A snarling revenant, a woman with torn clothing revealing slashes across her breasts, shot out of the water in front of Ella. Ella sent a bolt of yellow fire into the woman’s eye, and she went down.
The enemy struck the line in numbers, and the sounds of grunting and clashing steel split the air. The Alturan swordsman beside Ella thrust at a barbarian’s neck, but the blow missed as the revenant swerved to the side. The Alturan made a second strike at his opponent’s head. The barbarian’s broadsword blocked the blow, but the Alturan’s glowing blade cut through the steel, and another head went flying.
To Ella’s right, a Halrana was having trouble with an enemy swordsman, a man who’d once been Veldrin by his blue and brown uniform. A bolt from Ella’s wand shattered the revenant’s skull into two pieces. The Halrana nodded his quick thanks.
Ella kept a wide circle around her, taking careful aim with each activation of her wand, making precision strikes to conserve power. Wherever she could, she helped the struggling swordsmen, but she could see the revenants’ numbers now starting to tell. The Alturan beside her went down and Ella shifted, closing ranks with the next man.
Ella saw more beams of yellow fire in the distance and caught sight of Elwin Goss, Master of the Academy, with a wide circle of bodies floating in the water around him. Arrows continued to plunge into the revenants but the once decisive weapon could only slow this enemy; the necromancers stayed hidden in the ships. A volley of musket fire from the enemy vessels cracked, and the Halrana on Ella’s right fell with a hole in his chest. Once more Ella closed ranks.
Ella missed her next shot, and a revenant swung a spiked mace at her head. The warrior on her right blocked the blow and countered with a thrust into the revenant’s face. The glowing blade tore through the snarling warrior’s cheek, sending red blood in all directions.
Ella turned and nodded her thanks, seeing it was Jehral. He gave her a swift nod in return.
The line of defenders closed ranks again and again, and still the enemy kept coming, pouring from the ships, rising from the deeper water in an unending wave.
Ella heard a trumpet blast and looked at Jehral.
“Fall back,” he panted.
Miro watched from the dirigible, carefully judging the moment when the enemy’s numbers outweighed the defenders’ power to hold them in the sea. He desperately wanted to be fighting down below, but he was working in close concert with Tiesto; their timing was critical.
More ships beached themselves along the shore toward Castlemere, and the line of defenders no longer covered the approach of all the clawing revenants. He couldn’t allow the line to be outflanked.
Miro ordered the retreat.
He shone a light and saw Tiesto raise a flag, hearing a corresponding clarion blast. The defenders fought to hold off the enemy as every second man in the line stepped backward. Then the second line held while the foremost fell back. Miro prayed the retreat wouldn’t turn into a rout.
Finally the defenders turned and ran. Miro’s elite palace guard, held so far in reserve, rushed down to give them time to escape. The revenants that made it to the ridge fell to intense volleys of arrows as rail bows and Dunfolk archers peppered their bodies.
Miro watched to see what the enemy commander would do. With Sentar wounded, who was leading them?
Then Miro saw a tall man standing on the beach with a cluster of necromancers. He wore a blue shirt and a three-cornered hat with a white feather. This must be Diemos, the king of Rendar.
Diemos waved an arm, and the revenants formed up; they would wait to disembark all their warriors before making their next attack. It was what Miro would do himself.
Miro drew a shaky breath as he watched the breakers roll over the dismembered bodies of revenants, mingling them together with the fallen defenders.
So far Miro’s defenders had faced stragglers, coming in from deep water in ragged numbers. The enemy had their beachhead now; the commanders and necromancers would form their warriors into an army.
More ships were unloading all the time. There was enough of a force forming up on the beach that any attempt to push them back would be suicide. Yet fully half their numbers were still on the ships. Tiesto’s cannon continued to fire while mortars rained orbs on the beached vessels, but by necessity Tiesto’s force was mobile, and Miro’s strongest weapons were on the ridge guarding the approach to Sarostar.
Miro saw the danger in the growing numbers. He didn’t want the defenders to become trapped on the ridge. Ella was down there. Every moment that passed would make retreat more difficult.
The enemy commander was clever and was waiting to establish his entire force on the beach. The horde on the shore was already so large, Miro struggled to encompass their numbers. In moments their commander would hurl them against Tiesto’s cannon.