Gemworld (50 page)

Reit also wondered if the Bastionite Ranks knew about the scrolls. Probably not. But even the drunkest of them would realize that the “rebel infidels” had been up to something last night. How often did a renegade granite just show up in the shadow of the Granite Spire, or an army outside the City of the Learned?

***

The army moved throughout the night, advancing on foot toward the rebel camp. They could have moved faster, using the granite or amethyst magics, but instead saved their strength for the battle to come. The rebels appeared to be going no where. Kredik used the time to try and sober his men up. There were precious few emeralds in the group, and they were employed throughout the night from Bastion to the battlefield, but there were too many men, and too drunk. By the time they reached the rebel encampment, only a fraction of the army had been sobered.

The first attack was called with dawn’s light. From Sal’s vantage point, he could see the first fireballs being lobbed at the fortified camp, only to splash ineffectively against the cold walls. The Rank officers ordered this spot attacked, then that spot with fire, or ice, or lightning. They tested the strength of the fortifications in various ways, even sending the occasional emerald forward to try his hand at withering the granite walls. These unfortunate individuals didn’t last long.

Finally, the sun just cresting the northern ridge of Mount Ysre, Kredik ordered the attack in earnest. He sent in his first wave, these men mostly sober. Those left behind found the nearest unattended emerald. Sal, of course, was slow in healing those who came to him, and more often than not, his charges contracted some horrible ailment shortly after obtaining his services.

Pity. They were such fine, upstanding men.

Holding Emerald as he was, with power suffusing his entire being, it was all Sal could do to restrain himself. He wanted desperately to just cut loose on the Rank soldiers, but right now they were too close together, too focused—or, as focused as a drunken rabble could be. For his hastily conceived Plan B was to work, he’d have to wait for the perfect time. And this wasn’t it.

The first wave split into a two-pronged attack, one to the east flank and one to the west. Both wings were made up of mundanes and lesser strength Rank mages. They attacked the fortification fiercely. Amethysts from the main body moved forward just enough to lift the attackers over the walls, placing them atop the battlements, or wherever their magic dropped them when it reached the farthest limits of its influence.

Bound to Emerald, Sal couldn’t see what has happening inside the compound. Likely, he wouldn’t have been able to pierce the dense walls even if he had risked touching Amethyst. But if the scene on the battlements was any indication, the rebels were holding their own. What few attackers survived the fury of the defending mages were mowed down by the magically enhanced weapons of the rebel mundanes. Swords danced with flame or lightning as their masters reaped a bloody harvest. Arrows dipped and turned in midair, striking impossible blows on their targets. Sal was pleased to find even a few
shol
’
tuk
adherents atop the walls, gracefully dispatching one foe after another. But glad as he was to see it, the scene just didn’t feel right. Kredik was holding back. He was sure of it. Even drunk, the mages were powerful. Why not leave off the attack with the amethysts, and use them solely to move the army inside the barrier? Why not use the granites to that effect?

Movement to Sal’s left caught his eye. It was Kredik, flanked by two other sapphires. They moved slowly, deliberately, toward the fort, leaving the Granite Guards in the care of about a dozen amethysts. But the group wasn’t transporting any soldiers or anything. The amethysts were holding magic, the power filling their conduits to such an extent that their auras flared brilliantly. But they were doing nothing with the magic. And the granites weren’t holding any magic at all. The whole group was all just sort of... standing there. He didn’t know why that should make him uneasy, but it did.

The trio of sapphires continued forward to the front of the Rank formation. They seemed disconnected in a way, unconcerned with what was happening around them. At once, they seemed both focused and distant. Trance-like, Sal decided. All that existed for them was the fort. Or more specifically, the south-facing wall of the fort. They spaced themselves out, each man standing about fifteen feet from the other two, with Kredik at the head of the triangle closest to the barrier. As one, they took hold of their soulgem’s magic, and gooseflesh puckered Sal’s skin as the pleasant autumn morning turned icy. The cold intensified, and a ball of thin haze began to form in the center of the triangle.

