The Guardians (Book 2)

by Dan O'Sullivan

  ‘What’s happening?’ he asked. He glanced towards the sun and noted that he’d not slept for very long.

  ‘Araas and Mil are going out to have a look at the Nailmarni nests,’ said Danil. ‘Borg and I would like to go too, with your permission?’

  ‘Are you going to find Timbul’s body?’ asked Kelian.

  ‘No,’ said Danil. ‘His body is nothing. It’s just a shell. We want to have a very good look at the nests before we come up with a plan for how to deal with them.’

  ‘I’ll come with you,’ said Kelian, rolling onto his knees. ‘Why are you looking at me like that?’ he asked crossly, knowing quite well why Danil was frowning.

  ‘Majesty, when we return I can show you exactly what we found. You don’t need to come with us. You’re exhausted.’

  ‘I didn’t sleep well.’

  ‘You barely slept at all,’ Milgorry stated.

  ‘Alright,’ Kelian conceded as he sat back against the wall. ‘Take Borg with you, but remember he’s human, he’s not as strong or fast as you are.’

  Milgorry laughed aloud. ‘He’s taken on some traits of the free and yet he’s still human. Regardless, he’s impossible to track and more dangerous with a knife in hand than anyone I’ve ever met.’

  ‘Just make sure he comes home alive.’

  ‘I will,’ said Milgorry, suddenly serious. ‘Do you want to sleep?’

  ‘There are thousands of things I should be doing,’ Kelian began and his eyes widened indignantly as Milgorry raised his hand and brushed it across his face. Danil caught him as he fell sideways.

  ‘You didn’t wait for him to answer!’ said Danil indignantly.

  ‘I didn’t wait for him to object.’

  ‘You can’t do that to the King!’

  ‘I just did.’

  ‘Mil, he’s the King!’

  ‘He’s marrying my lady’s sister,’ said Milgorry, shrugging. ‘So that makes him my brother.’

  Danil stood up and shook his head. ‘How exactly are you going to explain, when he wakes?’

  ‘I won’t explain. I’ll just act annoyed that he fell asleep whilst I was still speaking to him,’ said Milgorry.

  ‘We can’t leave him here,’ Danil stated firmly and he scooped Kelian into his arms. Several guards slipped from their discreet positions around the courtyard and followed him as he carried the sleeping King to his bedroom. The door was ajar, so he went inside and placed Kelian on the bed. Two guards positioned themselves in front of the door once Danil and Milgorry left the room.

  Chapter 50

  Chiniocelle

  When Kelian woke he was momentarily surprised to find himself in his bed. He grimaced as he remembered his last seconds of consciousness and decided to have words with Milgorry at his first opportunity. He remembered a time when Timbul deliberately caused him to sleep, then his mind filled with the memory of his friend and he lay still on the bed, wishing he could reverse time, even just for long enough to say goodbye. He thought of his parents. They had died far too young. It grieved Kelian that they would never see grandchildren and never grow old together. The death of his aunt and uncle had also been a terrible blow. Kelian told Dale of their deaths whilst still on the Swift returning to the Dwellings, and Dale had stood with Oliver at the ship’s helm for most of the remainder of the journey. Kelian knew he was trying to occupy himself lest he sink into depression. He felt sure Dale would have remained in his cabin if he hadn’t been struggling with nausea. The stress of bringing an entire village of people on the long journey from Emerald to the Dwellings was beginning to show. Dale was incredibly tired, having found little time to sleep on the journey. This coupled with the anxiety of stealing into East Inlet and coping with the terrible memories he had of his home town, had reduced Dale to listlessness. Kelian had never seen him like this before, and he wondered what he could do to help him. There was a knock at his door and he sat up on the bed.

  ‘Enter,’ he said, leaning towards the window to look for the position of the sun. The door opened and Araas, Danil, Borgulnay and Milgorry entered.

  ‘Give Dale a job to do,’ Danil suggested. ‘And it’s mid-afternoon,’ he added, gesturing towards the window.

  ‘Thank you,’ said Kelian. ‘What sort of job?’

  ‘You’re welcome. Anything you think he’d be good at. Make use of his intelligence.’

  ‘Alright, he can join our meeting this afternoon. We’re going to decide exactly how to get rid of the remaining Nailmarni. What’s the situation out there?’

