“Here they come”, shouted Delta. She had been watching the deliberations from the battlements. When the Major drew her bow, she slipped behind a hoarding out of prudence. The shot went wide, but it cost them precious seconds as their line started their sprint towards the keep.

The three guards jumped up, bows ready, and fired off as many shots as they could at the approaching troops. They were well disciplined, though, and the four shields kept their guard high, with the other two crouching below. A few arrows clattered off the shields, but none managed to do any harm.

“Gedeon, keep firing. Keep their heads down”, ordered Delta. “Leonico and Josheba, check if the kettle has boiled. Bring it up and dump it on them. I’ll back up Zipper on the gate, see what they’re up to.”

Delta belted down the stairs, calling encouragement to Gwen as she passed. She hurtled down to the bottom floor and asked, “What’s going on?”

“Hard to say”, said Zipper. There was a rhythmic pounding on the door. “That just started up. I think it’s the dwarf with the axe.” She was bobbing back and forth next to the right hand slit by the door, angling for a view. “I can’t see much from here, but that they’re there and holding their shields up to block the arrows.”

Delta felt the inside of the door. It was sturdy, but it wouldn’t hold out forever against a determined axe. Dwarves were supposed to be experts at this sort of thing, anyway.

Zipper grinned. “Well, now that you’re here, let’s get started.”

Delta looked over and Zipper had arranged some crates and a barrel next to the left slit.

“Arrows aren’t the only thing that can go through an arrow slit”, chortled Zipper. She stepped up on a low box in front of it, quietly and peered through.

Delta followed her lead and got up on the barrels behind her. From this vantage point she could see better. What she saw told her that the four shields were on either side of the door, arms held high forming an arch with their shields over the other two. The dwarf was in the middle, pounding away at the door. She wasn’t quite sure where the Major was.

Zipper saw her opening and lunged suddenly. There was a sharp cry and a howl of indignation from the other side of the slit. Delta caught a brief glimpse of a pale white face behind a helmet peering in with a very angry look on it. Then she brought her glaive down heavy on the helmet and it disappeared. Zipper lunged again, for good measure, but didn’t connect with anything.

There was a curse in a language Delta had never heard before and a large scutum shield slammed over the arrow slit. Zipper lunged at this, but it only pressed it a little bit back. The leverage was on the shield’s side this time.

Zipper motioned quickly to Delta to keep it up. So, Delta did a few thrusts and swings. It didn’t have any greater effect than Zipper, but while she did it, Zipper tip-toed over to the other slit, jumped up, and shot a lunge through it. She was rewarded with a great howl that had to come from one of the orcish troops.

Another shield slammed up against the second slit and Zipper grinned. She poked at it several times to keep it in place, grinning like the cat who ate the canary.

“What have you got planned next?” asked Delta.

“Me?” said Zipper, innocently. “Not a thing. Just stand ready. If our boys upstairs have their heads about them, I expect that they would…”

She didn’t have to finish. There was a large woosh and screams and shouts from the other side of the door. Zipper leaped up and started stabbing at anything that moved. Delta, likewise, took what targets of opportunity she could, while they were in disarray. The zips of arrows indicated that those above were doing likewise. The hacking at the door had stopped.

There were more yelps and barked orders from the Major. There were clunks and shuffles as their immediate targets disappeared from sight. The rate of arrow fire also slackened off. Delta scanned left and right but couldn’t see anything through the slit. She turned to Zipper, but she shrugged as well.

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Delta stepped back and ventured up the stairs enough to get her head up to the second level. Gwen looked over at her from the window. She mimed, with her hands, a small pyramid, and pointed downwards. Delta nodded and went back down.

“Gwen says that they’ve pulled their formation in and made a steeper shield wall.” Tentatively, the hacking on the door started up again.

Zipper shrugged. “It was never going to take them out, only slow them down.” She looked around. “We can stack up more stuff, make it harder for them to get through. The two of us can hold them off on the stairs for a while.”

Delta shook her head. “That just buys more time. It doesn’t win the battle.” She thought furiously. “If we can’t stop them taking the tower, what does that leave us?”

“Not being in the tower”, said Zipper, sarcastically.

