by Kate Sander
"But-"
"No buts," Senka snapped. "You need to do this. It's the only way. We charge in three, two, one."
They charged, screaming. Kai bounded ahead and managed to topple the teenager before he got his sword up in the defensive, leaving the door clear. Senka slowed slightly, allowing Ujarak and his hammer room to swing. With a mighty heave, Ujarak swung and knocked the door off its hinges. Eris, Tory and Senka darted into the room. Tory saw Malin and fired.
Malin sidestepped the arrow easily. Roald held out his hand, lifting the large oak table in the middle of the room. The women skidded to a stop.
"Now, if you don't want to be crushed," Malin said, "you'll behave."
They didn't expect Kai. With a snarl, he ran into the room and launched himself at Roald. With his concentration broken, the table dropped to the ground with a crash.
Senka took advantage of her opening and charged Roald, diving and unsheathing her tantos. Ujarak joined her with a cry. Eris charged Malin with her khopesh, and Tory fired another arrow. Black Eyes threw a knife then followed it with a dive.
Roald easily sidestepped Senka and held his hand out towards Kai, stopping him in mid-air. Kai snarled, and Roald tossed him against a wall like a ragdoll. Ujarak went high and swung his hammer with all his might. Roald ducked easily, then turned and looked Ujarak in the eyes. Ujarak let out a scream and dropped his hammer.
"No!" he yelled, still staring at Roald's eyes, unable to look away. "Leave her alone."
Senka rose and tackled Roald from behind, breaking his eye contact and heaving them both to the ground. A sob rose from Ujarak behind her. Senka turned to look at him. That was her mistake.
Roald took her moment of distraction and grabbed on to the sides of her face, forcing her eyes to his.
Everything went black.
Blinking the sun away, her head throbbed like the worse hangover of her life. It took a few squints to really be able to open her eyes. She was lying in the middle of a field, surrounded by trees. Something was familiar about this place. Turning her head, she realized she was in the field in the forest she'd woken in all those years ago, the first time she'd ever come to The Other Place.
Her body hurt, like nothing she'd ever experienced before. Looking down, her stomach was distended, as if recently pregnant. Everything hurt, especially her lower body. Blood seeped out from between her legs and soaked into the forest floor.
Confused, she tried to sit up but she couldn't. Far too weak to move, she looked around herself, trying to see something, anything.
A cry reached her.
A baby. A new baby.
Hers.
Senka struggled to move, to roll over, to crawl, to do anything to get to that cry. Sobbing, she pulled at the grass, wanting desperately to reach her baby. But she couldn't move.
Stuck on her back and sobbing freely, Carter emerged from the forest, holding a little screaming bundle in front of him.
Relief rushed through her to see him. Carter was here. It was going to be all right.
"Can I see her?" she mumbled through cracked lips. "Carter, can I see her?"
He looked up and met her eyes. Something was wrong. His eyes were different. Mean. Staring at her, he bounced the screaming bundle up and down.
"Carter, bring her here."
A crooked grin. So unlike anything she'd ever seen from his kind eyes.
"I said bring her here!"
The screaming intensified. Senka shook her head and tried desperately to reach her. Carter looked up at her.
"Shhhh," he said, "I'm trying to put the baby to sleep."
"I'm sorry," she mumbled, trying desperately to stop the situation from getting out of control. "I just want to see her. Carter, just let me see my baby."
Carter shook his head, "I told you to shut up," he said slowly over the screams of the writhing newborn. "I told you that I was trying to put her to sleep. Now I can't, and it's your fault."
Setting the bundle on the ground, he walked back into the woods slowly.
Senka needed to reach the screaming bundle.
"I'm coming," she mumbled, finally able to roll onto her side through the pain and weakness.
A growl rose from the woods. A snarling, deep growl.
"Baby I'm coming," Senka mumbled.
Bright eyes lit up in the woods. Snarling and growling. Wolves. A pack of them emerged from the woods, merely feet away from the crying bundle.
"GET AWAY FROM HER!"
