Dan the Adventurer, page 23
part #2 of Gold Girls and Glory Series
“The catacombs are collapsing,” Holly said. For a moment, they just stood there, listening to the loud underground crashing.
Then they heard a voice shouting up at them from the woods downhill. “Holly?” the familiar female voice called. “Dan?”
“Lily!” Holly shouted. “We’re up here!”
“We’ll come to you,” Dan said. Then to his girls, he said, “I don’t want to make her walk uphill.”
“Bullshit,” Nadia laughed. “You just want her to see you fly, hotshot.”
Dan shrugged and squatted down. “Climb back up, ladies.”
He was excited to reunite with Lily. He hadn’t seen her since she’d left to scout the roads and woods. What news would she have?
Lily waited on what had been the opposite side of the chasm, a terrified expression twisting her beautiful features.
No surprise there, Dan thought. It’s not every day that you watch a canyon slam back together.
But as soon as Lily spoke, he realized that her terror had nothing to do with the crevasse. “I was heading back to the fortress when I saw your tracks coming this way. I’m so glad. Every second counts now. Roderick’s Raiders are marching on Fire Ridge!”
“Why so soon?” Dan said. “They were supposed to be busy for at least another few weeks.”
“The word on the road is that one of the guys we killed was Roderick’s son. Roderick ditched the Duke of Harrisburg’s work and started marching as soon as he received the news.”
“All right,” Dan said. “This is bad, but we left the elves in good shape. While you were scouting, we fixed the wall and the Fist.”
“You don’t understand,” Lily said. “Roderick didn’t send some small detachment. He’s leading the force himself. His entire force. A thousand soldiers!”
“Crom,” Dan breathed.
“Roderick has probably reached the green elves. In another day or two, he’ll attack Fire Ridge.”
“They don’t stand a chance.”
Dan pictured the old matriarch puffing her cigars, beautiful and clueless Thelia, and his work crew, beaming with pride when they’d finished rebuilding the wall.
Looking around at his women, he said, “I have to go back.”
“Oh Hades,” Nadia said. “I knew you were going to say that. All right, then. If you’re going, I’m going. We’re pack.”
Ula thumped her chest, obviously understanding what was happening—and just as obviously supporting Dan without hesitation. “Ula strong! Ula fight!”
Dan smiled. “Ula, that’s great. You’re getting a lot better at speaking Common.”
Ula was in war maiden mode. She thumped her chest again. “Ula make strong babies!”
Dan nodded. No doubt she would.
She thumped her chest again. “Ula fight with Dan!” She pointed her axe at Dan.
He nodded. “Thank you.”
“Ula fight with Dan wife,” the warrior woman said, pointing her axe at Holly. Then she swiveled the weapon in Nadia’s direction and said, “Ula fight with whore!”
“What?” Nadia shrieked, her jaw dropping open.
Lily laughed and raised her hands defensively. “I did not teach her that.” Grinning, she turned to Holly.
But Holly had missed the joke. She didn’t seem to have even registered the conversation. She frowned, deep in thought, her purple eyes far away.
“A thousand soldiers,” Holly said, bringing them back to grim reality. “Even with our help, Fire Ridge will fall.”
“We can’t abandon them,” Dan said.
“We won’t,” Holly said. She let out a shuddering breath. “I must return to the grove and beg Father for help.”
38
A Grim Warning
Halfway back to Fire Ridge, Ula started grunting and pointing. Dan couldn’t see anything at first. Then he spotted smoke on the horizon.
“The green elves,” Nadia said.
Dan nodded and flew in that direction.
After hours of carrying Nadia and Ula, his arms ached with fatigue. But he wouldn’t quit, couldn’t quit.
Turning in the direction of the smoke, he gritted his teeth, narrowed his eyes to slits, and concentrated on his breathing, pushing through the pain and fatigue.
A short time later, he settled onto a thick limb high up a tall tree at the top of the ridge overlooking the valley of the green elves. Pillars of dark smoke rose against the red sky. Drifting ash filled the sky like snow flurries.
