Sacrifice

by Christopher Mitchell

  ‘You should stay here,’ Daphne said to Killop, ‘in case this goes wrong.’

  ‘Not a fucking chance.’

  She nodded. ‘Cover me, then.’

  As she was about to launch herself up over the side of the ditch, a pair of Holdings troopers rushed out from the left, straight at the Emperor. From ten yards away they knelt, and each loosed a crossbow bolt, striking the Emperor in his side and chest, and knocking him off his feet.

  ‘Yes!’ Daphne cried, scrambling up the bank.

  Killop leapt up after her, as the Rahain in charge of building the fire turned to face the attacking troopers. Killop and Daphne slammed into the group of Rahain side by side, cutting them down. The other troopers joined them, and they began to push the Rahain back.

  The Emperor staggered to his feet, and ripped the bolts from his body. He glared at the Holdings troopers, his teeth bared, and raised his hand. He moved his fingers from right to left, and the heads of the troopers exploded. Daphne dived to the ground, Killop next to her. He reached an arm over her as the Emperor turned to face them. Killop stared back in silence, ready to die.

  The Emperor’s gaze passed over them. He spat on the ground, then turned and ordered the Rahain to continue building up the fire. Killop stayed frozen. Every Holdings trooper lay dead, only he and Daphne were unharmed. In silence, they crawled back to the ditch, and fell in.

  ‘How?’ Daphne whispered. ‘How are we still alive?’

  Killop lay back, panting, his hands shaking.

  A hand touched his arm.

  ‘Daddy!’

  He jumped back in shock as he saw Kylon next to him in the ditch, Karalyn strapped to his back.

  ‘What the fuck?’ he cried.

  Daphne sprang over him, her right fist connecting with Kylon’s nose.

  ‘You bring my daughter to a battle?’ she yelled. ‘I’ll kill you.’

  Kylon struggled, but Daphne clung on, punching him again.

  ‘I saved you,’ Kylon gasped.

  Killop pulled Daphne off Kylon. ‘Not now,’ he whispered. ‘We get Karalyn to safety first, then you can kick his arse.’

  Daphne had murder in her eyes, but backed off.

  ‘Mummy angry,’ said Karalyn.

  ‘Come on,’ Killop said, ‘let’s move.’

  ‘Wait,’ said Daphne. ‘Kara-bear, is Aunty Chane still alive? Can you see her?’

  Killop peered over the lip of the ditch as Karalyn gazed around. The Emperor was urging the Rahain on, driving them to make the pile of fuel larger. Killop slid back down the ditch as Karalyn nodded.

  The girl pointed back towards where the initial cavalry charge had floundered, out among the sea of horse-flesh.

  They set off, running at a crouch along the bottom of the ditch until they came to a mound of corpses, with both horses and Holdings mingled in a heap.

  ‘Chane there,’ Karalyn said.

  ‘Good girl,’ Daphne muttered, and started to pull the bodies from the pile. Killop and Kylon helped, dragging the corpses from the heap, until their hands and arms were thick with blood and gore. At the bottom of the heap they found her. Chane was unconscious, and had multiple wounds.

  ‘Her armour saved her from getting crushed,’ Kylon said. ‘We’ll carry her back.’

  ‘Getting through the Rahain lines might be tricky,’ said Daphne.

  ‘Ye still don’t get it, do you?’ Kylon said. ‘It’s not just the Emperor who’s blind to her. When she hides, no one can see her, or us, if we stick close to her. All we have to do is walk back through their lines. Celine is waiting with horses for us on the other side of the ridge.’

  ‘Celine agreed to this?’

  ‘I might have lied to her about what I was going to do.’

  The sound of an explosion reached them, and the ground trembled. Killop looked up at the hillside. The command platform, where he had been standing with Faden and Mirren, was bathed in flames. Figures on fire ran from the terrace screaming, or toppled off the edge and fell down the slope. At the bottom of the hill, the Holdings infantry were in full retreat, streaming back over the hills, throwing their shields and weapons behind them as they ran.

  ‘Shit,’ said Killop. ‘This battle’s over.’

  ‘We’ll fight on,’ said Kylon. ‘We must.’

  Daphne stared at him. She unstrapped Karalyn from his back, and held her close. Killop and Kylon picked up the body of Chane, and they began the long walk back across the battlefield.

