The Wrath

by D Glenn Casey

  The ogre screeched in terror, but his screams were extinguished when Belgard whipped his sword up and then drove the point straight between his eyes. As he pulled the blade from the ogre’s head, he drove it into a snow drift a few times to clean the ogre blood off it. Two soldiers grabbed the ogre by the wrists and ankles and carried him over and flung him onto the flaming heap.

  He walked back to where his fallen soldiers were laying, being prepared to be carried back over the mountains. He looked at the rest of his men as they gathered around.

  “Men, we will carry our fallen comrades back over the mountains, but we need to move with haste. I believe we should not be here. We should be with the army right now.”

  “You think this was a trap?” asked one of the men.

  “No, Morgan, not this. But they wanted us away from the rest of the army for some reason. I fear our friends on the other side of the mountain are having a tough go of it.”

  “Then, we should leave right away and return to that battle with as much speed as we can muster.”

  Within five minutes, they had the four fallen soldiers loaded on litters and started back toward the pass. Four men on each litter, used up every man in the group except for Belgard.

  There was one thing he noticed as they started up the mountain. He wasn’t having any trouble keeping up this time.

  Chapter 15 ~ A New Evil Enters The Battle

  Pendivall continued casting lightning bolts at the dark wizard and his dragon, even as the two rose higher into the sky. Jarell cast a dirty ball of wind at the two and caused the dragon to lose a bit of agility in the sky, but Kerrick wrestled him under control.

  Pendivall and Jarell returned their attention back to the battle and their hearts dropped. They had lost a dozen swordsmen and bowmaidens in the initial attack and Cragg and his men weren’t fairing any better.

  The royals were already down about a dozen men and only one of the enemy royals had been taken down. The one with an arrow stuck in the middle of his forehead.

  The other red dragons had entered the fight and were diving on the troops, one after another. Brinn was right in the middle of things, casting shields and doing his best to protect those around him.

  Jarell took off down the hill and ran into the fray. Pulling his own sword, he cut down two soldiers immediately and cast a blowing wind through the enemy lines. The wind was proving to be ineffective though, because Kerrick was doing his own casting from above, protecting his own troops. That part surprised Jarell as he recalled how Kerrick had destroyed his own troops in the Eastern Desert merely trying to gain an advantage.

  Pendivall rushed into the battle, swinging his sword and sweeping lightning bolts back and forth across the field of battle. But, the enemy troops were prepared this time and they had shields they used to protect themselves. Even the bowmaidens couldn’t get past them.

  The red dragons dove again and Brinn shielded those around him, but this time the dragons didn’t cast dragonfire. They crashed hard into the shield.

  The first one hit and drove Brinn to his knees and a couple of bowmaidens reached down and helped him back up. The dragon that had crashed died on impact and its body bounced off the shield and into the woods at the edge of the fields.

  Brinn regained his feet just in time to cast another shield to block the attack of the second dragon. But his shield was a bit weaker this time and the dragon almost broke through.

  Brinn could tell he wouldn’t be capable of stopping another attack like that and he yelled to Pendivall. The old wizard turned and saw his apprentice had a look of fear on his face. He could feel his confidence was waning.

  As he started running toward the knot of warriors, where Brinn had taken up his position, he saw the red dragon starting downward and he tried running faster. Knowing that if he couldn’t get there, his apprentice and those around him would likely be lost.

  He cast a lightning bolt while on the run, but the diving dragon avoided it and kept diving. He felt his heart sink as he saw in his mind, what he knew was coming.

  Brinn looked up and cast a shield, the strongest that he could, but he knew it wasn’t going to be enough. The sole thought that flashed through his mind at that moment was of Millicent and how he would never get to hold her hand again.

  The red dragon was just a second or two away from crashing through the shield and Brinn could feel a tear stream down his cheek. He knew he was about to fail. He closed his eyes and tried to give the shield every ounce of energy he could muster.

