War (Guardians of The Realm Book 3)

by Amanda Fleet

  Faran dispatched some of the Guardians to help in the Great Hall. “Those of you with warning stones, keep an eye on them. If you get warning of a demon, fall back. The rest of you, with me.”

  As we approached the battle, I saw another three dead Guardians. No one I knew well, but I had no time to mourn, even if they’d been close. The remaining seven Guardians were heavily outnumbered and boxed in. Both of the stones on my wrist glowed brightly, but who was a demon and who was enslaved, I couldn’t tell.

  As we joined the fray, a skinny guy with bad skin reached into one of the Guardians and pulled out a ball of light. Faran and I fought our way over, bellowing to the other Guardians to keep out of its way. To Faran’s right, another demon killed a second Guardian, and the other Guardians scattered.

  “You take the left, I’ll take the right,” said Faran.

  A good plan, but it wasn’t to be. Having seen the Guardians fall back, the people pressed forwards, laying into both me and Faran. We might be top warriors of The Realm, but trying to fight off a dozen each proved impossible.

  “Don’t get trapped!” yelled Faran, lashing out with his sword and nearly slicing a man’s head off.

  Easier said than done. The crowd drove me inexorably towards the end of the corridor.

  “Aeron!”

  “Yeah, I know!”

  I yelled as my back smacked the wall and my sword clattered to the floor. To my relief, some of the Guardians surged forwards, attacking the backs of those trapping me and giving me some respite.

  “Don’t get near the skinny guy!” I warned.

  I couldn’t see what was happening with Faran. As the Guardians advanced, the skinny guy turned tail and legged it, skittering around the corner. I checked my wrist. Only the red stone glowed. The other demon must have gone too.

  “None of these are demons,” I called to the handful of Guardians. They didn’t hang back.

  The tide began to turn in our favour, but not completely. The people might not have been demons, but they were still armed and dangerous. There was a splintering sound next to me as a blow to a young Guardian’s head felled him instantly. His attacker brought the metal bar down again, and I almost vomited as the Guardian’s skull shattered and his brains splashed on the floor.

  “Aeron! Focus!”

  Faran’s yell came just in time for me to avoid a similar fate. The man who’d just swung at me tried to grab my sword. His head came into range of my kick and I sent him cannoning into a second man, blood pouring from his nose. I snatched my sword up, the area around me now clear.

  Faran was devastating as he fought, dispatching the mob with clinical precision. He caught my eye, obviously exasperated at me standing and admiring.

  “Yeah, I’m coming,” I muttered, and ploughed back into the thickest part of the battle.

  Another Guardian died before we’d either killed or restrained everyone. Like the guy who’d had his brains spilled on the floor, she was hit in the head. Unlike the other guy, she didn’t die instantly but lay on the floor, breathing peculiarly, her eyes rolling up in their sockets. By the time the fight was over and I could get to her side to try to offer some comfort, her eyes were glassy, although I could still feel a weak pulse. I hit my communications button to summon a healer, but her pulse faded away and I scrabbled at her throat, desperate to find it again.

  “Healer, training quarters. Area twelve,” I gasped out. Even if this woman died, plenty of others needed treatment. Tears burned my eyes.

  Faran’s hand closed over mine. “Hey. You did what you could. She’s dead. We need to see what’s happening in the Great Hall. Are you hurt?”

  I stared at the woman, then scrubbed my hand under my nose, sniffing. “Not badly. You?”

  “No.” He tapped his communications button. “Sondan? What’s happening?”

  “The Great Hall is secure. What’s happening with you?”

  “The training areas are secure, but there are two demons loose we didn’t manage to capture. Seventeen dead Guardians. Several dead from the provinces. More injured and in the process of being secured. We’re going to go and check on the demon we captured unless you need us.”

  “No. Bring the demon and all the prisoners to the Great Hall.”

  Faran closed the line and offered me a hand up. “You okay?”

  My eyes locked on a blob of grey tissue on the floor. “No.”

  The adrenaline of the fight was fading quickly, leaving me shaking. Faran pulled me close. He smelled of sweat and the metallic tang of blood, and my stomach heaved.

  “Aeron, hold it together. Look at me.”

  I couldn’t drag my gaze from the carnage on the floor. Faran grasped my chin, forcing my head up. “Look at me.”

