Fallion gripped his sword, found himself studying Siyaddah. If she felt any fear, she concealed it well. She peered up into the trees with seemingly as little concern as a housewife might show upon learning that it might rain on her clean laundry.
Rhianna, Talon, and Jaz only stood as still as a herd of deer, sensing for danger.
The Knight Eternal passed, flying ahead, and Fallion’s group began their journey again.
They climbed up out of the marsh, into the foothills near Luciare; the mist drew back, and the trees thinned. Stars shone through bright swathes in the canopy. The hills became like a chessboard with dark blotches of forest skirting meadows where sun-bleached grasses shone ash gray under the stars.
Fallion felt exposed. The king called a halt at the edge of a clearing, and stood for a long moment. One of his guards pointed ahead. There were wyrmlings in the trees on the far side of the clearing, just beyond a gentle rise. Fallion could hear the tread of heavy feet, the clack of bone armor, a pair of grunts, followed by a snarl. There had to be a patrol of at least two dozen of them.
All of the fireflies suddenly winked out, and the king motioned for everyone to get down. Fallion soundlessly dropped to his knees, ducking behind a fallen log. He heard Jaz drawing heavy breaths to his left, saw his brother nock an arrow and then lie quietly, like a poacher waiting for a boar to come drink at a pond.
Talon and Rhianna were just beyond him.
To Fallion’s right, Siyaddah lay with her face upturned, listening.
She caught Fallion staring at her, and she just lay there peering into his eyes.
There was a grunt on the far side of the clearing, the sound of a footsteps coming toward them.
Fallion clutched his sword, loosened it from his scabbard. He didn’t fancy the notion of fighting wyrmlings in the dark.
He heard another gruff grunt, and the wyrmlings suddenly halted. One of them began to sniff the air, like a stag checking the trail ahead.
They’ve caught wind of us, Fallion realized. He saw his own warriors tensing nearby, gripping battle-axes, preparing to leap up.
The Wizard Sisel was only ten feet away, just beyond Siyaddah.
He raised a hand, pointed his pinky finger downhill. Fallion spotted the glint of a golden ring.
Something ominous sprung from the ground. It was a boiling mist, numinous and fog-like; the air suddenly chilled, as if they were in the presence of a wight.
The hair stood up on Fallion’s neck; goose bumps rose along his arms as the mist went hurtling through the brush like an arrow shot from a bow.
It glided almost soundlessly away, making only the faintest rustle through the grass and bushes, like a small wind; its effects were chilling. A hundred yards away, a grouse suddenly erupted from a bush, squawking in terror. A moment later, in the field beyond, a hare thumped its feet in warning, while its fellows hopped in every direction. Farther on, in the oaks beyond the clearing, a hart bounded three times, its rack snagging in a branch.
For all the world, it sounded as if someone were fleeing in fear.
With a growl the wyrmlings went charging south, racing after their invisible prey.
Moments later, once the wyrmlings had departed, the king headed north, and Fallion had to sprint to keep up.
They reached a narrow ravine that headed up the skirts of the mountain. A small brook ran through the ravine, its waters burbling over rocks and moss. The trees overhead grew thick and dark, and had it not been for the return of fireflies to give their light to the wizard, the troops could not have negotiated the thick brush.
Three times they had to cross the broad road that wound down from Caer Luciare. Each time, the king sent his scouts to watch for long moments before they made their crossing.
It was not until they neared the castle, perhaps three hundred yards from the gates, that they met resistance.
The king and his men climbed up out of the ravine, beneath the shadows of the oaks, and reached the last stretch of road. It was paved with thick stones, each four-foot square and fitted so closely together that a knife blade could not have been inserted between them.
Ahead the city blazed. Blue-white lights played beneath the arches on the mount, flickering and twisting, like some ethereal bonfire, and these lights reflected from the golden scrollwork and the freshly limed walls.
To Fallion, it looked beautiful, as if the walls of the city were made from enchanted crystal, and the Glories themselves stood guard beneath the arches.
Little did he know that it was not far from the truth.
