The Heart of Alchemy by James Wisher (i like reading books txt) 📗

“While you keep them occupied defending the city, I’m going to attack the wizards themselves. If I can kill or maim a sizable portion of them, it will make the second stage of the battle much more effective, assuming they don’t give in at once. Are there any other questions?”

No one spoke, so Otto said, “If our plans change during the battle, Corina will relay my orders. Go and ready your people. We attack on my command.”

A pair of rowboats ferried the wizards back to the second ship. As Otto and Corina watched them she asked, “Why do you want me to relay the orders?”

“Simple. I’ll be focusing my magic on the wall. Extending my voice to the other ship will break my concentration. That could be the difference between victory and defeat. If you’re not certain you’re up to the task—”

“No! No, I can do it. I just didn’t understand why. Thank you for explaining, Master.”

He nodded and turned his gaze back to the city walls. The sun had risen enough to reveal figures moving around on the battlements. He debated extending his sight, but any wizard watching would destroy his construct instantly. Better to wait until the battle started.

He’d convinced Wolfric to remain belowdecks until the fight ended. Otto had enchanted his cabin to keep enemy threads out and Wolfric safe. The last thing they needed was to lose him now after he survived an assassination attempt.

Otto glanced over at the second ship. Looked like everyone was in place. “Tell them to attack.”

Corina lips moved but no sound emerged. Across the water, two score targeting threads arced up and out towards the city. One squad held back to act as a reserve in case the enemy counterattacked.

Fireballs shot out, glowing orange spheres of destruction aimed at the heart of the city.

Otto sent his vision along behind them, low over the water where the enemy wizards would be less likely to notice.

Just as he expected, the first fireballs exploded against an ethereal barrier. With so many spells coming all at once, it was too hard for the outnumbered wizards to smash them one at a time. Sweat poured down their faces as they withstood the first barrage and every eye focused on the sky.

They’d never know what hit them.

Otto conjured an ethereal blade made from twenty compressed threads. None of the weaklings on the wall had any hope of stopping it on their own.

“Second barrage, fire,” he said.

The fireballs screamed in again.

The instant the first one struck the barrier, Otto made his move.

His ethereal blade hit the nearest wizard right above the knees and sliced both her legs off like they were nothing.

The woman’s screams of agony distracted her allies enough that two of the fireballs snuck through, exploding in the city and setting a dockside warehouse alight.

The remaining wizards redoubled their focus, restoring the barrier to full strength.

Otto struck again.

He slashed three more in a span of ten seconds, leaving them legless.

Someone finally noticed his construct and attacked it, trying to rip the threads apart. The enemy wizard’s construct had only five threads and couldn’t begin to scratch Otto’s.

He killed the man with a slash to the chest that left him in two pieces.

“Third barrage,” Otto said.

More fireballs smashed their way through this time as the wizards divided their focus between Otto’s sword and their barrier.

Even with their modest attempt at defense, he killed three more before the last fireball burst.

Otto let the construct vanish and returned his awareness to his body. Three shots was all the war wizards were good for, assuming he didn’t want to exhaust them. And he didn’t. This siege might last a while and he needed to preserve his wizards’ power.

“Tell the assault team to rest and have the reserves take defensive positions. We’ll hit them again this evening.”

“Done,” Corina said. “Did we win? I saw some fireballs slip through.”

“Round one certainly went to us, but we won’t win until the assassins have been eliminated. Burning the city is only a means to an end. Keep an eye on things here. I have to update the emperor.”

Otto left a beaming Corina on deck and descended to Wolfric’s cabin. Ideally the assault would convince those in charge to give in. But if there was one thing Otto had discovered, it was that nothing ever went in the direction he considered ideal.

Chapter 23

When the final fireball had faded to embers, Captain Hotic left his sloop and ran for the battlements. Even from the docks he could hear the wizards screaming. Whatever Lord of the Watch had expected to happen, this surely wasn’t it.

He dodged a ten-man bucket brigade running for a warehouse ablaze near the water. Deeper in the city more fires sent plumes of smoke into the sky. Given the number of fireballs the invaders sent against them, it was a miracle anything remained intact.

Hotic coughed as a gust of wind carried acrid smoke from the city into his path. At the base of the wall, litter bearers carried a wizard on a stretcher toward the city center where divine healers would try their best to save the man. Before they left, he caught a glimpse of the man’s legs, gone from the knee down, the cut perfectly smooth.

At the top of the wall he found Commander Baileon kneeing beside another wizard that had been cut perfectly in half. His tan uniform was spotted with blood; even his bald head was splattered. Finally he raised his head and spotted Hotic.

The commander nodded toward a spot away from the wounded and Hotic joined him.

“I don’t think this is how Lord of the Watch thought our battle would go,” Hotic said.

Baileon grimaced and smudged some blood off his cheek. “None of us expected this. I’ve never encountered wizards of such power. And so many of them. I counted nearly forty targeting threads. The only reason the city still stands is that they stopped when they did. I’m going to have to completely rethink our