Goddess Unbound: A Reverse Harem Fantasy (The Airluds Trilogy Book 3)

by Nhys Glover

  I remembered now that she'd told me about her brother. But Laric was a common enough name that I hadn't put it together with the Laric Flea had told me about.

  With a deep sigh, I went to the girl's side and reached up to rest my hands on her shaking shoulders. "Beila, you have nothing to be sorry for. Your brother did this, not you. And of course you would think he was one of our Abs, just as I took him to be just another soldier helping out in the Mess. I should have Known there was something wrong, but I was too busy focusing on the battle. It's all over now though, and we can put it aside so we can go out there and do our part. You are still with us, aren't you?"

  Her eyes opened wide in surprise. "O... Of course, Goddess. Always!"

  I smiled and patted her shoulders. "Then let's go end this war."

  Resolutely, I took her arm and together we strode out of the tent and into the real war.

  By the time we reached our spots on the outcrop where the rest of my newly made Elemental Mistresses awaited us, I was feeling more myself. This was reality. The other was a dream. There was no comparison.

  I looked down as the approaching army. Thousands of them dressed all in red. Like a river of blood flowing toward us.

  A cry went up from the rebels lined up below me and to my right. Their green vests were like a field in springtime.

  "For the Goddess!" it said.

  "For the Goddess!" came the response from others.

  In moments, they were all chanting it. Thousands and thousands of voices raised as one, chanting, "For the Goddess!"

  I lifted my closed fist in salute and they cheered.

  I had given them back their heart. Now they were ready to fight.

  As if on cue, the sound of a hundred pairs of leathery wings flapped like thunder overhead. I looked up, fearing what I would see. Fearing the approach of that terrible whirlwind of swirling dark cloud.

  But no storm came. And my Airluds and their squads of airlings swooped down towards the approaching army, raining arrows down on their heads. Again and again they fired, until the airlings rose up and swung away in a wide eastern arc, disappearing once more behind the high rocky outcrop at my back.

  The enemy was still coming, but they'd taken a severe pummelling. I raised my hands and sent lightning bolts at them, each one exploding in their midst, killing dozens. The other mages around me, Abs and Mistresses alike, peppered the fields with their own forms of magic.

  That was when the retaliation started. The ground shook. A gale roared to life, buffeting us here on the outcrop. The force was so great it knocked us backward. But the archers were showering the enemy with more arrows from the northern side, and as fast as the wind blew up it stopped. The Air Master must have been hit. And the Earth Master too? It was too much good luck, too early on. It couldn't last!

  I scrambled to my feet and helped others up too. We returned to our places and began our assault once more, this time picking our marks more carefully because the rebel infantry had engaged the enemy now. The shouts and cries, and the sounds of thousands of swords clashing, made for a deafening cacophony, even from my place high above it all. Would I ever forget this sound, even if I lived to be ancient?

  The airlings flew in again, and this time the arrows were more precisely placed. One after another, the red fighters fell to the enemy from above.

  Fire shot upward from multiple spots in a focused area below, catching airlings and riders and turning them into fire balls that plummeted into the melee.

  As quickly as the fire attack had started, it stopped. Mayhap the damage done to their own troops had been too great to continue such an assault. Or possibly the Fire Masters had been taken out by the fireballs falling from the sky. They seemed to have been very closely packed together, probably to make defending them against ground attack easier. It would only have needed one flaming airling falling onto them to take out the whole group.

  I scanned the skies, desperately searching for my loved ones. I spotted each of my men, and then Flea and Zem, still flying and shooting.

  Relieved, I turned back to my own fight.

  Red soldiers, likely including some magical sons, were scrambling toward the archers on the much lower outcrop of stones on the northern side. I sent my lightning strikes to harry them. My magical daughters followed my lead and sent fire, ice and a landslide of rocks their way as well.

