The Lore Of The Evermen (Book 4) (24 page)

Luca Angelo swung the enchanted sword left and right, clearing the ground in front of him before moving deep into the horde. The immense blade tore through the enemy, but rather than breaking free from the onslaught, Luca fought on. His controller cage on top of the gigantic head sparkled with color. Miro held his breath as the colossus carved a path toward the man in the three-cornered hat.

Thunderous roars followed puffs of smoke as cannon fired.

A ball struck the colossus square in the chest.

The construct fell down on its back, but whatever Luca did, he managed to get the colossus back to one knee. Revenants climbed up the legs and arms but still the Halrana animator chopped into flesh with the huge enchanted sword, wiping out revenants in
numbers
, giving his countrymen the time they needed to escape.

Enemy warriors climbed up the limbs to reach the controller cage and tore it open. Swords stabbed in through the gaps in the metal and with a rumble the colossus once more fell on its back.

This time it was still.

Miro released a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding as he wiped a hand across his face, watching as order returned to the enemy’s ranks. More ships beached further away from Castlemere. Today’s battle was over.

There were bodies everywhere, but with relatively few fallen defenders, at least there would be little fodder for the enemy’s war machine. Miro knew the suffering it would cause his men to fight their friends. Miro and Tiesto had sacrificed the constructs, but they’d used them well.

He ordered the pilot to take him back to the defenses outside Castlemere.

The next attack would come soon.

31

Miro felt tension in every bone of his body as he sat in his command tent, staring at the canvas wall, waiting for the scouts to tell him of the enemy’s approach.

The day passed slowly and inexorably, and then it was night. At dusk a scout told him the enemy had spent all day unloading. The attack would come the next day.

Another day, bought with blood.

Miro needed to hold. He needed to hold for reinforcements from the other houses. There were too many revenants. He knew he could never win unaided.

He missed Amber. He hadn’t heard from her in an age. In a way, he was relieved that she was far from the battle, but he’d been expecting a message from her, and still none came.

Miro ate something and then he tried to sleep. He remembered Evrin Evenstar’s sacrifice and felt the ache of sadness. Evrin had done something incredible: he’d hurt Sentar, and he’d removed the greatest threat of all, even if it was only for a time.

Miro hoped Sentar was mortally wounded. He hoped the Lord of the Night was in terrible pain.

As he tried to sleep, he remembered the last time he’d seen Amber, at Rialan Palace in Ralanast. He didn’t know what he’d done to deserve her, but he thanked the stars every day. He thanked the Lord of the Sky.

He caught a few hours of snatched sleep, and then a low voice outside his tent woke him just before dawn.

“Miro.” It was Beorn. “They’re here.”

Miro stood at the middle of the long wall, with Beorn by his side. In front of them another glorious day revealed the killing ground: a gentle slope of cleared earth heading down to the ruins of
Castlemere
.

“Tiesto is in place?” Miro said.

“On the far right.” Beorn nodded. “Any last orders before I take the left?”

“Yes,” Miro said. He met his lord marshal’s gaze. “Stay alive.”

Miro and Beorn clasped arms, and then Beorn left Miro
standing
with defenders on all sides, but alone. Miro thought about the times he’d made rousing speeches to his men. This time, no words came to his mind; they were fighting for their lives, for their families, and for their homes. They knew it as well as he did.

He followed the wall with his eyes, first to the left until it disappeared toward the distant shore, then to the right where he could just make out the barricade of fallen trees keeping the wall’s flank firmly guarded by the forest. Each tower along the wall’s length had a cannon sighted at the beach. There were eighty-six towers.

The killing ground stretched ahead. The red warning flags had been removed, and to walk into that area meant death.

Behind the wall, the majority of Miro’s army lay in wait, formed three deep along the entire line. Dunfolk archers crouched behind their taller allies, and every two hundred paces a flying brigade of elite Alturan heavy infantry prepared to rally the defenders and close any breaches. Close to Miro’s right was one of the gaps in the wall they’d left to enable the defenders to make sorties.

