James Barclay - Rise of the TaiGethen

‘Half of them cast while the other half rest. Onelle has told us that using magic drains energy. So the more they are forced to cast or maintain their castings the more vulnerable they are. They do not cast solely defensive and offensive spells. Some are clearly for illness and injury. However I don’t understand why a single casting is made across the whole elven work party.’ Malaar smiled. ‘I look forward to asking them what it is.’

‘Good. Pass your information on and then meet me at the first jump point.’

All around the perimeter of the human campsite, TaiGethen climbed the great banyan trees. Five cells swarmed up the trunks, their fingers digging into the bark when there was no branch to hand and their feet pushed flat against the broad boles, propelling them up quickly and quietly. Auum raced Ulysan, a powerful TaiGethen with a long reach whose toes found the merest dent in the bark seemingly at will and whose fingers grabbed the strongest branches or penetrated the perfect knotholes.

They ascended two hundred feet, feeling the breeze begin to play on their faces and the heat of the sun beating down into the upper canopy. Ulysan was twenty feet above him when he sniffed the air and stilled. Auum followed his gaze. Through the leaf and branch cover he could see a mage tracking across the sky. He was circling above the campsite and working his way further outwards with each pass.

Auum gave the piercing cry of the howler monkey and was answered by calls both real and imitated from miles around. They had climbed high enough. He could see Ulysan smiling.

‘We’d better not dawdle. Sounds to me like you’ve just found yourself a mate and three challengers for her.’

Auum looked inwards and downwards, seeking his launch and landing boughs. The banyans themselves were well spread, and between them rainforest pine, balsa and palms grew, all reaching lesser heights than the banyans at maturity. Auum worked his way back down to a branch as thick as his torso and there he waited. Ulysan joined him. Shortly afterwards, so did Elyss and Malaar.

‘Lost your cell, Ulysan?’ asked Elyss, a glint in her eye.

‘I note it is a long way down should you lose your grip,’ said Ulysan.

‘Focus,’ said Auum. ‘We are a Tai of four and are the stronger for it.’

One by one, Auum heard four calls rise above the ambient noise of Tual’s creatures. Reptile, bird, insect and mammal sounds were repeated over and over. Auum responded with the call of the kinkajou and knew that his Tais were on the move.

Auum led, moving along the branch until it narrowed enough to bow under his weight. His feet were atop it, his hands clasping it, his body leaning forward. He felt the thrill as he gained momentum and his heart beat harder as he saw his target.

Mouthing a prayer to Yniss, he rocked forward, took his feet from the branch and swung hard beneath it. Auum waited until his body was horizontal then let go. He tucked, turned a backward roll, straightened once more and thumped onto his target branch on the next banyan. Auum came to a crouch, gripped the branch to still his momentum and ran to the trunk of the tree.

He didn’t pause. No good could come of watching the others jump. He had descended fifty feet. Still he had no sight of the ground, but he knew he was positioned directly over the perimeter of the camp. One more jump to go. Auum moved around the trunk, climbed up to a suitable branch a few feet above his head and began to move out along it.

He moved slowly, studying the terrain, looking for any chinks in the canopy which were large enough for him to see the ground. The branch began to dip under his weight. Ahead, a palm grew up through the lower branches of the banyan he was in. Perfect. He turned. Elyss, Malaar and Ulysan were all waiting on the trunk. His young Tai warriors were buzzing with the excitement of the jump and brimful of their trust in Yniss. He remembered how that felt.

Auum indicated the target of the next jump. His Tai nodded their understanding. Auum moved further out. This was a far simpler jump, into the crown of a tree, which would leave him a mere sixty feet above the enemy.

He took two quick paces forward, used the banyan branch as a springboard and leapt out. Auum brought his legs into a tuck, ducked his head briefly to his chest against the beat of leaf and twig then stretched his body out. He shot through the upper branches of the palm and dropped right into the centre of the crown, stilling his momentum instantly.

Auum backed to the edge of the crown and beckoned Elyss on. He watched her with a smile on his face. Her step was light, her jump was perfect and she whispered onto the palm. Auum caught her arm and the two stood together, balanced to catch Malaar and Ulysan, both of whom landed without error.

Below them, Auum could see warriors patrolling around the working party. The resting mage team were sitting with their backs to trees, or lying stretched out on cleared ground, using their cloaks against the damp. Auum waited until he heard the calls that signalled each cell was ready.

‘Strike hard,’ he said. ‘Keep moving and target casting mages first. Don’t chase the extra kill. Tais, we strike.’

The kinkajou call sounded a second and last time. Auum grabbed the tip of a palm branch and stepped off the crown of the tree. He fell fast, his descent slowed at the critical point by the tension of the branch. Ten feet from the ground, he let go. Below him, a warrior began to look up, aware at the very last moment that he was under attack.

Auum landed, legs around the man’s neck. His hands came down and clamped around the soldier’s head. He twisted hard, breaking his neck. The man collapsed but Auum was already moving again, his weight forward, turning a roll as he hit the ground. He came up in a crouch, Elyss and Malaar landing by him. Faleen’s cell dropped just in front of him and headed towards the perimeter guards.

Men were screaming orders at each other. Warriors inside the perimeter grouped and ran towards the resting mages. Auum sprinted left, his Tai with him. He couldn’t see Ulysan. Behind them a man screamed, and Auum felt blood spray across the back of his head.

‘Get among the mages,’ he shouted.

Elyss and Malaar split left and right. Ahead, warriors had heard him and were turning. Four of them, with short blades in hand and bucklers on their forearms, faced him without fear. Three others tracked the movement of his Tai. Auum drew a blade with his right hand and snatched a jaqrui from his belt with his left. He threw the crescent blade as he advanced, seeing his target deflect it high and away with his buckler.

Auum grabbed his second blade and attacked, tracing its tip in the leaf litter as he came. The enemy stood in close formation, bucklers in front of their chests and necks, their short blades held low. Auum feinted a move right and saw the rightmost warrior tense just as he jammed his right foot into the earth and leapt left and forward, left-hand blade carving down into the space below him.

He felt its edge bite into shoulder flesh and heard the howl of pain. Auum was turning out, his back to the enemy for a brief moment. He drove into the turn with his right blade, landing as it struck square on the buckler of a second warrior. Auum was facing them once more.

Both flanking warriors rushed in, blades coming at him at chest height. Auum blocked them with his swords and kicked out straight, catching the wounded soldier in the gut. The man fell back. His sword had tumbled from his grip and blood surged from the wound in his shoulder.

Auum moved on, his arms still outstretched, holding the enemy blades at bay. A buckler thudded into his side and Auum twisted as he fell, turning the weight of the blow into a tumble to the left. A blade bit the ground just behind him; Auum bounced to his feet and snapped a right-footed kick around in front of him. His heel cracked into an attacker’s arm, breaking it at the elbow.