James Barclay - Rise of the TaiGethen

Auum dived right, rolling around his shoulders and back on his feet in a moment. Two warriors disabled. Elyss jabbed a blade into the gut of a third guarding the mages and ran forward towards those readying a casting. Malaar was caught up fencing with two more. He was not going to break through fast enough.

‘Uly-’

The barrel-chested Tai soared over Auum’s head and landed right in front of Auum’s two remaining attackers. Auum ran to his left. Ulysan aimed a roundhouse kick at the head of one, smashing his arm and buckler up into his temple as he tried to defend himself. The second struck down at Ulysan’s open flank. Auum’s blade came down, severing his arm at the wrist. He screamed and looked round in time to catch Auum’s second strike in his mouth and through the back of his neck.

Ulysan needed no invitation. He ran after Elyss, straight at the mages, and blood misted the air. Those that were not downed in the next few moments split and ran.

‘See them away!’ shouted Auum.

He swung about. Faleen’s body was at right angles to her attacker, her leg straight out and high, pinning him to a banyan with her foot in his throat. He was eviscerated by Wirann’s blade. Acclan led his Tai against a knot of six soldiers defending a group of mages who didn’t see Illast’s Tai advancing on them from the rear.

Acclan threw a jaqrui. It thudded home into a warrior’s thigh. He did not break stride, instead leading a charge directly towards Acclan’s cell. With their bucklers held before them as battering rams and their blades cocked to stab out straight, the humans raced into battle.

‘Evade!’ Acclan yelled.

He leapt straight up, grabbing a trailing vine to hasten his rise above their attackers’ heads. To his left, Tiiraj threw himself to the side and was on his way up almost as soon as he hit the ground. But to his right, Gyneev had not reacted fast enough. He was caught by a flailing arm as he moved, a buckler catching him on the side of the head and knocking him senseless against a palm trunk.

Auum roared a panther’s warning call and sprinted to his defence. He was just ten paces away. Acclan landed behind the group, turning towards his fallen Tai. Tiiraj dragged her blade through one man’s leg and charged at the mages. Illast’s cell raced in. Auum looked up as he ran, seeing Tiiraj fly into the attack. In turn, Auum threw a jaqrui at the warrior nearest Gyneev, distracting him for a critical moment.

Mages cast.

Illast and his Tai were picked up and hurled backwards into the forest by the blast. Auum jumped into the space before Gyneev, fielding a blow on one blade. Warriors came at him from either side. Acclan came too but he alone would not be enough to make a difference.

‘Acclan. Mages,’ ordered Auum.

Three warriors were on top of Auum already. He cracked a low kick into the knee of one and blocked the downward strike of another with his left blade. This stabbed out, slicing the same man’s side and drawing blood. But the third dodged around him and plunged his blade to the hilt into Gyneev’s back as the young TaiGethen struggled to regain his feet.

Auum’s fury was unbound. ‘Coward!’

He landed a kick in the man’s chest, sending him sprawling back. Auum swung right and lashed a blade into the wounded warrior’s face. The third aimed a blow but never landed it. Malaar’s foot connected with the base of his neck, killing him instantly.

Auum turned on Gyneev’s murderer. The man was backing away, suddenly alone in a sea of TaiGethen with blood on his hands. Behind him, Acclan and Tiiraj slaughtered the mages that had not turned to run. He saw Faleen race past towards Illast and his fallen cell, ready to defend them from the warriors still loose in the forest. Auum paced forward.

‘No TaiGethen kills a worthy foe with a blow to the back,’ he said.

His left blade whipped out, slicing the soldier’s face open from forehead to chin.

‘No TaiGethen disrespects an adversary who has honour.’

His right blade crashed down on the man’s buckler, ruining his forearm.

‘No TaiGethen will henceforth see a worthy foe in man, nor can any of you achieve honour.’

Auum’s blades switched in front of him and the man’s sword arm was severed at the shoulder and his throat cut — but not fatally. The soldier was shaking with pain, shock and terror. His death was in his eyes. Not yet.

‘I am Auum. I am Arch of the TaiGethen. And if you survive the journey back to your army, tell them this: not one of them will emerge from this forest alive. You are travelling to the gates of a place you would term hell, and we will torment each of your souls on its way.

‘You cannot defeat us, you can only fear us and fall before us. We are the elves. The forest is ours.’

Auum swivelled and planted a straight kick into the warrior’s face, smashing his nose across one cheek.

‘Run. And may Tual’s denizens feast on your blood and flesh before your death takes you screaming to Shorth.’

The warrior stumbled away, his heaving cries already beginning to reverberate through the forest.

‘Auum, it is done,’ said Ulysan. ‘The rest are scattering back towards the main column.’

Auum turned. The fight was won, but at too high a cost. Gyneev was dead. Acclan and his Tai would be injured at best. The elven work party was bunched together a hundred paces away, their axes and shovels abandoned where they had dropped them to run to relative safety.

‘Ulysan, find Faleen and report on Acclan. Illast, your Tai has fallen. Prepare his body and we will pray for him when we are safe. Elyss, report back to me with injuries. We need to tend to those we can. This is just the beginning.’

The ground was scattered with bodies. Auum counted thirteen mages and twenty warriors whose bodies would be left for Tual’s denizens to reclaim for the glory of the forest. Auum moved among them. He signalled a Tai to him; Hassek of Faleen’s cell.

‘Take anything of use from the bodies.’

Auum walked towards the elven work party. Malaar and Wirann were ahead of him. The liberated elves shrank away, putting up their hands to warn the TaiGethen away. Auum frowned and picked up his pace.

‘What’s wrong?’ he asked.

‘They’re frightened,’ said Wirann. ‘Telling us we must not touch them.’

‘It’s all right,’ Malaar was saying. ‘We’re here to help you.’

But they continued to back off. Most were standing now, shouting that it was a trap and they would all die.

‘No one can hurt you now,’ said Auum, sheathing his swords. ‘Calm yourselves. You’re free. There is no trap but the one we have sprung ourselves. You are slaves no more.’

Malaar was laughing. Wirann’s smile was sympathetic and warm. After so long in captivity, who could blame them for believing every word their captors told them? One of the elves stumbled over an exposed root and fell onto his rump. Wirann reached out to grab his arm.

Auum felt a dread chill spread all over him. Something Malaar had said, something about a single casting on the elves.

‘Wirann!’ he screamed. ‘No!’

Wirann touched the elf’s arm and the forest turned to blue fire.

I was always taught that being able to face your enemy is the prime requisite in choosing whether or not to fight him. The trouble is that when fighting the TaiGethen in the rainforest, you don’t get to face them and you don’t get to choose whether to fight or not. It’s best just to make sure you have a comfortable place to fall when you die.

Reminiscences of an Old Soldie r, by Garan, sword master of Ysundeneth (retired)

Heat and roaring and screaming and burning.

Auum rolled onto his back and opened his eyes. He was surrounded by blue tinged with yellow and blown through with thickening smoke. Magical fire gorging on precious trees and…