To Be Victorious: The Maestro Chronicles Book 6

by John Buttrick

  “The direction of the wind is how I caught a whiff of that one,” David added while pointing to the body. “It is possible there are more invisible enemies hiding where we cannot smell them.” The warning was clear.

  “We will not be here for much longer,” Daniel replied, “I will trust you and Silvia to sniff out any invisible Accomplisheds who get close to us.”

  The owls were over the battle zone, which was what he had been waiting for. Hundreds of spheres floating in the sky brought daytime to the late marks of the night, making it easier to see what was going on, and acquire the necessary visuals for conveyance. The night vision of his feathered friends would have been good enough without the lighting, but the spheres were a bonus he had not counted on. After briefly focusing through the eyes of each owl, he sent a mental image of the areas where he wanted the individual owls to concentrate. Beady and Squirt he sent to hunt specific individuals.

  Through the eyes of Wesley, he could see men on horses, parts of Kall’s forces, in amongst Lobenian horsemen in their royal blue uniforms with gold trim, as well as men on foot, each with swords swinging, shields clanging, and individuals pounding away at each other. Thousands of Sentinels entered the fray, led by Captain Tanner, riding Taracopian war horses, and the blunted-spearhead that was the enemy line began to give way as lances of light passed through shields as if they were made of paper, and the flesh of the soldiers holding the supposed protection with even less difficulty.

  When the charge of the Sentinels and Lobenian cavalry swept away to the right and left, a mounted squad of Benhannon Guardsmen aimed their mini-crossbows and twenty streaming pebbles of flames flew into what had become the center front line of Kall’s attack force. Men on foot and on horseback screamed in fury and pain as they toppled and fell burning to the ground. The strike hurt the center but not the bulk of the line pressing forward over the smoldering corpses that were being trampled and scattered by boots and hooves.

  Accomplisheds were waiting for instructions. Daniel refocused his attention from Wesley to the men and women standing before him. He summoned potential and created a three dimensional image of the battle zone. “Accomplished Logan, your squads are to attack here on the far right, Accomplished Duadams, your squad is to attack from behind these trees to the left,” he went on to assign specific attack points for each squad. “Carlos, Sero, Simon, and I will attack in the center with David and Silvia on the lookout for invisible Accomplisheds. Squad Leaders, be sure at least one of your members is maintaining the spell, Running with the Wolves.” He did not want enemy Accomplisheds to appear quietly and without warning right in the middle of his own squads. It would not be the first time such a thing had occurred.

  A mental screech from Lila caused Daniel to focus on the owl. Through her keen eyes he saw a large group of Pentrosan horsemen yanking on their reins and scattering to the right and left, leaving a huge open area. A circle of ten Accomplisheds of the Serpent Guild appeared where the riders had been, with two spell-casters in the middle, bringing the number to twelve. Fireballs flew from the female caster in the center towards a squad of mounted Sentinels. Most of Daniel’s non-Aakacarn assault force reined back their mounts onto hind legs and the flaming spheres struck the equine chests and undersides and then dissipated. The shield amulet under the saddles protected the horses. When the front hooves slammed down, those Sentinels launched their offensive, sending lances of light at their attackers, but the counterstrike slammed into shields, and were deflected right, left, and up and down. They did no damage to Serpents in the circle.

  Two riders had not reacted quickly enough and were struck in the face, fire burned their eyes, perhaps the insides of mouths and noses, and their uniforms were in flames. Another rider’s horse had been struck in the face and flames were licking out of the mare’s open mouth, nostrils, and inner ears, the only areas the shield did not cover.

  Daniel was tempted to use the visual to convey into the fray and rescue the wounded, but instead opened his eyes and focused on the people waiting for his command, knowing help would arrive. The uniforms of the two men were burning away but their bodies, except for the fingertips, noses, eyes, and inner ears, were protected by the shield amulets against their chests.

  No one in his squads had horses for this fight; they would be using Conveyance to get them where they needed to be. “Acquire visuals,” he ordered, paused so they could do so, and then said, “Attack,” and threw his hands up into his hood, covering his ears.

