A Fair Fight

by Perkins, Katherine

  Ashling did one more pass in front of Megan, the pixie nodding to her before going to help Riocard. Megan followed the Count with her gaze, catching sight of Orlaith talking to Riocard. He nodded, and both turned back to the field. The Queen began to chant, and lances of fire erupted from the skies, raining down into the ranks of the attackers. She was reinforced by more of the fae sorcerers, attacking with more powerful magic.

  Inwar had gotten the lines stabilized, but it was still a struggle, constantly trying to fill new gaps in the defensive line, counting on Riocard's troops and those the other delegations had brought to the conference to tend to those who had broken through. Things had stabilized enough that healers were starting to make their way to the front to start tending to the wounded, but a number of small battles still raged behind the lines.

  With Ashling leading the way, Riocard and a small knot of his warriors plunged back through the line, which opened to allow this new attack through. Riocard gestured, and a blast of hurricane wind carried one of the giant beasts and its rider out of his way, sending them crashing into one of the runes, which set them on fire, though they fell only after the monster stumbled through some of the Fomoire ranks in a blind panic. Riocard and his warriors continued fighting forward, trying to reach Tiernan, the ogres, and anyone else still fighting out in the open.

  Megan lost sight of it as the whip cracked against the table only a foot away from her, pulling her attention back to the fight between Cassia and the slave-driver. Cassia was still without her sword, but had driven her attacker back a few feet anyway.

  “Sound the horn and Cassia, knife!” Megan sang as she tossed her acquired weapon to the ground near the satyress’s feet. Cassia rolled out of the way of an attack, sweeping up the knife in one hand before rising to face off with the giant again.

  Justin finally managed to find an opening after he cut an attacker's weapon in two with the Claiomh Solais. He bashed the other madman in the face with his shield, then ran the unarmed fighter through. The remaining attacker didn't last much longer fighting alone.

  The huge beast fighting the cats finally knocked Maxwell down onto his back, then reared up, raising oversized front legs to crush the cat. Jude timed his leap perfectly, snapping his jaws onto the beast's throat and digging his claws into its chest to hold on while he tore at the jugular. The beast howled, and finally tumbled backwards. Maxwell recovered and leapt onto its stomach when it fell, finding more success slashing the softer flesh there than he had with the scales lining the monster's back and shoulders.

  Cassia finally got in a good attack of her own, dodging a strike with the whip and driving the knife into the slave-driver's knee. He stumbled and, this time, fell. She recovered her sword in the seconds that bought her, and by the time he'd struggled back up to one knee, she had her proper blade, which she drove deep into his neck.

  With no more attackers around them, Megan looked back to the front in time to see Ashling guiding Riocard through the chaos as he led a contingent of wounded faeries out of the open and back to cover, with Tiernan and Jack-in-Irons among them. Jack had nearly all of his handful of colleagues; of Tiernan's village worth, there were only a few. Jack and the ogres rejoined the lines, while the others mostly had to stagger or be dragged to the healers.

  “We make—Dad!” Megan stopped singing and rushed up to the line to make sure he was all right and to help with the healing. Justin and Cassia followed, moving to help reinforce the line until the spearmen closed ranks after Riocard, Tiernan, Jack, and rest had passed through.

  “I’m fine, dearest,” the Unseelie King said. “Just need to not get carried away.”

  “Oh.” Megan smiled. “Then we’re really in trouble.”

  Tiernan initially refused healing, pointing a brownie with a ladleful of antidote toward one of his men. Megan's eye caught the rip in the front of Tiernan's suit and the black lines growing from the scratch across his chest as he moved toward Orlaith instead. Her sunset eyes stayed fixed on the battlefield as her magical support of the Seelie forces continued, but she spoke to him.

  "My sympathies."

  “...But...How?" he said.

  “You were right that the Fomoire play for keeps. Of course, that was never what I was arguing with you about,” Orlaith replied.

  “We drilled for centuries.” He watched as Orlaith gestured, and a wave of heat disintegrated a whole row of attackers where they stood.

  “And we lay in wait for more than a millennium.”

