by Jenna Glass
History would not be kind to Leethan, and there was a high likelihood that it would be similarly unkind to Zarsha and Ellinsoltah, if anyone realized that they had been involved. But these were desperate times, and the stakes were too high to allow for squeamishness.
* * *
—
The wait was excruciating. Corlin, along with Rafetyn and the rest of the second-years, crouched on the roadway that led up the cliffs, behind the third set of barricades that had been erected. Although there was no sign of any enemy ships heading toward the Harbor District—the distant signs of battle seemed to have moved past the point where Khalpar’s ships ought to have turned if they were heading for the harbor rather than Wellshead Beach—Captain Norlix had ordered that the Trapper spells be kept activated at all times. Each soldier and cadet who guarded the Harbor District was equipped with a counterspell that allowed him to see, but everyone still had to reactivate his spell once as they waited for action that seemed destined never to arrive.
Corlin glanced over his shoulder, once again reminding himself that not everyone at the barricades was a “him.” Neither the cadets nor the soldiers had been told exactly what the women who had come from Women’s Well were meant to do on the battlefield. Oh, they understood that those women were there to cast some sort of women’s Kai spell that it was hoped would nullify Delnamal’s reputed powers, but the exact nature of the spell was a mystery.
“I don’t know what it’s supposed to do, either,” Captain Norlix had snapped when Corlin had tried asking him for details. “All I know is that we have been ordered to protect them at all costs while still letting them get close enough to cast their spells.”
The captain’s scowls had made it clear what he thought of that particular order, and Corlin couldn’t say he felt any better about it. There were only two of them—and two more on the opposite end of the harbor—but though they wore armor and swords and claimed to be in training at the Citadel of Women’s Well, they looked frail and frightened and very much overmatched. Even Rafetyn cut a more intimidating figure, though Corlin knew much of that was bluster. Rafetyn still looked like a boy in the midst of all these bigger, stronger cadets, and though Corlin had done what he could to help his friend hone his skills, it was clear that Rafetyn would never be even a decent swordsman. Corlin’s fear for his friend’s safety almost overwhelmed his fear for his own.
“They’re clearly not coming this way,” one of the other cadets said loudly, only to be shushed by everyone around him. Captain Norlix—along with all the other adult soldiers—was stationed down below at the first barricade, or the cadet never would have dared voice a complaint. Nor would he have ignored the frantic shushing.
“What?” he asked more loudly. “Do you think the enemy can hear me? I could shout as loud as I want and the sound couldn’t carry to where the real battle is happening.”
“Any louder,” Corlin said in a fierce whisper, “and Captain Norlix will hear you. That would be worse.”
There were a few nervous chuckles at that, but the words must have made an impression, for the cadet fell silent.
“Look,” Rafetyn said, pointing out toward the harbor. “What’s that?”
Corlin’s gaze followed the pointing finger, and at first he could make out nothing through the thick mist and drizzle, for his eyes didn’t know what he was supposed to be looking for. Several other cadets muttered scathing comments, but Rafetyn was used to ignoring them.
“It looks like a ship’s wake, only there’s no ship,” Rafetyn persisted.
Corlin’s eyes widened as he spotted it, and a chill traveled down his spine. It would not have been particularly hard for Delnamal to get his hands on a Trapper spell. They were one of Women’s Well’s most popular exports, and though no one from Women’s Well would have sold one to him—or even to Draios—he could easily have used an intermediary.
“Warn Captain Norlix!” Corlin said urgently to Cadet Nandar. At the top of the class of second-years, Nandar had been left in charge of his classmates, and therefore given the only talker their little group possessed.
Nandar looked doubtful, frowning at the wake. “Maybe it’s—”
His sense of urgency—and, to be honest, his lack of respect for Nandar—caused Corlin to snatch the talker out of his supposed commander’s hand. He then opened his Mindseye and activated the talker while Nandar sputtered in outrage.
