A Dream of Mortals (Book #15 in the Sorcerer's Ring) (8 page)

Volusia watched in surprise as hundreds of
thousands of Empire soldiers poured out, charging right for her, preparing to
engage her in the biggest battle she had ever experienced. They came at her
from all sides, streaming around the capital walls from both sides. They also
poured through the golden capital doors, opening wider and wider, as the Empire
men let out a great cry. It seemed as if the gates of hell themselves were
opening to attack her. She had never seen so many men.

Volusia was surprised and disappointed that the
Voks sorcery had been unable to take down the capital walls, surprised to find their
powers useless against these fortifications, and she had no choice now but to
brace herself for conventional warfare—her two hundred thousand men up against
an army two or three times the size.

Volusia checked back over her shoulder and was
relieved to see that her men held their formations, well disciplined, and that
they all charged forward, as she had commanded, to fearlessly meet the enemy.

As the men closed in on her, now hardly a
hundred yards away and gaining speed, one of her advisors came up beside her.

“Goddess, you must retreat,” he said, fear in
his voice as he yanked her arm. “You will die here. You must retreat at once to
the rear lines.”

Volusia shook off his arm and stood her ground,
facing the Empire army defiantly. After all, she was a goddess. She felt that
she was. She was invincible. And no man, nothing of this earth, could harm her.

“If they are to fight my men, they will fight me
first,” she replied. “They will have to go through me.”

Volusia stood there as horns and trumpets
sounded, as Empire soldiers on massive horses, flying banners, bore down on her.
She looked up and saw, high above, the Empire general, looking down, clearly
enjoying himself, satisfied that he was about to witness a bloody slaughter.

Volusia, though, was unafraid. In fact, she
relished the confrontation. She had enjoyed violence her entire life, and this,
she felt, was no different.

“Fork into three divisions!” she commanded, her
voice booming over the din of the galloping horses. “One fork left, one right,
and one in the middle with me!”

Her army, well-disciplined, did as she
commanded, dispersing into three units, charging to meet each of the three
empire battalions. A huge caravan of horses charged right for her, over the
golden bridge, and before them, in the vanguard, charged thousands of soldiers on
foot, with their long black-and-gold axes held high, gleaming in the sun.

Volusia knew she did not have the manpower of
these soldiers. But she had unshakable belief in herself: she simply could not
see herself dying. And what she could not see, she knew could not come to pass.

They came closer and closer, and Volusia stood
there and braced herself as the first of the men reached her, screaming, battle-ax
raised to the sky, gleaming as he brought it down for her forehead.

Volusia waited till the last moment, till the
swinging blade nearly touched her face, standing perfectly still, then she
reached up and drove the small concealed blade attached to her palm right up
and into the soldier’s throat. She kept driving it, all the way, embedding it
in the man’s throat, until he gurgled blood, dropped his ax, dropped to his
knees, and collapsed to his face, dead.

The first casualty of this war was hers, and Volusia
could not be more thrilled. As more men reached her, on all sides now, she
turned and spun, using her small blade to slash one throat after another. She
did not need strength or size when she had dexterity and cunning; the smallest
weapon, she knew, from the smallest person, could sometimes be the deadliest of
all.

There came a tremendous clang of armor and
weaponry, of men shouting, as the armies all finally met in the middle, in one
great clash of battle. The two sides met in an explosion of energy, swords
meeting shields, axes and maces and halberds and spears meeting armor, limbs
lost, men dying on both sides as they came together. The fighting was intense
and fierce, man to man, shoulder to shoulder, neither side giving an inch. They
pushed into each other’s lines, their momentum carrying them, and a
back-and-forth ensued, the lines ebbing and flowing in both directions.

Volusia’s men, to their credit, did not yield
to fear, held their ground like a stone wall, even in the face of the charging
armies. Maltolis’s men were well-disciplined; that’s what years training
beneath a madman would get you.

The Empire armies, Volusia could see, had
expected their momentum to carry them, had expected to run her men over in a
tidal wave, or had expected them to retreat. But none of the above had
happened, and this, her men staunchly standing their ground, had created a bottleneck
effect that began to work in Volusia’s favor. Soon the Empire men were backed
up, all the way to the capital, only so many able to pass through the capital
gates at one time with her men keeping them at a standstill. Despite their
greater numbers, it kept the two sides even.

At the flanks of the battle, though, it was a
different story: there, in the open field, the momentum of the Empire’s greater
numbers carried them forward, and they kept pouring in, one battalion after the
next, overwhelming her forces. Her men put up a gallant fight, killing scores
of Empire—but the Empire had an endless supply of men, and for the Empire, men
were cheap. It did not take Volusia long to realize that her men were being overpowered
at the flanks. Bodies were piling up fast on the desert floor, and she knew she
had to do something quickly or else risk being surrounded.

Volusia heard a sudden crash and felt the earth
rock beneath her, sending her stumbling. She heard men scream out and she looked
over to see a huge boulder had landed on the ground a few feet away from her,
leaving a big crater in the ground and crushing several of her men. It killed
some Empire men, too, but the Empire did not seem to care.

Volusia looked up and saw the Empire general
standing atop the city parapets, grinning down in satisfaction. She saw dozens more
boulders being tipped to the edge of the parapets, balancing precariously,
about to be rolled down.

Volusia watched in horror as the boulders began
to fall, one after the other, the ground shaking and rocking at the explosions
all around her. Massive clouds of dust rose in the air as men cried out in
agony. Her men fell left and right, and Volusia knew at once that it was not
just the boulders that were deadly, but the psychological impact of these
weapons being hurled at them.

