Rogue Magician (The Magician Rebellion) (10 page)

The
second ogre sent guards scattering out of the way of the charge to protect its
fellow. Kellen laid on the ground reaching for his hammer, but was barely able
to move with his armor dented into his chest and sides. “Defenders form a
line,” he commanded as another guardsman helped him to his feet.

His
men were shaken, but years of training emerged and they did as commanded.
Forming a line of shields and spears they held back the ogre's advance forcing
it back or risk getting impaled. The soldiers stabbed at the ogres with their spears
trying to keep the monsters off balance as arrows rained down upon the
creatures. The ogres tried to fall back seeking to regain momentum and burst
through the defenders’ lines. The guardsmen pressed forward while their archers
started another volley of arrows.

Long
minutes later the two mighty beasts fell dead to the ground. The guards took a
moment to catch their collective breath, but a moment was all they had before a
third ogre reached them. It grabbed Tannys Lightfoot from his horse pinning his
arms to his side and forcing him to drop his sword and shield. Then it lifted
the rider to its wide-open mouth filled with pointed teeth clearly intending to
feast on the human.

Byrn
pressed his horse forward towards the ogre as fast as he could manage. The ogre
hesitated from finishing off Tannys just long enough to swat at Byrn who leaned
to one side of his mount deftly avoiding the attack before slicing his blade
across the left leg and falling completely out of the seat. Sensing that he was
going to fall Byrn tucked into a roll and came to a stop just behind the ogre.

The
monster turned to face the young man and tried to smash Byrn with its free
hand, but stumbled forward when it put too much pressure on the slashed leg.
The ogre was lurching for him when Byrn shoved his blade upward into its gut
stabbing through its heart.

The
third ogre was dead, but it fell forward on Byrn with the full weight of its
massive body.

***

The
injured Kellen reached Tannys and the fallen ogre followed closely behind by
the remaining guards that were with them. They pried the master courier and
militiaman from the ogre's rigid grasp.

“
Are
you hurt?” asked Kellen to the shaken man.

Tannys
refused to answer. He seemed to not even acknowledge the knight-captain’s
presence.

“
He
is in shock! Are you hurt?” Kellen asked again and then understanding sunk in,
“...Where is your boy?”

Still
Tannys Lightfoot said nothing. He was paralyzed by his grief.

“
I
saw it. The boy killed the ogre single handed,” said Rallen. “It fell on him...”

Knight-Captain
Kellen understood that death on the battlefield was unavoidable. No matter how
well trained or skilled a force was there were always casualties. That was
especially true when facing a more powerful opponent as they now were, but Byrn
was no soldier. He was just a boy... a very brave boy...

“
Can
someone get this thing off of me?” came a muffled voice from under the hulking
monster, “It smells like sweat and dung under here!”

“
Quickly
men, let's get this thing off of him,” ordered the captain.

The
guardsmen lifted and pushed the massive corpse carefully so as not to injure
Byrn. It took eight men to lift it enough for Rallen to scurry underneath and
pull Byrn out by his arms.

His
body was bloody and bruised, but most of the injuries were superficial and the
blood belonged to the ogre. Rallen and another guard helped Byrn to his feet,
but when he tried to stand on his own the young magician started to feint
before the pair of guardsmen caught him.

“
How
did you survive that?” asked Kellen in surprise.

Byrn
smiled the grin of someone who had no idea what was going on around him and
Kellen guessed he was still dazed. Nevertheless Byrn told him, “I managed to
craft a protective shield as I did this morning. It was instinctual, but I
imagined a shield between the ogre and me and that was all there was to it.”

Kellen
nodded in understanding. The shield had held only for an instant. It was just
long enough to absorb the impact, but the massive corpse would still have
crushed him if he were not pinned under it just next to the sword's protruding
hilt. The young man was truly a magician now.

“
We
need to get him to the temple of Ashura,” said Tannys now freed from his stupor
by his son’s miraculous survival as much as him suddenly exposing himself as a
magician in front of all of these guardsmen. “He is clearly delusion. The boy
must have suffered a nasty smack to his head.”

“
Agreed,”
said Kellen, “but we have got to meet up with the main body of the guard. The
immediate area is secure, but there are more of those things spreading
throughout the city and killing people as we speak.

“
Guardsman
Brennan, help Master Lightfoot get his son to the temple of Ashura.”

“
Yes,
sir,” replied one of the bowmen. He put Byrn's left arm over his shoulder and
Tannys did the same with the right.

Finding
a nearby bread cart, they sat Byrn in it as he slowly recovered his equilibrium
during their trek to the temple. The two men each carried one rail of the cart
and hauled their precious cargo the rest of the way to the temple although the
sounds of fighting were never far off.

“
Father,
do you think mother will be alright on her own?” Byrn asked from his seat in
the cart.

Tannys
frowned at the thought of his wife alone. “I hope so. With any luck she is safe
at home. May Ashura protect her.”

Marian
Lightfoot hid under her bed cowering in fear with Nanny Regald beside her. A
horrible snoop and blabbermouth Nanny Regald was highly regarded as a fountain
of risqué knowledge. If there was a lord siring bastards across the countryside
she would know about it and she was happy to share the news, but right now
Nanny just wanted to stop herself from talking.

“
Do
you think they will find us?” whispered Nanny, “I think they will.”

“
They
surely will if you do not quiet yourself,” Marian warned her testily.