Captain Norlix gave Corlin his fiercest glare when he answered. “Where is Cadet Nandar?” he asked in a growl.
If Corlin started defending himself, it would waste precious time, so he decided to leave apologies for later. “Cadet Rafetyn spotted a ship’s wake with no ship out in the harbor,” he said urgently. “They’re coming for us behind a Trapper spell of their own.”
He half-expected Norlix to give him a dressing-down even under these circumstances, but apparently he wasn’t giving his commanding officer enough credit. Norlix turned to look at the harbor, and Corlin could tell the moment he spotted the wake by the sudden tension in his body.
“Everybody refresh all your spells!” Norlix commanded, then cut the connection without a word to Corlin.
Corlin ignored the filthy look Nandar gave him as he handed back the talker. Everyone swiftly went about refreshing the Trapper spells as well as the spells on their weapons and armor. It was too soon—the wake was approaching fast, but it would still take time for the ship’s men to disembark—but there was no reason not to do it yet.
Heart pounding, Corlin shared a terrified look with Rafetyn. Many of their classmates had been disappointed to be stationed on the cliff road, thinking they’d be less likely to see action here. Corlin and Rafetyn—who in Corlin’s estimation were the only cadets with fully functioning brains—had found the unlikelihood of seeing battle a very good thing.
“Whatever happens,” Corlin said under his breath, “stay close to me.” Silently, he cursed Captain Norlix—and even Lord Aldnor—for sending Rafetyn into battle in the first place, even though he knew Rafetyn would not have wanted special treatment.
Rafetyn looked at him and shook his head. “You worry about you,” he said, looking both frightened and resolute at the same time. He slung his bow off his shoulder. “I need to hang back, and your job is to move forward.”
Corlin gritted his teeth to stop himself from arguing. It was true that Rafetyn was better with a bow than a sword and had therefore been assigned to stay behind the barricade for as long as humanly possible. Corlin wished his own skills with the bow had been enough that he could have stayed beside his friend and defended him, but if the battle came to them, his orders were to engage in hand-to-hand combat.
Nerves roiling in his stomach, Corlin watched the ship’s wake move ever closer to the shore.
CHAPTER FORTY
The approach into the harbor was not quite as stealthy as Delnamal would have liked. The flagship of the Khalpari navy was powerfully warded and took no damage when it triggered a magic-powered mine concealed in the harbor’s waters, but the noise and the sudden gout of water alerted every defender of the danger and gave them precious time to prepare. He could not see any soldiers lurking in the district, waiting for them to arrive, but just because he didn’t see them didn’t mean they weren’t there.
Delnamal used one of the motes of Kai in his aura to set off one of the anti-Trapper spells the grand magus had developed, but unless Aaltah had found some way to counter the counterspell, there seemed to be no defenders awaiting them. Even when the first wave of Khalpari soldiers began disembarking, there was no sign of resistance save for an ineffectual fire spell that no seasoned soldier would fail to look for and disable.
“What is this?” Draios asked incredulously as the ship continued to empty its fighters into the eerie silence of the docks. “What are your people up to?”
Delnamal frowned, feeling unaccountably disturbed by the lack of resi
stance. He knew very little about military tactics, but when Khalpar’s lord commander had suggested that making landfall would be the most perilous part of their mission, he had fully believed it. He peered over the railing into the deserted district, trying to find any sign of defenders.
The ship had made landfall on the northernmost end of the harbor for the easiest access to one of the roads that wound its way up the cliffs. Although Delnamal still saw no defenders, he now noticed that there was a series of barricades set up along the road, and he understood Tynthanal’s strategy.
“Thanks to the traitor,” he said, “my half-brother knows we will be coming this way. And he also knows the bulk of our forces will be coming at them over land. He believes he can defend the roads up the cliffs easily with a small force, and so he has concentrated his men there.”
Draios looked doubtful. “So he will just…let us land?”
