“Yes,” said Calliande, rising. She hesitated. “Ridmark, if today doesn’t go well, if the muridachs…”
“I know,” said Ridmark, taking her hand.
She hugged him and rested her head against his shoulder for a moment, and then they left and walked to the walls.
###
“I thought we were finished,” said the gray elven warrior, shaking his head. Beneath his winged helm, the face was pale and glistened with sweat, the black veins stark. Yet the gray elven warrior stood without trembling. “If you hadn’t attacked those muridachs, I think we might have broken.”
Kyralion shook his head. “You did well. My presence was merely fortunate.”
Third watched Kyralion as he talked with the defenders manning the wall.
At the moment, the city was quiet, though that would not last for long. In the distance, she saw the muridachs swarming over another set of siege towers, heard the distant noises of hammering and sawing. Soon the muridachs would be ready to launch another assault. Probably in another two or three hours, unless Third missed her guess.
She had gone to the ramparts to watch for the inevitable attack and had come across Kyralion talking to the swordsmen and the archers. Third ought to have been watching for the muridachs. Instead, she listened to Kyralion, fascinated. She had never seen him quite like this. All the soldiers of Cathair Caedyn knew him, respected him. And he was lifting their spirits, she could tell. The Unity meant that the gray elven warriors knew each others’ fears and doubts, and just looking over the battlements at the muridach horde was enough to inspire entirely rational fears and doubts.
But they couldn’t read Kyralion’s thoughts and emotions, and he projected confidence, talking to the men as if he was certain of victory.
And it worked.
The soldiers seemed more confident after he talked to them, and faced the battlements with new resolution. Third found herself following him, listening to his speeches.
About an hour later, they found themselves alone near the base of one of the towers.
“I have never heard you speak that way,” said Third.
Kyralion sighed and leaned against the battlements, the weariness he had been hiding flashing across his face. “I usually do not. Only when I was with the scouts, when we led sorties against our enemies. Here in Cathair Caedyn, not being part of the Unity is a liability. But in the Illicaeryn Jungle, in the Takai Steppes, or the marshes of the xiatami, it does not matter. All that matters is the ability to fight and the skill to scout.”
“And you are very good at both,” said Third.
“Yes,” said Kyralion. He shook his head and laughed a little. “When I was a child, I hated that I was not part of the Unity. All my life, I remained bitter over it.”
“And you are not any longer,” said Third.
“I am not.”
“What changed?” said Third.
“The plague curse at first,” said Kyralion. “All my kindred were affected, save for me. Then I found the Shield Knight and the Keeper, and my immunity to magic was useful several times.” He let out a long breath. “And now at the end of the Liberated, it is useful again.” He looked at Third. “Can you see how frightened they are?”
“Yes,” said Third. “It is obvious.”
“It is the Unity,” said Kyralion. “It lets us…it lets them communicate so efficiently in battle, but it has liabilities, does it not?” Third nodded. “All their fear is communicated through the Unity. All the women who lost husbands and sons in the last three days? Their grief is communicated through the Unity. Fear is bad enough. Despair is worse.”
“But they see you, and they cannot read your mind,” said Third. “And you are confident, and show no fear, and some of that is communicated to them and spreads through the Unity.”
“It is as you say,” said Kyralion. He shook his head. “Having the fear of thirty thousand gray elves inside your head must be a torment. Once I was jealous of my kindred. Now I pity them.”
Third frowned. “Why did your ancestors create the Unity if it is such a liability?”
Kyralion shrugged. “It was not always so. When we fled to the Illicaeryn Jungle to escape the Sovereign’s hosts, we were desperate. The Unity let us survive and withstand the Sovereign’s armies.” He shrugged again. “Or maybe the Augurs were wrong. Maybe the Sovereign did not need to bother with the last remnants of our kindred. It fell to the muridachs, the scavengers, to finish us off.” He shook his head once more. “Perhaps we were desperate. Perhaps the Sylmarus took pity on us, the last shard of a civilization that once ruled an entire continent.”
