Chapter Two
The distant crowd erupted into screams and cries yet again. Shaar’s abrupt disappearance had clearly rattled their already shaken nerves.
“Where is he?”
“Where has he gone?”
“Is he coming back?”
“Does this mean he’s gone for good?”
Every single cry and screech began to blend into one deafening cacophony, and I squeezed my eyes shut as my head began to throb.
Shaar was coming back. There was no doubt in my mind. But as for when, I had no idea, and that wasn’t what these people wanted to hear right now.
“Please, everyone, calm down!” Alden’s voice was drowned out by the chaos, and I turned away from the empty space where Shaar had just been to face the crowd.
They had scurried back over now that the threat was gone, and wild fingers pointed at the absent spot I was just looking at.
“We will never know peace!” a voice cried out.
“This is the end, it has to be!” another person yelled.
“We can’t keep going like this!” an elven woman wailed.
“Alright, enough!” I shouted and effectively strangled the brewing panic.
Every eye fell to me, and there wasn’t a single sound other than the wind coasting through the quiet town. You could hear a pin drop, and that was exactly what I wanted.
“Listen up!” I called out. “This ‘Shaar’ guy is obviously dangerous, but that doesn’t mean we’ve just signed our own death warrant.”
“How can you be so sure?” someone in the middle of the crowd asked.
“Because we’ve survived against bigger threats than him,” I said. “We have the shard, we have the wall of vines, and we have an improved guard.”
“But what if that’s not enough?” Bathilda asked as the old innkeeper staggered to the front of the crowd. “Noah, he walked straight through those gates.”
She had a point. The wall had helped in slowing down the bulk of the men who’d stormed Gladewood, but it didn’t stop them coming in entirely. Shaar must have slipped through just the same, either with the stampede, or on his own while everyone else was too busy cleaning up the blood and gore.
“We up our defenses,” I said. “We use the shard.”
“But you didn’t use it just now!” an elderly elf shouted from the crowd.
“I didn’t use it because if Shaar somehow got a hold of it, we’d be at a serious disadvantage,” I said firmly. “Drakar skulked off after our fight and hasn’t been back since, which means he doesn’t even know if I still have the shard.”
“You want to keep it hidden in obscurity still,” Alden said with a slow nod. “I see.”
“I can’t risk Shaar getting his hands on it,” I said. “Even with the shard’s help, I don’t know if I could have finished him off just then.”
“So… what do we do?” the Overseer asked as he ran a hand through his dark hair.
I glanced at the towering wall curving around our little town. It had helped, but it wasn’t enough. If Shaar came back with more men, then I needed to reinforce it. Make it stronger. Make it run deeper.
The shard tugged on my chest, and this time, I beckoned it. Shaar was gone for now, and he was no doubt nursing his wounds-- which he definitely shouldn’t have been able to survive-- and that meant I could use it.
My chest tightened, and it felt like my lungs were being pulled taut on a string. I could hear the shard soaring through the air at lightning speed, and within a matter of seconds, its sculpted form was gliding over the roofs and over to us.
The crowd ducked as the shard made its way to me, and when it floated in front of the Gladers, they stared at it with wide eyes.
“Here’s what I’m going to do,” I said as I reached a hand out and pressed it against one of the crystal’s cool planes. “The shard and I are going to reinforce the wall. I know we still have some of the spikes outside from the other attacks, but maybe I can add more.”
“And you think that will be enough to deter Shaar?” a man with a mane of bright red hair asked as he tugged a trembling young woman closer to his chest.
“He fled from that fight we just had,” I said. “That means he’s clearly underestimated us. So, yes. I think upgrading the wall will make him rethink a few more things.”
“I hope you’re right,” the red-haired human grumbled as he pressed the woman’s face against his neck. “For all of our sakes.”
“If you think I’m going to let him come here and occupy our town, you’re wrong,” I said in a loud, booming voice so every single person gathered could hear me. “Nothing that has come across our town has beaten us before. And I’m not planning on letting Shaar be the first.”
The shard pressed more of its weight against my palm, and I glanced at the dark green walls bordering Gladewood.
I poured every ounce of power I hadn’t used in the fight into the crystal. All of my anger and frustration at Shaar’s arrival, all of the resentment I felt toward Drakar and him sending his lackey after us.
