44: Fight or Flight

Hi Mum, we’re in the outer bailey, remember, and we need to get to the inner one. And having a look at the castle, even though some of the minor buildings had been left to ruin, it was still an impregnable looking fortress. We didn’t really have much of a clue how to get in.

I had the idea of going back down to the caverns and swimming to the watergate, again, but I think not everyone can swim as well as me and there would also be issues with our black powder getting wet.

So we decided that Guido would address the beggars and tell them it was time for the salvation they had been waiting for. He gave a bit of a rousing speech, although it wasn’t that rousing, and told them they needed to force their way through, and any resistance from the guards was merely a test by the lady Margritte to make sure they were worthy.

He said he was going to impress them with a show of faith when he would rise into the air as an eagle leaving them in no doubt as to the power of Myrmidia. But then he didn’t do any of that, he just sank to the ground and started mumbling. I don’t really understand Guido. Sometimes it’s like he’s a great warrior who knows what he’s doing, and I’m not sure how to put this, mum, sometimes, it’s not.

Looking at the beggars now, I think I realised just how badly off they were. I thought they were just poor and hungry, but now I could see that many of them had minor mutations and some of them looked as much like monsters or mutants as humans. I felt a bit bad thinking that of them, but it was the truth.

So Guido sent the beggars to the gatehouse and told us we should just play it by ear, working out how to exploit the ruckus as things happened. And he grabbed some rags from the ground and handed them out to us so we could be disguised as beggars, too. I felt sure that they must be riddled with something, like lice or fleas, but I put mine on anyway. Even Blume put hers on.

And as the beggars approached the gatehouse the guards stationed on the various towers began taking shots at them with their crossbows. So with the guards distracted, Dreamy and Guido made a dash for the west tower and we followed them. There was a guard outside, who shot his crossbow at Guido, but the bolt buried itself in the shield that he had hidden beneath his ragged cloak. And Dreamy shot an arrow at him and Guido charged him with Barrakul, and killed him.

But we could see that the beggars at the gatehouse were now all dead, slaughtered by the guards (It might have been the kindest thing for them – Willow). And the guards could see us. Inside the west tower, Guido and Willow could see some skeletal bodies lying on the floor in rusting armour, and there were stairs leading up. Guido said we should stay in the west tower and defend it, but that seemed to me like a good way to get us surrounded.

I’m not a military genius like Guido, or a veteran soldier like Dreamy, but I decided the only way we could have a chance of getting into the inner bailey was to manoeuvre as quickly as we could. So I carried on running towards the gatehouse. And seeing me running towards the gatehouse Blume and Dreamy followed, and then I think Guido had no choice but to follow as well.

But Willow didn’t want go with him, so he told Willow to wait in the room surrounded by skeletons, where she would be safe, and he followed me, too. Willow managed to find a chest which she climbed into to hide, then she draped some rusting armour over her and closed the lid.

Guido ran to the gatehouse and found there was a heavy door to one side of it, but it was locked. And the rest of us ran after him. Dreamy took a hit from one of the guards, and the crossbow bolt embedded itself in his shoulder. And Blume reached the relatively safety of the gatehouse. But when I saw that the way was unbarred and I could just continue onto the drawbridge, I just kept running. After all we were trying to get to the inner bailey. There didn’t seem any point in not getting there as soon as possible.

I think Guido agreed because as soon as he saw me run past him, he followed as fast as he could, and Blume did the same. Dreamy ducked into the gatehouse, and was about to follow us, but wondered where Willow was. He shouted to Guido, but he was already too far away to reply. So Dreamy was left hesitating, unsure whether to follow us over the drawbridge, or go back and check on Willow. But then he saw her, and I’m not making this up, mum, fly out of the window of the west tower (It’s true, Mrs. Chard, I did fly out of the window of the west tower – Willow).

This is what happened, mum. After Guido had left her, Willow had hidden in the chest, as I have already told you. But after a few moments, she heard some strange noises coming from the room, not far from where she was hiding. And I think it was apparent to her that the skeletons were moving about (That was apparent – Willow).

So she burst out of chest and screamed at the animated skeletons. It is not known how frightened they were of her. And then she ran upstairs looking for a window to jump out of, but there wasn’t one. So she opened a door and found a skeleton is heavy armour, covered in dust and cobwebs, sitting in a chair. And the skeleton asked her who had dared enter his chamber unannounced. And Willow apologised, but entered the room, anyway. But when the skeleton turned on her she was very frightened, and so, she jumped out the window.

