Robert Newcomb: Rise of the Blood Royal

Aside from hand-to-hand combat, azure bolts crisscrossed the battle scene, killing hundreds at a time. Explosion after explosion rocked the valley, sending dark smoke hundreds of meters into the air. Endowed archers from either side launched so many shafts that sometimes the sky went nearly black with them, each one invariably finding an enemy soldier by way of the craft.

And with the death of so many craft mystics, there soon arrived the stunning atmospheric phenomena always associated with passing of their blood and the forestallments that that blood carried. Lightning ripped across the sky and the wind howled violently, threatening to overturn Tristan and Hoshi’s barge. Tristan had seen these phenomena before, but never with such fury as this.

Wondering when his fellow Eutracians might join the fight, Tristan looked toward the southern end of the valley. To his surprise, theTammerland and theEphyra had arrived and were soaring northward, low over the valley floor. The ships must have flown over the legions guarding the southern pass, Tristan reasoned.

Even from this distance he could see his mystics’ azure bolts streaming down from the ships and tearing into the swarming legions, and he could imagine Tyranny prowling the topside of theTammerland, anxiously shouting out orders. Then he watched the ships suddenly come to a stop and hover over the green pastures south of his and Hoshi’s position. As ever more azure bolts streamed down from the Black Ships’ decks, Tristan saw his Minion phalanxes take flight to attack the nearest legionnaires. He smiled grimly as he realized that Vespasian’s troops were about to confront a new and more ruthless foe than they had ever seen before.

As the battle raged and lightning continued to tear across the heavens, Hoshi saw something that made her breath catch in her lungs. Not far from where her and Tristan’s barge hung in the sky, a host of legionnaires were running furiously toward the Bedeviler pens. Thousands of the enchanted beasts were being held there, waiting their turns to haul the stolen gold. Screaming and pawing the ground, the monsters clearly wanted to be unleashed against the flood of attacking katsugai. Hoshi knew all too well that the pens were craft constructs, their glowing azure bars impervious to even the massive Bedevilers. Only the legionnaire mystics could release the beasts, and it would happen in moments.

Hoshi again pointed downward. “There!” she shouted. “That is where you must strike next! Kill the Vagaries monsters before they can be freed!”

Without hesitation Tristan raised one hand and called down another azure meteor. With a thunderous crash it landed squarely in the center of the Bedeviler holding area. The beasts and the frantic legionnaires trying to free them simply disappeared in an eruption of earth and smoke, never to be seen again.

At Hoshi’s renewed insistence, Tristan again refrained from using his gifts. With their hearts in their throats, they anxiously waited and watched.

“DO NOT ARGUE WITH ME!” VESPASIAN SCREAMED ATPersephone. “The battle is lost! You must go while you still can!”

As the fighting raged all around them, Vespasian gripped his wife’s arms and glared into her eyes, trying to make her understand. Lucius stood faithfully beside him, he too refusing to go until his emperor did the same.

Vespasian’s legions were fighting back valiantly, and for a time he believed that they might be able to vanquish the attacking Shashidans. Even when he learned that his forces had been surrounded and that the north and south valley entrances had been breached, he clung to the hope that his legions might somehow hold out. But when he saw the first azure meteor rush down from the heavens, he knew that it could have been summoned by only one living being other than he. After quickly conferring with Lucius and Gracchus, Vespasian decided to abandon the Vallesis Majestatis and retreat homeward.

Although taking Ryoto and killing theInkai would remain dreams for another day, Vespasian had stolen enough Shashidan gold to finance the War of Attrition for centuries, perhaps longer. From the start of the campaign, the legionnaires had had standing orders that should their leaders need to flee, they would defend the portals at all costs while sending as many soldiers home to Ellistium as they could. Only when the situation was completely hopeless would they close the portals, so as to keep the hated katsugai from surging through them and invading Ellistium. Many legionnaires would die while defending the portals. Many more would die once the portals were withdrawn, their fates sealed to the seething katsugai. But to save the emperor and to ensure the safety of Ellistium, there was no other way.

Julia Idaeus and thePon Q’tar had already entered one of the azure portals, and by now they would have safely reached Ellistium. In a supreme effort of the craft, Gracchus and the otherPon Q’tar members had managed to force the entire Oraculum Tempitatium into the portal ahead of them. It had been only the will of the fates that the Rustannican hierarchy had all been away from their tents supervising the transfer of yet more stolen gold when the first of Tristan’s meteors devastated the Rustannican war compound.

Vespasian was desperate to learn Tristan’s position and respond in kind, but in the confusion not one of his legionnaires could say from where theJin’Sai was unleashing his powers. Immediately after the Rustannican rulers made their decision to flee, the gold transfers were stopped and they entered the portals. But when Vespasian told Persephone to go without him, she staunchly refused.

“What are you going to do?” Persephone screamed at Vespasian. Just then the second of Tristan’s meteors had slammed into Vespasian’s assembled legions, killing tens of thousands more.

Despite the carnage all around him, Vespasian was determined to face theJin’Sai. He had no death wish, but theJin’Sai was here in this valley slaughtering his troops with abandon. Another chance to kill him such as this one might never come again. After Vespasian had seen to it that his advisors and Persephone had been safely sent home, he was determined to do what no one else could. He would remain behind for as long as possible and attack theJin’Sai in kind. Knowing that he had little time, he turned to look at Lucius.

“You are my most trusted friend!” he shouted. “Trust me one more time and do as I order you! Take my wife and go!”

Lucius looked into Vespasian’s eyes with a mixture of respect and fear for his old friend. After shaking his head angrily, he finally relented.

“Very well!” he shouted. “Do what you must, but you cannot allow yourself to fall into Shashidan hands!”

Vespasian heartily slapped his forearm against Lucius’ and grasped it not as an emperor to a tribune, but as one legionnaire to another.

“Thank you,” he said simply.

He then turned to look at his wife. “My love, forgive me,” he said.

The swift blow that Vespasian delivered to Persephone’s chin was enough to render her unconscious, but not so powerful as to do her permanent harm. As she crumpled, Vespasian caught her in his arms. He could have used the craft to subdue her, he realized, but she would surely have fought him in kind, wasting valuable time. After kissing her on the cheek, he handed her over to Lucius.

“Go!” he commanded.

Knowing that he had no other choice, with Persephone in his arms Lucius turned and ran as fast as he could toward one of the hugely swirling portals. After turning to give his emperor a final look, he stepped into the portal, and he and Persephone were gone.

Vespasian immediately ran to where his chariot stood waiting. Snatching the reins from his horse handler, he slapped them across the stallions’ rumps and headed straight for the worst of the fighting. If he was to find theJin’Sai he must reach his legion scouts, for only they might know from where Tristan was launching his powers.