A Blight of Blackwings

by Kevin Hearne

  “We’re going to replace the stones and return it to you,” she assured me. “We just need to figure out which blessing you’ve been given first.” She gave me some baggy pants and a tunic with a basic drawstring along with a pair of really terrible boots and sent me on my way to the next room, where a tailor waited to take my measurements for a new outfit courtesy of the Triune Council. Then I was handed off to a bard, who grinned at me and ushered me outside to a straight road lined with evergreens.

  “Run that way as fast as you can. If the trees start to blur, stop right away.”

  “Why?”

  “Because it means you’re a courier, and you don’t want to run without protection. Most likely it’s just going to be some nice exercise to burn off all the nervousness of the seeking and some of your elation at surviving it.”

  “How far do I go?”

  “Go to the end of the trees where there’s an intersection and back. Then we’ll test for something else.”

  Halfway to the turning point, I realized I wouldn’t be testing for anything else. The trees started moving way too fast, which of course was me moving way too fast, and I splattered my first grasshopper against my left cheek. It hurt a lot, because hitting anything at speed hurts a lot, and exoskeleton is tough stuff. Some of the guts got into my eye, and I still remember how that felt. I became a huge fan of goggles right then.

  “Wow! A new courier!” the bard called. “I thought we might get one this time.”

  “Aren’t there only twenty-seven?”

  “Yes, except when there isn’t. We had one retire three months ago. Two cohorts came through since then and no replacement. I guess Raena was waiting for you.”

  I walked back to him so we didn’t have to shout, wiping horrible guts off my face and blinking furiously to wash out my eye with tears. I’d wasted no time in discovering a downside to my blessing. I hoped I’d get to experience an upside soon.

  “How does a courier retire? They never mentioned that in the Colaiste. Doesn’t the blessing last until death?”

  “Not for couriers. Usually around their mid-forties, when they start to slow down, the blessing leaves them. So you have about thirty years.”

  “Then what do I do?”

  “Most couriers wind up working for the Triune somehow. Many run for office and become members of a council somewhere. You’ll be around the world’s leaders and carry a lot of information in your head, so you’ll get quite the education in government without even trying.”

  “That sounds stupendously boring.”

  “Maybe you’ll feel differently in thirty years. And if not, there are always other professions.”

  I found out at dinner who’d lived and who’d died. It was a sumptuous affair in a lavish hall of that eastern building, dominated by a long table that must represent most of a full-grown tree. Tarrech was there, much to my relief, and I got a second hug from him, but not another kiss. We celebrated with a fantastic meal courtesy of the Triune Council, all of whom were in attendance, and one of them remarked that they couldn’t remember when, if ever, a single cohort had produced both a courier and a juggernaut.

  “Never before,” the bard said, who had a history of seekings in his head.

  And then we went outside and sang the Dirge for the Fallen for our schoolmates who never walked out of the Goddess Sand.

  * * *

  —

  Brynt walls were not built to keep juggernauts out, because no walls were truly capable of that. They were there to slow the juggernaut down long enough for the city’s rapids or tidal mariners to locate them and rip the water out of their brains. The land was always salted underneath the walls and city, so the Third Kenning could not work on them from below, but nothing prevented a juggernaut from using the land outside the city to advantage.

  We wanted to keep the city as intact as possible so that the Brynts could live there again. Temblor Connagh worked out a plan with Tarrech that would keep most of the structures unbruised, they thought. If we took too many casualties, we’d pull back and rain some fire arrows in there.

  Our force of four thousand soldiers and one thousand archers was probably half that of the Bone Giants, but Tarrech was worth another ten thousand all by himself. We’d camped in sight of the city the night before, daring the invaders to leave their walls and attack us, but they had no reason to abandon what they thought was a distinct advantage. At dawn they were waiting for us. The tops of the walls were lined with inexperienced archers. The bows and arrows they were using were all taken from the city armory and not built to Bone Giant size. Still, they could do some damage with those, so we lined up outside their range, directly opposite the northern gate. Our formations were cubes nine wide and deep that would fit through the gate.

  Temblor Priyit was in the center of the vanguard. I stood off to one side and would operate freely with a cudgel and hunting knife. Tarrech and Temblor Connagh stood perhaps twelve paces in front, conferring one last time. They nodded and clasped arms, then the temblor left to take up his command position, somewhere in the middle of the column. Tarrech removed his boots and tossed them aside, then he looked behind him. He spotted me and waved at me to join him. I zipped over there.

  “What do you need?” I asked him.

  He gave me a sad smile and extended his hand. I put mine in his and he gripped it gently. “The Huntress Raena blessed us on the same day all those years ago. Maybe it was because she knew this day would come and that we would be here together. Or maybe it’s a surprise to her as much as anyone. Regardless, I thought it would be appropriate to say a prayer before we begin.”

  “Of course. And we shouldn’t hurry it either. The battle will happen when we say.”

  We bowed our heads and took turns thanking the huntress for our blessings and asking for her strength and favor in the battle to come. We each named the other’s friendship as one of our many blessings.

