Moontide 03 - Unholy War

by David Hair

  Half his bolts went astray, but his attacks took toll. Then the arrows began to fly, the first one flickering past his nose and hitting someone behind him. He realised he’d completely forgotten to shield – the most basic of mistakes – and rectified that in a frightened frenzy. He couldn’t see Tyron, only a swirling mass of Keshi pouring around the sides of his cohort and aiming arrows. Some had already reached the wagons, and he could feel the throb of the gnosis – the healer-magi were protecting their patients. He whipped his horse about again, blasted fire into the face of another Keshi, swatted away a maddening swarm of arrows. He cast about …

  … and saw Tyron lying on his back with an arrow through his left eye.

  Something inside him snapped, and a torrent of rage poured out. First came the rational spells, like the sylvan-gnosis he used to wreck the bows of the Keshi, then wind and lightning burst from him like a scream. Even then, it wasn’t hugely effective, but it did blast over a few of the enemy, and it forced the rest to recoil as dust blasted up into their faces. Then he started to think, and let his more natural affinities take over: he was primarily a Hermetic mage. It wasn’t as effective in combat as other Studies, but he was a pure-blood and facing only mounted men …

  The Keshi dimly felt the blast of pure terror and despair that throbbed from him, but their horses – targeted through his animagery – went into a frenzy. They panicked, first thrashing about, then tearing away, their riders clinging on desperately. Those who tumbled off were speared before they could rise as Rondian reinforcements poured into the junction. In seconds the attack had completely fallen apart and the brief engagement was over.

  The junction flooded with soldiers, but Seth barely noticed. He was huddled over the cooling body of Tyron Frand, crying so hard his eyes felt like they were burning away. He felt like he was floating alone in a cloud of grief, but suddenly Lanna Jureigh was standing over him, her usually gentle face hard and angry. ‘Get up. You’re our commander.’

  ‘They killed him – he forgot to shield – I forgot. We should have shielded—’

  She slapped him, not with her hand, but with her mind, and he reeled, but she pulled him upright, using telekinetic gnosis to augment her strength. She looked nothing like a healer right now. ‘Stand up. We’ve lost more than just one man and the soldiers need to see their general.’

  ‘No, they don’t. I failed them, I let them down—’

  She mind-slapped him again, so hard he staggered, but again she held him upright and berated him in a low voice, pitched for his ears alone. ‘Yes, you did: you set no outriders and you led us through a junction you didn’t scout. You let the rest of the magi gallivant off on some meaningless mission half their number could have achieved. Then you fought like a barely-blooded child.’

  He stared at her, trying not to fall to his knees again, not with so many watching. I deserve this, he told himself.

  Her face softened, just a fraction. ‘You also saved us.’

  He swallowed, nodded.

  She gripped his shoulder steadily. ‘Learn from this, General Korion.’

  He looked around, finally registered all the other dead: as many Keshi as Rondian. No doubt the rest of the Estellan cavalry were dead too. ‘Someone else should be in command,’ he whispered.

  ‘Ideally,’ she agreed, ‘but for now, it’s you.’ She stepped away and, very showily, went down on one knee. ‘Hail to General Korion, who saved the day,’ she shouted.

  The gathered men responded, crying, ‘Hail! Hail!’, all acclaiming their general who had saved the day. It was a myth in the making, but he had to pretend it was real for their sakes, while his only friend in the whole army lay dead in the dust at his feet.

  14

  News of Victory

  Noors

  The term ‘Noor’ comes from an Old Rondian word for dark. It was initially used for the darker-skinned peoples of south Yuros, but more recently it has become a blanket term for the people of Antiopia. Though not originally intended as such, it is a term of derision, not used in polite circles. Perversely, some Antiopians themselves use the term when dealing with Rondians, muddying the waters over the correctness of the term.

  ORDO COSTRUO COLLEGIATE, PONTUS

  Northern Javon, on the continent of Antiopia

  Thani (Aprafor) 929

  10th month of the Moontide

  With a despairing wail, the young Rondian legionary came at Elena, his sword a blur. About them were the twitching bodies of his comrades – but the movement was their nervous systems failing from the mage-bolts that had taken them from behind. The rest had been cut open and blood was still pumping from fresh wounds.

