The Crystal Warrior

by Lori Hyrup

  “Kruusta Aria! We were just talking about you,” he announced enthusiastically as he waved his arm for Aria to join them.

  Aria put on her best smile. “Good things, I hope,” she said, trying to keep her tone lighter than she actually felt. Zephyron smiled at her, but Kharra’s expression remained unreadable.

  “Of course,” Kiem responded. “You, all of you,” he added, with a gesture to Kharra and Zephyron, “saved our lives. We are forever in your debt. Lady Kharra and Master Zephyron were filling me in on the situation. You have saved so many of us, but I need to go back for the rest of my people. Their lives depend on me.”

  Aria nodded, both in agreement and in approval. Kiem was so young yet so understanding of his responsibility to his people. “We figured you would want to go back for your soldiers, and we won’t leave until we’ve rescued everyone we can.”

  Kiem ran his hand through his cropped blond hair, his facial features relaxing minutely as he did so. He looked back across the clearing. “I am truly grateful for your assistance.”

  Kharra continued to watch Aria. The kruusta had the distinct impression the younger woman was scrutinizing her. Kharra’s mouth twitched upward at one corner.

  “So what’s the plan?” Aria asked.

  Prince Kiem gestured to Zephyron, who nodded to him in acknowledgment. “We’re working on that right now,” said the Guardian. “The priests are still camped a little farther up the road near where we left them, in a big clearing with the remaining shard beasts rounded up around them. It looks like they’re taking turns searching for the prince. Originally they were going out alone, but after they found the remains of our handiwork, they began taking one or two maws with them. The other priests wait behind with the remaining maws and keep the rest of the soldiers subdued.

  “At the very least, they’re confused. One of them suspects human involvement due to the lack of bodies and the swordlike cuts on the maws on Aria’s side. The others disagree and have concluded that the crazy ‘shard eaters’ prefer human flesh after all.”

  Zephyron nodded toward Aria. “You are the foremost expert on shard beasts. What do you suggest?”

  Aria crossed her arms and twisted her lips. “Shard beasts don’t have human controllers. There should still be thirty-seven of those things. We could possibly pick off the ones that go with the searching priests, but they’ll call off the search if one of the priests also fails to return.”

  “Well, we have you and the soldiers you already rescued,” the prince began. He looked at Zephyron and Kharra. “Do you two fight? You never mentioned it in our discussions the other night.”

  Zephyron gave the prince a silent nod. Kharra nodded as well, but she continued to watch Aria. The kruusta resisted the urge to shift under the other woman’s scrutiny.

  “That gives us seventy-six fighters,” the prince said. “Can’t we just hit them head-on? We outnumber them two to one.”

  Aria almost gaped at him, but she schooled her expression. “I appreciate your confidence, Prince Kiem, but these are shard beasts we’re talking about.”

  The prince pursed his lips. “These men and women are highly trained fighters. Don’t mistake the ambush on our camp as a sign of our inability to hold our own.”

  Aria held up a hand. “Prince Kiem, I meant no disrespect, and I don’t doubt the fighting abilities of you or your soldiers. But fighting shard beasts is very different than fighting people. They’re also very different from hunting animals. These particular shard beasts are likely stronger than anything you’ve ever faced.”

  “What better way for us to learn of our weaknesses?” the prince asked. “How are we to improve if we do not push ourselves to fight something stronger than us?”

  Aria sighed. Responsible but still young, holding to a young person’s ideals.

  Zephyron cleared his throat. “Kruusta Aria, could I speak with you a moment?”

  With a nod Aria drifted away from the prince. Zephyron moved along beside her. She gazed out across the clearing. The soldiers, many of them young, were finishing up the last of their meals, food likely provided by Zephyron since their own supplies had been lost. They gathered in small groups, discussing their experience and the battle to come. More than a few eyed her and the impossibly tall, white-haired man beside her. Even dressed as he was in his simple tan tunic and loose-fitting gray breeches, he carried a regal air about him. He looked more a nobleman than a fighter. Most of them had not been at the Golden Horseman, and they had no idea what a man of such bearing was doing counseling their prince on combat tactics.