The haze rapidly condensed into a thick fog, then to a cloud, finally forming water droplets which froze almost instantly. The droplets themselves then bonded together, forming a single ball that continued to thicken as sapphire magic added layer upon layer of ice to the sphere. In seconds, it was the size of a cantaloupe. Seconds later, a wagon wheel. It continued to expand in all directions, swelling to about ten feet across, as big and as solid as a boulder. Or the load of a siege engine.

No sooner had the thought occurred to Sal that thought became reality. The glacial sphere catapulted forward, flying straight as a bullet into the granite wall. Even from more than a hundred yards away, the ground shook with the force of the impact. Invaders and defenders alike fell from the battlements as a section of wall rocked backward a bit, then righted itself. Jagged cracks etched themselves across the wall face. Amazingly, the wall held, but just barely. A blood-thirsty cheer ran through the Earthen Rank mob anyway, and those who weren’t rushing to the attack were dancing around arm in arm, already celebrating their impending victory. Before the icy powder of the first volley had even settled completely, the sapphires set to preparing the second.

Sal had waited long enough. The crowd was still more drunk than not, and all were half-blind with bloodlust. There would never be a better time than now.

Looking to the rear of the mob, Sal caught sight of Tribean. There were perhaps eighty other Rank recruits loyal to the Cause standing with him, with many more dispersed throughout the crowd. All swords were pulled and held at the ready. All bodies were rigid, muscles knotted with restrained vengeance. All gemstone eyes were fixed on Sal, awaiting his command.

And he gave it.

He peeled back the eye patch that he’d worn for weeks, and tossed it to the ground, releasing the emerald magic as it fell. Once more he fixed Tribean with his stare, diamond having replaced emerald, healthy flesh having replaced leather. There was no mistaking this signal. The world’s only diamond mage had revealed himself, completely and irrevocably. And it was time to get to work.

Touching Emerald again, he let the magic flood his conduits and flow down into the assassin’s katana in his right hand.
Assassin’s katana... quite appropriate
, he thought. For while his body filled with healing, the sword filled with death. Stepping to the sapphires, he dispensed it. So zealously, in fact, that he didn’t even notice that his fellows had followed suit. Or that one strangely dressed mundane had joined the battle beside him. Or that the five granites were no where to be found.

***

A trail of spraying blood marked Keth’s path through the fray, punctuated now and then by the occasional scream cut short by his blade. Suffused in granite magic, he was able to shrug off many of the magical attacks that found him. What attacks he couldn’t shrug off, he ignored. Pain seemed distant, floating in his aura but blessedly separate. He virtually shook with a pleasure that overshadowed his pain. He was finally able to exercise his talents without restraint, doing what he did best.

He was the embodiment of Death. All that mattered was the battle. Finding targets was easy, at least at first. He had to do little except follow the smell of stale spirits. What invaders he didn’t kill with his sword he dispatched... in other ways.

Within minutes of the initial attack, he’d gained the respect of his foes, and in a few more minutes, their fear. By the time the sapphires outside the walls began their own offensive, he’d reached legendary status, driving invaders before him by the dozen, mowing down those who weren’t fast enough—or sober enough—to escape his notice.

So he was almost glad when the sapphires’ attack came. With his opponents getting fewer—pitched battle
can
be quite sobering—he was glad for the change of pace.

The sudden drop in temperature and the slight drying of the air broadcast the sapphire attack, so Keth wasn’t too surprised when the southern wall shook violently, absorbing the majority of the attack. Near as he was to the wall, the shockwave knocked him clean off his feet. Shards of ice rained over the wall, though they were chipped too small to cause any real injury. The wall rumbled ominously for a moment, but held.

Combat within the fort came to a standstill for a moment, the combatants all stunned by the sapphire attack. With such an enormous assault, it was hard
not
to be impressed. But then the moment was over, and combat resumed.

