by Guy Antibes
“They scattered,” Ricky said.
Mattia grunted. “I’m not going to send out troops tonight to take advantage. I’m sure Griama’s rabble can fight better in the dark than Dimani-trained troops and villagers. What did you see in Rassoport?”
Ricky let Pira describe the trick she had pulled with Ricky’s help.
“They had at least three sorcerers in the camp,” Ricky said. “I had to fight them. Who knows who survived? Pira had to save me, or I would have planted myself in Rassoport’s soil.”
“I doubt if there are any more surprises tonight, but I don’t want to be in a fixed position now that they know we are here.”
“Then we should strike camp immediately?” Ricky asked.
“If you and Jac concur,” Mattia said, with a smile on his face.
“I do,” Jac said from behind Ricky.
~~~
Chapter Nine
~
R icky’s head bobbed up and down as they rode south. He yawned. They hadn’t reached Griama’s forces. He poured water on his face and rubbed it away. Overextending his magic had nearly cost him his life. If Pira hadn’t flown with him… He shuddered.
“Bad dream?” Nania Sarini said, riding behind him to the side.
Ricky looked around. “Where is Pira?”
“She will return presently,” Nania said.
He shook his head to drive away drowsiness and rode up towards Mattia, who traveled with a few officers. Nania followed behind.
“Where is Jac?” Ricky asked.
“Getting the food carts ready. We are stopping for a break before we engage with the enemy,” Mattia said. “Have you had anything to eat since we broke camp?”
“No.”
“Then do. Everyone is to get some food inside and relieve themselves before we fight the two armies ahead.”
“Did Jac agree to pursue the Rassos, too?”
“He did,” Mattia said with the bark of a laugh. “We are going to take care of Griama and then finish the father’s task for the son.”
“Except Jac won’t be setting up a little kingdom.”
“No,” Mattia said. “Having worked with him on our trip south, he has proven to be as good a person as you could hope to find. Don’t tell him I said that.”
Ricky grinned. “I won’t. I’ll be getting some food in me,” he said.
He turned to head back to the food carts. Soldiers and sorcerers were already lining up to grab something to eat as Mattia ordered the column to stop. Nania stayed behind to talk to Nemo.
Pira joined him just before he reached the wagons.
Jac saw them and brought three sacks of food and a waterskin. “There you are. I grabbed something to eat. Perhaps we can find a spot to dine,” he said grinning.
They threaded their way through the woods that surrounded the road and past sentries that Mattia had put out. After finding a little meadow still shaded from the morning sun, they stopped and sat on a fallen log.
“Where is Nania?” Jac asked.
“Where she should be,” Pira said. “I ordered her to ride with Nemo. We ride into danger, and the two of them have hardly talked on our journey. I told her that Ricky makes a nearly suitable replacement as a bodyguard.” She looked at him from the corner of her eye.
Ricky stayed silent, as he usually did when she shot barbed comments his way. She frowned for a second and broke off a piece of bread delivered in the early morning to the food carts as they headed towards Rassoport.
“Are you afraid of what might happen?” Jac asked Pira.
“Ricky wrung out all my fears last night. My heart leaped into my throat when I saw him begin to waver far above the ground.”
Jac looked at Ricky. “You didn’t say anything about that last night,” Jac said.
“I’m here, aren’t I?” He looked at Pira. “Thanks to Pira, I’ll admit. I was too free with my power. It isn’t a good thing to have a spell die when you are flying, but it happened. Pira saved me. Flying does have certain disadvantages.”
She scoffed. “After he disrupted the armies on both sides and fought off at least three enemy sorcerers,” Pira said. She leaned over and threaded her arm through Ricky’s. “He just needed a little help getting down.”
“A lot of help, actually,” Ricky said. “I can’t afford to have that happen again.”
“I should say not. A lot of people depend on you, not just in Dimani, either,” Jac said.
Ricky nodded and shoved some food into his mouth, so he wouldn’t have to respond. He didn’t mind leading, but he didn’t enjoy the admiration that sometimes came with it. The only adoration he sought was Pira’s, and she was exuding adoration at that moment.
