Elsewhere ti-3

by Richard D. Parker

  Vio for her part was, in fact, aware of the Executioner moving steadily in her direction. The woman from Sinis moved at an easy pace, killing anyone who challenged her as she edged ever closer, black robes swirling behind in the light rain. And there was something about the way the assassin moved that disturbed Vio, but she did not have time to dwell on it as a Palmerrio soldier with a long sword hacked at her with a mighty swing. She gracefully ducked aside and with a fluid movement sliced through the back of the man’s left arm, hitting bone with a jarring thud. The soldier dropped his primary weapon, screamed and quickly drew a kali with his right, but by then Vio was in on him and plunged her own into his chest. As he fell she quickly turned half expecting the Executioner to be running in her direction but he…no she, was not. She was just walking, that strangely familiar walk.

  ‘She…’ Vio thought momentarily surprised, though she knew that females were a vital part of all life in the Inland Sea. ‘Female Executioners.’ The thought came to her with a flash as she watched the Executioner move toward her, smiling and twirling her kali in a smooth, practiced motion.

  ‘Female Executioners! Gwaynn’s Captain...Captain Huntley! She was on Light…she was an Executioner!’ Vio was sure and completely confident of her suspicions. She needed to get to Gwaynn. She needed to warn him, but then the woman in black struck with such speed and skill that Vio was thrown back, off balanced and surprised, taxed to the limit just to keep the whirling blades that came at her from penetrating her defenses and ending her life.

  “You will die, little Noble one,” the Executioner said after her initial attack was thwarted. Vio did not answer but instead launched an attack of her own, and when she did she moved with the fluid grace Gwaynn always associated with her. The Executioner before her retreated but had little difficulty deflecting the blows coming at her.

  “Very good…very good,” the Executioner crooned and then counter attacked and again Vio was forced to back pedal using all her speed to deflect the blows with no thought at all about attack. Harder and harder the Executioner pressed her, but still Vio was up to the task and remained unscathed. A Massi pike man moved in, attacking the warrior from Sinis. Vio tried to help but was unsure of how to fight alongside someone with such an unwieldy weapon. Seconds later the pike man was dead, his head rolling in the mud.

  “I want your head as well,” the woman in black said, her frustration showing, as she turned back to face Vio, “and when I cut if from your body I’ll keep it as a trophy.”

  She attacked quickly and confidently, but Vio was learning her patterns and actually began to spray in several counters of her own, but still neither inflicted anything more than a few minor wounds.

  And suddenly Gwaynn was there, attacking with such fury that the Executioner retreated away from him at nearly a run. Gwaynn, however, was nonplussed by the retreat and even lashed out at several Palmerrio soldiers as they flew by. Finally the Executioner skidded to a stop, trying to hold her ground but she quickly lost her right arm in the attempt and then before she even felt any pain, Gwaynn swung around and sliced through the back of her neck, severing her spine. The Executioner’s head flopped forward and without a sound her body dropped to the ground, her face buried in the mud of the battlefield.

  “Gwaynn!” Vio yelled, but Gwaynn had already spotted the threat coming quickly from the east. There were thousands of cavalry men in the distance, pounding out of the southeast, charging almost directly for the Toranado who were still engaged with a mass of Palmerrio foot soldiers. Gwaynn stared at the oncoming force with dismay as the Palmerrio uniforms and signal flags came into view. He could feel the fear and concern rippling through the Massi lines, but for the moment they held their ground.

  ‘They were close…so close. If they could just defeat the Palmerrio they could, against all odds, win back their country.’

  “We need to sound a retreat!” N’dori shouted as she ran to Gwaynn position. The battle was still raging all around them, but little was happening in their immediate area.

  “She’s an Executioner!” Vio yelled at nearly the same moment, but Gwaynn thought she was referring to the woman lying dead in the mud, so he ignored her and turned to N’dori.

  “No…Bock will send the reserves our direction,” Gwaynn told her. “Move back and prepare to shift them where they’ll be needed most.”

  N’dori nodded and instantly moved toward the rear of the lines as Vio reached Gwaynn, still shaky from battle.

  “Executioner!” Vio repeated.

  “I know,” Gwaynn answered and turned to the oncoming cavalry. “We need to warn Prince Phillip,” he said but knew they would be too late. Even as he watched the horseman reached the battle but instead of moving against the Toranado they crashed into the rear of the Palmerrio lines. At first, Gwaynn thought it was a mistake of colossal proportions, but it soon became apparent that the cavalry were indeed attacking their own troops.

  “They’re ours!” Gwaynn heard someone shout as the Palmerrio all around them began to pull back. But it was already too late for them. The Massi cavalry smashed through the rear of the Palmerrio and quickly opened up a corridor for the Toranado to rush through closing the circle.

  “Forward!” Gwaynn yelled again but those around him, sensing the impending victory were already sprinting by him. Gwaynn started forward with his troops…suddenly elated, but something snagged at his right sleeve. Gwaynn spun, his kali held high, but stopped as he caught sight of Vio’s face.

