Jadde - The Fragile Sanctuary (34 page)

 A storm was sweeping in and Malkrin
realised that the demons could use such a natural blanket to get a lot closer
before being spotted. Lookouts would have to be posted in the foothills to
compensate. He made a note to deploy fast horsemen to the task later. Below the
watching council the peoples of the allied tribes toiled to raise further
defence lines all the way back from the Derant Pass to Edentown. The bustle and
industry was like nothing Malkrin had ever seen before, how could the tribes
fail with such collective purpose.

The Fox asked for the attention of all his
officers; then gestured with his sword as he described the defensive plan.

 ‘The steep mountain sides will ensure
nothing outmanoeuvres our defence and gets behind us. The tactics will be
straight forward: to defend each barrier-line in turn. When the demons threaten
to overwhelm the first, a designated officer will sound the fall-back on a
ceremonial trumpet. The Brenna cavalry will be held one defence line back as
reserves in case the line before them is breached. Then by charging the demons the
defenders can fall back through the horsemen or regain the line if the demons
are expelled. I’m sure the sight of slashing, stabbing horsemen will put the
fear of Jadde into the quarter-men.’

Malkrin wasn’t so sure; the demons were incapable
of individual fear and he doubted the horsemen would diminish an overall attack.

The Fox carried on indicating with his
sword and the emerging sun reflected from the weapon. ‘This strategy can keep
the defence organised until the demons are spent and demoralised enough for us
to counter attack and finish them.’

Malkrin frowned; The Fox was still unaware
of the demons’ ferocity despite all he’d been told. He doubted it would be that
simple. He himself may have to make adjustments to the plan on the spur of the
moment.

The Fox continued, ‘the first three
barricade lines will be composed of our fittest warriors, and the forth line
the next best, and so on down. We will give sections of a line to each tribe so
all warriors are with their own brethren as a morale boost. The last line will
be manned by old men and volunteer women.’

Malkrin counted nine lines of ditches being
dug together with piled barricades on the Cyprusnia side of each ditch, eight
of which were behind the original palisade and ditch and one huge well prepared
line and ditch in front.

‘Finally, weapon stocks will be placed
behind each line and I have allocated small boys to run to warriors and
replenish their arrows and throwing spears as necessary. Should the line being
engaged succumb, they will take the remaining weapon stock behind the next line.
I have pressed on the boys the necessity of avoiding demons and to concentrate
solely on the task I have given them.’

The Fox looked directly at Malkrin.

‘A contingent of women will be setting up
tents under the supervision of the healer Seara. She has been awarded her two
highsense suns without ceremony or test as her talent is now so obvious.’

Councillor Ethran Skunktail leaned over as
Malkrin smiled at Seara’s deserved recognition.

‘Have you heard from Researcher Nardin
yet?’

‘No Sire, Seara is healing his sight then
he will continue searching every nook and cranny of the library. Sire Josiath Nighthawk
and Sire Steth Harefoot are assisting him in the search. They work twenty hour
days and sleep in the library to waste as little time as possible.’

‘If we have a few hourglasses to spare
before the demons assault, join them. A fresh eye may spot something they’ve
missed.’

Malkrin nodded as he viewed the great
mountains behind still cloaked in winter snow, and wondered if the three sun
people were looking down and watching with aloof detachment. He hoped the
Highnirvana would find a solution to their breathing problems so they could add
their peculiar talents to the struggle. He remembered how his own lungs had
felt overloaded the first time he’d walked the lowland plains – he knew how the
Jenna suffered. He just hoped they would arrive soon; any mysterious power
would aid the tribes now.

‘. . . Malkrin, raise the height of the
barrier where it meets the eastern rock face, lest the demons grapple their way
over,’ ordered the Fox.

Malkrin nodded and spurred his horse down
the path leading to the defences.

The people worked in shifts without
dissent, the Seconchane had mingled with their cousin tribes and their stories
of the demons and the doomed defence of Brightwater spurred the Seconchane on
to forget any animosity, even of the Brenna.

Later Steth sent down a book from the
history section and The Fox immediately withdrew a dozen carpenters to assemble
items called shields. The ancients had created wooden arm held barriers edged
with bronze and mounted on a robust chassis that would absorb sword and javelin
thrusts. Malkrin marvelled at the simplicity of the defensive item, it would
allow warriors to defend with one arm and attack with the other – and lock
together in lines for mutual protection as the books yellowed illustration
showed. Further pages showed the use of firearms and Malkrin regretted throwing
the empty magic-wasp stick. He laughed bitterly at his ignorance as he read how
muskets and pistols worked.

Shifts of sharp-eyed warriors watched for a
blackening of the foothills and plains from the high bluff. If Malkrin had been
with them he would have noted their anxious glances down to the improvised barricades
now being augmented by a tower erected on top of stout wooden poles. A small group
of demons had just been spotted in the distance and Brenna horsemen armed with fire
hardened ash lances and shields rode out to engage them. The demons were
annihilated with only the loss of three horses and four wounded.

One other urgent task remained to be set in
stone. Malkrin sent a messenger to bring Palreth to him. He was supervising
strengthening a rock barrier when the young warrior arrived.

‘Greetings Sire.’

Malkrin grinned, ‘just call me Malkrin my
friend.’ Then he continued with his face set. ‘How are you progressing with
mastering Olaff’s great talent?’

‘Sire, err . . . Malkrin, I can hurl balls
thirty yards, with the power to kill any demon. I have trained myself to keep
generating the magic for about an hourglass then the strength within me
diminishes and I can only throw small balls a mere seven strides. They may not
then stop a single sick or old demon.’

