by Rick Shelley
"Braf, if it comes to the last extreme, take everyone in the castle toward the south pass. Together, at least, you and Bosc will be able to break through the barrier to get everyone out."
"It won't come to that, lord," Braf said. He turned and started back toward the Seven Towers at a trot. Bosc was hard-pressed to keep up.
"Invaders come through the eastern gap," Silvas called to the villagers who had gathered.
"They what put a wall around us?" March the miller asked.
"The same," Silvas replied. "They're no longer content to isolate us. Now they would destroy us for fair."
"Not an' we kin help it," March shouted, and there were ragged cheers of encouragement from some of the other villagers, more of whom were arriving with every minute.
"Then follow me," Silvas said.
Silvas and Maria started east along the road. Felix kept his horse as close to Bay and Camiss as he could. Josephus and the other soldiers were behind Felix, too close for the former monk's comfort. He feared they might ride right over him if he was not careful. The villagers, all of them on foot, trailed after, quickly lagging behind the mounted folk. As soon as the group was formed up and moving, Josephus spurred his horse and moved forward to ride alongside Silvas and Maria.
"They will outnumber us by at least three to one," Josephus said. "I speak only of our soldiery and theirs, not of these farmers who tag along."
"Don't slight the farmers," Silvas said. "These are not such a common lot despite their trade. They have heart, and they'll not flinch at anything."
"Still, lord..."
"We use what we have. These who follow us will make the odds two to one, or less."
"The guards from the castle would have added nicely to our numbers, and with skill."
"And arrived too late had I told Bosc to bring them along," Silvas said. "No, I had good reason to leave them behind the walls of the Seven Towers. If those towers fall, a good part of my own wizardry falls as well, and we'll have need of that in the coming fight."
"Bosc and Braf alone would have added greatly to our strength," Josephus said.
"Bosc can fight with passion and skill, but this isn't his kind of fight. And Braf will fight much better for the defense of walls and towers than he could out in the open. No, my friend, they are where they belong, at least for now. This is up to us." Silvas paused, then turned his head and smiled at Josephus. "If they are needed with us later, and the Seven Towers appear secure, I may fetch them to us then. If they appear as unexpected reinforcements at a critical juncture..."
Josephus nodded. "Such devices have won battles before, though not regularly enough for full comfort. Adding them would make the numbers almost even, though I wonder how the little people will stand against mounted knights. Have you discerned yet how many of the gods are ranged against us?"
"So far, I sense only Barreth and Gioia," Silvas said. "I feel the signature of their hate. But I cannot yet be certain that there are no others with them."
"Perhaps our journey to the Shining City served its purpose, then," Maria said. "If we've goaded those two to attack before they could enlist the help of more siblings."
"Those two alone may be more than we can handle, particularly with the number of troops they've brought against us," Josephus said.
"You know of the force waiting for us in the land of the gods as well?"
Josephus nodded. "They will fight on two levels. That is the nature of their style of combat."
"I've met it before," Silvas said. "When we faced the Blue Rose, the fighting was on three levels at once, and I had to be in each place."
And I had more help then than I knew of, Silvas thought, not sharing that qualification with Josephus. He had been moved to the position of greatest need at each instant, placed in a pentagram of gold in the land of the gods without his participation in the magic, moved from place to place on the field of battle at Mecq as well. Now, he would have to sense where to put his greatest effort, and he would have to handle all of the work involved to move around.
"It's as well that there will be only two levels to this battle," Maria said, sensing what was going through Silvas's mind.
The road climbed sharply to the closed pass east of the Seven Towers. The chaotic veil that sealed in the valley looked more ominous as they neared it. The colors looked more angry, almost alive with fury. Deep swirling purples, reds, and oranges churned, along with each of the other colors of the rainbow, and each of the riders had the feeling that those eddies might quickly flare out like cyclones to engulf them.
Silvas glanced back. The villagers were a hundred yards behind the mounted soldiers, and losing ground steadily.
"They'll arrive in time," Maria said without turning to see where he was looking.
