Set in Stone (70 page)

Hamish scooped up a double-handful of precious granite powder from the pile and slid it into his belt pouch. He wished he could take more, but lacked anything to carry it in.

"What you do?" Anika called as she came running.

"It's all right," Hamish said, and moved to intercept her. "Just a . . . tradition we Cutters have before our quarry is destroyed."

She frowned suspiciously at him and glanced around. "Weird men."

"You're not exactly normal yourself," Hamish said.

Anika flashed a smile. "Maybe we wrestle later, red."

He flushed, and that only made her grin wider.

"You stay," she added, once again serious. "I go loch."

"Why?"

"Orders."

"All right. Good luck."

Hamish watched as she disappeared up through the cut again, and then shared an incredulous look with Hendry.

"Did she really just leave us alone?"

"Sounds like it."

Keith frowned. "Has to be a trap."

"Can we not take that chance?" Hendry asked.

Chapter 85

Lilias stood shackled to a broken beam at the edge of the pile of rubble that had been Lord Gavin's pavilion. Townsfolk packed the square, but none ventured within ten feet of her. Most of them pretended she did not exist, and the few who cast furtive glances in her direction looked away without meeting her gaze.

Lilias stood tall and forced a look of calm serenity as she surveyed the mass of fearful, beaten people she was responsible to protect. She could not blame them for not daring to draw close. After all, it was she who had failed them.

She caught a brief glimpse of Jean as the girl ushered in the last of the villagers.

Good. Everyone had gathered before the conflict started.

Wagons and carts, piled high with crates, barrels, boxes, and bags full of all the provisions that could be gathered in the past couple of hours lined Market Street. Everyone had worked hard to follow the Grandurians' orders as dictated by Cinaed.

No one wanted to risk upsetting the usurper or her Grandurian masters. The recent fighting took a heavy toll. The number of dead had been mercifully small, but it seemed half of them had suffered some kind of injury. The weight of grief, added to the burden of fear, broke wills that had stood undaunted against the mountain for generations.

"Who ordered this assembly?"

Cinaed climbed the pile of rubble that had been Neasa's bakery and surveyed the gathering. The blocky, red-haired woman glared at the crowd. "I didn't tell you to come here."

"I did," Lilias spoke into the silence.

Cinaed snarled and scrambled down from her perch and advanced across the square. People melted out of her path, and the looks of universal fear sparked a wave of anger that bolstered Lilias' courage.

That woman had done so much to harm the town, it was good that Lilias' hands were shackled.

Cinaed stopped several paces away, flanked by her crony, pretty young Ellaran. Jean appeared out of the crowd and flanked Cinaed on the far side. She kept her face impassive and her eyes downcast.

"How dare you give any more orders?" Cinaed growled. "I'll have you muzzled, Lilias."

"You can't help but abuse the power you think you've taken, can you?"

"I am in charge here," Cinaed shouted. "Everyone will disperse."

As the crowd began shuffling away, Lilias raised her voice, "Wait! I called everyone here because we have this one chance to escape."

Cinaed advanced and shouted, "We can't escape! Weren't you listening? They'll kill our husbands if we try."

"Not if they run the same time we do." A rippling murmur ran through the crowd as the idea spread.

Cinaed slapped Lilias across the face. The blow rang through the square and many gasped. "You would see everyone named Daor too?"

Lilias ignored the stinging pain and spoke through the blood in her mouth. "Look past your petty hatred, Cinaed. We can save our people."

"We can't! They'll kill the Cutters and enslave us all. You may not care about that, but I do."

"Look to the cliff," Lilias said loudly. "When you see a torch waving by the crane, it's the signal. The men will flee the quarry and we can escape across the Wick."

More murmurs rippled through the crowd, and Cinaed looked unsure. Someone called for runners to head for the wall gate.

Cinaed shouted, "No one goes anywhere!" She drew a long dagger from the folds of her skirt and lay the blade against Lilias' throat.

"If you murder me, you'll have the blood of the entire town on your hands," Lilias said. Her frustration at Cinaed's blind idiocy helped hold back the fear. She had to stay strong, or everyone would die.

"You poison everyone with your lies," Cinaed said. "Say another word, and I'll slit your throat."

Lilias drew in a deep breath, and Cinaed pressed the dagger forward, pricking her skin and releasing a trickle of blood. Lilias fought the need to speak out again. The rubble smelled of wet ash, and the crowd smelled of rank fear.

