Peg pulled himself to his feet and ran roaring in anger as he spotting Tavin battling with two massive infantry soldiers. He slashed one across the back of his neck, stabbed the other in the throat and then called, “Follow me Tavin!”
The two Nunnupi leaders sprinted through the middle of the battlefield, slashing and slicing at the enemy as they did. Suddenly, a cloud of white, feathered arrows thudded into the enemy soldiers, killing hundreds of them. Peg spun around and saw Galivan charging down the slope of the nearby mountain with Limi and the Elves following him.
Peg smiled and almost sighed in relief, as he watched the lithe warriors finish the last of the infantry behind him. Seeing the Elves take the battlefield, the enemy Cavalry spun and sped towards them, leaving the few surviving Nunnupi to fight the infantry.
Once the cavalry were busy with the Elves, it did not take the Nunnupi long to destroy the last of the exhausted infantry. When the last of them were lying dead on the floor, Peg rushed across to where their horses were now quietly grazing, waiting, as they had been trained to, for their riders to return.
Peg untied his reins and immediately clambered into his saddle. Once sitting on his horse, he waited for the remainder of the Nunnupi to regain their steeds. Counting only one hundred of his warriors still mounted, he sighed. However, knowing that he could not let them see his sorrow at the loss of so many of his troops, he pushed it to the back of his mind.
Once his troops were ready, Peg spun his horse to face the enemy camp and urged her into a gallop. The Nunnupi sped to the north for a few moments and then slowed as they neared the centre of the enemy position. They could see the two cages, but there were only a handful of guards watching them with their weapons held ready.
Turning in his saddle, Peg scanned the area, but the only other warriors he could see were the Elves, who had beaten the cavalry and were sprinting across the plain to join the Nunnupi.
In the north, Sam was still battling hard against the enemy Elebull Regiment, while Omni, Manil and Muru were fighting the reminder of the Cavalry. Tom, who was still sitting about half a mile behind Sam, realised that if he did not lead the remainder of the Sentinel into the battle soon, it may be lost.
He turned to Donny, whose honour guard were beginning to grow angry at always being the last troops to go into battle. Tom however, knew that this added venom to the fury with which they would fight. He nodded to Donny and then called, “Charge!”
On his command, the remaining two thousand Sentinels surged forward like an angry tide, each one of them baying with rage. They smashed into the Elebull Regiment, their huge horses knocking the massive carnivorous buffaloes off balance. Tom reached across and grabbed a Vampire by the throat.
He tugged as hard as he could, dragging it from its saddle and hit it in the face with the hilt of his sword in one vicious strike. He then released the dazed creature and sliced its head from its shoulders with a ferocious blow, with his black-bladed sword. The Elebull that the vampire had been riding snapped at his legs trying to take a bite out of him. It missed, as Tom lifted his leg as quickly as he could, but the massive beast’s horns sliced through his trousers and pulled him from his saddle.
Sam turned sharply in his saddle and stabbed a Vampire through the heart. He spotted Tom tumbling from his horse and screamed with anger. Pressing with his knees, he tried to guide his horse towards his brother. However, unfortunately for Sam, he was in the thick of the battle and was unable to get to Tom before an Elebull trampled him. He screamed in anguish, as his brother died, grief wracking his body. With absolute fury giving his arm the strength of ten Sentinels, Sam hacked and sliced his way through the enemy.
Each Elebull or cavalry soldier, who was unlucky enough to stumble across Sam was despatched with a brutal indifference, against which they could not defend. Eventually, blood-spattered and breathing heavily, Sam found himself without an opponent. He spun one way and then the other, looking for something to kill; his insatiable anger needing an outlet.
The battle was over. Donny’s honour guard was killing the last Elebull, tears began welling up inside him. Seeing his pain, Manil limped across to him. The muscular troll reached up and patted Sam on the back before saying, “Sam not cry. We gonna kill nasty ghost thing and nonna this gonna have happened.”
Sam blinked hard, fighting back his tears and rubbed his huge calloused hands across his shaggy face, as he said, “I never know quite what you’re saying Manil.”
