by Angie West
Were they capable of speech? And what had they been like before Kahn had mutated them? Granted, I wasn't familiar with every form of man and beast–and the many combinations in-between–in Terlain, but I had traveled extensively. That much came with the territory of search and rescue...and war. And true, I wasn't exactly at my best right now, but I was still pretty sure I'd never so much as heard of a scaly blue, hairless race of people with paper thin, nearly transparent midsections, no discernible gender, and amazing lung capacities. Hadn't someone said they were northern creatures?
"On ten, men!" Mark's baritone rang out, clear and coldly determined. It was time.
In spite of any misgivings I had–and there were only about a hundred of them–excitement roared through my veins as hundreds of soldiers rushed forward, flowing around me and leaping over the fence in a thunderous torrent. I let their battle cries wash over me and fill me with the familiar hum and flow of energy. The blade became lighter in my hand, I hardly felt the weight of the quiver and bow at my back. Gripping the rough, uneven wood, I braced my weight on one hand, twisted my hips, and overtook the fence in a graceful leap to land on my feet on the other side.
The Breather took a hasty step back and I pointed my blade toward the ground. "I'll guard you." I said, pointing to the soft flesh of its midsection. "And you worry about breathing. Let's go!"
Around us, the battle had erupted into complete and total mass chaos. Blood began to seep into the ground in astonishing amounts and I was relieved to see that most of it was thick and oily and dark. Most, but not all. I ducked around another soldier and narrowly avoided tripping over a man on the ground.
Long, deep lacerations cut a wicked looking path across the man's chest. His breathing was shallow and then, within a few seconds, the thready rise and fall of his torn chest stopped altogether. It always felt wrong to just leave them, but obviously at the moment there was no other choice. My arm came up and I slashed the throat of a Coatyl who moved too close to my Breather. Later, we would collect our dead. Later, we would grieve for those lost. Right now, we would survive.
Harsh, maybe, but we had all known the risk when we'd hopped the fence. Screams and shouts from the men mingled with the snarls of a hundred Coatyl and I pressed on, dodging and weaving in time with my Breather in the age old dance of war. Slowly, the tables began to turn. The double guard at the perimeter meant the Coatyl were hemmed into an ever tightening circle.
The Breathers continued to exhale their blue crystalline mist, over and over until the air was thick with it and the few Coatyl that still lived were in the process of suffocating. Waving my hand in the blue fog, I moved and almost fell over a body that I couldn't even see clearly. My Breather's hand shot out and righted me almost immediately.
"Thanks." I grinned, lungs burning from exertion. The steady thump of my heart signaled the battle was over–and won. My companion nodded briefly and I shoved my knife back into a faded leather sheath, then spun a slow circle, surveying the damage as the bulk of the mist dissipated.
The clearing was filled with bodies, many of which were on the ground. Most were Coatly, some were soldiers, still more were Life Breathers. But we'd managed to save most of them and the Coatyl were all dead. Taking hold of my Breather's hand, we picked our way across the sea of white, to where Mark stood beside Claire and Mike and a larger group of decidedly worse-for-wear soldiers. I nodded in response to Claire's worried perusal and unspoken question. Yes, I was fine, in one piece anyway, which meant I'd at least fared better than those who were lying on the ground behind us.
"Which way did they go?" Mark asked, accepting one of several thick, coarse brown cloths that were being passed around the crowd. He made quick work of wiping the blade of his sword, sheathing his weapon and handing the cloth on to the next person.
A tall, muscular soldier shifted in the crowd and I saw Aranu. His eyes were cool and they held mine captive as he answered Mark's query. "They headed west. Seven of my men are already headed their way."
"Good." Mark nodded. "How many is a few?"
"Four." Aranu's gaze shifted to the western skies and then lower to that section of the forest. His smile was brittle and sent a chill along the back of my neck. "They won't escape."
Several men began a loud, rousing cheer until Mark raised one fist into the air and demanded silence. "Kahn still lives! He's still out there." his voice rose and fell over the crowd, a grim reminder of what lay ahead.
