Chapter 121

“Think they’ll want to talk again?” Roxanne asked.

“If they think it will delay the inevitable, probably yes,” Morgana replied with a shrug as our forces began to invest what we could of the fortress of Myrkálfar.

“Verenestra sent William to talk to the Drow prisoners, though he doubts they’ll reveal anything until they lose here,” Roxanne added.

“They won’t. From what I can gather they have a strong sense of honour, despite their dubious provenance roots,” Morgana replied as a gate in the wall of Myrkálfar opened to permit a small party to exit and approach us.

“Predictable, if nothing else,” I murmured.

“Yes. What little we know of them tells us that they follow an absolute code: yet can be very flexible within it,” Morgana replied. “Right, let’s see what they have to say for themselves.”

Morgana, Roxanne, Arch and I walked towards where the Drow were waiting, recognising the one who had earlier ‘declined’ our demand for Oonagh, though the others were unknown to us. On arrival we simply stood there waiting to see what they had to say for themselves.

“Took your time getting here, ‘ came their first comment.

“I wasn’t aware there was any hurry,” Morgana replied blandly.

“Your losses should warn you that we are not easily conquered,” came the rejoinder.

“Three Mages and two auxiliaries to seventy-four Dökkálfar seems an equitable exchange,” Morgana replied to their obvious consternation and disbelief.

“You lie,” hissed one of the others in the party, a young looking female, though with the Fae it was often difficult to tell, however the anger may have been a giveaway.

“I have little need to lie; besides you can count as well as any, I’d surmise,” Morgana replied with a shrug.

“More than five of your numbers are missing,” the original Drow noted.

“Aggressive patrolling,” Arch replied.

“A likely tale,” the young Drow sneered.

“Check for yourself,” Arch replied laconically with a shrug.

“Let us agree to disagree and seek a resolution to this impasse,” the original Drow stated.

“Our terms remain the same. If you shelter or aid Oonagh you become our enemy; hand her over and we will depart to leave you to your machinations,” Morgana replied.

“We cannot in honour hand over someone with guest status. That would be a terrible stain upon our honour,” he replied.

“As much as using a disguise or illusion to stab someone? Only dropping it once the knife is embedded and the toxin doing its work?” I asked, drawing a hostile glance from them all.

“We never used our methods on humans!” the woman retorted.

“Because you didn’t want humans to know you were here, though old tales leaked out. Even then your victims were never offered a fair contest; always a stab from out of the dark. Never any warning, yet you speak of honour,” I shrugged.

“Our ways have always been so from the beginning of our history,” the original Drow stated.

“And look where it’s brought you,” Arch replied, gesturing with his arm at the Mages ‘digging in’ behind us.

“You cannot defeat us. Our fortress is impregnable!” the female Drow stated.

“That’s what the Daoine Sidhe thought about their fortresses on Tír na nÓg,” I shrugged. “Humanity have a great deal of experience in siege warfare. The Dökkálfar do not.”

“From what I can tell, you’re simply here to waste our time and delay the inevitable,” Morgana stated. “Unless you have anything to offer other than ‘you cannot win, now go away’, I suggest this parlay is over and we’ll speak again in your ruling chambers.”

It appeared Morgana was right, the four Drow simply did an about face and walked back to Myrkálfar without saying another word.

“Looks like we fight our way in,” I sighed.

“Masada,” Arch stated.

“You sure, Arch?” Morgana asked.

“Yes. We build a ramp up to the wall protected by our Seers and Mages, with shields made from that Loegrian metal in our armour. Once we’re above the ramparts we go in and see what they can do to stop us,” he replied.

“Won’t they try to topple the ramp?” I asked.

“Yes, however I have every confidence in our Seers, even against Oonagh,” Arch replied.

“Time to build it?” Morgana asked.

“We could throw it up in a day. However, for maximum psychological value, allow three days and a few attempts to fail to stop us,” Arch shrugged.

“Very well, Arch. I’ll leave it up to you. You’re the expert here,” Morgana chuckled.

One of the first things Arch did was call up the various Mages who were good with sniper rifles and simply put them to work with Null bullets taking out any Drow they could see, though most were cloaked or keeping out of sight we thought. He also had them shoot out any windows or other breakables they could see.

He organised the Seer group into a series of shifts to cover the raising of the ramp in order to make it appear inevitable and unstoppable. He also arranged for my team, without Adsila, to stand in front of the Seers with the giant shields he’d had made and delivered from Loegria.

The Seers then concentrated and the ground under their feet began to rise and move forward with us all focussed on what the Drow would do. Slowly the ramp formed as the Seers used their magic to create it and defend it when we came under magical attack, though that was nothing too serious as yet. We were also out of range of any weapons the Drow had shown so far.

“I’m not sure if they know what they are doing,” Morgana commented. “They know we can deflect rocks as well as protect the ceiling over our heads.”

