Judd half fell in his haste to rise as the bell resounded loudly. He couldn’t work out where he was or why he was sitting up to sleep. Frozen like a momentary statue in panic, his eyes caught Verne’s who looked at him…then they both looked at the empty bed. Judd swore and bolted out of the room, Verne following, nearly running into Suvau who was in the kitchen with Yolana, hastily dressed.

  “She’s gone!” Judd blurted.

  “Gone?” Suvau gaped then they were silent as the bell sounded again. “Monster attack…”

  “What do we do?” Verne demanded of Judd who paused, swallowing.

  “What’s going on?” Giordi appeared in the doorway.

  “Giordi, go down to the village. See if you can find Aalis!”

  “She’s gone?” Giordi rolled his eyes, pulling on his boots as he stumbled towards the door. “Of course she’s gone. Why ask, you stupid minstrel!”

  “Be careful! Monsters are attacking and we don’t know if they’ve breached the walls!” Judd yelled after him.

  “If we go to the wall, we’ll find out where the monsters are and have a better view.” Suvau opened the door. “Follow me and don’t forget your sword!”

  “Yolana, stay here and if she comes back…”

  “I’ll keep her safe.” Yolana promised. “Go!”

  Judd and Verne sprinted after Suvau whose long stride carried him further and faster than they could match, up to the gates of the fort even as the clamour from below told them the villagers were surging back towards the gates. Soldiers were yelling at people to run and Judd spared a brief glance down, watching as the soldiers, regardless whether anyone was still outside the village gates, closed them tightly. He couldn’t pick Giordi or Aalis from the seething masses as they darted for their homes.

  “Judd, come on!”

  Judd followed Suvau across the fort to the wing that acted as a barracks for the soldiers who were scrambling to be ready. As they ran they heard their names called.

  “Caste, what are you doing here?”

  “Emeri and I were in the library.”

  “You’d better come with us.”

  “What?”

  “We need another pair of eyes,” Judd explained as they ran through the armoury for the door at the end, following the soldiers who were taking the steps two by two, darting to the top of the wall, “Aalis took off while we were asleep.”

  “She could be anywhere!”

  “We know!”

  Judd clambered to the top of the wall and gasped in horror at the sight of the mount of Maul, crackling with a rage that didn’t seem possible for a mountain. He spied Sir Fereak barking orders to his soldiers, the entirety of Fort Omra’s troops lining the wall.

  “Sir Fereak!”

  “LaMogre…you shouldn’t be here.” Sir Fereak snapped at him. “Regardless of your previous victories…we have a situation! Heim! Get the archers up here now!”

  “Yes sir!”

  Judd turned to Verne and Suvau and gestured at them to search the ground on the north side of the wall. Then he returned to Sir Fereak.

  “I offer my blade, sir and my cleric’s wisdom.”

  “You’re doing what?” Caste’s protestation was lost in a groan that shook the earth. Soldiers shouted and pointed. Judd grasped the wall and leaned, looking at the cracked earth of Maul. It was splintering anew, cracks forming and others collapsing entirely.

  Sir Fereak swore. “The mountain has given birth to something and by the looks of it, it’s bigger than a goblin horde…”

  Caste pinched Judd’s arm. “I really think that I should go elsewhere…”

  “Judd, I found her!” Verne dragged Judd to the other side of the wall and pointed. “There!”

  Judd’s eyes narrowed, spying Aalis standing in the deserted fields. She wasn’t doing anything. Not running or walking or hiding. Just standing, staring at the wall…or perhaps staring at what was beyond it.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  “What’s wrong with her?”

  “Maybe she’s been knocked senseless by what happened at the lake?”

  Judd groaned. “She’s out in the open and they’ve shut the village gates.”

  “Yes…but at least the monster is on the south side of the wall.”

  “Monster sighted!”

  Judd ran back to the other side, Verne and Suvau darting with him. They pressed between the shoulders of the soldiers, seeing the earth convulse as something large tunnelled beneath it, surging upwards, shaking apart then settling as whatever it was continued towards the wall.

  “A lot bigger than a goblin horde…” Judd’s spine trembled. “Will it tunnel beneath the wall?”

  “Archers, take positions!” Sir Fereak bellowed. “Make space for the archers!”

  Judd got out of Verne’s way who had grabbed his bow and arrows before leaving the house. Already an arrow was nestled in the cradle, his fingers cupping the shaft tightly, drawing the bowstring back tightly. Blue eyes, sharp and focussed, followed the tunnelling earth…

  …until it disappeared.

  Captain Heim began to swear mightily. “It’s tunnelling under the wall. To the north side!”

  Judd went to run but Verne grabbed his arm and kept him to the south side.

  “Verne?”

  “I don’t think it’s tunnelling under…” Verne’s blue eyes stayed on the ground.

