Chapter 13
CHAPTER
THIRTEEN
I had no idea how long it took for Garran and his people to arrive.
No idea how long it took us to get back into Esan.
I was conscious but only just, and it all passed by in an odd sort of haze.
When we finally got back into our room, Damon ordered food and then helped me into the bath, washing me, then washing himself.
Awareness, and perhaps a few strands of desire, stirred, but nothing could rise above the tide of utter exhaustion.
I ate and drank almost automatically, tasting nothing, wanting nothing more than sleep.
It found me, finally, in Damon’s arms, his body pressed against mine, his warm breath whispering past the back of my neck and ear.
I could have slept for days. I barely got six hours.
The siren clawed sharply through my slumber, and I jerked upright, my heart racing.
One blast.
Two.
Then three.
Instinct had been right, down in those tunnels. Esan was under major attack.
“Fuck.” Damon said aloud what I was thinking.
I scrambled out of bed and raced into the bathing area to grab clothes and boots, Damon two steps behind me.
We hurriedly dressed, pulled on boots and weapons, then headed out, running around to the stairs and then down into the chaos of the war room.
I rose on my toes and spotted Jarin and Neera at the main troop placement board but couldn’t immediately see Garran.
“This way.” Damon grabbed my hand and guided me through the crowd.
Garran was in front of the quill tablet table, giving verbal replies to the various messages as they came through.
“They’ve hit the gate and its surrounds with acid,” he said, casting a brief but grim look our way. “We’ve an air mage on the battlement above the gate casting a mini rainstorm above it, and it’s helping—but for how long is unknown if they keep up with this bombardment.”
“Hasn’t the gate been strengthened against it?” Damon asked, frowning. “I would have thought that would be the first to be done.”
“The arch and the tunnel have been, but the gate is a mix of wood and metal, and the latter cannot be fortified by either earth or air mage.”
And if they did break through the main gate, the portcullis wouldn’t hold up for too long against the acid, either, as metal melted faster than stone.
Even the murder slits in the ceiling, which would greet any Mareritt in the long tunnel with boiling liquid, wouldn’t really help because of the length of time it took to maneuver replacement pots of liquid into position.
Before the Mareritt had gotten hold of the acid, that hadn’t been a problem.
“Which is why,” Garran was continuing, “we’ve earth mages creating a couple of trenches in the tunnel and smoothing their sides so they can’t clamber back out so easily.”
“Good in theory,” Damon said. “But past experience has told us they’re more than happy to create human ladders while they’re waiting for the regular ones.”
“The first trench will be very deep. The second will be filled with water. That will stop them, if nothing else.”
It had in the past, but I wouldn’t put it past the riders to have provided the Mareritt with some means around that, too. “Are they using the regular tubes? Because given how close they need to be with those, surely we can?—”
“They’re not using regular tubes,” he cut in. “These ones are much, much bigger, and mounted on wheels.”
“The same type they were making in the camp we rescued you from?” I asked.
He nodded grimly. “Two of the things appeared out of the fog line last night, along with a cartload of bladders we believe hold their version of the acid.”
“I knew we should have hit that fucking thing straight away.”
“And if you had,” he replied in the same sharp tone, “Zephrine might well be on its knees now.”
Maybe it was lingering anger at Aric, but I couldn’t help but think better Zephrine than us. “Are they targeting any other section of the wall?”
“Not with the tube cannons. They’ve rigged up a version of the orbs, using what looks to be corked doliums. They’ve blown up one trebuchet already, though. That stuff is not stable.”
Doliums were basically large round earthenware pots many of our trading partners used to transport goods such as grain.
“Where’s the Prioress and her people?” Damon asked.
Garran glanced at him. “In the exit tunnel creating a barrier in case they do get past the trench and the water.”
“Then I’ll go down and assist.” He touched my arm. “Be careful up there.”
I raised an eyebrow. “I rather suspect assisting them is not truly what you intend. You have something else planned.”
A tight smile touched his lips. “We blood witches may not be able to kill the Mareritt, but we can certainly provide a means of trapping and herding them toward the walls so that others can.”
“I do like the sound of that,” Garran said.
