The Battle Sylph

by L. J. McDonald

  “Evening.”

  She turned to find Heyou already watching Galway approach, his emotions sparking toward happiness. Galway maintained a steady calm. The trapper nodded to them both and pulled his cloak close around him. Solie had no idea if he’d been told Heyou’s identity, but she suspected not. He didn’t treat either of them any differently, and he didn’t feel afraid.

  “It’ll snow heavily soon,” the man remarked.

  Solie looked out over the plains. They were white in the distance. “You think so?”

  “We might have a few days before it gets really bad. I’ll have to head out first thing in the morning. I wanted to catch you both to say good-bye, just in case I don’t see you again.”

  Heyou looked at the man intently, the emotions Solie felt from him complex and a little sorrowful. He didn’t want the trapper to leave, she realized. He had a strange fondness for Galway that he didn’t really understand. The feeling wasn’t questioned, though, was just accepted as it came. “Do you have to go?” he asked.

  “If I don’t want to stay all winter, yes.” Galway slapped Heyou on the shoulder and Solie decided he didn’t know the truth. Not that the battler would hurt him. Even if he hadn’t felt grateful to Galway, she’d truly stressed the idea of nonviolence to him over the last few days. He wasn’t to hurt anyone, not unless it was to save someone’s life. “I’ll come back in the spring. Okay?”

  “Okay,” Heyou grumped, and the trapper grinned.

  Nearby, air sylphs flowed past over the edge of the bluff, carrying sacks of flour from the stores below. The bags looked as though they were floating in midair. The sylphs themselves felt happy, eager to serve the hive. It was oddly soothing for Solie to sense it.

  One zipped past with a bucket full of milk, and potatoes whisked by seemingly unsupported, though the air currents used to hold them threatened to tangle her hair. Galway saw but said nothing. All of them were getting used to seeing things like that.

  “Have you eaten yet?” Solie asked the trapper.

  “Not yet. Care to join me?”

  Smiling and nodding, Solie turned toward the meal tent, hoping to get there before the hot food was all gone. But while Galway fell in beside her, Heyou didn’t. She called his name. Turning, she found him half facing away from her, staring out at the darkening plains. Leaving her side, he walked slowly past the safety rope placed around the edge, all of his senses focused.

  Solie felt a surge of fright as, looking out into the enshrouding darkness, Heyou started to growl.

  All day the mountains had grown before them, fronted by a bluff like some kind of vanguard. It looked unnatural, as though someone had cleaved off the front and then the top as well. It was probably the work of battlers, Leon decided, from the war that had devastated the plains centuries before. Either that, or earth sylphs had made it before the war as an outpost. It didn’t matter either way. All that mattered was the fact that it was occupied.

  He peered through his spyglass at the cliff, seeing obvious signs of human habitation on the top, as well as livestock herds at the bottom. The raised ridge they’d been following plowed straight toward it, as did Mace. The battler was already a hundred feet ahead.

  Seeing how close they were, the battler had made Jasar keep traveling despite the falling sun. As for himself, Leon hadn’t minded. It would be better to attack in the darkness after all. Likely no one knew to look for them, but they’d still get a lot closer unobserved if they approached at night.

  “Call your battler before he gets so close they can feel him,” he warned.

  Jasar looked at him grumpily, but he called Mace back. The two battlers’ hate could be felt for a long distance, but they were still out of range, and everyone Leon could spy through his glass seemed relaxed. They weren’t expecting an attack.

  “See anything?” Jasar spat. Leon could tell he itched to have a look himself, but he’d never lower himself enough to admit it.

  “Yes. I see pirates.” From the same group they’d ambushed before. Leon was positive. He recognized the wagons at the base of the cliff. He grimaced. He’d been sure they hadn’t gotten everyone, but their ship had been damaged, thanks to a suicide run of a dozen fire sylphs, and Jasar had ostensibly been in charge of that mission. He’d ordered a retreat, and Leon honestly hadn’t minded. Turning Ril loose on anyone, even pirates, felt like murder.

  He glanced at his companion, wondering if Jasar even realized they were in the same general area as before. They were less than a hundred miles from the ambush, and the landscape was nearly identical.

