by Billy Wong
Her devotion to her man was admirably strong, and Brandon knew he'd feel a little remorse if he broke that bond, but he needed her, needed her bad. Still, she was leaving today, and he resigned himself to defeat but only for now. He decided he'd apologize to her and give her a lavish gift before she left, to try and part on good terms so the next time they met, they would welcome each other's company. But what gift would Rose want? He looked outside as he thought about it. Seeing the warrior in the courtyard and wondering if she meant to go without saying goodbye, he scrambled to think faster.
#
Hearing the count's voice call her name, Rose stopped in her tracks. She turned around and saw him running to catch her, a cloth-covered something in his hands. "Good morning, Brandon," she greeted him nervously.
"I'm sorry I pushed you so hard last night. It was stupid of me, but I understand you don't want me, that your husband's the only man for you. But you needn't be in such a hurry to flee from me. Here, I got a gift for you."
Despite her nagging suspicion, Rose eagerly opened her gift, wanting to see what it was. "A pot?"
Brandon smiled. "It's a food mincer, good for slicing up the ingredients of stew, chili, or anything requiring little pieces. You just dump the food in, put the lid on, and turn the crank on top. Saves a lot of time so you can spend more with your family."
She'd never seen anything like this before, and realized that if it worked like he said, it really would save her much prep time. Feeling very grateful, she beamed, "It's great, I love it! Thank you—I'll remember the way you sliced up fagres when I use this!"
"I'm glad you like it. Have a safe trip home, beautiful Meatball."
He went back inside without another word, and Julie remarked, "I think he was just trying desperately to get back on your good side." The girl looked terribly frail, and Rose wasn't sure she should even be out of bed, but she insisted she could travel.
She supposed it was true, but said, "It worked. This is nice, isn't it? Haven't seen anything like it in all my years of travel, and I've been in tons of places."
Her friends looked the food slicer over. "I saw something similar in my old college," Derrick said, "but it never sliced properly, just moved the food around inside. Better hope this one isn't the same way."
Rose smiled. "I guess he'll be on my bad side again if it is. So let's go home and try it out!" Her friends agreed, and they left the fort to meet her husband.
#
Finn was bored out of his mind. He lay in the swamp they'd picked as his hiding place, waiting for his wife and friends to come back and ride him home. The water didn't bother him, his thick skin hardly affected by moisture, but he hadn't found anything to do in the week or so since he dropped the others off. Sure, he'd hunted down and eaten some animals, but that was hardly exciting for a dragon. He wished he could be human again. Life as a flying lizard was just so dull!
At last he saw Rose and Derrick walking into sight; for some reason, Julie rode Rose piggyback. Finally! he yelled into his wife's mind. Did you get those ogres?
Her happy smile delighted him. "We got them. They won't be bothering this county anymore."
Finn noticed the slightly pained way in which she walked and how Julie sagged against her back. What happened? Are you badly hurt?
The redhead answered gratefully, "Rose took a ballista bolt through her middle to save me! I still got grazed, but we're okay now. She's so brave."
You threw yourself in front of a ballista bolt?! Dammit Rose, I don't want to lose you!
She shrugged casually as he predicted. "Hey, Julie would be dead now if I hadn't. As you see I'm okay, so don't make a big fuss about it. Though she's going to make sure to be more careful in the future—right, Julie?"
"Yes," the girl agreed, looking like she would've blushed were she not too pale to.
You both need to be more careful. After all, I'm not there to protect you nowadays.
Rose would normally have laughed, but his serious tone must be what made her frown. "So, look at what Count Brandon gave me as a parting gift! This thing is supposed to slice food into little bits in no time!"
I hope he isn't trying to seduce you with gifts, Finn joked, but the guilty look that flashed across her face surprised him. Rose, what did he do?
Not looking straight at him, she said, "Nothing, we just talked. He was a nice host."
He didn't think Rose would have been unfaithful on purpose, but wondered if the count had taken advantage of her injury to do something improper. Still, she'd be much more upset if anything serious had happened. Let's go home, then. The center staff must be worried by now.
