Dream Drive Ch. 09

The armored horses crushed into the line, but without the lightning protecting them, they were vulnerable to the spears leveled at their mounts. Some few riders were able to force their way through, hacking away with heavy sabers, but a larger part of the charge was stopped dead by the bristling rows of spears.

Chaki released her magic. Fenay looked exhausted, but her face was twisted in a sharp expression of triumph.

A sword went in for her neck.

Chaki dove forward, shoving Fenay down. The sword took her throat instead.

It was a very strange sensation, to have a sword pass through her neck. She could feel the edge cut into her skin. The body of the saber entered her throat. For a half second, she couldn't breathe; her windpipe was blocked. And then it was through.

Chaki felt dazed. Her red health bar blinked with a floating number, and then it dropped by two thirds.

You've taken a critical hit. You're stunned for five seconds.

Chaki's arms and legs felt numb. She could move, but it felt as though she was underwater. A little picture appeared under her status bars, a stickman drawing with little yellow marks coming from its sides. A number in the corner was already counting down from five.

She looked up at the horseman. The soldier had already turned his gaze away, assuming she'd fallen. He wielded his long saber against an oncoming spearman.

The counter hit zero, and the box vanished. Chaki's body leapt back under her control. She gripped her weapon with both hands and shoved it into the back of the horseman's leg, where his armor was thinnest. Her father's spear dug into the back of his calf. The man's face wrenched up in pain. His eyes turned to look at her from under his helmet. She saw confusion, fear.

Chaki twisted the spear deeper.

And then an arrow slammed into his face. Chaki wrenched her spear free. The dead soldier fell from his horse.

She looked to see that Fenay had fired from the ground. Chaki rushed over and pulled her to her feet. Fenay looked at her, eyes scanning Chaki's neck, and then her face. "How are you alive?"

"Shakhan's power," Chaki said. "From Tatanka Ska."

Their section of the line had held – along with several others – but the bulk of the horsemen had gotten through. The lightning magic was gone, but the line was in total disarray. Packs of horsemen were running down isolated warriors. Attempts to organize and surround the horsemen were cut short with explosions of magic. Dust filled the air, churned up from spells, trampling hooves, and feet.

"What do we do?!" Fenay shouted.

"Follow me!" Chaki said. "Heal me!"

"I barely have any essence left!" Fenay said. She ran behind Chaki. "Where are we going?!"

"Toward that!" Chaki shouted.

Chaki could feel the pulses of essence roaring just before each explosion. There were two of them – two magicians. Smaller flickers here and there grabbed at her attention; other apprentices, healing, protecting what they could.

It was only a matter of time before the mages took advantage of the melee to attack the others. Chaki had to take the offensive. She had Shakhan's power; she could survive what others could not.

"You aren't injured!" Fenay said. "I should save my essence!"

"Just do it!" Chaki shouted. "I can't explain!"

Three horsemen were running toward them. Chaki crouched low and braced her spear against the ground. Fenay dove next to her and readied her bow.

A volley of arrows slammed into the riders from the side, turning them into pincushions. One of the horses fell, screaming. The dead soldiers slumped on the other two mounts, bodies bobbing in their saddles. With no commands, the horses simply ran around Chaki's spear, avoiding harm.

Their saviors were a group of men that had formed around Jalak. Chaki could see his headdress between the arms and heads. He pointed in another direction, back down the hill. The men drew their bows again.

Chaki felt a surge of essence. A mage was heading toward them, drawn by Jalak's temporary success.

"Start healing me!" Chaki shouted.

The mage arrived flanked by ten horsemen. He wore a black robe, but no iron armor. Blue runes were being drawn in front of his face - some Chaki knew, others she didn't recognize. His other hand held a sharp black box, darker even than his robes.

Chaki noticed his hood turn toward her and Fenay. She couldn't see his eyes under the cowl, but she could feel his gaze. She shivered.

A shout came from behind Chaki – Jalak. A flurry of arrows whizzed across the space toward the soldiers.

The man raised his box. The runes were sucked into it, and in return, it expelled lighting, wrapping the horsemen in a miniature version of the spell they'd used before. The arrows were vaporized.

The lightning gathered together into a tight, roiling ball, then surged forward. It struck the ground in front of Jalak's forces, exploding with white-hot sparks. Screams split the air as men were burned and tossed away.

