Second Skin Omnibus

by M Damon Baker

  “You did well,” I complimented him. “Both of you. I am in your debt.”

  “I still consider the scales to be in balance,” Stel smirked. “Though I am certain they will swing one way or another quite soon.”

  I smiled back at him as he led the way back outside again, and we resumed our search for the smith, this time without any further detours or distractions. Stel soon found the man rummaging through a pile of the armor we had recovered after our most recent battle with the orcs. He was evaluating the merit of several pieces of heavy plate when we approached him.

  “Renn,” Stel called to him. “Lady Dreya has an opportunity she would like to offer you.”

  I thought of it more like a job I was going to require him to do, but Stel’s phrasing seemed a bit more subtle. The elf turned to face us when he heard Stel’s voice, and when I saw his face, I remembered him from when Stel had introduced us earlier. He had seemed quite shy, and his introverted manner returned as he averted his eyes from my gaze when he spoke.

  “How can I be of service?” Renn mumbled.

  “Word has probably spread already, so I assume that you are aware of the impending attack?” I asked him.

  “Yes, Lady Dreya, I have heard,” he replied meekly. “I was just looking over this equipment to see if there was anything I could do with it. I brought my tools, but without a forge to work in, there’s precious little I can do.”

  “Well Renn, that’s about to change,” I said with a smile. My grin did little to encourage him however, since his eyes were firmly rooted to the ground at his feet.

  “I want to introduce you to Hilgreth, our blacksmith,” I continued. “You’re going to work in her forge, helping to make whatever you can to aid in our defenses.”

  “You have a forge?” Renn’s eyes lit up as he finally met my gaze. The opportunity to practice his craft had apparently overpowered his shyness and he stared back at me full of hope and optimism.

  “Yes, we do,” I answered him warmly, trying to feed his enthusiasm. “Hilgreth knows what needs to be done, so she can fill you in on the details. Follow her instructions, but do not be afraid to offer any thoughts or suggestions of your own. I want the two of you to work together on this as equals. Do you understand?”

  “Yes, Lady Dreya,” he replied enthusiastically. “Can we go there now? I’d like to get started right way!”

  Stel wasted no time and led us straight to Hilgreth’s forge. Renn was like a child in a toy shop, eagerly looking over the forge in anticipation while we waited for Hilgreth to finish what she was working on. After just a moment, the piece was in a state where she could let it rest for a while and she put aside her work so that we could make our introductions.

  “Hilgreth, I don’t know if you’ve met Stel yet,” I started. “He is one of my companions. He may come to you with directions or changes in our plans, please follow his orders as you would my own.”

  The two shook hands, and I could see Hilgreth testing his grip as she squeezed tightly. Stel was more than up to the challenge, and as they let go of each other, I saw her nod her head slightly in respect of his strength.

  “This is Renn,” I then informed her. “He is the smith I told you about. Please fill him in on everything we’re working on. I trust that the two of you can divide the tasks among yourselves appropriately.”

  My words were laced with double meaning aimed at Hilgreth. She knew I wanted her to treat the elf fairly, and I was reminding her of her promise to do so. I cringed when she extended her hand towards the slightly-built elf, dreading the effect her crushing grip would have on the shy man’s hand.

  Renn reached out and took her hand in his without hesitation. Unlike with me, he looked Hilgreth in the eye as she tried to squeeze the life out of his fingers. Hilgreth’s confident smirk vanished as Renn gripped her in return. The thin elf was clearly far stronger than his narrow frame indicated, and the two smiths engaged in a brief test of strength, neither one willing to be the first to concede.

  “I’ll be damned,” Hilgreth conceded as the two finally released each other’s hands simultaneously.

  “You might be if you two don’t get all your work done,” I remined them.

  “Right,” Hilgreth replied. “Give me a few moments to get Renn caught up, and we’ll get right back to work. It’ll be good to have a second pair of competent hands around here.”

