Jeral watched his soldiers chase the Sharps upslope. His view had been cleared by the passage of a hundred logs and the sport was deeply satisfying. The warriors around him were cheering, some were laughing. Hynd put a congratulatory hand on his shoulder.
The TaiGethen were moving erratically, their vision clearly still imperfect. They were slow by their standards, slipping on the mud as they climbed. Jeral’s warriors were gaining slowly, each group with three ahead of the other two and all of them cheered on by those watching from the column.
Passing between two trees, three TaiGethen increased their pace and leapt high, turning rolls in the air before landing and hurrying on. Jeral barely had time to wonder why before three leading soldiers disappeared from view, their cries of alarm cut off with mortal finality. The two behind them slowed and passed to either side of the pair of trees. Neither of them passed any further. Panels of wood swung round horizontally, slapping into his men’s chests and driving spikes clear through their bodies.
Cheers died in throats, laughs dried on lips. Jeral heard other screams from behind him. For the second time today he found himself staring. The TaiGethen stopped and turned, crouching to see their foe’s reactions. They chittered animal and bird calls to each other before disappearing from view. Above Jeral the forest was coming back to life.
‘Green! Two!’ called Jeral.
ForceCones
. ‘Red! One!’ He cursed under his breath.
‘We need to get this army moving,’ said Hynd. ‘We’re still in charge here.’
‘Agreed,’ said Jeral. ‘Signal the advance.’
Grafyrre heard the enemy break formation to attack up the slopes. He dropped to the ground with Allyne and they ran past the blackened, hideous statues of Apposans caught in the blast of ice. He carried on running, hurdling a stake pit and sidestepping a whip trap on his way, praying to Yniss that men would die upon them. He soon had that wish granted.
The TaiGethen pair ran beyond the second line of traps, urging the few survivors they could see to head for the rally points. Just in view of the valley floor, they paused in a patch of good cover. Grafyrre looked down at the enemy, seeing them uncertain in their advance, eyeing the ground with suspicion.
‘Grafyrre.’
Allyne was pointing along the valley to the north. Kerryn’s cell was crouched thirty yards away, watching some humans beginning to move back down the slope, hurrying to join the rest of the army. Orders were being carried along the column and mages were preparing new castings. Red and green lights pulsed along the broken shield line.
Grafyrre clicked out the call of a parik bird, seeking Kerryn’s attention. He gestured for them to move left and down before pointing at his chosen targets within the army and bringing the points of his fingers together in a pincer. Kerryn nodded.
‘Let’s give our people some time to escape,’ said Grafyrre. ‘Beware the mages. Take them whenever you can. Tai, we move.’
Grafyrre headed downslope, angling slightly right, keeping his targets in sight. They looked like a command group. Older men with their swords still in their scabbards and surrounded by elite human warriors whose eyes scanned the forest continuously. Mages sprouted from the group too, some of whom appeared deep in concentration. Others waited to cast.
More orders rang out along the enemy column. They readied to move.
‘Hit them,’ said Grafyrre.
A howler monkey call carried along the valley from the northern end – Auum was signalling the retreat to rally points – but Grafyrre couldn’t let it end like this. They’d barely laid a blade on the enemy. Only Beeth’s great trees had done any real damage and even then not on the scale they’d planned. All his work, all his effort; Grafyrre would not let it be for nothing.
Grafyrre ran at the army, Allyne on his heels and Kerryn mirroring his attack. In five more paces he’d be beyond cover and into the mess of logs, mud and blood.
‘A quick hit and away!’ he called. ‘I’ll take the old men.’
Grafyrre stormed down to the floor of the Scar. Men were still rejoining the column, shaken by the traps that had claimed their brethren and careless in their haste. Grafyrre heard warnings shouted out. Isolated soldiers began to turn. Allyne threw a jaqrui which sliced into his target’s thigh. Grafyrre leapt feet first, catching the same man on the side of his head.
