Glory to the Brave (Ascend Online Book 4)

by Luke Chmilenko

  Of course, the second I said that a loud thunderclap of magic echoed out from somewhere along the palisade, prompting us all to turn and look towards it.

  “Looks like they have it in hand over there,” Ritt said after a few seconds of staring as a loud staccato of detonating magic echoed out, followed by a distant golden light of a fresh ward activating. “In either case, I’ll let Léandre know your plans. Hopefully, they’ll end up working out.”

  “Hopefully,” I agreed in a dry tone as I continued to look ahead at where the brief battle had taken place, eventually pulling it back towards the group, focusing my attention on those had yet to give their update, which in this case was both Veronia and Halcyon. “Anyway, moving on from there. I think it’s just you two that are left with updates now. Who wants to go first?”

  “I can. It is rather brief and should not take long,” Veronia replied, glancing over towards Halcyon as she spoke, who simply nodded and motioned for her to continue. “Ah, thank you. I am happy to say that we were able to evacuate all settlers that still remained on the farmland to the west of us, thanks largely to the help of Natasha and Bax. They have both settled in easily among the people there, and the community they’ve formed looks up to them. When the warning to flee arrived, they were able to get everyone moving immediately to take shelter here in town. As far as I know, we didn’t even suffer an injury, let alone lose anyone.”

  “That’s great to hear then, on both accounts,” I said, breathing an inward sigh of relief at the news. With how rapidly the day had turned on us, and how busy it had become afterward, I’d been worried that there’d been people left out in the cold after the siege had started. To hear that everyone was safe, or at least as safe as they could be given the situation, was another bit of good news that lessened the burden that I felt on my shoulders.

  “So I thought as well,” Veronia said before continuing. “And add to that, so far we haven’t seen any signs of the orcs looking to cross the river west into the farmland, nor have we seen them turn their eye southward to march past us. I’m not certain how long it will last, but at the moment, their attention is solely fixated on us.”

  “Which we’ll take as long as they want to give it to us,” Freya stated. “I know the few crops and homesteads that the settlers managed to set up out there are few and far between, but it’d be a shame to see all their work go to waste.”

  “It absolutely would,” I said, hoping the same. “But that’s unfortunately out of our hands now.”

  “So it is,” Veronia agreed, shrugging her shoulders as she glanced over towards Halcyon. “That is all I have of my tasks. Fredric and Ritt have already covered the rest.”

  “Great!” Halcyon exclaimed as he took over for the woman. “Well, so I guess I’ll start my update with the obvious. As I’m sure you can all tell, we’re no longer itching uncontrollably anymore.”

  “That we sure aren’t,” Drace replied as everyone in the circle shifted uncomfortably at the memory of the war hex that the orcs had afflicted on us shortly after our arrival—one that had made each of us feel as if we’d been bitten by a swarm of mosquitoes. “Thanks for that by the way. I don’t know how long we would have lasted with that curse afflicting us. After five minutes, I was ready to crawl out of my own skin.”

  “Hopefully, we won’t need to find out,” the mage stated. “In either case, we managed to block their curse by finally figuring out how to tap into the tree’s mana and use it to power something that Stanton and Donovan call a ‘dispersion aura’. Without getting too far into the magical side of things for everyone, it basically disenchants any magic that tries to pass through it, so if the orcs decide to throw a few bigger spells our way…such as say, magical fireballs, it should catch them too. Unless they’re too big, but that’s just not likely, else they’d be doing it already.”

  “That’ll be handy,” I replied, intrigued by what Halcyon had said. “How did you end up figuring out how to tap the tree for mana?”

  “By using that security servitor you saw the other day,” he answered. “And from some timely help from Garr, too.”

  “The itching made for good motivation to find any solution that worked,” the gronn said helpfully. “It also gave us the cause to try a more…direct approach that I had tried advocating for earlier.”

  “Oh? And what was that?” I asked, seeing Halcyon wince at the man’s words. “Or better yet, do I want to know?”

  “It’s nothing too crazy,” the mage replied, looking a little embarrassed at the question. “We just…tapped the tree—I mean that literally, by the way. We tapped it—like people tap trees for maple syrup. Except what we’re getting is mana, sort of at any rate. You’d have to see it to understand, but we basically jury-rigged a bunch of æthertouched iron spikes and rods that Léandre made for us until we connected it to the servitor. Then we put the thing into some sort of assist mode that Caius discovered and cast the dispersion spell through it. Technically, it’s the servitor that’s now channeling the spell on its own for us so none of us need to manage it.”

  “Huh,” I grunted as I tried to mentally picture the setup that he’d described and felt myself come short. “Well, so long as it works, I guess however you guys did it is great. Though you do have me more than a bit curious to look at the setup.”

  “It’s rough, and it’s ugly, but it works,” Halcyon said. “And unfortunately that comes to my next point too. It’s fragile. Very fragile. One good hit from something can easily break the tap and cause the spell to end. Though at the same time, if anything’s already close enough to hit the thing, we’re probably screwed anyway, but I figure that you all should probably know regardless. Unless any of you fancy another case of the itchies or whatever other curses the orcs might have for us.”

