by R A Oakes
“So what are we going to do?” Crystal asked Chen.
“Would anyone care to hear my thoughts on the matter?” Andrina asked.
“Only everyone,” Chen said as she, Gwendylln and Corson turned to the older warrior woman giving her their undivided attention.
Crystal looked at Andrina in a very guarded manner. Even though Chen remained outwardly calm, Crystal could sense how relieved she was that Andrina had a suggestion.
Chen has a child-like faith in Andrina, and I don’t like that one bit, the dark sword thought becoming filled with suspicion and jealousy.
However, Crystal’s personal concerns would have to wait. Battle plans had to be made and quickly!
“You have ten wolfhounds that you’ve been holding in reserve, right?” Andrina asked the black leather panther.
“Yes, but only five are healthy. The rest are wounded. Over a dozen died earlier when they attacked Lord Daegal’s army.”
“Can the wounded ones fight?”
“Yes.”
“Well, here’s what I propose. We have 64 flame warriors and 64 ruby ones. I think we should have 100 of them reinforce your archers in the center of the courtyard.”
“No!” Crystal shouted. “Lord Daegal and his 200 black crystal warriors will rip right through the 28 that are left!”
Andrina gave Crystal a stern look of disapproval. The older warrior woman didn’t like being interrupted when explaining battle strategy. And she didn’t suffer fools gladly.
Horrified that Crystal had interrupted her mentor, Chen shook the dark sword as a warning and said, “Show some respect.”
Crystal was shocked. In 500 years, no one had spoken to her like that. No one had dared, fearing the consequences. The dark sword glared at Andrina with a look of pure hatred filled with malignant evil. Conjuring up hideous mental images with her imagination, she attempted to project them into Andrina’s consciousness hoping to cripple the warrior woman with terror.
Feeling confident, Crystal waited for Andrina to crumble in the face of such intimidation tactics, but the older warrior woman didn’t even blink.
“Nice try,” Andrina said dismissing the dark sword’s temper tantrum.
This made Crystal so angry that she began shaking, but Chen thought the dark sword was trembling in fear over the coming fight with Lord Daegal.
“Don’t be frightened. Just stay calm, keep your wits about you and obey Andrina,” the black leather panther said reassuringly.
Upon hearing that, Crystal’s temper went from red hot to white hot. Having to endure Chen’s patronizing attitude on top of everything else was just too much. The dark sword’s blade got so hot that smoke began seeping out of her scabbard. However, Chen took this as an encouraging sign and thought Crystal was trying to summon up her courage.
“That’s right, get mad. Anger can drive away fear,” Chen said trying to be encouraging.
Andrina didn’t smile or take pleasure in Crystal’s discomfort even though the older warrior woman knew how much the dark sword disliked her. Instead, Andrina stayed focused, stuck to the task at hand, kept a balanced attitude and was, well, very professional. Crystal, by comparison, appeared to be emotionally immature.
The dark sword was learning what it’s like to be around intelligent, powerful women who are experienced, competent and fearless. These warrior women were a far cry from her former master, Glenitant, and Crystal didn’t like it.
“As I mentioned before, I want 100 warriors to reinforce Chen’s archers,” Andrina said. Then, looking at Jewel and Flame, she added, “At first, all I want you to do is fight a holding action. I’ll be sending you 75 more ruby warriors and 75 more flame warriors as reinforcements. At that point, you take back the courtyard and the castle walls.”
“How long until reinforcements arrive?” Jewel asked.
“Soon after the rest of us ride out to confront Lord
Daegal.”
Crystal was dumbfounded!
“Could I have permission to speak?” she asked.
Chen smiled at the dark sword pleased that Crystal was showing Andrina the proper deference.
“Yes, you can speak,” the older warrior woman said.
“I haven’t the energy to create more Jewels and Flames as reinforcements.”
“I realize that,” Andrina said without further explanation.
Looking back at Jewel and Flame, the older warrior woman added, “You’ll get your reinforcements within the hour. But I want you to engage the enemy now and hit them hard.”
