Dawn broke just as the Ice Raiders completed the funeral rites for their fallen brothers. Aside from swapping out more desirable gear from the bodies of their comrades, the only items the northerners took with them were their cat skin cloaks, which they reverently folded and bundled for the long trek home.
Without fanfare or celebration, the Black Arrows began the long march north. Akantha had presented them with a ring bearing the emblem of Argos to ensure their safety, which Kratos had begrudgingly accepted before departing.
The sun began its daily climb through the sky, as it always did, but it was enveloped in clouds. It looked like rain was coming soon, and surely enough, it began to drizzle by mid-morning.
Akantha was still conducting funeral rites for the fallen Argosians, which was her duty as the only present member of Argos’ ruling house, when there was a growing sound like that of rushing water, or perhaps a great fire.
She remembered something Aetos had said about a sound which had accompanied the star as it fell from the heavens, and it was exactly how she would describe what she was hearing now.
“To arms!” she screamed, and her people looked around in confusion. Fedora Glaros, who had been grieving her fallen Defender, snapped her eyes to attention and scanned the sky for the source of the noise.
Nothing was immediately apparent, but the sound continued to grow until someone pointed and yelled, “Look, there!”
Akantha followed the direction the man had pointed and her blood turned cold. Descending through the rainclouds was what could only have been described as a dragon. It breathed great, roaring gouts of fire from its many heads, some of which were oddly located beneath its curved, segmented body. The fire was a sickly green color, and it concealed the many heads’ features with its roaring flames.
The dragon hovered above them for an eternity before slowly descending, the roar of its flames drowning any other sounds, including the panicked screams of the Argosians.
Even these brave people had their limits, and Akantha could not hold their fear against them. They had just faced down a nightmare, and believed themselves to have achieved victory, though the price had been high. The immediacy of fate’s reversal was enough to break any reasonable person’s will, but Akantha was well past the point of reason.
When the colossal beast was merely twenty meters above the ground, the middle of the dragon’s body seemed to open like a great, toothless mouth between two of the fire-breathing heads . Pouring out of this mouth were a multitude of demons like the smaller ones they had already fought, suspended on what appeared to be great strands of silk, which lowered them safely to the ground.
She looked over to see Fedora Glaros standing beside her, whose wild red hair ringed her face. She was holding Aetos’ pitted, nearly destroyed short blade. Her leather chest piece had been discarded, and what remained of her undershirt was in tatters.
“It’s a fine weapon, Fedora Glaros,” Akantha remarked as she reached down for a discarded axe, and realized it was one that had belonged to Bernice. This must have been the one she lost when her arm was so badly wounded, Akantha thought to herself absently as she gripped it tightly.
Fedora nodded. “It is, but its work is not yet done,” she said defiantly, and once again Akantha could not help but feel pride in her people. It was then that she made one of the most difficult decisions of her life.
“We must go, Fedora,” she shouted. “We cannot allow the sacrifices of those before us to be in vain. Both duty and vengeance dictate that we survive today!”
Fedora looked as though she wanted to argue, but she slumped visibly and nodded. “We have much to fight for, and there is no victory here,” she yelled in agreement.
The two women turned and ran as fast as they could, hoping to make it to the partially wooded area to the east before the Sky Demons could catch them. It would be close, but they had a good lead.
They ran, even though Akantha’s legs burned, and her chest felt as if it would explode. They ran, even when Akantha’s vision narrowed, and the only sound she heard was the beating of her own heart pounding in her ears, drowning out the angry roar of the dragon at her back.
Akantha took a glance over her shoulder and saw four of the demons pursuing them: two of the pincered ones and two of the wasp-like ones, except the wasp-like ones were not carrying their familiar, noisy weapons. Instead, they were carrying what appeared to be some sort of meter-long, blistered, black and green egg-shaped objects with multiple holes on the front.
They only had another hundred meters to go, but they would not make it. Fedora apparently reached the same conclusion and turned to face them. “Run, Lady Adonia,” she yelled. “Don’t look back!”
Akantha never even considered it. She turned almost in unison with Fedora and spun the axe in her hands, taking a precious breath to ease the burning agony which had spread throughout her body. “I won’t leave any more of my people behind, Fedora Glaros!” she barked defiantly before squeezing the haft of her axe as tightly as she could. “And I will not die with my back to the enemy,” she spat with a sneer.
The demons continued to come, and they had only a few seconds to prepare themselves for the inevitable.
“I am proud to have fought at your side, Hold Mistress,” Fedora said breathlessly.
Akantha shook her head. “No, Fedora Glaros, it is I who am proud to have fought at yours,” she said grimly, “but I have failed both you and the Hold. No matter the price, I swear I will atone,” she swore, and she knew that her penance might have to wait until the next life, but she also knew that she would fulfill that vow no matter the cost.
The two smaller demons stopped their charge, and the larger ones split, with one going wide to the right and the other going wide to the left. The women focused on their respective pincer-bearing opponents and raised their weapons to make their final stand when a flash of light and a sickening, sucking sound came from the direction of the two smaller, delicate demons.
