Chapter 11
Battle! Part 2:
A boy of around the age of twenty-three covered his face to put out the hot ashes that had been launched from Rohan's fireball. The boy fell to the ground and rolled around, screaming until the ashes dissipated. He sighed in relief. Just then, he felt his body jerk upwards into the air and as he soared over the battlement, he sighed, "Well, isn't this nice," just before slamming into an armored group of Temrans with spears.
There were many others just like him who had been picked up by a sentinel and "displaced." Those were Ona's orders: displace the Temrans. "And make sure they don't die. Just toss 'em," she had said while an older Temran squirmed and screamed under her arm. One sentinel asked her why. "It's a decent thing for Sammie."
They seemed equally nonplussed though it was agreed that the humans would not undergo severe harm unless otherwise ordered to do so. Thus, the sentinels were resolved to picking up Temrans at random and tossing them a couple of feet. This caused mayhem amongst the ranks…so much so, Torq, the general and right-hand of Maeve herself, rode out on horse to inspect the chaos.
Torq slid his weight off the horse and watched from a distance as the ranks of hundreds were crumbling bit by bit by half as much Kells soldiers. He growled. "Master of my destiny, what is happening?" Then, he noticed a devilish thing flapping scaled wings furiously in an attempt to land in the midst of the fray. He watched with wide eyes as this creature kicked and pushed until it had managed to secure two Temrans in its massive hands and yank them from the ground. It flew several feet and dropped them both into several other soldiers.
Torq snarled. He gripped his helmet and shoved it on top of his head. Then, he grabbed the reins of his warhorse, jumped on its back and turned it around to report back to the castle.
"I think it's working," said Garrett, sending three sharp blasts from his twin axes into random soldiers.
"Of course it's working, you git!" shouted Angus as he landed the spiked-ball tip of his terra mace into the shields of several Temrans.
"I wasn't talking to you," Garrett snapped. A soldier charged his way with shield and sword but he was ready for the attack. He sliced one axe across the soldier's shield and knocked him over with an elbow-butt to the head. The soldier fell to the ground.
"Thank God," Angus said.
"How are you holding up there, Ivar?" asked Rohan as he sent another fireball into the crowd.
"Better than ever," Ivar said. He spun his trident in his hands and sent a blast, which bounced off from soldier to soldier until five Temrans were on the ground.
"And you princess?" asked Rohan, turning to his left.
A swift wind erupted from her crossbow and leveled off oncoming targets. "If I was any better, I'd hurt myself."
Rohan smiled. It was something to be expected of Angus but when it came from the princess, he enjoyed her cynicism towards an enemy better than his friend's weakness for slapstick humor. The point about Deidre was she didn't try with her life to get a laugh. She just did. And most of the time, it was from him, Rohan.
"Watch yourself!" Ivar shouted.
Rohan jumped back just as an arrow tip nicked his armor. Spacing out was dangerous, he reminded himself as he sent several fireballs back to the longbow men. "Thanks!" he said to Ivar.
"Just pay attention and you won't have to," said Ivar.
A sentinel zoomed over their heads and released a screaming human to the ground.
Ona chuckled. She slammed her hooves against the ground and stood, admiring the scene. Nearby, the two knights in brown and in white were snapping snide comments to each other at every interval of the fight. Ona strolled over to them, as arrows whizzed through her body. Some of the soldiers frowned nervously. Those arrows could penetrate male…and yet it went right through these beings as though there was nothing there at all. She winked at one of those soldiers, who was gawking at her. He passed out.
Angus launched a few swings of his mace into the crowd and a horse was hit. It fell to its side, knocking its rider and pinning him underneath the weight of the horse. Ona winced. "Oof," she said to Angus. "Bit of a nasty shock for him, though, isn't it?"
He eyed her. "I'll say."
"Which one are you? Oh wait," she said, pressing a palm to her head. "You're the thief. Yeah, I definitely remember you."
"Oh really," he said, turning to face her. "And just why is that?"
