by Rosie Scott
We said our good nights, and Theron went off to sleep beside Nyx. Though the two had never become lovers, they had bonded since Cerin and I had started our relationship. Now that the necromancer and I were inseparable, it was with Theron that Nyx slept. I admired my best friend for being able to respect his wishes, considering.
The well-crafted saber Anto had given the ranger glistened from his hip, even though he'd left his other sword with our gear. It seemed Anto's gift had touched him even more than he'd admitted, for he was reluctant to part with it.
Twenty-six
“Kai.” My arm was shaken, and I fluttered my eyes open to find Cerin above me. Ahead, the skies were the light periwinkle of early morning. The normally scorching desert was cooler during this hour, which wasn't saying much, since it was still hotter than it ever got in Chairel. “Your brother is preparing to attack.”
I bolted upright, finding our army rising and preparing their mounts and weapons. Ahead in the distance, my brother's army was moving into formation with a low murmur of anxious voices and jingling gear. The horses still fought their riders, but the animals were tiring. I knew then that Terran was attacking today because his animals needed relief. Given their lack of energy, I thought he had waited a day too long, but that was in our favor.
Hasani was in the midst of directing our soldiers, reminding them of their placements. The two groups of arbalests collected together, though they did not yet move into position. Weapons were prepared, and armor was equipped. Some meters away from our location, some of the soldiers relieved themselves in the sand before it was no longer an option.
Those of us who would begin the battle on our hyenas took them from their designated handlers and mounted the animals. I noticed Theron mount one as well, and called out to him.
“Theron, you might be better placed with the arbalests,” I said, even while I was in the middle of adjusting my foot in a stirrup.
“Not today, friend.” He shook his shoulders, calling my attention to the lack of arrows in his quiver. “All of my arrows were used on Mantus, and I have not had the chance to restock.”
I realized he was right, though I joked, “Admit that the real reason is you are itching to use your new blade.”
“Aye,” the ranger agreed, before a laugh.
I kept my eyes on the other army. For the first time, I caught a glimpse of my brother. He wore his favorite green cloak, the one I had gifted him so long ago. He trotted his horse by his soldiers, calling out orders that were muted with our distance.
An ache settled in my heart that promised not to go away any time soon. How had it come to this? I loved Terran dearly. I would have never hunted him down to fight if I could help it, even though we were torn apart by our loyalties. Why had he chosen differently?
“How are you feeling?” I hadn't known Nyx had pulled up beside me until she spoke. Her black eyes looked over me with concern. “You look like you're ready to vomit.”
“Terran has chosen to lead the charge against me,” I told her. “I feel like I'm going to vomit.”
“One man has chosen to fight you.” She glanced back behind her, where hundreds of soldiers waited for orders. “Look at how many of us choose to follow you. I know you love your brother, Kai, but where you lose one person you love, you gain even more.”
I nodded, though I said nothing. Nyx was doing her best to make me feel better, and I appreciated it. She could not make this easier, but she could remind me that the others were here for me. It was as much relief as I was ever going to get.
I noticed Terran position himself behind his troops. “Hasani!” I called.
“I see him,” I heard the prince reply, as he jogged up to me on his hyena. “The troops are ready.” He turned to them once more, and commanded, “Wait for orders!”
We were quiet as we kept our eyes on the enemy. The Seran Army was also mostly quiet, save for the whinnies of their horses. The animals pawed at the sands with hooves at the edge of the Wastelands. I wondered how Terran would be able to get the fearful animals to cross the cursed land to get to us, since they'd waited just beside it. The horses were stressed enough simply being next to it.
My breaths echoed in my head as I waited for movement. Terran's cloak shone a beautiful shade of emerald in the rising sun. I was sure the armor I wore would shine green during our battle, as well. It would call attention to me. I inwardly wondered if Terran would come straight for me, or if he would leave it up to his soldiers. I didn't get to think on that for long. My brother's voice was hoarse as he screamed out into the air, and thrust his sword forward.
The Seran cavalry charged. The echoes of Terran's screams reverberated through the air even after he'd closed his mouth, driving into my skull like a headache. I turned to our army, my hyena trembling with excitement below me.
“Arbalests!” I screamed. “Positions!”
The ranged soldiers separated into their assigned groups and hurried off to their positions, preparing their weapons and waiting for the cavalry to come within range.
Cerin's hyena fought him for the reins, its ears twitching toward the echoes of the oncoming stampede. A ball of swirling black energy formed above his left palm, even as his right tried to calm the animal. He did not raise the dead yet. We would need our lancers to charge first, or else the corpses would serve as a roadblock.
I swallowed hard as the wall of horses galloped over the Wastelands. Many of them picked up speed, wanting to pass by the cursed land quickly. Others fought with their riders, skidding to a stop over the cracked earth and rearing. Some of the soldiers fell from their mounts, and scrambled to get up out of the way of the oncoming hooves. My brother screamed more orders at the struggling cavalry, even as the horses fought to break formation, fearing the ground they cantered over.
“I've never seen anything like it,” Nyx said to my left. “It's like they have to fight the land to get to us.”
