I need no armour . I need no horse. I need nothing but myself.
He vaulted from the horse, leaving it whinnying in alarm at its rider’s sudden departure, and landed with a clank in the greaves he still wore. Off with you , and he smashed his sword upon the joins, busting them open expertly enough to kick them off easily. Fully emerged from his metal chrysalis, he flexed with pleasure – there were no more restrictions cramping his muscles, nothing to stop him feeling the currents that coursed through the air, heralding oncoming attacks …nothing to hinder the splattering of blood on his skin.
Rapture surged through him, and he dived into the fray.
•
Lalenda made her way through the camp, manoeuvring skilfully between streams of soldiers rushing here and there.
‘Flutterbug,’ came Grimra’s voice, ‘where we be going?’
She gritted her teeth. She had been forgotten, maybe, or at least given no instructions to do anything in particular. Well , she thought, I would disobey them anyway.
She would not sit and do nothing. If they could beat the Kainordans here and now, there would be no need for Losara’s idea, and the eventuality she had foreseen could be avoided.
‘Flutterbug?’
‘We are going to fight,’ she said.
•
As the armies drove into each other, there were still plenty of soldiers back from the fighting. With the forces mostly separated, there existed opportunity for wide-scale damage.
There , sent Fahren. Battu joined him in channelling through the Stone, held by Fahren between them on the end of the staff. Each began casting a common offensive spell – a light bolt for Fahren, blue energy for Battu – but their trials the night before had shown there would be nothing common about the result.
Now , said Fahren, and they released. Their amalgam shot forth – a violet vortex with a dark centre, pulsing out spirals to leave a fast-diminishing trail in the air. It landed amongst the enemy, where it exploded stupendously, and some twenty soldiers went down screaming.
Such power , said Battu. A shame it only comes now, when I have to use it against my own.
Do not let this newfound strength go to your head, Battu. We are not invincible, and neither do we have endless reserves.
You think I don’t know that? As I stand here in the shining sun?
Stay close to Bel , cautioned Fahren. The blue-haired warrior had broken away ahead of them to plough into the shadow with reckless abandon. Battu had to admire him for a moment – he moved with such fluid grace, spinning through a group of Vorthargs, cutting them down as they leaped at him, deftly avoiding their globules of poisonous spit.
His attention refocused as blue energy bolts began to smack against their ward. At first they simply sizzled to nothing, but quickly their intensity increased, and Battu tightened his grip on the reins to steady himself.
They are targeting us , said Fahren.
Can you blame them? We brought attention to ourselves when we stunned the dreamer.
Concentrate on the ward. We need to find Losara.
Shadow mages were streaming in from everywhere, pummelling them with spells. A snake of shadow wormed a small way into the ward before vanishing, and conjured wraiths began to circle. Kainordans outside the ward began to fall at the wraiths’ icy touch. There were lightfists everywhere too, however, for Fahren had ordered that the majority of them stay close to him, and quickly conjured sunwings joined the wraiths in the air.
Bel, stay with us! Fahren sent Bel – but Bel, seemingly lost in the heat of it, did not reply.
•
Fazel slipped through the battle carrying a slight shred of hope. Target Battu had been the order, and around him other shadow mages were flocking to follow it. Battu was protected by Old Magic, and well did Fazel remember his brief encounter with it, when he and Elessa had first channelled unknowingly through the Stone at Whisperwood. The power they’d unleashed had all but ignored his defences – so maybe, just maybe, attacking Battu was a good opportunity to get himself killed.
A Varenkai ahead pulled his sword from an Arabodedas and ran at him screaming.
‘Overzealous,’ he said, pointing a finger, and a bolt slammed the Varenkai in the gut. ‘But commendable.’
He added speed to his heels and zipped through the bloody crowd, coming to a stop with other shadow mages who stood on the outskirts of a growing clear area before Fahren and Battu, their strange ward wobbling under an onslaught of spells. Next to him a group was channelling together, the one who was casting sweating heavily as energy concentrated at his fingertips, readying for release.
He can’t stand any more power , thought Fazel. But he is aiming at Battu, and I have my orders.
Fazel funnelled his own power into the mage, whose eyes bugged wide as he realised another had joined the effort. ‘Too much!’ he cried, and released the massive bolt, but not soon enough to save himself. As he crumpled to the ground frothing at the mouth, the others glanced at Fazel in alarm. Meanwhile, the bolt smacked the Old Magic ward with great force, and Battu’s eyes came over to them. He pointed, and Fahren raised his staff. A moment later a violet vortex flared from the end – a combination of shadow and light energy , which Fazel marvelled at even as it shot towards them. A second later he and the mages he stood with were flung like rag dolls, and he landed heavily amongst their corpses, his bones steaming with threads of deadening power. They wormed into him, certainly doing enough damage to kill a normal mortal, and yet as they faded Fazel was disappointed to feel himself repairing.
Curse this resilience , he thought as he rose.
He tried again to approach Battu and Fahren, who were sending more vortexes at the shadow mages swarming them, but there were lightfists too, gathering in great numbers around the Throne. It seemed the majority of magic wielders were concentrated here, and the air was crackling thick with spells. Fazel raised a ward as he struggled against the barrage, and immediately an invisible grip slid underneath to rip it away, a shell of shadow in his shape falling to the ground. With surprise he took in the counterspell’s caster – from across the way, Elessa Lanclara stared at him, a mix of confusion and anger on her face.
You , she said.
I had not expected to see you here, miss , he replied, taking the opportunity to recast his ward.
They have done to me what they did to you.
Fazel was aghast, for the light had always outlawed all forms of necromancy. Why had Fahren allowed such travesty?
I am truly sorry , he said.
Then both their wards shuddered under attacks from elsewhere, and each turned to tend to their own defences.