It was not a big castle, and fortunately, it was not surrounded by a moat. But the walls were stout and there were an awful lot of torches and forms moving up there.
" — a frontal assault, to occupy him and keep him from spreading out to conquer the city and the Kingdom," Alexander was saying, when she turned her attention back to him. "Do not spend yourselves needlessly; it is a holding action that we need. Help is coming from Kohlstania! My father would never permit his son to languish a prisoner! More help is coming, in the form of magical allies, brought to our aid by the Godmothers themselves!"
Your father would never permit an evil magician to set up shop in the neighboring Kingdom, you mean! she thought, with some irony. This was, in fact, King Henrick's worst nightmare come to pass, the very thing he had hoped to prevent by sending all three of his sons to the Glass Mountain. And I only hope that the other Godmothers do respond....
"And what are you doing, while we're doing this?" asked that same troublemaker, dubiously.
Alexander drew himself up, and — yes, there was no doubt of it. His armor began glowing as he took on the full aspect of a Champion. "I," he said, with great dignity, "will be fighting the Evil Mage in challenge combat. Alone."
"All right," Alexander said urgently to her, as the little army organized itself around its few surviving officers, and prepared to make that frontal assault on the gate. "Time for you to go. Find Julian, get him out, and send him around to the front as soon as you hear the fighting start. Then go to the aid of the Princess when you hear the trumpet sound for my challenge."
She nodded, a great lump arising in her throat, rendering her speechless. He was going through with this, and unless she could find the Evil Magician's heart — he could be killed.
"And Elena — " he paused, and his voice lost that quality of "Champion" so that it sounded like nothing more than "Alexander" " — I want to know. I have to know."
"What?" she asked, thickly, expecting some dreadful question about her own guilt in this mess. But she would answer him truthfully if he asked. She owed him nothing less than the truth.
"Will you consent to marry me?"
She felt as if something had slapped her across the helm so that her head was ringing. She heard her own voice say, joyfully, "Yes!" before her head had formulated an answer.
"Good. That's all I needed to know." He grinned at her, and closed his helm down over his face. Before she could say anything else, he had lifted her into Sergei's saddle, and the little horse was off like a shot.
She sawed at Sergei's reins, trying to bring him back around, but the little horse was having none of it. "Godmother, we have a job to do," Sergei said, acidly, the bit clamped between his teeth. "Are you going to put all of it to naught?"
She let go the reins, but her heart wanted to be back there, with him, demanding to know just what he had intended with that question —
Except, of course, he was not actually going to be there; by now he was at the forefront of the army, on Nightsong, making himself visible as the attack began, before he and Nightsong flew over the gate and into the forecourt to challenge the Sorcerer. The Evil One would have to answer; The Tradition would force him into it. Never had Elena ever heard of a Challenge going unanswered.
Sergei's night vision was better than hers was; he spotted the dungeon window in the shadows and plunged down towards it like an owl on a mouse. Stancia had been a good king, as had all of his ancestors; his dungeons might be stout, but they were not lightless nor airless. They had heavily barred windows in their walls that were just about at ground level on the outside — oh, twenty feet above the floor on the inside, of course, but still, windows. It would take magic and cunning to use them for an escape, but magic and cunning Elena had, she hoped, in abundance.
At just that moment, the attack on the front gate began.
There was a roar, and the sound of weapons and a battering-ram hitting the front gate. Virtually every torch on the walls skittered in that direction, and there was more than enough noise to cover anything that Elena was about to do.
Elena slid from Sergei's back, and ran from dungeon window to window, whispering urgently, until she found the one letting into the great room where Stancia's guards, remaining nobles, and Julian were imprisoned. They were, thank heavens, sensible; they did not shout at her whisper, and in fact, she was able to talk to Julian himself.
"Who are you?" he called up.
"The old woman in the forest," she whispered back. "I gave you the gift to speak with animals; I advised you not to be so generous in the matter of your food, sir, if you'll recall!"
"Only that woman knew this," he replied, sounding out of breath. "I believe you, lady! Have you come to succor us?"
"I have. Are you hurt?"
"A bad slash to my shield-arm, but I am alive, and afire to get out," came the whisper up out of the darkness. That was all she needed to know.
Time for a little more magic.
"Give me but a moment, Majesty, and you will be leading your men again!"
She hitched Sergei to the bars of the grate, took out her wand, and ran a trickle of magic along the perimeter, chanting under her breath, giving the magic form and purpose. "Time erodes all that is made. Weakens iron and crumbles stone. Undermines all that is laid. Time is lord and time alone." This spell should have the effect of accelerating the hand of time there, and weakening both the bolts and the cement. "Pull!" she whispered to the little horse, who threw himself against the ropes.
Nothing. She ran another trickle around, repeating her incantation. Sergei pulled again, and this time the entire grate came free with a groan —
It would have landed with a clatter, but she caught it before it fell, and lowered it to the ground. She stole a quick glance up at the walls, but so no sign of movement. No one had seen them yet. Perhaps, with luck, there was no one there to watch.
She put her wand away, took the coil of knotted rope from Sergei's saddle, and tied it to the grate that had just been pulled free. She tossed it down through the empty window-frame.
"Climb up!" she cried, and the rope tightened at once. With the little horse bracing against the weight of the men clambering up the rope, the first two, least-injured, came popping out of the window. These two first pulled up anyone who was too injured to climb unaided — Julian was the first — or added their weight and strength to Sergei's. When all of them were out, she cut Sergei free and distributed her remaining magical weapons.
She didn't have to tell them what to do, for the noise of the fighting drew them as soon as they got weapons in their hands. She caught at Julian before he could lead them into the fray.
"Your brother Alexander has rallied the army — " she began.
Julian groaned. "Those poor old men? I — "
"Never mind that; they're just a distraction, but they will still fight better with their King beside them," she interrupted. "More help is on the way, from Kohlstania and other places. If a giant appears, don't attack him, he's on your side, and there may be other beasts coming who will tell you they come from me. They may get here before dawn, in fact. Princess Kylia — "