Grafyrre landed, not looking behind him, bouncing back up and dragging a jaqrui from his pouch. He threw, only to see it bounce off a magical shield and fly harmlessly away back over his head. Allyne was at his shoulder. The Tai warrior hacked to his right, felling a second enemy who had been too slow to regain the column.
Grafyrre drew both blades and charged into the midst of the humans. Kerryn crashed in beside him. Grafyrre kicked out straight, his foot thudding into a human gut. His momentum brought him forward, one blade across his body to block a riposte, his other overhead, splitting the man’s skull through his leather cap.
Gore spattered across the column. Men bunched together. Soldiers moved quickly towards the TaiGethen while mages backed away. Allyne took the sword hand from one and snapped a roundhouse kick into the head of another, sending him spinning into the stream and taking two more with him.
Ahead, Grafyrre could see his targets. One was white with fear, a second had a bottle in one hand and his sword in the other. The third was on his feet roaring instructions but no one was listening. Grafyrre blocked a thrust to his left flank and backhanded his free blade up into the face of his attacker. The man went down in a spray of blood.
Behind him, a mage opened his hands and cast.
‘Down!’ Grafyrre yelled.
He dropped and rolled, his blades out and carving at the space into which he came. He connected with the mage a heartbeat too late. A low hum hurt his ears and, behind him, he heard Kerryn scream. On his way back to his feet, Grafyrre saw her flying backwards through the air, her body smashing against a banyan and flopping, broken to the ground.
‘Break off!’ called Allyne.
‘No,’ spat Grafyrre. ‘Not yet.’
Soldiers were moving around to flank and trap them. Another spell was cast. Flame roared out from the column and Grafyrre heard an elven scream. Above the chaos, howler monkey calls sounded again. This time, their import and their meaning penetrated Grafyrre’s rage.
He uppercut his right-hand blade into a mage’s chest, crushed the kneecap of a soldier with a reverse kick and fled the enemy.
‘Get to cover,’ Grafyrre shouted as he ran. ‘Get to cover!’
Charging Apposans all but ran him down. He flung himself out of their path and gaped. Where had they come from? Howling obscenities and promises of death, they moved to the attack, their eyes fixed on their enemies, axes, swords and clubs held firmly in hand.
‘No!’ shouted Grafyrre. ‘Break off, they’ll—’
Spells screamed out. Fire, ice and pure magical force slammed into the Apposans. Elves shrieked as their skin was flayed from their bodies or scorched to the bone. Some, like Kerryn before them, were borne back to be crushed against the trees they so cherished. A few managed to escape, running blindly back up the slopes, heedless of their route, so careless that one, who thought himself safe, was skewered by a waiting trap.
Grafyrre ran too, his rage centred firmly on himself. Allyne had survived but Borrune and Kerryn’s Tai were gone. Apposans had been slaughtered like animals and the enemy’s cheers were the final humiliation. He had failed. Worse, he had led precious survivors to their deaths.
Grafyrre ran on, contemplating his words to Auum and his prayers to Yniss.
All the way down the slope, they had sounded the rally point call, and all they could do now was hope it was heeded. Auum, Elyss and Ulysan running at the head of an Apposan force of forty elves had broken cover right at the base of the Scar and thundered into the rear section of the enemy army.
Jaqruis had bounced from the magical shield but it had not protected the soldiers from close-up blade, fist, axe or foot. Their targets had been slightly isolated from the main column by two log falls that had burst through the magical protections. Bodies lay torn and twisted among the logs and the path was completely blocked, forcing soldiers who were prepared to risk it to travel upslope, through the traps.
Auum knew he was venting his fury but found he had no desire to mitigate the extra risk that posed to him. With his eye ever darting to Elyss, who fought effortlessly, he pressed his attack into the centre of the group of some two hundred soldiers and mages while the Apposans surged in at the flanks.
‘Push left,’ called Ulysan. ‘Break through them.’
‘Pushing left!’ returned Boltha.
