by Jen Pretty
Puck, on the other hand, tossed me onto his back as he flashed into a raging unicorn and pressed towards the large group of ragged looking trolls. The shifters and unicorns began fighting the trolls alongside the hunters. They were using their teeth, horns and swords, but I slammed time to a stop, freezing everyone except the hunters and Roman. Armond and his men kept cutting down the trolls with their swords, but they all soon lost their enthusiasm. Armond glared over his shoulder at me.
“What?” I asked. “It’s too soon to be letting a long battle wear us down. We have to save it for the witch.”
The hunters grumbled but went about butchering the trolls.
Soon it was a disgusting bloody battlefield, but only trolls had lost their lives. We didn’t have any serious injuries. I suspected that the road ahead wouldn’t be this easy as we neared our final battle.
I let go of my magic and our army moved through the dead trolls. As we passed the last of the corpses, the trolls began to twitch. A surprised shout had us turning back in time to watch as the first troll slowly rose, then all at once, they stood and came back towards us.
“What the hell?” I whispered to myself as the trolls and hunters began to fight again. Some of the shapeshifters were teaming up, their razor teeth biting and tearing at the undead trolls. The army wouldn’t last long if the trolls just kept coming back to life.
One of the trolls smashed past the line of hunters fighting and, as I watched, he aimed his long sword straight for Roman, whose back was turned, as he fought beside a group of unicorns and elves. I wanted to call out to him. To get there and stop the disaster, but he was across the crowded battle field. I had no time left.
Puck reared. My panic pushing him into action but when I yelled, “NO!” the troll who was about to strike down Roman paused for half a second, mid swing, and shattered like glass. He fell to the ground and didn’t rise again.
The witch’s magic was keeping the trolls on their feet, but my magic was stronger. I pictured knocking out another troll who was swinging a sword, but nothing happened. He continued to spar with a hunter.
“Shit,” I muttered. “How the fuck did I do that?” I asked myself, trying to stay on Puck’s back while he pranced, keen to join the battle. His hoof started striking the ground in impatience, but I needed to think. It had to be my will. That’s what Helena had said. It had to come from my heart.
The sounds of steel meeting steel rang through the empty land. Men yelling and wolves snarling and snapping their teeth. The trolls weren’t moving as fast and many had taken a lot of damage when the hunters had taken them down the first time, but they were still strong and they fought like they weren’t dead at all.
A hunter cried out as a troll got in a lucky strike. The hunter was bleeding but still swinging his sword at the troll who had caught him. Magic poured out of me like a bucket overflowing with water. The troll who had struck the hunter crumbled to the ground and I cast my glance at the reincarnated abominations that were trying to destroy my hunters -- my army.
The trolls shattered and fell to the ground, one by one like some sick version of the wave in a baseball stadium.
We stood in the silence that followed and waited for the trolls to revive, but they didn’t.
We moved through the battlefield again, careful not to let down our guard. I slid off Puck’s back and staggered to keep my feet under me. Puck transformed back into a man with a pout on his face to rival any six-year-old who didn’t get candy at the store.
“You could have let me have a little fun, Lex,” he complained.
“Then I wouldn’t have had time to figure out how to actually kill the trolls.” I said. I started to walk away but tripped over my feet and would have gone down, but Puck caught me.
“You ok?” he asked as Roman appeared at my side, wrapping his arm around my waist.
“Yeah, I just feel a bit weak. That was weird magic. I felt like I was overflowing.”
“You want me to carry you?” Puck asked, stepping back like he was going to shift again.
“No, I can walk,” I smiled and moved out of Roman arms. He had a concerned look on his face but didn’t press the issue.
There was a trodden path that led away from the portal. With no real directions to follow, it seemed like the best way to go.
The path led along below a sharp rock cliff. I still hadn’t seen any animals or plants. The brown outcropping, dark dirt and heavy smog made everything look dreary and deadly. Living things weren’t welcome in this place. I hoped we would find the witch quickly and take care of her, so we could leave, but as time marched on with no change in the scenery, I worried that it was just an endless smoggy desert.
