Once walked with Gods

Chapter 38

Move yourself away from the ula who tells you he is not frightened of battle. Corsaar peered over the apex of a pitched roof directly opposite the Al-Arynaar barracks. His heart was racing. It had led him to send his two spare TaiGethen to warn Estok to stall his attack if they could get to him in time.

‘This can’t be right,’ he whispered. ‘What are they doing?’

Hundreds of men crowded the barracks training grounds. Lights burned in every window. Corsaar could see warriors drilling and mages working with small squads of swordsmen, practising. Looking down the hill, along the Path of Yniss, he could see lines of lights. Hundreds, thousands of torches.

The lights stretched right down to the harbour and turned corners into every quarter of the city. Corsaar could see the glow of lights rising above the rooftops. And there were soldiers lining the roads under the torches. The elves had known the city would be under curfew but this was something more.

‘It’s like a prison,’ said Everash, Corsaar’s second.

‘It’s worse than that. Looks to me like none of them are asleep. It’s the middle of the night.’

‘Katyett said they’d be expecting us.’

‘But not to this extent,’ said Corsaar. ‘They’re ready aren’t they? All of them.’

Thrynn moved up the steep roof with his Tai. Corsaar saw the expression on his face before he shook his head.

‘It’s bad, Corsaar. We’ve been on the ground and on the roofs. They’re everywhere. Areas of the city are cordoned off. We assume there’s magic along some boundaries, and everywhere else there are men and mages. We haven’t seen a single elf. There are no lights bar those the humans have lit. It’s so silent down there. What’s going on?’

‘I don’t know. But we could get in big trouble very fast. We need to warn Katyett. They’ve-’

Light blossomed down on the dockside. Orders were barked in the barracks yard. At least a hundred men and mages ran out, heading for the harbour. Corsaar cursed.

‘Thrynn, get to Estok. Get him out of there. Get back to the forest. I’m going to the piazza. This isn’t going to end well.’ The light of a spell bloomed to the north. Katyett signalled they move up. Behind them came the noise of marching and shouting from the direction of the barracks away down the street. Ahead of them was the double entrance to the temple piazza. The Path of Yniss split around the tower temple of Cefu, running left past the low dark-painted walls of Appos, and right past the spectacular murals and living stone of Tual.

Men guarded both entrances and more were gathered on the lawns around fires and cook pots. Mages and swordsmen. There was no way to get to Shorth without a fight and the plan had changed from one of stealth to one of speed. If they could defeat the guard before the alarm was raised, they might get in and out without too much trouble.

Forty-five TaiGethen split left and right. They crept up to the walls of the temples, hidden by shadows, invisible to their enemies. Jaqrui pouches were unclipped. Swords were drawn from scabbards. Limbs were flexed and joints rotated. Prayers were spoken and new camouflage applied.

‘Quick and low,’ whispered Katyett. ‘Don’t give the mages a target. Marack, don’t hesitate here. You know what you have to do.’

The rasping sound of a cicada came from across the road. The left-hand side was ready. Katyett chirruped an acknowledging call. She waited a few moments. There was no new sound from the humans. Katyett made the hoot of a spider monkey and TaiGethen flowed into the temple piazza.

Ahead of them, swordsmen straightened in surprise, spread out and shouted warnings. Twenty-five jaqruis whispered away. The lethal blades flashed across the short space. Metal carved into leather, flesh and sparked off blade. Men screamed.

One ducked, not fast enough, the jaqrui lodging in his forehead. Three more were killed outright, blades striking face and neck. Crescents struck sparks from the walls, sheared off metal armour, slammed into midriff, chest and arm.

Auum powered ahead. He leapt, Marack and Takaar in his wake, twisting as he cleared the fractured human line. He hacked down with his blade, cleaving into the neck of a hapless enemy warrior. Auum landed, spun and ran, hearing the TaiGethen overwhelming the defenders behind him while he led the charge to the lawns, their fires and their mages.

Men were running towards him, away from him, across him. Orders were called. He could see mages gathering behind their defenders, dropping their heads to begin casting. Auum upped his speed. Takaar went past him like he was walking. His speed was ridiculous, unearthly. He was heading for the mages. He hurdled a fire and was lost to sight.

Auum moved up to support, tearing around the left side of the blaze. Takaar leapt, spun in the air and delivered a vicious kick to the side of a mage’s head. The man crumpled. Takaar landed. His fists blurred. A second one went down, his face slashed and his chest punctured.

Auum slid into the legs of a mage who had raised his head to cast. Auum bounced up, kicking down hard at the same man’s face, cracking his fist into a second enemy’s jaw and lashing his blade through his unprotected gut. Warriors ran around a fire to his right.

‘Bows,’ said Auum.

There were more mages too. The cells to the left had them in their sights. More swordsmen were running across the lawns from defensive points around the piazza. Marack touched Auum on the shoulder.

‘The temple.’

Auum followed her. Behind them, the bulk of the TaiGethen force was on the lawns, running to engage man and mage. More jaqruis flew. Ahead of Auum, a crescent blade sheared through a bow, and sliced in under the chin of the archer. From the flanks, more TaiGethen surged in.

