"Can you melt these shackles like you did to those bars back in the tower, Mina?" asked Gerald as he held up his chains.
Mina furrowed her forehead as she examined them, and then she shook her head. "The acid will splash too much, I can't safely break them that way, but I can melt them away using fire."
"Really? Wonderful! Hey Aaron, Mina says she can remove our shackles!" shouted Gerald. Prince Aaron and her new knights were still gathering supplies from the wagon, but hobbled over to the pair at the news.
Mina made a low hum followed by a soft whistle, and the small fiery orb escaped her satchel and floated before her. "This will hurt a lot less than the acid, but it will burn your skin, most likely leaving a scar unless you want the manacle on and simply the chain melted through."
Gerald had second thoughts or at least considered placing some leather padding inside his shackle but Aaron thrust her manacle towards the small orb, fearless as normal.
"Begin with me," she commanded. "I want it all off."
The fiery orb bobbed a bit before hovering close to the lock on her left hand, it then squeezed into the key hole, like the ball of flaming gas that it was, and the whole manacle grew red and then white hot. Gerald winced, imagining the Prince's wrist was becoming charred black, but she stood there calmly until the orb flew out of the lock as the manacle fell off her undamaged hand.
"How..how did you do that?" asked Gerald in surprise.
Aaron held up one of her fingers, showing off an ornate ring and then pointed to a similar ring on Gerald's hand. "You don't fight a fire breathing dragon without being somewhat prepared."
After Mina's orb burned out Aaron's locks and then Gerald's, the Prince bowed to the Sorceress. "Thank you, I was wondering if I would ever be able to wield a sword or walk properly again, Lady …."
Mina seemed flustered by the attention and curtsied properly in return. "It's Mina von Custeinson."
"Of the Order of the Hound? "
"It's actually the Order of the Husky but some people do call them the Hound, and yes, my branch is from the Freeholds. Though I'm not a member, most of my family are, including my mother Kitahria."
Aaron grew excited.
Gerald rolled his eyes. He had heard all this fawning before from Tig. Like how famous can these Custeinsons be if he had never heard of them. If they were that important or something, there should be a story written about their great crusade or something.
Aaron kneeled before Mina. "It is indeed a great honour to meet the daughter of the Knight Commander of the Order of the Husky. You must have many exciting tales growing up under her tutelage. "
"Not really. It's not as exciting as you think,"shrugged Mina, it seemed the attention was wearing on her as well.
"Really? I thought you might have a tale or two about the brood of dragons that she had tamed," asked Aaron as Crossbow Lady Knight helped strap her breastplate and pauldrons on that were scavenged from one of her recently slain comrades.
Mina seemed uncomfortable with the subject which made perfect sense to Gerald. He didn't know anything about that dog club, but he did know that dragons did not like dwarves on account of both groups constantly stealing each other's treasures. Seeing how the already soft spoken Mina shirked from Aaron's questions, Gerald knew that he had to move in and put a halt to this.
"Hey, let's leave the childhood flashbacks for another time. We have like a town to save , remember?"
"Aye, forgive me for my lapse," she said. With both hands now freed she made a brief set of short controlled hand gestures, and a magnificent white Destrier appeared out of thin air. The Prince buckled the rest of her armour and easily mounted the beast, before she pointed the fiercely glowing Dragonsword skyward.
"Corsair…" whispered the Knights in reverent tones. Aaron's ability to summon her paladin mount dispelled any doubts of her legitimacy as the Princess.
Mina shook her head. "I've used up my mount spells earlier for Ceto and Armondo. I could fly us there, but …." She leaned in and whispered. "I know you won't be afraid since you know what I am, but I'm afraid Aaron and her Knights would probably either flee or attack me in a panic."
Gerald had scavenged a mace, but raised his hands up in a dramatic fashion. "Oh well, I guess we'll walk. We'll catch up to the rest of you later. I hope you save some goblins for us when we get there," he said with feigned disappointment.
"Don't worry my lord and lady," said Ed the Teamster as he led two big draft horses towards them. "These two took some scrapes when the wagon flipped but they're tough colts. They won't be as fast as Corsair and the other warhorses on a charge, but they'll keep up well enough otherwise. I can ride one while you two ride the other."
"Err, geeze thanks Ed," grumbled Gerald. "You're a real pal."
