NexLord: Dark Prophecies (38 page)

"Well, they eat people.  Their
first thought is going to be to eat us, and everyone inside these
walls, except you, if they think about it," she explained.

"Why not me?"

"Because, unless they get too hungry and
forget, you are the reason they are here."

"I don't understand this," Gandarel
exclaimed.

"I know you don't, but whatever you do, don't
allow them to capture you, Gandarel.  Just stick inside
your Seat and don't let anyone pry you out until the Togs are
gone."

"All right, I can do that, but you still
haven't explained why they will leave."

"Well, after they get real hungry they're
going to attack, and I mean attack like they haven't
yet.  Many of them are going to die, and if we hold, they
are going to start eating their own dead."

"That is disgusting," Dono noted.

Mara shrugged, "I've seen it before."

Aerin
thought,
You have? 
 But he let it go
by.

"That's bad, then they can stay because they
will have eaten, no matter how disgusting the meal," Gandarel said
with a sigh.

"No, then they will leave.  If they
were on their own, you would be right, but these Togroths are
guided, and their master won't let them destroy themselves, and
that's why they will leave."

Gandarel nodded.  "We won't have
long to wait to see if you are correct?"

Mara shrugged, "A day or two."

Gandarel nodded again, more curtly. "I should
be able to hold the council to a couple of days; they tend to
deliberate longer than that on even simple
matters."   Then he motioned to his guards and
headed for the gates.

"Don't be a stranger, Gandarel," Mara said as
he left.

Gandarel paused for a moment, but he
straightened his back and headed out of Mara's courtyard.

Yearl appeared in Aerin's room that night,
suddenly standing next to his desk, though Aerin hadn't even heard
the door open.

"
Gaa
!" Aerin
exclaimed, startled.

"
Gaa
to you
too, friend Aerin," Yearl answered with a straight face.

"You startled me, don't DO that," Aerin said,
his heart pounding.

Yearl waited a moment, "Is your heart at rest
now?"

"Yes, as long as you don't startle me
again."

"Good, then I'll risk telling you, the
Togroths seemed to be hungrier than Mara said yesterday, they are
attacking with everything they have.  Mara wants you and
the others to arm yourselves.  We're not sure if the wall
will hold."

Aerin
leaped
to his feet and spun around the room three times, trying to decide
if he was heading for Lor's room, or grabbing a weapon first.

"They're over there," Yearl said, pointing to
the corner of Aerin's small room where the weapons were in full
sight.

"Yes, I know," Aerin answered, and made a
growling sound in frustration.

Yearl growled back at him and then headed for
the door.

"Why did you growl?" Aerin
asked.  His momentary panic abated as his mind tried to
take in the normally quiet Willowman growling.

"I thought we were
growling
goodbye, perhaps it is a human thing?"

"Huh?"

Yearl ignored him.  "Get your
weapons and meet me outside," he said with a nod toward the
corner.

"Right."

Outside Yearl and Aerin met with Tocor, Dono,
Lor,
and Katek.  Tocor
was just coming down with Lor next to him.

Lor had a rapier and some knives she was busy
stashing about her person.

Katek was sporting a shield and a
spear
while Dono had a bow and a short
sword.

"Are we really going to fight?" Dono asked
nervously.

Mara stepped out of the shadows by the wall,
"Only if forced.  You will be staying out of the general
fracas if at all possible.  Katek, bring along an extra
sword."

Lor looked a little disappointed.

Aerin wondered if the extra sword was for
Mara. In all the years of weapon
instruction,
Aerin could not remember Mara holding a
weapon other than her cane.

"There will be plenty of Togroths for you to
tangle with in your lifetime young lady, don't get impatient,"
Tocor noted.

"Promise?"  Lor asked
mischievously.

"Let's go," Mara said, heading out the
entrance to the street.  As far as Aerin could see she
only had her cane for protection, that is, if you didn't count the
rest of her lethally armed troop.  Again he wondered if the
extra sword was for Mara, he just couldn't picture her carrying an
actual weapon.  She'd never needed more than the cane and
her wits, and when Aerin thought about it, he doubted she needed
the cane.

