Read Online The Making of a Mage King: White Star by Anna L. Walls - Free Book Online
Authors: Anna L. Walls
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such a perimeter, they can be forgotten or tuned out, that is until they reach out and slap you. After Caen, Sean didn’t think he would ever take buildings for granted again.
The garrison commander didn’t take them for granted either. The first attack came from a rooftop vantage point in the distance and it was magic. Fortunately, it was directed at what appeared to be the most dangerous component of their force: Manuel and Sean and their known direction of entry. Manuel’s horse reared and screamed, as did Manuel himself, though he choked his scream back and quickly pulled his horse back under control. Prince did a kind of duck-and-dive, which almost unseated his rider, but Sean was still able to find the mage and stop him before he could launch a second attack.
Sean glanced at Manuel; he had a bloody nose, but other than that, he looked all right and the snarl on his face said that he still had more fight left in him. They kept moving.
A few hundred yards later, two demons came at them from around a corner. A couple months ago, Sean would have sent them to the palace and his uncle without much thought, but that was out of the question now. He also couldn’t just drop them back inside the garrison walls because he didn’t know exactly where that was yet and he didn’t want to put them in someone’s house, though the chances of him missing walls was pretty slim. Instead, they just died; one second they were charging and the next second they were tumbling onto the street like ragdolls thrown by a child’s hand. Manuel and Sean trotted on over them, the horses missing the bodies only in the interest of secure footing. The smaller horses had only a little more trouble and some of that might have been the smell; they had not been trained for something like this. The men just muttered and went around them.
When they rounded the corner, Sean saw the next stage of their defenses. Clustered at the end of the street was a company of footmen with archers. Sean strongly suspected that their appearance was a bit of a surprise; since they couldn’t see around the corner, they didn’t know how close their opponents were. They had been listening for the sounds of battle to tell them where they were as if the sound of their horses’ hooves on the cobbles wasn’t enough. Or maybe they weren’t expected to appear with so little fuss.
They had another mage among their ranks and that man launched a massive fireball at the Sean. A volley of arrows followed the fireball as if riding its contrail. Sean rolled a ball of water back at them and the resulting explosion of steam caused the arrows to careen off course. He pushed that water that was still intact on into the men who were still clustered in the mouth of the street, and their hasty barricade was broken apart as if it had been hit by a bowling ball.
Sean and his men were upon them before many of them could secure their footing on the wet cobbles; many of them didn’t move at all. Most of those who could, scattered. Some of them threw down their swords and held up their hands in surrender. That was fine with Sean; he glued them to the nearest walls. He would catch up with those who had fled sooner or later; at least they weren’t behind him.
As Sean cleared the street, he came out into what looked like a large, paved parade field before the walls of the compound itself. Around the square, other street-heads had been fortified as well. Surely they didn’t have to guess which direction I was coming from . Did they release demons down every street? It was one thing to send those insane creatures after a threatening armed force; it’s quite another to turn them loose in a city to find whatever they could find. What if they saw some child playing in the street? What if they found some old man smoking a pipe? Even a man in his prime and armed as Sean had seen many men in the city were, would have little chance against a crazed demon and his equally crazed horse.
“Cordan,
The garrison commander didn’t take them for granted either. The first attack came from a rooftop vantage point in the distance and it was magic. Fortunately, it was directed at what appeared to be the most dangerous component of their force: Manuel and Sean and their known direction of entry. Manuel’s horse reared and screamed, as did Manuel himself, though he choked his scream back and quickly pulled his horse back under control. Prince did a kind of duck-and-dive, which almost unseated his rider, but Sean was still able to find the mage and stop him before he could launch a second attack.
Sean glanced at Manuel; he had a bloody nose, but other than that, he looked all right and the snarl on his face said that he still had more fight left in him. They kept moving.
A few hundred yards later, two demons came at them from around a corner. A couple months ago, Sean would have sent them to the palace and his uncle without much thought, but that was out of the question now. He also couldn’t just drop them back inside the garrison walls because he didn’t know exactly where that was yet and he didn’t want to put them in someone’s house, though the chances of him missing walls was pretty slim. Instead, they just died; one second they were charging and the next second they were tumbling onto the street like ragdolls thrown by a child’s hand. Manuel and Sean trotted on over them, the horses missing the bodies only in the interest of secure footing. The smaller horses had only a little more trouble and some of that might have been the smell; they had not been trained for something like this. The men just muttered and went around them.
When they rounded the corner, Sean saw the next stage of their defenses. Clustered at the end of the street was a company of footmen with archers. Sean strongly suspected that their appearance was a bit of a surprise; since they couldn’t see around the corner, they didn’t know how close their opponents were. They had been listening for the sounds of battle to tell them where they were as if the sound of their horses’ hooves on the cobbles wasn’t enough. Or maybe they weren’t expected to appear with so little fuss.
They had another mage among their ranks and that man launched a massive fireball at the Sean. A volley of arrows followed the fireball as if riding its contrail. Sean rolled a ball of water back at them and the resulting explosion of steam caused the arrows to careen off course. He pushed that water that was still intact on into the men who were still clustered in the mouth of the street, and their hasty barricade was broken apart as if it had been hit by a bowling ball.
Sean and his men were upon them before many of them could secure their footing on the wet cobbles; many of them didn’t move at all. Most of those who could, scattered. Some of them threw down their swords and held up their hands in surrender. That was fine with Sean; he glued them to the nearest walls. He would catch up with those who had fled sooner or later; at least they weren’t behind him.
As Sean cleared the street, he came out into what looked like a large, paved parade field before the walls of the compound itself. Around the square, other street-heads had been fortified as well. Surely they didn’t have to guess which direction I was coming from . Did they release demons down every street? It was one thing to send those insane creatures after a threatening armed force; it’s quite another to turn them loose in a city to find whatever they could find. What if they saw some child playing in the street? What if they found some old man smoking a pipe? Even a man in his prime and armed as Sean had seen many men in the city were, would have little chance against a crazed demon and his equally crazed horse.
“Cordan,
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