The Battle for the Castle (17 page)

“The light's coming,” Brian said at last. He was the only one tall enough to see through the barred window. “It's getting brighter out there.”

And then ever so slowly, the gnawing stopped and there was the barest scuffling sound as the hundreds of rat feet backed their way across the floor.

William lifted the bar on the inside of the door and swung it open. For a moment, nobody moved. They
stood blinking in the dusty morning light. Row after row of rats faced them, on their hind legs again, upper paws resting on the shoulders of the rat in front. From behind him, William heard Dick gasp in horror.

Jason was the first to go. With a swift parry of his sword and a great clanking of metal, he marched into the anteroom. The rats did not flinch but held their ground right at the edge of the light and watched this strange creature advance toward them.

“Let's go,” William said to the others as he pulled the mirror out of his belt. “Follow the light right to the end wall and then make a break for the courtyard. Brian, you and Dick get away first. The three of us will follow you.” As they filed out of the door, Gudrin came up and stood next to William while the two men slipped out and started for the end wall.

William didn't know whether Jason forgot about the light or whether the helmet slid one more time and he couldn't see. But suddenly he took another menacing step toward the line of vermin while William yelled at him to stop, to back away, to hug the light. Jason tripped on something and with a horrible, hollow cry, he stumbled and pitched forward to the ground. The helmet rolled off and there he lay with his head and neck exposed and the front half of him in the midst of a boiling dark caldron of starving rats.

Gudrin screamed, and without thinking, William
tossed her the mirror. He snatched up Jason's shiny silver shield from where it had skittered across the stone floor. Waving it wildly, he rushed to Jason's side and covered his head and neck with it.

“Get away from him!” William screamed, half out of his head with rage. And to his amazement, the rats did. They backed off again.

“It's the light,” Gudrin called. “Catch the light with the shield.”

With one foot on either side of Jason's body, William held up the shield with both hands so that the sun was reflected toward the rats. As they backed up, he tilted the shield ever so slightly and they retreated again. From where she stood, Gudrin held them in place with a thin shaft of mirrored light until they began to break ranks and scramble over one another in a desperate effort to get away.

“Crawl back into the light path behind me,” William said to Jason, who was still lying between his legs. Jason dug his ironclad heels into the grooves between the cobblestones and with a terrible scraping noise, managed to drag himself out of danger.

With Jason safe for the moment, William lifted the shield from the ground, lost the light, and then found it again.

“Keep going,” Gudrin crowed from behind him, and without turning around, he heard again that wild
tumult in her voice that seemed to come from another world and reminded him of Calendar.

William took another step forward. The rats were in full retreat, rolling over each other in desperate waves, and as they went, they exposed their leader. He stood in the darkest corner of the room, his sleek hairy back pressed tightly against the stone wall.

As William advanced on the rat, he examined every detail of the monster before him. He saw the pink-tipped paws as large as human hands, the long, rope-like gray tail that curled around in front of his thick fur-covered haunches, the hairless exposed belly, and finally the face. William had never seen such a look of terror on any face, human or animal. The lips were curled away to expose long yellow teeth and the rat's eyes no longer held any power. They darted back and forth searching for an escape route but there was none.

William tipped the shield farther and the brilliant light struck the ugly leader in the eyes. From his mouth issued a long, high-pitched scream, a primitive unearthly sound that seemed to wind like a snake out of the depths of his body.

And he began to shrivel. It did not take long. One minute he was there, and the next, he had melted down the wall like a dark stain, washed away by a stream of light. Now the size of the other rats, he was lost among them for a moment.

But suddenly, without any warning, the rat followers
turned on their leader and attacked him. With a frenzied squeaking, they scrambled over one another in their rush to get at him, to sink their teeth into what was left of him. William watched in horror as they finished him off, then dropped away and scurried to and fro with their noses to the floor.

They ran across Jason's armored body as he struggled to get to his feet. He covered his face with his hands, but the animals didn't even stop to sniff at his exposed skin. The boy no longer smelled like food. He was just an obstacle lying in their way. Gudrin and Dick went back to Jason and helped him up.

“Brian, we've got to lower the drawbridge,” William called. “They want out. They're nothing but rats now.”

He dropped the shield, and surrounded by the surging black mass, he ran for the tower steps. The rats spilled past him into the courtyard. He heard Brian's labored breathing and saw the pain in the man's face as he stumbled up beside him into the gatehouse. Together they unlocked the chains and slowly lowered the massive wooden planking. At one point, William lost control of the drop and his feet left the ground as the chain pulled him up. He loosened his grip and let his sore fingers slide down the rough metal links until he felt solid stone once more beneath him.

The rest of them were waiting on the wall walk, hanging over the side and watching as the rats rolled
out across the drawbridge. In their eagerness to flee, some of them tumbled over the edge into the moat. As soon as they surfaced, they paddled frantically through the murky water toward the opposite shore. Out on the road, they peeled off in different directions, some running toward the coast and others taking refuge in the high grass of the fields.

“So many of them,” Dick said in wonder. “Who would have thought there were this many rats in the world?”

“I think that's the last of them,” Gudrin said as the final stragglers scuttled off down the road. “Whatever the cat didn't get.”

“Will anybody believe us when we tell them what we've seen?” Brian wondered out loud.

“We can show them the door,” Gudrin said in a quiet voice.

“Was it bad?” William asked, catching her eye.

“We had an hour left, two at the most.”

“We must raise the pennant from the north tower,” Jason said.

“Later,” said William.

Jason had managed to take off most of the armor and he looked peculiar standing there in a metal breastplate and lycra shorts. Half-knight, half-bicyclist, William thought.

“Thanks,” Jason said in a low voice.

“Sure,” said William with a casual shrug because he knew how hard it must have been for Jason to say that one word.

