And so Ilkar turned back, the howls of the Garonin loud in his ears, and watched them charge across the open space. There had to be two thousand of them in ranks forty yards wide. They would reach The Raven and TaiGethen in moments. They would roll over them as if they were wheat in a field and they would plunder a new set of dimensions.
Even so, Hirad, who stood a few paces in front of him, did not flinch or turn to run. And he held The Raven with him, daring any of them to weaken. Erienne was casting beside him and how he wished he could do the same, but something was still missing. It hardly mattered now, he supposed.
‘Pick your targets, Raven,’ said Hirad as Garonin weapons came to bear. ‘Ilkar, Erienne, we need shields now. Let’s keep them back as long as we can.’
Which would be a few heartbeats at best. Ilkar searched within himself for the ability to make something from this place bereft of mana. For Erienne, the task was plainly a simple one.
‘Shield up,’ she said.
The Garonin halted twenty yards from them. Ilkar watched them move into an arc, surrounding The Raven completely. He felt powerless, useless. With Erienne shielding them, he was the one who could actually deal damage but he had no idea how. Thraun stood stock still to Darrick’s left, lips drawn back from his teeth. He snarled. Darrick, like Hirad beside him, faced the enemy with no hint of fear. But to Hirad’s right Sirendor was twitchy, unsure. The TaiGethen flowed left and right along the thin Raven line, seeming far more than the five they numbered.
‘Are you ready for this, Erienne?’ asked Hirad.
‘We’re about to find out,’ she replied.
‘You can hold on,’ said Sol, his voice around them all, comforting and strong. ‘Trust me. Help is near.’
The Garonin opened fire.
White bloomed across Erienne’s shield. A thundering and crackling noise built up, reaching a screaming crescendo. Ilkar couldn’t see beyond the front edge of the shield, such was the density of fire. Erienne was driven to her knees. She stretched out her arms and a guttural sound escaped her throat. She gasped. Ilkar blinked. She was being pushed slowly back across the floor, and the shield would be coming with her.
‘Pace back, Raven,’ called Hirad into the booming noise. ‘We won’t see them until they step inside. Ilkar, is there nothing you can do?’
Ilkar felt the question like a slap in the face.
‘There’s no mana here,’ he said.
‘There’s nothing here. No swords, no armour. Nothing,’ said Hirad. ‘This isn’t about reality. It is about belief. You believe you see me, don’t you?’
‘Yes but…’
‘It’s the same for your mana,’ said Hirad. ‘Believe you can cast. Expect to cast.’
Ilkar shook his head. His mind remained a blank for constructing spells but there was something he could do. He hurried over to Erienne, dropped to his haunches and leaned his weight against her. Ilkar felt her move into his body. He put his arms about her stomach and held her close.
‘Tell me how you’re feeling,’ he said into her ear.
‘You ssshould, ttry, tthhis,’ she said.
‘I wish I could. You’re doing brilliantly. Keep talking to me.’
‘Ignore the emptiness,’ gasped Erienne. ‘Use your memories. You already are for everything you see of us. It works, I promise.’
The fire density increased steadily. Either more Garonin were attacking or…
‘They are closing,’ said Sol, his voice sounding deep in Ilkar’s head.
‘How are you doing that?’
‘Things are a little different from where I’m sitting. You have squads of Garonin coming in at the far left and right of the shield where it touches the edifice. The main bulk are standing off and there is another force behind them. They will look to get to me. Be wary.’
Ilkar saw the TaiGethen split and move to the flanks. Within the bubble of Erienne’s shield the open ground was quite limited. Perhaps only forty feet square. But the defenders were very thinly spaced.
‘It will only take one to touch me,’ said Sol as if reading his thoughts. ‘And we are lost.’
‘Where’s that help you promised?’ asked Hirad.
‘Just around the corner,’ said Sol. ‘In a manner of speaking.’
‘Ilkar.’ It was Erienne, and her voice sounded as if she were about to break.
‘Not long now,’ he said. ‘Be strong.’
‘I need you to be able to help me,’ she said. ‘They are speaking to me.’
‘They’re what? Who?’
The sky over Ulandeneth turned black.
Chapter 46
Ark’s last living memory was of the moments before the demons took his soul. Beyond that, the awful pain of their torment and, later still, the dread knowledge that even when the demons were destroyed, his soul’s fate was eternity in the vast screaming purgatory of the void. Over and over, he had lived the last beats of his heart. The ice of the demons’ touch. The dragging of their claws through his body and the freezing agony of a reaver’s grip on his soul.
Unlooked-for and beyond his capacity to hope, the touch of Sol had found him. Somewhere a door had been opened and he had been pulled towards it, helpless to avoid its embrace whether it be fair or foul. Then had come the strength of Sol, imbuing his soul with light and hope. And with it had come the rush of voices in what he began to think of again as his mind. Comforting, supporting, powerful. As one. Their souls mingled but this time not in the thrall of the Soul Tank. No demons forced them to their work. This time they did so as free men under the banner of the first to have escaped the order of the Protectors. The first to stand in battle without a mask.
For Sol they gathered, and for Sol they would fight.
Images played out across the sky above them while the Garonin weapons blinded them head on. Erienne was groaning with effort and slowly losing her own personal battle. Ilkar prayed that she didn’t look up but he could see her head moving as if someone were forcing it back.
‘Don’t do it,’ he said. ‘Face front or close your eyes.’
‘I… No. NO!’
Erienne’s arms trembled. Her whole body shook and her fingers, splayed out to keep the shield taut, began to draw into fists. Above her Xetesk destroyed. Barely recognisable. Yet in the middle of the ruined college figures ran while white tears bit at their feet and spat at the ground right behind them. Wolves flanked them, blood running from their blackened flanks.
‘Please no,’ said Erienne. ‘Don’t let it be true.’
Denser. Running for his life. And with him all that was precious to Sol and to Thraun.
‘Don’t believe it. Don’t trust it.’ Sol’s voice sounded loud but even his tones carried a tremble to them. ‘Be strong and we will save them all.’
Garonin burst through the opaque shield to the left, running along the wall of the edifice, firing as they came. Thraun howled and leapt to the attack. Auum and Duele closed in. Hirad made to move.
‘Stop, Hirad,’ boomed Sol. ‘More coming at you. Hold the line, Raven.’
Ilkar stood up behind Erienne. He drew his short blade from its scabbard. The weapon felt heavy and unbalanced in his hand. Four Garonin had punched through the shield. White tears fled across the enclosed space, missing their targets. Thraun’s leap took him onto the shoulders of the lead Garonin, bringing him down. Auum hurdled the pair of them. He landed, spun and kicked up and out. The sole of his right foot slammed into the chest of his target, rocking him back. Auum continued his spin. His blade snaked out, slicing into neck and faceplate. The Garonin staggered.
Duele whispered past Auum. He ducked a stream of energy fire, bounced back up and hammered his blade into the ribcage of his enemy. The man fell against the last of the four invaders. Weapons were triggered reflexively. White tears ripped into the walls of the edifice. Cracks ran away along its surface.
Auum jabbed his blade into the gut of his victim. Without pause, he grabbed a jaqrui and threw. The keening wail was brief. The razor edge sliced through the arm of the last attacker. His weapon fell from his hand. Duele leapt to carve his blade into the Garonin’s faceplate. Auum followed up his jaqrui and buried his blade two-handed into the gut of the wounded man. Ilkar heard the blade shriek as it exited his back and scraped the edifice behind.