The Book of Ashe

Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Storms


"The Earth is our Mother. From Her all life and power flow."
~Druidic Proverb


I was in a mess. Stormraven wasn't angry at me for hitting her, but possession is no excuse for striking a Druid Priestess. My little fit cost me thirty lashes with a bull whip. Afterward Stormraven used her power to heal my back and let me rest. For a couple of days I wasn't fit company for anyone. On the third day Stormraven came to see me.
"Ashe, I'm sorry for being so stupid. Flamedancer told me that the documents had a very ancient charge on them, that’s why I came to collect them, but it had already taken hold of you." She spoke softly, but couldn't look me in the eye.
I said not a word. I was to ashamed to talk.
"I'm sure I have broken the connection now, but you must avoid being near them. Ashe, no one holds you accountable for what happened, but the ancient laws leave no room for error." She continued.
I dropped my head and said, "If this is all over I'd like to get back to my duties."
"As you wish, I still would value you as an advisor if you are up to it."
I raised my head slowly and studied her face. She seemed like she really meant it.
"I would be honored." I said.
"Good!" She said jumping up. "Get some food in you and meet us over in the command tent." She stayed a few seconds more then departed. When she pushed back my tent flap a cold wind blew in, accompanied by several snowflakes. Had Weaver's storm reached us here? I jumped up and poked my head out to check. Sure enough it looked like it had. Two inches had already fallen, but it was little more than flurries now.
I bundled myself up as best I could then pushed out into the snow. I trudged to Raven's command tent. A large fire burned out front of it and several soldiers stood around it, trying to keep warm. They eyed me hard as I approached the tent entrance, but said nothing. I pushed the heavy flap of Raven's command tent aside and stepped in. I nearly lost my breath. It was horridly hot in the tent and smoke from incense and spices was almost enough to choke you. Quickly I learned that the command tent was doubling as an Etheral Hall. Four large barrels stood directly in front of the entrance, boiling mist.
". . . . Keep him under close watch." Flamedancer's specter was saying as I entered. Everyone went quiet when they noticed me. Did I feel out of place? You bet your ass I did. Silently I moved towards Raider who was standing to my left. He half smiled as I approached him, but said nothing. I noticed Jayden sitting across from us with the young Imperial that he had been sleeping with a few nights ago. The boy looked like he expected someone to bite him. He sat back and to Jayden's left. Jayden saw me looking at his partner and smiled a shy smile and blushed. Ah, sweet puppy love. It was so nice to be that age once, where you can say you love someone with your whole heart and actually mean it for an hour or so. After a few seconds the Specters and Raven began talking again. Raven seemed to be having trouble holding the connection. She stood with her eyes closed and when she talked she sounded strained. I would have asked Raider about it, but I wasn't in the mood to talk. I sat there bored and depressed., wishing I was back in the privacy of my tent. I was about to doze off when one of the barrels exploded, throwing water and steam everywhere. The remaining barrels fizzled and snapped violently. The anchored specters began to fade in and out. Raider and Jayden both stood up and took several steps towards Stormraven. Raven's eyes were still closed and she seemed to be struggling with her powers. She lifted a rigid hand at Jayden, then towards Raider. Both stopped, but were ready to help. She struggled for awhile, trying to keep the connection open, but failed. As the last specter dissipated, Raven collapsed to the floor. Raider rushed forward and helped Raven up.
"What the hell happened?" He asked.
"I don't know. The power was there and then suddenly it turned violent and then started shrinking away." Raven answered as she gasped for breath.
"I felt it to." Jayden said. "It was almost like it was being pulled away."
"Something is wrong. Bad wrong." Raven said. She walked to the door and pushed outside into the cold and snow. Jayden followed her, Raider followed him and I followed Raider. All three mages stared eastward, looking troubled at a large reddish green cloud bank wreaking havoc on the far side of the Grojan Cliffs.
"Sargent, take a squad of men over there and find out what the hell that is." Raven said to Raider. Those clouds disturbed her. She never calls anyone by their rank. Black bolts of lightning stabbed down.

