* * *
Only a moment longer—that's what we had. The desert was completely silent around us—not even the sounds of sand shuffling betrayed the enemy's footsteps as they moved toward us. Perhaps one of their wizards had done that for them—muffled the noise they made as they approached. I'd seen Delvin counting on his fingers while Bel watched, figuring that Delvin was giving Bel information on how many wizards might be with the enemy. He'd counted out seventeen. That was frightening. Bel gave us the ready signal. We lifted our rifles in unison. Bel gave the signal to fire. I set my sights and fired.
* * *
"The enemy is engaged," Aris sighed. Commander Gorth had come to stand next to Aris on the wall. Gorth had no way of seeing what Aris could see and had to depend on Aris' description of what was happening in the desert. The High Commander and his guards had stayed inside the private meeting chamber, reluctant to come out. The High Commander would remain in contact with the Prince Royal, giving regular updates. Aris knew the High Commander would be giving erroneous information unless he came to receive Aris' intelligence personally.
Aris huffed out another sigh. The High Commander played a dangerous game, feeding the Prince Royal contrived messages of safety. Only the attack from the enemy while the High Commander had been on his way to the desert had forced him to give the Prince anything other than rosy accounts of their successes. Aris had attempted to inform the Prince, but the High Commander had stopped it and stopped Aris from going to the desert himself. Aris was powerful and the High Commander wanted that power under his thumb in case he and the Prince Royal required it. He was risking lives—lives that Aris knew might be too precious to lose.
* * *
Max had been forced to move us a short distance back already, when the enemy rushed us. All of us were disoriented—we'd been firing when Bel gave the swift hand directions to cease firing so Max could move us. I still had difficulty breathing when he did that and it took several moments to get myself under control. By that time, the enemy was within range again—Max hadn't moved us far, likely to conserve his power. Pell, too, had employed his talent. He could cause rifts in the ground beneath enemy feet. It failed to harm them—they climbed out of the ditches easily. What it could (and did) do, was slow them down.
I was firing as quickly as I could point and shoot at a target. The enemy steadily marched toward us. Bel prepared to send out the first of his blasts—they were close enough, now. I heard screams as Bel's first effort hit the target and many lights went dark. Others came to take their place. I fired. And then fired again. The enemy wizards sent a blast that knocked us to our knees. We rose and began to fire again, even as sand and small rocks pelted us from above.
Jorvis was next, creating illusions of more of us. I could see through the images he made—they looked like wispy ghosts to me, but the enemy attacked them as if they were real, sending blasts to the left and right of us. Jorvis seemed quite talented if he could create two complete illusions at the same time. While the enemy focused on Jorvis' constructs, we continued to kill the lights coming toward us. Bel saw their attempts to surround us immediately, so Max moved us backward again—a little farther, this time.
We had a few precious ticks to recover before we fired once more. I had no time to think, otherwise I might have wondered at the sheer numbers that were coming in our direction. All I could do was fire, making sure my shots counted. Who knows how many enemies we were bringing down? It only seemed that each one that died was replaced by another. We'd been working our way through the night and emptied one rifle before shouldering our second. Poor Max was sent to gather extras after moving us twice. He had to be exhausted when he arrived with two extra rifles for each of us. He never said a word, shouldering his own rifle and firing in a smooth and practiced manner.
The enemy was attempting to circle us again, but it was too soon for Max to do anything for us. Bel pointed me to his left—he wanted me to fire in that direction. I swiveled quickly, taking as many as I could in a furious burst of shots. Had they thought I might fire that fast? I was desperate—we didn't need to be surrounded like that. We needed an escape route in case Max couldn't get us out. Bel fired another blast of power toward our right. And then another blast. More screams came. More of the enemy died. I fired as swiftly as I could aim accurately, emptying another rifle quickly. Lin tossed me another as I dropped the empty.
As a unit, we backed up slowly, still firing. Again, I wondered how many of the enemy were out there, waiting. Their wizards sent another blast that exploded in front of us. That served to send a river of sand flying in our direction—they were attempting to blind us. We covered our eyes and ducked as the storm of stinging particles hit. Pain bloomed against exposed skin, which meant our hands and what wasn't covered of our faces suffered from the onslaught, feeling raw afterward.
