The Edge of Harmony: The Guardian Maidens Book 2

by Marilyn Foxworthy

  She said, “At the edge of the orchard. But there are others farther in. The trees rustle here and there, but I can’t see or count how many are there.”

  I said, “We can’t get a good hiding place to attack the cave entrance. We are going to have to wait for them to come to us until they are weakened much more than they are. How much daylight is left?”

  Val said, “An hour and a half.”

  I said, “We should deal with as much of this as we can before that.”

  We rested a few more minutes and discussed what we would do and then we checked our weapons and stood up. The kobolds at the cave had gone silent in the past few minutes, but as we started walking, they stared yelling again.

  When we were twenty feet from the nearest tree, we started to run. Dawn and I were side by side in the back, and Harmony and Val in the front. When we passed the first tree, we ran faster, sprinting directly toward hill at the back of the orchard. It was two hundred feet and we made it the entire way to the little camp site without being attacked. We listened carefully as we ran, but didn’t look behind us.

  As we stepped into the camp where we had ‘rescued’ Delilah, Dawn and I stopped suddenly and spun to face in the opposite direction. We had arrows already set to our bow strings, and we both fired at the same time. The two kobolds who had followed us most closely were knocked backward off their feet with arrows protruding from their chests. We were able to fire one more time, and two more fell, before the others reached us. Dawn and I ignored the next ones to get close, and fired at two behind them. Harmony had already stepped to Dawn’s side and the one nearly upon her was surprised by a gash through his throat. And the one on my side had one of Val’s knives puncture his chest briefly.

  At that point, Dawn turned and ran behind us about fifteen feet. Val circled around to join her. Harmony slipped gracefully to my right, and as I drew my sword, one and then another of the monsters fell from my cuts. Another rushed at Harmony, but when it reached for her, she was already behind it and it died instantly. Without bothering to turn around, she killed the one at her back.

  Dawn was shooting at the ones farthest from us as Val stood at her back, watching for threats from that side. But none came from that way.

  Harmony and I weren’t done. After her most recent kills, she rushed behind and around my back, and I thrust the point of my sword through neck of a kobold, and caught a glimpse of Harmony as she sliced the large leg muscles of another and then as she snapped the thing’s spine with her bare hands by twisting its head violently. One more lost its head to my sword, its skull coming completely off its body, and a last one fell with another of Dawn’s arrows through its eye. Dawn had dropped two more before that. Harmony pointed up and Dawn fired and a kobold fell from a tree where it had been perched. Harmony pointed again and a second body fell with a thud.

  We scanned the trees quickly and found nothing to threaten us. All in all, twenty one kobolds died. But it was quiet now. I thought that it was most too quiet. Then I laughed, knowing that the ‘too quiet’ was a cliche and that I was making a silent joke about it and nothing more. I didn’t bother saying it out loud.

  The camp wasn’t the way that we had left it this morning. All of the dead, from the camp and the meadows, had been taken away. And everything that could have value for an kobold had been removed as well. And that included rags and the makeshift tent that Delilah had slept under during her captivity.

  The third battle of our war was over, and we had won again. What we wanted now was to have a place from which to watch the cave entrance.

  It was quiet now and we took time to make sure that all of the kobolds were dead. Harmony and I scanned the trees and area around us for more, but we didn’t find anything.

  Harmony said, “Ronin, do you have a plan for what to do now?”

  I looked at the three girls and said, “Not yet. I had a plan for the attack. I have a general plan for what we need to do, but not for this very minute. I will think of something.”

  I paused just briefly, and then said, “Unless any of you have a plan. Listen, each of us has a place in this. I had a plan to get Dawn help. Val had a plan for getting her well. I had a plan for clearing the fields of the rats. Gerald and the other men had a plan for disposing of the bodies, for plowing and planting the fields. I had a plan for trying to stop Delilah. Gerald and the others had a plan for getting us food and supplies while we do. And, more than anything, when we were in battle, we all worked as one, just like Val and I learned to do last week. Whoever has the plan for the moment should speak up and the rest of us will do what we need to.”

  Harmony said, “I think that we should do this now. Dawn, stay and watch the cavern entrance.”

  I said, “And if they come one or two at a time, let them come all the way to the trees, and shoot them when you think that they are as much out of sight of the others as possible. Don’t put yourself in danger, but kill them out of sight if you can. If they come in greater numbers, start shooting and call out for the rest of us to come and help.”

  Harmony said, “Val, go quickly and collect the little knives and weapons from the dead.”

  I said, “Harmony, they have no value.”

  Harmony bent to the ground where one of the kobolds lay, and picked up his weapon. It was a dull knife, made from scrap metal, but crudely worked with a hammer and fire into a basic shape. She felt the weight of it for just an instant, and suddenly whirled and threw it at a spot that had been behind her as we talked. The knife flew from her hand and embedded itself in the center of a tree, nearly forty feet away!

  I said, “Harmony, that was amazing! Val, collect as many knives as you can!”

