Rhanu fell in place, leading a battalion of his own on foot. The horse was in reserve in case the enemy was foolish enough to meet them on the field. Rhanu doubted that would happen. They would have to scale the walls.
Movement from the palace caught his eye. He stared as a large aperture opened in the center of the main gate. A colossal horned head emerged with blazing eyes. Fire surged from its mouth and nostrils, spewing gouts of flame for a hundred spans.
The soldiers stalled, milling about in uncertainty. "They have a bloody dragon," a panicked voice shouted. Cries of 'dragon' rippled across the ranks.
Rhanu squinted to see clearer. "It is a ploy. A construction of stone and steel, nothing more." He looked at the Reaver, who still strode forward. "Do not submit to fear. Keep following the Reaver!"
Theron bellowed and led his horde onward. Along the walls, smaller wyverns protruded, belching flame. They clashed with the beauty of the palace, something Rhanu had never expected after emerging from such nightmarish surroundings. He was still trying to get over his initial shock at stumbling from darkness into paradise. Besides the wyverns, the only thing that marred the picture of perfection was the dark roiling clouds blanketing the sky.
Rhanu recognized the figure that stepped onto a balcony above the aperture of the main wyvern. Alaric was garbed in white and exuded lofty arrogance even from a distance. His disdainful gaze swept over the army, stopping only upon the approaching Reaver, who had paused momentarily to return the gaze. For a split second Rhanu almost felt the waves of their hatred, the depth of their ages-old battle.
The moment ended when the wyvern fired a flaming sphere from its mouth. The projectile struck the leading force of Norlanders and Ulfhenar in an explosion of flame and charred bodies. The other wyverns followed suit, distributing death and carnage across the lines of charging men. Screams filled the air as shattered earth and burning limbs fell like a sickening type of rain.
"What manner of weapons be those?" Theron ignored the shower of earth and flame from an explosion that narrowly missed him. "If such exist, Norland should be stocked with them! By the icy pits of Nifolheim, none can withstand such an onslaught for long."
As fire from the sky cut into them, winged beasts swooped down, filling the air with piercing shrieks and the overwhelming scent of rotted leather. They seized soldiers with their sinewy limbs, swooped upward, and dropped them from the heights. The air was rank with their stink, and their shrieks drove fear into the bravest soldier. The army milled about in complete disarray as the commanders tried desperately to rally into a semblance of formation.
We're being slaughtered.
Ahead of them, the Reaver strode as if unaware of the chaos. It strode through flame as though it were harmless fog. Alaric spotted it from his vantage point. He gestured to his men. They lowered the main wyvern so that it aimed directly at the approaching specter. The construct bucked as it fired a booming blast directly at the Reaver.
Time seemed to slow as fire and rent earth cascaded into the air. The soldiers stalled, looking to their figurehead as smoke and flame enveloped it. Rhanu narrowed his eyes, trying to see the damage.
When the smoke cleared, the Reaver stood in a smoldering crater. It straightened and raised its black sword defiantly as smoke wafted from its armor. The army roared in response and surged forward.
"We must cross ground quickly." Han studied the wyverns as he jogged alongside. "We have similar fire lances in my homeland, though not near as powerful. I think they can only be tilted down so far. We will be safer at the wall."
"Forward!"
Theron roared, and the captains echoed the call. "Forward!" They ran across the field as explosions racked the ranks and Dhamphir rained from above.
A whining sound announced the addition of archers on the ramparts. The army raised their shields and continued forward, stepping over their dead. Flames were directed by unseen hands, spreading across the ranks like wildfire.
The Craft of Scintilla. They do not even have to be among us to take out lives.
Neither fire nor arrows could even slow down the Reaver. It reached the wall and used its blade to scrabble up with frightening speed.
Creyshaw followed with his siege men. They pushed wheeled stations equipped with large crossbows armed with grappling hooks that they fired at the ramparts. Attached were tall ladders full of soldiers that winches lifted to the top. Odji soldiers raced to tip the ladders over with the Crafts, or fire arrows at the climbers.
Liquid fire fell from the mouths of gargoyles onto the men trying to climb the walls. It ate flesh the same as wood, sending the men falling to their deaths even as they melted like wax statues. The screams of the dying drowned out the roars of the soldiers, and the scent of burning flesh spread across the battlefield.
Too many. Too many dead too soon. The gates must be opened! Rhanu turned away, reluctant to abandon the soldiers, but they would all perish if the gates remained closed. He accepted a horse from one of the soldiers and rode to the rear of the battle, where his small band waited.
"She's found it." Nando pointed to a path nearly hidden by thick, twisted foliage. Rhanu dismounted and followed Nando with a party of ten Nahguals who remained in their human form. The path ended in a sheer wall of rock. A baleful face was carved across its surface, roaring as if in rage. Ayna closely studied the Glyphs engraved around the lips of the carving. Dradyn waited nearby, gazing at the carving with a mixture of fear and anticipation.
"What do you know of this place, kemsa?"
Dradyn shook his head. "I knew nothing of a secret passage. When I was last here, it was under an escort through the front gates."
Rhanu studied Dradyn, but it was impossible to know if he was still affected by his coercion. Should any sign occur…
Rhanu fingered the hilt of his wakiza. If there were any sign, he would do what was necessary.
Ayna traced the Glyphs on the door with her finger before she stood back and spoke the command. "Petah."
Nothing happened.
Nando stepped closer. "Is there a problem?"
Ayna frowned. "It should have opened. The Glyphs are correct, and I pronounced the command correctly."
Rhanu stepped closer, although he surely didn't know anything that Ayna did not. "Perhaps they altered something."
"That should not be possible." Her frown deepened as she concentrated. The engraved eyes seemed to stare directly at them, enraged by their trespass.
Ayna traced a similar character and spoke again. "Naptu."
The ground trembled as the mouth of the carving slid open, exposing the murky confines of a tunnel. Air escaped the passageway like a shuddering sigh, giving the men pause as they traded uneasy glances.
"Torches," Rhanu said. The men lit them and cautiously stepped into the gloom. The tunnel tried to swallow the offensive light of their torches as if it wished for darkness. But the lonely, flickering illumination was enough. They were Nahguals, and the dim light was no hindrance.
Jagged stalactites hung from the ceiling, resembling giant stone teeth waiting to snap shut. As they advanced, the tunnel opened up to huge caverns where stalagmites were carved into stone columns that stretched until they were lost in the gloom. Though it must have been a marvel to see in the past, at present Rhanu only worried about what hid in those shadows.
"I thought this was the same as the tunnel in Halladen." Nando's eyes searched the gloom warily. "The walls here are darkened. I can see no lunestone."