“How dare you!” River snapped. “I’m not a fool.”
“No, but you’re human and playing a game with someone who can out-strategize you because she thinks in terms of decades, not months.” Luykas snorted in disgust. “What did she really tell you?”
Get them, Luykas. Call them out. Make them be honest with us. Mave wrapped a hand around the hilt on her right blade. She was so angry. They freely admitted to letting the Empire kill and capture them.
“That if we didn’t help her, she would conquer us in the process of getting to you,” Laurent said, finding his seat again, rubbing his face. “I’m sorry, but we have to think about our people. You probably aren’t wrong, Luykas. We don’t think as you do. We can’t think so far ahead. We don’t know who will be leading or what the circumstances will be. We don’t consider how things will be in a thousand years. We have to consider what we can do while we’re alive to continue to protect our city.”
“She said free Andinna would be a thing of the past within the decade,” an old woman said loudly. “I’ve always liked your kind, but she’s let you all run wild under her nose for a long time. My spies tell me she’s getting a lot of backlash among her nobility for her failures to contain you. One of them told her the Elvasi can’t even claim they won the war if the king was still leading his people against her. The loss she suffered last year, thanks to you, has made her vulnerable and angry. She outnumbers you, she’s richer than you, and she needs a great win to keep the support of her people.” The old woman looked away. “You shouldn’t have pissed her off, Alchan. You brought this and the doom of your people on yourself.”
“Helga… Are you going to allow us to leave, or are you going to take us into custody?” he asked softly.
“Of course, we aren’t going to let you walk out of here,” River said, chuckling. “Three of you are worth more than your weight in gold. Guards!”
The room was suddenly flooded with humans in black armor. Mave stood up and drew her swords, flipping them in her hands.
“You don’t want to do this,” Alchan called over the stomping of boots, anger vibrating in his voice. “Let me make you a deal you can’t refuse. Stop the Elvasi, get our females off those ships, or watch your city burn to the ground.”
“Burn? You think you can burn our city?” Kita sounded like she was going to laugh. “Take them.”
Mave attacked first. None of her companions had even drawn their weapons yet. The moment a human took a step toward them, she lunged, striking hard enough to go through the steel armor and sink her sword into the man’s chest. Before anyone could react, she yanked her blade free and beheaded another.
“I’m not going back,” she snarled to no one in particular. None of her group seemed surprised, but the humans didn’t make another move. They didn’t come into her range. Across the room, the leaders of Blackstone seemed surprised.
“Rainev. Show them we can very easily burn their city to the ground.” Alchan was cold, his words heartless.
Rain’s change into wyvern came in a violent explosion of shredded cloth. He barely fit in the room and roared. The guards tried to back away, and he swiped at them, sending two flying into a wall. A sword was thrown and glanced off his scales. He roared loud enough the building shook around them. Smoke curled up from his nose and his mouth. When he opened his large jaws a second time, licks of flame appeared, showing the humans exactly what devastation he had wrought.
“Care to change your mind?” Alchan called. “I was hoping we were friends, River. Helga, you should have told your comrades we Andinna have a few tricks up our sleeves. I was hoping I wouldn’t have to do this. Here’s your choice. You can return our females and hold out as a free city for a little longer, or you can all die now.”
“Kill them!” Kita yelled, panicking. “Now!”
Mave intercepted a guard before he made it to Luykas and was able to get a clean hit to the human’s neck. Luykas grabbed her tail with his own, drawing his sword. Alchan unsheathed his blade, stepping up to remain beside them. Rain carefully stood to the side, his large tail knocking down several guards coming in behind them.
“Rain, this is going to be dangerous, but I want you to burn them.” Alchan danced lightly on his toes. She’d seen warriors do it before, anxious for combat. “Try not to kill all of them.”
