The golems scrambled from the same holes that had released the giants. Their trunk-like limbs had difficulty finding purchase on the crumbling ledges. Their bellowed frustration shook the tower.
A beast far larger than all the others lumbered into view. Atop its back rode a glittering palanquin. Pillars of spun silver supported a golden canopy that shimmered in the sunlight. A Milantian mage gripped the front banister, riding the golem like a pasha on parade. At his command the beast halted.
A blast came from Hyam’s allies on the hilltop, the same streaking flames that had destroyed the giants. But the mage had already shielded them. Shona’s mage-fire spun and wove in brilliant currents, great streamers that flashed over and around the golems. When the flames dissolved, the golems and the mage remained untouched.
A command rose from the distant canopy, and Selim groaned as the golems all turned as one. Taking aim at the four standing upon the hill.
The golems marched in the same military unison as the giants, but their bellows carried an unhinged frenzy. Hyam felt the same frantic dismay he had known in the Ellismere Vale, where they had almost been defeated by just one of the beasts. Shona responded with another blinding flash from her sword-wand combination. But the mage’s shields held, and the golems accelerated.
Hyam understood the Milantian strategy now. One assault after another rose from unseen depths. Each wave learning from the one before. Each more deadly.
Selim cried, “Call the ghouls!”
Hyam did not waste breath on a reply. By this point the golems’ roars were so fierce he doubted Selim could hear him. Hyam had already seen how futile the spectral army had proven against just one such monster. These golems numbered perhaps two hundred—he had to assume they included all those missing from Olom. But they threw up so much dust it was impossible to see more than the first dozen or so.
He drew his dagger and began the shield incantation. The same spell had saved them the last time a golem had attacked. But Hyam did not drag the blade in the earth as the scroll dictated. Instead, he drew in the air before his face. The distant hill became a bull’s-eye at the center of a glowing circle. Hyam spoke as quickly as he could manage and completed the final swirling flourish just as the first line of golems reached the hill. He cast the spell forward, flinging it like a giant invisible loop, spinning it with his mind and his empty arms, attempting to shift it by will alone. He did not allow himself to think what might happen if his effort failed.
The Milantian mage rose from his embroidered cushions so as to better observe the assault.
Then Selim shouted in utter glee.
The first golems slammed into an invisible wall. Those behind either could not stop in time or were unable to break the magical commands. They piled on, more and more, until the hill’s base became a churning, bellowing mass of gigantic bodies. The dust rose until it consumed the beasts, curving around the shield wall, higher and higher, until it seemed as though the four humans stood atop a golden cloud.
Even before he turned away from the hill, Hyam knew the mage’s attention had refocused upon the tower. The Milantian’s languid air was gone now. Even from this distance Hyam could detect the fury and the speed with which the mage cast his new spell.
Hyam lifted his dagger, fearing he had left it too late. He only knew the attack spells he had combined in the arrow. He only knew the one shield spell. No doubt the mage had learned from Hyam’s previous successes and was ready to deflect both.
So Hyam sprang what he hoped was yet another surprise.
Hyam pointed the dagger and sent the shield spell out. To surround the mage.
Only this time he cast the spell in reverse.
The circular enclosure surrounding the wizard and his golem would become a cage.
He completed the shield and willed it forward, just as he had to protect his companions. The shield scrolls had warned against mage-force. Anything applied to the shield would be shot back as an amplified destructive force.
The Milantian’s arms wove a ribbon of light that grew into a searing ball shot through with crimson flashes. The mage gripped the ball with both hands, drew it over his head, leaned back, then heaved it straight at Hyam’s tower. The globe seared the air over the golem’s head. The flames became refashioned into a monster’s face whose gaping maw revealed crimson fangs.
Then the mage beast struck the shield Hyam had fashioned. And exploded in a truly spectacular fashion.
The blast was so enormous the shield’s interior became a pillar of fire. The circular flames rose far into the heavens, for a moment outshining the sun.
Slowly, gradually, the blinding flash died away. When the fire dissipated, the shield Hyam had fashioned was empty. Of the mage or his golem, there was no sign. Not even dust remained.