Ajacii and Demons: The Ingenairii Series
Page 18
Alec charged around to his left, seeking to get in the demon’s blind spot. He drew closer to the monster as he sprinted in, then sprang high in the air when he judged the monster could no longer see him. He had drawn both swords, and planned to try to sever the demon’s head as he passed over. As he reached the spot where he could best swing at the demon’s neck, his plans went astray. The demon was overcome with a paroxysm of shaking, then shrank noticeably. Its head and neck were no longer where Alec expected them to be, and his swords vainly sliced through empty air. The archers from Black Crag had done their job.
Alec landed in the center of the brook on the far side of the demon, and his feet struck unsteady stones in the bed of the stream. The stone beneath his left foot slid away as he began to push off from it, and Alec dove forward into the stream without meaning to. He rolled to his right, and as he did the demon slammed a clawed fist down in the spot he had vacated.
Alec rolled again, then pushed himself upward, but as he rose he struck the belly of the demon, which immediately raked his torso with both hands, tearing into his flesh and ripping his bandoliers away.
Alec screamed in pain as he swept his swords around behind him, backwards, so that their blades entered the demon’s flesh on either side, plunging deeply into the monster’s body. It too screamed in pain, and Alec stumbled forward away from it, leaving his swords fixed inside its body.
Alec stood away from the demon, standing now on the rebellion’s side of the brook, while the shrunken demon stood on the Vincennes side of the stream. The demon was screaming in pain, futilely pawing at the sword handles that protruded from its ribcage. The audience of soldiers from both armies stood transfixed, standing still to watch the epic battle that was taking place before them. None of the watchers had ever before seen a demon challenged on such equal footing.
Alec looked down and saw that his Healer powers were restoring his own body, repairing the many great wounds he had suffered. His bandoliers across his chest were gone, and both his swords were in the demon. The third bandolier of knives that hung low on his hips was his only remaining set of weapons.
Alec pulled two daggers free and tossed both of them at the remaining good eye of the distracted demon. Each of them found the spot, and suddenly the demon was totally blind. Alec ran to the monster’s rear, then reached around and plucked each sword from its flesh, eliciting further screams as Alec jumped away to avoid being struck by the demon’s flailing limbs.
Alec ran to the side of the monster, and launched himself into the air again. This time his effort to decapitate the wounded demon succeeded, and as he landed, Alec continued to run away from the slumping carcass. He stopped after a hard sprint and looked back at the body of the demon, where small bats were already beginning to rise from the sloughing flesh and fly about in search of victims.
Invigorated by the successful defeat of the demon while using his new triple utilization of ingenairii energies, Alec looked at the Vincennes front lines, ready to urge them to charge into battle. To his shock he saw that although the Black Crag portion of the line was advancing, the rest of the forces were in a retreat mode, too conditioned by past appearances of demons to do anything else but flee for their lives, despite the battle he had just shown them. He turned, and on the far side he saw the reverse was happening; the rebellious forces that saw Black Crag coming towards them, in shock from the defeat of the demon they counted on, were beginning to flee, while the rest of the rebel forces, although astonished by the death of the demon, still were being driven forward into the breach created by the retreat of Vincennes and Valeriane.
Perry, if you are near the battlefield, we need you desperately, Alec sent a message to the ally he hoped would be approaching soon. He looked at where the demon’s body had burst into flame, and ran around it to pick up his slashed bandoliers. Holding them in his right hand, he ran towards the charge of the rebellious army and began flinging his knives with his left hand, picking off as many officers as he could, until his supply of daggers was quickly depleted. He dodged the rain of arrows that were shot at him, and ran again towards where the Black Crag forces had crossed the plain and were breaching the lines that were falling open for them.
Go to their supply depot, Alec issued an order to the Black Crag units. We can destroy their supplies. He caught up with them and reached their leading edge. “We need to tighten up,” he told the men and women around him. “We’re too strung out, and vulnerable. Let our people regain formation, then go after their supplies. Now give me a bow and as many arrows as you can, and I’ll try to protect you from a flanking attack.
“Confiscate as much food and weaponry as you can, then destroy the rest of their supplies. After that, fall back to this position,” he continued to speak out loud. He stood in position as scores of arrows were dumped nearby while the Black Crag battalion marched behind him.
Alec took a kneeling position, and watched the rebel forces that were peeling off from the main force to come to their right to regain control of the area where Black Crag was winning. Alec began firing arrows as fast as he could, trying to mow down as many of the approaching soldiers as possible, to protect the Black Crag forces. There were no more sounds behind him, and Alec realized the last of his guards had made it into the rebels’ camp, where they were hopefully spreading mayhem as they searched for and destroyed the supplies the rebel army needed.
