Tanza (24 page)

The other half of that Zeika legion had followed the fleeing civilians here and were reforming somewhere to the south of Condii. The 2,000 or so Defender troops that had been sent from Centan to help Lowford and Highford now faced an army of over ten thousand. With Highford’s meagre force of some 2,500, there was little hope of victory. The commander of the more highly populated Lowford had pledged to send warriors and we prayed that their combined forces, and sound military practice, would be enough to hold off the Zeikas.

In total the Zeikas had assaulted Tanza with over 40,000 men and there was no indication that they had finished penetrating our borders. The occasional scout managed to glimpse still more Zeikas gathered in several places around the outside of the Tanzan border, waiting for their turn to pass through the breaches in the barrier. Pyres billowed smoke into the air around these places where thousands of human slaves and hostages had been slain to bring enough demons into the physical world to compromise the protective boundary.

The Zeikas also seemed to have a limitless supply of ground troops. They moved in enormous semi-circles, enclosing the Condiite ground troops who strayed far enough away from the protection of the towers. Near the southern corner of the city the battle raged with the most ferocity. Watching through the eyes of confused dragons, I flew low over the battle, trying to find the most powerful Zeikas and kill them. Several times I saw a render who could tear a person limb from limb with a simple touch and verbal incantation.

One time I saw a render surrounded by four heavyset warders who were casting blocking wards nearly constantly. Theros and death hawks prowled nearby, moving aside when the render expressed a desire to step into the battle. Condiite after Condiite fell before him, making a trail of shredded and mangled corpses behind. Not a single arrow could penetrate the invisible shield the warders created. Perhaps a falling Zeika and dragon could, I thought.

Using my powers I directed the dragon to climb steeply upwards, throwing the rider off as I did so. The armoured lizardine body somersaulted and dived straight at the render, following its screaming rider’s corpse down. The render leaned forward to kill a Condiite at his feet. In that instant, the Zeika and dragon crashed down.

My senses reeled as the link that I had violated suddenly vanished.

Tyba caught me just before I hit the surface of the shroud. He peered over the edge where Ciera was looking and nodded with approval. The render lay beneath the smoking ruin of the conjured dragon, which slowly melted into a black pool and bubbled away. Seeing the render’s crushed and bent body brought me no triumph, only a curious combination of sadness and satisfaction that Krii had been able to do what was needed, through me, a willing vessel.

‘You have surprised us all, Talon,’ Tyba said grimly.

Gasping from the effort, I pulled myself back from the edge of the shroud and wiped sweat from my face and brow. Ciera continued to defend the area while I recovered. After a while, even Jett and Ptemais had to fight off dragons and death hawks that were coming perilously close to our position.

I felt distant from it all, as if each time I became connected with a conjuration I lowered myself to its level. It disgusted and discouraged me to become one with such creatures, and to dish out death from afar, even though I knew I was helping to save Tanzan lives.

‘Stand aside, Talon!’ Jett shouted.

A tyrak lurched toward us, screaming as its conjurer died astride it. I leaped sideways to get out of the way, observing the fatal wound across the Zeika’s throat. The tyrak’s long claws slashed and dragged at the air, reaching for me as it staggered. Its footfalls on the solid base of the shroud were heavy, the claws clicking inches from my legs. It toppled sideways off the shroud moments before vanishing from existence, the corpse of its conjurer shrivelling as it fell down alone.

I got to my feet noticing that many of the other Anzaii who had been deployed with me on the shroud were occupied by dragons and death hawks. There were only eighteen Anzaii left in the strike force and some were on a rest cycle. With Ciera, Tiaro, Tyba and Amadeus still by my side, I forced myself to turn my back on them and concentrate on the Zeika forces below. That was my duty, where my skills were needed most.

Repeatedly, through the night, the Zeikas moved catapults into position and fired on the outer four towers near our gate, testing their defences. The gate was the most fortified place around Condii’s walls. The Zeikas knew that once they had that, Condii would fall. It seemed like they would sacrifice entire legions to take the city.

