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FINN AND ELINA TRUDGED up the hill towards the Inquisitional Palace. They had alternated the past day and a half between running and walking to get to Gilgin ahead of the Ochloroc army. They had made it, but Finn guessed the Ochloroc would be there by nightfall.
Henge and Rockbreaker burst out of the Palace. The runner Finn had sent from the gate had found them after all. Finn leaned on his knees, catching his breath, while Elina plopped down on the ground. "You made it out of the caverns," Henge said happily. Finn nodded. "Where's Ragnur?"
"We got separated from him when we were stealing the Crystal," Finn said. "I was hoping he'd made it out and would be here by now."
"You got it?" Rockbreaker asked. "That's amazing news. Let's go to the Hall of the Vein, where we can examine it."
"Ragnur hasn't shown up," Henge said sadly.
Finn stood and continued up the hill without saying another word. Henge offered Elina a hand and pulled her to her feet.
The entrance hall of the Inquisitional Palace was warm and bright after the gloomy afternoon. An officer saluted as Finn passed him on the way to the Hall of the Vein. Finn waved at him. He stepped aside to let two servants carrying the remains of a lunch pass. Since when did they have servants?
A murmur came through the door. A group of human officers stood on one side of the hall. On the other side, the ever-present handful of Manhir loomed. Word of their return had spread rapidly. Behind Finn, more people approached the hall. Gudmund hurried towards Finn. "You found it? The Dark Crystal?"
Finn nodded wearily. He walked to the table in the center of the hall and set his pack on it. The hall went quiet as all heads turned towards him. He opened the pack and drew out the silver sculpture with the Dark Crystal on top, and the crystal shards still attached to it at the base.
"Is that it?" a man somewhere to the right said loudly. "I thought it would be bigger."
"It's beautiful," someone else said.
"How does it work?" a third person asked.
Finn held up his hands. People stopped talking. "Yes, this is the Dark Crystal. However, there will be an Ochloroc army outside our walls by nightfall." People started talking all at once at this news. Finn gave them a moment before he cleared his throat. "Please, give us some time to examine the Crystal and figure out what we'll do. We will report anything we find. Until then, please get to work preparing to fight off an invasion."
People milled around the hall excitedly for a few moments. When it became obvious nothing would happen right away, they left the hall in ones and twos.
Rockbreaker came towards the table. Finn looked up at him. "Can you destroy it?" he asked the big Manhir.
"I honestly don't know." Rockbreaker picked up the sculpture and turned it over in his hands. "We are creators, not destroyers." He closed his eyes. He opened them wide again immediately and sucked in his breath. "Do you know what you've got here?"
"The Dark Crystal?" Finn asked.
"Yes. Yes," Rockbreaker bobbed up and down, "but that's not what I meant. These," he pointed at one of the shards at the base of the sculpture. "These are the fragments of the Crystal of Light!"
"How can you tell?" Elina asked.
"I can feel them resonate," Rockbreaker said. "Magic still flows from the pieces, though not well or coherently."
"Can we use them in the upcoming fight?" Finn asked.
"No." Rockbreaker deflated. "Only a trickle of magic, garbled and broken, is coming through them into the world. But it's still an amazing find."
"So we're back to destroying the Crystal of Darkness," Finn said.
"Yes," Rockbreaker said. "Let me see what I can do." He placed the sculpture on the table. One by one, he pried the shards of the Light Crystal off the mahogany base with his fingers. He handed them to Henge. "Guard these with your life." Nodding, Henge wrapped them in a piece of cloth and put them away in his tunic.
Rockbreaker set to work on the Dark Crystal, first snapping the silver strands holding the Crystal in place. He removed the Crystal from its setting, and held it up between his thumb and index finger. It sucked in the light that fell on it, like a shadow given form. He closed his eyes and started humming. Nothing happened. After a while, he opened his eyes again. "I can't do anything. My magic just glides off it."
"Like with a regular crystal?" Elina asked.
