Destiny (25 page)

“By the three goddesses!” he roared in frustration. He concentrated again on the arcane swamp he had created and expanded it using the power of his medallion.

Haradin finished the spell. The three of them were surrounded by an aura of power which shone with blinding force. Haradin let go of the girls’ hands. He spread his arms wide, taking in the wall on both sides of the gate. In a dark voice he spoke words of power.

There was an explosion: the energy which surrounded Haradin was launched along the parapets of the wall, following the direction of his outstretched arms. As it ran along the wall the energy turned to liquid, as if Haradin were watering the top of the wall.

“What’s the Mage doing?” Iruki said. “We’re not going to stop them like that!”

“Be patient,” Aliana said. “Haradin knows what he’s doing,”

Komir watched, not understanding, but hoping the Healer was right.

And once again, so she was.

With a last great utterance of power, Haradin brought his arms down. As he did so, the whole top of the upper wall began to burn intensely. The enemy soldiers on the parapets were instantly consumed by fire. The soldiers who reached the top of the wall encountered a nightmare of flames. Fleeing the fire, they hurled themselves back onto their own troops, or else tried to cross the flames only to fall inside the city as blackened corpses. Cries of pain rose to the heavens like agonized prayers which the deaf gods failed to answer.

“That will keep them back for now,” said Haradin. His face showed signs of exhaustion.

“How did you do it?” Sonea asked. “There’s an unimaginable power and reach to that spell… Was it the medallions?”

“It was,” Haradin said as he retrieved his staff. “My power doesn’t allow me to create a spell as powerful as that, but the strength of the medallion does. That’s what I’ve done: I used their power and acted as a channel. Risky, as it might have consumed me, but it worked.”

“In desperate situations,” Sonea said, “you need desperate ideas.” She smiled.

Haradin smiled faintly. “That spell won’t hold forever, so we need to concentrate and wreak the greatest possible havoc among their ranks. Come on, Bearers! Death to the enemy! They must not pass!”

Isuzeni eyed the battlefield with growing unrest. Things were not going according to the strategy he had worked out. He had planned everything down to the smallest detail with the utmost care, spending hundreds of hours tying up loose ends, analyzing every detail in his exceptional mind, as he always did. The Marked had not surrendered, and the damned resistance of those highland barbarians was exceptional. More than that, it was unheard-of. A bunch of half-savage warriors and the last Rogdonians had managed to stop the advance of fifty thousand experienced and perfectly-led soldiers. The Empress’ seven armies were held immobile on the battlefield, unable to move forward. And now, to add insult to injury, the enemy Battle Mage was causing real damage among his troops with his devastating spells.

“Have you located them?” he asked Narmos, his loyal acolyte and priest of the Order of Imork.

“Yes, Master. They are above the gate: the Great Battle Mage and at least three other powerful Mages, my Lord.”

“As I thought. It’s not feasible for a single Mage to cast and maintain spells like that over such a wide area all by himself, no matter how powerful he might be. He’s being helped. This is a serious setback, unexpected and worrying.”

“The battlements are on fire,” Narmos pointed out. “We will not be able to climb them.”

Isuzeni half-closed his eyes and clasped his hands behind him. The sight of the wall crowned with flames was disastrous as far as his own interests were concerned. The troops would not be able to attack. He shook his head. This spell was immensely powerful, more so than any of his own. How could he have foreseen anything like this? How could those Mages have created a spell like that?

“Fate has a tendency to deal us bad hands when we are near our goals…” he said, seeing his army trapped in front of the wall. “Those Mages could never have created a spell on that scale. It has to be connected in some way with the medallions the Dark Lady has seen in her visions of the Skull of Destiny. Yes, that would explain it… that has to be the reason. The medallions…”

Cenem came up to his master. “The Generals have already given orders to surround the wall and find a way in,” he said.

Isuzeni was lost in thought. “We have to eliminate the Mages before they decimate our army completely. It’s time to fight magic with magic.”

Both acolytes nodded silently.

“What else have you found out? I need to have all the information available if I’m to decide on a course of action.”

Cenem showed the skull with its ruby eyes and brandished the silver axe. “The Prince-King of the Rogdonians is fighting at the breach in the western wall. With his leadership he’s preventing the army from breaking their way in.”