Ona changed into her human form and presented herself a little too close to Angus. She looked him up and down and felt up his armor. Her face was breathing just inside his mask. He shuddered. Her breath was lingering but it was…evil. But the sensations she was giving him made him want to stop fighting and call off his armor. He shook himself. "Get back in line!" he shouted. "Or…do whatever it is you do." He turned back to the fighting, hoping she would take him seriously.
Instead, she leaned over his shoulder, giggling. "If I could, I would…."
Rohan glanced to his left and raised his brow. Angus was in the process of fending off a group of soldiers but a sentinel was speaking to him in his ear. All of a sudden, Angus whipped around and pushed her out of the way. "Where do you get off!" Rohan heard him scream.
Ona laughed and switched into her real form. The effect was sinister and Angus seemed to resonate his disgust throughout the atmosphere. Rohan frowned. The sentinel had obviously said something that would tick Angus off…which meant it had to be something concerning his intelligence or his ego. Or both.
Just then, there was a tumultuous battle cry from over the hill. A lone rider was poised gently upon a tall horse. The dark cloak wrapping the rider billowed in the wind. The knights as one knew immediately who it was that rode upon that horse. And they all as one shuddered.
'Maeve,' they all thought.
Another rider, squatter and heavier, rode beside her, presumably Torq. They cast eyes that which were darkened by none other than pure intent and that intent was nothing but full of evil. She alone sent chills to all who stood nearby. They did not have to turn to know that she was there. It was felt along the hairs of the soldiers' necks. Soldiers of both sides were equally unsettled.
The knights glanced at each other. Ivar spoke to Rohan. "Do you think she knows about the Sam and the villagers?"
"Sweet mercy, I hope not," said Rohan.
Upon her perch, Maeve's countenance dipped through the masses as a grinning poison. At her side she held her staff, which was topped off in the shape of ram's horns. It glowed a sickly green where the stone was set in between the horns and seemed to intensify as her eyes followed the flying sentinels sending off her soldiers. A flicker of a smile touched her cheek.
"Well," she said to her right-hand man. "You were right."
Inside, the castle had suddenly become…empty. Not of people, because certainly the queen would not authorize the evacuation of her entire castle. It only seemed empty because something of great influence had just left it or someone who was in possession of infecting power was ripped away and left behind a feeling of, for lack of a better word, relief. Sam breathed deeply. The queen was not here in her castle. She turned around to face the villagers. "Hold tight, I'm going to find us a way out."
Some people nodded but most were too nervous to pay any attention. Mothers gripped sons to their chests; several husbands soothed their wives; siblings kept each other vigilant. Sam nodded. She glanced at the old man, who she had first met in the cell. "Keep everyone here. I'm going to go around the castle and find us an escape route that leads us away from the battle outside."
The old man sighed. "Just…don't be too long," he said.
"Faster than a jack rabbit on a hot date," she muttered. She walked away and down the next corridor, there was an open window. It was small but she could fit. She dropped outside and turned around to soar up the wall of the castle until she could see above the roof. To her right, the battle raged on. She looked below. There was a courtyard but the gates were rigidly locked tight. But Sam did not hesitate as a result of this obstacle. It was the three-headed dragon guarding the outside that unnerved her. It was black and its scales glimmered purple in the moonlight. Although it was a magnificent creature, each of its jaws carried a dozen, feet-long teeth jagged and deadly. In no way could a sentinel pistol harm this dragon. Sam had supposed a dragon had some sort of protective spells contained within its scales. There were stories she read when she was younger that made a huge, resounding claim to this fact about mythical creatures. Only such creatures were real in this time and in this place.
She sighed. Sam hung her head and glanced to her left. There was the tower she had entered. She shuddered, remembering her flight over without having noticed the dragon below. "Hmm, another interesting quandary, wrapped in an enigma and decorated in a paradox of sorts," she said. After much mental deliberation, Sam hesitantly decided that she needed an extra pair of wings. The only means of escape that would not attract the attentions of the dragon or the soldiers and one that would bring the villagers to a safe destination point was to pull each and every one out of the castle and relocate them into the forest. "Just to let You know, I hate this," she said, looking up. 'Ona is an annoying twit,' Sam was thinking. At least, this part of the process could be done easily.
