by Rosie Scott
More of the assassins went invisible as they dispersed to follow my orders. The leaves of shrubs waved their greetings as unseen women crept through the greenery and to stairways and ladders leading to the upper levels of the city.
“How creative can we get, little lady?” Marcus's voice was so deep I could feel its vibrations traveling through the ground.
“Creative enough to cause fear, Marcus,” I told him. “Show them what you can do. Make them think the giants will destroy Celendar. But don't. I want surrender, not annihilation.”
Cyrus nodded up at the giant Sentinel and motioned forward. “Lead your army first, Marcus. We will cover your rear.” As Marcus moved to follow his king's orders, Cyrus turned to me. “I'm sorry for your loss, Kai, though I'm glad it hasn't affected your plans.”
“My plans were partially for Silas's benefit,” I replied. “Whether he is alive or dead, I abide by my promises to friends. Besides, I think this was what Silas wanted.”
“For his plans to fail?” Cyrus questioned, confused.
“No.” I thought back to the few conversations I'd had with my ex-lover after the Battle of the Southern Plains, when he'd exuded depression and had no excitement for his future. “Death.”
Uriel nodded from beside Cyrus, seemingly agreeing with my assessment.
“The Seran Renegades will focus on extinguishing royalty until we can find Vipin Elwood,” I informed Cyrus, watching as Azazel removed camouflaged threats quickly from the bridges above with his longbow. “Accept surrender if they give it. Alert me if you need aid or gather relevant intel.” I patted my war horn, calling his attention to it.
Cyrus nodded once with acceptance. “Understood. May we be victorious, Kai.”
“We will be.” I turned from Cyrus, and my eyes scanned over my friends and Renegades. “We will move as one unit. Follow me.”
“Yes, ma'am,” Nyx replied playfully, saluting once.
The outskirts of Celendar were in the midst of an all-out brawl. Calder and the beastmen were a solid wall of brute strength and chaotic savagery on the frontlines. The Celds were not surprised to see beastmen here; they likely learned of their participation in this war through intel passed along from the dwarves. Nonetheless, the Celds had no experience fighting beastmen, and many were caught off guard and overwhelmed by the frenzied brutes. The Knights of Celendar put up the greatest fight, using two-handed swords and tremendous strength to cut straight through limbs held up in defense before finishing beastmen off through decapitation or a sword through the spine. Celdic archers and hunters were also a bane for the beastmen, for some beasts could fall with one accurate arrow through the eye if it punctured the brain, and others were shot with tranquilizer darts from well-honed Celdic blowpipes, leaving them falling helpless to the ground before being surrounded.
Echoes of battle surrounded the bridges of Celendar, but most of their occupants were invisible to me. As I led my Renegades up the twirling staircase of a massive pearl-white tree, Azazel stayed by my side, his superior eyes scanning for camouflaged foes. He stopped a few times to fire off arrows from over the railing before moving on.
The staircase finally leveled off in a landing five stories up. A rope bridge led to the next tree over from here, and another stretched over our heads a few floors above us. But the stairway did not continue, so our path to the higher levels was unclear.
The covered bridge was still five stories above us and to the left. A few of the royal Celds were in puddles of blood, limbs hanging over the edges of walkways as if coaxing the rest of the bodies to fall through the railings and to the forest floor. Given that several assassins were cut down nearby, I assumed they'd infiltrated the area for a few minutes before being found out. Sedge Elwood was in battle with three separate assassins, his short sword sheathed and longsword already dripping with blood. The women surrounded him like scavenger animals. One of them lashed out with two daggers, but the two blades barely made a nick in Sedge's heavy knight armor. Sedge retaliated by whipping his armored arm across the woman's face, throwing her back until she hit a pillar of the bridge and collapsed at the bottom with a crushed nasal bone. Though the assassin lived, the hit disoriented her so she stayed sitting. Sedge put an armored boot against her right breast, holding her still as he skewered her through the heart.
