by Billy Wong
She studied the fortress as they disappeared from sight. There were more guards posted on the roof now, even though there were far fewer men inside, and she wasn't sure if she could infiltrate the building the same way. She could wait for nightfall and have a better chance at killing them undetected, but her hunters would probably be back by then. Four rooftop guards. Better that than thirty extra blades. She might still be able to do this, if she was lucky and picked her shots right.
The wait for a good moment took fairly long, but eventually one of the men leaned over the parapet, probably to get a better look at something he'd seen. Rose shot him in the eye. He pitched forward and off the roof, landing on the ground with a dull thump. Rose ran forward, hoping to get close to the wall before one of the others came to check on the missing man.
Another guard appeared, and as he looked down Rose threw her grappling hook high to snag him by the back of his neck. He gurgled in his dying breaths, and she yanked him off to join his comrade. Come on, two more... "Hey, where did Kip and Wren go?" a voice asked.
The last two guards appeared above her, and she felt amazing relief that they had arrived together. Otherwise, one of them would have gotten away. She caught one with a dagger in the throat, the other with a crossbow bolt to the chest. They both fell, the second crying out weakly enough that she could hope no one heard, and she threw her hook up and began to climb. But when she was almost halfway up, someone said, "Hey, there's blood over there! What's that metal glinting?"
She knew she wouldn't make it to the roof before her rope was cut or hook dislodged, so she threw herself through the nearest first-story window she saw, entering almost the same way she had the last time. But now she came into an expansive, well-furnished dining hall in which the chunky leader sat, along with most of his men. They were having lunch.
Rose could see she would have to fight quite a crowd without much of an environmental advantage this time, the room wide open except for its tables and chairs. She clutched tightly the hilt of her sword, feeling little confidence as she said, "It's over now, tyrant. Nienne will be free."
"And who's going to take my place?" the man asked.
"Somebody better, I'm sure." She hesitated. "At least, I'll make sure of it."
"You won't be able to, if you're dead."
"I won't have to, if you're still alive. But it's not happening."
"Heh." The man drew a razor-sharp curved blade, and rose from his seat along with the twenty or so of his gang present. But most of them regarded her with faces grim with fear and hesitated to meet her blade.
Her first opponent's axe crashed into Rose's battered shield, and though she angled it just the proper way the wooden board cracked along its edge. It wouldn't last much longer in this state. She gutted that brave man with a stab and twist, then killed another when she wrenched the sword out and turned it into a backhanded cut which split his face. The first man tried to crawl away, screaming as his intestines fell free. Another warrior threw himself at her, only to impale himself on her sword as she pulled it back and in front of her as though spitting a boar on a spear.
"I'm surprised I've never heard of you before," the leader said. "I've never seen a warrior quite so sturdy or sure of herself as you. Cut all over, and still shining bright. I almost wish I wasn't going to kill you."
"You're not," she got out between blows. She caved in a chest with a heavy slash, kicked a man between the legs hard enough to lift him off his feet, and jumped onto the nearest table, calling upon the wisdom of old tales she'd heard. It seemed an odd and uncomfortable position from which to fight, unused to it as she was, and she jumped back off over two men who tried to slice at her legs. They didn't turn in time to avoid her twisting slash at neck level, which beheaded one and felled the other with blood spurting from his neck.
A trio of men ran at her, one of whom she knocked down with a thrown chair to the face. She ducked a warrior's swing and slashed him nearly in half, then cut through the shoulder and into the chest of his companion. Running forward, she kicked the first man in the face and knocked him out cold, his nose flattening with a crunch. Parrying an axe blow, she crushed the bone between a man's eyes with her shield, and took another's hand off with a wild slash.
But then a mace struck her shield and split it in two, the halves of the hunk nothing more now than a distraction hanging from her throbbing forearm. The follow-up from the mace-man crashed into her side. She screamed as ribs cracked under the impact. Stumbling away, she felt something sharp and cold bury itself in her lower back. Her legs were suddenly weak beneath her, and she fell on her face.