"In time to die," Josephus said.
"Some, perhaps," Silvas conceded. "But they know what they're fighting for. They accept the risk. They're not serfs going to battle only because their lord forces them."
Sparks started to fly from the barrier. Silvas and Maria reined in their mounts, a beat ahead of Josephus. Felix was slowest of all; his mare was abreast of the others before he managed to stop her. Josephus raised a hand to halt the rest of the soldiers. With shouts and gestures, he deployed the mounted troops. He set some to either side of the pass, on ground that was slightly higher but still adequate for horses. The bulk of the mounted force was brought up closer to the leaders, blocking the road, ready to meet the enemy advance head on.
"We'll meet the enemy on this side of the veil," Silvas said. "Where our power runs strongest."
"Do we fight from a pentagram?" Maria asked.
Silvas shook his head. "I think not, not here, at least. But we can raise the power of the pentagram back in the Seven Towers for what focus it might bring."
Together, Silvas and Maria took a moment to do that. In their minds, they could see the crystal lines of the device set in the floor of the conjuring chamber, and they could see the sheets of energy that rose from each of those lines. Within themselves, they found their consciousness connected to the place of power in the center of the pentagram.
"The devices of wizards," Josephus commented softly when he saw that Silvas and Maria had brought their attention back from that work.
"Are very useful at times, as even Mikel and his brethren have learned," Silvas said.
The battle music that had suffused the valley since night had been banished suddenly grew louder and more insistent, taking on a new urgency and tempo. Strident discords clashed with each other. Close to the veil, the music was almost deafening—felt more than heard, shocking through bone, forcing minds inward in an attempt to escape. Of the horses, only Bay seemed immune to the cacophony. The rest became extremely agitated, requiring close control from their riders. Felix was almost thrown from his mount. He still had only minimal ability as a rider. The soldiers were similarly assaulted by the din. Being forced to concentrate to control their horses undoubtedly helped many of them. Farther back, the villagers halted their advance. Some dropped the tools they carried as weapons to clap their hands tight over their ears, trying to shut out the awful clamor.
Finally, the enemy started to come through the barrier veil. The fabric of the barricade stretched over horses, folded tightly over the riders as they penetrated it, and eventually snapped open and shut, remaining solid behind the invaders.
"Shall we catch them before they can organize, as they emerge?" Josephus asked when the veil started to distort with the first soldiers.
Silvas started to say yes, but caught himself before the word was fully formed. "No, I sense a trap in that. We'll let them come fully into the valley before we attack."
Josephus tried to project his mind into the barrier, to attempt to discover the trap that Silvas was worried about. But the conflicting powers wrapped up in the maintenance of the veil and in this penetration were too tangled for him to unweave. He unsheathed his sword and held it straight up, reaching as high as he could. The angry
colors of the veil reflected off of the blade, separating into almost pure values, as through a prism.
Neither Silvas nor Maria bothered to draw their weapons yet. Felix started to draw his blade, but stopped when he saw that his master and mistress had not yet acted.
The thought of battle terrifies me, lord, Felix projected toward Silvas.
Stand firm, my friend. Silvas turned to give Felix a reassuring smile. Use the spell of calming on yourself.
Felix blinked several times. Fear and uncertainty had almost driven his mind away from his new abilities. Quickly, only a beat from panic, Felix used the spell of calming, and then a spell of searching to find what else he had in his new lore that might help. He was desperate to find any assistance at all.
Barreth and Gioia rode just behind the front ranks of their soldiers, with more coming in columns behind them. But the sight that arrested the attention of Silvas, Maria, and Josephus was the other figure riding next to Gioia.
"I should have guessed from the music," Josephus whispered.
"Gavrien, the musician god," Silvas said.
"Gioia's twin. He would not let her face us without him," Josephus said.
"How much does he affect the balance?" Maria asked.
Silvas shook his head.
"It's hard to figure," Josephus said. "Gavrien has never been seen as war-like. But you can hear the power of his music."