Delnamal smiled. “Of course,” he said as if this was what he had expected all along. “What harm can we do loose in the Harbor District?” He looked to the top of the cliffs, where the buildings of the main part of the city were barely visible in the gloom and rain. “They don’t care if we disembark here. They think they can stop us from climbing.”
Already, the harbor front was teeming with the soldiers who had landed, all bristling with weapons and ready to fight.
“Remember to stay close to me,” Delnamal said to Draios when it was finally their turn to disembark.
Draios gave him an annoyed scowl. “Yes, yes. Don’t treat me like a simpleton.”
There was a shout in the distance, then the sound of weapons clashing. A crossbow bolt thunked into the dock disturbingly close to where they were standing. Hastily, Delnamal opened his Mindseye, then used three motes of Kai from his aura to activate the shield spells that had been developed especially for them, as well as Draios’s doubling spell.
When he opened his eyes, Draios was surrounded by a veritable army of doubles. The real Draios had a ring of white around his eyes and was suddenly breathing hard as a crossbow bolt passed harmlessly through one of the doubles that stood near him. The boy king was understandably frightened, for he had not the imagination to have truly anticipated the experience of having people try to kill him.
“Keep moving,” Delnamal reminded him, for if he alone among his sea of doubles stood still, he would be easily identified.
Draios blinked, then seemed to shake off his fear, striding forward with his sword drawn. Not that there were any defenders within reach. The crossbow bolts were coming from the barricades, far enough away that even spelled bolts could miss their targets.
Draios’s troops were pressing forward against the increasing hail of bolts and arrows, and soon the first men were hitting the barricades. They had been thoroughly briefed on what to expect and were prepared to fight enemies they could not see, until Delnamal was close enough to cast another anti-Trapper spell.
“Hurry up!” Draios shouted over his shoulder at Delnamal. “My men are being slaughtered!”
Delnamal rolled his eyes. He doubted Draios cared much more than he did if every man in their mini army died—as long as they served their purpose—but he supposed it was necessary to keep up appearances lest the men lose heart.
His stores of stolen Kai well stocked, Delnamal’s legs felt as strong and able as they had before his misadventure at Aaltah’s Well. More so, even, as he did not have to carry around all the extra bulk. Stepping off the docks, he hurried toward the fighting. Halfway there, he came upon a soldier who lay with an arrow piercing his shoulder. The man called out to him for help, holding out a hand in supplication. Delnamal opened his Mindseye and neatly plucked the Rhokai from the soldier’s chest, ending his suffering and replenishing his own supply of free Kai. In the chaos of the fighting, no one seemed to notice that he had killed one of their wounded—a fortuitous circumstance Delnamal had fully anticipated.
Closing his Mindseye once more, Delnamal continued forward. There were no more bolts or arrows aimed his way, the concentration of the Aaltah defenders now fully focused on those who were trying to force the barricades. Bodies were already piling up before the first of those barricades, the smell of blood and death heavy in the air.
Delnamal managed to snatch the Kai from two more wounded soldiers before he made it near the front line, the Khalpari fighters parting eagerly to let him through. Arrows winged their way toward him now, most bouncing off the powerful shield spell that protected him. But even his powerful, Kai-fueled shield spell was not entirely impenetrable, for a single spell-laden arrow pierced it and slammed into Delnamal’s chest.
The force was enough to knock him back several steps, the arrow’s spell so powerful it easily pierced the armor and bit into the flesh and bone beneath. Any lesser man would have died instantly, but Delnamal just recovered his balance and reached up to break the arrow’s shaft so that one of the Khalpari soldiers could pull the thing through him.
In the midst of all the screams and shouts of battle and the clashing of weapons, Delnamal thought he heard the fearful murmur of the enemy who’d just seen him survive the unsurvivable. No doubt Aaltah had received reports of his powers, but seeing it firsthand was a very different reality. And now they would learn just how inadequate their intelligence was.