Rockbreaker shook his head. "Much worse. It's like trying to grasp a slick boulder in a raging torrent in the dark. My magic can't touch it."
"What if you tried healing it?" Elina asked. Rockbreaker gave Elina a questioning look. "It's a trick we used to destroy some Ochloroc power crystals using magic."
Rockbreaker closed his eyes again. He wrapped his whole fist around the Crystal. A bead of perspiration appeared on his brow. Around the room, the crystals of the Vein of the Gods pulsed in tuned with Rockbreaker's humming. Again, nothing happened to the Dark Crystal. He shook his head and opened his eyes again. "There is no blemish on or in this Crystal for me to heal." He placed the Dark Crystal on the table.
Finn rubbed his chin. "If that's the problem..." He unhooked his axe from his belt and took a few practice swings at the crystal. When he was confident of his aim, he drew his arm back and swung at the Crystal with all his might. His aim was true, but on impact, the head of his axe shattered. A jolt of pain shot up his arm and Finn dropped the handle. The Crystal lay unscathed on the table, pieces of the axehead spread around it.
Rockbreaker picked the Dark Crystal up again and held it close to his eye. "Not a scratch on it."
Finn rubbed his shoulder. "Keep working on the Crystal. I'm going to check on the rest of the defenses. We'll need them unless you figure something out."
Finn spent the rest of the day talking with the officers of the defense force and visiting the different layers of defense of the city. Gudmund had organized the defenses efficiently over the past couple of weeks. Weapons were spread around the wall in supply depots to make it easier to resupply arrows or arm reinforcements. A couple of catapults defended the taller towers along the walls, and soldiers were stationed near the different gates. If the walls were as strong as the Manhir claimed, then they might just pull this off.
––––––––
THE OCHLOROC ARRIVED the following morning. At dawn, trumpets rang out all round Gilgin as the enemy force showed itself. Finn's estimate two days earlier had been conservative; this army was much larger than the army that had assaulted Brimir. The Ochloroc started by setting up camps outside of bowshot from the wall, across all the roads leading out of the city, preventing any easy sorties. Once their camps were secure, they deployed their war machines. Clearly, they wanted to end the siege as soon as possible.
Finn stood atop the Inquisitional Palace, surveying the Ochloroc preparations with Gudmund and Rockbreaker. "Can we hold them back if their machines don't work?"
"Our magic still lingers in the walls," Rockbreaker said. "Even with their machines, they will have trouble breaking through. They can't break them without their machines."
"Then we can hold them off," Gudmund said. "My men will hold the wall."
"The golems are an unknown factor," Finn noted. "If they can get over the walls, then they will create a pressure point where the Ochloroc troops can force their way through." He turned to Rockbreaker. "I want the Manhir in three squads, one near each gate. They are to plug any holes made by the golems."
"It will be done," Rockbreaker said.
Just after noon, a shot from an Ochloroc machine crashed into the wall near the main gate. Finn was inspecting the supplies near the gate, and rushed to the top of the gatehouse to watch. If more shots followed, then they were doomed. A second shot went off, and the gatehouse shook with the impact. Fin cursed. Their plan had failed somehow. Maybe they hadn't done enough to the crystals. Or maybe they had missed a batch.
Then, in the Ochloroc camp, a siege machine exploded in a ball of bright green light. A moment later, a second machine followed. Silence descended on the wall. The Ochloroc camp became a hive of activity around the siege engines. Someone on the wall cheered. The huzzah spread, and soon everyone was shouting and brandishing weapons in the air.
A smile spread over Finn's face. Their plan had worked after all! The walls of Gilgin would hold. Finn looked out at the army, and his smile disappeared. Their tactics had only bought them some time. Surely, the Ochloroc would soon get their machines working again.
Finn left the gatehouse and headed back to the palace. They would need to figure out how to deal with the army. Maybe Rockbreaker had made some progress on the crystal. Finn found him in the Hall of the Vein, where he stood with four other Manhir at the table in the center of the hall, examining the Dark Crystal. "Any luck?" Finn asked. Rockbreaker shook his head, and Finn sighed. He headed over to the greater throne room, where Gudmund stood bent over a map of Gilgin and the surrounding countryside, together with Henge and a group of officers.
