Wrath of the Greimere

by Case C. Capehart

  “Stone Seers must obey any command given by a superior, correct?”

  The man nodded his head once but did not speak. Raegith continued. “I am now your superior. I am the Warlord of the Greimere called Grass-Hair and you serve me. Acknowledge that you understand.”

  The Stone Seer nodded.

  Raegith looked around at the other Stone Seers. There were eight of them, all clad in dull, gray robes with short hair draped in front of their faces. He looked back down at the man before him. “Stand and look at me. I command it.”

  The Stone Seer hesitated and started to look at Ariadne, but then simply rose and cast a shaky glance at Raegith. His eyes were solid in color just as Onyx’s, but a brownish red.

  “Good. I was worried that I might have to punish you from the start. Your name is Brick, correct?” The man nodded at Raegith, visibly uncomfortable with the exchange. “Brick, I apologize for what I made you and your comrades do back there. I was desperate, but I do not ask for sacrifice lightly and I do not apologize often. When we’re done talking, I want you to convey my apology to the rest of them. Do you understand?”

  “No, I do not understand, Warlord.” Brick clenched his jaw after speaking.

  “This is going to be difficult for you, Brick, but I want you to try to persevere. You and your fellow Stone Seers will begin as prisoners, but you will be given the opportunity to become Greimere, as I once had. You will use your magic to benefit the Greimere. You will find mates and add children to the Greimere. Perhaps, after proving your worth, some of you will gain rank in my army.”

  Raegith stepped forward and Brick turned his head downward. Raegith gripped his chin and forced his head up to meet his eyes. “You will not lower your gaze to anyone ever again.”

  “He does not understand what you are saying, Warlord.” Raegith turned to see Ariadne addressing him. “Stone Seers know only service. Their habits are engrained.”

  “I know of what you speak, Warlord.” Raegith turned to see Brick looking at him. “This is the Equilibrium of Stone. I learned of it from my time in the Colossi Librarium. It is a controversial idea...”

  “It is an impossibility, Brick.” Ariadne pleaded with her Stone Seer.

  “Disregard her, Brick. Tell me of this idea.” Raegith held up his hand to silence Ariadne and she smartly obeyed.

  “It is freedom… for my kind.” Brick looked over Raegith’s shoulder at Ariadne. “She is correct; it is an impossibility. We depend on the Elemental Faeir too greatly.”

  Raegith put his hand on Brick’s shoulder. “We will work on this together. For now, go back to the others; explain to them as best you can. And when the opportunity arises for you to serve me, snatch it and you will be rewarded.”

  “You are an enigma.” Ariadne rose and took notice of Helkree growling at her side. “You are Twileen, yet you lead Greimere barbarians against your own kind. You exude disdain for Elemental Faeir, yet speak in soft tones to Stone Seers. Why? What is it you want here in Rellizbix?”

  Raegith leveled his brow at her and she held her breath.

  “I want vengeance.” Raegith spread his arms wide and backed up, proclaiming loudly to all. “I want blood and sex and drink and power. I want Helfrick and your Counsel and all of Rellizbix kowtowing at my feet; staring in awe and fear at my warriors. More than anything, I want an empire that is finally worthy of these honorable Greimere whose sacrifice spans a thousand years.”

  Raegith commanded his Helcats to escort her to Beretta and then gave the command to pack up camp.

  “Should I ask?” Helkree said as she watched the Faeir walk off to the where Beretta observed the wounded.

  “She’s a healer, Hel. We need plenty of those this day.”

  “Tell me you scared the shit out of her, first.”

  “Of course.” Raegith turned to her and smiled. “We made it, Hel. The 7th Regiment is destroyed and the survivors are scattering to the West. We have robbed Rellizbix of two more cannons and now I have half a dozen Stone Seers whose power is a total mystery. We move to the North and East to join with Hitomi at our new home. Claiming the fort and surrounding land will ensure our comfortable survival through the winter.”

  “Aren’t you worried about her?” she asked, drawing a concerned look from Raegith. “If Hitomi captures a defended enemy fort all on her own, people are going to start thinking she should be the Warlord.”

