Rise of the TaiGethen

Chapter 36

My suspicion is that elves have a natural affinity with mana that offers them great longevity, and replenishes and revitalises their bodies without the need for direct magical intervention. My forthcoming experiments will investigate how mana is channelled in an elven body. Happily, I have a large number of subjects available for my work.

From On Immortality by Ystormun, Lord of Calaius

Auum ran from cover into the sight of hundreds of his foe. His jaqrui bounced from a magical shield and then his blades were in his hands. He ducked an arrow and saw soldiers turning towards him while others ran on deeper into the ghetto. He sprinted on, leapt and spear-kicked a soldier who’d got ahead of his comrades. Auum dropped to the ground on his haunches.

Three blades came at him. One was moving left to right. Auum leapt above it and hacked down with his left hand, his blade splitting his target’s shoulder. The second was a thrust to his chest. As he came back down, Auum buried a blade in his target’s gut. Auum ducked a third flailing strike, jabbing up into groin and carving deep across the vital artery in the thigh.

Auum jumped straight up, turned a roll in the air and ran. An order was barked and a detachment of the enemy gave chase, bellowing promises of revenge against him and his mother. Too fast for them to catch, he tore around the corner to see his Tais standing with jaqruis cocked in either hand.

Auum jumped again, this time soaring over his Tais, turning a tuck in the air to land behind them and face the enemy. They spilled around the corner. Ulysan barked like a wild dog and six jaqruis howled across the space, downing the front runners, who fell into the feet of those behind them.

Ulysan led a charge into their midst. From an alleyway to their left, Illast’s Tai of Bylaan and Ashocc sprinted into the fray as well, driving into the invaders’ flank. Illast buried a dagger in the face of his first target and heaved him back into the press. A blade in his other hand blocked a strike to his neck and Bylaan’s kick drove the attacker back.

The enemy were maybe two hundred strong, ranks of soldiers defending mages in their midst. The street itself was tight but spells had widened the battle area. Some mages held shields in place while others cast fire and ice ahead and to the right. The noise was deafening, bouncing from the walls of the few buildings still standing. The thunder of spells taking down buildings, the roar of men’s voices and the clash of steel all mixed with the dull thud of blade on leather and flesh.

Ashocc, less than a pace from his target, snapped a kick high into his face. The man toppled like a felled tree. Ashocc ran up his body and jumped high out over the enemy. His blades were at right angles to his body and he twirled them in his hands. He dropped right into the heart of the group of mages.

‘Push!’ yelled Auum.

Ulysan, Acclan and Kepller joined him. The four waded into the enemy. Ulysan knocked a man out with a single punch. Kepller stumbled on his injured leg and Acclan’s blade blocked the blow intended to kill him. Auum knocked a sword blow high with his right blade and thudded his left into his opponent’s chest. He could hear Illast calling Ashocc to clear; instead, Bylaan pushed towards him. Blood spurted high enough for Auum to see it. Mages were dying.

The line moved back as men turned to defend their mages while the men on the flanks continued to move up. Auum pushed back a pace and Ulysan had seen the danger too. He nodded to Auum and headed left. Auum went right, leaving the other two to keep the pressure on the centre.

Auum saw Ashocc’s blade rise and fall and he heard the screech of elven pain too. Spells had stopped falling. He threw a jaqrui right but the blade bounced away. Auum swore; the shield was still intact. On the other side of the fight Illast’s cries were getting desperate, while in the centre Acclan was parrying more than striking in an effort to keep Kepller alive. The injured Tai had abandoned all caution and was forcing his way deeper into the enemy.

Auum hit the right flank. Two soldiers faced him, swords defending their bodies. Auum opened his body and battered his right-hand blade towards the head of the soldier on the left. He spun with the momentum and rammed his left blade backwards into the gut of the other.

Still moving fast, he completed the turn and took off, his body horizontal and spinning up over the defensive line. He pulled his legs under him, reversed the grips on his blades and thudded down in the midst of the enemy. He jerked both blades back, feeling one slide into flesh while the other struck empty space.

Ashocc was in desperate trouble. Bodies of mages and soldiers lay around him but he was beset on all sides. He had cuts to his face and chest and one arm hung useless, the blood from the shoulder wound soaking his jerkin. Bylaan was still too far away to help him.