  Then he heard the crash and waited for the shield to buckle around him and the dragon crushing him and the others under its dead weight.

  But, it never came.

  Instead, he heard a whoop of courage from the swordsmen and bowmaidens and he opened his eyes.

  The red dragon’s dive had been stopped and it now found its neck clamped between the jaws of Morgath. Brinn let out a yell of his own as he watched Caroline fire two quick arrows into the eyes of the red dragon, killing it instantly.

  Morgath throttled the dead dragon between his teeth and then he flung its carcass toward the enemy lines, crushing a couple dozen enemy soldiers in the process.

  A green-white ball of energy flew down from the sky and singed Morgath’s wing, but he just shook it off. His and Caroline’s attention was drawn to the dark wizard and his dragon higher up in the sky.

  Brinn and the wizards looked higher and saw Sarabel and Hilde were closing in on Kerrick. Jarell felt a lump rise in his throat, realizing his wife was about to go toe-to-toe with a master wizard. He only hoped that they and their dragons, plus the pair that were ascending to join them would be enough to bring Kerrick down.

  Jarell and Pendivall didn’t have time to follow the aerial battle because the ground battle was becoming even more dire around them. Over half the royal soldiers had been killed by those fighting for Kerrick.

  Jarell was astounded that those few troops of Kerrick’s were having it so easy with his own troops.

  He looked around and found Cragg, still fighting with everything he had, against another royal. He took off across the field toward the lieutenant and got there just in time to see Cragg remove the head of his enemy.

  Another royal raced to pick up where the other had failed and started battling with Cragg, but that fight was short lived. As Jarell raced up, he ran his sword through the side of the enemy royal, which incapacitated him and Cragg finished him off.

  Cragg turned to Jarell and had a look of terror in his eyes. His face looked like that of man who was seeing an unspeakable horror. He raised his sword toward Jarell and started advancing toward the wizard.

  “Cragg! It’s me, Jarell!”

  Cragg swung his sword as if he didn’t recognize the wizard and Jarell was just barely able to avoid the blade. He reached out with his right hand, still holding his own sword and cast a spell at Cragg and halted his movement.

  The large royal stood frozen and Jarell knew he couldn’t keep him that way. He was defenseless against the battle that raged around them. So he cast a shield that enveloped them and only them. Another enemy royal tried to get through the shield, but was knocked backwards.

  Jarell reached up and placed his hand on the forehead of the big soldier and closed his eyes. He was going in search of what had turned Cragg against him.

  It didn’t take him long to find it. What he found was muddy memories, images flowing through Cragg’s mind, showing him enemies that didn’t really exist. Cragg was under the influence of some dark force and Jarell was reasonably sure where it was coming from. In Cragg’s mind, it wasn’t Jarell that was standing in front of him. It was a larger than usual ogre.

  He shouted into Cragg’s mind, “Lieutenant Cragg! You need to snap out of it! Now!”

  Cragg’s head snapped backward as if he had been slapped in the face. He blinked his eyes a few times and shook his head.

  “Master Jarell. Forgive me.”

  “There’s nothing to forgive, lieutenant. Your mind
was being assailed by the dark wizard. I’ve done what I can to block his influence over you, but I’m afraid he has control over all your men and maybe even our soldiers.”

  Jarell removed the shield and immediately two enemy royals assaulted them, but Cragg, being freed from the influence of the dark wizard, killed both of them within seconds. Jarell didn’t scarcely need to lift a finger.

  “I have to see if Pendivall and I can counter Kerrick’s mind control over your men,” yelled Jarell as he turned to go find Pendivall. “Try not dying on me!”

  “No chance of that, sire,” muttered Cragg, under his breath, as he started slashing away at any enemy troops and royals he could get his sword on.

  Jarell sprinted to the mass of troops that were gathered around Pendivall and discovered the old wizard doing his best to battle some of his own troops that had turned on him.

  Jarell waded in and cast a freezing spell on them and pulled Pendivall out of the middle of the crowd.

