Which meant this battle had to be fought.
And I could see, from the hard faces all around me, that all my peasant men had just such memories to spur them on - many, I suspected, worse than mine.
Then, suddenly, the walls of the castle were before us, and the drawbridge was rising. The walls above bristled with the home guard's pikes, and I knew crossbows were being leveled at us. Worse, I knew that the army we'd broken through was on its way to take us in the rear. We had to get into that castle, and get in fast. I had to kill Suettay before her army caught us.
"Gremlin!" I shouted.
He was there suddenly, obscene and chuckling. "Fear not, Master Saul. I have rusted the locks of the crossbows; I have blunted the heads of the arrows. The mortar that holds that wall together is parched and crumbling, and the great windlass that hauls the drawbridge chain is crumbling, even as we speak, of dry rot." Then he was gone, and my peasants started recovering their nerve. I locked my knees to keep them from collapsing and reflected that, occasionally, it's nice to have the Spirit of Snafu around - if he's on your side.
I heard a distant crack. The drawbridge halted its upward rise, poised, then came thundering back down.
My army cheered and charged into the gatehouse tunnel. The first dozen rammed scythe blades into the arrow slits. Screams echoed in the tunnel behind, and we streamed through into the courtyard with only a few arrows striking my men.
There, we met Suettay's army, drawn up and waiting. My men bellowed with joy - at last, a chance to strike out at their oppressors. They plowed into the army, and in seconds it had turned into a melee of individual combat. Military discipline didn't amount to much in that churning mob - and the plowboys turned out to be just as expert with their scythes as any soldier with a halberd. Frisson's hand bit into my shoulder. "We dare not tarry, Master Saul! Valiant though they are, these peasants will be torn to bits, especially when the outer army finds them!"
"Right! We've got to hit their central Power source!"
Frisson frowned. "You speak of Suettay?"
"Yeah! She's in there somewhere! But how do we get to her?"
Air shimmered, and the Rat Raiser appeared before us. He became solid and stumbled, reaching out to catch my arm, steadied himself, and looked up, a bit wild-eyed. "The king has sent me to take you to the witch!"
"Good idea!" I turned back to Frisson. "Change us all to rats!"
"But ... but how are we to-"
"Never mind; let me try!
Sudden pains wracked me - Burns' revenge, no doubt. My vision blurred, and I had a dim sight of things growing larger and larger about me. Then, suddenly, the world stabilized, and there were huge feet thundering toward me. I shouted with alarm, and raced for the wall ... only it came out as a squeak, and I was running on all fours. Running pretty well, too - but I wasn't thinking very clearly. I was only aware of my frantic fear.
Then I was up against the wall, and I turned at bay, terror churning into savagery - but none of the huge feet were anywhere near. Instead, I saw a bunch of giants duking it out, cutting each other up with huge knives. It didn't make much sense to me, so I put it out of my mind; all that mattered was getting to the evil queen, who had sicced all those cats on us.
Cats?
I looked around, fear of felines stabbing through my entrails. I relaxed with relief-there were no cats in sight, nor even their terrible reek.
Reek?
Now that I had a few seconds respite, I realized that I was wrapped in a world of aromas. For a minute, I was wrapt indeed, spellbound at the richness and variety of the environment: horse's sweat, men's sweat, fear scent and battle scent-and under them all, the huge catalog of ordinary, everyday aromas: this morning's breakfast, porridge and sausage and river fish; last night's dinner, roast mutton and black bread; dung and lilacs and birds and more, more and more. I was dazzled, frozen, entranced ...
... until I recognized the scent of dogs.
Dogs! Dogs chased rats! I was tense with fright in an instant. I looked around me frantically - but I didn't see any dogs, and I realized the smell was coming from far away, so I started to relax. Until I noticed the two huge rats a few feet away. I whipped about, turning to run-and saw something long and hairless. I froze, realizing that it was part of me. I had a tail!
Then I remembered: I was a rat. Why, I wasn't sure, but that made it okay to be with other rats. I turned back, and saw one of the other rats just doing the same thing, only he was quivering. His coat was dark brown, and he was smaller than the other one, who was huge, as rats go - I guess. He was also mangy and moth-eaten and scarred, with patches of fur missing. He was looking at the two of us with definite contempt.
Suddenly, there was a huge din at the gate. I whirled, heart beating a mile a minute - and there, high as a mountain, came riding a knight in black armor, and beside him, a knight who had a sword in one hand and a stick in the other, mounted on a dragon, an authentic, actual, fire-breathing dragon! I squealed in terror and huddled back against the wall.
Then, behind the two knights, came a knight with long golden hair and a golden circlet around her helmet. Behind her, soldiers and knights boiled through the gate.
The dragon roared, bellowing a thirty-foot tongue of flame. Enemy soldiers howled with pain and turned to run. The knights rode after them, chopping wherever a soldier or enemy knight turned to fight, and the footmen pounded after them, spreading out and rolling up Suettay's soldiers.
None of it made sense to me, though - I just cowered, looking frantically for a hole to hide in. After all, I had no more brain than a rat.
A stinging blow jolted me out of it, and I turned, instantly angry - to see the big, mangy rat slapping the smaller brown rat. Then he whirled back to me, baring his teeth. I hesitated and, when the big rat saw he had our attention, he squeaked, "Follow!" and turned to scamper away down the nearest drain.
I followed, numb with the realization that I had understood his word; he was still speaking human language - and I could still comprehend it.
The drain led into a sewer. We scampered through increasing darkness, lit occasionally by another drain. Then it grew almost pitch-black, but I was surprised to see that I could dimly make out the form in front of me. I remembered there was supposed to be an other one, and glanced back. Sure enough, the brown rat was still following. Then the tunnel opened out, and we were in a sort of round chain her with other tunnels opening off it. The big rat in front of me was squeaking up a storm. I edged to the side, so I could see around him, and realized that he was facing three other rats, almost as mangy and unkempt as he was-and smelling to high heaven! They regarded us with eyes that were definitely unfriendly, but that turned almost worshipful as they turned back to the big rat in front of us. They squeaked something that must have been assent, because they took off and led the way into one of the tunnels, single file, and the large rat followed them.
We followed him. After all, there wasn't much choice. I found out later that, while we were creeping through the sewers, the good guys were conquering the capital. Behind them, the citizenry broke loose in celebration - turns out there weren't very many of them who'd been happy with the sorceress' rule. In fact, most of them had lived in fear and trembling, and there were very few who hadn't suffered from her depredations in one way or another.