Battle Mage: Winds of Change (The High King: A Tale of Alus Book 11) (64 page)

The enemy had thrown so much into these weapons that the giant golems which had appeared had been a true surprise. Stone golems were the most popular weapons, though each element could be used. Those made of stone or wood were easier to maintain than fire and water. Wind constructs were so hard that one never saw them on display, though Palose had heard such things could be created. Only master wizards and warlocks were likely to ever attempt such things, but as the dark mage watched the golems tear into enemies even as large as the viles, trolls and urchins; he could certainly respect the men and women controlling these monsters.

A pair of stone golems pushed through the dark armored forces appearing in front of the mage's squad of dead. Human and orc were swatted aside like they were nothing. The weight of the stone warriors was just too much for creatures made of flesh and bone.

"Night shield," the mage repeated several times bringing half a dozen black discs to life in the air around him. Like a juggler keeping plates spinning on a set of sticks, Palose challenged one of the monsters. Spinning black blades struck the stones legs and arms creating cuts in the golem, but they were little more than chips in the thick stone body.

An armored vile's thundering steps announced the attack of the beast as it charged the other golem. His undead forces were basically flesh golems or puppets, while the wraiths had more intelligence and were harder to kill. Unfortunately, most were former humans and lacked the brute power to stop the golems. His forces gave ground and many of his lesser puppets were destroyed. It was frustrating to the dark mage, but forced to back away from the power of the massive golem he faced, Palose had less time to think about it. He was merely trying to survive and solve this latest weapon from his enemies.

"Air lance!" the dark mage ordered manifesting the air spell learned so long ago from his former friend turned enemy, Sebastian.

The dark blades continued to chip away at the stone giant distracting the monster as Palose tried to focus his mind on the air attack like the talented battle mage had demonstrated before circumstances had turned dire for the resurrection man. Only Sebastian had realized the true power of this spell. The young mage had been the first to take the wizard spell and change it from a staff to a spear. He had also proved that just striking a target was merely scratching the surface of the spear's potential.

Stone shattered as the nearly invisible air spear plunged through the left leg of the monster. Palose left it in the new hole he had made and took Sebastian's spell in a different direction. While the golem barely slowed its attack, the dark mage danced back concentrating on the air spell. His hands clapped together before the man cast them apart. The spear responded to his will and expanded, flattening as it cut outward from the hole.

The stone of the golem's leg split as the base remained rooted to the ground. Robbed of the length of stone to continue its support, the stone creature toppled over into the dirt. Ignoring the damage, the monster tried to reach out for the smaller human who remained just beyond its reach.

Another air spear formed placed through the arm by the mage followed by more piercing the golem from head to body and appendages. Held fast until he was done, the stone construct couldn't defeat the spears or draw away from them. It felt no pain, but the spears were rooted deep into the ground and intentionally widened above the stone skin to prevent the golem from sliding free.

With his weapons in place, Palose copied the movement from the first spear and threw his hands wide shattering the golem as ten air spears exploded within their holes. The dark mage wasn't using his reflex spell, but the battle around him seemed to slow with the destruction of his opponent. No wizard could reform the monster after so thoroughly destroying it, at least not from afar. The enemy wizards hid in the distance and couldn't manipulate what was broken without coming out to use their magic from close range.

He looked to the struggle between the armored vile and the golem it had attacked. The beasts weren't known as being overly intelligent, but they were powerful. With claws that could cut through stone, Palose thought that the vile might have a strong chance against the wizard's weapon. A stone arm had been torn free and several, deep claw marks were evidence that the creature of flesh had inflicted damage on the stone golem; but the armored vile was faltering before the animated stone.

Even before Palose could think to move to help the vile, the golem lashed out with a deadly attack designed to kill its opponent. The remaining arm formed into a spear as the wizard controlling it changed the shape of the stone appendage. Stabbing into the worn out armored vile, the spear went through the gap in its armor plates reaching for its heart with the new weapon.

Caught by the magical construct's weapon, the vile gripped the stone spear with both hands; but its strength was gone as its heart slowed. The bulk of the dark one's beast dragged the arm down with its weight. Palose rushed in with several air spears forming in the air around him. The dark mage didn't bother to cast each weapon from his hand. Gesturing with a sweeping attack of his hand, the flight of spears lashed out piercing the golem in several places before he concentrated on the air spells. Palose flung his hands wide and the spears responded exploding the golem like its predecessor.

With the ability to catch his breath since no more golems remained near the man, Palose took stock of the remaining forces in his command. Over half the dead men at his command had been destroyed. Their bodies broken, the necromancer's spell would no longer be able to move his damaged puppets.

"The flags are signaling to pull back," Balish stated making Palose look to the north ridge. The command center of the empire's army used a system of flags to communicate across the chaos of the battle field. With thousands of men and monsters fighting, it was the only way to let them know. Most often the flags gave commands to adjust to strengthen one area or the need to advance to another.

This set of flags hadn't been seen since the campaign had begun.

"Prepare a perimeter with the men we have left," the dark mage ordered the wraith. Balish was almost in the pristine condition of a resurrected man. Along with Tongold, they had served Palose as his lieutenants almost since the war had begun. A necromancer surrounded by an army of the dead had the protection he needed to use his magic in other ways to destroy the resistance before him. These two had become indispensable to Palose and he had considered trying to make them resurrection men instead, though they had no magic to add to his. It was unfortunate that they weren't warlocks, but they were still good men.

