The War of the Grail (33 page)

He leant against the parapet and was about to try to convince Sonali to come back with him, when a gun nearby gave a sudden blast. The sound shook the wall, the parapet vibrating beneath his hands. Sonali yelped and jumped slightly.

Heart thrashing wildly, he spun round and peered along the ramparts. Further booms rippled along the wall as the gunners sprang into action. The men danced about the artillery, sponging out muzzles, ramming down charges, and lifting and loading the iron balls. The guns flashed, rocked back and vomited flame and smoke. Balls screamed away into the darkness, indistinct blots for a second before vanishing completely.

He stared into the hills. He could make out little, but here and there he spotted tiny lights that could be lanterns. The enemy must have moved forward and begun building earthworks. And the rebel gunners were clearly trying to stop them.

Sonali gasped and pointed to the north-east. Jack turned just in time to see a ball of blue flame streak up from the sprawling European Army camp.

‘What is it?’ Sonali asked.

Jack knew exactly what it was. He’d been injured by it once. ‘Sattva-fire.’

The fireball arced high into the sky, then wailed as it hurtled down towards the east wall.

Jack grasped Sonali’s arm. ‘We’d better get out of here.’ His voice was thick.

They charged along the ramparts, heading for the stairway. The sound of the fireball built to a piercing screech. And then the missile slammed into the battlements about a hundred yards away. The stones beneath Jack’s boots quivered and Sonali was almost knocked off her feet. Blue-white flame rolled into the air and bled over the walkway. Globules and tendrils of fire spiralled down to the ground below.

Jack couldn’t see whether anyone had been hit, but he heard screaming and shouting over the roar of the guns.

‘Quick!’ he shouted at Sonali. ‘This way!’

The two of them sprinted on down the walkway, dodging past the labouring artillerymen. The gunners’ faces were streaked with dirt and glistening with sweat. The men worked together fluidly, loading and firing, loading and firing. They must have been trained in the European Army at some point.

The guns flared and pounded the darkness, the sound so loud it shuddered in Jack’s chest. It was as though he and Sonali were trapped in some vast, infernal mill.

Jack glanced to his right and spotted another fireball shooting up from the army camp. A second followed, and then a third. The missiles were being fired now in rapid succession.

Who the hell was creating them? Jhala had never had the power in the past. But perhaps, now, with the help of the Great Yantra, he’d managed it. Was that possible? Or were there other siddhas amongst the army forces?

The fireballs vaulted overhead, plunged into the interior of the fortress and blasted up pillars of flame and rock.

Jack whispered a Hail Mary under his breath.

He reached the top of the stairs, Sonali right behind him. Five gunners came scrambling up with an ammunition chest, and he stepped aside to let them pass. Out of the corner of his eye he spotted flickers across the hills to the east. When he looked harder, he made out a multitude of orange flashes winking on the slopes.

The enemy had begun firing their artillery.

Less than a second later, a storm of round shot was shrieking all about him. The balls appeared suddenly from the dark and whistled past like ghosts, before plummeting into the fortress. With a metallic crunch, one smacked into the battlements about thirty feet away. Dust and shards of stone jetted upwards, and three men cried out as they tumbled to the ground below.

‘Down here!’ Jack gestured at the stairs.

He and Sonali clattered down the steps. When Jack snatched a look across the fortress, he saw countless shadowy figures dashing in every direction. Campfires still blazed in many places, and added to these were the plumes of flame cast up by the fireballs hammering into the ground.

He reached the bottom of the stairway and, with Sonali at his side, raced into the ruins. They stumbled between meandering walls and gaping archways. He glimpsed fearful people rushing to find cover, and heard shouts and screams over the endless thundering of the guns.

A round shot hummed past in front of him and lopped off a finger of stone protruding from a building. A second ball punched through a wall just feet away from him, the brittle stone shattering into a cloud of dust and splinters. He held his arm up to cover his eyes as he charged through the dust, while Sonali spluttered and coughed as she scurried after him.

