Bel exchanged a speaking glance with Gaelen.
“Kem’falla,”Gaelen said, “it’s not just dangerous for you to be here. It’s dangerous for everyone around you.”
She speared Gaelen with a cold glare. “Don’t try to play on my empathies, Gaelen. I know what I’m asking. I know that my presence puts everyone in danger, and if there were any other option, I’d take it. But we have wounded—dying men. I can feel them right now. I’m all they’ve got, and I will not abandon them. Now get those tables and cots—and send the wounded my way. And tell my secondary quintet to attend to me. All of the generals were in the castle with the king. Rain’s going to need leaders for this army, and you five are it. You stay close, though, Gaelen. I’m going to need your help for healing.”
Gaelen had known her long enough to recognize when she was determined. He gave a curt bow.“La ve shalah, doreh shabeila de.”As you command, so shall it be.
Bel squared his shoulders and signaled to his brother Fey. “You heard her,kem’jetos.Cots, tables, wounded. Gil, you spread the word to send the wounded here. I’m going to track down the Celierians’ next in command.”
«Bel, Gaelen, have you lost your mind?»Gillandaris vel Sendahr hissed his outrage on the quintet’s private path. Of all the quintet’s warriors, Gil was the one who believed that guarding her included protecting her from her own stubborn nature whether she liked it or not.“It will take the Eld two heartbeats to figure out she’s here. This hundred-fold weave lights a beacon to lead their way. We need to get her to a more secure location.»
«Believe me, she isn’t going anywhere no matter what Bel or I or anyone else say or do,»Gaelen told the white-blond Fey.«Or have you forgotten what she’s like when she’s determined to do something?»
«Between the five of us, we could make her go.»
Gaelen gave a bark of laughter.«Good luck with that, Fey.»He clapped a hand on Gil’s shoulder.«I’ll sing a mourning ballad in your name when she sends your charred and shredded corpse back to the elements.»
Gil turned to the other two.«Taj, ‘Jonn. Come on, kem’jetos. You know I’m right.»
Ellysetta’s uncle shook his head.«Nei, Gil. I saw my sister in Ellysetta’s face just then—and more than a bit of my bond brother, too. She’d carve out our hearts and eat them roasted before she’d let us drag her away.»
Gil turned to Rijonn, but the giant Earth master put his head down and went to work spinning cots and tables for his queen.
“Seven scorching Hells!” Gil cursed and kicked a nearby water barrel. “Gods save me from stubborn women!” With a scowl as dark as a thundercloud, he started spinning Spirit weaves to alert the allies where to send their wounded.
Tairen breath and tairen venom combined. Fire exploded from Rain’s muzzle, a great, incinerating jet of magic flame that burned hotter than any natural fire. Stone, flesh, bone, magic: Nothing could long withstand the searing fury of tairen fire.
The sky before Rain went dark withsel’dorarrows, shrapnel bolts, fiery mortars, all hurtling towards him as he hurtled towards them. Unfaltering, he flew, clearing a path with his flame. The scurrying ants on the wall became people, armored men lifting bows, racing to reload artillery, the oval shapes of their faces illuminated by moonlight. He drew a deep breath, filling his lungs.
The boiling cloud of tairen flame engulfed the western wall of Kreppes, consuming the bowcannon and trebuchets mounted there, along with all the troops that manned them. The tip of Rain’s tail raked the northwest tower as he passed, gouging a crater in the tower’s outer wall. The supporting wall compromised, the tower collapsed, raining stone and screaming, flailing men into the spike-filled pit below.
Steli, Xisanna, and Perahl strafed the other walls with similar results.
Roaring in fierce triumph, the four tairen circled and dove in for a second run.
In the few chimes’ respite from bombardment afforded by the tairens’ attack on the castle, the allies regrouped. Bel sent out a massive Spirit weave to locate and summon the men next in the chain of command of the Celierian forces. As the new leaders of the Celierian forces made their way to the Fey encampment, the field commanders gathered their troops, and the chaos of the allied camps yielded to a ragged semblance of order.
In Ellysetta’s makeshift healing tent, the first of the wounded had arrived on her tables—men with limbs missing, skin scorched away, screaming in agony.
“Las, las,”she crooned, stroking bloody, burned brows. “I am with you. Don’t be afraid. Ssh. There is no pain,kem’storran.There is only warmth and light. Do you feel it?” A golden glow of powerful magic radiated around her as she worked. The rest of the world, the other wounded, the battle raging less than a mile away: All faded from her consciousness. The entirety of her thoughts, the concentrated power of her great magic, was focused solely on each dying man carried to her table.
Gaelen and her secondary quintet ringed around her, keeping close by her side as she spun her healing weaves.
Despite Ellysetta’s orders, Bel and the other warriors of her primary quintet refused to leave her. Instead, to accommodate Ellysetta’s commands without fighting the dictates of theirlute’ashievabonds, Bel had set up a military command post beside her healing tent, and it was there that he, Tajik, Rijonn, and Gil met with the Fey commanders and the new leaders of the Celierian forces.
A map of Kreppes and surrounding area—modified by Rijonn to show the recent fortifications and topographical changes—lay flat on a large table. The commanders gathered around it.
“Most of our heavy siege was inside the castle,” Bel said, “but we still have the trebuchets and bowcannon mounted on the hilltops.” He spun a Spirit weave to mark their locations. “These are within firing range of Kreppes.” He indicated the siege directly north of the castle. “We need to reposition them to provide cover fire for the tairen and do what we can to keep the cannon off those walls. Quintets of Earth masters will move the others into position here and here and here.” The small, glowing replicas of the siege weapons on the far eastern and western hilltops disappeared from their current locations and reappeared in the formations placed to attack the west, east, and south walls of the fortress. “The rest of the Earth masters will start constructing siege towers and ladders to scale the walls.”
“Commander Tarr.” Bel fixed his gaze upon the Celierian officer in charge of the king’s archers. “I need your archers in position along these lines.” He pointed at the map and drew the lines in Spirit. “When the tairen aren’t firing the castle, your men should be.
“Commander Nevin, Chatokkai vel Amah, as soon as the towers and ladders are ready, you’ll lead your men up the southern wall. Commander Bonn, our Earth masters are working on a battering ram. Your men will storm the gate on my signal. Fifty quintets will accompany each of your attack forces to weave shields and keep Mage Fire off you.”
Bel stepped back from the table. “My lords, my blade brothers, we either retake Kreppes, or we bring it down.”
In the outlying fields surrounding Kreppes, two dozen men broke off from the mass of Sebourne troops, each taking a different direction into the crowd of allied troops.
There were so many men running hither and yon, no one paid any attention to Sebourne’s men… or the small white stones they dropped in their wake.