The closer we got to the storm the more uneasy we all became. Something very dark and very powerful was behind this storm. Even I sensed it and I'm as blind and deaf as they come when it comes to sorcery. Raider and Jayden both agreed that it wasn't Weaver.
"Weaver's powers allow her to control the natural elements of weather, this is something that isn't supposed to be here. It's not natural." Raider said.
There were five of us. Jayden, Raider and I, plus two veteran soldiers by the name of Flask and Grins. They came with the names, though like most people in the army, they were only nicknames. Grins got his name because he is always in a surly mood. Flask I don't know. He says it was pushed on him by his family. He is a large man, with a face full of hair. Grins is completely the opposite. We came upon a place where the ground sloped up to the cliffs. We started up, chins pressed against our chests to keep the biting wind and snow out of our faces. As we crested the hill, the storm began to subside.
"What the f***?" Grins asked.
We were looking out over a small vale covered with snow, except for a large area that I guessed was a perfect circle. The circle was a barren desert, nothing lived down there now.
"It looks as if the storm has drained all the life from that area. I need to go down there to be sure though." Jayden said. Grins muttered something about having all the proof we needed here. The cold weather made him surlier than usual.
Jayden started descending the hill towards the barren circle. Grumbling, we followed after him. Ever tried going down the side of a steep hill that is covered in snow? Not my idea of a fun time. I slipped three times and on the third time I drug a cussing Flask down with me. We slid the rest of the way down the hill, landing hard on our hands and knees. Jayden almost doubled over laughing. Flask and I shot him a go-to-hell look as we stood. From where we stood the barren circle was two hundred feet in front of us. We carefully approached the rim of it. Nothing grew and nothing, not even bugs, stirred. It was eerie. Jayden gently placed his foot on the hard sand and stepped into the circle. I followed behind him. It was like stepping into summer. The temperature was hot, but dry and the smell of ozone hung heavily in the air.
"What could have done this?" Raider asked, coming up beside me. Grins and Flask stayed on the other side of the circle, content to let us find the pitfalls, if there were any. I walked around a little, then knelt and scooped up some of the sand. It was burning hot. Farther out it looked like the sand turned into a sea of glass. I would have guessed that the circle was maybe two or three miles in diameter.
"I can't summon up any energy." Jayden said from behind me. I turned to see him standing with eyes closed. His forehead was wrinkled in concentration.
"It's just not there, nothing is. That storm has completely drained the land."
That didn't make any sense to me. It was obvious that magic was behind this, and that it wasn't us Druids, but why would Shekara waste her magic or her general's magic on destroying the land?
"I got a bad feeling about this" Flask said as he crossed the into the circle. "Man, it's burning hot in here."
"Perhaps we should make haste back to Stormraven. She needs to know about this." Raider said. We departed the barren circle, heading back to base.

