Søren and Aramis smiled identically when they saw her covered in woad. They had both dropped their glamours and had their hair back in the same braids. Never before had they looked as identical. Even their Dauđi Dómr tattoos were etched in the same curving lines.
“We have a present for you,” Aramis said and passed her a long knife. In Anya’s hand, it passed as a decent size sword, its hilt a swirl of black and a silvery pearl wood. Where the hilt met the blade, there were fine runes traced into it, but she couldn’t read them. The rest of the blade was unadorned; it was beautiful, but it was made for battle.
“It’s perfect,” she said.
“It’s mine actually,” Aramis admitted. “It was gift from Søren when we were first made Dauđi Dómr. It has both of us in it so we wanted you to have it.”
“Besides, if you’re going to be taking some of my abilities today, you are going to need a blade that can keep up with them.”
“You are the best Álfr bróđr’s anyone could ask for,” Anya said and hugged them, an arm around each of the brother’s necks.
“Take what you need, Elenya,” Søren said as she let them go. She took his hands and held them tightly. Focussing on the day she’d watched him train, so fierce and deadly. His magic wrapped about hers in a dark green web in her mind. She drew her power back in and Søren’s face hovered above hers.
“Did you get it?” he asked softly.
“I think so.”
“Good, stay close to us so if it fails, then you’ll be protected.” Anya kissed his cheek as Mychal’s voice rose behind her.
“You’re going to stay by Katya’s side. She’s going to protect you while I do what I need to. There will be no arguing about this, Aleksandra.”
“But I could-”
“No, you are too important.”
“Listen to him, Aleki. You won’t be able to keep up and he cannot be worried for you,” Katya said with a hand on her sister’s shoulder.
Mychal took her hands. “I can’t help Anya, if I am scared for your safety. Katya is the only one I trust to protect you. Izrayl will be there to ensure that you’re both safe. Please promise me you will stay with them, that you’ll stay safe.”
Aleksandra nodded. “I promise.”
Mychal rested his forehead against hers, “My love, I’d burn the worlds if anything happened to you. You are keeping the world safe by keeping my heart safe.”
“Just focus on keeping yourself safe, my Mychal. Or as much as you can be in the middle of a battle.” He kissed her once more before let her go and walked away to Søren without looking back.
“Misha is going to start moving everyone. We need to go, Anya.” Yvan joined her, “I like your war paint.”
“Kiss me, Yvan Tsaravech, and let’s go and finish this.” Anya’s arms went around his neck and he did as she asked. As they kissed, the firebird’s magic rose and flames consumed them as Yvan changed into the great hybrid.
If things turn for the worst, override his body and get him out. Don’t let him be taken.
As you command, so it shall be.
“What are you two talking about?” Yvan asked suspiciously in his half-and-half voice.
“Nothing, Kokko is wishing me luck in the battle.”
They moved through the forest with a steady purpose and Anya’s chest grew tight with adrenaline. The roar of death, guns and blades grew louder with every step.
“It’s started already,” Mychal said as they started to jog toward the sound. They were a small group compared to the two armies but they weren’t there to compete, they were there primarily to guard Anya so that she could get to the game and stop Baba Yaga and Yanka.
Anya gasped when they cleared the tree lines. The battle was a churning sea of soldiers, supernatural creatures and elementals. Bodies were mashed under the feet of giants and thousands of blood splatted boots.
“Stay close, Anya, we are going to make for that large tent in the Illumination camp,” Mychal pointed across the heaving carnage.
Aramis and Yvan flanked her, Søren and Mychal in front of her. She gave the signal to Misha and they charged in. Kullervo let out a wild war cry about how he was going to sodomise the mothers of his enemies before cutting his way into the Illumination soldiers. Twisted soldiers of the Darkness lunged at him from behind but were sliced to ribbons by Eldon’s sword.
Anya tried to focus on keeping her feet steady on the slippery ground. Aramis went ahead to help Søren and they moved together with a brutal oneness as they slew anything that got in their way. Mychal was leading; his spear a shaft of lighting that rose and fell. Anya didn’t look behind her as she gripped her sword and tried to keep up with the others.
