A ripple of applause and a fledgling cheer rose up from the two hundred or so elves gathered in the hall only to be stilled by a commotion outside. Shouting, and the sound of swords being drawn, shivered through the hall, chilling the mood and giving Auum a taste of the task he faced to rebuild the Katurans’ courage. TaiGethen began to move but Auum held his arms out for calm.
A large body of elves forced their way through the crowd, shoving people aside, snarling threats and insults on their way to the front of the hall. They were Beethans, with powerful frames as befitted those born to the god of tree, root and branch, and angular features with prominent cheekbones, arrowhead noses and narrow mouths.
An iad led them. She was dressed in fine cloth and carried a thin sharp blade. Seventy or eighty crowded around her, every one armed with a bow or sword. The ordinary people shied away. Some had already fled the hall but most filtered behind the Al-Arynaar, who had come forward into the centre of the hall to provide what little defence they could. The taunts from the Beethans were harsh and well directed, though, and Auum was not convinced he could rely on the Al-Arynaar to stand if it came to a fight.
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 light of Ix burns strongest and brightest in the bodies of the shortest lived.
The Aryn Hiil, later Calaian Writings
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.