"Gerin, come to me," said Marandra.

"Yes, Archmage."

She looked hard into his eyes, a lingering stare that made him feel naked and vulnerable but which he did not break. She was testing him in some way, trying to determine his worth. He had no desire to come up wanting.

"I don't know how this day will end," she said. Tears glistened in her eyes, and that more than anything filled him with a profound sense of dread. "But I must prepare for the worst. If I use this"-she gestured to the device-"I will forfeit my life. A sacrifice I'll gladly make to ensure the survival of Hethnost."

"Archmage, what are you saying?" He was keenly aware of Balandrick and the other wizards cl.u.s.tered around them, all of them hanging on the Archmage's every word.

"I will not be Archmage much longer. I have no power of Foretelling, I've had no premonitions or seen omens of death, but there is a darkness in my heart."

With great dignity and grace, she removed the Ammon Ekril and held it gently in both hands.

"This is no longer the symbol of my office. Upon my death, it is my decree that Kirin succeed me until a new Archmage can be appointed. But this, Gerin, I give to you."

She held out the Ammon Ekril.

He looked at it, stunned by her actions, but made no move to take it.

"This grants you no office, t.i.tle, or authority here," she said. "But if there truly is an Adversary, and if this contains the power to defeat him, then that great burden falls to you."

"Archmage, I-"

"Take it. We have little time. The cloud is almost upon us."

He took the circlet from her hands. "I will protect this with my life."

"See that you do." She removed the Alkaneiros and held it toward Kirin. "This is now the symbol of the office of Archmage, which you will a.s.sume in the event of my death."

Kirin took the ruby ring of Demos Thelar with a trembling hand. "I accept this great honor, Marandra. But I also fervently hope you do not need to use that awful power. My greatest wish is that I'll return this to you when this battle is done."

Sevaisan dashed up the stairs to the wall-walk. "Archmage, what is this? I just saw you hand the Ammon Ekril to Gerin and the Alkaneiros to Warden Zaeset!"

"There's no time to explain now, Sevaisan. The battle is upon us."

As she spoke, the shadow from the cloud slid across the Hammdras. It was as if twilight had fallen across them.

They heard the shrieks of the demons as they began to appear in the sky above the Havalqa army.

"Looks like they're throwing everything they have at us," said Balandrick.

Gerin was unsure what to do with the Ammon Ekril. He had no place to put it; the leather pouch tied to his belt was far too small for it.

"Put it on," said Hollin. His voice was tight.

"What?"

"Put it on. I can see you wrestling with what to do with it. She gave it to you. It's not sacrilege if you wear it."

Gingerly, Gerin placed the circlet on his head, sliding the braided gold band beneath his hair. The metal was cold, the diamond a dull weight on his forehead. He felt no power from it, no sense of the magic he had earlier awakened.

And then he had no time to consider it further.

A pillar of dark red light the width of an oak trunk shot down from the outer edge of the cloud. The column did not hit the Hammdras dead on or the entire section would have collapsed. The slight rotation of the cloud caused the column to hammer the rear section of the wall-walk instead of the outward-facing battlements.

The pillar of light completely pulverized the section of the wall it struck. Stone and mortar turned instantly to dust where the light touched it. The roar was deafening. The walk beneath Gerin's feet shook with the impact; two of the wizards near him lost their balance and fell to their knees.

Before anyone could react, two more pillars of light shot down from the cloud. One originated near its center, the other from the far rim. From what Gerin could see, the light could emerge from any point on the underbelly of the cloud.

The light itself made a bone-deep thrumming that was almost below the threshold of his hearing, a rumble so deep he felt it in his chest and teeth. Wizards and soldiers were shouting all around him; chaos erupted along the wall-walk. Balandrick swore about having no way to fight "all this b.l.o.o.d.y magic."

The cloud demolished one of the inner corners of the gate tower. The other struck within Hethnost itself, blasting down through the center of one of the courtyards. Thick black smoke belched out of the hole. Part of Gerin wondered how far down into the earth the power had reached, and what exactly was burning.

