‘I killed you once,’ Ulrich said. He had. ‘I brought you back.’
‘Perhaps so that Euryale would not lose her,’ Dana said with a crooked smile. ‘Anja might hope to restore her brothers. Lex just plain hated Ompar enough to betray us all. I don’t trust you. Neither does Shannon. She has too much to lose.’
‘You evil little bitch,’ Ulrich breathed. ‘You are the only one who ever wanted to work with Euryale willingly. Mistress this, mistress that, eh? That is how you addressed the lot.’
‘We will all be gone soon,’ Anja said sadly. ‘We will not escape this hellhole. None of this matters.’
‘We will think of something,’ Ulrich said. ‘Shannon, listen to me—’
But then, it was late.
There had been silence outside.
Then a rumble of magic and ballista broke the silence. The fort shook, and we could hear the keening battle wail of the elves. ‘Upstairs!’ Dana yelled, and we rushed up and found the parapets. There, in the daylight, a terrible sight greeted us. Dozens of missiles were reducing the western tower to a heap of rubble. The whole structure shook with the power of the assault; dust rose high in the air, and some missiles found the Lowpass fort as well. Arrows and stone throwers answered from the towers and mowed down engines and elves, but the silver black mass of Coinar troops were waiting in blocks of steely death to see the towers fall. There were sure to be the yellow and black of the Daxamma converging on the other towers. There would be over ten thousand of the enemy, and we were doomed. I saw the chain-mailed officers run and take men forward out of the gates. They saluted me as they went, most with brave faces. The Lowpass fort was also preparing with what defenders could be spared. Archers lined the walls, but they were few. Elves were inching to the bridges crossing the chasm, and the shrill battle yell of the thousands of elves filled the land with their power as their maa’dark and siege tried to reduce the defenses. A man rushed from the south side, out of breath. ‘The tower will be gone, eventually, lady!’
‘How do you want to die?’ Anja asked. ‘Over Ompar’s body? Fighting like a lioness for him? Or try to get out? Don’t make a foolish decision now!’
‘One more mention of Ompar, Anja? One more,’ I screamed and pushed at her.
‘That’s enough, Shannon,’ Ulrich said slowly, ‘Enough. We have to figure a way out of here.’
Dana pulled me around. ‘I say we rush to the harbor and try to take a ship. We die trying,’ she insisted. I looked and saw five large enemy ships dotting the harbor’s entrance. There was a lithe ship moored in the bay. It was guarded, and the crew was manning a small tower below.
‘We have no hope, Dana,’ Lex insisted. ‘They will fill our skins with arrows. We don’t have the shield, even. Something you lost, no?’
‘I also killed hundreds of enemies, fool. Yeah, it will be desperate. But we should try, nonetheless!’ she said. ‘There is no point dying like this!’ We grabbed the walls as magic killed a dozen men in the tower below, and a huge explosion rocked the land. The Coinar troops were now marching over the rubble and the bridge, their flags waving, though some elves fell to the chasm or on their faces, with arrows in their bodies. ‘We need leadership!’ Dana yelled. ‘Give them a sign to follow!’
‘And what sign shall guide me to take the right path?’ I despaired.
Bulathon had been quiet the whole time, but now he stepped up. ‘The Star!’
‘The star?’ asked Lex.
Bulathon pointed a finger to the sea. There, ten deadly ships were emerging from a fog that seemed unnaturally thick. Fires reached out to hit the moored enemy ships, spells and burning missiles arched to tear timber and flesh apart. There was panic and brief shuffling on the decks of the Coinar ships. The small tower in the harbor below was a hive of activity. Soon, two ships were burning. The ships with the star rammed two others so hard they split in half. Hoarse screams could be heard far away; elven shouts of fury as they overcame their foes. Two ships headed for the harbor and the sole, lonely ship tried to escape with some of its crew.
‘Bardagoon ships,’ I whispered. ‘And there, is that—’
‘It is,’ Ulrich whispered. ‘It’s Cherry.’
Indeed, in the rigging of the ship there was a small figure who was calling for fire. The ship that was escaping was caught by a fire spell and its mast toppled, crippling it. I was sure Cherry was laughing at the carnage. I stared at the mayhem, and then my friends, and I made a decision.
