Part 28 (1/2)
”I have no idea, Warden,” said Hollin. ”We were running for our lives. The only effective power we had was a Word of Reflection.”
”Wardens, send messages to the wizards along the walls to use Words of Reflection against this attack,” said the Archmage. She glanced at Gerin's sword and staff. ”Can those help us?”
”I'll do what I can, Archmage,” he said. ”But even my powers were of little use against them. I also don't know how to create a Word of Reflection.”
”There's no time to teach you,” said Kirin. ”You haven't been properly trained to use that kind of power.”
Gerin tightened his grip on Nimnahal and watched as the demons sped toward them like a flock of nightmarish birds. He could hear the faint sounds of their shrieking on the air.
”G.o.ds, I forgot what an awful sound they make,” muttered Balandrick. He'd sheathed his sword and nocked an arrow in a bow he had acquired from the Sunrise Guard.
Gerin could feel the Presence stir within the Staff of Naragenth. It had been a long time since he'd felt it, the voiceless ent.i.ty that haunted Naragenth's greatest creation. He wondered what had awakened it. Did it sense the coming conflict? Was its true purpose as a weapon of war?
He projected his question at the staff with his thoughts. Are you intended to be a weapon? He felt the whisper of the Presence, like a chill moving back and forth within the staff; but he received no images from it, no answer to his question.
”Archers, when they're in range, fire at will!” shouted the Lord Commander. His command was relayed down the length of the Hammdras.
But they never got the chance. Before the demons got into range they split into two groups and veered sharply left and right. The sudden division and change of direction created a strangely beautiful geometric symmetry in Gerin's eyes. Their shapes cast fast moving shadows onto the plain far below.
Then he realized what they were about to do.
”They're going to attack the hilltops!” he shouted. He felt helpless as he watched the demons soar up toward the towers. The garrisons atop the hills were too far away for their magic to reach. The wizards at the far ends of the Hammdras might have some luck, but from where Gerin and the others stood at the center they were out of range.
”Warden, will our terror spells and other defenses stop these things?” asked the Archmage.
Khazuzili's mouth worked silently as he pondered her question. ”I don't know, Archmage.”
”They'll fly right over them,” said Kirin. ”The spells only reach about thirty feet off the ground. We don't have enough power to keep them in place if we make them taller.”
The wizards at the ends of the Hammdras created Words of Reflection to combat the demons. Points of golden light appeared ahead of the demons' paths. Even at this distance, Gerin could feel the concussive force of the power when it inverted.
The vortices of energy engulfed a few of the demons, but not nearly enough. They veered away from the Words the moment they sensed them. Those trapped within the power struggled against it but could not break free. Within moments they winked out of existence as if they had never been. The Words vanished as soon as the demons within them were gone.
”Can you move the terror spells?” asked Balandrick. ”Don't make them any larger, but lift them off the ground and place them between the hilltops and the demons? That would leave the fields in front of us exposed, but if you can move the spells around quickly enough, it won't matter.”
Marandra turned to Abaru and Warden Khazuzili. ”Is that possible?”
Abaru was nodding and stroking his chin. ”I think so. But we can't move the entire web of spells. We'll have to split them apart, and that's going to take time.”
”Then you'd better get started,” she said.
”Yes, Archmage.”
The archers upon the hilltops launched volley after frantic volley against the demons, but even those few arrows that found their targets did little harm. Through a Fa.r.s.eeing, Gerin watched one demon with three arrows sunk deep into its chest yank them out and throw them away as if they were a mere annoyance. Dark blood gushed from the wounds for a moment before halting, as if the punctures had already begun to heal.
Balandrick stepped close to Gerin. ”Is there anything you can do from here, Your Majesty?” he said in a low voice.
Gerin shook his head. ”They're too far away.”
The demons fell upon the garrisons.