Delta looked sidelong at the slit. “They’re going to be pretty busy; we probably could slip down the walls and out.” She looked the other way at the animal stalls. “But without the animals, we couldn’t get far before they caught us.”

“Not to mention getting Johnston down a rope”, said Zipper. She was still craning to see something out the window.

“No”, agreed Delta. “We’d need a hammock or some sort of cradle.” Then she grinned. “Keep an eye on things down here. I’m going to have a word with the boys.”

She stepped up the stairs, lively, and gave a thumb’s up to Gwen and called encouragement to Leonico and Josheba, who were refilling the pot. She came out on the top where Gedeon was peering despondently through the slit, looking for a target for his bow.

“It was a good try”, he said.

“It’s not over yet”, said Delta. He looked up, curious. She lowered her voice. “The last battle I was in with these guys I ended up surrendering and was treated quite well. They even gave me a contract afterwards.”

“You want to surrender?” he asked.

“Not quite”, said Delta. “I’m saying this to you to reassure you. Let’s get everyone together on the main floor.

Then went back down and called up Zipper, quietly.

Zipper shook her head coming up. “They’re chopping again. Lower down. They had to start over though. I thought I might get them under the bottom of the door.” She shook her fingers at the guards. “But your construction is too good. The threshold is too flat.” Gedeon shrugged apologetically.

“Here’s what we’re going to do”, said Delta. She then outlined her plan to them. They thought about it for a short time, and then began to grin.

It took the attackers another forty minutes to break through the door into the first floor. “They’re in” called Gedeon, who was watching through the machicolation.

“That’s our signal”, said Delta. “Go. Go. Go.”

She and Zipper hefted up one of the light, shallow smuggler’s boats they had confiscated and stowed about the tower. A rope had been tied around either side and they lowered it gently down the side of the hoarding. With gentle clicks, Gwen coaxed a nervous Johnston up the side and onto the boat. He cautiously pawed the boat, and with further urging stepped into it, and with another command settled. Gwen stroked him reassuringly between the shoulder blades and nodded.

Delta and Zipper slowly started hand-over-handing the rope, lowering as close to each other as possible. Gedeon looked out over the edge and gave them hand signals to keep it level.

Down below they heard a thump and a crash. There was a banging, and a groaning, and another crash. “Just a little longer”, Delta muttered. But then the rope went slack. “She’s down!” cried Delta. “Go Gedeon! Leonico and Josheba may have piled half the keep on that kitchen table, but those orcs are strong. Go down and sit on it and keep them busy as long as you can.” She grabbed him as he turned to leave. “Don’t take any risks. Surrender when you need to.”

He grinned at her, saluted, and bounded down the stairs.

After first checking where Gwen was, they picked up a few bundles of hastily packed gear and tossed them over the edge. Then they took the ends of the ropes they had lowered the boat with and tied them around their waists.

“I am very much not looking forward to this”, said Zipper. They now leaned out over the hoardings, holding the loose end tightly, and stepped off into space. Cautiously they fed the rope up, hand over hand, lowering themselves down the side of the tower. They both slipped, occasionally, but were able to catch themselves. Their heavy war gloves saved them from getting rope burn. Shaking, and covered with sweat, they made it to the bottom.

They panted to get their breath back. Gwen was ready, next to the skiff, and they all grinned at each other. Soundlessly, they coiled the rope into the boat, added the packs, and Zipper and Delta hefted it up. They started walking it down to the marsh.

Gwen went first, through the darkening light. The sun was below the horizon now. There were the traces of a path here, which were hard to make out. But the wolf was good at finding the more solid ground amidst the swampy ground, and was able to pick it out.

“How long do you think it will take them to work it out?” asked Zipper.

“Long enough, I hope”, said Delta. “The lads were pretty motivated.”

“It’s the most action they’ve seen in… forever”, said Zipper. “And they get to say they fought side by side with Wight’s Brigade!”

There was a popping noise and they turned to see a bright white light zip up from the top of the tower. It hovered high in the air and blinked several times in a specific pattern. It repeated twice, and then went out.

“I guess they worked it out”, said Delta.

“Water”, said Gwen. The ground had ceased to be merely soggy, and pools had opened up. Many of them were connected, and a slow, but definite, trickle streamed between the nearest two.

“Time for a boat trip!” said Zipper.