Second Skin Omnibus

by M Damon Baker

  She broke out in another round of laughter and this time, I joined in with her. When she laid it out for me so starkly, the ridiculousness of it all was just too much to ignore. We laughed until our sides began to ache, not only in amusement but also with the simple joy of finally having some real time together.

  The levity lightened our mood for the rest of the day and even when it was time to head back to the fortifications our spirits were still high. There would be much work for us to do that night in preparation for the coming assault, but we were in a better frame of mind to handle the responsibilities.

  I was surprised to find that most of the tasks had already been finished by the time we arrived. Ridge was pulling back the log bridge as we reached the gate and the dwarves on watch assured me that everyone was inside and accounted for. The archers were cleaning and oiling their crossbows while the rest of the combatants saw to the last-minute maintenance of their own weapons. It was the veritable calm before the storm, with the peaceful lull belying the conflict that loomed ahead of us sometime the next day.

  I took Tási with me as I toured the entire area. We spoke to as many people as we could, ensuring that they had everything we could provide for them. Everywhere we went the people seemed relaxed—despite the hardships we were about to face, the dwarves went about their business calmly. While those who would mount the fortifications and defend against the orcs’ attack made their weapons ready, the rest of the people tended to their everyday chores, including caring for the few children that had been brought along.

  Those too young or infirm for battle would take shelter within the barracks Ridge had carved out. As I looked over at the young dwarves playing together in the failing light, I offered a silent prayer for their safety to anyone that might be listening. We would more than likely lose some of our people in the coming battle, and I didn’t know if I could handle the loss of one of the innocent children who had been entrusted to my leadership. Finally, when we had done all we could, we headed back to our own campsite, exhausted but satisfied with our efforts. No matter what might happen the next day, I knew we had done everything we could to protect our people.

  The dwarves may have been calm, but I spent the night restlessly. Despite Bane’s presence and the comfort of Tási lying next to me, I slept in fitful bursts, waking repeatedly through the night until dawn finally broke. Daybreak was almost a relief from my practically fruitless attempts to sleep, and I hurried out of the tent, eager for something other than worry to occupy my mind. As I rushed to reach the fortifications, Bane caught up with me and perched on my shoulder.

  Shall I seek out the orcs again, Sintári?

  ‘Soon, Bane. Stay with me for a while first.’

  Not only did I want Bane’s company, but the dwarves also apparently viewed him as some sort of portent. While he was with me, they seemed to derive a certain sense of confidence from his presence. I was hoping that little boost in morale might be helpful in the face of the coming battle.

  I greeted each and every person I came across as I climbed to the top of our defenses. I may not have been able to remember all of their names, but I made sure to let them know that I appreciated them, nonetheless. Bane did his part as well, flashing his golden eyes and gazing about menacingly as we made our way up the stairs. The effort was worthwhile, as I could hear the dwarves chattering about Lady Dreya and her little dragon as we left them behind. I didn’t bother correcting their mistake—at this point, it was better for everyone to think of Bane that way. The inspiration he provided was far too valuable for me to even consider jeopardizing it with the truth.

  As I crested the stairs, Ridge was putting the finishing touches on the last of his defensive improvements. Now, instead of a flat surface, the top of the wall had an impressive, if crude, set of battlements shielding the defenders from attack. The breaks in the protective barrier would allow our own archers to fire on the enemy from safety and even provide some protection for our defenders should the orcs somehow manage to climb the high walls.

  “You are amazing, Ridge,” I offered him as he placed the last few blocks. “This will save a lot of lives today.”

  “What would you have me work on next, Mistress?” Was his only response.

  There was nothing more he could do to the fortifications that day. We needed the area clear for our defenders, and any attempt to work on them would only get in the way. I considered the plans for the area behind the wall and came with a good alternative for him.

  “The garrison plans for these fortifications included a blacksmith’s workshop, if I remember correctly. How long would it take for you to get that built?

  “It is a fairly simple structure, Mistress. No more than a day at the most,” Ridge replied plainly.

  “Then that is what I would like you to build next,” I told him. “Hilgreth has been extremely helpful; we should reward her efforts.”

  He dipped his head and left to begin the project. With my final planned task done, I sent Bane off on his scouting assignment and returned to my campsite to grab some breakfast.

  Broda and Tási were the only ones there when I arrived. I scrounged among their leftovers and put together a small plate of food before taking a seat on one of the stones we had arranged around the campfire. But with nothing to preoccupy my mind, the lack of sleep began to take its toll, and I slouched in exhaustion as I began to eat.

  “You tossed and turned all night, Dreya,” Tási offered sympathetically. “Did you get any sleep?”

  “A little,” I replied weakly.

  “I’ll see to anything that remains to be done,” Broda said, rising to her feet before turning to address Tási directly. “Make sure that she eats, and then put her back to bed. We’ll need her at her best when the orcs get here.”

  Tási nodded at Broda and then looked at me sternly, daring me to contradict their plan. But Broda was correct, so I knew better than to do so and let Tási lead me back inside once I had finished my meal.

