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“It’s almost morning.” Gillen peeked her head through the tent flap. “We should make ready.”
Shanis sat up and rubbed her head. Her sleep had once again been troubled by strange dreams in which the gods ran rampant across the earth.
“What’s wrong?”
She shook her head. “Nothing, just tired.” She glanced up at Gillen. “I don’t know why it never occurred to me before, but you don’t talk like a Monaghan.”
Gillen smiled. “Thank you. I find people take me more seriously when I ‘no do speak like this.’”
Shanis couldn’t help but laugh. She dressed quickly and stepped out into the damp, chilly morning. Granlor, who had taken to sleeping outside her tent despite the presence of guards, was there waiting for her.
“I don’t suppose Orbrad has opened the gates?” she asked.
“No, but it no be sunrise yet.” They strode through the camp to where Horgris, Culmatan, and Krion sat by a campfire. They all looked up when she arrived.
“Granlor tells me the gates are still closed. Any word from members of the Order of the Fox? Might we hope to receive help from the inside?”
Krion shook his head. “Not likely.”
“Are you certain? It’s early. Perhaps something can yet be done.” She held her hands close to the fire, enjoying its warmth.
The three men exchanged dark looks. “There is something you need to see,” Krion said. The men stood and they returned to the rise where yesterday they had looked down upon the city.
“Look at the gate.”
Shanis stared through the semi-darkness. It took her a moment to realize what she was seeing. Bodies hung from the walls on either side of the main gate.
“Who are they?”
“They do be two members of our clan,” Culmatan said. “Members of the order who have been living in the city for two summers, waiting for this day.”
“I think we can consider this to be Orbrad’s reply.” Krion turned to Shanis. “We have no choice. We must attack.”
Shanis sighed. She had hoped it would not come to this, but she saw no way out. “Very well. Let it begin.”
Shanis watched as the first rays of dawn struck the gates of Karkwall. The corpses remained there for all to see. Perhaps Orbrad thought it would intimidate the attackers, but from the reactions she had heard among her people, it served only to fuel their rage and strengthen their resolve.
While thin ranks of troops still encircled the city, well beyond the range of Karkwall’s defenses, she held the bulk of her forces in the forest, ready to serve as a surprise for the city’s defenders when the moment came.
She kept hoping the gates would open, but it didn’t happen. Finally, with a sick feeling in her gut, she gave the order for the attack to begin.
Horgris raised a horn to his lips and gave three short blasts.
Catapults rolled into place and began pounding the castle walls. Most were aimed at the gates, seeking to bring them down, while others hurled burning oil onto the ramparts. The first shots fell short, but they soon adjusted and began to hit the castle.
From within the city, Karkwall’s own weapons returned fire. The first efforts were far off the mark, but the subsequent shots came steadily closer as they found their range.
Shanis bit her lip as the missiles finally flew on target. Would her plan work? Just as the stones descended beneath the height of the tree line, something strange happened. The stones seemed to strike an invisible dome and bounce away. Shanis smiled as shouts of surprise arose all around her. She hadn’t been certain her plan would work, so she’d kept it to herself until it was tried.
“Did you do that?” Krion asked.
She shook her head. “I placed a bone woman in each crew. They’ll keep the protective shields up for as long as they can.” She knew fatigue would set in sooner or later, but she hoped her forces could strike quickly and forced the defenders to lose heart.
Heztus glanced up at her. “I wish I could see the looks on the faces of the soldiers inside the city right now.”
Shanis’ forces continued to pound the city walls while the defender’s efforts continued to fail.
“Now it’s your turn,” Krion said. “Strike while they are confused and disheartened.”
Shanis’ stomach began to churn. She had never used the power as a weapon and wasn’t sure she could do it. Aspin had taught her a bit about both magic and sorcery, and she understood the principles. If she could manage it, she might be able to bring this battle to an end.
She drew her sword and dropped to one knee. If her experiences in healing were any indication, this would be an exhausting task and she didn’t want to collapse in front of the men and women who counted on her to lead them. Behind her, Gillen moved to stand beside her in case Shanis needed defending.
She thought about the times she had used the sword for healing She’d opened herself to its power, allowed it to flow through her, and then focused it on what she wanted to do. She took a deep breath and opened herself to the sword. She felt the power begin to stir, and she reached out with her thoughts, focusing on the south wall of the city, which had, by design, been subjected to only minimal bombardment.
An otherworldly force rose up inside her. Her limbs began to twitch of their own accord, and strange thoughts filled her mind—she felt a hunger, a desire to consume the very stone from which the city walls were constructed, and she found herself momentarily struggling to maintain control. She focused the hunger and poured it into the strands of her thoughts and cast them like a net over a two hundred span stretch of the city wall. Immeasurable power poured forth from the sword, flowing across the open space and filling the web of thought.
