“Well, then, I guess I’m a hell of a lot safer here than I was in the Frozen North.” He paused. “Why didn’t you?”
Hannah glanced around the corner and saw Julianne reach out and grab his arm.
“Maybe I still have some plans to use you,” she declared.
He laughed. “That’s something we’ll need to revisit after all of this.”
Hannah jumped as Maddie grabbed her by the arm.
“Shit!” she yelped. “You scared me.”
Julianne and Marcus looked up and took a step away from each other.
“Hey, guys.” Hannah waved. They nodded back sheepishly.
“Come with me,” Maddie demanded and led Hannah back to the great hall.
They walked to a corner of the room, where the wooden box from the Mortimer sat waiting for them. Hannah stood motionless as the noblewoman knelt by the box and pulled out each piece of armor with care.
“I can do this,” Hannah said.
Maddie, on her knees before the young magician, looked up and smiled. “I’ve been told this is a tradition of old. The warrior, the one who was ready to ride out and offer his life for the sake of those he loved, would be served in this way. Today we maintain this piece of our history for the sake of our future.”
Hannah still didn’t like it, but she nodded, accepting the service.
“Thank you, Maddie.”
“It’s nothing. Really, this is an honor.”
Hannah shook her head. “I’m not talking about the armor. I’m talking about you. The things you do around here are incredibly important, but I know they get lost in the midst of training for fights and learning magic. We couldn’t be us if you weren’t you.”
Maddie’s face glowed. “Well, thank you. I don’t need thanks, and I know that my work is at least somewhat important.” Maddie attached the last piece over Hannah’s chest and stood back with a whistle. “Now you look like a true warrior.”
Hannah listened, but didn’t respond. Instead, she grabbed Maddie’s hand and squeezed. “There’s one more thing. Something you have to do today that’s actually more important than what Ezekiel, Karl, or even I do out there.” She nodded beyond the doors of the tower.
“Anything.”
“I’m sending the old folks and the children with you. Take them down to the basement. It’s not much safer than anywhere else, but it’s the best place for them. Do whatever is needed to protect them, Maddie.”
Maddie squeezed Hannah’s hand, suddenly looking years older than she was. “You have my word.”
The women hugged. Hannah held Maddie close. She knew it might be the last time they ever saw one other. Breaking the embrace, Hannah said, “And don’t forget that you have already performed the absolute hardest job in all of the rebellion.”
Maddie furrowed her brow. “Really? What could that be?”
“You taught me how to dance,” Hannah joked through laughter.
With one last goodbye, Hannah turned to find her leaders. Each of them was making final preparations and reminding their individual cohorts of the task that lay ahead. She instructed them to gather in the grass at the base of the stairs so that Ezekiel could share any last words before they headed to their stations.
It wasn’t long before almost everyone was there, almost two hundred in all, but one person was missing.
Ezekiel.
Where the hell are you? Hannah thought to him. She got no response.
The people shifted impatiently on the grass below, and she cursed her mentor. Glancing at the sun rising higher in the sky, she realized that they needed to start. Adrien’s forces would be upon them before they knew it, and maybe even Adrien himself.
She raised her hands over her head and the crowd hushed. All eyes were on her.
Clearing her throat, she spoke as loudly as she could. “We are Arcadians!” The crowd cheered in response, and she felt power and confidence well up under her skin. “And today we make the first step toward home. There are times for long-winded speeches, but this is not one of those days. You have worked, studied, and trained. The fight has come sooner than expected, but that is no matter. Each and every one of you has power.” She drew on the words of Ezekiel from a few hours before. “You have a belief that is deeper than any mine in the Heights and higher than the peaks in the Frozen North. Our fight is driven by our love, a love for what once was and what could be again. Let me not mislead you. Some of us will not live to see the sunrise tomorrow. But our blood will feed a new Arcadia and a better Irth.”