A horn faintly sounded in the distance, coming from the army. A scout broke into the clearing. “Time to leave. I’m rounding up stragglers, my Lords, my Princess.” He nodded and kicked his horse's ribs before he disappeared back into the woods.
“Time to go,” Ricky said. He adjusted his wand case and sword before stuffing the rest of the food in his mouth. They all shared a final round of the water and left the skin with Jac.
He and Pira rode to the front with Mattia, while Jac filled his skin. Nania nodded to Pira as they approached. Warden Sarini looked a little teary. Ricky didn’t know if that was good or bad, knowing the on-again, off-again relationship between the two.
“Are you recovered enough to fly over the enemy? Jac can link with you. I’d like to know how much damage you caused last night. There were fewer soldiers lurking in the woods than I expected,” Mattia said.
“I’m willing and able,” Ricky said.
“So am I.” Pira looked defiant.
“Good. You can leave now. Nania can watch your horses. Give us a better description of the battlefield after looking at this.” Mattia shoved a handwritten map of the area around Rassoport into Ricky’s hands.
“This looks right from last night. There are rocky jumbles on both sides of the city. An army could send in scouts through there, but not a large force. They would have to move slowly. I’ll let Jac know what shape the defenses are in. Rassoport doesn’t have a wall.”
“Let us know for sure,” Mattia said as Jac arrived.
Ricky dismounted and secured his sword to the saddle. He tied the wand case to his leg again as he held hands with Pira. “Time to go.”
They rose into the air and took off towards Rassoport.
“No attacking unless we can’t help it,” Pira said.
“I’ll have more power if we hold hands,” Ricky said as he surveyed the battlefield.
It looked disorganized, since it appeared the Rasso forces had counter-attacked Lord Griama’s rabble. The barricades hadn’t held through the night. Ricky could spot bodies on the ground between the city proper and the defenses, but the fighting had started. After linking with Jac, Mattia said he would hold off for now.
That seemed sensible to Ricky. Let both foes tire on the battlefield. It wasn’t different from a three-sided duel, he thought.
“Look for sorcery,” Ricky said as he scanned the fighting. He couldn’t see any fire thrown. Nothing looked odd, other than men trying to slay other men.
“There is a break in the lines,” Pira said.
Ricky looked down to see tiny soldiers flood through a barricade to the east of them. Griama’s army flowed into the breach.
They flew over for a closer look. “See the Rasso forces on either side collapsing to the opening. It’s a trap.”
“They are tearing each other up,” Pira said as the battle intensified.
Griama’s forces opened another breach and flowed in to flank the Rassoport fighters.
“Time for us before it is slaughter on both sides,” Ricky said. He linked with Jac and informed them of the trap and the Griama attack.
The pair flew back to the vanguard of the Dimani forces.
“It is a bloody battle,” Pira told Mattia.
“Most of the fighting is concentrated to the east, so we shou
ld come in from the west and sweep Griama’s forces. There will be two fronts, the eastern front and the southern front, to guard against a counter-attack from Rassoport forces,” Ricky said.
“But they will think we are friendly forces,” Jac said.
“Until they see otherwise,” Mattia looked at the wrinkled map. “Ricky is right. We will have to position sorcerers not far from the front lines to test out the compulsion spells.”
“There might not be any sorcerers left,” Pira said. “We didn’t see any battle sorcerer activity.”
“No complacency,” Ricky said. “They may be waiting for us to return.”
Mattia suggested a plan for the battle that matched Ricky’s idea.
By the time they reached the battlefield, the western part of the city was nearly empty. The fighting was concentrated to the east.
~
Ricky flew over a cluster of Griama’s rabble wearing their armbands and sang the compulsion counterspell. Only two of the men staggered. He landed in full sight of the group with Pira and walked over to the men, sword in one hand, wand, not extended, in the other.
“Do you surrender?” Pira asked.
The men saw the wand and dropped their weapons. “You were the fire thrower last night?”
