Beyond the Mists of Katura

Chapter 23

Auum woke to a bleak morning. When he opened his eyes, all he could see were the towering peaks of the Blackthorne Mountains and he wondered what madness had possessed him to think they could climb them at all, let alone at the speed they needed to.

‘It always looks worse from a prone position,’ said Ulysan.

Auum took the proffered hand and let himself be hauled upright. He brushed himself down and stretched away a few aches left from his uncomfortable bed on the rough grass. All around him people were waking up. TaiGethen stretched, prayed and practised some moves; mages and Il-Aryn sighed or frowned, unhappy to have opened their eyes to this reality.

‘How are we doing?’ asked Auum.

‘Not so well,’ said Ulysan. ‘Come and see.’

Walking across a slight slope towards the stream edge where they had tried to make the wounded more comfortable, Auum saw Julatsan elves in the sky, monitoring the forest for enemies. Ahead, he saw bodies being laid out for reclamation while others were being tended, healed with spells as far as that was possible and given water and food.

Auum sent a silent prayer to Shorth as he walked among the bodies, each one a further blow to his will. He had known some would die, but they had fought so hard to live that he had allowed himself false hope. Five TaiGethen had gone to Shorth’s embrace along with eight Il-Aryn and ten Julatsan elves. He could hear crying and whispered laments for the dead.

Faleen was kneeling over the body of one of her Tai, the youngster Illyan. His head was scorched black and red and he had been blinded by fire. His injuries had been so severe the only help the mages could give him was relief from pain. Auum put his hand on her shoulder and she looked round, gripping it with one of hers. It was burned and blistered on the back too. Her eyes were moist, though she had known this was coming.

‘He never once cried out, never asked for anything but a little water. Look at what happened to him; he didn’t even have the chance to defend himself. This isn’t right, Auum.’

‘Have you slept?’

She shook her head and smiled. ‘No, I stayed with him, describing what I could see and remembering the rainforest with him. He said he could smell banyan and panther, and he died just as the sun crested the horizon. I think he could sense it, he was waiting for it. Yniss bless him but he was so good, so quick.’

‘He and all of our fallen will be avenged, and those enemy souls we send to Shorth will suffer eternal torment for their crimes. You’re with me, aren’t you, Faleen? I need you.’

Faleen nodded and stood, Auum helping her to her feet.

‘What do you need me to do?’

‘Stay with him if you want to,’ said Auum.

‘No, he’s gone, and we need to move. I have spoken all the prayers. He is with Shorth now.’

‘Yniss makes you strong, Faleen. We need to organise the wounded and get them away from here, back to Julatsa. We saved a team of horses and a cart, so they can ride in that. We also spared a couple of cavalry horses for those able to ride but the rest were bled out overnight. Marack and Thrynn’s Tais are butchering them for our journey.

‘Can you oversee the wounded? Take whoever you need and get them to the cart and away. Every moment they are here makes me more nervous. If the humans attack, we won’t be able to save them.’

‘Consider it done,’ said Faleen.

Auum embraced her then trotted away with Ulysan to find Stein. He was speaking to Grafyrre and the two of them were staring up at the mountains. They had an hour or so’s walk into the steepening foothills before the first true mountain slope would have to be tackled.

‘You have a route?’ asked Auum.

‘It doesn’t look too taxing,’ said Ulysan.

Both Grafyrre and Stein eyed him coldly before Grafyrre spoke.

‘It’s a difficult ascent for the first part. There’ll be handholds for a TaiGethen and mages can fly but as for the Il-Aryn. .’

‘We’ll just have to help them through it,’ said Auum.

‘How much warm clothing do you have?’ asked Stein. ‘It’s going to be very cold up there.’

‘Mother Ulysan made us all bring cloaks,’ said Auum.

‘And how wise I am,’ he said.

