Tal laughed. “You bring an army of chaos beings to the edge of Vishni and speak to me of ‘order’ and ‘peace’?” he asked. “You have gall, I’ll give you that.”
The Drake Lord’s eyes flashed with indigo fire. “You have no idea of what you speak,” he said calmly.
“Oh I think I do,” Tal said softly. “That army, those Magi and those things – they don’t comprehend peace. They don’t comprehend justice or order. They comprehend death, destruction and chaos. Say what you will, but while that army and those creatures back your words, chaos and destruction is all you can offer.”
“Believe what you will,” Stret’sar replied coldly. “I will say this again: join me. We can bring a true peace to this world, not one built on the Long War.”
Tal laughed again, and spat in the dirt at Stret’sar’s feet. “Between Chaos and humanity, there can be no peace,” he told his enemy. “Chaos unbounded is pure destruction, nothing more. It is not your tool, it is your master.”
“Then I fear we are at an impasse,” Stret said calmly. “If you will not join us, then your choices are simple: surrender, or die.”
Tal looked up to the mountains flanking the pass, watching as the sun passed below the line of Mount Morit, and shadow fell across Drago Pass. He gestured at the fading light. “If you wish to die, feel free to attack us,” he told Stret’sar. “Night is my power, not yours.”
Stret bared his teeth in a snarl. “I will give you and yours one last chance, Tal’raen,” he told the Battlemage. “If you withdraw before dawn, your lives will be spared.”
“And leave the Swarm free to rampage through the lands I am sworn to defend?” Tal replied. “No. The Swarm will enter Vishni as fertilizer, or not at all.”
“So be it.” The Lord of the Swarm’s voice increased in volume as he plainly used magic to project his words to both forces. “But any Battlemage in this Pass at dawn will wish they’d yielded to my mercy before they die!”
With that, the Lord of the Swarm turned, and floated back to his own lines.
As night moved towards dawn, Tal drifted through the camp of his army. His motions were silent, any noise muffled by the magic he had woven about himself. The camp was almost as silent, the only noise the wind among the Mage-woven shelters.
He could not understand why they’d followed him. Despite all the power that had been entrusted to the Hawk Lord Reborn, Tal knew that if they had not believed in him – had not trusted him – they would not have been here, at the edge of civilization. Everything rode on these men and women.
And on him. Tal knew that perfectly well. In the end, all the armies in this battle existed for one purpose: to bring the Children of the Twain to each other. And yet, the battle could not be merely fought between him and Stret’sar. The Swarm and the Battlemagi had their part.
Tal faced the east, where the sun would rise at the end of this night, marking the beginning of the last act of this prophesied grand tragedy. It would not be done until all the players had played their parts.
The question that remained in his mind was simple: how many of them would survive playing that part?
When the sun rose, it cast sharp shadows over the plain where the Battlemagi waited. They’d found their footing in the rocky soil and prepared to take their stand. Tal’s eyes ran along the thin line of white and black-clad Magi, watching. Praying silently to himself. Praying that he had not led them all to their deaths.
Then he looked outward, to where the black host of the Swarm had halted the night before. The regimental blocks of the Beastmen were forming up. In front of them, thousands upon thousands of Swarmbeasts had clearly been gathered.
“Prepare to raise the shield wall,” Tal said softly, using magic to project his voice to all the Battlemagi. He continued to watch the enemy.
The sun finally rose over the last remnants of the mountains, the stark morning light making the Battlemagi’s white overrobes seem to glow. That same light gave the Battlemagi a clearer look at the Swarm than they had ever wanted to have.
Nothing in that immense horde was like anything else. Each was different, looking as if an insane child had been handed clay and told to make the most horrific creature they could imagine. Tentacles, claws, beaks and rending teeth surged towards the Battlemagi line as the Swarmmasters let their creatures go.
An unstoppable wave of glistening scales and slimy skin began to charge up the hill at the Battlemagi. Like a set of white cliffs, the Battlemagi awaited the wave.
“Ready staves,” Tal ordered, his voice carrying to the furthest ends of his lines and no further. He watched as five hundred white staves slammed into the earth, their sharp ends shoving into the stony soil.