Akantha felt a tingling sensation in her side. She looked down to see a handful of needle-like objects the length of her hand protruding from her abdomen, having pierced between the sections of Stone Rhino armor which protected her. The tingling sensation spread quickly, and was followed immediately by a numbness which overtook every part of her body.
Falling to the ground was an odd experience without her sense of touch, and for a moment Akantha wondered if she had died. She found she was still able to move her eyes and even speak, and she screamed wordless, defiant curses at her enemies as they moved closer to where she lay helpless.
She was facing Fedora Glaros as she lay on the ground, who was shouting curses as well, having apparently also been afflicted with the same paralysis as Akantha. The rest of Fedora’ tattered undershirt had come off, and she was now naked from the waist up. The two pincer-armed demons gathered them up and carried them back toward the battlefield, where the great dragon loomed motionlessly above the ground just as before.
Her captor placed one of the strands of sticky silk-like material descending from the mouth of the dragon placed around her waist, and she realized with horror that this was no dragon; it was a sky boat, and they were being taken to wherever it is from which the Sky Demons had come.
Akantha could see that the massive, sausage-shaped section of the behemoth demon’s corpse had been connected to dozens of the sticky fibers which descended from the heart of the demon ship, and was being slowly raised into the belly of the vile ship from the gates of Hades itself.
Almost as soon as the sticky fiber attached to her waist began to retract, bringing her up and into the bowels of the Hell Ship, the foul poisons of the demon darts ran their course, and she lost consciousness.
Epilogue: A Legendary Rescue vs. Ungallant Behavior
Akantha regained consciousness to the panicked sounds of dozens of her fellow Argosians. She shook out the cobwebs and took stock of her situation.
They were located in a large chamber, presumably inside the demon�
��s sky boat. She found a large band of fleshy material which had brought her into the ship fixing her to the ‘wall’ of the vessel, though in truth the interior of this ship seemed to be much more alive than any building or water vessel had a right to be. The walls pulsated rhythmically, and everything was coated with what looked like a thin layer of mucous.
The only source of light was from various lines which coursed along the walls and ceiling. They looked for all the world like blood vessels, except they were filled with a sickly, green colored liquid which glowed brightly enough to make out the looks on the faces of her fellow prisoners.
Fedora Glaros was immediately to Akantha’s right, and she appeared to be unconscious, but she was beginning to stir.
Some of her people were strapped to the wall almost up to the ‘ceiling’ of the chamber, and she counted three dozen, all of whom appeared to be in good health and lacked serious combat wounds. The wounded were probably killed or left to die on the field, she thought to herself bitterly. It was another testament to just how badly she had failed her people, and it filled her with hot fury, but she was impotent to express it in any meaningful fashion.
“Hold Mistress,” she heard Fedora say groggily, and she turned to see the upturned face of her fellow prisoner.
“Yes, Fedora,” replied Akantha, “I am here.”
“What happened,” asked Fedora, who shook her head and blinked her eyes repeatedly, “I fear I lost consciousness not long after falling to the ground.”
“We were brought to this place,” Akantha explained, testing the strength of the band which kept her fixed to the wall. It was not completely unyielding, but she quickly realized that it would require an extremely sharp blade to cut through the material, which seemed to harden as it stretched. “I know not why, but only those of us without grave wounds are here,” she remarked bitterly.
“Would that I had a blade,” Fedora said fiercely. “I would cut my way to the heart of this foul monstrosity and let it taste my vengeance!”
Akantha nodded, and she was glad to hear the strength of her companion’s spirit evident in her voice. “We will find a way out of here, Fedora,” Akantha said confidently, although she had no reason to expect that to be true.
“I know we will, Hold Mistress,” agreed Fedora Glaros. “My children need me, and the Hold needs your leadership. If I fall, it will be on the soil of Argos, not in the belly of this abomination.”
Akantha looked around and saw that most of her people had already awoken, although some of the ones further from her position looked to still be unconscious.
“How long have we been here?” Akantha asked in a raised voice, hoping that not everyone had been unconscious the entire time.
“I pretended to be asleep,” came a voice, and Akantha looked to see the familiar face of one of the boys who had stood with the archers turned her way, “but I was awake the whole time. I even managed to keep a small knife, but it can’t cut through this thing,” he said, pointing at the band around his waist.
Akantha was once again humbled, this time by a boy no older than twelve years. “How long do you think we have been inside the ship then?” she repeated.
“Can’t have been more than an hour,” he replied with a shrug of his shoulders. “After the big one stuck us on the walls, they all just left,” he explained and pointed to a circular, iris-shaped section of the far wall. “Soon after, it felt like I was being crushed for a few minutes, but it wasn’t by this strap,” he said with a nod to his waistband, “it was like I got real heavy, and for sure I would have fallen down without this thing to hold me up.”
At that moment, the iris-shaped section of the wall at the far end of the chamber contracted before opening, revealing an all-new monstrosity. This creature was not as large as the demon Akantha and Kratos had brought down with their combined fury, but it was far larger than any other ones she had seen.
