Sacrifice

by Christopher Mitchell

  They followed the squads through the broken gates and into the compound. To their right was another wall, enclosing the wealthy quarter, while to their left was the great inferno consuming the coal bins. Ahead, the Rahain garrison was forming up, row upon row of soldiers with shields and crossbows, all marching up the road at a trot.

  ‘Dear oh, dear,’ said Keira, raising her arm. ‘Yer going the wrong fucking way, ya numpties.’

  She swung her arm down, and a sheet of white flame rose from the coal bins and cut through the air, like a whirling circular blade. It soared over the heads of the attack squads then, as Keira moved her fingers, it grew closer to the ground until it was at waist-height. It sliced through the ranks of Rahain soldiers, cutting them in two as it filled the width of the road.

  Keira pushed with her hand, and the blade of fire went spinning down the road, annihilating everything that stood there. At the end of the street, Keira flicked her wrist, and the fiery wheel slammed into the gatehouse of the garrison barracks. She spread her fingers, and the flames moved through the buildings, leaping from roof to roof.

  The squads stood and stared at the carnage carpeting the road all the way to the burning garrison.

  Keira winked at Kallie. ‘A thousand, did ye say?’

  She turned to the walled-off inner compound, where the wealthy merchants that controlled the coal trade lived. She strode to the gates marking the entrance, Kallie, Flora and the half-squad following. Warriors held up shields before the fire mage, but she could see no one up on the wall. She raised a ball of hot flame from the centre of the fire at the coal bins, and blew the gates apart.

  ‘Get out here,’ she yelled, ‘or I’m burning the place down.’

  A group of Rahain soldiers appeared, their hands in the air. They scrambled through the smouldering wreckage of the gates, where Kallie lined them up against the wall, their weapons piled up by the road.

  ‘Where are your masters?’ Keira said to them in Rahain.

  The prisoners glanced at each other.

  ‘Most have already fled,’ said one. ‘Last night, or at dawn this morning.’

  ‘North, I hope?’

  The Rahain soldier nodded. ‘Back to the Plateau.’

  ‘Taking all their wealth with them.’

  ‘Whatever they could carry, ma’am.’

  Kallie strode forward. ‘You said most. Are there still some inside?’

  ‘Yes, ma’am. Barricaded into the Merchants’ Hall.’

  ‘And you were supposed to stop us getting there?’

  The prisoner nodded.

  Keira nodded at Kallie, and stepped into the enclosed quarter. Once past the gates, she ignored the sounds of Kallie’s half-squad killing the prisoners, and gazed around. It was like being in a different town. The streets were filled with grand-looking houses, with shops, taverns and tree-lined avenues.

  ‘Looks quiet,’ said Flora .

  ‘That lamp lit?’

  The Holdings woman nodded.

  ‘Keep it ready.’

  They set off as soon as the half-squad had gathered round her. They strode down the wide street, passing a broken fountain, its stonework green with slime. On the far side of the square stood the Merchant Hall. Its front entrance had been blocked, and its windows were boarded up.

  ‘Good afternoon,’ Keira yelled, ‘my wee colony of rich lizards. Have ye got anything to say before I burn yer hall to the ground?’

  A white flag poked out from a balcony window.

  She looked up. ‘Aye?’

  ‘This is imperial property,’ cried a voice. ‘The Emperor will hear of this. Word has already been sent to the governor of Rahain. An army will come, and you…’

  ‘Aye, whatever,’ Keira muttered. ‘Flora, the lamp.’

  The Holdings woman opened the door of the lamp, and Keira fired a small sliver of flame across the square to the Merchant Hall. It affixed itself to the eaves under a sloping side roof, and the fire began to lick up the wall. Keira moved her hand in a gentle swirl, and the flames spread, and grew, leaping across gaps to other parts of the hall, until the flames took a firm hold of the building. Keira lowered her hand.

  She waited for the screams.

  They didn’t take long to reach her ears. Men, women, and children. Their cries rose up into the sky as the flames whipped through the building. Kallie glanced over at the mage, her eyes full of pain as the last sounds of the dying echoed through the square, but Keira kept her features impassive.

  Desperate cries of terror and agony sounded much the same, no matter which race of folk she incinerated. The sound of bairns screaming, in particular. Didn’t matter if it was Rahain, or Sanang, or Rakanese, or Holdings. All sounded the fucking same.

