"It should be an hour until dawn," Silvas said in an offhand manner. But the continuing lack of true night in the valley meant that there would be no true dawn-at least not before the battle was won or lost.
"The enemy is almost at the barrier," Braf said, making sure that Silvas knew where the challenge lay.
"Yes, Braf, I know," Silvas replied. "Look toward the village."
Braf turned to look. Dozens of people-human, gurnetz, and esperia-had come out of their cottages, holding whatever implements they owned that might prove useful as weapons: hoes, pitchforks, axes, knives. These villagers would stand to in defense of their homes.
"Do we give them better weapons?" Maria asked.
"They'll use what they have better than they would use swords," Silvas said. "It will be up to our soldiery to make sure that they're not overmatched."
"How much time do we have?" Felix asked.
Silvas glanced in the spirit at the force approaching the barrier. "Some moments yet. We'll head east along the road to meet them." A more thorough scan showed that there was only this one force advancing on the valley. No enemies threatened the other sides. And there appeared to be no more than a token force waiting in the land of the gods to face off against Silvas. That force would not invade the valley. Silvas knew he would have to face them on their ground.
Silvas and Maria closed down the pentagram at the crossroads. Josephus rejoined the mercenaries. Silvas and Maria mounted their horses. More slowly, Felix got aboard Amelie.
"Braf, you and Bosc return to the castle quickly," Silvas said. "Your duty lies there."
"I can have six dozen warriors here in ten minutes," Braf said. "This fight does not look to be against the walls of the castle."
"Still, you belong there," Silvas said. "While you defend them, I'll know that the Seven Towers still stand."
Braf hesitated briefly, fighting the instinct to persist. Then he nodded. "Aye, lord. We'll see to the Seven Towers."
"Braf, if it comes to the last extreme, take everyone in the castle toward the south pass. Together, at least, you and Bosc will be able to break through the barrier to get everyone out."
"It won't come to that, lord," Braf said. He turned and started back toward the Seven Towers at a trot. Bosc was hard-pressed to keep up.
"Invaders come through the eastern gap," Silvas called to the villagers who had gathered.
"They what put a wall around us?" March the miller asked.
"The same," Silvas replied. "They're no longer content to isolate us. Now they would destroy us for fair."
"Not an' we kin help it," March shouted, and there were ragged cheers of encouragement from some of the other villagers, more of whom were arriving with every minute.
"Then follow me," Silvas said.
Silvas and Maria started east along the road. Felix kept his horse as close to Bay and Camiss as he could. Josephus and the other soldiers were behind Felix, too close for the former monk's comfort. He feared they might ride right over him if he was not careful. The villagers, all of them on foot, trailed after, quickly lagging behind the mounted folk. As soon as the group was formed up and moving, Josephus spurred his horse and moved forward to ride alongside Silvas and Maria.
"They will outnumber us by at least three to one," Josephus said. "I speak only of our soldiery and theirs, not of these farmers who tag along."
"Don't slight the farmers," Silvas said. "These are not such a common lot despite their trade. They have heart, and they'll not flinch at anything."
"Still, lord…"
"We use what we have. These who follow us will make the odds two to one, or less."
"The guards from the castle would have added nicely to our numbers, and with skill."
"And arrived too late had I told Bosc to bring them along," Silvas said. "No, I had good reason to leave them behind the walls of the Seven Towers. If those towers fall, a good part of my own wizardry falls as well, and we'll have need of that in the coming fight."
"Bosc and Braf alone would have added greatly to our strength," Josephus said.
"Bosc can fight with passion and skill, but this isn't his kind of fight. And Braf will fight much better for the defense of walls and towers than he could out in the open. No, my friend, they are where they belong, at least for now. This is up to us." Silvas paused, then turned his head and smiled at Josephus. "If they are needed with us later, and the Seven Towers appear secure, I may fetch them to us then. If they appear as unexpected reinforcements at a critical juncture…"
Josephus nodded. "Such devices have won battles before, though not regularly enough for full comfort. Adding them would make the numbers almost even, though I wonder how the little people will stand against mounted knights. Have you discerned yet how many of the gods are ranged against us?"
"So far, I sense only Barreth and Gioia," Silvas said. "I feel the signature of their hate. But I cannot yet be certain that there are no others with them."
