Eban

19 - Nathan

Shouts. Screams. Clashing steel.

The cacophony rang through Nathan's head, threatening to break his focus. Above him, a ball of flame swirled, fighting the water that threatened to cocoon it. Steam hissed where the two elements met, sending drops of scalding liquid down to catch soldiers, Ferann and Agaithian, unawares.

The threat of the boiling downpour had the advantage of dissuading any Agaithian soldiers from attacking him. Unfortunately, it also stopped any Ferann soldiers from striking against the two Agaithian Manipulators who controlled the water.

For its first fifteen minutes, their raid had gone to plan. Nathan and Ash, leading a party of forty well-armed, highly trained veteran volunteers, had circled the Agaithian encampment and struck at its eastern edge. Taken by surprise, the Agaithians had fallen back, running towards the relative safety of the camp's centre.

The Feranns had been more than happy to join them. Following their orders to the letter, they had begun grabbing anything of value and destroying anything that could not be taken easily. Ada, with three members of her unit, had left the main group, heading in the direction of the horse pens. From the raucous that erupted soon after, Nathan knew they had successfully freed the animals. With luck, more than a few of the Agaithian mounts would find their way back into Ferann hands.

It was only when Nathan, Ash and the troops not already engaged in plundering and pillaging ran into the armed and organised line of Agaithian soldiers that Nathan realised that Erik was not, perhaps, as predictable as he had thought.

That little show of force had put an end to any further attempts at sowing chaos, and Nathan had given the order to fall back. That had gone well too, up until Ash found herself a handy hostage to claim. That had brought all of Síoch's blooded hounds down on them.

At least we know she chose well, Nathan thought. Gritting his teeth, he rammed his hand hard into the air, directing the blazing ball forwards and downwards. It crashed towards the Agaithian line but stopped short as the Agaithian mages caught the blast. The soldiers did not escape unscathed – more than a few curses filtered through Nathan's haze as they got caught by the jetting water.

Still, better to be burned than stand at the centre of a pyre.

Behind him, Ash was issuing curses of her own as she forced her unwilling hostage backwards. Tom's voice issued out, giving orders to the remaining Ferann forces, keeping the retreat controlled and ensuring that no Agaithians would be able to slip in from behind.

Taking advantage of the momentary distraction in front, Nathan stepped backwards to keep his distance with Tom's voice.

Whoever the bastard is had damn well better be worth this, Nathan thought, as a third Manipulator joined the Agaithian power surge. The massed water grew as streams poured from all available water supplies.

Somewhere, Nathan could just about make out Erik's voice yelling at the mages to stop drawing from the water sources.

Nathan grinned. No matter how this skirmish worked out, the Agaithians were going to have to move camp if they were to get enough water to replenish their supplies. Which meant they would be forced to either attack the Ferann's in order to get to the river that lay behind their lines, or they would have to fall back. Either way, it put the Feranns on the upper foot.

Not a bad outcome, all things consid-. His thought stopped in its tracks as the resistance he was fighting disappeared. He stumbled, falling to one knee as the sudden loss of pressure released the tension in his muscles. He leapt up almost immediately as the water, now in the shape of a horizontal bar, blasted towards them.