The first indication I had that something magical was going on, was a tingling feeling in my head and then I could 'see' what had been done. An enchantment had been cast over the advancing infantry, and I could still see traces of it surrounding them. Ghostly lions swirled around and in and out of the foot soldiers. I knew they had been granted additional courage.
Enchantments are a little like the magical world's equivalent of a 'fire and forget' missile. Once the wizard casts the enchantment, there is no need to monitor its effect or guide it onto its target. It can simply be left to get on with it. That meant that I could probably safely interfere with this enchantment, without giving myself away.
Very quietly I spoke the words that would reverse the charm.
"Fa chomhair."
I stifled a giggle, as the ethereal lions changed to mice and chickens. The infantry charge grew noticeably less enthusiastic and the clash with our defensive line was far less dramatic than previously.
"They are here!" cried King Kenneth, pointing across the river.
"Oh, I know that," I replied.
The King eyed me suspiciously.
"Sean, I'm ordering you not to do anything without my say so. Do you understand?"
The infantry attack proved to be less effective even than the ones before and the enchanted Scanians seemed keen to disengage and retreat. I removed my enchantment once the retreat was underway. There was no point in leaving any clues for Malcolm's wizards to find.
King Kenneth was looking nervously up at the sky, checking the light. This latest assault had taken up the best part of an hour, but there was still enough light for Malcolm to try another attack.
The Scanians didn't leave us guessing for long. They too were aware of how much daylight remained and they moved quickly to make the most of it. Two horses rode towards us, but halted behind the cavalry screen. They were close enough for me to make out their sex however - both were women, one older than the other. Malcolm's wife and one of her daughters I guessed.
"Shit!" exclaimed the King.
Ingrid and her daughter were being ultra cautious. I could see them searching among us, no doubt looking for any sign of a woman. There was no way they could suspect that we had a magic user who just so happened to be a crossover, and therefore wasn't a female.
Apparently they were satisfied that there was no danger to them, either from those of us guarding the ford or from our side of the river. When they raised their arms and cried out in unison I heard their words clearly.
"Sgian deigh!" they cried.
"Highness!" I shouted at Kenneth.
"What?"
"They have summoned a storm of ice knives. I need to defend us. Now!"
The King glanced upwards and he could already see something forming above our heads. Clouds of vapour appeared first. I could sense the moisture beginning to freeze into ice.
"Hurry, there is no more time!" I shouted at Kenneth.
"Do what you need to, Sean." he conceded.
Individual ice particles had already begun to come together to form larger chunks and it wouldn't be long before they were big enough and sharp enough to be absolutely lethal when they fell on us. Not a moment too soon, I cast my own charm.
"Sgaith!" I cried, keeping my arms down so that I wouldn't be immediately obvious.
The men around me had been watching what looked like a storm gathering above their heads. It had been a beautiful sunny day until I had conjured up the winds. Now the winds had gone, but angry clouds had appeared instead. The men knew that this was somehow connected to the women who stood five hundred yards away and they were smart enough to guess that magic was at work, magic that couldn't mean good news for them.
My charm was another surprise for the Axon infantry. They looked at me askance. My arms might be clenched at my sides, but the men were in no doubt that I was responsible for the fluorescent blue bubble of light that had suddenly appeared and covered us.
"What are you doing, Prince!" one man demanded, clearly anxious about the presence of magic (on both sides).
"You heard their words? You can see the clouds gathering above us? The wizards have summoned a blizzard of ice knives. I have conjured a simple but powerful shield to protect all of us from them," I responded
The looks were still suspicious, but most were now turning their attention upward to watch the competing enchantments. By now I could sense that the ice daggers had formed in their thousands. They were around five inches in length and would fall two thousand feet. Without the shield, they would be murderous.
It wasn't long before the icy darts began their descent, but my shield did its job and thousand upon thousand of them shattered as they bombarded the blue bubble.
Shrieking from the other side of the river told me that Ingrid and her daughter were less than pleased that their attack had been defeated.
Both the women were scanning all of us again, this time no doubt paying even more attention than before. I knew the moment when Queen Ingrid recognised Kenneth and I called to him to get back to the riverbank and out of their sight.