Auum switched his swords front and chopped overarm, one following the other. He took a soldier through the back, a mage across the face.

‘Bylaan! Get clear!’ Auum called. ‘I’ll get Ashocc.’

Bylaan had heard him. He spun, his blades ahead of him, blocking blows aimed at his head and chest. Ashocc drove out a front kick, knocking an enemy blade aside. His own sword crunched into a mage’s side. Another soldier struck out. Ashocc jumped back but the blade nicked his stomach, biting deep. Blood flowed.

‘Ashocc, turn!’ ordered Auum.

Auum smashed his elbow into the face of an enemy coming up on his right. He powered on through the confused mess. His blades flicked out left, right, high and low, blocking and cutting, beating a path to his brother. Ashocc took another blow on his blade but tripped on a body behind him and fell.

Auum shouldered the last soldier out of his way, dashed a blade into a mage’s ribs and leaned to seize the stricken TaiGethen. Blows came in from both sides and ahead. With his left hand, Auum grabbed Ashocc, trying to haul him upright. With his right, he fended away a strike to his flank. His left foot whipped out, tripping another attacker, balancing with his right. The stink of man and blood was filling his nostrils.

‘Go!’

Ashocc’s feet were back under him and the pair of them struck out. Auum could see Bylaan and Acclan fighting hard, trying to make space. Blows came in again. Auum swayed inside one, seeing the blade strike sparks from the ground. He parried another but a third got through and cut across Ashocc’s face and neck.

Ashocc’s legs gave way but Auum would not let him fall. He heaved the warrior through the enemy line and into a moment’s space.

‘TaiGethen, break and run,’ he shouted.

Illast and Bylaan pushed back against the humans and took Ashocc from Auum. They sprinted away along the street, Ulysan, Acclan and Kepller with them, the latter dragging his leg badly and supported by the others. Arrows began to fly. Spells would soon follow.

Auum ran with Ulysan. Two blocks ahead, more men moved onto the street and closed in fast.

‘Next left, on my mark.’

Arrows fell in front and behind. Auum saw them target those carrying the wounded. Kepller saw it too and pushed his helpers away. Ulysan grasped at him.

‘Space,’ shouted Kepller. ‘I’ll be fine.’

With his next pace, an arrow took him through the eye. He fell dead to the ground. Acclan spat out a curse and made to run to the attack. Ulysan caught him by the arm and dragged him down the left-hand turn. Above, a mage tracked them, too high to shoot down. From the right, poison arrows flew out, driving him higher. Ulysan ducked inside a house, shouldering the door in and running through to the back. He burst into the street and across it into another narrow way.

Castings struck the ground in their wake, sending waves of air across their bodies. One piled into the house, shattering its frame and causing a ripple collapse of others in the terrace.

‘Ulysan, back to the fight,’ said Auum.

He looked back over his shoulder. Illast and Bylaan had stopped to lay Ashocc on the ground. Illast closed Ashocc’s eyes and kissed them before running on, fury in his eyes.

Ulysan led them down a wider street. Men surged past the intersection not thirty paces ahead of them, heading for the first circle, while a few spells flew past overhead. Abruptly, the enemy movement was disrupted. Voices were raised in alarm and weapons were raised high.

Auum saw a TaiGethen in the air, swords held out to either side. Thrynn. She landed in the centre of the enemy. Blood misted. Just like Ashocc only Auum wasn’t going to let this brave elf die. Auum stormed into their right flank, chopping his way towards her. Thrynn’s blades were a blur. Men instinctively made a space around her, bringing them onto the blades of Illast, Bylaan, Acclan and Ulysan instead.

Auum butted the man directly in front of him, splitting his nose at the bridge. The man staggered back, raising his blade over his head only to bury the point in the skull of the soldier behind him. Auum slashed a cut across his throat and fell back, finding himself next to Illast.

Illast blocked a blow aside. A second sword point drew blood down his left arm. Bylaan took the pace from the strike and thumped a punch into the soldier’s mouth. Auum glanced back and thrashed a sword across the chest of a man only half turned in his direction. He kicked another in the groin and followed up with a roundhouse to the temple, knocking him down. He heard Thrynn cry out and moved faster, Ulysan joining him.

