With deliberate order, the Rangers fell back, leaving a heavy shield wall at the column’s tail followed by several dozen rows of mounted archers firing on anyone who came within range. The rest of the unit formed a column ahead of them moving east with haste.
True to form, the thugs gave chase. The main body of the unit had only just come together from the forced march the night before. More than a thousand stragglers still trailed off to the north. Those arriving after dawn were welcomed by the ringing of steel and the haze of smoke. There was a general sense of confusion amongst the rank and file. Rumors of Rake’s demise spread quickly. Confidence waned.
Stories of Alexander’s single-handed slaughter of so many men spread even more quickly. Tales of how he’d arrived from the haunted city provided the next wave of bad news that filtered through the army of thugs. Many lost confidence. Some began to desert.
But not all … not even most.
Just over a thousand men mobilized from Rake’s horde. It took over an hour before they mounted up to the fanfare of horns and gave chase, leaving a large chunk of the camp perimeter simply missing.
They pressed their horses, driving them to work harder than they should. Some of their animals gave out, falling by the wayside and leaving their riders to walk, but most caught up to the tail of the Ranger column. The first volley of arrows taught them to keep their distance. The Rangers had maintained their formation, shields at the back, archers keeping the enemy at bay. Light cavalry rode ahead of them, ready to break ranks at a moment and wheel to meet the threat.
The thugs stayed a good distance back, sending units off to the side to look for opportunities to gain ground and to flank. Alexander sent his vision forward, searching the terrain for an advantage and found something he could use: a twenty-foot cliff running for two hundred feet with a path along the base of it.
When he returned to himself, he remembered that he was riding a horse. While he’d remained in his saddle, he could have easily fallen. He pulled out of the column and dismounted, handing his reins to Erik.
“I won’t be long. Guard the door.”
He opened the door to his Wizard’s Den, worrying for his friends, all still unconscious.
“Any change?”
“No, My Love.”
He sat down in his circle.
Alexander appeared before Lita and the lieutenant in command of the wounded and the Rangers who had remained to help them.
“How many men do you have who can run and then fight?” Alexander asked. Lita took a moment to collect herself, then took the lieutenant by the arm, nodding for him to answer.
“I can field five hundred on foot,” he said.
“Good,” Alexander said, then projected an image of the terrain in the nearby area. “I need you to get your men here, along this ridge, all armed with bows and as many arrows as possible.”
The lieutenant looked at the illusion, then took out a map and oriented himself to what Alexander was showing him, nodding when he got his bearings.
“I can have five hundred Rangers lining this cliff within two hours.”
“Make it sooner … we’ll be there by then with the enemy in pursuit. Wait for my light. When you see it, have your men send their arrows at the enemy, one volley after another. When we double back, you’ll come down and join our force.”
“Understood, Lord Reishi.”
“I’ll see you on the battlefield, Lieutenant,” Alexander said, disappearing. He thought of his father and appeared in a stable with Duncan and Hanlon.
“Son,” Duncan said.
“Rake is dead. Send the rest of Duane’s Rangers north.”
“Understood. Stay safe.”
Alexander smiled before he vanished, appearing before Duane on a muddy road.
“Lord Reishi,” Duane said.
Alexander shook his head. “I’m your brother, call me Alexander.”
Duane looked uncomfortable.
“Rake’s encampment is less than an hour away,” Alexander said. “A large section is missing from the southwest perimeter. They’ll be softest there. Also, all of his magic is dead … you’ll just be up against men.”
Duane nodded, scanning the horizon, estimating the distance of various landmarks.
Alexander projected an image of the landscape with Rake’s army spread out across it, showing Duane his location in relation to the enemy.
“Attack here,” Alexander said, pointing to the section of the camp perimeter where the men had picked up and given chase to Erik.
Duane nodded. “If I push through there, we cut his forces in half.”
Alexander projected his desired outcome onto his illusionary map, showing Duane where he wanted him to end up.
“When you push through, you’ll move to block the north-south gap between the ruins of Old Ruatha and the ruins of Blackstone. The rest of your legion is coming from New Ruatha as we speak. That will force the thugs to run north where we can contain and eliminate them without any threat to the people in New Ruatha.”
“All right, so I’m to cut through them to the far side and then challenge any move through the gap to the east.”
“Exactly,” Alexander said.
“If they push, should I run or fight?”
“Fight.”
“All right, so they come at us and we kick them in the teeth,” Duane said. “When they go north, they’ll be west of Blackstone. I should race north too, around to the east so I can flank them.”
“Good. The rest of your legion will come straight north while Erik hits them from the west. Once we have them on the run, we’ll pick them apart.”
“Understood,” Duane said.
Alexander returned to himself and stepped out of his Wizard’s Den, closing the door and taking the reins of his horse.
“The ambush is set, plans are in motion and reinforcements are on the way,” he said, swinging into the saddle. “We’ll do better if we slow down a bit.”
“The unit behind us is wary of our archers,” Erik said. “I suspect they’ll keep their distance until dark no matter how fast we travel.”
