by Shawn Keys
“And damned your pride!” Dassereen clipped back. “You summoned us here! Why would we betrayed you?”
“Oh no! The reputation of Lyvarress is well earned! You read our open hand as weakness! When we finish you here, we’ll sail to your lands and raze your precious capital to the ground for what you’ve done!”
They continued to press each other hard, two masters showcasing the talent that could be achieved after a thousand years in pursuit of perfection.
Callistia did not pause to absorb their majesty or their arguments. From atop her steed, she stood in her stirrups and lashed out at them with her own magic. Lightning raked them, crawling along their summoned aura-shields. Some of the energy rebounded and reflected, scouring the nearby warriors and searing their flesh.
Until that moment, nothing could have stopped the combat between the two gendarmes. But the furious lightning-mage and the charging bulk of Ajax with Skyreaver in hand drove a wedge into their anger where nothing else could. They glared at each other, then with one motion turned to face the oncoming threat.
Callistia rode them down. Her fingers fanned out to each side, sending a wave of lightning energy into both of them. Nahallanal caught the energy blast on his sword, then glided past to meet the rush of Ajax. Dassereen raised a hand, summoning a circular shield of air to ward off her power. It cost him more raw energy, but left his sword free. He slashed the blade horizontally and severed the horse from its legs immediately below the bulk of its body. Momentum carried Callistia and the tormented torso of the horse beyond him. The sun elf princess threw herself clear, rolling into the muck churned up near the forest. Thankfully, she missed the hard stone closer to the false gates.
Ajax bore down on Nahallanal, knowing he had to seize the initiative in order to survive. He sent Skyreaver in a scorching circle, ripping the air at inhuman speed. Nahallanal turned in a fluid move meant to absorb impact. This was not the first time he had fought an opponent with physical mass and strength beyond him. His blade caught Skyreaver… and it didn’t shatter. Fortified by magic of the same ken, his blade chipped but stayed whole. Infused magic offset the raw power of Ajax’s strike that otherwise would have smashed through any parry an elf could muster.
The gendarme flowed under his blade, as smooth as silk as he glided into Ajax’s personal space. His sword dipped, ready to carve through his leg and sever it at the hip.
The strike was turned aside by a hastily inserted spear tip. Jyliansa jammed herself into their duel, forcing Nahallanal to compensate. She should have been an easy kill, but Ajax wasn’t pausing. Given time by Jyliansa’s intervention, Ajax reversed his last strike and cut in a diagonal slash at the sun elf’s shoulder.
Nahallanal was unable to flicker a killing blow at Jyliansa. Instead, he washed her away with a wind gust, then concentrated on absorbing Ajax’s descending blade. Once again, he slipped past the strike like an eel in water, letting Ajax’s momentum carry him too far. With the knight exposed, the gendarme once again went for the killing strike.
Krizzilani was there this time. The fierce dark elf deflected his lethal blow, then unleashed a blizzard of dual dagger strikes that danced along the gendarme’s defenses. She was fast, but Nahallanal was faster. His blade was nothing but a blur as he turned aside her strikes, biding his time before unleashing a killing blow through her defenses.
Jyliansa read his intent. She thrust in her own well-placed blow right at his spine. Even blind to her presence, Nahallanal sensed the attack. Launching into the air, he soared above the combined attacks of daggers and spear, sweeping a hand to raise a gout of flame on the ground he had once occupied. The fire-burst exploded into the faces of the sea elf and dark elf, sending them scrambling backward before their eyebrows could be more than mildly singed.
A series of three knives spun out of Helleanna’s hands toward the gendarme. The maid knew she couldn’t get into melee with the elfish warrior without causing more problems than she solved, but her throws were on point. A lesser swordsman would have been caught off-guard, having just finished so acrobatic an escape. Nahallanal barely flinched, batting aside the knives like annoying pests.
But the delay was long enough to give Ajax the chance to re-engage. He smashed Skyreaver on the gendarme with punishing blows, frenzied and fueled by frustration and a touch of desperation. Taking a risk, Ajax hacked in horizontally, using an angle his elfish instructor had taught him never to use. Instinctively, Nahallanal took the openly, curling inside the blow, hooking Ajax’s sword, and leveraging it right out of his grasp. Ajax’s own position and momentum did almost all the work. Skyreaper went spinning away through the air. A rookie mistake.
