[Arry]

It was hard to wait. The wolves had begun to come over the wall, and Willem could barely control the urge to shoot at them. He stood stock still as did his brother, though, and arrow nocked in his bow; the string pulled back to h his ear.

‘Wait, wait,’ whispered Andwise. ‘They will fly out soon.’

And no sooner had the words left his lips than a cloud of birds flew from the windows just below them, the little pouches of oil clenched firmly in their little feet.

Birger stepped near with an oil soaked brand and plunged it into the live coals. It caught flame and he quickly transferred the flames to the arrows of the Halflings.

‘Make them count – Madoc, Willem.’ Andwise spoke low, keeping his eye on the wolves below. He let loose his arrow, striking the left flank of a wolf just jumping down from the stone wall.

The beast yelped in anger and in pain. And in his attempt to roll and put out the fire, the wolf managed to ignite several puddles of oil on the ground.

Willem and Andwise sent their own arrows flying, too; one hitting a wolf, one glancing off the haunches of another to go skittering onto the oil-soaked ground.

One more round of flaming arrows flew toward the foe from the Halflings’ bows. There were smoky, flaming patches on the ground below, and a number of the wolves were panicked from their own singeing.

Then, with a gesture to Birger that they were done, the three archers moved a little closer to the edge of the eaves and began to fire at the wolves with the remainder of their sharp-edged arrows.