The Silencing of Esteria

Chapter 17

The next morning, Toland, Katrin, Rin, Hudlow and Herdru stood around their kitchen table. Laying on top of it was the top of Neshian's best table. The disc had been carefully carved into a map of the village, with the addition of surrounding straight lines to represent the proposed fortifications.

"We can make the walls by sticking logs into the ground," Katrina said, "If we make an outer palisade and an inner palisade about three feet apart we can fill the inbetweening space with earth which watchmen and defenders can then stand on. Where these squares are we can build higher watchtowers that can hold braziers and then here we can build the gatehouse. It will be a natural weak point so it should be facing away from the forest, if that is where we expect them to come from."

The men leant in, examining the map.

"How accurate is this?" Hudlow asked.

"Looks good to me," Herdru replied, "Very good in fact. I don't think I could have done better myself if I'd been given a week."

"My father thought highly of cartography," Katrina said, "He always said more battles have been won with a good map than a good army."

"He was a soldier?" Hudlow asked.

Katrina paused for a moment, then nodded.

Hudlow stroked his beard thoughtfully, "This may be a mighty fine plan you've got here, but I still think this is a touch ambitious, I mean, towers and gatehouses are what city folk have, not valley folk. Even with a bit of magic helping magic, this would take us the better part of a year to make."

"We'll get it done," Katrina reassured him.

Hudlow sighed reluctantly, but nodded, "Well, if you've got this lot believing, then I'm not going to try and stop you. I'll take ten men and begin chopping down as many trees as we can but transporting them through the snow is going to be no easy task."

"Toland and I will handle that for now but perhaps we could get a sled made so that we can get to work building the walls."

Rin nodded, "Fel and I can handle that."

"Good," said Katrina, "Then we should get to work."

With that, they set off in their different directions, rounding up as many workers as they could. Half went off to the edge of the forest to fell trees, the other half began digging two parallel trenches around the village to provide foundations for the wall.

As the trees fell and were chopped down into manageable logs about 10ft long, Katrina picked them up, two at a time with one under each arm, and carried them up the hill. At the top she slammed them into the trenches and workers filled the base with earth.

Toland was less efficient, he took his whitling knife and carefully carved in a set of runes Jaran had given him to make objects lighter. Once he activated them, one of the villagers could roll them up the hill without too much trouble, even through the half foot of snow on the ground.

However, it wasn't long before whatever cosmic force was behind his magic got bored with making logs lighter and his runes stopped working, leaving Toland without an effective way of helping.

He tried helping with chopping trees but after a few attempts at wielding an axe at a standing tree he was kindly told he would be of more help removing the branches from already felled ones.

His pride only slightly injured, he complied and set to work. This work did, however, come with the upside of being the person to hand the trees over to Katrina. Even lifting trees she had an ethereal elegance to her. It was strange to behold, such power and such delicacy so intrinsically linked.

The construction work continued on throughout the day at an astounding rate. They had created nearly twenty yards of wall altogether and were setting about creating the first watchtower when the light began to fail them.

Hudlow called off the work and everyone dissipated into their homes or into the tavern, leaving Katrina and Toland to walk home together.

They walked in silence which dragged into uncomfortableness for Toland, however, Katrina didn't seem to notice.

She looked up at him and met his gaze, making him realize he had been staring.

"Is something the matter?" she asked, concerned.

"No!" Toland replied quickly, "No. Of course not."

She nodded, seemingly comforted.

Toland looked away bashfully, but, with no one else around and his curiosity getting the better of him he turned back towards her.

"You aren't Jaran's apprentice, are you?" he asked

She didn't seem to react, she just kept walking slowly alongside him.

"I never see you casting any spells and anyway, everything you do that's magical goes completely against everything Jaran is teaching me. You never change anything, you are just really strong and tough. So, what are you?"

She turned to face him, "You are right, of course, I am no wizard. Years ago, before the kingdom was even founded, one of my ancestors asked a wizard for help, he wanted to be strong and fast and immune to all things. The wizard obliged. The wizard was powerful and knowledgeable in all matters of magic and the natural world. The wizard took my ancestor gave him the powers of the monsters he found around him. He, and all of his descendants, essentially became monsters in human form. Fast, strong, resilient. But like all monsters, silver will still cut us and, as you noted, we cannot use magic. That gift is forever outside our reach."

Toland looked at her, trying to discern whether or not she was being serious, but he had never heard her tell a joke before, and the way he looked at him made him dismiss the idea as stupid.

"Also, a good amount of magic could kill me as well or if you were persistent with regular means, I would eventually fall. Especially if the magic were of the right type, lightning is perhaps the best option."

"Why are you telling me how to kill you?" Toland asked, "Shouldn't you be keeping that as much of a secret as possible."

She looked at him quizzically, tilting her head to one side like an owl.

"I do not know," she said eventually, "There is something about you, Toland Kenkarten, that makes me believe that you would never use this knowledge against me, so there is no harm in revealing it to you."

Toland turned away bashfully, "Well, I obviously wouldn't, after all, valley folk don't go around killing people with lightning and silver."

She nodded, "That is true, these people seem to be in possession of great compassion and honor."

With that, they reached the door to the smithy and said their goodbyes, Katrina heading upstairs and Toland going to see if his father and brother needed any help finishing up the sled. They didn't, of course, and soon everyone was asleep.