The soldier growled quietly in his throat but stepped back to join his fellows, reluctance in every line of his body. A flash of movement to my right drew my eye, and I turned slightly, just in time to see Lucas step away from one of his royal guards. He looked at me as he did so, but his gaze quickly jumped away when he caught me watching him.
The guard immediately stepped forward, clearing his throat. The mage officer looked at him in surprise before raising an inquiring eyebrow.
“Our orders come direct from General Thaddeus, Lieutenant. The prince is not to be exposed to any undue risk.”
Jennica looked between the guard and Lucas, frowning. The prince gave no acknowledgment of her regard, his face impassive and his attention focused on the mage officer.
The uneasiness on the young man’s face grew, as he looked between his squad, the colonel, and the prince. I could easily read the indecision on his face and the moment he made up his mind.
Straightening, he nodded at the royal guard. Apparently his desire not to be responsible for putting a member of the royal family in potential danger overrode his desire not to appear weak in front of either his inferiors or his superiors.
“The end of this gully marks the end of our patrol route. We will turn around here and return to camp. When we pass the suppression team, we will leave word for them to continue on here once they have dealt with the other incursion. Lannis, you will remain here to explain your concerns to them and assist as necessary.”
I got the impression the mage would be perfectly happy if the suppression team requested Lannis throw himself into the ravine as part of their investigations. Certainly his expression promised punishment for the soldier who had put him in an untenable position in front of both the colonel and royalty.
No one said anything, so he stalked between his squad members, leading them back away from the gully. Lannis remained behind without comment, leaving the squad reduced to six. Did every patrol go like this, or was this one unusually eventful?
As we trailed along behind, I glanced back over my shoulder at Lannis’s lonely figure. He was already scaling a tree, and I could see he would soon be hidden out of sight. He at least seemed to take his own warning seriously. Was he right? Was there danger there? I hoped Jennica would tell us what the suppression team found when they examined the spot.
She had made no comment on the situation, perhaps determined to back up her assertion that we were present merely to observe. She did watch Lucas, though, with a look of calculation that I didn’t like. Lucas himself seemed to be absorbed with carefully avoiding any chance he might accidentally lock eyes with me again.
His efforts allowed me the surreptitious chance to observe him as we moved further away from the gully. What had motivated him to intervene as he had so clearly done?
I hadn’t made up my mind on the issue when racing feet behind us made first the rearmost royal guard slow and then Jennica and Lucas with them. The rest of us stopped, the squad in front several beats behind the Academy group.
The guards turned but had barely raised their spears and shields when Lannis came into view, racing toward us.
“Attack!” he yelled without waiting to reach us. “An attack in the gully!”
An enormous explosion rocked the ground a second after his words. Bright light blossomed a moment later, and a low, ongoing rumble sent him staggering to a stop.
“Back up,” he panted, still some distance from us. “They need back up.”
Chapter 13
Jennica took a step toward him, any question of remaining an observer gone.
“Who has been attacked? We were there only minutes ago, and the gully was empty.”
Lannis struggled to pull himself up straight, but she waved a dismissive hand, and he leaned down again, bracing his hands on his knees as he fought to regain his breath.
“Another patrol,” he said. “One of ours. No idea what they were doing there. But there was an ambush waiting.” To his credit he didn’t so much as look at the young mage officer who had earlier dismissed his warning. His whole focus was on delivering the news.
“They’re hard pressed,” he said. “I’m fairly certain their officer managed to send a distress signal, but I couldn’t guarantee that was the purpose of the composition.”
“Even if a communication has been received back at command, it will take some time for a relief force to arrive,” said Jennica. “We must go at once.”
The young mage officer looked relieved to have the colonel take charge, and only the royal guards hung back, one of them murmuring to Lucas in an undertone. The prince gave them a cold look and replied in more audible tones.
“You may stay here if you wish. I shall certainly not be doing so.”
The man stepped back, giving a slight bow, but didn’t entirely manage to hide the frustration from his face. I certainly didn’t envy him the task of keeping a royal safe in the middle of a war zone.
Somehow Lannis found a second wind and joined us as we all sprinted back in the direction we had come. As he ran, he panted out further information to the colonel.
“A full platoon of Kallorwegians it looked like. At least.”
She threw him a sharp glance, not breaking stride.
“I didn’t stay for a good look—every second could count,” he said. “But that’s my rough estimate. And at least five mages.”
“Five?” This time she did falter. “Five mages and over forty soldiers?” She regained her pace, adding some extra speed that my shorter legs struggled to match. We spent half our days in physical training and were several decades younger, but you wouldn’t guess it to see her move.
I could see in the grim lines of her face that she didn’t hold out much hope for our people. We were close, but not that close. One squad couldn’t hold out against so many for any length of time.
Lannis glanced sideways at me and the other trainees.
“There’s a chance for them, sir. They had an observation team with them, like us.”
“What?” The word slipped out before I realized I had spoken. “Who?”
He gave me a helpless expression, and my mind conjured up a horrifying picture of Coralie lying dead at the bottom of the gully. When I reminded myself it might not be her and Finnian’s team, the image in my mind only changed to Saffron. Somehow my feet discovered they could fly across the uneven ground even faster.