‘Occasionally you score a hit,’ said Grafyrre. ‘We’re going to need as much clothing as we can carry in our packs along with the horsemeat and water. The dead don’t need their clothes or boots, Auum.’

Auum nodded. ‘Do what you must.’

‘Really cold,’ said Stein. ‘So cold you cannot grip with your fingers or speak because the muscles in your mouth refuse to frame words. It’s a cold that gets into your bones and makes you shiver so violently you fall over. You will be so cold that if you can’t find shelter, it will kill you.’

‘So what’s your point?’ said Ulysan, that boyish smile on his face.

‘What’s the coldest you’ve ever been? I wonder. Beyond castings, I’d wager you’ve never seen ice and certainly not snow. I guess you’ve never even seen a frost, and we get those here from time to time and run to our fires and warm our toes. Up there it is forty times colder and there will be no fires. You have to know this because the cold will make your people start to stray in their minds, and you have to keep them focused or they will die.’

‘Do you think we can do this?’ asked Auum.

‘Anything is possible and mages can cast warmth up to a point. I know elves are sturdy and determined. But this will be beyond your experience and you must be wary of it. The cold can kill. One slip and you’re done.’

‘Thank you, Stein. I’ll speak to everyone individually when we are on our way. Graf, get the old heads to make sure no one leaves any clothing behind, all right?’

Grafyrre nodded. Auum took another suspicious glance at the blank mountain slopes before tracking away a mile or so with Ulysan to take a look back at the woodland. He could see the glow of fires within and smoke rising above the trees and dispersing into the sky.

‘What will they do?’ asked Ulysan.

‘They were here to kill us. They’re still here, so I’d be surprised if they didn’t come for us again.’

‘We should ready ourselves then.’

‘Not this time, Ulysan. We can’t afford to lose any more people. We have to focus on getting away.’

‘What’s up?’ asked Ulysan.

‘What do you mean?’

‘Well you can’t sit still. You’re biting your lip, fidgeting and curling your toes inside your boots. It’s like you’re impersonating Takaar.’

‘Am I? Sorry, I had no idea.’

‘So, tell Mother Ulysan what’s on your mind.’

Auum sighed out a breath. ‘Stein’s right. This is madness.’

‘That’s not quite what he said.’

‘It’s what he meant, and he knows this country. It’s just. .’ Auum trailed off, fighting for the words while he fought a wave of hopelessness. ‘Time is against us. We are so few and we have so far to go. It’s so hard to see a path to victory and Yniss knows my prayers are fervent. I can’t think straight in this wilderness, and I need you to tell me when I’m going wrong. Like now. Am I wrong?’

Auum sat with his legs stretched downslope. Ulysan dropped to a crouch next to him.

‘You’re not wrong. Very recent history reminds us that you are never wrong. We don’t have any other choice if we aren’t going to turn tail and run home.’

‘That would only put off the inevitable. But I question what difference we can make.’ Auum sighed again and cursed himself for it. ‘We’ve lost so many.’

‘Fifty TaiGethen and a few ClawBound won a battle against six thousand men and mages.’

‘In the rainforest.’

‘Mainly at Katura. Using open spaces and buildings. We can do it again.’

Auum smiled up at Ulysan. ‘Do you ever despair?’

‘Only of your despair,’ said Ulysan. ‘And now you’re going to tell me what’s really got you stirred up this morning. It’s him, isn’t it?’

Auum chuckled and pushed a hand through his hair.

‘Will you get out of my head? How can you know that?’

‘Because it’s nearly always about him. You don’t know whether to embrace him or kill him, do you? And you wish he was here. Admit it.’

Auum shrugged. ‘I can’t forgive what he did to Drech. Not ever. But, you know. . the things he can do are so extraordinary and when he directs them properly. . I’ll never be able to forget what he did to that ship. But I hate what he has become. I hate him so much of the time. His madness, his ego and his arrogance, though they are probably all one and the same thing. The fact is, we need him. Do you think he knows that?’