Muru wiped his face with a small rag, cleaning most of the enemy blood, which was across it and moved to join Manil. He coughed slightly and said, “What he is saying is, that if we kill that Merihim character then none of this will have happened and we’ll all be sitting pretty back in our own time.”
Hearing this, Sam shook his head and growled, “I know all this, but it’s still very hard watching your only family die.”
Muru shook his head and murmured, “I don’t know why Bray and Gwion couldn’t have killed that slimy creature when they captured it.”
Sam shook his shaggy head slowly and almost with resignation in his voice, said, “Unfortunately, because Merihim’s spirit has used so much of the corrupt Mogya to become as powerful as it has, it has become a completely separate life force from its mortal form.”
Seeing the confusion on the tattooed warrior’s face, he continued, “Which means that, even if Bray had killed Merihim’s physical form, some two hundred years in the past, the spirit version here would still exist and although nothing that the mortal Merihim has done will have happened, the spirit form will still have the same power.”
Muru nodded, letting what Sam had just said sink in, and then replied, “It kind of makes sense, but I think I prefer the way Manil puts it, much simpler his way.”
This tickled Sam slightly and he even managed a chuckle, but then the memory of what had happened to his brother hit home and his face grew stern as he said, “Let’s go and find Merihim’s spirit.”
With this, every surviving Sentinel drew themselves up stoically and formed up behind Sam. When they were ready, Donny guided his horse to stand slightly behind the Sentinel Commander and said, “They are ready Sir.”
Sam smiled grimly and then watched as Omni, Muru and Manil led the thousand surviving infantry back towards the enemy camp. Seeing this, he nodded and called, “Forward!”
On his word, the Sentinel Cavalry set off. They soon caught the foot soldiers and overtook them. As they rode past, Sam called to his infantry Commanders, “Go back to the supply wagons and help guard the cage with that creature inside. Bring it up in slow time. If we don’t make it; you know what to do.”
Omni, Manil and Muru nodded their understanding, so Donny sent two scouting parties forward. As soon as they were out of sight, Sam and the Cavalry forged forward. Very soon, they were close enough to the camp to see Peg and the Elves preparing to attack the small handful of silver-armoured guards. Sam reined in his horse and stared in surprise at the enemy encampments. He could see that there were enough tents for over ten thousand warriors, but he could not see them. Knowing that there had to be far more than those, who had attacked his troops; he urged his horse into a canter.
Making short work of the distance between them and Peg’s troops, the Sentinel Cavalry rode around the enemy guards, who were still standing in front of the cages. Tom stared at them in disbelief, because they made no move to attack. As they joined Peg and Galivan, Sam brought his troops to a halt and then said, “You have done better than I thought possible.”
To this, Galivan shook his head and replied, “We didn’t take on that many Sam.” He paused slightly and continued, “What bothers me the most is that, from where we were on the mountain we could see nearly forty thousand troops in this valley.”
Sam shrugged and then gestured around the valley, before asking, “Well where are they then?”
Before anybody had a chance to answer, a bright light began shinning from behind the two cages. It then began flowing around the
valley like water. As it ebbed and flowed around them, the allies glanced around frantically.
Suddenly, thousands of enemy warriors began to appear on the grass around them. Within seconds, Sam could see the answer to his question; the enemy were all around them. Merihim’s ghost had lured them into a trap, which they would not get out of; the enemy had them completely surrounded.
Trap
Donny glanced at the enemy soldiers as they materialised. Terror crawled along his spine, as he noticed that their ranks were full of raging Demons, Rockserpents and the silver-armoured warriors that he had been fighting for more years than he cared to remember. With the cruelty that he had seen in mind, he raised his sword and roared, “Show no mercy, don’t give them any quarter; they wouldn’t for us.”
With this, he kicked his horse into a gallop and charged at the closest of the enemy ranks, bringing the remaining Sentinel Cavalry after him. Sam glanced at Peg when he realised that he had lost control of his troops, shrugged, drew his own blade and rode, whooping, after Donny. The enemy, who had been advancing at a steady pace, saw the Sentinels’ movement and instantly spurred into action, charging towards them like a glittering wave.