We continued along for several hours before our army came to a halt. I was near the middle so I wasn’t sure why we stopped until a hush fell and a distant rumble reached my ears. The sound was getting louder and closer as we waited. The unicorns shifted and pranced in place silently. The elves climbed onto their mounts and unsheathed their weapons. The hunters moved into a tactical formation as the sound got louder, but it was a full minute longer before we could see anything on the horizon. The dim light and smoggy atmosphere only allowed the shape of the approaching herd to be seen vaguely from our position. With the rocky cliff behind us, I felt confident we could handle whatever came. But still the foreboding in my bones was dumping adrenaline into my bloodstream and making me want to move.
Roman moved a touch ahead of me on my right and Armond slid to my left but the space in front of me was now blocked, and I couldn’t see over the unicorns. I started to push forward just as Puck scooped me up in his arms and flung me on to his back as he shifted into a unicorn. Then he pushed past the vampire and hunter and brought me to the head of the army. Roman caught up to us and continued to flank me as we waited. A dust cloud billowing up behind the mass of writhing creatures that approached trailed up to meet the brown fog that hung above them, distorting them further, making them look like boulders, rumbling across the desolate landscape.
Finally, they started to become clear and I realized they were individual animals, similar in size to the unicorns, but each had a much broader skull and a horn on either side of their heads instead of one. Like sleek fork lifts, they charged towards us as fast as horses but with black shaggy coats and thick legs, they looked more like tiny woolly mammoths. I sent my magic out to stop them, but all that accomplished was to stop our army and the creatures kept coming. I tried to will them to do anything. Stop, turn around, disappear. But they just kept coming. I gave up and wrapped my hand in Puck’s mane.
“They are immune to my powers!” I shouted. We were out of time. “We face them together!”
The unicorns were rearing and dancing in anticipation. The hunters unsheathed their swords when Armond shouted, “Hunters ready!”
My heart pounded in my chest to the beat of the approaching hoard. They didn’t slow as they got closer, they just spread out to form a wider, more intimidating front line. I glanced around at the army I had assembled. They swarmed me now, shuffling and spreading out so I was in the middle of a writhing mass of men and women and shifters. The thundering hooves were joined by battle cries and the sound of steel clanking against horns as the first of the wild creatures made contact. I watched as the first unicorn and elf team faced an oncoming beast. They stopped its progress with a swing of a sword and quick impalement by a unicorn horn, but that was the last easy win of the battle.
The battle against the swarm became all consuming. Shifters fought in small groups, tearing at their opponents with razor teeth. The elves and unicorns worked in harmony: unicorn facing one enemy while the elf on its back would guard its flanks, taking out any challenger approaching from the sides or rear. I watched as one unicorn bore a beast to the ground. Raising its head, it savagely slammed it down over and over into the thick hide like a pointed battering ram.
Soon the sleek white unicorns were painted red. Most were still pressing forward to the battle, but some h
ad wounds and injuries severe enough that they were backing away from the front line, and the pressing herd of foes were getting close enough that I urged Puck on. He didn’t require a second invitation. He was ready to get into the battle and didn’t need any encouragement from me.
I unsheathed my short sword and heard Roman call a warning as the first ragged beast charged at Puck and me. Puck swung towards the beast and met him head-to-head. His roaring war cry muffled as his head dropped and he launched us at the horned creature in a final leap. The impact nearly dislodged me. Some unexpected magic kept me stuck to Puck’s back. I untangled my hand from his mane and brought my blade down on the neck of a creature attacking another elf and unicorn pair beside us. My short sword slid through the monster’s neck like butter and it fell the ground -- more litter to avoid as the battle raged on. The sounds of the attackers merged with the sounds of our defense as the teams worked seamlessly throughout the battle.