"Highness, you have been recognised! You need to get away quickly before they target you personally," I cried.
It was already too late. Ingrid loosed a blast and it streaked towards us. Everywhere around me men flung themselves down, soaking themselves in the river in the process. They needn't have bothered, as the bolt hit my shield and it held. I felt relief, as there hadn't been enough time to think of a counter to the bolt. If the shield hadn't been good enough, then the King would have been a dead man.
I heard Ingrid and her daughter howl their anger. Yet more of their magic had been thwarted by my shield. So far I had managed to keep my presence and identity hidden from them, and that had to be annoying them, too.
I figured the shield would certainly last until well after it got dark, with luck there would be no need to do anything more and risk showing my hand. The King had asked me to try to refrain from using magic unless I absolutely had to, and I had followed his orders this time.
The strength of the shield would also have Ingrid and her daughter worried. Both had looked surprised when the ice daggers and then Ingrid's bolt had failed to penetrate it and now they would know that they faced a wizard of some power.
It would be interesting to see how they reacted next, I thought. Again I didn't have long to wait, the women knew full well how much time they had to achieve what Malcolm must have ordered them to do. It may have been the shape of the shield that inspired the next spell that the Scanian women cast - it was a bubble after all.
"Snàthad!" they cried together.
A pair of giant needles formed and came surging across the five hundred yard gap between the wizards and my shield. I could see from the direction they were travelling that the needles were intended to skewer King Kenneth after they burst the bubble shield. So much for hoping that I wouldn't need to do any more magic!
I had a split-second decision to make. After failing to be ready for the 'power bolt' that Ingrid had attempted, I had thought of a charm that would have countered it. That same charm would probably work on the needles. The choice was simple - did I rely on my shield holding again or use my counter-charm? If I didn't cast another spell then I would remain hidden. If my shield wasn't able to withstand the needles, then the King would be dead.
All of that passed through my mind in a millisecond and I knew I couldn't risk the King's life.
"Briseadh!" I shouted and my hand came up to point directly at the flying needles.
Everything I had done so far had been done on instinct. The words of power just came to me, and the enchantments worked. It seemed that I was a very powerful wizard, despite the lack of any formal training. My latest charm was a 'breaking' spell, and it targeted the needles, shattering them into tiny fragments before they even reached the shield.
My cover was probably already blown now, so I thought another spell wouldn't make much of a difference. I also felt the need to strike back at these Scanian wizards. It was too easy for them to remain out of danger and cast their magics at ordinary men. How would they feel at being in the firing line for once? Fire sounded like a very good option actually, so I went with it.
"Saighde teine!" I cried.
A hail of flaming arrows appeared and arced down towards the two wizards. The men around me actually cheered to see their tormentors coming under attack. The 'fire arrows' closed on Ingrid and her daughter and I began to believe that I might have managed to wipe out Malcolm's magic capacity at the first attempt. It was only at the last second that they acted to save themselves.
"Sguir!" cried Ingrid.
"Uisge!" cried her daughter.
And just like that, my fire arrows were a thing of the past! Ingrid had stopped the arrows and her daughter had conjured up a deluge of water to douse their flames.
While the arrows might not have found their mark, they definitely had affected the wizards. Once they had dealt with the immediate threat, Ingrid and her daughter made a run for it. I was right, it seemed. They didn't much like being the ones under attack!
The Axon infantry jeered the wizards as they mounted their horses and rode away from us. Some of the men even slapped my back in congratulations, but I could see some remained suspicious.
"Well done, Sean. That has certainly given them something to think about. I doubt they will be able to mount another attack tonight, the day is ours," said Kenneth.
The infantry cheered loudly.
"You have fought valiantly and it has been my honor to have stood with you. The Scanians will pay dearly in blood for daring to set foot on Axon's fair soil.
"Remember this day well, my friends. Tell your children and your grandchildren of the day that you held off twenty times your number. Tell them of the two hundred Axon heroes who stopped the Scanian dogs in their tracks.
"Tell them about the spirit of Axon that flows in your veins and which you drew upon to help you turn back these evil invaders. Tell them, 'We are Axon, and we will never be defeated!'"
