‘I can pester them with arrows, that would get their attention, but I’d think we might need something a bit more substantial to get them moving,’ whispered Alex.
‘Leave that to me then,’ answered Lidayel.
Alex readied his arrow and Lidayel concentrated. The arrow flew and hit a fallen scout right in the neck, the man collapsing without much ado. His comrades halted at the sudden movement, turning as a group. Alex and Lidayel made no effort to hide themselves and instantly became the target of thirty Fallen or more.
Lidayel stepped out from behind a tree, massaging his palms like he was crushing something, a hint of sparks and smoke squirting from his hands. An array of crossbows levelled at them. Alex knew fear then but saw nothing of it in the Summoner’s approach. Lidayel steadied, his fists clenched at his sides now, seemingly holding what appeared as flames trying desperately to escape his grasp.
‘Alright then Brunick, let’s make some ponies.’
Lidayel threw his hands wide open, scattering a dozen globules of fire into the air, like tiny pebbles of flame. At their highest the globules exploded, coming down as billowing entities of flames and smoke. Alex watched with awe, his heart pounding madly.
The Fallen had already backed away at the sight of the fire, abandoning their notion to attack. Then everyone watched in surprise as the fire took shape.
Horses, seventeen hands tall, grew from where the fire hit the ground, the whole of their bodies comprised of blazing flames and smoke, as though every fibre of their being was burning.
Alex walked from behind in his shelter in mute amazement as the horses charged fearsomely at the Fallen, their movements’ dependent on Lidayel’s merest whim. The Fallen turned to flee and escaped the clearing as fast as they could, the horses on their trail.
‘Now we follow, we’ll rout them right back to Cid,’ said Lidayel.
‘That isn’t real fire is it?’ asked Alex in alarm as they ran after the conjured galloping beasts.
‘If I could use real fire we wouldn’t have to go through this charade. No, they are illusions, merely appearing as fire,’ explained Lidayel.
‘But you can summon fire right?’ asked Alex.
Lidayel nodded, a smile of confidence on his face. ‘Give it time, I can feel my control growing stronger by the day.’
‘So did you come up with this?’
‘Brunick gave me the idea, but to be more specific, the Fallen can’t fear rationally and they can’t learn new fears, most of their minds are too debilitated for that. Primordial fears however, instinctual fears in other words, like fire and charging animals, still activate the flight functions of their minds.
‘Great call,’ praised Alex as he saw the Fallen scatter.
‘Let’s hope Cid and Brunick have equal luck,’ said Lidayel, steering his horses to divide as well, accommodating the Fallen so that he could push them towards the canyon.
Up ahead the canyon narrowed, making a bottleneck of crags, the rock formations both jagged and blunted. The last hundred yards Brunick and Cid dashed flat out to reach them, identifying them as sanctuary. Like two needles falling into a haystack they disappeared into the gullies.
The army Cid knew would take a secondary pass that routed around this obstacle, there being no way a marching army could pass through here safely. All the same there was something to be admired in this maze, the rock here a perpetual victim of erosion, so that the depths and lines on the surface were faces of great character. In the rush however there was no sense for the men to bother with the origin of this place save that the potholes of its consequence could injure stray footing.
They kept as low as possible, so rather than climbing or running across the rock above they stayed to the trail below. That is however, until they became stuck.
‘Damn it, we’re gonna have to show face,’ said Brunick as they came to a dead end on the ground.
‘Let’s make it quick then, we should still have enough space between us and them to escape fire. They climbed up - only to realize Cid was wrong - and dead ahead stood a poised Rade’Remarian Valkyrie.
The moment Cid cleared to the top a force hit him right in the chest, splitting his armour. He went down, almost falling from the edge, Brunick immediately hauling him back to his feet. With a leap and a bound Cid and Brunick were into the next set of gullies, both of them landing hard.
‘Come on Cid! I can’t carry you all of the time!’ bellowed Brunick.