  I glanced over at those Elemental Mistresses, my magical daughters − Kila, Freta and Beila − who had so recently worked as kitchen hands. Their faces held a mixture of horror and determination.

  It was one thing to have magic; it was another to use it against a living person. Luckily, up to this point the enemy had been a great distance away, and it felt like we were simply firing at red blobs, not real people. But on some level all three were now having to come to terms with what they were doing, and fast. Especially Beila.

  A wave of heat struck me, and once more I was knocked backward. A Fire Master was directing his magic our way now.

  I could smell burned hair, and when I looked down I saw my gown had singe marks on it. But though my skin was blackened, it seemed unburned. One of the Abs, himself a Fire Master, hadn't fared as well. He lay in a burning heap not far away. Only his face had escaped the punishment of the flames. I raced over to him, wondering if my healing skills could help him. But an Earth Mistress had the same idea. She was at my side in moments, kneeling beside the burned man, chanting magic over him.

  I realised it was Reia, the healer who had worked on me after my father had done his worst. She and her harem had been late arrivals, so I had barely had a chance to share a greeting with her. But now was certainly not the time to catch up.

  Turning away, I saw the airlings were making their third run at the fighting armies. A wall of wind hit them and airlings toppled sideward, dislodging riders into the fighting mass not far below.

  Was that Zem? I felt my heart turn over in my chest. Not Zem! Flea would never recover if Zem died here today. She had lost so much already.

  I fired lightning bolts into the area around where he'd fallen, hoping to clear him a little space so, if he had survived the fall, he could regain his feet and fight his way out.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Spot flying low to the ground, almost touching the heads of the soldiers with his wing tips. As he reached the spot where Zem had gone down, Flea jumped off his back and fell to the ground.

  What was she doing? The stupid, impetuous girl! I shot off more lightning, trying to clear an even bigger space for them. That was all I could do. The rest was up to them.

  I turned back to the battle, noting that some of the Godling's men were scaling the rocks toward us. Worse still, about a dozen of the enemy's magical sons had established themselves on the lower rocky outcrops below us, obviously trying to get a better view of the battlefield. They couldn't aim for us from that position though, because the rocks and brush at the very edge of the outcrop on which we stood blocked their view.

  But we could aim for them and the wave of climbing red-tunics!

  It was always going to be an advantage for our side to have our mages on high ground. Being in the middle of the actual battle meant the Godling's magical sons could be struck down as easily as any swordsman. More easily perhaps, as they would be occupied using their magic on the airlings and our mages, while rebels would make a point of attacking them from behind.

  Unless the Godling's generals were smart enough to have a protective guard around their mages. Which is what I thought had likely happened with the fire mages. But putting them all in one place allowed them to be taken out all at once, which was probably why the attack on the airlings had been so limited. Mayhap even that first barrage of arrows had taken some down, along with the regular troops. There certainly seemed to be a lot less magical sons than we had been expecting.

  But there was no time for working out battle strategy. Especially as that was all we'd been doing for long hours over the last quarter moon. Now was the time for actio
n!

  Yelling to the mages around me, I pointed down. Expectant grins broke out on the faces of the Abs and Kila, but Freta and Beila still had mixed feelings, especially as the faces of the men they were being asked to kill could plainly be seen from so close a distance.

  "They are killing our men, just as they have been doing all over the kinglunds. Do you want to stop the killing? Stop the slaughter of our men?" I called across to them, feeling my voice getting raspy from the smoke in the air and how loud I had to shout to make myself heard.

  All three girls nodded, although Kila appeared the only one fully embracing her new destiny. I just had to convince the other two this was necessary.

  "Then you must do your job to the best of your ability. You are equal to ten men down there. Ten of our men! But only if you make your gifts count!"

  I saw their faces change then, could see them shift their perspective. They were not so much killing as they were saving our men from being killed. Though there would be nightmares over what they would do later, for now they were fully committed. Even Beila seemed ready to do her part.

  Oh, yes, we had the magical sons now!

