Commander Fishbeater suggests that he leave the island and return to Neu Ardonbrae. “The king needs to be informed of your accomplishments and current situation.” It is agreed the commander would be taken to the far side of the island from where he could sail in a fishing skiff back to Halban and retrieve his damaged transporter.
Farg wants to take the castle by force. He believes he can construct siege towers and breech the battlements with a minimum of casualties. The duke reminds him that once he is on the battlements he will face a hundred swords, and there is no guarantee the hostages would not be harmed.
Trak reasons the duke’s niece is the only hostage of importance. She is promised to the king’s son. “My Lord, if I can smuggle your niece out of the castle, would you be more willing to attack?”
The duke considers his options for a moment and replies, “The commander of the enemy force does not seem unreasonable. To this point, he has spared the hostages and probably intends to use them as bargaining chips. He will probably not slaughter them if we attack. Lord Farg will begin constructing his siege towers. I don’t know how you expect to smuggle my niece out of the castle, but you have two days to try before the towers are ready.”
Trak requests the duke’s sapper unit report to him for instructions. Trak knows somewhere in the cliff face there is a tunnel leading to the underground passage he discovered in the broch’s cellar. He is pleased that Tumorg is still the sapper unit’s sergeant. He briefs Tumorg on his plan and stresses the need for secrecy. It is not good too many people know about a hidden passage into the castle.
The sapper unit waits until low tide before descending the cliff at a point just out of sight of the castle battlements. They stay against the cliff face and are not seen from the castle as they worked their way along the rocky coast. They spend the morning exploring, looking for a tunnel. They spot a small cave halfway up the cliff but cannot find a route to the cave’s mouth. Tumorg observes that fifty feet above the cave there is a ledge. If he can reach the ledge, he can rappel into the opening. An hour later, Tumorg swings back and forth at the end of a rope before dropping into the cave’s entrance.
Trak waits anxiously while Tumorg explores the cave. He forgot to provide the sergeant with a light, and is afraid Tumorg might miss a side tunnel hidden in the dark. When Tumorg emerges he signals found something. He rappels to the level where Trak is waiting.
“The cave narrows. and at its back I found a tunnel. I followed it for fifty strides until a wall blocked me. It was dark, but when I ran my hand over the wall, I could feel the gritty bands of mortar that hold the stones together.”
Tumorg sends a sapper back up to the cave with a rope ladder that he secures to a boulder. The team shimmies up the ladder and uses the rope to bring up lanterns and digging tools. The sappers are trained to dig in near silence, and Trak feels certain the digging can’t be heard in the castle. They concentrate on the mortar, scraping around the edges of a large block. The first block is the hardest. When it is gone the next is easier. Once several blocks have been removed, it is possible to drive a chisel into the mortar and by applying side pressure pop a stone loose.
When the hole is large enough, Trak climbs through and is greeted by dank, stale air rushing out of the tunnel. The passage is as he remembers. He checks the hidden entrance to the broch. When he attempts to open the door, he feels the resistance of the junk he piled against the door to hide it. He hears no voices inside.
Trak turns and follows the passage under the inner courtyard and into the keep. Voices are coming from the banquet hall above. He stealthy ascends the stairs and squats behind the wainscot. Through the cracks, he sees the hall has been converted into a dormitory for troops. Men are playing cards at the banquet table and others sleep rolled up in blankets along the walls.
When Trak exits the tunnel, the sappers have finished clearing away the masonry. A goblin carrying a sword and shield can now easily walk through the opening. Trak smiles at the sappers and says, “Well done. When we strike tonight, the men inside will think that an army of goblins from the Underworld has been unleashed upon them.” He orders his sappers back to the village. The last man out of the cave pulls the ladder up and rappels down the cliff.
***
To execute his plan Trak needs Farg’s intimate knowledge of the castle. Farg listens excitedly as Trak describes the passage leading to a space behind the wainscot. Farg grasps the possibilities in an instant. “By the Stones! We enter the keep during the night, cut through the wainscot, find Dorla and smuggle her out of the castle. Then, we unleash a horde to take the castle from within while the enemy force is on the walls defending against an attack by my siege engines.”
