Air

by Rosie Scott

  I wanted Vertun dead as well. It was partially due to him that the Icilic were invading at all. And there were more reasons than the god's death to continue on to Glacia after this battle. The Icilic had more reinforcements. I knew this because there were about twenty thousand soldiers here, and there weren't enough Icilic warships in Esen's harbor to have transported that many. That meant that there were warships that had dropped off their men like cargo just to return to Glacia, and there would be little reason for it other than to pick up even more.

  I had been correct in my suspicions years ago when I'd told Tilda the Icilic would need time to build their navy. They did, but they'd been too impatient. Reinforcements came in waves because they'd only produced so many warships out of the wood they could get from Chairel. In a sense, the overwhelming numbers of the Icilic were the most significant threat I had faced in this war yet, but their impatience to attack and their lack of resources would be major benefits to us. Glacia could succeed in its quest by merely sending twenty thousand men at a time because as well as our own armies fought, we would eventually be overwhelmed. It was imperative that we finish this fight in Esen and get back on the ships to Glacia as soon as possible.

  Zwip. A life magic shield surrounded Maggie, but I hadn't yet given her one. I found Bhaskar standing nearby, his bronze ax dripping with blood. Cyrus hurried to catch up to the god as if worried he'd get himself killed before he was needed.

  “You know life magic?” I asked Bhaskar as I hurried alongside him back into the fray. I started leeching right away, building energy reserves to aid the others.

  “You know I do,” Bhaskar replied with amusement. “Otherwise the sun would have killed me that day in Tal. Besides—” He hesitated with a grunt as he bashed into an elf's face with his buckler, stunning her for the second he needed to slice through her torso with zigzagged cuts. With his face newly splattered with blood, he continued, “If it weren't for my life magic, we might've lost you that day to the harpies.”

  “So it was you who aided Cerin,” I said.

  “Me and one other healer, yes. I was unable to use anything but my ax that day, remember? I had energy. The others were forced to use energy from the chargers.” Bhaskar came to battle with another mage. When her head was separated from the neck and tumbling over bloody grasses, I finally replied to him.

  “I will thank you for healing me, Bhaskar, but I will not worship you for it.”

  Bhaskar laughed joyously at that, though his voice was plagued with fatigue. I gave him energy just before the skies rumbled ominously overhead. As a shadow fell over us, my eyes searched for the air mage responsible. She stood near the front of the enemy ranks, both hands still encouraging more energy into the air. I pulled the war horn to my lips, blowing through it with unwelcome thoughts of Jakan's death bashing against the internal walls of my skull.

  “Back! All of you!” I screamed, rushing back myself. My friends started to retreat from the area, and the air mage before us forced so much energy into the spell that she passed out, falling to the ground in a heap.

  Both of my hands built water energy. Purple light flickered through the water vapor of thick charcoal clouds above as the lightning storm prepared to unleash. Legitimate fear filled my heart at the idea of another friend being taken by the uncomfortably familiar spell. I quickly noted that I had an alteration shield because it was possible that the water spell I wanted to use to save my friends would backfire.

  Water roared across the battlefield a moment later, thousands of gallons rushing forth from my palms into the group of Icilic which pursued us. The tidal wave engulfed many of the mages before spilling forward into more and more. Bodies collapsed, leaving elves sputtering and fighting to right themselves as they were tossed and tumbled.

  BOOM! Lightning sought water, striking in the midst of the river and electrocuting all within. The electricity traveled up the spell and to me, and the strength of it hit me with such force that I was thrown back.

  My alteration shield flickered with trauma as I flew backward through the air. More lightning was striking down, but it only echoed in my mind as I was thrown into the wall of a building in town with such force that I could hear the protest my skull made against the stone. I'd had no physical shield. The alteration magic had kept the lightning from reaching my flesh, but I was now only a crumpled pile as intense pain shot through my body from every muscle in my back.

