by B. T. Narro
Jarrel broke the link a moment later, and the pause in combat ended all too briefly. Mavrim took a blade in his side as he tried to get out of the way.
Darren fought back his own attackers for just enough time to turn and stab the soldier in the back before he finished off Mavrim. Darren intercepted two incoming attacks behind him, then threw back his attackers with the block. He had another opening, using it to charge at Jarrel. The commander held his ground as he deflected Darren’s rushed attack with surprising agility.
Jarrel counter-attacked with two guards at his side. Darren jumped back to avoid the three of them, but they charged, and Darren had nowhere to go with Mavrim behind him. Darren grabbed the nearest piece of furniture, a small table, and threw it into their path. One man tripped over it as the other two stopped to throw it out of the way. It gave Darren enough time to stab the fallen soldier. Darren quickly turned and swiped his blade across the neck of the rising soldier who had stabbed the king.
The injured were numerous now, but more kept squeezing in through the door. Two archers were inside, both standing just behind Jarrel at the center. They had probably killed the measly two guards Mavrim had posted outside the room.
“You have to run, DVend,” Mavrim said. He slumped in the corner with a hand over his bloody side. “As soon as I die, they will destroy you with Jarrel’s links.”
Darren knew the king was right. The initial plan had been to fight through these men and make it out the door, but even without Mavrim being hurt, that would be impossible. Darren backed toward the window as he motioned for Mavrim to follow him. The king struggled to his feet, using a chair for balance.
Darren kept his eyes on his enemies. Jarrel was skilled, but it was the two archers that really worried him.
“Erisena! Lane!” he yelled near the window.
The two archers loaded arrows. Darren grabbed the chair the king used for balance and flung it at one of them. As he charged the other, he heard the king fall. Jarrel tried to stop Darren, but he swatted away Jarrel’s weapon and barreled into him as well as the archer near him, sending both stumbling backward. Darren cut down the archer he’d struck with the chair, then fended off a few attacks as he watched closely to see what the last bowman in the room would do.
The man picked up his fallen bow and started to load another arrow as Jarrel came at Darren. The commander stopped short and held up his hand to make a link of some kind. Darren found himself completely immobilized, and so were about half the soldiers in the room. Damn, he’s strong.
The archer was not linked to the rest of them, though, aiming an arrow at Darren. Knowing the king would break the link any moment, Darren pushed forward against the invisible wall. The link broke and Darren jumped, soaring at the archer. Darren ran him through with his blade as he landed on top, then swung wildly at the many soldiers all around him. There were too many, one cutting Darren’s arm, but it did nothing to slow him as he backed toward the window.
A gust of wind rushed around the room. Darren turned to see a rift floating just within the open window. Erisena must be below, for she wasn’t here in this room. Darren had no idea a summoner could open a rift so far from their person, though Erisena was no ordinary summoner.
The dark rift nearly reached the ceiling. Darren expected Erisena’s most trusted creature, a lion-like beast she’d named Ravitch, to jump out. Instead, a massive clawed foot stomped out into the room. Darren hurried out of the way as the rest of the enormous beast emerged.
He did not know what to call such a thing. It stood on two legs like a man, but it was far from one. It had a face like a gorilla’s, but with a mouth that opened wide enough to fit a man’s head as it roared. Muscles bulged from beneath its gray fur. It stomped toward the nearest man in front of it—Darren. He ducked under a slow swipe from its massive arm. The claws at the end of its hands and feet looked sharp enough to pierce through armor.
The beast seemed intent on killing Darren as it followed him toward the wall of this room, which looked even smaller now with the creature’s head brushing the ceiling. The floor shook as it stomped after Darren. It roared again, showing long fangs. The rage in its silver eyes said this creature saw Darren as a threat to its life.
“Erisena!” Darren yelled, but he heard no reply.
He noticed the soldiers stepping back in obvious fear, but one had picked up an archer’s fallen bow. He aimed an arrow at Darren as Darren rolled through the beast’s legs to avoid another lethal swipe.
