by Shelley Cass
“It’s strange that someone so small could outwit the lot of us,” Vulcan teased Kiana. “I have more muscles than you have height. But I can’t fight you with runes.”
“I’m not positive that you could really outdo my strength either,” Kiana commented slyly. I felt a sudden rush of her magic, and the massive man was lifted from his feet and swept into an armchair across the room. She hadn’t lifted a finger. “Whether I use magic or arms.”
The others broke out into guffaws of laughter.
“I dare not even think of trying it,” Vulcan responded, bowing to her from where he sat. Then he settled back into the chair – taking the opportunity to get comfortable.
“Perhaps we should play again?” Thorin asked everyone. “Kiana might not be able to do it a second time?”
“I definitely could do it a second time,” Kiana replied. “But you could try me.”
“Count me out.” Nikon stretched and made to leave. “I want to be able to see straight in the morning when we go out to help the Jenran working groups.”
“I agree,” Phrixus yawned. “Don't want the Jenrans to think we’re useless.”
“I’m sure they already know you’re useless,” Wolf bantered.
“But what about the rest of us?” Cadell joked, having finally tied his armour into a neat bundle.
“Apart from all that,” Thale said. “I want to both win the war, and go back to Krall with more than an empty purse to my name.”
“Fine, fine,” Thorin sulked. “Bunch of cowards.”
Chapter Seventy Nine
Asha’s stomach suddenly curdled with nausea and she gasped.
Something foul drew near.
“What is it Asha?” Warlord Conall called up to her, wheeling his horse around below in concern when she halted abruptly in the air.
Ace had sent five other squad Nymphs to follow Glaidin’s army – just enough to be helpful, but also few enough to make it seem that the Forest dwellers had continued to dwindle after the Sorcerer’s attack. She saw that those five other Nymphs dispersed throughout the ranks had also drawn to a stop and were glancing about themselves in uncertainty.
Then the air around the army seemed to shift and warp, as if it were melting.
“AMBUSH!!!!” she roared at the top of her lungs, hearing her one word echoed by the other five.
Then, as the march faltered and waves of soldiers drew to a stop to blink up at the Nymphs, a sudden onrush of violent earth tremors began. The mortals lurched as they lost their balance, and there were cries of fear. Mounted soldiers fought to rein in their skittish, prancing horses and to gather the ranks they led into organised lines again.
“Is Darziates making the earth quake?” Conall shouted over the deafening noise of the tremor wracked ground as it cracked and shuddered.
She arced down to him, gnashing her pointed teeth.
“Darziates has done more than that,” she scowled across the vast dusty land that now rumbled so much that buckles on packs and saddles jingled and bounced. “He has sent us some terrible opponents.”
She heard shouts and cries of alarm from the soldiers at the head of the march as the cracked dirt ahead of them trembled and surged violently and massive mounds of earth began to rise and bubble out of the dust. It looked as if the ground of Krall was breaking out in foul boils and blemishes.
Asha brought flares of magic into her fists and sent a light show into the air for attention. Her magic then amplified her voice as she soared so that everyone could see her.
“HOLD YOUR POSITIONS!” she bellowed, and the nervous clustering stopped immediately as she startled thousands of men into remembering they were soldiers, not fearful sheep huddling together. “PIKEMEN MOVE FORWARD. PROTECT THE FRONT LINE!”
In a flurry of movement the pikemen at once moved to get through to the front.
“HEAVY CAVALRY FOLLOW BEHIND!”
The heavily equipped, lance wielding riders readied and began pushing their steeds to the frontline to stand behind the pike men.
“Netuno!” the other Nymphs cried as they appeared beside her and the mounds of earth began swelling into hulking body-like forms made out of dirt and rock.
“What are they?” Conall barked.
“Oh Gods,” she heard a soldier whimper as the dirt beings grew wider and taller, casting the army in shadow.