Cid found his own feet. ‘It’s okay, I’m not wounded, just winded,’ he said, tearing himself out of his broken breastplate on the run and casting it aside to be forgotten. Left in his vest he ran much easier, but another arrow now was sure to kill him.
They tried another route. The Valkyries had clearly blindsided them and were already all over the place, their invisible footfalls on the rock tops putting a scare into the men.
‘Can’t believe this, we’re like cattle in a gangway!’
‘Keep moving Brunick, Alex should be here any moment.’
‘He better be,’ said Brunick, ‘I don’t want to be buried looking like a porcupine!’
Another arrow came hurtling down on them, striking rock instead. If they had been anywhere else Cid and Brunick would have already been dead. In terms of archery, few were as effective as the Valkyrie and any deficit Cid thought they might harbour was swept from his mind.
Up ahead, a Valkyrie jumped nimbly into the gully, a spear in her hands and already charging at Brunick. The short spear was ideal for this narrow section of pathway.
‘Halt!’ shouted Cid at Brunick.
Cid wrenched the helm from his head, slipped past Brunick, and caught the charging spear on the inside, driven back uncomfortably.
These women were no ordinary girls. Cid kept firm though and Brunick lunged, grabbing the tamed spear right out of the Valkyrie’s hands and ramming his forearm straight onto her shoulder, knocking her from her feet. With a giant stomp Brunick stepped right onto her ankle, a cry of anguish tearing from her lips.
‘Sorry lassie, I’ll make it up to you one day, I promise,’ muttered Brunick, already on the move again.
Sullied, Cid threw away his ruined helm now as well; he was starting to feel rather naked given their situation. He glanced at Brunick as they swerved through the pass. There was a demented look about him now and he knew what he was thinking:
Fighting your own Kingdom was bad enough, being forced to strike at women was morally almost too much a price to pay.
‘This is Stelinger’s doing, all of it!’ bellowed Brunick, his voice echoing through the gully.
Then they heard a shout of warning from above, as though in concert with Brunick’s ramblings.
‘Fallen!’ came a women’s voice.
They couldn’t see it, but a song of snapping strings broke out above them and it turned obvious that Lidayel and Alex had been successful.
‘They did it!’ said Brunick in disbelieve.
They risked a peek, climbing the rock wall halfway up, just high enough for them to peer their eyes past the edge.
It was true. The Valkyrie had assembled in a spread out formation and orchestrated a rhythmic surge of arrow-fire. Their target; hardly visible black armoured figures across the canyon edge and concealed in the border of the forest. The Fallen were returning crossbow fire, the exchange a whistling affair of projectiles. What was clear to see though was that the Valkyrie’s unsurpassed skill versus the Fallen’s clumsiness would not prove to be a prolonged distraction, even with the Fallen having the higher ground.
‘Brunick, this isn’t going to last long, we have to act quickly!’
Brunick grunted.
‘There!’ shouted Cid, pointing.
‘That’s their leader, the one in the maroon armour!’
She was a tall woman, with golden hair flowing from her helm.
‘The plan?’ said Brunick as they climbed down again.
‘They’ll focus on us again soon enough, you draw fire and I’ll take
her from behind,’ said Cid.
‘You got it.’
‘Okay, break!’
They split off, invisible for the moment as they sprinted through the narrowest of gullies right underneath the furiously fighting Valkyrie. Their leader though had spaced herself on a separate outcropping of rock, sporting herself a clear view of what was happening.
Brunick was first to break into the open field and the marooned armoured leader immediately targeted Brunick instead.
***
Vanapha saw the renegade soldier appearing into open space. Immediately she changed her target and shot at him. The burly man moved uncannily and he took what should have been a headshot to the shoulder.
No matter. Now… killshot.
***
Alex and Lidayel appeared some yards away from the rapidly losing Fallen by the forest edge. They remained well hidden as they viewed the entire scene from the side. Alex looked upon Brunick, the aiming Valkyrie Captain, and Cid approaching her from behind. He knew he had to act fast. He garnered an arrow and pulled, aiming. He could easily kill the Valkyrie, but that was obviously out of the question. He loosened…
***
Vanapha sensed the arrow coming at her, knowing it would have snapped right through her own bow or hand. She took a step back, the arrow whistling past, mildly interrupted, and aimed again within an instant. She could however not possibly sense what would happen next.
