Chapter 363: 363: Drums on the Sand
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Everyone had a piece of the work in their hands. No one had a small wyrmling by the scruff of the neck.
He stopped in the center hall and stood very still. When he stood like that, the mountain paid attention. His voice went out to the near walls and came back without echo.
"Miryam," he called. Not loud. It was clear. "Little princess. Come here."
No small claws skittered. No darting shape shot from under a bench. No giggle gave away a hiding place. The hall gave him back his own breath.
He turned and looked up to the high slit in the ceiling where air could come and go. The slice of blue said the rest of the day would be sharp and bright. He looked at Alka’s roost. The giant bird tipped her head and blinked.
"Did you see her go out," he asked.
Alka’s answer came as a low, thoughtful trill. "I saw her last before dawn. After that I sat in the wind. I smelled her at the east lip, then nothing strong. The air is thin today."
His jaw tightened. He did not let it turn into a line. He lifted his hand and rubbed his thumb once along the bone edge where skin met plate at his wrist, the old habit that always came just before he reached for the thread that touched those he had marked.
The soul corridor was a quiet road he could open with a thought. It cost aura every thousand spans, and it only worked one way unless the other had their own power. When he called, she did not answer.
He set his feet. He closed his eyes. He reached. "Miryam. Miryam. Where are you hiding? Papa is looking for you. Papa wants to play with you. Come out my little princess."
Nothing. No answer came. Kai thought she must be playing hide and seek. He didn’t think that she could be outside... "Miryam, come out. Papa is worried. Papa will play with you. I got your favourite food for you."
Suddenly Alarms rolled through the mountain.
They did not start as shouts. They started as a deep drum from the east that the mountain could not swallow and pretend was its own heart. The sound came in a measured beat that did not belong to a storm or cliff. It belonged to men who counted hours instead of miles. It grew until even talking became something people did with their hands instead of their mouths.
Silvershadow was already moving toward the eastern ramps. Shadeclaw was already on the central stair, calling for lines. Lirien slapped a lid on the quenching vat so it would not spill. Alka spread her wings on the roost and made a shadow that filled the shaft.
Kai opened his eyes. He did not swear. He did not sigh. He set the thread aside without opening it, because an open soul connection thread could lead to an aura drainage. He doesn’t know why the alarm rang. He doesn’t know how much it will cost if she doesn’t answer for a while.
"Report," he said.
A runner (Vexor) from the night watch team had reached the first turn. He had run hard without stumbling, which was the only sign that he was very good at his job and not merely fast. He stopped with his back straight and his eyes not wild. He spoke in the shape of facts.
"Drums from the east," he said. "Far, but not on a march to somewhere else. On a march to us. To our Monarch mountain. The dust says there are many heads and many bodies."
"How many," Kai asked.
"Many... maybe thousands," the runner said. "One thin and quiet in the green. One heavy with reed. One wide with shields. One that throws light off the dunes and then hides it. They move like lines that know where they are going and are not in a hurry to get there."
Kai nodded once. He did not need names yet. He did not need to say marsh or forest or road. He did not need to say the word that would later sit under all the others like a stone on a table.
He thought, "It must be General Vorak and his army."
"Activate the three defence rings," he said, already walking. "Silvershadow, take the outer. Nothing brave. Make them spend hours to earn one ledge. Shadeclaw, take the inner turnings and keep the choke points clean. Lirien, finish the braces for the south ramp and lock them in even if the rivets smoke. The egg chamber stays sacred."
"Yes," they said, and they were already gone before the word finished.
Alka leaned into the shaft. "I will scout," she said.
"In the evening," Kai answered without looking up. "Not with the sun in your eyes. Let them think the sky is empty. We are not a drum. We are a quiet place that bites."
Azhara appeared at the edge of the hall like mischief in a cloak and looked at him as if to ask how sharp the jokes should be. He only shook his head once, and she nodded and went to the kitchens to turn jokes into hot bowls that tasted like courage. Vel and Sha ran past with bundles that were too heavy for two, which meant they would be light enough for four. Naaro took her place by the nursery door with a calm face and a spear like a line on a map that said here and no farther.
Luna reached the hall from the east sleeping alcove with her hair braided simple and her eyes very clear. She did not ask to be on patrol. She set her palm to Kai’s chest and felt his heart once, like a woman checking a door latch.
"I am off the lines," she said.
"You are off the lines," he agreed. "You will be where the lines bend and become a room. If the room becomes a prayer, you will stand beside it. You are pregnant. You and Akayoroi will hold the last line if everything goes bad."
Kai paused and asked, "Did you see Miryam? I can’t find her. Miryam is missing."
"She must have snuck outside to play." She touched his jaw with the back of her fingers and said with a worried voice. "Find her. She might be in danger if our enemies find her."
"I will," he said.
He turned his head toward the slit of sky again. The drums had not grown louder in the last breath, which meant the first heads were still hours away. The mountain hummed like a quiet heart that knew how to be loud when it needed to be. For now it chose slow breath over big chest.
He looked once at the east corridor where the child should have come, skipping already with a wild story and a kit under her paws. He did not let the thought finish its shape.
"Yoke the drills," he said to Shadeclaw without raising his voice. "Set the three rings now. We will adjust after we see their hands."
Shadeclaw’s answer came from two turns away. "The rings are already walking."
"Good," Kai said. "Keep them walking. No feet sleep inside a drum."
He took three steps toward the storage room where his new battle plates and his spear waited. The spear was made with the rift gate thunder guardians heart core. It got a thunder type essence. It can be used to create thunder type attacks by channeling aura.
He paused and looked back at the door of the egg chamber. Warmth moved in there without him now, like a fire that had found its own wood. He thought of small shells and patient silk and the long promise he had made when he poured a fortune into a pool. He thought of the thread he had not opened.
Not yet, he told himself. Not with the drums in the stone. Not when the first sound a child should hear in her head is her father and not the feet of men.
He picked up the spear.
Outside, the desert rolled its shoulders and sent a light breeze up the face of the mountain. The breeze carried the smell of reed and oil and resin and the faint cold scent of shadow where water runs in a green place.
The day did not shout. It stacked itself like stones that wait for a wall.
The ants runners went. The cooks poured. The smiths tightened. The watchers found the corners where corners matter. The mountain drew a long breath and held it.
From the east the drums kept their time. Many heads. Many bodies. No hurry. No doubt.
Kai stood in the center hall, armor plates clicking once as they settled, and lifted his hand with the palm down. It was not a signal to charge. It was the word steady made into a shape.
The first defence ring slipping into place on the outer ledges, the second ring closing the inner turns, the third ring standing around the sacred door, and the desert carrying the drums like a story that has decided to be told.