As they waited, a deep growl came softly from the trees off to their left.
Four wyrmlings stepped from the brush.
“Watch out!” Rhianna cried, leaping forward with her staff. The king’s guard seemed startled, and many a weapon was drawn.
One of the wyrmlings held up his hand, three fingers extended in the air.
Jaz let an arrow fly, but Sisel bumped him just as he did, and the shot went wide.
“Scouts,” Sisel whispered. The wyrmlings began to talk softly and urgently to the king, their voices deep and guttural.
“Scouts?” Fallion whispered.
“Not all of the wyrmlings are evil,” Daylan Hammer whispered. “Not all of them have wyrms inside them, and though they are taught that they should desire one, they resist the teachings. They long for peace, just as we do. These few here are friends.”
Fallion looked to Talon, who seemed shocked. “Did you know about this?”
She shook here head. “I did not know that the king employed such creatures.”
As the wyrmlings spoke, Talon began to translate. “They say that the road ahead is dangerous, and they were afraid to try to reach the castle. They say that a horde of wyrmlings is approaching Luciare, a horde so vast that the city cannot withstand it. Another horde is already upon Cantular.”
Fallion nodded. Taking Cantular had been a vain gesture, it seemed. The men of Luciare had taken it in the morning, and the wyrmlings would have it again by midnight.
The wyrmling scouts finished relaying their message, and the king gave a nod, waved his men forward with his battle-ax.
So the men came out of the trees and bracken, and they could not hide any longer. The king’s men began to sprint, and the little road filled with light as Sisel’s fireflies streamed along beside them, a cloud of green fire.
Suddenly there was a strangled cry from Rhianna behind, and Fallion whirled to see something huge and dark spread its wings. It had been sitting in the crook of an oak, and now the branch went bobbing and waving as if in a strong wind.
Down the mountain, other cries arose, strange and vile, like the cries of peasants as they die, and suddenly the Knights Eternal were winging toward them.
Now it was just a race, the king’s men sprinting up the even road, calling for help in their strange tongue, as three Knights Eternal winged toward them like a murder of crows.
Siyaddah was running just ahead of Fallion. Suddenly she stumbled over something in the road. She fell in a tangle, and Fallion saw that it was a dead man, a scout who had not made it to the castle in time.
“Fallion,” Jaz shouted, “give me some light!”
Fallion stood above Siyaddah and reached inside himself, tempted to hurl a killing blaze, but instead cast a far weaker spell. He sent a nimbus into the air, a shimmering ball of heated gases that did not blind so much as it revealed.
A Knight Eternal in blood-red robes was swooping toward the fleeing form of King Urstone, the knight’s slender black blade aimed at the king’s back.
Jaz slid to one knee, drew an arrow to the full, and sent it blurring. It took the knight in the belly, six inches beneath the sternum.
The Knight Eternal howled in grief like a wounded bear, then veered slightly and crashed to the ground, mere feet ahead of Siyaddah.
A cheer rose from the castle walls, from defenders hidden up in the shadows behind the merlons, and Fallion felt a small thrill of hope to realize
that they were so close to safety.
He and his friends ran with renewed vigor.
But howls of rage erupted from the other Knights Eternal, and they redoubled their speed.
Fallion felt a spell wash over him, an invisible hand. It reached inside him grabbed the heat that he had stored there, and began to pull.
A flameweaver is here, Fallion realized.
Fallion did not fight the creature.
He let the heat go, even though it would mean that Jaz would not have light to see by. The Knight Eternal absorbed the heat, imagining that his own powers were superior to Fallion’s.
They were only two hundred yards from the wall, then a hundred and fifty. Fallion heard the thud of heavy wings behind him.
He spun, reached out with his mind, and pulled the energy back from the Knight Eternal. Fire came whirling from the sky in twisting threads, and before the knight could react, Fallion sent it hurtling toward the creature in a bright ball of flame.
Jaz pivoted, dropped to one knee, and fired another arrow. The knight shrieked like the damned and veered away.
