by Billy Wong
"They don't like outsiders, do they?"
"The young ones aren't so hard to make friends with, but they hold no power anyway."
She exhaled resignedly. "Well, Kayla, you haven't been much of a help tonight."
"It seems not. If only old Sore were here..."
"Who?"
"My horse. He always knew what to do to get the best outcome for him. Though, his choice was always between staying and running. The latter probably saved his life a few times, even when it cost me pain."
Rose felt her expression not change. "Was that supposed to be funny? It wasn't particularly."
"I guess dead women can crack skin, but not jokes. Listen, I expect you to kill those giants, all right?"
"No, it's not all right."
"Don't you be stupid."
She didn't want to argue about this anymore, and decided to make like Sore and run away. Willing herself out of the dream, she snapped awake.
#
On the road early next morning, Finn asked her, "You saw Kayla last night, didn't you? Did you ask her what to do?"
"Yeah."
"And what did she say?"
Rose met his eyes, jaw tight with determination. "She told me to murder them, same as you. But I won't do it. I'm going to get them to stop, some how some way."
"Aren't you going to use their children to do that?"
"That won't work," she admitted, and explained why. A surge of anger at the giants' refusal to listen as well as their view of children heated her blood. "But I am going to convince them, even if I have to kill a few in battle to win their respect."
Finn's brow rose. "That hardly sounds much better than executing them in their sleep. More honorable sure, but harder too."
"Well, I'm not dead set on doing that. Just saying I will if it's the only way. And besides, some isn't the same as all."
"Yeah, but it'd be more dangerous that way."
"Me worry about danger? Anyone else who'd lived through what I have would be dead a hundred times over. I doubt I have an organ that hasn't been torn apart at one point. So I'm more than ready to risk my life." But then she thought of her twins, and doubt filled her mind. If she did die, Jacob and Amber wouldn't have a mother to raise them. And Finn was here as well. It would be doubly worse if they both died. They had a responsibility to their children to stay alive.
On a related note, Kayland would be down two guardians against the likes of Victor with them gone. Tears of guilt at the compromise she must make flowing from her eyes, Rose said, "Fine, Finn, kill them if you like. But not the kids, okay?"
At her sudden tears, alarm showed plainly on his face. "W-what's wrong? What made you change your mind?"
"We can't die. Our children need for us to survive."
"Oh, Rose... I'm sorry. I wish we could always live up to our ideals too, but it's just not possible all the time."
"I know. That's why I'm conceding my position. Hopefully the evil we do will be worth it, in terms of preventing others from suffering."
#
Though she wanted dearly to preserve Kayland's future and her own, Rose grew more and more disturbed thinking about the plan they had settled on as they neared the third giants' resting place on the Norh plains. She was lost almost completely within her self-torment when a deafening screech filled the air. Her gaze following the noise up, she spotted what looked at first glance to be a diving eagle the size of an elephant. "Look out!" Finn cried while its talons swept down towards the group.
They dove aside, and Rose watched it swing around for another pass. This time, she noticed sharp fangs dripping with venom housed within its beak, and scales on the undersides of its wings and its belly. Mick sprinted away in a random direction, and doubting he could get to cover in time she hoped the creature would not follow. Luckily it didn't, which made her suspect it preferred bigger game.
"What is that?!" he shouted back.
"I think it's the giants' guardian for this place," Finn said.
Rose shot a look of irritation at the thing. "That's great."
The serpent-eagle swooped again and Rose blasted it with a firebolt, thinking it might set the feathers covering its upper half aflame. It sailed on through, a bit of smoke rising from it but mostly uninjured. Not unexpected if it had been created with magic, for it to be resistant to arcane attack. She struck out with her sword as it closed, grazing its leg. It pulled up, the front of one claw bumping against her pauldron while it passed. Finn threw his backup axe, an old trophy from her first defeat of Prince Wilner, after the beast, and struck it in the rump.
