The Silver Dwarf (Royal Institute of Magic, Book 4) (7 page)

“Go!” William said.

Fuelled by an almost overwhelming surge of adrenaline, Ben darted for the tree, Charlie right behind him. His eyes were fixed on the lowest hanging
branches, and he jumped, grabbing a branch with both hands. He scrambled up like a monkey. Though he knew the enemy wouldn’t be anywhere near yet, he wanted to get above ground level as quickly as possible. He climbed steadily until he
reached the rope bridge, which spanned a good twenty yards to the next tree. Twenty yards of unprotected walkway, with nowhere to hide, should they be
spotted.

Ben glanced at Charlie, who was right behind him. He was shaking a little, but gave Ben a reassuring nod.

They crossed the ladder and reached the next tree without incident. Ben was now counting the seconds, knowing it wouldn’t take the D’Gayle team more than a
few minutes to show up. He was looking down so intently that he almost missed the branch he was aiming for.

“How about you look ahead, and I’ll look down,” Charlie said.

“Good idea,” Ben said. He led them onwards, through the trees, searching out ladders and roped bridges, taking them ever closer to enemy territory.

A cackle of laughter and several loud spellshooter blasts almost shook Ben from the tree.

“Down there!” Charlie hissed, pointing.

Ben had to adjust his position to get a direct look at the forest floor. There he saw Simon’s unmistakable ginger hair, hiding and ducking behind a tree.
Every so often he would peek round, and fire a series of remarkably accurate shots at the green-uniformed D’Gayle team. Ben counted five of them. One was
frozen in place, and another was down permanently.

“Simon is good, isn’t he,” Charlie said.

Ben grinned. “Yes, he is.”

At that moment, Simon made a crazy dash to a large fallen trunk. Spells flew everywhere, but Simon somehow managed to make it to the cover, and hit the
ground. Slowly, he crawled forwards, until he was at the trunk’s end. He stuck his spellshooter out, and returned fire. Ben couldn’t believe how accurate
his no-look shots were.

“Would someone please down that little pain in the backside?” a familiar voice cried.

Ben was delighted to hear the frustration in Aaron’s suave voice. There he was – hiding safely behind a large tree. If Ben shifted his position, he might
be able to get an angle on him.

“No,” Charlie said, the moment he saw what Ben intended. “Remember what Will said: we are not to give away our position, under any circumstance.”

Ben grit his teeth. “There are five of them here – we could take them out and practically win the game.”

“Wrong. You shoot, and they’ll probably just run. That will completely ruin Will’s plan.”

Ben took a deep breath. “You’re right. What a shame – I was really looking forward to unleashing hell on Aaron. It would have been such fun.”

They took one last look at Simon’s plight, which was starting to look a little desperate as the D’Gayle team slowly started to close in on him, before they
continued on their way.

They had passed six opponents, including Aaron, which meant there were just two left to encounter.

“I bet they’re defenders, protecting the flag somewhere,” Charlie said.

“So if we find them, we’ll probably find the flag,” Ben said.

“Unless they’re playing some sort of diversion tactic and are actually nowhere near the flag,” Charlie pointed out.

They continued through the trees and across the bridges, but it was slow going, though they went with less caution now that they had passed the attackers.

Ben was making good progress over a particularly long bridge, when a familiar voice came out from nowhere.

“Ben? Can you talk?”

It was Natalie.

“Your spellshooter,” Charlie said.

Ben lifted the bottom of the handle to his face. “Nat, is that you?”

“Yeah.” Natalie’s voice sounded breathless. “The enemy has just arrived. There are five of them. Simon managed to hold them up for a while, but he was able
to remove only one from the game. That means there are two left for you to deal with, protecting their flag.”

“Doesn’t that include the owl, who can’t even fight?”

“I don’t think they bothered having an owl,” Natalie said.

Ben lowered his spellshooter and promptly started climbing down the tree.

“What are you doing?” Charlie said, following suit.

“The enemy has reached our defenders,” Ben said. “We need to speed up and get to their flag before they get to ours.”

Their pace increased dramatically once on the forest floor. Ben was just starting to pick up some real pace, when a spell smashed into the ground next to
him, spraying dirt. Another hit, and another, peppering the ground all around him.