  I watched the Abs bombard their legitimate counterparts with everything they had. I could imagine them thinking this would end for good any feelings of inferiority they might still harbour about themselves. They were as effective at wielding magic as any legitimate magical son.

  Kila was the only Earth Mage on this side. She would need to be very careful how she handled any earth movement she created. Too much, or a badly placed rock fall, and it could undermine our positions higher up the outcrop. I momentarily considered telling her to focus her energies elsewhere, but then I remembered why she had wanted to be part of this. They were magical sons below her. Mayhap even the same ones who killed her husband and his family, and raped her. I couldn't deprive her of this chance to avenge herself.

  I took precious moments to watch as she took in the area below us, pinpointed the best spots to hit, and lifted her hand. In the next instant, I felt a mild rumbling underfoot and then a barrage of rocks began to fall from their place a stride above the magical son's location. It was perfect! Even better, it took out many of the regular troops who had started clambering up to us.

  Kila looked my way, her face wreathed in a smile of triumph. I realised I'd never seen her perfect white teeth before today. For the first time, I wondered if she might actually be younger than the twenty-one suns I had taken her to be. But I Knew it was more than just her triumph I was witnessing − it was also a justified completion of events set in play many moons ago. The terrible things that had happened to her and her loved ones had been done by magical sons, and now she had exacted her retribution using her own magical skills.

  I was so focused on Kila that I didn't see the enemy soldiers climbing up the rocks toward me. And only me! But Beila had. She cried out a warning and, before I had a chance to really take in what was happening, sent a flash of fire surging out from her hand. The first men burst into flames just before they could reach me. The men behind them were ignited by their comrades as they tottered backward into them. Others, scrambled to escape the flames, fell to the rocks below, screaming all the way.

  My mouth open in shock, I turned to Laric's sister and nodded a jerky acknowledgement. Her expression was just as shocked − as if what she had done had been an accident. I knew that feeling. I must have looked like that after I opened the ground so it could swallow the Air Master sent to trap me.

  Turning back to the magical sons we had been attacking, I realised none remained alive. Was that all of them then? Surely not! But then, we were not the only mages at work on our side. The northern outcrop had the rest of the Elemental Mistresses and the magical sons who had joined our ranks, and they had been doing their part. And it was enough.

  A cry went up and I saw the enemy was retreating.

  This was Julz's time. He had to stop them getting away. We needed them to surrender, not escape to fight another day.

  While we watched, another flight of airlings surged up from behind the outcrop. These had no riders. As they flew over the retreating enemy their payloads were dropped, one at a time, heavy rocks and stones falling like hail from the sky. Then there was real hail falling from the sky, forming an impenetrable barrier between the enemy and their escape route. The retreating army turned back to face the easier foe.

  And decided to give up.

  It was over. I didn't know what was happening at first but, in area after area, the fighting was coming to an end because the men in red were dropping their weapons and holding up their hands in surrender. Small enclaves continued to fight, but as the sounds of battle quietened, and the Godling's men realised they were fighting on alone, they too dropped their swords.

  A cheer of triumph went up around me. The battle was won. How long it had taken, I had no idea. But the sun had passed its zenith and was heading down. My stomach growled its protest. A far longer time had passed than what it felt like.

  My legs gave way under me, and I sank to a nearby rock. We had done it. No whirlwind had killed my loved ones, though Zem and Flea's fate was as yet uncertain. But my men were safe, I was fairly certain of that. No, I was sure of it. Otherwise I would have felt it as I had Trace's death.

  Kean appeared from nowhere and helped me to my feet.

  My surprise must have been written on my face because he smiled. "I'm your official bodyguard. If Laric decided to make another appearance, or the Godling's army started to win, I was to get you away safely. Trace would have wanted me to do that much for you."

  He looked across at Beila, who had also collapsed onto a rock, her face stark white. "But Laric's sister did my job for me. Glad she was on our side."