Blood dripped to the ground as it wobbled in flight. "Doesn't look like it'll be that hard," Finn said. Then two more equally large birds soared into view, and he amended, "On second thought, it might be pretty hard."
The new birds streaked towards them, the wounded one lagging a bit behind. Rose knew they couldn't afford to play defense now and instead charged at an oncoming bird, jumping high to meet it. Her sword sliced through its belly, and its guts cascaded down as its dying mass slammed into the ground behind her. She turned to see Finn battling with mace and shield against the other healthy bird's beak and claws. He caught it on the ankle with his bludgeon, and its shrill cry split the air. Not so healthy anymore. But the wounded bird approached in an erratic dive, and Rose rushed to keep it from taking her husband off guard.
It was too far away to melee in time, so Rose threw her sword, catching it in the shoulder. It dropped out of the sky, but scrambled to its feet shaking its head. Rose drew her axe and ran at it, slashing high. The heavy blade bit deep into its beak, but it still wasn't dead. Thrashing, it dislodged the axe and threw her to the ground. It stomped on her, pinned her down. Its beak opened wide.
Rose blocked its peck with her shield, though the impact numbed her arm. The stink of venom dripping onto the metal made her nose crinkle in disgust, and Rose hacked into its leg. Its limb nearly severed, the avian hopped off unsteadily as if to flee. Not wanting to let it recover to attack again on a later date—or not so later, as some magical creatures healed at insane rates—she stood and followed. Before it could take flight, her blade sheared through its other leg. It fell on its side, and she finished with two chops to the neck.
By now Finn had killed his bird, its brains leaking from a broken temple, and asked, "You okay?"
"I only got stomped by a two-ton bird, not a hundred-ton dragon like the other time. You?"
He laughed. "I love you. And I'm fine. So where is this resting place?"
"Kayla said it would be above a stone foot. I wish she could have given us better directions."
"I don't think she could have done much better. Approximate distances, landmarks—what more could you want, for her to give you a map in your dream? We probably couldn't convey the locations of places we know more exactly."
"Well, she can describe her landmarks pretty cryptically. But I guess a 'stone foot' might be what we'd call a foundation? Not too useful to know a structure you're looking for has a foundation, considering most do. Where's Mick, anyway?"
"I don't know." He pointed to her right. "But maybe by stone foot, she meant that."
Overlooking the tundra was a reddish rock formation longer than it was wide, and resembling slightly the shape of a foot. She hadn't looked close enough to take in the whole thing before. From between the two "toes" on one side, Mick walked out with a bashful smile. "Yeah, but where's the building?" Rose asked.
"Let's go and see."
They climbed atop the seemingly natural structure, Mick insisting on following so that they had to throw him a rope after they made it up. Knocking here and there, Rose surmised, "It's not hollow. But Kayla said the giants would be 'above' this thing." She looked up. "Could they be in the sky?"
"I don't see anything up there but clouds. Maybe it's hidden inside one of them. Can we fly up there?"
Rose wasn't really skilled enough to fly like ancient sorcerers had; even Finn had never attained that level of ability. B
ut she knew the basic ideas behind using air magic to defy the earth's pull. "I can't fly, but with the aid of a big sheet of canvas, I think I can get the wind to help us float up. The lack of air might be a problem, but I figure since the giants need to breathe too when not frozen, they probably aren't so high up we can't take it."
Finn grinned proudly. "Yeah, we're tough. Where are we going to get a big sheet of canvas though, do we have to find a town?"
"Or, we can use our tent."
"Straight up here, then?"
"I see a low cloud directly above, so I guess we can check that one first." They stretched out their tent across the outcropping and held onto opposite sides while Rose chanted the spell that would send it floating slowly upward.
Before they could get more than a few feet off the ground, Mick cried, "Wait! Let me come too."
"I don't think you should," Rose said. "Do you know how well you can deal with high altitude?"
