James Barclay - Beyond the Mists of Katura

‘No one caught in the fires of magic hidden beneath his feet has failed us. It is an evil force that skulks in the dark like a thief, waiting to snatch life from heroes like you,’ said Auum. ‘And you dodged that fate. You will recover and one day you and I will run the rainforest together.’

Auum could feel Hanyss swell with pride at the thought. He held his body more firmly and his face cleared a little.

‘There is always joy on the horizon,’ said Faleen, and she looked across him at Auum and mouthed, Well done . ‘Come on, not far now.’

The first of the wounded had reached the wagon and were being helped on board. Two horses were taken around to the front to be hitched, their riders helped to dismount. Hanyss and Ynsiell, the other injured TaiGethen, were loaded on board. Food and water was attached to the many hooks on the sides.

Auum stood back to allow the rest on board and glanced back towards the wood. Men were pouring out of it at a run. There were mages in the sky ahead of lines of soldiers, archers and more spell casters.

He wiped a hand across his mouth. The Julatsan fliers had seen the attackers so the camp would be warned.

‘Faleen, we have to go now. Get the rest on board and get this cart moving. Keep your pace up, don’t stop and don’t look back. Tais, with me. Run hard.’

Auum led the four who had helped the injured to the wagon, though they pressed him hard for the lead. The humans were no match for the speed of the TaiGethen, but the ground was hard up to the steeper foothills and not all the elves had such pace. Auum watched the elven mages in the air. There were three of them, trying to keep back four humans.

The humans separated, one flying close to the ground, another going high and the other pair closing up and heading directly at the Julatsan elves. The trio of elves split to counter them, with one diving on her foe from directly above. A shout sounded but it was too late: the elf thumped into the human’s back with both feet. His wings guttered and died, and he ploughed into the grass twenty feet below while the elf soared skywards, arrows chasing her higher.

She barrelled up, just missing another enemy, who had the wit to furl his wings and drop away in time. The humans backed off and the elves returned to their circling. Auum ran harder, Faleen right on his shoulder now and the others crowding behind.

They tore up a shallow slope, leaped across to the next and ran down towards the stream where the gradient was easiest and led them straight into the camp. Elves were still milling about despite the cajoling of Ulysan, Grafyrre and Merrat. The TaiGethen were all ready, though: faces were painted, weapons clean and sharp, packs were on backs loaded with clothes and food.

‘No time to fill your waterskins,’ he shouted as he ran past Il-Aryn at the stream. ‘Get your packs and get moving. My warriors are about to become sitting targets waiting for you. Move!’

He ran on, finding Ulysan by the barking of his voice.

‘Where’s Stein?’ he said.

Ulysan pointed while chastising a Julatsan elf who was still strapping on his boots. Auum clapped him on the shoulder and ran on.

He found Stein. ‘I need your mages in the air finding us the best route up the mountain.’

‘Right.’ Stein turned away. ‘Julatsa. Wings! Let’s go. Best path required.’

One of the trio of spotter mages already in the air swooped down to hover in front of Auum.

‘They’re closing fast,’ she said. ‘Bow range shortly and spell range moments after that. We need to clear out now; their mages saw us and they know where to strike.’

‘Thank you,’ said Auum. ‘Good move out there, by the way.’

‘Plenty more where that came from,’ she said and shot back into the sky, pausing to point in a wide arc to indicate the angle of the human advance.

Auum waved then clapped his hands.

‘Get running. Ulysan is leading. Go, go!’

Finally they were pouring away, running along beside the stream until the ground became loose shale and they had to divert to a grassier slope. Auum glanced up into the sky, expecting to see it misting with arrows at any moment. Letting his gaze drop, he almost jumped out of his skin. There, with his back to the slope the humans would fire over, was a hunched figure.

‘Tilman. You can’t still be here. Your boot! Get your boot on!’

Tilman raised his head. His face was blotched and there were tears on his cheeks.

‘I can’t,’ he wailed. ‘It hurts too much. I’m so sorry, Auum.’

Auum ran to him and dropped to one knee, pushing Tilman’s hands away from their grip around his ankle. Auum put his hands on it and could feel the mass of swelling up into his calf and down across his foot.

‘Yniss preserve us,’ breathed Auum, glancing up to see his people disappearing out of sight behind a scree slope. ‘Why didn’t you say something?’

Tilman wiped his nose and eyes on a sleeve and managed to compose himself a little.

‘Because you’d have sent me home and I didn’t want to go.’

Auum felt a vibration through the earth — the enemy were close. He weighed up his options; it didn’t take long.

‘We’ve got to move fast. Can you put any weight on this?’ Auum already knew the answer.

‘It was all right at first — it just felt odd — but it just got worse and worse and this morning I couldn’t stand on it. You’ll have to leave me here.’

‘Don’t be ridiculous. Now listen carefully. You haven’t broken it, which is lucky, but it’s dislocated. Not good.’

‘So I’d have been going home,’ said Tilman.

‘Rather than being peppered with arrows at any moment, yes,’ said Auum, feeling tension build across his shoulders as the vibrations increased. ‘Look, there’s something I need to do. It’ll make you scream, but that’s better than screaming every time you put your foot down.’

‘You can make the pain go away?’

‘No, it’ll still hurt like a panther bite but it will help. Brace yourself.’ Auum positioned his hands on Tilman’s foot and ankle, hearing the boy wince. ‘On three. One, two. .’

Auum pressured the ankle and turned the foot back to its correct position, feeling bone grate on bone and sinew and ligament protest. Tilman screamed and clutched Auum’s body, dry-retching and shuddering. Auum gave him a moment and then moved him back to lie on the grass.

‘Now we really have to go,’ he said. He grabbed Tilman’s boot and gave it to the youth. ‘Hold this. Don’t drop it, you’ll need it later.’

He took Tilman’s free hand and dragged him up onto his good leg. He stooped and picked up Tilman’s pack and slung it over one shoulder. Arrows came flooding over the rise, falling against the opposite slope. Auum blew out his cheeks.

‘Come on and try not to make too much noise.’

‘Why did you have to do that now?’ wheezed Tilman.

They moved off, Auum hurrying Tilman along, taking the weight off his bad leg for now, letting the human hop but keeping the pace quick.

‘Because now you can put your foot down without risk of breaking bones or crippling yourself. Your mages can fix you properly later.’

Auum got them to the stream and followed the elves’ tracks. They were out of sight, but the humans had come up faster than he thought and so they would have to move faster too. Another volley of arrows rushed across the space. Auum ducked reflexively, hearing shafts strike water and stone behind him.

There was a movement in the air, a pressing on his back and shoulders.

‘Down!’

Auum threw them both to the ground. Tilman yelped as orbs of fire, deep blue shot through with yellow, cruised over the rise and slammed into the recently vacated campsite. Up in the sky, elven mages were keeping the Xeteskian spotters well back but soon they wouldn’t need them anyway.