Crown of Vengeance

by Stephen Zimmer

  The extraordinary winged steeds that the beast-men rode lingered in patience for their masters, a few emitting low whines or barks. A couple of the ones situated closer together nipped and snarled at each other.

  When the riders were completely finished with their inspection of the battlefield, the huge leader shouted to all of them. At the leader’s call, there was a little spark of hesitance, which flared suddenly into reticence among the others. The leader seemed to be expecting the reaction, speaking sharply as the others cast glances about at the fallen humans and those of their own race.

  At first, Lee had been sure that the taciturn response had something to do with the fallen non-human warriors, but the more that he watched their deliberate glances include the human warriors, he was not quite so sure.

  The leader shook its great head emphatically from side to side, in an unmistakable negation to the unvoiced objection that the others were clearly referencing.

  The leader then spoke again, its tone changing and lowering in volume, as its next words came out slower. Lee was positive that the leader was addressing the unspoken desire within the others in a more sympathetic fashion.

  The leader glanced around at the corpses, shook its head again, and finished its address with a few words that took on a more authoritative timbre. The other warriors seemed to be largely assuaged from whatever issue had initially troubled them. A few of them hurriedly went over to their fallen brethren, carefully removing amulets and other small objects from the bodies of the dead beast-men.

  Before standing back up, the living warriors bowed their heads, some laying their massive hands upon the shoulders of the prone bodies. Lee could see their lips moving as they uttered last words at the sides of their comrades.

  The few sky steeds that had carried the fallen among the beast-men were then wrangled and brought together with the others. Lee took note that these had not strayed far from the vicinity of the rest of the steeds. All of the warriors eventually proceeded to stride back to their winged steeds and mount them.

  The huge leader was the last one into the saddle. A few moments later, after a loud cry from the prominent warrior, the riders spurred their exotic steeds into motion. The creatures spread their wings, lurched into a short, bounding run, and leaped towards the sky. With powerful, snapping flaps, the mounts carried their riders up into the air. The steeds with empty saddles followed the cue of their brethren, as if trained, pursuing the others off of the ground and up towards the sky.

  Lee watched the steeds beat their wings vigorously as they climbed towards the heavens, gaining height steadily on a sharp incline. In a loose formation, the great steeds finally leveled out, as they carried the throng of menacing sky riders across the rolling plains, heading into the distance towards the west and the setting sun.

  Lee and the others remained motionless long after the riders were just mere specks on the far horizon. Nobody so much as moved or spoke, until those specks had completely disappeared from view.

  “Don’t ask me,” Lee commented at last, his eyes slowly lowering to gaze upon the garish collection of corpses strewn all about the grounds ahead of them.

  His heart sank.

  A predatory, bird-like creature, like that faced by Erin and Lynn upon their entrance into the new world, was one type of danger. Bands of well-armed fighters, fully equipped with iron weapons and riding upon incredible winged steeds, was another level of threat entirely.

  “Maybe we could use some weapons, from out there,” Ryan then suggested, pointing out towards the dead warriors. “These stakes aren’t going to do us much good, especially if we run into either of those who were in the fight.”

  Lee was impressed by Ryan’s proposition, especially the fact that he had not assumed that the humans would automatically be receptive to their group. It reminded Lee to maintain a better wariness himself, and to presume nothing about the things of this new world, no matter how familiar they might look at first.

  “I think that’s an excellent idea. We should take advantage of it while we know that the area is clear right now,” Lee concurred.

  “I’m not going out there,” Erin stated flatly. “No way. If those things come back, there is no way we are going to get away. If a couple dozen armed fighters on horses can’t survive, then how the hell will four of us?”

  Without saying a word, Lynn got up with a somber expression and started forward. Just a few strides carried her out of the shelter of the forest, and out under the open sky.

  She paused for a moment, and turned back to the others. Her eyes fixed solidly upon Erin.

  “We can’t just wait for the trouble to find us. This might be a chance that we won’t have again, or anytime soon,” she stated. “We have to try and be prepared somehow, and I would rather do it with what those dead men were carrying, than with the sticks we have now.”

  Lee got up and trotted out after her. Ryan finally got to his feet and jogged to catch up with them, after some initial hesitation.

  “Let’s get it done quickly,” Lee remarked to them.

  Erin remained behind, clearly not willing to budge from her hiding place.

  Lee reached the first of the dead human fighters, one of those who had taken part in the final stand. His heart raced, and he momentarily shivered as he looked down upon the dead man’s inert face.

  The man’s glassy, lifeless gaze stared back up at him. A gaping wound had been opened in his chest, where a large spear blade had been lodged and then ripped back out. Blood soaked the ground around the body, though the flow of it had ceased.

  Lee glanced towards Lynn, who was standing by another fallen human warrior. A few tears had come to her eyes, as she stared in an almost mesmerized fashion into the stark visage of death beneath her.

  Taking a deep breath, and struggling to regain his composure, Lee forced his eyes back to the slain human underneath him. The man looked to be in his early twenties, his weathered face unable to mask the youthful luster that still lingered underneath the hardened edges.