  "The Northman..." he began, still breathing heavily.

  "The Northman understands what it is to fight for everything. We both fought Balor. We both lost."

  "But your alliance, the efforts to gain more control... they weren't his ideas, were they? That was you."

  Orlaith paused, enchanting another line of spears with the white flames, before looking back to Tiernan. "The General and I, we agreed. Those who came later…they hadn't fought the Fomoire. Didn't see thousands of our people die. They didn't understand. We had to be prepared for war."

  Tiernan stared at his aunt for a moment, then looked away.

  The Queen didn't skip a beat in her efforts. “I missed you too, Tiernan.”

  The battle continued, but Inwar and Orlaith managed to reform the lines. Riocard rallied his own troops, sending them to fill in at any gaps that appeared during the fight. The tide began to turn. The Fomoire's savage front lines thinned, and some of the remaining beasts and taskmasters were finally broken enough to retreat.

  There were a few moments of celebration and threats called after the retreat, but soon enough, Inwar gestured, pointing out that the fight had only begun.

  Bolts of greenish fire rained down onto the field, blasting apart runed defenses. In the distance, the hills filled with movement. The forces used as shock troops and minesweepers were retreating, but the true Fomoire were just beginning a charge of their own.

  Chapter 36: Outgunned

  Even at a great distance, the effect of seeing the Fomoire coming was immediate and drastic. While most of the fae ranks held, others broke from the lines, while others froze, dropping their weapons and staring. Megan had felt the powerful fear effect before: meeting Peadar, fighting the first wight, the battle of Falias.

  Thankfully, such experience made the rallying song come quickly to her mind without any help or reminder. She began to sing again and quickly felt the cauldron's power augmenting her own. More of the fae settled back into place, but even with that aid and Inwar's commands, any confidence boost the Faerie forces had gained from routing the first attack had disappeared.

  The Fomoire rained fire of their own down on the battlefield as they ran, focusing on destroying the traps and obstacles in their way. The runed stones exploded into rubble, the spear emplacements burned, and the barriers crumbled under the sorcerous onslaught.

  The faeries attempted to respond, with Orlaith leading the magical assault as soon as the Fomoire grew closer. Unfortunately, most of the magic turned on the Fomoire army dissipated as it neared their ranks, or exploded as if it was striking an invisible barrier. Orlaith's bright fireballs, the attacks by the djinn, and a few others made it through the protections, wiping out a couple of the infantrymen and wounding one of the true giants, but even their magic showed signs of being far weaker than intended.

  As they grew closer, the giants started to take the lead, shaking the ground as they moved. Having heard about their proficiency with disrupting earthquakes, Megan looked towards one of the Native American delegations, seeing the ohdows collectively crouching, hands touching the ground, faces in deep concentration as they cast whatever magics they were doing to counter the shaking ground.

  Elsewhere in the ranks, the faerie archers fired barrage after barrage into the skies. As with the magical assault, the arrows seemed to have limited effect. Some deflected away from their targets, some were intercepted by blasts and waves of greenish flame, and some stuck into the flesh of the giants without seeming to do much.
r />   The Fomoire infantry wasn't far behind, forming a line of spearmen of their own. While they started out marching, as they closed in, they started to run as one. Right behind them, the cavalry advanced, but more cautiously. At their head, Megan caught sight of a singularly hideous creature, giant and sharklike. On foot, he still led the heavy cavalry easily. Despite his size, he wore fine armor, studded with twisted spikes that Megan guessed were of cold iron.

  “If we stay like this …” Orlaith called to Inwar.

  “I know. Instead, we should get closer to the sorcerers.” He raised his off hand, gesturing his troops forward. It began as a slow advance and turned into a charge, with the ljosalfar leading, weaving between the pits full of bodies and the smoking ruins of the barriers. Riocard quickly joined in, as did dozens of his followers. The ogres and more of the Unseelie followed suit. Others were more hesitant, but momentum gradually built up.

