The Flame of Wrath

by Christene Knight

  Any remaining families awaiting escape from Aurea had slipped into the tunnels beneath the province. She knew that they were safe, but now she was faced with another dilemma. Would Aurea believe their ruse?

  In the aftermath of war, the countryside would be riddled with bodies, some too damaged to identify. Were they members of the Empire or those allied with the Honored Mother? This would be the question. Aurea never knew how great her opposition was. Perhaps that would be their saving grace. If Aurea saw only scorched remains and fallen armor, maybe just maybe she might listen to arrogance's voice as it spoke confidently into her ear.

  Oh how Autumn prayed for that outcome! Aurea must look upon the ruined remnants and revel in her victory. Otherwise, she would bitterly send her might down upon the land, doing all she could to find and destroy whatever opposition remained.

  The jagged surface of the mountain forgot its inhospitality, offering up a small path. Autumn hoisted herself up onto the path. She took no time to catch her breath. Instead she raced along the path's length. Each spirited step taken was accentuated by the gritty sound of the soil beneath her feet.

  Following the sharp cutting path, she veered dramatically to her right. Her ears perked suddenly.

  A rustling sound disturbed the distinct sound of her heart thundering inside her ears. The sound had come from the path just ahead. Her eyes narrowed in the sound's direction. Someone was just around the bend. With a new conviction, she charged forward.

  Turning the corner, her eyes took in the stretch of cliff nestled against the mountain's side. Its surface panned outward into a flat plane. She stopped. Her eyes searched the area around her.

  A deep uneasiness began to pull at the pit of her stomach. An intense silence filled this place. It was unnatural. Her body tensed with wariness. She shifted her eyes to the earth at her feet. A shadow fell over her, commanding the Queen to look up. She had only just managed to lift her shield above her head before a sword came crashing down upon it. With a growl of exertion, she pushed upward with both arms. The might of her actions tossed the descending attacker from her body.

  A loud gasp filled the air as the warrior impacted roughly into the wall of the mountain. The force with which the warrior hit sent an ornate helmet free. It now fell with agonizing slowness then crashed brutally against the ground.

  Autumn's eyes widened. She swallowed convulsively at her sickening shock.

  Long blond curls tumbled around the face of rage. Her cheeks were flushed by the day's increasing heat. Sharply, she lifted her eyes. Their depths darkened bitterly to an intense blue. Within their innermost recesses angry flames were stoked to new heights.

  Taking a horrified step backward, Autumn blanched at the very sight of the woman.

  Aurea pushed herself upright with a condescending smile affixed to her face. “I had to be sure,” she explained. “I couldn't leave such an important task to your brother now could I? He was absolutely worthless when it came to matters of importance. Especially while facing a real opponent.” Her smile intensified. “By the way, my Love, how did it feel taking his life?”

  With a growl of rage, Autumn rushed at the Empress.

  Their swords locked together with a resounding clash.

  The sun bathed their battle with a heat to match their fury. It caught on the golden glory of Aurea's hair as readily as it caught against the bronze of Autumn's armor. It danced between the flashes of twirling red or swaying white tunics.

  For a blinding instant, the light had Aurea aglow. Her golden armor flooded Autumn's steel-gray eyes so much so that the Queen cried out.

  Autumn staggered backwards, struggling to see. She blinked wildly as her sight slowly began to return to her. The sounds of her opponent to her left acted as a warning. She veered just in time.

  As Aurea hastily threw her weight behind her downward attack, Autumn took advantage of her faltering balance. She thrust her forearm into the Empress' face. Though her vision was muted by haze, she could see Aurea falling to the ground in pain.

  Breathlessly, they each took pause.

  A trembling hand reached for her face. Aurea could feel the wetness coming from her mouth and nose. She stared to the vibrant red glinting in the sunlight.

  “What's the matter, Empress?” Autumn asked. She straightened her stance then prepared herself to fight once more. “Is it different when the blood on your hands is yours?”

  Aurea clenched her teeth and let loose a scream of frustration. She pounded her fist against the ground while lost in a tantrum. Then ferociously she scrambled to her feet.

