by Terah Edun
When this was over, she would get her answers. As she looked around at the ragtag group of mercenaries and her people, she knew they all would be looking for answers. Fierce pride lined most faces, tiredness others, and all were grabbing whatever weapons lay near where they had landed. No one was quite sure how this would end—magic had wreaked some terrible devastation on both sides, after all. The Kades had shown up with living magic in the form of dragons, which had massacred their ranks with snapping jaws and fire-breathing roars, and as for her side—a single, brave mage with a hobble had turned the tide in their favor by destroying almost every single non-human the Kades had brought to the field.
A fine piece of magic, that. Sara knew they would do him proud now. Though she couldn’t force away the tiny bit of hope that reinforcements might be on the way. That they wouldn’t have to do this alone. She counted twenty-two with the colors of the mercenaries or the empress’ soldiers on her side. There were at least the same number remaining on the Kades, thanks to her handiwork in decapitating several of their human members in their fugue states.
As the Kades picked up swords and faced her down with murderous intentions on their faces, she settled into the knowledge that she was sure of what wasn’t going to happen—not today—reinforcements. Because if there was one thing she’d learned in service to the crown, nothing ever went as she’d hoped, and getting effectual backup was a pipe dream.
That was all right, though.
She picked up her sword that she’d lost on the way down and faced them head-on. She was her own backup.
As Reben stepped up to Sara’s side, bow patched and ready, she said with a bitter laugh, “Guess we’re back to holding the line against overwhelming odds.”
“I guess so,” Sara said dryly as she raced past Reben and Karn for an enemy she had an eye on. The battle had begun.
She ended up near Ezekiel Crane, who, she saw with an approving smile, was more than holding his own. He had a body-sized shield standing up and was hunkered down, firing arrow after arrow into the knees, shins, and legs of surprised enemies. The others took advantage of Ezekiel’s helpful desire to handicap their opponents by quickly killing them off. Over and over again it happened, and over and over again Sara danced in to fight, dancing back to Ezekiel’s side when necessary.
She never gave up her position for long, and they all more than held theirs—in a way, making this a stalemate, neither side giving up their position. The Kades: a defense of their portal and any chance of advancement. Sara’s people: a cordon blocking off the Kades from killing them off, lowering the new shield, sweeping into the camp, and discovering their prize.
As she sweated, blood still dripping from her ears, Sara shook her head with impatience as her swords flashed in the night, deflecting blows and piercing bodies almost automatically. After a while, she realized they were getting nowhere. As many as she killed, the Kades came back with more. New, fresh reinforcements. Human ones, but formidable still. With a frustrated growl, she pushed back toward the group, taking Ezekiel with her as he fell back behind her and only occasionally fired off an arrow toward their front. Surrounded by her companions, she let herself hang back and gave herself permission to just think for a moment, after doing nothing but stay in the fray for what had felt like eternity. She fought some, and others had only taken their place when they fell. Sara didn’t like that, it was no way to win a war, and, as if sensing that she needed time to contemplate, the others stood in front of her, forming a half-ring to give her a bit of a break from swinging her swords. If not because she needed rest, but at least for contemplation. To think up a plan to get them all out of here and to get to Nissa Sardonien, the sun mage, before the Kades got to her first.
It wasn’t long before the leader of the Kade invasion forces called a halt and walked forward. Sara watched him warily, wondering what he had to say.
The Kade leader looked over them all with a semi-approving look.
“You band of fools has more than held your own,” he finally said. “You’ve done your empress proud.”
“Our empress,” shouted one of the soldiers Sara didn’t know, but she didn’t disagree.
The Kade leader gave the woman soldier a dismissive glance. “Yours. We’ve long since absolved ourselves of all loyalty to the crown that you still serve like dogs.”
Marx came up to Sara’s side and said, “I’d rather be loyal to the crown than serve the Kades like traitors.”
The Kade leader cocked his head to the side as he said, “You know what? I believe you would, but I didn’t come here to debate loyalties with you. Now step aside and let us go about our business.”
Karn laughed. “Does that line actually work with anyone with balls?”
The Kade leader gave him a cold look. “I wouldn’t know, since none of you have any. First riding out our attack behind a rock, and then letting your poor, pitiful mage sacrifice himself in one last, noble stand while we stood unaware.”
“Enough,” Sara called out. “You attacked us. You don’t get to take the high ground here.”
The man they were all facing down shrugged. “Fair enough. Still, we will win. So why don’t you all lay down your weapons and move along?”
Ezekiel Crane came up to Sara’s shoulder then and said in a disbelieving whisper, “Is he serious or just insane?”
Shrugging Sara Fairchild replied, “Maybe a little of both?”
4
Sara watched the invasion leader with a quizzical expression as he stared them all down, certain she would order her side to lay down their arms. Just like that.
Did he think they were fools? Or was he one? she wondered.
The man paced a bit in front of them and repeated his offer firmly. Although what an offer it was. Leaving no possible side for negotiating a true and amicable agreement, she had to wonder what kind of crazy leader the Kades had sent to face them down. He was a brilliant tactician, she had to admit, but a poor negotiator. There was no way his demands would work.