He heard a bowstring snap and an arrow twang. The beast roared louder, turning its attention toward the soldiers as an arrow protruded from its leg. The shaft looked like a useless twig as the creature grabbed it and yanked out the arrow. Blood stained its fur as it stomped toward the soldiers.
Two men were brave enough to stand their ground. One even got his sword up to stab the beast in the belly. The creature swiped across them, ignoring the blow. They were tossed against the side wall. Jarrel was next to face the beast, lifting his hand to make some kind of link. The massive arms of the creature stopped. It roared in frustration.
“Broken!” Mavrim announced. “Help that thing kill Jarrel.”
Darren swooped in with Erisena’s summoned creature, but Jarrel turned to flee. He crashed into his men behind him as the creature swiped at him but missed short. Darren tried to impale his weapon in Jarrel’s chest while the commander tried to get to his feet among a pile of struggling men, but Darren bumped into the creature while vying for position and had to fall away to avoid a swing of its claws.
The beast seemed satisfied that Darren was not a threat as Darren backed away and put up his hands. It turned its attention to Jarrel, who made the same gesture of peace. The summoned knelt down and roared in Jarrel’s face. The commander turned and fled out of the room with the rest of his men, the beast close behind them.
Darren picked up the slumped king and looked out the window. He could hear Erisena yelling in Analyse, but he couldn’t locate her among the chaotic battle between human soldiers and Darren’s trusted rebels.
Jarrel and his men don’t just hope to kill me and the king. They want to eliminate all of us. But why? Could he want the rift to keep growing?
“What now, DVend?” asked Mavrim. “You are the military strategist here.”
“I need time to observe what’s happening.” He watched the sway of the battle change as Jarrel arrived on the street and shouted something Darren could not make out. The aggression of his men turned into a frenzy, but most seemed to be fighting their way past the human and Analyte rebels, as if a single target was more important than the rest of them combined. Darren checked the roofs at his eye level to find archers jumping onto them from the mountain ledges.
Darren took the king away from the window as an arrow came at them. It impaled itself in an already dead soldier on the bloody floor.
Steadying Mavrim on his feet, Darren said, “I have to help Erisena.”
“Don’t leave me,” Mavrim said.
“I’m bringing you with me.”
“Down there!?”
“Yes.”
“Leave me, leave me!”
Darren hoisted the king over his shoulder, careful of the stab wound on his side. Mavrim hissed in pain.
“You’re going to get us both killed this way!” said the terrified king.
“Only if you keep yelling.”
Mavrim finally quieted down as Darren got to the stairs. Cracks in the walls and steps made it clear Erisena’s creature had come down this same way. Darren couldn’t hear its roars over the deafening clangs and cries of combat just outside, so he couldn’t tell when he might run into it again.
Entering the street brought on a cacophony of noise. Darren noticed FLip Trange running toward him with a group of frightened religious folk surrounding him. They held up swords in amateur stances, but it was clear that FLip was not the target. Soldiers rushed past him.
“DVend, they are attacking us—”
“They
don’t care about you. Hide in this building and stay away from the windows.”
“Protect me.”
“Your people are more than enough protection.”
Darren needed to get Mavrim out of sight. With Mavrim groaning on his shoulder, Darren ran around the building he’d exited, using the back road to go the opposite way as Jarrel’s soldiers. He came around another structure, wishing he knew what was inside, and kicked down the door. He heard people shouting in fear in one of the above floors. That meant they weren’t killers.
He carried the king inside and found a room full of barrels and sacks. The sacks looked soft enough so Darren tossed Mavrim onto one.
“Stay here and don’t make a sound.”
“DVend—!”
Darren didn’t have time for whatever Mavrim had to say. He ran back the way he’d come, down the road between structures and mountains. He would’ve taken the main road, but this was not an ordinary battle. Darren had to protect himself as best he could. Jarrel had clearly planned to kill Darren, Mavrim, Erisena, and possibly a few others. His men would run after it was done.
Darren finally turned onto the main road as he heard Erisena yelling to others, “Keep running! They have archers on the roofs behind us.”
