'Keep it steady, Raven!' called Hirad.
Sol could see the eye slit of his target's helmet. The armour was beguiling. Cool light swam through the runes and symbols. But inside the helmet the eyes were shadowed and dark. The enemy brought his weapon to bear. He fired. White teardrops flattened against Ilkar's shield. Sol grunted a smile. He stepped in close, grabbed the man's shoulder and drove his blade up into his neck. The enemy reared back, blood spewing out. Sol's blade was all but ripped from his hand.
Two more filled the gap. Hirad was next to him. The young body he inhabited was fast, the soul inside adding skill to speed. He ducked a flailing weapon and slipped his sword into the gap between leg and torso armour. His target collapsed forward, Hirad shovelling him sideways.
A figure flew into the fight on Hirad's right. It was a moment before Sol realised it was Sirendor. Simultaneously, the squat power of Aeb barrelled forward to Sol's left. He brought down an enemy, arms around his waist, his body slamming into the surprised man, toppling him backwards. The two turned over, Aeb's fists smashing again and again up into his opponent's face. The enemy managed to bring his weapon round. He fired from close range. Inside the shield Aeb had no protection. His body juddered, smoked and blew apart, raining gore across The Raven's line.
A second man inside the shield turned his weapon on Ras. The Raven warrior jumped and sliced his blade at the enemy helmet. The dull clang reverberated inside the shield. The man did not flinch. He fired. Ras's head disintegrated and his body flopped to the ground.
'God's drowning!' spat Hirad.
He ducked a flailing blow and came up to block the return and hack down with his sword on the man's arm. His strike bit but did not pierce the armour. Sol wiped blood from his face. The enemy had seen the way to victory. They came on.
'Back up!' he shouted. 'We've got to back up. We can't let them inside the shield.'
The enemy ate up the ground. The Raven retreated. Every weapon appeared trained on them. Projectiles trailing smoke fell on them in their dozens.
'Turn and run,' ordered Sol. 'Go, go, go.'
The decade of inactivity, the lack of familiarity with new bodies and simply being dead told. Sol spun round, the pain in his hip shooting agony into his lower back. He stumbled. Hirad reached out a hand to support him but the barbarian's body was not the one his memories knew. Sol brought them both down, clattering straight into Ilkar, who pitched to the dirt.
'Shield down, shield down!'
White teardrops tore into them. Ren lost her entire right leg, screaming as her soul was torn from her body. Darrick had charged at the enemy line, drawing fire all the way. His body jerked, smoked and was torn through with burning holes, falling unrecognisable to the ground. Denser paused to cast but Sirendor dragged him away.
'No time, come on.'
Sol tried to get to his feet but his leg wouldn't support him. He stumbled again. And then Erienne screamed. The cry of a little girl in agony. And in the midst of hearing Hirad shout for them all to run, Sol saw her staring at her arms while they blistered and burned, the flames reaching up to her head and engulfing her hair and face.
'No, no!' It was Denser, but Sirendor wouldn't let him go. 'Not again, please, not again.'
Sol began to crawl towards her. She was lying writhing on the scorched earth, beating at the flames which encased her. The others of The Raven downed were already gone. So brief a return, snuffed out so easily.
A foot came down on his back. He turned his body to grab at it and another pressed into his neck. Weapons pointed at his head and chest. He lay still. All he could see were the helmets of three of the enemy ringed by smoke and fire. He heard the screams of the few survivors as they were hunted down and obliterated. He fancied he could still hear Hirad but it had to be wishful thinking.
'Sorry, Hirad. Why didn't I listen?' he whispered.
'You.' The voice belonged to one of the helmeted figures. The voice of a God. 'You are the key.'
Sol frowned. A thundering, guttural roar told him the new machine had begun its work.
'We will fight to the last man and woman. Your losses will be beyond contemplation.'
'Not any more.' Sol wasn't sure, but he thought the man laughed. 'Come.'
'I-'
It wasn't an invitation. A hand reached down to grip him and Balaia ceased to exist.
Chapter 14.
Auum waited until the Calaian Sun had reached deep waters before shedding his tears. The greedy and the disbelievers had burned in their paper castles surrounded by their brief empires just as he had said they would. Clamouring and crying on the docksides as the last ships sailed.
He should not have been desolate for them but he was. Desolate for what they had become. More human than elf in their last moments. Hanging on to material things when the elven nation was reverting to that which it had been for long periods of its history. Back to the life of which the most ancient writings spoke. As nomads. Akin to the Arakhe, the demons, in more respects than they would care to admit.
And just like the Arakhe, the elves were chased from dimension to dimension, their enemy relentless in pursuit of the prize which each elf carried and each temple and city harboured in great density. Mana.