The arrow sped upward and went ripping beneath the knight’s wing, mere inches from the shoulder.
Fallion waited to hear the creature’s death scream, but it only went lumbering toward the trees.
A miss, Fallion realized, his heart sinking.
The arrows that Myrrima had blessed were few in number, and with the curse laid upon them, their wood was rotting away. In another day, they would be good for nothing.
“Give me more light!” Jaz cried.
Fallion could not help, but Sisel whirled and aimed his staff. Fireflies went streaking up into the night sky like green embers, filling the air.
But the last two Knights Eternal wheeled back, soaring like a pair of hawks above the trees.
Jaz and Fallion waited a long moment, acting as a rearguard for the king and his troops, even as the castle gate opened, and a mighty host spilled out.
Jaz shouted a taunt to the Knights Eternal, “Come on, will you? We’re not that dangerous. Give it your best try.”
But the Knights Eternal were gone, soaring away down over the valley.
Wearily, Fallion turned and trudged into Castle Luciare.
31
A BATTLE JOINED
Until one has found himself in a pitched battle, where every moment brings the threat of death, he cannot truly value peace. —the Wizard Sisel
In Cantular, Warlord Madoc stood upon a tower wall and peered to the north with nothing to give him light but the stars and a slender crescent moon that clung tenaciously to the horizon.
Wyrmling troops sprinted en-masse in the distance, starlight glinting off helms of bone and off of flesh that was paler still. Among them, something monstrous crawled, a creature huge and humped, like a living hill. Hundreds of wyrmling lords rode upon its back. Madoc could see a head, vaguely adder-like and triangular, larger than a house, low to the ground. Kezziards stumped along too, like giant lizards among the wyrmlings, their warty skin as gray as a toad’s. They towered above the normal troops, like oxen among toddlers. The wyrmlings roared as they came, beating hammers against their shields. The sound snaked over the miles and reverberated among the hills like a groan, as if the very earth cursed at the folly it was forced to bear.
Above the dark throng, three huge black graaks wallowed through the air. This was not a battle that Madoc could win. He knew it. His men knew it.
But neither could they run. The people of Luciare needed their sacrifice this day. The preparations had all been made, the conclusion foregone.
The wyrmlings were still two miles away, rushing forward, their battle cries becoming a dull roar. Warlord Madoc took one last moment to utter defiance against the oncoming horde.
“Men,” he shouted, “let us be called brothers henceforth. For here in our hour of darkness our deeds shall make us brothers, and the bonds we form this day on the battlefield shall make us stronger than brothers.
“This is the twilight of our race. And if this be our final hour, let it also be our finest hour!”
His men cheered and for a moment their battle cries rose above the din of wyrmling troops, the incessant clash of arms.
“Back home our sons and daughters can huddle in fear, wrapped in the arms of our wives and sisters. They can hope that our stout hearts and sturdy arms will be enough to turn back the deadly flow of wyrmlings. Let their hopes not be in vain!”
His men cheered wildly, but the sound of enemy troops nearly drowned them out. Madoc peered across the fields. The wyrmlings were running faster now, sprinting into battle. The pounding of their feet made the earth shudder. They’d soon be at the fortress walls, breaking against them like the sea in a winter storm breaking over rocks.
“I will tell you the truth,” Madoc cried. “We are marked for death this night. Perhaps none of us will escape.” At his back, his son Drewish made a frightened little moan, as if he’d never thought of that. “But I will tell you a greater truth: Dying is easy. Anyone can do it. A babe can die in his cradle in his sleep, seemingly from nothing at all. Dying is easy. All of us will do it.
“But living is hard! Staying alive tonight—that will be a battle royal. So I challenge you, dole out death tonight. Let the wyrmlings take the easy path. Let them die. Make them pay for every moment while you yet live!”
There was a thunderous roar as his men cheered, but Warlord Madoc could see that the cheering would be short. The wyrmlings were charging, less than a mile away now. He could make out individual troops in the starlight, their bone helms gilt with silver, painted with evil symbols.