‘Get the families down there, fast!’ I yelled. Bulathon looked startled, and then nodded. He ran off and soon, the people were making a way for the gates to the harbor. They trekked that way, carrying children, hope on their faces. I turned to Lex. ‘Get them there. All of them. I’ll get Hannae.’
‘I’ll help,’ Ulrich offered, and I shook my head.
‘I don’t trust you. Get all you can down there. Perhaps they won’t have them, but tell the elven bastards I will not help the Regent if they are abandoned.’ I gave orders, but I felt nothing. I barely cared, but Ompar’s smile was coaxing me on.
‘You did your best,’ Dana said smoothly. ‘Join us soon, sister.’
I ran off, and Ulrich came with me anyway. I frowned at him, but of course, he could not see it under the helmet. ‘I don’t trust you either,’ he stated. ‘You killed that woman. You tried to hurt Anja. So I’ll come to make sure you will not get hurt or hurt anyone else.’
‘Suit yourself,’ I said. ‘Your girlfriend will not like it. And if you so much as fart a spell, I’ll break it and then you.’
He did not look happy at the threat. ‘Anja and I, we have not been on good terms since the brothers died. She is seething with hate. Like you are. It’s almost like we are all destined to fall apart at some point,’ he told me. ‘I wonder who wants that.’
‘You mean Dana,’ I hissed. ‘Doesn’t matter,’ I said hollowly. ‘I’ll go and fetch the Eye, though I am without hope. I’m dead inside. A murderess and a tyrant and a widow. Not one of you can follow me anyway when I try to get the Eye. I hope you find a place for yourself,’ I said as I dodged some running guards.
‘I think we should try to stick together, at least until we are safe and cannot help each other any longer.’
I snorted. ‘I think we shall never be safe, Ulrich.’
‘I’m sorry for Ompar,’ he said honestly.
‘I am as well.’
‘Don’t give up,’ he told me. ‘Isn’t Hel the goddess of the dead? Perhaps you will find him again? Perhaps if you return the Eye, you can ask for anything?’
I hesitated and let the tears fall. I shook my head as I pushed past a group of wounded and ordered the men to run to the harbor. ‘I doubt the goddess will let me have everything I wish for. Ompar’s life might be the least important thing I might ask for if in the end it will doom the gods and the humans of Aldheim. I don’t know what will happen. But you give me hope,’ I said.
‘Good,’ he answered and grimaced as the din of battle was terrible now. Stone was falling somewhere, and I knew there were men and elves dying in a desperate battle for the last of the towers. Ballista fired from the Lowpass fort itself now, and that meant there was enemy in range. I burst through the door of the cells and ordered a guard to open Hannea’s up.
‘Wait here,’ I told Ulrich, and then I rushed in, ran down steps to the bottom of the cell and found Hannea standing there. She eyed me carefully. ‘What is—’
‘I’m not here to share news,’ I said. ‘Listen—’
She cocked her head. ‘I have been listening. By the sounds of it, I think Father will be here very soon.’ She smiled coldly. ‘So I guess you came here to kill me.’
I shook my head and pointed at the door. ‘Ompar would have wanted you to live. He loved you, and since I loved him, I owe him. So I am letting you go.’
‘Would have wanted?’ she asked softly.
‘He is dead,’ I said brusquely. ‘Poisoned.’
‘Dead?’ she said weakly.
‘He was poisoned,’ I said. ‘Like you were. You can leave.’
‘What?’ she asked, confused and grief-stricken. ‘He would be alive if he had not met you. So would Tiria.’
I snorted. ‘I have no time for this. None. None at all!’ I yelled and pushed her. ‘Everyone is blaming me for every ill fate under the Mar. He loved me. That is the truth. He chose to do this on his own.’
‘He loved you,’ she said dully.
‘He did, and I loved him,’ I said. ‘You can go. But you might stay as well. I need you.’
‘You need me?’ she asked dubiously. ‘I don’t—’
I grasped her. ‘We have ships out there that are apparently going to rescue us. We will leave. You can go to your father and hope to survive. Hear him mock your brother who adored you. Or come with us.’ She stood there, confused and I shrugged.
‘And I do need you,’ I said. ‘For one thing. One thing alone. If you wish to leave your father, I will need you to do something. It will … might elevate you.’
‘What?’ she asked carefully.
