Julia thumped the horse to make her stop holding her breath, and pulled the girth strap tight to buckle it. “Don’t try to talk me out of this Kerrion. Nothing is more important to me than Keverin. Tobiah is not going to kill him as he’s killing the clans. I won’t allow it.”
Kerrion sighed. “Tobiah is doing his best.”
“His best isn’t good enough!” she snarled. She pulled herself into the saddle and looked down at the old man coldly. “It’s time to choose. Will you allow the clans to die led by a fool, or will you stand up for yourself and fight?”
She didn’t wait for an answer. She kicked her horse into a gallop.
“But the wards!” Kerrion shouted.
Julia grasped her magic at the reminder and raised a ward against scrying. It would not do for Demophon to see her coming. No, she hadn’t forgotten what that pig had done to poor Moriz and Halbert. When she found him, he was going to pay with his life. She wouldn’t torture him as he had done to her friends; that would hurt her more than him in the end. No, a quick death would do for him, but death all the same.
She knew Navarien was digging in and that Wolf, Eagle, and Bear Clans had attacked his cavalry. She did not know the details but Kadar and the other chiefs had been told they weren’t needed for this attack. Kadar had other ideas. He had protested that he would come if it looked necessary. Well it was necessary. Far from being overwhelmed by the number of warriors attacking them, Navarien’s cavalry had taken them in stride and had already done serious damage in return.
Julia agreed with Tobiah that it was necessary to destroy the cavalry first. After all, those nine thousand horses were all Navarien had, but without shamen to take down the legion’s wards there was little likelihood of that happening. She had pleaded with them to get off their collective backsides and do something, but that seemed a forlorn hope now. When she had started teaching the shamen, she had believed in them. She had truly thought they would disregard Tobiah in the end and fight for their people. Instead, they were waiting to heal the injured back in camp because Tobiah had told them to. The man was living in the past! Using tactics that worked in a clan raid would not work against the Hasians, but he wouldn’t hear that.
Julia pulled her mirror from her pouch and called an image of Keverin. He was riding at the trot with Brian by his side. She widened the view and found clan warriors riding haphazardly toward the north—and to destruction if Navarien had his way. Well she wasn’t going to let him kill Kev, and while she was here, she had a good mind to sort General bloody Navarien out for once and all!
Her mirror showed a large group of legionnaires on foot as they trotted into position. A battalion it seemed like, though it was much larger than those she had destroyed two years ago. She watched them arrange themselves with another battalion, this time all cavalry, which had been waiting to receive them. They didn’t do anything and she wondered what they were waiting for. She widened the view, then again, and the legion fort came into view along the top edge of her mirror. There was nothing to see there except a lot of men setting up tents. She moved the view south and hit the jackpot.
“There you are,” she said to herself. “I bet I know where you lot are going.”
Julia shook her head as she watched the clan warriors try to penetrate wards built by—twenty it looked like—built by twenty sorcerers. The second cavalry battalion was in a full retreat, that at least was good, but she knew where they were heading. Tobiah’s warriors were going to be fighting four battalions before long and Keverin would be in the middle of it.
Julia rode away from the fighting toward what she assumed would be the ambush site. It wasn’t much of an ambush. The plain was too flat to hide this many men, but she could not see what else they were waiting for. She dismounted well before reaching the enemy. She didn’t want to be seen and felt she hadn’t been as yet. Her ward prevented the sorcerers from seeing her using their mirrors, but she was still visible to the naked eye. As she crawled through the long grass she wondered if there was a way to make herself invisible. That would be really useful. Perhaps some kind of camouflage spell or an illusion would work, but that would have to wait for another time.
Julia peered through the grass at the legionnaires and tried to think of a plan. They were completely still, waiting for their friends to arrive and the battle to begin. Would it be better to strike before Tobiah arrived, or should she wait until there was fighting? If she attacked now and was somehow balked, she would be on her own against forty or more sorcerers. If she waited, she would have Lucius and Mathius along with Keverin to help her.
“Decisions, decisions,” she muttered.
