Free Sunset of Lantonne by Jim Galford Page B

her. She knew full well he could spring into an attack from that position, despite appearing entirely relaxed.
    From upstairs in the first room at the top of the steps, Ilarra heard soft words being spoken, then the quiet sobs of a scared child. Before she could wonder at it, another wildling came from that room, this one with grey fur and a bearing that told her he was no stranger to combat. In that man, she saw no fear, only readiness and determination. There were no children to be seen, so Ilarra dismissed what she thought she had heard as absurd. No one would bring children when they were clearly prepared for war.
    “What’s the situation?” the grey fox asked, grabbing a spear from where it rested beside the stairs. “And why are these two still here?”
    “Wanted to know what you want done with them,” the red who had spoken to them up to that point answered. “Kill them?”
    Raeln’s hands moved from being folded in his lap to resting on his thighs.
    “No,” the grey fox told the red, shaking his head. “These aren’t our lands and we don’t get to make those decisions. They haven’t attacked, so we send them on their way.”
    “Pack-leader…”
    “I gave my orders. Question me again and I’ll send you with them as a pelt.”
    Nodding nervously, the spokesperson came back to Raeln and Ilarra.
    “Insrin is being generous today,” the red fox told them, gesturing toward the door. “Leave quickly. I recommend running.”
    Raeln hopped onto his feet immediately, offering a hand to Ilarra. Ignoring a challenging growl from one of the foxes, he grabbed Ilarra’s arm as he turned to move toward the door. He practically dragged her at a near-run the whole way until they stood in the sun-drenched grass and dirt road in front of the building.
    “What was that about?” Ilarra asked, but Raeln held up a hand to silence her.
    Nervously, Ilarra followed Raeln’s stare.
    Spread across the entire dimly lit pre-dawn horizon, stumbling humanoid shapes were marching toward them like an army far larger than Ilarra thought possible. Clouds of rising dust around them told of thousands more behind them.
    As shocking as the vast army was, it was what followed them that made Ilarra’s heart sink. Towering a hundred feet or more above the ground were gleaming metal creatures—golems, she realized, thinking through her studies—that were driving the army straight toward Ilarra and Raeln.
    Unlike Ilarra, Raeln did not hesitate or panic. He scooped Ilarra up in his arms and began running directly away from the approaching army.
    Situated as she was, Ilarra finally got a good view of the little village they were moving through. Whereas she had initially thought it to be an outlying portion of Lantonne, she now saw that it had once been some kind of mining village. No more than a hundred feet off to her left, she saw the drop-off of a surface mine, with roads going all directions from its edge. Either the mine had been abandoned along with the village, or Lantonne had changed their methods of mining, leaving the village to rot away.
    Raeln ran from one building to the next, eyeing each for something that he could not communicate to Ilarra, nor would he take the time to try. Finally, as they neared the southern edge of the village with the army already entering the northern portion and the ground shaking with the footfalls of the golems, he stopped and put Ilarra back on her own feet.
    Kneeling at the side of a squat stone structure, Raeln grabbed the handles of a pair of metal doors set into the base of the building. Whether it was a fruit cellar or a storm shelter, Ilarra could not care less. It was the sturdiest set of doors she had seen yet and that was likely what had caught Raeln’s eye.
    Growling as he strained to break the thick layer of rust on the lock, Raeln braced his feet against the frame of the doors and pulled until Ilarra could see his muscles trembling through both fur and clothing. With a deafening