~~~
Stefan kept watch and felt a little pleased with himself when he saw the Cat coming back from a good way away. The sun had moved well away from the vertical by then. It was nearing the middle of the afternoon and some clouds were starting to come in, still only light, but they led to changes in the play of light and shade around them on the leaves and ground. Astrid came in behind the same tree she had left by and sat down beside Rani while picking up her leather water bottle from where she had left it and taking a drink.
“Well, there are at least three of them waiting for us on the other side of the creek and most likely at least a hand of them,” she said quietly to Rani and Stefan. She turned to the mage. “Did you try and detect any magic while I was away?” she asked directly.
Rani shook her head.
“Did your lover?”
“I don’t think so,” was the reply. “I didn’t see her make any preparations and she has no wands or devices that will do that. Why?”
“Because my cloak pin made me all tingly and that should mean that someone missed me if Theodora’s spell worked as we think it does. I hope you were behind this tree and that a tree is enough to stop you being picked up, because there is someone out there looking for magic.” Quickly she cleared a patch of dirt and, with a stick, drew out and explained what she had seen ahead of them and what she had guessed as being likely.
Stefan made an approving note that Rani may not be experienced in this sort of fight, but at least she had the sense to be silent and listen to the scout and only ask questions at the end to clear things up. He also noticed that Astrid knew what to look for.
~~~
Rani thought about what she had available. She had never actually been in a real battle before and this wasn’t even a battle. It was more of a raid—the sort of thing a battle mage who was part of a line unit practiced for. It was ironic that Amin would probably better know what to do here than she did, even though she was far superior as a mage. She could plan out a battle, but not a skirmish. Still, the other two were looking at her. She looked again at the map that the Cat had drawn on the ground. Her group were strong on archery or at least missile fire if you counted martobulli and slings. They had two very strong mages, even if one of them didn’t have much in the way of offensive spells. They probably had the advantage of surprise. Could they outflank their opponents? What would happen if Astrid took the hunters up the creek to behind the enemy and then…
She thought on the problem for a little more time and hoped for some inspiration. She could see Astrid wanting to say something. She nodded at her. The officer seeking input.
“How about I take Hulagu, even if you take his horse away he is far better as a hunter than the rest of you, and we go up behind them. Can your girlfriend make an illusion of us coming along the track? If she can, the rest of you can try and get into position; they will probably look at the obvious sight and miss you moving…”
Astrid went on to outline a plan as she drew on the ground. At least Rani thought it sounded functional and Stefan was nodding with what looked like approval as she went. She hoped Theodora could do that sort of spell. It sounded like the sort of illusion she should be able to cast. Now was the time to find out. Following Astrid, she headed back to the others while Stefan took lookout.
~~~
Theodora was sitting making notes on a wax tablet. She had just come from being shriven by the priest. Theodora looked up at Astrid after she had explained the plan.
“Remember, this is something I have never tried before. I will have at least an hour then? You will make a raven sound first?” Theodora asked. She realised she probably sounded worried. She was. She had never had to make up an enchantment and then use it straight away without someone checking it beforehand, and this enchantment was a complex one. It would be far more complex than the Cat girl realised. Even Rani didn’t appreciate how complex it would be.
She still hadn’t fixed all the details, but she would possibly have to drain her storage to do it. She probably could just use any images for it, instead of copies of themselves, but you couldn’t be sure about that and she wanted to get it right. She already had something from each of them, and each of the animals, and she should be able to build a simulation that was good. The illusion would need to act as she directed, seeming to fall and take damage.
“I have only seen crows this far south. You are sure you can tell the difference?” Astrid asked, seeking confirmation from her. Was the Insackharl girl nervous as well? Surely not.
“You will be there,” Theodora pointed where Astrid had indicated. Astrid nodded. “I am sure there won’t be a crow coincidentally in exactly the right place—and we haven’t even heard one of them today. I will wait until I hear the raven call three times from the same place before I start doing anything,” she said.
Astrid nodded in confirmation and then went over to Basil and gave him a kiss. Theodora heard him respond in a low tone, she didn’t hear what he said, but Astrid had responded with, “I will see you soon.”
She could see that Basil was nervous as well, but for Astrid, not himself.
She turned to Hulagu. “Ready?”
The plainsman nodded. She looked up at the sky. Theodora realised that she was to confirm what time it was before returning her gaze to the Khitan. “Then let’s go.” The two immediately bent over and, again using the smaller fallen tree as cover, moved off along the path that Astrid had previously followed.
With that Theodora went back down the path to start her own preparations.
~~~
This time, with the advantage of knowing where she was headed, Astrid stayed further away from the creek as she moved. She wanted to be at least slightly behind their opponents to make their position of strength a trap. When she started shooting, she needed them with the creek at their back doing exactly as she had planned. For all she knew the whole group of adventurers could be greatly outnumbered and, regardless of that, there were only two of them out here and they had no spells. They would be relying on the speed and accuracy of their bows once their opponents revealed themselves. Hopefully they could target the mage first. There would be at least one of them. She could count on that.