  “The dark wizard has ensnared their minds,” said Jarell, “causing them to think we are the enemy.”

  “We need to discover a way to shield our troops from his influence.”

  “We don’t need to just shield them. We need to release his hold on them,” said Jarell.

  The two wizards looked up and saw that Kerrick was engaged against three dragons and riders. Jarell could practically feel Hilde’s rage from a thousand feet below, feeling like she wanted to personally tear Kerrick from the back of the red dragon and drive him straight into the ground.

  “Please be careful with him, sweetie,” said Jarell to himself. “He is stronger now than before.”

  A thousand feet above, Hilde felt his words sweep through her mind. She and Venia were circling around Kerrick, with Sarabel and Caroline attacking from above and below.

  Kerrick continued to lash out with balls of energy from his staff, but he was ineffective. He was being attacked from three different sides. His red dragon was twisting and bucking all over the sky to keep from being taken down by the other dragons.

  The dark wizard continued trying to get one of his casts on them, but it was no use. The three dragons were flying faster and turning sharper than they ever had in their lives. All three of the ladies were firing arrows one after another at him and he had to devote his time to defending himself from being again.

  On the ground, Jarell cast a whirlwind with his staff and sent it wandering through the battlefield. It wasn’t strong enough to hurl men around, because he didn’t desire that. All he wanted to do was blind them and disorient them.

  He released the spell that was holding them and the whirlwind performed its magic. The men became so caught up in trying to figure out where it came from, their minds became blocked from whatever influence Kerrick had over them. They stopped fighting against themselves and their leaders and turned to fight the enemy again.

  Jarell looked around and knew it couldn’t be that easy. His simple whirlwind should not have been that effective in blocking Kerrick’s magic.

  He surveyed the battlefield. There was fighting going on all around him. Wyndweirian swordsmen were back to fighting Gallyneer swordsmen. His bowmaidens were back to launching arrows at the enemy. All around him there was fighting going on.

  Except for one place.

  He looked toward the mouth of the draw leading into the fields. There was a cloaked figure standing on a large boulder that offered him a view of the entire battlefield. He had his hands raised and there was a staff in one of his hands. He appeared to be casting toward the battlefield, but his casts didn’t manifest themselves in any way visible.

  Jarell yelled at Pendivall and pointed toward this new character on the battlefield.

  “Who is that?” yelled the older wizard.

  “I don’t know, but I think I’ll go ask him,” shouted Jarell as he started running toward the figure.

  As he moved through the battling soldiers, they just parted for him, not trying to impede his progress across the field. They didn’t dare lay a hand on him. He was conjuring a vision in their eyes of the most enormous ogre they had ever seen. They desired nothing to do with him.

  As Jarell got closer to the boulder, he began to experience a strange power emanating from the figure. It was potent enough to cause a cloud to come over his mind and cause his feet to feel like they were made of heavy rocks.

  “This can’t be,” thought Jarell.

  This was the source of the power that was clouding the minds of the soldiers, on both sides. It wasn’t Kerrick doing this at all.

  Jarell stopped and felt the crushing weight of this new wizard start to creep into his mind and he had to close his eyes to try to force the pain from his head. The pain only got worse and he fell to one knee, just barely able to keep himself upright by clinging to his staff.

  He looked up, through very blurry eyes and saw the wizard had his staff pointed right at him and was giving everything he had to his cast.

  Jarell couldn’t see the wizard’s face because it was hidden back inside his hood. He couldn’t even see any blue eyes shining out of the blackness under the hood, which would have been a dead giveaway that this was a wizard. All he could make out was blackness and it terrified him.

  As he fought to regain his footing, the wizard doubled his efforts to keep him down. Jarell was about to give up all hope when he felt a large hand grasp him by his upper arm and haul him to his feet.

  Through the clouds covering his mind he heard a very loud voice.

  “Are you going to take this from him?” yelled Cragg.

