Thankfully, the storm disappeared and didn’t stick around, like some of her earlier ones had. But the ground was incredibly muddy. They would have a difficult time maneuvering in it.
But the dragons were so massive. Would the mud affect them? I didn’t think so. If they reached the walls, they would knock them down.
“It is fighters who make a city. Not walls,” Demaratus said, making me realize I must have spoken my concern out loud.
The supply train made it through the mud because so many Carians went to help push and pull to move things into position.
They began constructing their towers and catapults, and Xander directed the archers to prepare their flame arrows.
But as soon as they did, a massive rainstorm appeared.
And it was only over the Carian army.
“Zalira?” I asked.
“It’s not me,” she said, her mouth open.
“Arion is an earth god,” Ahyana said. “It seems that he has aspects similar to his mother.”
The Carians had someone who could also control storms. They hadn’t revealed it beforehand because they were waiting for this moment. They had let Zalira rain on them earlier, knowing that it would do her no good now.
The rain absolutely soaked the wood of the towers and siege engines.
They would be impossible to light up.
And destroying them with fire was our only option. Otherwise they would use them to batter our walls down and get their soldiers inside Troas.
“Can you stop it?” I asked her.
“Dea Maimaktes,” she said, closing her eyes. She held her hands out in front of her but then dropped them, turning off her aspect. “No. I can’t do anything to it. I can’t even sense it. It’s like it’s coming from a totally different source.”
The construction continued and everything was coming together so quickly.
Ahyana went over to a window and turned to smile at me. “Do you know what they call a flock of ravens?”
“What?”
“An unkindness.”
She called up her aspect and I heard the ravens before I saw them. There was an entire legion of them and they were dive-bombing and harassing the Carian soldiers. They managed to stall the construction as the soldiers tried to fight back or run away from them.
When Ahyana finally turned her power off, the ravens flew away. I saw another small group detach from the main Carian body and head south. And I was again left wondering if they were leaving or moving into a different position.
“I hate that all I can do is harry and delay them. I wish I could call down lightning like Zalira,” Ahyana said.
Her sister shook her head. “I can only do it for so long, and it essentially turns into harassment, too. It’s not enough to stop them.”
The Carians finished their building and started moving things into position, despite the mud. The rain suddenly stopped and the sun was bright overhead.
Then one of the earth dragons began to roar, and the others took up the call. The stone under my feet rattled from the sound.
“What are they doing?” Zalira asked.
“It’s a signal,” Demaratus said. “Look!”
He pointed to the south, near the docks, and the entire ocean seemed to be covered in Carian ships. They had stayed out of sight until the dragon’s roar and were heading straight toward the Ilionian navy.
“They’ll be slaughtered,” I said aghast. They were so outnumbered.
