Uleni's Gamble (7 page)

*

Anton cursed long and fluently. The enemy had started attacking again the next morning, and they had run into a few traps of their own. It could have been worse, but it wasn’t good. They had lost close to three hundred already from traps. He was mad he didn’t just retreat fully to the main ambush point near the city, or even attack. Sitting still had been foolish, his scouts hadn’t seen anything, but none of the scouts were mages.

He sent off a flier with a message to his sister, then gave up the pretense of a running fight, and started moving quickly. They still had traps, which caused the enemy to move a lot slower and they were able to pull out far enough for a measure of safety.

At the speed he was moving, he just hoped Justin and his sister could arrive before the enemy did…

*

Justin walked with Nora through the secret passageway. While inside the high priestess’s quarters, they had been behind powerful wards, safely hidden. Now they were trying to smuggle him out of the city through a tunnel that ran all the way to the west wall. He felt dubious about the acolyte robes he was wearing, it would deceive the mundane eye perhaps, but not a spy that could discern magic.

They weren’t exactly sure how fast the enemy’s communication network was, but with the knowledge of travel mages they were concerned if the enemy troops found out he was alive, they would retreat. Their best chance to put an end to this was to decimate Uleni’s ability to wage war. He also could not drain his magic again to hide; he would need it for the battlefield.

They were meeting with the rest just to the west of the city, misdirection for the spies as the ladies left alone. It would have been too obvious if a cloaked stranger hiding his face left with them. He was a little uncomfortable without them in his sight. What if they were ambushed and he wasn’t there? He shook his head, he couldn’t control everything, and brooding about it wouldn’t help.

Nora tugged on his arm. He stopped and faced her, she had a fierce look in her eyes when she kissed him.

Nora said with feeling, “Fuck yes,” then her lips twitched.

He wasn’t sure what she meant at first, but apparently the magic did, because he felt his reach out for hers and bond. He pulled her in for a rough kiss, breathlessly she pushed him away.

She smiled, “Later, later you can give me a child, but first we need to go kill those fuckers. I just didn’t want to, couldn’t, wait anymore.”

They held hands as they reached the end of the tunnel. There was a ladder, so they climbed. The ground parted before them and they climbed up into a field. When they were clear, the ground closed back up. He couldn’t see a thing to indicate anything was there at all. They had a straight shot here, it would take the other women longer as they had to get to the city gates on the south wall and then walk around.

He wondered just how long, when he spied a group of men about sixty yards away, he guessed they were probably an enemy scout team as he didn’t recognize the armor. There were eight of them.

Nora pulled him down and whispered, “Leave them unless they attack. There may be mage there; we don’t want to use your talent unless we have to.”

Nora cursed as they started to move in their direction. “Nothing for it then,” and started to launch air bullets at the enemy.

Four of them went down, the others were protected by a shield of fire. He didn’t want to expose himself, but letting them die to avoid that seemed like a bad plan, so he burst into fire, canceling the enemy talents and protecting Nora and himself. He immediately let go of his talent as he saw the other four men go down under Nora’s magic.

He frowned and looked around, he didn’t see anyone else, but he was still worried someone had seen him.

Nora’s tone of voice echoed his frustration, “Of all the fucking luck.”

He agreed. They were easily in range of the city, even if it wasn’t the enemy, someone must have picked up the large magical power surge. One bad thing about being the Flame, the power didn’t lend itself to stealth. They could only hope word wouldn’t reach the invading army until it was too late.

The trap itself was a short mile to the northwest from where they were. To his relief, the others showed up a few minutes later, and they started out at a brisk jog…

*

Katrina growled low as she ran alongside Justin. She was a little nervous at first, the thought of going into battle. But she realized she really didn’t have a choice. She needed to protect Justin and her unborn child. Hiding while others fought wasn’t the way to do that.