  Harmony said, “Ronin, you saw that I don’t know as much as I should about fighting without weapons, but knives are something I know about.” She smiled and continued, “So, Dawn, you protect our camp for a few minutes. Val, you collect the knives and bring them here. When you have them all, come back here and stay with Dawn and protect her if needed. And help her watch for dangers. Ronin, you should drag the bodies from here and pile them beside our tunnel under the fields between here and the farm. It will keep them from being used for food, and other men can collect them from there. And while you do that, I will make a survey of the woods here to make sure that there are no more kobolds hiding. I will be near all of you at all times. If you need me, I’ll be there.”

  I said, “That’s a good plan. We need to do all of that, and it would be safer to stay together, but this is necessary.”

  Harmony said, “And if anyone thinks that they are uncomfortable with what happens, call out, and we will all come and face it together.”

  I said, “Everyone agreed? Good. Let’s go.”

  I saw Dawn turn toward the cavern entrance to find a good post for her assigned task. Val rushed to the nearest bodies and took the knives, and as she finished each body, I grabbed them two at a time and lugged them as quickly as I could toward the tunnels. Harmony disappeared.

  I was struggling to carry two kobolds under my arms when Harmony reappeared a minute later and said, “The area near the tunnel opening is clear. You will find one body nearby. I suggest that you take just one at a time and move faster,” and then she was gone again.

  I dropped one of the kobolds and hefted the other over my shoulder and almost ran to the hole. I dropped the body and ran back for another. I collected the ones closest to the camp, farthest from the hole, first. Each trip that I made was a little shorter than the last. And each trip took less time. The Kobolds were about five feet tall. About the same as Harmony herself. But they weighed more. I would say about a hundred and thirty pounds. It took me a little less than twenty minutes to collect the twenty-one bodies and dump them beside the hole. Then I found the one that Harmony had apparently killed as it guarded the tunnel and put him in the pile as well. I looked for his knife, but didn’t find it. Maybe the girl had taken it already.

  When I was done with the last, Harmony was standing beside
me, as if she had been there all along. She smiled and we rushed back to the other girls without a word between us. Dawn reported that she hadn’t seen any kobolds attempt to leave the cave mouth yet. Harmony set to work attaching as many knives as she could to her belt, and I considered our next tactics.

  I said, “Girls, I think that staying at this camp, except for certain unpleasant aspects, could have advantages.”

  I didn’t say it, but I was thinking about the piles of bones, many of them human, that littered the area and sat in small heaps here and there.

  Then I said, “But now that I think about it, a different camp could be better. In fact, if they return here, we will know where they are. It might even be that Delilah tells them to retake this place as a symbolic gesture, showing that they are beating us back. We can’t know exactly what to do, but we can choose from among all good plans.”

  Val said, “Then we should stay away from here. This is a killing field.”

  I said, “Is there a clearing somewhere nearby? Or even if it isn’t nearby, is there a pool or a spring of water?”

  Harmony said, “There’s a very good swimming hole with a spring, but it’s two miles away. But, we will need water. It’s the same distance to the farm.”

  I said, “But it’s too far for a good camp. We need to stay here. Near the door to their house. We need a place where we can keep our eye on them, where we can get some rest, and be ready to fight from a good position. As for our strategy, I think that tonight, we watch and see what they do. I think that they will try to attack once more before morning. I would expect them to come here to this spot. If they do, we should let them. In fact let them come and make camp again. But we don’t let them find food. If they send scouts back to the cavern, let them go. What I would like is for them to send more every day, report that they have been successful and feel safe, and then we make sure that those still at home never hear from them again. If we can, we want a pattern of them coming, reporting that we have not been seen, and then piling their bodies beside our tunnel to be taken away. But we have to keep watch on them so that we always know where they are and they know as little about us as possible.”

  Val said, “We killed seventy-five, or more, of them today.

  I said, “And we made their situation much harder.”

  Harmony said, “Ronin, if we say that we know certain things, then we don’t have to be concerned about keeping as close a watch. We will need to sleep in shifts and constant vigilance is very taxing. If we say that we know that some of the kobolds will slip by us and hide in the woods, then we don’t have to know when they came or exactly where they are. We just know that there is some number and that they are hiding and that we need to find them. If we say that we don’t care when or how many come, we can use our energy elsewhere.”

  I said, “Harmony, that is brilliant. You are right. It doesn’t change anything, but it multiplies our resources. We already know that some will slip by and hide. So let them. We will deal with them when we can. I think that the main thing that we need to know is how many kobolds leave the cavern, and that they don’t attack either the farm or the village. If we know that only forty come out, and that they stay in the orchards, then we know enough. If we find two hundred leaving the cavern, or if they go for the village or the farm, then we have to deal with them before the situation goes that far.”

  Dawn said, “We can make a little camp to the east, closer to the tunnel. One of us can stay in a tree and keep watch without being seen. Can three of us sleep at the base of the tree, if one is awake above, ready to give the alarm if necessary? Can we all climb trees well enough?”

  Val said that she could easily climb these trees. They were apple trees, and only thirty feet tall. But she suggested that it would be easier to watch the cavern from the ground at the very edge of the orchard than in the trees where leaves and branches would be in the way. She had a good point.

