Deadly Intentions (Blood Feud - Volume 2)

by David Temrick

  “If you’re going to kill someone, do it quickly and without that entire ridiculous preamble.” Tristan accused.

  The Prince wound up and slammed the dagger, right down to the hilt, into the top of the sorcerers head. “You can congratulate yourself later.”

  Binos’ eyes opened wide in shock as Tristan kicked the mage backwards with a grunt. The Prince then fell to his knees as well. His vision began to go gray as the blood loss took its toll. Above him the sounds of battle had ceased and Tristan was happy that he had spared Bethia further injury. Prince Tristan Vallious’ eyes rolled up inside his head as he fell forwards, the blood loss finally causing him to pass out.

  ~

  “Whatever you do, don’t tell him yet.” Eurydice warned.

  “Euri. He needs to know!” Mina replied in annoyance and shock. She knew that Euri was probably the kindest and most even tempered member of her family, so it scared her that she was now advising against telling Tristan that his wife was dead.

  “Mina. I know you mean well.” Euri continued empathically. Mina nodded in agreement.

  “I know you love him.” The Vallius Princess blurted. Mina could only stare at her in mute horror.

  “Don’t worry, I won’t tell him.” Euri consoled quickly. “But he’s got enough on his mind right now. You can’t spring this on him now.”

  “Fine! But I don’t like it!” Mina scolded as she rushed off to her room.

  She could hear Euri mutter that she didn’t either, but she was too angry. Angry that Tristan’s quest had proved as futile as the courtiers jested it was. Almost at once Mina felt ashamed for her outburst, but she felt that it was Tristan’s right to know what had transpired and how. Perhaps the sister of her heart was correct though; there was time later for such ill news. So the Guisian Princess buried her selfish pride and rushed to her room to throw on her armor and meet Euri on the tower as she was asked.

  Jonathan was safe with his matron, down in the catacombs of the palace with the other children. Their mothers would serve as messengers and bring the soldiers food should they end up defending the palace walls, which if Euri was correct at the size of the invaders army, was a certainty. Mina had hoped that their mission into the birthing crèches would severely hamper the invaders force, but clearly they had thousands more adults than youths.

  She was in and out of her room as quickly as possible, still lacing up her trousers as she half-ran through the palace. After their mission into the swamplands of the north, Lesa had two makeshift suits of armor made for the two young Princesses. Mina had found it odd, reasoning that her fighting was at an end, however in retrospect she should have known better. By the time she reached the tower she was out of breath and had a stitch in her side that burned whenever she inhaled. Even so, she clambered up on her grandmothers back. Lesariu chuckled as she leapt into the air, forcing Mina to scream slightly as she held fast to the large bronze dragons’ scales.

  Tristan flew up beside them on his red dragon, though her name escaped Mina. Euri and he spoke briefly and then his gaze met hers. His eyes traveled up and down her armor, coming to rest briefly on her Dragon’s Fist. Mina tried to smile, wishing him good fortune as the ladies in the sagas did, but she failed miserably. His life had been marked with pain, tragedy and betrayal. Her knuckled turned white grasping the bronze scales beneath her as she fought to not reach out to him.

  Just as quickly as he caught up to them, he was gone again. Mina watched in amazement as he and the red dragon joined the battle, distracting the misty purple dragon as they flew past. She quickly lost track of him though, as arrows whistled past her ears so close that they pulled her hair along with them. Lesariu pulled into a steep dive, belching fire on the archers occupying one of the rolling towers.

  The men tumbled out of the building, though the tower itself seemed impervious to the fire that Lesariu and Socolis continued to barrage it with. After three or four passes, the bronze and white dragon gave up trying to light the towers on fire. Instead, Socolis landed on one of the towers and belched fire down one of its opening. Jets of orange and red flame exploded out of the portholes as soldiers screamed and tried in vain to escape the inferno.

