by Liz Penn
“Should you change back now?” Gaia said, and then silenced as he turned to retch dryly.
At least neither of them had eaten since finding the butchered villagers at the other Derki camp. And there was certainly nothing to fill their bellies with here.
When the sickness passed, Ákos turned to face her. His wan smile was answer enough. “We cannot shift into another form indefinitely. Not until after the Flux.”
“Does it weary you?”
“Very much.” He sighed and leaned his forehead against the cage, studying those inside. The captives were huddled at the far end of their prison, eyes wide. They whimpered as Ákos straightened and advanced to the cage’s opening.
His clothing, still touched with a hint of the fur that they had been, had been spattered with blood. A wildness, a deep savagery, clung to him like an aura of danger. Whether it was his brief time as a beast or some other factor, it sent prickles racing down Gaia’s spine.
Ákos tugged on the staves lightly. “These will come loose easily enough, but it will be noisy.” He studied the prisoners. “You have to run, and hide well. Quickly.”
None responded. The Ishtar sighed. “I hope they understood that.” With a flex of his arms, he wrenched the staves free. The shrieking complaint of the wood made her wince.
Alarmed shouts and Derki curses echoed back. Ákos stepped away from the door, gesturing at the prisoners. Eyes widened in frightened comprehension. And then with glad cries, the women and maidens dashed through the opening. Gaia sighed in relief.
The shouting increased in volume. Ákos crouched down by one of the sentries he had killed earlier. When he straightened, the Ishtar held a curved sword. “This will have to do.”
“Do you even know how to use that?”
Ákos scowled. “I’m not even going to answer that question.” His attention shifted to a point behind her shoulder. His face paled. “Oh.”
She whirled. The prisoners scurried past them, hurrying and stumbling toward the trees. Sunlight blushed orange across the sky. “What?”
“Look.” The Ishtar leaned forward, one hand on her shoulder and the other pointing at the line of prisoners. “That is why they have not eaten them.”
Gaia followed his hand. Two women moved slower than the rest. Their bellies were round with child. Understanding dawned in horrible clarity. “Surely not.”
“Yes, it is.” Ákos snapped. “How else do you defeat Chuia that wield elementals? Create half-breeds and raise them as Derki.”
Nausea churned in her stomach. “We have to tell the Council,” she croaked.
“Agreed.”
A Derki hunting horn brayed into stillness of dawn. Ákos winced. “But first we have to survive.”
He tensed and lifted one hand. She felt the humming of an elemental, and then his hand dropped. “There’s something here,” he whispered. Gaia drew her dagger.
“Well, looksie here. Chuia maid and Ishtar demon.” A tall Derki stepped from the shadows. Two others appeared behind him, bows arched and ready.
Gaia took a quick step back, and scanned the trees. Most of the prisoners were gone, but a few stragglers still remained. Furtive movement suggested many more Derki than she could see hidden in a rough circle around them. They would be surrounded soon if they did not react. But then again, running would free them, but probably ensure the Derki started hunting down prisoners.
Gaia took another step back and brushed against Ákos. The Ishtar shuddered, his skin cool and sweat-damp.
She recognized that too well. “Don’t shift now!” she hissed. “It will make you sick.”
“I know.” His voice held misery. His spine tensed and he inhaled sharply. “They’re trying to make me.”
That made no sense. “Who is?”
“He is.” Ákos groaned and dropped the sword. He gaped for breath. “Don’t you s-see the a-amulet he’s wearing? From a m-mage.”
“Oh yes, it is.” The leader said. A wolfish grin spread across his dark face. “Most definitely.” He slipped a leather thong from around his neck and thrust the crescent-shaped amulet toward Ákos. The Ishtar flinched.
He laughed. “You’s not passed Flux yet. So I can use this. Thought it a good idea, what with the Chuia bein’ around and these Ishtar beasts could come roaming.”
Gaia scowled and clenched her dagger tighter. “Leave him alone. The Derki’s quarrel is with me. My people.”
“I’ve nevah tasted Ishtar flesh. Perhaps it be as sweet as yours.” He smirked. “I’ll see.”
He moved forward and she slashed at his hands. Ákos moaned and dropped to his knees. His arms had a layer of fur, fingers lengthening into claws.
“Why don’t you just shoot us!” Gaia growled.
“This is more fun.” Another predatory grin. “Besides, you’s too pretty to mar.”
Her heart twisted. I’ve got to get that amulet. “The only beasts I see are in front of me.”
The mirth in his features fell. His expression tightened. “Watch your tongue, dearie. You’s being mute won’t change your beauty.”
“I’ll do as I please. Why should I listen to a dog like you?”
His face flushed and his eyes narrowed.
She brought her blade up to her face, holding it in front of her eyes in a mock salute. “Ah, so you’re afraid of a woman. A Chuia woman. But all Derki are that way. All bark, no bite.”
She saw the leader’s hand twitch in a gesture toward one of his men. An arrow sank into her shoulder. She screamed and doubled over, clawing at the sudden fiery pain. With a jerk, she yanked it free and threw the bloody pieces at the leader.
