by Devan Skyles
Nicodemus continued to make fine adjustments with his tools, but as he did, he found himself completely disgusted with himself. The young ones had been correct. He was being a coward. With a determined resolve he had not felt in years, he slammed the tools down on the stone alter and turned to Corvus.
“General! I am through being a pawn in your game, and I will no longer barter my soul away under your domineering rule! If you want to trigger the rift, you’ll do it without me.”
Corvus turned and glared at the old Gatemaker with a fury that burned from deep within. Fueled by rage, he swung his wing around and knocked Nicodemus to the ground.
“Who are you to deny me what I order; what I’ve worked half my life for?” he roared. “I am your general, and Ilimíra’s future monarch! You WILL do as I say, old man! Might I remind you of a certain relative you’d like to be reunited with?”
“For all I know, my son is dead already,” Nicodemus said, carefully rising to his feet, grasping the alter for support.
Corvus, seeing his tactics were no longer working, adopted a calm demeanor and breathed a deep, cleansing breath. Turning to one of his lieutenants, he gave him a subtle look that said, ‘Follow my lead.’ The lieutenant nodded in compliance.
“Very well, Nicodemus,” he said. “I see I am going to have to escalate plans further. Lieutenant Tritus?”
“Yes sir,” the man said, stepping forward.
“You still have the old man’s grandchild in custody?” he bluffed.
“We do indeed,” said Tritus, playing along.
“Execute her,” Corvus ordered casually.
“No!” Nicodemus shouted in dismay.
Corvus smiled, reveling in the return of his control, then turned and addressed Nicodemus. “You thought you could keep her secret from me? We’ve had spies in her home for over a year! When we captured your son and daughter-in-law, they were too noble to reveal the location of the timekeeper. I thought her extremely foolish when she decided to die rather than give it up, but even killing her did not open your son’s lips. When we finally found out where they’d been hiding, we discovered their sweet little red-haired daughter. Spitting image of her mother, by the way. Anyway, I decided subtlety was a better way to coax the location of the timepiece out of the girl. But now that we have what we need from her, I see no reason to continue the charade. We took her into custody this morning.”
“Please,” the old man begged, “do not harm my sweet granddaughter. She’s all I have left in this world. Please.”
“Oh, don’t worry, old man. She’ll be fine,” he assured him, “as long as you do as you’re told and STOP STALLING!”
Hanging his head, Nicodemus closed up the panels on the timekeepers and wound them all three times. Picking up his own, he turned both winders at once, clicked the top one down three times, wound it the opposite direction, and clicked them both down once. He set the device down on the alter with the others and stepped back as they all began to glow bright blue from the inside and vibrated violently against the stone.
“It is done,” he said mournfully. “The rift will begin to take affect momentarily, and within a few hours, it will encompass the entire human world permanently.”
The timekeepers skittered and danced violently on top of the stone, the blue glow growing steadily brighter. The crystal faces began to crack. The ground around them then began to vibrate, making the soldiers falter nervously in their ranks. Finally, the light from the devices became blinding and an enormous shock wave of energy burst forth from the alter, knocking everyone off their feet. The shockwave continued in all direction along the landscape, flattening the tall grass and shattering every window in the Monolith City.
The immense surge of energy shot across the fields and swept over the advancing troops to the east. The Grimalkin fell from their feet and several of Auram’s troops were thrown from the sky, unable to adjust their flight pattern before impacting with the ground.
“It’s begun!” Rhydian gasped. “We’re too late!”
“We can’t be!” Ellie exclaimed. There’s got to be a way to stop it!”
Auram drew his sword and shouted to the troops, “This changes nothing! We stick to the plan! CHARGE!”
The troops drew their weapons as well and shouted a deafening battle cry. Doubling their haste toward the city, the Ilimíri fixed arrows to bows in preparation to rain down hell upon the opposing army.