Our army’s commanders used far more conservative strategies, which left us all feeling wing-clipped. Ciera did not begrudge his position by my side, but I could sense his restless fury and the burning desire to snap his enemies between his teeth and crush them into the ground with his enormous Keltoar paws. However, we all knew it would be death to go out there alone and the Tanzans valued individual lives whereas the Relts cared not for any who may fall. Ciera mastered his emotions and together we focused our efforts on strategic defence and staying alive.

As I was about to choose my next target, a third tower was breached by the catapults. The stones on one side collapsed inwards. A horde of firewyrms and at least a dozen Zeika ground troops pushed past the Condiite footsoldiers and ran into the tower. The towers to the north-west and south of the fallen tower immediately fired upon the now in-range Zeikas.

But it was too late; they had already made it inside. Several of the spear-skyearls on top of the tower allowed their sleffion-kin to mount and took off into the air. These hovered near the top of the tower raining down spears and arrows on any Zeikas who dared emerge.

I could only presume the Condiites left inside the tower had been killed. A ballista was wheeled quickly into the tower and the Zeikas on top doubled in number. Within minutes they had shot down or flamed all but one of the hovering spear-skyearls, who flew away like a whipped dog.

The ballista appeared on top of the tower promising a speedy demise for any skyearls that attempted to retake it. Two mangonels were also ushered in by more Zeika ground troops below. They were being killed so quickly by the other two Condiite towers that bodies now blocked the collapsed entry to the tower. In many cases their caped and armoured remains quivered and shrivelled in upon themselves, leaving brownish husks more than bodies.

A fresh surge of dragons bombarded the two defending towers with flaming oil-barrels and the Zeikas on their backs hurled fireballs and poison-darts at the humans and skyearls. While the Condiites in those towers were partially distracted, more Zeikas carried rock-missiles into the fallen tower and knocked out stones from around two of the window-slits to give the mangonels room to fire. As soon as they had done this, the Condiites within the other towers realised what was about to happen.

Not only were they barraged by fire from above, but the missiles from the fallen tower now threatened to breach their walls and admit the swarming firewyrms that plagued the ground level. It would only be a matter of time before the Zeikas had captured more of the towers. They would use that same method to take all of Condii. In my mind I could see the towers falling one by one over a period of days or even weeks. While we were able to use their own conjurations against them, the Zeikas had learned how to use our own defences against us.

‘We must do something they don’t expect,’ I said suddenly.

Ciera immediately caught my meaning, but Tyba wasn’t so sure.

‘Why don’t we take the battle to them?’ I asked. ‘Threaten their defences and supplies.’

‘It would be suicide to leave the safety of our tower network,’ Tyba replied, thoughts racing behind his eyes.

I knew he would consider my plan, if I could come up with one.

‘I need to know more about the Zeika camp to the south. Where do they keep their oil barrels?’

Tyba and Amadeus exchanged a look. I caught the vaguest sense of interest from the prince’s sleffion-kin—though I was sure he was trying to block me from his mind. A distracted look crossed his furred face and his eyes strained to see into the distance.

‘I have conversed with Reen,’ Amadeus said after a while. ‘He carries Jaalta nigh over the Zeikas even now. She uses her powers in the waves to glean information from any who have unguarded minds. She reports that oil barrels are spread out in several stockpiles throughout their encampment.’

‘If we could cause an explosion of fire somehow,’ I began, ‘the wood barrels would break and whole piles would catch fire.’

‘How could we do that?’ Tyba wondered. ‘We are not Zeikas that we may tell fire to go this way and that.’

‘I’ll think of a way,’ I replied with determination.

Tyba pondered for a time and then said, ‘Ultimately it is not only up to me. We must consult with the others.’

‘Are you not the prince, and in your father’s absence, the ruler?’

‘We are not a tyranny like the royal family of Telby,’ he responded.

When I raised my eyebrows at him, he added, ‘We could do with a rest, anyway. Come with me to Condii Fortress and we will see what Varal and the strategists think. They may have already considered it.’

‘Jaalta and Reen will meet us there,’ Amadeus said.

