Chapter 40: Blood, On The Nothernwestern Stone!

Chapter 40: Chapter 40: Blood, On The Nothernwestern Stone!

The light came clear and hard over the northwestern ridges.

Korr was already back on the primary post by the time the grey lifted into true dawn.

The climb from the valley had been steep and fast; the claim Vara had taken from him still lingered in the pull of muscle and the faint marks under his leather, but the line left no room for anything except the ground in front of them.

Bor stood at his shoulder.

The strongest of the first band held the primary approaches.

Signal fires were ready.

Edges were checked.

Water was measured.

The waiting had ended.

Below and to the west the Hollow Kin lead fighters were moving.

They came in disciplined groups rather than a single rush painted figures advancing from draw to draw, securing each fold of rock before the next group followed.

The main camp remained farther back, visible only as a slower dark mass and the occasional controlled fire.

The fighting strength was concentrated at the front.

The earlier count still held: sixty to eighty in total, with enough fighters in the lead to test the primary line hard.

Korr gave the quiet orders. Hold the posts. No one left the stone unless the signal to fall back was given. "Make them spend blood for every stride of ground."

The first band settled into the particular stillness that came when contact was no longer a question of if, only of when and how many.

The first contact came mid-morning.

A group of twelve Hollow Kin fighters pushed into the leftmost primary approach a narrow defile the first band had already marked as one of the most likely points of pressure.

They moved with the same silent speed that had marked every earlier skirmish: no war cries, leaf-shaped blades ready, bodies low against the rock.

The first-band men on that post met them with thrown spears first, then close work.

The fight was short and ugly.

Two Hollow Kin went down in the first exchange of throws.

The rest closed the distance fast.

Flint and bone met hide and flesh.

Korr had placed four strong men on that approach; they held long enough for Bor and two others to reinforce from the neighboring post.

The Hollow Kin tried to force the defile with sheer aggression, spending bodies to break the line.

They failed.

When the surviving six finally pulled back, they left four of their own dead on the stone and took two first-band wounded with them one with a deep cut across the thigh, the other with a blade wound through the upper arm.

~~~~

Both would live if the binding held.

The signal went down to the valley: first contact made, line holding, four enemy dead, two of ours wounded.

Vara received the signal on the arena ledge and ordered the additional strength that was still climbing to increase pace.

Gron stood beside her, cracked face unreadable. Elka was present with Sura and Drak on the lower ground, the bone beads in her long braids catching the light as she watched the northwestern ridges.

For the moment the internal contest remained silent.

The arithmetic of the advancing column had made every other calculation secondary.

On the line the Hollow Kin did not retreat far.

They tested the center approach next larger numbers this time, closer to twenty, advancing behind a screen of thrown stones and short spears.

Korr had anticipated the shift.

The center post was the strongest, held by the best of the first band including himself and Bor.

The exchange of throws was heavier.

One first-band man went down with a stone to the temple and did not rise. The Hollow Kin closed anyway.

The fighting in the center was the hardest of the morning.

Korr met the first painted figure with a heavy downward stroke that split the collarbone.

A second scored a shallow line across his ribs before the axe took the man in the side. Bor’s spear worked with cold precision beside him.

The first band held the stone by sheer refusal to give it up.

The Hollow Kin spent more bodies.

When they finally fell back a second time, seven more of theirs lay dead or dying on the approach.

The first band had lost the man to the stone and taken three more wounded serious enough to need binding.

The signal went down again: second contact, heavier, line still holding, higher cost on both sides.

By early afternoon the pattern was clear. The Hollow Kin were not trying to break the primary line in one overwhelming rush.

They were testing every approach, spending fighters to learn which posts were strongest, which could be forced, and how quickly the first band could reinforce.

It was the same measuring patience they had shown with the earlier bones and the burned camp, only now the measurement was being taken in blood.

Korr reset the posts during a brief lull.

The wounded were pulled back to a secondary position where they could be bound and still cover a fallback path if needed.

Fresh edges were distributed. Water was passed.

The men drank, checked their grips, and returned to the stone without talk.

The main Hollow Kin camp was still advancing behind the lead fighters, slower but steady.

If the first band held through the afternoon, the full weight of the column would be on them by the following morning at latest.

In the valley the reports arrived in steady sequence.

Vara ordered the last available first-band strength onto the trails and tightened the valley counts further.

Gron read each signal and said little.

Elka kept her circle on the valley and eastern watches without incident.

The unfinished internal threads remained unfinished.

No one spoke of Kel or the bead or the missing men. The blood on the northwestern stone had taken the center of every mind.

Late afternoon brought the third test.

This time the Hollow Kin came at two approaches at once left and center with larger groups and better coordination.

The left post nearly broke.

One first-band man was dragged down and finished before reinforcement could arrive.

The center held by the same stubborn refusal as before, but the cost was higher.

Korr took a deeper cut across the upper arm that bled freely until Bor bound it under fire.

When the Hollow Kin finally pulled back a third time, the stone in front of both posts was littered with bodies from both sides.

~~~~

The signal that went down to the valley was shorter: third contact, heavier losses, line holding but thinned.

Vara received it as the light began to soften toward evening.

She ordered every remaining fighter who could climb to do so before dark.

"The valley itself would be held by the minimum counts. The northwestern line would take everything else".

Gron did not argue.

Elka provided the numbers for the thinned valley watches without comment. The internal contest remained silent under the weight of the reports.

On the line the first band used the last of the light to clear the worst of the bodies from the primary approaches, bind the wounded who could still fight, and reset the posts for night. The Hollow Kin did not come again before dark.

~~~~

Their fires appeared on the higher folds more of them now, closer, the fires of a people that had spent the day measuring the cost of the stone and had not yet decided to spend everything at once.

Korr walked the posts one final time as the dark settled.

Bor walked with him.

The numbers were thinner than they had been at dawn.

The wounded who could still hold a weapon remained on the secondary positions.

The dead had been pulled back as far as the fighting allowed.

The line still held.

The main Hollow Kin camp was close enough that the sound of their movement carried on the night wind low voices, the occasional clatter of stone, the quiet discipline of a people that knew how to fight in the dark if they chose.

Korr gave the night orders.

Double eyes on every approach.

Signal fires kept low but ready.

No one slept in the primary posts.

The first band settled into the dark with the knowledge that the larger blood had begun and that the morning would bring more of it.

In the valley the final reinforcements that could arrive before full night were already climbing.

Vara stood on the arena ledge under torchlight and watched the northwestern signal fires.

Gron stood beside her.

Elka remained with her circle on the lower ground, the bone beads in her long braids catching the torchlight, eyes turned toward the same ridges.

For the moment the internal knives stayed sheathed.

The arithmetic of the day’s dead and the night’s fires had made every other calculation secondary.

~~~~

And on the higher folds west of the primary line, the Hollow Kin held their newly secured ground, counted their own losses, and prepared the next stage of the descent.

They had measured the first band in blood three times.

They had not yet broken the stone.

The main camp was close.

The next light would decide whether the lower caves would hold or open.