"Perhaps our journey to the Shining City served its purpose, then," Maria said. "If we've goaded those two to attack before they could enlist the help of more siblings."
"Those two alone may be more than we can handle, particularly with the number of troops they've brought against us," Josephus said.
"You know of the force waiting for us in the land of the gods as well?"
Josephus nodded. "They will fight on two levels. That is the nature of their style of combat."
"I've met it before," Silvas said. "When we faced the Blue Rose, the fighting was on three levels at once, and I had to be in each place."
And I had more help then than I knew of, Silvas thought, not sharing that qualification with Josephus. He had been moved to the position of greatest need at each instant, placed in a pentagram of gold in the land of the gods without his participation in the magic, moved from place to place on the field of battle at Mecq as well. Now, he would have to sense where to put his greatest effort, and he would have to handle all of the work involved to move around.
"It's as well that there will be only two levels to this battle," Maria said, sensing what was going through Silvas's mind.
The road climbed sharply to the closed pass east of the Seven Towers. The chaotic veil that sealed in the valley looked more ominous as they neared it. The colors looked more angry, almost alive with fury. Deep swirling purples, reds, and oranges churned, along with each of the other colors of the rainbow, and each of the riders had the feeling that those eddies might quickly flare out like cyclones to engulf them.
Silvas glanced back. The villagers were a hundred yards behind the mounted soldiers, and losing ground steadily.
"They'll arrive in time," Maria said without turning to see where he was looking.
"In time to die," Josephus said.
"Some, perhaps," Silvas conceded. "But they know what they're fighting for. They accept the risk. They're not serfs going to battle only because their lord forces them."
Sparks started to fly from the barrier. Silvas and Maria reined in their mounts, a beat ahead of Josephus. Felix was slowest of all; his mare was abreast of the others before he managed to stop her. Josephus raised a hand to halt the rest of the soldiers. With shouts and gestures, he deployed the mounted troops. He set some to either side of the pass, on ground that was slightly higher but still adequate for horses. The bulk of the mounted force was brought up closer to the leaders, blocking the road, ready to meet the enemy advance head on.
"We'll meet the enemy on this side of the veil," Silvas said. "Where our power runs strongest."
"Do we fight from a pentagram?" Maria asked.
Silvas shook his head. "I think not, not here, at least. But we can raise the power of the pentagram back in the Seven Towers for what focus it might bring."
Together, Silvas and Maria took a moment to do that. In their minds, they could see the crystal lines of the device set in the floor of the conjuring chamber, and they could see the sheets of energy that rose from each of those lines. Within themselves, they found their consciousness connected to the place of power in the center of the pentagram.
"The devices of wizards," Josephus commented softly when he saw that Silvas and Maria had brought their attention back from that work.
"Are very useful at times, as even Mikel and his brethren have learned," Silvas said.
The battle music that had suffused the valley since night had been banished suddenly grew louder and more insistent, taking on a new urgency and tempo. Strident discords clashed with each other. Close to the veil, the music was almost deafening-felt more than heard, shocking through bone, forcing minds inward in an attempt to escape. Of the horses, only Bay seemed immune to the cacophony. The rest became extremely agitated, requiring close control from their riders. Felix was almost thrown from his mount. He still had only minimal ability as a rider. The soldiers were similarly assaulted by the din. Being forced to concentrate to control their horses undoubtedly helped many of them. Farther back, the villagers halted their advance. Some dropped the tools they carried as weapons to clap their hands tight over their ears, trying to shut out the awful clamor.
Finally, the enemy started to come through the barrier veil. The fabric of the barricade stretched over horses, folded tightly over the riders as they penetrated it, and eventually snapped open and shut, remaining solid behind the invaders.
"Shall we catch them before they can organize, as they emerge?" Josephus asked when the veil started to distort with the first soldiers.
Silvas started to say yes, but caught himself before the word was fully formed. "No, I sense a trap in that. We'll let them come fully into the valley before we attack."
Josephus tried to project his mind into the barrier, to attempt to discover the trap that Silvas was worried about. But the conflicting powers wrapped up in the maintenance of the veil and in this penetration were too tangled for him to unweave. He unsheathed his sword and held it straight up, reaching as high as he could. The angry colors of the veil reflected off of the blade, separating into almost pure values, as through a prism.
