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’s gone on an errand for the Celestial Council, which he’d warned me not to mention to anyone, especially Wysper, and the Gauls have cut off Ebora Castle from the south.

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

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

I give 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's Castor's turn to snort as I stop and turn 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 keep watch anyway, Castor's feet scrabbling on the upward slope. Then the footsteps stop. "There's Gauls ahead of us on top of the ridge, but they're facing the same way we are."

The Shadow Raptor flies out of sight as I turn around and look up the slope. At the top of the ridgeline, Gaulish soldiers are hiding among the trees, or are crouched down between bushes.

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

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

"I'd bet silver to gold we've just discovered Attila's army. C'mon." We jog 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 are starting down the slope. "Shite! They're walking straight into an ambush."

"Not if we attack first,” Castor says as he motions 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 move to where the last of their soldiers are waiting, a pair of berserker's with axes in each hand, then continue on a few more horse-lengths. We stop and turn around. "I'll open the gate between those two trees so we'll have a clear shot at those warriors." I grasp 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 nods and we take off running straight towards them.

I form a gate between the two trees and we race through it. "Ambush," I scream a moment before slamming into the Gaul, knocking him off his feet as I bounce off and stumble back against a tree. The warrior loses an axe as he goes tumbling down the slope.

Castor leaps upon the other, the Gaul screaming as my friend rips the man apart with his claws. Shouts are coming from the remaining Gauls as Hypam’s voice shouts a command, and the line of Warghorses break into a gallop. Overhead, arrows from the Grey Wargs begin flitting through the trees.

Downslope from me, the berserker, painted dark blue, stops tumbling and staggers to his feet, his axe in his hand as his gaze meets mine. He shouts what sounds like a war cry and charges up the slope... as a fiery arrow streaks out of the trees straight towards him.

It strikes his back and explodes, knocking the man off his feet again as gobbets of flaming, bloody flesh and blood erupt-

Movement from the corner of my eye and I rear back as a spear point attached to a wooden shaft goes straight past my nose. I leap sideways, putting a tree between me and the warrior in chainmail, who pulls his spear back and thrusts again. He misses, and begins moving around the tree.

I thrust my sword towards his face. He throws his shield in front of it, and my blade gouges a furrow through the wood as he pulls his spear back and thrusts. But I knock the shaft aside, putting the tree between us again as I wait for an opening.

Then Castor leaps onto his back. The Gaul lurches forward, his spear tip digging into the dirt as his shield drops, and I thrust hard past it and through the metal links covering his chest. The man makes a strangled gasp and falls as Castor lets him go and turns towards the battle behind him.

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

She halts her Warghorse beside the dying Gaul and swings down, the beast nuzzling me a moment before crouching down over the downed man and ripping out his throat. The three of us move away as the Warghorse begins to feast. She gives me a hug, which I return, and as we let go, I ask, "Is the rest of the army with you?"

My heart sinks as Hypam shakes 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 shout at her as I interrupt. "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 move from further away, Hypam frowns. "To destroy the walls?"

"Not the walls," Castor growls. "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 reply. "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 blurt 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 say, 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 reaches up and clasps my shoulders in turn. "Greywolf," she says 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 gives my shoulders a squeeze. "Castles take time to destroy. If Wysper and the others can hold out a few days-"

Castor growls, "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 replies, "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 add, 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 says, "the explosion had taken out everything in a wide swath, torn apart trees, you name it."

I shake 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 gasps, and I give her a sharp look. "What is it?"

Hypam takes 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 grips my shoulders hard. "Otherwise, there would be a good chance you'd talk me out of it." I'm gaping at her, but I don't care. This can't be right, she wouldn't-

Along the ridgeline, men begin calling out in their harsh language of the steppes. Hypam lets me go and we turn around. Warriors are pointing up at the sky, and even the Warghorses have stopped feasting on the dead to look up as the three of us do the same.

A disc like a giant gold coin far up in the air, has begun to glow like a second sun.