  Elena had raised her hand to fire off another bolt when Kazim ghosted in and buried his blade in the soldier’s back, punching through his boiled leather breastplate as if it were silk and skewering his heart. As the dying man sagged into Kazim’s waiting arms, Elena looked away, not because there were more foes, but so she did not see what Kazim did next.

  Instead she surveyed the tangled bodies about them. They should have run. Their mage was already dead. But that didn’t unnerve her; what left her shaken still was the reminder that her lover garnered his power from killing, then denying another soul whatever afterlife existed. If Kore exists, he surely can’t have intended such a thing …

  The look on Kazim’s face as he rose from his ‘feeding’ told her that he didn’t think Ahm approved either.

  The six men protecting the dead mage were strewn before her; the rest of the Dorobon cohort lay dead or close to it around the pool she’d poisoned; they’d been delirious already before Kazim had launched lightning into the water and caught almost all of them in the blast. The mage hadn’t been able to protect them, he might be a pure-blood, but he’d been a Fire-mage, with the wrong skill-set to combat the poison.

  She walked over to the pool, immersed a hand, extended her awareness and began to purify it. It took a long time, but she owed it to the Jhafi who relied on it for water for themselves, their livestock and their crops.

  The sun was dropping towards the west and the waxing moon was rising in the east when she finally looked up. Kazim was stalking among the corpses, looking for valuables, anything they could trade for food and equipment. His pupils were dilated: the aftermath of taking another soul. This butchery offended him, she knew. That’s war, my love. At least we’re safe. This was the fifth patrol they’d destroyed since that first way-station, and the third dead mage. Magi were precious – these losses would be hurting the Dorobon badly.

  Kazim came and knelt beside her at the water’s edge. ‘Is it clean yet?’

  She sent a final pulse of cleansing gnosis through the pool and took its measure. ‘Yes.’

  Kazim splashed water onto his face, scrubbing fiercely at his whiskery, blood-spattered visage. ‘You’re all right?’ he asked afterwards.

  ‘Not a touch.’

  The mage they’d slain was a well-dressed youth with a fashionable beard and moustache. His handsome features had been contorted by the agony of having poison dissolving his insides while another mage blasted him with water-borne lightning. He’d apparently been a diviner, but he hadn’t seen death coming. She plucked a sapphire periapt from his neck and took his gold ring, a griffin signet bearing the word Fidelus.

  Loyal. I suppose he was.

  ‘It’s just slaughter,’ Kazim said in a low, dead voice. ‘They can’t touch us, not if we’re careful. They don’t stand a chance. This is not war.’

  ‘Oh yes it is: this is precisely what war is. It’s the stories that get it wrong, all that talk about stupid things like glory and honour.’

  They looted two flasks of brandy and a hard cheese from the pilus, together with what few coins they could find, so at least they could pay for supplies next time they were in need. They picked up a couple of uniforms that looked like they might fit them, then headed for the dell where they’d left the Greyhawk.

  They were halfway back, with Elena trying to calculate
how long they had until sunset, when she glanced back and cursed. ‘Shit! Get down!’

  Kazim obeyed instantly and she cloaked them both in a haze she hoped would blend into the mirages all round them. A sleek, dun-sailed windskiff had appeared from the south, with illusion rendering it all but invisible to a non-mage. Kore! That’s Gurvon’s skiff! She could make out three shapes in the hull.

  Kazim growled throatily. ‘Him?’

  ‘Mask yourself and stay close. Don’t look at it, or try to scry. Use the gnosis sparingly. We’ve got twenty minutes before the sun goes down, and an hour after that before full dark.’

  ‘We can take them,’ Kazim said in a low voice.

  She shook her head. ‘We don’t know who is with him, or how many others are here.’ She glanced around and picked out a sheltered route towards the next outcropping. ‘Stay low. Crawl.’