  Five hundred Accomplisheds were glowing with potential, all in differing hues, and then twenty-five flashes of light, for an instant, illumined Kall’s former camp like noonday. The sudden absence of hundreds of bodies exiting the spaces they had been occupying resulted in air rushing in to fill those spaces, and sounded as if every whip in the world had been flicked a finger-width from Daniel’s ears. Looking, he saw his companions had taken the same precaution.

  While he was waiting for the ringing in his ears to stop, Percival sent him a visual of the battlefront. Leah was riding her horse ahead of a score of cloaked figures with her baton extended out and aimed, and sent a cone of light that quickly struck the teleportation circle Daniel had seen arrive. The two Aakacarns, a man and a woman, in the center were shielded and unharmed, but seven of the ten standing in the circle fell dead. The remaining five evidently did not have enough potential between them to teleport elsewhere, either that, or they were plain stupid.

  Leah sent a jagged streak of lightning towards the five, and the bolt struck and threw three instantly charred bodies into the air. Twenty spells, originating from the Atlantans following Leah, struck the remaining two casters. The first spell, powered by ten of the twenty, overwhelmed their shields, and in rapid succession the other ten spells struck. The female was petrified to stone, sliced, burned, and blasted into pieces so small a dust cloud was all that remained of her. The second Serpent, with similar speed, sprouted ivy from his nose and mouth, lost and arm, a leg, an ear, and then bloated until his skin burst apart in a spray of blood. The meaty-one-legged-one-armed-torso fell to the ground as the dust of his partner dissipated in the night breeze.

  Daniel thanked the owl for the visual and was about to focus on Barney in order to convey to his self-assigned attack position, when Vernon showed him three Atlantan Guild Accomplisheds of the Health Department appear near the injured Sentinels, who were no longer on fire, and the horse. Among the healers was Beta Curran, a former Aakademned whose long brown hair was hidden within her hooded-cloak. The fifty-three year-old possessed a sturdy frame, was in perfect physical condition, and appeared to be about ten years younger than her actual age. Beta had two lightning bolts on the shoulders of her cloak. She and her fellow Healers quickly bent over the wounded Sentinels and the horse and moments later vanish in a flash, taking the casualties with them. Those three would probably survive and be restored to health, but Daniel was seeing many of his people die before hitting the ground, and some who died just as a new team of Healers arrived not quite in time to save them. Destroying Kall and Chen once and for all was going to be costly, but it had to be done. Fall was coming.

  Barney showed him men on horses and on foot, the back end of a huge fighting force, heading west in the middle of a line that stretched across the field, a field which went on for spans, far ahead of Kall’s army, and would eventually reach a broad row of small hills. Beyond that point, Daniel knew the land was dense forest for many spans until reaching the farms and ranches that fed the capitol city.

  Kall could have chosen to filter through the trees to the right and left, but had learned the hard way how dangerous that was. A goodly number of Daniel’s Accomplisheds that had been originally trained in Aakadon, were formally of the Willow Guild, and enjoyed animating trees and vines. After seeing hundreds of his men being snatched out of their saddles and hanged by vines and hundreds more being smashed to messy smears by huge tree limbs, Kall must have decided the open field offered him his best chance of covering the nece
ssary ground.

  The men on horses, particularly from Battencay and Fon Kay, were wearing armor while most of those on foot relied on chainmail for protection. Daniel readily identified the Pentrosan legion of regulars, dressed in their light brown uniforms with dark brown trim, chainmail, and dark brown conical helmets. He recognized the Battencayan troops wearing dark blue uniforms with yellow trim, and the Fon Kayan legions, dressed in dark green uniforms with even darker green trim that appeared to be black in the current light radiating from the multi-colored spheres floating in the sky. The latter two allies preferred helmets with a spike on top and face guards that hid most of their faces. But it was the men in the gray with black trim uniforms of the Sutton Guard that were the most dangerous. All of them were highly skilled fighters, well-seasoned, and ready for action on the instant. Each man had a black conical helmet on his head and wore chain mail, a black shield strapped to his left arm, a sword sheathed at his belt, and a battle-ax holstered beside his saddle.

