Aiden sighed, surrendering to the stoic warrior. She was right, and he knew it, but it didn’t make him feel any better about abandoning them to what seemed like a hopeless cause. Still, he took the small black box from Oya Dihya’s massive hand, tucking it into his belt pouch. He was just about to turn away and prepare himself for another transition when he heard it.
A low, multi-toned trumpeting vibrated through the late morning air. The sound thrummed through his chest and made him stop in his tracks as he listened to the terrifying noise. He could see several of the soldiers up on the walls give looks of fear over the battlefield. He couldn’t tell how far away the creatures were though it did not sound like they were close yet. Still, they must be close enough. Perhaps even within sight of the walls.
After the Drogue Walker’s almost mournful cry had faded away, he looked up at the tall Exemplar with wide-eyed amazement. “Was that one of them?”
Oya Dihya nodded and then gestured for him to walk back towards the wall with her. When they reached the huge logs that made up their defenses, she let him ascend one of the ramps while she stayed on the ground behind him. Even so, her helmeted head reached up almost as high over the wall as they both looked out over the battlefield.
Aiden couldn’t see the soldiers of the enemy. They remained hidden in the haze resting over the muddy, brutalized field in front of the gates. However, the creatures that marched with them, these Drogue Walkers, towered even higher by almost double than most of the struggling, broken trees that he could see in the distance.
He wasn’t sure what he had been expecting, but these things weren’t it. They were so much larger than he had envisioned he was having trouble comprehending it. Each of their legs were huge, craggy affairs moving ponderously as they thrust the massive bodies forward. Instead of a discernable head, they had tentacles reaching out into the air around them. Even from this distance, he could see some of them plunged toward the tops of the trees that they passed, ripping off branches and leaves.
Their stone-encased bodies resembled moving mountains with some plates distributed like scales, but others were broken and jutted out at odd angles. Even to his untrained eye, it looked wrong.
Finally, Aiden couldn’t stare any longer, turning around and descending the ramp to stand back at Oya Dihya’s side. His stomach felt like it was about to drop onto the ground in fear. “How can we fight something like that?” He finally asked.
“We will fight them with honor and determination, Aiden.” Oya Dihya said softly, putting her hand behind his back and turning him away from the wall. “No matter if we win or lose, we will not just succumb. Now, off with you. Bring more of my sisters and then return to watch the battle. Learn from it, Aiden, and bear witness to what we do today.”
Aiden nodded and left quietly. Though he had to focus to make the transition, he could still ponder everything that Oya Dihya had said. Could he have done the same thing knowing they might not survive? Would he have asked to come back to safety? He didn’t know, but he was determined to do what he could.
When he returned to Reid, he gave Carol the box that Oya Dihya had given him. The look on his face must have tipped her off that something else was wrong.
“Aiden?” She said, putting her hand on his arm. “Are you okay?”
He shook his head, feeling sadness flow over him as he looked up into her crystal blue eyes. “No. I saw what is coming. Oya Dihya called them Drogue Walkers?”
Carol gasped, taking a half step back before narrowing her eyes. “They bred Drogue Walkers? That’s…monstrous.”
Aiden waited, letting Carol get over her anger. No matter what occurred today, it had changed the face of war forever. It was just one more horror to lie at the feet of the Mourning Lords, and Aiden felt his face hardening even as Carol blinked, bringing herself back from her anger.
“How many were there?” Carol asked quietly as she stared off into the night.
“I think I counted ten of them, though honestly, I am not sure. I didn’t even think to count.”
“Ten?” Carol asked, her mouth twisting in sadness. “They might be able to take one or two, but not ten. We didn’t expect anything like this, but we should have. After the attack on Riften and especially after they released the Locust Crabs, we should have known they would be desperate.” Carol trailed off, clenching her fists.
Aiden nodded, understanding the Naiaden ruler’s feelings. If he’d only moved sooner, or more decisively, he might have been able to make a gate. Now it was too late. Now they’d have to watch their friends die.
“I have to get back. Oya Dihya wanted me to bring one last group across, and then watch the battle with two of the Exemplars.”
“I’ll come with you, Aiden. I’ll be one of the witnesses.”
Aiden sighed softly but couldn’t fault Carol’s reasoning. He would watch for the same reason.
Chapter 24
The battlefield, for all of the men and massive alien creatures that were walking towards them, was strangely quiet. There were no instruments playing loud music, war cries, or even a great deal of talking as the soldiers on the wall waited for their doom. Even when an order was yelled out for some reason or the other, its sound was muffled in the air or overwhelmed by the deep, thudding walk of the Drogue Walkers.
In short, it was torture. Aiden and Carol were both standing on the wall watching as the hoard of the enemy approached. The Norpon warriors were marching in neatly ordered ranks, broken only occasionally as they avoided a deep morass or puddle that scarred the ruined land. Their large formations were arranged between and behind the huge Drogue Walkers, content to let the massive creatures take the brunt of whatever forces Caitrel could muster.