“Coward. Letting another man fight your battles?”
He stepped aside. “Foolish woman.”
As he advanced, Gaia backed away from him. A rasping groan drew her attention. She kept the leader in her peripheral vision, but focused on the source of the sound.
Ákos stood, swaying on his feet, but he was human…mostly.
The fur had melted from his arms, but the talons in place of his fingernails did not ease her concern.
The leader still held the amulet and, with the increasing distance, weakened its hold upon her.
Biting her lip, Gaia continued a slow backtrack. She taunted the leader with every curse and insult she could imagine. The distance increased. When she checked on the Ishtar again, his head was up. Their eyes met.
She gestured curtly with her fingers. He shook his head. Gaia bumped against a hidden tent. She sidestepped. There was nowhere left to go, and very angry Derki advancing. Scowling at the stubborn Ishtar, she mouthed, “Run!”
He could escape and warn the Council; she would keep them busy and then perish before they could lay hands on her.
Ákos ignored her commands. She watched in growing dread as the Ishtar darted toward their group and then slid into the cover of the trees.
The Derki leader clutched her shoulder, fingers digging painfully into the arrow wound. She cried out in pain and surprise. Distraction was costly. The sound was cut off by his lips on her mouth.
He dug his hand into her hair and jerked her head back. His other hand dragged across her belly and then shifted higher. “You’s do fine, dearie.” He muttered and kissed her again, tongue sliding between her lips. She gagged, pushing back feebly with her hands, but he simply shoved harder, pinning her against the tree.
He jerked away with a hoarse gurgle and fell to the ground. An arrow protruded from his back. The other Derki scattered for a moment. Horns brayed.
Ákos melted from the shadows, a crossbow in his hands. Gaia scowled at him. “Go away! You need to warn the Council.” Someone had to tell them what was going on.
“I am not going anywhere.”
Tethys’ heart, he was stubborn. “No Ishtar needs to fight for the Chuia. Remember? Just go.”
“I’m not fighting for the Chuia,” he said. His voice was low, but sharp with determination. He turned his head, eyes fixing her to the spot. “I’m fighting f
or a Chuia.”
What? Why?
“It is not right, that we have ignored your people’s plight,” he said. Ákos chambered a bolt in the crossbow and brought it to his shoulder as more Derki oozed out of the foliage. Curved swords gleamed in their hands.
“Go back to Ishtar then. Warn them.”
“A babe crawls before it walks.” His shoulders twitched in a shrug. “I will not leave you to die. And perhaps my people will not leave the Chuia to die.”
A booming voice broke into the scene and a hefty Derki, with hair dyed scarlet, came striding out of the underbrush, waving a serrated blade.
This larger Derki’s arrival seemed to spur the others into action. They crept closer. Three, four, eight—more and more begin to join the first, sliding out of the underbrush to the left and right.
As Ákos backed up, Gaia moved to his side. She held her dagger in a defensive posture, but the tip drew tiny circles in the air. Her injured shoulder would not hold up to battle for long.
Tightening her hold on the hilt of her blade to steady it, Gaia focused on the growing number of Derki. “I’ll take the left horde. You take the right.”
“You cannot be serious.”
“For once in your life, don’t argue with me.”
Strutting like a rooster, the leader flipped his blade into a vertical salute. He flashed a feral grin at the two of them. “Gut the bloody beast. Leave the woman for me.”
A chorus of steel whispering free of their sheaths was the answer.
< >
Gaia whirled, bringing her slender blade up against the down-swing of a heavy longsword. She heard the Ishtar’s crossbow discharge to her left, followed by a yelp of pain.
The Derki wielding the blade leered at her. She ducked beneath his next swing. Taking a diagonal step forward, Gaia shoved her shoulder into his stomach. He stumbled. She used the opening to her advantage, burying the blade into his throat. Gagging, the Derki collapsed.
Withdrawing her blade, Gaia ducked aside as two more Derki snapped their blades toward her face. She sidestepped, dropping to one knee and then slashed across the back of the first Derki’s calf.
He went down howling. His feet tangled with the second Derki and they crumpled together. Before either could rise, Gaia slashed their throats open. Purple-black blood spattered the grass in a broad arc.
The handful of Derki advancing on her took a quick step back. Gaia held her bloodied dagger parallel to her face in a macabre salute, eyes narrowing.
“I damn your souls to eternal torment,” she growled, tapping into the fire elemental. The surging power spiraled through her chest, flowed down her hands, and filtered into the hilt of her dagger.
The blade flared in lurid scarlet, light tracing fine lines up and down the metal. She whipped her flame-kissed dagger in a wide arc.
Some Derki retreated. Their eyes narrowed in distrust and unease of the Chuia mastery of the elementals. But as their numbers swelled, grouping into a tight circle around her, the Derki’s hesitance failed.