Men were shouting warnings, calling for cover and screaming for more help. But there were eight TaiGethen among them and it was futile. Auum nearly reached Thrynn from one side and her Tai were almost there the other. Auum dragged a soldier back by his hair and stabbed him low in the back, letting him drop and climbing over his body.

A quick soldier laced a cut into Thrynn’s thigh, unbalancing her. She began to fall and the soldier raised his blade to finish the job. Porrack of her Tai roared and burst through, blocking his blow. But he had left himself open and a sword took him across the stomach, spilling his entrails onto the ground.

Porrack screamed and collapsed. Thrynn roared his name and buried her blade in his killer’s neck.

‘Push!’ called Auum. ‘Straight through.’

He hacked down into an enemy’s leg, shouldered a second aside and scooped Thrynn up with one arm. Auum put his head down and charged the line of soldiers ahead. They were already beset by Ataan, Thrynn’s second, and Auum chopped out with his sword, not knowing what he was hitting. He heard Ulysan holler a war cry followed by the shriek of a dying man.

Auum burst through the line and carried on into a side street, back towards the main road in.

‘Ataan, break and clear!’

The TaiGethen pounded away. Auum released Thrynn and looked back over his shoulder. All the rest were clear. But in front of them men were still streaming into the city and the spells continued to fall. Soon they would be among the city folk and Auum feared the slaughter that would follow.

Katura echoed to the sounds of falling buildings and the roars of men. Smoke billowed into the sky and blew through the ruined streets. The smell of burning wood tainted the air. The ground beneath Merrat vibrated with explosions and to the thundering of human feet as the invaders poured into the city.

He edged a fraction out of his hiding place to look down the street towards the gates. Ysset sprinted into view from the left, tearing down the largely undamaged centre of the Tuali ghetto. She slid to a halt and stepped into the alley, which lay in deep shadow.

‘Corinn’s Tai is coming. There are hundreds of soldiers, guarding a mage count of eighty or so, on her tail. Stiff odds.’

‘Stiff odds for all of us,’ said Merrat. He signalled across the street to where Grafyrre was similarly hidden. ‘Remember: we hit the mages and get out. Lead them onto the next trap. Don’t stop for the fallen. Tai, we pray.’

Merrat dropped his head but a whistle from Grafyrre interrupted his intended brief meditation. Grafyrre tipped his head up. A spotter mage flew the length of the street, above bowshot range, turned and flew back towards the gates. Merrat flattened himself against the side of a building.

As soon as he had passed Merrat leaned out again, just in time to see Corinn and her Tai of Arkiis and Perrar enter the street, the enemy force a few paces behind. The men’s shouts and taunts, which had been muted, became loud and echoing. They were like beasts baying for blood, with no idea they were running headlong into a trap.

‘Hold your nerve, Corinn,’ whispered Merrat.

And so she did. A few arrows fell about her Tai but none really threatened them. Shafts which fell short bounced from the magical shield covering the enemy and were met with angry shouts. She was too close to the soldiers for mages to risk casting and had resisted the urge to up her pace to seek temporary sanctuary in the run of alleys where Merrat hid.

A movement above them caught Merrat’s eye. The spotter mage had flown back and was hovering midway along the street, pointing out targets. Moments later, spells arced out from the main concentration of mages by the city gates, trailing smoke as they came. Two clusters of blue-brown flame orbs, fizzing and spitting, plunged into houses either side of the road and about thirty yards behind Corinn’s Tai as they continued their retreat.

Flame and burning timber exploded up and out. Burning debris was scattered across the street. Merrat heard at least one building collapse and a wave of heat and noise rolled past them, filling the air with the smells of fire once more. Merrat saw the spotter mage put his arms across his chest in an X-shape.

‘Missed,’ said Nyann.

‘No, they didn’t,’ said Merrat, and he signalled Grafyrre to be ready. ‘Corinn’s in trouble.’

The air chilled so quickly that Merrat’s next breath frosted in front of him. Freezing air blasted from both sides of the street across the burning buildings, flattening anything that remained upright and snuffing out the fire. Plumes of smoke and steam forged skywards. Merrat swore and gave the black howler monkey’s guttural call.

‘Tai, we move!’

