AUTHORS NOTE
Wow! This chapter definitely took me a while to write, I wasn't actually planning for what happens in this chapter, but my muse had other ideas. Speaking of muses having other ideas, you may have noticed the prologue and first chapter of a new harry potter fanfic that I posted. That was my muse thinking of ways to fight back against JKR's hateful commentary. I have more ideas for that and so much more to go on this story, so my writing may be split between them for a little while.
Slyksylva - Oh yes. But (I hope) not what you were expecting! (It definitely wasn't how I was expecting it all to go!)
Archer1Eye - Oooh, I need to correct you. Sharein has really piss poor survival skills. She can sleep outside since it's summer thankfully and there isn't much rain and she could skin and prepare and animal to be cooked but her only method of catching it in the first place would be Magic Missile! She's a farm girl, so she probably knows quite a bit more than the average townie, but it's still not much. Malkarov is SO SO soft, but don't mistake his softness as a teacher for ignorance. Malkarov in his younger days spent MANY a night sleeping on hard earth in the wilderness when he was adventuring and when he was a War Wizard.
Havok22 - Thanks for the favourite, follow, favourite and follow ;-) I haven't forgotten this story and don't intend to anytime soon. Haha! My old books have been constantly open since the start of this ;-)
Dragon13246 - Thank you SO much for the favourite!
Chapter 80? Day of High Summer? 768 n.c?
As the approaching horsemen got closer, I noticed that they were all wearing plate mail armour with black surcoats and carried plain black shields and long spears. They almost all wore helmets that fully encased their heads, with a long slot horizontally across the front to allow them to see. Their horses similarly were wearing black painted barding and were possibly the largest horses I had ever seen; almost sixteen hands high. They slowed as they got closer, perhaps realising that I was not necessarily a threat. One rode in front of the others, distinguished from the others by a white diagonal stripe across his black shield that was also repeated on his surcoat. His spear was lowered and pointed at me as he rode forward and he stopped so that the spear point was a mere foot or two away from my face.
I leant backwards in my saddle hesitantly and he immediately spoke up, his voice demanding and stern, "state your business!"
I immediately voiced a plausible lie, using my memories of what Malkarov had taught me of the guild, "I'm a journeyman wizard," I said, "I've been travelling through the forests looking for spell components and am on my way through the Baronocracy of Oscura."
The leader of the horsemen raised his spear immediately and the other horsemen behind him visibly relaxed, "well met and good day then, wizard. We had heard of the orcs coming through the mountains to the East and have been very cautious about anyone coming from that direction."
He rested the butt of his spear into a small loop attached to his stirrup so that he was able to let go of it briefly in order to take off his helmet. He was probably around the same age as my father, but his skin was a lot less tanned and worn. His cheeks and jaw were covered with a close cut layer of hair and the hair on his head was straight and relatively neat. He looked like a very stern man, the sort that would brook no nonsense.
"In truth," I said, "I helped break the wall the orcs had built and I hope by now the soldiers of the Baroness Sunhaven have sealed the mountain pass the orcs were using."
The leader smiled widely, "that is glad news indeed! Our soldiers manning the walls took the original news very badly but these tidings shall lift their spirits!"
He looked back over his shoulder briefly towards the large tower that stretched out behind him, "could I entice you to return and inform the Tower Commander your tidings directly, we would be happy to provide you a hot meal in our mess although I cannot guarantee that it shall match the quality you are no doubt used to."
"I have been eating preserves, dried and cured meats and cheese for the past few days," I told him and was about to decline his offer when the clear note of a horn echoed from the tower.
The leader of the horseman wheeled around in alarm and immediately commanded his host, "to arms! To arms! We are under attack!"
As one, the twenty-odd horsemen all turned their horses and galloped back towards the tower. I looked between the tower and the direction I had been riding, undecided on a course of action. As Father Mattias had said, any person could be working for the Inquisitors of the Light. On the other hand, I didn't feel that I could just abandon them despite the fact that I had no experience as part of an army. I pointed my horse towards the large tower and urged her forward and she broke into a gallop. The tower ahead rose up higher and as we approached, I realised that the base of the tower held great double gates. It was into these gates that the horsemen rode. Soldiers were lining the walls to either side of the tower, mostly holding bows but every fifth one held a long pole arm with a twin pronged head. As I approached the tower, I wondered where I should go to volunteer my services. The leader of the horsemen, having led his troupe through the great double gates, had dismounted and was heading out on foot as I approached.
"Wizard! Please tell me you have come to our aid?" He asked.
"If you would have me," I told him, "though I have no experience fighting alongside soldiers."
