The Mapkeeper and the Rise of the Wardens (22 page)

They formed a wide semicircle in the clearing around the entrance to the cavern, locking the young and the elderly inside. For once, Doldrums Forest was quiet. The low hoots and scrapes of squirrel claws against dry leaves were replaced by a profound silence that clung to the dense layers of mist shrouding the tree trunks. They waited.

Lucy gripped the shaft of her bow, her knuckles white with rigidity. Positioned between her brothers and Cadmus, she shifted her weight, realizing she had been standing stock-still for several minutes. They scanned the forest, straining their eyes for signs of movement. With a shiver, she noted the striking coolness of the forest air in comparison with the air inside the cavern.

She pulled out and unfolded the map, but to her disappointment, it was lifeless and held no clue as to the position of the Wardens. She was anxious and couldn’t focus, so she folded it and slipped it back inside her pocket.

Cadmus grabbed her hand and flashed a handsome, reassuring smile. “We’ve got this,” he said, squeezing her hand. Lucy smiled, knowing he would protect her at all costs.

“They’re here!” came a cry from someone at the apex of their protective semicircle. There was no sudden charge or explosion of chaos. Instead, a quiet as deep as a starless night saturated the air. Lucy strained to see through the low-hanging mist, peering between bodies in the direction from which the voice had come. At last, the shadowy profiles of a long row of hooded figures materialized from within the shroud of mist. Lucy’s blood went cold.

The Wardens marched toward them in silence, row after row, an endless army of identical black cloaked creatures. Lucy tried to push the image of the beheaded castle guards and horses from her mind as her heartbeat quickened. Praxis’ defenders loaded and aimed their bows. The Wardens halted fifty yards from their position, armed with large swords and shields.

Though her hands shook, Lucy strung an arrow and prepared to fire. She slowed her breathing and aimed at a Warden in the second row. There was a moment of stillness in which it seemed as though the world stopped moving—it was almost peaceful. She took the opportunity to focus on her breathing, maintaining a relaxed, steady rhythm.

Then, from somewhere amidst the Warden army came a hair-raising, inhuman cry that made Lucy cringe. The front row of Wardens charged, with the exception of three Wardens who stood still and raised their bony gray hands, casting a spell. The army of Praxis released hundreds of arrows and with a collective roar, surged toward the enemy.

Wardens screamed as they dropped to the ground, pierced by arrows. The armies met with a cacophonous clash of swords, spears, and maces. Lucy and Luke shifted to one side, hopping up and perching atop a large boulder with their backs against the high stone wall of the cavern. It was an ideal vantage point for precision shooting. They unleashed arrow after arrow at the tall, dark-hooded creatures, which stood out as obvious targets among the motley army of Praxis.

Lucy’s heart thundered as she aimed and let fly another arrow. Three goblins had been turned to stone where they stood, victims of black magic. The Wardens that had cast the spell moved among the groups of fighting creatures, turning others to stone. Lucy took aim and pierced one of the spell-casters in the shoulder. It fell to its knees with a scream but whipped its faceless head in her direction, raising its gray, claw-like hands in her direction. Lucy’s blood went cold. She was quick to load another arrow and released it with lethal accuracy, slaying the creature before its spell was cast.
That was too close
, she thought, taking a moment to wipe her sweaty palms on her pant legs.

Lucy tried not to focus on the gore, but she could not block out the screams. From the corner of her eye, she saw a centaur go down to her left. She pierced a Warden squarely in the face, though she was unable to see the arrow’s entry point in the darkness beneath the oversized hood. Without a sound, it collapsed in a heap. Rather than allowing herself to dwell on the atrocities around her, she moved on to her next target.

Smooth. Steady. Precise.

To her right, two gnomes hacked at a Warden with their heavy swords, its blood spattering them like an abstract painting. The stocky creatures lunged at the Warden from both sides and skewered it. A moment later, another Warden cut one of the gnomes down. Bellowing in anger, the second gnome sliced the back of the Warden’s legs and with a war cry, pierced its heart when it fell to its knees. With a strong gulp, Lucy forced herself to look away. She let another arrow fly, saving one of the townspeople from being attacked from behind.

