CHAPTER 789: BACK THE WAY WE LEFT

-HAAAAARRUUUUUUMMMM-

-CRUNCH-

"Relight the watch fires! Bring torches..."

While Captain Ipiktok led the assault on the gate with his fellow Tuscans and the defenders rallied to repel them, two figures moved unobtrusively and unnoticed through the tall grass leading to the sally gate more than a hundred paces from the main gate.

"You have to teach me how you did that," Virve said in tones of genuine admiration when they reached the small side gate without so much as a stray arrow fired in their direction. "That isn’t any kind of witchcraft that Lady Ashlynn has shared."

"It isn’t witchcraft exactly," Ollie confessed as he inspected the gate that he and Ashlynn had escaped through just half a year ago. "The Heartwood clan are masters of concealing themselves in nature. They wear nets that catch branches and leaves to help blend in with their surroundings. For most of them, that’s all there is too it, but a few of them learn a sort of sorcery that lets them move without attracting attention."

"I was curious, so Old Nan taught me," Ollie said with a smile. "This is just that, but blending with the power of the world. To anyone watching, we were just a ripple in the tall grass."

"It’s still impressive," Virve said as she turned to look at the sally gate. "And I still want to learn. Right now though, tell me what you know about this gate," Virve said as she inspected the heavy iron-bound wooden doors. "This feels newly made."

"They probably replaced it after Lady Ashlynn and I escaped," Ollie said as he placed a hand on the wood of the door, feeling with senses that no ordinary human possessed to understand how the gate had been built. "The fittings should still be the same though," he muttered.

"Somewhere around my chest height there should be a heavy beam that slots into the stone of the corridor beyond the door and iron braces on the door," Ollie explained. "The doors open inward so they can be opened even if there’s a crowd right outside the gate. There are also iron stops down here," he said as he slid his hands lower. "They fit into the stone floor and help to keep people from battering their way in."

"They’ve never tried to keep a witch out or they’d have made the whole thing out of iron," Virve said with a dark chuckle as she pulled on her darksteel fighting gauntlets and reached out to gather the power of the world.

"Ancient Oak, lend your might,

Unbreakable strength to win this fight."

Virve’s invocation was simple but as soon as she spoke, soft golden light began to flow upward from the ground, climbing up her legs and wrapping around her torso and around her arms like vines covering a mighty tree. For a moment, the light grew bright enough that Ollie was afraid someone would notice but the men atop the wall were far too focused on their attempts to repel Ipiktok’s men to pay any attention to a brief flash of light hundreds of paces away from the battle.

"This will be loud," Virve said as she raised her claws into a fighting posture. "Be ready to run as soon as I’ve torn a large enough opening."

"I’m ready," Ollie said, dropping one hand to the hilt of Ice Fang while the other rested on the hilt of his darksteel cleaver. "Do you need help?" he asked as he tapped the cleaver. "It isn’t an ax but..."

Ollie’s words caught in his throat the instant Virve lashed out with her claws, sheering through wood and iron alike and shredding six inches of solid timber as though it were a sheet of parchment. The sound of metal tearing produced a high-pitched screech that made Ollie cover his ears reflexively before Virve bellowed in fury at the still standing door.

"RAAAAAAAWWWWRRRR!!!!"

Virve’s cry was one of pure, primal fury as she punched through the wood of the door, sending splinters flying before her hand gripped the heavy beam that barred their way.

"BREAK FOR ME!" Virve shouted. The muscles in her arm flexed and the sleeve of her armor strained before a loud -CRACK- split the air like a clap of thunder. A heartbeat later, the sounds of two pieces of the heavy beam clattering to the floor could be heard through the hole Virve had torn.

"RAAAA!" The Oak Witch shouted, lowering her shoulder and charging the gate, knocking one of the two wooden doors clean off its hinges and snapping the other one from the floor to the hole she’d already torn in it as the wood proved weaker than the iron door stop.

As soon as Virve crashed through the doorway, Ollie dashed behind her, charging into the dark corridor that would eventually lead them to the other side of the thick curtain wall.

The corridor leading to the sally gate had been built at a steep angle relative to the wall, allowing men on horseback to charge toward the gate and exit at a gallop if the situation called for it in order to mount a counterattack against an attacking army.

If there had been more knights stationed at the summer villa, the way there would have been if someone as important as Lady Ashlynn was really staying here, they might have had to worry about the defenders mounting just such a counter attack. Fortunately, without a group of bold knights to lead the charge, no one was making use of this side gate to launch any sort of offensive.

It took only a handful of heartbeats to rush the hundred paces of the narrow tunnel, but by the time they reached the other side it was obvious that their breakthrough at the far end had been seen.

"DEMONS IN THE BAILEY! DEMONS IN THE BAILEY!"

"They came from the Sally Gate!"

"Archers, loose!"

"Ice," Ollie snapped, drawing the blade carved from the horn of a Frost Walker with his left hand and holding it straight before him. "Form a wall before me!"

In an instant, the icy blade shimmered, surrounding itself with a frosty mist that rapidly expanded until it formed a cloud eight feet tall and half as wide. Arrows whistled through the mist, one of them slamming into Ollie’s armored abdomen with a sharp -SHINK- sound as it spread the links of his chain mail before piercing the gambeson and his tunic beneath it, cutting half an inch into the muscular flesh beneath his armor.

A heartbeat later, the frosty mist turned solid, becoming a sheet of hazy ice nearly three inches thick. The arrow wound burned like a brand against his skin, and Ollie could feel warm blood trickling beneath his armor. When he glanced down at the wound, he could see the long shaft of the arrow protruding from the wound and the collar of the arrowhead where it was fitted to the shaft.

The arrowhead had punched through his jade green tabard and both layers of armor but it hadn’t buried itself deeply, perhaps only an inch or so into the muscle of his abdomen. The wound was painful and bleeding, but his armor had done its work, and if he gritted his teeth, he could fight through the pain.

-CHIP- -CRACK-

The sound of arrows hitting the wall of ice echoed around him as pain flared in his abdomen where the arrow tried to cut deeper if he took too deep of a breath.

"Leave them to me!" Virve shouted as she reached for the arrow, tearing it free of his armor and giving Ollie a shove in the direction of the manor. "Go find your people, I’ll clear the wall!"

"Virve," Ollie protested, staggering for a step but refusing to flee while arrows were still raining down on the cracking icy shield he’d erected. "There are..."

"There aren’t enough to scare me," Virve said as golden energy began to dance in her eyes. "Now run while I draw their fire," she said, tapping him on the shoulder one last time before she dashed out from behind the crumbling wall of ice, bellowing like a mad woman as she charged toward the stairs leading to the top of the wall and the figure of the silver haired knight who was commanding the defenders.

Meanwhile, Ollie dashed for the manor, clutching his wound with one hand while he ran, heading for the kitchens and his old friend Otis...