Natalie focused on a spot that was in the center of their little circle. A small flame burst into existence.
Quickly David stamped it out. “Natalie, I told you no fire!”
“I’ll stop playing with fire as soon as you do something to get rid of these infernal bugs!” She returned hotly. “They’re after my blood and nothing’s dissuading them, especially since you said we can’t put on our armor yet.”
He sighed and called a stiff breeze. “Happy now?”
“Very.”
Four days without food and very little water were taking their toll on Kathryn. There was no way she could attempt an escape on her own now. She had avoided eating, drinking the bare minimum to prevent Lord Tanner from drugging her again, but now she felt just as weak as she had when she’d been under the influence of the drug.
So far Lord Tanner had visited her only during meal times, each time asking her to join him. She kept refusing him, although she had a feeling that if she kept refusing for much longer he’d order her force fed to keep her from starving herself to death.
To top it all off, she kept having nightmares that jolted her awake in the middle of the night covered in sweat. The events varied but the general storyline stayed true in each dream. Somehow the Dragons managed to decode her message and arrived to try and breach the castle. Each time they failed and died in the attempt. The dreams scared her far worse than Lord Tanner ever could. The revelation startled her and she realized that, while she resented many of the things the Dragons did and often wished that they'd simply leave her alone, she had already begun to consider them her family--more so than Jasmine, Jasse, or even Arianna had ever been to her.
Her anger rose and Kathryn found herself wishing that she could reach out and throttle all of the guards and Lord Tanner to ensure that none of the Dragons lost their lives trying to rescue her. However there were so many questions she needed answered from Lord Tanner that she couldn't afford to kill him, at least not yet.
Lea stayed close by. Kathryn could tell that the young serving girl believed that she was going to die.
“Lea,” she said quietly.
The young woman hurried over. “Do you need something, Lady Kathryn?” she asked quickly.
“How did you get here?”
Lea frowned. “I’m afraid I don’t understand.”
Kathryn waved her hand around the room. “How did you come to serve Lord Tanner?”
“My family was in debt, and he took me as payment,” Lea said after a moment.
“I’m sorry.” Kathryn paused, and then asked, “Do you miss your family?”
“I don’t even know if they’re alive.” Lea stared out the window for a long moment, suddenly she turned and gripped Kathryn’s hand. “Are you sure that there’s no one you can call for help? No one at all?”
Kathryn thought about her note to David and wondered if they’d figured it out yet. “Not anymore,” she said quietly.
Lea appeared on the verge of tears.
“Lea, what’s wrong?”
“You can’t stay here. You must escape!”
“I’m in no condition to escape,” Kathryn told her softly, this was not a conversation she wanted other servants to overhear.
Lea pressed harder, “You don’t understand Milady. Lord Tanner was ordered to kidnap you for someone else, but now he wants you for himself. You have to get away.”
“Who ordered Lord Tanner to kidnap me?” Kathryn asked quickly.
“I don’t know,” Lea said shaking her head. “Probably someone higher up in the Brotherhood.”
“The Brotherhood?”
“I don’t know anything other than that Lord Tanner is a new member of something called the Brotherhood. I do know that the Brotherhood hates the Guardians.”
“Probably because they’re all criminals,” Kathryn reasoned quietly, noticing that her vision was beginning to swim…
“We need some ideas,” Luke said. “That place is a fortress.”
“What we need is a way in that doesn’t involve shooting the guards,” David replied, “and it’s going to take a miracle to get a miracle.”
The two boys were lying on the sharp gray rocks that made up the cliffs behind the castle. Slowly they inched their way back down the steep incline and dropped to the dry bed of a stream where the rest of the Dragons waited.
“Well?” Amy demanded.
“This is not going to be easy,” David told her.
“Lady Kathryn!”
Lea’s frantic voice brought Kathryn out of the vision. Quickly Kathryn grabbed her arms, hardly daring to hope. Maybe this was a way to ensure that the Dragons succeeded. If not, it would certainly be their doom. “Lea is there a dry creek bed in those cliffs?” She nodded out the window to the gray cliffs made even darker by the clouds.
“How did you know that?” Lea asked in amazement.
“It’s better if you don’t know.” Kathryn looked into the young woman’s eyes. “I need you to do something for me Lea.”
“Anything, Lady Kathryn.”
“Can you get out of the castle without being seen?”