Rose rolled just in time to avoid a warhammer to the back of her head, and cut away that man's leg at the knee. For the moment, she was in too much pain to even stand up, so she repeated the attack, removing legs from two more foes. She hoped one of them was the leader. The crowd flowed away, and she used her sword as a crutch to push herself to her feet while brandishing the handaxe she ripped out of her back. For a moment, the hall was silent but for the cries of the wounded and dying.
"Not so many left, huh?" Rose asked.
She groaned as another group of men emerged from a door into the dining hall. The leader, still alive and unharmed as his underlings surrounded him in a protective ring, sneered. "Doesn't look like you have much left either."
She lurched forward slowly, the walk of a dying beast, but surprised them with a torrent of blows from sword and axe, slaying five men in moments with rapid slashes. They hit her back, to be sure, cutting her on the arm and gashing her belly with an axe. So much pain... she rushed forward, screaming as she cut away.
Then she was in their midst, their blades slicing and stabbing into her again and again, but she wouldn't fall, and nearly every blow she struck ended a life. Somewhere among the chaos, she hit the taunting fat man with her axe over the left eye, and he died with his brains oozing down his face. Rose killed two more after that, then the remaining few backed away, staring in shock.
She glared at them, daring them to come again, and instead they fled, running as if from the yawning jaws of hell itself. Covered in wounds, Rose slumped into the nearest chair. She'd been hurt worse than in her visit earlier today, and her vision swam with dizziness. How much blood had she lost? What was left of her clothing was soaked through with red, and that consisted mainly of strips of cloth and chain hanging about her shredded frame. She looked at her broken shield, drooping uselessly from her arm, and cast it aside. Well, she'd won. Now she just had to survive.
She had some pretty nasty wounds, but Rose took comfort in the fact that none of them seemed organ deep. Willing herself to stand, she made her way out of the dining hall, carefully minding the blood-slick wood beneath her feet. She limped to the front door, and opened it to see that the men sent out to hunt her had just come back. Oh, crap...
"They're all dead, aren't they?" the giant who had slammed her asked.
"Almost. You can join them, if you like." Hollow words, she was sure. She could barely walk, let alone fight.
"You look like you're wearing lingerie."
She looked down at herself. There was indeed so little left of her armor that it now resembled a brasserie and badly tattered skirt. She would have looked pretty nice, if she wasn't cut up on every side.
He smiled admiringly, and for a moment she thought he'd let her go. Then he glowered and said, "You've killed my master. For that you die." He pulled his weapon off his back—a warhammer, as she'd guessed it would be.
She raised her sword and axe, knowing she was about to die. This man was strong, that she had felt firsthand, and with all his help and her so weak... Suddenly, a crossbow bolt sprouted in the back of one of his companions, and Rose gazed past them to see a swarm of peasants charging their way. Even now she noticed how dangerously disorganized they looked, but as two more of his men fell, the large man ordered, "Retreat!"
With a scowl, he added, "Wasn't the master I signed on with, anyway."
Her enemi
es dispersed fleeing in all directions, poorly aimed crossbow shots and shouted jeers following them away, and Rose swayed on her feet as her unexpected allies reached her side. "Are you all right?" an older male supporter asked.
"No." She swooned into their arms, happy she could finally rest her tired eyes.
#
It turned out Drayton had been largely responsible for her rescue, as the supposed ruler of Nienne had thought about Rose's words following her escape and come to realize she was right. So while she'd been waiting for the right time to strike, he had taken a hidden passage out of the fortress and run to Jaid in the hopes of finding shelter from the allies of whom he was now deathly afraid.
He'd told the villagers of Rose's deeds, and realizing how much damage she'd already done, her supporters were able to gather a fair number of additional allies to help. Lying on a hard cot as a young woman treated her countless wounds, she mumbled, "Thanks, my friends. You made me proud to be your warrior goddess."