Opening his Mindseye once more, Delnamal plucked a mote of Kai from his aura. He didn’t bother with knocking down the Trapper spell yet, for the Kai spell that was contained in his belt buckle did not require men to be visible to kill them.
Delnamal activated the spell, then pointed his finger toward the first set of barricades to give it direction. Screams filled the air.
Battlefield Kai spells like the one Delnamal had just cast were meant to be used as a weapon of last resort—or even vengeance. They were mercilessly blunt instruments that made no distinction between friend and foe. There were several Khalpari soldiers who stood between Delnamal and the barricades he had targeted, and those men were screaming and clutching their chests.
Unmoved, Delnamal calmly used another mote of Kai to knock down the Trapper spell that was hiding the defenders. He then closed his Mindseye to see about two dozen soldiers of Aaltah, still busily firing arrows and hacking at the Khalpari soldiers who were already dying. Delnamal was impressed that not a single defender had been affected by the Kai spell. Shield spells designed to protect against Kai were extraordinarily expensive magic, rarely wasted on anyone but the highest-ranking officers. However, it seemed Aaltah had spared no expense to protect even its rank-and-file soldiers.
The unfortunate Khalpari soldiers whom Draios had not seen fit to protect with Kai shield spells suffered briefly as the bones of their rib cages squeezed inward and ultimately snapped, jagged ends puncturing hearts and lungs and dropping them dead in their tracks.
Delnamal felt a pleasant flutter of excitement, despite the hail of bolts and arrows that targeted him, for as well-equipped as the Aaltah defenders might be, they could not possibly be prepared for what they faced.
Once again, Delnamal opened his Mindseye and triggered his Kai spell.
Seasoned soldiers might be accustomed to the risks of Kai spells; however, the successful casting of a Kai spell was rare. A man had to be on the brink of death, magically gifted enough to see Kai, rich enough to afford the most expensive of all magics, and clearheaded enough in the face of death to cast it. After which, he died, his threat having ended. And shields designed to counteract Kai spells had to be reactivated after each use.
There was a new tenor to the shouts and cries after Delnamal cast the Kai spell a second time, the music of panic hitting his ears as the defenders died and others—farther up the road and as yet out of range—for the first time fully recognized what they were up against.
“Get that barricade out of the way!” he ordered the soldiers behind him.
None of the men was eager to move in fro
nt of him, but there was not a man among them who didn’t know how easily he could kill them for disobedience. They rushed toward the barricade, some hacking at it while others hit it with spells that weakened it.
Draios stepped up beside him—one on each side of him, so that Delnamal did not know which was the real man.
“Try to aim your next Kai spell away from my men, won’t you?” Draios said with a dry edge in his voice, the sound coming from both sides of Delnamal at the same time.
Delnamal resisted the urge to roll his eyes. “Of course, Your Majesty,” he said with a slight nod of his head.
There were still bolts and arrows coming at them from farther up the road, as there were likely to be for the duration of their ascent. Many of them passed through Draios’s doubles harmlessly. One of them bounced off the real Draios’s shield spell, and the boy hurriedly moved, trying to lose himself once more in the sea of doubles.
“Onward!” Draios yelled at his men, and they began the long climb.
Someone brought Delnamal a cheval. The sure-footed magical pseudo-horse might make him an easier target; however, it would allow him to progress with his Mindseye open all the time. It would also give him a somewhat safer angle from which to cast his Kai spells. He did not particularly care if some of Draios’s men perished from friendly fire, but he did need them to take down the barricades, of which there were sure to be many before they reached the top of the cliffs.
Riding comfortably on the cheval’s back, Delnamal took advantage of every opportunity to help himself to the Rhokai of the injured they passed, for it was of vital importance that he not run out of strength—or free Kai motes. Whenever they reached pockets of more spirited resistance, he cast another Kai spell. And however easy the road might ordinarily be to defend, there was no way the enemy could stop a small force bearing an inexhaustible Kai spell to clear the way.