"Make way!" Miyal's little lungs roared as she dragged the old man through the crowd. "We have to see the Elder, make way!" The two of them threaded between the bodies. She pulled on the old man's wrist, past workmen and guards and worried parents. Rain dripped off her hair and the leaves of the trees surrounding the town.
"Miyal, what are you up to now?" Fethren said, when she ran up to the Elder's building. "Phellos is too busy to speak to you. Get back to helping with-"
"No, Fethren! Here, tell Fethren what you told me!" The girl pushed the old man forward. "Fethren is the Elder's right hand!"
"I was passing through," the old man said. He put his hand forward for a shake. "I heard about-"
Another man ran up. "Fethren! The south side has run out of timber, and the woodsmen haven't come back yet!"
"Take some from the north side. If you see Hollis, tell him, and he'll send out more cutters." The man departed, and Fethren turned back to the old man. "Get to the point. We're too busy for endless chatter."
The old man leaned forward on his staff. "I have a solution."
Fethren glared. "A solution. You think you have a solution for Kemul the Myriad. You think you have a solution for a beast that brought down the King's fortress, and his knights, and his magicians?" Fethren turned to Miyal. "Get him out of here and get back to work."
"It might work, Fethren!" Miyal said.
Fethren sighed. "Fine. Be quick."
The old man grinned. "Hyssop."
Fethren gritted his teeth. "Hyssop."
"Yes, that's it."
"Hyssop is going to protect us against Kemul the Myriad."
"It has before, young man." The old man shook his staff. "I've seen it. I was once in a city surrounded by hyssop bushes. How they smelled when they bloomed." He inched closer. "Kemul approached. We tried everything. Our barricade was mighty." Fethren scowled. "But we knew it would not stand up to Kemul's power. We saw him coming, a huge worm surging, a thousand feet long, tunneling in and out of the earth.
"A wind rose, and the bright, cleansing smell of the hyssop scattered toward the fiend. And it turned away! Stopped dead in its tracks!" He stamped the ground with his stick. "And went back the way he came!"
Fethren glanced at Miyal, who was nodding. "Come inside."
"Hyssop? It can't be." Elder Phellos said. Fethren, the old man, and Miyal stood inside his biggest room. "Kemul doesn't care about such things."
"With my own eyes, I have seen it!" the old man said, hand held up.
"Hyssop," Phellos said under his breath. "Hyssop."
"Elder, we can't waste any time with this wild goose chase," Fethren said. "We have to focus on the barricades!"
"We have children," Phellos said. "They can't help with the walls, but they can gather hyssop. Otherwise they sit in their houses, afraid." Phellos turned to the old man. "Sir, can you help us? Most could not recognize it. What is your name?"
The old man drew himself up. "My name is Garnash! I know the plant well. There must be some in the forest."
"You would help us, even with Kemul on its way here?" Fethren said. He crossed his arms. "Why?"
"Say the monster does come, and wipes out your little town," Garnash said. "Say your friends, your family, maybe your wife and children perish. Wouldn't you want some revenge on the monster?" He wrinkled his lip. "I hope you never understand."
"It's a good enough reason for me. Fethren, gather everyone who can help."
Fethren spun toward the door. "Can I come with?" Miyal asked.
"The blooms stand upright, like cattails. Depending on their age, the blooms may be a bright blue or a dark purple," Garnash said to the crowd of about a hundred children, and a number of adults as well. He stood on a small crate. "They will hide on the forest floor, so look with your little eyes and see well!"
The old man spread his eyes wide with his fingers. Fethren turned away, back to the worker in front of him. "You were saying?"
"It's the east barricade," the worker said. Mud smudged his face and bare chest. "The ground is too soft. The stakes keep falling over. It just turns into a big slog."
"Okay. Take-"
"Fethren!" Another man ran up to him. "Logan and his family have left! Packed up everything! He's gone!"
"What? But the west...put Morrian in charge and keep working."
The man frowned. "But...shouldn't we go after him?"
"We can't stop him from leaving. We'll have to work harder."
The man paled and nodded, turning away.
"Gather as much as you can," Garnash said. "Fill your arms with their bitter scent!"
"Fethren!" The first man grabbed his shoulder. "What about the east barricade?"
"Take clay and water and mix it with the earth," Fethren said. "Around the base of the stakes. Go." The man ran off.
"Any questions?" Garnash said.
"What do the leaves look like?" one child asked.
"How big are the plants?" said another.
"Do they smell good?"
"Are they poisonous?"
"Do we take the entire plant or just the blossoms?"
Fethren's eyes drifted to the tops of the trees around the town. They bent under the wind and the drops of rain falling out of the gray clouds.
He took in a breath.
"Fethren?"
No rest. "What is it?" His eyes opened to Lia, one of their scouts, dressed in worn leather with a bow on her back. She stared at her feet, jaw clenched. She looked up, and her mouth worked before she spoke.
"The...the forest...."
"This is no time for limp tongues, Lia."
She nodded, and her eyes hardened. "The forest is too quiet. Kemul is getting closer."
Cold wind blew across Fethren, and bumps rose on his skin. "How much time do we have?"
The scout shuffled her feet. "A few days. No more."
"Days." Phellos said. "We should have had a week, at least. We can't build a barricade strong enough in a few days!" He collapsed in to the chair behind his desk. His voice wheezed out. "We can't build one in a year."
"We don't have a choice," Fethren said. Lia stood next to him, arms crossed, staring at the ground again. "We must evacuate. Hide in the forest and hope it passes without catching any of us."
"Have the children found any hyssop?" Phellos asked.
"They've just left." Fethren turned to Lia. "They could use someone familiar with the forest."
