Stones of light threadli.., p.24
Stones of Light (Threadlight Book 2), page 24
With Zeda support, the amassed army of corespawn would have no way to sneak up on the city. And when they came, the archers would loose their arrows, fire would rain down from trebuchets, and a hidden layer of spikes at the base of the wall would be lifted. Lastly, in preparation for the enormous monstrosities, dozens of ballistae were in position to launch a volley of burning steel.
Laurel found herself beginning to believe that with all of the grounder preparations, they just might be able to win.
But then the earth shook.
Over and over, like fists pounding against the earth, ripples of energy quaking along the surface. Chaos erupted throughout the city, with lookouts shouting for everyone to stay calm. The corespawn weren't moving, but that didn't stop the people from panicking.
Bay grabbed Laurel's shoulder for support. "What is happening?"
"I don't know," she said. "I need to find Alverax. Go somewhere safe."
As Laurel rushed through the pandemonium, she lifted her head and sniffed the air. Her mind filled with faces and odd assumptions about the world around her, but one in particular stood out. She turned toward a tent not far away and ran as fast as her legs would take her. She never knew how much she loved the wind in her hair until she was dashing through the dirt with danger all around. Her heart pounded and her eyes pierced through the darkness. She felt so free.
She rounded the other end of the tent and saw Alverax standing in the doorway, talking to a man with a sharp jaw. "Alverax!" she shouted, coming to a stop. "What's happening?"
The other man turned to her with a look of confusion. "Who are you?"
"She's one of the Zeda," Alverax responded. "She helped me convince the elders. Laurel, was it? This is General Thallin."
She nodded just as another resounding thud shook the ground. "Did this happen the last time the corespawn attacked?"
"No," Alverax said.
Again, the earth shook.
He turned to the general. "Should we send out scouts to see what they're doing?"
"They're too far away from the wall," Thallin replied. "There's nothing they can do from that distance, and I wouldn't want to send one of our threadweavers on a suicide scouting mission."
Alverax turned to Laurel. "I need you to work with Dogwood and make sure the Zeda are in position and ready. The last thing we need is for whatever this is to frighten people and ruin our preparation."
Laurel nodded. In that moment, she realized that Alverax had no idea that Alabella and Sarla were in the city. When Sarla had told her all about the Obsidian threadweaver they'd created, she told her that the boy had abandoned them and was likely dead. Whatever his reason, Alverax would certainly want to know that they were here. But not now. They had bigger problems.
The quaking of the earth grew stronger.
Screaming.
Laurel, Alverax, and Thallin turned their gaze to the screams coming from the south, where a large creature dashed through the streets at terrifying speed. Somehow, she knew, even before she saw his green fur blending in with the moonlit grass.
Asher.
The chromawolf sprinted toward her and she took a step in his direction. Thallin unsheathed his blade, and Alverax followed suit.
"No!" she shouted, pushing them aside and rushing forward. The wind bit at her cheeks as she picked up speed. She had to get to him before the grounders hurt him. They were right to be afraid, but wrong in the most important way.
As they approached, she slid on her side, reaching out for threadlight to drift across the dirt, but finding none. She came to a halt and watched as an arrow cut through the night and smashed into Asher's shoulder. The chromawolf crashed to its side and Laurel howled out into the night. Pain ripped through her arm, gripping at nerves and tendons. She stumbled to her feet and lifted her other arm high into the air, waving it in the direction from which the arrow had flown.
When she looked to her own shoulder, there was no wound. Whatever pain she’d felt wasn’t real. But Asher’s was. She knelt beside the chromawolf, his fur now marred by blood and dirt. His breath was heavy, his chest heaving up and down as his head writhed back and forth in pain. She touched his chest with an outstretched palm, and he turned his eyes to her.
And in the middle of the chaos, with armored boots stomping over rubble and soldiers and civilians shouting hymns of terror, Laurel heard a voice in her mind.
Danger, Asher growled. Tunnel.
