An explosion jolted him awake. Jarod didn’t realize that he’d dozed off, resting against Basma in the quiet second floor of the mill. His eyes snapped open, looking around for danger, but Basma touched a gentle hand to his arm, and he put together that the boom was a ways off. The trifleys were back to ravaging some distant part of town, hopefully one the surveyors were hiding in rather than the villagers.

  The trifleys showing up had thrown their small village into turmoil even more so than the surveyors had. Even more haunting was the fact that they’d been living in the chasm under the bridge for who knew how long. What civilization had they created for themselves in the dark underground beneath their homes, and why had they chosen now to come out of hiding.

  Jarod remembered the visit from Filgrin when he’d been imprisoned in the mayor’s cellar. Filgrin had said some of the boys from town went down the chasm to retrieve his sword, but had gotten spooked when they thought they saw something. They must have seen the trifleys down there. But why would the trifleys have chosen now to come out of hiding.

  The people of Cleftshire avoided going down into the chasm as much as they could: it was a dangerous descent with steep sides, and there wasn’t much of a reason to go down there. Nevertheless, it was common for boys and girls to dare each other into the depths, common enough that trinkets lost over the side of the bridge showed back up once or twice a month. He and Wilfurd had gone down themselves when they were 11 and 12.

  If it wasn’t just people nearby that provoked the trifley’s activity, what was it? Jarod couldn’t help but feel like it must have something to do with the surveyors. Or maybe something to do with the unnatural presence of Tex’ana.

  “You feeling okay?” Basma asked.

  Jarod turned away from the distant nothingness he was focused on in his thoughts to look up at Basma. “I’ve been better. Still standing though, and somehow more of a free man than I was a couple hours ago.”

  “Doesn’t much look like you’re a free man. You’ve got a pair of scary-looking city-types following you around.”

  Jarod chuckled. “One of ‘em’s a lot scarier than the other, and he’s the one that offered me my freedom.”

  Basma looked at him with a distant melancholy smile, like he’d seen her look at the kids playing in her tavern she was about to send home to their parents. “I’d like to believe them, but you and I have both seen what they do. They’ll say one thing and do something else if it makes their life easier.”

  Jacob saw some truth to her words and sighed. “I know how they are, but I feel like I have to do this. If I don’t go along with them, the whole village is in danger, both from the surveyors’ retribution, and from the trifleys.”

  He leaned back against the wall, and stretched out his aching arms and legs. Swinging a hammer all day at the forge might keep him strong, but he wasn’t used to the frantic energy of a life-or-death fight. Basma’s sorrowful look didn’t fade, so he tried to end the conversation on a positive note. “For what it’s worth, I believe them. After Filgrin and I report on what’s happened here, we’ll come back. I’ll have served my sentence, and with luck, we’ll bring back a host of soldiers to deal with these monsters.”

  “Oh Jarod…” Basma trailed off, but she said no more.

  At that point, Wilfurd poked his head up the stairs. Jarod expected him to make some jibe about him and Basma, but the other man was all business.

  “You two should come back downstairs,” Wilfurd said. “We’re going to plan out what to do next.

  Basma sprung up quickly, searching hands running to pockets to check for where she’d placed her bandages. She put a hand out, helping up a stiff-legged Jarod, and then walked off to check on her patients. “I’m just going to check on Hadrin and Matilde, and then I’ll be right down.”

  Jarod looked at her one last time, not wanting to leave her presence, even if only for a moment, but he followed Wilfurd downstairs.

  On the floor downstairs, Hux the baker had unfurled a large roll of paper that he was drawing a crude layout of the town on. Shelley, his wife, was stopping him regularly to correct a misplaced house, or to fix the misproportioned bridge. By the time Jarod had taken his spot in the circle that had formed around their map, Hux had thrown up his hands in exasperation, and allowed Shelley to take control over the drawing.

  “Excellent,” said Nikolao, clapping his hands together and stepping forward slightly to position himself more centrally in the circle. “Now that we’re all here, we can decide how we want to approach this problem.”

  “Hold your horses,” said Shelley. “I’ve just got to mark off a couple more buildings to the south.”

  Nikolao puckered his mouth at the impertinent interruption, but didn’t press the matter. “Yes, well I’m still of the opinion that it would be best to run off to the woods away from all these structures the trifleys seem so interested in blowing up. However, seeing as you’ve all indicated that’s an unacceptable course of action, the next matter becomes where we should attack.”

  Wilfurd spoke up next. “We’ve all been cooped up in here since just after the attack started, so we don’t know how things are outside. From what y’all have seen, who else has managed to hide like us?”

  “Filgirn and I were on the other side of the bridge when the attack happened,” Jarod said. “We ran off into Esther Foxglove’s house and had her kids hide in a safe spot, but a lot of the other houses around there were getting broken into. By the time we left to come here, it looked like the trifleys had been through most of the other homes. The only two spots that looked safe were the tavern and the mayor’s house, where they were fighting the monsters off at the doors.”

  “What of the other surveyors?” asked Nikoalo. “All of us are trained soldiers, so it would be wise to form as large a contingent of us as possible.”

  Jarod shook his head. “Didn’t see too many of them getting anywhere safe. Most of your lot were running around in the streets, trying to fight them off without cover. They’re probably either killed, hiding with the villagers, or run off into the forest by now.”

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  “Doesn’t sound like we can track down any of them without going through all the trifleys first,” said Wilfurd. “And nobody else friendly on this side of the bridge?”

  “Nobody brave enough to come out,” said Jarod.

  The group was silent contemplating the dire situation. The group in the tower formed a sizable force on their own, but not enough of one to go up against the dozens of trifleys they’d seen emerging from the chasm.