  Even through the enormity of stone between himself and the ground, Judd could feel the ground trembling. He and Verne leaned over, seeing the loose stones dance about, lost arrows scattering…

  Judd grasped the hilt of his sword, his stomach twisting into knots…

  And for a long, terrifying moment, the world was alarmingly still…

  …then the ground erupted on the south side of the wall and a black serpent shot into the air, a blue forked tongue hissing out of its head which was the size of the giant blocks of stone cut from the quarry at Quarre.

  “Snake!” Judd cried, stumbling backwards. “Big snake!”

  “Big!” Caste screeched as they leapt aside, the serpent’s head darting towards them, fangs as long as Judd’s new sword narrowly missing impaling them, grabbing a soldier who wasn’t fast enough on his feet. He was flung into the air, his body crumpling on the Maul side of the wall, lifeless and irretrievable.

  Judd couldn’t take his eyes from it for a moment knowing that it could easily have been him.

  “Get down!” Suvau roared as the serpent darted forward for its next victim.

  Judd rolled out of the way, turned and brought his sword down.

  It wasn’t long enough to completely sever the serpent’s head but it was at least three quarters of the way through. Green blood gushed from it as it thrashed and spasmed, tipping back over the wall and falling to the ground. Judd, splattered with green, lunged for the wall and leaned over, seeing the serpent neck sink into the earth, its dismembered head, torn completely from its body in its frantic flight, rolled down the slope and fell into a crevice.

  Judd gave a little laugh, trying to cover the nausea he was feeling.

  “Well done, LaMogre…” Sir Fereak said, putting his hand on Judd’s shoulder as his soldiers reapproached the south side of the wall. “For a moment I thought we had a real…”

  The earth split open again with a mighty roar and this time, not one but two heads appeared on long necks, slightly smaller than the first but no less swift in their attack and enraged at Judd’s initial success. One of the heads lunged for Judd who flung himself to the ground.

  “Fereak!” He cried, realising too late that the knight had been standing next to him and had missed the imminent attack because of his blinded eye.

  Captain Heim threw himself at Sir Fereak, knocking him out of the way. He screamed as the teeth of the serpent sank deep into his body, piercing his armour as if it wasn’t hardened steel. Judd scrambled frantically, lunging for him but Heim was dragged off the wall, still screaming and kicking. The head threw him up into the air, its fangs opened wide but the second head beat it to it, Heim’s howls of terror and pain silenced. The first head hissed and grabbed Heim’s legs. There was a terrible moment where they fought each other before the body was torn apart.

  “Wil Heim!” Sir Fereak’s howl was agonised and terrible.

  “Sir! What do we do?!” The soldiers cried but Fereak was unable to answer, watching the serpent devour the body of his captain.

  Judd kept his eyes on one head, dodging and ducking, trying to keep out of its way.

  “Look out!” Suvau grabbed Judd and pushed him down as the second head, which Judd hadn’t seen coming, nearly bit him in two. Suvau launched himself upright and, using a discarded sword from a fallen soldier, brought the blade up, severing the head.

  The serpent threw itself backwards, the single head remaining screeching abominations of Maul in fury over its severed counterpart, convulsed and then to their horror, two heads, slightly smaller again than the previous ones, erupted from the bloody green stump, snarling and snapping and ready to make the humans pay for its predecessor’s demise.

  Judd cowered against the edge of the wall. The serpent’s heads continued to dart and snap at the soldiers who were either running or attempting to drive the serpent back. Sir Fereak was giving orders, trying to rally the soldiers back into formation but he was shaken and pale.

  “What in Maul is it?!”

  “Know your monsters!” Caste roared. “It’s a hydra!”

  “Hydra?” Judd pushed his hands through his hair. “I only know about the monsters I’m supposed to kill. I don’t know anything about hydras or how to kill them!”

  “Oh, well maybe the first thing you should do is…NOT CUT OFF ITS HEADS!” Caste brandished his usually calm, cleric fists at Judd. “For every one you cut off, two grow back!” They heard a terrible squelching sound and saw a partially severed head dangling near the trebuchet. With fiendish coldness, the hydra, using its own fangs, tore the head from its body, allowing two new heads to appear. “You see!”

  “Thanks for the lecture, Caste,” Verne groused, “but how in Maul do we kill it?”

  “You’ve got to cut its heart out which would have been easier when there was only one head!”

  The wall shuddered and Judd, Suvau, Caste and Verne clung to the stone as two huge foreclaws grasped the top of the rampart, dragging the body of the hydra up onto the wall.

  “Now!” Verne hissed as the black body of the hydra was draped over the two edges of the wall.

  Judd scrambled beneath and tried to stab upwards but he couldn’t get his sword out in such a small space and was tumbled over and over like his first dunking under a brutal wave at the beach, colliding with the north side of the ramparts, the hydra hauling itself over the wall and dropping onto the fields on the other side.

  “Damn it!” Judd sword. “I was so close!”

  “It’s heading straight for where Aalis was!” Verne gasped.

  Judd closed his eyes for a brief second. “Aalis…tell me you’ve run.”