Spells? Yes. Those were definitely Mage spells she was feeling. But why up ahead of the column?
The scouts.
“Major!”
Major Char paused his horse, turning in the saddle to look back at Kira.
She felt it then, nothing subtle about it, a sudden draw on the power in the land here, a big draw, a big spell, building fast.
She’d felt that spell being cast before.
“Ambush! Everybody down!” Kira yelled as loudly as she could, dropping from her own saddle and reaching out to pull a surprised Jason from his saddle as well. Falling, they’d almost hit the ground when lighting whipped down from above. Not from the skies, but from the top of the slope overlooking the road.
The lightning bolt slammed into horses and still-mounted cavalry troopers near Kira and Jason, bringing with it the tingle of ozone and the sudden stench of scorched hair and flesh. On the heels of the lightning, gunfire erupted, rifles all along the slope above them and on the opposite side of the road firing bullets that tore into human and horse alike.
Horses screamed from lightning burns or as bullets hit them, plunging about wildly. Kira saw a trooper trying to dismount fall as at least two bullets hit.
Another spell, another lightning bolt, slaying or injuring more troopers and horses, part of it setting fire to one of the two supply wagons. The team of horses tied to that wagon bolted, fighting their harnesses and snorting in panic. Kira saw the wagon and its team race over the edge of the road to fall to the rocks below. She looked away, sickened.
This was far worse than the ambush of the train. This time the attackers were above them on each side, and they were trapped on a narrow road, nowhere to hide as soldiers and horses died.
Jason had grabbed a carbine from a fallen cavalry soldier, but he had no targets visible to shoot at.
Someone was shouting. Kira looked that way, seeing a sergeant standing up despite the danger and urging everyone back. “Under the overhang! Come on! It’s death to stay here! Follow me!”
Finally, something she could do. Kira jumped up as well, her heart pounding. “Back! Under the overhang!”
She and Jason began running along with those troopers and horses not already dead, some of the soldiers pausing to pick up others too badly wounded to move. Kira saw one trooper stumble from a bullet hit, reached to grab him and help him keep moving, Jason taking the other side, carrying the wounded soldier between them as they ran.
A horse had fallen across the road, screaming in that piercing and horrible way that only horses could, blood on its head and neck and body, a trooper pausing in his retreat, tears streaming down his face as he put his carbine barrel against the horse’s head and pulled the trigger, then ran onward as the beast fell silent and motionless.
Kira felt something nearby: not the lightning Mage, who must be recovering his strength after those two bolts, but something closer. Ahead. Under the overhang. She looked through the rushing figures of troopers and barely-under-control horses, seeing a pillar of glowing light at the entrance to the overhang where an invisible Mage stood, already striking with his knife at a passing soldier who reeled away with a slashed arm.
“Take him!” Kira shouted at Jason, letting the full weight of the injured trooper fall on Jason. She aimed, her pistol in both hands, flinching at the crack of a rifle bullet from the ambushers passing close by her head, waiting for a moment when that glowing pillar wasn’t masked by any of the retreating cavalry.
She got the moment and she fired.
The Mage appeared, falling to lie on the road as the horses and soldiers trampled him in their retreat.
“Kira!” Jason shouted, pulling at her, somehow holding up the wounded soldier with one hand She joined him again and they ran, bullets plucking at her jacket, until they ducked under the overhang where many of the attackers’ rifles couldn’t reach.
“Get the horses down! On their sides! Get that last wagon to the entrance to the overhang and overturn it there before its team panics! Wounded to the back under the center of the overhang!” Captain Vanza and the sergeant were shouting orders in a continuous stream, shoving and pushing shocked soldiers into action.
“Take him,” Kira told Jason again, handing off the weight of the wounded soldier. She knelt just inside the cover of the overhang, breathing hard, her pistol steadied by both hands again, trying to sense any more Mages.
Again. It was coming again. “Lightning! Everyone take cover! Weapons down so they don’t attract the bolt!”
