Chapter 38

“The 3rd Appearance is where we find all of our laws about treating wood as sacred. The Guardian said we must not cut, burn, chip, or even carry wood. Doing so is utter sacrilege and deserves harsh consequences. He gave us the sacred charge of protecting the trees, and we must take that responsibility seriously.”

Faith in the Guardian by Grand Arboler Norman Thicket, year 4021

Stand

Silas glared at Lennox—the man who ordered the murder of his son. The man who threatened to overtake his home and country. He didn’t have any words for this man. He wasn’t worth any words. How could so many people be deceived into believing he was the Guardian?

He noticed a subtle drop in the sound of fighting below, on both sides of the walls. A wave of people had stopped fighting to watch the duel between their two leaders. The outcome of this fight could dramatically shift the morale of their men, which could mean either winning or losing this battle.

With a furious roar, Silas charged Lennox, twirling both staff and wand simultaneously. He Cast a shield with his wand and lightning with his staff—his favorite combination of woods to duel with. Lennox Cast the same, except the shield came out one end of his staff, and lightning came out the other. He then twirled his wand in his left hand, performing a difficult Carving.

Just before Silas reached him, Lennox vanished into thin air.

Rot it, Silas thought, slowing his charge. Birch!

Lennox’s wand and staff were also invisible, but the magical red shield and electric sparks weren’t, and they continued to spin on what looked like their own accord. The sparks suddenly lowered, discharging a massive lightning bolt at Silas. Fortunately, he managed to lower his shield just in time, absorbing the blunt of the bolt.

Fighting a mage who Cast birch was extremely difficult. It was such a rare and expensive wood that hardly anyone ever used it at the School of Magery. Silas, however, had some experience.

Find the center, he thought; advice given to him decades ago by his father. Watch the magic spin and find the center.

Silas took on an extremely defensive stance with his wand-hand extended and staff-hand pulled back. He had to wait for an opening. A truly skilled birch-wielding mage rarely allowed any openings.

And Lennox was very skilled indeed.

He constantly swatted Silas’ shield to the side, followed by a searing bolt of lightning. Silas backpedaled, light on his feet, barely dodging or blocking the lightning with his shield. He shot back some bolts of his own, but he had no idea how close they were to their mark—it was more for the purpose of keeping Lennox at bay.

Relentless, Lennox kept shooting lightning at Silas, who narrowed his eyes, focusing on finding his opening. Silas couldn’t see his opponent, but by watching the shield and sparks, he could envision where Lennox stood. He focused, visualizing and honing onto his target.

The false guardian made a mistake. He attempted to charge Silas by batting away his shield with both his wand and staff. Silas let him do it, aiming his mahogany staff at where he assumed Lennox would be.

But he didn’t shoot. That’s what Lennox was expecting. Instead, Silas kicked hard out in front of him, predicting Lennox was close.

Blessedly, he was right. Silas’ foot made solid contact and he heard Lennox grunt in pain, fall backward, and land somewhere on the wall walk.

An unexpected cheer rose up from inside the walls. The Salverians roared with vigor, eager for their General to win the duel.

Silas took the opening to strike, shooting lightning bolts at the ground in front of him. None of them hit Lennox, however, only making scorch marks along the stone. The invisible mage somehow managed to make it back to his feet unscathed and then bring up his shield to block Silas’ electric attacks. The cheering died down.

Back to neutral.

✽✽✽

Ashley had to peel her eyes from the legendary fight between Lennox and Silas to watch for other mages attempting to fly over the walls. None of them did. They were watching the duel from outside the walls. Something about that seemed off to her. What was it?

“The gate! To the gate!” a soldier shouted in the distance.

Ashley turned to look at the gate and groaned. While everyone’s attention had been drawn to the duel between their leaders, some Forid mages had joined the Barklian soldiers in bringing down the gate. With their staves, they Cast fire, wind, and lightning at the wooden gate, causing it to deteriorate quickly.

Salverian archers defended the gate, shooting arrow after arrow at the thousands of soldiers; not enough to halt their progress when there were so many. A line of soldiers waited inside the gate, growing antsy as the gate burned before them. Only a few mages had been stationed there, and they Cast water on the gate, but with so many more Forids Casting fire on it, it still burned.

“Companies five and six!” Ashley shouted. The mages jumped at the sound of her commands, turning their attention away from the duel. “You stay here! The rest of you, with me to the gate!”