He realized they had to do something quickly or they would all die. He raised the staff toward the cloud and shouted wordlessly to the Presence, Attack it! I don't care how, but disrupt the d.a.m.n thing any way you can!

He opened himself to magic just as the Presence reached into him to draw his power so it could carry out his command. Gerin staggered as a river of energy poured through his paru'enthred. Amber fire exploded from his body and engulfed the staff. Balandrick and Hollin stepped away from him. He felt the Presence shaping the magic into something he'd never before experienced. It compressed raw and deadly magic down to a small, dense point, then sheathed it within a sphere of power designed to prevent the magic from expanding as it naturally wanted to do.

The Presence released five of the tiny spheres at the cloud, spreading them out so they struck at different points. Just after vanishing inside the cloud, Gerin felt the spherical sheaths collapse. The compressed points of power exploded outward violently, tearing out sections of the cloud, leaving gaping holes in its surface.

The Presence was able to release four more of the explosive spheres of magic when Balandrick waved his sword so close to Gerin's face he thought his captain might cut off his nose.

"Demons!" screamed Balan, pointing behind Gerin. "Demons!"

Gerin spun around to see the other wizards in a protective formation around the Archmage, each of them invoking Khazuzili's spell. The Warden had not had time to modify his original spell with the ability to "slam the door" on the power connecting the demons to their masters in the Havalqa army, so the spheres that caged the demons did not cause them to vanish immediately. The creatures dropped from the sky one by one as the wizards captured them, writhing in torment as their connection was slowly choked off.

Three more demons were swooping toward them at a fantastic speed. Before Gerin could properly formulate a thought, the Presence created the altered version of Khazuzili's spell it had fashioned before. The careening creatures smashed into the power they could not see and were trapped within it helplessly. A second later the concave curvature of the spell closed around them, contracted down to a point, and forced the demons from this world.

Another pillar from the cloud destroyed the gate tower. The light smashed directly down through the roof and obliterated the portcullis and gate so thoroughly it was as if they'd never existed. Gerin could hear soldiers screaming as the tower began to collapse inward, no longer able to support its own weight.

Other demons were attacking along the wall and deeper into Hethnost. Gerin ignored them for the moment and turned his attention back to the cloud. Do what you did before! We need to tear it apart!

The Presence obeyed.

It drew staggering amounts of magic from him to create the condensed points of magic and the protective spheres enveloping them. A dozen more points shot from the end of the staff and ripped apart pieces of the deadly cloud, but despite the wounds in its underside, the damage appeared to have little effect on the cloud's ability to attack them.

Stop! he called out to the Presence. You're drawing too much! This isn't working. We need to think of something else.

He heard Balandrick curse and turned to see thousands of Havalqa charging across the field.

39.

Gerin's aura vanished as soon as the Presence ceased drawing his power. A mingled sensation of relief and sudden fatigue filled him.

"What happened to the fear spells out in the valley?" asked Balandrick. "The Havalqa didn't miss a step."

"They must have collapsed," said Gerin between deep breaths. "The wizards who were holding them in place are probably fighting the cloud or the demons. They can't keep everything going at once."

The Sunrise Guard were shooting arrows and crossbow quarrels at the charging enemy as quickly as they could reload. Others fired the trebuchets positioned atop the Hammdras. A few of the wizards on the wall were attacking the Havalqa infantry with death spells now that they had advanced inside the effective range of their magic. Dozens of enemy soldiers tumbled dead of no cause their fellows could see, but the deaths did almost nothing to slow their advance. The fallen soldiers were trampled beneath the surge.

"I beg you not to do this!" shouted Hollin to the Archmage. "You'll die for nothing!"

She stepped close to Hollin and cupped his face in her hands.

"Hollin, please. Stop. I'm not throwing my life away on a gesture. I'm doing what I must to save Hethnost."

She kissed him, then drew him into a tight embrace. But she did not hold it; she could not afford to. There was no time.

The cloud had destroyed several more sections of the Hammdras. The western half of the wall was mostly a shattered, smoking ruin. The bodies of dead wizards and soldiers lay broken on the ground.