  “Yeah, I’m going to go with a hard no on that,” Freya said with a shake of her head. “I don’t care how many times I die, I’ll make sure that no one breaks the thing.”

  “It’ll be you and Samuel then,” Halcyon said, using his head to vaguely motion in the direction of the tree. “I was going to say as well, that between the orcs arriving and us working with the tree, he finally managed to come out of his shell. Almost completely now. So he’s been helping us out as best he can. The plan is for him to monitor the spell at the servitor and allow the rest of us to go where’s needed once the orcs attack.”

  “Oh, that’s great news to hear!” Freya exclaimed in a happy tone. “I haven’t been able to check in on him nearly as much as I liked, but I’m glad he’s doing better.”

  “He is—for the most part, at least,” Halcyon said, a wary expression crossing his face. “But I think he has a few things to work through still, since he’s a fair bit angrier than I remember, specifically towards the orcs and the Dread Crew. Granted, that’s pretty understandable given what’s happened to him, but we’ve all noticed it.”

  “Then it’s worth it for all of us to keep an eye on as well,” Aldwin said in a serious tone. “Battle shock can wreak terrible harm if left to fester, no different than a wound of the flesh. Perhaps now that he is talking and willing to interact with the world, he can speak with Shelia and get the aid he needs.”

  “I was thinking the same thing,” the mage agreed. “I’ll see if I can’t stop in to mention it to her once we’re done here. Just so she knows as well.”

  “I think that’s probably a good idea,” I said as Halcyon’s—and by extension, the last of the assembled group’s—updates came to end, which only left us with the main topic for our meeting. “Okay, so with all of that, I think I have enough to catch up the others when I talk to them and make sure they’re all in the loop of what’s going on. That said though, I know that as soon as I’m done with my updates they’re going to ask me what our plans are to do something about the orcs, and I want to be sure that we all have a consistent plan of action to tell them.”

  “You mean something more than ‘kill the orcs when they finally come calling’?” Ritt asked. “Th
ey know that we’re in a siege now, right? We’re not exactly in a position to dictate anything anymore.”

  “I’m fairly sure they’ve figured that out by now,” I replied in a dry tone. “But I think they’ll be looking more for things like timelines, assuming it’s even possible to offer one better than a guess. It’s clear that the orcs are looking to wear us down before attacking, but for how long? Three, four, five days maybe? Or longer, even? The orcs have to know that we’ll be able to hold out for weeks, if not a month or more unless they hit us hard. With what we did to their gardens back at Khudazal and burning out the surrounding landscape here, their food situation probably won’t allow them the luxury to wait that long.”

  “Which makes me wonder again why they’re in so much of a hurry to attack us in the first place,” Freya commented, shaking her head at the thought. “They’re clearly in a bad position and would be better off pulling back and regrouping.”

  “Unless, of course, their food situation isn’t as dire as we seem to think?” Drace theorized, his attention shifting over towards Garr and Arcturus in question. “Could they have stored food ahead of time for something like this?”

  “Individual tribes may have, but only enough to last them a short while,” Arcturus answered as he considered the half-giant’s words. “But during our enslavement, there were no signs of such preparation on a large scale, for they would have had the slaves do it for them. It is why we focused our efforts on blighting the gardens. Many, if not nearly all of the tribes, were wholly dependent on their bounty every day to keep themselves fed.”

  “So then in the absence of better information, we still assume that they’re likely short on food and are relying on what they can scavenge from the land or capture from us to feed them,” I said, receiving a pair of nods from both Garr and Arcturus. “Which then brings us back to our original point. How long do we think the orcs can afford to test us with their spirits and shadows before committing to an attack?”

  “Less than a week, if you ask me,” Freya said, her head turning towards Garr and Aldwin. “And I think that depends a lot on orc politics too. If our attack on their city made Zhul look weak, like you’ve both suggested, then that would make him more likely to attack sooner rather than later, wouldn’t it?”

  “Based on my experiences, I would agree,” the bann answered. “These orcs may have changed from what I recall facing during the war, but I do not believe that they have changed so much as to tolerate weakness, perceived or otherwise, in their leaders.”

  “I would agree to that as well,” Garr added with a nod. “However, if I were to predict when the orcs would assault us, I would say as early as tomorrow, if not even overnight.”

  “Wait, you think they’ll hit us that fast?” Freya asked, sounding more than a little surprised at the gronn’s assessment. “Why? Compared to what they did at Valor’s Point, they spent days softening our defenses with the constant spirit attacks and trying to corrupt as many of us as possible. And even then, their attack cost them.”

  “Because of the storm that is approaching,” Garr replied as if that answer made perfect sense, only to pause as we all stared back at him with blank expressions.

  “Storm?” I repeated in confusion. “What storm?”

  “The one that will likely blanket this region tomorrow sometime,” the gronn answered, his brow furrowing as he glanced between me and the others. “Did your earthspeakers not already tell you this today?”

  “No, how would they have—” I started to reply to the man before it suddenly hit me. “You can predict the weather.”