Merrat led his Tai into the street. Grafyrre mirrored his move while overhead the spotter mage began signalling again. Corinn had turned at the sound of the flight call but had not otherwise responded.

‘Corinn!’ yelled Merrat. ‘Run. Get back to us now!’

Like a dream running slowly, Merrat saw Corinn look at the blasted buildings behind her as if for the first time before beginning to run with her Tai. But at the same time, the first humans surged across the blackened, cold timbers and spilled onto the street, filling it quickly.

‘Get among them!’ shouted Merrat. ‘Corinn needs a path.’

The chasing force roared and charged. Merrat led his Tai forward at a sprint. Elven arrows flashed across the space from high buildings on the outer circle. A few men were struck but all too soon the shafts were bouncing off a shield and spells began falling on the elven archer positions.

Merrat drew his twin blades and crashed into the attack, Nyann and Ysset at his sides; Grafyrre’s Tai just to their right. Dozens of men had turned towards them leaving the rest to close the pincer on Corinn’s Tai. Merrat could just see her, blood covering her sword, moving fast and keeping low and balanced, determined to take down as many as she could.

Merrat blocked a man’s blade and chopped his free blade into his neck. Blood sprayed across the humans and the enemy collapsed to the side. Merrat moved up a pace, blades defending his body and head. He heard Ysset gasp, then the thud of her blade and her victim’s scream. Nyann’s blades weaved in Merrat’s peripheral vision, one striking sparks off enemy steel, the other stabbing through a man’s throat.

Merrat ducked a flailing strike and rammed both his swords into his enemy’s gut. He stood, kicked the man aside and moved up, his Tai with him.

‘Keep pushing,’ he urged. ‘We can break through.’

But on the flanks the enemy were beginning to understand the attack in the centre and were running round to box them in. Above, the spotter mage brought down fire and ice on buildings twenty yards behind Merrat and Corinn and her Tai were completely surrounded.

‘Merrat!’ It was Grafyrre. ‘Too many. Break off, or we’re trapped.’

Merrat smashed the hilt of a blade into his enemy’s nose and with the other blocked a strike from another intended for Nyann. Nyann reacted quickly, disembowelling the man and swaying inside a thrust to his heart from his left. Ysset broke her attacker’s knee with a straight kick before moving in half a pace, crushing his nose with her elbow and driving a blade through his heart.

‘No! We can’t leave them to die,’ Merrat called back.

But he knew Grafyrre was right: the lines of men were thickening. A glance behind told him they were close to being cut off, and ahead an elven shriek followed by a roar of triumph told him that one of Corinn’s Tai had perished. Merrat pushed back a pace, needing a moment to make a decision.

And then there she was: Corinn. She had leapt high above her enemies’ heads, her legs brought up to her chest and her dripping red blades circling in her arms to strike down. Her clothing was drenched in gore and blood pulsed from wounds all over her body. Merrat took in her face. It was cut across the forehead and her cheeks and chin were smeared with blood. Her mouth was open in a cry of fury and her eyes burned with her hatred of man.

Eyes everywhere were drawn to her by the scream that burst from her lips. One of her blades hacked down into a man’s neck, half-severing his head. Blood erupted from the wound and Corinn exulted. A blade was thrust up, skewering her through the gut as she began to descend. She faced her killer and drove her other blade into his chest. Both disappeared from view, into the midst of the enemy.

‘No!’ yelled Merrat and he made to move forward.

Ysset grabbed his arm and dragged him back. ‘We have to go. Now.’

In the heartbeat before battle was joined again, Merrat’s head cleared and he turned and ran, calling his Tai and seeing Grafyrre sprinting along beside him. His friend’s face was grey and angry and the pain of defeat hurt more than the thrust of any blade. Behind them, men shouted and gave chase.

Merrat ran hard past the destruction wrought by magic. More spells bit into the street ahead of them, sending sheets of flame high into the air. More spells destroyed the buildings they ran past, revealing yet more men choking the city streets. The TaiGethen ran harder, Merrat moving them towards a narrow opening between two as-yet-undamaged houses.

Arrows hissed through the air, slamming into wood and dirt but sparing their targets further pain. Merrat slid to a halt at the opening and herded his charges inside.

‘Keep running. Let’s get to the central rally point.’