“Or maybe,” said Third, “the first Augurs never thought that all your people would be gathered inside the walls of a single city, where their fears could feed endlessly upon each other.”
“Maybe that was it,” said Kyralion. “I suppose it does not matter now.”
“No,” said Third. “Why do you say the Sylmarus took pity upon the gray elves?”
“It is a living thing,” said Kyralion. “With an ancient and powerful mind. Or so the Augurs say. I have never felt it myself. Yet I look at the Sylmarus, and I feel the age of it.”
“I had the strangest feeling,” said Third. “I looked at it, and I felt like it was looking back at me.”
“Then you understand,” said Kyralion.
“Are you confident?” said Third. “Do you think we can win this siege?”
“No,” said Kyralion. “But neither do you.”
“I do not,” said Third. She hesitated. “I…am sorry.”
Kyralion blinked. “Whatever for?”
“The Augurs sent you to find me, and you did,” said Third. “They thought I could save the Unity, but they were wrong. I regret that you spent so much effort on something that was futile.”
“No,” said Kyralion. His golden eyes met hers. “I regret bringing you here. But I do not regret meeting you.”
A shiver of tension went through her nerves.
“Nor do I regret meeting you,” said Third.
He tried to smile. “Even if I was bold enough to kiss you in the jungle?” He shook his head. “That was inappropriate. It was not fair to you, or to…”
“Rilmeira?” said Third. He looked back at her. “Perhaps it does not matter. We are all about to die, most likely. Since we are speaking of regrets, perhaps it is better to be bold than to add to their numbers.”
“Perhaps,” said Kyralion.
They stood in silence for a while, watching the seething muridach host.
“I do not regret it,” said Third. She took a deep breath. “No one…no one ever kissed me before, Kyralion. But…you did ask Rilmeira to marry you, did you not?”
“Twice,” murmured Kyralion. “Once, years ago. Then right before I departed to find the Shield Knight and the Keeper.”
“She was foolish to have refused you,” said Third. Jealousy was a new emotion, and she did not care for it.
“She did not,” said Kyralion. “Her mother did. As High Augur, she has the authority to adjudicate such things among us. She would not let her daughter marry the freak, and she said so to my face.” Dismay went over his expression. “I wondered if Athadira lied about her vision from the Sylmarus to get rid of me. If so, then you have come to your death for no reason.”
Third shook her head. “Lord Amruthyr spoke of the same vision in Cathair Selenias. He would not have lied about it. He said that the Augurs had lied to you when they failed to mention that you were also in the vision.”
“As if I could save the Unity,” said Kyralion. “I cannot even govern my own heart.” He looked at her and sighed. “I find myself caught between two admirable women, and…”
“Kyralion,” said Third. “Perhaps you are. But one of those women is far better suited to you than the other. Rilmeira could have your children, and she loves your people as you do. I can do neither.”
“No,” said Kyralion. “Athadira will never let Rilmeira marry as she chooses
.” He hesitated. “That was why I did what I did, in the jungle.” The memory of his kiss flashed through her mind. “It seemed better to focus on what was in front of me than to cling to the memory of something that could never be. But you are right. It does not matter now. Almost certainly the muridachs will overcome us. All that remains, I expect, is to die well.”
Third smiled at that.
Kyralion blinked. “You find that a cheering prospect?”
“Somewhat,” said Third. “There were centuries where I dreamed of nothing but death. The prospect does not faze me. I have already lived too long and seen too much. But I wish things could have been different. I wish your people might have had a different fate.” She gazed at him. “I wish…”
Distant drums boomed over the muridach host, and the shouts and cheers of the ratmen echoed over the city.
“They are coming again,” said Kyralion. “More siege towers. And some kind of device I have not seen before.”
“We had better join Lord Ridmark and the others,” said Third.
Kyralion nodded, and together they jogged for the northern gate as the defenders rushed to take their posts.
Chapter 15: Thunderbolts
Ridmark and Calliande stepped out of the house and into the street near the northern gate, and he heard the distant booming of drums.
