The beastman began to whirl his flail overhead. Kelara took a step back, searching for an opening.
When the flail swung away, she darted forward, slashing at the exposed neck. Her scraper met only air.
The flail flicked down. Kelara dodged back, though not before a barbed hook nipped at her head-fronds.
She needed her weapon. Sparing a glance beyond her opponent, she saw whirling snow and grappling figures, but no spear.
The beastman grinned, viscous slather dropping from its jowls. It brought the flail around again, this time sweeping low, aiming for Kelara’s legs. She jumped straight up. When she landed, she stepped back. Retreat was her only option. This was not a battle she could win.
Even as she thought this, her opponent gasped, and looked down. There was her missing spear! Its point protruded from the creature’s chest.
With a strangled grunt, the beastman pitched forward.
Hah!
Kelara recognised the shout of triumph as Finala was revealed, standing behind the now-fallen beastman. The Naereid drew Kelara’s spear from the twitching body and offered it back to her.
Thank you, sister, said Kelara as she took the weapon. She sensed Finala’s pride at saving her, returning the favour from the first battle.
Finala must have come from a way off, as the two nearest Naereids were engaged in their own duels. As Kelara watched, Chella stabbed her remaining opponent in the guts, twisting the spear as it went in. The creature folded and fell.
With no threat nearby, Kelara surveyed the battle. It was all but won, with the last few heavily outnumbered beastmen being brought down. Bodies lay strewn across the snowy landscape, and ichorous blood steamed on the ice. Kelara reached out in a silent roll call. All but three of her Naereids answered. More losses to mourn, but they had won.
Her triumphant joy fled when a sudden gust of wind blew the snows clear for a moment. On the far horizon, beyond the sea of ice, loomed a mountain where no mountain should be. Nearer, on the ice itself, a terrible army was revealed. Unspeakable creatures beyond count marched, scurried, shambled or crawled towards the dark curve of the Chaos bridge: giant pot-bellied man-things with lesion-covered skin; a chittering horde of hunched and robed figures; hulking tribesmen in rust-red armour. Further off, their true size impossible to gauge due to distance, hunched figures rode monumental beasts covered in mangy fur, or bloated with rolls of pale, pestilent flesh. And everywhere, on ragged robes, on battle-worn shields, on flapping banners of tanned skin, she saw a three-lobed sigil. This had to be the mark of one of the great powers of Chaos, perhaps even the unspeakable entity the shore-dwellers had referred to as the Father of Plagues.
What could they do against such a fearsome multitude? She and her sisters had despatched a few unwary outliers, but that was nothing. This army could roll right over them without noticing.
Should she send word to Usniel, to let him know the war had come to them at last? Surely this would convince him to join the fight. If he could rouse the young serpents from the dreaming depths, they could turn the tide of this battle.
Even as she pondered, a brief flash of wonderment lit her spirit. She thought it came from the direction the monstrous army was heading. But it was faint, gone as soon as she focused on it.
Did you feel that? she asked her companions.
Yes!
The Everqueen!
Just an echo.
So weak…
Back to the water! instructed Kelara.
She divided her forces into a dozen shoals. Find out what is happening, my sisters. Go out under the ice in every direction. Look above wherever the ice is clear, though make sure you are not seen. Discover all you can of these momentous events, both above and below. Go with all haste, then return here.
While her Naereids scouted further afield, Kelara surveyed the extent of the ice around her kelp forests. Though she itched to join the fight, the odds were overwhelming; and while she waited to find out what could be done, she must look to the part of the sea she was responsible for. The ice was thickest along the shoreline, a solid rim. Farther out it fragmented, forming fissured promontories. Her forests would take harm from being frozen, but would survive – provided the forces of darkness did not win here today.
Once she knew the kelp forests were safe, she headed back to the rendezvous point.
One of the first scouting parties to return reported that the unfrozen sea ahead was dotted with broken ice and small bergs.
