Part 32 (1/2)
Five demons dropped toward them from a dizzying height. Their shrieks set Gerin's teeth on edge. Balandrick swore, and Nyene's scowl deepened as she glared at the demons.
”I'll take the lead creature!” Gerin shouted. The other wizards claimed targets of their own so they would not waste their efforts attacking the same demons.
Gerin calmed his mind against the pain and distraction of the shrieking, then released the spell at the lead demon.
The creature's wings slammed tight to its body as if bound by invisible chains. Its trajectory changed very little-it had been dropping almost straight down, and Gerin's magic had little effect on its course.
He could see a translucent geometric shape encasing the demon. The planes in the shape rippled with energy. Gerin did not know if this was a power Balandrick could see. He could usually tell such things, but this spell was too strange for him to be certain.
The demon continued to fall, still writhing within the geometric shape.
By the G.o.ds, when will this b.l.o.o.d.y thing disappear? he wondered.
Then he and the others leapt aside as the demon slammed into the wall-walk. The impact shook the walk and cracked the stones beneath the demon. The thing's ma.s.sive wings could not break through its prison, otherwise they all might have been swept from the walk by their frantic beating.
Another spell-trapped demon plunged past the outside of the wall and thudded on the ground far below.
The creature's appearance was horrific. Its skin was greenish-black, the color of fetid swamp water, and covered with scales. Its wide, slitlike eyes were squeezed shut as it struggled against the power holding it, so Gerin could not get a clear look at its gaze. Its shrieking had mercifully become more like strangled gasps, its fang-filled mouth gaping wide as if it was suffocating, its narrow tongue flicking in and out like a snake's.
Nyene stepped forward, amazingly fearless, and tried to bury her long-bladed knife in the creature's heart. But the spell turned her blade like a barrier of unbreakable gla.s.s. Furious, she pounded once on the barrier with the b.u.t.t of the handle before turning away and shouting in frustration.
The next instant, the demon winked from existence with a flash of dark light. Whatever power connecting it to its master in the Havalqa encampment had been severed.
Another demon smashed into the wall-walk about thirty feet from them and tumbled into the practice field that lay inside the Hammdras. Gerin ignored it and looked skyward once more.
The other nearby demons were all encased in the geometric power devised by Warden Khazuzili. Two vanished in eruptions of dark light; a few seconds later the demon that had fallen inside Hethnost also vanished.
”Ghastly things,” said Balandrick. ”If it had gotten free before you made it disappear-”
”Bah,” spat Nyene. ”I would have gutted it like a fish before it could scratch that pretty face of yours.”
Before Gerin could get them to shut up, more demons dropped toward them. Medril's archers and crossbowmen did what they could to pierce the creatures with arrows and bolts, but mundane weapons did them little harm. Once encased within the geometric spell, the soldiers' missiles could no longer reach them-they were deflected away just as Nyene's knife had been.
Gerin's knees buckled as an image flashed through his mind. The Staff of Naragenth was communicating with him. This was the first time the Presence had emerged since their arrival at Hethnost. He'd wondered if the sheer number of wizards somehow made it nervous, reluctant to show itself. Naragenth had lived in a time when wizards were highly suspicious and distrusting of one another, guarding their secrets jealously. And while Naragenth had indeed called a conclave of the greatest wizards of his time in order to propose that they gather their knowledge in a single location-what would become the Varsae Estrikavis-he nevertheless continued to distrust them, insofar as he never showed any of them his staff, his crowning achievement.
The prolonged absence of the Presence had made Gerin wonder if it somehow shared some of Naragenth's distrust of other wizards. Could the personality that resided within the staff have learned such a thing from its maker?
The image that flashed in his mind was of himself and the staff making not an enclosed geometric pattern of magic, but a broad shallow bowl between the wizards and the demons, as if Khazuzili's spell had been opened up and partially flattened. He had no idea how to fas.h.i.+on such a thing-Khazuzili's spell was very specific in its intent and execution, and Gerin could think of no way of altering its properties in such a drastic manner.
