by Terah Edun
Still, she ordered the group to fight toward the rock formation where they had started—at least as much as they could. The Kade forces were clearly aware of where they were going, and eager to cut them off from the rock’s embrace. Meanwhile, one of the imperial soldiers who had joined their forces had shown a minimal mastery of mage shielding and was busy trying to keep them sheltered under his protection from the dragon fire raining down sporadically on any place that was open from above.
With a frustrated sigh, Sara Fairchild knew that the night had barely begun.
All she could do was fight long enough to survive through it.
5
As they pushed back again and again, killing all those who stood in their path, they finally made it to the rock formation, and the mage with them slowly maneuvered his gift so they were completely enveloped by the shielding in the front as well, preventing the Kade invasion force from reaching them.
Breathing heavily, Sara raced over to his side and gave him an admiring pat on the shoulder. “How long can you hold this?”
He looked over his shoulder at her, swallowed, and answered with a calm fortitude Sara wished she shared, “A few minutes, no more. It’s a strain to do it this much. But I figured we could call for reinforcements as we regroup.”
“Good work. Keep it up as long as you can and give a shout when you’re about to let go.”
Sara gave him an approving smile and then stepped back and turned away before she let the smile drop from her face. She hadn’t the heart to tell him that no reinforcements were coming. They would have been here long ago if they were coming at all. Especially if they had had any hopes of bringing down the shield. She knew this but she doubted the others did, which made her sad. But she knew she couldn’t tell them what she suspected was the truth, not because they would hate the leadership which had abandoned them again as much or more than she did, but because it was the simple truth that they were a more effective fighting force the longer they held out the hope that they weren’t the only ones out there. That someone else cared. That some other group was trying to save them even as they fought to save themselves and even if they won while doing so.
There was just something about knowing that others were thinking of you. That someone else cared enough to fight for you and as Sara looked at her weary group she knew that they had to feel the same. As she stared at those wet-behind-the-ears soldiers and mercenaries who had ended up joining them, the ones who had decided it was worth it to fight for against the Kades because it was their duty, she knew it was her duty to fight for them not for anyone else. Some of them gave her proud, hopeful smiles. Trying not to dash those hopes, she crossed her arms and looked outward impassively, looking for a way around the slaughter she saw coming for them.
Any way would do.
Taking a deep breath, she surveyed the field dispassionately from within the protective shield. The Kades restlessly paced outside, like hunters in the water unable to get to their prey.
The dragons had veered off somewhere. She had no idea where, though.
The Kade leader, in particular, looked disgruntled and furious as he pushed through the ranks of his soldiers and came to the front now that all the fighting was done. She was certain he would have kicked the shielding if he thought it would do any good.
The shielding was going to come down within minutes. But he didn’t know that.
All he knew was that they were still blocking his way after all this.
She got a little joy out of that. The little band of warriors had done what many regiments would have been unable to do—halt the Kades in their tracks.
Then a lower-ranking Kade guard came forward and whispered in his leader’s ear. Why? She didn’t know. It wasn’t like they could hear what was being said, but the closeness ensured she couldn’t read his lips either.
When the lackey stood back, Sara didn’t like the smile that blossomed on the leader’s face.
Not at all.
He waved a commanding hand and summoned someone forward.
In came two guards, holding a squirming, screaming figure between them.
In shock, Sara recognized the female mercenary who had managed to prove herself as more than just a servant earlier.
“What was her name?” she murmured, half to herself. But it didn’t matter; Sara knew her, and as the Kade leader saw the recognition clear on her face, the bastard smiled. He actually had the nerve to smile at her.
“Which is it going to be, mercenary?” the Kade leader said with sanguine smoothness. “The poor, helpless servant…or an ideal to stand there against all odds?”
“I doubt she’s helpless,” Sara snarled.
But he didn’t flinch, because he knew he had her just where he wanted her, and she hated that.
Sara cursed internally. How had they gotten Isabelle away from the group? She’d been fighting strong with them all up until now.
“He must have ambushed her,” Karn said in her ear.
“Somehow,” she muttered. Then she growled at the Kade, “Why do you care so much about where I stand?”
He laughed and shrugged. “Just curious to see which you’re more willing to throw your life away on. Because either I will cut you down after I’ve killed your friend here…or I’ll still cut you down—but you may or may not save her first. Your choice.”
Sara was paralyzed with indecision. It was her instinct to save Isabelle. It was her duty to hold the line…for as long as she could.
Then one of the girl’s captors quickly and dispassionately stabbed her in the thigh.
The Kade leader raised a mocking eyebrow at Sara’s cry. “Make your choice, mercenary—this young one doesn’t have long left.”
Isabelle called out again—more of an angry string of curses than cries of fear—but Sara knew that she had to answer. Heart beating fast, Sara dove out of the protection of the shield without thinking. Then she was out in the open, without the mage’s shield or the large rock formation to guard her back.
Sara swung her sword, knowing she was going to die anyway.
