The Warrior's Assault

by Kristen Banet

  She was breathing hard as she walked out of her family room, unable to look at the gore covering her home—her beautiful, perfect home.

  She staggered out of her front door, her heart sinking.

  Her world was on fire.

  The dining hall burned, flames rising higher than the building. So were the community living quarters on the ground. Doors on the cliffside were on fire. Females were screaming. Elvasi soldiers were everywhere. Nets were flying. Andinna dropped from the sky.

  No. No, no, no, no, no.

  She ran toward the center of the village, her legs burning as she roared, her swords high. She jumped at the last second, remembering how she had seen Rain do this before. She landed on an Elvasi soldier and stabbed downward with both her blades, killing him before they hit the ground. She rolled quickly, dodging a net. With an upward strike as she stood up, she killed another soldier.

  “Senri!” she screamed. “SENRI!”

  “Here!” the other female roared.

  Mave spun to find Senri in the middle of a crowd, defending a group of young females from an advancing Elvasi unit. They were all the way across the village, and the only reason she could see her was thanks to the fire raging over their home. Mave started running for her, cutting down whoever she could, the smoke making her lungs burn.

  She didn’t make it. A lucky Elvasi sliced open her side and sent her down, tumbling in the dirt. Mave put a hand over it, hissing at the pain. It was deep. She staggered to her feet, just getting out of the way of another Elvasi who tried to take her head off. They probably didn’t even realize who she was. The world was dark, and chaos reigned, it seemed.

  She bumped into the back of another Andinna, who turned and grabbed her.

  “Fuck, you’re wounded!” Allaina snapped.

  “Someone got lucky,” she said quickly. “Do we have a plan?”

  “We need to get any who can to fly up and hide in the higher homes, but they have those fucking nets!” Allaina growled as she stabbed into an Elvasi who dared to advance on them.

  “How did they get everyone down here?” Mave needed answers.

  “They set everything on fire! I thought the dining hall was an accident. Andinna can die of smoke if the doors are set alight, which got others to leave their homes.”

  Mave shoved her blade into the chest of another soldier, yanking it out as she listened.

  “They broke down my door,” Mave said. “I couldn’t hear anything inside.”

  “I believe it. You live far enough away, the stone walls make your home quiet.” Allaina grunted as she gutted a soldier. “Do me a favor. Find Jesvena and get her out of the village with as many females as you can. I last saw her by the healer’s house.”

  “Why me?” Mave growled.

  “Because I trust you to save as many as you can,” Allaina answered. “We’re not going to win this. There’s no way. We don’t have enough people, but you’re strong enough, I bet you can get out as many as you can.”

  Mave swallowed. It was a lot of responsibility.

  “I’ll do it. I’ll come back for as many as I can.”

  “Hopefully, I’ll be here waiting.”

  “Get to Senri.” Mave pointed her out. “She has a group of females over there who need more protection.”

  “On it.” Allaina started running, and so did Mave, each going in opposite directions. Mave stabbed an Elvasi soldier in the back as she ran up to the healer’s house. She jumped up the stairs and rushed inside, not slowing down, killing another without thought, then another. She cut through them while they weren’t paying attention.

  Only to find Jesvena laying on the floor with another female over her. The healer looked up, her eyes wide.

  “Is she…” Mave knelt down quickly, touching the old female’s neck. There was nothing. The healer reached out and closed her eyes.

  “She came here first to help me get the sick to safety,” the healer whispered. “They came in and…” She looked to the beds.

  She looked up, and her stomach flipped. These had been Andinna in healing sleeps, down with a winter illness. They had been old Andinna who needed the extra care of the healer.

  They were butchered in their sleep.

  “Let’s go,” Mave ordered. “Leave Jesvena. There’s nothing we can do for her now.”