Lea nodded. “Yes, ma’am. I’m very good at moving without being seen.”
Kathryn swallowed hard. She wasn't even sure that she could trust Lea, but she had no other options. David would need help getting in, all of her dreams attested to that, she just hoped that she was sending the right person. “I need you to go to the creek bed. There will be Guardians there. Ask to speak to David. Tell him everything you know.”
“Guardians?” Lea whispered. “Are you sure?”
“I’m positive." Kathryn took a deep breath. "I need you to deliver a message." Quickly she relayed the message she wished to get to David and had Lea repeat it. "Now go!”
Lea hurried out of the room and Kathryn prayed that she had made the right choice.
Lea walked slowly down the stairs towards the kitchens. “Where are you going?” The harsh voice of her master brought her to a standstill. Quickly Lea lowered her eyes.
“Lady Kathryn asked me to fetch some cool water,” she said quietly.
“Humph, well take your time,” Lord Tanner ordered. “I don’t want her thinking she runs this castle.”
“Yes, milord.”
Lea hurried down to the kitchens grabbed a bucket and slipped outside. She hurried to the well and began to fill it. After a few moments she moved away from the well and began to head towards the cliffs that towered behind her. Because the cliffs provided such a perfect natural defense there was no castle wall or gate to contend with and that suited Lea perfectly.
Quickly she found the small trail that led up into the cliffs. She hurried, even though it increased the chances of her being spotted. As she stumbled over rocks and old gnarled roots she sincerely hoped that Lady Kathryn was right.
The creek bed had just entered her line of sight when strong arms grabbed her from behind, the hand across her mouth stifling her startled scream.
“Easy,” the low voice commanded. “What’s a servant girl doing way out here?”
The hand covering her mouth dropped slightly allowing her to ask, “Are you a Guardian?”
“What makes you say that?”
“Because I was sent to find Guardians.”
“By who?”
“Lady Kathryn,”
The hands holding her spun her around and she found herself facing an entire team of Guardians. She almost fell over in surprise. How had an entire family arrived without anyone knowing about it? “What do you know of Lady Kathryn?”
“She told me to go to the creek and ask to speak to the Guardian named David.”
The Guardians exchanged looks. "She specifically told you to speak to the Guardian named David?" A female Guardian asked doubtfully.
Lea nodded quickly. "Yes! I swear I'm telling the truth!"
One of the Guardians glanced at another who was gazing intently at her. Finally he seemed to come to a conclusion and looked to his companions. "She's telling the truth," he said firmly. "At least as much as she knows it. Lady Kathryn did tell her to come out here and asked her to deliver a message."
Lea gaped at him. "Y...yes," she stammered. "How did you know?"
The Guardian ignored her and continued. "Lady Kathryn's message is that if we attempt to storm the castle we guarantee our deaths and her own. Lord Tanner chose his guards because they had all faced Guardians before and as such she recommends that we use unconventional tactics when dealing with them."
Lea's mouth dropped open.
The original Guardian who'd grabbed her rubbed his masked chin. "Well at least that settles our discussions on attempting to take the castle by force. Now things get complicated." He faced Lea. "Tell me everything about Lord Tanner and the castle itself."
Quickly Lea told the Guardian what she knew, ending with, “Please hurry. Lady Kathryn has grown weak and I fear my master will try to take her for his own rather than follow orders.”
“We’re rescuing Lady Kathryn tonight,” the first Guardian assured her. “But we need your help.”
“Anything.”
“We need to get inside without being spotted. Can you help us?”
Lea considered his request. "The servants’ entrance on the southern side," she decided. "It's used rarely by most servants and the guards avoid it because it smells bad."
One of the other Guardians made a disgusted noise but the first Guardian, whom Lea suspected was the one named David Lady Kathryn had sent her to speak with, cut her off with a wave of his hand. "Where is Lady Kathryn being held?"
"On the fourth floor in the south wing. Her room has the deer's head crest and two guards stationed outside."
“What about the other servants?”
"What about them?"
"When they see Guardians storming through the castle how will they react?"
“Lord Tanner keeps those of unquestioned loyalty close to him," Lea told them. "The rest he sent to work in the kitchens or other various jobs."
The Guardian leader nodded. “Very well. When the first stars come out, we will attack.”
After Lea had left, Tyler turned to David. "Are you sure about this?" he questioned. "How do you know that we can trust her?"