Ulysan laughed. ‘He’s always known it. But look, if you need him don’t let your personal feelings get in the way. Ephemere and Cleress both survived the attack yesterday. Have them contact their sisters at Korina. Get him back here by land or sea. The Senserii will see him safely to us, and you never know, he might turn up in time to save us all.’

‘And wouldn’t he absolutely love that?’

Auum cringed just imagining the posturing that would follow.

‘He’d have earned it in my eyes,’ said Ulysan.

‘He’d never stop letting you know it.’

The two old friends were silent for a time. Auum ran through everything in his mind a hundred times in those few moments: the moment he had found Takaar and the days that followed, the rise from the pit of his madness to something almost elven once again, his unpredictability, his genius and his weakness of meeting criticism with the most hideous violence. And the ship, the ship rendered to dust in the middle of the sea. A power greater than even the Wytch Lords, surely.

‘All right. Get either of them to contact the ships. We can only try.’

Auum’s eye was drawn to a line of elves moving slowly to his left, heading to the cart. Four were mounted on horses and the rest limped along, either supported by the uninjured or helping those worse off than they were. It was a sad sight.

‘Get back to the camp, Ulysan, make sure they’re all ready to go. I’ll see this lot off. And Ulysan? Bless you for everything you are. I couldn’t do this without you.’

Ulysan, normally so free with a quip, merely nodded and ran back towards the mountains. Auum felt in need of a run himself. He pushed himself hard, sprinting across the steep slope, over another shallow rise and onto the open ground, tearing across the earth to the wounded. It felt good. The air in his lungs was chill and fresh, the water on his right calmed his spirit and the blood thundering through his body energised him.

He slid to a halt next to Faleen, who was helping one of the two wounded TaiGethen along.

‘Very impressive,’ she said. ‘Who was that for, us or the eyes in the woods?’

‘For none of you. It feels good, Faleen. I’ll race you back.’ Auum put his arm around the wounded warrior, and the two of them shared the burden. ‘How are you feeling, Hanyss?’

‘I’ll live, my Arch,’ he said, his face taut with the pain of his broken leg, which had been lashed to his other as a makeshift splint. ‘I’m sorry to be deserting you. I failed us.’

‘No one caught in the fires of magic hidden beneath his feet has failed us. It is an evil force that skulks in the dark like a thief, waiting to snatch life from heroes like you,’ said Auum. ‘And you dodged that fate. You will recover and one day you and I will run the rainforest together.’

Auum could feel Hanyss swell with pride at the thought. He held his body more firmly and his face cleared a little.

‘There is always joy on the horizon,’ said Faleen, and she looked across him at Auum and mouthed, Well done. ‘Come on, not far now.’

The first of the wounded had reached the wagon and were being helped on board. Two horses were taken around to the front to be hitched, their riders helped to dismount. Hanyss and Ynsiell, the other injured TaiGethen, were loaded on board. Food and water was attached to the many hooks on the sides.

Auum stood back to allow the rest on board and glanced back towards the wood. Men were pouring out of it at a run. There were mages in the sky ahead of lines of soldiers, archers and more spell casters.

He wiped a hand across his mouth. The Julatsan fliers had seen the attackers so the camp would be warned.

‘Faleen, we have to go now. Get the rest on board and get this cart moving. Keep your pace up, don’t stop and don’t look back. Tais, with me. Run hard.’

Auum led the four who had helped the injured to the wagon, though they pressed him hard for the lead. The humans were no match for the speed of the TaiGethen, but the ground was hard up to the steeper foothills and not all the elves had such pace. Auum watched the elven mages in the air. There were three of them, trying to keep back four humans.

The humans separated, one flying close to the ground, another going high and the other pair closing up and heading directly at the Julatsan elves. The trio of elves split to counter them, with one diving on her foe from directly above. A shout sounded but it was too late: the elf thumped into the human’s back with both feet. His wings guttered and died, and he ploughed into the grass twenty feet below while the elf soared skywards, arrows chasing her higher.