It was too late for the green elves.
From this height, Roderick’s Raiders looked like a swarm of marauding ants pouring over a toy village that had been smashed and set aflame. A large section of palisade had fallen, and most of the fence was on fire.
Within the shattered walls, elves scurried and scampered, fell and died. Small, dark shapes moved quickly between them, pulling the elves off their feet to maul them.
Dogs, Dan realized. War dogs. Dozens of them.
Roderick’s Raiders followed after their dogs, raping and killing and burning. There were so many of them. A thousand, at least.
Most were foot soldiers, but here and there, raiders on horseback streaked through the chaos, impaling elves on lances.
The battle was over. This was slaughter.
Dan spotted a group of elves using an overturned wagon for cover as they fired arrows at the raiders.
A massive raider appeared from between columns of black smoke and marched straight at the wagon, barely flinching when arrows struck him.
The humongous raider bellowed, kicked the wagon aside, and started smashing elves with a club the size of a tree trunk.
“It’s a giant,” Dan said. “They have a frigging giant.”
Nadia shook her head. “Two giants,” she said, pointing to where a second giant was kicking through the wall of a burning building.
Ula stared grimly, her yellow eyes studying the battle.
Those giants would smash right through the flimsy gate he’d made for Fire Ridge. Then a thousand raging psychopaths would flood the fortress.
How could they possibly defend against two giants? Should he hurry down there now and try to kill them while he could still fly?
No. Roderick’s Raiders would feather him with arrows.
Besides, he didn’t have time. The flight spell would last for only another hour or two, and he needed to warn everyone at Fire Ridge as quickly as possible.
Even if Holly and Lily somehow managed to convince their father to send reinforcements—and that seemed very, very unlikely, given the fact that the last time Holly had seen her father, the Iron Druid had exiled her from the grove—the grey elves would still need to mobilize and would be a full day’s march behind Roderick’s Raiders.
The scene below proved that Roderick wasn’t a surround-the-fortress-and-starve-them-out kind of attacker. Considering Roderick’s strength, numbers, and aggressive tactics, the battle for Fire Ridge would likely be over before the grey elves could arrive.
A loud cracking noise split the air. Blue lightning sizzled across the central courtyard and exploded into a tower, blasting a hole in the wall and setting the thatched roof ablaze.
“Sensational,” Dan snarled. “They have a son-of-a-bitching sorcerer.”
And not just any sorcerer. A powerful sorcerer.
He’d seen enough.
“Come on,” he said. “Climb aboard. We have to warn the red elves. We’re going to need every second we can get.”
39
The Return to Fire Ridge
Dan was pleased to see braziers burning in the guard towers of Fire Ridge.
He was less pleased to cross the meadow unopposed.
He, Nadia, and Ula marched straight through one of the large gaps in the palisade. Pausing there, he imagined that he was a raider.
They had put a lot of time and effort into mending the outer fence, but there was no way to close these gaps in time. Therefore, the palisade was already breached. Roderick would focus on breaching the inner wall. Even a crack just large enough for men to squeeze through one at a time would do, and the raiders would stream inside Fire Ridge.
With Roderick’s forces only a day’s march away, what could Dan possibly do to shore up these defenses?
“Lord Dan!” a red elf called down from atop the inner wall.
“Let us in!” Dan shouted. His entire body was aching and twitching with fatigue. His upper body was wrecked from carrying two women for over a dozen miles, and the rest of him was exhausted from jogging for the hour since the spell had faded.
There was a commotion at the top of the wall as elves lowered a long ladder down to Dan and the girls. As Dan scaled the ladder, he shouted up at the sentries, “Call the war council!”
Ten minutes later, the war council had assembled around a large table in the great hall. In attendance were Dan, Nadia, Ula, Ahneena, her foppish nephew and commander of the guard, Tibbin, several other important elves, Jorbin Ateel, and two of the potbellied gnome’s sons.