The two wraiths ordered the remaining twelve of the thirty undead he had left to spread out in a semicircle with their shields raised defensively before them. No enemy soldiers remained close. Few had followed the golems into battle while cannon and catapults continued to rain death down around the stone monsters.

Looking at the fallen armored vile, Palose considered the action he was about to take. He had never brought one of the beasts back to life or near life, but it should be no harder than the humans, elves and orcs that had been his to command since coming to Litsarin. War had its casualties, but battle made it easy to find new corpses to animate for the fight also.

Palose cringed as he stood ready to unleash his spell on the dead beast. He had become a ghoul, the mage thought. Bringing back people as resurrection men and women felt like saving lives, but this was just manipulating dead flesh. Sylvaine had been disgusted when she had seen the first of his puppets come to life, but it was better than bringing his friends or close allies onto the battlefield.

If a resurrected person died, he wasn't sure that they could be brought back again. There was nothing written of such an attempt, so Palose chose to keep the others out of harm's way when he could.

In spite of the random thoughts swirling through the dark mage's mind, Palose watched as the vile stirred back to a semblance of life. It breathed in as if the body truly needed air. This was one of his basic puppets. The beast could survive without oxygen, but it would add to the decaying process. It was still better to mimic its former life as closely as possible to maintain the spell and condition of the body.

The control was set and Palose nodded as the vile rose back to its feet to tower over the men surrounding it.

"Yes, he should be a good weapon," the mage commented aloud making the vile's eyes move to him. He could see intelligence in those eyes, more than one would have believed of a creature like this.

He surveyed the other bodies littering the field nearby and saw nothing better. The dark mage would have to work on replacing his men later. Only bodies broken and crushed beyond use remained around them, so he ordered the others to follow him back to the ridge the empire held.

Palose had barely reached the new line of soldiers forming into new, lines while the leaders of the army considered their next move when a messenger found him. The message was brief. He was to see Lanquer at the command tent.

As his undead followed, the soldiers recoiled feeling fear as the dead walked among them. Even among the empire's troops, such magic made them feel uncomfortable. If he were to walk into Southwall's army, they would be attacked on sight since such spells were illegal and considered an offense to those who had passed on.

Finding the tent, Palose made the wraiths keep the others nearby, but away from the soldiers guarding the tents of the generals and lords involved with running this army. Only a moment to wait for a soldier to relay his arrival and return slowed his entry.

He found Lanquer and a small gathering of men, some of whom exuded almost as much magical power as the brother of the emperor, who was a vessel for much of Kolban's power.

The brother still looked young, but the teenage body was building into a fierce looking soldier as the campaign continued on Litsarin. Kolban's body had yet to grow and mature the way Lanquer had and Acheri looked as young and beautiful as she had from the day she had exited her birthing tank. The three were as unnatural as Palose and his resurrection men in their own way, he thought. He also wondered if the rapid growth inside the magical tanks had continued in Lanquer, who was an inferior being to his brother and sister.

"Good, you are here and appear to be unharmed," Lanquer greeted his former teacher. "I suppose that I shouldn't be so surprised. You are a survivor, even if you have died once before."

It wasn't a secret that Palose was what he was, a dead man returned to life; but few made mention of the fact since it was magic that most feared.

"Your messenger caught me as I returned to the ridge. I admit that I was surprised to see a retreat was being called. We could have destroyed their golems and pressed towards the defensive weapons on the far ridge if we had continued to try."

One of the men in black armor standing nearby with an aura almost as powerful as Lanquer spoke up with a frown, "We were losing men needlessly. These wizards of Sileoth surprised us with this tactic. We need only create some of our own or use the spells we have in mind to sweep them aside, but word has come from the north. The village we left in check to continue towards Helsen has suddenly shown new life.

"A request for help has made us halt our advance. We will send reinforcements to push the resistance into the sea and raze the village to the ground for daring to defy our emperor," the lord declared received nods from many of the men around them.

"Is this why I was called here?" Palose asked trying not to appear too curious. "I need to go back to clean up the mistakes of the general? We should have destroyed that village long ago."

"They have put up a surprisingly good defense," another armored man replied sharing without being asked. The man was a captain serving the lord, but his words received a frown from the first man for his effort.

Lanquer was starting to smile. The former bodyguard to the emperor interrupted them all without fear of reproach as he directed his words to Palose once more, "You can turn your talents on this village. Lord Liev will lead his company through the portal near the village. You get to assist or at least watch him bring his powerful magic to bear on this village.

"They won't have a chance to learn from this, but maybe those to the southwest will see that their resistance is useless."

The armored lord's eyes wrinkled slightly with a frown. Palose thought that he was annoyed by the young boy. Lord Liev might know of Lanquer's origins, but the fact that this brother to the emperor was really less than half a year old probably didn't sit well with the elven lord being ordered around so dismissively. Palose had heard stories that Liev and his elder brother Devolus had been alive since before the emperor had freed his people from the Silver Void. Over two hundred years of wisdom and experience didn't need a child telling him what to do.

Palose interjected, "If Lord Liev is going, then why send me? My men will need to be replaced before I can be of much to assist anyone."

"You have more than just the one talent," Lord Liev stated even as Lanquer had opened his mouth to answer in a similar way. The boy's mouth closed with a frown as Liev continued, "You have a battle mage's training and for some reason you also have a warlock's power. I am sure if needed, you can come up with something appropriate in a fight.

"You can bring whatever dead men you have left with you, but you will come either way."