by Logan Jacobs
“No, just soldiers,” I replied.
I moved my horse forward through the rubble of the village, while all the humans returned to their hiding spots to wait for the five other elves to show up.
It didn’t take long.
When the elven soldiers appeared at the edge of the village a few minutes later, I stopped my horse just long enough to glance back and give them a nod.
“All clear, lads,” I said. “There’s a great view of the surrounding country from up here, and it looks like we should be able to make good time, as long as--”
I didn’t get to finish my sentence. Insead, the humans all spilled out of their hiding spots to surround the elves, but they didn’t hesitate or offer a surrender. They just attacked, so the air filled with the sound of metal on metal even before I could turn my horse around.
As I whirled my horse around, the elves cried out and hurled themselves into the fight against the human guards, but they had been so surprised that almost immediately, one elf dropped to the ground with a stab wound through the throat, and that left only four to go.
“Captain!” one of the elves called. “Help us!”
I charged my horse toward him and raised my sword like I would kill the two humans who had him cornered, but at the last second, I swerved my horse and carved my sword through the elf’s neck instead. It wasn’t enough to separate his skull from his body, but it was just enough to make his head rock to the side with a confused expression on his face, and then the two human guards finished him off.
Four human soldiers had surrounded another elf, but the elven soldier just stared at me like he couldn’t quite believe my betrayal. He should have paid more attention to his other enemies than to me, because a second later, he was even more surprised by the daggers that found their way into his leather armor, in between his ribs, and all the way into his lungs.
The two remaining elves fought hard, but they were no match for ten humans and an elf on horseback.
I charged my horse toward another elf, and this time, the humans all ducked out of the way at the last second, so I was able to rear my horse back onto its hind legs. Instantly, the creature kicked out with its front legs and hit the elf squarely in his chest, so then when I wheeled away to chase after the last elf, the human soldiers rushed in to finish off the elf on the ground.
The last day elf had started to sprint back down the hill, as if he could somehow outrun death. Two of the human guards chased after him, so I followed right behind them on my horse to make sure that he didn’t escape, but in the end, the elven soldier didn’t do himself any favors.
He kept looking over his shoulder so many times that he lost his footing when the hill started to slope back down, and when he tumbled onto his hands and knees, that gave the human soldiers just enough time to catch up with him. One of the humans wrestled the elf’s arms behind his back, while the other guard pulled back on the elf’s hair with one hand and then used his small dagger to slit his throat.
When the last elven body hit the ground in a spray of thick blue blood, the humans all glanced around to make sure that no more day elves were hidden anywhere. Once they realized that the fight was over, they all gathered around me again.
“Nothing like a little bit of teamwork, eh?” I grinned.
“I don’t know if we could have done it without you,” the lead human guard said. “Thanks for the heads-up and for the help.”
“It’s my honor to serve the king,” I said. “But if you all don’t mind, I’d really like to get to the city as soon as possible. He has asked for me, and I don’t want to keep him waiting.”
“Of course,” the human replied. “We’ll take care of the bodies, and thanks again.”
“May the Ancients be with us,” I said, “even though clearly, they already are.”
I spurred my horse down the hill toward Falrion Forest and left the human guards and the slaughtered elves behind me. As they disappeared from view, I thought about how much everything could change in such a short time. A year ago, I would never have imagined that I would even work for a human, let alone serve one as my king. And yet here I was, and now I couldn’t imagine anything different.
It was a shame that the five elven soldiers had not surrendered, but they had made their choice, just like I had made mine. They couldn’t see that the time of the elves was over and that now, it was time for something new. It was time for there to be a kingdom where everyone was more equal and where the elves couldn’t just do whatever they wanted at the expense of the other races. It was time for a new kingdom… a human kingdom, and it was time for Wade to take his rightful place as king.
As I rode into the trees at the edge of the forest, I knew that I would reach the Capital shortly, and then I would be able to help Wade even more. I didn’t know what he wanted to see me about, but I was eager for the chance to help him.
After all, Wade wasn’t just the new human king.
He was my king, and I would serve his cause any way that I could.
Chapter 11
I had been to the elven temple in the Capital before, but I certainly hadn’t been there like this. The last time I’d visited the temple, I had pretended to be a corpse that would be sacrificed later in their insane rituals to the sun and moon, so I had played dead and waited until I was inside before I made a move.
But this time, I was at the head of an elite group of human soldiers… my Elite soldiers, actually. I wore the human crown on my head, bore the royal shield on my arm, and held the king’s sword ready at my side for our first strike.
This time, I entered the temple like a conqueror.
“How do you want to play this, Wade?” Ava asked beside me.
“I’m thinking,” I said as I studied the situation in front of us. “I want us to be smart about this, since they have a lot of magic on their side.”
“So do we,” Clodia said with a smirk from my other side, “but I understand what you mean.”
At the moment, I stood inside the courtyard of the elven temple, along with Ava, Clodia, Penny, and about half of my Elite soldiers. There wasn’t enough room inside the courtyard for my whole force, so I left the other half outside the temple gates. They would make sure that none of the elves inside escaped, and once we were able to advance a little further inside, they could advance right along behind us.
