Free The Daughters Daring (The Daughters Daring & The Enchanted Forest Book 1) by Steven J. Thompson Page A

through!”
         “Find the windlass and lower the iron gate!” The Duke said as he hoisted the gnomes, who were rather light, despite their armor. “I will hold the entrance.”
         “Sir Daring, the witch is behind this. She has your daughter,” Randolph said, then disappeared through the window.
    The duke shook his head and fought back tears. How could the witch have one of his daughters, and where was the other one? Rage coursing through him; the duke unsheathed his sword. It gleamed in the sunlight as he hefted it before him. He turned toward the gate just as an ogre scout rushed the entrance shouting a battle cry.
         It was an ugly creature, with long, filthy hair and bulbous warts on its chin and nose. This ogre was small for its kind, but still it stood a foot taller than the Duke. It charged him with a short axe in each hand, swinging wildly.
         The duke spun, swinging his sword in an upward arc that disarmed the ogre of one of his axes, along with a chunk of his arm. The two clashed again; axe clanging into sword with an impact that shook the Duke’s arm. The ogre kicked at the duke, only to feel the sting of the duke's sword upon his leg. The duke returned the kick to the stumbling ogre, sending him sprawling back through the city gate.
         The ogre army was approaching the gate now, with the first rank only yards away. The duke looked with alarm at the portcullis, still overhead. He positioned himself in the middle of the entrance and brandished his sword. This was where he would make his stand.
         Seeing the city gate guarded by only one man, the ogres roared and advanced. It appeared this would be their moment of victory. They would take The Shining City and put their own king upon the throne. Two steps into their march, their front ranks were pelted with rocks! A stream of igneous orbs rained down onto them from above, hitting them in the legs, bodies, and heads.
         The Duke looked for the source of the rocks and saw, on top of the city walls, two gnome contraptions, one on each side of the gate. The gnomes worked them, aiming and pedaling as pulleys and wheels whipped out a shower of punishing rocks onto the ogres below.
         The ogres wore heavy armor, but some of the rocks were larger than goose eggs and hurled with amazing speed. In the seconds that they stopped to shield themselves, the duke pulled the wooden doors shut and braced them with a large wooden beam. He had hoped for the iron portcullis to come down, but it remained high above the entrance.
         “Sir Daring!” a voice called out from behind him.
         The duke turned to see a captain of the King's Guard approaching with barely a dozen troops. He had hoped there would be more.
         “Are these all the men you can spare?” the duke asked.
         “The rest are defending the other gates,” the captain responded, “or asleep. The pies showed up just in time for a huge lunch banquet. Nearly all of our knights fell prey.”
         “And the king?”
         “He did not eat the pie, thank the heavens. The cooks found a warning in his.”
         Elizabeth, the duke thought, wherever you are, when the city is safe, I will find you.
         “Captain!” the duke commanded, “get your best archers on the city walls and help those gnomes! Have the rest secure the gate, we must hold them back here or the city is lost!”
         The captain had no sooner given his orders than they heard the firing of the ogres’s catapults.
    
         Elizabeth Daring watched in awe and horror as the witch crumpled to the cave floor, shrieking with pain. Dark, purple energy flowed out of her and into Emily's backpack on the ground. As the energy flowed out of her, it appeared as if the witch was growing larger.
         She looked over at Emily, who was still stunned from the witch's magic and held fast by the webs. Her own binding had mostly been cut through, however, and