A/N I'd like to sincerely thank MelanaAdara for reviewing last chapter! It is wonderful to hear some positive feedback and I do hope I hear from more of you. Thank you for reading this far and I do hope I hear from you guys! Happy reading!
~Kat
Giving the pompous man a heated glare, she followed her brothers and, out of pure spite, pulled a worgen off a guard close by. It was only after she heard the man swear loudly and back his horse up did she kill it, leaving the corpse to foul up the air. She didn't glance back, instead jogging to catch up with her siblings who had engaged another worgen close by. The three made short work of him and moved onto the next, moving closer to the prison's side entrance with every worgen.
"In there!" Ammon yelled, pointing to the door with his offhand where a guard was battling furiously with a pair of worgen.
Jeanne sighed and pulled one of them off of the guard, who grunted in thanks, and let her siblings do most of the work killing it; her dizziness had escalated to a pounding headache accompanied by subtle tremors running up and down her body and a sharp ache in her left forearm.
The guard saluted the three when his opponent finally fell to him and ran off to help his comrade, leaving the door clear to them. Cerdic led the way, gesturing for them to follow with a gauntleted hand.
"Captain Broderick," Cerdic greeted, stopping in front of the man crouched at the bottom of the winding staircase, "King Greymane sent us to speak with you. He wants us to free Lord Crowley."
"He wants what now?" The man snorted disbelievingly, shaking his head after a moment, "You've all gone mad! Bonkers!"
"Be as it may, Captain, it's the king's orders."
The man shook his head again and gestured up the wooden stairs. "If you three want to risk your lives for that traitor, then fine by me. He's holed up upstairs with his men, probably plotting against the king as we speak."
"Thank you," Cerdic intoned, giving the man a short bow before leading the charge upstairs.
Jeanne had a harder time keeping up, the way the stairs turned making her head spin. She vaguely heard Cerdic and Ammon engage a pair of worgen and she automatically started casting when she caught up. She managed to finish Ammon's off when Cerdic had them moving again, this time over the stone roof of the prison. Ammon slowed a bit to jog beside her, silently offering his support should she need it. She acknowledged it with a small smile and paused to gulp down some water. The influx of magic helped clear her head some and she nodded at her twin to keep going. She heard Cerdic hail the former prisoner from up ahead and she moved quicker to catch up and eager to join the excitement.
"…Cerdic Delroy," She heard Crowley state slowly, as if he couldn't quite identify the young man, "Anthony's boy, right?"
Cerdic grinned and bowed slightly, acknowledging the man's answer. "Indeed. I am his eldest. May I introduce my brother, Lord Ammon, and my dear sister, Lady Jeanne."
Both siblings nodded in greeting to which Crowley returned them. Jeanne glanced at the men behind him and dimly recognized one of them to be Tobias Mistmantle. Crowley noticed her gaze and jerked his chin to catch her attention.
"One of those mangy fleabags got Dempsey real good while we were escaping. We cannot move him until we stabilize his bleeding. Speaking of which, can you heal, Lady Jeanne?"
Jeanne paused to consider his question before shrugging a shoulder. "Not very well; I only know the bare minimum. I'll be more useful to you as a defender than a healer."
Crowley acknowledged this with a sharp nod and continued hurriedly, "Fine. Give us a hand in holding back these mongrels; we've only gotten a short reprieve. A couple of minutes is all we need!"
The three nodded in agreement and moved to their respective positions around the small group; Ammon and Cerdic standing in line with Crowley while Jeanne took a more guarded position closer to the fallen Dempsey. Jeanne took another small sip of her water to help clear her mind as faint snuffling and snarls were heard from nearby.
"Get ready," Crowley warned, taking up a combat stance, "They come."
No sooner than he said that did the sounds silence altogether, sending a shiver down the defenders' spines. Jeanne watched in horror as the worgen practically flew over the side of the prison wall and charge towards them. Without missing a beat, Ammon embedded a throwing knife into the skull of the front most worgen. With a small smile at her twin's display of skill, Jeanne hit the next one with a pillar of lunar flames and let Cerdic finish that one off with a clean stroke.
