The Dragon's Prophecy Page 9

  “Master Baskins, Miss Dana, your workers and servants will keep doing their jobs as normal, but remember our first principle of defense, ‘In a Centurion castle, everyone fights.’ During their time off have them double their drills with their glaives to sharpen their skills, we may need your men and women backing us up.” The Foreman and the Doma nodded their understanding. “Doctor, I want all the medical supplies from the clinic in Warwick village brought up here into the castle. There were also a couple of people in the village you were training to be nurses, bring them up here to supplement your staff for the time being. We will leave the supplies and nurses in Wicklin in case the men need them there. Garret, I want the forge producing as many scorpion bolts and crossbow bolts as you can. Everyone in the castle will spend some time practicing with the scorpions and the crossbows so they are ready if the need arises.” Both nodded their understanding.

  The Gray Lady turned to the women on her left. “I asked you each to prepare plans about where your people should be stationed. I want everyone prepared to fight but, for obvious reasons the shieldmaidens and handmaidens are the first line of defense. I know that I’ll get good counsel from Claudia and Esperanza so I would like to hear Aurora’s counsel first.”

  Portia would have been petrified to speak in front of the others and voice her opinions. She spoke up among the handmaidens but giving battle advice to these veterans was well beyond her courage. Aurora seemed to hesitate for a moment. She glanced at her own mother sitting across the table from her and Portia realized that she was more nervous speaking in front of her mother than she was about speaking in front of everyone else. The Doctor gave her daughter a firm look that seemed to say, “You can do this, just do it.” Portia gave her friend’s leg a little squeeze of encouragement under the table. Aurora took a breath, squared her shoulders and began.

  “The castle does not have any obvious weaknesses but when I was trying to decide where to deploy the handmaidens two different scenarios stood out. If an enemy were to try and attack us by stealth at night, then the castle’s weak spot is the north wall. The postern gate is near the western end of that wall and large sections of the path that lead up to the gate are hidden from view by the shape of the cliff face. These two factors make the north wall the best place for a stealthy handful of men to try and surprise us by rushing the wall and scaling it before we could react. They could then open the gate and let more in. Even so, the north wall is relatively secure from even such a calculated attack. The road that leads up to the gate is no more than a narrow path down a cliff face that can only be traveled in single file, so bringing any sizable force up that way is almost impossible, especially in the dark. The gate itself is very small, barely large enough for a single man to lead a horse through and it’s protected by a reinforced door, and an outer portcullis. Even if a couple of men were able to scale the wall and surprise the guards it would still be impossible to get a large group of warriors through the gates before we could drive them out.

  “The other scenario involves the south wall. It has the main gate in the middle of it and a large road leading up to it but it is all uphill for the attackers, the view is clear and open for miles, and the moon will be near full for the next few days so there is little chance of sneaking up on us that way, even at night.

  “This may surprise you, Lady Evelyn, but I am actually more concerned about the day. I think that it is far more likely that the enemy will try to use subterfuge to gain entry through the main gate during the day than to try and sneak up at night. During the day, we generally keep the gate open to provide access for the merchants, guildsmen, and villagers who will be coming and going on legitimate business and the main road provides a ready-made approach for a force of Hungarians on horseback to try and take the castle quickly if they can get a few men inside to secure the gate.”

  Portia looked at the adults in the room and they were all nodding at what Aurora was saying. It was not news to any of them, they were well acquainted with the castle’s strengths and weaknesses, but they were impressed that Aurora could see them as well. Aurora’s mother mouthed the words “Good Job” at her daughter.

  “At this point,” the Grey Lady began, “I am expecting the Hungarians to pass us by; attacking a castle without a full army and proper siege equipment is a fool’s errand, but they may just be bold enough to think that they can catch us napping. I want to be ready in case they try a quick raid. We will put the shieldmaidens on the wall at night when I think their greater experience will be the most important. The handmaidens and a couple of the most experienced shieldmaidens will be on the wall during the day. With a little luck we can keep a raiding party from reaching the top of the walls and avoid hand-to-hand combat altogether. Now, let’s talk specifics, Aurora, where would you place the handmaidens on the walls?”