  “I’ve had many people come to me on the march here and say they would be honored to fight beside me today,” he said. “And I am honored to fight beside them. But I am most honored to fight beside Tuala. Because I know she actually will be by my side.”

  That ended any chance I had of getting through the prayer without tears.

  “Yes,” I said past a lump in my throat. “I will.”

  When we were finished, he nodded to me, face somber. We had bloody business to do. I stepped away as he sank up to his calves in the earth. The Bone Giants were about to face the full strength of the Third Kenning.

  It began with a bombardment of the gates from the earth itself; a juggernaut can turn any patch of land into a siege engine. The turf in front of Tarrech rippled and quaked before it spat boulders toward the city. The first couple missed, falling short or wide and doing some surface damage to the walls, but once Tarrech got a feel for it, they started hitting the gate dead-on. The first few weren’t traveling fast, being more of a targeting and range-finding volley, but after that he sent three at high speed, and they splintered the gate to kindling. He sent more through to clear out the sides and to crush a cluster of giants waiting on the other side. The breach was clear for the army to enter the city, and he grunted and winced, a hand reaching up to the ribs on his left side. Moving the earth around like that did not come without a cost. But now he had to take on a juggernaut’s battle form, and it would drain him severely for every minute he spent in it. He took a deep breath and growled, clenching his fists.

  Solid rock flowed up from the ground underneath him, popping and crackling and reshaping itself as it sheathed his body in an impenetrable armor. No spear or arrow would punch through it. No sword would slash through it. No hammer blow would be strong enough to shatter it, unless wielded by a temblor—and they were on our side. He became the equivalent of a sentient landslide, unstoppable and deadly yet fully capable of changing direc
tion.

  Two narrow slits remained for vision and breathing when he was finished, and he turned to the vanguard and roared, “Begin your count now!” before charging the city gate alone.

  “One hundred eighty!” Temblor Priyit shouted, and the rest of her cube joined in with “One hundred seventy-nine!” the moment afterward, and they continued to count down. We were to give Tarrech three minutes’ head start before following.

  The temblor began to bang the shaft of her spear against the side of her shield with each number called out, and that was quickly picked up by the rest of the soldiers. And all the while, Tarrech ate up the distance between us and the city, taking great leaps with every stride, for he was now using the strength of earth as well, the strength of a temblor combined with his own power to shape rock, propelling him forward in a suit of stone that must weigh close to a ton.

  We saw panicked flights of arrows launched at him from the walls, most of which missed, but the few that hit caromed off his armor harmlessly. By the time he reached the gate, we were in the final seconds of our countdown. A hastily assembled force of Bone Giants had crowded into the gateway to confront him and he simply plowed through them, trampling them into a mess of shattered bones and crushed organs.

  Then he was through and he disappeared, and we began our double-time march toward the gate. I kept pace next to them until I saw Tarrech appear on the top of the walls, tossing off the side archers who could take a toll on us—perhaps on me—before we reached the gate. Once I saw the bodies falling and all their attention was on him, I poured on the speed and reached the gate seconds later. The Bone Giants were trying to regroup and present an organized defense, after Tarrech had mowed down their first corps.

  They were too tall for me to deliver fatal blows to vital organs, but their hips shattered nicely underneath my cudgel, and their femoral arteries bled just fine when I sliced into their unprotected legs.

  When another of these Bone Giant armies attacked Bennelin, they did so by surprise, at a time when there were very few of the blessed present and almost none that could be effective in a fight. They met a different juggernaut a few days later, while they were marching on Fandlin. He’d caught them in the open and buried them all.

  This army had wiped out the populations of two Brynt cities, including the one they now occupied. They had to have suffered some casualties, but they were still near full strength, because Möllerud and Hillegöm had likewise been protected by a few of the blessed. It was not so easy for them now.

  Still, after my initial strikes made them recoil, more of them surged after me in a wave and I had to give ground. My speed offered me little advantage when I lacked room to maneuver. I still lunged forward here and there, and it slowed them, made them wary, but I kept moving back toward the gate, which needed to stay clear if Temblor Connagh’s plan was to work. A quick glance over my shoulder to gauge my distance to the gate and how close the vanguard was showed me that they weren’t going to make it in time.

  We needed Tarrech here. I darted to the left, where the stairs to the wall were littered with bodies. I mounted them quickly and chased after Tarrech, who had moved down a bit farther than he really needed to.

  “That’s enough! We need you at the gate!” I called, and after a couple of repetitions he heard me and turned. “I’ll take over up here!”

  Tarrech nodded and rumbled down the stairs, his weight pulverizing some of them but not rendering them impassable. He essentially rolled over the Bone Giants nearest the gate like the huge boulder he was, moving back and forth and keeping the way clear until the vanguard could get through.

  The Bone Giants were sending reinforcements along the walls, but they had to come one at a time and they couldn’t rush me, so it was an ideal place for me to work. I didn’t let any of the archers get set.

