Chapter 9
I turned to face the mountains to the north of us.
'Jane?' asked David looking from the mountains to me and back again. 'What is it?'
I blocked out his voice and searched for an emotion. To my shock I couldn't find one, I was numb. I started to panic, as I panicked I tried to find an emotion, the harder I looked the more panicked I became. Until with a laugh I was engulfed in flames. I was being stupid, of course I hadn't gone numb, I had just over looked relief until it turned to panic. I laughed at my stupidity again. Then I realised I could hear screaming. I opened my eyes expecting to see the battle started but instead found myself surrounded with scared and worried faces. Someone threw a bucket of water at me, the contents of which sizzled and evaporated.
'Stop! Its ok! Im ok!' I screamed loudly to be heard over the crowd.
'Look.' I concentrated on my hand and all the flames receded to my upturned palm. The crowd silenced slightly. I turned to the closest man. 'What mountains are the arm suppose to come from?' he blinked at me in confusion, but turned and pointed to the largest ones on the left. I nodded. 'Right.'
I sat down, careful not to burn anything with My handful of fire. The men around me either walked away and sat back down or sat around me. I concentrated on the mountains and the light bunch of clouds around them. I closed my eyes and pictured the mountains. I then started to change things in my mind, the clouds got thicker and darker and thick fog drifted around them. I imagined them covered in deep snow and deathly cold. I could have sat there concentrating for minutes of hours I could not tell. But when I opened my eyes I noticed three things; I felt very weak, the mountains looked just like they had in my mind and David sat beside me watching me and holding a very large bole of porridge. I smiled at him uncertainly, if that worked then I might have just blocked off one attack. If not, I had just wasted my power on nothing. Taking the bowl of porridge from David I slouched against him and ate it ravenously. the more time went on the more restless the soldiers became. It wasn't the horns that woke me up but the screaming of men and hungry animals. There was immediate tension as we all stood up and got ready for whatever was coming through the murderous mountain.
Refreshed and energised I bounced on the balls of my feet. I could see the army coming towards us. Hundreds of men were spilling form either side of the giant mountain opposite us. Forming large groups ready for attack. I glanced nervously at David, he stood beside me tense and glaring, ready for the attack. We stood like that for an hour, waiting. Then out of nowhere a horn is sounded again, and out front line starts to move. As our cavalry start to gallop out to the field our enemy does too. there is noticeably more cavalry on our side. On some notice the rest of the enemy army charge at us. This was it. We were at the back so we couldn't move yet. David was visibly shaking now. I gripped his hand and looked at him.
"Calm down, take it easy." He let out a sigh and relaxed a fraction, squeezing my hand back. I let go and walked through the crowd until I came to pat, Isabella's father.
"Pat," I said quietly. He jumped at my voice and turned to look at me a grim look spreading across his face.
"Surely your not joining us in the battle?"
"I am. Bt im a little nervous, could you stay with David and myself if possible?"
"I will! Of course!"
He followed me back to David nodding a greeting to him. I stood there and waited happier now that I had both David and Pat beside me. From where I stood I couldn't see then the two front lines met, but it was unmistakeable from the thunderous crashes and yells. I started to get tenser as we started to move forwards. I could now see the enemy, dark purple uniforms slashing through the see of rusty brown rebels. Time seemed to slow as they reached us, I lifted my swords and zoned in on my first target. I felt sick to look at the man, I realised straight away that it was a mistake to look at his face, he wouldn't just be another faceless nameless, obstacle I had to tackle to survive. Time soon went back to normal as I was faced with this man. He yelled and swung his sword. I parried and slashed him from shoulder to shoulder. I didn't even stop to watch his head fall off, the next opponent was approaching.
The battle went on like this, weather for minutes or hours I could not tell. Both myself and David side by side tackled every enemy who crossed our path. We soon found ourselves in the middle of the battle. I took down another faceless man and turned to see three men stalking me. Taken unprepared the first mans attack resulted in my right sword flying from my hand and landing in another solders back. Uneasily I dodged the second attack and fumbled in my subconscious. With a rawer the three men in front of me went up in flames. With a curse I ran to retrieve my sword. Uneasily I straightened up, I had forgotten from the start of the battle until now about the magic, and its ability. If I were to use it I would have little trouble in beating my opponents, however was it fair to kill these men without them having a chance to defend themselves? Lost in thought I didn't see the next attack until it was too late. A small burley man ran at me swinging two swords. I stood there staring at him unable to make up my mind. I stood there watching his sword swing closer and closer. Suddenly it stopped. With the clang of the swords I came out of my daze to see a man standing in front of me, the man was covered from head to foot in mail and armour. I looked at him grimly. He screamed a battle cry and lunged at me.
