Blood Legacy

by Sarah Hawke

  “Did you seriously believe you could destroy this whole camp yourself? I always knew you were an arrogant cunt. Honestly, I used to respect you for it.”

  Valuri frowned. The shadowy figure was clad in the familiar skin-tight leather of another Huntress, but her red hood concealed her full identity until she stepped closer. The woman’s face had been burned so badly even her Senosi regeneration hadn’t fully repaired her flesh, but her eyes were as dark and intense as ever.

  “I assume that amazon of yours must be here as well,” Lasille said. “I can’t wait to feed upon her, too…”

  Valuri hissed. “Maybe you should worry about putting on some more makeup first. You know, to get some color back in those melted cheeks.”

  “When I feed off your little harem, I’ll have more than enough power to repair the damage. Sadly, you won’t be so lucky. The Inquisitrix will hang you by your tits right in the public square.”

  “Sorry, the girls don’t give free shows,” Valuri said, checking the cartridge on her crossbow. “But I’ll make sure to—”

  A sudden explosion shook the air, followed promptly by the screams of burning, terrified men. Valuri turned and watched as Serrane loosed a barrage of magical arrows into the camp, detonating supply carts and igniting tents in a calculated attempt to sow as much chaos as possible.

  In other words, now that stealth and subterfuge had failed, the general had apparently fallen back on the contingency plan they had never made, otherwise known as “blow as much shit up as possible to buy us time to escape.” Valuri doubted the confusion would last for long, but it was better than nothing. All she had to do was kill an old friend who should have already been dead.

  “That’s not your sorcerer,” Lasille said, her glowing eyes narrowing. “You came here with the elf general, didn’t you?”

  “Surprise!” Valuri said, popping out of cover and firing. Lasille flipped away, easily dodging the first two bolts, but the third struck her in the arm and knocked her own crossbow from her grip. Valuri didn’t hesitate; she unsheathed her wrist-blade and charged. Lasille deflected the first slash with her claws, and soon the two women were madly slashing and swiping for each other’s throats.

  They were so similar in size, strength, and training that every move was essentially a mirror of the other. The problem was that all Lasille had to do was stall…and she knew it.

  “Marcella will want me to keep you alive until we’re back in the Castarium,” Lasille said, grabbing Valuri’s wrists and holding her in place. “I promise you: before this night is over, every man in this camp will have had his cock buried in your ass.”

  “Then you better get a thicker hood,” Valuri snarled. “Otherwise they might accidentally look at your face and shrivel up.”

  She kicked the other woman backwards and vaulted a few yards away to catch her breath. Serrane was still launching arrows into the camp, but it was only a matter of time before the army swarmed over her…

  “When I bring the Inquisitrix your treacherous head, she will give me the elf cunt as a reward,” Lasille said. “I will drag her through the streets until every wretch in Highwind sees their Ranger-General on a leash…and there is nothing you can do to stop me.”

  Valuri grimaced as she glanced over to the vault door and the oil stored within. “I guess we’re about to find out.”

  ***

  “Vinayathrim sana lle!” Serrane hissed as she fired yet another fiery arrow into the camp. The stacked crates exploded on impact, showering the nearby tents with enough flaming debris to ignite the fur and linen. After half a dozen shots the once disparate puffs of smoke had merged into a single black cloud, and as long as she kept shuffling positions she was reasonably safe from a direct counterattack.

  For the moment, at least. But her arms were already tingling uncomfortably from Aetheric backlash, and it was only a matter of time before the enemy organized a defense and tracked her down. She had used almost this exact same tactic back in the north to scatter the Roskarim horde, but these soldiers were far better trained—and far better provisioned—than a horde of near-starving barbarians. If Valuri couldn’t figure out a way to get that vault open soon…

  Serrane snarled and dashed towards another rocky outcropping for cover. Between the darkness and the smoke, she could barely make out the Senosi Huntresses dueling by the cavern vault. Even if the elf could have seen them, the women were moving far too quickly to shoot; their bodies were little more than a blur of leather and steel. In theory, Valuri could still prevail and open the door, but the odds of her succeeding in time were diminishing by the second. Serrane needed to figure out some way of opening it herself…

  Swearing viciously under her breath, she rolled out of cover and conjured another arrow to her bowstring. One of the night guards had mounted his horse and started charging her position, but he didn’t actually spot her until it was too late. The arrow struck the ground in front of him before it burst into flame, startling his horse so badly it bucked him from the saddle and charged in the opposite direction.

