Dark Sun: Prism Pentad 5 - The Cerulean Storm (19 page)

The dwarven warriors cast nervous glances into the white sky, muttering and fidgeting.
Several even stepped out of line-until their
yalmus
chased them back into place with a sharp command.

Again, a cruel laugh rolled across the salt flat. A chorus of Raamin voices cried out in
fear, then a small section of the enemy line grasped their chests and dropped to the
ground. Sadira studied the slope behind the fallen warriors carefully, looking for the
cause of the men's sudden death. She found only half a dozen saedra trees and several
clumps of silverfan. There was not even a blue-turbaned templar standing in the vicinity.

“Did you kill those Raamins?” Magnus asked.

Sadira shook her head.

“Then what-”

Before Caelum could ask his question, a seething orb of white radiance shot out from the
gap in the Raamin lines. It skimmed over the legion's flank, vaporizing four Tyrian
warriors as it passed. Sadira and Magnus barely managed to duck before it blazed over
their own heads, a stench like burning tar riding its wake. The ball crashed into the
front rank of the Bronze Company and exploded in a blinding flash. The dwarves shouted in
anger and alarm, but no one cried out in pain.

The
yalmus
ordered his warriors to form their ranks. As the spots cleared from her vision, Sadira saw
that her gray pall remained intact and had protected the dwarven ranks from injury. Still,
the Bronze Company had fallen into disarray. Most of the dwarves had dropped their axes
and were blindly trying to find their weapons again, while many others were simply rubbing
their eyes and shaking their heads. Rkard stood in the center of the jumble, his eyes
pinched shut and his hands clutching the sword shard Rikus had given him.

“By the wind!” Magnus gasped. “That leaves no doubt that Abalach-Re is with them.”

“She is,” Sadira said. “Only a sorcerer-king-or queen, in this case-could and would call
upon the life-force of her own soldiers to cast a spell.”

The sorceress turned around to study the area near the collapsed Raamins. She saw no one
standing nearby. The sorcerer-queen was using magic to hide herself.

Sadira reached into her pocket and withdrew a bead of amber, crushing the golden gem
between her ebony fingers. She tossed the powder toward the oasis and uttered her
incantation. A huge billow of flaxen mist formed above the gap Abalach had created in her
own lines. A thunderclap crashed over the hillside and the cloud split, unleashing a
deluge of yellow beads as large as melons.

As each globe landed, it exploded in a golden spray that coated anything it contacted. The
Raamins cursed and yelled, trying to scrape the sticky syrup from their bodies. The stuff
hardened almost immediately. Soon hundreds of saffron pillars covered the hillside, each
encasing the astonished form of a suffocating warrior. None of the dark shapes trapped
inside the diaphanous columns appeared to be a sorcerer-queen.

A great cheer rose from the Tyrian warriors, for Sadira's spell had done more than a
little to offset the advantage of the Raamins' defensive position.

“Double-time advance!” called Neeva.

The dwarves broke into a steady run, their formations as tight as ever. The Tyrians began
to trot, though their ranks loosened as they picked up speed.

Near the top of the oasis, a huge circle of saedras turned brown and dropped their
needles. Before the needles hit the ground, the red bark darkened to black and the barren
boughs began to droop. The roots released their hold on the hillside. Tree after tree
crashed to the ground, smashing Raamin warriors and raising a large cloud of dust.

The sorceress did not see anyone nearby who could have caused the destruction, though she
knew it had to be the result of a defiler drawing the energy for a spell. Since she could
not see any other sorcerer in the vicinity, Sadira thought it was most likely Abalach-Re
herself who had destroyed the trees. Sorcerer-queens could summon spell energy from
plants, as well as men and animals.

Sadira reached into her robe, whispering, “Whoever you are, this will be the last time you
defile an oasis.”

Abalach surprised the sorceress by answering. “I spoiled a thousand oases before you were
ever born, girl.” Her voice was a mere whisper in Sadira's ears. “And I'll spoil another
thousand after you die.”

At the top of the hill, a pair of blue streaks flared under the dirt. They shot down the
slope, glimmers of azure light flashing up every time they passed beneath a stone. Like a
pair of sapphire arrows, the bolts sped out beneath the salt flat, each racing straight
toward one of the dwarven companies. When they reached the warriors leading the two
wedges, a tremendous crackle echoed over the plain. The dwarves went rigid. Their helmets
and breastplates erupted into showers of sparks. Dancing cords of energy leaped from their
torsos to the men behind them. These warriors also stiffened, and their armor exploded
into blue embers. In an instant, the crackling waves of energy fanned out over both
companies of dwarves.

