As Eril looked back out on the army he saw the catapult loaded and ready to fire. A group of archers on horseback also formed by the side of the force. He watched with interest as the stone launched from the catapult came arching towards the castle. He felt no concern as it impacted midway up the wall, the stone was only twice the size of a man’s head, Eril doubted it would have any effect on the high thick walls. He also knew that he could have stopped it cold if he was mistaken.
The stone shattered leaving no visible damage. The guards jeered at the opposing army. “We’ve nothing to fear if that is the best they can do,” Herriman snorted.
Eril was puzzled as to why they would start with such a useless attack. Moments later he found out, the catapult was being readied again, only now instead of a stone it bore a blue glowing globe of fire. He hadn’t been paying sufficient attention to see which of the wizards had created the fiery orb, but he watched with even more interest as it too was released from the catapult and followed a nearly identical arc towards their walls.
When the ball hit the wall, the entire castle trembled with the impact. One of the guards huddled on the battlements muttered, “we’re doomed,” just loud enough for Eril and those near him to hear. For a moment, he wondered if the soldier was right. At nearly the same time the orb impacted, the mounted archers advanced in a flanking maneuver, only now they were each carrying fire pots in addition to their bows and arrows.
Eril craned his neck to see the spot where the orb had impacted and was surprised to see that, though damaged, the wall was still whole. Even so, it would not take many more impacts like that until the walls were breached.
Eril turned his attention back to the wizards. Through the zdrell viewer, he watched carefully as one of them went through the gesticulations of the spell. He was so engrossed in figuring out how the wizard was creating it that he almost missed it being moved into position to be fired from the catapult.
Just before the next orb was launched, they heard a hissing sound coming from the side of the castle. Flaming arrows arched up over the walls and came down in the courtyard and on the roofs of the inner buildings. Captain Herriman immediately ordered archers to move into position and fire on the enemy archers, while several more soldiers moved to douse those arrows that had landed inside the walls.
Eril was watching the efforts to contain the fires when the whole castle rocked again as the next orb impacted the walls. Frightened and confused as to where to put his efforts, Eril whipped his head back and forth trying to decide what to do. He could see that another orb was nearly ready to launch, but he didn’t know how to stop it. He had never seen magic of this sort before.
“Have some of your best archers shoot arrows with the largest metal tips you have at this next one as it comes in,” Eril told the captain. “I think that metal might disrupt the spell before it hits the castle wall.”
To Eril’s surprise, Captain Harriman didn’t question his orders, though he looked doubtful. They had only a few moments to wait before the next sphere was launched. Though it was easy to follow, Eril knew that it was coming in very fast and would be nearly impossible to hit. Five archers were ready and fired at the orb as it came in. None of them hit directly, but one seemed to pass through its edge and when the orb impacted the walls, it seemed to do so with less force.
Captain Harriman shouted to his men, “That’s the spirit, boys. You took some of the sting out of that last one. Extra ale for a week to the first man to hit one dead on!”
The next missile was hit directly as it came in but seemed to impact with nearly the same force as the first. Eril was disappointed. He really had thought that metal passing through the spell would disrupt it and cause it to explode early.
Watching the wizards cast their spell, he had another idea.
“Captain find me a metal spike, or rod, just longer than one of those balls is wide, quickly,” he said without looking away from the gesticulating wizards.
Moments after the next orb had impacted, again rocking the castle, an out of breath soldier rushed to Eril handing him the metal tip from a long spear. Eril looked at it and grinned, “Thanks!” Just as a flaming arrow passed close enough to almost singe him.
The soldiers in the area near Eril all looked at him askance, wondering what he would do with the long metal tip. Eril just grinned and closed his eyes. He saw the spear tip clearly with his zdrell sight and mentally took hold of it, then he widened his perceptions to include the next orb that was being readied to fire. Holding the spear tip loosely in his hand, he waited for the catapult to release.
As soon as the orb flew towards the castle, Eril sent his spear tip racing out to meet it. Using only his zdrell sight, he had no difficulty guiding his tip into the path of the oncoming orb. The two met and the orb detonated over fifty yards short of the castle walls.
A cheer went up from the army of defenders.
“About time you did something useful to keep those ruffians from battering my home,” Eril’s new master grumbled from beside him.
“I didn’t know you were there, Master,” Eril said, surprised.
“I didn’t want to be here,” he complained, “But the pounding was too much for me to just sit inside and ignore. I couldn’t get any work done.”
Eril was about to say something when Dorull irritably said, “Boy, save the talk for later. Stop this next one, then see if you can find a way to get them to stop sending them in the first place.”
Eril turned to find another soldier with a spear tip, just like the last one, ready for him. Again, he closed his eyes and reached out with his zdrell sight. This time he didn’t wait until the orb was released but sent his own missile streaking towards the orb. It impacted the energy ball just barely after it was released, the explosion knocking a score of enemy soldiers to the ground. This caused the attacking wizards to pause, look nervously at the castle and move more deliberately as they readied their next missile.
