by Rosie Scott
I switched my gaze to Jakan. “Where's Anto?”
“Fighting,” the thief replied.
“Without you?” I knew the two hated to be apart.
Jakan looked away with anxiety. “I had to try to get you to safety.”
“You were hurt,” I replied, checking for injuries on him.
“All of us were,” Jakan said, with a begrudging smile. “Cerin had your energy, Kai. He healed us all once he came to.”
I tried again to sit up, and this time Cerin let me, though he protested, “You need your rest.”
I waved off his concern, throwing my legs over the side of the bed. “I can leech to fuel my energy. I need to give those beastmen relief.”
Cerin stood beside me, reaching out to help me up, though I stood up alone to convince myself I could. My wound was healed, but my body was still protesting my movement. I could fix that with a few enemy Alderi volunteers.
“Vallen,” I said, looking to the bear-kin, “I will bring your beastmen back to you, along with some healers to aid them. Get some rest. The necromancers will fill these streets with the dead tonight.” I glanced to Cerin. “We'll keep the healers well energized so we can always have protection even if Cerin and I cannot provide.”
“I'm going with you,” said Jakan.
“You sure are. You're not getting out of this,” I teased dryly. “We'll take care of you like you took care of me.”
The three of us left the tenement and walked back out into the streets of Quellden. A good portion of the main road and its immediate surrounding side streets were secured and blocked off. My fire walls still blocked the area from the north. The earth mages had listened to my earlier commands and had created barricades out of stone, which included collapsing some of the lower structures into the streets to build walls out of debris. Anto and the warriors were barricading with furniture and the like in the south. The barricades could not hold the assassins back forever, of course. It was only a temporary solution. The Alderi had always had access to the lesser magics; after all, Chairel's gold flowed through the assassin's guilds here more than any other nation, so my home country had always conveniently looked past its use. Even still, they did not have the benefits of the elements, and that would hurt them immensely in this battle.
We found Anto and the remaining warriors attempting to blockade more streets to the south as they fought to keep the enemy back. The wyvern-kin that wielded fire was soaring over the stone a little farther east, so I headed there as Jakan separated from us to reunite with his lover.
“Beastmen!” I yelled into the masses. Before me, charred bodies of assassins were scattered through the streets, flesh still boiling and bubbling from the flames of the wyvern-kin. Others had been mauled by claws and talons. I caught a glimpse of Troy the crab-kin from Tenesea as he snapped heads and limbs off with his pincers, but he was bleeding profusely. “Beastmen, retreat! Back to the main road! To Vallen!”
The beasts were grateful for the relief. As they heeded my orders, Cerin and I started to raise the dead in their places. Corpses of Alderi and beasts rose once again. The assassins were becoming fatigued, both physically and mentally. Each soldier they killed could be brought back to fight again and again. As we fought, their morale dwindled. Their sisters kept turning on them, either as we raised them from the dead or as they rebelled to our side. Since the beginning of our fight, the illusionists and stealthy soldiers had been working behind the scenes, freeing slaves and finding sympathizers. What had started as a battle against the odds was slowly inspiring internal insurrection. It appeared that many of the women here were like Nyx; they were unhappy with some aspects of their culture, but it was all they knew. Our attack gave them a reason to do something about it.
Our army had hundreds of necromancers. Half of them had gone with Calder's army long ago, of course, but Cerin and I were far from the only ones continually raising the dead, though we were the only two who could leech with death energy and offer to refresh the others with it. We could not reach everyone we needed to in order to keep them fighting, so we fought amongst the other necromancers and Jakan and Anto as the others rested. Then, they would prepare for battle again, and we would make further progress into the city. This became our cycle, day and night. The necromancers only kept fighting from the energy of their victims alone. Without death energy, there was no hope of taking Quellden at all.