“The Analyte army is behind us as well!” Lane Writhe yelled back. “They will help us.”
That was true, but Erisena would die if she tried to wait for them. Darren fought through ranks of soldiers clashing against rebels. He felled many soldiers, picking up a finely crafted shield from one of them. He nearly collided with Erisena in the midst of it all.
“Darren, thank the gods!” Lane said.
He held up the shield in front of Lane as he saw an arrow coming at them. There was a jolt down his arm as the arrow collided. “Come with me,” he told the two women. “It’s us they want.”
“Fend for yourselves!” Erisena told her rebels as she and Lane followed Darren out of the chaos.
Darren picked up Jarrel’s voice among the disorder. “They’re escaping down the back streets!”
Darren looked up at an archer aiming down from a roof. He grabbed his comrades and held them close with one arm as he positioned the shield overhead. The arrow clanged off it.
They sprinted before the archer could load another. A group of human soldiers came around the corner of a building. Darren counted six of them. No problem.
“Lane,” he said.
“Already on it.”
Darren used the straps of the shield to cover his back and free up his hands for his sword. He rushed these merciless murderers, eager to end the lives of more degenerates. They struggled against an invisible force before all were suddenly falling backward in unison as they tried to turn and run, their bodies linked as one.
“Darren, watch out!” Erisena yelled.
Her massive gray-furred beast came out from behind a building, standing between Darren and these disabled men. It looked at Darren with fury, as if he was the cause of the dozen red wounds along its body and arms.
Erisena called to it in Analyse. Its gaze lifted over Darren. It seemed conflicted as its aggression faded and then sparked again. Darren put up his hands and backed away from it. The beast suddenly ran toward him. Darren jumped out of the way, but he saw that it wasn’t necessary. It ran into a rift Erisena had opened behind Darren. Her smaller pet, Ravitch, then jumped out of the same opening.
This creature was akin to a large cat, like a mountain lion, though it appeared more doglike by its fur and snout. It normally was threatening enough to startle Darren, but as a replacement for the massive beast that had just left this realm, it only gave Darren a breath of relief. It ran past him at the enemy soldiers who had broken out of Lane’s link by then as they scampered back toward the main road.
One of them had lost his bow and quiver in the chaos and didn’t bother to grab it before running off. Darren shielded Erisena from another rooftop arrow, then rushed over to the bow. He loaded an arrow and aimed it, waiting patiently for the archer to show himself again as he was probably getting another shot ready.
Sure enough, the archer leaned over to shoot from the same place. Darren put an arrow through his chest. He fell down behind Erisena and Lane. Neither bothered to look back as they caught their breath.
“Are you sure this way is safe?” Erisena asked him.
“It better be, or the king is dead and everything will be lost.” It turned Darren’s stomach to realize that Mavrim was more important than all of them, but it was the truth. He was the only thing standing between Prince Gavval and the rebels. It was why the prince must’ve left with most of the army, for there were many still loyal to Mavrim among that large group. Those who remained were the only troops loyal enough to Gavval and Jarrel to attempt to assassinate Mavrim, Darren and the rest of them.
Darren led Lane and Erisena to the building where he’d hidden the king. He was alarmed to find maybe thirty soldiers just outside the door to the building. They appeared to be waiting for the three of them. Jarrel was among them.
“Hurry and end them,” Jarrel commanded, shooting a nervous look to the south where the Analyte army was quickly approaching.
Darren just had to delay them. With his shield strapped to his back and a sword in his sheath, he took aim at Jarrel with his newfound bow. Enemy shield-bearers stepped in front before Darren shot. Darren caught movement from above. He quickly aimed up at another archer lining up a shot. Darren shot first. The man screamed as his arm was hit. He stumbled back and fell off the other side, crashing down on top of the group of soldiers in front of Darren.
He and Ravitch charged as the ranks of their enemies broke. Darren easily slayed the first two men in his way. Ravitch took down another.
To Darren’s surprise, the next enemies in front of him turned and fled. More started to join them in retreat.