The other two assassins grew desperate. One threw a paralyze spell at Sedge's back as he withdrew his sword from his victim's heart, but the magic hit the center of his plate armor and did not find vulnerabilities to sink into. The green energy fizzled out as it dissipated. The second assassin backed away from the knight as she loaded a small Alderi crossbow with a steel bolt. She lifted the crossbow and quickly fired, and Sedge hissed through his teeth as the bolt sunk between two plates over his chest. The thick padding beneath saved his heart, and he stalked toward the two women with his large sword in both hands.
Crrk!
An ice shard shot toward the assassin nearest Sedge from the opposite end of the bridge, puncturing the back of her skull with such power that her facial bones shattered out of the exit wound on the other side. The assassin's body spun one hundred and eighty degrees from the force before it collapsed in its own gore. The close hit left Sedge covered in pieces of bone and splattered with blood, and he spit at his boots and glanced up at his defender with thanks.
Thorn Elwood dispelled water magic and summoned earth, proving himself to be a dual caster. Multiple small metal blades spun rapidly above his palm as he closed the distance to his father. The assassin between them knew she was no match for Sedge in melee alone, so she spun and ran to fight Thorn instead.
Thorn didn't give her a chance, shooting off the metal shards as quickly as if they were repeater crossbow bolts. Though the assassin had given herself an alteration shield meant to absorb magic, the metal's physical properties were too sturdy and broke straight through it. Multiple blades of metal easily split the woman's light armor, and she collapsed between the two royal Celds, lying on the wooden planks shaking with shuddering breaths as she slowly bled out.
“You want to get to them,” Azazel presumed, watching with me as Thorn kicked the still-living assassin's body to the edge of the bridge, where he pushed it over beneath the bottom railing. When the woman hit the ground far below in a spray of blood, she was no longer breathing. Thorn's decision to give the woman a traumatic death instead of a swift one ate at me.
“Absolutely,” I replied, my eyes staring into Thorn's side like daggers.
“Then we will have to cross and go up on the other tree,” Azazel informed me, pointing across the bridge ahead. As he led us over it with his bow, his next words gave away the fact that he could read me so well. “I heard Sedge scold Thorn for that display, Kai.”
“That won't save him from the consequences of killing Silas,” I replied.
“No,” Azazel agreed. “I suppose it wouldn't.”
“How are you doing?” Cerin's rough voice trembled slightly with the excess energy of a high, but his scythe was clean of blood. His question was vague, but I understood it.
“I'll feel better once Sedge and Thorn are dead,” I replied, keeping my eyes forward. I didn't want to admit that Silas's death saddened me more than I outwardly showed. I was struggling internally with my inability to keep Silas safe, and because he'd been so unjustly treated by his fellow Celds, I wanted to unleash my full wrath upon Celendar. But Silas's request to keep the forest safe repeated itself in my head as a reminder. Heeding it was the only thing I could do for him now.
Cerin nodded beside me in understanding, but he added, “There are a million different emotions running through your eyes, Kai. Don't think you have to keep things from me because Silas was once in my place. You can talk to me.”
My heart warmed at his loving reminder, somewhat calming my anger. Azazel stopped at the end of the bridge to fire off a few more arrows into unseen enemies before he continued leading us up another twirling staircase. I tilted my head slightly toward Cerin and said,
“There are a million emotions in my eyes because that's how many thoughts are running through my mind. You will hear them all later. I know I can talk to you about anything, Cerin. That's one of the many reasons I love you.”
Cerin's face brightened with my open admission. “Only one reason? You'll have to list these reasons off to me. Later, as you said.”
I shrugged lightly and nodded forward where the twirling staircase finally leveled with the tenth floor. Farther ahead and past another overpass, the covered bridge laid in wait. Groups of Celdic royalty were fighting both visible and invisible assassins. “Why not start now? Reason number two: seeing you wielding that beautiful scythe in battle does unspeakable things to me.”
Cerin grinned and clutched his weapon tighter as he finally tore his silver eyes from me to the foes ahead. “Well, I like doing unspeakable things to you, so I'd better take advantage of that.”