"Warrior goddess? Are you stupid or something? A goddess wouldn't be bleeding buckets with her flesh hanging off in strips and pieces—though you must have some divine favor to still be alive."
Surprised as she was by the girl's candor, she was more surprised by her own lack of humility. But she didn't really think she was a goddess, or anything close. She was just having fun indulging in what her enemy had called her before he'd died. Thinking about all she had done, she grew upset at herself for her selfish attitude. She'd killed over a hundred men today, and here she was thinking of her own pride.
"I am stupid. And maybe evil, too."
Her attendant wiped at her sweating forehead as she shuddered in pain. "Maybe the first, but not the second. Evil wouldn't have sacrificed so much of itself for us."
"I sacrificed them, too. They couldn't have all been that bad."
"They got in your way, and you did what you had to to survive."
"I know that. But I killed so many of them!" No strength in her for much but tears, Rose began to cry.
"You're a hero. Everyone loves you."
Everyone here, maybe. And even if them, it was a fickle love indeed. Saying no more, Rose went to sleep.
#
Drayton came to visit her soon afterwards, frowning as he laid eyes upon her bandage-covered form. "Guess the knock you gave me on the head's nothing compared to what you got, huh?"
"I would think so. So what do you want?"
"You're amazing."
She shrugged a bit. "I'm different, that's all."
"Want to be the head of my new guard? I'll have to get one, now that you killed them all."
Rose sat up, then winced in pain. "You plan to stay in power here?"
"I don't see anybody else in line."
"But you don't know anything about ruling."
"I'll try and learn."
He sounded honest, but she really didn't have much faith in his ability to be a good leader—or to convince anyone else he was. He had been duped pretty badly just now, and such gullibility wasn't something she thought a ruler should have. "I don't think you should. Let someone else handle it; managing the house workers isn't the same as running the county."
"Eh... you're a wise seeming girl, but I'll just see if things work out. So do you want to help me?"
She'd probably make a decent salary working for the government of Nienne, as long as its newest incarnation lasted. But she didn't want to, both because she didn't trust in her would-be employer's ability to rule, and because she was just plain tired. "No, not right now."
"What are you going to do?"
"I don't know. Rest, for now."
"After."
"I don't know about after."
"You'll always be welcome here."
She reached out and shook his hand. "Thanks. I'll definitely remember this place." If not only for the reasons she'd like. She had taken so much life, and her heart hurt as if a pin were stuck in it for every man she'd killed. Rose knew not all of them had been equally foul, and she hated that she'd had to kill them just the same.
After the handshake, Drayton took a large pouch from his belt and handed it to her, smiling. "Here, Rose. For all your trouble and pain."
"What is it?" She tried with clumsy fingers to open it.
"Your reward," he said as she peeked inside. It was full of gold coins, the largest sum she'd ever held in her life.
Rose smiled back at him. "Thank you, Drayton. I guess I'll be able to pay off my father's bills now, after all. I just hope this isn't a bribe!"
He shook his head, a grin on his face. "What a woman. It's what you deserve, that's all. Get well, okay?"
#
Having taken on such overwhelming odds and survived, Rose found herself being called things like "hero," "savior," and indeed, "warrior goddess" as she left Jaid with mixed emotions for her deeds. Too, her old nickname of God-Touched had somehow followed her here... She knew she'd freed the people of Nienne from one evil, but what troubles might still arise out of the destruction of their government? What obstacles would they face in the struggle to restore order at home? Rose didn't know and decided not to stick around to find out. She would likely do more harm than good if she took sides in any political debate, when as a foreigner to the region she wouldn't really understand the issues at hand.
Despite her doubts, she decided to believe that what she'd done had been for the better. While she had harmed people, she'd prevented them from harming other, less deserving victims in the process. She hadn't done a good thing, but she'd done what passed for the right thing. And in this world, she supposed the difference wasn't so great. There needed to be warriors who fought for right, or wrong would prevail, and that would be worse than justified strife.
