“Yonlin, I want that cannon at the ready!” Eira shouted, assuming the lead when they all looked to her. “Alyss, funnel them. We can’t let them surround us!”
Fortunately, even as Eira barked her commands, a large swath of the knights was breaking away, riding off toward the mass of prisoners that were escaping into the woods. That’d keep some of them busy.
Alyss rubbed her neck, rolling her head. Eira knew the toll the demands were placing on her. Alyss was immensely powerful, and skilled, but her feats of magic weren’t small.
“Hang in there,” Eira offered some encouragement. “Do you need me to widen your channel again?”
“I’m fine, save your focus for yourself.” Alyss grinned slightly. It wasn’t as wide, or as confident as before. “There’s magic enough in me yet.”
“I have all the faith in the world in you.”
Alyss stepped forward and lifted her left foot so high in the air that it almost threw her off-balance. She brought it down with a mighty stomp that sent shockwaves across the earth. The ground rippled like water. It cracked and split. Large boulders jutted from the earth as if they were crooked teeth in the maw of the world itself. Sharp points funneled the riders into the only place their horses could now go: a grassy V shape that narrowed to the point of Alyss’s boot. The knights would have to come almost one at a time, or be severely slowed by the ledges, sharp rocks, and boulders.
“Cannon ready!” Yonlin shouted down. “I have three shots.”
“Wait for my mark,” Eira shouted back. “Olivin, Ducot, you take hand- to-hand here. Alyss, you keep shifting the landscape to keep them off- balance and assist me with range attacks as you’re able.”
The riders were nearly upon them. The knights were undeterred by their defensive efforts. They poured into the top of the funnel, cramping together. Leaders among them made their calls. Men and women shifted their horses, jockeying for the best position as Alyss’s terrain cramped them against each other. There were about forty total…not counting the men and women that split off. Eira glanced over her shoulder. Noelle was making good progress; the door was almost entirely white-hot. It wouldn’t be much longer until she melted through. They just had to hold out for a little.
“Yonlin!” Eira screamed at the top of her lungs. The cannon fire set them all into motion.
Alyss stomped into the ground again, and magic reverberated like an earthquake; the earth churned underneath the horse’s thundering hooves. Olivin summoned a bow of light and rained magic arrows. Ducot’s magic pulsed out from him, the ground shifting into a pit right as the first riders were about to reach them.
And Eira…she took the water she’d gathered down in the mines and swirled it around the head of a knight, holding it there as he released his reins and grabbed at his throat. He clawed at the water, trying to splash it away. But Eira held fast. There was nothing he could do to stop her.
She could feel the moment the water slid into the knight’s throat and sank into his lungs. The man fell off his horse, trampled by the stampede. Eira collected her water and moved on to the next.
They fought with every tool in their arsenal. Even though they were five against forty, they had the benefit of preparation. Of terrain of their own making. And raw power that Eira could tap into more of at will.
Just like Varren had said, sorcerers were less common here in Carsovia. There wasn’t nearly as much magical firepower they had to contend with, and Eira focused on those that had runic bracelets around their wrists.
Once the first trickle of knights reached them, the fight shifted.
A woman leapt off her horse, rolling in little more than leather and chainmail. She was wickedly fast, spinning the bracelets on her wrists. Eira was upon her, sending her water to the knight and freezing the wrist before the bracelets could come up on the runes she wanted. But whatever Eira had
frozen in place was enough for the woman to still be deadly. She reached out and pointed at Ducot.
The man went completely still. Rigid.
Eira raced past him, drawing her hand through the air and summoning a sword of ice. She lunged for the woman. That broke her focus enough that Ducot recovered.
The knight shifted her tactic, spinning to bring her frozen wrist into Eira’s temple. Eira blinked away stars.
Ignoring the pain in her head, Eira pressed forward, collapsing the space between her and her enemy. A dagger of ice sank between the woman’s ribs and life drained from her eyes.
Another deafening boom of the cannon. Another sorcerer spinning their bracelets. The five of them were nearly overrun. Panting, exhausted. But, somehow, they were still holding the riders off.
That was…until half of the first wave that’d gone after the prisoners reemerged from the woods.
Eira’s heart sank at the sight of the onslaught. They’d done a good job picking off the first wave. But they were all injured and exhausted. It wouldn’t be long until they began making mistakes. Deadly ones.
“To me!” Alyss shouted from the ledge. “All of you, to me.” Eira, Ducot, and Olivin wasted no time. “Yonlin, hold your fire and stay!”
“What’s the plan?” Eira panted. The hammering of hooves was relentless. There were just too many.
“Stay here…and when I say, dodge right. Ducot, dodge left with me.” Alyss grabbed his hand. “But hold your position and look fearsome.”
Eira glanced over her shoulder. Noelle’s column of fire was white-hot with Cullen’s air and magic fueling it. The steel plates the Carsovian mine workers had moved into position to close off the lower potion were sagging. The two of them were seconds away from breaking through to the heart of the operations.
“Ready?” Alyss said as the knights charged for them.
Olivin grabbed Eira’s hand. Eira glanced up at him with a nod and a slight smile. One he returned. Somehow this felt like both the end and the beginning. If they survived this, nothing would be the same for any of them.
“Now!”
Right as the knights were upon them, they all dodged. The knights went to turn their horses, but the ground underneath cracked and gave way with a
unified pulse of Alyss’s and Ducot’s magic. As if they were on a ramp made of gravel, the horses couldn’t find traction. All remaining ten plummeted down into the mines, falling a distance no one could survive.
Still, Eira crawled over to the ledge to verify. If they were alive, then they’d need to get down there quickly to keep the knights from attacking Cullen and Noelle. Fortunately, there was nothing left of the knights but carnage and rubble.
Eira slowly rolled back, ready to find her feet. There were still more that had come from the woods on their way. They needed to—
An explosion that felt like it shook the earth to its core knocked the wind from her.
