Chapter 25

The first indication I had that something magical was going on, was a tingling feeling in my head and then I could 'see' what had been done. An enchantment had been cast over the advancing infantry, and I could still see traces of it surrounding them. Ghostly lions swirled around and in and out of the foot soldiers. I knew they had been granted additional courage.

Enchantments are a little like the magical world's equivalent of a 'fire and forget' missile. Once the wizard casts the enchantment, there is no need to monitor its effect or guide it onto its target. It can simply be left to get on with it. That meant that I could probably safely interfere with this enchantment, without giving myself away.

Very quietly I spoke the words that would reverse the charm.

"Fa chomhair."

I stifled a giggle, as the ethereal lions changed to mice and chickens. The infantry charge grew noticeably less enthusiastic and the clash with our defensive line was far less dramatic than previously.

"They are here!" cried King Kenneth, pointing across the river.

"Oh, I know that," I replied.

The King eyed me suspiciously.

"Sean, I'm ordering you not to do anything without my say so. Do you understand?"

The infantry attack proved to be less effective even than the ones before and the enchanted Scanians seemed keen to disengage and retreat. I removed my enchantment once the retreat was underway. There was no point in leaving any clues for Malcolm's wizards to find.

King Kenneth was looking nervously up at the sky, checking the light. This latest assault had taken up the best part of an hour, but there was still enough light for Malcolm to try another attack.

The Scanians didn't leave us guessing for long. They too were aware of how much daylight remained and they moved quickly to make the most of it. Two horses rode towards us, but halted behind the cavalry screen. They were close enough for me to make out their sex however - both were women, one older than the other. Malcolm's wife and one of her daughters I guessed.

"Shit!" exclaimed the King.

Ingrid and her daughter were being ultra cautious. I could see them searching among us, no doubt looking for any sign of a woman. There was no way they could suspect that we had a magic user who just so happened to be a crossover, and therefore wasn't a female.

Apparently they were satisfied that there was no danger to them, either from those of us guarding the ford or from our side of the river. When they raised their arms and cried out in unison I heard their words clearly.

"Sgian deigh!" they cried.

"Highness!" I shouted at Kenneth.

"What?"

"They have summoned a storm of ice knives. I need to defend us. Now!"

The King glanced upwards and he could already see something forming above our heads. Clouds of vapour appeared first. I could sense the moisture beginning to freeze into ice.

"Hurry, there is no more time!" I shouted at Kenneth.

"Do what you need to, Sean." he conceded.

Individual ice particles had already begun to come together to form larger chunks and it wouldn't be long before they were big enough and sharp enough to be absolutely lethal when they fell on us. Not a moment too soon, I cast my own charm.

"Sgaith!" I cried, keeping my arms down so that I wouldn't be immediately obvious.

The men around me had been watching what looked like a storm gathering above their heads. It had been a beautiful sunny day until I had conjured up the winds. Now the winds had gone, but angry clouds had appeared instead. The men knew that this was somehow connected to the women who stood five hundred yards away and they were smart enough to guess that magic was at work, magic that couldn't mean good news for them.

My charm was another surprise for the Axon infantry. They looked at me askance. My arms might be clenched at my sides, but the men were in no doubt that I was responsible for the fluorescent blue bubble of light that had suddenly appeared and covered us.

"What are you doing, Prince!" one man demanded, clearly anxious about the presence of magic (on both sides).

"You heard their words? You can see the clouds gathering above us? The wizards have summoned a blizzard of ice knives. I have conjured a simple but powerful shield to protect all of us from them," I responded

The looks were still suspicious, but most were now turning their attention upward to watch the competing enchantments. By now I could sense that the ice daggers had formed in their thousands. They were around five inches in length and would fall two thousand feet. Without the shield, they would be murderous.

It wasn't long before the icy darts began their descent, but my shield did its job and thousand upon thousand of them shattered as they bombarded the blue bubble.

Shrieking from the other side of the river told me that Ingrid and her daughter were less than pleased that their attack had been defeated.

Both the women were scanning all of us again, this time no doubt paying even more attention than before. I knew the moment when Queen Ingrid recognised Kenneth and I called to him to get back to the riverbank and out of their sight.

"Highness, you have been recognised! You need to get away quickly before they target you personally," I cried.

It was already too late. Ingrid loosed a blast and it streaked towards us. Everywhere around me men flung themselves down, soaking themselves in the river in the process. They needn't have bothered, as the bolt hit my shield and it held. I felt relief, as there hadn't been enough time to think of a counter to the bolt. If the shield hadn't been good enough, then the King would have been a dead man.

I heard Ingrid and her daughter howl their anger. Yet more of their magic had been thwarted by my shield. So far I had managed to keep my presence and identity hidden from them, and that had to be annoying them, too.

I figured the shield would certainly last until well after it got dark, with luck there would be no need to do anything more and risk showing my hand. The King had asked me to try to refrain from using magic unless I absolutely had to, and I had followed his orders this time.

The strength of the shield would also have Ingrid and her daughter worried. Both had looked surprised when the ice daggers and then Ingrid's bolt had failed to penetrate it and now they would know that they faced a wizard of some power.