The spinning cloud began to move deeper into Hethnost. The deep thrumming sound rumbled in Gerin's chest even from here. One of the gardens near the Varsae Sandrova erupted in flame. Servants were running deeper into the fortress in utter terror.

Marandra stepped away from Hollin, who could not contain his grief; tears spilled from his eyes, and though he fought to control it, his lower lip trembled. The Archmage whispered one last thing in his ear; he nodded and mouthed, I know.

Then she turned from him. "Step back, Hollin."

He stared at her hard, as if burning the image of her into his mind for all eternity-then did as she asked and moved away. Wind blew his hair; the shouts of the approaching Havalqa army and the shrieks of the demons filled the world, but Hollin seemed not to hear. His attention was consumed by the woman he had once loved, who was about to die.

Marandra gripped the oval of the device and closed her eyes in concentration. Gerin heard her begin the spell she had recently learned so she could use this dangerous and fatal device.

Balandrick grabbed his arm and tried to drag him down the wall-walk. "Forgive my impertinence, Your Majesty, but we have to get out from under that thing! Who knows when it might send that light down on top of us!"

Gerin looked up. They were still under the edge of the cloud, and would be for a little while longer even as it moved deeper into Hethnost. He flinched as another lance of crimson light drilled down through one of the towers of the Varsae Sandrova. Time seemed to slow. Gerin saw with great clarity flashes of light through the windows of the ancient library and realized he was seeing the books and scrolls and parchments bursting into flame as the cloud's power incinerated everything it touched.

The windows along that wall blasted outward. Shards of gla.s.s spun madly through the air. A woman running down a path alongside the library was sliced to bits by the gla.s.s. The force of the blast lifted her off her feet, but she was dead before she thumped to the gra.s.s in a b.l.o.o.d.y heap.

Nearly a third of the outer wall of the library collapsed, burying the dead woman and several other unfortunate servants under tons of rubble. Thousands of papers and parchments, many of them on fire, billowed outward from the ruins and fluttered slowly toward the earth like burning birds.

The G.o.ds take me, what would Reshel think of this? he thought as he watched the devastation. How much knowledge had just been eradicated from the world?

Khazuzili gasped in horror as he gazed at the devastation being done to the Varsae Sandrova.

"Your Majesty, please!" said Balandrick. "We need to move from here!"

Gerin followed Balan down the wall-walk, but only until they were out from beneath the rim of the cloud. He sensed other wizards creating Forbiddings and Wardings in front of the Hammdras to impede the approach of the Havalqa and block their arrows. He knew he should help, but he was transfixed by the sight of the cloud.

Another pillar of light blasted away the northeast corner of the library. A wall of smoke billowed across the structure, obscuring much of their view, but he could see fires taking hold within. The library had spells in place to protect against fire, both embedded in the books and scrolls to make them less p.r.o.ne to burning, as well as magic laced throughout the ma.s.sive building's walls and floors and ceilings, designed to rid an area of air where a fire was detected, starving it of what it needed to burn.

But the harm done to its structure-another blast from the cloud ripped down through its center as he watched-was too great for the spells to prevent fires from breaking out everywhere.

If nothing was done, very soon what was not destroyed by the cloud would be consumed by fire.

"If Reshel were here to see that, she'd tear through that army like Shayphim's own Hounds," said Balandrick.

Gerin could feel the power gathering around the Archmage as the spell built toward its crescendo. Her aura had not come to life, though the amount of magic he sensed around her was more than enough to have caused it to ignite. He realized the power of the device was preventing it-the Archmage's magic was being contained within her, somehow building to levels that otherwise would have bled off in the form of an aura as raw, unshaped power.

Ilyam's Lens would direct this power in a single coherent burst of magic that was far greater than anything any single wizard-even Gerin-could produce alone. But the cost was the very life of the wizard using it. It truly was a weapon of desperation, as Kirin had said.