Nanny
wished she could stop talking, but whenever she did her mind kept going back to
thoughts of her children. It may have been an hour ago or month ago for all
Nanny knew. She had just finished fixing dinner when her husband, Rafe, had
gotten home. Her girls, Clarissa and Lorien, ten and nine years respectively,
were helping her set the table when the horn sounded indicating danger. A
second higher pitched horn sounded a moment later calling on the militia. Nanny
did not know what the danger was, but she feared the worst as Rafe kissed her
and the girls goodbye and left to join the fight.

Her
fears were confirmed a few minutes ago when a gray-green giant of a beast
smashed its way through her front door and a moment later through the clay wall
itself as it squeezed its way in. Nanny tried to protect her children as best
she could. She threw pots and pans at the thing all the while screaming for the
girls to hurry out the back door away from the beast.

She
had no way of knowing that she was sending them into the arms of yet another of
the monsters until she heard their screams followed by the creature's
triumphant roar and abrupt silence a moment later. Her heart beated heavy in
her chest daring to hope, but she knew the truth of it though she refused to
think it. In that instant the world seemed to stand still for Nanny Regald. The
knowledge that she would soon join her girls was a complete certainty and in
that moment seemed comforting to know that she would not be without them for
long.

If
not for Marian calling her from the kitchen window she would have let the beast
kill her. When Marian called her name it was enough to bring Nanny back to her
senses and compel her to move her feet and climb out the window before the
creature within the house could catch her.

“
Quickly
to my home,” Marian told her in a hushed, but frantic voice not wanting to
alert the ogre behind Nanny's house. Nanny turned her head as she ran hoping to
steal a glance of her girls.

“
Do
not look,” Marian warned her, “It will do you no good.”

“
They
are dead, aren't they?” Nanny asked. Tears clouded her vision and rolled down
her cheeks.

Marian
ignored the question. She led Nanny by the hand quickly and quietly to her
home. “We must hurry before the ogre outside sees us or the one inside makes
its way out and finds us.”

Marian’s
house was dark and looked as it was empty to those outside. Nanny hoped that
appearance might be enough to save them. The women hid under Marian's bed in
the hopes that if the ogres did come they would not have the sense to check
their hiding place.

A
loud crash came from the front of the house followed by rustling noises and the
sound of furniture being knocked over. Nanny nearly cried out then, but her
friend’s fast thinking and faster hands covered her mouth tightly suppressing
the noise. After a moment Nanny nodded to Marian letting her know that she had
calmed down enough and the courier’s wife let her go.

Then
they could here the table and chairs being turned over and thrown in the
kitchen. The faint inhale and exhale of the beast was labored as it slowly drew
ever closer room by room. Time seemed to stand still as the women waited for
the beast to discover them or leave. Instead it seemed content to skulk back
and forth throughout the house.

“
It
must have seen us,” said Nanny in a hurried whisper. “That is why it will not
leave.” She began to shake with fear as she buried her face in her hands to
muffle the sobs that were bound to grow louder.

Marian
grabbed Nanny gently and held her tightly as she tried to comfort the
increasingly hysterical woman. “Be calm, Nanny. Be calm,” she pleaded under her
breath. The stress in her voice suddenly making it clear that Marian’s own fear
was barely being held in check.

The
monster's steps grew louder as it entered the small bedroom. Standing ten feet
tall it was hunched over causing its breath to fall heavily in the chamber
smelling of rot and decay. Nanny briefly wondered what the thing ate to make
such a stench and let out a soft sob remembering her girls' screams.

The
bed flew up and landed against the interior wall. Nanny's scream was ear
piercing, causing the beast to rear back for a moment. Seeing an opportunity
Marian was on her feet faster than she could think. “Run!” she screamed over and
over again as she tried to hurry past the ogre in its momentary confusion all
the while pulling Nanny by the arm across the floor. “Get up and run!” she
shrieked.

Finally
understanding Nanny found her way to her feet and almost reached the doorway
when the creature's massive hand grabbed the woman’s free arm and ripped her
free of Marian's grasp flinging Nanny Regald into the opposite wall behind it.

It
turned to Nanny and saw her lying on the floor. Bright lights clouded her
vision as she started to pass out. The last thing Nanny Regald saw was the ogre
turning its attention to Marian. It made a grab for her and Marian turned and
ran fleeing the house. Then the ogre turned its attention back to Nanny. Its
black eyes regarded her with intense interest.

Ashura
is the goddess of life so it was little wonder that her temple would be built
from the sylvan wood commonly found in the elven kingdom of Raiden. The trees
were not cut into traditional boards as most buildings were, but were made of
whole trees that were grown together into a massive building with a thick
canopy of branches and leaves for a roof. In this way the trees could be
preserved and honor the goddess.

There
was no door to the temple of Ashura since all were welcome and on this evening
there was no shortage of people accepting her invitation. The temple was lined
with the injured and dying and they were overflowing out into the street in
front of the temple's gaping entrance.

Brennan
and Tannys were on either side of Byrn holding him up as he stumbled along. The
young magician still felt dizzy after working his spell like a great deal of
energy had been drained from him although the magic had lasted for barely a
second.

“
We
need to find a healer,” said the guardsman Brennan looking around for anyone in
the priests' signature green robes. “Over there,” he said pointing into the
crowd. A pair of priests was administering aid to an injured girl about Byrn's
age. One was reading a spell from his grimoire while the other applied a healing
balm.

Once
the priests finished with the child Tannys approached them and asked for their
aid, “Please heal my son. He was injured in an ogre attack.”

“
There
are many injured here as you can see,” explained the priest with the grimoire
motioning to the wounded around them, “Many are in worse condition than your
boy who have also fallen victim to the foul things. If he will have a seat on
one of the empty cots, then we will treat him as soon as we are able.”