"I'm sure I can handle it!" Without waiting for their consent, he jumped and grabbed onto the tent turned flying device. Rose could have stopped the spell, insisted he stay put and started over, but decided against it. If Mick really had trouble, then they could set him down and he probably wouldn't be tempted to try coming along again.
They continued to rise so that the stone foot shrank beneath them. The air grew thinner and thinner, and Rose's head felt light. "Are you alright?" Finn asked, sounding less than energetic himself.
"I'll be fine."
Mick looked like he was barely hanging on, though. "I guess... you guys... were right," he wheezed, eyes open just a slit. "I don't... think I can go any higher."
Rose aborted the ascent, letting the tent slow their trip back down. After resting so she could recover somewhat from the exertion of the spell, they left Mick earthbound and started over. By the time they reached the bottom of the cloud, even they were dizzy though they made light of it, Finn saying, "I hope they have proper air inside."
They could not see into the cloud from outside it, but stopped rising before they could enter as their tent bumped into something solid above. Manuvering the tent to the side of the obstacle, they resumed their ascent, groping before them for what they had hit while their faces grew moist. Rose felt her fingers brush against stone, and said, "This must be the resting place. How do you think they plan to get down?"
"Besides the fact they probably have better magic than us, it might be set to descend when the elder waves or something. You know, typical mages' lair tricks."
They didn't have to make their own way in this time, as Finn's hand soon found the door inside. Happily enough, there was a doorstep attached to the portal. The two of them strained to push it open a hair and leaned against it after, gasping for breath.
Up here the sunlight seemed astoundingly bright, and looking at Finn, Rose felt like she gazed upon a (rough) angelic beacon of light. Though she dreaded what they would soon have to do, she couldn't help a smile. "This has been some adventure, eh?"
"I know I'm amazed."
"Yes, this is quite the view."
"That's not what I meant, though it's true too. It's hard sometimes to believe how much we've seen and done already, especially you being twenty-five."
"What's that in warrior years, though?" She frowned, remembering the suffering along with the joy. "Feels kind of like we've lived more than our share of life."
"Oh, don't talk like that. We still have many happy days ahead of us."
"I hope so—no, we'll make it that way."
Finn nodded, and not letting her make further delay slipped inside. Another score of giants rested like the previous ones they'd seen within the chamber. "Time to charge up your blade," he said.
Rose hesitated, holding back the words which would ignite her sword with magical fire. Doing so would help her penetrate the ice, as she and Finn had discussed last night. Then she was supposed to make one thrust into each of the giants' hearts, except for the kids who they would try to truss up with chains when they woke. But she didn't want to murder the adults either, especially when they slumbered unaware of their plight, and stammered at last, "Y-you do it, Finn."
"You're the sword user... ugh, fine." He took the sword from her after she lit it with eldritch flame. Finding the oldest-looking male, he stood on her shoulders, took aim and stabbed through the ice. Rose cringed at the sound. When Finn withdrew the blade, bright blood poured out the hole in the block. The yellow-bearded giant's face remained impassive as though nothing had changed and he still slept, but there was a hole in his chest and he would never wake.
Finn directed Rose to the next block and thrust this time into a female's heart. Again the running red assaulted her conscience. She felt terrible guilt for going through with the deed, and wanted not to look. But she couldn't avert her eyes. A third giant died, and then as Finn drew back the sword for his next kill, Rose stepped backwards, putting it out of reach. "No, enough! I... I can't bear to waste any more lives."
After regaining his balance upon her shoulders, he looked down at her with annoyance. "Stop flip-flopping, woman. First you don't want to, then you do, now you don't again—just let me do what we have to."
"This is wrong, Finn. They don't mean to do wrong, and we're killing them in their sleep. I want to help our people too, but this isn't just."
"We're preventing greater loss of life, and it's too late to stop now. Look, I've already killed three of them. What do you think they'll do if they wake up? You can't think they'd listen to our words at this point!"
