Movement caught Alivia’s eye and she looked behind her. Coryn and a company of Shadow Watch Guards gathered near the eastern gates of the city. Civilians and city guards surrounded them, holding weapons and donning armor. The horn called them to assemble and they formed ragged ranks as sergeants relayed orders.
Chapter 38
Sunlight warmed John’s face as he stood watching the horror unfolding before him. Dawyn lay unmoving at the base of the black walls of Tar Ebon. Bridgette had shifted moments after seeing Dawyn launched into the air by the explosion of energy, and John assumed she was going to help him. The line of soldiers, facing a mage-fire-weakened line of Krai’kesh, pressed forward and re-formed their lines. The Krai’kesh leader was on the move, charging toward where Dawyn lay.
Closing his eyes, John cast out his mind and felt the sunlight. Memories of Alivia explaining sunlight and his previous experiences with light rose to the surface of his memory. Because sunlight acted neither as a wave or a particle exclusively, it was one of the most difficult forms of energy for a mage to manipulate.
John grasped at the sunlight around him, his mind trying to contain the light. It flowed out his mind’s grasp like water flowing from a strainer. Then a thought came to him. Memories of his childhood, when he had used a magnifying glass to burn a small patch of grass in his backyard. If he could not control it, perhaps he could focus it. Drawing upon all his power, John created a curved wall of energy in the air above him with his mind. He stretched the wall out as far as his mind would allow. It stretched to the farthest horizon and beyond, curving upward to imitate the shape of a bowl. In an instant, the world around John went dark. No light reached anything – it was pitch black. Nearby, soldiers cried out at the lack of light, but John remained calm, his mind rather than his eyes guiding his actions.
John drew his sword, held it high and opened a hole in the wall holding back the light. He framed the opening in vertical walls of energy, causing the light to flood down the shaft like water flowing down the tip of a funnel. Light flowed down like a lance and struck the blade, causing it to glow like a massive bonfire. At first, nothing happened, but then the air began to warm. The blade began the glow first yellow, then orange then transitioned to white. The speed of its color change surprised John, and he scrambled to mold a shield of energy around the blade, to contain the heat. The blade began to melt in his hands, and he tightened his shield around it, causing the blade, now a flowing mass of plasma in the shape of a sword, to keep its shape.
The transformation of his blade complete, John released the wall of energy, causing the bowl holding back the light and its funnel to dissolve, and the light returned to the battlefield from above, illuminating in full the scene.
Looking toward the Krai’kesh lines, he focused on their leader. Raising his voice, he shouted, “Out of my way,” before charging forward, sword held high in the air.
Chapter 39
Ashley felt as though she were back in that cave in the White Mountains as the entire world went dark. Only the light thrown by fire emitted by the mages on the walls illuminated the scene at infrequent intervals. Ashley created a fireball of her own to emit light. She looked to where John had been standing, but an inky blackness that surrounded that spot absorbed the light of her fireball. “John?” she asked but received no answer.
A commotion at the front lines broke her concentration. The Krai’kesh sounded like they were pressing forward while the humans were blind. Ashley had to do something. Casting her mind out of her body, she drew the heat from the air and formed a ring of flaming balls encircling her. One-by-one she cast out the balls of fire across the battlefield, trying to illuminate the battle lines. In one such spot, she found the Krai’kesh charging through a group of men. The lines bowed as the ferocious attack continued.
***
Darkness fell across the battlefield, and Bridgette felt at home. Shifting into the shadow realm, where darkness or light mattered not, Bridgette watched as the Krai’kesh commander continued unabated. Either it could see in the dark or it was charging blind. That didn’t matter to Bridgette. The creature had to die. Moving toward the creature in the shadow realm, Bridgette leapt onto the back of the creature and shifted to the real world. Though she could not see, she felt the hard carapace beneath her hands and searched for a joint or weak point. There, a softer area. Taking her daggers from her belt, Bridgette stabbed down into the weaker area. The blades bit into the flesh and the creature roared in anger. Oh, this will be fun, Bridgette thought as she shifted into the shadow realm to avoid one of the claws of the monster.
