by James Wymore
"Heads up!" one man yelled. He waited three seconds before dropping a large metal pole deep into the fissure and pounding. He worked on several such poles in this break, slowly hammering them down. Thunder rumbled from inside. He made one more hit. Then the rock and all the poles broke free and crashed to the meadow below. As the ground beneath him came loose, the man dangled from a rope, tied to a higher tree and held tight by his partner.
Huge teams of goats and concentrations of magic managed to get the rocks rolled and dragged along the base of the wall. Building the platform above these rocks and using the tallest tree trunks, Elwood hoped to get a fifteen-foot high wall. With the rocks in place, they all started transporting stripped logs from the rise above their home base out to the spring meadow, using skis they fastened beneath each bundle and tasking more mountain goats to drag them.
"This is all quite incredible," Jewel said as she watched several men drive a tall log into the frozen earth with great hammers.
"It will all be for nothing if Bowen can't get that pump working," Elwood said.
"I thought the pump worked." She tipped her head as she turned to look at her husband.
"The pump works. We just can't get the hoses to hold water. The oiled leather keeps leaking at the seams."
Jewel smiled as her breath made a trail of fog. "I think Macey's figured that one out. She told me last night when Bowen told her the problem she knew just the answer. Intestines. Goat intestines. They are smaller than he originally thought of, but they hold water pretty well. He said he's going to try some out today."
"Interesting. He'll probably have to hook several rows together," Elwood said.
"Or build several smaller pumps."
"That reminds me. Now that the wall base is in place, I need to send those rock cutters up to try and bring the saddle down on the ridge."
"Bowen said they'll need to dig a wider pool for the pumps, too." She turned to watch a bundle of logs coming up the slope on skis.
"When they finish all this," Elwood said, "I think I want to take out some of the path between here and the houses and replace it with a bridge."
"Some of that road is bridges already," Jewel said. "Just under the snow."
"Maybe those will work," Elwood said. "We need something we can throw down if we lose the wall and are forced to retreat."
Jewel nodded. The thought made her sad. She wanted to believe the wall would hold. "It's almost dark. Are you about ready to send the men back?"
"Another half hour or so. We have to wait for the lookouts to change shift." Elwood had one scout stationed here, and another to the south around the next peak, so they could watch the sea for any sign of incoming ships.
"Actually, I signed up for the next watch here," she said.
"But you're…" He stopped short. He knew she wouldn't listen to any protests about her condition.
She nodded toward her sleigh. "I brought a tent, in case you wanted to keep me company."
Elwood raised his hands to his mouth and shouted, "Let's leave those logs for tomorrow and head back home for dinner."
Sore and tired men and women all waved back to him and began finishing what they were working on.
With a sliver of moon blurred behind mysterious clouds, the snow everywhere looked purple and blue. The cascading layers of hills and cliffs below them grew darker as they approached the black ocean. With one arm around Jewel and the other holding a heavy blanket around them both, Elwood blew a long trail of steam, which looked gray in the diffuse night.
"How many Hyzoi do you think will come against us?" Jewel wondered aloud.
"I have no idea," he said. "I counted eighty dead men and sixty dead monsters at the south dam battle site. That doesn't tell us how many of the enemy lived through the battle. The ship I saw must have held fifty at least, and maybe up to two hundred."
"Two hundred," Jewel said with a shudder.
Elwood rubbed his hand up and down on her arm to warm it. "Siege battles only take half as many defenders," he said. "So we should be evenly matched if they bring one-hundred fifty." He turned to look at her profile. Even this close, it was little more than a shadow. He asked, "How long before spring arrives?"
"We are using more and more magic to try and extend the winter," Jewel said, turning to look into his eyes. In the dark they looked bluish, too. "South winds bring the cold, so we keep drawing them. We'll be lucky if we can hold out another month."
Elwood nodded. "Only one month. It would be too short if I spent every moment alone with you."
She nodded. He kissed her. They kept their lips tight to keep out the cold, pressing their noses together to warm them.
"You need to get your sleep," she said eventually.
"I'm not tired," he lied. "Why don't you sleep for a few hours, and I'll wake you to take the last watch."
She wanted to protest, but a growing baby took more energy than she expected. "Promise you'll wake me soon," she said, with glossy eyes and a mischievous smile.
He smiled and winked at her.
In the early twilight, Jewel called, "Elwood! Elwood, come out here!"
Without stopping to put on a coat, he flew from the tent flaps, sword in hand. His eyes were wide open, and he didn't feel the harsh bite of icy air. After seeing no immediate threat, he asked, "What is it?"
"There." She pointed to the ocean. Halfway between the horizon and the shore floated a small, tear-drop shaped vessel.
Suddenly Elwood felt the cold pierce to his very soul as a breeze lifted his hair. He wagged his head. "That's not a good sign."
"What does it mean?" Seeing he was planning to stay with her, she wrapped her body around behind him and closed the heavy blanket in front of him to protect from the elements.
His words were broken by shivering. "It means I was right. They are coming for sure, and we have little hope of outnumbering them. This will be a hard war—maybe a battle of attrition."
Jewel didn't say anything, but he sensed she didn't know what that meant.