  Once the vanguard came through, Temblor Priyit wasted no time using her incredible strength. That huge shield became an impressive weapon in her arms; she used it to send giants flying backward and bowling over their comrades, creating space for an advance. She had to stay in formation, however, since she was as vulnerable as anyone, temblors being granted tremendous strength but no ability to move earth or armor themselves in rock. The rest locked shields, held them high, and waited for the Bone Giants to get in range of their spears. I heard it when they did: The sound of men being punctured and the clanging of swords on shields was different from Tarrech crunching them to death. Soldiers split off to the right and left as they came in behind, extending the line and protecting the flank, creating a safe path for the archers, when they arrived, to take the stairs up to the wall.

  They came in behind me soon enough, along with a couple of soldiers to keep pushing clockwise, and the archers began pouring arrows down into the city almost immediately. The Bone Giants were so clustered together in places that they couldn’t miss. I checked to see if we were advancing counterclockwise along the wall as well, and we were, though a bit more slowly, since I had not worked in that direction and the Bone Giants had taken some of it back once Tarrech went down; still, Temblor Connagh’s plan to turn the walls against them was going to work. Which meant it was time for Tarrech to get out. He’d done his job by taking their one advantage away from them; we were now better armed and strategically placed than the enemy was. He didn’t need to spend himself to any further degree. But no one would or could tell him that except me. Temblor Priyit was on the front line and fighting very well but in no position to get Tarrech’s attention, even if she could sense somehow that we had gained the upper hand; the other two temblors might not even be in the city yet, since we were still streaming in and advancing.

  Tarrech was on the right flank, dealing death with every step and swing of his arms, but he was also on salted earth and had been ever since he stepped through the gate. Which meant that he wasn’t drawing his power from the source of his kenning anymore but rather was spending his own life to power that suit of stone. He would have spent it anyway, even outside the walls, but it was doubtless taking a much greater toll on him this way, and I was tearing up thinking of what had happened to tidal mariner Culland du Raffert at the cleansing of Göfyrd. I wanted Tarrech to make it home.

  I stepped in behind him and kept shouting until he heard me.

  “Tarrech! We’ve won! Come on out! We can take it from here!”

  He turned, saw me, and began to back up, swinging at enemies who got too close. I asked the soldiers behind us to let us pass through the shields and cover our retreat, and they flowed around us. Then we were able to turn and get Tarrech out of the city and onto fresh land, where he could shed the juggernaut’s armor, retire from battle, and simply retire. The Triune would ask no more of him.

  I craned my neck upward and checked the walls to make sure there were no Bone Giant archers nearby and saw that we still had that firmly in hand.

  “It’s safe here,” I said. “Let it go.”

  He sighed, sank a bit into the earth, and banished his stone armor.

  The man revealed as the rock fell away was not the handsome, fit, twenty-five-year-old Tarrech that had entered Möllerud. He was old and bent and in obvious agony, wobbling on weak knees.

  “Auggh! Goddess, it hurts!” He gasped and clutched at my hand so that he wouldn’t fall over. I took his and he squeezed as pain shuddered throughout his body, his bones and muscles shifting, his organs failing. “When you’re in there and the temblor’s strength is thrumming in your muscles and bones,” he wheezed, “it feels so good. You feel—nngh!—invincible, and you have no idea how much it’s going to cost, no idea that when the bill comes due, you simply won’t be able to pay.”

  “No, it’s okay, Tarrech. You’ll be fine. You still have years left. You can spend them with your family and retire in peace.”

  “Not like this,” he said, looking at his wrinkled hands, at the flesh sagging off his arms
, at the gaps in his leather armor now that he’d shrunk and wasted away. “No, no, no. I can’t go home like this. They can’t see me.” His eyes found mine and pleaded, a bit cloudy and unfocused, tears streaming out of the corners. “I want them to remember me the way I was before. You’ll tell them, won’t you, Tuala? My old friend? You’ll explain. I told them before I left that I loved them. But you’ll go back and tell them for me again. That I was thinking of them at the end.”

  “I swear to you that I will,” I said, because in that moment I couldn’t possibly have said anything beyond what he wanted and needed to hear.

  “Thank you, Tuala. You and I will meet again. We will all meet again in the earth.”

  And then he groaned as he clothed himself in rock one last time, an unstoppable engine of death running on the last steam of his life, and charged back into the city, roaring at our soldiers to make way. I followed in his wake until he had pushed through to the front and launched himself at a knot of Bone Giants. Mercilessly, he smashed them into paste and cleared some room for me to work behind him, crippling those who tried to flank and surround us until, a few short minutes later, the kenning took him and he crumbled into dust, mixing with the blood of his fallen foes.

  Moving at full speed and screaming incoherently, I kneecapped all the giants near him with my cudgel so that they would fall to the point where I could slash their throats, dashing in and out of their guard before they could react and getting splashed by their arterial spray. I didn’t stop until I’d dislocated both my shoulders from the speed of the impacts. My wrists were also sprained, in spite of my bracers, but none of it hurt as much as my heart.

  The spearmen pushed past me, enveloping me in their shield wall, and I retrieved Tarrech’s Jereh band before it could be trampled and lost. That would go to Aevyn when I kept my sworn oath to him.

  The army pressed forward while I sought a medic to shove my arms back in their sockets.