"Come then," he instructed me with a smile, "you shall be most welcome here. Our war wizard died in the last attack. Come with me to report to the Commander of the Screaming Harpies Tower."
I had no time to question him on the unusual name for I had barely dismounted and he was already walking through a smaller door to the left hand side of the main gates. I followed him into roughly a third of the tower. An internal wall bisected the tower between the small door I had entered and the larger double doors. This wall had vertical slits built into it every five feet or so, that seemed to be wider on my side of the wall than they would have been on the other side. The great double doors led into the central portion of the ground floor, with another gate at the end of it. The horse soldiers, I could see through the slits, were sitting patiently on their horses inside this chamber. I did not tarry though, for the leader of those men was already at the top of a winding staircase that began to my immediate left and wound around the inside wall of the tower. Up I went to the second floor where I noticed another set of stairs winding up from the third part of the ground floor (on the other side of the central chamber). I followed him at a quick pace as he made his way up the steps to the third level, whereupon the steps finished. Two large doors rested on opposite sides of the large open chamber, with large wooden bars resting against the wall next to them. Slits lined the western wall of this chamber and archers stood patiently at each one. On the east wall a staircase began and wound around Celeswise up higher. The large chamber was occupied predominantly with barrels, some enclosed and some without tops on them. Those without tops contained arrows, hundreds of them in each barrel. Those that were enclosed were stamped with different symbols, but predominantly one that looked a little bit like a flame. I did not have time to wonder, for the man I was following had already begun climbing the new staircase up to the fourth level. I followed him up through a level filled with beds and another filled with tables and a kitchen then another three levels separated into different rooms until we reached the very top of the tower. The view was… amazing. Almost the entire world stretched out all around me! I could see the wall stretching out to our left with smaller raised bumps of towers until the line of the wall reached the other large tower and the mountainside it was affixed to. To our right the wall curved around into the haze in the distance, smaller towers dotting the line it made until a larger tower stretched up into the sky; a twin of the one I was standing on top of. While the forested or grassed land stretched out behind us, broken by the occasional hill; the land in front was dark. Grass had been turned to mud, trees to ash. The land itself was scarred and torn, here and there things poked up from the mud; things that looked like sticks but were much more likely to be bones, swords or spears. All the way to the mountains the ground was thus ruined and those mountains stretched into the distance. I could see movement down below, groups of figures moved rapidly towards our wall, towards our tower. They were still some distance away, but would be within arrow distance in a very short while. The top of the tower was occupied by a small group of soldiers occupied with various tasks. Some were watching through looking glasses at the approaching mob or watching the other towers. Some were just standing ready with various flags on long poles at their feet. One man stood near to the edge of the tower and wore shining plate armour. He did not carry a shield, but had a long sheathed sword buckled to his belt. His surcoat was black with a large white 'X' across the front of it. The two upper arms of the 'X' had smaller badges embroidered onto it; the left resembled a boat with three red fish above it and the one on his right depicted a red woman / bird cross, a harpy with taloned claws outstretched.
"Commander Starge, Sir!" My escort barked out and snapped a crisp salute.
"At ease Captain Marus, what have you brought me here?" The Commander answered.
"This Sir, is the intruder that we went out to intercept," my escort explained, "she is a travelling journeyman wizard who has volunteered to assist us in repelling this attack. She has also brought news about the invasion in…"
He had paused for a moment, the name of my home obviously having slipped his mind, "Easthaven," I offered.
"News?" The Commander asked me, "what news would you have of that invasion?"
"Easthaven was my hometown Commander, I killed the orcs there and destroyed a portion of the wall that they had erected to protect their invasion of the Irongap dwarves," I told him, "Baroness Eastholme should be already mounting an attack on the pass they used to get through the mountains."
"Well, well. That is good news for Carn but likely poor news for us," he said, "if they have been blocked that way they might mount continued larger attacks on our forts here in Oscura. The Captain says that you have volunteered to help out?" He didn't wait for a reply but instead turned towards his subordinate to issue a command, "Escort the wizard down to the third level where she can take up a protected position behind one of the archere's, I'll give her a temporary battlefield commission as War Wizard Third Class."
"Sir!" The Captain barked and each soldier saluted the other.
I was a little lost but assumed that the Commander's last instructions made me some sort of soldier, at least on a temporary basis, so I attempted to copy the Captain's salute to the Commander. The older officer smiled slightly and returned my very poor imitation. The Captain spun on his heels and started jogging down the stairway and I followed him in turn.
It took a little effort to catch up to him but when I did I was able to question him, "what does temporary battlefield commission War Wizard Third Class mean?"
