The Unfinished Song: Sacrifice

by Maya, Tara

  Blue Waters warriors rushed into the breeches. Dozens of Yellow Bear warriors fell to Blue Waters spears before the defenders could understand what was going on. Cool cerulean pre-dawn light dimly lit the carnage.

  “Ayaha!” sang the Blue Waters warriors. “Ay! Ay! Aya-HA!”

  Rthan would have had landed his own kayak to join the attack, but the Blue Lady stopped him.

  “You and I seek a greater enemy,” she told him. “Unless we neutralize my golden sister, all your kinfolk’s efforts will waste like water fallen on stone.”

  He followed her gestures and maneuvered his boat away from the tor

  “There!” The Blue Lady pointed. “We must slay her!”

  Rthan saw a bear swimming toward them. Someone appeared to be riding on the bear’s back.

  Then he saw the others.

  “By the Seven Faeries!” A whole army of bears swam to meet them. Huge golden furred bears, all growling and paddling through the water, no doubt intent on a salmon lunch.

  The Blue Lady smacked the water with her tail and the kayak sprinted forward. At the same time, the waters around them swirled, and up from the depths, a counter army of Merfae surfaced. Some looked like great white sharks, others like mermaids, still others resembled terrible monsters with snakes for hair. The mass of slithering Merfae rushed forward in the driving rain to meet their eternal foes the Brundorfae.

  Kavio

  The Maze Born war group paddled behind Kavio, each man to a shield-sized boat. They left the treetops to paddle back to the Tor of the Sun, where the situation looked dire.

  Enemy warriors had cracked the wall open like an oyster shell, and now they spilled into the tribehold. Their ghastly war cry reminded Kavio of the attack upon the Tor of the Stone Hedge, the night of the Initiation, when his Dindi had almost died.

  Not just a few boats, not just a few clans, but seemingly every boat of every able warrior in the entire Blue Waters tribe bobbed in the water just outside the palisade. Hundreds of boats, some with as many as seven men, others with just one or two, circled like sharks around the tor-turned-island.

  Now that light made secrecy impossible, the Blue Waters warriors roared out their challenge and the defenders roared back their defiance. The Blue Waters warriors launched harpoons, made of seal bone ribs, to catch at the spiked poles and pull them down. That the ground mooring them had turned to mud aided greatly in weakening their perch and rendering them vulnerable to this tactic. Kavio was appalled at how quickly the enemy breached the wall.

  Warriors leaped from their boats onto the shore of the island hill, pouring through the torn up gate. The defenders dropped their bows and slings and pulled up their spears and knives. The attackers had not found the defenseless unarmed men women and children that they had hoped to slaughter in their sleep, but they could not call off their attack now. Besides, their numbers boggled belief. They might yet conquer.

  And if they win here, Kavio thought, then what? Once they have a taste for pillage and succeed in taking down an agricultural tribehold in its might, what will they not attempt? The Rainbow Labyrinth will surely be next, with Zumo and the other Morvae to pick up the pieces.

  The defenders of Yellow Bear had just one advantage. The Blue Waters had not expected attack from the rear, by water. Any Yellow Bear warriors who had been on the ground during the flood should have been drowned.

  He waved to the leaders of the septs, who paddled forward. “Keep your boats in the Chevron and Otter formations, just like we practiced in the river last month,” he instructed them. He assigned one group of septs to drive through the enemy ranks to make it past them in order to defend the tribehold from within. The other group was to harass the rear of the Blue Waters flotilla, to force them back into the water, away from the tor.

  After the war leaders returned to their canoe groups to report the strategy, Kavio stood up in his boat, balancing adroitly against the sway. The cloud cover parted, and a beam of sun sliced through the rain, to sugarcoat him in sprinkles of gold. He raised his voice.

  “The fish faces think they can take the tor! But they’re the ones who brought the mud. Let’s force them to fight in it! Hu!”

  “Hu! Hu! Hu!” shouted the warriors.

  Rthan

  Damn Kavio, damn him! He had ruined the perfect surprise of the Blue Waters attack. How had he known to have an amphibious force waiting outside the tors? Who in Faearth climbed trees with boats strapped to their backs?