Ezekiel sidled up to her and whispered in her ear, “Sara…look at the men behind him. Do you see what I do?”
She partially turned while keeping the enemy in sight. “What do you mean?”
They just looked like normal soldiers to her—mean, surly, impatient.
“There’s something wrong here. They’re too confident, even with that portal of reinforcements behind them,” Ezekiel told her. “That thin crack in the horizon where the portal stands only lets them receive one or two soldiers at a time to bolster their ranks. Not enough for them to hold the line against us, and certainly not against the combined might of the Mercenary’s Guild and the imperial forces.”
Sara whispered back, “Which raises the question—what do they have to be so damned confident about?”
“I don’t know,” Ezekiel said in a worried tone as his grip tightened on his bow. “But I don’t like it.”
“Neither do I,” Sara said as she stepped back. Just before she turned away, she frowned and asked, “Is it possible that they’re stalling?”
“If they are, I worry what they’ll bring up against us next,” Ezekiel said.
“I’m waiting,” the Kade leader prompted.
Sara let the menace in his voice roll off her shoulders, as she gave the leader a tense smile. “My friend and I were just discussing your vantage point there.”
“And what did you conclude?” the Kade leader said with lazy inflection in his voice.
“That you’re stalling,” Sara said while raising her weapon.
He crossed his arms. “And if I am?”
“I’d ask you what you are waiting for,” she replied coldly.
“And I’d tell you nothing at all,” the man replied with a smirk. “Except for you and your people to face us like warriors instead of sniveling cowards.”
There were loud yells from behind her when the rest of the group, mercenaries and soldiers alike, heard what he said.
“Don’t you move,” Sara snapped
to the people gathered behind her, as she tried to figure out just what it was that the Kades were playing at, and where in the darned world the rest of her own people were.
As she waited, she hoped those standing behind and to her sides continued to listen.
She wasn’t their official commander. In fact, Sara was quite sure that six of them, Karn included, technically outranked her in the Mercenary’s Guild. But she had earned their respect while fighting before, a respect that couldn’t be given with just a leadership title. So she waited as they held back and she faced the leader of this Kade invasion force head-on.
Deciding to try one last time, Sara asked, “What do you want?”
She suspected that she knew what they were here for, but it couldn’t hurt to be completely certain. Skirmishes had been started over lesser mistakes, after all.
“For you to step aside,” he replied nonchalantly.
Her mouth twitched as Karn stepped up beside her, but she didn’t try to wave him back. She had the feeling he’d had enough of listening to her anyway.
“Yeah, that’s not going to happen,” Karn said.
The Kade leader didn’t flinch. Instead, he gave a hollow laugh. “In case you didn’t know, I have the upper hand, prisoners, and I’ll get through you whether you like it or not.”
Sara felt like there was something off about his speech. He sounded almost uninterested, but she couldn’t really point precisely to what gave her that feeling.
She asked, “What if we told you to just bend over now? We’re going to kill you all anyway.”
He laughed. “Your little mage might have been able to give you a few minutes of reprieve, but that won’t last forever, girl.”
“More than little,” Sara said defiantly. “He killed off more than half your force.”
“Half that was easily replenished through the portal. Now what do you say—will you give in?”
Sara noticed his side was entirely human and maybe that was for a reason. Maybe the portal couldn’t be opened any wider or strengthened enough to let non-humans through.
Then Sara shook her head in mock sadness. “Sorry, I can’t do that,” she replied while shifting her feet and planting her stance, making it clear he’d have to go through her before he got to anywhere else in this camp.
The man clicked his tongue and said, “Now, mercenary—you don’t want to get squashed, do you?”
Sara narrowed her eyes at the sarcasm in his tone, but didn’t rise to the bait. “You could try,” she said with a fierce grin.
He shook his head, and then apparently playtime was over, because he waved his hand and his guard surged forward. She didn’t hesitate, as her ragtag group of remaining soldier compatriots rose to meet him. This wasn’t precisely how she had imagined this night going, but she wasn’t going to say no to a series of good fights, either. She was a battle mage, after all—it was in her blood.
Hearing the beat of her heart turn from one of calm contemplation to one of rage was a satisfying feeling. Trying to think through his potential line of reasoning was giving her a headache anyway. Deciding that it was going to be over after this or they’d die trying, she turned quickly and gestured for the others. They had no choice. She had no choice. They waded in.
If it was as if something had unlocked in her chest…and it was as familiar as taking up a blade. Being at war was something she’d grown up her entire life thinking she’d avoid. Sure, she’d been trained to win in any fight. Defeat any maneuver. But a career as a fighter on the front lines? It had never been in any scenario in Sara’s life. Now it was her home. War was home.
She didn’t regret the actions that had brought her here, but as she surged and maneuvered her weapons, two long swords glistening with blood, she had to smile. Because killing the person in front of her was in her blood. Too bad for him. The lost warrior yelled at her fiercely and surged forward, giving neither of them time to think. Even if it had, they were just puppets in an empire’s greater war, there was nothing to think about.
So she let instinct take over.
