by Eric Vall
“I would very much like to see the grass turned red with the blood of the Tintagal soldiers. Fea and Macha will eat well tonight, I am sure of it,” Morrigan uttered as she ducked through the flap after the fox-woman. Annalise gave me a quick salute then dropped the fabric as she stepped out.
I stood over Carmedy and the injured man while she worked, and I watched her deft hands mix ingredients. She muttered to herself all the while, and I listened to her sweet voice as it tickled my ears. The feline was a pacifist at heart, but as Morrigan had said, the cat had a vicious warrior hidden inside of her that only came out in times of great distress. Still, I knew my sweet Carmedy was best suited for tasks like these, so I bent down beside her and watched over her shoulder while she worked diligently.
The black-haired woman glanced at me once with those huge, emerald eyes that entranced me so much but quickly went back to healing the soldier. She was in her element here, and I didn’t want to distract her for too long.
“Carmedy?” I whispered into her ear, and I visibly saw a shiver pass down her spine at the tone of my voice, but she didn’t look up when she answered.
“Yes, Master?”
“Do you wish to fight?” I inquired as the alchemist handed the soldier a small glass bottle and gestured for him to drink it. Uriel did as told, and after a few seconds, his eyes fluttered closed, and his breathing returned to normal as the pain killing mixture took effect.
“If that is what you want me to do then I will fight, Master,” the feline replied quickly, but I shook my head over her shoulder, and her paws froze over the soldier’s arm.
“That is not what I asked you,” I murmured back, and this time, Carmedy did turn her head to look at me, and a single black ear twitched in response. “Do you wish to fight alongside your sisters and me today?”
Her emerald eyes broke from mine as her paws trembled softly then dropped to her sides as she answered. “No… I don’t want to fight. I want to help out in the medical tent and tend to the wounded soldiers.
“If that is what you want, then I will allow it,” I murmured into her feline ear before I reached out and lifted Carmedy’s chin so that her eyes met mine once more. “But you can’t always run from fighting, Carmedy, you have done well so far, but I will need you to stand your ground more times than not.”
“I know, Master, but this is what I’m good at. I’m not Annalise who can wield a sword, and I’m not Rana, who can throw daggers like an assassin. I don’t have any special powers like you or Morrigan. I just…” The feline’s voice tapered off as she searched her mind for words to put her feelings into. “I’m just a simple alchemist and healer. Compared to other alchemists, I’m just a small fry who can only create and conjure small things.”
“I don’t want to hear you say such things about yourself,” I uttered as I cupped her soft cheek. “You are a divine warrior, my love, and I have chosen you to be my personal alchemist. Doesn’t that make you a little more than just a mere healer and alchemist?”
Carmedy giggled softly into the palm of my hand then laid a kiss there with her plump lips. She had taken in my words and accepted them as truth. I knew all my women had their moments where they felt inadequate, but I would always be there to pull them back up and show them how truly amazing they were in my eyes. Carmedy would grow in her practice and become more powerful with each passing day, even if I had to carry her every step of the way until we reached the final goal. I was not only their Master to guide them in their ways and train them when they needed it, but I was there to hold them up when they couldn’t stand on their own two feet.
I would do anything for them, and anything they needed, I would get it. If they were to ask, I would rip down the stars from the night sky and present them to them as presents. I loved them with a love that was more than just that. When I had been with Isolda, I had thought I loved her, but it seemed I never knew the feeling until I met my minions. Being with them and making love to them was ecstasy that I had never known before in my time during the heavens.
I lifted the feline’s face to meet mine, and I pressed tender and sweet kisses to her supple lips. She melted into me, the soldier forgotten at her feet as she pushed herself closer to the warmth of my avatar. If I could have, I would have taken her right here and there on the table covered with maps, but I knew it was not the time and that the Tamarisch army needed my help badly. Once this was all over, I would take her to our bed and make sure she wouldn’t be walking steadily for a few days after I was done with her.
