Brotherhood of the Wolf Part 65

The reavers would have them for dinner.

Yet they charged.

He could not say what drove them. Whether it was a belief in their Earth King or the desire to heed Saffira's call. Perhaps, it was neither. Perhaps they fought only because there was nothing left for them to do.

He himself raced down the tower steps, shoving aside slower men so that he could join the battle. His heart hammered and pulse quickened. Invincibles surged from alleys to back him.

CHAPTER 62.

CHASMS.

On the road to Carris, time and again Borenson had wondered about Saffira. Would she have the courage to stand up to Raj Ahten? Did she truly want peace? Would she betray Gaborn and his people?

Yet now, with danger all around, this woman--hardly more than a child really--rose to Gaborn's defense.

Saffira finished her song. For a breathless moment Borenson sat enthralled, unable to think, unable to do anything but mourn the fact that her song had ended.

Cheers arose from the city, thunderous cheers like the voice of a distant sea, a.s.suring that the people of Rofehavan would heed her call.

Saffira's courage had been sufficient. In that moment, Borenson loved her as fully and innocently as he could love a woman. His heart pounded, and he wanted nothing more than to stand in her shadow, to breathe her sweet perfume, to gaze at her ebony hair.

She sat tall in her saddle, breathing hard. The fight in her eyes was a marvel, and as she sat listening to the cheers from Carris, she bowed her head in silent exultation.

"Come, my friends," Saffira called, "before it is too late." She spurred her mount north, galloping downhill toward Gaborn, but not making a direct charge.

She was angling west, away from the main force of the reavers.

Smart girl, Borenson thought. She's pretending to charge, hoping to divert the reavers' forces from Gaborn, even as she races west past Bone Hill. From there she would angle back around from the north, come at Gaborn from behind.

Ha'Pim and Mahket struggled to catch up, to ride at her side. Ahead lay Bone Hill, the fibrous coc.o.o.n around it gleaming dully like icicles in the evening, the fell mage at its crown gleaming from the opalescent runes tattooed into her carapace.

The great reaver stood with her citrine staff raised to the sky; the philia on her broad head rose and waggled as she sought to catch a scent.

Suddenly her enormous head swiveled toward Saffira, as if she'd taken notice. She pointed her staff toward Saffira's entourage.

She thinks we're attacking! Borenson realized almost too late. He did not know if anyone else saw her response. "Veer left!" he cried.

The fell mage hissed and light pulsed in her crystalline staff. The air around it exploded as a dark green cloud issued from its tip.

Saffira charged sharply left as the green haze pulsed out and slammed into the ground on her previous trajectory. The cloud carried an odor of rot so foul, so abominable, that Borenson did not merely smell it, he could feel his body struggle to respond, as if his skin would slough away and flesh decompose as he watched.

Saffira covered her face with a golden silk scarf, weaved a course perilously close to the nearest reaver. The ground trembled.

Pashtuk and the green woman were unceremoniously dumped from their mount.

Pashtuk grabbed the wylde and quickly tried to remount. The wylde struggled lightly in his grasp, as if eager to battle the reavers.

Saffira looked back, saw his predicament, and stopped her own horse, waiting for him.

"Watch out!" the child behind Borenson cried out. A blade-bearer rushed Saffira's back. Her guards shouted, warning her.

Saffira lowered her head, wheeled and spurred her charger, as if hoping to draw the beast away from Pashtuk.

Almost casually the reaver swung its great talons, talons that gleamed wickedly on a forepaw that was as long as a horse.

The reaver smacked Saffira's mare, breaking the horse's neck and slapping it backward. Saffira tumbled over the top of her horse, bounced against one great claw, and vaulted into the dark recesses behind the reaver.

Three other reavers raced toward the spot.

Ha'Pim shouted in dismay and drew rein, leaping to dismount. A blade-bearer smacked him with a glory hammer as he landed. Blood and gore spattered Borenson's face.

Mahket rode full of furor into the reavers, swinging a great battleaxe. He leapt into the mouth of the reaver that had struck Saffira, delivered a tremendous blow through its upper palate, and danced back out, swinging at another monster's leg. His body was a blur of motion.

Pashtuk quit trying to mount his horse--simply hurled himself toward the closest charging reaver. He leapt up several feet in the air, struck down with his battle-axe at the base of the monster's neck.

Borenson reined in his horse. There was a slim chance that Saffira would live. The blow she'd taken might only have broken a few bones.