  She said the last bit a little louder, letting her apprentices overhear her good-natured jab.

  Before Stel and I left the smiths to their work, I apologized to Renn for my oversight in leaving him out of the earlier discussions. His previous shyness returned as I spoke to him, and he only muttered back vaguely as he stared at his feet.

  “Don’t think too poorly of him Dreya,’ Stel offered as we walked away. “He’s somewhat shy around women as it is, and even I would have trouble looking into your eyes if I wasn’t so used to them. Am I mistaken or have they gotten even greener while we were away?”

  “I’m not exactly sure how I should take that Stel,” I replied, considering what he had said. “As far as the color of my eyes, I have no idea. But with the way things are going, I wouldn’t be surprised if you’re correct about that.”

  I contemplated Stel’s words while we traveled the rest of the way back to the fortifications in silence. The color of my eyes had always marked me as unique in this world, setting me apart from everyone else here. It was entirely possible that as I grew in power, they might become even more distinct. I had no idea what, if any, significance changes like that might indicate, so I filed it away with all the other unresolved mysteries that had plagued me since my arrival here.

  When Stel and I reached the wall, we could see the tremendous progress Ridge had made. The elemental was placing the last few stone blocks just as we arrived. Dwarven stonemasons worked feverously behind him, smoothing out the rough surfaces and adding the defensive ports to the massive stone passageway. I hailed Ridge as he fused the final block in place, and he lumbered over to us. Stel took a reflexive step back as the stone elemental came to stand beside me.

  “Don’t mind my friend, Ridge,” I teased. “He can be a bit skittish at times.”

  “How can I be of service, Mistress?” Ridge replied flatly.

  “We have discussed the coming attack and have decided that the outer towers will be our next priority,” I told him. “After that, are the four bump-outs along the inside of the wall. If you finish those before the orcs arrive, we’ll come up with something else then.”

  “What about completing the trench, Mistress?”

  “I thought that was done?” I replied somewhat confused.

  “The trough has been dug out, but not properly finished yet,” Ridge explained. “I still need to line it with stone.”

  “I see,” realizing what he intended. “Add that to the list I gave you, but I think that will have to wait for last. While it will help to reinforce the trench, the other elements are much more important right now.”

  “As you wish, Mistress,” Ridge said before setting off on his newest assignment.

  Stel had remained uncharacteristically speechless during the entire exchange. As Ridge lumbered away, he finally spoke.

  “Khorim told us about your Earth spirit, but I had no idea just how impressive he truly was,” Stel uttered in awe.

  “And much less sarcastic than my other rock-headed friend,” I replied, staring at him pointedly.

  As Stel fumbled for a witty retort, I turned to Bane who had remained on my shoulder throughout the morning.

  ‘Time for you to scout,’ I sent him. ‘Stay safe and return before dark.’

  I will, Sintári, he replied as he jumped off my shoulder and shot off into the sky.

  Bane’s scouting continued to come up empty for another week. Although he sighted many dangerous creatures in the forest, keeping our hunting parties safe from any truly dangerous threats in the process, his forays revealed no hint of the orcs’ impending assault.

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nbsp; Ridge had finished the first of the towers and made a great deal of progress on the second during that time. Carving out the towers from the mountain’s rocky stone was apparently a far simpler thing for him than constructing the wall from stone blocks, so his progress on those was remarkable.

  Meanwhile, Hilgreth and Renn completed the portcullis and were busy fitting it into the passageway. While the smiths worked together, the two apprentices had been tasked with crafting additional spears, some of them specially designed to be used in conjunction with the passageway’s narrow weapon ports.

  The stonemasons split themselves into separate groups, one beginning to work on the completed tower, while the other put the finishing touches on the passageway’s defenses. They worked tirelessly to ensure that all of our preparations were in order, lamenting the entire time over the craftsmanship they were sacrificing for the sake of speed, and promising profusely to correct the issue as soon as possible.