She knew he was right, and hated herself for letting him start the slaughter in the first place. Even the Iron Flower's resolve wasn't always strong enough. "W-we could lie. Tell them someone else killed those three, maybe even that our enemies did it, so they would-"
"That's not going to work. You'd give away the lie, and they'd probably figure it out anyway. We have got to finish this."
Rose felt destroyed. She wanted to sit on the floor and cry, but him standing on her discouraged that. "Then do it, Finn. But I'll never forget this day, and I don't mean that in a good way."
"Sorry."
She walked him back to his previous target with tears in her eyes, and in sunk the blade. "I hate this so much," she whispered.
Slowly, he replied, "Rose... it looks like I won't be executing too many more sleepers today."
"What do you mean?" She turned to look—and saw that the giants were coming awake. "Finn, give me back my sword!"
"I think I can get one more." After killing a last sleeper he tossed it to her and jumped off, and she plunged it through the femoral artery of a female giant just as she woke. Rose pulled it out and she tripped to her butt, trying futilely to pinch off the mortal flow of blood. As the next giant stepped forward from his bed, she cut through his leg. Lucky they were still disoriented from their long slumber and unprepared for a fight. She finished him with a slice to the throat, hopped onto his body to leap at another giant and stab into his midsection. Gravity dragged her sword down through his gut as it pulled her weight earthward, and his steaming innards cascaded out.
Rose saw Finn blind a giant with a shield throw and crush another's foot with his mace. She stabbed him through the back of the neck as he fell, severed the spine. Finn hurled his axe into an emerging giant's throat, and she felt grateful they at least hadn't all woken at the same time. A giantess wailed in grief over a dead male, only to freeze when Finn sent a crossbow bolt through her mouth. Rose shivered as she fell away, the tip sticking out the base of her skull. Then a heavy impact struck her back. She felt hot agony, and her body flying.
She crashed hard against a wall, the smell of cooked flesh—her own—in her nose. Magic, she knew as she rolled over to face the female giant with glowing hands and a determined face. Rose stood and the giantess blasted her with a lightning bolt, throwing her back against the wall. She gritted her teeth, charged as another bolt lanced her way. This time she had steeled herself enough, and ran through the blast before cleaving a h
uge kneecap. The giantess' head fell into reach when she went to one knee. Rose jumped to stab her through the temple and turned to aid Finn.
He shattered the bridge of the downed, blinded giant's nose with his mace, only to be caught and lifted from behind. The giant looked to try and rip him in two, but before he could Rose threw her sword through one of his wrists. He screamed, and Finn's mace burst an eye. The giant staggered back against a wall while two more interposed themselves before the couple. Rose drew the twin of Finn's axe and hacked into the bottom of a thigh. Finn ran past her, dodging a giantess' grab while smashing her ankle with his mace.
A kneeling haymaker from her giant knocked Rose away, and he spun to help his companion. His kick sent Finn flying, and Rose's breath caught in her throat when he did not rise quickly. Forcing herself up despite her skull throbbing like mad, she rushed behind the giant stalking her husband to lay open his calf. He fell on his face, and she chopped through his kidney. She crouched beside Finn. "You okay?!"
He winced, clutching his side. "Might've cracked a rib, but I'll be fine."
Rose looked to the last two adult giants. She saw the half-blind male supporting the crippled female while they attempted to limp away and hesitated. "Surrender," she said, "and you'll see another night."
"What, and be your slaves?" the giantess spat.
"No, that's not what we want. We were just..." She'd thought to say they had been trying to keep the giants from fighting on the wrong side. But what she and Finn had done was worse, and such an excuse wouldn't suffice. "We made a mistake, and realize we were wrong. Stop now, and don't throw away your lives."
"I won't!" the male shouted, and raised his hand as to surprise her with a deadly spell. He wasn't fast enough, and her thrown dagger sprouted in his remaining eye.
"Murderers!" the female wailed. Before Rose could do anything, she reached up and, demonstrating prodigious strength even for her size, snapped her own neck.