As Barreth, Gioia, and Gavrien came through the veil, the volume of the battle music rose again, becoming a force so powerful that it swayed the branches of trees and blew thatch off of cottage roofs in the village. Silvas and Maria brought forward a spell and a word of power to protect their people from the music. Without that spell, the music might easily have robbed them all of their hearing.
Not a bad tactic, if they faced only mortals, Josephus said.
It says much about the mind that conceived it, Silvas replied. He took several deep breaths while he watched the forces coming through the barrier. The first ranks of soldiers had reined in, just far enough inside the veil to leave room for the rest. The mounted warriors all had weapons drawn—sword, mace, or battle-axe.
Silvas focused on Gavrien, at Gioia's left hand. Apart from the differences imposed by sex, they looked almost identical. There was virtually nothing to distinguish one face from the other, save that Gavrien's frown was much shallower. He did not appear to be driven so much by hate as his twin. Just briefly, Gavrien's eyes seemed to meet Silvas's gaze. They stared at each other for a moment. Silvas felt sadness rather than hate in the look of the musician, but he also felt determination.
When their eyes parted, the visual show overhead intensified. The colors in the sky became much richer, as if daubed directly from an artist's paint pots. The clear lines of the rainbow were totally obliterated as the colors swirled and boiled at greater speeds. The storm clouds moved in tight arcs around the perimeter of the valley and overhead, much faster than the normal clouds could ever move, while lightning flashed among them almost without pause.
Once more, pale lavender clouds appeared as calm spots in front of the chaos of the rest of the sky. Faces appeared on those clouds. This time, the other gods of the Shining City were clearly identifiable. Of the gods who had attended Carillia's memorial, only four were missing from the sky. Barreth, Gioia, and Gavrien were below, entering the valley of the Seven Towers. Mikel was merely absent.
That may be a minor victory in itself. He has no heart to watch the sport here, Silvas told Maria and Josephus.
Perhaps he will intervene on our behalf yet, Maria suggested, though the emotion she conveyed showed that she placed no high probability on that.
If we defeat these three, will we have to face the others? Josephus asked.
Not immediately, I think, Silvas replied. With luck, never.
With luck, Maria echoed. Yet that time may well come. We face these three because of those who died before.
None of the others think that Barreth and the twins will need their help, Silvas said after casting his mind toward the images in the sky. There was no deep contact between him and any of the spectator gods. He did not approach them by name, and none of them offered response to his light probe. Barreth and Gioia are not so popular with the rest that they can call for help and expect it to come, not without long negotiation before time. And Gavrien's participation is not enough to make any difference. The others are come merely to watch our anticipated destruction.
"I sense no demons or monsters," Felix said. He had been doing some little questing of his own during the wait, using new talents and knowledge. He had remained unaware of the direct conversation among his companions.
"There's little need for them here," Silvas replied. "The enemies the old gods face here wouldn't be unmanned by such displays. Besides, the gods of the Blue Rose are gone. Fighting battles with demons was more the style of those individuals."
"If Barreth and Gioia do decide they need demons, be assured they can call them into being quickly," Maria said. "Gavrien will merely follow the lead of his twin and Barreth."
"That doesn't reassure me, though I didn't seek reassurance," Felix said. "It was merely an observation. I wondered if I might be missing something of importance."
Silvas issued a mental command to March the miller, to move the armed villagers off of the road, and come forward on either side, on the rough slopes above where the enemy's horses would have to pass. You'll face less danger from being on foot there, and you might do more damage to the enemy, Silvas told him.
Against the backdrop of mad sky and strange battle music, a clear trumpet call sounded, seven notes that stood out as individual sounds—almost as individual beings. There was no horn visible in the force gathered just inside the veil. No horn could have produced sound so pure. These had to come directly from the will of Gavrien. The ranks of invading soldiery closed together as they prepared for the charge. Horses raised their heads as if they sensed that they were about to be hurled into action. Weapons were brought up to the ready.
"When they move, we move," Silvas said, speaking and projecting the message with his mind at the same time so that all of the soldiers and peasants with him would know what to do.