The moment the air was clear around us, we began to fire again. Twice more we were hit by blasts that exploded before us and I felt as if the skin had been flayed from my hands, neck and chin—those hadn't been covered as I threw an arm across my eyes. Nevertheless, we continued to fire at the earliest opportunity after each blast. Max went back for another round of rifles, taking the empties with him. It would be foolish to leave them in the desert for the enemy to find and use. Ranos rifles were precious against these creatures and the wizards protecting them.
* * *
"More are out there than we imagined." Aris felt weary as he updated the High Commander. The High Commander had sent one of his guards out to bring Aris and Commander Gorth back to the private room—he didn't venture out.
"How are they faring?" Aris didn't fail to notice the coldness in the High Commander's voice and wanted to squeeze his throat until he squeaked. He buried that thought and concentrated on the High Commander's question instead.
"They are doing as well as anyone might expect—all are still alive at this point, but they have been hit many times by wizard blasts. The last few were attempts to blind them with sandblasts. They are tiring, I know that much. Dawn cannot come soon enough."
Dawn was little more than a click away. The enemy, in Aris' opinion, might try one last offensive in an effort to kill the Rangers before scurrying to bolt-holes to spend the day. Aris worried about that. He worried about the Rangers. Most of all, he worried about Reah.
* * *
Dawn was coming soon—we all knew it, tired as we were. Max was down—too exhausted to move. He huddled behind me on the ground, making himself as small a target as possible. He'd emptied himself, going for one more supply of rifles. I hoped what we had would last until the enemy went seeking their holes to hide in when daylight came. My other hope was that the enemy wizards might be tiring just as ours were. Bel expected them to hit us hard before they retreated with the dawn. What would they do? What could the do? That worried me as I attempted to aim at the enemy. My vision swam at times and I was forced to wait for it to clear before pulling the trigger. I had no desire to waste the power in the rifle Max had exhausted himself to bring to me.
My weariness kept me from registering Bel's frenzied hand signal for a moment, but it did register. He was telling us to back up. We began to back up, but Max didn't rise. Panicking, I moved to pull one arm as Bel grasped the other. We dragged Max backward with us, Bel setting the pace. He was worried about something—I could sense it as he hurried us along. It almost seemed to be an act of desperation.
It was then I noticed Delvin, who was gesturing wildly. He was the one sensing it. My exhausted brain just hadn't thought to look in his direction until now. Delvin sensed power. That was his talent. We kept backing up, even as the whistle in the air headed in our direction. This attack was their final effort. Delvin was gesturing for all of us to drop to the ground. We dropped where we stood and covered our heads as the explosion hit, blowing a perfect sphere of sand and soil around us high into the air.
Chapter 9
"They're hit." Those were Aris' words as he ran from the room, leaving the Hig
h Commander to shout after him to come back. Aris wasn't about to obey that command—he used Max's trick of propelling himself from one point to another, landing in the desert moments before dawn. He witnessed the enemy fleeing from the brightening sky as he ran toward the scattered bodies of his Rangers. Did they live? Aris didn't take the time to send out the mental tendrils, checking for life. His fingers and other senses would tell him when he reached the bodies.
* * *
"Drink." That word penetrated my brain as a canteen was held to my lips. The sun was now shining brightly in the east and a blurry face was positioned over mine. Bel was leaning over me; I recognized him when my vision cleared enough for me to see. I drank as ordered, coughing painfully as too much liquid came too quickly.
"Re, sit up, baby." Bel coaxed. My limbs didn't want to obey. It took moments to force my feet and hands to move. Painfully I pulled myself to a sitting position. Bel was in the same condition, else he would have helped. I lifted the canteen away from him and drank.
"Jorvis and Lin are gone." Aris knelt next to me. I turned to look at him, sure now that he was a longed-for fantasy. Likely, I was still unconscious and dreaming or something.