Darren figured that would be the end of the battle, but then he noticed a line of ten archers who’d hidden themselves behind the other men. He put up his shield.
“Stand behind me,” he told his comrades.
Erisena told her beast to do the same as they crouched behind Darren.
Jarrel had a wicked grin on his face. He pointed up at the roofs. Darren looked up to see many more archers aiming down.
“We have to run for it,” Darren whispered.
“I’ll break any link he makes,” Lane said.
“We go now.”
Darren ran forward and made a turn. The door to the safe house was right here. He tried to keep himself between the archers and his comrades as arrows stormed into his shield. Something invisible took hold—Jarrel’s link—and grabbed the shield out of his hands. Defenseless, Darren could do nothing to protect his allies or even himself now. He kept sprinting and dove inside.
He got up and scrambled down the hall and made the first turn he could, into the room where he’d left the king. He watched as Lane came after him, with Erisena and Ravitch right behind.
Erisena screamed as she fell in the hall, an arrow sticking out of her leg. Darren ran out with a barrel in front of him, planting it down between Erisena and the archers. He held it as steady as he could as it was pelted. Arrows cracked against the walls and floor all around him as Erisena crawled the rest of the way and made the turn into the safe room.
Darren got his sword ready as he prepared to defend all of them from an endless rush of soldiers.
“With me, to the palace!” Jarrel yelled from outside.
Darren’s heart dropped. His allies here might be safe now, but his sons were in the palace.
He started to run out when Lane grabbed his shirt. “They’ll kill you, and you’ll be no good to your sons then!”
“What do you suggest I do?” he replied angrily. “Wait for my sons to be murdered?”
“You cannot hope to make it to the palace before they do. We have to at least wait until Dasfis and his army arrive. Then we can run after Jarrel together.”
Darren knew she was right, but
he couldn’t stop himself from at least taking a chance to see. He ran down the hall to the backside of the building and climbed out a window. He ran down the back street until he came to an opening that provided a clear view of the road to the palace. Jarrel’s five thousand troops were ahead of Darren. He would have to fight through them all if he really planned to get to the palace first to defend his sons.
He cursed and sprinted the other way. The faster he could reach the approaching Analyte king and his army, the faster he could convince them to rush their enemies. Erisena wouldn’t be able to join them with an arrow in her leg, but there still should be enough Analyte troops to secure a victory. It was the reason Jarrel’s men were running.
At least one part of Jarrel’s plan was clear to Darren now. He didn’t just want to eliminate everyone powerful. He wanted Dasfis’ riches, and he might just get them. Darren hoped his boys and KRenn would do as Jarrel said, but then again, would Jarrel really let them live?
Darren sprinted faster. He yelled to the Analytes as he got close.
“We have to catch up to them before they reach the palace!”
But the Analytes were already running toward him. Dasfis was among them near the front. He looked just as panicked as Darren.
“I know, DVend! Gather your remaining troops.”
CHAPTER NINE
Rygen was finally all set to leave Jatn. She was a bit sad to realize she might never return; Jatn wasn’t the best home she could’ve asked for, but it was the only home she’d known.
Rygen had packed all her belongings, which could fit in a single large bag. Leo had left her a lot of coin when he’d come here on her fourteenth birthday. She’s spent some but still had most of it leftover to give back to him. Rygen had hired a personal horse-and-carriage driver to take her all the way to her destination. She was excited but dreadfully nervous about something going wrong.
She’d originally planned to meet Leo in the capital when it came time for her to leave Jatn. This was the place he’d said he would be, after he’d kissed her on her birthday, a kiss she had not forgotten. He’d left more coin than she needed to pay for the trip there. She’d wanted to go after him the next day, when she’d realized that it wasn’t Jatn that made her feel at home, but Leo. However, she had unfinished business to take care of first. The summoner who’d brought the incenfiend into this town and killed Rygen’s mother had been bragging about a giant beast that she’d one day bring into this realm. It would’ve destroyed the lives of many people if Rygen hadn’t put an end to her.