"We can," Daniel assured him.
Tyler scowled at him. "You can't get a full reading of someone's true intentions in a few minutes."
Daniel nodded in agreement. "True, but Kathryn did send her and the message was from her." He turned to look at David. "Lea has secrets, don't get me wrong, but she's on our side...at least for this battle."
"What I want to know is how Kathryn knew to send her here," Elizabeth said in bewilderment. "It's not like we sent her a message telling her we'd arrived."
"A puzzle for a later time," David decided. "For now we have to trust that Daniel's reading of Lea is correct. If we attempt an obvious approach, we all die."
"And I really want to know how Kathryn knows that," Tyler muttered.
"She's in the castle, Tyler," Amy replied tartly. "She's in the perfect position to gauge the possibility of success of such an attempt."
"Right, and she came to the same conclusion we'd pretty much already come to," he argued. "So why did she risk all of our lives to warn us against a plan that'd we'd practically already discarded."
"She didn't want us to risk our lives," Jenna said slowly. "Even with all of our planning we were still holding such a plan in reserve in case we couldn't come up with anything better," she reminded them.
"So why warn us?" Tyler persisted.
"Because she knows us," Amy sighed. "We've spent the last year learning to live together and I spent years as her roommate. She knows how we think, how we react." She looked to David. "Even after just one year I already know that if one of us ever gets into trouble you wouldn't hesitate to do whatever it costs to get us out."
David nodded. "Of course I would, this family is my responsibility. You're all family to me now. Even Kathryn."
Amy nodded. "Exactly. And Kathryn knows it. She knows that you'll risk your life on a rash plan even if it only has a scant chance of success. Same as me. She's seen me do foolhardy things in the past for friends back at school." She turned back to face the rest of the Dragons. "Kathryn's warning us against acting rashly because she knows what course we would take if no other option presented itself."
"And when she felt like there weren't any viable options, she came up with one of her own," Luke surmised.
Matt couldn't stop from grinning slightly. "She can protest all she wants. She loves us."
As the first stars appeared in the night sky and the last of the sun's light disappeared from the land, the Dragons carefully crept toward the southern servant's entrance. David left his sword sheathed, but kept one hand on the hilt in case Tyler's suspicions had been right and Lea had betrayed them.
When the door opened, revealing a lone Lea standing in the shadows, David let out a breath that he hadn't realized he'd been holding. Silently the Dragons entered the castle.
"Lord Tanner is on the fifth floor," Lea whispered as she closed the door.
David nodded his thanks. "You might want to get out of sight," he advised. "If Lord Tanner's guards get jumpy they might just kill you and the other servants."
Lea's face paled. "Can I warn the others?"
"Only after our presence has become obvious to the guards," he ordered sternly. "Any sooner and you risk revealing our presence too soon."
While Lea clearly wasn't happy she agreed and disappeared down the corridor after pointing them in the correct direction.
David led the way as they made their way through the silent castle.
"Lea wasn't kidding about the smell," Natalie gagged. "What could possibly smell this bad?"
"You really want to know?" Tyler muttered in disbelief.
"Quiet," David growled. The cobbled floor was looking more worn and he suspected that the area they were entering was more commonly used. "Stay alert," he ordered quietly. He drew his sword and heard the quiet
wisps
that indicated that the others had followed his example.
They passed through the servant’s passages into one of the main corridors and the sudden brightness of the large number of torches along the wall temporarily blinded David. After a brief moment his eyes and mask readjusted for the brighter light and he glanced around. So far there was nothing to indicate that any living person, guard or servant, was anywhere in the vicinity.
David wondered if, that in staffing the castle with people loyal to him, Lord Tanner had been forced to reduce the number of servants and guards that would normally be found in a castle this size. It was one possible explanation for the lack of servants and guards in such a well-used hallway, but so was the time of the night. He put the thought out of his mind. Guardians were trained to expect worst case scenarios so that's what he mentally prepared himself for.
While crossing the first floor the Guardians leapfrogged in teams of two or three from one niche or alcove to another rather than marching directly in formation. The overly cautious movement mimicked those of assassins rather than an assault force. After the rescue of Princess Roseanna, Kathryn had begun to work in siege exercises and ambush scenarios into her training sessions. It had been the family’s first introduction to the concept of hidden movement and Kathryn had taken to drilling the basics of the methods and techniques as an integral part of their training. Fortunately, after three months, the basics were second nature to them. They reached the first set of stairs.
