by Guy Estes
"Yes. I know." Aleena's gaze was locked onto a distant point. Then she looked down, denying her tears their wish. When she composed herself, she said, "But I don't want to kill him, Father. Until I met him I had no idea there was anyone else like me. He was the first of my kind I met. He was the one person who knew what it’s like to be Chosen, to truly know its burdens and hazards. When we first met he described it so perfectly: it’s like being the only member of your species trapped in a world of particularly hostile monkeys.” She sighed. “He is my brother."
"Is he? You possess your power. His power possesses him. You use your gift to guard and protect. He uses his to conquer and dominate. You learn from your failures. He denies his. I see very little resemblance between you and Anlon."
Aleena nodded. "Thank you, Father. You have no idea how badly I needed to hear that. But it is indeed peculiar that the gods would bestow the gift of warrior on someone whose greatest ambition is to be left alone.”
“Perhaps,” Ivarr said with a small smile, “that is precisely why they entrusted you with the gift.”
Aleena went inside to get them some hot tea. When she returned, they sat and enjoyed the birth of a new day dawning in the world that had become, for better or worse, Aleena's adopted children.
After breakfast, Aleena bathed. By the time she was finished, Ilian was up and had tended to the dishes. Aleena busied herself by making certain she had everything she would need for the journey. Everything was designed to be easily portable. Her food was a mixture of dried meat and fruit, formed into dark sticks. A ground sheet made of a material as light and thin as silk folded up to take up almost no room, yet it insulated her from the cold ground. She also had a small medicinal kit and fire making tools. Madigan’s divinations had located Anlon’s stronghold in the Badlands.
"Well," she finally sighed. "I suppose I can delay no longer."
"Make haste," Ilian told her. "Or else we'll rent your room out!"
They all embraced, Ilian weeping, and the other two trying very hard not to. Aleena turned and headed south.
CHAPTER 22
Aleena had long since left the Artisan League and had reached the point where the Ophirees turned west and she would soon be penetrating the craggy ridges that separated her home from the Badlands. It was here that she stumbled across three ogres.
The big brutes were clad in mangy animal skins and armed with crude weapons of stone. However, since the smallest of them stood a foot taller than Aleena and had ten times her strength, the quality of their weapons was a moot point. They were standing in a glade, the light of the overcast day subdued under the trees. Wind swished through the branches, and thunder quietly muttered. They were gesturing, huffing and grunting. Aleena realized they were speaking to her, but she had no idea what they were saying.
The biggest one led them as they approached her. He was just over eight feet in height. Aleena could discern their small, pig-like eyes and their snaggled, yellow teeth. They continued a steady stream of ape-like huffing and barking, accompanied by various gestures, as they approached her. One was armed with a tree trunk for a club, while another had a stone-tipped spear. The biggest one, the one Aleena thought was the leader, had a stone axe. Their iron vitality enabled them to absorb incredible damage and remain lethal. Even with her skill and might and weapons, Aleena was at a severe disadvantage.
Concentrate on survival. When faced with multiple opponents, it is better to attack.
Aleena let them get close enough, then hacked off the smallest one's leg with Firethorne, her sword as sharp as she could make it. Coming up from a crouch, she swung her blade up between another's legs, but he got out of the way. Aleena kicked his leg, which did not hurt him, but it did momentarily distract him, and she was able to open his belly. He fell to his knees as he tried to hold his intestines in. Aleena turned to confront the last one, who was the leader.
He swung his axe in an arc that would have bisected an elephant, but Aleena saw him winding up to deliver the blow and moved. He sank his axe into the kneeling ogre's chest. Aleena slashed him across the backs of his legs, and he whirled to strike her. Aleena's smaller size enabled her to close with him, so his axe would be awkward at that extreme close range. She held Firethorne's blade up and let his swinging arms hit the enchanted blade, amputating his left hand and deeply cutting his right forearm. However, he was able to get off a kick that sent Aleena reeling. She dropped Firethorne before she hit the ground.