"It's not a dream." Aris lifted a strand of hair off my forehead.
"Dead?" My voice was as dry as the dust I sat upon. We were in a bowl, I noticed. I had little memory of what had happened the night before, when the enemy wizards had thrown their worst at us, right at the last.
"Reah, they're dead. I don't think they suffered. We need to get the rest of you back to the station. Do you think you can stand?"
I didn't want to stand. I wanted to curl up right there and weep, but there wasn't enough fluid in my body to produce tears. Jorvis and Lin were dead. My body was numb, now, as was my brain. The rest of us were lucky to be alive. I nodded to Aris instead. I would stand if I had to. He and Bel lifted me from the sand. I stood. The standing was shaky, but I stood anyway, much like a newborn animal might, I imagined, as it rose for the first time after the birthing.
"I'll get you back to the station, but I'll drop you off just outside the walls. I want you to walk inside the gate. Hold each other up if you have to," Aris ordered. Bel and the rest of us nodded, too tired to speak. Aris could move us, just as Max could and he did so, dropping us off outside the gate as promised. I didn't have as much difficulty breathing this time, and that was a good thing. I might have considered never breathing again if it had taken any effort.
I wasn't expecting the crowd that waited silently for us on the inside, once we passed through the main gate into the station. Troops were lined up on both sides as we staggered in, covered in sand and filth. Max needed help, so Bel and I each had one of his arms over our shoulders, helping him. I had both my last rifles slung across my back, too. We all did. I didn't recognize any faces in the crowd as we walked past, except for one. Nods stood at the front, with his friends. If I hadn't been weary beyond measure, I might have taken pleasure in the look of shock that enveloped his face as he stared at me.
* * *
"Reah, nobody else can do this for you right now without discovering what you are." Aris and I were in a small bathroom, where he was pulling my clothing away. Crusted with sand and dust, my uniform appeared to be a dirty tan instead of the black it should be. I was inside his private suite; that information sank into my brain in a detached manner. The other Rangers had physicians tending them. Poor Jorvis and Lin had been left in the desert. I still wanted to weep for them and couldn't.
"Love, your skin is raw," Aris muttered as he pulled the cuffs of my shirtsleeves open, careful not to touch my hands more than necessary. It didn't matter—I was numb at the moment. I only felt the weariness. The pain would come later, when my body began to recover. Aris removed the rest of my clothing while I watched. Normally I would have blushed from embarrassment—no man had undressed me before. Not while I was conscious, anyway. My breasts were small—they made it easier to hide behind a male recruit's disguise. The rest of me—not voluptuous in the least. Not as men preferred their women to be.
"Love, you worry over the damnedest things," Aris whispered as he lifted me gently. I soaked in the tub in his bathroom while he washed me as carefully as he could. I was determined not to whimper or whine as he cleaned the tender parts. My face and hands felt as if they'd been burned when he settled me in the water. If I'd had the energy, I would have climbed right back out of the tub when that pain hit. Aris held me down, his voice crooning nonsense as he lifted a soft cloth and began his cleaning.
* * *
"He only needs ointment on his face and hands," Aris informed the old physician, who'd just come from tending Bel.
"This young one has seen more than any new recruit should," the old physician muttered, slathering ointment on raw skin. Recruit Re was in his own bed now, after Aris had cleaned him up and dressed him in a nightshirt.
"Yes. Too much, actually, but there is nothing you can do about such things in times of war."
"I know that," the old physician agreed, finishing his work. "Let him sleep as long as possible, then have a tray brought. All of them need to eat. Word has it that they may have to rise from their beds and help us if the enemy comes tonight."
"Yes." Aris' one-word answer said everything.
* * *
"Re, eat." I was commanded after the coaxing hadn't worked. Bel looked as if he should still be asleep—he was sitting next to me inside Aris' office. My food tray had been set on the edge of Aris' desk and now he demanded that I eat. If anything, I think I felt worse now than before I'd rested most of the day. The numbness was deserting me, leaving a mass of pain and weariness behind.