Rose and friends mounted her husband and they began the flight back across the country. Finn noticed that while his wife was eager to talk about the battles they'd gone through, she seemed reluctant to discuss her social interactions outside combat. His suspicions grew, and finally he could not keep them to himself. Please tell me what happened with you and Brandon. I know you're devoted to me. If something happened outside your control, I won't blame you. But don't hide it anymore. I can sense your guilt, so relieve my anxiety and tell me what he did!
He expected her to answer readily, but instead she sniffed and moaned, "Yes, I'm devoted to you. I love you, and I'd die for you! You don't need to distrust me so."
Her hurt was real, and he felt guilt himself for causing it, but he sensed the evasion behind the words and persisted. So did anything happen, or not? Rose didn't answer, seeming to hold back tears. Though still suspicious, Finn felt sorry for upsetting his love, and didn't ask again. But neither would he apologize until he knew the truth, and the couple flew in silence, clearly making Derrick and Julie uncomfortable.
Suddenly Derrick asked, "What is that?!"
Finn looked down, and Rose too leaned over to see. A large mass of moving shapes headed in the direction of Fort Resnick. "The reinforcements aren't coming now, are they?" Rose said. Finn flew down for a closer look and they realized it was a huge horde of fagres, perhaps two thousand strong—ten times larger than any previous group. Too, it included other monsters which were twice and more the size of a fagre, most looking like crosses between those and various animals such as porcupines and armadillos. "This is impossible," Rose breathed. "We destroyed the door! We have to warn the fort and give whatever help we can. No way they can handle this themselves."
Putting aside their issue, Finn asked, What about me? Do I fight or what?
After a pause, Rose decided, "You'll fly us to the fort so we can get there well ahead of the enemy, and fight with us if we must. The people there will surely welcome any ally now, even a dragon. We won't say who you are, of course."
He agreed, and the group returned to Fort Resnick. Though terrified at first, once Rose explained the situation the soldiers seemed heartened by the thought of having a dragon ally. When she told the count of their plight, he informed her that as expected there were many too badly wounded to travel, and he would not abandon them to the fagres. There was also concern that if they did flee, the fagre horde which they'd seen to be incredibly fast-moving for such a large group could easily overtake them. Thus the vastly outnumbered defenders stayed put, awaiting the deadliest battle yet.
Chapter 5
"What are we going to do?!" Julie wailed as Rose buckled on her armor. "There's so many of them, and we barely survived last time."
"What you're going to do," Rose said firmly, "is stay in bed and rest. You hardly looked like you could stay on Finn's back without Derrick holding on to you, and this time I can't afford to get hurt saving you because I need to kill fagres like no one has ever done before." How the hell were there so many now? Could there have been more than one portal, and destroying the first driven the creatures to launch an all-out attack?
Julie looked upset, but Derrick asked with concern, "Rose, are you sure you can do this? It's barely been a week since you got shot with a ballista. You can't be close to healed."
"I'm not. Most of my lesser wounds
ache a little, and the big one hurts like hell when I move quickly. Still, it's nothing I can't handle, and I'm needed out there. If I don't fight what will I do, let them kill me?"
"Sorry about getting you hurt, Rose," Julie said. "I didn't know you were so mad about it, you didn't sound this angry before. I promise I'll do better next time."
She smiled reassuringly. "I'm mainly angry because you scared the crap out of me and Derrick. I can take pain, but I don't want to go through that again anytime soon. Anyway, you just stay put and I'll make sure there is a next time."
"Okay, I'll stay out of the fighting."
Rose felt some relief. She wouldn't have wanted Julie near the battle in her weakened state, even just shooting a bow. Her confidence grew as she imagined herself hacking through droves of monsters with Finn. Then she sighed and deflated with the realization she wouldn't have him by her side, since he would be busy flying around spitting cold death on monsters while she fought on the ground.