She barrelled up, just missing another enemy, who had the wit to furl his wings and drop away in time. The humans backed off and the elves returned to their circling. Auum ran harder, Faleen right on his shoulder now and the others crowding behind.

They tore up a shallow slope, leaped across to the next and ran down towards the stream where the gradient was easiest and led them straight into the camp. Elves were still milling about despite the cajoling of Ulysan, Grafyrre and Merrat. The TaiGethen were all ready, though: faces were painted, weapons clean and sharp, packs were on backs loaded with clothes and food.

‘No time to fill your waterskins,’ he shouted as he ran past Il-Aryn at the stream. ‘Get your packs and get moving. My warriors are about to become sitting targets waiting for you. Move!’

He ran on, finding Ulysan by the barking of his voice.

‘Where’s Stein?’ he said.

Ulysan pointed while chastising a Julatsan elf who was still strapping on his boots. Auum clapped him on the shoulder and ran on.

He found Stein. ‘I need your mages in the air finding us the best route up the mountain.’

‘Right.’ Stein turned away. ‘Julatsa. Wings! Let’s go. Best path required.’

One of the trio of spotter mages already in the air swooped down to hover in front of Auum.

‘They’re closing fast,’ she said. ‘Bow range shortly and spell range moments after that. We need to clear out now; their mages saw us and they know where to strike.’

‘Thank you,’ said Auum. ‘Good move out there, by the way.’

‘Plenty more where that came from,’ she said and shot back into the sky, pausing to point in a wide arc to indicate the angle of the human advance.

Auum waved then clapped his hands.

‘Get running. Ulysan is leading. Go, go!’

Finally they were pouring away, running along beside the stream until the ground became loose shale and they had to divert to a grassier slope. Auum glanced up into the sky, expecting to see it misting with arrows at any moment. Letting his gaze drop, he almost jumped out of his skin. There, with his back to the slope the humans would fire over, was a hunched figure.

‘Tilman. You can’t still be here. Your boot! Get your boot on!’

Tilman raised his head. His face was blotched and there were tears on his cheeks.

‘I can’t,’ he wailed. ‘It hurts too much. I’m so sorry, Auum.’

Auum ran to him and dropped to one knee, pushing Tilman’s hands away from their grip around his ankle. Auum put his hands on it and could feel the mass of swelling up into his calf and down across his foot.

‘Yniss preserve us,’ breathed Auum, glancing up to see his people disappearing out of sight behind a scree slope. ‘Why didn’t you say something?’

Tilman wiped his nose and eyes on a sleeve and managed to compose himself a little.

‘Because you’d have sent me home and I didn’t want to go.’

Auum felt a vibration through the earth — the enemy were close. He weighed up his options; it didn’t take long.

‘We’ve got to move fast. Can you put any weight on this?’ Auum already knew the answer.

‘It was all right at first — it just felt odd — but it just got worse and worse and this morning I couldn’t stand on it. You’ll have to leave me here.’

‘Don’t be ridiculous. Now listen carefully. You haven’t broken it, which is lucky, but it’s dislocated. Not good.’

‘So I’d have been going home,’ said Tilman.

‘Rather than being peppered with arrows at any moment, yes,’ said Auum, feeling tension build across his shoulders as the vibrations increased. ‘Look, there’s something I need to do. It’ll make you scream, but that’s better than screaming every time you put your foot down.’

‘You can make the pain go away?’

‘No, it’ll still hurt like a panther bite but it will help. Brace yourself.’ Auum positioned his hands on Tilman’s foot and ankle, hearing the boy wince. ‘On three. One, two. .’

Auum pressured the ankle and turned the foot back to its correct position, feeling bone grate on bone and sinew and ligament protest. Tilman screamed and clutched Auum’s body, dry-retching and shuddering. Auum gave him a moment and then moved him back to lie on the grass.