“Be ready,” Tal whispered, watching the wave of corrupted life surge up the hill to the peak of the pass. “Be ready,” he repeated as they closed the distance. The things were less than a hundred meters away from the line now, and the Battlemagi remained motionless, trusting him.
“Now!” he snapped, unleashing a massive blast of flame that swept the front ranks of the Swarm away even as they reached the Mage’s line. The later ranks lunged over the bodies and through the fire, unheeding, to slam into the shield wall and die.
The wave of death smashed down upon that thin wall, and broke upon it.
It didn’t last long. The first assault petered out quickly, only a few thousand Swarmbeasts expending themselves on the shield. Just out of reasonable reach, a second assault element formed up. Even more Swarmbeasts, flanked by the neat blocks of Beastmen archers.
Tal watched the element form up, then gestured Shej to him. “Pull one in every twenty Magi back,” he told the older Mage. “Get them ready to attack the Beastmen and the Magi that will be supporting them.”
Shej nodded and moved forward, quietly giving orders. Soon enough, a small portion of the Battlemagi pulled out of the main lines, forming into several small groups behind the lines.
Almost as soon as they’d moved, the Swarm moved. Thousands of Swarmbeasts lunged forward as one, with the Beastmen flanking them. Even before the Swarmbeasts reached the Battlemage lines, the Beastmen slowed their advance and began to launch a hail of black-feathered arrows.
Tal stepped forward to join the Magi he’d pulled back from the line. “All right. Let’s do this,” he said softly. Even as he spoke, he was raising his hands, and he sent a fireball arcing over the shield wall to smash into the nearest group of archers.
The other Magi began attacks of their own, sending fire and lightning arcing at the Beastmen. It didn’t really matter if they hit the Beastmen; anything that missed the near-men would almost certainly hit the Swarmbeasts around them.
The Chaos Magi, Swarmmasters and Warriors, added their strength to the attack as the Swarm struck the shield wall. This time, the sheer fury of the assault, combined with the reduced number of Magi, drove the Battlemagi back a step. Then another step as chaos fire began to slam into their shields.
“Take the Magi!” Tal snapped, redirecting his own attacks as he gave the order. The arrows were a threat, but the Chaos Magi were a worse one. He isolated the source of the attacks, and sent lightning flashing across the pass to smash into the largest concentration of Magi, scattering men and Beastmen alike toy dolls.
He felt the first Battlemage die as if the arrow had struck him. Then another went down to chaos fire, and then one of the Magi with him took a black-feathered arrow to the eye. They kept dying, to one attack or another.
“Gods!” he whispered, unleashing fire on another concentration of Magi. The ranks of the Swarm didn’t seem to be thinning. As far as he could see, more Swarmbeasts were being fed into the charge, between the solid blocks of the Beastmen archers.
“Shej!” Tal shouted, as he felt more Magi die. “Get them ready to attack! On my order, I want the pass swept with flame by every single Mage we have left!” He couldn’t even tell if the old Mage had heard him, he was too busy using his own magic to try and kill the Magi who were killing his p
eople.
The Beastmen blocks were slowly creeping closer to the Battlemage line, bringing the Magi with them. He doubted anyone in those blocks realized it was happening – it was probably instinctual on the Beastmen’s part – but it looked like it would give the Battlemagi a chance.
Then two of the Magi holding the shield wall died within seconds of each other, and part of the wall flickered and vanished. The Swarmbeasts lunged forward into the gap. Tal felt Shej’s warning just in time to turn and see the old Mage vanish as the Swarmbeasts reached him.
“NOW!” Tal shrieked, his powers flashing out to consume the Swarmbeasts that had broken through the lines. At his cry, the entire shield wall flickered and vanished.
The Swarmbeasts, semi-sentient at best, froze for a moment. A moment too long. Four hundred Magi leveled their staffs, and fire swept the pass before them like a scythe. Tal launched a massive fireball at the Chaos Magi who tried to run, then turned back to the Swarmbeasts that had broken through, to find Shej panting in the middle of a blackened pile of Swarmbeasts.