Rain’s big blue head nodded, and a roar followed, fire exploding from the throat of the wyvern. Luykas and Mave stepped back in unison, backing away from the flames. Rain hit the merchant Kita directly, causing those around her to jump up and try to run. There were too many people in the room, though, and they all wanted out. The guards weren’t even trying to take them into custody now, they were just trying to survive.
“So, who here wants to get my people?” Alchan asked, enraged. He stepped closer to the fire, completely unafraid. “River?” When the human didn’t answer, Alchan grabbed him and threw him toward the fire.
“We can’t!” Laurent screamed as the furious king turned on him. “Kita snuck them out on one of her merchant ships this morning! Reports of sabotage have forced the Elvasi to consider using decoy ships. They’ve already left for the Empire.”
Mave’s heart sank into her stomach.
“You’ll come with us,” Alchan snarled. “Let’s go.” He grabbed Laurent and pulled him up. “You’re going to find me a ship, supplies, and you’re going to let my Andinna into the city. You didn’t want the city to fall? That’s what you’re going to do this to make sure it doesn’t happen.”
“Y-Ye-Yes…Yes, Your Majesty.”
“Rain, let me get this one out of here, then burn the rest of them. We don’t need them. Mave, kill anyone in our way.”
She grinned. “Can do, Your Majesty.”
“Rain, I’m staying here until you shift back so we can get out together!” Luykas yelled over the screams and cracking of stone as it heated up.
Mave backed away, ducking Rain’s wing. She stabbed a guard in the back who had been fighting with the door. She didn’t have time to worry about the lock. With a swift kick, the door flew open for her, and she started running, looking over her shoulder to make sure Alchan was behind her. She rounded a corner and shoved a human to the ground, driving her sword down to kill him without blinking. They didn’t encounter anyone else, hitting the street at a full run.
“How many Elvasi are left in the city?” Alchan asked, yanking the human to his feet as he tried to fall down.
“Uh…four ships. The rest left to escort Kita’s ship to Ellantia.” Laurent turned to see the building burning.
“Come closer, and you die,” Mave snarled as more guards ran up.
“Sir, what’s happening?” One tried to walk up, his hands up, and she swung her right-handed blade to meet the human’s vulnerable neck. She didn’t kill him, but her message was clear.
“We’re going to help the Andinna find a ship to help save their people,” Laurent answered, his voice shaking. “Call on Kita’s second and have him meet us here.”
“Yes, sir! You heard him, men. Move!”
Mave watched them leave, edgy, wanting more blood.
“Alchan, they’re out at sea. What are we going to do?”
“We’ll talk about it on the ship,” he answered softly.
“As long as we’re getting them, I’m happy.” She smiled over her shoulder. “As long as we don’t let her get away with this.”
“That’s the general idea.” Alchan’s returning smile was bloodthirsty.
The streets were flooding with people, all screaming about the fire, but they gave Mave and her king a wide berth. She snapped when one tried to get close to her, and that seemed to work well enough as a warning to all of them. A few moments later, Rain and Luykas ran out, coughing. Shoving a human out of the way, she grabbed Rain and pulled him close.
“Everyone’s taken care of!” Luykas yelled, grabbing her shoulder so she felt a wave of his worry and relief tangled up in a mess. “We might want to back away from the b
uilding. It’s probably going to collapse.”
“We’ll be fine here if we stay out in the street,” Alchan replied mildly. “Good job, Rainev.”
“Thank you, sir.” Rain coughed. “You would think since I breathe fire, smoke shouldn’t bother me.”
“We need to find you a cloak,” she pointed out. “Or some pants.”
“Not a priority right now. There’s who I’ve been waiting for.” Alchan nodded to a unit of guards coming toward them. They parted to reveal a young man, his eyes wide at the devastation behind Mave and the other Andinna, obvious who caused it.
“Those chairs sat for seven hundred years,” he whispered. “What did you do?”
“I’ve lived for eighteen hundred. You’ll make new chairs. You humans always do.” Alchan’s voice had little sympathy for the human. “Here’s the deal. You have four Elvasi ships in your harbor. Are they well supplied?”