  The spheroid slingers were dressed in the uniforms of the Pentrosan regulars and positioned near the middle of the formation, possibly being held in reserve for when they ultimately reach the walls of the city, seeing as Kall’s siege engines, catapults, dart throwers, and flaming bolt launchers were rendered useless by Simon’s legion of ants. Daniel had seen enough.

  Using Barney to provide the visual, he summoned the potential for Conveyance, pictured himself, Carlos, Sero, Simon, David, and Silvia, standing in the field, and then cast the spell. The blackness between here and there enveloped him. By the time he exhaled, they were all standing in the field, and facing the backside of the invaders.

  To his right and left, the squads he had sent in earlier were casting spells at their designated targets and striking down hundreds of men. Silvia sent a stream of flaming pebbles from her crossbow that shot across a quarter of a span of ground before striking an armored Pentrosan Knight in the back, and roasting him in the suddenly superheated steel. Daniel recognized the crested helmet as the man was falling to the ground, but had not known until that moment a Royal Knight of Pentrosa was taking part in the battle. Well, there he was, but not anymore.

  “Time for a little gardening,” Simon whispered and threw a handful of seeds in the air, jetted them in a stream of air ahead of the third line of solders in from the rear, spread the seeds wide to the left and right, and then let them drop. Moments later, thick vines sprouted, and lashed out entwining the legs of the horses, tripping them, sending the riders flying, dropping, and in some cases slipping from their saddles. Foot soldiers, snagged at the ankles, used their swords to hack free of the vines, swinging the blades and cutting the offending growths off just above the ground. The last two center lines of horsemen and foot soldiers halted at the spectacle while those farther to the right and left continued on, unimpeded, with the rest of the army.

  “I like horses,” Carlos mumbled and raised his hands, sending ten beams of light from his fingers and thumbs. Each beam struck a mounted man in the back of the head and punched a hole that blasted all the way through each skull, and no doubt carried a small distance beyond their foreheads before the focused energy ceased. The men slumped off of their steeds, which were completely unharmed. Daniel figured that had been the way the bodyguard had intended it to be.

  While Carlos and Simon had been casting their spells, Sero spoke in a quiet voice, and Daniel only heard the words, “can’t be harder than tunnels,” as the Demfilian-born Accomplished bent down and touched the ground. At first it was difficult to figure out what the assistant had in mind, until the ground half a span ahead, about the middle of Kall’s forces, dropped into a dip that was hundreds of paces wide and possibly thirty paces across, it was difficult to be precise from where Daniel was standing, but the effect of the spell, Fashioning, was profound. The line of men and horses directly over the spot Sero had chosen to reshape fell from sight. From a distance it was not easy to know depth of the trench, yet it was certainly deep enough to swallow a horse and rider.

  Since the enemy force continued to charge forward ahead of the trench, the ones ahead had no problem, but the fellows with the trench in front of them could not stop. Most of the men on foot halted easily enough, but some of them were trampled or shoved forward by mounted men who could not stop their steeds. The shoving from behind resulted in everyone involved with the collision dropping into the trench, which was quickly being filled up with equine and human bodies. Most of the troops managed to stop, yet hundreds in the lines to the rear of them sped to the right and left, almost to the trees on either side of the field, which channeled them into the deadly spells being cast by Daniel’s other squads.

  In slightly under a tenth of a mark since Daniel’s squads took to the field, Kall’s field force was, at least for the moment, cut in half. Hundreds of his men and scores of his horses were dead, but that was only a small percentage of what needed to be overcome.

  Peering through the eyes of one owl after the other, Daniel could see what was happening on all sides. Four circles of Serpents teleported well behind the Lobenian lines and spells began to fly. Men and horses were sliced to pieces by invisible blades of air. Betsy, the screech-owl could not see potential being focused and so neither could Daniel while using her eyes, but he easily recognized the type of Melody being used by the results.

