White Hall (The High King: A Tale of Alus Book 10) (68 page)

Piotr looked for his friends as the split company was drawn together as one. There was no more use of novices as leaders now. When lives were on the line, those who knew war had to step in while the students were relegated to backing up their mentors.

A score of veteran falcons formed up in a staggered line. Ten cadets were added into the gaps since only half of the cadets brought along were first years. Unlike the wizards, cadets ranged from those equivalent to novices to apprentices without changing rank. Luckily for them, some of these students had even been to the wall and begun their steps towards becoming the rank of falcons.

Wizards from the various elements were arrayed behind the thirty mages. The first line was their rock and safety. From behind that security, wizards could use greater magic that could destroy armies, as long as there weren’t wizards to counter their power. Some of the wizards were needed to help control the novices behind them. Already some of the young wizards had been ruled out as passing to the next rank, but a few had shown ability. They were used by the mentors to help the other novices as they readied for a fight.

The last group was arrayed further back and up the eastern slope of the closest foothill. It was nearly a mountain in truth, but by classification the hill was still just a large hill. On this large hill, the small group of healers which was a mix of novices, apprentices and ranking wizards; had the diplomacy wizards and half a dozen battle mages for protection in case this enemy should find their way around the main forces to strike the vulnerable wizards. Five of the guardians were cadets. Niklaus took the position along with his mentor Elijah with a twinge of anger. Xara and Uliya were there as well, but the cadet felt that he could fight as well as any of those arrayed down below them.

Piotr had seen him grit his teeth when Elijah had been nominated the leader of mages to guard the healers. While it was important to protect the healers, who were nearly defenseless, a battle mage was meant to be in the thick of battle. The nature novice could sympathize as he was placed in the group of novices in front of his brother’s. Piotr felt like he had learned enough to be given the responsibility to meet the enemy sooner as well.

At least for the nature wizard, he knew that his magic could be used at a distance almost as well as closer to the action. For mages like his brother, range began to take away everything. Fireballs and air lances weren’t much when the battle mage was a weapon. Nearly every spell went into making a battle mage more powerful as a melee combatant. Stone skin created armor. Mage shields protected even more, while reflex spells increased their ability to hit an enemy and made them harder to hit still.

Until Katya’s brother, apparently battle mages had been limited to fireballs for range. New teachings had begun infiltrating the school proving that their lesser cousins could be deadlier than they had ever been including from a distance. The training was being passed onto falcons and older cadets, but the novice cadets had been taught in the way nearly every mage had been since the Hurst had taught his brothers and sisters the first spells.

“Keep your mind sharp and be ready, Piotr,” Zieran stated quietly from his side. Wizards from fire, air and earth made up the first veteran group. Nature and water wizards were in the second group to lead the novices, but Piotr thought that came from the thinking that the falcons suffered from as well. They were considered weaker in combat and were better used as leadership for the children.

Piotr thought his mentor's comment an understatement and quite needless. Sweat drops were on most the foreheads of the novices. They were only a short step away from panicking. Training could only prepare them so much and learning spells was hardly the same as using magic to harm an enemy while they tried to kill you at the same time.

Zieran clarified keeping his voice low, “You can shape shift into a bear and other animals. If they need a shift in power, you may need to jump in with that magic as well.

“Your brother is being held back for similar reasons. We don’t want to give away any tricks that we might be able to use.”

Looking uphill for his brother, the twin wondered if his opposite knew of this as well.

“Look,” Zieran echoed the voices of several others.

Several figures crested the next foothill. The sun was in descent towards the mountains, but was high enough that they expected to see their forms well enough to make them out; instead shadows seemed to obscure faces and forms. The sunlight managed to reveal the reflective shine of metal armor on their shoulders and arms at least revealing this was like the armed force as they had believed were coming.

Ylena used her magic to magnify her voice and called out to them asking for these men to identify themselves, if they were even men.

The figures looked her way and quickly ignored the wizard. Some disappeared behind the rise again.

“We are the military of Southwall. Please identify yourselves or we will have to consider you hostile,” the diplomacy wizard followed up her friendlier greeting with a warning.

Piotr wondered if these creatures would know their language. They were like none Zieran had seen. That had been corroborated on Piotr’s return. The veteran wizard had fought orcs, goblins, trolls and more north of the wall, but these were new to him.

Books and legends told of how the che’ther and mar’goyn’lya had crossed from another world to make this their adopted home. The emperor and his armies crossed as well and over five hundred years of contact with him had changed the north forever. Piotr wondered if this was just the newest invasion. Like Alus was a nexus for other worlds, they seemed to continually find new enemies searching for them.

A new lean figure stepped to the center of the dark creatures on the rise. Pointing first to the left and then to the right, this new figure brought his hands forward as if to clap and the ground seemed to react to his gesture. First, the ground trembled and then the sound of heavy footfalls in great numbers came to their ears. Next, a swarm of the ram men, ox men and the warped looking goblins swept around both sides of the mountain's foothill.

Blue shields sprang to life along the line of battle mages, but magic or not, the men and women looked to be too few. As the quick moving rams leaped in first, they struck with swords and clubs. The blue shields held and the falcons struck back with their swords. Some were sheathed in fire now and the rams fell back from the flames even as their leather armor caught fire. Only magic could have managed to inflict the damage from the brief contact, but that was the nature of magic to do things that should have been impossible.