With that, a total of 100 Jewels and Flames turned, raised their swords and charged at General Gornic’s men.
“I need to talk to Aerylln and Eldwyn,” Andrina said as she watched the warrior women charging into battle. “While I do that, Corson and Gwendylln could you get our horses, please? Also, Chen, it would be a big help if you’d get Zenkak and the other wolfhounds.”
When Corson, Gwendylln and Chen ran to do Andrina’s bidding, the older warrior woman went over to Aerylln, Zorya, Baelfire and Eldwyn.
“Please lower your energy shield, I need to speak with you and Aerylln,” Andrina told the elderly wizard who was greatly relieved at not having to keep up the effort.
After kneeling next to Aerylln who was exhausted but awake, Andrina asked, “Could you and Eldwyn erect an invisible wall 300 yards long, five feet high and place it between us and Lord Daegal’s black crystal warriors?”
“How long will you need it to be there?” the young woman asked.
“Once we leave the castle, wait until they’re almost upon us, and then raise the invisible wall. You can drop it right after they slam into it.”
“We have the energy we were using for our protective shield, but it’s all we have left, and I can’t promise it will withstand the weight of 200 mounted, black crystal warriors. They might crash through it.”
“Could it withstand the force of 100 mounted warriors?”
“Possibly, but the effort could kill Eldwyn. He’s near death now,” Aerylln said wondering what trick Andrina had up her sleeve.
They both looked at the wizard who appeared to be very frail.
“Eldwyn,” Andrina said softly.
Turning his head and looking up at the warrior woman, Eldwyn said, “I’ve been listening to you. I don’t know if I can help.”
“If you can’t, we’re all dead,” Andrina said in a tense whisper. She didn’t want anyone overhearing her gloomy assessment of the situation.
“Well, not exactly,” the wizard said. “Life never really ends. All that changes is the form it takes.”
“I’m sure you’re right,” Andrina said humoring the old man. “But I’d like to spend a bit more time in this world, so what I need to know is will the wall hold?”
After struggling to his knees, Andrina helped Eldwyn to his feet. Assessing the situation, he saw the battle raging in the courtyard. Next, glancing out the entrance into the darkness, he watched the bits of flame getting closer. Then, he leaned on his staff seemingly lost in thought.
“Eldwyn, I need to know. Will the wall hold?”
The wizard took a deep breath, squared his shoulders, looked Andrina in the eye and said, “Yes, the wall will hold. I’ll make it a foot thick out of clear crystal.”
At that moment, Corson and Gwendylln approached with their horses. Corson mounted her own warhorse, Tempest, while Gwendylln, Andrina and Chen mounted the black stallions her warrior women were famous for.
Zenkak and the other wolfhounds were surrounding Chen growling and looking ferocious, which was the way they appeared most of the time. However, suffering from their wounds, some of the shaggy beasts were especially irritable and eager for a fight.
Taking a last, tentative look at the old wizard, Andrina sighed knowing her survival and the lives of all those with her depended upon him. Mustering her strength, she forced the feelings of apprehension from her mind.
“Let’s ride!” Andrina shouted.
Chapter 34
Andrina charged out of Crystal Castle with Chen, Gwendylln, Corson, 14 ruby-red warriors, 14 flame warriors and 10 wolfhounds trailing behind her. They ran at breakneck speed across a terrain made up of black crystal shards.
Chen had to ride hard to keep up with Andrina. Is there anything this woman can’t do better than everyone else? the black leather panther asked herself.
Had Andrina known what Chen was thinking, she would have laughed. The older warrior woman found exceptional ability to be a double-edged sword. It cut both ways.
As a result of Andrina’s conceptual and strategic planning skills, she was right so often that it got on people’s nerves. Insecure people began doubting themselves, ambitious people saw her as a rival, talented people felt overshadowed by her, and powerful people feared losing their influence. She made enemies easily.
Andrina had made an enemy of Crystal. The dark sword knew that she would never gain Chen’s confidence as long as the older warrior woman was alive.
Andrina was a complicated woman, except during battle.