  From his bored expression, Jasar didn’t recognize anything. Then again, he’d stayed in his cabin that entire trip. He still seemed uninterested, but it wasn’t him going into combat. Leon looked at Mace and wondered if they could dare loose the battler, given the sylph’s recent actions. Obvious though the trail was, they hadn’t followed it here. Mace had brought them.

  At least Ril was okay. Leon stroked the battler and felt his hate, though Ril didn’t try to stop him. He knew the sylph would never admit it, but Ril liked to be stroked. Under the hate, Leon could feel a flicker of his contentment, and the anticipation of being released.

  “Just a minute,” he told him. “I’ll let you fight soon.” Or slaughter them, he corrected silently. Those people didn’t have any chance this time. If the girl who’d stolen the battler was indeed here with her sylph, she didn’t have a hope. Her battler hadn’t been able to fight off Ril before. Now he had to deal with two.

  It didn’t feel fair. Leon hadn’t thought so when they ambushed the pirates, and he didn’t think so now. In fact, now that the time was here, the thought of killing the girl made him ill.

  “Go for the battler,” he told Ril. “Kill the girl only if you have no other choice. Leave the rest of the group alone.” The king had said nothing about them when he gave his orders, and surely they had learned their lesson. Leon wouldn’t kill them if he didn’t have to. Pirates or not, they hadn’t killed the crews they robbed. If they had, he would have finished them the first time, no matter how loudly Jasar was screaming that the ship was about to fall.

  The dandy looked over with disgust as Leon gave the order. “What’s with you? Mercy is a waste.” He waved a hand at Mace. “Kill everyone on that cliff,” he ordered, “starting with the girl. Go!”

  Mace took off like a sprinter from where he’d been standing, racing toward the bluff.

  “Damn!” Leon yanked his startled, rearing horse around and dropped his arm. “Ril! Go!”

  Shrieking, the bird was gone, outdistancing the flightless battler. Nonetheless, Jasar smiled smugly at Leon. Leon felt like hitting him.

  Heyou started in surprise, his patterns freezing inside him. His senses were naturally better than the other sylphs, and he could feel them out there: two battlers fast approaching. One was from his own hive line, but silent, refusing to speak to him, and the other…That one had nearly killed him once already.

  Nearby, an air sylph rose up over the cliff edge with a basket of dried meat. She hesitated, her energy patterns showing confusion. Then she started screaming, shrieking a warning about the battler attack. All across the bluff sylphs took up the cry and fled to their masters, desperate to take them and go into the cliffs, to hide within the hive while their battler did his job of protecting them.

  Heyou spun to find Solie. Her face was white. “There are two battlers,” he told her, terrified. If they got past him, they’d kill her, but he couldn’t fight two at once. They were older than him, stronger…“I have to go.” As he turned away, she screamed his name. He glanced back.

  She threw herself at him. “I love you!” she sobbed, hugging him tightly. “Don’t go!”

  He shuddered. That was the only order she could ever give him that he would disobey. “I have to,” he whispered. “This is what I’m for.”

  Galway regarded Heyou evenly as Community men appeared carrying weapons, Devon and Morgal among them. Most of the Community’s members ha
d fled underground with the sylphs, some hauled bodily by their sylphs when they tried to face the danger. “Don’t throw your life away, boy,” the trapper said.

  “I won’t.” Heyou pushed Solie back, wanting to kiss her but afraid, and stared for an instant at the assembled men, most of them not knowing what he was or what was coming, but all of them willing to fight anyway. It made him glad of what he was about to do for them.

  He turned, ran for the edge of the cliff, and leaped off. He heard men shout in surprise and then terror as he changed his shape. Made of smoke and lightning, black wings spread wide, he raced to the attack, screaming his hatred until the plains echoed from it.

  Ril shot forward, racing to attack. He could feel the opposing battler, his fear and hatred, his inexperience. The youngster was going to fight back, though, having no other choice.

