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CHAPTER 30 - THE SiEgE BEginS

Ulric Icethorne slumped backwards against the wall of the tower, tryingto catch his breath.

One can only lob so many reballs before reaching exhaustion.

Ulric knew he was rapidly approaching that point. Even withhis decades of experience and practice, casting so much battle magicquickly sapped his strength.He sat backward, breathing deeply and steadily to calm himself. Hesuspected it was a futile effort, but he had to try. If he didn’t stand hereto defend the castle from the orc’s magic, who else would? There simply weren’t very many practitioners of the art left in Traazon Keep.His chief apprentice, Tolanathalas, had shown that his “devotion to theart” extended no further than his own backside. As soon as word of theapproaching orc horde arrived in the city, the drow mage was gone withoutso much as a fare-thee-well. Ulric had to admit, he should have expectedas much. Tolan had never said what crimes had driven him from the elvenlands, and Ulric had never asked. As long as his devotion to the craft hadproven adequate, he had never seen the need.Apparently, though, Tolan’s

only

loyalty was to magic. He had shown asmuch regard for the people he had lived with for twenty-odd years now ashe would have shown a chicken about to be slaughtered for dinner.

Well, it could have been worse. He could have joined the orcs.

Ulric struggled back to his feet and staggered to the arrow loop he’dbeen casting through. The Orc shamen were much more skilled than he’danticipated. Normally, orc shamen never cast anything beyond third orderspells. Simple battle magic was undeniably potent, but it was nothing tobe feared by a mage with his skills, and elemental battle magic wouldn’tbreach the walls of the fortress. The human mages who had helped build the fortress had taken many

precautions. Anti-magic elds had been embedded into the walls. The stone

itself had been magically hardened and reinforced, and protective magicalbarriers had been erected to keep out wizards whose spells might allowthem entry. In short, the castle should have been impervious to a magicalassault by all but the most skilled and powerful magi – something orcs hadnever shown any indication of having before.

But that didn’t keep them from trying.

Ulric ducked to the side as another orc reball slammed into the tower.

Thankfully, the wards had diffused the blast enough that it did little morethan singe the hair on his arms

and fray my nerves even more.

His superior elven eyes could make out several shamen well beyondthe moat. It was apparent that they were working on some sort of coopera-tive spell, but from this distance, he couldn’t make out what. He closed hiseyes, activating a minor communication spell he had set up with ShieldBrother Tordek in the next tower over, and asked the dwarf if he could tell what the orcs were up to.

Tordek, he knew, was busy as well. The dwarven cleric itted from

battlement to battlement, healing the wounded, and counter-spelling orcbattle magic. Without him, their situation would have been much graver.

- 149 -Ulric could hear shouts from the orcs down below, challenging Tordek toshow himself. He was sure the gruff little dwarf dearly wanted to do so – but he was also smart enough not to. And he imagined that the battlepriest was having the time of his life.“Aye, what yah’ need, elf?” Ulric heard the words in his head, and wasgrateful that Tordek had suggested this spell.“Do you see what those shamen down there are doing?”“Aye, I see ‘em. Seems they’re castin’ some sort o’ summonin’ spell.Can’t make out what kind o’ beastie’ they’re callin’ though.” His mentalcontact with the dwarf faded out; he could tell the dwarf seemed to beconcentrating on something else. Then, seconds later: “Oh, no! By Voluge! The bastehds!”“What?” Ulric asked, worried. “What is it?”

“One o’ them shamen knows fth order spells! The beastie they be asummonin’ is a re elemental – and a big un’!”

Ulric gasped. “Can you stop them?”“By meself? Surely not! I’m not sure if we ken stop ‘em ti’gether!”“Well, whatever it takes, let’s do it!” Tordek broke the mental contactat that point, but Ulric kept it up enough that he could hear what washappening in the other tower.“Archers!” he heard Tordek shout. “take yer aim fer’ them shamen down yonder!” Ulric watched as the archers loosed a heavy volley of arrows fromthe ramparts below. He watched them arc outward…… And bounce harmlessly off a magical shield erected by their orcishcounterparts. Cursing, Ulric called over his mental link, “No good, dwarf!We have to bring down that shield!”

