"I want Papa."
"Shut your mouth," Vors said.
The boy whimpered and did exactly that.
"Commander," Reht said. "I would ask-"
Forrin cut Reht off. "The boy is no longer your concern. We hit Saerb tomorrow. You lead the assault. Burn it and kill anyone left in the city."
Vors licked his lips and chuckled at Reht. Reht's face remained expressionless.
"The men may balk," Reht said.
Forrin knew. "Tell them it is vengeance for Yhaunn."
Reht nodded.
Forrin said, "I do not care if there is an army. I do not care if they fight or surrender. Save anything of value and kill or burn the rest. The overmistress wants an example made. Make it."
Vors howled at the sky and Elden Corrinthal sobbed, his small body shaking, his hands buried in the horse's mane.
Reht glared at Vors a final time, saluted Forrin, and rode away.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
30 Uktar, the Year of Lightning Storms
Rivalen and Brennus drew Tamlin into the darkness and transported him to the top of the walls. Dawn lightened the eastern horizon, casting the sky in red and orange. Tamlin looked out onto Saerloon's massed forces. They looked even more imposing in the growing light. Hundreds of standards flapped in the breeze. Thousands of spear points glinted in the sun. The Saerloonians stood arranged in a thick line, twenty ranks deep, a rectangle of flesh and steel.
Onthul paced among the men. "Here we go now, lads. Here we go."
The two armies regarded one another in eerie quiet. The wind stirred the drought-dried grass. To Tamlin's right, the waters of the Elzimmer glittered in the rising sun.
A small group of twelve men and women emerged from the Saerloonian lines. They bore blades at their sides and wore no armor, not even helms.
"Spellcasters," Tamlin said.
Rivalen and Brennus nodded.
The Saerloonian wizards formed themselves into a large circle. All of them moved through a variety of complex gestures and incantations. Their spell chants carried over the plains. Tamlin could not make out the words.
"Protective spells," Brennus said. "And divinations."
Two of the wizards, both older and paunchier, stepped within the circle and intoned spells of their own. Their voices sounded the complex couplets of powerful spells. Energy gathered.
"A summoning," Brennus said.
"The battering rams, at last," said Rivalen, and Tamlin wondered at his meaning.
"Can we do nothing?" Tamlin asked.
"Not at this range," Brennus answered. "Best to wait and learn what comes."
The spells reached a crescendo and ceased. The Saerloonian drummers beat a slow, steady beat, then…
The earth rumbled, groaned. Outside the circle of wizards, ahead of the foremost lines of the army, the soil rippled, churned. Towering forms lurched from the rock and dirt in an explosion of grass and soil.
"Earth elementals," Rivalen said.
The Saerloonian army cheered and raised spears toward the sky as the huge creatures rose fully upright.
Composed mostly of soil and rock, with odd bits of sod and roots sticking from their forms, the elementals stood five or six times the height of a man. They stood on legs as thick as tree trunks, with arms the width of a man's waist. Misshapen heads perched atop uneven shoulders half as broad as their height. Their bellows sounded like a landslide.
"Dark and empty," Tamlin breathed. There were seven of them. Their heads were level with the top of Selgaunt's walls. He could well imagine what the creatures' powerful arms and rocky fists could do to the city's fortifications. And he had no illusions about what they could do to a man who stood in their way.
The two summoners within the circle of wizards gestured at Selgaunt. All seven elementals turned to face the city.
A nervous murmur ran through the city's defenders. Many of the militiamen rose and looked as though they might flee. The professional soldiers in the ranks ordered them down. Tamlin understood their fear. He tried to control his breathing.
"Trebuchet and crossbows as they come, lads," shouted Onthul, and he shook the trebuchet spotters to steel them. He stalked along the walls, nodding. "If they can walk, they can be knocked down. Steady, now. Steady."
"Ordinary crossbows are useless against such creatures," Brennus said softly.
His homunculi squeaked and darted into the safety of his cloak.
"What do we do?" Tamlin asked Rivalen.
Rivalen kept his eyes on the field. "The magic that holds them on our plane can be ended with a counterspell. It is not certain, but it can work. But they must be closer."
"They will be closer soon enough," Brennus said.
Tamlin shouted out so that his war wizards and the Sharran priests could hear him. "Counterspells on the elementals as they near. The magic will unbind them."
"May unbind them," Rivalen corrected.
Brennus pointed at the field. Despite daybreak, shadows swirled around his outstretched arm. "More to come, still."
The summoners moved through another series of spells and when they finished, a dozen towers of flame sprang into being amidst the earth elementals. The flames weaved and darted with obvious purpose.
"Fire elementals," Rivalen said.
Brennus said, "Merelith intends to tear down the walls and burn the city."
Tamlin said nothing, merely stared, heart pounding.
The fire elementals' tops reached only to the earth elementals' waists. Their forms ignited and consumed the grass near them, leaving nothing but charred earth. Black smoke and storms of glowing embers spun into the sky from each creature.
Tamlin had prepared the city for the possibility of flaming projectiles. Scores of men and women stood ready in various quarters of the city, armed with buckets, barrels of water, and shovels for hurling dirt. But he had not expected flaming creatures that could burn with purpose and intelligence.
"Onthul," Tamlin shouted to his captain. "Alert the bucketmen."
Onthul nodded, grabbed a messenger by the shoulder, issued him a series of curt orders, and sent him off.
One of the wizards forming the circle broke ranks and stepped near the fire elementals. He wore a red robe and his proximity to the fiery creatures appeared to do him no harm. The wizard moved through the gestures of a spell and when he finished, he and two of the elementals vanished.
The Selgauntans murmured, looked nervous questions at one another.
"Where did they go?" Tamlin asked. He was in water too deep, and he knew it.
A few moments later, the conjurer reappeared alone amidst the remaining elementals. He began to cast a spell.
A shout from the walls drew Tamlin's attention.
"Look! There!"
Men pointed back into the city. Tamlin turned to see the Hulorn's palace beginning to burn. One of the elementals that had vanished with the red-robed wizard moved methodically along its roof, leaving a trail of flame in its wake. Elsewhere, smoke rose from within the Noble District.
"He is teleporting the elementals into the city," Rivalen said.
Tamlin cursed. He knew weapons did little against fire elementals.
"Issger, Rheys," Tamlin shouted to two of his war wizards. "Put down those elementals."
The mages nodded, cast spells of flight, and launched through the air toward the palace.
"The fire elementals are a distraction," Brennus said.
"A good one," Tamlin snapped in irritation. "I cannot let the city burn."
A rumble from the field turned his attention back to the Saerloonian lines. All seven earth elementals lurched into motion and lumbered toward the walls. Their steps shook the earth and the sound of their approach was the rumble of an earthquake. Their motion flattened the grass, crushed trees, and left huge indentations in their wake. They started ponderously but gathered speed quickly, charging at the walls with such force that Tamlin could not believe the walls could withstand the impact.