  She stripped off my gear and laid me down gently before covering me with several blankets. Once Tási was satisfied, she laid down beside me and I closed my eyes. I knew for certain that we had made all the preparation possible. With that assurance, and my complete exhaustion from the night before, sleep finally came for me and I dozed off quickly this time.

  I woke up to the sound of whispering just outside the tent flaps. Tási was no longer with me and I heard her among the hushed voices. Although I couldn’t make out every word, they were clearly debating whether or not to wake me. Seeing as I was already up, I made the decision for them.

  “What’s going on?” I asked, emerging outside once I had replaced all my equipment.

  “We’ve spotted a few of their scouts among the trees,” Broda answered me. “Nothing serious.”

  “Let’s go have a look, shall we?” I replied as I headed off towards the wall.

  Broda and Tási followed me as I returned to the fortifications, muttering between themselves the whole way. Each one seemed determined to blame the other for disturbing my sleep, and I amused myself by eavesdropping on their argument. I wasn’t sure how long I’d slept for, but I felt refreshed and didn’t resent the interruption at all.

  When we reached our defenses, I was glad to see that the dwarves were keeping to our plan and remaining out of sight. The last attackers had only seen Tási and I, and I wanted to keep the orcs unaware of the increased number of defenders we now had. So, while everyone was in position, they kept themselves hidden, concealing themselves behind the battlements as best they could.

  I climbed the stairs and made a show of looking out from atop the wall. Tási stood by my side, and we let ourselves be seen by anyone who might be observing. The flashes of movement within the tree line were obvious, and I made no pretense of missing them. I pretended to be alarmed while Tási and I took up our defensive positions guarding the gateway.

  Shouts and jeers erupted from among the forest as the orcs responded to our meager show of force. A few
of the bolder ones even strode out from their cover to taunt us, offering rude gestures and threats. While the language of the orcs was not known to me, the meaning of the threats they made was quite clear. Orcs were not known for treating their prisoners well, least of all their female captives. Should they take either of us alive, our time with them would be most unpleasant.

  We feigned our distress and in general made a show of reacting poorly to the orcs’ menacing display. This only appeared to embolden them, and the few that had stepped out into the open were soon joined by a handful of others. I hoped to draw them close enough for our archers to try and take them out with a quick volley of bolts, but they rushed back into the forest suddenly when another orc emerged and ordered their withdrawal.

  The apparent leader was taller and more muscularly built than the scouts and wore a pair of matching red armbands with some sort of insignia on them, but he vanished back into the trees before I could make out the crude design. I continued to look for the orcs for some time, but they did not return. Eventually, I stepped away from the parapets and consulted with my companions.

  “Your plan nearly worked. We almost had them, Dreya,” Tási offered encouragingly.

  “It would have worked if that big one hadn’t shown up,” I lamented.

  “I recognize him,” Broda replied. “Not individually, but by his rank. Those armbands bore the symbol of the Black Hand tribe and mark him as one of their sub-chiefs.”

  “I’m sorry Broda, I know this must be tedious, but you’ll have to explain the significance of that for me,” I said regretfully.

  “The Black Hand tribe is not one of the larger ones, fortunately,” she explained without hesitation. “But what they lack in numbers, they make up for in sheer brutality. They will not give up easily, if ever. The fact that they sent a sub-chief, their equivalent of a prince, to lead this attack means we need to take their threat very seriously.”

  “Oh, is that all?” I replied sarcastically.

  Bane landed on my shoulder at that moment, forestalling her retort.

  The bulk of their forces are close now, Sintári, no more than an hour away. I would have returned sooner, but I was trying to get a better idea of their numbers. I could not get a precise count, but I estimate that we face between two and three hundred of them.

  ‘You did well Bane, thank you. Go find something to eat if you haven’t already,’ I sent back to him.

  Bane flew off to where several dwarves were cooking some food. Over the past few days, the people had taken to feeding him, considering it an honor to have the ‘little dragon’ choose a morsel from them. Bane had taken full advantage of his honored status and become quite picky with his eating habits, turning up his nose at anything that did not meet his ever-increasing standards. Once he was off pursuing his dinner, I let the others know Bane’s estimate of our enemy’s numbers.

  “Sounds like a full war party,” Khorim noted dourly.

  “They only knew about the two of us,” Tási bemoaned. “Why would they send so many?”

  “It makes little sense,” Broda commented. “There’s no reason for them to bring so much force to bear.”

  I stayed silent, unwilling to voice my concern. While there might have been some mundane purpose behind the tribe’s actions, I feared that my days of being unnoticed by those who opposed me might have come to an end. Certainly, a tribe as vicious as the Black Hand might have chosen to respond with overwhelming force to the defeat we had handed them, but it was also well within the realm of possibility that their action might have been directed or influenced by something else. Something or someone who was aware of my presence here. Although the prospect haunted me, I kept my concerns to myself—it would serve no purpose to invoke the possibility of an even greater threat immediately before going into battle.

  My silence was not only for that reason. I was also regretting my decision to leave the gateway wide open. I had thought the gap might entice our foes into a rash attempt to cross the trench, counting on both the spikes at the bottom of the trough and my traps within the gateway to handle them. Although the impediments would still provide us some protection, the sheer number of enemies we faced made the clear pathway through our fortifications far more vulnerable than I had anticipated.

