Heroes of Magic and Might
Chapter 33 – Taking stock
…
"Panic? Really? That's your idea?"
"I never said it was a good idea."
It was unfair, blatantly so. They'd just finished one prolonged uphill battle, now there was another headed their direction. Unfair… just… unfair. And she expected him to just have a plan for it all. The expectations were just completely—unfair.
"We wit you boss," one of the goblins shouted
"Yeah! We got dis."
A general support echoed from his minions, and that was unfair too. It was a testament to their faith they could still be so positive. Half those that had come in with him were already dead, yet the remaining half were still ready for more.
He didn't know what to say. The words literally escaped him, slippery bastards.
"Heddy! How long before they get here?"
"Hours?" she moved about his arm as she thought. "Big army. It won't move fast through the trees. They had boars."
"Boars?" If they were Caladonian boars he was going to cry.
"Can I just ask, why is an army of Ashe looking for you?" asked Gabby.
"I bet I can guess. Big strappin lad like im," said the plump witch, again with the salacious look.
"You hush," said Harry, causing the fat witch to cackle madly. "The army thing is new. We got away from their hunters a couple weeks ago. I thought we lost them."
"You don't lose the Ashe," said the old witch. "They hold a grudge like no one else."
"Even you," the plump one added to the ire of the old one.
Harry let the chuckles and growls run for a time, time enough to think, if only just a bit. His instincts were quite clear where they stood on the matter, as they usually were. But the thinking brain, his reason, the one that was sat at the head of the court, it had to point out the obvious flaw, the ultimate truth, the things he didn't want to hear.
"What do we do?"
He looked at the vampire who stared back devoid of her usual snark and sass, gazing at him with that innocent child face, the sight of which turned his instincts to traitors who sided with reason and started plotting.
"Alright," he said, quietly, more to himself than to her. She smiled anyway.
"Listen up!" he shouted, and all eyes turned to him. "There's an army on the way, and let it never be said that Harry Potter didn't know how to show the proper, hospitality."
The goblins and lizardmen chuckled, as he turned to the witches who looked back, a triumvirate of uncertainty. "But first, what to do with you three?"
… Just five more minutes
"Boren? Boren!"
The minotaur rousing was a slow process. The opening of his eyelids required much work from the rest of his face, nose twitching, ears flicking, even the mouth had to move around before things could really get into motion.
A hot steamy exhale shot from his flaring nostrils as his eyes rolled forward and focused on the wizard. Then he saw the witch standing behind him and things returned to focus. He tried to sit up but the wizard, seeing his demeanor, held him down with a strength he'd not have expected of the human.
"Easy," he said, holding his gaze, eyes as hard as emeralds, and no glow.
"You spelled me," it wasn't a question and the wizard only nodding acknowledged. The minotaur chuffed a grin, "You got balls wizard. How long was I out?"
"Fifteen minutes."
"Huh. What'd I miss?" he said this paying special attention to the witch paying him the same.
The wizard sighed, long and heavy, "Too much. There's an army on the way here, and I'm going to fight it. I could use your help."
The minotaur stared, his massive bovine eyes bulging like black stones before he broke out in a heavy bellowing laugh. "Balls wizard. Balls! So, who're we fighting?"
"Not sure what's all in it, but there's Ashe at the head."
"Pig shit!" the minotaur cursed. "You do know how to pick a fight."
"Spose I do. You in?"
"Are they?" he asked, noting the other witches nearby looking very much not dead.
"I need all the help I can get, and they do owe me for, you know, not killing them."
"You trust 'em?"
"Can always kill them later."
Again, the minotaur laughed, "I like you wizard… Harry. I'll fight with you. What do we do?"
… That's bull
"You're serious. You tied all your wards to that cauldron?" a cauldron which was now cracked all the way through, the gemstone once at the bottom now a fine silicate dust.
"It's really the best way to do it," explained the plump witch as they all trudged down the stairs. "How'd ya think we got them ruddy big fireballs. T'ain't no one witch what can throw around spells like that."
"If you say so," Harry said, shaking his head.
"I does say so lad," the witch replied with a familiar smugness, the kind he usually associated with Rosebud.