"Drained? By magic?" Stormraven asked. She had been pacing the small office floor, but not stopped in disbelief.
"That’s what it looked like to me" Jayden said.
Stormraven thought a while. It didn't seem to make much sense to her either. After a while her eyes flashed with something disturbing. Her eyes filled with fear as she said, "She is trying to disarm us. If she can inflict enough damage to the Earth, our powers will weaken and eventually fail."
The was a chilling idea. Without the neutralizing magic of the druids, Shekara's spell casters could run about unchecked. Only four great ones are left, but that is more than Shekara needs. Without the Druidic magic, Tharamond wouldn't stand a chance.
"Do we know how many of these storms can be created or how far they can reach" Raven asked. She had resumed pacing.
"We know nothing about them, except that they can drain the land and they are linked to Shekara somehow." Raider said.
Raven thought for awhile, she seemed to draw into herself. She was shaken. She did not want to think about the possibility that someone could take from her, that which made her part of the Circle. She muttered to herself several times before she said, "Silverwolf could tell us more when he arrives. His skills lay mainly in healing the Earth."
Silverwolf! I had not seen him since before my captivity with Windrider. I had thought him dead for sure.
"I thought Silverwolf perished in the siege of Tamber." Jayden said. He had not seen him since I had.
"No, before we marched on Tamber, he was sent to the Tri-Cities to help with The Astral Rider's advance."
"It will take him a while to make it down here from the Tri-Cities. By the time he gets here, Shekara could suck much of the South dry." I said. It was a weeks hard ride from Oak to Scorn and another weeks to Tamber.
"He will have to gate in." Raven said.
"You sure you want to open a gate with those storms occurring out there?" Raider asked.
"It is our only choice. Most of the Earth Healers were killed off when Shekara first invaded. Silverwolf is one of the last. Most of the rest are up in the Badlands with Flamedancer." She sighed and sat down. She looked weary and tired. She had not been sleeping well since we arrived in Gale.
"The storms can wait for now, we need to decide what we are going to do about Weaver's storm. We are of no use to anyone just sitting here, but if we leave nothing will stop Weaver and Lifestealer from marching through and re-taking Tamber."
"Nothing but the blizzard." Jayden said.
"And who's to say that once we are gone that Weaver won't kill off the storm." Raven countered.
"Good point. I hadn't thought of that." Jayden said, somewhat embarrassed by his own ignorance.
"How about leaving a small garrison here, and moving the bulk of the army to someplace useful?" I said, offering my opinion.
"Who would counter Stealer and Weaver's magic?" Raven asked.
I shrugged, we were in a pickle for sure.
"What if we just wait Weaver out? Surly she can't keep that storm going much longer. It's too large and powerful." Raider said.
"Very true, maybe we should send pickets to the edge of the Cliffs to keep on eye on the snow fall." She looked at each of us for support. Jayden shrugged, Raider grunted his approval, and I nodded.
"That’s what we will do then. The minute the storm stops we will advance hard on Weaver and Stealer., but for the moment we need to concentrate on gating Silverwolf in to deal with these storms."
"Who would you like to be the conductor for the gate?" Jayden asked.
Stormraven looked at him blandly.
"I'll be the conductor, unless you think for some reason that I should not be."
"Well I assumed that such an epic task would drain you quickly. Especially at your age." Jayden said, sounding a little arrogant.
"Bite me junior! I was opening gates when your dad's granddad was a pup. I think I know what I'm doing." Raven said.
I couldn't help but laugh. Jayden had that ability that people find so disconcerting in most youths. Eternal knowledge and ultimate immortality. I think that Jayden, secretly wanted to be the one that opened the gate himself.
"Ma'am, if I may." Muffins said gesturing to get permission to speak. Muffins was the head cook of the Raven's army. He oversaw all the rations and food stores. Muffins, obviously, wasn't his real name, but a name hung on him by the others. He was a large burly man well into his fifties. He wore his hair short and usually unkempt. A thick, brown handlebar mustache spread across his face and up to his sideburns.
"Yes?" Raven asked.
"Ma'am we are getting low on supplies. The snow has killed most of the crops that the local populace had planted and the supplies we brought from Tamber are almost gone. We can hold here for another week or so, but then we are going to have to move farther south, maybe even back to Tabmer."
"What? You want me to give up ground that we fought so hard for? Out of the question. What about the locals, I'm sure they have food stores around here somewhere."
"Well, ma'am, with all do respect we just can't take their food."
"Why not? Do they think that freedom costs nothing? Everyone suffers in war. Draft how ever many men you need, head over to the town's food stores. Divide it all up, so that both my soldiers and the peasants have enough. Under punishment of death, no one may eat beyond their rations."
Muffins stared at Raven in disbelief. Heck, we all did. For a moment I thought Raven's mind was going.
"People! I intend to win this war and I will stop at nothing till it is won." Raven said to her gawkers. No one spoke. Muffins nodded shallowly and left.
"The people of Gale aren’t going to be happy about this." Raider said.
"I'm not here to make people happy, I'm here to fight a war. They know that."
"It's liable to spark riots."
"If that is the case, then we will deal with them when they start. Flask, take two platoons and distribute them among the main street in pairs. Orders are to use whatever force necessary if riots break out. Grins, how are the siege engines coming along?"
"We have twelve light ballista and three heavy." Grins replied.
Siege engines? What was Raven going to do with siege engines? They were pretty useless on infantry and even more so on calvary and Gale or Midpoint didn't have any outstanding defense structures to speak of. I decided not to ask. Stormraven prefers keeping plans to herself. What only she knows, can't be found out by the enemy.

