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“I know!” she shouted back. From her perch
in one of the sentry towers, Cole Mastin knew the battle lady had
the perfect vantage point.
Peering over the thirty-foot barricade,
the second gripped his sword in anticipation. A few meters away,
Yulen D’Jacques, the Battle Lord of Alta Novis, also took a stance
as the wave of rats emerged from the tree line and headed straight
for the compound. From this distance they looked like an
undulating blanket of dark fur. A silent and deadly menace that
appeared ready to swarm the walls once they reached the wood
structure.
“Fire the torches!” Yulen called out. Down
the line, the order was repeated. Soldiers hurried out to where
the torches were lined up, ready and waiting.
A shiver went through him. His body was
cooling down in the aftermath of the sweaty work he’d put in that
afternoon. He and nearly forty other men had spent the few hours
shoveling the snow away from the compound walls to create a huge
trench between the banked snow and the fortification. It was
becoming a daily occurrence, as the skies continued to drop three
to six inches of accumulating powder every day.
As the torches were lit, the soldiers
retreated back into the compound. Now it was a waiting game.
Waiting to see what the enormous rodents would do.
“What do you think drove them this way?” a
voice behind him whispered.
Mastin glanced over at his very pregnant
wife. He didn’t disguise the irritation he felt at her being up on
the parapet with him. He knew why she was there. He simply didn’t
approve of it, with her already past her delivery date.
“We don’t know. It could be anything. It
could be nothing.” He eyed her round abdomen, noticeable even
under the furs she wore to protect herself from the cold. He also
noticed she carried her lance.
Paas met his judgmental gaze with one of
her own. “My people swear by the saying, ‘Never turn away friend’s
sword.’”
“Well,
my
people say a woman with child must first protect the babe
in her womb,” he snapped back. “Remember that time in Wallis when
Yulen and I had to leave you and Atty behind? But you argued to go
with us? I told you then that you had to stay to help protect Atty
and the baby. But my main reason was because I needed the peace of
mind to face our enemy. I needed to be able to concentrate on our
mission, and not be distracted with worry about you. Well, I’m
saying the same thing now. If you were not pregnant, I would
welcome you up here with me. I would look forward to fighting
alongside you.” He shook his head. “But not this time. I won’t
allow you to risk our unborn child. Get off this stockade. If you
have to wield your weapon, go to where Keelor is with the
children, and give them your protection.”
He steeled himself for her reaction.
Prepared for the argument that would ensue. To his surprise, she
grabbed him by the back of the neck, drawing his face toward her,
and planted a hard, moist kiss on his mouth. Without saying a
word, she descended the ladder. Mastin watched as she headed
toward the center of the compound to where the battle lord and
lady’s home stood, when a shout caught his attention.
“Lances! At ready!” Yulen leaned over the
top of the wall to make certain all the torches were lit.
“Archers! At ready!” Atty yelled from her
tower.
The guards filled the catwalks, pikes,
bows, and spears at-hand. Those with the long poles readied
themselves to sweep the rodents off the sides of the walls should
the creatures make it across the trench. Hopefully, the torches
would be enough of a deterrent to keep the rats at bay.
Gripping his sword, Mastin watched as the
blanket of darkness advanced toward them. Here and there, he
spotted the odd white coat amid the dark brown and black pelts.
The mass was noticeably moving slower. There had to be
hundreds—no, thousands of them. He frowned. The rats were the one
creature they couldn’t kill to eat. Something in their bodies was
too toxic, making their meat and organs inedible. People who tried
got violently ill. Some died. Even the carrion creatures gave rat
carcasses a wide berth and refused to gorge on them.
As such, the rats had no natural
enemy…except man.
The swath of creatures eventually paused
at the edge of the snowbank. Several of them rose up on their hind
legs to sniff the air. A few tested the packed ice crystals, as if
to test the ground and see if it was strong enough to hold them.
“I think the torches are working,” Yulen
remarked.
Eubanks ran up to the battle lord. “No
sign of them on the west end, sir.”
“Any word from the south or north?”
“Covern and Wyatt also report no
sighting.”
“Good. Tell them to stay put until I say
otherwise.”
“Staying put,” the soldier repeated, and
hurried away.
“Are you thinking the rats might divide
their forces and try to attack us from all sides?” Mastin
inquired.
“Never underestimate an opponent, Cole. No
matter if it’s human or not.”
Mastin understood. Some of these creatures
had developed an intelligence far beyond what they had originally
been known to have, millennia ago, before The Great Concussion.
Automatically, he glanced up at the fading sky. Bits and pieces of
the broken moon were visible between the gathering clouds as it
ascended just above the trees. Seeing it, another thought came to
him.
“They’re not moving,” a nearby guard
whispered. “It’s like they’re sitting there, waiting.”
Mastin glanced again at the moon, then
commented to the battle lord, “Night’s falling fast. What if
they’re waiting for it to get dark before they make their move?”
D’Jacques tossed him a raised eyebrow. By
the man’s expression, Mastin knew he’d made a valid point. Past
skirmishes already confirmed how smart these animals were. In as
much, they couldn’t put anything past the rats’ capabilities.
Yulen called up to his wife. “Atty, have
you ever known these things to attack in broad daylight?”
“No. It’s always been…” Her voice trailed
off and her eyes widened slightly, almost confirming Mastin’s
supposition.
They continued their watch. Across the
wide trench, except for the occasional creature rearing up to
check the air, the rats didn’t move. Mastin got the eerie feeling
something was about to happen. Or
was happening. They just couldn’t see it.
Or, even if it was taking place right in front of their eyes, they
weren’t picking up on it.
“What are you thinking, Cole?”
He looked over at where Yulen was quietly
studying him. “I’m thinking it’s much too…”
“Peaceful?” the battle lord suggested.
“Yeah. They’re up to something. I can’t
figure out what.”
“I agree. Atty?”
The battle lady nodded. “My senses are
prickling. I’m picking up something. I don’t what it is, but I
don’t like it.” She turned and came down the tower ladder to join
her husband. “There’s no sense in me staying up there. There are
too many of them for my arrows to be effective. I’d be able to cut
down a dozen or so, but this horde is too big to try and take down
one at a time.”
Leaning over the side, she examined the
trench and the line of lit torches jammed into the nearly
eight-foot-high snowbank on the opposite side of the barricade.
With the sun below the tree line, the small flames made dancing
shadows on the wall.
Snowflakes began drifting down. Mastin
gave a snort of disgust. “I was hoping this would hold off until
morning.”
“At least the cloud cover will help keep
the temperature from dropping too low,” Yulen murmured.
Peering over the bulwark again, Mastin
watched as the snow laid a thin layer at the bottom of the trench.
He started to remark about the rats leaving paw prints, when there
was the tiniest movement in the dusting. He continued to stare at
it, when there was a second, almost imperceptible tremor coming
from underneath.
“Atty!” He pointed below. “Do you see it?”
She squinted downward, as did D’Jacques.
Several seconds passed, when there seemed to be another barely
discernable upheaval. Immediately, she whirled around.
“Everyone get down to ground level!
They’re
burrowing underneath the barricade!” |