by Chris Howard
Kassandra turned and held her eyes for a moment, deeper, crawling inside her to hold her soul, tempted to curl up and remain there, then blinked and tore herself away. “To death, Nic. Scared to death."
"Then why are you so calm?"
"You know this isn't me on the outside.” She flexed her fingers below the collar of her scale armor. “I am all of us. King Eupheron is looking at you at this moment through my eyes. I have let Andromache take over some of my thought and movements. There is no me left. There is only the Wreath-wearer."
Nicole looked away and Kassandra followed her gaze over the battlements.
"They're not far. I can feel it. The ocean ... tells me so many things."
Nicole tried to look deeper into the perfect black. “Do you know how many are coming?"
Kassandra nodded. “More than three thousand Seaborn, most of them trained soldiers. I don't know who leads. Some strange weapons. And they're bringing whales, eleven of them, toothed whales that have endured the Telkhines curse, never to surface again."
"Where's Ochleros?"
Kassandra shot her a sharp look mixed with admiration. She's already thinking of the battle. You're the smart one, Nicole. What I would not give for ten of you. “He's running an errand for me."
Nicole started to frown, and then both of them turned at the sound of an enraged scream. A handful of Rexenor guards—Kassandra's bodyguards—drew swords, but at a wave from the Wreath-wearer, slid them home and backed away. Nicole moved closer.
"Jill? What's wrong?” Kassandra finished a cartwheel and gripped the edge of a crenelated wall with her toes.
Zypheria kicked up the north side of the massif followed by Jill cursing her, tears streaming off her face in long tendrils. She tried to get by Zypheria, darting here and there and spiraling to get out of reach. Everywhere she turned Zypheria was there first, kicking, bending fluidly to block Jill's approach, deflecting her fists.
"Let me go!"
Zypheria stiffened, her eyes going wide at some invisible command from Kassandra. She held her hands up, fingers spread, a hands-off gesture, and turned to bow her head.
"Why can't I see you?” Jill kicked past, right up to Kassandra, shouting at her, inches from her face. “Why have you set her to watch over me? What is she, like my babysitter?"
"I told Zypheria...” Kassandra's voice trailed off.
"To protect me? I don't need protection."
"I told Zypheria that if anything happens to you I will kill her."
Jill backed away with a frightened kick, too stunned to answer. She turned to Nicole, her first friend at St. Clement's Education Center, her best friend, and she regained some of her anger. “Why are you here, but I can't be?"
Nicole looked away.
Kassandra lifted her hands in appeal. “Jill, listen to me."
"You listen to me!” Fresh tears blurred the water. She screamed at Kassandra through her sobbing. “Why are you doing this? I thought we were ... sisters. What did I do to you?"
Kassandra reached out but didn't touch her. “Nothing must happen to you."
"What the fuck does that mean?"
Kassandra pulled her hand back. “I should not have brought you, but the house isn't safe."
Jill couldn't speak for a moment, shocked by Kassandra's admission. She cried and her body shuddered, then her fists tightened. “So, you regret bringing me? What have I done to you? You ignore me, you give Nicole a sword and armor—and who knows what else. You take her with you wherever you go. You leave me behind. It hurts me.” She was pleading. “What did I do?"
Kassandra looked shocked, and stuttered a few words. “I didn't mean...” She looked down at her shaking hands and told them to be still. Then she caught all her thoughts up in a net and let them out slowly, one at a time. “Jill, please. I'm not hurting you. Don't let me interfere with your life, because if you do, I will ruin you—and in ruining you, I will ruin myself. You are my tie to the surface. I need you to remain as you are as much as I need Nic to go with me. You are ... I know this sounds weird. I have given you something. You are my happiness, Jill—effortless happiness. You are my sight above the waves. You are the incorruptible part of me. Helios isn't my true sun. It is you. You are the brightness I cannot find in myself. You are my sister. I am bound to you as tight as I am bound to Nic, and I cannot do this without you or her. Please trust me and go with Zypheria and be safe. If anything happens to you, I will not survive."
Jill only heard part of it, her anger boiling over. She pointed at Nicole. “And she stays? With a sword you gave her. In her shiny armor. Did you ruin her life?"
Kassandra tucked her knees up, kicking to stop her forward motion. She rested her toes on the wall's outer edge. A sad expression appeared on her face for an instant, and then smoothed off her brow and out of her eyes.
"More than you will ever know."
Nicole turned to her, frightened and in pain, clutching her stomach. Kassandra felt it too, and kicked a foot off the edge of the parapet. There was a thumping deep inside her followed by a wobbly rumble in her gut as if everything between her rib cage and pelvis had turned to jelly.
She looked from Jill's stricken features to Nicole's. “You felt that?"
Both sisters nodded.
Well, well. Eupheron's sarcastic tone cut through her thoughts, cold and unkind. The old bastard never told anyone. It appears that King Tharsaleos has two bleeds.
Kassandra's gaze wandered off into the black space above. “How do you know?"
Because you now have five.
* * * *
Kassandra rode through the front gates on a large orca to meet the king's ambassador and his entourage. The Rexenor standard-bearer rode on her left, Lord Gregor—the first time she'd seen him in armor—on her right. Nicole stood crouched in the archer's stirrups behind the dorsal fin of her orca. A hundred more riders formed a wall that circled her; Menophon's son, Nereus, was among them.
She looked over at Gregor, reached out a hand. “I'm glad you're with me, Dad."
He stared at her a moment, then took her hand, squeezed it, and bowed his head. “We are all glad you are here.” His lip twitched and he closed his eyes a moment. “You have my bleed, my father's bleed, his mother's bleed, her mother's bleed, her father's bleed—Kassander's bleed. Very pure. Very strong. You are the Wreath-wearer. I know you will do the right thing."