Chaki was running. This was her chance – between spells. She sprinted toward the horsemen, holding her spear with both hands. She could see her red health bar starting to fill back up – Fenay was casting.

She reached the first horseman. His eyes narrowed under his helm. He swiped down at her with his saber.

Arrogant. Chaki easily ducked below his swing and smacked his wrist with the tip of her spear, giving it a good gash. He shouted and turned his horse. And then she was between them, ducking under the horses, faking jabs at the heads of the animals to frighten them.

The mage had been watching her the whole time. He was drawing with his hand, dancing out the runes as fast as his fingertip could move. It was a different spell, shorter. But not short enough.

A saber came in, slashing at her arm, but Chaki took the blow, letting it cut her. A red line blazed across her skin, and her shoulder went numb, but it was nothing compared to the strike from before.

The magician drew back in his saddle – he didn't expect her to keep moving. She had him. She leapt forward, extending her spear out in a lunge straight for his chest.

A rune expanded in front of him – the lines of a protective spell. Her spear clashed against it with the sound of steel on steel. She grunted and pushed harder, but the spell didn't budge.

It made no sense. He'd been drawing totally different magic. She'd read the runes.

And then she saw them – more runes, flashing on the inside of his clothes. Enchantments. But where is he getting the essence?

The man cocked his head and said something in his language. She saw a smirk under his cowl.

Lightning exploded. Chaki was flung backwards through the air, over the horsemen. She hit the ground hard, then rolled, coming to a stop on her back.

It hurt. Searing pain shot up her arms. She forced her eyes open. Her hands were blackened and burned. She looked into the corner of her vision. Her health bar was pulsing with an ugly tone. It was empty. Her stomach churned.

Fenay's face came into view. Her hands grabbed Chaki under the arms, dragging her back across the ground. Others were nearby, men with spears, surrounding her.

Heads and feet around her blurred with the sky. The pain stopped her from focusing her eyes. Her ears felt stuffed with cloth. Horses. People. Shouting, screaming.

It started to fade. Slowly, the pain drained away. She tried to blink, move her hands. She could feel her fingers.

"Chaki? Chaki, can you hear me? Chaki!"

"Hanta?"

"Thank you, spirits," Hanta said. He pulled Chaki up and hugged her. "You gave me a little scare, there."

"What happened? What's going on?"

Hanta helped her to her feet. Chaki sucked in a breath.

Warriors were laid out on the ground in rows. All of them were injured. The line of men stretched out across the top of the hill. It smelled like blood and sweat and dirt.

Chaki didn't know the name of the apprentice that had just healed her, but she recognized her. The girl – not older than fifteen – gave her a nod, then moved to the next man. He was cradling his arm to his chest. Three of his fingers were gone.

"They retreated a few minutes after you fell," Hanta said. "Whatever you did stopped that mage from casting more magic. They blew on their horns and galloped back through the hole they made." Hanta patted her shoulder. "You saved a lot of men."

She turned, looking around. The top of the hill was obliterated. The grass was gone, pulverized to mud. Smoking holes marked where magic spells had detonated. Warriors wandered around, gathering the fallen and moving the injured to where they could rest or be healed. But there were far too few apprentices for so many casualties, and they were already drained from the fighting. Most of the girls were huddled behind the wounded, meditating, already spent.

"I didn't save anyone," Chaki said.

"You did what you could," Hanta said. "If it wasn't for you, many more would be dead. They might not have left."

Chaki looked out into the valley. She could see a few of the iron men's horsemen, keeping a presence on the high ground, but the rest had retreated somewhere behind their hill. She couldn't tell if dawn had come or not. The clouds were a uniform white blanket, featureless. The sun was hidden somewhere behind them.

"We won't survive if they charge like that again," Chaki said.

"We're more resilient than you believe, I think," Hanta said. "We still have numbers on our side."

Chaki swayed. She took a step. Hanta caught her under her arm. "You shouldn't have gotten up so quickly. Lay down."

"I'm fine," Chaki said, pushing him back. "Just a little dizziness. I'll be fine."

Hanta didn't look convinced, but the sound of hooves stopped him from voicing that opinion. The oncoming rider was Haanak. He brought his horse up to them. "Chaki, I'm glad to see you standing. I wouldn't have been alive if you didn't tell the apprentices to protect us."

