Shane looked at Freya. He said, "Dave and the Miller Mountain men. Help protect them. Thrud and I can handle the gas." Freya looked at the wood line where Dave was holding the center position with Gary and the Miller Mountain men at the southern berm. She did not say anything. She moved.
She covered the cleared ground at the and was at the wood line's southern edge inside the time the move took. Dave was at the center with the mercurial light running through the lattice at the temples and the eyes at the reflective quicksilver. Gary was at the southern berm with the green runes running and the crossbow up and in perfect range for his thermal scope. The Miller Mountain men were at the berm's interior firing the old rifles into the column at the angles the cover allowed. Freya took the position behind Dave at the distance the cover gave her, the daggers at her hips. She read the engagement at the falcon's residual eye. She held the position.
Jesper read the engagement at the column's center and made the call. The blunderbuss was in his hand at the ready carry. The marked ring was around him at the close protection distance. He shouted at the mortar element in the wood line south of the western approach. He shouted at the volume the engagement required, "Fire what you have loaded. Fire now."
The mortar element fired.
The thump of the mortars carried across the cleared ground. The sound of three tubes discharging simultaneously, the canisters leaving the tubes at the trajectory the mortar operators had been setting since the engagement opened. The canisters climbed into the morning air at the angle that would bring them down inside the settlement walls. They cleared the wood line at the peak of the arc. They began the descent.
Shane dropped his hands to the soil.
He did not say anything. The Grimoire ran through his contact with the ground. The dry dirt of the cleared ground in front of the settlement gate began to change at the composition layer, the topsoil and the subsoil restructuring at the molecular work the Grimoire's geology formulas allowed him to run. A twenty-foot patch of ground in front of the settlement gate became something it had not been a moment before — hyper-dense, viscous, the consistency of wet concrete, the depth running to twenty feet below the cleared surface, the trap forming in the time it took Shane's hands to hold the work.
He looked back at Thrud. He said, "Remember. Follow my lead."
Thrud stepped to the edge of the mud pit Shane had built.
She drove the heavy spike of the Jafna-Gaddr into the earth at the mud's outer edge. The density-iron found purchase at the correct depth. The Heart-Wood handle warmed in her grip with the Yggdrasil register the polearm carried at full activation. She triggered the internal storm — not the outward expression Thor used when the storm was a hammer, the inward funneling version Thrud had been building since the Jafna-Gaddr came into her hands. The current ran down the shaft of the polearm, grounded through the Root-Iron and the Heart-Wood, found the mud at the spike's contact point, and began to do what the Jafna-Gaddr did when the current was funneled rather than released.
The air above the mud pit changed.
A localized gravitational pull formed directly above the mud at the Jafna-Gaddr's density-iron produced when the current ran through it into dense earth — the invisible heavy hand reaching up into the morning sky above the pit, the air resistance beneath the canisters spiking exponentially as they crossed the peak of their arc and began the descent toward the gate.
The canisters slowed in flight.
They did not stop. They did not detonate. They lost their forward momentum at the rate the gravity well pulled it out of them, the trajectory becoming the drop, the canisters transitioning from the ballistic arc to the vertical descent at the controlled sluggish pace the well produced. They dropped vertically into Shane's mud trap with the soft heavy thwump of dense lead-lined chemical canisters meeting hyper-viscous earth at the controlled velocity Thrud's well had reduced them to.
The mud swallowed them.
The dense composition Shane had built took the canisters into the depth in the moment of contact, the surface closing over them at the rate the viscosity required, the canisters disappearing into the mud at the speed the structural work allowed. The burning fuses on the portable canisters met the hyper-viscous earth and found no oxygen, and the fuses snuffed and the absence of oxygen produced when burning material met material that did not allow combustion. The lead linings remained intact. The phosgene-sulfur content stayed contained inside the linings. The weight of the dense mud pit pressed down on the buried canisters at the hermetic seal Shane's composition produced.
Nothing came back to the surface.
Thrud pulled the Jafna-Gaddr out of the ground. The current dropped from the funneled register back to the internal storm at the baseline. She looked at the smooth undisturbed surface of the mud pit. She looked at Shane. She did not say anything. She had felt what she had just done. She had not destroyed anything. She had solved the structural problem the engagement had brought to the gate. She had used the storm her father carried as something other than a weapon of ruin.
Shane looked at her. He said, quietly, "Yes."
She nodded.
At the column's center Jesper read the mud pit. He read the canisters disappearing. He read the absence of the green wisp that should have come up from the gate area. He read the failure of the chemical phase of the operation. He turned to his marked men at the close ring and shouted at volume, "Withdraw. Fighting withdrawal. Horses at the rear position. Move."
The marked element began the withdrawal. The hit-and-run squad fighters consolidated around Jesper. They moved back toward the rear of the column where the horses were picketed. The infantry that had not yet broken began moving with them. The wagons stayed where the wagons had been pinned by Big Ed's chains. The chemical wagon was not moving for anyone.
