Sevenfold Sword: Unity

by Jonathan Moeller

  Then he turned and glided after the muridachs, the black robes rippling around him. The Scythe snarled at Third one last time and followed the Maledictus.

  “I know him,” hissed Tamara, staring after the departing Maledictus of Death.

  “He and Khurazalin killed Tirdua at the Blue Castra,” said Tamlin, his green eyes hard and glittering as he watched the Maledictus.

  “I know,” murmured Tamara. “I dreamed of it in my nightmares. But I am sure I have seen that creature before. One of my other lives. Or maybe before I was sundered into seven…”

  “We need to go,” said Ridmark. “As soon as Nerzamdrathus gets back to his army, he’s going to send the kalocrypts after to us.”

  “Your counsel is reasonable, Shield Knight,” said Athadira. Somehow, she made it sound like agreeing with him was a favor. Tamara had to admire both Rilmeira’s and Third’s self-control for not slapping the High Augur. “Let us return to the city.”

  They turned and climbed the slope back to the gate of Cathair Caedyn.

  And as they did, drums boomed from the siege camp, and the roar of tens of thousands of muridach voices filled the air.

  The battle was about to begin.

  Chapter 13: Siege Machinery

  The drums echoed over Cathair Caedyn as Ridmark and the others climbed to the rampart atop the northern gate.

  “How did the parley go?” said Krastikon.

  “A complete waste of time,” said Ridmark, shaking his head.

  “Was that Qazaldhar with the muridach embassy?” said Kalussa, the Staff of Blades grasped in both hands. “I saw a man in a black robe…”

  “That was him,” said Calliande, voice grim. “It was as we suspected. Qazaldhar has been masquerading as the prophet of the Lord of Carrion to the muridachs, just as he pretended to be Taerdyn’s advisor and Khurazalin feigned friendship with Prince Rypheus.”

  “Why go to such lengths?” said Seruna. “Such an undertaking must have taken decades.”

  “It is how the Maledicti do their work,” said Calliande. “Lies and trickery and subterfuge and pulling strings like puppeteers. Perhaps they thought the New God might require an army of muridachs. Or maybe they thought the muridachs would prove useful in disposing of their enemies.” She blinked, her eyes going hazy as she looked at the muridach horde. “The gray elves knew of the Kratomachar, so perhaps they wanted to eliminate anyone who knew of the potential threat. Certainly, that matches with how the Masked One has acted within Owyllain.”

  “The Masked One of Xenorium?” said Athadira, startled. Ridmark half-expected her to claim that the Masked One of Xenorium was no threat to anyone. “What does he have to do with the Maledicti?”

  “They seem to obey him,” said Ridmark, gazing at the activity in the siege camps. “The Maledictus of Air said that the Masked One was an apostle or a forerunner of the New God, just as John the Baptist was the forerunner of the Dominus Christus.” Belatedly he wondered if the High Augur had ever heard of John the Baptist.

  “That is impossible,” said Athadira. “The Masked One was once the Arcanius Knight Cavilius, was he not? The Maledicti would not obey a human wizard.”

  “Unless they were using him as a weapon,” said Tamlin, “as they used my father and the Necromancer.”

  “It is not a mystery we can solve now,” said Calliande. “Look there, and there, and there.” She pointed in succession to the gaps between the muridach camps.

  “Siege towers,” said Ridmark. The muridachs had been busy assembling wooden siege towers, and now dozens of the things were finished. Each one stood forty feet tall, fronted with bronze plates to deflect arrows and ballista bolts. At the top of each tower was a raised ramp of wood and bronze. When the tower reached the walls, the ramp would fall, the bronze hooks at its end digging into the stonework, and the muridachs would swarm onto the ramparts.

  “They will have a challenging time getting those damned things up the slope,” said Krastikon. “Especially as it steepens towards the base of the wall. The gray elves should have ample time to hit them with catapult fire.”

  “They might not,” said Calliande, blinking. “Look.”

  The siege towers started to move, slowly at first, and then faster. They had huge wheels studded with bronze nails. Ridmark’s first thought was that they were being pushed, perhaps by muridach soldiers, or maybe by some kind of war beast.