A few got close enough to pick off, but for the most part, the thugs remained well out of bow range. Alexander led them to the ambush site, parading them into place. Nearly five hundred men lined the cliffs above, all far back enough to be invisible from the road. They were winded, but ready. When the main body of the thugs was stretched out along the trail at the base of the cliff, Alexander raised his staff and his light.
There was no battle cry, no shouted order, just a sudden and steady rain of arrows delivered into the enemy from above. Men screamed, shouted and raged … and then they fell. The ambush was perfect. And it turned Alexander’s stomach. So many killed so quickly. The bulk of the enemy forces fell within the first minute. A few escaped, a few more died when they charged into the column of Rangers. The whole thing was over in a matter of minutes.
Chapter 16
“Take them out into the sunlight,” Lita said. Rangers started moving Jataan, Jack, and Anja out of the Wizard’s Den while Alexander watched, feeling more than a bit helpless.
The battle had turned decisively once the thugs realized that Rake and all of his inner circle were dead. An every-man-for-himself mindset began to take root. Then they realized they were surrounded on three sides and their disorder transformed into a rout north. They’d broken into several groups, a few of the smaller groups even surrendering. Duane was giving chase with a legion of Rangers, while Erik commanded the rear operating base and aid station.
Lita had effectively commandeered a dozen Rangers to help her care for the injured, and apparently, they had seen her do enough good works that they’d become loyal to her, obeying her instructions without hesitation.
“Not to worry,” she said. “Sunlight will wake them right up. After that, they may be a bit … disturbed, for a while.”
“As long as they wake up,” Alexander said.
“They will,” Lita said, putting a hand
on his arm reassuringly. “Come back in an hour.”
He nodded absently, struggling to tear his focus away from his friends’ well-being. He decided to check with Erik to take his mind off them. He found him supervising the arrival of a wagon train from New Ruatha. As supplies were being unloaded, the wagons were being reloaded with soldiers whose injuries allowed movement but would require some time to heal.
“How are they?” Erik asked.
“Too soon to tell. How’re the Rangers doing?”
“They’re tired but they’ll be good by tomorrow. We’ll move north at dawn. I should have my wounded evacuated by then.”
Alexander sent his sight north, flashing across hundreds of miles until he found Duane and a legion of Rangers fanned out across the plain, picking at a horde of angry criminals. Rangers got just close enough to hit them with arrows, then backed off, like a pack of dogs, one small unit at a time nipping at the enemy’s heels, falling away to let another unit take its shot from a different angle.
He returned, smiling. “Duane has the horde well in hand at the moment, but the advantage could easily shift in the night.”
“He’ll consolidate and fortify before nightfall,” Erik said. “If the thugs attack his camp, they’ll get worse than they give.”
Alexander nodded, considering his next steps. With Rake dead, the Sin’Rath was the next most volatile situation, and more than a bit challenging. He wanted to visit Isabel, if only to say hello. He needed to check in with Abigail. He also wanted to talk to the sovereigns about his recent incursions into the depths of the firmament. And then perhaps, he thought he might enlist the aid of the wizards to simulate death in hopes of re-creating his experience with Siduri, though he expected some pushback on that last one.
“I was hoping to ask a favor,” Erik said.
“Of course.”
“I have nine men who are too seriously wounded to move. They can all survive, but only if we can get them back to New Ruatha, and quickly. Will you take them?”
“Of course. I’ll leave as soon as we can get them moved into my Wizard’s Den.”
Erik put his hand on Alexander’s arm, gently preventing him from turning away.
“When you see her, tell her I said hello.”
“I will, Erik.”
After Alexander had walked several dozen feet, Erik yelled, “Alexander!” He came trotting up and said, “I almost forgot, we recovered Rake’s remains … minus his head. We also found some of his belongings, including a box that we couldn’t open—it looks old.”
“Show me.”
Erik led him inside his innermost guard ring to a large tent. A heavy cage occupied the center of the dirt floor. A guard stood in each corner of the tent, with another two standing on opposite sides of the cage. Within the cage was a large chest, locked and chained.
“Several of the items that we collected from Rake and his people looked important. We’ve secured them in that chest,” Erik said, gesturing for the guard to open the cage door.
It took a few moments for the man to unlock the cage and remove the chains from the chest. He left the lid closed and stepped out of the cage.
“Stand guard outside the tent,” Erik said.
The six men saluted and left.
Alexander opened the lid, revealing a number of interesting items: among them, a ring, three vials of liquid, a pouch of powder that glimmered with the colors of magic … and an octagonal box.
It was indeed old—pre-Reishi War old, fashioned from ornately carved silver panels and held together with gold solder shaped to look like foliage growing up along each joint. A raised lid culminated in a single plate of pure gold on the very top. A perfect magic circle, scarcely larger than an inch in diameter, was carved into the octagonal wafer of gold, and a single hole had been drilled into its exact center.
Oddly enough, the box revealed no aura of any kind. Alexander sent his sight into it, but was rebuffed—not scattered or harmed in any way—he just couldn’t see inside.
“Interesting,” he said. “I think I’ll take a few of these items. Distribute the rest to your most deserving men.”