"There isn't a decent cook in this entire, gods-forsaken military station," I muttered sarcastically and dipped into the beef dish I'd been brought. My comment brought an almost chuckle from Aris, but he repeated his command for me to eat so I ate. Even chewing seemed a chore better left undone.
The other Rangers straggled in while I ate—they'd already had a meal. Aris had waited until the last moment to wake me. Delvin still looked as if half his face had been scrubbed away—he'd gotten the full brunt of the sandblasts, being at the front when they'd come our way. I could see the shininess of the ointment on his skin over the raw parts.
"Sundown is in half a click," Aris announced as the Rangers took their seats around his desk. "I expect the spawn to head this way immediately. Delvin, do you know how many wizards were there before you left?"
"No true idea—Bel took six down, and I counted seventeen different levels of power in the beginning. That doesn't mean that a blocker wasn't employed somewhere, hiding some of them." I listened carefully, not even tasting my vegetables as I ate them. It was probably for the best.
"Re, how is your eye? Can you see well enough?" Aris turned to me as I had my fork halfway to my mouth. I set it down. At least my mouth wasn't full of food.
"I can see my food just fine," I mumbled, feeling embarrassed.
"Our recruit here was killing the enemy as fast as the rifle would shoot," Bel said. I just shrugged and stuffed food in my mouth so I wouldn't be forced to answer.
"I want to know what happened there at the end," Max said.
"Lin and Jorvis stepped outside the boundary," Bel sighed. That statement stopped me in mid-chew. I swallowed with difficulty. "The rest of us were blasted upward in a bubble. Re, whatever you have protects you—and us—in a sphere. We bounced when we dropped; that's what knocked most of us unconscious. If Aris hadn't come to get us, we might have been killed then. I can only imagine that they would have rushed us and delivered physical blows. Re doesn't have any defense against those." He pointedly looked at my still blackened eye.
"Thank you for coming for us," I said, lowering my head. I was afraid to look Aris in the eye—afraid that I might cry like an infant and now wasn't the time.
"You are welcome," Aris said softly.
"We will mourn our friends after this is over," Bel promised and rose. "We have
a job to do tonight, and it may well determine whether Mandil lives or dies." He rose and stretched. Aris and the others rose as well, leaving me to be the last to stand. I stood with them. Live or die. That's what tonight was about.
Crown City was the largest city upon Mandil, I knew that much. If Crown City fell, it would only be a matter of time, since the enemy would either devour or turn every living being inside the city and then take the other cities, towns and villages, one or two at a time. All the wizards were in Crown City; I'd learned that from Delvin earlier. There weren't that many with talent living upon Mandil, and we'd lost two of them last night.
"They're headed this way." The High Commander was walking down the hall toward Aris' office as we spilled out of it. His words didn't surprise any of us. I'm sure the Prince Royal's wizards had given him the information.
"How long before they arrive?'" Aris' gaze was steady on the High Commander.
"Less than a click, according to the Prince's chief wizard."
"Prepare yourselves, we'll pick up our weapons at the armory tonight," Bel took charge of the rest of us, leaving Aris to deal with the High Commander. I didn't envy Aris—the High Commander was sweating. We walked behind Bel just as we'd walked behind him into the desert—in a tight formation with me at the center. If anyone tried to toss wizardry at us, we'd still be protected.
We passed rows of recruits outside—I saw Nods and his gang near the front of one column. They were given orders to hand charged ranos rifles off to older troops who'd emptied their weapons. They wouldn't be allowed to fire anything tonight. I wondered how that made Nods feel and if he'd concentrate on his assignment or his anger. Other troops were already gathering near the walls, all of them focused on several men walking the perimeter at the top. Those men walking the walls were dressed in red robes.
"Those are the Prince's wizards," Delvin whispered near my ear. He didn't sound complimentary. I nodded. Where were they when we'd lost two of ours last night? We were issued two rifles each at the armory and Bel led us to the center wall. We climbed up narrow, stone steps and positioned ourselves at the top. The red robes were on either side of us, watching, just as we were.
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