red light went out almost at once.
“No!” she cried. Rin shook her by the shoulders.
“Accept that she has done it for all of us, silly girl,” the centaur snapped. “Now, hurry! We must not waste the sacrifice! We still need to save all of existence! The thing we must do is up above, not out there!”
Outside, they heard hammering, banging, and the inevitable howl of the Madcloud. Suddenly, a loud wailing noise rose over all and echoed down the ruined valley.
T
ildi’s heart went out to Serafina. They both had reason to grieve. She had come to love Edynn. The wizardess had shown her kindness and protected her.
In a moment, she knew that the prophecy that Serafina had worried about for so long had come true. The longing for the book came back in full force, and she felt she had to be with it or die of sorrow. All of the protective wards and spells that Edynn had cast to protect her were gone. She must maintain her own sanity now.
Outside, it was silent except for the roaring of the rain. Serafina pulled herself upright and shrugged off Magpie’s and Rin’s supporting hands. Her face was a mask of grief, but she had no time to mourn. The threat was not gone, nor was their task yet completed. Her hands trembled as they sought for something. Suddenly, she levered her wand at one of the giants that had pursued them inside. A burst of red light brighter than any she had created before burst from it. The stone being wailed as it slumped into a heap of glowing lava.
“Upstairs,” the young wizardess ordered grimly, as the others gawked. “Let us finish this now.”
The great hall was like a huge, hollow box that stretched up at least sixty feet. A flight of marble stairs spiraled around the inner wall and disappeared through the ceiling. Serafina led the way to it, staff and chin held high. The guards flanked Tildi to protect her in the melee going on
all around them. The head of a stone giant came flying off and landed with a crash on the floor. Tildi jumped back, but followed resolutely. Not another moment must separate her from the book.
As they neared the staircase, the lowest step picked itself up and stood upright. Teryn and Morag left Tildi’s side to stand between it and the entire company. Being made of marble, this giant was thinner and lighter than the granite beings, but it looked just as menacing.
“Ah, Father,” Lakanta groaned. “Has the man only one idea in his head?”
Serafina didn’t hesitate. “Tildi, flight!”
Tildi snapped out of the daze she was in. She threw off the sodden cloak, and brandished her knife. The words that she had recited so many times on their journey came easily to her. Rin stretched a long arm down and put her on her back. Magpie raced after them and leaped onto the centaur’s back, clinging with his knees.
“You presume much,” Rin said with a snort. But she took a tremendous leap and bounded into the air.
Serafina bespelled the guards and herself. Lakanta jumped up.
“Come on!” she shouted to Tildi. “You’re going to need me! Do I have to go get my horse?”
Tildi pointed the knife at her and chanted the spell again. Lakanta hoisted her skirts in her hands and stumped up the air after them. The first of the stone monsters made a grab for her, but it was too slow.
As they cantered through the air toward the hole in the ceiling, one of the knights bounded up the stairs over the awakening giants. She leaped after them and grabbed onto Magpie’s leg. He hauled her into his lap.