I quickly calmed myself and pulled away from the soft embrace of my feline companion. When I looked down into her huge emerald eyes, they were sparkling, and her cheeks were tinted red. She was gorgeous, just as all of my other minions were, and I wondered to myself how I got so lucky that all four of them stumbled into my dungeon.
“I must go now, my love,” I whispered into her ear, and she shook her head as she pushed out her bottom lip.
“No, stay for a little bit,” she whimpered as her sleek black tail whipped out behind her excitedly, the need plain in her voice.
“I’m sorry.” I smiled as I stood then bent back down to press another kiss to her irresistible lips. “After, I promise.”
“Master?” she called out to me as I was about to lift the tent flap and step out into the camp.
“Yes?” I smiled back, and I watched as her expression darkened, but the smile on her lips remained.
“Kill them, kill all of them, then you can do whatever you want to me after.” The feline purred sensually, and my eyebrows raised at her sudden boldness. “I like the way you handle me after you’ve done something… violent.”
Chapter Five
As the Tamarisch army prepared for war, soldiers and generals rushed about the encampment as they pulled on their armor or readied their weapons, but I remained calm as I watched them. I could hear their hearts beating loudly in my ears, but my avatar’s and my minion’s hearts remained calm. We had hardened ourselves to battle and needed very little time to prepare to tear the Tintagal men to pieces. I didn’t even pull the God Slayer from my void pocket because I knew that for this battle, I wouldn’t need it. The Tintagal army wouldn’t even have the chance to advance or break rank.
I sought Annalise out in the moving sea of soldiers in their gold and blue armor and found her as she placed a golden harness over the she-wolf Nymsyss’s white fur. The colossal wolf shook her head and turned to watch as the High Queen made sure the leather straps were in place and were cinched tightly around the animal’s middle.
The alpha Marbas strode forward next to me, called by his link to me, but I didn’t reach for any of the harnesses that were provided to us, for he was too large for any of them. The Bánwolf stood a good head taller than my avatar’s stature, but I effortlessly heaved myself up onto his broad back and adjusted myself until I was in a more comfortable position. The beast was under my control, and when he moved, we moved together in unison as rider and steed. I dug my gloved hands deep into the dark fur at the back of his neck and used it as a way to guide him through the camp towards the valley where our fight against the enemy would take place.
As I moved Marbas up the small hill beyond the camp, Annalise, Morrigan, and Rana followed after on their Bánwolves. My women looked regal and just as threatening as they readied themselves for battle.
My first wife unsheathed Bloodscale and held it one-handed as the other held tightly to the reins. Frei, the redhead’s Bánwolf, had been livelier the day before but was now stoic and kept her icy blue eyes forward as we climbed upward towards the crest of the hill. Soon, the entire Tamarisch encampment was empty save for the few doctors and healers along with Carmedy, as they waited for the first few injured soldiers to come through.
It was cold, and the frosty wind bit at our faces as the Tamarisch soldiers scrambled to get into formation, and I watched as a few of them tied their horses to massive wood structures I had only seen a few times before. The catapults were gigantic thin
gs, taller than two men put together, and I watched eagerly as the horses pulled them up the hill then as the soldiers placed them around the slope for better trajectory. A third horse pulled a wagon up the hill and from its heaviness, I knew it must be for the mangonels they had just brought up. I knew the basic mechanics for these enormous weapons, and I had a wonderfully sadistic idea for these machines designed to throw projectiles long distances.
I turned my head towards the other side of the valley where it dipped down, and I could see the Tintagal army as they prepared their ranks. As Uriel had said, their army dwarfed ours in size and number of soldiers, not that numbers mattered. The Tintagal military didn’t have Bánwolves on their side, or a god for that matter, and all of them would be dead before they even reached the halfway point of the valley, I would make sure of it.
