The deck clashed against five sturdy bars on the opposite side bank, resounding into the dead of night with a sound like a thunderclap.
Valygar wiped sweat from his forehead with a brown hand. He glanced over the broken wall atop the parapet, looking down from about fifty feet high. The contingent of thirty soldiers below, with the leader of the garrison, Captain Arat, riding a chestnut warhorse at the forefront, patiently waited on the opposite side of the moat around the castle until the chains attached to the deck stopped rattling and swaying.
Then, with a blow of the horn, the company rushed forward, their boots roaring across the drawbridge and stirring the chains again, crossing into the courtyard swiftly and with purpose.
For a moment Valygar forgot all about his strained, aching muscles as he watched their approach. Bringing down the drawbridge, he thought, had been satisfying to watch.
But before long, Mazzy called to him, her voice carrying unusually well across the noise. "Goodman Valygar, we ought to leave at once."
Valygar gestured towards the massive stone wall just below them. "Going back the way we came? Or —"
"I doubt it's necessary," Mazzy said. "Nalia, do you know the way down from here?"
The girl Mazzy addressed wasn't far away. Like Valygar, she had also watched as the soldiers thundered across the bridge, leaning against what was likely a compromised bit of broken masonry, tightly holding onto a salvaged crossbow she'd picked up somewhere but hadn't used.
Nalia, the daughter of the castle's lord, was only about eighteen years old. She wore a simple linen dress with expensive, eminently practical shoes and was at least a foot shorter than Valygar, but she carried herself as though she were used to giving orders — pretty much like any rich young teenager he'd seen slumming it in the Docks District.
He'd asked her about that. Nalia had vehemently denied ever doing something so common as "slumming it" and insisted she visited the worst parts of Athkatla for charitable purposes, which to Valygar just sounded like "slumming it" with extra steps. Because, at the end of the tenday, she could still go home to a warm bath, plenty of food, and a down bed inside her castle.
At least, until now. She'd clearly been running on pure adrenaline for the past day or two, but it had taken its toll on her. He wondered when she'd last slept, or at least rested.
Likely she'd been the one who sent a messenger raven towards Imnesvale. Mazzy and Valygar had been back in the village for around a tenday when a plume of grey smoke stretched across the sky to the west, casting a red, hazy rim around the sunset.
Fearing another Sythilisian incursion, Valygar and Mazzy had immediately left to investigate, and not a moment too soon. By the time they'd arrived, the girl was about ready to run to Athkatla for help, against the advice of the captain at the gate.
Instead of going through the secret way into the castle, they'd instead sneaked past the sentries the invaders had posted and rappelled up the wall towards the winch that controlled the drawbridge. Now, they'd accomplished the most immediate obstacle: giving the captain and his soldiers access to the castle, so that they could start clearing out the trolls and snake-people — named "yuan-ti" by people in the jungles of Malatra — who had invaded the place.
Mazzy asked her again: "Nalia? Are you doing all right? Shall we continue?"
She pulled back from the wall, smoothing down her dirt-streaked clothes and hoisting up her crossbow. "I'm doing all right," she said, pointing with her free hand towards where a trebuchet stood watch atop a looming wall. "Over there's a stairwell — it'll lead us up a story out here, where there's stairs to the second floor inside."
"Let's go," Mazzy said, pulling out her bow.
Valygar pointed to where the soldiers were doing battle with the trolls and yuan-ti. "They could probably use some help."
Mazzy said, "Our enemies don't seem to have noticed us. Go slowly, aim carefully, but take any clear shot you can."
They followed Nalia's lead around the walls, keeping to the sides and staying out of sight. Propelled forward by barely controlled fear, Nalia barely made any effort to keep hidden, though the yuan-ti were equipped with spears and by all accounts adept at using them. Now and again, Valygar and Mazzy risked a glance downward for any straggling invaders.
The dim light and the tight knots of duels in the courtyard made it difficult to pick out any decent targets to shoot at. Below, however, Captain Arat and his company were holding their own, cutting the yuan-ti down where they stood and massing around the trolls.
The trolls were big, lumbering, hunched-over creatures with long arms, limbs, noses and olive-green, rubbery skin. Their strength matched that of any human alive, but their true power lay in their black veins: they could regenerate any wounds that weren't cauterized first.
Nalia seemed pained when she looked upon them. "How did they get in?"
"Just keep moving," Mazzy said.
But Valygar stayed in place, his bow at the ready. He observed a knot of soldiers surrounding one of the trolls. They brought it to its knees with a massive gash in its willow-thin, naked abdomen, black-green blood rushing forth. Even from here, in the dark, Valygar could already see the wound starting to close.
The troll roared in pain, throwing back its ungainly limbs and exposing the wound as it seamed itself shut.
Valygar chose an arrow, heavier than what he usually carried and filled with something inside that made a sloshing sound, and nocked it, adjusting for its weight.
