The Exodus Sagas: Book IV - Of Moons and Myth (45 page)

“Excellent work professor. Enira D’fallow, are you here?” Middir looked around the balconies.

“I am
,
professor Middir. The ogre and troll mingle as we speak, though they seem unaware. I have used subtle charms of anger and discontent, so hidden that they will not realize they seek to disobey the commands of their leaders.” Hidden in the walls by illusions and blending arcane force,
fat and frizzy haired professor Enira, the one eyed witch of Harlaheim, was ready with all of her tricks and subconscious arcane spells.
“They wi
ll be at each others
throats
very
soon.”

“Students o
f the graduating year three hundred forty six, sixteen of you are here with me. You know your spells by heart and have practiced well. Now, we have a bit of a field test if you would, to put practice to preservation. Are you ready?” Middir whispered to the cloaked arcane shadows of sixteen students that lined the battlements of Southwind Keep.

“
Yes, professor Middir
.” They whispered back, staves in hand, ready to prove what nine years of arcane training at Lazlette could accomplish against an army of trolls and ogre.

“Class of three hundred forty seven, are you ready to prove to the class ahead of you that you are just as skilled in the arcane? Fourteen students with a year less remedial study, yet can you show us what you have learned under pressure?”

“
Yes, Professor Middir
.”
They spoke in un
ison, hushed from their concealed magicks that blended their forms into the arrow slits in the
towers on either side of the catwalk.

“Very good, very good. On my signal, which will be very explosive, professor Graniff will illuminate the fields west of Southwind, with the five students currently tied for the honor graduate award. Then, we will be face to face with three legions of troll and ogre savages. Two masters of the arcane have we sensed in their ranks, so be cautious. Cold will slow the trolls, as will turning them to stone, and setting them afire. As far as the ogre, use blasts of force to knock them down, electricity to stun them, and whatever else comes to mind.” Middir tapped his staff to the stone, his seventh sense was showing his eyes that they were within one hundred feet of the moat. “Any questions?”

“Yes, professor. Is this considered an elective credit for the first semester, or extra laboratory time for the second semester?” Young Kishan Tillir, from Jal Adeen, felt the need to ask her query. The stifled chuckling set everyone at a bit of ease. Though most found humor in it,
she was actually quite serious
since she was the the favored to take the honor award in the upcoming graduation.

Before Middir could respond, he saw Brellmond Graniff wink at him that all the enemy forces were now within his secret circle
of waiting arcane. Middir nodded back, hovered over the courtyard, and signaled Hithins.

“Perrius Alvander, it is time. Tell your archers to ready their bows and close their eyes. As soon as the light dims enough to see, fire at will.” The snow vulture ordered calmly.

“Yes, Lord Hithins, God save you.” Perrius crept quietly to inform the defenses of Southwind to be ready.

“
Lord
Hithins? Truly, you have quite an ego when your mistress is away.” Middir shook his head with a smile.

“I will have you know that I have whipped Southwind into shape before you arrived. It was most disorganized, the food was awful, and the people need a bit of leadership. I am just the bird for the job, Middir.” Hithins raised his beak in proud defiance.

Middir smiled again, shook his head, and pointed his staff to the center of Alvander field in the dark of early nightfall.
“Caldrasiun duthme hiliard hvoom!”

A sphere of white and orange spiraling force whisked into being, into the palm of Professor Middir, and it began to solidify and rotate in fast revolutions. As it hummed, he heard the grunts and roars of ogre hitting the
outer
walls
and gates
. Middir heard the screeching and hissing of thousands of trolls
climbing with black claws
.
All thirty five students, his four fellow professors, and all of Southwind Keep and the hidden citizens of Elcram looked up at him floating above the courtyard. He nodded to Hithins, and thrust his sapphire topped staff and hand forward. The sphere spun over the catwalk, past the outer walls, and impacted into Alvander field. The explosion rattled the very earth and walls, sending bits of ogre and troll nearly thirty feet in every direction.

“
Now!
” Middir yelled over the students and professors of Lazlete Semanarium Arcanum.

Light like the sun on a summer day, a line half a foot wide yet blinding white and yellow, erupted from the walls of Southwind Keep. It stretched west along a stream, curved over the tops of the hills of Alvander field, then wrapped miles around western Elcram
in mer seconds
.

For one second, no one breathed. The sight of thousands of ten and eleven foot tall ogre warriors, so close to the keep they stood and hovered upon, was terrifying. Blended with the climbing trolls, green naked skin and whips of black hair, coming by twice that number in all directions, froze all in a moment of disbelieving stare. Thankfully, the power of surprise and blinding light had the enemy pause for that same moment
and more
.

Then, the battle roars and screeches from Avegarne and Mun Parr went up like fires to the sky, driving their hordes into attack.
Suddenly, arcane flashes
of crackling blue, burning green, flaming orange, a
nd searing
white unleashed from Southwind Keep to welcome them.
The first wave of trolls over the walls stepped through blue humming light that froze their bodies into ice. The ogre warriors at the front met bolts of lightning by the dozens, and balls of white flame that blinded and burned.
Green acidic mist shot from staves on the southside, forming cones and clouds inescapable as troll flesh melted from bodies and tried to regrow as they fell to the ground below. Ogre weapons lifted from dead hands and spun with purple force, cleaving hea
ds and arms from their living brethren
on the field.

To the outer gates, unleashed hails of arrows from hidden archers of the keep. Then the very moat erupted as the water boiled and
thirty or more
shadowy tentacles sprouted and shocked everything within reach.
Walls of invisible force stopped spears and javelins before the balconies. Several spells erupted back to the keep from an elven wizard and a young female arcanist, yet they met the dispelling fields of the brothers Traelsidian, and fizzled without effect. The students unleashed orbs of every color, exploding,
ripping with force, and electrifying the masses trapped below them.
The night sky was flashing with uncounted lights, as if ten classed of Lazlette were graduating all at once.

