‘Then we’ll do our best until they come,’ Samuel replied and surprised them all by stepping straight through the middle of them and making directly towards the valley.
‘Lord Samuel! This is foolishness!’ Master Crisp called from behind, but Samuel continued away, heading up the short slope and towards the rising pillars of smoke in the distance.
‘Very well. If you are intent on this foolishness then we are with you, Samuel,’ spoke Eric, hurrying with Goodfellow to be at his side.
The two magicians had grown stronger over the last few years. Together, the three of them could probably stop a small army of men without too much difficulty. Unfortunately, as they crested the hill and the situation before them became clear, it looked as if they were facing considerably worse than that.
The sun made only a pale stain amongst the grey morning clouds, for the sky was still drab and morose. Below, across what were once fields and pastures squeezed between the hills, lay a scene of chaos. The earth had been churned by the passing of thousands of booted feet. No grass or shrub or tree could be seen and even the fence posts had been battered flat into the mud. Not far away, armoured bodies-in various states of injury and amputation-littered the ground amongst blackened pools of their own blood. Most lay in desperate and contorted positions, as if their agony had been frozen in time. Some men were still moaning,some were screaming, but few were still moving. The battle must have swept through here sometime during the night, and Samuel was amazed that he could have slept through it all. At least, he reminded himself, the Garten push had so far been repelled.
As he looked around,he became aware that steep,rugged hills lined the valley sides. As Adell had said, they would be treacherous to scale, making the valley difficult to enter or escape for any but a few fleet-footed men. A murder of crows cawed out from their roosts and rocks on the hillside where they waited. Samuel eyed them ruefully, for they looked fattened and well fed. All around was a scene of violence and destruction. And,in the air,hung the pervading smell of death.
In the distance, a long dark wall of men was visible, coming down the valley toward them-the Gartens. They came as one flowing mass, blowing horns and howling and waving their banners of war, trotting as if they could taste the scent of victory already. A few straggling groups of mud-and-blood-encrusted Turians came running past the magicians, their eyes wide and their faces fraught with fear. One stopped, gasping through lips that were cracked and caked in blood.
‘Run, you damned fools!’ he spoke. ‘The battle’s lost! Everyone’s dead or routed already. A massive Garten army has arrived. What we saw last night was nothing! They cover the land as far as the eye can see and they are funnelling into the valley as we speak. Make for the woods while you can!’ And then he was off after his fellows, struggling to stay on his legs.
Samuel looked at his friendsbyhis sides-Eric on his left, Goodfellow to his right-and they nodded that they were ready. They each gathered their thick,black cloaks around them, for the wind was chill and bitter, and together they continued forward. Eric Pot and Goodfellow had begun summoning their power, while Samuel slipped a hand into his pocket, feelingaroundto be sure his ring was still tucked tightly inside.
The Garten host ahead was,indeed,enormous. It filled the valley, shoulder to shoulder, side to side,and stretched back like a sea of shields and swords. They came from the frigid north in their furs, bearing axes and swords. They had none of the discipline and training of the Imperial army, yet they made up for that with their sheer strength, ferocity and overwhelming numbers. Samuel briefly considered reasoning with them,to find some way to end the battle before more blood was spilled, but the thought was fleeting. He could feel the bloodlust that saturated the air. Nothing would keep these men from this battle. The town of Rampeny was within sight and the Gartens were killing everyone and destroying everything they met on Imperial soil, such was their hatred for the Empire. Samuel could hardly blame them. For all thewrongdoings theEmpire had done in the past, few except the Turians themselves had any reason to love it.
‘We’d better hurry,’ Goodfellow noted and the three sprang into a brisk run. The sun was warming quickly and they tired before long, dropping their heavy Order cloaks to the mud. Fromthat point on, they padded along in just their black shirts and trousers, now ignorant of the bitter wind.
After just a few minutes, they felt they had found a decent place to make their stand-halfway towards the impending host. They stopped to gather their breath, waiting as theNorth-men bore down upon them.
The steps of the Gartens were a thunderous clatter and their shouts were deafening. The men came towards them as a single,cacophonous carpet of jostling weapons that filled the valley’s breadth completely. The sight and sound of such a force was far more intimidating than Samuel could have guessed.
‘I think you may have gotten us into some trouble,Owise Lord Samuel,’ Eric stated mischievously.
‘I’ve never seen so many people in one place,’ Goodfellow added. ‘I think we should hurry back while we can.’
‘It’s too late now,’ Samuel finished.
As theNorth-men neared, he could see the whites of their eyes and their leering teeth. The foremost of the Garten army were only a hundred paces away and they began charging, screaming savagely. Three lone magicians must have offered a tempting opportunity and every man seemed eager to make the first kill.
‘Well?’ Eric prompted. ‘I think this is a good time for us to do something.’
Out of the corner of his eye, Samuel could sense Goodfellow nod, and so he slipped his hand into his pocket and wiggled his finger into the magical ring at its bottom. At once, the magic of the Argum Stone filled him, making his skin feel taut andhis bodytremble with energy. Energy flooded his senses, bursting from the ether all around and entering him via the ring. He could see the magic billowing out from within himself, whipping around him like ribbons in a storm as he struggled to contain it. As always, he had to calm himself and force the power to slow to a trickle. Such volumes of magic had the potential to overwhelm his senses or damage his mind and body. That was the magicians’ Achilles’ Heeclass="underline" they had access to magic and could accomplish the impossible, but the toll upon themselves could be equally devastating.
Eric began first, sending out in an explosion of force and power that blew the Gartens on the left from their feet and shattered their bones within their limbs. The men on Samuel’s right became engulfed in flames and flailed around in the mud as Goodfellow sent out a jet of magic which turned to billowing fire amongst them. Samuel followed suit, focussing his attention on the Gartens straight ahead of them, and he set his gathered magic to work. With the barest of thoughts, raw power exploded from within him and tore a mass of men into little more than chunks of flesh and a spray of scarlet mist. His magic contorted atop the battlefield, churning up furrows of earth and tossing bodies in all directions. Such was the ferocity of the ring, that he barely had need to form any particular spell. The sheer intensity of the magic itself was enough to kill.
‘Samuel!’ Eric called beside him, recoiling at the carnage. ‘Calm yourself! This is just the beginning.’
He was trying his best to limit the flowof power, but it took all his effort to keep the torrent from breaking its banks and overcoming him. If that happened, and all the power of the ring tore through him at once, it would almost certainly be the end for him. The Argum Stone was a difficult beast to master.
The rest of the Garten army had now sprung into motion andtheycame leaping over the bodies of their fallen,surroundingupon the magicians in a semi-circle. Despite the number of dead already, barely a fraction of their total had beendiminishedso far.