What was she going to do? First, she had to go back to Seil and pick up her mail from Lise. She knew her mother would likely want her to find another job, but she was a bit afraid of taking on a warrior's work anew. Expectations would surely be high, once word spread of her battles in Nienne. Besides, she had a lot of money now. She returned to her inn room and read the newest letter, and to her surprise Lise had told her to come home. Cheerfully, she packed her things and went.
#
She got to Hullel without major problems, though her body ached considerably from all her old wounds, and came into view of an unexpected sight. Her family's old cottage had been repainted a pleasant white. What was more, a rather large new section of house had been added to its right side, so that it was at least half again as large as it had once been. Barely able to stop staring, she went inside.
Things had changed here, too, much of the familiar furniture replaced by new, hard-looking things not yet comfortably worn to the contours of human bodies. It was as if Rose had stepped into some wealthy merchant's new house rather than her own. Several lavish rugs adorned the floor in key spots, and the interior walls were unusually well polished. What had happened here?
Lise appeared at the top of the stairs, which boasted a shining new banister, and said, "Surprise!"
"What's all this? Where'd you get the money for it?"
"You, honey! You did great, Rose. Me and your father are so happy—what a successful person you've become, and as a woman too! It's almost a miracle how well you've done."
Rose stared. "A-are you saying that you used my work money to b-buy home improvements?! What happened to paying off the medical bills?"
Lise smiled widely. "We paid them off a long time ago, after all the money you sent back, and we had plenty left with which to improve our lives."
So her earnings had been even more substantial than she'd thought. It must have largely been the things she'd taken off the men she'd personally killed which had so boosted her wealth. But Rose asked unhappily, "Are you saying that after I gave you enough to pay Dad's debtors off, you just kept having me work?"
"You said you were doing fine in your letters, so we thought it would be okay to let you earn some more."
Sitting down, Rose bowed her h
ead. "Mom," she said with a shaking voice, "I only said that because I didn't want you to worry. It wasn't fine. It was horrible..."
Lise stepped closer as if to comfort her, and only now noticed the fairly bad scar along her jaw. "Rose, what happened? You got hurt?"
"This isn't nearly the worst of it." She saw her mother frown, and quickly added, "But physically, I'm going to be okay. I've just had a really tough time recently."
"I'm so sorry, Rose. I'm so sorry for making you suffer."
She didn't want to feel angry at her mother, but she did. It had partly been her own fault for significantly downplaying the difficulty of her work, but she was a damn warrior—shouldn't Lise have at least figured that fighting for a living wasn't exactly paradise?
"I'm glad to be home," she managed to say. Her anger was misplaced. Lise hadn't done anything wrong; at the end of the day, it was the men who had hurt her who bore all the blame, and they were dead. But then, her mother had deceived her, and manipulated her merely for the sake of a prettier house. She could have died! Then again, she'd lived, and done quite well out there, all things considered.
Lise hugged her, kissing her cheeks repeatedly. "Where did they hurt you, my poor girl? Where did their cruel blades bite?"
"Everywhere," she whispered so low her mother couldn't have heard, then said, "Don't worry, Mom. I'm just fine."
#
Rick returned from working in the shop downstairs after a time, and seeing Rose embraced her in a tight hug. "I missed you, my girl." With a smile, he observed, "You've grown."
She smiled back. "You look well, Dad."
"Thanks to you. What a woman you've become."
"Not exactly woman's work, though."
"You're scarred," he said noticing her chin, the tone of his voice taking on a fearfully volatile air.
Rose tried to sound calm. "People slash at me with sharp blades. Of course I'm going to get hit from time to time."
"Lise, do you think this will go away?"
Looking frightened herself at her husband's agitated state, Lise whispered, "Maybe..."
"Don't 'maybe' me. What do you think?"