by Peter Last
“If I wish for them to be able to accomplish great things,” Lemin thought to himself, “I’ll have to keep them alive long enough for that to happen. With the help of Elohim, I'll make sure that happens, even if it means my death.”
Lemin felt himself being pulled back into his body and glanced around to see what had happened in his absence. Nothing seemed different, and the dwarves appeared as Lemin had last seen them. Lemin pushed the thoughts from his mind as the first dwarf attacked. He blocked the blow and slashed back, but the dwarf danced just out of his reach. Lemin’s mind was now aware of the magic lacing the city in an intricate pattern. As he kept the dwarves at bay, he began to work out a way to defeat them. With his mind he began to pull magic together into an invisible fist-sized ball. Though the pattern was rather simple and took him the lesser part of a second to construct, its effects were incredible. At detonation, it created a blast of energy that threw the surrounding dwarves several yards; he could hear the snapping of bones as they landed. Using the time he had just bought, he pulled the pendant from around Senndra’s neck and put it around his own, tucking it into his shirt and out of the way.
Lemin was slightly winded from the use of magic, but that did not decrease his exhilaration. The last time he had used magic had been more than a decade ago, and he had expected to not be very proficient in his use of it now; however, the effects of his spell put new courage into his soul. He stooped to pick up Senndra and straightened again, ready to run back to the barricade. As he turned, however, a hidden dwarf let loose an arrow at him. He scrambled to put together a spell that would block the missile, but he was too slow and succeeded only in slowing down the arrow so that it bounced off the armor on his back. The razor-sharp edge of the weapon bounced sideways and slid across his arm, slicing through his leather armor and cutting him to the bone. Lemin roared in pain, but he knew that locating the dwarf and killing him would be a bad idea. Instead, he turned and headed south and back to safety.
He was depending on the dust that covered the battle field to mask his retreat, but it was already beginning to settle. He increased his pace to a dead sprint, and the ground flew beneath his feet. His arm began to throb, but it would have to wait until he had reached safety. The distance between him and the barricade steadily decreased, but it was still too far for him to assume that he was going to make it. The dust blew from the field, and Lemin could now see the defenders crouched behind the wall, all with their bows trained on him. Before he had a chance to react, the call to fire was given, and a multitude of arrows flew toward him. He scrambled to gather the magic that surrounded him to construct a shield. Were he not out of practice, the task would have been laughably easy, but in his current state, there was just not enough time. As he tried to weave the pattern with magic, the arrows closed in on him, and he ducked to try to dodge them. They didn’t hit him, but they didn’t pass over him either. He glanced up hesitantly and a puzzling sight met his eyes. The arrows were suspended in the air above his head, and as he watched, they fell to the ground. Lemin knew that he hadn’t had time to weave the spell necessary to protect himself, and he wondered what had just happened. He didn’t take the time to think about it too much now, however, and with Senndra in his arms, he sprinted the last hundred yards to the barricade. Apparently, the defenders had determined that he was an ally because they did not fire on him again. When he reached the barricade, he passed Senndra's motionless body to Timothy and Vladimir then climbed over it himself. He dropped onto the other side and stooped to catch his breath.
“She’s not seriously hurt," Timothy said after examining Senndra. “She's got a nasty gash on her forehead, but the bleeding has almost stopped.”
Lemin looked up and saw Timothy staring at Senndra intently. His hands were traveling up and down her body without touching her. This, coupled with the fact that Timothy’s shoulder was as good as new, led Lemin to believe that his deduction about the boy had been correct. But there was just no time to address the issue now.
“Take her to the rear of the army and give her time to recover,” he ordered Timothy. As Timothy left, Lemin turned to Vladimir. “Go get Commander Pondran and tell him to meet me here. I need to speak with him.”
Vladimir hurried off to do Lemin’s bidding, and Lemin turned his focus to his wounds. The worst one was the gash on his arm from the arrow, and it was taken care of with a relatively simple spell. The thing that he needed most now was rest to allow his body to recuperate. He sat down and leaned against a barrel so that he could look across the barrier at the enemy. The dust had cleared almost completely, allowing a view straight to the opposing army. The dwarves had recovered from the explosions and were regrouping for another charge on the barricade that the defenders now hid behind. Despite the heavy casualties that the defending army had inflicted, there appeared to be just as many dwarves as when the battle had started.
Lemin glanced to the south and saw that only two more barricades stood between the south wall of the city and the enemy army. He looked up at the sky and noticed for the first time that the rain that had stopped, though he didn't know when that had happened. The clouds had passed and from the position of the sun, he estimated that there were perhaps two hours until midday. “Two hours until reinforcements arrive,” he thought to himself. “If we can hold out that long, we might have a chance of surviving.” He slid his sword from its scabbard and laid it across his knees. Next he turned his mind to remembering the patterns of various spells that might come in handy in the coming battle. As he recalled, destruction spells, such as the one that he had used when rescuing Senndra, were very physically draining; however, spells that did not take very much energy could be just as lethal. If, for instance, a spell was used to trip an enemy, that enemy could then be killed more easily. In the same way, relatively little energy was used to drain a specific area of air, rendering the soldiers there unconscious. If used effectively, magic often did not kill enemies, but it changed the environment to render them helpless. Lemin turned to remembering how various simple spells could be used to a great effect. He concentrated on this until Vladimir returned.
