Palomar nodded and stopped walking. “I have my own preparations to make. I will see you on the field, Sir Luminere.”
Jaiden raised his hand in acknowledgement, but spared looking into the Aasimar’s eyes so soon after what felt like a lie.
Jaiden’s full plate armor felt light as cloth upon him. The Shaper’s gift truly was a marvel. The shining silver and purple steel, let alone the unicorn’s horn protruding from his helmet, left Jaiden a visible and inspiring figure upon his steed. Inferno stood calmly at the head of the formation, ready for the pressure on his flanks that would urge him forward.
Jaiden looked down the line in either direction – two hundred of the finest mounted warriors ever assembled held for his signal. Hiding behind a short break of trees marking the border of the Duke’s fields, he knew the Chelpian forces trying to take their freedom waited not far beyond those trunks and leaves.
The King-priest was used to being the aggressor, and would not be expecting his opponents to strike first. At least, Jaiden hoped so. Having given the Order’s other battalions time to get into position, he drew his father’s sword and held it high, signaling the cavalry to the edge of the tree line. They would need all the speed they could muster to reach their foes, taking advantage of surprise and lessening the impact of any attentive archers.
Inferno ducked to avoid the lowest branches, and Jaiden felt him quivering beneath, anticipating the coming charge. As the line of knights poked just beyond the cover of the trees, Jaiden got his first glimpse of what they were heading into. Someone had spotted them, and men scurried to file into formations. He decided it didn’t matter – with no pikemen or horses at the head of the lines, they still had the advantage. An image of Sir Golddrake’s first lessons on horsemanship teased his mind, bringing an added desire to make his mentor proud. A quick sweep of his arm brought his sword downward, and the thunder of eight hundred hooves soon drowned out all else.
Two hundred paces swept by in an instant, and Jaiden whipped his sword left and right as easily as a lash. Matching his previous experience against the Chelpians, he found most of their warriors wearing nothing heavier than reinforced leather. The Gift of Criesha imbued his weapon with a greenish glow as if touched by her moonlight, and men scattered in awe before him as he cut their fellows down.
The Chelpian troops were certainly not ready for their assault, but as the momentum of the Order’s charge was spent, Jaiden got a glimpse of the sheer numbers they faced. As easily as they penetrated the first lines of ill-prepared soldiers, he needed to get the cavalry out to preserve them, lest the masses fill in the space vacated by the fallen and cut them off.
“Back!” he called, pulling Inferno’s reins to bring him around. The weight of his horse rebuked a few footmen who had gotten too close, and the cavalry around him started turning as well. With enviable precision they made for the tree line, leaving confused soldiers scrambling in their wake. Jaiden looked back to see a few units being pushed forward by their captains, but none seemed eager to give pursuit.
Just before the horses reached the trees they peeled off in either direction to run parallel to the pines. As they parted, a squadron of longbowmen in bright red tunics stepped forward from under the trees, angling their bows upward in unison. Volley after volley, two hundred arrows at a time soared through the air then rained down as the Chelpian encampment scrambled for cover.
Jaiden stayed at the corner of the field, just beside the archers, to watch the battle unfold. The rest of the cavalry had their orders, circling around at a distance, hoping to be forgotten amidst new troubles.
At last, the Chelpians responded. Their own archers managed to assemble, greatly outnumbering the unit from Crimsonmoon, and returned fire. That was the cue for the next wave. Before the incoming missiles even landed, the Crimsonmoon archers took cover back under the trees. A brief silence hovered while the Chelpian captains tried to determine whether the assault was over. It was not.
The clink of chainmail reached Jaiden’s ears a moment before he saw Lieutenant Orestes. He led the heavy infantry out from the trees, as if they were but living curtains on a stage, and this the next act. The enemy archers started up again, firing arrows at the oncoming soldiers, but these men all had shields. They raised them in tight formation, forming an effective roof over their heads. It only took a few volleys to realize they were wasting arrows.
Events had gone uncharacteristically to plan up to this point. Jaiden’s extreme angle did not allow him to see far into the enemy camp, but the Chelpian infantry he expected to respond to the new threat was not forthcoming. Instead, a series of familiar bestial roars erupted in the distance.