  Rthan knew they would lose this war unless he took out Kavio, and his best chance to defeat Kavio would be to take him by surprise.

  The Blue Lady pointed him out. Kavio led his war canoes to attack the Blue Waters assaulters from the flank and rear. His warriors were plowing through the surprised Blue Waters warriors like a hungry man through a plate of herring.

  Rthan slipped into the water and deliberately overturned his canoe. He jerked it down, in a swift, practiced motion, so that it was almost completely submerged. The oiled, airtight canoe still had a pocket of air trapped inside, even under the water. Rthan kept his head in there as he kicked toward Kavio. The blue light of his Lady, in her mermaid form, guided him through the dark water.

  Kavio

  Kavio watched the shapes undulating in the water. Some wore the shape of large salmon, others human form, still others a combination of human torso and fish tail. The Merfae, the race of Blue High Faeries, had arrived to join the battle on behalf of their human allies.

  At first, the two battles were separate, fae against fae, man against man. The human battle centered around the tor, the fae were thrashing further out in the lake. The currents of war soon pitted fae against man, man against fae. Faeries both Low and High trampled the mud between the beehive houses of the tribehold. Slithery, silvery things capsized boats. Bears ripped men in half. Overall, the rain and floodwaters favored the Blue Fae. The Merfae had stormed the valley of the Brundorfae and made it into their fishing pool.

  We will never be able to fight them. There are too many. And with the Merfae on their side, all Blue fae will aide them, and our own efforts will turn to naught. Even now, he knew, while the Merfae assaulted the outer ramparts, lesser Blue fae must be running rampant inside the hold, having slid in on the rain, to torment the humans who could not even see them. Since all the Tavaedies were busy, there would be no one to fend them off. Pandemonium among the families would make it difficult for the warriors to concentrate on their job. The Merfae advanced, blue eyes blazing.

  The palisade had been pulled down in dozens of places, and Blue Waters warriors fought to shove their way in through the breaches. Wild Blue fae danced in the rain over the tribehold, screeching and wailing. There were just too many foes, low fae, High fae, and human.

  Kavio paddled his canoe to the breach in the wall, where Vultho and the Bear Shields held the line against the Blue Waters warriors who had grounded their boats and now rushed the opening. The Maze Kin arrived from behind. Some men paddled, while others stood balanced on the canoes, firing bows. A garden of arrows sprouted out of the backs of the enemy, who had not expected a rear attack. By the time they turned around, it was to late. The Maze Kin landed their boats and leaped out, a battle roar screaming from their collective throat, slaughtering the foe. Kavio sliced his own path to Vultho.

  “Well met over the copses of the enemy,” Kavio said with grim cheer.

  Vultho countered smile with snarl. “More are coming.” He pointed. “Led by Rthan. If you hadn’t stopped me from killing him when he was our prisoner, he would not be haunting us now. You brought all this on us, Kavio. And look at you, with your own little army, riding in boats, just like the enemy!”

  “If not for my Maze Born and their boats, Yellow Bear would have already fallen,” Kavio snarled back. “We don’t like each other, agreed, but we have no choice now but to fight together, or die together.”

  “That’s where you’re wrong, Kavio,” said Vultho, as he twisted to aim his spear at Kavio’s neck. Now the bastard
smiled. “You will die in the fog of battle, and I will survive to claim victory over the Blue Waters. No one will question that Rthan killed you and I avenged you.” Then Vultho prodded his spear to Kavio’s throat. “I’m going to enjoy this.”

  “Not as much as I’m going to enjoy this.” He twisted the spear, grabbed Vultho’s head and bashed it against the wall.

  Vultho came up swinging. The blow knocked Kavio back, which gave the man space to swing his spear. A small part of Kavio noted that other Bear Shield warriors kept busy fighting Blue Waters warriors—good. At least he wouldn’t have to deal with a whole nest of vipers. One snake was enough.

  They exchanged kicks and punches. The momentum brought them to the lake. Cold water sloshed around Kavio’s waist. He disarmed Vultho, but then the man jumped him. Vultho grabbed Kavio around the neck. Squeezed hard. The bastard was stronger than he looked. Kavio flipped, forcing Vultho into the water. He held him there, drowning him even as Vultho tried to strangle him first. Water churned. The heavy splashing sound of Vultho’s kicks grew louder and more violent for several minutes, then faded to a slosh.