  The pair of dragons then grabbed hold of the tower and lifted it high off the ground. Farther north the main elements of the army were gathered; they swung the tower playfully and then tossed it into the heart of the host. The pair of them chuckled darkly as they banked away from the main army and back towards the wall, where they landed. A large man stepped forward and exchanged words with Eurydice before saluting her and stalking off to continue overseeing his men.

  Mina would have paid closer attention if it had not been for the sight that she be held on the horizon. Coming towards them at great speed were dozens of misty purple dragons. Some of them seemed larger than others, and the largest of them bore riders much like the one Tristan fought high above their heads. Even now, looking up, Mina could see the mighty red dragon pulling into a tight turn as lightning bolts narrowly missed her scaly hide.

  “Hello little one!” A voice called from above them.

  Mina looked up to see the King of Dragon’s land next to Socolis. On his back rode a man that surely must have been King Dion of Vallius, he looked so much like Tristan after all. Landing next to him on the back of a large blue dragon was clearly their mother, the Queen Annadora. Eurydice favored her in appearance. She regarded Mina with a warm smile.

  “You must be Princess Mina.” She said kindly. “I’m sorry we didn’t met under better circumstances.” The Queen said with a wink.

  Eurydice favored her in personality too. Mina smiled widely as she laughed with the Queen. Such a family, she mused. You are like a daughter to us Mykl. Mina felt inside her mind, the tone and gentle touch of it made it unmistakably Annadora’s thought. Tried as she might she could not thank the Queen with her mind, but she could feel her understanding as a tear gathered in the Guisians Princess’s eye.

  I try not to pry into people’s minds my dear, but surely this cannot be true. The Queen asked in shock.

  Mina had been caught thinking about the still and bloody form of Tristan’s wife. Even now she couldn’t bring herself to think of her name, simply how much she meant to the father of her child. She tried to think of the orc she’d found and dealt with, as well as sparing her son the sight of a brutally murdered step-mother. Mina also tried mightily to bring up Euri’s warning in her memories, unsure if she was succeeding in what she hoped to communicate.

  I understand Mykl. We will deal with this tragedy later. Annadora soothed, looking wide eyed at the gathering host of orcs and their creatures. Assuming we all survive, of course. She added wryly.

  The smaller mystic dragons approached the wall before the larger ones baring riders did and Mina prepared herself for the launch into flight. Instead of the expected leap, hundreds of little dragons flew over their heads with great speed. A rainbow of attacking little lizards swarmed all over the misty purple dragons. Green, Red, Blue, Silver, Black, White and Bronze dragons, all of varying shapes and sizes roared in challenge. The four elder dragons roared in reply from the top of the wall. So loud was their war cry that Mina had to put her hands up to her ears.

  All too soon, and of course when she least expected it, Lesariu took flight with the other greater dragons to engage the larger mystic dragons, and their riders. Her grandmother brought her between two magicians as Mina unhooked her Dragon’s Fist, so aptly named the Guisian Princess considered darkly, and swung it above her head, snapped her wrist and decapitated one of the red robed sorcerers.

  ~

  Ubani yelled in triumph as he effortlessly sliced the head off another pitiful human soldier in front of him. He stepped back into the gateway as his hordes rushed around him, pushing the humans back to their next position a hundred yards away. His archers and towers emptied the wall in short order, and then a half-dozen of Binos’s pet magicians had blasted the gateway apart before being chased off by the four large dragons.<
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  The smoldering ruins of the once indestructible gateway fell from large metal hinges. The chains hung limply where they had once been connected to pulleys to help open the vast gates to the Expanse. He felt the ground tremble under his feet and quickly stepped inside the gateway and to the left as four giants lumbered through the gate, paying little attention to the army flooding through at their feet. Small dragons swooped down and irritated the giants, making them stomp around recklessly as they destroyed catapults and flattened his infantry. He silently cursed Binos, who continued to do battle with the red dragon and its rider, for including the simpletons in his battle plan.