The older warrior woman was riding out to confront fire-breathing, black crystal warriors and was out numbered six to one. Her own warriors consisted of Chen, Gwendylln and Corson, who were three extremely confrontational women. She also had humanoid women riding on horseback who looked like they’d been soaked in flammable liquid and set on fire. Those fires shed light on glistening ruby warriors turning them a deep blood red. For Andrina, this was simplicity.
Riding out of Crystal Castle’s entrance, she’d felt more relief than fear. With a sense of eager anticipation pumping adrenaline through her system, the older warrior woman watched as the gap between herself and Lord Daegal and his men shrank dramatically. Raising a hand into the air, she signaled for her warriors to stop, and they came to rest on a small rise in the field of black crystal shards.
The small group of 32 female combatants and 10 wolfhounds waited as the black crystal warlord and his 200 fire-breathing warriors bore down upon them.
When Lord Daegal saw all the Jewels and Flames, he wondered what was going on. But the warlord also noticed their small numbers and was determined not to allow them to impede his progress. Lord Daegal decided to run down his opponents and pound them into the ground. Digging his heels into his black crystal warhorse’s sides, the animal leapt forward.
As he got closer, Lord Daegal realized Chen was among the small band of warrior women and with a broad smile, he headed straight for her.
“Crystal, change the black crystal warriors behind Lord Daegal, and to his far left and right, back to human form,” Andrina said.
“But he’ll notice and hurt the Crystal Medallion!”
“No, he won’t. He’s not watching anyone other than Chen. If you look carefully, you’ll see he’s headed directly for her. Start now!”
Almost immediately, there were fewer bits of flame making their way towards them in the darkness. However, a large, central core surrounding Lord Daegal was still filled with fire-breathing warriors hungry for battle. And they were riding black crystal horses snorting smoke and flames, with red-hot hoofs covered in yellow and orange fire.
Black crystal shards flew in all directions as the warhorses kicked up sharp glass-like pieces of the shattered valley floor. Crystal had earlier paved the vast fields surrounding the castle with smooth, polished sheets of black crystal. That beauty had only lasted a short while before the dark sword had exploded the glossy surface into tens of thousands of sharp fragments. Andrina suspected that the dark sword never grew tired of making trouble, and she was right.
The older warrior woman realized Crystal was unreliable but calmly proceeded with the strategy she’d formulated. Getting the Crystal Medallion from Lord Daegal would either buy the dark sword’s cooperation or it wouldn’t. Being a realist, Andrina was hoping a sadistic magic sword was better than no magic sword at all, at least for now. And so the master strategist focused on the problem at hand, which was to defeat Lord Daegal.
“Crystal, concentrate on the Jewels and Flames back in the castle courtyard. Project your energy onto them. You’ve returned about half of Lord Daegal’s men to human form, so you should have enough energy to create 100 more warrior women as reinforcements,” Andrina said. “Do it now!”
Projecting her energy at the castle, a bolt of black lightning shot out of the dark sword flying through the nighttime sky, then slammed into the courtyard exploding right in the middle of the Jewels and Flames. Instantly, they began multiplying, and the courtyard became filled with ruby-red warriors, as well as women made of flaming red and black coals. General Gornic wasn’t easily unnerved, but he was deeply concerned about the number of reinforcements that arrived and by the way they’d materialized.
Back in a field outside Crystal Castle, Lord Daegal was in for a rude awakening of his own.
Andrina, Chen, Gwendylln, Corson, the Jewels and the Flames watched in apprehension as the fire-breathing, black crystal warriors got closer. But when almost upon them, Lord Daegal and his men just stopped.
Well, “stopped” may be too mild of a word. They crashed, slammed, careened and plowed, and they hit hard.
Dozens of fire-breathing warhorses lay crumpled behind a solid wall of…nothing! Scores of black crystal warriors were thrown from their saddles and flew over …nothing!
Eldwyn’s invisible wall had held, and vanished!
The black crystal, fire-breathing horses ran into a chest-high wall stopping them cold and sending their riders flying. The men sailed headfirst over the wall and went sprawling onto the ground.