"It means victory will cost many lives."
She squeezed him tighter, almost biting into his skin with her nails. He didn't need magic to know what she was feeling. "You will die with them," she said. It was half a question, half a plea for him to argue with her.
"Nobody knows their fate," Elwood said.
"But you are a hero. You will put yourself between them, the same as you did with the mountain lion and at the reservoir. I can't lose you so soon. It will break my heart forever. And we can't protect you with our magic."
"I'm not lost yet," he said. "Your magic will have plenty of uses besides protecting me."
Jewel nodded. "I know you are a great warrior," she said. "Now I wish I could fight beside you. I would rather see you every second. Macey will not be parted from Bowen through it all."
"Armies need food," he said, "and myriad other things. You will be as hard pressed as anyone."
"But not by your side."
"Nobody can fight unending," he said. "We will have to take time off to sleep. I will see you sometimes."
Jewel nodded and wiped away a tear before it could freeze. "I should not say these things. You need to know I believe in you. I know you are strong."
"I know you believe in me," he said. "You gave your whole life to me. And if I have no other choice, I'll give my life to protect yours. But if there is any room in this crazy world for two choices, I'll always live in order to be with you."
She kissed his neck from behind and rested her chin on his shoulder.
"Before, I didn't have anything so wonderful to live for," he said.
"You remembered?" she asked with hope.
"No. I am just sure I never felt so happy before."
"Come back from this war alive, and I will make you happy every moment until you die," she promised.
"If there is any way, I will claim that prize." He turned and kissed her long and passionately, letting in cold they drove away with their love.
Then
they turned back and watched the transport slowly come to the shore.
Chapter Nineteen
"Elwood." The young man's voice was quiet, but held the whole world's weight of urgency. "Elwood, wake up. There's another ship." Jewel woke at the sound of her husband's name. Elwood was dressed and rushing out the door without a word in only seconds, pulling a heavy coat on as he nodded to his wife and closed the tent flap.
Twenty tents stood in neat rows on the south end of the spring meadow. For the last few days, as many as could fit were sleeping in them, in order to have at least half of Winigh's soldiers on hand when scouts set the alarm.
As he made his way across the sticky mud, Elwood felt with dread how the morning cold did not bite into the skin of his face nearly as much as he would like. As he moved toward the hills rising to the west, he glanced at the wall. Strong as they could make it, the wooden frame lined with sharpened points spread from rising cliff to falling cliff with a dozen ladders evenly spaced across the back and a thousand arrows spread in quivers along the entire length. The tips of the arrows were just sharpened wood, because tips would make no difference and the arrows flew straighter this way. There were enough bows and weapons for every fighter the town could offer. Unfortunately, all of them together fit along the length of the platform.
One large catapult stood ready behind the wall. Another was near completion. They had to haul the wood farther now, having cleared anything nearby. It took three times as much because they had to burn most of it to dry the rest. Still, the longer the enemy delayed, the more armaments they would build. Bowen was working on helmets and breastplates now. With all the metal in use as weapons, they had only platters to hammer and fasten straps to.
What traps they could engineer waited in the cold and quiet morning. They looked less deadly for the light dust of snow which had settled on them, a false testament to their stability. Elwood only hoped everybody had the common sense to stay away and not tinker with them.
The trench for the spring flowed down the meadow instead of across it now. The pumps waited in the pool near Aunt Lanny's homestead. Every drop of alcohol filled clay pots with cloth fuses sticking out the top. These were housed in a special tent near the wall.
Elwood didn't want to turn his head west. He knew what he was going to see there. There was no need for anybody to have awakened him. It would be hours before the thing landed and disgorged the vile creatures inside it.
When he finally turned, the teardrop shaped vessel was unmistakable. "Good eye," he said to the scout. A shiver he wished was from the cold wind went down his spine. Three transports. How many Hyzoi would be coming against them? He had no idea. From this distance, he could not even properly see details on the ship. All he knew was that it was big, and it seemed to be the same ship taking long, slow trips.
He allowed himself a tiny amount of comfort. It would take them some time to assemble and scale the mountain, even when the inevitable thaw delivered water to them to act as their passageway. Suddenly, he didn't like the cliffs just below the hill he stood on. They were not so grand as the ones to the south beneath the rest of Winigh. He wondered if they had time to cut some rocks out and make these steeper. He would start some men on it today.
As his eyes traced the snow paths of the streams he'd never seen among what was certain to be green hills, he identified another key juncture. There was a stretch between two cliffs the Hyzoi would definitely have to cross. With the wall completed, he wanted traps on that lower stretch. They should arrange something here, too. If the Hyzoi did as he expected, they would want to take the closer road immediately beneath him now. In which case, they should set traps along the hill beneath his feet.
"Sound the alarm, Rocky," Elwood said. "Wake up the town. They need to see what you've discovered."
Imbued with a sacred task, the young man turned on his heels, letting go of the cloak he'd been holding around him for warmth and rushed toward the wall. He told the man on watch, who immediately lifted a horn and blasted it three times into the silent morning.