A demon swooped down toward them. Its shrieks tore through Gerin's head like a knife. It grabbed Nenyal Fey with its claws before she could react. It beat its wings fiercely and carried the screaming woman into the air. A second later her screams ceased as the thing ripped her head from her shoulders, then let her corpse fall to the ground far below.

The Archmage released her power.

The energy she unleashed was immense-far greater than any wizard with a golden flame should have been able to produce. Gerin felt a strange draw on his own power, as if Marandra stood at the center of a magical vortex or vacuum. It lasted the merest fraction of a second before there was a sudden burst of golden light from the device's ring, blinding in its intensity. There was no heat from it, no sound, no roar of fire-just light.

"Shayphim take me, I can't see a b.l.o.o.d.y thing," Gerin heard Balandrick say. He could not see much himself. He blinked and wiped his eyes to try to clear them.

As his vision slowly returned, Gerin saw Marandra lying in a heap on the wall-walk. Hollin knelt beside her, holding her lifeless hand to his face. The bands she'd wound about her forearms had burned into her flesh, leaving angry red weals along their edges. Wisps of dark smoke curled from her fingertips, eyes, and mouth.

"What did she do?" asked Balandrick.

"She attacked the beings who made the cloud," said Kirin. He pointed toward the Havalqa camp.

A long section of earth had been gouged out along one edge of the circles. Three of the braziers had been destroyed; of the rest, all but one had been thrown to the ground. At least a score of the beings lay dead or dying, burned to death by the power of the spell. The entire area was scorched. Small fires smoldered in the gra.s.s.

But the cloud was still present, Gerin saw to his dismay. It was growing smaller; so far it had lost almost half its size, its edges swirling chaotically as if the entire cloud were about to lose cohesion and be dispersed on the strengthening wind.

But then it stopped shrinking. Its boundaries calmed and stabilized themselves. It continued to rotate about its center as if driven by some strange clockwork mechanism, in defiance of the wind blowing across it.

"Did she kill the d.a.m.n thing?" asked Balan. "The G.o.ds take me, but I hope that-"

His words were cut off by another bone-deep thrumming as a pillar of crimson light shot down from the cloud. The diameter of this one was smaller than the others, but its potency seemed undiminished as it obliterated a portion of the dining hall.

"d.a.m.n," muttered Balandrick. "d.a.m.n, d.a.m.n, d.a.m.n."

"Apparently she did not," said Kirin.

On the western side of the Hammdras, Havalqa soldiers were entering Hethnost through the broken ruins of the wall. Companies of the Sunrise Guard had moved into place to meet them. They set up a line of lancers just inside the wall, with archers a pace behind them. The Guard made the enemy's advance into Hethnost a costly one, killing scores as they poured through the gaps, the bodies piling up in the rubble. But the Havalqa were just too many, too determined-the Sunrise Guard were forced to fall back, unable to hold the onslaught.

The eastern half of the wall was mostly intact, having missed the brunt of the attack from the cloud. The Havalqa infantry were being held back from the base of the Hammdras by a series of overlapping Forbiddings, Wardings, and shields, but those were beginning to collapse as the attacks from the demons intensified. Gerin used the staff to dispatch four more demons as they swooped down toward the wall-walk.

The surviving soldiers of the Sunrise Guard reformed their ranks in a line perpendicular to the wall in an attempt to prevent the Havalqa from driving behind the other half of the Hammdras and trapping those defenders still upon it. Despite additional companies rushing to sh.o.r.e up the line, Gerin did not think they would be able to hold for long.

"Your Majesty, we have to get down from here," said Balandrick. "We can't afford to be surrounded."

Gerin nodded. "Kirin-Archmage Zaeset-we need to abandon the wall." He pointed to the surge of Havalqa still pouring through the wreckage of the western side. "If they break through that line and get behind us, we have no chance."

"He's right," said Lord Commander Medril. "The entire Hammdras will soon be theirs. We need to fall back to a more defensible position."

"There is no more defensible position!" snapped Sevaisan. "Not with that cloud still above us."

"We need to reach the Kalabrendis Dhosa," said Medril. "From there we can use the escape tunnels into the Redhorn Hills."