Set in Stone (28 page)

Unchallenged, they made for the manor house, with Connor's nervous tension growing at every step. Rory raised his hand, fingers spread wide, and several groups split off.

Shona and one of the Guardians led half a dozen soldiers to the right, assigned to secure the precious powder in the big barn on the far side of the manor. Possession of that powder might turn the tide of battle.

Another Guardian, with a score of soldiers at his heels, followed Shona's troop to the right, while an identical party ran left. Each group would assault the side entrances to the manor. The multi-pronged attack would hopefully fracture the defenders and overwhelm them.

Without slowing, the strike forces trampled through Lady Isobel's precious flowerbeds. Connor winced to see the prized plants crushed. She'd probably blame him for it.

With less than a hundred yards to go, the great brass bell finally began to toll high in the tower. Lights flared in several of the tall windows of the lower levels, and someone shouted an alarm inside the manor.

Rory laughed. "Fools! Caught 'em sleeping."

Two mail-clad Grandurian soldiers poked their heads out through the main entrance, spied the charging army, and pulled the thick, iron-banded doors closed again.

Rory shouted, "Charge!" and accelerated to a full sprint, headed straight for those recently closed doors. His skin faded to gray and his footsteps became heavy as he drew upon the strength of granite.

Grahame the Pathfinder shouted, "Strider, circle the manor. Identify defensive positions."

Donald shot forward, kicking up a spray of dirt as he raced past Connor's troop and then Shona's company.

As they closed on the manor house, Connor's fear only increased. The attack seemed too easy, and the towering building seemed more threatening tonight than ever before. He imagined enemies firing down on them from the crenellated parapet above, but he could see no movement up there.

What was Ilse planning?

He could not bring himself to share Rory's enthusiasm. They were overlooking something.

Five leaping strides from the doors, Rory shouted, "Obrion!" He tucked his head in to one shoulder, clearly planning to crash right through the doors and any defenders foolish enough to get in his way.

Tomas and one other Guardian flanked him. Connor watched in breathless anticipation, eager despite his uneasiness to witness them unleash their incredible strength.

Two long strides from the stairs, Captain Rory abruptly stopped mid-stride, as if he'd struck an invisible barrier. Tomas did the same, but the third Guardian bounced backward as if he'd run into a stone wall. He fell hard onto his back and lay motionless, stunned.

Rory and Tomas hung suspended in the air in mid-stride, as if frozen. Soldiers shared surprised, uneasy glances as they slowed to a halt.

One man whispered, "What devilry is this?"

Captain Rory's rear leg twitched, and his toe dug into the ground, as if trying to pull him backward.

Connor shouted, "Help him!"

He grabbed for Captain Rory's shoulders, but his hands struck the invisible barrier. It felt warm, and pulsed against his hand, but he could not penetrate it. It was almost as if the very air had turned to stone.

Rory was stuck more than halfway into it, with only part of his back and one leg free. Connor slid his hands across the barrier, but could find no gap. Standing this close, he could finally see the curving boundary of the barrier, shimmering just a little in the darkness, almost like a rippling heat wave. It created a half-circle, blocking the entire northern entrance of the building.

Soldiers grabbed straps on Rory's back, or yanked on his leg. Together they pulled, but Rory remained stuck fast. The Guardian who had bounced off the barrier shoved them all aside, grabbed Rory's battle leathers, and heaved mightily.

Rory popped free and the two fell in a heap with the burly captain on top. Rory gasped for breath, and only then did Connor realize with horror that Rory had been unable to breathe while trapped.

Rory sprang to his feet, "Get Tomas out of there!"

Soldiers worked together to haul Tomas out of the suffocating barrier. Connor circled the group and slid his hands along the invisible wall. He'd never imagined anything like this could be possible. Rory stood nearby, frowning at the barrier as other soldiers explored it with their hands.

This couldn't be a normal Petralist power if even the captain hadn't ever seen it.

A low humming sound drew Connor's attention. He peered through the barrier and there in the shadows, sitting on the lowest step, sat a gray stone about a hand span across and half as thick.

Shouting erupted from around the right corner of the manor house. Rory signaled the troop to follow, and ran in that direction. Lights from the manor's windows illuminated the entire strip of ground between the manor and the steep plateau edge, only fifty yards to their right. The assault force assigned to breach the side entrance had encountered the same kind of invisible shielding and pounded vainly against it with their swords.

Shona and her small band, looking like wraiths in the distant dim light, were just reaching the large barn situated a hundred feet south of the manor. Shona grabbed the handles of the huge sliding barn doors that faced toward the edge of the plateau, and heaved against them. Her skin glowed white in the darkness as she tapped her granite strength to throw the heavy doors wide.

Bright torchlight spilled out the open door, and Shona stood silhouetted against the light for a second, one hand raised to shield her eyes. She raised her sword and shouted a challenge.

Even as she took a step forward, an entire wagon, suspended by thick ropes, swung out through the opening and smashed her band aside like gnats. They tumbled into the night toward the edge of the plateau where they were lost from view.

Connor could scarce believe Ilse's audacity to use the wagon as a weapon. It meant she had known they would try the barn first. She'd planned for it.