Donny, who was at the head of the Sentinel wedge, stood up in his stirrups, and twisted his sword in an intricate dance, before lashing out left then right. The fury in his body and the Mogya coursing through his blade severed dozens of reaching talons, as his blade flashed through the many lesser Demons in the enemy’s front rank.
Donny turned in his saddle and called, “It’s easy, come on follow me to victory!” Suddenly a shocked expression fell across his face, as thick sharp claws pierced his chest and lifted him from his horse.
Sam screamed in anguish, as he watched his oldest friend disappear into the mouth of an immense fire Demon. The huge flaming beast swallowed Donny and then roared in triumph, as it lashed out at another Sentinel. Seeing the Demons attacking his troops and knowing that they did not have a chance, Sam screamed, “Retreat!”
Hearing his command, the few surviving Sentinels turned their horses and tried to get away, but as they spun, they realised that there was nowhere to run. Behind them, the silver-armoured infantry were battling hard with the Nunnupi and thousands of enemy Cavalry were waiting patiently to the rear. He glanced to the west and saw that the Elves had formed one straight line to keep the Rockserpents at bay.
Suddenly, a loud clap of thunder echoed above them and the sky seemed to burn; flickering flames forming above the battlefield. As the allies stared up with a mix of awe and despair on their faces, the fire in the sky began to take on a loose human shape. Shuddering with fear, they did not notice that the enemy Cavalry and infantry were withdrawing from the battle; they were too intent on the burning red eyes in the centre of the flaming face. “Surrender and some of you may survive,” it thundered.
As it finished, Peg spun his horse around and searched for Sam. It did not take long for him to find the massive Sentinel and once he had, he rode across to him, to ask, “What should we do?”
With years of experience on his side, Sam sighed and replied, “We have to surrender. If we keep fighting we’ll all die, they have too many for us to fight.” His face then grew very shrewd for a second, as he added, “If we surrender now, it’ll give us more time to think of a way to kill Merihim.”
Peg nodded and rode back through the battlefield until he was close enough to his troops to shout, “Throw down your weapons!”
As he called, Galivan, who was still battling hard with the Rockserpents and a Squadron of enemy cavalry heard him. He sent his blades slicing forward and hollered, angrily, “Are you serious?”
Hearing him, Peg rode across to him, and called, “It gives us more time if we do.”
Not able to withdraw without dying, Galivan stabbed an opponent in the belly with his sword, drew two daggers from his belt and leapt spinning at another two. He kicked one in the head, stabbed him in the throat and then spun to stab the other in the armpit, piercing his heart as he did so.
He then pushed his two ornate daggers back into his belt, grabbed his sword from the first enemy soldier, before placing it in his scabbard and sprinting to Peg’s side. With fury etched on his brow, he hissed, “What do you mean?
As the Elven commander ran towards him, Peg pulled a knife from his belt and threw it at a Rockserpent, which was slithering towards them. He then drew on his Mogya, causing the crystal brooch on his tunic to glow, pushing his thoughts after the dagger as he did. The spinning blade took the large snake between the eyes and thanks to his Mogya, sliced through the rock hard scales to kill it. As Peg turned to Galivan, the gigantic serpent crashed to the floor, dying only inches from where Peg’s horse was standing. Peg glanced down at it as it died and then shuddered, before turning back to Galivan to say, “We’ll have more time to plan an escape, if we surrender. If we continue fighting; we’ll all die.”
Galivan nodded, the sense of the plan hitting him immediately and he spun before shouting, “Limi, drop your weapons!”
It took a while, but once the Elves had drawn back far enough from the fight and had laid their weapons on the floor, they dropped into a kneeling position with their heads bowed in shame, the indignity of surrendering going against every instinct in their bodies.