They darted toward her, blades flashing. Gaia was slowly forced back. She struggled to simply keep the glinting steel away from her skin. The hammering blows against her right side weakened her already wounded arm.
Weaving on her feet, Gaia whirled around the Derki weighed down by their leather armor. She may have served as a scout, but even she knew that a constant defensive position would end in defeat.
She shoved her shoulder into one and sidestepped the twist of a blade. Sweat dampened her hair and tunic. A quartet of lanky warriors hounded her. They blocked her escape and parried her strikes aside.
Gaia clenched her teeth and drove harder. She could not squeeze her light, fast slashes past their concerted defense. She pulled on the strength of the elementals again, earth this time. The grass stroked her ankles with cool fingers; the air swept a gentle breeze through her sweat-drenched hair.
The four pursuers stumbled over the thickening dirt, but quickly—far too quickly—overcame it. They came forward with jerky steps, but still they came. Gaia backed away once more, knocking their strikes aside.
A dying scream pulled Gaia’s attention away. Ákos?
A low tenor voice, speaking in lyrical cadence, drew her eye. Blood-spattered and breathing hard, Ákos spoke again, lips twisting in such a way as to suggest the words were swears.
He had a circle of dead or dying Derki around him. The latter was the source of the scream. Most of the Derki had been opened cleanly, a sure slash from chin to navel that left entrails spilling out into the already blood-sodden grass. Two of them had not been touched by blade, but bore jagged arrow shafts jutting out of their chests.
Elementals prickled all around him, as if he were cloaked in their power. Ákos rolled beneath a Derki’s slash and charged toward a cluster of warriors. Derki yelped and howled, jumping away from his path.
Gaia pulled her attention away from him reluctantly. More Derki joined the group attacking her, including one tall warrior with a necklace of wolf-teeth. His twin curved daggers whistled in the air as he swept them toward her. The first impact of her blade to his sent painful shudders through her arm.
She retreated. The warrior bared his teeth and inched closer. “You are a mare with a saucy temper,” he said, smirk spreading across his rough features. “I cannae’ wait to break you to my harness.”
They clashed blades, parted, and struck again. Gaia danced away from him. Her stomach roiled. She would fall on her own blade long before she would allow this man, or any of the Derki, to take her captive.
A shrill scream snapped her attention sharp. The elements howled in near-perfect harmony with the undulating cry.
The Ishtar’s shrieks rose in intensity, eyes wide and body shaking. He crumpled to the ground in helpless misery as another Derki stalked closer with the mage’s medallion dangling from his bloody fingers.
Her awareness slid back to her opponent as he shifted his weight forward, striking like a viper. Gaia twitched aside, but not before the dagger drew a jagged line down her shoulder and elbow.
Blood welled. Pain screamed across her already wounded body. She tightened her grip and blocked the Derki’s next slash.
She needed to live. But Ákos needed her. The Ishtar punctuated the thought with a keening howl. Gaia clenched her teeth and charged the lanky warrior. His eyes widened. Both blades came forward, whirling into a crossed defensive spike. Gaia ducked beneath them both and rolled into a tumbling fall. Her body hit his legs as he struggled to leap over her.
As he fell, one of his blades struck a glancing blow across her back. Gaia clawed madly over his legs and sprawled across his chest. His fingers dug into her wounded shoulder. His other hand seized her short hair. He wrenched her head back, craning her neck. She shoved her knee up hard.
The man howled, and then his shriek ended in a gurgling groan as she ripped her dagger through his neck. She rose from her position across his cooling corpse.
Gaia tapped into the fire element once more, a breath of weariness wafting through her. The flickering light of her blade shimmered in an unearthly gleam against the blood clinging to her body. The advancing warriors pulled short. The hesitance bought her a moment of time.
She darted away with nimble strides. The copse of trees loomed closer. Gaia ducked into the welcome darkness. With shoulder protesting, she scrambled up a thick oak tree and sprawled across a limb, breathing in the welcome earthy scent.
Once she caught her breath, Gaia straightened and pulled her preferred weapon from its place. The bow strapped to her back had survived nearly intact. The topmost point of the curved wood had started to crack with a thin dark line that would surely widen. But for the moment, it would do.
Gaia retrieved any whole arrows from her quiver and straddled the limb as if it were a prancing horse. She propped her injured arm as best she could, angling her elbow against her waist to ease the pain of drawing the bow tight.
The accuracy was not as good as she would like,
but it could not be helped. She took aim. There was a cluster of Derki around Ákos now, too busy mocking his apparent helplessness to bother finishing him off.
Gaia frowned and focused on one Derki whose jeers were growing louder and more profane. Fury boiled in her belly. Eyes narrowing into thin slits, she released.
He crumpled. Shouts of alarm erupted. The group circling Ákos morphed away from him and shifted glances around to locate the shooter. Gaia drew her bow once more, taking aim at the medallion still looming close to the Ishtar.
Something scrabbled below her. Gaia focused her senses on that one, small bit of jewelry shimmering in the waning sunlight. Just one shot.