As soon as Olly told us that my forces had broken through the outer locks on the temple, I hadn’t wasted any time. I had left Cimarra, Twila, and Ashlin at the dancehall, while I had taken my other women with me up to the elven district as quickly as we could travel by horse and wagon. The Elite soldiers had followed right behind us, and I was pleased to see that even though they’d all clearly had a good time the night before, they had all reported for duty right when I told them to.
When we arrived at the elven temple, I had found Selius at the entrance to the temple, where he had kept an eye on everything for me, but I had immediately told him to retreat back down to Osman’s bakery so he wouldn’t be in the thick of the fighting. The halfling kid was a decent fighter, but he had been trained for street skirmishes, not for full-on battle, and I wasn’t about to risk his life just because he wanted to be in the center of the action.
Still, even though Selius might have pouted a little, he obeyed me anyway and disappeared back down into the halfling district. He would serve me much better if he stayed alive, and I thought that I might send him to join Skam in one of the other cities pretty soon, just to make sure he felt important. Skam had taken charge of the defenses of another city in the empire, or otherwise, he would have joined us in our assault on the temple, but I knew that his work there was just as important as our work here.
And besides, I still had Ava, Penny, and Clodia with me, and I sure as shit pitied any elf who crossed them.
There were a couple options that I could pick between to go forward, but I was pretty sure that I already knew what direction I wanted to take. There was only one way in and out of the courtyar
d, and since the courtyard itself was a rectangular shape, it wasn’t hard to see a path forward. It also wasn’t hard to see the priests and priestesses of the temple, even though they were all on the other side of a gigantic wall of blue fire.
The magic wall of fire was a stupid move, and really, the elves should have known better. Sure, it made it so that my troops couldn’t immediately attack the elven priesthood, but it also required a lot of energy and magic to maintain, so I knew that by this point, the priesthood was probably goddamn exhausted.
They wouldn’t be able to keep up the wall of fire for much longer, and when it crashed down around their pointed ears, they would be so tired that they would have a hard time against Clodia’s magic, let alone against my own.
So really, the only question was how many of the priests and priestesses I could capture alive to feed to Azure, versus how many would have to be killed in order to protect my women and my troops. But since the only way to find that out was to lead the charge, I figured it was just about time to attack.
“Do you think your magic can go through their wall of fire?” I asked Clodia.
“It’s possible,” the night elf said, “but I imagine that it’s probably more likely that my fire would just join the fire of their wall.”
“So basically,” I began, “you need to get on the other side of it, right?”
“Yes, but--” Clodia started.
“Well, I actually owe this next trick to you,” I interrupted with a smirk. “Since I learned it when you set fire to the Entertainment District.”
“Ah, yes, the early days of our relationship,” Clodia snickered.
“Don’t remind me,” Penny groaned.
“In just a second, I’m going to freeze the fire,” I said.
“You can do that?” the elven guildmaster asked. “Why am I not surprised?”
“Because Wade can do anything,” Ava said.
“I did it at the theatre when you set fire to it,” I said with a shrug, “so I could get Ashlin and one of Twila’s girls out, and so I imagine I can do the same thing here.”
“Then what do we do?” Penny asked.
I nodded at the wall of blue fire, so my women all turned their gaze toward what was visible on the other side. The priests and priestesses all stood a few dozen yards back from the fire, and they each wore long robes and had their hair loose and wild, like they hadn’t brushed it since the equinox festival. They snarled at me through the fire, but I just gave a little wave and turned back to my friends.
“There are four priests and eight priestesses,” I said, “and I’d like to keep as many alive as possible to feed to Azure, so if we could even keep half that number alive, I would consider that a win. Hell, I’d take even four of them alive, just as long as none of you put yourselves into any unnecessary danger.”
“So you’ll freeze the fire,” Ava said, “and then we all move forward?”
“Not everyone,” I said. “I want Clodia to go through first with me, and after we launch our initial attack against them, then Penny and Ava, you can both come through with about half of our Elite forces in the courtyard. Leave the rest of them out here for when the wall of fire collapses.”
“I understand,” Ava said. “We’ll do our best to keep as many of them alive as possible.”
“Otherwise, little Azure won’t be able to grow up big and strong,” Penny said with a nod.
“He’s pretty big and strong already,” I laughed. “But I want him to be so big that the elves shit themselves when they see him coming.”
“I’m sure we can make that happen,” Clodia purred.
“And Ava,” I said, “make sure the troops know to use their shields to plow forward. I don’t want them to use any weapons if they don’t have to, because one, that would make them vulnerable to magic attacks. And two, if they just plow forward, then they have a better chance of keeping the priesthood alive.”
“I’ll give the order now,” Ava said, and then she turned to go address the Elite in the courtyard.
“Now all I have to do is give them a chance to surrender first,” I said, “and when they say no, we strike. Got it?”