Like all great orators, Kenneth's voice had risen and increased in power as his little speech progressed. By the last sentence, he was fairly shouting, and he had whipped the men into a frenzy. The cheering became chanting, as they responded to his patriotic shout.
"AXON! AXON! AXON!"
Kenneth was lifted onto the shoulders of the men and carried to the riverbank. The cavalry, archers and last remaining infantry reserves lined the bank and they too joined in the chanting.
Eventually Kenneth managed to get his feet back onto solid ground, and I could see by his huge grin that he had achieved his objective. The morale amongst these men had never been higher. Wherever they went in the coming weeks, they would be telling and re-telling the story of how so few had defeated so many. Kenneth had started his own propaganda battle!
We waited until full darkness before we started making our preparations for the withdrawal. The campfires were banked so that they would continue to burn for hours. Volunteers would form two squads of infantry to remain guarding the ford for some hours after the bulk of us had left. Baby John's squadron of eagles would remain to carry these volunteers, so they could catch us up.
King Kenneth gave the captain orders for a forced march in the direction of the town of Grace. That was where the nearest of Axon's armies had been ordered to move to, as a counter to Malcolm's change in tactics.
Kenneth himself planned to join the cavalry troop so that he could make better time without the slower moving infantry. He wanted to be in Grace before dawn. I suggested flying again as a quicker option. Kenneth had seemed nervous about our flight the night before and shook his head now to confirm that he would stick with the horses. I decided my place was at his side so I went looking for Mòr Dubh.
The twenty or so in the cavalry troop fretted as they waited for the last of the infantry and archers to begin their march. Everybody had taken care to muffle anything that might make a noise, as sound would carry in the night. We certainly didn't want to announce our departure to the Scanians.
I sat on the stallion's back, chewing on a piece of cold Timmon, and replaying the events of the last twenty-four hours. There was still a lot for me to learn, and there was no better teacher in the arts of war, it seemed, than Kenneth. I realised that the King followed at least one of my rules, as he had gone over every single little detail to make sure his preparations were right.
Another, surprising, realisation was that my complex feelings for this man were changing yet again. The Kenneth I had watched over the last day was a million miles away from the arrogant man who had arranged my marriage and been rude to my girlfriend.
No, this was a man comfortable with being a leader, a man that other men respected and were willing to follow. This was a King who cared about his people and his kingdom, a King who used his intelligence to try to protect every one of those he was responsible for. I was actually starting to like him and it wasn't so difficult anymore to think of him as my father.
It seemed to take the foot soldiers forever to be on their way, but eventually Kenneth signalled for the cavalry troop to move out. He and I were in the middle of the formation, although Mòr Dubh wasn't happy once again that there were inferior beasts in front of him and he continually nipped the rump of any he could get close to.
It was a clear night and the moon gave enough light for us to set a reasonable pace. Fairly quickly we passed the infantry and left them behind as we headed for Grace.
"Why are we going to Grace instead of returning to Gower?" I asked the King. I had been away from my girl for a long time before we had found each other again and I was anxious to spend as much time with her as I could.
"I need to review the army at Grace and share intelligence with General MacKinnon," Kenneth replied, "then you can get back to your precious bride!"
He laughed to take the sting out of his words and I chuckled along with him, as I realised my own eagerness was clearly too obvious if he had noticed it in the dark.
And then ... PANDEMONIUM!
A flare of blinding light, and a series of explosions! The sounds of men and animals screaming out in pain! The troopers in front of us were torn asunder by something and I was dimly aware of Mòr Dubh rearing to dump me from his back.
"Too high a profile, Sean. You're a more difficult target on the ground."
A bolt of lightning sizzled over my head and I heard Kenneth cry out. Something streaked past me and in the light of the overhead flare I saw Kenneth's sleek, black leopard bounding forward. Surges and blasts of power were exploding all around me, but I couldn't see where they were coming from.
"Sealadh!" I cried.
My guess was that some kind of concealment charm had been used. Otherwise, Aquilaire and his eagles would surely have given us a warning. My guess proved to be correct, as my reveal spell took effect. Suddenly I was looking at Ingrid and her daughter.
