She looked out over the walls again. “Other than what we can see in front of us, how many are there?”
“I don’t know. I sent flits out three separate times to fly beyond that ridge.” He pointed. “None of them returned. Who knows what’s back there hidden out of sight?”
She exhaled sharply. “Maybe you could send someone out through the underground tunnels?”
He gave her a smile. “Are you volunteering, Sefita? Because so far no one else has.”
“I take your point.”
“Don’t misunderstand. I might have to send somebody. But what I was thinking of doing was sending another flit out after it gets dark. Harder to see it then.”
He paused, giving a quick glance down at the hordes gathered below the wall. “Be careful, Sefita. Tell your airmen to do the same. These creatures aren’t like anything we’ve fought before. I don’t know what they can do, but we don’t want to take anything for granted. So watch yourself.”
After she left to return to her command, Keeton found Wint down below, inside the First Response hangar, and pulled him aside. “I want to hold the First Response team in reserve. All of them. If the walls are breached, I want us there to plug the hole.”
Wint nodded but didn’t answer. Keeton looked around, out the hangar doors to where the west gates stood locked and barred. “Have them build a redoubt fifty feet back. Right about there.” He pointed. “Two levels, places for fifty men. Install four fire launchers. The big ones. Two on each level, evenly spaced. If the gates go, I don’t want anything to get past the redoubt.”
There was nothing more to do after that. Not until the attack began. He went back up on the wall and stood looking down at the invading army. He had convinced himself some time back that it was demons he was facing. He had no idea how Edinja knew this, or how she knew they had broken through the Forbidding, but the moment she had said it he knew it was so. These things weren’t indigenous to the Four Lands; there hadn’t been creatures of this sort seen in centuries. Why they were here now was a mystery, but the fact of it was enough.
He thought momentarily of the Prime Minister, wondering what she was doing. He hadn’t seen her since she had ordered him to take command of the army. He had assumed she would be back to find out how he was managing things, to watch over him as she had watched over Tinnen March and make a similar judgment on his efforts, but there had been no sign of her. He couldn’t decide if this was good or bad.
As twilight deepened, Keeton became increasingly convinced that the attack was going to come after dark. Perhaps these creatures saw better at night and wanted to take advantage of it. Perhaps this was their natural hunting time. Whatever the case, he set about trying to remove whatever advantage they percieved.
He started by ordering torches lit all around the city walls. While light this high off the ground wouldn’t penetrate down to where the attackers were clustered, it would illuminate them clearly if they attempted to scale the walls. In addition, he had flammable oil released into the shallow trough that encircled the city some ten feet from the walls and spiked outward in trenches dug at regular intervals perpendicular to the main ring for distances of from five to ten yards. Their oil reserves would hold for up to ten days if they were frugal. But Keeton didn’t care about ten days. He was worried about three or four. So he released oil until the ditch was filled.
Finally, he had pitch barrels brought up to the archers on the battlements so they could dip the tips of their arrows and add further light to any defensive effort.
Then he sat back to wait.
Time passed. The darkness deepened as the daylight faded and disappeared. Stars and a crescent moon appeared in a hazy night sky. Then unexpectedly the weather changed. The temperature warmed, storm clouds rolled in from the north, the haze deepened, and the stars and moon disappeared. Keeton abandoned his plans to send out a fourth flit. He couldn’t convince himself it was worth risking another airman’s life to confirm what he already suspected.
The hordes in the darkness continued to howl and threaten, but stayed put. Keeton thought to light the oil in the ditch but held off. Not until they attack, he thought. Not until it begins.
All around him, the men and women of the army stood waiting, eyes fixed on the darkness and the sounds of the demons.
Anytime, Keeton thought.
But no attack came.
Thirteen