‘Now we really have to go,’ he said. He grabbed Tilman’s boot and gave it to the youth. ‘Hold this. Don’t drop it, you’ll need it later.’

He took Tilman’s free hand and dragged him up onto his good leg. He stooped and picked up Tilman’s pack and slung it over one shoulder. Arrows came flooding over the rise, falling against the opposite slope. Auum blew out his cheeks.

‘Come on and try not to make too much noise.’

‘Why did you have to do that now?’ wheezed Tilman.

They moved off, Auum hurrying Tilman along, taking the weight off his bad leg for now, letting the human hop but keeping the pace quick.

‘Because now you can put your foot down without risk of breaking bones or crippling yourself. Your mages can fix you properly later.’

Auum got them to the stream and followed the elves’ tracks. They were out of sight, but the humans had come up faster than he thought and so they would have to move faster too. Another volley of arrows rushed across the space. Auum ducked reflexively, hearing shafts strike water and stone behind him.

There was a movement in the air, a pressing on his back and shoulders.

‘Down!’

Auum threw them both to the ground. Tilman yelped as orbs of fire, deep blue shot through with yellow, cruised over the rise and slammed into the recently vacated campsite. Up in the sky, elven mages were keeping the Xeteskian spotters well back but soon they wouldn’t need them anyway.

Auum dragged Tilman back to his feet. The first Xeteskian crested the rise, saw the pair and shouted.

‘Move!’ said Auum. ‘You’re going to have to use that foot — it’s faster that way. Brace yourself.’

‘Three,’ said Tilman putting his ruined ankle down and gasping at the pain.

Auum smiled. ‘Good on you, young human.’

Even the fleeting weight Tilman could put on his left leg was enough to almost double their speed. They made it around the scree slope and Auum saw a sharp climb before him, up to a narrow pass between two hills. The last elves were just passing through, disappearing from sight some two hundred yards away. One stood there, looking back down the pass.

Seeing them, he started to run back down the slope. Auum waved him to go back.

‘Ulysan, no! Get the rest of them away!’ he shouted.

Ulysan wasn’t hearing him. Auum and Tilman made their best speed towards him, the young human beginning to struggle as the pain from his ankle spread up his leg and through his back. Auum could feel his body tightening with every step. Tilman stumbled more than he trotted, and Auum shouldered more and more of his weight as his strength failed.

More spells detonated behind them, cracking off the shale slopes and showering them with dust and splinters of stone. Ulysan was still running down the slope but he was looking beyond Auum, who saw his eyes widen.

‘Move faster!’ called the big TaiGethen.

‘Only so fast we can go,’ said Auum, practically lifting Tilman off the ground. ‘He’s not as light as he looks.’

‘Sorry,’ mumbled Tilman.

Arrows rattled into the stone around them and the slope behind. Auum hunched again.

‘That was too close. Ulysan, how far away are they?’

‘Not far enough,’ said Ulysan running up to him and taking Tilman’s other arm around his shoulder, the boot still held in a death grip in the youth’s hand. ‘Run.’

They ran up the steep slope towards temporary safety. Spells smashed into the ground not ten feet behind them, the shock waves throwing them all forward to sprawl on the ground. More arrows fizzed in, one clipping Ulysan’s ear and drawing blood.

Auum rolled back onto his feet and spared a glance downslope. The sky seemed full of mages, elven and human, dodging around one another, the ground covered with humans, less than fifty yards distant.

‘We’re in trouble,’ he said.

‘You noticed,’ said Ulysan. ‘Let’s get him up.’

And then Stein was hovering above them with another mage.

‘Get out of here, we’ve got him,’ he said.

With that, he and the elven flier swooped, grabbed Tilman by the arms and lifted him clear and fast into the sky. Auum and Ulysan looked at one another in relief.

‘Speed,’ said Auum.