The Contention (25 page)

What happened next surprised not only Borrik, but everyone who was observing. As Borrik donned the gifted piece of armor, Seth reached out and touched it. As if it had come alive, spikes surrounding each end of the item twisted over upon themselves and bent back towards the beast-man’s flesh. Then, in the same motion, each one elongated and plunged beneath Borrik’s skin, twisting and weaving with flesh, muscle and bone. The only way to remove the bracer now was to remove Borrik’s arm. Though it had obviously hurt him, Borrik made not a sound. Experimentally Borrik tested the motion of his wrist and arm with the metal lancing in and out of his flesh like so many metal worms feeding upon the living parts of his body. Seemingly satisfied, Borrik and Seth spoke anew as Seth handed his second-in-command a pair of blades similar to the claw-like weapons he had made for all of the troops. Sara understood the need for more champions. She also understood the reason why Seth made them appear hideous, evil and menacing, but she was sure she would never understand the reason for the next thing she witnessed.

As she stood to stretch her muscles, Seth left Borrik and walked more than thirty feet away from his most loyal servant. Turning back, Sara saw Seth nod once to the alpha werewolf who, without hesitation, spoke some unknown command nearly silently before several unnatural things happened simultaneously. First, there was a huge concussive boom as Borrik exploded in size, becoming easily thirty feet tall. As he shimmered and grew, another arm sprouted from each of his sides as new joints and muscles crawled and took shape beneath his skin If that were not enough, great leathery wings ripped out from his back to either side, and began to flap lazily just as soon as they were fully formed. In Borrik’s two upper arms he held the wicked weapons his master had created; in his lower hands fireballs erupted to life within each upturned palm. Upon the beast’s armor lightning danced menacingly from one metal surface to the next. Seth had created his masterpiece, and all in attendance stood either horrified or in wonder at the massive creation before them. Then, as if nothing had transpired at all, Borrik shimmered again with a pop and the wings and extra arms alike vanished back into his body once more.

A moment later Seth and Borrik exchanged words before Seth strode to Sara’s side once again.

“Now we can go to join the rest of the army,” Seth stated, sounding beyond exhausted.

“Do you think they will serve the intended purpose?” Sara asked, nodding her head towards the various new champions.

“I think they look fearsome enough. I only hope they fight as ferociously as they look.”

“If we survive this battle, where will your champions go? They are too far beyond humanity to live any semblance of a normal life here in Valdadore,” Sara pointed out.

“I am afraid I don’t have the luxury of figuring that out yet, my love. First we must survive, and then we can worry ourselves with finding a safe home for those I have altered. I know it sounds callous, but if we do not survive, then what purpose does any further planning serve?”

“Perhaps you are right, Seth, but if we do survive, what purpose will your champions serve after the battle?” Sara asked again.

“I do not know. Perhaps they can act as the realm’s protectors just as the Knights of Valdadore do. All will be known in time,” Seth replied. “For now let them serve the purpose they have been created for, then, perhaps like the rest of us, they will find their own role in life.”

Sara simply nodded in response, thinking it was perhaps not the best way to do things. But without sharing the burden of responsibility Seth had upon his shoulders, who was she to say if his methods were right or wrong. In any case, Sara found herself plenty of time to ponder the ‘what ifs’ over the eighteen hour march to the newly formed lake west of Valdadore.

*****

Upon arriving at the manmade lake, some of Seth’s champions blessed with the ability to size shift, and King Garret himself waded the two miles across the lake from one shore to the other. Once there they dragged large, crude rafts into the water that Seth’s stranded soldiers had made, and towed them back across the lake burdened with the hundreds of werewolf troops. From that time it would be three days before the enemy was finally sighted upon the opposite shore. Three days Seth spent among his own troops doling out the same enchantment over and over again. Though most expected the first of Sigrant’s troops to begin to circumvent the lake in one direction or the other, instead they waited upon the opposite shore for several days as more and more arrivals found themselves trapped by the new lake.