The battle was taking us so long that I lost all sense of time. We had to rely on Vallen for communication of the army's sleep cycle, because every minute of the fight felt the same to us. A week went by since our breach, then two, and it only felt like hours. The necromancers needed no sleep. We did rely on the others to bring us food, however; otherwise, our bodies would have started to break down from the lack of nutrition regardless of how much energy ran through our veins.
As the war wore on, it actually became easier to progress. The network of sympathizers in Quellden worked much more quickly to start the rebellion within the city than we ever could. These women and their enslaved brethren knew many others who would join them, and they spread outward through the city from our army's path of destruction, infiltrating places we would never even see, freeing slaves and encouraging their like-minded sisters. Nyx had been right; many of the Alderi women did not agree with Queen Achlys's rule here. The queen surrounded herself with like-minded heirs who were all eager to agree with every decision she made, if only to acquire more power and prestige. The rest of the Alderi women were crude, sure, but they weren't stupid, and many held grudges. Thousands upon thousands of males were enslaved, but thousands of women were forgotten and thrown into the gutters of this cruel culture. In Thanati and Hazarmaveth, there had been no heirs, so the everyday women could rule their cities alone and in power. Here in Quellden, however, the city's inequalities did not only lie between the sexes.
We had lost more than half of our living army by the time we saw the river which ran through Quellden's center, lighting up the royal district ahead with glows of neon blue. The differences between the rich sector and everywhere else became obvious once the base of the queen's tower loomed ahead, so tall that it blocked out much of our view of the north and east cavern walls. The architecture of the rich district buildings and high-rises was impeccably carved, with sharp, thin designs which spread from the bases of the structures to far above our heads. These buildings had windows made of stained glass, protecting the occupants within from a loosed arrow. With some relief, I did notice the soft glow of magical lights coming from through the windows up to the tower's reach at least a mile or two above my head. Our journey through the castle would not be in complete darkness.
Our army finally marched the final streets to the district after over a fortnight of fighting to even get there. We had fewer than two thousand living soldiers left, when we had started out with forty-five hundred. Even still, the streets vibrated as we moved ever closer to the tower, eager to join up with the remnants of Calder's army and taking out Queen Achlys and her heirs, because we had tens of thousands of the dead.
The last two days of travel to the tower, we had barely been bothered. Even the women who'd run to the defense of their city and their queen found themselves vastly outnumbered. Reinforcements were rushing around rebellious sisters and brothers to get to us, but in their panic, they did not group up to fight. After all, we were dealing with assassins, and the Alderi culture hadn't gotten its bad reputation because they liked to work together. The underground's lack of camaraderie and formed armies had worked against them. Every woman who came to fight us, came to fight alone. And with thousands upon thousands of their dead sisters following us, the intelligent ones decided not to battle at all. Many of them were used to having a corrupt queen who didn't give a shit about them; their will to fight for Achlys wasn't as strong as their desire to live.
The tower was the largest solid structure I'd ever witnessed, and it stood as intimidating as it had during our initial breach weeks ago. Even still, I regarded
it only with a splash of confidence and a bit of annoyance. I was full of energy from leeching the life out of thousands of foes over the battle, but I felt so mentally fatigued. I was ready for my part in this civil war to be over. I was ready to see the sun again, and feel its warmth on my skin. I was ready for Nyx to fulfill her own vengeance against the queen, after years of hearing her stories of the woman's cruelty. I was ready to do my part to change this culture of slavery once and for all. I was ready to remove the Alderi as a threat of mine in this war, and gain them as an ally.
“Over a year, we've prepared for this,” Cerin mused beside me, his silver eyes raised to the top of the castle ahead. The sounds of battle rang out from around it. The other army was already there. I hoped more than anything else that my friends were safe.
I breathed out slowly beside him. “Yes. Now let's not get ourselves killed, yeah?”
Vallen laughed jovially on my other side. “It seems Calder's verbal quirks have rubbed off on you even when he hasn't been around.”