When they were about halfway there, the sounds of battle reached her sensitive ears. The others heard it a short time later and they all picked up their pace. In Anton’s message, he had hoped that he would have time to rest the troops, and for them to arrive. Apparently the enemy, not knowing their plans, expected Anton to retreat behind the city walls, so had attacked immediately.

As they closed in, the sound of screams, fire, earth and air joined the loud clanging of metal against metal. The battle was fully joined, but from what she could see, Anton was holding his side, for now.

The earth talents had set traps deep in the earth, and as they had hoped, deep enough to avoid detection. Behind the enemy troops was a large gap in the earth, that should be extremely deep, preventing them from retreating. They were surrounded by tall hills that were climbable, but not quickly, again foiling an escape.

Of course, they didn’t know that they would need to escape very shortly. The decision for the enemy to attack immediately would fall in the defenders’ favor. It was too late for them to be warned that Justin still lived. When they reached the rear of the tight battle lines, she felt Justin’s protection engulf her, and saw the white flames sweep over both the armies.

She hadn’t seen what Nicole had been up to, so she watched in fascinated surprise when twenty birds of pure flame appeared. Ten circled their group, ten went for the front lines. She considered that, and it made sense. They were pretty safe back here. Without magic, the enemy had limited distance attack options. Nora and Sally were effortlessly deflecting any arrows that moved their way.

She didn’t have much to do, so she just kept an eye out, just in case the enemy got close to them somehow.

*

Nora watched as the battle became one sided. Earth exploded, people were set on fire, air split people in two. Weapons rose off of the fallen to impale soldiers. But it was all one sided now. A handful of enemy soldiers started scaling up one of the hills, and she sent an air bullet after each one, taking them down. The battle was over, the slaughter was beginning.

She was impressed with Nicole’s new handle on her talent. She had wondered what ten fire attacks would really do against thousands, but she could still see the birds moving from soldier to soldier, killing ten at a time every couple of seconds. There were a number of ways to stop fire of course, but without access to their talents, the enemy’s only choice was to burn.

Sally, not to be outdone, had created a wicked funnel cloud, that was on fire. A deadly fire storm. She was killing so many and so quickly Nora couldn’t help but be a little awed by their witch. She smiled at that, they had all started calling her a witch, but with teasing affection instead of the hateful usage of their enemy.

Still, the faster the battle was over, the better. Their soldiers were still dying by the sword, and by arrows as the enemy desperately fought against the odds.

She decided they had planned well, and Anton had done a good job. She estimated they will have lost only five hundred of their six thousand soldiers when this was finished. An impossible thirty to one in losses as she watched the last of the enemy be slaughtered.

The silence on the battlefield was profound, and she understood why. This may have started as a battle, but it ended as a simple extermination, no one had the heart to celebrate that. She stayed by Justin’s side as he healed any troops injured but not dead.

*

Ross growled as he looked down at the dead travel mage. The fool who had promised him the Flame was dead. All he had left was his command staff, they had been far enough back to avoid the trap, and even now needed to make for the safety of their border. He had five thousand troops left in the kingdom, there would be no invasion, he needed every one of them in case of counter attack.

At first, when the enemy had stopped a mere two miles from the city walls, he was ecstatic and ordered the attack. When the trap was sprung, and the enemy held their ground, he though it a last ditch effort at defense. He should have known something was up, but he ignored the trap, letting their earth talents and mages attack the enemy, instead of preparing an escape route that he never considered he might have needed.

He still couldn’t believe the Flame of Cytherea was alive, the loss of fifteen thousand troops in so short a time shocked him. His anger had grown out of control and he had killed the travel mage.

As he started the long run to the border, he realized he made another mistake in anger. He should have killed the fool mage after he brought them back to Uleni. Travel mages couldn’t handle many extra people, but moving him and the five others should have been safe enough. He wondered if Riese would have him killed, despite the fact it had been Riese that accepted the faulty intelligence and ordered the attack.

