Latulla retreated, her arms raised and her cloak billowing as she opened the distance between herself and her opponent. Haddad crowded into the front lines with Keldons pushing and shoving their way forward for a better view.
Gorsha's staff swallowed the last of the flame, and as she gestured, it vomited great gouts of smoke. The vapors collected around the council servant until she was lost in a roiling cloud. Latulla threw more bolts of fire, each blast vanishing into the smoke. Latulla's hands dripped flames as she tried to find Gorsha. The cloud was still expanding and shapes began to appear. Birds and gargoyles formed from the smoke, and they swooped through the air, diving at Latulla. The artificer scrambled away as vaporous appendages swatted at her face. More and more attackers flew, and Haddad thought Latulla would die as smoke tried to force its way into her lungs.
Fire once again burned on the dueling ground as a long streamer of flame danced from Latulla's fingertips, playing over the smoke creatures trying to smother her. With each touch of the fiery ribbon, the shapes burst into flame. Within seconds, an army of burning vapors rose into the air and then turned to fall on Gorsha. Each creation exploded as it entered her magical shield, and Gorsha's protective covering was tattered as each traitorous offspring returned to its former master.
Latulla cast flames into the ground, and a blaze sptang up. It mounted higher, and then like a prairie fire, it raced toward Gorsha's smoke. Haddad viciously elbowed a warrior, crowding him as Latulla closed with her opponent.
Gorsha's smoke thickened and began falling as a dense ash, smothering Latulla's flames under a growing blanket. Latulla pressed the attack harder. She created a long sword of brilliant blue fire and chopped at the thinning smoke, cutting through Gorsha's protection.
Gorsha stepped out of the cloud suddenly, and Haddad waited for the magical counterstrike. Instead Gorsha stepped inside Latulla's swing and hammered Latulla's temple with a closed fist. The artificer's sword of flame flickered out as Gorsha continued to deal out physical blows, each punch distracting Latulla, preventing her from mustering her forces. Soon Latulla was on the ground.
An incoherent roar broke Haddad's fascinated gaze as Druik charged into the field. Haddad could hear bones breaking as Druik smashed into the warriors nearby. Lord Druik was running down the mountain to aid Latulla, each stride coming faster. Gorsha was stepping back to swing her staff when Druik arrived in a long slide, separating the combatants. Rocks thrown up by Druik left bloody bruises on both combatants, and the warrior turned to face Gorsha. The steel ant broke free from the wagons and arrived at a run. The council servant parried strikes from its mandibles as it attacked her. The crowd around Haddad gasped at the interruptions, but no one interfered as Gorsha continued to avoid the war machine's attacks. Whether by design or accident, Latulla's creations protected their mistress.
Gorsha stopped retreating, and now her parries cracked the ant's armor in magically enhanced blows that pealed like thunder. The legs shattered, and Gorsha seemed to laugh as she turned the machine into a pile of scrap after several heavy blows. But Druik still stood guard over Latulla, and the artificer rose, her bloody face snarled as she cast a magical attack.
Gorsha's cloak and dress began to ripple and then smolder as Latulla directed her hatred at her opponent. The council servant's hair stood out from her head, and Haddad could see her image wavering as the air heated as well.
"Enough!" Gorsha shouted and raised her staff high over her head, plunging it into the earth. The ground trembled under Haddad's feet as soil and stone shattered and fountained high into the sky. Rising, it blocked the sight of the sun and hung as a mountain over Latulla and Druik. Both retreated to avoid being swallowed by the pit growing before them, but they could do nothing about the attack building over their heads. The pyroclastic cloud collapsed. The superheated vapor and particles of rock hit as a tidal wave. All vegetation and animals within hundreds of yards were burned, crushed, and suffocated. A great groan sounded from the Keldon magic users protecting the crowd from the attack. All of them united were barely able to stay Gorsha's anger.
Eventually the cloud settled and dispersed. The landscape was different, sculpted into bizarre shapes in seconds by the mighty spell. Gorsha stood at the edge of a great pit. On the other side were two bodies encased in stone. Magic users poured power to cool the ground so the crowd might descend to view the aftermath.
When Haddad and Fumash reached the scene, Gorsha was standing tall again. Druik's armor and limbs had been blown free, and at Gorsha's nod, Latulla's former allies threw the body into the pit. Latulla was encased, and Gorsha's supporters moved to throw her down as well.
"Hold!" Gorsha called. "She lives yet." The midwife surveyed the destruction and gave her orders.
"She has failed. Let her and her servants die and wither in far off lands. Let her never leave Jamuraa as long as I draw breath." Gorsha considered the crowd. "The strongest has prevailed, and the witch kings shall not be disturbed again by any in this company."
Warriors rounded up Latulla's servants and her closest allies. Fumash was dragged away by Yacuta before Haddad could say a word. As Haddad was kicked back toward the wagons he felt hope rekindle in his heart. Sentenced to Jamuraa, another chance to escape for home, he laughed as he was crowded together with the losers of Latulla's bid for power.
Chapter 15
"We can win this war, Teferi," Barrin said, looking over the defensive works going up around the city. "But if we lose here then the League is finished."
The defensive works appeared to be on schedule. A series of trenches and traps grew under Barrin's orders. Technically, General Mageta was in charge. Barrin had been surprised to see him alive. The landslides unleashed by the wizard's covering attack for the retreating army had buried the general, but he had dug himself out and fought his way through Keldon excavation teams to rejoin the League forces. When the army withdrew west to Arsenal City, it was Mageta who commanded on the ground.
"The core of the League weapons development is here, and it's next in the path of the Keldons," Teferi said resignedly. "If only it were farther away."
Arsenal City was in a flat valley near the coast. The surrounding hills were thick with mines. Metals and tufa flowed down to the city for industrial use. For generations small factories turned out war machines for the Kipamu League cities. The steel ants, crabs, and mantises were all manufactured there. A network of roads and a canal connected the factories to the rest of the League and the ocean port, but it was still isolated. Men and supplies took weeks to arrive.
"Will you be able to hold the walls with the men you have?" Teferi asked. The wall enclosing the city was only twenty feet high, and years of maintenance and repair had been missed. A few sections had been raided for building material. Men under Barrin's orders tore down houses inside the city to reclaim stones for the defensive works.
"We'll fight in the earthworks outside the walls," Barrin replied. "We need the fighting room, and the factories inside the city can't produce with soldiers filling the streets." Even as the two friends looked out into the valley, a stream of fighting machines and weapons were being produced behind them. Technicians trembled with fatigue, and warehouses emptied as the factories squeezed out every last ounce of production.
"I'll have a few words with the war machine builders before I go," Teferi said. "I'll bring back supplies and the men we need. Is your glide bomb project any closer to success?"