The Complete Twilight Reign Ebook Collection (285 page)

Read The Complete Twilight Reign Ebook Collection Online

Authors: Tom Lloyd

Tags: #Fantasy, #Science Fiction, #Vampires, #War, #Fiction, #General, #Epic

BOOK: The Complete Twilight Reign Ebook Collection
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The vampire moved even faster now, aware his sister was injured and the fight was all his own. They struck and blocked and parried in turn, until they locked swords, pulling each other to within a few inches. Each tried to shove the other off-balance in the split-second before retreating, but their unnatural strength was equally matched.
Styrax stepped back first, cutting up at Koezh’s hands, checking the blow and lunging at his face. Koezh, the smaller man, dodged with astonishing speed, diverting the thrust upwards with the guard of his sword and turning it into a thrust of his own. Styrax stepped into the blow, catching it on his chest before Koezh could get any force behind it, then slamming an elbow down onto Koezh’s shoulder and at last getting him off balance.
Side-on to his enemy, Styrax swung down as he moved clear; trying to chop into the vampire’s throat, but Koezh dropped flat on his back and the blow caught only thin air. As Styrax stabbed down, Kobra’s fangs met a flat grey disc. With his full strength behind the blow, the weapon penetrated, but the impact juddered right through Styrax’s body and the fangs were stopped by Koezh’s cuirass — and Styrax had to hop gracelessly back to save his ankles.
Koezh was already striking as he leaped to his feet and caught Styrax’s blade as they both moved into the attack, locking weapons again. Styrax, catching a movement out of the corner of his eye, threw himself backwards as Zhia arrived. He gave ground right up to the encircling flames, desperate for space to evade her - only to watch in astonishment as Zhia’s slender sword ran straight and true into the seam of the black cuirass, driving deep inside.
Her brother faltered, driven sideways by the unexpected impact, but before he could react, Zhia forced her sword further into Koezh’s guts. A gasp of pain escaped his lips as she retracted the weapon and stepped back. Her brother staggered and dropped to one knee, his hand going to his side as a spurt of black blood spilled out.
Styrax didn’t hesitate, advancing and smashing Koezh’s sword aside. With the vampire defenceless, he cut at his opponent’s neck and felt Kobra tear through the armour. Koezh fell, limp before he hit the ground and a sudden silence descended.
‘I’m sorry, brother,’ Zhia whispered, her voice strained, ‘but it must be this way.’
She turned to Styrax, who faced her with his weapon raised warily, but the Vukotic princess shook her head and sheathed her weapon.
‘You will have to enjoy your battle alone, Lord Styrax - I am done for the day.’ Her right arm went to the armpit where he’d injured her. He could hear from her laboured voice that the wound was severe.
Do I kill her now, while I have the chance?
‘You could kill me,’ she said, correctly guessing his thoughts, ‘but that would deny you an ally for the future — one who could be of use to a collector.’
With a gesture she dismissed the flames crackling all around them and the true Bloodsworn rushed forward, stopping dead as Styrax raised a hand. He thought for a moment, panting to get his breath back after the furious exchange, barely able to string a coherent thought together.
‘Go then,’ he said eventually, ‘go with my blessing and remember this debt.’
‘My debt to you? How very male,’ Zhia gasped, her arm drawn tight up to her chest. ‘I suppose that’s all the thanks I’ll get for persuading Koezh our chances would be better without the Legion of the Damned.’
She looked down at the corpse of her brother, lying at Styrax’s feet. A faint mist was building over it as his body started to decay and disintegrate.
‘As you wish,’ she said finally. ‘Until we meet again.’
She turned and faced the wall of soldiers. They didn’t move, and she looked back at Styrax, who gestured, parting the Bloodsworn for her. Once a path was clear, the vampire left without looking back once.
Styrax looked down at the putrefying armoured corpse at his feet. Koezh’s Crystal Skull was still attached to the cuirass, and he quickly tugged it free. The armour was already soft and malleable, decaying with Koezh’s body; the metal would melt into nothingness unless it was removed with alacrity, as Styrax had the first time they fought. If not, it would slowly reform with Koezh’s body in the crypt beneath the Castle of Silence, far to the east. Koezh’s sword was similarly indistinct within the mist, and as he watched, it sank into the moorland beneath it, unclaimed yet again.