Dave was running at full power and he had been holding that since the engagement started. The lattice at his temples and the lines down his arms were running the mercurial light at the maximum extension allowed. The redbones around him were in full active engagement with the column's flanking elements, the Focus of the Pack running through the dogs. Vigor took a marked man at the hamstring, the bulletproof hide turning a rifle round at point-blank range without slowing his bite. Brick drove a man twice his weight backward into the cover of the gear wagon at the impact the larger pup's mass produced, and the man went down at the wagon's wheel. Tala worked the column's near flank at the pace of a younger redbone covering the angles the older dogs could not be at.
Gary was at the southern berm with the runes at the full green register and the crossbow firing at a rate the venom hollow points allowed. He took a marked man at the column's left at two hundred yards, the bolt finding the soft tissue the thermal scope had given him. He took a man at the M60 Johnny had not yet locked. He took a captain rallying a small element near the gear wagons. He sorted through the targets at the pace his tattoo gave him. The dampening ran across the southern berm, and twice in the span of two minutes the dampening caught rounds at the field's outer edge that would have hit Dave and the Miller Mountain men if the field had not been there. Both times the dampening bled enough velocity that the rounds dropped harmlessly into the ground in front of the berm.
Freya had moved into the engagement at the wood line's southern edge. The daggers were in her hands. She took two of the marked men who had begun closing on Dave's position from the column's right flank, the blades doing what the blades did when Freya was holding them at the engagement range. She took a third who had circled around the berm at the southern angle to flank Gary's position. The marked element's close-range push on Dave's position broke at her arrival. The tide held.
At the column's rear Jesper threw his axe.
It was not a throw the axe was designed for. The logging axe was not a throwing weapon. Jesper threw it anyway. He had been carrying the axe since before the Shroud and his arm knew exactly what the axe could do when he wanted it to do something that the axe was not designed for. The throw arced across the distance toward Kelly at the column's center where Kelly was fighting through the third marked man who had converged on her position.
Johnny saw the axe coming and did not have the time to reach Kelly. He was thirty yards out and the axe was already past him.
Kelly looked up.
The Valkyrie's perception caught the axe at the pace the perception allowed. She read the trajectory in the moment. She raised her free hand. The axe arrived at her open palm. Her fingers closed around the haft.
Jesper saw the catch from the column's rear. He shouted something Johnny could not make out. Then he shouted something Johnny could make out, which was, "That ain't no tattoo. That is a damn freak."
Kelly looked at him across the distance.
She said, "No. My name is Göll. And you will be sorted."
She threw the axe back.
The axe left her hand at the speed a Valkyrie's strength produced when she threw something that was meant to land. It crossed the cleared ground at the velocity the throw allowed. One of Jesper's marked men stepped in front of him in the instant before the axe arrived. The axe took the marked man at the chest, and the marked man went down with the axe through him.
Jesper raised the blunderbuss.
He fired it at Kelly from the column's rear. The blunderbuss discharged with the sound a black-powder blunderbuss made when it fired the contents it had — the cloud of nails and scrap iron leaving the barrel at the pattern the discharge produced.
Johnny was already moving.
He drew the brine from the ground at the wood line's southern edge, sent the directed arc across the cleared ground at the angle the cloud was moving on, and the brine intercepted most of the contents in the air at the distance the spray covered. Some of the nails and scrap got through. Kelly took the partial cloud at the upper chest and the left shoulder. Some of it stuck. Some of it passed through and out. She staggered a half step a partial blunderbuss hit produced and held the position.
Rachel saw Kelly hit. She did not say anything. She drew her short sword back at the throwing position and sent it across the cleared ground at Jesper at the speed her arm produced. Another of Jesper's marked men stepped in front of him at the last instant. The short sword took the marked man at the throat and the marked man went down with the blade in him.
Jesper was already moving toward the horses at the column's rear.
The marked element collapsed around him at the withdrawal. The remaining squad — two, maybe three of the hit-and-run fighters who were still standing — covered Jesper's movement to the horses. The horses were at the distance Jesper had set when the column had made the pre-attack camp. Jesper reached the picket line. He pulled the lead horse free. He mounted. Two of his marked men mounted beside him.
Big Ed at the wagon held the chains. The chemical wagon stayed pinned. The marked men at the wagon position who had been trying to break Big Ed's hold had stopped trying because Big Ed's chains were Shane's magic and the marks did not interfere with Shane's magic. The wagon was not going anywhere.
Zabit saw Jesper at the picket line and called the speed rune.
