Chương 18: Kill them All

The heavy iron anvil was in the center of the castle's armory forge. The metal bucket-helm of Jack's Head Retainer was on its flat surface. Barnaby wiped a layer of black soot from his forehead with the back of his hand. He looked down at the helmet. A deep dent was in the side of the helm. Barnaby was a master of his craft, and he understood how hard the impact would have been. Iron was strong, but the human body inside it was soft.

A strike with enough force to cave in steel by two full inches would have instantly snapped a man's neck or crushed his skull into fragments. Yet, when Lord Jack personally brought the helmet over for repairs earlier that morning, the young lord had casually mentioned that his mage was completely unharmed. Barnaby had watched the giant man after the battle. He hadn't limped or rubbed his neck. He hadn't even let out a grunt of pain.

"Impossible," Barnaby whispered to himseld in the empty armory. He turned his attention away from the helmet and walked out into the freezing courtyard, making his way toward the main gates. A heavy barricade of spare timber was against the splintered doors. Giles and the militia had built it the night before, but Lord Jack's mages had supposedly reinforced it. Barnaby approached the barricade. Several thick, raw iron spikes were deep inside the timbers, holding the massive beams together.

Barnaby ran his thumb over the head of a spike, and a cold chill went down his spine. The wood around the iron was not crushed or splintered from heavy hammer blows. The heads of the spikes were not flattened by a mallet. These spikes were simply pushed straight into the wood. No human arm in the world was strong enough to push iron through solid wood. Barnaby looked across the courtyard toward the Great Hall.

He didn't know what kind of mages the young Lord Jack had brought into the valley, but he was now absolutely certain that the creatures inside that heavy armor were completely unnatural. A few hours later, the atmosphere inside the castle courtyard was surprisingly light. Jack was in the courtyard, leaning on his cane. His eyes were on the distant tree line of the woods. The bandit camp was there. The smoke from their campfires was incredibly thin today.

They were running out of dry wood, and more importantly, they were running out of food. According to the village scouts, the bandits had already slaughtered and eaten their own pack mules after they didn't find anything in the village. Now, they were desperately boiling pine needles and tree bark just to have something warm in their stomachs. Jack knew the two Grey Core mages were in that camp. He needed them dead, but he couldn't simply march his skeletons into the open woods during the day.

He had to wait for them to make a mistake.

"Lord Jack! Lord Jack!" Karen's joyful voice broke his dark train of thought. Jack looked down. Karen was in the courtyard, rushing out of the wooden door of the greenhouse. Her face was bright red, and a beaming smile was on her face. Giles and Old Miller were right behind her, their eyes wide with disbelief. Jack hobbled toward the stairs and made his way down to the courtyard.

"What is it, Karen?" Jack asked.

"Come inside, My Lord! You have to see!" she urged, holding the door open for him. Jack stepped into the greenhouse. The air inside the glass building was incredibly warm and humid, completely sealed off from the deadly winter chill outside. The underground stone trenches were doing their job perfectly. Jack looked down at the long rows of dark soil. Dozens of tiny, bright green shoots were in the dirt. The winter cabbage and the fast-growing peas had sprouted.

The little green leaves were incredibly small, but their color was vibrant and full of life. In a valley surrounded by a deadly blizzard, freezing temperatures, and starving murderers, the sight of fresh, growing life was nothing short of a miracle. Tears were in Old Miller's eyes. The elderly farmer fell to his knees.

"Life," Old Miller whispered, his voice cracking with intense emotion.

"The earth is alive again. We actually beat the winter." Giles let out a booming laugh, clapping his heavy hands together.

"The mages' design is flawless! We have food growing in the dead of winter! Let those bandit bastards freeze in the woods. We have everything we need right here!" This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. Jack looked at the tiny green shoots, a profound sense of relief washing over him. The warm atmosphere inside the glass walls was the ultimate payoff for all his exhausting magical labor. But Jack was a pragmatist.

As he looked up through the clear glass roof at the darkening sky, he knew the bandits wouldn't just sit in the woods and starve quietly. Desperation always bred bold, reckless action. The dead of night was over the valley. The winter wind was howling, masking any small noises in the dark. The bandit leader, Kael, knew his men would be dead from starvation in three days if they didn't breach the castle. A frontal assault against the armored giants was suicide. He needed the gates unlocked from the inside.

Five elite, lightly armored bandits were at the base of the castle wall. White furs were over their shoulders to blend into the snow. The iron grappling hooks were in their hands. They swung the ropes in tight circles and threw them upward. The iron hooks caught the high stone battlements with a clink. The five men tested the ropes, found them secure, and began to climb. They moved quickly and silently. The first bandit pulled himself over the stone ledge.

