Chapter 50

The warded camp had been set up by Mage Amehlo’s people and was already filling up with Mages when we arrived. Other portals were also being set up to allow transfer of the people from Clan Juwes and the Zeilona Gora Lycana. The nosferatu naturally set themselves up as our night guard, it being their favoured environment and if there were problems with their feeding, we never got to hear of it. Word had also reached us from Mage Ludmilla that Jacob’s people had assembled and were ready to transfer as soon as we moved out and would act as our scouts. We had few problems with the Loegrians, although it was plain to see that they were a little out of their depth with the throngs of Mages and other magical creatures, after all, their upbringing had assured them that there was no such thing as magic. All of the Mages had been requested not to scan the Loegrians as well, there were some secrets that we didn’t want the Bureaus to know about.

Finally word came round that the Rwandan Patriotic Front had begun their war of liberation and we moved out with them. Using a fleet of trucks and pick-ups, as well as a couple of armoured personnel carriers for the Seers, our small army moved obliquely along the line of advance as we used our talents to hide the fact that we were most definitely not Tutsi Rwandans. Mage Amehlo had also stationed several of her Mages amongst the RPF columns to give them the necessary mental protection from the Sidhe and also to give warning of a magical attack from the Nephilim Malakha. Surrounding our column and easily keeping pace were the werewolves as they scouted the area for mundane issues that might cause issues for our people, whilst the Seers kept an eye out for anything that might bother the werewolves.

Initially it appeared as if nothing were amiss with the country at all. Despite the heat and humidity we were often waved at by villagers as they went about their work. Most of the Mages had chosen to wear some sort of military fatigues and many were adapting them down to the colouration of the surrounding countryside. All in all for a totally non-military group, we looked at least to an outsider as if we were part of a military force. Morgana, who nominally was in charge as she was a full Council member, had delegated military authority to Arch and a few of the ‘older’ male Mages who had military experience, though none recent, naturally. That said, most of the Mages were from the various Bureaus and were used to working in small teams and all were familiar with small arms due to their training and having faced the Nephilim at Kurukshetra.

The exceptions were of course our small Seer group who had insisted on coming along despite Morgana and Julia’s objections, stating simply that they needed closer proximity to both protect our force and deal with any issues caused by the Nephilim Malakha or indeed the Sidhe, who, as far as we could tell were on a massive slave hunt. Whilst this was of major concern to the Council, unfortunately the presence of the Nephilim protecting the hunting areas of the Sidhe were a cause for a far more major concern and would need to be dealt with first.

Every so often Marja would approach with a report from the scouts as they ranged far and wide. Most reports were of other military units advancing against little or no opposition; still, we knew that would change soon enough.

Camp was set up after the first day and Clan Juwes moved out of the truck they were using to protect them from the sun to take positions around the camp and presumably feed. Not that we expected any incidents from them, they only needed roughly a pint per being and not necessarily all from the same person.

The werewolves under Marja came in as soon as the nosferatu were in position to pick up supplies and settle themselves down for the night. Whilst perfectly capable of spending days awake and on patrol, Marja had agreed with Morgana that her people should if possible remain as well rested as possible until we reached the perimeter the Nephilim were covering.

Naturally this did not go down too well with some members of the pack, notably Adok who seemed to believe that he should be in charge. However the majority of the pack looked to Marja and she had the ear of Morgana. Adok was at least smart enough to not go pissing her off. Still, the whole situation had an almost surreal feel about it as Mages usually did not assemble in combat groups on our Earth nor travel in numbers in hostile territory.

Dan sat in his tree scanning the night for anyone approaching the camp; he’d slept most of the day as had the rest of Clan Juwes, only emerging when the daylight had faded enough not to require sunglasses. He’d been told by the Varney that he would be relieved at some stage during the night and allowed to feed, though warned (naturally) to stay away from the Mages and Lycanthropes in the camp. Still there were enough people around in the area for the twenty nosferatu assisting the Mages to feed easily without causing any issues for the task at hand. Dan also knew that a couple of the Seers (very scary ladies) were scanning the area looking for any use of magic, though he had been told that the enemy would know this so he had to rely on his own enhanced senses to detect anything they couldn’t. He’d also been told that the Seers were also keeping an eye on him just in case he was caught by surprise, though on this, all he felt was creeped out, even if he was glad for the backup.

It was getting on for 1am and Dan was feeling rather restless and hoping to be relieved when he first caught a scent that he did not recognise. Yes, it was human. But not any kind of human he recognised and judging by the wind direction and strength had to be a small group approaching the camp, although perhaps at least an hour away on foot.

‘Well spotted Dan, ‘ a soft voice spoke directly in his mind nearly making him fall out of the tree.

