A-Viking (Betrayed by Faith Book 3)

by Paul C. Middleton

  Wilderness, State of Amapa, Brazil, March 27, 2014.

  Nin had lucked out when she'd initially traveled to Brazil. The local cell leader in Rio de Janeiro had been a pilot and had taken them to a wilderness point on a path that was relatively convenient to the planned assault launch point. This meant when they walked the astral to organize this next assault, they were already within ten kilometers of where they planned to attack.

  Griffin was also impressed by the remarkable professionalism of the Brazilian group, compared to the European Sisterhood members, and their allies. He didn't have time to reason out the why, though. The ideal strategy was a nearly simultaneous strike on two or, preferably, more Order bases nearly half a world away. This meant that he had to move these cells out quickly. He was less concerned about their skill levels, as many of the people they'd be facing would be trainees themselves. Unless the Order had changed their training schedules, the Sisterhood would strike early in the training cycle.

  The force was organized along similar lines to how he'd organized the European force when he reformed them. It was smaller, but every member seemed to be comfortable with the jungle and moved quietly through the brush. When he spoke to the leader, he found out why they were so interested in taking this base.

  "The Order has already attacked our people. We knew they were taking them somewhere in this state, and we suspect they're torturing them for the locations of others," said Isabella, the local Sisterhood leader. "They have also been attacking the Hathori and a couple of the other minor Conclaves. About half this force comes from them. We have better contacts between each other down here, as there are fewer of us. We are bound together for mutual support."

  Griffin thought on this, considering why there might be fewer Godsborn in South America. Then it came to him. The Spanish Inquisition had been brutal, often targeting innocents, but just as often it had targeted Godsborn or mages. In no other region outside of Spain and its colonies had they been targeted so ruthlessly by the government as well as religious forces.

  As evening fell, the group moved out, slogging towards their next camp through the jungle. It was nearly impossible to move absolutely silently in jungles, but this was counteracted to some extent the fact that there was always noise in the jungle. It did not concern Griffin, although Joy and Grey both seemed worried by the noise that was being made.

  His biggest concern was that they would take casualties in greater proportions than he had in the Tarpa Mountains. That assault had ended with five dead, thirty wounded on his side, and forty captured. All the captured were injured at least lightly, many with burns. But if they took too many casualties here, it would be far more difficult to extract them. Nin had told him to stop worrying, that if the worst came to it, she could transport them to the starting point herself. He still couldn’t stop worrying, though. He hated having a plan with a single weak link that could cause disaster.

  He hated more that Nin was the single break point in all his plans for so many reasons. She was their greatest single potential source of information on the mysterious ‘Travelers’. She was by far the most powerful and skilled around when it came to drawing on the planes. Finally, he was feeling something for both her and Brianna. He didn’t want to think about it, really. When it came to Brianna, even if she was thirty like she claimed, she looked eighteen, and he felt disgusted by his attraction to her.

  With Nin, it was far more complicated. He still placed some blame for this entire mess at her feet. She was one of those who had pretended to be a Goddess when she knew she was not. She had walked away when she realized the damage it was causing, though, so he had to admit that she wasn’t as bad as her brothers sounded. She was now pushing herself as much as he pushed himself for redemption from past acts.

  She had kept changing, physically, since he had met her. It was as if her body was trying to make her his perfect type from that perspective at least. He found himself immensely conflicted about that. When he asked her how she felt about it, she had a complete unconcern about it. More disturbing was that none of the others could even see the changes. Even Brianna, whom Nin was spending more and more time with, didn’t seem to notice. By now Griffin could not deny his physical attraction to Nin. Her dark olive skin and dark red hair, combined with the mix of Persian and Celtic features her face now how held, was beyond beautiful to him. He needed more time with her to know what he really felt. Time in which she wasn’t constantly… changing.

  Yet the youth and energy Brianna displayed were as attractive to him in a different way. She reminded him of his rebellious and ideological youth. Made him feel better connected to a time when he didn’t have the weights and responsibilities that now fell on his shoulders. She made him feel young again and was exquisite in her own right.

  For him, his past mistakes and brutal killings, still dragged at him like he was wading in syrup. For Nin, it seemed not to affect her as a weight or restriction to her goals, but more as a constant whip driving her forward. He wondered if he wasn’t so influenced by his past, would she even be attempting to redeem her mistakes? It worried him.

  It was also a concern more appropriate for another time. He needed to get his head into the game as they got closer to the camp. This could get messy quickly. Because of the possibility of prisoners, Nin, and her group numbered fifty. This included Griffin, Brianna and one of the only two telepath Mages that were willing to join the assault at all.

  Nin spent fifteen minutes explaining to the group that they needed to remain calm as they walked through the camp surrounding the stone fortress. They needed to act as if they belonged. The Order believed its trainees should experience the harshest possible conditions at each training site. They would be camped in tents, without the comfort of a permanent building. Only the trainers and support personnel occupied the fortress. As a training camp, however, the gate was almost always left open, as the mess hall and medical facilities were within the walls.