  “I would place Portia, Fabricia, Julia, Carolina, the Merrick twins, Aquila, Justine and myself on the south wall by the gatehouse since that would be the main point of attack. To the east I would place...” Lady Evelyn cut her off at this point.

  “You have said that, in your estimation, the south gatehouse is the castle’s weakest point against a daylight raid. What criteria are you using to make your choices?

  “Because Portia, Fabricia, Julia, and I are our best fighters while the others are at least reliable and courageous. I am sure that they will stand their ground and fight even if the Hungarians were to get inside the gate or gain the top of the wall. I’m worried about the skill levels and reliability of some of the other girls. I’m afraid that there are several who are not at their peak physically and who may run at the first sign of adversity.” Again, the adults nodded their heads.

  “An excellent evaluation,” said Lady Evelyn, “battles are won by fortitude and perseverance as much as they are won by skill at arms. Nevertheless, you need to make sure that you have several reliable girls on the north wall to bolster defenses there just in case. The east wall is not a concern so you may put your weakest girls there. I will accept your decisions on where each girl should be assigned. Now head back to the barracks and get a good night’s sleep, you’ll oversee the placement of the handmaidens tomorrow.”

  Aurora and Portia got up and left the Great Hall.

  “How do you think it went?” Asked Aurora, once they were outside. “I have to admit, it was nerve wracking to talk in front of everyone like that, especially my mother.

  “It went great!” Exclaimed Portia, “You were fantastic! I think even your mom was impressed. You were dead on about how the Hungarians are probably going to attack us. I just have one question.”

  “Really? What?”

  Portia hesitated for a moment before asking, “What does the word subterfuge mean?”

  Aurora laughed, put her arm around her friend’s shoulder, and led her back to the barracks.

  ◆◆◆

  The morning was clear, bright, and warm as Portia looked down from the castle wall between the merlons at the one road that led up to the castle. It had been five long days since the men had left. Wicklin had been fortified by the men-at-arms while the knights and squires had scouted even farther to the east looking for raiders. There had been no sightings, but the remains of a couple of burned out farms gave proof of their presence. The longer the Hungarians played hide-and-seek the surer that Aurora became that there would be an attack on the castle.

  Portia watched closely as farmers and merchants slowly climbed up and down the road, bringing produce and goods to and from the castle. Her overactive imagination kept spotting raiders hiding in every wagon. It was enough of a problem that when she actually saw something unusual, she had to triple check herself to make sure that she was really seeing something out of the ordinary.

  "Aurora, look at that group of merchants rounding the second bend from the bottom. I can't say for sure, but it feels like there are too many horses in the group." Aurora studied the merchants carefully. It was a larger group than usual, and they had several wagons with them. What w
as most unusual was the number of horses tied to the wagons. Even a large group of merchants would only bring along a couple of extra horses, this group had more than a dozen.

  "They could easily have ten or fifteen men hidden inside each of their wagons waiting to jump out as soon as they get to the gatehouse," Aurora said thoughtfully. "They’re dressed like some of the merchants from east Francia and their equipment looks real. Other than the horses, they look legitimate, but they may have ambushed some real merchants and taken their gear. Better safe than sorry, I'll tell your mother."

  Aurora walked away and came back a minute later with the Gray Lady who looked the situation over for herself.

  "If we close the gate now, they may kill everyone on the road out of spite," said Lady Evelyn thoughtfully. "We’ll keep the gate open and get the rest of the merchants and villagers inside first and then close the gate when everyone is safe. Warn the girls to be ready and not allow anyone else to leave."

  Aurora and Portia watched closely as the would-be merchants continued to toil up the road with their wagons. As the last of the farmers came in through the gates ahead of them the merchants suddenly jumped up and threw back the covers on their wagons. This seemed ridiculous to Portia; they were still fifty yards away and there was no way that the men could possibly run to the gate before the guards closed it, but what she saw in the back of the first wagon made the hair rise on the back of her neck. Four enormous white wolves leapt out of the wagon and came bounding up the hill toward the castle.

