Discordant Harmonies 3: Measure of Resistance

Chapter Twenty-Six

Always at some point, the shields over the Inskiti army came down. The Inskiti suffered during the times when the shields were down, no matter for how short a period they were down, because both Esqué and the Imperial Army commanders ensured they did. Even if the Imperial forces on either side of the Inskiti couldn't regularly communicate, they had established this one plan: They would both harry the Inskiti forces until the Inskiti surrendered.

So each day for the past five, Géta had been on the roof, channeling for the Imperial Mages. He knew their forces were growing more weary, but the visible changes in the Inskiti forces kept them hopeful. The Inskiti forces had shrunken to half their original size, and the Imperial forces on the outside of the ring pressed them in, up against the post's Summoned Wall until the Inskiti were forced, each day, to engage on both sides.

By now, the Inskiti commanders had had to abandon their new, less-fancy tents; those had been overtaken by the Imperial Army yesterday, during a concerted attack to make the Inskiti commanders do just that. According to what Esqué had learned just before the shields went up again, the Inskiti had lost valuable maps they'd have needed for their advancement into Ruphlan. Today, the goal was to overtake the third island of tents occupied by the Inskiti Mages.

From what Géta could see in his all-round vision, the Imperial forces were having a great deal of success. Because they were fighting desperately, though the Inskiti Mages had concentrated themselves near their tents, they were thoroughly distracted from them, fighting the Imperial Mages clustered on the Wall and roof of the post.

It was close to sunset, though, so Géta knew the Imperial Army had a limited time to reach those highly-coveted tents. The Inskiti Mages—one or another group of them, would snap shields up between them, the post, and the Imperial Army not too much longer from now. Their requirement of having a restful night was, according to Esqué, a sign of their growing weakness, and it was definitely taking a toll on the Inskiti Mages. While this battle had most certainly not been going on all day, it had been on for a while, and he'd watched as the Inskiti Mages' attacks grew steadily weaker and lost range. While the post's Mages weren't at their best, either, they had the advantages of height and rising morale as they watched their efforts succeed literally before their eyes. Even though there were still a lot of Inskiti out there, each day took another chunk of soldiers out of their force, and the past few hours had been no different.

The Imperial Army made a lunge for the group of Inskiti Mages' tents they'd been aiming for—and succeeded in surrounding them. A ragged cheer went up from the post's Wall on that side, and, predictably, shields snapped up around the Inskiti forces. Géta kept channeling until all the Mages he'd connected to disengaged themselves from the power, then lowered his instrument. Before him, Téus cased the lyre and smiled, the expression bearing only a little discomfort.

"I'm going to do down to the infirmary."

"All right."

Téus didn't linger any longer, and he went with his Healers to help carry anyone ill with Gift reaction downstairs. Asthané took the lyre-player's place, sitting with his feet tucked up under his knees. Glancing at his Mage, Géta stifled a yawn he'd wanted to express for the past hour or so, determined not to reveal again to Asthané how tired he was. At least right now he wasn't anywhere close to tears. That episode in the workroom had been caused mainly because he'd awoken from a troubled sleep plagued by the half-prophetic dream of being scorned by Alénil if he should return home at some point.

"Do you think you can eat?"

He shook his head. "I'll grab a biscuit and some dried fruit later, though."