Without saddles and stirrups, the big horses were hard to control. Ed had placed a simple blanket on their backs and attached a rope to the horse's bit to form a crude reign but still Gerald fell a few times in his laughable attempt to control it. Mina grew tired and simply took the rope and her superior equestrian skills shone through, much to the relief of Gerald. While he was embarrassed at having Mina drive, at least he didn't have to land on his ass a few more times.
After the small band was armed, armoured, and mounted, Aaron led them at a brisk cantor back to Daggerhall.
Which wasn't a moment too soon. As the sun fell over the western hills, several large plumes of smoke could be seen coming from the town. Aaron resisted the urge to quicken their pace, knowing their mounts had to be fresh for the upcoming battle, and given their running battle with the wargs earlier she did not want to push their limits.
"Say Mina. What happened to those wargs and goblins anyways?" asked Gerald. The last he saw of them they were looting his treasure, it seemed odd for them to just run away and drop their stuff. Not that Mina couldn't summon some magic to do that, but it seemed unlikely given her vow of non violence.
"I flew down low at them and they fled. I'm at the age where I've just begun to master my aura, but there was no need to. They saw me and ran away," she said in self-conscious voice.
Gerald pictured in his mind a flying dwarf with a big nose diving down at some goblins, it was more humorous than terrifying, but who knows if you are a goblin you might be scared witless. Dwarves and goblins were known to have had legendary wars between their races, and the goblins were often on the short end of the stick. It seemed plausible that a flying dwarf would panic them. After all, dwarves are normally terrestrial creatures, to encounter one that could break the third dimension and fly at them would truly be a dreadful sight to behold. Now the aura she was talking about on the other hand, well he wasn't quite sure what that meant, but assumed it was either a dwarf thing or a sorceress thing. Or perhaps she met aroma. While Mina did smell slightly of charcoal, probably because of the incense used in her magical rituals, he didn't think she smelled that bad. Actually it was kind of exotic and pleasant.
After another few miles at their current canter, the group rounded a hill and saw that the attack on Daggerhall had already begun. Any pretense that this was simply a humanoid raid was gone as a black turkey vulture banner was raised before them. The goblin horde seemed to have committed their giants early in an attempt to overrun the defenders resulting in about a dozen of them slain, killed by mass volleys of arrows and spears, before they could even reach the bailey. From this distance it appeared that they were caught and ambushed in the town's alleys, or fell victim to pits and snares in front of the moat and shredded by the defender's missile fire. No matter how crazy Lady Tessa was, at least she could plan a good defense.
The rest of the horde seemed to ignore the plight of the giants and pushed onwards behind them. The normally stealthy bugbears were hefting large spiked logs on their shoulders, and Gerald guessed that they were going to be used as crude bridges to breach the bailey. He also noted that there were a lot more than the five hundred that Armondo had spotted. From a quick count, it seemed closer to three thousand. Was this more magic, or were more reinforcements pouring from the north?
Aaron studied the situation and quickly deduced a plan.
"There may only be six of us, but we have the element of surprise and the speed and power of cavalry on our side. We'll strike at their rear archer ranks while their attention is focused on the town, and ride straight through over them so we can reinforce the defenders. We just have to wait for the right moment to attack, so be patient."
Crossbow Lady Knight, Sir Trevor, Sir Smallhill, and Ed the Teamster nodded in unison and readied themselves for the coming assault. They seemed relaxed and even joked a bit about what to call Crossbow, whose original name appeared to have been Thomas, with names ranging from Tammy to Tabitha to Scarecrow.
Gerald liked Scarecrow, but more importantly he didn't particularly like the plan. There was the matter of what they were going to do when they reach the defenders. Jump over the moat and scale the wall? Corsair could probably leap over the whole mess, but not everyone had a big magical horse. Mina could always change into a dwarf and fly over, but he still wasn't quite clear on the how dwarves could fly concept or how well she could carry him. She seemed strong but not that strong. Did dwarves gain strength in flight?
As he contemplated Aaron's plan, a great dark red form swooped from the clouds and rained lightning from its claws down on the village. A few villagers shot at it with their bows but they either missed or their shots simply bounced of the creature's armour. Several bolts of electricity struck the southern wall of the bailey, setting fires as the walls buckled and sagged under the attack. The form then spread its great leathery wings and a shower of minute meteors rained down from it, pelting and damaging the area further, before the beast soared into the clouds once more.
