The Destroyer

by Michael-Scott Earle

  "Why do I always get the shit jobs?" he asked. His voice was tinged with sadness and anger.

  "What do you mean?"

  "I'm never the one at the front to take the brunt of the impact. Cleaning up after Shlara and Alexia? My men grow bored with such trivial assignments. We want to be used like the others. Why don't you trust me to do any heavy lifting?" He gritted his teeth and the muscles in his jaw bunched up like a knot on a tree.

  I frowned for a second. He was right. I always kept him from the risky jobs. I'd never justified my reasoning to him.

  "Your team is best suited to handle this task today. Agreed?" His angry face told me he still didn't understand.

  "No Kaiyer. I don't. I would like another role. My men and I deserve it." He spoke confidently but I saw past his bravado. The blonde man had never stood up to me before. He always took my orders without question. Perhaps it was time we had this discussion.

  "Your team has the mobility, but is not used to retreating. They are horsemen. The Elvens we are fighting against are mostly infantry. Do you think you can entice them to follow you?"

  "No. But we can get their cavalry to chase us and then crush them in the same way." He grinned in satisfaction and licked his lips.

  "Then we kill a few hundred Elvens and their horses. Instead of six thousand,” I corrected him. "Your team isn't the best at guerilla warfare, that is also more the strength of Alexia. Will your team enjoy hiding in the trees and waiting to flank the enemy?"

  "We would do what we need to do to win," he said in his defense. I stared at him with a smirk on my face and he let out a slow sigh.

  "You have a few skilled Air users on your team--can they blow the dam?"

  "Yes! Of course they can," he said angrily. "My mages are as good as Malek's.”

  "Fine. Let's say they fail, then Shlara and her troops will be killed, as will Alexia. Still confident that your mages can handle the same task as Malek's? Do you want to bet a third of our forces on their abilities?"

  He considered for a second and looked away.

  "No."

  "Agreed. It would be foolish when Malek's team has been doing this sort of task for the last six years. You can guard the east and south. I'm sure Thayer would prefer not to be holding the low rocky ground, taking arrow fire, and buying time until the rest of the forces can circle back around and lend him a hand. He'll take losses today--but I doubt he'll lose a third of what your team will take in the same situation. The terrain will mean that you'll have to leave your horses. Will it be alright if Thayer's troops use them? They will need them to quickly assault the debris from the flood and dispose of them before they can organize."

  "Okay. I get it." He gritted his teeth in anger and looked away from me.

  "No my friend. You do not." I pushed my horse a bit forward and it walked into his, forcing his horse back a bit. Its head snapped up and he turned to me in shock while his steed backed away. My horse was an angry bastard and didn't like others. "This isn't about favoritism; this isn't about giving you 'the shit jobs,' this is only about one goal: killing the Elvens. Your purpose in this goal is to command your troops to the best of your ability and follow my orders. At this moment you are upset because you have not seen much combat. Your men are pressuring you to come to me to ease their boredom. It is your responsibility to explain to them their role in this conflict. Do you need me to explain your role?"

  "No Kaiyer, I understand my role."

  "Go then." He turned his horse and it began to carefully make its way down the rocky slope.

  "Gorbanni," I called after he had moved a few feet down the trail. He stopped and turned in his saddle. "In a few years we will be too large to always be running and hiding. We will be chasing, harassing, and trampling them beneath our feet. Then you will not have the shit work." I smiled at him.

  "Thank you Kaiyer," he said as his face became the sun after the clouds have parted. "I will look forward to that."

  "I will too," I said as I twisted my gruesome helmet over my head and turned my horse around to the opposite slope. The massive animal drove down the embankment like an avalanche and hit the level ground galloping to the north. Alexia's troops hid in the trees to my west but I couldn't see them, although I'm sure they could see me ripping across the dry river bed.

  Within a few minutes I had reached the top of the channel where Malek's troops were studying the rocks, logs, and mud that we had used to construct the dam a few years ago.