Though the horses fought for their reins, the majority of the soldiers managed to keep their mounts on track, galloping straight across the Wastelands on the shortest route to us. Terran's voice continued booming over his soldiers, though I couldn't ascertain his words from this far away. I glanced to the arbalests on either side of us. Their eyes were on the sights of their weapons, waiting.
That is when the earth trembled.
I looked to Cerin, ready to tell him he should not have raised the dead yet, but he hadn't released his spell. Our hyenas chuckled nervously and pawed at the sands below, their senses better than ours. The trembling continued until the sands visibly shook on the ground before us, golden granules skipping over one another.
“What kind of sorcery does your brother have?” Hasani demanded, struggling to keep control of his reins.
“He is an earth mage, but...” I watched the oncoming stampede, perplexed. “He is too far to affect us here.”
The shaking beneath us picked up its intensity, and I found myself fearing the earth would break apart at our feet. “Are you sure your brother does not have your powers?” The prince yelled, as the earth's trembles became deafening.
“Even I could not use a spell from this far,” I yelled back.
It was the first time in a while where I was stumped. I didn't know what was happening, and so I couldn't figure out how to combat it. I watched the cavalry continue to rush toward us, though their horses were going crazy, fleeing from the pack and bucking off their riders.
What the hell is happening? Even as I thought it, the world gave me its answer.
The ground beneath the charging cavalry began to rise. The horses screamed in terror as they rushed to keep upright over the cracked earth, even as something massive began to ascend from the underground.
Terran's army had one thousand men, and most of them were galloping over the Wastelands at the same time. Whatever was awakening from the underground was elevating them all. On my map of Nahara, the Wastelands had been accounted for, and it was the size of many cities, if not larger. Before us, th
e entirety of this land rose.
For an army of six hundred people, we were immensely quiet. We all watched in awe as the Desiccated Wastelands arose to reveal its secrets. I feared for Terran. I could hear his screams, and watched as his cavalry diverted from its course, rushing off of the rising land. Most of them made it, but as the land rose ever higher, the platform of it sloped down toward its sides, and the horses lost footing, collapsing and sliding down amongst tons of dirt and sand.
There was a grumble that was so massive in scope it stretched in miles in each direction, the roar so deep it was clear that whatever had made it was gigantic and had spent years in slumber. That was the first time it dawned on me that the source of all of this noise and chaos was one of Nahara's beasts. It was so large that it dwarfed even Mantus, and it still wasn't fully out of the sands.
The Seran army scrambled to make way for the gigantic creature, the horses darting out to either side. Whatever this beast was, its back was as flat and wide as land itself, and the few horses which didn't make it off in time found themselves stuck as it continued to rise. I had heard horses neigh before, but these horses were screaming, terrified.
Finally, behind thick clouds of dirt and sand that billowed up many stories high from the recent turmoil of land, the beast revealed itself. It resembled a tortoise, though it was many times the size of a city. Its shell was mostly wide and flat, though it peaked at the top, getting lost amongst the clouds. Its head alone was massive, stretching out of its shell a good many times larger than any castle. Horns and imperfections dotted its thick hide, showing the creature's age. I wouldn't have been surprised if this thing had lived forever.
At first, the beast did not move, though its large head tilted slowly to watch the horses scrambling around on the sands below it. It stood on four legs as thick as many city blocks, each scale-like knob of skin the size of a building. Screaming echoed out from the skies, and I watched as a horse and rider lost its balance on the hard shell of the beast. The man fell from his mount, before his horse fell on top of him. Both slid down the decline of the tortoise's outer shell, the crushed soldier leaving a thick streak of blood across the exoskeleton. The equine's screams of fear rose in volume as its body fell through the skies, before landing in the sands below with a sickly crunch.
“You are...” Nyx started, her black eyes wide on the creature, “...fucking...kidding me.”
My eyes were filled with tears. It was a reaction I could not explain. I had never seen something so massive, so overwhelming. It was as if just being a witness was enough to affect me.
“How...” the word deflated, lost in the air before my lips. I wanted to look toward Hasani, but could not tear my gaze away. The tortoise was so massive and so high into the sky that I was sure much of Chairel would be able to see it in the distance. “How can...how can we kill it?”
“I think we admit to ourselves that we can't,” the prince replied, his voice wavering.
I finally peered over to him in disbelief. “We have to, Hasani! This thing will take out all of us!”
The prince did not reply. Instead, as he watched the beast he pointed to it, drawing my attention back to the scene ahead.
With a groan that rumbled through the lands with a tinge of annoyance, the colossal tortoise started to turn, moving its head toward the east. I realized why Hasani had called my attention back to it. The beast had been awakened by the army traversing over its home, but it clearly was not looking for a fight. Who could know how long the beast had lived beneath the sands, absorbing the water of the rivers without hurting anything? It had lived here for so long that the native people hadn't even known they shared the land with it.
Commands were yelled beneath the tortoise as Terran tried to figure out the movements of the beast. From here, we could see it wanted to head east. From my brother's point-of-view, however, it was possible he couldn't even see where its head was. A grinding creak resounded through the air as the creature took its first step toward the beastlands, lifting its tremendous foot, the limb gliding through the air as horse and man fled from beneath to avoid it. When the foot made contact with the sands again, there were more than a few casualties. Mount and soldier alike were crushed beneath the monstrosity's limb, the sands reddening with the release of gallons of blood.
