by Jeff Gunzel
“And that is where you’re wrong,” she responded, stepping aside while gesturing to the still open portal. “Seems to me we’ve arrived just in time.”
Three at a time, more shadowed figures stepped through the doorway. Clad in flowing red robes, multicolored dy-chitas strung across their foreheads, the palins formed a straight line, unblinking eyes gazing straight ahead. No longer did they look like young girls to Eric, but determined women ready to fight in his name.
Once the last three stepped through, he caught a glimpse of Wara and the twins as they held the portal open from the other side. The old woman who always looked like she was sucking a lemon now looked determined. For once, her hard eyes seemed soft and caring. She nodded to him, then mouthed a silent, “Thank you.” Eric couldn’t begin to count how many customs they had in this strange land, but he was certainly familiar with his own. Stunned, he watched as she touched her forehead then her heart. With a final bow the doorway snapped shut.
He turned and looked up as the churning vortex in the sky began to hum, light pulsing back and forth between blue and green. The humming grew louder, to the point where he could feel its vibrations deep within his chest. Suddenly, it stopped humming and all went quiet.
There came a soft chirping sound as swirls of large black leaves funneled down from the vortex. They spun about in tight circles, caught in the tornadoes hanging down from the sky. Eric’s blood went cold once he recognized them for what they were. They were the same as those black leathery creatures that attacked his village that fateful day! Until this moment he had never seen another. But there they were, hundreds...maybe thousands filling up the sky in a taint of fluttering shadow.
“Palins!” Mise barked, pacing along the organized line. Not looking at her, or even at the fiendish things flying in the sky, they kept their eyes straight ahead like the fearless soldiers they had become. “Every event of your lives has led you to this moment. This is what you were born to do. Show no fear in the face of our enemy, but strike them down like the vile shadows they are. The darkness has come...but so have we!”
Still gazing out across the desert, their dy-chitas began to glow with power, their shinning eyes glimmering like jewels.
“This world still belongs to us, and we shall fight to the death to defend it! Stand with the Gate Keeper and nothing shall stop us!” They all stepped towards the cliff, toes pressed right to the edge. Mise took Eric by the hand and led him up near the others.
She turned to face him, still holding his hand while gazing into his eyes. “We’ve watched your training all these weeks. We know what you can do, and I have faith that nothing can stop us if we work as one. Use us as the weapons we are.” Her hand slipped from his as she tipped back over the cliff. “Show the darkness who you really are,” came her last words. Without pause the girls turned and fell backward over the edge, now free-falling towards the desert below.
He could feel their individual energies cascading downward, each one distinctive and unique. “Together, we shall drive back the darkness,” he whispered, mind locked on to each of them. His eyes blazed with golden light, charred markings crackling with energy as his fists clenched.
The air ripped open beneath each falling palin, swallowing them up in mid free-fall. He could feel the vile energy of the creatures above, each one a mutation of nature that should never have existed at all. Portals ripped open high in the sky, each one releasing a palin as she continued her descent.
Like a vivid lightning storm, they unleashed strands of energy from their fingertips while spinning in the air, the sky suddenly lighting up with power. Distending tornadoes made of living energy, they began shredding the flying creatures, slicing them up like butter. Eric had full control of them now, allowing each to fall a certain distance before catching them in another portal then repeating the pattern.
Confused, the leathery creatures charged blindly at the glowing tornados. Effortlessly, Eric shifted the palins around as needed. He moved them like pieces of a game, shredding the enemy then shifting them out of harm’s way. The battle in the sky was quickly becoming a rout.
* * *
“Don’t look up,” called Kelus, trying to get his men organized. Smoldering black body parts were falling down from the sky, and who knew what might happen if any of that blood got in someone’s eye. Despite his own advice, he couldn’t help but spare a glance at the masterful work being done up above.
Palins were falling in twenty-foot drops, sprouting blazing colored energy whips each time they spun in free-fall. Splashing into a carefully placed portal, the doorway would reopen elsewhere so they could continue to unleash their special brand of devastation. Brilliant, he thought. How does anything defend against such a tactic?