  I felt hands on me moments later, tugging me from the ground. I yelped with pain that shot through my right shoulder with such intensity it brought tears to my eyes, and the hands let me go. I glanced up to see Azazel and Cerin standing before me. They both looked terrified.

  “Why would you do that?” Cerin asked, his voice stiff with worry.

  “To keep everyone safe,” I replied, attempting to move my right arm. I couldn't.

  “You could've killed yourself,” Cerin protested.

  “That's nothing new.” I lifted my eyebrows toward the field, where the lightning of the spell continued to seek moisture. “I turned their spell against them, Cerin. Where are the others?”

  Azazel glanced back to the field. “They're fine. Maggie's surrounded, but Bhaskar's making sure she's shielded.”

  My left hand searched over my right shoulder blade, finally finding a bump. The flesh beneath my fingers was swollen and probably bruised.

  “Kai—” Cerin murmured, squatting beside me.

  “Give me a second,” I replied.

  “Do you need—?”

  “No. Just give me some space.”

  Cerin stood back up, walking a few feet away to guard me. As I laid down on the grass, he raised the dead in the immediate area, sending them past the other buildings and into battle.

  I breathed as regularly as possible as I slowly moved my injured arm out to the side over the grass. I pulled the hand behind my head, grimacing as a tight grating feeling traveled down the length of my limb. Finally, I reached my right hand to the opposite shoulder.

  Pop!

  I exhaled with relief as the humerus popped back into place. I lifted a hand to my head, using illusion magic to dull the pain. I started to stand by myself, but Cerin insisted on helping with a hand. Azazel watched me out of the peripheral vision of his good eye as he fired arrows off into our foes.

  “You've done this before,” the archer commented.

  “I've dislocated it before,” I replied.

  “How?” Azazel prodded curiously.

  “Climbing a wall in Sera.” My answer was followed by two bewildered stares. I finally added, “Teenage shenanigans with Nyx.” Neither man looked surprised.

  A war horn rattled through the air to our left, closer to the walls of the Cleves. After a few moments, another horn sounded in turn, but this one was closer. I hurried to find the Sentinel in need, returning the call so I was easier to find.

  “Kai!” Altan's red hair was greasy with sweat as he found me through the crowd. “It's Uriel! He needs you!” The first Sentinel pointed over to the Cleves, where the first signal had sounded.

  I was happy to hear Uriel was still alive since I hadn't seen him in hours. I made my way through the battlefield, leeching from foes when I could. I found Uriel kneeling beside a wounded soldier who was lying over bloody grass. The Sentinel was in the middle of tying a piece of cloth around the other man's arm to stop a wound from bleeding. As I neared the two, blood dripped over the wounded soldier, alerting me to the fact that Uriel was also injured.

  “Uriel, you're hurt,” I breathed, falling beside him.

  “Yes, but these are my men,” Uriel replied, his voice profoundly fatigued. There was a wound so severe just beneath his right armpit that the fingers on that side of his body were slow and clumsy. His prestigious Sentinel armor was left gaping, and thick blood trickled out of the wound.

  “Cerin.” I looked back to my lover. “Leech from as many as you can and come back here. Uriel needs energy.”

  Cerin rushed off to do as I asked. I too
k the cloth from Uriel, quickly securing it over the soldier's wound so the healer wouldn't have to. With the bleeding stopped, I focused all of my attention on healing the Sentinel.

  “The nerve damage is bad,” Uriel murmured, as life energy warmed the wound.

  “I know,” I replied. A rush of blood drizzled out of his armor as the muscle reconnected, forcing the obstructing liquid from its place.

  “You would,” Uriel agreed. “Forgive me.”

  “Don't apologize.” My golden eyes darted around us for a moment before they came back to the closing wound. “What happened to your dual caster?” The statement was vague, but Uriel understood. Each of the Sentinels had access to a life and death dual caster to ensure our energy could be continually regenerated.

  Uriel lifted up one finger, pointing toward the buildings of Esen. “Ice spike. Through his head of all places. It popped like a grape.” The Sentinel sighed heavily beneath my hands. “Three hundred years old, Vito was. One of the soldiers I recommended for promotion, no less.”