  Through the eyes of Reva the brown, he saw another circle of Serpents appear and then a team of Atlantans, one of the squads under Rishard’s command. Spells flew back and forth between the two groups and then the Serpents vanished, beginning the catch-me game. Go get them Rishard!

  Farley, the hoot-owl caught Daniel’s attention and through the avian eyes he watched as thirteen squads of Accomplished charged into Kall’s left flank with batons out and casting lightning bolts, solid streams of fire, miniature whirlwinds, and death beams. Hundreds of Sutton Guardsmen, the Pentrosan elite fighting force, fell to the ground in violent swirling flames, and did not rise again.

  Wee, the gray, provided the sight of twelve squads of Accomplisheds striking Kall’s right flank. Daniel recognized Zera in the lead. Those combined units of Suttons, Pentrosan Regular Cavalry, and Fon Kayan legionnaires were struck down as lightning bolts blasted craters into the ground beneath the feet of both men and horses alike. Shields, armor, or chainmail made no difference, the soldiers might as well have been wearing plain wool for protection; nothing could save them from the spells that were burning and rippling them apart. Hundreds were dead in moments, and then thunder pops announced the arrival of more teleportation circles with scores of Serpents and hundreds more non-Aakacarn troops. The field was in flames, the trees around the field were in flames, and the thick smoke of it dimmed the light from the sphere floating above.

  Daniel took in a breath, along with the stench of burning flesh and hair, and immediately coughed the noxious mixture from his lungs. The fighting only intensified as the reinforcements breathed new strength into Kall’s troops. The spell, Find All, allowed Daniel to sense the presences of everyone on the field, Aakacarns specifically, his own and those of the Serpent. His team and all two thousand Accomplisheds of the Atlantan Guild that had been dedicated to the engagement were fully committed, along with about fifteen hundred Serpents, which were spread apart, popping in and out of the battle-zone, and mostly targeting Daniel’s spell-casters. The hit and run tactics were working well, but he wanted to see Chen make a greater commitment.

  Daniel unsheathed his diamond-bladed crescendo, pointed it at a circle of twenty that suddenly appeared in the haze and sent a lightning bolt, backed by seven bolts of potential, blasting into the teleportation squad. The crackling boom was heard even above the sounds of the many other spells being cast and the deep-thump explosions of trinitrotoluene. His strike sent soil and rocks flying up into the air along with blackened bodies and countless burning shreds of silk. The dead Accomplisheds of the Serpent Guild reached the apex of their upward flight and then fell limply into the huge crater that had formed
beneath them.

  “Can’t he warn a person before he does something like that?” David complained while holding his ears and blinking rapidly as if trying to get the flash off his retinas. He bent over coughing, the cost of having taken a deep breath in order to ask the question. He then vomited; the cost of wearing the wolf-head amulet in contact with his skin. The smells that Daniel found to be nauseating must have been many times worse for the knifer-thrower.

  Silvia arose from a squatted position where she had turned away from the lightning bolt. She faced her husband while reaching inside her blouse, evidently turning back around the wolf-head amulet so it would again be touching her skin; smart woman. “It isn’t like we are in a place devoid of flash-bangs, roaring flames, and loud detonations. So, no, I did not expect a warning. I expect he will be making lots more noise before this battle is over,” she stated while pulling out her daggerlance and tapping the ruby, sending lance after lance of light into one soldier after another, with lethal accuracy. Her husband wiped his mouth and raised his daggerlance without further comment.

  “On the bright side,” Simon evidently felt the need to add his encouragement while eyeing the threat ahead. “If either of you is deafened or blinded due to the heightened senses given you by the amulet, one of us Accomplisheds will heal you, but if you lose your heads, you will be out of luck.” Somehow they did not seem amused or encouraged by his assurance.

  To the right Daniel noticed Carlos raising his hands out wide and, after a few moments, the bodyguard slapped them together. Hornets swarmed onto the field, targeting their stingers on the Pentrosans, Battencayans, and Fon Kayans, and did not spare their horses, which was surprising after knowing how much the Three-bolt Accomplished liked the equines.