Nearly to the edge of the enemy lines, Jaiden saw Orestes bring his men to a halt. Rising above them, the many monstrous heads of the hydra reared back and snarled threats. Despite the outcome of his previous encounter, anger boiled Jaiden’s blood at the sight of the beast. He furrowed his brow and urged Inferno forward to intercept the hydra before it reached his men. His horse was not fast enough.
As he neared the tight formation, one of the serpentine necks lunged forward and rose up, a soldier of the Order dangling from the gigantic maw. Several of the other heads also struck with coordinated attacks, but came up empty.
When Inferno got close, Jaiden pulled him to a stop and quickly swung to the ground. He needed to move freely, and would not risk the life of his horse in such a battle. He charged to the fore of the fray, joining Orestes and a few others stepping forward to challenge the beast.
“Everyone else get back!” Jaiden shouted at the formation as he ran straight for the scaled body of the hydra. Before he closed, the beast shifted its position and one of its heads circled around to cut him off with a snap of its jaws. Jaiden raised his shield and lashed out with his sword, but not before the mouth hissed and retreated beyond reach.
“We have to coordinate attacks, just like its heads,” he called to Orestes and the two other soldiers who remained in combat. The man who had been plucked up by the hydra fell to the ground with a thud upon release. Out of the corner of his eye, Jaiden could see he wasn’t moving.
“Everyone strike on three. Ready?” Jaiden had to jump back and lower his shield to deflect another incoming snap from the hydra. The strength of the beast was still almost enough to make him lose balance. “One, two, three!” Jaiden showed the tip of his sword to the nearest head, and as it curled to bypass the weapon he spun completely around, using his momentum to slice a powerful arc up into the creature’s exposed neck.
Though the hide looked tough, Jaiden’s radiant sword cut through the flesh easily. The tactic of simultaneous attacks seemed to work; to his right, Orestes landed a stab into the nostril of another head. Jaiden was premature, however, in his satisfaction. All at once the heads retracted and the grayish-green body spun with surprising speed. The beast’s massive tail followed, too thick for him to evade.
Jaiden raised his shield to absorb the impact, but the sweep collected both him and Orestes as victims, sending them sprawling to the ground. Dizzy and breathless, Jaiden had only managed to stagger to his knees when the shadow of a looming hydra head darkened the ground around him. He was vaguely aware he should be impaled on a hundred teeth any moment, but before that happened, the shadows beneath him vanished in a flash of white.
He closed his eyes and shook his head, hoping to regain his vision, but kept seeing repeated bursts of light. In between the pulses his sight worked fine, and when he looked up to face the hydra, he saw the cause of the display. Palomar hovered just out of the creature’s reach, emitting explosions of golden-white energy from his body.
The effect blinded the hydra, whose heads first sought out the cause of its debilitation, and then retracted one-by-one as they succumbed to it. Unsure how long this opportunity would last, Jaiden eschewed his shield and grasped his hilt with both hands. He barreled toward the monster’s base with as much force as he could muster, aiming for a spot below where the necks came togethe
r.
A war-cry forced itself from his throat in direct proportion to the strength summoned behind his blow. The tip of his blade sunk into the hydra’s chest as easily as a dagger into a melon. He pushed it forward, watching the body of the beast swallow its green glow, until the crosspiece atop the hilt kept it from going further.
All five heads roared in unison, making Jaiden’s feel like it would split, and the sinewy necks thrashed in a pattern-less chaos before crashing to the earth in the most final moment Jaiden had ever witnessed. He barely sidestepped the nearest neck as it plummeted, and his ears were still ringing when the triumphant cries of his infantrymen washed over him.
He retrieved his sword, and a pungent ichor leaked from its chasm. He looked for Orestes, and found the gentle Palomar lifting him to his feet. Palomar, who had saved them both.