  Megan quickly learned why the Queen and her general, two of the few who had previously fought the Fomoire, had changed tactics. As they charged, green fireballs pelted the battlefield. Some of those who were struck directly simply burnt to a cinder, while some of the more powerful fae survived, but were still reduced to writhing on the ground, covered in burns, with the black worm-like things expanding under their skin.

  Xurde, who had worked among the healers during the previous battle, took a more active hand this time. He swept out from the back ranks and strafed the field below with breath of misty white that froze a rank of Fomoire infantry in their tracks. Some of the other fliers, such as the lightning bird of the Xhosa delegation, followed his lead, raining magic down on the field, or swooping down to make their attacks.

  At a shout from Inwar, the pixies and sprites finally joined the battle, swarming from points all over the battlefield into their glimmers and murmurs. As a flying blanket of color passed over her, Megan felt the winds picking up, pushed ahead of them. As they advanced, Megan both saw why they'd been held in reserve and gained some idea of Ashling's comments about the power of the smallfolk in bunches. The green firey rain was all but extinguished in the skies. Whatever barriers the Fomoire had erected against faerie magic started seeming less effective, while Orlaith and the other sorcerers' own spells started proving moreso, striking down a number of the infantrymen, and even one of the thirty-foot giants, under concentrated fire.

  "What do we do, my lady?" Justin asked, dented shield raised to try to provide some protection for Megan.

  "They said something about getting to the sorcerers. Your sword would be the best thing... so we go help," Megan said, before picking up on her song again, starting to run onto the battlefield.

  "You heard her," Cassia said, looking to the leopards. She, the cats, and Justin took off after Megan, catching up, then passing her, leading onto the field.

  As the two armies met amidst the treacherous field, full of traps and still-burning fires, Megan quickly noted a difference from the last full-scale battle. Against the undead the previous summer, the faeries had shown every sign of being far more powerful. The skeletons had simply outnumbered them and kept getting back up.

  Here, even the ranks of Fomoire infantrymen showed signs of being at least the equal of most faeries, taking losses, but felling just as many of the alliance troops. The giants were temporarily halted, swatting at swarms of pixies and sprites moving around their eyes, but Megan had no doubt that they'd be even worse, as would the cavalry.

  Not even the most powerful of the fae—her father, Inwar, Orlaith, the dragon, the Djinn, and other obvious leaders—could just cut through the enemy ranks. They were more than a match for the rank and file of the Fomoire, but as soon as they started fighting the Fomoire leaders, they were clearly outclassed.

  Megan scanned the field for any sign of a weak point, but the Fomoire showed discipline and skill, forming unbroken lines to protect their own magic users. Finally, Megan shouted to get Cassia and Justin's attention and changed direction, rushing towards one end of the field.

  "My lady?" Justin said, but followed, then took the lead to protect them from enemy sorcery, raising the shield to try to catch any stray missiles as well.

  "We've been beneath notice before," Megan said. "If we can get to the edge of the field, maybe hide behind one of the barriers, let the front lines pass, maybe we can sneak attack some of their magic people."

  "I like the way she thinks," Cassia called, gesturing for the cats to follow close.

  Megan looked for suitable cover and ran harder when she saw it, hoping the chaos of the field would distract the Fomoire. Unfortunately, the movement of the group drew attention from one of the giants, who shifted from the Fomoire advance to investigate, swatting at some of the sprites trying to distract him.

  When the ground shook under them as the massive footfalls came closer, Cassia and the cats kept their feet, but Megan and Justin both hit the ground. Justin grabbed for Megan's hand, pulling her out of the giant's path.

  Cassia stopped running, turning to face her giant opponent instead, calling for the cats. She timed her own rush carefully, charging at the giant. Just as a foot came down, she leapt onto the giant's boot, followed by the cats, and the three started climbing up the boot and then the tree-trunk leg. Noticing that Cassia now had the giant's full attention, Justin darted forward, trying to get to the back of the giant's other boot.