  ***************************************************************

  Griffin cursed silently when they came within sight of the camp. The 'trainees' were aggressively patrolling the area in a professional manner. Pulling back, he conferred with the leaders of the group. Nin was supremely confident she could still cover the group of fifty that would penetrate the fortress. It was far smaller than the Tarpa fortress, and with all the other facilities inside, it could not comfortably house more than a hundred people. Some of those undoubtedly would have average combat skills, their primary purpose being medical or support.

  The biggest problem they'd have would be locating the prisoners. This is where Brianna surprised him. "I can find them," she said with a grim set on her face. "Some of them will probably be asleep, and in these circumstances, having nightmares. I know I did with my Father and David planning my life. Even if they aren't, I'll be able to feel their fear." The pain in her eyes was evident. It was obviously an ability she did not like using.

  The patrols forced him to spread out the assault force into groups of twenty, large enough to quickly overwhelm any two patrols they had seen, but small enough to hide. Each of these groups would have two snipers and a spotter. They took the extra risk - although Nin insisted it was not an additional risk - of the rescue force heading in as dusk hit.

  It was incredibly eerie to be traveling through the camp, amongst these trainees, and not been noticed by a single one of them. They avoided the space that the fifty in the rescue force took up. Griffin did his best to exude an aura of calm confidence. This relaxed the majority of the group who had not experienced Nin's talents before.

  They reached the fortress gate without incident, and although there was a group of trainees both in front of and behind their formation, there was no alarm sounded. They shifted their direction to a quieter area of the fortress once they were inside. It took Brianna several minutes, but she focused her abilities and identified the location of the prisoners.

  It was a building, probably formerly a dormitory of some sort, a
t the back of the fortress. The windows on it were tiny, with no way anyone older than ten could squeeze through. Perhaps it had always been designed as a prison. Griffin wasn’t sure, having never visited this base.

  Things would move quickly once they took out the four guards at the other building. Nin wasn't sure she could hold up the mind-fogging once there were dead bodies on the ground. With no choice except to kill them to get through that door, they had to take that risk. Griffin was not looking for any captures from those guarding the prisoners. He was ambivalent about taking prisoners from the rest of the fortress. Considering how active they were patrolling around the base, he was unwilling to endanger more of his people in taking captives.

  He moved towards the front of their formation as they calmly approach the guards. Quickly drawing his sword and slashing it across the throat of one guard, a half-dozen of those following him copied his example. All four guards were down in moments. No alarm sounded when Griffin kicked in the door.

  The group split into teams of four. Each rushed down a different passageway as the central corridor split, or through a door as Griffin's point team hustled forward past them. At the end of the hall was a set of stairs. There were now maybe three or four teams behind him, but he couldn't stop. The prisoners were most likely on the last level, and though sounds of combat could be heard behind them, the prisoners’ rescue was the primary goal.

  Griffin barreled into the door with his shoulder leading. His sense of urgency had him unconsciously drawing on the Etheric, giving his charge a bow-wave effect that ripped the door into pieces when he hit it. The door must have had some form of sound proofing as once it was gone Griffin heard screams from the lower level. This drove him to move faster, and he took the circular staircase going down two steps at a time while making sure of his grip on his weapons.

  What he saw once he reached the bottom of the staircase shocked him. The screams must have masked the sound of the door shattering as two prisoners were being tortured by three individuals. Two women and a man were abusing what looked to be a young woman and a ten-year-old boy. One torturer was pulling back a blowtorch after burning the woman’s hands, and a second was jolting the child with a cattle-prod. The third seemed to rant something at the unfortunate pair, but none of Griffin’s team could hear what over the victim’s screams.

  Griffin threw his axe as he saw the woman raise the cattle-prod to hit the sobbing, exhausted child yet again. It hit the woman with a solid thunk in the middle of her back, severing her spine. Fortunately for Griffin, the other eleven people still with him had already been spreading out. There were fifteen guards down here, including the three actively torturing these two victims of the Order’s newfound fanaticism and brutality.

  The woman’s legs collapsed under her as the axe severed her spinal cord. The other female torturer shrieked and jerked as the cattle prod grazed her, spasmodically dropping the blowtorch. All the guards in the room were struck by a momentary paralysis from the surprise attack. Griffin charged the two remaining torturers. As the last torturer standing scrabbled at his pistol belt, Griffin reached within range of his sword. Swinging it with brutal efficiency, he cut off the man's hand.

  The man dropped to the floor clutching at his wrist, screaming in pain and shock. The brutal sounds as Griffin’s team slaughtered the guards only added to the screams of the three torturers. Moving quickly Griffin stabbed the still twitching woman who had been struck by cattle prod through her left breast, killing her instantly. What they'd been doing sickened him. At least Xandrie had restricted her torture to men. That these animals were willing to abuse even children was beyond the pale and filled him with rage. He stepped across to where his axe was wedged in the other torturer’s back, and after stabbing her through the heart, removed it from its bloody sheath.

  Looking around the room, Griffin shouted to those who had followed him, "Free the prisoners, find them weapons, defend the building!" The rage flowing off him was palpable, like a force chilling the surrounding air. He was still drawing power from the planes but didn't seem to realize it. The marks on his wrist were glowing brightly, and Brianna was close enough, that she finally could see what they were. On one wrist he had an owl, on the other crossed spears behind a helmet.