"I didn't think I was heard."

"You were," he said. "Hanta, I found Vuntha. He's well."

Hanta let out a breath. Chaki could almost see the tension seep from his face. "And?"

"Several hundred are dead," Haanak said, "but they didn't reach the tents. Most of the encampment has left safely. But Yukatan – he was near the tip of the charge. The magic killed him."

"Demon-fucked sons of whores," Hanta said.

Despite herself, Chaki was taken aback. Hanta had sworn more in the past few hours than she'd ever heard him swear in her entire life.

"He wanted to make up for Boonta," Hanta said. "He couldn't let himself just lead. He had to get in there and fight against lightning. Damn."

"Jalak, at least, is still alive," Haanak said. "As are most of the other elders. We think they might be done for the day, letting the rest of the troops catch up to their horses."

"We have to watch for that magic," Hanta said. "If Kunaya is with them, they have to know we can't stop it again."

"Maybe he isn't the traitor Yukatan thought him to be," Haanak said.

"Right now, we have to assume they know that our spirit guides are in the mountain," Hanta said, folding his arms. "We need to expect another attack. They'll try to hit us again, while we're vulnerable."

"No," Chaki said. "They can't, not so soon."

"Why?" Hanta said.

"Essence," Chaki said. "That attack they used – between all the apprentices, maybe we'd have enough essence to accomplish it. And in the melee, they kept casting spells. They must have had gemstones, or essence crystals. It's the only way they could keep themselves going. They probably burned through what they had trying to break us."

"That explains their sudden retreat," Haanak said. "They've gone through their resources. They panicked because Vuntha got away from them. Now that they've failed..."

Chaki nodded. "They must have meditated for a month to store away that much power. They can't strike again with that kind of force."

"Then your bravery might have won the day," Haanak said. "And the next time we clash, all of our men will be mounted." He turned to Hanta. "Let's try to move the injured back into the encampment. We can use the tipis to get them out of this wind." He put a hand over his eyes. "Feels like it's getting colder."

Hanta and Chaki glanced at the sky. "Snow, perhaps?" Hanta said. "The clouds have that look about them."

"Not what I want to contemplate," Haanak said. "I'd better be getting back to Jalak. I'll send Vuntha back to you." Haanak turned his horse and rode off.

Over the next half hour, Chaki helped move and organize the injured. Those with life-threatening injuries were healed first. Inevitably, they ran out of essence faster than they ran out of injured to treat.

Chaki focused on gathering essence. Many of the apprentices had small gems that could store power. She refilled them, over and over, until she felt like one of Jackson's batteries, used up and discarded.

Magic could only go so far. They were forced into more mundane methods: stitching, cauterizing, and herbs, for pain, or to dress the wounds. She ground leaves and shoots into powders and mashed them into poultices until her fingers were too tired to grip the pestle. Chaki did her best to guide the younger ones, doing the harder and more delicate tasks herself. She usually had them leave the tent when things got particularly gruesome.

The man she'd just treated had a gash in his thigh. The tip of a spear had been lodged in the muscle. She'd had him bite down on wood and cloth while she dug it out with her hands, then sewed him up. A bit of essence helped to seal up where he was bleeding. He fell unconscious before she was done.

Chaki left the tent and found a bucket of water. She washed her hands, but some of the blood stuck, dried in patches around her nails. The warrior's stifled screams still resounded in her ears.

As she stood up, fingers as clean as she could get them, the fatigue rolled over her. Her arms were tired from needlework and grinding herbs into paste. Her eyes were sore from focusing, refocusing. Her throat felt a bit hoarse. Even her spirit felt tired, drained from running back and forth, building up essence, pushing it into gems, building it up again.

She gave her head a shake and took a few gulps of the air. It was getting colder. She found it helpful, for the moment – it helped chase away the other sensations.

"Chaki!" Chaki turned. It was Secha – the young girl that had healed her after she was struck down by the mage. They'd all gotten to know one another quite well very quickly. She stopped in front of Chaki. "There's one, in a tent I came from – really bad. They thought he was dead when they brought him in. Fenay asked me to get you, she's out of essence."

