The Silencing of Esteria

Chapter 24

Building the walls higher took about a week. Toland had adjusted much better to working with magic, and he found he could work with the simple runes for the whole day without them starting to fail.

On the evening of the eighth day he watched the final pieces being put together with Kat, sat on a piece of lumber.

It was still cold outside, but as the sun dipped just beneath the horizon it casts half the heavens in beautiful rays of crimson and orange. The stars shone through the cloudless blue of the sky.

"At this rate, we might as well start mining out stone blocks for the walls and calling ourselves a fort rather than a village."

Kat shrugged, "I don't think so, forts need to be protected with magical defences as well. The walls of guard towers are nearly completely covered in runes for just that purpose."

Toland frowned, "How would that work though, to have continuous protection you would need to have a massive amount of material, and it would be on fire all the time."

"You can have runes that only activate when they are needed. For my tenth birthday my father gave me a shield with a thousand such runes on it. Whenever it was about to snap, one would activate, making it harder than the strongest of steels."

"That seems like an odd gift for a ten-year-old."

"One day I was supposed to be Queen of Esteria. It would be my role to lead armies into battle, to stand against the greatest of threats to the realm. Even alone if needs be. My family was made for battle, it is our great purpose."

Toland didn't have a reply, so the silence hung in place for what seemed like an eternity to him.

Katrina suddenly snapped round towards the wall.

"Do you hear that?" she hissed.

Toland strained desperately to listen but couldn't hear anything.

She stood up, reaching over to the side of the building where her shield and spear were resting.

Toland, taking the hint, reached into his pouch and pulled out a newly carved wooden tablet.

She ventured forward and rested a hand on the ground about two metres from the wall.

"OFF THE WALL!" she screamed, bolting upright.

The men on the wall startled, finding her with their gaze and looking at her in confusion.

"They are tunnelling under!" she shouted at them.

Sure enough Toland could hear it now, a scratching sound of claws on earth.

"Guards!" shouted Kat, "Guards! Form up, defensive line!"

Men scrambled about, not fully understanding, working purely off what Kat had taught them, grabbing spears and shields and armour.

Toland continued to examine the ground, noticing a small area of dirt shift and sink.

"Here!" he shouted over to Kat, pointing to the ground.

"MOVE!" screamed Kat, "WOLVES INSIDE THE WALLS!"

That got more than just the guards' attention. People looked around buildings and through windows to see what was going on.

About fifteen of Kat's militia managed to get in a vague line as the ground trembled underneath Toland's feet.

He stepped back in horror as the ground fell away, forming a bigger and bigger hole.

"Toland!" Katrina shouted, sprinting towards him as a wolf's head appeared from the abyss at his feet.

The massive beast leapt towards Toland, jaws open and drooling.

Toland froze in terror, his hands going to his side for a spell, but they were far too slow. The burning red eyes glowing in malicious glee as the monster fell on him.

Kat smashed into him, knocking him to the floor, her shield raised over both of them protectively.

There was a clang as the wolf's head met her shield followed by a whimper.

Toland found he was holding his breath, his face an inch away from Kat's, her brilliant crystal eyes locked with his.

Kat shot to her feet, grabbing Toland by his shirt and hurling him away. He arced through the air and landed in a heap on top of a snow drift.

He groaned and rolled over to see the linuri frantically darting about around his head, its form turned a shade of ghostly white.

The militia was locked in a desperate struggle to keep the wolves in the tunnel, which had now expanded to cover about a ten-foot radius. The rest of the guards having arrived and formed a half circle around the entrance with Kat at the centre, taking on the brunt of the attacks.

The nearby streets had descended into chaos as people ran screaming from their homes, heading away from the attackers, looking to seek sanctuary in the nearby guard towers.

Toland reached for his pouch of spells but found it empty. He had opened it just before he had been thrown and now his wooden tablets were scattered everywhere along his flight path. He cursed and dashed towards the nearest one, grabbing it and activated it, sending a bolt of lightning arcing towards the nearest wolf, striking it on the side and propelling it into a wall of waiting spears. It howled with pain, but it quickly staggered away, growling viciously at the men.

Running down the street came Herdru and Rin, weapons drawn and looking about in horror at the scene unfolding before them before reinforcing the line.

Three wolves were now free of the tunnel, battering into the lines of men, then snarling as they were driven backwards by the points of spears.

Toland had found a few more of his spells and returned all but one to his pouch. The lightning spell he let loose on the nearest wolf, striking its hindquarters and sending it skittering backwards, but not dealing a great deal of damage.

He cursed his aim and repositioned himself behind the centre of the line.

Then another wolf broke free of the tunnel, finding the space to slip past the others and jumped on the line. The preoccupied militia didn't have time to respond, and the wolf ripped into them, killing two as it landed on them and picking up a third in its jaws, shaking him about, still screaming, before biting him in half.

Thelines broke and wolves poured into the village.