There didn’t appear to be a ward to stop her, but there most certainly would be when Keverin and the others arrived. She was about to attack when she noticed something strange. Where she was lying the grass was being whipped about by the wind, but closer to the Hasian soldiers it wasn’t moving—why? She invoked her mage sight and saw the answer.
“You sneaky—” she hissed.
The sorcerers were using some kind of illusion spell. It wasn’t fair! She had only just thought of that and here the sorcerers were already using it! The give away was the lack of movement. The grass was still and so were the men. Julia stared in fascination at a campfire with smoke hovering above it unaffected by the breeze. Was there even a camp there? This could all be an illusion and she wouldn’t know… or would she? She wished Lucius was here. Even after two years, she still knew so little of magic. She knew how to kill people and make mirrors, but she had never cast an illusion and didn’t know how to detect one.
Perhaps the mirror again?
She pulled out her mirror and viewed the scene from above. Thank God! The enemy was there just ahead of her position. The sorcerers were only using their trick to cover the fact they had wards to each side. Julia watched a man moving along the lines of infantry making sure his men were ready. He must be their captain then. The front of their formation was unprotected by wards, but that was all. Should she attack from overhead? She certainly wasn’t going round the front. There would be thousands of horses thundering through there very soon.
Hers indecision cost her the choice.
A battalion of cavalry came thundering toward her. No, they were rendezvousing with their friends she saw. She couldn’t help admiring their horsemanship. The battalion thundered through the gaps in the legion’s lines then wheeled their mounts to take position on the left wing. In the mirror, Julia watched two men slap shoulders in greeting and discuss something. She moved in closer but the picture dissolved into mist.
“Bloody sorcerers,” she grumbled.
They had a ward preventing her from hearing what they had to say. She could only see them as long as she viewed from a distance. That was a peculiarity of a sorcerer’s ward. Her wards prevented scrying no matter how far she was viewed from and a good thing too! She didn’t need the sorcerers finding her at an awkward moment—like now for instance. She watched as more men rode into sight. It was the fourth and last battalion of Hasians surrounded by impotent Wolf Clan warriors.
“Oh God this is going to be ugly,” Julia said as she watched from her hiding place.
The clansmen finally realised what had happened and broke off from their pointless confrontation in confusion. The legionnaires continued blithely on and joined their friends on the right wing this time. A preplanned manoeuvre obviously. They had succeeded in engaging then leading three clans worth of warriors to a place of their choosing. Julia supposed the next step would be an attack, but she was wrong. The legionnaires did precisely nothing.
“What are you waiting for?” she whispered, and then she knew as Tobiah launched an attack of his own.
She readied herself to fight but was shocked when the sorcerers did nothing to prevent Tobiah’s charge. She watched as every man Tobiah had with him charged the infantry. Keverin hadn’t moved and neither had Kadar. They were arguing fiercely with Mavra and Allard about something—the charge obviously.
What were they waiting for, an invitation?
Julia gasped in horror as Tobiah and his men slammed into the Hasian infantry. She had expected the screams of trampled men of course, but the reality was far worse than her imaginings. Screams rose above the battle, but that wasn’t the reason for her sudden heaving and puking. Wherever she looked, men and horses had been impaled on long sticks. Spears—very long spears. Where had they come from? The charge disintegrated with men and horses screaming so loud she feared she would go deaf. She covered her ears and watched the legion cavalry swing wide and slam together on the remnants of the charge.
Tobiah’s wolves disintegrated into knots of struggling and unhorsed warriors. Julia couldn’t see the chief anywhere and she assumed him dead. Others she knew were fighting desperately for their lives. She saw Kornel fall and with him his son Haldis. Where were Bear and Eagle Clans? Damn them where were they? Kadar—Kadar and Keverin were charging. Oh God, it was going to happen again, but no, Kadar swung to one side and Keverin to the other and they struck the legion cavalry in the flank totally ignoring the more tempting infantry.