It did not take long before they had gone far enough upstream. She decided that it was time to head towards the creek. It was time to start to move slowly, very, very slowly. It was evident each of them was in stalking mode. She realised that she had returned to her cat-like pose while Hulagu moved almost like a dog and almost giggled.
While she stayed on all fours and froze, Hulagu moved and then lied down, scanning ahead for a while before moving again. When he was stationary he was almost always lying down unless something was underneath him. Sometimes, if he thought he heard something he would freeze in place. The two stalkers moved beside each other but about a hand of paces apart. Constantly they checked on each other and their progress. Astrid was not worried. They had plenty of time. She had deliberately said it would take longer to get in position than she thought that it would, just in case.
It took more than twice as long to cover the distance to the creek than it had to move double the distance upstream. Eventually they were rewarded by coming to the last screen of laurels before the water. The coarse serrated edge leaves provided more shade than cover and, with the advancing afternoon, that dappled shadow was what the hunters wanted. Looking ahead Astrid realised that the new position, about a hand of hands of paces upstream of where she had been before, was ideal. She had a tree to hide behind while waiting and, peering through, could now clearly see four of their opponents. Most importantly she could see two people behind the bunya pine and one of them, from what he was wearing and the way he was leaning back against the tree root and staring at the sky, had to be a mage. He was as useless in the bush as her two were.
She looked to the left. Hulagu was examining the scene ahead of him as well. After a while he slowly moved his head and looked at her before showing five fingers. She showed four
back. It looked like his view was better than hers. She checked the sky. There was still a little bit of time to go. She retreated slightly to behind the trunk of the tree she was beside and started to prepare arrows to fire. Looking upstream she could see that Hulagu was doing the same.
~~~
Theodora felt sure that she had the spell worked out now. At least she hoped that she had. As soon as she had worked out the ideas on how to do it she had pulled out a notebook and written it all down and checked it several times. Basil would hold the book for her when it came time to cast.
Now, for it to work, she had to move to where she could see the bridge and yet still have flat ground to set up her casting position. A little closer than two hands by a score of paces would be all she would need. She would need to create the spell to sound as if the illusion were at least that far from her for it to be convincing. It would have to gradually become audible to the ambushers over the creek and only later visible.
Basil was nervous, but it seemed that no one had seen her move. However, it probably was as well that he had made her take her armour off. She had nearly tripped once as it was. She hated this tip-toeing around. In her experience princesses didn’t do that sort of thing. They glided around and others commented favourably on their grace.
~~~
Rani sat nervously behind the tree where Stefan had insisted that she stay. She could see her casting pattern pegged out and ready for her to step into if she needed to do more than use a wand or fire an arrow. Ayesha had taken it from her and quietly put it in its place and although Rani didn’t like others touching her equipment she had to admit that the Muslim slave girl had done it far quieter than she would have been able to. To her left and right she could see Stefan, Bianca and Thord also sitting behind trees ready to come out once the trap was sprung. Only Stefan had even an idea where any of their opponents were located, but hopefully they would reveal themselves once Astrid and Hulagu started shooting and she told them all to come out and fire. She hoped that she would know when it was time to do that. She didn’t want everyone just standing around looking for targets.
Suddenly Rani realised she could have ensured that everyone could have followed what was happening by giving Astrid some of her explosive shafts. Next time they were going into battle she would have to make sure she did that. Damnation. She was new at this. What else had she forgotten to do? She supposed that she would find out in time. She hoped that none of the omissions would be fatal for her people. Pleading that it was her first real battle would not be much consolation if someone died.
~~~
The shadow of the branch that Astrid was tracking had now moved across the ground to touch the twig she had placed in the ground. It now denoted the time that she had marked in her head as being when she should start things off. She looked to Hulagu. He had his arrows ready as well.
She raised her head and made the loud cry of a raven. She hoped that by calling up it would make it sound like the bird was placed up in the trees. Although the birds would move along the ground, they rarely called out when they did so. After a pause she called out again and then, after a pause of similar length, again. Cautiously, Astrid peered around the trunk of the tree as she waited to see what would happen next. On the other side of the creek nothing moved.
~~~
Basil was nudging her Theodora realised with a start. The raven was calling! She had nearly missed it. She stood up and started her incantation. It was not a short spell and she said it all slowly and deliberately so as to not make an error. As she had told him to, Basil had everything ready each time she nodded. She hoped that the smell of burning rose incense in the woods would not alarm anyone, but would only make people think of a mage approaching.
She had not added aroma to the illusion. Sight and sound were more than expensive enough and adding a touch of solidity to cause any magic to detonate had meant that, although she had not told her lover this, she would not be casting anything else today or for the next day either. It had all better work properly.
~~~
His mistress was now making mage-like motions and waving her hands around in a fashion very similar to her dance moves. All she needed were the bells to make it complete. He handed her pouches containing hair from each of them and from the horses and even wool from the sheep when she nodded and placed a hand out. She placed these around her as she softly spoke what he presumed were words of power, but could have been a laundry list as far as he knew. At least she was reading them out from the book he held so he supposed they were the right things for her to say.