  Keira turned and walked from the square, the half-squad trooping in silence behind her .

  The rest of the attack squads had formed up outside the wealthy quarter, their forms silhouetted by the coal bins burning behind them.

  ‘Garrison accounted for?’ Kallie asked a group of officers.

  ‘Aye, boss,’ said one. ‘There weren’t many left after the mage’s attack. It’s just the slaves to deal with.’

  ‘How many?’

  ‘I’m guessing in the region of four thousand, boss, based on the size of the sheds where they’re housed.’

  Keira glanced over to the palisade wall surrounding the slave quarter, in the opposite corner to the wealthy area. She began walking towards it. Flora ran to catch up, while the Kellach watched her go in silence.

  ‘What are you going to do?’ Flora said.

  ‘What the fuck do ye think?’

  ‘You can’t, not again.’

  Keira snorted. ‘Ye care about the lizards now, do ye?’

  ‘Not really, if I’m honest,’ she said, ‘but I care about you. About what slaughtering these slaves will do to you.’

  Keira ignored her, and upped her pace.

  ‘Wait,’ Flora cried, sprinting after her. ‘I know you, Keira, I know you. I saw everything you did with the Alliance, and in that shithole Sanang, and on the fucking Plateau. Don’t do this. Please, Keira, you’re so far gone, I don’t want to lose you…’

  Keira stopped a few yards from the slaves’ enclosure. The stout palisade walls reared up in front of her, and through the gaps in the planks she could see the faces of those locked within, the faces of the slave labour force that went down into the earth every day, digging for the black rocks. Their eyes were filled with terror as they watched her gazing at them.

  Stupid lizard fucks.

  Flora tugged her arm.

  ‘Please, Keira.’

  ‘Get off me.’

  ‘Don’t do it. ’

  Keira pushed Flora, sending her sprawling to the ground. ‘What the fuck’s it to you, anyway?’

  ‘I love you.’

  Keira stared at the Holdings woman, unsure whether to laugh or fly into a rage.

  ‘Fucking pyre’s cock,’ she muttered, shaking her head. She held out her hand. ‘Get up.’

  Flora took it, and the mage pulled her to her feet. Keira glanced at the slaves for a moment, then turned and began walking back towards Kallie and the attack squads, Flora running to keep up.

  ‘What’s happening?’ said Kallie as she approached.

  ‘Ask her,’ Keira said, nodding at Flora. She walked past Kallie and sat on a white-washed boulder marking the edge of the road. ‘Somebody get me a fucking whisky.’

  A warrior ran over with a bottle and Keira drank deep.

  ‘So, yer not going to kill the miners?’ Kallie said.

  Keira shook her head. ‘I’m done.’

  ‘What will we do with them all?’

  ‘Fuck knows, whatever ye want. I’m out of here.’

  Kallie sat next to her on the boulder. ‘Back to Domm?’

  ‘Aye.’

  Kallie sat in silence for a minute. Flora came over, and took a swig of whisky.

  ‘And you, Flora?’ Kallie said. ‘What do you want to do?’<
br />
  The young Holdings woman gazed at the burning compound.

  ‘I want to go home.’

  ‘You mean the Holdings?’ said Kallie.

  ‘Yeah.’

  ‘What?’ said Keira. ‘I thought ye were coming back with me to Domm?’

  Flora gazed at her. ‘If I thought there was any chance that you’d ever feel the same way that I do about you, then I’d be by your side forever. But I have to be realistic. You never will.’

  Keira stared at her in silence. Something within her began to hurt .

  ‘Well,’ Kallie said, ‘if you’re going to the Holdings, then we may have found something that might interest you.’

  ‘What?’ Flora said.

  Kallie stood. ‘Come and see.’

  ‘What is it?’ said Keira.

  ‘It’s of no concern to you if yer going back to Domm.’

  Keira stood. ‘I want to see it.’

  Kallie sighed. ‘Come on then.’

  She led Flora and Keira back into the wealthy quarter and down an alleyway to a large paddock, where four winged gaien were tethered. Next to them lay a long carriage.

  ‘Wow,’ Flora said, her eyes lighting up.