Julia was numb with shock and sick to her stomach. All she wanted to do was blast the legions into ash, but the ward… she grasped her magic and floated above that ocean of fire that always awaited her. She gathered all her hate and anger and drove it at the ward.
BOOOM!
The ward flashed blue fire and a sound like thunder echoed over the plains. Julia was smashed flat as the ward shuddered under an impact big enough to turn a mountain to rubble. The ward bowed and buckled, but unbelievably it held and the crash as it flexed back to rigidity shook the heavens.
Julia lay on her back panting from the effort. She was drained and blinking the blue afterimage away. She might as well be blind. All she could see was neon blue flames flaring in her face. She rolled over and came back to her knees rubbing her eyes. The fighting continued between the wards but she was unable to breach them. The sorcerers must be linked, it had to be that, or she would have wiped them off the face of the plain with that strike.
She had to get around the front.
She ran away from the fighting and found her horse with its eyes wide and rolling in panic. It backed away from her. She made a grab for the reins and held on as it tried to escape. She was lifted into the air as the fool beast threw its head up and backed away trying to throw her off, but she clung on. Finally, the mare calmed enough for her to mount. She galloped to a place that might give her a chance to do some good.
Bear and Eagle Clans had joined the fighting. Why they had held off earlier she couldn’t fathom, but they were making up for their earlier cowardice now. She couldn’t see Keverin. All she could do was hope he was all right. She saw Burke and Alvin working together to hack down the Hasians, and Brian—Brian was hurt! She bit her lip trying not to cry out as he slid slowly out of his saddle. She had to be strong.
She grasped her magic and choosing her targets with care began picking men off with controlled bolts of lightning. There was fire off to one side—Lucius and Mathius killing the enemy. They stood unhorsed, but didn’t appear injured. They were working together and protecting each other.
Julia’s ward flared blue as a stray fireball struck it but she took no notice. Her horse though had other ideas. It neighed and reared throwing her to the ground.
“Ooof!” she gasped as she hit the ground and lost her hold on the magic.
Her horse ran away south in panic and she wished she could do the same. Fires were roaring nearby and she thought to put them out. She didn’t want another firestorm. Just as she was about to do something about them, they died.
“Someone has a brain in his head,” she muttered as she resumed her attack.
She raised her ward in time to catch another fireball, but it was just another stray. The sorcerers were concentrating upon the warriors, not her. She threw lightning right and left. The ground erupted with a roar and debris rained down on her; she kept moving and struck back. Legionnaires flew into the air as she blasted a crater in the plain. She had taken her revenge, but there were too many soldiers for her to deal with. Her lightning was too slow! She was killing dozens, but there was more than twelve thousand legionnaires that needed killing.
She found the sorcerers sitting safely behind their wards. She struck at that immaterial wall and two sorcerers fell dead, but there were at least eighty or more still fighting. She struck again, but this time a more powerful ward snapped into place and her strike wasted itself upon it.
Julia called to Lucius. *I’m here with you, but there are too many.*
*I saw your lightning. Keverin is going to kill you for disobeying him. You do know that don’t you?*
*If I survive, I suppose he will. Talking of surviving, how are we going to?* Julia blasted a man intent on killing a clansman from behind.
*Beats me,* Lucius said. *Tobiah is dead by the way.*
*Serves the bastard right!*
*I don’t think so. He was doing things the way he knew how. The wrong way as it turns out, but he tried his best.*
A legionnaire hacked repeatedly at Julia’s ward in a frenzy of determination. His blade bounced off with a flare of blue light and smell of ozone each time. She flicked a whip of magic at him and his sword melted in his hand. She snarled and let him scream as a lesson to the others.
*I told Kerrion his best wasn’t good enough,* Julia said. *Now it seems my best isn’t either.*
*You and me both. If the sorcerers turn their attentions on us, we’re dead.*
Mathius broke in. *Do you want to try linking?*
*Might as well,* she said. *I’m coming over there but my horse ran off.*
*Ours did too, we’ll meet you half way.*
*Fine,* Julia said and began making her way toward Lucius. *Where is Lorcan?*
*He’s all right,* Mathius said. *I saw him sneaking around the edges just a while ago.*
She smiled grimly. Lorcan couldn’t do much with his magic yet, but he had always been good with his daggers. Telling him to stay out of trouble and expecting him to stay in camp was foolish. He would have taken no notice. He would always do what he thought was right regardless of consequences.
