by LJ Rivers
My boyfriend was one of Britain’s best fencers, albeit with the non-lethal foil. Since coming to this world, he had honed his skills with the broader and sharper medieval steel. He moved like a dancer, slipping left and right to avoid being hit. One Sorcerer swung his giant blade at Brendan’s head, but his target wasn’t there when the blade landed. Brendan had spun around and used the Sorcerer’s momentum against him. The Sorcerer fell forward, and Brendan dropped to one knee, pushing his blade up and through his enemy’s throat. He retracted the sword, ready to take on the next challenge.
But they were so many!
Soon, I couldn’t see him for all the black-clad soldiers enveloping Brendan and his sword-wielding troops, like ants on a hill.
“Ruby!” an all too familiar voice shouted from above.
I spun around and looked up. “Charlie? What the fudge are you doing here? It’s too dangerous!”
From her position on the griffin’s back, she might be somewhat safe from the arrows, but that wouldn’t last. If any of the giant spears hit the animal, they would drop to certain death instantly.
“Can you come with me?” she shouted, pointing further north.
I followed the direction of her finger, and my blood froze. A dozen or so creatures came stumbling out of the north gate of the Avalen City wall. They were still too far away for me to make out the details, but I didn’t have to. The blue sparks flashing from their tails told me all I needed to know.
Nadredd!
“I have an idea,” Charlie yelled. “Wow!” An arrow whooshed by, inches from her head. “Follow me, Ru!”
Her griffin flapped its wings twice and flew towards the creatures that approached from the north. The Nadredd had besieged Avalon for several years before Morgana defeated them. Her words echoed in my head: If you ever encounter one, flee like the Nethers are on your heels.
“Well, My Queen,” I muttered under my breath, “it seems I’m not encountering one, but many.”
I smacked my tongue and leaned forward and to the left. Rhiannon reacted instantly, pounding along the gravel path to where the Nadredd were.
And where, for some idiotic reason, Charlie was also headed.
What was she thinking? She had to know my magic would be useless against those beasts. When I was sure the Sorcerers’ magic couldn’t reach me, I withdrew the force field. Useless or not, I wanted to save as much energy as possible. Although I still felt curiously strong, my batteries were not eternal.
Charlie and her griffin alighted next to the gravel road. She slid off the animal’s back. In her hand, she had a coiled-up rope. “Here, take this end,” she said.
I did. It was no rope. “What is it? Copper?”
She grinned and nodded eagerly. “Now, ride over to that fencepost and secure your end.”
“OK? Then what?”
“Then comes the easy part for you.” She wiggled her eyebrows and pushed her glasses up on her nose. “Go twenty or thirty yards back on the road and make yourself known to the Nadredd.”
“Known?” It dawned on me. “Are you nuts? A decoy?”
She shrugged. “Any better ideas, Queenie?”
My shoulders slumped. “I—I—!”
“Didn’t think so. Hurry up, will you?”
Rhiannon seemed to pick up on Charlie’s order faster than me and was already passing over the ditch by the road. I clung to the end of the copper wire. My hand was shaking vigorously. Charlie’s idea was nuts. As my unicorn stopped next to the fencepost, I leaned out and wound the wire three times around it, then twisted the end around the wire itself, hopefully securing it enough.
I swallowed hard, glancing back across the path. Up by the gate, the Nadredd had started to find some form of order, which I guessed was not part of their nature. They were still some three hundred yards from Charlie and me but had reached the first torches, and I could make out the individual shapes. I had seen these creatures in a vision, albeit only briefly. Still, I had seen enough to know what I was facing.
Chapter Thirty-One
They stood eight feet tall, even when hunched over, muddy-green scales covered their half-man, half-lizard bodies that ended in thick, long tails. The scorpion-like sting at the end of the tails looked like the ones on manticores, but had one special feature Alun and his kind didn’t. The Blue Sparks of Unhekal. Giant stun guns, in reality, the effects of which I was way too familiar with. For a Magical, it was even more numbing than on a regular human, as their magic was neutralised, too.