Gating is a thoroughly impressive use of spells. I have seen small time cantrips and battlefield sorceries and still I was impressed. A ten foot by five foot door frame was constructed from an old oak for the purpose of anchoring the gate. In the bark was carved ugly magical what's-its. A twenty foot circle, outlined by candles, surrounded the door. Stormraven stood in front of the door, about five feet away. Jayden stood to her right and I stood two steps back from her left. Raider stood opposite from Raven, five feet behind the door.
"I'll require complete silence. No distractions whatsoever. If the gate collapses we could all very well be killed." Raven said, assuming an arcane stance. Just lovely I thought.
Stormraven closed her eyes and started whispering in a language I didn't understand. Jayden and Raider followed suite. Nothing happened at first, but then the wind began to pick up. Only slightly at first, but it slowly increased power. A small flicker of lightning arched from Raven's body and vanished in mid air. Several more followed. The air began to smell strongly of ozone. I took a few steps back just for safety. A small silver-green glow, no bigger than a pin prick, appeared in the center of the doorframe. It grew brighter and larger. The wind was damn fierce now and Jayden began to show signs of his own little entourage of petty lightnings. Ravens black hair flipped and waved violently. Several of her feathers broke free and were carried by the whim of the wind.
Gods I hope those feathers don't have any important significance other than decoration I thought to myself. The sliver-green light grew till it filled the doorway and then there was a loud snap. The light faded and it was like looking out a window that was hundreds of miles away. Silverwolf stood on the other side, with ten armed soldiers. Their crests denoted them as Keepers of the Tri-Cities. Slowly, Sliverwolf approached the gate. He closed his eyes and drew a deep breath and stepped through. There was a fit of crackling as he did. Once on our side, he stumbled and almost fell. I ran up to him as his soldiers started coming through.
"Are you ok?" I yelled above the deafening crackling.
"No, god damnit, I'm not! I hate those damn things." He yelled back. He got noisily sick.
After the last soldier was through, there was a definite change in Raven's stance. A faint, silver-green mist began to float towards Raven from the Gate. As it did, the Gate seemed to weaken and draw into itself. The mist whirled around Raven till she could no longer be seen, When it subsided Raven collapsed to her knees, then fell over. Raider followed suite. Jayden remained standing, though he was shaking.
"Wow! What a rush!" Jayden said. He had enjoyed it.
I rushed over to Raider, Silverwolf went to Raven. I knelt and checked for a pulse. He had one thank the gods, but it was faint.
"We need to get them inside and rested. Gating can drain a person to the point of death if their not careful." Silverwolf said. Between the three of us we managed to get Raider and Stormraven back to the command tent. Raven was actually the easiest to move. She was light as a feather. Raider was another story. We ended up half-dragging him.

"I'm not sure what I can do If anything.' Sliverwolf said in awe of the power that had drained the land. "I've never encountered anything like this before. The sorcery is still here, keeping the life from returning. Heavy sorcery."
We were standing on the edge of the barren circle, where Shekara's powers had drained the land. Silverwolf knelt and considered the ground a moment, then closed his eyes and placed his hand palm down on the sand. A faint glow radiated from his hand and small blades of grass thrust upwards. When he stood he smiled down at a small, 3 inch circle of grass.
"Hey you did it!" Jayden exclaimed.
As we watched the grass slowly turned brown and withered back into the sands.
"Damn." Silverwolf said, staring at the ground. He knelt again and touched the ground. He strained and a few more blades of grass shot up, but stayed only seconds before withering.
"There is too much and too powerful magic keeping the earth dead. I have never seen anything like it. It's like the Earth doesn't want to heal" Silverwolf said.
No one said anything. We all just stood there staring at the dead zone, each harboring his own fears. I imagined the powers of the Five From The Citadel raging unchecked throughout the lands. I shuddered, that was not a happy thought in the least. As we stood there the sound of raging hoof beats broke the silence. We all turned to see a courier from Gale coming at a pace to kill his mount. He started slowing when he was about fifteen feet away and leapt from his saddle before the horse came to a stop. The messenger stumbled once and almost went down. He came running to us.
"Darksaber. . . Has. . . .Defeated. . . Flamedancer and. . . Whitecrow, with Lifestealer's. . . Help at. . . . The Badlands, our armies fell. . . .back to Scorn." He said, out of breath. "Whitecrow is rumored to have been killed, and Flamedancer dinged up pretty good. Stormraven said she is going to force the Grojan Cliffs and take Midpoint. Raven wants you five to scout up ahead of the force and try to melt some of the snow."
It took awhile for what he was saying to sink in. Once it did, I got the shakes. There was no way we could march through the cliffs in the middle of a blizzard.