‘Better than I’d hoped.’ Malkrin used his
most authoritative voice, ‘when the demon horde arrives, tour each line of
defence and hurl fireballs at groups of demons that look about to break through.’

Then he stared the young man in the eye. ‘If
the worst happens and there is no stopping the creatures then take Seara past
the Brenna homesteads and into the
Lachron Mountains
and search for
people in a place called Highnirvana. I can give you no more information except
that they definitely exist. Will you swear to do as I ask?’

‘I will Malkrin; you have the word of a
member of the Sylve.’

Later in the night Malkrin slept, content
he had put in place a means to safeguard Seara. He owed it to the memory of his
good friend Halle.

He had also found time to race a horse back
to visit Nardin, who was again researching fading volumes without using the
antique eyeglass whilst Seara slept exhausted in a library chair.

Then two days later a concerted probe in
the early hours by a hundred demons threatened to overwhelm a sleepy defence.
The demons preliminary skirmish cost forty-two warriors for fifty demons slain. 
It had taken the ever alert Celembrie led by the superhuman Thicheal to stem
the breach and was a dire warning to all who had not yet engaged the quarter-men.

At midday the horizon blackened with the quarter-men
host. The evil tide approached in rippling waves with vanguard patrols filtering
like oil trickling around large stones. They seemed more plentiful than Malkrin
had witnessed on the plains before Mount Doom and many times the amount that
had assaulted Brightwater. His heart pounded and he forced his highsense to
pick up the thunder of a hundred-thousand bloodthirsty minds bent on
annihilation.  The tribes had been lucky to virtually complete the defences. He
thanked Jadde for the time they had been given.

They needed Nardin to find the ancient’s weapons
and they needed help from the aloof Highnirvana – and all now.

Right now
.

That evening the black tide rolled toward
them. Timid men ran, although few they threatened to demoralise the allied
defence. The Fox ordered them rounded up, the most cowardly he executed
publically as an example, and the rest gave oath to stand solid.

Liquor was handed out to the warriors and
armourers and even the attendant boys and women. It fortified their resolve, a
black humour developed along the lines. People danced around campfires,
determined to spend their last night in hedonistic pleasure. But discipline
held and the dark celebration fortified the defenders.

They were hit for the first time before
dawn; the swarm of demons were so tightly packed that fire-arrows could not
miss. The black host hit the first defence barrier with undiminished force. A
furious shower of arrows clouded the sky and rained down with the accompaniment
of javelins and spears. The stake pits instantly filled with thrashing, dying demons;
their companions merely stamped them down and the pits become their comrade’s
graves. Piles of dead demons mounted and still more waves stomped over the
corpses. An hour later weak spots appeared and Malkrin rushed reinforcements to
them under the hail of fireballs that Palreth hurled into clumped demons. They
saved the first line that night, but only just. The demons fell back after dawn
and gathered beyond arrow range.

Quarter-men had dragged warrior’s corpses
with them and set a long line of stakes into the ground and set impaled heads
on them. Hardened warriors were used to the display but the less battle tried Seconchane
had to be bolstered by encouraging words from their commanders. The Fox strode
along the line offering further encouragement as quarter-men charged again and
were repulsed.

The demons paused to finish off their own
wounded for an hour, then massed hordes assaulted the line again.

‘Fall back to the main palisade,’ ordered
the Fox.

Malkrin and the other commanders organised
the withdrawal. A wise order, Malkrin thought. To defend the first line further
would be too costly. Young boys rushed back past Malkrin, their arms weighed
down with sheaths of arrows and spears. He gathered his trusted companions
around him and fought the demons as the last men filtered through the
stockade’s heavy gates. Then he and his band ran back through the entrance, losing
two warriors in the headlong flight. The stout doors were slammed on the demons
and locked with massive timber beams.

The reinforced palisade walls vibrated as demons
crashed against them sending the unsteady falling from the walkway. Some rose instantly
others were attended to by Seara and her helpers. Malkrin ran to the walkway, raising
Palerin before him and shouting encouragement. He peered over the sharpened
post railing as men from the tower pointed and shouted. The demons had learnt a
few new tricks and Malkrin saw huge smashed tree trunks being thrust forward.
The demon tide parted and six collections of demons thrust forward with the
battering rams looking like giant multi-legged centipedes. They hissed and
screamed triumphantly as they smashed into a concentrated area to one side of
the great doors. Other demons threw lighted torches into the thatch roof of the
tower and the men abandoned it amidst smouldering reed-thatch falling all
around.

He smashed Palerin down on a demon head
that appeared over the post tops, they were climbing using their knife-fingers
to dig into the wood for grip. All around men hurled quarter-men back and
sledgehammer pounds on the logs set a deep evil rhythm to the shouts and cries
of death.

Then a curious thing happened.

Malkrin noticed fresh warriors leaping up
the ladders to the walkway. They first touched Seara as they passed, just a
touch on her shoulder or on her tied-back hair. Their mouths moved but in the
horrendous din Malkrin could not hear. He questioned a Wolf warrior as he
passed.

‘Our divine Angel gifts Jadde’s energy from
her heart.’

 It seemed to invigorate them and they
fought like men possessed.

Then Seara rose from tending the injured
and went to climb the ladder.

Malkrin dashed along the walkway weaving
between individual fights and leapt to the ground, rolled and grabbed her waist
as she climbed the first three rungs.

Palreth implored her from the ground. ‘No,
get down my love.’

Together they restrained her as she cried.

‘My friends they need my encouragement.’

‘You can help them more down here Seara.
You will die up there, and then you will be no use to your friends, or me, or
Palreth.’

She calmed at the mention of Palreth and
saw his concerned face before her.

‘You’re right, but I love them all.’