Charlie had climbed the hill on the other side and was hiding behind a rock. Her griffin was already back on its wings, circling above us at a safe distance.
Rhiannon came to a stop thirty yards down the road. So, I was to make myself known to the Nadredd. Simple enough. I sent a handful of fireballs towards the unruly bunch. As the red orbs reached the first Nadredd, I flicked my hand again. The fireballs exploded, flashing an enormous red and orange ball of flames into the air.
As expected, the Nadredd themselves were unharmed. And they were angry.
“The princess!” the frontrunner bellowed, his voice an indeterminable mix of human speech and primal growling. “King want princess!”
The air above the Nadredd lit up with blue flashes, as if it were a national police car convention, and the most terrifying creatures I could imagine started to storm down the road. They might not have been more than a dozen, but their feet sounded like five thousand marching boots.
Rhiannon snorted, but stood her ground. She dug lines in the gravel with her hooves and lowered her head so her blood-stained horn pointed at the beasts.
I hope you know what you’re doing, Char, I prayed, glancing over at her. She had brought out something from one of her many satchels. A cylinder of sorts. She attached her end of the wire to it, and reached inside her cloak. When her hand came back out, her lips moved. In her palm, she held the wand Jen had got her.
The wand with the Blue Sparks of Unhekal at the end.
“Get princess!” the Nadredd growled again. They were only fifty yards from the copper wire that lay across the road now.
“I’m here, you sons of the Nethers!” I cried, waving my arms in the air. I felt a fool and feared I would die one, too. If Charlie’s plan failed, there was nothing I could do to stop the beasts. Besides, it was too late to change my mind about it.
With a grunt, Charlie pulled her end of the copper wire, lifting it four feet above the gravel road. If the Nadredd saw it—which I doubted they did—it was too late. Charlie pushed the end of her wand at the copper-wrapped cylinder and pressed the button on the bottom. A tiny flash of blue emanated from the tip.
The wire exploded with a boom, filling the night sky with a cascade of flashes. They were mostly blue, but so intense that they appeared almost bright white. Rhiannon flinched, and this time backed up a few steps.
For a split second, my brain tried to find a word to describe the screams and howls of the electrocuted Nadredd, but failed. It was still ringing in my ears when Rhiannon chose to engage.
“Whoa!” I shouted. “What are you doing?”
She was fighting. On the road ahead, eight or nine of the Nadredd lay sprawled on their backs, shaking from the electrical shocks in their systems. Not all of them had hit Charlie’s ingenious electrical trap, however, and the remaining three were jumping over the others. Charlie hadn’t been able to hold the wire tight when the surge ran through, which I guessed would have killed her or at least knocked her out. Two of the unharmed Nadredd were already past the wire, pointing their deadly stingers at me. The third had veered off and was headed uphill.
“Charlie!” I screamed. “Run!”
But she couldn’t possibly outrun that monster.
Rhiannon whinnied, pranced, and kicked her hooves at the oncoming two-legged beasts. I clung to the saddle horn, slipping backwards in the seat.
As the first Nadredd came within a few feet, it swung its tail at her. Rhiannon stomped back down, bowing her neck so her horn
took the blow. The Nadredd’s tail snapped in two over the unicorn’s horn, its electric half skidding across the path and into the ditch. Rhiannon wasn’t done, though. She pranced again, but only briefly. When she landed, her horn pierced through the greenish scales of the Nadredd’s torso. Dark, almost black blood gushed out of the beast’s front and back, and the Nadredd itself squirmed for half a second before laying still.
What? Did Rhiannon just kill a Nadredd?
The second one backed off a little and started circling around the white unicorn. It gave a few lashes with its tail, blue sparks flying each time. The sparks hit Rhiannon on her legs and chest, making her jolt each time. She didn’t fall, however, and the Nadredd seemed unsure what to do.
I unsheathed my sword. There was no way I could fence my way around that whipping tail, but I could try something else. I threw the blade as far as I could towards the ditch, which wasn’t too far, given the weight of the sword. Before it landed, I grabbed hold of it with my telekinesis. It stopped mid-air. The Nadredd glanced at it, but only briefly, as if it was no threat. I suspected it relied on its green scales to be strong enough to withstand a puny sword.