  “Perhaps you understand now why my recommendation is to take a defensive position in the forest,” Nikolao said quietly.

  Wilfurd glared at the surveyor, but didn’t have a response. “What about you,” he said, gesturing at Tex’ana. “Seems like you’re a pretty dangerous ally. How much can we count on you in a head-on assault.”

  Tex’ana rolled his head. The hoarseness in his voice had faded by now, but it was still unnerving in its echoing manner. “Though my role is not of a combatant, my power in such a position is normally formidable. However, past events upon our arrival at this location shall prove weakening for me. I will fight, but my strength matches perhaps only three.”

  As everyone else took a moment to interpret his words, the sight servant spoke again. “It shall be useful to hear from the one they call Filgrin.”

  “That’s right, you claimed to have experience with these creatures,” Nikolao said, looking to the bowyer. “Have you really fought them before?”

  “Aye, long ago, but I fought them once.” Filgrin crossed his arms, and looked up, recalling some distant memory.

  “It wasn’t the first time they’d been out when I fought them. They had been sighted in another village, not unlike this one. They were a little different from these ones, brown-furred sorts, but the effect was the same. They ran out and ravaged the town, then disappeared for a while. Someone in charge thought they might be back, so they sent some soldiers and mercenaries to clean them up. We were on their way to the village when a horde of them came pouring out running off towards another town. They’d already destroyed the first village completely and were getting ready to do the same to the next. It was just luck we caught them in time.”

  “There were many more of them than we’ve seen here though,” Filgrin continued. “Must have been close to a thousand of them. Terrible and bloody business that fight was, but we won in the end.”

  “A thousand!” Wilfurd exclaimed. “There’s no way we could take that many.”

  “But there ain’t a thousand yet,” said Filgrin. “If there’s more, they’ll still be underground.”

  “Maybe they don’t all come in the first wave,” said Jarod. “If we can drive the creatures back underground, then maybe we can come back with soldiers before the second wave comes back out.”

  “Maybe,” said Filgrin. “But like I said, these ones might be different. Maybe this brown-furred lot will call for help if they’re in a bind.”

  “They’re ike the ones that ran back into the chasm.” A young voice called out from atop the stairs. The same one that had questioned Tex’ana when they’d first arrived at the mill.

  “Mary, go back upstairs,” said Hux. “I’ll be up in a minute.”

  “Wait,” said Jarod. “What do you mean the ones that ran back into the chasm?”

  Mary kept walking down the stairs, eager to be involved with whatever was going on. “Once the trifleys are outside for long enough, their fur turns brown and they go back under the bridge to hide. I think they get sunburned.”

  “How do you know this?” said Filgrin.

  “You can watch them upstairs,” Mary said. “From the third floor. There’s lots of explosions, so it’s a little bit scary, but you can see them okay. They blow up something and then run inside to hide from the sun.”

  Jarod looked around at the group as they all came to the same realization. “There’s our strategy then,” he said. “If we can keep them outside for long enough we can force them back underground and evacuate the village.”

  Nikolao’s face lit up. “I may have a tactic to help with that. In the head wagon, we have a modest, but well-stocked armory, including several tower shields and large nets. If we can make our way back there, we can retrieve those and recruit the additional surveyors still taking refuge there.”

  “There’s more surveyors hiding inside a wagon somewhere?” Wilfurd asked.

  Nikolao waved the question away. “Just taking responsible precautions.”

  “We should move quickly then,” said Jarod. “The sooner we can draw the monsters out into the open, the more of the village we can save.”

  “Agreed,” said Wilfurd. “We can’t take everyone though, we need some people to still stay back and keep an eye on the injured.”

  “Yes, well perhaps you and Hux here can accompany us,” said Nikolao. “That should leave a sufficient number to defend. Especially considering we’ll be eliminating any of the trifleys we run across along the way.”

  Wilfurd nodded in agreement, but Jarod saw Hux pale at the suggestion. “Umm, well… I wouldn’t feel right about leaving my kids alone here,” Hux said.

  “Oh for crap’s sake,” Shelley said, exasperated. “Stay hiding in this tower if you wish. I’ll come along and help save the village. I’m good enough with a bow that I won’t get in yer way.”

  Hux looked relieved when the rest of the group gave their assent.

  Nikolao took charge now. “Very well. Gather what you need, and we’ll leave momentarily.”

  The group getting ready to leave walked off to pick up what weapons they had managed to grab before running to the Mill. Hux walked up and gave his wife a quick kiss on the cheek. She responded by playfully pushing him away, but Jarod noticed her blush and contented smile afterwards.

  Jarod picked up his newly acquired longsword again, feeling the grip, secure in the palm of his hands. Something about the weapon defending his life had given him an affinity for the blade he’d never felt with anything he’d made. Not strictly better, but different, and new. He was beginning to feel much the same way towards Nikolao. The surveyor might not have been forged in a manner Jarod was familiar with, but he’d been battle tested now, and that counted for something.

  Basma came up to Jarod as the group was getting ready to leave, and turned him to look eye to eye with her. “You’re doing okay?” she asked.

  Jarod thought back to his last notification of health. 1/5 it had read, but he felt healthy enough. “I’ll make it through this,” he said. “Can’t be killed now, not when I still have to clear my name.”

  Basma smiled, and he thought for a moment she might follow Hux’s example with a kiss on the cheek, but instead, she pulled him close and tight in a hug. “Just be careful.”

  The moment was over all too soon, as the group gathered by the door and Hux began to pry the boards off the doorway once more. Jarod jumped slightly as he felt Tex’ana’s presence behind him, but he took a deep breath to steady himself.

  The last board fell away, and Wilfurd peered carefully through the doorway. He stepped through, waving the group after him, and their mission to drive off the trifleys had begun.