Then Miro heard it: calls and shouts, the sound of marching feet. A scout rushed forward to make his report.

“High Lord, they’re forming up out of range.”

Miro nodded but kept his eyes on the open expanse in front of him. “Thank you.”

Miro gazed out at the white boulders, evenly spaced to aid his ability to make decisions. The farthest marked the extent of the range of his cannon. At the extreme limits of vision, he could now see the massed ranks of the enemy.

He wore his armorsilk, and his zenblade was in its scabbard, strapped to his back. The time for planning was now well and truly over. He would fight with the men.

A soldier coughed, and another turned his head and was violently sick. As the sun climbed the sky, the tension affected them all.

And then they attacked.

With a roar the horde came rushing forward, their numbers so great that even in massed ranks their line covered the entire length of Miro’s long wall.

“Runebombs!” Miro cried.

The enchanters at the gaps rolled the glowing iron balls
forward
and then to the left, avoiding the murderous trenches hidden directly in front of the inviting spaces. As the slope began to take effect, the enchanters released.

At first the balls rolled so slowly that Miro tensed, thinking they would stop, but then they gathered momentum and soon hurtled along, heading inexorably for the enemy.

The horde was far enough away that men couldn’t be distinguished one from the other; it was just a long line of attackers. Then the runebombs vanished into the enemy, swallowed by the
multitude
, and in unison they exploded.

The detonation was deafening, and all around Miro defenders put their hands to their ears. Great explosions of flame and sand shot into the air, and the destruction tossed bodies higher still. Miro wished he had more height; the wall was low and he couldn’t see what effect the devices had. But after frequent use and with little essence, his one and only dirigible was no longer functional. From now on he would need to rely on his individual commanders.

The revenants filled the gaps left by the runebombs, and the horde kept rushing on. This was unlike any foe Miro had faced before; these weren’t men whose spirits could break at the inevitable devastation coming their way. Only total annihilation would win or lose the day.

The rush of warriors reached the most distant of the white markers.

“Cannon!”

At every tower, Veldrin gunners opened fire, flames gushing from the mouths of the cannon as they unleashed their iron balls with a roar. If the detonation of the runebombs had been loud, the synchronized volley was thunderous. Smoke rose from each
cannon
, only to be blown back at the defenders by the constant sea breeze. Defenders visibly choked on the bitter smoke as the gunners at the towers launched a second volley. Miro pushed forward to stand close to the wall, peering through the smoke.

The cannon had taken their toll, but the enemy came on.

“Archers! Ranged volleys!”

The Dunfolk and Alturan archers drew back and pointed their bows into the air. In unison they released, and a cloud of arrows filled the air. Miro knew most of the arrows would pierce only flesh, but a few well-placed projectiles would strike eyes and unprotected parts of the face, burying themselves into the brains of the undead.

The cannon fired at will now, filling the air with shuddering blasts. Miro glanced back at the white-faced defenders and then out at the roaring mass of revenants. The attackers triggered the traps as they ran, the earth falling away to reveal deep spike-lined holes.
Pounding
feet triggered prismatic orbs buried and rigged with
sensors
. At every moment detonations tore holes in the enemy and brilliant lights sparkled across Miro’s vision as explosions both chemical and magical ripped through the tide of warriors from across the sea.

Miro couldn’t believe such chaotic destruction was possible. He’d built this killing ground, but even so, the raw power unleashed shocked him.

Yet still they came on.

Miro reached over his shoulder and drew his zenblade as he turned back to sweep his gaze across his men. He spoke a quick sequence that sent a ripple of fire along the blade and then raised the fiery sword high.

“Make some noise!” Miro bellowed.

To a man the defenders raised their weapons and roared their defiance. The sound of it carried along the line from one defender to another until every man screamed as loud as he could. Even above the pounding cannon and detonations in the killing ground, the sound of the defenders carried louder still.

