Focusing more on is zdrell sight, Eril was amazed at the disorganization of the forces below him. The one organized thing about them was that they were all retreating back down the road he’d just come up.
Knowing what to look for, it didn’t take him long to find the charzen. The enchanted blades that this charzen wielded flashed about while dealing death on every side. As soon as he got lower and closer, he could hear the commotion, both from those the charzen was attacking and from the forces attempting to flee in the night.
Eril drew his sword, the first time he’d done so in battle. In the night, the blade glowed with an eerie blue luminescence. Once it was free of its scabbard, Eril felt the power he’d trapped in it while making it a year earlier.
He called out to the charzen, “I am your doom charzen. Your days and your depredations end here and now!”
The charzen finished killing someone and turned to look up at Eril. “So, some petty wizard thinks he is heir to the zdrell masters of old. Bah! My kind was created to kill you and yours. Come closer, and I will show you how your kind die,” the man-beast snarled.
“I’ve already killed two of your kind, charzen, why not make it three?” Eril called floating towards the low hills west of the road. He wanted to get the charzen and his fight away from the soldiers and give them a chance to re-group.
“Then why do you run?” the charzen taunted.
“I’m not running. I’m landing where the filth of your dead carcass won’t stink up the road.” Eril landed on the hilltop and pushed the sword to glow brighter. He could hear hopeful murmuring coming from the disorganized troops. The charzen at least had left off killing and was racing towards Eril.
Not wanting to end up in anything like the same conflict that he’d had earlier in the day, Eril waited until he was sure the charzen was far enough away from friendly forces and opened a twelve-foot wide portal directly in front of the rapidly approaching charzen. It tried to jump to the side to avoid the opening, but was sucked in by the roaring portal along with dirt, small rocks, and loose plants.
Eril didn’t wait to see if it could come up with some trick, but immediately closed the portal. This time the charzen had no opportunity to grab at anything not also sucked in, so the portal closed without incident.
Eril sat down on a nearby rock, exhausted. He hadn’t noted until now that he was breathing hard. He sheathed his sword and leaned forward with his elbows on his thighs, head in his hands. He sat like that, getting his breath back under control.
After several moments, a group approached him carrying a lamp. Carge was in the lead.
“Is it gone? What did you do?” Carge said, still looking around nervously.
“Yeah,” Eril said, sitting up tiredly. “It’s gone. I got rid of it.”
“How? What do you mean, you got rid of it?” one of the officers accompanying Carge said, incredulous.
Eril was just too tired to deal with this. “Look, I opened a portal to an empty plane, and it sucked the charzen in, then I closed the portal. It’s gone and not coming back. Look for it if you don’t believe me.
“But I think you have better things to do with your time. You have an army just north of you that was larger than your forces before the charzen started killing your people. You might want to do something to prepare for them. At least, unlike the stupid charzen, they don’t look like they’ll attack before dawn.”
The officer looked both offended and angry at the truth of Eril’s words. He turned to go, but the others in the group stayed.
“You saved all of us, Eril,” Carge said. “I was useless. Less than useless. That thing cut down hundreds of our men, and I couldn’t do anything to stop it. The best I could do was occasionally annoy it enough to let a few get away. The nets they brought were worthless, they just made the men carrying them easier targets for that cursed charzen. Every man still alive owes you their life. If you hadn’t shown up, I don’t think there would have been an army by morning light.
“It was worse in the dark than it was in the day. Anytime anyone lit a fire or a torch, the charzen would use that as an excuse to kill them. I’m afraid how many bodies will be revealed come sun-up,” Carge said, visibly shuddering. “I had no idea war could be this bad.”
Eril silently agreed with Carge. Though this was not his first battle, Eril had seen more death today, had caused more death himself, than he could before ever have imagined.
“Did they use demons at all today?”
“No, just the cursed charzen. They had no need to do anything else. The thing led out well ahead of their army and just started killing anyone who got near it. The army just followed slowly behind. Our forces were in full retreat since not long after noon. I don’t think the other side has even assayed a single arrow shot. They’re waiting until they attack the city.”
“Did you see any sign of wizards?”
“I’d say they have at least two, maybe as many as six. They haven’t done anything other than send up a few flares into the night sky to make it easier for the cursed charzen to find groups trying to hide.”
“Hmmm,” Eril said. “I’m tired, but since I’m here I guess I can see if I can convince this army to turn around too,” he said, getting wearily to his feet.
“You got the Espilonian army to retreat?”
“Yeah. Probably killed a thousand or so, but did convince them that going home was a better choice than fighting.”
“How did you do it?” one of the officers, who had been standing by silent during his conversation with Carge, asked.
Stretching, Eril said, “Not too different from how I dealt with the charzen. Showed them a huge black hole that would suck in their entire army, then used it on a couple officers and suddenly they decided that they didn’t want to keep fighting.”
Carge and the assembled soldiers were all dumbstruck.
Eril waited for a few moments, but then said to Carge, “Want to come with me while I see if I can talk some sense into their generals?”