“Rucksha,” she growled. “Bouldermen. Your people used to call them Ogres in your stories. They are spirits that make themselves bodies out of rock and earth. Darziates has awakened these ancient beasts from their resting place in the desert for the first time since the failing of Deimos.”
Conall paled.
“They are indestructible earth shakers, but for the failing of the dark magic that roused them from their sleep. When Darziates is ended, they will rest once more. But they can be stopped and sent back temporarily by brute force.”
“We’ll do that then!” boomed one soldier beneath her, and there were cries of agreement.
“Yes we will,” she said grimly.
“We have updated the other commanding mortals,” the aqua haired Shiva, bonded life partner at last of Sati back in Sylthanryn, informed Asha.
“Then come with me,” Asha told him. “We’ll try and blast the leader before he can form properly.”
“There are four of them,” the indigo haired female, Catori, said. “Adahy and I will take the second one.”
The male beside her nodded.
“Take some axe men each and do your best against enemy three and four,” Asha told the males Tate and Dyami.
“The only contest for these things would be a Giant or Elves who can smash them back into the earth. They could be slowed by water to make them heavy, or by fire. But we don’t have much of either right now,” Catori surmised curtly.
“We must bombard them with our fire. Otherwise too many men will be crushed under their stampeding before we can break them up,” Asha said. “Friends, know that I am honoured to fight with each of you by my side.”
The five gave Nymphish salutes before speeding out to the roiling mountains of dust and dirt, which had steadily grown upward into hulking forms.
Conall was riding up and down the lines to keep them in order and Asha sped towards the tallest, thickest boulderman pile with fire snaking through her fingers. With a nod at Shiva, they both began throwing heat into what was becoming a face in the dirt.
The rocky head swivelled and jolted on stone shoulders, but despite the intensity of the Nymphs’ blasts the Rucksha began to assume its basic features.
She released one blast after another, yet soon the head turned to stare at her with two small holes made in the dirt of its face. It looked as if fingers had poked and scraped away some dirt where eyes ought to be.
Then it opened a gaping, jagged hole for a mouth, dribbling cascades of dirt and pebbles.
“Go back to sleep!” Shiva yelled, and zoomed in close to send a handful of fire right into the thing’s mouth.
It coughed dust, and then it at last lifted its heavy, yet now mobile, limbs to swat at them.
The two Nymphs ducked just as the group of bouldermen – all four of them – started to move their feet and detach their crumbling limbs from the dirt.
The leader lifted its colossal foot and then stamped it back down.
There was a mighty boom and the army teetered as the whole world seemed to shake under the weight of its dense earth body.
“We accept your challenge, desert fiends! We will send you back into useless slumber!” Asha screeched, and she heard brave calls from the masses below her.
“Heavy cavalry!” Asha raised her arm. “CHARGE!”
And the thundering of the horses’ hooves rattled the ground almost as much as the Rucksha had.
The lead Rucksha released a shattering bellow, and then the bouldermen all waded into the charging lances like Jenran children meeting the onslaught of a large wave at the beach.
In moments twenty of the lance men were
unhorsed and hurtling through the air, bashed from their saddles. The Rucksha were momentarily slowed, but then the beasts began crashing through horses and men, tearing at them with brute force or simply stepping on them and hurtling forward.
Those lance wielders still in their saddles needed time to turn and charge again.
“We need swords, maces and axes!” Asha yelled, and despite their terror, hordes of soldiers burst past the protective border of pikes and charged out to group around each of the Rucksha, battering the rocky pillar-like boulderman legs as best they could.
Chunks of rock and dirt were chipped out of the bouldermen in cascades and clumps as swords and axes struck heavy blows, and the bouldermen were slowed enough for the cavalry to regroup and make a new, powerful charge.
“INFANTRY!” Asha bellowed to the men chipping away at the Rucksha as the cavalry thundered back. “WITHDRAW!”
Lances skewered the four beasts deeply this time and one of the Rucksha tumbled to the ground, nearly exploding back into a heap of dirt. Another Rucksha’s leg broke off and crumbled back into the earth, and immediately the infantry swamped the two fallen bouldermen again, hacking at them with all of their might.
