Chapter 784: One More Person

A blinding blast of force and shredded Sil-Graves fragments tore outward and burst the black sphere apart in an expanding dome of fire.

Trees were ripped out by their roots, boulders were blasted into gravel, and the monsters were torn into thousands of smoking pieces that rained down across the scarred ground.

The shockwave reached the wall a moment later.

It rolled across the Basin in a visible ripple that flattened the snow in a wide ring and rattled the iron hoods over the battlements, and a warm gust of smoke and grit washed over all of them and blew Solenne’s tails out behind her like nine silver banners.

WHUMMMMPH!

When the black smoke drifted away on the wind, the whole pack was gone... All that was left was a wide scorched crater in the frozen mud of the ravine.

A soft chime rang in Silas’s ears as a golden window flickered into view.

DING!

[Hostile monsters eliminated.]

[UP acquired.]

Silas smiled as he watched the number tick upward.

Up on the wall, a roar of wild excitement burst out of the archers.

"Yes!" Lupina barked at the top of her lungs, throwing both arms into the air and howling. "Did you see that?! It pulled them all into a ball and then blew them into pieces! That’s the best thing I’ve ever seen!"

"It pulled everything into the middle before it blew," Rowenna squeaked, her face glowing bright red with pure excitement as her pencil flew across the pages of her notebook. "Hardly any of the blast was wasted! I-it’s terrifyingly brilliant!"

"That’s my iron! That’s my powder!" Thora hollered, slapping her thighs with both hands and dancing a clumsy little jig on the walkway. "Look at that crater! You couldn’t dig a hole that clean with fifty shovels! What did I tell you, my Lord?!"

"What a wonderfully violent little show," Solenne laughed, her light musical voice drifting over the wall as she patted one of her tails against Silas’s hip. "I think the wildlife out there is going to think twice before coming near our walls again, Lord Silas..."

Fenna was standing right at the edge of the battlements, her eyes fixed on the smoking hole in the distance with a fierce hungry intensity that turned her knuckles white against the steel.

She turned around and looked up at the spire looming over them.

"Lord Silas," Fenna said, her voice crackling with ambition. "We have to put two of these on top of the tower right now. From up that high, they’ll cover the whole bend of the Basin.. The beacon cuts right through the mountain fog, so my girls can spot big beasts from miles away. We won’t need to be guarding the gate that much anymore... We’ll be picking off monsters from a distance before they can even gather!"

"Make it happen," Silas nodded, gesturing at the other two cannons on the walkway. "Take two up to the top, and leave the other two here with the old ones."

"Got it!" Fenna grinned, turning to her girls. "Bow-Splitters! Rig the heavy pulleys! We’re hauling these two all the way to the top!"

The archers moved with fast disciplined energy.

Ropes were lashed to the carriage axles, pulleys groaned as the heavy iron was hoisted up the inside of the tower, and within minutes, the clatter of carriage pins locking into place up on the top platform echoed down to the wall.

KRRRK! KRRRK! KA-CHUNK!

A moment later, one of the archers leaned out over the edge of the top platform, a hundred feet up, and waved both arms over her head.

Behind her, the two dark barrels poked out over the red iron walls and pointed out at the Basin like a pair of long black fingers.

Fenna walked back over to Silas, leaned her elbow against the dark steel merlon and gazed out across the vast frozen wilderness.

"You know, Lord Silas," Fenna began, her voice dropping quieter and more personal as she pointed a gloved finger toward a distant line of jagged black hills beyond the ravine. "We’ve moved the borders further forward, deeper into the Basin... All of that land out there between the wall and those ridges is ours now."

She looked at him sideways with a bold adventurous gleam in her eyes that she was trying to keep under control.

"There are valleys, ruins and dens out there that we still haven’t been able to touch," Fenna went on. "Whenever you’re really around, my Lord, when you’re not tied up with things in the Keep or running off to other territories, you should take a team out there... Bring some of the Bow-Splitters along. We could go explore the deep Basin with you and clear out the big nests together."

Silas smiled at the sharp determined archer with real fondness.

He liked a woman who could look at a monster-infested wilderness and see nothing but good hunting.

"That’s a promise, Fenna," Silas said, giving her a reassuring nod. "Once we’re done with this raid in Aki’s territory, you and I will take a team out into the Basin and see what’s out there... You’ve done an incredible job holding this wall and running the watch. Thank you."

Fenna gave him a crisp nod, her lips curving into a polite respectful smile.

"Thank you, Lord Silas. The Bow-Splitters will keep watch until you call for us."

She gave him a neat salute, turned and marched briskly toward the watchtower’s archway to oversee the last of the ammo being stowed up top.

Her boots clicked against the walkway in steady measured steps, her back straight and her chin held high but the moment she stepped into the shadow of the archway, out of Silas’s sight, the calm look on Fenna’s face cracked.

She pressed her back against the warm iron wall of the stairwell and let out a long ragged breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding.

Her heart was thumping against her leather armor like a trapped bird.

Her cheeks were burning, and she pressed the back of her cold glove against them and waited for the heat to go away but it didn’t.

On the outside, she’d acted like she didn’t care.

She’d talked about firing angles, locking rings and borders, keeping her voice crisp and steady like the only things she cared about in the world were arrows and walls.

...On the inside, she was green with envy.

She wanted to move into the Keep.

She wanted it so badly that her teeth ached every time she walked back to the barracks after a long shift in the frost.

