by Jordan Baker
The elves who had lost their mounts gathered at the edge of the Darga lines and, as the creatures swarmed toward them, the elves who were still mounted rode past and those who were now on foot swung themselves up onto the backs of the horses, riding behind their brethren.
"Prince Quenta, why did you sound the retreat?" asked the elf who rode in front of the Elven prince.
"Prudence," Quenta said. "These Darga are more powerful and greater in number than I expected, but they are not yet our target. Our priority is to destroy those war machines. Once we have completed that task, we can kill the lizard men at our leisure."
Draxis and his Darga warriors ran after the elves as they raced toward the catapults, but the ground beneath their feet began to shift and change as the short grasses began to grow longer, making it difficult to move quickly. Draxis smelled magic in the air, and it had the same scent as the elf he had fought. He leapt forward, jumping instead of trying to run on the shifting ground and he pulled ahead of the Darga, who were slowed down by it. Draxis knew he could not run as fast as the elven horses, but he knew they would not be going far and he desperately wanted to fight the elf in the silver mask, almost as much as he wanted to kill the Kandaran duke.
*****
Inside the city walls, Ariana, along with Margo, Keira and a number of the Queen's Guard had taken charge of evacuating the people from the portion of the city that was being hit the most by the magical attacks. At first, the Kandarans were afraid of being out in the open, but once they arrived at the city gardens, they were amazed at what they saw. The elves had found fewer trees than they had hoped for, but there were enough and those that were able used their magic to coax them into growing larger, while others spread vines throughout the branches, creating thick, green canopies that sheltered the hundreds of people who had gathered in the open space, away from the buildings.
Several of the elves were able to work with water and Ariana remembered what King Eric had told her about her power so she asked one of them to instruct her how to help them. Together, they created fountains from the small ponds in the garden and nearby wells, that shot streams of water into the sky to protect the trees from catching fire and to dissipate the blasts of magic that came crashing down from the sky. They had just completed the water barrier when the magical blasts suddenly stopped.
"Boric and the elves must have stopped the catapults," Ariana said, relieved.
"Duke Boric is powerful, and no doubt the elves are very effective, but they could not have destroyed that many catapults so quickly. It has to be something else," Margo said.
She walked out of the city gardens and gazed down the long, cobbled street in the direction of the city gate as something else came flying over the wall, and smashed onto the roof of a nearby building.
"What is that?" Keira asked in near disbelief, then she realized what the catapults were now throwing into the city. "What is the purpose of doing such a thing?"
Ariana looked at the sky that was beginning to turn an ugly red as the sun approached the horizon and she was enraged. Maramyrian soldiers were tumbling through the air and smashing into buildings and landing hard upon the stone street. What she saw next turned her stomach and she felt a knot of fear deep within her. The bodies of the soldiers, many of them twisted in unnatural ways from their impact and others with their heads smashed open began to move. It was as though they had risen from bed as they slowly pushed themselves to their feet and stretched, then began pushing their shoulders back into joint and tearing fabric from their clothes to bind split bones in their arms and legs. The ones who had risen with their limbs intact, drew their swords and began advancing through the streets, ready to attack.
"What has he done?" Ariana whispered, mortified by what she was seeing. As the soldiers began running up the street toward them, she snapped out of her shock. "Keira, we need to close off the gardens and keep them out!"
"Yes, princess," Keira said and she and the elves quickly used their power to grow thickets and branches around the garden where hundreds of Kandarans were gathered.
Ariana began unleashing mage fire at the soldiers, but they just kept coming, even though they were on fire.
"Don't use fire," Keira yelled. "If they reach the thickets, they could set it alight." Ariana knew she was right, fire would only make things worse. The fountains they had created were meant to stop attacks of fire from the sky, not burning soldiers running along the ground and there was not enough time to reposition them and create a tree barrier at the same time.
"It looks like we will have to fight them," Ariana said, drawing her sword as the first few soldiers approached.
They encountered Margo first and Ariana marveled when she saw the woman dance through them with her sword and dagger. She hit three of them with heavy blows, cutting a deep gash into the neck of one, stabbing another in the stomach and cutting off the sword hand of the other. The three soldiers fell to the ground the, a moment later, as though nothing had happened, they pushed themselves to their feet and began to attack again.
"Something is wrong with them," Margo yelled as she defended herself from the three soldiers, cutting them down again, while dozens more came running up the street. "They won't die."
Ariana looked back at the wooden barrier and she could see that Keira and the elves were almost finished making sure it was secure. She searched the cobblestones at her feet and saw a small patch of green between two of them, a small weed and she crouched down and touched it, sensing its roots and hoping it might be connected to others like it. The weed was part of a network that ran underneath the stones for a good length of the street and she channeled her power into it and, in turn, used it to seek out other life. The root system also touched a patch of ivy that grew on the side of one of the buildings and she sent her power to it as well.
"Get back!" Ariana yelled.
Margo slashed at one of the soldiers and blocked the sword of another, then glanced back at Ariana then she realized what the princess was doing and she broke free and retreated a short distance. Within a few moments the street grew thick with weeds and their roots began to tangle around the feet of the dead soldiers, slowing them down. The vines from the wall of the building reached out and began encircling their arms and legs, filling the street and stopping them. Ariana let go of the plant and caught her breath, realizing she was growing tired and that the faster she tried to make things grow, the more of her power was required.