  Kallie smiled. ‘We have no idea how it works, but…’

  ‘I can fly it,’ Flora said, walking towards the carriage. ‘Learned when we fled from the Rahain Capital. Leah showed me.’

  Flora neared the carriage, and put her hand up to run her fingers over the wooden frame, and the thick steel bands that held it together. She turned back to Kallie.

  ‘Do you mean I can take it?’

  ‘Aye,’ Kallie said, ‘if it’ll help ye get home.’

  ‘Thanks,’ Flora said, ‘though I wouldn’t be able to fly it alone. It needs a crew of three, at the very least.’

  Kallie rubbed her chin. ‘That could be a problem. I suppose we could see if there are any volunteers, who are up for an adventure to the Holdings.’ She turned to Keira. ‘You could take the bear you carved to Killop.’

  ‘I can see what yer trying to do,’ said Keira. ‘I’m not fucking stupid.’

  ‘The world needs you, Keira,’ Kallie said. ‘I realise that now, after everything you’ve accomplished here. In a dozen days ye’ve cleared Northern Kell, and killed close to, I don’t know, twenty thousand Rahain.’ She shook her head. ‘You are a goddess. You have to go. Fight the Emperor, do whatever you have to do to make sure no more armies ever come marching towards Kellach Brigdomin. ’

  Keira frowned. She turned away from Kallie and Flora’s beseeching eyes.

  Why did it always fall to her? Could the rest of the world not fucking look after itself for once?

  She spat on the ground.

  ‘Three?’ she said to Flora. ‘That thing needs three to crew it?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Alright then. I’ll fucking do it, but on one condition.’

  She smirked at Kallie.

  ‘You’re coming with us.’

  Chapter 18

  The Red Hills

  T he Red Hills, Imperial Holdings – 5 th Day, Last Third Autumn 507

  Killop held Daphne close, his bare arms pressed against the cold steel of her armour, his face in her hair. He kissed her.

  ‘Up, up,’ cried Karalyn from the floor of the tent, her arms raised. Daphne leaned down and picked her up.

  ‘Mummy stay,’ the child said.

  ‘I can’t, Kara-bear,’ Daphne said. ‘Mummy has to fight the bad man, but I’ll be back soon.’

  Karalyn started to cry.

  ‘It’s alright,’ Daphne said. ‘Everything’s going to be fine. Daddy’ll look after you.’

  She glanced up at Killop, and he gazed into her green eyes.

  ‘I’d better go.’

  Killop reached out and took Karalyn, and the crying girl buried her face into his shoulder.

  Daphne scanned the tent, and picked up her cavalry helmet from the low bed. She adjusted the buckle on her sword belt, and took a breath.

  They walked the few paces to the entrance, and Daphne pushed the canvas aside, revealing a blue sky over the great plains. Chane and the Hold’s senior officers were outside, their armour shining, and they saluted as she left the tent. Killop remained in the entranceway, watching as Daphne nodded her greetings.

  ‘Holder Fast,’ said a man bowing low, his uniform and armour decorated with medals. ‘Chancellor Holdwick and First Minister Blackhold request your presence to discuss the strategy of today’s battle.’

  Daphne nodded. The army camp was situated on a gentle slope of the Red Hills, which stretched behind them, growing into the great Shield Mountains. She gazed across the plains in front of her. The Holdings infantry had already assembled, twenty thousand soldiers formed up into their Holds were arranged half a mile from the foot of the hill. Beyond them in the far distance was a dust cloud, marking the approaching imperial forces, commanded by the Emperor.

  ‘It’ll need to be quick,’ Daphne said. She turned a final time to Killop and Karalyn, smiled, then with Chane at her side she walked along the path to the chancellor’s command post, a terraced platform dug into the side of the hill a hundred yards away.

  Karalyn waved, and they watched Daphne disappear, flanked by her officers.

  ‘She’ll be back soon, wee bear,’ Killop said. He walked to a smaller tent, alongside Daphne’s. ‘Ye can come out now, she’s gone.’

  Kylon emerged from within, a sour look on his face. Celine followed, but kept her distance from her colleague. Kylon walked off alone, and stared out over the plains.

  ‘He’s still in the huff,’ Celine said.

  Killop shrugged. ‘He was out of order last night. I thought at one point that Daphne was actually going to hit him.’

