The Godlost Land (62 page)

Erislee still didn't completely know how they controlled them – the wizards had always said they thought it was some kind of charm, and they'd found such charms on them – but the how didn't matter. Whether it was a charm or a demon ability granted to the thralls or something else, what she did know was that panicking animals were suddenly far more difficult to control. Those controlling them needed calm. And the one thing they knew from Midland Heights was that when the beasts were hungry or panicking, the thralls lost control. When those controlling them were also panicking and their beasts were already starting to run wild, the outcome was inevitable. And once the wizards of the earth started throwing their magic into the fray and dropping small rockfalls on top of everyone, the result was inevitable.

It came suddenly. One minute there was howling and screaming as the chimera broke free of their control, and the next there was death. An orgy of violence and savagery that exploded into life and knew no bounds. Blood and body parts sprayed in all directions, screaming and howling echoed through the narrow pass, and bodies plummeted to the ground everywhere. Those of the thralls and the chimera both. And where they landed they remained, broken and bleeding. She suspected though that many of the thralls had been dead long before they'd fallen, torn apart by their own beasts as they huddled in their overlooks and perches.

Staring at the carnage unfolding in front of her Erislee felt a chill. It was a shock to see just how savage and uncontrollable the beasts were without their thrall masters. And once they panicked there was no hope of holding them back. They didn't even recognise their own kind. She watched as leonids actually began attacking other leonids, lost in a mixture of fear and blood lust. It was something, she hadn't seen before.

At least it was quick. Five minutes of rampant slaughter, no more. After that there simply weren't enough survivors left to fight. But that was the danger of fighting in cliff top perches and on ledges. Even if you didn't kill your opponent immediately, the chances were that you were both going to lose your footing and tumble to your doom. Which was exactly what had happened. The pass was littered with broken bodies and body parts. Thousands of them. Thousands more were scattered out in the lands just beyond them.

It was then that Erislee called off the attack. There was no purpose in continuing it any longer. Instead it was time to enter the pass themselves, and that part she left to the command of the war masters. They had a plan.

An hour later they began their advance through the pass, two hundred of their best soldiers leading the way. The men were armed with spears to kill any of the fallen that might still be alive, and longbows to kill any survivors remaining in the cliffs above. But there was precious little for them to do. Though she saw them stab maybe a few score bodies and launch perhaps as many arrows into the cliffs above, in reality the battle was over. And by the time the rest of the army followed them through, the main problem they had left to deal with was the footing. The bodies were so thick on the ground that in places they had to step on them. The horses especially didn't like that.

The pass was only five hundred paces long, more or less, but by the end of it she was impatient, waiting for the journey to end. But eventually it did and she found herself standing on the far side of the pass staring at the grasslands beyond as they slowly descended into the distance. It was then that Erislee knew that she'd taken an enormous step in her journey to retake the five kingdoms from the false temple.

It was just over a year since she had begun her journey. A year and a month maybe since Harl had rescued her from the thralls. Since then her people had freed both the Rainbow Mountains and Vardania while Northland and the Regency were both well on the way to being freed. And now here she was, standing in the Kingdom of the Lion. That was better progress than anyone could possibly have expected.

In the next few weeks ten thousand troops would be coming through from the Rainbow Mountains to reach the Kingdom of the Lion, as would the dryads from the Regency. Their task now was to meet up with them.

In the morning she decided, they would begin their march east, crossing the entire kingdom to join up with the others. And once they were united they would turn and march north through the eastern side of the kingdom until they finally reached the capitol, Lion's Crest.

The end was in sight.

Chapter Fifty Nine

The throne room was a very sombre place. The new crop of war masters were full of pessimism about what lay before them. But they were very careful not to say too much. After all they had seen what had happened to their predecessors. So now they operated by a simple creed. If they didn't have anything good to say, they said nothing. It made for a more peaceful throne room. Still, their pessimism showed. And the tactics they offered him were now only about annoying and distracting the enemy. There was no more talk of victory. 

Terellion hated that. But even he knew it was too late to do anything else. He had lost too many armies. Too many soldiers and wizards.

In hind sight the turning point had been Midland Heights when he had lost his second army; some forty thousand chimera and thousands of soldiers. That after losing the first one, the garrison stationed in the city. Two such hits had been too much. When the demon king had turned on him and sent his every thrall and beast after his soldiers throughout the rest of the five kingdoms, it had been the death blow. To add to his troubles he still had twenty thousand soldiers on the field, blocking the two remaining passes leading into Vardania.

