Judith Slays Holofernes, Pt XXIV

The reports of Holofernes marching with 110,000 men were wrong.

He marches with at least 150,000.

The city is as surrounded as it can be, given the mountains that cradle us.  They have even sent men around to block the back gate, although they must have been sent as advance scouts a month or more ago.  I will say this for Holofernes- he has a flair for the dramatic that probably saves him quite a bit of battling. Most cities that woke up to such a display would probably surrender right then and there- but most cities do not have our resources, and so Bethulia, while perhaps gripped in a sort of nervous quietness, nevertheless goes about her business.

My Slayer has spent the morning praying to her god for guidance, whereas I have spent the morning on the walls, examining the troops, for what- I’m not certain.  They are eerie in their stillness, their discipline. They have made no move to actually attack, yet have also sent no one over to parlay. It makes me very nervous, indeed, to see men standing beneath the hot summer sun as though made of stone.  It is unnatural.

But then, unnatural threats are precisely the ones Slayers are called to face.

I see no obvious demon faces among them, but that makes no difference, because some demons are capable of taking on human appearance.  There is, however, a certain… oppressive tang to the air that tells me magic is being worked.  A large, powerful magic, and one that has shrugged off all my novice attempts at divining it.  It requires further investigation.

Tonight we must Hunt.

***

Every night for the past week we have attempted to infiltrate the enemy camp, but there is no way in to that damned place!  Their scouts are too good, their wards too well-placed. Holofernes, whatever else he may be, is no fool, and there is no sneaking in.  There are too many to go in on the offensive, and so each dawn we creep back into our city, to strategize another attempt for the following night.

But this morning something has given us a new urgency.

As we made our way through the aquifers back to the tunnel that leads to our house, my Slayer paused.  “Ku-Aya,” she said. “Does it not seem the water levels have… dropped?”

“What?”  I said, and looked back over my shoulder, aiming the mage-light I carried at the dancing waters.  At first they seemed the same as they always do, but the more I looked, the more I realized she was right.  There was a dark line above the waters, showing where they had been.  It was only an inch or two above the surface, but considering the size of the lake…

“It can’t be,” I whispered, horrified.  But when we returned to our chambers I cast a spell and discovered that it absolutely is.  Somehow, Holofernes has blocked the water, and what has renewed itself from time immemorial is now slowly, inevitably, draining away to nothing.

“We have perhaps a month, certainly no longer,” I said grimly to my Slayer.  She nodded, fingers drumming in thought against her thigh.

“We must tell the Elders,” she said at last.  “Or rather, you must. I will send you to them with a message, telling them the God of gods has revealed our peril to me.  They must begin to ration immediately.”