Chapter Nine
Pel
Shuffling at first and then with increased confidence, the mass of people began to walk, Pel and Tor in their midst. Pel kept yelling out the order to march. It was awkward and more stumbling than anything, but they were moving in the right direction, which was the important part.
“I need to see where we’re going,” Tor told Pel. “I need to know when I can let the shield down.”
Tor, Pel, Beluna, Cavun, and the exile they seemed to have acquired managed to worm their way through the crowd. Grumbling cut off and everyone moved once they saw it was Tor.
As they reached the front of the mass of people and then the edge of the shield, Pel could see that Tor was pushing rocks and debris out of the way as they moved, clearing a safe path for them. A ragged cheer went up as those at the front realized they were finally out of the landslide’s path.
Tor opened the shield at the front, the people continuing to move forward but the shield staying in place now. Pel twisted back to see that it was forming a barrier against the side of the landslide, arching up and back, making sure nothing could slide off the pile and hit them.
It wasn’t raining very hard anymore, and it looked like the landslide was finally tapering off. It apparently wasn’t the middle of the night, either. The sky was starting to lighten in what had previously been that sheer drop into nothing beside them, and Pel thought dawn must not be far off.
Pel saw Tor lean in to speak to the exile who had told him where the children were. He didn’t hear what was said, just saw the exile look sharply at Tor and then say something back. Tor nodded.
The last of the people emerged from under the landslide, and Tor sent Beluna and an exile to check and confirm that there was no one left in there.
“As soon as I let go of the shield, the rocks will collapse into that area. I’ll leave shields up on this side to protect us,” Tor told those nearest him. “It’s going to be loud. Let everyone know.”
The word passed again through the crowd, anxious muttering rising in its wake.
Beluna and the exile returned.
“Clear,” Beluna said, inclining her head.
The exile nodded his agreement.
There was silence for a moment, and then with a resounding crash, it looked like the landslide crumpled in on itself. Many people startled, and there was more than one scream. Pel looked at the huge cloud of dust that was thrown up. Mere moments ago, they’d been under all that rock.
His stomach lurched, and he drew a deep breath. He was all right, they were all all right, thanks to Tor.
Well. All right at the moment? Now, here they all were, a huge group of Tondian guards, a massive number of exiles, civilians and children, and two princes.
Everyone was looking at one another uncertainly, like they weren’t sure what was going to happen next.
A few hands were going to swords, and Pel wanted to yell at everyone.
Tor threw up multiple glowing balls of magic above himself. Not as impressive as the shield, but still extremely eye-catching. Anyone who hadn’t been staring at him previously was now doing so.
“Attention!” His words echoed through the entire group. “Tondians, go stand over there.”
Tor pointed back towards the path that the two of them had climbed up with Cavun and Beluna. “Exiles, gather there.”
Now he pointed to an area further up the mountain, near where his shield was protecting them from the landslide.
There was a moment of stillness.
“Now!”
And such was the power of the man, the memory of what he’d just done, that everyone moved.
Pel, Tor, Cavun, and Beluna began to move towards the path, but Pel noted that Tor was making sure they walked slowly and stayed at the back of the group, between the guards and the exiles as they began to separate into the two groups.
Pel saw that the exiles were carefully rearranging themselves so that the civilians, especially the children and injured, were protected at the rear.
The guards had done the same with their injured.
No one had pulled out swords yet, but there were hands on hilts and watchful eyes, with a weird quality in the air, like the calm before the storm.
The actual storm seemed finally to have passed, thank goodness. The rain now was closer to a drizzle. Pel wasn’t sure he was going to feel the same way about rain ever again.
Finally, they had two groups once again, with Tor and Pel standing between them.
Beluna and Cavun were nearby, but had wisely decided to stand a bit out of the way.
Pel couldn’t see Sir Cloril, but after a moment he recognized Gremuna, the second-in-command of Tond’s guards.
Her graying red hair was still matted down, and another guard was helping prop her up as she favored one leg.
On the other side, the exile they’d been dealing with stood a little ahead of the others.
