Mindbender

by David A. Wells

  One of the delegates started to object but Alexander silenced him with a challenging glare.

  “You have all enjoyed wealth and privilege because of the offices you hold. You are all so desperate to maintain your hold on what power you have that you have forgotten your duty to serve the people. You claim fealty to the law and hold it up as sacred while you defile it in the shadows. You have forgotten that there is a law higher than the statutes that you pass to benefit some at the expense of others. You have willfully chosen to ignore the Old Law, to subvert it at every turn, to scorn the limitations on your power that the Old Law demands.”

  Alexander withdrew the Sovereign Stone and let it fall against his tunic. It glowed with a soft, deep-red aura of power.

  “This confers upon me the title of Sovereign of the Seven Isles, but that is not the title I call upon here as my authority to resolve this matter. I claim the title of Champion of the Old Law. I claim it because the Old Law must have a defender. I claim it because I don’t want power but it has been thrust upon me in spite of my wishes. I claim it because I see injustice rule and deceit reign and it makes me angry. I claim the title of Champion of the Old Law because no one else will, and there must be someone to stand for those most basic principles that underlie any civilization worthy of being called civil.

  “Hear me now. Let it be known throughout the Seven Isles that all who choose to govern over others, all who choose to rule and all who claim any noble title are subject to my authority and my justice.”

  With blinding speed he drew the Thinblade and lopped off Cassius Ithilian’s head in a single stroke.

  The room gasped and then fell silent as Alexander pointed the bloody sword at the now terrified delegates. The Chancellor’s head rolled to a stop and blood began to pool around it, bright red in the fall of sunlight through the skylights as his body crumpled to the floor.

  “You will obey the Old Law or I will take your heads. For those who seek power over others, you will face my justice and mine alone. You will have no trial. You will receive no jury. I will judge you and decide your punishment and my sentence will be final.”

  He gave the room one last sweeping gaze, then turned and strode out without looking back. His friends trailed behind him along with Abel and his royal guard.

  ***

  An hour later they were riding toward the Gate with Conner and his honor guard. Abel remained in the city to deal with the aftermath of Alexander’s actions. The assembly was shocked and frightened at the sudden turn of events. Many demanded that Alexander be brought to trial, but Abel dismissed their demands and instead established a board of inquiry composed of a number of wizards and several ranking officers from his army to investigate any further corruption within the assembly. Alexander’s aggressive approach had blunted any criticism and sent the delegates into a scramble to cover their own corruption.

  Chapter 34

  Alexander arrived at the Reishi Gate late in the afternoon just ahead of the two legions marching from Grafton Province. The Gate legions were busy making preparations for the assault into Ruatha. The soldiers in the encampment had been idle for so long that they were eager for the opportunity to fight. Alexander knew all too well that their enthusiasm would soon be dampened by the very real horror of war.

  They were met at the Gate by a young officer who escorted them to their tents.

  Alexander sat down to meditate and soon found his awareness floating on the firmament. He moved his focus to Ruatha. From high over the enemy position he assessed their defenses. They had constructed a stone wall in a semicircle around the front of the Gate, joined by a straight wall that ran just behind the Gate with a ramp on either end allowing access to the top of the wall. Atop the wall were several heavy ballistae and at least two hundred archers, all well stocked with arrows.

  Alexander drifted in closer and saw that the ground enclosed by the front wall was covered with wooden stakes pounded in at an angle with their sharp points facing the Gate. Upon closer inspection he found that the points of the stakes were coated with dung and that the ground around the stakes was layered with several inches of oil-soaked straw. The entire Gate platform was haphazardly covered in boards riddled with six-inch nails pointing upward.

  Outside the wall was a horde of twenty thousand soldiers. First heavy infantry, then a band of archers surrounded by the remaining soldiers, who were all facing outward. The entire position was encircled with a hastily constructed berm lined with wooden spikes and ringed by a trench.

  Alexander shifted his focus high overhead and found the position of the Ruathan assault force not two miles away. They were camped with Blackstone Keep to their backs and still working to prepare for the battle to come.