  His second thought was that the huge towers were moving a lot faster than they should.

  He spotted the muridach soldiers pushing the towers.

  The muridach engineers had fashioned a sort of wooden harness behind the base of the towers, almost like the handles of a plow. Nearly fifty muridach soldiers pushed each tower, and even from this distance, Ridmark saw the blue gleam of dark magic in their eyes.

  The muridachs pushing the tower were undead. The muridachs usually ate their dead, but instead, they had collected the soldiers slain in the skirmishes. Likely Qazaldhar himself or the muridach priests had animated the slain, turning them into beasts of burden. The undead soldiers would not tire, and they would feel no fear as the gray elves rained missiles upon them. Come to think of it, arrows would not hinder the undead soldiers at all. Magic would be the only way to stop them.

  “Are…are those undead pushing the towers?” said Rilmeira, shading her eyes.

  “They are,” said Calliande. “Lord Rhomathar, I suggest that you order any wizards with skill in fire magic to focus their attention on the undead muridachs. They will be vulnerable to elemental flame.”

  “And have the catapults target the towers,” said Ridmark. “We can destroy as many undead creatures as we like, but it will be harder for the muridachs to repair their towers than it will be for the carrion priests to raise new undead.”

  “Your counsel is sound,” said Rhomathar, and the gray elves began to move along the walls. Swordsmen and spearmen moved to await the arrival of the towers. Once the towers reached the walls, the muridachs could charge in a rush, and the archers would thin their numbers first.

  It likely would not be enough.

  Ridmark turned to the others. “We’ll fight as before. Tamlin, Calem, Krastikon, Third, Kyralion, and Magatai, with me. We can be of the most use breaking up any footholds the muridachs carve out the walls. Calliande, Tamara, Kalussa. Stay here with the Augurs, and stop as many of the siege towers from reaching the walls as you can.”

  Calliande nodded and tried to smile at him. “Good luck.”

  Ridmark nodded back, and Calliande turned and started a spell.

  ###

  The towers reached the base of the hill and rolled up the slope, and the gray elves struck.

  Every catapult on the northern wall released at once, the clang of their gears echoing through the city. Dozens of white stones soared through the air and rained on the advancing siege towers. Most of the stones struck the bronze shields covering the front of the towers and bounced away, though they left dents. Several punched through the towers in a spray of twisted metal and shattered timber. One ripped through the top third of a tower, causing the metal ramp to fall to the ground and leaving the tower useless.

  But the other towers continued their steady advance, wobbling a little as the undead muridachs kept pushing, and the gray elven wizards unleashed their attacks.

  A dozen balls of fire hurtled down the slope, leaving trails of smoke in the air. Athadira herself cast the large and hottest of the spheres. They struck the undead muridachs and exploded in their midst, and the creatures went up like kindling, withering in the grips of the magical fires.

  Calliande unleashed her own magic, drawing on the Well of Tarlion and fusing the magic to the mantle of the Keeper. A shaft of white fire swept from her hand, and she clenched her will and focused it. The magic swept across a group of the undead, and they fell like cut grass.

  Yet more undead rushed to take their place, and the towers kept inching forward. Given the large number of muridach priests, Calliande feared that Nerza
mdrathus and Qazaldhar might have thousands of the undead to throw against the walls.

  They would have more than enough undead to get the siege towers to the city.

  Kalussa started using the Staff of Blades, hurling fist-sized spheres of blue crystal at the advancing undead. One by one her spheres shot through the heads of the undead muridachs, sending their headless corpses rolling down the slope. Every one of the spheres destroyed an undead creature, but there were so many that it was like trying to empty a lake with a spoon.

  “Lady Kalussa!” said Tamara. “Aim for the wheels! Aim for the wheels!”

  Kalussa blinked, frowned, and then her eyes went wide with understanding. She adjusted the Staff and began flinging spheres of crystal at the front left wheel of the nearest siege tower. The crystalline globes could punch through bone and flesh and bronze without slowing, and even the heavy wooden wheels of the siege tower proved no barrier. Kalussa sent six spheres drilling through the tower’s wheel in rapid succession. Before she could throw a seventh sphere, the wheel splintered beneath the massive weight of the tower. The siege tower leaned into the damaged corner, then toppled onto its side with a massive crash and began rolling down the slope. It rolled right over the undead muridachs and disintegrated into broken lumber at the foot of the hill.