Orders from ogre chiefs came out as hissing words to troll warriors. In turn, troll savages yelled to each other but their dialect issued in the ogre tongue. Avegarne and Mun Parr yelled for charges and retreats simultaneously. Rage turned to frenzy, then to scattered chaos, and the fields were erupting with ogre and troll killing one another as much as climbing the walls to reach inside.

A symphony of magical assaults radiated the night sky, directed by the professors of Lazlette Academy.
Hundreds
upon hundreds of ogre and troll alike
perished in mere seconds, and the secret arcane army of Southwind Keep was just warming up.

“It is a trap, splendid!” Eliah Shendrynn ducked a bolt of lightning in the dark chaos.

“Back to back, get us in the air!” Vanessa
Blackflame saw Avegarne heading their way, with many ogre, and not to discuss battle plans.

I hope they mangle her to pieces, but you had better not get a scratch on my body, Salah Cam. Get out of me, now!

“
Never
.” Salah Cam spoke as he laughed outloud to the spirit in the body he controlled. He summoned levitating forces on he and Vanessa as she protected them with flaming walls and
translucent barriers.

The trolls and ogre wanted payment for the seeming betrayal, they knew not which wizard had led them into the ambush, so both were ordered to die. Trolls of Mun Parr screamed into the ogre and swarmed Southwind. Ogre charged their elven and Caberran leaders and fought off the troll hordes. All the while, the arcane assault only strengthened from those having arrived under cover, from Lazlette Academy.

White Spider Underground, Valhirst, Chazzrynn

The glowing kukri of the Hedim Anah slashed ahead twice, then was parried
again
by the glowing kris blade near Vermillion’s face on the third attack. Lavress slashed low with his falcata, met by the shortblade of his opponent. The elven hunter backed up a step, anticiapated the double lunge, an
d
struck down with both his curved blades. He feinted with an elbow to the scarred assassin, then kicked forward into the stomach of black cloaked Vermillion
, sending him back hard
.

Jehrale Valhera caught his
wind, his blades were up on defense
reflexivel
y, and he cross parried the
slashing
fal
cata that rose up toward his torso. Before the kukri stabbed ahead, he twirled under the elven hunters’ reach, slashing furiously with both blades. Two, then four, then six deadly swings of steel were unleashed. Each made the same sound as he continued his dance to the center of the chamber.

Clang, chang, shing, ting!

Never had Jehrale met an opponent he could not kill, nor one so seemingly savage yet so skilled as this elf.

Lavress pressed on, keeping his stare to the chest of his foe, and began long thrusts and cuts to tire his opponent down. He lunged with the wolf pommeled falcata, then stepped back and countered the riposte with his lightning kukri strikes. His high lunges landed low
to keep distance
, his parries were horizontal, then he started with even faster stop cuts slashing vertical in between
catching the shortblades with ease
. His back and forth steps grew repetitious, then he knew it was time to feint.

Vermillion countered with diagonal slashes of his kris blade, then low lunges to push back with his shortsword. He moved to take an angle in, as the straight forward defense of this elf was impenetrable. He stepped left, then right, and then dove ahead with quick thrusts. Suddenly his left arm burned, then his ribs, and he backed up and placed his guard cross and high. His opponent had moved ahead, had anticipated his steps, and placed two perfect cuts into his shoulder and flank. He felt the blood seeping down, he looked, and the savage elf was circling and preparing another assault.

Torchlight threw dancing shadows of two masters of the blade upon the walls of the prison chambers. The echo of steel upon steel was nearly deafening, yet the feint commotion of a much larger war above ground could be heard in the inte
rmittent moments of the prison
. Oggidan tried to focus, his armblade crossed over his shortblade, trying to overpower Sir Liogan. He had tripped him back over some chains, landed ontop of him, and
his
crossed
edges were inches from the knights’ throat. In between them was broadsword, and a left hand holding his arm
away
. Both young warriors trembled
from the pressure.

Liogan turned left, then right, then left again, and lifted his knees. He pushed up hard, just hard enough to throw Oggidan back a few feet. He rolled, broadsword i
n hand, and got to his feet
in time to deflect a slashing armblade and a chop of a very close shortsword. The young knight backpeddaled as he parried the fast incoming attacks, high, then low, then thrusts in the dark
that met his steel
.
Though younger by a season or so, his red haired opponent was well trained. His back hit a wall, he dodged left and right,
blades scraping stone as he did, sparking inches from his face.

Oggidan feinted to cut up across the knights’ face, then cut low with both blades. One was stepped around the other parried. He caught the broadsword in his blades again and twisted. The steel edges rolled over a few times, then the shortsword and the broadsword went skittering across the floor and stopped upon hitting a sack of chains. The agent of the White Spider punched ahead with his armblade, but it was grab
bed by the knight with
both his hands.

The moans of forgotten prisoners rolled into the chambers, the battle was getting closer overhead, and Lavress Tilaniun knew there was little time. He glanced over and saw the struggle between Oggidan and Liogan, then sped up his assault.

He danced and weaved with direct thrusts and sweeping slashes, positioning himself closer to Liogan and the wall. The green glow and vibrating hum from the kris blade was unnerving now, nearly distracting Lavress with every parry he made against it. Vermillion kept his stance, a well trained swordsman indeed, yet his blades were half moments behind those of the elven hunter of the Hedim Anah. Half moments were enough.