They came out at a courtyard and skidded to a halt. People were criss-crossing the open space as they raced to find somewhere to hide. A swarm of round shot fell about them. Balls ploughed into the earth. Others plucked people off their feet and dashed them to the ground. Jack saw a woman’s head knocked straight off, blood spurting from her neck as she fell. A man was blown apart when a missile pummelled him in the stomach.

Sonali whimpered and raised her fist to her mouth.

Jack wiped the sweat from his eyes. He was breathing heavily and his heart was battering in his chest. He desperately wanted to get back to the Folly Brook camp. He had to make sure Elizabeth and Cecily were safe. But, on the other hand, he and Sonali could be killed if they didn’t find shelter soon.

He turned to Sonali. ‘We’ll find somewhere for you to hide. Then I’ll head back to the camp.’

Sonali’s eyes widened and shone brightly. ‘Don’t you dare. I’m coming with you.’

Jack knew better than to waste time arguing. ‘Right, then.’ He motioned to the courtyard. ‘We have to get across that. It’s the quickest way back.’

She nodded. ‘Then let’s go.’

They charged out into the open, weaving their way around the corpses. There were fewer people running across the area now – most had either escaped or been struck down. But the balls still battered the ground. They swooped down in front of Jack, a few bouncing away again. He heard them whistling all around him. He was certain he would be hit. There seemed no chance he would survive …

Then there was a deafening howl to his right. He looked up just in time to see a fireball moaning as it careered towards him. It was so close that the light stung his eyes and the heat scorched his face.

With his heart in his throat, he flung himself against Sonali. The two of them stumbled backwards and out of the path of the missile. The fireball thumped into the ground and a pulse of hot air seared the back of Jack’s head, knocking him off his feet. He fell next to Sonali and flipped over in time to see brilliant flames erupting from the earth. The sattva-fire snarled and popped as it ran across the ground, setting the grass alight.

Jack saw a line of flame slithering towards him. He rolled to his side and yanked Sonali to her feet. They got out of the way just before the fire sizzled past.

Jack grasped Sonali’s arm and dragged her towards the entrance to a walkway. As they plunged into the narrow passage, a second fireball pummelled the ground behind them. Jack glanced back and saw a fiery maelstrom boiling towards them. He charged on with Sonali and they escaped before the fire engulfed them.

They skidded round a corner and bounded across a stretch of paving stones. Finally, the crumbling palace of the Folly Brook camp stood before them. They were approaching the building from the rear and had to run round the side of the structure to get to the entrance. The final corner of the building appeared ahead. The entryway lay just beyond this.

They were almost there.

There was a piercing shriek nearby. Jack spotted a glint out of the corner of his eye, looked up and spied a shell with a sparking fuse streaking across the ruins. It pounded into a pile of masonry about twenty feet from him. There was a clap and a sheet of yellow flame roared upwards. Chunks of stone whistled through the air, and shell fragments skipped and hopped across the paving stones. A piece of shrapnel chirped as it stabbed the stone wall immediately in front of him.

He glanced at Sonali – her eyes were wide and glassy.

The two of them ran on, darted round the corner and found themselves in the open space about the entryway. More shells rained down. One smacked open in mid-air, scattering flame and musket balls. Another thumped into the earth and shot up a column of fire and clods. The sky teemed with shot.

Jack led the way along the wall, keeping as close to the building as he could in order to get at least a little cover. The five campfires were still burning, but all the villagers had vanished.

He reached the entrance and scrambled inside, Sonali pressing in right behind him. For a second, he saw nothing but darkness. But then his eyes adjusted and he found he was surrounded by the grey, wide-eyed faces of the inhabitants of Folly Brook. He spotted Mary, Godwin, Mark, Saleem and Kanvar. They were all crammed into the musty chamber.

Then a voice cried out. Elizabeth pushed herself forward and embraced him.

‘I’m sorry,’ she whispered.

‘It’s all right.’ He patted her on the back. ‘Don’t worry.’

A shell exploded outside and musket balls and metal fragments screamed against the palace walls.

He dragged Elizabeth away from the entrance, then shouted at the villagers, ‘Get back! Into the other rooms!’

With shells falling all around them it was too dangerous to stay near the entryway. Shrapnel could easily fly in.

