Ferinn and Lynees joined him to look at their work. The camp was in uproar. TaiGethen were still among them, doing awful damage. Wesmen tried to organise themselves but had no idea where their enemy was coming from in the confusing firelight and the puddles of dark night.
To the left and the right Grafyrre could see others hurrying to join the defence. If the elves escaped unscathed it would have been the perfect attack. But now it was time to break. He had to trust that each cell leader would see the signs. Some were already moving back into the night. Howls of pain told of others still deep in the skirmish.
Grafyrre heard the crackle of black fire and saw fingers of it pick at the ground where elven feet had run. He tracked back to the source and saw a defended group of shamen looking for targets.
‘Let’s get them and get out,’ he said. ‘Tai, with me.’
Auum watched the concerted movement away from the main gates and nodded his approval. Stein had long since flown into the college to seek assistance and Auum hoped he could muster some cover at the city walls by the rear gates.
‘Time to go,’ he said. ‘Let’s keep the pace high. TaiGethen to the flanks. Drech, stay near Takaar and the Senserii. Il-Aryn, don’t cast unless you must; you’ll only attract attention. Take Drech’s lead. Let’s go.’
The run was about half a mile. Though a good number of Wesmen had answered the horn calls, hundreds had stayed put, warriors and shamen both. Auum moved off, Ulysan and Duele with him, spread to cover the front. The Senserii with Takaar and Drech among them ran immediately behind, and the rest of the Il-Aryn came in their wake, TaiGethen running a defence around them.
At the outer pickets the TaiGethen moved to take out the guards, leaving Auum clear space in which to run. They gathered momentum. Two cells ran wide either side of Auum as they approached the first fires.
‘Keep it up, don’t get stalled.’ Auum drew a jaqrui and cocked it ready. ‘Tai, break on my word.’
Auum watched Wesmen rushing in ahead of them. Horns sounded close and more were readying themselves on both flanks. Auum glanced behind him. Gilderon watched everything and missed nothing. There was no one Auum trusted more to make the right decision every time in a fight.
Auum threw his jaqrui. The crescent blade keened across the thirty-yard space and lodged in a Wesman chest. The warrior coughed blood and pitched forward. Others roared and charged.
‘Break!’ ordered Auum.
With his Tai on his flanks, Auum cruised to a sprint, drawing both blades from their back scabbards and cycling them in his hands. The line of Wesmen ahead was two deep and seven wide. Behind them and off to both sides, shamen were readying. He trusted Drech to sense them as he said he could.
Auum charged directly at the centre of the defence, where axe-wielding warriors blocked his path. He ran hard, dropped to his knees and slid across damp grass, his blades held out to either side. He felt them bite into legs even as the axes swung over his head. Auum relaxed his arms, sliding past his targets before coming to his feet. He didn’t pause, running on at the back line, hearing Ulysan and Duele finishing what he’d started.
The TaiGethen were among the Wesmen, who did not know which way to strike. Auum faced three, two with long swords and one with an axe. Blood dripped from his blades where he held them, one high across his face and one low across his legs. He waited for a heartbeat, hearing the fight going on around him.
The three rushed him and Auum watched them come. The axe came overhead and he stepped aside, hacking his left blade in at waist height. From the right a long sword was thrust at his heart, and he battered the blow aside, opening up his body and bringing his left blade across and into the exposed flank of his enemy.
The second swordsman had been blocked by the axe man. He backed off behind his comrade but the pause was his undoing. Auum spun to his left, jumped high and thudded his right blade into the warrior’s shoulder. The Wesman screamed and dropped his blade.
Auum was in space. Shamen were either side guarded by nervous warriors. The elven column was coming on; Senserii now headed it, their ikari at the ready. The shamen were readying to cast and Auum prayed Drech knew what he was doing as he headed out to the right, his Tai with him. Warriors barred the way to the shamen. Simultaneously, a large group of Wesmen ran at the head of the elven advance. They had no idea what they were running into. Auum almost pitied them.
Shamen stood and cast. Auum threw himself to the ground and rolled. Black fire erupted from fingertips, but the moment it appeared, a modulating green light encased the shamen’s hands, extinguishing the fire. It was momentary but enough to disrupt them.
Auum came back to his feet and charged at his enemies.
Safe behind his Senserii, Takaar felt serene but also fragile and useless.
Look at everyone doing their part while you cower behind your minders.
‘Auum said I may not cast.’
And you listen to him, don’t you? The mighty Auum. See Drech, see what he has your pupils doing? Did you even know that was possible?
‘We can all develop our own castings,’ muttered Takaar, but he stared at Drech, not three paces to his left behind two ranks of Senserii, marching confidently along with a smile on his face.
He should have shared the secret with you.
‘Yes, he should have,’ said Takaar.
That’s the way of the Il-Aryn, is it not?
‘Yes, it is,’ said Takaar and a tear threatened.
Just worth mentioning. Probably just an oversight in all the excitement.
Wesman warriors struck the forward quartet of Senserii, who had spread to give themselves room to use their bladed staffs. Takaar felt a thrill course through him and it eased his anger. The Senserii did not break stride. Gilderon jabbed out with his staff, piercing a Wesman above his heart. He brought the staff back, holding it as he would a quarterstaff in two hands. His movement confused the onrushing warriors. The right end licked out and sliced an enemy face from forehead to chin. The left deflected a heavy downward strike and, faster than the Wesman could follow, the blade was in his eye, turned and ripped clear.
The elves ran on. Takaar could see TaiGethen on their flanks. Horns echoed against the blank dark of the city walls, which loomed large, filling the horizon. Lights burned on the walls, and he could see men and elves on the ramparts and inside the fire-blackened gatehouse.
Ahead, a large force of Wesmen was gathering just outside spell range of the city. Others moved to join them and more ran into the flanks of the column, where they met the steel, fists and feet of the TaiGethen. At their rear, though, Takaar sensed trouble. Shamen were gathering. He could feel the Wytch Lord power there.
Takaar looked to his right. Drech was walking at an even pace, his eyes closed and his mind showing him the way through the streams of energy. Takaar tracked them for a moment, seeing his focus ahead, managing the concentration of his Il-Aryn. He had no idea what was behind. Takaar turned and pushed back through the column.
What are you doing?
‘Disobeying Auum and saving his precious TaiGethen.’
Senserii fell into place next to him, and they moved quickly down the line past the Il-Aryn casting their distraction constructs at the hands of the shamen. At the rear the TaiGethen knew what was coming and had spread out to defend against it. Three cells ranged against a muster of fifty or more warriors.
Takaar stood behind them and let his mind sample the energy lines. Every moment isolated the group further from the main column. Takaar concentrated on what was below his feet. Earth and rock dominated and a clay layer separated the two. This was no time for finesse. The shamen were coming, fifty yards away and closing quickly. The TaiGethen prepared to attack.