by S E Zbasnik
“It’s urgent,” Hayley settled on instead. Tish narrowed her eyes, one of which was starting to seal shut from an egg-sized bruise.
“He’s on the other side of the courtyard,” Tish said, raising her only good arm in the direction through the entire battle.
Shit.
No. You have to do this.
Hayley locked her fingers tight into a fist, watching as the blood of her kill swiped over them all. No innocents tonight.
“Got it.” She nodded at Tish as if it was no big deal. As if she could handle this easily. Hayley turned up to Marco who stood surprisingly close, his bastard sword in hand. The pair nodded to each other and began to take off through the mass of slaughter.
“How did you get in here?” Tish shouted at them.
“The well,” Hayley explained, “but you should get to the door.”
“Why?”
“Just…” Hayley gritted her teeth and said the last thing in this world she ever thought she would, “trust me.” With that final word, Hayley had to turn away from her fellow squire and rush headlong into hell.
People were locked in combat, eyes only upon each other. It afforded the two a sort of leeway, the groups cordoned off as sword met with sword. Almost no one was glancing into the shadows skirting around the edges. Hayley caught sight of Knight-Captain Erin in the distance, her mace bashing through a skull before it reverberated against an attacker’s shield. She could work too, call the retreat, but…
“She’s too far away,” Hayley shouted back to Marco as if that was the reason. He bowed his head, having to give into her logic as she plowed further onward.
The ground squished not only from puddles of blood and urine, but innards ripped freely from bodies. Hayley bit down on her tongue with each fresh step, trying to not imagine what organ it was. With her blood-soaked palm pressed to the wooden wall, Hayley used that to guide herself deeper in, when a breeze lifted her head.
In a halo of firelight stood a familiar silhouette. The helmet remained in place, hiding away the face, but she spotted a hint of the green tunic exposed between joints as the knight shifted with his moves. It had to be Gavin. He wasn’t favoring any limbs, but he had one hand holding the middle of his sword. With a tight grip, he spun in place and jammed the first half of his blade right in through a man’s neck. Screams erupted, the foe tumbling, but Gavin didn’t have time to breathe. Another attacked from the side, this one in only mail. He dropped his hand from holding up the middle of the sword and clashed against the first attack.
“Gavin!” Hayley shouted, turning around to eye up Marco. A shadow grew nearer, something heavy swiping through the air. Hayley didn’t even have a chance to utter a sound, but her eyes must have widened enough that Marco dashed to the side.
A great pike shattered to the ground, splashing fetid blood into the air. Marco moved to swing his blade at the attacker, but the man drew his elbow up and caught the innocent squire in the nose. Snarling, Hayley leapt from the shadows. Just like against Ania, she jammed her foot onto the pike — trapping it. The man was all eyes on Marco, he didn’t even glance all the way down to the scrawny twerp rising up off his own weapon and drawing her sword close.
Just as she was about to impale him same as the one before, a blade flashed through the air. It skittered into hers, knocking her off course and sending Hayley flailing through the air. She stumbled backwards, her heels clopping in the muddy terrain. The sword vibrated in her fingers, nearly tearing her worn hands to pieces as she eyed up the attacker in full armor coming after her. Oh god.
Hayley tried to swipe her blade into place, defaulting to defensive mode. She took a step back, wanting to anchor her body, but slipped the heel into a hole. The entire battle — blood, screams, iron, sparks — all streamlined past like streaks of shooting stars as Hayley clattered through the air onto her spine. Her hand landed on her sternum causing the flat of the blade to bounce into her nose. She cursed at the pain flaring up her vision when a sight ripped straight out of her darkest nightmares silenced her lungs.