There was a flaring of light as archers put their arrows to the pitch pots, then let loose a hail. The arrows soared out over the battlefield, landed in the dry grass. It would give his men some light to fight by and dismay the wyrmlings.
Madoc stood tall on the battle tower, then turned and looked down at his sons. He could not bear to watch them die.
“As soon as the wyrmlings break through the wall,” he said softly enough so that others could not hear, “I want you out of here. Get to the south end of the river, and then head through the woods. Those giant graaks will kill any man who dares the roads.”
Connor licked his lips and said, “Yes, father.”
Madoc glanced toward the coming wyrmlings, then back down to his sons. “You cannot rule if you do not live out this night. Go and warn that fool Urstone what has happened here. Tell him how his men died gloriously, but in vain. Make sure that when you reach him, you have respectable wounds.”
Drewish nodded cunningly. “And what of you, father?”
“I’ll direct the battle for as long as I can,” Warlord Madoc said. “And then I will try to join you.”
Madoc turned back. The grass was afire now a hundred yards out. The wyrmlings reached the wall of fire, with flames leaping thirty feet in the air, but did not stop. They roared in defiance and hurdled through the flames, while humans made targets of them, hurling war darts.
Clouds of smoke were rising over the battlefield, filling the air with ash, reflecting the firelight back down to the ground.
Wyrmlings took poisoned darts to the chest, bellowed in rage, and continued rushing on. Here and there, one would stagger and drop, but most kept coming. The poison would be slow to work.
Many wyrmlings rode upon the backs of kezziards, great lizards some fifty feet in length. The monsters were fierce in battle, fighting with tooth and claw, lashing with their tails. The kezziards’ claws could easily get a purchase on the walls of the fortress, and then the monsters would scurry in, carrying attackers. Madoc began crying out, ordering his dart-throwers to target the kezziard riders.
The walls of the fortress were high, but at only thirty-two feet, they wouldn’t be high enough. The kezziards would reach his men easily.
Suddenly the battlefield was white with skull helms as the wyrmling troops filled it. Poisoned war darts began whistling up from them through the smok
e.
Some of Madoc’s men cried out while others merely fell back and died without a sound, heavy iron darts sticking from their throats and faces.
The troops were roaring now, his men singing a death hymn while the wyrmlings hurled back curses.
Madoc spared a glance toward his sons, to see if they had stayed or if they had already fled.
He saw them scuffling in the shadows. Drewish had a knife that flashed in the reflected firelight, and he lunged with it. Connor staggered away, blood flowing black from the back of his tunic. He grunted softly, fearfully, as he dodged his brother’s blade.
Madoc did not think. He leapt from the tower into the midst of the fray, used his round war shield to club Drewish across the face.
“Damn you, you brat, what are you thinking?”
“I will inherit!” Drewish said. “I’m most fit to rule! First I’ll kill him, then I’ll take down the king!”
“Not if I get you first, you damned coward!” Connor roared, finally gathering enough wits to clear his war-hammer from its scabbard.
He tried to leap past Madoc to get at his younger brother, but Madoc stopped him with an elbow to the face. Connor staggered under the impact of the blow.
Drewish took the opportunity to lunge, his knife lashing at his brother’s throat, until Madoc punched him in the ear.
Both boys fell to the ground, beaten.
Warlord Madoc put one foot on Drewish’s shoulder, holding him down, while he grabbed Connor by the throat and wrestled him around to get a look at his wound.
Blood stained Connor’s back just above the kidney, but the wound did not look deep. Already the flow was clotting.
“Not too bad,” Madoc judged. “The armor foiled it, just by a bit.”
“I nearly had him,” Drewish spat, trying to struggle up to his feet. “But he ran away.”
Madoc glowered. It was bad enough that Drewish tried to murder his brother. It was made worse by the fact that he had bungled it.
“Here’s the deal,” Madoc growled. “You will both live to reach Luciare. If either of you dies—either at his brother’s hand or at the hand of a wyrmling—I’ll kill the survivor. And, believe me—I’ll take my pleasure doing it. Understand?”
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