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-Chapter Sixteen:

The bell rang during the noon meal while everybody was eating.

It wasn't the usual bell that announced the change in classes. Nor was it the chime of the great clock that kept everybody on track. This was the bell that hung above the gatehouse. The bell, that when rung, could be heard all over the palace. The bell that gave vibrations you could feel in your bones.

All the staff, knights, and older pages knew what that bell meant...it meant that Tortall was under attack. Immediately Lord Wyldon and the other teachers, sitting at the high table in the front of the food hall, stood up and the training master began barking out orders.

At first there was chaos. Most of the pages had stood up and food trays tumbled to the floor and drinks were spilled. Kel could hear the sound of armor as knights, in full battle gear, ran past the doorway towards the main entrance.

"Pages!" Lord Wyldon was yelling. "Stay where you are! Teachers bring bows and quivers!"

The pages remained where they stood but a constant buzz of voices filled the hall. But soon the teachers and staff rushed in, their arms filled with weaponry.

"Fourth year pages grab spears and head towards the main entrance!" Lord Wyldon ordered them. The older pages left their places at the table, grabbed spears from the pile in the middle of the floor, and rushed out of the hall, in charge of three knights that came to lead them.

Mitzi went with Kel and the other third years when they went forward, grabbing bows and quivers, and heading towards the south battlements. Now she could hear the sound of battle coming from outside the palace. There were shrieks that didn't come from any ordinary animal, and the familiar voices of knights and training staff shouting orders.

"Stay behind me," Kel told Mitzi as she and their friends ran down the hallways, listening to the sound of flying arrows. "We can't have you get killed."

Mitzi didn't answer.

The third year pages came out of the palace into the courtyard adjacent to the stables. Above the stables were the battlements, ledges that connected the towers. On the battlements were already many knights, but there were several gaps. Rushing up the stairs that led to the towers the pages filled in the gaps.

Kel and Mitzi were nearest the tower. Neal and Merric came over and joined them.

"Be careful, Mitzi," the green-eyed boy whispered to her.

Mitzi nodded, not able to speak through teeth that threatened to chatter.

"With your skills you might hit one of us with your arrows."

"Very funny, Neal," Kel scolded. "This is serious. Tortall's under attack! Can't you even pretend to act like this is not a joke?"

Mitzi was staring wide-eyed at the scene before her. Archers on either side of them were shooting through arrow-holes in the battlements at attacking immortals.

"I've never seen anything like this before," Kel was saying.

"I've never even read about anything like this," Neal added.

"What?" Merric asked.

"We've fought immortals before," Kel explained. "But nothing like this..." she stared over the battlements at the herds of armed centaurs and the flocks of hurroks that flew overhead.

"But never in this number...and I've seen them working with each other before," Neal commented.

Down below them were herds of centaurs and groups of minotaur filling the streets of the city below and surrounding the east wall. Flooding through the gate were knights on horseback to meet the monster but arrows also flew from on top of wall. Winged horses flew overhead, dodging arrows and occasionally swooping and diving.

"The strangest thing is that they're not attacking the city," Neal continued. And indeed while the city was being roamed by the immortals, they were not attacking the fiefs where townspeople went for protection. All the monsters were surrounding the palace, centaurs firing arrows back, minotaurs charging the soldiers on foot.

"I don't see anyone controlling them," Merric said. "There are no humans anywhere."

"And their formation is weird," Kel commented. "They're set up in ranks so we can all see them, but they can't all reach us. And they're at a terrible disadvantage...there's no way the centaur's arrows can get past this wall. The hurroks are in plain view of our own missiles, and the minotours are surrounded."

"You sound just like a general," Merric told her.

"But why are they doing this? It's not a very effective formation."

"No," replied Neal. "But it's an effective formation for showing off force."

"I don't get it," Mitzi broke in.

"Well. Maybe they don't really plan on taking the palace. Maybe all they want to do is show us how much force they really do have. Show us that they have numbers to spare."

