by JD Cole
Kelli frowned. “I noticed you had the convoy, or fleet, or whatever, change direction. Do we keep moving or stop and defend?”
“We keep moving, as fast as we can, but I would be shocked if there isn’t an ambush waiting ahead on the route we were on. Unfortunately this increases the distance we have to cover to get out of the Shadowlands and outside the Goblin King’s wards.”
“Did you inform General Vox and his men?”
“Yes, Your Majesty, and the Paladins, too. The humans are preparing for battle.”
At that moment, shouts erupted across the convoy, followed by gunfire. Wyrms, each at least a third the size of a landship, broke through the tree cover to quickly land in the midst of fae soldiers, attacking viciously for just a moment before shooting back into the sky. The tactic was effective, killing dozens of soldiers throughout the convoy in a matter of moments. Other wyrm riders targeted the landships, damaging wheels and masts to make sure their loot could not escape. The forest was pandemonium, but Kelli’s troops and their human allies managed to rally quickly and defeated dozens of the enemy in return.
Kelli watched in horror as a wyrm landed on the Chasing Starlight, its solsdren rider killing captain Enyonin with an arrow before the wyrm bit him in half. “NO!” The wyrm then leapt up and tore into one of the stowed sails on the masts before a ValianT killed it with plasma fire. The wyrm fell to the deck where its solsdren rider struggled out from under its wing, only to be killed by armed guards and frantic refugees.
Kelli looked up at the sky, where she could see swarms of Wing Riders circling overhead where there were breaks in the tree cover. Shouts across the deck drew her attention.
“Sir, Claw Riders! The scouts spotted them to the north of us, heading our way quickly!”
“Claw Riders,” Meshra groaned.
“What are they?” Kelli demanded.
Meshra was quickly disseminating orders to his commanders, but turned to the queen. “I will not lie, My Queen, not everyone is going to survive this. The Claw Riders are bloodthirsty savages, they will undoubtedly target the refugees before coming after any soldiers.”
A loud crash drew everyone’s attention, and they looked in the distance to see two large trees being crushed under a landship that was being overturned by several wyrms.
Kelli looked down at Dufangen, then over at Sorvir. Neither of them had answers. Without a word she pulled herself into the sky, her eyes brightly shining with anger.
“No more killing these people,” she muttered. “Just leave them alone!”
Above the trees now, Kelli was surrounded by enemies, many of whom now directed all of their attention at her. She dodged arrows and spears, as well as several flame spells as she used the Birthright to feel for the lifeforce of each of the wyrms and their riders. Almost in a trance as she zoomed and dodged, she quickly collected the sounds and feeling of heartbeats, then focused on finding lungs. The wyrms, the ice elves… she also came across the humans in their Ripwinger, killing wyrms with their vissin cannons but forced into dodging and fleeing as frantically as she was.
A spear caught the Sprite Queen harmlessly in her back, and she felt her armor’s magic drain from the impact. It didn’t matter now. She had managed to grab hold of every Wing Rider, focusing on the sound of air moving through their passageways. She could sense each and every lung of her flying enemies.
She filled them with water. Then she kept filling them.
Immediately, the Wing Riders fell from the sky, not a single one of them spared from Kelli’s wrath. The few that did not die from burst lungs or impact with the ground below lived only long enough to drown.
Kelli looked down just as the first Claw Riders began reaching the convoy. They scrambled up onto a landship and immediately began tearing apart the refugees they found there. The screams of elves and dwarves… children… filled Kelli’s ears. “NO!” she screamed yet again. Never before had she experienced this level of fear or rage. Most of the riders were still well to the north. Kelli only sensed one vyzen scout in that area, the last of his group desperately rushing across treetops ahead of the horde. Wrapping the elf in a telekinetic blanket, she pulled him into the sky, holding him next to her. Despite himself, he cried out in fright even after figuring out it was the queen who had dragged him up here.