Auum saw the old Apposan duck a wild sword swing like an elf a third his age and bury his axe in the man’s skull. The Apposans with him roared their approval and pushed harder. Auum looked beyond them to the main column. Soldiers were breaking away to come to the aid of their fellows. Time was short. He needed these humans broken and running
now
.
‘Follow me.’
Auum moved forward again. He ran three paces, swords in hand, and jumped high. Bringing his legs up tight to his chest, he cleared the human front line and cycled his arms, feeling his swords bite into flesh. He landed behind the line, in a confusion of mages and soldiers, his feet slapping into the stream.
Auum rose from his crouch, already spinning, blades out to lace cuts into legs, torsos, arms and faces. Ulysan landed a few feet away. Elyss turned a roll over Auum’s head and landed with her legs astride a mage’s neck, breaking it as she twisted down to the ground. Rise of the TaiGethen 197
Humans were scattering all around them. Auum thrashed a blade into the back of a mage who had turned to run; another spun towards Auum. The TaiGethen raised his blade to strike but a split appeared down the mage’s face – Ulysan’s work. Auum moved in the direction of the swamp and the enemy in his path turned and fled.
‘Keep them moving,’ called Boltha, leading his Apposans in the charge. He paused by Auum. ‘Go. We’ll see them into the jaws of Tual. You need to regroup your people. We’ll harass the humans as long as they remain here but we can’t stop them, can we? They’ve learned.’
‘Don’t risk yourselves. Get your people to safety,’ said Auum.
‘We’ll rejoin you at Katura.’
‘No. Disappear. Your people have done enough. We’ll find you when it’s over.’
Boltha nodded, turned and ran. Auum glanced at the enemy moving towards them. Elyss and Ulysan were by him.
‘Auum?’
‘Let’s see who we can save.’
Chapter 24
The fight between the Tuali and Beethan gangs was a statement. Made on market day, in the heart of our lives. Who really runs Katura? Who can hope to stop them? The people look to me, and I am not sure I can save them.
The Diaries of Pelyn, Governor of Katura
Auum’s run along the mid-slopes of the Scar was the most desolate of all his long years.
Apposans, those few who had survived, were scattered across the higher slopes or had already fled back into the Haliath Vale, heading for the rally points. Auum supposed that was good news, of a sort, as they’d responded to the calls to fall back. But that was where the good news ended.
Bodies littered the slopes. Burned, blackened by frost or crushed almost beyond recognition. Spells were still playing into the forest, preventing the collection of the dead for reclamation. Auum could see foliage flattened by magical force where mages played their spells in wide arcs, forestalling any fresh efforts to attack.
Among the Apposans near the centre of the column, Auum saw the broken bodies of Kerryn and her cell. They were too far down the slope to tend to so Auum knelt with Ulysan and Elyss and prayed for their swift reclamation. While they did, they looked down the ruined valley.
‘What happened here?’ whispered Elyss.
‘They found strength,’ said Ulysan.
‘No. They had a plan,’ said Auum.
The magical shields had repulsed enough of the weight and violence of the log falls to save hundreds of men, and the following, blinding magical response had rendered the ambush force helpless against the killing spells that came next.
‘How can we defeat this power?’ asked Elyss, her voice tremulous.
She placed a hand on her stomach and Auum covered it with one of his.
‘We cannot lose hope, not now,’ said Auum.
A tear spilled from Elyss’ eye and splashed on Auum’s hand. ‘How can we not lose hope? This was the day when we were to defeat them, but instead they will march on almost unhindered while we count our dead. How many TaiGethen have we lost? My heart quails at the thought.’
‘We will grieve and we will move on,’ said Ulysan, standing and offering them each a hand to pull them up. ‘Because we have no other choice.’
Elyss tried to smile and what burst from her lips was a desperate laugh. ‘What do we do, mount another ambush? Look what happened to us. Look!’
‘No. We cannot risk this again,’ said Auum. ‘Katura is the only place where elves live in great enough numbers to threaten the invaders.’
Elyss shook her head. ‘You said if we had to go there to defend our race then the battle was already lost.’