James Barclay - Rise of the TaiGethen

Auum laced cuts into his opponent. The man was quick, fending off most, his body agile, weaving aside. Auum accorded him a mote of respect. He feinted to strike high but instead dropped to his haunches and drove in low. The man was too slow. Auum’s blade slid into his groin and blood gushed from the wound.

Auum bounced back to his feet as a soldier unleashed a powerful overhead blow. Auum stepped left and sliced a cut deep into his neck. He dragged the sword clear, glanced left. The Al-Arynaar had stalled. He saw two fall as he watched.

‘Lacking sharpness,’ he muttered. ‘Fall back three!’

Across the line elves pulled back, dropping three paces from the enemy, who surged after them. Auum fenced with a strong, lean man, his twin blades frustrating his opponent. Auum let him come on.

‘Rolling back!’ called Auum. ‘Bring them on!’

Spells careered over their heads again, battering into the trees and splashing against the wooden walls, setting them aflame. Orders rang out across the enemy line and they pushed harder, their commander seeing victory in his strength of numbers.

Steadily, the elven fighters moved back. The corner of the city walls was thirty paces behind them. The human flanks pushed on and the poison archers stood ready. Arrows flashed across the open space… but not one pierced the magical shield.

Spells roared out in response, volley after volley hammering into the walls. The ranks of soldiers broke and reformed, pushing down hard on their right flank, coming closer and closer to the cliff. Auum smiled.

‘Break!’ he yelled.

He turned and ran for the blackened and burning trees, too fast to give the archers or mages a target. The humans chased after them. Auum glanced skywards in time to see two mage pairs fly high towards the head of the cliff, a warrior hanging between each pair.

‘I hope you’ve seen them, Dimuund,’ said Auum. ‘Don’t let me down.’

Auum turned again, seeing his people moving calmly back to cover, their retreat looking for all the world like a withdrawal to the city. He hurled a jaqrui at the enemy, trying to keep them on their guard, stop them from thinking too clearly. The TaiGethen followed suit.

‘Eyes on me,’ Auum called. ‘We’re nearly there.’

Humans consider themselves superior yet they cannot distinguish between the approach of a jao deer and a ClawBound pair. They have no empathy with the world that surrounds them, making them inferior to the simplest of Tual’s creatures.

Auum, Arch of the TaiGethen

Dimuund watched the battle from the crumbling cliff edge. He was afforded an unparalleled view of the battlefield and the city below and winced every time a casting wrecked another building, tore through a fire team or splashed flame across an open space. They were losing the battle.

Down in front of the city mages pounded the gates, which, with their thicker steel, were holding, but the walls to either side were beginning to give way. Stone had been blown out in patches twenty yards wide and behind them only wood remained.

Below, on the western ground, he saw Auum lead the TaiGethen in and watched the Arch’s precision and the Al-Arynaar’s power. The enemy mages continued to target the western wall. He saw the humans regroup exactly as Auum had predicted they would and move steadily towards his target zone.

‘Get ready,’ he said.

His forty Katurans picked up their hammers, iron staves and thick logs, ready to beat away the chock stones holding the boulders in place and then lever them over the edge. There had been no practice, there couldn’t be. Dimuund had to trust the design would work because there would be no second chances.

A movement caught his eye. He glanced to his left. Enemies were heading their way. Mages carrying warriors were climbing fast in the shelter of the cliff a couple of hundred yards from him.

‘Cover!’ he called. ‘Use the stones.’

Dimuund waved them all in, watching them scramble and slither over the flat stone that bordered the cliff before the forest took over once more. He doubted they could all reach adequate cover; there simply wasn’t enough of it. And as soon as they reached the cliff top, the enemy would see what was going on.

Dimuund looked down over the edge. The attackers hadn’t reached the trigger point yet. The TaiGethen and Al-Arynaar were still directly in the boulders’ path and it would be a count of a hundred until they were clear. That was about seventy too many.

‘Dammit,’ he breathed.

He moved along the line of boulders, crouching by the last one, his right foot hanging over the edge of the cliff. The enemy mages crested the cliff sixty paces from him. They flew high, high enough to see their foe and the death they were set to unleash on the army below. Dimuund heard them shout to each other and they dropped towards the ground. Both warriors and three mages landed. The fourth flashed away back over the edge and down to give warning.

Dimuund cursed. He broke cover and ran towards the enemy.

‘Prepare to drop them!’ he called over his shoulder. ‘Make it count.’

The warriors were twenty paces from him, the mages behind them preparing castings.

‘Casting!’ he shouted. ‘Watch and cover!’

Dimuund drew a blade and a jaqrui. He threw the crescent blade at the right-hand mage. A warrior’s blade sliced out and knocked it from its path. Two of the mages cast. One blue orb swept away to splash against the boulders, rocking them against their stays, and elves screamed around him. Dimuund closed his mind to their agony. The second mage thrust his hands directly at the TaiGethen and an invisible force struck him in the chest driving him back towards the cliff edge.

Dimuund’s feet slithered on the ground, finding no purchase. He was moving fast. He glanced over his shoulder. Burning elven bodies lay thrashing on the ground. One of the boulders was alive with fire. Dimuund spun himself, using the magical force as a wall. He rolled across it, sprawling to the ground as he moved past its edge.

Both warriors and two mages were running towards the Katurans as Dimuund scrambled to his feet. A mage moved his arms left, meaning to batter Dimuund over the edge of the cliff. He leapt high, feeling the edge of the casting brush the soles of his feet, grabbed a jaqrui from his belt and threw it, seeing the blade chop into the mage’s chest. The casting died.

Dimuund landed and ran. The human warriors had set about their attack. Dimuund saw an elf try to block a blow with his sledgehammer only to lose both hands to a downward strike. Another was carved across the back as he ran for cover. A third threw a knife only to see it bounce from a magical shield.

Dimuund caught the mage following the warriors and swept his blade through the man’s hamstrings. The mage collapsed forward and Dimuund drove a heel into the back of his neck and ran on. The remaining mage had seen him. He turned and cast. The orb flew straight, its heat incredible. Dimuund dived aside but the edge of the casting caught his trailing foot. He screamed, hit the ground and rolled.

The pain was extraordinary as unnatural flames wreathed his leg to the knee. Dimuund came to his feet with a grunt and ran on. The mage gaped. Dimuund dragged a hand across his throat and ripped his carotid open. Blood hissed onto the ground.

Dimuund howled, fighting unconsciousness. One of the warriors faced him but the Tai had no time to fight. He stumbled around the front edge of the boulders, the stink of his own burning flesh in his nostrils. Three boulders had been loosened and one was already rocking, ready to fall.

Dimuund seized a hammer and knocked away the stays holding a fourth boulder. He felt a terrible pain in his back and stumbled, turning and grabbing the stone for support. The human stood an arm’s length away, his sword dripping with Dimuund’s blood.