Part 15 (2/2)

'Don't falter!' he called. 'Push on. You can break them.'

The power of the Protectors was awesome. Huge men, masked and silent, their dual sword and axe attacks directed by the soul mind so quickly and accurately. But Dordover had to stand up to them. To be exact, the scared men in front of him had to.

One of those men took an axe in his chest. He was cast into those behind, threatening for a moment to cause a breach in the line, but Senese filled it, sword deflecting a low strike.

'Keep going!'

Their commander's presence fighting alongside galvanised those near him. The din of order and weapon increased, and the Xeteskians' grinding advance was halted. Senese wheeled his blade and drove it at a Protector's heart. Without looking, the masked man whipped his axe across to block, following up with a sweep of his sword. Senese ducked, yelling a warning. The blade whistled just over him, slicing through stray hairs on his head and burying itself in the skull of the man next to him at the end of its arc.

Blood and brain sprayed into the air. The victim tumbled sideways to the ground. The Protectors stepped up their pace. Senese moved to block and thrust again and felt a presence at his right shoulder.

'Sir!' It was one of his field captains, a brave young man named Hinar. 'Drop back. You're needed at command!'

Senese flat-bladed a Protector across the mask, sending him staggering. Hinar saw his opportunity and thrust forward, his point piercing the enemy's armour and penetrating his stomach.

'Go, we can hold!' Hinar re-gathered himself to turn away an axe, the heavy blow making him gasp.

Senese forced a regular Xeteskian soldier back and ducked out of the combat, another man immediately moving to take his place. He ran back towards the ruined bakery in which he'd set up his command post. The lead mage met him halfway.

'We've got to pull back,' said Indesi, his face terrified, his hands grabbing at Senese's jerkin. 'We can't defend against this spell.'

'Find a way,' barked Senese. 'We are not running.'

'It's too big, it'll destroy us.'

'Then combine your s.h.i.+elds and talk up your mages.' Senese stopped and spun Indesi round to look at the fighting. 'See those men? Up against it but they believe. Start believing yourself.'

'But-'

'And where will we run to, eh? Those b.a.s.t.a.r.ds will chase us all the way to Dordover. We can't let them run the supply route from here to Xetesk. I will not yield.'

'Then break through right now or they will win anyway.' Indesi's voice was toneless, dead almost. 'You don't understand.'

'I understand we cannot afford to lose this town. That's what I understand.'

A piercing scream from inside the command post went straight through Senese.

'What the-'

But Indesi wasn't listening. He turned and ran to the door, shouted into its lantern-lit interior.

'Weave the defence grid. No gaps, dual skin.' He looked back over his shoulder at Senese before disappearing inside. 'It's coming. I warned you.'

Senese shuddered and began to run back towards the line. Perhaps there was still a chance. There were still men running across the small courtyard to the line he was defending. The enemy mages had to be right behind the Protectors. Surely the spell would be targeted by line of sight.

He opened his mouth to shout but swallowed it. A blue glow, brighter than the sun, washed over the buildings ahead, casting stark shadows down alleys, behind trees and across the courtyard. The fighting changed in tone. Voices lost their authority, blades fell with less power.

'No!' he shouted. 'Fight. Now you've got to fight!'

He began to run forward again but his men were wavering. The Protectors would slaughter them. But they weren't moving, satisfied to stand by and watch. And the reason became all too clear.

Above the level of tree and building rose a globe of fire, tinged deep Xeteskian blue and ringed by sparks and sheets of what looked like lightning but Senese knew was unstable mana.

'Oh dear G.o.ds,' said Senese, staring up as the globe rose smoothly, its radiance glaring harsh, its size, bigger than a s.h.i.+p, awesome and stupefying. His men were starting to break. 'Stay under the s.h.i.+elding. It's your only chance!'

But while the Xeteskians stood and watched, the Dordovans scattered beneath the globe and the stillness that accompanied it.

'Stand firm!' screamed Senese, but they weren't listening to him.

Weapons fell from nerveless hands, brave men stumbled and sprawled, legs pumping as they tried to flee, not heeding the most obvious fact. There was nowhere to run. Hinar came to his side.

'Where are the mages?' he shouted into the pounding of feet and cries of fear.

'Trying to s.h.i.+eld us. Pray G.o.ds they can make it stick.'

Hinar nodded as the two men backed away, watching the globe gathering speed and, impossibly, size as it rushed over the heads of the Xeteskians.

'Come on, Indesi,' breathed Senese. 'Come on.'

The globe struck the Dordovan outer s.h.i.+eld. Mana flared and spat, the globe flattened over the curved surface, bulged down over them. Senese felt a sudden intense heat as the s.h.i.+eld gave way.

He put his hands above him and crouched reflexively but the globe didn't travel far, striking the second skin, but hard. The temperature was like the inside of an oven, the blazing heat of the Southern Continent desert and increasing. From the command post, Senese could hear screaming and voices urging effort.

'They aren't going to do it,' said Senese, breaking at last. 'Run.' The two men turned, but at the same moment the second s.h.i.+eld collapsed, the great globe cras.h.i.+ng down into the courtyard. Senese was blown from his feet by the rush of displaced air and connected hard with the wall of a building. It jarred his back and he crumpled into a half seated position, winded and groggy. He focussed his eyes as the globe struck the ground.

Fire washed across the cobblestones, surging up the sides of buildings and blasting through windows and weakened timbers. Across the courtyard, a damaged tenement shattered under the blast, the rending of wood and squealing of nails torn from stays lost in the roar of flame. Everywhere, men, helpless under the spell, were rolled over or plucked from the ground, clothing and flesh charred in a heartbeat.

The heat in the courtyard intensified still further. Sword metal glowed red, stones blackened, timber disintegrated, gla.s.s dissolved. Roof tiles flew high into the sky as the globe breached another building, tearing it apart. A great pall of smoke billowed in the superheated wind, which took the screams of the dying and whipped them away like chaff in a breeze. A burning corpse struck the wall by Senese and broke apart, gaping skull pleading.

Indesi had been right; this was no ordinary FlameOrb construct. There was too much heat, too much energy. It consumed everything in its path, scoured the ground clean as would the fires of h.e.l.l.

And as the heat lashed the moisture from his body Senese's last view was of the Xeteskians, standing and waiting, their fire breaking over their mana s.h.i.+elds which glowed blue and dissipated its power.

'What have you done?' he rasped.

The flame wall rolled over him like an angry sea.

Chapter 15.

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