The other armies had joined up now and were assembling themselves amongst the ranks. Mismatched armor, opposing banners and even different skin tones meant nothing here. Perfect strangers were now brothers in blood, united in a single cause. Battle lines formed, weapons drawn and ready, each man ready to die for the man standing next to him.
Ilenaya raised her hand, halting the marching red army at her back. In perfect rows, thousands of soldiers stood in total silence awaiting the command of their empress. What was she waiting for? Even with the merging armies, she still held the superior numbers. Leaning back on the white bear, she raised her hands to the sky. “Ooo thun do thracky com tris coo,” the sound of her words boomed through the desert.
As if by her command alone, the vortex began to pulse with white light. Rhythmic like a beating heart, it throbbed in tune to an unheard beat. With each new beat, a bolt of lightning crackled down and struck the sand, kicking up showers of sandy debris.
One by one, skeletal hands popped up through the desert floor. Skulls with black eyeless sockets stared up from the sand, toothy mouths spread out in permanent grins. They crept up like lizards, some wearing primitive chest plates with crude helmets. Others wore nothing at all, exposing white bone head to toe.
“Undead!” Kelus warned his men. “They won’t tire or even die. You must break them apart until there is nothing left to come after you. Steady! Hold the line!” Hundreds of skeletons began to march, clicking and clacking with each rickety step. The red army stayed put, determined to sit back until their time came. Ilenaya grinned from behind her white mask.
* * *
A beast crept out from the hidden shadow of the trees, sniffing suspiciously at the air. It let out a disapproving growl before sniffing the air again to be sure. There was something foul on the wind, tainted by evil. Wrong. With the ability to properly reason long gone, animal instincts were all that remained. Whatever the taint riding on the air, it was not of this world. Dark. Vile. Perversions of nature that must be eliminated.
The beast dropped down to all fours, its tongue slowly slipping across a pair of silver teeth. Rearing her head back, she howled across the desert, a shrill, sorrowful moan that carried on the wind. The corner of her upper lip twitched in anticipation, teeth bared as a low, rolling growl escaped her throat. Eyeing the red army, she felt nothing but searing hate. They were human, yet wrong in some vile way. They were somehow allied with this evil.
She glanced back over her shoulder, howled once more before galloping off on her feet and knuckles. The need for their blood was too strong to deny, and her bloodlust would be quenched this day.
A moment later, the tree line exploded with movement. Cat-like creatures burst from the brush, charging after their leader. With jackal-like heads, bodies like that of a panther, they howled in anger as trees ripped apart from their rush. Like a swarm of black ants, they seeped over the next hilltop...murder in their eyes.
* * *
Wave after wave of clacking skeleton warriors crashed against the front lines. Clumsy in nature, they swung their crude weapons about like farmers wielding pitchforks. Inept and virtually skilless, they fell by the dozens as whirling blades cut them down like weeds. Knocking them down and cutting them in half proved to be easy en
ough, but even their remains just seemed to keep coming!
Hacked-off arms clawed the ground, inching their way along to grasp a foot or ankle. Kelus’s warning had proved to be true. Their bones had to be virtually shattered, cut into pieces too small to cause any harm.
Racing past the front line, Jacob broke rank and worked his way deeper across the battlefield. He whirled his staff, crashing though bone and caving in skulls. Waves of undead were drawn to the lone target, and with no flanking soldiers to protect his sides, he quickly found himself surrounded—which was exactly what he wanted.
He spun about, staff intercepting vicious strikes flooding in from all angles. The sword blows were slow and clumsy, but they still came from everywhere at once. He deflected high, then with a thrust sent that skeleton crashing into the one behind it. Spinning back, he intercepted two swords with a single high parry. A swift kick sent the first skeleton toppling backward, then a low counter strike crumbled the leg of the other. With the nasty flurry he had managed to generate just enough space to work. My turn...