  Alexander next shifted his awareness into the Keep and looked at his message board. There was only one message: “We are ready to attack.” He moved to the sleeping room. His message was short: “Attack at dawn.”

  When he opened his eyes, Chloe was sitting on his knee watching him and Jataan was standing several feet away, hands clasped behind his back. Alexander stood up and left the tent, trailed by Jataan. Jack caught up a few moments later as Alexander headed for the Gate.

  “What’s happening?” Jack asked.

  “I’m going to stir up the enemy,” Alexander said.

  “Can I watch?” Jack asked with a broad smile.

  Alexander just chuckled.

  As he stopped at the Gate and stared at it for a long moment, several of Lieutenant Wyatt’s Rangers formed up around him. Tomorrow he would lead an army through the Gate into his homeland and begin the battle for the survival of Ruatha. For now, he just wanted to give the enemy something to worry about. The entire ancient gateway was made from black stone and consisted of a gently sloping platform thirty feet square with a wall jutting up from the side opposite the ramp. Cut into the stone wall was the outline of an archway. Etched into the right side of the outline was a map of the Seven Isles and an indentation in the form of the Glyph of the House of Reishi that exactly matched the butt of the Thinblade.

  “Everyone stand to the side of the Gate,” Alexander ordered. “They’re probably going to send quite a few arrows through as soon as it opens.”

  He took a torch from one of the Rangers and handed it to Jataan. “Stand here,” he said, motioning to the very edge of the arch, “and throw that torch through as soon as the Gate opens. Make sure you throw it hard enough to clear the stone platform.”

  Jataan nodded and took his position. Alexander went to the opposite side of the Gate arch and looked to Jataan for confirmation before he touched the outline of Ruatha. A moment later the stone shimmered briefly and then disappeared, opening a passageway to Ruatha.

  Jataan tossed the torch through.

  Alexander waited for just a moment until he saw the oil-soaked straw ignite with a whoosh. He touched the straight bar etched into the Gate arch beneath the map of the Seven Isles. With a shimmer, the stone wall returned, closing the Gate.

  “I doubt they’ll get much sleep tonight,” Jack said with a chuckle.

  “Let’s hope not,” Alexander said. “We need to talk to General Brand about our strategy. We’re going to lose a lot of men trying to break through the wall they built around the Gate.”

  “Perhaps we should capture the wall, rather than break through it,” Jataan suggested. “If we could get our archers onto the wall, we could do significant damage to the infantry beyond while risking few of our forces.”

  “They still have a lot of archers within range of the Gate,” Alexander said. “Even if we take the wall, they can put more than enough arrows into the air to kill everyone on or inside the wall.”

  “Mage Dax might be able to offer a solution,” Jack suggested. “I’ve spoken to Lieutenant Wyatt at length about his time here. He speaks highly of the mage.”

  Alexander nodded. “Better go find him. We need a plan or tomorrow is going to be bloody.”

  They found Mage Dax with Conner and General Bra
nd along with a dozen other senior advisors and Lieutenant Wyatt in the command tents standing over a sketch map of northern Ruatha.

  “Ah, Lord Reishi,” Conner said. “My messenger was quicker than I expected.”

  Alexander shook his head. “I didn’t receive a message. I just came from the Gate. We need to develop a plan for the initial thrust into Ruatha.”

  He stepped up to the map with Jack beside him. Jataan took up a position a step or two behind, watching the other officers for any sign of danger to his charge. Alexander took a piece of charcoal and quickly drew the wall and the positions of the enemy soldiers as well as the location of the Ruathan forces that were ready to attack.

  “The area inside the wall has been prepared with spikes and oil-soaked straw. We just set it on fire, so the ground might be a bit less dangerous by tomorrow morning,” Alexander said. “The wall is lined with archers and ballistae. Once we take the wall, the archers surrounding the Gate are at perfect range to send a sustained barrage of arrows at us from all sides.