A roar erupted from the back of the Darkness ranks and they scattered to clear the path for a leviathan made of rock, earth, and rotting wood. Thorns as long as a man’s arm stuck out from its thick vine tentacles. It rolled across the field like an octopus on the ocean floor, heaving and twisting its way forward. A shadow poured from it like ink and whatever it touched fell to ash before the leviathan rolled over the top of it. Darkness and Illumination were picked up and thrown with great swipes of its tentacles.
Anya watched it moving and felt something left behind by the Groenn Skaer flare to life inside of her. This creature had belonged in the earth, where it had lain since the flood covered the world, and Yanka had raised and enslaved it.
“Anya! We need to move!” Yvan shouted as the creature closed in on her.
“Wait, I can stop it.”
“No, move!”
A tentacle wrapped about her waist and plucked her off the ground. Anya tried not to panic, but searched for the spell binding it. Above its enraged yellow eyes, she spotted a red glow wrapped about its thorns like snarled wool. Her fingers twitched as if she was unravelling a knot and her power rushed towards it. She saw the lines of the spell snap and then she was falling backwards. Yvan caught her before she hit the ground, the firebird’s wings on his shoulders flapping strongly to the ground.
“Did it work?” she shouted. The leviathan roared again but this time it was in panic and fear. It curled in on itself and hauled itself backwards into the forest, breaking the trees into splinters and digging its way back into the earth.
“Well done, cousin!” Kullervo whooped enthusiastically, heedless of the gash in his chest. The battle closed in once more like a rushing tide. Yvan kept a hand on Anya’s arm to hold her up and keep her from being squashed under trampling feet. Anya felt the edge of Vasilli’s spiky power and spotted him not far in front of them. He was covered in gore and was retrieving his sword from the head of an Illumination officer.
“Søren!” Anya called and pointed. Søren’s cold face flashed red with anger.
“Lif! Protect Anya,” Søren command and the Álfr appeared next to Mychal. Søren sliced his way through two Darkness soldiers trying to block his way through. Anya lost him as a grootslang jumped in front of her. Its hybrid body of man and snake, white milky venom dripping from its fangs.
Søren’s training over took her and she met its attack with an icy calm. With a grace that wasn’t her own, she weaved out of the way of its rampaging fangs and claws before taking off its hissing head in one easy swipe. She didn’t stop as she leapt over the writhing body and ran to catch up to Yvan.
***
Søren’s vision blurred as his rage rolled out of him. All he could see was Vasilli in front of him and what got in his way was cut down. Vasilli swung a huge broad sword, hacking an Illumination soldier in half with one blow. As the chunks of meat fell away, Søren was waiting. Vasilli saw him and started to laugh. “Another Álfr in Anya’s service. You should have stayed with her and out of my way.”
“You will not find me so easy to kill as Baba Yaga’s men.”
“The last Álfr I encountered presented me with no such challenge. All they did was try to hide behind their books like crying children.”
Søren’s anger roared in his ears and he attacked Vas
illi with all the rage of his people.
***
Mychal’s torso was running with blood by the time they had reached Baba Yaga’s tent. Aramis and Lif killed the guards and Anya hurried inside. There was a scattering of furniture; a chair, a desk, and a camping cot, but there was no crate.
“It’s not here! She must have it with her.”
“Can you feel where she is through her magical signature?” Aramis asked.
“There’s at least a hundred magic users out there! I will pick them all up and scramble my brain.”
“Baba Yaga and Yanka aren’t in their glamours anymore,” Yvan pointed out. “Their magic will be raw and working to feed their armies.”
“We need to go, Anyanka, this camp is getting swarmed,” Eldon shouted as he and Kullervo killed two Darkness shamans as they frantically tried to better him.
“Fuck it,” Anya said and let down all of her shields. In a moment, she was drowning in a sensory overload, the magic being used overwhelming her. However, there were two of them burning hotter and brighter than all the others.
Anya screamed as she pulled her shields up again. “I found them,” she panted. “They are watching the battle from the western tree line.”