With a single low sweep, his staff crashed through four separate legs, sending bone chips spraying through the air. On his back swing he tore through their forearms with similar effect, rusty swords clanging to the ground. Still animated but effectively useless, those skeletons crumpled, teeth clicking defiantly to show they weren’t done just yet.
Jacob whirled forward and back, shattering arms and wrists in order to disarm the surrounding undead. He could stay here and mash them into dust, but that was not his plan. The merged armies behind him could clean up what he started. His only objective now was to cripple as many as possible before they reached the front line, giving the soldiers an easier time of it. A suicide mission to be sure, but an honorable death he would gladly meet with courage.
His staff whirled with fury, cracking rib cages and shattering spines. Heart pumping, lungs burning, his savage dance continued. With a final high sweep, he severed the tops of three skulls. Teeth still clacking away, they toppled to the side, giving Jacob a clear look in front of him. By his own furious offensive he had somehow crossed the battlefield, and now stood within clear sight of the red army. Along with her remaining boachards, Morita had already joined up with the second force. Over half her beasts still remained, and she had foot soldiers to contribute as well.
Eyes glared in near disbelief. Who was this single soldier who had cut through so many skeleton warriors singlehandedly? No matter, a single man was not going to take out an entire army no matter how skilled he was.
But he didn’t flee or start running back towards his own united front. His decision had been made and he would see it to the end. Gripping his staff, he gave it a violent twirl and crouched down into a low stance. He would accept their inevitable charge and take out as many as he could. With a grin, Ilenaya raised her hand, about to signal her force to run him through. It was time to advance and squash these annoying rebels, starting with him.
Confusion spread through the army as a drumming sound reverberated from over the next hill. As it drew closer, they fingered their weapons uneasily, heads turning this way and that. What was approaching? A stampede of deer? Jacob nearly dropped his weapon when he saw Athel sprinting across the hilltop at a full charge. Her clothes were rags, her hair flared out wildly. And for some reason, his eyes were drawn to the single red ribbon still in her hair after all this time. It was like a sign to him, a symbol of her clinging humanity that proved her mind was not completely gone yet.
A cloud of dust rose up behind her as the herd of charging beasts rumbled at her back. Collectively, they swallowed the land like a murky shadow moving across the land. Like a raging river crashing over rocks, the black wave slammed into the army’s flank. The Crimson Empire’s army was highly skilled, but even they had never faced suck a savage force. Claws shredding, teeth tearing through flesh, there were no drills or training that could have readied them for something like this.
Dismantling the last of the skeleton warriors, the rebel army had suffered no loses as of yet. Many of the undead that had hobbled to the front line presented clear evidence of their encounter with Jacob. Broken at best, they proved to be nothing more than easy prey. Kelus gazed out across the battlefield and saw the attack from those wild beasts. Although he didn’t know what to make of it, this was not a time to question his good fortune. At least for now those creatures could be considered allies.
He looked to Rheldon. “The gods have smiled on us for once,” he said. “They’re back on their heels and we must push them before they can recover. Sound the charge!”
Rheldon nodded, then made a few quick hand gestures in the air. His men stepped forward, all standing in a single line. “On my signal!” he yelled, sword high in the air. The other armies behind them were itching to go. Up until now they had seen little action, and it was time to prove their worth.
A humming sound from the sky interrupted his signal to charge. The men looked up at the churning vortex as it vibrated violently. As the humming grew louder, men dropped to their knees with hands pressed to their ears, the buzzing rattling into their ribs. After a deep booming rumble, the humming ceased. All went quiet once more.
Suddenly, a green ball of light fell from the vortex like a streaking comet. It slammed into the ground with thunderous impact, kicking up sand and rock. The glowing green rock smoldered in its enormous hole, waves of distorted smoke funneling upward from the toxic stone.