Isuzeni listened to his minion with the greatest interest.

Narmos imitated Cenem’s gesture. With the axe in one hand and the skull in the other, he said: “Master, I managed to locate her. The White Soul is fighting on the other flank, blocking the eastern entrance.”

Isuzeni smiled. His spirits lifted at the news.

“Excellent. Now we know where they are, which pleases me. It will grant us a strategic advantage denied to our enemies. It is a crucial advantage to know where the key figures are in the battlefield. It will tilt the game in my favor. We shall kill the Prince-King and the White Soul at the flanks. You will take care of that. As for the Mages in the middle section, I shall kill them personally. The Marked is bound to be among them. Not one of them must remain alive. None!”

“It shall be done as you say,” both acolytes said with a bow.

Isuzeni put his hand on his chin and said thoughtfully:

“Do not run any risks. Take reinforcements; you will need support.”

The battle was turning ever more brutal and ruthless, but the Norriel were holding their ground. The enemy had not been able to breach the barrier they formed and enter through the half-destroyed gate. His fellow-countrymen filled Komir’s heart with pride. Suddenly he felt an odd sensation, like an intense pang of nervousness, and lost his concentration.

“Something’s wrong,” he said. At the same moment, his defensive sphere surrounded him with its magic.

He saw that all his companions, even Asti and Sonea, who had not been able to cast any spell, had their spheres up. He breathed out in relief and saw that Haradin was raising his own.

“The medallions are warning us that enemy magic is being conjured,” Komir said to Haradin.

“Yes, my instinct tells me the same thing. Very powerful magic: Black Magic, Magic of Death. I feel it close, too close… But I can’t pinpoint where it’s coming from. Whoever is using it is very cunningly hiding his power.”

They scanned the enemy hosts, trying to identify some gleam, some anomaly that would reveal the enemy Sorcerer.

“Haradin!” Aliana suddenly shouted in terror.

A sinister blackness, like a specter of death, started to engulf the Mage. It enveloped his whole protective sphere, trying to devour the essence of the life it was protecting. Haradin fell to his knees.

“Get away from me!” he warned the others.

“How can we help you? Tell us, Haradin!” Aliana cried.

“No… you can’t…” the Mage replied with a great effort. “I must… counterattack his magic… strengthen my shield… repel the death spell...”

The specter of death expanded around Haradin, and the others took a step back to keep it from touching them. The Mage grunted, struggling to break it down, but did not appear to be winning. The enemy Sorcerer must be one of great power.

Komir craned his neck to see if he could locate the Sorcerer in the midst of the enemy hosts so that he could try to finish him off and free Haradin. He could see nothing but a sea of black dotted with blood-red, an ocean of horror which was on its way to engulf them.

Haradin screamed.

He was in deep trouble. And if the Mage fell, so would they all.

The shrill sound of a horn sounding the alarm rang out in the East.

Komir turned toward the origin of the call, even though he could not see what was going on. “It’s Hartz! Enemy magic!” he cried.

He searched for Haradin, but the Mage could not help him. The horn rang out again.

“I have to help Hartz!” Without thinking twice, he leapt off the gate and broke into a run.
The big guy’s in deep trouble. I must help him!

Iruki took out her Ilenian sword. “I’m going with him,” she said, and ran after Komir.

Aliana’s gaze followed them. Seeing Komir plunge headlong into danger for his friend without a moment’s hesitation, she felt admiration for the young warrior. It was not the first time she had felt this, since he had already proved overwhelmingly that his heart was noble and his devotion absolute. Once again the feeling of unrest and anguish tightened on her chest, as if an iron fist were clutching her heart. It was almost a physical pain. She tried to regulate her breathing, but the air seemed not to be reaching her lungs. Her feelings for the Norriel were growing stronger, and the desperate situation they were in only served to deepen them.
Nothing’s going to happen to him, he’s a magnificent warrior and he has the Medallion of Ether with him,
she said to herself as she tried to calm her unease. But looking at the sea of enemies at her feet and knowing Komir was going to fight them, or something worse, she could not help but feel deeply uneasy.