As Sara surged forward to fight opponent after opponent in what she considered her last stand, perhaps heroic and perhaps foolish, she knew that her visage was fearsome. She might have even said she was terrifying. She didn’t feel terrifying, though. She felt invigorated as she looked for the best and strongest opponent to take on. She could have gone after the Kade invasion leader, but he had disappeared long ago, lurking behind the soldiers who kept coming from the portal in ones and twos as Sara’s small force took them on.
Grimacing at his tactical preference to lead from behind, she heard a disturbing roar, one that had her slicing an opponent’s head clean off in a hasty move and then peering up into the sky for more trouble.
Fortunately, she found none, except for the quick flash of scaly skin that appeared by moonlight and went east just as quickly. She wanted to call what she had seen a dragon, but she had no proof. It was too far up and cloaked too well by the golden dome for her to get more than a glimpse, and besides—why wouldn’t the dragon have used its magic to phase through the dome, land, and joined the fight of its only comrades instead of heading off into the distance?
She couldn’t explain what she’d seen, but she didn’t have much more time to ponder it as two skilled female fighters came at her from each side, and Sara was immediately busy defending her back and front, the ringing of metal in the air. Twisting and turning as these two women, partners, were relentless in their attacks, Sara looked for an opening in their united front, and found one. She thought so, anyway.
Diving forward, Sara landed a fierce kick in the pelvis of one of the women and quickly flipped herself up with the help of her blade to confront the other. The woman was already swinging a sword at her neck. Sara ducked with centimeters to spare and then spotted the thing she’d seen as a weakness.
Lunging forward with a growl, she raced past her opponent, but took something with her as she went.
The female’s braid.
Yanking hard, Sara had the warrior off her feet and disabled before the woman even realized what Sara was doing. That was more than enough time to bring her sword around and slice it through her neck, not unlike what the woman’s partner had tried to do to Sara, but this one with definitely a more satisfying end.
As she fought the other female fighter and then even more, she fell into a rhythm. A rhythm that just…was. She didn’t think about her opponents’ motivations, she didn’t think about her leadership’s betrayal, and she didn’t think about the comrades she’d already seen die tonight. She only focused on the strength in her hands, the whirl of her blades, and the determination in her mind to live through the night.
As that rhythm overtook everything she was, she didn’t want the feeling to end. She hadn’t felt this—happy wasn’t the word; maybe satisfied was—in a long time. Ever since she’d left the city of Sandrin, fleeing her mother’s death and her father’s treasonous betrayal, in fact. She’d been running from assignment to assignment since she’d made her way to the fields of war. First, she’d actually survived an attack that was meant to kill them all. Through dumb luck and skill—she may be humble, but she wasn’t delusional; nothing else would have gotten them out of that poisonous rain of arrows otherwise—had she survived her first melee with the Kades.
Then, instead of riding the high of her first true experience with war, she had crumbled into anger and rage and self-pity. Learning that your captains were the traitors you thought didn’t really do much for one’s mental well-being, after all. But now she had accepted it, even reveled in it, as she fought hand to hand as if she’d been born to do it. And maybe she had. She only surfaced from her deep well of darkness when a wave of fire, dragon fire, cascaded down over all their heads and the roar of the beasts sounded not far off. As Sara looked up in shock she realized that they were in fact mere feet away. Which wasn’t good. In fact, it should have been impossible. Because it was inside the dome.
“I thou
ght all those freaking cows had been killed,” yelled Karn as they took in the positions of the dragons in the sky, hovering ominously in a circle.
“Me too,” Sara yelled back. She knew some had flown off…but these were different, looked different.
“You’ve never seen a real dragon before, have you?” called out one of the soldiers fighting with them.
“No,” shouted Sara over the roar of the beasts—there was no time for anything else.
“These are the Kades’ beasts. They’re not real ones,” he said. “They just look like ’em.”
“Then how in the seven gods are you supposed to tell a real one and Kade one apart?” Karn snapped while driving his axe into someone else’s skull.
“The real ones don’t wear chains!” the man managed to yell back before a Kade dragon snapped its jaws closed on him and swallowed him whole.
All Sara heard was a scream before she ordered archers to keep their bows aimed up and for the remaining fighters to cover them in a tight formation. They had barely managed to get close enough to do so before she heard Ezekiel yell from off to the side, “We’re surrounded!”
“What else is new?” Karn said as he lunged forward and used his axe to decapitate a woman warrior who’d come at him with sword raised and a fierce expression on her face. Karn took care of her cleanly before he engaged with her battle buddy. This one was not so clean. The man had moves. He was lithe and he was quick. It didn’t matter, Sara knew, as she studied Karn’s moves.
The man with the mahogany skin like her own—but that was where their physical similarities ended—moved like lightning. After watching him throughout this long night, Sara would have guessed a hunting cat was in his genes if he wasn’t completely and utterly human. She saw him dance with each and every one of his opponents—a deadly dance that they didn’t know the tune to. Like a cat, he played with them briefly and then ended their lives, often before they were aware the game had ended.
If they hadn’t been surrounded on all sides again, she would have been amused.