It would be interesting to see how they reacted next, I thought. Again I didn't have long to wait, the women knew full well how much time they had to achieve what Malcolm must have ordered them to do. It may have been the shape of the shield that inspired the next spell that the Scanian women cast - it was a bubble after all.

"Snàthad!" they cried together.

A pair of giant needles formed and came surging across the five hundred yard gap between the wizards and my shield. I could see from the direction they were travelling that the needles were intended to skewer King Kenneth after they burst the bubble shield. So much for hoping that I wouldn't need to do any more magic!

I had a split-second decision to make. After failing to be ready for the 'power bolt' that Ingrid had attempted, I had thought of a charm that would have countered it. That same charm would probably work on the needles. The choice was simple - did I rely on my shield holding again or use my counter-charm? If I didn't cast another spell then I would remain hidden. If my shield wasn't able to withstand the needles, then the King would be dead.

All of that passed through my mind in a millisecond and I knew I couldn't risk the King's life.

"Briseadh!" I shouted and my hand came up to point directly at the flying needles.

Everything I had done so far had been done on instinct. The words of power just came to me, and the enchantments worked. It seemed that I was a very powerful wizard, despite the lack of any formal training. My latest charm was a 'breaking' spell, and it targeted the needles, shattering them into tiny fragments before they even reached the shield.

My cover was probably already blown now, so I thought another spell wouldn't make much of a difference. I also felt the need to strike back at these Scanian wizards. It was too easy for them to remain out of danger and cast their magics at ordinary men. How would they feel at being in the firing line for once? Fire sounded like a very good option actually, so I went with it.

"Saighde teine!" I cried.

A hail of flaming arrows appeared and arced down towards the two wizards. The men around me actually cheered to see their tormentors coming under attack. The 'fire arrows' closed on Ingrid and her daughter and I began to believe that I might have managed to wipe out Malcolm's magic capacity at the first attempt. It was only at the last second that they acted to save themselves.

"Sguir!" cried Ingrid.

"Uisge!" cried her daughter.

And just like that, my fire arrows were a thing of the past! Ingrid had stopped the arrows and her daughter had conjured up a deluge of water to douse their flames.

While the arrows might not have found their mark, they definitely had affected the wizards. Once they had dealt with the immediate threat, Ingrid and her daughter made a run for it. I was right, it seemed. They didn't much like being the ones under attack!

The Axon infantry jeered the wizards as they mounted their horses and rode away from us. Some of the men even slapped my back in congratulations, but I could see some remained suspicious.

"Well done, Sean. That has certainly given them something to think about. I doubt they will be able to mount another attack tonight, the day is ours," said Kenneth.

The infantry cheered loudly.

"You have fought valiantly and it has been my honor to have stood with you. The Scanians will pay dearly in blood for daring to set foot on Axon's fair soil.

"Remember this day well, my friends. Tell your children and your grandchildren of the day that you held off twenty times your number. Tell them of the two hundred Axon heroes who stopped the Scanian dogs in their tracks.

"Tell them about the spirit of Axon that flows in your veins and which you drew upon to help you turn back these evil invaders. Tell them, 'We are Axon, and we will never be defeated!'"

Like all great orators, Kenneth's voice had risen and increased in power as his little speech progressed. By the last sentence, he was fairly shouting, and he had whipped the men into a frenzy. The cheering became chanting, as they responded to his patriotic shout.

"AXON! AXON! AXON!"

Kenneth was lifted onto the shoulders of the men and carried to the riverbank. The cavalry, archers and last remaining infantry reserves lined the bank and they too joined in the chanting.

Eventually Kenneth managed to get his feet back onto solid ground, and I could see by his huge grin that he had achieved his objective. The morale amongst these men had never been higher. Wherever they went in the coming weeks, they would be telling and re-telling the story of how so few had defeated so many. Kenneth had started his own propaganda battle!

We waited until full darkness before we started making our preparations for the withdrawal. The campfires were banked so that they would continue to burn for hours. Volunteers would form two squads of infantry to remain guarding the ford for some hours after the bulk of us had left. Baby John's squadron of eagles would remain to carry these volunteers, so they could catch us up.

King Kenneth gave the captain orders for a forced march in the direction of the town of Grace. That was where the nearest of Axon's armies had been ordered to move to, as a counter to Malcolm's change in tactics.

Kenneth himself planned to join the cavalry troop so that he could make better time without the slower moving infantry. He wanted to be in Grace before dawn. I suggested flying again as a quicker option. Kenneth had seemed nervous about our flight the night before and shook his head now to confirm that he would stick with the horses. I decided my place was at his side so I went looking for Mòr Dubh.

The twenty or so in the cavalry troop fretted as they waited for the last of the infantry and archers to begin their march. Everybody had taken care to muffle anything that might make a noise, as sound would carry in the night. We certainly didn't want to announce our departure to the Scanians.

I sat on the stallion's back, chewing on a piece of cold Timmon, and replaying the events of the last twenty-four hours. There was still a lot for me to learn, and there was no better teacher in the arts of war, it seemed, than Kenneth. I realised that the King followed at least one of my rules, as he had gone over every single little detail to make sure his preparations were right.

Another, surprising, realisation was that my complex feelings for this man were changing yet again. The Kenneth I had watched over the last day was a million miles away from the arrogant man who had arranged my marriage and been rude to my girlfriend.