The rune opened and he was across the cleared ground at the pace toward the picket line. The marked element at the rear cut him off, the close-range interference dropping the speed rune to the partial register as he closed. Zabit adjusted. He engaged the marked element at the strength his transfer gave him independent of the speed, took two of them at the strikes, and was reaching for the third when Jesper and the two marked men he had mounted with kicked their horses into a gallop and left the picket line at the speed horses produced when horses were committed to leaving.
Magomed and Rustam were holding the marked element at the column's center. They were at the register the partial interference allowed and they were clearing what the marked element brought at the pace they could clear it. They could not break off to chase Jesper. The marked element kept them in the engagement.
The horses cleared the wood line at the column's rear and were gone into the western country at the pace the gallop produced.
Mike saw it.
He had been at the northern berm with the Shattering Hand running its read of the cleared ground and the Bastion holding the defensive register at the berm's outer face. He saw Jesper leaving. He read the angle. He read the distance. He turned toward the picket line where two of the column's horses remained.
He started moving.
Gary saw him moving. Gary had the dampening running and the runes at the green register and the crossbow up. He read what Mike was about to do in the second before Mike reached the picket line. He shouted at a volume across the cleared ground, "Mike. Your word."
Mike stopped.
He stood at the position between the northern berm and the picket line with the horse three steps away and Jesper's distance increasing in the country to the west. He looked at the horse. He looked at the western country. He breathed through his nose once as he thought about Rick and the snipers.
He turned back from the horse.
He walked back to the northern berm at the unhurried pace his control allowed.
Gary watched him come back. He did not say anything else. Mike reached the berm and crouched and put his palms on the earth and let the Bastion run at the defensive register the engagement closing required.
Dave dropped to one knee at the center position.
The mercurial light dropped from the lattice. The lines went back to latent. The reflective quicksilver in his eyes faded back to the dark register. He had been at the full extension for the duration of the engagement and the extension had cost him at a level the Echo's full register cost the carrier. He was breathing hard. King was at his side. Vigor came to his other side. Dave put his hand on the dog's neck and stayed at the one knee.
The remaining column elements that had not withdrawn with Jesper began the surrender or the running. Some of them dropped their weapons as the heavy element had cornered them in. Some of them broke for the western country at the pace the cleared ground allowed. The heavy element took the surrenders. Big Ed held the wagon with the chains until the stability was confirmed. Johnny finished the brine spray that had taken the last of the column's contested machinery. Rachel and Kelly worked through the field at the Valkyrie pace the closing required. Kelly was bleeding from the shoulder and the upper chest at the partial blunderbuss hit and she was working through it.
The engagement closed.
The settlement's wall went quiet from the firing as the column ended. The watchtowers went quiet. The man on the wall who had spoken to Shane at the gate looked down at the cleared ground and at the heavy element working the closing and at the mud pit in front of the gate with the surface still smooth and undisturbed. He looked at Shane and Thrud at the gate. He looked at Hill beside them.
He came down from the wall.
He came through the gate at the unhurried pace the closing allowed. He walked across the ground to where Shane was standing. He stopped. He looked at the mud pit. He looked at Shane.
He said, "The pit. Are we going to be safe near it. If we have to come and go through this gate."
Shane said, "Yes. The canisters are sealed. The composition holds them at the depth the seal required. The fuses are out. The lead is intact. The mud is holding hermetic and will hold for as long as anyone might reasonably need it to hold."
The man looked at the mud. He looked at Shane.
He said, "What happens if someone digs."
Shane said, "Do not dig there. The canisters will stay there unless someone intentionally goes after them. If your people know not to dig in this patch, the patch stays the way it is."
The man nodded.
He looked at the cleared ground. He looked at the wood line. He looked at the heavy element finishing the engagement. He looked at Thrud beside Shane.
He said, "I was wrong about you."
He said it at the volume that did not perform anything about saying it. He said it the way a settlement leader who had been responsible for a small community and had been told things about Sanctuary said it when he had now seen with his own eyes what Sanctuary actually was, and the seeing had corrected the rumors that had been circulating for months.
He said, "We saw it. From the wall. We saw the uniforms they were wearing. We saw what your people did to keep them away from us." He looked at the mud pit. "We saw what you and the lady with the polearm did at the gate. We saw all of it." He paused. "I kept the gate shut. I would not let you in. I did not know which version of you I was looking at."
He looked at Shane.
He said, "I am sorry."
Shane said, "You do not have to be."
The man said, "I think I do." He paused. "You are welcome in this settlement. Whatever you need. For as long as you want it. The gate is open to you now and it stays open." He looked at his men on the wall. He looked at Thrud. He looked at Hill. He looked at Shane. "All of you. The gate is open."
He turned and walked back through the gate.
Shane looked at Thrud. She looked at him. Hill stood at the gate with the rifle and watched the man on the wall and the watchtowers stand down from the firing positions.
The morning held its quiet around the cleared ground.
The mud pit sat smooth and undisturbed at the settlement's gate.
The column's remaining elements were secured.
The engagement was over.