Stepping closer, framed by the crimson clouds above, the enemy knight cupped both hands around the grip of his sword and raised it high — right above Hayley’s chest. In less than a breath, it would smash through her ribs, splatter her blood, and slice apart her heart. She didn’t even have time to scream, just watched in horror as the blade began to descend to her death.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Slicing through the blood-soaked air, the sword’s point was all Hayley focused on. How it’d rip through her skin, splatter her intestines across the grass, rip her throat free, and add her blood to the lakes below. She sucked in a breath, as if that might protect her from pain or death, when a blinding punch struck hard into the enemy knight’s shoulder. Flashes of silver bound against the night sky as her attacker tried to spin around his sword and take out the new problem. No doubt planning for that, her rescuer drove a dagger deep into the man’s exposed armpit. It sunk fast, hot blood gushing onto the silver breastplate as Hayley scrabbled to her feet.
She watched, breath held tight, as the rescuer easily disarmed the attacker and finished with a dagger in through a gap under the throat. Marco stumbled in beside her, blood smeared over his cheek and eyes wide. “Are you…?” He focused on Hayley, but she wouldn’t turn from whoever leapt across the battlefield to her aid.
Swiping the dagger clean against the worn leather on the palm of his glove, the knight finally glanced to her and gasped. “Hayley?”
Oh thank god, it was Gavin.
The shock in his voice instantly erupted into anger. “What are you doing here?” Gavin leaned tight to her, nearly pinning Hayley to the wall. The helmet twisted to Marco left out in the cold, and he tacked on, “What are either of you doing here?”
“Ser,” she gasped, trying to find her lost spine. It fell out somewhere around the time she was kicked to the ground and nearly impaled. “It’s a lie. You have to call a retreat. There are no reinforcements. Get everyone out before they all die.”
“What? Slow down.”
Hayley took a deep breath and shot out fast, “After you all marched through the doors a messenger arrived. He had a different scroll from the Knight-Commander which said no help was coming. That there were no reinforcements.”
“No…” Gavin’s armor creaked as he whipped his head around fast to stare at the mass of people fighting without end. “I don’t—” he started, but Hayley kept jabbering, needing to get it all out fast.
“No one wanted to do anything. No one thought they could do anything. So I…I climbed up the well. Had to warn you, to get you all out before anything…” She paused in her tirade and a smell pounded down her throat. Like bile rising from the gut when vomit nearly breeches the lips, Hayley’s esophagus burned from the scent of death convalescing through the courtyard.
An armored hand gripped her shoulders keeping her upright. Gavin groaned as if the world shattered below his feet. “There are no reinforcements? No ships?”
She nodded her head hard, her lip trembling. It was her fault. She picked up the message, she read it. She got it wrong.
The veteran stared around the battlegrounds once more. If Hayley had to guess, she’d say that they were fighting at a standstill, neither side winning nor losing. Maybe they would have won even without her intervention. Maybe it would be fine, they’d win the day, and she would prove to be pointless.
“They’re trying to draw us inward,” Gavin said as if the realization struck him from heaven. “It would be suicide to continue this fight. But, the gate is closed.” The man fell silent again, head bent down in thought as he sheathed the dagger into the scabbard on his chest. “Hayley,” he spoke directly at her, “you have to open it. Get to the main locks. You see them there?”
The hand sliced through the darkness, crimson light bouncing off the stained metal and leading her to find a turning mechanism embedded on the ground. She nodded her head, “Aye, I see it.”
“Go, as
fast as you can, open them while I rally what forces remain,” Gavin ordered. She bobbed her head with the order when Gavin turned to the other beside her. “Young man, I need you to guard Hayley.”
“I can look out for myself,” Hayley’s ego shouted from her lips. You nearly died there. Well, yeah, but I also saved Tish so…50/50.
Her knight sighed from deep inside his tin can. “You will need someone watching your back. They will try to pick you off. And this is not a debate, Squire.”
“Right.” She just wanted him to know that she had some skills. That she wasn’t a total waste of skin. “Turn the big wheel thing, got it.” Her head swiveled up to Marco, the boy’s face unreadable in the dark, before both of them darted towards the gate.
“Squire!” Gavin’s voice broke from behind. She turned to watch him lift his head higher. “Stay safe.” With that, he leapt into the fray, his sword barreling through the enemy without any finesse. Hayley couldn’t waste her time watching him, so she focused on the path ahead instead.
It was surprisingly easy for her to reach the wheel, almost all of the enemies back by to the dungeon cells. Sheathing her sword, Hayley gripped onto the end and began to tug.