I glanced up at one point to see a bloodied Roman with his fangs latched onto one of the monsters. I had seen him drink blood only once before -- in the castle when we were attacked and he was almost beheaded. The sight made worry flash through my mind and I lost my focus for a moment, thinking Roman was severely injured. That lapse was all the time a beast needed to come up beside us and impale Puck in the side, right next to my leg. Puck roared and spun, removing the horn that had stabbed him. At the same moment, Bain charged in, using his teeth to grab the animal by the throat and tear.
Blood sprayed in an arc coating Puck and I in the aftermath.
Clive bowed his head from the back of Bain, and then they were gone back into the fray.
Puck wobbled, and I began to panic, worried he was going down. I slid off and he changed back into a man. He moaned and wrapped his arm around his side.
“I’m so sorry, Puck. That was all my fault. I wasn’t looking.” I started to ramble.
“You don’t get it, do you?” He shook his head, turning to face me. Puck had never let me down and I had let him down miserably.
I dropped my head, ashamed. I couldn’t look him in the eye.
He reached out and lifted my chin. His face was hard, and he winced when he took a breath, making the throb of guilt that much stronger.
“You have given me everything, Lex,” he whispered above the clash of swords and the shouts of war. “I will be forever in your debt. This is but a tiny repayment. I would pay you back with every drop of my blood if you asked for it.”
The angry screams and clashing sounds were dying down as we finally made our way back to the cliffs where the wounded were laying. Apparently, we had a few healers among the Fae who had come with us. They abandoned the other wounded when they saw me and Puck coated in blood.
Puck waved them away. Tough guy. His innate healing ability was already kicking in anyway. Not all the elves and hunters were as lucky. They didn’t have the healing powers that Puck and Roman had and needed time to completely heal. Some had more serious injuries and wouldn’t be able to continue on our journey. I couldn’t leave the wounded without protection in this place, which meant that my army had been cut in half.
✽✽✽
“Lex, do you want to stop for the night?” Roman asked as we walked over a ridge to discover nothing but more of the same dull landscape lay ahead.
“Alright, let’s set up camp. It must be getting late.” Although the sky didn’t show signs of change, between the battles and the walking, we were all nearly exhausted.
Roman squeezed my hand and turned to help get things organized. We would need people to split watch shifts, and everyone would need to be ready to fight at a moment’s notice. I was pretty sure the witch had more in store for us. We rang her doorbell and now she knows I have more magic than last time we met.
I sat down on a rock. Daisy waddled over and hopped into my lap.
“I should have left you at home. It’s not fair to put you in a position to have to fight for your life,” I said squishing my face into his downy back and muffling the last few words. A lump was rising in my throat. I needed to be strong for these warriors who were counting on me, but all I wanted to do was go home and cuddle Daisy.
“You ok, Lex?” Roman asked when he returned a few minutes later to find me still cuddled down into the soft duck feathers.
I straightened out. “Yeah, I’m fine. Just worried about what we are going to face. I have a bad feeling, Roman. It keeps getting worse.”
He sat down beside me and rubbed my back until an elf bowed in front of me and let me know that there was food ready.
I shuffled Daisy under my arm as I stood up to join the men and women around the fire. They had brought some meat from the shifters’ land and made a stew in a large pot. I don’t know who had been carrying the pot, but it seemed like there would be enough stew for everyone.
Armond handed me a bowl, spoon and a couple slices of bread. Roman laid out a blanket and we sat down to eat. Daisy managed to rouse himself long enough to have some bread before waddling back into my lap to continue his sleep. Roman ate with one hand, propping the other across my back to support me. He was so charming when he did silly little things like that-- making sure I was comfortable. I leaned into him and enjoyed the quiet time. Men moved around camp and Armond set up patrols. He divided the various members of our army up to cover the next eight hours while still allowing everyone to get enough sleep. I volunteered to help, but they unanimously denied they needed help. I would have called them chauvinists, but women were telling me to sit down, too.