But creating a specific spell was not needed when using the staff. The Presence controlled the shaping of magic, communing silently with Gerin to understand his desires and needs. Gerin was largely pa.s.sive in this process, little more than a conduit for magic once he had made his desires known.
Do what you showed me. He aimed his thoughts toward the staff, bending his mind to it with all of his will. Create that spell between us and the demons.
He felt a strong sense of jubilation from the staff. It was ecstatic to be used, to have a purpose-to serve.
The next instant, amber fire exploded from his body as the Presence drew magic from him to power the spell.
Balandrick, Nyene, and several other wizards leapt back in surprise at the sudden appearance of Gerin's aura. The amount of magic pouring through him was enormous. The Presence was drawing as much as it dared-any more and it threatened to burn out Gerin's paru'enthred forever.
He felt the Presence shaping the magic, an altered and ma.s.sively more complicated form of Khazuzili's spell. The Presence worked so fast that Gerin could not follow the steps it took to create the curved surface of power.
Many of the attacking demons were already encased in Khazuzili's spell by other wizards, their trapped bodies tumbling through the air or writhing on the ground before winking out of existence.
But there were still many demons coming toward them who were as yet unmolested, and it was against these creatures that the Presence directed Gerin's power. It took his breath away to watch as the faceted surface expanded across the sky at an unbelievable rate. His heightened senses allowed him to hear wizards gasping in shock as they watched his spell unfold above them.
”What is going on?” shouted Nyene. ”What are they pointing at?”
”No idea,” said Balandrick. ”But His Majesty is obviously doing something big. We just can't see it.”
Gerin realized that the demons could not see the spell, either. They raced toward it headlong, varying in neither direction or speed as the faceted curvature of the spell rose suddenly in front of them like a cresting ocean wave.
He heard the wizards and soldiers around him shout as the demons smashed into the spell. The tremendous force of the impact stunned most of the creatures.
The Presence s.h.i.+fted the power-Gerin could feel its manipulation of magic through the staff itself.
At once, the curvature of the spell closed into a sphere, trapping all of the demons inside it. The closure was so fast it seemed instantaneous to Gerin, movement so rapid his eyes could not follow it.
The demons fell to the bottom of the sphere in a heap, unable to find purchase of any kind on the walls of the spell. They scrabbled over one another, clawing and tearing each other's wings in a desperate attempt to escape.
The Presence changed the spell again. Almost before Gerin realized what was happening, the sphere began to shrink. Within moments it had collapsed down to a point. The demons vanished instantly.
Then the Presence halted the flow of magic and ended the spell. Gerin's aura disappeared. A sudden light-headedness overcame him, and he leaned on the staff for support. Balandrick rushed to his side and gripped his elbow.
”Your Majesty, are you all right?”
Gerin nodded. ”Just tired. That took a lot of magic to work.”
”You're an astounding man, Gerin Atreyano,” said Nyene.
”You can thank the staff,” he said wearily. ”It made the spell. I just provided the materials.”
She frowned. ”You mock me.”
”I most certainly do not.”
Before she could say anything more, he was swarmed by wizards asking him question after question about the spell he'd made.
Hollin forced his way to Gerin's side and angrily told the others to move back. ”We need those Forbiddings back in place over us and the gate!” he shouted. ”In case you haven't noticed, those siege engines are still throwing boulders at us!”
As if to make his point, a good-sized rock smashed into the battlements not far from them. The impact crushed the merlons completely and collapsed part of the wall-walk itself. The soldiers and wizards on that part of the wall were able to scramble out of the way just in time, but two servants who were moving across the inner yard were not so lucky and were crushed by the caroming boulder.
”Get those barriers up before we get hit!” bellowed Hollin.
Gerin sheathed Nimnahal and handed the staff to a surprised Balandrick, then leaned over, hands on his knees, to catch his breath. He was sweating profusely. G.o.ds above me, but that staff certainly knows how to drain my strength!
Gerin could sense Forbiddings taking shape beyond the Hammdras. After the tumult of the demons and their terrible shrieking, the wall-walk seemed oddly hushed.