by Owner
Rel smiled at her. “Do not worry, Lady Bess, I will protect you.” The dog was in front of Rel’s horse. Guarding them, Bess thought.
Bess managed a weak smile. Var carried her heart with him. How could so much change in such a short time?
Dare motioned to the warriors who fanned out to surround them.
“Why do you not fight?” Rel asked Dare.
The warlord gave a brief smile. “You and I are watching over Var’s mate while he fights.”
“Why didn’t you fight and Var could have stayed here with me?” Bess couldn’t help herself.
Dare tilted his head. “Var is in charge of this operation.”
A trumpet sounded and the warriors, outfitted for the battle and mounted on paccar, responded. They advanced slowly towards the castle. The sound of so many men and animals moving triggered an automatic response inside her. Fear. She had to force herself to be calm so she did not affect their mounts.
The three warlords rode in front of the formation with Var between Mack and Foord.
She and Rel followed along with Dare and their small escort. Two hill tops later, the castle came into view. Dare led them to the left of the warriors. Var and his men continued on and stopped some distance from the castle.
Bess could not be still. Dare took hold of the reins of her horse to prevent it from bolting. She knew the only reason she had been allowed to come along was that she had begged and convinced him she did not feel safe without him until finally he’d promised to let her come along. The unnatural excitement in the air fueled the emotions of the warriors. Or perhaps, they caused it.
Movement on the field drew her attention. The great doors of the castle opened and an army of men came forward to stand before the castle walls.
A group of mounted men in the center of the king’s army separated from the foot soldiers and moved toward the warlords. Var rode forward to meet them with Mack and Foord flanking him. “What are they doing?” She asked.
Rel answered. “If they are smart, the king’s men are probably trying to get out of fighting. They cannot win. Not against warlords and warriors of Kryst.”
Beside her, Dare gave the barest of smiles. “If they are smart,” he said.
Bess had read about another time and place where knights fought for honor and valor. These warlords fought for what? She still did not know for certain. Sometimes, they fought for money. Mercenaries fought for money, but this was more.
This battle concerned the MX. The Kryst warlords wanted them. Bess wondered why King Messerat decided he would fight them. Katy said the Conglomerate offered the king a lot of money and power. Bess knew it was probably all lies. The Conglomerate routinely cheated and misrepresented to get what they wanted. They considered everyone else beneath them and lied to other societies to get what they wanted. Societies that made deals with the Conglomerate or went against them fell quickly and horribly.
Perhaps societies that defied Koda fared even worse.
The king’s small group of men met Var and Mack and Foord in the center of the field. After a time, they turned their mounts back towards their own people.
She heard it before she saw what caused it. Arrows filled the air. They came from the within the king’s force. Bess thought the archers must be kneeling down behind rows of standing men when they released their arrows. Her stomach fell as the missiles reached the furthest point in the sky and turned downward. Arrows headed for Var and the rest of the Kryst force.
Bess knew it was time. Var might hate her for this, but she could not let him be harmed. She extended her hand and fire flew from her palm. It worked just like Katy said it would. All she had to do was be prepared to use the gift. The arrows burned now. The flames caught as the arrows plummeted back down. It looked as though they moved in slow motion, burning. They became ash in the wind. Harmless ashes floated down on the Kryst warriors like black snow.
Bess was encouraged, she’d burned the arrows, but her fire was so hot, it turned the arrow heads to vapor.
A great shout went up from the warriors. Var and the other warlords turned their mounts around to face the king’s men. Bess felt Var’s gaze on her for only an instant before she saw the flash of his sword in the air. A rallying cry arose from the Kryst warriors who raced across the field hard and fast toward the king’s fighters.
Beside her, Dare and Rel both stared. She met Dare’s gaze only a moment.
Twice more, arrows shot into the air by the king’s archers turned to ashes in the air as Bess extended her hand toward them.
Beside her, Dare cursed in a language she did not know and Rel had trouble deciding whether to watch her or the battle below.
Bess watched from the hilltop as Var led the charge. The king’s men formed a barrier with their shields. With the front row of men kneeling, the one behind them stood. The enemy shields appeared impenetrable.
The warlords, Var in the lead, jumped their paccar high and ran over the shields and men to penetrate the enemy line. Var’s sword flashed in the light as he cut through the opposing men. She tried to keep her eyes on Var, but the chaos of battle, dust and death proved too much for her.
Rel made sounds beside her as he reacted to the battle. The warriors who surrounded them grew restless as did the paccar they rode. Their emotions bombarded her senses. Exposed now and with her empath senses wide open, she was unable to filter any of it, but there was so much she was also unable to concentrate on any one feeling. The violence of the battle and the dread and panic of the dying left her soul bruised from the pain. She had to block the pain.
Dare spoke to her and pointed. “Expect arrows from the far hill.” No sooner were the words out of his mouth than arrows were in the air again. She turned to see they came from a large force of men hidden from their sight until just now. The deadly missiles filled the air, slowed and headed back to earth, directly for the group Var left to guard them. Even at this distance, she identified Myra with her empath power. Myra directed this group of archers. Bess extended her hand. A narrow stream of fire shot from her palm. The fireball erupted when it reached the arrows and turned them to black dust in the sky.