While Garret still hoped the enemy soldiers would simply turn around, they continued to gather, and within nine days the entire army stood poised straight across the lake from the defending Valdadorians. In those nine days both Eve and Borrik had learned to fly. In those nine days Seth had enchanted nearly half a dozen of Valdadore’s common but distinguished troops with the ability to size shift, at least temporarily. Within those nine days a plan was created, and the stage was set for the best defense Valdadore could muster, no matter which direction the enemy chose to go around the lake. In those nine days, not a single member of the Valdadorian army could have even imagined what was to be had on the tenth day. Like the Death Mage within their own ranks and the cursed creations that bowed to him as their master, something new and foreign to Valdadore had arisen in the kingdom governed by King Sigrant. Something Valdadore had no way of being prepared for.

*****

On the morning of the tenth day, Seth, hearing a commotion growing in the camp surrounding his tent, stepped outside with Sara to see what was amiss. Though looking around revealed no answers, Borrik rushed up to the young couple to relay to his master why the camp was in such uproar. The morning looked much like any other fall morning, except that a thick fog had descended upon the lake, obscuring the enemy in entirety. What was more peculiar was, having found their vision obscured, both Borrik and Eve had taken flight over the lake but discovered that no enemy remained upon the opposite bank. Nor had Sigrant turned his army back the way they had come. Just as the blanket of fog had seemingly magically appeared, so too had the enemy magically disappeared. Seth mulled over the report a moment, but something about it sat sour in his mouth. An army simply did not vanish.

Wanting a look for themselves, Seth and Sara strode through camp with Borrik and Jonas on their heels. Clearing the tents at the water’s edge, they were astonished to find not a blanket of fog, but a wall of it nearly two stories high. So thick was the eerie mist that sight beyond a few feet was completely obscured. More odd however was the fog’s complete lack of movement. It did not stir upon the morning breeze, and when a limb was passed through the fog, it sliced through effortlessly but caused no disturbance. Seth learned quickly that only one man had ventured in, and only for a dozen yards or so before becoming lost in an attempt to turn back. He had emerged hundreds of yards up the bank, and none had heard him yell for directions back to the camp.

Magic was being used, and switching to his vision of the gods Seth meant to uncover its source, but even that was to no avail. Though the dense fog might have been created by some magical means, it appeared no more than normal, lifeless fog. Something else intrigued him though. How could a man venture into fog and yell out with no one able to hear his voice? This was what Seth pondered when Garret approached from the camp beyond.

“What do you make of it?” the king asked his brother.

“It is unnatural, but I know not its source or purpose,” Seth replied.

“Eve informed me of our missing enemy as well,” Garret stated. “Where do you think they have gone?”

“I’m not sure, Garret, but I have a few other questions I would like to have answered,” Seth said turning back to the shore. “Someone get me some rope, and a lot of it.”

Seth watched as dozens of men, woman and werewolves alike dashed off in different directions to fetch what he sought. Moments later a pile of cordage sat at Seth’s feet, and wrapping the rope about his waist, he gave instructions as he waded into the fog. Within seconds Seth was lost to sight by all those behind him, though he remained connected by the rope. The further he walked, the more ropes they tied together that Seth dragged behind him. The further Seth ventured, the more uneasy he became, and sensing he might be in danger, he erected a protective field around himself with pure energy.

Another dozen yards and Seth could not see his own hand in front of his face. Breathing was difficult as each breath was filled with moisture, yet he pushed on. More than a hundred yards Seth walked until the ground crunched beneath his feet. Another step and another crunch, followed by yet another, except this time it sounded more like he was walking upon broken glass. Curious as to what it was he trod upon, Seth crouched to examine the ground beneath him with his hands when realization took him. The grass was frozen where the water had lapped upon it. Crawling ahead Seth came to the true edge of the new lake only to find that no water remained. The lake was frozen solid, and what was worse, laying his hand upon the ice Seth could feel the reverberations of thousands of feet quietly and carefully marching across the icy surface.

Having no idea how far ahead of him the enemy was, or how soon the soldiers would reach this shore, Seth snatched up the rope at his waist and began running as fast as he could back in the direction he had come. It took only seconds to emerge from the fog at a run, and nearly crashing into his brother and Sara, Seth slid to a stop, his eyes wide in alarm.

“They have frozen the lake, and march across it hidden by the fog. They will be upon us any minute,” Seth blurted.

“We are doomed,” Garret whispered. “All of our defenses lay to the north and south of us. Everything we have planned was for naught.”