“Here is Commander Pondran,” Vladimir said. “You wouldn’t believe the time I had trying to…”
“Thank you, Vladimir,” Lemin responded, cutting him off. “And now you can turn around and watch the enemy so that we will have warning when they decide to attack.” He switched his attention to Josiah. “A brilliant kid, but he can ramble on sometimes. Now, what I wanted to talk to you about, as you have probably guessed, is our situation. Here’s the deal; we have only two barriers left between us and the south wall of the city and around two hours before we’re supposed to get reinforcements. We’ve already given up seven barriers in three hours, so we need to make these last ones count. The problem is that the barriers cover the length of the entire city, and when the dwarves breach one point, they can attack our backs. We don’t have enough men to defend the entire barrier, so we need to change our strategy. Who is the highest-ranking officer? Actually, who’s in charge here?”
“Last I heard, General Uriah is still alive,” Josiah said, “so that puts him in command. Technically, the grand admiral is in charge, but he leaves the running of the army up to the general.”
“In that case, I need to talk to Uriah,” Lemin said. “Tell him that the highest-ranking officer from the academy of Belvárd wishes to speak to him before the dwarves put together another attack. If he wants to keep me waiting, tell him that I outrank him; I’m an admiral.”
“Yes sir, right away sir.” Josiah said. He moved away and motioned for one of his officers to join him. After a brief discussion, the officer took off down the wall, and Josiah rejoined Lemin.
“That is taken care of,” he said. “Now, is there any other reason that you wish to speak to me?”
“Not right now,” Lemin said. “Get back to your men and keep them ready. It looks like the dwarves may attack before the general gets here. Other than that, stand by for further or
ders.”
Josiah nodded and left in the direction from which he had come, his entourage in tow. Lemin turned his attention back to the dwarf army and saw that they still did not appear as though they were about to attack. He wondered what was taking them so long, but welcomed the reprieve.
“Vladimir,” He called to his cadet. When Vladimir reached him, he said, “I want you to round up as many of our cadets as you can find and bring them here. There may not be many left alive, but I need our cadets reunited. Keep an eye on the dwarf army, and when they attack, defend where you are. If you don’t get back here by the time the dwarves overrun this barrier, look for me at the next one.”
Vladimir jogged down the defenders’ lines, looking at the faces of as many soldiers as possible and gathering those from Belvárd. Lemin sighed and looked back at the dwarf army. The fact that they were still not even getting ready to attack made him uneasy. With a snap of his fingers, he wove three strands of magic together and looked through them down the length of the city. What he saw wasn't a surprise to him, but even so, a curse jumped unbidden into his mind. A large group of the dwarves had marched to the end of the city where there were no defenders. They had crossed the barrier there, and they were now heading back toward the defenders. Lemin waved away the magic that covered his eyes and turned to see Josiah coming toward him with another man in tow. The second man was a large brute with a full head of red hair and a dull red beard. By all appearances, he was just another ordinary soldier, but Lemin could tell from the intelligent glint in his eyes that he had better than normal military genius. “After all, that is all that separates the regular soldiers from their commanders,” he told himself, “intelligence.”
“You wanted to speak with me?” the large man asked.
“Yes,” Lemin replied. “You must be General Uriah. Josiah told me that you are in charge of the soldiers from this academy.”
“That is true,” Uriah answered.
“Well, in that case, I need to speak to you.” Lemin pointed to the east. “What can you see in that direction?” he asked.
“Nothing,” Uriah answered. “There’s so much dust in the air that I can hardly see a hundred yards.”
Lemin deftly wove three more strands of magic in the same manner that he had only minutes ago. He spread the spell over Uriah’s eyes and stepped back.
“Elohim, protect us!” Uriah almost shouted. “What on earth am I seeing?”
Lemin wiped the spell away and faced Uriah. “I just used magic to allow you to see through the dust and smoke to the east end of the city. You saw exactly what you thought you saw and what I saw only minutes ago. The dwarves have bypassed our defenses and are marching up from the side. They’ll end up between us and the gate, and we’ll be pressed from both the front and the back. If that happens, we won’t have a chance of surviving.”
“And I suppose you have a plan for making sure that this won’t occur,” Uriah said, “or you wouldn’t have sent for me.”
“Indeed, I have an idea,” Lemin said. “No doubt, with enough time, you would have thought of something similar, but this is my plan. We no longer have enough men to defend the entire length of the city. The most important thing at this point is that we hold the south wall and gate so that when our reinforcements arrive, they will be able to join the fight and not get slaughtered.”
