A Plague of Giants (Seven Kennings #1) - Kevin Hearne Page 0,196

the weight of the mountain above it never loomed so heavy. The tunnel connecting Rael and Brynlön under the Poet’s Range had been the work of three hundred stonecutters, working in concert to create not only a vital and safe trade route between our countries but a wonder of the world, a testament to the power of our kenning. The same three hundred stonecutters also had created the Basalt Tunnel to Ghurana Nent underneath the Huntress Range, allowing the breadth of the continent to be connected via the Merchant Trail. It felt unwholesome to wall that up, to tarnish such a legacy and a monument in the space of minutes, to effectively destroy its function, however temporarily. But I supposed it was less unwholesome than everyone I knew dying at the sword of something called a Bone Giant.

People streamed out of the tunnel as we marched in, bundles held under their arms and slung on their backs, some pulling carts or riding horse-drawn wagons. Worried evacuees from the tunnel warrens, wondering where they should go. And some of them—quite a few of them—were Brynts who must be refugees, running in advance of the army. It was their bleak, hopeless faces that drove home to me the urgency of our mission. How horrific it must be to be forced out of your home with nothing but the clothes on your back. If we failed—more specifically, if I failed—to hold this army back, then everyone in Baseld and perhaps beyond would wear the same bleak expressions.

I thought perhaps I finally had an insight to what coal must feel like being pressed into a diamond.

—

I was marching near the front of the column with Temblor Priyit some while later when a young courier sped up from the Brynt side of the tunnel and halted in front of her, saluting and stating that he had a scouting report.

“The enemy forces are only a quarter hour away, Temblor, moving at double time.”

“Size of force?”

“They are depleted—they’ve been drinking from the Gravewater, and it’s taken a toll. But they are still an army of six or seven thousand.”

We were four hundred.

The temblor turned to me. “Stonecutter Meara. Can you tell how far into the tunnel we are right now?”

“Aye. A moment.” I removed my boots, closed my eyes to block out visual distraction, and stretched out with my kenning to sense the mountain above us and the long, smooth tunnel carved out of it by stonecutters long dead. I located my position within it and opened my eyes. “A little less than a quarter of the way, Temblor.” The Bone Giants moved fast, indeed. Had we delayed, we might not have been able to meet them in the tunnel at all. She gave a curt nod and addressed the courier once more. “So that should mean that they are entirely within the tunnel at this point if they are marching in anything like a formation and not stretched out.”

“I believe that is correct, Temblor.”

“Excellent,” she said with a tight grin of satisfaction. “Stonecutter, begin constructing your wall right here. When it’s finished, seal them in at the other end with another wall.”

“My range may not be that great, Temblor.”

The satisfaction disappeared. “It’s not? How far back can you build another wall?”

“I have never tried to build a wall out of my sight, so I am unsure. A thousand lengths? Two thousand, maybe?”

A frown now. “That won’t trap enough of them. They could retreat and get out.”

“But it would at least keep Baseld safe until the Council can send a juggernaut to finish them,” the courier said.

“True enough. Stopping them is the primary objective, and elimination is secondary. Please begin, stonecutter, building from the top down. I will array my forces in front of you to give you time to complete it should it be necessary.” Noises echoing off stone from down the tunnel suggested that it might. The temblor paused, listening, then continued. “Leave some room at the bottom so that we may execute an orderly retreat underneath, and once we’re safe, you complete it. We’ll worry about sealing them in from behind later.”

She shouted orders to the column, and they marched ahead and filled the width of the tunnel in a tight formation, shields overlapping and spears pointed outward. Gaerit was among them, and he gave me the tiniest of nods and a hint of a smile as he passed by. He was in the third row, which worried me. I had to build the