Faster than previous drills, the fighters of Winigh spilled out of the tents, boots sloshing through gelatinous mud, and rushed to the wall. Axes and knives clanked as they rapidly sheathed them. The frozen wood of lashed ladders creaked as bodies methodically scaled them. Bows rose from lock boxes as arrows nocked. Every person stood with their back to Elwood, looking over the wall and ready to shoot.
Once the position had been taken, tethered climbers began working their way up the cliff and over to the nearest traps. Two teams climbed down and rushed back to the catapults.
Twenty minutes and several horn blasts later, sleighs from the homestead began to arrive. Each one drove goats in front of the team, pulling them all forward. Many of the goats had purple stripes on their wool and wooden spikes attached between their curled horns. It was a long-shot hope. Some of them, when butting against a Hyzoi, might possibly hit an eye and bring an enemy down. Only the goats Vince had managed to train to attack were marked with the spikes.
Elwood didn't like how long it took the goats to arrive. It would be too late in a real battle. He would get them to build a corral closer when it was safe for the beasts. They already had all the tents they could build here. As the temperature warmed, he would begin working them in shifts so all the soldiers were in the meadow day and night. They needed to start changing their sleep cycles anyway.
Once the drill finished and everybody was in place, he stepped down from the hill and moved toward them, noting the cold mud didn't hold him up as it used to. As he walked, they turned their attention to him, but held their positions.
Jewel crossed over to him from their tent. "Good for goats?" she asked.
"Good for soldiers," he said.
"Another ship?"
He just nodded. She wrapped her hand around his arm and followed him out near the catapults. He waved for everybody to gather.
Left to wander, the shaggy creatures mulled around the area, disappointed to find not a single tree or bush to nibble. When the thaw came, they would find no grass in the badly trampled meadow, either.
"That was a very fine display," Elwood called out in a strong voice. "You should be proud of yourselves." Everybody nodded and a few mumbled. Elwood again repressed the strong urge to bark at them for talking in an assembly. Instead, he waited until they were ready to listen.
"We have many preparations left to make," he called out. "The enemy does not sit idle. Go and see." He pointed toward the hill.
Everybody looked at each other, unsure if they heard him right. Then the young man who had been on watch earlier rushed over and called out, "There's another ship!"
Eighty people rushed over and spread out along the two wide hills making up the west edge of the small valley. They pointed and talked. Until now, they had not seen one of the enemy ships with their own eyes.
Elwood gave them plenty of time to watch and talk. It stretched on to twenty minutes before the ship came to land. During that time, Jewel stayed behind with him, holding his hands and leaning against him for warmth.
When the crowd finished talking, Elwood moved down into the lower section between the hills, where the stream used to fall over the rocks below. He made eye contact with every single person and let the silence stretch on.
"If we have seen them all, that is the third time this same ship has come to the shores beneath Winigh. If they were coming for Sel City, they would be landing to the north of the pass and outside our view. We already know they purposefully destroyed the south dam. The river there gave them enough reach to destroy the town of Southwall.
"My company of Selene soldiers died trying to hold the reservoir. The road will remain covered long after the thaw brings back streams, which the Hyzoi will use to scale our mountain. We can have no doubt they intend to destroy every human being in Winigh and claim this entire peninsula for their own.
"Winigh town is in the land of Sel. We have a right to claim protection from the king. However,
we know, first of all, that they underestimated the Hyzoi at south dam. Second, they could not send more troops by the blocked road, even if they did know we are still alive. They will probably think all of Winigh went down with Southwall.
"It falls on us," he said so loud a small echo returned from a rock wall below them. "Our town will survive or fall with our defenses. Our families will live or die by our efforts.
"Town of Winigh, you are no longer farmers and goat herders. You have trained. You are soldiers."
He paused, looking across them, to show he meant it. "I would stand behind any one of you without a weapon to prove I have faith in your heart. While your skill has never been tested in battle, you now have the ability to kill our enemies when they come within range. I have watched you transform into warriors, the likes of which even Sel must admit of being good and true.
"We are not only the town of Winigh. We are part of Sel. We are Selenes. And each of you, having trained to fight the enemies of Sel, are ready to be Selene soldiers. I say you are ready, but one thing yet remains— your word of honor. Every person charged with the protection of Sel must be bound by a sacred oath. I have forgotten the exact rites and words. But I know the feelings burn in you, as they still do in me.
"So I ask you, will you pledge yourselves to Sel?"
As the words echoed, several of the young men began to shout their agreement. The older among them looked about unsure. The women, positive it was not usual for their gender to be admitted to such an order, hesitated.
Undeterred, Elwood raised his fist into the air. "I will fight the enemies of Sel and give my life to protect my people."
They began to nod to each other, realizing those words were something they all could swear. As a mob, not in unison, they each raised their hands and repeated the saying. "I will fight the enemies of Sel and give my life to protect my people."
Elwood saw Jewel standing behind the rest. She took the same vow.
"Now, you are Selene soldiers," Elwood called out. "It falls on you to keep this land out of Hyzoi hands. We are not the heart of Sel, but we defend its hand like an armored glove. We will use that hand to kill anyone, man or monster, who would attempt to overtake our lands and destroy our citizens.