Page 13 of Ensii
Chapter Four
Talitha never thought she would be laying siege to her own city, but here they were.
“If they bar another one of the gates against us? Won’t we need a way to break through?” Shaza looked pointedly to the beams and boards of the work houses used for crafting and firing the water pots and even refining the wax for the seals. “Do we need to build a ram?”
“We can’t carry it through the tight spaces,” Talitha answered, shaking her head. “And we have too far to go.”
“Besides,” Gilsazi added, “these gates were meant to keep peopleout,not block them in.”
Both his boys were safe in the care of one of the magians who Gilsazi seemed to know. It seemed that Gilsazi’s mother was not among those imprisoned. Whether that was good news or bad was hard to say. She might have met a fate far worse.
Their troops spread apart, advancing down the broad avenue into the main part of the city from the mines. In the distance, the city was quiet and eerily undisturbed—not that it was so different from every other night. Unless there was a festival taking place, the streets and houses were silent as graves in the light of the moon.
It wasn’t difficult to track the direction the monsters had come from. They’d left a trail of destruction and damage running from the mines back to the palace.
Ashek pointed to the hole in the courtyard
wall, vaguely-monster shaped. “Those things were sent after you.”
Talitha swallowed. “I don’t know why he didn’t try that sooner.”
“Witchcraft,” Ashek answered. “It costs a great deal to create something like that, even if it is only a perversion of what already exists.”
“Witchcraft?” Shaza scoffed. “That’s what they’ve said of magians.”
“Magians reshape energies,” Ashek clipped. “Witches use powers that mortals were never meant to have.” Ashek spoke with such cool confidence, such factual unconcern. Talitha honestly wasn’t sure if she believed him or not.
She marched alongside her husband with a shield on her arm and a sword in her hand. All around them marched the press of soldiers—Ilian, Hudspethite, and northerner. Barely anyone spoke. Certainly no one mentioned the aberrations they had just burned.
The street was narrow, the houses and dwellings of the workers appeared deserted. If anyone had stayed behind after Naram seized the mines, they weren’t showing themselves.
Talitha searched every corner for even the slightest movement. She’d never felt so much like an interloper in her own home.
Up ahead, a shape came flying out of the dark. Talitha went stiff and jerked to a halt, but it was only one of the Dunedrifter scouts. The ranks parted to let him through and he reached Talitha and Ashek, panting.
“Report,” Ashek ordered.
“Ilians,” the boy said. “Perhaps a hundred. Blocking the streets. They’re armored and carry burning arrows. They’re ready to fight.”
“Good thing we are, too,” Ashek muttered.
“Shaza.” Talitha snapped to the young man at her side. “Do Breida and her northerners think they could climb these buildings? Get above them?” Guilt hammered her chest, but if she didn’t crush the rebels quick and fast, they would lose everything and everyone—for good, this time.
Shaza looked to Breida. “What say you, wife? Can you and your brothers climb these buildings and rain fury from above?”
Breida rolled her eyes.
“Good. Now get to it.”
Breida’s nostrils flared, though Talitha wasn’t sure what in that statement had been so offensive. “What’s stopping me from shooting you while I’m up there?”
“Absolutely nothing. Now get going.”
Growling, Breida turned.
Shaza smacked her backside as she did. Talitha had a feeling he would regret that later.
With a shout, Breida led thirty or so of her northerners into the dark. They faded into the shadows, disappearing with all the grace and ease of nocturnal animals.