The old Mage looked up at Tal and met his eyes. Shej inclined his head and Tal returned the gesture. Then both Magi turned to the battle, where the Swarm had pulled back to lick its wounds.
Tal looked up and down the line of his Magi, noting their exhaustion. The attack had taken too much from the Magi. “We won’t hold against another assault,” he said softly.
“So we pray,” Shej said as he rejoined Tal, equally softly. “Pray hard.”
“For what?” Tal asked.
“Divine intervention.”
Behind the two Magi, the sun slowly rose towards noon.
Brea stood upon the field at the eastern end of Drago pass. The High Royal Banner flew over the army of knights she had managed to muster and the thousands of Life Magi that had followed. She held her horse’s reins as she looked around at the rest of the impromptu command group of the High Royal Army.
“The Lord specifically told us not to come to his aid,” her father said. “We shouldn’t even be here.”
“He is my betrothed,” Brea replied softly, her eyes on the pass. “He needs us.”
“Death is only half a whole,” the Eldest said softly. “The Hawk Lord cannot fight alone.”
Kelt’ahrn sighed and nodded. “All right,” he told them, as if he hadn’t agreed days before. “Find him.”
Brea gestured, bringing up the Viewing magic. The image that formed in the air showed Tal standing with Shej’mahi, behind a line of Battlemagi. A sparse line. It appeared as though Tal’s army, small as it had been to begin with, had taken even heavier casualties than she’d feared. Brea looked up to see her father nod.
“We will do as we must,” he said, turning to the Kingsman with him. “Trumpeter, sound General Advance. We must break the Swarm. If we win, we win forever!”
Ten thousand lance points glittered in the sun as Brea mounted her horse. The clarion call of the General Advance rang out from the trumpets, and those ten thousand lances dipped, scattering the light across the mountains. Then the very earth seemed to tremble as twelve thousand horses began to move up Drago Pass.
Tal watched silently as a third advance made its way up the pass towards the Battlemage line. The bodies of over ten thousand Beastmen and innumerable Swarmbeasts carpeted the hill they advanced up, but the Swarm barely seemed to slow.
This was no mere assault, either. Obviously Stret’sar had decided that the Battlemagi were weak enough to be defeated now, for the entire Swarm advanced up the mountain in the burning midday sun. Unfortunately, Tal was forced to agree with his assessment.
“Get them ready,” he told Shej softly.
“How?” the Battle Lord asked. “They’re as ready as anyone half-dead from exhaustion can be. Nothing I can do or say can make it any better.”
Tal nodded. “Then I guess this is it,” he said quietly. He watched the Swarm grow closer, his eyes noting the glimmer of the various Chaos Magi’s shields. “All that remains is to take as many of the sons of bitches with us as we can.” He touched his amulet gently and drew his sword. “Shej… it’s been an honor.”
“Likewise,” the old Mage replied, hefting his staff. “I’m going to go down, see if I can hold the line a little longer.”
Tal reached out with his left hand and gripped the older Mage’s shoulder. “Gods guard you,” he told the other man.
“And you, my Lord,” Shej replied, covering his former student’s hand with his own.
Tal stood silently, holding his sword-staff and watching as his former teacher walked forward to join the line of Magi. He hefted the sword in his hand. “Let’s do it,” he said softly, then strode forward himself.
He reached the line in time to see the first waves of Swarmbeasts crash onto it. The exhausted Magi faltered, reeling under the assault. Here and there, some of them stepped backwards, pushed back by the force of the impact.
Tal took one look at the wavering line, then stepped forward to join it. As a third wave of Swarmbeasts smashed forward, the wall flickered. He could feel it begin to fail.
He took a deep breath, and slammed his sword, point first, into the earth. Energy flared down his arms into the blade and out the sides, joining with and reinforcing the shield wall. For a moment, it seemed as if it wasn’t going to be enough, as more impacts rippled along the wall, testing even Tal’s strength.
Then energy flashed, and threw the assault back. Tal focused, gently reinforcing the shield wall along its length, lending power where it was needed to keep the wall up. Then it happened.