“Probably try an earthquake then,” Arch shrugged. “Though we’d be able to easily deal with that anyway.”

We all then flinched and reacted to nullify a series of soundwaves that would have set off a resonance breakdown of the ramp as inch by inch the Seers drove it inexorably upwards and forwards.

“That was Oonagh,” I stated.

“Yes, I believe you’re right, John. Seems the Drow have finally allowed her to intervene,” Morgana nodded.

“Mage Helen has requested her teams go in as shock troops,” Arch noted.

“Yes, they performed well in taking out the Coalition and want another try,” Morgana sighed. “Roxanne is not happy as she believes her teams are the more experienced.”

“I’d have to agree with Mage Roxanne,” I shrugged.

“As do I, but Helen got in there first,” Morgana chuckled. “There’s not enough of a difference to force me to go beyond first come, first served.”

“Casualties could be high,” I added.

“Yes, so far we’ve been able to mostly keep them at a distance and only got caught when we mixed it up. This time though they’ll have family to defend, which is why I asked Jacob and Adok to permit them to retreat if necessary rather than have them fight to the last,” Morgana nodded.

“Good thinking,” Arch agreed. “A trapped rat will fight the hardest.”

“Doesn’t mean I’ll permit them to take anything with them,” Morgana added. “Last thing we need is for them to rebuild and become a problem in a few centuries.”

At this point several hidden sally ports opened and several hundred Drow raced towards the base of the ramp only to come under fire from our entrenched Mages who had been warned about such an attempt.

As good as the Drow armour was, and it was a great deal better than the Fae armour, a Null bullet wasn’t easy to stop and a score of them fell in the first few seconds as they hurled themselves forward, their bodies crumpling to dust to be trampled upon in the wake of their comrades’ advance. They were met in strength by the Asian teams led by Mages Adelaide and Tara at the fortifications we’d raised to protect the base of the ramp. The fighting became a melee when nulling up a bullet took too much time, they’d already used their first shot and Null bullets could not be stored together. The teams were now forced to use the old-fashioned methods of swordplay to defend themselves. Morgana was just about to call up our reserve, the South American teams, when finally the Drow broke and raced back to the sally ports, shot at, but not pursued by our forces.

“How bad?” Morgana asked Adelaide as she reached the bottom of the ramp.

“Fuckers are deadly up close, ten down, three of them in stasis,” she replied with a frustrated sigh.

“Let’s beef up the lower defences before carrying on,” Morgana ordered as she squeezed Adelaide’s shoulder. “Even at over ten to one odds, that’s too many Mages down.”

“A Null zone with claymores ought to give them pause,” Tara added.

“See to it,” Morgana nodded.

“Going to ‘borrow’ the 50-cals from the North Americans as well,” Adelaide said thoughtfully.

“Good idea. Let’s get things set up so that their next attack will cost them dearly, assuming they don’t come up with anything new,” Morgana agreed

“Help if we knew what their numbers are,” I thought out loud.

“That has me concerned too, John. I reckon about forty to fifty thousand though, judging by the overspill and what little we know of the fortress,” Morgana replied.

“That many could just sweep us away,” I stated.

“Not all will be warriors ... assassins ... whatever,” Adelaide added. “A lot will be the support people for the fortress, cooks, cleaners, food providers, artisans, etc.”

“That’s true,” I nodded.

“Won’t make them any less deadly if they are all fanatics though,” Morgana stated.

“Yep, so let’s get busy,” Adelaide nodded as the various teams began to raise the packed earth around our trenches as well as burying activated Null medallions and claymore mines around the approaches.

“Make sure you have the roof areas covered, as well as a few deep probes to prevent them tunnelling up under us,” Arch advised.

“Good idea,” Tara replied and set her teams away burying microphones as well as setting up a few rotary cannons to stop unexpected visitors dropping in on us.

The Seers in the meantime were fending off (with ease) a variety of magical attacks on the construct and a series of coruscating waves of energy exchanges rippled along its length as, although the Drow and Oonagh’s forces tried to overcome it, the shielding held in place.

“Right, back to work,” Arch finally said once the defences were up to what he considered satisfactory and were capable of fending off another counter-attack.

The ramp began extending again as another team of Seers ported in from Julia’s office along with a few Council members themselves who had apparently decided to help us out by joining the defence teams arrayed around the ramp’s base.

At the top, behind the Seers, stood Elpida and her Gorgons as well as Nell and the Nosferatu Kyresi, all of whom were checking their armour and preparing to step in if the Drow managed to pierce the defensive lines.

“Tried to collapse the roof,” chuckled Adsila as we stood patiently watching the steady progress.

“I can’t imagine they’re any too happy about any of this,” I replied.

“Yes, the curse of Oonagh,” Adsila replied with a smile.

“Yes, she seems to have the opposite of the Midas touch,” I chuckled.