As they approached firing range, Corvus’s men launched their own preemptive volley of arrow, but they had acted too soon and the missiles sailed harmlessly to the ground below. Auram’s men now had time to act while the enemy reloaded. A little closer and…
“NOW!” Auram shouted, and the entire company of Ilimíri flared their wings, stretched their bowstrings, and released in unison. The arrows rained down upon the army, causing many to shriek in horror and agony, but nevertheless, another barrage of arrows arched overhead, this time raining down directly overhead. Many Ilimíri were pierced and fell to the ground, but most of the troops continued their charge through the sky.
“Ready…” Auram commanded again, “NOW!” The company loosed their arrows again, now from directly above. Many of the enemy tried to take to the air, but the barrage of arrows suppressed the majority, and no one dared advance alone. They fired and were fired upon several times, keeping the enemy’s attention skyward while the Grimalkin advanced below, quickly flanking them on against the white marble city. If they could stay in the air long enough, they would soon have the enemy surrounded.
“Keep them at bay just a little longer,” shouted Auram, “and then we can take the west flank and close them in!”
Auram’s troops complied, but too many of them were falling to the enemies’ projectiles and their numbers were growing thin. Two arrows flitted right through Ellie’s primary feathers.
“Auram!” Taya shouted over the noise of the tumultuous assault. “We’re getting thrashed! If we stay up here much longer, there won’t be enough of us to flank the west ranks!”
Auram nodded in compliance with her council. “Everyone, down! To the west flank, now! Go! GO!”
The airborne army folded their wings and dove toward the earth, stowing their bows and drawing their swords. As they sailed low over the enemy ranks, they swept through with their swords and took out as many as they could in passing. Unfortunately, many of their number were also caught by imposing spears, swords and grasping hands, pulling them down into the enemy’s midst.
With only half of their numbers remaining, Auram’s troops landed beyond the enemy’s west rank and advance on the ground. The Grimalkin army was quickly making their way around the enemy, trying to close them in and surround them. Meanwhile, the back ranks of the Grimalkin troops shot down anyone trying to flee into the sky, hitting their targets with pinpoint accuracy.
Rhydian, Ellie, Auram, and Taya stood together and advanced the enemy. Ellie was the most nervous, as she had never been in a battle before, but she bravely jabbed and swung her sword, taking down several of the enemies. Rhydian and Auram fought valiantly as well, but neither with more flare and efficiency as Taya, who parried every attack that came her way expertly and struck down her opponents with a confidence that came only from experience.
Rhydian took a slash to the right shoulder and ducked back behind the second rank instinctively. He panicked then, berating himself for leaving Ellie’s side, and pushed his way back to the front.
The Grimalkin army had now closed in around the enemy troops and was swiftly hacking their way through Corvus’s men in a frenzied barrage of ferocious attacks. Rhydian was astounded seeing the efficiency of the Grimalkin’s tactics, using not just their weapons, but their many claws and teeth as well.
He caught a glimpse then of Brighteye diving into the fray. She lunged high in the air and came down hard on top of a soldier, driving her sword deep into his torso, her teeth bared viciously. She had no time to pull her sword free before another attack came, so she deftly cast t
he enemy’s sword aside with her forepaw by the flat of the blade and pounced hard, mauling the man with all twenty-eight of her claws, digging her fangs into the back of his neck. The man screamed in horror very briefly, until she ripped her teeth through his neck and he fell, lifeless, to the ground. Brighteye’s snarling face became even more intimidating now, her fangs dripping with blood.
Wrenching her sword from the previous soldier’s corpse, she spotted Rhydian and called out, “Eaglehide! We meet in battle as you promised!”
“Glad to see you!” he called back, parrying a cut from a large soldier who was far more skilled than he was.
He was beginning to tire, when Brighteye lunged ten feet in the air, soaring high over several soldiers’ heads, and landed beside him. With a seemingly effortless swing, she removed the man’s head from his shoulders.
“Thanks!” he said.
