Using protected methods within a derived class?

This doesn't seem to make any sense to me.

I have three classes, the declarations of which are shown below:

class Action
    {
        public:
            virtual void Act (int range, int elevation, Combatant* actor ) = 0;
            virtual void React (Action* incoming, Combatant* actor ) = 0;
            virtual string Name ( ) const = 0;
            virtual bool CanAct (int range, int elevation, Combatant* actor ) =
0;
            virtual void Act (int range, int elevation, Combatant* actor,
Target& target ) = 0;
            virtual bool CanAct (int range, int elevation, Combatant* actor,
Target& target ) = 0;
            virtual ~Action() = 0;
    };

class AttackAction : public Action
    {
        protected:
            virtual void CalculateSpecials (Score* attack, Score* defense ) =
0;
            virtual void CalculateDamage (Score* attack, Score* defense ) = 0;
            virtual void DoDamage (int attacker, int defender ) = 0;
            virtual ~AttackAction() = 0;
    };

    class SpecialAttack : public AttackAction
    {
        public:
            virtual void Act (int range, int elevation, Combatant* actor );
            virtual void React (Action* incoming, Combatant* actor );
            virtual string Name ( ) const;
            virtual bool CanAct (int range, int elevation, Combatant* actor );
            virtual void Act (int range, int elevation, Combatant* actor,
Target& target );
            virtual bool CanAct (int range, int elevation, Combatant* actor,
Target& target );
            virtual ~SpecialAttack();

        protected:
            AttackAction* m_decorated;

            virtual void CalculateSpecials (Score* attack, Score* defense );
            virtual void CalculateDamage (Score* attack, Score* defense );
            virtual void DoDamage (int attacker, int defender );
    };

Now, inside any of the protected methods of SpecialAttack, if I try
this:

m_decorated->CalculateSpecials(attack, defense);

The compiler spits back the error:
error: 'virtual void
Battle::AttackAction::CalculateDamage(Battle::Score*, Battle::Score*)'
is protected
specialattack.cpp:20: error: within this context

Is this something that I've done wrong, or is it a bug within the
compiler? It seems intuitively obvious to me that if any of those
methods are protected, I should be able to use them within a derived
class.

Thanks for your help.