by Rob J. Hayes
"I am Field Marshal Eres," said a man wearing an impeccable black uniform that almost matched his skin. His eyes were sharp underneath bushy brows that threatened to engulf his face, and his hair looked slick with oil. The trei bird beneath him fidgeted, but he kept his composure. I wondered how easy it would be to make the beast bolt with him still atop it. In response, Ssserakis made my shadow cloak a little darker so my face was only lit by the flashing of my eyes.
"My name is Eskara Helsene." My own clothing was not nearly as well-maintained as the field marshal's. After all, I had been wearing it for nearly ten days, but I wore a sturdy outfit of red and brown that deepened in the shadows Ssserakis wove about me. "Where is the Emperor?"
The frown on the field marshal's brow deepened slightly. "He's not here." A deep voice, not unlike Hardt's though without the warmth. "The Emperor is back in Juntorrow." He said the words as though to a simpleton and I felt my ire rise.
They mock us!
"He does not even have the courage to face me?"
I felt Imiko's hand on my shoulder and shook it free.
The field marshal watched me from beneath his bushy brows. He was not even armed. "The Emperor has entrusted me to deliver his terms."
"Terms?"
"Yes. The terms of your surrender. Hand yourself over, bound and bereft of your Sources, and all others are pardoned and free to go about their lives. The Emperor only wants the Orran Sourcerer. No one else has to die today." He glanced up at the monstrous army that waited behind me, and though he kept his face tightly schooled, I could feel his fear. "How do you respond?"
Separate his head from his body and send it back to this cowardly king. That seems a fair response.
I grinned at Ssserakis' words. The third man in the field marshal's group was a Sourcerer, wearing the glowing blue emblem of the guild. They were, no doubt, to protect the field marshal should I attempt to cut negotiations short, but no one Sourcerer was a match for me.
"Your army will die here, Field Marshal." I said the words with such unabashed confidence, as though nothing could touch me. "And then I will march my monsters on Juntorrow and level every building, burn every home until the Emperor crawls out of his hiding place to face me!"
Nothing can stand in our way.
Field Marshal Eres shifted his grip on the trei bird's reins and glanced toward his Sourcerer. The man shook his head slowly, a sad look on his face. "This is no way to fight a war," the field marshal said, nodding past me towards where my monsters waited.
Again, I grinned. "I can feel your fear. Run! And maybe I will spare you and your men."
With a sigh, the field marshal pulled his bird around and kicked it into motion. The Sourcerer and flag bearer followed. Lursa stared down at us, despite the bright sunlight, and I couldn't help but feel the moon was accusing me somehow.
Imiko tugged on my arm again and this time I turned to face her. She recoiled from whatever look she found on my face. "What are you doing, Eska?"
"Fighting a war."
"Against who? I understand you want revenge against the Emperor, but he isn't here." She was pleading.
"Then I will crush this cock-headed fool he has sent against me, and any other he puts in my way. I will tear Juntorrow to the ground to find him!"
Imiko shook her head. "You're waging a war against an entire kingdom just to get at one man. Ishtar was right, Eska. This is madness."
She is a fool. If an army is in your way, you crush it.
"These people are just trying to protect their kingdom, and their families. They're not your enemies." Imiko shook her head and tears fell free.
"They're Terrelans!" I snapped.
"So am I." She sniffed and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. "So is Hardt. So are you, Eska. You want to depose the Emperor, to kill him. Fine. I'm sure he's a horrible man. But slaughtering anyone he puts in your way is not right. These people don't deserve it. The people of Juntorrow don't deserve it."
"They're his army. His weapon." Her words had stirred something inside, and it felt a lot like guilt. Guilt for something I had done long ago under the banner of war. Actually, it was guilt for a lot of things I had done. It was a feeling I had long ago buried. But burying your past just means it's still there for someone else to dig up and reveal to the world once more.