Carol stood quietly beside him, both of them feeling the fear pervading the soldiers on the wall even though they were in another dimension. They could see the glances or clenched hands from the exhausted men, though there were also looks of hope as some checked to make sure that yes, the Naiadens were there.
Oya Dihya had spread her forces amongst the troops, clearly intent on taking advantage of their presence among the warriors. Unlike the soldiers, each Exemplar had their massive center-grip shields strapped on their back with spears stuck in the mud and swords still sheathed at their sides. In their hands, they held odd weapons. Some which Aiden had seen before when the Naiaden forces had driven away the troop transports at Riften, but others he had little clue what they might do.
The closest thing he could equate them to was perhaps a smaller version of the main cannon in the nose of the Skywitch, but he wouldn’t know until they used them if they would send bolts of energy towards the enemy or something else.
The problem was, he just wasn’t sure what anything could do against the Drogue Walkers. What was worse than the mass and obvious toughness of the beasts was that on their arched backs rested stone fortifications built by men. As they worked their way ponderously closer to the walls, he could see soldiers clustered along the stone walls with what looked like catapults. They were not as large as the ones Caitrel had, but they didn’t need to be. They had a distinct and uncomfortable height advantage. Aiden wondered if they even planned on using them.
“This will be a difficult test,” Carol whispered to him, her hand resting on the roughly hewn points of the logs that made up the wall. “I do not like these odds, Aiden, at least not for this battle. They move so slowly that we will be able to kill them if we slowly withdraw, but the moral of losing this fort was likely Norpon’s aim. Caitrel won’t be able to recover.”
“Is there anything we can do?” Aiden said, his own voice hushed. “There has to be something we can do?”
“Not with as little time as we had. We could have done much more to stop this if we had time.” Carol sighed softly, turning to Aiden. “Our weapons are impressive, but these were stockpiles from so long ago. We have not had a need to build more, and in truth had hoped never to have to use them. Perhaps if we had come back into this world sooner, we would
be in a better position to help. Now we may suffer for our arrogance.”
“Maybe,” Aiden said. “Norpon has been trying to take over this continent for how long? First, it was Revyek, but he moved immediately on Caitrel after that, didn’t he? And with the plague caused by those creatures, there’s no telling how long the Mourning Lords have been planning this, right? It didn’t just start when I found my powers, but there’s also no guarantee they would have started using the Locus Crap and these monsters at all if it hadn’t been for me.”
Carol remained quiet, but Aiden could see the thoughts moving around in her head. There was no way to know.
“I do not like this, sitting off where it’s safe while at the same time being on a battlefield.” Carol finally said. “It’s too easy to dwell on things that have little bearing on the deaths about to be visited on us. You are correct, Aiden. We won’t know what could have been, but it is best if we pay attention to the task at hand.”
She paused, looking toward where Oya Dihya had raised her hand, holding it up for a moment before lowering it quickly. Carol nodded as if in agreement before whispering to Aiden, “it is beginning.”
Aiden looked out over the battlefield. The enemy troops were still so far away, even farther than the largest catapult could throw its burden. He was about to ask how, but then the world erupted in fire and noise.
The guided rockets came first, sending their odd, flame-tailed projectiles out towards the approaching Drogue Walkers almost faster than he could see. Behind each was a long, almost too-white cloud of smoke that stretched across the intervening space. The noise of their passage hissing through the air made more than a few of their soldiers flinch and jump at the unexpected occurrence.
However, it was the other weapons that caused Aiden the most consternation. He had not seen or heard them before, and the loud tun-tun-tun noise they made was deafening even from this distance. The Caitrel and few Banum soldiers all flinched away from the weapons, but only a few crouched down in fear. Obviously, they had been warned to expect something and Aiden was pleased to see that none ran.
At the end of the long barrel there seemed to be a repeating tongue of flame leaping out, but it only stretched for a meter or so and had no hope of actually reaching their opponents. He couldn’t see what the weapons might be doing, so looked outwards towards the line of enemy troops hoping to resolve his curiosity.
The missiles had almost reached their targets, slowly rising above the mud as their trajectories angled them up and toward the bodies of the massive walkers. He wasn’t sure what to expect, but when they turned into massive flame balls far short of their targets, he was certain that wasn’t what was supposed to happen. Only one of the projectiles had made it through whatever had stopped the others, and it impacted with little effect against one of the massive walker’s armored legs.
He could feel Carol tense up next to him and when he looked at her, she had narrowed her eyes and one of her hands had clenched into fists. “Dammit, what happened? Do they have some defenses set up?”
One of the Exemplars standing behind them leaned forward, her voice strangely accented but calm. “Lasers set high up on the walker’s shells.” She tapped her helmet, pausing for a moment as another flight of missiles streaked out to meet with the same fate.” They look like rapid fire varieties, probably four per beast. We won’t be able to make it through that with the missiles. Not without many more launchers.”