Julia reached her two friends without too much trouble. The fighting was fierce now with more than half the men on both sides unhorsed and fighting hand to hand. The Devan guardsmen were still fighting as a unit, but their numbers were dwindling. Of Keverin, there was no sign. She thrust the worry to the back of her mind, but it kept sneaking back in.
Please God, don’t let him be dead!
Lucius looked hurriedly around for the enemy. “We have to drop our wards, Julia. One, two, three!”
Julia dropped her ward and linked with Lucius and Mathius. The first thing she did was raise a new ward to cover all three of them. It was much stronger than normal. She could easily see why her earlier strike at the Legion had failed. With that many sorcerers linking their magic, she had no chance of breaching their ward. Thinking to separate friend from foe, she built another ward and tried to thrust it between the combatants.
“Won’t work,” Mathius said. “They’re too closely packed.”
“It has to!” she said, but it was obvious as soon as she tried that it wouldn’t work. “Now what?”
“Attack the sorcerers and hope they run?” Mathius said doubtfully.
“They won’t,” Lucius said. “They won’t pull out without orders unless they’re close to defeat.”
“We need a miracle!” Mathius shouted over the roar of Julia’s fire.
* * *
Lorcan’s dagger punched through the legionnaire’s armour with ease. It was lucky for him that the armour was thinnest at the back. He always preferred attacking from behind. It came of his time on the streets of Devarr. He ducked another man’s swing and came up with a dagger in each fist leading the way. The legionnaire parried one blade, but the other slid home in his armpit with hardly a pause. Lorcan spun aside and kicked another man in the kne
e before whirling away. An Eagle Clan warrior took advantage of the distraction to gut the outclanner before he too was felled from behind.
All was chaos.
Lorcan had never been afraid like he was afraid today, but his fear was not for himself. Keverin was here somewhere, and Mathius. The Lady was too—lightning stabbing out of a cloudless sky attested to that. He had many friends among the warriors struggling to survive Tobiah’s foolishness. The Lady was right about that. He had known it from the first, but Keverin hadn’t let him do anything. Now things were out of control and it was all Tobiah’s fault.
A riderless horse reared in his path narrowly missing his face with its hooves. He made a grab for the reins and managed to drag himself into the saddle. A man in armour reached for him, but a kick in the face sent him packing. He took a tiny moment to get his bearings before kicking his new horse toward what remained of the Athione cavalry. There weren’t many left, he saw—maybe half were dead or missing. Keverin was whirling his blade in the air trying to extricate his men from the battle. Lorcan tried to charge to his lord’s side, but he had to detour around a large contingent of mounted Hasians. There were too many for him to fight, but he did manage to knock the Hasian captain out of his saddle with a weak blast of magic.
By the time Lorcan had detoured around the enemy, Keverin was again charging to the attack. The crunch of nearly six hundred heavy cavalry hitting twice its number of legionnaires was catastrophic. Men screamed for their mothers as they were hacked from the saddle. Horses screamed as they stumbled over mounds of bodies. Legs snapped and horses screamed. Heads were cleaved from necks in fountains of gore. Arms fell from shoulders…
Lorcan wanted to cry for his mother and be sick at the same time. The only thing he could think of was reaching Keverin. Everything would be all right if he could only reach his lord. He jumped his horse over a mound of corpses. They were nailed to the ground with huge spears. The Hasians were sneaky to think of that. The nearest forest was leagues away. No one had thought to wonder why the Hasians had sat waiting to be attacked. Keverin had been suspicious, he remembered, but even such a great lord had been unable to guess what Navarien had up his sleeve. Now they knew, but the knowing had cost them dear.
Devan Chronicles Series: Books 1-3 Page 131
