Dark Sun: Prism Pentad 4 - Obsidian Oracle (29 page)

Whenever the path was smooth enough that Agis could lift his eyes without running the risk
of breaking a leg, he searched the courtyard below for a place to hide. Once the Saram
sprang their ambush, he knew, stones and lances would rain down into the pit with
unimaginable ferocity. If he had not concealed himself in a safe place by then, it would
hardly matter that he now knew where to look for the Oracle.

To his dismay, there were no doorways or arrow bops into which he could duck, no alcoves
where the sentries had once gone to escape the blazing sun, not even any man-sized nooks
or crannies in the stone blocks. The only place he could see that would be sheltered from
the rain of boulders and lances was beneath the gate arch itself-which hardly seemed like
a wise place to stand, given that it would be the Joorsh's only escape route once the
battle began.

The best chance of survival appeared to lie outside the citadel. After opening the gates,
Agis would use the crossbar to prop them open, then wait on the other side of the walls.
Once the ambush ended, picking his way back through the ranks of wounded Joorsh might be
difficult-but not nearly as difficult as surviving a torrent of Saram boulders.

Upon reaching the bottom of the pit, the noble saw that Nal had thoughtfully left a spiked
club propped against one wall. The weapon was just long enough for him to reach the gates'
crossbar, which hung several feet over his head. The noble picked up the cudgel and went
to one end of the beam.

That was when he saw Brita, the chameleon-headed sentry who had challenged Fylo when they
sneaked into the castle. She stood a few feet to one side of the gate, her skin exactly
matching the color and texture of the red granite blocks from which the walls had been
built. Only her body's shadow, the fact that her breechcloth had not changed color with
her skin, and the huge bone sword in her hand alerted him to her presence.

“What are you doing here?” he asked.

“Punishment, for letting a dead bear walk into Castle Feral,” she replied. The flange
behind her wedge-shaped head flared in anger, then she added, “Now open the gate-and be
sure to show yourself.”

Agis pushed the club up to the crossbar, groaning with effort as he lifted the heavy
timber. The beam tilted toward the other side of the arch, finally sliding off its hooks
and crashing to the ground. The noble tossed the war club aside and braced his hands
against the gate. Slowly, he began to push.

The gate was about a quarter of the way open when a tremendous boom and a terrific shock
ran through Agis's body, knocking him away from the gate. He landed halfway across the
yard, flat on his back and trembling in shock.

“Get up, coward!” hissed Brita. She had directed one of her conical eyes toward him and
the other toward the gate. “You're not hurt.”

Although he was not sure his aching bones agreed, Agis pushed himself back to his feet.
The gate had been pushed shut again, and the head of a
Shadow Viper
harpoon was sticking through it. The weapon could only have come from the Joorsh ranks.

Agis closed his eyes, picturing Mag'r's face and summoning the energy to use the Way. It
was not an easy task, for he was still tired from his efforts in the crystal pit. In the
short time since, he had recovered part of his strength, but far from all of it.

Once he had Mag'r's puffy eyes and bloated cheeks securely in mind, Agis sent a thought
message to him:
What's wrong? I thought you wanted us to open the gate for you.

My little spies'?
came the reply.

It's Agis,
the noble replied.
Don't let anything happen to our ship, or I'll bar the gates again.

In the next instant, Mag'r's voice came booming over the causeway. “Let the gates open!”
he ordered. “Charge, Beast Eaters!”

A great roar rose from the Joorsh ranks, then the ground began to tremble beneath Agis's
feet as Mag'r's warriors rushed across the isthmus. Boulder after boulder crashed into the
walls of Castle Feral, filling the gateyard with a clamorous din such as the noble had
never before heard. The Saram on the front wall responded with halfhearted battle howls of
their own and hurled boulders down at the causeway.

Agis glanced upward, expecting to see the faces of the Poison Pack peering down from the
lofty walls overhead. Instead, he saw nothing but yellow Athasian sky. Taking no chances
that the ambush would fail, Nal had apparently withdrawn his troops from sight.

“What are you waiting for?” demanded Brita, using her sword to wave Agis ahead. “Open the
gates!”