  ‘Can I show you?’ asked Araas, reaching towards Kelian. Kelian tensed as Araas gripped his shoulder. He couldn’t help but jump in surprise as Araas’ thoughts came to his mind. With his thoughts came powerful emotions and unexpected tears came to Kelian’s eyes as he felt the weight of Araas’ grief for the return of his brother. He closed his eyes and concentrated on what Araas was showing him.

  Eventually Araas removed his hand and Kelian opened his eyes. He stared at Araas in a mixture of sadness and wonderment. He was mute with shock at the destruction Timbul and the fallen had brought upon the Nailmarni nest.

  ‘It’s more than I would have expected, and far more than Timbul let us see,’ Araas admitted. ‘He was possibly the most dangerous and deadly guardian ever to have lived.’ Kelian didn’t answer. He had seen Timbul in action before and wholeheartedly agreed with Araas’ assessment. He wondered if Araas had found his brother’s body. ‘No,’ said Araas. ‘I couldn’t find it anywhere. I tried – but it’s nugatory, it’s just an empty shell.’

  ‘But he killed so many of them, and there are bodies all over the nest. Who would have moved him? You could see his thoughts as he fell. Yet he wasn’t there?’ Kelian felt confused. It disturbed him to think that Timbul’s body was left somewhere to rot.

  ‘He wasn’t there,’ said Araas, his voice ringing with finality making it clear he didn’t wish to pursue the subject. ‘We need to go to the sandpit.’

  Kelian managed to smile. Now that Tiernan’s and Karri’s private patio overlooked the children’s sandpit, people had ceased referring to it as ‘the patio’ and were simply calling it ‘the sandpit’. It was no longer a quiet, private retreat, but a noisy, happy, playful place, filled with children and parents, most of whom had no notion of the grave discussions which were being held only twenty paces from where they watched their children play.

  The King’s officers and several key nobles were gathered with Tiernan and Karrijeuiga on the patio when Kelian arrived. All stood as he arrived and he gestured for them to be seated.

  ‘Where’s Callian?’ Kelian asked Tiernan.

  ‘He’s gone up to East Inlet with Ben and Rezon. They’ll have a look around and then circle across the mountains before they return. I want to make sure there weren’t any other nasty little camps full of fallen warriors just yearning to find us too weak to defend ourselves,’ Tiernan explained. ‘Nandul wasn’t in the group that faced the Nailmarni and Enri said a bunch of warriors broke away and ran west when the others followed Timbul.’

  Kelian nodded. He studied the faces of the people before him. ‘We need to come up with a workable plan to remove the remaining Nailmarni. As I see it, the advantages we hold are these. They are fully adjusted, so they cannot disappear and they cannot breathe under water. We also know now that the Daoine Maithe have the capacity to influence their thoughts, however this is apparently extremely tiring, so we will be using this advantage only with the greatest of care. What Timbul did was incredible for several reasons.’ Kelian choked slightly as he said Timbul’s name. He swallowed hard and took a moment to compose himself before he continued. ‘Firstly, because he managed to destroy almost an entire Nailmarni nest with the help of the fallen. They were so eager to return him they left East Inlet and followed him through the Province of the guardians. I imagine when Timbul went into the Nailmarni nest, the fallen had no choice but to defend themselves, and so Timbul used them as a weapon to complete the task he was given. So his attack
on the Nailmarni nest also served to remove the impending threat of the hundreds of fallen who had gathered at East Inlet. I’m not entirely certain what further mischief they were planning, but they had already captured Tiernan, King’s Marshall Danil and Kings Colonel Borgulnay. Timbul’s actions gave us time to find and free these captives and to have the people of Emerald aboard the Swift and sailing for the Dwellings without interference from the fallen, which most certainly would have been a fatal battle for most of the humans involved, had this occurred. I don’t think we can plan a normal attack against the Nailmarni as our numbers are too few. We lost far too many good soldiers and guardians when they came across the lake, but I’m not willing to sit here waiting for them to attack us again. We wouldn’t survive. So I do intend to take the battle to them, but we need to come up with a plan of attack which gives us some advantage. We don’t have two hundred fallen warriors we can trick into fighting for us. We can’t go charging into their nest like Timbul did. Timbul was extraordinary. Even with every remaining soldier and every guardian, and every able bodied man, we don’t have the numbers or the strength to attack the remaining nest. So we need to consider each of the advantages we hold, and use these to come up with something far better than a simple battle plan.’