Nyx chuckled from just behind me, pulling my attention to where she, Maggie, and Holter had been listening to our every word. When Nyx noticed my stare, she said playfully, “You two are weird.”
“You like being paralyzed during sex,” I retorted lightly, building two spells in my palms. “You have no room to talk.” All three friends behind me looked amused, unable to disagree.
The stairs we'd just left leveled to a wooden walkway that curled around the trunk ahead. The tree was so massive that the path appeared straight even though it surrounded the trunk's circumference. The boards of the byway were made of pearl-white timber but were stained a light green, perhaps to visually differentiate them from the bark of the nearby trees. Now, as assassins and a mix of Celdic royalty and soldiers fought and cluttered the narrow avenues, red blood slowly sunk into the wood, mixing with the green to become a light brown. Sedge and Thorn were still on the covered bridge, but between them and us, hordes of Celdic reinforcements came down to our level from dozens of stories above to protect royalty. Not that they needed protecting—dozens of our deceased allies surrounded the father son duo, and other members of the Elwood family were fighting valiantly nearby. Just as the nearest foes noticed our presence on the tenth floor, Thorn's sharp blue eyes found mine from our distance.
“The Seran Renegades!” Thorn pointed at me and screamed to his allies, “I offer five thousand gold to anyone who brings me one of their heads! Five thousand gold each!”
Crrk!
A shard of ice shot from my left hand and over the walkway railing, twirling rapidly during its trajectory over the open air between us. Thorn was much too far; the ice spike slowed in its flight before arcing downward, crashing harmlessly into white bark beneath the overpass. Thorn's raucous sarcastic laughter grated in my ears like a mockery.
“Some people should be seen, not heard,” Nyx muttered beside me just before going invisible to prepare for battle. “Thorn is gorgeous, but dear gods, someone needs to shut him up.”
“That's why we're here,” Azazel replied, loosing an arrow at the still-laughing Celd. The ammo would have split one of Thorn's blue eyes perfectly if it weren't for the saving grace of a fresh life shield given to him by another member of royalty. Azazel grimaced and turned his attention back to the camouflaged archers lining the walkways above us. “I hate it when I miss.”
“It looked like the arrow was on the right track to me,” I reassured him, building enervat in a palm before thinking twice. Too many assassins still mixed in with our foes. I dispelled the death bomb and settled for single funnel leeching, thrusting both arms out as our enemies finally reached us. Sharp crackling reverberated harshly off the nearby tree trunk as black funnels coaxed souls out of their vessels. When the tingle of a high massaged my temples, I passed the energy on to Azazel, before taking more and giving it to Nyx. Cerin and I both gave energy to Maggie until she trembled with excess power. Nearby, Holter leeched from a few foes before switching to alteration and earth magic, using seek life to find camouflaged Celds before shooting metal shards into their ranks.
Celds continued flooding the path between us and our targets like a river from the upper forest, their constant reinforcements acting as a blockade. My friends and I were phenomenal fighters, but we were up against melee, magic, and ranged foes who threw everything at us at once. I was constantly on the defensive, regenerating a variety of shields for my allies. We could not expect to make progress quickly while being so outnumbered. I untied the war horn from my belt, deciding to rely on my allies for aid.
HUUURRRNNNNN!
The noise bounced roughly off the surrounding trees, echoing so many times through the thick forest that my one call sounded like many. My eyes searched through the crowds of allies, biased for silver-blue scales and the glimmering black and yellow of Sentinel armor. Calder found my location easily, but he appeared conflicted. The Knights of Celendar were far stronger than most of the Vhiri in melee, and we needed Calder's beastmen on the frontlines. Just behind the beasts, however, Cyrus heard my call and formed a plan. He yelled something to Calder I could not ascertain, and the beastmen continued tackling the knights. Cyrus then gave orders to Zephyr, who immediately redirected her army to the stairways that would lead them up to us for support. Cyrus gave a last directive to Dax, who pulled his army away from Uriel's. At first, it was unclear to me why Dax headed away from battle.