She nodded, face brightening. "I can show them where it is."
"Lia, wait." The elder came around his desk and took her hand in both of his. "Are you certain? A few days?"
"The forest is a wild force," she said, removing her hand from his grip. "I can be sure of nothing." She took a quick breath. "I heard no birds. Squirrels did not dig at the ground. Foxes hid in their dens. It is getting closer."
Phellos grunted, hands in fists. "Go, guide the children. Keep them safe. And keep your eyes open for anything out of place."
She left without a word, and Phellos turned to Fethren. "Can we put our hope in hyssop?"
Fethren shook his head. "It's too far-fetched. Our choices fall to a foolish attempt to defend ourselves or flight."
Phellos went back to his desk and leaned upon it. "I do not want to leave this place. I was born here and I want to die here."
"You may yet."
Phellos glowered at Fethren. "I don't want to flee. Somebody has to stand up to that monster."
"You would risk everyone you care for? Miyal, your own grandchild?"
Phellos threw his hands up. "And what else? There are only two kinds of stories about Kemul--bow to it, or die! What if there is a third?"
"It doesn't matter what form it takes, Elder!" Fethren shouted. "It can destroy us with any one of a hundred tools! Giant worm, immense stomping beast, a creature of shadow and steel, nothing stops it!" He jabbed a finger. "We should never have begun building a barricade. Fallen trees and leaves and flowers! We should have gathered what we owned and fled as soon as we learned it had turned our way!"
"It leaves us with the same issue," Phellos said, in a whisper. "We will have to start up once again, everyone who survives. Why not take the chance, however small, that we win? What if the hyssop drives it back?"
"Hyssop! Damn that old man, coming and filling our heads with fables!" Fethren spun on his heel and exited the building.
The clouds had thickened, and the rain came harder. Fethren raised his hood and splashed through muddy puddles to the east.
Sharpened pieces of lumber pointed each and every way, sinking in the mud. The workers mixed clay with the ground, but it wouldn't harden in the rain. Fethren helped drape covers over the mud and prop the lumber up. It can't even stay upright! How could it possibly stand up against Kemul the Myriad?
It can't, he thought when he walked back to Phellos's building. It had grown even darker, and the workers built by the light of covered lanterns. We must flee this place.
Before he reached the Elder's home, Lia raced up to him. "Fethren, quickly!"
"Did you find hyssop?"
"Two children have disappeared!"
"They were with me," Garnash said, leading Lia, Fethren, Phellos, and anyone else they could take away from the barricades. "I turn my back for one second." The old man sliced his hand through the air. "They were gone!"
Rain drummed on leaves around them. Fethren hoisted a lantern smeared with water. "Split into groups of three. One lantern to a group. Don't let the others out of your sight!"
"I don't need a lantern," Lia said. "I'm going alone."
Fethren nodded; he and Miyal remained. "Stay close," he told the girl.
They walked through the dark trees, calling for the two children. Miyal stuck at his side. The rain swept away any other noise except their shouts, and filled the air with rainy earth.
"Did you find any hyssop?" Fethren asked, when they stopped to refill their lungs.
"A few of the other groups did," Miyal said. She cupped her hands around her mouth. "Finie! Vittal! Come out! We're worried about you!" She turned back to Fethren. "Not very much, but some. Do you think it will really help?"
"We should have left the village a week ago," Fethren said. "There is no hope in hyssop."
"I don't think so either," the girl said, trying to peer through the rain. "It's just a plant! It can't stop Kemul!" She looked up at him, a sour grin on her face. "What should we do?"
"Once we find Finie and Vittal we gather everything we can and get away from the town. We hide in the forest or go to Cossell and warn them. Maybe we'll be able to create real defenses." But we won't.
"What if we don't find them?"
Then their families blame me for their deaths. "We mourn them as heroes."
"Just cause they got lost looking for hyssop?"
"For protecting their loved ones."
The lantern went out a few hours before the sun came up. By the time Fethren returned to the town his throat cracked and ground together. Miyal's eyes closed as she walked, despite her assurances she wasn't tired.
"They'll come back," Fethren said to Finie's and Vittal's parents. "They probably just got lost in the dark and had to wait until the sun comes back up."
A few hours later the sun came up, and the children still had not re-appeared. Phellos still slept, so Fethren spent the morning working on the west barricade, and after a little while Garnash appeared to help him hoist a piece of timber..
"You're full of energy for someone who spent the night looking for children," Fethren said.
"I've spent plenty of nights awake," the old man said. "You look none the worse, as well."
I just have to make it through this, then I can sleep. "You aren't from here. Why are you so dedicated to helping?"
"I've told you already," Garnash said, scowling.
Fethren narrowed his eyes. "So you have. Will you help with the hyssop?"
"I will at that, lad. But there has to be a barricade before we can festoon it."
"Fethren!"
Miyal raced toward him, weaving through the workers and materials littering the western edge of the town.
"Have you found them?"
"No...now Phellos is missing!"
What?! "Stay here and help Garnash!" He ran to Phellos's home, entering without knocking. He couldn't find the old man, and ran outside, grabbing the first person he saw--an elderly woman--and told her to sit at the front door and find him if Garnash returned.
Where could he be? Looking for the lost children? None of the workers had seen him leave, nor the sweating, fidgeting gate guards, who kept glancing down the path leading to the town. He's gone. That means I'm in charge.
In his searching he came across huge piles of hyssop blossoms, just inside the west barricade. They spread bitter scent on the wind. He spat at them and stalked past. We'd need a great deal more to make the barricade effective, even if it does stop Kemul.
