Tak was numb with the cold and only barely conscious, but he just had the strength to look up when he heard the chanting of magic words above the howling of the cyclone. Jarlon had stepped back a few yards to clear some space between him and the younger wizard, and the ground between them was rising up, as if something massive and powerful was pushing up from below. It was a wall of earth and rock, pulled up from deep underground by the power of Jarlon's magic, and it towered between them, casting a dreadful shadow across the terrified young man. Then it began to tip over, to crush Tak like a beetle. The sheer weight of rock able to overpower even the most powerful defensive spell ever conceived.

     Anger flared up in him, hot and terrible. No! He would not die like this. On his knees, like a beaten slave. He would at least die fighting, like a man! He reached into his pocket to find one of the small, iron fists he'd had a blacksmith make for him some months earlier. Then he reached out his arms, the fist sitting in one open palm, and began to chant the words of Fist of the Father.

     The wall of rock was blasted outwards, exploding into a thousand flying fragments, and at the same time the tornado petered out, the winds dying and the blizzard spell released to dissipate harmlessly. Tak pulled himself weakly to his feet and staggered away from the remaining falling boulders, only to fall as his feet slipped on a half dried cowpat. He landed heavily on his side with a thump that sent screams of pain through his frostbitten flesh. He scrambled back to his feet, his only thought to get as far away from the enemy wizard as possible.

     Then gentle hands were on him, helping him back to his feet. "Easy, easy now," said Ehr Laing, glancing uneasily at where the remains of the wall of rock were lying in an untidy heap. "Wait here."

     She crept cautiously around the rubble, her hands out ahead of her, fingers and thumbs in position to cast a spell the moment the enemy wizard showed himself. Tak knew he should stay where he was, that if he followed her she would have to protect him as well as herself, but his most basic instincts wouldn't let a woman face danger alone and he still had a small amount of magic he could use if she suddenly came under attack. Around them, warriors of both armies kept to a safe distance even as they continued to fight, not wanting to get involved in a wizards' duel.

     The redhead was on the other side of the rockpile from Tak now, and he heard her give a gasp of surprise as she bent down to examine something. Tak froze in place, his heart hammering, and the words of attack spells sat on the tip of his tongue as he waited to see what would happen.

     Suddenly she jumped back to her feet, though, grinning with delight, and beckoning for him to join her. He ran over, wondering what she could possibly have found, and he almost fainted in astonishment when he saw the huge, hairy arm trapped under a large boulder; the thick, calloused fingers limp and lifeless and the elbow bent at an unnatural angle.

     "Is that...?" he began hesitantly, not wanting to say it out loud because it was so ridiculous. So impossible.

     Ehr Laing was casting a levitation spell on another boulder, though, lifting it away, and she laughed in delight at the crushed ruin of a face she found below. "Jarlon the merciless!" she said, clapping her hands. "Dead!"

     "Dead?"

     "You killed him. You threw his own spell back on him. The rocks that were supposed to crush your magical defences crushed his instead."

     "But I was beaten!" protested Tak. "You saw how I was! He had me! All he had to do was wait for the cyclone to fail." Realisation came to him suddenly. "He must have panicked when he saw you coming. You killed him, not me."

     "You killed him," insisted the redhead, however. "You cast just the right spell at just the right moment. You saw your opportunity and you took it." She laughed at the look of dismay on his face. "What's the matter? Don't you want to be a hero and a legend?"

     "Not really, no."

     She laughed again. "I don't blame you. Getting a reputation as a wizard slayer can make you a bit of a target. Tell you what, we'll tell everyone we both killed him. How about that?"

     Tak grinned. "I think I could live with that."

     He staggered as a wave of weakness swept over him and Ehr Laing put an arm around him to steady him. "Easy now, let's get you back to the tents. We've got some potions of healing in stock."

     She sat him on her horse, then cast another spell so that when she shouted her voice was amplified and heard all across the battlefield. "Jarlon is dead! Jarlon the cruel is dead!"

     Cheers rose from the ranks of Domandropolis, and they fought with new energy and hope, while Varl's men were crushed and dispirited. Tak heard the battle hotting up as Ehr Laing led the horse away.

☆☆☆

     The potion of healing soon had Tak feeling his old self again. He felt terribly guilty about it when there were so many men on the battlefield with horrific injuries, but Ehr Laing reminded him of all the lives he'd saved by killing Jarlon and all the lives he would save in the future with his health and power restored.

     "And now I must go back to the battle," she said, rising to her feet. "I left Sheena all alone out there. The Gods alone know what she's been getting up to while I've been away."

     "If last night was any indication," said Tak, smiling at the memory, "I'd worry more about her enemies."

     "Last light was nothing compared to what I'm going to do to you tonight," promised the redhead. "By the time I've finished with you you'll think you've been fighting a dozen Jarlons!"

     She winked at him as she turned to leave. Tak rose to follow her, but she waved him back to the bed. "Stay and rest," she told him. "You've done enough for one day. You need to regain your strength in case this battle goes on tomorrow."

     "Is that likely?" asked Tak worriedly.

     She shrugged. "They may retreat and regroup, or we may if the battle goes against us, and the War Marshals might arrange another battle later. Sometimes it goes on for weeks. Only time will tell."

     Then she left, and Tak lay down on the bed, reflecting on the fact that less than half an hour had passed since the fighting had begun. His day was over, but for the rest of the two armies it had barely begun.