As quickly as the clear-crystal barrier appeared, it disappeared. Most of the fire-breathing warhorses fell forward collapsing onto a valley floor already covered with shards. In the darkness, the animals looked like piles of burning logs strewn along a row 200 yards long.
“Crystal, turn all these black crystal horses back to normal and conserve your energy,” Andrina commanded.
In a moment, it was as if the row of fire had been extinguished.
The only horse making it over the wall was Lord Daegal’s massive charger. It was so gigantic that the wall had caught the animal well below the chest. The massive, black crystal horse had been sent sprawling over the barrier flipping onto its back. And the massive warhorse smashed down on Lord Daegal, who made a loud grunt before slipping into unconsciousness.
“Now!” Andrina shouted, and her human, ruby and flaming warriors leapt forward into battle.
Sadly, from Lord Daegal’s black crystal warriors’ point of view, Chen had a major trick up her sleeve. When the black leather panther had fought Glenitant, and then Jewel and Flame, the warrior woman learned an important lesson. She’d discovered that a sword isn’t the best weapon to use against a ruby or crystal warrior. Jewel’s body was so hard that it had deflected a blow from Chen’s sword with the metal edge sliding along the ruby warrior’s leg rather than cutting into it. Ever highly adaptable, Chen had solved the problem by smashing Jewel in the face with the flat side of her sword shattering one whole side of the ruby-red woman’s head and sending gems flying all over the castle floor.
Chen had learned her lesson well, and as the warrior women now rode towards the black crystal warriors, they all reached for maces hanging from the pommels of their saddles. They were metal, sledgehammer-like weapons that could be slammed against the enemy.
Before leaving the castle, Chen had explained to the warrior women that you don’t cut crystal, you shatter it!
Chen’s mace had a wooden handle with one end of a chain attached to the top. The other end was connected to a large, iron ball with spikes sticking out of it. Holding the handle in her right hand, the black leather panther whirled the metal ball around and around over her head. Picking a target, Chen rode towards a black crystal warrior struggling to get back on his feet. When he saw the warrior woman coming at him, he drew his sword, but it did him no good.
The black leather panther swung the iron ball bringing it down upon his
chest, and the warrior exploded in a shower of black crystal shards that flew in all directions.
Seeing that, Andrina smiled. She liked Chen’s inventiveness. As for herself, the older warrior woman was wielding two maces, one in each hand. She fought as well with her left arm as she did with her right.
Andrina’s maces had no chains attached, simply having a wooden handle with a heavy iron ball at the end. The wooden shaft was inserted into the iron ball and secured making the wood and metal as one.
The older warrior woman was in her element and rode along the line of black crystal warriors sprawled on the ground smashing heads like pumpkins. War is brutal, and Andrina was a gifted warrior, but that didn’t mean she enjoyed it. Battle required a cold-hearted practicality that she’d mastered long ago, much to her regret. She knew that every life she took made her more callous, that her own sensitivity was damaged by it.
How could it not? Only by emotionally distancing herself from her own actions could Andrina do what was required of her. After a prolonged battle, it was days before she could feel anything, a numbness settling on her like a protective shield keeping her from having to endure the brunt of life’s necessary cruelty.
But for Chen, it was another matter. Her tortured upbringing had already made her numb to her own feelings. And so, pushing firmly ahead, Chen grabbed Crystal by her scabbard and gave the dark sword a direct order to return more black crystal warriors to human form. But as the black leather panther continued whirling her mace over her head and bringing it down hard on her opponents, she failed to notice Crystal was disobeying her.
Instead of doing what she was told, Crystal took the energy she’d saved by returning the black crystal warhorses to normal and used it to put a force field around Lord Daegal. He’d been lying on the ground pinned under his massive warhorse, but now he was even worse off than before, the force field immobilizing him pinning his hands and arms to his sides.
But the dark sword now had what she wanted! The Crystal Medallion was safe!
It’s time for some fun, Crystal thought smiling to herself. She eagerly watched the sights and sounds of battle and had no intention of ending this conflict.