He searched the entire town. No one had seen Phellos all day.
"Where could he be?" Miyal said, in the Elder's home. "Fethren, we have to find him!"
"We already have the scouts looking for the missing children. He's grown, and he knows how to take care of himself. For now, we have to...." What?
Garnash entered. "No luck?" he asked Fethren and Miyal, and when no response came, he sighed. "It's always like this when Kemul is approaching. People squabble, and bicker, and some run off during the night. Fethren!" He stepped up to the desk. "You have to show the people what is right! Lead them!"
"I'm going to lead them out of here," Fethren said. "Tell the villagers to gather the necessities. I want this town empty by evening."
Garnash paled. "You would ask them to do that?"
"I don't want to leave!" Miyal said.
"We must," Fethren said. He pushed past both of them. "Or we are lost."
He exited into a light rain and immense chaos. Everyone inside the barricades ran toward the south edge of town, and when Fethren reached it, a crowd surrounded something. "Make way!" he shouted. "Let me through! I-" The words froze in his throat.
Two mutilated bodies, children, lay on the ground. The families of Finie and Vittal knelt around them, weeping. Fethren stared, mouth open.
"Lia brought them," one of the guards said. "And then she ran back into the forest." He pointed the direction she took. "Said she had a trail on something else."
Phellos. Fethren called for attention. "We aren't safe here any longer. Gather what you can and get ready to leave as soon as possible."
"Leave?" Vittal's mother stood, skirt muddy and face stained with tears. "We can't leave! Something's out there! What could have done this?" She glanced toward her son's torn-open body, and burst into tears again.
"And we aren't safe here!" Fethren said, calling over her sobs. "It doesn't matter what's in the forest, it won't attack a bigger group!"
"Then why did you have us gather hyssop?" a child asked. "We spent all day!"
"And now Finie and Vittal are dead because of it!" Finie's father said. "Where's Phellos?"
"Phellos has disappeared," Fethren said. "I lead now. It doesn't matter what is out there, Kemul is worse."
"You lead?" another father said. "Why? So you can send more of our children to die? I refuse to think Kemul is as bad as everyone believes! I say we stay and fight!"
"Then you need more hyssop!" Garnash said next to Fethren, startling him. "It drives the monster away--I've seen it with my own eyes!"
"And why should we trust you, of all people?" The father jabbed a finger. "A strange man, someone no one has seen until yesterday!"
Garnash took a few steps forward, leaning on his staff. "My own home was attacked by Kemul, in the form of a great worm, but the hyssop drove it off! It turned aside and fled!"
"And what if it comes at us as a winged beast?" the man asked, getting in Garnash's face and driving him back. "What if it's a smoky creature that seeps into our homes in the dead of night, under the cracks in the doors?"
"We must flee, Tourm!" Fethren said. "It's the only way!"
"I want to fight!" Tourm said, turning his finger on Fethren. "I don't want to hide behind a weak little fence and wait, or run away before we even try!"
"You are dooming us!" Fethren said.
"Then we are doomed! But let us take doom for ourselves, instead of being given it while we hide!" People around Tourm cheered and clapped.
Fethren turned away, wiping the rain out of his eyes.
"The children are decorating the barricade with the hyssop," Garnash said, when he entered the Elder's home. "The adults are arming themselves." He went over to a chair and sat, groaning. "I never thought I'd see the day."
Fethren glared from behind the Elder's desk. "What day?"
"When people finally stand up to Kemul. It's been too long."
Fethren's glare changed to a frown. "You know a lot about it."
"I'm an old man, Fethren. I've heard all the stories, and I've seen some of them happen right before my eyes."
Fethren hesitated. "I'm sure you have. Will you...stay and help?"
Garnash sighed. "I feel I have no choice. I must stay and fight, or the beast will just go another place I am. All my life I've seen it come and go. People either cower or they flee." He grinned at Fethren. "It's nice to see people willing to face it head on."
A moment later Fethren stood in the alley outside the Elder's building. He looked over his shoulder, for Garnash, and splashed through the mud toward the barricades.
Miyal directed the other children as they blanketed the barricade with the bitter hyssop leaves they had piled up from the day before. "Get rid of the hyssop," Fethren said when he got close enough. "Tell them to pile it up and burn it."
"What?" Miyal turned on him, confused. "Why?"
"We don't have time for questions! Do it!" He stepped up to the closest bundle of flowers and tore it off, throwing it behind him, into the mud, and after a minute of confusion the children began to undo their work.
Fethren's heart pounded in his throat. He kept glancing over his shoulder. The sun drooped toward the trees to the west, visible through cracks in the drizzling clouds. The children had been decorating the barricade all day, and the hyssop piles had disappeared, scattered around the town's perimeter.
The clouds began to break up as evening got closer. Rain kept falling, but the sun shot rays from the west, across the town. Long shadows grew from the barricades, and Fethren stood in one when someone touched his arm.
He spun, arms up, feet sliding in the mud, and found a youth. "Someone needs to speak with you, Fethren," he said. He pointed at a dark alley.
"Who?"
"Um...I don't know."
Don't know who it is? Fethren frowned. Someone not from the town. Garnash. I have to make sure it can't win.
He found Miyal. "Once all the hyssop is collected, set fire to it. Make sure there isn't a single piece left." The girl nodded, and Fethren stepped toward the alley, fists clenched at his sides.
He entered it and hands wrapped around his mouth and neck, pulling him backward. He lost his balance and fell into the mud, rain falling into his eyes, and a dark form bent over him.
He shot his fist up but hit nothing, and in another moment his vision had cleared to reveal Lia, holding a finger to her lips, face streaked with dirt and eyes red.