Vanza and the sergeant took up the cry. Kira herself went flat on her stomach, feeling her heart pound against the rough surface of the road beneath, the pistol uncomfortably wedged under her stomach. A moment later, lightning lashed at the overhang, sending dirt and rocks flying, but not finding its way inside to kill or injure anyone else.
Kira felt for the power left in the vicinity, finding little. Not enough for another lightning spell. She edged backwards to where Captain Vanza was issuing orders again. “Captain, that should be the last of the lightning.”
Vanza stared at her. “How can you—?”
“I can tell. Leave it at that,” Kira said.
A few rifles were still firing, sending bullets blindly into the shade under the overhang where soldiers were lying down behind barriers of horses living and dead. Kira shuddered as another injured horse out on the road screamed. As that awful sound faded, she heard gasps and groans from the wounded under the overhang as their comrades rendered first aid and sought to save their lives. Some of the horses with them struggled, in pain as soldiers tried to calm them and deal with their injuries.
Kira looked out on the road, seeing the bodies, the black pools of blood around them, the metallic stench of it filling the air, and felt ill. The pools of blood were always dark. Her mother’s memories of Dorcastle. At least all of the wounded had been brought in from the road and were sheltered under the back of the overhang.
She had to do something. “Jason? Are you hurt?”
“No. You?”
Kira checked herself, seeing a couple of holes in the loose flap of her jacket and one sleeve. But there wasn’t any blood or pain, except for the blood from the trooper they’d helped to safety. “No. Can you take over watching here? You’ve still got that carbine?”
“Yeah,” Jason said. His eyes were glazed by shock, but Jason knelt where Kira had been, gazing cautiously out.
“I’m going to help with first aid for the wounded back there,” Kira told him, holstering her pistol. “I might be able to help with the hurt horses, too. Call out if you see anyone coming down from the heights to charge in here and finish us off. But make sure you don’t lean out so much they can hit you.”
“Got it.”
Kira had barely taken two steps away before she stopped, realizing that she had to say something more. “Jason!” He looked back at her as she stood staring at him. “Jason, please be careful. Stay under cover. I need you with me.”
“I’ll be careful,” Jason promised. “Go help.”
* * *
The heat of the fading day gave way to the chill of night. Kira gave up her Mechanics jacket to help warm one of the wounded, pausing only to remove the loose cartridge from the jacket and stuff it into one of her pant pockets. Jason gave up his jacket as well when a soldier eventually relieved him on sentry duty. Despite the worries of everyone sheltering under the overhang, no one tried to take advantage of the darkness to attack.
By morning the scent of blood on the road had become sickly sweet. The bodies of humans and animals still lay as they had fallen, motionless except for the stirring of hair or garments in the slight breeze.
Kira still felt almost physically ill at the carnage, but also very tired after a night spent trying to help the wounded and worrying about snipers or Mages.
Jason sat near her, his back against the rising slope behind them.
They didn’t say anything, content just to be with each other and know the other hadn’t been hur
t, their minds numbed by the events of the day before.
What if she hadn’t had warning of that first lightning bolt?
Captain Vanza, looking dazed, walked up to Kira, her gait stiff. A small stream of blood had dried along one side of her face. “I’ve confirmed Major Char is dead. He got hit by the first wave of gunfire. We had scouts ahead of us. They never reported trouble.”
“The ambush had Mages with them,” Kira said. “Your scouts probably died without knowing there were enemies near. How many are left?”
Vanza looked back at the soldiers huddled near their horses. “Sergeant Henzu tells me we’ve got sixteen left able to fight. Twelve others too badly wounded to be of help, five of those very badly.”
“Out of fifty,” Kira said, fighting that sick feeling again.
“Yes. It’s possible there’re a few more still alive on the road.”
Sergeant Henzu walked up. “Captain, we have six horses fit to ride. Two other horses can be ridden, but suffered minor injuries. They’d have to be walked most of the time rather than ridden. The rest of the surviving horses shouldn’t be ridden today if we want to save them.”