Before he could share his thanks another roar went up – the cry of the Order’s cavalry as they once again pierced the ranks of the Chelpians, this time from either side, further along their flanks. Jaiden delayed the exchange of congratulations, running to reclaim his shield and reunite with his horse. The enemy was in disarray, and he wanted to seize the moment.
The arrival of the war-priests changed his mind. As he drove Inferno closer to the center of action, bat-like wisps of animated shadow began to flutter by with a hiss. Jaiden did not know what purpose they served, but his father’s lesson about the dangers of pushing ahead too quickly on the heels of victory registered in the back of his mind. Yes, they had executed his plans better than he could have hoped, but the war was not ending in a day. Better to leave the enemy questioning its resolve after a resounding defeat than let them salvage a sense of victory by rushing for a quick end.
He called his cavalry to fall back, and although he sensed some resistance, they ultimately followed his lead once he turned Inferno around. The sky itself seemed to dim as they hurried from the field of battle, and Jaiden waited at the tree line until all his men passed beyond its protection. His heart continued beating quickly for most of the ride to the Naresgreen estate, and they arrived just before sunset. When the count was completed, they had only lost three men in the afternoon of fighting, with another dozen injured. Though they would be missed, the spirits of his army were as high as the slivered moons that reflected down on their victory, and they celebrated further into the night than was probably wise.
Jaiden did not stop them, but retired early after breaking bread with Palomar and Orestes and thanking them both for their bravery. Oddly, the only thing that bothered him was the absence of the King-priest. He had not made an appearance, and Jaiden’s gut told him Ebon Khorel was not present within the enemy’s camp. So, where was he?
Back in his tent, Jaiden removed his armor and kneeled at the foot of his pallet. He offered thanks to his Goddess and prayed for continued success, though he unabashedly hoped to do so in person once he slept.
The next voice he heard, however, was not the honey-dripping intonation of Criesha, but that of Lothander, shaking him awake in his bed. “Sir Luminere, a messenger just arrived from the Prince’s faction. They have been cutoff by the King-priest east of the Dawn Way!”
In the tired gloom preceding the first direct rays of the morning sun, Jaiden rallied the cavalry to action. Within the hour, the men and their horses were fed, armored, and ready to depart. Half of the mounted troops and infantry, and all of the archers, would stay with Orestes to defend their current position. The remnants of yesterday’s engagement still posed a threat, and could have been simply waiting for the second force to arrive.
Jaiden knew their ultimate success or failure lay with defeating Ebon Khorel, however, and such was his task. He rode west with a hundred horses as soon as they were ready, with the infantry hustling to catch up when able. Palomar flew ahead of the formation in short spurts, then landed to conserve energy. The Aasimar did not speak much that morning, but Jaiden was happy to have him along.
The fighting had started in the late hours of night, and it would be almost noon before their reinforcements reached the battle site, according to the position passed along by the messenger. Jaiden resisted the urge to spur Inferno into a full-fledged gallop; as much as he hated the thought of his brethren facing the King-priest without support, he realized they had to conserve energy for the up-coming fight.
Oddly, as the anticipated hour approached, the sky grew darker, though the sun should have been nearing its peak. A blanket of clouds stretched ahead of them, and a fell wind, hot and stale, visited in rolling waves, whipping at their banners.
“We are close, now.”
Jaiden looked up to see Palomar hovering overhead.
“Jaiden, as formidable as it may seem, you have to engage the King-priest early, lest some other ill befall you.”
“I am not afraid,” he answered, though probably not loud enough for the flying Aasimar to hear through his helmet.
“You are the only one who can pierce his armor, so you must not fail. I will do all I can to ensure you have the chance – do not hesitate when it comes, no matter what chaos surrounds you.”
“What are you getting at, Palomar?”
“Criesha visited me last night, and has shown me what must be done.”
With that he flew ahead, picking up speed, leaving Jaiden to wonder at the weight of his words, and push past the twinge of jealousy he felt at being overlooked. Adjusting his line of sight, Jaiden realized why Palomar accelerated – they had been slowly climbing a shallow incline for some time and finally reached the apex – below, the sights and sounds of furious battle called up to him.