One hundred goblins armed with swords jook behind Trak and Farg as they clamber along the rocky shore until they stand beneath the sea cave. The force climbs the ladder and waits at the entrance of the tunnel as five soldiers accompany Farg and Trak into the passage leading to the keep. It is two hours before dawn. The hall is dark and the men are asleep. The goblins wait until it is time for the siege engines to begin moving toward the castle. When the alarm is given that the castle is under attack, the soldiers rush out of the hall to man the battlements.
With a hammer and chisel Trak quickly splinters the wainscot. Trak and Farg squeeze through the tight opening. The five soldiers that accompanied them are left to guard the exit and insure the escape route remains open.
Farg goes first, guiding Trak to the chamber usually occupied by the duke’s niece. They encounter no guards as they creep down the main hall and up the staircase to the Dorla’s chamber. They listen quietly at the door and hear nothing. Farg finds the door unlocked and enters. The room is empty. Trak thinks, What now?
Farg directs Trak up another stone staircase that spirals its way to the top of a tower. A guard sits on a bench dosing against the wall in front of a closed door. Trak is considering how to restrain the guard when Farg pulls his knife and slits the man’s throat. The duke’s son removes a key from the man’s belt, opens the door, enters the room and wakes Dorla. She seems no worse for her captivity. When Trak sticks his head in the room, the niece looks startled, but then recognizes the face. “The kitchen boy! What is he doing here?”
“I’ll explain later,” Farg responds. When they arrive back at the banquet hall, Trak guides Dorla through the hole in the wainscot. Farg stays behind. As Trak and the niece emerge from the tunnel, a hundred armed goblins race into the passage.
Trak assures Dorla the duke is most anxious for her safety. He is to deliver her to the duke’s side immediately. He sees her rubbing the sole of a foot. “I think I cut my foot on the rocks,” she moans. She wears no shoes. In fact, all she wears is the thin gown she sleeps in. Trak flushes, looks away and focuses on the task at hand.
How stupid of me not to remember shoes, Trak berates himself. “There is no way she can walk over the rocky coast. He realizes he will have to carry her. He hands her the rope that dangles over the ledge where they stand. “Climb down the ladder. I will follow. She looks over the ledge at the sea striking the rocks below. “Do what?” she asks. “Gobshite,” Trak says to himself, “why did I forget that she would lack climbing skills?”
“If you hold on to my back I will, with your permission, carry you down the cliff’s face,” Trak offers. Without comment Dorla climbs onto Trak’s back and wraps her legs tightly about him. Trak holds the rope and moves to the edge. He steps cautiously so as not to frighten Dorla or lose his balance. With every step, he is aware of the girl’s near-naked body against his. This is no time to get aroused, he reminds himself. Still, he is glad that they are alone and no one witnesses his predicament.
At the bottom of the cliff, Trak lifts the niece in his arms and begins moving over rocks. On top of the cliff the battle is already raging, but on the rocky beach below, Trak hears only the sound of the sea hitting the shore. Trak scampers through the dark as quickly as he dares. He stumbles once when he slips on seaweed and tightens his g
rip, pulling Dorla tighter to his body. He looks down and finds her eyes focused on his face. This is embarrassing, he thinks. The girl probably believes I deliberately forgot her shoes. When they arrive at the spot where they would ascend the cliff, Trak sets Dorla on the ground to rest a minute. He points at the steep cliff that they have to climb. Without a rope to grasp, Trak doesn’t see how he can safely carry her up the face. She will need to make the ascent on her own.
Dorla looks up at the cliff and recognizes Trak’s dilemma. “It appears I must climb.” She tears the hem from her gown and ties strips of cloth around the soles of her feet. “I’ll go first; catch me when I fall,” she laughs. Trak is pleased by her spirited response. She does not seem like the spoiled child he dealt with as a kitchen boy. He stays below her and offers a hand as a foothold as they ascend the cliff’s face.