To the left, a mage cast. Three TaiGethen were hurled from their feet, slamming hard into the walls of Orra across the lawns. The mage moved his hands. Not fast enough. A TaiGethen blade swept down and up, taking one hand and reversing into his chest.

Auum followed Marack and Takaar towards Shorth. The doors were deep in shadow, almost certainly shut and barred. Guards stood there, ready but nervous. Marack had no intention of going that way. Others would take them. She jumped down into the sunken gardens and swarmed up the vines that encased side and rear walls, almost eclipsing the stone of the body and arms in places.

Auum had always wanted to be able to look down upon it. To see the sculpted head lying face up, the top of its skull home to the temple doors. And to trace each arm down to its hand where they were carved as gripping the earth. The temple ended at the base of the torso. The original design was for it to have legs and feet too but there simply had not been room on the piazza.

A curious quirk of the design was that there were few windows in Shorth. The grand doors let in light which was reflected about the walls by mirrors and white walls, but otherwise the builders had stayed as true to an elven body as they could. And so apart from a few light wells letting down onto contemplation chambers, the only windows were those adorning the fingernails at the ends of the hands, and of course the eyes.

Auum turned to look down onto the lawns and away into the city. The fight was almost done but magic had been cast. Auum frowned and felt a shiver through him.

‘They are waiting for us to attack the doors,’ said Marack.

Auum knelt and put his face and hands to the glass of the left eye. Warriors were scattered through the vast hall of the body of Shorth. He could see priests too. Moving about the business of the temple. An anomaly of normality. He wondered who they would help and who they would hinder given the opportunity.

‘Ready?’ asked Marack.

‘It’s a long way,’ said Takaar.

‘Like jumping from the centre rungs of the bore,’ said Auum. ‘But a blessed landing awaits.’

‘Where’s Katyett?’ asked Takaar.

‘Sweeping up. With us soon,’ said Auum.

The Tai of Marack, Auum and Takaar, took a pace back, jumped and fell feet first through the eyes of Shorth.

Katyett saw them go and knew she was behind schedule. She raced around the last fire. A group of three mages stood there, defended by the same number of warriors. Merrat and Grafyrre came to her shoulder. From the left, Dravyn’s Tai closed. From the right, Acclan’s cell. Katyett threw a jaqrui. It bounced from an invisible shield in front of the warriors. She saw one of the mages wince at the impact.

The warriors had no idea which way to face. One of them turned round and shouted at the mages.

‘Break!’ shouted Katyett. ‘Watch for the hands.’

The three cells scattered. Katyett ploughed straight on towards the swordsmen. She grabbed her second blade. In front of her, the warriors crouched. Behind them, a mage raised his head and laid out his hands, palms up.

‘Clear!’ yelled Katyett.

She veered right. The mage’s casting howled across the piazza. A myriad flechettes of ice flayed into Dravyn’s Tai. Shards needle-sharp and razor-edged slicing through clothing, ripping into skin and slitting face, eyes, neck and cheeks. Dravyn cried out, threw his arms about his face and stumbled on. The ice ripped the flesh from his hands, exposing bone faster than a shoal of piranhas. He pitched onto his face.

His cell brothers tumbled to the ground near his ruined body, blood draining from hundred upon hundred cuts. Flesh hung in strips. Gaping wounds opened where larger shards had carved through their meagre defences.

Acclan’s revenge was swift. His cell stormed into the rear of the group. His swords came down left and right, taking the head from the casting mage. The decapitated body slumped forward. The cell took one mage each. In front, the warriors scrambled to their feet, shoving the body of the headless mage aside.

The first looked up. Katyett’s boot smashed his nose across his face. She hinged it back and slapped it in again, time after time into his head and neck, driving him to the ground. She fell on him, her blades piercing throat and heart. Merrat dragged her off the body. Grafyrre and Acclan finished the other two.

‘It’s over,’ said Merrat. ‘It’s done.’

Katyett ran to Dravyn, knelt beside him. He was still breathing.

‘He needs help,’ she called.

She turned him over and knew he was way beyond such need. Katyett’s shoulders slumped. Dravyn was barely recognisable. Most of the skin was gone from his face. His eyes were bloody pools and his lips cut to ribbons. His throat pulsed blood and his cheekbones showed through the flesh torn away.

‘Rest, my brother,’ she said. ‘Help is coming.’

‘Liar,’ managed Dravyn, mouth bubbling red. ‘At least I am close for my soul to travel to Shorth.’

Katyett’s tear fell on his cheekbone. She kissed his forehead, tasted his blood.

‘Yes, you are. Sleep. Yniss protect you. He has tasks for you elsewhere. ’

Dravyn smiled and his head fell to one side. Katyett rose. She stared at the bodies of men littering the lawns, defiling them with their blood. In the firelight the faces of her people were drawn at sight of Dravyn’s fate. She wiped bloodied hands down her trousers and picked up her swords.