  Rahain soldiers marched or ran past without noticing them, and they were ignored all the way to the ridge. Kylon led them on for another mile to the left, down into a thick dell, where Celine was standing. Next to her four horses were saddled and ready to go.

  Daphne fell to her knees, exhausted. Killop took Karalyn, and helped Daphne onto a horse.

  Celine gazed at them. ‘How the fuck did you get away?’

  Killop frowned as he leapt up into the saddle of his horse, Karalyn in one arm. He settled her down in front of him, and took the reins .

  Celine also mounted. ‘Killop?’

  He glared at Kylon, who was getting into his own saddle.

  ‘Ask me later.’

  Celine gazed from Killop to Kylon, then to Daphne, frowning.

  ‘What did you do?’ she said to the Kell man in black.

  Kylon shrugged. ‘What I had to.’

  Celine leaned over in her saddle and slapped him across the face.

  ‘You endanger that child again, and I’ll kill you myself.’

  Daphne looked up, her eyes half closed. ‘Not if I get to him first.’

  Killop turned, and gazed up at the great peaks of the Shield Mountains, which ran across the northern edge of the Holdings, continuing on into the far west. They kicked their heels and their horses took off at a trot along the path at the base of the dell, growing further from the noise on the battlefield with every stride, until there was nothing but the still silence of the plains.

  Chapter 19

  Cry for Help

  N orth of Akhanawarah City, Imperial Rahain – 10 th Day, Last Third Autumn 507

  Bridget sat alone, her cloak wrapped round her to keep out the chill breeze. She stared out at the hills and valleys of Northern Rahain, the wild lands above the Tahrana Valley, where no one dwelt. Laodoc watched her from where he sat with the others round a warm camp fire. Dyam and Dean were preparing a meal from two large birds that Lola had shot earlier that morning. It would be their first warm food in several days, and Laodoc’s stomach was grumbling.

  Agang sat to his left, deep in thought, while Lola and Tara, the young Rakanese woman, were on his right.

  ‘Thank you for catching our breakfast,’ said Laodoc amid the silence.

  Lola grunted.

  Tara rattled off a string of angry-sounding words in her own language, staring at Laodoc as she said them. He smiled at her, but she seemed to become annoyed, and looked away, shaking her head.

  ‘She’s probably just hungry,’ Agang muttered.

  Laodoc sighed. ‘No, she’s angry with me, and she has a right to be, I suppose. She would have been home days ago if it weren’t for me slowing you all down.’

  ‘It’s not your fault.’

  ‘It is. I’m a foolish old man who should have realised that a journey such as this would be too much for me. You’re all young and fit, my friend. The reason we’re only managing a few miles each day is entirely down to my old bones.’

  ‘You should have built some roads up here when you were chancellor,’ Dyam said, winking at him. ‘Then we could have taken the wagons with us, and we could all be relaxing, instead of lugging our gear over these hills.’

  She finished skewering the two plucked birds, and placed them over the fire.

  ‘Turn them every minute or so,’ she said to Dean, who nodded, his eyes staring at the ground. She opened her pack and pulled out a waterskin. ‘At least there are plenty of streams,’ she said. ‘Could be a lot worse.’

  ‘It’s just a
few more miles to Silverstream,’ said Agang, ‘if we understand Tara correctly.’ He turned to Laodoc. ‘You’ve done fine,’ he smiled, ‘for an old man.’

  Laodoc nodded, but felt shame creep through him. He was slowing everything down, his weak and stupid limbs growing tired after only a mile or two into each march. Agang and Dyam had tried to make light of it, but he could sense the frustration from the others, and had earned many a dirty look from Tara whenever they had stopped for another break to accommodate him.

  At least she was looking healthier, he reflected. The rashes and bruises on her skin had faded since they had left the poisoned city of Akhanawarah. While the rest of them had lost weight, she had put on a little, as even their meagre rations were better that what she had survived on in captivity. Despite her impatience with him, Laodoc had spent many hours trying to communicate with Tara. They had established that she had been on a scouting expedition from Silverstream, when she and a number of companions had been captured by the Rahain looters. She had signalled her ignorance of the name of Shella, but Laodoc wasn’t convinced, believing that she might be lying to protect her.