Finally she stopped moving and pointed back down the road. He could hear what sounded like the incautious approach of a group of riders. They were moving, he thought, and making more noise than they usually did. Now he could see Astrid strolling along the path towards him. It could not be her though. His girl was never that clumsy and the illusion hardly looked around, just walked along with a spear over her shoulder and her bow on her back. Looking closer he realised that the illusion was how Theodora saw Astrid rather than the way Astrid was herself. He wondered if the princess was jealous of the size of the Cat’s breasts. She had emphasised them more than a little and his lover never wore her jacket open like that in the field.
Basil realised that the image of Astrid was where the princess was pointing and now she raised her other hand and pointed with that and, one after the other the rest of their group came into view. He could even make out soft conversation—or a murmuring at any rate as he could not distinguish any words at all. The image of Astrid had now moved up to the creek and, following Theodora’s hand movements, had stopped. Theodora’s little finger cocked up and the image raised its hand and looked around. The princess’ other hand now stopped moving and the other images stopped. It was very odd to see how someone else saw him. He thought that he looked more like one of his nephews than like himself and his swords were not that large. Fingers wiggled and horses stomped and made noises.
Theodora was now looking carefully ahead and her right hand started moving slowly again. Astrid’s image moved slowly onto the bridge and, obeying the fingers, looked up and down the creek. Surely no one would be that blatant? She moved a little further across and then the little finger wiggled again and she waved back to the other images.
Now the left hand again began to move without the right shifting. Basil realised that they were all being bunched up to make a better target. He looked ahead at the rest of their group. He could see Rani was staring at her own image and he realised that his mistress really did love the Hindi woman. He had never seen a real woman project so much sexuality as the mage’s projected image did. Quickly he looked at the others. The princess thought she was that plain did she? Ayesha and Bianca were almost plain as well. He tore his eyes back to the front and put the book away. He wouldn’t need it now. He had to get his weapons out and ready. It looked like everyone else was preparing. He could see that they were hoping that their opponents’ gaze would be fixed on the illusion. The archers were already rising behind their trees and putting shafts to strings. The Astrid image was just about to step off the bridge and the rest were strung out on it when the first arrow appeared from up the creek.
~~~
It was just as well I worked out how to include that cantrip for solidity, thought Theodora as the arrow exploded. She wiggled a finger and the image of Astrid toppled screaming into the water. Learning how to make each digit move on its own had been one of the hardest things of her training in illusion. Now her hands moved like someone playing a hurdy-gurdy with both hands as the images all did different things. Now she really had to concentrate on what was happening as arrow after arrow and blasts that had to be from a wand came in one after another. The ambushers would see through the illusion soon, but she had to prolong that point as long as she could.
~~~
Seeing yourself die was not an easy thing to have happen, thought Astrid. It made her queasy. Next, she thought, that particular archer will be my
first target.
She looked at the backs and sides of the ambushers. “Now,” she hissed to Hulagu as she stood, drew and released in one fluid movement. Her targets were now all at least partly visible. She didn’t know when they would realise the trap and return fire so she needed to fire fast and accurately. At ten hands or less, that was not hard. Her archer had a cap like Stefan’s with a nasal and a chain coif under it. The first shaft went under the back of the helm and straight through the mail, opening it up easily with the heavy war heads she had chosen to use. They didn’t travel as far as a normal shaft, but they hit hard. Already the man was dying. His bow had been flung clear as his spine was severed and, at least temporarily, until its weight proved too much for the shaft, his body was pinned to the tree he had sheltered beside. As she turned to her next target she saw it already start to slide towards the ground. He hadn’t even made a noise and her actions had been covered by the sounds coming from where Theodora’s illusions were battered by spells and shafts and themselves fell and died.
Her next target was the mage, but he must have some sort of protection up as her shafts impossibly missed the man. The second landed in the tree a scant hand in front of his eyes and he nearly fell over himself as realised his danger and cried out. He ran around the tree to try and get it between him and her. The fact that he did that told her that the protection was not perfect, but he was too hard for her to hit now anyway. He was now a problem for the main group and she turned to the next man she could see. He had reacted to what the mage had called and had been looking around for a target. He seemed to have found Hulagu. She shot a fraction before he did and his arrow went off target as her long-shafted arrow took him in the chest. Luckily it shot away and went wildly. He was one who had been using enchanted shafts and a large whitey-wood bush between her and the Khitan exploded in flame where it hit. Her shaft had not killed him instantly. The man had dropped his bow, slumped to his knees and was reaching for something at his belt as he stared down at the arrow that had sprouted from his chest. He had a bemused look on his face as his hands rose and began to tug at it. He may just not know that he was dead yet, but she followed up with another couple of shafts to be sure and he finally fell and stopped moving.
Intimations of Evil (Warriors of Vhast Book 1) Page 38