Even as the swift horned men fell back from the mages’ defense; the smaller dark creatures that Piotr could only refer to as dark goblins joined the attack. Iron hammers and maces attacked while iron shields protected their other side. Shields wouldn’t catch fire, but winds rose directed into the hairy beasts. Earth spears leaped up before the falcons thanks to the earth wizards making some goblins leap back even as others were skewered by the stone.

Then the ox men were on the battle mages as well. As if they had waited for the others to distract the defenders, the oxen charged into the mages wielding giant axes and clubs. Their power was so great that the thin line was driven back by a similar number of ox warriors despite their resolve to protect the wizards behind them.

Wizards struck back over the heads of the defenders sending fire, air, stone and even ice spells into their enemies. It slowed the charge and helped the battle mages rally their defenses. Nothing got through this time, but it had been a close thing. The ox men seemed to fall back, but that was only to allow the swift rams to slip through and renew their attack.

Piotr watched the initial flurry below him, but the young nature wizard's eyes kept watch for both new enemies and the dragon mages, which they all hoped had seen the warning flare. A second red flare rose up. While some might deem it a waste of energy in the heart of battle, the scarlet warning let the dragon mages know that they were returning to a battle.

Dozens of dark shapes lifted into the air over the hill with the leader orchestrating each attack with his hands. Piotr doubted that the monsters could see the signs, but he felt magic in the gestures and didn't doubt that they knew each movement even so. Ignoring their leader, the novice watched as the strange flying beasts paused above the land only a moment before descending swiftly down the mountain over the heads of the other creatures fighting.

Domes of fire rose over the battle mages and first group of wizards. They were defenses of the fire wizards meant to protect both lines as they managed to spy the new attackers in time. The fire dissuaded the creatures from the front lines, but the second wave of wizards and the last group further up the hill became their next obvious targets.

"Defend yourselves, novices!" a wizard's voice cried out though Piotr wasn't sure which one had taken the lead.

The novice gestured and roots lifted from the ground twisting around the boy making him look like some knotted tree. Piotr used the defense for more than one reason as his body rested back against the wood. Bringing his hands up, the nature wizard used his magic to lock onto one of the flying creatures. His mind transferred as easily as he would with Bandit the rabbit at his home.

There was no push back as a human mind would throw him out because of higher intelligence. This was a beast. While it was powerful and alien to their world, it was still a natural creature.

Piotr's vision flipped to the creature. As he had locked onto this target, the boy thought that it was like a lion sharing the extra attributes of an  eagle or falcon. It also had the face of a raven or shrike. Black eyes sat on the face of a black bird. The wings were black as well and looked oily like those of a shrike. Instead of the tan fur of a lion, it was also dark gray to black.

The name of grayven came to mind as a nickname, but as the novice forced the creature back into the sky, it became of little importance what they were called. His monster was high enough to pounce on another flyer. Black talons ripped into wings tearing them from the beast.

The wounded creature screamed and fell from the sky without its wings. It landed hard, but even bloody and wounded, the grayven looked ready to fight. While its defiance was genuine, it was short lived as stone spikes sprung from the ground skewering the beast killing it as the stone drove through its heart.

Lifting back up to scan the enemy, Piotr prepared to attack his next target. The grayvens were a source of chaos capable of striking anywhere on the field of battle. He needed to do what he could to remove the threats before his people were cut down from behind and above.

Elijah placed his hand on Niklaus' shoulder as if to restrain the cadet who was starting to bounce on the balls of his feet with anticipation. "Easy, kid, it looks like the reserves will be busy soon enough."

Watching the initial flow of battle, the cadet understood, but it didn't make it any easier to stand back and watch it just the same. The enemies were large, powerful oxen, the swifter though smaller ram men and the things the others were calling hobgoblins to distinguish them from the goblins of the emperor. The two looked nothing alike aside from their size.

The emperor's goblins were smooth skinned with a greenish hue, though often with knotted muscles. These were darker and their coloring leaned towards blue, though they were hairy and there were several other colors to make them look more unique. Hobgoblin faces were also more animalistic. With extended noses that tied in above the longer jaws of their mouths, some looked nearly canine to his eyes.

Strangeness of the familiar blended into odd new combinations throughout this army made Niklaus' skin crawl, but one thing steadied him. His heart drove him to want to protect his friends and comrades. These monsters wanted them dead for no reason save that they were simply there or perhaps too close to these creatures' camp, but this land was Southwall's and these beasts could be damned if they thought they had a better claim. They were intruders and hostile, so the cadet's instinct was to make sure that they were killed. He didn't want to talk to them to try and create a peaceful ceasefire anymore than they seemed to want to have peace.

He watched as the second line of wizards threw out shields of fire above them as the flying monsters sought to break their line. His people were there in the thick of it. Blue shields and black darkness shields held the front while the wizards used fire, air, water, stone, and the plants of the earth to hold their flank and protect their heads.

As the flying beasts gave up the more dangerous targets, Niklaus pulled against his mentor's hand. His brother was in the third line consisting mostly of novice wizards. Were they ready for this fight? Their mentors had put them behind them for a reason. Niklaus didn't think they were up for this anymore than their elders were.

He watched as Piotr encased himself in a shell created from roots and thought he could feel his twin's use of magic. When one of the black flyers turned on another tearing at its wings sending it crashing to the ground, Niklaus knew his brother's handiwork.

"If you could take their minds like your brother, I would let you fight now," Falcon Elijah stated as he watched the battle below them just as intently. Elijah was the only veteran mage held back with the healers. His face told the same ache that Niklaus felt. Battle mages were raised to fight, not to sit back waiting for others to fight; but without the regular soldiers of Southwall's army to protect them, the duty fell to the mages who had come along.