  The Empress was shaking violently. Her infamous rage had once again gotten the better of her. The flames of her eyes spread wildly across her pupils, consuming them zealously. “This fight is too evenly matched,” she admitted quietly.

  Autumn searched the Empress' wild eyes. “You're wrong, my Love,” she rasped. “We were never evenly matched. That's what threatens you the most. You can't stand not being good enough.”

  Aurea lurched forward. She sent her sword crashing downward with all the savage might she could muster. Her furious eyes sparkled with something inhuman. As she commanded her opponent's attention, she smiled darkly. In her eyes the reflection of an advancing figure burned brightly.

  Autumn held her sword steadfast against the sword which thirsted for her life. Inside Aurea's eyes, she saw her imminent death. It came as the warrior approaching from behind. She quickly lifted her shield behind her head. The act had come not a moment too soon. As soon as her shield was raised it was greeted by a sword hitting it with such force that its blade caught in the shield's skin.

  She shifted her blue-gray eyes to gaze into blue oceans thrashing with sorrow and desperation. “Olivia,” Autumn breathed in recognition.

  “Their deaths have to have been for something,” Olivia whispered. She thought of her fallen family as she held Autumn's stormy eyes. “You and your baby have to die.”

  Together, the three women danced to the music of self-preservation. Death swirled about them, forewarning of its coming. And yet, the women seemed enthralled by its song.

  Olivia jerked back her sword. The act ripped Autumn's shield from her possession.

  Reacting quickly, the dark-haired woman drew her dagger from its sheath at her ankle. She held it firmly, keeping it locked against the sword so desperate to run her through. As adrenaline coursed through her, her arm was strengthened by a hidden reserve of power. It had been just enough to alter the path of Olivia's sword, but not enough to save her from it.

  The sudden change in stormy eyes commanded Aurea's attention. She noted their glassy expression. She had seen it once before while their bodies had been locked together in passion. And yet now though it was similar, there was something wholly separate about its nature. This was pain.

  Aurea's chest raced with excitement. “Go ahead,” she prompted. “Scream.” She watched with a tilted head as Autumn struggled not to cry out. “Now you know what it feels like,” she said, “to---”

  Angrily, Autumn expelled a violent breath. The fierce heat of smoke raced stingingly over Aurea's face.

  The Empress screamed and turned her head. She staggered backward, breaking herself of their entanglement.

  “You hurt me first!” Autumn growled with heated blooms of smoke accentuating each word. She drew back, slipping away from the sword's reach.

  “Olivia!” Aurea screamed.

  Startled by the snapped sound of the Empress' voice, Olivia rushed forward. She responded with blind loyalty to her sovereign, needing only a word to act. She was what years of servitude had conditioned her to be, an Enforcer of Virtue, a slayer of darkened souls.

  With righteousness teeming through her, she thrust her sword into Autumn's torso. In her mind, she aimed for the beast she knew this woman carried. She fought to kill a pagan abomination and its unholy mother.

  Autumn momentarily lost sight of the world. Her vision blurred with tears. They trickled down her face, ridding her of a
day's battling in a single line upon each cheek. She fell toward the ground with all the might of a crashing giant.

  Autumn's eyes were steadily losing their strength as her blood spread like liquid fire to scorch the earth. Her eyes darted from the sky above to the thing she saw protruding from her body so morbidly. It did not belong there. She struggled to breath around it, feeling it rise and fall with each painful breath she took. Her trembling hand reached down to hold the hilt when a shaken Olivia staggered backward.

  The Queen focused her eyes upon the Knight. Her gaze sent the young woman quaking.

  “No other way,” Olivia muttered again and again. Her blue eyes stared hauntingly to her feet as she clutched her head.

  The Empress clutched the scalded left side of her face. It throbbed with pain. The heat which emanated from its surface all but burned her palm. In that moment, she did not realize that the monstrosities of her soul had manifested themselves upon her skin. Instead all she could do was shake with rage as she stared to Autumn's collapsed body.