  Then the splashing stopped altogether.

  Kavio held him under until well past the time a man could survive. Then he shoved the body away with disgust.

  Vultho’s distraction meant that many Blue Waters warriors had managed to breach the palisade. Kavio began to wade back to the fight.

  Just as he reached the wooden wall, hands wrapped around his throat from behind.

  Rthan

  As Rthan neared the shore of the hilltop, he saw an amazing sight. Two warriors were fighting, and one was underwater. Rthan, ducking to peer through the water, glimpsed him.

  It was Vultho.

  Vultho did not see Rthan. His focus was all on his opponent. But strangely, Vultho’s face was not contorted in panic, as one would have expected of a man being held underwater.

  Vultho was not drowning.

  Rthan could not understand it, until he saw weird flaps in Vultho’s neck flutter in the current like gills.

  The damn bastard must have had a fae ancestor somewhere in his family tree.

  This is exactly why those freaks should be Shunned, Rthan thought darkly.

  Vultho’s opponent, obviously thinking the man dead, as he should have been by now, released him. Vultho waited underwater another moment, then swam after his foe and crept up behind him out of the water.

  Rthan flipped his canoe again, stood up inside, then catapulted himself out of his canoe like a lunatic leaping off a cliff, somersaulting in the air and landing in a crouch only a few paces from the breach in the wall. Right behind Vultho. He was about to snap Kavio’s neck.

  The scene was frozen into Rthan’s vision in a fraction of a second. Flickering torchlight made Vultho look like a demon. The enemy he was about to destroy was not an ally. It was Kavio.

  “Water can’t kill me, worm!” laughed Vultho, mocking Kavio.

  Fury rocked through Rthan at those gloating words.

  “How about fire, asshole?” He grabbed the torch off the wall, grabbed Vultho by the back of the head and shoved the torch into Vultho’s face.

  Vultho screamed.

  He released Kavio, but Rthan did not release Vultho. Vultho screeched and pivoted around, but that just helped Rthan. He smashed his knee into Vultho’s balls and shoved him back against the wall, beating him with the torch until flames spread to Vultho’s whole body. The Blue Lady had shown Rthan exactly how his wife and daughter had burned alive. Vultho’s flesh blackened and peeled away from the bone the same way.

  Bear Shields jumped over the relative protection of the broken wall to rush Rthan, and received quick deaths for their trouble. Vultho wasn’t dead yet, and Rthan didn’t want any interruption of the monster’s final moments of misery. He would deal with Kavio next.

  Vultho had already cheated death once. Rthan took no chances. After fire reduced the corpse to black bones, Rthan lifted his war hammer and smashed the bones over and over, shouting, “That’s for my family!”

  Only when nothing remained of Vultho but dust, did Rthan turn to look for Kavio.

  He had escaped.

  Kavio

  Kavio doubted Rthan had intended to save his life. More likely, Rthan simply had his priorities, but with Vultho out of the way, Kavio didn’t expect a second reprieve. He dashed into the breach, slashing at enemies until he bloodied himself a clear spot.

  Time to dance clear the storm.

  He started on a tama he hoped would work, but he didn’t have much of a reprieve.

  “Stop that man from dancing!”

  Familiar voice.

  Kavio looked up across the battlefield as if the other grunting men who strove against each other mattered not a whit. He locked eyes with Rthan. Behind Rthan stood a figure too luminous to see clearly, a blaze of blue light that could only be the Blue Lady in her purest state.

  “Kill their leader!” Rthan pointed at Kavio. “He is a Rain Dancer! He will try to drive away our allies the Merfae!”

  “Is that how you want to notch your bow, Rthan?” Kavio growled. “Come stop me!”

  Three Blue Waters warriors answered Rthan’s warning and rushed to attack Kavio. He knocked them out of his way with three blows. Rthan waded through the blood of Yellow Bear warriors in his eagerness to confront Kavio.