They dashed as fast as they could. She flew, Casting ebony with a wand to become weightless, and Casting willow with her staff to push her. It wasn’t as fast as flying with logs, but much faster than running. Rising in the air and looking out at the army just beyond the walls reminded her just how big the Barklian force was. It resembled a vast sea. The Forids had been their focus and concern, and their number had already depleted significantly, but they hadn’t respected the Barklian risk. And once that gate went down, a whole flood of soldiers would poor in to the city, overwhelming them.

Unless Ashley managed to stop them from getting through.

She landed firmly in front of the soldiers commissioned to defend the gate, tossing away her extinguished ebony wand. Her sudden appearance caused the soldiers to jump in fright. One of them tripped and fell on his rear. She could see the fear in their eyes. A thousand men… about to face nearly eight thousand. They watched the gate burn, horrified at what was about to break through.

“On your feet!” Ashley said, extending a hand to the fallen soldier. He took it and she lifted him up. “Stand ready, men!” She stared over the ranks of soldiers, into their eyes, exuding as much confidence as she could muster.

Inside, her heart was screaming in pain.

Ilan was dead.

She loved him. She never had the chance to tell him that. And now she never would.

A bang on the gate swiftly transformed her pain into anger. A yearning for vengeance. “Magen City has stood for one thousand years!” she said. “And it will stand for a thousand more! But only if we stand with it!”

Most of the soldiers firmed their jaws and nodded their heads, looking steadier. Ashley grabbed a staff from a nearby weapons cart. “Now plant your feet!” She commanded. “And STAND!”

“STAND!” the soldiers shouted in return as they watched the gates burn apart. Ashley tightened her grip on her ash-willow staff and pulled an elm wand out of her robes pocket, ready to Cast their powerful magic.

Suddenly, a much louder and fiercer roar of voices rose from behind the gate. After a final shove with the battering ram, the burning gate collapsed inward, revealing behind it an ocean of blue-clad soldiers armed to the teeth. Like a dam breaking loose, a flood of Barklians rushed through the gate, swinging swords, bashing shields, and shooting arrows.

Ashley charged at them, and—amazingly—the Salverian soldiers ran beside her, all of them unanimously shouting the simple, yet powerful word: “STAND!”

For Ilan! Ashley thought.

✽✽✽

Marissa held a death grip on Kimberly’s hand, and she squeezed tighter and tighter as they watched a huge mob of Seculars forming in the streets on the other side of the wall. The crowd of angry people seemed to have no end in sight—tens of thousands had come to protest. And hopefully protesting was all they had planned. Kimberly squeezed back just as hard, just as tense as they both probably felt.

“What will they do to us?” Marissa asked, a noticeable tremble in her voice.

“I don’t know,” Kimberly whispered. She looked left and right, down the long lines of Arbolers merged with Enforcers carrying carbon shields, creating a human wall behind the broken brick wall. She could see the uncertainty in their eyes. It was courageous enough for them just to come, but now came the true test. Would they stay?

“Do you think they’ll just leave us alone?” Marissa asked.

“I wish. But whatever they do to us, we’ll have to take it. We can’t let them touch the Grove.”

Marissa shivered. “What if they shoot at us?”

Kimberly thought about that for a while. The men and women in that mob looked very, very angry. The falling snow seemed to do nothing to cool their anger and hate. “Life send that they don’t.”

Once the mob was a dozen paces away from the Enforcers, they came to a halt. A man with a megaphone emerged from their ranks, walking onto the snow-covered street between the two groups.

It was Terick.

The flaming ashcan, Kimberly thought.

“This wasn’t a good idea, Arbolers,” he said, his voice amplified through a drone equipped with a large speaker, hovering a few feet above his head. He spoke into the drone control port’s microphone. “You should’ve stayed home this evening. You’re opposing what the Justices have ratified as law. We have the power and right to remove you by force from this location, and we will do so if you don’t move. So, this is your first and final warning. Go home, now! Leave the area and go home!”

The Seculars screamed from behind him, adding support to their Branch Leader’s words. Their shouts echoed off the skyscrapers that surrounded the capital grove, making them seem louder and even more numerous than they probably were.

Kimberly noticed a few Arbolers taking a couple steps backwards, but none of them broke the chain. “The law is corrupt!” Kimberly shouted, staring straight at Terick. “The Justices are unjust! If the law won’t protect us, then we must protect ourselves and our beliefs! And even according to the current laws, you have no right to enter the Capital Grove! It is sacred to us, and its trees—”

“Are a crucial resource for our nation’s economy,” Terick interrupted, easily able to drown out Kimberly’s voice with his megaphone. “This is Kimberly Groves everyone, Arboler Branch Leader, and self-proclaimed prophetess of the fabled Guardian of Magic.” The crowd behind him booed. “She is still trying to finish a debate that has already ended. There’s no point in arguing any longer, Kim. It’s time to face the facts. You lost. We won.”