  “Ruathan forces will attack at dawn and attempt to drive a wedge to the Gate, but they’ll meet heavy resistance, so we should view their attack as a distraction. We need a plan, and I’m open to suggestions since you know your capabilities better than I do.”

  They debated their options late into the night, considering every possibility and exploring every option at their disposal. After an exhaustive evaluation of every imaginable plan, Alexander selected elements from a number of suggestions and formulated his battle strategy.

  He went to bed with the understanding that his plan wasn’t perfect, but it was the best chance they had under the circumstances. He only hoped that he hadn’t missed something but knew that he most likely had. He also knew that the enemy was making plans, and as good as his sight was, he couldn’t see everything. Good people were going to die tomorrow on his order.

  He drifted off to sleep, nursing his anger toward Phane for inflicting his narcissistic ambitions on the world.

  ***

  He was up before dawn and took care strapping on his weapons and armor. He wore a baldric with Mindbender on his left hip and the Thinblade strapped across his back with the hilt over his right shoulder. He checked the blade of each to be sure they were clear in their scabbards. His wear-worn long knife on the right side of his belt and a throwing knife strapped onto the back of his belt completed his armaments. He left his bow and quiver with his pack to be carried through the Gate by the supply wagons that would bring up the rear of the assault force.

  He emerged from his tent to find Lucky cheerfully cooking breakfast over a small fire. Then he saw Jataan P’Tal and almost faltered.

  The battle mage was dressed in armor. He had always worn a simple tunic and fought with knives, but this morning he was dressed very differently. He wore a breastplate, grieves, bracers, gauntlets, and a helmet. He had a sword strapped to his belt and a spear thrust into the ground next to him with a large round shield resting against it.

  Alexander took it in for a moment, then glanced over to Anatoly.

  “A little disconcerting, isn’t it?” the big man-at-arms said.

  Alexander could only nod his agreement.

  “In large scale battle, danger can come from any direction without warning,” Jataan said. “I generally find armor cumbersome and anything more than a knife unnecessary, but given the circumstances, I believe it’s warranted.”

  Jack whipped out his tablet and started writing furiously while nodding to himself.

  The sky was just starting to turn deep blue and the stars were dimming when they finished their breakfast and went to the Gate. Conner, General Brand, and Mage Dax were already there.

  Alexander surveyed the scene. Soldiers were staged for as far as he could see. Several units were lined up close to the Gate waiting to play their part in the initial push into Ruatha, while many more waited farther out for the order to move. Three units of a thousand men each stood the closest. The first were heavy infantry. Men selected for their strength and size as well as their experience and reputation for skill in battle. The second were heavy cavalry, armed with heavy spears, javelins, and long swords. Half rode big and powerful warhorses while the rest were mounted on the captured rhone steeds. The final unit was composed of archers equipped with long bows and a hundred arrows each.

  During the night, a pile of boulders had been stacked on the Gate platform and a battering ram was waiting off to one side.

  Alexander nodded good morning to Conner and his senior advisors, then drew a magic circle in the dirt before the Ithilian Gate. There was some murmuring from the troops when Alexander sat down and started meditating. He ignored them. Within a few minutes his awareness was floating above the Ruathan Gate. Dawn was just breaking over the horizon. The sky was clear and the battle flags flapped lazily in the gentle breeze.

  Off in the distance he saw a cloud of dust rising into the air from the movement of his army. They were beginning to advance toward the enemy line. The battle would be joined within the hour.

  He looked closely at the wall enclosing the Gate and saw that the enemy hadn’t taken the time to place new stakes in the ground or lay more oil-soaked straw. He floated amongst the archers lining the tops of the wall. They looked tired and nervous but they were alert and watching for any sign of movement. When he reached the spot on the straight wall that ran behind the Gate, he found a wizard, as expected. He returned to his body and stood up.

  “There’s a wizard on the wall behind the Gate,” he said. “Our plan doesn’t change. Mage Dax, please proceed.”

