Hierarchy (Book Four of the Torrent Skies Saga)

Chapter One: Headmistress Halemeda, Pt 2.

Halemeda stepped back as the army moved forward.

"Ice!" she called, pointing a raised fist towards the gates.

Many of the mages raised their arms and orbs of ice formed from the snow, or appeared, summoned, and careened towards the gates, freezing the hinges and the locks.

With more orders, soon, many of the mages were mid flight, harnessing the elements in any way they could. There was a blizzard, strikes of lightning, spheres of fire. Some attacked, while others focused on buffeting the soldiers with wind, leaving their bows useless. Some coated the roads with water that froze over, leaving men outside the gates to stumble and struggle to clear the top of the hill.

Halemeda aided her students and only called out orders when she knew she needed to. She watched Kryrial, never letting him out of her vision, even as he was swallowed by his soldiers as they swarmed the gates.

Bodies began to pile but Kryrial's mages answered and before long her students were too occupied, taking on those who had graduated from the Tower, to focus on the soldiers on the ground.

Halemeda kept her force well away from the gates, and caught a of glimpse of more men, leaving the gates behind, to attack the walls.

The wind died away and arrows pierced the night, tossing her mages from the sky like autumn leaves. She rose higher and began chanting to create a barrier of wind. Simultaneously swishing fire over the soldiers closest to the gate. It was not the most effective of magics against them. Hearth-Home's history with red dragons was a long one, and they had enchanted their armor to be resilient to it, but it was her strongest element.

Her tactics were effective enough for a moment. But once the ice had melted around the gates and arrows came in volleys, it only took eight strikes with a battering ram to open the gates. The soldier's muscled their shields and walked through with Kryrial at the center of them.

The higher up she flew, Halemeda could see soldiers climbing the twenty-foot walls. Her mages were now spread out, small groups fighting organized formations.

"Target the mages first! Then, clear the walls!" Her shout was vocal and telepathic, and she watched as her guards set to the task without hesitation. Advara's crossbow bolts knocked Kryrial's mages from the sky. Silane's preferred method was to use their own men against them, and armored bodies flew into the midst of their formation with a terrible impact. As the soldiers pushed in, Halemeda dropped to the road and exclaimed. Fire and wind whipped up, spreading out from her feet, and rising high into the sky to create a barrier to give her allies a moment to breathe.

The gates had been a simple thing to get through, and Halemeda knew the walls offered no challenge to the soldiers. She had no proper way to stop their advance. Not enough people to fully defend. As soon as they had broken through, her mages stood up for their home in a fury, together. The soldiers charged her wall of fire, and many came through.

They were met with a barrage she was sure was unlike any the gods had ever seen. The elements merged and exacted a thousand different methods of death. But it was not enough. There were too many soldiers and her mages began falling to swords and pikes. The terrifying enchanted leaps of Kryrial's infantry disrupted any hope she had of finding a formation of her own. The Wings were death from the sky, and only a few of her mages seemed to know the tactics to halt them.

It occurred to Halemeda amidst this fight that she had been too complacent, as she watched a child, no older than fifteen, die to a spear to the throat.

Even with all the Tower's barriers, they were no match. People she had promised to protect and teach, died in droves on her orders.

Kryrial allowed his first company to hack through or disable the magic of the Tower's barriers, and it took time. Time her mages used to assert deadly force. But, with icy dread filling her, Halemeda knew he was too smart for it to hold him back, for long. He had prepared for this, and she had simply reacted. It was powerful magic, but he was likely older, and more powerful.