The Unexpected Heir: A Tale of Alus (65 page)

"No wizard in his right mind would choose a wooden platform as his defense. They will leave the archers to defend them from above.

"Have the army set up camp half a mile from the outer defenses. We will rest the men a few days before we start to test them."

"Will you use that magic that you used at Daria?" the commander asked sounding like he was in awe of the wizard's power.

"If the time is right," he answered cryptically. The use of his dragon fear spell was draining, but Caldrefan wouldn't express any weaknesses to the man. He would lead and be the strength that his army needed.

Another weakness was the fact that he had to contribute some of his strength to keep his power over the men enslaved to his will. The men of Tseult and Malaiy that had joined his army against their will needed him to exert his power periodically or worry that they would begin to break free. His students could help some, but much was on him to maintain it. Fighting constantly didn't help his hold either. Just as fear helped to break them enough to use his magic to convince them to join his cause, it could also weaken the strength of his hold.

After waiting three days while they had been plotting their plan to break this siege quickly, his scouts spotted their armada. The last condition needed to hurt Solan, the combined army brought by Caldrefan began to test their enemy's defenses. With seventy wizards available for the attack, he was hopeful that they could push Malaiy back using magic as their main thrust.

He kept a handful with him. Men trained by Caldrefan over the years in his guise as a master in the brotherhood, these were his best and strongest. If something was to go wrong, he hoped that they could shore up any weaknesses in the army.

Watching his army cross the open plain between their camp and the enemy, Caldrefan waited with what little patience he had remaining. Then the battle had begun.

Arrows crossed the sky from both sides. Most fell short in the first volley. They were still gauging the distance between them. That was when his wizards attacked with their own volley. Fire rained on the Malaiy forces. Stone rippled and shook tearing apart earth embankments exposing soldiers unable to avoid the thrusting ground. Ice in the form of hail fell from the sky. The wind wizards reached high above making sure that each pellet of ice could harm or potentially even kill a man without a helmet to protect his head.

Night suddenly seemed to engulf the enemy absorbing the fire and ice. Some of the other air attacks made it through, but the darkness absorbed the worst of the damage from above.

One of his students looked at him in confusion and asked, "What is that darkness, master?"

Caldrefan couldn't answer, but worried because this magic was unknown to him. He had studied with many masters across Taltan, but he had never witnessed a defense like this.

Looking to one of the soldiers who remained to relay orders for the wizard, he ordered, "Have the generals move the soldiers closer to test their arrows against those shields. The wizards can use their magic to defend our men in their own way equally."

The man hurried to relay his words to Garm and Wayrd. Word moved efficiently through the ranks. This test of Malaiy's defenses hadn't caused the army to break their formations. With an enemy passively absorbing their damage, his forces had yet to meet them face to face. Once close quarters fighting began, it would be hard to change how they committed to the battle.

He watched as the archers moved closer. Hundreds of wood shafts whistled through the air. When they struck the darkness, they bounced away as if they had struck stone or metal shields.

As the volley ended, Malaiy fired back. Their arrows appeared fewer and his wizards created shields of fire, wind and even made of green energy. Fueled by willpower, the green shields looked like green glass; but resisted the arrows like steel.

Blackness launched like a tethered spear striking a fire shield. He watched as the flames appeared to be sucked into the darkness. More spears of night lanced out dissipating more of the shields of wind and fire. Hoping that they had avoided the green energy because the magic was weak against it, his hopes were quickly dashed as a wizard chose to strike one of the green shields. Like the fire and wind before them, the shield appeared to grow thin. Gaps appeared before breaking down entirely.

Again Caldrefan was pretty certain that the darkness had absorbed the energy like the other shields.

"Should we have them pull back, master?" his men questioned him once more.

His thoughts remained on this unknown magic. He needed to know more about it. If he could decipher the spell to use it against his enemy, fine; otherwise they needed to see if it could be broken. Without the ability to counter this magic, they might as well turn around and go home.

Shaking his head, Caldrefan looked at another of the messengers waiting on his horse. "Send word for the wizards to do what they can to break the darkness shields. We need to know if it can be done, but they are not to advance on the enemy."

His messenger disappeared in a rush down the hill. The first messenger had yet to return, but there were a few more nearby. Caldrefan doubted that he would need another unless he called for a retreat.

A rush of magical energy seemed to make the air ripple with the power of his wizards. They grouped in pairs or trios at first. Each group picked a shield and let loose a flurry of spells. These were well trained wizards also. Their attempts varied and he would have been impressed with their creativity, but the initial attacks did nothing. The groups joined together. Five or six wizards fought a single shield. Here and there one cracked, but it was replaced by another too swiftly for the archers to even draw their weapons to exploit the hole.

"They can only resist or contain so much elemental energy," he mused. The problem was his numbers advantage wasn't enough. Even if it only took three wizards to break a single shield that meant a third of their number could hold them off indefinitely.

"How can night and darkness absorb fire?" one of his men questioned loud enough for him to hear. "A torch dispatches night. A lighthouse illuminates any darkness making its path like brilliant daylight."

Rubbing his chin, Caldrefan wondered if it wasn't that simple in truth. Most spells could be countered. Water could put out fire, but make it hot enough and water turned to steam. Water could wash away earth and erode stone. Wind could sweep the others away, but stone could contain the wind with the right spell.

Surprised to need the next messenger, he told the man, "Tell my wizards to use any spells that create light that they can think of and target the darkness."