The war masters didn't understand why he left them there. They had pleaded with him several times to bring those soldiers home. But he couldn't do that. He couldn't allow the thralls to get through and gain a significant foothold in his realm. He'd even placed another small force on the pass that the High Priestess' army had broken through just to make sure no one else followed them. The thralls still had to be contained even after the High Priestess had broken through.

Now it was simply about weakening the High Priestess and the dryads while they prepared for the coming siege. So he had his thralls sending harpies across enemy lines to launch attacks on the civilians had left behind to march on him. If his forces couldn't directly face the enemy head on having suffered so many losses, they would attack their weakest points. Their loved ones back home. So while the High Priestess and the dryads marched on him, the harpies slipped between their lines and marched on their homelands. The intention was that they kill as many civilians as they could. Women and children first. That way when the soldiers realised they were vulnerable, that their loved ones were in danger, some of them would turn back and head home to protect them.

It was a brilliant strategy. One he was very proud of. But it wasn't working so far.

But if the war masters were pessimistic, the scouts were worse when they brought him their depressing reports. Already they were reporting that the High Priestess and her poxy army had come through Roland Pass to the south west of the kingdom without suffering any casualties. No casualties at all! How could that be?

The few survivors claimed that they had first been attacked from behind and then that the thrall army had descended on them from the front. They had been caught in a trap between two armies and been unable to defend themselves. It was an excuse, and a poor one at that. He would have killed them all for their failure, save that those few hundred survivors now marching for Lion's Crest up the west side of the realm were needed to help protect the kingdom. To protect him.

The worst of it was that the scouts agreed with them. They didn't know how the High Priestess had done it, but they knew that the bodies of the fallen were theirs. Theirs and the thralls. Ten thousand of them at least. Meanwhile her army of fifty thousand at least marched on him while a second army of ten thousand at least was heading north towards them from the Rainbow Mountains. The dryads would soon be entering the realm from the south east and the north. It seemed that the gods themselves were favouring her. Meanwhile Tyche was definitely cursing him with misfortune.

He had been surprised to learn that the High Priestess was marching east to meet up with the others before marching north to Lion's Crest. He would have expected that she would simply have marched north along the western side of the realm while their allies marched north along the eastern side, intending to meet at the capitol. And for a moment when he'd heard what she was actually doing he had had hope. Hope of fleeing through the west.

But then he'd remembered the bad news. All three passes leading to the south west and Vardania were still blocked, held by the enemy. The High Priestess held Roland Pass. She'd left a small force behind just to make certain he couldn't flee through it – at least that was his assumption for it. The thralls held the other two passes. He couldn't get through any of them. While to the north and west the dryads of Pariton were in full command of Northland. He was still trapped.

For a while though he had still considered it. To abandon his city and make a break for the west, taking with him all his soldiers and leave behind the thralls and their beast armies. His thought had been that they would simply try to punch their way west through the borderlands between Vardania and Northland, and then on through Harvas Greens. But if he did that he knew it wouldn't be long before the thralls still loyal to Xin would come out of hiding and start freeing the others from his hold. If they were quick enough he could end up being pursued by them and every chimera in the city within a matter of days.

The alternative was to bring them with him. But he couldn't do that. Because bringing them out from the safety of the city to where he knew others of Xin's thralls could reach them was tantamount to committing suicide. There had already been incidents where patrols supported by thralls and chimera had found themselves unexpectedly in battles for survival with their own allies. To make matters worse Harvas Greens was a land of swamps and fens, marshes and bogs, and of course thick forests. There were no roads through it. The fauns didn't like roads. Which meant his army would quickly become scattered and broken up. They would soon no longer be an army. They would become a rabble. And the last thing he wanted was to be trying to battle his way through such an inhospitable land with his army in disarray while being hunted by chimera, many of whom could fly.

It was better his war masters told him, to stay where he was and weather the battle in a walled city where all his soldiers and the chimera under his control could be kept together to act as one. They could and were bringing in provisions in preparation for a siege. And they were fortifying. Rebuilding the broken parts of the walls, adding towers where they were needed. While they had plenty of soldiers. Even though many had not made it back thanks to Xin, enough had that he was sure the city was well defended. Best of all, with the city so empty of people other than their armies, they had plentiful supplies. Enough to survive years under siege. And if the High Priestess was ever foolish enough to attack she would soon find that they were more than ready for her.

Terellion wanted to believe them. But he also knew they would say anything to keep their tongues in their mouths. He also remembered that Midland Heights had been the best fortified city in the five kingdoms, and it had fallen to her. If she could crush it so easily, and then according to the stories level mountains with that accursed bow of hers, there was no such thing as safety behind walls. Especially when in time her armies would completely surround him. Terellion put that to them in the hope that one of them might have a useful answer.