“Come on, I’ll clear an opening,” Mychal said and they waded back into the madness. Along the way, they’d been separated from Esbjörn, Katya, Aleksandra and Izrayl. Anya hoped that they were still alive but they couldn’t waste time to go searching for them.
Anya saw a cluster of Illumination and Darkness guards standing next to each other, watching the battle. A flash of white flickered behind them and Anya grabbed Yvan.
“There they are! See their guards?” she said. Yvan left her with Aramis as he passed on the message to Mychal and the demon hunter changed direction. A crack of thunder and flash of green blew apart a cluster of Illumination soldiers that had been blocking their path. Eldon moved through the destruction he had caused.
“Hurry, Anya, stop them!” he said, “Destroy them!” She didn’t have time to thank him or say goodbye as she drove her blade into the nearest enemy and kept going.
By the time the guards spotted Mychal, he’d already taken down two of them. Anya saw Baba Yaga and Yanka’s faces as they both contorted with identical fury.
There was a pulling sensation in the air as they both took a magical breath in at once. Anya grabbed Yvan’s and Aramis’s hands and power roared through her. Whatever awful thing they cast at Mychal fizzled under the wall that enclosed around him.
Anya was vaguely aware of soldiers trying to attack them but being incinerated as soon as they got too close. Fire was flicking in her fingers as she let Aramis and Yvan go but kept their magic connected. Baba Yaga and Yanka tried to make sense of what was happening and fumbled for the magic to counteract it.
“You both have sort to control this world and make it your own,” Anya said, her voice an echoing combination of the four of them. “You’ve broken sacred laws that have been in place since the worlds were created. You could’ve used your power to benefit the land and its people but you chose the path of greed and revenge. For your crimes against myself and both worlds, I strip you of your power.”
“You little slut! You don’t have the power or authority to judge me!” Yanka rushed towards her, arms outstretched. Anya twisted her hand around the pulsating black and grey light inside of Yanka and plucked it out of her. She screeched in agony and fell down on her hands and knees. Mychal’s sword fell, cleaving her head from her body before she could stop him.
Baba Yaga backed away, but Anya reached out and her power wrapped tightly around her and dragged her back.
“What gives you the right to be executioner?” Baba Yaga struggled.
“You killed my parents and my grandfather. I have every right to be your executioner. I’m not going to kill you, Baba Yaga, but you are going to wish you were dead.”
Anya sent her power into Baba Yaga’s body and pulled at the weaving of her magic. The heat of the firebird scorched the threads and Baba Yaga screamed and struggled.
Anya closed her eyes and said, “I summon the Lord of Tuonela to come to me so that I may settle his debt.” A cold air brushed over her and she opened her eyes to see Tuoni beside her. Anya dropped Baba Yaga to the ground. She was an old woman now, a clump of bones, hair and rags.
“Good morning, Anya,” Tuoni grumbled. He wore no glamour but stood before her in his full power.
“As we promised. Take her, do what you like to her. Never let her leave the shores of Tuonela or it’ll be you I come for next.”
“Rest assured where I’m going to put her, there is no escape.”
Baba Yaga howled as Tuoni grabbed her by the hair and dragged her through the veils and into Tuonela. Anya’s power shot out through the armies and found Vasilli. Without any words or ceremony, she tore his magic from him. Søren would do the rest. She turned to Mychal and he offered her the sword.
“Anya? What-” Aramis began.
“I am sorry,” she said. Without turning around, she flung them both backwards and broke their connection. Before anyone could stop her, she swung the Sword of Heaven and cleaved the game in two. The world went white and she was dead before she hit the ground.
***
Yvan came to moments later. His ears were bleeding and his vision wouldn’t clear. The first sound that reached him was Eldon screaming in a high and agonised Welsh. Aramis’s distraught and bloody face appeared above him, he was saying something but Yvan couldn’t hear him over Eldon. He struggled to sit up and as his eyesight cleared, he saw Eldon on the ground with Anya.
“No…” Yvan slurred and scrambled across the bloody earth.
