The Silencing of Esteria

Chapter 28

Rin, Kat, Jaren, Duglan, Herdru and Kinic stood around Toland's kitchen table listening to Toland explain what he had already told his father and Katrina.

Thunder clapped outside, the raindrops lashing against the windows in sheets.

"Surely," Duglan said once Toland had finished, "This is beyond the capacity of beasts. This is a strategic plan, one based on an understanding of how nature works. They can't possibly be that intelligent."

The room turned to him, unconvinced.

"They seemed pretty smart to me," Herdru said.

Rin nodded his agreement.

"If they have built a dam," Kat said, "We needs ride out and destroy it. With all possible haste."

"We barely survived the last fight," Rin replied, "And that was with the advantage of them being in a confined space. If we leave the walls, we are as defenceless as birigas."

Kat cocked her head at the unfamiliar word.

"Think of a volshbear but smaller," explained Kinic and she nodded.

"So, we just let them flood us out?" Herdru said.

"We know the direction the flood will come from; we could build extra fortifications along its path and try and divert it around the village. If the flooding is not too great some simple channels around the walls should be enough. It might actually prove advantageous in the long run, we would have a moat like a proper castle."

"We can add breakers along its path as well," Kat added, "To stall the water's momentum."

"So be it, I'll organise the workers," Ir Shan said, and they dispersed.

Kat turned to Toland.

"How high can you make those earth walls?" she asked him.

"The highest I've done is about six feet high, but I can rewrite the spell to make them higher."

"That should be fine, bring your bag of spells and we shall go and place some in the path of the flood. They should lessen the impact of the water, perhaps even stop it altogether."

Toland nodded, grabbed his bag and they headed to the wall.

As they approached

They exited through the nearest gate and looked towards the forest that hid the river. There was a small valley between them and the forest, tiny in comparison to the one everything rested in, created by the mountains, but perhaps 50ft deep between its lowest point and where they were standing.

Kat held out her arm to stop him, gently pressing him back, behind her.

He looked at her in confusion, then followed her gaze across the valley to see the remaining ten or so direwolves on the forest's edge.

The wolves didn't seem to spot them, they were focused on their task, which seemed to be rolling out rocks and boulders from the forest onto the lip of the valley.

Then the wolves all stopped, perfectly still, their ears sticking up, then they all bolted away, leaving a vast array of rocks ranging from the size of a lamb to taller than Toland, lined up.

"Back inside the walls," Katrina hissed, and they turned and ran back inside.

"Get off the walls!" Katrina shouted to the guards, who were sleepily changing shift, "Everyone off this side of the wall!"

Confused and unsettled, they obeyed.

The storm winds howled around them, Katrina running off down the wall, shouting at guards, leaving Toland to turn and look out at the gate.

Another rushing sound joined the wind, and water surged out of the trees in a great flood.

The wave must have been ten feet high, filled with debris and pushing the stones off the edge, carrying them down the valley walls and then driving them up the other side.

Toland burst into action, slamming the gates closed and bolting them shut. Frantically, he rummaged through his pouch of spells for one of the ones that summoned an earthen wall as he dashed away.

He found one, checked the activation run, and spoke the command.

The ground in front of him erupted into a wall of compacted earth almost like brick six feet tall, four feet wide and just under a foot thick.

He turned as he heard the water hit the village walls, watching the boulders rip holes in it. He ducked behind his earthen wall as it collapsed with a great, splintering, moaning crash, rocks and small trees and other debris pouring into the village. He heard crashes against his wall, but robbed of their momentum by the outer wall they didn't break through.

Water flowed around his ankles, rising quickly until it was tugging at his knees.

Another crash of thunder.

The crashes stopped and the water around him began to recede. He looked out at the wall to see it split open like a god had taken an axe to it, leaving a slash at least thirty feet across.

"Gods protect us," Toland whispered, and clutched the charm around his neck.

A wolf howled, then another and another.

"Kat..."

He sprinted towards where he had last seen her. He didn't have to run far, she was pulling herself out of the debris of the wall.

"Toland!" she said as she saw him, "You're okay, thank God."

Toland watched, transfixed as she disentangled herself from having a thirty-foot-tall wall dropped on her, ready her spear and prepare herself to fend off the ten direwolves that were bounding towards them.

"You can't face them all!" Toland said, aghast.

She looked at him darkly.

"I cannot kill them all, perhaps, but I most certainly can face them all."

"The others will be coming, let's hide in one of the houses until they arrive. We can face them together."

"If I delay, people will die, we cannot let them into the village. I will hold this breach as long as I can. You should go, your magic will be vital in the battle to come, with Jaren out of combat spells, you are all we have."

Toland frowned, then pulled out a pair of spells from his bag.

"I won't leave you to die."

"You must."

"I won't"

The wolves were nearly upon them now.

She turned to him, pained, stepped in and kissed him lightly.

"I am sorry, goodbye, Toland," she said, picked him up and threw him through the first floor window of the nearby house.

Grittingher teeth, she stepped out, taking up the middle of the gap in the wall, andbraced herself, pointing her spear at the oncoming pack.