  Dellon and Ilvain had their own hands full working on the project I had incentivized for them and claimed to be close to completing the first of their collaborations. While Ridge had yet to create the necessary space for it along the wall, the tower he’d completed was also designed to accommodate one of the devices, so it would not go unused.

  Nalen the bowyer was progressing more slowly. This was not due to any lack of effort on his part; it was simply the reality of his profession. The raw wood he worked with required a great deal of time to cure and process. Although he was only just now completing the first of his more powerful recurve bows, many were in the works, and would soon replace the weaker weapons most of the elves had brought with them. Fortunately, his efforts were augmented by the hunters. Most of them knew how to craft their own arrows and devoted much of the time they were not out hunting to building up an impressive supply of missiles. Large barrels full of these shafts were ready to be placed all along our defensive lines once the orcs were near. Thanks to their efforts, I was sure we had more than enough arrows for the fight.

  Although Bane still had nothing of interest to report, Hilgreth did have some news of note that day.

  “Lady Dreya,” she called to me as I crossed the canyon on one of the seemingly endless series of errands I had been performing during our preparations. Seeing her outside the forge was unusual, and I quickly stopped to speak with her, fearing that something was amiss.

  “What’s wrong, Hilgreth? Is there something you need?”

  “No, Lady Dreya,” she smiled. “There’s nothing I need, but we might have something you do.”

  Hilgreth then explained what she meant, making a point to tell me that the discovery was in fact Renn’s and not her own. The elf had simply been too reluctant to bring it to me himself, so Hilgreth had presented the idea on his behalf.

  “So, these are byproducts of your forge?” I asked her once she had finished explaining Renn’s idea.

  “Yes,” she confirmed for me. “We’ve been storing it for now, trying to figure out what to do with the stuff. Usually there’s a bit of a market for it, so it’s not an issue, we just don’t have that option here.”

  “Mark the barrels clearly; we need be able to tell them apart,” I replied to her. “Renn’s idea is excellent, and make sure you tell him I said so. I’ll incorporate it into our plans immediately; I may even have an idea in mind for the portion of it that isn’t suited for his scheme.”

  Hilgreth smiled broadly before hurrying back to her forge, promising to do just as I asked.

  With Renn’s suggestion fresh on my mind, I postponed the errand I’d been on and made my way over to the fortifications. I gathered a few of the stonemasons together and told them the rough outline of the smith’s idea. Their eyes lit up in understanding, and they looked over the work they had done, ensuring that it would be up to the challenge of what Renn had proposed.

  “It’s pretty much what some of these holes were designed for, Lady Dreya,” one of them told me. “But I think we’ll need to shore up the edges here—build a small lip around the perimeter, as it were.”

  “Can you do it quickly?”

  “Absolutely,” another one of the stonemasons replied. “It doesn’t even have to be permanent. Your Earth spirit can handle that when he has the time. We’ll just need to lay some blocks around the outside to contain things.”

  With the stonemasons on board and confident, I left them to handle the minor projects that were needed to make Renn’s idea feasible. If it worked, his addition to our defenses just might convert my plan to defeat the orcs into their total annihilation.

  Once that was handled, I finished the errand I had been on when Hilgreth had stopped me. My day, like all of the others before it, had been a hectic rush to and fro, desperately trying to keep ahead of the ever-increasing demands on my time that the impending assault required. The non-stop pace had begun wearing me down, but the new wrinkle in our defenses that Renn had conceived reinvigorated me. I had been confident in our preparations before, but still wary of the potential for the unknown to ruin them. Renn’s idea seemed to add an additional layer of assurance for me, and I shouldered my responsibilities again with renewed enthusiasm.

  Our work continued until three days later, when Bane spotted the first orc scouts. They were still a full day’s travel away when he noticed them, but we recalled our hunters and forbade anyone to venture beyond the walls after that. Since all of our preparations outside had already been made, the restriction cost us little, while ensuring the safety of our people.

