Alisande’s army camped in a meadow. As the sun was setting, Queen Alisande told Lord Gautier,
“When darkness has fallen, send half our men out in groups of six and have them bid all the peasants pack their most precious goods, then flee after sunset.”
Lord Gautier stared. “Majesty! We have only come a day’s ride back toward Bordestang! Are we not returning to raise the siege?”
“We are not,” Alisande said, with the complete certainty of a monarch who spoke for her whole land and people. “It cuts hard, but we must trust the city to its own defenses. The opportunity to take the Moors at a disadvantage is too great to miss.”
“I have missed it completely, then,” Lord Gautier said, mystified. “Everyone has been talking of our return to Bordestang!”
“Yes, and the Mahdi’s spies have surely heard, and taken word to him,” Alisande said. “He will curse because we have turned away from his trap; he will ride after us, with all his men marching through the mountain passes and double-quick along this road, to catch us. He shall find half our army camped a mile farther on, and shall draw up his troops to do battle. Have the other half of our force evacuate the people of the countryside by night, Lord Gautier, then have them dress in peasants’ clothing and busy themselves tilling the fields. It should not be difficult for them; most of them began as plowboys, after all.”
Lord Gautier began to understand. “So they shall till the fields, but keep their weapons near?”
“Near indeed, hidden in furrows and under hedgerows,” Alisande confirmed.
“Then when the Moors attack our army, half our men shall boil out of the fields all about them!” Lord
Gautier slapped his saddlebow, grinning.
Alisande nodded. “We shall take them in both flanks and in the rear, Lord Gautier, and even if they outnumber us, they shall fall to our spears… if the Mahdi knows not of our ruse.” She turned to her left, to Matt’s assistant wizard, Ortho the Frank. “That shall be your task, Master Ortho… to confound the spells of the Moorish sorcerers, that they not espy our true positions.”
“That should not be difficult,” the wizard said, grinning, “for those sorcerers are not likely to scry us clearly by night, and when dawn comes, they shall see only our army encamped, and if they notice how much smaller it is, they shall put it down to men deserting because they believe they cannot win against the Mahdi.”
“There is much to be said for conceit,” Lord Gautier said, “at least, for an enemy’s conceit.”
“It is a most excellent scheme,” Ortho said, his eyes glowing, then frowned. “But what of Bordestang?”
“It is a hard choice,” Alisande admitted, “but the good of the whole country requires that I trust the safety of the city to its walls… and to Sir Gilbert, the Witch Doctor, and Lady Mantrell.”
Privately, of course, she knew Matt’s mother couldn’t do much. She was too new to wizardry. But her main concern was for her infant son, and if anyone could protect him, it would be his grandmother.
Mama cried, “What are these loathsome creatures!”
Two guards, Saul, and Sir Guy came running to her on the southern side of the castle. Sir Gilbert stayed resolutely on watch on the northern side, commanding his men sternly to hold their posts, though he was aching to see what had happened. He reminded himself that his men were dying of curiosity, too. “It may be a ruse,” he cried, “to draw us all away from our posts!”
The sentries held their places, renewed in resolve. The rest of the commanders looked out over the castle wall and down on the houses and shops. The river flowed under the city wall, snaked through the town, then back out under the wall… and all along its length, great shimmering half spheres were crawling out of the water onto the banks. Citizens howled and ran from them. The creatures flailed about with tentacles. Two managed to touch people, they went rigid and fell, paralyzed too quickly to scream. But the monsters didn’t stop to eat… they crawled very purposefully through streets and alleys toward the outer wall, still streaming with water. Where they passed, the streets glistened. “They seek to take the town wall from within!” Sir Guy cried “What can these creatures be?”
“I don’t know,” Saul answered. “They look sort of like jellyfish, scaled up about a hundred times. They shouldn’t be able to support their own weight on land, though… they should collapse!”
“Magic can do amazing things,” Mama reminded him.
“Yonder! A citizen fights back!” Sir Guy pointed. They all looked, and saw a spear falling from a third-floor window. It struck a jellyfish squarely in the back… and bounced off. “The Moorish sorcerers would not send creatures that could be slain so easily,” Sir Guy said grimly.
“But how did they come in?” Mama asked “Are not the watergates barred?”
“Sure,” Saul told her, “but these things are very flexible. All they had to do was stretch out thin and squeeze through… assuming they didn’t tear out the iron grilles instead.”
“We shall have to be sure of that, as soon as we have dealt with them,” Sir Guy said grimly. The monster oozed on up the street. A mongrel burst from hiding behind a rain barrel. A tentacle lashed out, the dog froze in midstride, then fell. The monster crawled on over the dog. Where it had passed, only a stream of water trickled. There was no sign of the mutt. “We must stop these creatures at once!” Mama declared
“They might slay a child as easily as they have slain that dog, and just as mindlessly absorb it!” She began to gesture, reciting in Spanish.
Sir Guy stiffened “Their goal is the wall indeed! The Moors attack from without while their monsters attack from within!”
Saul looked up and saw a dozen wooden towers rolling toward the city. The infantry marched behind… well behind. “What’s making them roll? I don’t see any oxen pulling.”
“And no soldiers pushing, either,” Sir Guy told him. “They are self-moving.”
“Auto mobile, hm?” Saul grinned. “Well, I might know a spell or two about that.”
“While you chant, I shall lead the defense in disabling those towers,” Sir Guy told him. He ran down the stairs, calling, “Ho, men of mine! To horse and away!”
Saul found time to wonder what Mama was chanting. After all, she couldn’t ever have seen monsters like these, could she? Maybe at the aquarium, but… A jellyfish blew up. That was the only word to describe it, in a single second, its body swelled to a tight and glistening half ball, then popped like bubble gum… except that it dried up as it fell in on itself, and in another second was only a desiccated, rubbery film on the cobbles, a film that evaporated even as Saul watched. He stared, fascinated, listening to the popping sounds all over town. When they died away, Mama nodded, satisfied “No town should suffer such vermin.”
Saul gave himself a shake “Yes Amazing job, Lady Mantrell.”
“It is nothing.” Mama waved away the compliment. “If you had ever had to clean bubble gum off a child’s face, you would understand it quite quickly.”
Now Saul understood why her chant had seemed familiar, even though he couldn’t understand the language, he’d recognized the tune… from a television commercial. Mama frowned out over the city
“How are those towers approaching us?”
“By magic, I think,” Saul said. “Either that, or they’ve got people inside walking treadmills.”
“They would not go so smoothly if that were all,” Mama told him. “Let us spike their wheels, yes?”
“Yes,” Saul agreed. He lifted his hands to start miming, then saw Sir Guy running up the steps to the ramparts of the city’s wall. “Hold on… let’s see what the professional is doing.”