The scout crept to the opening in the alley and looked out. The children were pushing the hyssop into a big pile as Miyal gathered fire starters. Garnash wasn't around. "Lia?"
Without looking at him, she patted her hand down, and his voice lowered. "What's going on?"
"I...I found another body," she said. She kept peering out. "Broken into pieces and scattered around the forest, like the two children." Lia blinked and held her eyes shut for a moment. "Mutilated."
Fethren sighed. "Phellos. He disappeared this morning. Lia, I think that Garnash-"
"Phellos. And someone else."
Fethren gaped at her. "Who?"
Lia nodded toward the children, where Miyal stood with a flaming brand.
A moment later the bundle of fragrant blossoms erupted into a crackling bonfire. Miyal stood in front of it, motionless, as smoke billowed up and the blossoms fried.
She thought hyssop might work at first. And then, while we were looking for the children, she said she didn't think it would work.
The girl's eyes stuck to the burning plants, wide and unblinking. A flat smile came to her face, and Fethren leaned against the wall next to him, void of breath and weak. "Miyal...."
"We mourn later," Lia said. "We have to get everyone out of the town, now."
Fethren shook his head. "It will chase us. It won't let us get away if it's doing this." Garnash. "Come. The old man. I thought he...." He clenched his fist. "I never suspected Miyal."
Garnash argued with Tourm at the north side. Fethren grabbed him and pulled him away. "Hyssop. We need more. We need more now."
"More? We can't send children into the forest if something is out there-"
"Kemul is here. Now. Lia...Lia found Miyal's body in the forest." Fethren said. The old man's eyes widened. "It's burning the hyssop. We need more."
"More, I...the children already took all of it for the barricades. I don't think there is any left." Garnash reached a hand for Lia. "Are you sure? The girl...."
"I'm sure," she said, and her eyes grew distant. Her face fell. "I will never be unsure."
"More hyssop, Garnash," Fethren said. "We need it or we're doomed."
"What are you talking about?" Tourm said. "Planning more expeditions? Sending more children out to die? Lia, if you want to do something useful, go and watch for Kemul. Stop standing there like an uprooted tree." He took in their expressions. "What is this?"
"Can we get more?" Fethren asked Garnash.
"I might be able to find more, but-"
"More? More what?" Tourm pushed forward, getting between Fethren and Garnash. "You tell Miyal to burn the hyssop and and now you're trying to get more? You really are a loon, aren't you, Fethren! It's a shame Phellos isn't here to remove you from your office!"
Fethren's hands wrapped around Tourm's throat. "Unless we get hyssop right now, all of us are dead." Bile rose in his throat. "Kemul is here. It's here! It's inside the town! It's been in the town for a whole day!"
Tourm grabbed Fethren's wrists, freeing himself, coughing and choking. "Garnash!" Fethren said.
"There should be some around here," the old man said, looking around at the barricades.
"I could go to the forest and get more," Lia said.
"No," Fethren said. "Distract it until we can find more."
"You're crazy!" Tourm said. "Kemul isn't here! We'd know!"
Fethren said to Garnash. "Find it, old man, our lives depend on it." Fethren turned to Tourm. "It's Miyal. The monster killed her and took her place. She's burning the hyssop. Garnash was...he was right." Fethren grabbed Tourm's shirt. "Are you going to do what I tell you?" Tourm swallowed, grit his teeth, and nodded. "Good. I have an idea."
"Miyal!"
Lia stepped close, and Miyal smiled, turning away from the burning pile of hyssop. A cloud of haze lifted from the fire, blurring the sun. Raindrops sizzled as they struck the pile. The children kept the pile blazing. "Hi Lia! Have you found Phellos?"
"Why are you burning the hyssop?"
"Oh, Fethren told me to. He realized it wouldn't help." Miyal leaned close, and Lia took a step back. "I don't think he trusts Garnash."
"Have you seen Fethren?"
Fethren rounded the corner of the barricade on cue, striding close to the two of them. "Lia! Tourm is going crazy!"
"Tourm?" Miyal said, smile curling into her cheeks. "What is he doing?"
"He keeps disappearing whenever I need to talk to him, he doesn't want to follow any of my orders...he keeps talking about going into the forest for more hyssop!"
"What?!" Miyal said, smile disappearing.
"Fethren!" someone yelled. Tourm held a hyssop stalk high, around the other side of the burning pile, the setting sun behind him. "I know it's really you, Kemul, you can't hide any more!"
"Tourm,you don't know what you're doing!" Fethren said.
Miyal turned, toward the setting sun. She squinted and tried to block the sun, and then bitter hyssop flooded her nostrils.
She screamed and pushed away, but Garnash held her from behind, forcing the stalk into her face. Her form shifted. Her skin pulled apart, letting sharp spikes tear through her face and back. She turned and tore a hand of sharp claws through Garnash, but a moment later Tourm shoved his hyssop in her face. She stumbled back, swiping at the air.
An arrow caught her in the leg, and she stumbled, falling to her hands and knees. She rose, body shifting and roiling. "I should have killed you in the forest!" she screamed at Lia.
Fethren grabbed the beast, lifting it off the ground. Its limbs lengthened into tendrils of flesh, snapping at nothing as Fethren pulled it closer to the burning pile of hyssop.
One of its tentacles sliced across his face, and he fell back as he hurled the monster forward. A wave of sparks rose, glittering in the gold sun, and then Kemul shrieked.
A black spike fired up from its chest, turning to mist among the smoke and rain. Lia picked Fethren up and the shrieking stopped.