My perfect eyesight could see the Tintagal soldiers clearly and I could make out the designs and colors on their suits of armor. While the Tamarisch soldiers wore gold and blue colors, the Tintagal warriors wore lush forest greens that almost matched the billowing grass below our feet mingled with brilliant silver. Etched into their breastplates and shields was a magnificent boar’s head with threatening white tusks. Despite the beauty of their armor and the impressiveness of their ranks, they were still our enemies, and their land would soon be mine.
I glanced back behind me and spied Adam and Amos as they both slid on the helmets shaped into the heads of roaring bears. Amos caught Annalise’s eye, smoothed down his eyebrows with two gloved and armored hands, then winked. My warrior queen chuckled softly to herself as she readjusted her grip on Bloodscale and moved her hand to press the augmentation stone at the hilt. The emerald on the hilt glinted dully against the hazy, cloudy sky, and her dark brown eyes stayed on it for a moment as she caressed the stone with the pad of her thumb. I knew she was nervous from the way she fidgeted, but the beat of her heart was steady as it always was in moments like these. The High Queen rarely showed fear to anyone save for me, even if she was feeling it, and that was one of the many things I respected her for.
Our armies stood on opposite sides of the valley for a moment and stared across at each other. In another time or land, we might have been friends or even brothers, but here and now, we were enemies positioned and poised for a bloody battle.
I could tell from the way the Tintagal general moved and spoke, resplendent on a white horse, that he was a proud and prideful man and assumed this was a battle he wouldn’t lose, but that was where he was very wrong. I had many things planned to show them before I snatched the life from their broken bodies. I pooled my dark power through my avatar’s body, and from beside me, Annalise turned to look at me as she sensed the change in the surrounding air.
I smiled to myself as a loud crackle came from the Tintagal side as flames erupted across the enemy lines. A second later, that was followed by a discordant harmony of twanging bowstrings as thousands of flaming arrows rose into the sky then plummeted down towards our ranks. The Tamarisch men behind me gasped, and for a second, Amos flinched as he remembered his last run-in with a flaming arrow. They had nothing to fear though, for this was my time, and I raised two hands into the air as I breathed in deeply.
The projectiles were almost to us, and I kept my eyes straightforward as a loud cry came from the Tintagal ranks, and they surged forward like a mighty wave of green. I chuckled darkly as the quickly approaching arrows hit an invisible forcefield in the air with a deafening snap and exploded into wafts of ash. The Tintagal General still on top of the opposite hill stopped and stared in disbelief, but this was only a fraction of my power as I lifted my right arm into the air and roared for all to hear. I watched as our soldiers rushed to fill the catapults with the heavy metal spheres to fire back.
“For glory, for honor, for Tamarisch!”
At my call, Annalise slammed her thumb down onto the augmentation stone, and her transformation started before our eyes. The light around her gold and blue armor glimmered and morphed around her, runes and arcane symbols flashed across the hilt of Bloodscale, and the sword elongated to twice its normal length. Two wicked sharp blades emerged from the haft of the sword and extended upward along the massive double-edged blade. The same emerald light that engulfed Bloodscale raced up Annalise’s arm and fully encased her in glimmering light as her armor changed. The emerald light peaked to such a blinding light that it turned white as she held the sword aloft over her head like a beacon in the darkness. The light around her dimmed to reveal the golden holy armor the augmentation stone gave her. The gilt V-neck chest piece formed perfectly and held her flawlessly.
The swordswoman brought down Bloodscale, along with her arms and wrists encased in golden gauntlets etched with the same emerald of the stone. Her shapely legs held on tightly to Nymsyss, and the chainmail, shin-guards, and cuisses were made from the very same fine metal as the rest of her armor and stopped about mid thigh. The parts of her body that weren’t protected by the blessed armor were clothed in creamy chocolate brown leather that looked soft and smooth to the touch. Across her delicate collarbone, an enchanted necklace rested, and the rune pressed into the metal shone with the same green light as the stone at the hilt of Bloodscale.