  They were the size of small ponies and moved like lightning, their fur was as white as snow and their eyes were as red as fire. They drew back their black lips in snarls that revealed enormous teeth. They howled in fury and their howls seemed to echo off the mountains and bring a chill as cold as the arctic to the air around them. Two of the handmaidens were hurriedly trying to close the great doors of the gate when two of the wolves breathed and a blast of frost shot out. Portia heard the girls’ choked yells and then silence.

  "Target the wolves!" Aurora instantly commanded the handmaidens.

  Portia took off at a dead run and yelled over her shoulder, "The guards are down, I've got to get the gate closed!" The winch for the portcullis was inside one of the guardrooms and that should have dropped immediately. For some reason it hadn’t and Portia needed to find out why.

  The gatehouse itself was three stories tall and projected above the top of the wallwalk. It was basically a long, wide, stone hallway with a heavy portcullis and two reinforced, wooden doors that served as gates on the outside end facing the road. Guardrooms on each side of the gatehouse had arrow slits that opened up into the gatehouse so that guards could shoot arrows at any invaders who got into the main entryway while being protected by the stone walls. On the interior end of the gatehouse was another set of heavy wooden doors that served as a final barrier.

  That gatehouse itself was taller than the wallwalk but the guardrooms on each side of it were shorter so Portia leapt from the wallwalk down ten feet onto the roof of the nearest guardroom and rolled across it. She came to her feet and leapt again, this time toward the end of a support beam that extended a foot out of the corner of the guardroom. She grabbed it with both hands and swung around the corner of the building and dropped right in front of the doorway into the guardroom.

  The handmaiden who was in charge of the winch had been looking through one of the arrow slits that allowed guards to fire from the guard room into the gate house when the wolf unleashed its arctic cold. Portia found her crawling on the floor of the guardroom her face and hair covered in frost. It was clear that she had been blinded by the blast. The girl turned her head at the sound of Portia’s footsteps.

  “I can’t find the release!”

  “I’ve got it Anna,” Portia said as she ran past the other girl and yanked on the lever. The winch drum started spinning madly as the massive weight of the portcullis dropped inside the gatehouse. She glanced through one of the arrow slits and saw two frozen handmaidens standing like statues trying to push the heavy gate doors closed. She watched as the heavy metal outer gate dropped like a rock right onto the head of one of the wolves as it tried to get into the castle. The heavy thud of the portcullis was immediately followed by the shrill whining of the beast before it went still under the weight of the 2,000-pound gate.

  “I’m sorry! I can’t see anything!” Fabricia said, “I’m trying to help but…”

  “Stay here and close the door,” Portia yelled as she sprinted past the handmaiden and back out into the bailey.

  Two wolves were already on the move, looking for prey when the third went running past Portia. It whipped its head around at the sound of its companion dying and saw the young handmaiden.

  Portia grabbed for her crossbow and then cursed her own stupidity for dropping it on the wallwalk. She sprinted back into the gatehouse and ducked behind one of the frozen handmaidens and used her body as a shield against the cone of frost that erupted from the mouth of the wolf. Even behind protection she felt the skin on her legs go numb. The beast finished its turn and charged back into the gatehouse after her. Portia desperately needed a ranged weapon but had none. She glanced around the frozen statue trying to determine where exactly the wolf was when she noticed something tucked into the girl’s belt. She had a francisca! The other girl should have one too.

  Portia grabbed the handles of the throwing axes out of the two girls’ belts. Franciscas were not used as much now as they had been in former centuries, but they still had their uses whether it was fighting Hungarians or magical wolves and the young warrior loved them. Portia attacked the animal using traditional francisca tactics; she jumped out from behind the guard and hurled the axe in her left hand as hard as she could at the ground right in front of the wolf and then immediately charged it swinging the other axe in her right hand. The francisca hit the ground and bounced up at a wicked angle, spinning like a demon possessed blade. The animal tried to dodge it, but the axe struck it a sharp blow gouging a deep gash into its hip and knocking it sideways so that it stumbled. The wolf’s blood caused the air around it to become bone chilling cold.