Rhiannon took a couple of steps back to avoid the Nadredd’s tail. That seemed to spur the beast’s confidence, and it ambled closer. This will never work. But I had to try something. So, I guided the sword behind the Nadredd, letting it hover a few feet above its head. I flicked my left hand, sending a tiny force field out in front of the beast. It wouldn’t have any effect on the Nadredd as such, as it was immune to my magic. Then again, I had other plans.
I threw two tiny fireballs at the force field, letting them slip inside. At my command, the force field lowered, spinning the glowing orbs inside. The Nadredd followed the sinking globe all the way to the ground, bending its neck at the same time.
With a massive surge of telekinesis magic, I swung the sword at the creature’s exposed neck. The headless Nadredd swayed for a brief moment, sticky blood oozing from where its head had been attached. I didn’t wait until it fell to the ground, but urged Rhiannon into motion, steering her towards Charlie’s hiding place.
Charlie sat on the rock, tears flowing down her cheeks. In her trembling hand, she clasped her wand. Behind the rock, her griffin lay motionless. A Nadredd’s tail stuck out from underneath the griffin.
“She saved me,” Charlie whispered.
“Oh, Char.” I slid off Rhiannon’s back and came down on the rock next to Charlie. “Come here, angel.”
She leaned against my shoulder, sniffling.
“You saved me,” I said. “And probably hundreds more.”
Charlie held her wand up. “It can kill more than Muggles,” she said, and let out a little titter.
“More than what?”
“Are they dead?” she asked, ignoring my question. “The others, I mean.”
“I think so. If not, I’ll see to it at once.”
I went back to the path, sword in hand. The electrocuted Nadredd weren’t dead. Although I had just witnessed how the magic in Rhiannon’s horn could kill a Nadredd, I didn’t have it in me to use her as an executioner.
Bile rose in my throat at the thought of what I had to do. Still, if these creatures were allowed to come back from their temporarily incapacitated conditions, they would be a terrifying addition to my father’s army. I sucked in a breath, raised both hands, and aimed my sword at the neck of the closest Nadredd, the one who had identified me as the princess.
After I had finished, and both Charlie and I had spilt our guts in the ditch, we went back to Rhiannon. Using the height of the boulder, I returned to the saddle. I held my hand out to Charlie. “Climb up.”
We rode back to the plains where the two armies were still fighting.
Rhiannon galloped through the hordes of soldiers, crashing her spear into our enemies as we went. I yelped as Charlie’s fingers dug into my stomach.
“Ease up a little, would you?”
Her chin rested on my shoulder. “Sorry, but it’s a really long way down.”
“Don’t tell me you’re scared of horses. Or unicorns.”
She loosened her grip a touch, her arms still pressing against my sides. “On the ground, no. Up here? Terrified.”
I raised a force field to my right for a moment, deflecting a spear that had been coming for us. The spearman bounced back on his behind. “You rode on one before.”
Charlie kicked her foot out and socked a black-clad swordsman in the head. “Sure. A smaller one. I didn’t want to sound skittish, then.”
I stifled a giggle, then raised my eyes to the carnage ahead.
The sight that met us was heart-breaking. While Charlie and I had stopped the Nadredd, my father’s army had driven mine further back on the Avalen plains. We had started with fifteen thousand soldiers, and there couldn’t be more than nine or ten thousand left. Auberon’s army tallied at least thirty-five, maybe fifty thousand.
We had the advantage of the flying soldiers, but it couldn’t be enough. Swarms of Fae with bows and arrows swooped over the black sea of Sorcerers, picking out dozens of enemies with every passing. Eagles alighted on black-cloaked shoulders, pecking at eyes and necks with their sharp beaks. Wolves and foxes latched onto arms and legs, tearing my father’s soldiers apart.
But it wasn’t enough.
“Hang on!” I said to Charlie, and steered Rhiannon around the fray. I had to get my army to retreat. We would stand a better chance around the Culach Pass.