The next few minutes were filled with shouts and the sounds of spells casting as the defenders danced the macabre dance of death with the worgen. Though tired from an earlier onslaught and armed with nothing more than his fists, Crowley held his own as wave after wave of worgen crashed against them.
Jeanne, on the other hand, was showing the true extent of her exhaustion and illness. Her casting became sloppier and less focused and she was sometimes missing the worgen entirely. Crowley became the first to realize the young woman's exhaustion and pointed it out to the eldest Delroy.
"Your lass isn't looking so good!" He yelled over the din, "We can't afford to pull her out until Dempsey's okay!"
"Understood," Cerdic yelled back, cleaving his current opponent in half and turned in Jeanne's direction to yell, "Joan, help heal Dempsey! We've got it just fine up here!"
He yelped in surprise as a pillar of white light engulfed a worgen sneaking up on him from his left, making the beast yowl in pain and stagger to one side.
"You do… realize… that healing… takes more out of… me than… this does… right?" Jeanne answered in between pants, shooting off a green ball of energy to finish off that worgen before giving Cerdic a look, "Besides… you need… all the help… you can get…"unds of spells casting as the defenders danced the macabre dance of death
Cerdic gave her a fierce frown and opened his mouth to correct her before realizing that the night had gone silent. The defenders looked around, expecting more to fly over the wall at any moment. After a few tense seconds, Crowley was the first to drop his stance as he rushed over to where the fallen man was and checked on his condition. Relief bled over the man's face when he saw that the bleeding had stopped and Dempsey was starting to stir.
"Light be blessed," Crowley muttered, giving the fallen man a pat on the shoulder and turning to the siblings, "You have my thanks. You three have helped a good man survive another day."
Cerdic strode forward and held out his hand for a terse handshake, which Crowley obliged in after a moment. "We need all the man power we can get. You need any assistance in getting Dempsey back down?"
Crowley gave the group a look over, eyes lingering on an exhausted Jeanne leaning on Ammon's shoulder for support, before giving his answer, "Cerdic, go on ahead and tell the King of our success and that we're coming down with wounded. Also tell him that my arsenals is at his disposal in Josiah's cellar."
Cerdic saluted and made to go fulfill his request before catching sight of his sister. His brows drew together as a worried frown slipped onto his lips.
Ammon, seeing his older brother's look, waved him off while beginning to help Jeanne start for the stairs, "Go. She's just exhausted from all of today's events; I'll see to it that she gets some rest."
After a moment's hesitation, Cerdic nodded and jogged back down the prison roof, seemingly intent on his task. Ammon sighed and braced himself as Jeanne stumbled slightly, giving her a concerned look. Crowley stared at the siblings for a moment before slinging Dempsey's arm around his neck and mimicked the twins in helping him walk.
"When we get back to the King we are going to sit you down and try and get something in your stomach," Ammon said into the labored silence, a little taken aback when Jeanne nodded dimly.
"'M cold, Ammy," she mumbled and Ammon had to catch his surprised stumble before he dropped both of them down the winding stairs.
"You haven't called me that in years," Ammon whispered to himself, lifting a hand to feel his sister's forehead, "By the Light! You're burning up!"
"'M cold." Jeanne insisted irritably, giving Ammon a peeved glare, "An' I hurt. Like a herd of stags hit me."
Ammon took in this information silently and watched as she unconsciously favored her left arm.
"Let me see that," he demanded when they got to the bottom of the stairs and out of view of Crowley's party behind them.
"See what?"
"Your arm, stupid." Quick as a striking snake, Ammon seized her left wrist and tore her sleeve up her arm to reveal her makeshift bandage.
He gave her a quick glare to shut her protests up before they were even voiced and started unwinding the bandage, mindful of the sounds of the stairs creaking above them. He gasped in horror as he finally got to the root of the problem and whipped his gaze to meet hers.
"You said you got this a few hours ago!" he hissed in a mixture of fury and horror, winding the bandage back up as the sound of unsteady footsteps got closer.
"I did! When we were evacuating the civilians!"
"Then how is it this infected?! At the most it should only be at the early stages!"
"I don't bleeding know!"