The more emotion I funneled into it, the more the shard shook. The vibrations traveled down my arm and made my bones feel hollow, but it was a good feeling, and I knew it meant the magic was working.
The vine wall began to grow at a snail’s pace, as if it was straining against itself just to reach a little taller.
Tendrils crawled closer to the sky and interwove themselves with each other.
It was like a tapestry being formed right in front of our eyes, and once the wall had crept past the rooftops and shingles, I knew it was big enough.
The majority of the Mist Woods was obscured from our vision now, with only the dark gray trees on the hilltop being visible. But that meant arrows would be harder to shoot in here now, as well as unwanted eyes scoping out our little town.
Wordlessly, I marched for one of the entrances of town so I could erect some more protective measures. The shard stayed attached to my hand and followed me silently, and the gaggle of people who had been watching quickly stumbled to keep up with me, too.
With every step I took, I could feel a deep churning under my feet. The roots of the wall were embedding themselves deeper under our town, and when we passed over the rifts in the cobblestone, I could see a ladder of dark brown forming in order to close up the gaping holes.
When we finally reached the left entrance, I stepped through the arch of greenery and looked at what I had done from the other side.
The wall was imposing now, and I knew anyone who stumbled across it would think twice about bothering us.
But it still wasn’t enough.
I raked my head for ideas about how to add more protection through the magic the shard gave me, and then I heard a low howl from the thicket of the Mist Woods.
When I glanced up at the shadowy forest, I saw the flicker of amber eyes staring down at me.
The bramble wolves.
They had helped us fight against the bandits, and their thorned fur had effectively torn apart any and all adversaries.
The shard thrummed under my palm as if it knew exactly what I was thinking. Meanwhile, the wolf up ahead bowed its bloodied face low to the ground like a silent acknowledgement of our agreement.
I stared into its burning golden eyes and saw the faintest flicker of light on the thorns wrapped around its slim form.
A deep churning sound resonated across the patch of land in front of the wall, and then a mix of mud and grass began to rise like a loaf of bread. Numerous mounds formed, and when I looked left and right, I could see they were bordering the entire wall on this side of Gladewood.
When the mounds were around five feet tall, sharp points pierced through the muck and birthed giant thorns. Their ashen edges slipped out of the earth and curled over, until the sharpest points were facing the Mist Woods.
One by one, more and more thorns emerged, until the entire border of Gladewood was lined with them.
The crowd behind me muttered in awe, but other than that, they didn’t make a sound. They just watched as I performed my magic with the shard, and when I turned back around to face them, I saw a mural of smaller thorns sticking out of the vine wall.
I let out a quiet sigh of relief and let my palm drop from the shard, and as soon as the connection was severed, I felt the weight of exhaustion crash over me.
It made my shoulders hunch and my head feel like it was stuffed full of rocks, but the feeling of accomplishment allowed me to remain upright rather than flat on my ass.
“Noah…” Alden muttered as he staggered through the crowd to the very front. “This… This is incredible.”
“I’m not done just yet,” I said as I glanced at the open entrance that could allow anyone to walk in. “Shard, how far can your powers go?”
Despite both of our exhaustion, the shard thrummed and floated a little closer to me.
“The gate,” I said. “We can’t allow anyone to walk through anymore. We need some kind of door.”
The shard let out a quiet hum before it pressed itself to my palm again. My muscles spasmed as the vibrations rattled me from the inside, but I fought through the exhaustion threatening to pull me under and kept my eyes locked onto the opening.
Three flat sheets of vine began to spiral from the sides of the opening, which caused the cluster of people still inside the town’s perimeters to stumble back. Slowly, the sheets conjoined in the middle and cut off the entryway to town.
“H-How do we get back in?” Alden asked as he stared at the closed gate with wide eyes.
As the Overseer took a step toward the closed maw, the spiral unfurled itself and retracted back into the wall beside it.
The wide-eyed crowd left behind greeted us, and it was pretty clear that everyone was enamored by what me and the shard had just done.
“No one we don’t want to enter this town will find passage here,” I declared. “But we need some kind of watch.”
“We can’t have people posted outside of the gate.” The Overseer shook his head and chewed on his thin bottom lip. “We need to erect some kind of watchtower to look over the wall.”
“I can handle that,” a familiar voice grumbled.