Evadne again spun as her foot shot out and caught Yana in the chest, tossing her back, even as her tail threw back the other girls and she took back what little ground they had gained against her.
Nameless pulled himself to Kar’s side and cradled the mortally wounded Amazon’s heads with his good arm. His own agony was forgotten, and he did his best to shield her with his injured body while he again pleaded with the other girls to save themselves.
Volka, Yana and her three remaining Amazons recovered from Evadne’s latest assault and regrouped, once more placing themselves between her and Nameless.
“She has given too much of herself to the demons of entropy, you should try to gather your wounded and leave.” The Valkyrie said quietly.
“Like that will happen.” Riya said.
Blood trickled from her limp arm. Evadne’s tail had gotten past her spear and savaged her shoulder, and it was clear that the venom was doing its work as the resolute woman grimaced and fought to remain upright.
“I could never face Kar if I left now.” Another Amazon added with sorrow in her voice.
Tiana didn’t say anything; the rage on her face was a match for Yana’s as she scooped up one of her fallen sister’s spears and tossed it to her warleader.
“We will leave when this bitch is food for worms!” Yana said through gritted teeth even as she caught the spear from Tiana.
Volka gave them a grim smile.
“I thought as much.”
They braced themselves as Evadne stalked forwards, laughing once more.
Fortunately before she reached them, help arrived.
The heavy miasma of darkness that hung over the square was suddenly shattered by a booming roar, so loud that Nameless felt it in his bones even as it tore through the shadows, the shockwave ripping them apart and scattering the tattered remnants like rags in a storm.
“Eve! We need to go NOW!”
Jonathan pointed weakly at the sky and Nameless saw something that made him cry out with relief.
A green winged figure was rapidly descending on the combatants.
Xalanth had come.
The Chimera halted and looked up to spot the Dragon with a frown, a soft curse escaping her lips. She leapt back to stand beside Jonathan.
The Dragon landed with a crackling boom between them and Evadne, one hand on the ground and her wings outstretched as she cratered the stone beneath her.
She stood to her full height amidst the shattered cobblestones and quickly took in the sight of the wounded and the obvious cause of it.
She let out another snarling roar directed at the Chimera.
“What treachery is this Evadne!? You would strike down your own sisters with dark magic?”
“Sisters?” Evadne’s voice was mocking; “Silly Dragon, you know that I have no sisters. The humans saw to that.”
Nameless felt cold sweat bead on his brow when he realized she wasn’t even breathing heavily from the intense fight. In fact, the only sign that she had been fighting at all was the destruction surrounding them, a tiny mark on her forehead from Tiana’s spear, and the stain of dark blood from the wound Kar had left on her hip.
Xalanth crossed her arms in front of her chest.
“Revenge? For a crime committed by those long dead? You are a fool! You had my respect once, as bonded mate to an Empath you helped my lady to save many lives, or have you forgotten all of the good that you have done?”
“This gets us nowhere, Eve it is time to leave, unless you want us both to die here, our work left unfinished?” Jonathan broke in from his place behind Evadne.
Xalanth’s eyes widened.
“Jonathan! Awake at last, but part of this madness?!” She snarled, a hint of flame escaping her mouth; “No one is going anywhere, not until I understand what other evils you two have wrought this day.”
But Evadne smiled, and her tail snaked out and wrapped around Jonathan as darkness swirled around them both.
“Poor little Dragon, too old and slow to realize that she’s not the most powerful monster anymore.” Evadne’s taunting voice emerged from the swirling darkness.
Xalanth’s response was immediate and overpowering; she leaned her head forwards and cast her arms out to either side, clawed fists clenched as she unleashed her breath on them.
This was nothing like when she had breathed on Paul.
A raging torrent of Dragon-fire the likes of which had not been seen in a thousand years engulfed the pair utterly.
The air crackled as her flames poured from her gaping maw, the whooshing roar of the attack shattered every window in the city as an orange haze replaced the tattered remnants of darkness that Evadne had exuded.
The cobblestoned ground vibrated from the noise, loose pebbles dancing staccato against the heavier stones beneath them.
Xalanth breathed and breathed, her fire seeming to go on without end and Nameless screamed in primal terror: the heat was overwhelming and it wasn’t even directed at him.
When the flames finally subsided the ground all around where the Dragon’s targets had stood was molten slag and they were nowhere in sight.
“Too slow!” Xalanth snapped her teeth together in frustration.
Nameless found himself drenched in sweat as he gasped for breath in the aftermath.
Then a weak voice caught his attention and made him forget all of his discomfort.
“T-two wonders in one day, never thought to see either.” Kar coughed out, her head still cradled in his lap; “A Valkyrie in f-flight and true Dragon-fire. Lucky.”
She managed a grin, though it was marred by blood.
“Just, just hold on, help will come!” Nameless sobbed.
Helplessly he wiped the sweat off her brow and patted at her loose hair, not wanting to jostle the injured girl.
“No- no help for this. I can’t feel anything, my s-spine. Will die soon.” She coughed again, blood trickling from her lips.
“No, please… don’t go…” He begged pathetically, feeling tiny in the face of the inevitable.