But the other two remained largely intact and ploughed through the swarms of horses and men with catastrophic results.
“PIKE MEN READY!” Asha roared.
At least two Rucksha would be crashing their way through the army’s ranks soon, though behind the protective pikes the lines of soldiers were determinedly readying for close quarters battle. The archer lines had also been building pyres to light burning arrows that might crack the dirt of Rucksha bodies, large groups of mounted men were preparing to take charges, and there was a defensive ring of soldiers growing around the healer and supply wagons.
“We got one!” sounded a chorus of cheers as one boulderman disintegrating beneath the beatings it had suffered.
But the other fiends were recovered and charging along at a great pace towards the army.
“KEEP STEADY!” she called. “DON’T BREAK THE LINE! DON’T LET THEM THROUGH!”
And she and Shiva redoubled their efforts to throw fierce explosions into the lead boulderman while men wielding swords and axes again ran forward to hack at the beast’s knees.
Nevertheless the lead boulderman stampeded on towards the front lines.
The monstrous advance shook the ground so much that the pike men had trouble not tumbling or dropping their weapons, but they braced themselves so that the Rucksha skewered itself on a dozen pike blades.
Frustrated, the Rucksha tried to keep pushing forward and the heels of the men holding the pikes dragged into the dirt as they were pressed backwards. The Rucksha thrust one pike away and took another from its stomach easily, snapping it like a twig with a grumbling sound like a rock slide coming from its mouth.
Now it lifted its rocky fist to deliver a fatal, shocking blow to one pike man still courageously forcing his weapon into the brute.
With a snarl Asha hurtled at breakneck speed towards the thing’s face, colliding into its rocky cheek with a force that knocked the Rucksha off course. Shiva was quick to throw himself at the boulderman’s other side before it could lash out at Asha, and a gravelly grunt crunched from the thing’s gaping mouth hole as it rotated in irritation.
Men dove to avoid getting trampled while Shiva darted at the Rucksha’s eyes and Asha pelted a golden globe of light that could normally roast a whole horse into the thing’s forehead, leaving a great scorch mark that blackened its face.
It roared in sudden agony as tiny pressure cracks formed in its dusty forehead but Shiva was already pelting his own inferno globe into the back of its knee. Asha continued blasting it in the head and back to keep it from getting any good swipes in at Shiva while he aimed to wear away its legs.
A crash and a bellow a short distance away told her that Tate and the men helping him had brought down another one of the fiends. She looked over to see some fire archers launching burning arrows into the growing dust heap, embedding them into its arms and flailing legs. Tate made the little fires burst into explosive flames. Axe and sword men were also hacking at the thing’s limbs so that they couldn’t reform.
She refocused on her battle when she heard a man below howl in agony and glanced down to see that a soldier who had been helping Shiva had not ducked quickly enough. The brute had clasped its massive fist around the soldier’s whole arm.
Asha lunged at the giant fist in a state of battle fury that sent the fire spreading from her hands to envelop both of her little arms. She latched onto the stony, oversized fingers clutching the man’s arm and her fire spread so that the Rucksha leader bellowed. She scratched and gouged at the dirt making up the fingers and they started to weaken and crumble.
For a moment the great brute howled as two of its massive fingers completely broke away into ash and dust so that the soldier slipped from its grasp. But then the enraged beast struck out at Asha, knocking her from the air so that she crashed down.
A spatter of blood erupted from her mouth as two of her ribs snapped and her arm broke in a few places, and she had no time to recover as the Rucksha lifted its disintegrating leg to squash her. It stamped down so that Asha was suffocating beneath the rough surface of its foot and she heard her ribs and arm crunch as her face was ground into the dirt.
She also heard Shiva roar in rage and Asha reeled with shock as she felt a tsunami of his magic obliterate the leg that had pinned her.
