climbing heavily on the shoulders of fellow warriors to scale the wall in front, some of them, once over the top, falling hard in their exhaustion to the stony pavement below.
Childheart and Starnee were outnumbered by nearly two hundred, but they knew they could endure a while longer if they simply went on the offensive, attacking the enemy forces as soon as they emerged from the slender openings or appeared above the wall. Childheart struck to the left, Starnee to the right, both of them to the front as needed. As soon as a warrior launched himself from one of the side passageways, Childheart gored with his horn or bludgeoned with his hoofs, while Starnee stabbed with his talons and beak. Together they piled up bodies in front of the openings, forcing other warriors in the passageways to push through dead weight to enter the courtyard. And often a Wolfman (or an occasional Unperson) had not even cleared the top of the wall before Starnee or Childheart had killed or disabled him, sending him crashing backwards on top of those trying to scale the wall themselves.
Soon the courtyard became a killing field. Bodies both inert and quivering were everywhere. Starnee and Childheart had eliminated half the enemy forces, and neither one had been significantly injured; but they were slowing, nearly spent, and the warriors were gathering in the courtyard, preparing for a final charge. Within a minute or two dozens of the enemy had surrounded Childheart and Starnee and were about to fall on the two exhausted friends; screeches of vile delight erupted from wagging jaws, and eyes glistened with wicked intent.
Barely able to raise their heads, Starnee and Childheart glanced into one another’s eyes with looks of resignation. They had fought the good fight; but the battle was finished, and the fate of the two friends belonged to their adversaries.
As the enemy tightened the circle and readied their weapons, savoring the moment of capture and imminent torture, Childheart and Starnee glanced at one another as if to say, “I’m sorry I can’t finish you before they do—but maybe we’ve given the girls just enough time.”
And then, just as the Wolfmen and Unpersons were about to fall on Childheart and Starnee, the ground began to shift violently and to rumble deep beneath the surface with a deafening roar. Cracks opened in the earth, splitting the courtyard and separating the enemy ranks. The inner walls of the castle grounds began to shake and sway, and suddenly-loosened stones crashed to the ground and on the heads of the warriors surrounding Childheart and Starnee. Immediately, the enemy forces, already frozen in terror, dropped their weapons and began to scatter. At the same time, the outer wall began to crumble at its foundation, opening up gaps and holes in the wall through which the enemy fled, screaming fear and confusion.
The inner walls encircling Taralina’s castle were disintegrating, and boulders were now falling in large numbers and careening toward Starnee and Childheart in the otherwise vacant courtyard.
“Let’s fly!” shouted Starnee, taking flight up and over what remained of the outer wall; Childheart followed swiftly, jumping the crumbling wall and grazing Starnee with his swirling mane. Childheart, once clear of the falling walls, stopped in a cloud of dust and turned to look back at Taralina’s castle. Starnee pushed against the air, circled toward Childheart, and landed beside him. They watched in silence as both the inner and outer walls of the compound lathered the ground with stones and billowing dust. The two witnesses to the destruction stood stiffly and without speaking until all had become settled and the dust in the air had all but dissipated. To their surprise, the castle was intact; to their dismay, the stairway down which the girls had sped had sunk into a crater, and vast remains of the inner wall were piled deep on top, entombing Elli and Beatríz far below. Childheart and Starnee stood staring and wondering, tears falling.
Once again for the two companions hope faded. It was not entirely extinguished, however, and in that remnant hope they turned back toward the battlefield to the south where they had left their other companions. None of the enemy were anywhere to be seen. Those who had fled Taralina’s compound had scrambled east of the castle and north over the hill and out of sight. Those that had ushered forth from Santanya’s castle had retreated and returned to the compound. A brisk easterly wind brushing down the grasses was the only sound in an otherwise quiet world; bodies of the dead and dying littered the ground for many hundreds of yards, and far to the south smoke trailed from long patches of smoldering grass. Neither Starnee nor Childheart yet spoke; together they scanned the field for evidence of Thorn and Alex and Jamie, but not at all certain at this point that they actually wanted to find any.
“Back to the air,” said Starnee.
“Why don’t you begin the search from the southern edge of the battlefield heading north,” said Childheart, “and I’ll do the opposite.”
Starnee flew slowly over the battlefield, sweeping east to west and back again as he headed gradually north. Childheart, beginning where Starnee had left him, trotted south searching among the bodies of enemy forces scattered about much of the large field between the two castles. They continued their search in this fashion for nearly an hour, neither one spotting anything of interest. They were still a long way from meeting in the middle when all of a sudden Starnee wheeled and landed next to what appeared to be, but Starnee knew instantly was not, a pile of sticks. Starnee poked gently at one of Thorn’s limbs. Seeing no movement, Starnee nudged another limb, and then another, and then put his right eye in front of Thorn’s nose.
Noticing Starnee’s probing movements on the ground, Childheart galloped toward him, jumping over bodies and arriving swiftly. “It’s Thorn!” exclaimed Childheart through the cloud of dust encircling him.
“And he’s still alive, but barely. Let’s get him out of here!” ordered the condor.
Starnee slapped the air with his wings above Thorn, grabbing him with his talons. “Follow me!” he shouted back to Childheart as he shot skyward and bolted toward the brown forest near the western edge of the battlefield. Childheart galloped close behind as his friend headed far into the forest before setting Thorn on the ground and settling next to him. Childheart soon joined them in a clearing just large enough for Starnee to take off from.
“He has a broken leg, but I’m seeing nothing else amiss,” said Starnee as he poked tenderly at Thorn, tipping parts of him one way and then another, as if playing with food on a large plate. “He seems to have lost a lot of blood, though—or whatever it is he has in his veins.”
Childheart was unable to say anything; he just stared at Thorn, pondering the thought that neither Starnee nor he would be able to heal him. Noticing however that the wound had crusted over and was no longer bleeding, Childheart suggested that the bird find some “good water.” Starnee took off and headed straight for the river that flowed around Taralina’s castle to the east. Childheart stood over Thorn and rubbed him with his velvety nose, speaking tenderly to him.
Starnee returned with water, but only after taking what to Childheart seemed an inordinate length of time. “So it was that difficult to find suitable water?” the unicorn said pointedly.
“No. But I had to fly wide of the castle and above the clouds,” Starnee said brusquely, “and got some for you, too.”
Childheart, chagrined at his own petulance, replied apologetically, “Thanks. Yes, I should have thought it would take longer to get.”
“Not a thing, not a thing—as Sticks would say.” Starnee eased some water into Thorn’s mouth and then let Childheart drink from his bill. “No sight of Alex or Jamie—though likely they’re in that castle,” the condor said, pointing his beak toward Santanya’s compound.
“We should get him out of here as soon as possible,” said Childheart, “and I suggest we go back.”
“Go back?” Starnee blurted out. “Back to where—and how?”
“Back to Taralina’s castle. There are going to be few, if any, enemy left, and what’s there we should be able to handle. We’re too exposed here, and it’s not clear what our next move should be anyway. Besides, perhaps we’ll find some food there—and maybe, just maybe, another ‘word’ or sign of some sort from someone or something about what to do next.”
“Let’s wait just a little longer, okay?