Crusader s-4

by Robert J. Crane

  “Aisling,” Alaric said mildly, peering down at the ranger. “You have returned to us. I would ask how, but I suspect ‘Why?’ is the more important question.”

  “There’s a waste tunnel that leads to the river over there,” she waved in the distance toward the river Perda’s split, which rolled by outside the walls almost a mile away. “It’s a tight squeeze over a long distance, but I managed. Nyad, too-she teleported us in behind the army through the portal over there — ” she waved out the direction of the gate, “but she’s a little slower than I am after that trek.” She looked up at Alaric in seriousness. “Cyrus sent me to plead for your help. They’ve evacuated the whole of Luukessia.”

  Alaric blinked at her, but said nothing. “Excuse me,” Vara said. “Did you say-”

  “The whole land of Luukessia has fallen, yes,” Aisling said. “They’ve taken it, from one side to the other, killing …” There was a moment’s pause as the dark elf seemed to waver then compose herself. “We’ve managed to get the last of the survivors onto the bridge, and Cyrus and the others are staging a slow withdrawal and bridge defense, but …” she shook her head, “they need help. They need an army before the scourge breaks loose of the Endless Bridge … or we’ll be facing the same fight here that cost us Luukessia.”

  Alaric stood silent, and Vara looked to him for guidance. He did not react openly, but she could see even in the slight twitch of his mouth that something roiled beneath the surface. “Alaric?” she asked. “The dark elves-”

  “The lesser threat, now, I think,” Alaric said quietly. “How long until this scourge make landfall?”

  “A day,” Aisling said. “Perhaps two. They’re strong, Alaric, too strong for us to hold back the tide of them forever.”

  Alaric nodded. “Very well.” He looked out across the panorama of the army surrounding the curtain wall. The volume of arrows still flying through the air was considerably decreased. “I need you to find Ryin Ayend and bring him to me. He will be just down the wall in that direction, I think,” and the Ghost pointed to his right. “Tell him to hurry.”

  Aisling nodded and was off at a run, bent over and moving at incredible speed and with enough grace that Vara felt a surge of jealousy as she had a flash where she saw Cyrus pressed against the dark elf in her mind, naked- “Alaric,” she said, throwing cold water upon that thought, “what do you intend?”

  “It would appear Cyrus Davidon requires assistance,” Alaric said calmly, and he crouched down next to her. “I will go to him myself to render it.”

  She frowned at him as though he were insane. “Alaric, one man will not be able to turn back the tide of these things that are coming, not if Cyrus’s reports or that diseased harpy,” she waved at Aisling’s retreating-and firm, she noted irritably-backside, “are to be believed. These things swept our army and the armies of three nations before them. What makes you think that they’ll do any different to you?”

  Alaric stared at her through his helm, calmly impassive, but only for a moment before he smiled. “Have faith, Vara. I will take care of this. It is upon you to hold our home safe until my return.” His smile flickered. “Take care of yourself-and the others.”

  She lay her head back against the wall behind her and caught a sudden waft of death far below. “How long will you be gone?”

  He hesitated, an unusual thing for him to do. “As long as need be and not a moment more,” he answered finally. She saw movement out of the corner of her eye and Ryin appeared, led by Aisling. She gave the dark elven woman a sneer, but it was halfhearted and she received only a coldly satisfied gaze in return. Alaric gave Ryin a nod. “Ladies,” Alaric said, “take care while I am away.” With that, the winds carried up around them, sweeping like a tornado around the ramparts, stirring Vara’s hair and rushing through the cracks in her armor to touch her skin while roaring in her ears. There was the taste of bitterness in her mouth as the wind settled, and Alaric was gone.

  Chapter 107

  Cyrus

  The slog was hard, the salt air on his tongue along with the sweat that fell in drops with his exertion. The breeze kept him cool under the sun, but with every swing of Praelior he let another exhalation out, another muted curse at the things that came at him, black eyes, foul breath, no souls, and he took his fury out upon them. I’ve faced them for months, relentlessly, with all I had. This is the first time I can recall feeling so angry at them. He chanced a look back behind him; there was the faintest outline of land, far, far in the distance, barely visible even in the morning light. Hard to believe, that.