  "We are almost ready Kaiyer," Malek said as he rode to my side. I twisted off my helmet and latched it onto my saddle as he stopped next to me. I'd had the armor on for a few hours so far, just enough time for the pain it brought me to fade into a dull ache.

  "Shlara should be here in a few hours. Wait for Gorbanni's signal." He nodded.

  "Can I talk to you for a few minutes before you join Thayer?" he said. He looked around at his mages and signaled with his head to a spot a few hundred yards farther to our north. I nodded and we moved our horses in that direction. The spot offered a spectacular view of the voluminous lake that our efforts had created. I spun around to study the valley the water would soon occupy. I imagined the bodies of six thousand Elven troops drowning in their armor and smiled.

  Malek pulled me from my musings with a soft clearing of his throat.

  "Sorry. I was thinking about the plan. What do you need?" I asked him with a light smile.

  "I wanted to talk to you about Shlara . . .” he trailed off to gauge my reaction. I didn't give him one so he let out a long sigh and frowned slightly.

  "Okay. Go ahead."

  "You aren't going to make this easy on me are you?" He twirled some of the gray hair by his temple.

  "What are you talking about?"

  "You know my feelings for her?" His blue eyes looked hopeful. I didn't remember them interacting at all besides at our strategic meetings. Were they hostile toward each other?

  "I don't. Fill me in," I said.

  "Shit man. I thought you would have seen this. Hell, you notice everything else. I'm in love with her." His face broke into a grin. I couldn't help but smile for his happiness. I didn't know if I enjoyed the idea of my two best generals becoming lovers, but I figured that Alexia was probably involved with either Thayer or Gorbanni. At least Shlara wouldn't be pressuring me anymore.

  "Excellent. She is a capable warrior and a great general. Was that all you wanted to discuss?"

  He looked down at the ground, then back up, though he avoided making eye contact.

  "She said that she loves you and won't take anyone else. She was very . . . rigid in her position." He let out another sigh. "This is difficult for me to speak of with you. I care for her very much. She has impressed me over and over again with her abilities, intelligence, leadership, and cunning. She is also amazingly beautiful. My heart seems to stop beating whenever she is around. I’ve tried being with other women, but she is the only one I want. I think about her all the time, I feel like she is the water that will quench my thirst."

  I turned to look back over the valley. There was no reason to speak of this right now. Malek and I needed to focus on the task at hand. There were Elven bastards we had to annihilate in a few hours and any mistake would lead to Shlara's death. I was surprised at his expression of love for her. Malek was definitely more vocal about his beliefs and feelings, but I had never heard him talk of love. None of us ever spoke of it.

  "Do you love her?" he asked to my back. I considered for a moment before I could give him an honest answer.

  "I won't love anyone until this is all over, Malek."

  "She is waiting for you! Don't you realize that?"

  "I'm not making her wait."

  "Bullshit Kaiyer! She thinks she has a future with you after this war. We all know that will be many, many years from now. Are you going to deny her happiness because you want to keep your options open?" His words came out quickly and were lined with anger. I turned to look at him over my shoulder. Our eyes met and we stared at
each other for a few minutes.

  "What would you have me do?" I asked.

  "Set her free."

  "How can I do that?" I wanted to tell him that I wasn't trying to keep my options open. I had thought it would be easier for her to handle my rejections if she believed, well, it didn't matter. Malek wanted to love her.

  "Tell her that there is no chance the two of you will be together. Tell her that she should find another lover." He nodded as if agreeing with his own logic.

  "Are you sure this is what you want?" I asked him. His feelings were illogical and I felt almost ashamed for him. Shlara was in love with me but he didn’t care. He would rather have her, knowing he was her second choice, than not have her at all.

  "She knows how I feel about her. I am confident she will choose me." He looked at me again. "Will you do it?"

  "Of course. You can't let this get in the way of your work though. I need you both to focus on what is important." I smiled at him and he frowned again. His brown eyes filled with sadness. "What is wrong? I am doing what you are asking, right?"

