Chapter Four

Ildris

She did not hear the clamoring of the world outside, only the sound of her patient laid before her, soft whimpers and moans uttered from her throat. In a low voice Ildris spoke to Ivra, gently washing her face with a linen cloth, slowly mixing herbs in a mortar to stem the tide of blood, to prevent sickness in her veins. When she placed a small splint on her nose, Ivra gasped in pain and began to inch away slowly from Ildris’ touch.

“Please...it hurts…” she said, in a voice smaller than the quietest of whispers.

“I know, I know,” Ildris answered in a low, soft voice. “ I will not harm you; you are safe here.”

“Where...where is my brother?” Ivra tried to sit up, but her arms gave out beneath her before she fell back.

“Be still, fae-nen*, and let me do my work.”

Ivra whimpered once more, but fell silent. There was a long cut on her face, stretching across the delicate skin of her cheeks. Ildris took the herbs, now a thick paste, and gently placed it across the wound. With any luck, it would keep her through the night.

“Keep still or the wounds will reopen.”

Ildris stood up, then walked to a narrow but long table and took a heavy blanket from it. Gently, she placed it atop Ivra, who was silent now, her eyes closed and breathing shallow but steady. Ildris sighed, feeling a weariness that threatened to overtake her. Her supplies had begun to dwindle in the past year, and all her knowledge and skills of medicine could not always keep her patients from death.

Behind her, the door was flung open, and two Caidonians appeared, eyes darting from Ildris to her patient.

“What in Ila’s name—”

“Is that her?” One asked, but did not wait for Ildris to answer as he tried to pick Ivra up from the ground.

“No!”

He flinched at her cry, nearly dropping Ivra from his hold. Ildris pulled her away, holding her in the cradle of one arm before setting Ivra back down. With her other, she seized the Caidonian by his collar, dragging him close until she saw the whites of his eyes widen under her glare.

“You touch her again and I will break every finger on your hand.”

“Please, My Lady,” said the other Caidonian, placing herself between the two of them. “We are only here on direct orders.”

“Whose orders?”

“Lord Othalom, My Lady; he is taking our people back West to Caidon.”

Ildris did not wait to hear the rest of her words, only walked past to a small door and out to the courtyard. Outside there was a din of voices arguing back and forth. Lord Othalom and his soldiers on one side, Ithilians on the other.

“I will not stand by and watch as my people are slaughtered by monsters!”

Lord Othalom said.

“If you leave, you will be, and my people will not stop those daemons from slaughtering you.” Brae answered.

“We are skilled soldiers, not tavern brawlers—we can kill any in our path.” A Caidonian said.

“You saw only a small number of daemons; they will easily overtake you and your soldiers. All of you will be dead before the night falls. ”

Everyone looked towards Ildris, who stood calmly, taking a small rag out from her sleeve to wipe a few drops of blood from her hand.

“It is far better that you stay here.”

“Why did you not tell us the full depth of this danger, Lionel?"

Lord Lionel looked at his friend with a sullen look, then stared down at the ground. After a moment he answered in a voice just louder than a whisper:

“We need help, my friend; there is no other choice.”

“My soldiers are trained to fight battles, not monsters.”

“Please, father," Roland put a hand on his shoulder. “We cannot abandon them now.”

Lord Othalom turned to his son. “I will not leave my only son and heir to die here, not while I am still breathing."

“Ildris is right,” said Ellod. “ if you leave now, you will die; these walls are the only defense any of us have against those daemons.”

“Then do we stand here, and wait for them to breach the gates?”

“No.”

Brae stepped forward, walking until she was a single pace in front of Lord Othalom.

“You will stay here and fight with us, all of you standing here now. If you and your people want to survive until morn, you stand by us and kill the monsters outside those gates.”

Lord Othalom stood there, mouth open and for a moment silent, until he spoke once more.

“Please, Lionel, listen to reason.”

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Lord Lionel made to speak before his daughter interrupted him.

