Rise of the TaiGethen

Chapter 11

Was it truly guilt that began to forge a change in the ClawBound psyche? I remain unconvinced. Fear is a key driver among Tual’s denizens. Far more likely then that the ClawBound, faced with the destruction of their habitat, simply changed their tactics in response, and that the tiny elven element within them misinterpreted that change as a desire to assuage their guilt.

From ClawBound and Silent, by Lysael, High Priestess of Yniss

The TaiGethen tracked and watched for five days, examining the enemy for weaknesses. There had been occasional glimpses of mages through breaks in the canopy and reported by scouts in the high branches, but Auum did not consider them a threat.

During the day squads of mages and warriors flanked the main column, providing early warning of any attack. Scouts moved ahead of the army, seeking the best path through the eaves of the forest when the river bank became impassable. Auum ignored them all.

But he could not ignore the heavily-guarded detachment of elves that moved three hours ahead of the column, marking the route, digging latrines and preparing areas for cook fires by clearing the undergrowth between the trees and collecting wood. There were more than a hundred elves in the party, accompanied by twenty-two mages and some fifty soldiers.

When they halted to prepare a site, the mages prepared multiple castings. Some were aimed at the ground and had to be wards while others were cast on the guards positioned around the site. Auum was unconcerned by any of them; he had no intention of walking in through the front door.

‘Elyss, what do you see?’ he asked.

‘The warriors are comfortable with their tasks,’ she said immediately. ‘They are elite soldiers, lightly armoured and with short blades. They’ve trained for combat here. We must respect them. They are not like the ones who attacked the temple.’

‘Excellent,’ said Auum. ‘Malaar, tell me about the mages.’

‘Half of them cast while the other half rest. Onelle has told us that using magic drains energy. So the more they are forced to cast or maintain their castings the more vulnerable they are. They do not cast solely defensive and offensive spells. Some are clearly for illness and injury. However I don’t understand why a single casting is made across the whole elven work party.’ Malaar smiled. ‘I look forward to asking them what it is.’

‘Good. Pass your information on and then meet me at the first jump point.’

All around the perimeter of the human campsite, TaiGethen climbed the great banyan trees. Five cells swarmed up the trunks, their fingers digging into the bark when there was no branch to hand and their feet pushed flat against the broad boles, propelling them up quickly and quietly. Auum raced Ulysan, a powerful TaiGethen with a long reach whose toes found the merest dent in the bark seemingly at will and whose fingers grabbed the strongest branches or penetrated the perfect knotholes.

They ascended two hundred feet, feeling the breeze begin to play on their faces and the heat of the sun beating down into the upper canopy. Ulysan was twenty feet above him when he sniffed the air and stilled. Auum followed his gaze. Through the leaf and branch cover he could see a mage tracking across the sky. He was circling above the campsite and working his way further outwards with each pass.

Auum gave the piercing cry of the howler monkey and was answered by calls both real and imitated from miles around. They had climbed high enough. He could see Ulysan smiling.

‘We’d better not dawdle. Sounds to me like you’ve just found yourself a mate and three challengers for her.’

Auum looked inwards and downwards, seeking his launch and landing boughs. The banyans themselves were well spread, and between them rainforest pine, balsa and palms grew, all reaching lesser heights than the banyans at maturity. Auum worked his way back down to a branch as thick as his torso and there he waited. Ulysan joined him. Shortly afterwards, so did Elyss and Malaar.

‘Lost your cell, Ulysan?’ asked Elyss, a glint in her eye.

‘I note it is a long way down should you lose your grip,’ said Ulysan.

‘Focus,’ said Auum. ‘We are a Tai of four and are the stronger for it.’

One by one, Auum heard four calls rise above the ambient noise of Tual’s creatures. Reptile, bird, insect and mammal sounds were repeated over and over. Auum responded with the call of the kinkajou and knew that his Tais were on the move.

Auum led, moving along the branch until it narrowed enough to bow under his weight. His feet were atop it, his hands clasping it, his body leaning forward. He felt the thrill as he gained momentum and his heart beat harder as he saw his target.

Mouthing a prayer to Yniss, he rocked forward, took his feet from the branch and swung hard beneath it. Auum waited until his body was horizontal then let go. He tucked, turned a backward roll, straightened once more and thumped onto his target branch on the next banyan. Auum came to a crouch, gripped the branch to still his momentum and ran to the trunk of the tree.

He didn’t pause. No good could come of watching the others jump. He had descended fifty feet. Still he had no sight of the ground, but he knew he was positioned directly over the perimeter of the camp. One more jump to go. Auum moved around the trunk, climbed up to a suitable branch a few feet above his head and began to move out along it.

He moved slowly, studying the terrain, looking for any chinks in the canopy which were large enough for him to see the ground. The branch began to dip under his weight. Ahead, a palm grew up through the lower branches of the banyan he was in. Perfect. He turned. Elyss, Malaar and Ulysan were all waiting on the trunk. His young Tai warriors were buzzing with the excitement of the jump and brimful of their trust in Yniss. He remembered how that felt.