But the gods had other plans for them all.
Isabelle grabbed the tunics of the two Kade first guards holding her and then flipped them down with a brute strength Sara didn’t know the girl had. Wasting no time, Sara flipped over the bodies of the two guards and landed just to the side of the Kade invasion leader.
Kicking, she swept his feet out from under him and he fell straight into her arms. Without hesitation, Sara grabbed him tightly, dropped her sword, and pulled her knife up against his throat while baring her teeth at the guards surrounding them who had rushed to his aid. They didn’t dare touch her, which was just what she wanted.
“Tell them to back off,” Sara growled into his ear.
With a jerk on her hold that had her forcing the knife into his flesh, he refused.
She slowly inched the knife closer, letting his blood flow freely but not trying to open his throat. Not yet.
He got the message.
“Back off,” he said in a voice laced with fury.
Sara glanced over to her side to see, to her relief, that Isabelle had managed to kick the soldiers off her and had backed her way to the safety of Sara’s group.
Now Sara had to do the same, with a Kade invasion leader as her prisoner to boot. Eyeing the soldiers around them who were eyeballing her just as desperately, Sara prepared the gamble of her life. They’d be at a stalemate for only so long, but this time, she had the upper hand, and damn did it feel good.
After tightening the press of her knife against the leader’s throat, Sara dug her elbow into his chest and used her other hand to get a steady hand on the ground, ready to push up. She didn’t wait as the seconds passed, forcing the Kade leader to roll to his side, giving her legs the freedom she needed to stand up while keeping her leverage—the knife tautly held at his throat.
Once her legs were free, she eased them both up. “Stand up. Now.”
He didn’t disobey h
er—he’d already gotten a taste of her vengeance. Angering her a second time wouldn’t do either of them a bit of good.
Once they were both standing, his back plastered to her front, she slowly backed them away, following Isabelle’s path to safety as she did.
Sara couldn’t help but smirk at the tense looks on the Kade guard faces, but there was nothing they could do. She held all the cards in her hands—she held their leader at her mercy—which was just how Sara wanted it. And just in time too. Their shield mage dropped his creation with a weary groan as she approached.
When she’d gotten close enough for Marx to hurriedly help her restrain the Kade leader, she turned and looked at the tense and waiting invasion force with a resigned look on her face.
She had no idea what to do now. They were fortunate to have taken such a powerful prisoner, and even luckier that they had gotten Isabelle in the process. But this seemed to be where their luck ran out—that was, unless Sara made some.
Normally Sara had no reluctance about doing what needed to be done. But this would go against everything she’d been taught as a young warrior. It meant releasing her inhibitions in order to sacrifice her own well-being, potentially her life, even, for the greater good. It meant letting go and potentially facing the stuff of nightmares, but right now they didn’t have much choice. Sara had to admit that they were stuck between a rock and a hard place, without much of a way out.
She had already catalogued the perfectly apparent skills of her team, and was amazed that they had managed to hold out for so long against overwhelming odds, especially because, as a battle mage, she was the only warrior here with magical skills that could even partially be termed as offensive.
Reben’s magical abilities lay more in the scouting and disappearing variety. Sara had found out that another was a desert dweller who could divine water sources, while Isabelle remained a bit of a mystery—though she was clearly gifted. As for the others…if they had any skills, they’d yet to share. Which was a fair decision—they were at war, and the mage who casually went about sharing his skills was the kind you found dead on the field not too long afterward. Sharing what you could do was as good as sharing your weaknesses, the attacks that could make you vulnerable, and the powers which would best work against you.
But Sara didn’t fear revealing what she could do. She feared what her gifts could do to her. Being a battle mage wasn’t for the faint of heart, simply because it was a skill with the ultimate vulnerability—herself. And this was why she was dithering even though she knew that she didn’t have much time left. It wasn’t an easy decision to give yourself up to everything you had long held back. Triggering the full power of the battle mage gift wasn’t something you could reverse; it was permanent, and, in all cases that she had heard of, deadly. Though not for the reason one might think.
Every piece of lore out there was very specific: a battle mage that called upon all of their skills and gifts was invulnerable. They were ultimate warriors who could not be overtaken in battle…but everything came with a price. Every battle mage who had been to the field of battle could attest to this. And if there was one person who refused to become another berserker in those legends…it was Sara Fairchild.
That was, until this moment. Just as she wavered and tried to find any other way out of this tense standoff, the Kade leader took that decision from them all. Sara heard Marx call out in anger as the man bit him, and that apparently was the signal for his forces to overwhelm hers. Too bad at that moment they were facing a battle mage at her wits’ end.
Tired, desperate, and despairing, Sara called on the only thing she had left. It was also the only thing she had been holding back—the full extent of her gift.
She let her reservations go and dove down. It didn’t take much coaxing for her battle mage gift to come roaring to the surface. To be honest, she’d been teetering on the edge of the maelstrom that was battle magic all night, keeping herself from diving off the deep end with the reservation—no, the fear—that once she went, she would never come back.