  His foe angled toward him, surely recognizing Mace as being from the same hive line as himself but not recognizing that Mace had orders to kill his master. It was a foolish move, Ril thought. The pup wasn’t even fully recovered from their last fight. He’d be terribly easy to kill—and Mace would wipe out everyone on the bluff while Ril did so.

  Screaming defiance of the other battler’s hate, wings tucked back against his body, Ril dove toward his enemy, ready to make this a quickly won fight indeed.

  Mace sprinted for the cliff, his long legs carrying him faster than a horse but not as fast as Ril’s wings. He saw the bird shoot by overhead and the young battler on the cliff leap off to fight him. The young sylph didn’t have a chance, not against Ril’s age and experience.

  Mace dipped down in midstride, coming up with a heavy rock. He hefted it, sighted, and threw.

  Barely meters away from his foe, Ril braced himself to lash out with a wall of energy. This close, the power would blow through the youngster and probably take out most of the cliff face as well, so he had to be careful. He readied himself, aiming so he would kill his target but no one else. Leon’s order matched his own mind: let Mace slaughter the humans and sylphs. He wanted no part of that.

  He braced himself…and a rock thrown as fast as a lightning bolt speared through his left wing.

  “What the hell!” Leon shouted, yanking the spyglass down from his eye.

  Jasar smirked at him. “What?”

  “Your goddamned battler just attacked Ril!”

  Leon was furious. He wanted to kill someone. No, he wanted to maim them and then kill. He could see the dot that was Ril tumbling and the other battler swooping down to finish him off, tiny shadows against the dusk sky. Bringing the spyglass up again, he watched Ril struggle to move his broken wing, flailing at the air and finally just giving up and dropping to avoid the fanged cloud that tried to catch him.

  Below, Mace sprinted past small, panicking herds of livestock and leaped at the cliff face. Digging his fingers into the rock, the battler started to climb.

  Leon shoved his spyglass into his pocket and pointed at Jasar, who was obviously shocked. “If Ril dies, so do you!” He put his heels to the gray and sent it galloping forward.

  Jasar watched in horror as the other man rode off into the fray. After glancing at his distant battler, he grabbed the reins of the packhorse. Turning his steed, he was soon galloping toward safety as fast as he could make them go.

  Heyou was so surprised by the sudden attack that he missed his chance to kill the hawk-shaped battler. Screaming in pain, the bird dropped below him, his shattered wing barely able to hold him aloft. He forced it to, though, flipping around and lashing out with a wall of energy. Heyou dodged to one side but was still caught across the mantle. He tumbled himself, and fought to regain control.

  Below, the other battler of his hive line was climbing the cliff face with amazing speed, scaling it straight toward an unsuspecting Solie. Heyou’s heart surged. This other battler was the one who’d thrown the rock. He was going to protect the queen! Together, they’d be able to defeat the third sylph easily.

  The battler was more than two thirds of the way up the cliff, right below where Solie stood. Heyou dove, racing back to his queen’s side to join him.

  Ril struggled in pain, trying to get his broken wing to work and extremely aware that he was almost helpless. Mace’s betrayal was an agony inside him, and in desperation he looked for his master. Leon was galloping across the plains toward the cliff—judging by his emotions, clearly determined to rescue him. For once, Ril was glad of it.

  His young foe didn’t press the advantage, instead swooping back to the cliff. Ril could see the battler’s master standing there, and Mace climbing up from below. In pain and enraged, Ril folded his wings and dove. His orders were simple: kill the battler if he could, or the girl if he couldn’t. He was too badly hurt to fight even the young battler now, but the girl was unprotected. Screaming, he attacked.

  Solie stood with Devon and the other men of the Community, watching Heyou fight the other battler. She didn’t catch the rock hitting the bird, but she did see the hawk fall and Heyou turn back toward her.

  “What’s he coming back for?” Morgal gasped. “He should finish it!”

  A second later, a huge shape appeared at the edge of the cliff, a massive suit of armor with glowing eyes. Solie screamed, even as she felt the creature’s joy beneath the hate. Around her, men fell back in a panic. Devon was trying desperately to force himself to protect her, but he couldn’t make his body obey him and she couldn’t move. The huge battler looked at her…and lunged.