  ‘Fucksake, Dean, pay attention,’ scolded Dyam. ‘Yer letting them burn.’

  She pushed him out of the way, and re-arranged the two birds on the fire. Dean sat down, misery darkening his young features.

  ‘Do you want to get some practice in?’ asked Laodoc. ‘There’s no one about to see.’

  Dean shook his head.

  ‘I wanted to say,’ Laodoc went on, ‘what a good job you did with burning those looters’ wagons.’

  Lola snorted, as Dean’s face went red.

  Laodoc raised an eyebrow.

  ‘I set them alight,’ Lola said. ‘He froze.’

  Dean’s face twisted into a snarl. He leapt to his feet and ran off through the trees next to where they had camped.

  Dyam gave Lola a look.

  ‘Ye need to stop mothering him,’ the Lach hunter said. ‘The laddie needs to toughen the fuck up. Ye all do. Apart from Agang, yer all falling to pieces.’

  The others said nothing. Laodoc knew that Lola had lost more than just a fellow hunter in Bonnie, but she seemed to be able to put her grief aside and stay focussed on doing her job. Dyam poked at the fire, her pale blonde hair untidy and unwashed. To his left Agang looked his usual composed self, somehow managing to appear smart and clean despite the hardships they had experienced walking for long days through barren valleys and up rocky slopes.

  ‘We’ll have time to recover once we get to Silverstream,’ the Sanang man said. ‘We can rest and heal our wounds there.’

  Dyam looked up. ‘Food’s ready.’

  She took the birds off the fire, and used a knife to slice the meat into a row of bowls. Laodoc picked one up.

  ‘I’ll see if Bridget wants any. ’

  Dyam nodded.

  He got to his feet, his walking stick in his left hand, and climbed the dusty slope to where Bridget sat on a large boulder. She was looking up at the great mass of mountains to the west. He sat down next to her, the bowl of warm food resting on his lap.

  ‘Snow,’ she said.

  Laodoc gazed up, and noticed the white peaks through the clouds in the distance.

  ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘The highest summits of the Grey Mountains can get snow, even before winter has begun.’ He smiled. ‘Not far to go, Bridget. Today, maybe.’ He held out the bowl. ‘I’ve brought you some food.’

  She glanced at it.

  ‘How long’s it been?’

  Laodoc frowned. ‘What?’

  ‘Since Bedig died.’

  ‘Twenty-five days.’

  She nodded, her eyes returning to gaze at the mountains.

  ‘Are you hungry?’ he said.

  She shook her head.

  ‘You should eat. I’ll share it with you.’

  ‘I don’t want it.’

  ‘Is there anything I can do to help?’

  ‘I just want to get to Silverstream,’ she said. ‘And then sleep. For a long time. Maybe if I’m lucky, I won’t wake up again.’

  Laodoc remembered how he had felt after Simiona’s death, and said nothing.

  ‘I wish Killop was here,’ she said after a while. ‘I miss him. For so many years we were closer than I’ve ever been to anyone, it was like we shared the same thoughts. He knew everything about me, and I knew everything about him. He was my brother. When he left it felt worse than it did when I lost my real sisters in the war. I want to talk to him, tell him about Bedig. He’d get it.’

  ‘You can talk to us,’ Laodoc said. ‘We’ve all lost somebody we loved.’

  ‘See?’ she said. ‘I knew you wouldn’t understand. ’

  Laodoc paused. He wanted to say that he did understand, and that the pain of Simiona’s death had left his emotions shredded, but he swallowed, and nodded.

  ‘Help me understand.’

  She glared at him. ‘If Bedig had died on the battlefield,’ she said, ‘then it would have been hard to take, but easier than this.’

  ‘Why?’ Laodoc said. ‘He fought bravely to the end.’

  ‘Aye, while I was lying on the ground with an arrow in my throat. He was killed thinking I was dead. Fuck, I was dead. And then someone made the decision that my life was worth more than his, and here I am, alive again.’ She shook her head. ‘I should be dead. I don’t deserve life more than Bedig did. Why was I chosen?’ She started to cry. ‘It’s bullshit, all of it.’

  ‘It wasn’t like that,’ Laodoc said, his heart breaking. ‘No one knew what to do. Amid all the blood and confusion, nobody was thinking rationally. Agang had a split-second choice to make, please don’t blame him for doing what he thought best.’