Auum had watched the glorious spires and proud houses of Ysundeneth consumed by flame. Scorched by the heat of mana fire. He had seen the clouds rise above the vydospheres and had known the hungry machines sucked in the very life of Calaius with each belching breath. He grieved for the city. And he grieved for every elf who died trying to keep the Garonin back for long enough that the fortunate few should escape.
But he grieved for the rainforest infinitely more. Not its temples. Though they were beautiful and ancient, they could be rebuilt and rededicated. But for all of Tual's denizens, innocent victims of a war of millennia that simply brushed them aside. The rainforest was gone. His home for over three thousand years. The place where he had thought he might choose to step across to his rest when his work was finally done.
It might recover. Eventually. There was little more tenacious than the root and branch over which Beeth presided, after all. But would Tual's denizens return? Those not immolated would have been pushed south into the desert lands or north and east into the sea. So many species would be gone forever. Just like the elves. Forced to adapt and move on, otherwise to perish.
Auum stood in the stern of the vessel. Five days on, the tears had long dried up but the cloud was still visible above ruined Calaius. Behind him Captain Jevin kept a steady hand on the tiller as he had done for as long as Auum had known him. A sea captain without peer and a braver elf Auum had yet to meet bar those of the TaiGethen themselves.
'It will get no better for the want of staring at it,' said Jevin.
Auum turned to see Jevin's broad back.
'We killed our own to save ourselves. There can be no greater crime.'
Auum's memories came flooding back. The flames hemming them in as Ysundeneth burned. The desperation to make it aboard ship. The pleading, the threats and the promises. And finally the spells deployed to force order and the TaiGethen attacking those demanding passage when they had originally chosen to stay.
'Think on who you saved, not who had to die. It is the way of elves.'
'I cannot forget so easily,' said Auum. 'Every drop of blood is on my conscience.'
'Who said anything about forgetting? We're a long time alive, some of us, and our memories come with us all the way. But for now focus on what you have, not what you have lost.'
'You sound like me,' said Auum, coming to his side.
Jevin smiled at him. 'Well, you talk a good deal of sense. Most of the time. And I make it my mission to listen to elves who kill with your efficiency.'
'And what do we have, Captain?'
'Look about you, Lord Auum. The sea is full of elven sails pushed hard by the devil wind the Garonin have caused with their fire. Almost three hundred, and all will make landfall before night.'
'But do you know how few of the elven population of Calaius that represents?'
Jevin's smile faded a touch. 'Less than ten per cent, I am sure.' 'Less than five, my friend, even though every vessel is overburdened. I should be happy, I know. It is more than we took from the fires of the Garonin before. But we must also pray for the souls of all those who perished. For all that we achieved, we only saved forty thousand of our people. Every other soul is trapped and restless until we can find a new home.'
Jevin nodded and turned back to the wheel for a moment. Auum looked out over the crowded deck at the desperate and desolate, the bemused and the stricken. The confidence of millennia swept away in a few days.
'You have many problems ahead before that time comes,' said Jevin, inclining his head at the civilians.
'The Garonin at our backs, an army of the displaced to move and feed, and Yniss only knows what state Balaia will be in. We have to assume they are also under attack.'
'You'll be lucky to find a college standing,' said Jevin.
'Yet we must hope Julatsa's Heart beats for long enough to see us safely to the Wesmen and away.'
'And you. Still determined to go through with your plan, then?'
'Two men still live who I regard as highly as any TaiGethen elf. I will not leave them behind. The bulk of the civilians will travel to the west with Rebraal to appeal to the Charanacks. They have no mana, surely their path to the spirits is clear, and if it is, it might provide our means of escape.'
'And if it doesn't?'
'Then the elven race dies on Balaia.'
Jevin blew out his cheeks and nodded his head. 'Anyone else would sound overdramatic. You just scare me.'
'Remain scared, it is a wise state of mind.'
Mages were flying back to the fleet. Dark specks against the cloud-strewn sky, flying against the wind. Auum felt his heart rate increase. News was at hand. He watched the trio approach. Jevin ordered a red burgee raised atop the main mast to guide them in. Rebraal had chosen well. All appeared unhurried and in control of their castings after several hours away although they had probably been unable to land.
But as they drew near he could make out the distress on their faces ever more clearly. He prayed to Yniss that it was simply exhaustion but he knew otherwise. The trio circled the Calaian Sun and landed on the wheel deck.
Everyone on board was looking at them. Every elf on deck had risen and there was a concerted bunching towards the stern. Auum didn't blame them. The first mate asked for calm and assured them that information would be given to all. It did little to quell the thirst for knowledge.
'I hardly need to ask, do I?'
Dila'heth shook her head and wiped dust from her face.
'They are there, my Lord Auum. Yniss preserve me, you can see the clouds from here if you look for long enough. It is no mirage.'
'Is Gyernath secure?' asked Jevin. 'Can we still land there?'