Chapter 40
Laurel continued to press her hand against the chromawolf's chest. Somehow—impossibly—he had spoken to her. But they weren’t words, they were ideas, passed into her mind and translated to words with a voice that just like Asher’s growl.
"Danger?" Laurel asked.
Asher shook his head. Digging. Far.
She couldn't believe that it was really his voice. Had he always been able to communicate with her? Could other chromawolves do the same? But wait...
Digging.
"Alverax!" Laurel screamed, looking back over her shoulder. "Alverax, come fast!"
She turned her attention back to Asher and looked at the arrow in his shoulder. She grabbed it by the shaft, and, as she gripped it, she felt a dull throb in her own arm. Gritting her teeth and taking a deep breath, she pulled the arrow out of Asher as fast as she could. Her own are throbbed as she felt the shadow of an arrow pull free.
Alverax approached, his black blade returned to its sheath. "Laurel, are you okay? Did that thing hurt you?"
"I'm fine," she said. "Asher would never hurt me."
"Asher?"
Laurel sat up, one hand gripping her shoulder, though the pain had all but vanished. "Asher is with me. If anyone so much as touches him, there will be hell to pay."
Alverax looked down at the wound in Asher's shoulder. "Is it going to be okay?"
"He will be fine. Alverax, the corespawn are digging a tunnel. They're going under the wall."
His eyes grew. "Under? All our traps would be useless. Wait, is that even possible? Thallin!" he shouted. "Ahh, never mind. Come on. Can it walk? I wouldn't leave it here or someone will do something."
In response, Asher rose to his feet, though he favored the injured one as he hobbled beside Laurel. On every side, soldiers and civilians gawked at the massive chromawolf sauntering through their homeland beside a Zeda girl and their Watchlord. Something about it made Laurel feel powerful, as if her bond with Asher was some great expression of strength.
"Thallin!" Alverax shouted as they moved. "The corespawn are digging a tunnel under the wall! I don't know how far they've gotten, but we need to get ready in case they emerge from the ground on this side."
General Thallin furrowed his brows and stared at Asher with his head held slightly back, then shifted his gaze to Alverax. "Slow down. What are you talking about?"
"The corespawn!" Alverax repeated. "The quaking is digging. They're making a tunnel that will go right under the outer wall."
"Heralds," Thallin cursed. "Where is the messenger? I want to know every detail."
Alverax turned to Laurel who turned to Asher. "Laurel, where's the note?"
Laurel paused. "What note?"
"The message that the wolf brought you. You said it brought you the warning."
"No, I didn't," she said. In that moment, she realized how insane it would look if she tried to explain the truth. No one would believe that Asher could speak to her. And even if they did, how could they believe information from a chromawolf? "Ohhhhh," she said, backtracking. "Sorry, yeah. The note was from a Zeda scout."
"Can I see it?" Thallin asked.
"I..." Laurel patted at her pockets. "It must have fallen out. The paper doesn't matter as much as the message. You have to turn your attention inward and rearrange the traps, you can still catch them by surprise."
Thallin stared at her with doubt in his eyes. "If we turn our attention inward and you're wrong, then the corespawn army can simply march forward and destroy our wall again, uncontested. I need more than a missing note to change all of our preparations."
Laurel clenched her jaw and turned to Alverax. "I swear it on the wind. They are digging a tunnel and, if you do nothing, people will die."
The ground rumbled beneath them, intensifying with each passing minute.
Alverax looked to the ground, thoughtfully, and Laurel thought that he just might believe her. But then he turned to the general. "I trust your judgment. Is there any way we can watch both?"
General Thallin shook his head. "Not without sacrificing one or the other. One option is to turn the ballistae inward, and if we see the corespawn approaching from the outside, we can swivel them back around. But the people and the traps are too connected to the wall. Moving them could be catastrophic if we're wrong."
"Do that," Alverax said. "If they tunnel in, I can help with the smaller corespawn. The ballistae can hold off the larger ones."
"I'll have them position the ballistae immediately." With that, Thallin rushed off to the tent where a group of messengers awaited orders.
