by Guy Antibes
Their suspicions were confirmed when they appeared from the gloomy overcast above the wagons.
“We can follow this road,” Ricky said.
They shot forward underneath the low overcast and spotted two wagons emerging from a large forest.
“I think we found them,” Ricky said.
Numerous threads of smoke emerged from the forest canopy. Someone was cooking dinner, Ricky thought. He looked around for landmarks. He spotted Samira to the east-northeast and connected with Zaria, telling him where the army was camped.
“That’s enough for now,” Ricky said to his companion as he felt a loss of power. The other sorcerer dipped lower than Ricky, but Ricky flew down to the man and used every bit of his power to shoot above the clouds and out of danger.
They flew back to Samira. Mattia waited for them in the command tent.
“Here,” Ricky said, pointing to a green-stained area on the map. He looked at his companion. “We saw thirty or forty pillars of smoke, right?”
“If that,” the sorcerer replied. “They have at least one sorcerer who can project a large enough spell to catch us in the air despite our pillow armor.”
Mattia grunted. “More powerful than the sorcerer at the battle sorcerer’s prison?”
“They might be using a sorcerers’ circle,” Ricky said.
Mattia furrowed his brow.
“Sorcerer’s Circles like in Duteria?”
Ricky shook his head. “Sorcerers Rings are buildings. Spells are more powerful when a group of sorcerers hold hands and lend their power to each other. That is called a circle.”
“Like a group spell?”
“That is what it is. That spell would have knocked me out of the sky if we had been lower,” the other sorcerer said. “Ricky saved me.”
Mattia looked at Ricky. “I took him higher. We both regained our power and returned to Samira.”
“Good. The others haven’t reported yet. There might be another unit out.”
Ricky dismissed the other sorcerer and sat down on a folding chair in the tent.
~~~
Chapter Twenty-Eight
~
A messenger showed up reporting another unit making camp out in the open. He didn’t report any sorcery. He estimated two or three hundred soldiers.
“So, a feint in the open while the other unit comes at us from the south,” Mattia said, mostly to himself, as he gazed down at the map.
“Why don’t we take the sorcerers to stir up the feint while you tackle the main unit?” Ricky said.
“Zaria can lead battle sorcerers to the northeast,” Mattia said. “I want you with me. You stand a better chance against a sorcery ring or whatever you call it. I’ll send four hundred troops towards the northeast group right now.”
Ricky linked to Zaria, and the commander of the battle sorcerers entered the tent. “We’ve spotted the enemy at two points, I hear.”
Mattia nodded. “There is a unit here. I believe that is a feint. Ricky spotted thirty or forty columns of cookfire smoke in this forest. We will move most of our army towards here. There aren’t any other units in the field.”
“And there shouldn’t be if this is a surprise attack. They shouldn’t have split their forces.”
“Be careful. No sorcery was detected, but that could be a ruse, as well.”
“I understand. The pillow armor didn’t do its job?”
“Not against a sorcerer’s circle, but the spell they cast didn’t have lingering effects. We were able to escape by going higher, but who knows if we were closer?” Ricky felt the need to work with Hemo more closely. Perhaps after this battle, they might have a better idea how to create the anti-magic spell.
While they talked, the other units reported in, not spotting anything. Zaria sent them out heading east rather than west to make sure no one had moved behind them.
Before sunset, Mattia led his troops out of Samira, leaving one hundred men to man the walls of the castle. Pira had reported the cottages were clear except for the tavern, and when it closed for the night, it would stay closed until the troops returned.
Ricky rode in front of the column of mounted sorcerers. As darkness fell, the skies cleared. Ricky took off, wearing a pillowy helmet to find the Sealians. He could see lights in the trees. The Sealians were on the march, and as far as Ricky could tell, the forest unit was two or three times larger than the unit Zaria was probably already attacking.
After flying back to Mattia’s column, he found his horse and hurried forward to report.