That all sounds pretty mad, mum, but remember that potion that Willow had found among Etelka Herzen’s possessions in the Barren Hills? Willow had tasted it, and it had made her feel like she could float away. So that was her plan, as mad as it sounds, to jump out of the window as she drank her potion.

So when Dreamy saw her flying out of the window, he knew there was no point in going back to fetch her, so turned and ran across the drawbridge as fast as he could, like we all had done. By now we had reached the other end of the drawbridge. I had started ahead, but Blume and Guido have both got longer legs than me. And I think, even though we’re on the same side, and friends, it had turned into a bit of a race, and we all wanted to get to the end of the drawbridge first to be the winner.

Anyway, Guido won, and when he got to the inner bailey he couldn’t find any way into that gatehouse either, as both the doors were locked. But he did notice that it had a sturdy portcullis, raised above the gateway.

When Blume and I reached the inner bailey we wondered how me might get into the gatehouse, and I think Blume thought all the black birds around the place were spying on us so she tried to chase them away. And Guido gave me a bunk up and I managed to climb up the rough stone wall of the gatehouse and get to the top of the tower.

Meanwhile, Willow was flying. I think she had thought the potion might just let her float away on the wind, but it turned out she could actually fly, just like a bird. She could go really fast and control exactly where she was going. And so she flew straight to the outlaw camp.

After surprising the outlaw guards, Willow got to see Sigrid and told her all about our attack, the skeletons, and how she had managed to fly from the castle, and told her the route we had found through the caves to the spiral staircase, and warned her about the monsters and the bats. I’m not sure she remembered to ask whether Hilda had got back to them safely, though. And so Sigrid promised to launch their attack on the outer bailey. And then Willow flew back to the castle.

Meanwhile, on top of the gatehouse I found a door that led to the portcullis room and managed to work out how to drop the portcullis. I tried it, just a bit, to see if it would work, but I think I might have frightened Dreamy because he was still running across the drawbridge, and he thought he might be getting locked out. But I did wait for him, and as soon as he got through. I dropped the portcullis and we were cut off, at least for a while, from the guards of the outer bailey.

And it wasn’t long before we saw Willow circling the castle, and she managed to land on the top of the gatehouse. I think she had enjoyed it, although with her wild hair and wide eyes she could have just been terrified. Then she saw to the crossbow bolt in Dreamy’s shoulder, and she dealt with Blume’s wounds too, on the condition that Blume asked nicely. And then Blume promised to mend Willow’s gut plate if they ever got out of there. And although we were in a big hurry, and you could tell that Guido was anxious to go straight to the great hall, Willow kept going on about her flying. But to be fair, it was pretty impressive (I was a great flyer – Willow).

We followed Guido towards the big doors of the great hall, but on one side of him, we could see that it looked like a huge hole had been dug in the courtyard, so Blume and I took a quick look. I’m not really sure what was going on down there, but wisps of grey mist floated up towards us, and we could see an arrangement of sharpened stakes all pointing down into the hole. And there was an iron cage over it, with an access hatch in. And Blume said she could hear moaning coming from deep inside. It looked like exactly the sort of pit you would have to dig if you had captured a giant monster and didn’t know what to do with it. And we certainly didn’t want to get any closer, or meet any monsters, so we rushed back to join Guido.

And Willow was distracted by what looked like a greenhouse, and so she went over to check it out with Dreamy. They went in and had a look around, but couldn’t find any herbs. But they did hear some beautiful birdsong from high up in the branches of the trees, and they found some big sacks of birdseed.

Willow filled her pockets with the birdseed and tried to carry one of the sacks out. But then they noticed up in the branches that there were some birds, but they were only half bird, and the other half looked human. Dreamy quickly tried to usher Willow out, but the creatures had seen the birdseed and they sort of flew down to feed. But they couldn’t fly properly because their wings had been clipped.

Willow quickly dumped the sack and went to leave. But told the bird-people that they sang nice, and they may have understood what she said, and they may have even thanked her for the food. Willow and Dreamy came rushing back to us and told us about the strange abominations, that were half bird and half human, but Willow couldn’t really talk, considering the amount of flying she had done today (there is not a single normal thing in the whole of Castle Wittgenstein, is there – Willow).

And then Guido went to open the great doors. But, mum, I’ll have to tell you what was behind the doors in the next letter. Hope all the girls are fine and even though I’m in a surreal hell hole of abominable mutations and unspeakable monsters, where danger lurks around every corner and the unseen nefarious stalks us from the shadows, you don’t need to worry.