  “Huntley…she’s an Executioner!” Vio said urgently and Gwaynn frowned at her not fully comprehending what she was saying. He started to turn back to the battle which was still raging though now some distance away, but Vio held on.

  “Captain Huntley…I saw her on Light…I knew she was familiar,” Vio tried to explain quickly. “She’s an Executioner!”

  Understanding flooded over Gwaynn. ‘An Executioner…Cyndar,’ he thought and the image of her standing naked before him, rejected and going instinctively for the weapon that was not at her side burst into his mind. And he knew Vio was correct.

  “We must press forward!” N’dori yelled, leading the rear guard forward. She stopped at Gwaynn’s side but he did not seem to be listening, then without warning a bridge expanded in the dimming light of the late afternoon and without a moment’s hesitation or comment Gwaynn jumped through and the bridge collapsed with a small pop.

  ǂ

  With a flurry of counter moves Tar Kostek dropped the two Palmerrio soldiers who foolishly moved forward to challenge him. From his position on the right, the battle appeared to be going to plan. The lines were holding, though the initial attack by the enemy had pushed the Massi back a hundred feet or so before they dug in and gave no more. The Massi right even began to push back to a degree. Kostek was surprised to find that his skills were stretched to the utmost on several occasions. The Palmerrio heavy infantry were well trained and hardened soldiers who knew their weapons well and fought with superior tactics. Only the long hard training on Noble saved the elder Tar from several quick painful deaths. As it was, many of the surrounding Massi were not so lucky or so skilled. They fell with remarkable regularity, but they too were growing strong and experienced and that experience allowed them to take many of their Palmerrio counterparts along with them.

  What Tar Kostek was not prepared for was the chaos of the battlefield. Though the lines held for a while it was not long before the fight broke up into thousands of personal confrontations. On Noble, nearly every contest was strictly controlled; but on the field of war it was common to be attacked from all sides. Men were stabbed in the back with a pike or spear while battling an enemy soldier quite regularly. Soldiers from both sides killed on the battleground with no thoughts of chivalry or fairness. Fighting and surviving in such an environment demanded a complete awareness of your surroundings. Failure to do so ended in either injury or death, very often from behind. The citizens of Noble learned this lesson early in the battle when Jinja took a spear point th
rough the back of the neck while fighting off two Palmerrio soldiers.

  “Fight in pairs!” Kostek yelled to the others. “Watch each other’s backs,” he added though he could immediately tell the advice was unneeded. Tam and William were already fighting back to back creating a circle of death around them. The students Saran and Indira soon copied the strategy. Tar Myson, who drifted inexplicably from the center lines to the right during the chaos of battle, joined with Tar Endid, and now only Kostek himself was left without a partner.

  There was a flow to war. The fighting peaked at times then waned only to peak once again for no apparent reason. Kostek soon lost count of those he killed and was unaware of anything but his most immediate surroundings. The rain fell hard and then stopped completely sometime during the fighting but he did not notice. His complete consciousness was tuned only to hacking, blocking, slicing and stabbing the enemy who threatened him or those around him. As the battle raged on, the group from Noble gradually drifted toward the center, though they were not aware of the slow shift. Even so, they were steadily moving away from the far right, like a swimmer at sea being pushed gently down shore by the tide.

  “Executioner!” Tar Endid shouted suddenly. Though alarmed, Kostek made no attempt to look about. He was currently busy fighting off three soldiers, two of the attacking men came at him with long spears and they pressed forward cautiously, very careful to keep their distance. Kostek remained embroiled in his own personal battle for a long time. How long, he did not actually know, but during the entire fight he was constantly alert to a possible attack from the assassin from Sinis. Eventually, however, the soldier engaging him with a long sword made a mistake and lost his right arm. The soldiers with the spears, who were now on opposite sides of him hesitated and Kostek swiftly looked for Endid and spotted him in a pitch battle with a man dressed entirely in black.

  Kostek feinted right then without warning sprinted left at a soldier trying to skewer him from behind. The Tar knocked aside the spear with little difficulty then pressed in so close that the long weapon was no longer effective. The soldier knew it and his eyes went wide with fear, but an instant later he was dead and at peace. Kostek spun back to face his lone surviving opponent but found that the man was already dead, having been cut down by a host of Massi soldiers pushing through the area.

  Off to his left, Tar Endid was still battling the Executioner, in a fight that had lasted far longer than Kostek would have imaged. And though Endid seemed uninjured, the Executioner was now using only his left arm, his right hung uselessly at his side. Even so, Endid had trouble breaking through the man’s defense. Kostek rushed forward to aid his friend. The former High Tar of Noble was amazed at the skill level being displayed by the man from Sinis and it shook him. However, just before Kostek reached the fight, Endid succeeding in driving the man’s left kali aside and with a lightning fast attack cut through the man’s neck, nearly severing his head. The Executioner dropped just as Kostek arrived.

  “Are you all right?”

  Endid nodded, breathing heavily.

  “Myson?”

  Endid stood and glanced around the battlefield. The heat of the battle had once again moved toward the creek and away from their immediate area. “He’s in the rear. He took a blade to the ribs…it’s bad, but I think he should survive.”

  “How?”

