The Heart of War by Ben Hale

Author:Ben Hale [Hale, Ben]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Snowlight Publishing
Published: 2015-12-13T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter 23: Drenuh's Might

Geranaut sidled up to them. "Into the keep, quickly."

Evidently thinking the same thing, the captain bellowed orders, and men sprinted through the keep doors. The northern portcullis slammed shut, giving the surviving soldiers time to get inside.

Valravn caught a glimpse of chandeliers and training stands surrounding a large pillar at the center of the hall. Then her gaze was drawn to the stairs, where men were being rushed upward. The base of the keep was vaulted and open, the view only blocked by the columns supporting the upper levels. On four sides, the wooden doors shuddered as the fiends slammed into them. They splintered under the assault.

"It won't hold," Geranaut exclaimed. "We must go upward."

"Why?" Andric asked.

Geranaut stabbed a finger at the center column. "That contains an escape staircase that connects to underground tunnels."

Four steps up, Captain Arrow threw a look back, his eyes wide with surprise. "I didn't know that."

Drenuh winced as her foot caught on a step. "It's why Geranaut chose this fort."

Valravn squeezed closer to her grandmother and put a hand on the gash in her side. Her magic touched the wound, healing it enough that she could walk. Thanking her with a glance, Drenuh hurried up the steps. A moment later a crash from below signaled the keep door had been breached.

The four trolls sprinted up the remaining steps and leapt onto the highest level of the keep. Behind them, one of the soldiers slammed a grate shut, closing off the fiends. Then he rammed a bar home. An instant later a kraka slammed into it, bending the bar.

Barely a hundred feet across, the top of the keep was packed to the brim with men, trolls, and elves. Soldiers fought on the battlements as their companions hurried down the hole in the center of the roof. Small and cramped, the spiral staircase allowed them to escape single file. At a glance Valravn realized the fiends were going to breach the perimeter long before the survivors could escape. Then even the trolls would not be able to stand against them.

She reached out for Drenuh and her grandmother nodded in understanding. "You take the eastern wall," Drenuh said. "I'll take the western."

Valravn leapt to the eastern side, squeezing past the men until she stood by the dwarven ballistae.

"What ye be doing, troll?" Thendor asked as he fired the weapon over the wall.

"Saving your skin, dwarf," she said.

Valravn looked back and met her grandmother's gaze. Then they cast their magic together. Air began to swirl around the keep, curving faster and faster. The air darkened and began to whine, cutting into the fiends attempting to scale the battlements. Their claws dug into the stone but the effort was futile. The wind yanked them free and they shrieked as they fell. The soldiers on the wall retreated as the cyclone wall appeared in front of them.

Valravn kept her magic rigidly in control, smiling as she heard the cries of gratitude at her back. A fiend managed to push through the barrier but Andric's hammer smashed into it, sending it flying.

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