Elves: Rise of the TaiGethen (38 page)

The Beethan
iad
held up her hands for quiet and her mob bellowed for order. She glared at Auum across the table.

‘You have a strength of arms that will give us all great heart when the humans attack,’ said Auum. ‘Welcome.’

‘Save your breath, TaiGethen,’ she said, her tone strident, her voice powerful and confident. ‘I am Jysune and I thank you for ridding this hall of the Tuali and for removing Calen’s head. But your assumption of command in this city is premature. Your every footstep is trespass on my territory. Your every word is spoken to an elf indebted to me.

‘Your ruse is obvious and desperate; man has no knowledge of this place. There will be no battle here so I offer you this instead: defer to me in all matters relating to the city and I will let your people live. Offer your guidance on strengthening this city’s defences against the attack that may come, one day, and I will sweep the streets clean of Tuali interference.

‘With Calen gone, Katura is mine. The TaiGethen are great warriors but your numbers are too small to challenge us on our streets. This is not the rainforest and you would do well to remember that.’

Auum said nothing. He dived over the table, arms outstretched. His left hand clamped on Jysune’s sword arm at the wrist and his right gripped her throat. He bore her to the ground, where she landed with a thud, her blade flying from her hand. Elyss and Ulysan landed either side of Auum, pushing the Beethans back.

‘What say you I take your head too? What price your control then?’

Auum pushed his hand harder into her throat but Jysune could still force her words out.

‘See for yourself,’ she said. ‘Arrow up.’

Immediately, every Beethan with a bow turned to train their weapon on the helpless Katurans. People screamed, some begged for mercy around him.

‘Auum,’ warned Ulysan.

‘Release me,’ said Jysune.

Auum dragged her upright and thrust her back into the arms of her mob. She laughed.

‘
That
is power,’ she said. ‘That is control.’

Jysune stooped to pick up her sword. She motioned her archers to slacken their bows and signalled her people to leave.

‘Talk all you like,’ she said over her shoulder, turning when she reached the door. ‘But nothing will happen in this city without my permission. You know where to find me.’

Jysune reserved a long and threatening stare for Auum, Elyss and Ulysan before stalking out into the night, leaving a momentary silence soon filled with a frightened babble. Auum bit his lip and jumped up onto the table, shouting for order and quiet.

‘That’s you being in charge, is it?’ shouted someone.

‘That is me making sure none of you die tonight,’ said Auum. ‘The
iad
has just picked a fight she cannot win. It was a desperate throw of the dice, the last twitch of a dying animal. The only way she can hope to win is to keep you afraid. Do not be afraid. She is the one who should be scared, because she knows she is losing control.’

Slowly, muttering and unsure, the Katurans gathered again to hear Auum’s plans.

‘There is so much we have to do and there is so little time. We have to look to our weapons, our food and water stores, our planning for injury and fire. We have to consider the rotas for duty and rest, we have to assign cooks, stretcher and water parties, quartermasters and field medics. But none of that will matter unless we can fortify this city against man’s magic.

‘We have an inexhaustible supply of wood, but wood will not do because man’s magic, his fire and his ice, will simply destroy it. Instead, in ten days, people of Katura, I want to raise a barrier of iron and steel ten feet high stretching from the river to the east to the cliffs to the west.

‘Fire the forges and never let them cool.’

Then the madness began in earnest.

Chapter 29

The arguments had gone on late into the night, and even when they were done the Katurans remained doubtful. Auum was exhausted. Being among so many people for so long left him fidgety and uncomfortable. He needed air and, with Ulysan and Elyss, he walked out into a drizzling night, heading for the marketplace. It was the largest open space in the city.

He ached as if he’d been running all day, climbing all night and fighting open handed between breaths, as the saying went. The fatigue clung to his mind and he felt unable to even speak until they had seated themselves on some of the benches around the flagpole.