  Suddenly Heyou was between them, trying to push the larger battler back. He screamed, but the armored creature shoved him aside and rushed at Solie again. Sprawled on the ground, shocked and surprised, Heyou stared in fright at the newcomer. Solie felt the other battler’s arms come around her, his metal gauntlets warm against her skin—

  “No!” she screamed. “Stop it! Don’t hurt me!”

  The helm that formed the battler’s face was only inches from her own, and Solie blinked as she realized the hate was gone, at least from him. Now it only came from above, from the hawk that was diving to strike her.

  The battler threw her to one side and twisted around. Heyou caught her and rolled, pushing her under him and covering her with his body. The armored battler leaped straight up. He caught the diving bird in his huge hands and then landed back on his feet, fighting to hold on. The hawk screamed, digging its claws through his armor, beating one wing at his face. Waves of power were released, but Heyou flared his own energy to shield her. The Community men retreated, shouting, while those who didn’t move fast enough were blown off their feet.

  The armored battler met the hawk’s energy attack with his own. Solie wailed in terror as the pressure in the air increased, both battlers pushing at each other with enough power to vaporize the very stone on which they stood. At last, the bigger sylph slammed the bird into the ground. The hawk went limp, his aura of hate fading. Sprawled on her back beneath Heyou, Solie stared.

  Heyou regarded the huge gray battler, too, not sure if he was on their side. Instinct said he was, but for a moment there…For a second, he’d been more frightened than ever before in his life. He lay atop his queen and wasn’t quite sure what to do.

  Mace peered down, truly happy. He hadn’t felt that emotion in a very long time, and it was all because of the thin young girl under the badly frightened battler. The child had made a nearly fatal mistake, trusting the instinct that said Mace was part of his hive line. But Jasar’s orders had been clear: kill everyone, starting with the girl.

  The saving grace was that Mace couldn’t kill his own queen. The order Jasar had given him was impossible, even before she ordered him to stop. Now, if only he could tell them that.

  The huge gray battler was pleased. Solie swallowed, still frightened by her ability to sense others’ emotions, but she tried to focus on him anyway. He felt oddly as if he wanted to tell her something. “What’s your name?” she asked at last.

  Heyou hugged her and stood, pulling Solie upright and pushing her behind hi
m, glaring at the armored sylph. The big battler only gazed at her, silent.

  “His name is Mace,” Devon said. He stood a dozen feet away, his face ash white, bloodied and dirty. “He’s Lord Jasar Doliard’s battler. He doesn’t speak.”

  “He’s one of the ones that attacked us,” Morgal breathed. “Oh, my god.”

  “Wh-what?” Solie looked around, wanting someone to take over and tell her what to do. Everyone stared, though, waiting for her to make a decision. It was overwhelming, and finally she had to say something just to break the tension. “You can talk if you want to,” she told him.

  “Yes, my queen,” Mace said.

  Everyone gasped. Devon was so surprised that he fell onto his backside in the dirt, gaping. “You can talk?” he gasped. “But you’re forbidden!” Mace ignored him, focused on Solie.

  “Um…” Solie swallowed hard and leaned against Heyou, needing his warmth. He never took his eyes off the other battler, but his arm moved around her and squeezed reassuringly. That helped. “Why did you talk just now if you’re not allowed to?”

  “You gave me permission, my queen.”

  Why did everyone keep calling her that? “How can I be your queen?”

  “You carry the pattern of the hive line. Your orders are sacrosanct.” He nodded to Heyou. “He feels it, too.”

  Solie peeked at Heyou, who had started to relax as Mace spoke, his muscles loosening and his attention focusing more on the unconscious bird that dangled from the bigger battler’s fist. “Heyou?” she gasped.

  He glanced at her and back at Mace. “He’s part of the hive. I got scared there for a minute, but it’s okay.” He glared at the bird. “Can I kill him?”

  “No!” Solie gasped.

  Galway spoke up. “You might need to.” Unlike the others, he wasn’t afraid. He just dabbed at a bloody cut he’d received on one cheek and waited to see what would happen now that the battle was over.