With the Sharum fighting spear-to-claw, the Mehnding on the wall could not risk firing on the demons harrying them, focusing instead on the rocks. Whenever one appeared with a stone, it was hit with several stingers or a sling of warded stones. A few of the giant demons were killed outright, and more missed their marks entirely.
But one mammoth rock managed to get within range of the city gates, carrying a boulder big enough to shatter them wide. It would not allow demons ingress, but it would kill many warriors guarding the gatehouse, and strike fear into the hearts of men who needed to be brave. Stingers stuck from the demon’s thick carapace, but it moved with focus, hurling its stone.
‘Everam’s beard,’ Asome breathed.
Inevera ignored the comment, reaching into her robe and producing the slender forearm bone she had taken from the mind demon Ahmann had killed. Dipped in electrum, it shone bright with power to her wardsight. She pointed the item at the stone, her fingers skilfully manipulating the wards etched at the gripping end. She uncovered heat and impact wards, sending the power hurtling at the stone.
The spell looked like a greenland firefly as it flew to its target, but when it struck, there was an explosion that lit the night and heated the faces of the observers, smashing the stone into a cloud of dust.
Amazed eyes turned to Inevera as she next pointed her hora wand at the rock demon itself. Again a sizzling speck of light that exploded on impact, throwing down the demon and driving the stingers already embedded in its armour through to the more vulnerable flesh beneath. It landed on its back, chest smoking, and did not rise.
‘Mother …’ Asome began, but his words trailed off as he stared at her. Inevera smiled. It was good to remind her ambitious son that she commanded power he should fear. Ashia and the Mehnding looked no less awestruck, and that, too, was well.
Out on the field, warriors took heart at the display, redoubling their efforts to contain the demons even as reinforcements came.
But there was reaction from the alagai as well. A flight of wind demons dived out of the sky, heading directly for Inevera, each carrying a heavy stone in its talons. Ashia had her bow in hand and plucked one from the sky like a fattened goose. The Mehnding bowmen took down others, but not before a number of stones hurtled their way. Inevera felt herself grabbed and thrown to the rampart as one of the battlements exploded right next to her. Rubble fell like rain, but Asome remained atop her, taking the brunt of the impact.
When it was over, half his face was covered in blood, and she could see his arm was broken, twisted at an impossible angle. She reached out for him, but her son rose smoothly to his feet. He took the wrist of his broken arm in his good hand, pulling the limb straight and letting it hang loosely at his side. The pain was no doubt incredible, but Asome kept control, showing no sign of it as he reached down to her, offering his good hand to help her to her feet. ‘It is nothing that cannot wait, Mother.’ He thrust his chin out beyond the wall. ‘You have greater concerns.’
Inevera accepted the hand, but put no weight on it as she sprang to her feet. She looked out in the direction her son had indicated, eyes widening. Fighting was fierce in the outer city, and fiercer still beyond the outer wall, but it was all a distraction.
From her vantage, Inevera could see what Ahmann could not, though even she had been so occupied by the battle she might have missed it until it was too late. Out in the teeming wheat beyond the city, flame demons were burning with precision, forming wards the size of entire fields. Soon the symbols would activate, giving the alagai a terrifying advantage.
Asome saw it, too. ‘They are truly the agents of Nie, stealing our ability to feed our people and using it to power their dark magics. We have no choice but to burn the rest of the fields to destroy the wardnet.’
‘Perhaps,’ Inevera said, remembering her prophecy. She looked to Ashia. ‘Your uncle must hear of this.’
The kai’Sharum’ting did not hesitate, leaping from the wall and redirecting the impact of her landing into a tight roll that threw her right back onto her feet. She sprinted down the hill into the outer city, quickly disappearing into the darkness.
Asome looked at her. ‘Bad enough you defy the Deliverer by bringing her out onto the wall, but now you send my jiwah out into the naked night? If the alagai don’t get her, surely Father will kill her for her disobedience.’
‘What do you care?’ Inevera asked. ‘If she dies in the night or is killed for her disobedience, your problems are solved, are they not?’
‘I asked for divorce, not her death,’ Asome said.
‘You will get neither, my son,’ Inevera said. ‘No demon will touch her, and you do not know your father as well as you think. His first duty is to Sharak Ka. Ashia’s information may mean the difference between victory and defeat. He will thank her for her service and forget it until Waning is past, and then offer her a token reprimand, followed by a public honouring. No longer will Sharum’ting be confined to the Undercity on Wanings.’
‘Your goal all along,’ Asome said. There was no bitterness in his tone, but she sensed it nevertheless.
‘What is more important to you,’ Inevera asked, ‘winning Sharak Ka, or keeping your wife beneath your sandal? The heroism of your jiwah can boost your power, if you let it. I know you do not feel for her as you do Asukaji, but she is the sister of your lover, the mother of your son, and you made oaths to her before Everam. Those ties bind an honest man as tightly as love.’
Asome looked ready to argue the words, but then deflated, considering. Inevera reached out, touching his good arm. ‘A great man does not fear his wife will steal his glory, Asome. He uses her support to reach even higher.’
28
333 AR Autumn
Waning
The alagai massed outside the city walls in a horde that cut fear into even the bravest Sharum. Thousands of demons, field and flame, rock and wood. The night sky teemed with wind demons, shrieking as they circled.
One of the rocks stomped over to a tree, its footfalls shaking the very ground. It pulled the thirty-foot trunk out by the roots, effortlessly snapping away the excess branches. Club in hand, it strode towards the nearest wardpost, a full reap of field demons at its flanks. Stinger teams took aim and fired, but even at this range it took many of the giant bolts to bring down a single rock. They would not stop it before the demon smashed the post, and there were dozens of the mammoth demons.
Jardir raised his spear, drawing a heat ward in the air. The tree in the demon’s hands exploded in flames, and the creature dropped it in shock.
‘Lock shields and advance,’ Jardir shouted, using the power of his crown to magically enhance his voice. ‘Strike on my command. We will fight our way to the rocks and bring them down!’
A line of interlocked shields formed, their wards glowing with power as they forced the alagai back. ‘Strike!’ Jardir called when the demons were clustered too tightly for a single thrust to miss. The Sharum took a unified step back, opening their shields enough to thrust warded weapons into the press. There was a flash of magic and a spray of ichor to accompany each point, but the disciplined warriors did not pause to savour it, snapping their shields closed again, continuing to press forward until Jardir called the next strike. A second line of warriors finished off the demons trampled into the ground by the front line’s advance.