He took a last look at the invading humans, ducking back as a trio of arrows thudded into the timbers where his head had been. He ran after his people, feeling the first tears threatening. They lost the humans easily in the maze of alleys that linked the Tuali ghetto to that of the Ixii, and from there to the core of Katura.

Reaching the rally point, they paused and Grafyrre turned to stare at Merrat.

‘How can we prevail against power like that?’ he asked.

Merrat placed his hands on Grafyrre’s shoulders and pushed back the despair that threatened to overwhelm him too. How easily they had been beaten. There was no defence against the might of magic.

‘We fight on because it is all we have,’ said Merrat. ‘Until the last of us falls if that’s what it takes.’

Beside him, Ysset wavered.

‘Ysset?’

‘It’s all right, I’m-’ A frown crossed Ysset’s face and she dropped to her knees and then fell to her side. ‘Merrat?’

Merrat crouched down beside her. Blood ran in a thin line from her mouth. Merrat looked quickly down her body. There was a spreading stain of blood from close to her left armpit.

‘Oh no,’ breathed Merrat.

‘It’s all right,’ said Ysset, gasping her breaths. ‘I knew it was bad.’

‘You should have backed off, got help.’

‘I will never desert my Tai.’ Ysset smiled. ‘I knew it was bad. No sense in seeking help.’

Ysset’s smile faded and she sought and gripped Merrat’s hand. Merrat stared into her eyes until she died. He felt a hand on his shoulder.

‘Until the last of us falls,’ said Grafyrre.

‘Until the last of us,’ said Merrat. ‘Not long now.’

‘Gods under water, I feel twenty-five again!’ Lockesh shouted.

Hynd wondered whether to marvel more at his skill or at his joy, the like of which he had never witnessed before. The mage lord was soaked with sweat but his belief and confidence had brought over five hundred mages to the battlefield, where they were doing precisely what Jeral wanted.

They were inside the gates now, surrounded by a ring of soldiers four deep to protect them from attack. The TaiGethen had been beaten back and at least three of them had been killed. Jeral was leading the central thrust straight into the heart of the city. The elven archers could not penetrate the shields and there was no sign of the city folk at all now that they had been broken and scattered. Spells flashed out above the army and into the buildings ahead, ripping off roofs, destroying walls and burning everything to cinders. There would be no hiding places left. It was just a matter of time.

Hynd watched the spotter mages circling just in front of the three prongs of Jeral’s trident attack. They were the brave ones. Despite all of Lockesh’s entreaties, Hynd would never have taken wing today; only three mages had volunteered to. They had pinpointed the TaiGethen and archers effectively so far, and the advantage they brought was incalculable.

Lockesh released his spell. The blue orb with spectacular white lightning blazing inside it flew hard and fast into the buildings which surrounded Katura’s central marketplace. Hynd watched it fly. It blew through a pair of shutters and detonated inside.

The force of the explosion rippled the roof so violently that it collapsed inwards and blew out shutters to either side. Timbers snapped inside the walls and the whole structure shifted to the right. The upper floor failed and dropped onto the floor below, the weight bringing the whole building down on itself. Dust billowed out and cheers rose clear over the sound of splintering wood.

The noise was so loud that Hynd didn’t hear the shouts of warning the first time. Caught up in the moment, he was surprised by the sudden push behind him and almost fell into the mage in front of him.

‘What the-’ Hynd turned to shove the soldier back. ‘Oh shit shit shit!’

A panther roared. Hynd saw its leap and its jaws, wide open and dripping saliva, clamp around a helpless soldier’s skull. Tall painted elves strode behind them, their hands like rapiers, their teeth sharpened to rip the flesh from his bones. They and their panthers were everywhere. Swords rose; blood fountained into the air; men screamed. The defence pushed back against the elves, granting the mages a little space.

‘Concentrate!’ screamed Lockesh.

Hynd had never heard him sound scared before. He forgot the ClawBound and turned. Lockesh was focused on a mage right next to him. Hynd didn’t know his name but he was sweating and rocking, plainly terrified, and he’d been about to cast when the attack began. Soldiers were pressing in on them from all sides, the mages trying to push them back, yelling for the space to cast.

‘I can’t…’ he said, crying like a child.

‘Yes, you can,’ said Lockesh. ‘Feel the shape and stabilise.’

