Chapter Seventeen
“We have what we need,” Adreona explained. “We have the ingredients for Askari fire. If we ignite it at the top of the hill, that should trigger an avalanche of the shale.”
“We need something to lure the Drowned into the trap,” Lorath said. “For this plan to work, we need them to commit in numbers.”
“That’s where Tavie comes in,” said Adreona. She then wrote orders and sent two of her warriors as runners, tasked with intercepting the cavalry on the road to warn them of the plan and to instruct them in the role they must play as bait.
“What can I do to help?” Lorath asked.
“You can stay out of our way,” she said.
Lorath had no idea what more he could do to make Adreona trust him, and he had begun to accept that perhaps she never would.
Until she did, he was forced to sit back and watch as the Amazons brought out volatile oils from the goods stored in the cave.
They blended these and poured the mixture into jugs and bottles, which they then fitted with fuses, and when they had a sufficient quantity, they made to leave the cavern to plant them across the top of the ridge.
Lorath rose to accompany them, but Adreona stopped him.
“You will wait here.”
He could bear it no longer, and his frustration found its way into his voice as a growl. “I will not be left behind again. I am not a child in need of your protection.”
“And I don’t think you truly understand what it means to be an Amazon.
I have taken an oath, Lorath, and I will lay down my life if that is needed to fulfill my oath.
I am a guardian of Skovos and all who dwell here.
At this moment, that includes you, which means you are under my protection.
But for some reason, you insist on making that very difficult for me. ”
Lorath chuckled.
“Something about that amuses you?”
“No, no,” he said. “Or, at least, it doesn’t amuse me for the reason you might think. It’s just that I’m usually the one saying that. I respect your oath, because I have taken one as well.”
“What oath?”
In that moment, Lorath almost told her that he belonged to the Horadrim, but instead he thought back to what Keldon had said about what Adreona was looking for.
“My oath isn’t important right now. Your oath is, and I am only here to help you carry it out.
For Skovos. I don’t need your protection, and you certainly don’t need mine.
I am here to fight for you, with you.” She seemed to be listening to him, and he took a step closer to her.
“I won’t be left behind again. You’ll have to tie me up, and even then, I’ll just break free and follow you. ”
“You really don’t know when to quit, do you?”
“Some might say that’s an admirable quality.”
She looked like she would go on refusing him if she could find another argument, but she had none. “Fine. You can accompany us to the ridge.”
Lorath bowed his head in victory, and when he looked over at Keldon, the old sailor gave him a wink.
They left the cave and followed a different path that continued north along the bluff, in the direction of the Pommel.
From that height, they had a view of the siege in the water below them.
The warships surrounding the promontory appeared to be holding the line against the Drowned.
Their decks appeared orderly, with ranks of archers and warriors standing at the ready, but the flames seemed to be doing most of the deterrence.
That vantage also afforded Lorath a glimpse into the garrison, where Amazons fought from the walls against the enemies that tried to assail them.
The action appeared diminished in size by the distance, the roar of battle a faint disturbance, but Lorath knew well the horror that the Amazons trapped down there would endure.
Adreona shielded her eyes with her hand, looking even farther westward, where the perpetual haze over the sea of Atanos obscured the horizon line between the sky and the broken land.
“I can’t see the watchfire,” she said, pointing. “It should be out there, less than a league beyond the fort.”
“How easily can it be seen during the day?” Lorath asked. “Perhaps the fog is shrouding it?”
“It’s usually visible.” She lowered her hand, brow furrowed in doubt.
“If it has somehow gone out,” Lorath said, “that would explain how this Drowned army got through.”
“The watchfire has never gone out,” Adreona said.
“If it has, then we could be dealing with a greater threat than any we have faced since before it was lit. This incursion would only be the beginning.” She turned northward and resumed their trek along the path, but she kept casting searching glances toward the sea.
The trackway they traveled ran parallel to the line of the ridge high above them until it wrapped around an escarpment where they could look down the slope of shale into the valley.