Ajax was already drawing his half-sword with the other hand. Quick-drawing it with all the speed he had, he jutted the second weapon towards Nahallanal’s ribs. But the gendarme’s mind was clicking away just as quickly, spotting the ruse before it happened. His empty hand conjured an air-based shield between him and the point, deflecting away the half-sword and opening Ajax’s defenses for the gendarme’s own sword to dive in.
Only to jerk to a stop with a ragged gasp.
Because the gendarme hadn’t noticed Ajax’s other hand, now empty of Skyreaver, grasp the hilt of his hidden kukri, the third weapon in the griffin bone set. The knight jabbed the recurved blade under Nahallanal’s ribs, piercing deep and seeking his heart. The gendarme felt the impact but couldn’t escape fast enough. Ajax carried through the blow with all his strength, almost burying his whole fist in the elf’s gut.
Ajax tore the weapon free, sending a cascade of bright-red elfish blood over the grass. He retreated fast, knowing a dying animal could be at its most dangerous.
Indeed, Nahallanal whipped about, his sword darting this way and that. His frantic eyes blazed with denial and fury, refusing to accept his end. He spat blood, stumbling once, then lurching back toward Ajax.
Jyliansa gave a final snarl as she ran him through with her minotaur’s spear. She drove him to the ground and drove the tip into the grass.
Pinned, unable to vent any more of his anger, the gendarme sagged heavily against the grass. “… wasn’t… supposed to happen… this way…” He gasped.
Krizzilani smirked down at him. “Pity. I’d say you had it coming.” Lashing down, she opened his throat with a deep cut that nearly severed his whole neck from his shoulders.
As they finished him, Ajax turned to see Callistia facing down the gendarme she had lived with all her life. Dassereen stalked toward her, snarling, “What is it about your own kind you hate so much? Will you die for those who are beneath you?”
The sun elf mage screamed, “All I wanted was to believe in one of you! I would have died for one worthy of my loyalty!”
Dassereen yelled back, “We’re your blood!”
Her expression was sharp enough to cut diamonds. “That’s not enough.” Her hand snapped out and unleashed a bolt of pure Fury at him.
Seeing the build-up of energy coming, Dassereen went down on one knee, extending his blade and conjuring a force-wave of hardened air to take the vicious blow. The crack of competing magics exploded over the clearing. The blast wave launched everyone a few feet back, bending and breaking the nearest tree trunks in the woods. Crumbling rocks were shaken loose of the cliff and gritty dust billowed into the air.
The gendarme screamed with the effort, forcing himself to sweep a knee forward, getting that much closer to the mage pummeling him. Electrical sparks and spiderwebs of power lanced around his shield, clawing at him and burning along the sides of his limbs. Ignoring the pain, he took another step toward her, fighting to get within range for a killer strike.
Callistia’s eyes strobed as bright as the sun. Her other hand came forward. Her hands shaped a lotus blossom shape and built the already violent blast into a true tornado of destruction.
Straining with every fiber of his being, Dassereen held the shield for another few seconds. His feet dug into the stone beneath, carving furrows in the rock as he was pushed backward. Then, with
a last desperate cry, he lost the battle. His shield failed, and a howling hurricane of lightning magic incinerated him in the span of one breath to the next.
The sustained lightning blasts had pummeled the senses of everyone nearby. Beaten to near unconsciousness, the survivors scrambled to find their feet.
Ajax had weathered the onslaught well, owing to the endurance of his ogre heritage. He watched as Callistia collapsed, utterly exhausted after the display of raw power. Able but not totally stable, Ajax staggered drunkenly to her side, scooping her up into his protective arms.
Ajax had no idea how many warriors of the two Fists were still alive. Their leaders were gone. The chaos was briefly stymied. But they were probably still far, far too outnumbered. Even the specter of seeing their invincible gendarmes killed might not hold any survivors at bay. Worse still if the two sides suddenly decided to cooperate and kill the ones who had destroyed the sun elves.
