Doctor Who_ Cats Cradle_ Witch Mark - Andrew Hunt [108]
The Sidhe, unfamiliar to Dryfid, gave a curt nod. Carreg, the Fomoir, grunted gutterally in affirmation.
‘Then return to your leaders and prepare them for entry again to Dinorben. We must make haste.
Farewell Dryfid, may we meet again shortly.' They clasped hands momentarily and the then parted.
Dryfid returned to the expectant crowd. ‘We all want peace,’ he told them, ‘but the demons aim to attack Dinorben. We must allow the armies of our friends to enter the enclosure so that we may defend ourselves. I, Dryfid, have given my agreement to this plan. Now, back to your posts and prepare for battle!’
Jack and David were carried back inside Dinorben with the mass of people. They had lost Stevens and had no idea what was going on.
'What do you think David! Should we try and get back to the stone circle?'
'Where's Ace?' David asked.
'What? I don't know.'
‘I didn't see her down there. I think we ought to look for her.’
'David!' Jack waved a hand in front of David’s eyes. ‘David! How long have you known the girl?
You're already chasing after her!’
'Come on. I think she must still be inside the castle.’
'Jack!’ a voice called. Jack looked around and saw Stevens waving to them from the far side of the crowd. ‘Where are you going?'
'David's got some idea into his head about looking for Ace. I…'
'Good idea. You try and find her. She’s one of the few people who'll be able to explain all this to us.’
Jack shook his head 'Bunch of crazies;' he said to himself as he hurried after David.
Just as the return of the sun had melted the unwilling enmity between the humans and the non-humans of Tír na n-Óg, so it melted the snow which had settled over the ground over the last few days The earth was churned up into a morass of mud by the hurried preparations to enter Dinorben. Even inside Dinorben, where conditions were already overcrowded, there was a movement of tents further towards the back of the enclosure.
The Fomoir, their limbs already stiffening as their minds reacted to the appearance, near its zenith, of Dagda's Wheel, were first to enter. Some stragglers only just made it into the valley and had to be carried on carts away from where they blocked the entrance tunnel. The Sidhe came in next and swarmed up on to the wall and prepared their weapons for combat. Finally the Firbolg rode in and gathered around the tunnel - they were unable to man the defences on the wall and would provide a shield should the demons break through the gate.
With everyone inside the gates were swung shut. Dryfid was worried that there might be some ill feeling, but the threat of an attack seemed to have staved off any of the immediate repercussions of the siege.
Stevens eased himself on to the top of the wall just as the first call went up that a demon had been sighted. He was far too exhausted after going up and down so many flights of stairs and merely collapsed in a quivering, sweaty heap against a convenient wall of grey rock. But his interest was piqued by everything that had been going on around him and his curiosity forced him to rise so that he could get a glimpse of this ferocious opponent. At the moment it was just a speck on the plain of slushy ground, but it was being joined by more and more of its fellows. Stevens cursed the fact that his binoculars were back in his car and strained his eyes to try and pick out some detail. One of the Sidhe bustled past him clutching a bundle of arrows under each arm; further along the wall a mangonel was being prepared for action and on the lower level a vat of oil was having fires stoked underneath it.
Captain Rhys emerged from the entrance to the interior of the wall, saw Stevens and came over to him.
'What are you doing up here?' he asked.
'Everybody seemed to have lost interest in myself and my friends, so I just followed the flow.'
'You should get below. We don't need bystanders to hinder operations up here. '
'I'd rather stay and