Into The Ruins (7 page)

The city of Nals was large and extended for some distance up and down the coast from the main port from which they had departed.  When the captain eventually spotted the green fields that marked the farmlands to the north, he knew they had finally left the city behind.  The land along the coast would be flat for the next couple of glass, before they reached the first range of mountains that ran right up to the sea.  Mountains and fertile farmlands would alternate for the next couple of days before they reached the truly mountainous regions further north.

He made this run four times a year, each time bringing roughly the same number of passengers to the island the Queen owned to the north.  Captain Lerar was one of those who knew what this was all about.  His son was one of those chosen by the Queen, and was already living on the island.  Because of this, the Queen knew she could completely trust the grizzled old captain.  The passengers the ship carried could have conceivably traveled by land, of course, but it was a long journey, and many of them had families with youngsters.  There were also bandits to be considered in some of the wilder areas along the route that would have to be followed, so despite the risk of discovery, this method was deemed the safest way to relocate the people.

Captain Lerar moved without conscious thought with the motions of the ship as he watched his men adjust the sails to catch the brisk wind coming from the east.  If this weather continued, they would make good time.  Once he offloaded his passengers, he would continue further north for a day where he would pick up a load of the precious yellow hardwood for his return trip.  The message he’d received from the Queen by secret messenger and which he’d burned the night before after reading, suggested that there would be another load of passengers to be carried on his next trip northward.  Normally he would have made several trips carrying only goods before having another covert load.  With the rapidly approaching end of her time as ruler, the Queen was actively making strategic adjustments to her people.  Unlike many of the others, the Captain eagerly looked forward to the day this would be behind him.  He no longer liked the intrigue, and while he agreed with what she wanted to accomplish, he found being in the middle of events wasn’t something he relished as much as he once might have.

The horses didn’t like it at all.  Their discomfort could be felt by the way they resisted any commands to move closer to the battle that was raging ahead.  Trained for war, Major Diard’s mount had carried him into multiple encounters, including a tour on the western front further north where they had fought the strange magical beasts for more than three years.  Even that situation hadn’t disturbed his horse like the strange little ponies being ridden by the Baldari.  At least he assumed they were ponies.  This was the first time Diard had encountered mounted invaders.  They usually arrived and fought on foot.  These Baldari were riding animals that were about the proper size and at a distance looked like miniature horses.  That was where the resemblance stopped however.

“Spread out,” he commanded his troops and heard the command being repeated by his two sergeants. 

“There are far more of them than usual,” Ardra noted as she rode beside him.  Ardra was a trained Caster, one of the large group that had been supplied recently by the Guild, and almost too attractive in Diard’s mind to be one of those controlling such immense power.  Her long hair was reddish gold and flowed in curls down her back.  Her eyes were such a dark brown they appeared almost black, and they were deadly serious at the moment.  After soundly defeating the Baldari in Ront the week before, the Casters had been deployed to several nearby villages as well as to the three main Army forces that patrolled the area.  Diard had been assigned two of the women, Ardra and her lesser skilled associate Asi.  Asi, a brown haired woman with a sour disposition, rode at the rear of the column, but Ardra had demanded to be with him where she felt her magic would be best utilized.

“This is going to be different than it was in Ront,” Diard warned her.  “The Baldari are more mobile and have already made it into the village.  They will be difficult to kill without risking the locals.”

“Granted they aren’t grouped as we might prefer, but they have learned that is a losing approach.  It might take longer but we will bring them down once again.”

Diard was somewhat reassured by her confidence, but wondered if she might be a little too self assured.  More than one Caster had fallen to the fierce warriors, and they seldom made a move without some reason.  They had to be fully aware of the defeat in Ront, so what would prompt them to attack again so soon afterwards, and risk such a large force?  The Baldari had to be aware that Sedfair had recently committed a large force of magic wielding Casters to the fighting.  He guessed there were three or four hundred of the mounted invaders in the attacking force, which was several times as large as usual.

“What are they after?” Ardra asked.  “Kulne doesn’t appear to have much to offer.”

“The library,” Diard guessed and informed her of his belief.  “There is a decent sized university here, and one of the things they seem to target are the books.”

“Books?” she asked surprised.

Diard nodded.  “We believe they have targeted teachers and Casters in the past.  We think they are trying to learn about our magic.  Thus far they have demonstrated no skills of their own in that area.”