“W-would you h-have taken me to wife?”
Her tearful eyes were full of hope.
“Yes, Kar yes! I’ll take you, just please stay with me!”
He held her in his lap, a disconcerting parallel to the statue in the square.
She half sniffled, half laughed.
“Knew… y-you’d c-cave.”
Her voice was weak, but smug, and his tears flowed in earnest as he clung to her.
“Husband. Back, please. There is naught to be done now but the duty I hold.”
Volka’s gentle voice reached out to him, and Tiana carefully lifted him away from her dying sister. His hand limply held her hair even as he was pulled away, the strands slipping through his fingers.
He looked on as Volka took his place at Kar’s side, removing her winged helmet and placing it next to the gasping woman.
“Speak your name, warrior.” She said quietly as she laid her hand on Kar’s cheek.
“K-Kar, I am Kar Brael, se-second behind the warleader.”
There was a strange eagerness in the Amazon’s face as she stammered her response.
“It is true. She bested me just this morning.” Tiana said somberly from over the sobbing Nameless.
“Well met again, Kar of Brael. I am Volka of the Fourth Host, or what remains of it, and I call you now to your final rest.” She gave a heavy sigh; “Too many times have I knelt as I do now, to bid a young warrior farewell. Such is as it must be however. Go, mighty Kar, you have earned your repose. You helped to save my love this day, and for that you have my thanks, as you depart, know that you will have a place in our hearts for all time.”
Volka leaned over her and pressed her lips to the Amazon’s, Kar’s gasping subsided and her face shifted to a state of wonder.
Then she grinned mischievously.
“Too b-bad, I was r-really hoping I’d get to n-nail your husband.”
She laughed through her bloody smile, but it was
clear she was fading fast.
Volka returned her smile with a gentle chuckle of her own, while her hand stroked Kar’s matted hair.
“Our husband, Kar. But alas, it is not to be. Please… will you give my mother and my sisters my love?” Her voice was vulnerable.
“I-I will, I swear… I will.” Kar promised, her voice trailing off to a whisper as her determined expression faded.
As the gathered monsters watched, her chest stilled and the life faded from her eyes.
“Rest.” Volka whispered again.
She shifted her hand from the Amazon’s brow to draw her eyes closed as she folded her golden wings around Kar’s still body for several moments.
Yana and her sisters’ heads were bowed at the sight. Almost all of the other Amazons were wounded by Evadne’s wrath, but no others fatally. Nameless, still clutching his arm to his chest, staggered out of Tiana’s grip and to his feet.
His left arm and side was a shattered mess of broken bones and broken glass, and by the throbbing in his head he knew that he probably had a concussion, but he would stand on his feet while he mourned with the Amazons.
After a time Volka stood, withdrew her wings, and tucked her helm to her side. When Kar’s body was revealed again, her arms were crossed over her wound and her spear lay at her side, cleaned of her own blood, though the tip was stained black from Evadne’s.
She could have been sleeping…
Volka turned and took in the grief-stricken tac-team.
“It has been an age since I fought alongside your grandmothers’ grandmothers. I had dearly hoped that those days were done, that I would never again have to bear witness to the violent death of a friend. But evil has reared its ugly head in the heart of this place and I will stand with you until it is defeated, this I swear on the life of our fallen sister.”
Tears streaming down her face, Yana gave a jerky nod before speaking in a thick voice.
“Well said, Valkyrie of the Fourth Host, and honoured we will be to have you at our side. But your bond-mate is injured, as are many of my warriors. Juni?”
“Everyone already knows, help is coming.” Juni’s voice had a slight hitch and was tiny as it echoed out of her gourd.
“It is here.” Xalanth rumbled.
The Dragon had tactfully held herself back from the circle of grief, but now nodded towards the crowds of uniformed people pouring into the square from all sides, as well as dozens of winged figures, Hornets and otherwise, descending to secure the area.
And running in front of them all were several familiar faces.
The last several hours had been the most chaotic and tragic of Nameless’s young life. And when combined with the injuries he had suffered, his body decided that now was as good a time as any to be unconscious, so he slumped back into Tiana’s arms.
Chapter 27:
Aftermath
Nameless woke with a start. His eyes rolled around the room as he tried to make sense of his surroundings, and his memories.
Jonathan and Evadne. Volka!
Kar…
He put his face in his hands and discovered that his arm and side didn’t hurt in the slightest. In fact, he wasn’t in any pain at all.
“Dryad magic.” Ophelia said from his bedside as he examined his hands wonderingly.
“What?”
“Three entire groves of Dryads were gathered to heal you in the square, the Aegis ordered it. It was… a sight to behold, the greenery is still there.”
She fluttered to his side, and pulled him into her arms.
“You’ve been out for a couple hours. You scared us.”
He swallowed passed the lump in his throat. Several questions ran through his head, but he pushed all but one aside while he breathed in Ophelia’s floral scent.
“Kar?”
Ophelia sighed.
“Yana and her girls were waiting for you to wake up before they laid her to rest.”
He squeezed his eyes shut tight at the burning tears that threatened to fall.
“And Volka?” His voice was unsteady.
“I am here.”