He had no doubt someone would pay for this mistake. He sighed, and sent one of the remaining men ahead. Not as fast as a travel mage, but with the air talent word of their failure and what happened would reach the king and Riese in mere hours, instead of the few days it would take him to return.

*

Nicole understood why, but it still annoyed her. Her brother had ignored her completely on the field after the battle. He could not acknowledge her while she was banished from her family, not in public at least. She had half a mind to go knock some sense into her father, but she knew that would only make things worse.

They only travelled about a mile south before the stench of battle cleared the air and they made camp for lunch.

“So what next? Do we go home? Or do we need to go spank a king?”

She was thinking of her father when she said that, but she meant the Uleni one.

Justin said, “Depends,” he looked at Trina and asked, “Will they come after us now that their plans are broken?”

Trina frowned. “Not for revenge, they want more power, not to squander it on a useless cause. But if they plan to raise another army and try again…”

Nora blew out a breath, “Let’s wait and see what they do. If they send another team, we remove the king and hope that serves as an example for the next one. It would be ironic if the king had given up, and we put another on the throne that still wants to invade. I say the next move is theirs.”

She gave it some thought and said, “I agree with Nora. Let’s go home.”

*

Sally watched as Trina and Sara walked closely side by side. Both smiling about something. She was not surprised the assassin was coming back with them. Trina was still closed off and just short of haughty with the rest of them, but with Sara she was a kitten. No, it was obvious why she was stayed, but it concerned her. Still, Sara seemed to be opening up, and they all loved Sara, so no one wanted to rock the boat. She just hoped they wouldn’t regret it.

They didn’t bother to move at speed, home was just a couple of hours away at a sedate walk. They would be home in plenty of time to get dinner on the table at a decent time. She was the last of the intended mates, all the others now mates. Not counting the love she saw growing between Sara and Justin, but they were kept apart for now. She wondered when he would ask her?

She grinned, maybe she would have to ask him like last time, but she dismissed the idea. It was actually good he was leaving a day or two between them. It was tradition for mates to spend their joining day alone with each other every year on the same day. That would be hard to do if he had asked them all on one day.

Thinking of that gave her an idea and walked closer to Nora and took her hand.

When Nora looked at her questioningly she said, “It is my turn tonight, why don’t we swap, you should have his attentions tonight. I will wait for the morrow.”

Nora grinned and asked, “Are you sure?”

She said, “Of course, you are mated today, I would feel guilty though I have the right. I love you my sister, it will make me happy to do this. I can wait.”

It was the least she could do for them…

Chapter 7

Mage Riese was beyond enraged when the news reached him. He was angry at the spies, but he was even angrier with the Flame of Cytherea, and Cytherea herself. It was her fault, she created the young fool who had thwarted years of careful planning. He was angry, cursed with a woman goddess. It would take years to recover those military numbers.

He growled in disgust. He knew what he had to do, he made his way to the royal vaults. He had no time for stupid questions so he put the guards to sleep as the door opened to his magic and he strode through. He ignored the gold and jewels, walking to the back wall he struck out with the raw power of magic and felt the old wards snap under his attack.

The wall melted away to his will, and he stepped in the room that was sealed and hidden, and only known to a few. Ironically his primary job as mage advisor to the king was to keep this room safe, undisturbed and hidden. But it would now be his salvation as he looked upon the books kept here.

He drew one down from the shelves and started studying through glazed eyes. He never once questioned if what he was doing was wise or right, the insane never do.

*

King Talmon woke with a start and his eyes widened. The wards for the hidden library filled with forbidden knowledge had been broken. When he was crowned king, all the wards in the castle were tied to him, one of the reasons all kings in Uleni were mages. It had been his duty to recharge the wards. Who would be insane enough to break into the hidden knowledge?

It had to be Riese, he was the only other that knew the location, what the fuck was he thinking? He got up, gathered some guards and ran for the vault. When they arrived he found Riese pouring over one of the forbidden texts.