Keth, still a bit shaken, was slow to regain his feet. One ambitious attacker took this as an opportunity for legend status himself. He rushed Keth, letting loose a blood-curdling scream as he raised his sword. He was still perhaps five feet away when lightning—invisible to Keth but for its amethyst-born violet aura—enveloped his body, cooking him as he ran. Not the type to take chances, Keth swept his katana upward, neatly parting the smoking corpse from navel to nostril. The body hit the ground a full second after its bowels did.

Reit rushed forward, sword in hand, not even looking at the body as he passed. Why should he? It was just one among many inside these walls. Delana was a bit more reserved, gingerly stepping over her victim as she approached. She quickly wove a field of energy around them. Keth raised a questioning eyebrow.

“Lode field,” she explained. “Small and very draining, but it’ll shield us against both metal and magic while we talk.”

“Ah, of course,” Keth nodded sagely, not having a clue how an energy field could do that, but not wanting to be taken for a fool. “So, we having fun yet?”

“Not a bit,” Reit said sourly. “She won’t let me.”

“What?!?” the amethyst shrieked incredulously. “I let you kill every emerald we come across! And quite a few sapphires as well.”

“Except for that guy there. And the one with the battle axe. And that Onatae chap.”

“Oh, come now. He had a copper hilt! You’re only an iron, maybe brass on your best day.”

“I could have taken him,” he muttered sullenly. “Anyway, Keth, how’s our barricade?”

Keth quickly scanned the site of impact, immediately seeing myriad stress fractures. “Not too good. It’ll hold, but not for long. Not against another attack like that.”

“Can you repair it?”

“I’m not sure. Delana, how much time do I have?”

Before she could answer, another tremendous blow rocked the weakened wall, pitching it dangerously inward. Blessedly, the wall had deep roots, and wedged itself in mid-fall.

“Not long, I take it?” Keth said wryly, eying the top of the wall. It would fall short of Reit, Delana, and himself, but not by much.

The amethyst lifted herself above the top of the wall, extending the lode field to protect her. “Not long at all,” she confirmed, her voice straining with the effort of her magics. “They’re already preparing anoth—Wait! Someone is attacking them. Blessed Crafter... It’s Sal!”

“Sal? Are you sure?”

“Yes, it’s him. Wearing the leathers of the Earthen Rank, but it’s him. And making short work of those sapphires too.” She paused for a moment, pursing her lips.

“Bad?” Reit asked.

“No. Good. Confusing, but good. They’re all attacking... each other.” She squinted, as if for a better look. “There’s a large group of Ranks attacking the main body from behind, and smaller groups of two and three attacking from within. It’s absolute chaos.”

As she spoke, some defenders atop the battlements caught the scene out on the plains, and let loose a cheer. Others further away heard the cheer and answered with their own, sure now of their own victory. The cheer caught like a brush fire, igniting a berserker’s frenzy in the rebels. Almost instantly, the battle within the walls of the fort mirrored the battle without.

But before he too could be caught up in the celebrations, Keth had a troubling thought. “Do you see the granites?”

“Yes, I—no, wait. Where’d they go? I just saw them. They were in amongst a group of amethysts. I almost didn’t see them for all the violet haze those amethysts were putting off. But now the granites are just... gone.”

“Dead?”

“Maybe. I can’t tell.”

Keth’s stomach knotted up, and his knees went watery. “Lead. There’s lead in the ground. You wouldn’t see if—”

The ground rippled as the granites pushed up around Keth, pushing Reit out of the way, who fell hard to the ground. Rebels that had been harrying nearby Bastionite forces saw the granite explosion, and ran to Keth’s defense as their individual battles allowed. They got as far as the lode field before they were repelled by its magic. Not knowing that the field only repelled magic and metal, they stood outside the invisible field, vainly striking it with their swords or gauntleted fists.