Yet if she lived, she was now behind three reavers--or under them.

If they did not kill her outright, she'd be crushed.

"Get us out of here!" the child behind Borenson cried, clutching Borenson's waist. The odor of rot that the fell mage had exuded was filling the area, gagging him.

He gritted his teeth in frustration. He was Saffira's guard. She owned him more completely than he could ever imagine himself being owned again.

Yet he was also bound to Gaborn. He knew where his duty lay. Borenson had the wizard Binnesman's wylde at hand. She was a potent weapon. Borenson needed to deliver her to Binnesman.

Weakly, Borenson heard Saffira cry out in Tuulistanese, "Ahretva! Ahret!"

Though he could not understand her plea, he now knew that she lived. The power of her Voice was more compelling than cold logic. The woman who had so courageously charged into the midst of the reavers to deliver her message now held his heart too firmly for him to resist.

So, Borenson thought dully, this is where I will make my battlefield. This is where I make my stand. It is not a battlefield I would have chosen.

With no endowments to aid him and with no apology to the child who rode behind, Borenson leapt from his mount and charged into battle.

Averan sat on her horse for half a second in dismay. Borenson and Saffira's bodyguards had abandoned their mounts--all to defend Saffira.

The green woman remained in her saddle. A reaver's blade arced overhead as two monsters raced toward her.

Averan shouted, "Foul Deliverer, Fair Destroyer: blood, yes! Kill!"

The green woman leapt from her horse onto the nearest reaver so swiftly that Averan almost did not see it. Spring slammed a fist into the reaver's brain, shattering its skull, as if she'd finally figured out that this was the quickest way to get some of the goo that she liked.

Ahead of Averan, the two Indhopalese guards lopped the forearms off a reaver. The creature reared; tried to back away, while with terrifying slowness and clumsiness--or at least compared to warriors with endowments--Sir Borenson rushed up under its belly and started trying to chop between its thoracic plates. The guards turned to a reaver at their backs, trying to hack a path to Saffira.

To Averan's left and behind her, reavers all raced to converge. "Help!" Averan screamed. "Help!"

But no one came to her side. She didn't have Saffira's allure. She was only a little girl.

She dropped from her horse. A reaver swung a glory hammer behind her, bludgeoning Borenson's fine mount into a spray of blood and guts.

Averan scampered, hunched over, and tried to make herself small. Desperately she sought someplace to hide.

Ahead, the green woman had just slaughtered a reaver. It lay gasping mechanically, mouth open, its raspy tongue nearly two feet wide hanging from its mouth. Averan wanted to roll under the monster, to hide in the crook of, its legs, but the beast had fallen to the ground.

Its mouth, she realized. I could hide in there.

She leapt into the monster's cavernous mouth. Its palate formed a hollow nearly as tall as a man, but the sides were covered in slime. The warty flesh of its gums was nearly black, and the reaver's teeth around her, row upon row of them, were all as clear as crystal knives. She clung to two of the longest teeth, hanging on, lest she fall down.

The reaver's breath smelled fetid, added to the horrid stench of decay that the fell mage had created. Averan almost imagined that the beast was rotting apart in her hands. Her own hands itched, and dark blotches were forming on them.

The reaver's mouth convulsed mechanically, and the tongue she stood on shifted. Then the reaver's maw slowly began to close.

Averan's stomach clenched in terror. She pushed on its gums with all of her might, struggled to keep the mouth open. She feared that even though the reaver was dead, it might swallow her still. She'd seen how dying animals sometimes moved by reflex. "Help!" she screamed. "Help!"

"I'm coming!" Borenson shouted. He'd sliced cleanly between the reaver's thoracic plates and now backed away as the reaver came crashing down, its forepaws landing almost atop him.

He's coming for me, Averan thought.

But now as the eunuchs continued to fight a blade-bearer to Borenson's left, he lunged beyond them, into a dark gorge formed of reaver corpses. Borenson raced to Saffira.

But I thought you were going to help me! Averan wanted to shout.

The evening sky was going dark. The land was covered in a cloying, sickly mist, and in the deep shadows, reavers rose up black and monolithic. As a new attacker scaled the bodies of the dead, the light above Averan was nearly cut off.

Averan cringed in terror, struggled to push the reaver's mouth open again. As she did, she squinted, and in her mind's eye she could see the emerald flame burning brightly.

It's so close now, she thought. I could almost touch it. She'd been drawn to it for days. Now, she thought she understood why.