Its body was segmented like the large one which Kratos and his men had called the Demon God, but the skin was far harder and a glossy black color, similar in appearance to the pincer-wielding demons. This particular monstrosity not only possessed a pair of larger, deadlier looking claws, but it also had a pair of smaller, delicate hand-like appendages like the weapon-wielding, wasp-shaped demons. Nearly its entire underbody was covered in legs similar to the ones on the bottom of the ‘Demon God’ they had defeated at the Stathis farm hold.
Akantha felt her apprehension at labeling that particular demon to be a god was justified in that exact moment; if she had seen a true Sky Demon God, it was undoubtedly this one. Its multi-faceted eyes seemed to shine with a kind of horrible intelligence, and it entered the room with a degree of grace which should have been impossible for a creature of its bulk. It was nearly the height of a man with a girth to match, and its length was at least a foot greater than even Kratos’ height.
This newest demon moved quickly toward the Argosian nearest the entryway, which had constricted once again to form a ‘closed’ position. Once it was next to the man, it reached out with its delicate hand-like appendages and grabbed the man’s head in its ‘hands.’ The man was still unconscious, but he was quickly awakened to what was undoubtedly the most terrifying moment of his life.
The demon studied him momentarily before abruptly lashing out with its claws, killing the man almost instantly with massive wounds to his torso. The band around his waist retracted immediately, allowing his nearly bisected body to slump lifelessly to the floor.
The demon then began feeding on the corpse of her countryman, and Akantha found herself screaming furiously at the foul beast without realizing when she had begun to do so. The horror of the situation had overridden her senses, but not her fury, and she beckoned the monster to come to her next if it dared.
The beast ignored her screams, as well as the screams of her fellow captives as it devoured the corpse.
Then, out of the corner of her eye, Akantha saw more movement at the portal to the chamber. At first she assumed it was opening, probably to allow more of these vile monsters into the room, which was probably some demon equivalent of a larder.
But it didn’t open. At least, not in any fashion for which it was designed. The feeding demon seemed not to notice, which was odd given its proximity, and Akantha stopped her furious screaming to focus on the door.
The portal shuddered and spasmed a few more times before she saw something push through. It appeared to be a hand! Not a true hand, but a gauntlet made of some kind of metal with which she was unfamiliar.
Another gauntleted hand soon forced its way through, and together they tore apart the multiple flaps which made up the living doorway. It was savage work, but in less than a minute a man made his way through the doorway, and a black sword with green crystalline deposits running along the blade, hung at his side. The sight of that sword sent Akantha’s heart into her throat; it could be none other but a Dark Sword of Power! Not only that, but this man’s gore-covered armor was composed of an unfamiliar metal, and the craftsmanship was as incredible as the sheer bulk of the armor. Akantha had never seen such a suit of armor, but she knew that any man who could fight in it must possess incredible strength.
Akantha’s mind momentarily entertained the fantasy that somehow Nikomedes had found his way into the demonic sky boat, and not only had he successfully reclaimed the Sword of King Lykurgos, but he had found a suit of strange armor to go with it! But when she saw the face of the man entering the room, she knew it was not Nikomedes, nor was it a man like any other she had seen.
Making out his facial features was difficult, because there was some sort of membrane surrounding his head, which formed a kind of bubble from the jaw line up. His skin was dark, far darker than any man Akantha had ever seen and his hair was pitch black. Not only was it black, but it was medium-length and stood at impossible angles, forming swirls and spikes. His eyes were slightly almond-shaped, and his nose was almost bereft of a bridge, being much broader and flatter than her countrymen’s. She had seen anc
ient stone carvings with similar features hidden in the Great Hall’s library, but never on an actual person.
This was clearly not a man of her lands, and as he stepped into the room, she saw that he was easily a head taller than the largest warriors she had seen. He quickly fixed his eyes on the monster which was half-way done with its ‘meal.’ The warrior took the sword from his hip, which Akantha realized didn’t have a sheath of any kind. He had simply pulled it away from his body like it was stuck there until he willed it to be released.
The Argosians shrieked warnings and pleas at the newcomer, but it was plain to see that his attention was rightly focused on the real danger. The demon turned its head to him, and it emitted a wailing, screaming, howling sound which ululated and shifted in pitch, which Akantha recognized as similar to the call the large demon had made at the Stathis farm hold when the Stone Rhino had approached. It moved toward the newcomer with that same eerie grace and balance.
The newcomer gripped his blade tightly in both hands, and in an incredibly quick, graceful move, stepped to the side while bringing his blade (which was much narrower and thinner than the Dark Swords of Power Akantha had heard described) across the middle of the beast’s front, scoring a deep gash.
But the demon’s quick reactions obviously surprised the warrior, as it shifted its momentum and drove its entire bulk into the warrior’s chest without breaking its momentum. The resulting collision drove their combined bulk into a nearby section of the writhing wall, and the sheer force of the impact should have instantly killed even the strongest of men wearing the finest armor.
Admiral's Lady: Eyes of Ice, Heart of Fire Page 13