She felt her foe stomping towards her, and she drew Shearbat as she rose, gripping the haft with both hands. The ogre had his axe in his remaining hand, held behind his back. As he closed in on her, he swung the weapon over his head to come down upon her like an avalanche. Aleena waited, watching the axe travel through its arc. Only when it was coming down did she move, and the axe sank deeply into the earth. Aleena shot to the side in a crouch, then leaped to bury her axe's enchanted blade into the monster's neck, nearly severing his head. His big body thumped to the ground and Aleena scanned her surroundings for any more threats while reclaiming Firethorne. The one whose leg she'd removed would soon be dead, but he had gotten a horn off of its strap and raised it to his mouth and blew. The sound echoed through the woods and peaks, and Aleena quickly deduced what it was for. He was calling for reinforcements.
Aleena decided that discretion would be the better part of valor and ran. Tamura only knew how many ogres would answer the call and come to avenge their dead comrades. If her weapons had not been so powerful, she probably would not have been able to overcome the three she had. Aleena stopped running every now and then to watch and listen. She neither saw nor heard anything out of the ordinary, but she could not rid herself of the feeling that she was not alone. She felt a presence that was tantalizingly familiar, but she could not place it. She started to turn left, but then she experienced, for the first time, the curious sensation of someone else’s thought occurring in her mind.
No. Go straight.
Aleena followed the instruction and ran straight ahead. She had gone several paces when the same thing that had told her to go straight now screamed for her to stop, which she did, but not soon enough. The ground collapsed under her feet, and Aleena plunged down into a pit. She rolled when she hit the bottom, which was ten feet down. Aleena drew Firethorne as she rolled to her feet. She was surrounded by walls of dark soil. This trap had been prepared some time ago, so the ogres must frequent this section of the mountains. They would follow her trail from the three she'd slain and find her here, cornered and helpless.
No, not helpless. In order to kill me they will have to get within reach of my weapons. They cannot cast spears down here more quickly than I can dodge them, so either one of them will have to come down here or they will have to haul me up there.
Lightening strobed across the sky. All too soon, Aleena heard the tramping of heavy feet and the huffing of rancid breath through wet nostrils. Their ugly, blunt heads appeared at the pit's edge like a plague of boils. Aleena counted eight of them. They wore expressions of grim satisfaction.
"You strong," one told her in broken trade language spoken in a rough voice rumbling from a deep chest. "Slay three brothers. Now your strength corked."
"Now that you have it corked, what are you going to do with it?"
One cast his spear down at her. Aleena let it hit her in the chest and knock her down. Her armor's properties shrugged the blow off without difficulty. She got back up and let them see that their leader's blow not even scratched her armor. They barked and snarled amongst themselves, trying to decide what the best course of action would be. Finally, the leader held up his arms and gave a loud bark.
"We butcher her. Eat her. Make skin into drum!"
One of them reached down into the pit and plucked Aleena off her feet with one arm as easily as if he were pulling up a weed. He swung Aleena away from the pit and held her close to the leader's face. Her captor held her by the back of neck, so Aleena's hands were free. She swiped Fi
rethorne across the leader's face. He roared and stumbled back, his hands pressed to his face. Aleena grabbed her captor's arm with her left hand and swung herself around enough to stab him in the chest. She was too far away for her blade to penetrate very deeply, but he released her. Aleena dropped to her feet and swung, taking off his right leg.
She then spun to confront another, who was coming at her with a boulder held over his head. He hurled the rock at her, but he was slow, despite his enormous strength. Aleena easily avoided the missile and darted in close to him. He saw her coming and grabbed a nearby tree. He was uprooting it so he could use it for a club, but Aleena closed in on him and slashed his belly open. The other six were surrounding her, snarling their rage. One threw another rock at her. He was faster than his friend had been, but Aleena still managed to dodge it. She also swung Firethorne and sheared it in two. The ogres stopped when they saw this, uncertain about what they were facing. Clearly, she was far more powerful than they'd originally thought. Aleena rushed them, boring straight in towards one and waiting until he braced for her attack before quickly shifting course and assaulting a different one. He jumped back to avoid her swinging blade, but her backswing lopped off a hand. One of the others ripped Shearbat from its sheath on her back. She turned and watched him grin triumphantly as he hefted the axe and sank it into his own face. The one missing a hand came at her with his skinning knife which, to Aleena, was the equivalent of a cutlass. He plunged the weapon down at her. She sidestepped and, as his neck came down to her level, lopped his head off. She then moved to finish off the leader.