“Your friend does not speak for me, nor does he lead my people into battle; only I do that.”

They both watched, unspeaking as Brae walked over to Ildris, leaning her head against Ildris’ ear.

“How is she?”

“All right, until those two tried to take Ivra off.”

She pointed to the two Caidonians, who looked away as if they did not see her accusing finger. Brae put one hand on her shoulder.

“I will make sure they stay away from your House of Healing, my friend.”

"I thank you, my friend, but it will take more than that to heal her.” Ildris said, giving a small smile.

"And as for your people," Ildris. "They will not interfere with my work, or else you can take them with you outside the Ithilden."

Lord Othalom made to speak, but he was interrupted by Haidara’s raised hand.

“At least let us send word to Caidon, so that we may call upon our home for more soldiers.”

“That will take weeks if not more; the only way to reach them is by sea.” Haidara said.

“We have a ship docked in the Old Harbor five leagues from here, and all we need is one to return East.”

“Then you will take our people with you.” Ildris said.

“What?!” Lord Othalom cried, taken aback.

“Yes,” Brae answered, “If you leave, then you will take the Ithilians who cannot fight, the ones who cannot defend themselves.”

“We will need more than a single ship to carry your people and ours across the sea.”

“I do not care if it’s one ship, or one thousand ships—you will take them, or I will send you out there myself."

They looked towards Lord Othalom, who was not staring at them but at something in the distance, his face suddenly gone pale.

“What-what is that?”

Ildris turned to see dark figures climbing up the tower of the Eastern Hall, crawling and searching for an opening. One daemon snarled, frustrated at its lack of progress. From the corner of her eye Ildris saw someone notch an arrow in their bow, aiming at the beast. It must have sensed something because the daemon crawled away, legs moving like a spider as it fled.

Ildris, Baedren, Ellod and Brae sprinted to the Eastern Hall, their footsteps sounding on the ground as they ran towards the bottom of the tower. Fast as they were, when they arrived there was nothing there. Brae and Ellod rounded towards the back, Ildris and Bhaedren following suit.

The blockade they had placed there was untouched, though the demons must have been searching for it, that small opening that one of them had made. Ildris knelt down and inspected it, feeling for any gaps or breaks; there were none.

“What are they looking for?”

Ildris stood up, looking at Brae.

“I do not know.”

“Whatever it is, they think it’s in there.” Ellod said, looking up to the tower.

Ildris looked back to the gap in the stone.

“Maybe they’re searching for its weakness.”

“The question isn’t what they want, but how we can keep them out.” Brae answered.

"Then we will need help from the Caidonians to do so."

Brae hung her head down, looking at the ground. Ildris could see her brow darken in thought. They all looked back, however, when Haedara and Valharad ran towards them, stopping just a few paces in front.

"There is another one, climbing up the wall,” Haidara said, still catching her breath.

“What?!” Brae said.

"We tried to kill them,” Valharad answered for her. “but the beasts are smarter than they look—they escaped all of our arrows.”

Ellod took one of his arrows, notching it in his bowstring.

"They will not miss mine."

He moved forward, trying to spot the demon from its high perch, turning to the Southern Wall. Ildris, Bhaedren and Brae followed with Haidara and Valharad at their side. They circled around the wall, searching for any signs of the beast upon it but found nothing. Ildris gripped her hammer tightly, ever vigilant for the slightest shape or movement.

It was only when she saw Baedren staring at her that Ildris relaxed slightly, giving a smile towards him.

“What is it, little brother?” She said, speaking softly.

“I have not seen you so afraid in a long time, my sister.”

Her smile faded at his words, then disappeared entirely.

“I have grown more afraid by the day, Bhaedren.”

“Where did you say it was?”

Ellod whispered the words quickly to Valharad, who searched above but saw nothing.

“It must have gone back into—”

“There!”

Ellod pointed his bow upwards, loosing an arrow at the demon; it dodged the attack but its claws faltered, slipping on its hold. They watched as the daemon fell down, scratching and clawing the air for any hold. The beast landed on the ground with a dull thud, then was still.