I chuckled with the realization that his words were true. With hefty doses of both confidence and humor, I replied, “Perhaps that's true. Now, let's win us a war, love.”
Thirty-six
54th of Red Moon, 420
Anxiety hung heavily in my heart as I led our army to the tower's base, my eyes biased for the friends I hadn't seen in almost a full moon. As the other allied soldiers came into view, it became clear Calder's army was just as fatigued with battle and as injured as ours. I did not see many of the mages Cerin and I had taught over the past year. There were thousands of the dead, and even as we neared, more dead rose, called forth by a necromancer I could not see. Unlike our own army, which had focused on freeing slaves and encouraging them to fight throughout the city to prevent reinforcements from reaching us, Calder's army had added the slaves to their own numbers. Both strategies had evidently worked, because here we were.
The royal district was surrounded by a tall stone wall, keeping it effectively cut off from the rest of the city. The entire district was nestled between the northernmost split of Quellden's underground river system, offering it yet another line of defense. One had to cross the neon blue river via a bridge that led to a gigantic steel gate, which remained closed. On either side of the gate were two guard towers, much like those in Hazarmaveth. Past the gate, Queen Achlys's black tower rose far above the other royal high-rises nearby, where I assumed the heirs lived. The glowing rivers which ran beneath the bridge we would cross were infested with the water-based beastmen. I caught a glimpse of Jayce in the midst of her crocodile death roll, causing the glow of the river to dull for a few moments as her victim bled out slowly from multiple wounds. I was so thankful to see her alive.
From the left tower beside the gate, arrows flew into the attacking assassins, one right after the other. My eyes caught a flash of slick black hair, and a beautifully forged bow. Azazel was here, and he'd already cleared and claimed the tower as his, protecting the army before him with an exacting eye.
I was filled with relief, because Calder's army had pulled through. He'd done it. Then, I remembered that I hadn't yet found him or Nyx.
“Kai's army is here!” Azazel yelled out above the soldiers, alerting them to our presence. If nothing else, it would boost their morale. They'd been fighting for twice as long as we had at this point, and would be immensely relieved to be reinforced. We finally made it to the cavern floor just outside the gate, and my soldiers rushed forward, eager to aid the others.
“Azazel!” I shouted up to the archer. He looked down to me, smiling.
“It is so good to see you!” He called back. “We've been defending this position for nearly a week.”
“I'm sorry I'm late!” I replied over the sounds of battle. “We had some delays. Cerin was brash!”
Azazel laughed in disbelief. “Truly?”
“Guilty,” Cerin admitted.
“Nyx and Calder,” I yelled up to him. “Where are they?” Azazel's eyes left my own, moving over the battle, and his smile faded. My heart dropped into my stomach as he did not reply. “Azazel,” I insisted desperately.
“Do not fret, Kai. They are here. I'm just trying to find them.” Relief flooded over me. All of my worries for them had been for naught. “Ah,” Azazel pointed far off down a street which led west. “Nyx is fighting over there. And Alastor—Calder,” he corrected, before trailing off.
“Found him,” Vallen exclaimed. I turned, finding Calder in his lizard form rushing toward us from a side street, the bright blue glow of the nearby fungi only making the silver-blue of his scales more beautiful. Blood dripped from his long talons, and his red eyes were on me.
I was grabbed into a hug a moment later, slick scales smooth against my cheek. Calder couldn't speak as his blood-kin, but I heard a soft clicking sound rising in his throat. I didn't know what that meant, but I figured he was as happy to see me as I was to see him.
“See, you bastard?” I teased by the hole of his reptilian ear, squeezing him tight. “Look at all the leading you did without me.”
Calder only tightened his hug, though he relented when I coughed from the intense pressure of it. He was much stronger in this form.
“It's good to see you again, love,” I told him, just before we separated.
Two intensely red reptilian eyes were warm in mine, before he glanced up to Azazel. I followed his gaze. The archer was watching us reunite from his distance, though he looked away quickly.