  Brianna drew in a sharp breath. Those were the symbols of Athena. Griffin had a dual heritage, one that crossed the major Conclaves. Brianna glanced at Nin who merely shrugged.

  Meanwhile, Griffin moved implacably towards the stairs. His rage at what these motherfucking sadistic shits had been doing to their prisoners consumed him. People from the assault group swiftly moved out of his way as he moved towards the stairs, then up and back through the doorway into the prison complex. He was acting like a man possessed. Once he entered the courtyard and saw its inhabitants moving to storm that entrance, his rage, and powers flowed out of him.

  There might have been as many as a hundred lay brothers of the Order with less than a handful of Paladins amongst them. The energy he had been drawing in rushed out of him as a physical wave of the icy rage he had been holding within himself since he had seen the torturing going on. It affected the Earth as well, causing sections of it to turn to quicksand. At least thirty of these so-called soldiers of God were swallowed by the earth. The tsunami winds of cold whipped out from him, wrapping like a vengeful lover around the rest, carrying with it his rage at their acceptance of the torture. The remaining lay brothers became frozen statues in ice colder than the Antarctic.

  There were three individuals still moving amongst the destruction he had wrought. One of them cowered behind his shield, which had taken a beating from the cold, and probably could not stand up to a single blow without shattering.

  Of the two others, there was only one whom Griffin recognized, an older, battle worn and wise woman called Alona. She was known for her fanaticism to the Order, and Griffin could see the same fire in the man's eyes. There was no option in trying to talk them down. If he'd had a chance with Malcolm and failed to convince him, these two definitely fell within the third of the Order’s Paladins that would never be satisfied.

  Griffin stood there and weighed his options. While he stood there, the third Paladin recovered his nerve. Discarding his shield and drawing a knife, the man took a position between the other two Paladins. He glanced back and forth nervously between Griffin and his companions.

  Griffin glared at Alona and growled, "I would never have thought you could stoop to torturing children or allowing such torture. You have shown yourself unworthy, as have the Order's servants here. No mercy, no quarter." He saw the two male Paladins swallow heavily as he said that, but Alona merely sneered.

  "You never had the stomach to do the Order’s true work Griffin. These Demonspawn needed to be hunted out, with their Witch familiars. You've fallen further than I ever expected you could. You were never a coward, though. I'll give you that." The last was said with a modicum of respect.

  As she finished speaking all three of them charged Griffin, but in his rage, it was as if they were moving through syrup. With an icy clarity, he saw the opening and charged between the two men. His sword stabbed the shield arm of the one on his left, his ax going to the hip of the one on his right. The one on his left blocked, but the one on his right grunted as his axe strike crunched into the armor on his hip.

  Breaking through the gap that his successful axe attack caused, Griffin spun around stabbing at that man's neck with the sword and readied his axe to defend himself against any counter blows. Almost as if he'd been expecting it, he released the short sword stuck in the dead Paladin’s neck just in time to avoid having his hand severed by Alona's counter-attack. Ducking below a swing from the remaining male Paladin, Griffin grabbed a handful of earth from the ground with his free hand. Turning slightly he swung his axe at Alona's chest, only to find it blocked by her shield. He threw the loose earth at the standing Paladin's face and rolled, picking up the dead man's blade and coming lightly to his feet.

  His speed, and how
quickly he had abandoned his weapon when he'd sensed Alona's attack made them cautious. They kept trying to divide his attention by splitting to the left and right. Deceptively, Griffin moved towards Alona while actually looking for a break in her compatriot’s concentration. Always take out the weakest member first if possible was Griffin’s philosophy when fighting multiple opponents. It was how he’d survived so long.

  His opportunity came as Brianna burst through the door. The distraction of the door slamming open was complete. The man turned, and Griffin was on him in an instant, the sword cleaving into his heart from the side. He blinked as Nin breezed past him and turned as he heard a grunt from behind. He hadn’t even seen Nin exit the building.

  There was a grunt from Alona, and her sword arched through the air and clattered on the ground. The crack of splintering wood and a grunt of pain split the air as Nin placed a precise blow to the center of Alona’s shield. Both Griffin and Brianna were floored by the speed and skill which Nin displayed. Quickly Nin had Alona disarmed and on the defensive, driving her back. In a flurry of blows, Nin finally slipped a strike through to Alona's throat.

  The female Paladin collapsed to her knees, and her mouth opened like a fish’s while she was trying to draw in air. Her eyes glazed over, and she collapsed to the side, dead. Nin whirled on Griffin and said, “Be more careful and watch your back, you fool!” She yelled at him, tears in her eyes.

  When Griffin saw how close Alona had gotten he blanched. Then his eyes saw the violence he’d committed without thinking, and his eyes went dead. His face went pale, and he yelled at her “Maybe it would have been better if she had! If I can do that when I get angry, what sort of monster am I?” Brianna glanced at the others around them with a look that said to get busy doing something else. Everyone but Joy moved to the walls, picking up the guns of the fallen as they went. All the prisoners that were able also armed themselves and ran for the walls or to join the small teams that moved to the gates.