‘This battle cannot come soon enough. I hate cities.’ Auum sampled the air, raising his face to let the drizzle dampen his skin. ‘And this place is the worst kind. No parks, no trees and no space. It stinks of civilisation exterminating nature. It has no natural sound, like someone has shut out the whole forest. All I can hear are the cries of desperate addicts and the thuds of doors shut in their faces. We have such a short time to make such a long journey.’

Elyss was sitting by Auum. She put an arm about his shoulders.

‘We’ll do it.’ She gestured behind her towards the hall. ‘Your TaiGethen are there, talking with the thread priests. There is energy and desire alongside the doubters. And when they see the fires of the army, they’ll double their efforts.’

‘And what will the Beethans and Tualis do then, I wonder?’ said Auum.

‘Let’s pray they sharpen their swords and stand on the walls alongside us,’ said Ulysan. ‘I’m more worried about what they will do tomorrow.’

Auum sighed. ‘That’s why I need Pelyn. She knows this city as none of us ever will, despite her fall, and the old Al-Arynaar will flock to her when she wears the cloak and calls for them. The gangs are hoarding critical resources. If we don’t fortify sufficiently now, we’re finished before we start. Has anyone calculated how much metal we need to get this wall up?’

Ulysan smiled. ‘We just left the argument over how thick the plating needs to be and how many rivets or eyes and ties we need per foot.’

Now he tried, Auum could hear the search for raw materials already under way. The smiths’ furnaces in the second circle were roaring, ready to smelt. The hammering and sawing he could hear would be the construction of plating moulds.

‘Everything else is going to seem simple by comparison to that wall,’ said Auum. ‘What next?’

‘Prayer and sleep,’ said Elyss. She looked at Ulysan. ‘Can you give us a moment? We’ll join you at the temple.’

Ulysan smiled, nodded and trotted away to the temple of Yniss. It was a modest building, as they all were, free from desecration but also without a priest since the Tualis had driven Lysael away.

Auum looked at Elyss’ face, smudged with dirt and damp with drizzle but still vibrant. She was shivering gently and Auum assumed she was cold in the rain and wrapped his arms round her.

‘We should get inside, warm you up.’

‘It’s not the cold I feel,’ she whispered. ‘It’s a new life.’

Auum felt the smile broadening on his face and the tears gathering in his eyes. He couldn’t speak. He grabbed Elyss’ hands and stared into her eyes. Tears were spilling down her cheeks and she was shaking all over. Auum’s pulse was thudding in his neck. He placed a hand on her belly and imagined the life growing inside. Ynissul life. TaiGethen life. The future of the elves.

‘We did it,’ he whispered.

Elyss laughed, and the sound lit up the marketplace and echoed back from the blank dark buildings surrounding them. Auum glanced about him; it would have been an unexpected sound of joy in this place.

‘You needn’t sound so surprised,’ she said. ‘Just think of our future now. A TaiGethen child.’

‘We’ve got to win first, both within and without our walls.’

‘And can anything stop you now?’

Auum pulled her into an embrace he had no intention of releasing.

‘Nothing.’

He kissed her cheek and the side of her neck. She pushed him back, her face taking on a serious expression.

‘One thing. You mustn’t worry about me and you mustn’t try to stop me fighting. It’s what I do. The greatest risk to our child is to have its parents worrying about each other and not concentrating on the enemy before them.’

Auum nodded. ‘You sound like me.’

‘Funny that, isn’t it?’

Auum stood, feeling tall, powerful and replete with the blessings of Yniss. He held out a hand.

‘Let’s go and pray with Ulysan. He’s part of this family.’

‘All the TaiGethen are part of it.’

Elyss stood and froze, looking over Auum’s shoulder. Auum saw her expression and nodded minutely.

‘That’s very touching, it really is,’ said Jysune. ‘Good news is always so wonderful to share, isn’t it?’

Auum turned, staying close to Elyss. He faced Jysune even though three other Beethans, who had emerged from the quiet streets leading to the central circle, were now behind him. Jysune was flanked by two archers and had her sword in her hand.