‘Seer?’ was all his startled brain could throw together.

‘Yes, Dan. Now wait until Nell joins you along with Marja, then good hunting, as we can’t detect them at all, ‘ the soft voice ordered.

‘Yes, Seer, ‘ he replied and waited until his orders ... happened.

“Do you have a direction, Kyres Dan?” came the soft voice of Nell the Varney from below him after five minutes had passed.

“Roughly two miles due west, Varney,” he replied, noting her presence and that of the ten werewolves in wolf form prowling around her.

“Join us and let the hunt begin,” she answered formulaically.

Tokneer checked his weapon again almost by rote. He’d been sent out with his scout group under the command of the Malakha Phernoj to test the defences of the enemy approaching their new territories. He’d been told that he was to ignore the ordinary barbarians, but to try and cause some damage to the magic users and drive them away as they were (supposedly) soft and unused to the way of the Caddiysh in war. He realised it might be a suicide mission, these were a form of Malakha after all, but orders were orders and at least there was a chance of surviving by obeying orders. Certainly there was no surviving a refusal. As it stood, he had the point of the spear-formation and was cautiously advancing towards where Phernoj had said the enemy camp was located.

His cautious advance ceased when he detected movement to his front and he carefully scanned the area as there were several wild animals who had shown no respect for the Azura in hunting them down.

What he saw advancing towards him confused him, a beautiful woman strolling through the brush seemingly without a care in the world straight towards him. Seeing him she stopped and smiled, no words passed but she beckoned and Tokneer’s legs seemingly moved of their own volition as his mind clouded with lust. He knew he had to have this woman and as with many other of the lesser races’ women he’d taken he saw no need to be gentle should she resist. After all he would kill her afterwards come what may.

As it was the woman wrapped her arms around him in seeming delight, as any woman ought at the thought of being taken by an Azura. He rapidly scrambled with his arms to release his clothing, feeling a sharp jab at his neck which he ignored as it went away so swiftly. Nor were the screams of horror from behind him registering as he sank deeper into lust with the woman.

The Malakha Phernoj advanced cautiously from within the centre of the spear-formation making sure that, were they to be attacked, he at least had others around him to give himself a chance to cast. Mostly he concentrated on the various wards he was maintaining, both to hide the presence of the squad as well as keep anything untoward from approaching them. He could feel the warded camps far ahead but knew that most of them were simply the resting places of lesser men. The one he wanted to observe and hopefully attack stood out as a beacon to his sight and his orders were to disrupt them and drive them off if possible.

The attack came without warning, his men had been advancing cautiously and relatively silently and, other than a few animals, there was nothing of man within several kilobeats to the front of them. Nor had the Caddiysh bringing up the rear spotted anything approaching from behind, though, to be honest, Phernoj did not trust the woman who had earlier spurned his advances. Still he had time to break down her resistance later he thought with a sneer. The next thing he knew dark animal shapes were in amongst them having totally ignored the avoidance shields he had been maintaining, tearing the Caddiysh down and, to his horror, apart. Weapons were discharged but these beasts were too swift and Phernoj began to cast only for a huge silver grey dire-beast to knock him over and snarl with open jaws into his face just before he fainted.

Demla threw herself forward when she heard the screams of her comrades, knowing something had gone terribly wrong. She had, as ever, been given the position of the shaft of the spear-formation as the rest of her squad had nothing but contempt for a female. She had joined when the call had come out from the high command for volunteers amongst the women of Azura. Yet the veterans saw her as weak, despite her having passed all the dictums of Caddiy with honour and respect only to find that respect from her squad was non-existent and most had seen her as nothing more than her female parts for their use. That had stopped after she beat off an attempted rape by the previous squad leader, leaving him blind and definitely incapable of fathering any children. Yet all that left her now was a squad who both lusted after her, hated her and yet feared her too. Nor had she been given command of the squad as her right for defeating the leader. She’d simply been told to put up and shut up. Her biggest problem though was the Malakha Phernoj who had come sniffing around her with honeyed words and veiled threats, making her once again think of suicide to end her misery. Her mother had warned her that the Caddiysh of these days were not the honourable fighters of old. But she’d taken herself off anyway to seek glory fighting the foes of Irin. Yet all she’d found were corrupt brutes whom she’d had to fight off time and time again.

Demla burst through the brush just to see the last of her squad torn apart and a huge dire-beast standing on the chest of Phernoj. She began to raise her weapon when it was torn from her hands by one of the creatures, the power of it throwing her halfway across the clearing where she skidded along the ground, greased by the entrails of the squad. One of the dire-beasts approached, blood and entrails dripping down its front and Demla could only watch then weep tears of fear and horror.