  "No, no, my friend." He quickly shook his head. "I am happy about that. I am sad for you."

  "What?"

  "What do we have if we don't have love? We have let them take everything from us except for that. When the war is over we will have to rebuild our lives, create families, and civilizations. Someday we will lay down our weapons and love, Kaiyer."

  "I know. That is what we are all dreaming about," I said in agreement.

  "No! That is what we are dreaming about. Not you. You only dream about exterminating them. You don't care about anything else. You don't even want to dream about anything else. You are my best friend, my savior, but you don't understand this war. What are you fighting for? Whom are you fighting for?" I heard his heart pick up speed.

  "Today, and for the foreseeable future, I don't need to understand what you think this war is or is not. I just need to do my job. As do you.” He nodded but his eyes were tight with pity.

  "Make sure the dam breaks. I'll talk to Shlara tonight," I finished as I put on my helmet. Then I descended into the gorge toward Thayer's position. I could almost hear the screams of a thousand Elven voices as I paired it with the sound of the water filling the valley.

  Chapter 30-Kaiyer

  The water was cold. So cold that I didn't know if I was dreaming or awake anymore. Then the current suddenly tried again to rip me from the rock I cradled. I realized that I was actually cognizant when the water's surge lifted my feet off the rocky bottom of the river for a few inches before I willed myself back down from the current. Numbness filled my body and brain. I reached across my chest and touched the hilt of my sword to confirm for the hundredth time that it was still attached. My mind had started to think the water would sweep it away like it seemed to be doing with my sanity.

  I thought of Malek and Shlara again. What did Shlara say when I told her there wouldn't be anything between us? Did I even have feelings for her? My memories seemed to indicate I possessed a very fixated mentality. Before I speculated anymore a stray log floated by overhead and distracted me.

  This was fucking stupid and I would have laughed if I wasn't trying to conserve my energy and breath. I looked up through the swift moving water of the river to the dark angry clouds forming in the sky. A storm approached quickly and I needed to make a move soon or the weather would further complicate my rescue attempts.

  Come on you fucking bastards! It seemed like an hour had passed since I started my hyperventilation and then dove into the Styasi River. It came down directly from the mountains in the Northlands and would have frozen me into a statue had it not been moving so fast.

  I pulled magic from the Water and the Earth to keep me warm. It helped fight against hypothermia, but I still felt like an ice cube.

  Don't use Water.

  A voice echoed in my head, bouncing off of the walls that contained my brain until it matched the roar of the river around me. Everything spun for a few seconds and my grip loosened on the rock I held. I grunted in annoyance, or maybe fear, and focused on clinging to it.

  It didn't help that I hadn't slept for three weeks or eaten much in the last two of them.

  The Elvens escorting Jessmei were faultless in their job. I followed them north on foot for about four hours until I had reached their makeshift camp. It was astutely hidden in a small grove of trees on the side of the road. I found Jessmei's footprints as it looked like they had allowed her to relieve herself.

  The next two days I spent losing more and more ground to them. I had managed to kill a deer and allocated a precious hour ripping apart its corpse and eating its organs and most nutritious pieces of meat raw before I gave chase again. The meal invigorated me, but I was still skeptical that I would be able to keep up with them for an extended period of time.

  After a week I guessed that they were still a day ahead of me. Then I came across the corpses of their spare horses, discarded to the road like the empty wine skin of a drunkard. They probably felt that they had established enough of a lead and didn't need the extra animals. I had been surprised at the intensity of their travel. They hadn't made a camp for more than a few hours since they kidnapped Jessmei. The poor girl was probably exhausted, cold, and hungrier than I was.

  The bodies of the horses were half a day old. Temperatures had turned colder as we moved northward and approached winter, so the flesh wasn't spoiled. I ripped through their corpses and ate their hearts, livers, and kidneys. Even raw they tasted fantastic. I was fond of horses and the thought of eating them almost filled me with disgust, but I needed all the energy and strength I could muster to free Jessmei. She was more important than an infinite number of horses.