She looked down at the front row, her eyes landing on Parker’s. A smile covered his face. He was proud of her, and that gave her courage. As his smile faded, he gave her a nod. She realized it was the closest thing to a goodbye they would share.
“Now let’s get out there and kick some ass!”
The crowd roared. As each of the leaders moved off in different directions, their teams followed, leaving Hannah standing at the top of the steps watching them go. She felt the familiar rub against her hip. She instinctively reached down and scratched Sal under his chin.
“I’ve got a job for you. You’re not going to like it.”
The dragon’s tongue flickered as his eyes looked at his master unblinkingly.
“Go to the basement with the kids and old folk. If anyone who isn’t one of us comes down, I want you to rip them to shreds. Keep ripping until you can do no more. In that room are the memories of Arcadia and its future. Can you do that for me?”
Sal crouched down and let out a deep growl. He didn’t want to leave her, and she knew it. To be honest, she didn’t want him to go.
“Listen, pal, you’re one of the best things that has happened to me for a long time. I’d love for you to come, to have you fight by my side, but if those bastards make it through to the tower I need you down there as a last defense. Our most vulnerable need you.”
Sal gave Hannah's leg one last nudge, then turned and ran inside the tower.
Hannah watched as the teams spread out and disappeared into their positions. She realized that, one way or another, nothing would be the same again.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Captain Dickerson shifted in the saddle as he rode toward the tower, his handlebar mustache bouncing in time with the horse’s slow walk.
Men on horseback flanked him, fifty on either side; men adept at fast riding and faster magic.
They were his elite warriors, trained at the Academy and ready to put their magic to good use. Each of them rode tall, proud of their position of prestige among the Arcadian soldiers.
Immediately behind them walked the grunts, mostly unskilled men and women who would fight sloppy and dirty. If the rebels offered any sort of resistance, some of them would be fodder on the battlefield, but Dickerson didn’t expect that to be an issue.
Instead, he presumed he’d be home before dark for a hot meal, a cold ale, and quick lay in the Dragon’s Lair, his favorite of Arcadia’s whorehouses.
Taking up the rear were the soldiers trained in the use of magitech. Most of them were the Guard who had patrolled the streets before the Battle of the Boulevard. Over the past month, they had been retrained for combat in the open, and most of them took to the task splendidly.
The captain was certain they had brought far too many people into the field. A small group of rebels could easily be wiped clean with a handful of gifted fighters, or so he thought. Nevertheless, Adrien had chided him for underestimating their foe and insisted on sending nearly a full force, leaving behind only enough to look after Arcadia in their stead.
Riding over a rise which overlooked an open field, Dickerson’s eyes grew wide as he spied a single figure. It was a woman, her right hand raised with fingers splayed. It was the sign for a tressen, a military tradition in which the commanders of opposing armies met first to consider the terms of the war. Dating back to sometime before the Age of Madness, the tressen had become more of a time for trash talk and insults than anything else.
A greater
insult, though, had already been offered. Dickerson looked left and right at his horsemen and then scoffed as he glared back at the lone woman standing in the middle of the field. “Apparently no man among them is willing to face me. Looks like that flower has hardly even blossomed.” His men laughed and hurled obscenities at the woman. “This is going to be easier than we expected, gentlemen. I guess I will have to go and do my duty. The tressen might just turn out to be my most difficult task of the day.”
He rode toward her while his men continue to laugh. As he approached, Dickerson noticed that the woman was wearing new armor, no hint of wear to it. Figures, he thought. These assholes have never seen battle.
Twenty feet from his foe, he stopped and raised his own hand, fingers splayed, the traditional response to the call for tressen, before they both dropped their arms to their sides. He didn’t bother to dignify her presence by getting off his horse. Rather, keeping one fist curled near his crotch, he leaned back and narrowed his eyes.
