Chapter 300: Drawing it Out

Mist lay beneath the bridge when they reached the crossing.

Rod could hear the stream but see only the upper edge of the far bank. Water dripped from the thorn growth. The barriers stood where they had left them, their dark timber beaded with moisture.

Theren checked the separation trench before allowing the workers downhill. New runners had crossed in four places. He marked them with pale cloth, and the first crew began cutting while the relief crew carried the pieces clear.

Lana took her position above the first lane. Midnight climbed the fallen trunk and moved into the branches. Through his eyes, she found the briarback sleeping beneath the exposed roots, its flank rising slowly against the bank.

"Still in the hollow." she said.

Rod adjusted the binding on his left glove. Dain checked the ground beneath the first barrier with his heel. Dirk was already on the shelf, laying arrows where he could reach them without looking down.

Nessa moved between the workers, checking sleeves and hands. She placed Held Remedy on Rod and Dain before returning to the point they had selected above the turn.

Rod waited until Senn and Theren both signaled ready.

"Begin the lower lane."

The workers moved forward with hooked tools. Lana sent a shallow band of cold across the first tangle. Frost whitened the leaves. Blades cut, stems snapped, and the cleared strip widened toward the old approach.

The briarback woke before they reached the second marker.

Its head rose. Mud fell from one tusk. It turned toward the lower lane, listening through the growth while the cutting continued.

Lana called the movement.

Rod stepped into view beside the broken cart. He struck its remaining iron rim with his axe haft. The sound rang across the hollow.

The beast stood.

For a moment, it seemed interested only in the cutting crew. Then Rod struck the rim again and moved toward the first barrier. Dain waited on the opposite side of the open track.

The boar descended the bank.

Dirk loosed when it turned across the slope. His arrow struck behind the shoulder ridge and sank between two plates. The animal jerked toward the pain. A second arrow glanced from its armored neck, tearing away a spray of thorns.

"Keep cutting." Senn called.

The workers widened the lane while the party held the beast’s attention. Lana froze growth at its near side, preventing the runners from tightening across Rod’s feet. Dain moved before it could line him up with the first barrier.

The charge came low and fast.

Rod waited until its head dipped, then stepped behind the barrier’s angled end. The boar struck the rails with one shoulder. Timber groaned. Its weight carried it along the face instead of directly through the center.

Dain crossed behind it as planned.

Rod’s axe struck the exposed rear joint. The blow cut deep enough to draw dark blood, but he withdrew before the hind leg lashed out. Dirk placed another arrow into the gap behind its front leg.

The first exchange ended with all five adventurers still in position.

The beast turned, throwing mud beneath its feet. It had lost blood and part of its thorn ridge. Rod could see the damage now. He could also see that its breathing had barely changed.

"Second position." he called.

They yielded the first barrier and moved uphill. The workers had almost reached the marked limit of their lane. One crew turned to carry cut growth away while the second took their place.

The briarback followed for three paces, stopped, and put its snout to the ground.

Lana saw the change through Midnight’s eyes.

"It is rooting."

Rod looked down. Thin stems quivered beneath the retaining stones.

The animal drove its head sideways.

Soil rose at the first barrier’s lower foot. The timber shifted. A brace lifted free, and the whole frame tipped toward the clearing lane.

"Crew back!" Theren shouted.

The nearest workers moved, but the fallen barrier caught the cut brush piled beside them. A mat of loose stems slid downhill, covering the path they had just cleared.

The boar pushed again.

This time it passed beneath the sagging rail instead of charging across it. Its tusk tore through a rope, and the lower half of the barrier collapsed behind its shoulders.

Rod moved toward the workers.

The animal was already between them and the upper track.

"Senn, take them to the alder."

Senn gathered three workers. Theren caught the fourth by the back of his coat and pulled him over the fallen brush. They moved along the lower escape lane while Rod and Dain advanced to draw the boar away.

Dirk fired twice in quick succession. One arrow sank near the first wound. The beast grunted, turned toward the shelf, and struck the base with its head.

Stone held. The young growth behind Dirk did not.

Runners tightened across his rear approach, pulling branches together. He had space to shoot but no clear way down the path he had climbed.

"My back lane is closing." he called.

Lana turned from the workers long enough to freeze a strip behind him. Dirk cut through the stiff stems with his knife, slipped between them, and moved to the lower kneeling stone.

The lost seconds let the briarback turn back toward Senn’s crew.

Rod struck the iron rim again. The beast ignored it.

It had seen people retreat into a narrower space. Whatever first drew it toward the barriers mattered less than the movement beside the bank.