The enemy soldiers saw them drop to their knees and rushed to finish them. However, much to Peg’s surprise, Merihim’s spirit saw this and roared, “No!” It then sent a blast of Mogya at them, which created an invisible wall between the allies and its own bloodthirsty troops; a strange orange mist forming around them, which sent an almost unbearable chill into their bones.
For a few moments after, the many Demons and Rockserpents in Merihim’s army kept crashing into the barrier and then, in a fury at being unable to attack their prey, set upon each other. The enemy Cavalry squadron watched their unholy allies, and shaking their heads in disgust, merely withdrew to wait for a time when they could attack again. As Peg turned away from the Elves to locate Sam, the flaming shape of Merihim pointed to the east and growled, “Go and get my mortal body and I’ll let you live.”
Hearing this, Sam immediately began forming his column, but Merihim’s spirit saw this and said, “No, just you,” Pointing to Sam, the burning spirit continued, “Just the Commander. Your troops will remain here; if you don’t return, they will die.”
Hanging his head in resignation, Sam glanced at Peg, who simply shrugged, not knowing what to do. Realising that he had no choice, Sam rode out of the camp. As he did so, the invisible barrier clung to him momentarily and then sprung back, rippling slightly, before, once again; becoming invisible. As he trotted away, he tried to think of a way to save his troops, but could not. However, just as he was about to give up, he heard a voice in his head, which said, “Don’t worry Sam, this will all work out. By the time that you get to the cage holding Merihim’s mortal body, Omni, Muru and Manil will have put the next phase of my plan into action.”
Hearing the voice echoing in his head, Sam was so shocked that he nearly fell from his horse. He glanced around to try to find whoever had spoken, but as he rode out of the enemy camp, he could see that nobody had opened their mouth. He then spotted Ciqala, who was standing up in his cage, staring straight at him.
As the Wuzen noticed him looking, he nodded once and then turned his back on him. Sam smiled to himself, as he concentrated on the road in front of him; if Ciqala had a plan then not all was lost.
A mile down the track, Omni, Muru and Manil had stopped the supply wagons and were now crawling up a hill to get a better look at what was going on in the enemy encampment. As Manil passed Muru a telescope, he heard Ciqala’s voice in his head. “Manil, dress both Merihim’s mortal form and Erion in black hoods. You must then march Merihim’s body at the front of your column when you come into the enemy camp.”
Manil cocked his head curiously, listening intently; after everything he had seen in his life, the Wuzens voice in his head did not surprise him. He still had
not mastered the idea of talking in his head, so he simply shrugged and aloud asked, “Why?”
Muru looked at the troll in surprise and said, “I didn’t say anything.”
At this, Omni smiled; he remained silent, but he knew that the troll must have been getting orders from somewhere else. Manil was about to tell Muru that Ciqala was talking to him, but the tiny Wuzen’s voice sounded again, “Because, once you have paraded Merihim’s body and its spirit has sensed its presence, you will then tie it and gag it, before hiding it under a canvas in the rear most wagon.”
Again, Muru said, “I didn’t say anything Manil.”
To this, Omni waved his hand loosely at his friend and replied, “Don’t worry Muru; somebody is talking to Manil in his head.” He paused briefly, considering who it could be and then continued, “I would wager that it was Bray or that little bundle of fur, Ciqala.”
As Muru nodded, astounded at what he was hearing, but experienced enough to accept it, Manil asked Ciqala, “What me gonna do wiv the Elf what Bray wants to kill?”
With the utmost patience, Ciqala said, “You will place him in the cage that is holding Merihim.”
Manil scratched his chin thoughtfully and then a sudden realisation came over him. He grinned and replied, “Then the nasty spirit will kill the Elf.”
Ciqala’s voice almost sounded as if he was laughing when he replied, “Exactly.”
He then went silent, as Manil turned to Muru and said, “Me sorry mate, lickle Wuzzy thing was talking to Manil’s head. Me not talking to you.”
Muru nodded and then glanced at Omni, before replying, “The world is a much weirder place than I thought.”
To this, Omni replied, “You don’t know the half of it my friend.”
Destruction of a God Page 20