•
Nearby, a rain of burnt-out Zyvanix husks fell to the ground, some still smoking as acid ate them away, the wing stumps of one still whirring uselessly.
Lalenda rose for a better view. In the centre of it all, she saw shadow and light crashing, where the mages of both sides seemed to be gathering – an area definitely best avoided. Elsewhwere, in the absence of magic wielders, the regular troops were free to hack at each other without fear of spells shooting in, and they had seized the opportunity with gusto. There was no more front line, for the forces had driven deep wedges into each other, mingling as the fighting spread in all directions.
‘Oho!’ said Grimra. ‘Such delicious chaos. Where do we be joining it?’
Below, a troop of Varenkai riders were being swamped by Black Goblins. As she watched, a horse collapsed with several daggers sticking in it, and the goblins moved in on the rider. It seemed as good a place to start as any.
‘How about there?’ she said, and brought in her wings. She landed neatly on a horse behind a Varenkai rider even as he kicked away a goblin’s blade, and sunk her claws into his sides. The man gasped and she pushed him off. Grimra rushed on another, his fangs becoming visible long enough for an almighty bite, through the entire front half of a horse and its rider’s legs as well. Meanwhile the horse Lalenda was on bucked wildly, and she leaped off to glide down between two Varenkai on foot. Grimra thundered over her shoulder to barrel one backwards as she sprang at the other, beating her wings hard to close the distance as his sword rose. Her claws flicked out and she spiked him through the throat before he had a chance to slash. She swung herself around his toppling body and landed to see a severed limb fly upwards and disappear with a slurp.
‘No time for that, you greedy ghost!’ she snapped. ‘This isn’t breakfast! Keep me safe!’
There came a loud clomping, and over the tops of heads she saw two dune claws approaching, the Ryoshi astride them plugging down arrows. Goblins were being trampled underfoot, or skewered by the wildly plunging scorpion-like tails, or crushed in the huge pincers.
‘Grimra!’ she shouted, and flew upwards as a spiked tail scythed into the ground where she had just been standing. As the dune claw struggled to pull itself free, Grimra’s fangs appeared at one of the tail’s segmental joins, gnawing through a weak spot in the chitinous armour. The creature strained in panic, but a second later the ghost had managed to work all the way through, messily severing the tail in half. The remaining part whipped back over the rider’s head, spraying him with sticky brown fluid. She dived towards him but he saw her coming, swung his bow at her and cracked her across the head. She dropped out of the air, landing hard, and with a bloodied brow. Through the stunned fug of one half-open eye, she saw the injured dune claw move past, riderless now and out of control. Had Grimra managed to dispatch the Saurian?
‘Flutterbug,’ he whispered in her ear. ‘All right? Get up?’
She heard strange hissing voices not far away, and managed to lift her head. Two Syanti were standing over the fallen dune claw rider, who lay with a Grimra-sized hole in his side. As the Ryoshi opened his eyes and saw the Syanti, he tried to rise without success. The Syanti ignored him, speaking in their own language …then one of them waved a thin-fingered hand over him as his eyes cried out in silent protest. The hand then shot out at a group of Black Goblins and a mist of blood sprayed forth from the rider’s wound. The goblins screamed as it hit them, clutching at their melting faces, and the Ryoshi went still.
‘Get up!’ came Grimra’s insistent whisper, then he left and she heard someone dying behind her. As she struggled to her knees the Syanti noticed her, their yellow eyes cold and considering. She edged backwards, not knowing exactly what she was edging towards …then Grimra swirled under her wings and she summoned her strength to give them a beat. Shakily she lifted into the air.
‘Undead?’ said a Syanti, light collecting at its fingertips.
‘Get back, Grimra!’ she cried, desperately trying to flap away. There was no safety in rising, so just a little way on she let her giddiness take over and dropped heavily to the ground behind more goblins. There came a sizzle after her, but the spell caught some other unfortunate in the wall of flesh she had protected herself with.
‘We retreat?’ said Grimra. ‘Flutterbug hurt?’
‘No,’ she said, ‘we do not retreat. Not until,’ she bared her teeth, willing away the pounding in her head, ‘they are all dead.’
•
Jaya moved amongst the injured, of which there were already a great many. There was an odd feeling of separation here, with the evidence of mass encampment everywhere around, grass crushed and brown, tents standing empty, while she and the healers busied themselves on an island within it. And while they stayed here, in the middle of nothing, the battle raged but half a league away.
A healer rode in, levitating two groaning soldiers, and set them down on the grass. Without a word she turned around and headed towards them. All the other healers were currently busy, so Jaya knelt down by the two new arrivals.
‘Someone will be over shortly,’ she said, trying to sound reassuring. It wasn’t really her , this role of looking after people. She felt like some kind of impostor, trying to muster kind words that did not come naturally.
One of the soldiers closed his eyes. A bad sign, but there wasn’t much she knew to do about it. The healer who had brought him had already sealed his wounds with regrown skin, so she could not even tell where they were. The other soldier, a woman, looked up at her dazedly.
‘Did we win yet?’ she asked.
‘No,’ said Jaya, abandoning the question she was about to ask regarding how the battle was progressing.
‘Should take with me these,’ came a voice. Jaya looked up to see a Syanti, idly flexing an arm that ended in an ugly stump. She remembered the Saurian being brought here, unconscious and bleeding from the newly severed limb, which was now sealed up and apparently not causing it much distress.
‘Pardon?’ said Jaya.
‘Dying,’ the Syanti observed, gesturing at the prone soldiers. ‘Good still though for blood magic to use. Kill many shadow for price of one death. Death that will come anyway.’
Jaya frowned. She had heard about the Syanti’s technique of channelling magic through blood …was that what the creature was asking? To be given the injured in order to sacrifice them?
‘Get out of here,’ she said.
‘Go they to Arkus,’ said the Syanti. ‘No need for fear.’
‘Don’t let it take me,’ murmured the woman.
‘Be gone, back to the battle if you’re so eager to find death!’ shouted Jaya. ‘Use your own if you like!’
The snake bobbed its head as if this was sage wisdom, and moved away across the field.
•
The heart of the battle drew Losara, the amount of power pouring in from both sides a giant bloom to his senses. Perhaps he should avoid the area, for that was where Fahren and Battu wielded the Stone, but he could not stand by and watch his mages shoulder such enormous blows. So into the thick of it he went, re-forming by some black rags pinned down by smoking lumps, flapping with his four-fingered insignia. Already so many had been lost.
KILL BATTU , came Roma’s thundering command, and Losara saw his Magus Supreme just ahead, twisting angrily to take in how many shadow mages were left. Beyond him, over a space full of nothing but spells, Battu’s head turned, and Losara saw him say something to Fahren. Fahren raised his staff and together they cast at Roma.
Watch out! sent Losara, as Roma’s eyes met his. The Magus Supreme’s face turned grim, the ward around him darkening, and Losara reached out to help him strengthen it. A moment later a vortex exploded against it, knocking Roma to his knees and pelting him with rippling energy. His back arched in a pain reflected briefly in his eyes, as he collapsed forward slowly onto his face.