  My breathing juddered, but I locked eyes with him and his grip on my face softened.

  “Sh,” he soothed. “Keep it together. Breathe.”

  “How are you so calm?” My voice was ragged.

  “I’m not. I just look calm. Breathe. The fight is over. Six breaths, Aeron. Come on. You can do this.”

  He held my jaw, making it impossible for me to look at anything other than his face. Quietly, he counted six breaths with me.

  “Okay? Aeron, you’re going to look up at the ceiling. Focus on the sky. I’m going to walk us back to where Annan is. Ready? Look up. And keep breathing.”

  I stared at the clouds through the glass ceiling. Faran pinned me to his side and walked me out of the battleground, back to where Annan and the other two guarded the demon and the prisoners. By the time we reached there, I’d just about got myself together, but it wouldn’t take much for me to lose it again.

  The demon spat and snarled in the corner of the hallway, unable to go anywhere. Two of the tied prisoners had died and the three Guardians we’d left there were in the process of retying the remaining people so that they could be moved.

  “Lord Sondan wants them in the Great Hall,” said Faran as the prisoners got back to their feet.

  After a long questioning look at me, he walked over to the demon. It hissed. Faran kicked it in the head and the demon slumped back. Faran turned to me. “Can you manage to help me carry him?”

  I nodded shakily. We hefted the demon up to our shoulders and followed Annan to the Great Hall. I tried not to think about what we might find there.

  26

  The Great Hall was eerily quiet. While a small group of Guardians stacked bodies at the side, Lord Sondan was in the process of cuffing several people and Lord Eredan stood guard over others. We herded our group of prisoners towards the others, and Faran and I dumped the demon on the floor. The smell of blood made my stomach lurch. I forced myself to keep my eyes on Faran.

  Lord Eredan strode over. “The patrol is on their way back. Take this thing to the technicians’ quarter and make it secure. Find a technician that’s still true to The Realm. As soon as the patrol is back, the technician will grind one of the stones and we’ll destroy the demon.”

  “Where are all these guys going?” I waved my hand at the array of prisoners.

  “Nowhere. They’ll be chained and kept in here. There are no cells large enough to contain them all. Lady Aeron, you’re very pale. Are you injured?”

  “No, Lord Eredan.”

  His eyes narrowed, but he dismissed both of us without comment.

  “Shall we?” I pointed shakily to the demon, and the two of us picked it up again.

  At the technicians’ quarters, we chained the demon to the wall, using the rings that had been used to secure the first lot of enslaved people. I left Faran keeping an eye on the demon while I hunted for a technician. After Aegyir killed Hesta, most of them had fled, but eventually, I found a young woman in an out-of-the-way room. She started violently when I pushed the door open, her eyes wide. The warning stones on my wrist told me that she was neither a demon nor enslaved.

  “What’s your name?” I asked. She looked barely old enough to be working.

  “Nessa, Lady Aeron.”


  “Okay, Nessa. We have a captured demon in the room over there. The patrol is returning. When they arrive, they’ll give you their talisman stones. You have to grind one of them up and help us to destroy the demon. Do you know how to?”

  “Not really.” She trembled.

  “Okay.” I didn’t want to terrify her any further, but we needed to get the job done. “Did Hesta keep any notes?”

  She nodded rapidly. “Yes.”

  “Can you find them and read them? Work out what you need to do? You’ll need three Guardians to help you. I’ll see to that, and I’ll meet you when the patrol returns.”

  I returned to Faran. “Nessa, the only technician I’ve found and who looks like she’s about twelve, needs three Guardians to stick the daggers in before the dust gets scattered over the demon to destroy it.”

  He peered at me, saying nothing.

  “What?” I asked.

  “I’m trying to work out if the demon is strong enough to need you as one of the triad.”

  Nessa appeared before I could reply, clutching a pile of books. Faran found her a chair and table and placed them a safe distance from the demon. “If he moves or threatens you, leave the room and lock the door. Call one of us.”

  Nessa nodded, her face ashen.

  Faran turned to me. “Great Hall. Nessa, let us know when the patrol arrives?”