Shielded from behind by the main cavern wall, she and Luke were able to pan left and right without watching their backs. It seemed as though most Wardens were armed with swords, but that some were designated spell-casters, responsible for disabling Praxians using dark magic.

To the left, she caught sight of Mack engaged in a sword fight with a tall Warden. It was backing her brother up against the cavern’s outer wall! Heart racing, Lucy steadied her bow and loosed an arrow aimed at the Warden. She missed.

“Luke!” she cried as she reached for another arrow, terrified that she wouldn’t reload, aim, and release in time to help Mack.

Luke whipped around to see their brother pinned against the natural stone wall, hacking with his sword in wild arcs aimed at the Warden. With an arrow already strung, Luke took steady aim and released, piercing the Warden in the neck just as it raised its sword high in the air to kill their brother. It collapsed, dead on the spot. Mack mouthed “thank you” to his siblings. Lucy shook her head, a cold trickle of sweat slipping down her neck. That was too close. Her heart was still racing, but she was shocked to find that she remained calm and collected, the adrenaline of the moment carrying her on.

Lucy and Luke continued their methodical sweep of the battlefield, felling Wardens as the dark creatures poured into the clearing. It was too soon to tell which army had the upper hand, but Wardens continued to spill onto the battlefield, emerging from the mist of the surrounding woods. Lucy hoped there weren’t many more of them, or she worried the army of Praxis would be overwhelmed. She killed two Wardens back-to-back as they charged a muscular centaur. The centaur reared up and kicked a Warden with its front feet, crushing its chest. The hooded figure flew through the air and crumpled in a lifeless heap. When the centaur faced her, Lucy recognized him as Axel. She cleared the area around him of Wardens. Nodding to her in thanks, he raised his sword and trotted off to find another fight.

She saw one of Luke’s arrows strike a Warden a moment before it was about to club one of the Bellaux with the blunt end of its sword. Lucy repositioned herself to help defend them. The Bellaux stood in a group, slashing at charging Wardens with their swords. Though the Bellaux were untrained fighters, their height and long limbs afforded them a natural advantage. They towered over the Wardens, letting the weight of their swords guide their heavy blows. So far, not a single Bellaux had been touched by an attacker. Lucy picked off three Wardens trying to sneak up on the Bellaux from a side angle. Odessa and Auriel were not among them, she noticed with a pang of unease.
Where did they go?

A loud cry pierced the air to her right, and she glanced over in time to witness Zadok stab a Warden with his long iron sword. She noticed he hadn’t strayed far from her position, and had the feeling that he was protecting her. Cadmus, too, remained near at hand. Lucy didn’t dare shoot at the Warden he was fighting for fear of hitting Cadmus. He was just out of range of a clean shot. An experienced swordsman, Cadmus fought very well. He made it seem easy, annihilating whole groups of Wardens and coming to the assistance of his less experienced clansmen. He glanced up at her, nodded, and ran to help Fritz Brawne fight off two Wardens.

A large blast of white light suddenly blinded Lucy. When her vision returned, she saw the bodies of nearly ten Wardens scattered at the feet of the Bellaux. At first, they looked as stunned as the rest of the witnesses, but then they grinned at one another in delight. Bellaux magic was back! The battlefield in the vicinity was temporarily muted as creatures regained their vision and balance. The fighting continued. Lucy scored a direct hit on one of the spell-casting Wardens who was making its way toward the Bellaux. It had just turned two elves to stone. Their expressions fierce, the elves been turned to stone just as they’d brandished their swords high above their heads. Lucy recognized one of them as Tryste, an attractive, grim-faced elf, who was one of Adalia’s most trusted advisers. She’d seen the two engaged in solemn conversation in the cavern earlier that day. She couldn’t allow her focus to linger.

A teenaged boy came running out of the tunnel, two full arrow quivers tucked under each arm. His long blonde hair whipped in strings behind him as he made haste to Lucy and Luke’s boulder.

“I’m here with resupply,” he gasped, heaving the quivers up to Luke, who caught them one after the other.