The baby cried her desperate, nasal cry. White blanket moving and thrashing. Crying for her mother.
Senka pulled and grasped the grass. She had to move. She had to.
The wolves snapped at each other and emerged slowly from the woods.
"NO!" she yelled. "TAKE ME! COME OVER HERE AND TAKE ME!"
They surrounded the crying blanket. Senka could still see the writhing bundle through the paws of the circling wolves.
"No," she sobbed. "Take me. Leave her and take me..."
The wolves converged.
"SENKA!"
She was ripped out of her nightmare and back to the present. Eris was straddling her on the ground, while Senka thrashed and screamed. Swords clashed behind Eris. Everything was hazy. Closing her eyes, she was immediately brought back to the forest. And her baby... Her poor baby.
A hard slap in her face had her opening her eyes to see Eris winding up again.
"Wait-"
Slap.
"It's not real," Eris said, shaking her shoulders. "Whatever you saw it's not real."
"My baby," Senka sobbed, unable to shake the vision she'd just been shown. "Save my baby."
"It wasn't real."
A yell from somewhere as Ujarak swung again at Roald. Blades clashed as Tory and Black Eyes took on Malin. And yet, all Senka could hear was that baby's cry.
Wailing, screaming, crying. Little chest breathing hard in between sobs. Dark faces and legs of wolves surrounding the tiny bundle as her baby shrieked for her mother. Senka lying there, useless. So fucking useless.
Another hard slap in the face had Senka lurching back to reality. Eris was standing over her, a panicked look on her face.
"I need you to pull your shit together," Eris said. "Now, get your ass-"
Roald tackled her to the side, leaving Senka as a useless pile of garbage in the middle of the battle.
Useless.
Useless.
Eris sprang to her feet and faced Roald as Senka twitched on the ground.
Her baby.
Useless.
"I'm disappointed in you," Roald said, baring his teeth in an evil smile. "I had such high hopes for you, daughter. And yet, this is how you repay me?"
Eris lunged with her khopesh, a move that Roald was clearly expecting. Sidestepping the blow easily, he avoided the kill shot. Instead, he rushed in, grabbed her by the throat and pushed her against the wall.
"I wanted to give all this to you," he said, pushing so hard that her feet were off the ground by a good six inches. Eyes bulging, hands digging, she had no choice but to look into his eyes. Blood dribbled from his wrist but he didn't seem to notice.
Get up.
My baby. My poor baby.
It wasn't real. Get up.
Senka's hand twitched.
"You're a disappointment, Eris," Roald said, leaning in. "I loved you. You had your job, and you couldn't even-"
Senka dragged herself to her knees.
A scream from Tory behind her. A blast of red light exploded from Tory and sent everyone in the room into the walls.
Senka tried to stay conscious.
All she saw was Tory floating in the air, arms and legs stretched out awkwardly, head staring at the ceiling, mouth gaped open in a silent scream. Red light was pulsing from the stone in her hand and Malin was kneeling in front of her, same silent scream on her face, staring at Tory.
Senka couldn't hold on. With a sigh, her head fell to the ground and darkness took hold.
25
To
ry
Something was wrong with Senka.
Tory knew it as soon as she couldn't get up and was left a sobbing wreck in the fetal position on the floor as a battle raged around her, Roald doing nothing to hold her there but look directly in her eyes.
Eris saw this as well.
"I'm on it," she said, sprinting across the hall.
That moment of broken concentration was all Malin needed to get her thin sword through Tory's guard and cut her in the shoulder. Twisting away with a cry of pain, Tory dropped back as Black Eyes launched herself at the woman.
Malin laughed, "You're dead, woman. Your blades have no power here. We are in the land of the living, not the spirits."
Black Eyes spun and stabbed her in the heart.
Malin's eyes glinted. No blood spilled, no coughing or blood from the mouth. Just a cocky smile.
"I told you your powers do nothing in this realm," Malin smirked. "You may have cut me before, but we were in the spirit realm then. Now, you are useless."