The battlefield in front of him was littered with bodies at a distance of nearly a quarter mile, where his arrows were falling in a heavy rain. A few of the rebel soldiers had gotten through the slaughter field and were approaching Alec with swords drawn. “Can I help you with the little ones that slipped through?” a voice asked.
Alec twisted his neck for a second to see the speaker. “I know you, don’t I?” Alec asked as he saw a woman’s face that looked familiar.
“I’m Lieutenant Collons. You helped me win a year’s worth of ale in bets at Black Crag,” she identified herself. Alec remembered then; she had been the officer at the gate when he had first arrived at the fortress city in the mountains.
“You pick off as many of those as you can,” Alec agreed with a nod. He suspected that the two of them were not going to be in their position much longer. The rest of Caitlen’s army had clearly folded and retreated; there was nothing but rebel forces in sight, and those forces were now starting to approach his position from three directions, more than he would be able to defend against. “We’ll need to abandon position in a few minutes if our battalion doesn’t come to us first.”
Without comment Collons stood next to Alec and began to shoot arrows. Although she didn’t hit many of her targets with a single arrow, she hit some, and made the others more cautious about approaching. Alec’s supply of arrows was finally running low after he had put to good use the generous deposits given to him by the Black Crag soldiers, and his powers were beginning to diminish as well after his use of them in the battle with the demon.
“Collons, we need to go,” Alec said standing up and sweeping the last handful of arrows into his quiver. The approaching armies were too close and numerous to withstand, and Alec let Collons lead the way into the nearly empty camp of the rebel army. Minutes later they saw a pillar of smoke rising in the near distance, and set their course in that direction. As they approached they saw the Black Crag forces, pinned down by an attack from a smaller force of rebels.
“Why are they letting that lot tie them down?” Collons asked, puzzled by the sight.
“I can’t explain, but there’s no reason to let it go on,” Alec said as he pulled his bow off his shoulder and sent a number of arrows flying towards the attacking forces. With six arrows in the air, Alec stopped to watch their results. The first three struck members of the front line of the attackers and dropped them on the spot, but one of the swordsmen who was attacking the Black Crag incursion whirled and used his sword to block the last three.
“Mother of the mountains!” Collons swore. “Did you see that?”
“Who are you?” the man asked as he arrived and began to circle Alec, his footwork sure and competent.
Alec sidled sidewise, not wanting to allow the man to have access to Collons.
“Protecting a pet, are you?” the man asked. “I’ll give this one special attention after we have this situation under control. The question remains: who are you, and what are you doing on their side? Have they promised you a hefty pay-off?”
“They are my side. I am one of them. I fight for the princess,” Alec replied in a staccato bark.
“What an accent! Are you the one we’ve heard about? The mighty foreign seducer of the princess! I expected someone a little more imposing,” the other man said, and he struck at Alec with his sword.
Alec blocked the thrust at his chest and diverted it to his right, then began his riposte to try to land a counter blow. The man stepped back and sinuously twisted to avoid Alec’s blade.
“What’s your name?” Alec asked as they faced one another again.
“You need to answer my questions first,” the man said.
“I am the consort of Princess Esmere Trelawney, ruler of the Avonollene Empire,” Alec replied.
The man gave a mocking bow of acknowledgement. “And I am Availlen, a simple Ajax, fighting to help my friends defend their freedom, in the service of the united races. So were you the reason we never heard back from Abelard and Isial? This all would have been so much easier, less bloody, if they had accomplished their duties and gained control of the princess in the first place.”
The man struck again, trying to swing low at Alec’s knees, but the ingenaire blocked the attack, then sprang back as Availlen immediately swung again. Alec continued to circle to stay in front of Collons, and staged an attack of his own, but Availlen blocked it.
“I did fight Abelard and Isial,” Alec acknowledged at last.
“And who did you beat first? Abelard? I always thought he overestimated his abilities,” Availlen said.
“I fought them both at the same time,” Alec replied.
There was a flicker of doubt in Availlen’s eyes. “That’s a nice try,” the man replied. “No one can beat two of us at the same time.” He attacked again, driving hard towards Alec with a thrust again, and Alec blocked it and prepared to counter-attack Availlen as he retreated, only to realize in disbelief that the man kept going, pressing past Alec and driving straight towards Collons.
The Black Crag officer made an attempt to defend herself, but Availlen knocked her blade from her hand and skewered her with a strong thrust, then skipped away, facing Alec as he did.
“Now that the distraction is out of the way, maybe we can really fight,” Availlen spoke with an indecipherable smile on his face.
Alec kept his eyes on Availlen, but knelt by Collons and gently placed his hand on her torso, and let it slide to the location of the injury. The guard had passed out from the violence of the damage done to her body. Alec could sense that a great deal of harm had been done to her internal organs, and he let the stream of healing power he held flow into her body, treating the organs, repairing the arteries, and then mending the muscles.