'Yes ma'am?' Ona thought back.
Sam paused. 'Get over here.'
'Where's here?'
'Uranus…just follow your instinct.'
'Righto, Captain!'
Sam closed her eyes. She crouched on the ramparts, remaining partially hidden by cracking foundation. Ona arrived within seconds. She was in her normal form. "You rang?"
Sam inclined her head. "The villagers. We have to yank them out like teeth from a dirty mouth."
"Nice one," said Ona.
Sam smirked. "How many wings can you get up here without causing too much of a distraction? Now, I'm serious, Ona. Don't give me a half-ass answer. We're really strapped tight for escape options and I'd rather not have to duke it out with a dragon."
Ona thought. "Four, five tops," she said.
This made Sam frown. "You sure you can't get at least two more?"
"How many villagers are there?"
"At least fifty."
"You sure?"
Sam thought. "I would have spent precious little time counting but I had thought better of it when they wanted to get out of this castle alive."
Ona rolled her eyes. "Hold on."
Minutes later, Ona appeared with one other sentinel. It was hairy and seemed tired. "This is Mackel. There will be others to follow but we're going to spread ourselves out so as not to seem too attractive."
"Not that you weren't already," said Sam.
Mackel groaned. "Where are the humans?"
"Follow me," Sam said.
One by one the villagers had been plucked out of the castle. The old man had protested, fearing for the life of his daughter, who hid within his protective embrace. However, he volunteered to go. He bade his daughter well and was taken to the edge of the window. Mackel gripped the old man under his arms. "Don't look down," said Mackel. "You'll scare yourself to death."
"Is that some sick, twisted joke?" asked the old man.
Mackel smiled, which bore several jagged fangs. "Divine humor. Pardon me," he said.
'Well, at least they're polite,' thought the man.
Ona picked up a young girl around seven years of age as well as the girl's brother, who was at least ten. Sam took a teen. They made this trip at least seven times before a third sentinel showed up and began taking villagers.
When they left the castle, they all went towards the protection of the forests and where there was a large opening in the canopy, the sentinels and Sam would soar down and drop off their passengers. Eventually, every single villager had been taken back from the castle and secured in the forest all while the battle still raged on. The sentinels returned to the fighting but Ona and Sam remained behind.
"How can we ever repay you all for what you have done for us?" asked the old man of Sam when they were all about to head off in the direction of Kells castle.
It was to this question Sam had blushed. "You don't have to repay me. This is my debt to humanity since I obviously possess none."
"Well, you're more human than that bitch who stole us from our homes!" he said. There was a quiet uproar in agreement with what he said.
Sam smiled. "I'm glad you feel that way."
"Hey," he said. "I'm Collum Mclean," he said, thrusting out a dirty, old hand.
"Sam Fitzgerald," she said, shaking his hand.
"This is me daughter, Katherine," he thumbed to his left. A shy, pensive girl with brown hair bowed her head slightly.
Sam nodded. Just then, she felt something nudge her in the shoulder. She rolled her eyes. "Oh, this is Ona." She did nothing to indicate the sentinel hovering behind them.
Collum beamed. He shook Ona's hand. "And the same goes for you, milady."
"She's no lady, mark my words," said Sam.
He frowned. Ona grinned. "I have no gender."
"And no brain," Sam muttered.
"Well, still," said Collum. "Many thanks to you and your kind."
"Don't mention it," waved Ona.
Sam stopped walking. "I'm gonna head back now," she said. "You," she said fiercely, looking at Ona. "Protect these people. Screw this up and I'm sending you back."
"To the castle?" Ona snorted.
"To where you belong," she said.
"Mmm, aha," nodded Ona. "Right, well, these people are in good hands. You can bet on it."
"I hope."