‘We are going to pray for the Katuran people and give thanks for their strength in the face of a powerful enemy,’ said Auum. ‘Join us.’

‘You need to go a great deal further than the temple,’ said Jysune. ‘Go through the gates and back into the forest, where you can climb the trees with all your monkey friends. This city belongs to me. You are blind and deaf here, TaiGethen.’ She spat on the ground. ‘So much for your great skills. You didn’t even hear us coming, did you?’

‘A battle between us now will serve none of us when the humans arrive,’ said Auum. He noted Elyss’ hand gestures. Pairs of Beethans were moving up on either flank. They were surrounded. ‘Sheathe your weapons and lower your bows. We are not here to take your city. We’re here to save you. Help us.’

Jysune moved forward a pace. The archers either side of her tensed their bow strings.

‘You’re not listening to me, TaiGethen. I’m not fooled by your lies; the humans can never find us here. So you’re leaving, right now. Both of you. Start walking or you—’ she jabbed a finger at Auum ‘—will be leaving Katura alone.’

Auum stepped in front of Elyss and heard her hiss her displeasure.

‘You will not threaten my people. Stand aside, Jysune. We will pray that it is not too late for you to see sense.’

‘I will not tell you again,’ said Jysune.

Elyss stepped out of Auum’s shadow.

‘We cannot leave,’ she said. ‘We cannot leave you alone to face what is coming.’

‘Very well,’ said Jysune.

She nodded. Bowstrings snapped and two arrows thudded deep into Elyss’ chest, throwing her from her feet to slide across the ground until her head clipped the bench where she had just been sitting. Auum saw her come to rest and, groggy from the blow to her head, try to stem the blood flowing onto her shirt. He snapped his gaze back to Jysune. He moved.

Clarity
. The blessings of Yniss must still have been surging within Auum because he saw the Beethans react as if they were wading thigh-deep through mud. Arrows passed behind him. He felt the change in the air and the hiss they made as they passed. He heard a cry of pain too – not from Elyss.

Auum crossed the space to Jysune before she could raise her sword. He leapt, kicked out with one foot and struck her on the chin, knocking her senseless. Before she hit the ground, he had both his blades in his hands. He landed between the archers and swept the swords left to right, feeling them bite deep into the first archer’s gut and smash the bow from his hands.

Auum leaned his weight on his right foot and dragged the blades back right to left, higher this time tearing into the other’s throat, slicing off an ear and part of his scalp. Auum was already moving left, a curving run. The first pair of flanking archers still had arrows nocked, though one also had a shaft sticking from his right thigh.

They brought their weapons to bear so slowly, to Auum’s eyes. He could see their fingers begin to release. He leaned to his left, never breaking his stride, and the arrows whipped by his torso. Auum straightened. He increased his speed. Five paces from them he leapt, bringing his knees to his chest and cocking his left-hand blade high.

Auum smashed the blade into the top of his target’s skull, releasing it in the same moment. He kicked out and down with both feet, feeling his soles drive the second archer’s head down into his shoulders, compressing the vertebrae. He pushed against the falling body, gaining enough momentum to turn a roll in the air before landing and sprinting at the trio of archers he’d seen approaching from behind.

Auum watched them bring their bows into line and begin to draw. He pulled a jaqrui from his pouch and threw it. The crescent blade mourned away, sliced through bow and string and lodged in the central archer’s mouth.

The remaining two released their arrows. Auum saw the flights so clearly. He angled his body right and let his head fall down onto his right shoulder. The shafts flew past him. The archers were fifteen paces away. Enough time to register their disbelief and begin to turn and run.

Auum swept his blade through the small of the first archer’s back, took a single pace forward and cracked the heel of his left palm into the base of the other’s skull, knocking him down. The Beethan’s head crashed hard into a kerbstone. Blood began to flow while the body twitched its last.