  He wanted to argue, but she slipped from his grasp and began to shimmy forward on her belly, chafing knees and elbows. The dust soaked into their bloody clothes, but they reached the boulders undetected. She looked back and saw the skiff circling the oasis, only a few hundred yards away. She slipped into the lee of the nearest boulder and pulled Kazim to her. ‘We’ll wait here until they land, then move.’

  He put his lips to her ear. ‘Let’s attack! There’s only three of them—’

  ‘No! It would be just like Gurvon to sacrifice a few low-bloods to lure us out. There could be a dozen more magi hidden and waiting. We’ve got to get out of here as soon as darkness falls.’

  I knew it was too easy …

  ‘You’re afraid,’ he growled, not willing to let it go.

  Her eyes narrowed, not in anger but consideration. Then she thought, Yes, and that’s no bad thing. Gurvon always has something up his sleeve, a way to attack your blind side, she admitted to herself. Yes, I’m afraid. If you could, you should always be the one to choose the battleground. You didn’t let the enemy do it. She glanced sideways at Kazim’s young, hard face, with its rakish beard and golden skin and amended herself: No, I’m not afraid of Gurvon. I’m afraid of losing you.

  ‘We’re not ready,’ she said instead.

  ‘How can we not be ready? We’ve trained for months – we’ve wiped out six patrols now. We can destroy him.’

  ‘No,’ she whispered firmly. ‘Follow me.’ She slid from his side and began to crawl away. She heard him exhale angrily, but he came after her and she released her own pent-up breath. He was like the young Rondians Gurvon used to recruit, full of their own invincibility. It could take years to knock it out of them – if they lasted that long.

  Kazim hadn’t yet taken on a mage in a fight; so far Elena had dealt with those. There hadn’t been time to teach him the finer points of gnostic duelling, so his role was to blast from a distance, then close in fast. A clever mage like Gurvon would take him down in a heartbeat, despite all the months she’d spent training him. Some things only the real world taught.

  They reached the Greyhawk undetected as the sun went down and the landscape fell into gloom. The skiff was covered in its dun sails and hidden beneath the lee of a rock. Full dark was still some time away, however, and she knew Gurvon would be watching the skies: the bodies had still been warm when they left, so clearly fresh. ‘We must wait now,’ she told Kazim, and pulled him into the lee of a different boulder, where the shade was thickest. They huddled together as the shadows deepened, quivering at the slightest sound, while the quarter-moon climbed the sky.

  Finally twilight became full night and at last she felt safe enough to move. ‘Let’s go,’ she whispered, and they dragged the Greyhawk into the open and re-set the mast and sail. In minutes they were rising just above the ground and turning into the wind. It was too dark to navigate normally, but if they could just get away from here, she could open up her senses and begin to feel their path home. ‘Steer southeast,’ she whispered, almost the opposite direction to where their base lay. ‘I want to make sure we’re clear.’

  Kazim looked at her quizzically, then followed her instructions. She set the sails and tied them down, then wriggled around the mast, nestled herself against Kazim’s thigh and peered behind them. She opened up her senses, listening hard. She might be only a half-blood, but few people could operate near her undetected, even pure-bloods. After a time, she began to relax. ‘I think we might have got away,’ she breathed.

  Kazim bared his teeth, luminescent in the moonlight. ‘Next time we fight, yes?’ he asked hopefully.

  ‘When we fight Gurvon, it will be well-planned, and at a time and place we choose.’

  He kept one hand on the tiller and stroked her head with the other. ‘It is hard to run away.’

  ‘We won’t always,’ she promised him. She reached wider, feeling relaxed enough to begin finding landmarks to navigate by, eager to be home and get washed. That was when she sensed something. She cast about: an owl, above and behind, following them.
  He started, almost looked. ‘What is it?’

  ‘An owl, about two hundred yards back. It’s unlikely to be a shapeshifter, not given its size, but it could be controlled by an animagus or possessed by a daemon.’

  She felt him shudder slightly. To him such things were still creatures of darkness, not the tools of the mage’s trade. He was learning, but not fast enough.