One by one, more began to streak down, long tails of green gas trailing from the stones. Some landed harmlessly between the two armies, others struck the rebel army directly, sending charred men cartwheeling through the air. Ten, then fifteen, the raining destruction seemed like it might not end. Men ran about in chaos, covering their heads as if that might actually help. After around twenty-five had landed, the vortex finally went quiet. Glowing green rocks smoldered in their self-made pits, streaming smoke while giving off a putrid scent.
The stones began to crackle and shift, moving around in their steaming beds of sand. With a final cracking sound, thick fluorescent arms sprouted from the stones, reaching up and hoisting the creatures from their holes. Fifteen feet tall, their bodies were thick and rigid like walking trees. Both hairless and skinless, their stony faces held no true expression, just mismatched black openings that served as eyes and mouths. Their facial cavities were uneven, some too high, others too low, like wax faces on a candle that had been partially melted.
With a moan, the first swept his long arm across a mass of soldiers that were trying to flee, his paw of a hand clubbing them like buzzing insects. Broken bodies scattered, tumbling high and far from the awesome power. The others were already in action, clawing and pounding anything that moved, save for the opposing force. They seemed to know who the allies were.
* * *
“No,” Eric gasped, watching the chaos unfold below while still controlling the portals in the sky. Juggling the palins in the sky took tremendous concentration. Still, he couldn’t help but watch these new creatures tearing through the ranks, arrows ricocheting harmlessly off their stony bodies. The few who got close enough to swing a sword soon found out their solid bodies could not even be scratched by such futile weapons.
The army’s ranks were completely broken now. There was no front line to speak of as soldiers scattered about, mostly trying to save themselves from the rock giants. Eric had no choice now. His tactics needed to shift if there was any chance of fending off these seemingly invincible creatures.
With no more that a thought, the air ripped open on either side of the green giant. A blaze of colored energy flared out from each, the spinning strands blasting its shoulder and face. With a howl it stumbled back, stony hands rising up to fend against the searing pain. Green acid flowed down its body, steaming against the ground with each trickling drop.
The portals snapped shut, then reopened at its front and back. Again, spinning palins peeked out, blasting away with their white-hot whips of power, a blazing
rainbow of colorful destruction. This time the lacerations were very deep. Its face became a smoking hole of black. Even a severed arm fell to the ground, still smoking at the joint.
To the cheers of soldiers trying to reorganize, the pattern was repeated all over the battlefield. Feeling their energy provided much more control than seeing them, and Eric kept his eyes closed through most of the assault. He continually shifted the palins around, strategically opening portals at the perfect time, then closing them before the beasts could strike back.
Several giants had fallen, but there were still a few left. One roared, swatting at the air as if fending off a swarm of stinging bees. Eric opened a portal at its flank, but immediately recognized his mistake. To his eyes, it all happened in slow motion, yet he could do nothing to stop it. The spinning palin leaned out, energy strands sweeping with blazing colors. Too late! Should he snap it shut? No, it would cut her in half! Would that have been better? Would that have been more merciful?
The giant flailed his stony hand through the blaze of color, sweeping across the golden portal. It burst into a spray of sparkles, the palin’s body torn free from the safety of her golden sanctuary. She tumbled though the air, landing on the sand in a contorted pose. Lifeless eyes stared off at nothing, body twisted and bent.
“No!” Eric growled, swearing he could feel her last thoughts burning through his mind. To only lose one so far was a tremendous success by the rules of war, but he didn’t see it that way. There was never a way to justify the loss of even a single life. I failed her... I was too slow and she paid with her life!
Portals snapped open behind the reorganized front line, palins stepping out and joining with the soldiers. Eric didn’t want to risk any more of their lives. Besides, it didn’t seem to matter anymore. Even more of those green rocks were streaking down from the vortex, only now there were also red and black ones as well.
The black ones stood up from the ground, leathery feathers covering their bodies like plates of armor. Their heads were thin with long white beaks, hooked with sharp bone on the end. The red ones looked much like the green, faceless and thick, but their bodies blazed with fire.