Asha knew that when such burning rage overcame a Nymph, Nature’s power could no longer be contained within their little bodies. When that happened their fire could do near anything. But it was rare, and often extinguished the Nymph’s own soul to leave only a shell.
“Don’t!” she rasped, reaching little broken fingers out. “Sati waits,” she tried to tell Shiva.
But through billowing dust Asha saw Shiva, his pointed teeth bared as he lifted his arms in terrible defiance. Suddenly the flame that had been enveloping his arms exploded to consume his whole body, until he looked to be surrounded in golden, burning light.
His aqua hair and eyes glowed brilliantly with gold, as if he had somehow become possessed by the powers of the Gods.
With another roar Shiva surged his fire towards the core of the beast. The beast shrieked in agony as it was rammed backward, colliding heavily with the earth. Cracks appeared in the ground beneath its struggling body and all of the men and horses for about a hundred yards toppled over.
Furiously the Rucksha dragged itself forward, ignoring its fast dissipating limbs, and it lunged for Asha and Shiva again with its one good arm, propping itself up on the stump of the other.
Shiva caught its arm with his flame, and for an intense, agonising moment there was a furious standoff between the tiny Nymph and monstrous desert beast.
However the Rucksha groaned and managed to push forward with all of its ferocious might, ignoring the rocks and sand pouring away from its burning arm even as its face caved in and most of its core was whittled into a hollow, burnt out cavity.
Then the Rucksha’s eroding arm managed to snake right through the fire thump Shiva out of the air.
The creature ignored the agony of the flame, its body fast breaking away, and it focused solely on pinning Shiva while the Nymph fought furiously.
Asha tried to sit up and stir her own Nymph fire, but moving caused more blood to spurt from her mouth.
Before she could do anything else a brave soldier managed to creep in close enough to get to her, quickly lifting her from the ground. Her hand flailed weakly as the soldier fled with her cradled in his arms.
Over his shoulder, getting further away, Asha watched the other bouldermen finally collapsing back into the earth to return to Darziates while the other squad Nymphs now sped towards Shiva. But the largest boulderman simply let what was left of itself fall backwards into the earth, burying Shiva in its remains.
She heard the other Nymphs screaming in the distance as Shiva sank
down under cascades of rock and dirt, being sucked into the earth until the flame covered Nymph disappeared within the fast receding dirt pile.
And then the wastelands became still.
Chapter Eighty
“The world is biting back,” the Sorcerer’s heavy breathing, loyal lapdog – Angra Mainyu glowered at his King. “That Frarshking inventor is only telling half truths!” he spat so that globules flung from his dirty lips. “The world is turning on us. Let me tear it all apart. By myself. I’ll go.”
Darziates regarded the eager, sweating Warlord with more patience than he offered all other mortals. Mortals were unimportant, momentary parts of the world. They passed through life so quickly, barely leaving an imprint to worry over. Yet Angra Mainyu’s particular brand of cruelty left him practically inhuman, and made him very useful. Darziates frequently drew on the state of the Warlord’s soul for inspiration. And as a resource.
“I’ll track the traitorous soldiers with the Three, and snap their necks,” Angra bunched grimy fists passionately. “And I’ll succeed against the ‘Three’ before they can even become the threat to your cause!”
“Hush,” Darziates let the word issue from between his lips slowly, and obediently the hulking, unstable Warlord hunched himself into silence.
The Sorcerer wasn’t concerned about any of Agrudek’s reports. He was certain that the Krall soldiers he had lost to the threatening ‘Three’ would easily be swayed when within his reach once more. Just as all of humanity would be swayed when he willed it.
He’d also largely dismissed Agrudek’s vague information that some Elves and Nymphs would be lending their support to the Three, for the dying breeds were either too serious or self-absorbed, or too haphazard and chaotic to ever organise properly.
Even the fact that Jenra was now prepared to leave its own seclusion to fight against his cause hardly displeased the Sorcerer. If the Jenrans wished to deplete their forces, the Jenran kingdom itself would fall under his command just that much more easily.