She staggered back, the heat intense on her skin, and her leg throbbing with pain.
‘Shields,’ she cried above the roar of the flames and the screams from within the inferno. ‘Close up.’
Kylon and Fang arrived at her flanks, their shields raised, and they gathered by the boulder where she had been shot. Leah joined them from the other side, and crouched with her shield up, and Keira put her own shield in place to fully enclose them.
Someone had dragged Niall in the centre of the squad, where Flora tried to staunch the wound from the arrow in his belly.
‘You get hit?’ Kylon called to Keira.
‘Aye,’ she said, peering at the fire raging in the forest through a gap in the circle of shields. ‘My own fucking fault. Was day-dreaming.’
‘Niall!’ Flora cried.
Keira glanced down. The Holdings man was unconscious. Blood was seeping from his guts, despite Flora holding down a torn section of his shirt that she had ripped off. Her arms were red to the elbows.
‘Shit,’ Keira said. She grabbed the arrow in her own leg, gritted her teeth, and yanked it out.
‘Fucking bastard,’ she grunted. Kylon tied a strip of cloth around her leg, and she held the arrowhead up to her nose and sniffed.
‘The fire’s dying down,’ Leah said.
Keira glanced up. Small flames were dotting an area about fifteen metres wide by thirty metres long, where trees had stood a few minutes previously, but was now filled with blackened stumps and swirling ash. Long objects that could have been branches or bodies littered the smoking ground. Glowing pine needles span up through the night sky, and the forest was silent.
‘Flora,’ Keira whispered, ‘keep the lamp ready.’
‘He’s going to die,’ she said.
‘You in the clearing!’ a voice called out from the forest in Sanangka. ‘Let’s talk.’
‘Bit late for that ya dipshit fucks,’ Keira shouted back. ‘You could have talked before you started shooting at us.’
‘We fucked up,’ the voice said. ‘We didn’t know you had a fire mage.’
‘Well you fucking know now. Any more attacks, and I’ll burn the bawsacks off the lot of ye.’
‘What are you doing in Sanang?’
‘What’s it to you?’
‘You’ve invaded my patch, that’s what it fucking is to me. Let’s talk, see if we can come to an arrangement.’
‘I want a healer first,’ Keira said. ‘You hit one of my guys.’
‘Do you think I’ll just hand over my hedgewitch to you? Do you think I’m stupid?’
‘You’ve already proved that. Send your man over. I’ll let him go once he’s done his healing. If you don’t, then I could always set the rest of your shitty wee forest on fire. Your choice, ya fud.’
There was silence from the forest.
‘Maybe you should try being friendlier,’ Fang said. ‘No warrior would take being spoken to like that from…’
‘Don’t fucking say it, Fang.’
The undergrowth rustled, and a short, wide legged man approached, his eyes darting about. He came to the circle of shields, and Kylon ushered him through.
The hedgewitch knelt by Niall’s side. He gestured to Fang, and the warrior leant forward, and pulled the arrow from the Holdings man’s belly, a stream of fluid gushing out from the wound. The hedgewitch placed his hands on Niall’s stomach and closed his eyes. Niall’s body spasmed and twisted, and Flora let out a cry.
The bleeding stopped, and Niall lay still, panting but unconscious.
The hedgewitch nodded, and Keira pointed to her leg.
‘That as well.’
The hedgewitch placed a hand on her calf, and Keira felt a glorious jolt of life surge through her.
‘Thanks,’ she said. ‘All right, off ye go.’
The hedgewitch looked almost surprised, then dashed off between the shields and disappeared into the dark forest.
‘How is he?’ Keira asked Flora.
‘His wound has closed,’ she said, ‘and he’s breathing. I think he’s going to make it.’
Keira smiled.
‘All right,’ she shouted into the forest, ‘come closer, let’s talk.’ She turned to Flora. ‘Get the fire going again, just in case.’
‘Yes, ma’am.’
She waited until a few flames started to rise, then got to her feet, keeping her shield in front of her, her back to the fire. Kylon stood to her right, Fang to her left, while Leah kept an eye on the other side of the fire.
The undergrowth parted, and half a dozen men walked forward, the hedgewitch among them. In their centre was a short, lean warrior, his head covered in tattoos.
‘You are the fire mage?’ he said to her, halting ten paces away.
‘Aye.’
‘The one the Holdings are looking for?’
‘Aye,’ Keira said. ‘You know about me out here?’
‘No,’ the man said. ‘I heard about you outside Plateau City.’
‘You were there?’
‘Yes. Like you, I am also wanted by the king.’
‘The emperor,’ Kylon said. ‘As of today, Guilliam is emperor of the world.’
‘Hogshit,’ the man spat. ‘They’ll never rule here.’
‘Every nation has submitted to the emperor, including Agang Garo, who is now king of Sanang.’
The man snarled. ‘That fucking traitor, I knew he’d sell us out to those horse-loving bastards.’ He glanced at his men. ‘What did I tell you, lads? You heard him, Agang thinks he’s king, and has bowed his knee to Guilliam.’
The Sanang men were shaking with rage.
‘So we both hate the emperor,’ Keira said. ‘What else you got? You need me more than I need you. How many warriors do you have?’
‘Fewer than I had a fucking hour ago,’ the man said, his eyes wild with anger.
‘Then you shouldn’t have attacked me,’ she shrugged. ‘Answer my question.’
‘Sixty,’ he said.
‘That’ll do for a start,’ she said. ‘What’s your name?’
‘B’Dang D’Bang,’ he said. ‘And yours?’
‘Keira ae Caela ae Kell.’
‘Keira kill-kill,’ said Fang, standing proud beside her.
B’Dang grinned.
‘Welcome to Sanang, Keira kill-kill.’
Copyright © Christopher Mitchell 2018
Cover Illustration by Irina French
Cover Typography by Deranged Doctor Design
Cover Copyright © Brigdomin Books Ltd 2018
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Christopher Mitchell asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
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All the characters in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is purely coincidental.
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All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems (except for the use of brief quotations in a book review), if you would like permission to use material from the book please contact [email protected]
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Brigdomin Books Ltd
First Edition, May 2019
Ebook Edition © May 2019
ISBN 978-1-912879-05-2
The Severed City Page 47