They were too far to hear the screaming of the men who were carried into the air by the demons and torn limb from limb. Others were thrown over the walls, their bodies caroming off the rocky slope as they fell toward the plain far below. One of the trebuchets launched a stone inadvertently. It hurled through the air toward nothing, and sank into a soft spot in the earth near the bodies of the Loremasters.
”Shayphim take the b.l.o.o.d.y things,” muttered Balandrick.
Then it was over. All of the men on the hilltops were dead.
The demons rose into the air above the hills. Their shrieks echoed across the valley.
”Wizards, prepare to repel!” shouted the Archmage. ”Abaru, Rahmdil, if you can move the terror spells to protect us, now would be the time!”
But the demons did not attack them. They hovered in the air, wings beating rhythmically, and winked out of existence.
”What just happened?” asked Medril. He was visibly shaken by the slaughter on the hills. ”Why did those things vanish?”
Warden Khazuzili rubbed his temples and faced them. ”The demons were returned to their native realm, Lord Commander. They were pulled here, to our world, by some power in that army, and when that power ceased, the demons could no longer remain.”
”Are they like sheffains?” asked Hollin.
”Yes, exactly. Though they seem to have more of a material form than the sheffains, who do not possess physical bodies, at least as we understand them.”
Gerin saw the Archmage close her eyes and press her lips together in an attempt to rein in her impatience at Khazuzili's tendency to wander. The Ammon Ekril flashed in the sun.
”Warden, please. Is there anything you can tell us as to why they vanished before attacking us, or how we might defeat them?”
”I believe they vanished because whatever beings have called them here could no longer hold them. If you remember our own summoning of a sheffain, it was quite taxing. I tried to examine the amount of power needed to hold these demons here, and it was substantial. I would guess that those who summoned them will not be able to do so again for some time. But since we don't know how many can call demons, it does not necessarily mean a reprieve for us. They may have only used half of their numbers, or all of them, or a tenth. In which case more could be sent at us at any time.”
”What of the devices of war we retrieved from Naragenth's library, and the Varsae Sandrova?” said the Archmage with irritation. ”Surely something we have will provide us a measure of protection against these creatures.”
”Those devices have been spread out along the Hammdras and in other areas of Hethnost, Archmage,” said Kirin. ”The ones from the Varsae Sandrova are potent, but they must be used at a much closer target.”
”The weapons from Naragenth's library are better suited to repel a line of soldiers rather than creatures darting through the air, Archmage,” said Hollin.
”Can we defeat them with something other than a Word of Reflection?” asked Kirin. ”A single Word completely drains a wizard for hours. If we have to use them to defend against these demons, we won't be able to fight off anything else they send at us.”
”I believe I can come up with alternatives,” said Khazuzili. ”Let me ponder this. I'll also need to consult books from my library.”
”I'll send someone to retrieve whatever you need,” said the Archmage.
”I'll make a list. I just hope they can find everything without making too much of a mess.”
”Do you know how they were able to drive off your demons?” Ezqedir asked Moliu Hu'mar for the third time.
The leader of the mursaaba eunuchs was seated upon the floor of Ezqedir's tent, his huge body sunken into a number of velvet cus.h.i.+ons whose plush ta.s.seled shapes seemed to mirror the eunuch's own rounded, overweight physique. The eunuch was a native of Nurembi near the Vaas River in the far north of Aleith'aqtar, where winters were long and cold and filled with ice and snow. Ezqedir had seen snow and ice only a few times in his life, and would be content to never see them again. He was a creature of the desert down to his bones, and had no love for either wet or cold.
Hu'mar's pale skin, thin blond hair, and purple eyes bothered Ezqedir almost as much as the thought of a man bereft of his t.e.s.t.i.c.l.es. Ezqedir had lived most of his life among desert dwellers, men and women with a mult.i.tude of hues to their flesh. He had not seen white skin until he was thirty-three, at the Battle of Kohun-reh, and the sight had shocked him. He'd never imagined such a thing, men with skin so fair it seemed nearly translucent. He had loathed the sight of them at once.