  “We need some soldiers to protect the gateway,” I finally said. “The orcs are too numerous for us to rely on our original plan.”

  “I will put together a squad,” Khorim said confidently. “They will hold the foul beasts off.”

  “We can manage this if we are able to control how fast they come at us,” I continued, adjusting our tactics. “I need the archers to keep to their original targets while I try and slow down the orcs’ charge.”

  “I will remind them,” Broda offered.

  “Thank you both,” I replied as the two of them set off on their tasks.

  “What about me?” Tási asked.

  “No changes for you, Tási,” I smiled at her. “I want you right beside me for the entire battle.”

  “Good,” she sighed with relief. “For a moment, I thought you might send me away.”

  “Not if I can help it,” I replied warmly as we took our place overlooking the parapets once more.

  We didn’t have long to wait before a horde of orcs broke from the forest, massing just outside the range of my bow. Hundreds of them assembled before my eyes, and I could make out the tiny health bars and identifications floating above their heads. Even from that distance, I could see the callous sneer on the sub-chieftain’s face as he glared across the field at me. With a brutal roar, he initiated a charge, leading his warriors in a mad dash towards our defenses. Among the surging mass of green bodies, I noticed that several of their number carried crude bridges designed to ferry their troops over our trench. I realized the dire threat these devices represented and immediately focused on eliminating them.

  I aimed my first Shockwave arrow not at the orcs carrying the wooden span, but at the structure itself instead. My arrow struck the device dead center and burst into a cloud of disruptive energy. The orcs that had been holding it were thrown to the ground, stunned by the force of the energy that had been unleashed on them.

  I quickly fired two more Shockwave arrows into the remaining spans, disabling the porters that had been carrying them, and managing to destroy one that had been poorly constructed. Although my Aura reserves were quite low, I counted the points well-spent. The orcs had lost one of their spans outright and seemed reluctant to attempt to recover the remaining two, having already observed what had happened to their brethren who’d been carrying them when my arrows had struck.

  With my Aura still recovering, I abandoned my talents and relied on the sheer power that the Bow of Impact provided instead. I chose my shots carefully and took out individual orcs one by one as they rapidly approached. A smile crossed my face as I realized just how close they had gotten while I’d been preoccupied with eliminating their crude bridges.

  Suddenly, green-skinned bodies began dropping all across the orcs’ advancing lines. Our enemies had finally reached the fields that Hilgreth had sown with her caltrops, and the vicious devices were taking a heavy toll on their numbers. When they realized the danger, the orcs were forced to slow their charge and began to carefully pick their way through the treacherous minefield. That was the signal that our archers had been waiting for, and the dwarves finally joined the fight.

  Bolts screamed out from the parapets, taking out any orc that bore a bow or long-range weapon of any sort. The stunned sub-chieftain glared in hatred and surprise as his forces suffered the losses from our volley. In a fit of outrage, he roared out a command, stirring the still numerous orcs forward with renewed vigor.

  Green-skinned bodies flung themselves across the trenches in berserk outrage, careless for their own safety. Several somehow managed to make their way across the gap but were quickly repelled by the defenders Khorim had staged there. But in death, the orcs had served their purpose, allowing even more of thei
r brethren to surge into the trenches and begin clambering up towards the open gateway.

  As things grew grim, a burst of flame ignited in the center of the trench, forming into a deadly column of fire that charred everything nearby. Tási’s pillar of fire careened through the tightly packed orcs, roasting them alive within its swirling flames, and the mad press of orcs that had threatened to overwhelm the gateway’s defenders below us vanished in a haze of smoke and flames. As before, the powerful Spell drained her, and I saw Tási collapse to the ground in exhaustion as the fires died down.

  We did not waste the reprieve her magic had provided us. Crossbows had been reloaded and a second volley went out, wreaking havoc among the remaining orcs. Although there were still many of our enemies left, the sudden loss of so many of their number had the orcs on the verge of panic. With a target of opportunity in my sights, I seized on the potential for a rout and launched a Swarm-infused arrow at my mark.

  Across the battlefield, three shafts stitched across the bare chest of the orc sub-chieftain. He looked down at the arrows protruding from him with an expression of puzzlement before collapsing to his knees. His body remained kneeling on the ground for a second before falling over dead. Their leader’s demise was the final straw, and the remaining orcs broke away, fleeing back into the forest.

  Cheers erupted all across the fortifications in celebration of our victory. Tási was still drained from her exertion and I sat down next to her while she recovered.

  “You did really well,” I commended her sincerely. “Your Spell gave us the break we needed.”

  “Thanks,” she smiled back at me weakly.

  Bane landed nearby and joined us soon after. I had held him to his promise to stay away from the fighting. He was not made for the brutal sort of combat that was involved in such battles, and although he initially resisted my command to stay away, I eventually managed to convince him that it was safer for both of us. Our happy reunion did not last long, however. Broda soon found us as well, and the news she brought was not good.