‘Get human bodies to the edge of the piazza. Use them if we need to trigger wards to escape. Acclan. Your Tai to the roof. Look out and in. Keep us together. The rest of you. Form up. Out of sight. Not one of those abominations gets in here. Not one of them gets mercy. Send them all to the wrath of Shorth. He is watching. Merrat, Grafyrre. With me.’ Estok leapt onto the sailcloth-covered crates. He ran to the far end of the stack, turned a forward roll in the air and landed in front of his next victim. His blades sang, slitting leather armour at the chest and biting deep. He rocked back and cracked a foot into the soldier’s knee, feeling it break. Estok stepped aside and let him fall.

He turned. The job was done. Diversion. Slaughter. Seventy of them idling on the dockside. Fifteen TaiGethen. Only ever one result. Estok called his cells to him. Two TaiGethen had been lost. He spoke prayers for the fallen and exulted at their victory.

He spun at the sound of running feet.

‘Thrynn. Late for the fun. Shame for you.’

But Thrynn did not smile. ‘They’re coming. Hundreds of them. We have to leave. Now.’

‘How did they…’

‘They were ready, armed and drilled. Estok, please. We have to get back to the forest.’

Estok felt the joy drain from him. But he would not leave this way. Not run like some craven beast. Like Takaar.

‘No. We can fight. We can win. Look at what we’ve done here.’

Thrynn shook his head. ‘Do what Katyett asks. Your task is complete. Come on.’

Thrynn turned and with his Tai began to trot away back to the coastal trail towards the Kirith Marsh. Estok’s cells looked to him. Some had already begun to follow Thrynn.

‘We have to weaken them. Prove we can beat them,’ he said.

Estok heard marching. No, a trot. Coming down the side of the ruined harbour master’s warehouse. A TaiGethen ran to get a view. She backed away quickly. Estok stared. Thrynn had been right. A hundred and more. Swords and castings. Estok swore. They filled the dockside, heading straight for the TaiGethen.

‘Estok?’

Estok stared away to where Thrynn was already gone. Cut off from them now.

‘We cannot lead these to Katyett. Tais, we fight.’

The first castings exploded over their heads. Auum’s feet slapped onto the marble altar amidst a shower of glass. He crouched and rolled sideways to absorb the impact, coming to his haunches at the edge of the circle. Men were staring in disbelief. Takaar and Marack landed by him.

‘Where?’ asked Auum.

‘Left arm first,’ said Marack. ‘Go.’

Ignoring the guards and priests in the grand hall, the three TaiGethen turned and ran towards the back of the temple. Shouts were raised behind them. A clamour for action and a call to arms sounded the same in any language. Takaar led, his speed taking him quickly ahead. He tore around the corner into the corridor of the left arm of Shorth and fetched up sharply, slithering to a stop and backing up, beckoning down the corridor with one hand and making a tiny circling gesture with the other.

Auum and Marack ran left, passing a priest cringing by a column. Takaar backed up further. Five men followed him, swords drawn. None of them was Garan.

‘Shorth will remind you,’ said Takaar, ‘that a TaiGethen is never alone.’

Marack went low, Auum high. Takaar went right. Marack took the legs from the first soldier, bringing him down in a heap. Auum flew over his head as he fell, his feet striking the side of the second warrior’s face and cannoning his head into that of the third.

Blood sluiced across the wall at the corner of arm and body. Takaar’s blade swiped into the air, red slicking its surfaces, and plunged down again. Auum landed between the two men he had floored. The first was not moving. The second only groggily so. Auum grabbed him by the hair and slammed his face three times into the stone floor. A dark pool spread beneath his skull.

The three were up and running the moment the fight was done and before the guard from behind could catch them.

‘Stairs up,’ said Marack.

‘Why?’ asked Auum.

‘Best living quarters up there.’

Stairways were located immediately right and at the end of the arm where the walls rose to meet the fingers. Marack took the first way, sprinting up them three at a time, turning and running up the second flight without pause. Auum was hard on her heels, Takaar behind them both.

Doors slammed down the length of the corridor, the last of them to the panorama room built inside the fingers, with windows out towards the rainforest and the Ultan.

‘Easy place to become trapped,’ said Takaar.

‘We’ll start far end. We know someone’s in there and there’s no way out but the windows,’ said Marack. ‘Silent running.’

Ears could have been pressed to every door and it would have made no difference. The TaiGethen whispered over the timber floor. Like in the forest tracking tapir or monkey, they couldn’t afford to disturb anything.

Marack indicated Auum and Takaar stay left and right. Marack charged the last few paces, dropped to her backside and slid in hard, her feet slamming into the door at the first cross brace. The door thwacked back against its hinges. Arrows flew out over her head, skipping off the walls and bouncing uselessly onto the floor.

Auum and Takaar threw jaqruis through the doorway. Marack was on her feet directly after them. The jaqruis missed their targets but served their purpose. Archers ducked. Marack slashed her blades across in front of her, splintering bows in the hands of the two humans.

Both backed away, reaching for knives. Auum and Takaar moved up beside her. The men glanced at one another and put their hands above their heads in surrender. Auum shook his head. His blade licked out, taking the left hand man through the eye, Garonin style, and piercing his brain. Marack ran the other through.

Auum turned to assess the room. It was empty barring two iads. Ynissul. One of them was staring at Takaar and he met her gaze unwavering.

‘You,’ she said.