Frostborn: The False King (18 page)

“Gray Knight,” said Antenora. “Is something amiss?” 

“You’ve found something,” said Calliande. She had been silent as Gavin talked with Third and Antenora, lost in her own thoughts. 

“I do not like some of the tracks I have seen ahead,” said Ridmark. “Does the Sight show you anything?”

Calliande shook her head. “We are too close to the world gate. Its aura overshadows everything. It’s a like trying to find a candle flame while staring into the sun.”

Ridmark nodded. “Third. Scout ahead. No more than three or four miles, and then return here. Sir Ector! We should halt for a moment.”

Ector gave the commands, the horsemen coming to a stop, and Third dropped from her saddle. She took one step forward and vanished in a swirl of blue fire. 

“What do you think she will find?” said Calliande. 

“I saw the tracks of many medvarth warriors ahead,” said Ridmark.

“I imagine that is not so unusual here,” said Calliande.

“It’s not,” said Ridmark, “but it is unusual to see medvarth tracks alongside prints that were made by either orcs or humans.” 

Gavin frowned, trying to unravel the puzzle, but Calliande nodded first.

“Revenants,” said Calliande. “You think there are revenants ahead.” 

“Probably,” said Ridmark. “The Frostborn are efficient. They don’t even let the dead go to waste. They’ll scour the battlefields, raise the dead as revenants, and gather them to use as fodder.” 

“Perhaps it would be best to go around them,” said Ector. “We would gain nothing in fighting them.” 

“Perhaps,” said Ridmark. Yet he kept tapping his fingers against his staff. Gavin had been in enough battles alongside Ridmark to realize that he was planning something. “Or perhaps…”

Blue fire swirled, and Third appeared next to his horse, staggering a little as she caught her balance.

“What did you find?” said Ridmark.

“Revenants,” said Third. “At least two hundred, perhaps two hundred and fifty. Mostly medvarth, but a few khaldjari and humans among them. Four or five cogitaers are leading them.”

“Are they heading this way?” said Ridmark.

“They are,” said Third.

“Likely they’re marching to Dun Licinia to join the Frostborn forces there,” said Ridmark. 

“An interesting consideration,” said Ector, his voice tight, “but less important than the two hundred undead marching towards us.”

“We may not be able to go around them,” said Third. “The road passes through a narrow valley, and I doubt we can elude them without notice.”

“No,” said Ridmark. “There’s no need to go around them. We’re going to fight them.”

“Fight them?” said Ector, incredulous. “We are but thirty, and they are over two hundred.”

“Aye,” said Ridmark, “but of our thirty, two of them are the Keeper and her apprentice, and one more is a Swordbearer. We have enough time to prepare, and if we strike, we can keep an extra two hundred revenants from assailing the walls of Dun Licinia.” 

Ector frowned. “I hope you have a good plan.”

“I think I do,” said Ridmark. “Let’s find out.”

###

Ridmark stood before the men-at-arms, Kharlacht and Caius and Gavin waiting near him. He had ordered the men to dismount, sending their horses back a few hundred yards. There was about to be a great deal of smoke, and Ridmark did not want the smell to spook the animals. Behind him stood Calliande, white fire flickering up and down her staff, while Antenora waited next to the Keeper.

A ball of fire spun over Antenora’s head, her staff glowing with harsh orange-yellow light. The sphere was already three or four feet across, and it swelled a little more with every revolution. Ridmark felt the heat from it beating against his face. 

“Here they come,” said Gavin.

Ridmark saw the ghostly blue light before the revenants themselves appeared.

They marched forward, hundreds of them. 

Most of them were dead medvarth warriors, ghostly blue fire flickering up and down their limbs and dancing in their eyes. Here and there Ridmark saw khaldjari among the revenants, the white glow in their eyes replaced by the cold blue fire of Frostborn magic. Ridmark supposed that most of them had been killed by the Anathgrimm. It was possible that Ridmark himself had killed some of them. 

He did not see any Frostborn among them. The Frostborn possessed the power to raise and control revenants in great numbers, but so did the cogitaers. Third had spotted several cogitaers controlling the revenants, herding them along like shepherds. The cogitaers were less powerful than the Frostborn, but their magic was still dangerous.