"Garnash?" Fethren asked. Lia shook her head. He rose and walked to the fire, blood dripping down his face. A body half-Miyal and half-monster--horned, face stretched and distorted, teeth lengthened--lay burning among the hyssop, still and unchanging.
"Miyal, what are you up to now?" Fethren said, when she ran up to the Elder's building. "Phellos is too busy to speak to you. Get back to helping with-"
"No, Fethren! Here, tell Fethren what you told me!" The girl pushed the old man forward. "Fethren is the Elder's right hand!"
"I was passing through," the old man said. He put his hand forward for a shake. "I heard about-"
Another man ran up. "Fethren! The south side has run out of timber, and the woodsmen haven't come back yet!"
"Take some from the north side. If you see Hollis, tell him, and he'll send out more cutters." The man departed, and Fethren turned back to the old man. "Get to the point. We're too busy for endless chatter."
The old man leaned forward on his staff. "I have a solution."
Fethren glared. "A solution. You think you have a solution for Kemul the Myriad. You think you have a solution for a beast that brought down the King's fortress, and his knights, and his magicians?" Fethren turned to Miyal. "Get him out of here and get back to work."
"It might work, Fethren!" Miyal said.
Fethren sighed. "Fine. Be quick."
The old man grinned. "Hyssop."
Fethren gritted his teeth. "Hyssop."
"Yes, that's it."
"Hyssop is going to protect us against Kemul the Myriad."
"It has before, young man." The old man shook his staff. "I've seen it. I was once in a city surrounded by hyssop bushes. How they smelled when they bloomed." He inched closer. "Kemul approached. We tried everything. Our barricade was mighty." Fethren scowled. "But we knew it would not stand up to Kemul's power. We saw him coming, a huge worm surging, a thousand feet long, tunneling in and out of the earth.
"A wind rose, and the bright, cleansing smell of the hyssop scattered toward the fiend. And it turned away! Stopped dead in its tracks!" He stamped the ground with his stick. "And went back the way he came!"
Fethren glanced at Miyal, who was nodding. "Come inside."
"Hyssop? It can't be." Elder Phellos said. Fethren, the old man, and Miyal stood inside his biggest room. "Kemul doesn't care about such things."
"With my own eyes, I have seen it!" the old man said, hand held up.
"Hyssop," Phellos said under his breath. "Hyssop."
"Elder, we can't waste any time with this wild goose chase," Fethren said. "We have to focus on the barricades!"
"We have children," Phellos said. "They can't help with the walls, but they can gather hyssop. Otherwise they sit in their houses, afraid." Phellos turned to the old man. "Sir, can you help us? Most could not recognize it. What is your name?"
The old man drew himself up. "My name is Garnash! I know the plant well. There must be some in the forest."
"You would help us, even with Kemul on its way here?" Fethren said. He crossed his arms. "Why?"
"Say the monster does come, and wipes out your little town," Garnash said. "Say your friends, your family, maybe your wife and children perish. Wouldn't you want some revenge on the monster?" He wrinkled his lip. "I hope you never understand."
"It's a good enough reason for me. Fethren, gather everyone who can help."
Fethren spun toward the door. "Can I come with?" Miyal asked.
"The blooms stand upright, like cattails. Depending on their age, the blooms may be a bright blue or a dark purple," Garnash said to the crowd of about a hundred children, and a number of adults as well. He stood on a small crate. "They will hide on the forest floor, so look with your little eyes and see well!"
The old man spread his eyes wide with his fingers. Fethren turned away, back to the worker in front of him. "You were saying?"
"It's the east barricade," the worker said. Mud smudged his face and bare chest. "The ground is too soft. The stakes keep falling over. It just turns into a big slog."
"Okay. Take-"
"Fethren!" Another man ran up to him. "Logan and his family have left! Packed up everything! He's gone!"
"What? But the west...put Morrian in charge and keep working."
The man frowned. "But...shouldn't we go after him?"
"We can't stop him from leaving. We'll have to work harder."
The man paled and nodded, turning away.
"Gather as much as you can," Garnash said. "Fill your arms with their bitter scent!"
"Fethren!" The first man grabbed his shoulder. "What about the east barricade?"
"Take clay and water and mix it with the earth," Fethren said. "Around the base of the stakes. Go." The man ran off.
"Any questions?" Garnash said.
"What do the leaves look like?" one child asked.
"How big are the plants?" said another.
"Do they smell good?"
"Are they poisonous?"
"Do we take the entire plant or just the blossoms?"
Fethren's eyes drifted to the tops of the trees around the town. They bent under the wind and the drops of rain falling out of the gray clouds.
He took in a breath.
"Fethren?"
No rest. "What is it?" His eyes opened to Lia, one of their scouts, dressed in worn leather with a bow on her back. She stared at her feet, jaw clenched. She looked up, and her mouth worked before she spoke.
"The...the forest...."
"This is no time for limp tongues, Lia."
She nodded, and her eyes hardened. "The forest is too quiet. Kemul is getting closer."
Cold wind blew across Fethren, and bumps rose on his skin. "How much time do we have?"
The scout shuffled her feet. "A few days. No more."
"Days." Phellos said. "We should have had a week, at least. We can't build a barricade strong enough in a few days!" He collapsed in to the chair behind his desk. His voice wheezed out. "We can't build one in a year."
"We don't have a choice," Fethren said. Lia stood next to him, arms crossed, staring at the ground again. "We must evacuate. Hide in the forest and hope it passes without catching any of us."
"Have the children found any hyssop?" Phellos asked.
"They've just left." Fethren turned to Lia. "They could use someone familiar with the forest."
She nodded, face brightening. "I can show them where it is."
"Lia, wait." The elder came around his desk and took her hand in both of his. "Are you certain? A few days?"