Mara led them to Netter Street and paused
outside the house where the crazy man lived.  She
motioned Katek forward.

"Stick the sword into the ground, there," she
ordered, pointing to a patch of ground with her cane.

Katek shrugged and stabbed the sharp point
into the ground.  When he released the blade it swayed
slightly as the metal flexed.

"Someone is going to steal it, if we leave it
here, especially in this neighborhood," he noted.

Mara glanced into the gloom of the open
door.  "Hopefully, the right person, but it's the best I
can do for him, right now.  Come along," she
said
and headed them for the west gate.

"Where are we going?"   Aerin
inquired, as they left Netter Street behind.

"We’re going to the weakest part of the
defense; the wall to the south of the West gate.  That's
where they will most likely break through."

Aerin didn't question how Mara knew these
things
if she said it he assumed
she knew what she was doing.

"Shouldn't Gandarel be sending reinforcements
over here then?" Katek asked.

Tocor answered him, "By now the reserves have
been committed at the southern gate, where the Togs are attacking
in force.  That is likely a feint; they will send the
real attack at the weakest
place
after the reserves have been committed."

"How do you know?" Dono inquired.

"It's what I would do," Tocor noted.

As they neared the outer wall they heard the
unmistakable sounds of fighting.

"It seems I underestimated their time
schedule, the attack has already started," Mara
noted.  "Tocor, Yearl, you best get up there and hold
them down.  If any singles get
through,
let them go, you need to hold that wall from the
ladders."

Tocor and Yearl ran for the stairs that led
to the top of the wall moving at inhuman speed.

"I want the rest of you up there," she said,
pointing to a rooftop with her extended cane. 

Katek looked indignant, "We can fight
too!  We don't need to hide."

"Listen to me, boy, your job is to warn the
Seat if the Togs break through over the wall.  If you see
more than single Togs making it past the defender's, I want you to
run for the Seat and warn them that the walls have fallen to the
east. Now heed these words: Gandarel must remain at the Seat of
Stone, do not let him come to do battle."

Katek nodded, though he did not look
happy.

Mara looked at Dono and Lor, "Here is what
the rest of you are to do.  Dono, use your bow to pick
off any Togs that make it past the wall.  Lor, pick your
targets carefully, and if Dono misses, you try and nail the Tog
with a dagger throw.  No heroics, you do your fighting
from up here and fade if they start climbing, got it?"

Lor,
Dono,
and Aerin nodded.

Katek asked, "Why did we bring weapons if we
aren't supposed to fight?"

Mara raised her right
eyebrow
but then answered: "Sometimes the fight comes to
you, it's just better to be ready.  Now, Aerin, you're
with Katek, your job is to keep a sharp eye out for anything out of
the ordinary."

"What about you, Mara?" Aerin asked.

"I'll be down here; my body is too old to
climb upon rickety rooftops today.  Don't worry, I have
my cane," she noted as if it was some magical weapon.

"Mara, if you need help..." Aerin started to
say.

"Get up there!” she exclaimed, pointing to
their proposed
perch
with her
cane.  "Help indeed," she muttered.

Aerin paused at the bottom of the wall, where
Lor and the others had started climbing.  He was worried
about Mara.  He looked back and saw her standing in the
center of the square, near a short circular brick wall that marked
a well.  She was leaning on her cane and looking toward
the battle waging on the massive city wall.  She looked
so small and frail standing alone in the street.  Aerin
didn't know what he would do if he lost Mara.  At that
thought,
all the pain and loss of
his murdered parents came back to him.  The world
suddenly lurched, and there was torchlight. Aerin stood as if in
the center of a cloudy looking glass.  All around him the
world stretched and warped.  He saw Dono crouched over a
body on the ground.  Around them on the
floor,
he saw bodies,
Togroths,
and humans, all slaughtered. Dono turned
and there was anguish on his face.