  A new plan came to Calliande. The wheels were the towers’ weak points. Even with their skill and coordination, the gray elves could not aim their catapults accurately enough to target the wheels. But Calliande could direct her magic at the ground beneath the towers, and a wheel was only as good as the surface beneath it.

  “Tamara,” said Calliande. “Do you know a spell of earth magic to soften ground into mud?”

  “Yes.” Tamara blinked her mismatched eyes and then grinned. “I used it to help my father’s pigs cool off in the summer.”

  “A good use for the spell,” said Calliande. “Let’s see if we can find another one.” She pointed. “That tower. The front left wheel since the slope is sharper in that direction. On three. Ready?” Tamara nodded. “One, two…three!”

  Calliande cast the spell of earth magic, driving the power through the mantle of the Keeper to strengthen it. Tamara cast a similar spell, forcing it through her golden staff. They released their spells in unison, and Calliande’s will focused on the ground beneath the tower’s wheels. At her command, the ground grew softer, shifting from packed earth to liquid mud. Tamara’s spell hit a half-second later, and her magic added to the effect.

  The tower’s front left wheel suddenly sank halfway into the mud and got stuck. The undead muridachs kept pushing, heedless of the obstruction. The tower tilted further into the mud, and the undead pushed again. This time it overbalanced, leaned to the left, and fell upon its side with a booming crash. The tower started to roll down the hill, breaking apart as it did.

  Tamara whooped. “Let’s do that again!”

  “A good idea,” said Calliande, and they focused their magic upon another tower while Kalussa hammered away with volleys from the Staff of Blades.

  Yet there were too many towers. The gray elves unleashed magical firestorms, Kalussa smashed wheels, and Calliande and Tamara turned the ground into mud. Yet fully half the towers struggled up the slopes and reached the battlements. Behind them, columns of muridach infantry advanced, shields raised to ward off arrows from the archers.

  The towers’ ramps fell onto the battlements with a mighty crash, and the fighting began in earnest.

  ###

  As it happened, Ridmark and the others were standing not far from one of the towers when the ramp fell upon the battlements with a crash. A mob of muridach berserkers charged out, howling at the top of their lungs. The berserkers had abandoned their double-bladed battle axes, likely because there would not be space to swing the enormous weapons. Instead, they carried one-handed war axes with long crescent blades. The axes would be vicious in the hand-to-hand fighting atop the walls.

  Kyralion snapped off two arrows, killing a pair of the berserkers and sending their bodies falling off the ramp to join the dead below the walls. The rest of the creatures did not even seem to notice. Howling, they leaped off the ramp and threw themselves into the gray elves. The golden steel of the gray elves was stronger than the bronze blades of the axes, but the berserkers’ heavy blows punched through gaps in the gray elves’ armor and carved wounds.

  Ridmark, Third, Tamlin, Krastikon, Calem, Magatai, and Kyralion raced to meet them.

  Oathshield’s power surged through Ridmark, giving him strength and speed. He slashed the soulblade before the nearest muridach could react, and he took off the berserker’s head. Next to him, Third stabbed at a muridach, and the creature stumbled as her blades bit into flesh. Ridmark ripped Oathshield across the muridach’s throat.

  Krastikon leaped into the battle, purple lighting flickering up and down his armor as he drew on the magic of elemental earth. He had once been an Ironcoat, one of Justin Cyros’s elite soldiers, and the Ironcoats had taken their name from the ability to sheathe themselves in spells of earth magic so thoroughly that no blade could touch them. Krastikon used that power now, making no effort to shield himself as he waded into the berserkers. The muridachs launched blow after blow that rebounded from his head and torso without leaving a scratch, and all the while Krastikon swung the Sword of Death with mighty two-handed blows. The dark blade passed through the muridachs, sending them in pieces to the ground.