  I frowned at that. “I'm sorry, Uriel.”

  “Can't be helped. How is Cyrus?”

  “Alive and well, last I saw him.”

  With Uriel's wound healed, I went to work on his soldier. Cerin finally came back, transferring some much-needed energy to Uriel before doing the same with his soldiers. With our allies finally aided, I turned my attention to the dirt at my feet. Even though I was right next to the tall rock wall of the Cleves, the land was in full sun. We'd been battling for so long that early morning had turned into afternoon and the sun shone directly overhead.

  Tranferra la terra ti meta. The spell sunk into the earth, causing the dirt to harden into metal. I repeated the spell a small distance away and left the magic to work as I returned to the first block of metal.

  Summun te golum. Metal began to break itself into chunks as the golem built itself out of the ground. After I repeated the spell a second time, it was joined by a nearly identical friend.

  “Gah!” Uriel's yelp distracted me, and I glanced back to find the Sentinel regarding the golems with both curiosity and fear. “Those are yours, Kai?”

  I couldn't help but chuckle at his bewilderment. I imbued both golems with ice, watching as icicles grew outward from inhuman limbs. “I am surprised you don't have golems in Eteri, Uriel. They take a dual caster of death and a material element, and some of your people know necromancy.”

  “That means nothing if my people have never been introduced to the spell,” he countered.

  “I suppose not. We still have lots to teach one another.” I willed my golems forward, and I followed right behind them.

  Both animated brutes rampaged into the thick of battle, disabling elves by ramming alone before collapsing skulls and body cavities alike with solid punches. I stayed in their shadow, leeching from downed foes and shooting death bombs between my minions. The black fog encapsulated everything living, leaving my golems untouched in their rampage. The Icilic didn't seem surprised to see golems, but none of them could effectively counter with magic. After all, I hadn't yet come across a snow elf who knew earth magic, so they could not degrade the monsters into sand. My choice of element was strategic.

  Shields and wards flickered out all across the battlefield, and most were not recharged. The majority of the atmospheric energy was depleted. The only remaining active mages were the necromancers. The shrill vibration of metal sounded across the battlefield as weapons were unsheathed, our enemies preparing for melee battle. I quickly used all of the excess energy from my current leeching high to raise the dead. Tendrils slithered across the battlefield in a greater circumference than usual from the spell's strength, calling bodies to attention before any enemies could raise them first. Some corpses dragged two-handed Icilic weapons heavily behind them, leaving lines in the earth from the sharpened points of blades.

  Crowds of the dead swarmed the snow elves in the northern cup of Eteri, hissing and gurgling with unrivaled hostility. The dead spread out over the field just behind the golems as if the monsters of metal were their generals. I battled with the undead, leeching through their ranks just to hand off the energy to the friends who fought alongside me.

  The grasslands shone light orange with the setting sun by the time I heard the blow of a war horn. The battle was in its last throes. Remaining foes had nowhere to run. Altan's army blocked their retreat to Esen and its awaiting warships, and Kirek's army barred them from the south. Our combined armies had barely been more than their reinforcements, but we'd fared much better in numbers since we had them surrounded. There were plenty of allied casualties splayed across the grasses in piles of bloodied yellow armor, but the masses of soldiers still populating the battlefield was a good sign.

  My head was throbbing with the pain of a leeching high, but my body was heavy with fatigue, muscles protesting from the day's events. The illusion spell had long ago faded, leaving the muscles of my back tight with trauma. I waited to dispel the dead as I followed the echoes of the war horn to Kirek.

  The third Sentinel and her men had backed our remaining enemies against the cliff wall of the Cleves. Icilic men and women alike glowed with the light of the sun as it shone directly in their faces from the west. There were a few hundred of them. They were fatigued and angry, but defiance gave their cold eyes an extra spark that I had to admire. I felt hundreds of gazes on me. Their hatred for me sizzled in the air. It didn't help that Cerin came up to stand beside me. My lover stared just as defiantly back at those who would see him dead for his racial impurity.