Wide and straight they were made out of a blue veined stone with a bright purple carpet running down the middle. "We go in pairs up each side." David nodded for Luke and Natalie to take one side and motioned for Amy to join him. He'd known going in that keeping Amy from the forefront of the fighting was going to be impossible so he might as well keep her at his side. He signaled the remaining Guardians to wait and blend into the shadows.
Taking each step one at a time, and keeping his back to the railing while keeping Luke and Natalie directly opposite him and Amy, David cautiously made his way up the stairs. It wasn't a long staircase, but the slow speed that David led them up made them seem infinitely long.
Warily, David eased his head above the last stair. Still no guards or servants. Looking back to where the rest of the Dragons waited he motioned them forward. He waited until they were all on the landing before proceeding again. As much as he hated to keep them grouped together, he felt that it would be safer in the long run...at least until they ran into trouble. Both the wind and Daniel's gift would alert him if they were walking into an ambush or a patrol.
The second floor proceeded much like the first. They were halfway to the second staircase when David felt a sudden touch on his arm. At the same time he felt the breeze warn him about an approaching servant. Glancing back he nodded at Daniel who released his hand from David's elbow. Silently David waved his hand, motioning the Dragons to find cover. Luke, Cassandra, Elizabeth, Tyler, Rachel, and Leia were on the other side of the corridor and he watched as they melted into the shadows of the door frames.
David pressed his own back against the frame of one such door and waited. Footsteps sounded in the hallway and for a moment his heartbeat quickened. He forced himself to relax as his ears recognized the sound of a single pair of light footsteps.
Most likely a female servant
, he reasoned. He relaxed even further as the footsteps began to fade. Slowly he eased out of the shadows and began to proceed forward again. The others noiselessly followed his lead.
They met the first real resistance on the third floor. As David and Amy were waiting for the rest of the Dragons to finish climbing the stairs an eddy in the air gave David a brief warning.
"Patrol!" he hissed, barely making it behind an ornate statue before he heard the sounds of feet walking in unison. The unity surprised him. Most people who had fought Guardians before were criminals with no discipline. Perhaps Lord Tanner had taken it upon himself to instill order in those under his command.
"What do we do?" Amy whispered from her position on the stairs. Behind her the rest of the group had fallen into crouched positions that still enabled them to move quickly if needed.
David thought hard and fast. They were already halfway to Kathryn's room and while he wished that he could have made it to the fourth floor before running into trouble, he knew that they had been extremely fortunate to have come as far as they had without running into a patrol. He felt his grip tighten on the hilt of his sword and forced himself to relax. He smiled at Amy. "I think it is time we announced ourselves."
Her eyes widened in surprise but after a moment she grinned at him. "We'll wait for your signal."
"What signal?" Luke whispered as the sound of the patrol grew louder. He had taken up the same position as David, using a large statue for cover.
"Don't worry," David assured him. "You won't be able to miss it."
Closing his eyes, David listened intently. The patrol was close enough that he could make out the sounds of the guards voices.
Closer
, he urged them.
The voices grew louder still.
Come on
, he encouraged them in his mind,
just a little closer
.
Stretching out with his senses, he listened to the breeze as it relayed the patrol's progress to him. He waited until they were within a few meters of the stairs. If they got too close they would see the rest of the Dragons crouched on the steps and then surprise would be lost.
"She's sure a pretty thing don't you think, Jorg?" One of the guards was saying.
Releasing his breath, David stepped around the statue and into the light. In one smooth motion he crossed to the nearest guard and swung his sword. In his periphery he could see Luke, mere seconds behind him, doing the same thing.
The first two guards never recognized the danger. The second two were caught off guard by Natalie and Amy as the two girls leapt up from the stairs and came at them, knives whirling. The last two guards were fortunate enough to have been a meter or two back from their companions and watched in horror as their patrol was cut down in a moment of time.
David cursed as they drew their swords, raising the alarm at the same time. He and Luke quickly cut off their shouts but the damage had been done. David could hear the sounds of doors opening and the pounding of feet.
Quiet the castle may have been, but now on high alert the noise was approaching that of a rathskeller on a holiday weekend. The rest of the Dragons had made it to the landing. "What now?" Daniel asked, elevating his voice to be heard over the sound or rushing feet.
