Page 8 of From the Ashes
"So I saw," I said heavily. "Oh, Sir Geoffrey, I'm sorry."
He squared his shoulders, causing his chain mail to ripple. "I heard their commander give orders for the battering ram to be fetched. They'll be inside the keep soon."
"I can't believe it," I muttered, finally digesting what my eyes had seen moments before. Those soldiers were real. Their weapons were real. We'd been thrust into a medieval battle.
Medieval warfare was a bloody, brutal business.
Sir Geoffrey tried to touch my shoulder, but his hand went straight through. He stared at it, as if he'd forgotten he was a spirit. "You must prepare yourself and the other maidens for the worst."
"What do you think the worst will entail?"
The look he gave me was filled with bleak horror. "The French have no morals."
I swallowed. "Alice is our only hope now. I'll try to wake her."
"What can she do?" he called after me as I raced back down the narrow, curving stairs.
"I'll explain later." If it worked.
I almost propelled into Meredith, heading in the opposite direction. I caught her shoulders and steadied her. "Well?" I pressed. "Did you wake Alice?"
The huge dark pools of her eyes filled with fear and sickening horror. She shook her head. "Charlie…" Her voice trembled. "Charlie, she's gone. I can't find Alice."
Chapter 3
"What doyou mean she's gone?" I shouted at Meredith. "She can't be gone! She was asleep." And if she woke, wouldn't the army disappear?
"I can't find her." Tears streamed down Meredith's face. She hugged herself, and looked as skittish as a kitten.
The thick walls of the castle blocked the sounds of the army's preparations and Sir Geoffrey's barked commands. I could no longer hear screaming. It felt as if Meredith and I were the only two people alive.
"Have you searched the castle?" I asked. "She must be somewhere."
"I performed a quick search, but not all of the school is accessible anymore. The boulders flung by the catapult damaged some of the walls, and I was too afraid to go onto the towers."
"Is anyone hurt?"
"I don't think so. Some are hiding in the dungeon, thinking that's the safest place."
If we can't leave, it may well be, but it could also act as a trap. "Well done, Meredith, but now you must help me find Alice."
"Why?"
"She's the key to this."
Her tears stopped. She blinked at me. "You're not going to hand her over to them, are you?"
"No! I can't explain it, but I think if she wakes from her dream, the army will disappear."
Her brow creased. "That's nonsensical."
"There are a great many things in this world that don't make sense, Meredith, but I've discovered that it doesn't make them any less real. Take Sir Geoffrey." I glanced back up the staircase where I'd last seen him.
"Yes," she whispered, wiping her cheeks. "You're right. We'll find her."
I gave her a quick hug. Trembles wracked her, but at least she'd stopped crying. "We'll enlist the help of as many girls as we can. Alice must be here somewhere, either sleepwalking or in a trance."
A thud from below stopped us both short. Meredith grasped my hand hard. "What was that?"
