The Final Redemption by Michael Manning (little red riding hood ebook free .txt) 📕

wrong first, thought Haroldpessimistically. He knew from experience that few plans survivepast the first few minutes of battle, but it was better to have onethan not.

“We’re standing in front of the maindoor to the keep now,” said Walter with a nervous warble in hisvoice. “There are four men directly in front of us, two on eitherside. I’m going to count to three, and then I will drop theconcealment. Are you ready?”

A quick chorus of ‘ayes’ answered him,and Walter began to count. “One, two—three!” The light of whatseemed to be a dozen suns blinded them as soon as Walter removedhis spell. Having been in absolute darkness for almost two hours,their eyes were slow to adjust. Moving forward on instinct andexperience more than eyesight, Penny and Harold killed the four menguarding the door in seconds.

Egan was prevented from doing the sameby the man behind him who in his excitement brought his axe to theready so quickly that he knocked the knight forward and offbalance. Two others in the group were less lucky. One lost an earwhen the man next to him unsheathed his sword, while anothersuffered a broken arm from an overenthusiastic mate next tohim.

About what Iexpected, thought Harold as he threw openthe doors.

Penny entered beside Walter and spokerapidly to Harold, “We’ll take the injured. Walter can patch themup before we reach our objective.”

Nodding, Harold and Egan quicklypointed and switched the two wounded men for two of those who hadbeen meant to accompany Penny. Without waiting further, the twobroke off in different directions, Harold toward the barracks andEgan the stairs that led up. The few guards who were in the entrywere dead before they could react, and Walter created a newconcealment shield to hide himself along with Penny and theremaining men.

“How long will it take to fix them?”asked Penny.

“I’ve already stopped the blood lossfrom the fellow’s lost ear,” replied Walter. His healing skillswere nowhere near the level that Mordecai’s had been, or even thelevel of Elaine’s, but simple cuts and bones he could handle. “Oncewe get to a safe place, I’ll drop the shield and tend to thisfellow’s arm. That will take a minute or two.”

They began their careful walk to thecenter of the main floor of the keep, toward the hidden chamberthat controlled the castle’s defenses.

***

George and his group stood in theshadow of the wall, just inside the main outer gate of CastleCameron. Speaking in his characteristically calm voice, George madehis announcement, “They’ve begun. I’m going to drop theinvisibility. Get ready.”

He didn’t bother counting to three,which was just as well, for it avoided the problem that the othergroup had encountered. No one was so hyper-ready that they woundedtheir companions. There was no one standing close to theirposition, and the shadow of the wall made it easier to adjust tothe sudden change in lighting.

William went directly to the doorwaythat led into the back of the gatehouse; unfortunately, it wasclosed and locked (as it was supposed to be). He had hoped theinvaders would be too lax in their duty to bother keeping it securewhile the keep was seemingly safe otherwise. His men were preparedfor it, though. He motioned to one of the soldiers who had beenchosen as their door-breaker; the man stepped forward and broughtout a heavy iron sledge. With a twenty pound head, it was normallyunsuitable for combat, but Doron’s strength changed the equation abit.

The fellow smashed the door in withinthree strikes, and Sir William was into the interior like a steelflash. The others followed quickly behind, but William’s enchantedsun-sword was so swift that they had little to do but finish offthe wounded and hurry to keep up with the armoredknight.

Meanwhile, George led six of thesoldiers up the stair that led from the interior courtyard to thefirst section of Cameron’s exterior wall. Their job was consideredone of the most risky, especially considering he didn’t have aKnight of Stone along with his subgroup. George was unarmored, buthe trusted his shields to protect him from the arrows they wouldprobably face. The men with him had no such guarantee though, andtheir chainmail wouldn’t stop a crossbow bolt.

To make up for that disadvantage, hecloaked them with a shimmering near-invisibility that would let themen see dimly while making them hard to target. The first bowmen onthe walls never even realized what had hit them until it was toolate.

Things got tougher from there. The topof the outer wall was sectioned, so that the walkway atop each wallbetween the towers was separated from the others by a ten footempty space to the left of each tower. When things were quiet, widewooden gangways provided easy bridges between each section of thewall, but when threatened, the men near each would shove them offto make it more difficult for an invader to take the entirewall.

As soon as the guard at the next towerheard the first bowmen’s cries, they called out an alarm. Thenearest crossbowman raced to the wooden bridge and knocked it free,watching it fall to the ground far below. Raising his weapon, heand the two men exiting the tower behind him began to take aim onthe elusive figures now trapped on the other parapet.

A ten foot gap was little problem fora man with the sort of strength and agility that one of the knightshad, provided he was used to it. Regrettably, Ariadne’s newlyenhanced soldiers did not have that much experience yet. The firsttwo to reach the gap were afraid of heights and sensibly stopped,the third was bolder. Leaping out, he overshot his mark. Passingover the gap, he covered the distance but landed off-kilter andfell from the other parapet. His scream as he fell to his death wasa warning to the others.

George swore. As hewatched one of the crossbowmen’s quarrels found its mark in anotherof his soldiers, despite the shimmering illusion that partially hidhim. “Shadok ni miellte,”cried George loudly, marking the archers andcrossbowmen he could see mentally. Darkness sprang from hisfingertips to wrap itself like some living thing around the threebowmen’s heads, hiding their faces and blinding them within solidshadow.

Striding quickly to the gap, Georgeuttered another phrase and