At the back of the Iron Company, Neeva screeched and flung the steel battle-axe from her
hands. The rest of the Kledans, trapped inside their metal breastplates, were not so
lucky. They remained completely rigid and motionless, blue energy cords dancing over their
armor and weapons. Soon, their flesh blackened and began to smoke. One after the other,
the dwarves burst into flame and disintegrated into piles of ash. An instant later, all
that remained of the Kledan companies were two piles of soot-stained armor and Neeva,
standing alone and dazed on the salt flat.

Caelum started to call the Bronze Company forward, but Sadira stopped him. “Leave the
reserves here, or Abalach will use the same spell against them,” she said. “You and Magnus
reinforce the Tyrian flanks with your magic. I'll fight from here-and guard Rkard.”

The dwarf nodded, then he and the windsinger rushed forward. Sadira considered casting a
spell to protect the Tyrian troops from Abalach, but quickly decided against it. If she
spent her energies shielding while the sorcerer-queen attacked, Rikus's assault would
stall against the superior force waiting on the hill. To win the battle now, she had to
reduce the number of Raamins facing her husband, while also putting Abalach on the
defensive- or killing her outright.

Sadira pulled a lump of sulfur and a pinch of bat guano from her pocket. She rolled the
two components together into a viscid mass and held it in the palm of her hand. When she
spoke her incantation, the wad slowly expanded, emitting a stream of gray, foul-smelling
smoke.

As the gummy ball enlarged, the defiled area of the knoll surged upward, forming a huge
dome that continued to swell. When the hillside looked ready to explode, Sadira whispered
a mystic syllable. The viscid mass she was holding vanished in a billow of smoke.

On the hillside, the swollen dome abruptly collapsed in on itself. The slope trembled, and
a murmur of concern rustled through the Raamin ranks. The boughs of the saedra trees began
to quiver. From deep inside the knoll sounded an angry rumble, and tongues of flame shot
from beneath the defiled ground. Then a mighty explosion shook the entire oasis, hurling a
huge section of the knoll into the sky.

A cloud of ash and dust spread over the salt flat, casting a gray pall over the white
plain. Splintered trees and Raamin bodies rained down with sharp cracks and soft thumps,
most landing within twenty or thirty paces of the hill. Rikus waved his sword, and, with a
great cheer, his warriors broke into a full sprint. The cry even seemed to rouse Neeva
from her shock, for she picked up her battle-axe and rushed to join the charge.

Rikus and his followers began to leap the bodies and saedra trees littering the approach
to the hill. Crackling thunderbolts and sputtering fireballs rained down from slope above.
Tyrian warriors fell all along the line. The black streamers of smoke that rose from their
bodies were a grisly contrast to the white salt upon which they lay.

Catching up to Rikus's charge, Caelum and Magnus answered the Raamins with their own
spells. The dwarf sprayed the slope with a crimson beam that set fire to anything it
touched. The windsinger summoned a ferocious southern gale. The squall scoured the
hillside with an airborne wall of salt, shredding clothing and flesh alike.

A strand of sparkling green fiber appeared on the ground between Rikus's charging legion
and the base of the hill. The right flank reached the green strand first. As the warriors
leaped across the line, a loud crack reverberated beneath their feet. The filament became
a gaping chasm with a bright emerald glow shining up from its depths. The Tyrians
screamed, and a lime-colored tongue of vapor shot up to engulf each one of them. The
entire flank simply dissolved, their bodies eaten away even before they fell out of sight.

Magnus stopped at the edge and tried to peer down into the fissure. A green tendril shot
up and lapped at his thick hide. He stumbled away, clutching at his throat and coughing.

At the other end of the Tyrian line, where the hill curved away slightly, the warriors had
not been so dose to the chasm when it opened. Most had managed to stop at the brink and
were dragging themselves away on their hands and knees, coughing and choking while
tendrils of green vapor lapped at their feet.