Jennica didn’t seem to share my concerns. Instead the news had lightened her eyes. “They’ve got more troops, then, but we have more mages.”
“Trainees,” snapped Lucas. “Four of them are trainees.”
She didn’t bother to reply, perhaps because the gully had at last come into view. Signaling with her hand, she had us all drop our pace, making the final approach more quietly. I itched to sprint forward but forced myself to fall in with the rest of the group.
“Lieutenant,” she whispered, “you’re with me. The rest of you, wait on my command.”
The mental image of Coralie’s lifeless body hit me again. I pushed forward.
“I’m coming too,” I whispered.
The colonel turned furious eyes on me. “You will do as you’re ordered, private.”
When I opened my mouth to speak, she cut me off. “Or you will face the consequences.”
Lucas’s hand on my arm pulled me back toward the others. I bit my lip, hating myself for giving way before his warning. But her talk of consequences scared me—particularly since I didn’t trust that I fully understood what they might be.
The loud rumble of falling rocks made us all shift, exchanging uneasy glances. I immediately regretted my cowardice, but the colonel had already gone.
Thankfully she didn’t stay away long, racing silently back to us while the lieutenant remained in place, observing the gully from behind several large rocks.
“The enemy are facing away from us. Our people must have been coming from the other end of the gully. It looks like there have been several casualties, and they’re
barely holding their ground. We can’t afford to wait, so we’re going in now to surprise the attackers from the rear.”
She bent a stern look on the four of us. “We need you in this battle, but I don’t want anyone taking unnecessary risks.” Her eyes dwelt on both Lucas and me, her explanation of the situation more than I would have expected her to give to those under her command. Perhaps my earlier insubordination had reminded her we weren’t truly soldiers. Yet.
No one protested this time, however, and she led us back to the lieutenant. Her next orders came fast, leaving no one time to think them through.
“Soldiers, at my mark, charge down into the gully.” As she spoke, her hands flashed, pulling parchment after parchment out of her robe. She barely glanced at them, her eyes on us, as she unrolled them and arranged them in a neat pile.
“Lieutenant, you two,” she pointed at Clarence and Araminta, “throw any shield compositions you have between the attackers and our people. Don’t hold anything in reserve. The rest of us will shield you if it comes to that.”
Clarence swallowed, but Araminta nodded, a look of determination on her face. It didn’t escape me that she took several steps in my direction, however.
“Your Highness, Elena, we need to capture some of those mages alive, if we can. I’ll handle them. Which means the two of you need to help our soldiers take on their platoon. Can you do it?”
Lucas nodded once, and she didn’t wait for similar agreement from me before turning back to look down into the gully. I barely registered her orders, too distracted by the scene unfolding before us as she spoke.
Some way down the gully stood a formation of soldiers. Unlike our commonborn, they wore black uniforms that looked as if the hems had been dipped in blood. The mages arrayed behind them wore similarly colored black and red robes. Kallorwegian Armed Forces mages.
The colonel’s assurance that she would handle the mages, despite the unknown number and power of their stored compositions, made more sense now that I had absorbed the state of the battlefield. Sometime before our arrival, the beleaguered squad had evened the numbers a little.
Two enemy mages lay still, and a third knelt over one of them, frantically pulling compositions from his robe. Whether she searched for a healing composition or merely wished to harvest the downed mage’s unused workings, I couldn’t tell.
Further down the gully, at least three sprawled bodies of our own wore gray uniforms. The white-robed figures all still appeared to be upright, but my darting eyes could find no sign of Coralie. When I made out the tall, distinctive figure of Dariela, I realized why. This was Saffron’s group.
A low, ragged smoke screen hung between them and their attackers, but even as I watched four enemy arrows flew through it. Three smashed harmlessly against the ground, but one found its mark, one of our soldiers screaming, a horrible sound that gurgled into silence. One of the enemy mages ripped a parchment, and a strong wind blew down the gully, sending robes and hair flapping and driving away the lingering barrier.
Captain Matthis shouted something, and a boy in a white robe—Calix presumably—pulled out a parchment and immediately ripped it in half. Smoke billowed impossibly from the rocky ground, shielding them all once more.
The moment of visibility had been enough for the enemy, however. From where we stood, we could see they had marked the various positions of our people, and one of the mages issued an order I couldn’t hear.
A group of ten soldiers broke off from the main group, making their way down the side of the gully. They sheltered behind a string of large rocks which appeared to have recently broken from the gully wall. Their path would lead them straight to where three white robes sheltered behind a particularly large boulder.
I sucked in my breath at the sight of this attempt to flank my friends, but before I could take action, Jennica shouted, “Now!” in a loud voice.
Our seven soldiers took off without hesitation, sending themselves hurtling dangerously fast down into the ravine. They looked pitifully small in number compared to the thirty or so men and women who still remained grouped below us.
But they had barely begun to move when a particularly loud tearing sounded near my ear. I glanced over in time to see the colonel rip the entire small stack of parchments she had assembled. Power rushed past me in such force that I staggered backward a step.