This was what Eril had been waiting for. He focused his zdrell senses on the creation of the spell and started to get a feel for it. As the next orb was loaded on the catapult, he held the next spear tip ready in case it was needed, but tried to influence the sphere directly. As the catapult released, he reached out and tried to divert its course, much as he had learned to divert the course of a stone.
Like the stone, Eril found that changing the course of one of these orbs not that difficult. The orb flew high above the castle impacting thunderously with the cliffs behind the castle, blasting rock from their craggy face to clatter down on the rooftops and courtyard.
Master Dorull shouted, “Not there, you fool. Those things are more dangerous to us hitting the cliffs than they are hitting our walls.” A small rockslide continued, emphasizing the wizard’s words.
“Yes, Master,” Eril said, gritting his teeth in frustration and embarrassment. He was angry at himself for not thinking what the orb would do when it hit the cliffs. Now he was mad at himself and the opposing wizards.
Focusing on the next orb, he got a feel of it even before it was released from the catapult. He let it sail free but immediately bent its course, this time straight up directly over the assembled army, when it reached the top of its arc, he gently pushed it back in the direction it had come. As it descended, he pushed even more. It dropped almost faster than the eye could follow, directly onto the catapult that had thrown it.
The catapult detonated with an incredible crash, throwing fragments, stones, and dirt in all directions. Over one hundred soldiers were blown from their feet, with many more falling or throwing themselves to the ground. One of the wizards had been standing near the catapult. There was no sign of his body. The other enemy wizard, standing nearly twenty yards away, was knocked to the ground but was back up again within moments.
For several beats, the defenders and attackers both stood stunned by the violence of the impact, then the defenders began to cheer. Elements of the attacking army looked ready to bolt, but their officers started shouting
orders, trying to restore some order to their men.
The remaining wizard was talking to a man that Eril believed to be the attacking army’s general. With his zdrell viewer, Eril could not hear what was being said, but he could clearly see the wizard and the general were having a shouting match. The other officers were still trying to get their forces back under discipline and were trying in vain to ignore the very public conflict.
After several moments, some sort of resolution was reached, because the general walked away, clearly ordering his officers to ready the men for an attack. The wizard looked towards the castle, and from Eril’s enhanced perspective seemed to be staring right at him. Then the wizard began the gesticulations which Eril had come to associate with the spell that had been used to create the blue fire orbs. Only this time, he was not casting it on a stone, but into the open air.
Eril unconsciously shifted to viewing purely with zdrell sight and saw the movements in the lines of force that made up the magic. He had zoomed his perspective in so close to watch the argument that he was now watching the spell casting from a closer perspective than before. He could see how the spell was drawing power from the three blazing fires near the wizard and wrapping it in a bottle of force lines.
In a moment, he understood what was happening and knew how he too could do it, though in a more direct fashion. It was just like the moment when he had finally seen how Gordal had been manipulating the lines to create his web. He was amazed at the power and simplicity of it. He never would have guessed that such a thing was possible.
Eril was so entranced by the construction of the spell that he scarcely noticed when the wizard threw the ball of energy right at him. Eril watched it come and smiled.
When the small orb had covered half the distance to the castle, Eril took control of it. The other wizard resisted, but it was no more of a contest than if a grown man had chosen to take a toy from a toddler.
Once he had complete control of the orb, he decided it was time to have some fun at the attacking army’s expense. He sent the orb straight up above them as before. The troops directly below immediately broke and ran to get away.
Instead of bringing the orb straight down he lowered it to twenty yards or so above them and kept it at that height zooming back and forth above the army.The troops scattered much as a flock of pigeons does when a small child tries to run them down.
The defenders on the castle wall were roaring with delight. Eril even heard the old master wizard chuckling.
“I told you this would be fun, boy.” The old man watched Eril as he had the orb buzz the frightened troops a couple of times more, then he said, “Enough, boy. You’ve had your fun. Now finish this farce.”
“What should I do? How do I stop them?”
“Find the one who still thinks he can fight you and prove him wrong.”
Eril looked out at the army that was now in complete disarray. The only one left who acted as if the battle was not already lost was the general. The man was in a rage, shouting orders at everyone, though only a few seemed to even hear him. Eril knew what to do.
While talking and looking, Eril had left the orb floating directly above the army, or at least where the army had been. Now his rage returned, the general had no intention of admitting defeat and was the linchpin who held the army here, he sent the blue orb hurtling down at the man’s head.
A look of shock crossed the man’s face just before the orb impacted, exploding. The concussion was not nearly as large as the orbs that had carried stones, but it was sufficient that the general’s entire upper torso simply ceased to exist. The soldiers within twenty feet were knocked from their feet and covered with a gory spray. The lower torso, amazingly, remained standing for several seconds, then toppled backward like a felled tree.
The battlefield dissolved into complete pandemonium. Many soldiers abandoned their equipment and ran back down the mountain road without looking back. Others attempted a more orderly withdrawal while fearfully looking back at the castle for more retribution to fall upon them.
The Captain had already ordered the gate unbarred and his troops ready to follow the routed army. Master Dorull yelled to be heard above the commotion. “Hold. Hold your troops, Captain!”