  Just hearing his voice provided Jarell the strength he needed and he brought his staff to bear on where he remembered the wizard being. He cast a very small, but very strong ball of wind that hit the wizard right in the chest and ended his cast immediately.

  Jarell’s eyes cleared within seconds and he looked at the boulder and saw the wizard wasn’t there anymore.

  “Where is he?” he yelled at Cragg.

  “Sire, you knocked him at least a hundred yards backward. He’s back there somewhere,” said Cragg, pointing toward the mouth of the draw.

  “Come with me!” yelled Jarell.

  The two of them set off, up the trail leading into the draw, searching for this new menace. As they advanced, they heard a crash behind them and stopped to see what had caused it.

  Another dragon had been brought down by the three warriors in the sky and now there was only one red dragon left, flying high, up on the winds and it bore another wizard.

  Jarell directed his attention back to the task at hand. Finding this new wizard and seeing who he was.

  The two of them scoured the entire area that Cragg was sure contained the wizard, but they couldn't find any sign of him.

  “He’s here somewhere, sire. I can feel it.”

  “Stay sharp, lieutenant. I don’t know who he is, but he has some skills.”

  They could hear the battle raging behind them, but neither one felt the need to return to it. Finding this new threat was much more important than returning to the fight. Besides, without the wizard casting clouding spells over the minds of the soldiers, the army of Wyndweir was beginning to turn the tide.

  “Over here!”

  Jarell turned and looked toward Cragg and then started running in his direction. When he got there, he found no wizard in a dark cloak. But, Cragg showed him some fresh blood on some jagged rocks and a piece of cloth that looked like it had come from the cloak.

  As he picked up the piece of cloth, he felt a wave of nausea wash over him and almost dropped the cloth in reaction.

  “What is it, sire?”

  “It’s definitely a piece of his cloak. There is evil in his mind and heart. This is not a wizard to be trifled with.”

  He took the cloth and plunged it into his pocket, wanting to get it out of his hand. Even the thought of handling it weighed heavy on his mind and soul.

  They continued searching, but they couldn’t find any other trace of the
wizard. They discovered some blood leading away from the spot where he had fallen, but that trail ran out in just a few yards. Obviously the injured wizard realized he was leaving a trail and did whatever he could to stop it.

  Jarell was mad at himself for allowing the wizard to get away, knowing that if he had enough time by himself, he could heal himself and would be right back in the fight.

  They looked for a few more minutes and then Jarell said, “We should get back. We’re doing no good out here like this.”

  Cragg nodded and they began running back to the battlefield. Jarell couldn’t help but feel a pair of eyes on him as he turned to go back. He knew this new snake was there somewhere, but had gone to hiding under a rock to keep from being found.

  As they reached the boulder where the wizard had stood, Jarell climbed on the rock and surveyed the battle from behind. The army of Wyndweir seemed to have the fight firmly in hand. There couldn’t have been more than a hundred enemy soldiers left and they continued fighting hard, even when the soldiers of Wyndweir tried getting them to lay down their swords.

  Jarell looked to the skies and couldn’t see Hilde or the others. Kerrick and his red dragon were also absent from the skies.

  As he lowered his gaze, he saw something that sent a chill right through him. A small knot of Gallyneer swordsmen was holding a group of enemy soldiers back and defending against their attacks. Symon was right in the middle of the group, fighting and standing his ground. But, it was the sight of Pendivall and a bright, red patch on his left arm, that was just dangling at his side, that caused Jarell’s heart to skip a beat.

  “Cragg, get to Pendivall right now!”

  The lieutenant looked and saw the same thing that Jarell had seen and began running toward the battle. Jarell jumped down from the boulder and followed after him, still scanning the skies above for his wife.

  When Cragg reached the group, he wasted no time trying to get the enemy troops to surrender. He just waded into them and slashed them down with mighty swings of his large broadsword. Most of the men he killed thought he was even meaner than any of the ogres they had seen. It was the last thought they ever had.