Peter Brett - The Daylight War

‘That’s our cue,’ Rojer said, stepping forward and raising his fiddle, beginning to play. Amanvah and Sikvah raised their voices to join him, touching the demon bone chokers at their throats.

The music carried far on the currents of magic, growing louder and more complex, weaving a spell in the air that pushed at the demons as strongly as a wardnet. Renna knew they were out there — could see their glow shining in the trees — but they seemed unable to approach so long as the trio continued to play. After several minutes, the pounding in her heart began to slow.

But then a boulder arched high into the air over the trees.

‘Look out!’ Renna cried. Enkido was already pulling Amanvah out of the way, and Renna grabbed Rojer and Sikvah like children, leaping aside. The gigantic stone hit just as they landed, knocking her from her feet and showering them with bits of rubble. They coughed from the dust, unharmed, but the damage had been done.

The moment the music stopped, the woods exploded with demons. Field demons came in reaps, with flame demons at their heels. Others, their scales a glittering white, followed. Renna had never seen the like, but knew snow demons from Arlen’s stories.

Someone screamed, and the Haveners let loose a volley of their precious warded arrows. Their aim was erratic and the targets in fast motion, but the sheer number of demons meant many were struck. Some few of these fell, but most ran on.

‘Don’t shoot, you fools!’ Renna screamed. ‘The greatward is still active!’

Indeed, the corelings came up against the ward and were thrown back with a bright flare of magic. Renna wondered at the point of the charge until a falling stone fell on the head of an archer, killing her instantly. She looked up and saw a wind demon bank and fly off even as more came, hauling large stones in their hind talons.

‘Shoot the windies!’ she cried. The Haveners lifted their bows to comply, but their fear was palpable, shaking hands that needed to be steady. Even with the light of the greatward, the night sky was dark, and they could not see the demons glowing as Renna did. A few wind demons dropped from the sky, crashing into the wardnet and sliding off like birds flying into a thick pane of glass, but most of the arrows vanished harmlessly into the blackness.

‘Rock and wood!’ Kaval shouted, and Renna turned, cursing. At the tree line, the huge demons were massing, carrying heavy stones and sections of tree trunk in their talons.

Renna froze, unsure, but Kaval smoothly took command. ‘Archers!’ he cried. ‘Target the rock demons! Ignore all else! We will deal with the wood!’

Some of the Haveners looked to Renna, and she gritted her teeth. She should have seen the diversion for what it was, and now she had foolishly wasted much of their ammunition. She hated to admit it, but she was out of her depth. Kaval, calm and ready to lead, had trained a lifetime for this. ‘Do as he says!’

The Haveners loosed again, this time at targets even a novice could not miss. As they did, the Sharum ran forward, coming to a stop right at the edge of the wardnet and using the momentum of their sprints to aid their throws. The light spears flew far, piercing the hearts of wood demons and knocking them down. The demons shrieked, trying to clutch at the weapons, but the defensive wards along the shafts prevented them from drawing them out, even as the offensive wards continued to suck magic from the corelings, turning it into killing energy they pumped back into the wounds.

The Haveners were having less success. Their strongest arrows wasted, the crude ones stuck from the rock demons like pins in a cushion. The demons shrieked, but it seemed more in annoyance than distress. They cocked their arms back, launching their heavy missiles.

Everyone scattered, but the defenders were not the demons’ targets. One stone struck a wooden fence that formed part of the greatward, knocking it to splinters. Another blasted through a section of embankment. Flame demons spat fire on some of the stones, and while the flames winked out when they crossed the wardnet, the rocks remained superheated. One smashed through the doors of a barn, and smoke and flame soon began to stream forth.

And still more demons came on. Stone and wood demons carried ammunition for the larger rocks, whose range and power were incomparable. Even when a few of the rock demons finally succumbed to the dozens of arrows sticking from their armour and fell to the ground, they were swiftly replaced.

Rojer raised his fiddle again, but before he could begin to form a melody, a wood demon threw a log the size of a beer barrel at him and his wives. He managed to roll out of the way, and Amanvah and Sikvah dropped to the ground, dirtying their fine coloured silks but saving their lives. The three of them ran for cover as other demons launched projectiles their way.

They know , Renna realized. The minds can see through the eyes of their drones.

The thought filled her with anger, and she felt the greatward respond. She pulled at that strength, feeling it flood her with power, but it was power laced with pain, as if she had been dropped into a cauldron of boiling water. Unable to bear it for long, she drew a heat ward in the air at the offending demons and watched in satisfaction as three wood demons burst into flames and collapsed into ashes.

But then Renna felt her legs give way, barely catching herself with her hands before her face hit the ground. She gasped for breath and her throat felt scalded, eyes dry and burning. The strength that had flooded her a moment earlier had vanished, leaving her muscles weak and watery.

This what Arlen feels? she wondered. How does he stand it?

She forced herself to her feet, pulling at the greatward again, but this time it did not respond. She felt the power pulsing beneath her, strong as ever, but whatever connection she had found in her anger was gone now.

Yet looking at the chaos around her, she knew she had to do something. The Krasians were out of throwing spears, and the Haveners were now firing crude arrows that splintered against the rock demons’ hard carapaces as often as they stuck. The barn fire was under control as folk threw buckets of water on the blaze, but flame demons were heating more stones, and soon the fires would be too numerous to contain. Wind demons rained smaller stones from the sky, and the other demons were massing, waiting for the wards to fail.

She reached for her belt, feeling the reassuring grip of her father’s knife. Ent no easy way to plough a field , Harl used to say. Nothing for it but to bend your back and get it done.

The magic responded to her resolve, filling her with strength once more as she gave a cry and ran out into the night. Behind her she heard Kaval shout, followed by the sound of the Sharum locking shields and charging out after her.

And then it was a blur of tooth and claw and the hard metal of her knife as she dodged around the lesser demons, slashing and kicking, never slowing. Demon ichor arced into the air as she slashed the paw from a field demon, and kicked a flame demon in the throat just as it was about to spit at her, causing it to choke on its own fire. She heard the clatter of talons on shields and the spark of magic, the wet sound of spears piercing coreling scales and the screams of men pierced by coreling jaws.

And then she was at the first rock demon, stomping on the flame demon that was heating its stone. She used the flamer’s back as a springboard, leaping high to plunge her knife into a gap in the armour plates of the demon’s neck.

Even her father’s long blade was not enough to cut the throat of a rock demon, but Renna used the grip to swing herself around behind the behemoth, whipping her brook stone necklace about its throat and pulling tight with all her weight. The warded stones flared to life, pressing inward using the coreling’s own strength against it. After a few moments, the head popped free with a flare of magic and a shower of ichor. Renna hit the ground in a crouch, seeking her next target.