He looked up at the assembled troops surrounding him. With an effort he smiled. ‘First blood to us,’ he announced hoarsely. The responding cheer was deafening.
‘Enemy’s advancing,’ Veil said, pointing.
King Emin looked up. ‘So it begins,’ he muttered. ‘How about the left flank?’
Veil squinted at where the smaller Menin force had formed up, by the tree-line. ‘Looks like it - I’d need a mage to be sure.’
‘Where are the damn mages?’ Emin growled, seeing nothing but soldiers. The fort contained more than a thousand men, as closely packed in as could be managed without causing complete chaos.
‘There’s the runt,’ Coran said, indicating the diminutive form of Tomal Endine, who was weaving a path towards them, through the Kingsguard and the catapult platforms that stood between the central tower and Emin’s position on the rampart.
The mage laboured up the wooden ramp towards King Emin, and Coran reached down to drag the small man the last yard while he gasped for breath. The King’s bodyguard stood out from the crowd by more than size now - his cuirass and helm were painted a bright bloody red, in contrast to the green and gold livery that surrounded him. The rest of the Brotherhood wore black-painted armour, punctuating the crowd of resplendent Kingsguard like needles secreted in a haystack.
‘Piss and daemons,’ Doranei said, ‘man’s exhausted and the battle’s not started yet!’
Endine gave Doranei an unfriendly look and sparks crackled momentarily across his knuckles.
‘Your Majesty, Mage Holtai reports both sections of the enemy are advancing. Two lines of heavy infantry are moving directly here, with archers and cavalry protecting them, while a mixed force of infantry and cavalry are stationed on their left flank. The smaller force is keeping tight to the forest and they too are protected on their left flank by cavalry.’
King Emin nodded and turned to face his army, the bulk of which was lined up behind the long ditches. They stood in long lines that would be vulnerable on the open field, but these great defensive works would massively reduce the force of any infantry charge.
‘There is more, your Majesty,’ Endine said urgently, ‘I sensed magic used in the enemy camp - not a spell in progress, but energies shaped quickly, with violence meant.’
‘Which means?’
‘That I don’t know, but most likely Lord Styrax fought someone of great power - perhaps he even gave Larat’s Chosen a Crystal Skull to use in battle and had it turned against him.’
King Emin frowned. ‘I doubt that; he will assume he has the advantage there without help from doubtful sources.’
‘I can see no other explanation - the magic expended was considerable — ’
‘And without a Crystal Skull,’ Emin finished for him, ‘what fool would bother?’ He forced a smile. ‘It’ll do us no good speculating. If the enemy is divided, they’ll be less enthusiastic about throwing themselves on our stake-points!’ The king gestured towards the long lines of raised stakes surrounding the fort and provoked a cheer from those nearby.
‘Endine, return to your post,’ King Emin said once the noise had abated, ‘when I need Cetarn signalled I’ll send a runner. In the meantime, keep us safe!’
The sickly mage bowed and scuttled back to the tower in the centre of the fort where the scryer, Mage Holtai, sat watching the enemy’s movements, and three battle-mages waited for the coming assault.
‘Will Cetarn be enough?’ Doranei asked quietly. ‘He’s no white-eye, no matter what they’ve cooked up on that chained mound.’
‘Cetarn will play his part,’ Emin replied distantly, ‘as must we all.’
‘Is that why you’re here, your Majesty?’
Emin gave him a sharp look. ‘Your meaning?’
Doranei edged forward, keeping his voice as low as possible and ignoring the fact that Coran also stepped closer, just in case. ‘The fort is vulnerable; you must see that.’
‘Must I?’
‘Yes,’ Doranei said firmly, ‘the ditches aren’t long enough to be certain we won’t be cut off, yet here’s where you make your stand. Wouldn’t it be better if you moved further back, where the whole army can see your standard and take heart?’
King Emin gave him a more genuine smile than he had Endine. ‘No, my friend, it is best I’m here, on that you must trust me - as I trust you and Coran to keep me safe.’
‘Are you intentionally putting yourself in a dangerous position?’ Doranei asked quietly.
