Part 15 (1/2)

She grasped his hand in her own. With a single fluid motion he swung her up on the saddle behind him and spurred his horse into motion. ”Hold on tight!” he shouted.

”We have to get my medicines!”

He shook his head. ”We can't!” He was already past her horse's corpse, and the demons were swinging about to come in low once more. He would have to charge right at them to get her pack.

”No! We have to! I need them! We can't leave them behind!”

He ignored her. There would be time later-at least he fervently hoped so-to replace her medicines. To try to retrieve them now would be suicide.

”Zaephos!” shouted Gerin. ”Help us!”

The divine messenger shook his head. ”I cannot. Even if I threw off this mortal form and unleashed my power, it would destroy all of you as well, and level part of these mountains.”

”Will you die?” asked Nyene, hunched low over the neck of her horse.

”This mortal body can be slain, but I will not die. I will return to the divine realm.”

”So you need not fear death,” said the Threndish woman.

”You need not fear it, either. The Maker is altering his covenant with mankind. He returns now for a reason. What lies beyond death is not what it once was.”

”You are truly mad,” said Nyene.

”My lord!” shouted Balandrick. ”Look!”

In the distance, rising from behind a long root of the mountain that stretched far into the valley, they could see the tops of several black towers.

Gerin redoubled his efforts, this time releasing powerful Forbiddings from Nimnahal in an attempt to hold the demons back. The enemy cavalry was close enough now to rain arrows down upon them, though none had yet hit their mark.

He placed as much of his power as he dared into the Forbiddings, making them as large as possible. They held the demons back a little better than the Wardings had, but the creatures battered his spells relentlessly, and he knew the barriers would shatter in moments.

With a coordinated effort, the demons clawed at his Forbiddings. There was more than sheer physical strength in their attack-their bodies contained energy of a kind that warred with wizards' magic, trying to cancel it out.

The Forbiddings shattered beneath the weight of the a.s.sault. Even the Khedes.h.i.+ans could see a sudden amber glow in the air above them that grew bright for an instant before winking out.

The backflow of magic from the shattered spells stunned Gerin. Nimnahal slipped from his fingers as he slumped forward over the pommel. Elaysen frantically tried to hold onto him, but he was too heavy, and a second later he fell from the horse.

He heard Elaysen scream for Balandrick, who swore loudly and swung about. The Taeratens followed him as Elaysen tried to grasp the reins of the terrified animal.

Gerin had broken his arm in two places and cracked a rib when he'd fallen. He sat up slowly, his body wracked with pain. The Taeratens formed a line behind him while Balandrick leaped down from his saddle.

”My lord, are you hurt?”

Gerin took a breath and winced as pain stabbed through his chest. ”We have to keep moving.”

Balan helped him to his feet. His broken right arm was on fire, and each breath felt like a roundhouse punch. Balandrick picked up Nimnahal and flipped himself up onto his mount, then held out his hand to help Gerin. With a great deal of effort, Gerin managed to get onto the saddle behind his captain.

”Elaysen...?” he asked.

”Up ahead, my lord.”

The Taeratens had raised their s.h.i.+elds against an incoming volley of arrows. Four thudded into the ground within a few feet of Gerin and Balandrick. The king turned his head and saw that the Havalqa cavalry were frighteningly close. And the demons were again descending upon them.

Balandrick and the Taeratens raced off, but there was now no chance they would reach the Towers before both the demons and the Havalqa caught them. He was spent. He could release more of the spells contained within Nimnahal, but they were not enough to hold off their pursuers. The most he could hope to do was kill some before they swarmed over them.

The Staff of Naragenth was still bound to his horse. Since its vast reservoir of accrued magic had been depleted driving back the Havalqa army marching on Almaris and breaking their naval blockade of the city, he had found it a less useful weapon than Nimnahal. Still, he would wield it now if he could get his hands on it.

He looked ahead for Elaysen and saw her coming back toward them, her face frantic. Time seemed to slow down; his perceptions grew almost painfully sharp. He saw Hollin and Abaru, both exhausted, their eyes upon him as if hoping for a miracle. Far ahead, Nyene had paused to see what was transpiring with her captors. Zaephos was a short distance behind her, his face calm. I wonder if he's curious what it will be like to die, thought Gerin. Or maybe he's interested to witness the deaths of mortals from a mortal point of view. He wished bitterly that the One G.o.d's messenger would do something, anything, to help them.

The demons were almost upon them. There was nothing to be done. They would have to make a stand. Gerin raised Nimnahal to release everything left within the weapon. He pointed the tip at the nearest demon- -and nearly dropped Nimnahal when a curtain of blue fire erupted from the ground behind them. It rose with blinding speed, a sheet of translucent flame that stretched from the foothills into the valley as far as he could see. He felt no heat from the fire, and the gra.s.ses at its base did not burn. It was not wizards' magic, but it was similar, a kind of distant relative to his own power.

The demons could not halt their trajectories or veer off in time. They smashed into the barrier and stuck fast to it, like flies in amber. Their bodies ignited moments later, bright spots visible through the cool blue flame. The wall continued to rise, carrying them quickly out of Gerin's sight.

On the far side of the wall the Havalqa cavalry came to a sudden halt. They fired arrow after arrow at the barrier, but the missiles turned to ash the moment they touched it.

Gerin looked up. The top of the wall of fire was at least a thousand feet high. He could not imagine the kind of energy necessary to create such a thing.

”My lord, is this your doing?” asked Balandrick.

He shook his head. ”No. This is beyond anything I can do.”

”Who, then?” He craned his neck to look at Zaephos.

The messenger and Nyene were trotting toward them. There was a look of awe on the Threndish woman's face.

”Did you find a way to help us?” Gerin asked Zaephos.

”This barrier is not my creation. It comes from the Towers.”

The wizards approached, staring at the barrier with open wonder. ”This is the barrier that kept Paraclade from reaching the Watchtowers,” said Hollin.

They were all startled when the barrier began to move.

The section closest to them remained stationary, but the distant ends of the wall curled away from them, bending back toward one another, closing to form a cylinder. The Havalqa on the other side realized they would be trapped were it to close completely and turned quickly about. The barrier closed faster, and its ends came together before the Havalqa could escape. Through the translucent flame, Gerin could dimly see them darting about, trying to force their way through. Some of the soldiers tried to push through the barrier when they realized it emitted no heat, but the moment they touched it, their bodies flared and turned to ash.

When the barrier closed, it was a ma.s.sive cylinder reaching far into the sky. Where the power moved across the ground, the gra.s.ses and trees it had touched were gone. The ground was cut to an absolute smoothness, fused somehow, leaving what looked like polished stone.

”This was certainly provident for us,” said Hollin. ”I wonder if they'll hold these soldiers here until our business at the Towers is concluded and we're safely away.”

”I hope not,” said Balandrick. ”Just kill them and be done with it. And take care of the infantry that's coming for good measure.”

As if in response to Balandrick's wish, the cylinder began to contract.

The blue fire moved across the earth with a steady rumble, leaving smooth, dead ground in its wake. Every contour of the land disappeared beneath its touch. When the fire contracted over a small hillock, it left only a flat expanse of stone and the smell of burned earth.

Within the shrinking cylinder they could see the Havalqa cavalry racing about frantically, trying to find a way out. More and more of the hors.e.m.e.n collided with the barrier and vanished in a cloud of ash.