The Second Miracle of Orvma
They came from out of the West, in droves, first by horse, then by donkey and mule, and finally by ox and on foot. The farmers, merchants, courtesans, some pitiful few soldiers, the rich and the poor, of all ages, came on. Behind this human flotsam was a cloud of dust, and beyond that in the sky, a darkness that was not dust or cloud.
Xee. A bogeyman terror come to life. And they fled before it to the only refuge known to them: the city of Orvma.
Orvma stood. The guards at the gates were not assailed from within. Only from without, to all the gates, came the flood of refugees demanding shelter. Orvma packed them into the streets without protest. There was no where to run.
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King Jason brooded in his throne room as the repairs went on around him. He too, had nowhere to run. He had been abandoned by the Temple, and had thrown over that allegiance for the sake of his wife’s sorcery. Now she was gone into the Temple, and no word of her for over a day. He had neither the LORD nor sorcery to stave off a foe no human had ever beaten in the living memory of man.
No one beat the Xee, except once long ago at the city of Orvma. The Miracle of Orvma, many said. Now he needed a miracle, and he could not pray for one.
He walked to the durbar and looked north. The smoking ruins of the Temple gave no sign of life.
What a time to die!
“Sire.”
His top captain, Mark, saluted him. “Come in, Mark. What news bring you?’
Mark gestured to the men behind him. They brought in a rolled carpet, placed it on the floor, unrolled it. Inside was a giant fat insect, green-black, with a two foot body and stubby legs that each ended in a fist. It was pierced with five arrows.
“Xee are beginning to land outside the city,” said Mark.
Jason stretched full upright. “Muster the Army on the walls. Issue all spears and arrows in the armory. Have the citizens form militia of twenty, with an ensign elected among them, marked by a cloth about the upper arm, here. Have them get whatever stabbing and blunt weapons they can handle. When that’s done, you and your best lieutenants patrol among them and douse all fires. Fires will be as bad as the Xee in these conditions.
“Order my stables to turn loose all the horses. They can’t be any good and we might save most of them. Order the granaries to distribute all corn and meal, a handful to a family. Might as well save it by feeding our people.
“Order the reservoirs capped, so the Xee don’t drown in them. Order…Hellfire, I’ll come see to it myself. Where’s my bodyguard? And stop that decorating, get yourselves pitchforks and muster in the atrium. Answer to the head guard of the prison tower, he’ll dispose of you properly. Come on, Mark!”
King Jason strode off, a different man again.
************************************************************
The civil alarm gongs woke Clee from his slumber.
He stretched out his arms and legs. They felt curiously taut. He was in darkness…
He had been on fire!
He jumped to his feet, realized he was naked, felt his hair and felt only a frizzle of singed hair.
He concentrated on seeing in darkness. It took a while, but the vague outlines of his limbs became visible.
“You’re welcome,” growled the green dragon.
Clee about jumped out of his skin. He hadn’t seen the dragons before. Now they stretched themselves out in the darkness, sleek and lethal.
“It would have been easier to use illusion on you, but you’re immune, Necromancer,” said the green dragon. “I can however still use the aspect of Health. Somewhat.”
“Thank you” stammered Clee. “What about Danan and Pelena?”
“Right next to you on the floor,” said the green dragon. Clee winced. He couldn’t tell which was which.
“My name is Corir,” said the green dragon. “And my friend here is Skol.”
“Well met…my lords. I am Clee.”
“You are the Necromancer,” said Skol. “What you were is dead to the world.”
“Identity is very much a relative thing,” said Corir. “You will find that no one who knew Clee will have much to do with you. And you’ll find that as time goes on, you’ll have less to do with what interested Clee.”
“Why did you spare me?” asked Clee.
“Ahh, to work. We have need of sorcery to repel the imminent attack of the Xee. You’ve got about twenty-four hours to get acquainted with your powers. I suggest you start, by having Gathrak keep you awake for that time,” said Skol.