Thinking about the war against the Sevrians, she recalled how it'd always been her love who keep her going when things looked grim, and when she nearly drowned in guilt from the hundreds she slaughtered every day. But she reminded herself that this time she wouldn't be fighting men, but mere monsters she could kill without much remorse. Forcing a smile, she said a mental prayer for her friends' safety and mused, "Time to kill again, now." The fearsome warrior walked out to do battle.
#
Brandon watched admiringly as the powerful woman ran back and forth along the wall, striking down foe after foe with no hint of slowing down despite her recent injury. Hacking through two fagres on his way to her side, he remarked, "Doing good!"
The look she shot him was more worried than angry. "There's so many of them! How the hell did we go so wrong?"
He noted unhappily the trail of blood she left when she moved, and it impressed him that not only was she still standing, but barely seemed aware of her new wounds. He too had taken many hits from the monsters, whose strength often allowed them to penetrate the humans' thick armor, and wondered how much longer he could ignore their effects. "How many did you get so far?" he asked.
"Two hundred!" Rose announced for all to hear as she killed another fagre. "Give or take a few. But there's still so many left!" The pitched battle had gone on for over an hour now and most of the defenders already fallen, only the best and luckiest able to stand against the wild rush of the enemy. The beasts were hardly organized, but incredibly fierce and heedless of death. While they died in great numbers, their reckless attacks landed far too often in human flesh. Brandon and Rose had not gotten a single breather since the fighting started. The two worked frantically, nearly alone, to keep the fagres from overtaking the walls. The destroyed gate had been replaced by a tall makeshift barricade of boards and spikes, which the fagres would've easily broken through if not for the soldiers and peasants who desperately jabbed and shot between the boards with pikes and bows to keep them at bay.
Rose's dragon friend made pass after pass over the massed enemy outside, killing swaths of monsters with its icy breath. Still, the larger creatures which the huge reptile concentrated on resisted the cold, and often took several strikes to kill. Many arrows protruded from the dragon's body, but it did not seem badly injured, and Brandon marveled at the devastation it wreaked.
"How many do you think there are left?" he asked Rose.
"Must have been around two thousand before. Now there might be half that, if even. Imagine, us humans being outnumbered at least ten to one by such beasts and still holding on! As Finn would say, this will be a poem for the ages, if we win. I really hope this is the last of them, though."
"Only a thousand to go, huh? Your dragon must've killed close to half the ones that died so far. Where are your friends?"
"Derrick, shooting. Julie, resting," she answered just before a spear hit her in the shoulder. She hissed as she ripped it out and threw it back, driving it through a bestial face. "Before you ask, I'm okay, Brandon."
He picked himself up off the floor, happy to see his plate armor had stopped the fagre arrow that just hit him in the chest. "So am I. Why is it that these things don't seem to have leaders?"
Rose knocked two fagres back off the wall with a wide swing of her broadsword and watched them crush their comrades on the way down. "Maybe they do, and we just don't know how to tell the difference."
"We just have to kill them all, then."
She didn't respond, but stared down towards the gate even as she chopped through another foe's skull. Brandon looked to see a gigantic beast more than half again as tall and much bulkier than the usual, like a hunchbacked cross between a fagre and a porcupine, attacking the barricade. The defenders seemed unable to do much against the monster, which could even fight at range, shooting its lance-like quills into archers one after another.
"I'd hoped Green would be able to keep these giants away from us," Rose said with a sigh. "But I suppose I'll have to deal with this one." And to Brandon's disbelief, she jumped down outside.
"What about the wall?" he yelled after her as more fagres climbed up before him. To his relief, Ashleigh joined him on the wall. Though she couldn't match Rose in killing ability, she at least kept the monsters off his back and gave him some room to fight. He smiled at the sight of Rose lopping the head off the giant creature below, and climbing atop its belly to bellow a challenge to any other that would come. His joy was replaced by fear when another even more immense creature answered her, and as it issued a blood-curdling wail slapped Rose with a broad, heavy tail covered in spikes.