"You've been given a temporary rank in the army," he explained as we jogged down the stairs, "Captains are in charge of groups of soldiers. I'm in charge of our cavalry company for instance. There's a Captain of the tower, Captain of the archery company and Captain of the wall. Then there are Sergeants in charge of sections. Each bit of wall between the towers has its own Sergeant to oversee the soldiers there. War Wizards have their own rank structure with Third, Second and First classes. Third class slightly outranks a Sergeant, Second class slightly outranks a Captain and First class slightly outranks a Commander," we had almost reached the third floor and he continued, "I've been instructed to place you down in the third floor, where you will be able to move onto a section of wall if you need to. If you need the soldiers to move somewhere or do something just give the order to the Section Sergeant and he'll see that it happens. Understood?"
"Yes Captain, I think I do," I told him as we reached the third floor.
"Very good," the Cavalry Captain said, "I shall bid you good fortune then."
I saluted him awkwardly, which he returned smartly before he turned to a man wearing chain armour with a white band painted horizontally around it, "Sergeant Coggs, this is War Wizard Third Class…"
He paused and I realised that I hadn't even told him my name yet, "Askilain," I offered.
He nodded and continued, "she's had a temporary battlefield commission and will be assisting us today."
They saluted each other and he continued down the stairs, leaving me in the company of Sergeant Coggs and three other archers.
"Well," said the Sergeant once the Captain was out of sight, "a normal wizard is better than no wizard any day of the tenday. Poor Ulthar used to start in the central archere, so I suppose that's the best place for you."
"What happened to Ulthar?" I asked, taking that to be the name of the late War Wizard once assigned to that tower.
"Took a bolt to the eye," The Sergeant said matter-of-factly.
I looked through the door towards the wall where there wasn't much protection, "out on the wall or the battlefield?" I asked.
"No, no," he replied, shook his head and pointed towards the western wall of the tower, "right there in the central archere."
I looked in shock at the long slit in the wall, it was only an inch wide and a few feet long, and the wall angled in towards it so that the archer could have an increased field of fire without putting themselves at any more danger.
The Sergeant laughed as he began rolling a barrel towards the northern doorway, "freak shot it was! Well, not likely to happen twice in a row!"
A horn sounded from above and after a short moment a second joined it.
"Archers to your places!" The Sergeant barked and two of the men with bows jumped forward to stand in front of their archere's, the third rested his bow against the wall and moved to one of the barrels of arrows to withdraw a handful. I hadn't yet moved and the Sergeant said plainly, "that horn means that the enemy is approaching arrow range."
"Oh!" I let out and made my way to the centre archere to peek through the arrow slot.
I could see the approaching orcs, there had to have been two or three hundred of them spread out over a wide front. From my position higher up I could see something odd, something strange; the mud around where the orcs were was moving. I couldn't figure out what was happening. It was almost like something was there in the mud, wriggling around perhaps? Something on the mud? No, if there were something being left behind I would see it. Unless it was invisible?
I cast See Invisibility and was shocked by what it revealed! There was a second approaching force right behind the first one, but this one was much, much larger. There were about three times as many orcs marching forwards in lines. Strangely, they had their arms outstretched onto each other's shoulders and each row was connected to the one behind by a small length of rope.
"Sergeant!" I shouted, "there's another group of orcs, an invisible group, about three times as many right behind the first group."
I could hear the archers on either side of me let out a gasp of dismay.
"Sir!" The Sergeant said, suddenly appearing right beside me, "should I inform the Captain of the Tower?"
Oh. I didn't know what he should be doing, or how things worked. How was I meant to know what he should be doing? Then I realised that he was telling me what he should be doing. He knew that I wouldn't know.
"Yes Sergeant," I repeated back, "inform the Captain of the Tower."
"Runner!" He shouted extremely loudly and moments later a young boy appeared from the level below us.
The Sergeant told him, "Sergeant of three to Captain of the Tower; Wizard has detected force three times large, invisible, behind incoming force."
The boy repeated the message and when the Sergeant nodded to him that he had it correct, he took off running up the stairs.
Horns sounded, a short blast from one followed by a short blast from another with a lower tone and then repeated.
"Archers!" The Sergeant barked, "knock!"
The archers in the tower drew an arrow from their quivers and put it onto the bow.
"Mark!" The Sergeant commanded and the archers lifted their bows.
There was another pause for a moment and the Sergeant shouted, "draw!"
The archers pulled back on the string and arrow, their wooden bows stretching backwards.
For another pause he waited before he commanded, "loose!"
