Time to get out of range, Khollo agreed. Kanin grunted and wheeled quickly, reversing direction in a flurry of flapping wings, fanning the flames towards the enemy archers. Another arrow zipped towards them, but Kanin outflew it easily and the barbed shaft dropped away below them, harmless.
That will give the vertaga attacking the gate something to think about, Khollo observed. Time to help out the defenders on the north side.
Time for oil runs?
Soon, Khollo replied.
The oil pots make me nervous, Kanin confessed.
We’ll be fine, Khollo said reassuringly. We practiced those runs how many times?
Too many, Kanin said with some feeling. Far too many.
Khollo grinned. Exactly.
As they flew back over the battlefield, safely out of arrow range, Khollo took the opportunity to look down and watch. The vertaga were throwing themselves at the main gate with large clubs, trying to batter the door down, but it looked like they were having little success. Along a short stretch of wall to either side, the beasts were trying to scale the walls with ladders. The defenders were doing a good job of shoving the ladders back. Several were wielding curious poles with U-shaped hardwood heads. These slotted neatly over the rungs of the ladders and made shoving them away a much less precarious endeavor.
The battle goes well, Khollo observed to Kanin as he watched a lutag leap at the wall, only to take a spear thrust behind its left ear. We may survive this.
There are many more vertaga on the north side of the fortress, Kanin warned. And more of the foul wolf creatures. The battle is not won yet.
They flew over the keep tower, where Janis was leaning on the parapet, watching the battle at the gate fixedly. A half-dozen archers stood slightly behind him, pacing back and forth. Then, they were flying over the enclosed fields. So far, no vertaga had breached the walls but Khollo knew that they would. The north wall was undefended after all.
Beyond the north wall, the vertaga that had split off from the rest of the army at the front gate were forming up to attack. They had successfully maneuvered around the hill, staying out of arrow range, and were now preparing to attack the wall at the point furthest from any defenders. Khollo heard a distant horn blast and the vertaga began to move forward at a steady jog.
Looks like we’re just in time, he observed drily to Kanin. Let’s go and collect Sermas and Hern.
Kanin flared his great wings and retreated behind the north wall, diving towards the ground. Khollo heard the vertaga jeering behind them, apparently thinking they had driven the dragon off with a show of force.
They will find that they are mistaken very soon, Kanin growled. Soon, we will crush them.
Khollo nodded distractedly, searching for Sermas and Hern. They were not where he had left them near the cliffs. Then the sun glinted off bits of metal near the north gate and Khollo saw them, still wearing their rope harnesses. Kanin landed quickly, kicking up small clouds of powdery snow. Hern and Sermas ran to meet them, stumbling over the trailing ropes.
“About time!” Hern shouted. “What’s going on out there? We can’t see anything – ”
“Vertaga advancing on the north wall,” Khollo replied, cutting him off. “They tried the front gate first but the causeway is well defended. We made a few flaming passes to take care of the battering ram and slow them down a little – ”
“The gate is holding, then?” Sermas asked anxiously.
“For now,” Khollo told him. “But we have a new problem. Roughly a third of the vertaga and most of their lutags are attacking the north wall.”
“Excellent,” Hern said, rubbing his hands together eagerly. “Time to see if our traps actually work.”
Khollo looked over his shoulder, back towards the outer wall. “Get ready, they’ll be here any moment.”
Sermas and Hern nodded and passed their lines to Kanin, wrapping the ropes around his claws multiple times. This done, they took up positions on either side of the dragon, their shoulders nearly touching his scales. They then turned as one and watched the north wall for the first sign of the enemy.
For several minutes, there was nothing but the rumble of approaching warriors, the growling of lutags. Then, there was a commotion of surprised yelps and howls, shouts and cries of anger and surprise.
“Excellent, they’ve hit the random pits,” Hern murmured. “That should take care of a few and slow their advance some.”
“We should have done more of those,” Sermas said anxiously, shading his eyes with his left hand.
“How many traps did you put out there?” Khollo asked curiously as more sounds of distress echoed over the walls.
“A lot.”
Khollo looked over at Hern, who was smiling grimly. “We put a lot of traps out there,” he said again.
Khollo turned back to the north wall and continued watching. A vertag had just poked its head up over the battlements. It looked left, then right, saw the wall was clear, and shouted something. Then it boosted itself onto the wall and ran across the battlements towards the inner edge, stumbling and shambling.
“Does that one look . . . clumsier than your average brute?” Khollo asked.
“He should, he’s got a fine cord around his waist,” Hern explained. “Any minute now . . . yes there we go. Particularly effective against lutags, this trap.”
Sure enough, howls were ripping across the fields to them. Khollo, tired of not knowing what was going on, reached out to Kanin with his mind.
Shall we go and see what is happening?
Gladly.
As Kanin went to spread his wings though, Hern shouted for him to stop. “The traps are based on a careful plan, gauging how the vertaga and their steeds
