Liliana looked over at Valiant and pictured herself on his back. As large as she was, and as heavy as she was wearing armor, there was no doubt in her mind that the stallion could carry her easily. The question was, would he? After all, she imagined that wearing a saddle was a lot different than actually letting someone sit on you. And of course there was the fact that she was not, by any stretch of the imagination, a good rider.
She chuckled ruefully.
I'm not a rider, period, she admitted to herself. If Valiant even lets me try to mount, I'll probably slip off and fall on my ass. And it's a long way down from up there, especially in armor.
But ride him she must, eventually. It was pretty obvious to her now that, even though the gods had been absent for years, they were back now. They had shown her the vision that had sent her off to save Valiant. They had to have sent the saddle as well, which meant that they wanted her to ride him.
Another thought occurred to Liliana and she walked away from the saddle and around to the back gate. She leaned against it and stared at the glittering waters of the river fifty feet away.
The gods would not have sent her on a quest to secure a horse just for her own comfort or convenience. No, you only gave someone a steed like that for one reason; they were expecting her to have to travel a very long way. Which meant that she would be going on a journey beyond the shores of England.
Oh damn, I'll be leaving home again, she thought with a touch of sadness.
It was tempered by a surge of excitement.
Where would they send her? What kind of adventures would she and Valiant get to experience?
Gods, Liliana, she thought with a grin. Sometimes you are such a child. But perhaps that was one of the things that had made her the perfect choice when the gods had wanted to anoint someone as their first paladin.
She strolled back down to the river and sat in the long grass on the shore, her mind thick with memories.
She remembered when she had been offered the opportunity to become a paladin, and how close she had come to saying no.
Chapter 7
She had been living alone in her little house on the edge of Moscow when the dragons had attacked. Being so far from the center of the city had given her a chance to escape immediate death as black and red dragons had rained fire from the heavens and immolated almost all of the downtown core in the first few minutes of the assault.
Technology had ceased to function months earlier. Fortunately, in her area there was a large river that offered clean drinking water for those willing to carry buckets to and from their homes. Liliana had many neighbors whom she'd known for years. Many, like her, were single women whose husbands had died and whose children had left home. They had banded together to fetch water, share food from their gardens and protect each other from wandering bands of thieves.
There was nothing as fierce as a Russian matron defending her home and friends, the paladin thought with fierce satisfaction. We sent more than a few of those beasts packing with our cudgels and kitchen knives.
How long that could have continued was an open question though, because the Night of Burning had happened and the world had changed forever.
How had I felt when I saw my first dragon, she wondered as she sucked on a stalk of grass. It was so hard to remember.
Awe? Perhaps. Disbelief? Most definitely. But her overwhelming emotions ended up being hatred and rage. Moscow was burning, her people were dying, and all she could do was watch helplessly.
And then, like so many others, she ran.
There was no time to take anything. The dragons had followed the sunset around the world, attacking major cities after nightfall. Why they had bothered to use the cover of darkness when airplanes and weapons no longer functioned was a mystery, but the effect was that many of those who survived the initial attack didn't even have time to pack or change into their regular clothes.
Liliana had been slightly luckier than most because she hadn't been sleeping. She had been awake, reading by candlelight, and had still been dressed. She had snatched a coat hanging by the front door, slipped her feet into sturdy leather boots and run as best she could away from the inferno that Moscow had become.
The problem, of course, was that she had been fifty-four years of age, rather stout, and had bad knees. So her running was more of a quick hobble than a full on sprint. A lot of people passed by her that night.
We were at least fortunate that the attack had come in summer, Liliana thought as she watched the play of sunlight on water. If the dragons had struck in the middle of the winter, no one would have survived for more that a day or two. As it was, at least there had been no shortage of water for the survivors. Rivers and streams were everywhere. Food was, of course, another story.
The memory of those days was now a blur. The paladin had blotted out much of the aftermath of the dragon attacks because of the horror that had followed. There had been many survivors of the initial assault, of course, and if the masses of people had had to compete for food, things would have gotten very ugly. But the day after the Night of Burning, the drakes came hunting.
She stood up abruptly and glared across the river, her vision clouded by blood-soaked memories; horrors that she had never been able to purge from her mind.
Drakes. She spat as she pictured their scaled bodies and serrated teeth. Looking like wingless dragons, the drakes were as tall as a man when standing on all four legs. They were ten feet long if you counted their spiked tails, and weighed five hundred pounds or more. And when they came slavering on the trail of the refugees, there were hundreds of them.
The monsters didn't hunt for food; they hunted for sport. They were the dragons' servants; a cleanup crew of brutal efficiency. They ran with the speed of a cheetah and could eviscerate a person in the blink of an eye as they raced past them.
Men, women, children; the drakes showed no mercy and left none alive in their wake. Liliana remembered seeing them for the first time in the distance as she stood on a hill, several miles to the south of the city.