“Get behind that car!” Charlie shouted.

An old Jaguar lay upended on two wheels, right in the middle of the battleground. Ben and Charlie dived for cover, and sat, with their backs to the car,
panting.

“The defenders?” Ben said.

Charlie shook his head. “No, it’s the neutrals. I saw two of them, but I think there could be more. The spells were coming from all angles.”

Ben cursed, picturing his own team battling the D’Gayle attackers. “We were making such good progress.”

“Yeah, I was starting to think we’d be able to stroll up to their camp, and politely pluck the flag out of their hiding place,” Charlie said. “So now
what?”

“On three, we turn and fire,” Ben said. “You ready?”

“No.”

“Good. One, two – three!”

Ben spun one way, Charlie the other. The neutrals had the advantage of knowing exactly where they were, and immediately Ben was almost hit, but he was able
to get a sighting of one neutral, and even fire a few wild spells back, before retreating.

“I saw one in the trees,” Ben said.

Charlie wiped his forehead with the back of his hand. “I saw two others. They have us pinned down. Should we retreat and try something else – maybe come
from a different angle?”

“No time,” Ben said. “Let’s fire again.”

This time, Ben was able to roll and fire with an accuracy that had the neutral ducking for cover. Again and again they fired and hid, until Ben managed to
finally knock one of them off.

“Nice shot!” Charlie said. “I think I also actually scared my guy that time.”

Their temporary elation was cut off suddenly by the sound of Natalie’s voice.

“Guys? You still alive?”

“Yeah, but we’re pinned down by a couple of neutrals,” Ben said.

“Oh – okay,” Natalie said. “No pressure of course, but if you could speed up, that would be great. I’m not sure how much longer this fight is going to
last.”

“What’s happening?” Charlie asked.

“Lydia is down, Damien is frozen and I think our team are out of freedom spells. Aaron is still alive, and he is with two others who are really good. I
don’t know how much longer Will and Lisa will survive. So, yeah – hurry up, please.”

“Of course – no problem,” Ben said, rolling his eyes at Charlie.

As soon as Natalie had finished talking, Ben and Charlie launched another attack.

“Got him!” Charlie said, sitting back down with a huge grin on his flushed face.

They did a little fist pump, and went again, trying to eliminate the final neutral player, but it was clear he was far more skilled than the other two, and
despite being numerically disadvantaged, the neutral was able to dodge their spells and launch his own with unerring accuracy. Several more times they
tried, but without success. Ben became increasingly frustrated.

“We can’t do this anymore; we don’t have time,” Ben said.

“What do you suggest? Hoisting a white flag and asking him politely if he’ll let us past?”

“Not quite. I’m sick of ducking back all the time. It’s time for plan B.”

Ben explained his idea, and Charlie immediately started shaking his head.

“It’s stupidly risky,” he said. “We could both get hit.”

“It’s better than our current plan, which isn’t working,” Ben said. He was in no mood to argue. “Are you ready?”

“No,” Charlie said.

“Good – let’s go!”

Ben leapt up and over the car. He brought his spellshooter up and started firing. Instead of a quick burst and a retreat behind the car, he started walking
forwards and kept shooting, angling himself to get a better shot at the neutral. He was getting closer, his spells were missing by mere inches. The neutral
had the perfect position, nestled on a treetop, giving them little to aim at. But Ben was in the zone, and he launched three spells in quick succession,
bang on the mark. The neutral managed to spot the first two, but the third hit him right in the forehead.

“Boom! Got him,” Ben said, thrusting a hand in the air.

The expected celebration from Charlie never materialised. Ben turned, and saw his friend frozen mid-stride, his face wide with shock.

Ben fired a freedom spell into Charlie’s chest, and he immediately became unstuck.

“Thanks,” Charlie said. “That was weird. I could still see and hear everything, but I couldn’t move a muscle. I saw your shot, though – very nice.”

“Yeah, it was a good one. Now, we’d better move,” Ben said. “The D’Gayle team could capture our flag at any moment.”