“Uh, sure, I guess,” Carge said.
“Great,” Eril said and walked to Carge and stood sideways to him and pulled him, so they both faced forward hip to hip. He invoked the shield amulet, and they both launched into the air.
Carge yelped, and the onlookers gasped as they ascended into the night sky.
“Sorry,” Eril said as they continued to rise. “We have to be in physical conduct for the shield spell to cover us both.”
“Oh,” Carge said. “That’s right, you have a shield amulet.”
“Actually, this is Turek’s. Mine got damaged when I was fighting the other charzen, and I haven’t had time to fix it. I really need a shield when flying, so Turek lent me his.”
“Turek really likes, or at least respects you, you know?” Carge said as they flew.
“Yeah, I was sort of beginning to suspect that, even though he is a rude little man.”
“You haven’t seen the half of it,” Carge continued. “I practically had to lick the dirt off his floor before he’d even consider having me as a journeyman, and that was with the three letters of recommendation I brought.”
“Hmmm. Well I guess he does have a reputation to defend. In any case, I think those tents,” he said pointing at the large illuminated tents in the center of the enemy encampment, “are probably where we’ll find the generals.”
Without warning, Eril began pulling power for an energy ball, then threw it into some tents just short of the commander’s tents. The ball impacted flattening seven tents, killing at least two soldiers and injuring others.
Pandemonium broke out. Men rushed about putting on armor while commanders barked orders and demanded reports. Eril launched another ball just beyond the command tents with similar results. He brought them to hover one hundred feet above the command tents.
Eril whispered into Carge’s ear. “You have a lower voice than me. I need you to repeat the words I’m going to say in as loud and impressive a voice as you can.”
Carge looked at him and nodded. He began to boom out Eril’s whispered words.
“Commanders of the Nitholian invaders, your charzen is dead. The charzen with the Espilonian forces is also dead, and those forces have been defeated and are returning to their homes. You have just seen that you have no defense to our attacks, and these are nothing compared to what you will soon be attacked with.
“We have no desire to cause more death. If you choose to return to your own lands by the morning, we will spare your lives. If not, we have the power to kill every man here.”
Eril had thought that he’d heard chanting while Carge delivered the speech, now he felt the distinct pull that meant a portal was being opened.
Eril didn’t hesitate. He sent five of the enhanced magic missiles into the tent where he felt the portal was opening. He followed that with two energy balls. Carge even managed to get off one of the enhanced missiles.
As soon as the debris cleared enough to see, Eril noted that the demon portal was still visible and two wizards stood back to back within a bubble of force. Clearly, the one wizard was keeping up a shield to cover the one opening the portal. There was also a pain table with a boy strapped to it.
Eril was irritated that these wizards were better prepared than those he’d fought earlier in the day. He dropped both Carge and himself onto the ground near the shield bubble. Releasing Carge he said, “Watch yourself, as soon as I step away you’ll be outside the shield. I’ll have to be more direct to take these guys out.”
Eril was concerned because he could hear the words for an open summoning. He was confident the wizards were no threat, but he didn’t feel the same about a demon.
He pulled his sword from its scabbard and went to swing at the shield bubble. Unfortunately, his swing went straight into the ground as his shield absorbed an impact from what he later guessed was an enhanced missile like the ones he’d just thrown. That meant there were at least three wizards, and he had only moments before a demon popped through the open portal.
Pulling his sword free from the ground, he threw a missile of his own back in the direction the one that hit him had come from, then he leapt forward, swinging the sword into the shield.
A bright blue flash erupted from the air where the sword met the shield. The wizard who hadn’t been chanting was knocked to the ground at the backlash from the violent dissolution of the shield spell. Eril didn’t hesitate but stepped forward and continued the swing, bringing the sword down on the back of the chanting wizard.
The wizard screamed and fell as the blade cut through flesh and bone as easily as if it were warm butter, leaving a charred smoking path through the wizard’s body. The portal didn’t immediately close, but Eril spun to face the wizard who had just recovered from the collapse of his shield spell. He had a wickedly curved dagger and attempted to drive it into Eril, but it bounced harmlessly off Eril’s shield only moments before Eril’s blade sliced horizontally through the man’s exposed midsection, also leaving a huge smoking gash in its wake.
Eril looked around, just in time to see Carge grapple with the other wizard. Neither of them seemed to have any weapons in hand, so Eril took a moment to look for any other threats. He didn’t see any except some soldiers who, though armed, didn’t seem sure whether they should attack. Just then the portal closed. Eril looked, and the wizard who’d conjured the portal was lying on the ground with his eyes fixed open. Eril hurriedly looked away.
With the portal closed, Eril pulled in just enough power for a small energy ball and tossed it into the knot of soldiers who looked likely to attack. He walked over to where Carge and the other wizard still rolled on the ground. He put his boot on the side of the wizard to prevent him from rolling further while he put the point of his sword to the side of the man’s neck.
The wizard screamed at contact with the metal, which left a smoking mark where it touched. This puzzled Eril as he had no idea the blade would do that.