Neither Silvas nor Maria bothered to draw their weapons yet. Felix started to draw his blade, but stopped when he saw that his master and mistress had not yet acted.
The thought of battle terrifies me, lord, Felix projected toward Silvas.
Stand firm, my friend. Silvas turned to give Felix a reassuring smile. Use the spell of calming on yourself.
Felix blinked several times. Fear and uncertainty had almost driven his mind away from his new abilities. Quickly, only a beat from panic, Felix used the spell of calming, and then a spell of searching to find what else he had in his new lore that might help. He was desperate to find any assistance at all.
Barreth and Gioia rode just behind the front ranks of their soldiers, with more coming in columns behind them. But the sight that arrested the attention of Silvas, Maria, and Josephus was the other figure riding next to Gioia.
"I should have guessed from the music," Josephus whispered.
"Gavrien, the musician god," Silvas said.
"Gioia's twin. He would not let her face us without him," Josephus said.
"How much does he affect the balance?" Maria asked.
Silvas shook his head.
"It's hard to figure," Josephus said. "Gavrien has never been seen as war-like. But you can hear the power of his music."
As Barreth, Gioia, and Gavrien came through the veil, the volume of the battle music rose again, becoming a force so powerful that it swayed the branches of trees and blew thatch off of cottage roofs in the village. Silvas and Maria brought forward a spell and a word of power to protect their people from the music. Without that spell, the music might easily have robbed them all of their hearing.
Not a bad tactic, if they faced only mortals, Josephus said.
It says much about the mind that conceived it, Silvas replied. He took several deep breaths while he watched the forces coming through the barrier. The first ranks of soldiers had reined in, just far enough inside the veil to leave room for the rest. The mounted warriors all had weapons drawn-sword, mace, or battle-axe.
Silvas focused on Gavrien, at Gioia's left hand. Apart from the differences imposed by sex, they looked almost identical. There was virtually nothing to distinguish one face from the other, save that Gavrien's frown was much shallower. He did not appear to be driven so much by hate as his twin. Just briefly, Gavrien's eyes seemed to meet Silvas's gaze. They stared at each other for a moment. Silvas felt sadness rather than hate in the look of the musician, but he also felt determination.
When their eyes parted, the visual show overhead intensified. The colors in the sky became much richer, as if daubed directly from an artist's paint pots. The clear lines of the rainbow were totally obliterated as the colors swirled and boiled at greater speeds. The storm clouds moved in tight arcs around the perimeter of the valley and overhead, much faster than the normal clouds could ever move, while lightning flashed among them almost without pause.
Once more, pale lavender clouds appeared as calm spots in front of the chaos of the rest of the sky. Faces appeared on those clouds. This time, the other gods of the Shining City were clearly identifiable. Of the gods who had attended Carillia's memorial, only four were missing from the sky. Barreth, Gioia, and Gavrien were below, entering the valley of the Seven Towers. Mikel was merely absent.
That may be a minor victory in itself. He has no heart to watch the sport here, Silvas told Maria and Josephus.
Perhaps he will intervene on our behalf yet, Maria suggested, though the emotion she conveyed showed that she placed no high probability on that.
If we defeat these three, will we have to face the others? Josephus asked.
Not immediately, I think, Silvas replied. With luck, never.
With luck, Maria echoed. Yet that time may well come. We face these three because of those who died before.
None of the others think that Barreth and the twins will need their help, Silvas said after casting his mind toward the images in the sky. There was no deep contact between him and any of the spectator gods. He did not approach them by name, and none of them offered response to his light probe. Barreth and Gioia are not so popular with the rest that they can call for help and expect it to come, not without long negotiation before time. And Gavrien's participation is not enough to make any difference. The others are come merely to watch our anticipated destruction.
"I sense no demons or monsters," Felix said. He had been doing some little questing of his own during the wait, using new talents and knowledge. He had remained unaware of the direct conversation among his companions.
"There's little need for them here," Silvas replied. "The enemies the old gods face here wouldn't be unmanned by such displays. Besides, the gods of the Blue Rose are gone. Fighting battles with demons was more the style of those individuals."
"If Barreth and Gioia do decide they need demons, be assured they can call them into being quickly," Maria said. "Gavrien will merely follow the lead of his twin and Barreth."