  The mage began casting a spell. It took several minutes to complete and, judging from the swell of his colors, required an unrestrained connection with the firmament. Once he completed his spell, the pile of boulders stacked on the Gate platform began to move. Slowly, the boulders took on a life of their own. Within a few minutes they were arranged in the form of a giant man. Flickerings of magical energy could be seen in the spaces between the stones. Once it was fully assembled, standing twelve feet tall, Mage Dax nodded to Alexander.

  He went to the Gate controls and touched the outline of Ruatha on the little map. The Gate shimmered and then opened. A second later, arrows rained down through the Gate but none found their mark. The angle of attack from the wall made it impossible to shoot through the Gate any farther than a few feet.

  With a word from Mage Dax, the creature of stone and magic started moving forward, gathering terrifying speed in just a few steps. It hit the wall facing the Gate with a thunderous crash, then began smashing the hastily built fortification with its giant stone fists. Arrows rained down on the magical creature with no effect. Alexander watched from a safe distance, marveling at the virtually limitless capacity of magic.

  A bubble of liquid fire splashed against the back of the stone juggernaut and ignited with a whoosh, splattering droplets of flame all around, but still the magical creature continued to pound the wall. Stones began to break free and crash to the ground. Alexander smiled to himself when he saw the creature snatch up a block of stone and incorporate it into itself. As more stones fell, it gathered them up, adding to its size and bulk. As it grew, the blows to the stone wall grew in power and more stones fell. Sounds of shouting and alarm could be heard from the archers as the wall began to lose structural integrity.

  By now the stone monster was twenty feet tall and the section of wall in front of it was nearly broken through. With one final blow, the wall shattered, sending stones scattering into the enemy infantry beyond. With the break in the wall, the stone creature was able to gather even more boulders up and add them to its mass and size. It started dismantling the wall piece by piece as the soldiers surrounding the fortification looked on in shock and amazement.

  It quickly opened a twenty-foot gap in the stone wall and grew to thirty feet in height. Mage Dax gave a command and the creature turned and barreled into the corner of the semicircular wall where it met the straight wall running behind the Gate
. Alexander heard shouted commands as the enemy commanders marshaled their forces to pour through the breach and into the enclosed space in front of the Gate.

  As he gripped the hilt of Mindbender, his focus sharpened and his senses heightened the way they always did when he was in a fight. He created the image of a giant dragon in his mind and released it into the sword. With a flicker, the air before them condensed and a terrifying creature of bone and fang appeared.

  Alexander’s army gasped in surprise.

  The illusionary dragon roared in fury, then folded its wings and started squeezing through the Gate. Soldiers on the other side cried out in alarm at the threat of a dragon in their midst. They fell back, giving the stone giant more time to work on the wall.

  The dragon stood guard on the other side of the Gate, sending the enemy into a mad scramble to regroup and form some sort of strategy capable of dealing with such a terrifying threat. A hail of arrows descended on the illusionary creature and the stone giant from all directions but had no effect.

  “Prepare the cavalry,” Alexander said.

  General Brand nodded and signaled to the cavalry commander.

  Alexander smiled when he saw the shadow of the stone giant fall over the front of the Gate. It was nearing forty feet tall and gaining size rapidly from the stone blocks it was cannibalizing from the crumbling wall. It stepped into view and swept down with a mighty two-fisted blow onto the top of the wall. The weakened wall shuddered under the weight of the blow, then crumbled into rubble with a thunderous rolling crash.

  Alexander focused on his dragon and it leapt up onto the remaining section of the semicircular wall and roared, sending nearby soldiers scrambling to escape the terrifying beast.

  With the wall broken down, Mage Dax spoke another word of command and the now fifty-foot-tall rock monster waded out into the surrounding army, thrashing this way and that. Broken bodies of enemy soldiers flew through the air, sending the rest of the nearby soldiers into a panic. Mage Dax’s creation cut a wide swath of destruction through the enemy ranks, sending them into disarray and confusion. With a final word of command, the magical jumble of stones stopped and drew itself up to a full sixty feet, then abruptly exploded, sending boulders half the size of a man flying through the air in every direction, crashing into the enemy with deadly force.