The leopard hardly broke stride and it leapt for the younger wizard's throat, sinking its teeth in deep. That wasn't the killing strike however. No, the leopard used the purchase of its bite to pull up its back paws. The sharp claws became a blur as the leopard used them to tear open the wizard's soft belly.
The shock of the gore helped me to snap out of my momentary stupor, and I attacked Ingrid.
"Neirt!" I cried
Neirt is the Gaelic word for 'strength' and my spell slammed Ingrid off of her feet before she could do any more damage. I spun to try to find the King and saw that he had been knocked from his horse.
By the time I had made it to his side, so had the black leopard and it hissed and spat at me, as it gathered itself to spring. Two flashing hooves crashed into the ground in front of the cat and I shouted at it, too.
"Sìth! Peace! I mean him no harm."
The leopard backed up a few paces, and I was able to kneel beside Kenneth to check how badly he had been hurt. He was burnt pretty badly down his left side - worse than anything I had ever seen, but he was still breathing.
I had two things in my medicine bag that might help the King. The first was useful for many ailments and I always carried it - St John's Wort (Hypericum) - an amazing plant indeed. The second was more unusual for me to have, but ideal. Phosphorous was particularly effective for treating electrical burns, and I was sure that was what had struck the King.
I knew time was critical here. Already his flesh was blistering and I started to treat him as quickly as I could. The moans and screaming of other injured men and horses rang out around me, but I tried to shut them out and concentrate on Kenneth.
He seemed to have taken the blast on his left shoulder, not far away from the heart. I cut the remnants of his shirt away and applied my remedies without any binding. The last thing the King needed now was pressure being applied to his wounds.
Once I had him patched up as well as I could, I turned my attention to the other wounded and did what I could before calling the Captain to see me.
"Captain, the King needs better attention than I can give him here in the field. I'm going to have one of the eagles take him to Gower. You will need to carry on to Grace and alert General MacKinnon to the latest on Malcolm's strength and position.
"I've done everything I can for the wounded. They should be able to make the trip without any pain after what I've given them."
He saluted and very soon mounts had been rounded up and people were helped into saddles. Of the original twenty, only two were dead and three had minor injuries.
It was clear the wizards had been focused on King Kenneth himself and they hadn't expected to have their conceal charm broken so quickly either.
The King's leopard had been another factor they hadn't taken into account, and Ingrid's daughter had paid a high price for that. That reminded me ... I went in search of Ingrid, to check how badly my spell had damaged her. She should have been beside her disembowelled daughter. But when I walked over, Queen Ingrid was nowhere to be seen.
The troop set off, a few of them waving, and I returned to Kenneth. He was still unconscious (perhaps a blessing for him) and I decided that there was no time to lose in getting him back to Gower. I had told the Captain a small white lie in that I flew the King back myself rather than have an eagle carry him. The men had already been spooked a little by my magic and I didn't want to add to that by letting them see me fly.
Big-Black received my thanks for answering my call again and for looking after me so well. The big stallion vanished like a shadow into the night, and I was left to fly upwards, holding onto the King in such a way as to avoid touching his burns.
Aquilaire and his entire squadron joined me and flew as an escort all the way back to Gower. I was drawing on the power of 'the Road' for the entire trip, using it to try to cool Kenneth's burns.
"Oh, Mother! Kenneth!" Mom cried when she saw me carrying the King into their chambers.
Her scream brought Brenda running too and I let them fuss over the King before telling the events of the last day or so. Part way through the story, I noticed that the black leopard had somehow managed to get itself up onto the balcony and it was sitting as if on guard.
"I told you both you should not have gone to Dempster," Mom reminded me. "Look at him, what use will he be in the bigger battle now? If he lives it will be a small miracle, and at best he will be unable to ride for months."
The extent of Kenneth's injuries were just as bad as she said. Sometimes burns can go far deeper than the surface injury might suggest and that was the case here. The bolt Kenneth had been hit by had really burned deep and it was taking all of my skill to keep him with us.
We did of course let baby John try his 'laying on of hands' trick. For some reason it didn't make any difference for the King and he was left with the much slower road to recovery, through my herbal and homeopathic treatments. Thankfully, he responded well and I stopped worrying.
