Windcatcher: Book I of the Stone War Chronicles (6 page)

“It doesn’t look very happy,” Raylan whispered, as he felt all those around him tense.

Each one of them looked stunned by the scene before them, as they waited for its next move. Out of the blue, the stone warrior picked up one of the wagon’s large wheels and flung it toward them. The movement seemed effortless, but the overbuilt wagon-wheel flew at them with incredible speed.

Diving out of the way, everyone scattered. The wheel shattered against the rock behind them.

“Holy mother, it takes three of us to even put that on a wagon. How strong is this thing?” called out Peadar.

The giant pushed off at an unexpected speed. It quickly closed the gap between itself and Stephen, who had ended up closest to the stone horror. With three big strides, the thing was on top of him, bringing a fist down toward where Stephen lay. Rolling to the side, the large fist barely missed him. The impact of the stone knuckles shook the ground, which Raylan felt tremble beneath his legs.

“Rohan, Kevhin! Try to take it out,” Gavin shouted, as loudly as possible.

Both archers had been behind the rock when the stone giant emerged. They had moved on top of the boulders as soon as they heard the roar of the stone opponent. Rohan found Kevhin on the ground with some darkening bruises, but no serious injuries. Confused about what was going on, Gavin’s command pushed them into action.

“Where the hell’s my crossbow?” Kevhin shouted, while he looked around wildly.

“I don’t know! It must have been flung to the side by the blast!” said Rohan, while pointing to the side and trying to prepare his own crossbow at the same time.

Moving across boulders, Kevhin found his crossbow a small ways from them. It was lodged in a crack between two rocks. He quickly yanked it out and checked it for damage. Seeing nothing out of the ordinary, he quickly loaded a bolt. Both men had their crossbows ready at the same time the stone warrior raised his fist for a second attack on Stephen. The strings released and sent the bolts flying toward their target. The first bolt ricocheted off the stone torso as the second bolt hit the giant squarely in the eye. The giant froze in the middle of its movement, slowly turning its head toward both archers. Without any indication of pain, the giant pulled out the cross bolt and pulverized it in its hand.

Stephen, deciding not to stick around, made use of the distraction by crawling away as fast as he could. He managed a small distance, only to be grabbed by the leg, as the stone giant picked him up and threw him directly at the two archers. While Stephen protected his head, he knocked both of them down. All three men came crashing down from the boulders, and Raylan heard Kevhin curse as the archer, once again, found himself smacked onto the unwelcoming ground.

Raylan and Xi’Lao moved in, trying to determine a weak point on their gigantic enemy. Dodging below its arms, Raylan slashed at its side, but it was literally like hitting rock. Xi’Lao put her knives in its knee cavity, where they got stuck. The giant turned around, as both Raylan and Xi’Lao rolled away. Xi’Lao threw a salvo of knives at the giant, without effect. As it moved its leg, Xi’Lao’s knives bent effortlessly, after which they dropped to the ground completely ruined.

“Stay out of its reach. It’s dangerously quick, and it does not seem to feel anything!” Gavin yelled to them both. “Peadar! Go find me some heavy spears…perhaps those will do some damage!”

While Peadar ran off, Ca’lek and Harwin moved in and slashed at the giant’s legs. Ca’lek jumped back and forth seeing if his sword could do any damage without being caught by the giant’s flailing arms. Harwin moved to its back, but the giant suddenly twisted around and gave a full swinging kick toward him.

Being a soldier of experience, Harwin often preferred the defense of a shield together with sword. Since he did not have the speed of the younger men anymore, it was a vital part of his survival on the battlefield. Turning into the approaching kick, Harwin brought up his shield, knowing he would not be able to move out of the leg’s reach quickly enough. He braced for impact, with both arms behind the metal shield, holding his sword to the side. It was like being hit by a rock slide. The giant’s leg did not even slow down as it kicked Harwin off his feet. The shield wrapped around the leg upon impact. Raylan heard the air being pushed out of the shield warrior. Harwin felt himself flying across the ground and crashing into the wreckage of the destroyed wagon.