***
Before Ashley could take further action to aid the soldiers on the front lines, the light returned across the battlefield. Looking over at John, she saw him holding a sword of…plasma? How had he done that? Without looking at her John charged toward the front lines, shouting for soldiers to get out of his way.
Releasing the fireballs, Ashley turned her attention to the earth beneath the feet of the soldiers. She envisioned the outline of men and drew the soil from the earth to fill the space within the energy field. Delving into the molecules of the soil, she linked it so it would not crumble when the energy field dissolved. She withdrew the energy fields and two dozen stone golems stood along the front lines. Expanding her concentration further, she directed her golems to strike at the Krai’kesh. A pair of golems near the point of the bowed lines of men rushed into the breach, cracking carapaces and tossing Krai’kesh backward. The men, surprised at first, recovered and pressed the advantage, pushing the Krai’kesh back.
Ashley felt as if she were a dozen places at once. Her mind moved faster than she knew it could as she reconciled the location of each golem and directed its actions in real time.
The Krai’kesh for their part attempted to attack the golems but found their claws and pincers had little effect on the lifeless golems that could not bleed. They changed their tactics to rushing the golems and carrying them to ground, though Ashley made sure the golems continued to assault the Krai’kesh as they fell and after.
A thought struck her. The tunnel! She split her attention, maintaining a thread of focus on her golem while searching for the tunnel the Krai’kesh had been digging. She found it. It was almost to the walls, within a few feet. “Oh no you don’t,” she growled. She reached out with her magic and felt the soil lining the top of the tunnel. Then she felt the soil lining the bottom of the tunnel. She compressed the top and bottom of the tunnel, forcing the top and bottom to act like magnets. The tunnel collapsed, causing a line of dirt to billow into the air as the topsoil collapsed and met the bottom soil.
Chapter 40
After several meters, John reached the front of the Krai’kesh lines. The first creature he faced raised its claws in a defensive motion. John swung his sword two-handed right toward its claw. Instead of the claw stopping the blade, the blade melted through the flesh, cauterizing the wound and causing the severed portions to drop to the ground. The blade continued on its path and sliced the creature in half. Staring in wonder, John watched as the creature fell to the ground, bisected.
Feeling rejuvenated with energy, as if feeding off the power in his hands, John raced forward. Two more Krai’kesh dropped to his blade as he ran between them and swung left then right. The creatures, seeming to learn from the mistakes of their fallen brethren, shied away from John and continued going after the men John had left behind as he rushed forward.
At last, he neared the massive creature and stopped to analyze the scene.
The monster fought a heated battle with a figure that danced around it, disappearing and reappearing in a symphony of shadowy pockets of mist. Bridgette would strike, the creature would turn and try to slam his claw into her, but would only strike mist. Her daggers bit into the armor of the creature with little effect, and she seemed to be searching for chinks in its armor.
Bridgette’s moves must have become predictable to the creature, for when she appeared on his shoulder his claw was
already in motion to strike her. Before she could shift away, the claw connected with her chest, sending her flying. The mist heralding her disappearance into the shadow realm crashed against the walls of Tar Ebon, signifying how close she had come to crashing bodily into it.
Racing forward, John came behind the creature to distract it. “Hey, you big oaf, over here!”
The massive creature, several times larger than any of the other Krai’kesh, turned to face him. It eyed John like a human might a small dog yapping at his feet. It clacked his mandibles like a human would slide a knife along a fork to indicate it was dinner time.