Safety. I would be safe with the Earth King, she told herself--safe as his Chosen. A wild hope thrilled through her.

"Foul Deliverer, Fair Destroyer," Averan cried on sudden impulse, "go get the Earth King! He'll help us."

Then the reaver's mouth closed, despite all that she could do.

Averan screamed.

CHAPTER 63.

THE BRIGHTEST STAR IN INDHOPAL.

Raj Ahten raced down from the stone walls of Carris, struggling to be the first to reach Saffira. He shoved aside some slower men on the stairs, then leapt from them onto the back of a dead frowth giant, catching his foot in the beast's chain mail. He pulled his foot free.

Once released, he leapt from the back of one dead reaver to another, using the dead beasts as if they were ghastly stepping stones. Thus he reached the fallen castle gates well before most of his people did. Only a few of Paladane's men were ahead of him out on the causeway.

For half a heartbeat, he stood on a reaver's corpse above the causeway and felt the tremors of an earthquake. It shook the very foundations of Carris, with a roar far louder than the surf. As it hit the sh.o.r.e, it caused a mighty wave to ripple out.

Paladane's finest men fought ahead down the causeway, embroiled in a melee.

He could imagine how they would fare.

He raced now, leaping along the backs and bellies of dead reavers.

As the quake rocked a reaver beneath him, Raj Ahten vaulted into the air, then landed in the fray atop a living reaver's head. He slammed his warhammer deep into its sweet triangle, killing it instantly.

A hundred thousand human voices cried out as one as the earthquake surged beneath the castle. Raj Ahten glanced back just as the west wall of Carris sheered away in thunderous ruin, spilling outward.

He dared not hesitate. He climbed the reaver's sloping head, raced toward Saffira.

He did not watch the fall of Carris, but he heard it, smelled the acrid scent of stone dust in the air. The people wailed as Carris collapsed. Towers toppled. Shops disintegrated.

With six endowments of metabolism, Raj Ahten fought swiftly and furiously, daring attacks he'd never have tried if not for Saffira. He leapt on reaver heads and sought to crush them with his hammer. He raced past one monster, pausing to shatter its leg so that men behind would have an easier time with it. For long moments, his existence became an obscene dream of death and maiming, while Paladane's men and his Invincibles fought at his side.

Behind him, he could hear hundreds and thousands of commoners charging toward Saffira, racing to do battle in the midst of the reavers. To do so was suicide, Raj Ahten thought. But in his heart he knew that to do less was also suicide.

In the midst of the city, several towers flamed. As they crumbled, they spewed burning wood and cinders up into the evening sky.

As Paladane's men slaughtered a reaver, Raj Ahten climbed atop it to get his bearings. Behind him in the castle people fled for their lives: warriors and merchants, women with babes in arms, lords and paupers.

Raj Ahten marveled at how many had survived the quake, for if he'd not seen it, he'd have thought that not more than a few hundred would escape the fall of Carris.

For what seemed along hour, Raj Ahten fought on, though it could not have been more than ten minutes of commoner's time. Paladane's lords and Raj Ahten's Invincibles fought at his back, while the commoners of Carris streamed into the battle lines.

Their effect astonished Raj Ahten: Many reavers began a careful retreat, balking at the challenge. Confronted by a dozen men, most reavers backed away.

Until now, none of his tactics had impressed the reavers. But so many people--a ma.s.s of people attacking as one--gave the reavers pause. It was easy to guess why: The reavers could not distinguish a commoner from a Runelord. All men smelled the same. To a reaver, any man who dared attack presented a potentially devastating challenge.

We are wasps to them, Raj Ahten realized, but they can't tell whether we have stingers.

Pockets of resistance grew around his Invincibles and among Paladane's most powerful lords. But though many reavers balked, they did not flee.

Blade-bearers waded into the commoners and commenced a truly horrific slaughter, cutting down men and women by the thousands and tens of thousands.

The people of Carris threw themselves against the reaver lines, commoners wielding pickaxes and hammers. They gave themselves for their Earth King in ways that they'd never have given themselves for Raj Ahten.

The commoners' efforts were almost futile, except that they provided some diversion for those warriors who had the grace and brawn and metabolism needed for the melee. So their struggle was not completely in vain. But Raj Ahten would never forget the spectacle that presented itself before the gates of Carris: human blood by the barrels, the splintered bones, mangled flesh, the expressions of horror in dead women's eyes.