by Jason Tesar
On instinct, Kai dodged to the side and brought his vanspyd forward, quickly deflecting an enemy spear. The triple-bladed tip hung in the water, inches from his face. Then, without warning, it shot backward and returned to its owner. It took only an instant for Kai to understand the deviation from the standard Vidirym tactics. In the Eternal Realm, it was a last resort for a soldier to cast his weapon, for it meant giving away his only defense. But it seemed that, as in many other ways, Semjaza had taught his soldiers to abandon their previous training. Without taking his eyes off the enemy, Kai’s echo-location told him that he’d already lost a few soldiers to the devious change in weaponry, but the rest had learned quickly
Slowly, Kai’s force began to give water while moving backward in an attempt to contain the enemy’s forward progress.
Another spear shot forward and Kai deflected it. In frustration, he moved backward again. He wanted to sink his trident into the flesh of a traitor, but Semjaza’s Vidirym were staying just out of reach, using their longer-ranged attacks to their advantage.
Despite his disappointment, the Fim-Rada took pleasure in the fact that his primary objective had been met. As their backward defensive formation finally reached the turret, Kai sensed that the other half of his force had secured it.
“Ad a ingangur,” he called out.
Immediately, his soldiers lunged backward and converged upon the triangular doorway at the base of the turret. One by one, his Vidirym slipped through until he was the last. Quickly backing into the entrance with a double-handed grip on his spear, he watched the movements of the enemy morph into a column formation with their leader at the rear.
Kai exhaled a quick mouthful of water, disgusted by the blatant rebellion of the leader’s actions. Among the Amatru, it was standard protocol for the leader to be at the front of an attack or the rear of a retreat. It was a mark of character for the leader to position himself between his soldiers and the enemy. To do otherwise was a tactic of the Marotru. And it seemed that Semjaza had adopted this method as well. Though such confirmation wasn’t necessary, Kai was now fully convinced that Semjaza was beyond redemption. If he could align himself with the tactics of the demons, then he deserved to die.
Inside the triangular tunnel, the sound waves changed from the great, lonely echoes of open water to short and bright sounds. The lower ranking enemy soldiers came first, advancing quickly, aggressively.
Too aggressive!
Kai watched with tranquil confidence the sloppy movements of the enemy soldiers entering the narrow passage. Slowly, he continued to move backward into a wider section of the tunnel and noted the angular, stair-stepped design of the corridor as it led inward.
The nearest soldier came forward and cast his vanspyd.
Kai dodged to the left and jabbed his own weapon, striking with precision and perfect timing that had been honed over ages of conflict.
The enemy’s spear was pushed sideways, around the corner of the stone passage. When the soldier attempted to pull it backward its bladed end caught on the stone.
Kai instantly surged forward and thrust his weapon in a single-handed attack. The trident glanced off the Vidir’s armored gauntlet and pierced the center of his chest, meeting with more resistance than expected. As he wrenched the bladed weapon from the victim, Kai watched the water cloud with blood.
Two enemy soldiers drifted limply to the floor of the stone passage.
CHAPTER 28
MUDENA DEL-EDHA
“Ad a tarn! Aftan varnir!”
Danduel’s command rang out clear. Now that Semjaza’s Vidirym were occupied beneath the water, the peninsula was no longer a dreaded road, but a clear passage to his objective. With the low and bright rays of the morning sun casting long shadows across the water, Danduel’s disciplined ground force began to advance, changing their defense structure to protect the rear of their formation.
“It’s time,” Sariel announced to the remaining Iryllurym. Then he leaped from the shadows of the cliffs.
Half of Semjaza’s Iryllurym peeled away from the conflict and rose into a wide, staggered line formation. Clearly, the hours of constant battle had sapped their energy and it was beginning to show.
The soldiers flying with Sariel began to spread out to meet the line of defense.
The sounds of battle below fell into the distance, replaced by the wind rushing past Sariel’s ears. As he looked forward, his gaze settled on the enemy soldier directly in front of him.