  ***

  The Great Hall had filled with Guardians expecting lunch. Unfortunately, four demons had come to feed as well, and the quiet room we’d left had become a boiling mass of chaos. In the middle of the Great Hall, people crumpled to the floor as the demons reached into them and wrenched out their energy. The air was filled with screaming. The Guardians were trying to keep control, but the cooks and serving staff were blind with panic, desperate to flee. None of the Guardians was protected, and two of them succumbed to a demon as I watched.

  It was all suddenly too much for me. This would be another massacre. I was an artist who couldn’t even hold a pen properly any more, never mind a sword.

  My breathing rate shot up, and I hung back, my legs trembling. Faran turned back to me. “Aeron?”

  “I can’t.” Tears prickled my eyes. “Faran, I can’t.”

  He stood directly in front of me, his face hard. “You have to. You’re protected by a talisman and I won’t take it off you.”

  “Faran, I can’t.”

  “Then a great many people in here will die. Would you rather that happened?”

  I sobbed, petrified. The screams in the hall pierced my soul and guilt flowed through me, but my adrenaline had run out, leaving me shaky and unable to get a grip on my fears. Behind Faran, I heard Lord Eredan roar at us.

  “Aeron, please,” said Faran “You can do this. You have to do this. I can’t stand here and protect you, and if I leave you, you’ll be hurt. Aeron, please!”

  He was jerked away from me before I could respond, Lord Eredan snapping instructions as he hauled on his son’s collar.

  “Faran, get the non-Guardians out of the room. Find anyone with warning stones and get them on the doors. Only those with no warning stones are allowed to leave. All Guardians with warning stones will protect others. Move!” Lord Eredan turned to me. “Go and help Lord Sondan.”

  Faran’s eyes pleaded with me, but I couldn’t move. My brain bellowed at my legs, but they were rooted to the spot.

  “Lady Aeron. Go and help Sondan!”

  “I can’t,” I whispered.

  Lord Eredan’s palm cracked across my cheek. “Do as you’re told.”

  Faran gave me a final imploring look before he had to go. I tried to lock my knees, sucking in a deep breath. Lord Eredan slapped me again.

  “Get yourself together, Lady Aeron, and go and help Lord Sondan. You are less than worthless to me in this state.”

  From somewhere, I summoned up enough courage to get moving, and stumbled forwards, blinking, trying to locate Lord Sondan. Lord Eredan was right – I was less than useless if I didn’t get myself together and fight.

  The hall was clearing slowly, but a bottleneck had formed at the doors. I gulped as demons snatched the energy from those trapped in the hall. Breathing hard, I stepped to one side, my legs wobbly.

  “Come on. Pull yourself together,” I muttered at myself.

  Around me, bodies of dead kitchen staff littered the floor and I forced my gaze elsewhere. Eight Guardians with warning stones covered the doors, hurrying people out. The others with warning stones fought the demons and half a dozen enslaved people. I gasped in horror as two more Guardians had their light plucked from their chests.

  I still couldn’t get eyes on Lord Sondan. I stumbled to the two fallen Guardians and grabbed their charm-bracelets. I ducked under a punch from one of the slaves and brought my knee up sharply into his groin, fighting on instinct alone. One of the demons reached towards my chest, before recoiling with a hiss and fleeing. I pressed a charm-bracelet into the palm of a Guardian trying to leave.

  “Put it on.”

  The man’s face fell. I’d just taken his ticket out of here from him. It was thin comfort to know other Guardians were as scared as I was. I gave the other bracelet to another Guardian who nodded and turned to join the fray.

  The room emptied, leaving four enraged demons, fewer than half a dozen slaves, and about twenty Guardians able to fight. Another eight Guardians covered the doors. Guardians surrounded two of the demons, keeping them at sword-point, beyond arm’s reach. Only the four of us with talismans could actually restrain the demons though. I finally spotted Lord Sondan, lying on the floor. He wasn’t bleeding, as far as I could tell. Before I could make my way to him, a hand grabbed a fistful of my jacket and pulled me backwards. Faran.

  “Let’s secure those two demons. Sondan’s not going anywhere, and I’ve sent two Guardians to protect him.”

  Heavy thuds rang around the Great Hall as solid planks of wood slotted into place on the exits, barring them. Those who’d been guarding the doors joined the general melee in the middle of the room, clearing a way for Faran and me to get to the two demons held by a ring of Guardians.