  The woman Aurea saw laying upon the earth was a traitor. She had not betrayed the crown. In that instant, Aurea cared nothing for her title. All that mattered to her was that Autumn had spurned her, spurned their love for one another only to have Aurea find her with child months later.

  Aurea hated her. She hated all that Autumn represented. The only way to be free of her spell was to rid herself of the woman who had cast it.

  Aurea's voice called Autumn's eyes away from the woman who knelt huddled against the mountain with her hands clutching her swirling mind.

  “I promised myself that I would hold you one more time,” Aurea admitted. She limped forward with hatred in her eyes. That emotion suddenly fell away. Sadness prevailed instead. “One more time.”

  Autumn hated herself for feeling the pain she did when she looked into Aurea's tortured eyes. She wanted to damn Aurea. She wanted to angrily snatch the life from her body. She wanted to hate her with every fiber of her being, but too much of her still loved Aurea. No matter what had happened, no matter how their fates had been twisted, she remembered the woman who had held her in her arms on a dreamy summer night.

  The Empress in gold lowered to the ground. She straddled Autumn's hips. A lump welled in her throat as her knee felt the touch of hot blood washing against its soft shore. Her trembling hand reached out. Her fingertips ran the length of Autumn's paling cheek.

  As they peered into each other, they realized that they would forever be locked together in love and hate. Their eyes could not and would not look away from the others. This was their final embrace. This was the bitter end to something once so sweet.

  Aurea lowered her hand lovingly over a proud jaw. She felt the awkward position of her body as something existed between them. Something had always existed between them. Now that something was the sword which stole more of Autumn's life by the moment.

  Her other hand tenderly caressed a sweat-lined arm then up along its tense shoulder. The fluid actions of her caress came together. They met at an elegant neck. She held her trembling hands around the throat she had once lavished in loving kisses. She tightened her grip relentlessly as tears streamed down her face.

  Autumn whimpered. She clawed at the hands around her neck. A fire of will stoked itself inside her eyes. She remembered her baby.

  Ash and bloom. My life to ash so that my child's might bloom, she prayed to her ancestor Djidjiga and to the Goddess Mother whom Djidjiga loved so dearly. She had struck a mother's bargain. To prove her determination to honor this pact, she fought for the baby she believed in.

  Her balled fist rose desperately. Autumn pummeled at the temple she had so often smoothed. Her assault was filled with such malice that it could scarcely have come from one who had once been so in love.

  Die!, Aurea's eyes pleaded. She tottered and swayed. Her world blurred violently with the last hit to her head. Why wouldn't she die?

  A flash of color and a shadow came. Aurea watched as hands possessively grasped hold of Autumn's struggling hands. For a brief moment, she glanced upward.

  Olivia pressed down on Autumn's wrists. She weighted them mercilessly to the ground on either side of the battling woman's head. “Finish it!” she commanded. In her voice, in her glassy blue eyes, there appeared to be a desire to kill Autumn quickly. Was it a sense of mercy or simply a desire to prove herself to her Empress?

  The Empress growled loudly as if to push the last of her strength from her body. That summoned strength was inside her hands as they clasped hold of a bloody sword. She rammed forward, stopping only when she heard the piercing sound of the sword embedding itself into the stony earth below.

  Aurea blinked in disbelief. The world around them roared with deafening silence. Her wide eyes looked down. The silence shattered with brittle sadness.

  Autumn's body bowed upward. She was rigid with pain. Her eyes were far away as if voicing that her soul had gone on to the constellations she loved so deeply. Her breath choked past her lips in sputtered rasps. Then slowly, very slowly Autumn ceased moving. Her eyes closed as her head lolled to the side. She was the picture of stillness. It was then that she finally became the motionless statue Aurea had likened her beauty to the first night she had laid eyes on the woman, her fallen angel.

  Olivia shakily released the woman's wrists. She sat back on her heels, staring heavily upon the woman. Autumn appeared to be sleeping peacefully, but the sickening feeling consuming her heart knew the truth. Autumn would never wake.