"Congratulations on your victory," Gudmund said.
"There isn't much reason to celebrate yet," Finn said. "We still have an army on our doorstep."
"We were just discussing that," Gudmund said. "We can't take those bastards head-on. But what if we create a distraction here tonight?" He tapped the Ochloroc camp on the east side of Gilgin. "Once they move to defend there, we launch an attack on their main force."
"Why not take out the smaller force on the other side first?" Finn asked.
"They expect something sneaky," Gudmund said. "They won't expect us to charge their main army. If we take them by surprise, we can eliminate the threat once and for all."
"And if they don't fall for it," Finn said, "or deal with the distraction too fast, then we all die."
"What's your plan, then?" Gudmund asked. "To just sit here until we starve?"
"No, I..." Finn began. A horn sounded from high above; Finn jerked upright. "They're attacking!" He ran from the hall with Gudmund and Henge in tow.
Finn hurried to the top of the palace. Black dots, large and small, sped across the open space outside the walls. The whole Ochloroc army was in motion. The largest gathering was making for the central gatehouse; the defenders would surely be overwhelmed by the sheer number of enemies. "They're planning to rush us down," Finn said. "We need to reinforce the gate. Henge, gather the Manhir and bring them to the gatehouse." Henge gave a salute and ran off. "Gudmund, gather everyone you can find who can hold a weapon."
Finn ran back down the palace and through the city. Along the way, he ordered all guards and soldiers he saw to follow him. By the time he reached the gates, he had gathered a group of forty soldiers around him.
The defenders were hard-pressed. A golem had already made it to the top of the wall on the right side of the gatehouse, and swung a club the size of a tree trunk, pushing defenders off the wall to open a space on the walkway. As Finn arrived, the first Ochloroc made it to the top of the wall by its side. Finn grabbed one of the war hammers from a rack near the gatehouse and ran up the stone stairs to the walkway. He pressed forward towards the golem, even as it pushed the soldiers back with wild swings. Finn retreated from the first few, getting a feel for the golem's rhythm. Once he had that feel, he waited for a chance to strike. The club swung past. On the backswing, Finn leapt forward. He brought the war hammer down on the side of the golem's knee. The creature stumbled and fell to his knee. Finn swung at its shoulder, unbalancing it. A second strike at its shoulder sent it tumbling down the wall into Gilgin. There, soldiers swarmed it, striking it with whatever weapons they had at hand.
A handful of Ochloroc had made it onto the wall. Soldiers armed with spears swarmed past Finn and forced them off the walkway to fall to their deaths. Finn took a moment to catch his breath. The walls were clear for now.
Outside the wall, two golems swung a massive oak log like a crude battering ram at the gate. They were impervious to the arrows and stones of the defenders. The gates groaned under the assault. "We need to reinforce the gates!" Finn shouted at the soldiers at the base of the wall. Finn turned and hurried down from the wall.
A loud crash reverberated through the streets as Finn reached the street level; the golems had broken through. They charged through without regard for their own well-being, using the ram as a weapon, crashing through the thin line of defenders. Ochloroc soldiers swarmed after them through the gate. In a moment, the defenders were overrun.
Finn joined the fray in an attempt to push the Ochloroc back out of the gate. The torrent of soldiers that flowed through was too great, though, and step by step Finn was forced back. Then the Manhir arrived. With Henge in their lead, they thundered down the main street like an unstoppable rockslide. In a few moments, no Ochloroc survived inside the walls of Gilgin.
Finn drew in deep gulps of air and leaned on the handle of his hammer as Henge approached. "Not a moment too soon," Finn said. "Can you do something to secure the gate?"
"Sorry for being late," Henge said. "It took some time to find enough Manhir." He examined the broken gates. "With some time, we can build something to block the opening."
Finn pushed himself up. "Get what you need. I'll buy you some time."