“Darling, shouldn’t you be back nursing the children or maybe even being nursed yourself?” Dickerson grinned to completely patronize her. “I assume that you are the Hannah everyone in Arcadia is talking about these days. Funny, I expected a bit more.”
Ignoring his comments, Hannah offered their terms. “Lay down your arms,” she shouted, “and turn around now. If you do that, you and your men will live to see the sunset.”
Dickerson started to laugh uncontrollably. “Are you serious?”
“Advance, and I will make sure I cut your throat myself!”
The look in her eyes told him that she was serious. His hubris pushed him into a state of anger. “Cut my throat? Girl, I was mowing down remnant by the dozen before you were born. By the time you were walking, I was taking out full battalions with my left hand. And now you dare talk to me like this?”
A smile grew on her face. “I heard you had been sent away from Arcadia, Dickstache. You’re washed up, a has-been. Adrien only brought you back because he was desperate. If it weren’t for us already striking a blow to his forces, if it wasn’t for my people having taken down the captain named Stellan, you’d still be on the edges of the Madlands with your thumb up your ass, or using your left hand for something other than killing.”
Dickerson’s anger turned to rage. In a move fast enough to show his experience, he pulled his magitech rifle from his hip. Its barrel was short but wide. Without a word, he broke the most fundamental rule of warfare and attacked during a tressen.
A powerful blue blast shot from the weapon. It should have been enough to take down a man twice her size, but instead of leveling her, it went right through, as if she weren’t there. Dirt exploded behind her.
The image of Hannah smiled wider and showed the captain her middle finger. “Nice shot, douche nugget. Remember, I’ll be waiting for you myself.” Then she flickered and disappeared.
Dickerson’s face grew red and a vein popped from the middle of his forehead. He had planned on showing the rebels mercy, but that all ended now. “Company C, take to the woods. Find them and bring me their heads.”
The men on horseback spread, leaving room for the foot soldiers to move through. The fifty men drew their weapons and dashed across the remainder of the open field, hurling themselves into the woods. The captain smiled as he waited for the screams of their victims, but there was only silence.
Minutes later, screams did arise from the forest, but they weren’t from the rebels. Men charged out of the woods, Dickerson’s men, their faces painted with terror. As one man cut close to Dickerson the captain raised his boot, taking the man out at the shoulder.
“What the hell are you running from, you damned coward?”
Spinning, the man looked up at his leader. “Monsters, sir. Brutal things like I’ve never seen in those woods.”
“Weak-minded fools,” Dickerson muttered under his breath.
He jammed his thumb and middle finger into his mouth and gave a shrill whistle. The soldiers stopped, cowering behind the horsemen and interspersed with the Guards carrying magitech.
Shifting the reins, Dickerson turned his horse to face his army.
“They’re nothing other than a few peasants with a trick or two up their sleeves. Do not fall for their mindfuckery. Anything that doesn’t look real isn’t. On my command, full assault, straight on. No one stops until every last one of them is dead. Men, women, and children. Let’s show them some real monsters.”
“Sir,” his second-in-command said from his right, “full assault? We could do a simple maneuver.”
Dickerson snickered. “Come on, Curt. You, too? This will be a good opportunity for the men to get some blood on their hands. It will raise morale for the wars to come.” He raised his brows. “Or are you also afraid of a little girl and shadows in the woods?”
“No, sir. I’m good.”
He raised a finger and pointed it in the man’s direction. “Good. Now, don’t even think of questioning my commands again. Next time, you will be on the sharp side of my sword. Send the order.”
The man swallowed hard and straightened his helmet.
“Charge!” he yelled.
Dickerson sat watching as his men moved into the woods. This will be a glorious day, he thought.
****
A stiff winter wind cut through Ezekiel’s beard as he stood on the roof of the tower. The far-off battle cry met his ears along with the sound of four hundred hooves.
He couldn’t help but smile. Julianne’s projection of Hannah had done the trick, and hopefully it had put the captain off his game. From the sound of things, he was launching an impatient attack. Exactly what they had hoped for.