“I think Calder wants us to compare strategies,” I mused, my voice louder to reach Azazel's ears.
“I don't think we have to,” Azazel replied. “My strategy is probably the same as yours.”
I glanced around me at the nearby buildings. “I will come to you.”
Azazel glanced down to me. “Nonsense.” The archer disappeared from sight as he left his post to come to the ground. I hurried to meet him halfway, rushing over the bridge leading to the rich sector. The queen's tower stretched so tall nearby that to find its top level would cause me to topple backwards, so I didn't let it intimidate me.
The steel doors towered above me on my right as I grabbed the door handle of the tower, only finding it to be locked. Azazel had taken every measure to defend himself. I waited patiently as Azazel finally reached the bottom, and unlocked the door.
The archer started to speak, but I immediately grabbed him into a hug. The Alderi's body stiffened in surprise at the affection, but he didn't push me away. I found that he smelled of a mixture of herbs, and it didn't include ferris. The scent reminded me of Theron, which made me think it had to have come from Azazel's potion mixing. He'd clearly been busy with doing all he could to aid our allies.
“Thank you,” I murmured against his armor.
“For protecting your friends?” Azazel questioned softly in reply.
“For everything. For working with Calder when you didn't want to. Helping him strategize. Mixing potions for our army.” I squeezed him a little tighter, and finally, his hands came to my back, returning the gesture of affection. I realized he'd probably never had a reason to hug anyone before. “Gods, I missed you. There were so many times I wished I had you in those tunnels. Hell, even in the streets. Those asshole archers gave us one hell of a time. I guarantee you could've taught them a lesson.” I laughed softly.
There was a silence. Finally, I backed up from him, hoping I hadn't bothered him by being so forward. Azazel stared at me, looking reserved and maybe a bit embarrassed.
My face heated. “I'm sorry,” I finally said. I motioned back toward where the others waited. “Just ask them. I'm trying to become better at showing my friends what they mean to me. I never know when I won't get the chance to again.”
Azazel looked off in the distance behind me. “Don't apologize.” He cleared his throat when his voice cracked a bit. “I'm flattered by your compliments, Kai.”
I noticed his continued hesitance, so I tried to bring his attention back to business. “Your plan, then?”<
br />
His black eyes came back to me, no longer avoiding my gaze. “I think we should defend the base of the queen's tower with our dead. There are too many of them to follow us, and they can fend off any would-be attackers before they can come up behind us in the tower.” He paused. “Do you agree?”
“I agree, but I would go farther than that,” I admitted. “We will pool our remaining healers and leave half with the necromancers and take half with us. I'm assuming you have archers in your army? You have more slaves following you than I do.” When Azazel nodded, I went on, “Leave archers in the towers here.” I leaned to the side, looking past him and into the base of the guard tower. There were enough arrows sitting in stacks on the tables there to last a few archers for weeks. “As many as we can. They can guard in shifts if need be.”
“The beastmen should stay here as well,” Azazel said. “Jayce already said she didn't wish to leave the rivers when it came time for this.”
I heard Jayce in the midst of thrashing in the river nearby. “No, I suppose she wouldn't. But Calder needs to be with us, as well as Vallen. When we kill Queen Achlys, Calder will need to be there. We are planning on him rebuilding the underground, and if he's not there to kill its royalty, the people may not follow his lead.”
Azazel nodded. “And Vallen?”
“Vallen is one of Calder's best friends from the wildlands. He will want to be there.” I peered up above the tall wall beside us, where our target loomed as high as I could see. “I suppose you have no idea how it's set up in there? Whether or not there's enough room for a bear?”
Azazel shook his head. “This gate hasn't been opened since we got here. The queen and her heirs are hiding in those towers like cowards. Not letting anyone in, not letting anyone out.”
“It's to be expected.” I glanced back to where Vallen stood. “Well, if he cannot come with us in his bear form, he knows how to wield a sword.”