Damon’s smile grew, though there was little more than cold anticipation in his face. “Send out a message to the wall commanders and inform them of the plan.”
Garran glanced at the soldiers manning the tablets and motioned them to do so.
Damon turned and strode away. I crossed my arms and studied the lines of tablets for a second. While we no longer had the advantage of being able to see what was happening, we weren’t lacking for information. “How much larger is the Mareritten encampment now?”
“Doubled in size. They remain out of our firing range, and at this point I don’t want to risk using our remaining air mages to hit them just in case riders remain on the Sheer.” He glanced at me. “It’s time to bring in the drakkons, if you’re up to it.”
On way already , Kaia said
I smiled, though it held little in the way of humor. “Whether or not I am doesn’t really matter right now. You’ve ordered the others to get ready?”
He nodded. “The same time we sounded the alarm. Should be here in minutes.”
I stepped back, saluted, then hesitated and stepped forward again to hug him, just in case something happened.
Then I turned and ran out, making my way up the stairs to get the harness and the rest of my gear.
I didn’t have many Ithican glass arrows left, so I topped the quiver up with regular ones.
They killed the Mareritt just as efficiently.
By the time I ran down the palace’s outside steps, the other kin were waiting.
Kele stepped forward and saluted. Her face was no longer bandaged, but a ragged red scar ran at an angle from her brow, across her eyelid, and down into the deep hollow that remained in her cheek. “What’s happening, Commander?”
I gave them a quick update, then added, “You and Yara can hit the encampment with Aarvi, Cansu, and Kiko. We’ll take Taitia and Lura and go after whatever lies under that encroaching fog.
Stay wary, because those new acid cannons have a greater range and spread and could easily take down a drakkon. ”
And we did not want to lose any more drakkons. Or, indeed, their kin. None of us said it, but we were all thinking it.
They appeared over the rim of the valley’s head and dove toward us, their bugles ringing out across the peaks, a war cry none could escape. The drakkons were ready for war.
I wasn’t so sure I was.
Kaia came in first, smoke puffing from her nostrils as she landed. I scrambled up her leg and had barely clipped on when she rose sharply and swept out of the way for everyone else.
When everyone was in the air, I ordered Yara and her three to fly straight down over Esan, then sweep around the foothills of the Black Glass Mountains and hit the encampment from behind.
They’d no doubt have rear guards posted, but it would nevertheless take the main focus of attention away from us.
Plus, it would give us time to get into position.
As Yara bugled her battle cry and led her three away, we banked left and flew into East Arleeon, heading toward the Blue Steel Mountains so we could come in under the fog from the Ghost Forest end.
The day grew brighter, the thick clouds of the early morning giving way to scattered ones, with bright bouts of sunshine in-between, but the wind was at our tails, so the flight over Mareritten didn’t take as long as usual.
We swept around the forest and started heading east, back toward the Mareritten encampment, looking for the long stream of fog hiding Vahree only knew what.
Kaia spotted it when we were about ten miles away from the Mareritten encampment.
I dug out the long viewer and, once it was focused, studied the stream.
The bulk of it remained as thick and gelatinous-looking as when we’d first spotted it, but it faded off severely toward the tail and was open at the rear.
We could fly under it without having to worry about the fog’s composition.
I extended the long viewer to its maximum, trying to see if there were any rear guards or even anything that might indicate a possible trap.
There was nothing. Or nothing obvious, anyway.
Maybe the spell that had created the fog barrier was fading, or maybe they simply didn’t think we’d sweep in from behind. Which, to be honest, was very unlikely.
Unease stirred through me. Something was very wrong here.
And yet... what choice did we have but to go in, given Damon had already said the only way to destroy mobile barriers was from the inside?
We couldn’t let any more of those cannons reach Esan; our earth mages had fortified the main wall against such an onslaught, but they’d had no time to similarly strength Esan’s buildings or even the mountains that loomed high above us.
We attack? Kaia asked.
We attack , I confirmed grimly. The fog isn’t very wide, so we’ll have to fly in a step formation. Tell Taitia and Lura to fly slightly above each other—we’ll take the run closer to the ground.
With any luck, the wall of fire created by such a formation should be enough to utterly destroy whatever else might hide in that fog.