Cid slipped in right behind the Valkyrie’s position. Like a lizard he scrambled up the rock face, reached out, and pulled hard on the rim of her chestplate, clearing her from the rock and hurtling her to the ground.
The shot never became reality as Vanapha felt herself hooked from behind, wrenched right clear off her perch. The fall was short and sudden, too much so to try and break it. She landed flat on her back, her body and head jarring with pain.
She was dimly aware of the figure still on the rock wall, now jumping down towards her. The traitor would not have her this easily. Instinctually she threw herself upright past the pain, gaining her feet in a twirl of legs. The renegade soldier backed away just in time, Vanapha spotting the broken down spear at the sides of his waist.
Furious, Vanapha, launched a roundhouse kick at the man’s head. Cid was rocked as the flying steel greave almost smashed his consciousness to bits. He staggered away, and instinctually employed an old sparring technique by feigning longer than the actual incapacitation, favouring his head to one side so that he could know where to defend next.
Somewhat like a predator sensing weakness, Vanapha charged forward to finish Cid, kick pending. Vanapha was outdone when the man caught her leg, drove his own past her standing ankle and pushed her from her feet again with all his weight, pinning her. This time there was no recovery as a saber-sword appeared at her neck.
Cid looked down at the woman, past the steel helm and straight into beautiful honey coloured eyes, his sword pressing down on her throat. There was something in her eyes he did not expect to see; a visible lack of defiance or panic, and it unsettled him after all the fight he had just seen.
She’s ready to die a warrior’s death.
Sympathy was a useless sentiment for now however.
The Fallen were dead, and all around the Valkyrie aimed their bows at the downed Brunick.
‘Halt!’ came a woman’s voice.
The Valkyrie all eased the tension of their bows as they saw their leader appear, a Lanston soldier holding her as a shield with a sword against her throat.
‘Tell them to drop their weapons,’ whispered Cid.
‘One way or another they’ll kill you, you get that don’t you?’ asked Vanapha at Cid.
‘Not if you call them off,’ said Cid.
‘What do you wish to accomplish?’ asked Vanapha.
‘I have a better question, why are you willing to die?’ asked Cid.
That shut her up.
‘You have a Star·Seer in your ranks, right?’ asked Cid.
‘Yes.’
‘Call her over, let her look into my head,’ he urged.
‘I can do it myself, we are all practiced at the skill,’ said Vanapha.
‘No, call over your Star·Seer. Do it Valkyrie, and we’ll both get to live!’
‘Claire!’ called Vanapha.
Moments later Claire was standing with them.
‘Harbour no ploy Valkyrie, for I will slit her throat if it came to it,’ said Cid threateningly to the raven haired girl. He hoped he was convincing, because he had no stomach for killing an innocent person just following orders.
Carefully Claire stretched out her hand to touch the temple of a man at the brink of killing their Captain. Cid felt an eerie prick in his head, followed by numbness to the back of his neck, the woman’s fingers seemingly ghostly. The sensations became stranger still, Cid straining to keep the Valkyrie at sword point. It tingled as Claire’s Sight worked into the mind and Cid could almost feel how the woman was peering and paging through his head. It was worrying having someone access memories so conveniently, the worst of all being the different emotions that came surging up. Cid went through rage, fear, sadness, happiness and surprise within seconds, yet he willed her to see the truth. Again he lived through the ambush…
Suddenly Claire stood clear, her withdrawing hand leaving Cid mercifully alone in his thoughts.
‘Vanapha!’ she gasped. ‘This man is no traitor!’
‘Now, tell your warriors to stand down,’ said Cid with a calm satisfaction.