"The forest is a wild force," she said, removing her hand from his grip. "I can be sure of nothing." She took a quick breath. "I heard no birds. Squirrels did not dig at the ground. Foxes hid in their dens. It is getting closer."
Phellos grunted, hands in fists. "Go, guide the children. Keep them safe. And keep your eyes open for anything out of place."
She left without a word, and Phellos turned to Fethren. "Can we put our hope in hyssop?"
Fethren shook his head. "It's too far-fetched. Our choices fall to a foolish attempt to defend ourselves or flight."
Phellos went back to his desk and leaned upon it. "I do not want to leave this place. I was born here and I want to die here."
"You may yet."
Phellos glowered at Fethren. "I don't want to flee. Somebody has to stand up to that monster."
"You would risk everyone you care for? Miyal, your own grandchild?"
Phellos threw his hands up. "And what else? There are only two kinds of stories about Kemul--bow to it, or die! What if there is a third?"
"It doesn't matter what form it takes, Elder!" Fethren shouted. "It can destroy us with any one of a hundred tools! Giant worm, immense stomping beast, a creature of shadow and steel, nothing stops it!" He jabbed a finger. "We should never have begun building a barricade. Fallen trees and leaves and flowers! We should have gathered what we owned and fled as soon as we learned it had turned our way!"
"It leaves us with the same issue," Phellos said, in a whisper. "We will have to start up once again, everyone who survives. Why not take the chance, however small, that we win? What if the hyssop drives it back?"
"Hyssop! Damn that old man, coming and filling our heads with fables!" Fethren spun on his heel and exited the building.
The clouds had thickened, and the rain came harder. Fethren raised his hood and splashed through muddy puddles to the east.
Sharpened pieces of lumber pointed each and every way, sinking in the mud. The workers mixed clay with the ground, but it wouldn't harden in the rain. Fethren helped drape covers over the mud and prop the lumber up. It can't even stay upright! How could it possibly stand up against Kemul the Myriad?
It can't, he thought when he walked back to Phellos's building. It had grown even darker, and the workers built by the light of covered lanterns. We must flee this place.
Before he reached the Elder's home, Lia raced up to him. "Fethren, quickly!"
"Did you find hyssop?"
"Two children have disappeared!"
"They were with me," Garnash said, leading Lia, Fethren, Phellos, and anyone else they could take away from the barricades. "I turn my back for one second." The old man sliced his hand through the air. "They were gone!"
Rain drummed on leaves around them. Fethren hoisted a lantern smeared with water. "Split into groups of three. One lantern to a group. Don't let the others out of your sight!"
"I don't need a lantern," Lia said. "I'm going alone."
Fethren nodded; he and Miyal remained. "Stay close," he told the girl.
They walked through the dark trees, calling for the two children. Miyal stuck at his side. The rain swept away any other noise except their shouts, and filled the air with rainy earth.
"Did you find any hyssop?" Fethren asked, when they stopped to refill their lungs.
"A few of the other groups did," Miyal said. She cupped her hands around her mouth. "Finie! Vittal! Come out! We're worried about you!" She turned back to Fethren. "Not very much, but some. Do you think it will really help?"
"We should have left the village a week ago," Fethren said. "There is no hope in hyssop."
"I don't think so either," the girl said, trying to peer through the rain. "It's just a plant! It can't stop Kemul!" She looked up at him, a sour grin on her face. "What should we do?"
"Once we find Finie and Vittal we gather everything we can and get away from the town. We hide in the forest or go to Cossell and warn them. Maybe we'll be able to create real defenses." But we won't.
"What if we don't find them?"
Then their families blame me for their deaths. "We mourn them as heroes."
"Just cause they got lost looking for hyssop?"
"For protecting their loved ones."
The lantern went out a few hours before the sun came up. By the time Fethren returned to the town his throat cracked and ground together. Miyal's eyes closed as she walked, despite her assurances she wasn't tired.
"They'll come back," Fethren said to Finie's and Vittal's parents. "They probably just got lost in the dark and had to wait until the sun comes back up."
A few hours later the sun came up, and the children still had not re-appeared. Phellos still slept, so Fethren spent the morning working on the west barricade, and after a little while Garnash appeared to help him hoist a piece of timber..
"You're full of energy for someone who spent the night looking for children," Fethren said.
"I've spent plenty of nights awake," the old man said. "You look none the worse, as well."
I just have to make it through this, then I can sleep. "You aren't from here. Why are you so dedicated to helping?"
"I've told you already," Garnash said, scowling.
Fethren narrowed his eyes. "So you have. Will you help with the hyssop?"
"I will at that, lad. But there has to be a barricade before we can festoon it."
"Fethren!"
Miyal raced toward him, weaving through the workers and materials littering the western edge of the town.
"Have you found them?"
"No...now Phellos is missing!"
What?! "Stay here and help Garnash!" He ran to Phellos's home, entering without knocking. He couldn't find the old man, and ran outside, grabbing the first person he saw--an elderly woman--and told her to sit at the front door and find him if Garnash returned.
Where could he be? Looking for the lost children? None of the workers had seen him leave, nor the sweating, fidgeting gate guards, who kept glancing down the path leading to the town. He's gone. That means I'm in charge.
In his searching he came across huge piles of hyssop blossoms, just inside the west barricade. They spread bitter scent on the wind. He spat at them and stalked past. We'd need a great deal more to make the barricade effective, even if it does stop Kemul.
He searched the entire town. No one had seen Phellos all day.
"Where could he be?" Miyal said, in the Elder's home. "Fethren, we have to find him!"
