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goblin sorcerers still lived. He stayed watching both his friend's
position and for places his spells might be needed.
    The first attackers among the goblins stopped short.
They had been eager to rush in against a lone human knight and an unarmed
sorcerer, relishing the glory of cutting off the head of the army. But the
sight of an almost ogre-sized human, wielding an enchanted sword that glowed a
foreboding green and trailed a strange mist in its wake, gave them pause. As
the goblins at the forefront slowed, those lagging behind caught up to the
front of the charge, and their renewed numbers swelled their courage once
again, and they recommenced the attack en masse.
    Iridan saw the goblins heading for Brannis and started
another spell.
    “Haru bedaessi leoki kwatuan gelora.”
    Iridan held his arms wide with his fingers spread
apart. Then, rapidly, as he finished his chant, he drew his hands together and,
just before they met, turned his palms upward and raised both hands overhead.
He was only a few paces from the cooking fire and that was what had inspired
this particular spell. As the aether flowed through him, he directed it into
the various pots, spoons, bowls, and ladles that the Kadrins had brought along
with them. These various items rose quickly into the air to hover around waist
height and with a commanding gesture from Iridan toward the onrushing goblins,
they flew.
    In all of Kadrin history, there was perhaps no
instance where the contents of a larder had been put to such deadly use on the
field of battle. A storm of crockery hurtled through the air with the speed of
a diving hawk. The great clanging and splattering sounds that resulted hinted
at one of the greatest culinary assaults of all time. Though it sounded quite
incongruous in the middle of a battle of spell and steel, the charge from the
west was brought near to a halt.
    *
* * * * * * *
    Just a few steps away, Brannis was beset by onrushing
goblins, leading with their spears. Three-wide they charged;three at once they
were cut down. The goblins were astonished by the speed at which the blade cut
through the air … and spears … and goblins. That is, all but the first three
were astonished, for those at the forefront of the charge never realized what
had become of them.
    The rest of the goblins charging Brannis drew back and
began to try to encircle him, staying just out of his reach. Brannis kept Massacre
waving back and forth in front of him, leaving the green mist wafting in the
air behind the blade, and forming a hazardous barrier for the goblins to cross.
    The goblins were sensitive creatures, naturally better
attuned to the aether than were humans. They could sense the power in the
weapon and thus had some misgivings about letting the mist touch them. One who
had gotten a bit too close was already unsteady on his feet and did not look
well at all. Several gave up on Brannis altogether and instead tried to get
past him to the sorcerer, whom they saw was much distracted by other concerns.
     “Brannis, the shield wall!” Iridan called out,
drawing Brannis’s attention to a gap that had formed.
    As Brannis turned that way, he heard Iridan
immediately began another spell: “Kanethio mandraxae.”
    Iridan crossed his palms, facing outward, and aimed
toward the breach. A blue-white ray of light shone out from him, wide as his
shoulders, and he ducked his head to keep the brightness from hurting his eyes.
The blast was one of pure aether force, and left a large number of goblins
missing entirely when the blinding glare left the spot and everyone could see
there again. But the smoking ruin of a gap was once again quickly filled by a
few of the remaining goblins.
    Iridan winced in pain as the aether blast took more
power to cast than his body was accustomed to.  Brannis knew that every vein in
his thin body must have been like a river of fire. Brannis had studied along
with Iridan at the Academy, before being expelled for lack of talent. The pain
was