Charlie held her arms tightly around me as Rhiannon picked up the pace. We reached the rear of my army, behind a platoon of spear-carrying Fae. I rode between them to get to my commanders up front.
Sir Galahad and his father, Lancelot, were still in their saddles, swinging their giant swords this way and that. Ahead, Brendan parried another slashing blade and responded to the attack with a deep thrust through the Sorcerer’s heart. Among the thousands of soldiers, it seemed very few were powerful enough to conjure fire.
Unfortunately, those who could were extremely effective. All along the front lines, men and women lost their lives to the Sorcerers’ magic. Those who could conjure force fields survived, but only as long as their magic lasted. A Fae who looked my age withstood a Sorcerer’s flamethrower for about ten seconds before her force field withered, and the fire crept through. Her blonde tresses caught ablaze first, and the full force of her adversary’s magic took care of the rest.
As she fell, wrapped in magical fire, she spun around. Her dark blue cloak was not the army regular, and it had no embroidered M. A man stood over her, wrapping her in a force field in a useless attempt to save her from the flames. He fell to his knees, wailing.
In civilian clothes.
And there were more of them. Commoners and city folk side by side, swinging their swords, scythes, and even hay forks. Avalonians fighting for their land.
For their tomorrow.
A guttural roar cut through the clamouring, followed by a Sorcerer falling off his unicorn. The left side of his head was smashed. A man jumped into the saddle, holding a sledgehammer dripping with blood in his right hand.
Elwood?
“Get behind me, Feeney!” the smith bellowed. “I knock them down, and you can have them if they are still breathing.” He commanded the unicorn to turn, so the animal faced the Sorcerer army. The unlikely, but seemingly deadly effective duo vanished into the fray.
Evonny, way out to my left, sunk her teeth in an enemy’s neck just as he released his flames. Her tail caught fire, but she didn’t let go until the Sorcerer stopped moving. Only then did she cry out in a high-pitched yelp and roll over to smother the flames. When she got back up, her tail was half the length it had been, with only a few scorched bristles left.
She immediately jumped back into the fight, seeking her next victim.
And yet, we were losing.
The black sea rolled forward in waves. For each Sorcerer killed, a new one appeared.
One of Fernan’s foxes bit the ear o
f a young Sorceress, who screamed so loud I heard her over the clamour. She couldn’t be more than ten years old, with the magic powers of a child. The fox couldn’t take such things into consideration. Not in this mayhem. It ripped the poor girl’s throat, leaving her to bleed to death as it moved on. In this case, moving on meant being impaled on the tip of an older Sorceress’ spear. When she had killed it, the Sorceress fell to her knees, scooping up the little girl, who by now had stopped screaming. The older one—the sister or maybe mother—rocked the younger back and forth, wailing her heart out.
I turned, afraid I might see the next fox or wolf come along and kill her, too.
To my right, behind Sir Bedivere’s towering presence, stood a frail, old man.
No! He should have been back at the camp, not here.
But Pullhelli and Bedivere seemed to be working in tandem. The knight wielded his sword as expertly as only an Arthurian knight could, parrying and slashing enemies left and right. Those who made it past him, had to face my great-uncle and his inferno. With small, but deadly bursts of fire, he floored one enemy after another.
And yet, we were losing.
My army was driven backwards, just like we had driven our enemy through the Culach Pass earlier. Like then, Auberon’s army was hacking away at mine, one slice at a time. If we kept trying to withstand the overpowering enemy, it would only be a matter of time before we no longer existed.
“Get back, Ruby!” a voice sounded from above my head. I glanced up. Commander Taryn had changed his head back to human form, but kept the rest eagle. “Find shelter!”
“We have to retreat,” I shouted. “Go back to the pass.”
He circled and alighted on a dead horse’s neck. “I can’t stay like this for long.” He gasped. “Wrong system for air and such.”
“I get it. But you agree with me, don’t you?”
He closed his eyes. “Yes.”
As he soared back in the air, his head was that of the eagle. His gaze met mine, and I gave what I hoped was a reassuring nod. I had no idea why. There was nothing reassuring to convey.