  Kirek turned to see who approached her. Her green eyes showed no emotion but anger, and yet her voice was as monotone as ever when she spoke. “Kai. Good, you're here. You know illusion magic.” She pointed one bloodied ax toward the group of foes before her. “Make them talk.”

  “About what?” I replied. “More reinforcements are coming. I don't need their word to tell me that. Their army was twenty thousand strong, Kirek. The ships in the harbor could hold five thousand at best.”

  “Vertun,” Kirek spoke up, irritated.

  “We know where he is. By the time we're in Glacia, it won't matter what part of the ice he's on.”

  A flash of movement caught my eye, my heightened senses instantly defensive. I thrust a hand out, giving myself a shield. An arrow ricocheted off the magic a moment later from an elf at the front of the line. He'd been fast and accurate, but it hadn't been enough.

  Kirek stalked a few steps forward, screaming as she threw an ax in an arc toward the archer's throat. Steel sunk through his neck to his spinal cord, and his comrades were splattered with blood from the attempted decapitation before he fell to the ground. Kirek didn't stop there, hacking at the wound until the head was separated. She grabbed it by its black hair, holding it before the others.

  “Do you want to join him?” She yelled, as the head still leaked fresh blood. “You're all fucking lucky I've kept you alive! One more trick and you're all dead! Now talk!”

  Kirek's anger was so powerful that I was nearly intimidated despite being on her side. “Vertun,” I finally said to the snow elves, giving in to Kirek's request. “Tell us what you know.”

  There was only silence. None of the Icilic even glanced at each other. They simply didn't talk.

  I walked up to stand beside Kirek, giving her a little extra space to avoid the severed head. I thrust coral-pink energy to the nearest snow elf, charming him.

  “Vertun,” I repeated. “Tell me everything you know.”

  “He is the god of weather—”

  “His location in Glacia,” I clarified. “How to get to him.”

  “Vertun stays in Yseult,” the man replied.

  “Your capital,” I said, remembering hearing the word from Cicero's memories of it. “The city at the center of Glacia.”

  “Yes,” he replied. “There is a split in our country which leads to it. Vertun used to stay farther south, but he succeeded in pulling the ice back together there. He was set to mend
the split next.”

  “This split is your inlet,” I clarified. If it was, our plans to travel through it would take us straight to the god we were looking for.

  “Yes. The inlet is unnatural. It only appeared eighty years ago.”

  “What do you know of Ciro?” I questioned.

  “Vertun wants him dead,” the snow elf replied matter-of-factly. “But he said he wouldn't know where to find him unless we could get access to Aleyah.” The man pointed one pale arm toward the Pedr Crags across the grasslands. “We tried looking for her. The cave was collapsed.”

  “Did your people expect retaliation?” I asked.

  “Oh, yes. We know plenty of Eteri's reputation from Chairel,” he answered. “Some of our people were cowards and fled in fear of war. They aren't used to battling outside of our race.”

  “Where did they flee to?” This time, it was Cerin who asked.

  “Some fled south to Thornwell, but tensions were high due to events of the past. There are a number of islands in the Servis they are trying to settle, but none of these islands are ice.” There were plenty of islands north of both Chairel and Hammerton that the man could have referred to, including the island of Valerius the Undying. “I have heard some live in Sera. Sirius has apparently accepted the healers. Our necromancers did not risk going there.”

  “Cicero,” Cyrus spoke up from a few feet away. “What of him?”

  The man grimaced. “He's nothing but trouble. Gains intelligence and powers by any chaos he has a hand in creating. Caused so many civil wars in Glacia over the years that we had him imprisoned since the Golden Era.”

  “How'd he escape?” I questioned.

  “All I know is that Vertun hated him. Cicero was supposed to be transported to another prison in the south as part of our deal with Vertun. Never made it there. The men transporting him were all found murdered with an ice pick. Some of the men had broken mirrors where their eyes should have been. Their eyes were never found.”