"That doesn't reassure me, though I didn't seek reassurance," Felix said. "It was merely an observation. I wondered if I might be missing something of importance."
Silvas issued a mental command to March the miller, to move the armed villagers off of the road, and come forward on either side, on the rough slopes above where the enemy's horses would have to pass. You'll face less danger from being on foot there, and you might do more damage to the enemy, Silvas told him.
Against the backdrop of mad sky and strange battle music, a clear trumpet call sounded, seven notes that stood out as individual sounds-almost as individual beings. There was no horn visible in the force gathered just inside the veil. No horn could have produced sound so pure. These had to come directly from the will of Gavrien. The ranks of invading soldiery closed together as they prepared for the charge. Horses raised their heads as if they sensed that they were about to be hurled into action. Weapons were brought up to the ready.
"When they move, we move," Silvas said, speaking and projecting the message with his mind at the same time so that all of the soldiers and peasants with him would know what to do.
A second image became more intense within Silvas's mind at the same time. He saw a plain in the land of the gods, a plain with no reference points. Barreth, Gioia, and Gavrien sat there on their horses, just the three of them, at the same time that they sat on their horses among their soldiers at the verge of the valley of the Seven Towers. The squad of soldiers that had been there with Barreth and Gioia before was gone.
You see them? Silvas asked Maria.
I see them. Will we have to do combat in both arenas?
Yes, and at the same time, Silvas confirmed. Here, the gods will likely hold back. The real duel, for you and me, will take place in that other land, where they fancy themselves strongest.
Together, they surveyed the Seven Towers and the other approaches to the valley. There were still no other forces coming toward the valley from the other directions. In the Glade, Braf and all of his warriors-as well as many of the other servants-were standing to on the walls, waiting for any attack there. The drawbridge was raised. The gates were closed and barred. Cauldrons of hot oil were near the boil, ready to be poured on the heads of any enemy who tried to scale the walls. Stocks of arrows and javelins were ready for use against more distant enemies. Swords and knives were sheathed, but at hand.
Braf. Be ready for anything. At need I may transport you all here, Silvas warned, knowing that Braf would recognize his master in the message.
"Aye, lord. We'll be ready." Silvas and Maria heard the words as clearly as if the gurnetz were standing between them.
Another trumpet call sounded, three notes only this time, higher in pitch and longer in duration. The ranks of soldiers, all wearing the colors of Barreth, started their horses forward in line, moving from walk to trot in three paces, then urging their steeds into a canter.
Silvas, Maria, and Josephus started forward almost instantly with the first pace by the horses of the enemy. Felix was less than a half second behind them, and Amelie moved to put herself back in line with Camiss and Bay. The armored soldiers behind them also moved forward, until they rode just behind their leaders, not a length behind the tails of the leading horses, moving quickly to a canter.
It should have taken no more than a few seconds for the leading ranks of the opposing forces to close the gap between them. The melee should have been joined almost before any of the combatants could take further thought for what was to come. But when gods do battle, the usual laws of motion and time do not always apply, or apply equally to all.
An invisible battle, invisible to all but the few who had the power to see it, did start immediately, and the waging of that war slowed down the physical clash of soldiers on the road.
The first volleys did not catch anyone unaware. Gioia loosed the violence pent up in the mad sky against the four figures who rode in front of the rest. Storm clouds fell out of the sky as if they had suddenly turned to lead, loosing scores of lightning bolts at the ground below as if to hold themselves up. Bolts of fire in the brightest shades of red and blue and orange raged directly toward Silvas and his companions. Silvas, Maria, and Josephus responded in unison, erecting a shield that would deflect and dissipate the violence of the onslaught, shunting much of it off toward their enemies, who grounded the fire without difficulty. The rock and dirt of the road charred. More of the clouds fell toward the defenders, swirling in from every part of the sky over the valley, one following the next in a display that, by any rational reckoning of time, must have taken an hour. But in that time, the mortal soldiery on both sides detected no more than the passing of an instant.
More happened at the same time that was unknowable by the mortals who inched toward their own battle.