Carrying Callistia, he shambled over to the others. Tugging them onto their feet, he insisted, “We must go! We must vanish! Only the gateway can save us. They lied to us, but the magic of my wish cannot. The gateway up there is somehow unguarded. That is what I asked for! The elves don’t control it! Their minotaurs were a lie, but we need to find the truth!”
Safaunya emerged before them, speaking fast, “I can help! Please, I know you were all betrayed and don’t want to trust anyone. I don’t know you, but Ajax saved my life. I’ll take you. I can find the way!”
Krizzilani added with a smirk, “If it helps, she’s also the one who ended the Prince. If I have to trust any of you forest dwellers, that’s a fine a reason as any.”
None of the others saw fit to argue. Trust might be short, but they were out of options.
Clinging to each other, they ran into the night and away from the remains of the enemy forces, leaving them to finish with each other however they would.
***
The black hue of blood under the moonlight was more common than green green in the clearing. The grey dust that had blasted into the air by the thunderclaps was settling over everything.
A hobbled moon elf squire marked with the livery of Cymarramathis dragged himself with one arm along the ground, which smeared him with other people’s lifeblood. A hand-axe was buried in his left thigh, and his right foot was shattered in at least four different places given the broken way it hung limply against the ground. His strength was fading, but he was trying to hold aloft his half-sword in a feeble defense. “No! No, it’s over! Mercy, please!”
A human mud-knight stalked slowly after him. Coughing harshly to clear his lungs, the knight shook like a ragged dog, flinging dust and sweat off himself. Blood dripped from the ruined remains of his right ear, the lobe cleaved off along with a bunch of hair and a chip of his skull. He’d dodged death by more fortune than skill. Grime was everywhere, coating everything. He felt like he would never be clean again.
His shield bore the emblem and colors of Lyvarress, but it hung from his forearm by the straps alone. He didn’t have the strength to hold the handle. His arm was scorched from one of the random spurts of electrical magic from that bitch mage’s fight with Dassereen. His other fist worked restlessly on the hilt of his longsword. He glared grimly down on the moon elf trying desperately to crawl away.
With a sudden snarl of hate, the mud-knight hoisted his sword and plunged it down through the pathetic warrior’s mouth. The brutal blow silenced his cries and severed the spine at the base of the skull. The elf was dead instantly. Jerking the blade free, the mud-knight spat on the corpse. “Fucking elves.”
A rattle of metal came from his left side as another shape rose from the ground, still sporting the blue-burnished armor common among moon elves. Beaten but alive, the moon elf groaned and stretched. Jzassabirra was a relative novice among the moon elf squires, but he’d survived. The hard work and effort at his lessons had paid off, and he’d survived where far more senior squires had fallen. He peered left and right, then shook his head in disbelief. “Are we all that’s left, Adamat?”
The turncoat mud-knight followed the moon elf’s gaze around the clearing cluttered with fallen warriors. Grime and blood covered most of the corpses, melding it all together in one grim tapestry. For a while, there had been a few groans and the occasional limb waving in mute supplication for aid. But those had faded. The only living two left was them. “Seems that way,” Adamat grunted.
The moon elf took a steadying breath. “A dark turn this took. We should be away for the shiiiaaccck –” He was cut off by a foot of steel being plunged into his gut.
Adamat hadn’t struck with a smile. Not even a sneer. Just a glowering, dark, simmering disgust. He twisted the blade, digging it around to ensure he carved out enough guts to make sure the deed was done. Propping his boot against the other warrior’s chest, Adamat rudely kicked the elf to the ground, leaving him to wallow in agony until his life ran out. Snorting, Adamat rolled his eyes. “Fucking elves.”
Quiet descended, though Adamat’s mind stewed in furious disgust. His dark gaze roved around, seeking an outlet for his frustration. His eyes fell on the small hole between the trees that had swallowed Ajax and his entourage of elfish women. He stared after them as if he could still see their retreating shadows. “Fucking Ajax.”
His gaze rose up, seeing the guiding star hanging above the mountains.