“Rhydian!” Ellie cried, a bloody gash across her thigh. “I can’t keep this up much longer!”
Rhydian tried to push his way toward her when a female soldier stepped in front of him, bashing him in the face with the pommel of her sword. He staggered back as she continued to assault him. Ellie was trying hard to fend off the attacks of two big men who were advancing on her, and there was nothing he could do to help her.
“Brighteye!” he called out. “Get to Ellie! Please!”
Looking, she dashed through the fray of battle and swiped one of Ellie’s attackers across the face with her forepaw. The man’s head snapped to the side, five bloody tracks across his cheek. The other man, seeing this, staggered back in horror, trying to flee. This didn’t serve him well, as he backed into a spearhead and went down hard.
“I can’t walk!” Ellie told Brighteye, limping on her injured leg.
Brighteye sidled up next to her. “Climb on!” she directed. “Fight from my back!”
She did as she was instructed, and the two went back to fighting, each hacking down enemies in different directions. After several minutes of this, Ellie began to laugh in revelry.
“We make a pretty good team!” she shouted.
“Indeed, we do huntress! I must remember to take you into combat every time! We are twice the warrior this way!”
“Count me in!” she agreed, stabbing a soldier who was about to cut at Brighteye’s exposed neck.
Auram and Taya fought back to back not far off and were also proving to be quite the team. It seemed, together, no one could break their defenses.
“I think we’re winning!” Auram said excitedly, cutting down a soldier he’d been battling for nearly five minutes.
“I know!” Taya replied.
“So, about that kiss…” he let his voice trail off.
“You want to talk about that now?” she exclaimed.
“No time like the present.”
“Okay, what about it?”
“That was, uh, unexpected.”
“That’s the point, dummy. It’s called being spontaneous.”
“Any chance there might be some more moments of spontaneity later?”
She parried a heavy blow from a big soldier, sidestepped, and cleaved him open through the shoulder. She then turned to Auram, a smile on her face.
“No time like the present,” she said, and she kissed him right in the middle of the battlefield.
Rhydian, who’d finally taken down the female soldier he’d been fighting, cast his gaze about for Ellie. He began to panic when he couldn’t spot her anywhere, but then he caught a glimpse of her astride Brighteye and knew she was in good hands.
He dove back into the fray, swinging wildly at the enemy, taking cuts here and there, but ultimately conquering every foe that opposed him. He was now beginning to appreciate the military education he had resented for so long.
“You are an impressive fighter, Eaglehide,” came a deep voice from behind him.
He turned and saw Blackmane, fighting three men at once with his King’s Claws. He swung the forked blades faster than the eye could see, parrying with one weapon while attacking with the other. He hacked down two of the men almost simultaneously, then caught the third man’s sword in the fork of one sword, swinging the other upward and catching the man under either side of his jaw. The man’s head snapped back, both his jugular veins slashed at the same time.
“You’re quite skilled yourself!” Rhydian replied, astounded. He wondered if he could ever convince Blackmane to teach him to fight with King’s Claws the way he did.
If Blackmane was a formidable opponent, however, he was nothing compared to the wild, untamed ferocity of the Grimwood warriors. Proditorr was especially intimidating, snarling and gnashing his teeth menacingly while bashing in the enemies skulls with a large, stone mace. He had a small buckler in his other hand for fending off attacks, which he seldom needed as nobody wanted to get within swinging distance of that terrible mace. He swung it upward into the body of an overconfident soldier, caving in the man’s rib cage and sending him flying through the air like a ragdoll. He then gave a raspy roar, blood and spittle flying from his mouth.
The enemy’s numbers were dwindling, the Grimalkin and the rebel Ilimíri closing in on the center of the fight, where stood Corvus and Nicodemus. Suddenly, a deafening roar shook the battlefield and everyone stopped for a moment to look up. Near the edge of the battlefield stood the Chieftain Lord, Belator, the pale giant himself.