"We're going to need to find an opportunity to take him out," swore the Prince as he gripped his blade.
War drums and horns, of the more primitive and thundering type, sounded and the goblin horde once again was on the move. They streamed into town, this time with crude mantlets, mobile wooden shields, to cover them from the defender's missile fire. All the while their archers and a few giants loosed arrows and boulders of their own at the defenders, crushing and impaling them to keep them honest.
As the battle was joined at the southern wall, the bugbears marched through the arrow fire with their great logs. A few broke ranks to run forward under the protection of the mantlets as they drove big stakes into the ground near the moat. With that accomplished, the bugbears seemed to spur themselves with some war chants, before running up, driving the end of the log into the stakes, and then pushing them up and over so they can land on top of the moat walls. Several teams of the bugbears failed miserably, either having the log fall back on their comrades or having the log tumble into the moat, but two did manage to spike their bridges into the bailey.
Gerald wondered why the giants didn't do that, but when he watched one fumbling with a club, and swatting his own fellow in the head with it, he had a pretty good guess.
With a breach, and several crude bridges laid, the goblins surged once again into the breach. It looked like butcher's work at the southern portion of the bailey as goblins streamed over the bridge to be met by the few knights and militia of Daggerhall. While the defenders bravely defended the breach, the goblins seemed endless and they began to push through them.
"Now?" asked Sir Smallhill impatiently. Even Gerald could see that the battle was about to be lost.
The Prince remained stoic and simply stared at the battle.
As the goblin attack verged on overwhelming the defenders, the horde suddenly seemed to fall back onto itself. From his vantage point on the hill, Gerald spotted some activity at the inn. He could see goblins suddenly falling on their face, or slumping for no reason near the logs even behind the mantlets. It might have been an archer from the walls, but he doubted it. He couldn't make out what was happening, but it seemed to aggravate the goblins badly, resulting in a troop of twenty of them storming the tavern. The goblins disappeared inside with blades drawn, before running out in terror with half their number later.
"Looks like Ceto and Armondo are giving a good of account of themselves," said Mina as she watched the battle, shading her eyes with her palm.
Gerald did a double take at the inn and still couldn't see the half orcs. He knew dwarves had superior dark vision but he didn't know that they could see long distances as well. The goblins however didn't care about the nuances of dwarven eyesight and reformed and attacked the inn again. This time with bugbears crashing through the windows, a half dozen of the remaining giants bashing the walls, and about a hundred goblins storming the front and back doors.
"Oh god. Is Tig and the boys going to be okay?" asked Mina with concern.
Gerald couldn't answer. At first more and more goblins and bugbears stormed the inn. Followed by a few screams, then smoke pouring out the windows. Gerald felt a heavy lump in his throat, as he feared the worse.
"Err now? " asked Sir Trevor.
Before Prince Aaron could answer, the Inn was engulfed in a giant ball of light. Gerald turned away, before a thunderous wall of sound and dust crashed into him. He would have fallen off the draft horse had not Mina grabbed him in time.
"What the hell was that?" coughed the newly named Lady Tammy.
Gerald squinted his eyes and saw about a quarter of the town laid in ruins. The Inn had somehow exploded and took out several buildings and Abyss knows how many goblins, bugbears, and giants with it. Only flattened rubble remained as the front ranks of goblins scattered.
"Looks like Tig, outdid herself," coughed Gerald.
Gerald thought that the battle would be over, the enemy's morale was broken, and they would run fleeing home. But a particularly ugly goblin with a staff, and glowing green eyes that could be seen even from where he was at, stepped on a large piece of ruined village and raised his staff. Green energy flowed out of him, which grasped and intertwined with the fleeing goblins. Gerald wasn't sure what it was, but the goblins stopped their route and once again attacked in fury.
"NOW! CHARGE! GO! " shouted the Prince. She spurred Corsair forward, followed by the three Knights and the Teamster. The five sped towards the Goblin horde.
Mina hesitated, unsure what to do. She turned to Gerald for instruction.
The bard briefly considered they should turn around, ride far away from here, and live happily ever after. That would be the smart thing to do.
"You heard the Prince," he said reluctantly. "It's GO time!"