Barreth tried to split the ground under the feet of Bay and the horses that rode at Bay's side. Silvas and Maria met that easily, holding the earth together by force of will. Josephus and Silvas united to try to stampede the horses of Barreth's soldiers. That was almost met without difficulty, with a laugh even, by Barreth. Gioia loosed a hail of diamond-tipped steel arrows out of the sky, a torrent that would have cut through armor and ripped flesh to bloody shreds had it struck as intended. Many thousands of projectiles hurtled down at once with the force of crossbow bolts. This rain was difficult to meet. All that Silvas and Maria could do was to shunt it aside, scarcely missing some of the villagers who were moving toward positions of advantage at the sides of the road. Dozens of trees were struck by the missiles, cutting branches and trunks. A pair of trees fell, their tops bending downhill, dragging boles and branches toward lower ground. Hundreds of smaller branches were cut from their homes and toppled, some heavy enough to break other branches below them.
While Barreth and Gioia were busy loosing their weapons from behind the first rank of their soldiers, they also sat calmly in the land of the gods, calling to Silvas to come and do battle, taunting him in ways both subtle and gross. Words and images issued forth. Silvas saw himself pictured in many unflattering poses, as a rotting corpse, as a man made into a woman with a blade, and as a pet on a silken chain held by Carillia. Words spoke unflatteringly of his long liaison with the dead goddess, and made insulting references to Maria.
"Why prolong your misery?" Gioia asked. "You're going to die here anyway. Come and let it end quickly before all of these pathetic vermin of yours suffer as well."
The barbs all seemed to be aimed specifically at Silvas. The references to Maria were indirect, as if Barreth and Gioia could not be troubled to speak directly to someone too far beneath their notice.
They don't think I'm a threat, Maria mused. I don't need to be considered. Once they have destroyed you, I'll disappear like smoke in a storm.
They still don't understand how completely we are one, Silvas replied, careful to shield the thought from any possible eavesdropper. That is our greatest advantage. Do not spend it lightly.
Gavrien did not take part in the initial sparring in either venue. He added to the defenses of his brother and sister, but did not launch any offenses of his own-other than the continuing bombardment of raucous music.
Slowly, the two physical armies drew closer to one another, though few of the soldiers realized that they were going at less than a canter. Only those with at least a strong measure of divinity were aware of the double movement of time. Felix was thoroughly confused. He could sense time moving at contrary speeds, but had great difficulty relating one to the other. He braced himself for combat to start at the normal pace of the physical world, and found himself tensed without cause at the slower pace of the magical duel that was proceeding in advance of the other. He did have time, however, to delve within his new knowledge to puzzle out the differences.
"They will attempt to draw you off to the other plane just as the battle is fully joined here," Josephus told Silvas. "That is the way of such conflicts, and has been since before I was born. Barreth will not seek new tactics, and the others will follow his lead in this. They will attempt to isolate you from your supporters here with the duel in the other place. Then, when the bulk of your mortal supporters have been destroyed, it will be that much easier to deal with the few of us who remain."
Yes, that is what I expect from them, Silvas replied. But I do not exclude the possibility of surprises.
Gioia, perhaps, might delight in novelty, Josephus conceded, but Barreth appears to be taking the lead.
Silvas and Maria linked more actively to the pentagram in the Seven Towers, and used the flow of power there to direct a blow against the forces of the invaders from behind. It was as if an inner covering to the veil surrounding the valley fell, cracking into plates of various sizes as it tumbled on the horses and riders, scaring some of the riders, and momentarily panicking many of the horses. But the disruption was not major. Only two riders were unhorsed, and the remaining effects were quickly countered. Riders brought their mounts back under control. Barreth warded off any additional pieces of falling sky.
You caught them unawares, Josephus noted with some surprise.
Only because they don't give us full credit for what we are, Silvas replied.
He spared no more time than that. Barreth and Gioia, and perhaps even Gavrien, would strike quickly in response to Silvas's foray. The image of the gods waiting in their own land pressed more vividly on Silvas's mind, as they tried to draw him there by force of will. The faces of the spectator gods grew larger in the sky, as if they were coming closer, the better to see the denouement.
The ground started to shake violently. This was more than the earlier attempt to split the earth under the defenders, or the tremors that had accompanied the valley's initial contraction. These tremors were deep and strong, spread widely. For an instant, the spells that Silvas and Maria had cast to stop the contraction of the valley slipped. All around the edges of the valley, the land started to crunch inward again, slowly but with a persistence that required the almost total concentration of Silvas, Maria, and Josephus to halt it. The shaking continued even after they had halted the contractions again.