  ‘So it was him? He left Bedig to die?’

  ‘And if he hadn’t?’ Laodoc said. ‘Imagine he had raised Bedig instead of you. Imagine how Bedig would be feeling right now. Would he want to go on, knowing that he had been chosen over you? Oh, Bridget, I’m so sorry, for everything. It is I who dragged you all on this journey, a “fool’s errand”, as Bonnie called it. If anyone’s to blame, it’s me.’

  ‘Don’t be stupid.’

  Laodoc glanced at the bowl of food on his lap, his appetite gone.

  He heard a whistle from the campsite below, and glanced up to see Dyam waving at them to come down. The tents were being packed up, and the fire extinguished.

  ‘Time to go,’ he said.

  Bridget nodded, and they got to their feet.

  ‘You should eat that,’ Lola said when they got to the bottom of the slope.

  ‘I don’t want it,’ he said. ‘You have it. ’

  Lola shrugged, and took the bowl. She took half of the food in her hands and swallowed it down, then passed the rest to Tara.

  ‘We all ready?’ Agang said, gazing round the clearing. Everyone nodded, including Dean, who Laodoc noticed had re-appeared.

  The Sanang man approached Tara, whose mouth was full of her second helping of breakfast.

  ‘Which way?’ he said, pointing.

  Tara smiled, and strode off through the trees. The others followed, Laodoc leaning on his stick.

  ‘Just a few more miles,’ Agang said to him, picking up a heavy pack and slinging it over his broad shoulders.

  Laodoc smiled, though his heart was heavy.

  ‘I’ll keep you company,’ Agang said.

  ‘Thank you, my friend.’

  They followed the line of narrow forest, hemmed in between high rocky cliffs on either side. The trees towered above them, sheltering them from the cold wind that gusted down the valley. The ground was uneven, and slippery, and Laodoc felt his calves ache as they started to lag behind.

  Agang glanced at him. ‘How was Bridget this morning?’

  ‘The same,’ he said. ‘It breaks my heart to see her in such pain. Are you sure you can’t help her, heal her mind?’

  ‘I can’t,’ he said. ‘I’ve told you, grieving is a natural process, I can’t interfere.’

 
‘You interfered with me quickly enough.’

  ‘All I did was temporarily fix the imbalance in your brain, to ease your depression. Bridget’s in mourning, it’s different.’

  ‘But there must be something you can do,’ Laodoc said. ‘The guilt she’s carrying is too much for anyone to bear.’

  ‘Guilt?’ Agang said, his eyes tightening. ‘I’m not sure you understand how my powers work. I can encourage a body to physically heal itself, or I can give a piece of my own life-force to bring someone back. I can’t cure guilt, my friend.’

  ‘So we’re just going to leave her to suffer? ’

  ‘Keep talking to her,’ Agang said. ‘She’ll get over it eventually. We all do.’

  Laodoc glanced ahead at the group. Tara and Lola were out in front, almost out of sight through the trees. The two Domm came next. Dyam was chatting to Dean, who was glowering in silence. Bridget followed them alone, her gaze fixed, but her eyes vacant. She was as thin as she had been when he had first seen her, in the cess-pit of a holding cage in the Rahain Capital, bound in chains next to Killop and Kallie.

  ‘What about you?’ Agang said.

  ‘I’m fine.’

  ‘You don’t have to pretend with me.’

  Laodoc frowned at him. ‘I said I was fine. You may not believe it, but you’ll have to accept it. It was most certainly not an invitation for you to pry.’

  Agang scowled and looked away, and they continued on in silence.

  They walked for a few hours as Laodoc’s limbs grew wearier, the joints in his legs and back aching. He said nothing, refusing to be the one who called for a rest, not when Tara’s excitement was visibly growing with every step. They were close, they just had to keep going.

  Agang passed him a waterskin.

  Laodoc reached out to take it, but staggered forward. Agang grabbed his arm, stopping him from falling.

  ‘You’re pushing yourself too much,’ he said, then turned to the front. ‘Everyone! Time for a break.’

  Bridget sat down on a rock, and Dyam and Dean trudged back to where Agang was supporting the old Rahain man. He lowered him onto a smooth boulder, and held the water skin to his lips.