The Ember Thief

Chapter Twenty Five - Dying Embers

Raide held on by his fingertips to the walkway. Above him, he could see the dangling remains of the upper path, flapping against the sheared treetops. The boulder had cut a clear path through the trees. Beyond, he could see the walls of the other fortress and the bell tower at the back, identical to the one he left behind. From below, a Rakkasha ballistic jumped onto the boulder that had crashed through the wood. Soukar glared intently at Raide who was dangling from the edge. In one fluid motion, he pulled an unusual arrow from his quiver and fired it upwards into the air. The arrow made a high pitched whistling noise as it screeched up into the air past him, before exploding in a bright flash of purple above the tree line, the crowd applauded with excitement at the light show.

Charm reached down and grabbed his arm. 'Give me your hand. We have to keep moving; he's signalled that Asher is here,' she said, straining to haul him up on the wooden platform. Another arrow whistled past, this time lighting up the arena in a flash of vivid blue. 'And now they know Sakari are with you,' she said, getting him to his feet.

Raide looked down to see Soukar nock another arrow, this time he aimed it straight at him. He held his breath as he looked down the shaft of the arrow straight into Soukar's open eye. From out of the ferns, a woman leapt out wearing white with a fanged pewter animal mask. She kicked Soukar's back leg, sending the arrow whistling harmlessly across the trees before spinning her staff directly into the man's back. The sound of glass shattering echoed through the wood. Soukar dropped to his knees. She then planted the other end of her staff hard against the man's face sending him flying from the rock.

'Elimination! Soukar, House Rakkasha,' Torman's voice echoed. The noise of the crowd was deafening. The woman with a mandrill shoulder plate gave Raide a gentle nod before jumping back into the dense ferns.

'Move, they'll be coming!' Charm shouted, yanking Raide on top of the platform.

The two Chimeras made a quick pass through the raised walkways before finding a winding path that curled gradually to the ground. They burst through the tree line and ran at full speed towards the defensive wall.

'Elimination, Count Routhar, House Vosh. Asher are embedded deep in that tower!' Torman announced.

'Vosh are hitting our tower,' Raide shouted.

'It's started. Let's hope they can hold long enough,' she said, striding across the snow, towards the wall. 'There's no one on these defences,' she said, pointing to two towers above the portcullis that had the heavy repeating crossbows mounted at the top. 'Nobody expected a frontal assault.'

Raide shielded his face against the snow-filled wind. 'How are we getting in?'

Charm span the two tonfas in her hand. 'Like this,' she said, before running at the wall. She thrust one of the metal weapons between the rocks at chest height, the other she vaulted up, driving it hard between the mortar further up the wall. 'Climb,' she barked.

With the help of Wisp, Raide used the weapons jutting out, like stepping-stones. He vaulted off the last one and caught the top of the parapet with his hand. Raide could hardly feel his freezing fingers anymore as he clawed the stones for a handhold. He formed a fist and wedged his hand between two rocks to give him enough grip to pull himself onto the wall. Charm followed, Raide just about caught her arm on the last jump, pulling her up onto the stone walkway.

'What about your weapons?' he asked, looking down at the two metal shafts sticking out of the wall below.

'Leave them. We just need to get you to the Prime,' she shouted, nodding at the bell tower looming through the snow at the top of the hill. 'Whatever happens up there, Raide, you need to keep moving. No matter what happens to me, just head straight for that bell, and ring it as hard as you can.' They set off up the hill. The ground was churned up with crisscrossing footprints. At either side of the tower, were the catapults with piles of granite blocks lined up ready to use. 'There's nobody on the catapults anymore?' Charm said, pointing to the empty war machines.