Beside her, Rel spoke, his voice filled with panic. “The catapult!”
Myra stood with the king’s militia and pointed in the direction of the warlords as they advanced on the castle. The men with Myra worked on a large instrument of war. Catapult. She saw the image in Rel’s mind. He’d seen one in use. The group with Myra prepared to fire the a large stone from the catapult at the warlords and warriors. Myra tried to get the king’s men to turn it back toward her and Rel, but it was loaded and ready to fire at the warriors now.
“That is a catapult and it is made of wood.” Dare’s calm voice sounded close beside her.
Seconds before they released the thing, Bess once again held out her hand. Instinctual now, fast and deadly, the flames shot out and engulfed the wooden device. The screams of burning and dying men who didn’t get away from it fast enough raked across her psyche.
Bess felt Myra’s pain, the hateful woman stood too close to the wooden weapon and the fire burned her. Bess closed her off. Myra’s rabid emotions were a distraction she could not afford. She returned her attention to the main field and searched frantically for Var in the midst of the chaos.
Rel said something, but she did not understand it, that required concentration and she had none to spare. Several squads of STS on the hill ran toward the battle below. No! These additional men would be too many. She put out her hand again and a small stream of fire shot toward the STS. When it hit them, the stream erupted into a fireball that engulfed the men. Screams of the dying pierced her heart like poison daggers. She laid down a line of fire that the rest would not cross. That would keep them out of the battle.
Beside her, Dare said something that might have been, “Well done.”
When Rel reached for her arm, Dare stopped him. To touch her now was to invite disaster.
With the king’s forces in disarray and
his surprise squads of STS out of commission, she felt confusion from the battlefield. What would they do next?
Another group of the king’s men pulled a second catapult to the top of the hill away from the scorched grass. Dare pointed it out to her before she saw it. They positioned it toward the hill top where she and Rel and their escort sat. Bess set the catapult aflame. When the king’s men formed up to join the battle, she set fire to the earth in front of them.
The more she used her gift of fire, the more control she felt. She looked frantically for Var while trying to keep an eye out for attacks from the hilltop on the side of the battle ground.
Breathing hard, she finally realized, Rel looked at her with awe. Bess shook her head. “Where is Var? Can you see him?”
“Yes, he is in the center of the fighting, advancing toward the castle.”
She tried to stop the sound from her throat by covering her mouth with her hand. Var stood in the center of a group of the king’s men. They encircled him. He reached to pull his other sword and then, both swords moved through the air as he attacked them. She knew some of their stabs and slashes landed when she felt Var’s pain, but several men fell under the vicious onslaught of Var’s swords.
Mack and Foord appeared beside Var and now fought alongside him although she did not see where or how they entered the ring. The three of them formed their own circle, facing outward. They cut and slashed. Var ran toward one of the king’s leaders and jumped in the air to bury his sword in the top of the man’s shoulder.
When what remained of the king’s men turned to run from the battlefield, she felt near to collapsing with relief, she struggled to stay in her seat on the horse.
Rel reached for her arm, but she drew it back.
“It’s not always safe to touch me.”
Rel barely nodded. His enthusiasm too much to be stopped by her comment. “It is almost over now and I see Var and Foord and many of the Kryst warriors. In fact, it looks as though we lost very few. It will be okay.” He tilted his head slightly to look at her face.
She nodded.
“Y-you threw fire.”
Bess fought to speak, but found no words.
“I heard of the MX. I mean, you are famous, b-but I did not hear that you could do — that. I never knew about that.”
Dare assessed her. Rel continued to stare in awe. What would Var’s reaction be?
Bess sat on the horse with Dare still holding the reins. Her eyes followed Var in the distance while she began to shield against all the others and forced calm on herself.
With the king’s men defeated, the battle was done.
Var rode to her with Foord following behind him. Foord stared at the burned earth, the scorch marks and the remains of the king’s men and catapults.
She could not bear to get closer to the devastation she had caused. The burned and twisted bodies of the king’s archers and those who worked the catapult lay strewn on the battle field.
Foord’s look and emotions accused her when he put his handheld device in front of Var to show him something. She heard Foord say, “Her team from the Facility.”
Var paused to look at the device Foord held in front of him.
Foord said, “Perhaps they should not all be saved, warlord.”
Var looked up from the device and scanned the people she burned today before turning his blue eyes on her. His expression verified what her empath senses told her. Shock flowed to her. She shared the feeling with him. He felt as if a boulder hit his midsection. Bess doubled over from the impact, but he withstood it. Pain and emptiness stretched out across all the worlds.
Bess could not look away from him. She had never experienced such a strong link with another person.