  “You can’t really be considering this,” she said, her tone half-questioning.

  “I’ve been keeping tabs on the priests. They haven’t budged from their defensive position. One of them checks the prisoners every so often and appears to administer something to them. I’m assuming whatever he’s giving them is keeping them sedated.”

  “That’s a shardhealer, not a priest,” Aria corrected.

  Zephyron raised an eyebrow at her.

  Aria clarified. “They usually start off as priests, but then they show talent for using the special crystal healing implements. They treat injuries and ailments others can’t. There aren’t many shardhealers, and I don’t really know how their skill works.”

  Zephyron waved away her explanation, indicating that they had more pressing issues to discuss. “I don’t know how long they intend to keep searching,” he said, “but based on the snippets of conversation I’ve overheard, they’re loath to even consider returning without the prince. I suspect they’ll spend at least an entire day, maybe more, searching for him. I’m also fairly certain that my attempts to draw them out in small groups will no longer work.”

  “Couldn’t we just wait them out?” Aria asked. “Wait for them to depart, whenever that is, and then we can hit them while they’re strung out.”

  Zephyron pursed his lips. “We could, but it would come at a price.”

  Aria narrowed her eyes, realizing what he was getting at. She again recalled the arm they had found and blanched.

  Zephyron saw her expression and nodded. “You were correct yesterday. Though the shard beasts are being controlled, some of their natural urges, such as the need to eat, are still intact. The longer we wait, the more soldiers will be used to sate the creatures.”

  Aria stared off into the surrounding trees and rubbed her temples with her thumb and middle finger. “You realize these kids have likely never seen a shard beast in their lives, let alone fought one? Fighting beside you, I sometimes forget you’re not a kruusta. You have advantages other humans do not. You’re able to keep up with the shard beasts’ speed and strength, and your weapon is able to penetrate their armor. These soldiers will have neither of those advantages. If these were normal-sized maws, then a group of the soldiers might actually be able to pick off a few of them, but these shard beasts are some sort of mutation. Many of these soldiers will likely be killed if they try to engage the creatures.”

  Zephyron nodded again. “I know. I’ve said as much to the prince, but he’ll go forward with an attack without us if we don’t include them in our plans.”

  Aria sighed and nodded.

  “Youth,” Zephyron added with a chuckle that she knew was for her benefit. They had only known each other for a few weeks, but he understood her well; no kruusta had ever been a child.

  Aria smiled weakly in return. “So how do we do this?”

  “The shard beasts are being controlled by the priests, and those priests are just men. From what little I’ve seen, they don’t even seem like soldiers.”

  Aria tilted her head to the side. “They have all those shard beasts. They don’t need to be soldiers.”

  “True,” said Zephyron, “but they aren’t used to commanding a battlefield.”

  “Oh, I see what you’re getting at. They aren’t going to be very good at dividing their attention during the fight.”

  Zephyron nodded. “Right. So we get the priests to focus
all of their attention on you. Really focus. Then I can bring Kiem’s soldiers in from a flanking position. They should be able to engage with little risk to themselves.”

  Aria put a finger to her lip as she thought. “Because…the maws won’t defend themselves while their impulses are being overridden by the priests.”

  “Exactly.”

  “Let’s get going then.” Aria’s stomach growled.

  “After you eat…” said Zephyron with a raised eyebrow.

  Despite the grim situation, Aria found it in her to smile a little. “After I eat.”

  Are you sure you want to go through with this? came Kharra’s mental touch.

  We don’t have much of a choice, Aria replied. This is the best we could come up with that would allow Prince Kiem and his soldiers to participate while hopefully keeping their losses at a minimum.

  It’s you I’m worried about, not them.

  Thanks, Aria replied. Because she had been on her own for so many years, she still found it difficult to accept that anyone would care so much for her well-being, particularly when she did not have much longer to live anyway. She wondered, not for the first time, how much she had missed from life’s possibilities because of Tanoria’s isolation from the rest of the world.