Ariana turned in panic as she heard the clash of steel and the sound of hoofbeats on the cobbles from an adjacent street. The late afternoon sun was beginning to fade and the side street was already dim but she breathed a sigh of relief when she saw Elric and a group of Kandaran soldiers emerge from the shadows and ride toward her. The young king dismounted and walked toward them.
"When we saw the dead soldiers getting up and moving around, we thought you might need assistance," Elric said. He looked at the thicket that surrounded the large city garden and saw many people gathered inside. "Fear not, my people. The city is protected by fierce warriors of Kandara, the Guard of Elvanar and the loyal soldiers of Maramyr who now fight for their rightful ruler, Queen Ariana." He reached out to Ariana. "It would help calm the people if you would let them see you."
Ariana saw several of the people behind the crisscrossed branches venture forward, staring at her.
"Is it true?" an old man asked. "You are alive." He smiled.
Ariana slid her mask to the side, so they could see her.
"Many of you do not know me," she said. "I am Ariana Coromyr, the rightful Queen of Maramyr. My uncle, Cerric and the dark mages of the priesthood attempted to have me killed so my uncle could take the throne. This crime has been blamed on the peaceful kingdom of Kandara, and for that injustice, I am truly sorry. I have said this to your king, and I say this to you, the people of Kandara. I have brought with me the Guard of Elvanar, which Queen Laurana has sent to your aid, and many of the soldiers of Maramyr who were ordered to attack your la
nd now defend this city. We, along with your brave leaders, the nobles of House Akandra do battle against my uncle's army and the Xallan Queen, to defend your lives."
"Queen Ariana," said an elderly woman. "I saw the old king and queen of Maramyr once. They were friends to the Kandaran people and I am glad you have come, to restore our honor."
Ariana smiled. "It is my hope that we can repair what has been done, but first we must defeat my uncle. You will be safe here." Ariana looked through the dark thicket at the people gathered in the city gardens and she raised her voice so they could all hear her. "You will all be safe here."
"Are we prisoners?" asked a man from somewhere among the people.
"No," Ariana told them. "This barrier has been created to keep you safe from the mage fire and from the enemy soldiers."
"I know how to kill them now," Margo said, walking back from the three dead soldiers whose headless bodies hung, unmoving in the vines while the others struggled to break free. "Cut off their heads."
"What are they?" Elric asked.
"They're soldiers," Ariana said then she used her power to look at them. "They are Maramyrian soldiers, but they look as though they have had some magic put upon them." Ariana gasped when she realized that behind the strange magic, there was no life energy, no aura of color, where there normally would be, even for those who were not magically gifted. "It's like they are dead."
"I have heard of such a thing. It is called death magic," Margo said. "There are many forms of it, but it is one of the things we Rangers keep watch for."
"I have heard of it as well," Keira said, "but we do not understand such magic in Elvanar. It makes little sense to those of the forest."
""I am not a mage," Margo said, "but I have heard this magic involves controlling or stealing the essence of another, usually by force. There are old stories from ages past of dead soldiers being controlled by mages using this kind of power. It was thought lost to the ages, but apparently that secret has been uncovered."
"Could this be the power of this priesthood?" Elric asked. "We do not have many mages in Kandara, but I have heard stories that these mage priests now worship Cerric as a god."
"I am sure my uncle Cerric and his mage, Dakar, are behind this," Ariana told him. "The priesthood have shown themselves to have betrayed the traditional neutrality of mages by openly attacked Kandara. I expect they will work other magics so we must stay on our guard." She looked to the dead soldiers who were struggling to free themselves from the vines and one of them had almost managed to scramble all the way through. "They will eventually break free."
"If you can separate their heads from their shoulders, they will fall," Margo said as she walked over to the nest of vines and swung her blade, taking the soldier's head off in one flash of steel.
In the dim light of the city, Ariana saw the soldier's head fall upon the ground in a pool of blood and she looked into the milky, dead eyes that stared up at her, hating what her uncle had done. These were her people, the people of her kingdome, loyal soldiers of Maramyr, who were lied to and then turned into some kind of dead slaves by the foul magic of the priesthood. As distasteful as it was, there was nothing she could do but to defend the people of Kandara and hope the soldiers who remained loyal to her, would survive the battle outside the walls.
*****
Boric slammed his axe into another catapult as it fired and, instead of lobbing the ensorceled soldiers over the city wall, it sent several handfuls of them flying toward the trenches. The Duke worried for a moment about Nathas and the other soldiers but he figured it was better that Cerric's slave soldiers find their way to the trenches than make it over the city walls. After having seen a number of them get up and keep fighting after taking wounds that should have killed them, he suspected that the defenders inside the city would have their hands full.