Merric yelped triumphantly as he fired an arrow at a diving hurrok, clipping its wing and causing it to turn around unsteadily. "Yeah! Take that you overgrown horse with feathers!"

"So you mean that this may not be a serious battle?" Mitzi asked Neal.

"It's possible."

Mitzi sighed.

"Look at this," Kel told them all. She pointed to another hurrok that was spinning a crazy zig-zag pattern in the air. It swung its head back and forth and the wings moved mechanically, but it seemed to be fighting something.

A minotaur gave a last roar that caused Mitzi to jump in fright. Looking down she saw two knights finishing it off. The sight made her nauseous but she couldn't tear her eyes away from the bright red blood that was staining the beast's furry body.

Just as she was about to cry out in fear Neal moved in front of her. With his tall body in the way she couldn't see the gruesome scene anymore. Mitzi realized she had been holding her breath and she began breathing again.

"Thanks."

"It's nothing," he answered, politely and indifferently, not in his usual friendly manner.

Kel too, began firing arrows, staying behind the wall for cover, but aiming her bows through the slit in the stone. Neal and Merric were doing the same thing...only Mitzi's hands were shaking too bad for her to steady a bow.

Then she saw Numair and Daine. The mage was perched on top of the gate, hands spread wide as magic cackled between them like energy waiting to be loosed. Daine too seemed to concentrating.

"Now's a good time for me to practice those spells," Mitzi told herself.

Kneeling because her legs trembled too much she called upon her own amber-colored magic. She felt it rise into her open palm and sit there. She took it and twisted it with her mind as much as her fingers, and sent it out nearby where it kept spinning. A nearby hurrok, unable to see the spinning magic, flew too close and was swept up, wings spread wide as it spun around. The immortal gave an ear-splitting shriek that caused Mitzi to loose concentration and drop the spell. But the hurrok had already been sent spinning far away.

"Wow," Merric said, turning around to face the girl.

"I didn't know you could do that," Neal added.

"That's just because she doesn't show off her gift like you do," Kel replied.

"Hey...kids," the knight next to them said.

"Yes, sir?" Merric saluted.

"It looks like the fight is moving to the other side. I don't think we need you here anymore."

"Where do you want us to go?"

"Go around the corner there. I saw Prince Roald go that way, it's not good for him to be all alone."

"Right away!" Merric answered primly and set off in the direction the knight had ordered them to, crouched down so that the wall protected him from the arrows flying overhead.

Neal and Kel followed him, Kel slinging her quiver over her shoulder. Mitzi was farther behind, convincing herself that this was a good idea.

"This is just great," she said, talking to herself. "Just peachy. My betrothed gets to see the cowardly side of me. Fun."

"Hey! Roald!" Merric waved cheerily at the prince as they rounded around the corner and saw the prince peering over the wall.

The prince raised a finger to his lips.

"Quiet? Hey! Kel! Neal! Listen...Roald wants us to be quiet!"

Kel, who was several yards behind the red-headed boy, wished she could tape his big mouth shut.

The four of them crawled over to the prince.

"You can get up now," he told them. "Hear that? That's the horn of retreat. I think the immortals are leaving."

"Really?" Merric looked slightly disappointed.

"Cheer up," Neal said. "At least we won't have classes today."

"Yeah!"

"You shouldn't be over here," Roald said to Mitzi, leaving the others and moving towards the princess. "You should be inside where you won't get hurt."

"What about you?" she replied. "And I didn't have much of a choice. People think I'm just another expendable page to be bossed around."

"This is all part of my training."

"Hey Roald!" Neal called out. "I don't think all the immortals have left. I see something down there."

All five rushed over and peered into the foliage underneath the wall. Sure enough there was something causing tree branches and the grass to move. Immediately Roald and Kel headed down the stairs towards the gate that lead outside. It was smaller door, but protected by two gatehouses and a portcullis. Right now the portcullis had been raised so that the knights could go in and out freely. This side had not yet been attacked.