Nothing happened.
Come on, come on! Knuckles turning ghostly white, Hayley wrenched her fingers as if they were a vulture’s talons around the wet wood. Straining with everything inside of her, she dug her toes into the ground and pulled.
“Shit!” she cried, the damn wheel jammed. Dooming them all. “I can’t…” Tears of frustration burned in her eyes. It was all her fault, every damn inch of it. If she hadn’t caught that bird none of this would have happened. And she thought if she could just save the day then maybe it wouldn’t matter. Maybe people would forgive her, forget.
“Hayley?” Marco’s booming voice broke from the darkness, the lookout sliding closer.
“I can’t get it to go!” she screamed, and with the flat of her palm slapped the wheel. “Shit again!” Her palm radiated pain while the wheel remained stuck. “Marco?” She turned to the boy who looked like he could lift a mountain. “Switch with me.”
“What?”
“You turn the wheel, I’ll guard you.” Oh god, that is stupid. That is so, so stupid.
“But I was told to…”
“If this thing doesn’t turn everyone dies. Everyone. Including Gavin, and you, and me. So, just turn the wheel already!” She stomped her foot into the ground and dashed away, giving Marco the room needed to do what Hayley couldn’t.
The boy stepped up to the wooden turn rod and grabbed with both hands. Hayley nodded her head and unsheathed her sword. Okay, so far no one was looking at them. No one knew they were here. Behind her, she heard a grunt. Risking a glance over her shoulder, Hayley caught not only red straining across Marco’s bulging face but how hard his biceps were trying to rip apart his leathers. The very chains on his mail looked warped and…
She needed to be staring at danger. Not a boy’s…body.
Okay, so maybe Hayley didn’t entirely lie to him after all.
“How’s it coming?” she asked to try and cover for the blush burning at the back of her neck. Still, no eyes turned to them; all the enemy’s focus was upon the knight swooping in like an angel of death. Gavin was leaving wide swathes in his wake as if he reached deep into some hidden force never before seen.
“This is very heavy,” Marco stuttered. He sounded strained, almost to the breaking point. Ahead of them, Hayley spotted the gate inching open with each twist of the mechanism. At that point, it could barely let a fly through.
Damn it! Jabbing her sword into the mud, Hayley swept in beside Marco right at the end of the rod. His gritting face turned to her, shock registering as she ignored her orders. “We can do it together faster,” she said hoping there was some logic in that.
He nodded vigorously as if he had any choice. Hayley grabbed onto the very edge of the wooden handle, but her other hand didn’t have much room. She tried to put two fingers on it while shoving forward, but that was stupid. Lashing forward, Hayley clamped her small hand directly behind Marco’s. Their skin was clammy from the cold swim and the fighting, Hayley’s palm, in particular, coated in blood. But when she made skin to skin contact with Marco, he laughed so giddily she was worried he might stop walking and she’d get flung backwards.
“Keep going,” Hayley tried to encourage him, her head leaning closer to his face. “We’ve almost got it.” She glanced towards the gate, nearly half open. Just a bit more and…
“Oh shit! Shit shit shit!” Eyes were turning to the opening gate rattling through the air, torches being dipped into fire and aimed towards whoever was near the lock.
Releasing her grip, Hayley grabbed both hands onto Marco’s shirt and pulled. They stumbled to the side, slamming into the ground, but it was enough of a change to cause all three arrows to miss their targets. Crawling quickly over the mud, Hayley drew her hand up her sword and yanked it clean out of the ground. She leapt to her feet, raised her bloody palm to her mouth, and shouted, “Gavin!”
Even with the cries of orders clanging from the enemy, even with the screams of death from the field, he must have heard her. A great horn blared from the middle of the clearing and as one, every knight of the Order turned on their heel and ran for the gate.
Hayley danced back and forth on her legs, trying to cower into the shadows to avoid more shots, but the archers were focusing on the mass of knights instead. What was she supposed to do next? Marco remained behind her, his sword at the ready while she kept searching for Gavin. She wasn’t going anywhere without him.