  There has to be something you can do. There has to be some way to…

  She bit down on her lip and crouched as several other horses squealed in protest near the raging fires. Back in the Roskarim camp, she had used the Aether to manipulate the minds of their wolves, stirring the beasts into a frenzy against their own masters. She could easily do the same with the mounts here, assuming she could reach the stables. Horses wouldn’t be quite as terrifying as wolves, obviously, but the chaos could still buy her a little more time.

  Grimacing, Serrane vaulted back out of cover and sprinted directly into the camp. She fired as she ran, shooting normal arrows at individual soldiers and magical ones at groups. She was only about thirty yards from the stables when she saw one of the enemy riders attempting to mount a chained wyvern to her left, but the beast clearly wasn’t interested. It smacked the soldier with its venomous tail and roared in protest. Apparently these fools didn’t have total control over their mounts after all. Perhaps the channelers were using some kind of spell to—

  Some kind of spell.

  Serrane froze in place and stared into wyvern’s yellow reptilian eyes. The beast snarled and bared its massive fangs when it noticed her, and its barbed tail twitched back and forth like an angry cat. Her decades of ranger training had taught her how to understand and control the creatures of the forest, from mighty bears to cunning owls, but wyverns were far more intelligent than normal animals. Still, perhaps the basic principles were the same…

  “It’s all right,” she said, taking a step forward and holding out her hand. “You want to get out of here as badly as I do, don’t you?”

  The shouts of the approaching soldiers grew louder and louder, but Serrane forced herself to concentrate solely on the wyvern. Reaching out to the Aether, she gently touched its mind the same way she would any other beast. She could feel its fear and rage swirling together, driving it to attack. Its emotions were more complicated than a horse or wolf, but the fundamental impulses were the same as any creature. It wanted food, safety…and freedom.

  “I can help you,” Serrane said, keeping her hand extended. “I’m not like the others. I won’t harm you or chain you. I want to set you free.”

  She had stepped into stinger range now, but didn’t allow herself to tense up. At this point she already committed—the soldiers were only seconds away, and if this didn’t work she was dead regardless. Her only hope was to stay calm and focused.

  “That’s right, I’m not your enemy,” she soothed, creeping within a foot of the creature’s horned, scaly skull. Its eyes were still dilated, and she could feel its confusion threatening to transform back into fear. Closing her eyes, she continued massaging its mind with the Aether as she would any other beast. It grew calmer and calmer with every second…

  “Fire!”

  Her eyes snapped open as she heard the twang of bowstrings. The wyvern roared the instant her spell broke, and Serrane spun around in antic
ipation of a dozen arrows piercing her flesh—

  Only to freeze in shock when the wyvern abruptly thrust its massive wing in front of her, shielding her from the barrage. Most of the arrows deflected harmlessly off its scales, but a few pierced the skin. The beast roared and lashed out in equal parts pain and anger, slamming the wing into the wall of soldiers and pummeling them backwards. The creature’s head swiveled back to Serrane, its yellow eyes narrowing dangerously. The creature may have lacked the ability to speak, but she could sense its desires through the Aether as clearly as ever. It wanted exactly one thing, and it was convinced that she was the only one who could give it to him.

  Freedom.