‘Listen,’ I said and whispered to her. She listened, shook her head and rubbed her face.
‘I might be able to do that,’ she whispered. ‘But—’
‘It will buy you a new life,’ I told her. ‘Unless you wish to crawl to uncertain fate in the Gold Hall.’ The cells shook. Some missiles were hitting the fort’s walls.
‘I will come,’ she said softly.
I grasped her hand gratefully, and then I ran out and pulled Ulrich with me. ‘She didn’t wish to join us?’ he asked.
‘She will stay,’ I lied to him. An arrow rattled on the wall, and a ballista stone tore at the tower, taking off bits of stone. Sounds of magical horror echoed all around. Ulrich pushed me on, and we went to the courtyard and saw the desperate families were disappearing from the gates to take a road down from the fort towards the harbor. Many were in the distance, disappearing between two towers to the harbor. We rushed after them, pushing and pulling at laggards and elderly, and I heard the sounds of battle as the enemy that was manning the small tower in the harbor put up a desperate fight. I felt Lex and Cherry down there, and Anja weaving spells of destruction, and I caught a glimpse of several ships turning to the harbor to help the refugees. They had convinced the elves, at least. Hundred or more refugees were still struggling from Lowpass for the gates. Ballistae were firing frantically now from the north and south sides of the fort, and I could suddenly hear the keening screams of the elves clearly. I rushed forward and pushed the stragglers on. ‘Quickly now! Take them, Ulrich!’
He did, and he muscled his way to the gates by the two thick towers where guards were looking nervously toward the harbor. He began pushing and calling for the women to carry their children and for the occasional elder to leave their gear. It was slow. I looked back and saw Daxamma and Coinar troops swarm through the tower’s rubble like an army of vermin and begin surrounding the fort itself. Some were hunting for men that were running away.
And then, it was too late.
A troop of lizard-riding elves rode up, swaying in their saddles. They had ridden through foliage on the side of the chasm, near unseen, and I noticed the mounts could nearly slither on their bellies, making them very stealthy. That stealth was paying off now. They were armored and held lances, maces, and shields. Arrows rained down on them from the walls and the towers, and some riders fell from their saddles; some lizards slumped down while shrieking shrilly from pain, but a dozen charged for the harbor gates, and lances and maces went up and down in a brutal dance of death. I saw Ulrich retreat from them, calling for a wall of fire to guard him. One attacker pulled back his hood and let his mask be seen. He was a tall and dangerous-looking elf, and we all knew him.
It was Strife. He was likely looking for Ompar. And me.
He was glaring disdainfully at the field of fire Ulrich had just summoned, and then he threw his arms to the side as his riders mixed with the horrified refugees. The dreaded fire snake sprung forward, and the thing rushed through Ulrich’s flames, sucking them inside to grow its size. ‘Kill that one!’ Strife yelled with laughter, and the elves trampled women and old men as they tried to reach my friend. Ulrich pulled a sword and held it with two hands. He dodged the first rider whose lizard was hampered by some wounded and corpses, and the lizard hissed at the elf in protest as he tried to turn it around. Ulrich hacked at the elven leg, and the screaming foe fell, severely wounded. More and more of the elven riders tried to get to Ulrich, but he summoned the fiery whip now and slashed about with it. He hit a human, in error, and his eyes betrayed shock as the old man fell down, dead, but then he had to slash at a lizard’s snout and the beast rolled into a dead husk in the mud, its rider trapped and cursing until arrows from the two towers silenced him.
I yelled and screamed to get the attention of the enemy, and finally managed it.
One pulled at Strife, who saw me running. He pointed a finger at me, and five elves rode at me, killing humans as they came with brutal efficiency. I stopped, shaking with fear, and gathered the spell of lightning, weaved and braided the winds and the rains and let it go. It zapped out, and to my horror hurt some of the refugees, leaving them howling with burns. It scorched many of the elves. Two of the enemies were rolling in dust, and the refugees were running away from us, giving me a clear shot at the other elves. Ompar had wanted the bastard Strife to die the same day he would. I would deliver. I gathered myself, and I did it again, hoping to hit Strife, whose fiery snake was now circling him. A clap, and a boom, and I heard a scream. I staggered forward and saw a lizard that had been twisted into a lump of misshapen flesh with its rider. Two elves were still on their lizards, one dead, another stunned into semi-consciousness. Strife was considering me. He hesitated, contemplated fleeing, but I made a rocking motion with my hips, mocking him with a woman’s saunter, and he stiffened with rage.