Tory fired an arrow aimed right between Black Eyes’ shoulder blades, hoping Malin's distraction was enough for the arrow to fly through the ghost and land in Malin's chest, ending this.
But that would be too easy.
With a quick flick of the wrist, the arrow bounced harmlessly off the white armour on Malin's forearms.
Black Eyes stepped back to Tory.
"Not much use, other than a distraction."
Tory shrugged, "Then we will have to use it-"
Malin exploded towards them, giving Tory little time to get her sword up to block. Managing to divert the sword from her vital organs, but blocking at a weird angle, Tory sent the sword into her leg.
Blood pooled around the sword as it stopped when it hit bone. Letting out a scream as pain flooded through her, Tory fell backwards to the floor with a cry,
Malin smiled at her.
"This is going to be too easy."
Tory tried to get to her feet but she couldn't, her injured leg offered no support. Scrambling backwards away from Malin on her butt, she looked around, trying to find something or someone that could help her.
Malin walked through Black Eyes, who was trying desperately to fight her and defend Tory. Raising her sword over her head, she said, "Any last words?"
Tory's eyes went wide. This was it. The end of everything. They were going to lose. Senka was a sobbing wreck on the floor, Ujarak was nowhere to be seen, most likely killed by Roald. Eris was being held by her neck against a wall, face slowly turning blue.
Akira was their only hope, but the sounds of clashing swords had faded from outside.
They were doomed. All of them.
Tory brought her sword up in front of her, trying desperately to buy herself some time. Malin laughed as she kicked it away.
The burning in her leg worsened. Well, soon she'd be dead, so it didn't really matter if her leg was injured. But the burning wasn't in her leg. It was coming from above the injury and was becoming unbearable.
The Remiel.
Malin's face contorted into one of pure loathing as she swung down, aiming for a head shot and the kill. Tory grabbed the Remiel from her pocket and held it up in front of her, a desperate attempt to block the descending sword, and stared Malin directly in the eyes.
Hot red light exploded from the stone, throwing everyone in the room but Malin and Tory to the floor.
Fire wound its way around Tory's body, lifting her to her feet then off the ground. Eyes locked with Malin's, the stone pulsed again. Tory screamed silently as pain flooded through her body. She was sure her skin would boil with the heat. Another pulse of the Remiel, and Tory felt her consciousness leave her body. The pain. She was sure she'd pass out from the pain. No one could endure it.
One more pulse, and she was swallowed by Malin's blue eyes into a bright white light.
It took a moment for her eyes to adjust as the light faded. Once they did, a simply odd vision was presented to her. Everything was stationary, as if frozen in time. A red hue covered the world, as if the sun was red light instead of white. Ten people frozen in normal village actions. Some buying bread, one stabling a small pony.
The Remiel. It's showing you something.
A small village of maybe five houses lay before her in a clearing of a forest. A forest she knew very well, in fact. The mountain that shadowed her Melanthios village of Ismat rose in the north. Actually, looking around, she realized this was close to where she'd met Senka and Jules the very first time.
When the Melanthios had surrounded them and Senka had still almost killed her. Could have, if she really would have wanted to. Their friendship was forged in that arrow buried in the tree an inch from Tory's head.
Tory knew every inch of this forest, but there was no village this close to Ismat. So, she reckoned that this was a long time ago.
A family was facing away from her, walking together to their house. A man and woman holding the hands of a toddler, maybe two years at the most. Tory walked towards them and circled around them, still unnerved by the statuesque figures, unmoving.
Roald and Malin, laughing and looking down at a little boy with plump rosy cheeks and white blond hair on the top of his head. He looked at his mother, bright blue eyes the same shade as Malin's.
They were so happy.
The Remiel, as if sensing her surprise, allowed the scene to play out with its red tinged hue.
"That's my boy," Roald said, laughing. "I know you'll be walking soon little darling."
Malin's laugh rang through the forest. A man with red hair stepped out of his house and waved.
"How is the prince today?"