  “I’m only alive because they said I was young enough to be…”

  “A good slave,” Mave finished. “I know. Come on. Get up.” Mave stood up, grabbing the healer’s arm, yanking her to her feet. “We can’t stop. We have to find as many females as we can and run you all to safety. Once you’re out of the village and safe, find any males you can and bring them home. Do you understand?”

  “Yes,” the healer whispered.

  Mave led her back out of the house into the smoke-filled night. Mave wondered if there was enough time. She wondered if she could save enough of them. She couldn’t find Allaina or Senri anymore.

  “There!” Mave pointed to a lone female running. She started going after her, hoping to get to her before the Elvasi did. The little healer followed as fast as she could. Mave held out a sword for her. “Take it!”

  “I’m a healer!”

  “TAKE IT!” she roared. The healer didn’t wait another moment, taking the hilt of the sword, holding it awkwardly as they ran.

  Mave killed two Elvasi the moment she ran into them, diving for the lone female about to be grabbed. She yanked the female back from Elvasi grasp, lunging forward with a roar, stabbing the soldier in the gut. When she yanked the blade back, the soldier fell to his knees, then his face.

  “Follow me,” Mave ordered her new charge. “Do you have a sword?”

  “No! I came out here to fight the fires! I didn’t—”

  “It’s fine. Healer…” Mave turned to see the little healer, her eyes wide, blood covering her face, chest, arms, and hands. “Healer, give her the sword.”

  She did so without argument.

  “Stay close to me. Grab anyone we pass and have them join us. Understood?”

  “Yes, Champion,” the female said quickly. Mave bared her teeth. Of all the things they could pick to call her that night, it was the one she didn’t want to hear.

  A thing to deal with another time.

  They started running. Their group grew. First one, here and there, any Mave could find. Then by two as they realized Mave was leading a path through the village to safety, trying to find whoever she could.

  “To me!” she roared, holding her sword up. “To me! For the Andinna!”

  “FOR THE ANDINNA!” females roared back to her.

  The soldiers caught on too, though. They stopped running around to get stragglers and started coming as a unit for her growing group. Mave never stopped running, helping some females off the ground. She found dead males, the ones who had stayed to protect them during the hunt. What she didn’t see were young dead females, only old or maimed Andinna on the ground, bleeding out.

  “We need to leave!” one of the females called out. “We’re going to be outnumbered!”

  Mave growled. Where was Senri? Where was Allaina?

  They moved toward the edge of the forest, but Mave wasn’t ready to run into the night. She wasn’t ready yet. Where were her friends? Where were the leaders of the village?

  She kicked an Elvasi soldier, barely even glancing at the enemy as her eyes searched what she could see. She didn’t see any more Andinna. The fires were dying as a spring rain started. The clouds blocked the red moon, smoke filling the air, choking her lungs.

  She couldn’t find anyone else to help.

  Her world was on fire. She had promised to save who she could though, so she turned and started running into the woods, leading the females she could get. There weren’t many of them. There weren’t enough of them. Jesvena was dead. Senri and Allaina were missing.

  They didn’t stop until she couldn’t smell the smoke anymore and knew they weren’t being followed.

  “Headcount!” s
he called out, panting. “How many got out with me?”

  They called out a number, counting themselves for her.

  “Nineteen!”

  “Twenty!”

  She kept hearing them go higher but not high enough.

  In the end, she got twenty-three females out.

  “I’m going back,” she told them. “You will all stay here and hide. Protect yourself if you’re found, but don’t give away your location. Pick three of the fastest fliers to go out and find males to come back and help.”

  “Only three?”

  “Only three,” she confirmed. She didn’t want the group left behind to be too small to defend itself. “Don’t follow me. I’m going in quietly and getting who I can without risking all of you. If I’m not back by dawn, I’m gone.”

  “Good luck,” the healer whispered.

  Mave nodded and launched into the air. Flying back would be faster. She needed the aerial view, anyway, if she wanted to stay out of needless fights. Her hip stung, and she touched it as she rose, feeling the blood. She pulled energy from it and pushed it into the area around the wound, forcing it to heal faster. She couldn’t go down in the middle of this from slow blood loss.