"Get Mara, I need her help!” he called
desperately.

Katek, his arm bloody, stepped into Aerin's
strange view and spoke, his voice held pain, "Don't you
remember?  Death came for her and she's gone."

Aerin saw another version of himself run to
Dono's side and kneel down by the body.

Slowly Aerin's warped view of the scene moved
as he tried to see who it was that lay on the ground.

As his view shifted, more and more of the
bloody body came into view, and Aerin stared in horror, he knew who
it was even before the bloody face came into view.

"She needs help, Aerin!"  Dono
said, and it echoed strangely.

"I... there is nothing I can do, she's dead,"
Aerin heard his own voice say.

Suddenly he staggered and the world was dark
and cold again.  Katek was calling down to him from
above.  "What's wrong?"

Aerin looked around, but there were no
bodies, and Mara still stood alone in the street.  He
looked up and saw Dono,
Lor,
and
Katek looking down at him in puzzlement.

Aerin shook off the strange vision and
started to climb.

When he reached the top, Dono pulled him over
the edge and Lor growled at him.  "What were you
goggling
at?"

"It was strange, I was thinking about Mara
and I was concerned that we were leaving her
alone
when suddenly there were torches and
bodies..."

"Did the Togroths get past Tocor and Yearl?"
Katek demanded.

"I... I don't know, I don't think
so.  What I saw wasn't real, but you were all there,"
Aerin tried to explain.

"Gedin, that's all we need,
daydreaming
at night," Lor said in
disgust.  "Maybe you are still asleep?” she suddenly
slapped him a good one across the mouth.

"Ow... hey!" Aerin exclaimed.

"There, you're good and awake now."

"I already was," he growled.

"You didn't sound like it," she replied with
a quick flash of a grin.

Katek called to them, "Hey, get over here,
something got over the wall."

They all went to the edge of the roof and
looked down.  Dono already had his bow out and was
sighting down the shaft.

"Don't shoot until we know what it is," Aerin
advised.

The building beneath their feet suddenly
shook from the deep impact of some massive weight striking
stone.  

Dono forgot to keep aiming and looked at the
other boys, "What, in Gedin's ship, was that?"

"There!" Katek pointed, he was still watching
the street below.

A dark shape moved from shadow to shadow.

"That's no Togroth, it isn't large
enough.  Hold your fire, Dono," Lor stated.

The dark shape was trying to skirt the
square, and stay out of the pools of moonlight. 

Mara's voice called out in that same language
that Aerin had heard her speak once before in the Seat, it wasn't
Tog, or common, for that matter.

The dark shape paused, then gave up on the
dark shadows and came toward Mara in a crouch.  A wicked
looking
broad-bladed
ax
was in its hands.

"That's no Guardsman!" Katek exclaimed.

The man who approached Mara lowered a black
cloth that was obscuring his face, revealing dead white
skin.  The eyes seemed to glow with their own inner light
as he approached.

The sight froze the boys; the man had an
unreal quality that mesmerized them, like a moth to a light at
night.

Mara laughed and said something in the
strange language.

The man stopped his approached, and his face
twisted into a sneer of pure hatred, it was an expression like none
the kids had ever seen before.

"Loose your arrow!" Aerin suddenly yelled,
free from the frozen tableau.

Dono started at his outburst, but then
readjusted his aim and let fly.

At Aerin's
yell,
the white man paused and looked up, just in time to
take the arrow in his chest.

Again the building shook with a deep impact,
though it seemed unrelated to what was happening down in the
square.

The arrow hit with good force from the
downward shot, sounding more like an arrow hitting a solid log than
a wet human body.  It didn't faze the white man, who
leaped
with raised
ax
toward Mara.

Mara sidestepped his leap, and her cane
tangled in his legs.  He stumbled toward the
well
that had been behind her, and suddenly
his movements were of a man in
panic
.  Mara stepped behind the stumbling man
and pushed his upper back with the tip of her cane.