Ricky nodded. “Your two friends were compelled by Lord Griama’s sorcerers.”
The men backed up. “They led us,” the men said. “We didn’t do anything.”
“You are on a battlefield carrying weapons.”
The men looked at each other and then at the advancing Dimanians. They raised their hands.
Mattia rode through the front line and eyed the prisoners from his horse. “They were compelled?”
“Their leaders. They are far enough away from the fighting that I don’t think these men are representative of the force as a whole,” Ricky said.
Mattia turned to one of the officers. Secure these men, so they don’t go anywhere. It is time to move on.
Ricky rose into the air. He could see Griama, Ducri Wamia, and a man who wore a helmet disguising his face gesturing in Mattia’s direction. The trio hadn’t noticed them in the sky above. A flow of soldiers formed up a thin line facing Mattia’s army. That wouldn’t hold. Farther to the south, the battle still raged behind the Rassoport defenses. A line of Griama’s forces ran to attack the city but was cut down by the pursuing enemy behind them.
The attack on the Dimanian forces left Griama and Wamia protected by only a handful of uniformed soldiers. The helmeted man had left.
“Time to end this now. Please sing the counterspell as we land,” Ricky said. He flew down to the men and set down. While he drew his wand and extended the blade, Pira sang a counterspell. Neither man was affected, but the three officers and two soldiers staggered.
“Hendrico Valian,” Wamia said. “Or should I call you Vincent Crabacci?”
“Ricky works best. I’m taking you to Jac.”
“Jac, here?” Griama said.
“No,” Pira said and pointed in the direction of the Dimani troops. “He’s over there.”
Ricky looked at the other men. “Stop this bloodshed if you want to live,” Ricky said. He put Griama and Wamia to sleep.
Wamia was the heavier of the two, so Ricky carried him while Pira lugged Griama. Suddenly a bolt of fire appeared from behind them. Ricky’s shield deflected the flames, but they engulfed Griama and threatened Pira.
“Drop him,” Ricky said, letting go of Wamia. “Tell Mattia and Jac what we’ve done. He’s not worth getting burned.”
Ricky saw fear on Pira’s face turn to determination as she let Griama drop to the ground, continuing to burn. Ricky turned to see another bolt of flame engulf his shields. This time he wasn’t attacked while weakened. A single sorcerer stood shooting another flame.
He used his time trick to avoid the flame’s path and landed beside his foe and waited for time to speed up as he strengthened his shields. Time returned. The sorcerer’s eyes widened. Ricky didn’t recognize the man.
“How did you—?” The question was unfinished on the man’s lips.
Ricky doubted if the man would subject himself for interrogation, remembering how Anna Benicci had killed herself under the interrogation spell.
A bolt of fire bathed Ricky’s shields, but he countered with wind, blowing the man back a few steps, disrupting his spell.
“It is over,” Ricky said.
“Nothing is over. We aren’t done here, yet.”
“Dimani is over. King Courer has been cleaned of any spell, including the sterility spell. Jac Griama marches with the army.”
“He won’t kill his father.”
“You just did,” Ricky said.
The man began to float up. It wasn’t a deflection spell. As he rose above Ricky’s head, a thread of fire issued from Ricky’s wand and coalesced in front of the sorcerer’s shields. Ricky let the trailing thread go and stepped back.
The explosion was too much for the sorcerer’s shield, and the man’s body dropped to the earth. Another Botoyan had died. Ricky was certain these men were from the University. He sat on the ground for a moment to settle his nerves. The battle for Rassoport wasn’t over, but the Dimani defeat of the two armies wouldn’t take long.
He left the sorcerer’s body and flew to Griama, who still burned. Ricky spelled a wind to blow out the fire. Griama hadn’t survived the flames or the fall. Wamia groaned behind him. The drop didn’t kill the man. Ricky walked over to him and repaired the bleeding of the nearly unconscious man. A little pain wouldn’t hurt, Ricky thought with a smile, not feeling much sympathy for the habitual betrayer.
Pira returned and gasped when she saw Griama. “Jac is not going to like this.”