I was a soldier, ordered to kill by the people in charge, the people I trusted, the people who had raised me. Pointed at a target and told to bend my power upon it. By fire and horror and everything else at my disposal, I killed hundreds during the Orran Terrelan war. They were my enemies by the simple act of being on the other side of a conflict that, in truth, should never have been ours. Orran started the war, for land and power and unification. I was trying to start a new war, for even worse reasons. My ghosts crowded in around me, swirling faces raised by my guilt and brought into sharp focus by my turmoil. My old mantra echoed in my head; I am the weapon, but it no longer dispelled the guilt or doubt. It rang false.
Do not listen to her, Eskara. You swore to me and I to you.
Ssserakis was right about that. I promised I would fight. I swore I would win. But I didn't realise who I was truly fighting against, or even what I was fighting for. I was on the verge of starting a war nobody wanted, not for power or land, not even truly for revenge. I was starting a war because I didn't know what else to do. What a horrifying realisation that was to make. After everything I had been through, everything I had suffered… It dawned on me then that I wasn't the hero of my own story. I was the villain.
My vision blurred from my tears and I let out a ragged breath. The field marshal re-joined his troops and there was movement in the ranks. My monsters waited for my signal.
"We can still run away," Imiko said, clutching my shoulders. I don't know if she could see my inner turmoil, but that contact helped me steady me. "You can create one of those portal things and we can run. You don't have to fight."
I looked up my friend, the woman I considered a sister, and smiled. And nodded. Imiko was right. I was on the verge of starting a war, and she had talked me down. I will always owe her for that. Not that it mattered.
A dull thudding percussion echoed across the field, followed by another and another. Swirling green masses passed overhead as the Yurthammers began their toxic bombardment.
Chapter 23
I stared in mute horror as the gaseous projectiles sailed above me, trailing green wisps behind them. The impact was not violent. What the Yurthammers belch out is concentrated toxin, bound in mucus. The poison bombs crashed down on the Terrelan troops and split apart into clouds of vapour tinted a sickly greenish yellow. Screams followed as the men and women of the Terrelan military found out exactly why Yurthammers are banned.
"No," the words slipped out of my mouth as a whimper.
"Why?" Imiko asked, her own voice just as quiet.
More percussive thumps sounded as the remaining Yurthammers unleashed their toxic loads, and more gas clouds sailed overhead. The beasts would take many minutes to generate enough toxin to release again, but their damage was already done. A howl sounded and large packs of my Khark Hounds leapt forward into a loping run.
"Eska, stop!" Imiko clutched my arm so hard it hurt.
"It's not me." Useless words, but I uttered them anyway. "I didn't do this. Ssserakis, stop!"
My horror was silent for a moment. No.
"Eska, you have to stop this." Imiko tugged on my arm again. "Didn't you listen to a word I said? Don't you care?"
The packs of Khark Hounds tore past us, panting and barking in a flash of spikes and fur. I tried to stop them. I drew on the magic of my Impomancy Source and sent a command to every monster nearby, a mental scream at them all to stop and retreat. Ssserakis blocked me. The horror had ordered the attack when it sensed my will faltering, and now it was in control. Not I. I was helpless to stop them. No longer in control. I didn't understand how my horror could do that to me. It knew what I had been through. It had been there with me for a
ll of it. And now it wrenched control away from me, making me helpless. It betrayed me! Just like Josef had. Just like Silva had. I thought I could trust it. I believed we were one. One mind, one soul. But just like everyone else, Ssserakis betrayed me.
Maybe a hundred soldiers died in the first salvo from the Yurthammers, those who could not drag themselves to the safety of fresh air before the toxin did too much damage to their skin and lungs. More died when the Khark Hounds hit. A single hound can take down half a dozen soldiers in a flurry of claws and teeth and bladed spines, but fully half of the beasts I summoned were committed to that first charge. Fifty Khark Hounds attacking in packs, barrelled through the lines of the soldiers turning ordered ranks into frenzied chaos. I must hand it to the field marshal though, he pulled his troops together and organised a proper defence; he had fought against the denizens of the Other World before. He also sent a unit of trei bird mounted cavalry to charge at me, hoping to end the battle in its infancy.
"Ssserakis, stop this!"