Speaking of sassy females with names, "What am I supposed to call you lot anyway. Something a bit more than 'Hey you' might be useful, no."
"Well, you can just call me Nanny," said the plump witch, by far the most personable of the trio, "This'un ere we just call Granny," the taciturn archetype who glared at being mentioned, "And this one, uh, well…"
"Marigold," the soppy one interjected, earning her a look from the wizard she wholly misinterpreted, "Yes, yes, it's a silly flower name, I know."
"What's silly about flower names?" Harry asked. "My mother's name was Lily."
"She nice," the minotaur asked, filling the silence made deafening by the blush coming off the soppy one.
"Don't know. She was murdered when I was a year old. I was raised by my aunt and uncle… they weren't."
Passing through the carnage of the rooms hastened their steps till they at last reached the minotaur room where the ox headed minotaur still slept, held down by the transfigured floor, metal collar still around his neck.
"Remove that," Harry commanded.
Nanny scurried forward when Granny looked ready to object. A clink and a clank and the collar came free. Cautiously, Harry enervated the minotaur who came around even slower than Boren.
"Can you understand me?" Harry asked, but the ox head just stared blankly like he hadn't even heard… oh, right. "Unplug his ears?"
Twitching his open ears, the ox minotaur stared, intent yet perfectly docile. Taking a chance, calculated, knowing Boren was within easy reach, he undid the transfigured prison and offered his hand to the minotaur.
The minotaur continued to stare.
"Just take it, we don't have all day," said Boren.
"Why?" the ox asked, speaking at last.
"There's an army on its way. We need every hand to fight them," said Harry.
The ox groaned, whined almost when he said, "I don't wanna fight. All we done since getting here is fight and I don't wanna anymore."
Harry wondered if the 'here' he referred to was the witches tower or the world in general; given all he'd heard and seen it could be either one. "I'd like to think I can talk it out, but I don't have much hope of that working. The Ashe being quite unreasonable by nature as I've come to learn."
The mention of the Ashe got a similar reaction from the ox as it had the others, though he still wasn't any more keen to fight. With great reluctance, and the speed associated with such, the ox hauled himself from the floor and joined the team, under protest.
… Empty the closets
The kobolds met them at the bottom of the stairs, tails wagging as granny stepped out, teeth bared when Harry followed after.
"Alright! That's enough out of you lot!" the acerbic witch snapped, cutting off the growl with a whipped dog whimper. "By right of conquest, the tower now belongs to the wizard. He is your new master."
A series of questioning sounds followed this statement, but the old witch gave no time for them to turn into words. "More importantly, there is an army headed our direction and the wards are gone. I need everyone on the walls now! Prepare for a siege."
The crowd of kobolds scurried to their task, but a few remained behind, against their better judgement no doubt, mincing and whimpering like they had to use the newspaper but didn't know how to ask.
"What!"
"It's just," the bravest one said, "there's that bunch near the gate what is turned to stone. What is we supposed to do about them?"
"Yeah, my brother's one of 'em," a slightly less brave kobold barked, followed by a whimper.
The whimper became a flinch became a burning desire to be anywhere else when Harry stepped forward, "Your brother, you say."
His head nodded in the affirmative, despite the contrary orders from his brain which couldn't decide what he ought to do but were seriously considering something involving the bladder.
"Then you should be able to explain to him what's going on. Good. Come with me," said Harry, setting off for the door then stopping, "Come to think of it. Can one of you three do something about those skeletons so they won't attack us?"
"Skeletons was attached to the wards lad," said Nanny. "Taint nothin but bone now."
"I think I could do something about that," said Rosebud. "And once we collect your pack, maybe add some zombies to the line as well."
Harry smiled, "Right, forgot about them."
His first encounter with humanity had left a foul taste in his mouth, but that wasn't all he walked away with. Apart from the zombie she'd used to drag him out of the river, there had been another seven corpses lying about like driftwood on the shores further up toward the mine.
Rather than dispose of them, he'd turned all of them, the mobile one included, into small wooden dolls which he'd then stuffed into his pack so the vampire could play with them later, which she did. Come to find out, his transfiguration did not undo her necromancy.