“It looks like the guns are doing more, but it will take a mountain of shells to take one of those things down.” Carol paused and then pointed at the closest walker while she leaned towards Aiden. “See there? They’re aiming for the main trunks of the tentacles where their armor is weakest. It will be the easiest place to penetrate.”
Aiden peered closer, trying to see what Carol was talking about but the walkers were still well over a thousand meters away, and it was hard to make out anything from this distance. He could tell there was a slickness up at the base of some of the tentacles that had a reddish hue. Despite the damage, the lead creature didn’t seem to react except to move its tentacles around a bit more energetically. Not fast by any stretch of the imagination, but enough that it didn’t allow the Naiadens fire to concentrate at any one spot for too long.
It was at that point that one of the enemy catapults fired, sending a large stone arching high into the air and landing with a messy, skidding impact that landed far short of the walls. It was telling that, despite it falling far short, the huge rock received more than its fair share of glances as the men and women lining the walls realized that despite it missing, it ranged much farther than their catapults would.
Aiden and Carol both watched as the inexorable advance of the Norpon forces drew closer and closer. The Norpon did not fire another of their catapults until they were within range, finally releasing a large number of rocks high into the air. Even Aiden could tell that the walls were within range as he saw them begin to tumble, arching down and towards the defenders below.
The Naiadens had stopped firing their missiles after the second fateful launch, preferring instead to conserve their ammunition. However, when the troops on the Drogue Walker’s backs had fired their catapults, the Naiadens once again launched a barrage of missiles. This time, instead of most of them stopping at range, many of them streaked through and exploded against the front of the closest walker.
Some still exploded before reaching the creature, but Carol grinned fiercely and slammed her fist against the wall in excitement. “Ha! The stones they fired confused their defenses! That did some damage!” Her voice was joined by a hundred other as the soldiers along the wall cheered, whooping in excitement.
Aiden looked out, waiting for the smoke to clear from the air around the impacted massive beast. It had been hurt, with blackened areas pockmarking its front legs and chest. There was even an area on its left leg where some of its massive armor had sheared off, crashing to the ground in a huge plate with blood chasing it down the leg.
He held his breath as he watched the alien creature take two more steps before stopping. Aiden could almost see the thing wobble slightly; though he had no idea if that was its natural way to move. He hoped it wasn’t. The guns, as Carol had called them, began to spark and bite deeply at the new wound on the things leg. For a long moment, it simply stood there with the entire battlefield waiting to see if it would fall. He could only imagine the troops marching in its massive shadow, wondering what would happen to them if the walker came crashing down.
But it didn’t.
Slowly, to the despairing moans of the soldiers at the wall, it began moving forward again. Its uninjured leg lifting first and settling down into the meters-wide footprints it created, and then the other.
They all watched with mounting horror. Despite what appeared to be a grievous wound in its leg, it did not fall and began to move forward once again. The terrible spectacle had made the defenders all forget the stones that had been launched at them earlier.
The reminder was not pleasant as the first stone flew into and shattered some sharpened spikes placed directly in front of the wall. It made the earth move, and the wall shook before sending several of the splintered wooden spikes flying. The next was not so gracious and plowed into the top of the wall itself. As it happened, Aiden was staring right at the area where it struck, and a number of men including one of the majestic Exemplars simply disappeared before his eyes.
It hadn’t destroyed the wall completely where it landed, but there was a noticeable divot where it had struck as well as a wetness he didn’t want to investigate too closely. It was not the most damaging of the rocks that struck them, but it was the one he would remember long after the battle. The face of one of the soldiers, an older woman with a small scar just below her lip, had just begun to look up when the mass of the stone cut off her reaction for all time. Aiden wondered if she had even had a chance to recognize her doom, but he would never know.
The rest of the rocks came streaking in, do
ing terrible damage where they struck the wall, but many of them landed in the muddy road behind the wall or in front of it. Though it didn’t kill that many, the damage would increase as the enemy moved closer and their range diminished. It was still a terrible sight, and Aiden could hear cries of anguish and whimpering.
A few moments of stunned silence had passed before he looked out over the ocean of enemy troops as well as their impossible monsters. What could he do? With all this power, he was forced to stand here and watch people simply die.
The Naiadens once again held their missiles but continued to pour gunfire into the stricken walker as the Norpon army inched closer. Though the Drogue Walkers moved faster than it looked by virtue of their size, they simply did not cover ground very quickly.
Despite the damage the lead walker was taking, the enemy did not send another flight of stones toward the walls. It was probably the right decision because even though the guns were hurting the creature, it wasn’t nearly the same as what the missiles had inflicted. Despite its injuries, it had managed to cover a hundred meters closer to the fort walls while it’s multi-tonal cries echoing through the air.
The Glimmer Steel Saga, Boxed Set, Books 1 - 4 Page 86