Auum indicated the target of the next jump. His Tai nodded their understanding. Auum moved further out. This was a far simpler jump, into the crown of a tree, which would leave him a mere sixty feet above the enemy.

He took two quick paces forward, used the banyan branch as a springboard and leapt out. Auum brought his legs into a tuck, ducked his head briefly to his chest against the beat of leaf and twig then stretched his body out. He shot through the upper branches of the palm and dropped right into the centre of the crown, stilling his momentum instantly.

Auum backed to the edge of the crown and beckoned Elyss on. He watched her with a smile on his face. Her step was light, her jump was perfect and she whispered onto the palm. Auum caught her arm and the two stood together, balanced to catch Malaar and Ulysan, both of whom landed without error.

Below them, Auum could see warriors patrolling around the working party. The resting mage team were sitting with their backs to trees, or lying stretched out on cleared ground, using their cloaks against the damp. Auum waited until he heard the calls that signalled each cell was ready.

‘Strike hard,’ he said. ‘Keep moving and target casting mages first. Don’t chase the extra kill. Tais, we strike.’

The kinkajou call sounded a second and last time. Auum grabbed the tip of a palm branch and stepped off the crown of the tree. He fell fast, his descent slowed at the critical point by the tension of the branch. Ten feet from the ground, he let go. Below him, a warrior began to look up, aware at the very last moment that he was under attack.

Auum landed, legs around the man’s neck. His hands came down and clamped around the soldier’s head. He twisted hard, breaking his neck. The man collapsed but Auum was already moving again, his weight forward, turning a roll as he hit the ground. He came up in a crouch, Elyss and Malaar landing by him. Faleen’s cell dropped just in front of him and headed towards the perimeter guards.

Men were screaming orders at each other. Warriors inside the perimeter grouped and ran towards the resting mages. Auum sprinted left, his Tai with him. He couldn’t see Ulysan. Behind them a man screamed, and Auum felt blood spray across the back of his head.

‘Get among the mages,’ he shouted.

Elyss and Malaar split left and right. Ahead, warriors had heard him and were turning. Four of them, with short blades in hand and bucklers on their forearms, faced him without fear. Three others tracked the movement of his Tai. Auum drew a blade with his right hand and snatched a jaqrui from his belt with his left. He threw the crescent blade as he advanced, seeing his target deflect it high and away with his buckler.

Auum grabbed his second blade and attacked, tracing its tip in the leaf litter as he came. The enemy stood in close formation, bucklers in front of their chests and necks, their short blades held low. Auum feinted a move right and saw the rightmost warrior tense just as he jammed his right foot into the earth and leapt left and forward, left-hand blade carving down into the space below him.

He felt its edge bite into shoulder flesh and heard the howl of pain. Auum was turning out, his back to the enemy for a brief moment. He drove into the turn with his right blade, landing as it struck square on the buckler of a second warrior. Auum was facing them once more.

Both flanking warriors rushed in, blades coming at him at chest height. Auum blocked them with his swords and kicked out straight, catching the wounded soldier in the gut. The man fell back. His sword had tumbled from his grip and blood surged from the wound in his shoulder.

Auum moved on, his arms still outstretched, holding the enemy blades at bay. A buckler thudded into his side and Auum twisted as he fell, turning the weight of the blow into a tumble to the left. A blade bit the ground just behind him; Auum bounced to his feet and snapped a right-footed kick around in front of him. His heel cracked into an attacker’s arm, breaking it at the elbow.

Auum dived right, rolling around his shoulders and back on his feet in a moment. Two warriors disabled. Elyss jabbed a blade into the gut of a third guarding the mages and ran forward towards those readying a casting. Malaar was caught up fencing with two more. He was not going to break through fast enough.

‘Uly-’

The barrel-chested Tai soared over Auum’s head and landed right in front of Auum’s two remaining attackers. Auum ran to his left. Ulysan aimed a roundhouse kick at the head of one, smashing his arm and buckler up into his temple as he tried to defend himself. The second struck down at Ulysan’s open flank. Auum’s blade came down, severing his arm at the wrist. He screamed and looked round in time to catch Auum’s second strike in his mouth and through the back of his neck.

Ulysan needed no invitation. He ran after Elyss, straight at the mages, and blood misted the air. Those that were not downed in the next few moments split and ran.

‘See them away!’ shouted Auum.

He swung about. Faleen’s body was at right angles to her attacker, her leg straight out and high, pinning him to a banyan with her foot in his throat. He was eviscerated by Wirann’s blade. Acclan led his Tai against a knot of six soldiers defending a group of mages who didn’t see Illast’s Tai advancing on them from the rear.

Acclan threw a jaqrui. It thudded home into a warrior’s thigh. He did not break stride, instead leading a charge directly towards Acclan’s cell. With their bucklers held before them as battering rams and their blades cocked to stab out straight, the humans raced into battle.

‘Evade!’ Acclan yelled.