It had been mid-morning and she and several other women that she had met and begun traveling with were slowly making their way up a rise to take a look at the surrounding country. They had become lost and wanted to get their bearings and decide on which direction to go. If the truth be told, none of them had much experience in roughing it and were feeling scared and lost.
“What is that?” Irina had asked as she shaded her eyes.
Irina was the oldest of the group, a rather frail grandmotherly woman whom Liliana had become very fond of in a short amount of time.
All of the women had followed her gaze. About a mile away, at the base of the hill, a dark ragged line was moving swiftly through the scattered trees. It was difficult at first to tell exactly what they were looking at, but a moment later, another woman cried out in fear.
“Wolves!” she shouted. “A pack of wolves is after us.”
“Don't be stupid, Marta,” Irina said harshly. “There are no wolves in this part of the country.”
“Whatever they are, they are fast and coming this way!”
Marta turned and ran and the rest followed her. The crest of the hill was only a dozen yards away and she and the rest of the group scurried over it and disappeared from sight, leaving Liliana and Irina standing alone.
“Go, Lilly,” the old woman urged. “I do not think that those are wolves, but they may be wild dogs. I will only slow you down. Run!”
“I'm not leaving you,” Liliana told her sternly. “And with my knees, I can't run any faster than you can. Come on. If we get over the top of the rise before they reach here, we may find a place to hide.”
“Stupid girl,” Irina grumbled as she took Liliana's arm.
She smiled as she said it though and both of them shuffled forward as quickly as they could manage.
The paladin walked slowly along the riverbank, lost in her memories. Fat bumblebees hummed past her looking for flowers, their absurd, clumsy flight lightening h
er mood for a moment.
But the face of Irina appeared before her again and dark thoughts descended upon her.
When the two women had made it over the top of the hill, they saw the others stumbling and running down the other side, several dozen yards away already. Liliana didn't blame them for running, of course. Self-preservation was a powerful motivator.
But now she ignored the group and looked around frantically for some place that she and her new friend could hide. Whatever was coming after them looked strange and dangerous and she knew that they couldn't fight them, whatever they were.
“Look, Lilly,” Irina had said breathlessly, her spindly legs already shaking with fatigue. “What is that? A shrine?”
The old woman was pointing down the slope at an arch made of rough stone that stuck out of the hill. Could it be a religious shrine? Liliana knew that the country folk in the area were very pious and built many of these places to honor various saints.
“Maybe it is. Come on, Irina. Lean on me and we'll take a look.”
They hobbled down the hill supporting each other and reached the stone structure a minute later. Their level of fear was rising now as they could hear an unearthly growling coming from the other side of the rise, growing louder every second.
“My God, what kind of animal makes a sound like that?” Irina wondered, her voice thin with terror.
Liliana didn't answer. The source of the noises was unknown to her; it sounded like a mixture of a dog's growling and a snake's hissing. All she did know was that such a thing should not exist.
Neither should dragons, she told herself angrily. But they did, didn't they?
Irina had been right; the small arch was the entrance to a crude shrine. Someone had dug a hole into the side of the hill, or perhaps it was a natural shallow cave, and lined it with stones held together with mortar. It extended perhaps twenty feet into the ground and at the end there was a low altar with the statue of a lady standing on it, her arms extended.
“Inside, Irina,” Liliana urged. “Quickly.”
Both women had to duck their heads to enter the shrine and they hurriedly crouched and shuffled forward until they reached the back of the cavity.
Irina sat down stiffly and moaned softly to herself.
“Are you all right?” Liliana asked her as she sat down next to her friend on the hard, damp ground.
“For a woman pushing eighty, I'm doing just fine,” Irina replied with a trace of humor in her voice. “Do you think whatever is coming can get in here?”
“If they are dogs or wolves they can,” Liliana told her bluntly.
She pulled her butcher knife out of her jacket pocket and held it awkwardly in front of her.
“But at least we have a defensible position in here,” she added. “Which is more than can be said for the rest of the group. They were fools to run.”
Irina leaned against the altar and shook her head, her face pale with fear and exhaustion.
“They are afraid, child, just as we are. The only difference is that they can run and we cannot. And who knows; they may just escape.”
The strange sounds were coming closer now as the unknown creatures crested the hill behind them.
Liliana touched a finger to her lips and Irina nodded. They huddled closer to each other and waited.
They could feel the ground begin to shake slightly as if a mass of heavy bodies was moving steadily toward them like an advancing tide.
“Wolves do not make the earth move beneath their feet,” Irina whispered fearfully.
She reached out and touched the feet of the statue on the altar.
“Oh lady, whoever you are, watch over us in our hour of need. I pray that you let this threat pass us by.”
Liliana watched the opening of the shrine while listening to Irina's prayers with a cynical ear. Her belief in God had been lost a long time ago, probably around the same time that her husband had deserted her, leaving her to work two jobs and raise three children by herself.
Depend on yourself, that was her motto and it had been for years. But if Irina's faith kept her strong, then Liliana wouldn't say anything to upset that belief.