From her vantage point across the salt flat, Sadira did not see Rikus among the survivors.
She ran her gaze over the tide of crawling refugees and located Neeva and Caelum, but
there was no sign of the mul. The sorceress felt a cold lump form in her stomach. Rikus
had been leading the charge at his end of the line. Had he fallen into the chasm?

Determined to prevent Raam's sorcerer-queen from casting any more such spells, Sadira
pulled a pinch of powdered glass from her pocket. After a moment of searching, she spotted
another circle of Raamin bodies near the summit of the hill. It was directly above the
chasm's right end, and Sadira felt certain that it marked the place Abalach had been
standing when she drew the energy for her last spell.

Sadira tossed the powdered glass into the air and spoke her incantation. As it dropped to
the ground, the silvery dust scintillated in the light of the crimson sun. On the
hillside, sparkles of red light flashed over the withered saedras. The glimmers quickly
coalesced near the heart of the despoiled ground, outlining the distant shape of a mature
woman dressed in flowing robes.

The figure turned toward Sadira. “You've found what you're looking for,” said Abalach's
voice. “What do you think you'll do with me?”

Sadira reached for a spell ingredient.

Abalach barked a sharp command in the language of her city. The Raamin warriors rushed
down the slope, their spears ready to throw across the chasm at the retreating Tyrians.
For a moment, the sorcerer-queen watched her army charge.

Then, as Sadira pulled a small glass rod from her pocket, Abalach tossed something into
the air. A cloud of red smoke billowed into existence and swallowed her figure.

Recognizing the basic nature of the spell, Sadira realized instantly that her foe was
using magic to change positions. Still holding the glass rod, she ran her eyes aver the
knoll, searching for Abalach's new location.

Sadira saw that the Raamins had reached the bottom of the hill. As she watched, they ran
up to the edge of the chasm and hurled their spears across the green abyss. Most of the
shafts clattered harmlessly to the ground, but enough found their marks to fill the plain
with death cries.

A similar squall of screams erupted from the enemy ranks. Green tongues of vapor began to
rise from the chasm again, this time licking at Raamin warriors as a whirl of flashing
blades and kicking feet knocked them into the abyss.

With a start, Sadira realized that the attacker was Rikus. The mul had landed on the other
side of the gap.

Given the width of the chasm, the sorceress could not imagine he had been able to leap
across. It seemed more likely that in his typical brash fashion, Rikus had been charging
too far ahead of the legion and gotten separated when Abalach's spell created the abyss.
For now, that was proving a misfortune for the Raamins, but Sadira did not know how long
her husband could continue to fight so savagely.

Already, it seemed to the sorceress that he was tiring. He had stopped advancing and now
allowed the Raamins to come to him. Sadira could see at least twenty of them moving toward
her husband, whirling spiked flails above their heads. The sorceress pointed the glass rod
in their direction and spoke the words to her spell. A bolt of energy arced over the chasm
and came down in the center of the advancing Raamins. There was a tremendous bang, and
bodies flew in all directions. To Sadira's amazement, Rikus rushed his shocked enemies,
sending them to their deaths twice as fast as before.

“Don't be crazy, Rikus!” Sadira cried, knowing even the champion gladiator could not
survive such odds. “Wait for help!”

“There won't be any, stupid girl.” The voice belonged to Abalach, and this time it came
from behind Sadira.

The sorceress felt a strange tingle deep within her belly. The entire Bronze Company gave
a deep groan and dropped to the ground in a tremendous clanging of armor. The sensation in
her stomach grew more severe, as if a cold hand had reached deep inside her to squeeze her
entrails. She did not panic, for she had felt such pain before and knew what it meant the
life-force was being drawn from her body.

Abalach had probably been waiting the entire battle for this moment. With all eyes turned
toward the trouble at the front lines, it was the perfect opportunity for the
sorcerer-queen to surprise the reserves with an attack from the rear.

Sadira spun around. She found a tangled mass of dwarves clutching at their stomachs as
their life-forces were pulled from them. Some had managed to remain on their feet, though
they had to brace themselves on their axes and seemed in imminent danger of falling.
Others had fallen unconscious and already appeared close to death, with gray faces and
sunken eyes. Most simply writhed on the ground, their panicked voices cursing the magic
that would rob them of the chance to die with their steel buried in their enemies. Sadira
saw no sign of the magical pall she had cast over the dwarves earlier, and she realized
that Abalach-Re had been near the company long enough to dispel the magical shield.