“Sir, we also have news about the bow.”

One of the war masters – Terellion couldn't remember his name – spoke up suddenly. And then he turned to someone at his side. A soldier dressed in a scout's leathers.

“This is Dari, a scout just returned from the Rainbow Mountains.”

“Yes?”

Terellion was actually curious even through his gloom. He had never before heard of a weapon of such terrible power. And if the gods had graced his enemy with such a weapon he needed to know if there was any way of countering it.

“The soldiers in the Cut Valley Holding that I spoke to swear it wasn't the bow that destroyed the mountains. It was the wizards themselves. The High Priestess killed them with the bow from over a league away, but then they exploded. They say that the High Priestess' army has very strict instructions that no more Circle wizards are to be harmed because the consequences will be worse. They are to be captured and the High Priestess will deal with them herself.”

The scout said it as if it was a bad thing. A calamity. But it wasn't. As Terellion sat on his throne staring in shock at the man giving his report, he knew it was a wonderful thing. In fact it might very well be his salvation! Because it meant that the destruction wasn't the result of the bow but the binding breaking. And that was power. Suddenly a smile began to force itself on to his face.

The man didn't understand of course. He probably had no idea of what a binding even was. But Terellion did. And despite everything he began to laugh a little, overcome by the wonder of it. The relief. If the consequences of him dying were so great then with a little of Tyche's blessing, they knew that they couldn't kill him. He was safe! And moreover the city was safe.
His
city.

He had known of course that there would be price to be paid by whoever killed him. He was a Circle wizard after all. When the magic was released from him it would burn. It might well explode. And he'd known that the magic contained within the binding would add to that when it was released by his death. But what the man was saying was so much more than he'd expected.

Midland Heights, the plateau around it and the mountains around it had been destroyed? Not by this terrible weapon of the gods he'd been told about but by the death of the Circle wizards! And it was a binding. So with each successive death of a Circle wizard the devastation would be worse. That was wonderful! Better than wonderful! It was the best news he'd heard in ages. No army could afford to attack him when the likelihood was a fate so terrible that the world would tremble.

Moreover the High Priestess had to know that he suddenly realised. She had killed the others. And she had to know that her bow couldn't do what she claimed. The deceitful bitch! Lying to her own followers! Claiming credit for his own magic! You just couldn't trust women. Not even priestesses.

Still, her lies didn't matter. What mattered was that her army, even now marching through the Kingdom of the Lion and freeing towns as they approached Lion's Crest, was useless. Completely useless. She couldn't kill him. She couldn't even risk killing him. And she knew it. The lying bitch knew it! What good was a war machine if killing one or more of the Circle wizards would potentially destroy her own entire army?

Terellion started laughing as the scout continued with his report. And the laughter grew. How could it not when after all the weeks and months of frustrations and worry, of feeling the noose grow ever tighter around his neck, he now knew he was in no danger at all? Everyone else might be, but not him! So he let the relief fill him and his laughter fill the throne room. He let the tears of happiness roll down his cheeks.

It was a long time before it ended, and even then it only did so because he was tired. Physically exhausted from having laughed so hard. His lungs hurt, his eyes stung from the tears that had been leaking from them. And he suddenly knew that he had to take advantage of this wondrous turn of fortunes. Tyche might have finally blessed him but even she could do nothing if he was too stupid to use what she gave him. And he knew how to use this.

“You're dismissed soldier!”

For a moment Terellion thought about actually saying something appreciative about the man's work. But then he thought better of it. After all, as valuable as the information was the man had done little more than talk to a few people and listen to a couple of soldier's tales. He could have done that himself. The man had done a competent job but no more. And it had taken him months to do it.

“Send for my envoys!”

Terellion bellowed the order at no one in particular knowing it would be obeyed, and then waited, making plans how to use this to his advantage. And there was one obvious way. He had five more Circle wizards remaining at his beck and call. All he had to do was have each one lined up ready to die the moment the High Priestess' army attacked. All they had to do was stand there, out in the open, with a couple of archers behind them ready to kill them the moment the enemy attacked, and the High Priestess would be left with her plans in ruins. She couldn't attack, though at the same time he couldn't actually afford to kill them. Not when each death might finally collapse the binding and kill him.

But the High Priestess bitch didn't know that. She only had to believe that he would do it.

And maybe he would kill one – as a demonstration of how committed he was. It was dangerous and he knew it would hurt, but the binding had healed. And sometimes in life you had to take chances. You had to wager everything if you wanted to win. And he had already lost so much thanks to the treacherous demon king.