Peadar came running with two spears he found and passed them to Gavin. Gavin tossed one to Galen, who lined it up and threw it with all his might toward the stone giant. It hit the giant in the back of its upper arm, in the crack where the arm attached to the shoulder. As it reached for the spear, Gavin charged in with his own spear, thrusting full force into the spot where the scroll had pierced the statue. The spear did little damage, but it did get stuck in the small crack that the scroll had left. As the giant turned toward Gavin, Raylan’s brother pushed the spear sideways in an effort to widen the crack in its chest.

It was a mistake to linger so close to the stone man. Raylan saw the stone warrior bring its arm around and hit Gavin with an outward swing. Gavin flew through the air and smashed, back first, into a boulder. His head hit the rock and he slumped forward onto the ground.

“Gavin!” Raylan screamed, running toward his brother; but the stone abomination cut off his path, and punched his solid fists straight at his chest.

Raylan slid to a halt and used quick footwork to dodge the attack as he was driven backward by the stone giant. All of a sudden, a rock hit the back of the giant’s head, making it turn around to see Peadar on top of a boulder. Vulnerable on top of his perch, Peadar was unsure of what to do next, now that he averted the giant’s attention from Raylan. The boy was like a startled deer looking at a hunter.

Out of nowhere, Richard appeared, making a cut at the giant’s stone knee. His sword sparked from the impact of the attack, but still there was no visible damage. Focusing its attacks in front of itself again, the stone giant moved in on Richard and Raylan.

Dodging and retreating, they moved around the wreckage of the smashed wagon. Raylan glanced toward the wreckage to see if he could spot Harwin. He saw a couple of legs sticking out from the pile of wood and canvas, but he had no time to see if Harwin was breathing or not. As he moved his eyes away from the wreckage, jumping out of the way of an incoming punch, his eye caught a small glimmer. It looked like a black snake, moving under the broken wooden planks. As the giant focused on Richard, Raylan checked again and saw what it actually was. He rolled forward and moved in on the pile of wood and metal. Ignoring Harwin, for now, he put both hands on the big iron chain and gave it a strong pull. The chain slid out from under the wreckage, but it got caught on some of the wood.

“Richard, distract it as long as possible. I have an idea,” shouted Raylan.

“Distract it? I am trying not to get killed here!”

Raylan noticed Richard sounded out of breath, but it could not be that bad if he had the energy to make a joke about it…still, he figured he had better hurry. Kicking at the wreckage to break some of the planks, Raylan worked as fast as possible to free the chain. He grunted as he gave another mighty pull on the chain with both hands; it finally sprang free.

The unexpected drop in resistance, as the chain gave way, made Raylan stumble and fall backward. Jumping up, he ran around the stone giant in a large arc, toward Richard, who had just run out of space to dodge its attacks. Heaving one end of the long and heavy iron chain, he called out to Richard, “Catch!”

Even before his hands caught the chain, Richard figured out what Raylan had in mind. As they both ran to opposite sides of the stone giant, Richard went low, while Raylan jumped over the chain. They twisted the chain around the massive stone legs, crossing back to the front.

Trying to move toward its enemies, the stone giant found its legs tangled up by the chain. Losing its balance, it crashed heavily into the mud. Right away, both men moved from front to back again, twisting the chains around its stone arms in an effort to get the giant even more tangled up; but its strength was too great.

Raylan looked over his shoulder and spotted Galen. The heavy hitter also figured out that they needed a heavier weapon than their normal swords for this rampaging menace. Raylan saw the war hammer in his hands.

“Galen, hurry up, we can’t hold him for long!”

As the giant rolled onto its back, twisting the chains around its torso even more, it simply sat up. The combined strength of Raylan and Richard had no effect on its movement. They felt the chain slip through their hands, and their feet scratched over the ground.

At the same time the stone giant erected itself, Galen reached them at full running speed. Shouting out a great war-cry, Galen put all his momentum into a horizontal swing with his heavy war hammer. His timing could not have been better.