  ‘We have some other advantages,’ said Enri.

  ‘We certainly do,’ Danil agreed.

  ‘Such as?’ Kelian prompted Enri.

  ‘Such as the caverns under the cliffs. Didn’t you plan to use these once you figured out if the guardians could influence them? And what about the fleet of armed ships in the harbor,’ Enri continued, ‘surely that’s an advantage?’

  ‘And Dale brought fifty two soldiers from Emerald,’ said Danil.

  ‘And we know the Nailmarni burn well,’ said Dale, ‘if you can trap them somewhere inescapable.’

  ‘Disadvantages?’ Kelian asked expectantly.

  ‘They won’t tire,’ said Araas. ‘And they may not be fooled a second time if we try to influence them.’

  ‘If they leapt into the lake and couldn’t get to the shore they’d drown,’ said Borgulnay. ‘Now if I can think of a way to make that possible…’

  ‘No they wouldn’t,’ Enri contradicted. ‘They’d just swim around in there forever and ever, never tiring, though I suppose eventually they might starve to death.’

  ‘Oh. Right,’ said Borg slapping his forehead. ‘I forgot... But we could try to kill them whilst they were in the water.’

  ‘We could at least try to fool them again,’ suggested Gilgarry. ‘If they could be influenced to go into the caverns, is there enough room to hold them all?’

  ‘Probably. Unfortunately I doubt I could influence them enough to drown themselves,’ replied Tiernan. ‘But if we could even trap a few in there it would be another advantage.’

  ‘There must be a way we can use the ships,’ Enri mumbled to himself.

  ‘I doubt we can bring them into range of the ships’ weapons,’

  A smile spread over Enri’s face. ‘So if we can’t bring the Nailmarni to the weapons, can we take the weapons to the Nailmarni?’

  ‘Take them from the ships?’ Kelian noticed Duke Percy was watching his son with a proud glint in his eye.

  ‘Yes. Is that possible?’ asked Enri, turning to Captain Gillam.

  ‘It’s possible,’ said Gillam. ‘But you’d need to mount them on something. They’re heavy.’

  ‘I doubt the guardians would find them heavy,’ Enri observed. ‘I wonder how they’ll attack next time. Do you think they’ll all leap over the cliffs like they did before?’

  ‘They are prone to patterns,’ said Tiernan. ‘There’s a good chance they’ll do just that, and if they attack in the same numbers as last time, we’re in big trouble.’

  ‘I think they will,’ said Araas, sounding certain. ‘I think the first attack was intended to cripple us, and when they attack again, it will be with all of their remaining force.’

  ‘That’s what happened at Castle,’ said General Marnol grimly. ‘We were incredibly fortunate that the people had been evacuated before they attacked.’

  ‘They waited a long time before they attacked Castle for the second time,’ said Dale. ‘Why do think that was?’

  ‘Perhaps they decided that it was disadvantageous to attack the city when they tired quickly,’ Kelian suggested, glancing questioningly at Araas.

  ‘Possibly. So they waited until they were fully adjusted to this environment before attacking again. If that’s the case, I doubt they’ll wait so long between attacks here. As far as I can tell, they are all fully adjusted.’

  ‘So why haven’t they attacked?’ asked Enri.

  ‘We’ve had so many ships arrive here, they’re probably unsure how many soldiers and Daoine Maithe they’ll face if they attack,’ said Borgulnay. ‘It might serve us well to keep them confused.’

  ‘Well, each of the soldiers has a spare uniform,’ said Gilgarry. ‘If the civilians were willing to dress in uniform and wander around where they can be seen, it would look like we had twice the number of soldiers we actually have.’

  ‘They can be asked if they are willing,’ said Kelian. ‘They are not to be forced. And to any women and children who are bound to try to volunteer, my answer is no, absolutely not. No exceptions.’

  Danil leaned his elbow on the table and rested his chin on the palm of his hand. ‘So we’re looking at a far more powerful attack, probably using the same tactics as before and possibly in the very near future. Perhaps the instant they find out just how few of us there really are.’

  ‘You have a plan?’ asked Kelian expectantly.