The men standing near the master looked at him curiously. He didn't elaborate on his order; but when the message finally reached the wizards on the front line, Caldrefan watched as the wizards tested the darkness individually again. They understood that if they had to waste that many wizards to break just one shield, they would lose.

Brilliant flames flaring white hot struck the darkness from two of his wizards in different places along the line. Lightning flared catching another shield. Even from a distance, he could sense the shield fracturing under the lightning. The flames were working slowly, but it was still fire and the shield worked well enough to take the brunt of the wizards' flames without quite breaking.

Light lashed out. No elements appeared to be used. Like harnessing sunlight, the ray of light struck a shield of darkness. It took a moment, but he watched as the night appeared to dissipate like smoke in the wind.

"There!" he proclaimed. "You see. You were right, Hoskis. The right light does shred the night!"

Chapter 36- The Secret Used

Annalicia had felt some disappointment watching the night shields fail as the enemy solved the problem. She could feel their frustration as they initially found the night shields impregnable. They fed on the elemental magic and that derived directly from their magic. Sebastian had once said that the darkness was like the opposite of life energy. Magic, the elements and nature would just feed the night without being able to break the shields. Enough power would still cause them to break; and when the enemy grouped their wizards in an attempt to check their strength eventually shields began to fall.

She wondered who had discovered that light would delete the night shields. Had it been their leader or simple dumb luck? Sebastian had been the only one to figure it out rather painlessly in the tournament, but many powerful elementalists had lost without understanding either the darkness shields or the counter spell.

"So much for our magical superiority," Reynolvan grumped feeling pretty much the same way as the rest of Malaiy's wizards and army.

"They haven't figured out the night shields yet, just the counter spell," she reminded the older wizard.

"But the counter spell makes them useless!"

Annalicia shook her head and replied, "No, the shields might not last, but the darkness still nullifies the bulk of their magic too. We can eat away their shields with a quick spell or absorb an attack until they use light. We also don't know if all of them can use the spells. A few wizards with the light spell still leaves them outnumbered."

Sighing at the logic, the man who loomed over the petite wizard gave in quickly. "I suppose that it is just like against the Dark One's warlocks. It becomes a chess game."

She nodded. After discovering the weakness of the night shields, they watched the brothers' army fall back. It had been a short and nearly bloodless day on both sides, but the testing of their defenses and magic would begin again tomorrow.

Cannon fired north of the city as the two fleets traded a few shots. Their numbers meant that the red flagged ships were afraid to enter the harbor for fear that they would lose all of their mobility and be trapped. The Malaiyan fleet held the mouth of the harbor and retreated hoping to bait the enemy inside where Solan could use the cannon mounted around the harbor. Adding the powerful guns to the fleet's weapons, any enemy caught near the city would be heavily outgunned.

Annalicia heard the cannon until the soldiers and wizards returned. Marching intently across the field, the enemy attacked with earth and wind spells to start. Not every wizard chose to fight initially as they feared that their elemental spells would find night shields ready for them. No one wanted to waste their energy when a full battle was likely.

Planting a night shield in front of the soldiers before her, the shield sunk into the earth and caught the force of the earth magic absorbing it like fire or wind in the air. Other wizards along the line followed suit. She had told them about it before, but reminded them the night before once more. Since they had let the earth magic through the first day, it wasn't surprising to her that the enemy would think to use the magic to break more of their trenches and walls.

Light spells came sporadically from the brotherhood. She had been right that not everyone knew the right magic to defeat every wizard that was trained in Solan. It slowed the enemy, but the battle wouldn't be denied this time. Wizards traded spells as the soldiers from the brotherhood barreled into the frontline of Malaiy. They were fearless, she thought. Another surprise was the mix of armor colors. Most still wore the blue of Tseult though they had a red sash tied around their waists beneath their scabbards.

"You should pull back, my lady," Reynolvan warned. Ivanor stepped forward on the other side as if to say that the men planned to protect her as she retreated.

"Just help our soldiers. Extend the night spells to as many of them in the front as you can. The enemy has passed elemental protection on many of the soldiers," the girl ordered ignoring the two men. She knew that they meant well, but Annalicia also knew that she was more likely to survive when they would not. Though the girl didn't believe that she had the power that the Grimnal did, she had seen her wounds heal quickly aboard the Sea Dragon. Immortal or not, her body was capable of surviving a killing blow.

Her wind magic began to swirl around her. She sent bursts of air into the enemy slowing them while casting night spells on the armor of the Malaiyan soldiers in arm's reach as she pressed forward. Each tap of a soldier spread the night magic. When enemy soldiers swung fire coated swords, the armor drained the heat. Just being near the black armor drew away their magical protection.

Someone must have realized what was happening. Light saturated the area breaking the spell, but it had already done what was needed. She could protect more soldiers when the elemental magic was used, but Annalicia also tried to find the enemy wizard who had destroyed her work.

Erecting a night shield, the girl slammed it into a group of soldiers as they attempted to hurtle an earth embankment that was broken by a wizard's spell. She could see through the darkness and watched the direction of the light spell that had targeted her shield. With a grim smile on her lips, Annalicia created a vortex right above the broken earth. The stone and dirt turned the air brown immediately as it arced from the ground nearby straight towards the enemy wizard.

The soldiers guarding the wizard were thrown aside and he crouched down raising the green energy shield around him as a dome. Stone hammered the shield driven by the spinning vortex. Neither air nor stone could break his dome; but pointing with her left hand, Annalicia called, "Night spear."