“Yes…sir?” The human obviously didn’t know who he was talking to. Mave honestly felt a little bad for him.
“Alchan Andini.”
“He’s the King of the Andinna. Give him what he wants. The blue one turns into a fucking wyvern.” Laurent was shaking. “Do it, Charles. Don’t argue with them.”
“We, uh, supplied them ourselves.”
“How many men can one ship sustain and for how long a trip?”
“Um. They’re designed for working off small crews and carrying passengers. They aren’t built for war at sea but moving troops around…They can fit nearly three hundred soldiers, running off forty-man crews.”
“Perfect,” Alchan purred. “Luykas, fly to our people. Tell them to start coming into the city and meet us at the docks. Mave and Rain, you’ll come with me. We’re going to take a ship.”
“Brother…”
“Have Leshaun find Sen. Bryn will see what’s going on and know where to find us. Hopefully, he’s found the Hornbuckles by now.”
“They disappeared at the beginning of winter,” Laurent whispered. “When the Elvasi arrived. We tried to have them arrested at Shadra’s request, but they disappeared.”
“Good. That means they’re probably alive.” Alchan squeezed the back of the human’s neck, causing him to whimper. “Lucky for you.”
Mave felt like a conqueror. They had just taken Blackstone, killed its leaders, and claimed the city in their own name. People got out of their way as Laurent told the guards to stand down.
“Mave, you and I are going to clear out one of the ships. I’m sure we can do it on our own. Rain, you’ll burn the other three.”
“I thought I didn’t like you,” Mave commented casually. “That’s no longer the case.”
“What? You’re glad your king is just as bloodthirsty as you?”
She didn’t answer, only smiled. It felt like she really understood him now. He walked with his shoulders square like he’d run the city for centuries. He was a king, and she was his warrior—it felt right.
When the docks came into sight, Alchan stopped, waving for Rain to move. He shifted back into his wyvern form and took to the air. Mave stood at Alchan’s right, watching Rain’s blue form soar high in the red moonlight then drop, a stream of fire hitting a ship with unerring precision. The Elvasi ships were obvious with Shadra’s blue and gold colors on their sails, while the Blackstone merchant ships had dark greys and reds.
By the time the second ship was on fire, soldiers were jumping into the ocean.
“Looks like they’re just going to give me their ship,” Alchan noticed. He let go of their captive, and Laurent backed away swiftly, falling to the ground.
Her king started walking slowly down to the piers, and she followed. He didn’t redraw his sword, but she kept hers out, ready to defend them. She appreciated the confidence he had in her. He didn’t seem concerned when an Elvasi soldier saw him and tried to attack. He stopped, and she spun around him, gutting the fool. Many were too busy running from the wyvern overhead to notice them, but she cut through those who did with ease, carving a path through the Elvasi. They weren’t armored, barely dressed, many carrying loose swords and some with no quivers for their bows.
It was easy. Even those just running to safety met the edge of her blades while Alchan followed. She let blood splatter on her, and when the Elvasi started running instead of fighting, she roared in victory, knowing she looked like an Andinna warrior through and through, covered in blood, her canines showing for the world to see. She snapped her wings once, shaking loose blood from them. They approached the last pier with the last Elvasi ship together, no one attempting to stop them.
“Good work, warrior.” Alchan reached out and patted her shoulder, not appearing to mind blood got on his hands. There was respect in his eyes she didn’t often see from him. “Good work.”
“Thank you. Now, are we going to take this ship or not?” She bared a canine in a victorious smirk.
“We are.” He readjusted his sword belt, seeming not to be in any rush. “It’s a big ship…”
“Are we going to leave some of the Andinna behind?” she asked as he finally drew his sword as they walked down the pier to the last Elvasi ship. Rain landed on the deck of the ship, causing it to rock and roared, scaring more Elvasi to jump into the dark waters.
