“How will we know when you want us to come back?” Rundo asked.
“Remember the column of fire? If you don’t see one by nightfall then we are dead. Take Mariah into the forest.”
Rundo nodded, climbed on top of Bumbo, and took the reins of Anwar’s and Mariah’s horses.
Anwar watched as Navaeh mounted and took the reins of the other horses. He was watching them ride away and he felt bad about how he had treated Navaeh. She was the voice of reason. “Navaeh!”
She turned. She was still afraid. He could see that. He couldn’t blame her. “Thanks.” She tilted her head down. He saw fear turn to pain in an instant. It would have been easier if she were mad at him.
He turned back to Grundel, who hadn’t said anything. He was with them, and a part of the group, but he didn’t know them before all of this. He was smart to stay out of it. “Grundel, are you ready for this?”
“As ready as I’m gonna be. How are we going to fight all of them?”
“We aren’t. I will kill them all. All you need to do is make sure none of them get close to me. I will be concentrating on big groups. If I miss one or two it will be up to you to keep them off of me. Can you do that?”
Anwar sounded dark. It was unsettling. He wasn’t sure how to deal with this Anwar. The Anwar he had known was a light-hearted, loving person. This one was going to kill tens of thousands of goblins and he seemed like he was going to enjoy it. Not that he should feel bad about it, but Anwar had always seemed to hold life so valuable. “I’ll keep them away.” What else could he say?
Anwar grabbed Grundel’s arm and teleported them. Grundel stumbled when they reached their destination. The first time being teleported could be disorienting, especially when you weren’t expecting it. But Anwar couldn’t worry about that. He looked around and saw that the biggest group was now between him and the wall. There were over a thousand goblins between him and the main gate. He had once made a wall of fire when fighting to save Ambar. He released his magic and brought up a one-hundred-foot-wide version of that wall of fire. He pushed that wall forward with his magic and watched as it worked.
Grundel watched as a huge wall of fame twice his height and maybe a hundred feet wide appeared in front of him and started moving toward the city. He heard the dying cries of hundreds of goblins and the screams of fear of hundreds more. The smell of burning flesh filled the air. He couldn’t have imagined anything like it. His stomach started to retch but he fought it down. He had a job to do. He looked around. He would keep the goblins away from Anwar.
Anwar was watching his wall work. He was finally feeling the pull of magic again. It was terrifying and intoxicating at the same time. It was so much power. No one should have this much power. The pull wasn’t that great. He could do so much more. If he used all of his power he would probably destroy the world, or at least the part of it he knew. It was a disturbing thought. Then he realized his wall of fire was almost to the city wall and he wasn’t controlling it. He had been careless. The wall had come so easily he had neglected it. He pushed out with his magic and extinguished it. He had to concentrate on what he was doing. If he hadn’t stopped it that wall would have continued right through the city, burning everything in its path. In front of him lay more than a thousand dead goblins. More were running around on fire. They were dead already; their bodies just hadn’t figured it out yet. The goblins had broken through the gate. More were going over the wall. The ones to the left were all running away around the wall. To his right some were running toward him, and others away from him. That was the biggest group. He created another wall of fire, angling it toward the corner of the wall. He maintained control of this one. He watched as his wall of fire burned another two thousand goblins alive. As the edge of the fire neared the city wall, he extinguished half of the wall. The other half continued on burning down the goblins rushing to get around the city wall. When it overtook all of the goblins who had not made it around the corner he extinguished it.
When he turned around, he saw Grundel releasing his axe. It blew through ten or twelve goblins who were rushing toward them. He watched as Grundel guided the axe through the air with a magical connection. It tumbled end over end, back and forth, taking another six goblins before returning to him.
Anwar had made those two double-bladed axes for Grundel. Well, actually Grizzle and Grundel had made the axes; Anwar had enchanted them. Each axe had its own magic, but it was the connection between them that made them great. Each of the axes was indestructible and would never dull. They had been tied to the Stoneheart bloodline using a little of Grundel’s blood, so that the axes could not harm anyone with Stoneheart blood, and the magic in them could be accessed only by a Stoneheart. That link with the bloodline was what had given the metal the dark red, almost black color. Plus, the axes were linked together: as long as a Stoneheart had one, he could control the other. He could guide the axe after release and could even summon the other to him from wherever it was, whether it was in mid-flight or somewhere far away. Anwar had recommended they not summon it if they couldn’t see it since there was no way to know what or whom it might cut through on its way back to them. While he was watching Grundel he felt a sharp pain in his arm. He reached up and felt the cut where a crossbow bolt had grazed his tricep. He looked around but didn’t see the goblin who shot it. He had probably shot it as he was dying.
The fact that he had been so vulnerable made him angry with himself. He had let his emotions control him. He hadn’t even made the basic battlefield preparations. He quickly raised a shield around himself and Grundel. Then he and Grundel began walking in the direction the goblins had run.