"Who are you talking to?" Imiko was frantic.
No. You started this, Eskara. You swore nothing would stand in our way. Your vengeance, then mine.
"There has to be a better way," I said, ignoring Imiko's aghast look.
"There is!" she said.
There is. There is always a better way. You could spend eternity looking for it, or you can choose the path in front of you now.
"I choose to look for another way."
And I choose this path.
A horrifying screech sounded from behind us as dozens of Hellions took to the sky. All around us a battle waged, monsters and humans fighting and dying in my name, or against it, and yet I stood at the centre arguing with my horror. It was a pointless argument. There would be no convincing Ssserakis of other action, and the ancient horror held all the cards. For the first time in my life I chose not to fight, only to have that choice ripped away from me.
Five cavalry soldiers, mounted on charging trei birds, bore down toward us. You may have never seen a trei bird in combat, but they are even more deadly than the people riding them. With slashing claws and a beak that can pierce metal or break bone, they are trained to lash out while their rider swings with spear or long axe. Even from a distance I could see the metal barding they wore was warded against various Sourceries. And I was out of time.
"I'm sorry, Imiko." I turned away from my friend, putting myself between her and the cavalry charge. They might take me, but I would not let them take her. I formed a long Sourceblade in my right hand, and I saw my left hand curl into a fist, though I still could not feel it.
My shadow flared, the cloak whipping around into two great black wings, lightning arcing between them. Then Ssserakis lifted my wings high and thrust the jagged tips over my shoulders and down into the earth. They erupted a few paces further on as spears of darkness and two of the trei birds impaled themselves upon cold shadow, their momentum arrested, and their riders pitched forward to roll on the hard earth. My wings faded into nothing just as the first of the remaining cavalry reached me. I released a kinetic shockwave that pushed it off course. The bird stumbled, its right leg snapping, and it went down for good. The final two cavalry veered off to avoid their downed comrades, then came around for another pass, charging at me in a pincer.
I chose the bird coming at me from the left and leapt towards it, pushed by a kinetic blast. It's fair to say the move wasn't expected, but man and bird both recovered well. The soldier struck at me with his spear, and the bird snapped its beak at me. I parried both with Sourceblade and stone arm, and let Ssserakis strike out with my shadow, slicing the bird's neck. It continued for a couple of dozen paces, bleeding all over the hard-packed ground, before finally collapsing.
The final member of the cavalry unit completed her charge, long axe swinging in an arc that would cut me in two. I dropped my Sourceblade and formed a huge shield as tall as I was, and twice as wide. My shadowy wings burst out of my back once more and speared into the ground, bracing me against the force of the charge. Bird and rider both hit with a sickening crunch. Even braced, I felt the force of the impact travel up my arms. Neither rider nor bird got back up again.
Hellions screamed overhead, and Khark Hounds raced past us. This was no organised assault, it was chaos. Ssserakis had ordered the monsters to attack but had given them no orders. Even now I could see the Terrelan soldiers starting to form a resistance, the instructions of how to attack the hounds being relayed, and their efforts backed up by the Sourcerers from the guild. At the same time, I could hear the Yurthammers rumbling as they readied for another volley of toxic gas.
I ran back to where Imiko waited. She was not born for battle and had no idea where to run. Panic had gripped her entirely and she had frozen. I had to get her to safety before things got any worse. Unfortunately, I was already out of time. Just as I reached Imiko, the Yurthammers began dying.
The first of the giant monsters collapsed in a scream of pain, an explosion of gas, and a river of blood. Another followed, and I could see two more panicking and letting loose similar screams of agony.
What is this?
There were small shapes crawling over the Yurthammers, multi-legged things that shone like metal catching the sunlight. Each one looked like a disc with legs and each of the legs ended in sharpened blades that gouged and dug into the flesh of my monsters. And there were hundreds of them. Thousands, maybe. A legion. The remaining Khark Hounds received similar treatment. They tried to fight back, but there was little even their teeth or claws could do against constructs formed of solid metal. The Horain fared slightly better, flinging the constructs away and crushing them into the earth, but their numbers were too great and even that mighty beast started to falter, cavorting about in pain as the iron legion tore it apart piece by piece.
