‘You have got to be joking,’ snapped Auum. ‘He’s given you mages? Human mages? I can’t believe this. I can’t believe that even you would be so… so naive.’
Takaar’s face clouded with anger. ‘These mages are with us. They are twenty-five-strong and they want him gone as much as we do.’
‘And why do you think that is?’ shouted Auum, grabbing Takaar’s collar and pulling him nose to nose. ‘So they can lord over us afterwards! You are repeating Llyron’s mistakes. You’re as arrogant as Sildaan and I will not let you do this to us.’
Auum threw Takaar back. He did not stumble but came forward again, his eyes locking with Auum’s and his expression clear and complete, without a hint of his madness.
‘Without them we cannot hope to drive Ystormun away. We can’t defeat his magic without having some of our own.’ Takaar spread his hands. ‘Auum, you must believe me. You must trust me. Look at how few you are and remember what Ystormun did to Katyett. Without magic to aid us, he can do the same to all of us and will be free to continue his domination. For Katyett’s memory, for Pelyn and Elyss, you must trust me. I am not a traitor.’
Auum hated it right into the depths of his soul but he knew Takaar was right. He’d known they would need help all along but he’d managed to persuade himself that the Il-Aryn would somehow be strong enough in time.
‘Yniss forgive me,’ he said. ‘All right. You have your wish. Just keep them away from me and tell them that if one of them so much as twitches the wrong way, the TaiGethen will slaughter them in a heartbeat. You tell them that.’
‘They already know,’ said Takaar.
Auum turned to his people.
‘Let’s go,’ he said. ‘This ends tonight.’
The gates of Ysundeneth were shut. A trio of guards stood atop them, staring out into the night and the din of the rainforest. Theirs was the simplest of duties; any trouble visited upon them would be preceded by trouble on the Ultan bridge. But the mages on the bridge belonged to Stein and they had undone every ward protecting it, and the bridge guards had never known what hit them.
Auum moved silently beneath the gates. He motioned Ulysan to his left and Merrat to his right. They climbed fast and silent. Above them the guards talked and laughed and their fire crackled away happily. Auum signalled. Three TaiGethen hands reached up, three throats were slit and three bodies dumped to the ground in front of the gates.
Auum dropped into the city. The singing he had heard a few hours before had subsided and the slaves were quiet, sleeping if they could. Ulysan and Merrat unbolted the gates and edged them open a crack to allow the TaiGethen and the Apposans into the city. Behind them came Takaar with five human mages.
‘The wards are gone at the pens?’ he asked Takaar.
‘Yes, and Stein’s mages have gone too. Any you find there are enemies.’
Auum looked at the mages with Takaar.
‘Your friends are all going to die,’ he said.
‘They are not our friends,’ said one.
‘A pity,’ said Auum. ‘Tais, to the boatyards. Boltha, bring your people too. I have a promise to keep.’
Auum didn’t trust the human mages and he kept the advance into the city slow, quiet and careful. Patrols were few and weak, just pairs or trios of soldiers with no idea what was stalking through the streets they thought their own. None of them would live once they found out.
Takaar directed them through the yards to the perimeter of the compound holding Koel and thousands of other prisoners. Auum breathed the fetid air and for the first time it tasted of victory and of freedom. He sent a prayer to Elyss and his child in the arms of Shorth and waved his Tais forward.
Six guards stood by the gates, all oblivious to their peril. Takaar came to Auum’s shoulder.
‘Are the wards gone?’ asked Auum.
‘Every single one. I told you to trust me.’
‘Not until Ystormun is dead,’ said Auum. ‘Merrat, Graf, Merke, take the three on the left. Ulysan, Marack, with me. Tais, we move.’
Koel was afraid. He lay wedged on the floor between two others for his time of rest but could not sleep. They had sung loud and fervent tonight, and the messages their songs carried had been relayed to every pen in the city. Koel had long prayed for the elves to prevail, and there had come a moment a couple of days earlier when he was certain his wish had been granted.
The doors to their warehouse had been shut and barred, the elves crammed inside with only the food and water they already had. To Koel, that meant the TaiGethen had won and were coming to liberate their peoplem, but now, on this third night, with hunger and thirst threatening to take the weak to Shorth, he had begun to doubt.
He knew human workers had been arriving. Perhaps there were many more than they had feared and their imprisonment would continue until the human army returned. That evening Koel had decided that they must try and break out themselves, and so he was afraid.
He must have slipped into sleep because he saw a shape above him and he heard Auum’s voice.
‘I said you would be the first, my friend, and so it has proved to be. Come, stand with me, Koel, hero of Ysundeneth. You and your people are free.’
In truth, most of Auum’s words were lost in the explosion of noise all around him as the elves woke to the fact that the TaiGethen were among them. They screamed and shrieked and surged for the doors, threatening to sweep Koel away, but the TaiGethen held him firmly and the liberated elves flowed around them and away into the night.
‘The mob will do what it must. Our role is to open all the pens and come to the temple piazza,’ shouted Auum.
‘I’ll lead,’ said Koel. ‘Enough will follow me.’
‘You have friends outside,’ said Auum. ‘Boltha is here.’
Koel burst into tears and hugged Auum hard.
‘That old dog,’ he sobbed. ‘Will he never die? Thank you, Auum. Thank you.’
‘Let’s see this done,’ said Auum. ‘Beware of Ystormun and his guard; they are still dangerous.’
He and Koel walked from the pen together and through the gates to freedom. Koel was shaking and his legs gave way beneath him when he caught sight of Boltha. Auum left them together and rejoined the TaiGethen. The streets of Ysundeneth were alive with the sounds of elves. Their cries of joy mixed with howls of fury. In there somewhere were the screams of dying men.
‘Five thousand will become thirty thousand,’ said Auum to the TaiGethen. ‘And they will sweep this place clean of men’s filth. Come, the piazza awaits.’
‘We should direct them,’ said Ulysan. ‘Keep them from danger.’
Auum shook his head. ‘This is their night, not ours. The mob has its own mind and will find its way.’
The TaiGethen moved swiftly towards the piazza amid the sounds of the city coming alive to a riot. Fresh roars signalled the release of more slaves. They saw the arcs of spells, but they were desultory and never cast from the same place twice. The mob did indeed have a mind of its own and it was circling the city, heading to the barracks area on its way to the piazza to face its greatest tormentor.
Auum saw soldiers and mages retreating to the piazza, trying to regroup in the only place of power left to them. Soon Stein’s mages would have to prove their mettle. It was the only worry left to Auum, but he found to his surprise that he trusted Takaar… So make that two concerns, because of the mad elf himself there was no sign.
Auum brought the TaiGethen around to the west of the piazza, where wards had once clung to the sides of temples in dense clusters and had covered the alleys like mould on damp walls. He stopped behind the temple of Orra, and motioned the TaiGethen away.
‘It’s time to see if Takaar was right,’ he said, and before they could protest, he slapped his hand against the wood and began to climb. No fire reached out to scorch his flesh. ‘Looks like he was. Follow me.’
The TaiGethen hid among the carvings and plinths that adorned the Orran temple and looked down on the piazza. The desecration that man had visited on the temples was awful. Graffiti covered every wall, carvings were missing, the spire of the Ixii was gone and the temple of Yniss had been completely destroyed.
Auum tried to concentrate on the ground. Soldiers covered the approach from the Path of Yniss ten deep and