“All right,” Vanza said. “When’s the last time we heard a shot?”
“It’s been a while. Permission to send out scouts.”
Vanza looked at Kira. “Yesterday you seemed able to warn of a particular kind of threat.”
“I don’t think there are any Mages close by,” Kira said. “Consider that a hunch.”
“All right,” Vanza said. “Permission granted to send out scouts, Sergeant. Find out if anyone’s still out there.”
They weren’t. The scouts returned, saying they hadn’t found any enemies nearby. “They’re waiting somewhere farther down the road,” Sergeant Henzu said. “Waiting to hit us again if we try to make Altis. And they probably sent a few to hit anyone who tries to head back to the valley.”
Vanza looked at the wounded. “We need help. We can’t leave our wounded. But if they don’t get care soon they’ll die anyway.”
“All of our far-talkers got fried by that lightning. I’m no Mechanic, but I can tell when something is melted and burnt.”
“Lady Mechanic Kira?” Vanza asked, gesturing for Sergeant Henzu to give her the far-talkers.
Kira gazed at the slagged metal and bent shapes. She couldn’t even get the access panels open. “The Sergeant is right. These can’t be fixed. Even if they could be we couldn’t get signals from hand-held far-talkers out through these mountains.”
Vanza nodded wearily. “Then we only have one choice. Listen up, everyone! I need three volunteers!”
Eighteen hands rose, Kira’s and Jason’s among them. Captain Vanza pretended not to see Kira and Jason. “You three,” she said, choosing a corporal and two privates. “We’ve got six horses for you. Ride as fast as possible for Altis, changing out mounts to maintain the best speed you can. Let them know we’re here and need help.”
As the three volunteers mounted up, Vanza stood by the stirrup of the corporal leading them. “Ride hard. Some of our wounded might not make it if you take too long.”
“Yes, Captain,” the corporal said. He looked around and up at the heights, his face shadowed by worry. “They’re waiting up ahead, aren’t they?”
“Probably. At least one of you has to get through.”
“I understand. One of us will, even if the other two have to die making that happen.”
Kira watched the soldiers riding off. More sacrifices to the mission of keeping Kira of Dematr alive. Two more men, one more woman, six more horses.
Was it just her imagination that the exhausted soldiers remaining were watching her with dull, accusing eyes?
She was sick of it. Sick of everything.
Kira walked to the two injured horses. “Saddle both of these,” Kira ordered the nearest soldiers.
The task took only a few moments. Kira pulled herself up into the saddle, gesturing for Jason to mount the other horse.
All of the other soldiers had noticed and were watching.
Captain Vanza came running up, grabbing at the bridle of Kira’s mount. “What are you doing, Lady Kira?”
Kira looked down at the captain. “If anyone who wants to kill me is still watching, they’ll see me ride out of here and go after me, or tell anyone in ambush to wait for me to get there. You and the rest will be safe from further attack, and the corporal will be able to reach the city.”
“Both of these horses are injured! You won’t be able to keep up a fast pace!”
“I know that. So will anyone watching me leave.”
The captain set her mouth stubbornly. “Our orders are to keep you safe, Lady Kira!”
Kira yelled in reply, her nerves frayed. “Too many men and women and horses have already died here protecting me!”
“I won’t allow you to leave!”
“Yes, you will! I won’t have another death on this road in my name! So unless you’re willing to shoot me to stop me, let go of that bridle right now.”
“Sergeant! Help Lady Kira down from her mount!”
Kira drew her pistol in a flash, pointing it at the sergeant, who stopped moving. “Let go of my bridle,” she told Vanza.
Captain Vanza glared up at Kira for another moment, then stepped back and saluted. “Since I can’t stop you without killing you, good luck, Captain Kira.”