  “You know,” Terian said conversationally, to his right, “I honestly thought that at some point, after as many of these things as we’ve killed, that they would eventually run out of them. But no, I guess thousands of years of dead kind of pile up, huh?”

  “Less talking,” Longwell said, swinging his spear wide and sweeping five of the scourge over the edge of the bridge; he was to Cyrus’s far right, past Terian. Odellan and Scuddar were to his immediate left. I anchor the line in the middle. Another three came at him, all teeth. Where they aim their onslaught hardest. “More killing.”

  There were black stains running along the stone they stood upon, the fresh evidence of the chaos they’d unleashed. It ran along the slight grade toward Arkaria, filling the carved lines in the bridge, the infinitesimally small gaps that didn’t seem like gaps at all to Cyrus, more like lines in the stone. Perfectly joined. No sign of mortar. The ancients must have been impressive indeed to have built this.

  “Augh!” There was a cry to Cyrus’s left, and he saw Odellan fall, his arm in the mouth of one of the creatures. Cyrus slashed forward, tightening his distance to the elf. He felt Terian move a little closer to the center of the bridge to compensate.

  “It’s all right,” Curatio called from behind them. “I’ve got him.” There was a moment that passed, as Cyrus cut the head from the scourge that had Odellan’s wrist, and he watched it fall away. “As much as they keep pushing you back,” the healer called, “be thankful that they don’t do much damage.”

  “At this point I’m just thankful that we have ground left to give,” Odellan said, looking back behind them before unleashing a savage flurry on the next scourge to come forward at him in a lunge. “Thank you,” he said to Cyrus.

  “Not a problem,” Cyrus replied, moving back to the center. He could sense Terian ease back to his lane of the bridge, as though they were moving in perfect synch. “Just like old times, huh?”

  “I’m afraid that this is playing out much more like my defense of the Northbridge than your defense of the Grand Span,” Odellan said tensely as he brought his sword around and parried one of the scourge, letting it carry past him and into the waiting blades of the second line. Martaina and two warriors killed it quickly, before it had a chance to halt its forward momentum from the jump or turn on any of them.

  “Aye,” Cyrus said. “And that’s not the best of signs for any of us, considering how it all turned out on the balance.”

  “At least they can’t flank us,” Terian said. “Unless somehow they can crawl under the surface of the bridge.” His voice turned pensive. “Please tell me they can’t do that.”

  “Let’s hope not,” Cyrus said, running Praelior across the face of a scourge and then taking the left shoulder off another before stomping it in the face, caving in its skull and killing it. He shot a look at the dark knight. “I know you’re not doing this for me, but I appreciate you being here nonetheless.”

  “You’re welcome,” Terian said simply. “And you’re right.” He brought the red sword down in a long arc that caught a leaping scourge across the nose as it jumped, its momentum arrested and thrown off to the side with the power of Terian’s stroke. “I’m not doing this for you.”

  “Then what are you doing it for?” Cyrus asked as he was forced to take another step back to parry a particularly aggressive and coordinated swiping attack from three scourge.

  “I have my reasons,” Terian
muttered, almost too low to be heard.

  The sun rose higher in the sky as the day wore on. They gave ground steadily, and with every step and every furtive look back, Cyrus’s unease grew. The tension in his belly became intense, roiling, meshing with the acid in his stomach that allowed him to ignore the fact that he hadn’t eaten since the battle had begun earlier in the day. The horsemen were well out of sight now, the only remaining forces were the Sanctuary army-the last line of defense before these things hit Arkaria. And we’re failing. Slowly, but just as sure as if it were quick.