“We were right. The troops are on the march, but they are still in the forest. I could see torches through the branches. It is a much bigger unit.”
“Can you light up the map?” Mattia said, as he took his mount off the road to let soldiers march by.
“The battle sorcerers can fell trees along these two lines, creating a funnel to cut off their retreat. You can beat them to the forest’s exit if you fly. We will set our battle surrounding the road here.” Mattia pointed to a point half-a-mile from the forest. “We can set up our field engines along the rises here and here.” The ridges ran nearly perpendicular to the road.
“High ground, and if they retreat, their options are limited,” Mattia said.
Ricky nodded and ordered the sorcerers to tie up their mounts. They took to the air and began felling trees for one hundred paces in each direction from the road. Then they turned their attention to creating the funnel that Mattia had talked about.
The soldiers were still nearly half-an-hour from reaching the end of the woods. “Let’s make the ground rough around the edges of the road all the way to the battleground.”
The sorcerers were familiar with how to jumble up the battlefield, and they reached the point where the two forces would meet just as the first Samiran units began to arrive.
“Get some field rations in you and fly above them, Ricky. Can you link with any of the sorcerers?” Mattia asked.
Ricky pulled out a coin and charmed it. “I can communicate with whoever holds this,” Ricky said. He rose into the air and flew to see the enemy spilling out of the forest and trying to form up along the road, but the newly-damaged terrain seemed to make them mill around.
The torches stopped, and then the force began to move in a long snaking line. They followed the road towards Mattia.
As the last soldiers exited the woods, Ricky flew around the Sealian forces and back into the forest. He blocked the road with so many trees that even he would have a problem removing the trunks. There would be plenty of firewood in southern Naparra, he thought.
Suddenly, he felt the pressure of the resonance-killing spell in his head. He tried to escape by flying higher, but he had tarried too long at a low altitude and felt his strength begin to diminish. He set down before he lost his ability to resonate and extended the blade of his wand before the familiar feeling of no power took him.
He looked down the road and saw a torch light the faces of five sorcerers as they scurried forward to catch up to the troops.
Ricky had lost his power, and he was behind the enemy not in front. He couldn’t communicate with Mattia via the sorcerer at his side or with Zaria. He shook his head. Ricky had tried to do too much, and now he couldn’t help Mattia win the battle.
Sitting down, he thought about what he could realistically do. At least he knew Mattia was prepared for multiple scenarios. Not content to watch, Ricky loped out of the forest and headed north. He would try to skirt past the enemy, only risking an encounter with a scout or two. He tripped in the darkness, stepping in a pit his own sorcerers had made in the ground, falling face first into the dirt. He fell on his extended wand blade and cut his upper arm.
Now he couldn’t even stop the bleeding with a healing spell. He pulled out his shirt and ripped a long bandage and bound his arm as tightly as he could.
Walking more slowly and directly away from the road, he found level ground again and continued to hurry towards the battle. Ricky nearly ran into a mounted
man heading slowly in the same direction as the Sealians. A scout, Ricky thought.
He followed the horse in the darkness, now able to catch his breath. Another scout carrying a torch joined the first.
“No sign of flankers,” one voice said to another. Ricky couldn’t tell who spoke from the distance that he followed, but their voices did carry in the night air.
“None on this side either. Good, but sauntering into Noacci’s summer castle won’t be so easy. If the rebels have paid us all this attention, they won’t notice our own little surprise.”
“But our men won’t know that we aren’t in the castle.”
“Do you think the rebels would think far enough ahead to man the castle?” The man laughed. “The woman said they were training farmers and townspeople. Even if they have a few sorcerers on their side, it won’t matter.”
“Not at all. Let’s join the main group.”
The scouts kicked their horses and moved out of Ricky’s hearing. A lot of overconfidence on the Sealians part gave Ricky hope. The feinting group would be taken out of the battle by Zaria’s sorcerers and mopped up by the infantry. There were at least one-hundred fifty manning the walls of Samira. Mattia had more than equivalent numbers. Rachael must not have known Mattia rotated troops in and out while training.
