Natalia snorted in frustration at his answer. She closed her eyes, searching for Anders, Ivan or Zahara’s presence. Opening her eyes again, she said, “I can’t feel their presence or Lageena’s.”
“They probably rode off on that dragon,” Solomon said, waving his hand.
“It’s possible, but why now and without warning, and what of Lageena?” Natalia asked.
Nadir shrugged, and Solomon said, “We can ask questions later. Right now, we need to act. It’s either the river or back through the town.”
Natalia suddenly darted toward the wall of flames.
“Natalia where are you going?” Nadir called after her.
Solomon grunted and returned to scrambling over the orc bodies, rolling several over in search of more survivors.
Natalia stopped short of the flame-wall, the center of the crater where Lageena had been before the blast in her line of sight. She examined the ground at a distance, seeing an imprint of unburned soil where the queen and her horse had been. Noticing the width of the flames had decreased just in the short amount of time since she’d been pulled from the wreckage, Natalia knew the lizards couldn’t hold the spell for much longer.
Rushing back to Nadir and the others she shook her head, “Lageena’s not there. She was, but not anymore.”
“Now what?” Nadir asked glancing at the reducing flames.
“Two weak sorcerers, two noble soldiers and two dozen elves against a thousand or more orcs?” Natalia said, shrugging. “Seems like a fair fight to me.”
Nadir smiled, “Then we push through.”
The two-dozen elves they'd recovered were finishing off orcs who'd survived the explosion when Nadir called them into formation. With Nadir, Natalia, Solomon and Inama at their head, they formed a triangular wedge facing the town. Solomon whistled and the flames subsided. Running with their blades drawn and minds fixed on making their way back through the onslaught of orcs, Nadir charged sword first into the dark mass of bodies barring their way.
Forcing their way into the mass of orcs entering the crater, Nadir fought with all his might. The slow advance up the shallow slope proved difficult. Stepping on dead bodies littering the ground, Nadir operated on blind faith that his footing would hold during this challenging task. The elven blade sank deep into gray flesh as Nadir cut his way out of the crater. Princess Inama sprang over attacking orcs as she used her spear staff to launch herself high into the air. The Lumbapi princess displayed skills Nadir didn’t know existed with a spear. It moved in her hands with ease as she twirled, snapped and sliced at her attackers. The spear gave her the advantage of distance from her enemy that a sword did not.
Sweat streamed down the elf king's face as he battered relentlessly at the orcs. Often, he would sidestep an orc rushing headlong at him, sending the orc back into the soldiers following at his rear. Based on the way they'd begun to creep alongside him, he could tell their formation was beginning to fail. The wedge was excellent for driving through a wide line of enemies, but in this case, the wide line of enemies didn't seem to have an end.
As they neared fringes of town, Natalia used her waning powers to force groups of orcs out of her way, but Nadir could tell her powers were fading. She lagged behind, sluggishly lifting her sword to block the unceasing attacks. In a spinning combination, Nadir glanced behind him, seeing their numbers had decreased severely. Only a handful remained behind him.
“With me!” Nadir shouted as he made a hard push toward the closest building.
Solomon struggled to keep up, blocking rapidly with his shield as he followed the elves. He no longer sparked flashes of blue light as he had on their initial assault, leaving crippled orcs in his wake. His lizards’ energy had been exhausted in the crater. With no weapon to defend himself, the old wise man caught up with the handful of soldiers as they huddled into a small pocket of free space on the western side of a brick building near Ryedale’s entrance.
Nadir panted as he, Natalia and Inama created a defensible space for their soldiers. Instinctively the elven soldiers formed a wall, as the orcs flooding the streets and marching to the headwall of the fighting became aware of their small group's presence. Cutting and hewing down attacker after attacker, the small collection of resisting elves and humans was pinned and surrounded once again. This time they had no river to retreat to, only a brick wall that would act as an anvil against them. The orc horde would be the hammer and, no matter how many they killed, the hammer would continue to drop, pounding them tighter against the wall.
As they continued to hold their ground, the pile of orc bodies grew higher until the orcs seemed to be towering over them. Nadir looked to his fellow comrades. Natalia was heaving her sword desperately. She and Solomon were trying to combine enough energy to push the pile of bodies back and create more room. Nadir’s elven soldiers were dying with orc blades through their chests. Inama slammed her spear into orcs trying to climb their way into the space. This was how he would die, failing at avenging the death of his father, and as a leader, defeated by orcs. Nadir wondered what would become of his people after this battle. Would they fall to Merglan’s rule, torn from their homes and forced to live a life of slavery, their wills bent to that of an evil sorcerer? Would he be remembered as a prince or a king? Would he be remembered at all?
As he thrust the tip of his sword through an orc's head, it tumbled down the mountain of bodies and blocked him against the brick wall. Trapped, he saw Natalia take a blow to the side, an orc's warhammer slamming into her ribs. On the opposite side, Inama struggled to pull her spear loose, the back of it butting into the wall as she tried to pry it free. An orc blade cut her flesh as she arched out of the way to escape a piercing to her core. She cried out and Nadir felt years of frustration boil to the surface. Years of hatred against his stepmother, against how highborn elves treated him as insolent, years of never being good enough. At that moment Nadir rallied to fight back for those who fought by his side, to whatever end.
