Halcyon Rising_Bastion of Hope

by Stone Thomas

  “Snacks?” she asked.

  “Inside joke,” I said. “Nola isn’t like the goddesses you’ve heard about. If your intentions are true and you’re willing to help build this hill into a mighty city, you’re welcome to join us aboveground or stay down below. You’re an earth momma by class, with power over rock, metal, and machines. Your talents will be highly respected here.”

  Mayblin didn’t seem convinced until that last part escaped my lips. Respected. By humans. I could see what a surprise that was.

  She leaned in close. “I want to say yes, but many of my people will wonder how their shaman could leave the lord of the rocks so quickly. Between you and me, I never thought he would come back to life, it was just a little story that got way too out of hand.”

  “Tell your people,” I said, “that if they pledge fealty to Nola, holy goddess of witty thoughts and future forecasts, we will free those old bones from the rocks they’re buried in and provide them an honorable home where all goblins are free to visit.”

  Mayblin relayed the message in her own words, sending the goblins into a murmur of quick, clipped words. I’d have to skillmeister each of them before their speech was down to human speed, a task that really just sounded exhausting.

  “We accept,” Mayblin said, “though most of my people will prefer to live here in the caves.”

  “Good,” I replied. “You’ll each pledge fealty to Nola before this is official. And for gods’ sakes, stop stealing all of our stuff.”

  Nola?, I asked.

  Arden!, she said. There you are. A wide new area opened up to me telepathically and it’s full of little life forms running around.

  Yeah, I said. The good news is, we’re cool with the goblins now. The bad news is that the mine collapsed and we had to bomb our way into the meditation room, so the temple sort of opens up into the mine now.

  Oh, good news / bad news! I want to play, Nola said. The good news is that all of the farmers and miners made it back to the temple, as did the hunters with the chick-hens they caught. The bad news?

  I gulped. Yeah?

  Our visitors have arrived.

  +36

  Cindra, Megra, and I raced through the underground tunnel that led from the meditation rooms around the back of the temple while Mayblin hitched a ride on my pant leg. When we burst into the temple’s main room, it was full of men and women hiding from the cretins’ attacks.

  “What’s happening?” I asked. It was Vix that stepped forward to catch me up.

  “We have a team of ten archers positioned in the towers on the hill looking over the entrance,” she said. “Cretins are banging on the front gates now, but we can’t tell how many there are. The gates should hold, longer than last time because now my Fundamentals skill is higher. The cretins will break through eventually though.”

  Mayblin had hopped down from my leg. She knelt before Nola on both knees, staring at the goddess in awe.

  “Um, hi,” Nola said. “It’s not polite to stare.”

  “I’m sorry, your godliness,” she said. “I’m here to pledge filthy to you.”

  “I don’t doubt that,” Nola said, “but fealty is more my thing. You may proceed. The words don’t matter as long as they rhyme and your intentions are true.”

  Mayblin furrowed her brow for a moment. “Goblins tinker and goblins drink, but only you can help us think.” A wide smile swept across her dark green face.

  “I’ll take it,” Nola said. “Now, look at Arden and repeat after me…”

  I nodded at Mayblin when her pledge was finished. “I’d like to prepare a meal to welcome you and many other newcomers to Halcyon. Would you ask your people to bring the food you took from us up to the temple? We can handle everyone else’s pledges later tonight.”

  “Okay!” she said and scampered off.

  I walked toward the iron doors to the temple. “Everyone,” I yelled. “This temple has survived an attack like this before, and we are stronger now than we were then. We have more allies, more weapons, stronger walls. What we don’t have is a guarantee. The gods are at war, and we are caught in the crossfire as we protect Nola from the vile creatures outside these doors.

  “Life here has been difficult, and I know you’re all hungry and tired,” I continued. “At the end of this battle lies a great feast, or utter defeat. Only we can choose how this ends. Who’s ready to kick some cretin ass?”

  Everyone cheered. Gowes motioned for everyone to cheer louder, and they did. “It’s a glorious night to stand for Halcyon,” he said.