A moment passed, then another.

“Is it dead?” Valharad said.

At those words, the daemon brought up one arm, pulling itself upright. Ellod nocked another arrow, aiming the point at the demon’s head. Swift as the wind, the daemon circled around them and towards a group of Ithilians. Ellod pursued, pulling his knife from its sheath; he would have killed it had a Caidonian soldier not reached it first, swords raised. The daemon snapped its jaws at the soldier, claws bared. They answered with the slightest movement with their wrist, opening a line across the daemon’s throat.

It choked on its own blood, gasping for air before the soldier pushed it to the ground. When it was dead the soldier pulled off his helmet and crouched down to study the now lifeless daemon. Ellod looked from the soldier to Brae, Baedren and Ildris, a puzzled look on his face.

Haidara and Valharad went to him, taking care to avoid the still fresh corpse.

“Are you all right, Malthas?” She asked.

He nodded, still peering at the monster.

“What is it?” Ildris said.

Malthas looked over at her.

“Do all daemons have claws like these?”

Puzzled, Ildris went to his side to see what exactly he meant by that.

“Do you see this here?” Malthas pointed along the daemon’s hands.

She shook her head. “No.”

“It seems that these monsters are more adept than we thought; look at its hands.”

Ildris looked and saw the claws with thin, sinewy hands and sharp edges that curled down into cruel daggers that cut through armor, flesh and bone.

“What does that mean?”

Malthas looked up at Ildris.

“It means that they are quite skilled at climbing, and could provide enough grip so that they would not be heard, even with the best of hearing. That is probably how they managed to break into the wall.”

“You can know all this from an anatomy lesson?”

He looked from Ildris to Brae.

“I made a guess the first time we saw the monsters, My Lady, and now I can confirm it here by looking at one of the daemons myself.”

The two women said nothing, so Malthas cleared his throat and continued his speech.

“It is true that the beasts have strong upper limbs, but it appears that their legs are slightly weaker than the rest of their body,”

They all looked down to the demon’s legs, shorter claws on the feet and the thin, yellowed bone of its ankle visible.

“On a narrower space, their legs cannot hold them, which is why it fell at the top of the wall.”

“How will that help us fight these daemons?” Brae said.

“If we know how they fight, we can learn how to defend ourselves better; we could save our people.”

Ellod stood, fixing his bow across his left shoulder, while Malthas turned to speak to Haedara and Valharad.

“We will need all of our soldiers here in order to help their people.”

“Even with all our numbers, we cannot hold back every daemon from this stronghold.”

“Valharad is right; we will need to send Lord Othalom back to Caidon.” Haidara said.

“If he leaves, he will have to take one hundred Ithilians with him.”

Haidara looked to Ildris.

“One hundred?”

Brae nodded. “A Caidonian ship can hold both your soldiers and our people.”

“Perhaps we can send a small scouting party forward, so that they can keep watch over the forest while your people follow.” Malthas answered.

“It will take more than a few of our soldiers and their hunters to stop the beasts, Malthas.”

“The safest road to the Old Harbor is a small one at the edge of the forest, away from the daemons. Lord Othalom can lead them there while we keep them at bay.” Ildris answered to Haidara and Malthas.

“And when do you propose we send them out?” Valharad said.

“In a fortnight.”

Brae turned from him to the Caidonians and the Ithilians, setting her gaze on Lord Othalom.

“We will guarantee you and our people safe passage to Caidon within the fortnight. Until that day comes, all of you will stay and fight.”

“A fortnight is too long to wait.” Lord Othalom said.

“It is all the time we have to give, and nothing more.” She answered.

“If my people stay, I cannot protect them.”

Brae would have snarled a few more words at him had Ildris not stopped her, putting a hand on her shoulder.

“I promise you that we will fight alongside your people as if they were our own, and protect them with our lives if need be.” Ildris said.

“Then I hope for all of us that you will live to fulfill that.”