Ammon snorted disbelievingly and managed to pull her sleeve over her wound again before Crowley's group staggered down the stairs. The large man gave them a confused stare and Ammon made a drinking motion. Understanding washed over his face and he nodded, pausing long enough for the twins to get a long drink out of a water skin and shuffle out the door before moving with them towards the King.
King Greymane's face was equal parts relieved and concerned as the small group shuffled to a stop in front of his horse. Ammon immediately set Jeanne down near the royal guards and rummaged in his pack for some kind of food. He sighed in relief as his hand grasped a heel of bread and quickly handed it to his sister.
"Eat." Ammon glared at the woman until she gave in with a grumble, tearing small chunks off with her teeth.
"Is she alright?" King Greymane demanded from atop his horse.
Ammon hesitated for a split second before looking up at his king and nodding. "She's tired from today. She has not had a chance to rest since she set out with Celestine of the Harvest early this morning."
"Now is a good time as any," King Greymane replied, giving the two a nod, "I sent your brother out to speak with Josiah Avery and requisition that artillery. He should be back soo—"
A loud gunshot rent the air from nearby. Ammon and Jeanne bolted to their feet and rushed towards where they think it originated. It didn't take them long to find the cellar in question; the heavy wooden doors were swung wide open and snarling mastiffs were heard from inside.
"Cerdic!" Jeanne gasped as she practically tripped down the stairs and into a raven-haired woman in her haste to get to him.
"Here, Sister," she heard him call, his voice strained with pain, and she turned to see him leaning against the stone wall cradling his right shoulder.
"What happened?" Jeanne heard Ammon ask as she shuffled over to her older brother and gently began to peel layers of cloth away.
"Cerdic here was being mauled by… Josiah… when I came down. It is fortunate that I was sent down here to oversee the removal of the artillery."
"Josiah..?" Ammon asked and Jeanne tore her eyes away from her task to glance around and found a dead worgen wearing Gilnean clothes.
"Bloody hell," Jeanne muttered, suppressing the urge to vomit as she stared at him, "He turned into one of them…"
She gulped and tuned back to her task, glancing up at Cerdic to see him staring back at her, fear etched deep into his forest eyes. Mutual understanding passed between them and she, lips pressed in a thin line, pressed her palm to the bloody bite and summoned her magic to heal as best she could. Cerdic sighed softly as the bleeding subsided and started as Jeanne staggered to the side and fell to her knees.
"Joan!" Cerdic kneeled to try and aid her but jumped back as a spray of vomit hit the flagstones. The young woman heaved a few more times before shakily wiping her mouth with her sleeve.
"Cerd," she called softly after she tried and failed to stand on her own, "Help me up."
He gently scooped her up, ignoring his protesting shoulder, and gently carried her up and out of the cellar. He set her down against the wall right to the side of it and brushed her sweat-soaked bangs out of her face.
"Is she alright?" a voice asked from behind him and Cerdic half turned towards the speaker.
"Lady Lorna Crowley," he greeted before glancing at Jeanne resting against the building, "I don't know what's wrong with her. She seemed fine when she arrived earlier."
"I'm fine," Jeanne insisted irritably, glaring at the older man with all the strength she could muster, "Just tired."
"Bollocks," Cerdic shot back, worry making his words sharp, "Tell me what's really wrong with you."
Jeanne glared at him for another moment before ignoring his request completely and turning her attention to Lorna. "Where's Ammon?"
Cerdic made an exasperated sound as Lorna glanced towards the sound of a battle close by. "I sent him to root out the worgen hiding in the streets. Apparently, some of them know how to blend into the shadows."
"Wonderful." Jeanne grunted as she shifted, leaning her head back against the filthy bricks. "Cerd, could you get me something light? Cheese… anything..."
"I don't have any food on me…"
"I do." Lorna dug her hand in a small pouch on her hip and tossed a chunk of yellow cheese at Cerdic. "Lord Delroy, mind helping me round up some people to help position the cannons?"
Cerdic glanced down at his sister who just waved at him dismissively. "Go on, you bloody git. It's not like I can move very far very quickly."
"Right…" He gave her a last concerned look before bouncing up and headed around the corner, presumably towards the King and his guardsmen.
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