Availlen stood without attacking, watching curiously as Alec squatted motionlessly by the slumped over body.
“What do you think you are doing? Is this some strange mourning practice?” the Ajax asked at last after a short time had passed.
In response, Alec stood up, and reached down to help Collons rise as well. “That was an attack with no honor,” Alec told his opponent.
Availlen stood silent and stunned, sure that he had dealt a death stroke to the woman who now stood before him. Alec dropped his Healer and Spiritual energies, and concentrated only on using his Warrior powers as he rushed at Availlen and began a prolonged fencing match in which neither side gave quarter. The flicker of the blades continued unabated for minute after minute as Alec pressed his attack, growing wearier as he fought, Availlen easily giving way step by step to avoid being caught at close quarters with Alec.
“Alec!” a voice called from behind him at length, causing Alec to step back from Availlen, so that he could sneak a look at the scene behind him. From the quick glance his peripheral vision saw that Collon had been joined by the rest of the Black Crag unit, who had apparently freed themselves of their entrapment. The rebellious army unit without Availlen had not been able to contain them.
Alec’s energies were running low, and he knew he wasn’t going to have an easy time defeating Availlen at this point. “I’m ready to go. Shall we finish this some other time?” he asked with reluctance.
Availlen raised the tip of his sword in a salute. “If you can stay away from your precious princess long enough to be part of this campaign, and if the demon-callers don’t get you first, I’m sure we will meet again,” Availlen agreed.
Alec stepped back three steps, keeping an eye on his opponent, then watched as the man broke away and ran towards his own small contingent of forces. Relieved, Alec started to jog back to his companions. He looked up at the sky and saw how low the sun had fallen towards the western horizon. The next step to take was uncertain, but at least he would be with a force he trusted to fight.
“How have you fared?” Alec asked as he reached the large contingent.
“We stuffed our sacks with as much as we could, and torched the rest,” Adelmo reported. “We would have gotten away clean as a bird if that fighter you were with hadn’t come upon us.”
“I don’t think we’ll make it back to our own encampment before sunset,” Alec told them. “We need to prepare to campaign independently to find them. Did you see any horses on the way? If we can raid a stable we’ll be able to send out scouts to be our eyes and ears.”
“There’s a corral off to the right,” one of the troops in the front line spoke up. “It looked full.”
“Take a squad over to get the horses and supplies,” Alec told Collons. “What do you have in the way of injuries?” he asked, and he went to tend to the injured, healing some completely, while only alleviating the pain of others who he didn’t have the energy to heal. Half an hour later they were together again and ready to move.
Together Alec and Collons and a handful of other surviving officers decided to go east, towards the coast line, then turn north to find their way back to the rest of the army they were cut off from. “There is another option,” a squad leader said. “We could go further south and try to occupy Cearche. The rebels have probably left it unguarded, so we could control their supply line from inside the city walls, and you could send ships from their harbor to take messages to the rest of the army.”
“Or we could have Krimshelm’s army land right there and join us,” Alec mused.
“Well what do we do? The sun is setting and we’ve stayed here in the rebel’s camp for too long,” Collons pressed.
“We’ll go to Cearche,” Alec decided. “Let’s head south.”
And so their migration began. Alec finally had time and energy to imperfectly heal his own minor wounds from the fight with the demon. They spent the night in a vacant field and marched into the city in the middle of the next day. Perry, if you have access to your ships, come to Cearche. Our Black Crag forces have taken control of the city, he sent a message. Only a few members of the skeleton garrison of the rebel occupants managed to escape, and the city accepted new authorities with aplomb.
“What do we know about these rebels?” Alec asked after they had settled into control of the city, with guards walking on patrols around the city walls and on the street. He was visiting various businesses around the city, offering healing treatments and assuring the residents of their peaceful intentions.
“The leaders come from Birmi
ng and Santi,” one shopkeeper told him.
“They use slavery; their officers brought slaves with them to serve them,” another reported, and many local street kids had disappeared during the city’s occupation, presumably taken into slavery.
“They were competitors with the other set of rebels, the junta in the north, but also allies with them on some things, until that group collapsed. They don’t have much shipping of their own, and part of the fleet they did have was destroyed at Krimshelm,” a banker told Alec.
A seamstress provided the most insight as she told Alec about the different types of clothes and uniforms she had altered and mended for the occupiers during their control of Cearche. She had mended black robes for a group of customers who were aloof and frightening. She had also served a number of wealthy men who came from the southern cities, the ones who talked to one another a lot as they stood to have their clothes measured, and who had talked about plantations and prices for goods. A third group, one that rarely came, were a few men who seemed ordinary, yet seemed to consider themselves superior to all others, men who came from a small village in the mountains apparently, a village named Valer. And then there were the military leaders, the group that seemed conflicted about their conflict, complaining to each other and debating over rights and wrongs in their campaign.