Elfsorrow

With The Unknown and Aeb right beside him and Ilkar behind, the shield still holding, he charged up a short rise, plunged down the other side to continue the chase and found a wall of Protectors blocking their path.

He hauled hard on the reins, his horse slewing to a stop with an angry grunt as the bit sawed at its jaws. Beyond the Protectors, their quarry galloped on into safety. He stared at the blank faces in front of him, sensing The Unknown and Aeb riding to his sides, Ilkar and Ren behind.

There had to be close on a hundred of them. Hirad felt the sweep of reverence like a breeze across his face. The Protectors were facing Sol, who had almost God-like status among them. And there with him, Aeb, the Protector who was about as close to a rebel as any of the calling could get.

Hirad knew they weren't going to be attacked. He laid his blood-spattered blade across his saddle and turned to The Unknown.

'Can't you make them move?' He eyed the crescent line. They were not going to be able to simply ride around.

'No,' said The Unknown flatly. 'They should be killing us but they won't bear arms against me or Aeb. They will stop us following though.'

'Damn, but we were so close to them,' said Hirad. The sound of hoof beats had faded and a curious silence had fallen. Hirad was at a loss. 'So what do we do?'

'I don't know,' said The Unknown. 'But their support mages must be close. We shouldn't delay here too long.'

And then Aeb spoke.

'We do not seek to harm Xetesk's sons,' he said, addressing the Protectors aloud presumably for The Raven's benefit.

There was a ripple in the line but none spoke, the masks staring back impassive. Aeb continued.

'We seek a fragment of a statue taken by Captain Yron. The elves will die without it.'

'Aeb, enough,' said The Unknown, and to the Protectors: 'Xetesk is wrong to have taken it. Please. If there is anything you can do, help us recover it. A whole race depends upon it, not a few hundred lives. And do not speak Aeb's words in the Soul Tank. You know where it might lead. They were my words. Let it be so. We are one.'

'We are one,' murmured the rank of Protectors, and Hirad felt the completeness of their union.

He looked left towards the sounds of shouting and horses. Four men, cloaks flying, were riding their way.

'Time to go,' he said. 'We need to find the others.'

'Incoming,' said Ilkar distantly.

Fire flared over the SpellShield, venting harmlessly across its surface and into the ground.

'Our Given mages are close,' said a Protector from the middle of the line.

'Too close,' said The Unknown. 'We wait.'

'What?'

'Trust me. They'll need some administrative guidance, as Ilkar calls it.'

The quartet of mages cantered up, riding between The Raven and the Protectors.

'Why aren't you attacking them?' one of them screamed at the Protectors. 'Why aren't they dead?'

'Because I am here,' said The Unknown. His voice was quiet but carried total authority. Hirad felt a shiver along his spine. 'And they will not strike me.'

'Ah, The Unknown Warrior,' said one, turning to them. 'They can protect you but you cannot protect them.'

'That is true,' said The Unknown evenly, taking the quartet in with his slow stare, a slight and dangerous smile on his face. 'But if a single one of these men is subjected to punishment for his actions today, I will know. And then your lives, all of them, will be forfeit.'

It was why Hirad loved him. He didn't have to shout or posture. He just had to speak and people listened and, more important, they believed.

'They have prevented us catching those we want,' said The Unknown. 'Their task is therefore successfully completed and that is enough. Are we clear?'

Almost as one, the mages nodded. Hirad almost laughed.

'We've done what is required,' said one. 'We can leave it at that, I think.'

'Good answer,' said Hirad.

They watched while the Xeteskians wheeled and trotted away, the Protectors following them in close guard.

'It's what the Master wants,' said Aeb suddenly.

'I beg your pardon?' asked The Unknown.

'For the elves to die,' explained Aeb. 'It is more than he dreamed of.'

'How do you know that?' asked Hirad.

'The Soul Tank knows it,' said Aeb.

'Think we've got a good deal to talk about tonight,' said Hirad. 'Come on, let's go and find the others.'

The Raven rode into the dusk. Heryst was surprised at Vuldaroq's calm as he joined Communion.

'Vuldaroq, I'm sorry,' began Heryst.

'What did I tell you?' Vuldaroq said. 'Gods burning, I warned you. He lies to us all. He played you for time, pure and simple. Kept you off your guard and from formal military alliance. It is I who should be sorry. Sorry that your ideals, naive though they are, are misguided. The research is through and on its way to Xetesk and there is nothing we can do about it. Now will you join me and save our country?'

'What do you intend to do?' Heryst felt so weary. He'd clung to hope and yet Vuldaroq was right. He had been taken for the fool he was.

'We have to strengthen our defences south of Lystern, we have to block any route to Julatsa and we have to abandon the southern blockade to do it. And when we are assembled, we will march on Xetesk.'

It was a nightmare, pure and simple. Everything that Heryst had sought to avoid was coming to pass. Everything he feared for Balaia would happen. The war would engulf them all. He had failed. Dystran wanted dominion; he had to be stopped and war was the only way.

'I will issue the orders to Izack and my field commanders immediately. '

'We have battle plans,' said Vuldaroq. 'You must fight to our design. You must let Dordover run this war as we have been for a season now.'

Heryst would have said no but Darrick wasn't here to improve Dordover's plans. And Heryst was not a student of the military.

'I will grant you overall field command but I will not have my forces committed to suicide. There will be discussion on the ground at every front.'

'Of course,' said Vuldaroq.

'One thing I want to make very clear, Vuldaroq. This war must not go so far as to destroy Xetesk. This country needs magical balance and so it needs the Dark College. This war removes Dystran and the current Circle Seven and nothing more. Do I make myself clear?'

'I had planned for nothing more,' said Vuldaroq. 'You won't regret this.'

'I don't doubt that I will,' said Heryst.

He broke Communion and put his head in his hands. Lystern was at war with Xetesk. Selik stood on the ramparts of the Understone garrison and looked down over the army assembled before him. The sun was warming the earth from a clear blue sky and a gentle breeze ruffled his cloak. Men, women and youths from two dozen towns and villages were standing looking up at him. Refugees scattered across the land had come to his side to avenge what had been done to them.

Most of them were tradesmen or farmers. There was a scattering of militia and soldiers but the vast bulk of the estimated two thousand seven hundred would be holding swords in anger for the very first time. Some would run, others would be heroes and many would die. That was the way of war. He scanned the pinched and hungry faces, the eyes looking to him for leadership, for a way out of their darkness. They had come to the right man.

'My friends,' he said, his voice loud, carrying across the silence. 'You are all standing here because the time has come to right a great wrong. The time has come to win back the land of Balaia for its God-given people. To take it from the mages who destroy it so casually. To make it pure again.

'Because make no mistake, our land is riddled with the disease of magic and only the righteous can purge that disease. And I am looking at the righteous here and now.'