His hands clenched the hilts of his vaepkir.
The muscles in his arms tensed, readying for the coming impact.
Closer and closer the two forces sped toward each other.
Each soldier eyed his counterpart in the opposing line.
Just before impact, Sariel’s horizontal formation pivoted, with the left flank banking upward and right while the right flank dropped and banked left. The abrupt change was mimicked by the enemy, but with a slight delay. As the two forces spiraled into one another, Sariel and the right flank were too quick for Semjaza’s soldiers and passed beneath them without contact.
The piercing ring of metal on metal sounded behind him as Sariel and eight other Iryllurym left the diversion and raced for the peak of Semjaza’s fortress. They quickly exchanged glances; there was no time for words now. They’d worked out the plan ahead of time and all that was left to do was carry it out. Sariel had hoped for a few more Iryllurym to make it through the initial charge, but the group of nine would have to do.
Reaching the southern face of the fortress in just seconds, Sariel pulled his wings inward and dove toward the triangular window that sat just above the crown of turrets encircling the apex. Hoping that the Myndarym had given an accurate description of the building, he banked to the left until his wings were vertical, then dropped through the window.
Flying more by instinct than sight, Sariel felt a rush of stone and soldiers pass quickly by as his body plunged through the open shaft running down through the center of the tower. As the shaft widened, he spread his wings to slow his descent, noticing several of Semjaza’s guards descending the spiral staircase which ran along the inside walls.
Making a quick correction, he paralleled the staircase and rammed into two of the soldiers, knocking them from the stairs and into the open air. Down below, and approaching quickly, the floor of the throne room was filled with more enemy Anduarym. Having already passed several guards on the way in, Sariel was now surrounded. But his fellow Iryllurym would have to take care of the enemies behind him, because his attention was focused ahead.
Sariel came to a running landing on the last few steps of the staircase. Tucking his wings behind his shoulders, he quickly changed his grip on the right vaepkir and held it with the blade pointing forward, like a spear.
With the shadows of the descending Iryllurym passing over their tall and muscular forms, the enemy Anduarym tightened into an attack formation and came forward.
* * * *
“The north and east towers are secure, my Rada,” the soldier announced quietly.
“Good,” Kai-Niquel answered, looking upward at the distorted surface of the water. The light, rippling and bending with each wave, revealed to his trained eyes the interior of the first floor of Semjaza’s fortress. Piecing together the refracted images, he could see two enemy Anduarym standing guard. There was water on the stone floor in front of a metal triangle set into the ground.
“Hold this position,” he told his subordinate. “If Semjaza or any of his soldiers try to escape through the water, don’t hesitate. Kill them instantly.”
“Yes, my Rada.”
Kai looked up again, then slowly rose toward the surface. As his head broke silently through, the airborne sounds assaulted his sensitive ears. Instead of clearing the water from his blowhole in one violent burst, like usual, he quietly allowed the water to leak out as he began to rely on his lungs for breathing.
The two Anduarym kept their gaze fixed through the massive, triangular doorway faci
ng south. They couldn’t hear the silent enemy rising behind them.
Though his weak eyes couldn’t see far enough, Kai assumed that Danduel and his ground forces would be advancing along the peninsula by now. And with this distraction keeping the attention of the soldiers, Kai raised more of his upper body out of the water. Holding two vanspyd and his arms close against his sides, the water shed from Kai’s skin to run silently down his body instead of dripping. When the weapons had cleared the surface of the water, he leaned forward. In one swift movement he threw both weapons with deadly accuracy.
The bladed shafts buried themselves in the unprotected flesh of the Anduarym, as both soldiers pitched forward. They were dead before their bodies crashed to the floor.
Quickly, the Fim-Rada rose from the passage and spread two of his lower appendages across the rough stone. Both unfurled from his body outward along the ground until they could bear his weight. Then, he pulled himself up onto the floor as he pushed with the other appendages behind him. In a fluid, but unearthly motion, his body slid across the stone until the majority of his fourteen foot height stood before the crude, metallic triangle on the floor.