'Yes, but it will do us little good other than to disembark the ClawBound we need to scout north. The Garonin will have pressed into Xetesk before you can make it on foot, Lord Auum. You will need to find another route to Xetesk.'
'And the colleges?' Auum was sure more bad news was on the way.
'Lystern is gone. Xetesk and Julatsa will be under direct attack in a little over ten days. Other vydospheres are headed to Korina and to Triverne Inlet, meaning even the site of the One college will not be spared. Balaia is dying. Consumed by the fires of the Garonin and soon to be dust and ash.'
Auum put his head in his hands. He heard a collective groan from the assembled crowd behind him on deck.
'Are we already too late?' he asked.
Dila'heth shrugged. 'It is hard to be sure of anything. I do not want to give you false hope.'
'Did you land? Is there any good news?'
Dila laughed and exchanged glances with her two fellow mages.
'The Balaians are fighting, we saw evidence of that. But they are compromised just like us. Some of their dead are returned. Their messages carry no hope of victory and speak only of running, but they do not know where. They have no idea who to turn to.'
Auum nodded. 'Then they shall turn to us.'
The survivors of the massacre barely stopped running until they reached the questionable sanctuary of Xetesk. The enemy had stopped moving once the defenders had fled. Scouts reported them actually turning away from their path, heading further north with their machine.
Inside Xetesk, confusion obscured all else. Refugees, living and previously dead, were flooding into the city from Erskan, Blackthorne, Pontois and Denebre. All told the same story. Unstoppable advance, total devastation. No quarter given, no hostages taken. Nothing left but ashes and dust, the stumps of trees and naked rock.
The authorities, shorn of Denser and Sol, had struggled to cope. As many as possible had been directed to parks and waste grounds and given what food and shelter could be found. Others received charity in private dwellings and yet more had been fleeced by unscrupulous landlords and inn owners. The city was creaking.
The arrival of the Lord of the Mount, dishevelled and riding with just a handful of those with whom he had set out, only deepened the disquiet. Tensions had been rising steadily between the living and the dead. Violence was breaking out. Divisions were deepening and the advance of the enemy added fear to the mix. Denser's ears rang with problems, none of which he was immediately willing to face.
In the relative peace and quiet of the Mount, Denser poured a jug of water over his head and let the icy liquid soak down over his shirt and trousers. He handed the jug back to his apprentice, who refilled it from the butt in the corner of the bedchamber. He upended this second jug too, hearing the water splash over the stone floor and force life into his bones and muscles.
'Thank you, Brynar. You can go. Find me some food; I'll be down to the main chambers shortly.'
'Yes, my Lord Denser,' said Brynar, a keen young mage, bright and determined. 'Baron Blackthorne, Sharyr and Lord Dystran all request urgent audience. As does Mayor Haved.'
'And I will see them as soon as I can, assure them of that. First I must rid myself of this dust and stench.'
'My Lord Denser?'
'Yes.'
'It is good to see you back safe.'
Denser nodded and suddenly he was clinging hard to his emotions. 'I can scarce believe it myself. Off you go.'
The door closed behind Brynar and Denser sank down onto his haunches and let the sobs roll over him, his tears mingling with the water that dripped from his face and hair. His body shook. He clamped his hands to his thighs, rocking back and forth.
The pounding flame and the incessant white teardrops. Her hair alight, surrounding her face while she screamed. The fire engulfing her hands at which she stared until the heat blinded her and suffocated her. Fingers clawing at the ground while she died. The tearing agony as her soul was lost to the void.
Worse than before. Ark had saved her soul from the demons the first time. Nothing could save her now, and even in his death Denser would not be near her. Not ever again. Denser let images of her face, her first face, settle in front of his eyes. He reached out but they distorted like reflections on windblown water.
Denser sat while the water chilled his body, making him shiver and interrupting his despair. He raised his head and wiped his face with his hands. He drew in a huge pained breath and coughed violently. So brief, returned life.
'Get up, Denser,' he said to himself. 'Wallow later. Do something. Do something.'
He pushed himself to his feet. And, while he dried himself and found a change of clothes, he thought. He cleared his mind of his visions as far as he could and thought back over all that had happened out there on the battlefield and all that the dead had said in the days before.
And when he was done, he found that there was only one question that really mattered. Had his mind been playing tricks and, if not, what in all the hells had happened to Sol?
Denser studied himself in the mirror. A little greyer than the last time he had looked. And plainly exhausted too, but rest would have to wait. He placed a fresh skullcap on his head and made his way down the spiral stair of his upper tower to where Brynar would have left his food for him.
He opened the door to find he would not be eating alone.
'Bloody hell, what's brought you up out of your hole? And who let you in without asking me?'
'My Lord Denser, it is customary to extend the hand of friendship to those with your best interests at heart,' said Dystran.