  The demons had stopped bothering to shape-shift. One of them reached out a claw-like hand to my chest, then snarled and ripped his arm back. His eyes burned red, spittle flying from his lips as he hissed. I stepped back, flinching. At my side, the second demon growled and spat at Faran. Faran brought the hilt of his sword down vertically, poleaxing the creature, then turned to the one circling me. I shifted position, luring the demon so that it had its back to Faran. He stepped in and smashed it in the back of its head.

  “You okay,” he asked, his eyes dark with worry.

  “I don’t know. Ask me again later.”

  He reached out and rubbed my shoulder, bunching his lips. “Let’s get these things secured.”

  We cuffed their hands and feet and tied them back-to-back, their arms lashed to their sides.

  Faran straightened, beckoning to the nearest Guardian. “Stand guard over them. No closer than a sword’s length. One of you go and get daggers and two vessels. If necessary, make the triad. Get more senior Guardians to help if you have to. Protect your backs.”

  I scanned the Great Hall. On one side was a small group of Guardians in a stand-off with a demon, their backs protected from angry people by a second ring of Guardians. Behind me, I could hear the clash of swords from a skirmish between the remaining Guardians and slaves. To my left was a second group that looked as if the Guardians might be gaining the upper hand over the demon. Lord Sondan had got back to his feet and approached that group. From the excessive spitting and snarling, and the lack of arrogant taunting, I didn’t think any of the demons in the Great Hall was Aegyir. He was too smart to get embroiled in this kind of fray.

  We turned to help one of the groups and Faran blanched, his eyes on the fight in the middle of the Great Hall. I followed his gaze. Standing tall, covered in blood, was Orian, sword in hand. At his feet lay three dead Guardians. I didn’t think the blood on
Orian was his. He turned to look at us.

  “Ah. My dear brother. I wondered when you would arrive.” Aegyir’s tone and lilt, even if it was Orian speaking.

  Lord Eredan appeared at Faran’s side, sword drawn.

  “Alive if you can,” Lord Eredan murmured. “But dead if not.” He gave me a look that burned to my core. “I need you to be ready to fight him. Are you?”

  I nodded, not sure I was. He tilted his head a fraction, sending me to the left of Orian. Faran took the right, and Lord Eredan faced his elder son head-on.

  “Orian, you’re surrounded,” said Faran. “You’ve never been able to beat me. You don’t stand a chance against Aeron and Father as well. It would be better if you surrendered.”

  “Oh, you’d like that. You’d like me to yield so that you can be the all-conquering hero. Would it help you get re-elected? That is all you care about.”

  “My duty is to The Realm, Orian. As yours should have been.”

  Orian turned to me. “I might not beat him, but I think I can beat you.”

  “I wouldn’t be so sure about that, brother.”

  Orian sized me up. My legs still felt like jelly, and I prayed he wouldn’t attack me. He took a step towards me, smiling nastily, and it was everything I could do to hold my ground. I gripped my sword as tightly as I could. Behind him, both Faran and his father closed in. Orian turned at the sound.

  “Would you really kill me, Father? When I am not of sound mind.”

  “Without hesitation, if it protected The Realm. Surrender.”

  “No.”

  He whirled back to me, and the tip of his sword scraped a line across my jacket. I crabbed backwards then spun, the toe of my boot catching him in the chin and sending him sprawling towards Faran.

  “Orian. Look at who you’re facing,” said Faran, his voice laced with frustration.

  But he wasn’t only talking to Orian; he was also talking to Aegyir, who believed he would conquer the world. Orian leapt to his feet and charged at me. I side-stepped, and he staggered past. I tried to get him in an arm-lock, but he smashed his head back, splitting my lip, and my grip loosened enough that he could wrench himself away, knocking my sword out of my hand as he did. Faran glanced over, concern in his brow. I scrabbled back a few paces and gave him a thumbs-up. Judging from his face, he didn’t know what the gesture meant. Before I could enlighten him, Orian launched himself at me. On autopilot, I blocked his punches and landed a couple of my own, but I was fighting on empty, emotionally and physically. I hooked my elbow around Orian’s neck and tried to haul him off his feet but he stabbed backwards with a knife. It skittered off my leathers and I kicked him in the back of the knee. As he went down, he found a gap above the collar of my jacket and jammed his knife into my neck.