He's here!
"What's going on?" asked Imiko.
"You were right," I said wistfully. "We should have run."
No! We fight.
I glanced back towards the Terrelan army. They were still struggling with the Khark Hounds and Hellions, but their soldiers had pulled together. Without backup, my monsters would not last for much longer. A unit of archers pushed past the front lines and raised their bows to the air, a guild Sourcerer was with them and with a wave of their hand, the bows began to glow, the sign of an Augmancer making deadly projectiles even more so.
"This battle is already lost." I was certain of it. The Iron Legion had once again outmanoeuvred me. My army would be destroyed before long. I could not hope to fight both him and the Terrelans.
We can still beat him. There was little conviction in Ssserakis' voice. I think the sight of so many of creatures of Sevoari being reduced to body parts put the battle in perspective for both of us.
I dropped my Sourceblade and raised my right hand to the sky, forming a kinetic bubble around Imiko and myself. I infused the shield with Arcmancy as well so it would block both physical and magical attacks. It was all that I could do. The archers loosed and drew again, and arrows shattered themselves upon my shield, but Imiko winced all the same.
"Hardt!" Imiko squeaked the word and I saw the same thing she did. The Iron Legion strode past the dying Yurthammers as if they weren't there. His constructs, a metal legion of insectoid golems, continued the slaughter and kept him safe. One ambitious Khark Hound leapt for the man, but a handful of the legion rose up and knocked it aside, tearing the hound to shreds for its audacity. Hardt was clearly the Iron Legion's target and the big man was backing away slowly, hands balled and held ready.
Another volley of arrows pounded into my shield, shattering under their own force. Imiko and I watched in helplessness as the Iron Legion closed on Hardt, and his legion of golems surrounded my friend.
Hardt did what anyone would do when cornered and breathing their last few breaths: he attacked. He leapt at the Iron Legion, fist already swinging, and didn't even reach his target. Two of the constructs leapt on him, bearing him down to the ground and wrapping me
tal legs around his body. He collapsed, constricted and unable to move, and the Iron Legion simply stepped past him, and turned his attention to me.
"Do something!" Imiko hissed even as another volley of arrows struck my shield. I could feel Ssserakis seething inside, but even my horror knew I would not drop my shield and let Imiko die. Besides, the Iron Legion's threat was implicit. If I tried to fight back, Hardt would be killed.
"Surrender, Helsene," the Iron Legion's voice carried over the battlefield as though there weren't the sounds of chaos trying to drown it out. "The Emperor wants you alive. He said nothing about your friends."
Hardt screamed in pain as the metal wrapping him squeezed him tighter.
Choices are odd things. We make them every day without even thinking about them, but when something really matters, we often find ourselves hesitating. A delay tactic, hoping that something unexpected will happen that will take the choice out of our hands. Another volley of arrows crashed harmlessly against my shield. The Iron Legion reached down and dragged Hardt onto his knees. His face was drenched in sweat and tears and screwed up in pain. His left arm was bent at an unnatural angle and was clearly broken. Still the metal constructs clung to him, their legs pulling tighter.
"Do something," Imiko's voice was little more than a whisper.
"I do not believe he can take much more of this, Helsene," the Iron Legion's voice carried to me easily, boosted by his magic.
I lifted my left arm, as always struggling with the weight of it, and opened a portal inside my shield. It tore open with a ripping noise like wet cloth pulled apart. "It doesn't go far, but it's as far north as I can put you." I smiled at Imiko, but it was a sad smile. "I'm sorry. This is all my fault."
Imiko stared at me with wide eyes. She was shaking, sweat beading on her forehead. Fear pulsed from her in waves and standing so close she felt like a furnace. "What…"
"Get back to the city as quickly as you can. Tell Tamura what happened. He'll get everyone to safety, maybe hide them in the forest." I saw tears in Imiko's eyes and felt my own well up in response. "No one else has to die for me."