  Aurea stared down at the beautiful woman beneath her. With hands still loosely enveloping a graceful hilt, she leaned forward. She touched her lips to cooling lips for one final kiss. The lips were soft and yielding but they gave no comfort.

  Tears streamed down Aurea's face. They fell to pale cheeks, granting her the semblance of her last tears.

  “I loved you,” Aurea breathed. “Oh how I loved you.” Her voice was a rasp of sobs and rage. She let loose a growl. “I would have given you the world! The world, Autumn! Why didn't you just listen to me?”

  The Empress sat up abruptly. Her left hand drew back to bestow a stinging slap to the serene face of an angel. She quickly brought her hands to her mouth, crying violently. The horror shown across her face as realization sunk in.

  Autumn was dead. Her beautiful Autumn was dead. She had not fallen to a Lucidian upon the battlefield as Aurea had feared. Autumn had been murdered by Aurea’s own trembling hands. She had killed her.

  Aurea released a sound which rattled the rafters of the sky. It was a monstrous sound, birthed of one's own bestial demons, fed by self-destruction. Tears left her more forcibly as she cried all the more. Her head turned. Her eyes widened.

  Olivia scrambled to her feet. She scooped up Autumn's fallen sword. She roared as she charged toward the snarling beast raging forward.

  Angry froth hung from vengeful fangs as Soren's herculean jaws snapped open.

  Screaming, Olivia slashed at him. This was the monster that had killed her brothers and sisters. Their blood still stained his fur. Her sword clanged loudly against his dagger-like teeth.

  Soren snaked out his massive paw. His claws pierced through her armor before she was batted mercilessly into the mountain.

  Olivia slid down to the ground. Weakly, she mouthed what little warning she could, but her voice was little more than her last breath. “Run.”

  “Aurea!” Soren bellowed in a menacing thunder.

  Aurea rose up from her dead obsession. With wobbling legs, she spirited herself over the cliff's edge. Above the winds of her plummet, she whistled loudly.

  A giant owl having heard the whistle swooped down from the clouds. Upon its proud back, it caught its mistress.

  A bestial Soren snarled as he sped forward. His cardinal eyes burned with hatred, but more than anything they glistened with tears. He could smell the blood in the air. He could see the waning lights of the aura which had once been there.

  Aurea looked beyond her shoulder. Her eyes bur
ned all the more zealously as the wolf drew closer to Autumn's body and released a haunting howl of lament. She knew that sound. Her soul had made that sound the instant she had realized what she had done.

  An odd sort of accomplishment filled her.

  I've done it, Aurea thought.

  The Empress had finally hurt Soren more than she had ever dreamed possible and all it took was the sacrifice of her own heart.

  Aurea's fingertips traced the skin scarring with each passing moment. For the first time in her entire life, Aurea wondered if perhaps she was the monster Autumn had come to view her as. She exercised that thought from her being.

  No, she reminded herself. Autumn had been the traitor. Autumn had been the threat to her rule, to her virtuous world.

  Aurea closed her eyes listening to Soren's cries morph from beast to man. She released a soft moan from her lips, savoring his pains while denying her own.

  ********

  Zahara had entrusted the army to King Frost. He was a very good man and she knew that he would lead them to safety. However, she could not leave this place without Autumn.

  Echo and Myth had felt the same. They had all started this day together and the old friends were determined to see it through... together.

  Why hadn't Soren returned with the Queen?

  Together, they maneuvered through the flaming field. They moved in the direction that the wolf had last been seen when they heard the wolf's mournful scream. It was echoed again by another painful howl which raged on into a man's raw cries.

  Zahara's brown eyes welled with tears. Her face blanched sorrowfully. She scanned the horizon to see Echo sinking to her knees. Echo angrily punched at the earth as tears streamed down her face.

  Standing apart from them, Myth's haunting eyes closed. “The Honored Mother is dead.”

  ********

  Soren's head was lowered in defeat. He had failed. What good had it done to fight as hard as they had, if this was how it would end? Where was the fairness in it all? Where was the justice?