“What powers did you give me?”
“The aspect of Death,” said Corir. “You can raise and communicate with the dead. I would start with your friends.”
“You don’t have to be here with us to do that, though,” said Skol. “You can raise and talk to them in the next room.”
“We’ll be very busy ourselves,” said Corir.
“One more thing, Necromancer,” said Skol. “A minor point, in the long view. Please take the long view.”
“You have been badly burnt. I can heal third degree burns, but not perfectly,” said Corir.
“You’ll manage just fine, Necromancer,” said Skol. “Be productive.”
Clee shuffled out, his knees unwilling to flex fully. He also had nowhere to go.
In the next room he had some light to see his mottled flesh. He cried a little, for how long he couldn't say.
In the end, though, he was still Clee, and the Xee were still coming for Orvma.
“I, Clee, son of Adam, conjurer of Eden, summon thee, Gathrak, demon of life, to come to me, and coming, obey!”
Nothing happened. Clee drew the hexagram in the ashes and repeated the invocation. Nothing happened.
He repeated the invocation, naming himself Necromancer. Gathrak appeared immediately.
“Thanks, boss,” said Gathrak. “It don’t pay to buck the Higher Authorities.”
*********************************************
Xee were falling in the city now like the petals of a cherry tree in a mild breeze. The militia were chasing them down, cheering as they accounted for each insect. The Army held its fire. “Save it for the massed formations,” King Jason had ordered.
The Xee came down like scouting bees, with no seeming purpose or objective, grasping at the blades of scythes and tines of pitchforks, meeting death like stupid insects. A Xee wasn’t really hard to kill. It was killing thousands of them at once that was the problem.
The cloud of Xee was much higher on the horizon now, and King Jason imagined he heard a faint buzzing. “Let them come,” he laughed. He really was better suited to commanding the Army than courtly life anyhow. And Pelena was probably all right, just immersed in some damn sorcery of some sort.
A crowd slew a Xee below his rampart, and he joined in their cheers. Perhaps it would all work itself out. Orvma had survived before. Something would turn up.
*******************************************************
“I, Necromancer, son of Adam, conjurer of Eden, summon thee, Danan, to come to me! And coming to me, obey!”
“None of that boy,” said Danan in his head. “Just ask for me.”
“Danan!” cried Clee happily. “You’re alive!”
“No I am not. I died back there in the fireball. Not your fault, but let’s stick to being accurate henceforth.”
“I was saved by Corir—that’s the green dragon—and—“
“I heard. Now. I also heard you’re awake for twenty-four hours. Good. I can use every second. We can assume Argomath will be occupied, but as a sorcerer, I know the name of one other air demon. We’ll need to invoke a demon of fire, for sure, and Arden you know—“
“Pelena?” asked Clee.
“Refer to me as Your Majesty, if you please. And you ought to have called on me first, out of deference to rank,” said Pelena. “I’m probably as good a sorcerer as that dirty old man.”
“Doubtful. I’ve shook more dust off my feet than you’ve trod across—“
“Have the decency to let royalty finish her remarks—“
“Enough!” cried Clee aloud. “I’m the Necromancer. Speak when you’re spoken to.”
“How—how dare you--“
“Boy, you don’t know—“
“I said enough or I’ll stop listening to you at all. This talking out loud to myself isn’t going to work, either,” Clee said. “Can you hear me if I talk silently?” he thought.
“Yes, if you concentrate.”
“Yes.”
“Then we’ll try it this way. It’s bad enough having to concentrate on what I’m thinking instead of paying attention to the outside world.
“Now, if I understand it right, I’ve got no powers myself beyond concentrating and talking to the dead, is that right? I want to do anything else, I have to ask a demon?”
“Yes.”
“Yes.”
“Then we’ll call up some demons. But I also want to know, if the Temple doesn’t summon demons, how’d they beat the Xee so many years ago?”
“Don’t know, boy.”