Who wouldn’t want to live in the Keep? The halls were warm, the beds were as soft as clouds, Kaelia’s cooking was right downstairs, and best of all... Silas was there.

Walking past his door, seeing him at breakfast every morning, catching that warm devastating smile of his every single day.

It made the barracks feel like a cold gray prison... She’d even caught herself picking out which room she’d want, the little one at the end of the second floor with the window that looked out over the wall, so she could still see her girls on watch.

And now there was a way in.

Silas had said it himself this morning. Winning an event wasn’t the only way to earn a room in the Keep anymore... Anyone who made a major contribution to Blessed Land could earn one too.

Gunnhild had mined more than anyone else in the whole territory while Rowenna had covered their weapons and golems in runes, on the other hand, Tasmin and Brida had fought each other to a standstill.

’A major contribution...’ Fenna thought, her fingers tightening around the grip of her bow as she stared blankly down at the steps. ’What kind of major contribution can an archer make that comes anywhere close to that?’

She couldn’t forge weapons like Thora... She couldn’t carve runes like Rowenna... She was an archer, a scout who tracked beasts through the cold mud.

Her gaze drifted sideways to a narrow slit in the tower wall.

Far beyond the new battlements, past the smoking crater, the frozen landscape of the Umbral Basin stretched out into jagged shadowy mountains that seemed to swallow the sky.

Those shapeshifters, the ones that had stolen the faces of people they knew... Tasmin and Brida had wiped out the hive under the eastern crags, the four-armed one and all the rest of them but a hive like that had to start somewhere.

Those things had come from somewhere out there in the Basin.

Fenna blinked.

’What if I took down the source of those shapeshifters...?’

...

The walk down from the new wall was full of high spirits, the sharp wind whistling harmlessly past the towering black steel that now guarded Blessed Land.

Silas took the wide steps of the gatehouse at an easy pace, his fur-lined mantle billowing behind him while the group followed close at his heels.

Lupina was practically skipping, her wolf ears still swiveling to catch the last echoes of the cannon, while Thora puffed happily on her pipe and blew small smoke rings that vanished into the cold air.

Aurelia and Rowenna walked arm in arm, their faces still lit with quiet awe, and Morrighan walked in silence, her molten gold eyes scanning the snowy paths ahead.

Every so often, Lupina spun around to walk backward and grin up at the black steel towering behind them, and her tail hadn’t stopped wagging once since the cannon fired.

When they reached the main road leading back toward the Keep, Silas slowed down and turned his head to look back at them.

"You girls head on up and wait for me outside the Keep," Silas said, resting his hand on his belt with a relaxed grin.

Walking just to his right, her nine silver tails swishing in slow hypnotic ripples that brushed the tops of the snowbanks, Solenne tilted her head.

Her fox ears twitched with curious amusement, and her golden eyes narrowed playfully.

"Leaving us behind so soon, Lord Silas?" Solenne purred, her robes rustling softly against the frost. "And here I thought we were marching straight off to battle. Why wait...?"

"I’ve just got to go somewhere real quick," Silas chuckled, winking at her. "Wait by the runes... I need to go pick up the most important part of this trip, or Aki and her girls are going to starve while we clear their nests."

Before Solenne could catch his sleeve with one of her fluffy tails, Silas teleported.

POP!

The cold air rushed in to fill the empty space where he’d been standing, leaving the six of them alone on the snowy stones.

Solenne let out a soft melodious giggle with her tails fanning out in a wide arc behind her as she turned to the others.

"Well, it looks like our Lord likes to make his entrances alone. Shall we?"

With nods and quiet banter, the girls went on up the gentle slope toward the Keep.

In the same instant, Silas’s vision blurred.

POP!

The freezing bite of the mountain wind disappeared, replaced by a wave of dry fragrant warmth that smelled of caramelized root vegetables, peppered roast chicken, fresh honey rolls and simmering herb broth.

Silas appeared right in the middle of the polished stone floor of the Culinary Haven.

The big kitchen was alive with fast disciplined chaos.

Huge copper pots bubbled over low glowing braziers, rows of iron spits turned slowly over the fires, and a dozen kitchen girls in white linen aprons were darting between the chopping blocks with wooden crates of peeled potatoes and bundles of dried thyme.

One by one, the kitchen girls noticed him.

A girl stirring a pot froze with her ladle in the air, another one nearly dropped a tray of rolls, and a third opened her mouth to squeak his name.

Silas put a finger to his lips and winked at them, and they all clapped their hands over their mouths and went right back to work, shaking with silent giggles.

Standing in the middle of the main counter, calling out instructions with frantic adorable authority, was Kaelia.

Blessed Land’s S-Rank Chef looked completely charming in her element... Her crisp white apron was tied tight around her slender waist, and her sleeves were rolled up past her elbows, showing soft pale forearms dusted with flour.

A stray lock of silver hair had escaped her kerchief and curled against her flushed cheek, and a small smudge of dark plum sauce sat right on the tip of her cute little nose.

She was holding a long wooden tasting spoon and blowing on a steaming spoonful of gravy with her brow furrowed in serious concentration.

Silas leaned against the edge of a clean prep table, crossed his arms over his chest and let a slow wicked grin spread across his face.

"You know, for an S-Rank Chef, you’re terrible at noticing things," Silas said, his deep voice cutting smoothly through the clatter of pots and pans. "A monster could’ve snuck in here, stolen your spoon and run off with the best cook in the territory, and nobody would’ve noticed..."

Kaelia jumped a full foot in the air, and the wooden spoon nearly flew out of her fingers.

"Eep!"