The cowardly Colonel Draugh never even considered offering himself to the Kiswahili leader, and so, as the sun dipped towards the horizon, we waited for the inevitable attack. Nimble stood at my left, with Gentle at my right. Dancer beside him as Mercy stomped up and down our section of the wall as he huffed and scowled while checking that weapons were loaded and readied.

A cry went up as the sun dropped below the horizon, and then a horn sounded from the enemy lines. A thousand or more soldiers took their first step forward. I licked dry lips as I watched them. They carried no siege equipment and our wall was fifteen feet high.

“Ready!” Mercy screamed, raising his arm. “Aim!” A pause, hanging pregnant in the air, then his arm dropped. “Fire!”

Thunder roared as all along the wall the muskets fired. A hundred or more of the enemy fell, but the rest marched on.

“Reload!”

A good rifleman could fire three shots in under a minute, while an advancing army could cross the distance in two minutes if they ran, five if they walked. The enemy soldiers raised their shields and keep marching steadily forward.

Another volley was fired and more soldiers fell, then another. They were a third of the way across the open space. Then I felt it, a tickle at the back of my mind, goosebumps rising on my skin and a sense of pressure against my skull.

Magic was being worked.

The white-robed men blazed with a malignant luminescence as they walked, surrounded by shield-carrying soldiers who used those shields to provide a barrier for the magic users. As one, the white-robed men raised their staffs and a deep rumble came from beneath our feet.

“Aim at the magic users!” I cried, but it was too late.

The rumble grew louder, becoming a roar, the earth shook as dust and debris fell from the wall and then, as though some angry god had reached down and grabbed the very earth in his hands, the ground before the wall burst upwards.

As the shaking stopped, the ground settled into place and my eyes grew wide as I beheld the ramp that had been formed, the ground a mere two feet below the top of the ramparts.

“Fire at will!” Mercy screamed as the enemy broke into a run.

Smoke filled the air and carried with it the acrid stink of spent powder. I sucked in a breath and rose, as did the other mages along the wall. My fingers danced, hands turning this way and that as I cast my spell.

Fire burst from the ground ten feet from the wall in an explosion that scattered the enemy. The power stone grew hot against my skin as I cast again. Another explosion, tearing limbs from torso and burning the flesh of any caught near.

Nimble raised her pistol and fired, a man fell. The enemy reached the walls and the world shrank before me to just those almost calm faces of the enemy as they thrust their spears. Gentle swung his hammer, sweeping a handful from the wall.

Dancer ducked and spun, weaving an intricate dance of death as his blades ran red with blood. Mercy, laughed as he hacked and slashed. No grace to his movements, just an almost mindless fury as he cut down all who came near.

Lightning flashed from the sky, explosions filled the air. Flame burst from my outstretched hand, engulfing an enemy who screamed and screamed as he fell back amongst his comrades. A spear thrust at my face and I cried out in fear.

Nimble’s blade deflected it, her pistol firing and blood spraying from the soldier’s skull as he collapsed.

I had no time to thank her, she was on to the next foe, short blade parrying the spear of a soldier before she darted in, sliding past his defences and slashing him across the face.

Blood covered the wall, sticky with dust. Men’s bowels opened as they died, filling the air with the rank smell. I wanted to weep, to cry out my fear, but I could not. Instead, I concentrated on my spells, focusing on the intricate movements of hand and fingers, the gestures and words needed to create deadly magics.

A flash of light, a burst of flame, a barrage of sharp missiles created from the air that sliced through skin and armour alike as I sent them flying forward.

We were holding the line. The enemy was dying by the score as they assaulted our positions. Bayonets attached to muskets were stabbed into the enemy. Swords cutting, hammer crushing skulls and shattering shields.

The white robes hit back, their spell work something alien and ancient. Shadowed figures flowed from beneath those robes, riding the air currents as they struck out at the mages. Jolly was lifted into the air by shadowed hands, while two more of those figures shredded his coat and shirt, spilling his intestines over the men below.

His body fell, lifeless, as another mage screamed, a shadowed figure flowing into his mouth and tearing its way through his insides. An empty face turned towards me and I raised my hands.

It flowed around the flames I sent at it and gripped me tightly in hands that I couldn’t grasp to pull away from. Pulled from the wall, I struggled in its grasp as Nimble swiped her blade across it. Like striking air, the blade passed straight through it and I was carried out of her reach.

Cold spread from its touch, I began to shiver and with nothing else to do, I cast the only spell I could think of.

A shriek filled my ears as the ball of light burst into existence right in what would have been the centre of the shadow creature’s chest. The bright illumination cut through the shadowy form and it shrieked once more as it shredded, becoming wisps of shadow that faded in the light I created.

Without it to hold me up, I fell, hitting the ground hard as all air was expelled from my lungs. My satchel flew open and the precious treasure skittered across the dirt road between buildings. I forced air into my lungs, gasping like a landed fish as I reached for it.