By the time they reached the top, the sun is rising. In the distance there is smoke coming from the siege towers in front of the castle. Trak hoists Dorla onto his back and proceeds cautiously into the forest. The old goblin seems surprised when Trak deposits the nearly naked girl at her front door. Without as much as a greeting or an introduction, Trak promises to return and heads for the castle to assess the outcome of the battle. He wants to get away before the old mother can ask why he is carrying a half-naked girl on his back.
***
The defenders on the battlements spot the siege engines silhouetted against the breaking dawn and hear their squeaking wheels as they are pushed up the slope towards the castle. Tension on the battlements grows as the engines move closer. The baron orders flaming arrows shot into the planks that cover the fronts of the towers and protect the goblins pushing from behind. As the engines near the wall, buckets of oil are thrown onto the flames and within seconds the fronts of the towers are infernos. A goblin drenched in the oil ignites, jumps from a tower and runs screaming into the night. When the towers reach the wall, Duke Amin unleashes his troops. They spring out of the darkness and begin throwing ladders against the castle walls.
At the same moment, the goblins, hiding inside the keep burst into the banquet hall. The first twenty scurry through the keep looking for any troops remaining in the building. They dispatch the two soldiers that guard the cellar door and free more than a hundred captives. They arm the released prisoners with swords Baelock has hidden in the forest. The captives and liberators cascade out the keep’s main door and down the steps into the inner courtyard. They pass through the inner gate and charge the stairs leading to the battlements. The bowmen on the walls turn to see two hundred squealing, black-eyed goblins springing toward them. They fire a devastating barrage of arrows at the yellow demons and force them to retreat back to the inner courtyard.
None of the goblins come within striking distance of the men on the battlements, but the attack accomplishes its purpose. In the thirty seconds that the attention of the bowmen is concentrated on the goblins attacking from inside the castle, the attackers outside climb their ladders and the gangplanks atop the siege towers drop onto the battlements. Goblins leap through the flames to engage the baron’s troops. The defenders discard their bows and draw their swords. The goblins in the inner courtyard reengage the fight. The men hold only because the walkways on the battlements are too narrow to allow the entire goblin force to overwhelm the men. Gradually, the number of defenders shrinks and the supply of goblins waiting to join the fight grows. The men become desperate. The baron leads a charge that pushes several goblins off the battlements onto the cobblestones below. The surviving men break through the goblin ranks, hack their way across the outer courtyard and take refuge inside the broch.
***
Before the siege towers have stopped burning, the goblins control the castle, but the drama is not yet over. Lord Ran and the men held in the makeshift prison camp have not been idle. Only ten goblins have been left to guard the prisoners. When the battle for the castle commences, the men in the prison rush the barricade that encircles them and begin climbing. The goblin guards yell for help, but none arrive. They thrust their spears at the men as they swarm up the wall. Some men are stabbed, but the goblins cannot easily get their spears through the thick web of planks and debris that form the enclosure. Most of the men successfully reach the top of the wall from where they leap at the guards and overpower them with rocks, sticks and even pots and pans.
The escapees strip the fallen guards of their weapons and move up the road to where they can glimpse the battle. Lord Ran realizes that somehow the goblins have gotten inside the castle and Baron Teiber is being overrun. To join the fight at this point seems suicidal. Lord Ran spots Duke Amin standing on a hill observing the battle. The duke’s party is already celebrating their impending victory when Ran’s men surround them and take them prisoner. Goblins on the walls of the castle report to Lord Farg the duke has been captured.
Before the sun clears the horizon, one stalemate is broken and another taken its place. Farg knows he can readily take the broch where the baron and his remaining forces are held up, but if he harms the baron he risks harm to his father. And there is the problem of the niece. Where are Trak and his cousin? Were they hiding or prisoners along with the Duke Amin?