What is happening?
Just like healing, she did not quite understand what she was doing or how, but she somehow knew it was right.
The power clung to the wall like strands of ivy and slowly began to penetrate the stone. The hunger inside her rose to avarice and the strands of thought and power, the will, Aspin had called it, divided and divided again.
All around her, the crashes and cries of siege warfare faded away and she felt as if she were actually there, inside the stone, her essence flowing through it. Slowly she took control of the power and she spread the threads of energy through every block of the wall.
Cracks formed in the stone. She felt them growing, felt the rock divide and divide again. She was aware of the defenders on the wall cry out in surprise as the wall beneath them shifted. The rocks continued to split. What had begun as huge blocks of stone split into chunks the size of boulders, which then shattered into smaller chunks. It continued on, breaking down again and again until she had reduced the entire stretch of wall to a shifting mass of pebbles held loosely in place by the power of the Silver Serpent.
The alien awareness battered at her mind again. She held it back, but its intent filtered through. She understood. The blend of thought and power was like a whip that stretched across the battlefield, ending in countless, living tails of energy that continued to consume the stone. She focused her will and sent out a sharp burst of energy, cracking the whip and sending the crumbled remains of the wall flying apart.
The defenders had fled when they first felt the wall quaking, but now the bits of stone that shot out in every direction cut them down. Shanis felt each man fall. It was as if every bit of stone was a part of her. She felt it shred flesh, break bone, and rip apart the ballistae that sat atop the south wall. She heard the cries of the dying and the excited roar that rose from her own ranks as they saw the walls come down. She felt the hoof beats and footfalls as her previously-hidden troops poured forth from cover and charged toward the gaping hole in the wall. Ordinarily those troops would have been forced to endure a rain of projectiles as they crossed open ground. By concentrating their attack on the front gate, they’d enticed the enemy to move the bulk of their troops there, and the force of the Silver Serpent’s attack had cleared what remained of the south wall of its defenses.
Atop the remaining walls, a ripple of awareness flowed through the defenders as they realize their south wall, what remained of it, anyway, stood undefended. The fire from the defenders’ war engines abated as they sought to redirect them toward the attackers. A few officers managed to rally their troops and lead them toward the gaping hole in the outer wall.
“Can you bring down more of the wall?”
Shanis scarcely recognized Krion’s voice. The hunger to consume remained, but her will was diminishing, and the power that flowed through her had been reduced to a trickle. She tried to gather her will, but she had nothing left. Like a guttering candle, she felt her connection to the sword flicker and die.
“I can do no more,” she whispered. “That took everything I had.” She closed her eyes and concentrated on remaining upright.
Krion placed a hand on her shoulder. “You did enough, granddaughter.”
She opened her eyes and watched as her troops poured through the hole she’d opened in the wall, crushing the meager defenses the city had managed to muster. All along and inside the walls, defenders fled toward the inner keep. Shanis could see little of what was happening, but she knew that the combined forces of Malgog and Monaghan would slaughter any who stood in their path.
“Will they make it to the inner city?” she asked.
“Some will, but they won’t be able to keep the gates open long enough to let most of them in,” Krion said. “Not with our troops charging in.”
When the defenders were in full retreat, her remaining forces charged. No one remained to fire upon them, and soon the main gate stood open and her forces controlled the outer wall and keep. Within minutes, they had turned Karkwall’s own siege engines on the inner city and commenced bombardment. Soon afterward, the inner city’s defenders began to return fire.
“Call our troops back,” Shanis said.
“No,” Krion snapped. “Not when we have the advantage.”
“The advantage will be short-lived if they charge straight into the inner city’s defenses. Now that Orbrad has seen what I can do, he will have to surrender. Let us not waste lives in the interim. If we want a united Lothan, it won’t do for us to slaughter our future allies.”
Krion scowled, but he obeyed. He raised his war horn and blew three sharp blasts. All around the battlefield, others heard the order and blew their own horns.
Soon, the attacking forces broke off and rallied outside the walls which now provided shelter against the bombardment from the inner city. In the midst of the attackers marched a long line of prisoners captured in the fighting. She breathed a sigh of relief that at least some lives had been spared.
“Gillen,” she said, “I think it’s time to send Orbrad another message.” Once again, her voice boomed. “You have seen that your walls cannot withstand our attacks. Do not throw away your lives. You have until morning to surrender.”
Somehow, she knew the stubborn king still would not listen.