Jen stood on the battlements above the outermost wall. It towered sixty feet above the ground and had to be forty feet thick. The wall completely filled the pass. The blocks had been carved precisely so that they butted up tight enough against the mountain that a bug would be hard pressed to fit through. Above the gate hung a stone block held up by a combination of chains and sorcery. It could be released in the event the fortress commander deemed the gate indefensible. Jen planned to drop it at once and have the sorcerers fuse the stone together.

You could pound the wall for months with conventional siege equipment and not put so much as a dent in it. Pity Connor wasn’t sending catapults and ballistae against them. With sorcery at their disposal stone walls didn’t mean a great deal. Of course that begged the question of how the paladins had kept the creatures of the haunted lands out for so long.

Behind them the pass sloped upward and two more walls, each every bit as tall as the first, blocked an approaching army from reaching the fortress. It would take a conventional force months to surmount such obstacles if it was even possible. With paladins defending it Jen could understand now why no demonic force had ever breached the fortress and entered the kingdom.

The narrow pass extended east from the outer wall another fifty yards before opening out into dead, gray sand. Just looking at the empty nothingness drained her will. That was what Connor wanted to do to the kingdom and the son of a bitch was using her brother to help him. No way was Jen going to let him get away with it.

Marie-Bell stood an arm’s length away staring out over the pass, a faraway look in her eyes. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what she was thinking. Jen had to keep her focused. If her emotions got the better of her the paladin would be worse than useless, she’d be a liability.

“What’s to keep the demons from just blasting this wall to rubble?” Jen asked. “Damien could turn it to so much gravel in a blink.”

Marie-Bell gave a little shake of her head and faced Jen. “Holy wards protect it from corrupt magic. There was no other way to secure it from some of the nasties out there. Normally fifty paladins would hold this wall. How will the four of us manage?”

“For starters we’re not going to defend the gate. I need you to drop the stone.”

Marie-Bell stared for a moment. “If we do that a large portion of the wall will need to be rebuilt to make it usable again.”

“If that’s the worst thing that happens before this war is over we can consider ourselves fortunate. Drop it, please.”

Marie-Bell’s trembling chin firmed and she nodded. The young paladin headed for the enclosure that protected the stone’s bindings. She disappeared inside and a few seconds later the stone dropped. When it hit the ground, the wall shook and gravel fell from the sides of the pass. The vibration shook Jen to her bones.

Jen turned to Kat. “Can you fuse the stone in place?”

“No problem. Come on, Amanda, time to show me what you learned in shaping class.”

“I failed shaping in my final test.” Amanda flew down beside her mentor and soon golden beams shot out from the sorcerers’ extended hands.

Marie-Bell rejoined Jen. “What now?”

“Now we wait and hope our reinforcements arrive here before the enemy.”

“What are the odds of that?”

Jen couldn’t meet her hopeful gaze. “Not as good as I’d like.”