The noble rushed forward and placed one hand on each gate. Pumping his legs furiously, he
slowly managed to get the heavy panels moving outward. When the gap between them grew too
great for his arms to span, lie concentrated all of his efforts on the one that had not
been pierced by the harpoon. For a moment, it seemed to stick. Then it broke free and
swung outward of its own volition. Giving it one last shove, the noble wrapped his arms
around a bone slat and jumped on. His intention was not to hide, but merely to get out of
harm's way as soon as possible.

As Agis swung outward with the gate, he saw that the Joorsh warriors with the battering
ram had cast their weapon aside. They were wading back to the shore to climb out of the
silt. At the same time, Mag'r's Beast Eaters were charging across the causeway, shaking
their spiked clubs in the air and screaming threats against their Saram brethren.

Overhead, boulders flew in both directions as the Joorsh charged, and so much rubble
rained down around Agis that he felt as though he had gotten caught in a landslide. As the
Beast Eaters reached the end of the causeway and stepped onto the small deck before the
gate, the Joorsh stone-hurlers turned their aim elsewhere. The lull lasted only a moment,
for the Saram quickly began to drop boulders down on the heads of the Beast Eaters. The
invaders responded by raising their kank-shell bucklers to deflect the deadly rain.

Their efforts met with little success. Aided by the incredible height of the walls over
the gate, the boulders came crashing down with a force unmatched by the long-distance
hurling that had taken place so far.

The Saram stones smashed through the bucklers as though they were glass, spraying shards
of kank shell in every direction, snapping Joorsh arms, and shattering Joorsh skulls with
resounding cracks. Within moments of stepping off the causeway, a quarter of the Beast
Eater company lay sprawled before the gate, either moaning and writhing in agony, or
silent and still, like the rocks that had killed them.

The survivors rushed into the courtyard. A few muffled clatters sounded from inside, but
it was nothing like the incredible din Agis expected to hear when the Poison Pack made
their attack. The yard remained relatively quiet for a moment, until a triumphant Beast
Eater cheer blasted out of the gate.

At the other end of the isthmus, Mag'r answered with a deep-throated war cry and signaled
the second wave to charge. This time, he led the charge himself, waving a huge obsidian
sword over his head and lumbering forward in great, swaying strides. Behind him came the
giants who had been holding the battering ram, armed with a motley assortment of clubs and
lances. Clearly, any of them could have outrun their king, for they were forced to trot at
half-speed behind his waddling form. Nevertheless, none of them attempted to pass, though
Agis did not know whether their reluctance was out of respect for their leader, or merely
because Mag'r's immense bulk so completely filled the causeway that they would have had to
jump into the dust harbor to get past.

Again, Saram boulders began to drop outside the castle, but the rain was not nearly as
thick as before. The small contingent of beasthead warriors were splitting their attacks
between the courtyard and the isthmus, with the result that they did not have much effect
in either place.

Mag'r, charging through the sparse hail with a jubilant grin on his fleshy lips, hardly
seemed to notice the stones that did fall near him. Knowing what would happen once the
giant passed through the gateway, Agis could hardly bear to watch as the sachem waddled to
his death.

As Mag'r reached the opening, he fixed his gray eyes on Agis's form, which was still
clinging to the gate. “Good!” He stretched a chubby arm down to pluck Agis off the gate.
“Come, you'll fight at my side!”

The noble's heart jumped into his throat. He released his hold and dropped off the gate,
allowing the sachem's pudgy fingers to close on thin air. Mag'r frowned and looked as
though he would stop to pluck the noble off the ground, but was carried into the courtyard
by the momentum of the second wave's charge.

Agis threw himself beneath the gate, then watched from his shelter as the rest of the
company rushed into the courtyard. By the time the last giant had passed through the
gates, the apron had become, quite literally, a mountain of dead flesh and stony rubble.
Only a small space directly in front of the gates remained relatively clear, for it
appeared that the Saram had deliberately avoided dropping any boulders in this area. Agis
found this puzzling, since the Saram ambush would work better if their enemy's only escape
was blocked by bodies and stones.

Mag'r's deep voice began issuing orders inside the courtyard, and Agis crawled from his
hiding place. To both sides of the isthmus, he saw Joorsh warriors wading toward the
castle entrance from the Bay of Woe. At the same time, the clatter of boulders dropping
into the courtyard increased in frequency, fixing the attention of Mag'r and his warriors
on the walls above their heads.

