Greywolf - Reunion

"Are you sure you know where you're going?"

Using her ghost-glass, Wysper had finally found Attila's army, creeping up through the dense woods and hills behind the Gauls. Papa had gone on an errand for the Celestial Council, which he’d warned me not to mention to anyone, especially Wysper, while the Gauls had cut off Ebora Castle from the south.

So she'd asked me to take Castor and meet up with Attila, since I could use the Shadowlands to travel, and let him know just how bad things were. Castor and I left Ebora Castle and walked through the Gaul's army without a problem.

Finding Attila's army was another matter. "I'm keeping us on the course Wysper's uncle showed us on his map," Castor growled as we started climbing up yet another ridge, covered in the detailed shadows of trees and brush.

I gave him a snort. "That map looked like it had been drawn by a three year old. The next time someone tells me, 'Oh, don't worry. Just keep on and you'll run right into them', I'm going to tell him to go fark a goat. I don't care if he is High Councilor."

It was Castor's turn to snort as I stopped and turned around, my katana in hand, to check our back trail. There's no Shadow creatures... wait, in the sky, a Shadow Raptor. It's pretty high up, though, and it's moving north, the way we came. I kept watch anyway, Castor's feet scrabbling on the upward slope. Then his footsteps stopped. "There's Gauls ahead of us on top of the ridge, but they're facing the same way we are."

The Shadow Raptor flew out of sight as I turned around and looked up the slope. At the top of the ridgeline, Gaulish soldiers were hiding among the trees, or were crouched down between bushes.

Most of them wore basic chainmail with a loose weave, hanging down to their thighs and barely protecting their shoulders, and either carried a spear or a sword. Their painted shields were long and narrow.

They also had a few berserker warriors with them, naked except for a loincloth, their bodies covered in blue iron-woad which toughened their skin like it was wax boiled leather. All of them had their backs to us. "Do you think they're rear guards?"

Castor shook his head. "I'd bet silver to gold we've just discovered Attila's army. C'mon." We jogged up to the top of the ridgeline, moving among the hidden soldiers to look out over the rocky gully beyond.

On the opposite side, Warghorse riders were starting down the slope. "Shite! They're walking straight into an ambush."

"Not if we attack first,” Castor said as he motioned off to our left. "The slope is higher there, so if we race towards them and yell as we leave the Grey to attack-"

"We'll hit their flank and surprise them. Let's do it." We moved to where the last of their soldiers were waiting, a pair of berserker's with axes in each hand, then continued on a few more horse-lengths. We stopped and turned around. "I'll open the gate between those two trees so we'll have a clear shot at those warriors." I grasped his furry arm. "We'll be moving a lot faster for a few heartbeats because of the time difference, so watch your balance. Ready?" Castor nodded, and we took off running straight towards them.

I formed a gate between the two trees and we raced through it. "Ambush," I screamed a moment before slamming into the Gaul, knocking him off his feet as I bounced off and stumbled back against a tree. The warrior lost an axe as he tumbled down the slope.

Castor leapt upon the other, the Gaul screaming as my friend ripped the man apart with his claws. Shouts came from the remaining Gauls as Hypam’s voice shouted a command, and the line of Warghorses broke into a gallop. Overhead, arrows from the Grey Wargs began flitting through the trees.

Downslope from me, the berserker painted dark blue stopped tumbling and staggered to his feet, his axe in his hand as his gaze met mine. He shouted what sounded like a war cry and charged up the slope as a fiery arrow streaked out of the trees straight towards him.

It struck his back and exploded, knocking the man off his feet again as gobbets of flaming, bloody flesh and blood erupted-

Movement from the corner of my eye and I reared back as a spear point attached to a wooden shaft went straight past my nose. I leapt sideways, putting a tree between me and the warrior in chainmail, who pulled his spear back and thrusted again. He missed, and began moving around the tree.

I thrust my sword towards his face. He threw his shield in front of it, my blade gouging a furrow through the wood as he pulled his spear back and thrusted yet again. But I knocked the shaft aside, putting the tree back between us as I waited for an opening.

