Incarnation: Wandering Stars Volume One (48 page)

Sariel
nodded
.

“It’s time
,”
Nuathel
announced to his soldiers.  “Let’s go.”

Half of the
Iryllur
force jumped from the cliffs and took to the air.

As soon as they left the concealment of the high position,
Semjaza’s
Iryllur
ym
took notice,
and immediately pulled away from Danduel’s
soldiers
to meet the new threat.

Sariel and the other half of the winged
angels
remained hidden in the quickly shrinking shadows of the cliffs. 
With
his
v
aepkir
ready, Sariel looked out over the battlefield
.  The enemy ground soldiers who left the eastern gate had now reached the right flank of Danduel’s formation.  Even though the Fer
-
Rada no longer had to worry about an attack from the sky, he still had to protect himself from the sea and land.  The odds still didn’t look good, which only put more pressure
upon
Sariel
for
what they expected from him
—what he had promised.

Without warning
, a
n immense
grinding noise
blanketed the bay and surpassed all other sounds, shaking the very ground beneath their feet.

Sariel looked
down,
wondering if the mountain was collapsing on the tunnel that the Myndarym had created.

“There
!
”
one of the
Iryllur
ym
said, pointing to the west.

Sariel followed his outstretched arm to see the water near the ocean gate surging.  The leftmost tower began to lean inward.  Then, the wall between the towers sunk below the water line.

A
s soon as they realized what was happening,
Semjaza’s
V
i
dirym pulled back from the water’s edge and slipped below the surface,
speeding away to meet the new threat.

“Our V
i
dir
ym
have joined the battle,”
he told the other angels clinging to the rocks.

*   *   *   *

Fim
-
Rada
Kai
-
Niquel
hung back with his division of V
i
dir
ym
while
the Myndarym huddled near the ocean floor at the base of the stone wall.  He could feel the movement in the water before anything was visible, but
it
seemed sudden nonetheless.  First a rumble
sent vibrations through the water
.  T
hen a shudder
.  T
hen a jolt. 
T
he water began to swirl as a great surge drew them all inward, threatening to suck them into the void that the Myndarym had
s
haped
beneath the
defensive barricade
.

As sea water rushed in to fill the gap, it displaced a mass of air that exploded outward and shot toward the surface in a blinding myriad of bubbles.  The upward rush of air
was so extensive that it blocked all sight.  It wasn’t until the vast migration of tiny air pockets all jolted to the right
as one
that
Kai realized the wall was moving behind it. 

The center
of the wall dropped
first
,
dragging the
stone on either side with
it. 
This was followed quickly by a ripple effect as the destruction spread outward from the point of attack.  Within seconds,
a cloud of debris
spread outward and upward, choking the water and blocking all light from the surface.

Through the chaos, Kai sensed a safe passage over the center of the wall, and
surged forward
,
signal
ing
his soldiers to follow.
 
Thrusting his fins down, he shot toward the
top of the wall
, then leveled out a few feet below
the surface
.
  Through the cacophony of
sound
vibrations moving in all directions through the water, Kai could still make out the chatter of his soldiers
’
echo-location. 
W
ith the large obstacles cleared from their path, nothing stood between them and the fortress.

“
Stay
alert
. 
We’re not the only ones in the water
,
”
he told them.

Cutting swiftly through the sea, Kai could sense the western-most turret of the fortress, rising from the floor of the bay
.  F
art
her in the distance
, rounding the peninsula point,
he could also sense many shapes moving through the water
toward him
.
  Fortunately, his forces outnumbered Semjaza’s two
-
to
-
one.

“
Delas! 
he called to his soldiers.  “
Foran
loka
!
  Aftan
,
sakra ingang
ur!
”

Immediately, Kai and half of his division banked slightly to the no
rth to meet Semjaza’s sea force
.
  When they reached a position between the western tower and the incoming V
i
dirym,
they halted and
assemble
d
into a
vertical wedge formation.

Semjaza’s
soldiers
came quickly,
spreading out
at the last moment in an attempt to
get around the defensive force.

Kai’s
formation allowed the
soldiers
at the top and bottom of the wedge, who were positioned farther back, to fan outward and contain the enemy maneuver.

