SIXES AND SEVENS

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER ONE

AERIN

Aerin looked out over the muddy field surrounding Kegarde. The rain – though torrential – didn’t seem to be having any effect on the enemies’ siege. Not even the heavily armored cavalry seemed to mind the conditions. In fact, they seemed to be gliding over the mud. Aerin reflected that such an idea wasn’t all that strange. The leader of the enemy forces was a skilled magician, after all.

A large boulder suddenly crashed into one of the towers protecting the gate. It crumbled to pieces on impact, causing shards to fly into people, buildings, siege engines – and when the shards did hit something, they burst into fire. There were some terrifying deaths to behold at that moment.

“Vailen!” shouted General Hrun. “Don’t fail me now! Stop those boulders before they get to the walls, damn you!”

Aerin quickly turned to his friend, the archmage Vailen. “How did it get through your guard?” he asked.

Vailen simply shook his head. “We’re losing concentration. Nobody can withstand him, no matter how many of us there are.”

“Right,” said Aerin. He clapped his friend on the back and ran down the stairs of the tower, nearly slipping down five or six in his haste. At the bottom of the tower he threw open the door and ran to Hrun. “General, the mages are losing concentration,” he said.

“Shit. Very well, give the order Aerin. I want those mages to keep their guard up as much as they can while the evacuation takes place. Damn those peasants! They always want to stay and protect their homes.” Hrun’s anger subsided as quickly as it had flared. “I guess that’s their right though. Move along Aerin. The sooner we get the evacuation under way the sooner we can make our last stand.”

“Sir,” Aerin replied, and ran into the keep. The guards let him in quickly, knowing why he had come. They closed the door just as he stepped through, for fear of arrows finding their way inside. The few hundred women and children inside the keep immediately got to their feet and gathered their few possessions. They, too, knew why Aerin was here.

“Aerin, are you coming with us?” Vicky’s voice was thick with fear.

He turned to face her. “I cannot. I must assist the General with the defence of Kegarde. I’m sorry, Vicky, truly I am, but the General needs me here.”

Vicky’s eyes stubbornly refused to fill with tears, even though Aerin knew she was heartbroken. “You will come after, won’t you, once you have raised the siege?”

He gathered her in his arms, cradling her head against his chest. “Of course, my love. I shall be at the head of the liberating army, on a white horse, with eyes only for you.” He bent his head slightly and kissed her forehead. “Now go,” he said softly, “make sure everyone gets out.”

Vicky pulled away from Aerin, her eyes now glistening in the candlelight. “Be sure you find me, Aerin.”

*****

Two hours later, the defences of Kegarde had been breached. Hrun had not made it easy for the attackers, but the inevitable had transpired. The fighting erupted on the streets, as Hrun’s reserves entered the fray and momentarily halted the enemy advance. Aerin was pulling on his light armour, talking to Vailen as he did so.

“The women and children have gone through the north-eastern cellar to the plains. You must take your mages and follow them, try and keep them safe as they make their escape. Vailen...” Aerin pulled tight his belt. “Vicky is with the group. Make sure she gets out safely, for me.”

“Of course Aerin. Now, give me your sword.” The young soldier heeded the request, and passed Vailen the sword, who spoke gently over the blade. “A slight sharpening,” he explained, “be sure to slice a few heads off.” The mage turned and left the room, shouting at his mages to move to the keep. Aerin followed suit, yelling at the captain of the guard to order some men to follow the mages.

He quickly tallied the number in his head. Some three hundred women and children, 100 men-at-arms, and twenty mages. He sighed in resignation. The evacuees didn’t have much of a chance.

*****

The mages and men-at-arms caught up with the evacuation force in short time. There was some evidence of small skirmishes on the path, and when the smaller group caught up with the main body they noted with uneasiness that a few men had already sustained painful injuries. Of course, when fifty men are expected to defend three hundred women and children, some injury was to be expected.

Vailen was quick to issue orders. “You men take up the rear,” he said to the soldiers that had accompanied him. “Those of you who are injured, take a horse if you can still lift a sword. Mages, take up positions throughout the column, and keep your guards up. You other men, take up the front of the column. Head north.”

“Through the marshlands?” asked one of the soldiers.

“Yes. We won’t be followed there, trust me.”

As the column started to move again Vailen sought out Vicky. “I did as you asked, Vicky,” he said, referring to the spell he had cast on the sword, “but I don’t know how long it will last. All the mages are tired, and the battle has affected my own reserves as well.”

“Thank you Vailen.” Vicky walked in silence for some time, and Vailen did not see the point in trying to talk to her. In her own way, Vicky was already grieving.

The attack came from the west.

*****

Aerin’s sword sliced through the plate armour of yet another enemy and he made an effort to move forward again. The thirty or so soldiers fighting with him roared and crashed into the writing mass of blood and battle. Aerin parried the sword of one enemy and thrust towards another, felling him instantly. As he turned to face the first, another sword suddenly appeared through the man’s neck, spattering blood all over Aerin. The sword pulled away again and as the enemy fell to the ground Hrun was revealed grinning at Aerin. “Come on, Aerin, there’s more fun to be had yet!”

They fought back to back for several minutes, yet while they enjoyed the wholesale slaughter that was offered to them their men did not share their joy. Meter by meter the enemy advanced as troops fell around Aerin and Hrun. Within ten minutes, all that was left of the defending force were seventy five men, Aerin and Hrun, desperately trying to hold the doors to the keep.

“Enough!” roared a voice, and the enemy soldiers obeyed, dropping to their knees reverentially. A heavily armoured man strode through the mass of dead bodies and kneeling soldiers, his sword dripping blood. The man reached the stairs, and looked in the direction of the defenders. His eyes seemed to glow red beneath his visor.

“You have defended well,” he said, “and now you will join my army.”

Aerin watched in horror as the sword was raised, turning to a blade of fire as it did so. Then the armoured man swung his sword down to the flagstones. A trail of green, noxious fire snaked its way towards the group of defenders, and instantly consumed the first man it touched. The fire spread to each man quickly, before any had a chance to run and save themselves.

As the fire consumed Hrun next to him, Aerin had time to think about Vicky, and her promise to her inside the keep mere hours ago.

*****

The attackers hit the guard that the mages had built hard, and many of the enemy soldiers were crushed by the weight of the people behind them. The women and the children panicked, and started to run in all directions. Vicky and Vailen tried in vain to calm them down but it was no use. One woman ran straight into a mage in her blind panic and interrupted his concentration - almost instantly, men entered the column and started hacking people to pieces. The mage who had fallen to the ground barely had time to scream and three soldiers raised their swords and delivered a triple coup de grace, to make sure he was dead.

Vailen grabbed Vicky by the shoulder and yelled at her. “You have to run! Go! If you die out here and Aerin lives he will never forgive me. Now go!”

Vicky knew she should run but still she tried to convince him. “I have to stay, there are people here who need...”

“Damnit, just go!” Vailen cried, and pushed her into the throng of fleeing people and blood-crazed soldiers. Vicky did the only thing she could do – she ran as hard as her legs would carry her. Behind her she heard the sound of people crying out in pain as they were wounded or killed. She ran, not only to escape the slaughter, but to escape her fear for Vailen, and her love for Aerin.

She ran for hours, somehow finding a path through the marshlands in her blind terror. Eventually, she tired to the extent that her mind gave up, and stopped ordering her legs to move. She hit the ground hard, and lay there, unconscious, for hours.