Hacking up phlegm from his throat, he hawked it down on Jzassabirra, whose eyes were closed as he quivered a last spasm of pain before death took him. Stepping on the moon elf’s chest with morbid delight, Adamat strode toward the woods, heading for the star.
Chapter 17
Despite their fatigue, they made excellent time with Safaunya’s guidance. She did more than aim them at the star they could all see. Her instincts and the voices of the trees led her through soft glades rather than thick brambles, and never wavered from the straightest route even if they couldn’t see the sky to navigate.
Ajax hugged Callistia’s unconscious form to him. Helleanna was never more than a single stride away, her own face wrinkled in concern. The moon elf had told them that this sort of exhaustion was normal enough, but it could be deadly if Callistia had recklessly extended herself. Considering how angry the sun elf had been, all of them feared the worst. But there was nothing to be done about it while charging through the dark woods.
Krizzilani hunted the night with her dark vision, but never ventured far. Even Safaunya wasn’t roaming ahead. It was a risk, but none of them were willing to be out of each other’s sights right then. She whispered to Ajax, “What happened back there? How’d you know they were going to betray us?”
The knight gestured first to the forest elf skipping ahead of them. “We owe our lives to her, above all else. She keyed me to the arrival of Dassereen and his forces. They couldn’t be here so quickly, not even with the magic of the wind, if they didn’t know exactly where to sail. As soon as she told me, I knew we’d been betrayed. But it didn’t make sense. Why weren’t they springing their trap? At first, I thought they were waiting for Dassereen to get into position. But then, we were there, in front of the minotaurs, and they still hadn’t unveiled their plan! If those Guardians had been real, we could have pleaded with them for protection. Or bolted into the maze where the elves couldn’t follow. It didn’t make sense that they were taking that kind of risk on the off chance I might reveal a little more about Quala.”
He berated himself. “I didn’t see it. I thought we were being so clever. They must have been laughing at us every day while we thought only we could see the guiding star. They wanted me to give them all my secrets, and they were right in assuming that the only way I would reveal those secrets would be to guarantee my access to the gateway. And I almost did it. I would have handed it over. Fury take me, if I wasn’t already suspicious from Safaunya’s warnings, who knows what I might have done? If the minotaurs demanded that I help an elf gain Quala’s trust as only one of them could go into the Wyld, and then offered up the Prince as
a ‘worthy’ bearer of the prison? What would I have done if I really thought it was the only way for Quala to get home? Who knows?” He shook his head. “I’m so stupid. Almost got us killed.”
Jyliansa patted his shoulder. “Go easy on yourself. This is the way of the sun elves. Under the waves, we have simpler ways. Up here, they bend words.”
Safaunya whispered, softly insulted, “’Tis not the way of all land dwellers, my sea cousin. Why do you think my kind happily skulk in the forests and keep the lordship of the sun elves as a light touch on our lives? They speak poison I do not understand. They locked me in a cell forever over a matter I don’t even understand.”
Jyliansa answer was apologetic, “No offense meant.”
Safunya spared a quick smile back, easing away from her reflexive anger. “Nor taken.”
Ajax wondered at the forest elf’s past, and resolved to one day ask her. “The signs were there. I’m such an idiot. Remember the town where the orcs nearly invaded? Oh, I think that was real enough. But there was a gendarme already there! Nahallanal wasn’t just any warrior. He was the best of them. That’s why he came up here with the Prince. Why would he be spending a quiet night in a hamlet half-a-day’s ride from his castle, which just happens to be near to the inlet where we came ashore? They were waiting for us. The orcs just forced their hand, as did we when we attacked them.”
Helleanna joined Jyliansa in soothing his ego. “But there were other signs we could not ignore. Callistia’s trust. Her faith. And our own desire to see this mission to its end. We were all part of this, my knight. Our knight. We share the burden. But not the guilt. This is on them. Their greed. Our desire in this is not changed, to see this poor spirit freed before she becomes another victim.”
Ajax sobered a little from his self-anger. “You’re right. We’re all outcasts. But that much… that much remains true. I just wish we didn’t have to do it all alone.”