confronted him at the foot of Handar's tower.
Without delay, the lobster-red devils opened their mouths into wide ovals; from each belched forth balls of fire that energized the air into incandescence as they passed. The first hit two of Grak's men squarely on their leather-covered backs. With screams of surprise and showers of glowing embers, they immediately crumpled to the ground and were still. Bandor's men rushed forward into the gap.
Alodar swung his glass back to where he had last seen the wizards. He saw Handar coming his way, pulling the long hems of his robe high from the ground. To the east, another wizard hastily extended the telescoped legs of a portable tripod he had swung from his back. With practiced precision, he lit a fire in the wildly swinging brazier. A demonic form appeared, hovering in the air overhead. The wizard gestured once, and the djinn leaped skyward, deforming like a scarf of sheerest silk and creating a howling wind with his passage.
The wind buffeted at the fireballs as they sped on their deadly trajectories, and small wisps of flame tore away from the glowing spheres. Then whole balls blew out, leaving dark, carbon black cores bare and cool. With a dull thump, they struck leather backs and fell harmlessly to the ground.
The wizard remaining in the center completed his conjuring, and Alodar saw more of the fire devils spring into existence. These bellowed globules of flame like the ones their cousins lofted from the Crestline to the south but they rode on the air with the slow beat of thick pockmarked wings. Great, gaping holes tore through the swarm of imps, leaving small amorphous smears of crackling ooze, slowly sinking to the ground. The flight from the line halted, but the defenders wavered, still fearful of the attacks which came from the rear and uncertain of the aid which had come to help them.
Suddenly a series of flashes and explosions erupted from the stone firepit on the southern crest. Sparkles of light soared skyward, and from each sprang a djinn to join in the fray. A form like a salamander, purple skin glistening with wetness, soared above the rest, his body-length tail slowly uncoiling to reveal rows of stiletto-sharp stingers attached at either side. In immediate answer, three smaller djinns streaked from the north, gliding with undulating membranes stretched between outflung arms and legs. From small knobs on their heads, bolts of lightning cracked through the air, converging on the purple one with a web of forked energy. But before the accompanying thunder could reach the ground, the salamander flicked his tail forward, drawing the strike onto his stingers and cascading the energy down to the tip of his tail, which began to glow with an expanding ball of crackling blueness.
More unearthly forms sped across the valley, and each was met by a demon conjured by the wizards on the northern slopes. Streaks of energy pulsed through the air, and Alodar was forced to turn his eyes away from the intense flashes. Up and down the ragged battleline, strokes of pink and orange and bolts of deep magenta ripped through the sky. While men below stood dumbfounded, a second battle formed above, fire, wind, and water hurling with awesome force between the foes. Moving too fast for the eye to follow, the demons darted past one another, blasting forth their weapons, dodging behind defenses that men could not comprehend and drowning all the shouts below with their raspy cries.
Minutes passed as the battle raged and Alodar saw a second swarm of imps swoop down to replace the first roasted out of the sky. More volleys of fire devils zoomed overhead and began to project their balls of flame. Alodar looked to the two wizards, surrounded by concentric rings of exotic flames, gesticulating wildly, and trying to direct all the demons under then' control. He searched for Handar and saw him only some ten yards away, raising his hands upwards before the beginnings of an outline in the center of a high-leaping flame. Alodar ran forward to the wizard as the orange head and massive form slowly took form. The cloven hooves and tail flickered into existence as he reached Handar's side.
'So, Handar, the battle goes not quite so well as you had hoped,' Balthazar's voice rasped out at them. 'For no long stretch of time did your meager forces hold at bay Bandor and his minions. Too soon did you call forth those lesser devils over which you have some sway. It is time, is it not, to let down your waning resistance and let me assume control of what is rightfully mine.'
'Silence.' Handar ordered. 'Such speculation is not for your slothful meditation, so long as you are mine. There is work to be done. Rise and dispatch those who oppose us.'
'Can you truly force me yet another time?' Balthazar shot back, his deep set eyes boiling down on the wizard standing before him.
Handar did not reply. With lips set firmly and fists clenched, he returned the demon's stare with an unflinching one of his own. As in the tower, Alodar saw the veins in Handar's forehead bulge with the effort.
'Go and do my bidding,' Handar gasped in a dry wheeze at last, shaking with effort as he spoke. 'The line here on the west. Rid them of the devils which bombard their backs with fire.'
'I go to slay a few,' Balthazar growled. 'But if there is more to be done, then I will return, and you must reinstruct me.'
With a rush of air, Balthazar streaked away, soaring high over the battlefield and then plummeting to earth with hands outstretched as he darted into the fire devils, smashing them out of existence with sharp claps of power. 'Handar, what is the matter?' Alodar asked as the demon departed. 'It is not as it was in the tower.'
The wizard sank slowly to the ground and pressed one fist to his sagging head. 'So many, there are so many,' he moaned. 'Who of the council would have thought that they would come across with so many? It is not only Balthazar on whom I must concentrate but the minor djinns as well.'
Before Alodar could speak again, Balthazar screamed across the slope to hover above them. 'I rid you of four,' he said. 'Do you wish to try to direct me to another task?'
Handar climbed to his feet and stared again at the demon above him. With glowering menace, Balthazar hunched his huge scaly shoulders and looked back at his master.
Minutes passed and Handar trembled from the exertion to impress his will as he had done before. Suddenly he brought both clenched fists to his forehead and screamed in pain. 'I cannot hold,' he yelled. 'He is too strong and I cannot hold.'
Balthazar rasped a stomach-curdling laugh. 'On your knees and salute your master,' the demon cried. 'It has taken many a summoning, but the final victory is mine.'
Alodar looked rapidly about. The defending demons were fewer in number and huddled as shields around the two wizards on the ground. Like great hawks, the djinns from the south dove and blasted those that remained from the sky. Additional clouds of imps appeared from the south, and no devils rose to challenge them. More fireballs slammed into the rear of the nomads, leaving gaps too wide for a single blade to guard. The salient on the west expanded, and the line of barbarians tumbled backwards, letting them pass. Cedric's forces sagged in the center. More and more left the line to slap away at the darting imps. For a moment, Cedric's booming commands held the formation, but then columns of Bandor's men blasted through in two places. To the east, more fire devils flew through the sky, and the smell of burning flesh and leather drifted along the line. At the far end of the other flank, Alodar saw some of the horsemen thunder past Feston's few remaining defenders and swerve to the north, heading for the clumps of onlookers on the crest.
In ones and twos, men began to fling down their weapons and run from those who chased them. Then, like a dam crumbling from an overwhelming flood, Cedric's line collapsed from end to end, and a solid wall of Bandor's forces charged forth, waving their swords and shouting victory. Here and there, isolated clumps of men stood their ground, flicking swords outwards at the warriors who swelled to surround them on all sides. But, except for them, the entire defense dissolved in confusion.
Alodar stood rooted in position, watching the cavalry charge up the hill. He took one last look at the havoc as Bandor's army hacked its way forward. His marines still struggled with Bandor's horsemen on the ground. He looked across the other crest and saw it clear of men and the huge stone firepit silent and dimly glowing. He touched the pocket containing the wire he had beaten from the rare metal. He knew that he could forestall his task no longer.
'I shall use the portal the prince has erected to send his minions to us,' he said aloud. 'Perhaps the gesture will symbolize more strength than we have.'
Alodar shook his head and sprinted to the west, hoping to duck into the shimmering air before any of Bandor's men turned to cut him down.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