  The orc Legate stepped forward as one of the few human defenders left alive came running towards him. He smiled sadistically as he prepared himself, leaning back on his left foot. The human let loose an animalistic war cry, making Ubani chuckle as he drove his blade deep into the pathetic human’s stomach. Lifting him up by the blade he snarled as the human screamed in pain, and then he tossed him like a small child into the press of bodies still pouring through the Great Gate.

  ~

  “Hold this position as long as you can Colonel.” Kevin said quietly. “But I want you all half way to our next position before the enemy breeches this one. Understood?”

  “Aye sir.” Yeris answered quickly between relaying orders to his soldiers.

  Kevin gave the man a pat on the back before turning away and mounting his horse. He signaled for his cavalry to move forward and set off towards their next hastily constructed defensive position. Eurydice had warned him month ago that a large force of orcs were headed towards the Great Wall of Terious, and with Tristan off on his quest, he had taken command of the Terum army, reinforced it with elements of his own and began setting up defensive road blocks, traps and embankments all the way back to Kumia Palace.

  The battle for Terum would be decided there as it was the only defensible position where they could wait out the siege and possibly turn the tide of the invaders army. What he hadn’t been prepared for was the ease with which they’d taken the Great Wall, and blasted through the gate. While Kevin didn’t have possess any magic of his own, being a member of his family had given him at least an understanding of the power it had taken for those magicians to breach the gate.

  They were going to need to employ all the tricks and traps they could if they were going to even the odds, never mind trying to tilt them in their favor. Kevin rode past another defensive position, shouting to the commander that he should expect Colonel Yeris within the next hour. He saluted, nodding his understanding, as Kevin urged his horse up to a gallop and rode on to Kumia Palace.

  The final preparations were being made as Kevin rode over the drawbridge and into his brother’s palace. He wasn’t sure where his brother was, but it was likely something that he and his men were ill-equipped to help him with. Instead, he concentrated on the defenses here and stopping the sea of attackers quickly approaching his position.

  He relayed orders to his officers as he made his way through the palace to the north wall. Along the way and ashen faced hand maiden stopped him in his tracks. Tears stained her face as her voice failed her.

  “What is it woman?” He said calmly.

  She grabbed his hand and pulled him along behind her. Typically his size earned him sideways furtive glances by most of the female staff, and this was the only thought that kept him from pulling his hand away. With surprising speed and strength she pulled Kevin into his brother’s bed chamber.

  A familiar smell greeted his nose and he pulled his hand away from the servant. The color drained from his face. He walked around the side of the bed, dreading what he was going to find. Lying there on the bed, her eyes looking up at the ceiling in shock and pain, was the former matron of his own son; Maggie.

  The body of her orc killer had been dragged into the room from the hallway, and its head a short distance away from it. Black anger festered in his stomach. It wasn’t bad enough that they stormed towards the palace; they felt the need to slay his sister-in-law. Cold certainty gripped him as he knew the author of her poisoning, and the irony of Tristan’s wasted months as they accomplished their goal just the same.

  The surprise would be on them, while his younger brother might disregard his personal safety when he was angry; it focused his mind to a fine razor’s edge. The joke would, in the end, be on the murderers.

  ~

  Tristan stirred as he was pushed gently. Looking up he found Bethia’s face dominating his vision and felt her voice in his mind.

  Are you injured? She asked in concern.

  “No, no. I’m fine. Just took a nasty fall.” He replied, pushing himself up against the tower once again. Tristan’s surroundings came into focus and he found that he was all alone on the north side of the wall. How he’d remained hidden from the army of orcs was a mystery to him.

  I used my arts to mask you and the tower from sight. Bethia answered eagerly.