A second image became more intense within Silvas's mind at the same time. He saw a plain in the land of the gods, a plain with no reference points. Barreth, Gioia, and Gavrien sat there on their horses, just the three of them, at the same time that they sat on their horses among their soldiers at the verge of the valley of the Seven Towers. The squad of soldiers that had been there with Barreth and Gioia before was gone.
You see them? Silvas asked Maria.
I see them. Will we have to do combat in both arenas?
Yes, and at the same time, Silvas confirmed. Here, the gods will likely hold back. The real duel, for you and me, will take place in that other land, where they fancy themselves strongest.
Together, they surveyed the Seven Towers and the other approaches to the valley. There were still no other forces coming toward the valley from the other directions. In the Glade, Braf and all of his warriors—as well as many of the other servants—were standing to on the walls, waiting for any attack there. The drawbridge was raised. The gates were closed and barred. Cauldrons of hot oil were near the boil, ready to be poured on the heads of any enemy who tried to scale the walls. Stocks of arrows and javelins were ready for use against more distant enemies. Swords and knives were sheathed, but at hand.
Braf. Be ready for anything. At need I may transport you all here, Silvas warned, knowing that Braf would recognize his master in the message.
"Aye, lord. We'll be ready." Silvas and Maria heard the words as clearly as if the gurnetz were standing between them.
Another trumpet call sounded, three notes only this time, higher in pitch and longer in duration. The ranks of soldiers, all wearing the colors of Barreth, started their horses forward in line, moving from walk to trot in three paces, then urging their steeds into a canter.
Silvas,
Maria, and Josephus started forward almost instantly with the first pace by the horses of the enemy. Felix was less than a half second behind them, and Amelie moved to put herself back in line with Camiss and Bay. The armored soldiers behind them also moved forward, until they rode just behind their leaders, not a length behind the tails of the leading horses, moving quickly to a canter.
It should have taken no more than a few seconds for the leading ranks of the opposing forces to close the gap between them. The melee should have been joined almost before any of the combatants could take further thought for what was to come. But when gods do battle, the usual laws of motion and time do not always apply, or apply equally to all.
An invisible battle, invisible to all but the few who had the power to see it, did start immediately, and the waging of that war slowed down the physical clash of soldiers on the road.
The first volleys did not catch anyone unaware. Gioia loosed the violence pent up in the mad sky against the four figures who rode in front of the rest. Storm clouds fell out of the sky as if they had suddenly turned to lead, loosing scores of lightning bolts at the ground below as if to hold themselves up. Bolts of fire in the brightest shades of red and blue and orange raged directly toward Silvas and his companions. Silvas, Maria, and Josephus responded in unison, erecting a shield that would deflect and dissipate the violence of the onslaught, shunting much of it off toward their enemies, who grounded the fire without difficulty. The rock and dirt of the road charred. More of the clouds fell toward the defenders, swirling in from every part of the sky over the valley, one following the next in a display that, by any rational reckoning of time, must have taken an hour. But in that time, the mortal soldiery on both sides detected no more than the passing of an instant.
More happened at the same time that was unknowable by the mortals who inched toward their own battle.
Barreth tried to split the ground under the feet of Bay and the horses that rode at Bay's side. Silvas and Maria met that easily, holding the earth together by force of will. Josephus and Silvas united to try to stampede the horses of Barreth's soldiers. That was almost met without difficulty, with a laugh even, by Barreth. Gioia loosed a hail of diamond-tipped steel arrows out of the sky, a torrent that would have cut through armor and ripped flesh to bloody shreds had it struck as intended. Many thousands of projectiles hurtled down at once with the force of crossbow bolts. This rain was difficult to meet. All that Silvas and Maria could do was to shunt it aside, scarcely missing some of the villagers who were moving toward positions of advantage at the sides of the road. Dozens of trees were struck by the missiles, cutting branches and trunks. A pair of trees fell, their tops bending downhill, dragging boles and branches toward lower ground. Hundreds of smaller branches were cut from their homes and toppled, some heavy enough to break other branches below them.