  Endid pointed down at the Executioner. “This one. His skill took us by surprise.”

  Kostek nodded. “Yes…I saw. It does not seem possible.” For centuries those trained on Noble always looked down on the Executioners of Sinis as little more than second class fighters.

  Endid said nothing. He looked to the east but could see nothing through the chaos of battle.

  “Come,” Kostek said but before they could rejoin the fight, Tam and William rushed to their side.

  William remained silent, his face ashen, but Tam spoke up excitedly.

  “The enemy seems to be collapsing on the right,” she said, talking very fast. “The Massi troops are pressing forward.”

  Kostek looked into the direction she was indicating and could instantly tell she was correct. The main battle lines were now nearly a hundred yards farther to the south than they were.

  “Forward!” Endid yelled at those men around him and every Massi soldier who could still stand began to push to the south. The advance started slowly, but with the help of the Tars it soon gained momentum and suddenly the enemy melted away and the path toward the enemy rear was wide open.

  “Go!” Kostek shouted and the advance turned into a sprint. They ran, killing a few straggling enemy soldiers but mostly they just took ground uncontested. And then, without warning the Palmerrio King was before them. Several horsemen rode forward in an attempt to slow their advance but the Massi pike men took them down with little trouble. Then the King’s own guard moved forward led by yet another man in black.

  The Massi soldiers on either side of Kostek rushed forward to meet the guard, but Kostek remained focused on the approaching Executioner.

  “Watch my back,” Kostek said to Tar Endid, who nodded.

  “So Noble Island has chosen the path of destruction,” Tar Giodart said as he slowly drew his kali and began to cautiously circle the old man from Noble.

  Tar Kostek said nothing just attacked. He moved quickly and surely keeping constant pressure on his opponent in the hope to end the conflict rapidly, but the Executioner was equal to the task and soon shifted the fight so that Kostek was on the defensive.

  “Impressive for such an old man,” the Executioner said and meant it. Kostek, at just over fifty, was well older than even the eldest Executioner. ‘The Tars of Noble grow weak with age,’ Giodart thought with a sneer then had to skip back from a blow designed to take off his head. “You stay out of this!” Giodart barked at Endid, who showed no signs of interfering, but instead kept the immediate area free of any threats from the King’s guard.

  “No need,” Endid said to the Executioner as Kostek waded in again with a flurry of attacks. Again the Tar from Sinis was able to deflect or block every blow and even smiled just before the right foot of Kostek shot up and caught him in the chin. Giodart’s head rocked back but he instinctively threw up his kali in defense, but Kostek, with the very move he taught Gwaynn so long ago, used his left kali to slice completely through the right leg of the Executioner.

  With a scream of surprise and pain Giodart dropped to the ground and ill advisedly released his right kali and grabbed for his leg. He held up his left kali in an effort to defend himself, but Kostek easily knocked it aside and stabbed down forcefully. His kali passed clear through the Executioner’s neck and out the back side. The stricken man jerked about for several long moments before his eyes went blank and he was still.

  Tar Kostek pulled his kali free and with Tar Endid at his side turned to reenter the fray, but nearly all fighting had stopped. The sun just dipped below the horizon as the King of the Palmerrio surrendered.

  ǂ

  Samantha was already in bed when there was a soft knock at the door. She knew Cobb was outside and hoped he was not thinking to have another “go” at her but she suspected it was Raisa checking up on her so she answered.

  “Come,” she said sleepily, wanting nothing more than to fall back into the bed she’d first shared with Gwaynn and dream of her lover. But it was not Raisa or Cobb at the door, instead it was Emm, looking lost and a little shy.

  “Sorry to bother you ma’am,” Emm said softly, standing in the doorway, making no attempt to enter. Samantha jumped out of bed, her long nightgown swirling at her feet and immediately realized that Krys was the problem. The thought caused an explosion of worry to ripple through her consciousness as her thoughts once again went to Gwaynn. She was not with him…not fighting by his side in battle for the first time in over a year. It made her feel anxious and a bit guilty. He could be dead even now and she would not know it. She shook her head, trying to dispel the thought, which was too gruesome to consider. Cobb was stand
ing, hat in hand just behind the young girl, looking sad and shifting from one foot to the next.

  “No bother Emm…come in,” she added.

  Emm did so…tentatively at first, but smiled as Samantha reached out with her good hand and took a hold of her and gently pulled her farther into the room.

  “Good night Cobb,” Samantha added and softly closed the door so as not to disturb the Magistrate and his wife, though the Koch’s had taken to sleeping in a small room off the kitchens. As Raisa got older she found she couldn’t stand the cold and preferred to be downstairs where she kept not only the fireplace in their room going but the large potbelly stove in the kitchen as well. Samantha kept her own fireplace cold and empty and even had to open her bedroom window against the heat emanating from the lower part of the house. But the very light breeze coming in through the window was delightfully cool and far from cold, after all it was only early October. Samantha wondered just when winter would hit up on the Plateau and so near the mountains; she suspected it would be sooner rather than later.

  “I should go,” Emm said simply and tried to pull away from Samantha, but her grip held firm.