The Unexpected Heir: A Tale of Alus (67 page)

"We'll break through and catch her before the girl can escape. If she is the one our men fought, we can take her. If not, we can kill her or capture her for ransom. She is a royal woman after all."

Hoskis nodded and the other three men of his elite wizards began to advance. Obek had already moved closer to the front of their attacking force. The young wizard had seen the girl and decided that she was worth risking getting closer to the fighting. Whether he saw her as a trophy or a foe, Caldrefan was uncertain.

As they advanced, Obek drove the enemy soldiers before him like wheat before a scythe. It drew Annalicia's attention and the girl fearlessly advanced to confront the enemy wizard.

Caldrefan watched the two appear to ignore the rest of the battle turning the confrontation into a duel. Obek cast his earth spell hoping to disrupt the girl quickly to get an advantage. Whether he was hoping to take her undamaged because she was beautiful or because he was worried about her abilities, only the young man knew; but the girl wasn't so easily taken.

Blue shields appeared beneath her feet while a night shield absorbed most of the attack. Though some of Obek's spell churned the earth under her feet, the blue shield absorbed the shock as she continued to stride forward. Wind swirled around her furiously moving soldiers from both sides out of the way making the two wizards appear almost alone on the field.

Spears of stone rose like a trap piercing her protective winds despite their strength, but Annalicia pruned them like she used shears on a bush. Cut near their base, the swirling wind lifted the broken stone whipping it around her before the girl sent the spikes at tremendous speeds towards Obek.

A thick stone wall rose before him. As the pieces shattered, the man used his magic to pull them back into another spell. His wall absorbed the shards as he willed the mass of rock back towards the girl.

Too weighty for her winds to stop its movement, Annalicia split the wall with wind like a spinning saw cutting through wood. It went around her, but again the wizard sliced the roots of the wall causing it to break apart. A few soldiers were close enough to raise their shields protectively against the rock; but Annalicia ignored all but the man in front of her.

Three horizontal vortexes spun towards Obek. One shot right down the middle while the other two moved outward before hooking back hoping to catch the man between all three. Stone rose like a dome over the wizard. It rolled forward before submerging beneath the ground. When it reappeared, the stone was at her feet. Stone reached up grasping her arms rooting her in place.

Obek rose from the stone with a gloating smile. "Well, you have talent and I have to say that you are quite beautiful; but your wind spells can only do so much to my stone. Now that I have you trapped, maybe I'll keep you for my prize. There aren't many women who can contend with your beauty," Obek laughed.

"Air lance." Annalicia had raised her palms flat towards the gloating wizard. A spear shimmering in the air cut clean through his chest in a brief spurt of blood. The solid wind construct held the man, whose eyes went wide in shock, standing unable to catch his breath to say another word or spell.

Her eyes frowned in anger and the girl said, "You thought binding my arms meant that I couldn't cast a spell. You were wrong. Unlike you, I don't have to consider keeping you alive at all."

As his eyes began to roll up in his head as pain and shock overloaded his mind, Annalicia released her wind spell letting the wizard drop to the ground.

"Darkness," she called like a battle mage letting the spell eat away the shackles around her wrists. It was a use of the night spell never shown her by Sebastian. This was all her own.

Looking across a cleared piece of land at the soldiers and wizards of the brotherhood, Annalicia seemed to dare them to send another wizard.

Caldrefan glared at the young woman, so pretty yet deadly, as so many women were he thought. "She wants to play rough, so be it."

As if cued by his words, the remaining wizards struck as one.

The earth shook. Fire rained down across the battlefield aimed at Malaiy, even as winds moved through slicing at any soldiers exposed to them. Men were cut down all around her even as Annalicia did her best to protect them and herself with the night shields.

Caldrefan destroyed her protective spells of night as swiftly as the girl could recreate them. She alternated blue shields of energy like the green many of his wizards knew. They held up to light spells; but the power of a dozen wizards, including Caldrefan's best, shattered them quickly also.