“No. This ship has plenty of space and supplies for our group. We only have a hundred Andinna. Even with the rescued females, we’ll be fine.”
“That’s not a lot,” she pointed out softly.
“The biggest army in the world is only twenty-five thousand men, and it’s the Empire, supplementing with humans. A strong army of Andinna is only upwards to ten thousand, at our best. We were running with eight thousand for most of the War. Eight thousand versus twenty-five. Think about that.” He smirked as he strode up the ramp to the deck. The smirk was gone when they reached the deck. “We lost a majority of that force at the last battle, but don’t discount a hundred Andinna warriors. We can take on a thousand men if we’re smart and come out with little to no losses.”
“Luykas said once…three-fourths of our people are enslaved. Are we really so small of a race?”
“He’s mostly right. Based on the amount of free Andinna we have, there’s probably many we’re missing, and we don’t know how the birthing rate is for the enslaved Andinna. We’ve never had large numbers like humans, but Elvasi have the same problem. There aren’t many of us long-lived people.” Alchan leaned on a rail. “This was the easiest ship capture I’ve ever seen or been a part of.”
“A bit of easy isn’t a bad thing,” she reminded him. “I’m going to check below.”
“Good idea. Be careful. I’m going to wait with Rainev for the rest.”
She didn’t say anything else, patting his shoulder and heading to the door that would lead below deck. She didn’t bother trying to be silent, stomping down the stairs. She could hear movement but didn’t know if it was outside the ship or inside it.
She found her first victim running out of a door, barely dressed. The Elvasi could barely get a scream out when she sliced him open from shoulder to navel.
For Senri, for Allaina, for all of them—she was going to kill every Elvasi she found and claim the ship as her own.
Two more ran from below, carrying bags of something.
“Trying to steal something before you were forced to leave?” she asked lightly. “You should have abandoned ship.”
One mumbled an obscenity, dropping whatever he carried. It spilled open, gold coins covering the floor. She charged, sinking a blade into each of them. The gold coins turned red as she let the sailors bleed out on them.
The rest of the ship was clear. The Elvasi had been smart, running for their lives when they caught Rain burning the other ships, probably thinking they were next. She walked up to the deck again to see Luykas beside Alchan.
“There are three dead bodies. I expected more,” she told them.
“A lot of them were probably out drinking for the evening, hooking up with prostitutes.” Luykas crossed his
arms, frowning at her. “Did you find them dead?”
“Of course not.” She wiped her swords on her pants, smiling. “Is everyone coming?”
“Are we really going to do this, Alchan?” He ignored her, looking at his brother with a frown. “Are we really going to assault the Empire? We’re talking about going to Ellantia. It’s a major port city like Myrsten. It’s going to be impossible to get everyone out alive. Blackstone in Olost is one thing but…”
“Ask my warrior,” Alchan murmured, nodding in her direction. Luykas narrowed his eyes on her. “She understands.”
“I don’t care where we have to go, we’re getting them back.” She sheathed her swords and reached out to run a hand over Rain’s large blue tail, which flicked as if her touch spooked him. “If any of us die in the process, that’s the risk we have to take. Shadra doesn’t get to take what’s ours. Not anymore.”
25
Brynec
Brynec was standing on top of a building when he saw smoke billowing from the center of the city. He could hear the muffled roar of something he knew well—Rain’s wyvern.
That can’t be good.
Getting into the city had been easy, but getting out now was going to be a real challenge.
Why can’t they stay out of trouble when they’ve got me out here alone? Every damn time.
He jumped off the building into a back alley. He knew the way to the Hornbuckle establishment in Blackstone, but he’d been taking a scenic route to check around the city for any possible problems getting out. Now that didn’t matter. A fire and a wyvern were going to wake up everyone in the city. He had to find out what happened to the Hornbuckles and find out before the guards started killing every Andinna they might see. He was good at hiding, but he wasn’t fucking magic. He would get seen eventually.
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