Schmutzig had watched as his goblins began scaling the walls in a hundred different locations. Then he had watched as they began pouring through the main gate. He was going to please the god of chaos. Then the wizard had showed up and ruined everything. He had seen the first wall of fire burn at least a thousand of his goblins to death in minutes. He had been running toward the wizard when the second wall went up in front of him. Schmutzig had stabbed the nearest goblin in the eye, killing him instantly. Then he had lain down and rolled the dead goblin over him. The fire passed over them, burning the goblin on top of him. The heat had sucked the air from his lungs, and his sleeves and pants had caught fire, but he had lived. He would have been happy to die, but he had realized that if he failed the chaos god could torture him even after death. He had to kill the wizard. The wizard would ruin everything. When the fire had passed he had pushed the goblin off of him and rolled in the burning ground, putting out the fire on his clothes. He was burned but he was alive. Now he was covered in soot and looked like he was burnt like the rest.
He watched as the huge monster dwarf creature killed another two dozen more goblins. The wizard watched too. Schmutzig aimed his crossbow and fired. He saw the wizard flinch and grab his arm. It hadn’t buried in him, though. The bolt was poisoned, but that could take hours to kill him, if it had even been enough poison. Without it burying in his body there was no telling. He still had his short sword and his dagger. It would have to be the dagger. It was poisoned too, more potently than the bolt. If he could get a good cut it wouldn’t take long before the wizard was down. The dwarf monster would kill him, but he wouldn’t fail. He couldn’t fail. If the wizard were dead the city would be destroyed. They were walking towards him.
Anwar and Grundel were walking around the city. A burnt hand shot up. A dagger bounced off of his shield. Grundel’s axe came down and separated a goblin’s head from its body. Anwar saw the crossbow. This goblin wasn’t burnt; he was just covered in soot. This must have been the one who had shot the crossbow at him. He was determined. Goblins weren’t typically that brave.
Then Anwar came around the corner of the wall and saw them. There had to be at least ten thousand goblins, all bunched up against the wall a couple hundred feet deep, all of them trying to get over that wall. Anwar spread a new wall of flame. This one was three hundred feet wide. He pushed the wall
forward. Thousands died. The wall of flame moved slowly, burning down goblins relentlessly. Anwar watched as maybe a thousand were escaping, running away from the city. He teleported out past them. He now stood in front of them, watching the goblins run toward him. When the first was maybe a dozen feet away the wall went up. He pushed it forward quickly. Before the goblins could even turn around the fire was on them. All of the goblins outside the city were dead or escaping. There were still a hundred, maybe more, who had made it over that first wall. Anwar teleported back to Grundel and sent a column of fire into the sky. Navaeh and Rundo would be useful fighting inside the wall.
Chapter Ten
Freeman
“Look!” Rundo called out to Navaeh.
Like she could have missed it. She had watched Anwar kill tens of thousands in just over an hour. She might not have been able to see him, but she saw his magic. It was amazing and terrifying all at the same time. He had saved thousands of people. Somehow that made her sad. What he had to do to save them... She didn’t know if he would recover. He was already going through so much. She knew he was losing himself, and she didn’t know how to help. She knew they needed to save Mariah soon. That was the only thing she could think of to help him. She just didn’t know how much of a chance she really had. She just couldn’t say that out loud. If she said it, that would make it real, and she couldn’t accept that Mariah probably wasn’t going to make it. She had to make it.
Navaeh and Rundo rode down to the city. As they got close they could hear the sound of fighting inside the wall. She saw Grundel and Anwar outside the main gate. She saw goblins trying to escape, but Grundel was cutting down everyone who came running out. When goblins stopped coming over the wall behind them, the ones inside started panicking. She doubted that any would actually make it past that second wall. When they reached Grundel and Anwar, though, she got worried. Anwar looked pale.
Rundo jumped down and ran to him. “Anwar, are you okay? What happened?”
“Poison,” he whispered to Rundo.
“What did he say?” Navaeh asked as she climbed out of the saddle.
“He got poisoned. He took a poisoned bolt in his right arm. He’s been getting weaker ever since he sent that column of fire up. He says his magic is still strong, but the poison is making him sick.” Grundel told them both as he lopped the head off another goblin.
“We have to get him into the city. Rundo, lead the horses. Grundel, take the lead. I’ll cover us from behind.” Navaeh received no argument.
It only took a minute and they had all the horses tethered together. Rundo followed Grundel through the gate. Each of the gates was offset, which was a good plan for the city’s defenses, since you couldn’t just bust down all three gates in quick succession. And it would be hell trying to get any siege engines between the walls. There were a couple hundred feet between each wall, but in that space there were houses and shops and hovels.
“If I have to be behind someone in a fight I can’t think of anyone better,” Rundo said to Grundel. The words had hardly left his mouth when one of Grundel’s axes went flying through the air.
Grundel was leading the way. He didn’t know where the next gate was, so he just kept going. He saw a goblin come running around a hovel and let his axe fly. It slammed into the goblin’s chest. He summoned it back to his hand as he ran past the dead goblin. He saw other goblins ahead, but arrows were raining down on them from atop the wall. Grundel just hoped that those archers wouldn’t shoot him and his friends as they passed.
Looking up at the archers, Grundel didn’t see the goblin ahead, crouched behind a shop wall. The monster’s crossbow bolt would have buried in his thigh, but it deflected at the last second, thwarted by the shield Anwar had erected around him. Even though Anwar was nearly unconscious and feverish with poison, he was still maintaining the shield. Grundel had to get them all to that gate.