Her previous cut ran across his face in an angry red line, a few drops of blood dribbling down his face. He watched her come and did not seem disturbed. Her blade sang towards his leg. He pulled it back and avoided her blow, then delivered one of his own. He backhanded her with his left hand. It should be born in mind that an adult male ogre can snap the neck of an ox with his left hand, so while Aleena's armor spared her any real damage, it could not spare her the terrific shock of impact. She was thrown through the air, making one complete flip before her back hit a tree while she was upside-down. She fell to the forest floor and tried to regain control of her equilibrium, but at the moment she could not even see. Her head swam as she heard the ogres tromping towards her. She managed to muster the coordination needed to roll over onto her back.
As her breathing restarted, her vision swam from a black void to a translucent blur. When it returned completely, she found four very large and quite irate ogres standing over her. She was surrounded and flat on her back, virtually unconscious. Her axe was embedded in a skull several yards away and she had lost Firethorne when she'd been struck. She had no idea where it was. The leader held out a hand, and one of the others placed a huge stone axe in it. He held it with both hands and hefted it high above his head. With a great roar, he brought the heavy weapon down. The stone blade came down on Aleena like an avalanche. She heard the clang as it encountered her armor and felt as if her guts were being squished through her throat and ears. She could no longer feel her legs.
Because you've been shorn in two, you bloody fool!
The ogres were scratching their mangy heads and looking at her with consternation plain upon their faces. Aleena looked down at herself and saw that her lower half was still joined to her upper half. Her armor had saved her once more, but there was a ragged scar on her armor where the blow had landed. The leader again hefted his huge axe. Aleena knew her armor couldn’t survive another hit on the same spot. So did the ogres.
"Hold, creatures!"
The four hulks turned in unison to see what fool would dare interrupt their vengeance. Aleena was dimly aware that the wind had stopped as she raised herself on her elbows. She looked, but she knew what she would see. It was as inevitable as the Spring Equinox. She beheld the radiant brunette who'd been in her dreams about Anlon. She was adorned in armor identical to Aleena's, except it was black and shiny, like a beetle's carapace, and she wore no helm. She held a longsword that was made of the same glossy black steel. Her midnight hair curtained straight down her back to stop at her waist. A black recurve bow was slung across her back. When Aleena saw her, she felt the same sensation she had when she'd first laid eyes on Anlon.
Back in Sharleah, Madigan straightened from what he was doing, his gaze suddenly focused on something distant. Then he smiled.
“She’s met the third one.”
He didn’t feel the sense of doom he had when Aleena met Anlon. He felt hope wash through his spirit, fresh and invigorating, like a summer breeze after taking a bath.
One of the ogres ran at her with a bellowed war cry, his club poised to smash her into a red pulp. The woman's left hand released her sword and she extended it towards him, palm first, as if she were going to calmly order him to stop. Instead of giving him an order, though, she gave him a bolt of scarlet energy that shot from her palm. It spread out into an incandescent net as hit him and enshrouded him instantly. The net contracted and each strand burned through his flesh and bones, dividing his body into multiple pieces. She then charged the remaining three. She sensed they wore talismans fashioned by their shaman that gave them some protection from magic. She could’ve overcome them, but it would take extra effort and time, and they had no armor at all from her sword and arrows, so she opted to use those.