☆☆☆

     As the sky darkened with the approach of evening the fighting slackened and the two armies began to drift apart from each other. Then the grim business of collecting the bodies of the dead began while the injuries of the wounded were tended and the uninjured staggered back to their tents to rest and wait to see whether it was over. The War Marshals and senior wizards of both armies would spend the night poring over casualty reports, trying to decide what action they would take in the event that the enemy were still up for a fight. Would they stay for another battle, or would they throw in the towel and back away, ceding the surrounding lands to the other city?

     Khalkedon would be furious if they did that, but even he was wise enough to know the waste of throwing more men away on a lost cause. He had other lands, and needed his armies to defend them. The mood of Barl Hobson and Sheena when they returned was optimistic and upbeat, however, and they leapt on Tak jubilantly, Barl pummeling his back as he hugged him and the black woman smothering him with kisses.

     "Killing a wizard on your first day in battle!" cried Barl. "Not bad! Not bad at all!"

     "Did you see much action yourself?" asked Tak, examining the other man with concern.

     "Found myself facing some kid a couple of hours ago. I cast a couple of spells at him, he cast a couple at me, then we were swept apart by the battle. That's the way it usually goes. Wizards generally like to keep as much of their magic in reserve as possible, not liking to be left helpless and defenceless, and I'm afraid I'm just the same. I only cast a few at the enemy soldiers when it became obvious the day was ending."

     "That's about how it was for me too," added Sheena. "But you, little white man! Thrown to the lions on your first day and coming up smelling of roses! How do you do it?"

     "Gal-Gowan wants me dead," replied Tak. "I don't know why. He sent me there because he knew Jarlon would be there, and it would have worked if it hadn't been for Ehr Laing." He smiled gratefully at the redhead.

     Barl's eyes fell to the floor. As Gal-Gowan's apprentice he felt an irrational responsibility for his master's actions. "I knew nothing about it," he said quietly. "You must believe that."

     "Of course I believe it!" cried Tak in surprise, reaching out for his hand. "I never thought you had a hand in it. We're friends, aren't we?"

     "I hope we still are. I want to be."

     "We are," Tak assured him. "Now and forever. The four of us against all the scum of the world."

     "Now you're talking sense, little white man," grinned Sheena. "Come on, let's eat. I'm starving!"

☆☆☆

     Thomas paused and looked sad. "That night with Ehr Laing was good," he said. "Really good, and I remember it especially because she was dead a few days later. The Varlites went home the next day, ceding the plains of Marebo to us, and we went back to Domandropolis in triumph. The rak King had the crowds cheering in the streets for them, and he put on a massive victory feast for all his wizards, just as Ehr Laing promised. That was where Tak first met Enna Mael, the wizardess renowned for her milky white skin, and green eyed Talpha-Ja, who both went on to become Gem Lords with him. I seem to remember there were seven of them eventually, but I still don't remember who the other two were."

     "Five?" asked Lirenna. "I count four. Tak, Barl, Enna Mael and Talpha-Ja..."

     "And Sheena," replied Thomas. "I forgot to mention her. But not Ehr Laing, although I'm sure she would have gone on to be the greatest of us, I mean them. Khalkedon killed her."

     "Because she tried to kill him," said the demi shae.

     "Right. It all went so well at first. The feast went as she said it would, and Barl and Tak stayed close to Gal-Gowan. When they got the telepathic signal they made sure they had his full attention, asking him various stupid questions about the battle. He seemed a little tense at first, as if he thought Tak was about to challenge him about trying to kill him, but then Ehr Laing came running out crying in triumph, saying she'd killed Khalkedon and that they were all free.

     "They ran into the next room, where the deed had taken place, and there was what was left of him. A smouldering corpse, almost torn in two by the violence of the spell she'd used on him. Oh how they celebrated! At first they were afraid that Gal-Gowan and the other loyal wizards would attack them, but they were just amused and wore gleeful grins on their faces, as if they knew something the younger wizards didn't."

     "They knew that Khalkedon would be back," said Lirenna. "That unless you find and destroy a rak's ark, he'll just reform a few days later, as big and as bad as ever."

     Thomas nodded. "But neither Tak nor any of the others knew that. They knew virtually nothing about raks. They suspected nothing, and why should they? There was a saying that was quite popular in those times. Don't count a man dead until you've seen his body. But they had seen his body! They'd seen it blasted apart by the violence of Ehr Laing's spell! Oh, I suppose, looking back in hindsight, they should have been a bit suspicious because of the attitude of the older wizards. They must have thought it a great joke! There they were, sniggering up their sleeves while we laughed and danced for day after day..."

     He shuddered at the memory. "His punishments were terrible. The kind of punishments that only the most evil creature in the world could conceive of. The feeling of sick horror when he suddenly appeared in our midst, holding Ehr Laing's soul gem in his undead claw. The way his eyes burned into us. Not just her but all of us. He knew it had been a conspiracy. I thought he was going to kill us! I really did! I should have known better, I suppose. He needed us to help defend his little empire, but he had to kill one of us, as an example to the rest, and he chose Ehr Laing, as the ringleader. He held her soul gem in his hand and he... he..."

     He fell silent in a series of shuddering sobs and Lirenna held him close. "It wasn't you," she reminded him softly. "It didn't happen to you. You're remembering something that happened to someone else, thousands of years ago."

     Thomas nodded. "Yeah, thanks. Don't ask me to describe what he did to us, them, though. Just don't ask. Please?"

     "Alright," she agreed. "I won't."