“We’re with you, my king,” Penny said.
I smiled at my beautiful women and moved a few paces forward. I felt my women and the Elite take a deep breath as I walked toward the wall of fire, but they knew that I could protect myself against anything that the priesthood might throw my way. Besides, I knew that they probably didn’t have a whole hell of a lot of magical energy left.
“You are outnumbered, and the city belongs to me now,” I called through the wall of blue flame. “If you surrender, your lives will be spared, and I will make sure that you are treated well. If you don’t, then I can only guarantee your death.”
“Who are you to make such threats?” one of the priestesses snarled. “Don’t you know who we are? Don’t you know what we can--”
“And don’t you recognize the crown?” I grinned. “It was your people who took it from the last human king, but it’s finally back where it belongs.”
“We will never surrender!” one of the priests shouted. “We will crush you underfoot with our magic, we will feed your corpses to the fire to please the Ancients, and then we will feed the corpses of your women and your troops to the fire, too.”
“Wrong answer,” I sighed. “Oh, and just between us, the Ancients aren’t particularly happy with you right now.”
“Do you dare to speak for the Ancients?” another priestess shrieked.
“Not exactly,” I said with a grin, “but the Rainbow Keys sure as shit do.”
Before the elven priesthood had time to process that little piece of information, I concentrated all of my attention on the wall of fire in front of me. This time, I didn’t even try to sheathe my sword or set down my shield. Instead, I just raised my blade, pointed it at the wall, and goddamn willed the fire to simply freeze in place.
Instantly, the entire wall of fire across the length of the whole courtyard grew still. The flames stopped dancing and left little clear openings all throughout the wall, and all of them were big enough for a grown man to slip through. Even the heat of the flames stopped because the moment the fire froze, so did its warmth.
The priests and priestesses all stared back at me through the gaps in their magic wall, as if I had frozen them at the same time I froze their magic, so before they could react, I sheathed my sword and charged forward with just my shield raised. Clodia raced forward right beside me, and I heard the Elite shout behind me as they spilled after Ava and Penny like a wave.
As soon as Clodia and I slipped through the cracks in the frozen wall of flame, we began our attack. The night elf hurled one ball of energy after another at the priesthood, while I split my attention between the wall of fire and the priestesses who threw balls of blue flames in my direction.
Every time one of them flung a pulsing ball of energy toward me, I let it shatter against my shield or froze it before it reached me. I quickly realized that wouldn’t be enough, even with Clodia’s magic on my side, so I needed to direct more of my focus on the priesthood, and that meant I needed to let the wall of flame start to burn again.
“Hold!” I called back to the Elite. “Get away from the wall!”
Ava instantly repeated my order to all the troops, so the human soldiers on the other side of the wall halted, and the soldiers on my side all pushed forward with their shields raised to get further away from the frozen flames.
Once there was no one in immediate danger from the wall of fire, I turned away from it and let it begin to burn again. Several of the priestesses gave a little cheer before they realized that I had done it on purpose, and then they scrambled backward toward the temple steps behind them.
Of course, now it was too late for them.
They flung one sphere of energy at me after another, but every time, I either dodged it or deflected it. Clodia’s magic whirled around me on every side, while Ava and the Elite soldiers moved
forward and backward to strike and then retreat over and over again.
Penny stayed right by my side to make sure that no one got close to me, but even though we were all an unstoppable force together, I already saw several bodies on the ground of the courtyard, both elven and human, and I didn’t want to waste any more lives.
I flipped my shield up on its side and hurled it at a cluster of three priestesses. They tried to throw their magic at it, but the shield sailed right through it and slammed into their stomachs so hard that it knocked them onto their asses. The priestesses then all flung blue spheres of energy at me, but now that both my hands were free, I was ready for them.
I dodged the first one and caught the second two in each of my hands. The blue energy felt warm against my palms, but it didn’t burn me, and instead, it just danced above my hands like I had conjured the magic myself. And as I watched the blue flames in my hands, I saw that they grew even bigger, and I realized that I was actually making them grow.
“Surprise,” I said with a grin, and then I flung the flames of energy right back at the priestesses who cast them.
One of the energy balls hit a priestess in the face, and it instantly melted half of her skin off, so it sagged and dripped down around her eyeballs, but it wasn’t enough to kill her. Instead, she just shrieked and clutched at her face, and right away, Ava moved in with several Elite soldiers to take her into custody.
The second ball of energy hit another priestess in the shoulder, but it smacked into her with enough force to stun her, so the Elite were able to move in and tie her arms behind her back before she could cast any more magic. That only left the third priestess who had been hit by my shield, but to my surprise, she didn’t surrender. She just growled at me like a wild animal and then tried to cast more magic against me, even while my shield continued to pin her to the ground.
“Not today,” I muttered, and then I caught and hurled her magic right back at her.
She raised up my own shield in time to block it, even as the Elite carted away the two priestesses beside her. She stayed behind my shield long enough for me to glance around and judge our progress against the rest of the priesthood, and so far, it looked like we were doing well.