  ‘He has a problem with getting told no,’ Celine said. ‘I think he’s used to giving orders, not taking them.’

  Killop glanced at the black-clad Kell standing alone at the edge of the ridge.

  ‘What did you think of what he was suggesting?’

  Celine shook her head. ‘Madness. You can’t take a child into battle. ’

  Killop nodded.

  ‘This must be weird for you,’ she went on. ‘You were a soldier, and an officer. You’ve fought in battles, right?’

  ‘Aye.’

  ‘And here you are, standing unarmed with the children and civilians, about to watch a battle that could decide the fate of the world.’

  Killop said nothing.

  ‘Do you not wish you were down there?’ she asked, nodding at the soldiers lined up on the plains before them.

  ‘Not really,’ he said. ‘I wish I was with them.’ He pointed to the right, where at the bottom of the slope the Holdings heavy cavalry was beginning to assemble. ‘But you’ve seen me ride, aye? I mean, I can stay on the damned beast, but I’m years away from being good enough to make the cavalry.’

  Celine nodded.

  ‘I was told I could join the infantry if I fancied it,’ Killop went on, ‘but I knew Daphne wanted me up here, making sure Karalyn is alright.’

  ‘She doesn’t trust us?’

  Killop lowered his voice. ‘She trusts you.’

  Celine frowned. ‘Kylon would die for Karalyn.’

  ‘I know he would.’

  From Killop’s arms Karalyn gazed over at the lone Kell man. ‘Kylo sad.’

  ‘Is he?’ said Celine. ‘He looks more angry to me.’

  ‘No,’ Karalyn said. ‘Kylo sad. Kylo miss his family.’

  Celine raised an eyebrow, and leaned close to Killop. ‘Do you know anything about Kylon’s family?’

  Killop shook his head. ‘He’s always refused to talk about his past. I only know about his life from the day he joined my squad back during the Rahain invasion of Kell. Before that, I have no idea.’

  ‘Karalyn show you,’ the girl said.

  ‘No, wee bear,’ her father said. ‘If Kylon wants to keep it a secret, then we must respect that.’

  Celine’s eyes were conf
licted, and she looked away .

  A group of uniformed officers strolled up the hillside towards the Hold Fast tents.

  ‘Chief Killop,’ said one, ‘the chancellor would like to invite you and your party to the command platform to watch the battle, now that the cavalry have received their orders.’

  ‘Aye, thanks.’

  The officer nodded. ‘Should we wait a few minutes until you are suitably attired, Chief?’

  Celine chuckled as Killop looked down at his scruffy tunic and stained leathers.

  ‘Aye, alright,’ he muttered. He passed Karalyn to Celine, and strode back to the big tent. Inside, he washed and put on his cleanest clothes, then picked out his best armour, and the steel chestplate emblazoned with the Hold Fast insignia that had been a gift from Godfrey. He strapped on the armour, then laced up his infantry boots, and pulled a comb through his wild hair. He stood in front of Daphne’s tall mirror, though he had to crouch to see his head.

  How much simpler life was when you couldn’t see how you appeared to others.

  He began to walk towards the exit, then remembered his weapon. He reached over by the bedside, slid a scabbard out from under the mattress and buckled it to his belt. Inside was a fine Holdings longsword, light but strong, and made from steel that kept its edge better than any blade forged in Kell.

  Celine laughed when he re-emerged into the open.

  ‘You look like a different person,’ she said. ‘One I could actually believe used to be a chief, rather than a vagrant.’

  He shook his head.

  The officer smiled, and gestured in the direction of the platform. ‘This way, please.’

  The terraced area was dominated by a pair of raised chairs. Both were empty, as Faden Holdwick and Queen Mirren mingled with the officers and aristocrats who had gathered to observe the battle. Killop walked into their midst, Celine on his left, carrying Karalyn, and Kylon on his right, wordless and brooding.

  Killop gazed around. He and Kylon were a good head taller than anyone else on the platform, and he could see a few gazes in their direction. As Holder Fast’s barbarian consort he engendered a mixture of responses. Some appeared to admire his past, and respect what he had achieved, while others made no attempt to hide their contempt at the savage upstart, who had the audacity to presume he was a suitable match for a Holder of the Realm.