#
The tremendous blow knocked Rose in a shower of blood off the first creature, and shaking her head clear she saw her opponent step over the corpse to regard her. Seeing her alive, it wailed again and reached its head down to munch on her. She rolled away from the long jaws, and before the creature could pull back drove her broadsword through its neck. The beast fell, tail thrashing wildly to claim the lives of its own allies. Pulling herself up by its fur as blood ran from her new wounds, she yelled, "I'm okay!" for Brandon's benefit. She barreled into the enemy ranks again, hacking through fagres by the bucketload.
Though it had been cute at first, his constant checking on her had quickly grown annoying, as he asked every time she got hit if she was all right. Of course, Finn would normally have shown similar if less overbearing concern... and yet, he hadn't asked her anything during this battle. Maybe he couldn't see her well from his aerial vantage point, but she knew his mental voice could reach her from where he was. She wondered why he didn't at least ask once in a while how she was doing.
Rose realized this wasn't the time to ponder such questions when another huge beast came forward to meet her, its steps reminding her of some kind of dance. This one was slighter than the others, though equipped with birdlike talons on its feet, and she mistakenly assumed it might be less dangerous. But it possessed impressive speed, and as she charged it lashed out with those deadly claws. She dodged the first and second strikes, but the third attack of unfamiliar style split her left breast nearly in half.
She stumbled back in agony, already worrying if she'd be able to breast feed her children anymore. But she recovered quickly, and chopped off the monster's foot with a scream of pained rage. As it fell, she drove her sword between its ribs and did it again to make sure. Then she dashed under the reaching arms of the next large beast, all lanky limbs and small torso, and stabbed through its groin to fell this one as well.
Now she boldly threw herself at the bulk of the enemy, knowing her allies were near the end of their strength and so deciding to tackle the army of giants herself. Wading among the horde, she killed everything that got in her way, wave after wave of fearsome beasts falling before her controlled fury. Just when she'd begun to think nothing here could stand against her, she came face to face with a being she knew she'd see again in her nightmares—if she lived.
The entity must have been twenty-five feet tall—tall enough to climb o
ver the walls easily if it wanted, but it seemed to relish a fight with the one who'd killed its brethren and came straight at Rose. It looked to her like a gargantuan human, scarily humanlike except for its rippling skin, made up of intertwining ribbons of flesh with mouths at the end which snaked constantly around each other, ever shifting but never revealing what lay underneath. A small patch on its shoulder was frozen motionless, indicating that it'd engaged Finn earlier. But why hadn't he killed it? The thing had no facial features except for its mouth, a toothless red maw which gaped perpetually, drooling some black substance which bubbled on the ground. Despite its size and disturbing appearance, Rose noted it had no obvious weapons and hoped it'd be an easy victim. But suddenly gaps appeared all over the skin of its torso, and though she tried to raise her shield in preparation for an attack, she was wholly unprepared for the many heavy impacts which smashed without warning into her body.
#
Brandon felt panic as he saw men everywhere in sight all but burst, blood suddenly spraying from many wounds with no visible cause save perhaps the monster's incomprehensible opening of its skin to reveal lumpy gray flesh which had then suddenly changed to become spongy and loam-black. He looked to Rose and saw to his horror that she'd taken the same kind of attack the others had, and holes now riddled her armor. On her back, she stared downwards at herself with wide-eyed shock, and bright blood pooled around her shredded body. With a shout of rage, the count ran to save the object of his adoration, or if not avenge her. But fagres rushed into his way, forcing him to vent his anger on them for the moment.
#
Rose was somewhat glad to see Finn flying towards the monster that'd all but torn her apart, blowing open at least half a dozen deep wounds at once on her poor body. So fast had the attack happened, she'd felt the hits before hearing whatever made them discharge with a smacking sound from the creature's flesh. The shock alone should've killed her, let alone the actual damage, but she shoved away her body's urge to shut down with her immense will. Though she hurt all over, she looked forward to seeing her husband avenge her pain on the beast and raised herself on an elbow to watch.