While they were involved in that, the dual streams of time seemed to alter, to move closer together. The two armies drew quickly nearer each other. Three comets of black fire-blazing balls trailed by long, luminous trails-shot forward, one each from Barreth, Gioia, and Gavrien, aimed to converge on Silvas and his companions in the front rank. Silvas used a wizard's spell to bounce the balls of fire back, shattering them to shower the army of the invaders with flame.
Then, while Barreth and the twins sought to protect their soldiers from the ricocheting black fire, Silvas and Maria laid their power on the trembling of the earth and raised a physical barrier directly in front of the invading troops, too close for the front rank to stop or turn aside. Horses ran into the projecting dike of rock and dirt at speed. Riders were flung from the saddle, some up onto the higher mound, others below the hoofs of flailing animals. Several of the soldiers were trampled-killed or too badly injured to fight. The confusion caused by the collisions, and by the hurried efforts of the other ranks to avoid the mess, fully disrupted the orderly procession of the invaders. For a moment, Barreth, Gioia, and Gavrien had to turn much of their attention to regrouping their forces.
The twin streams of time flowed farther apart again, but the armies were almost within striking distance of each other.
Now! Silvas ordered the villagers at either side of the road. Do what you can to disrupt them.
At the same time, Silvas and Maria reached back to the Seven Towers with their minds to bring Braf and his warriors into place. They put these reinforcements close enough to the enemy that the dual stream of time was no barrier. They were almost on top of the invaders, where they could strike at the first rank of Barreth's troops, the ones still fighting to recover from the shock of colliding with the earth.
Braf and his fighters started the butchery.
No armor was proof against the knives of the gurnetz and esperia. With many of the armored invaders on the ground or struggling to get to their feet, they were virtually helpless, especially against the lupine ferocity of the gurnetz. A knife through open visor, or in the joint between helmet and gorget, could find vulnerable flesh all too easily.
Time snapped together suddenly, and the melee was joined in full.
In the confines of the mountain pass, it was impossible to hold regular lines during the battle. The opposing forces flowed together as soldiers found targets for their weapons. The ridge that Silvas and his companions had raised across the road was a continuing obstacle. In some ways, it was an advantage for the defenders, allowing many to hurtle down on the enemy, but that tactic was hazardous for their mounts, and for the warriors on foot. At the sides of the road, the villagers moved to attack any invaders they could reach, particularly those who were reeling from other assaults, or wounded.
Silvas, Maria, and Josephus sought to fight their way through the crowd to close directly with Barreth, Gioia, and Gavrien, but those gods strove equally to keep apart, always maneuvering to keep soldiers between them, while they tried to pull Silvas to them in the land of the gods.
I will not go alone, Silvas informed Josephus. Maria was linked completely with Silvas, as she had been since the start of the close combat. I'll carry the two of you with me, at least.
Though seeming merely to yield to the pressure exerted by Barreth and the twin gods, Silvas actively projected himself and his companions to that other place-though they also remained in the mountain pass, continuing the fight there.
In the land of the gods, the sky was clear. The sun was bright and warm. The only clouds in the sky were soft white mats against which the faces of the spectator gods were limned-white clouds instead of the lavender ones over the valley of the Seven Towers. There was a gentle breeze flowing across the plain, carrying the scent of summer flowers and ripening grain, though neither garden nor farmer's field was visible. The vista was of an open plain, wild but not chaotic. The summer grass had brown tops but was lushly green beneath.
Silvas and Josephus emerged as close together as they had been in the pass leading toward the border of the valley of the Seven Towers. Maria, however, was off at some distance, a hundred yards or more from the others, behind Barreth, Gioia, and Gavrien. Maria sat quietly on Camiss, making no movement that might draw the attention of her enemies, holding Camiss as still as if she had wrapped the horse in a spell.
As always, time ran differently in the land of the gods than it did in the mortal world. While men fought and died in the valley of the Seven Towers, gods and demigods stared at each other across the plain on the other level. Josephus and Silvas were no more than fifteen yards from their foes. Barreth, Gioia, and Gavrien stared at them, casting divine power directly against them, power that was met and discharged by Silvas and Josephus, then returned in kind as they sought to chart the extent of each other's power. There was a ritual-like quality to the opening exchanges, as if no one truly expected any of these early movements to offer any decisive outcome.
