The Ivory Star

Chapter 20

The journey out of the forest was a swift one. They merely followed the path they had marked for themselves on the trees and cut from the underbrush, fortunately without any more encounters with the web-snakes. At about noon of the third day from the derelict ship, they reached the clearing where the birds had been cloistered .

To Eric's surprise, the four eagles were sitting peacefully in the shade of the enormous trees. At the warriors' emergence, the majestic predators stood up in faithful greeting. The three men approached their birds, cooing to them softly. Moonlord's dish-sized yellow eyes searched for his rider, Kal.

Capian lowered his head sadly, and walked up to the huge bird. Moonlord backed away, unaccustomed to being approached by anyone other than his own rider. Capian continued to move near him, and the beast finally stopped. He whispered softly to the quivering bird as he released the buckles and snaps of the harness, reins, and saddle. Capian stepped away with the bundle of leather straps in his arms.

Moonlord regarded him with sadness, as if recognizing the dreadful finality of Capian's action. With a final scream of despair, Moonlord leaped into the air with a single beat of his mighty wings, cleared the treetops, and was gone.

The moment of silent farewell was broken by an anxious scream from Skyking.

Capian smiled at the bird, "Aye, old warrior, we hear you." Then to his companions he said, "Let us away, fellows!"

Once in the air, Eric held the Key in his hand, loosely. It twisted gently to point west northwest, and that was the direction they went. As dusk approached they spotted a dark smudge on the horizon, directly in their path, a pall of slowly rising black smoke.

Capian cried, "Obereth's estate!"

The Slayers' encampment circled the entire fortress. Black and red striped tents were pitched in wide circles around the castle. They drew closer and closer, then saw that it was not Obereth's castle that burned, but a siege tower near the wall. A horde of black armored Slayers swarming about the walls. Slayers clumped like black beetles on the ladders stretching up the tall stone walls. The defenders atop the ramparts struggled desperately to repel the assault. Broken bodies covered the ground at the base of the walls in great mounds of death.

Eric said, "Capian, who is this Obereth? I've never heard of him."

"He is my father's cousin, and runs this small holding near the border of Alhaqra, on the Frontier."

Puzzled, Eric said, "But what is its significance to Uhr?"

"Perhaps he's trying to strip away any aid my father can receive. It could also be a strategic point from which to strike into Alhaqra."

Eric surveyed the scene. Obereth's castle was surrounded by a six-foot stone palisade separated from the main wall by about twenty paces. The castle itself was about a hundred yards long, eighty wide, surrounded by a forty-foot crenelated wall. A slate-shingled roof protruded above the walls, following the rectangular perimeter, covering the house, grand hall, stables, surrounding an inner courtyard. Circular towers at each corner held ballistae that sent long javelins arcing into the ranks of Slayers below. The massive gates were still standing, under assault by a great battering ram. A small village just to the east of the fortress lay in charred ruin.

Catapults and onagers hurled stones and gobbets of flaming pitch. Javelins from the towers hurled into the mass of Slayers, and Eric saw small clusters black-plated bodies impaled together on single spears. The wide deep ditch dug in front of the castle had been partially filled with rocks and earth to build pathways across which the Slayers could storm the walls. Mantlets had been erected in this ditch to protect Uhr's engineers from the archers above, while they burrowed like moles at the wall's foundation.