A second shoal, sent to find the extent of the open water, confirmed that the Chaos structure whose wrongness still polluted the sea was indeed a bridge; on its far side the ice remained pure.
A solid sheet of ice must have covered this part of the sea in the initial, magical freeze. Later, it had been partially shattered in the centre of the sea – perhaps when that great concussion sounded. But then, some unspeakable sorcery had been employed to bridge the gap between the two ice shelves.
Most likely the ice extended all the way to the far shore of the Sea of Serpents. Any remaining doubt she had was banished: this was the site of a great confrontation between the forces of the Everqueen and the minions of Chaos.
All her scouting parties were back now, save one. She had sent swift Assani the furthest. Had she been discovered?
Then a familiar mind touched hers. A moment later a score of lithe forms came arrowing through the water.
Assani! What did you find?
We scouted the shoreline on the far side of the gap, as you instructed. Even through the ice, we heard the commotion. We went above to see two armies facing each other on the ice. A host of woodland folk are ranged against the Chaos army, but they are sorely outnumbered.
Kelara could not let the sylvaneth face this threat alone. Yet to intervene was to invite the rapacious gaze of the enemy, and despite her earlier bravado, her Naereids were no combat-ready army. But this was not about the survival of one of Ghyran’s minor peoples; the future of the whole Realm of Life was at stake.
We must help them!
With Assani leading the way, Kelara and the Naereids swam as fast as limb and frond would propel them. To her relief, their path did not bring them close to the dark bridge.
The ice remained unstable at the edges, but when they reached the far side, the fissure Assani had used was no longer obvious. The ice was growing mushy, giving no easy access to the world above. We must find a way through! Kelara exclaimed.
The Naereids split up, searching for a route. A short while later a shout came: a patch of clear water and stable ice had been found. Kelara beckoned Assani to follow her while she bade the rest of her sisters wait for them.
When she climbed out of the icy water, Kelara saw that the snow ahead had abated. Some way off, she saw the backs of hulking treelords and fleet dryads. She had come up behind friendly lines. Beyond their swinging branches and plunging scythes, she glimpsed the snarling faces of warped tribesmen, packs of slavering hounds and the occasional larger figure: half-naked, long-limbed creatures with craggy, malevolent faces and scabby skin, swinging massive clubs or hurling boulders.
Assani, climbing out the water after her, asked, Should we try and get behind the enemy, to surprise them again?
It had worked against foes not expecting trouble, but the battle was in full swing now. By the time the Naereids got behind the enemy army and made their way back up onto the ice, it might be too late for them to make a difference. We may be of more use lending aid to the forest folk, perhaps fighting alongside them. Maybe we should–
Kelara’s words died as the blizzard cleared further, affording a glimpse of the full scale of the battle. The forces arrayed against each other stretched along the ice as far as she could see. Holding the line for the forces of Order were beings such as she had never imagined. They had the form of men, but were encased in shining armour of silver and blue. A double line,
shields locked, faced the Chaos horde. Behind the wall of shields, more shining men raised ornate bows and fired arrows that burst into bright flame, raining down a storm of celestial fire on the seething mass of the Chaos army.
Assani echoed her amazement. What manner of man are they?
I do not know. Kelara called to her sisters below: All those able to fight on land come with me! The rest of you, wait here.
As soon as her companions had assembled on the ice, Kelara began to lope towards the strange warriors as fast as was safe on the treacherous surface. Suddenly a great roar rang out over the clamour of shouts and clashing weapons. A huge, bull-headed figure crashed through the armoured ranks, tossing the fighters around like driftwood in a stormy sea.
The beast turned, slipping on the ice, its tree-sized axe swinging. It had not seen Kelara’s small force but appeared intent on attacking the lines it had just broken through – a rear attack, just as Kelara and Assani had considered. The shining men, moving in perfect synchrony, had already plugged the gap. Focused only on the enemies before them, they appeared oblivious of the danger from behind. Kelara sped up, hoping to engage the bull-creature before it ran amok. But they were too far off, too slow.
