The Chosen - Rise of Cithria Part 1

by Kris Kramer

  ~~~~~

  Kat had never been more terrified in her life. She'd curled up in a ball behind one of the battlements at the top of the tower, making herself as small as possible and hiding for dear life. Arrows whistled over her head constantly while black and red magical bolts crashed into the stone around her, sending pieces of rock skittering across the roof. A stone platform, about waist-high, stood in the center of the tower roof, supporting a giant stack of wood that was now covered in flames, a signal for the neighboring towers and keeps that they were under attack. Kat desperately hoped that a Calderan army was nearby, and that they’d seen that signal fire and were on their way already. She knew it wasn't likely, but right now that hope was the only thing keeping her from losing her composure and embarrassing herself, or worse, fainting.

  Finias crouched to her left, at the next battlement, calmly firing arrow after arrow at the Anduains below and only casually moving or dodging away from return fire. She wondered how he could do that so easily, so unafraid. He couldn't be that much older than her, but he carried himself like he'd been fighting out here for years. His cold, dark eyes showed no fear or worry at all. Meanwhile, she was so completely petrified that she couldn't even muster the courage to peek out from behind the wall to see how many enemies were attacking. She felt the trembling vibrations that shook the entire tower, and wondered for the eighth time how much longer it would be before they broke the door down and started pouring in. And that, of course, made her wonder how her first real trip past the walls had gone so badly, and so quickly.

  Kat was a wizard. Perhaps not a fully-trained one, but she was a wizard nonetheless, capable of using the earth itself to attack her enemies or defend her allies. But all she could do right now was flinch at every nerve-wracking whine, pop, rumble or hiss around her. Kat closed her eyes and tried to concentrate on her progressions. Her abilities were mostly defensive in nature, providing support to those around her, and her uncle had helped her devise a set of progressions, skill checklists basically, to go through in different situations. She could imbue melee weapons with tiny bits of earth that made them more jagged, or she could sharpen blades to help them penetrate armor. She could lighten the weight of the heavy metals those weapons were made of, allowing their wielders to swing them faster. She could even create a flimsy magical barrier that would sometimes protect against a sword strike or an arrow. All of those spells were far more useful to the men defending below, though, like her brother, and she wished she'd thought of that before coming up here.

  She had some other spells, though, ones that might at least distract the Anduains below, which would in turn give Finias and the other archers here on the tower a few better shots. But she'd need to see the Anduains to cast those spells, and that meant leaving the protective confines of this battlement for a few precious moments. She swallowed and counted to ten, taking a deep breath at each number, another trick her uncle taught her, then slowly moved toward the edge of the battlement. She hoped to find someone near the edges of the crowd, away from the other casters and archers. Even better would be finding one that wasn't paying close attention to the tower roof. She just needed enough time to concentrate without getting killed.

  Just as her eyes reached the edge of the stone, however, an explosion rocked the tower behind her. Kat ducked without even thinking, fearing the worst, but as soon as she realized she wasn't hurt she turned to see the crossbowman to her right lying on the ground a few feet from her, clutching his arm and gritting his teeth in pain. She couldn't see a wound, but she knew he’d been injured because blood slowly seeped through his chain armor near the shoulder. Her first instinct was to grab him and pull him back against the wall, or maybe to the ladder, but her body wouldn’t cooperate. Stepping away from the battlement meant exposing herself to the enemy below, and just giving them a second could be enough to get her killed. She needed to do something, though. She'd gone through too much to get here. She needed to prove herself. But even though Kat knew all of this, she couldn't make herself leave that wall.

  "The door's coming down!" Kat heard a shout, and turned to see another soldier on the ladder, poking his head up through the roof panel. He disappeared a second later and at first she didn't know what to do, but when she saw the other archers around her packing up their bows and arrow bags, she realized that everyone was leaving the roof. One archer ducked over to the injured crossbowman and helped him up to his feet, and Kat felt disappointment welling up inside her as someone else helped him to safety. She needed to get back inside, where there were walls and a roof that could protect her. But now her conscience balked at the thought of looking like a useless failure by scurrying off the roof before the others. So she sat still and waited as everyone else grabbed their gear and moved down the ladder. Everyone except one.

  "Finias!" she shouted. "Come on!"

  He either didn't hear her or he was ignoring her, because he hadn't moved from his spot, still firing away with a look on his face that suggested he enjoyed this. Kat held her breath, then lunged away from the battlement, toward the ladder. She refused to crawl on the ground, even though it was safer, and for once her will dictated her actions instead of her fear. She quickly stepped down a few rungs of the ladder, and relished the protection she now felt with stone walls around her, but when she glanced back at Finias, she saw that he still hadn't moved.

  "Finias!"

  He slowed his assault just long enough to glance back at her in annoyance. "Go! I'll catch up!"

  Kat almost heeded him and stepped down the ladder to safety, but then she thought back to the injured archer, and she knew she couldn't just run off and leave anyone else to their fate. She'd failed during a critical moment, and she needed to make up for that. A loud crash came from below mixed with a roar of Anduain cheers, and her stomach twisted again. The door must be down. Her brother was down there, and he needed her help. There was no more time to be indecisive.

  "Finias!" she screamed at him as she climbed back up onto the roof. "We have to go! Now!" She lunged toward him and grabbed his arm, intending to pull him back toward the ladder, but what happened next was lost to the blackness that suddenly overtook her.