~ ~ ~ ~
Jezrimeli was on a wyrm’s back, choking the solsdren rider before viciously breaking his neck. Several chops of her hand at specific points had crippled the wyrm’s left wing, keeping it grounded. She now made quick work of snapping and crushing the bones in the ice-elf’s limbs to prevent its use as a goblin. The wyrm was thrashing about and using its long neck to try and snap at the zerivade, but she laughed and punched the monster in its eye before throwing its dead rider to the ground. Suddenly, the wyrm began gurgling, then full-on choking before rolling onto its side, flopping desperately. The zerivade hopped off and stood nearby, her eyes wide as she watched every Wing Rider and their mounts fall to the ground, dead and frothing at the mouth as buckets of spring water poured out. She looked up at the only possible cause, taking renewed stock of Queen Kelli. “I will do my best to never piss you off,” she saluted quietly with genuine respect. No self-righteous sprite would ever have attacked their enemies with such brutal finality.
A war cry drew the zerivade’s attention then, and she saw the first of the Claw Riders rush to the side of The Valley’s Echo, the landship she’d been riding. A determined look settled over her face and she rushed back to the ship, her golden wings carrying her up to the deck where a dozen riders had begun the slaughter. Jezrimeli recognized one of the bloody victims; one of the children she’d given walnuts to earlier.
The vampyre murderer who’d committed the evil crime locked eyes with her and smiled; the child’s blood was still hot around his mouth.
“You will die screaming,” the zerivade promised.
The vampyre rushed at her, swinging two short-bladed swords. Those same swords were immediately used to remove the vampyre’s arms before being tossed to the deck. The Claw Rider stared at Jezrimeli, unsure of what had just happened. She waited for the pain to hit him, then she reached into his screaming mouth and yanked out several of his fangs, stabbing them all into both of his eyes. Her long fingers jammed into his nostrils and removed his nose. She shoved the meat into his mouth and slapped him across the face, hard, causing him to stumble sideways.
One of his friends interrupted the lesson she was teaching, attacking her with a spear. Jezrimeli took a moment to destroy the lower half of that vampyre’s back before smashing his windpipe into butter. His spear found its way through his head into the deck wood. Returning her attention to the child-killer, Jezrimeli kicked his knees into a very unnatural angle, permanently crippling his legs. She left the screaming, pathetic creature on the deck next to his dead friend for someone else to kick at as she joined the guards in defending the ship.
~ ~ ~ ~
Kelli could sense the life force of the Claw Riders on the ground… realizing for the first time they were riding horses. Tears streamed from her eyes as she realized she couldn’t stop herself now even if she wanted to. They’re killing the kids! she raged. Her eyes blazed emerald so brightly that the armies below the trees momentarily thought the sun had turned green.
A heartbeat later, the forest beyond the convoy was incinerated into ash, along with most of the Claw Riders.
Kelli’s chest was heaving as she sobbed, slowly sinking down toward the Graceful Heron. She reached over to pull the elf into an embrace, crying into his shoulder. “I didn’t want to!” she cried. “Please forgive me!”
The mortified elf had no idea what was going on, but couldn’t bring himself to put his arms around royalty. Instead, he gazed down at the blackened, smoldering remains of the forest.
~ ~ ~ ~
Almost a hundred Claw Riders had survived Kelli’s attack, as well as one of the necromancer generals. Most of the barbarians were onboard a landship, slaughtering everyt
hing within reach, and had no idea they’d just lost the battle. The necromancer looked behind him, where the Sprite Queen had just erased several wiks of forestland, along with thousands of horses and vampyres, in an instant.
He shook his head, unbelieving. “We should have never provoked her...”
It was the last thought he had before a Paladin disintegrated his head with a vissin blast.
~ ~ ~ ~
Boss was more confident in this battle than he’d been in the previous one, for the simple fact that the nightmarish vampyre enemies facing him now, monstrous and frightening as they were, weren’t undead zombies. Unlike with the goblins, Boss’s well-placed full-metal-jacket lead was killing these savages just fine. The trade off, he learned, was that vampyres were the most feared faeries for a very good reason.