  ‘I do,’ said Danil.

  ‘I don’t like it,’ said Araas immediately.

  ‘Neither do I,’ agreed Tiernan. ‘You wouldn’t survive.’

  ‘He might if he had help,’ said Milgorry.

  ‘Heh hmm,’ Kelian cleared his throat warningly.

  Danil’s face reddened slightly. ‘I apologize, Majesty. I’ll explain. Of course if these idiots hadn’t jumped in before they heard my entire proposal, I might have had the chance to elucidate.’

  ‘Just tell me your plan, Danil,’ said Kelian impatiently.

  ‘My plan has several strategies which will need to be accomplished simultaneously. Firstly, we need to draw the Nailmarni to a place where we have an advantage. That might be the caverns or the lake or both.’

  ‘I can’t see any advantage of having them all swim across the lake again,’ said Gilgarry. ‘We’ve already seen that happen, and it was impossible to kill them all in the water. Once they make it to the shore, they have us.’

  ‘I don’t intend to let them make it to shore,’ Danil explained. ‘We need three groups. One group – the smallest group – will need to be made up mostly of guardians. This group will approach the Nailmarni nest and do their best to convince the Nailmarni that it’s time to attack. A second group, made up of soldiers and guardians will remain hidden in the forest outside the Dwellings until the Nailmarni start throwing themselves into the lake, or until they move close to the cliffs. Then we can close in behind them with the weapons we take from the ship and with any other weapons we can come up with in the short time we have left, and this group will force them into the lake. A third group will remain here to destroy any who make it across the water. And I want to set a line of fire between the lake and the Dwellings to slow them down.’

  ‘Danil, even with the weapons from the ships, I doubt we can defeat them,’ said Milgorry. ‘You’ll need more than that to stop them from crossing the lake. How exactly do you intend to stop them?’

  ‘I intend to fill up the lake with chiniocelle,’ said Danil. ‘It was Dale’s idea; he just didn’t mention it because he can’t work out how to make enough of it without killing everyone.’

  ‘Chiniocelle?’ Duchess Vera frowned. ‘I know very little about chiniocelle excepting that it paralyzes you if you touch it or drink it or breathe the fumes. Are you saying it has the same effect on
the Nailmarni?’

  ‘No. It has an entirely different effect on them. It burns into their skin and...Rudi?’ Dale prompted.

  ‘It burns them to death,’ Rudiger explained bluntly. ‘Even a weak solution killed one of them like they were aflame with invisible fire. It was very effective. Being burned to death is a terrible way to die, it’s a horrible thing to do to someone, but I doubt I’ll lose any sleep in this case.’

  Kelian felt the same way. He had seen what happened once in the castle kitchen when a junior kitchen servant threw a bucket of water onto a pot of oil which had accidently caught fire. Kelian had been standing not far outside the kitchen door at the time and the heat from the incident stunned him. One moment there was a small fire inside a pot on the stove, then the next second the entire kitchen was burning. Kelian would never forget the terrible look on the young man’s face before he was burnt to death. Tolly had taken woollen blankets and he and several cooks managed to put the fire out, but not in time to save the young lad.

  ‘I’ve seen chiniocel beetles hanging around the churnwood trees,’ said Dale, looking at Danil curiously. ‘But I can’t think of any way of catching enough to poison the lake.’

  ‘Perhaps there is a way,’ said Kelian, looking at Lady Karri. ‘My Lady, before we were attacked, you had success in increasing the amount of flour and oil we had to feed the people. If we can catch enough chiniocel beetles, and if we can make up some chiniocelle without killing ourselves, can you increase it?’

  ‘Possibly,’ replied Karri. ‘It might take some time, but – how much do we need?’

  ‘Not as much as you might think,’ said Milgorry certainly. ‘It spreads through water really fast. Faster than you would think was naturally possible. If you drop some in the water the entire lake will be defiled within minutes. Chiniocelle takes on a life of its own when it hits water.’ He paused as Tiernan stared at him, obviously wondering how Milgorry knew so much about the use of chiniocelle. ‘The only problem is, everything alive in the lake will die; plants, fish, insects. Fortunately the poison stays in the water. It’s not dangerous to people unless you deliberately splash them, or you have the mixture so strong they start breathing it in,’ he said, not meeting Tiernan’s eye.