His iron dagger was in his hand, ready to slit the throat of any sentry he found. But the walkway was not empty. A squad of five skeletons from Jack's Night Shift was on the wall. Heavy stone blocks were in their hands, being stacked into neat piles as ammunition for the militia to drop on attackers. They were completely motionless in the dark until the bandit was right on top of them. The bandit gasped, startled by the sudden presence of a figure.

He lunged forward, driving his dagger directly into the chest of the nearest skeleton. The blade easily pierced the skeleton's old wool tabard. It scraped violently against the hard, ivory bone of its ribcage. Inside his bedroom, Jack was in his high-backed chair, keeping a light mental hold on his Night Shift. His eyes were closed. Suddenly, a sharp jolt was in his mind. The magical thread connected to one of the skeletons on the wall flared with the sensation. Jack's eyes snapped open.

He immediately pushed his consciousness deeper into the link. Through the skeleton's empty eye sockets, the dark shapes of men in white furs were visible on the walkway.

"Drop the stone," Jack commanded fiercely in his mind, seizing direct control of the squad.

"Grab the attacker by the throat and belt. Throw him over the edge." The skeleton did exactly as instructed. It dropped the heavy stone block. The undead creature reached out with its fleshless hands and grabbed the struggling bandit. With a single motion the skeleton hurled the man back over the wall. The bandit fell down, screaming wildly until his body hit the frozen earth below and died on the spot. The other four bandits pulled themselves over the ledge just in time to see their comrade thrown down.

They froze in terror.

"Engage them!" Jack commanded the remaining four skeletons.

"Swing your arms! Shove them back! Do not let them advance past the ledge!" A bizarre, completely silent skirmish was on the stone walkway. The skeletons moved forward, their arms swinging wildly in the dark. A second bandit was grabbed by the leg and tossed over the side. A third was violently shoved backward by two skeletons at once, slipping on the icy stone and falling to his death. The last two bandits didn't even try to fight.

They scrambled back down their ropes, burning their hands on the rough hemp in their desperation to escape.

"Follow them down," Jack commanded, his heart pounding in his chest.

"Chase them into the woods. Do not let them escape." The skeletons clumsily grabbed the ropes and slid down. They sprinted toward the tree line after the fleeing men. But the moment the skeletons entered the woods, a problem was apparent. The forest was pitch-black and Jack had never been in these woods, even though he could see but he didn't know the paths. Because skeletons had no independent minds to navigate obstacles, Jack had to guide every step through the mental link.

"Turn left... step over that log... wait, no!" Jack projected desperately. A skeleton tripped over a hidden root and crashed heavily into the snow. Another smashed face-first into a trunk because Jack didn't see it in time. The mental connection was chaotic and deeply disorienting. Within a minute, the agile, fleeing bandits were completely gone, swallowed by the dark forest. Jack rubbed his throbbing temples, exhausted from the strain of trying to control five bodies in a dark maze.

"Halt," Jack commanded with a frustrated sigh.

"Return to the castle walls. Stack the stones." An hour later, the two surviving bandits were back in the dark, freezing woods. They collapsed in the snow before Kael and the two Grey Core mages.

"They aren't human," the surviving bandit sobbed, his face completely pale.

"We stabbed them right in the heart and they didn't even screamed nor there was any blood. They just threw us off the wall like we weighed nothing. Demons! The castle is guarded by immortal demons!"

"But... before we ran," the second survivor stammered, shivering violently.

"I looked down into their courtyard from the wall. I saw it. A massive building made of glass is down there. It is glowing with heat from a furnace, and green plants are inside. They are growing fresh crops in the middle of the winter!" Kael's face was twisted in rage, his stomach twisting at the mention of fresh food. Nearby, the Fire Mage and the Wind Mage exchanged a puzzled, deeply disturbed look. They were not omniscient; they had no idea what was actually inside the castle. What were these things?

They didn't sense any familiar elemental magic coming from the walls. Were they golems? Some kind of cursed armor? The two mages were just as terrified and confused as the foot soldiers.

"Stealth is useless," Kael spat, kicking the snow.

"And we can't beat those armored monsters at the gates." Kael looked through the trees in the direction of the castle, his eyes narrowing at the faint glow visible over the stone walls. So that was their secret. A cruel, desperate plan was in his mind. If the bandits couldn't have the food, no one would.

"Wake the men," Kael ordered, his voice raw and hateful.

"Pine pitch and the remaining animal fat from the mules are in our supplies. Rags must be soaked in it. Wrap them around your arrows." The Fire Mage stepped forward, a nervous look on his face.

"We are going to burn them out?"

"No," Kael said.

"We are going to shatter that glasshouse with fire arrows. We are going to let the winter wind freeze their crops and kill their hope. And when they finally march out of those gates to fight us in the open, we will slaughter every last one of them."