John lifted his blade and, rather than charging forward and striking the creature, threw the blade toward it. As the blade left his hands, he expanded his mind outward and formed a tunnel of energy around the blade. He evacuated the air from the tunnel, making the blade move as if in a vacuum so that it did not spin. The skull of the creature offered no resistance to the blade of plasma as it slid into its skull. The leader of the Krai’kesh began to roar in agony and thrash about, though it lasted mere moments as heat rivaling that of the sun melted its brain. Releasing the energy field from around the blade, John watched as molten plasma dripped out of the wound in the creature’s head and began dripping down its body, melting everything it touched. Within moments, what had been a towering behemoth was little more than a puddle of cooling metal mixed with organic material.
Chapter 41
Jason slowed as the knights of the Citadel reached the eastern ridge overlooking the Fields of Pelinor. He surveyed the state of the battle as the king discussed strategy with his commanders.
Southwest of where the knights of the Citadel stood, a wavering line of Gallean soldiers fought. Their longbow men launched arrows from behind the lines of their soldiers, but their situation seemed dire. Various animals announced the presence of druids among the ranks. Anwyn would be down there fighting.
Fighting on the right flank of the Galleans, the banner of Rovark marked their forces. They retreated and charged back again as they fought, cycling their men between the front lines and rear guard, using the momentum of their horses to apply pressure on the stronger Krai’kesh.
The banners of Selucia marked their lines to the left of the Galleans, south of the city, with horse and man tangling with Krai’kesh. Their lines looked ragged, but large stone brown figures seemed to stand between them and the Krai’kesh, helping to bolster their strength.
To the left of the Selucian lines stood the Valnarian pike lines, though “line” was the last word Jason would have used to describe their ranks. Their fight against the Krai’kesh had not gone well, as several of the creatures were in their midst, wreaking havoc. The pikemen, deprived of their ability to use their pikes in such close combat, fought with swords - a much less desirable weapon for men trained in use of pikes almost exclusively.
Stationed between the Valnarian lines and the Tar River, a group of soldiers bearing the Sagami banner fought. Their lines were holding up the best, despite having split their ranks between facing north toward the city and west toward the river.
Balls and streams of fire projected from the walls fell among the Krai’kesh horde. There in the midst of their army a light brighter than the others caught Jason’s attention. He squinted. Was that a sword bobbing through the Krai’kesh army? It glowed like the sun!
The king speaking broke Jason's concentration. “Prepare the horns to sound. We will charge west and then north to strike the Krai’kesh flank. Time is of the essence, but there is something I must say first.” He turned to his soldiers. “Jason, can you amplify my voice?”
Jason nodded. “Of course, your majesty.” Jason cast out his mind and formed the air into a massive megaphone pointed toward the gathered knights. “You’re on,” he said.
“I’m on?” the king asked, a puzzled expression on his face and his voice echoed across his army. “Oh,” he said as realization dawned. He cleared his throat. “My fellow Allyrians. We have traveled far to reach this place, and we have much fighting ahead of us. I know many of you are tired from the ride, but now is not the time for weariness. Below us,” he gestured to the scene behind him for those that could see him, “stand our brothers in arms. They fight a common foe - a foe that threatens the lives of every man, woman and child on this continent if they succeed here today. We must make sure that doesn’t happen. Today we stand, today we ride, today we die for that which we believe in. We fight for our women, our children, our mothers and our fathers. We fight for our future. Forward, Knights of the Citadel!”
A massive, wordless, cheer went up from the gathered knights. The king signaled for the horns to sound. Aaaaaaooooo, aaaaaooooo, the horns blew. He turned his horse toward the battlefield and looked to Jason. “I would ride to the flank, master Thorpe before we begin the charge. Unless you would like to be trampled.”
Jason chuckled. “I’d rather not be killed by friendly soldiers, your majesty. Good luck.” He urged his horse into a gallop and rode south toward the left flank of the knights.
Once the king saw Jason was clear of the trajectory of his army, he gave the command. The banners along the front lines dropped in unison and the ground shuddered as thousands of horses bearing armored knights accelerated.
Chapter 42
John sagged in relief and fell to his knees. Bridgette appeared beside him and laid a hand on his shoulder.
“Are you all right?” she asked.