Chapter Seventeen—Determination

C
iera and I followed Tyba and Amadeus through the thick of the sky-battle. Ciera dived and wheeled around the struggling bodies, throwing a spear or biting a dragon when the opportunity arose. Yet he didn’t deviate from our course and we were soon flying low over the houses and halls behind the barracks. We crossed Spiral Lane South and a small river before reaching Condii City Central. Usually a bustling marketplace, even at this hour, it was empty, except for a few hurrying groups. A large vineyard to our right gave way to the moat that surrounded Condii Fortress. Five towers stood some distance away on the outside of the moat, with a sixth on the island with the fortress itself.

As we came closer, I could see that the fortress was constructed from the same steel, diamond and grey stone as the front gate and walls of Condii. A single, immense red flag with a flying skyearl and rider billowed from the top of the main tower. Above us, the dragons kept their distance as spear-skyearls and mangonels were always in position around the fortress. A dozen squadrons of flying archers moved rapidly in the sky to our south and west. It was a constant job for the flying archers to keep the dragons from attacking civilians in the town below. In several places around the city, their numbers had become overwhelming and Zeikas were being ferried into the city by dragons.

Just like Captain Dathan, I wanted to be everywhere at once. Too many things demanded my attention. If I confused or dispelled this dragon, then that one would make it to the ground. If I took the time to entrap the far-conjurer responsible for this death hawk, then Ciera and I would not be able to fly in and rescue the family trapped behind a tavern by two hulking theros. Everywhere I looked there was destruction. Flames reached up from storehouses and barns all over Condii.

Ignoring my hurricane of thoughts and commands, Ciera arrowed straight for the Fortress. His mouth hung open with the strain of his flight and Amadeus had fallen somewhat behind. As soon as we reached the island, Ciera landed on a platform on top of the main building. His panting caused the dust on the platform to billow.

There were Condiites in every direction, all rushing to do one job or another. Ciera roared angrily as he stretched his wings, expressing the depth of our worry and frustration.

Having been alerted by his own Sleffion-kin, who had conversed with Amadeus on the waves, Commander Varal came out onto the platform and bowed before Ciera.

‘Emperor Ciera, we welcome you,’ he said in a deep, booming voice.

The man was of medium height with a very broad chest and bulging muscles. He wore no armour; clearly a man who knew his place was not on the battlefront. He shook my hand vigorously as Tyba and Amadeus touched down.

Several Condiites wound a crank that made the human-sized doorway behind Varal expand into a huge archway that Ciera could walk through. Varal and Tyba exchanged urgent words as we hurried down the polished wood hallway.

I noticed groups of messengers in all of the rooms we passed. Signs above each doorway indicated they were divided into cities and inside I could see that many of the messengers were Rada. They sat in varying states of trance, listening and speaking with their minds. Others were rapidly recounting what they had been told to scribes or other people, some with wildly swinging arms. Voices were raised in every part of the building, making it difficult to hear what any one person was saying.

A surprising feeling of elation was building within the waves. Human voices lifted in whoops of delight. I caught on to the good news via the waves. The Zeikas attacking Lantaid had been defeated at the Hills of Everstain. A success at last!

Ciera and I stopped when we reached the glass-walled Vista, the main area of Condii Fortress where Varal and his strategists now met. There was not a single pillar obstructing our view over the city and the panels of glass were so fine they were almost flat—unlike most windows I had seen before these ones were easy to see through.

The island and its fortress were up high enough to afford a view over all of Condii. I could even see the front gates in the distant south west. Missiles were being launched periodically from the towers around the fortress, but rarely made their mark. With so many shrouds in the sky above the city, it was difficult to perceive how many skyearls battled, on high, but the cacophony in the waves indicated there were thousands of Condiite skyearls up there. I made an effort to block them from my mind.

‘Please have something to drink,’ Varal said, making a sweeping gesture at a table laden with jugs of sweet-nectar, cellar-cooled water, wine, bowls of soup, cheese wheels and trenchers of meat. Tyba and I were both dehydrated and famished so we took up the offer without hesitation.