Read Online The Fall to Power by Gareth K Pengelly - Free Book Online Page A

“I know, we were overrun too quickly.”
                  “How?” The sergeant asked, his patience running thin, fast thinking this trooper to be mad.
                  “Khrdas!”
                  The guardsmen gasped, even the sergeant’s eyes widening at the statement.
                  “You are sure of this?”
                  He drew near to Marlyn, eyes serious. The youth nodded, the desperation in his eyes revealing the truth of his words.
                  The sergeant bit his lip, mind racing, before turning to his men.
                  “They can come down two ways; the staircase from each wall leading down into this guardroom,” he pointed out of the window to the other side of the portcullised gatehouse, “and the other guardroom.” He turned back to Marlyn. “You bolted the door behind you?”
                  A nod.
                  “And the other side?”
                  Marlyn thought furiously, back to the bloodfest of minutes before, then shook his head.
                  “Shit.” The sergeant roared to his men, “To arms! Cross the gatehouse, defend the door; Khrdas or not, they can only come down that staircase one at a time.” He hefted a bow. “And they shall find death waiting to greet them.”
                  He turned to run with his men, but Marlyn’s hand on his shoulder stopped him.
                  “My orders were to warn the Lord and seal the Keep!”
                  The sergeant nodded.
                  “Do it, lad. The portcullis is yet raised, for the outer doors are sealed. Cross the courtyard, find Lieutenant Hofsted and explain the situation. Go!”
                  The soldier went to run, pausing for an instant, as he looked up at the Sergeant.
                  “Don’t let their weapons touch you. They’re poisoned; one scratch is death.”
                  The officer nodded in thanks and charged out the door, crossing the gatehouse entrance, strewn with straw and horse muck and flying up the stairs into the guardroom on the other side. Marlyn came out too, longing to join the soldiers that lay in readiness by the staircase door, wishing he could extract some vengeance for his fallen friend and sergeant, but he had other duties.
                  He turned left, away from the thick, impenetrable doors of the gatehouse and ran, underneath the heavy iron portcullis, flying across the stone-flagged courtyard in the direction of the keep.
     
    ***
     
    Ranclif crouched in the silence of the dim guardroom along with the twenty troopers under his command. The air was thick and heavy with tension, the smell of sweat and fear, as all eyes were on the door that led down from the right hand wall of the citadel.
                  Their bows were not yet taut, for the strain of holding a nocked arrow for any time was tiring and none of these warriors wanted to be fatigued when the enemy showed their face, trusting instead to their instincts and training to allow them the first shot.
                  And Ranclif, in turn, trusted his men.
                  A minute passed since the youth who’d warned them had fled to the Keep. Then two, still no sound of approaching foes breaking the strained silence.
                  The sergeant frowned, not doubting the sincerity of the threat, for he’d witnessed the horror in the trooper’s eyes, but wondering where the enemy was and what was taking them. Come to think of it, he thought, how did they get to the walls in the first place? None of the tell-tale rumbling of siege towers had shook the ground, nor could ladders reach across the yawning chasm of the moat.
                  They had no wings, that he had heard of. Short of climbing, there was