  Chapter 13

  Hitomi stood at the edge of the tree line and stared up at the moon alongside Indie. The drum beats all around them carried into the night. Before her, across the ransacked fields of wilting crops loomed the walls of the fort. Specks of torchlight passed between the ramparts as guards walked the walls. No one inside would sleep tonight just like they did not sleep for the past four nights.

  Before the siege had even started, the fort took in three mutilated scouts with bellies full of ripe Grabber eggs. Hitomi waited until the first screams just after sunset and then signaled the soundtrack for that evening. Drums and howls, battle cries and clanging steel; they pulled men back to the walls and away from the desperate search for Grabbers, which in turn gave the little monsters time to hide and grow. Hitomi kept the songs going strong for the entire first night and then cut it off at dawn, withdrawing her warriors to the south. North of the fort, the well-rested day crew shot down any messenger birds from the keep and routed a small group of runners making for the river.

  “Are we ready yet? I’m sure Gerbix is in place by now.” Indie nudged Hitomi and brought her out of her thoughts. “That little guy is constantly on point for a Gimlet.”

  “Yeah, let’s get it over with.” Hitomi sent up the signal and, as it passed from group to group, the night song died out. As predicted, activity within the walls escalated. She had conditioned the defenders well over the last four nights. If by now any of them managed to sleep through the noise, the silence woke them.

  Hitomi nodded at the warden holding their prisoners and the Lokai warrior grabbed one of them, hauling the man to his feet. The Lokai warrior pointed at the large gate doors of the fort and made sure the man’s gaze followed. As he begged in a foreign tongue, the warden kicked him forward into the field. The man turned, as if to return to his captors, but Naoko appeared and nocked an arrow at him.

  With a yelp, the man turned and ran toward the wall in a straight line. After a few seconds, Naoko loosed her arrow and brought the man down into the field. More onlookers gathered at the south wall as Hitomi nodded for another runner to go. This one took off immediately, but after a good start, Naoko killed him parallel to the first runner. Hitomi nodded for a third, who sprinted forward for four seconds and then zagged to the left.

  Hitomi’s arrow sunk into the mud in front of the second runner’s corpse. She cursed loudly and nocked another arrow, but now the man was further away and curving left and right chaotically as he made for the door. Men from the wall cried out to him. When Naoko’s second arrow unbelievably missed and she commanded others to charge the field after him, the soldiers inside the fort cheered. More soldiers joined the audience on the wall and men screamed and slapped the walls with their swords. Two other Lokai fired arrows in vain at the man who quickly sprinted out of their range.

  Hitomi yelled at Naoko and sent her with half a dozen archers out into the field to take the man down before he reached the gate. Rellizbix archers along the wall stepped forward and launched a barrage at Naoko, cutting her group off from the runner. She stopped and more arrows came, but only slightly further than the previous volley. Naoko did not dare pass that line, even to try and reach the runner.

  The prisoner neared the gate and those within rushed to open it for him as archers kept Naoko’s group at bay. Hitomi gripped the shaft of her naginata and held her breath as the man reached the slowly opening gates. Open arms reached out to pull the lucky prisoner inside as he sprinted into the light of the torches. He was not even zig-zagging anymore.

  A black crossbow bolt slammed into the runner’s templ
e as his momentum carried him through the gateway and plowing into the men within, spraying blood on all in his way. Hitomi threw up her arms and the night song picked up immediately, overpowering the sound of terrified screams from the fort. Amidst the wailing someone called out to shut the gate and shoot down the sniper.

  Hitomi exhaled and smiled. She knew Gerbix would already be inching his way back to the tree line in his weed cloak, moving so ponderous and deliberate that the men on the wall would not be able to spot him if they cast a torch on the ground next to him. The Boss Gimlet was an absolute artist when it came to concealment. It had kept him alive in the Barren Plains of the Greimere and made him an invaluable asset to Hitomi in the Wilderness.

  “Well that almost went to shit,” Naoko laughed as she joined Hitomi and Indie. “I wasn’t expecting him to acclimate to the game like that; he was a smart one. I’m just glad he cut left instead of right, else I would have accidentally hit him… probably in the spine.”