“Here they come again,” said Ridmark.
Calliande nodded, and together they ran for the stairs to the ramparts. Already the city was echoing with the sound of muridach drums, the gray elves moving with their usual eerie coordination. Swordsmen and archers rushed to the walls, and Ridmark and Calliande ran through the northern square.
They reached the rampart over the gate to see that Lord Rhomathar and Rilmeira were already there.
“Shield Knight,” said Rhomathar. “The Augurs are on their way. I have also sent messages to your companions to join us.” He glanced to the west. “And Lord Kyralion and Lady Third are on their way.”
“Good,” said Ridmark, looking over the battlements. Already he saw another wave of siege towers rolling forward, nearly a score of them. The muridachs had been laboring through the night. And behind the towers came…
Ridmark blinked.
“What is that?” said Calliande.
In the center of the line of towers rolled a strange device that Ridmark did not recognize.
His first thought was that it was a siege tower, but it was at least four times higher than the other towers. Its base was set in a wooden frame with a dozen wheels, giving the unwieldy thing far greater stability than it would have had otherwise. Nearly three hundred undead muridachs pushed the thing, heaving it up the slope. The huge machine had to weigh a great deal, and even the strength of hundreds of undead muridachs only managed to move it forward a few feet at a time.
But the device kept rolling toward the gate.
“Some kind of ram?” said Rhomathar.
“No,” said Ridmark. “No, it’s too tall and cumbersome for that. I think it’s a…”
“A ramp.” Third approached with Kyralion, her eyes on the device. “You can see the hinges at the bottom.” She pointed, and Ridmark saw the bronze mechanisms at the bottom of the machine. “When it gets close enough, the front will swing down and land on the battlements, and the back will collapse. The muridachs will charge up the ramp and onto the walls.”
Ridmark turned as Tamlin and Tamara and the others joined them. Magatai was grinning as he held his bow. Likely the Takai looked forward to another long day of killing muridachs.
“That is a siege ramp, is it not?” said Krastikon.
“It is,” said Ridmark. “Kalussa, can you destroy the wheels? If that thing gets close to the wall, we’re going to have problems.” If the broad ramp reached the battlements, the muridachs could swarm up to the ramparts in a mass. The gray elves might not be able to repulse an attack of that size.
Kalussa hesitated and then shook her head. “Not quite yet. It’s still too far away. Once it gets a few hundred yards closer…”
There was a flare of blue light and a pulse of dark shadow near the siege ramp. Ridmark wondered if the muridach priests and Qazaldhar were about to launch a magical attack, but a dome of shadow and flickering blue light settled around the ramp.
“A warding spell,” said Calliande. “A powerful one. Strong enough to block both magical attacks and catapult missiles.”
Ridmark scowled. “That’s it. They’re centering their next attack around that damned ramp.” He heard the rustle of robes as Athadira and the other Augurs joined them. “They’ll use the siege towers to hold our attention, and once they’re engaged, the main attack will come up the ramp.” Already he saw columns of muridach infantry forming up behind the towers, shields held ready to deflect arrows.
Clangs echoed over the wall, and the gray elven catapults released. The stones soared over the hillside and smashed into the approaching siege towers. The catapult crews had refined their tactics since the first attack, adjusting their aim to target the top third of the towers. Most of the stones bounced away, but the tops of three towers exploded into a spray of splinters and twisted bronze. The rest continued their steady climb, pushed by the unwavering strength of the undead muridachs.
“Let us show them the folly of this plan,” said Athadira, raising her hand as she cast a spell. Lightning snarled around her fingers.
“Wait!” said Calliande. “Don’t…”
Athadira finished her spell, and a bolt of lightning screamed out of the sky towards the siege ramp. It struck the dome of shadow and blue light around the ramp and then rebounded with a thunderclap.
It hurtled right towards the rampart over the gate.
