John Gwynne - Malice

The lower slope before them was a seething mass of movement of those ahead in the column, reminding Veradis of the ants he had seen in the forest near Jerolin. How long ago that seemed. The first ranks were splashing across a stream. Veradis made out the bulky shape of Braster, and before him the Gadrai. Then the first of the Gadrai approached the ruined wall, beginning to scramble across fallen stone.

A noise broke the tension he felt, as a high, pealing horn sounded from somewhere beyond them, an ethereal, haunting sound. Then something resembling smoke or mist poured from the black gateway in the rock face. Quickly this spread around the cairns, hugging the ground and flowing towards the crumbling wall and the warriors.

Many were within the wall now, and those in the front ranks stopped as they saw the mist approaching them. Silently the mist rolled across the still warriors, engulfing them and obscuring them from view, filling the entire area between the escarpment and the wall.

For long moments the whole dell was draped in an eerie silence. Then the screaming began.

Veradis took a step forward, and had to stop himself. Behind, he heard the deep voice of Alcyon rise up, blending with Calidus’, growing louder, singing words he did not understand.

A breeze touched his face where there had been none, quickly growing in strength, gusts tugging at hair that poked from under his iron helm. The wind swirled about him now. It seemed to gather before his warband, snatching at leaves and ferns on the ground, then suddenly set off down the slope, howling, whipping up white-tipped foam on the stream before the wall as it rushed past and slammed like a physical thing into the wall and mist within.

The mist immediately skirting the wall just evaporated, but very soon the wind’s effect lessened, as if it had run into a barrier. Alcyon and Calidus’ voices rose in volume until the wind they had sent rushing into the dell made headway against the mist again, though slowly. The mist frayed, slowly dissolved, revealing their fellow warriors within the wall. They seemed somehow stopped in their tracks. Veradis strained to see and made out men’s arms flailing, heard terror in the screaming, then realized what was happening.

Men were sinking into the ground, whole companies already swallowed — marked only by iron helms, or a patch of hair, a shield, a grasping hand. The ground had turned to bog, a suffocating, sinking pit.

‘Elyon help us,’ Bos whispered.

Veradis forced his way back towards Alcyon and Calidus, men making way for him.

Alcyon and Calidus were standing with arms raised and voices intertwined, drenched in sweat, their muscles trembling.

‘There is more than the mist,’ Veradis yelled over the singing and the screaming from below. ‘Look, the warriors are sinking into the very ground.’

Calidus’ voice stuttered, faltered and he staggered forwards a step, Veradis steadying him.

‘Closer,’ the Vin Thalun croaked. ‘We must get closer.’

Veradis nodded and returned to his warband, leading them forwards down the slope. A score of paces before the ground levelled he stopped, and heard Calidus’ voice change in pitch, the alien words coming in a new rhythm.

Veradis’ view of Haldis was restricted now, but he could still see a way beyond the wall, where the screaming was loudest. Men were still sinking, some flailing wildly and buried to their knees, hips and chests. Many were dead, mouths full of black earth, whereas others pushed against the sucking ground with shields, or were trying to dig themselves out with sword or spear.

Alcyon and Calidus’ song rose in volume, the mist almost defeated now, lingering only as thin tendrils.

Something caught Veradis’ eye — a movement near the stream, in it, the water swirling. Whatever it was, was coming closer, the wake of its passing flooding the banks behind it, thick sedge and reeds parting before it.

‘Do you see that?’ he said to Bos, pointing. Before the warrior could answer him something was emerging from the water, a silvery-grey head, rising on a thick, reptilian torso.

‘Wyrm,’ Veradis yelled.

It slithered onto the bank, great loops coiling out of the stream, and moved with alarming speed up the slope. Towards them.

It’s coming for Calidus and Alcyon , Veradis realized. He shouted a command, his warband pulling in tight, forming a wall on the slope. Behind him he heard the Jehar unsheathe their swords as one, a metallic clap of thunder.

‘Don’t like the look of that,’ Bos muttered next to him.

Me neither , thought Veradis, though he kept silent.

The wyrm paused before their shield wall, body coiling beneath it before it reared up, arcing above the wall. It was huge, its head alone larger than a man, with great curved fangs longer than a sword. Shields shattered as it crashed into the wall, those before it crushed in an explosion of blood and bone.

The shield wall broke apart, men running in all directions. Veradis chased the beast, with Bos following, and Veradis slashed at the creature’s body. His blade bit, though not deep, and something viscous and jelly-like oozed out from the cut. But his blow did nothing to slow the wyrm. It broke onto the slope beyond the shield wall now, a space of grass and fern before the loosely clustered Jehar. Behind them Calidus and Alcyon continued their song, as yet oblivious to the wyrm. This time the creature did not pause, just ploughed into the dark-clothed warriors. Instead of bracing to meet it they parted, allowed it into their midst, then swirled about it like black waters with their swords rising and falling.

The wyrm was at last wounded, black blood seeping from a thousand cuts. It roared in defiance and lashed out, catching a warrior in its jaws, blood spraying. But the swords continued to slash at it, and with a great shudder the beast crashed to the ground, spasmed and then was still. As things grew quieter about him, screams from Haldis below drifted back up to Veradis. The burial ground was still a bog, warriors suffocating in the dark earth, but as he looked back to Calidus and Alcyon he sensed a change in their song.

As Veradis watched, he felt a tremor pass under his feet, then saw a shift in the ground within the wall. It began to solidify, and men were able to resist their descent into the earth, while others were able to drag or dig themselves out with the last of their strength. Many were dead, caught in a permanent embrace under the crushing earth.

Calidus and Alcyon were both slumped on their knees as Veradis approached, gasping in huge, racking gulps of air.

‘You’ve done it,’ Veradis panted.

‘For now,’ Calidus wheezed, rolling onto his side.

Suddenly a roar erupted from behind the wall. Veradis turned, to see the mounds coming to life . He blinked, and saw giants leaping into focus. Whatever glamour had hidden them was stripped away and now they were rampaging amongst men who were not yet recovered from their encounter with the sinking ground. Their newest threat took the form of huge warriors wrapped in black leather and iron, wielding great double-bladed axes or crushing war-hammers.

Chaos erupted anew.

Hundreds had died in the suffocating earth, but there were still many of Braster and Romar’s men left alive, though Veradis had never seen this number of giants gathered together. It was hard to make sense of the battlefield. Men were still confused by the mist and shifting earth, and the giants took full advantage, dealing out death with breathtaking ferocity. Everywhere Veradis looked he saw the pale-faced Hunen, laying about them with their axes and war-hammers, the warriors of the alliance struggling to reorganize themselves.

Alcyon was still on his knees, though his breathing was less laboured now.