A volley from the catapults atop the walls took out another one of Cerric's catapults and that left only a handful more to deal with, as the Elves had attacked the siege engines from both sides of the field. Boric swung his axe in wide arcs, clearing a path toward the next catapult when he heard a loud thundering sound from nearby. Seemingly from out of nowhere, something hit him in the side and sent him flying toward the trenches and knocking him to the ground. His armor was bent badly and his ribs felt as though they had been kicked by a horse. Boric rolled over on the ground and a heavy, iron ball dislodged itself from his side where it had stuck in his armor. He pushed himself to his feet, leaning on his axe, which was still firmly gripped in his hand and he stared at the round chunk of metal, then he sniffed the air and realized what it was.
He heard another crack of thunder and immediately leapt from the place he had been standing. The air whistled as another iron ball whipped by, smashing into the ground just in front of the trenches. Boric looked into the mass of soldiers advancing toward him and he saw them behind a puff of smoke. They were metal cylinders on heavy wooden wheels, cannons. It seemed Cerric had gotten his hands on the weapons of the people of the sea.
Another crack of thunder sounded and Boric leapt again, avoiding another of the heavy iron balls. He glanced up the battlefield and it looked as though the elves were taking care of the remaining catapults so Boric decided it would be best to stop these cannons before they could do any more damage, to him or the thousands of soldiers who were less armored than he. Boric dodged another shot from a cannon and was about to charge into the enemy ranks when he heard another, quieter sound from a different direction. He caught a glimpse of something streaking toward him and tried to jump out of the way but he was too late.
A long, iron spike punched through his armor and caught him in the side, just below his ribs. He looked down and saw that it was attached to a heavy chain, which led a short distance through the sea of soldiers to three Darga, who held a kind of oversized crossbow. Standing next to them was the half-Darga brat, Draxis, who had picked up the chain and was now gathering it toward him. Boric looked down at the spike and found that it had only caught part of him on his left side, just below his ribs and had, luckily, missed his innards, but when he tried to pull it out, he found that it would not budge. He looked over his shoulder at the place where the spike had exited his back and saw that it had short prongs just before the end of its tip. The chain tightened as Draxis pulled it, now helped by his Darga, and Boric felt himself being yanked forward as more Darga ran toward him. He bellowed from pain as the thick iron spike moved around and the sharp prongs dug into his back where it had knocked his armor away.
Boric ran forward toward the Darga faster than Draxis could tighten the chain. He scooped the chain from the ground with his axe and grabbed it with his other hand then pulled the chain forward with all his might, nearly yanking the arms off Draxis and his Darga helpers. Boric threw the chain to the ground then, ignoring the screaming pain in his side, he smashed at the metal with his giant axe, splitting the chain in two. The Darga were closing in fast and Boric spun around as they leapt on him, then he dove for the ground, landing flat on his chest. A Darga screamed as the metal spike pushed through, protruding from Boric's back and punched the lizard man in the chest, impaling him completely.
Boric scrambled to his feet and ran forward, grimacing in pain as the chain slid through the hole in his side, but a moment later he was free and he turned to face the oncoming Darga. Another crack of thunder sounded from nearby and Boric tried to leap out of the way, but his left side was beginning to respond slowly and he felt the vision in his left eye beginning to blur as another iron ball hit him square in the shoulder. The impact nearly made him drop his axe, but he hung onto it and Boric staggered forward toward the Darga, swinging his axe at them through the pain. The giant axe split two Darga clean through the middle and knocked several more aside, clearing a path toward Draxis, who smiled cruelly as he stalked toward the injured duke.
"You move a little slower now, Duke Boric," Draxis jeered. "You cannot run away from me this time."
"I have no intention of runni
ng away from a whelp like you," Boric said, swinging his axe at him. "I take it you poisoned that spike of yours."
"You can feel it, yes?" Draxis asked as Boric swiped his axe at several more Darga who got too close.
"It itches a little," Boric lied.
He could barely see out of his left eye now and the vision in his right eye had become a little blurry and Boric wondered how badly he might be bleeding from the hole Draxis' little toy had punched in him. His entire left side was numb and he had little control over his arm or leg, though they seemed to still move. At least he could not feel the pain in his left side, though his right shoulder still hurt from the cannonball.
"I wonder if I should kill you myself, or if I should let my Darga finish the job," Draxis said. "It might not be much of a challenge to fight you now."
"You are getting a little ahead of yourself, boy," Boric said and he reached deep into the primal power that lived within him and bellowed flame at Draxis and the Darga. They had seen his trick before and were ready for it this time, having left themselves room to maneuver and jumping out of the way before the flames could touch them. Draxis laughed.
"I heard stories from the mages of how Kandara has never fallen because of the mighty House of Akandra and they monsters they commanded. It appears the stories were mostly lies meant to scare Xallan children at night, but I never thought that the monsters would be the Akandar themselves. You put on airs and call yourself nobles, but you are no different from me or these Darga warriors."
"I think you'll find there are a lot of differences between the Akandar and the Darga," Boric said then he bellowed more fire at them. He noticed that when he used his fire, the effects of the poison began to recede, which made sense, for his body's ability to repair its wounds had always been accelerated when he touched the flames that lived deep within him. It helped that Draxis wanted to talk to him, for every moment that passed, Boric began to feel stronger again. "And yet, you call yourself a Prince? Would that not be called putting on airs, as you say?"