The Pommel stood over them like a sentinel, as tall and broad as a castle tower but balanced on a tapered throat due to some curious quirk of weathering or erosion.
From that position, they had a view of the road as it came down the highlands from the east and wound its way through the glen, but most important, they could see around a bend the Drowned could not.
It was there Tavie would halt and wait, assuming the messengers reached her, but Lorath could not see her cavalry yet.
The Amazons carrying the incendiary jugs and bottles fanned out along the top of the shale slope, sending some of the loose stones sliding downward.
They then began to nestle the Askari fire deep into the slippery fragments, so their blasts would upset as much of the unstable rock as possible.
The fuses would give them only a few minutes to get clear of danger.
“What if they don’t work?” Keldon asked.
Lorath answered, “Then at least the narrowness of the valley will prevent the Drowned from flanking us.”
“Us?” Adreona asked.
Lorath turned toward her. “I thought we settled this.”
“What I thought,” she said, “is that you would stay up here on the ridge to make sure the avalanche is triggered as planned. I am entrusting you with this. If the Drowned take the bait, it is up to you to light the fuses when the rockslide will take out as many as possible.”
Lorath wanted to fight. He wanted to slay the Drowned in retribution for the suffering they had caused and the lives they had taken.
He would have tried to go with Adreona into battle, but she had planted an uncertainty in his mind that immediately took root: Someone did need to stay behind to ensure the success of the avalanche.
Their victory depended on it, and the idea had been Lorath’s to begin with.
So, he took up the small torch and watched as Adreona and her Amazon warriors continued eastward along the ridge, deeper into the valley, leaving him behind with Keldon to light the fuses.
By the time Adreona had made it beyond the slope of shale and begun her descent to the valley floor, a small dust cloud had risen beyond the last bend in the road, coming toward them.
Shortly thereafter, that cloud rounded the fold, and Tavie’s cavalry rode into Lorath’s view, still out of sight from the Drowned down on the field.
The riders halted at the expected point, which meant Adreona’s messengers had reached them.
Tavie held that position for several minutes, perhaps resting and regrouping after their long journey, readying themselves for the battle ahead.
The pause gave Lorath time to consider all the ways their stratagem might fail.
Even if the Askari fire succeeded in triggering an avalanche, what if the rockslide remained a minimal event, doing negligible damage below?
What if it did too much damage and harmed the Amazon forces?
What if the Drowned saw through the ruse and refused to enter the canyon at all?
These questions and many others filled Lorath with sudden doubt about the likelihood of the plan’s success, but then Tavie and her cavalry initiated their slow march forward, and he could do nothing but be ready to enact his part.
The Amazons blew on their war horns. Their bellowing echoed up and down the glen, seeming to multiply, creating the auditory illusion of a greater force than they actually possessed, a full and triumphant sound that rang off the walls, as if that clarion alone could bring the stone down.
The horns drew the attention of the Drowned.
Their rearward ranks turned to face the threat that had suddenly appeared behind them, some even moving a few paces in the direction of the glen.
Lorath scrambled to get in position to light the first fuse, waiting and watching, but the enemy failed to attack, their few maneuvers appearing furtive and defensive.
They had not yet taken the bait, and the cavalry paused its advance at the mouth of the glen, directly beneath the shale slope.
Keldon sucked his teeth. “Perhaps those infernal creatures are cleverer than we credited them.”
Just then, one of the horses broke from the line, and Lorath recognized Zerae.
Adreona rode her, charging the Drowned army alone, wielding a bow.
Lorath could hear her voice raised in war cries.
She sat high in her saddle firing arrow after arrow that all found their marks, galloping as if she meant to drive right into the heart of the Drowned army.
The enemy forces howled and moved to receive her, but at the last moment, she veered and raced down the length of the Drowned line, still shooting arrows from her bow.
Then she veered again, this time riding back to join her waiting cavalry.
The Amazons blew on their horns again, taunting their enemies.