The landscape of the valley ahead more closely resembled Jaiden’s imagining of the Abyss than the fields of western Naresgreen. Undulating storm clouds roiled overhead, unnervingly low, creating a dark, living ceiling of gray that threatened to collapse. Three slowly rotating funnel clouds dipped from this ceiling to the ground – cyclones rippling with lighting as they churned across the battlefield.
Countless dead littered the valley already, and the frenzied war hounds of the enemy devoured the fallen as well as attacked the living. More men were engaged than Jaiden expected – thousands on either side. Most of the Prince’s own army must have come with the Order after their ruler fell. Perhaps they sought vengeance for his assassination.
And yet, Jaiden could not say his side was winning. Pockets of fighting scattered everywhere, but many of the forces from Selamus seemed to have clustered around a small area, and it was not difficult to see why. Another Aasimar – Ellingle, he thought by her burgundy-tipped feathers and hair – rallied and protected the warriors close-by. Sheets of ice lined the earth before her, making approach difficult for her foes, and novas of blue frost erupted from her sword every time it contacted an enemy.
Toward her Palomar flew, and into the valley, Jaiden Luminere charged. A gathering of knights surrounded by black-clad soldiers many times their number circled their horses in an attempt to hold encroachers at bay. Jaiden figured bringing them aid was as good a place as any to start.
His men reacted quickly to join him, tearing across the field like an avalanche, gaining fury as they fell. So chaotic was the battlefield, the Chelpians did not notice the incoming cavalry until they were plowing through their ranks. Thanks to all his training, Jaiden had matured at fighting from horseback and whipped his sword from side-to-side, using its downward momentum to carry through his upswing. The cluster of soldiers scattered, but that only made it easier for Jaiden’s men to spread and pick them off one-by-one.
The knights they rescued seemed invigorated by their change in fortunes and wasted no time rallying with the reinforcements. They turned their attention to a large swath of enemy horsemen who were giving the Order’s foot soldiers similar trouble, and headed toward the conflict.
Jaiden spared a moment to scan the field, looking for signs of channeling magic. He knew the sooner he dealt with the King-priest, the better it would be for his side. He heard a crack of thunder from above a
nd recalled Palomar’s tale of the re-claiming of Blackthorn – how Ebon Khorel had used the power of the storm against the Aasimar. He looked to where Ellingle and Palomar, now together, hovered over a crowd of enemies, and knew they were in danger. The wind picked up. Most of his knights had left to engage the cavalry, but a handful lingered behind, waiting for their master.
“Sir Luminere, are you hurt?” one of them asked.
Jaiden ignored him, rising up in his saddle, desperately searching for the King-priest. He tried blocking out all distracting sounds surrounding him to focus on his sight. He could hear the echoing plunk of raindrops as they landed on his helmet, though all else was muted. Finally, the unusual darkness aided him. As he looked further west, one of the cyclonic clouds of shadow spun past his field of vision, and in its wake, he caught a half-dozen pinpoints of red light flickering.
A circle of black-armored riders guarded a central figure on horseback, away from the other groups engaged in fighting. The ground around them was littered with dead, but no one currently dared to threaten them. The tiny red lights came from the eye-slits of the knights, as well as a larger one from the breast of their leader. It must be the Living Fire – the King-priest and his otherworldly jewel.
All the sounds of the battlefield returned to Jaiden, ushered by another crash of thunder as a surge of lightning danced along the ceiling of clouds. “Come with me!” he yelled to his remaining men before putting his heels to Inferno. His horse bolted in the direction of the black-armored enclave, and Jaiden turned his head just briefly enough to see that his small contingent of knights followed.
From somewhere on his left, a group of archers fired a volley in their direction. One arrow embedded in his shield, another skidded off the top of his helmet, and a third lodged in the saddle beneath his thigh. Inferno did not seem deterred, so he hoped the head hadn’t penetrated. As he drew closer to the King-priest’s unit, he saw the riders protecting him were not wearing armor at all, but were actually forged from metal. Their horses also lacked flesh and blood, seeming to be creations of shadow and smoke.
Shiver the Moon Page 57