  “Yes, of course. To some degree at least,” Garr answered, his expression turning both curious and a little hesitant. “Can…can your earthspeakers not? It is a fairly common ability among my people, especially among those who tend our crops and fields as I once did. I was able to sense a hint of it in the air just this morning when I awoke, and more so now that the day is nearly over.”

  “If they can, none of them have ever bothered to mention it to us,” I replied as I mentally kicked myself for not even thinking to take the weather into account after the long string of bright and sunny days that we’d had for the better part of the month. “And the thought to ask never even crossed my mind.”

  “Nor did it cross mine to mention either until this moment,” the gronn said, his voice sounding a little embarrassed. “Among my people, and even during our enslavement among the orcs, we kept postings of what nature was thought to bring us for all to see, and to determine which earthspeaker was most accurate with his foretelling. I’d thought that perhaps similar had been done here, but I never found myself with the time to search for it.”

  “It’s been a busy few days since we all got here,” I replied, using a hand to wave that point away. “In either case, that doesn’t matter anymore. At least we found out ahead of time. What can you tell us about the weather tomorrow then?”

  “With complete certainty?” Garr quantified. “That at some time tomorrow an exceptionally large storm will arrive over this region down from the north or northwest, breaking a morning of exceptionally withering heat.”

  “And with less certainty?” Freya queried as we all focused our attention on the gronn.

  “That the storm’s leading edge will arrive anywhere from early-morning to late-afternoon and then linger over us for at least a day,” he said, sniffing the air as he considered the question. “Though given its size and what I have experienced before, I would not be surprised to see it last as many as three nights and a day before it either passes over us or disperses.”

  “That would be quite the storm indeed then if it lasts so long,” Aldwin mused, turning so he could glance over the edge of the palisade and at the fields that stretched beyond it. “It would drench the earth until it turned to mud, perhaps even cause the river to flood and soak it even further. No attacker, even an orc warlord beset with questions about his leadership, would dare attack through such. Not unless they wanted to lead their people into certain death.”

  “No, I do not think they would either,” Garr agreed as he turned to look towards me. “And I know for certain that there were a handful more of my people’s earthspeakers among the tribes that departed Khudazal before your rescue. Enough so that Zhul would be able to demand foretellings from them if he thinks to ask. Or if not them, then from the few earthspeakers that the orcs themselves may have.”

  “I see,” I said as I considered the implications that the coming storm brought. “And if for some reason he doesn’t know already, he’ll figure it out quickly when he sees the clouds coming in the sky.”

  “So he will,” Arcturus stated with a confident growl. “And when he does, I feel he will strike at us immediately as Garr says. Zhul is many things, but a fool is not one of them. He will look at his food stores along with the morale of his warriors and know that they will dwindle with each day that he spends waiting.”

  “And if he attacks early before the storm arrives, he’ll be able to actually field that massive siegebreaker of his,” Drace added, motioning vaguely towards the distant army as he spoke. “Because once the ground gets wet enough, that thing is almost guaranteed to sink in the mud with how heavy it has to be. And if he doesn’t, then he’s going to burn through its lifespan while it sits around and does nothing, and that’ll leave him in an even worse position.”

  “That is a good point too,” I said as I turned my gaze to follow the warrior’s arm over the ramparts, suddenly wishing that we had a way to not only cause it to rain sooner, but to have it do so long enough until the orcs’ food completely ran out.

  That would make things far too easy for us, though, I thought wistfully as I let out a sigh and turned back to look at everyone, finding myself with more to worry about than I’d originally expected since the meeting began.

  “I’ll tell the other guild leaders that an overnight or early attack tomorrow is most likely on the cards for us and to make sure that everyone gets enough rest through
the night,” I said while scanning between each of them. “Or if it doesn’t end up happening, that we’ll have a few days of rain and more waiting to look forward to.”

  “Better to be safe than sorry,” Drace replied with a nod, his words earning a nod from everyone in our circle.

  “I would most certainly agree with that,” Aldwin said. “We should also begin to spread the word to those on the walls about our theory as well. If the orcs are already planning to attack us come morning, they will likely look to tax our defenders as much as possible overnight.”

  “It also wouldn’t be a bad idea to go around and check on things either,” Freya suggested. “It’s been a few minutes since I last heard a bang or a shout, and that’s about the longest break we’ve had in hours.”

  “Huh, I suppose it is,” I said, not having realized that the night had fallen silent while we’d been talking. “I almost didn’t even notice.”

  “Enjoy it while you can,” Drace grunted as our meeting then effectively came to an end, everyone moving to break apart into their separate groups as they readied to get on with what remained of their night. “I’m sure it won’t last.”

  “Hey, you never know,” I replied as I waved goodbye to Freya, Aldwin, and the others as they moved to continue touring the ramparts, with Ritt, Halcyon, and Amaranth joining me in heading back into the town. “Maybe they ran out of spirits to attack us with.”

  “If only,” Freya called back with a snort as she and the others waved back before our two groups parted ways. “Take care, guys. We’ll see you later. Good luck with the meeting too, Lyr.”

  “Thanks,” I replied. “And the same to you all. Hopefully, it’ll stay quiet a little while longer.”

  We ended up managing to take about ten steps before a loud peal of magic and a round of shouting broke the silence.