Agis saw Brita's camouflaged form slip out of the courtyard. She grabbed the gate with the
harpoon in it and began to quietly pull it closed. Nal's plan, the noble realized, was
even more ingenious than it had appeared. Once Brita closed the gates, the true slaughter
would begin-leaving him locked outside the castle, while Tithian remained inside with the
Dark Lens.

Agis rushed over to the body of the nearest Joorsh and pulled the warrior's bone dagger
from its sheath. The weapon was taller than the noble, and he had to hold it like a
two-handed sword, but he suspected he could wield the blade well enough for his purposes.

By the time Agis turned back around, Brita was reaching for the second gate. Hefting the
borrowed blade over his head, the noble rushed forward. The chameleon-head turned one eye
on him and one on Mag'r, her club-ended tongue flickering in anger. Paying her gesture no
heed, Agis swung his blade with all his might. The beasthead deftly pulled her leg out of
the way, narrowly avoiding a gash across her knee, and kicked.

The giant's toe caught Agis square in the stomach, wracking his body with pain and causing
him to drop his weapon. The noble went tumbling across the rocky apron, not stopping until
he hit a pile of Joorsh corpses.

Agis was still trying to shake the dizziness from his head when he saw that his brief
skirmish with Brita had been noticed. Ignoring the steady clatter of boulders in the
courtyard, Sachem Mag'r stepped up behind the Saram spy and sent her reptilian head flying
with one hack of his obsidian blade. Agis barely had time to roll out of the way before
her body crashed down on the same pile of corpses into which he had tumbled.

Mag'r scowled and pointed his sword at Brita's body. “What was she doing here?” he
demanded.

As the sachem spoke, the first Joorsh reinforcements began to arrive from the Bay of Woe.

“She was hiding, I guess,” Agis replied.

The noble cast a nervous glance around the apron. To all sides, Joorsh were slowly hauling
themselves onto the barren rock, silt pouring off their bodies in long gray streamers.

The king frowned and stepped toward the noble. Before he could ask another question, a
deafening thunder erupted inside the courtyard. Even from his side of the gate, Agis could
see tons of boulders pouring down into the courtyard. The Joorsh warriors cried out in a
single shocked voice. A cloud of rock chips and dust came roiling out of the gateway to
engulf Mag'r.

“It's a trap!” the sachem yelled.

Agis ran for cover, sprinting at an angle for the cliffs that flanked Castle Feral's
gateworks. He narrowly avoided the outthrust hands of several Joorsh who were just
climbing onto the apron, and dove into a hollow at the base of the bluff. He crawled to
the back of this hole, hoping that it was small enough to keep the giants' thick fingers
from plucking him out.

The noble need not have worried. No sooner had he found his hiding place than a soft,
low-pitched rumble issued from the gates, growing louder and more resonant with each
passing moment. The dust haze settled enough for him to see Mag'r looking back through the
gate, and the rumble developed into a roar. Castle Feral began to shake so badly that Agis
could see centuries of encrusted dirt and loosened building stones dropping onto the apron
outside his hole.

Mag'r spun and threw himself away from the gate. Half his reinforcements did likewise, but
the other half were still standing on the apron when a cataclysmic bang shook its barren
stones. A massive granite ball came blasting from the gateyard. The gateworks erupted into
a shower of jagged masonry, cutting down every living thing that stood before the blast
and raising a thousand plumes of dust as the shattered stones splattered into the Bay of
Woe.

The ball continued on, plowing into the mountain of rubble that covered the apron,
flinging dead giants and huge boulders high into the air, then arcing out over the silt
bay to vanish from sight beneath a long plume of dust.

Like Mag'r and the Joorsh warriors who had survived the explosion, Agis could only stare
in open-mouthed wonder as the debris stirred tip by the stone came drizzling back to the
ground.

Finally, the shower stopped. Mag'r appeared from the far side of the gate, a mountainous
silhouette lumbering through the dust haze. Behind him came a dozen more Joorsh forms,
long spears or heavy clubs clutched in their hands, too dazed to speak and stumbling over
the rubble like the survivors of an inferno that had destroyed an entire city.