  Ready? Aria asked both Kharra and Zephyron. With their mental assent, Aria nudged Xierex into motion. The zegu burst down the hill north of the priests’ defensive encampment. As one, the four priests and the shardhealer turned to face their attacker. Where they expected a savage white cat, they found themselves faced with a furious kruusta. Before they could react to her presence, Aria charged the closest splinter maw and sliced it across the throat as it reared to defend itself.

  “Are you crazy? What are you doing?” one of the priests shouted. The other priests kept their silence but glared at her.

  Aria spun Xierex around. “I denounce all of you as priests and shardhealers of the Order of the Shard. What you are doing is against our laws, and I am here to put an end to your treachery.”

  “We are not—” retorted the priest.

  Aria cut him off with the harsh command of her voice. “Don’t waste your lies on me! You control these shard beasts. I was in Valmont when you attacked these soldiers. I fought against your fogbeast, which has been destroyed.” She glared at each of them in turn. Her look alone revealed to them that she knew the truth of their intentions.

  The shardhealer averted his gaze from her. Two of the priests licked their lips nervously. Another one shifted uneasily. The fourth priest, who seemed to be in charge, glared at her. “I’m sorry it has to come to this,” he said without a hint of actual compassion. The bracelet on his wrist began to glow, as did the bracelets of the other three. The shardhealer tried to cower near the horses, but all five of the animals screamed in terror as every single one of the shard beasts turned toward the kruusta. The shardhealer stumbled out of the way, shuffling toward the brush along the side of the road.

  Aria wheeled Xierex around to make some space and then launched herself from his back. She summoned her krusword and engaged the nearest beast. It snapped at her with its slavering maw, but she sliced it across the face, severing its snout. The creature howled and thrashed and ran from the fight. Xierex reared at one that came for him, bashing it in the eye with his razor-sharp clawed hooves.

  With all attention focused on her, neither the priests nor the shard beasts noticed the attackers that charged at them from behind. Led by the tall, white-haired Guardian and his electrifying blue energy blade, the knights of the Order of the Rose in groups of seven or eight separated out and attacked a single shard beast from behind. The shard beasts, all having been ordered to attack the kruusta, did not respond to this new threat.

  The priests placed so much focus on destroying Aria that Zephyron killed one of the beasts and the soldiers had at least one more disabled before the priests realized something was attacking their flank.

  “Get them!” the lead priest said to two of the other priests. On that command, half of the shard beasts that had been focused on Aria turned away to address the new battlefront.

  But to the priests’ confusion and the shard beasts’ dismay, while the beasts lunged and snapped at the soldiers, they failed to make contact with their quarry. Something unseen was preventing their attacks from landing. Tanoria had never seen the likes of either Kharra or Zephyron.

  Aria could no longer pay attention to the other half of the battle. She had more than a dozen shard beasts rushing at her from every direction, and she pulled back all of her mental energy to concentrate on the fight at hand. These beasts were stronger and bulkier than the average creatures of their kind, but Aria compensated for the difference. Her movements picked up speed, and she flowed in and out of the attacking creatures. She launched herself over the top of one, using her momentum to bring her blade down into the spine of another all the while avoiding hitting any of the captive soldiers still attached to its back. She rolled away from the beast and came up under the front shoulder of another, dropping the creature to its chin. The beast turned its head to snap at her, but she thrust her blade into its beady black eye and then its brain. The creature howled in pain and then ceased moving.

  The song of her krusword grew in Aria’s mind and ears. Away fell the other sounds of battle—the cries of pain from soldiers, the growls and snarls of the shard beasts, the clink of metal against crystal, the shouts of human voices, the crunch of gravel underfoot. Aria followed the rhythm of the song and allowed it to guide each thrust, twist, jump, slide, slice, and jab. Like the sounds, time also fell away. When dancing to the song of the krusword, time ceased to exist. There was only the dance. Her body flowed to the rhythm of the song.