  The light of life was entirely absent, but the man’s face had settled into a peaceful expression that conflicted profoundly with the brutal violence of his demise.

  Lee had to pause again, as this experience was something that he was not well prepared for. The males in their twenties that he had previously known were normally busy with school or work, their concerns related to careers, relationships, or entertainment.

  Lee certainly did not come from an environment where bodies were left torn and broken under an impassive sky, sprawled right before his very eyes.

  He was not so naïve to think that his own world was immune from such horrid things. Terrible sights occurred frequently, indeed every day, in the far corners of that world. It was simply that he did not encounter such awful visions so closely, and intimately, in the world he had left behind. He was certainly not steeled for what he was now seeing all around him.

  Lee glanced again towards Lynn.

  She had averted her eyes from the warrior’s face, turning her head to the side as she picked up a sword that was lying near to the fallen man. She gripped the hilt and raised the weapon upward, the flesh of her hand pressed against the short, straight crossguard.

  The blade was long and straight, double-edged with a broad fuller running down its center. The hilt had a tightly-wound leather grip, and a multi-lobbed pommel.

  As she lifted the sword, Lee saw that it was a little heavy for her to lift in one hand. She then gripped it in both hands, taking a hesitant, awkward swing through the air with the blade. With two hands, Lynn demonstrated that she held enough strength to swing the weapon with some purpose.

  Lee then picked up a sword from the man at his feet, very comparable to the one that Lynn had taken, except for its hazelnut-shaped pommel. He kept the sword with him as he walked onward, feeling the considerable weight of it tugging at his arm. He proceeded a little farther out, striding over to another fallen warrior, whose horse’s body lay nearby. Eyeing the dead
horse, he moved over to it, to see what might be found attached to the saddle and harnessing.

  He searched through the man’s equipment, discovering a strung longbow and a quiver that was almost full of arrows.

  “We could use that, for sure,” Ryan stated, from where he was strolling close to Lee.

  Lee glanced up to him. “See if you can find some food on the slain horses. And remember to keep up a lookout. Any sign of anything whatsoever, and we bolt immediately for the woods. Got it?”

  Ryan nodded, looking back up the sky and sweeping his gaze slowly across the horizons.

  Lee did the same, and to his great relief the skies were empty of everything save for some drifting clouds and a descending, reddish sun. He shortly resumed his search, pausing occasionally to take appraisal of the horizons.

  Among the corpses of the horses and men, Lee, Ryan, and Lynn found some leather pouches that held a small quantity of dried, salty meat, hard bread, and a little fresh water that was contained in leather skins.

  Lee also took an interest in the large, single-edged daggers that many of the men had carried, claiming one of them for himself.

  In addition, he gathered up all the small silvery coins that he came across among the possessions of the slain men. While most of the coins were fully intact, a portion of them had been cut into halves. A quick look at the half-coins told Lee that they were of the very same minting as the rest of the coins, though he wondered as to why they were not complete.

  Knowing that the small silver coins held more hints about the world that Lee was now in, he examined several of the fully intact ones very closely. He turned them over in his hand, and held them up to bathe in the still-ample sunlight. Lee ran his ringers slowly over their edges, as if he could somehow absorb what the little silvery pieces had to tell him.

  The coins were all of the same size, roughly a little smaller than the size of Lee’s thumbprint. They did not have a smooth surfacing, even in the areas without an image or letter displayed.

  The obverse facing of the coins showed the side profiles of male figures, with lettering running around the circumference of the entire coin. The reverse side held more similar lettering around the edges, with a spear-shaped symbol occupying most of the inner surface.

  Most of the coins, including all of the coins in the best condition, held the image of one particular man, who possessed a strong chin, nose, and full beard. Lee wondered who the man depicted on the coin was, assuming him to be a ruler or leader of the realm that the horse riders were a part of.

  He also wondered what the prominently displayed spear shape symbolized, figuring that it was more iconic in nature than merely a simple representation of a common weapon.

  The images, and Lee’s inability to read the lettering, created a little more frustration in him. Lee could not decipher anything specific from them. Having taken more time than he intended to with the coins, he placed them all back into his pocket. The questions that he had would have to be pondered at a later time.

  When they finally finished gathering up foodstuffs, weapons, and other items, Lee and Ryan had each procured a bow, quiver with arrows, and a sword. Ryan had also taken up a hand axe, whose edge had been honed incredibly sharp.

  Both had ended up leaving the long lances born by the horsemen where they lay about the ground.

  Lee had taken a moment to consider the spears, with their sizeable iron blades and flaring wings of iron near the sockets. Though feeling reticent about the choice, he had opted not to take one.

  They were most certainly solid weapons, and they could be used to keep an opponent at a distance. Yet there was no question that they would be entirely too cumbersome for Lee or any of the others to carry along, and he did not have any training in how to properly use them.

  Lee and Ryan also claimed a couple of the very few remaining undamaged round shields, with their raised iron bosses set within the center. Lee looked at the narrow protrusions extending from the apex of the dome-like bosses, instantly realizing the potential of the shields as weapons themselves.