"Then let's end this now. Today!" someone shouted, causing another wave of cheering to erupt around the clearing. Here and there, the faint bluish glitter of the Life Breather's mist-venom still lingered.
"More blood will be shed before this day is over." Mark shouted, pulling no punches with the people who had pledged their support to him–to Terlain. "But, one way or another, it will be over today. This will end."
I watched Claire unobtrusively slip her hand into Mark's much larger one, and I wondered what this was costing him. Did he regret the crossroads he stood at today? That it had come to this, kill his own father or let him go free. Letting Kahn go would obviously be a mistake that would have deadly consequences.
"I'll follow where you lead." I spoke up, loud and clear, and leveled my eyes on the crowd, a simultaneous vow and a challenge. Men and women raised their voices in vibrant agreement and the noise level that swept through the clearing became a pulsing, living thing. The crowd was pumped and ready for action. We could do this. Together.
And so it was decided. We set out immediately, to a place that, of the lot of us, only a handful had ever been. Kahn's Meadow was an innocuous enough sounding place, but no one who marched with us was fooled by the name. What lay beyond the gates at the end of the beautiful glen we were approaching housed the empire of a cold-blooded killer. The three mile hike over bumpy terrain had gone a little way in cooling our collective heels.
The spent adrenaline from the fight with the Coatyl, the strangeness of encountering the Life Breathers, and the reality of what lay ahead was beginning to combine and sap some of the fire from the soldiers and the warriors. I knew my energy was running at a low ebb and the men who walked with us wore similarly grim expressions.
I was traveling somewhere between the lead and middle of our party. Mark and Claire and the higher ranking soldiers like Raun and Tyheen led the impressive procession. Mid to higher level warriors and archers made up most of the middle. Aranu's men brought up the rear and, together with the nymphs, flanked the sides of the group. The nymphs alternated between traveling on foot and moving high in the trees, swinging easily, silently, from branch to branch. They would be our early warning system and as such, our first line of defense. The Breathers also marched with us, with half positioned on either side of Mark and Claire and the rest providing cover for Aranu's men.
I shivered in the ever decreasing light of the forest, knowing we wouldn't make it to our destination before the full pitch dark of night set in around us. Not that it mattered so much tonight, I reasoned, casting a quick glance up at the bright moon. Pure white light speared through the few places along the path where the vegetation was slightly thinner than average. The rest of the woods around us bore a gentle overall glow that was brighter near the tops of the trees as the moonlight attempted to penetrate the dense foliage overhead and I tried to focus on this, for now anyway, rather than what the rest of the night would hold...
On any other night, it would have made for a pleasant evening. It was the kind of night that brought people out onto their decks and porches after dinner, and then lured them down well worn country lanes and sleepy suburban avenues. I breathed in the fresh linen scent of Gildwood and Pine Blossom and marveled at the beauty of the outer edge of the Meadow. Brilliant, glowy white flowers crept up the trees like Ivy and I paused for a second, thoroughly enchanted with the spectacular sight.
The further into the Meadow we walked, the thicker the snowy, Ivy-like flowers became, until we were deep in the interior and the gorgeous vines and blossoms
crept delicately up each and every tree. Murmurs went through the crowd, especially the nymphs. This was the path to Kahn's evil lair? Really? I was half tempted to ask if we had taken a wrong turn somewhere, but Mark and Claire and the others on the front lines continued ever onward without slowing our steady pace, so I figured we weren't lost.
A few paces ahead, Mike slowed his pace until he fell into step beside me. Great. I smothered a sigh and kept walking, trying not to feel guilty for using him earlier. The fact that Mike wasn't aware of the way I'd used him to wound Aranu should have made me feel better but didn't. A chill slid over my spine and I shivered again, moonlight and exquisite climbing Ivy forgotten as darker thoughts edged their way in.
"Hey."
I tossed him a quick, sideways glance and nodded but otherwise kept silent.
"Good job tonight." he said, kicking a small rock on the trail, sending it skittering sideways and somehow missing the people beside us. He shoved his hands into his pockets and puffed his cheeks out before he exhaled. "You scared the living hell out of me, but...nice work. The fighting, and–"
"Thank you." I interrupted, deciding to take pity on him and effectively end his rambling.