These enemies were swift, relentless, and courageous. Dressed in animal furs and wielding primitive weapons even by faery standards, they relied on these traits to overwhelm the defenders before they could react. The horses they rode were bigger even than Clydesdales, armored with attachments that made the beasts look like demons while making them near bullet-proof. The horses’ hooves looked like they’d had clawed boots nailed into them, giving them yet another weapon as if those powerful legs weren’t already enough to kill someone.
A puff of firefly lights whooshed past Boss’s head, followed by a deafening report of automatic gunfire. He flinched and turned to see Samantha behind him, her smoking VEC pistol having killed a dismounted Claw Rider who had been about to ruin Boss’s day with a spear through the back.
“Much obliged, Flashback,” Boss waved.
Samantha responded with a fang-filled grin, then teleported behind another Claw Rider in the distance, blasting the barbarian off his armored steed.
~ ~ ~ ~
A spear clanged loudly off of Greenbay’s ValianT as a Claw Rider raced passed him. Or tried to. The VT-4 kicked out at the horse, sending it flying several yards to land on top of its rider. The horse struggled to its feet, running out of the way as Greenbay rushed several steps to stomp on the dazed vampyre.
“I shouldn’t laugh,” Matrix guffawed over the comms, “but you looked like a cartoon kicking that horse, that was funny as hell.”
“Why waste ammo, right?” Greenbay replied, wiping his ValianT’s foot clean in the dirt.
~ ~ ~ ~
Maxillion leapt up and slashed at the leg of a Claw Rider climbing a rope hanging off the side of a landship, but the vampyre ignored the wound and kept climbing. Maxillion immediately turned to attack another Rider who’d leapt from his mount to get at the rope, and this time the elf was joined by Lagraen. The Rider was not afraid of them, but was clearly more interested in getting at the defenseless elves and dwarves on the ship. The vampyre attacked them just enough to get them out of his way, where they were forced to engage other Riders as the first one scrambled up the rope… until an arrow slammed into his temple, flinging his corpse back to the ground.
Kassak hadn’t bothered to watch his arrow strike home, instead unlatching his hyru’s blades and turning to face another vampyre. Dex joined him, wielding a sword and hunting knife, and together they fought the Claw Rider to a standstill for several heartbeats until Nim leapt in from nowhere, beheading the vampyre before disappearing into another melee.
~ ~ ~ ~
Sean killed one vampyre with his immer, then turned at the sound of galloping to see another Rider angling toward another landship. The vampyre guided his mount into running down several elves and dwarves who were occupied with other enemies. He was swaying the saddle too much to get an accurate shot at. The General let his rifle drop under his arm, held in place by the sling. Breaking into a flat run, he chased the horse and quickly caught up to it, leaping onto its back behind the surprised vampyre. Sean’s claws ripped out the vampyre’s throat, and he dumped the body out of the saddle, taking control of the large horse which, with Sean in the saddle, looked like a normal-sized horse.
Having never ridden a horse before, Sean tried to remember everything he’d seen in Western movies, lightly tugging on the reigns to wheel his new mount back toward his troops. As the horse trotted along, Sean brought his immer back up and resumed killing vampyres.
~ ~ ~ ~
Lumina and Julian clambered onto the deck of The Valley’s Echo, which now contained most of the remaining Claw Riders. The fighting had moved below decks, and the pair raced downstairs following the sounds of steel and screams. As they reached the first lower deck, a bolt from a crossbow raced at them. Julian reached out and plucked the bolt from the air, empowered by spell that enhanced his reflexes to almost match an elf’s. Lumina then launched a dagger at the crossbowman, the blade sinking deep into the vampyre’s eye socket. This drew the attention of another Rider who was trying to get down the next stairwell. He turned and ran at the Paladins, a crazed look on his face as he assaulted their ears with a primal scream.
Julian drew his trinigar blade and neatly separated the vampyre at the waist before beheading him. The Valley’s Echo had been turned into a slaughter house; blood and entrails stained the floor and walls where they weren’t covered by bodies. The two Paladins quickly made their way deeper, managing to kill two more Riders who were unaware of them until it was too late. They reached the bowels of the ship find over thirty Claw Riders pressing the attack against the survivors.