On instinct, Kai dodged to the side and brought his
v
anspyd
forward, quickly deflecting an enemy spear.  The
triple
-bladed tip
hung
in the water, inches from his face.  Then, without warning, it shot backward and returned to its owner.  It took only an instant for Kai to understand the
deviation
from the standard V
i
dirym tactics.  In the
E
ternal
R
ealm, it was a last resort for a soldier to cast his weapon, for it meant giving away
his
only defense.  But it seemed that
,
as in many other ways,
Semjaza
had taught his soldiers to abandon their previous training.
  Without taking his eyes off the enemy, Kai’s echo-location told him that he’d already lost a few soldiers to the devious change in weaponry
, b
ut the rest had learned quickly

Slowly, Kai’s force began to give water
while moving
backward in an attempt to contain the enemy’s forward progress.

Another spear shot forward and Kai deflected it. 
In frustration, he moved backward again. 
He wanted
to sink his trident into the flesh of a traitor, but
Semjaza’s V
i
dirym were
staying just out of reach,
using their longer-ranged attacks to their advantage.

Despite his disappointment, the Fim
-
Rada took pleasure in the fact that his primary objective had been met.  As their backward defensive formation finally reached the
turret
, Kai sensed that the other half of his force had secured
it
.

“Ad
a ingangur
,”
he called out.

Immediately, his soldiers lunged backward and converged upon the triangular doorway at the base of the
turret
.  One by one, his
V
i
dirym
slipped through until he was the last.  Quickly backing into the entrance with a double-handed grip on his spear, he watched the movement
s
of the enemy
morph into a column
formation
with their leader at the rear.

Kai exhaled a quick mouthful of water, disgusted by the blatant rebellion of the leader’s actions.  Among the
Amatru
, it was standard protocol for the leader to be at the front of an attack or the rear of a retreat.  It was a mark of character for the leader to position himself between his soldiers and the enemy.  To do otherwise was a tactic of the
Marotru
.  And it seemed that Semjaza had adopted this method as well.  Though such confirmation wasn’t necessary, Kai was now fully convinced that Semjaza was beyond redemption.  If he could align himself with the
tactics of the demons
, then he deserved to die.

Inside
the triangular tunnel, the sound waves changed
from
the great, lonely echoes of open water
to
short and bright sounds.  The lower ranking enemy soldiers
came first,
advanc
ing
quick
ly, aggressively.

Too aggressive
!

Kai
watched
with tranquil confidence
the sloppy movements of the
enemy
soldiers entering the narrow passage. 
Slowly
, he continued to move backward into a wider section of the tunnel and noted the angular, stair-stepped design of the corridor as it led inward.

The
nearest
soldier
came forward and
cast his
v
anspyd
.

Kai
dodged to the left and jabbed his
own
weapon, striking with precision and perfect timing that had been honed over ages of conflict.

The enemy’s
spear
was pushed sideways, around the corner of the stone passage.  When the soldier attempted to pull it backward its bladed end caught on the stone.

Kai instantly surged forward and thrust his weapon in a single-handed attack.  The trident glanced off the
V
i
dir
’s armored gauntlet and
pierced the center of
his
chest
, meeting
with more resistance than expected. 
As he wrenched the bladed weapon from the victim,
Kai watched
the water cloud with blood.

T
wo
enemy
soldiers
drifted limply to
the floor of the
stone
passage.

“
Ad a
tarn!
  A
ftan varnir!
”

Danduel’s command rang out clear. 
Now that
Semjaza’s V
i
dirym
were
occupied beneath the wa
ter
, the peninsula was no longer a
dreaded road, but a clear
passage
to his objective. 
With
the low and bright rays of the morning sun cast
ing
long shadows across the water, Danduel’s disciplined ground force began to advance, changing their defense structure to protect the rear of their formation.

“It’s time,” Sariel announced
to the remaining
Iryllur
ym
.  T
hen
he
leaped
from the shadows of the cliffs.

Half of
Semjaza’s
Iryllur
ym
peeled away from
the conflict
and rose into a
wide,
staggered
line
formation
. 
Clearly, the hours of constant battle had sapped their energy and it was beginning to show.

The soldier
s
flying with Sariel began to spread out to meet the line of defense.

The sounds of battle below
fe
ll into the distance, replaced by the
wind
rushing past Sariel’s ears.  As he looked forward, his gaze settled on the
enemy
soldier directly in front of him.