Aelric bowed to the group. "If you will excuse me, I have my own part to play. This battle will not be fought entirely in the World you know and my own role comes-elsewhere." He started to go and then turned back. "One other thing. You may find you have acquired some unexpected allies. I would suggest that you simply accept such help as you are given." He picked his way off the crowded dais and strode toward the door.
Moira followed him and caught up with him in the corridor.
"You came back."
Aelric looked down at her. "Did you doubt that I would, Lady?"
She stopped. "Lord…" The elf duke turned back at the sound of her voice.
"Lord, I have not properly thanked you for your aid. I have been surly and ill-natured to you and," her eyes begin to fill with tears and the words came with a rush, "and I am sorry and thank you. That is all I wish to say."
"You are most welcome, Lady," Duke Aelric said, ignoring her tears. "Truly this has not been easy for any of us."
"I wish there was something I could do to make up for everything."
"Bend every power you possess to our victory," Duke Aelric said. "Then hope that it is enough."
The dwarves were panting and exhausted by the time they reached the base of the castle. The explosions and beams of burning light had never come close but they had taken them as a hint and crossed the plain at a dead run. Since dwarves are too short and stumpy for distance running they were pretty well worn out.
A dozen dwarves slumped down in a row beneath the towering walls of living rock and gulped great lungfuls of air. Out on the plain the explosions continued unabated.
"Now that we’re here," Thorfin gasped after several minutes, "how do we get inside?"
"Place isn’t spelled against us," said Snorri. "Don’t see any gates, though."
"Gates would be guarded," Gimli pointed out.
"There are openings further up," Glandurg shaded his eyes and craned his neck. "Leave your packs here and bring only what we shall need for the final assault."
Thorfin and Snorri looked at each other and shifted uneasily. "You mean those openings that spout fire and explosions every so often?"
"You have a better idea? I thought not."
The wall was solid rock and so steep it was only a few degrees off vertical. But dwarves are creatures of the mountains and if they cannot run they can climb like flies.
Glandurg lifted Blind Fury high above his head with both hands.
"Forward!" he proclaimed. "For glory and honor!" Glandurg turned and began to climb the wall. Behind him his loyal followers hesitated and then started after him.
It took Mick and Karin longer to cross the plain. Mick insisted on going flat every time the artillery came within a few hundred yards of them. Fortunately the fire never got really close and their only injury was to Stigi, who received a scratch from a shell fragment.
"Well, we’re here," Mick said as they rested in the shade of the wall. "Now are you satisfied?"
"I wonder if we can get inside?" Karin said thoughtfully.
"Even for you that’s a crazy notion. We’ve done too much already."
"Let us work our way along the wall and see if we can find a gate," she went on as if she had not heard him.
Mick looked at her, sighed and nodded.
The things men do for love!
"The scouts are in position," the Watcher reported.
Bal-Simba looked up at the display. Already it was beginning to show the information pouring in from tens of thousands of scouting demons like the ones Wiz and his company had used to locate the heart of Bale-Zur in the City of Night.
Unlike those demons, these absorbed everything that happened around them and transmitted the information back to dozens of concentrators floating well to the south out of the battle zone.
Circling off the southern end of the island was a thing like a gray tarp, a relay for communications and the concentrators. It absorbed the information, did some preliminary filtering and fed it back to the relay. The relay in turn passed the information back to the Watchers in the Capital.
As one, the controllers in the pit looked up at Bal-Simba. The giant wizard took a deep breath. Then he nodded.
The controllers turned back to their crystals and the attack was on.
Forty-five: BATTLE ROYAL
"Dragon Leader, you have an allied force approaching to your right. I say again, you have friendlies approaching from widdershins high."
What the… ? There were no more friendly forces. Save for a couple of squadrons on guard duty Dragon Leader had the entire cavalry of the North with him. Anything else in the air had to be hostile.
"Dragons at widdershins high," the scout on the right flank sang out.
"Can you identify?" Dragon Leader barked into his communications crystal. He hated surprises in the middle of a battle.
Silence.
"I say again, can you identify the dragons?"
"Uhhh…"
"Dammit, speak up!"
By now the formations were at almost the same level and closing fast as the newcomers pulled into a shallow dive.
Dragon Leader craned his neck to see the approaching force. Whoever they were, they had the most ragged-ass formation he had ever seen. They looked more like a flight of geese than a squadron of cavalry.
Dragon Leader’s mount bridled and nearly bucked as the flight approached. It took a moment to bring the animal under control and when Dragon Leader looked up again the leader of the new force was flying next to him.
Dragon Leader glanced. Then he gaped. Then he nearly fell out of his saddle. Flying beside him was the biggest dragon he had ever seen in his life.
This was no adolescent cavalry mount. It was a full-grown, fully intelligent dragon and a monster of its kind at that. It was easily twice the length of his own mount and might have reached 200 feet. Behind and above came dozens more wild dragons.
A great golden eye regarded Dragon Leader and his dragon with amused contempt. Then with a flick of its tail, the giant reptile winged over and dived for the deck. The rest of the wild dragons followed their leader down.
Dragon Leader licked lips suddenly gone dry. "Uh, central," he croaked into his communications crystal. "The allied forces have taken the lead position and are going in low."
"Allies lead and low," the controller’s voice came back. "Acknowledged."
Fortuna, Dragon Leader thought, what have we gotten ourselves into?
Out on the edge of the plain the warbots waited. There were 100-ton Murderers, 30-ton Hellfires, Skysweeper anti-aircraft units, a couple of 200-ton Gargantua fire support models and a dozen or so Springer scouts, all in a loose grouping just behind the military crest of the ridge. They were being held as a mobile reserve, ready to sweep down off the ridge and deal any attacker on the plain a crushing blow to the flank.