"He's just fine, dear Freudman," Malin called. "He's feeling much better since you gave him that herb."
"Glad to hear it."
Horse hooves in the distance. Coming in fast.
Malin turned towards the noise, instinctively gathering the little boy in her arms.
"Villagers?" she asked Roald.
"I don't know."
A battle cry rose from the forest.
A cry she knew.
Melanthios. Attacking? No. These people are innocent.
But she was right. A group of ten Melanthios exploded from the trees on their horses, weapons drawn, battle cry on their lips.
"Go!" Roald screamed, pushing Malin and the little boy away from him and drawing a sword.
Malin scrambled away, but she was too slow.
Tory stood, unable to look away as the Melanthios warriors. Her people. Slaughtered these innocents.
"Kill the Zoya!" the General yelled atop his horse. Tory recognized the face vaguely, as if something sleeping in her mind was awakened. But she couldn't place it.
Villagers screamed as they were killed where they stood or trying to run away. Roald was easily disarmed and shoved to his knees.
Malin was grabbed by her hair and pulled backwards with a scream.
And the baby.
No... The baby.
He fell out of his mother's arms with a wild screech. And a horse... The horseman couldn't stop in time.
Tory looked away in horror as nausea and bile rose.
The sound of a tiny cracking skull under a horse’s hooves echoed in the forest.
Malin screamed.
Tory dropped to her knees.
A white light flashed again.
This time, when she blinked and focused, the aftermath of the battle lay before her.
Malin and Roald, frozen in time, cuddling their dead son. Freudman was standing over a Melanthios, sword above his head, ready to finish the job.
Time moved on.
A swish of the sword chopping off a Melanthios head was drowned out by Malin's sobs.
"We will kill them all," Roald assured her. "We will make sure they don't do this to anyone else. We will make sure of it."
"No sign of the General," Freudman called, "He must have gotten away after you blasted them."
"We will go after him and kill him," Roald said.
"No," Freudman said. "We wouldn't live. There were four or five Zoya here. And they murdered everyone. We need to make an army. Then, we will come back and take our revenge."
Malin sobbed but nodded, dead eyes staring ahead as she clutched the lifeless form of her son to her chest.
"We will make everyone pay."
Tory was blasted back in a red light to her own body. She fell to the ground, jarring her knees and falling to her side as the Remiel lost its hold of her.
Roald scrambled over and helped the weeping Malin to her feet.
"It was you," Malin shouted.
Eris was helping Senka to her feet beside her. Ujarak tended to the injured Kai.
"I wasn't there," Tory said. "I'd never have allowed this. They must have been rogues or-"
"You didn't recognize the General, did you?" Roald asked. "You're bloodline. It took us longer than we wanted to get back here. To build an army big enough to wipe your people off the face of the earth. A few generations."
"No."
"Your great grandfather murdered the innocent, because he was afraid," Malin spat. "You have murderer in your blood."
"It wasn't me!" Tory shouted.
"Not only that," Malin snarled. "The first Zoya? Cass? The woman you idolize? She was a whore. Sent to Tesla to do research so her parents could raise her child as their own. To save themselves from her shame."
"This has nothing to do with me," Tory shouted.
"It has everything to do with you," Malin snapped. "Why do you think we sent your father to kill you? What else could be more poetic. The bloodline of the bastard that killed my darling finishing itself off. And finally, in the same knife swipe, ending the bloodline of Cass herself and getting rid of the Remiel for all. That stone is poison. You are poison. Where the blood of a whore and a murderer converge."
Roald held up his hand. Tory felt herself being lifted off her feet.
"I will have my revenge," Malin said, holding out her sword. "And I will enjoy it."
Tory closed her eyes, all fight gone out of her, waiting for the inevitable.
Three massive war cries echoed in the chamber and Tory had to open her eyes. Senka launched herself at Roald's midsection, doubling him in half and tackling him to the ground. Tory fell again as Roald's focus was broken. Eris flew over the fighting, scratching, biting bodies of Senka and Roald to swing her khopesh at Malin's head.