  Ryan’s shield was solid red, with a yellow line around the rim, while Lee’s had broad, swirling segments of alternating red and blue upon its facing.

  The shield was heavy, with a grip in the center placed just behind the iron boss. Lee was grateful for the thick, buckled leather strap on it, which he used to suspend and carry the shield over his back.

  Some of the better items uncovered were small iron objects that were kept with pieces of flint. That alone promised to solve one looming problem that Lee saw coming, of what to do when they no longer had access to the fire-making implements from their former world. The two women’s lighters would not last forever.

  Almost as an afterthought, he and Ryan added a couple of small, single-edged knives to their expanding collection of items. Lee surmised that the knives would come in very handy as tools, and would certainly be much more efficient in the shaping of wood than using the edges of rocks.

  All the while, the dead bodies that they searched among continued to bother Lee’s conscience. The apprehension and misgivings that he felt mounted with each individual that he came across.

  Even so, he could not help but continue to marvel at the nature of the fallen warriors’ equipment and appearances, as if they had stepped right out of the mists of time. His fascination was tempered by the stark reality of what had recently happened, as he found himself increasingly saddened by their terrible fates.

  For the most part, Lee tried to keep the haunting feelings at bay, while going about his chosen task. He paused several times during the search, taking a moment to closely regard more than one of the individual men. He wondered what kind of men each of them were, and what kind of society they were a part of.

  He wondered whether they were good men at heart, or whether he and his companions would have had something to fear from them. His thoughts lingered and dwelled with each new face that he came upon, and he felt a deep pang of regret as he knew that they would not be able to bury the men, or even burn their corpses.

  Every one of the dead men had a mother, something that Lee pondered deeply as he thought of his own elderly mother. He thought of how traumatic something like this would be if it had happened to him, abandoned to rot out on some empty, windswept plain.

  Lee bit back a swell of great frustration as he thought of the men’s family, friends, and others who would long wonder what had befallen the warriors that had been a regular part of their lives.

  Lee wished dearly that he could do something for the men, but survival demanded cruel indifference. He accepted that he and his companions would be unable to attend to the men in any significant manner. It was unavoidable that their bodies would be left behind as simple fodder for carrion, and the drawn-out decay of the elements and time.

  The utter helplessness of the situation pained Lee immensely, especially as he thought of everything in a much more personal sense, but there was really no choice. Each time the waves of sad regrets came over him, he clenched his jaws and went back to searching the bodies with a single-minded resolve.

  The humans were not the only ones to cause him distress, as the bodies of the larger race of attackers proved to be another matter entirely.

  Lee finally worked up enough nerve to examine a couple of the dead beast-men. He shuddered as he peered down at their inhuman visages. Up close, he saw that they had the broad, powerful jaws of a large canine, with huge, sharp teeth to match. Their pupils, staring lifelessly towards the sky above, were also similar to those of a dog or wolf.

  Carefully, Lee removed one of the leather half-helms from one of the daunting creatures. He flinched in surprise as he saw that they had pointed ears, which were placed a little higher up on their heads, and oriented more forward, than were those on a human.

  The removal of the half-helm also revealed the wide, high foreheads that the creatures had, with a hairline raised much higher than that of an average human. Their dense, thick locks of hair
framed their faces and heads, looking much like a dark mane.

  Yet as bestial as their intimidating forms were, so were they unmistakably human-like. Two arms culminating in massive, five-fingered hands, two legs, and several other aspects were akin to a human’s features.

  Up close, Lee felt more than a little fear as he looked upon their bulging, corded muscularity. These were undoubtedly extremely strong creatures, an observation confirmed when Lee tried to heave up one of the intriguing long-hafted weapons with the equally lengthy blades.

  Lee could lift the weapon up, but only slowly, and with great effort. He certainly could not wield it for its intended purpose.

  It was no surprise that the weapons of these creatures were quite useless to Lee, or to anyone else within his party. Lee watched as Ryan came to a similar conclusion, as the young man had to use two hands just to heave up one of the beast-men’s sword-like weapons.

  It took Lee only one attempt to realize that using one of their great bows would be impossible. He could not pull back the string more than a little, despite putting a tremendous effort into the endeavor. Ryan tried himself, and, though he strained immensely, could do little better than Lee.

  All the while, Lynn had kept largely to herself. She had retained the initial sword that she had found. In addition, she had acquired a couple of the larger daggers with the broad, single-edged blades. Both daggers rested in well-crafted sheaths of leather and wood, reinforced with multiple bronze rings set near to their mouths, with bronze chapes capping the bottom.

  One of the final things that Lee examined closely before departing the open ground was the pennon borne at the forefront of the contingent of horsemen. The haft that it was attached to had been severed through during the fighting, cleaved just below the curving pennon by one of the heavy blades of the attacking warriors.

  Lee held the pennon gently in his hands, looking down at the tasseled fringe and the alternating blue and gold stripes of the ensign itself. As with the coins, he knew that the pennon held in its very hues and patterns some more information about the lands of the horse riders.