to distract them,’ she said, but paused and drew in a sharp breath. ‘Oh no. Erin, no.’
For the first time, fear edged Rebraal’s heart. ‘What is it?’
But he could see. The HotRain still fell but across the apron; it didn’t reach the trees any more. Erin’heth was shielding it and the arc of cover was like a beacon to an enemy mage.
‘We’ve got to break silence,’ said Sheth’erei. ‘They’ll be killed.’
Rebraal nodded. ‘Let’s do it.’
As one, they set up the staccato call of a water eagle. It was the flight warning and sounded too human. Immediately they’d finished, Rebraal, bow slung over his shoulder, led them down the ladder off the platform. Already he could hear the strangers reacting and the sound of running feet.
But it wasn’t himself he was scared for. Turning at the bottom of the ladder, he saw four columns of fire streak down from the sky to plunge into the forest right above the two platforms. It was a spell he’d heard about but never seen, the one that sought souls and took them to hell. And Erin’heth’s shield crumbled under its power.
Wood planks and splinters flew from the forest, carrying with them the tattered remains of protective leathers. The flash of the impact threw the temple and its surrounding into sharp relief, revealing them to their attackers for a vital instant. Rebraal saw a flaming body plunge from a platform to land in the undergrowth in a hail of sparks and cinders, the heat setting the vegetation smouldering and pouring out smoke. He heard an awful cry, cut off abruptly. The nine became five at a single stroke.
‘Sheth, we have to trip that ward!’ he shouted, all thought of stealth gone.
‘I’ll deal with it,’ said the mage, her voice thick with anger.
She dropped to her knees and began to cast, her fingers weaving intricate patterns in the air, her eyes closed against the fire that consumed the corpses of her friends. Beside her, Skiriin’s bow thrummed and another stranger died. Rebraal unclipped his jaqrui pouch and grasped one of the throwing crescents, sending it skimming head-high into the half-dozen strangers coming at them, not thirty yards away. It caught one on the side of the neck, slicing deep. The man cried out, dropped his weapon and clutched at the wound which jetted his life’s blood to the earth.
Rebraal drew his sword. In the same instant Sheth’erei cast with devastating effect. Standing to give herself a clear view of the group by the temple doors, she pushed her hands outwards, palms up. The ForceCone spread away, invisible, a battering ram of mana crashing into the front rank of shield-bearers who, completely unprepared, were hurled backwards into their comrades. The Cone pushed on, and while some scrambled clear of its influence, others were driven back, helpless, tossed head over heels. The result was inevitable. One of them fell into the temple doors.
The flash seared into Rebraal’s eyes and he half turned away. The detonation shook the ground under his feet and the branches of the great banyans overhead. The temple doors exploded and a beam of fire scoured outwards like the breath of a great dragon, deluging everything in its path with super-heated flame. It reached halfway down the apron and the wall of air following it knocked the surviving Al-Arynaar from their feet.
Rebraal was bowled over but stopped himself quickly and drove back onto his feet, his bow snapped and useless. Nearby, Skiriin was up and had drawn his own slender blade. Sheth’erei was still down but moving, and from the other surviving platform Rourke and Dereneer were running to join them.
‘Let’s finish this,’ said Rebraal.
He broke into a sprint, the three other swordsmen hard on his heels, forcing himself not to stop when he caught sight of the apron. The ward had wreaked appalling damage. Fires licked at stone where they had set undergrowth alight, bodies and parts of bodies, scorched and burning, lay scattered and twisted, and where a stranger had survived, he begged for death.
Of the group by the door, two were conscious and coming at them. One fired a crossbow, the bolt whipping by Rebraal to bury itself in Dereneer’s stomach. The elf sprawled to the ground, sword skittering away. Rebraal leaped a fire and slashed his blade into the crossbowman’s arm. The stranger dropped his weapon and staggered back and had no defence against the next strike, which tore across his throat.
Rebraal turned to see Rourke and Skiriin kill the other