Ricky began to smile until he realized where he stood on the battlefield. The enemy was between Mattia and him. Blood was beginning to leak through his bandage, and he felt a trickle down his arm. He picked up his pace and moved a little farther east out of the path the enemy took.
He lost track of time when he heard the sounds of battle and flashes of fireballs lighting up the air. He continued east and then headed north towards the battle. By the time he reached the conflict, he could see the sorcerers’ circle throwing large fireballs into the Sealian ranks, who had pulled back fifty paces. The grisly pyres illuminated other bodies in the space between the two forces. Ricky could smell the stench of burning flesh all the way across from Mattia’s lines.
He couldn’t let this continue. He might not have his magic, but he still held weapons in his hands. He put another strip of cloth on his bleeding arm and stalked off into the darkness to put an end to the sorcerers. He didn’t need magic to end their attacks.
Behind the lines of soldiers, no one paid attention to a single man pacing purposefully through their ranks. He reached the sorcerers, amazed that no one stopped him, but the enemy’s attention was on the next fireball that would be hurled towards the rebels.
Ricky walked to the sorcerers and slashed his way through them. The wand did more damage than Ricky’s sword, which might have gotten caught in their robes. Exhausted, he dropped among the fallen sorcerers. When the Sealians realized the fireballs has stopped, they attacked. Ricky turned expecting to find twenty or thirty swords pointed at him, but with the sorcerers gone, and with Ricky on the ground, the soldiers turned and ran. Ricky was bumped and stomped by the fleeing enemy.
He covered his head with his hands once he was sure the wand’s blade was nowhere close. Torchlight illuminated him.
“If you are alive stand with your hand on your head, sorcerer,” a voice called from above.
Ricky stood up and put one hand on his head, holding his other hand to his body.
“Lord Valian?” a young voice said. It was one of the soldiers. “You were the one who killed the sorcerers?”
Ricky nodded. “I need a healer, if you don’t mind, and some food and water if there is any available. I am out of this battle.”
The man sheathed his weapon and helped Ricky find his dangerous wand blade and navigate the battlefield. They walked to the back of the original battle line. He spied a group of healers working on walking wounded.
“If you don’t mind,” Ricky said. “I think I am bleeding out.”
The healer turned around. Ricky didn’t recognize the woman. “You are indeed. Sit on the ground, young man.” She tore off Ricky’s makeshift bandages and wiped his wound with some kind of stinging disinfectant. “This is going to feel very hot,” she said.
“I’ve been healed before,” Ricky said.
The woman grasped his arm and promptly linked. Ricky felt his power flicker to life. He stopped the onslaught of resonance before he drained the woman and concentrated on using his own power to help her heal his cut. It wasn’t as bad as Pira’s.
“You are a sorcerer. How did you—” She looked at Ricky closer. “Lord Valian,” the healer said.
“Just do enough to keep the blood from ruining any more of my clothes.”
“I can’t do that. You are blood-soaked already.”
Ricky looked down and nodded his head in agreement.
A sorcerer walked by. “Lord Valian, we thought you lost.”
“In a way I was. Could you help me up?”
The battle sorcerer obliged.
“I would like to conduct a little experiment. May I borrow some of your power?”
“Of course.”
Ricky didn’t let go of his hand and created a power-link, this time he let some of the man’s power trickle into him. Ricky let go and sang a bright red globe, letting it float into the air until it popped in a profusion of sparkles.
“A performance in the middle of a battle,” the healer said.
“Just be glad that it is an illusion,” Ricky said, winking at the woman.
With the exhaustion from blood loss, his exertions in slaying the sorcerers and the physical drain from the healing, despite the power infusions, Ricky couldn’t summon the energy to return to the battle. He found a wagon filled with field rations and grabbed some. He sat on the end of the cart for a while, gathering what energy he could. The he rose to find Nemo Mattia.