“It was a Miracle by the offices of the Temple priests. Ask one of them.”
“You fried them all, and I never –Ignatius!”
“Leave me alone, boy,” thought Ignatius. “This sorcery is an abomination to the LORD.”
“No, you’re in the defense of Orvma,” thought Clee. “We’ve got a day to explore our powers. How did the Temple defeat the Xee?”
“We prayed to the LORD. He granted a miracle,” thought Ignatius.
“But how?”
“Well, the whole city fasted and repented. And the LORD was merciful to his people.”
“All right, if that’s how the magic works, we’ll try it,” said Clee.
“Please don’t call it magic, boy, you blaspheme the name of the LORD—“
“Ignatius, please shut up,” thought Danan.
“Priest, be still with your preaching!” thought Pelena.
“Be nice to each other,” thought Clee. “I’ll summon Argomath – no, you said he’s busy. Who’s the other air demon?”
“Vaan,” thought Danan, “ and he likes poetry. Love poems, mostly.”
“Seriously?”
“Well I didn’t use him that often. I don’t go in for love poetry,” thought Danan.
“Summon your demon,” thought Pelena. “I heard about a billion love poems as High Queen of Orvma.”
’Can do,” thought Clee, and then he thought, this might work!
“LORD willing,” thought Ignatius.
*********************************************************
They were out of spears now, and arrows flew like hail. Soon those would be exhausted, and it would be sword work. And then what?
No cheering now from the militia, hard at work hewing the steady fall of Xee onto every surface, every street, every wall, every roof. Arms ached with the effort of flailing into the soft mass of insects and no end in sight.
Suddenly a gout of flame seared the air, and burning Xee fell in droves. A whooshing noise rose overhead, and two dragons soared from the Temple mount, slaying Xee with every breath.
“Dragons! Dragons fight for Orvma!” shouted the people, amazed. Weren’t dragons the enemy?
And then a great wind came, and scattered the Xee as they came in to land. It nearly toppled the men on the wall. It scattered tiles and dead Xee husks in the streets. It had a voice too.
“Turn and Repent! Turn and Repent says the LORD!” shouted the wind.
The people began to cheer again. This was the old time religion! They hewed and hacked with renewed hearts.
Demons appeared, throwing typhoon winds, fire, hailstones, lightning, rocks, debris, fallen weapons.
The dragons soared back and forth, burning and bursting as they swooped.
And the wind sang ’A time to fight, and a time to win!”
“Keep giving me verses, Ignatius,” thought Clee as he glided over the rooftops.
“I don’t think this is appropriate,” thought Ignatius.
“What else would you be doing now if you were alive?”
“Hmmm. Truly.”
Vaan swung him onto the rampart next to the King. The king was drenched in Xee ichor and had a notched sword.
“Who are you!” he shouted at the flying naked boy.
’I’m Clee the apprentice, remember me?”
“No. Why are you naked? Why are you flying? Why are you burned?”
“Never mind. I’m the Necromancer now, and I need to know how many Xee are left.”
“See that horizon? It’s about twenty miles off,” shouted the King. “They’re from right here, to there! Got anything that can handle that?
“Hrm. Guys?”
“Find Argomath. He had a trick he said he could never show me,” thought Pelena.
“I, Necromancer, son of Adam, conjurer of Eden, summon thee, Argomath, to come to me, and coming, obey!” shouted Clee.
Argomath appeared before him. “Congratulations on your promotion,” he boomed. “I’m sorry to have to rain on the parade, but I have an assignment from Higher Authority.”
“What's the trick you could never show Queen Pelena?” asked Clee.
“Oh. Wow. Yeah that would do it,” said Argomath. “One megaton airburst, coming up!”
“What!” shouted Clee, but the demon was gone.
“He said wanmega tonairburst” thought Danan.
“What’s that?”
“Dunno, boy.”
Argomath came back. “Oh yeah. EVERYBODY DUCK,” he boomed over the noise of battle.