  “Roda,” I said, “I think you should start cooking, because these don’t look like people ready to lose.” Everyone cheered again.

  “We have energems along the main path and enough archers up top. I won’t send anyone else up just yet. I’ll take Vix, Cindra, Mamba, Lily, Ambry, Megra, and Jessip in the front. Everyone else with weapons, stay behind the doors and hold the rear.”

  You seem confident, Nola said.

  I’m terrified, I said. I’m not afraid of facing the cretins, or whatever else is out there. I’m afraid of what Duul showed us. The wave of cretins he’s sending is like an ocean storm and you were on the ground, suffering. Maybe even dying, Nola. And there was nothing anyone could do.

  I’m close to evolving now, Arden, she said. Just a little more time and a few more juicy vibes from you all, and now these goblins, and I’ll be that much stronger. Don’t worry about me. Protect the people.

  I’ll always worry about you, I said. Hold on.

  The girls came to the front with their weapons in hand, as did Brion.

  “You can take the rear with everyone else,” I said.

  “Nonsense,” he replied. “Of the 129 people inside the temple, not counting goblins, I am the most suited to lead. I may appoint you head guard though. You seem an able fighter.”

  “You are too kind,” I said. “But do count the goblins. And Ess.”

  Ess!

  I pressed the sole of my boot against an iron door and pushed it open. Cretins still banged on the front gates, which looked on the verge of collapse. I stepped outside into the waning early evening light and took the expansion pack from my back. I dumped out all of the fruits and vegetables I had brought up from the mine.

  “Gi-ants!” I yelled. “Get your Ess out here.”

  It made me sick to feed Ess first when I had a temple full of starving people, but we needed her help.

  The gi-ant queen emerged from the dirt with a handful of her children. “So,” she said, “your fear of my wrath has squeezed food from your stores after all.”

  “There’s more where this came from,” I said. “Help us kill those cretins and keep the settlement safe. You’ll never be hungry again.”

  She stepped toward me, sliding a scratchy hand down my cheek. “What makes you think my lasting hunger can be satisfied by vegetables? Maybe I crave something meatier now.”

  “I’m not sharing my meat with you,” I said. “But you can have some roasted chick-hen after this. You deserve a seat at our table, Ess, if you’re willing to do your part.”

  She bent down and picked up a tomato. Its juices ran down her chin and her chest as she sank sharp mandibles into its skin. “How shall we assist, leader Arden?”

  “Dig,” I said. “When the cretins come close, pull them under.”

  “A lovely approach,” she said. “Children, earn your dinner!” The gi-ants disappeared into the dirt with their food.

  The girls stepped forward, as did Brion, joining me in front of Nola’s temple. I closed the iron doors behind us.

  And now, we waited.

  The thick wooden doors that closed off the main path to Nola’s temple were splintering under the cretins’ assault. The doors’ frame held a black energem bursting with occasional blue light, set weeks ago with Lily’s Battle Cryo ability. It pumped frozen balls of magic at the cretins. It would freeze them in place for a time, an effect that was useless to us at the moment. The archers overhead wouldn’t be able to t
arget the cretins while the front gates stood in the way.

  Then, they burst open.

  “Forty-five cretins,” Brion said, the second those monsters came into view. Whatever Nola did to his mind was a mistake, but remarkable nonetheless. I wondered what numbers floated in his field of vision.

  A tight mass of glistening black bodies charged forward while two of their comrades remained frozen in Lily’s ice. They would join the rest of the herd soon though as the cretins wielded solid black swords and spears at the wooden pike fence that blocked their way forward.

  That first gate sat between our tallest ground towers. Those towers held no energems. We had used them in the past to support archers, but now we had archers in a safer location. Arrows rained down on the cretins from the hill’s peak, releasing thick black blood from their miserable lumbering bodies.

  “Forty-three cretins,” Brion said as the army before us punched a hole through the wooden pikes that led to the next pair of towers.

