Chapter 31 Fire and Air

At the orcs' warning growl, we four in the murder room looked down to the orcs just across the bridge. A small group of them covered themselves with shields and began advancing across the bridge. Carmella began heating a rock, which José threw out onto the bridge. Before I could whisk up a wind to blow them off the bridge (I hoped), a dense fog suddenly enveloped us, and we couldn't see a thing. With the rock out of her sight, whatever heat she had managed to create in the rock was released, but we couldn't see what effect, if any, it had. An eerie moaning began, then moved into a vibration, then the floor began shaking and the walls and ceiling collapsed all around us.

With the earthquake, the fog disappeared, so after climbing out of the rubble we could see again. I was very badly bruised, a large hunk of something having fallen on top of me. Carmella and Prestley were also bruised up, but not as badly. We found José trapped beneath a section of wall. He was safe inside, as other pieces of rubble held the large section off him. But, we couldn't move any of it. We ran out quickly, to see how the others had fared and if anyone could help us rescue José. Miara and Ash were fine, but the guard at the top of one of the back towers, which hadn't collpased, was yelling for help. We went that way, and saw in passing that only the walls facing the gate had collasped. I briefly wondered what other magical attacks the orcs would send against us.

I heard Miara yell for Carmella and me, and we started running across the courrtyard towards them. We weren't fast enough, and Miara appeared briefly to make sure we were really coming. Once at the top, we saw two groups of grappling hooks, with scores of goblins on their way up. If they made it all the way, the few of us up here wouldn't stand a chance against the hordes. The hooks were huge and Miara and Ash together couldn't budge one. The crafty things had made sure that the first ten feet or so were chain before the rope began, so we couldn't just cut them down.

Carmella began concentrating, and I think she was heating up a link to soften it, or maybe get hot enough to catch the rope on fire. I tried to come up with a tornado to tangle the ropes and send goblins flying back down to the ground. I didn't produce one, but I actually got something even better: the strong gust of wind, which I discovered I could control and direct. I directed it downwards, and swept all the goblins off the ropes. With their weight off, Ash and Miara could haul up enough of the chain to cut the ropes. I continued the blast of wind, blowing off goblins that kept trying to climb up the ropes.

Carmella decided that heating up one link at a time wasn't going to get her anywhere, so she produced her favorite offensive weapon: a fireball. She incinerated the other group of ropes, but not before several goblins had already come up over the wall. Miara told Ash to take a couple of guards to deal with them. She continued to cut down the ropes, and I continued to keep the goblins from climbing up the ones she hadn't gotten yet.

Once they were all cut, no other grappling hooks appeared. Miara went to help Ash with the goblins, telling Carmella and me to stay there and keep watch. If anything happened, she said to yell loudly for help and do whatever we could against whatever happened. I devoutly hoped nothing would happen in her absence, and I hoped she wasn't far away because I was certain something would happen.

For a few brief moments, enough for Carmella and me to catch our breaths, but not enough for me to heal our hurts, nothing did happen. Then, an air elemental appeared before us, carrying a huge, black orc up to us. Carmella and I screamed loudly, hoping help would arrive as quickly as this thing.