  She made her way back to the village, stayed high, but the smoke of the burning buildings made her eyes sting and water up. She couldn’t see enough and pushed on to the other side of their home, hoping to see anything.

  She finally saw something, swooping down, trying to find out what it was. Her heart jumped into her throat at the females chained in a line.

  “We need to move! If the males come back, we’ll be overrun!” an Elvasi roared.

  “We haven’t found the Champion yet, sir!” another yelled back. Mave watched as the swordsman shoved a female forward. “Keep moving!”

  “She probably escaped with some of the runners. We can’t stick around. You remember the mission parameters. In and out. This is the first raid we’ve done in Olost on an Andinna village, and if we don’t move, we’ll get caught out. We’re not losing months of planning for one little bitch. And don’t break the product.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Mave landed in the trees. Thankfully, the darkness was all she needed to hide. They couldn’t see her in the smoky night sky, and they wouldn’t be able to see her in the dark, thick forest. She could see them, though. She could see how many females they caught and chained in a long line. Every few females, there was an Elvasi holding the chains.

  “Start moving!” someone roared.

  The Elvasi started to march. Females screamed and pulled. Some tried to fly, and Mave watched how the Elvasi yanked them back down using the chains.

  There were no openings, she couldn’t find a way to get in. She couldn’t defeat an entire battalion of Elvasi soldiers.

  Dread filled her as she walked into the forest alongside the Elvasi caravan. Anything. She needed anything. She found Allaina and Senri, chained next to each other. Maybe with them. Maybe she could get them out, and together, they could save everyone.

  She snuck closer and stopped at the outside ring of the torch fire. Around them, there was a dozen Elvasi.

  “Mave, no,” someone whispered. “If you go in, they’ll catch or kill you.”

  She looked over her shoulder to find Leshaun.

  “You’re alive,” she whispered back. She couldn’t see him well in the dark, but she could see the rough outline of him in the dark.

  “Yes. I saved as many children as I could. I hid them at the bathing pools. Come on.”

  “But—”

  “I’ve been watching them since I dropped the children off. Allaina and Senri both have blood talisman I can track. I have other tricks. When we get the Company, we’ll go after them, but you and I are not enough.”

  Mave stepped back, breaking a twig. She stared at Senri, who frowned and glanced her way. Senri’s eyes went wide.

  “No,” she mouthed. “Run.”

  Mave nodded slowly, stepping back again. Leshaun grabbed her shoulders and jumped, forcing Mave into the air with him.

  “I have…females hidden on the other side of the village,” Mave explained as they went higher than any net could reach.

  “More probably escaped or hid on their own. I’ll get the children, and we can meet at Alchan’s home. I don’t think they went out that way.”

  “I’ll check first.”

  She went as fast as her wings would take her, surveying the land she could see. The trees hid everything for the most part, but she didn’t find any Andinna in clearings. If there were females hiding out there, they were smart enough to stay in the dark.

  She landed at Alchan’s, breathing a sigh relief there was no evidence of Elvasi there. She even went to his door, entering to make sure no assassins were left behind.

  When she walked out again, she collapsed on the steps leading to his door, her hands shaking as she covered her face. Smoke was all she could smell anymore, and from those steps, she could still see it flooding the night sky from the village.

  Her world was on fire.

  18

  Zayden

  Zayden crawled over the large boulder, his sword drawn. Above him, Rainev had his bow drawn, ready to take the shot. His son was just waiting for the signal. Below them was a cave bear. There were two species of bears in the world. The small black bear, what most people thought of when someone said ‘bear,’ ranged everywhere from mountains to swamps, even to forests near the cities.

  The cave bear was a different beast, mountain creatures, twice the size and twice as deadly. They were elusive as well. Even stumbling on one was very lucky or unlucky, depending on how well outfitted you were.