The war hammer hit the giant with full force in its face. Knocking it straight back to the ground, its head smashed onto the flat rocky surface of a buried boulder. By the sound of the impact, they hoped that a crack formed on the stone skull. Skidding to a halt, Galen turned around right away, raising his war hammer above his head. The giant tried to raise its head as Galen brought his hammer straight down, again and again, smashing the stone head between the hammer and the buried boulder. A crack started to show and became more visible as Galen put in blow after blow. Finally, after a dozen smashes, the crack suddenly widened. The next impact of the hammer shattered the stone skull. The final blow caused the stone skull to erupt with another sound blast. Blue light sparkled and evaporated from the smashed head, and then the giant statue remained motionless on the ground.

Out of breath, both Raylan and Richard dropped to the ground and released the chain. Galen let go of his hammer and sat back, panting heavily. The sun was coming up already; the fight took longer than expected.

Suddenly remembering his brother, Raylan’s fatigue vanished as he jumped to his feet. He turned around to see Xi’Lao, already crouching next to Gavin, holding him with his back against one of the boulders.

“Is he alive? Is he still breathing?” said Raylan, as he rushed over.

Arriving at his brother’s side, he heard a low groan as his brother grabbed his head and tried to open his eyes. He lifted his head up slowly and looked at them hazily.

“What the hell was that?”

Chapter 3

Egg

Gavin leaned against the rock, while Raylan passed him the leather sack with water. Slowly tipping his head, he took a sip. His head was killing him. They had taken his armor and his shirt off, so Xi’Lao could examine him. Her extensive medical training had already become invaluable in the field.

She slowly followed Gavin’s ribs from his chest to his side, applying pressure lightly along the way. Gavin let out a soft groan when she reached the spot where the stone giant’s punch hit him. He did not look happy. At least the rain stopped, for now, and the morning sun rose above the horizon, giving him a little bit of warmth from the direct rays of sunlight.

“How bad is it?” said Raylan, as Gavin put his clothes and his armor back on.

She looked at him with a faint smile.

“His head was knocked around pretty good, but at least his ribs do not seem to be broken. He will need to take it easy with his head for a number of days, if that is possible. He might vomit. His ribs will take longer to heal. Breathing will most likely be uncomfortable for some time.”

“I’ll be fine. It was my own fault for not moving quickly enough.”

As Gavin tried to get up, his head started pounding right away, making him feel so dizzy that he had to sit down again. He closed his eyes to stop his head from spinning.

“Is everyone alright? Did we lose anyone?” said Gavin, directing his questions at Raylan.

Raylan looked around to Galen and Richard, who joined them after catching their breaths, and he knew that Peadar had gone to check on Harwin in the wagon wreckage.

“Galen and Richard are fine; they did a great job taking out that thing. Peadar is okay, just a bit shaken. Harwin still stands; it seems his shield took most of the impact. He has some cuts from the crash. Apparently, he also had a nail in his leg from the wagon, but that has been taken out. It was nothing serious, he assured us, just a couple of more scars to brag about during drinking night. Kevhin and Rohan are good, only some bruises from the tumble off the boulders. Stephen’s leg is in pretty bad shape. It seems the stone giant broke his leg when it grabbed him. Peadar is currently making a splint for him. Xi’Lao and I have no serious injuries. Ca’lek only has a superficial cut on his arm. It’s been bandaged up already.”

For a moment, Raylan hesitated, while Gavin pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Regis?” he asked, gloomily.

Raylan shook his head.

“We lost him. Stephen and Harwin went to check on him right after the horses trampled him. They pulled him to the side, but he was not breathing anymore. Ca’lek went to double check a while ago, but his body was already cold…”

“How many enemies dead?”

“Thirty nine…forty, if you include the statue. I still can’t believe that thing moved. What kind of force could do such a thing? The soldier looked like he had been sucked dry of all life. There was that blue light surrounding the soldier, once he cut his hand. It looked like water and fire at the same time, constantly moving around his figure. Then, once he struck the statue, all that light rushed into the stone, with that blast at the end. Do you remember?”