  “Then I would have left him to crawl his way to the gate, screaming for help the entire time,” Hitomi replied, studying the action of the flames behind the walls. “I’m not wasting an opportunity to torment them. The next silence break we’ll do nothing; just rest.”

  “Nothing at all?” Indie asked, appearing puzzled.

  “We could use the rest after four nights of this. Besides, the longer we’re silent without anything happening, the more stressed they will become.”

  “They’ll think they’ve overlooked our next move,” Naoko reasoned. “Or they’ll think we’re taking our time on something big.”

  Indie squinted and shook her head. “That doesn’t make any sense. Strategy gives me no pleasure like it does you two.”

  Hitomi smirked and took a pull from her mug of grog. She wiped her mouth dry with her forearm. “To outsmart a man, to outmaneuver him and witness him helpless at your feet… that is the best thing there is. It’s better than fighting them. It’s better even than fucking them.”

  “Of course you would say that,” Indie huffed. “All these men would kill their brother for one night in your bed and you just want to outsmart them. If only I had that problem.”

  “I thought you had a thing with Zurek, that prisoner that Grass-Hair spared for sharing his race?” Naoko playfully poked at Indie, who swatted her away. “I saw you drag him off to your room the night we took the prison.”

  Hitomi almost spit her drink. “Yeah, now that shit doesn’t make any sense. That little guy is half your size. You could pick him up with one arm and I don’t think he even looks at anyone other than you.”

  Indie looked off into the distance with a flat smile. “He is kind of weird. He likes for me to throw him around. One time I wrapped him up in a choke from behind. I dig my legs into his and stretch him out. We’re naked for this; he explodes everywhere.”

  Hitomi turned away from looking at the fort to stare dumbfounded at Indie. “Shut the fuck up. That is not how it works, Indie. You can’t get a man to… explode by wrestling him.”

  “Well it happened,” Indie swore. “Scared the shit out of me, too. I almost killed him.”

  Naoko hit the ground laughing and Indie stared at her and gave a clueless grin. Sounds from inside the fort drew Hitomi’s attention and she hissed at the others, calling them back in line. Shouts rose up and armor clanged. Hitomi signaled for the song to halt and fumed at how long it took as she stared at the front gate.

  The doors opened and soldiers poured out and began to form ranks.

  “Yes.” Hitomi rallied her troops. “That was what it finally took for them to grow some balls. This is it, Helcats.”

  Indie hefted her axe and strolled out from the trees to stand across the field from the forming defenders. Her roar echoed in the space between the opposing warriors. She stood a foot taller than any of the Sabans and heavy pauldrons with rusted spikes sat atop her boulder-like shoulders. The Rathgar Helcat delighted in showing off to her enemy; letting them know what manner of monster they were about to face.

  Hitomi called her protégé, Qufeng, to her side as her Blade Dancers formed up behind her. Unlike the Lokai Raegith had freed in the West, Qufeng came from deep in the south, the Porous Bogs. Lokai from the Bogs had lighter skin and inky black hair. Their culture differed greatly from the mushroom farmers of the West. Some argued that those from the Bogs were not even Lokai at all, but Hitomi accepted them under her command during the Great Gathering. Among all of them, Qufeng had been a star pupil and obvious selection for admission to the Helcats.

  “Commander?” Qufeng wore her hair short and spiked, like a flame atop her head, with a braid on each side that hung to her breasts. She wore a dark, tight-fitting outfit with only a wide-bladed dagger sheathed at the small of her back. She went out of her way to emulate Grass-Hair’s Path, and Hitomi had never seen her unsheathe her dagger in battle.

  Hitomi acknowledged her and pointed to the side of the fort. “Dispatch the Naga to infiltrate the fort as soon as the battle is pitched. Then take a team and cover the north. They will take advantage of the fight’s diversion just as we are. Do not allow any runners through to the river.”

  “Understood.” In the next instant the girl whipped through the trees to the north.

  Hitomi turned to the warriors behind her. Rathgar in plate armor clanked axes and shields. Urufen and Lokai danced from foot to foot, fidgeting with eagerness and a thirst for battle. For two years, Grass-Hair had gathered them under a single banner from all corners of the Greimere and Hitomi had trained them. She had read all the tomes that had survived the destruction of the Citadel, learning strategies from the days before the Treaty when the Rathgar conquered everything under the dull gray sky. Through strength and wisdom, Hitomi earned the respect of all she commanded. Even the young Rathgar men culturally groomed to dominate women pledged undying loyalty to her alongside the others.