  “Hang on,” Serrane said, rolling into a crouch and hoisting up her bow. Another magical arrow materialized on the string, and she fired near—but not at—the soldiers as they struggled to regain their footing. The explosive blast unearthed a veritable tidal wave of dirt and debris, knocking them even further backwards and buying her a few more seconds of cover. She then turned to the shackles holding the wyvern in place, and she drew one of her blades and slashed the steel chains one after another. The beast roared its approval, but it didn’t instantly leap into the sky—it crouched down and lowered its wing in front of her.

  Smiling, Serrane vaulted up into the saddle. The wyvern took off so suddenly, so explosively, that she absolutely would have fallen off without the straps holding her in place, and she still had to grab the reins and hold on for dear life when its wings began flapping in earnest. Her eyes burned from the wind and the smoke, but she forced herself to squint and stay focused on the battlefield. More clusters of soldiers were now scrambling for their weapons, some still in their skivvies from sleeping, but a wave of terror quickly cascaded over the camp when they realized what was happening.

  She let out a triumphant howl as the wyvern surged across the camp. The rush of wind on her face was exhilarating, and under different circumstances she would have gladly flown across the entire length of the Shattered Peaks. But as easy as it would have been to bank down the edge of the mountains and head straight for Highwind, she wasn’t willing to leave just yet.

  “We need to head back,” she said, tugging on the reins and trying once again to massage the wyvern’s mind with the Aether. “My friend needs our help…do you understand?”

  For a few stomach-clenching heartbeats, Serrane feared the creature would snap free of her influence. If it decided to keep flying, there was absolutely nothing she could do to stop it. She would have abandoned Valuri and done virtually nothing to stall the coming attack…

  But mercifully, the wyvern unleashed a stalwart roar as it lowered its wing and banked back around towards the camp. Serrane squeezed her thighs together to hold as steady as she could, and the moment they dipped beneath the smoke she began nocking and firing arrows at anything that moved. Shooting accurately at this speed was almost impossible, but her wild barrage still pelted several potential riders as they attempted to mount wyverns of their own.

  “We just need to land for a few seconds,” Serrane promised the beast. “Then we’ll get the hell out of here, I promise.”

  ***

  Valuri crashed into the pike of jagged rocks so hard she was lucky she didn’t get impaled. The force of the impact still popped her shoulder out of its socket, however, and she screeched in agony even as she rolled and stumbled back to her feet. At this rate she was going to need another meal or two just to recover. Her left thigh was still burning from three wicked slashes, and her right eye was half swollen shut from a kick to the face. Her only saving grace was that Lasille wasn’t in any better shape.

  “You’ve lost a step,” Lasille sneered, her bloody claws glinting in the moonlight. “And here I thought that amazon cunt of yours would have taught you a few tricks.”

  “Oh, she did,” Valuri said, biting down on her lip as she punched her shoulder back into place. “Allow me to demonstrate.”

  She charged back in, and once again the two women became a blur of steel and leather. Valuri’s blade gave her an edge in reach, but her gimped arm had become a serious liability. She had no idea how much longer she could keep this up…though at this point, it didn’t really matter. With Serrane flying out of here on the back of a wyvern (how in the bloody hell had she pulled that off?), Valuri was alone and out of options. At least being gutted by Lasille would be a far cleaner death than Marcella would give her back in the Castarium…

  “Your general won’t escape me for long,” Lasille hissed as they grappled with their blades barely an inch from one another’s throats. “She can fly back to Highwind. She can fly halfway across the world! I promise you that wherever she goes, I will find her…and I will break her.”

  Valuri snarled defiantly, but she couldn’t wrench her wrist blade free of Lasille’s claws. The two women remained locked together in a pure battle of strength, but inch by inch Valuri was losing ground…

  And then the world exploded. A wave of magical fire crashed over them, followed swiftly by a thundering shockwave that knocked both women from their feet. When Valuri’s head finally stopped ringing she spotted a wyvern strafe by overhead, Serrane firing arrow after arrow from its back.

  “What?” Lasille hissed, madly trying to pop her own shoulder back into place.