“It was meant to be me. It was meant to be the sacrifice. It was meant to be me,” Eldon was saying over and over. Aramis laid a hand on Yvan’s shoulder but he yanked him off.
“Give her to me!” Yvan shouted and the two men backed away. He pulled Anya’s lifeless body into his lap as sobs started to shudder through him.
Blood trickled from her mouth and ears, her hands burned from where she had clutched the sword. Mychal bent down and picked up the sword from the smouldering remains of the game.
“You knew what she was going to do!” Yvan accused him. “You gave her the fucking sword and you didn’t even try to stop her.”
“Anya did what she had to do in order to end this. I couldn’t have stopped her and neither could you,” Mychal said calmly. “Look around you. The fighting has all but stopped and the Powers are all dead. She achieved what she had to.”
“Get away from me,” growled Yvan as fire enveloped him, “Now!”
***
Mychal left Yvan and Aramis to their grief and went to find Aleksandra. Darkness and Illumination soldiers were still fighting in clusters but most had stopped when they had seen their leaders fall.
“So she did it,” Søren emerged through the crowd carrying Vasilli’s head.
“Yes, she did it,” Mychal nodded.
A smile broke out over Søren’s bloody face, “I knew she would, I’m going to give her this. She will like it. Where is she?” Mychal didn’t answer and Søren’s face dropped. “Mychal, where is she?”
“The western tree line,” he answered softly. “Aramis and Eldon are with…they are with her and Yvan.” Søren dropped the head and ran.
Mychal had known that they’d been separated from Izrayl, Aleksandra and Katya but he refused to stop. He had a job to do and didn’t have the luxury of worrying. Now as he searched through grounds of the dying, the wounded and the confused, he began to feel afraid.
“You look tired, demon hunter,” a man appeared, blocking his way. Four others joined him. The Sword of Heaven hummed in his hand.
“Today is the wrong day, demon,” Mychal hissed.
“We were invited by Yanka,” they said as one. “She told us where we’d find you and the woman. Her flesh is going to be sweet to eat, demon hunter. I hope she screams your name as I cut it from her.�
�
Mychal attacked, the sword burning through them as he hacked and slashed with furious, righteous rage. He hit them until they were nothing more than bloody chunks.
“Aleksandra!” he shouted as he pressed through the crowds. None of them could stand up to a demon attack. He could feel them now, closing in on him from all sides. “Aleksandra!” he shouted again.
“Mychal, over here!” Aleksandra was waving at him from on top of a packing crate on the other side of the trashed Illumination camp.
“Aleki!” he exclaimed and tried to push his way toward her. She smiled happily and waved again. Her arms dropped and her eyes went wide as claws pierced through her chest and stomach. Katya screamed and rushed the demon as it tossed Aleksandra aside.
The demon ignored the bullets piecing his black, leathery flesh and he grabbed hold of Katya in one clawed hand and crushed her torso. Mychal shoved the people out of his way, trying to get through as Izrayl attacked the demon in his wolf form. The demon brought its other fist down on Izrayl’s skull and the great wolf dropped to the ground. Mychal launched himself at the demon, slicing its bloody arm off its body.
“Mikhaʼel, you’ve become weak and pathetic like all the other humans,” the wounded demon hissed laughter. It let out a high-pitched shriek and the ground ripped open. Demons came pouring out of it and the Illumination and Darkness stopped fighting each other and ran in fear.
Mychal’s hand gripped his sword and spear. Let them come. He had nothing left to lose now. The part of himself he had always been so afraid of, the part that always struggled to get out, was finally set free. Fury strengthened him as he looked over the swarming mass and he threw himself into it.
***
Yvan was still holding Anya as Kullervo came running towards them. “Get up, Yvan! The camp is being overrun!” he shouted. “Bring the body, I don’t care but we need to go now.”
“What is happening?” Eldon demanded.
“Fucking demons everywhere. We need to get out of here.”
“Where is Mychal?”
“He jumped into them! I saw it. They killed her and now he’s lost it. Forget him; he can take care of himself.” Kullervo hauled Yvan to his feet. “Aramis, carry the body.”
Rise of the Firebird Page 46