  A few days after my ad hoc feast, I caught up to them at their campsite. It was windy and close to freezing, so they had secured a small cliff outcrop to make their shelter against the weather. The wind kept my scent and the noise of my bare footfalls hidden as I lurked within earshot of their conversation.

  Jessmei still wore the thin nightgown I saw her in the week and a half before when I began my pursuit. The garment was covered in dust, dirt, and grime. Her beautiful blonde hair was knotted and frayed and she tied it back with a bit of twine.

  The female leader of the Elven trio grasped the young woman's hip while she tried to sleep. It would be an act that would infuriate me for the next two weeks I pursued them from the shadows. She always had her hand on, around, or grasping Jessmei. Even when the princess needed to relieve herself the ebony-haired bitch wouldn't let go of her. I didn't want to risk an attack when the Elven leader might draw her dagger and end Jessmei before I could get within ten feet. Luckily, their leader took her job so seriously that she didn't permit the male in their group to rape Jessmei, despite him asking, sometimes demanding, every night.

  They moved slower, taking their time since they were within a short week's travel of the Northlands and their empress's army. As the week passed I grew more desperate and tried to think of any way I might get close enough to their leader to rip her life from her body without putting Jessmei in danger.

  When I was scouting ahead of them I ran into the river and came up with the plan.

  They had to cross the Styasi River. It wasn't deep, but it flowed cold and fast. It would provide me the cover that I needed if I hid at the bottom and picked off their leader as she forded the angry current next to me. The plan was near insanity, but I hadn't come up with an idea even close to being as feasible since I began my hunt.

  If I didn't try it, I might not get another chance before they reached the army of their empress. Then my job would become a lot harder.

  This needed to work.

  I shook my head again to clear it. I could hold my breath for a long time, but it seemed as if more than five minutes had passed. What if my muscles froze when I emerged from the water? What if I missed my target and they killed Jessmei?

  What if I accidently killed the beautiful princess? It might easily happen. I
was so cold I couldn't feel most of my body. I didn't know if my arm would work. My aim might be off and I would never be able to forgive myself.

  No. You can do this. I repeated in my head like a mantra. My body shivered again and I focused on the sound of my heartbeat. I was surprised that it was louder than the current and the smooth rocks being tossed together around me.

  A shadow appeared on the surface of the water to my left and my chant ended. I crouched down in the water and my arms unconsciously tightened around the large rock I used to keep me at the bottom. This was it. My nerves were shredded, my body begged to breathe.

  I saw two more shadows in the distance; the water warped and ripped them apart as it flowed past me. I wanted to breathe so badly that my lungs screamed and my stomach clenched around the empty air.

  Just one more minute at the most and they would be above me.

  The male rode on the front horse. It was difficult to make out his facial expression but he looked bored, as did the female that followed him. I had chosen my spot perfectly. All I needed to do was jump up from this crouch and they would be less than a foot from me.

  The leader rode ten feet behind the other two. I smiled under the water. Perfect. Jessmei appeared to be wrapped in a thick wool blanket. She sat side saddle across the front of the Elven woman. Her legs dangled over the right side of the horse and her captor wrapped both of her leather clad arms tightly around the blonde princess.

  They moved a step past my position and I coiled my legs underneath me. Earth pushed up against my heart and sprinted through my exhausted muscles. The flow of the water sped up the blood that filled me and I released the rock and propelled myself up out of the river.

  The water parted around me like diamonds as I arose from the river. My right thumb pushed the handle of the sword out of the scabbard an inch before my left hand drew it from its home, whipping it around so quickly that it shattered the drops of water coming off of me into a thousand more gems.

  I underestimated my strength and thought that I would need to make an upward slash with the weapon to decapitate the leader. My jump carried me almost five feet out of the water and I just had to swing the blade horizontally to cleanly cut her neck. It happened so fast that the Elven didn't even turn back to look at me. I was already landing back in the water by the time the blood showered Jessmei and the horse.