He reached out to Hannah with his mind. Ok, they took the bait and are on the move. Remember, don’t engage until after we’ve split them up. They might be arrogant, but their arrogance comes honestly. They outnumber us ten to one, and there’s a lot of skill represented.
Got it, Hannah replied. Don’t worry. I plan on taking my time with this.
****
Parker balanced in the crotch of a tree, high above the advancing troops. The horses slowed as they moved cautiously through the thick brambles. Laurel had spent days asking the forest to congregate in this spot, exactly where Hannah’s taunting was meant to lead them. It wasn’t like the thick wall protecting the border of the Dark Forest, but it was enough to slow their charge and piss them off. As the infantry and magitech soldiers caught up to the men on horseback, Parker held his breath.
Wait for it, he told himself. Come on, you scum-sucking shit-hounds.
As the first wave of men, madness in their eyes, passed under him, Parker chirped out the call of the thrush, a signal they had practiced for a moment such as this. Hadley, thirty feet off, nodded and repeated the call for the women from the Boulevard.
“Now!” Krystal called to her team.
Four other women swung axes fit for a rearick, severing vines as thick as their arms. The vines were holding up a handful of mighty oaks whose trunks had been all but chopped through earlier. The oaks creaked as their supporting vines were cut, but they remained standing.
Come on, old man, Parker begged as he held his breath.
The Arcadian troops froze, looking for the origin of Krystal’s shout.
“There!” one of them shouted, pointing in her direction.
Before the men could move, a mighty wind blew from the direction of the tower. Parker held on for dear life as his own tree swayed in the gale; the old oaks didn’t stand a chance. Their trunks cracked and they fell with a mighty whoosh, landing in the middle of the soldiers and taking out scores of them.
“Thanks, Zeke.” Parker laughed as he watched men scramble out from the boughs of the oaks. The less-experienced foot soldiers ran away from the tower.
“Hold your ground!” Curt shouted again and again from his saddle until the chaos subsided. He directed the magic users on horseback to move the fallen trees out of the way. As they worked, the remaining soldiers stood
uneasily. Eyes darted everywhere as they looked for the enemy. Silence fell over the forest until the blue power of magitech blasters assaulted the troops from their right. Streaks of power cut through their numbers.
“Return fire!” Curt shouted, pointing his sword in the direction of the rebels’ magitech attack. The soldiers dropped to one knee and raised their rifles to engage with the invisible enemy hiding in the trees, but the rebel attack ended as quickly as it had begun.
“Let them go!” Curt screamed. “They want to divide us. We advance, just as the captain ordered. Be ready.”
Parker cursed as he watched them clear the trees and march toward the tower. The mounted leader was smarter than they expected, but the rebels had more than one trick up their sleeves. From where he sat, he could see Hadley standing still as a statue. He imagined the mystic’s eyes filming over in perfect white as he relayed the message about the advance, and then Hadley disappeared.
“Damn, nice camouflage,” Parker muttered as he scrambled down from the tree.
****
Hannah crouched on the edge of the River Wren, just east of the tower. Her hands would be freezing in the winter water if she weren’t so damned focused on the task at hand. Glancing at Laurel, mimicking her position, Hannah noticed beads of sweat building on her forehead. She let her eyes wander past the druid toward the wall of water they were holding back with a magical dam.
The girl was impressive, and if a druid of only sixteen could have such an impact on the magical world, Hannah could only imagine what the rest of them were capable of.
“You holding up ok?”
The girl nodded without looking up. “Ok. The river is responding well to my request,” the generally talkative girl answered curtly.
She had explained that she had done this once before as part of her training. Not only was she stopping the flow of the water, but at her request, the river itself was, in fact, gathering itself up farther north so it didn’t flood their region.
“Takes a lot of energy, huh?”
Revolution - C M Raymond & L E Barbant Page 19