  “It’s okay,” I said, “the ones that survived are injured. Things should speed up from here.” Our archers continued to release their arrows, knocking out more cretins while the rest of us stood safely at the temple’s entrance. After the vision Duul showed me, I wouldn’t risk putting our people in danger atop those towers. Whatever spells we could cast or arrows we could sling wouldn’t be worth the loss of life.

  “Thirty-nine cretins,” Brion said. The pool of shining metallic bodies rushed forward, but now that they approached the third set of towers they had energems to deal with in addition to the arrows from above.

  The second those creatures came within range, a fire energem sent a wall of flame out from each tower, trapping half of the attackers. Those flames burned into circles, penning the cretins in and confronting them with a dangerous choice: avoid the flames and wait for them to die down while arrows pierced their bodies, or charge through the flames and take fire damage.

  One of the cretins charged through the flames, carrying embers on its skin that ignited the wooden pike fence before it. I winced at first, sad to watch the gate disintegrate so quickly, but a crash of burning wood caught my attention. The gate collapsed in a fiery pile of debris that snuffed out the lives of two cretins under its weight.

  “Thirty-two cretins,” Brion announced as the enemy came closer. From here, Cindra could aim her arrows through the wooden slats of those pike fences. She shot Heartstringers that turned cretin against cretin. First one, then two, then three of those hideous monsters joined our side. They brawled with their former compatriots, slicing blades against their bodies and sinking long jagged teeth into their backs.

  “Twenty-one cretins,” Brion said as the cretins rushed the fifth of six sets of towers. Mamba summoned her snakes now. Writhing bodies glistened against their pitch black enemies, curling up their legs and tripping them to the ground. Two sets of fanged beasts faced off, releasing more of the cretins’ black blood onto the dirt around us.

  Lily froze some of the cretins in place while Ambry conjured fire walls that constricted against their prey and burned cretins alive within them. Megra stood ready with a force bomb, but I put a hand on her shoulder. It wasn’t time for that yet.

  “Fourteen cretins,” Brion said as the cretins destroyed the next wooden gate, bringing them to the final and shortest set of defensive towers. These held a snake charmer energem that summoned more and more snakes while the number of our enemies diminished further.

  That gate held for some time, since there were fewer of the obsidian blades and heads full of sharp incisors that could cut and bite their way through it. The archers overhead couldn’t aim straight down very well, but Cindra’s arrows never missed their marks.

  “Five cretins,” Brion said.

  As the final round of cretins tore down the wooden fence before us and charged across the bridge that covered the meditation room below, we all leapt into action. Megra tossed a force bomb that knocked the cretins back. Jessip launched forward, pinning a fallen cretin to the ground and sinking her bronze sword into its chest.

  Vix hammered the ground, sending an arc of orange energy out that caught three cretins within it. They began to twitch uncontrollably. Lily’s face took on a manic grin as she lifted her axe, then chopped it toward a cretin’s neck. Its decapitated head rolled a few feet before melting into black sludge.

  One cretin got to its feet just as Ambry swept her staff against the ground tripping it again. Mamba stepped forward and sank the spike end of her heeled battle boot into the monster’s groin. I cringed as the creature’s eyeless face screamed out once before falling dead.

  Cindra held an arrow nocked in her bow and waited for a cretin that ran toward her. When the monster was only inches away, she released. Her Moneyshot tore through the fiend’s mouth and poked through the back of its head, tearing its metallic skin apart like cheap foil.

  One final cretin approached as I pulled back my spear. One well-placed Piercing Blow would take the creature out in a single shot. Its clumsy feet kicked at the dirt before me. It held out an empty hand and shot a series of black magic spells that sent ribbons of evil magic through the air. They landed against my chest, my bare arms. They didn’t fill me with rage though. My Resolve was too high for this puny foot soldier to cloud my mind so easily.

  “That’s right,” I said. “This one is mine.” I activated my skill.