"Harry!" Gabby jumped in before he could run off, "There may be some weapons back at the forge we can use. I keep a secret cache some ways behind the forge, hidden in the woods. If you could do that… teleport you do?"
"Can those zombies use weapons?" he asked the vampire.
"Not well," she said. "But a sharp tool or heavy implement swung around with zombie strength can do a lot of damage even if it does lack finesse."
Harry nodded, filing away several questions for later consideration, "Heddy. Fly back to the forge and see if they left anyone there."
The owl hooted, bobbed twice then took to the air.
"Alright! The rest of you, empty out the closets. Bring out anything and everything we can use."
Striding with purpose toward the gate the kobold scurried to keep up. Rosebud, accustomed to his long stride, skipped girlishly, easily keeping pace, unlike the half goblin who was forced to scurry like the kobold.
It was a few wand strokes to undo his transfiguration, by which point Cherry had appeared, carrying his pack. Where she had stowed it, he didn't know and knew better than to ask.
Un-stoning the skeletons had the combined effect of making them not only bone, but also properly dead again. Rosebud quickly went to work while he went digging for the zombies. She had one getting to its feet as he pulled out the last wooden doll and reverted them to full size living dead.
"Ugh! That is rank!" Gabby exclaimed.
"Water rot," said Harry; Rosebud said nothing, jumping from one skeleton to the next.
Harry, with not to do but wait, looked out at the tree line. The owl had said it would be hours, but he never felt he was that lucky. They'd be there soon enough. And he needed to be ready.
He considered the field. He was still considering the field when the last of the skeletons rose and the owl returned.
"There are two. Left behind or straggling behind. They have pig heads."
"Orcs," said Rosebud.
"Are they resistant to magic?" Harry asked.
"Not that I'm aware of."
"Swords?"
"Definitely not."
"Good," he said with maybe a little more malice than necessary. "Heddy, you stay here with Rosebud. Gabby, take my hand, this could be a bit rough."
The half goblin looked at his hand like she expected it to bite, an odd color coming to her cheeks.
"Just do it already," said the vampire, swatting her hard enough to knock her into Harry.
The half goblin squeaked then vanished along with the wizard. The two reappeared outside the ruined forge, not three feet from a pair of ugly piggish humanoids who fell over themselves at the sudden intrusion.
While Gabby fought to keep down her stomach, Harry fought to part the pig heads from their bodies. A short bout of violence, he whipped the blood from his blade before returning to his passenger.
"You okay?"
"Is it—oo, ugh… is it always like that?" she moaned.
"It's always hard for first timers," at least that's what he'd been told. "Come on. We need to get those weapons and get back before that army."
Gabby nodded, staggering a bit unsteadily as she led him around her decimated home and into the woods to a large old tree. Grabbing what looked like a bit of holly, she opened a masterfully hidden door and pulled out an old, long box.
"What's in here then?"
"Swords mostly," she said, going into the hollow for another. "I like making swords. There's so many different kinds."
"Ever use any of them?"
"Tested. Never really had to do much fighting, not like that. That idiot on the pig was… well… have I told you how much I appreciated what you did?"
There was that color in her cheeks again. He might have wondered about it if they weren't in such a hurry. "Don't worry about it," he said, gripping the boxes and the half goblin before disappearing again.
He had barely returned, and Gabby was again bent over fighting her stomach's natural inclinations, when he was accosted by a frantic Elwin dragging him across the tower to a room at the back, one of those they hadn't been able to open.
Well it was open now, and Granny was shouting furiously at something hiding in the shadows while Nanny tried her best to calm Granny and cajole the hidden… whatever it was.
"She won't come out," said Bill by way of explanation. "Granny yells at her, but she ain't got one of them collars so they can't make her, and she just keeps hissing at them."
"No, not hissing," Harry hissed, frightening the small man who stood frozen as Harry marched into the quarrel.
"You get out here now you! We're all for it, they won't spare you just cuz you didn't fight now quit yur skulkin and get out here!"