Rod abandoned the planned second position.

He crossed the open track, using Unbroken Advance as the animal’s shoulder struck him. The impact drove pain through his side. He held enough of his movement to land where he intended, axe haft braced against the plated neck.

The beast turned with him instead of continuing toward the workers.

Dain met its next swing with an angled shield and stepped away as the tusk scraped the rim. He did not try to hold the animal’s whole weight. The deflection gave Rod room to pull free.

Nessa’s stored remedy eased the worst of the shock along Rod’s ribs. It did not remove the bruise forming beneath his armor.

"Can you move?" she called.

"Yes."

"Then keep it off that side."

Lana froze a band across the beast’s nearer foreleg. The ice broke as it stepped, but its foot landed awkwardly enough to slow the next turn. Rod and Dain used the moment to move between it and the lower lane.

Theren shouted from the alder gap.

Two workers had reached safety. Senn was helping a third climb the bank. The fourth had caught his boot beneath a root, twisted it, and fallen where fresh thorn stems were already lifting around his legs.

Rod saw the white cloth tied around the man’s sleeve.

"Dain with me. Lana, lane."

They advanced together. Lana sent cold along the ground ahead of them while Dirk covered the beast from his new position. A heavy arrow struck beneath its jaw. The animal threw its head up, giving the party a few steps.

Theren cut the stems around the trapped worker. Rod reached the man, caught the straps of his carrying frame, and hauled him backward. The boot remained for a moment, then tore free with a length of broken lace.

Dain stood between them and the boar.

The next impact drove him to one knee.

His shield bent along the upper rim. Rod could hear the force of the blow even over the worker’s cry. Dain shifted his weight, letting the tusk slide away instead of catching it squarely. He regained his feet as Lana’s ice locked the nearest runners to the ground.

Rod dragged the worker through the alder gap.

Nessa took him immediately. Senn counted his people again, touching each shoulder as if the names alone were insufficient.

"All here." he said.

Rod turned back. Dain was withdrawing through the narrow lane with Lana beside him. Dirk descended from the lower stone, bow in hand. Midnight bounded between the roots and disappeared into Lana’s open bag.

The briarback struck the alder once, failed to pass, and wheeled toward the broken barrier.

Rod called the party uphill.

They gathered beyond the animal’s immediate reach. Nessa checked Dain’s arm, then Rod’s ribs, then the injured worker’s ankle. The ankle swelled quickly but showed no obvious break. She bound it and told Senn to keep the man from standing.

Branth stared at the overturned barrier.

"The frame held." he said. "The ground did not."

"It moved the ground deliberately." Lana replied.

Rod watched the boar return toward its hollow. Blood marked one leg. Several arrows remained embedded beneath its shoulder armor. The party had hurt it, but the growth around the crossing was already closing over the damage to their lanes.

They could withdraw to the station and begin again tomorrow. They would return to a thicker thicket, a beast that knew their barriers, and workers who had already seen one of their own trapped below.

Dirk crouched beside the map.

"When Lana cut the connection behind my shelf, it turned toward me only after I moved." he said.

Theren looked at the remaining trench. "The upper track is still separate. The broken barrier joined the lower lane back to the hollow."

Rod followed the line with his finger.

They had prepared a route for a charge. The boar had made its own opening through the soil. If they could remove its connection to that soil and thicket, the second position might still serve.

Before choosing the next move, Rod asked Senn whether every worker could leave under their own strength. The injured man could be carried up the ridge on a short frame. Two people were already making one from poles and a folded coat.

"Send him back with an escort." Rod said. "No one waits here to watch us."

Senn selected two workers who knew the route to the station. Nessa checked the ankle binding once more, then gave them instructions about keeping the foot raised during stops. She sent a written note for Hadrin so the keeper would know what had happened before rumors reached him.

Branth helped secure the carrying frame. His hands had steadied since the first retreat. Once the injured worker was on his way, the builder returned to Rod and pointed out which remaining barrier used the firmest ground.

"You can lose the rails." he said. "Do not trust the lower footing again."

Rod marked it on the map with the point of a broken arrow. The failed position would remain empty. They had enough ground above it if they kept the paths open and resisted the urge to follow every retreating movement.

"Workers stay above." he said. "We clear the last gap ourselves."

Nessa tightened the binding on Dain’s forearm. He flexed his hand and nodded.

Rod looked across the four faces of his party. Each had seen what the first plan cost. None mistook the next attempt for a fresh fight.

He uncovered the edge of his axe again.