David had already made up his mind. "Luke, Jenna, you're with me. We're going to find Kathryn. The rest of you keep the guards busy."
He could tell that Amy wanted to protest but he didn't give her the option. With Luke and Jenna behind him he moved quickly along the length of the hall. When the breeze warned him that a large wave of guards was approaching he opened the nearest door and stepped inside.
Tyler took command as soon as David, Luke, and Jenna left. He split the group in two. "Matt, Cass, Leia, Amy, and Natalie I want you to flank us," he nodded to the rest of the Dragons. "I'm certain that Lord Tanner will have stationed guards on every floor so we can expect resistance from both directions."
The groups divided up as directed and prepared themselves for a two front assault.
They didn't have long to wait.
Lord Tanner may have been a lot of things, but sloppy in his security wasn't one of them. A wave of twenty or so guards appeared at the end of the corridor and stopped short.
So we still have the element of surprise
, Tyler thought grimly.
At least that's something
. "Release!"
At his command Daniel, Rachel, Lindsey, and Elizabeth released the arrows that they had drawn. Behind him, he could hear Amy order the others in her group to release their own arrows.
So it begins,
Tyler thought as he signaled for another wave of arrows to be released.
Time to show these people what happens when you mess with a Guardian family.
The knights’ advance faltered at the sudden barrage of arrows that came at them. But they didn't stop. Quickly regrouping, they doggedly made their way down the corridor using their shields to protect themselves from the arrows. Tyler commanded loudly, “Legs!”— and within seconds the Dragon’s arrows began tearing into calves, knees, and feet. The throng quickly realized their vulnerability and crouched while advancing so that their bucklers and shields covered their entire body. Tyler finally called a halt to the arrow barrage and brandished his sword. He sensed Daniel come up behind him to stand at his shoulder.
Seeing that the bows had been put away, the knights charged.
Tyler and Daniel raced forward to meet them, putting as much distance between them and the girls as possible. In such close quarters Tyler and Daniel could rely on brute strength to overcome the knights but Rachel, Lindsey, and Elizabeth, as women, would need to rely on agility and speed. By spreading out as far as possible, the two boys gave them the room they would need to deal with the knights in their own way.
Dropping his knees and center of balance at the last second, Tyler rammed his shoulder into the first knight's stomach. They collided with a bone jarring smack. Tyler heard a loud whoosh as all the air left the knight's lungs. The Guardian didn't waste another second. Bringing up his free hand he thrust the dagger he had pulled from his belt up under the knight's armor and into his chest. With a grunt that knight fell to the ground, completely out of the fight.
A second knight was in the process of bringing his sword down in a devastating chop. Shifting all of his weight to his left foot, Tyler sprang forward and upward, catching the knight's blow on his sword before it had reached its apex, lessening the power behind it. Shifting to the right, Tyler used his dagger to force the knight's right arm into his own body. In a sweeping motion he switched the positions of both hands and brought the dagger up under the knight's helmet, severing his throat. Turning he braced himself and allowed his training to take over as the small army of knights overwhelmed the Dragons.
Let your anger inspire you, but don't let it control you.
Kathryn's advice was in the forefront of Amy's mind as she faced the first knight to make it up the stairs. He glared down at her as he raised his sword. She let a seductive smile break across her face.
Utter confusion crossed his face and his strike faltered long enough for Amy to dart forward and draw her dagger across his throat.
Smiling at your enemy, especially as a woman, can confuse them
. Kathryn had encouraged Amy, and later Jenna and the rest of the girls, to use their femininity to confuse and distract their opponents. Amy smiled grimly as the next knight appeared in her line of vision. Men's minds tended to go blank when a beautiful woman smiled suggestively at them. Of course it was something taught at Guardian school, but Kathryn had encouraged Amy to take the practice to a whole new level.
You can't just smile at them
, she had told Amy once
. You have to look like you mean it. Most men can tell when you're forcing yourself to look like that. You have to make sure that they're stopped in their tracks otherwise you'll be taken off guard when your ploy doesn't work. It doesn’t matter if you’re masked or not. They can see your eyes and they can see your mouth, their minds will imagine the rest.
The second knight didn't even make it to the top of the landing before Matt leapt forward and engaged him. Amy turned her attention to where Tyler and his group were facing a horde of knights and were threatening to be overwhelmed. Taking a deep breath she concentrated her focus on where the line of Dragons stopped.