“Let’s hope they never learn,” Ardra said.  “They are enough of a problem as it is.”

Diard agreed and spurred his horse toward the group he could see charging into the village.  Kulne wasn’t that large, but it was an important village.  Built up close to the local hills on the far side, it rested in a pleasant valley with wide, well laid out streets.  The college was one of the best in the southern half of Sedfair.  It trained students who came from all over the state to specialize in industry and technology.  As a result of several colleges like this throughout the country, Sedfair had been making impressive advances in the past decades.

The raiders were coming in from the west, while Diard and his troops were approaching their right flank as they rode almost due north.  One of the Baldari riders had become separated from the rest and was lagging behind.  Diard drew his sword, one of the treated steel blades as opposed to the
White Blade
he had used when he fought to the north on his last deployment, and swept the rider from his saddle from behind.  Once again he was surprised at the diminutive size of the Baldari raider.  He had to be fully two hands shorter than Diard, with the rest of him scaled to the short stature.  Yet they fought as viciously as any warrior he had ever encountered.

This close he was able to get a better look at one of the ponies.  Now riderless, the pony tried to bite Diard’s mount, a number of gleaming sharp teeth showing in the open mouth.  While Diard didn’t know it, those teeth could inject a venom into a victim with the tearing bite, a venom that was invariably fatal.  Covering the body of the small horse were scales rather than hair, and the creature made a sound more like a whining dog.

Diard struck with his sword.  He needed to know if the creatures were resistant to his weapons.  The Army would need to know everything he could learn about the hitherto unseen Baldari mounts so they would be better prepared in the future.  His blade was turned aside by the scales, making barely a mark.  Perhaps he would have had better luck with a
White Blade
.  He hoped that wasn’t the case.  Effective as the odd swords had been against the Chulls, they were subject to being damaged more easily than the blade he currently carried.  Frustrated by his failure, he brought his arm down in a powerful swing aiming at the exposed neck as his mount pulled ahead of the smaller horse.  This time the results were different and his blade cut deep into the back of the neck severing vital nerves and blood vessels.  The creature screamed a mournful whine as its legs collapsed under it, almost dragging Diard’s sword from his grasp as the creature stumbled and died.

Ahead of them, another group of the Baldari warriors had reached the edge of the village and were splitting up, charging down the wide avenues.  A number had pulled up and turned toward Diard’s advancing force.  Diard gave a signal and his force split into three groups, each with one of the Casters, the two from the Guild and Kulne’s local Caster who was far less skilled than the Senior Casters from the capital.

The mounted Baldari who had pulled to a stop released a hail of arrows towards Diard and Ardra.  Diard raised his shield, but without apparent thought, Ardra raised her staff and released a spell that caused the arrows to burst into flame as they flew through the air, destroying them effortlessly.  Diard was certain they had taken note of Ardra as the blast of energy flew from her position.  They would be paying special attention to her from this point on. 

On his left, the group that Asi was riding with had come under fire as well.  A pair of archers hidden behind a stout rock wall had taken down a couple of riders.  Locating the Baldari archers, Asi released a bright bolt of concentrated energy that crackled as it nearly instantaneously crossed the distance between herself and the half-hidden archers.  The narrow beam blasted a massive hole in the wall and burned the hiding archers out of existence.  The destruction was accompanied by a huge blast and flying rock from what was left of the wall.  Seeing a second group setting up alongside a copse of trees, she raised her staff and the ground where they huddled erupted in a mighty blast that flung the surprised archers in every direction.

“Let’s go!” Diard shouted to his men as he turned onto the main road headed toward the university a short distance from the edge of the village. 

They were close to the edge of town when a Baldari horseman who had remained behind charged out of a side street directly at Diard.  Ardra reached out with her staff and touched the charging horseman, who found himself and his mount frozen and unable to move as they tumbled awkwardly to the ground where the transformation to a kind of stone proceeded.  That was something Diard had never seen before and he shuddered at the thought.

While Diard and his force followed the attacking raiders into the village, the remainder of the defensive force formed a moving barrier to prevent more of the attacking force from augmenting those already within the village.  Asi somehow created a huge
Doorway
in front of a charging group of Baldari while she was still on horseback, something none of them would have thought possible.  Unable to turn, the Baldari rode directly into the huge
Doorway
and disappeared.  The
Doorway
closed behind them.

“Where did they go?” asked one of the men close to her.