  Beila had heard him and acknowledged his compliment with a nod and a shy smile. If I wasn't mistaken, there might have been a zing of attraction between the odd couple. But attraction came in many forms, and who was to say that a small, rough commoner with listening magic couldn't find love with a big, gentle noblewoman with fire magic in the new world. She might be a little young yet, but there would be plenty of time for love to bloom now the war was over.

  I let him help me over the rocks and back onto the relatively large, flat surface outside the Command Post tent. As I passed, I saw the rest of my mages standing around, looking more stunned than triumphant. But at the Command Post rebel leaders were pounding each other on the back and hooting their pleasure at the top of their lungs.

  "We've got the Godling. The rest of the Abs led a team in and captured him and his generals. They're bringing him here now. Goddess, would you like to do the honours?" Moyna asked me, the jubilation apparent even on her stiff countenance.

  Did I want to do the honours? Not really. Should I do them? Probably. I was the figurehead of the rebellion, after all. The Godling should surrender to the Goddess Incarnate.

  "Yes. Just give me a few moments to clean up a little."

  I heard another jubilant shout go up and turned to see several men carrying Julz across the rocks toward us. They held him as if he was a victor, not a cripple, and I could see the fire of triumph on the youth's flushed face.

  His carriers delivered him to a rock just outside the Command Post tent and then stood back, their own faces wreathed in grins. Our hail-making Ab stood at Julz's side, and both began excitedly sharing their experiences with those nearby.

  I went over to them and offered each my hand. "You lads ended the war for us. Well done!"

  Julz blushed right to the tips of his ears. "My Dah would be proud!"

  I nodded, smiling so hard my face hurt. "He would indeed. You are proof that with the right amount of determination anything can be achieved. There are a great many able-bodied men who achieved far less today than you."

  "I had airlings and your magic, Goddess. It wasn't just me," Julz admitted humbly.

  "And you had the airlings and the magic because you were determined to play a part in the war. You wouldn't let anyone
convince you otherwise. That was your true magic. And I will want a man with your determination working with me after this. If you are willing."

  Julz's mouth dropped open. "Of course, Goddess. Anything!"

  I smiled and turned away. I had a nephew to greet.

  By the time the Godling and what was left of his generals were ready to be brought before me, I had washed my face and brushed my hair. There hadn't been a lot I could do about my filthy, singed gown, short of throwing it away. But a naked Goddess probably wouldn't have been advisable in the circumstances. I wished there'd been time to send for a new gown. Then again, mayhap the Godling needed to see what it looked like to have fought a battle. From the rumours already spreading across the camp, it seemed my nephew hadn't even come close to the field where his men had been laying down their lives in droves for him. Pathetic!

  Three of my husbands arrived, looking even filthier than I had before my wash. But I'd never seen anything so beautiful: three tall, muscular and powerful men, fresh from the fight. I fell into their arms, laughing and crying with joy.

  "Gods, I'm so glad there was no whirlwind!" I kept saying. Only Calun would have known what I was raving about. And he wasn't with them. But it didn't matter. Nothing mattered now but them and the sweet scent of success.

  "Calun?"

  "He's fine. Looking for Flea and Zem."

  I nodded and was glad he'd chosen to do that rather than join us for this political display. It was what I would prefer to be doing myself.

  My men formed themselves into a line behind the chair I took. The rest of the rebel leaders formed up around us on either side. All of us looked weary, bloody and filthy.

  The tent flap lifted and an overdressed, arrogant looking man in his mid-thirties entered. His receding blonde hair, carefully styled into corkscrew curls, made him look older though. He peered down his nose at us as he strode forward to stand in front of me. Did he look a little like my father? Yes, but not enough that I would have remarked on the similarity had I not known who he was. His attitude, on the other hand, I knew too well. He'd assumed my father's entitled presence perfectly. Even in defeat, this man considered himself superior to the barbarians who had won out against him.