Mind Forged: Book One of the Enchanters of Xarparion (34 page)

From the ground
, I couldn’t tell how the others were doing, nor could I tell how many were left. If I had to guess, though, I would say that between the seven of us on the ground, we had taken down about a hundred. The battle continued for over an hour, I was still doing fine, but Nia was almost out of spells and I lost three guards. Then I heard Maya shout out my name, and a sharp pain pierced my head. Forcing down the pain, I called for my reserves to cover for me and ran to find Maya.

I found her next to Rosa
, who was laid out on the ground. She had taken a crossbow bolt to the midsection and was losing a lot of blood.

“
Rosa! Hang in there!” Maya was already putting pressure on the wound. The only other thing I could think to do would be to use a healing enchantment, but that was too slow to save her. Then from behind me, I felt a hand on my shoulder.

“
Out of the way, please.”

I looked over my
shoulder and, much to my surprise, found Alera. “Alera, what are you doing here?”

“
I told you that I would come when you need me, so here I am. Now move, both of you!”

Maya and I
took a few steps back to give her space. After one quick look at Rosa, she took hold of the bolt and yanked it out, quickly placing her hand over the wound. Seconds passed, then a minute, and then finally Rosa opened her eyes. “What happened?” she said groggily.

Maya was crying now
, but they were tears of joy. “You got shot, you stupid, old lady!”

We pulled Rosa to her feet
, and we were about to return to the battle when the Captain rode up to us. He looked shaken at the blood covering Rosa’s robes. “Headmaster Rosa, I have urgent news. Another portal has opened at the top of Central Tower and orcs are flooding the tower. Regrettably, the Headmaster was critically wounded, and all other tower heads were killed in the first wave, leaving you as the only functional high-ranking faculty member left. What are your orders?”

The
Headmaster is badly wounded and Central has been taken? “What else can you tell me, Captain?” she asked shakily. I was reminded how debilitating recovery from near death was, but Rosa had the strength of three men, and if anyone could power through the pain and weakness, it would be her.

“
The Headmaster doesn’t look good. He managed to make it to his old office in the Wind Tower before he collapsed, but the healer I spoke with said to expect the worst, so you are to assume command. As far as the Xarparion’s situation, our spotters are saying there is another wave of twelve thousand undead two miles away.”

“
We can’t take on that many, not with an open portal inside the walls!”

There was silence for a few seconds
. “Your orders, Headmaster?”

Rosa
’s face was hard and her eyes were cold. “Save as many as you can, Captain Jarsin, we’re evacuating Xarparion!”

The way she sa
id that was like someone driving an icicle into our hearts, but we all knew that it was the only thing we could do. The Captain looked both relieved and disappointed.

“
Yes, Ma’am, I’ll start the evacuation. Where do you want them to go?”

Rosa thought about this for a second
. “Portal fourteen, it’s out of the way and that area should have almost no undead. That portal also has a lock so we can’t be followed.”

“
Understood.”

He turned to leave
, but Rosa put a hand on his shoulder. “One more thing, Warehouse Thirteen has twenty crates marked ‘Enchanters Hall’ on them. We need those crates captain; get as many as you can through that portal.”

“
That’s awfully close to the main gate.”

“
I know, but we won’t last long without them.”

He sighed
, “I’ll do what I can.” Then he backed up his horse, spun and spurred off.

Rosa then turned to Maya and
me; Alera had already disappeared again. “Alex, we need to buy some time, see what you can do.” I nodded. “Maya, round up your men and get them ready to move.”

The two of us put our helmets back on and ran back to the fa
iling temporary barricade. When I got there, only four of the seven guards I left there were still alive. I pushed back the feeling of guilt in my mind and turned it to determination. I looked around, the walls of the stone gatehouse weren’t looking so good, and there was a lot of heavy stone above it, enough to block it even.

I shouted up the wall
. “Maya, get everyone off the wall!”

I didn
’t know if she responded, but as I smashed a few more skeletons, I saw men jumping off the walls and down the ladders. Nia was still firing away at them from a piece of rubble she was using as a perch.

“
Nia, I need a bigger boom, clear as many of them away as you can!”

She must
have been getting really tired by now, the number of fireballs she had already cast were easily ten times more than any human could do. “I’ll try, Mr. Alex!” I could see she was putting everything she had into one spell. When she was ready, the fireball was several feet wide and burning blue. She fired it into the center of the swarm of undead, vaporizing the ones closest to the blast. The walls around me shook, breaking loose clouds of dust as the shockwave and bits of bone hit us. Through the dust, I could see that she took out almost all of the remaining undead in the immediate area, but more were coming our way now.

Nia had collapsed now f
rom exhaustion. I scooped her up and placed her on her perch on my shoulder, shaping the metal to protect her and keep her in place. Then I readied everything I had as well, activating an enchantment I have in my hammer to increase force. I slammed it into the wall, breaking off massive pieces of stone and brick. With the weight of this armor, my own strength, and the enchantments in my hammer, I was able to blow out five foot chunks with each blow.

After a few more massive blows
, the arch above me was ready to give out. One more hit was all it took to send it crumbling down towards me. Suddenly I was jerked backwards and thrown clear of the rubble. I landed on my back, looking up at the sky as Maya hovered over me.

“
Just so you know, you might not count them, but I do; you owe me one now!”