Then Castor leapt onto his back. The Gaul lurched forward, his spear tip digging into the dirt as his shield dropped, and I thrust hard past it and through the metal links covering his chest. The man made a strangled gasp and fell as Castor let him go and turned towards the battle behind him.

No, not a battle, but a rout. The Gauls were fleeing as Warghorses tore men apart while their riders slashed down at them, men screaming or shouting battle cries as they chased the Gauls off the ridge and down the slope. Hypam's Warghorse moved through the trees towards us. "Greywolf," she called out as her beast climbed up the slope, "I was wondering if you and Castor would be the ones sent to meet us."

She halted her Warghorse beside the dying Gaul and swung down, the beast nuzzling me a moment before crouching over the downed man and ripping out his throat. The three of us moved away as the Warghorse began to feast. She gave me a hug, which I returned, and as we let go, I asked, "Is the rest of the army with you?"

My heart sank as Hypam shook her head. "They're several days behind us with the rest of the Khanate. I've got the vanguard: several hundred riders who are going to secure the area for the main-"

"There isn't time," I almost shouted at her as I interrupted. "The Gauls have set up a line of large catapults, which they're going to use to throw large pots filled with explosive fire at Ebora Castle."

As the sounds of combat moved further away, Hypam frowned. "To destroy the walls?"

"Not the walls," Castor growled. "Before we left, the catapults were testing their range with pots of paint, and each catapult adjusted their fire until the paint pots hit inside the castle. The Gauls don't mean to capture Ebora Castle, but destroy it."

"Destroy it? Are you sure?"

"Wysper is," I replied. "She told us Ebora castle's the last stronghold Britannia has, and if it's destroyed, the Confederation of tribes will be destroyed as well. She won't leave," I blurted out, my frustration boiling over. "Wysper's got control of some ancient device from the Prince's war, and she says if Attila's army doesn't attack before the bombardment begins, she will cause the device to rain down some kind of fire on the siege engines and much of the army, blowing them up."

"But-"

"It'll kill her," I said, grabbing Hypam by the shoulders. "Papa told me the ghost-glass device has a backlash if it's used in that way, and while a small strike would damage her mind, the strike she's talking about will kill her right afterward."

Hypam reached up and clasped my shoulders in turn. "Greywolf," she said in a gentle voice, "I can't get enough soldiers in place to attack, even if your father were here. There's no dead, grey tree anywhere close, except for the one north of the castle." She gave my shoulders a squeeze. "Castles take time to destroy. If Wysper and the others can hold out a few days-"

Castor growled, "They don't have days. On the journey south, when we went through the Gaul's camp, we sabotaged one of the pots in a way that made it explode."

"How did you do that?"

"They're transporting each pot individually in a small cart," Castor replied, "and Greywolf brought us into the real world just long enough for me to slash the hind end of a donkey pulling it. The donkey raced away, and we reentered the Shadowlands right as the pot bounced off the cart."

"A lucky thing too," I added, letting go of Hypam's shoulders. "Because when it hit the ground, the ground vanished beneath our feet and we dropped into an enormous pit."

"When we climbed out," Castor said, "the explosion had taken out everything in a wide swath, torn apart trees, you name it."

I shook my head in frustration. "I don't understand how Wysper could've been so wrong. She told me Attila's army was only a stone's throw away from the Gaul's camp, and if we could get them to attack and not wait, she wouldn't have to use the device." Hypam gasped, and I gave her a sharp look. "What is it?"

Hypam took a deep breath. "Greywolf, if you were my lover and I had to make a suicidal charge to save my people, I'd first send you off on an errand I knew was pointless, so you'd be spared." She gripped my shoulders hard. "Otherwise, there would be a good chance you'd talk me out of it." I gaped at her. This can't be right, Wysper wouldn't-

Along the ridgeline, men began calling out in their harsh language of the steppes. Hypam let me go and we turned around. Warriors were pointing up at the sky, and even the Warghorses had stopped feasting on the dead to look up as the three of us did the same.

Far up in the sky, a disc like a giant gold coin had begun to glow like a second sun.