She knew in her heart that the picture Foord held out for Var was a picture of those men. They made the comparison of the scorched earth and burned victims from the picture and the ones lying on the battlefield today. The similarities were obvious. Bess might as well have signed her name on the dead. She would never get the scenes out of her memory. The fact that she caused the death of so many left her bereft.
Var knew. The Facility closed because of her. Because, in a fit of rage and despair, she’d burned those horrible men who killed her team from the Facility and then she burned the team too. They had been dead already, killed by the STS. But when she’d burned the STS, they had still been alive!
She was responsible for the closing of the Facility, responsible for the empaths being hunted. Responsible for the deaths of those empaths who’d been captured after the Facility closed. It was her failure to control her gift that had set in motion the wheels of their own destruction.
Her temper caused the wrath of the Conglomerate to come down on all of them. Her handler had been kind to her in his own way. Sometimes she had let herself daydream that he would steal her from the Facility and the two of them would find a place where they could live happily ever after.
The sense of loss and regret drowned out all other pain. Even Var’s. No longer able to face him, she slid from the horse and turned away. He would not want her now. How could she go on? Perhaps Foord was right.
Maybe she should not be saved.
Chapter 42
Bess stood with her back to him as he approached. This close, he felt her emotions clearer than ever before. She was resolute, refusing to beg for her life. What was she thinking? He put his hands on her shoulders. She did not look at him.
Bess, his mate, had caused the arrows to turn to ash in the sky. She burned the catapult which would have caused many deaths among his warriors. And she used fire to stop the STS who charged down the hill to join with the king’s forces and outnumber them.
Foord’s words rang in his ears. “Perhaps they should not all be saved.”
Var’s shock punched a hole in his gut. He could not deny the evidence. Bess started the fires that helped them in the battle. She had also burned the men who attacked and killed her team from the Facility. But he realized now she had done that only after her handler sold her into slavery.
She had needed no device to set fire to the whip.
He removed his gloves. She could turn away from him, but it would do her no good. Mine. That primal need rose up within him. She belonged to him and nothing could change that. He would convince her of that truth.
She moved as if to walk away from him, but he held her fast. “Do not run from me, little mouse.”
“Your friend is right. I should not be saved.”
Var turned her around and pulled her close to him. He was careful to be gentle. His bare hands cupped her face on each side. “You are mine. You belong to me. There is nothing you can do to change that.”
He turned his attention to some of the warriors who came to give him a report of the battle, but he kept a tight hold on Bess. When they finished and moved away, he tilted her face up to him.
“I didn’t want you to know.” Her voice was breaking. “You must think I’m – horrible.” She would have collapsed then if he had not been holding her.
Var forced her to meet his eyes and he understood. She still felt that killing made her a bad person. “Look at that battlefield. Do you know how many I killed today?”
He softened when he felt her anguish. Var touched her face. “Bess, you saved many lives today with your fire. Your actions cut down the time we had to do battle. Burning catapults saved many as did burning the arrows in the air.”
She put her face against his chest and he regretted that she touched the gore that clung to him after the battle. He hated that he was wearing so much armor.
Sobbing, she asked, “You don’t hate me?”
“No, mouse. I do not hate you.”
“But Foord said...”
“Foord is an ass.”
Somewhere close by, Mack laughed.
“Do you not remember that I told you we are more than what we must do to stay alive. You used your gift to save me and my warriors. None will fault you for that.” He pulled her against h
is chest and bent down to breathe in the scent of her hair. Jasmine.
“We will go home now,” Var said before turning to Mack.
“The king has been taken care of,” Mack replied. “I will see to getting help for the wounded. I would ask your female a question.”
Bess wiped her eyes.
“Where is the other MX? I cannot find her in the castle.”
Var forced himself not to glare at Bess. “There is another MX here?”
“I saw her,” Mack said. “She changes her appearance, but I know I saw her.” Turning his attention back to Bess he asked, “I would know where she is.”
Var’s heart softened for her when he felt her terror. She wound him up and he did not even know how. The girl withheld vital information from him about the fire-starting, yet she’d tried to hide the other MX as well. She knew their goal was to rescue empaths.
Var sighed. “It would be best if you help us find the other MX, mouse.”
Her demeanor changed and her emotions flooded him. “Yes. There was another MX. I don’t feel her now. She planned to escape when we left the castle. I think she must be gone.”
“And this MX is called?”
Bess bit her lip. “Her name is Katy, but she appeared to these people as one they knew to be Solange.”
Var glared at Mack. “I would know why this is the first time I am hearing this.”
Neither of them answered.
Mack spoke to Bess again. “I would know if you are sure she is gone.”
Bess shrugged. “I’m sorry. I don’t feel her now.”
“I would know where she went.” Mack took a step closer.
Bess held her hands out. “I don’t know. She planned to escape and asked if I would go with her, but I went back to — wait.”
Back to her room where she waited for the guards to bring her to the arena? She had waited for him when she had a chance to escape with her friend?
Mack, always up after a battle, showed signs of distress. Var thought it odd that a female he had seen only a short time should affect him like this. Mack paced with nervous energy.