A few minutes passed while Laurel watched messengers deliver their orders to the soldiers on the wall-walk. Several large ballistae shifted their aim, rotating the huge bow-like machines inward. It wasn’t much, but it was something.
As they stood side by side, Laurel looked at Alverax. If they survived this, she wanted to know his story. Especially the part where he betrayed Alabella.
Just then, she caught an odd scent on the wind.
It smelled like...roses.
The earth just inside the wall spewed forth dirt and rubble. Soldiers shouted, scrambling about. Dirt blasted out of the ground. Laurel searched for threadlight, but found her mind grasping into an empty void. For a moment, she thought she felt something, a prickle of power, but then it was gone.
She cursed and took out the obsidian dagger.
Alverax unsheathed his blade, and it gleamed in the moonlight. Laurel looked back to her own and was surprised to see the similarity.
"Nice sword," she said.
He looked at her dagger. "Nice knife."
"Mine’s better," she said.
Alverax let out a clipped laugh and looked to the tunnel.
Laurel knew it would be difficult to fight the corespawn if she couldn't see them. But it wouldn't be impossible. If only she still had a transfuser, something to give her access to threadlight, then she could make the beasts pay.
Eyes, Asher's voice growled in her mind.
Yes, Laurel thought. I can't see the corespawn.
No, his voice echoed. Eyes.
Laurel looked at her friend, confused. "I don't understand," she said aloud.
Share. Mine. Eyes.
The scent of roses saturated the night air, and that simple fact gave Laurel pause. Ever since the incident in the orchard, something had been changing with her. The smells. The speed. The pain. The...hair. It was as if she was becoming more and more like a chromawolf. And now, she could feel Asher's pain. She could speak with him. Somehow, their souls had bonded. Share. Mine. Eyes.
What if...
Laurel closed her eyes and reached back into the empty space where threadlight had once lived within her. She searched for a single leaf in the howling wind...and she found it. There, like the smallest seed, a spec of threadlight that echoed with Asher's soul. She reached out to it and felt power surge through her. She could hear the crunch of fallen leaves underfoot on the other side of the field. She could hear the breath of the guards atop the wall-walk. An entire world of information came pouring into her.
And then she opened her eyes.
Threadlight burst into her vision. Tens of thousands of multi-colored threads pulsing and dancing in the moonlit air. And in the midst of the field, in the center of thousands of Felian soldiers, a horde of corespawn came crawling out of a gaping hole in the ground.
Alverax gripped the hilt of the Midnight Watcher with white knuckles as he watched a swarm of skittering corespawn digging their way out of the growing hole. With each corespawn, the opening grew, until a massive hand plunged its way out, slapping against the ground and pulling itself out of the tunnel. It was one of the same monstrosities that had broken through the wall before, twice the height of a house and a barbed tail dragging behind it. Threadlight swirled across its massive body.
Every ballista that had been turned inward fired off a thick bolt at the monstrosity. Steel blasted into the creature, embedding deep in its glowing body. But no sooner had they hit then the beast grabbed hold and ripped the bolts back out, tossing them aside as threadlight pooled in the wounds.
The wounds healed, and the monstrosity roared.
Next to him, Laurel smiled, and Alverax was quite certain the girl was mad. But despite the fact that she seemed quite feral, she'd been right, for all the good it did them. He should have listened to her.
He was surprised to see her lips curl into a snarl as she flipped her dagger in her hand and whispered something to the chromawolf. Then, she took off toward the corespawn with Asher stumbling after her.
"Heralds, save us all," Alverax mumbled.
Then, he too rushed toward the tunnel.
Even at a dead sprint, he could pick off the smaller corespawn nearest to him. He would latch onto their threadlight with his mind and break it, instantly bursting the creatures apart in a cloud of misty magic. But Laurel and Asher were so fast that they arrived long before him. He watched as she slashed at the corespawn with reckless abandon, dashing in, swiping, spinning, and slamming down her dagger into the neck of the next. She seemed to move with inhuman speed, the corespawn falling apart at the touch of her obsidian blade.