He leapt straight up, grabbing a trailing vine to hasten his rise above their attackers’ heads. To his left, Tiiraj threw himself to the side and was on his way up almost as soon as he hit the ground. But to his right, Gyneev had not reacted fast enough. He was caught by a flailing arm as he moved, a buckler catching him on the side of the head and knocking him senseless against a palm trunk.

Auum roared a panther’s warning call and sprinted to his defence. He was just ten paces away. Acclan landed behind the group, turning towards his fallen Tai. Tiiraj dragged her blade through one man’s leg and charged at the mages. Illast’s cell raced in. Auum looked up as he ran, seeing Tiiraj fly into the attack. In turn, Auum threw a jaqrui at the warrior nearest Gyneev, distracting him for a critical moment.

Mages cast.

Illast and his Tai were picked up and hurled backwards into the forest by the blast. Auum jumped into the space before Gyneev, fielding a blow on one blade. Warriors came at him from either side. Acclan came too but he alone would not be enough to make a difference.

‘Acclan. Mages,’ ordered Auum.

Three warriors were on top of Auum already. He cracked a low kick into the knee of one and blocked the downward strike of another with his left blade. This stabbed out, slicing the same man’s side and drawing blood. But the third dodged around him and plunged his blade to the hilt into Gyneev’s back as the young TaiGethen struggled to regain his feet.

Auum’s fury was unbound. ‘Coward!’

He landed a kick in the man’s chest, sending him sprawling back. Auum swung right and lashed a blade into the wounded warrior’s face. The third aimed a blow but never landed it. Malaar’s foot connected with the base of his neck, killing him instantly.

Auum turned on Gyneev’s murderer. The man was backing away, suddenly alone in a sea of TaiGethen with blood on his hands. Behind him, Acclan and Tiiraj slaughtered the mages that had not turned to run. He saw Faleen race past towards Illast and his fallen cell, ready to defend them from the warriors still loose in the forest. Auum paced forward.

‘No TaiGethen kills a worthy foe with a blow to the back,’ he said.

His left blade whipped out, slicing the soldier’s face open from forehead to chin.

‘No TaiGethen disrespects an adversary who has honour.’

His right blade crashed down on the man’s buckler, ruining his forearm.

‘No TaiGethen will henceforth see a worthy foe in man, nor can any of you achieve honour.’

Auum’s blades switched in front of him and the man’s sword arm was severed at the shoulder and his throat cut — but not fatally. The soldier was shaking with pain, shock and terror. His death was in his eyes. Not yet.

‘I am Auum. I am Arch of the TaiGethen. And if you survive the journey back to your army, tell them this: not one of them will emerge from this forest alive. You are travelling to the gates of a place you would term hell, and we will torment each of your souls on its way.

‘You cannot defeat us, you can only fear us and fall before us. We are the elves. The forest is ours.’

Auum swivelled and planted a straight kick into the warrior’s face, smashing his nose across one cheek.

‘Run. And may Tual’s denizens feast on your blood and flesh before your death takes you screaming to Shorth.’

The warrior stumbled away, his heaving cries already beginning to reverberate through the forest.

‘Auum, it is done,’ said Ulysan. ‘The rest are scattering back towards the main column.’

Auum turned. The fight was won, but at too high a cost. Gyneev was dead. Acclan and his Tai would be injured at best. The elven work party was bunched together a hundred paces away, their axes and shovels abandoned where they had dropped them to run to relative safety.

‘Ulysan, find Faleen and report on Acclan. Illast, your Tai has fallen. Prepare his body and we will pray for him when we are safe. Elyss, report back to me with injuries. We need to tend to those we can. This is just the beginning.’

The ground was scattered with bodies. Auum counted thirteen mages and twenty warriors whose bodies would be left for Tual’s denizens to reclaim for the glory of the forest. Auum moved among them. He signalled a Tai to him; Hassek of Faleen’s cell.

‘Take anything of use from the bodies.’

Auum walked towards the elven work party. Malaar and Wirann were ahead of him. The liberated elves shrank away, putting up their hands to warn the TaiGethen away. Auum frowned and picked up his pace.

‘What’s wrong?’ he asked.

‘They’re frightened,’ said Wirann. ‘Telling us we must not touch them.’

‘It’s all right,’ Malaar was saying. ‘We’re here to help you.’

But they continued to back off. Most were standing now, shouting that it was a trap and they would all die.

‘No one can hurt you now,’ said Auum, sheathing his swords. ‘Calm yourselves. You’re free. There is no trap but the one we have sprung ourselves. You are slaves no more.’

Malaar was laughing. Wirann’s smile was sympathetic and warm. After so long in captivity, who could blame them for believing every word their captors told them? One of the elves stumbled over an exposed root and fell onto his rump. Wirann reached out to grab his arm.

Auum felt a dread chill spread all over him. Something Malaar had said, something about a single casting on the elves.

‘Wirann!’ he screamed. ‘No!’

Wirann touched the elf’s arm and the forest turned to blue fire.