Kira returned the salute. “We’ll make sure the road is clear for those coming to help.” She put her mount into a walk, urging the mare ahead despite the injured horse’s reluctance. The soldiers watched silently as she and Jason rode in the wake of the three volunteers, who were already nearly out of sight.
They had to ride through the site of the ambush, the horses skittish around the dead, stepping daintily through the pools of congealing blood and leaving red horseshoe prints behind for a little while.
She and Jason had ridden for a few minutes at a walking pace before Kira suddenly realized something. “I never asked you about this, did I?”
Jason shook his head. “Nope.”
“I just assumed that you’d come with me.”
“Yeah.”
“I’m sorry.”
“That’s okay,” Jason said as he looked around at the mountains rising on either side of the road and the dropoff on one side that ended in a gulley that turned into the flank of another mountain. “I would have said yes. I’m sure you knew that. So, do we have a plan?”
“Ride along, walk along, until they hit us again.”
“Okay.” Jason touched the butt of the cavalry carbine in the scabbard attached to his saddle. “I’m kinda looking forward to meeting them again.”
“They might kill us this time,” Kira said.
“Or we might kill them.”
“Yeah.”
“What about that lightning Mage? Was that the same guy as at Kelsi? That Mage Ivor guy?”
Kira nodded. “It felt like the same guy. Definitely not Mage Nika.”
“What’s our plan for handling him?”
“I was thinking of maybe killing him so fast he’d be in the next dream before he knew I was anywhere close to him.”
“Good plan,” Jason said.
She reached down to pat her mount’s neck. “We’re going to walk soon, girl. Sorry you had to work today.” Her mount had a large abrasion on one hip where the mare had fallen and skidded along the rough road. Jason’s mount had a smaller abrasion but also a cut where a bullet had grazed her.
Jason reached up one hand to rub the back of his head. “I think I saw someone high up on our right.”
“How far off?”
“Way off. Up high.”
“Good,” Kira said. “Someone posted to watch. Up there they can get a far-talker signal through to someone else posted up high ahead of us.”
“So they know we’re coming.”
“Yeah,” Kira said, her eyes on the road ahead but feeling guilt roil through her again. “Jason? Why did you come with me? Is it ju
st because of me? Everyone was focused on me back there, weren’t they?”
“Uh huh,” Jason said. “I admit it felt kind of odd to be watching everyone go no, Lady Mari, you can’t do this, you’ll die, and I’m like hello, I’m sitting right next to her on a horse, too, and I’m going, and is anybody gonna say no Jason please don’t?”
“I’m sorry.”
“No, it’s good. It’s fine. Really. It’s like you’re Wonder Woman and I’m… whoever that guy is who gets to run around with Wonder Woman,” Jason said. “And that’s cool because I get to run around with Wonder Woman. What’s to hate about that?”
“Jason, once again I have no idea what you’re talking about. You know we’re probably riding to our deaths.”
“Yeah, there’s that,” Jason said. “But we probably ought to start walking to our deaths,” he added as his mount stumbled. They dismounted and Jason continued talking as they led the two horses by their reins. “But, no, it’s not just you. I feel that same thing. How many people are supposed to die protecting me? I know why they’re doing it. I know they do it because if they don’t, people like Maxim win. But I don’t like it. Not at all. So when you decided enough was enough, and all those men and women who died yesterday were plenty for this trip, I said, yeah, Kira’s right again. Let’s go.”
“You really think I’m right?” Kira said, hearing her boots crunch on the gravel that spotted the road surface.
“Yeah. I do. How are you doing?”
She hesitated, unsure how open to be, but decided she had to be truthful. She’d promised never to lie to him again. “I don’t know. Jason, do you feel funny?”
“Funny ha-ha, funny happy, or funny strange?”
“Funny strange.”
“Not really. A little light-headed,” Jason said, wiping sweat from his forehead. “Man, it’s already getting hot.”
“Good thing we gave away our jackets,” Kira said, looking around at the mountains, wondering how many eyes were watching her and how many weapons might be pointed at her this very moment.