Waiting for Spring - Part I

No Time for Reflection

Mira was not unfamiliar with combat even though her skills on the subject seldom came to any use. Of course she had gotten herself into a few brawls at taverns across the kingdoms over the years, but nothing like this. Drunk men that thought they could have their way with her usually backed off screaming when she branded her hand on their wrists.

She never attended any battle during the Ward-Windsor war. No mage did, it was part of a treaty. They always appeared to bring so much destruction with them. Nothing unexpected though, everyone was familiar with the power a mage possessed. This however, was a fact that troubled Mira greatly.

Why would a dozen soldiers rush to a certain death? What motivated them, gold or threats; mayhap something entirely different? It did not matter. She knew she had to defend herself.

The last time Mira had faced battle like this was almost twenty years ago when she volunteered to help out a small company of soldiers in western Ward to help defend some villages from bandit attacks. Sure, bandits was not uncommon along the borders, they tended to seek safe havens in the vast woods and wastelands past the broken wall between Ward and the Peninsula of Exiles. There no one would come looking for them. They did almost never organise attacks on remote villages in force though.

It had taken almost a passing moon for the small party to figure out the bandits' travelling pattern. When they finally did they had just laid in wait for a couple of days outside the walls of the Shimmer, assuming that a small group of the outlaws would show up. They did, but in much larger numbers than expected. It was a bloody day, that one. Many of the soldiers as well as innocent bystanders was injured or killed while the small villages outside the city burned around them. Mira had managed to remain unharmed throughout the battle, though an arrow had missed her head by an inch. She had lost count of how many men she had killed that day as well; far too many, probably.

It was a strange sensation to feel that you would do almost anything to keep yourself alive. Mira had no desire to fight the soldiers that came closer to her with every step, it was simply a must. She did not give it much though either, she just did it. Regret came later.

Moving her hand in an arc Mira conjured a wall of fire half a dozen feet in front of her. It halted the soldiers' movement but still two spears came crashing through the air and the redhead had to dodge both by throwing herself to the marble. She blinked away and got to her feet only to stand face to face with a large man with a fierce look on his face. Gambeson and ring mail shifted in colours from the flames. Holding a mace up high he took a swing at Mira who dexterously parried it with her spear. While the mace bounced of the blade she jabbed the other end of her weapon into the man's stomach and he gave of a loud groan while bending over. Half a heartbeat later a knee hit his face and he fell backwards, knocked out cold.

The fire started to extinguish since Mira no longer was concentrated on keeping the flames alive. With a quick glance she could see how four soldiers rushed at her while two archers carrying crossbows emerged up on the darkness of the mezzanine. Before the soldiers reached the mage two bolts came flying her way. With quick reactions she turned the projectiles to ashes before they came to close and followed up by flashing past the first three soldiers. The fourth one almost fell backwards in surprise when Mira appeared in front of him. His pupils widened as a panicked look emerged on his face. A paralysing grasp overtook his body as Mira retracted the spear from his chest.

More soldiers came rushing out the doors and Mira knew that she would not be able to keep this up for much longer. She magically pushed one group of soldiers back through the door as they came out before sending out a beam that destroyed the wall above the doorpost. The rubble would halt their movement for now.

A total of four soldiers now approached Mira, who had been partially cornered for the moment, with great care. They had their weapons at the ready. The crossbowmen at the second floor had reloaded their weapons and were aiming at the mage.