Then with a gust of fresh air from the sea, the smoke cleared, and the revenants were at the last of the white markers.

“Orbs!” Miro shouted. “Every second man!”

All around him defenders reached down and clicked firing mechanisms into place as they threw the spherical Louan devices into the enemy. A multitude of glowing prismatic orbs sailed through the air to fall into the midst of the dark throng of attacking warriors. The thunder of the explosions combined with the roar of the cannon so that Miro wondered if any of them would ever
hear again.

Miro just wanted them to live.

Then the revenants broke against the wall like a surging sea. The blockade was too low for battlements, but it meant the long swords of the Alturan infantry and the pole-arms of the Halrana could thrust forward with a greater reach than most of the enemy warriors possessed.

Knowing the battle would now be led by his officers, Miro concentrated on his section of wall. Just as he had planned, the revenants were funneled into the nearby gap. As intended, the temptation was too great to resist.

In front of the gap, an area fifty paces square vanished in an instant. The ditch was deep, as deep as six men were tall. The revenants poured into the trap and Miro knew the same thing would be occurring at all the other spaces.

Miro saw Master Goss roll a runebomb into the hole, and as the mass of the enemy and the horde’s terrible momentum pushed more revenants tumbling forward, the device exploded.

Then a snarling face appeared in front of the wall, and Miro began to sing.

Ella helped another enchanter roll their runebomb into the
rapidly
filling hole. Around her the battle was a chaotic crash of metal on metal, roaring defenders, thunderous cannon, and flashes of bright light. There was no way to see which way the
battle
was going. She could see her section of wall holding, but good men were dying at every instant as the attackers threw
themselves
against the low wall, climbing over each other to reach up to the higher defenders.

Ella ran, putting her back behind one of the towers as the runebomb detonated behind her. Peering around again, she saw revenants continue to fill up the now widened hole, clawing and scrambling, filled with the energy of glowing runes.

Ella climbed up to the wall and launched bolt after bolt from her wand, losing track of how many enemy warriors fell from the onslaught. Nearby she saw Layla calmly launch an arrow into a revenant’s eye; the barbarian twitched and was still. Attackers now grabbed hold of the wall and pulled themselves up over the fallen bodies of their fellows. Swords hacked down, leaving wriggling hands abandoned on the stone.

Soldiers tossed orbs into the wide hole, each explosion sending blood and bits of flesh sailing through the air. Still the
revenants
poured into the gap; Miro’s funneling strategy was working
too wel
l.

The hole swiftly became filled with twitching, climbing figures while the enemy warriors pushed from behind to plunge into the mess. A revenant made it past, and Ella saw High Lord Tiesto rush forward with a glowing sword to take the woman’s head clean off. Another reached the tower, and Ella increased the power of her wand, even as she saw the prism dim, sending a beam of light to punch a hole in its chest.

Soon, Ella knew, the trickle would become a flood.

Looking to the left Ella cried out as she saw a score of tall
barbarians
climb onto the wall and clamber over to the inside of the defenses. A dozen of the elite palace guard shot forward to close the gap, but their strength simply wasn’t enough. More
revenants
scrambled over into the breach as Ella sent flurries of golden bolts into their midst, but they moved so quickly she was having
difficulty
aiming. Sweat dripped down her brow, and her breathing was ragged. The pounding of her heart sounded louder than the roaring cannon on the nearby tower.

A figure in black threw himself against the barbarians. Jehral hacked and thrust at his enemy, but Ella could see he would soon be overwhelmed. And there was nothing she could do.

The ground began to shake.

Trees moved, and a colossus strode forward, knocking aside defenders and attackers alike, reaching down with its arm to smash and squeeze revenants into ruinous red. A second brigade of the palace guard arrived, and together they fought to close the breach. The colossus then moved to the gap between the walls and knocked down revenants as they climbed the hole to rush forward.