He felt a sudden surge from Annalicia's place in the center of their focus. It was the power he had felt the previous day and Caldrefan knew that he had found the source after all. How she had hidden her true power while fighting Obek was her secret. Unlike Obek, the master wizard didn't plan on leaving any breath in her body to escape what he had waiting for her.

Chapter 37- Counter Spells

Annalicia's duel with the enemy wizard had been as tough as any in the ring at Winter's Edge. He had been talented and powerful. The final spell to close with her had been a surprise. No one in Malaiy had shown her that such a thing was possible. He had moved beneath the ground and used the stone he controlled to bind her. If the wizard had chosen to go for her hands or the kill, he could have won.

Learning how to use magic like a battle mage had saved her life and those of her men before; but never like this. She controlled the darkness in a new way also destroying her bonds as Anna aimed the spell with her hands containing it to just the stone around her wrists.

No sooner had the wizard freed herself from the stone than the enemy let loose with a barrage of magic beyond anything that they had tried so far. Reynolvan and Ivanor erected night shields, but they had been separated from her. Trapped with dozens of Malaiyan soldiers, Annalicia worked at a frenzied pace blocking fire, wind and stone. Men still died as the enemy removed any strategy from their exchange. They were simply using more wizards and spells than she could keep up with, and Anna knew that just a single wizard could only stop so many spells.

Worse, one wizard could be exhausted by so many as well. Holding the spear with her left hand, Annalicia drew upon Alus for more power. Suddenly her shields resisted longer and two or three wizards were required to break one of her spells.

Feeling nearly invincible, Annalicia knew that even this kind of power had its limits. The ground could supply her endlessly, but her body could only take so much, even if she truly was what they called immortal. A body could burn away from the sheer power of Alus and even regulating it would eventually cause her to exhaust herself. The latter issue could still kill her, but if not from using up her magic, lying unconscious would leave her open to the enemy's spells.

Sebastian had argued with Darius over whether using his magic to heal and protect might keep him from aging. Her grandfather couldn't answer that question since the mage was unique. Now she needed to protect her people and hoped that need would help her last longer also.

In spite of the chaos of so many wizards fighting around her and so many targeting her in particular, Annalicia felt a wave of power suddenly shining from the opposite side of the field. A single wizard held the strength of several, she thought; or at least that was the gap in strength between him and a wizard of average power.

She could sense the change in the soldiers of Malaiy. They tensed. Some were killed instantly by the charging enemy, but others began to react in different ways. Men dropped weapons from nerveless fingers. Others dropped to the ground clutching their heads unable to move from the spot. Then there were those who started to turn and run.

Annalicia watched a few smaller groups trying to stop the men. They had been seeded with the spell taught her by Darius after an incident with Sebastian's younger sister. Her mind magic had taken Anna as well as everyone on the Sea Dragon and on the dock beneath Hala. He had diffused the situation with a spell and a touch. Each person the wizard touched with his protection broke from the mind magic.

Unfortunately now, there were just too many men to try and free from the enemy's fear spell. Men would be at the walls of Malaiy before they could hope to stop them all. Quickly thinking of how she could affect more of the men at once. Annalicia's mind spun until she looked at her spear. It touched the ground and the men all had contact with Alus as well.

Quickly mumbling the counter spell already in affect around her body, Annalicia drew in even more power before lifting the spear a moment. Slamming the power back down with the butt of the weapon, the wizard sent the spell into the earth. Her intent was to affect all of the soldiers guarding Solan to the east and west. The depth of their ranks was relatively thin, but Annalicia's control of a newly imagined use for the spell lacked control. She couldn't hope to hold power over all of their people at once. The wizards who had lent the spell to the select few to halt a retreat if possible had a continual drain on their magic to maintain the spell.