“Stop fighting, and we might let you live,” Eril said, holding the blade close to the still struggling wizard. It appeared that he had Carge nearly in a chokehold and was still trying to leverage it.
Eril was tired. He took the sword and pushed it into the man’s side, meaning to hurt him enough to get him to stop. To his surprise, the blade passed through the man’s flesh with only the barest of resistance. Before he knew it, the blade had passed completely through the man’s torso, which ended his struggles and his life.
Eril looked at the blade in horror. He had created the blade, and knew it had some of the characteristics of a line-cutter, but to this point had only struck it against wood or metal. Its effect on flesh was both surprising and worrisome. He would have to talk to Dorull or Master Silurian about this.
Now, all he did was swear and put the blade back into its scabbard, noting there was no blood or any other contamination on the blade.
Just then, a pair of arrows glanced off his shield. Either of which would have gone through his head without the protection. This caused Eril to pass his breaking point. He was tired and frustrated that these people wouldn’t understand that they were going to die if they forced the issue.
He turned and threw two medium-size force balls out in the direction the arrows had come from. He could hear screaming and feel the blowback from the impacts, but didn’t care. He launched into the air and invoked his invisibility amulet and used his sight to see if there were any other magical sources of power. After scanning for several minutes and finding none, he came again to hover above the partially destroyed circle of command tents.
Eril called down, his voice harsh with frustration and fatigue. “I will kill you all. Burn you, or drop you all into the abyss. I don’t care! Your wizards are dead, there is nothing to stop me now. Surrender or die!”
As he said this last, he opened a portal in the ground in the center of the command tents. Immediately, loose items began to be sucked into it, and it began to wail as the air started rushing in. He waited to see what they would do.
The troops nearest pulled back in confusion. Predictably, a soldier was sent closer to investigate. Once he got close enough, the rush of air pushed him forward, and he fell screaming into the void. For several moments nothing else happened.
Eril got tired of waiting and started enlarging the diameter of the hole. Terrified troops broke and ran as tents and supplies were sucked down into the growing void.
As the hole continued to slowly grow, a voice called out. “You win, wizard. I can’t see you and don’t know where you are, but we cannot fight you. Please don’t kill us all.”
Eril snapped the portal closed. The silence was deafening after the roaring of the wind. Eril watched the demoralized troops for a few moments.
“If your entire army is not back across the border by mid-day. I will drop those that remain into the void!”
Eril then saw the commander who had called out earlier stand out clearly. “We accept your gracious terms, mighty wizard or demon, or whatever you are. We will leave in due haste. You have my word.”
“See that you do!” Eril shouted.
He looked around for Carge and saw him walking back the way they’d come. No one was paying too much attention to him, but Eril could see that he had re-cast his own shield spell. Eril floated down, invisible, beside him.
“Ready to go?” he said, startling the journeyman.
“Yeah, I’m done with this place.”
Eril reached out and tried to touch his shoulder but ran into Carge’s shield. “Drop your shield, and we’ll go,” he said.
Eril didn’t bother to drop his invisibility, so when he reached out and touched Carge, they both disappeared. He took them into the air, reestablished the shield and flew them back to Jull city.
Chapter 68
There was a pounding on the door. It went on, getting gradually louder. Eril rolled over and opened eyes still caked with dust and grime. He slowly pulled himself to a sitting position, while the pounding continued.
“Eril, ope
n that door, or I’ll blow it open,” the high-pitched impatient voice of Turek shouted through the door.
As he levered himself to his feet, Eril noted that bright sunlight was coming in the single small high window in the room.
“I’m coming, I’m coming,” Eril said, still trying to shake off the remainder of his sleep. At least I don’t have to worry about getting dressed, he thought, as he pulled back the heavy bar on the room’s door.
He barely remembered arriving back at Jull city the night (or morning?) previous and stumbling down into bed. It appeared that the only thing he’d managed to remove before falling unconscious was his boots.
“I’ve let you sleep long enough,” Turek groused. “It’s nearly noon, and The Marshall demands an explanation for last night. Put on your boots.”
An explanation? He’d won, what more explanation did they need?
“We won,” he said tiredly, though beginning to be angry.
“And exactly how were we to know that?” Turek fumed. “I had no idea you even returned or what happened in the battle, in spite of the fact you carried a communicator with you.”
Until that moment, Eril had completely forgotten he had a communicator in his pouch. He felt embarrassed and irritated.
“Sorry, I forgot about the communicator. I was just so tired after everything. All I wanted to do was get back here and go to sleep.” He bent down and pulled on his boots.
“As I see,” Turek said, still irritated. “The command staff was up the entire night waiting for word from you. When we heard nothing, we feared the worst.
“Then Carge came to breakfast, very much alive and everyone badgered him into telling the story. They are very happy with how things turned out, but they’re more than a little annoyed that you didn’t even report in when you returned. You caused us all a sleepless night, and to no account other than your own sloth.”
The Journeyman for Zdrell Page 40