Everyone shuffled back into the series of cave-like chambers formed by the fallen stonework. The ceilings were even lower here than in the first room, and Jack had to stoop to avoid hitting his head. He crouched down next to Elizabeth and Godwin. Elizabeth cradled Cecily in her arms, rocking and jiggling the child to keep her quiet.

Saleem struck a match and lit a tallow candle. The wavering light rendered everyone’s features hollow and deathly.

‘Should we go to the wall?’ Saleem asked Jack. ‘To defend it?’

Jack shook his head. ‘Not at the moment. The army haven’t sent troops up yet. They’ll keep firing their guns and hope we give up. We’ll stay here, unless we get word there’s trouble.’

Henry had announced that, in the event of an attack, criers with bells would be sent to summon people to defend the walls. In the meantime, the best thing Jack and the others could do was stay alive.

The firestorm continued outside. Balls shrilled, shells blasted and fireballs howled. In the distance, people screamed as they were struck down.

Elizabeth shivered and Jack put his hand on her shoulder for a moment.

A shell burst immediately overhead. Metal fragments and balls scuttled across the stonework and rattled down through crevices and grooves.

A moment later, a fireball slammed into the roof. The impact shivered through the chamber’s walls and floor. Jack could hear the flames sizzle as they poured across the masonry. Blue light licked through a crack in one corner of the ceiling.

Many of the villagers gasped. Several children whimpered and Saleem’s mother sobbed. Cecily began grizzling, but Elizabeth rocked the child and she went silent again.

Jack studied the ceiling. How solid was it? He knew that in some places the stone lay several layers thick. But, for the most part, the roof was no more than the single layer of slabs lying directly above him.

He prayed they would hold.

Then the onslaught intensified.

A round shot pounded the roof, giving a metal chime. Everyone in the room jumped slightly, and dust trickled down from the ceiling.

A second shot struck the roof. Then another. A crack snaked across the ceiling and more dust gushed down.

Two more shells burst nearby, then further balls pummelled the stonework overhead. Many of the children were crying now, and several adults shut their eyes and covered their ears.

For a second, Jack recalled Jhala standing out on the plains earlier in the day. It was Jhala who’d ordered this attack, Jhala who was threatening them all.

Jack clenched his jaw so tightly his teeth ached. A cold determination flooded through him. One day, he would kill his old commander. He promised this to himself.

More and more fissures fanned across the ceiling and a central crack began to widen. Jack grasped the candle from Saleem and held it up to the roof. That main crack looked alarmingly large.

How much longer could the stone slab hold?

He handed the candle back to Saleem, saying, ‘Wait here. I’m going to check something.’

Both Saleem and Elizabeth protested, but he ignored them, clambered over the crouching villagers and ducked back into the first chamber. He dashed across to the entrance, pressed himself against the wall and peered round the edge. A fiery blizzard raged outside. The sky seethed with sparks and flashes. Squalls of round shot flickered in the dark. Ahead of him, a minaret toppled over as balls battered it.

It was like a vision of hell.

There was nowhere nearby to take shelter, and he and the others couldn’t risk searching further afield. It was too dangerous.

He darted back to the others and crouched down beside Elizabeth again.

‘We’ll stay here,’ he said to no one in particular. ‘Best place for us at the moment.’

Elizabeth nodded, and a few of the villagers muttered amongst themselves.

Then a series of balls smashed in rapid succession into the slab overhead. It was as if a giant were stomping on the roof. The stone groaned and the central crack yawned. A cloud of dust poured down and several people burst into fits of coughing.

Jack wiped the grit from his eyes. He shot a look at Sonali, who was crouching beside Kanvar and looking around like a cornered cat.

Thump.

Another ball struck the roof, loosening more dust. Most of the villagers were whimpering or praying now.

Thump.

The crack was getting dangerously wide now.

Thump.

The candle went out and someone started screaming. Jack grasped Elizabeth. Held her tight. Should he tell them all to flee now? Should they run out into the storm of metal and fire and take their chances?

He would wait for another few moments and pray that the roof would hold.

If he were crushed to death, at least he was with his family. At least they were together.