by Orr, Krystal
Her attack landed on the man's right side, the force of the blow cracking several ribs. When he went to fall, Arizira screamed and struck him again across the opposite side of his face and changed his direction. Instead of falling on Talliea, he now stumbled toward the right.
Despite the injuries he suffered, the man did not fall like Arizira had hoped. He lifted his sword in his left hand and moved in to finish her. Lao'dahn was now nearly upon her as well. Arizira struggled to use her foot to kick her sabre into her hands. If she could get the pommel at the right angle… Yet her side kept her from moving as she desired!
The man was advancing. Lao'dahn was advancing.
Arizira dropped the staff in her hand and finally managed to get the pommel beneath her foot. She pressed down on it and the sabre jumped up. She grabbed it in both hands right as the man was upon her, and slammed the gleaming metal into his middle with all of her strength.
He stopped. His sword clattered where it fell on the ground.
Arizira was breathing heavily. Her side ached. She watched the life leave his eyes as he fell against her. No sooner had he died and he was being pulled away. Arizira had not the time to react. Lao'dahn shoved the body of his comrade to the side, tore the sabre from Arizira's hands, and grabbed her by the arm. "Enough! You are mine!"
He yanked her away from the wall and threw her out into the open. She landed painfully on the ground and used her feet to try and kick herself away from Lao'dahn. The wound in her side kept her from moving quickly and then Lao'dahn was on top of her. He pressed his fingers into the cut on her stomach and she cried out in pain.
"My only regret is that Talliea will not be witness to this! Esuval has passed judgment on you, heathen!"
Arizira struggled with him. She was so tired. Her body was in agony. Blood spilled from the cut on her shoulder, her mouth, and the gash across her middle. She had been thrown into rock, slammed into dirt, knocked over, slapped, and cut. She had done everything she would to protect Talliea. Of the five men who had entered the area she was in, she had killed four. Lao'dahn pulled a dagger from his boot and smiled down at her. She grabbed a handful of dirt and flung it into his eyes.
He yelled out, but managed to keep her pinned beneath him. Fresh blood colored the already stained fabric of her blouse as she fought to free herself. Lao'dahn trailed the blade along her cheek and watched the fear that colored her eyes take residence. He moved the blade down her neck, where he nicked her, and further down her chest.
When the blade come to her middle, Arizira's panic became more evident. If she had not lost the baby as she feared, then she could not allow him to cut her like he intended. Not her middle. Not there. "Sa, sa..." she heard herself cry in Arniran. "Sa'li e fenya."
"What?" Lao'dahn asked leaning over her. He pressed the blade to Arizira's cheek again and leered down at her. "What did you say? Begging for your life? Beg in a language I can understand. I want to hear you."
Arizira swallowed her rising panic and held his eyes. They were the cruelest eyes she had ever known, so full of malice and hate. She could not tell him that she was begging him not to harm her baby. She could not tell him she was begging him to spare a child so innocent, a child that was of her and of Talliea.
No, she would not tell him what she said and she would not give him the satisfaction of hearing her beg for her life. As she lay beneath him, she realized that this was how Talliea had felt when Lao'dahn had abused her: Helpless. The knowledge angered her and she felt a sudden surge of strength in her limbs.
She managed to get her legs wrapped between his. Quickly, she twisted and flipped him off of her. On her stomach in the dirt, she moved toward Talliea. Her back was to Lao'dahn but she just needed to get the sabre that lay next to her love. Then she could kill him and be done with it. Then it would be over.
Before she could get her fingers around her weapon, Lao'dahn's hands were on her legs. He yanked hard and pulled her away from her sabre. Away from Talliea.
"Sa...failira..." she rasped. Red blood covered the ground where she had bled. Lao'dahn flipped her back over onto her back and straddled her hips. The strength from before faded from Arizira and she realized she was to be beaten. By this man.
She was too tired to fight. She'd lost too much blood and she was too distraught over the possibility that the baby's life blood was what stained the earth. She had done her best. She had protected Talliea against five men. She just did not have the strength to kill the one that mattered most. What else was she to do? She could not die, could she? Cynra had said that so long as one lived, the other did as well. Since Arizira could not feel Talliea's spirit, did that still apply? Could she take such a risk on an unknown?
