They all ducked behind the wide boles of the trees Beeth provided. Auum felt the heat of approaching castings. The ground vibrated with multiple impacts which scorched and ruined the farmland between the trees and the walls. Orbs were landing not twenty paces from them at the corner of the walls. Auum tensed.
‘You have to get under their arcs,’ said Auum. ‘Don’t give them the chance to adjust their aim.’
Satisfied with the destruction, the enemy moved forward again. Auum counted fifty paces before they stopped, bringing them to within a hundred yards of the walls and the edge of the burned ground. Spells ceased to fall on the walls for fear of striking their own.
‘Stand by,’ said Auum.
The human mages opened their hands to cast.
‘Break!’
TaiGethen and Al-Arynaar stormed from cover, running hard across the still-burning ground, their feet kissing ember, ash and flame. Tulan led the Al-Arynaar down the centre. TaiGethen flanked them, meaning to break around the sword line and get at the mages if they could.
Auum held himself in check, keeping pace with Ulysan and Faleen’s cell on one side and those of Merke and Quillar on the other. They moved to the enemy’s right flank as spells roared overhead. Auum ducked, hearing a splintering impact among the trees. It was followed by dozens more.
He saw bows bristle behind the front line. No warning was necessary. Elven warriors broke formation, scattering wide, crouching low and angling their runs. A volley sped towards them. Auum ducked a shaft, and heard one thud home. An Al-Arynaar tumbled to the ground near him, clutching his thigh.
The enemy soldiers stood.
‘Jaqrui!’ called Auum. ‘Away!’
Crescent blades wailed across the lessening space, bouncing harmlessly from magical shields, though they still made every soldier within the volley’s arc throw his arms up to defend himself. Moments later, the elven line crashed against them.
Auum beat one blade into a soldier’s gut and hacked his other down onto another’s helm, knocking him cold. Ulysan and Faleen filled in around him. Ulysan’s hands, quick as ever, flattened the nose of his target and tore out his throat. Faleen’s feet swept the legs from under her enemy and her blade pierced his heart.
To Auum’s left, the Al-Arynaar moved in. Moving with less speed and more power, they found a wall of capable swordsmen in front of them. Tulan called for the elves to hold firm and the Al-Arynaar closed ranks. Blows were exchanged. Human voices called orders and the enemy’s flanks began to move in.
‘Good,’ said Auum. ‘TaiGethen, flow!’
Merrat picked up his cry. The TaiGethen spread across the face of the army, each warrior looking only to himself. Ulysan shouldered into his target and drove a blade into his gut. Faleen jumped, kicked out left and right, landed and roundhoused a dazed human, sending him clattering sideways into his comrades.
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.’
Chapter 34
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.