Jean said, "Cinaed, don't let her goad you into violence."

Cinaed glared at Lilias for another heartbeat, clearly fighting the urge to drive the blade home. In that moment, Lilias understood the truth. Cinaed would never relinquish power. She'd see everyone dead first.

That simplified things.

Cinaed removed the dagger and said softly, "Jean, gag her."

As Jean prepared to tie a cloth over her mouth, Lilias whispered, "The time is now, my dear."

Jean made no reply, and tied the gag tight.

Across the square, someone shouted, "A torch! I see a torch on the cliff."

Townsfolk started talking excitedly, and arguments broke out. Cinaed pushed through the crowd and climbed atop the rubble of the bakery again.

"Quiet!"

As an expectant hush fell over the square, the same voice as before cried, "The torch. It's gone out!"

Cinaed raised her dagger high. Ellaran, who had climbed to stand beside her, raised her own dagger.

"You see? It was all one of Lilias' lies. Anyone found trying to leave this town will be executed." She pointed across the square at Lilias. "But she'll be the first to die."

Jean climbed the rubble, carrying a pair of earthen mugs. She handed them to the two ladies.

Cinaed smiled. "Bless you, my dear. You make me proud."

She and Ellaran both drank deep.

Chapter 86

General Carbrey raised one hand and said simply, "Begin."

Far to the rear, Grahame the Pathfinder, who had been listening with enhanced ears, signaled to the towering captain of the recently arrived reinforcements. The man waved to the crews manning three giant catapults that had been assembled in a small clearing just south of the slope, where the forest masked them from the Grandurians.

"Commence the Stone Rain," the captain said.

As one, the three catapults fired. The heavy arms shot up and forward with an ominous creaking of timber and a whoosh of air. They fired three spheres of steel mesh, five feet in diameter and packed with goose down.

The earth under Grahame surged upward as Gregor lifted him high onto a pillar of earth so he could watch the battle and relay progress to Striders stationed below.

A horn blared, and the entire army roared their battle cries and broke into a charge. The spheres soared up the slope and struck just behind the front lines of Wolfram's army. The impacts blasted waves of earth, and the spheres bounced across the plateau.

Those were good shots.

One crashed through the southern wall of the big barn. The second landed in the burned-out remains of the manor house. The third bounced off a tree and ricocheted across the plateau before finally coming to a stop on the northern edge near the road to Alasdair.

Already the catapult teams worked feverishly to crank the mighty weapons back to fire again. Two more steel spheres waited their turns behind each one, with hulking Boulders standing beside them.

Up on the plateau, as soon as the spheres came to rest, they burst asunder and the Boulders who had ridden in their padded hearts leaped out and charged the Grandurian lines.

General Wolfram stood near the big barn, barely fifty feet from where one of the spheres crashed into the building. The Boulder who had ridden inside caught sight of Wolfram, bellowed a battle cry, and charged with heavy hammers raised high.

Erich met him head-on. He dodged a mighty blow that would have cracked even his rock-hard head, and plowed into the bigger warrior. The Boulder shrugged off the blow and knocked Erich aside with a blow to the chest with his other hammer.

Erich rolled back to his feet and grinned. "Got you."

Wolfram noted the timing with satisfaction as Anton struck the distracted Boulder.

Fingers of earth reached up out of the ground and encircled the surprised Boulder's legs. Even as he beat at the restraining ground, two Wingrunners zipped past and cracked his knees with meteor hammers.

Not even granite strength could protect the vulnerable knees from well-placed meteor hammers.

The Boulder howled and clutched at his wounded legs. Soldiers tossed heavy nets over the man, and within seconds he lay bound so securely even his granite power could not free him.

The other two Boulders suffered similar fates. One fell victim to Kilian's icy powers, while the other was met by four Rumblers who beat him down and tied him up.

That's when the second wave of Stone Rain fell.

As his forces moved to nullify the falling Boulders, Wolfram turned his gaze to the lower slope. Had Carbrey's Stone Rain been a surprise, as Carbrey expected it to be, it would have proven extremely effective.

Instead, the general was walking into a fatal trap.

Carbrey's forces were closing fast and, as they approached, a wall of moving earth reared up to shield them.

"Where's the Sentry?"

"Got him," called a nearby Longseer. "Base of the slope."