She had nearly died already. By all accounts, she had been dead. It was Talliea who had brought her back. Talliea who had healed her. Talliea who had stabilized her. Would such happen again if Lao'dahn drove his dagger between her ribs? She could not risk it! Her baby mattered, if she had not lost her already, and she could not gamble with her child's life.
Lao'dahn raised the blade in both hands above his head. Arizira swallowed again, her left hand coming to press against the wound at her side. She tried to gather any last remaining strength, but it was futile. The blade in Lao'dahn's hands gleamed in the moonlight above.
"I will make sure Talliea knows that you failed her...after I enjoy myself first!" The blade moved. Suddenly there was another blade. A darker steel blade that protruded from Lao'dahn's chest.
Arizira breathed heavily. She watched Lao'dahn struggle to understand what had just happened to him. The dagger in his hands fell to his side. Blood spilled from his lips. He coughed and looked down at the large blade sticking out of his front.
A face appeared from over his shoulder. A voice whispered, icy and poisonous, in his ear. "Get. Away. From. My. Daughter." D'jiira pulled the blade from Lao'dahn's back and gave him a hard kick. Her Esu strength sent him over Arizira where he landed in a bloody heap on the ground.
"Arizira?" D'jiira asked in a frantic voice. She looked around at the carnage and blood and death her daughter had brought about. Four other men lay dead, various cuts on their bodies. Blood ran in pools on the dirt and collected in other places. To the far side, above Arizira, Talliea was peaceful in her travois. Only the smallest amounts of blood spatter had touched her face.
"I-I tried, lana. I protected her," Arizira said, though it was obvious she was hyperventilating. D'jiira dropped to Arizira's side and took in her injuries. A cut on her shoulder bled down the front of her chest, a small nick was on her throat, a dark discoloration could be seen on the right side of her face, and worst of all, an angry slash had cut her left side. The front half of Arizira's white blouse was a red-black in color.
"No, no. Arizira?" D'jiira asked again and the panic in her voice was heavier. "Bela!" she yelled. Bela'luin was behind her in a moment. Her green eyes were wide. "Get me water. Now!" D'jiira demanded. She lifted up the tattered remains of Arizira's blouse and examined her wound.
"Please, lana. Is she o-okay. Please...sa'li e fenya."
Bela'luin rushed back over and fell beside D'jiira with a skin of water in her hands. D'jiira wasted no time in squeezing the water out and over Arizira's stomach area. She cleaned the blood and dirt away as best as she could to get a better look at the cut underneath.
Arizira cried in pain as D'jiira worked. "Is s-she okay? Please. I-I tried. I tried, lana. I did my best."
"I know. I know," D'jiira soothed. She ran a hand through Arizira's hair and smiled at her. "You did well, my daughter. Better than any of us could have done."
"Is he d-dead?" Arizira asked indicating Lao'dahn. Bela'luin looked over at Lao'dahn's body. She knew he was dead. No one could survive being struck through the chest as he had. Still, she stood up and unsheathed her sword. Walking over to him, she kicked him over onto his back. To her surprise, he was still alive.
But only barely. She knew he would soon die, so she helped him along. She pressed the tip of her blade to his th
roat and swiftly drove it down and into the dirt. His eyes widened and then closed. He stopped moving.
Lao'dahn was dead.
Arizira sighed in relief and looked back down at her abdomen. The flesh was ripped and red. Blood still oozed down her side.
"It is only a flesh wound, Arizira," D'jiira said. "I do not believe your baby is in any danger, but you have lost a lot of blood. This needs to be closed and dressed to keep out infection."
Yet Arizira did not hear D'jiira. Her mind was instead focused on how horrible the cut looked. All she could see was blood and skin and flesh. All she could see was the baby she would never know. She began to hyperventilate again. "No, no, no, no, no."
"Arizira? Did you hear me? The wound is not deep. Your baby will be well so long as we can dress this properly," D'jiira said.
Bela'luin sat down next to Arizira. She turned Arizira’s head to face her and looked into her eyes. "Arizira? Remain calm. It is over now. We are going to dress this and get you to safety. Sed'dya will heal this and you and your baby will be fine."