With a surge of adrenaline, the elf king lunged at the orc who’d cut Inama, cleaving the top half of his head clean off with the razor-sharp edge of his sword. Spinning, he heaved down with a backhanded arc of his blade, burying his sword deep into the skull of the orc with the warhammer. Jerking it free, he hewed three more orcs, cutting their heads off as he climbed to the top of the pile. He raised his sword to fell another attacker but stopped before he brought it down.
“Nadir!” Remli bellowed, his dwarf warhammer in hand, crimson with orc blood.
Nadir staggered, lowering his blade in sheer awe. He could hardly believe his eyes, the dwarf king had somehow made his way from the flank of the battle, running across the canyon rim and descending into town. Remli’s stout soldiers bored their way through the orcs, much as they had bored through the granite underbellies of the mountains when mining, hammering their way through.
Nadir panted, words falling short to describe his relief. He grabbed the dwarf king, wrapping his long arms around him and locked him in an embrace.
“Get off,” the dwarf said, wiggling free of Nadir’s grasp. “Are there any others?” he asked quickly.
Nadir nodded and pointed down the backside of the hill of orc bodies. He turned to join him, but Remli climbed too quickly for the tired elf to keep up. The dwarf pulled Inama, Solomon, Natalia and two more injured elves from the pit. On the front side of the mound of bodies, the dwarfs fought fiercely, clearing a path for escape through the town’s streets.
“My dear friend,” Merglan said with a deceitfully calming voice. “Have all proper forms of nobility been cast from your life? Don’t you recall how to properly address royalty?”
Ivan glared at the evil sorcerer as he clutched his sword.
“It’s your majesty,” Merglan said dismissively, turning his gaze to Anders and Zahara. “I see you brought guests.”
Anders summoned a well of energy from within and cast the spell that would direct the energy from the tip of his sword. He swung Lazuran at Merglan with blinding speed. Anders' eyes widened as he watched the energy shoot forth from the tip of his blade and arc down at the unsuspecting foe. The energy shattered, refracting into thousands of pieces as the swath of energy collided with Merglan. The energy meant to deliver a killing blow was somehow reversed at the last moment and sent directly back into the sword. The sudden change of energy bit into Anders' arms as it passed back through. The surge caused him to drop Lazuran and stumble backward.
Zahara expelled a roar from deep within. She lunged at Merglan.
The evil sorcerer didn’t flinch as her large jaws closed in on him. Suddenly, a large black tail swung down between them. The scaled muscular tail collided with Zahara’s neck, first tossing her to her side and then sending her skidding across the room. She yelped at the unexpected blow as Killdoor landed beside his master, resuming his consumption of Lageena’s dead horse.
“Nice try, but did you really think that would work?” Merglan asked flatly.
Ivan shouted and sprang at him, Anders following his teacher as he scooped Lazuran from the ground. Merglan stepped toward them and met Ivan’s blade with his own. He blocked the attack, sending Ivan spinning past him. He struck out at Anders. It was all Anders could do to deflect the sharp bite of Merglan’s sword as the man attacked. Even when sparring with Ivan and Natalia at the same time, he’d never had so much difficulty keeping up with an attacker’s sword. He stepped back, trying to gain some separation when Ivan jumped in again. Distracting Merglan for a moment, Anders was able to regain his composure and the two worked simultaneously to gain an opening on the sorcerer.
Ivan cried out in pain as Merglan’s blade slid past his and cut deep into his arm near the elbow, forcing Ivan to drop his blade. In an instant, Merglan reached out to Anders and stopped him mid-swing, holding his body perfectly still with a powerful spell. Merglan held his blade in the other hand up to Ivan’s throat, eyeing him sternly. Anders wanted to cry out, but he couldn’t. As hard as he tried to push, he couldn’t move his body. He dared not open his mental barriers to Zahara for fear of what Merglan would do to them if he broke into their minds. He couldn’t see her, but from the sound of it, Zahara and Killdoor had begun fighting as well.
Merglan held his blade to Ivan’s throat, also breathing heavily from the physical bout. Pulling his blade back and turning, Merglan walked to Lageena’s side. Ivan reached for his sword with his left arm, but Merglan used the same spell with which he was holding Anders immobile, bending Ivan’s physical body to his will as well. Sheathing his sword, Merglan addressed Lageena, “Everything went according to plan?”
Lageena ran a finger under her collar and pulled up the necklace with the crystal. Somehow it seemed to glow less brightly than it had before. Taking it off, she handed the necklace to Merglan and said, “More or less. The dragon and her rider came up with some unexpected attacks, but I figured them out.”
“Good,” Merglan said, looking at Anders and Ivan as they continued to stand motionless. He called to Killdoor with a stern voice, “Keep her alive Killdoor. We need them functional if they're going to be of use to us."