"Your boyfriend doesn't look too happy."
My eyes snapped to his and I almost quit walking. He wanted to talk about this now?
"Sorry." he shook his head. "Not the time. And not my business."
The last was said softly and a tinge of regret colored the words. My face heated in the semi-darkness of the luminescent Meadow and I concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other. Mike was absolutely correct about one thing, this wasn't the time to discuss our...what? Past? Because we no longer had a relationship. Hadn't in a long time. Wouldn't have again.
I could accept that now for what it was. And maybe now was the right time to air it out and lay it to rest, despite our small audience. After all, if Kahn and the Lahuel killed us all tonight, at least Mike and I would go without unfinished business littered between us. That was something. Besides morbid? Dumb bitch Aries seemed to ask. Yeah, that too. I thought with a silent shrug.
"He's not my boyfriend." I replied, making an effort to keep my voice from carrying to the people around us. "In fact, I'm pretty sure after today, he's lost any and all respect he ever had for me." I sighed, half afraid to glance at the momentarily speechless man beside me. Was I hurting him by talking about Aranu? Even though he'd asked?
"I saw the two of you arguing by the fence earlier."
"Yes. He didn't want to leave us."
"You mean he didn't want to leave you."
"Well, yeah. I guess so." I cringed, suddenly sorry we were having this beyond awkward conversation.
"So why did he?"
"What?"
"How did you finally convince him to let you go?"
"Oh, ah..." I hedged. "I made it easy for him to walk away." I finally said, forcing my chin up a notch. "And I'd do it again, if I had to. He was putting my entire team in danger and he could have gotten us all killed."
"Ah."
We'd walked another quarter mile or so in silence before I confessed my sin. "I said some personal things about his character." I opened my mouth to say more but the words wouldn’t come. Somehow, it didn't feel right telling another person, telling Mike, just exactly what I'd said to hurt Aranu. It felt wrong. Like I would be betraying Aranu all over again by showing Mike what had the power to hurt the other man. "It doesn’t matter. I did what I had to do." I shrugged and picked up the pace.
"He loves you."
"I know." I closed my eyes as a wave of pain hit me, hard. Because being reminded of what Aranu felt, or had felt, for me...hurt. Almost as bad as I knew Mike's next question would hurt.
"Do you love him?"
I nodded slowly. "I didn't realize it until..." I paused, shook my head. Mike didn't need to know the whys and hows of it and he probably didn't want to know, either. None of that changed the bottom line.
"I'm sorry." he sighed, looking down and then glancing over at me. His eyes caught the moonlight.
"Why?"
"You want the list? Okay. I'm sorry I left you here two years ago. I'm sorry I didn't come back sooner. I'm sorry that things are," he gestured to the space between and around us. "like this." he finished. "I'm sorry things are such a damn mess. I didn't want it to end this way between you and me. I'm just...sorry." His lips curved wistfully.
"This wasn't exactly what I'd planned, either..." I snorted, fell silent, now barely noticing the beauty that surrounded us. The path had narrowed several paces back. We were fast approaching the end of the meadow. "Maybe this doesn't have to be the end for us." I tossed the words out there quickly, so I wouldn't be able to take them back. "What I mean is, you aren't going anywhere and neither am I. Claire is like family and Megan is great. What I'm saying is, I think we're all going to be stuck with each other for a while."
"Forever." Mike nodded, a smile touching his lips.
"Right." I nodded. "So. Maybe we could learn to live with each other." I took a deep breath as the soldiers in front of us gradually came to a stop. "If Claire can manage to avoid killing Carl, I think maybe we can learn to be friends." I pointed out, feeling my stomach plummet at the thought of being Mike's friend. Truthfully, I wasn't sure I was ready to make that leap. It felt tense and uncomfortable, like wearing a shirt that was a few sizes too small. And I couldn't lie, traces of the old familiar hurt and anger toward Mike still lingered. But hating him wasn't really going to do any of us any good, was it? And we had to start somewhere.