Fortunately, the Keeper’s magic was just as potent.

The revenants went motionless, the blue fire in their eyes flickering.

“They’ve spotted us,” said Ector, his voice tight. 

“Yes,” said Ridmark. “And now the cogitaers are deciding what to do. Likely they will send the revenants to charge us, while they strike with a spell. The spell will kill most of us, and then the revenants will charge and finished off any survivors.” 

“I hope you’re not certain of that,” said Ector.

“That’s their plan,” said Ridmark. “It overlooks a few things. Calliande?”

“Here it comes,” she said, and white fire blazed along her staff.

###

Calliande drew on the Sight, watching the currents of power. 

Even with the distorting effect of the world gate on Black Mountain to the north, she saw the cold power gathered in the revenants and the icy magic gathering behind them. There were five cogitaers controlling the revenants, and the cogitaers took to magic the way that birds took to the air or fish to the sea. She saw them link their powers, saw them prepare a spell that would kill most of the men-at-arms. 

Her own power surged through her, the magic of the Well fusing with the mantle of the Keeper. As she shaped the spell, the cogitaers struck, unleashing a blast of blue fire that hammered down from the sky like a meteor. When it struck, it would freeze anyone it touched, turning their blood to ice.

Calliande cast her warding spell, and a dome of white light shimmered into existence above the men-at-arms. The freezing fire hammered into it and shattered against the Keeper’s power. The combined power of the cogitaers exceeded her own strength, but the Keeper’s magic was proof against any other magic upon Andomhaim. 

The blue fire winked out, and Calliande released her warding spell, drawing in her own power as the cogitaers recovered their strength.

“Antenora!” she shouted. “Now!”

###

Gavin watched as Antenora drew back her staff and thrust it forward, her face tight with concentration.

The ball of fire shot forward in a high arc, almost like a stone thrown from a catapult. It soared overhead and landed just before the charging revenants.

Even from dozens of yards away, Gavin felt the heat of the explosion. 

The sphere ripped apart in a blast of flame, the fiery magic scything through dozens of revenants. Antenora made a twisting, hooking motion with her left hand as she thrust her staff again and the fire expanded, spreading across the road in a wall a dozen feet tall. The revenants continued their charge, heedless of the danger, and the elemental fire ripped into the undead creatures. Antenora’s fire was dangerous to living humans. Against revenants animated by the cold magic of the Frostborn, it was absolutely devastating. She had explained that elemental fire was the opposite of the power the Frostborn wielded, that their magic was vulnerable to hers just as a dry forest was vulnerable to a wildfire.

There was a flash of blue light and a gust of cold wind, and Antenora staggered back, shaking her head. The wall of fire collapsed as the cogitaers cast a countering spell, leaving only ashes and cinders in its wake.

But Antenora’s fire had wiped out at least two-thirds of the revenants. Facing down two hundred revenants would have been impossible. Fighting sixty or seventy was far easier.

Especially with the aid of a Swordbearer.

Truthseeker flickered with white fire in Gavin’s hand as he drew upon the soulblade for strength and power.

“Now!” said Ridmark. “Charge! Make for the cogitaers! Calliande!”

The Keeper nodded and started casting a spell, her staff glowing, and Gavin shouted and ran alongside the other men.

###

Calliande gritted her teeth, forcing more power through another spell.

She struck the end of her staff against the ground, white fire erupting from it, and made a sweeping gesture with her left hand. The white fire leaped from her fingers, breaking apart to strike the weapons of the charging men-at-arms. The spell would make their weapons strike with greater force and power against the undead creatures.

Her next spell made white light sheathe the men themselves. It wrapped around them, armoring them in a gentle white glow that would help turn aside the strikes of the weapons of their enemies.

The men-at-arms crashed into the undead, the cogitaers preparing more spells, and Calliande turned her full attention to the battle.

###

Ridmark’s staff was of little use against the undead, so he drew his dwarven axe, the blade of dwarven steel giving off a gentle white glow thanks to Calliande’s spells. 