He aimed for the wound and fired.
Despite its unusual weight and its liquid cargo, the arrow flew true, helped by the troll's slow movements and the short distance. As soon as the arrow made contact, it shattered and splashed open, engulfing the beast in flames. With another roar it collapsed to the ground, not rising again.
Valygar only took a moment to feel pleased about the results of his shot and kept moving — Mazzy and Nalia by now were far ahead.
They continued up to the floor above on the outside of the castle, emerging near where the trebuchet had sat uselessly above. Then, they scurried along the side, glancing downwards now and again. No one had; the night had thrown a veil over their passing.
They found a stairwell leading down and descended, taking a torch from the wall, uncomfortably trammeled in close by thick stone granite left, right, and above.
Mazzy paused. "Remember, this is a rescue mission. There are only three of us, so it's best to stay focused on our task. We'll save who we can, but we must keep our heads."
Nalia said, half-whispering, "But how will we know all the trolls are gone?"
"Trust your people to take care of it," Mazzy said. "Captain Arat has bought us some time — let us use it well."
Nalia did not seem reassured. "My father…he wouldn't leave before. I doubt he would, now."
"I'm sure he's reasonable," Mazzy said. "He can't help his people — or you — if he's gone."
Their conversation was interrupted by a series of shouts and cries. One of the servants ran squarely into Valygar, shrieking until she pulled away and practically flew up the stairs.
An armored man followed in hot pursuit, sword drawn, shouting, "For the glory of my new master!"
In moments, Mazzy raised her sword and rushed forward, presenting her weapon and squaring up against him, declaring, "I'll not let you harm another!"
"Glaicus!" Nalia shouted. She would have rushed at him if Mazzy weren't standing in her way. "What are you doing? Stop!"
"Who is he?" Valygar asked.
"The head of my father's personal guard," she replied. "What has happened to him?"
As Glaicus answered Mazzy's challenge and their blades locked, Nalia studied his face, then said, "Something's…something's not right. He's not thinking for himself."
"How do you know?" Valygar asked.
"I'm not some useless rich girl. I've studied a bit of magery, too," Nalia said, indignant as though she had been insulted.
"Of course you have," Valygar muttered.
"He's served our household for years. I'm not going to let him die like this." Nalia said. She wove a pattern with her hands and intoned, "Cupio, virtus, licet!"
A spray of glimmering white mist poured from her fingertip, settling on Glaicus's head. He blinked.
Nothing changed, not in his eyes or face. He clashed swords with Mazzy again, bearing down his superior weight and height. Mazzy held her ground, but she couldn't forever —
Valygar swept his hand forward as though he were striking something. "Manus, potentis, paro!"
A flash of light passed over Glaicus's armor, as though he had been struck by lightning, briefly dazzling everyone in the hallway. He stumbled forward, until the wall caught him falling on his side. His sword clattered from his hand, down the stairs, towards the end of the flight of steps.
Mazzy and Valygar caught him in time, gently easing him down the last few steps and onto the floor. Glaicus lay there for a few moments until he stirred, passing a large, callused hand over his face.
Nalia rushed down the stairs to his side, calling his name.
He blinked several times. "Wh...what's going on? Lady Nalia — what's happening here?"
"You were charmed somehow. Maybe the trolls did it? It's not your fault," Nalia said.
He glanced over to Mazzy, who had sheathed her shortsword, then turned away, lowering his head in shame. "I…I remember now. Horrible…"
"Here." With all the force her small form could muster, Nalia helped Glaicus to his feet.
For his part, he stood steady, even if he was drawn and shaken. "You must find the leader of the trolls — TorGal, I believe his name is," he said. "If he falls, the rest of his minions will flee."
"We're here to rescue Lord de'Arnise, though we may have to go through this TorGal in order to do so," Mazzy said. "Do you know where either of them are are?"
"I am afraid that I don't."
"What now?" Nalia asked.
"I can't stay here. I cannot thank you enough for releasing me," Glaicus replied. He bowed his head again. "I...I would help you more, but I simply cannot face them again."
"Please, Glaicus," Nalia said, resting her hand on his arm, "could you at least help Aunty leave? It should be safer, now — Captain Arat's led the remaining members of the garrison into the courtyard, if you want to see him."
"Of course, my lady," he said. "Perhaps you ought to get out as well."
Nalia said, a little more sternly, "I'm going to find my father."
"Then good luck." He sheathed his sword and went back to the hallway that met the bottom of this flight of stairs; he soon disappeared around a corner and the noise of his sabaton-clad footfalls trailed off until all was silent again.
Nalia spoke up. "This hallway goes all the way around this floor. On the other side is a stairway to the cellars. Trolls…they like caves, don't they?"
"They do indeed," Mazzy said. "Let's look there, then."