She knew they would lose this battle if something
were not done, and fast.

Volusia, finishing slicing another Empire
soldier’s throat, looked up and braced herself as she spotted several Empire soldiers
barreling down for her. They all had her in their sights and she knew she could
not evade them this time. She raised her hands to her face as the axes came
down, knowing there was nothing more she could do and prepared to meet her
fate.

Vokian stepped forward beside her and held out
a palm, and as he did a light-green bubble formed around her; their axes came
down for her head and bounced off it harmlessly, one after the next after the
next.

Volusia stood there, grateful to be alive as the
soldiers could not touch her. They swung again and again, fruitlessly.

Volusia stepped forward and with her dagger stabbed
one of them in the heart, dragging it along his chest until she cut out his
heart. She reached in barehanded and pulled it out, and relished the moment as
the man fell screaming to the ground, Volusia holding his still beating heart
in her hand.

“I am the Goddess Volusia,” she said calmly
down to the dying soldier.

Volusia turned to Vokin, knowing something must
be done.

“If you cannot topple the walls,” she cried out
to him over the din, “then cast me another spell. Hurt them another way.”

He looked at her knowingly, and he turned and
nodded to his army of green Voks. As one, they stepped forward and raised their
palms.

Green orbs of light came flying out, aimed low,
at the desert floor, and as they impacted, the desert floor began to crack and
split open. Crevices appeared, widening, and soon they were twenty feet wide, between
Volusia’s army and the onslaught of Empire soldiers.

The Empire forces, still charging forward, went
tumbling, horse and man, into the trenches. Men cried out as they went down and
were smothered by more men and horses landing top of them.

The tens of thousands of Empire soldiers
charging forward suddenly came to an abrupt stop as their men collapsed into
the trenches. It was as if the earth were swallowing them up.

The Empire men trapped on the near side of the
trenches turned and looked over their shoulders in fear, realizing they were
now cut off from their main army.

“CHARGE!” Volusia commanded.

Her men, emboldened, let out a great battle cry
and charged forward, doubling their efforts. They slashed and stabbed trapped
soldiers, felling them by the dozens, sending them back. Volusia too her
three-pointed flail and swung it high overhead and struck a half dozen soldiers
on the back of the head, smiling wide as she killed them.

The Empire men, terrified, began to turn and flee.

“ARROWS AND SPEARS!” Volusia cried.

Her men took up positions and hurled spears and
fired arrows into the fleeing soldiers’ backs, and hundreds more fell.

Momentum was turning in their favor, but
Volusia looked out and saw that the trenches were filling up, crammed with thousands
of Empire soldiers, and she knew they could only hold so long.

“THE FLAMES!” Volusia yelled out.

Vokin stepped forward with his men, and as they
held out their palms, this time red orbs came flying forth, striking the
soldiers inside the trenches. As they did, all the soldiers inside suddenly lit
up in flames, massive fires roaring up into the sky, mixed with the awful sound
of men being burned alive. A huge ring of fire surrounded the capital, as men
let out horrific screams, all the trenches up in flame.

“CHARGE!” Volusia yelled.

Volusia charged forward, right down the center,
right for the trenches, for all the men on fire, unafraid. She ran quickly, over
their heads and shoulders and arms, using them as a human bridge, and as they
screamed beneath her, she relished in their suffering. She ran across them,
stepping from head to head, shoulder to shoulder, her men following her, using
the Empire bodies as a footbridge.

On the other side, Volusia ran right for the
capital doors. The Empire soldiers standing before it, overwhelmed, smoke and
fumes in their faces, terrified at the sight of her men charging out of the
flames, finally gave in. They turned and ran back for the safety of the capital
doors.

The Empire commander, watching over all of it,
seeing what was happening below, frowning, yelled out a command. Horns sounded,
and slowly, the great golden capital doors began to seal shut. He cared not for
his men who had not made it back inside yet, shutting the doors on them. He
made a decision to save the city first.

Volusia led her men in fury as they let out a
great cry and slaughtered the hundreds more Empire soldiers trapped between
them and the now-closed doors. They had nowhere to go, and they butchered them
mercilessly, their blood staining the doors.

Volusia herself slaughtered men, hacking
through them like thorn bushes, all the way to the capital doors, her men close
on her heels, until finally there was no one left to slaughter.

Breathing hard, seeing there was no one left to
fight, studying the doors before her, she yelled out:

“BATTERING RAM!”

Her men parted ways, and there was rolled up before
her a huge iron battering ram on wheels, rolled forward by two dozen men. They
pulled it back and then, at full speed, they rolled it forward, slamming it into
the golden doors. There came a great hollow thud.

They slammed it again, and again, and again. But
the golden doors would not give.

Volusia saw something falling from the corner
of her eye, and began to hear her man scream out. She looked up and saw, high
above, the Empire forces leaning over the edge of the parapets and pouring cauldrons
of boiling oil down on her men. They then dropped torches along with it, and
her men manning the battering ram suddenly lit up in a great conflagration—and
the ram along with it.

Volusia let out a scream, irate, determined to
get through those doors. Empire reinforcements were pouring in on the horizon, and
she knew her time was limited. She needed to get inside the capital, to strike
at the heart of it, to cut off its head and take command of its armies. She
knew that if she could not get through those doors, all was lost.

She knew the time had come to take desperate
action.

Volusia turned and nodded to one of her
commanders.

“The human catapults!” she ordered.

The commander stared back, wide-eyed, but then barked
orders to his men.