Jezrimeli stood with a handful of vyzen soldiers between the Riders and the refugees, obviously being worn down by the relentless savagery. Blood covered half of her face from a wound in her head. The Claw Riders screamed in excitement as they knew this skirmish was nearing its end, and the refugees would soon taste their blades.
Lumina and Julian drew their mevets and began blasting away at the horde, killing ten of them before the rest realized it. Jezrimeli took advantage of the distraction to launch herself into the midst of the vampyres, smashing bones and using stolen blades to slice open her enemies. The vyzen soldiers followed her, coordinating their attacks on one Rider at a time to swiftly kill them. Within moments, it was over. The zerivade fell to her hands and knees, coughing. The vyzen guards all fell near her, some sitting and others just laying back, exhausted. The refugees remained crammed together against each other, crying and anxious but hopeful that it was all over.
Julian knelt near Jezrimeli, summoning a minor healing spell. “I’m not that skilled with blood element,” he told her, “but I can help a little.”
The zerivade plopped down on her behind, accepting the aid with a wheezing breath. She surprised Lumina by grabbing his head and quickly pressing her lips to his in a dispassionate kiss. “Thanks for saving our butts. I’m going to take a nap now,” she declared, laying back in a puddle of blood. “You guys can handle the rest.”
Lumina raised his eyebrow at Julian, who shrugged. “She’s friendly.” Together, they began calming the refugees and slowly convinced everyone to get back up to the main deck and out of this bloodbath.
~ ~ ~ ~
Only a few Riders remained at the edge of the convoy now. The army would dispatch them soon enough, but quiet had already settled on the forest. Kelli sat miserably at Dufangen’s feet on the deck of Graceful Heron. “What have I done?” she asked quietly. Dried tears trailed the edge of her face.
“You did what you had to,” the Royal Counselor said, placing a comforting hand on Kelli’s shoulder. “None of this should ever have been forced on you, Highness.”
Kelli looked over at her cousin. “Sorvir?”
Sorvir stood at the port railing, watching the smoke rise from what used to be forest. “I…” the sprite shook his head and trailed off into silence. Words weren’t needed; Kelli could sense his sentiment. The Birthright was not meant to be used so murderously or destructively.
“I didn’t know how else to stop them,” Kelli said.
“You did nothing wrong, Queen Kelli,” Dufangen assured her.
Sorvir quickly turned and walked over, kneeling to meet Kelli’s eyes. “
She is right. You saved everyone. It is not your fault you did not have all the tools you needed-”
“To do things the right way?” Kelli finished.
Sorvir looked away. “It was not your fault, and as Dufangen said, you did nothing wrong, Highness.”
“You will learn to control this power,” Dufangen said. “I will teach you, you have my word. And you will never need to destroy like this again.”
“I drowned all of them, and burned everyone else…” Kelli’s eyes narrowed and she shook her head, trying to fathom how she could kill any creature in such horrible ways.
“You saved us,” Sorvir said. “Focus on that.”
Kelli sniffed and looked up at him. “I didn’t save everyone.” She looked around at the damaged and destroyed landships, her eyes coming to rest on Jezrimeli’s ship, The Valley’s Echo. Cries of pain and sorrow were beginning to grow louder now. “I didn’t have the power to cast those spells until I got angry enough from all of their deaths.”
“Then, as loathe as I am to admit it,” Dufangen offered, “I am grateful for your human blood, in this particular case.”
~ ~ ~ ~
It took two more days to recover from the attack, making sufficient repairs to the landships to get the convoy moving once more. Thankfully, the goblin forces had nothing remaining to attack them with, and the convoy was left to travel in peace. As the landships crossed into the Borderlands, the armies were met by small ethergates from Windham and Jenshire, with workers carrying crates of food and supplies to the weary travelers. Kelli stood on the deck of the Graceful Heron, her armor recharging in another bowl of water. Her hood was lifted up over head with a few strands of her silver hair hanging out over her face. She looked over the railing and saw Sean Vox riding atop his captured warhorse, and somehow the sight lifted her spirits. She hoped Orion was waiting for her back at the castle.