  Valuri smiled. “What do you know? Making friends and not being a bitch all the time actually paid off for once…”

  Lasille’s eyes gaped wide as the Ranger-General unloaded another barrage at the camp before the wyvern abruptly whirled around and banked straight for the vault. The other Huntress tried to hop back to her feet, but thanks to her injuries she stumbled for a fraction of a second…

  It was more than enough.

  Lunging forward, Valuri drove her knee straight into Lasille’s gut, pushed her away, and then kicked her right in the cunt. The other Huntress yelped and nearly fell over, but to her credit she still didn’t give up. She slashed wildly with her claws, forcing Valuri to parry over and over with her wrist blade until she was almost out of space…

  At which point Serrane’s wyvern landed almost on top of them, showering the area with dust and debris. Lasille snarled and braced herself as if she were about to pounce right up into the saddle—

  She never had the chance. The wyvern whirled around and smashed the Huntress with its tail, throwing her body so far away she actually vanished in the darkness.

  “Hop on,” Serrane said, leaning down and stretching out her hand. “We need to move!”

  Valuri recoiled from the beast. “Are you fucking kidding?”

  “It’s the only way out. Come on!”

  Grimacing, the Huntress glanced back to the vault. “What about the oil?”

  “There’s no time. We’ll just have to—”

  “Can you freeze things or just burn them?”

  Serrane blinked. “What?”

  “Can you fire a freezing arrow at the lock?”

  The ranger nodded. “I can, but—”

  “Then do it,” Valuri said. “And let’s finish this.”

  The Huntress back towards the vault, fully aware of the army bearing down upon them. Serrane fired a blue arrow right past her head, and it coated the locking plate in a thin sheen of magical ice. Valuri had no idea how much the cold would actually weaken the metal, but it was the only chance they had.

  Screaming in exertion, the Huntress grabbed the handle and pulled as hard as she could. The metal groaned and the stone rumbled, but even with her Senosi strength it didn’t seem to want to budge. She pulled harder and harder, mentally conjuring up the most infuriating things she could imagine to fuel her rage. The Inquisitrix, the Castarium, her childhood, the fact that Jorem always seem to get whatever woman he wanted…

  “Argh!” she cried out as the lock finally popped free. The stone door slowly swung open, revealing an even larger cache of oil barrels than she had expected. There had to be enough here to torch every city in the Northern Reaches.

  “Valuri!” Se
rrane cried out. “Move!”

  The Huntress didn’t need to be told twice. Whirling back to her feet, she sprinted towards the wyvern and vaulted up onto its back. The saddle didn’t seem designed for two riders, so she clutched onto Serrrane’s waist and held on for dear life.

  “Do it!”

  The wyvern roared as it launched back into the air, and Valuri nearly puked up the lunch she hadn’t eaten when the beast abruptly changed course and picked up speed. Several other riders had taken to the sky behind them, their hands flashing with magical energy even in the darkness.

  “Shit,” Valuri hissed. “How the hell do we outrun them?”

  “We don’t,” Serrane called back. Drawing her bow one last time, the ranger conjured yet another flaming arrow to the string. “We give ourselves cover instead.”

  She fired. The arrow streaked down to the vault and vanished into the darkness of the open door. For a long heartbeat nothing happened, and Valuri wondered if Serrane had somehow missed…

  And that was when the world actually exploded. The entire cave detonated in a single, glorious fireball, and the explosion was so loud Valuri almost let go of her handhold to cover her ears. The wyvern abruptly dove down the side of the mountain as if it were racing to escape the inevitable shockwave, but their pursuers won’t so lucky. Their mounts were completely engulfed by the smoke, flames, and debris, and even when the thunderous rumble finally faded there was no sight of them.

  “I’ll be damned,” Valuri rasped, squinting as the cold air blasted across her face. “We’re not dead.”

  “Not yet, anyway.”

  “So what the hell do we do now?”

  “We get back to Highwind,” Serrane told her. “Because I have a feeling that the real war is about to begin.”

  8

  The Dragon Unleashed