Tor projected his voice, sounding remarkably calm given everything that had happened. “I hope everyone here understands how close we came to dying today. The fact that we’re still here means we have a second chance. So I want each and every one of you to turn around and go home.”
They all stared at him in stunned surprise. Pel wasn’t sure what he’d been imagining, but this wasn’t it.
He felt a surge of inappropriate laughter well up and barely managed to choke it down. Tor had said he was going to take on all the guards.
“They shouldn’t be here!” one of the guards shouted. “This is our land! They attacked us!”
There was a swirl of angry noise, more hands shifting for swords.
Tor stared them down. “Is that what happened today? Did they attack you?”
There was an uneasy silence with more than one guard shifting awkwardly from foot to foot. Thank goodness Tor had gotten that right. Or was that what he’d asked the exile? Pel was impressed with how Tor’s brain worked. Pel had still been thinking about the current crisis, not stopping the next one.
“They’ve been attacking us for months!” someone on the Tondian side yelled out. “They’ve killed people!”
There was another angry murmur of noise.
“These people?” Tor demanded. “Specifically? Apart from this fight that you brought to them right now, are you telling me that you know for a fact that someone here attacked and killed someone in Tond?”
Stilted silence once again.
“And have any of you killed any of them at some point in the past? Are you prepared to swear that they have caused all the harm and you have caused none of it?”
Tor had some really excellent rhetorical questions.
With a slash of his hand a glowing shield formed, more like a vertical wall than the domed shield he’d made earlier, rising higher than all their heads and separating the Tondians from the exiles.
“Go home!” Tor repeated loudly. “I barely managed to stop the mountain from killing us, and goddess help me, I will also stop us from killing one another!”
“The King commanded us to hunt down the exiles,” Gremuna pointed out.
To Pel’s relief, it sounded more like an observation than an accusation.
“The High King has ordered the exiles not to be pursued into the mountains,” Tor responded easily before his voice turned scathing. “And I’m telling you right now that you will have to contend with me if you intend to attack children.”
There was more awkward shifting, and the heated expressions on many faces had given way to something that looked more like embarrassment.
Pel caught sight of movement, and he realized that the rows of exiles were diminishing. The front was still there, protective, but it wasn’t as dense as it had been. While Tor was talking, his big shield in the way, they were escaping.
Pel made himself look away. He had a better view from the side than the Tondian guards did. He didn’t want to risk drawing attention to what was happening.
“Go home!” Tor repeated forcibly. “I will explain everything to the King when I return.”
There was a sudden flash of lightning that made everyone jump. A few seconds later, thunder rumbled. The storm wasn’t on top of them—but that didn’t mean it couldn’t return.
Thankfully, it was exactly the reminder everyone needed of what had just happened and the real possibility that they were still in danger from more than each other.
And a voice piped up, “All hail the High King! Praise to the High Prince!”
There was silence for a moment and then a swell of sound, “All hail the High King! Praise to the High Prince!”
For a moment, the cry echoed through the air.
And then Gremuna’s voice, crisp and clear, sounded out. “About face! Retreat!”
In a more or less orderly fashion, the guards turned around and began to pick their way back down the mountain. Since the path curved, the ones at the front immediately disappeared from sight. The injured got put in the middle, and Gremuna made sure there was an able-bodied rear-guard.
Pel had to admire that she stayed until the end and made sure her people were safe.
Looking back, he saw that the exiles had done the same.
The fighting force was there, waiting to ensure they weren’t needed, with the hazel-eyed man at the front.
He inclined his head at Tor, who inclined it back, and then he turned and was gone as well.
Able to watch them now, Pel realized that the exiles were slipping along a path that he could barely discern, one that was just past the edge of Tor’s shield keeping the landslide from reaching them. Had Tor made sure earlier that the exiles had a way to escape? He really did think on his feet.
Tor waited until everyone was gone, and then he let the vertical shield fall.
“I think we should probably move to the head of the path before I release the shield covering the landslide.”
Pel, Beluna, and Cavun all moved with alacrity to get out of the way, and as soon as they were clear, the final shield dissolved. A number of rocks immediately slithered down the side of the rockslide, sending more dust up into the air, but thankfully, they were relatively small.