‘Remember this — we are all in mortal danger today,’ Emin said, ‘and it will do the men good to see that I take the same risks they do. In the context of a battle plan, my significance should not be overstated. If Kastan Styrax wishes me dead, he will achieve that goal wherever I stand. My death may be a blow, but the Menin know they must do more than that to win the day.’
‘It’d be a bloody good start though,’ Doranei hissed, prompting a bellow of unexpected laughter from King Emin.
‘Hah, you could be right there! So let’s give them something more pressing to think about, eh?’
King Emin clapped him on the shoulder and turned back to the Menin Army. Their progress was difficult to discern, but they were still well outside the range markers the Narkang troops had installed on the moor.
The ground dead ahead was clear and open, but on both left and right were sets of ditches, staggered so six divisions of archers could hurt the enemy before they came anywhere near the Narkang Army. Working in concert with each other and with squadrons of cavalry supporting them, the archers would engage in a fighting retreat, with little fear of being caught in the open.
‘Signal the cavalry to advance,’ he called aloud, and a sergeant below him took up the order and it started repeating at a roar. On the tower, a red flag was run up the pole.
‘That’s not going to be enough, however much we outnumber ’em.’
‘I know,’ King Emin said distantly, ‘but they may yet make a mistake in the heat of the moment. If nothing else, it will give them pause for thought while they attempt to charge through us.’ He started towards a ballistae station on their right, where the rampart walkway bulged to allow easy movement, but before he reached it, the voices within the fort were dropping and faces began to turn his way.
The king faced his men, then swept off his flamboyant hat so his face was visible to all. He gave them a moment to remember the stories, the legend of a king to rival any the Land had yet seen. He had as commanding a presence as any white-eye, and his quiet assurance and cold eyes gave no reason to doubt the reputed genius of his intellect, nor the ruthless ambition that had driven his own conquest two decades previously.
‘Brothers,’ King Emin called in a loud, clear voice, ‘our time of reckoning has come.’
Doranei watched the effect of the king’s piercing ice-blue gaze sweeping over his troops, as the men stood a shade more upright under that imperious stare.
‘The so-called “first tribes” have marched on our lands,’ King Emin announced, raising his arms as though to embrace the army, ‘intent on destroying all we have built and all we hold dear.’
He looked around, catching people’s eyes, so every man thought he spoke directly to him. ‘In their envy,’ he cried, ‘they come to kill us, to murder this dream we share. They see the twilight of their own kind and for that they fear us.’
He raised his voice, little by little, as he went on, ‘They fear our great kingdom, because it stands for an end to the ways of the past - an end to the ties of tradition and ancient prejudice. An end to the dream that they are better than we.
‘Twenty years ago I realised the truth, one I see realised in the faces all around me: I believed that we were equal of any of the seven tribes - but now I see we are greater still!’
He paused, waiting and watching, until the watching soldiers were breathless with anticipation.
‘When the White Circle attacked Narkang, many of you fought alongside me, fought as equals alongside Lord Isak himself, and when the breach came it was his actions that saved the day, and yet - and yet he did not claim the title of hero that day, though he was more than entitled.’
Doranei could feel the expectation building like a tidal wave inside them all.
‘Young as he was, Isak knew his God would protect him as he called the storm down, and secure in that knowledge, he sought to close the breach alone.’
King Emin paused again. The faces were rapt, every man holding his breath until the king slowly raised a finger. Doranei felt the murmurs building from the crowd.
‘But . . . but in that breach he was not alone — ’
He got no further as a roar of approval crashed out around the fort, drowning out all other sounds. The king waited for the tumult to die down again, knowing their pride would eclipse any thing else he might now say. Many of those present had fought on the walls of the White Palace; many friends had died beside them, and they had all known their lives were hanging in the balance when Lord Isak of the Farlan had stayed alone to defend the wall.

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