Dax's turquoise eyes were on one of Celendar's ground level water reservoirs. I scanned upward over metal pumps and rope pulleys, finding that the large elevator belonging to the contraptions slowly made its way toward our level. The lift was a giant square wooden floor surrounded on all four sides by sturdy railings, and packed full of hundreds of Celdic reinforcements. Given its location, the soldiers meant to flank us by getting off the elevator on the walkway we'd already left behind. Until Zephyr arrived to reinforce us, we were too outnumbered to retreat to the area to fend them off, so they would surround us.
Dax's silver-blonde hair shone with a tint of blue as he reached the edge of the reservoir where bioluminescent fungi glowed from the shallowest of its waters. The Sentinel built up a clear spell in one palm but hesitated to use it, his exacting eyes watching the elevator's progress. Finally, Dax thrust his hand toward the water, and the reservoir shone bright white as it quickly froze over.
An egregious grinding rattled through the metal pumps, and the wooden boards beneath our boots shook violently as the mechanism failed. The elevator came to a screeching halt two stories beneath the wooden overhang that acted as its stop on the twentieth-floor, still eight full levels above the overhang that would lead them to us.
The Celds on the lift panicked; they were too high above the next drop-off point, but they were too far from the last to climb back. On the ground level, Dax gave them another reason to worry. With one of his steel axes in hand, Dax scrambled across the ice of the reservoir, swinging hard toward the nearest rope that attached to an iron pulley.
Shink! Shink! Shink!
The ax tore at the rope until it frayed and strained. The Celds on the lift could do little. A few of their allies on the overhang two floors up hurried to aid them. Some Celds carried a simple wooden ladder over one walkway, eager to save the stuck soldiers.
The lift groaned protests as the rope finally snapped, hanging loosely over ice in the reservoir. The elevator was much too large to be supported by only one. As Dax hacked at the next, he directed his soldiers to cut through the rest.
The ladder angled over the overhang, multiple muscular Celds holding the contraption as they lowered it to the floor of the lift. One Celd immediately grabbed onto it and tried to climb, and the others holding the ladder cursed at the man for his impatience since the abrupt movement nearly made them lose their grasp. The soldier hurried two steps up, and another soldier grabbed onto the ladder behind him.
SNAP! Ssss...
With three out of four heavy ropes severed, the elevator broke the last with its own weight. The lift fell at the mercy of gravity, tugging the ropes along with it as they hissed with rapid friction. Some Celds flew ove
r the railings of the contraption as it fell, tumbling away from the action like shrapnel. The rest clung to railings and fell to the floor of the lift, and some vomited with the pressure the sudden fall put on their guts.
The elevator and its occupants hurtled past the overhang behind us, and one corner of the large contraption crashed through the outstretched wooden planks. The weakness coaxed the boards to collapse inward at the center of the platform, leaving nothing more than foundation pillars sticking out from the side of the walkway. The forest shook as the elevator finally crash landed in the brush ten-stories below us, leaving a pile of rubble comprising broken boards, frayed rope, and internally ruptured bodies.
Dax moved his army back toward the battle after I nodded my thanks for his assistance. Footsteps echoed out from behind us, where Zephyr finally arrived to aid our advance. The Sentinel's silver eyes were energetic with a high given to her by the life and death dual caster at her side.
“You're always outnumbered, Kai,” Zephyr said, her tone amused as she walked past us and into the fray. As magic and weapons alike clashed into her shield and ward, she added, “I'm beginning to think you prefer it.”
Gray, angry winds churned against the magical barrier in her left hand, and purple veins of electricity crackled in her right. Zephyr directed the lightning toward her other hand to combine the spells as she finally thrust them forward. An arc of raging winds gust through the Celds ahead, throwing those without shields so abruptly back they flew over the nearby railings. Blue and purple white-hot currents of electricity rode along the magical winds, racing out hungrily to grasp onto shields and bodies that survived the gust and rattle them in electrocution. The immediate walkway before us was suddenly clear, for the Celds thrown over the railings fell to their deaths, and the others collapsed over green wood, foaming at the mouths.