  Megan wanted to stay near Justin and hide. But she saw Cassia narrowly avoid an attempt at a swat at her. She saw the look of concentration on Justin's face as he tried to cut through the thick leather without drawing attention. The fear the Fomoire army generated was starting to creep back into her brain. And she realized, dangerous as it would be, she needed to help. Darting away from Justin, she started singing the song of inspiration again. The giant hesitated, trying to grab at Cassia and the cats, leaving them swinging and dodging around as best they could, before the giant lifted a foot high, trying to step down on Megan. She dove out of the way, rolling over the still-burning body of one of the fallen. She had to spend several seconds smacking fires out, but the boot had missed. Cassia kept climbing, leaping from the giant's rough belt to one arm, while the cats split, climbing up different parts of the giant's shirt, dividing his attention.

  Cassia finally failed an attempt to move faster than the grabbing hand, and the giant lifted her up, starting to squeeze. She managed to keep an arm free, and drove her sword into one forefinger, trying to cut her way out. It appeared for a moment as if it might be successful, but the Fomoire held on.

  Before he could crush her, Justin finally finished cutting away boot leather, and drove the Sword of Light into the giant's achilles tendon. Despite the thick flesh, the sword cut deep with each cut. Justin got three cuts in before the giant shifted attention again. He to step on Justin but nearly lost his balance instead.

  That distraction proved enough for Cassia to cut to the bone, and the giant finally lost his grip on her. Cassia resumed scrambling up the giant's arm, meeting the cats near the neck, where the three set to attacking as well. There were a few more swats—and another attempt to crush Justin that resulted in stumbling. At this point, there was a change in music.

  “Thistle, Lavender, CASSIA, JUMP!” Megan called up the best blast of wind she could manage. The weakening giant would almost certainly have weathered it with little trouble normally, but she caught him with one foot raised, about to try to smash Justin. Between being on one foot and the injury, he staggered, then fell on top of some of his own allies.

  When he first fell, Megan hoped to use the chaos to try to get deeper behind enemy lines. Unfortunately, the Fomoire could react much more quickly than she'd thought. Cassia was still struggling to her feet, a hand at her side, and the others regrouping after the giant's fall, when Megan pointed out the Fomoire officer turning their way. "Guys, I think we have incoming."

  Chapter 37: Confrontation

  Counting the officer, three of the cavalry turned Megan’s, Justin’s, and Cassia’s way and started
rushing towards them. The officer’s pointing them out also led to more of the Fomoire infantry’s moving to protect their sorcerers, ensuring no one else could skirt around the edges of the field to get to them.

  As the figures on horseback charged, one of the officer's hands lit up with green fire, leaving the other holding his spear. He made a throwing motion, launching the flame towards Cassia, who was still struggling to move after being nearly crushed in the giant's hand. Justin moved to interpose himself, parrying the blast and the next two that followed with the sword. The other two horsed figures launched fireballs of their own, though these were not quite as bright, and they took longer to call up the fire. Each time, it was all Justin could do to deflect each blast. The sword flared with each one, negating the Fomoire magic as they met.

  Unfortunately, his stalwart defense left him in poor position to avoid the incoming charge, as the trio closed in. Justin raised his shield to block the officer's spear, only to be slammed backwards hard when the weapon hit it.

  “My turn for the save,” Cassia said as she grabbed him, having been bought time to recover. As she leapt clear, she dragged Justin out of the way before the horses ran him over. The cats also leapt clear, though Jude was smashed aside by one of the horses when he was too slow to get away entirely. He rolled to a stop in the dirt and struggled to get up.

  Megan dove as well, landing on bodies in one of the pits, cushioning the fall and keeping her from reaching the sharp stones at the bottom. She'd seen bodies before, but this was something altogether different. They gave just a little whenever she tried to move, and they were still warm to the touch. Worst of all was when she found herself unable to keep from looking into the motionless, glassy eyes.

  Fortunately or unfortunately, the sound of hoofbeats pulled her out of it, and she did her best to scramble out of the pit as the horses swept past. The Fomoire cavalry turned and readied themselves for another pass. Megan sang the first thing that came to mind, calling up a powerful wind. It picked up ash, dust, and shards of destroyed rune defenses on its way, pelting the horses and riders. They pressed on, running towards her despite the barrage.