But now was no time to be reserved.
6
Whether she died in a frenzy or she died in a calm state, she would still be a corpse, by her reckoning.
As the invasion force rushed toward her—after all, she was closer than the rest of the group—it was as if time slowed.
She saw every footfall as the warriors’ boots stomped into a puddle of bloody water, as if they were walking instead of running. She studied their movements. She saw weapons raised—axes, swords, chains, maces, and war hammers. Then she catalogued their gifts. Nothing dissuaded her; it was all just information, preparation, something that would normally have taken days or weeks of proper spy craft, studying enemy and troop movements. But she studied and surveyed them all in seconds. It was as amazing as it was brilliant. She quickly realized how she could use this to her advantage and how it contributed to her predecessors’ legendary prowess on the field of battle. If you could see everyone’s movement slowed down as if they were underwater, while you still moved at a normal pace, well—it would be like spearing fish in a barrel by the road.
Easy.
Nevertheless, Sara Fairchild never went into a situation unprepared if she could help it. So she calmly pushed her awareness farther out, cataloging not only the enemy personnel still running toward her at a snail’s pace, but her own people as well. Half of those remaining were converging on the Kade leader—who, to no one’s surprise, was actually holding his own. She hadn’t expected much different. Yes, he was a tactician. And yes, she had managed to capture him herself, but only due to the element of surprise. Anyone who rose far enough in ranks to lead an invasion force with dragons had to at least be able to hold their own in the field of battle. And he clearly could.
Focusing on the others, though, confirmed her suspicions. While some of the things she found out surprised her.
But none of the abilities revealed caused her concern…yet.
Deciding to deal with her own people later, Sara stretched her arms, palmed a sword hilt in each hand, and got to work.
As she raced into battle, it was with the surety that she would win. If slitting the throats of the seven Kade first guards earlier, when the brave but hobbled mage had mesmerized the entire field to help them win the first skirmish, had been easy, this was child’s play.
Because it meant she actually got to see what it meant to be a battle mage…and if she was honest with herself, she would say it felt damned good.
Sara felt power pump through her veins like liquid energy. She found reserves of strength in her muscles and swiftness in her feet that she hadn’t even known were possible.
Her enemies were racing toward her on the fleetest of feet. But she was on another level entirely—like a demigod among mortals, she raced between the Kade first guard, disarming and gutting them before flashing onto the next. Often before some were even aware that she was there. For those who did see her and not some ghostly image that was bringing avenging death down upon them all—well, the best they could do was bravely raise a sword and die with honor.
Her blades were too strong to push back.
Her moves too fast to parry.
They couldn’t keep up with her, they couldn’t outfight her, and they certainly couldn’t survive after she had set her sights on them. Sara went through eighteen combatants before she even thought to slow down. Not because she was waning, but because a new enemy had presented itself—one which she actually had to think about before pursuing.
One of the dragons. With her awareness peaked she realized it was also the only one left alive in the dome after its kind re-appeared. Even better.
But her mind was as fast as her arms, and she had the solution before the creature could even spit out a convincing flame.
She threw a sword straight down its throat. The steel was moving too fast for the fire to melt it, and it passed directly into its heart. She knew because the dragon coughed up blood so dark that it could hav
e only come from its mighty heart just before it died.
As she turned from this foe to find another, she found, to her surprise, that they had given up. The remaining Kade first guard that she hadn’t slaughtered—four in all—were cowering at the feet of her group. They were on their knees with quivering hands held high above their heads—their leader among them.
As she strode toward them with determination and her remaining sword ready in her hand, one broke rank and pleaded for his and his compatriots’ lives.
“Please, lady warrior, we surrender! Mercy!” he said.
Sara said nothing, just continued walking forward, like death coming.
“You know even if you kill us, you’ll never get out of here alive,” said their leader.
“What was that?” Marx snarled as he jerked back a soldier’s head, exposing his throat.
“That dome will never come down,” said the leader. “And I’ll not say another word without reassurance.”
As Sara kept coming, he kept calm despite Marx’s clear threats. Two of the soldiers even started crying, but the Kade leader remained stone-faced. He didn’t contradict what his subordinate had said, but neither would he beg for his life; she saw that right away.
Sara actually approved, in a strange way, but that didn’t change what she had to do. She felt it in her bones, and like a person being controlled through her psyche, she felt the darkness that had been with her since she dropped in the well command her to finish her task—kill them all, leave no prisoners behind.
So she raised her sword to do just that, ignoring the tiny voices around her. It almost sounded like they were outside her head, those little voices. Then she was physically swatting away bodies that got in her way and realized the voices belonged to them. Her compatriots. The useless people she’d had to protect for so long. Well, that was over now—she was going to finish what she started.
She tried to tell them that, but even then, they protested. It was as if they couldn’t understand her and her mission, that it was the darkness that commanded she smite the cowering men before her. That she must obey.