Ben set a good pace. He ran right down the centre of the battleground, taking the quickest possible path, not bothering with concealment. They no longer
had time to dodge and weave in the interests of self-preservation. The whole game could be over in a matter of minutes, and Ben would kick himself if they
didn’t win because he didn’t run fast enough. But he kept a keen eye out for trouble and, more importantly, any sign of the blue flag they were searching
for. It wasn’t long before Ben could make out the owl tree straight ahead. The forest started to thin and, suddenly, they found themselves running in open
land, with absolutely nowhere to hide if trouble started brewing.

“Dead ahead!” Charlie shouted.

Ben came to a grinding halt. At the base of a tall, slender tree was one of the D’Gayle defenders, standing with his spellshooter at the ready. The moment
he spotted them, he raised his spellshooter and fired.

“Zigzag and shoot!” Ben ordered.

The defender fired like a maniac, mostly at Ben, and he was almost hit twice. He kept his own spellshooter trained on the defender, and returned fire with
equal zest. The defender took one hit, but to Ben’s surprise, kept firing. It took three more hits before the defender finally went down. Ben and Charlie
made it to the base of the owl tree, and stared down at the unconscious defender.

“Did you see that? It took several shots to knock him out.”

“Yes, that was interesting,” Charlie said. He looked around, his face anxious. “Now what? I don’t see any sign of the flag, nor the final defender. Are we
in the wrong place?”

Ben had been thinking the same thing. “Let’s climb the tree, and see if it’s up there. If it isn’t, hopefully we’ll be able to see it from the top.”

The owl tree wasn’t an easy climb, especially when compared to the other trees near the middle of the battleground, and progress was slow, with some
branches spread far apart. Ben was concentrating so hard on reaching the next branch that he failed to register the screech that pierced the air.

“What was that?” Charlie asked.

Ben looked up, branch forgotten. He knew that sound.

“Darzel!” Charlie screamed, pointing. “Darzel coming right at us!”

Riding the darzel was Joshua, standing with supreme confidence as the beast shot towards them, his spellshooter armed and ready.

Ben scrambled into position, trying to use the main trunk as protection, while grappling for his spellshooter. As soon as he picked it up, he sensed that
his orb was almost empty. Rapid firing was no longer an option.

“Incoming!” Charlie said, his face scrunched, awaiting impact. He hadn’t been able to get his spellshooter out, and was instead hugging the trunk, trying
to minimise target area.

Ben watched with growing dread, as Joshua pulled the trigger, and the spells went flying right at them. Ben plastered his body against the trunk, and felt
the spells smash against the tree. As soon as the onslaught stopped and Joshua zoomed by, Ben turned and fired three shots at the darzel’s back. But Joshua
seemed to sense the spells, and banked gracefully. Ben cursed, and felt his orb. How many spells did he have left? Six? No more.

“Better climb, before he swings around,” Charlie said from behind. “You go as quickly as you can; I’ll see if I can distract him.”

Ben didn’t argue, and started scrambling upwards as fast as possible, ignoring the scratches his haste brought, as he grasped on to improbable footholds.
Another screech from the darzel nearly threw him off, and he paused, watching Joshua come right at them again.

“Keep climbing!”

Charlie’s voice echoed from below.

Spells started streaking towards the darzel, and Joshua had to swerve and divert his course. Ben grinned. Charlie clearly had no shortage of spells. Ben
continued scrambling upwards. He could now see the platform at the top, where the owl could view everything. On top of it was a small basket – the perfect
lookout spot. Could the flag be in there? If not, he was in trouble.

“Ben, if you’re still alive, you need to get moving!”

Natalie’s voice came through loud and clear.

Ben grabbed his spellshooter and spoke through the handle. “I’m still alive. What’s happening?”

“Will is the last man standing, and he’s up against Aaron and one other guy. You’ve got minutes before they take down Will and start climbing. Our flag is
in my lookout nest, and there’s nothing I can do to stop them.”

Ben didn’t even bother replying, but renewed his climb. He got only a few steps before the darzel’s screech alerted him to Joshua’s renewed attack. Charlie
launched another blistering strike, but Joshua returned fire and, all of a sudden, Charlie’s attack stopped. Ben glanced down and could just make out
Charlie, slumped over one of the branches. Ben tore his eyes away and climbed a few more steps, before Joshua diverted his darzel, and started flying right
at him. Ben could see the steely determination in Joshua’s deep blue eyes, as he honed in on Ben with frightening speed.