Alexander selected all of the enchanted items, put them in a pouch and tied it off. Without better information about each item, it would be dangerous in the extreme to let his men have them. He hoped the wizards would be able to determine the function and value of each.
“Good,” Erik said. “If I don’t need to worry about that chest, that frees up six of my men.” He gathered up the rest of the baubles, mostly jewels and a few small bars of gold.
“Happy to help,” Alexander said, securing the box and other items within his Wizard’s Den. “I’d better go arrange for a ride.”
He found Ratagan and Horst with their wyverns and about a dozen others off to the side of the encampment. With the enemy on the run, the Sky Knights had stepped back into a scouting role for Duane and a recovery role for Erik. Several were preparing for the flight back to New Ruatha.
“We’ll launch within the hour,” Alexander said.
“We’ll be ready, Lord Reishi,” Ratagan said. “Word is, you took quite a chunk out of the enemy last night.”
“Stories do tend to become exaggerated,” Alexander said, thinking of Jack. “I’ll be back soon.”
He returned to Lita’s aid station. When he saw his friends sitting up, his concern transformed into relief.
Lita was checking Anja’s forehead. “Well, you’re hotter than normal,” she said, frowning. “But then, you’re a dragon, so I don’t really know what normal is.”
“I’m so glad to see you’re all awake,” Alexander said.
Jataan tried to stand, but thought better of it and sat back down.
“Easy, there’s no rush.”
Anja looked up at Alexander with a deeply furrowed brow.
“I don’t like ghosts.”
“I must agree,” Jack said, rubbing his eyes. “It’s the strangest feeling. I can remember that something happened, but I just can’t quite recall the details. The last thing I do remember for sure is fear … quite a lot of it actually.”
“I shared a similar experience,” Jataan said. “It reminded me of the fear induced during the trials, artificial, but no less real and urgent at the time.”
“So I hear you killed Rake,” Jack said, smiling mischievously, “single-handedly … after slaughtering half of his army, and then you vanished into a bright flash of light.”
Alexander shook his head. “Something like that.”
“That will make for a fine song. Shame I didn’t see it myself.”
“I too regret that I wasn’t at my post, Lord Reishi,” Jataan said.
“I regret missing the biggest battle yet,” Anja said. “Stupid ghosts.”
“How’re they doing, Lita?” Alexander asked.
“They’re recuperating quickly, now that the last of the haunting has been burned away. I expect a full recovery by afternoon.”
“Good. We’ll be taking a number of the most seriously injured to New Ruatha as soon as possible. Start preparing to move them into the Wizard’s Den.”
He opened the door, stopping briefly when he caught the faintly sickening odor of dead flesh. Rake’s head was still under the table. He didn’t even remember why he’d kicked it into his Wizard’s Den in the first place—maybe just to make absolutely certain that Rake was dead or maybe just to spite the thug. Either way, Alexander wondered what it said about him, about what he was becoming.
He had power now … real power.
And he’d used it.
A trail of carnage blighted the landscape to prove it.
Only a handful of the enemies he’d faced last night ever had a chance against him. Most were fodder, naked to the Thinblade and helpless against his foresight. He’d cut them down anyway.
He reminded himself that they would have killed him if they could have, that they were soldiers in an enemy army, that they’d all been criminals long before that. It didn’t soothe his c
onscience. That much blood didn’t wash away easily. Lives had ended by his hand.
The blood that had dried between Rake’s face and the floor crackled when Alexander picked up the head. He didn’t look at it, instead carrying it to the balcony and tossing it over into the endless fog.
It took him another few minutes to move the strongbox containing his most sensitive items into one corner and push furniture up around it, making room for the wounded Rangers, but leaving access to his meditation table.
After helping Jataan, Anja, and Jack inside and to their beds, Alexander went with Lita to the tent that housed the most gravely injured, nine souls, hanging on for their lives. One by one, Rangers carried the wounded into the Wizard’s Den, cots and all. With everyone inside, Alexander closed the door and made his way to Ratagan, who was ready and waiting. They were in the air within minutes.
The scene to the east was jarring. Blackstone was in ruins, cold and broken beyond salvage. Below, a train of wagons trundled along toward New Ruatha, most of them loaded with the less seriously wounded. He sent his sight north, finding Duane in a blink. His legion was still picking at the thugs, leaving a trail of dead scattered for miles along their meandering path.
Alexander returned, paying careful attention to his head, sensing for any pain behind his eyes. With a thought, he was floating just outside a cell. Isabel was sitting in the center, meditating with a kind of serenity that he hadn’t seen in her before. Her colors seemed slightly different as well, and not just due to the increased influence of Azugorath. He wished he could project to her, but seeing that she was still unharmed was enough … for now anyway.
He returned to pain, dull and throbbing behind his eyes. While unpleasant, it was manageable. More importantly, it was instructional. Before, reaching all the way to Isabel with his new sight had caused much more pain. He would try it again tomorrow and see what happened.
The flight was a short one but it gave Alexander some time to think. The Glittering City came into view in the distance, a plateau encrusted with buildings all lined with lanterns. New Ruatha was a sight to behold from the air.
Sovereign of the Seven Isles 7: Reishi Adept Page 19