"I know you," Gioia said during one brief lull, directing the statement at Josephus. "You were once the plaything of my sister Carillia."
"I was once the captain of her guard," Josephus replied. "I know you and your brothers here."
"You have no place in this conflict," Gioia said. "You have our permission to withdraw."
"I wish I could offer the same civility to you," Josephus said. "For my part, I would allow each of you to withdraw, but my permission must be dependent on that of my lord, Silvas, the proper heir to Carillia."
"We withdraw our permission," Gioia snapped. "You will die with this other bastard."
"That is yet to be determined," Josephus said.
Silvas had seemed no more than a passive spectator to the exchange, though he had been deep in magics the entire time, drawing on his store of wizard's lore to erect defenses and prepare offensive strokes. Barreth and Gioia seemed to know only the blunt application of power, and Gavrien still did nothing more than support his sister's strokes. The way of the Trimagister also taught the more subtle applications of power, and Silvas concentrated on those.
Barreth glanced to the side and down, as if he were looking at the other engagement somewhere below them. Silvas spared an instant of his attention to check on the progress of that other battle as well. His consciousness meshed briefly with the consciousness of his figure on the road inside the valley of the Seven Towers. The slaughter there was proceeding apace. There were casualties on both sides. In the pass, Silvas, Maria, and Josephus were still attempting to reach Barreth, Gioia, and Gavrien, and the latter trio still managed to avoid that meeting.
"We will settle this here," Barreth announced, as if he were clearly aware of what was passing through Silvas's mind.
"Here or there, it matters little," Silvas replied, affecting a disinterested confidence that could not help but give even these haughty opponents an instant's pause.
In the battle below, Felix was unaware that the three divines at his side were more occupied on another plane than they were within his vision. The former monk was caught up in the thrill of battle, feeling the bloodlust of combat for the first time. He met each opponent with a prayer, and with a quick spell that brought skill to his arm and knowledge to his thoughts. But the lore of the Trimagister, as new as it was to Felix, could not totally balance his thin frame. He could support himself with magic to the extent of not being an easy mark for larger and stronger opponents. He could not become a paladin, able to win through any opposition.
The total confusion of the melee brought Felix an excitement he had never experienced before. It seemed akin to the religious ecstasy of some of the notable saints he had studied in his years of monastic life. But he decided that he could worry about that, if it called for worry, later. While the battle lasted, he reveled in the experience, even in the danger.
Braf Goleg did not concern himself with any thoughts apart from the efficient disposal of his master's enemies, and staying alive to continue that work for as long as possible. In the heat of battle, Braf trusted to the training and instinct of his warriors. He was not the sort of leader to hold back and leave the fighting to others. There had been few opportunities for Braf to unleash the feral side of gurnetz nature in his long service to Silvas. He intended to make full use of this chance.
March the miller leaped from a stony prominence onto the horse of one of the invaders, landing behind the armored rider. March wrapped his left arm around the head of his foe and slit the man's throat with his knife. But he did not release his grip in time to avoid being carried to the ground with the dead invader. A horse's hoof struck March's head, and he was unaware of his last moments, being trampled slowly to death in the confusion.
One death among scores.
In the land of the gods, Silvas and Josephus used every weapon at their command. The gods they faced were more powerful than Josephus, and more experienced than Silvas. Only Gavrien appeared to be out of place on the battlefield. His interests had never run to personal combat, and he had only rarely taken part in the direction of military affairs.
Only briefly did the two groups actually close and fight with swords, a moment of dueling before they moved backward-as if by mutual agreement-to resume the pure battle of minds. This contest was vastly different than the skirmish that Silvas and Maria had fought against Barreth and Gioia in the Shining City. This was more intense, utterly violent in a way that beggared description.
Silvas's stock of wizardry kept the battle even for a time past time, but could not turn the tide against Barreth and the twins, Gioia and Gavrien. Power and subtlety balanced each other to a fine point. Weapons of brute force alternated with insidious attacks against the inner core of mind and spirit, deadly darts of pure energy, or drains that sought to sap the life force without notice. Whirlwinds swirled around them, deadly cones of force. Lightnings flared in the land of the gods as well as in the valley of the Seven Towers. On the higher plane, the lightning appeared normal, but it was no less deadly than the brilliantly colored bolts in the pass near the veil that hid Silvas's valley from the rest of the world.