Even Nymsyss was transformed along with her rider. Over the snow-white fur of her neck, golden metal formed and overlapped to create a network of plates that became the finest of barding. At the sides of her neck, nasty looking spines poked out, their tips sharp and ready to slam into the sides of men and horses if they got too close to her rider. Gilt metal also encased her wolf face, leaving only the icy and hateful blue of her eyes exposed as she snarled and snapped at the approaching enemy soldiers. The Bánwolf’s legs and haunches were encased with the same metal as Annalise, and if I were any other man, fear would have been beating in my heart at the sight of them.
The Tamarisch soldiers around her took in their high queen, and their eyes glowed with respect looking upon her.
“Wow,” Rana whispered under her breath as she took in her transformed sister, “I gotta get me one of those things.”
“For Tamarisch!” Adam shouted as he lifted his two battle axes into the air. “For the High King and Queen!”
At that triumphant cry, the Tamarisch army raced forward with their weapons drawn, some on horses, some on foot, and a few riding Bantams. Pride swelled in my chest as I watched them, but I waited on the crest of the hill though I felt Marbas paw at the ground anxiously. Around the peak of the valley, there were resounding cracks from the mangonels as they pulled back, and the giant bowls slammed forward to hurl their deadly loads onto the battlefield. Right before the Tamarisch soldiers moved to reload them, I held up a hand to stop them, and at my mental command, swirling pools of gray smoke emerged on the grassy slope.
The soldiers stepped back in horror as the sickly gray bodies of ice demons pulled themselves up and out of the holes. These ice demons were much different from the ones I had summoned before, and I had changed them with my great power to fit the battle better. Though they were still thin and lean, their long fingers were replaced with black talons that dragged across the ground, and the pointed teeth that pulled against their lips were a few inches longer.
The Tamarisch soldiers scuttled back as five ice demons loped over to the catapults, pulled the huge bowls of the siege weapons back into place, and climbed in like clumsy children. The ice demons leveled their eyes at the soldiers then made complex clicks deep in the backs of their throats as if they were attempting to communicate with the humans. The Tamarisch soldiers looked to me for orders, and I commanded them with a wave of my hand.
“Fire away, men.” I smirked, and though they shook their heads, they did as I said.
The ice demons wriggled in the bowls as they waited for the soldiers to pull the lever and release them. With a resounding snap, each Tamarisch soldier pulled the lever and launched the ice demons into the air like projectiles. Instead of the usual clicks and grunts that usually came from their lips, the creatur
es shrieked and screamed as they sailed through the air. One had climbed in backward, and as it was thrown into the sky, it twisted through the air like a dervish with its arms held in close, but its talons held out. Each ice demon hit the earth with an explosion of dirt and sent Tintagal soldiers running in different directions as they broke rank to avoid the demons as they burst forth. The enemies were already losing their minds, and I hadn’t even begun my fun. I watched with a keen eye as the ice demons tore through the ranks as if they were made from paper. Limbs and blood flew into the air as their elongated talons ripped each Tintagal man into pieces. Some of the ice demons did something I hadn’t expected and shoved the severed limbs into their maws and chewed them down like snacks.
I breathed in deeply then exhaled loudly as I closed my eyes and reached my power deep into the earth below the Tintagal soldier’s feet. I created the creature in my mind, pressed and pushed my dark power into it, and brought it to life. My newly minted beast opened its eyes with the flick of its black forked tongue, and I chuckled darkly to myself as I called it upward. The grass at the bottom of the hill exploded, and the massive slinking creature revealed itself among the fighting.
It was a basilisk, but my special beast was made entirely of dirt and tree roots using the forest god’s power. I watched it with interest as its jaws opened and snapped closed around one of the Tintagal soldiers and ripped him cleanly into two. Blood and guts poured from my creature’s jaws as it roared and slashed forward with snake-like movements. The basilisk moved with the creak and snap of wood, and I watched with relish as Tintagal men ran in different directions to escape its powerful maw.
The Tamarisch men hadn’t reached the Tintagal soldiers yet, and already half of the enemy army was dead from my creations, but I wasn’t finished just yet.