With a wry grin, she said, “I know of a high cliff near my home village. I used to like to sit near the top and look down on the rocks so far below.  They will find the opening to be just off the lip of that cliff.  It will be a long way down for them.”

Some distance away, the village Caster was in trouble.  Despite releasing weak fireballs to press back the attacking Baldari, her group was being surrounded.  Knowing the rumors that the Baldari sought to capture Casters alive and fearing for herself, she suddenly turned and tried to flee.  Her timing was bad and she ran directly into a flight of arrows released by another group of the raiders.  More than a half dozen arrows struck her, a couple in locations that proved fatal.

The battlefield became a place of noise, confusion, and death.  Horses and ponies whined and screamed as they took the blows meant for opposing fighters.  Men, defenders and attackers alike, fought and died.  The defenders, who were outnumbered almost three to one, made slow headway against the invaders. Only the fact they were bigger and stronger gave them an advantage in hand to hand combat.  That they were winning was due to the intense blasts of magical energy that Asi was discharging nearly continuously.  Dozens of the enemy fell to her magic, and soon the forces were nearly equal.  While they were dealing with an overly large group of Baldari coming from the north, a pair of suicidal riders struck from behind, the sword of one driven through Asi’s back before she realized the danger.  Both Baldari were killed almost instantly, but the goal had been accomplished. Now it was soldier against invader.

Inside the village, the route taken by the Baldari as they charged through was easy to follow.  They left a trail of bodies of those who were too slow to get out of their way.  Diard and Ardra led the group of soldiers, arriving at the university grounds well behind the first of the Baldari.  They could hear the scream of students being killed, and as one, jumped from their mounts and charged into the complex of buildings, heading toward the screams. 

As almost an afterthought, Ardra released a ball of bright energy, destroying one of the mounts of the enemy.  “Destroy them all,” she ordered the troops with her.  Any enemy that tried to escape would be on foot and would find it difficult to go very far.  The brief delay put her moments behind Diard and his men, and she rushed to catch up, yelling at Diard to wait for her.

Inside the library was chaos.  The students who could had fled.  Many others lay dead or dying on the floor.  Books were scattered at random as the Baldari ran through the shelves filling large leather bags at random.  It was obvious they didn’t know which books were important and which weren’t. They were taking books randomly from different sections hoping to gather something of value. 

Immediately the two sides squared off and swords rang as each side fought for control.  Diard followed one of the invaders into the rows of books where he found himself surprised by two more waiting with the one he’d been chasing.  Only a quick response by Diard, a fair swordsman as he’d be pleased to tell you himself, saved him from being skewered.  He dispatched his attacker and turned to the two Baldari remaining just in time. 

He fought like he’d never fought before.  The little buggers were good, and fast.  Even the damn Chulls hadn’t been this hard.  Sweat ran down his sides as he battled to keep the blades from slicing him.  He’d just forge an opening on one of the attackers, when the other would demand his attention before he could take advantage of it.   Behind him, he could hear the magic fireballs that Ardra had to be using to wipe out all resistance in the open area.  He certainly could use a little of that magic here at the moment.

“Here,” he hollered when he had breath to spare.  The two Baldari chattered to one another in their indecipherable language as they fought against him, almost certainly planning their attack while he fought alone.  One of them seemed to slip, giving Diard a momentary advantage.  He lunged to take advantage of the mistake, knowing if he could take one out of the fight, he would be more than a match for the remaining enemy.

As he extended his arm to make the thrust, he realized in the back of his mind that the Baldari was smiling.  He’d been had.  The mistake was on purpose, designed to lure him into making the very move he was.  There was no time to retract the lunge, and as he watched his blade pass through the space the Baldari had somehow vacated, he felt the blade from the other plunge deep into his side.  He suddenly felt weak, and the pain of the strike took all thought of further resistance from him.  He felt himself sliding to the floor, the grinning Baldari fighters standing over him.  Their satisfaction was short-lived as a blast of pure white energy passed over the fallen Major, burning the two invaders to ash.  Diard was aware of this as his last thought before everything turned dark.

Ardra looked down on the fallen Major.  He had seemed a good man, if a bit brash.  If he’d only waited, his death probably could have been avoided.  She turned and headed back to the main room, but more Army soldiers had arrived and the battle here was over.  She quickly learned that the battle at the village perimeter was over as well, although at horrible cost.