  The sun began to set as Cyrus’s muscles grew weary. He watched as his comrades grew slower, their arms wearying, but carrying on. Others came up, here and there, to spell them for a bit. Cyrus waved them off each time, the relief strong but not strong enough. Not as strong as me. Not as determined. They lose ground quicker. He tried to push forward and a scourge leapt forward and smashed into him. He held, swinging his blade at the beast, putting it through its heart, and he took another step forward but was driven back by a scampering rush of two of them, coming at him like dogs, their claws clicking on the stone as they tried to bowl him over. He ended them both with quick sword thrusts, dodging the teeth as they came at him but losing two feet in the process.

  Two feet might as well be a mile, because it adds up to one when you lose it enough times. The sun had set, and he could no longer see the outline of Arkaria’s shore, but he saw lights upon it in the distance, campfires from the Luukessian refugees. Driven from their homes into ours, and they may still die here. “Flame!” Cyrus called, and spells swept forward across the bridge, creating a scouring line as he took a deep breath, in and out. He watched Odellan slump, taking the moment’s respite. Scuddar seemed to stand stiffly straight, while Longwell leaned on his lance. Terian stood next to Cyrus, though, hands on his sword, blade planted down, as though he were drawing strength directly from the stone of the bridge.

  Night came, swirling with a thousand stars in the sky. Cyrus called for flame as often as he could, sucking down a skin full of water each time, making water when needed, taking a loaf of bread and eating as much as he could during the small breaks they were afforded, never more than five minutes or so at a time so as to give the small number of druids and wizards that remained a chance to refresh themselves.

  It went on, the smell of death and fire, of roasted, rotted flesh all combined into one. The screams of the scourge dying rolled on, too, along with the lapping of the water against the pillars of the bridge in quieter moments and the crackle when the flame spells came down, roaring and raging against the enemy that came, unstoppably, before them.

  “This may be the longest night of my life,” Cyrus muttered to himself as the fire roared to life again. He saw black eyes watching him through the inferno, waiting, pacing on the other side.

  “Worse than Termina?” Terian asked, winded, to his right. “You know, I wasn’t there for that, and I have to say … I am not sorry I missed it.”

  “You didn’t miss much,” Cyrus said. “The worst parts were when an Unter’adon nearly ripped my head off with a ball and chain-”

  “He brought his wife to the fight?” Odellan asked quietly. Heads swiveled, and the elf shrugged. “I can joke, too. It just happens infrequently.”

  “Let me guess,” Terian said. “The other bad part was when a dark knight nearly ripped you in half with a sword.”

  “Aye,” Cyrus said as the wall of flame began to fade. “I had leapt into the midst of the army of dark elves because they had healers. They kept saving our enemies-I’d chop one down and he’d spring back up behind me a moment later. I took one out, but there was another. I ripped into the middle of their line, threw myself forward, killed him, but I got stabbed a few times in the process.” He raised Praelior and took the blade to the first scourge to charge off the line, severing the head and ripping the jaw off the next, causing it to make a guttural scream. “It was then that I was attacked by the dark knight.”

  “Bad timing,” Terian muttered. “If he’d caught you fresh it would have been a hell of a fight. Maybe even one for the ages.”

  “Maybe not,” Cyrus said. “His spells were doubtless strong; he might have just been the end of me with that one that rips the breath of life out of you.”

  “Oh, yes,” Terian said and extended his hand to a scourge, let it glow slightly purple and a scream tore out of the scourge’s lips as it fell to the ground, dead. “That’s a good one. But you had a healer, didn’t you?”

  “I was out of their range when the fight started,” Cyrus said. “Being behind the enemy lines and all.”

  “Still,” Terian said, “as a dark knight, I expect to beat a warrior with a healer, not independently.” He stiffened as he cut another scourge to pieces mid-leap with his blade, which he brandished in front of him. It glowed in the dark, reflecting against him, revealing a solemnity Cyrus had rarely seen on the dark elf’s face. “It’s how I was trained.” He swung the blade back into motion.

  “Did he teach you everything?” Cyrus asked, forced to parry an incoming scourge that went too low for him to effectively hit. “About how to fight?”

  Terian did not respond for a long moment, and the sounds of his heavy exertions hung in the air between them instead. “No. Not nearly everything.”