Every Chaos Mage within reach of the shield wall opened up at once. Hundreds of bolts of flame and lightning and dozens of chaos lances smashed into the faltering defense. The Battlemagi managed to hold the shield for a moment, but the strike overwhelmed them and shattered the shield. Dozens of the Magi collapsed with it.
Tal hesitated, taking in the situation. Perhaps four hundred Battlemagi still stood, tired and without their main defense. Thousands of Swarmbeasts and Beastmen were already charging in, and hundreds of Chaos Magi were behind them.
He didn’t bother to finish the analysis of the situation. The Swarm was there, and he yanked his sword from the dirt to send fire splashing across their front ranks. The Swarmbeasts recoiled for a moment, but lunged back in again.
He met them with lightning and flame, death in every form he could conjure. “Attack!” he yelled at the Battlemagi. “We may not make it out of here, but let’s give them a fight they won’t quickly forget!”
Praying that they would follow, he charged forward, sword swinging. Fire blazed out from the blade and lightning flashed from his free hand, scattering the Swarm before him.
For a moment, he fought alone, spewing death into the heart of the Swarm. Then he felt another presence join his, magic flaring forth. Then another. And another. He felt the Battlemagi put aside their exhaustion and charge into the fray, staffs swinging and magic blazing.
Then the first Beastmen were upon him. Six of the near-men charged at him, a Warrior Magi just behind them. Fire blasted two of them away from him, and he ran a third through with his sword.
He yanked the sword free just in time to parry a descending ax and drop a fourth Beastmen with a blast of lightning. He grabbed onto the handle of another ax with his left hand, throwing the Beastman to the floor as a blast of fire from the Warrior Mage battered into his shields. Tal spun around, running the Beastman between him and the Chaos Mage through, and sending a pure black death lance flashing out from the tip of his sword. The lance punched through the Warrior’s shields to catch the Mage just below the chin and rip off the man’s head.
Tal twisted his sword free of the Beastman and dodged a flashing ax head as another group of Beastmen joined the fight. He sent three of them tumbling backwards with a single blast of lightning, then found himself facing their Warrior champion.
The Mage sent fire flickering at Tal and lunged in with his sword simultaneously. Tal caught the fire in his lef
t hand and sent it hammering into a Beastmen who tried to attack him. As the Beastman stumbled back, its fur set alight by the flame, Tal brought his own sword across to parry the Warrior’s thrust, the sharp clang almost lost in the fury of the battle.
Tal spun the sword, stabbing back under his arm to catch a Beastmen who was charging up on him from behind. He ripped the blade free and used it to cut a leaping Swarmbeast in half before it reached him. Even as he smashed the Swarmbeast to the ground, he grunted as a burst of chaos lightning smashed into his shields.
He turned back to the Warrior to find that a Swarmmaster had joined him. The Swarmmaster gestured, and a dozen Swarmbeasts charged forward. Tal slashed his sword across the front of the group, sending fire flashing across the pass to cut through the Swarmbeasts and smash into the two Chaos Magi’s shields. The two Magi grunted, and then both of them sent lightning flickering at him.
Tal caught the lightning on his sword, twisting to deflect it into a company of Beastmen who were closing on a nearby triad of Battlemagi. He grinned, then sent lightning of his own blasting out from the sword blade to throw both Chaos Magi back.
He stepped forward to deliver a killing blow, but paused as the earth began to shake with an unidentifiable fury.
The image Brea was projecting showed the Battlemage line crumple under the Swarm’s attacks. She glanced around at the army surrounding her, making its way up the rocky slope as quickly as it could.
“We’re not going to make it at this rate,” she said softly.
“Indeed,” her father agreed, equally softly. Then, more loudly, “We have to go faster.”
“They can’t,” the Eldest replied. “Not yet. Save the horses for a few minutes more, High King, then they will bear you all the way to the end.”
The old Mage looked at Brea. “Once we’re there, Brea, you find Tal,” she told the Princess. “All the rest of the Life Magi will be finding Battlemagi to support, but you make certain you find Tal. You two have to be together at the end, I can feel it.”
Children of Prophecy Page 28