Terran knew of the tortoise's path now that it had taken a step, and he directed his army to the west, even as the creature prepared for another move. Horses scrambled in a frenzy to avoid its feet as it took a step, and another. I watched as a fireball was lobbed at the retreating creature from one of Sera's mages, sizzling through the air and leaving a trail of smoke. The flames hit the thick hide of the tortoise's upper leg, and I grimaced. Let it retreat, I thought. Neither of our armies were equipped to deal with this thing, only with each other.
Thankfully, the colossus paid no mind to the spell. It had simply left a smudge of black on the greenish-brown skin once the flames were squelched from a lack of flammable materials. The tortoise's skin did not catch fire as easily as fur.
Whatever Terran was yelling at his soldiers, it must have been along the same line of thinking I had, for his mages ceased their attacks. The army had retreated toward the edge of the dunes to the west, removing itself from harm's way as the tortoise started its slow trek into the desert. Some of their horses still reared and fought the reins, fearful of the beast even as it left.
The Desiccated Wastelands were now nothing more than a gigantic crater cut deep in the earth. Even as our army waited for the Serans to regroup, the smell of damp dirt hit our noses, released from the underground which had not been disturbed in millennia. Somehow, the tortoise had lived here in slumber for longer than even the settling humans, absorbing the water from its rivers to stay alive. Now, as it headed off to the east, I could only imagine how and where it would settle. Perhaps near Jaalam, which was far enough from the humans for it to be undisturbed while still having access to a river.
Though the beast was leaving, it was still slow to do so, and took up much of the sky as we waited for Terran to give further orders. There were splashes of blood in the sands around his army. He hadn't yet fought us, but already his army had taken casualties.
The Seran army reformed, soldiers pulling their horses into positions alongside one another. There was a flash of white energy as one of their healers helped an injured soldier. The echoes of nervous horses reached the ears of our hyenas, which chuckled excitedly with the promise of equine meat. Other than the animals, the only noise came from the enormous vibrations of the retreating beast's footsteps.
Then my brother screamed the order to charge once more, and the cavalry surged forward, the thundering of hooves upon earth rising as they neared. My eyes followed the group's movement, noticing Terran was no longer sending his army straight toward us. Instead, the cavalry was charging for the second group of arbalests to our right. He meant to run over our men with his horses while avoiding the second group of rangers entirely.
“Arbalests!” I screamed toward the other group of them near the river. “Thirty paces east!”
The group followed my order, hurrying along the riverside to get closer to the Seran stampede. The right group of rangers were frightened and intimidated as they were targeted, and as the cavalry neared, they released their first round of bolts into the army.
Schew! Hundreds of bolts arced through the air, piercing through sand and flesh alike. One of the Seran horses was shot through the eye, and it ran itself into the ground, crushing under its own weight. Its rider flew over its body, collapsing on the sands ahead just to be trampled by a comrade. A few soldiers were knocked off their saddles from being hit, some of them dead with one shot, and others simply injured. One horse limped away from the charge, a silver bolt glistening from its knee, its saddle empty of a rider.
“Lancers!” I turned to my right so the soldiers could hear me clearly. “Prepare to charge northeast!”
The soldiers prepared their weapons to charge, the hyenas
beneath them snarling within their bridles, eager for blood. Originally, the lancers were supposed to charge straight north, but with Terran targeting our arbalests who were on foot, I would need to intercept them.
Schew! Another round of bolts were released, and more of Terran's army fell. Many of the arbalests from the western group could not hit the army from their distance. My brother's strategy, while a last resort, had mostly worked.
I turned to the lancers, thrusting my arm forward. “Charge!”
The ground shook as nearly two hundred hyenas rushed forward, the energy of the hyenas dwarfing that of the Seran horses. Terran's cavalry was nearly upon our arbalests, but the lancers rushed to intercept them from the side. I heard my brother yell out updated orders, but it was too late.
The charging Naharans lowered their lances, preparing to pierce flesh and stab riders from mounts. The Seran cavalry began to react to their new enemy, many of the riders readjusting the direction of their mounts to meet our own head-on. As they readjusted, their pace was slowed, so when the lancers neared, their fast speed only helped to damage the cavalry.
Lances thrust completely through some of the soldiers, the sharpened ends poking out of the backs of men and women alike, dripping with hot blood and tissue. The lancers went about switching weapons once theirs were lost within the enemy, and began to engage in close quarters melee.
I heard sizzling, and my eyes fell upon hundreds of black tendrils as Cerin released his death magic. It had been the plan for after the lancers charged. Even so, we still had our mounted infantry, which would need to direct their hyenas forward.
“Cerin!” I called, motioning toward the right group of arbalests. “Direct your dead to defend the arbalests.”
The necromancer nodded, understanding. As the dead rose amongst bursts of sand, they crawled and hobbled to the defenseless group of rangers, prepared to serve as a blockade of protection.