by Brent Reilly
CHAPTER 57
By the time he found Princess, she had already given birth to a beautiful baby and was eager to start another. What surprised him was how much Princess looked like a new woman. Her short hair and scarred neck made her appear older, with a harder beauty. No one would mistake her for a girl now. Knowing she would scrutinize his reaction, Billy greeted her like nothing had changed and swept her off to the bedroom.
"Wow," she said afterwards. "You really missed me!"
"Just wait until I'm rested," he warned her.
“Blade, Diva, Mali, and a few dozen other mothers have been waiting nearby to get pregnant again. You haven’t been going without, have you?” she asked sternly.
“No, your majesty. Your prized stud has been rotating them as you arranged.”
Princess never told Billy this, but she didn’t expect either of them to live long. Few who lead forces against the Empire last long. Her parents sure didn’t. Princess bonded with the other mothers and made them vow that the survivors would take care of the orphans.
Some of those pregnant quads, and those hoping to get pregnant, now served as their bodyguards, babysitters, and midwives. This killed several birds with one blast. Princess listened in horror as Billy told her what happened in Ireland.
“Are you still gonna marry me?” Princess asked, afraid the ambush changed his mind.
“Not even Genghis Khan could stop me.”
What he didn’t pick up is that Princess wanted them to get married. Like, now. She thought he was two years older, and thus of age, but a wedding never crossed his mind because he was just turning sixteen.
Unfortunately, while Billy left the war, the war found him within just a week.
Late at night, Princess got up again to nurse the crying baby, singing softly to put the beauty to sleep. She opened the patio door overlooking a canal to catch a breeze. Often she’d pace on the patio late at night until baby Elizabeth fell asleep.
But good thing she didn’t because she clearly heard her bedroom door shut and lock. Alarmed, she left Elizabeth on the floor and ran while taking out her wands. She blasted the door lock and extended steel.
Princess burst through the door as it swung off its hinges and she impaled a beautiful pregnant super-quad they called Blondie right through the gut. Blondie, with both wands drawn, looked like she was searching for his heart or throat to finish Billy off without waking him.
He sure woke up now, as Princess levitated Blonde into the ceiling. By the time she hit the floor with a loud thud, they both sliced her arms because one blast would signal the enemy to attack. Billy kicked the traitor in the face, then sent electricity into her head. Princess ignited the fireplace to signal for help while calling the others:
"Southie, Unibrow, Babysitter -- wake up!" she yelled downstairs. "Squinty, Sunshine, Smiley." She couldn't remember what the last one called herself. Something long and hard to pronounce. "Dumbass! Stay with the babies in the basement."
"Why?" Billy asked the assassin. "You’re six months pregnant. You were about to get a ton of gold and the offspring of the Red Baron. Why kill the father of your child?”
"The Mongols took my entire family, including my other children," Blondie explained unapologetically. "A bastard named Stinky from my village sold me out. He made me volunteer as a midwife." She turned to Billy. "Sorry, Red. It was nothing personal."
"How many are out there?" Billy demanded. "And what signal are they waiting for?"
"A lot. I have to give a thumbs up when I leave, then fly north. Oh, and whoever is on guard duty is probably dead."
That’d be Ivan’s favorite granddaughter. They called her Bones because she was so skinny. Her growing belly was bigger than her chest.
"Who's behind this?" Billy asked.
"Ask Stinky. He must be out there because he doesn't get paid unless I deliver. Please don’t kill me until I give birth. Think of our baby!”
Billy stepped on her bleeding belly to let her know what he thought of that. “I must document the deaths of everyone you love to deter future attempts on my life.”
Just as Blondie started to warn those outside, Princess bashed in her head to minimize bloodshed.
"Put her clothes on over your armor," Billy told Sunshine, a really fast blond who could pass for Blondie. "Go out the back door, give a thumbs up, then fly north. Once they follow you, we’ll hit them from behind. Does anyone know what Stinky looks like?"
