Chapter 3

The night was dark and overcast, but the entire west end of the village was illuminated by torches, lanterns, and mage lights as the villagers watched the forest and waited for a possible attack.

“Were you able to get word to the hunters that live outside town?” Corec asked the mayor, a man named Barl, as they both eyed the trees in the distance.

“I sent boys out with messages, but I wouldn’t expect to hear back until morning,” the man said. “I don’t know how many will come.”

“Well, at least we’ll have the ones who are already here. I talked to them about our plan and they’re marking out spots for themselves.”

Just then, Shavala trudged out of the trees and headed toward the lights.

“Are you all right?” Corec asked when she reached him. “You look exhausted.”

“Too much magic, and it’s been a long day.”

He nodded. Katrin had told him about the rain spell. “Did you find the ogres?”

“There are nine of them. Some are injured, but not badly enough to slow them down.”

“Where are they?” Mayor Barl asked.

“West, then north,” Shavala said. “Near a big pond. If they take the same route, I think they can get here in about two hours, but they were bedding down for the night when I left.”

“If we know where they are, should we attack them?” Barl asked, then looked as if he regretted speaking.

“Only after your baron sends some guards,” Corec said. “Until then, it’s better to stay here, like we talked about. If they come back, we at least have a position we can defend. And if they’re only two hours away, they might be back sooner than we’d hoped.”

“I’m faster than them,” Shavala said. “I can go out in the morning to see if they’re on the move, and then come back here to let you know.”

Corec nodded. “All right. You should go get some rest for now, though.”

“I will. Where are the others?”

“Treya and Bobo are asleep back at the temple. They looked as tired as you, but the big building that burned down was the only inn, so the priest took us in. Katrin’s with them, watching over the wounded. I think Ellerie’s trying to sleep too—she cast a larger alarm ward than usual. Boktar’s around here somewhere, trying to find something to barricade the streets with. He and I are going to take turns sleeping in one of the houses on this end of town, so we’re close by in case anything happens tonight.”

“I’ll go to the temple, then.”

After she’d gone, Barl said, “Do you think they’ll attack before the baron’s men get here?”

“I don’t have any experience with ogres, but Boktar does, and he says we need to be ready for them.”

“Do you really think we can fight them without the baron’s men, after what happened today?”

“Today, you were surprised and nobody was armed. Once we show everyone what to do, it’ll be a different story. The archers alone will make a huge difference. Make sure everyone gets enough sleep, though. Go count out half the men that are on watch and tell them to go to bed for the next four hours, then have them switch with the other half.”

The mayor nodded and headed off. Luckily, when faced with fighting an enemy that had already killed four of their own, the townsfolk were willing to take Corec’s and Boktar’s suggestions, viewing their armor and weapons as a symbol of authority. They’d kept the plan simple, since the men in the village weren’t trained soldiers, but once some basic defenses were in place, Corec was optimistic about their chances if it came down to a battle before the baron’s men showed up.

More than that, helping with the planning had felt right. The knights of Pallisur were trained to lead men in battle—soldiers, guardsmen, or even villagers like these who just needed someone to show them what to do. Corec wasn’t much of a tactician, but these people didn’t need an expert, just somebody who could give them a way to defend themselves.

Perhaps it wasn’t quite what the crazy man in the dream had meant, but it felt closer to it than anything else Corec had done in the past six years.

The next afternoon, Katrin grasped her flute tightly in her hand, nervously watching the forest from the roof of a house. One of the hunters who plied his trade in the woods around the village was with her, holding a bow as tall as he was. Six other archers were hidden on other rooftops nearby. Only two of the hunters had been in town during the initial attack, and both had been caught without their bows, but now they were ready to fight back.

The street to Katrin’s left had been blocked off with a wagon, as had most of the other streets in town, in an attempt to funnel the ogres into a spot between the buildings to her right, where Corec and Boktar stood in front of a group of farmers and villagers armed with pitchforks. Corec had spent the morning training the men on how to use the implements to stop an enemy charge, as a short version of a pike. Treya and Ellerie stood to one side of the group. Treya had insisted on being present for the battle, leaving Bobo and the village priest with the wounded.

Suddenly, Shavala ran out of the tree line and straight to where Corec and Boktar stood. It had been her third scouting trip that day, and had been much shorter than the first two. When she was done speaking to the men, she headed to Katrin’s building and climbed the ladder.

When she’d reached the roof, she retrieved her bow and quiver, which were already there waiting for her. She strung the bow, then slung the quiver over her back, fastening the strap tightly so it would stay in place.

“Did you see the ogres?” the hunter asked.

“They’re heading this way,” Shavala replied. “They’ll be here any minute.”

“All nine of them?”

“Yes.”

Corec finished arranging his men, having them brace the handles of their pitchforks against their feet, holding the tines out at an angle. He then waved up at all the archers, giving them the signal that the enemy was coming.

There was the sound of a bell ringing as Ellerie’s alarm ward was triggered, and then the ogres appeared from the forest, heading for the village. They looked almost like people, but they were nine or ten feet tall, with rough features, gray skin, and thick muscles. Their clothing was made of animal furs, belted together with leather straps. Most of them carried large wooden clubs as weapons, but the two in the lead had stone-headed axes.

