The adzee surged up.
It should not have been able to move so quickly, not after losing so much blood, two scorpion bolts in its body, and Levalas’s spear still jutting from the wound near its neck. But it did. Its head snapped toward the nearest guard, and one paw raked across his leg.
The man screamed.
The sound cut through everything.
"Spears!" Levalas shouted. "Now!"
Calubo and two others thrust together. Levalas stepped in from the side and jumped to grab the shaft of his own spear, still jutting from the wound near the beast’s neck. He drove his weight into it with both hands, forcing the spear deeper into the torn flesh. The shaft jerked under his palms as the beast twisted, and for one terrible moment he thought it would tear free without doing enough.
Then the beast sagged.
The others stabbed again and again until it stopped trying to rise.
"Back!" Levalas ordered. "Check the wounded! One of you keep an eye on the beast.”
The injured guard was on the ground, clutching his thigh. Blood ran between his fingers, dark in the firelight. The gash was deep.
Levalas crouched beside him. "Look at me."
The guard's face was pale. "It got my leg."
"I can see that. But you're still alive. We won't let you die."
That made the man blink, which was better than the screaming.
Levalas looked at two nearby guards. "Bind it tight. Now. Then take him back to the manor. Use the stretcher."
The men moved quickly. They had brought a stretcher from the manor just in case, and now Levalas was glad for it. One guard wrapped cloth around the wound above the gash and pulled it tight. Another man took off his leather belt and bound it as a tourniquet to reduce blood loss. The injured man groaned and tried to grab at him.
"Hold him!”
Calubo knelt and held the man's shoulders. "Stay still. Nurobo will patch you up. You’ll be just fine.”
The man hissed through his teeth, but he stopped struggling.
Levalas stood and looked at the beast.
It was finally dead now.
It had to be.
Still, he pointed at it. "Stab it again. Do not go near the head."
Two guards obeyed. The adzee did not move.
Levalas looked up at the watchtower. “Isomi! You see any others nearby?"
"Clear!" Isomi called from above. "No beast close!"
"Back to the gate," Levalas called.
They began retreating at once, four guards lifting the wounded man between them while the others covered the group. No one walked backward carelessly. Tower shields stayed toward the dark. Spears stayed ready. Only when they were back inside the gate did Levalas let himself breathe properly.
The stretcher had already been kept near the watchtower, just inside the gate.
The gate closed behind them and the heavy bar dropped into place.
The wounded guard was lowered onto it as carefully as they could manage. The blood had already soaked through the cloth at his leg. If he wasn't treated soon, he wouldn't live to see the sunrise.
"You two take him to the manor," Levalas said. "Tell Nurobo it is a deep leg wound. And ask the Captain for replacement guards at the southwest gate. This fight is not over. There will be more of them outside.”
One of the guards nodded. “I’ll let him know."
They lifted the stretcher and started walking, careful but fast.
Levalas watched them go.
His hands were shaking slightly now that he had stopped moving. He tightened his grip on the spear he had recovered from the beast until the shaking became less obvious.
His first real command in a fight, and he had failed to protect his men.
The thought hit him hard, but he pushed it down.
The man was alive. That mattered more than the wound. Nurobo had losuvil powder, bandages, boiled water, and trained hands to help him. The guard still had a chance.
"Levalas!" Isomi called from the tower.
He looked up.
She was leaning over the parapet, staring past the fire. "Another adzee seen in the distance. Farther out, across the fire. Stay inside the gate for now. We’ll try to hit it from here."
Levalas nodded. "Understood."
He turned to the remaining guards.
"Shields forward. Spears low. No one opens the gate unless I say it."
The men shifted back into position. Levalas saw Calubo standing near the front again, his jaw tight, his eyes on the gap between the logs.
Outside, the dead adzee still lay near the fire.
Beyond it, somewhere in the dark, another beast was prowling.
Levalas steadied his breathing and forced his hands to stay still.
He could think about the wounded guard later. He could think about whether he had led the men properly later. For now, the gate was barred, the guards were back inside, but another adzee was somewhere outside the wall.
So he kept his eyes on the darkness beyond the fire and waited for Isomi’s next call.
***
- Tesyb -
Tesyb rode ahead of the first wagon of the caravan, his horse moving at a slow walk through the darkness, with a lantern hanging from one hand.
The light swung gently with the movement of the horse, showing only a small part of the road at a time. Beyond that, the forest pressed close on both sides, thick with summer leaves. The canopy overhead made the darkness worse. Hardly any moonlight reached the ground, and most of that broke apart against branches before it touched the road.
The horses did not like it.
Neither did Tesyb.
He would have preferred to stop before sunset, make a secure camp, and continue only at first light. That was what they usually did when the caravan could not reach the village in time. But this time they had been too close to Tiranat for that to feel right.
A boar attack near the old Helga's inn had delayed them yesterday. No one had died, and the guards had killed the beasts before they could damage the wagons, but it had cost them precious time. The drivers had been shaken, one horse had needed a while to be calmed down, and they had not covered as much ground as planned. So today they had pushed harder.
By sunset, they had been near enough that stopping felt worse than moving.
Trevalo had not liked that.