Calliande was already moving. She thrust out her hand, and a pale wall of light appeared before them. The lightning blast struck the ward and vanished with a spray of sparks, the wall of light winking out of existence a half-second later.
For the first time, Athadira looked taken aback.
“Don’t,” said Calliande again, letting out a long breath. “The ward will reflect any spell back at its caster.”
“I see,” said Athadira.
“I can probably work through it given enough time,” said Calliande, “but the ramp will get to the wall long before that.”
Arrows began hissing from the battlements as the archers targeted the columns of muridach infantry behind the advancing towers.
“Maybe it would be better to let the ramp get here,” said Tamlin. “With the Swords of Earth and Death and Air, we can cut it apart. It won’t do the muridachs any good then.”
“I don’t see that we have any other choice,” said Ridmark. He looked at Calliande and the others. “We ought to focus on destroying as many of the siege towers as we can. They’ll get here before the ramp.”
Krastikon nodded. “Most likely they want the towers to hold most of the defenders in place.”
“Then let’s spoil their plan,” said Ridmark, lifting Oathshield. The blade flickered with white fire. “Come.”
###
Tamlin took one last look at Tamara, and then followed Ridmark, Third, Calem, Krastikon, Kyralion, and Magatai as they headed west along the battlements, preparing to meet the siege towers as they drew nearer. Ridmark looked grim as always, and Third and Kyralion impassive. Magatai was humming to himself, but the mad halfling laughed as he fought. From what Tamlin had observed of the Takai halflings, they regarded cowardice as the worst of all sins, and glorious death in battle as the highest of virtues.
Tamlin supposed that the muridachs would give Magatai an ample chance for a glorious death.
They stopped a few hundred yards down the western side of the northern wall, watching as the towers and the huge ramp creaked closer. The catapults smashed several more towers, and the archers sent volleys of arrows into the advancing muridach soldiers. Both Magatai and Kyralion used their bows, sending arrows with unerring accuracy into the enemy. Dead muridachs tumbled down the slope of the hill. If this sie
ge went on long enough, perhaps the muridachs could simply scale the walls upon a ramp built from their own dead. Knowing the muridachs, they would not scruple from such a tactic.
White fire, lightning, and elemental flame blazed from the ramparts over the gate as Calliande, Kalussa, and the Augurs unleashed their spells. Tamlin saw one of the towers wobble, fall to the side, and roll back down the hill, breaking into pieces as it did. Likely Kalussa had blasted away its wheels with the Staff of Blades. More catapult stones arced overhead. Some bounced away from the sides of the towers, but others punched through in explosions of splinters.
As before, about half the towers were destroyed before they reached the walls.
The other half drew ever closer, and Tamlin saw the bronze ramps start to shift.
“All right,” said Ridmark. “Here they come. Remember, focus on the ramps. Third and Kyralion and Magatai and I will hold them back while the rest of you cut the ramps loose. Calem, if you want to do that trick with the wraithcloak, do it, but don’t take unnecessary risks. If you get killed outside the walls, the muridachs will gain the Sword of Air, and we’ll have to contend with that as well.”
Calem nodded, bringing up the silvery blade of the Sword. “I will not take any unnecessary risks.”
Krastikon snorted. “Yes, the necessary risks will take up all our time.”
The nearest tower shuddered to a stop, and the bronze ramp swung down with a massive clang. As before, a mob of muridach berserkers charged out, war axes in hand. Tamlin cast a spell, a forked bolt of lightning bursting from his fingers. It struck the two berserkers in the lead, and the creatures stumbled, screaming as the lightning coiled around their bodies.
In their moment of hesitation, Ridmark and Third moved.
The Shield Knight attacked first, swinging Oathshield in a blur of white fire. His two-handed blow took off a muridach’s head. Third moved like a serpent, her blue swords flashing, and the second stunned muridach collapsed dead, its throat torn open. Magatai and Kyralion released their arrows in unison. Magatai’s shaft punched through the throat of a berserker, and Kyralion’s arrow found the eye of another.
Sevenfold Sword: Unity Page 23