Baron Teiber, sequestered in the broch, doesn’t know Ran has escaped and captured Duke Amin. So of course, he can’t understand why the goblins have not already attacked the broch. True, the baron isn’t a hostage yet, but his position is so tenuous that he is for all purposes a captive. He controls the battlements on top of the broch’s roof, but he can’t profit by the advantage because his men have expended all their arrows. He has sealed the entrances to the broch with everything they can be pile in the passageways, but the goblins can easily set a fire and open the entrances anytime they want. He is cut off from food and water.
Farg considers fighting Ran’s forces in the open. He thinks of the tunnel. If it can be used to get into the castle undetected, he could use it to get out. He could sneak goblins out of the castle and take Ran by surprise. Such a strategy would likely succeed, but there is no guarantee that Duke Amin would not be harmed in retaliation. Farg checks his food stores; the men and their goblin prisoners have severely reduced the food supplies. His forces could last a few weeks but not longer.
While both sides ponder their predicament, eight warships carrying four hundred men arrive at what remains of the dock. Tunnel or no tunnel, Farg has to abandon any hope of defeating such a large force in an open battle. King Red’s forces once again control the island; they have sufficient strength to assault the castle that is now defended by four hundred goblins, but Ran hesitates. He has no idea of the fate of his father whom he hopes is alive and held prisoner in the castle.
***
Trak laughs out loud as he observes the warships and four hundred additional enemy soldiers arriving on the island. He finds the complete reversal of the fortunes of the combatants a laughable irony. In just one morning, the goblins and men have changed places. One side has lost the harbor and gained the castle and the other side has won the harbor but lost the castle. Both sides have lost prisoners but gained new hostages. He is beginning to understand why wars can drag on interminably, even for generations. No one ever wins. Each battle only festers more hate and desire for revenge. The life of a warrior makes no sense. “Better a worker than a soldier termite,” Trak admits to himself.
It is apparent to Trak that neither the men nor the goblins can achieve victory without sustaining unacceptable loses. The enemy must feel the same way because Lord Ran is walking toward the castle bearing a flag of truce. From where he hides in the forest, Trak sees he has a clear path to the castle. While truce flag is flying, Trak boldly sprints out of the forest toward the front of the castle where Farg is preparing to meet Lord Ran. He arrives before Ran and assures Farg that Dorla is safely hidden in the forest. He warns Farg about the cleverness of his opponent. He suspects that Ran’s real purpose is to gather information while pretending to talk of a ceasefire. Farg has the good sense to say to
Trak, “Stop me before I say anything stupid.”
“Greetings to you, Lord Farg, and to you, Lord Sorcerer. It certainly has been an eventful morning.”
“And who might you be?” asks Farg.
“My name is Ran, I am the senior officer.” Trak notes that the tall red haired commander must be of particularly high rank since he is speaking not just for his own men but also for the four hundred that have newly arrived. “I must congratulate you on how you were able to take the castle with such a small force.”
“Lord Ran, do you bring a proposal for ending this conflict?” interrupts Trak.
“Actually, my proposal depends on what you are willing to offer. I will agree to hand over the duke and his officers, if you release all your prisoners.”
“Why would I want to increase the size of your fighting force by releasing your men?” replies Farg. “Any prisoner exchange must be contingent on your forces leaving the island. You might as well depart. We are prepared to outlast any siege you may impose. I am all too aware of how little food there is on this island to feed your army.”
“Yes, and remember,” Ran counters. “I have been in your castle cellars and have seen your food supplies. I know exactly how many weeks you can hold out before your last sack of barley is exhausted. I expect King Red can keep me supplied indefinitely.”
“Your attack on this island will force the goblin king to take action. If a few hundred goblins recaptured this island once, a few thousand can surely do so again,” retorts Farg.
“I see your sorcerer smiling,” Ran observes. “Lord Sorcerer, do you have some magic trick that will save you once again?”
“Trak breaks the monotony of the back and forth posturing by saying, “If it were to either side’s advantage to continue fighting, we wouldn’t be standing here talking. Lord Ran, what do you need to gain before you are willing to quit this island? You have already destroyed the forges and humiliated Duke Amin by occupying his castle; isn’t that enough to satisfy you and your king?”