“Be careful, be very careful,” she whispered, although Komir, who was already running along the wall, could not hear her.

Below the gate the men were fighting for their lives. The screams and din of the combat were increasingly deafening. The lines of Norriel defenders had thinned and the enemy kept up its pressure, trying to get through into the city at whatever cost. But the Norriel did not give way. When a warrior from the first line fell, he was rapidly replaced by one from the second. Unfortunately, sooner or later there would be none left to strengthen the line. Aliana knew the situation was critical and that they needed Haradin’s power to help the Norriel. She needed it urgently, or else very soon everything would be lost.

Above the gate, a few steps away from her, Haradin was fighting against the powerful spell which was seeking to devour him. Aliana clenched her fists in frustration.
I must do something. I can’t just stay here twiddling my thumbs while Haradin is consumed. I have to help him —but how?

Asti’s eyes were on her as if she could read her mind. She shook her head.

“Aliana… no…”

But Aliana was determined to intervene. She was no longer an innocent, insecure young girl. She was a woman, and she would fight! Aliana hurried to Haradin’s side and allowed the death-blackness of the enemy spell to envelop her. She could see it trying to penetrate her protective sphere, and immediately the medallion sensed it too. The Ilenian gem shone as it cast its spell, using the Healer’s inner energy to strengthen the sphere. Aliana, now completely surrounded by blackness, could feel the cold presence of death enfolding her as it searched for her soul. Haradin was fighting with his elemental magic against the spell, but was barely able to contain it.
It’s Death Magic
I can feel it clearly… She closed her eyes. Concentrating on her inner energy, she used her Gift, the power of Healing. She projected it from her hands towards the sphere, just as she always did with the sick and wounded. She opened her eyes and witnessed something amazing.

The blackness was vanishing at the touch of the Life Magic.

Aliana watched enthralled as the life-magic of her Gift infiltrated the protective sphere and destroyed the death-magic of the spell.
If I could expand my magic’s area of action, I could help Haradin,
she thought. An instant later the Ilenian medallion shone dazzlingly on her chest, radiating her vital energy outwards. She watched in wonder as her life-energy, enhanced by the medallion, devoured the blackness of death Haradin was fighting against.

The blackness was destroyed. The Mage was free.

“Thank you… Aliana…” he said, gasping for breath.

“Are you all right?”

“Yes, I just need to rest a little… to recover. The effort… has been enormous…”

Greatly relieved, Aliana smiled. The Mage looked exhausted, but they had defeated the enemy spell and were still alive. This small victory filled her with optimism, even though things were still desperate.

“You very smart,” Asti told Sonea, and patted her on the back.

Sonea shrugged and smiled.

“She’s very smart indeed,” Aliana said.

Sonea pursed her lips. “Well, we all have a brain to think with, and I like to use mine.”

“Thank you,” Aliana said with a wink. “You go on thinking that way.”

“Yes, you go on, you very smart,” Asti agreed.

Shortly after this, a massive explosion behind them made them all spin round. They saw a flying ball of fire, which exploded over the black tide in front of the wall and reduced everything around into ashes, bringing death to hundreds of soldiers of the black army.

“It looks as though Haradin has recovered,” Sonea said cheerfully as she saw the devastating destructive power of the great Mage in action.

Another ball of fire exploded in the same spot, and the flames rose to the sky. Aliana could see the horror which the fire had spread among the enemy troops. Screams of infernal suffering sounded everywhere. She shuddered at what was before her eyes. But it was their only hope.

The Mage unleashed an inferno on the earth, and the Norriel warriors enjoyed a moment’s respite.

Suddenly the sound of a horn reached them from the west.

“Horn, Kendas,” Asti said, sounding uneasy.

The sound was coming from the left flank.

“The King and Kendas must be under attack from Magic,” Sonea concluded.

Aliana was deeply concerned. She hesitated for a moment, her eyes on Haradin, but he signaled her not to worry about him. She simply could not leave Gerart to his luck. She had to help him. Asti came to her side and said: “We go, help,” as if confirming Aliana in her decision. The Healer nodded at the Usik and turned to Sonea.

“Go, quickly,” the little Librarian said. “I’ll help Haradin,”