Captain Harriman looked up at the wizard. The troops stopped and turned to listen. “There is no need to go out just yet, men. They have no fight left in them. Let them go. The stories they will tell of this battle, and my mercy in not destroying them when they were in my power, will do me far more good than whatever spoils you might gain. Soon enough, when they have left, you can all go out and scavenge whatever they have left. It should be more than enough for you all.”
Dorull then turned to Eril, “Don’t let that last wizard get away, Eril. Bring him here, in a suitably, dramatic fashion. Say, several hundred feet in the air? That should take the fight out of him,” the old man said, a predatory gleam in his eye.
Eril quickly turned his attention to the battlefield. For several moments he couldn’t find the wizard. Then, as he widened his field of vision he saw the wizard well down the trail on a horse at full gallop. Eril focused on him and muttered under his breath, “No you don’t,” and plucked him off the horse and flew him straight up over a hundred feet. The man was kicking and screaming in complete terror.
The effect of seeing their wizard so completely unmanned had an enormous impact on the retreating army. Many elements of the army that had been retreating in an organized fashion now broke and ran, dropping weapons and equipment in an attempt get away before they too found themselves in the position of the still screaming wizard.
“That’s it, Eril,” Master Dorull spoke softly next to him. “Keep him hanging up there for a bit longer, then slowly bring him into the castle. Try and make sure that everyone left behind sees him being brought inside.” The old wizard chuckled in a disturbing fashion. “This should keep anyone from thinking of trying anything like this for at least twenty years,” he said pacing and rubbing his hands in anticipation. “I do so love being on the winning side of a battle.”
Eril did as he was bid and kept the wizard several hundred feet in the air as he brought him into the castle. The wizard was no longer screaming or flailing. Eril thought he might have passed out.
The battlefield was littered with weapons, equipment, and a few stray pack animals wandering about. As Eril brought the wizard down, the last elements of the retreating army disappeared around the first bend in the mountain path. A ring of guards was waiting for the wizard, weapons drawn. They need not have bothered. The man was clearly unconscious.
“Tie his hands and feet and carry him into the second guest chamber,” Dorull said to the soldiers. “Bar the window and post one guard inside and two outside. Inform me when he wakes.”
“Yes, Sir,” the Captain said and began detailing men to follow the wizard’s directions.
“Eril,” the smiling wizard said, gesturing inside, “I believe that it is high time we got in out of this damp and had something hot to drink, don’t you?” Eril could not agree more.
Chapter 19
As Eril and Master Dorull sat in his study, drinking the mulled cider the old man preferred, Eril felt the weight of the battle lift. He also experienced a whole range of emotions. He still felt the elation of winning the battle, but also gnawing guilt that he should have done better at the beginning. He also wondered what they would do, what he might have to do, with the captured wizard.
“So, what now, Master?” Eril asked.
Dorull leaned back and stared at the ceiling timbers, clasping his hands behind his head. “Hmm,” he said, still addressing the ceiling. “I suppose that depends on you and on him.”
“What? I don’t understand—”
“Oh, come on, Eril,” Dorull said suddenly leaning forward, slapping his hands on the table and looking Eril straight in the eye. “You must have driven Silurian half-mad. The man is your prisoner. His fate is yours to decide.”
Eril started up, but before h
e could speak, Dorull cut him off, pointing a finger at him. “You have to decide, but I think we should see how he takes his loss and whether we have an enemy or a new ally on our hands, don’t you?”
Just then, there was a knock at the door. One of the guards poked his head in to inform them that the prisoner was awake.
§ § §
The wizard lay bound on the bed in one of the better guest rooms of the castle. When Eril and Dorull entered the room he tried unsuccessfully to sit up and grimaced with the effort.
“Sir,” the bound man said respectfully, inclining his head towards Dorull. “I would bow to you, Sir, if I could. But as you can see, your guards have done a very effective job of immobilizing me.”
Dorull pulled a straight-backed chair to face the bed. He grinned wolfishly as he seated himself and said, “If you bowed to me, your respect would be misplaced. I did not fight you and rout that army today, he did.” He nodded to Eril.
The old wizard grew even more amused as he saw the shock and incredulity play across the bound wizard’s features. Before he could speak, Dorull continued, “I see you find that hard to believe. I know I would have found it difficult too, but there you have it. We have a new Zdrell wizard in the world, and you have had the misfortune of being on the receiving end of his power.”
Eril felt uncomfortable, and tried not to stare at the man, but was fascinated by the play of emotions across his former adversary’s face. Disbelief, anger, doubt, and then something that might have been hope. For several moments no one said anything.
Finally, he spoke to Dorull, while looking at Eril steadfastly. “You are saying that this, boy, is a Zdrell wizard and that he was the one we fought today?”
“That is exactly what I am saying.” He paused a moment to let that sink in. “I’m not saying I couldn’t have beaten you today, but I didn’t fight you. He did. He was also the one who sabotaged your catapults a few days back.” Dorull sat back in his chair and crossed his arms with a satisfied air.
The Journeyman for Zdrell Page 9