"We already have the scouts looking for the missing children. He's grown, and he knows how to take care of himself. For now, we have to...." What?
Garnash entered. "No luck?" he asked Fethren and Miyal, and when no response came, he sighed. "It's always like this when Kemul is approaching. People squabble, and bicker, and some run off during the night. Fethren!" He stepped up to the desk. "You have to show the people what is right! Lead them!"
"I'm going to lead them out of here," Fethren said. "Tell the villagers to gather the necessities. I want this town empty by evening."
Garnash paled. "You would ask them to do that?"
"I don't want to leave!" Miyal said.
"We must," Fethren said. He pushed past both of them. "Or we are lost."
He exited into a light rain and immense chaos. Everyone inside the barricades ran toward the south edge of town, and when Fethren reached it, a crowd surrounded something. "Make way!" he shouted. "Let me through! I-" The words froze in his throat.
Two mutilated bodies, children, lay on the ground. The families of Finie and Vittal knelt around them, weeping. Fethren stared, mouth open.
"Lia brought them," one of the guards said. "And then she ran back into the forest." He pointed the direction she took. "Said she had a trail on something else."
Phellos. Fethren called for attention. "We aren't safe here any longer. Gather what you can and get ready to leave as soon as possible."
"Leave?" Vittal's mother stood, skirt muddy and face stained with tears. "We can't leave! Something's out there! What could have done this?" She glanced toward her son's torn-open body, and burst into tears again.
"And we aren't safe here!" Fethren said, calling over her sobs. "It doesn't matter what's in the forest, it won't attack a bigger group!"
"Then why did you have us gather hyssop?" a child asked. "We spent all day!"
"And now Finie and Vittal are dead because of it!" Finie's father said. "Where's Phellos?"
"Phellos has disappeared," Fethren said. "I lead now. It doesn't matter what is out there, Kemul is worse."
"You lead?" another father said. "Why? So you can send more of our children to die? I refuse to think Kemul is as bad as everyone believes! I say we stay and fight!"
"Then you need more hyssop!" Garnash said next to Fethren, startling him. "It drives the monster away--I've seen it with my own eyes!"
"And why should we trust you, of all people?" The father jabbed a finger. "A strange man, someone no one has seen until yesterday!"
Garnash took a few steps forward, leaning on his staff. "My own home was attacked by Kemul, in the form of a great worm, but the hyssop drove it off! It turned aside and fled!"
"And what if it comes at us as a winged beast?" the man asked, getting in Garnash's face and driving him back. "What if it's a smoky creature that seeps into our homes in the dead of night, under the cracks in the doors?"
"We must flee, Tourm!" Fethren said. "It's the only way!"
"I want to fight!" Tourm said, turning his finger on Fethren. "I don't want to hide behind a weak little fence and wait, or run away before we even try!"
"You are dooming us!" Fethren said.
"Then we are doomed! But let us take doom for ourselves, instead of being given it while we hide!" People around Tourm cheered and clapped.
Fethren turned away, wiping the rain out of his eyes.
"The children are decorating the barricade with the hyssop," Garnash said, when he entered the Elder's home. "The adults are arming themselves." He went over to a chair and sat, groaning. "I never thought I'd see the day."
Fethren glared from behind the Elder's desk. "What day?"
"When people finally stand up to Kemul. It's been too long."
Fethren's glare changed to a frown. "You know a lot about it."
"I'm an old man, Fethren. I've heard all the stories, and I've seen some of them happen right before my eyes."
Fethren hesitated. "I'm sure you have. Will you...stay and help?"
Garnash sighed. "I feel I have no choice. I must stay and fight, or the beast will just go another place I am. All my life I've seen it come and go. People either cower or they flee." He grinned at Fethren. "It's nice to see people willing to face it head on."
A moment later Fethren stood in the alley outside the Elder's building. He looked over his shoulder, for Garnash, and splashed through the mud toward the barricades.
Miyal directed the other children as they blanketed the barricade with the bitter hyssop leaves they had piled up from the day before. "Get rid of the hyssop," Fethren said when he got close enough. "Tell them to pile it up and burn it."
"What?" Miyal turned on him, confused. "Why?"
"We don't have time for questions! Do it!" He stepped up to the closest bundle of flowers and tore it off, throwing it behind him, into the mud, and after a minute of confusion the children began to undo their work.
Fethren's heart pounded in his throat. He kept glancing over his shoulder. The sun drooped toward the trees to the west, visible through cracks in the drizzling clouds. The children had been decorating the barricade all day, and the hyssop piles had disappeared, scattered around the town's perimeter.
The clouds began to break up as evening got closer. Rain kept falling, but the sun shot rays from the west, across the town. Long shadows grew from the barricades, and Fethren stood in one when someone touched his arm.
He spun, arms up, feet sliding in the mud, and found a youth. "Someone needs to speak with you, Fethren," he said. He pointed at a dark alley.
"Who?"
"Um...I don't know."
Don't know who it is? Fethren frowned. Someone not from the town. Garnash. I have to make sure it can't win.
He found Miyal. "Once all the hyssop is collected, set fire to it. Make sure there isn't a single piece left." The girl nodded, and Fethren stepped toward the alley, fists clenched at his sides.
He entered it and hands wrapped around his mouth and neck, pulling him backward. He lost his balance and fell into the mud, rain falling into his eyes, and a dark form bent over him.
He shot his fist up but hit nothing, and in another moment his vision had cleared to reveal Lia, holding a finger to her lips, face streaked with dirt and eyes red.
The scout crept to the opening in the alley and looked out. The children were pushing the hyssop into a big pile as Miyal gathered fire starters. Garnash wasn't around. "Lia?"