A tight formation of armoured men appeared out of the snow and set upon the creature. Their leader cracked its leg with one swing of his weapon. The beast toppled onto the ice and his comrades fell on it, despatching their enemy with brutal efficiency.
As the bull-creature gave a final tortured bellow the warriors’ leader saw Kelara and ran over to her. He carried a great hammer, and the insignia on his massive shield was also a hammer, set between twin thunderbolts. His face was hidden behind a silver mask. Recalling the bubble-headed invaders, Kelara half raised her spear. The newcomer halted. Beneath the gore that spattered it, his armour was the blue of sunlight through pure water.
‘What are you?’ he called, perhaps taking in her frost-rimmed fronds and pale blue-green limbs, so different in form to the sylvaneth fighting on the ice. His voice was deep and hoarse, but that of a man, not a monster.
Kelara shaped her words into a form the shore-dweller could understand. ‘Not what. Who. I am Kelara, Guardian of the Kelp Forests. These are my Naereids. And what, I mean who, are you?’
‘I meant no offence, Lady Kelara. This land holds so many strange creatures. I am Retributor-Prime Markius of the Hallowed Knights.’
‘And why are you here?’
‘To escort Queen Alarielle to safety.’
‘The Everqueen! Where is she?’
He gestured with his hammer. ‘Ahead, but… your queen’s handmaiden wove an arcane song that drew on the last of Alarielle’s power. She commanded a living mountain to freeze the sea, that we may cross it.’
‘I saw that!’ The Jotenberg, glimpsed through snow. What else had the power to turn the sea from water to ice in an instant? Then the full import of the warrior’s words hit her. ‘But you say it was “the last of her power”?’
‘Queen Alarielle is… diminished. Her essence is now contained in some kind of magical seedpod. Her handmaiden carries it – her. Half of our troops remained behind to delay the forces of Chaos who seek this queen-seed. It is–’
‘–over there!’ Kelara pointed ahead. Now she knew what she was dealing with, she could sense the divine beacon of the Radiant Queen’s soulpod just over the horizon.
‘Yes.’
‘How can we help?’
‘The queen-seed must reach the far shore. Go to the aid of your queen.’
‘We will.’
As Kelara turned to go, the Hallowed Knight returned to the fray.
Once back under the ice, Kelara gathered her Naereids and, focusing for a moment on the distant, divine presence, led them away from the battle overhead and towards the Everqueen.
But they were under the ice shelf now. It formed an impenetrable ceiling.
Assani voiced her fears. How can we lend aid, trapped here below the ice?
Before she could answer, the queen’s presence flared, and a strange, silent song impinged on Kelara’s consciousness.
A moment later, the ice quaked.
Sudden creaks and groans filled the ocean, then the ice overhead buckled and cracked. Kelara stared upwards, eager to reach the action. But the quake did not abate. Anyone trying to surface risked being crushed, ground between ever-moving, interlocking sheets of ice.
We must reach the queen-seed.
Kelara sensed a pattern in the ice movement: it came from behind her. They were heading into a more stable region.
Then she saw light ahead. Not just the dull snow-filled light of day, but a divine glow as bright as pure sunlight. It had to be the Radiant Queen’s soulpod.
She started forward, drawn to the presence of her deity. But the way was blocked. Though the ice was not thick here, it remained unbroken. The frozen surface was thin and clear enough to see through; she made out spindly, distant forms that must be the sylvaneth. But so few, and moving so slowly! At the centre of their small group shone the transcendent light of the queen-seed, carried by Alarielle’s handmaiden – that must be the brave and faithful Lady of Vines, who was said to have sprung from the very body of the Everqueen.
Kelara cast her awareness wide, searching for some means to get to the Lady of Vines and her precious cargo.
Her senses recoiled at the touch of Chaos. The enemy was close, converging on the small party of sylvaneth. For a moment she thought she caught a dark echo of corruption and power in the water itself, but then her roving senses lit on a mundane and welcome clear spot – a gap in the ice.