“I’m not so sure his mother will, either, but it ends an ugly chapter for Jac and Dimani. Ducri Wamia just can’t be killed,” Ricky said.
“He won’t last long,” Pira said, “one way or another.” She gasped. “Griama’s soldiers are attacking.”
Ricky looked at the rabble approaching them. “Not attacking, but running away. Extend the blade on your wand, so they won’t stop to bother us.”
The two of them stood in front of Griama’s body. A few soldiers saw Griama and Wamia lying on the ground and ran away even faster. He didn’t bother to stop any of them. They would only stop the fighting sooner if they spread the word.
A few soldiers managed to stop and confront Pira and Ricky, but Pira, demonstrating her hard-won martial skills, dispatched them with ease.
“This is sharp!” she said looking at the blade.
“You won’t find sharper,” Ricky said. “Be careful, or you can cut yourself.”
She wiped the blade on the dead soldier’s jacket, leaving the cloth cut before she closed the blade with a shiver.
They waited for the Dimanian troops to reach them.
Mattia arrived first. “Is that Griama?”
Ricky nodded. “He wasn’t shielded, and a bolt of fire intended for me ended up smothering him with flame.” He looked up to see the stricken face of Jac. “I had spelled him asleep, so he died without feeling pain.”
Jac stared. “I don’t know what he deserved,” was all he said before moving on. The soldiers parted for them as they continued east towards the fighting.
“Save Courer a bit of rope they will,” Mattia said.
“Ducri is still alive,” Ricky said.
“Not for long,” Mattia said. “You two are uninjured?”
Pira nodded. “I’m not excited about the fighting to come.”
“In Dimani?” Mattia asked.
She shook her head. “This is just a skirmish.”
Mattia grunted. “Stay here so the troops don’t trample the dead, or soon-to-be dead.”
Nania remained holding the reins of their horses.
~
The battle was over before long. The sorcerers continued to apply the compulsion counterspell, although most of the officers had died. The rabble was made to assemble the dead
into a pyre. The Rassoport forces approached Jac, Mattia, Ricky, and Pira.
“Lord Rasso is dead, and Lady Rasso and her daughter Vana have fled to Vorria,” a Rassoport officer said, presenting a white flag to Jac.
“They have given up their claims?” Jac said.
“We have voted to have them give up their claims. This is a fight that never should have happened,” the man said.
Jac showed the soldier the documents from King Courer. The officer nodded and said, “I will escort you into your city. It is yours as Crown Prince for Dimani and yours as Lord of the Griama domain.”
The officer left to assemble an escort of Rassoport defenders for Ricky. The army rode through the inner battlefield, littered with dead and injured men. Ricky suggested that the injured needed to receive medical treatment. Jac so ordered the Dimanian officers to organize whoever had healing skills to remain on the field.
They entered Rassoport to cheers. Ricky didn’t feel ebullient at the defeat of both armies. He had ridden past too many bodies. However, he did slay at least four sorcerers, and he might have been the only one to do so using sorcery.
Lord Rasso’s body lay in state on the square in front of the unfinished Rassoport palace. It was about the size of Jac’s manor house with a black iron fence around it, the points of the fence already tipped in gold.
Jac’s face was ashen. He had seen his father’s dead body, as well. His friend looked somber as he dismounted and stepped on a hastily-built platform.
“I represent King Courer and the Dimani Council, first of all. I grieve for your dead and injured. It wasn’t my intention to drive through the two armies to stand before you.”
Ricky thought Jac’s statement was technically true. In all the planning meetings, Jac had never supported slaughtering both sides, even though Mattia had.
“With Master Rasso’s body before you and his family gone from Dimani, I am re-taking all my domain as Lord Griama’s son.” Jac glanced at Ricky. “I intend to do away with contract labor in my domain.”
Most of the crowd cheered, but Ricky noticed some of the better-dressed citizens didn’t share in the general enthusiasm. Jac continued to talk. His people skills were excellent, and when he stopped, everyone cheered him. Ricky had no doubt Jac would make a much better steward of his family’s domain than his father had.
