Auum saw and heard it all so clearly. The growing surprise on the faces of the enemy warriors combined with the confusion of the shamen about where to send their fire. There were mages in flight, soaring high above the battlefield, heading out behind the enemy camps. And when the shamen finally began to target the TaiGethen, the sound of hooves was music to Auum’s ears.
Auum seared across the ground, his Tais around him, racing past the Wesmen and ignoring the targets they represented. Black fire laced out in multiple directions, seeking elven bodies. But while the fire travelled at extreme speed, the minds and the hands of the shamen did not.
Auum saw black tendrils swinging towards him. He slithered to a halt and started down a different line. He rolled beneath one tendril, leaped between two others and moved in. Beside him a line of fire caught a TaiGethen in the flank, spinning him out of control to sprawl on the ground.
Auum could see their eyes now, the desperation on their faces and the feverish playing of their foul casting in front of them as they tried to bring down elves they could barely see. But the closer the TaiGethen got, the greater the risk they ran despite their speed. He had to trust to luck and believe that his Tais would make the right moves.
Auum was ten paces from the shamen when the fire caught him. He slid low beneath a blitz of fire tendrils and rolled, his body outstretched. He gathered himself and leaped high, meaning to land in their midst, but the line of black fire caught his left arm, spinning him fast and off balance. It burned through his shoulder and down into his hand. He could smell his seared flesh, and his shirt smouldered and glowed orange where the fire struck.
Still moving under the shetharyn, he crashed into the shamen, tumbling and turning, trying to get his feet beneath him while the burning consumed his arm. Gasping in a breath, Auum came to a halt sprawled on top of a shaman, his eyes looking up into a sky filled with moving bodies. There was shouting and he heard the hiss of blades leaving scabbards.
Black fire crackled all around him. He rolled again, his feet finding the ground, and rose, right fist already lashing out at any body in his vision, his left arm hanging useless by his side. TaiGethen crashed into the shamen in numbers, deflecting their attention from him.
A dagger came at him from his left. He spun and kicked it from the shaman’s hand, leaned in hard and butted him in the forehead. He drew a blade and whirled a complete circle, forcing space to open up. Fighting was going on all around him. He heard the detonation of spells ahead of him and the thundering of hooves behind.
Auum focused as well as he could, weaving his sword in front of him and trying to sense what was at his back. He moved towards a shaman. He was wearing a broad necklace of animal bones; the skin that showed beneath cloak and clothes was heavily tattooed, and there was an expression of pure malice on his weathered flat-featured face.
Auum struck forward, and the shaman danced back. He clapped his hands together and the black fire capered between his palms. He opened them to strike at Auum, who dropped to his haunches and swept out a foot, tripping his enemy and sending him back a couple of paces, his magic gone.
Auum rushed forward. In the press of shamen battling for their lives against the blurring TaiGethen he didn’t see the knife blade that tore into his left arm, redoubling the pain. The blow rocked him sideways. Instinct took over. Auum kicked out to the side and high, feeling his boot connect with a face. Simultaneously, he threw his blade. It spun end over end and buried itself to the hilt in the shaman’s chest, splintering his bone necklace.
Auum dropped to the ground, on his haunches again. A dagger blade whipped over his head. He turned quickly, dragging a jaqrui from its pouch and flicking it out and up, seeing the blade lodge deep in the thigh of his target. Behind him a scream split the air. Auum forced himself back to his feet to grab back his blade. In front of him a shaman stood for a moment, confusion on his face while his brain dribbled from his split skull.
Ulysan was at his side. Auum felt himself picked up and rushed back in the direction of the city walls. He saw other TaiGethen bodies smouldering on the ground but the shamen were gone, massacred.
Harild’s cavalry galloped past, sending Wesmen to their deaths or running blindly away. Spells crashed down from the mages sent to the back of the enemy lines. Drech and his Il-Aryn moved back onto the battlefield, creating a safe corridor against further black fire.
Ulysan slowed, giving them a sight of the battlefield before they ducked back through the barriers. Wesmen were gathering in defence to their left. Ahead of the gates, the enemy were gone. Bodies crowded the ground. There was cheering from the walls. TaiGethen moved across the area, helping the wounded away and carrying the bodies of their dead.
The cavalry made one more sweep and galloped back through the gates. Through his misted eyes Auum could see more shamen moving up behind their warrior guards. The taunting had ceased. They had landed a significant blow but Auum counted seven TaiGethen bodies being carried away. Too many. If they were to break the siege, they needed to adapt their tactics.
‘Come on, let’s get you seen to,’ said Ulysan.
Auum looked into his face. He was bleeding from a cut to his cheek but his eyes were alive with excitement. ‘You seem to make a habit of carrying me bleeding from battlefields.’
‘Well I did it once seven hundred years ago. That’s hardly statistically significant.’
‘It hurts,’ said Auum.
‘Looks like it.’
Ulysan supported Auum, and the two old friends moved as quickly as they could back within the barrier and on into the city. Auum waited until the last of the elves was back and Harild ordered the gates closed. The cavalry had already trotted away to their stables, leaving the big open space behind the gates full of victorious but grieving elves.
‘Get the wounded back to the college,’ said Auum. ‘We need them treated and ready for the next strike. Pray for your friends who have fallen. Drech, your Il-Aryn should rest. Your work was exemplary, thank you.’
Drech walked over to Auum, waving his people back towards the gates.‘We’ll meet at dusk in the refectory. Congratulations.’
‘Thank you.’
‘It appears you are not quite as fast as you think you are.’
‘Not now,’ breathed Ulysan.
Auum felt himself tense and his arm begin to ache horribly. He leaned on Ulysan to turn himself. There was Takaar, striding up to them with his Senserii in close attendance. Drech watched him come with suspicion and weary anxiety written all over his face. The remaining TaiGethen looked on, but Auum held up a hand to put them at ease.
‘We’ve cleared a path for you. Best you leave now before the Wesmen close it again. It’s a good few days’ walk to Korina. Cleress has been in contact with her sisters and they’re expecting you. Gilderon, the quartermaster of the city will find you travel rations.’
‘I only seek to help and yet you snub me at every turn,’ said Takaar, appearing genuinely hurt. ‘I could have saved you from that wound. And it looks bad. I can treat it.’
‘Touch me and I’ll break your arm,’ said Auum. ‘You tried to kill Stein on the way here and you tried to kill Drech last night. You’re like a child, but you have dreadful powers and you’re prepared to use them on anyone, even those who try to help you. You are not the elf you believe yourself to be and you never will be again.’
Takaar nodded and put his hands over his face. His shoulders began to shake and his body shuddered with sobs. When he looked back at Auum, tears streaked his face and his eyes were imploring and full of contrition.
‘I know and I am sorry,’ he said, sniffing hard and breathing deeply to calm himself. ‘Drech, I cannot forgive myself, but I hope you can forgive me. Auum, all I ask is a chance to prove myself. I can turn the Wytch Lord fire against the shamen who cast it. I’ve worked out how. Let me show you.’