Chapter Twenty-One
Rumil and Garsen charged onto the bridge. Doren stationed himself at a safe distance from the gate to direct the assault while Vanaya cradled the obelisk.
“Shall we knock on the door?” asked Rumil with a twinkle in his eye.
“Hold in the name of the Wolf King!” cried a stern voice. They looked up and saw Karlo standing at the top of the gate.
“Disperse now, or suffer the full unleashed fury of the Wolf King!”
“Do your worst!” retorted Rumil. The other Elves and Dwarves on the bridge jeered.
Karlo held up a pronged lance and pointed it towards Rumil.
“You were warned.”
“Yes, yes. Do get on with it, now.”
“I said…you were warned…”
“Yes, you did say that. Did he say that?”
“He did,” agreed Garsen.
“I thought so.”
“…that there will be…stern reprisals…”
“Having some problems up there, chap?”
“No! Be quiet, you!”
“I think it’s time for you and the Wolf King to listen,” challenged Garsen.
“Just…wait!”
Karlo crouched down. Two more Selwys Castle guards, brandishing similar lances, appeared at the top of the gate.
“They’re not working!” they heard Karlo explain, flustered. “How are they not working?”
“To the gate!” urged Rumil. Another cry arose and the Elves and Dwarves rushed forward.
“Put your shoulders into it, lads! Where’s that ram?”
“Bring up the ram!” ordered Doren. “Make way for the ram!”
Another squad of Elves and Dwarves trotted up the bridge, lugging a pine log with an axe-sharpened end.
“One, two, three, GO!” barked Rumil. The ram, powered by the coordinated effort of nine men and women, crashed into the gate with splintering force.
“Again!”
Tony and Caroline waited next to Vanaya, watching anxiously as the battering ram smashed into the gate repeatedly.
“The gate is starting to shatter!” crowed Rumil triumphantly, turning back to Doren. “I think…”
Rumil suddenly gasped and fell forward. An arrow protruded from his back.
“Archers at the gate! Take cover!” roared Doren.
Tony looked up and saw two of the Wolf King’s soldiers armed with bows shooting down at the Elves and Dwarves. Samus blocked another arrow with a small wooden shield he carried, but was knocked off balance and tumbled into the now half-filled ditch.
YOU ARE READING
The Foster Children of Time
Science FictionTEMPORAL AFFAIRS Tony Marco doesn’t have his driver’s license yet but he has a ticket to ride a bus – a Time Bus. Soon after the start of his sophomore year at Diaz High School, he and his irrepressible friend Caroline Montano catch a free ride to...
