First Chapter

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The bombardments continued on the castle walls. In the dining hall, bookcases shook, wooden bowls and cups fell onto the floor. Upstairs in her bed chamber, the vibrations could be felt through Melia's shoes. She lifted her skirts and ran to the window to see if they had already broken through the castle gates.

Melia had seen the foot soldiers led by their captains on horseback up on the hill not an hour earlier. There was a group of people walking after the soldiers, but at that distance, Melia had not been able to tell how many would be archers or mages.
"Dear Lord, how many mages are out there?!" she cried, and then ran to the nursery where little two seven-days old Garigard lay in his bassinette, crying at the strange noises. Shushing at him, Melia wrapped him in his small blanket. With this attack, they will have to escape through the cooking room's hidden passage to where the garden maze met with the back woods.

Hearing a noise and the door opening to the chamber, Melia spun around to find her husband, James Kirton, looking to find her and the baby. He had his bow over his shoulder, but several arrows were missing from his quiver. He also had his sword strapped on. At least it wasn't drawn out-yet.

"Melia, we need to get out of here, and quickly! Go through the garden before they break through!" James hurried to the bed chamber and began grabbing cloaks, bags, and more arrows from the satchel near the door.

"James, what about Charles and Madge?" she asked, looking out the window. "And how many mages are out there?" she continued as she put a cloak over herself and picked up the baby.

She could not leave without her sister and brother-in-law, even though Madge had just lost her own little baby boy not one seven-day ago. They had come here only a moon before her baby was due, leaving their own farmhouse across the three valleys and mountains many miles away. Madge will just have to travel with Charles' help. But if the mages that were attacking were too powerful, both she and James could add to the fight to keep them out.
"Charles is putting Madge into a cart as we speak," said James as he moved to the door. "We're to meet them at the garden gate. As to the mages, I could see two witches and one wizard. But they are a very strong group. Also, at least two companies of foot soldiers." Melia gasped at this news as she moved to join him.

"Four hundred soldiers!" cried Melia. Could this just be a conquest for a castle? Or was there more to it than could be seen? How could their farmers and trade smiths, trained to be their own small company, hold off all of them?

"We don't want our things going to any invader!" Melia said to herself grabbing a crystal from the dresser. James looked at what she was doing.
"What can you do to prevent that?" he asked.
"Take everything I can," was her determined answer. Melia looked at her four poster canopied bed with netting. Her eyes glittered in anger as she nodded her head.
"Yes! They can take over an empty castle!"

With that, she said some magic words in a spell and changed the entire bed into a mist. Waving her hand towards her, she directed the mist over the crystal in her other outstretched hand, then let the mist drop into the crystal.
"No one will get our family's jewels!" Melia said as she turned to the dresser. James held up his hand.
"Wait!" he said as he took off a ring from his hand. "We need to keep this safe as well." The ring with the family crest of the dragon and a G was set in the middle of the dresser faced carefully outward to be viewed from the front.
"Now you can do it," he said to Melia.

Again, she said the spell and turned the dresser with the jeweled necklaces and rings on it into mist, pulling the mist with her hands to the crystal and dropped it in, too.
"James, come hold the baby a moment while I get this!" Melia held out little Garigard to James after he set down his bow. As he watched, she turned the baby bassinette into mist and added it to the crystal. Turning back to James, Melia put the crystal in her cloak and took the baby from James.

"Can you do that to all our belongings?" James asked.
"As long as I have time," Melia answered. "But let's be quick about it!"

They both ran down the stairs and through the halls as fast as they could, Melia holding her precious bundle, James with the cloaks and bags. Going into the cooking room, James began stuffing the bags with bread, cheese, a Bota sac with water, one with goat's milk, and jerked venison. That will have to do for now.

While James was doing the food, Melia went through the storage shelf for a bag of crystals, taking them out to use. If they were to lose the castle and everything in it, she wanted to make sure her son had the things that would connect him with his heritage. Holding the baby with one arm, Melia took another empty crystal from her cloak pocket. She turned to the dining table and chairs, said the spell, watched them turn to mist, and directed them into the new crystal.

Turning to the left, she did the same to the bookcases and china cupboard. Melia watched as the special pewter dragon goblets with the family crest, the fine china and platters made from fired clay turned into mist with the cupboard and dropped into the crystal. Above the man-sized mantle of the fireplace, Melia turned the family-crested shield and swords made many generations ago into mist and added them to the crystal, as well. Garigard would need them later, as was his destiny. When she was done, James was waiting for her at the back of the pantry.

"There. That's the dining room," Melia stated, going through the doorway to join James. He pulled the pantry case forward and pushed on the brick wall revealing a hidden doorway.
Melia continued to add more things into the crystals from the large cooking room. The great pots and pans used to cook for twenty people or more at a time, storage boxes with potatoes, and sacks full of grain. These things could never be carried out by just the two of them. That was why the crystals helped so much. And this way, no invader would be fed on their food stores at all!