Finn went round gathering what soldiers and Manhir he could find. Back at the gatehouse, he found Henge pulling stones from the pavement together with two other Manhir. Henge shrugged when he saw Finn looking at him. "We need stones to work with. These were closest."
"Just get the gate sealed," Finn said. He turned to the soldiers behind him. "Our only goal for the moment is to give Henge and his Manhir some space to work. Stick together and don't stray too far forward." Finn hefted the war hammer. "Let's go."
The soldiers formed up around Finn. Two Manhir took up position on either side of Finn, and together, they charged through the broken gates. A group of Ochloroc was already making a new assault on the gates; Finn and his soldiers barreled into them, driving them away from the gatehouse. A golem turned towards them; arrows fired from the wall bounced off it as it broke into a run and charged the half-circle of soldiers. It took out three soldiers with the first swing of its club. The line of soldiers buckled inwards under the next swing. A group of Ochlorocs pressed in behind the golem, attacking the weak point in their line.
The Manhir to Finn's left jumped on the golem; the impact knocked it to the ground. The soldiers leaped to the Manhir's aid and struck the golem in the vulnerable joints with war hammers and axes as it tried to push itself up. It buckled under the pressure of the assault and went still. Then the Ochloroc swarmed them. Finn thrust and parried, taking down an Ochloroc only to have it replaced with another one. The soldier next to him was struck down by an Ochloroc spear. Ever so slowly, the half-circle of soldiers shrank.
Finn cast a glance over his shoulder. Henge and his Manhir were still stacking stones across the entrance. A wall the height of his leg lay across half the entryway. They had to buy more time. Finn stepped back and called over one of the Manhir, Graphene. "We need to break through the Ochloroc line. That would give us some breathing room. Follow me."
Finn made his way back to the front of the line with Graphene on his heels. The Ochloroc noticed Graphene, and shifted their focus away from her. This created the chance Finn had been hoping for. "Now!" Finn swung his war hammer, dispatching the head of the Ochloroc in front of him, giving him a small opening, and charged forward.
Graphene followed at his side, and the soldiers around Finn joined in the press forward as well. In a moment, they had punched a hole in the Ochloroc line. Finn turned to Graphene and pointed left. "Attack the Ochloroc rear, but don't stray too far forward!" He himself turned right and charged the rear of the Ochloroc mass, pressing against the defensive circle. He took down four Ochlorocs before the others noticed him. The enemy turned, trying to fight off Finn's attack; this eased the pressure on the defenders, and they swarmed forward. A moment later, the surviving Ochlorocs fled.
The defenders charged after them. "Hold!" Finn shouted. "Regroup!"
The defenders gathered round Finn again and formed up another battle line. Over by the gate, Henge had gotten the barrier to chest height. Another Manhir Finn didn't know was fusing the stones together with magic. Only a small gap was still open to let them get back inside, and the Ochloroc were gathering for another assault. That barrier would have to do for now. They could reinforce it further from the inside. "Fall back to the city!" Finn commanded. "Defend the barrier with spears!"
The defensive circle shrank as, one-by-one, the soldiers dashed inside. The Ochloroc, of course, charged the defense force once more in response, and the defenders were pressed back to the gatehouse. Finn held firm in the center of the line, flanked by two Manhir. Then Finn was standing in the last opening through the gate. The attackers were repelled from the gatehouse by defenders wielding spears over the temporary wall, and by arrows flying in from above. The attackers fled. Finn went in and sank down against the wall; someone handed him a water flask, and he drank deep.
Together with the other Manhir, Henge set to work filling up the gap in the gateway. Finn climbed to the top of the gatehouse to get an idea of how they were holding. Ochloroc soldiers swarmed around the city, but so far, the walls hadn't been breached.
For the rest of the afternoon, the fighting waxed and waned. Each time, the Ochloroc were pushed back from the walls. Then, as the sun neared the horizon, a horn was blown in the Ochloroc camp. The attackers retreated.
Gilgin had survived for another day.