It felt good to sit. Too good, in fact. Dan rose from his chair and leaned against the wall.
When Thelia appeared before him with a curtsey and a goblet of wine, he pushed the drink aside and asked for water.
Likewise, he would eat sparingly. A heavy meal would weigh him down and make him sleepy, and he didn’t have time for sleep now.
Dan told the council what they had learned and seen.
The war council convulsed with panic.
“Nadia, Ula, and I will fight alongside you,” Dan said, reining in the attention of the frightened council members.
Ahneena exhaled a dark cloud of foul cigar smoke and offered Dan a sad smile.
“Holly and Lily are trying to get help from their grove,” Nadia added, “but it’s a long shot. To say the least.”
“We have to rethink everything,” Dan said. “Here and now. Before we leave this table, we need a plan to prepare our people and redirect our resources. Roderick’s Raiders could be here tomorrow.”
Tibbin stood. A bit unsteadily, Dan noticed. Drunk again, it appeared.
The commander of the guard and chief military advisor of Fire Ridge loved wine far more than battle. Normally, Tibbin wore his long, blond hair in elegant braids, but having been summoned so quickly to this surprise meeting, he had pulled it back into a simple ponytail.
“Master Dan,” Tibbin said importantly, and gave a slow bow, “with all due respect, sir, it is my opinion that we should consider parlaying with Roderick.”
Tibbin’s attendants nodded enthusiastically.
Jorbin and his sons scowled and grumbled high-pitched complaints.
The matriarch regarded her delicate nephew through hooded eyes, her mouth curdling as if she’d bitten into a rotten peach.
“We cannot defend Fire Ridge from Roderick’s Raiders,” Tibbin continued. “We should abandon the fortress immediately. Perhaps by offering no resistance and leaving the fortress and its finery as tribute, we will appease him.”
“Tribute?” Jorbin blurted, sounding disgusted. “The man lost a son. The only tribute Roderick wants is blood.”
Tibbin straightened, lifted his chin, and glanced dramatically around the table before speaking. “Roderick will have his reparation of blood. I volunteer as sacrifice. He shall have the satisfaction of executing the commander of the guard, high military advisor of Fire Ridge, and nephew of the matriarch.”
“No!” Dan slammed his fist on the table, startling the council. “No more cowardice!”
“Cowardice?” Tibbin’s face darkened to blood red. “I offered to sacrifice my life in defense of my people. How dare you call me a coward?”
“Sit down,” Dan said.
Tibbin just stared at him with flashing eyes and his mouth all puckered up like an asshole.
Dan came off the wall, stood up straight, and drilled Tibbin with a death stare. “Sit the fuck down. Now.”
Tibbin couldn’t take it. First he dropped his eyes. Then he dropped his ass back into the seat.
“I’m not calling you a coward,” Dan said. “I’m calling parlaying cowardice. You want to die for your people? Good. You probably will. But you’ll die on the wall, fighting, like the rest of us.”
Dan looked around the table. “We won’t beg, bribe, or bargain with these bastards. That type of half-stepping would just give Roderick and his army of assholes an even bigger hard on for burning this place to the ground. Jorbin’s right. Roderick wants blood. We’ll give them blood. Their blood.”
Jorbin and his sons pounded their fists on the table. These gnomes were small but they were full of fight.
He was happy to see that Ahneena, too, was smiling.
“Let’s move on to how we’re going to fight these bastards,” Dan said. “I need updates. Jorbin, how goes the tunnel?”
The gnome stood. He was filthy from head to toe. He’d been down in the tunnel, digging, when Dan had returned.
“Lord Dan,” Jorbin said with a quick bow, “we have been working night and day to dig out the tunnel. Unfortunately, we are still shoveling fresh dirt. I’ve walked the ground above, but there’s no way to say for certain, at that depth, how big the cave-in is. My sons,” he said, nodding to the two other gnomes, “discovered the exit in the forest and were able to walk most of the way back to the fortress. No guarantees, but I think we’re close.”