I
laughed, “What about those other two times I saved you?”

“
You told me I didn’t owe you anything, so the way I see it, you owe me one.” She pulled me to my feet. “Come on, handsome, I returned the guards to Jarsin’s command so it’s just you and me. By the way, great job collapsing the wall, but it’s really stupid that we can’t have an earth wizard on hand to just make a new wall.”

“
Yeah, where are all the wizards anyway?”

“
School rule, students can’t fight.”

“
Well, that’s stupid!”

“
Yeah, good thing no one told you! Now, come on already, we have two angry warhorses ready to go, and a lot of filthy undead in the streets. So let’s have some fun!”

Sure enough
, both warhorses were ready to crush some skulls. As soon as we were mounted up, they both took off down the road towards the center of Xarparion and the largest number of undead.

The horses took the hint and
came to a full charge. The skeletons weren’t that smart so they didn’t even raise a spear to protect themselves. The heavily armored horses impacted the first few so hard that the bones were shattered against their heavy steel chest plates and then crushed beneath iron clad hooves.

Maya was
laughing as she swung Winya at skeletons that got within reach, I found myself laughing with her as well. I don’t know how many we destroyed, but we soon found ourselves in front of the Healers Tower. Skeletons were attempting to force their way into the tower through the main door. From my vantage point, it would seem that the only thing stopping them were two guards and Alera’s nebulia, all three of whom looked totally exhausted; they couldn’t have much time left.

“
Maya, we have to get them out of there!”

She nodded
. “I’m right behind you.”

Without
us even pulling on the reins, the intelligent horses seemed to know their new objective. They rammed down a wide path to the main door, and then did a circle in front of the door clearing away the rest of the undead in the spot.

I
quickly dismounted and rushed over to the guards, who were fighting the last few skeletons that had made it into the entry area. I grabbed the last two that were fighting the guards and crushed their skulls in my armored hands.

The guards were
stunned; one even thought I was another undead for a second. But as I pulled them to their feet, it sank in that I was there to help them. Maya and the nebulia both came over to me; the nebulia looked like he had been fighting even longer than Maya and I.

As always
, I couldn’t understand what he was saying, but he did bow to me again, and that I was able to understand.

“
He says thank you for saving his life a second time.” I turned around to find Alera, tired looking and covered in other people’s blood. “And I would like to thank you, as would all the healers, for your timely assistance!”

Maya
stepped between us, probably not liking the attention I was getting from Alera. “How many are trapped inside?”

Even faced with an irritated dark elf
warrior, she didn’t flinch. “Almost all of us, there were only a few who were in other parts of the school when the attack hit. I have gotten everyone ready to leave with what they can fit in a backpack, as well as all the portable healing equipment in the tower. They’re waiting on the second floor.

“
Why are they so interested in you guys?” I asked.

“
We took out all the orcs in Central, they have very weak minds. Anyway, the skeletons noticed and concentrated on us. With them not being alive or having a brain, we can’t do a thing to them.”

“
Get everyone moving, we will get you to the gate,” Maya said.

“
Thank you!” And she was gone in a flash.

“
I really hate it that I’m starting to like her,” Maya complained with a growl.

Outside
, only a few undead had moved in, but I knew there were thousands more on the walls by now. We had maybe half an hour until they were on us. We dispatched the few that were around, and then mounted back up on our warhorses just as the first healers came out the door. Just like Alera had reported, they all had backpacks. They also had every two healers carrying large crates.

As soon as t
he first group of two was close enough, I asked, “Are you sure you can carry all that to the portal?”

The boy and girl
smiled at me. “The fear of death is a good motivator; besides, we all know what we need to do.”

I nodded to them
; I suppose they were right. We watched as the rest of them came out of the tower; there looked to be about fifty healers and about twenty crates. Alera gave us a thumbs up that we were ready to go. Maya and I took the lead leaving the two guards and the nebulia to bring up the rear.

Oddly
, we only came across a handful of undead as we approached the halfway point to the gate. The reason soon became clear as we rounded a corner and plunged right into battle. Our friends, the earth wizards, had made their own convoy and seemed to have attracted the undead’s attention.

I looked at Maya and she just
smiled back at me. “Shall we?” she asked.

“
Lead on, my Lady!”

With the wizards formed into
a circle, it was very easy for us to finish off the remaining undead with their help. I scanned the earth wizards, most of them were tired and I could see quite a few wounded. But I could also see Lin and Julia were ok and so was Hons. I even saw Reggie, Julia’s pet earth elemental bashing skeletons to pieces at the back of the column. The two druids and Hons ran over to Maya and me.

“
Holy crap! Maya, that armor is super sexy,” said Lin, and Julia bounced in agreement.

“
Um, thank you…I think.”

Hons
moved over to me as I dismounted. “Thanks for the help, Alex.”

“
No problem, how many did you get?”

He sighed
tiredly. “We got most of the earth wizards together right away and tried to help the Water and Wind Towers, but most of them refused to leave, saying their Primus ordered them so stay. So we sealed their towers in stone, they should have enough supplies for about a year in there. But a few of them came with us when they heard you enchanters were in charge. We have about six of each. Sadly, many of my people got hurt getting this far.”

“
Don’t worry; we got the healers out so we can get everyone fixed up when we get through the portal. Any word from the Fire Tower?”