"I want you to be happy, Ari. Even if it's with him." Mike jerked a thumb in the general area behind where we stood.
"Thanks." I rocked on my heels and raised my eyes to the canopy overhead. "But I'm pretty sure that's not going to happen anytime soon."
"Don't be so sure. I wouldn't be surprised to find a knife in my back any second now. He looks royally pissed off." Mike snickered and leaned toward me.
"Mike." My voice held a none too subtle warning. "Don't antagonize him."
"Alright. Fair enough." he smiled and shrugged. "But if you ever decide he's not what you want..."
"Mike."
"Right." He held up his hands. "I'm done."
"Thank you." I sighed, leaning around him for a better view of what was happening up ahead. “Do you see anything?”
He craned his head and searched the darkness before turning toward me. “Nothing. Isn't this where we're supposed to stop?”
I nodded. “This is about right, I know the entrance to Kahn's private quarters are at the end of the meadow, but I thought there was supposed to be a gate.” I stood on tiptoe. “I mean, there may be one up there. It's hard to see over everyone's heads. Oh, well, I guess we'll find out soon enough.”
Mike took a deep breath. “Are you ready to do this?”
“Yes. Of course.” I injected an artificial note of confidence into my voice. “Everything will be fine.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Hopefully.” I tacked on with a wry smile.
The blast came out of nowhere, rumbling through the trees and exploding in a white haze of light. Whatever response Mike had been about to make was drowned out by the boom. I pulled myself off the ground with the assistance of a nearby vine. The glowing white flowers were crushed between my fingers, their light snuffed out in an instant. Screams filled the night air and a thick black smoke billowed from a dark shadow several feet away. Holding a hand to my throbbing head, I pressed hard, felt the wetness and knew I was bleeding. I must have hit my head when I fell...
I wiped my hand across the hem of my shirt and leaned down to help one of the soldiers to his feet. The shadow in front of us began to take a more solid shape and my heart began to pound. The Lahuel. The war demon's faceless, shadowy form seemed to grow larger and larger, until it towered over us and blotted out the light from the moon. But no, that wasn't right. It wasn't the Lahuel that was growing, but a thick black smoke that was spreading thro
ugh the night.
“He's trying to screw with our vision.” I muttered to the soldier I was still propping up.
“They set a trap for us. Kahn won't be far behind the Lahuel. Get to Mark.” The man swayed when I took my arm out from under his shoulders. “Don't bother with me. They won't waste time with us, anyway. But they'll take out Mark if they can. Or his wife.”
I wasn't exactly on Kahn and the Lahuel's good side, either, but the soldier was right. They'd try to kill Mark first, or Claire. Quickly, I eased the man to the ground. He winced again and leaned his head back against the trunk of the large tree he rested against, urging me once more to go.
“I'll find Mark. Nothing will get near him or Claire.” I promised, pressing the end of my sleeve against the wound on my forehead and squinting into the thick, dark smoke.
Was that easier said than done? Of course it was. But had I just made a promise I had no hope of keeping? A second wave of nausea hit as I realized I couldn't see more than three feet in any direction. The smoke was getting worse. Shit. Shouts and screams and confusion continued to roil around me.
My hand fell to my side as an idea sparked. Maybe I couldn't find Mark and Claire. But in all this smoke, would Kahn know that? Eyes narrowed, I turned a slow circle. No, I finally decided, visibility was damn near zero now. So I couldn't bring myself to Mark and Claire and the others. And they wouldn't be able to see through this fog any better than me, but I was willing to bet Kahn wasn't quite so limited by human frailty. If I was wrong about that, well, no harm done. But if I was right...
I would bring Kahn straight to me. With any luck, Mark and the others would follow the commotion to us. If not...well, at least it would buy them some time. Hopefully. I didn't exactly relish the thought of self-sacrifice. But throwing myself to the wolf for nothing? Yeah, that really didn't sound like a good time. So, how was I supposed to know what the final outcome would be? I couldn't. How was I supposed to make the chips fall the way I wanted them to? Hell. I couldn't do that either.