He must have realised he was in trouble as he suddenly kicked himself to a quicker pace. He drove the attacker back with rapid slashing strokes. Confused, the man let down his guard and Geris split his skull; I saw his grimace as he turned his head to avoid the shower of brain and blood.
Back at our side of the fire, I used my last dart then found myself facing a bearded heavy, who thought I was now unarmed. His mistake; I slid a dagger down my sleeve and as he came in for a downward smash I got him through the armpit. I couldn't get the dagger loose as the bastard fell and began to feel cold fingers of fear as I screamed at Darni's back.
'I need a weapon! Darni, I haven't got a sword!'
He kicked a loose sword backwards, nearly taking off my toes. Shrieking obscenities, he drove his distracted opponent back a couple of paces. Blondie facing him made the mistake of thinking he saw an opening and came in to meet the blade in his guts. He sank to his knees, screaming wetly, and Darni kicked him in the face.
I moved to Darni's side and began to relearn my swordsmanship very speedily indeed, blessing Halice for insisting I practise with her and wishing for her skills.
A big bastard with a yellow beard came round to me, looking to take the weaker option. He was strong and quick and it was all I could do to match him until he slipped in the slime of his friend's entrails and I was able to smash my blade through his ugly face. Teeth and bone gleamed for an instant in the firelight as he fell headlong into the fire. His hair blazed with a revolting smell as his arms flailed wildly. I stamped frantically on the back of his head until he stilled.
Darni dropped another with a low sweep that took out his knees and then finished him with a thrust into the eyes. Our gazes met in an insane instant of calm.
'Get behind me. How are the others doing? What about the horses?'
The horses! If we lost those, it was a long walk home. I looked round and saw why Darni had not bothered hobbling his mount. The brutish-looking chestnut was rearing, kicking and biting with the controlled savagery of the trained warrior's horse, and several figures bled writhing under his hooves.
Shiv was using a beam of amber light like a halberd and the attackers screamed like pigs whenever it made contact. He dropped two of them, who went down as if they'd been poleaxed, not even twitching, the only movement the blood streaming from under their helms.
'Shiv!' Darni bellowed like a rutting bull and Shiv spared us a glance.
Acid fire tore into my leg and I nearly paid the ultimate price for being distracted. I shrieked like Drianon's own eagle and this bought me a second to recover myself. Darni was fighting two on one now, and I was facing serious trouble. He was not as big as the others but he was quick and strong and whipped his blade around mine with terrifying ease. I was being driven back step by step until I felt the fire crunch under my boots and scorch my legs.
The man I fought sneered at me with savage glee. I honestly thought I was lost. Sapphire light ripped past and the triumphant face exploded into a blackened ruin as it shot backwards. I gaped stupidly; we all did in a mad moment of stillness that seized friend and foe alike.
'Move!' Darni shoved me through the dying fire and the three of us bracketed Shiv as he wove coruscating, multicoloured light round the ring of earthen ramparts.
A flash like forked lightning knocked two more backwards into scorched hulks of flesh and brilliance shot from Shiv's hands to the embers of the fire. Red light, bright as a new day, flashed across the ground to finish off the wounded and then shot through the air to crown the crest of the ring with flames where reinforcements died in screaming agony. Saedrin, how many were there? How many were waiting outside? I thrust away rising panic with real difficulty and concentrated on my own private mayhem, realising with some unoccupied fraction of my mind that I was whimpering. Piss on that, I thought. I joined in with Darni's litany of curses at the top of my lungs.
Down in the blood and death of the ring, another fell as his sword exploded into red-hot razors which tore his face apart. Those remaining now realised they were trapped and redoubled their efforts, defence giving way to desperation as they fought to get to Shiv and kill the magic. Now they were screaming back at us, my ears only hearing nonsense but recognising the vicious hatred in the tone. Terror built in the pit of my stomach and threatened to come howling out at any second. Now I was screaming at myself as much as the enemy.
Darni yelled something I missed but Shiv dropped his handfuls of blue fire and began to weave a multihued web of power. In an instant, black shadows began to ripple down the length of our swords, vanishing like smoke in the air. I landed a blow on the man in front of me: the mail on his shoulder parted, the flesh beneath melting like tallow and smoking with a revolting stench. Geris moved to follow up when his opponent shrank away from the deadly darkness and nearly took a thrust in the ribs from the side. Shiv saw the danger and the man screamed like a girl as his arm fell apart under a blast of green light, the small bones of his hand and wrist scattering like runes. He sank to his knees and I finished him through the back of the neck.
It took me a few maddened moments to realise the fight was over, my ears still ringing, disoriented. Crazy shadows ran round the ring as Shiv's wall of fire flared one last time and then died. We braced ourselves for new dangers but none came. Darni broke from our frozen group and ran up the rampart, yelling defiance into the night.
Sudden terror flashed through me as a hand gripped my arm but it was only Shiv. I caught him as he sank to his knees, face deathly pale and eyes dark-shadowed like a man in a fever, his breath coming in tearing gasps.
'Darni!' I shrieked, my voice rising, scant moments from hysteria. He looked back from the crest of the ring.
'Geris, help Livak, it's Shiv!'
Geris came and helped me lay Shiv down. I dragged the corpse out of the fire, my stomach rising at the sickly roasting smell. No time to be sick, I threw more wood on the embers and stood, not knowing what to do.
'Spirits, the red bottle.'
Geris carefully poured a mouthful down Shiv and he coughed weakly.
'Wine, no mead. Thanks. Now, get some wine and heat it with some honey.'
I obeyed with shaking hands. Shiv's colour improved a little and his breathing slowed. Geris tended him with single-minded concentration, loosening his shirt and checking him for wounds, ignoring his own bloody arm.
A dark shadow came over the top of the ring and I had my sword ready before I realised it was Darni, his eyes bright as a wild dog's.
'Well?' He kept his face to the night as he returned to the fire.
'He's exhausted but a good night's sleep should see him right.' Geris' tone was calm and confident as he went to his leather case of parchments.
'What are you doing?' I asked in bemusement.
He looked at me as if only just realising that I was present.
'Something to help Shiv sleep.' He showed me a sheet of neatly written couplets and then spoke the complex syllables over the fallen wizard. His breathing became deeper and more normal as the tension left his long body.
'Is that this aetheric magic?'
'Yes.' Geris frowned. 'It's never worked that quickly before. I wonder what it is about this place?' Frustration edged his tone.
'What else can you do?'
'Not much. Shit! The old books say they could heal wounds, cure fevers, all kinds of things. All I can do is put him to sleep. If only—'
'If a bitch had balls, she'd be a dog. Don't knock it, sleep's what Shiv needs.' Darni stripped off his blood-soaked tunic and shirt and began to wash the worst of the gore off himself.