More of the shadow creatures turned their attention to me. One of their kind had been destroyed and they took offence. I scrambled to my feet as they came flying at me, pausing only to grasp the crystal before I ran.

I spun, hand raised, fingers moving as I whispered the words of the spell. Something wasn’t right, a surge of power, unlike anything I had ever experienced swept over me and through me, tearing my insides as it tore through.

Light filled the alleyway like a new sun had been born. The creatures shrieked, ripped apart by the rays of light cast from it. Then it was gone, and the shadowed forms with it.

I fell to my knees, blood spilling from my mouth. Something had broken inside of me, I was sure of that. So much power moving through me. More than I could hold, more than any mortal could. Tears of blood ran down my cheeks as I vomited more of it, my body expelling it.

Darkness crowded my vision and I collapsed, strength leaving me. The darkness closed in.

Dawn was breaking by the time I awoke, on a reed mat in the darkened interior of a burnt-out house. Nimble sat beside me, face drawn, dark circles around her eyes and skin pale. Red huffed and muttered as he brewed some foul-smelling potion in a small pan over a fire.

“You’re alive!”

She sounded almost as surprised as I was. “W-wha…” My mouth was dry and it was difficult to speak. Nimble held a water bottle to my lips, letting me drink the tepid water that did little to soothe the rawness of my throat.

“W-what happened?”

“A light appeared and destroyed those shadow figures,” Red said, turning from his task to reply. He squinted down at me, suspicion writ on his features. “Whatever spell created them seemed to link them to the white robes out there.”

“When the shadows died, so did they.” Nimble paused and gave a slight shrug. “We think they died. Not sure. Whatever happened, it sent a shockwave through the soldiers and they turned and ran.”

“They’re gone?”

“As far as the jungle, aye.” She smiled. “We survived the night.”

“At cost,” Red muttered, and Nimble’s smile faded.

“Yes, at cost.”

“You, yourself, was half-dead,” Red said, spooning some of the liquid into a leather cup. He brought it across to me and held it to my mouth as I drank. It tasted vile. “Took a lot of healing. A lot of expensive healing.”

My hand moved to my hip and I tried to push myself up as I realised my satchel wasn’t there. Nimble pressed me back down easily with just one hand, weak as a kitten I was, and jerked her head to the corner where my satchel sat.

“I found you,” she said. “Brought you here and went to get Red.”

“And I have other patients to see to.” Red stood and brushed the dust off his grey trousers. “I’ll be back to check on you later. For now, rest, eat and drink another cup of this healing draught every hour. Your insides are a mess and it was all I could to put them back together. The draught will help them stay that way.”

With that he turned and left the building, ducking beneath the low doorway and I let my head fall back against the mat. In truth, I felt half-dead and was somewhat surprised that I wasn’t fully dead.

“We lost thirty-two of the Company,” Nimble said, settling down beside me. “Regulars lost over a hundred.”

“How many of the enemy?”

“Rough count puts it at over six hundred. Still a lot more of them out there.”

There was no doubt that our muskets had made all the difference. Their armour was thick but not enough to stop a musket ball at close range. Fighting at the wall had then cost them more as we used our magic against them too.

If their white robes hadn’t been incapacitated then the fight may have gone the other way. I let out a soft sigh as I glanced over at the satchel.

“It’s in there,” Nimble said. She chewed absently on her lower lip as she looked from the satchel to me. “Did that do something?”

“I held it,” I said. “As I cast a light spell. Something… happened. It was as if something reached out through me and imbued the spell with more power than I could ever hope to hold, let alone use.”

“The crystal did that?”

“Perhaps.” I wasn’t entirely sure whether it was the crystal or if the crystal was merely a conduit. It would require some investigation. “It saved us, though.”

“Whether it did or not, that things worth over twelve thousand pounds. That’s the only thing that really matters here.” She scowled down at me. “We made our bargain. More money than we could ever earn, and a chance of a life outside the Company.”

“I know, I remember.”

“Don’t tell Mercy and the others about it.”

“I won’t.”

The crystal was indeed a chance for wealth and a way out of the Company. But, my concern had never been for the money. It was for what the money could have bought me, and the crystal could well be a better means of getting that than the money made from selling it.

Though I doubted very much that the others would feel the same way. Not that it mattered, not with an enemy outside the walls. Disorganised for the moment, they would rally, as the enemy always did.

They would attack again and if I wasn’t careful, then it was entirely likely the crystal wouldn’t matter as I would be dead.

No, what I needed was a way out of the city, back to Gokar and then I could decide what to do about the crystal. Sell it, as per the bargain, or find a way to use it to get what I wanted, no, what I needed.

Which might also mean betraying my friends, as well as the Company.

I wasn’t sure which would be the most dangerous.