  He and Rain always went for bears and other large predators. Nothing else was good enough to challenge his son. His wyvern made hunting too easy for him, so when Zayden took him out, he was required to stay in Andinna form and hunt big game.

  This was their first cave bear, though.

  They had a plan, one that had to work, or Zayden was going to get killed. Rain would have to take the perfect shot and hit the cave bear in the eye or nose, something soft that would do substantial damage. He had to make the perfect jump after that and get on its back, away from the very long and sharp claws and giant fangs. Rain would jump down after him, and the real fight would begin.

  This cave bear was a huge, healthy male. It was a touch skinny, but it was probably just waking from hibernation. It was the only time of the year they had a real chance without Rainev getting scaly.

  The cave bear turned, looking around. Zayden flicked his tail up, catching the beast’s eyes. It bared its teeth, but it was looking in the right direction now. He dropped his tail, and that was what Rain needed. The perfect twang of Rain’s bow was the only sound in the forest, the shot perfect, going into the cave bear’s eye.

  With a roar, the cave bear went up on its hind legs, trying to attack whatever had hit him. When it staggered and turned, Zayden jumped from his hiding spot, his wings helping him direct his landing. He shoved his sword between the cave bear’s shoulder blades. The cave bear didn’t appreciate that, trying to buck him off.

  “RAIN, GET DOWN HERE!”

  The cave bear roared again as another arrow sliced across its face. Zayden grabbed a handful of fur and started stabbing the bear. He lost his grip and was tossed before he could get a fifth stab. He rolled across the dirt, panting. He had to move. Why had he let his son convince him a cave bear was a good idea?

  I swear to the Skies, this boy wants to get me killed.

  Zayden crawled out of the way before the bear dropped onto its front legs and tried to crush him. He was still moving as the cave bear roared again. He tried to get to his feet, staggering as dizziness washed over him. He must have hit his head in the fall. He turned to fall on his ass and watch Rain run for the cave bear, ducking a swing. With grace, his son carved upward on the exposed belly of the beast, rolling out of the way as the cave bear dropped to the ground, whimpering and growling.
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br />   “Clean kill,” Zayden called. He watched as Rainev walked to the cave bear’s head, avoidingslipping in the blood on the dirt, swiftly stabbing into its neck, breaking all the important blood vessels and probably the windpipe as well. “Good work.”

  “I told you we could do it. You weren’t supposed to fall off, though, Baba.” Rain smiled his way. “Let’s get this gutted and skinned. There’s a stream nearby where we can wash the blood off.”

  “What would you like to use it for? A rug in front of the fire?” Zayden stood up slowly, brushing dirt off his leather breeches.

  “Yeah. I like that idea. Our first cave bear. Think the Company will like it?”

  “I do,” he said, nodding. “I think they’ll be proud of you.”

  “Us. Proud of us. Have you ever killed a cave bear before?”

  “No, this is my first one.” Zayden sighed, walking slowly. “We’re sure it’s dead, right?”

  “Yes, Baba. It’s dead.”

  “We have a lot of daylight left. We should be able to get this done. The meat…”

  “Our Hunt is over. I can shift and carry it all back,” his son reminded him.

  “Cheater,” Zayden mumbled, shaking his head. He couldn’t help but smile, hiding it from his son. It did make things easier to have the big blue monster carrying everything around.

  They worked efficiently, gutting, skinning, and carving up the large cave bear.

  “I have something to tell you,” Rain announced as they buried the parts they couldn’t use.

  “Let’s hear it.” He leaned on a stone after backing away from the pit with pieces of cave bear.

  “Alchan…So, when we returned to Olost, I asked Alchan to train me. When I got into trouble, he decided manual labor for the entire winter would be a good punishment…He decided to train me as well, though.” Rain was staring down at his boots. Zayden crossed his arms, frowning.