The chromawolf seemed interested only in protecting Laurel as she continued in her mad rage. Each time one of the corespawn, whether small or large, tried to attack her from the flank, the chromawolf would lunge forward, striking the creatures down and fending them off until Laurel could turn around and finish them.
Alverax finally caught up. "Watch my back and I'll watch yours!" he shouted.
Laurel barely managed a nod before diving back in to explode the next corespawn. Alverax held his sword in a battle stance he'd learned from Thallin but focused on using his threadweaving. While Laurel thrashed out at the creatures, cutting them down like a child popping bubbles, Alverax picked them apart from a distance. One along the wall-walk about to attack an archer. Pop. Another climbing the wall to kill one of the Zeda lookouts. Pop.
He searched through the chaos, looking for where he could best help the people, all the while threadlight burned beneath his skin, sizzling from his chest to the ends of his fingertips. By the dozens, corespawn swarmed out of the massive hole like lava, oozing out over the land, devouring everything in their wake. Alverax wasn't fast enough. There were too many.
Another monstrosity ripped itself out of the hole. It swung its arms out over the field and flung soldiers through the air, crashing against tents and towers and the stone wall. Screams filled the battlefield, and it took all of Alverax's willpower not to add his own to the chorus.
All around him, chaos reigned. Soldiers toppled from the wall-walk. Others were flattened beneath the feet of the monstrosities. And yet others lay strewn out across the grass, their corpses torn open from the smaller, feasting creatures. He spun in a circle, and, everywhere he looked, he saw death. Their defenses were broken.
Rage boiled beneath his skin. The Heralds had saved him for a reason. He couldn't just stand there and watch the corespawn destroy the entire city. He had to do something.
The largest of the monstrosities broke away from the field and marched toward the palace. Flaming arrows and balls of acid exploded across its body, and it continued as if they were nothing more than rainfall.
Alverax ran. He ran faster than he'd ever run, gripping the Midnight Watcher as if it might try to turn back. Step by step, he gained on the slow-moving monstrosity; he had to stop it before it arrived at the palace. Jisenna was inside.
He cursed his heavy robes and charged forward. With threadlight burning through his veins and his heart pounding with fury, Alverax reached out to the monstrosity and attempted to break it. The threadlight forming its body vibrated like a magnet repelling its twin, pushing back against Alverax's efforts. Inside, it felt as though his veins were expanding under the pressure, but Alverax ignored it and raced forward.
The corespawn monstrosity swung about face, crushing a building with its tail. When its head faced Alverax, it leaned forward and roared.
Alverax broke his corethread and launched himself, weightless, through the cool night air in a straight line toward the beast. He lifted the Midnight Watcher high above him and, as he crashed into the monstrosity's head, he slammed the obsidian blade into the mass of pulsing threadlight. The sword connected. Energy shocked through his arms and throughout his body, sizzling and burning beneath his skin. The monstrosity burst apart like a mountain exploding into millions of shards of rock and dust.
The force sent Alverax crashing toward the ground, his corethread reappearing just before he struck earth. The sword tumbled away from him. His breathing came in bursts while his heart beat in chaotic pulses.
The moon's little sister winked at him.
No.
He refused to give up. He pushed himself to his feet and rubbed at his chest. But when he stood, the battlefield had changed...for the worse.
The remaining monstrosities had broken through the wall while the smaller corespawn were attacking soldiers and lookouts from within. Now, they prepared to march through the city, devastating everything in their path. Alverax knew he had to fight, but he couldn't kill all of the monstrosities by himself, even with the Midnight Watcher. Still, if he didn't try, what would that mean for the people of Felia?
"Alverax!" Laurel's voice shouted in the chaos. The wild Zeda girl, bloody and clutching at her arm, ran up to him, followed by her chromawolf companion. "We can't stop those things. What do we do?"
But he didn't know. Heralds, save him. He didn’t know.
General Thallin was nowhere to be seen; the other generals had been in the tent that was torn apart by one of the monstrosities. There was nothing left for them to do.