Lemin was interrupted by a shout from the dwarves to the north, and the army began to advance. “We have an advantage here,” he said quickly. “The dwarves to the north are attacking too soon. We may be able to repel them because they will be counting on us being surprised by the dwarves to the east. We still have about five minutes before they reach us, so if we work quickly, we can repel the enemy to the north without putting ourselves in danger. After that, we need to form our soldiers into a box that surrounds the gate. Our archers and half of our swordsmen need to be on the wall to protect the stairs leading up to it.”
“I have a better idea,” Uriah said. He pulled a horn from his belt and blew two blasts on it. “That is the signal for the engineers to destroy the stairs leading up to the south wall. Now all we will have to defend is the gatehouse.”
“Good idea,” Lemin called over his shoulder. “If your men can drive back the dwarves to the north, I will see what I can do to stall the ones to the east.”
“How…” Uriah began, but Lemin cut him off.
“Don’t worry about that. You do your part and I’ll do mine.”
******
Senndra groaned and rolled onto her back. It felt like there was a herd of horses stampeding around inside her head, and when she opened her eyes, the sudden assault of light hurt. She groaned again and, despite her body’s complaints, pulled herself to a sitting position. She dropped her head into her hands, and on the right side felt a large spot of dried blood. She explored the area thoroughly with her hand and found that it wasn’t very bad, so shrugging off the pain, she pulled herself to her feet. Her vision was blurry for a few moments, but it soon cleared, and she was able to look around. She was in a tower that she recognized as one on the wall of the city. Where she was in the city, she couldn’t tell, so she headed for the door of the tower. She stepped out onto the wall. The strong sunshine blinded her so that she could not see for several seconds. Finally her vision adjusted, and she noted that she was on the south wall of the city. The sun was directly in front of her to the east, but it was still fairly low.
It would have been a beautiful day if the circumstances had been different. As it was, the sound of fighting coming from the north interrupted the serenity of the morning. Senndra turned to take in the battle, and as she did, she spotted Timothy on the wall to the east. She knew that he wanted to be in the middle of the fighting, and she could only guess what he must be feeling at the moment. She walked down the wall to join him. As she drew closer to him, he turned to face her. The look on his face was grim, and she questioned him with her looks. He motioned with his head to where a lone figure was making his way to the east of the army. Senndra could just make out that an army of dwarves was approaching him. She squinted to try to distinguish his features more clearly and gave a start.
“Is that Lemin?” she asked Timothy. He nodded and she continued, the words tumbling out of her mouth. “What does he think he’s doing out there? He’ll get himself killed.”
“Not exactly,” Timothy answered. His voice was low, and he added in a whisper that Senndra could not hear, “He has rejoined our ranks.”
“You think he can take on all of those dwarves single-handedly?” she asked. “That’s impossible, even for someone of his skill in fighting.”
“Just watch and see,” Timothy answered.
Senndra started to answer, but his look silenced her. Instead, she turned her attention back to Lemin. The dwarves were closing the distance to him quickly, and Senndra estimated that they would reach him in about three minutes. As the dwarves drew closer, she began to pray to Elohim.
“Please be with Lemin as he faces the dwarves,” she prayed. “Let no harm befall him though his enemies outnumber him greatly. Be with him as he faces death and bring him through this alive, amen.”
Senndra turned her attention back to Lemin, but even as she did so, she heard a small voice. She knew it was not herself that spoke. The voice was much kinder and more glorious than she could imagine, but it spoke to her clearly. She turned toward Timothy, who had also turned to look at her.
“You heard him too,” he said, not as a question, but as a statement. Senndra nodded, and together they turned and ran down the wall to the east. Senndra grabbed her bow and an arrow from her quiver. With a smooth motion, she placed the arrow on the string of the bow and began to gauge the distance of the dwarves even as she ran.
“Get ready,” Timothy told her. She barely had time to wonder what he meant before they were flying through the air, off of the wall. Senndra screamed at the unexpected danger, but Timothy seemed unalarmed. As they approached the ground, their speed of descent de
creased until their feet touched down; a slight bending of the knees was all that was necessary to absorb the shock of the landing. Senndra glanced over at Timothy for an explanation, but he was facing in the direction of Lemin and had already started to sprint toward him. Senndra followed, but she steadily fell farther and farther behind. She clutched her arrow in one hand and her bow in the other and increased her speed. Slowly she began to gain ground on Timothy and was only a few seconds behind him when he reached Lemin.
“What are you doing down here?” he asked them. “You’re supposed to be in a safe place.”
“Elohim commanded us to come to your aid,” Timothy explained. He looked toward the advancing dwarves and added, “And it looks like you’ll need all the help you can get.”
“In that case,” Lemin said, “I’m working on weakening the supports of the buildings between us and them so that they will fall and form a wall. I know that Senndra won’t be able to help with this, but you should be able to, Timothy.”
“So you knew all along, just as I suspected,” Timothy said. He turned his attention to the buildings Lemin had indicated and began to concentrate. His hands made slight motions, as though he was weaving invisible threads, and Senndra was confused as to what she was seeing.