While searching the battlefield, Ricky linked with Zaria.
Did you encounter the enemy? Ricky said.
I did more than encounter. They had one sorcerer who was responsible for the deaths of two of my flying people. An arrow from our side took him from one hundred paces. The enemy only had the one. When he went, the royal soldiers broke ranks and ran. We took their officer prisoner and let the others find their way to Vittaci.
Why don’t you take your sorcerers and throw rocks on the ships? Could you shoo them away? Ricky asked.
I will, but it will be fire mixed in, as well. The infantry can clean up here and heal the bastards well enough. Zaria said. How did you fare?
We have their larger force on the run. They had a five-sorcerer circle with them, Ricky said.
He thought he’d try to link with the coin that he had given to Mattia’s sorcerer.
It engaged easily enough.
This is Ricky Valian. Are you close to Nemo Mattia?
I am at his side.
Tell him I was wounded. Ricky didn’t want to tell him that he cut himself when he slipped, walking alone in the dark. But I found a healer and am trying to find Nemo.
He will turn around and find you. We are close to the center of our own lines.
Ricky looked across the battleground and found Mattia. He picked his way towards him.
“You are all right?” Mattia said.
The sorcerer brought a torch closer to the pair.
“You are soaked in blood! I hope it isn’t all your own.”
Ricky softly laughed. “Some of it is. I had a gash in my arm. I needed to attend to it before I sought you out.”
“Some soldier slipped into the enemy’s lines and slew the entire sorcerers circle. I’m sure all their soldiers were looking at my soldier incinerated in front of our eyes.” Mattia choked up a bit. “I couldn’t do anything. Most of the sorcerers on the front line lost their power before the onslaught.”
“I saw it all,” Ricky said.
“Whoever that man was deserves a medal.”
Ricky smiled. “I attacked them from behind. Perhaps it wasn’t very noble of me, but they had taken my power.” He told his story, even including the truth about his arm. “I couldn’t stand and watch our troops die in
front of my eyes. When the fireballs stopped, the soldiers realized they would be fighting without their sorcerers and broke. I was exhausted and fell on the heap of dead sorcerers and was found by one of our troops. If I had stood after I killed them, and if the Sealians didn’t get me, the Samirans would.”
“Did you hear from Zaria?”
“Much the same thing happened. Their sorcerer, a powerful one, brought down two of our battle sorcerers before someone thought to shoot an arrow. I told him to drop rocks on the ships at Vitacci to drive them off. They took an officer prisoner.”
Mattia grunted. “Good. We can’t see well enough to find officers in the dark. All they have to do is avoid our torches and slip away.”
“See? It works both ways,” Ricky said. “I think I’ll fly to Samira, if you don’t mind. I’m going to need a good night’s sleep.”
“Or more. Go ahead. I can deal with the remnants. You can tell Pira that too many of her subjects were killed tonight, I’m sad to say,” Mattia said before gently pushing him towards their original lines.
Ricky couldn’t fly fast or high, but he soon made it to the castle and dropped on the illuminated battlements next to Pira.
“You are covered in blood!”
“Bathed in blood works, too. Some of which is my own, but I’ve already seen a healer, and she has the fixing started. I’ll probably need a session with Mirano.”
“Someone called me?” Bespa said. “Who healed you?”
“A woman. I’ve never seen her before,” Ricky said.
“We found a few good healers while you’ve been gone. Are we going to be attacked?” he asked.
Ricky shook his head. “We turned back both forces. My night has been a little more taxing than some, but I’m alive. Unfortunately, I can’t say that for many Parantians on both sides who died tonight.”
“Unavoidable,” Pira said. “We can stand down for the night?”
Ricky shook his head. “You don’t have to be on high alert, but the enemy broke and ran. It is possible a few of them could end up here. Are all the cottages locked?”