  Tamlin, Calem, Magatai, and Kyralion fought alongside each other. Magatai used his lightning-wreathed sword to stun the muridachs, and Kyralion’s golden blade licked out and wounded them. Before their opponents could recover, Tamlin and Calem attacked with devastating blows from the Swords of Earth and Air. Nothing could resist the deadly edge of the Seven Swords, and pieces of muridachs fell to the ground, the stones of the battlements turning red with their blood.

  Then they had cleared the muridachs away from the battlements, but more ratmen rushed up the ladders inside the tower.

  “The ramp!” said Ridmark. “Tamlin, the ramp! Quickly!”

  Tamlin and Krastikon answered his call, the Swords of Earth and Death rising and falling. The two swords slashed through the bronze ramp, and it fell loose and clattered against the ground. Yet the tower was close enough to the wall that the muridachs could leap from its top to the ramparts, and they did so, though both Krastikon and Tamlin slashed the creatures out of the air with their Swords.

  “We’ve got to get that damned tower away from the wall!” said Krastikon, grimacing. “We…wait, what the hell are you doing?”

  Calem ran past him and vaulted over the battlements, his white wraithcloak billowing behind him. As he had during the battle against the Necromancer, he used the wraithcloak’s magic to become immaterial, landing on the ground below the wall without harm. He became solid once more and sprinted in a circle around the base of the tower, the Sword of Air slicing through the timbers. There were cracking and splintering sounds, and the muridach soldiers who had been running towards Calem began to flee.

  The tower fell backward, and Calem leaped, becoming a wraith once more. The apex of his leap took him two-thirds of the way back up the wall, and he materialized long enough to kick off the wall. His momentum carried him the rest of the way up, and he solidified, vaulted over the railing, and landed on his feet.

  “Well,” said Krastikon. “That is one way to dispose of a siege tower.”

  “A mighty strike, Sir Calem!” said Magatai. “Magatai enjoyed the befuddled expressions on the faces of the enemy.”

  “Let’s see if we can befuddle them some more,” said Ridmark.

  He jogged to the west, heading for the next siege tower.

  ###

  The battle raged around Tamara.

  Up and down the wall the fighting grew fierce. Over half the siege towers had been destroyed, and the Shield Knight and Tamlin had destroyed more, but enough towers remained intact for the muridachs to rush the ramparts. And the muridachs did, charging up the h
ill with shields raised over their heads. The gray elven archers cut them down like wheat, but there were so many of the creatures that the archers could not shoot them all.

  And there were so many ratmen that some of them reached the ramparts and rushed towards the Augurs. The Keeper and the Augurs were clearly the most powerful wizards in Cathair Caedyn, and therefore the muridachs needed to kill them. Calliande, Kalussa, and the five Augurs kept throwing their spells at the towers.

  It fell to Tamara and Rilmeira to keep the muridachs at bay.

  A troop of muridach soldiers rushed towards them, and Rilmeira shouted and thrust out her hands. A cone of lightning burst from her fingers and swept across the muridachs, the arcs harsh and dazzling. The stench of burned muridach flesh filled Tamara’s nostrils, but she ignored the odor and cast a spell of her own. A wave of acidic mist washed over the muridachs, and Rilmeira’s lightning set it aflame. It burned off quickly, but that was enough to finish the muridachs, and their charred corpses fell smoking to the rampart, stark against the white stone.

  “Good timing!” said Rilmeira, flashing a smile at Tamara. She smiled back at the gray elf. Tamara could see why Kyralion had fallen in love with her. She was pretty by the standards of the gray elven kindred, and she was brave in battle and skilled with magic. Pity that Kyralion had also fallen in love with Third.

  Another pair of muridach berserkers charged, and Tamara cast another spell. Her golden staff flashed with purple light, and she took the weapon in both hands as her magic charged it with the essence of granite. She swung the staff, and the muridach raised its bronze axe with a lazy, contemptuous parry.

  The creature’s shock was absolute when the staff shattered the axe and struck with enough force to cave in its chest. The spell had given the staff the power of a striking boulder. The second muridach raised its sword, but Lord Rhomathar was faster. His golden sword blurred with the speed of an insect’s wings, and the muridach fell dead off the ramparts and landed in the square below.