Master blacksmith's Arc

Chapter 3 of 5

By morning the pups slept in the tower, but Aldric could not stop counting. Two watchers. One woman, one fox. The valley pack was coming, twenty strong or more. He had stone enough for walls and no hands to raise them before the wolves arrived. Tori found him at the rock face, hammer idle in his claws. "You need more than eyes now," she said. "You need arms. I know some who owe me." She left before noon. Aldric worked and waited. Near dusk he heard wheels grinding on stone. A huge mule came into the quarry first, powerful and calm, pulling a heavy wagon with thick sides and iron-banded wheels. Behind it walked four elf archers, quivers on their backs, moving light and fast. A fifth man came last, broad and bearded, his coat studded with iron plates. He walked the quarry rim before he said a word, testing the ledges with his boot. "This is Garrett," Tori said. "He holds ground. These four hold it faster." The elves fanned out without being told, two climbing the broken stairs, two taking the high stone edges. Garrett stopped in front of Aldric and looked him up and down, unbothered by the bear's head or the claws. "You cut the stone," he said. "I keep the wolves off it. That's the trade?" "That's the trade," Aldric said. Garrett grunted and turned to the wagon. "Then load your blocks. If we die, we die behind a wall, not in the open." He set the archers to their posts, one pair north, one pair south. Aldric heaved cut stone into the hauling wagon, and the mule dragged it to the quarry mouth. Garrett stacked the blocks into a rough barrier across the only path in. The pack came at full dark. They poured from the tree line, more than Aldric could count. But the elves were already loosing arrows, so fast the strings blurred, and wolves dropped before they reached the stone. Garrett stood at the barrier's gap with a heavy club and broke the ones that slipped through. Aldric fought beside him, throwing wolves back with his claws. Tori's arrows fell from the tower. The fox screamed a warning at every rush. It did not last long. The pack broke against the wall of stone and arrows and turned back into the dark. Bodies lay across the quarry floor. None of Aldric's people had fallen. Garrett wiped his club and leaned against the barrier. "They won't try that line again. Next time they'll come from higher up, or they'll wait until we're tired." He nodded at the stacked blocks. "You've got a crew now. But a crew eats. Five mouths, and that mule. Your stone won't feed them." Aldric looked at his defenders, alive and fed on nothing but Tori's promise. He had the hands to hold the quarry at last. Now he had to keep them.