John could only shake his head. Until that moment he had been running on adrenaline. Now exhaustion swept over him. His legs felt weak, his eyes heavy, his head pounded, sweat soaked his shirt. All he wanted to do was lay down and sleep.
“About time,” Bridgette said. John wondered what she meant when a horn sounded in the distance. Aaaaaaooooo, aaaaaooooo. It seemed to be coming from the east. Despite John’s exhaustion, he managed to look in the direction of the sound.
There, in the distance, gathered on the ridge northeast of the battlefield, stood a line of knights, their armor, shields and weapons gleaming in the sunlight. The knights of the Citadel had arrived at last.
“Jason,” John heard himself say. “He came.”
“Better late than never, I suppose,” Bridgette replied, though John sensed no malice behind the critique. He had suspected for a while that the feelings between Bridgette and Jason went deeper than what they appeared to be on the outside.
“Will you be alright?” Bridgette asked John. “I should get back to fighting.”
“Yes, I’ll be fine,” John said. “Maybe just…” he felt himself slipping into unconsciousness as exhaustion overwhelmed him, “watch over me while I lay my head down.”
***
Bridgette watched as John fell into exhaustion-fueled sleep. That was far from the optimal time to be asleep, but she could hardly reprimand the man. He had just run through near the entire width of the Krai’kesh army with a flaming sword in his hand to come to the rescue of Dawyn and Bridgette. It was understandable that he would be exhausted.
Nearby, a trio of Krai’kesh eyed her.
“Don’t even think about it,” she said.
Though they could not hear her words or understand them, her body language must have projected a challenge, for the creatures advanced toward her and John. “Ok, you’re thinking about it. Time to die.”
Chapter 43
Alivia watched in awe as the fury of the Citadel charged down from the east. The line of horsemen curved as they thundered toward the Krai’kesh ranks. Those Krai’kesh that saw them attempted to disengage from the Rovarkians and Galleans they were fighting and form a line to face this new threat, but it was too little too late.
A loud crash echoed across the battlefield as steel from hundreds of horsemen on the front line of the Allyrian army met the carapace of the Krai’kesh soldiers. Like a surging wave, the knights swallowed the Krai’kesh. Alivia saw several of the creatures falling to the ground under the pressure of the wave of horse flesh pressing on them, bei
ng trampled beneath them. Elsewhere, men flew through the air as their horses were slain or knocked out from beneath them.
Much like the tide coming in from the sea, the tide of lance and sword-armed knights were unstoppable. Alivia watched from her vantage point as the massive strike caused ripple effects across the Krai’kesh army. The Rovarkians and Galleans, emboldened by the arrival of reinforcements, pressed forward with renewed vigor, pushing the Krai’kesh into the path of the Allyrian knights. The Selucians, seeing the tide of knights heading south toward them, pressed forward, intending to meet them and crush the Krai’kesh between them.
Chapter 44
Jason watched in awe as the knights of the Citadel charged through the Krai’kesh ranks. There had to be something that he could do to help them. Remembering his experiences on the ship and since with commanding the wind, Jason turned his eyes upward. If he could somehow replicate the cyclonic effect he had made behind the sails on the way to the Citadel, then maybe he could…he cast his mind from his body and urged it skyward. Up and up his mind went, higher than he had ever gone before. He felt no cold nor warmth, nor did he feel the lack of air pressure, though he saw the oxygen molecules become fewer as he rose. At last, as he reached the top of the atmosphere of the planet of Tar Ebon, he stopped. Turning his mind to the world below, he saw the whole of the continent of Tar Ebon beneath him.
To the south of the continent of Tar Ebon sat the storm wall, the violent storm clouds visible from so high. It did look like a wall of storms, stretching east and west along the equator in an approximate line. He longed to move toward it, to study the way the storm wall worked, but distant thoughts of the battle raging at that moment outside of Tar Ebon stopped him. He cast one glance south of the storm wall, where several landmasses, some large, others small, lay, before turning his attention to the air around him.
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