“Ach! I’m on it. If I can bring it down, can you a reball on their

heads?”Ulric nodded, then realized that the dwarf couldn’t see him. “Yes,I think I can manage another one.” The link broke completely, and Ulricrealized that the dwarf must be starting his counter-spell at that point.For several long moments, nothing happened. Then, after what seemed aninterminably long time, he saw a volley of arrows shoot out from the castle walls. He watched as the arrows arced across the sky…… And then fell among the startled orcs. Suppressing a gleeful reaction,

Ulric immediately began the incantation for a reball. A thin nger of re lanced out from his hand, tracked across the plain, and exploded atprecisely the right spot. Several of the orcs were blown down by his reball,

their corpses smoldering on the ground. He called to Tordek, “That shouldstop them for now! They may have one powerful Shaman, but apparently

not enough to summon that creature and shield against my reball!” He

couldn’t keep the excitement out of his voice, and he imagined he heard Tordek’s gruff laughter even without the aid of their communications spell.With the crisis temporarily averted, Ulric’s weariness caught up to himagain. His exhaustion was so deep that he never even felt the strong-armedmilitiaman help him down the stairs and into the common area, where hecollapsed onto a pallet that had been hastily set up for him.

- 150 -* * *Ulric rolled over, awakening from what, for him, was a very deepslumber. Night had fallen, and it occurred to him that he had been asleepfor hours. He tried to sit up, and was greeted by a pounding headache. Heclutched at his temples, massaging them in an effort to ease the pain.

Seldarine, I will not be able to keep doing this!

He sat up slowly, his handskneading out the knots of tension. He knew what was causing the pain: toomuch heavy spellcasting yesterday. He would not be able to repeat yester-day’s efforts when the morning dawned.He glanced around and saw that even at this hour, many people wereawake inside the castle. He shouldn’t have been surprised, he knew;after all, several thousand of the city’s inhabitants had taken up refugeinside the walls of the keep. While the fortress could easily hold that manypeople, he knew that they hadn’t had time to store up enough food and water to feed the numbers that were here. He was thankful for the low-ranking clerics that had made it in. They could ease those problems a little,although every cleric who was conjuring up pure water was one who wasn’ton the battlements healing the wounded or counter-spelling the seeminglyendless horde of orc shamen. He also knew that, like him, they could onlypractice so much magic before exhausting themselves, even if they devotedall their energy to that task.He walked down the passage toward the main audience chamber,

hoping to nd the Baron, or perhaps Sir Alec – anyone, for that matter,

who could tell him how the afternoon’s battle had concluded. Rounding thecorner he stopped and listened to the heated voices he could hear down thecorridor.Alec’s voice echoed loudly. “How long do you think we can hold out,Aahron? You know as well as I do that our current foodstuffs will only lastus three, perhaps four weeks at best! Do you have any idea or plans forbreaking the siege?”Ulric smoothed out his robe as he strode toward the audiencechamber. There were no soldiers on guard duty now. Rather, a burly farmer with a cudgel stood watch by the door. The farmer must have recognizedhim, and so let the mage pass without question. The Baron and his advisors were so deeply involved in their argument that they didn’t even notice his

presence at rst. Ulric, for his part, stood just inside the room, listening to

what was being said.“I’ve told you before, Alec. I sent word to Earl Stoutheart by meansboth magical and mundane. I can only pray that he has heard me andstarted units of his house guards this way. You know as well as I do that it will take weeks, perhaps even months, before he can gather enough troopsto break this siege. For the moment, we must hope he can send a sortiestrong enough to get through food and provisions as well as reinforce us.”Alec sat in a stuffed arm chair next to a great table covered with maps.

Ulric saw him clasp his sts underneath the table in an effort to keep his

temper in check. “That is well and good, milord. But you must realize that we cannot hold out against an assault by an army of this size. You’ve seen