As Connor took a step forward, intent on checking on Shona, Captain Rory shouted, "We need to find another way in."

Just then, Donald skidded to a stop nearby. "Captain, the barn is empty. It was a decoy all along. The strike force on the far side has encountered the same odd shielding."

Rory said, "This Ilse is proving resourceful. I look forward to learning how she did this."

Donald said, "Sir, some of the Grandurians are assembling at the rear entrance. No sign of the prisoners."

"Very well." Rory looked toward south and added, "she wants us to attack from the south. So be it."

He started jogging in that direction and called out, "Slingers to the front. Fast Rollers, tap and ready. Ware for ambush."

Soldiers fell in behind him, led by ten slingers and the Fast Rollers, whose bodies swelled with granite power as their skin faded to gray.

Connor ran with them despite his worry for Shona, filled with burning energy now that battle had been joined, but also consumed with worry.

Even he could see Ilse had planned her defenses well, and it unnerved him that her tactics surprised Rory. What else did she have in mind? What other trap still lay before them?

Chapter 30

Rory led the army around the southern end of the Keep, intent on striking through the gap between the manor house and the big barn. He made it three strides before bouncing back from another invisible barrier.

Soldiers explored the shield that stretched in a slightly curving line all the way from the manor house to the big barn, sealing off that route of attack. Shona and her strike force staggered out of the darkness to join them, and Connor breathed a sigh of relief. She looked shaken, but not badly hurt.

Everything beyond the shield looked slightly distorted, as if they peered through a thin screen of water. Ilse stood at that southern entrance to the manor house where both doors stood wide open. Half a dozen soldiers, including the tall, shapely, Anika and her hulking brother, Erich, flanked her with weapons drawn. They stood in the doorway atop the four wide steps, as if the tiny advantage in height gave them any hope of defeating Rory's hundred. Torches illuminated the area with warm golden light and showed Ilse's face calm, unafraid.

She made a beckoning gesture to Rory.

Shona pounded on the shield and snarled, "I'll eat that woman's heart."

"I'll help you cook it," Rory said. He began circling the big barn and called out, "Look lively, men. She wouldn't force us this way without hoping for some advantage."

With weapons at the ready, the army jogged around the big barn until they faced the southern entrance to the manor house. There they paused to study the Grandurians' defensive position.

Connor moved to the right of the army, close to a single story carriage shed with a low, almost flat roof and an open front. About eighty feet separated the big barn and the carriage shed, framing a courtyard through which the army would be forced to advance before reaching the manor house. The huge sliding doors on the near side of the big barn stood open, revealing no threat, while the open front of the carriage shed showed it empty but for its usual complement of carts and wagons. A two-wheeled mule cart with a long bed sat just outside the shed, its twin shafts pointing toward the barn.

Connor took all that in with a single glance, but what drew his gaze was the double staggered row of tall haystacks set across the courtyard between the barn and the carriage shed, partially blocking access to Ilse's company, like a half-finished wall. The haystacks stood ten feet tall and were spaced about three strides apart, and Connor could not imagine what tactical purpose they might possess.

When Rory paused about twenty feet from the odd wall of haystacks, Ilse shouted, "Stand down, men of Obrion. We wish to --"

Rory did not let her finish. "Slingers!"

The ten slingers whipped their arms back to launch stones at the Grandurians, but Grahame shouted, "Ware, Captain. There are men up in the --"

Before he could finish, and before the slingers could release their missiles, blinding lights blazed in every one of the manor's wide windows. Grahame howled with pain and staggered, clutching his eyes. Connor joined the others in shielding his eyes, and his worry burst into full-blown fear of the Grandurians.

It was like the manor had somehow consumed the sun, which was trying to escape through the open curtains, making it impossible to look directly at the building. The doorway remained darkened where Ilse and her men stood, so he couldn't even search for their back-lit figures to orient on.

Rory cursed, but did not advance. "You can't hide forever!"

Ilse's voice replied from behind the light. "Don't be a fool, captain. No one has to die tonight."

Shona lifted her sword high and shouted, "You do!"

She charged.

Rory tried to catch her, but she moved too fast. He shouted, "Stand down, Shona. Those haystacks have to be a trap."

"Coward!" Shona paused and looked back. "Be a Guardian and lead these men!"

Rory sighed. "So be it."

Then he raised his sword and shouted, "Charge!"

Connor's heart sank as the army surged forward. He knocked an arrow, but could find no target. He feared the consequences of Shona's action, although he applauded her bravery and hoped she succeeded.

As Shona and Rory and two of the Fast Rollers raced through the gaps between the haystacks, a soldier shouted, "Wingrunner!"

A blur of movement above him and to the right drew Connor's attention. The skinny Grandurian with the narrow face who wore baggy pants like Donald was sprinting down the roof of the carriage shed. He moved faster than a galloping horse and when he reached the edge of the roof, he leaped high and soared to the closest haystack.

Without slowing, the Wingrunner zipped from one haystack to the next in enormous leaping strides. As each foot landed, he dropped a small, glittering object onto the hay.

Soldiers shouted for slingers to drop the man, but he crossed the entire courtyard in three pounding heartbeats and dove through an open window in the side of the big barn.