With a thack sound, the archers loosed their arrows and I watched them soar up into the sky to be joined by many many more. The small cloud of arrows shot up into the air only to come down from their ascension right into the mass of orcs approaching us.
Some fell short, but not many and another horn message sounded; two high then two low, repeated once.
"Archers!" The Sergeant barked, "fire at will!"
I cast Elemental Explosion, picking a spot in the middle of the approaching orc mass and grinned as my black light explosion expanded from my target. I heard a cheer go up from the walls either side and cast another Elemental Explosion.
My third Elemental Explosion, I aimed behind the approaching visible orcs towards the mass of invisible ones and was pleased to see them drop as well.
That's when the originator of the invisibility spell chose to retaliate. I saw an orc step forward and begin chanting, two other smaller orcs carrying drums started beating a rhythm behind it. The orc lifted an odd shaped crystal rod towards the northern wall and an arc of lightning shot out. Screams of pain echoed from outside the doorway and a breeze brought into the tower firstly a very sharp smell followed by the disgusting scent of burnt hair. I realised that the orc wizard mustn't have known where I was, so I sent another Elemental Explosion straight at it. My spell exploded around it, but while it was enough to kill the two drummers and a dozen orc soldiers beside, it wasn't enough to kill the wizard. Unfortunately, it also gave the orc an idea of where I was. An Elemental Explosion of its own was set off right up against the tower's outside wall. The orc wizard's seeming was fire and I felt the blast of heat being forced through the small slit in front of me. Superheated air burned a line straight down me and the archers fell back clutching their left hands, charred bows forgotten beside them. I healed each in turn, whispering a prayer to Tenebrae for Cure Medium Wounds. The sounds that the archers made when I healed them was slightly embarrassing for them, but they were able to stand again and pick up fresh bows. I noticed the Sergeant looking at me in shock but I had bigger things to worry about. The wizard knew where I was and now there were no other orcs around it so my Elemental Explosion spells would be slightly wasted but I didn't have another spell that even compared damage wise.
"Stay away from the archere's for a moment," I told the archers who were about to resume their positions.
I cast Elemental Explosion once again and then ran out of the door to the northern wall. Once I got out of the door I saw all of the bodies of the archers lying on the floor. For those that were still breathing, I prayed to Tenebrae for Cure Lights Wounds. As each one recovered from their recovery, I told them to "stay down."
Once I saw that the orc wizard had cast another Elemental Explosion of its own at my previous position in the tower I stuck my head up over the battlement and responded in turn. A peek over the battlements revealed that the orc wizard was still standing. None of my spells seemed to be doing any damage to it! I didn't know what else I could do, I didn't have an offensive spell that I could cast that was stronger!
It was waving its arms around and another huge orc was running towards it.
'What is it doing now?' I worried.
The moment the huge orc reached the orc wizard a large glowing purple doorway appeared to surround them and the only warning I had that something was wrong was a slight noise behind me as the two orcs reappeared on the battlements!
The two orcs towered over me and up close to them I suddenly felt a very real sense of danger. The huge orc was already holding a two handed sword in one hand but the orc wizard seemed a bit stunned, up close I could see a shimmering rainbow sphere around it. Whatever that was, it was probably the reason why my spells weren't working against it.
I used Tenebrae's special gift to create a sphere of darkness around the two orcs and drew my own sword. I pondered which of the two was the more dangerous and determined that the wizard should definitely be my target. I ran into the darkness, not directly towards the orc wizard but curving slightly towards the edge of the battlement. I could see perfectly well inside the darkness, but despite their darkvision the orcs were blind. Their special vision didn't work against magical darkness and inside that sphere, I had the definite advantage. The large orc was swinging it's two handed sword blindly and the orc wizard was stepping back and pulling a wicked looking dagger out when I reached it. My blade pierced its painted skin and slipped through its visible ribs easily. I pulled my sword out and dark blood spurted out everywhere as the orc collapsed. I paused for a moment as I realised that the warrior orc had also stopped swinging its sword. With a dreadful feeling, I realised that it had heard the sound of the orc wizard's death and now knew roughly where I was.
I tensed up and sprung, intending to do to the orc warrior the same as I did to the wizard. It was already swinging its huge sword towards me as I was flying towards it with my sword extended. I thought for a moment that I might make it and my blade did indeed pierce its flesh in the side of its chest. Its blade missed me, I was much too close, but it did manage to hit me with its fists holding the hilt.
All of the air whooshed out of my chest as I sailed through the air away from it. For a moment I pondered in curiosity that I seemed to be flying for much too long before I realised with a sick fascination that it had actually managed to throw me over the wall.
Something hit me very, very hard and everything went black.