  There wasn’t a need for more discussion right now. We had a basic plan. Val gathered the rest of the little knives for Harmony into a bag, and we moved off to the east to look for a good spot to hide.

  We found one fifty yards away. From here, we could see the path that the Kobolds would take down the hill if they came, and we could also see the area near the hole to our tunnel. We couldn’t see the hole itself, but if anyone who approached it wasn’t exceptionally careful, we would see them moving toward it. Because the open ground from the kobold cave to the orchard was at least fifty yards, one person could scan both places continuously without much trouble.

  Our plan worked well. Just after dark, we spotted activity at the hole to the tunnel and found that some of the skinners were already removing the bodies that we had piled there. They also delivered the sleeping cloaks and other supplies that we needed for our first night. None of the poisons or new darts or blowpipes were ready, but we did take a new supply of arrows.

  We slept in turns. Dawn wanted the first watch. I took the second. Val the third. Harmony was awake when she wanted to be and wasn’t assigned a specific watch. The girl was more of a Shadow than I had ever met or heard of. She came and went, and did what she did. And what she did was silent and deadly when it was meant to be. We were a good team. Each with a talent. Dawn was a better shot with her bow than we could have hoped for. Val was an angel of death when she was at my back with her knives. And Harmony flowed here and there between us. The three of us took our turns watching, and Harmony filled in around us doing things that we didn’t even know about.

  Chapter 3 - Cleanup

  A half hour before sunrise, Harmony shook me gently and told me to come with her. We moved silently. She took me to a spot where a dead kobold lay and directed me to pick it up and take it to the hole. I laid it down very quietly, and then she took me to another and I repeated the trek to the hole. She whispered that kobolds had moved back into their camp overnight and were all sleeping, but that we should be as silent as we could. Before she stopped our tour, I had collected six dead kobolds and taken them to where they would wait to be disposed of. We got back to Val and Dawn, still a bit before daylight broke.

  We reported our counts for the night and tallied up forty four kobolds that had been spotted leaving the cavern in the dark last night. Six were already dead. Harmony was in charge for the moment, and she instructed Dawn and I to get our bows and arrows ready and for the three of us to follow her to the kobold camp. She led us very quietly until we were just on the edge of the place and stopped. She pointed and made signs that we should stay here, and not move or make any sound unless it was necessary.

  The camp was quiet. The kobolds, almost forty of them, slept on the ground, clustered in little groups of three to six. Harmony stepped around the side of the camp, hiding in the trees, until she was on the opposite side from us. She slipped out into the open and approached a group of four of the monsters. We watched as she stepped into the center of the place where they slept and bent down and seemed to examine each one very quickly. In actually, what she did was deftly open an artery on each one’s neck and it’s blood started to drain while it was still asleep. Harmony disappeared behind a tree and we waited to see what would happen next.

  At this point, I was surprised when Val stepped forward suddenly and waved at the spot where Harmony had slipped into the darkness. Harmony reappeared and waved and signaled in ascent at Val. Val stepped quickly, without a word from me, and imitated what Harmony had done, going to the three kobolds that lie closest to where we stood. When she was done, which was a matter of perhaps three seconds, Val ducked behind a tree, hidden from the camp. Before she was completely behind the tree, we saw Harmony step from hiding and repeat her deadly maneuvers and four more started bleeding onto the ground where they lay. When Harmony stepped into hiding again, Val was in the camp on our side and another three at the edge started their journey to a painless and silent death.

  One third of the kobolds would never wake up, but Val and Harmony weren’t done yet. And since the strategy was wor
king, there was no need to change it yet. Val took her turn again, and then Harmony took another. As she stooped over her current group of sleeping kobolds, I saw a movement ten feet away, and an arrow from my bow pierced the neck of a kobold and it fell to the ground. Another next to it stirred at the sound, and it fell with an arrow from Dawn’s bow. When I took my shot, since the distance was short, I hadn’t pulled the string hard, and for that reason, it made very little noise. It was enough to kill my target, but quieter than if I had been shooting at something farther away. Dawn must have seen what I did, or followed my lead instinctively, but her shot was at least as quiet, if not more so.

  At the sound of our bows, Harmony had stepped into hiding, but now, as the camp lay still again, she went back to her assassin’s work, and more of the kobolds were banished from this world. Val and Harmony continued to alternate their attacks. And with every attack, it was less likely that the remaining kobolds would notice. And with every passing minute, it became more likely that they would wake up because the sun was closer to rising. Before it was done, both Dawn and I had fired one more time each, but that was all. There was no battle, and Harmony was about to finish off the last three living kobolds. I stepped out of hiding and waved to get her attention, She saw me immediately and I made signs that she should kill only two of them and leave one alive. I motioned at the spot where Val hid that she should come quickly to me. Harmony stuck two of the kobolds, and then stood waiting next to the last. I whispered to Val and Val rushed quietly to where Harmony stood and had Harmony watch as she bent down and did something to the final victim.

  When they were all dead, Dawn and I stepped to the center of the camp to join them.

  I frowned and said, “I changed my mind. Finish it,” and Harmony’s blade flashed instantly and the last one died with the others.