Chaki was scraping the bottom of the barrel herself, but that didn't matter. She had discovered that, even if things were bleak as a cold, cloudy day, you had to tell people that things would be fine if they just kept on going. And then, you kept going. That was the hard part. She was finding it a very difficult task at the moment.

Chaki wondered what she would do if Shaka ever gave up. It would be as if a boulder suddenly crumbled to dust for no reason. A physical impossibility.

Chaki clenched her fists and nodded, more to herself than to Secha. Shaka never gave up because she was a spirit guide. Chaki was the spirit guide right now, and therefore, giving up was not even an option. It wasn't something that could happen. The North Star did not stop burning because it was a cold day. It just burned brighter.

"I'll see what I can do," Chaki said. She started forward, letting Secha guide the way.

A horn blew. High, low, high.

Chaki shivered, but not from the cold. The two of them turned.

The iron men came over the hill in a long line. She could see their colors, now. The dark green of a forest, marked with black trim. The ones in the center held spears; men on the outside edges held great black poles that ended in something that looked like an axe and a sword hammered together. They were clad in spiked armor that reminded Chaki of the black box the mage used to cast his magic. And past them, on either edge, the horsemen, returning for another attack.

The full army marched over the hill in tight formation. And they kept coming. And coming. Thousands of them, pouring down the slope.

"The One-Above will protect us," Secha said. She gripped her neck-beads in one hand. "Shakhan will protect us. Shakhan will protect us."

Chaki could feel the essence from here. They had more magic. She'd been wrong.

If Kunaya had betrayed them to the iron men, then the iron men would understand the limits of the spirit guides. Who was to say he hadn't been in contact with them for months? For years? Years to prepare an attack, to build up essence.

She remembered how easy it was for Jackson to find gems. In his world, they were dug up and sold as gifts. The iron men might have a similar industry. And now it was going to kill them.

The tribes needed something the mages wouldn't expect. They needed a surprise – a counter to their magic. They needed Jackson.

Jackson. Life had beaten him down, but Jackson was far more clever and resilient than he himself understood. He would be able to figure a way out of this. But he was in the mountain. The pass should open up with the dawn, and dawn was close, but not close enough. The enemy was coming now.

Wait.

They might not have Jackson, but they did have a warrior of Shakhan.

"Secha," Chaki said, "warn Fenay, tell her to gather the apprentices and get them to the line." She shoved one of her two gems into Secha's hands – half her remaining essence stores – and started walking. "If they use the same magic again, make sure she includes repel lightning in the runes. Understood?"

"Yes, but where are you going? We're all out of essence!"

"Meditate until they're almost upon us and give it everything you have," Chaki said, breaking into a jog. "I'm going to get help!"

Chaki's jog turned into a loping run. Muscles that felt sore and tired surged with sudden adrenaline. The most powerful warrior on this battlefield had been sleeping in their camp the entire time, and she'd never thought twice about it.

Chaki stopped in front of Rachel's tent; her feet skidded slightly in the mud. She brushed through the entrance flap.

Rachel was on the floor of the tent. Her leather armor still bore the cuts from Boonta's knife. Her head was turned to the side, blond hair splayed over the fur she rested upon.

Chaki knelt next to her and reached for the collar. It flashed with light and stung Chaki's hands, but properly prepared for the sensation, it was bearable. She gritted her teeth and held her arms close to it, doing her best to ignore the burning pain. Rachel's head rolled the other way; her lips murmured something.

While the magic was active, the runes of the collar were clear, drawn in tiny lines around the wood. There were a few she didn't know, but she understood the gist of it. It was a sort of logical trap compelling the wearer into slavery.

What she couldn't understand was how the collar powered itself. There was no essence crystal; there was no mage nearby, keeping the spell active.

Maybe it had something to do with the iron men's magic. She'd never seen anything like that black box before, but then, she'd never seen anyone create lightning, either. There must be some method of powering an enchantment at a distance.

Magic was the counter to magic. Chaki drew her own runes, weaving them into lines opposite those painted upon the collar. She wove words of freedom, independence, painlessness. The collar was just wood. It could be broken. It could be opened.

She pushed essence into her spell.

Something pushed back.

Chaki grabbed her crystal and fought against the force. It was alive; it rose to meet her. Chaki gripped her crystal and drew from it, shoving everything she had into a stream directed at that presence.