Being queen was dumb.
Roman ushered me back to the tent and I gave up. I would have my turn to be badass. As soon as the witch was in sight, I was going to fry her like bacon. I smiled at the thought until I smelled something burning.
“Shit!” I scooped up the still slumbering Daisy and crawled out of the tent which was rapidly filling with smoke.
A nearby hunter grabbed a bottle of water and doused the flame I had started in the blanket. Puck, as a unicorn, came sliding to a halt beside me. He shifted back when he realized I wasn’t in any actual danger.
“Did you light yourself on fire, Lex?” He asked in his typical snarky tone. A crowd had gathered already and I heard a few muffled chuckles.
I didn’t answer him. Jerk. So what if I did light myself on fire? At least I could light a fire with nothing but my own magic. That was something.
I closed my eyes for a second and an image of the witch lit up like a Christmas tree flashed into my mind. The lights were tiny fires flickering on her clothes and her hair was tinsel. I giggled a bit at that and everyone took a step back from me like I was a bomb about to go off.
.
“I am going to burn that witch down, Roman.” I started laughing harder. It was funny. Nobody else seemed to think it was funny, but she was going to go up in flames like a pyre. It was going to be beautiful.
An intense sadness moved across the image in my mind of the witch burning. The smile slowly wilted off my face, drawn down by the weight of the overwhelming sorrow. I couldn’t see what made me sad, but I knew that something horrible was coming. Tears started pushing out from the corner of my eyes, but before my knees had time to buckle, Roman caught me. He carried me into another tent, sat cross-legged on the blankets and tucked me into his lap, my head firmly under his chin.
His hand made slow circles on my back, soothing away the sick feeling in my stomach and the anxiety in my chest that was making my heart race. I had a premonition or something. It wasn’t just a vision. It was also an intense emotion. I had seen the witch burn, but there was so much sadness connected with the scene that I knew it wasn't the whole story.
“This isn’t going to end without something bad happening,” I whispered. Romans hand stopped on my back for a moment before it continued.
“Is that what you saw, Lex?”
“It’s what I felt. I saw the witch burning, but I felt loss, devastation.” I choked on the words. Saying them out loud made them tr
ue and I didn’t want them to be true. “Maybe we should go home,” I whispered even softer so only he could hear me.
“We will get through it. We always do,” He replied.
He was right. We would probably get through it, but I wasn’t sure I could handle losing anyone and I knew that was the only thing that could happen to give me this feeling. This sense of foreboding and the sharp stabbing pain in my heart were as real as Roman’s hand in mine.
I must have fallen asleep for a while, but when my eyes opened again, Roman still held me in his lap. My head had slid down into the crook of his arm, and, when my eyes opened, I could see his face. His eyes were closed, but I knew he wasn’t asleep; he didn’t sleep. I thought about all the years he had spent on earth. All the vast knowledge he had gained, but how humble he was about it. He never once tried to tell me what to do except for maybe drink less alcohol. He was self-assured, but in a quiet way. I sighed and his eyes slid open, gazing down at me. He snapped his teeth when he caught me staring at him. I giggled until he leaned down and started kissing me. I got lost in him. His strong arms were supporting me as we fit together like puzzle pieces. In a different life we may have never known each other, but in this life, we were meant to be.
Eventually, the strange army we had created began rousing and packing up their things. I sighed, out of time again.
We marched along again the next day, but I was starting to feel like we were going to keep walking forever. The landscape didn’t change much from rock, dirt, smog and the occasional black muck puddle.
“Are we going to run out of water?” I asked Armond about halfway through the day.
“Nah, I loaded up some of my troublemakers with extra water, so we should be fine for a week at least. Hopefully, before then we will find a source of water. If anyone is alive here, there has to be water. Those trolls didn’t survive on air alone.”
They might have. The witch had some crazy magic if she could make the dead trolls rise and fight again. I hoped it wasn’t some magic that kept them from dying of thirst.