Arizira continued to not see or hear anything. The emotions from everything she had just undergone finally caught up with her. She had never been so scared in all of her life. D'jiira moved away from her and to Talliea. She cut off a large section of Talliea's outer skirts and returned to Arizira. "My daughter?" she asked. "Arizira? Look at me. Focus on me. You are safe now. I am going to cover this and we are going to put you on the travois with Talliea. Everything will be okay."
Somewhere inside Arizira, D'jiira's voice touched her and she looked down at her mother. Their eyes met. "Lana, please save her. I do not wish to lose her. P-please." D'jiira nodded and began to dress Arizira's cut. Bela'luin held Arizira's hand and brushed hair away from her eyes. "I tried to p-protect her. I did. T-there were s-so many of t-them, but I protected h-her. I d-did not allow them to get t-to her."
"I am proud of you, my beautiful child," D'jiira said, though her voice wavered with her emotions. She continued to dress Arizira's wound. "You protected Talliea and I protected you. That man shall not harm you anymore."
Bela'luin stood up and was about to move to the travois so she could attempt to make room for Arizira, when a sound alerted her to the presence of others. She did not know if they were friend or foe, but she doubted her sisters would make so much noise. "D'jiira," she said, her eyes looking out into the trees before her.
"I hear it," D'jiira responded.
Arizira attempted to look past her mother. "W-what? What is it?"
"Nothing, Arizira. Try to remain calm."
In the next moment, a group of Esu men broke the clearing of trees. Bela'luin counted six when another group joined the first. Their number was seven. Thirteen men. How had they found them? Had they followed them from the main fighting? Been alerted somehow by their brothers who now lay dead around them? There were too many of them.
Bela'luin hefted her bow into her hands, grabbed an arrow from the quiver over her shoulder, and strung it in one fluid motion. She did not hesitate in her attack. Her arrow flew and struck one of the men in his eye, the arrowhead piercing his brain. He died instantly. The Esu men, advancing in the dark, could not pinpoint where the attack had come from. Though the moon was bright above, it was continuously obscured by the trees and clouds above so that only flashes of its rays came down to touch the forest.
Yells of alarm went up. D'jiira finished dressing Arizira's cut and picked her up in her arms. Arizira made a noise of pain, but did not cry out. She knew better. D'jiira placed her next to Talliea and moved over to pick up the great-sword she'd killed Lao'dahn with. The weapon had fallen from one of the men she'd killed earlier in the battle and she'd claimed it as her own.
Bela'luin had another arrow in her bow. "You need to take them and make haste to get to my people."
D'jiira shook her head. "They will kill me for being Esu before they allow me entrance. You go!"
"No, you carry the Child of Whispers. You are the mother of the Child of Whispers. She is very important to our people. Besides, I promised Arizira to keep you safe. Now go!"
D'jiira struggled with herself on what to do. She could not pull the travois and protect her charges at the same time. Getting to the Arnira would be a pointless endeavor if she attempted it alone. "We go together. I will have need of your battle prowess along the way."
Bela'luin released her second arrow. It hit a man directly in his heart. That still left eleven men who were advancing toward them. The clouds in the sky parted and allowed the moon above to shine down into the forest. All pretense faded like the darkness and the men saw who had been attacking them. They raised weapons and brought to life light in their hands. One man directed a ball of shimmering light to leave his outstretched hand. It flew toward Bela'luin, but D'jiira stepped in front of it at the last minute. She held out her own hand and absorbed it into herself.
"His gift is mine, but I can not take the others," she told Bela'luin before sending the man's light back at him. He cried in agony, but the bolt did not kill him. An arrow flew suddenly from somewhere in the darkness of the forest. It struck that same man in the stomach and he fell to the ground. Both Bela and D'jiira looked around them. Did they have an ally? From the shadows of the forest, M'kesei appeared with two other hunters. Their bows were aimed at the men still in the surrounding trees.
"Bela! My eyes take heart at seeing you."
"Likewise," Bela'luin responded. M'kesei spared a glance at D'jiira, but said nothing. "We need to get to the village. Arizira is injured."