The mob cheered.

Kimberly’s blood boiled. She squeezed Marissa’s hand tighter than ever. “This is wrong, and you know it!” she shouted as loud as she could. “The Justices—”

“Sorry, Kimberly, but we just can’t hear you. The unfortunate truth is that you Arbolers have gone too far with your delusional beliefs. We’ve tried reasoning with you. We’ve tried politics. We’ve even voted on and ratified new laws upon which the majority of the people and the Justices agree. And still you resist by broadcasting that your people should continue protecting your ‘sacred’ trees to the death.” Terick shook his head. “You leave us no choice. Move or be moved!”

The mob roared. The sound rolled over the Grove like never-ending thunder. The Arbolers screamed too, but it was a different scream, one of terror. The human wall faltered slightly.

An order was called, and the Enforcers took two steps forward, separating themselves from the Arbolers, raising their shields, and metal poles. One of the Enforcers turned around, facing the Arbolers. It was Chief Enforcer Hiltch, her braided blonde hair hanging out from under her helmet.

“Know that contrary to their claim, that mob has absolutely no right to enter the Capital Grove!” she shouted, barely audible over the roar of the Seculars. “Although the law has been passed allowing trees to be cut, that law did not approve anyone to cut the trees here in the Grove! We will defend them as best as we can! But it will be better for us if you all left! Let the professionals handle this!” She lowered her helmet visor and joined one of the back lines of Enforcers.

A few members of the mob broke loose, marching forward toward the gap in the brick wall. Then, like the calving of a glacier, the rest of the mob slowly surged forward.

“What do we do?” Marissa asked, taking an involuntary step backwards.

Kimberly hesitated to answer. The man on her right let go of her hand completely and ran off into the Grove, saying, “Your funeral.”

“No…” That stunned Kimberly more than she thought it would. Several others deserted the human wall right then, running into the darkness of the Grove.

Almost as suddenly as the man had run off, a new man approached, taking Kimberly’s hand and joining the human wall, filling the gap. Her heart quickened when she saw who it was.

Uncle Norman Thicket, the Grand Arboler of the Sect of the Ascended Guardian, had come. With his wrinkled hand, he squeezed hers encouragingly, a twinkle in his eye. “Couldn’t miss out on all the fun, now could I?” he said. “And look who I brought with me.”

Two more elderly men stepped up to Norman’s right, taking place in the human wall. Kimberly gasped. Riker Lefson and Eland Morell stood in place, holding hands with each other and with Norman. She couldn’t believe it. The three sect leaders who bantered and disagreed on almost everything were now joining together to defend the Arboler cause.

Eland noticed Kimberly gaping at them. “Oh, don’t go tying your shoes into too many knots,” he said. “We really hadn’t anything better to do tonight.”

“I was just going on an evening stroll and bumped into this whole fiasco,” Riker said. “They practically drug me in.”

Kimberly grinned, not believing their stories for a second.

Some of the Arbolers who were about to run noticed the old men who’d joined the wall—noticed the leaders of the Sects of the Ascended Guardian, of the Guardian Reborn, and of Life—and returned to their spots.

“Thanks for coming,” Kimberly said.

“No, thank you,” Norman said, “for doing what we should have done. Your courage brings us hope.”

She leaned closer to him, talking in his ear so he could hear over the shouts. “So, you believe me?” she asked. “That Life treespoke to me, that is, before treespeaking with you?”

“Of course, my dear” He straightened his back. “Life treespoke with me about this too, you know?”

Kimberly perked up. “She did? Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Well…”

Norman was cut off as the mob’s proximity demanded attention. The Seculars were only several paces away now.

“We won’t move,” Kimberly chanted. “We won’t move!”

Marissa looked at Kimberly, her whole body shivering even though she had a warm thick jacket on. But her trembling slowed as she joined in the chant. “We won’t move!”

Norman, Riker, and Eland joined in too, and then a ripple effect spread along the human wall. The chant quickly reached, and then exceeded, the volume of the mob’s screams. The sound echoed off the buildings back toward the Grove.

“WE WON’T MOVE! WE WON’T MOVE!”

The chant, however, had no effect on the mob.