Then he charged.
‘It’s best the Hand won’t run away from her future husband, no? Can you re-grow legs?’ He laughed. ‘You don’t have the shield now, do you?’ His gauntlets were glowing, and the snake shot for me. It was so fast. Before I knew it, it was weaving fire around me, and I felt the flames scorch me around the Silver Maw’s legs. The fires were relentless; I felt the coils of the snake tighten around my knees and the molten fires licking the chinks and holes in the armor. I gathered healing power and released it. It helped, but the fire was not going away. I could not thwart it, but I tried as I healed myself again and again. It was so hot, so very hot, and I cursed knowing the bastard would kill me while trying to dismember me. Ompar would be disappointed. Danar would curse him, but he did not care.
‘Strife!’ yelled a figure next to him, and a sword swung in the air. Sparks flew as the elven champion fell from the saddle. The fires disappeared in an instant. Ulrich had got to him in time, but now the lizard was in the way. Two elves attacked Ulrich, but one fell to the arrows.
The champion rolled and ended up in a crouch, hesitating as he was looking at Ulrich. I stepped forward and had a clean shot at him. Strife saw me move and cursed as he realized his error. His snake shot out from his artifact and reared in the air. Then it attacked me again.
I let go with one more lightning strike. I weaved and braided it together deftly, as well as I could and let go in a heartbeat.
It boomed and shot forward erratically, hitting him squarely in the chest.
He flew back crazily in the air to hit the tower wall, and then he fell forward. He got up to his elbows, blood flowing freely to drip beneath him. Ulrich summoned the firewall, and the elf that had been trying to kill him fell in a burning heap. I staggered forward, but Ulrich was there faster, pushing past Strife’s dazed lizard. He kicked the elf onto his back and stabbed down at his chest, then his throat.
Strife died, gurgling blackened blood. He stiffened, grabbed at his throat. Then he went still. Ulrich kicked him for good measure and turned to look at me. ‘Happy?’
‘No,’ I said.
‘But I am grateful.’ Ulrich bent over the elf.
‘Take the mask and the gauntlets,’ I said. ‘They work together.’
Ulrich pulled the gauntlets off the elf lord, and then he yanked off the mask. I froze. He looked like Ompar. Exactly like Ompar.
Ulrich nodded. ‘They were identical. That is how he got to Ompar’s wife in the most guarded place of Ompar’s small kingdom. He will be tormented in Helheim for his deeds.’
I sighed. ‘If only Ompar’s mother had given Strife Lowpass, we would not be here now.’
‘Let Danar Coinar think about that in his lonesomeness,’ Ulrich said. ‘Let us go, Shannon.’
We hurried down with the last of the refugees. We crossed the bridge; we were guided to the Bardagoon ships, and as they pulled off the harbor, I watched the last heroes of the Black Ring die in a fierce fight for the fort. Coinar and Daxamma flags were raised on the tower of Ompar. I thought I saw the white-haired elf looking over to the harbor, still, sullen, sad. His sons were dead. I hesitated and smiled for a moment; for, in a way, I had been related to the terrible elf for a short while. The fort went silent, and the ship careened toward the north.
BOOK 3: HIMINGBORG
‘I cared for you,’ I whispered. ‘But I loved Ompar.’
(Shannon to Lex)
CHAPTER 13
I ignored Anja and Dana, even Lex, who tried to help me to the afterdeck of the Bardagoon warship. The ships were racing in the winds and headed for the north. Elves were dragging the wounded down; the refugees were huddling on the deck. I got up to look around. Many had escaped, many had not. I spotted Cherry in the crowd, nearly fell on coiled rope and walked forward to grasp her. She smiled hugely and grasped me back, her grip very strong.
‘Thank you,’ I whispered to her. ‘You saved us.’ She grinned and bowed, her thin face fatigued. She said nothing. ‘Gone mute again?’ I asked her, and she shrugged. I let go of her and smiled, and then noticed Bulathon.
Eye of Hel: Stories of the Nine Worlds (Ten Tears Chronicles - a dark fantasy action adventure Book 2) Page 18