  Ridge had finished the second tower by then and moved on to creating the modifications that Ilvain and Dellon had requested. The two of them continued to work on their devices and were eager to see them put in place. The initial sighting of our enemy only seemed to spur them on even further, and they redoubled their efforts, hoping to get as many of their contraptions in place as possible before the orcs arrived in force.

  We also had a fairly extensive minefield laid out by then. Once the inner portcullis had been completed, Hilgreth, Renn, and the apprentices manufactured and placed many more of their wicked caltrops in the field outside the wall. The devices had proven their worth in our last battle, but I wondered just how effective they would be in this next attack now that the orcs were aware of them.

  With the orc scouts approaching, I ordered the gate operators to begin pretending that the drawbridge was malfunctioning. Our plan required us to convince the orcs that our gate was not operating properly, and we needed the orc scouts to observe us having trouble with the mechanism right from the start for the deception to be believable. The operators would raise the gate partially before dropping it back down abruptly and then feign dismay as they flitted about pretending to frantically repair the equipment. Their act was quite impressive, and I hoped that the orcs found our charade equally convincing.

  The day after Bane spotted them, we noticed the orc scouts brazenly observing us from the tree line. They seemed completely indifferent to the fact that we were aware of their presence and made no effort to conceal themselves. The green-skinned creatures boldly surveyed our defenses, making note of the changes they observed while we stared back at them. For our part, we made every effort to conceal as much as possible from their prying eyes. Everything that could be hidden behind the wall was kept from their view, including the elves that had joined us since the orcs’ last failed attack. The arrival of the elves had doubled our numbers, and their presence was another one of our surprises that we wanted to keep hidden from our enemies for as long as possible. So, once the orc scouts began observing us none of the elves were allowed to climb atop the walls. The only defenders we let our enemies see were the dwarves who had fought them off before.

  Although we still hadn’t spotted the enemy army, we knew it could not be far off, and with battle close at hand, we began stocking the fortifications with weapons and ammunition. Barrels of bolts and arrows were positioned all along the defenses. Three of the four stories of the towers that rose above the wall were pro
visioned for the elven archers that would be firing down upon the enemy from their heights, while the second story of both towers were occupied by Dellon and Ilvain’s creations, as were two of the four positions that Ridge had added along the wall. I would owe the two of them a great deal of coin when this was over, and if the weapons worked as promised, that money would be well-spent.

  Renn’s surprise was also in place, only waiting for the orcs to fall into our trap before we could unleash its devastation on them. My special little twist on his idea had also been implemented and would hopefully assure that our victory would be complete.

  Ridge made his own final preparations stealthily, working within the trench to remain hidden from view in its depths. He spent two entire days transforming its rough earthen walls into stout stone, reinforcing the trough as his last act before I dismissed him until after the battle was decided.

  Bane continued his reconnaissance while the orcs’ scouts kept watch over us. I made him fly off from deep within the canyon, lest his departure be observed by the enemy scouts. For those first two days, he returned without having spotted the enemy’s forces. The next day we were not so lucky.

  Rather than returning late in the evening as usual, Bane came back to me early in the afternoon instead. His premature return could mean only one thing, and I knew immediately from his demeanor that the news was not good.

  They are close Sintári, a day’s journey away, no more. I am sorry, I cannot understand how they got so near without me noticing them.

  ‘That’s alright, Bane, tell me what you saw,’ I asked hesitantly, reluctant to hear his answer. His downcast attitude was clearly the result of something more than just allowing the enemy to evade his notice.

  Well over a thousand orcs approach us, and they are not alone, Sintári. Ogres march with them, I counted exactly a dozen of them.

  A combined attack from both orcs and ogres was not something we had even considered while making our preparations. The ogre’s presence put all of our measures in doubt, possibly rendering our carefully planned tactics completely ineffective. With their huge size and tremendous strength, the ogres could easily turn the tide of battle in favor of the attacking orc army.