The merchant had said more than once that traveling at night through the forest was a bad idea. Tesyb agreed with him. But camping in the dark only an hour or two away from the village did not feel any safer. At least while moving, they were getting closer to the walls with every step.
Now they were less than a quarter of an hour away.
Probably.
The roads always felt longer in the dark.
Behind him, the six wagons moved in a tight line. They were lighter now than they had been on the way to Cinran. On the outward trip, all six had been loaded with coal. That coal had been delivered to the warehouse near the Kal River, where the barge captain had been waiting. This time the barge had left for Ulriga—half of it already loaded with the coal from the last trip to Cinran over a week ago, and half brought with the caravan this time—carrying the first shipment of coal on the new river trade route. Trevalo had already arranged the sale with a merchant there, and on the return trip the barge would bring wheat.
The precious, invaluable, delicious wheat.
If all went well, the barge would make a round trip in around 15 days. Tesyb and Trevalo would make two more wagon trips before then, so more coal would be waiting in Cinran by the time the barge returned.
It sounded like a good plan.
A profitable one too, from what little Tesyb understood of the numbers.
For the return trip from Cinran, the wagons carried much less this time. One wagon worth of wheat, since the price was still so high that buying more had not made sense—nor were the merchants willing to let go of large amounts of it in anticipation of price rising even higher. Another wagon held cloth, ropes, salt and a few other regular supplies, along with some vegetables bought in Cinran. The third wagon contained iron ingots. The remaining three wagons were mostly empty, so each of those was being pulled by one horse instead of two. That had freed three horses for mounted guards, which helped tonight.
One guard rode near the rear with another lantern. Another rode beside the middle wagons. Tesyb led at the front. The rest of the guards walked close to the wagons in shifts, or sat on the empty ones with crossbows loaded and ready for the night journey. They all had spare bolts. Enough of them. These days, guards leaving the village were equipped properly, and the fletcher had been making the bolts and arrows full-time.
That was another change.
Six months ago, they would not have had enough of anything. They still didn't have enough swords, spears or shields for the guards taken on in the last two rounds of recruitment—certainly not enough crossbows. But at least the situation was better than it used to be in the past.
Tesyb glanced back.
The lantern light caught Trevalo's face for a moment. The merchant was sitting on the first wagon bench beside one of his drivers, his shoulders tense and his hands gripping the side board.
"Are you certain about this?" Trevalo called quietly. "We can still stop."
"No," Tesyb said. "We are almost there. If we stop now, we spend the whole night outside. If we move, we reach the village soon."
"What if something hears us?"
"Something already can hear us," Tesyb said. "Six wagons are not quiet. So let's make sure we are inside the walls before anything decides to come looking."
Trevalo did not answer, which Tesyb counted as agreement.
He looked ahead again.
He had spoken with Isuha before leaving Cinran, and that conversation kept returning to him now that there was nothing else to do but watch the dark road. His sister had almost not believed him when he told her Lord Kivamus wanted to offer her 25 coppers a day if she moved to Tiranat. That was far more than she was earning in Cinran now, especially with clothing sales being poor these days.
For a moment, Tesyb had thought that would be enough this time.
Then she had asked again where she would live.
He had tried telling her about the new double-story longhouse blocks, the regular availability of food, the security of the palisade wall, and the productive work she would do here. She had listened, then given him the same answer as before. She was not moving to Tiranat just to sleep in a crowded hall. She wanted a private room. A lockable one. If she was leaving Cinran, she wanted to move up, not sideways.
But this time, Tesyb had been ready.
He had told her about the baron's plan for something called a tenement block. He did not know all the details, but he knew the important part. Separate rooms. Proper doors. Monthly rent. A better place for skilled workers who could afford more than a bunk.
That had changed her expression.
"If you are right," she had said, "and if it really has private lockable rooms, then I am willing to move there once they are ready. But only when they are ready."
Tesyb had promised to bring her the latest news about it every time he came to Cinran. He did not yet know when the construction would begin. Whenever he found out the details, that would be the first thing he told her on the next trip.
The horse under him tossed its head.
Tesyb tightened the reins. "Easy."
Then the howl came.
It rolled through the forest from somewhere ahead and to the left.
Every horse in the caravan reacted. The lead horse jerked sideways. One of the wagon horses whinnied and pulled against its harness. The drivers cursed and fought to keep control. Somewhere behind him, a guard shouted for everyone to hold steady.
Tesyb knew the sound at once.
An adzee.
His mouth went dry.
Another howl answered from farther away.
Trevalo stood halfway from the wagon bench. "What was that?"
"Sit down," Tesyb snapped.
The merchant froze, then sat.
Tesyb turned in the saddle. "Stop the wagons! Tight line! Guards ready, weapons out! Drivers, keep the horses under control!"
The wagons slowed and stopped close together. The guards moved fast, more from training than calm. Crossbows came up. Spears were taken from wagon sides. The mounted guard at the rear turned his horse around and brought the lantern higher.
Another howl sounded.
This time he was calm enough that he clearly noticed the direction of the howl.
It was coming from ahead of him. From the direction of the village.
Then, faintly, Tesyb heard a horn.
His heart lurched.
Tiranat.
The village was under threat.
His parents were there. So was Savomi.