Forest Kingdom Trilogy 2 - Blood and Honor

and your men wouldn't last ten minutes once the going got rough.
    But it was a nice thought. Now do as you're told and don't argue.'
    Doyle nodded glumly. Taggert turned and looked at the ramshackle barricade. It wouldn't be much use against what she feared was coming, but its solid presence was still somehow comforting. Beyond it lay the unknown, and all the horrors of the Unreal. Taggert turned to Cord.
    'Don't just stand there, Damon - give me a leg up.'
    Her Apprentice grinned, and leaned forward to make a stirrup with his hands. Taggert put her foot into it, and Cord boosted her effortlessly up the side of the barricade. She quickly pulled herself over the top and clambered down the other side. Mother Donna followed, a little more slowly, and Cord brought up the rear, the barricade groaning loudly under his weight. The three of them stood together a moment at the base of the barricade, staring into the West Wing. The sounds from up ahead were growing gradually louder and more disturbing. There were roars and howls and squeals, and something low and unnerving that thrummed on the air like a racing heartbeat. Taggert took a deep breath, and started forward. The sword of light formed in her hand, crackling and spitting, and the glowing shield appeared on her arm.
    The scintillating light of the balefire reflected brightly from the polished wood-panelled walls. Cord still had his mallet. He carried it loosely in one hand, as though the huge steel weapon was virtually weightless. Mother Donna strode quietly along between them, her hands empty, her face calm and determined. Cord glanced at her thoughtfully from time to time, when he thought she wasn't looking.
    They passed through a series of deserted corridors, and strange undercurrents hummed on the still air.
    They knew they were being watched, and that not too far ahead something awful was waiting impatiently for them to come to it. The light seemed to vary from corridor to corridor, though the number of wall-torches was always the same. The shadows were too dark, and subtly misshapen. Finally, Taggert rounded a corner and crossed the boundary into Unreality.
    She stopped dead in her tracks, and the other two stopped with her. The corridor was lit by a lurid crimson glow that came from everywhere and nowhere. A man was crawling along the wall. He was naked, and covered with patchy black fur. Thorned vines hung down from his eye sockets, and maggots
    burrowed in his legs. Something long and flat with too many legs scuttled hack and forth across the floor in frantic little dashes. The flagstones formed into distorted faces with mad eyes and wide-stretched mouths that roared and grunted and howled. And then they disappeared, and where the floor had been there was only a darkness that seemed to fall away for ever. Fox heads on the walls barked and howled and slavered hungrily. Birds flew
    up by the vein-covered ceiling, and turned into moths that dripped blood. Snow fell through the air, and disappeared before it hit the floor, which had reappeared as crude wooden slats. Smoky flames flickered up between the slats. A man was weaving a web in a corner. His head was twisted so that he looked permanently backwards. Beside him, a woman with too many eyes sat propped against the wall and stared in horror as the flesh on her legs decayed and fell away from the bones. Something like a distorted hog's head emerged suddenly from the wall beside her, and bit off her face.
    'Dear Lord, protect us now and in the hour of our need,' whispered Mother Donna. 'And deliver us from the powers of darkness.'
    Cord took the opportunity of Mother Donna's distraction to silently indicate to Taggert that he wanted to talk to her. They fell back a few paces, out of earshot. Cord looked worriedly at Taggert.
    'How are we going to handle this? It's all I can do to stay here, with her so close. And she's not even really using her power yet. When she does, I'll be banished, along with everything else that's Unreal.
    And once I'm gone, I don't think I can come back again.'
    'I'm sorry,' said Taggert. 'I hadn't thought . . . Look, her range as a Sanctuary is limited. As long as you stay at least ten feet away, you should be safe enough.' She smiled at him fondly. 'Why have you stayed with me, Damon? You know that as soon as there's a King on the throne, I'll have to use the Stone to banish the Unreal from the Castle. You'll be gone. It'll be as though you never existed.'
    'I don't, really,' said