The old witch's fury made the various furrows in her face appear even deeper. She looked like someone had taken the oldest, twistiest bit of driftwood they could find and turned it into a person. An angry person.
"No! Never! Will die first. You may be master here, but you are not my master!" the voice hissed furiously, causing Harry to return in kind.
"I AM MASTER HERE!" he hissed like a thousand-year-old serpent.
A stunned silence answered back from the shadows. She clearly hadn't expected such a reply, and he was, almost certain, the one hiding was female. It sounded right and looked right as well when she slowly slithered out of the dark recess, revealing an amalgam form. A woman's torso adjoined to a serpent's body.
Though this was not the most striking thing about her, not the cool gray blue coloration of her scales that ran from the serpent tail up the sides of her torso, across the shoulders of her four arms, speckling the cheeks and forehead under a fringe of black hair that ran in a long tail down her back.
No, the most striking thing, as he stared, was how she stared back, or didn't.
"You are blind," he hissed.
"I do not need eyes to see you," she replied, slithering forward to a sudden halt when the manacles on all four wrists ran out of give.
"What are you?" he asked.
A rude question, even if asked without malice. The serpent woman was much affronted, crossing her arms, after slithering back far enough. "So, it is not enough I am chained in this place, now my very kind must be forgotten! Outrageous."
"Are you going to tell me or are you just going to pout?"
The serpent girl squawked. "I do not pout," she declared sourly as her lower lip protruded dominantly.
She may have been protesting but even he, socially retarded as he often was, could tell it was an act. She hated Granny, that was true, but she was talking to him, more than that even, she wanted to talk to him. She kept glancing like she was waiting for him to say something else; she wanted him to say something else.
"What is your name?" seemed like a good place to start.
"What does it matter?" she fired back primly.
"If I am to ask for your help, it seems only polite I should know your name."
Fearlessly he walked closer, easily within the range of the give of her chains. He heard Nanny trying to discreetly call him back, but he ignored her. The serpent girl did not ignore him.
"You are either very stupid or very brave," she said.
"Fine line," he replied. "What is your name?"
She considered. "Kali," she said at last.
"I need your help Kali."
She snorted, "Yes, you wish me to fight for you."
"I wish you to fight with me. It's me they're here for. I'll not ask to be protected, but I can't fight an entire army by myself and hope to win."
"At least you have some sense."
Her remark was acerbic, but he could tell there was little venom in it. He knew venom.
"Please, Kali?"
She visibly squirmed at this entreaty, doubtless a word she had never heard from the witches, please.
"Well, if I am to do anything then you must remove these," she said, presenting her manacles. "Go on and fetch the key while I think about it."
"You've had your time to think," Harry said.
It was first year magic to unlock her manacles, even though he hadn't used the spell since Hogwarts, the iron bracelets clattered to the ground at a snap.
A moment of stunned shock was followed by vicious action. Her body surged, four hands seizing him with surprising strength, shoving him to the floor as her mouth opened revealing vicious fangs that pressed in, inches from his face.
"No!" he commanded, not her but the others who moved to aid him.
"Are ye mad!" Nanny cried. "She's going to kill you."
"No, she won't," he said.
"I will," she hissed, pressing in closer, a hairs breadth.
"No, you won't," he hissed back, tranquil as a stream. "You won't kill me."
"How do you know I won't?"
How did he know? "You won't."
His confidence was absolute, she was taken aback. Fangs slid back and the face of a vicious predator became a somewhat confused girl.
"You do not know what I am, yet you believe I will not kill you. Madness."
"Maybe," he acknowledged. "But I think it matters less that I know what you are, than who you are."
"You hardly know that either."
"True," he really was crazy; oh well. "But I think, despite our appearances, we aren't so different, not in the ways that matter. What we really want. Home, friends… someone to talk to."
Perhaps it was her blindness that made her face so expressive, but he knew he'd hit the nail on the head and he left it there, left it for her to do with what she would. The ball was in her court.
"What is your name wizard?"
"Harry. Harry Potter."
Still holding him, she pressed herself in close, nose to nose, holding herself just over him, "Harry Potter," she said, then smiled. "I will fight with you, Harry Potter."