  My spear shot forward in a brilliant glow, but all it pierced was air. Gi-ants had erupted from the ground and grabbed the cretin by the ankles with their mandibles. In a moment, it had disappeared under the ground. I couldn’t see how they battled that cretin, but when black sludge bubbled to the top I knew they had succeeded. I worried for a moment that my suggestion to Ess had taught these fearsome creatures a new battle tactic, but I shook that worry aside. They were our allies now. I had to trust in that.

  As the sun disappeared under the horizon, I stared ahead at the dirt path leading to the demolished gates. The black energy the cretins had leaked was slowly evaporating. It was a shame Mayblin hadn’t brought the pile of medium-sized energems up so we could collect the energy, but it was done. The air was quiet, the forest outside our settlement was still.

  “I think we did it,” Jessip said. “We defended the temple! And I got to kill one of those nasty things!”

  “And I got to use Guillotine,” Lily said.

  “Duul underestimated us again,” Cindra said.

  “They didn’t even destroy the towers this time,” Vix added.

  “Nola,” I said. I wouldn’t count this as a victory until I saw that she was safe. I pulled the iron doors open and saw all of our people waiting, tense hands clutching whatever meager weapons they had been able to bring with them to Halcyon.

  Nola stood before her altar. Mayblin, a dozen other goblins, and an enormous mound of fresh fruit and vegetables sat by her side.

  “It’s over,” I said.

  “It is,” Nola replied. “I sense no others nearby.”

  Everyone cheered. I didn’t understand. Duul had promised to rain hell on Halcyon, and this was barely a spring shower.

  “It doesn’t feel right,” I said.

  “Why,” Lily said, “because you didn’t land a single kill? Buck up, Master Arden, there’s always next time.”

  A cold sharp finger scratched down the back of my neck. I spun around. It was Ess.

  “It’s time for my reward,” she said.

  +37

  Roda had metal skewers packed with raw chick-hens roasting over the fire pits that flanked Nola’s altar. A small bonfire sat on the open floor, scraps of wood warming a cauldron of water into which she sliced vegetables.

  “You did as well as I knew you would,” Gowes said, clapping me on the back. I was glad to have the cyan god’s support, but mostly I was glad he had given Jessip the confidence to pitch in. Seeing the happiness on her face as she helped defend the temple was a nice change from the disappointed girl that had wandered the hill, aimless.

&nb
sp; “I don’t know what you said to Jessip,” I said, “but thank you. Not all bravado is false. I see now that sometimes a little wishful thinking is all it takes to get someone out of their own head and onto a good path.”

  “Just doing my part,” Gowes said.

  The temple was full of long tables in need of food and drink, but that would come. I sat at the head of the longest one, next to some of the girls. From here I could see straight through the front doors and down the long path ahead until the dark of night blended into the shadows between the trees.

  “Tomorrow,” Ambry said, taking a seat at my left.

  “Tomorrow what?” I asked.

  “That’s when we need to return to Valleyvale,” Lily said. “Not permanently, just long enough to return our mother’s energem. We protected Halcyon without it. There’s no reason to keep it here.”

  “Let’s discuss it in the morning,” I said. “Tonight is for celebrating.”

  “Then you could smile,” Vix said, sitting on my right. “You look like someone that just lost a fight.”

  “It doesn’t add up,” I said. “Duul tapped into my mind, and Nola’s, and Yurip’s. He showed us what was coming. She was on the floor in pain and an impossible wave of cretins was coming for us.”

  “War is psychological,” Vix said. “He wanted to get under your skin. Don’t let him.”

  “I hope that’s all it was,” I said. I reached inside my pocket for the tiny energem I had been carrying around earlier. It was black now, filled with energy from the cretins we had just slain. It was so small I didn’t notice it heat up at all when it drew in the cretin’s lifeblood.

  I stood from the table and walked toward Nola. “It isn’t much,” I said, “but I have this. It filled during the attack.”

  “That’s sweet of you,” she said. “Every little bit counts.”

  I reached for one of the small energems that sat next to her altar, still clear and empty. I wanted so badly to fill this stone and offer Nola more. She needed the strength these stones could provide, and if I had the power to fill one I wanted to offer that.