  The night dragged on as did the war for ground. When the first rays of the sun crept over the horizon, there was a gasp when Cyrus looked back; the green and verdant shores of Arkaria were well in sight, the jungle past the beach was visible, the trees swaying in the wind.

  “Hours,” Odellan said next to him. “Few enough of them, too.”

  Cyrus felt his teeth grit unintentionally. Damn it. He felt the strength in his arms return, the weariness fade, replaced by an anger that brewed deep inside. He looked back to the enemy. Breathing deep, furious breaths, he clutched Praelior tighter and ripped into the flesh of the first of them that came at him, shredding it and sending it mewling to the side of the bridge and over the edge with the fury of his attack; it took two others with it from sheer force. Cyrus let out a warcry, a soul-deep shout of rage that did not even slow the scourge as it advanced at him. There was a rumble after that, and he both heard and felt it, a shake in his legs from the motion, and it gave him pause.

  The breeze cut over from the sea, just for a moment, shifting off the scourge’s stink of death. It felt warm, as though the chill of the night had dissipated. Cyrus’s eyes sharpened, his ears listened closer for the sound of thunder in the distance. No. Not thunder. He looked, and beyond the farthest reach of the enemy he could see it, a massive head and body, lengths above the height of a normal scourge. A cold chill came over him, the clutch of something unpredictable-unfelt-unexpected.

  Fear.

  Chapter 108

  Vara

  Day 223 of the Siege of Sanctuary

  “Is this all you have?” she shouted over the crenellation of the wall, through the gap between it and the next, the teeth of the rampart. She threw an arm out and sent a blast of force at the nearest tower to her and watched it hit, blasting the supports out of the second level of it. She cast again, a quick incantation, and scored another hit as the siege machine crashed down upon the dark elves below it. Bodies fell in a wave all around it, like a stone dropping into the water sends out ripples.

  She took a breath; the smell had worsened atop the wall, both from the unwashed bodies above and the dead in rot below. They keep pressing toward the mark, though, don’t they? And they surely did; the advance had not relented since Alaric had left two days earlier.

  The sound was still an uproar, a hundred thousand enemies surrounding them yet, minus however many were dead around the walls. She let her hand clink against her armor, bracing herself against the battlements. “Come on, then,” she whispered, more to herself than them. “Is this all you have?”

  “You just have to go and tempt the gods with that, don’t you?” She turned to see Andren slumped, much as she had seen him befor
e, his flask in hand, taking a swig while shaking his head at her. “They’re vengeful, you know. Lightning and fire and all that. They’ll get you back for that.”

  “I welcome them to try,” she said, looking back over the rampart. “Hmm. They’ve brought more of their armored trolls, it would appear.” Lightning streaked past her head from a spell. “And wizards, too.”

  She chanced a look at Andren, who shook his head. “Lightning. I warned you.”

  She breathed again deeply, twice, and dipped her head and hand over the wall. Another siege tower rolled forward and she aimed for it but pulled back as it burst into flame. Down the wall she saw Larana throw fire at another one then dodge behind a crenellation as a volley of arrows targeted her segment for bombardment.

  “Don’t they know by now we can kill their siege towers?” Andren asked, looking slightly sideways, just for a second, around the battlement, before dodging back as an arrow shot past his head. For that, he took another drink.

  “Certainly,” she replied and dodged out to fire twice at ladder-bearing enemies. The two in front were blasted clear and the ladder dipped, hitting the ground and causing the dark elves at the back to stumble. “But every one they push forward is another distraction for us.” She turned her head to look at the gates. “Soon enough they’ll have their battering ram back in service …” She let her voice trail off as she stared at the battering ram. It was unmoving, with only a few dark elves hiding behind it for cover. “That’s odd.”

  “We’re being bombarded by enemy arrows numbering in the millions,” Andren said, “siege towers are rolling across our fields as fast as the dark elves can push them. Tell me, in the midst of all that, what is odd? Flying mounts? Because I’ve seen those before.” He looked skyward for just a moment. “Actually, I’m surprised I don’t see them right now.”