Hynd let his mind fill with the mana spectrum and saw the shape of an orb in front of the young mage. It was tattered and, rather than spinning about its axis, was bowing into an oval, wobbling and juddering. Hynd swallowed hard. If the mage lost control of that construct it would spray lethal magical fire in all directions.

‘Let it go!’ said Hynd. ‘Cast it!’

Hynd was struck from behind and had no chance to help himself. He pitched forward, shoving the mage ahead of him hard in the back with his hands as he did. Hynd hit the ground with a weight on top of him and a warm and wet sensation around his neck.

He rolled over, heaving himself half up to shift the weight. The soldier, his throat torn out, slid onto the ground. Hynd shouted and scrabbled away.

‘Drag it back!’ yelled Lockesh. ‘Drag it back!’

Everything seemed to slow. Hynd stared up at the young mage through a crowd of legs and bodies, some trying to run forward, others trying to turn to face the ClawBound. A panther brushed past him. He could see elven legs in among his people. And he saw the mage lose his fight to contain the casting.

The young man’s mouth opened to scream as the flesh began to melt from his face. He put his hands to his cheeks and his eyes burst, blood spurted from his nose and flames encased him. His hair vaporised, his skin blackened and peeled away from his skull and his lips swelled and ruptured.

He reached for Lockesh and the mage lord, still sampling the mana spectrum, pushed him back.

‘Run,’ he shouted. ‘Run!’

Lockesh tried to shove his way through but there was no escape. The young mage erupted into a pillar of fire. Tongues of flame traced the mana and buried themselves in other casting mages. Hynd was flung back as if an invisible hand had punched him in the chest, and Lockesh was picked up and hurled ten feet into the air, crashing down onto soldiers six ranks ahead. His face had been burned away to the bone.

Above them, two spotter mages had flown closer. Hynd saw one’s wings gutter and fail with the shock of what he saw, and the other flew off, screeching and yelling.

‘He’s down! Lockesh is down!’

‘Sundering! Sundering!’

Panic sped through the army like a gust of wind across the water.

‘No, no, no!’ gasped Hynd, but he had no breath in his body. ‘There’s no Sundering. Turn. You have to turn and fight.’

He pulled himself back to his feet. There was fire everywhere. He couldn’t count the dead through the smoke. He heard someone yell for order, for a push back against the ClawBound, but there was no way for the soldiers through the panicked mage lines.

Hynd stumbled again. Men were everywhere. Mages were fleeing into the burning side streets. Panthers and elves ran after them, brought them down like game in a hunt. Hynd almost sampled the mana spectrum but feared what he would find. Lockesh was down. All the shields were down.

Hynd didn’t know what to do. He was surrounded by his own people but felt so vulnerable. Still the ClawBound attacked and now there was shouting from the army ahead.

‘Here they come!’ screamed a voice. ‘Archers! Archers on the rooftops. Get me shields. Hynd!’

It was Jeral, somewhere nearby, but Hynd couldn’t think straight. He heard a panther roar and jumped back, startled, only to find himself right next to Jeral. The captain hacked to the other side and Hynd heard an animal howl in pain.

‘Cast,’ said Jeral, backing away towards the centre of the army, fingers itching at the scars on his cheeks. ‘You can do it.’

‘I can’t,’ said Hynd. ‘Lockesh is gone. I can’t…’

Hynd felt a breeze pass by his left ear and saw an arrow slap into the mud. The next instant he felt an impact in his left shoulder. He grunted and stumbled.

‘I’m hit,’ he said. ‘Jeral, I’m hit.’

Hynd’s vision tunnelled. He tried to drag in a breath but it wouldn’t come. He pawed at his throat but his fingers were numb. He felt his legs give way and he fell to his knees. A searing pain flashed down his body, encasing him. Every nerve screamed. Hynd scrabbled at his throat. The pressure grew and he tried to gasp but there was nothing. No air and his mouth wouldn’t open.

‘All right, Hynd, I’ve got you. You’ll be all right,’ said Jeral.

Hynd pitched forward onto his face, unable to turn his head or put out his hands to break his fall. His eyes were wide but he was blind. The pain reached a crescendo and he could not give it voice. The sound of battle faded and the last thing he heard was Jeral shouting for help.