Unibrow raised her hand. "I do. We voted him ugliest in the battalion, a contest which had a lot of competition. He always wanted Blondie, but she had plenty of better offers than that pig."
Billy covertly watched the ever-cheerful Sunshine fly north. One hundred quads from around their house quickly followed. He caught up to cut the slowest Mongols. Sunshine's speed made them follow as fast as they could, but some inevitably flew faster than others, stringing them out. After several free kills, the next quad suddenly turned, shot at him, then banked away at maximum speed. Billy fired into the backs of the next quads, waved Princess onward, and chased him, soon spitting him like a roasted pig near the Piazza San Marco.
He didn't need to ask who they were, though. Under their deel overcoats he recognized the uniform of the Kashik, the imperial guard who gang-raped his mother. Since Genghis wanted him to know who was after him, Billy resolved to rape someone that Genghis really cared about.
Preferably female.
Sunshine sped east into the Adriatic to put their backs to her team. Billy sought cloud cover since he had time before the rest of his team overtook the enemy. And there were a lot of them. Maybe too many.
So the sight of the other mothers shocked the Mongols almost as much as Billy. Blade, Champa, Diva, Mali, and others pounced on the tail of the Mongol threat like mothers protecting their newborns. The Mongols had to break off three squads just to deal with their fury.
Just as Princess attacked, Billy dived. His ladies carved up a few each before one of their wounded fired back, warning the others. Billy now fired four wands into those who had their backs to him, burning several. Those in the front continued after Sunshine while the back half turned to fight him. With Billy a few hundred meters above his team, the enemy had to split again to meet both threats, while absorbing losses. The two dozen who rose to meet Billy had to fly into four wands pouring fireballs at them. Billy crossed over them at full speed, then dived upside down to attack before they could reposition themselves.
With much of the city watching, the ladies attacked in a line, like a ship firing broadside, concentrating fire on those closest to them. As the two groups closed, one of the pregnant ladies fell from the sky. Princess, at the center, spent an minute dodging heavy fire before finishing off the last two with long swords. The years she spent dueling paid off since her victims assumed they were out of range.
Sunshine had circled around and skimmed the Grand Canal to keep them focused on her rather than the sky behind them. The ladies dived and Sunshine banked towards them at the perfect moment for them to strike the enemy. Sunshine executed an upward U-turn and popped the two Mongols closest to her before a blast from a third sent her spiraling in a burning ball into the water.
Billy just lost his fourth unborn baby. And he really like Sunshine. She had a smile that sucked the poison out of him.
Another ten, apparently flying a patrol, dived at Billy, so he flew past his ladies. The Mongols could either attack the ladies or show their backs to them. With just a split second to decide, they split up evenly. Princess led her ladies straight up to take them out of the Mongol's arc, while Billy let them come out of their dive, then rose sharply after slowing their momentum. He knew he could out-fly them, so used his superior speed to position himself above them to fire all wands in a controlled fall. Worried about his ladies, he even took a weak blast from the last survivor, using one wand to shield him while the other spliced the guy’s guts open.
The mothers
positioned themselves faster than the Mongols. Just before the two groups flew within range, Billy screamed to make the enemy turn and look. Hundreds of Venetians below recorded it. The ladies exploited the opportunity to wipe them out over the island of San Giorgio Maggiore.
"Find Stinky and our missing ladies," he yelled before he searched for someone to torture. While Smiley carried Sunshine back to the house, Princess raced back to find Bones with her head cracked open and her facial expression full of pain. She recorded it to show her grandfather, who’d seek revenge. Blade and the others turned up, ready for blood. Diva had knocked Stinky unconscious and carried him on her shoulder for the longest night of his life. Mali alone looked eager for more.
Billy, meanwhile, electrocuted the genitals of the surviving enemy until he learned who sent them: Hulagu, the Khan's favorite grandson.
“I’ll kill him,” Billy vowed, his whole body tingling with rage.