Its design was more primitive than the rest of the fortress, and looked as though it had either been constructed hastily, or by a lesser craftsman.
Kai reached down and wedged his flattened blade of a hand between the stone floor and the metal. With all his might, he gripped the edge and pulled upward. As he suspected, the crude doorway opened, revealing a staircase of descending steps disappearing into water. Without hesitating, he moved down the passage and into the water.
Immediately, he could tell that something was wrong. His echolocation revealed that the tunnel was clearly constructed for land creatures to pass through. But the water, cloudy and choked with debris, told him that the passage had recently been flooded. Whether accidentally or intentionally, he wasn’t sure.
The tunnel extended for thousands of feet to the south, directly beneath the peninsula. Kai, swimming rapidly and reading the terrain as he went, came to where a pile of rocks and sand rose from the floor almost to the ceiling. The debris was higher on the right side of the passage, where he could sense open water through a crack in the wall. Immediately, he knew the passage had been flooded on purpose. Which begged a question.
What are the soldiers trying to keep hidden?
Rising to the top left of the passage, Kai pulled rocks away from the pile and pushed beyond the rubble. The tunnel continued directly south, and the Fim-Rada now swam with more urgency, feeling that he was about to discover something important.
Thousands of feet later, the tunnel ended again at a staircase which rose from the water, much like the one leading into the passage from the fortress. Cautiously, Kai ascended and slipped quietly into the air once more.
Darkness and silence greeted him.
Judging by the distance and elevation of the passage, he believed himself to be somewhere beneath the mountains on the southern side of the cove. With his eyes useless in this environment, he attempted echo-location. What returned to his ears was an indiscernible cacophony. The echoes were harsh and erratic, quickly overwhelming his senses. But when the initial wave of sound passed, he realized that all the sounds were not his own. He heard screaming and moaning. Slowly, the dizzying barrage of noises began to make sense. Though it was only a rudimentary image, he began to sense a large cavern. Huddled at the far end were numerous humans crawling over each other in the darkness. He waited a few more seconds and tried to make sense of the sounds bouncing off the walls. Slowly, he realized that most of the figures were female.
There were others whose outlines were confusing to him. Initially, he thought it to be the result of his severely disabled senses. But as he tried desperately to adapt his ability to this strange environment, he became more confident of what he saw.
They were large creatures—human in shape, but some nearly as tall as the Anduarym. They were also huddled in fear against the wall of the cavern, indicating that they wouldn’t be a threat.
“Do not fear,” Kai spoke softly.
The sudden presence of sound only terrified the group more. But eventually, their screams lessened.
“I am here to rescue you. Do not fear,” he assured them.
This time, they heard him and kept silent.
* * * *
Sariel’s vaepkir dripped with Anduar blood.
The two remaining ground soldiers stepped cautiously backward down the stairs from the throne room. With their shields overlapping, their eyes darted back and forth between Sariel and the other three Iryllurym behind him.
Sariel advanced, choosing his footing carefully on the steps.
Suddenly, one of the soldiers glanced to the side.
It was only a split second of opportunity, but Sariel was ready. He burst forward from his crouching position and swung his right vaepkir. The blade sliced through the air just above the Anduar’s shield and caught the soldier on the bridge of the nose, forcing his head sideways from the impact.
The angel on the left quickly stood tall and arched his back.
The motion was startling and confusing, until Sariel saw the spear. It was only when Semjaza’s angels fell to the ground that Sariel realized there were several Vidirym in the room.
Coming down the last few steps, he looked around the first-floor of the fortress and saw the glistening, aquamarine shapes of the water angels, forming an intimidating perimeter of protection. Around the backside of the staircase, was a triangular-shaped doorway in the floor. Three human women sat on the ground beside it and hugged each other. Their clothes were soaked and dripping. Crouched on the ground in front of the women was the sleek and muscled form of Fim-Rada Kai-Niquel.
