Page 57 (1/1)

Behind them, hidden from the vord by a wall of illu for direction, for the battle captains of their Legions to decide where they could best be used Rangy, long-legged coursers fro, heavily gy, hardy little northern horses that were barely taller than ponies

Aquitaine was not content to rest behind the massive fortifications built around the city The invaders had driven Aleran forces froly against Gaius Sextus's defensive strategy froions of the north, he was determined to carry the battle to the ene forward

Frohts Aeris, black spots of shadow, far below, sharply outlined against the lighted coluround There were fewer than there should have been relative to the forces on the hts Aeris of Alera had taken hideous casualties in the battle to defend Alera Imperia Their sacrifice had been one of the factors to help convince the enemy to commit the lion's share of its forces to the final assault on the city itself - an assault that had resulted in annihilation for the attacking vord

Gaius Sextus's final, suicidal gaht Alera the time the Realm needed to recover and prepare for this battle, but the cost had been grievous - and Amara feared that their coions with a deadly weak point in their order of battle

The leading edge of the vord tide rushed to within a quarter ions, and a flare of scarlet-and-blue light leapt skyward fronal to cohts and Citizens, aftermore than a year of humiliation and pain inflicted by the invaders, were ready, at last, to give theeneral theory behind the opening salvo of furycraft, A quite like it She had witnessed the utter destruction of the city of Kalare by the wrath of the great fury Kalus, and it had been a horrible, hideous sight, vast beyond i, uncontrolled, horrible in its beauty - and co wave of vord was every bit as terrible and even

The lords of Alera spoke in a voice of fire

The standard assault of a skilled firecrafter was thesphere of white-hot fire They were generally large enough to envelop a ht inside the within five yards would generally bewithin another five yards of that would be scorched beyond the capacity of a hu to sustain hostilities The fire ca hiss and vanished with a hollow boom It would leave secondary fires and smooth depressions of molten earth in its wake

Manifesting such an attack was extre upon the furycrafter involved Even those with the talents of Lords and High Lords counted the nu in the dozens, and not many of those Given how ht of all Alera's firecrafters, they could not inflict instant, significant losses upon the mass of the enemy body

Gaius Attis had considered a way to improve on that

Instead of the roar of full-blown fire-spheres, a flicker of tiny lights, like thousands of fireflies, sprang up ahead of the oncoan to hear a tide swell of tiny reports, pop pop pop, like the celebratory fireworks crafted by children at Midsu a loall in front of the enele one of the little firecraftings was a deadly threat to a hu, much less to an armored warrior form of the vord - but there were hundreds of thousands of the As the little flowers of fire continued to blosso line of lights into strip of hellishly loith its own fire

The leading ele destruction Their screams came up to Amara only distantly, and with a little help from Cirrus, she could see that the vord had notoven Gaius Attis had prepared for theered and collapsed, roasted alive, bits of flesh and ar hot air as ash Tens of thousands of vord perished in the first sixty seconds

But they kept co themselves in utter abandonment at the barrier, and thousands more died - but each vord that perished absorbed some of the furycrafted flame Amara was reminded uncole drop of water could extinguish the flame It would be boiled to steao out

The vord began to push through, bounding over the charred corpses of those who had co as shields the bodies of their co fro a few feet farther than the one ahead of it

Signals froion pulled the line of deadly heat back toward the Legion lines, forcing the eneround, but they could not bring the band of superheated air too close to the Aleran lines without exposing their own troops to the flame - which also blinded the Aleran battle coan to break through, another signal went up fro ceased Seconds later, the vord joined battle with the Legions

"They have no thought for their own lives," said Veradis, staring down as Aht at all How many of them died just now, simply so that they could reach the battle?"

Amara shook her head and didn't answer She hovered upon her windstreaht sky, where the air was cold and bitter Three wind coaches carrying Aldrick and his swordsmen hovered a few yards off

"When will the scouts return?" Veradis asked anxiously The young Ceresian wo hair and dress were hardly ideal for the circumstances, but she handled herself with co her farther away from us"