Bay handled himself easily. All of the magics and brute applications of power could not faze him unless they struck him directly, and it mattered not how long the contest continued. Bay's strength would not flag. But Josephus was mounted on a lesser steed, nearly the equal of Bay in size, but without Bay's special gifts. He tried, and when a blast of power hit close, he shied away, often near the edge of panic. All of the calming his master could offer scarcely sufficed to hold him under control.
Maria remained apart from the fray, cloaked from the enemy as well as she could manage, though her linkage with Silvas was so complete that in the spirit and in the mind there was no separation at all. They were totally one, fully aware of each other, but presenting no duality that might remind their foes that she was there behind them, another consciousness, another power.
Maria looked up into the sky, her eyes drawn by the pure golden color of the sun over the land of the gods, a perfect orb shedding light that seemed to be too ideal to be real. She did not focus directly on the sun, remembering as if firsthand the experience Silvas had undergone as a young boy, when he had looked into a star and nearly lost his eyes.
Such power in a light, she thought. But Maria did not lose track of what was happening on both levels of the battle. Her mind was drawn by the image of the glowing crystal of the pentagram back in the workshop of the Glade, and the memory of pentagrams that Silvas had drawn at various times to work his magics.
And then Maria saw the end of this battle.
She reached into the sky over the land of the gods with her mind and laid hold of the golden fabric of the sun. With a touch as deft as if she were doing fine needlework, Maria concentrated the light and brought it to a narrow focus, a delicately spun thread of energy that reached down to touch the ground.
Maria used that thread of sunshine to scribe a golden pentagram around the other divines on the field in the land of the gods. Silvas and Josephus, and their horses, were in the central pentagon, the seat of power. Barreth, Gioia, and Gavrien, and their steeds, were in one of the side triangles-not in one of the points of the star, but in one of the power voids between them. The pentagram was large enough, and so finely drawn, that neither Barreth nor the twins seemed to notice that it had been drawn around them, and most likely they would not recognize immediately that they were in one of the weak segments.
Silvas and Josephus were aware of the pentagram, and where they were in it. But Josephus had little experience of such magics.
Slowly, Maria forced the outer side of the pentagram behind Barreth and the twins to fold in toward the center. As the threatening line moved closer to them, those three gods moved forward, toward the apex of their collapsing triangle, but without being aware of why they were being forced toward Silvas and Josephus.
As the distance between the two groups of gods narrowed, the fury of their fighting increased. Reaction time disappeared. Each stroke had to be met as it was loosed, and the fury of it drove all of the horses, except Bay, almost to madness. Power crackled and snapped. Great heat rose around the combatants, and the air itself seemed to waver.
Finally, there was too little room for Barreth, Gioia, Gavrien, and their horses within their diminishing section of the pentagram. They were forced forward again, into immediate peril. The three of them drew swords, unable to prevent being drawn within sword's reach of Silvas and Josephus.
At the same time, Josephus moved forward, partly to close with the enemy, but mostly because his horse had started to spook again. Josephus and Gioia crossed swords over the line of power dividing the core of the pentagram from its outer reaches.
The battle ended then, in an instant of consuming flame. Gioia seemed to erupt into a miniature sun. Josephus was thrown back, against Silvas, and then sank to the ground at the wizard's feet, still wholly within the central section of the pentagram. Gavrien, attempting to come to his twin's relief, was caught up just as quickly. Barreth was thrown into the line of power just behind Gavrien, and he too was caught up in the blaze. The sun seemed to touch the ground in the land of the gods.
Silvas could not close his eyes in time to fully avoid the flaring light. Images danced on the inside of his eyelids until Maria took control of his damaged optics and restored his sight.
They were back on the road at the edge of the valley of the Seven Towers then, together, looking down at the smoldering remains of Barreth, Gioia, and Gavrien. Josephus, too, was on the ground. The armor covering his right arm had melted and fused against the skin beneath it. Outrageous pain was visible in Josephus's face, but he was a demigod as well as a warrior. He would survive.