This way. She shot through the water, her Naereids trailing behind her. The hole was some way from the Lady of Vines but it was their only route up. Hurry!
The gap was tiny, a body-sized fissure in thin ice. As she approached, Kelara scrutinised the immediate surroundings, checking for cracks or faults that could, should more shudders come, turn this from an exit into a death-trap. All appeared stable.
When she put her head above the freezing water, the air was full of chill salt mist, and the distant grinding of the ice competed with the sounds of combat: battle-cries from the throats of men, and the howls and grunts of their vile opponents. Above it all a song such as Kelara had never heard wove through the air, soft yet powerful, evoking days of light and life while compelling all who heard it to fight, to stand up against the forces of darkness. Summoned by the song, Kelara pulled herself up onto the ice shelf.
Ahead, through the mist, a heavenly radiance shone. Even at this distance the queen-seed filled Kelara with wonder. The Lady of Vines, who cradled it in her arms, had the form of a shore-dweller; though she was a branchwraith, her woody torso was encased in shivering creepers. The exquisite song came from her. She was surrounded by a dozen dryads.
As Kelara looked for the best route across to them, a shadow fell over the Lady of Vines’ party. A moment later, a spear of darkness stabbed down from the misty sky, skewering one of the dryads. The remaining dryads turned to face the threat, but their movements were sluggish and uncoordinated. The cold, which Kelara barely felt, was slowing these woodland dwellers.
Something comes!
The distant shout came from below, but before she could respond, darkness boiled overhead, and a miasma of Chaos assaulted Kelara’s every sense. She jerked her head up and met the blank, many-eyed stare of a giant fly swooping down on her. The green-skinned figure on its back held its twisted ichor-black sword high, ready to cut her down in passing as it flew towards the Lady of Vines.
Without thinking, Kelara hurled her spear. The bone tip buried itself deep in the rider’s flaccid gut, which was already marred by a pustulent wound. The Chaos-rider shrieked in surprised agony, and toppled backwards off its mount. The fly-thing flitted away, showing a swollen, diseased abdomen. Kelara refocused her attention on the deeps, from where a panicked
chorus of mind-shouts was rising.
But the aerial abomination was coming back round. As it darted towards Kelara, a venom-tipped proboscis unfurled from the point of the creature’s great scabrous head.
She had no weapon, and the only escape route was cut off by the Naereid still hauling herself up through the ice-fissure. She could not even save herself and her folk, let alone help the Lady of Vines.
The ice beneath her erupted.
Kelara was flung upwards as the surface burst out and up with a thunderous crash. As she flew through the air, she caught a brief glimpse of grey flesh pushing up through shattered ice. She came down hard on ice that tipped the moment she hit it. Stunned, but saved from a severe concussion by the slippery surface, she slid helplessly back into the water, a rain of smaller fragments pelting down around her. She kicked down and away, tracing an erratic yet urgent path out of range of the turmoil. When sense had returned enough to know she was out of immediate danger, she turned and looked back up.
A great serpent, young enough to swim free but still as long as a kelp-tree was tall, thrashed and twisted above her, churning the icy surface to splinters as it coiled in on itself.
For a moment Kelara’s heart sang: Usniel had sent aid!
But something was wrong. Why would the serpent break up the very ice the Lady of Vines was fleeing across? Then she saw how its once silver-grey flanks were dull and scarred, pocked with open wounds and patches of raw, diseased skin.
The serpent had been corrupted. No wonder the Lord of the Deeps had refused her call to fight Chaos: the taint she sought to keep out of the sea had already taken hold in its depths. This epic creature had come from the deep, but not to help. It must have been summoned by the fell power she had scented earlier. The forces of darkness had subverted this serpent, using it to disrupt the Lady of Vines’ flight.
And it was not alone.
She tuned into the calls from her sisters. More serpents were heading up into the light, heeding the call of Chaos.
Inferno Volume 2 - Guy Haley Page 10