“What’s going on here?” Sariel asked
The officer turned his head and inspected Sariel, his eyes scanning up and down. “Where’s Semjaza?” he asked.
“We just came through the throne room. He’s not there,” Sariel answered.
Kai rose up and turned around. Over his shoulder, Danduel and his soldiers could be seen through the massive doorway. They had just reached the fortress from the peninsula.
“Where did these women come from?” Sariel asked again, hearing the desperation in his own voice. He knew that Danduel would control the conversation when he arrived and his time to get information was running out.
Kai looked quickly in the direction of his superior, then back to Sariel.
His black eyes were unreadable and Sariel feared that he wouldn’t cooperate.
Finally, the officer answered. “This passage leads to a cavern beneath the mountains to the south. Many women are being kept there. The passage was flooded and we’re trying to get them out.”
“One of the women is named Sheyir. Make sure she gets out alive?” Sariel asked.
“I will,” Kai answered in a whisper.
“WHERE IS SEMJAZA?” Danduel shouted as he walked briskly across the stone floor, accompanied by Nuathel.
“He’s not here,” Sariel answered.
“My Rada,” Kai called out. “This passage leads underground to the mountains south of here. It was flooded by his soldiers. But there is a cavern at the end, above the waterline.”
“Semjaza?” the Fer-Rada asked quickly.
“No. It is full of humans. And something else—”
“Where is that traitor!” Danduel said through clenched teeth.
“There has to be another passage into the chamber … for ventilation,” Sariel blurted out.
Both the soldiers turned their heads. Danduel’s face looked like it was about to explode in anger.
“Was there another?” Sariel continued, now that he had control of the conversation.
Kai thought for a moment. “Yes. In the ceiling, but—”
“Semjaza’s escaping,” Sariel interrupted. “He’s probably on the other side of the mountains by now.”
The color drained instantly from Danduel’s face as he real
ized what was happening.
“We must fly quickly,” Sariel added, looking now at the Iryllur commander.
“My Rada,” said Nuathel, stepping forward. “We’ll accompany him.”
“Very well,” the senior officer answered. “Take whatever remains of your forces and go quickly. As soon as we’ve cleared this fortress, my Anduarym will give chase by ground as well.”
“Yes, my Rada,” came the quick and trained response. Then, Nuathel looked to Sariel. “You lead the way. And do what you promised.”
Sariel nodded. “Let’s go.”
CHAPTER 29
SOUTH OF MUDENA DEL-EDHA
The southern cliffs of Semjaza’s city disappeared behind the Iryllurym. Below, grassy plains stretched all the way to the coast of the Great Waters. A faint trail of disturbed vegetation passed beneath the angels as they tracked the former Pri-Rada. Far ahead, only a few miles before the forests of Murakszhug, something was moving over the land. It was only visible for erratic moments between patches of mist rising from the earth.
“Is he riding something?” Nuathel called out.
Sariel turned his head. “His hunting beast. Some abomination the Myndarym shaped for him.”
Nuathel nodded. “We’ll take it out from under him. The rest is up to you.”
Sariel looked back to the south and squinted as the Iryllurym pulled ahead and began their descent. He dropped into formation behind them, but allowed them to create some distance. Less than a minute later, the winged angels caught up with Semjaza.
The creature beneath him was powerful and fast, propelling itself and its oversized master on eight long, muscular legs. Its elongated head and snout were topped with a mane of chestnut hair which matched its fluttering tail.23
Fim-Rada Nuathel split his Iryllurym into two groups which spread apart from each other as they approached the flanks of the retreating commander. Dropping to within a foot of the waving grass, they approached fast and silent from behind. With vaepkir extended to their sides, they cut the legs from underneath the unfortunate beast in a rapid succession of glancing blows.
The animal instantly dropped to the ground and tumbled, end-over-end, while Semjaza dove sideways and did the same.
Sariel pulled up and slowed to a hover before dropping to the ground.