  At last the song stopped, and Aria’s senses rushed back to her in force. She looked about. Soldiers and priests alike were staring at her, more than a few displaying fear. Kharra watched her impassively. Zephyron stood off to the side, a lopsided grin on his face.

  One of the priests fell to his knees, still staring at her. “I have seen kruustas fight many times,” he said. “But I have never witnessed anything such as this. Kruustas are strong, but this…” The man’s voice trailed off.

  “Well, I had help,” she said with a gesture to the soldiers.

  Prince Kiem, sporting a new gash across his forehead, cleared his throat. “We only disabled four of them. Zephyron had to finish them off for us. He killed three on his own. The rest were yours.”

  “Who are you?” the lead priest asked.

  Aria debated not answering but found herself saying, “Kruusta Aria.”

  The man paled. “They told us—we heard you were killed in action, that you fell fighting shard drakes.”

  “You heard wrong,” she said, her voice cold and her glare boring into the man. “Prince Kiem, you’re welcome to take these men into custody.”

  The lead priest shouted something to the others. Before anyone else had time to move, each had pulled out a crystalline dagger and plunged it into his own heart. So unexpected was the action that even Kharra, with her mind moving abilities, was unable to react in time to stop any of them.

  “Find the shardhealer,” said Aria.

  “Here,” said one of the soldiers.

  Aria walked over to him and frowned. The shardhealer, or what was left of him, had been trampled several times during the fighting.

  “Okay, men,” said Prince Kiem. “Let’s get our people free of these things and get our wounded back to camp.”

  “How many did you lose?” Aria asked as Prince Kiem approached their campfire. The prince looked haggard, his eyes darkened and puffy. He looked at least ten years older than his eighteen years, if not more.

  “Two-hundred thirty-seven,” he whispered, his voice raw and hoarse. Aria barely heard him.

  “I’m very sorry for your loss,” said Kharra. From the log on which she sat, she reached her hand out to his in a comforting gesture. Aria noticed the tenseness in Kiem’s shoulders relax, and he
managed a thankful smile.

  “Thank you,” he said. “It would have been much worse had you three not come for us. I am so very grateful and in your debt.” He looked at Zephyron. “I knew you moved like a fighter when I met you. I have no idea what type of weapon that was you had, but it was amazing to see. Knowing that you are not a kruusta and seeing you slice through those shard beasts to keep my men from harm’s way, you have my utmost respect.” The prince then turned his head toward Kharra, looking her straight in the eyes. “I do not know what it was you did during the fighting, but I know you did something to keep those creatures off my men and me. Thank you.” At last he swiveled his head to look at Aria and stepped closer to her. He put his hands on the outsides of her arms. She could almost see the awe in his eyes flashing in the firelight. “I don’t care what people think about kruustas. I don’t care what might happen in the future. Today you were our guardian spirit. You moved with a grace and precision that I could only dream about. You have my most heartfelt and deepest thanks, and I wish you the brightest future. For all that you have done for Tanoria and for me, you deserve a happy ending.”

  Aria smiled as she fought the lump that formed in her throat. “It was my pleasure,” she said with a cracking voice.

  Zephyron cleared his throat. “What will you do?” the Guardian asked.

  The prince sighed. “I need to continue on with my mission,” he answered. “I have to find my brother and sister, and I need to find out what happened to the people of Tara Gol. I never expected this type of setback. I have only half the force I started with, and I have not yet made any progress toward finding them.” The poor young man looked defeated. Kharra rubbed his hand again and offered him an encouraging smile.

  As if a switch was flipped, the prince looked up at the group with a new light in his eyes. “I am going to return to Valmont so those who need further aid can get it. I’ll then go to Valgate to requisition three thousand soldiers from their garrison. General Cardemon will not like it, but he is a loyal soldier. Once he hears what we encountered, he will not resist. I will return to Haan with a greater force and unravel this mystery. I will also send an update to my father. It will be a while before he receives it, but he needs to know that something is not right in Haan.”