M'kesei nodded and released an arrow from her bow. Another man went down. Nine left. "Go. We shall cover you." One of the Esu men summoned a flare of light and it blazed through the forest. It hit one of M'kesei's hunters and she fell. "No!" M'kesei yelled. Another man followed suit and a second flare of light killed M'kesei's last hunter in short order.
Bela returned fire and killed the man, leaving eight. "We can not leave you!"
"You must! Take Arizira and go!"
Chaos broke out in the next moment. The men, closer now and seeing only three women, charged forward. They used their abilities to brighten the area to a point that the Arnira present had to shield their eyes. Still, both Bela'luin and M'kesei rushed to meet them. They knew they had to keep distance between Arizira and Talliea and the men attacking.
Lights flared, steel met steel, and arrows flew in an attempt to hit something. Anything. D'jiira stayed near to Talliea and Arizira and only attacked the men who got within her range. Where she could, she took the Esu men's abilities when they attempted to use them against her. She heard a cry and saw a man slash M'kesei's leg. The huntress went down on one knee, but managed to kill the man before he killed her. Her short-sword cut open his middle and his innards spilled to the ground. Bela'luin moved to protect her against two other men. D'jiira counted six men still, but with M'kesei now down, that did little to improve their odds.
Behind her, Arizira moaned. D'jiira struck a man that thought to attack her with the large blade of her great-sword, before sparing a glance over her shoulder at her daughter. The dressing over her wound was dark with blood. She had to get Arizira away from this! Another man attacked her. He punched her across the face before slamming his mace into her upper arm. She heard, as well as felt, a bone breaking. Farther ahead, Bela'luin still fought with the two men from earlier, but now a third had joined in. M'kesei struggled to help her sister, but D'jiira knew they would soon be overpowered.
Five men. Three of them. And her arm had just been broken. Her dominant arm. She lifted the great-sword in her left hand, but the attack was not as coordinated as she had hoped. She barely managed to block the man who had struck her before kicking out at him. Her foot connected with his ribs and he staggered a moment.
"No!" D'jiira heard Bela'luin scream and knew that M'kesei must have been killed. She managed a quick look in their direction and found her assumption to be true. Five men. Two of them.
Bela'luin, in her outrage
, slashed once, twice, three times, and the men who had killed M'kesei fell before her. She turned and ran toward D'jiira. Where had the last man gone? There were supposed to be two left, but both D'jiira and Bela'luin counted only the one who had just been kicked in the ribs. Bela'luin screamed a cry to Aitla and lashed out with her sword. The blade cut the man in his back from his shoulder all the way down to his hip.
Before a victory could be claimed, both women realized where the last man had gone. He had turned back and signaled for more of his brothers. A flare could still be seen hanging in the sky, a sure sign to call his brothers to him. More men were soon spied through the trees. How man Esu men were there? They seemed to be endless. Though they were still some distance away, Bela'luin and D'jiira knew they had no time to retreat. Not with having to pull Talliea and Arizira behind them.
"Lana?" Arizira whispered in a soft voice. Her skin was pallid. D'jiira turned to her and dropped to her side. She ran her good hand through Arizira's hair and held her head.
"Do not worry, Arizira," she said while cradling her broken arm to her chest. "We are going to get you to safety. You and Talliea and your baby." The sounds of advance drew closer. The men were coming. There was no way they were going to be able to take on another large group. Not with only Bela'luin able to fight effectively. M'kesei was dead. Her two hunters were dead. D'jiira's arm was broken and she could barely hold a weapon. Arizira was losing blood and was near in shock and the most powerful one among them, Talliea, was still unresponsive.
Their situation was grim. It was dire. There appeared no way out, but death.
"I-I love you, lana. Please k-know that. I am t-thankful for g-getting to know...you."
D'jiira's face contorted as she tried not to cry. "I love you, too, my daughter. Do not say your goodbyes just yet. You still have a baby to give life and a woman to love. You still have a life to live. I will not let you die, Arizira. Not so long as I draw breath into my body."
Arizira managed a small smile and nodded her head. The men came closer and began their attack, shattering D'jiira's moment with her daughter. She moved to stand and struggled to lift the great-sword in her left hand. Bela'luin was in front of her, her sword in one hand and one of Arizira's sabres in the other. Their situation appeared without hope. The men were suddenly upon them.