“Good,” Dan said. Earlier, when he had expected a much smaller raiding force to arrive weeks into the future, he hadn’t put much faith in the tunnel. Now, however, things had changed. If the tunnel was open, it might provide an escape for survivors, should the fortress fall. “What do you need?”
“Lord?”
“What can I give you? This tunnel is suddenly important.”
Jorbin thought for a moment. Then the potbellied gnome said, “We could use three more workers. Maybe four. I won’t know for sure until we’re all working down there. In such close quarters, an extra body can be a help or a hindrance.”
“I leave it to you, then,” Dan said. “You choose the workers and let me know if there’s anything else you need.”
Jorbin bowed again. “Thank you, Lord. We’ll do our best.”
“I know you will. Thank you.” Dan turned to the matriarch. “At the first alarm, I would like you to lead the children and all those not actively involved in our defense down into the tunnel, regardless of the state of the cave-in. This will help us to avoid senseless deaths and will give the noncombatants a chance at survival, should the raiders breach the wall.”
The old matriarch smiled wisely, squinting as she smoked another of her stinking cigars. “Prudent thinking,” the ancient elf said with a smile. “And shuttling the very young and very old below will also keep us out of the way.”
“I’d be lying if I said that thought hadn’t crossed my mind,” Dan said.
“A request, then,” the matriarch said, “from an old woman who has lived her entire life within these walls?”
“Of course.”
“I would like to assign this babysitting task to another,” she said, and cast an enormous smoke ring into the air. “If this is to be the end of Fire Ridge, I would like to drop a stone on someone’s head.”
“No one’s saying that it’s the end,” Dan said. “I just—”
“If, on the other hand, we should win the day,” Ahneena interrupted with a smile, “I don’t want to be stitched into the great tapestry as an old woman hiding in a basement.”
Dan laughed. “Of course,” he said. Looking around the table, he saw everyone staring at him expectantly. “What do we do? How do we best prepare? We’ll need to abandon some projects and double-down on others. I want to hear everyone’s ideas, one at a time. No holding back.” Turning to the matriarch, Dan said, “After everyone has spoken, I will give you my suggestion.”
“And your suggestion will be my command,” the matriarch said. “You are in control of Fire Ridge. We will follow your orders to the death.”
By the time the war council had finished, the citizens of Fire Ridge packed the main courtyard, burbling like a flock of frightened pigeons.
Walking beside Dan and smoking another cigar, Ahneena said, “It is time to address your people.”
“Me?” Dan protested. “You’re their matriarch. Shouldn’t—”
“No,” the old woman interrupted. “I have coddled my people for centuries. I have offered comfort, love and, occasionally, wisdom. But they don’t need these things now. They need strength and rage. They need fire. They need you.”
Dan let that sink in for a second before nodding. “All right, then.”
The frightened murmuring grew as Dan topped the ramparts. He stood for a moment, looking down at their frightened faces.
Ula roared them to attention.
“People of Fire Ridge!” Dan shouted. “You’re frightened.”
Elves shifted back and forth, staring up at him with wide eyes.
“Good,” Dan said, and paused, watching their expressions go from fearful to confused. “Your fear means that you’re seeing what’s real, not what you want to see.”
The elves blinked up at him, their eyes gleaming in the courtyard torchlight.
“Roderick’s Rangers will be here tomorrow. We will spend this night preparing for battle.”
The elves burbled, shifting from foot to foot and trading nervous glances.
“This is not just another raid,” Dan said. “Roderick’s Raiders are coming for blood. If we don’t defeat them, they will kill every last one of us. Every man, woman, and child. They will burn you and everything you love.
“I know that you’re frightened,” he repeated. “Roderick’s Raiders know that you’re frightened, too. They’ve raided you without resistance in the past, and they sure as Hades don’t expect any resistance now. They expect you to be submissive and passive. They expect you to curl up and die without a fight.
“That is our great advantage. They will come here expecting lambs, and they will meet wolves.”
He paused, happy to see elves standing up straighter, their faces hardening.