Stuffing each filled crystal in the bag with the others, Melia reached for another new crystal in her cloak. An explosion could be heard in the distance, somewhere at the place of the gates. Melia saw James waving his arm for her to hurry to him.
"We need our carved chairs!" cried Melia, thinking of the large dragon-carved wooden chairs in the Great Hall. The loyal carpenters of the village had made the pair especially for them. She did not want to leave them!
"No time!" James countered. "We have to get out of here now!"
"James," Melia argued, "it will be important for our son to have when he is old enough to lead our people!" She pleaded with her eyes at James, but another loud explosion and cries of pain from dying soldiers could be heard in the distance.
"I have to get you to safety first!" shouted James pulling her to the hidden door.

As they passed through, James then pulled the pantry case and pushed the brick door closed behind them. Down a few steps and into a passage, they made their way to the garden gate where Charles and Madge Thompson were waiting for them.
"Madge and Charles will be able to get you to safety and I will try to get back to have the chairs hidden, or something!" Melia heard him behind her as they reached the passage exit. Before stepping out in the mid morning sunlight, Melia's arm was gripped and pulled back. She had to stop so she would not drop the baby or the crystals.
"Wait! Let me check first!" James said as he looked beyond the exit. There, several feet away stood a one-horse cart with Charles sitting at the driver's seat. Madge was half lying on hay for some sort of cushioning against what might become a rough ride.
"James, we need to go back and help our people! Please!" begged Melia.

James stared wide-eyed at her. Melia could see his first concern was for her and the baby. Why would she want to fight three strong mages? Could she? But Melia was a headstrong, willful witch of pretty good strength. James only had a small ability, but added to hers, would it do any good without Charles and Madge's help? Had her younger sister been in better health, the four of them could defend themselves fairly well against the three that were attacking now.

Melia wondered if that was exactly why they were being attacked at this time. Did they know that the husbands would have to protect their weakened wives, and that they might not be able to defend the castle? As Melia and James ran to the cart, another explosion and cries of terror could be heard more clearly now that they were outside.
"James, we have to go back!" cried Melia again. "We have to help them!"

James was undecided in his own personal conflict. Melia could see he wanted her and the baby sent to safety, but she was the one with the magic power. But would she be strong enough to fight the three mages that were bombarding the gates? She was still weakened by having the crystals absorb her powers while giving birth to the baby. James heaved a sigh and nodded his head to her. Having been a duke in name, but friend and farmer alongside the people of this shire, James, himself, did not want to leave without lending his own hand. Urging them to hurry, Charles was pointing for Melia to join Madge in the back.
"Madge, take the baby," Melia said as she handed little Garig to her. She put the bags from James alongside Madge which took up the rest of the room in the cart. Madge looked at her in alarm.

"Melia, you're not leaving any room for yourself!" Madge exclaimed, making sure the baby was covered with his little blanket. Melia hugged her and gave the baby a kiss on his head.
"We have to help our people, Madge," she said as she placed the bag of crystals in Madge's free hand. "Make sure Garigard knows this is all his when he grows up, Madge." Madge placed the bag by her side and reached out to Melia's hand.
"Please, Melia," Madge cried, "Come with me!"

Melia could see Madge did not want her to stay in such danger. Being the older sister, Melia had always taken care of Madge as a little girl. Melia was always the one to take care of things when needed, protected Madge when she needed protecting. It had been amazing that they had been pregnant at the same time. Melia gave birth to Garigard two seven-days ago, but Madge had been having problems. Even now, barely a seven-day from giving birth, Madge was not well yet and had stayed on at their castle. The baby had died anyway. Melia knew Madge was hoping there were enough soldiers in the castle to stop these invaders while they got away.

"We're going back. They need our help, Madge!" Melia said again as she placed a hand on the bag with crystals. Madge continued to protest.
"Madge, listen to me, please!" Melia held her younger sister's hand as she tried to explain. "I have seen Garigard grow in my dreams. He will be an extraordinary mage when he grows up, but he has to grow up! Please see that he does, Madge!"
"Don't talk like that, Melia!" begged Madge.

Melia extracted her hands from Madge's as James was waving Charles to get going. James was reaching for Melia's shoulders. Melia looked up at him, knowing they had to move.
"We need to go," James whispered harshly to Melia's ear. As much as James loved her and his sister-in-law, Melia knew he also loved his castle and the people that had come here after retiring from soldiering to be farmers-soldiers that he had commanded! Melia felt she needed to help these people as much as he did. James was an excellent shot with the bow and his training with the sword was not too bad, but his magic was much lower in strength than hers. Was it enough?

"I love you, Madge!" shouted Melia behind her as they turned to run back to the passage exit and the castle from whence they came. Melia did not have to worry about Madge as long as Charles could take care of her. And now, she had to find more crystals!
"We will meet you at your farmhouse, but don't wait for us!" James shouted to Charles. "And get hold of Melia's grandfather, let him know what is going on!"
"Ha!" shouted Charles as he snapped the reins. The horse started forward down the garden path at a fast clip. As they pulled away, he heard more load explosions and cries of pain as James and Melia disappeared through the secret passage. Charles dearly wanted to help them, but his own wife was not well enough to fight, let alone stand. With a fearful heart, Charles urged the horse faster. Charles wondered if he would ever see them again. He could hear Madge calling to Melia one last time.