The first wave dashed past, their feet thundering apart the mud. A few escaped, having to duck down to make the slightly too low gate. When one knight in full plate paused and began to wave others on, Hayley stared in confusion until she heard the voice. Knight-Captain Erin reached for a wounded soldier who hopped towards them. Erin waved Tish over to assist, and together the pair escaped with the man bleeding from his thigh lofted between.
Damn it, where was Gavin? Marco inched ever closer. She’d call it looming if his mere presence didn’t make her feel better. “We should go,” he jerked his head towards the gate in case she forgot, but Hayley pursed her lips and shook her head.
“No.” She wasn’t leaving without him, she wasn’t becoming one of those lost squires like Larissa. She’d save him, no matter what.
“Squire!” The most heartwarming voice she ever heard cut over the mass of people fleeing in terror. Like an angel from heaven, Gavin parted through the unending stream of fear and death to appear right before a burst of flames. The fire silhouetted his frame, a sword tucked in tight next to his chest as he eyed up Hayley.
“Ser?” she asked, hoping he’d tell her to get the hell out of here. To run back to the safety of the camp after heroically saving everyone inside.
Gavin’s voice popped open from inside the metal can, about to give something of an order, when an arrow shot through the sky. The arrowhead banged into his chest piece, Hayley watching the pea-sized dent left behind with morbid fascination. If that’d been her skin in its place, there’d be blood and torn flesh instead of a thin layer of warped metal.
Spinning on his feet, the knight took control of the situation. “Guard the lock, make certain no one tries to shut the doors!” he ordered. Dumbly, Hayley nodded her head, swinging her sword around as if it could swat arrows out of the skies. She had no idea how she was supposed to do that, but she had to try.
The fear must have gulped louder in her throat than she meant to, as Marco’s high face turned down to her. He didn’t say anything, both of the young squires watching as the mass of enemy knights streamed towards them. Out of the darkness, Marco’s hand lashed over to grip onto Hayley’s fingers. It wasn’t more than a breath of a moment, but it made her smile stupidly, when the first wave hit.
Gavin swung long with his sword, swiping against a chest and spraying blood through the air. The enemy wouldn’t give up this fight
, chasing the retreating knights with everything in them. Gavin moved as fast as possible, hacking into arms and legs when they drew close to his reach. None of the hits were fatal, some didn’t even reach their target, but it did give the attackers pause. They’d hope for an easy kill once the knights were corralled and now the tide had turned.
“Look at the mess we got here!” Cal’s voice carried from behind the mob. He dug a halberd deep into the armpit of one would-be attacker, then yanked it out so hard the man went flying. With a jolly laugh, the fresh knight stepped in beside Gavin. “Someone told me you called for us to flee with our todgers tucked between our legs.”
Gavin nodded grimly, eyeing up the situation. “We need to reduce their numbers, there are a few stragglers still racing for safety.” Hayley had no idea how he could tell who was who in the mass of metal rushing through the darkness. One faceless helmet that Gavin let through looked the exact same as one he cut down, but she figured he knew what he was doing.
There was no strategy on either side. The Order was running hell bent for the gates while the enemy raced in pursuit. Hayley remained poised next to the gate control, both hands wrapped around the grip of her sword while she watched. No one could make it past the dual work of Gavin and Cal, affording both squires the illusion of safety. Just a few more people to go and she could follow.
Cal drew the sharp edge of his axe against the back of a skull, hurling a wad of bloody hair and scalp through the air before he turned and stared overlong at the castle. “Shit, is that Catarina?” he panted, exhaustion overtaking them all.
Kicking away the last challenger, Gavin followed his line to what looked like a knight and squire trapped in the backend of the enemy line. They didn’t stand a chance on their own. “Yes,” Gavin said, “I will…”
“Hold up there, hero.” Cal laughed, twisting both his axe and halberd around in a macho display. “I dare say it’s my turn. You protect the gate.” Saluting the axe into his chest with a bang, Calvin bent his head down and ran headlong towards Catarina. A gap appeared instantly, the enemy trying to hurl themselves away from the dual edges slashing past.