  They met knee deep in water. Rthan’s mace slammed down, and Kavio’s spear caught the blow.

  Brena

  Brena road on the back of the Golden Lady, in her she-bear form, as she swam back toward the besieged tor. Behind her paddled an army of bears, not all of them fae. The giant blond Brundorfae swam behind their queen, but so too did many smaller brown and black bears, who were quite ordinary except that they were urged on by Yellow sprites and spriggens riding on their backs.

  As long as she touched the fur of the Golden Lady, Brena could see the Blue fae as well as the Yellow. Thus she had a clear view of the High Blue Faeries, the Merfae, when they saw their enemies paddling toward them. The Merfae shouted in fury. They rushed toward the sloth of bears. The Merfae ducked and darted across the water like salmon skipping up a river. Twice the Henchman of the Blue Lady tried to reach the Golden Lady, and each time the Golden Lady evaded him. Finally, Kavio confronted him.

  A strange battle ensued, on the weirdest of landscapes. Above the water line, only the treetops showed, only the heads of the bears poked above the water, and the Merfae alternated between diving under the surface and leaping and flipping in the air. The Merfae drowned the bears when they could, but sometimes the Brundorfae snapped their jaws and chomped. Where real bears and salmon died, blood tainted the water, but when the faeries died, they sank like grey bloodless stones.

  Sloshed on the waves in between were boats filled with confused humans. The Blue Waters warriors pointed at the bears and cried in alarm, so there was no doubt they saw the beasts, but they could only dimly sense the titanic battle waged by the two High Faery races brawling all around them.

  Down poured the rain, blue-grey and chill, hard, very hard and cruel. In flew the fae, with jaws and claws stretched out to gnaw, bite, tear. She slashed at fae, struck here, struck there. Down tumbled Merfae, thrown on the ground like fish, which flipped and flopped, bled, stilled, grayed to stone and died. On Brena fought and bashed and killed; blind in the rain, she battled. Helped by the bears, she sought and slew blue fae, Merfae, anything blue.

  Kavio

  “You could have prevented all this, Rthan,” Kavio grit between clenched teeth over clashed weapons. He dug his spear under Rthan’s defense, but the big man flipped away and slapped another blow back at Kavio.

  Behind Rthan, the Blue Lady hovered. This close, Kavio found her luminance painful to look at directly, but he could see her more clearly now. She had the appearance of a small girl, a rather strange form for her to take, he thought.

  “This was inevitable,” said Rthan. He swept down his mace. Kavio evaded it and Rthan hit water instead. />
  “No.” Kavio’s spear sliced forward. “I tried to show you an alternative. You ignored it.”

  “The Yellow Bear tribe murdered—”

  “And the spell against the Rainbow Labyrinth? How was that hex justified as avenging your family? When I saw what you did here, it was obvious you must have been the one who cast the spell in the dam above my tribehold. If I hadn’t broken your hex, our valley would have been flooded. Our tribe never hurt you, yet you would have killed hundreds, even thousands of innocent people.”

  Rthan looked stricken. “It… we had to…”

  “Whose idea was it, Rthan? Who told you that you had to?”

  “Don’t listen to him, Rthan!” the Blue Lady squealed. “Remember what they did to me! Avenge me!”

  Kavio watched Rthan’s face clench in pain. Then his resolve returned.

  “I won’t let you down again, Meira,” Rthan said, not to Kavio, but to her, very softly.

  Horrified, Kavio understood.

  “She’s not your daughter, Rthan.”

  Rthan looked startled. Probably no one else of his acquaintance was able to look the Blue Lady in the face.

  “I know that!” Rthan swung wildly at Kavio. “My daughter is dead!”

  “Yes, and the faery is using you, manipulating your grief for her own purpose. Can’t you see that? Look at her and see her for what she really is!”

  Swiftly, Kavio cartwheeled past Rthan. Kavio struck his spear into the startled Blue Lady. She held out her hand to deflect the spear, of course, but as she did so, anger convulsed her face. Her hair twisted into a thousand snakes, which lifted into the air to hiss at him. Her eyes flared, her skin scaled over, her teeth turned into shark-like jaws. She shrieked at Kavio like a typhoon.