A sound near the entrance made Liliana shake the older woman's arm. Irina stopped praying and they waited breathlessly.
A scraping sound, like bone on rock, was followed by a low growl. The entrance darkened as a shadow descended upon it. Something was standing just outside, listening.
Liliana could feel her friend's trembling body against her and gripped the handle of the knife tighter.
What is out there? Why is it waiting?
Other shadowy figures could be seen passing by, moving steadily down the hill. But they were impossible to identify from where the women were huddled against the altar.
Something snuffled over their heads and the pair realized that whatever was outside was actually standing on the roof of the small shrine.
Another scraping sound sent chills down Liliana's spine. She thought that she recognized it. It was the sound of claws being dragged over the rough stones above them.
Irina was shaking so badly now that Liliana feared for her. How long could her weak heart take the strain?
A snuffling noise moved back and forth along the roof as something seemed to be trying to sniff them out.
“Oh Lord, save us,” Irina whispered. “It is evil. A demon hunts us. Save us!”
“Hush, Irina!” Liliana hissed. “Whatever it is, I don't think it knows that we're here. Be quiet and it may pass us by.”
She wrapped her arms around the old woman, careful not to poke her with the knife, and rocked her gently, trying to calm her.
Irina became silent but she still shivered with fright.
Go away, Liliana said silently to their stalker. Whatever you are, go away. There is no one here. We aren't worth your time. Move on.
Her friend clasped her hands together in silent prayer and bowed her head, apparently waiting for the end.
Liliana watched the entrance, not even bothering to raise her knife again. It was a futile gesture anyway. If they were going to die, she could only hope that it was quick.
Another growl shook the air and then, from somewhere down the hill, the two women heard a chorus of screams. Over their heads, a bellowing screech filled them with terror and then, with a scrabbling sound, a heavy body raced forward and leaped off of the shrine, heading in the direction of the wailing. She caught a quick glimpse of rust-colored scales as the hunter disappeared.
Liliana and Irina looked at each other in disbelief.
“It passed us by,” the old woman said breathlessly. “God heard our prayers. It's a miracle.”
“It's not a miracle,” Liliana said bitterly. “Whatever those creatures are, they caught up to the rest of the group. That's what drew off the thing that was stalking us.”
She glared angrily at Irina.
“Or do you think that your God decided to sacrifice their lives to save ours? Because if that is so, it is despicable.”
Irina flinched under her gaze and pulled away.
“No. No, of course not. Oh, those poor girls. God forgive me; I would never wish for such a thing.”
Liliana calmed down and patted the woman's shoulder.
“I'm sorry,” she said contritely. “I didn't mean that. Those hunters must have spotted the group from the top of the hill. But we'd better wait here for a while and hope that they move on and don't come back this way.”
Irina nodded and leaned back against the altar. She closed her eyes while Liliana kept an eye on the entrance.
She was tempted to move forward and see what was happening, but she resisted the idea. It was quite possible that some of those things were still close enough to the shrine to spot her and that was a risk that she wasn't going to take.
A nuzzle against her arm startled Liliana out of her revery and she turned to see that Grom had joined her.
“Hello there,” she said and stroked the wolf's heavy head. “Back from the
hunt already?'
He licked his lips and sat down, panting. He looked at her with his shining eyes as if wondering what she was doing staring blankly across the river.
“Just remembering,” she said as she rubbed her temples.
How long had she been standing there, lost in thought? Memories were funny things. Recall one and suddenly an avalanche can follow.
“Remembering how all of this,” she tapped her sword hilt, “began. It started in the shrine of some unknown saint. Can you believe it? Strange place to start along the path to becoming a paladin, don't you think? Or maybe it was the perfect place. I don't know. I lost a friend that day, a woman I barely knew named Irina.”
She shook her head and looked back across the water.
“I never even knew her last name. We avoided a pack of drakes and then slept that night inside of the shrine. And the next morning, I woke up to find that she had died in her sleep. A weak heart, I suppose. And I couldn't even bury her.”
She had laid Irina's body out in front of the altar, under the unseeing gaze of the female statue. It was all that she could do. The earth was too firmly packed to dig into, even if she'd had a shovel.
It had been tempting to say a prayer over the old woman's body, but what would have been the point? She had looked at the statue before she left though.
“If there is any power within you,” she said to it. “Then take this woman's soul into your keeping. She was a good person.”
The statue remained just that; a carved lump of rock, and Liliana had snorted at herself in disgust for speaking to it.
“Waste of time,” she muttered and crept slowly to the entrance.
The day was cool and gray, but the air was clear and she looked in all directions as she stood up cautiously.
Nothing was moving that she could see and so she nervously began to walk down the hill. It was the same direction that the hunting pack had gone, but she really had no other choice. Going back toward Moscow was pointless and circling the hill to the right or left would accomplish nothing.
The First Paladin (The New Earth Chronicles Book 1) Page 10