Alcingeria

Chapter Sixty One: Down Below

Chapter Sixty One Down Below:

Friday July 9th 1690

"The hell?" I heard from through the barricade. "Why won't it open?"

"What do you mean it won't open?"

The doors rattled, but the barricade held firm.

"It won't open, something's blocking it from the other side."

"What's going on?"

"The staff and the nobles were screaming bloody murder about an attack, but who would bother doing anything at this point? Who are these people?"

"We'll find out soon enough. Bring cannon, we'll have this out of the way in no time."

I shot a look to Don. This wasn't good. At this point, we had reformed our firing line, standing off to the sides of the room. We were divided in half, with one group watching the hidden passageway and the other watching the barricade. If the army was bringing in a cannon or two, we didn't want to be anywhere near the line of fire. I was on the side of the barricade. At this point, our biggest advantage was that the army knew nothing of our numbers, strength, or equipment and that the forces below the castle had no way of relaying that information.

We heard the sound of the doors being struck by several pairs of boots, but still our little barrier held. I cast a glance over to the other group, and they weren't having any trouble with the passageway. Next to me, Stella was beginning to panic. I helped her reload her pistol and I handed it back to her. She almost dropped it, her eyes unfocused and her lips moving as she muttered to herself.

"Stella," I warned, forcing myself to stay calm. "You have to get a grip on yourself. I know this whole situation must be hard- well, impossible for you to grasp, but we need you to focus here, okay?"

She didn't seem to hear me. I looked around the room, trying to get a grip on myself as well. I was terrified, but I had my past experiences to fall back on. Granted, we'd never been in anything remotely close to this, but it was something. My eyes fell on the paintings of past Vulrock Kings and Queens. They were above us on the walls, and the way we had to look up at them gave the illusion that they were gazing down on us, their royal smirks expressions of cool indifference almost mocking us.

"Stella, pretty soon those big doors will be blown away by cannon fire, and we'll be thrust straight into a hellstorm of a gunfight," I hesitated, debating about how honest I was going to be with her. I analyzed our situation for the hundredth time and came to the conclusion that our chances of survival were almost nothing, if anything.

"Are they going to kill us?" She asked in a daze, before I could say anything. "Are they going to kill me?"

I stopped for a second, knowing full well that those doors would be gone any minute. I could hear the sound of wooden wheels on the floor outside.

"If you don't snap out of it, yes!" I cried. The wheels had stopped, and I heard orders being shouted. "Look out, everyone!"

A deafening shot exploded as the double doors blew apart along with our barricade. Anything made of wood was in splinters tumbling across the floor, and the two thrones clattered end over end in their warped states, colliding with the far wall and crashing back to the floor. A thunder of boots across the ground was heard as countless soldiers filed into the room.

We didn't need an order. As soon as they began to come into view through the white smoke produced by the cannon, we fired, landing most of our shots. We heard screams of pain and panic as more soldiers made it through the smoke. We had no time to reload. There were too many of them! Walden did his best to keep them back with his fire, which worked for a few seconds, until they sent another wave through that was twice the size of the last one. I was starting to see that we would be overrun. The soldiers just kept coming, pressing forward like a living, breathing wall. Just then, I heard the sickening sound of the secret passageway sliding open. Walden hurled a fireball across the room towards the passage, directly hitting one of the guards from below, engulfing him in flames. A round of shots came from my friends over there, and I heard swords being drawn. The sound of a melee ensued.