Kenneth was not a man used to lying in his bed, certainly not when his kingdom was under attack from its oldest enemy. He regained consciousness and proved to be the worst patient of all time. His pain seemed to be translated into his temper, and I didn't like the fact that I was the target for it.
The news of the fighting that we received over the next few days did little to brighten Kenneth's mood. There were a procession of messengers from each of the Axon armies and all of them told the same basic story. Despite all of Kenneth's preparations - the militia training, the defences - the Axonites were stunned by the injuries their King had suffered and they were buckling.
Our men fought bravely, but at every battle some kind of magical intervention seemed to turn the tide at vital moments and always in favour of the Scanians. The King grew more and more upset at being confined to his bed, and I thought he was going to give himself a heart attack if kept getting so worked up.
"It's exactly as I feared, Sean. Without some kind of magical defence, the Scanians have an advantage over us. You will have to deal with it, I'm afraid. There's nothing else for it."
"It's not that bad yet," I replied, "we can take back everything we've lost once you're back on your feet."
"Sean, you don't understand how war works. Every battle we lose, every defeat, will drain the will of our people. They will begin to lose heart. They will begin to believe that defeat is inevitable. This will be like a cancer. It will spread like wildfire with nothing to stop it.
"By the time I can get up from this bed I will have no kingdom. The Scanians will have ground us down completely!"
"I think you're underestimating your subjects, Highness," I disagreed.
"Listen to me, Sean. I'm the one with the experience, here. I'm going to tell you what to do.
"You must order the armies to disband. We must starve the Scanians of any major victories if we can avoid it. I must have resources to fight for me when I'm well enough and that won't be the case if we continue to fight pitched battles and lose. That's simply playing into Malcolm's hands. The more of us he kills, the more complete his victory will be.
"Disband the armies. Tell the generals they need to resort to hit and run tactics. If we managed to kill one of Malcolm's daughters then he only has two wizards left and they can't be everywhere at once. Big battles let him use the wizards. If we strike where he doesn't expect it, then his wizards will be useless to him.
"Meanwhile, my son, you are going to have to play the assassin! The biggest service you can do for me, and for the kingdom, is to track down his wizards and kill them. Take away his advantage!
"Do these things, so that when I'm healthy again, I will still have an army to call upon. Then we will be able to fight on level terms. In fact, we would have the advantage, with you on our side."
I didn't like it. Oh, I could see the logic in what he was suggesting, but the idea of deliberately going out to hunt down two women was something that went against the grain.
Things had been going badly for two weeks and I was on the point of losing my own temper at the King.
"Look, I'm the one looking after you so could you please stop shouting at me?"
Before he could answer, the King's Chamberlain burst into the room and I had a sinking feeling.
"Highness! Highness, news of the worst kind!" the man cried.
"I know, General Howat and his 2nd army have been routed. The Scanians are only a day's march from Gower. I have seen it all," said the King.
I had forgotten that he had the power of 'sight'. Now it seemed that he had had some forewarning of a significant defeat, but he had said nothing.
"You saw this? You saw this before it happened? Why didn't you say something? Surely you could have warned General Howat and perhaps have changed the outcome?" I demanded.
The King gave me a weary look. That worried me more than his black temper.
One thing that could never be levelled at Kenneth was that he was one of life's victims. I was so used to his arrogance, his anger, and his total self-belief. This new mood was of great concern.
"Sean, you don't understand how it works. Yes, I have visions, but I'm left not knowing if they will come to pass or not. The very act of trying to use the information could be the thing that makes the vision come true.
"When I was younger I learned not to believe everything I saw. Your mother is a good example of that. I didn't stop to think what her life would be like being married to her half-brother. No, I have come to think of the 'sight' as a curse, not an ability to be proud of!"
"What do we do now?" I asked.
I was completely out of my depth. An enemy army was only a day away from Axon's capital city. Our people were defeated and demoralised. Was this the end of Axon?
"You take me to your mythical valley of perils so that the Scanians can't find me and then you do what I ordered you to do days ago! You tell the generals to disband the armies, and you hunt down and eliminate the Scanian wizards!"
Edited by TeNderLoin