  ‘Either way, the mage controlling it can see through its eyes, and that means we’re in trouble,’ she whispered. She moved back to the mast to give herself a clear line of sight.

  Kazim looked at her worriedly. ‘What do I do?’

  ‘Bear to the right. Keep heading away from home.’

  She peered. Now, let’s see …

  She had no affinity at all for beast-magic, but Gurvon did, and if he was controlling that damned bird, he could potentially track them wherever they went. And it mightn’t be the only one he had in the sky.

  I don’t have the affinities to deal with this … but Kazim does. She turned his way. ‘If I showed you how to do something, could you? I warn you, it won’t be pleasant.’

  He nodded warily. ‘Of course.’

  ‘Okay, listen with your mind.’ She opened up to him and connected with his aura. Every mage’s aura had a ‘feel’ unique to them; his was a pleasant soft leather. She had been told hers was like cool water.

  She took over at the tiller so that he could prepare, and shielded her own mind, because what he was about to do could affect more than birds, and he’d never done anything like it before. She took one last glance upwards with her gnostic sight to check where the owl was, then told him:

  He looked at her uncertainly, clearly not proud of what he was about to attempt, then he set his shoulders and released his gnosis. A pulse of psychic energy washed out from him and she blanched at its force. She felt the owl go down, like a flickering candle winking out.

  At the same time around a thousand other candles went out around them.

  *

  Gurvon Gyle shuddered as the birds he was linked to died in an abrupt flare of agony. For a second he was dazed and helpless, clutching onto the rock. The world was a black yawning hole and he was falling into it. Then he pulled his mind clear, shaking. Great Kore …

  ‘Boss?’ Mara Secordin didn’t really do concern, but she did do curiosity. Her slab-like jowls quivered and her eyes widened momentarily. ‘I felt that,’ she said with an air of disbelief.

  He pushed himself upright. Kore’s Blood, they probably felt it in Pallas … He reached out with animagery, seeking his linked birds. He drew a complete blank.

  ‘My birds are dead, and so’s pretty much everything else within what I’d guess is a mile’s radius,’ he reported, scarcely believing it. He reached out, looking for other animal minds, and found a gaping void. ‘There’s nothing left.’

  Rutt Sordell was beside the skiff, scrying. He looked up and said warily, ‘Elena doesn’t do animagery.’

&n
bsp; ‘Someone with her does.’ Gurvon rubbed his temples as he straightened. He trusted Mara, as much as he trusted anyone, but it didn’t do to look surprised in front of her. She was a predator, and weakness excited her in all the wrong ways. ‘The eyewitnesses at that way-station said there was a Noorie with her.’

  ‘I like Noorie men,’ Mara commented distantly. ‘Spicy and lean. A little small, though.’

  He winced at the various mental images her words conjured, and changed the subject. ‘That killing pulse was of Ascendant strength.’ He pushed away from the boulder and steadied himself, then lurched towards the skiff. ‘Who the Hel has she got with her?’ he muttered.

  Sordell bent over his scrying bowl again. ‘She’s well-shielded,’ he complained. ‘I can’t get anything.’ Abruptly he tipped the bowl over, spewing liquid light over the sand, where it drained away as it faded. ‘The bitch is too slippery.’

  Gurvon cursed silently. ‘Make contact with the Dorobon. Tell them to collect their corpses. And double the reward. There must be a Jhafi somewhere prepared to break ranks.’

  It would be to no avail, of course. The sky was empty, above them and all the way south. In the morning the natives would find dead birds and lizards by the hundreds, the last remaining trace of their skirmish. It was easier to be a ghost than to catch one, and Elena knew that as well as he did.

  We’re going to have to try something else …

  Brochena, Javon, on the continent of Antiopia

  Awwal (Martrois) 929

  9th month of the Moontide

  ‘He’s angry,’ Staria Canestos remarked softly. ‘The hunt goes poorly.’

  Cera looked sideways at the mercenary commander, who had joined her at the women’s table in the Great Hall. Usually the Estellan sat with the men, but tonight she was piqued at Francis Dorobon for something and avoiding him.