Gavin had already charged into the revenants, Truthseeker a burning brand in his fist. He cut down one revenant, the soulblade tearing through the undead flesh like a hot knife through paper. Gavin ripped the sword free from the undead medvarth, wheeled, and cut down an undead khaldjari. The revenants attacked with the freezing touch of their hands, but Calliande’s great spell from a year past still protected them from their freezing grasp.

Ridmark joined the fray. A hulking medvarth reached for him, and he ducked under the claws, driving his axe into the side of the creature’s leg. The medvarth stumbled, and Ridmark buried his axe in its neck. He spun, ducking under another medvarth’s attack, and Caius hit the revenant from behind, shattering one of its legs with his mace. Kharlacht struck, taking off the medvarth’s head with a sweep of his greatsword. The medvarth went down, and Ridmark sprang over its carcass.

The five cogitaers stood before him. They wore gray robes over their gaunt frames, their skin an odd shade of blue, their white hair floating around their heads. Blue light shone in their eyes and around their fingers as they worked magical spells, and as one all five sets of blue-glowing eyes turned towards Ridmark. 

He wanted to charge into the cogitaers and capture their attention before they could bring their magic to bear against the men-at-arms, but he supposed their full attention would kill him where he stood. 

A sphere of fire shot over his shoulder and landed amidst the cogitaers. It was a far smaller explosion than the one Antenora had created earlier, but it was enough to distract the cogitaers. They broke off their spells, focusing instead on a ward to turn aside fire, and Ridmark stuck. He buried his axe in the head of the nearest cogitaer, an icy chill shooting up his arm and frost forming upon the blade of his axe. He released the haft, yanking his staff from the leather strap that secured it to his back. A second cogitaer turned to face him, but Ridmark whipped his staff around. For all their magical prowess, the cogitaers were physically weak, and the staff snapped back the cogitaer’s skull with a crack of bone. The cogitaer collapsed in a limp pile, and Caius and Gavin took down another cogitaer. 

Ridmark caught his balance, raising his staff, but by then Gavin had reached them. The remaining two cogitaers hit Gavin with the full power of their spells, but Truthseeker flared, shattering the freezing magic before it could touch him.

A moment later the two cogitaers were dead at his feet. 

Ridmark looked for more foes, but the battle was over.

###

“We did not lose a single man,” said Ector, his voice thick with amazement. “Nine wounded, and Magistrius Camorak is taking care of that.”

Calliande nodded, trying to remember not to clench her jaw. 

“After fighting the revenants at Dun Calpurnia, I expected a harder battle,” said Ector. 

“The revenants are a dangerous foe,” said Ridmark. He looked weary, but he had come through the battle without a scratch, much to Calliande’s relief. “It would have been a much harder fight without the aid of the Keeper and her apprentice.” 

“It would also have been a harder fight,” said Calliande, “without your plan.”

Ridmark looked at her, and she smiled. He didn’t smile back, but he did nod. 

“The Keeper and the Gray Knight together defeated Mournacht and Tymandain Shadowbearer,” said Caius. “Why are you surprised, Sir Ector?”

“Perhaps,” said Ridmark. “We do work well together.” 

Calliande smiled. It wasn’t much…but she supposed it was a start. 

Chapter 10: The Hunters

Since leaving Aranaeus, Gavin had traveled longer and farther than he had ever dreamed, to Coldinium and Urd Morlemoch and Khald Azalar and Dun Licinia, but he had never experienced a journey quite like this.

After the defeat of the revenants, Ridmark led them on a zigzagging path through the hills of the Northerland, following the line of the River Marcaine. The Frostborn had brought near-total devastation to the Northerland. They passed nearly a dozen ruined villages, the houses reduced to burned stone shells, and a half-dozen more that had been rebuilt into citadels of stone and ice. 

They stayed well away from those.

Five times they dodged Frostborn patrols. Gavin was not a commander, and he had not led men in battle. He had always done as Ridmark and Calliande had told him, and during the campaign in Caerdracon, he had followed the lead of Master Marhand and Sir Constantine and the other Swordbearers. Yet he had seen enough of war to realize that the Frostborn were stirred up, and the Anathgrimm warbands had indeed hindered them. Gavin remembered the long, grinding campaign across Caerdracon. There was no way Prince Arandar’s army could have dealt with Tarrabus’s garrisons and fought the Frostborn at the same time.