James Barclay - Beyond the Mists of Katura

Auum, his teeth bared, drew his blades and attacked. He knew anger fuelled him, and he dropped out of the shetharyn to conserve his strength. His blades hacked into the body of the first mage he reached. He paced on, placing a roundhouse kick in the side of another’s head and a blade through his gut. Auum lashed a cut into the face of a third, drove a blade into the throat of a fourth and roared like a panther as he dragged it clear.

TaiGethen were flying in around him, delivering death without mercy.

‘Keep one alive!’ called Auum.

It was done so fast. A handful managed to cast Wings of Shade and take off again, heading back to the woodland, but more than forty were dead or dying. Auum spat on the face of one who still clung to life.

‘You kill without honour and you die the same way,’ he said, and drove his blade into the man’s heart.

‘Auum!’ He turned. Ulysan had a mage by the scruff of the neck. He looked terrified. Blood trickled down his face from a cut on his forehead and his front teeth had been knocked out. His lips were burst and his nose skewed at an unnatural angle. ‘Good, bring him. Tais, with me.’

Auum began to run hard back towards the ambush site, where the fighting was fierce. The remains of the cavalry were charging at a line of soldiers and archers. Enemy cavalry were gathered and wheeling to strike again too. More TaiGethen had formed a defensive perimeter in front of what looked like a painfully small number of survivors. The enemy were close enough to launch castings, but, as he watched, Auum saw orbs flash against protective shields, both the yellow of Julatsa and the brown of the Il-Aryn.

Cavalry clashed with cavalry on the open ground. Auum felt the force of it vibrating through the ground from where he was running a couple of hundred yards adrift of the survivors. He could see more and more men coming from the trees. There had to be five hundred of them with considerable magical support. This confrontation was ultimately only going to go one way.

Auum ran past the charred remains of so many good elves and up to the group of survivors, which was halfway up the first rise into the foothills. Merrat was there with Stein. More spells fell on the shields, which flared in response.

‘Merrat.’

‘Auum, we’re in trouble. We’ve got injured and dying here and we can’t go back around the lake. We’ll be too slow and there are too many men down there. They’ll pick us off.’

‘What are our numbers?’

Merrat’s eyes were full of tears. ‘I dread to make a count. We’ve lost well over a hundred and fifty. More won’t survive the day, if any of us do.’

Auum looked to Stein. He had a long burn down the side of his grey, frightened face and one arm was cradled in the other.

‘We should have listened to you,’ he said, his voice faint with his pain.

‘It doesn’t matter now. We have to get into the hills. I’ll take the TaiGethen down to face the cavalry and buy you time. I’ll seek you out later. But you have to find a place up there to hide.’

Stein nodded. ‘I’ll do what I can. Do you want mage support?’

‘No. Take them with you. Keep our people shielded and get someone in the air looking for a path. Go.’

Ulysan came trotting up with the prisoner.

‘What do you want to do with him?’

‘Merrat, I think he’s yours. Keep him alive if you can. Go with Stein — have your cell scout a path.’

Merrat nodded and took the shivering mage from Ulysan, staring at him with cold eyes.

There was a heavy detonation from the direction of the woodland. Auum spun about. The Julatsan cavalry was broken: he saw ten horses on the ground, only another eight or so still standing and half of those galloping away from the spell that had crashed into them. The enemy cavalry wheeled and came again, but this time straight at the main group of survivors.

‘Tais to me!’ shouted Auum. ‘Merrat, Stein, go!’

Julatsan spells soared out over the heads of the TaiGethen, striking the enemy cavalry. Mages and soldiers were moving out of the woodland and spells fizzed across shields. Auum swore and ran hard down the slope, TaiGethen to either side of him. He took a quick glance, counting thirty or so. He prayed that was not all he had left.

The horsemen came on, looking to skirt the attacking TaiGethen. Simultaneously, enemy mages were preparing new castings and continuing their advance behind a line of swordsmen.

‘Speed!’ called Auum. ‘Get among the horsemen.’

Auum switched into the shetharyn and powered towards the group of forty or so cavalry, which was on a curving gallop towards the flank of the group gathering itself to head into the foothills of the Blackthorne Mountains. Where a running man might look to Auum as if he was wading through mud, a horse still had some pace. Even so, the cavalry would not reach the survivors.

Auum felt a thrill across his body as he turned into a tight curving run. He could hear the steady fall of horses’ hooves on the ground and feel them through the soles of his feet each time they kissed the earth. He was aware of men and mages behind him, loosing arrows and spells, but none would touch him or his TaiGethen.

With Ulysan vying for the lead until Duele scorched past them both, Auum closed on the cavalry fast. Grafyrre’s and Faleen’s cells were both in close attendance.

‘Spread through them,’ called Auum. ‘Let’s make this quick.’

Auum surged up, passing Duele, who laughed and drew a blade. One of the riders looked round to see the thirty elves gaining on them with every stride. His mouth dropped open. He yelled something incomprehensible and slammed his spurs into his horse’s flanks.

He was too late, far too late. Auum ran between two horses, his blades in his hands, and stabbed up into the waist of each rider. One fell outwards, the other in. Auum didn’t wait to see if they were dead, either the fall or other TaiGethen would finish them. The riderless horses turned aside, already slowing but still following their kin. Auum moved on.

Next to him Duele vaulted onto the back of a horse, grabbed its rider by the head and cut his throat, casting the body down and to the right. Then he stood in the saddle and launched himself full length at another. Auum watched him take the man clean out of his saddle.

Auum’s next targets had swords drawn and ready, their attention on him, not ahead. Both leaned out of their saddles, waiting for him to attack, and Auum steadied his pace. Ulysan came to the side of one and sliced through the rider’s girth strap, barely nicking the horse’s flank. The man plunged to the ground, his sword snapping in the earth and his head staved in by the rear hoof of his comrade’s mount.

Auum switched to the other side of the second horse, seeing Ulysan duck left after another target. The rider saw him and tried to bring his blade across to strike. It was a half-hearted blow which Auum blocked with his left-hand blade, then he dragged the man off his horse, hurdling the body as it crashed to the ground.

The front rank of cavalry, ten strong, was further ahead. Beyond them Auum could see the Il-Aryn lined up, some of them anyway, their hands linked and their heads bowed. The horsemen closed on them quickly; the TaiGethen would only just reach them in time. The captain raised his sword, urging his men on for the final gallop. All had blades cocked overhead in an identical position, ready to sweep down as they broke across the Il-Aryn.

Some fifteen strides before they would be hit, the Il-Aryn raised their heads as one. The air quality changed, became heavy and thick, or so it felt. Auum dropped out of the shetharyn, seeing many of his TaiGethen do the same. There was a gleam in the air, like a line of horizontal light. It flashed towards the cavalry, sweeping over the horses’ heads and straight through their riders.