She slipped under the first one’s blow and hewed off his foremost leg. He fell and she split his skull. Wrenching her sword free, she regarded the remaining two. They ran. Ogres are fearful of magic to the point of being phobic about it. In addition to that, they wanted nothing to do with the person who slew their leader. The woman crouched and placed her fingers upon the ground. The trees creaked and groaned as they leaned towards one another, their branches moving to form a latticework to halt the ogres' retreat. They were strong enough to tear their way through it, but that would take time, and the mysterious woman had no intention of giving them any. She stuck her sword into the ground and unslung her bow. Aleena saw a slender black pouch slung on her hip that held a single arrow. The woman drew this arrow and nocked it to the string. Drawing the arrow back to the hinge of her jaw, she took aim and released. The black shaft caught one ogre in the left eye and nailed his head to the tree behind him, supporting his now-dead weight.
The last ogre ran, but the trees had formed a corral that surrounded the small battlefield. The woman nocked another arrow and took casual aim. Aleena noticed that a single arrow still occupied the thin pouch on the woman's back. The ogre held up a boulder to use as a shield. Aleena saw the woman's lips curl into a slight smile as she released the arrow. It struck the center of the boulder and disappeared. The ogre fell over and did not move. Aleena got up and went over to look at him. The arrow was embedded in his chest up to its nock. The rock had a small hole through it from which a few tiny cracks radiated out from it. She looked back at her mysterious benefactor. As Aleena watched, the woman’s armor became black clothing and the sun shone from a suddenly clear sky.
"My apologies," the woman said, "for being so late. I’d almost caught up with you when you fought the first three ogres. By the time you'd slain them, I was dealing with some of their colleagues and could not get to you."
"It was you who told me to run. You sent that thought."
"Yes,” she smiled. “I’ll wager that’s the first time you’ve been the recipient of telepathy! My name is Baezha Ambrose, Aleena."
"You know me?"
"I know of you. I've heard a few stories about your talent in the arena. I saw you in a few dreams and visions. I wanted to find you because we have much in common."
"Such as?"
"Our mission. We must slay our brother."
Aleena looked at her.
Baezha nodded and said, “Yes, I was born at the exact same time as you and Anlon. We are all three siblings of the same storm. You and I are sisters. And Anlon...” She sighed. “That poor wretch is our brother. You bested him in the arena, and now he wants to
settle the account. If you do not find him, he and his army shall find you, trampling everything in their path in the process."
"How is it you know so much?" Aleena had the warrior's distrust of sorcerers. The only one she'd ever trusted was Madigan.
"My major gift is magic, with the warrior arts as my minor. I started having visions and dreams of both you and Anlon about three years ago, and from time to time I've been able to watch you. I was eager to meet my fellow Chosen."
"What made you seek me first?"
"As I've said, I've been able to watch the both of you from time to time. Anlon worried me from the start, but you seemed much more stable. Besides," she said with a smile, "you were closer."
Part of Aleena’s major gift was the ability to quickly size up potential rivals and enemies. She found herself liking Baezha. The woman had a contagious smile, and her big, dark eyes held a deep sentience and intelligence. Her manner was a curious blend of no-nonsense and affability. Aleena felt the same warmth she had when she first met Anlon, but none of the anxiety. The idea of Baezha being a rival never crossed her mind. Even her major gift, so proud and jealous, did not see Baezha in that light.
They then compared weapons. Aleena’s gifted eye noted every detail of Baezha’s arms. Her sword, Darkthorne, had the same qualities as Firethorne, save it could not produce flame. The blade, cross guard and pommel were made of necronian steel and the grip was black hardwood. The faceted pommel was of a type called a scent stopper because it resembled the stopper of a perfume bottle. The three foot blade widened out three inches from the cross guard (which resembled a set of stag antlers, or perhaps a thorn vine), then the blade gradually narrowed to a point, a single fuller running its length. The center of balance was three inchess down the blade from the cross guard and the weapon weighed three pounds. Baezha wore it slung around her back to keep it from interfering with the use of her bow. A large section of the sheath was cut away, enabling her to draw the long bladed weapon from where it was slung.