He turned from Ophelia and looked at the winged blonde woman standing before a floor length mirror examining her own reflection.
“It is a strange thing, to look upon your face after a thousand years.” She murmured with her attention focused on her own striking features.
He stood on shaky legs with Ophelia’s help and walked over to her.
“Volka?” He said again.
She turned to him, but then did something of a double take, as she was staring at the air several inches above his head.
“What’s wrong?” He asked, looking up at her.
Bemused, she placed her hand flat against the top of his head, and then drew a line towards her breast.
“Husband, you are a good deal taller in your mind.” She said, then blushed slightly; “Forgive me, but I have not had form in so very long.”
“It’s alright.” He drew in a shuddering breath; “Are you? Alright, I mean?”
She nodded.
“I am. I took all of the divine essence that I needed from you, a terrible risk and I was not sure it was even possible. But I stand before you now, a Valkyrie fully realized once more.”
She turned back to the mirror and he did likewise.
A stranger stared back at him.
Weeks of travel and sexual exercise had changed him in ways he didn’t realize: he was the same short man he had always been, but now corded muscles had replaced the baby fat that used to cover his chest and stomach. His biceps, while not huge, were well defined, as were his abs.
White scars, on his chin and chest from Clint’s whip and the new ones on his arm, shoulder and left side from the broken glass and Evadne’s assault, stood out starkly against his sun-bronzed skin.
On top of this he hadn’t had a proper haircut since before he met Milly and so his hair was getting long and he realized that he had made a habit of pulling it behind his ears.
But the most striking thing were his eyes, red with grief and looking older by far than his two decades.
He didn’t recognize himself anymore.
Ophelia spoke hesitantly from behind him.
“Miranda and the council, they were waiting for you to wake up as well. We wanted to give you more time, but they insisted that you be brought to them as soon as you were able. I’m so sorry, dearheart.”
He buried his face in his hand even as Volka placed her hand on his shoulder, offering silent comfort as he fought back a wave of guilt.
“You mustn’t blame yourself.” Volka’s tone was gentle.
“I did this, I woke him up. I fixed him.”
“Nameless-” Ophelia began, but he cut her off, his head turning to look at her over his shoulder.
“Cass!”
“What?”
“Her name, it was Cass!”
“What are you-” Ophelia was puzzled.
“It was all there in his mind! The reason there are so few Empaths, it’s because of them. The Trog with the sash and the iron stud in her ear? Her name was Cass. Just like Bask said, she was friends with my father. My mom… my mom was like me I think. Cass was helping my father to hide me, and they knew! Somehow Jonathan and Evadne knew where to find them.” He closed his eyes as he struggled to make the broken memories he had gleaned from Jonathan make sense; “Cass and my father fought against her when they came for us, when they came for me.”
Ophelia’s paled.
“Evadne and Jonathan… they came for you?”
A lump formed in his throat as he nodded.
“My f-father, he died protecting me. You were right Ophelia, to keep me a secret. If you had gone to the Aegis… Evadne would have killed every child in the orphanage just to get to me!”
She sobbed and Volka’s grip on his shoulder tightened.
“We have to stop them.” He said with a shake of his head, his mind reeling at the new knowledge about his past.
“
We will, Husband. But we need the help of this council to do so.”
He nodded, threw on a shirt and allowed Volka to lead him out of the infirmary, absently he wondered where the others were but found out soon enough as they were standing guard in the hall, along with Escrya and her sisters, who wouldn’t meet his gaze.
Milly and Erica pulled him into an awkward hug and held him tight.
“Master… Kar.” Milly whimpered.
“I know, baby. I’m so sorry.” He closed his eyes tight as a few more tears seeped out into her cleavage.
Nina spoke and it was as the mountain as she stood apart from them.
“I swear to you all, the last Chimera will die by my hand.”
Her red eyes were wide and her grip on her hammer tight.
Volka frowned but said nothing while Erica sobbed against his shoulder.
Their hug broke apart all too soon.
Myrina looked like she wanted to say something, but closed her mouth and turned away again.
Nameless was troubled by her behaviour but knew that he couldn’t keep the leaders of the Aegis waiting.
“Sorry but I guess we need to go to this council meeting thing.”
“Yes, there is much that they must know of, and much I would learn from them.” Volka agreed.
A few minutes later they were in a round room with a semi-circular table arranged in a ‘C’ against the back wall. There was an awkward moment at the door when all but he and Volka were denied entry.
Fortunately Kala, Jan and Jezebel were there as well as Juni in her gourd.
“The chamber within is not large enough to accommodate us all.” Kala’s voice was full of grief as she urged them inside.
Within the chamber waited the five high-councilors of the Aegis, as well as Miranda, Yana, Sadie and Xalanth.
The image of the man, his father, in Jonathan’s memory screaming in agony suddenly overcame him for a moment as the faces in the room all turned to him.
“Nameless?” Miranda’s voice was uncertain as she called to him.
He shook his head, trying to clear the confusion of the other man’s thoughts. He looked up at the group of men and woman in front of him.
He was in the Aegis council chamber, about to be debriefed by their high command; he needed to get his shit together.
Legacy of the Valkyrie Page 36