restore order, and she would make it clear that she expected better discipline than this.
Blane’s catapult clacked again. Brianna stepped over to a merlon and watched the boulder splash down alongside the monster. It took several moments for the first ring of waves to ripple over the beast’s back.
“Don’t worry boys,” counseled Blane. “There’s plenty of time to sink that thing. Just pull your spoon down and load up.”
The beast let out another bugle. The tips of two white fangs broke the surface below its upraised snout. This sent another wave of hysterical speculation along the ramparts, and the confusion grew even worse as some men tried to retreat while others pressed forward to get a better look.
Selwyn and Cuthbert finally arrived, shoving through the crowd to join the queen at her merlon. They stood side by side, holding their helmets beneath their arms and craning their necks to peer through the embrasure Brianna had cleared for the catapult crew.
“Stronmaus save us!” gasped the earl. “Karontor’s sent one of his warped beasts to aid our enemies!”
“What is that thing?” asked Selwyn, his tone more curious than frightened.
“No creature of Hiatea’s, I fear,” answered Brianna. A pair of short antennae appeared behind the beast’s massive head and began fluttering. “Its too hideous to be a thing of nature.”
“How can we fight something like that? We have no wizards!” gasped Cuthbert. “What are we going to do?”
Brianna grabbed the earl’s shoulder and pulled him away from the embrasure. She wheeled him around to face her. “First, you’re going to get hold of yourself!” she snapped. “Then you’re going to restore order to this mob. If the giants attack now, this castle won’t last five minutes.”
“Quite right, Majesty,” agreed Selwyn. He turned and started down the rampart, yelling, “To your posts! Return to your stations at once!”
At first, the captain had little more luck than Brianna had. That changed when he started cuffing disobedient soldiers, even going so far as to shove one stubborn slacker off the ramparts. The queen winced, but made no move to reprove Selwyn.
Cuthbert watched the display in gape-mouthed horror. “You’re going to allow that, Milady?”
“We may not have much time before the battle begins, Earl Cuthbert,” she said. “I suggest you restore order in the best way you know how, or the men will suffer worse than that”
The earl paled, but nodded and set his helmet on his head. Brianna returned her attention to the lake. The creature was angling away from the rafts, and the queen could see that its fluttering antennae rose from a small bald spot on its neck. Since the wind was no longer to the benefit of the hill giants, they were frantically pulling down their sails and using their clubs to paddle after the monster.
Brianna heard Blane’s catapult resonate again, then saw a boulder, a little larger than the first two, arc over the lake. This time, the stone struck a glancing blow off the monster’s rear quarters. The beast whistled in pain. It plunged its head into the water and dived. A skinny tail with a bushy end and two round feet followed a fat, hairy posterior beneath the surface.
“Hiatea forgive me!” Brianna gasped. “It’s a mammoth!”
No sooner had the queen grasped this than she also realized the beast had a rider. Mammoths don’t have antennae, so the fluttering tendrils had to be waving arms.
Brianna turned to the catapult crew beside her. “Don’t aim at the monster,” she commanded. “It’s a mammoth, and it’s trying to reach us. Sink the hill giant rafts instead.”
The old man in charge of the engine looked doubtful. “That’s not what Blane’s orders-”
Brianna stretched across the catapult and grabbed the man by the collar, then dragged him over the spoon to her side. The fellow went limp in her grasp, too astonished by the queen’s unexpected strength to react
“I am your queen!” she growled. “You’ll do what I command, or suffer the punishment for treason. Is that clear?”
“Y-Yes, Majesty.”
Brianna put the man on the ground. “Good,” she said. “Aim carefully.”
The queen stepped to the next embrasure, where Selwyn’s efforts to restore order had already brought some results. The area was empty, save for two soldiers setting up a crossbow so large that it rested on a wooden tripod. She pointed at the taller of the two men.
“You, run down to Sergeant Blane and tell him to leave the lake monster alone,” she said. “He’s to sink the rafts only.”
“Yes, Majesty,” the tall soldier said. “The rafts only.”
The man started to leave, but Brianna caught his shoulder.
“And in case the sergeant has any thoughts about second-guessing me, inform him that I’ve seen a rider’s arms waving from the beast’s back,” Brianna said. She remembered how disrespectful Blane had been during their first meeting. “I’ll hold him responsible if any harm comes to that rider.”
The mammoth was still too distant to tell who was riding the beast, but the queen knew of only one person imprudent enough to dare such a thing. She intended to give him a stern lecture once she got him back into the castle.
The soldier waited a moment to see if Brianna wished to add anything else, then bowed and rushed down the rampart. The queen turned her attention to the fellow’s shorter partner.
“You, go and find a long rope to lower over the wall,” she commanded. “And tell the sentries to send word if more hill giants launch their rafts. I don’t know what’s happening out there, but we’d better be on our alert.”
“Yes, Majesty.” The soldier bowed, then ran toward the corner tower.
Brianna looked onto the lake again and saw that the mammoth had surfaced. It was now swimming parallel to the castle ramparts, reluctant to approach any closer. The queen could barely make out the figure of the tiny rider stretching forward to tug on its ear. To her astonishment, he seemed to be leaning over someone draped across the beast’s neck.
The four giants on the first raft hurled a volley of stones at the beast. The rocks all fell short, but not by much, and the mammoth dived again.
Both catapults fired. Two boulders arced away from the castle, splashing down on each side of the giants’ raft.
“We’ve got the range now,” said the commander of the catapult next to Brianna. “Crank her down.”
The queen glanced over and saw two soldiers laboriously working the tension levers to bring the spoon down. She went to the closest man and took his place.
“You help your partner.” She pointed to the other side of the catapult. “I’ll work this side.”
The two soldiers looked doubtful, but they had seen the queen reprimand their commander and knew better than to disobey. Brianna pushed her lever down as though there were no tension at all on it. The mouths of both soldiers fell open and they looked at each other in surprise.
“I am a Hartwick, you know.”
Although the queen had always been too ladylike to make a point of exhibiting her power, like all of her kingly ancestors, she was blessed with supernatural strength. She worked the lever so fast that, even together, the two soldiers could do no more than hold the skein’s tension while she ratcheted her pole back. It took less than a minute to lock the catapult arm in firing position.
The burly loader placed a medium-sized boulder into the spoon, and the commander peered through the embrasure. The old man told his crew to turn the catapult a little to the right, then pulled the release cord. The spoon slammed into the crossbar. Brianna heard the boulder splash into the lake, but by then she was already levering the spoon back down. Like most siege engines, catapults were poorly suited to firing at moving objects, and the queen knew it would take many attempts to hit their target.
They had to repeat the process six more times, loading slightly heavier boulders into the spoon for each shot, before Brianna heard the bang of a stone crashing through timber. Several hill giants bellowed in alarm and began to slap the water with flailing arms.
The old man looked back, beaming at the queen with a gap-toothed grin. “You’re a fine artilleryman, Majesty,” he said. “Even Blane’s crew fired only twice.”
As he spoke, a chorus of deep-throated grunts rumbled across the lake, then Brianna heard a number of boulders splash into the water near the castle wall. The hill giants were returning fire.
“How’s the mammoth doing?” Brianna asked, levering the spoon down again.