“Thanks!” Lucy called down to the boy. He nodded, wheeled about, and jetted off to hand the other two quivers to a pair of elves who had taken station on the other side of the cavern entrance. They were performing the same duty as Lucy and Luke, picking off Wardens from a high nook in the cavern wall. When they wedged themselves into the rocky recess, Lucy could only see the tips of their bows peeking out. It was brilliant! An even better position than her own. The blonde boy stood on his tip toes and passed the quivers up to one of the elves, then sprinted back into the cavern tunnel.

One of the Wardens caught sight of the boy and broke into a run, tailing him. With nimble fingers, Lucy threaded an arrow and took the Warden down. Her arrow pierced the Warden at the same moment as did an arrow from one of the crevice-bound elves. Deep within the tunnel, she heard the distant hollow rattle and clang of the cavern gate slamming shut behind the boy. She grinned, relief washing over her in the form of goosebumps.

“Good timing, I’m out.” Luke dropped his empty quiver and shouldered one of the full ones. Lucy peered over her shoulder to assess her stock. She had about five arrows left.

“I’d better catch up!”

She emptied her quiver with four hits and a miss, and then shouldered the full quiver. Wardens still spilled into the clearing from all directions, converging on the battlefield. The Praxians who had never fought before grew weary, their muscles unaccustomed to holding heavy swords and shields. Lucy stopped a Warden in its tracks as it raised a sword to slash at little Bernie Schuman. Bernie’s arms quivered under the weight of her sword as she struggled to hold it in a blocking position. She sighed with relief and let her sword fall to her side when her adversary crumpled before her. Rolf nudged his wife back toward the cavern, urging her to rest. Bernie resisted for a moment, but thought better of it and agreed. She linked arms with another exhausted housewife and together they hiked up their dresses and scurried toward the cavern. Lucy covered them, ensuring they made it inside the tunnel without incident. The distant clang of the iron gate admitting them to Abodox was a welcome sound.

An instant later, a man who Lucy recognized as the husband of the woman with Bernie with was impaled. He sunk to his knees, clutching his stomach at the feet of his killer. Lucy’s heart wrenched. She directed a shot at the Warden, but her sweaty hand slipped and she missed. As she reloaded her bow, the Warden looked up at her. It turned and marched directly toward her, purposeful. A chill ran down her spine. She wiped her palm against her jeans and took aim again, but missed for a second time. The Warden touched companions as he marched and they abandoned their skirmishes to join him, all staring at the Mapkeeper in horrible, faceless unison. Luke shifted to help.

The group of marching Wardens was now six strong. The Barnes siblings had managed to kill two, when suddenly the pack of Wardens changed direction and dashed out of sight behind the cavern wall near the elves in the crevice. Lucy and Luke exchanged a glance of unease. Once again she eyed the cavern wall behind them. It towered at least four times the height of an average person. There was no foreseeable way anyone could sneak up on them from behind.

Brushing off the feeling that those Wardens were coming for her, Lucy continued to rain arrows down on the enemy. The Praxians as a whole seemed to be losing ground. Zadok and Cadmus still fought valiantly, close at hand on her right side, and Mack was working well with Fritz Brawne to her left. Mack and Fritz stood back to back, each battling a Warden. Lucy was proud of her older brother’s natural athleticism. He took to swordsmanship as though he’d trained in hand-to-hand combat all his life.

Almost imperceptibly, the earth began to shudder. At first, it was gentle and rhythmic, and Lucy wondered if she were imagining it. But the tremors increased in magnitude with each beat, and after several seconds she knew it wasn’t just a figment of her imagination. She glanced sideways at Luke. Their eyes met, confirming that he felt it, too.

To her left, Enzo paused, head cocked to one side. Soon, many creatures and Wardens paused mid-scuffle and looked around, mystified by the pulsating, ever-intensifying tremors. Soon, the trees began to shake, and then the rhythmic shaking grew so strong that Lucy and Luke had to crouch to maintain their balance on the boulder. Many on the battlefield did the same.

Suddenly, Lucy saw Enzo break into a wide grin. He chuckled, leaning back and holding his armor-clad belly in both hands. Confused, she followed his gaze in time to see several enormous shadows—four times the height of a man—materialize from within the layers of mist. As the shadows permeated the mist, they multiplied until Lucy could make out a thick line of bodies. She gasped in awe, clapping a hand over her mouth. The trolls had arrived.