Dirge for a Necromancer - By Ash Stinson Page 0,40

stairs up to the citadel’s top. On their way up, Brecan managed to find him and squeeze into the column at his side. “What’s going on?” Brecan asked. “Everyone was shouting…”

“Tahlehson warships are apparently coming toward us,” Raettonus said.

Brecan sucked his breath in through his teeth. “That’s not good,” he said. “How many?”

“Don’t know. No one said,” Raettonus told him. “But from the fervor around here, I’d guess it’s enough to be a threat.”

The unicorn flattened his ears and cocked his head to the side. “What do you suppose Tahlehson warships would want with us, Raet?”

“War, I’d imagine.”

Because of the crowded, chaotic conditions of the citadel, it was quite a few minutes before they reached the roof. Just as soon as there was room for him to do so, Raettonus hopped off the roan centaur’s back. Archers were already taking the walls all around, setting up to either side of the iron spikes that made a cage over the Kaebha Citadel. Raettonus walked beside Brecan for a ways before mounting him so he could look over the archers lining the battlements. Sitting down, however, he couldn’t see over the heads of the massive man-horses. With a frustrated grunt, Raettonus grabbed hold of Brecan’s horn and used it to brace himself as he moved into a standing position on the unicorn’s back.

“Do you see the ships?” Brecan asked him, wincing a little as Raettonus rested some of his weight on his smooth, glassy horn.

“Oh, yeah,” said Raettonus, frowning. “I see them.”

“How many?” asked Brecan as the soldiers moved the catapults into position and began to load them.

“A line of them,” Raettonus said, squinting at the moonlit ocean, his focus on the dark shapes of the Tahlehson warships. “All along the horizon, in either direction for as far as I can see.”

Brecan flattened his ears and his tail drooping. “That many?” he said. “Maybe…do you think maybe they’re not hostile?”

Just as Raettonus was about to respond, a fair-sized rock struck the citadel, clanging against the cage on top of it. This was followed by another, which struck low on the stone of the fort and caused the building to shake a bit. Raettonus lost his balance and almost fell, but Brecan caught him with his wings. Frowning, Raettonus reseated himself as the catapults aboard the warships fired more rocks, most of which simply slammed harmlessly against the cliff side.

“No,” Raettonus said. “No, I’d definitely say they’re hostile.”

Chapter Six

Though the centaurs fired their arrows and catapults, and took down a couple ships and dozens of Tahlehson soldiers in the process, they couldn’t stop the invaders from landing. Most of the ships sailed on around the bend of the coast to land somewhere out of sight. There were enough Tahlehson ships left behind at Kaebha, however, to make the prospects of overpowering them seem bleak. When Raettonus went to sleep, the archers were still at it, trying to whittle down the foreign force before they could mount their attack.

When dawn broke, the Tahlehsons had made it part way up the mountain and were out of range of the Zylekkhans’ weapons. “They’re setting up for a siege,” General Tykkleht told Raettonus when he asked the magician to attend him in the citadel’s shrine the following day. Raettonus noticed that there were many, many more candles burning at the base of Cykkus’ statue today than he had seen previously, and even more were at the statues of Kurok, Harkkan, and Virkki.

“Do you have the provisions here to hold off a siege?” Raettonus asked as he knelt with the general beside the statue of Kurok. The shrine was packed with soldiers stopping in between shifts.

“For a time,” Tykkleht said. “But at some point we’re going to have to engage them, I fear. I’m certain they didn’t sail all the way from Tahlehsohr to sit around a few months, get bored, and leave.”

“No, probably not,” Raettonus said. He could tell Tykkleht was hoping he’d offer his sword to defend the citadel. He had more than enough power as a pyromancer to raze the whole Tahlehson fleet and every single soldier they’d brought. But Raettonus didn’t offer; it wasn’t his fight.

When Tykkleht was done with his prayers, they walked together to Dohrleht and Maeleht’s room. “It’s such a large force,” said the general. “I hope the other citadels are holding up. I’d send a messenger out to them, but—regrettably—there aren’t any ‘gryphs here. We’re supposed to keep some as messengers, but they’ve all left on errands. All we have