Nobody said anything more for a long time. The sun had climbed far enough above the horizon that its rays hit them full in the face. They stood in a scraggly row, soaking up its warmth.

They slept for the rest of that day and most of the next. William and Jason were on the wall walk standing the watch when they heard the distant call of a horn.

“Someone's coming,” Jason said. He was pacing back and forth with his backpack over his shoulder.

“Sir Simon,” William said as Moonlight topped the hill and came thundering down the slope followed by six horsemen, riding in a tight pack.

“I hope Tolliver's with them,” Jason said. “Otherwise we'll have to wait for your bike before we can leave.”

William scanned the line of horses with his binoculars. “Sir Simon's there. And Alan. And the soldiers who went with him. They must have met up on the
road.” He put the binoculars down. “No Tolliver. No Deegan.”

“Blast,” said Jason and began to pace again.

The boys waited until the horses drew up at the edge of the moat. Sir Simon lifted off his helmet and rested it in his lap.

“Sir Simon of Hargrave, recently returned with some honor from Inglewich, sends his greetings to your noble selves.”

“And ours to you, Sir Simon,” William called back.

“It seems that you have vanquished the enemy, my good lord,” Sir Simon said.

“That we have done. But we are right glad to see you.”

“The Silver Knight humbly begs permission to enter,” Sir Simon said with a grin.

“Permission granted,” William said.

“Why didn't you ask him about Deegan?” Jason said as they trotted along the wall walk to the gatehouse.

“In time,” William said. “Sir Simon loves ceremony. It's better not to rush him.”

Down in the courtyard, there ensued a great clamor of greetings and hurrahs, bear hugs and a general clapping of backs and shoulders. When the horses had been led away to the stables, Sir Simon took William aside.

“You have seen much, my boy.”

“Yes,” William said. There is no sign of what has gone on here, he thought as he looked around the courtyard.

“Tell me about it,” Sir Simon said.

William nodded. “Come to the dungeon with me. It's easier to show you.”

Once William had finished the story, Sir Simon hunkered down next to the dungeon door and ran his fingers across the jagged teeth marks. At one place near the hinge, he pushed too hard and his hand went through.

“I had no idea,” he said as he stood up. “No idea what you would be facing. It was wrong of me. I was warned but I chose to ignore the omens.”

William said nothing. The man was right. He had been warned.

“A monstrous rat who fed on darkness,” Sir Simon mused out loud. “Why? Where did he come from? Will there be another?”

“Keep Gudrin close to you,” William said simply. “She will know just the way Calendar must have. They see and hear things before they happen.”

Sir Simon smiled. “Oh dear, it is not fitting for a strong and fearless knight to make his apologies to an unruly girl, but I expect I shall have to.”

“Yes,” William said. “I expect you will.”

“For the second time, I have you to thank, young William. If you had not been here, I tremble to think what we would have found when we returned. First Alastor and now this.”

William stood still and let the words wash over him.

“I suppose you wouldn't consider staying here with us, my boy? I am growing old and could use your courage and your sharp wits by my side.”

William shook his head. “You shall have Tolliver, my lord. He is showing much promise.”

“Yes, a fine boy. Strong legs. He made good time on that contraption of yours.”

“When do you think he'll be back?” William asked.

“Tomorrow. He turned right around and came back with us, but I had to leave him at the house of a friendly farmer last night. He was bone-tired and could no longer keep up.”

“And Deegan?” William whispered, terrified of the answer.

“He was with us when we started out but he slipped away the afternoon of the second day. Such an irritating fool, he is. Not to be trusted.”

“No,” William said, close to tears. Would he and Jason ever get away from here? More than anything else at that moment, he longed for the familiar smells of his own kitchen before dinner, the sight of his father
lying on the couch in the living room listening to one of his favorite operas. He desperately wanted his life to be normal again.

“Don't look so sad,” Sir Simon said, clapping him on the shoulder a little too roughly. “Deegan will return in his own time. He always does. Now I must go along and have a word with Dick and Brian.”

He stole the token from me, William wanted to say, but he couldn't stand to hear his own voice speaking the words out loud.

William woke in the middle of the night to find Deegan tucking something under his pallet. He reached out and grabbed the man's thin wrist.

“Deegan,” he whispered so as not to wake Jason.

“The very one,” whispered the fool.

“You brought it back.”

William felt the fool press the token into his open palm and close his fingers over it.

“Outside,” William said. “I want to talk to you.”

They stood facing each other in the torchlight of the hallway and neither said anything for a while. Finally Deegan put up his fists.

“You wish to fight the fool?”

William shook his head.

Deegan stood on his hands. “Outtumble him?” he called with his face near the floor.

William shook his head again. “Stop fooling around,” he muttered.

Deegan laughed as he righted himself. “You're asking a fool to stop fooling around? Seems most bizarre. It is my calling in life.”

“You stole the token from me,” William said. “You betrayed me. You left us with no weapon.”

“Of the others I cannot speak, but you have weapons of your own,” said Deegan. “From the tales Miss Gudrin tells me, they served you far better than all the swords and breastplates in the armory.”

“The token would have been a lot faster and easier,” William said.

“The token suited my purposes perfectly,” Deegan said. “It serves as a weapon only for the likes of me, a half-boy, half-man. You were ready to cross over. The token would have held you back. And remember that a fool is not—”

“I know,” William said with a shake of his head. “Not to be counted on.”

Deegan bowed low. “Sir William, I do salute you and wish you a safe journey.”

Before William could answer, the fool had slipped away into the dark space beyond the torchlight.

Tolliver came pedaling across the drawbridge early the next morning and they gathered around to greet him.

“I wanted to come back with them and fight,” he told William in a breathless voice. “And now I hear there was no need. There is already talk of it in the countryside.”