Juliet McKenna - Western Shore

Incongruous among the consternation spreading through the village spearmen, Naldeth chuckled. A glow of ochre light spread through broken ground and the

powdery soil turned solid once again. The magic raced away down the slope and spread across the valley. The tree dwellers retreated apprehensively and Kheda saw they were right to be concerned. The sand of the dry stream bed swirled around them like water, ripples spreading. Soon they were sinking up to their knees. Ripples grew into steeper peaks, breaking with a spume of dust and surging mercilessly over the tree dwellers like a stormy sea.

As one man flailed frantically, he splashed the man next to him with great gouts of dirt that filled his eyes and mouth. Choking, the unfortunate clawed at his face, losing his own struggle to stay afloat. As he sank, he clutched at the nearest man, only to drag him down too. Both vanished beneath the flowing soil. Some had the presence of mind not to struggle, trying to float on the shallow waves of fluid earth, the boldest even using their spears as makeshift paddles.

'There he is.' The young wizard wasn't looking at the tree dwellers drowning in the sand. All his attention was focused on a solitary figure emerging from the shadows on the far bank.

The tree-dwellers' mage gestured wildly, his beaded cloak flapping. For an instant, there was silence in the valley. Then the surviving tree dwellers fought their way free of the clinging sand and ran back towards their wizard, pursued by the jeers of the village spearmen.

'Let's see what you make of this,' Naldeth murmured.

A surge of white water thick with broken timber and other detritus crashed down the valley. The flood drove ragged boulders to carve new channels, unearthing the bodies of tree dwellers overwhelmed by Naldeth's first spell. Those still alive and too slow to reach the far bank were unable to resist the torrent sweeping them away downstream towards the wide river bisecting the grassy plain.

The wild wizard strode forward, making throwing motions with his hands. Fissures gaped and gulped down the flood. Stream-tossed rocks ripped themselves from the mud to hurl themselves at Naldeth, shattering into a shower of lethal fragments as they came close. The young mage raised a hand to draw an arc of amber radiance over his head that spread in a flash to cover all the exposed spearmen. The rain of broken stones came thicker and faster, only to bounce off the magelight and rebound from tree to tree with dangerous speed.

'Kheda!' Risala pointed and the warlord saw that the tree-dwellers' warriors had regrouped and were making their way back across the muddy stream bed while the village spearmen could only cower beneath Naldeth's magic.

Kheda looked up at the amber shield. 'Can I fire through this?' he shouted urgently.

Naldeth didn't answer. Abruptly the hail of stones ceased. In the next breath, Naldeth's shield blinked away. Village spearmen raced down the slope to join battle with the foremost tree dwellers. With the enemy coated with mud and sand, it was impossible to tell friend from foe.

'I daren't fire anywhere close to that melee with this bow,' Risala spat with frustration.

As he looked in vain for the tree-dwellers' wizard, movement out on the stream bed caught Kheda's eye. He gaped and swallowed hard. 'Shoot that!'

'But he's already dead.' Risala stared in horrified disbelief.

The broken corpse of a tree dweller had staggered to its feet. The man's face was crushed to an anonymous ruin and the lower half of one arm had been torn away. As Kheda watched, the bones brightened with amber magic and lengthened into lethal spikes. The bones of the corpse's other hand burst through his dark fingers, curling

into murderous claws. A second body lurched upright. Magelight shimmered around his head and his skull reshaped itself into a deadly maw somewhere between a terrible bird's beak and a lizard's crushing bite.

Risala's bowstring thrummed beside Kheda. He fired too. The white-fletched arrows both bit deep. Neither walking corpse flinched, or veered from their determined path towards the combat now spreading across the stream bed. Magelight flickered around more bodies, forging still more vile creations. All the village spearmen were charging down the slope now, shouting reassurance to their fellows and menace to their enemies.

'Wait!' Kheda shouted fruitlessly.

Only the scarred spearman halted, looking back.

Kheda ripped the hacking blade from his double-looped sword belt and tossed it down the slope. The spearman grinned and scrambled back up to get it before racing down into the fight with a blood-curdling yell.

'Kheda—' Risala choked with horror.

The first dead tree dweller had come up behind a village spearman who was intent on dodging a foe's crushing club. The corpse drove its bone claws deep into the village man's back, ripping out bloody handfuls of flesh. The man fell, writhing and screaming, as the monstrous corpse stepped over him to attack the next spearman. The village warrior drove his long spike of fire-hardened wood clean through the misshapen thing. It simply kept walking, the spear sliding through its body as it reached out gory talons to rip away the man's face.

'Naldeth!' Kheda found the breath frozen in his throat as the village spearman who had just died reared back up onto his feet. Dark ochre light racked the dead man, wrenching him this way and that. White bone shot out through his chest and back as his ribs thrust outwards, covering him in deadly spines. The corpse reached for a

man who had just been fighting at his side and crushed him in a lacerating embrace.

'All right, Kheda, there are some evils that must be stopped.' All the young wizard's attention was concentrated on his outstretched hand. His unsheathed dagger stood upright, balanced on its pommel, slowly spinning. The steel blade burned with a searing gold that rivalled the sun.

'What are you going to do with that?' With the vivid outline of the dagger still scarring his vision, Kheda saw the tree-dwellers' wizard standing on the far bank. He blinked and knuckled his eyes.

No, my eyes aren 't playing tricks on me.

One of the great trees on the far side of the dry valley was tilting drunkenly. It began to topple slowly over, silently, with no sound of snapping roots or breaking branches to betray it. The wild wizard was oblivious, all his attention consumed by the burning metal still balanced on Naldeth's palm. The ensorcelled blade was spinning so fast it was a blur.

Kheda saw with relief that the degraded corpses the wild wizard had driven into battle had fallen back down, quite dead - for the moment, at least. He braced himself as the ground throbbed beneath his feet. Risala dropped to one knee, still looking for some target for her ready arrow. The throbbing became a low pulsing noise and grew louder, rapidly building to a physical torment. Kheda found himself fighting violent nausea and a swelling, inexorable dread.

Tears of pure terror streamed down Risala's face, her hands trembling so much she couldn't have hit any target even if her numbed fingers had managed to loose her arrow.

The whole fight down on the stream bed had broken into confusion. The village spearmen were fleeing, scrambling

over the fallen trees or cowering, hands covering their ears, clubs and spears abandoned. The archers had thrown away their bows. The tree dwellers were faring no better. Several of the wild men had collapsed, vomiting. Others were curled like animals on the ground, hiding their heads in their arms, knees drawn up, heedless of any enemy. The pulsing noise went on, unrelenting.

'Naldeth—' Kheda choked on bile flooding his mouth as the tormenting sound rose to a new pitch. He threw away his makeshift bow and wrapped his arms around Risala, as if his own body might protect her from whatever catastrophic magic was about to engulf them.