James Barclay - Beyond the Mists of Katura

The Wesman yelled his pain and turned just as his comrades awoke to the attack. At a barked command they drew their weapons and faced Faleen’s nine. Oryaal took his cell left and Dodann’s split right. Faleen crashed into the centre of them, and simultaneously Merrat and Merke hammered into their left flank.

Blades clashed and sparked and the Wesmen yelled for support; the shamen would not be long in coming. Faleen dropped to her haunches and swept the legs from her opponent. He fell heavily, and she stepped on the blade of his axe and thrust a sword into his throat.

She rose to her feet, blocked a sword strike to her midriff and stepped right, catching the flat of an axe on her right-hand blade. She forced the weapon up and thrust her second blade into the warrior’s armpit. Haloor’s blade deflected a stab at her exposed left flank. He kicked out straight, forcing a small space. Jyrrian came through into it, planting a roundhouse kick into the temple of his target and sending him stumbling back. Faleen followed up, opening his gut and dumping his entrails into the dust. She paced back and moved left with her Tai, leaving the Wesman to scream and fall to his knees, staring at his own innards.

‘Shamen incoming!’ called Dodann.

‘Break and cover,’ shouted Faleen. She ducked an axe swing and drove a kick into her attacker’s knee, forcing it backwards, breaking bone and ripping tendon and muscle. ‘Shetharyn at your discretion.’

Haloor and Jyrrian came to her shoulders. The Wesmen had backed up a pace. Orders sang through their chaotic lines. To her left the fighting remained intense where Merke and Merrat were pressing.

‘Don’t give them room to get the shamen at us,’ said Faleen. ‘Oryaal, push on!’

Faleen raced in again, her speed of foot and hand difficult for the Wesmen to counter. Haloor paced up and leaped, his heels connecting with an enemy chest, knocking his target over. He rode the fall, swiping his blades to the left and right, having one blocked and the other cut a Wesman face from cheek to cheek.

Faleen followed him in, Jyrrian at her left. Wesmen began to close about them, seeing in Dodann’s withdrawal the chance to bring pressure on the TaiGethen for the first time.

Faleen’s right blade struck the sword hand from a warrior aiming a blow at Haloor. Her left fenced away a quick stab to her groin and she swayed left to avoid another, feeling it slice her jacket and nick the flesh over her ribs.

Faleen gasped at the sudden pain. She ducked another swing. The blow was beaten upwards by Jyrrian, who followed it with a killing thrust to the chest. Haloor turned a backward somersault and landed next to her.

‘Tai, we need out of this press,’ said Faleen. ‘Where’s Dodann?’

Haloor moved right to force a little room. Jyrrian felled another Wesman, whose overhead strike had left him off balance and exposed. The three of them took a pace back. Oryaal was a few paces to their left. Pannos, of his Tai, was bleeding from a cut to his head, blood running down into his eyes.

Oryaal pushed him from the path of an oncoming warrior pair. He fielded one blow; Jyrrian’s jaqrui lodged in the neck of the other. Oryaal nodded and his Tai fell back.

‘Dodann’s in the clear, running the right flank.’

In front of Faleen the Wesman line had solidified. They were well drilled and courageous. The bodies of their comrades littered the ground and they had barely touched an elf, but there was no fear in their eyes. They held their ground, waiting. Faleen frowned.

She backed up another pace, crouched and drove up, leaping as high as she was able. Over the heads of the reserve she could see why they were so confident. Shamen were moving fast to her right, obscured by the fighters. Others were moving through the lines. Dodann was running into deep trouble.

‘Shamen in the lines!’ called Faleen as she landed. ‘Oryaal, break to Merrat. Tai, with me to Dodann.’

Faleen sprinted right, drawing a response from some Wesmen who broke ranks to chase her despite the orders howled by their commanders.

‘Dodann, break off!’ shouted Faleen, but he could not hear her. ‘Get back into the fight. You’ve got to get among them. It’s the only way to be safe!’

She ran harder, the Wesmen beginning to break in larger numbers, seeking to cut her off.

‘If that’s the way you want it,’ she muttered. ‘Tai, break them.’

Faleen planted her right foot and drove back into the Wesmen. She could see Dodann, Valess and Myriin moving steadily on out of blade range. Faleen thrashed both her blades right to left, forcing the Wesmen to take evasive action. Jyrrian drop-kicked one in the gut and Haloor came up on the right, swaying beneath an axe before rocking back and flattening the nose of his target with a straight kick to his face.

‘Push!’ shouted Faleen. ‘Dodann! Turn!

Wesmen were at their backs as Faleen surged forward. The Wesman line ahead was thin and beyond them, shamen waited for Dodann’s cell. Faleen punched the hilt of a blade into the mouth of one warrior, knocking his head back, then she opened his throat with the same blade.

Faleen ran into the gap, shouldering another aside and onto Haloor’s swords. A third blocked her path. She took a pace and leaped above him, cycling her blades in her hands and chopping down onto his head and shoulder as she passed. Faleen landed behind Dodann’s cell just as he ran into the sight of the Shamen.

Black rods of energy, each thick as a fist, skewered his cell, each one finding the heart. She watched helpless as the TaiGethen were plucked from their feet and hurled back. The shamen held them in the air for a moment before tossing their bodies aside like discarded dolls. This was no broken black fire and its potency was extreme.

Faleen turned, and as she did saw the back cloth of the single carriage twitch.

‘Speed!’ she howled. ‘Tai, with me!’

Faleen called on the shetharyn, and the world slowed around her. The shamen were looking for new targets. The Wesmen were closing around her cell. Jyrrian and Haloor turned to follow her. She saw a Wesman with his back to her sweep out an arm. Jyrrian ran straight into it, his attention on Haloor. He tumbled to the ground, his speed gone.

Faleen began to turn. An axe came down slowly. Jyrrian was rolling aside, trying to get his feet under him. Faleen dived headlong. The axe blade passed in front of her face. She grasped at it but her reach was not enough. Jyrrian raised his hands but the blade took them with it into his chest.

Faleen landed, rolled and stood.

‘Shorth will take you all,’ she hissed.

She shot off after Haloor, tearing across the front of the Wesman lines. Beams of dark energy shot out, blistering the air. Faleen shivered, dreading the bite of the malevolent magic.

‘Oryaal! Break and go.’

On the left Merrat and Merke still fought, but ripples in the Wesman lines told of shamen approaching. Faleen fell back into the battle, her blades sweeping ahead of her. Wesman blood sprayed into the air.

‘Merrat! Merke!’ Faleen thrashed a blade into the neck of a Wesman, who collapsed forward. Merrat stood there, blood across his face and a cut on his left arm. His blade was cocked to strike. ‘Break and go! We can’t take these without magic.’

Merrat’s Tai fought around him, giving him a moment’s pause.

‘We’re among them,’ he said. ‘We can win this.’

‘No. Dodann’s Tai is gone, downed by a new power. Please, we have to get out of here and take the message to Auum.’

Merrat looked at the battle about them and back into Faleen’s eyes.

‘I trust you,’ he said.

‘Speed,’ whispered Faleen.