A roar sounded, echoing from both sides of the gully, and for a moment, I thought she had triggered another landslide. But a moment later I recognized the battle cry of a large force, and the pounding of countless feet. Behind our small band of seven, more soldiers sprang into existence, their weapons glinting in the sun.
For half a breath, I stared in confusion, wondering if the colonel had the power to call people from the air. But even as I exhaled, understanding dawned. This was a simpler but more sophisticated version of the illusions we had used to battle within the Academy arena.
The enemy wheeled to confront the avalanche bearing down on them, their mages screaming orders that were lost in the chaos. Their soldiers responded, however, springing into formation and surging forward to surround the remaining Kallorwegian officers.
Despite their protection, one of the mages—a woman—screamed, flailing around as if fighting an invisible foe. The other two mages ignored her, their focus on the horde that appeared to bear down on them.
The ten soldiers who had been sent to flank our forces hesitated, turning back toward the head of the gully in confusion. Their movement alerted my year mates to their presence, only feet away from them. Dariela drew her sword, her movement swift and graceful, and a moment later the other two with her followed suit. Together the three of them charged the flanking soldiers, several gray uniforms racing to join them.
Nothing prevented the trainee swords meeting those of their attackers with a clang that could be heard all the way where we stood. Whatever shields Clarence and Araminta had activated must only be protecting our people against the main enemy force.
The sound of the swords galvanized me into action, shattering my frozen state. What orders had Jennica given me? The soldiers. The enemy soldiers.
Dariela neatly ran one of her attackers through, pulling her sword free of his chest. She didn’t appear to notice that a man and woman approached her from the other direction, spears lowered.
My mind raced, throwing up words in front of my eyes that I had only ever read in books and never had the chance to practice.
The colonel, busy withdrawing yet more pieces of parchment from her robe, looked up at the sound of my voice racing through the binding words.
My eyes hadn’t left the fight on the other side of the gully. One of the gray uniforms tried to call a warning to Dariela but was cut off by a blow that sent her sprawling to the ground. Her attacker raised his weapon, preparing to run her through.
With a jolt, I recognized her. Leila. Words poured out of me, barely recognizable I spoke so fast.
“Stop the heart of every black-uniformed soldier in the gully.” It was the only wording I could think of that wouldn’t touch either our forces or the enemy mages. Jennica had ordered them left alive, and I retained enough sense to know they might have personal protections in place that would drain me. I hadn’t had time to set proper limits to my composition.
Darts of my power shot into the air and down with unerring precision toward each of the soldiers below. I staggered as they hit resistance—a wall between my position and the enemy. But whatever shield the Kallorwegian mages had erected failed beneath the strength of my working.
The darts flew forward again, spreading out to spear into each commonborn Kallorwegian soldier. I felt them slow as they neared their internal targets. Each soldier below fought a battle they knew nothing about—their bodies throwing up a natural defensive mechanism I had read about but never experienced. There was a reason this composition wasn’t more popular, but I had lacked the time to come up with other options.
More strength poured from me, and I dropped to m
y knees. Gritting my teeth, I closed my eyes and strained, forcing my power onward. I felt the moment thirty-nine hearts stopped beating, and my own body hit the ground at the same moment as all of theirs.
Lucas swore and dropped to a knee beside me, but I weakly waved away his supportive hand. He stayed in place, however, so I forced myself to crawl several steps away before emptying the contents of my stomach into a nearby bush. Repeatedly.
A soft hand brushed against my forehead, pulling back my hair. I stayed in place, panting, my stomach heaving and aching from the spasms. But as soon as it subsided, I scrambled back onto my feet, pushing past Lucas as he tried to grab at my arm.
Racing to the edge of the gully, I looked down at the battleground below. I swayed and felt Lucas’s hand against my arm again. I let myself lean into his support, afraid that my exhaustion would send me tumbling down the steep slope.
The smoke had dissipated, and the remaining upright figures picked their way among the dead. So many of them. They lay where they had fallen, unmarked, although the red edges of their uniforms gave the impression of wounds from this distance.
A third enemy mage lay among them, cut down while I wasn’t looking, but the other two knelt amid the wreckage of the battle, their hands on their heads. Their robes had been removed and lay in two crumpled piles. Underneath they wore plain leather outfits, and both the lieutenant in charge of our patrol and the one who had led Leila’s patrol searched them for hidden compositions.
Captain Matthis watched on, directing them, his expression ugly as he glowered at the two prisoners. The trainees under his protection ranged behind him, three of them with their attention on the search underway. The fourth, however, looked straight up at us.
I met Dariela’s eyes across the distance, and she slowly nodded before turning to look back toward the area where she had been fighting when I worked my composition. I picked out the bodies of her two fallen attackers before looking back at her. Apparently she had seen the danger after all.
This is why you did it, I reminded myself as my stomach roiled once more, threatening to dry retch. If you hadn’t, it would be Dariela dead, and Leila—
Voice of Dominion (The Spoken Mage Book 3) Page 13