When they saw the armed men lined up to meet them, they split into two groups. Five of the ogres ran toward Corec, Boktar, and the villagers, while the others went one street south, shoving the wagon barricade out of their way. That put a row of homes between them and the defenders, which meant it was up to the archers on Katrin’s side of the battle to stop them.

Shavala and the other archer ran to the south side of the building, taking aim, as did the two men on the next roof over. Shavala loosed her arrow first. It hit the leader in the shoulder, but didn’t penetrate far. He brushed it off and looked up at them, then charged, raising his weapon high enough that he’d be able to reach them.

As the other archers fired, Katrin put her flute to her mouth and played, suffusing the music with her bardic magic. Outside of her performances, she’d never tried to affect more than one target before, and something felt strangely different about the song. She kept playing though—she didn’t know if it would work, but it was the only way she could think of to contribute.

She was so focused on the music, she almost didn’t notice when the archers started calling back and forth to each other in confusion. She looked up to see that the ogres, who a moment before had been running in a rage, were now slowly plodding toward them.

Was that because of her music? She had no way to tell, but the other group of ogres hadn’t slowed when they’d reached Corec and the pikemen. Corec stood alone in front, and she saw the familiar flash of his shield spell flaring out when the lead ogre’s stone axe crashed down against it. Corec responded by slashing his sword against the ogre’s arm, causing it to drop its weapon.

Then, Boktar was there, hitting it in the back of the knee with the pointed end of his warhammer. The ogre collapsed, landing on its other knee, and Corec stabbed it through the torso while Boktar swung his hammer against its head. Three of the ogres had slipped by them during the fight, and after the leader fell, both men turned to help the pikemen deal with them, while the archers on the other side of the battle took care of the one farthest away from the commotion. Before Corec and Boktar even reached the pikemen, a beam of white light shot out from Ellerie’s hand, felling one of the giant man-beasts.

Katrin turned her attention back to her own group and kept playing, in case she was the reason they’d slowed down. Slowing them down wasn’t as good as bringing them to a halt, as she’d been able to do in the past, but maybe ogres weren’t as susceptible to bardic tricks. Or perhaps she hadn’t done anything at all, and they’d simply slowed down to figure out how to fight people standing on roofs.

Either way, with how slow they were moving, the ogres made easy targets. The hunters were using bows that were taller and stronger than Shavala’s, and their arrows were more effective at piercing the ogres’ thick muscles, but it still took them several shots to stop each of the first two. Then, Shavala hit the third one in the eye, killing it with a single arrow, and she and the other three archers worked together to finish off the fourth.

With their side of the battle done, Katrin checked on Corec again to find that Boktar was helping him to his feet. Corec was grimacing in pain, and the entire front of his cuirass was dented. Before Katrin had a chance to worry, Treya approached him, her hands already glowing. While she healed him, Boktar helped him remove the cuirass.

“I’m going to go check on the others,” Katrin said, heading for the ladder.

“Did we get them all?” Corec asked her as she approached.

“The archers got the second group. They’re checking to make sure they’re dead. What happened to you?”

“The last one got in a lucky shot. Bloody hell, he was strong.”

Treya said, “Your ribs are cracked. I’ve healed them part of the way, but you’ll need to take it easy. If nobody else was hurt today, I’ll heal you more later.”

“Thank you,” Corec said.

“You’re going to need to find an armor smith to pound this back out again,” Boktar said, holding up the cuirass. “A good one might be able to save it, and reinforce the weakened spots.”

Corec sighed. “Well, I suppose I can pack it on one of the mules until we get to Tyrsall. I certainly can’t afford to replace it.”

Katrin felt a flash of guilt, thinking about how much money he’d spent to get her brother out of prison, but it was too late to change that now. Hopefully she could earn enough in tips from her music to pay him back someday.

“What do we do now?” she asked. “Are we staying here tonight?”

“He needs to rest,” Treya said, pointing to Corec. “And I need to check the rest of my patients. I can’t leave today.”

Ellerie said, “We might as well wait until the reinforcements arrive, just in case there’s another group out there. That’ll be tomorrow night at the earliest, so that puts us here for two more nights. Hopefully Priest Davi won’t mind our company for a bit longer.”

Corec nodded. “I don’t think I could go anywhere today anyway. It hurts too much to try to get on a horse.”

“Have Bobo make you some willow bark tea,” Treya said. “I’ll come heal you again as soon as I can.”

“Boktar and I can help these folks deal with the ogres’ bodies,” Ellerie said.

“I’ll go to the temple, then,” Corec said.

Katrin accompanied him, though they had to stop and talk to an overly excited Mayor Barl on the way.

Leena waited impatiently as the customer looked over what was left of the day’s baking. His dirty clothes suggested he was a day laborer.

Finally, he pointed and said, “Half a loaf of the rye.”

She nodded. The shop was closing soon and the bread had been baked the previous morning. It was better to sell half the loaf than none of it. If the baker didn’t keep the rest for his family, she’d take it home herself. She quickly sliced off half the loaf and wrapped it, exchanging it for a half-copper.

When the man had left, the baker, Maric, grunted from where he was wiping down the counter. “You should be friendlier with the customers. My last girl did better business than you. It wouldn’t hurt you to smile and show a bit of skin.”

She glared at him. “Didn’t your wife let the last girl go because she was too friendly? Besides, we weren’t going to do better business with him. He had no money.”

“And what about all the others? You can’t tell me you wore dresses like that in Sanvar.”