“We’re going to ride out into a giant horde of fiends bent on destroying our very existence, and you think it’s going to be fun?”
Shadow’s smile matched his brother’s. “This is the very definition of fun.”
Chapter 37: Light’s War Machine
Light checked his machine and called out his gratitude to Dothlore. Normally he would never have used such a contraption, but Elenyr had convinced him that since his magic was weaker, perhaps he would enjoy crafting a war machine.
“This is actually rather clever,” Shadow said.
“It was Elenyr’s idea,” Light replied.
Shadow looked daggers at Elenyr, who suddenly seemed very interested in the controls. Light was too busy to notice the exchange and hurried to explain the machine, but Shadow cut him off and stabbed a finger at the doors.
“I’ll figure it out as we go, the cavalry is ready.”
“Ready when you are, captain,” Elenyr called.
“Are you sure about this?” Captain Horn asked, mounting a steed.
“We’ll find out soon enough,” Elenyr said.
The next wave slammed into the aquaglass wall. Thicker than the previous attacks, many made it through the withering volley of arrows and crossbow bolts. The fiends struck the glass and climbed on the bodies of the fallen, clawing at the material. The krakas slashed at the glass and spearmen stabbed through the wall, the weapons striking the fiend captains. One yanked the spear through and tried to stab the owner, but the enchantment only went one way, and the spear bounced off. The kraka growled in dismay and caught a ballistae bolt in the gut, knocking him backwards.
“Now!” Willow called, and the gates swung open.
Light’s excitement mounted as the gates opened. The sudden breach in the wall was seen as an invitation, and the fiends rushed to the opening. Talinorian and elven cavalry charged the four entrances to the city, bursting into the open. With spears pointed down, the armored riders slammed into the fiends and turned right, all four groups sweeping around the exterior of the city.
Skorpian spears flew thick in the air but the riders on the outside of the charge raised their hands, calling on the wind to knock the spears from the air. Instead of falling among the riders, the lethal volley dropped in the next wave of fiends, killing their own and slowing the advance. Jumping the bodies of the dead, the cavalry arced around the city, their combined shout sending a cheer through the defenders.
Willow snapped the reins and the wagon lurched forward, falling into line behind the last of the cavalry from the north exit. Its wheels were spiked and made of light, allowing it to ride over the dead fiends on the outside of the city. The moment they were in the open, Light reached for the three levers, and yanked the center one.
His carver began to spin, the entire machine vibrating. The central carver leapt from the wagon and streaked away, spinning so fast the spikes became a blur of sharpened steel. It struck the leading edge of sipers and cut through, plunging into the dark horde. Fiends screamed and cried out, falling in both directions as the carver cut a lethal line deep through the rank.
The chain connecting the carver to the machine went taught, jolting the wagon. Then Light used the two other levers, one to move sideways, one to move up. The spinning carver reacted to the command and turned sideways.
Shadow crowed with delight as he sent his own carver spinning away and used his own levers to turn it one way or another, directing its angle of attack. The spinning blade cut through two krakas and then a skorpian before catching a knot of quare.
“This is worth twenty gold,” Shadow called.
“What?” Light glanced to his brother, but he shook his head.
“Nothing.”
“I knew you liked puzzles,” Elenyr said, activating the third carver. “But this is brilliant.”
Light grinned, pleased by her praise. “Like you said, I created my own puzzle.”
When Mind, Fire, and Water had departed the previous night, Light had been worried, so Elenyr had suggested he create a puzzle to occupy him until morning. She’d even suggested he create a new type of war machine, a prospect he found appealing. And once he remembered the carver used by the Order of Ancients, the idea had fallen into place.
“Can you three focus!” Willow shouted. “We’re drawing a lot of attention.”
The fiends were turning away from the cavalry ahead of them and flooding in their direction. Light pulled his two levers, shifting the carver in one direction and then the other, and raising it to cut through the tails of several skorpians behind a rise of earth.
A large mass collected to their left and Willow turned them right, the wheels bouncing over the rough earth as they rotated to follow the curve of the city wall. Light leaned to the right, cringing as the wagon tilted. Shadow laughed and kept turning his carver, clearing the path ahead.
“Just keep going!” Light shouted.
“I plan to,” Willow said grimly.
Light noticed her features were tight, her grey skin a shade darker. “Willow?” he called. “Are you well?”
“No!” she shot over her shoulder. She grimaced as the wolfsteeds carried them over a group of wounded quare, who were trampled beneath the hooves and wheels. “Do you have a plan when they catch us?”
“I hadn’t thought of that.” Light tapped his chin in thought.
“They’re getting closer,” Elenyr warned.
The fiends were jumping and charging past the spinning carvers, which leapt back and forth. Some were getting through. A siper fell into their wake, its powerful legs allowing it to leap a stump and a dead kraka. He closed the gap in a burst of speed and lunged, its jaws reaching for a wheel.
Elenyr turned ethereal and leaned out of the wagon. She drew her blade and sliced the beast across its face. It gave a wounded cry and fell to the ground, but Elenyr’s carver had not moved for a few precious seconds, and the enemy took full advantage of the lapse. They charged around it and sprinted into the dust cloud kicked up by their wagon.
“Faster!” Shadow warned.
“I’m going as fast as I can,” Willow snapped. “You want to drive?”
