‘Listen, we have to stand strong, support each other. Anyone not included in the library detail, probe the mana. Let’s find out exactly how it feels to construct spells now. Can you shape as easily? That sort of thing. But be careful. We can’t afford to lose anyone to a backfire.
‘Is everyone clear?’ Silence. ‘Good, then let’s get cracking. We’ll talk again at dusk.’
Tessaya, Lord of the Paleon tribes of the Wesmen, looked down at the flowerbuds bursting through the earth at his feet, a smile unbidden on his lips. All around him, his village buzzed with activity. Water was being drawn from the wells, farmers were sharpening tools ready for the planting, dwellings were being re-thatched and strengthened. He could smell a freshness in the air. It was the smell of new life. It was the smell of hope, and hope was something his people craved.
Six years after the wars that had seen so many of the menfolk die fighting in the east, the mortal enemies of the Wesmen had sent more misery to haunt them, fractured as they were. To Tessaya it had appeared to be weather the like of which none had experienced in living memory. But his Shamen had smelled magic in the gales, the rain storms, the lightning that burned and in the earth that heaved and sucked the living down to hell.
Day after day they had been struck, and when the storms eased, they were roasted in hot suns. The crops had drowned or withered, the livestock had not bred and when winter had come, though the elements had ceased their battering, it was clear many would die.
Deep in the Heartlands, Tessaya had entrenched himself, calling surviving lords to him and pleading for a pooling of all they had. If, indeed, this was the work of the eastern mages, then their aim was to wipe out the Wesmen forever. Only by working together could they survive and come back stronger.
The lords had listened. Tessaya was the oldest among them and had survived wars with the east and tribal conflicts over two decades. He alone had gathered the tribes into a force strong enough to take on the east. And the lords, many of them new and scared, believed he could do it again.
But they had suffered through the winter. They had had wood to burn but nothing to cook above the flames. Animals had had to be kept alive to breed. Men, women and babes grew gaunt, and the weak and sick did not survive. Pyres burned daily on all the holy sites to remind them of their tenuous hold on life.
It was a time when the Shamen grew to a new stature. They preached the mercy of the Spirits and indeed, it seemed even to one as sceptical as Tessaya that they were not alone in their struggle. Perhaps the winter wasn’t as harsh as they remembered. Perhaps the hunting parties found more wild game than they had a right to do. Perhaps the hardy berries and roots had spawned a naturally greater harvest.
Or maybe some force was giving them the tools to live.
Tessaya was happy for his people to believe what they wished. His pact with the tribal lords meant there was precious little theft of food, and that which took place was punished by staking and death. And as the days of cold crawled past, he could see a new determination growing within the Paleon. Where so recently he had seen the acceptance of weakness, now he saw the desire to live, and more importantly, to grow again. What the mages had sent, the Wesmen would turn into strength.
And now, with the new season upon them, and life returning to the hard soil in abundance, he could look forward again to a glorious future. While there would still be hardship until the next crops were gathered, at least there would be Paleon to take in the harvest. It would be a time of celebration like no other.
Tessaya grieved for all those he could not help. Those who chose to live beyond the Heartlands; and those already too far gone to live on will alone. But now his mind turned again, inevitably, to thoughts of conquest.
Because the Shamen had only been half right, if the stories he had been hearing these last days were true. Yes, the elements had been powered by magic. But they had not been sent by the colleges. And even more interesting, the destruction that had been visited on the east was perhaps even more severe than they had suffered in the Heartlands. What state were their enemies in? Good enough to fight and win?
He had heard rumours of Julatsa’s failure to rise from its ashes and that the colleges were at war with one another, tearing each other apart. And even better, that the ordinary people, those not afflicted by magic, were turning against their would-be masters. And that these same people desired to rebuild their lives without the use of spell and chant. Very interesting.
Tessaya needed answers and he needed proof. He had made mistakes before, believing in the tales of others, and his people had died in their thousands because of it. This time he wanted to hear the truth from mouths he could trust. He knew the Wesmen were weakened, that his armies would be small. But if the prize were truly there for the taking, and if much of the east no longer supported the colleges, there was hope. Hope that the Wesmen could finally claim their birthright and dominion over Balaia.
Lord Tessaya breathed deep. He would need to talk to his closest advisers and Shamen. This was a matter that would need particularly careful handling. He bent and plucked one of the early flowers from the earth at his feet and took it back in to show his wife.
The smoke had cleared from the battlefield; the spells and arrows had stopped falling. The pleas for help were fading echoes against the blank walls of Xetesk and the only sounds filtering across the space between the enemy forces were the taunts of the victors and the calls of carrion birds.
Dila’heth, her head thumping at the site of the gash she’d sustained, stood up from the dying Al-Arynaar elf she’d been tending and looked again over the battlefield. Bodies lay where they’d fallen. Scorched mud and shallow craters signified where FlameOrb and HellFire had landed. Scraps of charred clothing blew on the light breeze. Beyond the bodies, the Xeteskians had stood down their front line, leaving a handful of guards to watch while the rest celebrated in full view.
She felt someone moving up beside her. She glanced sideways.
‘Why don’t they attack?’ she asked.
‘They don’t need to,’ said Rebraal. ‘All they have to do is keep us away from the walls and occupied while they finish their research of the texts they stole from us.’
The leader of the Al-Arynaar pointed to a group of Protectors and mages who were moving back towards the gates.
‘And they aren’t going for a rest, I guarantee you that.’
‘Where, then?’ asked Dila.
‘Well, they were struggling to the south, so the messengers said, so it could be there.’ Rebraal shrugged.
‘But you don’t think so.’
‘No. If The Raven are right, they’ll be looking to strike north as soon as they can.’
‘North?’
‘Julatsa.’
‘Would they?’
Rebraal nodded. ‘Why not? They want dominion, Julatsa’s the weakest player . . .’
‘But . . .’
‘I know, Dila,’ he said, touching her arm briefly to comfort her rising anxiety. ‘Tell me what it felt like. Out there.’
‘How could you understand?’ she asked, unwilling to recall the void she had touched. ‘I don’t know, it was like the magic just . . . failed. For that time, it just wasn’t there. I felt like you feel every day and you can’t know how horrible that is for a mage.’
‘Ilkar had been trying to explain.’ Rebraal’s smile was weak. His brother’s death had affected him more than perhaps it should, given Dila’s admittedly incomplete knowledge of their relationship. ‘But what does it mean?’
Dila shook her head. ‘We don’t know. We need to get someone to Julatsa, find out. Whatever it was, they’ll have more information, I’m sure.’