The four pages open the barred gate, Mitzi following a bit more reluctantly. They stopped right under the doorway, so that they could make a quick escape. Watching the rustling grass Kel notched an arrow to her bow, and fired it into the moving foliage. Before the arrow even thudded into the ground a large centaur had sprung from behind a grassy knoll and charge towards them.

The part horse humanoid rushed towards them, a shield hefted and a spiked club in the other hand. Its four hooves brought it up to them in a matter of second. Kel shot off another arrow but it thudded harmlessly in the immortal's shield.

The centaur reared and pawed at Roald who was the closest. But suddenly he spotted Mitzi, and, almost mechanically he seemed to forget about Roald. Mitzi stumbled backwards but could not escape the centaur. She barely had time to cast her spell before the centaur brought his club crashing down. But the club slid off the air that had hardened in front of the princess. Mitzi was not hurt, but she felt the force of the blow and dropped to her knees.

Angered, the centaur let out a furious roar and reared up, bringing his hooves slamming down on the air-shield. Again, the spell protected the princess, but her arm trembled under the blow.

"Hey! You get away from her!" Roald growled and went forth.

But the centaur seemed to ignore the shout and for a third time tried to hit the fallen girl. Only when Roald's spear pierced his side did the immortal turn around. There was an unnatural look in the creature's eyes that made the prince uneasy. Mitzi, the spell still enacted, was crouched above the ground, breathing hard.

"Get out of my way, boy!" the centaur told him.

"Everyone else has left! You better go with them and remember that Tortall doesn't stand for traitors!"

"I would if I could! But my master has a different mission for me now that I have spotted her." The centaur kept his club raised above the girl.

"Just leave and we won't hurt you," the prince tried to reason. Kel had come up by him with her bow notched; next to her was Neal whose hands glowed with green magic.

"I can't!" the centaur repeated, and there was a hunted look on his face.

With sudden movements Roald struck, catching the centaur right in the stomach with his staff. Kel, using some of her Shang tricks, disarmed the centaur from his club and Merric kicked out near the weak point right above the immortal's knee. Neal rushed over to Mitzi and helped her up. The girl was dazed and stunned...but alive and leaned gratefully on Neal.

All this happened at the same time and the centaur collapsed.

"Maybe now you'll tell us exactly what your master plans to do and why you are serving him."

"You think we are serving him?" the centaur hissed. He was bleeding from many wounds that he had already gotten from the previous battle and he was out of breath. "We are forced into doing this. Rounded up and branded with this..." he pointed to a leather collar –similar to those used on slaves- around his burly neck.

"You're a slave?" Kel asked.

"Yes..." the collar was beginning to tighten around his neck, the way it was magically programmed to do if the captive began either spilling secrets or trying to escape.

"Tell us what your master plans to do!" Roald commanded.

"I'm only telling you this...because my time is near," the centaur continued. He was obviously dying, bleeding freely from too many wounds. The collar began to tighten more and more, making his breathing raspier. "He...wants...her. He's...gotten an...alliance from Lorderr...by promising to give...her...to...the prince."

"Whose her?" Merric asked. Roald and Kel, who knew perfectly well, shushed him.

"I...tell...you this because...Lord Henri...is forcing my...kind into his army..."

The centaur made several more gasps for air, but the collar had tightened too much, and his wounded ribs were exhausted. Mitzi let out a terrified cry as she watched the immortal gasp for air. One again Neal went in front of her, shielded her from the sight.

Roald watched it sadly, and threw his staff down when the centaur lay dead.

-IMPORTANT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!: (read below)

-I made this chapter extra long because I am leaving for a two week trip to South Africa. I won't be able to update at all in those two weeks. Oh...and ONE more thing. I'm NOT gonna update unless I get FIVE more reviews!!! FIVE!!!! Puh lease press the purply button!