  “Thank you my friend.” Tristan said, scratching her behind the jaw. Chuckling at her cooing sound he looked around the trampled landscape. Few corpses littered the ground; the sorcerer’s body was gone though. A tower lay in a destroyed pile of rubbish, along with several bodies crushed beneath it. His attention then turned towards the gate. Even from here he could smell the burned wood, one of the doors hung uselessly from the lower hinge, while the other was missing altogether. Despite his victory over the mage, there was still a rather large army invading his country.

  Motioning for Bethia to lean down, he mounted back into his damaged saddle and urged her to take flight. Leaping from the ground she was quickly up and over the wall, giving Tristan a better appreciation for the forces gathered against them. Spread out before him was a veritable sea of creatures, much more than King Boris had thrown at him, and more than his own uncle had called into battle in Sutten over a year ago. Where these creatures kept coming from was as much an irritation as it was cause for deep concern.

  Giants littered the landscape like towers in a rolling palace. Catapults, ballistae and trebuchets created small pockets of barren landscape amidst the hordes of orcs, trolls, ogres and various other creatures he couldn’t make out at this altitude. Gathering Bethia under him, Tristan urged her to pick up speed, hoping that they hadn’t laid Kumia to siege yet.

  After almost a hundred kilometers Tristan began to see the hordes begin to thin out and eventually stop as defensive barricades along the highway blocked their progress. Pointing with his mind just behind the most forward position he directed Bethia to land in a clear patch between two ballistae. She landed effortlessly, pawing the ground eagerly as she eyed the younglings flying over their heads towards the hordes, belching fire into their lines.

  Oh go on and have some fun. Tristan sent with a laugh and slap on her scaled neck.

  The Prince unsheathed his sword and sliced the saddle from her back, allowing the ruined leather bits to fall freely to the ground as she roared and took flight. Taking command of the younglings she led them in a V formation towards the charging invaders.

  Those soldiers looking over the barricades were forced to overt their eyes, cursing, as the dragons lit hundreds of attackers on fire and slowed their advance down to a stand-still. The defenders cheered as Bethia and the younglings roared in triumph and flew over the attackers again, launching columns of fire at random into their ranks. Chaos reigned supreme as flames erupted among the invaders.

  “Well that should slow those bastards down.” A familiar voice called from Tristan’s left.

  Smiling, the Prince turned and embraced his old friend. “General.” He said in mock surprise.

  “Out here on the field like a common Sergeant?” Tristan chided.

  “I’d punch you boy, but you look run out anyways.” Frose threatened.

  “Spare me.” Tristan shot with a roll of his eyes. “How goes the withdrawal?”

  “Well enough. Colonel Yeris waits for us at the next position and Duke Kevin is preparing Kumia for a long s
iege.” General Frose reported.

  “So.” The Prince said, drawing his sword slowly. “There’s nothing left to do but fight.”

  Frose smiled sadistically as he drew his sword and shouted for his archers to pick their targets. Soon afterwards orc heads began to peak up over the barricades and were quickly filled with arrows. An unearthly horn sounded and attackers swarmed over the barricades as the two old friends prepared themselves for battle.

  The first orc that reached them had his slash turned aside easily as Tristan slipped his sword in and sliced open his torso from his right hip to his opposite soldier. Tristan spun around and brought his sword crashing down, severing another orcs arm between the elbow and wrist. The orc gasped and griped his stub protectively, looking up at the Prince in shock and anger. Tristan still had his sword in motion and sliced it clean through the orcs neck, sending rancid blood shooting upwards from the wound as he kicked the still standing corpse back into its companions.

  For hours the defenders held their ground all along the barricades. Tristan had been relieved several times, though he’d lost count of how many times at that point. His arm felt like it would fall off at the shoulder from the continuous up and down of his slashes. A familiar horn sounded and a large squad of cavalry leapt over their barricades and into the enemy camp. The orcs were thrown into disarray as horses trampled them and soldiers lashed out at the few who managed to roll out of the way of the large war steeds.

  “You boys need a hand?” Kevin called with a chuckle as he pulled up on his reigns, bringing his horse to a skidding halt.