Without looking at him, she patted her hand down, and his voice lowered. "What's going on?"
"I...I found another body," she said. She kept peering out. "Broken into pieces and scattered around the forest, like the two children." Lia blinked and held her eyes shut for a moment. "Mutilated."
Fethren sighed. "Phellos. He disappeared this morning. Lia, I think that Garnash-"
"Phellos. And someone else."
Fethren gaped at her. "Who?"
Lia nodded toward the children, where Miyal stood with a flaming brand.
A moment later the bundle of fragrant blossoms erupted into a crackling bonfire. Miyal stood in front of it, motionless, as smoke billowed up and the blossoms fried.
She thought hyssop might work at first. And then, while we were looking for the children, she said she didn't think it would work.
The girl's eyes stuck to the burning plants, wide and unblinking. A flat smile came to her face, and Fethren leaned against the wall next to him, void of breath and weak. "Miyal...."
"We mourn later," Lia said. "We have to get everyone out of the town, now."
Fethren shook his head. "It will chase us. It won't let us get away if it's doing this." Garnash. "Come. The old man. I thought he...." He clenched his fist. "I never suspected Miyal."
Garnash argued with Tourm at the north side. Fethren grabbed him and pulled him away. "Hyssop. We need more. We need more now."
"More? We can't send children into the forest if something is out there-"
"Kemul is here. Now. Lia...Lia found Miyal's body in the forest." Fethren said. The old man's eyes widened. "It's burning the hyssop. We need more."
"More, I...the children already took all of it for the barricades. I don't think there is any left." Garnash reached a hand for Lia. "Are you sure? The girl...."
"I'm sure," she said, and her eyes grew distant. Her face fell. "I will never be unsure."
"More hyssop, Garnash," Fethren said. "We need it or we're doomed."
"What are you talking about?" Tourm said. "Planning more expeditions? Sending more children out to die? Lia, if you want to do something useful, go and watch for Kemul. Stop standing there like an uprooted tree." He took in their expressions. "What is this?"
"Can we get more?" Fethren asked Garnash.
"I might be able to find more, but-"
"More? More what?" Tourm pushed forward, getting between Fethren and Garnash. "You tell Miyal to burn the hyssop and and now you're trying to get more? You really are a loon, aren't you, Fethren! It's a shame Phellos isn't here to remove you from your office!"
Fethren's hands wrapped around Tourm's throat. "Unless we get hyssop right now, all of us are dead." Bile rose in his throat. "Kemul is here. It's here! It's inside the town! It's been in the town for a whole day!"
Tourm grabbed Fethren's wrists, freeing himself, coughing and choking. "Garnash!" Fethren said.
"There should be some around here," the old man said, looking around at the barricades.
"I could go to the forest and get more," Lia said.
"No," Fethren said. "Distract it until we can find more."
"You're crazy!" Tourm said. "Kemul isn't here! We'd know!"
Fethren said to Garnash. "Find it, old man, our lives depend on it." Fethren turned to Tourm. "It's Miyal. The monster killed her and took her place. She's burning the hyssop. Garnash was...he was right." Fethren grabbed Tourm's shirt. "Are you going to do what I tell you?" Tourm swallowed, grit his teeth, and nodded. "Good. I have an idea."
"Miyal!"
Lia stepped close, and Miyal smiled, turning away from the burning pile of hyssop. A cloud of haze lifted from the fire, blurring the sun. Raindrops sizzled as they struck the pile. The children kept the pile blazing. "Hi Lia! Have you found Phellos?"
"Why are you burning the hyssop?"
"Oh, Fethren told me to. He realized it wouldn't help." Miyal leaned close, and Lia took a step back. "I don't think he trusts Garnash."
"Have you seen Fethren?"
Fethren rounded the corner of the barricade on cue, striding close to the two of them. "Lia! Tourm is going crazy!"
"Tourm?" Miyal said, smile curling into her cheeks. "What is he doing?"
"He keeps disappearing whenever I need to talk to him, he doesn't want to follow any of my orders...he keeps talking about going into the forest for more hyssop!"
"What?!" Miyal said, smile disappearing.
"Fethren!" someone yelled. Tourm held a hyssop stalk high, around the other side of the burning pile, the setting sun behind him. "I know it's really you, Kemul, you can't hide any more!"
"Tourm,you don't know what you're doing!" Fethren said.
Miyal turned, toward the setting sun. She squinted and tried to block the sun, and then bitter hyssop flooded her nostrils.
She screamed and pushed away, but Garnash held her from behind, forcing the stalk into her face. Her form shifted. Her skin pulled apart, letting sharp spikes tear through her face and back. She turned and tore a hand of sharp claws through Garnash, but a moment later Tourm shoved his hyssop in her face. She stumbled back, swiping at the air.
An arrow caught her in the leg, and she stumbled, falling to her hands and knees. She rose, body shifting and roiling. "I should have killed you in the forest!" she screamed at Lia.
Fethren grabbed the beast, lifting it off the ground. Its limbs lengthened into tendrils of flesh, snapping at nothing as Fethren pulled it closer to the burning pile of hyssop.
One of its tentacles sliced across his face, and he fell back as he hurled the monster forward. A wave of sparks rose, glittering in the gold sun, and then Kemul shrieked.
A black spike fired up from its chest, turning to mist among the smoke and rain. Lia picked Fethren up and the shrieking stopped.
"Garnash?" Fethren asked. Lia shook her head. He rose and walked to the fire, blood dripping down his face. A body half-Miyal and half-monster--horned, face stretched and distorted, teeth lengthened--lay burning among the hyssop, still and unchanging.