Reluctantly the Valkyrie did as they were told, looking a bit confounded by the sudden change of plan. There was a visible relieve of tension for all as Cid released Vanapha. She quickly stood aside, her sisters-in-arms joining her side.
‘Brunick! Are you okay?’ yelled Cid, weary.
‘Just playing some possum, no harm done!’ yelled Brunick in return, giving Cid a thumps-up from where he sat.
Vanapha looked at Brunick, her eyes searching for a wound to his shoulder.
Nothing.
Her gaze lingered on the man as he regained his feet, her suspicion and surprised noticed only by her sisters.
It was a surreal scene that night as eight female warriors sat along Cid, Alex, Lidayel and Brunick around a massive campfire. The Valkyries were peaceful for now, and yet there was much awkwardness between the two groups for their earlier encounter. Lidayel helped stitched that rift by spending the afternoon healing everyone’s cuts and bruises, mending among others two bolt wounds sustained by the Valkyrie, practicing his returning power with care.
After she had been healed Brunick apologized profusely to the warrior whose ankle he had stepped on. Brunick seemed much more at ease when the woman assured him that she had suffered much worse injuries by now and that he should not concern himself.
Cid sat next to Vanapha, locked in conversation, already having explained to her their misadventures to thus.
‘Your friend keeps looking at me,’ said Vanapha in amusement.
Cid shot a quick glance at Alex, who was talking with another Valkyrie. Cid however had also noticed how Alex shifted his eyes towards Vanapha now and then. He could not blame the man.
When they had set up camp the Valkyrie undressed their armour to be casual in their cloth garments. They were all attractive women, but there was something different about Vanapha. Both Cid and Alex had a firsthand shock of Vanapha’s visage.
She had removed her helm, letting the rest of her golden hair falling loosely. She was tall, almost six feet in length. Her body was perfectly slim and toned, and her skin, like most Valkyrie, had a healthy bronze shine from spending days under a dessert sun. Her face was mix of soft and sharp features and Cid could now admire how those honey-coloured eyes fit into the bigger picture.
Immediately noticeable however was a thin milky white scar over her left eye and cheek. What would one expect? They were warriors after all…
It was a small blemish, but Cid had to admit that even though it was a scar that would ruin the beau
ty of most women - on Vanapha it was more like a reminder that she was after all, only human. Cid could not deny that this woman was, if anything, intimidating. Both her stature and her beauty was enough to repel most men as they considered their unworthiness.
‘I’m afraid your people have been dealt a raw deal again, Vanapha,’ said Cid.
‘Hmm, you’re one to talk. It’s your head Stelinger wants,’ said Vanapha.
‘Do you think Stelinger is a traitor?’ asked Cid.
‘Either that or he’s stupid. Why condemn a decorated soldier before questioning him?’
‘Stelinger is not a stupid man, which leaves but one conclusion for all of us,’ said Cid soberly.
‘What are his intentions though? Surely it’s not just about endangering the army?’ asked Vanapha.
‘No, he planned this expedition with Commander Bennam for a reason. We’ll make it our job to find out, and if need be, stop him. As for you, I suggest you lead your warriors back home.’
‘That’s it huh? Send the pretty women back home so they don’t get exploited or mistreated by men?’ said Vanapha defensively.
Cid was alarmed; he had underestimated just how prideful the Valkyrie really were.
‘That is not what I meant,’ started Cid, ‘I am merely pointing out that this is truly not your war. If I could I would take my own men back home.’
She looked hard at him.
‘Claire tells me you’re really only in this war because of your woman in Lanston,’ said Vanapha, her voice altogether gentler now.
‘Yes, wish I could tell everyone that I’m out to fighting for Lanston, but this place is…’
‘Don’t feel guilty, from what I’ve heard you’ve done more than your fair share of saving people,’ said Vanapha.
‘I’ll tell you one thing though, after losing four hundred men to treachery I am inclined to think that I might just finish this war with a vengeance,’ said Cid.
‘Someone has to pay,’ agreed Vanapha.
Remnant Pages Spearhead Page 22