  Portia swung the other francisca with all her might at the wolf’s head as it struggled to regain its footing. She hit it in between the eyes and buried the weapon in its skull. Instantly the wooden axe handle froze solid and broke in half leaving her hand tingling from the chill. As the animal died the handmaiden felt a wave of arctic cold slap her in the face. Her cheeks and forehead went numb and an electric shiver shot through her entire body.

  Portia glanced around for the other francisca that she had thrown but had no time to make a grab for it. The second wolf had already identified her as the major threat and was charging down on her. She ran toward the portcullis with the beast in close pursuit while pulling her gladia and a dagger out of their sheaths. At the last moment she leapt up toward the portcullis and ran several steps up its iron grating just as the wolf cut loose with a freezing blast at the spot where she had been just a moment before. The handmaiden kicked off the top of the portcullis, arched her back and did a perfect flip followed by a perfect landing right behind the wolf. Its high speed and large bulk carried it into the portcullis where it smacked its head against the iron bars hard enough to make them ring. Portia jumped forward, swinging her gladia at the wolf, but the beast twisted out of the way of her attack and then lunged at her in return. Portia spun to one side and counterattacked stabbing it in the side with the dagger in her right hand even as she hacked at its nose with the gladia in her left.

  The strike to the nose was a glancing blow but the full 18 inches of the dagger in her right hand struck deep and immediately froze. The icy coldness ran up the metal of the blade and into her arm even as the creature’s blood spurted all over her right hand. Everything from fingertip to shoulder went completely numb. She hadn’t realized how much the wooden handle of the francisca had protected her from the freezing effects of the animal’s blood but now that she couldn’t move h
er right arm at all she was in serious trouble.

  The blow was a bad one but not immediately fatal and the wolf went into a frenzy of clawing and biting. In its pain, it missed Portia with its teeth but slammed into her with its head. The blow knocked the breath out of her, threw her onto her rear, and sent a chill through her that was so cold it hurt even through her chain mail. It could stop a sword or turn an arrow, but it was useless against this magical cold. Fortunately, the head butt against her hauberk also seemed to stun the wolf for a moment as it stumbled and fell to the ground before trying to struggle back to its feet. Portia couldn't risk striking it with her gladia. Even if she succeeded in killing it there would be no way that she could close the inner gates with both arms paralyzed and, as far as she knew, there was still another wolf running around in the bailey. She had to get to the guardroom and grab Anna’s francisca.

  A low earthy growl alerted her to the presence of the missing wolf. She turned slowly and saw it looking at her in hatred. It was much larger and meaner than the others and it had a long evil scar down the left side of its face from an old wound that had blinded one of its eyes. The blind eye had turned a milky white color, but far from making the wolf look weak or handicapped it made the animal look far more evil. This one was clearly the alpha and Portia knew she was being marked for death. The handmaiden tried to scramble to her feet and as she did so her hand came down on the handle of the other francisca. Praise God! In the blink of an eye she dropped her gladia and grabbed the axe. She needed room to maneuver and she needed to clear the gatehouse so someone else could get in there and close the main gates. She sprinted for the opening into the bailey before the final wolf could block her in.

  The alpha circled cautiously around as it locked eyes with Portia, sizing her up. She didn’t know why it didn’t just breath frost on her but since it had just breathed on the girls at the main gate perhaps it took the animal a few moments to recover. The young warrior really wanted the wolf to attack her, but it was not cooperating. She couldn’t risk throwing her only francisca and not killing it and she didn’t like her chances of trying to charge it with one worthless arm. The alpha made a strange growling noise and the injured wolf behind her snarled and attacked. Only a twisting pirouette that would have been the envy of any dancer allowed her to escape its jaws. She continued the spin all the way around like a whirlwind and buried the head of the francisca in the back of the animal’s neck. Again, the axe froze and the handle cracked off in her hand, leaving her fingers numb. The wolf went headfirst into the ground and lay still.