  “This is no village. These are not peasants brandishing shaky farm tools at us while they piss themselves. This time we set our rage on a worthy adversary.” Hitomi pointed her naginata, a spear with a long, curved blade, at the assembling Saban soldiers. “They are tired and scared, but beasts are always the most dangerous when cornered. And when we fight those who dance in the sun at their most desperate and we claim their stronghold for the Greimere, Grass-Hair will see how mighty you are. All will see how mighty you are.”

  “Aroo! Aroo! Aroo!” The battle chants rang out in cadence as her warriors worked themselves into frenzy.

  Hitomi twirled the shaft of her weapon between her fingers and then swiped it slowly in front of her, pointing out across her legion. “We come from the cold, gray hell. They live under a warm, loving sky. They don’t know pain as we do. They don’t know violence as we do. We will rain both upon them and decorate our halls with their bones. Follow me now, Deathbringers, and we will take this place as our own. For Grass-Hair. For glory. For the Greimere.”

  “Broosh!” Naoko and Indie’s voices rose above the rest as they bellowed the battle cry of the Helcats.

  Hitomi signaled and her group raced across the field toward the awaiting force. The Urufen naturally outpaced the others and were the first ones to catch the volley of arrows from the walls. Many fell, but they raced so swiftly that they were through to the defenders before the archers could adjust accordingly.

  As archers atop the walls prepared for another volley, a horn alerted them to the other attackers converging from all sides. Hitomi and her Blade Dancers crashed into the Saban shields and pushed them back. As the two forces struggled against each other, a roar rose through the battle sounds and the Greimere wave parted.

  Indie and a dozen heavily-armored Rathgar charged the line of Sabans. Indie brought her axe down like thunder on the shield in front of her and leveled the man behind it. The man beside him moved to cover the hole and stabbed at Indie with his short sword. The blade glanced off her armor and she turned on him. With a growl and a mighty kick, she sent the man tumbling into the others. The Rathga
r behind her swung great axes and hammers, pushing deep into the formation.

  Urufen wormed their way under shields and through gaps and got behind the formation. They did not flank the soldiers, however; but instead rushed inside the fort. A line of Twileen archers awaited them at the far side of the fort and aimed to cut down the entire group making it inside the gate.

  Black clad Naga slipped over the wall behind them and with a flash of steel, cut down the line of archers before they could loose their arrows. The Urufen rushed atop the walls and engaged the rest of the archers.

  Outside the wall, Hitomi followed Indie through the hole in the Saban formation, splitting the two groups. Exhausted and sleep deprived, the soldier’s formation broke down quickly. Hitomi singled out one of the sergeants, engaging him. The older Saban didn’t go down easily as his men kept interfering, oblivious to honorable combat.

  In the end, Hitomi stood over the sergeant as she plunged the fat blade of her naginata through his chest plate, splattering her with blood. Her forces worked with practiced precision, separating the remaining defenders into smaller, indefensible groups. Hitomi searched about the field for the familiar black bobbed hair.

  “Naoko!” Hitomi felt a moment of panic as she scanned the fallen Lokai on the field.

  “Here.” In the next instant Naoko knocked into her, the petite Lokai training her bow on the wall, looking for any archer peering her way.

  “I need you inside,” Hitomi yelled, pulling her toward the gate.

  “Is that what you say to Grass-Hair, too?” Naoko joked, ducking through the struggling bodies around them.

  As soon as they entered the fort Naoko opened fire. Her hands became a blur as arrow after arrow sought out enemies atop the walls. In physical combat, Naoko could barely keep up with the other Helcats. Her slight frame and short stature prohibited her from summoning power like Hitomi or Indie nor could she match the agility of Fenra or Kimura. With a bow in her hand, however, she blossomed into a hurricane. On the run, vaulting or hanging from a tree limb; it didn’t matter. Naoko could fire three arrows before the next best archer could fire two.