“We’re not doomed, brother,” Seth replied, his mind thinking as fast as it was able. Then, as if out of nowhere, Seth had a random idea that he believed might help their situation. Turning towards the entire army gathered along the fog’s edge Seth gave a command to those he was now in charge of.

“Battle mages,” Seth shouted to gain their attention. “Burn off that fog!”

Within an instant the order was received and followed as near a hundred fireballs shot through the air into the wall of fog. Erupting into hot steam where the fire sailed through it, the fog was burned away. Again and again, volley after volley of fire was unleashed, and Seth even added to it a giant column of fire evaporating all the fog nearest the shore. Minute after minute the fog was burned further and further back from the defending camp but no enemy was revealed. However, just before Seth gave the order to desist, thinking himself mistaken about the approach of Sigrant’s forces, one fireball that was thrown into the fog was met by a scream of agony. That was when all hell broke loose.

Chapter 14

A Day of Sorrow and A Promised Tomorrow

Though there had been weeks of preparation and training, no one was ready for what came that tenth morning. Though everyone was awake, armed and even present when the enemy arrived, nothing was according to plan, and immediately everyone knew that all was lost. There were no lines formed, archers were mingled with the soldiers, and battle groups who had been training together for weeks were separated and lost to one another. All was pandemonium when the enemy arrived, and no one even remotely expected what happened in those first few minutes.

Bursting forth from the fog were not battalions of monsters or even armed men, but only a dozen cloaked figures. With the wave of a hand, one of them dissipated the fog to reveal the army under King Sigrant’s banners in its entirety, and twenty-five thousand had been a gross underestimate by at least half. The second figure, his arms out to his sides, brought both hands together in front of him. When his hands connected, everyone in before him screamed in pain, his clap having been enhanced by magic and causing blood to flow from over a thousand persons’ ears. The third mage made a gesture and water burst from under the ice in a torrent that washed Valdadorian soldiers to the ground by the hundreds as yet another mage cast a spell turning that previous water to ice, encasing men and women alike, the death screams frozen upon their faces. Fire exploded from both sides as Valdadore’s mages began to retaliate, but they were outmatched. More than half their fireballs were snuffed out mid-flight by balls of ice or walls of water. Sigrant had magicians of the like never before encountered in Valdadore. However, they would not last long if Seth had anything to say about it.

Pandemonium or not, Seth gave the command to attack at the same time his own brother exploded in size. Lending his voice to the battle, the King of Valdadore called a full retreat. In less than a minute Valdadore had lost a thousand men, and Seth realized that this was the moment he had been preparing for without even knowing it would come. It seemed as if Seth watched through someone else’s eyes as those loyal to him first and foremost sprang into action to defend those who were loyal to his brother retreated. Borrik and Eve exploded in size as well, each taking to the air to wreak havoc as they saw fit. Garret and the only two remaining Knights of Valdadore who were present with the army waded into the enemy in an attempt to take out the mages who had already disappeared back into the massive enemy army ranks. Now came the foot troops of Sigrant’s military, nearly twenty thousand men heavily armored and armed each with a shield and sword. Seth knew the knights would not be enough, and the more time they could buy the common troops to fall back and retreat to Valdadore, the more likely they would survive.

Reaching out to those humans he had supposedly blessed among Garret’s troops, Seth infused the symbols he had drawn upon their flesh with the power of life and watched as six more giant warriors lent themselves to the fray. Seth was nowhere near finished as he watched over two hundred of his troops plow into the front lines of the enemy, a massive wall of fur and claws. Sara too was off spinning and whirling through the enemy lines, hacking and stabbing like a dancing force of nature. Each of his freakish creations, including Blithe and Varina, fought alongside his werewolves, and Seth stared as enchanted weapons and armor blazed to life, raining destruction on their foes. Yet even now, Seth had a trick up his sleeve that was a battle turner, but not wanting to waste it, he instead turned himself to the fight and began to do what he was named for. Seth the Death Mage, called a walking god by some, strode at an even pace towards his enemy blazing a trail of destruction before him. Though some were lucky enough to simply turn to ash before him, where the black mage wandered bodies smoldered as screams were cut short. Lightning danced across the air from the mage striking all those around him who wore armor or carried a weapon. Walls of power sent hundreds flying through the air, and columns of fire burnt or boiled thousands more. However, just as he had anticipated, it wasn’t long before Seth became the primary target of the invading force.