Rhydian cast his eyes from Belator to Corvus and saw something he never thought possible. Corvus’s eyes were wide with fear.
“You, Corvus!” Belator called out in his booming voice. “You will answer for what you have done to my people!”
Everyone stepped out of the great king’s path fearfully as he charged across the battlefield toward the veteran war General.
Corvus composed himself and raised his sword. The two collided, their swords ringing over the noise of the battle. Corvus swept his velvety black wings back and lunged in and out, trading blows with Belator. They were both seasoned warriors, seeming equally matched for one another.
“I will see your remains scattered across Eaglehide’s grave!” the giant bellowed. “I WILL bring him justice!”
“If you were able to kill me, you’d have done it on the battlefield twenty years ago!”
Belator deflected a series of attacks before finally landing an attack on his foe, slashing across his torso. Corvus, shocked, staggered backward, clutching at his bloody chest.
“Give up now, and I’ll make your death quick and painless!” Belator growled.
Trembling with fury, Corvus snapped his wings open wide and sounded an enraged war cry, assaulting Belator with a furious barrage of attacks. The great giant deflected each and every attack until, at last, Corvus’s blade caught him on the hand and his sword went flying.
Corvus advanced on the disarmed king, his teeth gritted, trembling with rage. His blood ran hot in his veins. He spoke slowly and deliberately, his voice filled with malice. “I have wanted to do this for a very long time, Belator. Ever since you turned my best friend against his own people, I swore I’d make you pay.”
Belator growled as Corvus swung his sword. He caught the blade in his massive right hand, gritting his teeth through the pain, but Corvus wrenched the blade away, slicing the king’s hand wide open. Flapping forward into the air, he came down hard on top of Belator and drove his sword into his chest. The Chieftain Lord fell the earth with a final defiant roar and died.
Corvus stood over the massive beast’s body and laughed. “Is that all you’ve got Belator? Is that how you won your empire?”
He placed his boot on Belator’s face and yanked his sword free of his body, reveling in his victory. Every Grimalkin roared with agony at the loss of their great leader.
Auram was the first to push his way through the enemy line and charge Corvus, sword raised. He caught the General off guard and slashed through the flesh of his right forearm.
Startled, Corvus backed away and raised his weapon, keeping his opponent at bay. “You!”
he laughed. “You think you’re going to defeat me?”
“Auram, don’t!” Taya called from behind the enemy ranks, unable to push through. “You’ll never defeat him alone!”
“You should listen to your girlfriend, Auram,” he taunted. “Do you think I didn’t look up your service record when the rumors started? You’re a second rate soldier at best! Tell me, son, do your faithful followers know you haven’t advance in your ranks since you enlisted, that you can barely manage to pass your combat evaluations?”
“I’ve managed just fine so far,” he replied, circling the general, looking for a weak spot in his defense.
Corvus laughed. “Yes, with the help of your savage friends. You’ve managed to avoid being killed in a fight that’s being largely fought for you. Congratulations!”
Auram saw the General’s sword point meander slightly to the left and he took the opening, thrusting downward past his guard. The general cast the attack aside harmlessly and thrust at his neck, cutting a small nick below his ear and laughing.
Auram was astounded. Corvus wasn’t even trying to win! He was merely playing with him! He swung again, and again the general deflected the attack effortlessly, giving him another small wound in the shoulder.
Corvus laughed. “You can’t win, son! I’ve forgotten more than you’ll ever know about combat!”
Angry, Auram lunged in, swinging as hard as he could. Corvus responded by deflecting his sword so swiftly that it flew from his hand and kicking him square in the chest. The wind flew from his lungs as he fell to his back, defenseless.
Corvus lunged forward, swinging his sword down fast and hard to end him, but at the last second, another blade collided with the general’s, blocking the attack.
Stunned, Auram and Corvus both looked up to see Desmond, standing before them with his sword held ready.
“What are you doing, boy?” Corvus said. “You work for me!”