Her spell rippled through the men affected by the fear and disrupted its affects. Men recovered quickly picking up their weapons and returned to the fight. Beyond the break, they felt a surge of bravery and the momentum of the battle quickly shifted.

Caldrefan felt the girl's power grow to the point that he was certain that she was going to burn herself out. He felt the spell build, but he didn't know what she planned. When the men of Malaiy all turned back to fight and appeared even more motivated than before, he thought that was the worst of it until he noticed the men in their front line.

The girl's spell had not only affected her people, but had spread into his army. Men made to fight against their people or fight for him when they had truly wished to fight against the brotherhood stopped their attack. Those following the men expected to die for a cause that they didn't believe in looked at their former comrades as they turned to glare at the remainder of the brothers' army.

Anger crossed many of their faces. Others began looking for the wizards at fault for making them fight their own people. The men caught at Fort Camden tore their sashes from their waists and turned to face those from Tseult and the forces from Alwere. Those remaining from the rout at Daria suddenly wondered how they could have followed their enemy for so long.

Caldrefan looked on the change in the men and suddenly it was he who felt fear. "Fall back to our rear guard quickly," he ordered his wizards. Nearly every wizard was either his by choice or had been coerced with a clear mind.

Seeing their fellows ready to join the enemy in attacking them, the red sash soldiers took Caldrefan's advice and began to fall back. It wasn't long before the freed men began to attack those too slow to run. Some of his loyal soldiers were cut down as they began to retreat. Others were captured, since no one could truly tell who was friend or foe now. Some tore the red sashes off in defiance, but others ignored it choosing to attack instead.

It was a rout of another kind as Caldrefan and his loyal men ran for the camp. They regrouped there and set up a hasty defense. His army still outnumbered those who had turned against him, but when Malaiy decided that it was safe to chase them down, Caldrefan knew that they would be in trouble.

"What happened, Master Caldrefan?" General Wayrd questioned as the commanders of the brothers' army regrouped.

His top wizards stood near their master wondering the same thing. Grinding his teeth, Caldrefan had wondered how the girl had managed to ruin his spell when it had lasted for weeks on the soldiers as long as they maintained the magic regularly. While it had always been a possibility, the wizard had grown confident that they could continue to turn Malaiy's soldiers against Orlaan and his remaining forces.

Slowly releasing his words, Caldrefan reminded the men, "We always knew that it was possible that something could happen to disrupt the control of the spell. Fear can sometimes break a thrall from the magic. It was always a worry."

Hoskins shook his head, but not because he doubted his master's words. "Was it the girl? I felt some spell wash over me. It was like a wave and as it passed, our soldiers began to stop. A moment later they turned on us."

"I've never found anyone capable of breaking the spell, but every type of magic has its counter. How this lady from Malaiy came to know it and how she could summon the power to affect so many is a mystery, but we have to face that we cannot continue if both Malaiy and the men freed join forces. They will outnumber us so we will need to figure out a different plan to take Solan."

Wayrd frowned deeply and said, "The men were promised riches and land, Master Caldrefan. This poses a problem if we can't take the city."

Sighing at the idea of man's greed superseding their loyalty, the wizard stated, "We can still reward them with both. Solan will just have to wait. A land serving Sordrian can be built and we can come after this prize later. There is always time.

"For now, we will have to pull the army back. We can control Fort Camden and as much of the land around it as we can, then we will work on putting gold in your soldiers' pockets; if that is what it will take to keep them here and loyal."

The men looked disappointed, but Caldrefan knew the feeling well. He had thought that it was his time. Word would have to be sent to Edrin's Crossing. Karlaan would have to wait as well, though the wizard wondered if the boy would have the patience needed. He had pushed too quickly and nearly had the king's men on top of him. His people inside the castle had heard enough to know that the temple had been under surveillance thanks to his poisoned flowers. Karlaan was flirting with disaster, but the boy was his best chance to take over Malaiy without having to fight for every inch of the country.