Navaeh was running behind the horses. She would jog a couple of steps, then turn around and walk backwards a couple, then jog a couple to catch up, then turn around again. Most of the goblins she came across were already dead, but there were a couple who jumped out to attack her as they passed. She had smashed in the skull of the first with her staff. She would have liked to summon her earth golem with her staff, but she wasn’t sure how the archers on the wall would react to that. Just as she made another turn to look behind her, she saw a goblin leveling a crossbow, so she leapt to the side. She pointed her staff and the ground opened up underneath the goblin. It closed over him as he fell, burying him alive. When she turned to catch up she saw that the goblin’s bolt had buried in the haunch of one of the horses. She couldn’t do anything about it now and it didn’t seem to be slowing the horse any, so she would have to deal with it later.
Grundel got to the gate. The second wall wasn’t as tall as the outer wall. It was about twenty feet high and made of two heavy wooden doors, each about fifteen feet high and ten feet wide. They were still closed, which was good for the city but not for them. The townsfolk weren’t likely to open the gate while there were still goblins running around. Grundel hadn’t seen one in a few minutes, but he knew there were some still hiding and lurking around. When they reached the gate he yelled up to the top of the wall.
“Let us in! We have wounded.”
The guard on the wall looked down at them. “There is a lot of wounded today. I can’t open the gate until we get the order. We have to make sure the area is clear. We can’t afford to have goblins coming through the gate. I am sorry.”
Grundel was ready to go through every house for five hundred feet in every direction and pile the goblins up to make a ladder, but it was Rundo who protested to the guard. “The only reason this city still stands is because of this mage,” he shouted, pointing to Anwar, lying over the back of a horse. “While he was killing tens of thousands of goblins and saving your city he was hit with a poison bolt. He needs help. Your city owes him that.”
“I can’t open the gate without permission.”
Rundo stood in his saddle. “Then get the person who can give permission.”
“I have already sent for the captain of the guard. I am sorry, but you have to wait.” While he was talking Rundo spotted a head pop out of a doorway. One of his enchanted daggers flew threw the air. The guard hadn’t even seen Rundo’s arm move. All he saw was it extended. When he looked to where it pointed he saw the goblin stumble forward and fall into the street. The dagger was already back in Rundo's sheath. Blood pooled under the goblin’s head.
It was at least a half an hour before the captain of the guard arrived, though it felt like forever. He shouted down, “Who are you and why should I let you in?”
Rundo shouted back. “I am Rundo, this is Navaeh, a child of Kalise, and this is Grundel Stoneheart, prince of the dwarves and grandson of the king of the mountain. The man lying over the horse is the mage who saved your city. The woman is his wife. She is very ill.”
There was a moment’s pause before the captain responded. You couldn’t really blame him for being cautious. “How can we be sure that this man is really the one who saved us? It is a bold claim, but he cannot verify it for you.”
A column of fire shot into the sky. They had all thought Anwar had passed out, but he was simply suffering in silence. The captain disappeared, and then one of the doors began to swing open.
The captain was waiting inside the gate. “Thank you for your help. I am Captain Lamar. I am in charge of the city’s defenses. I apologize for the inconvenience, but we have to be careful. You understand, I’m sure. If you will follow me I will take you through the next gate, and on to a healer.”
When they were all through the gate was again closed and barred.
Grundel looked at the innermost wall. It was at least twice as high as the middle wall. He also saw that there were bridges that could be dropped down from the inner wall to the middle wall. It was more then a hundred paces between the two with shops and houses along each wall. A hard-packed dirt road ran down t
he middle. The bridges had to be let down from the inner wall and could only be brought back up by the winch on that wall. He saw two of these bridges on this side there were likely others on the other sides, which would have helped them get back inside the main wall if the goblins had started making it over the second wall. The defenses were solid; they just didn’t have enough to people to defend against that many attackers. The city would have been lost without Anwar.
Each of the two doors at this gate was a foot thick. They were thirty feet high and had steel bands around them every few feet. The goblins would never have made it through this gate. They would have had to go over the wall. They had shown that they had no problem doing that.
When they walked through the gate Grundel was amazed. He had grown up in a mountain and had never been to a city. There were just so many people: men were carrying barrels of pitch or bundles of arrows to the wall, soldiers were lining up at the gate or hurrying to carry out orders. There was a large open area in front of the gate, and from there, six different streets branched out. Grundel had never seen so many buildings. The only place he had ever been was Istan. The tallest building there was two stories, while most of the buildings here were at least as tall and some were much taller.
The captain of the guard finished talking to one of the soldiers and then led them down the third street from the left. Halfway down the street he stopped at a two-story building. “Bring them in here. The building next door is an inn. Tell them I sent you and they will stable your horses.”
Grundel lifted Anwar down off the horse and held him over his shoulder. Rundo and Navaeh lifted Mariah’s litter and set it on the ground.
“I’ll help her with that if you take the horses,” the captain said to Rundo.
Rising of a Mage: Book 03 - A Mage Risen Page 5