She bowed her head and let go of his hand, wishing she could cry tears. She bit down hard, gripping the reins, and swung in the saddle to take in her escort, Nicole ready with her crossbow, her standard bearer.
Sharp black birds followed the bearer's spear like a pennant in the wind, a long line of cormorants, cursed to remain in the sea, and trained to follow the bearer's lead. Kassandra watched them dance and coil, bunching up beak to tail, when the bearer turned or slowed. She had seen other mammals with the curse, but never a bird. It showed how powerfully magical House Rexenor had been in its day. They were capable of modifying the curse to apply to an avian, where it had only ever worked on humans and cetaceans.
A similarly arranged group of Seaborn on orcas waited for them a mile out and a thousand feet above the Rexenor fortress, lighted globes floating in the water around them.
Kassandra reined in and held up her right hand for her party to halt, nodding to the king's ambassador, a bony thin man in a uselessly decorated black helmet and billowing cape.
He scrunched up his nose as if he smelled something foul in the water, clearly an expression he had practiced to show the Rexenors that he found them distasteful.
Kassandra laughed lightly, a girl's giggle, calculated to frighten them. She smiled at the Ambassador's jerk and the effort it took him to ignore her. She pulled her feet from the stirrups and kicked closer, waving Nicole and her guards back. Now it was just a game of who could push the other closer to the edge.
He glanced up at her, uncomfortable, his shoulders tightening. She was too close, but he wasn't going to be the one to back away. He w
aved over one of the glowing bulbs and unrolled a long sheet of parchment, clearing his throat.
"The glorious and mighty King Tharsaleos, Lord Dosianax, Ruler of All the Seaborn, has graciously offered these terms to House Rexenor: All males and females over the age of nineteen will be put to death mercifully, all mages and their apprentices of any age will be put to death.” Kassandra raised an eyebrow at the lack of the word, “mercifully” for the mages. “The noble house, including Kallixene—"
The man stopped abruptly as the tip of Kassandra's sword slid against his throat. He hadn't even seen her draw it, and had no time to react, except to stop the words in his open mouth.
Kassandra unclenched her jaw. “Now, my good ambassador, you will begin again with ‘The noble house’ and you will say Lady Kallixene. Otherwise, you will lose your head.” She gave him a smirk. “As I'm sure you understand, I'm a bit of a stickler for formalities."
The man stared at her, eyes wide with fear. He was afraid to move, so Kassandra gave him a nudge with her sword to help him out.
"Come, ambassador, you do this all the time. This is where you bow to me, say ‘I apologize, Lady Kassandra, for my stupidity and rudeness,’ and then you begin again with the words, the noble house..."
She withdrew her sword and slid it into its scabbard.
The ambassador bowed, swallowing hard with a little growling sound. He tried to give her a fiercely defiant look, but found his soul shriveling inside him when he locked eyes with the woman. He looked down into deeper water. “I apologize, milady, for my..."
"Stupidity and rudeness,” said Kassandra helpfully.
"For my stupidity and rudeness.” He held up the roll of parchment with the king's terms, and continued with it rattling furiously in his hands. “The noble house, including Lady Kallixene, will surrender themselves to the king's mercy for fair judgment under his law."
Kassandra waited patiently for more, glanced over her shoulder at her father, gave the ambassador a slight frown, and looked off into the black space above them as if thinking it over.
She tapped her chin. “Uh ... no. I don't think those terms are acceptable.” She dropped her cold glare to the ambassador, and jabbed a finger at him. “In fact, you tell Tharsaleos that he can bugger himself with his own spear for wasting my time."
The ambassador kicked back, furious, his teeth making snapping motions. At a signal from him, his crossbow guard raised their weapons and fired at her.
She felt the casting of several spells behind her, waves of them washing over her armor, one from her father.
"Halt!” She cried the word to her own crossbow guards, including Nicole. They were a fraction of a second away from launching a counter attack, but her command also appeared to work on the forty barbed arrows coming at her. They stopped as if time around them stopped. She kicked in a casual circle, plucking them out of the water, and then smacked the bundle of them against her open hand, watching the enemy as if deciding what to do with them.
She looked down into the blackness, sensing something, a tide of thunder that rolled from the abyss, and she kicked out of its way. Something made out of the water itself roared up from the depths, sweeping claws herding men and orcas into a tight tumbling ball. It opened its giant jaws, and sucked the screaming ambassador and fifty orcamen and their mounts into its mouth. Long sharp teeth, giant jagged peaks of ice, closed around them.
"Nice timing, Ochleros."
The demon turned to her, nodding and asking her something. She could tell it was a question by the rise in pitch at the end of a mangled string of growling noises, like gargling with a mouthful of armored soldiers and orcas.
She smiled and shook her head. “No. Do not eat them. Let them go. I can't blame them completely. They were acting on the command of a stupid man. Nothing more.” Something in the way she stressed the past tense of their ineffective action made them stop struggling in Ochleros’ jaws.
She closed her mouth, deciding not to enlighten them on the identity of the “stupid man,” whether she meant the ambassador or Tharsaleos.
Kassandra turned around, swimming to her orca, hooking her feet in the stirrups. “Come. It is nearly time.” She led them straight down into the black, spiraling north where the ocean's floor glowed faintly in the light of the Wreath.
[Back to Table of Contents]
Chapter Thirty-Four
Sea Battle
The Seaborn refer to their ability to live underwater, in extreme cold, at extreme pressures, in total darkness, as the “Telkhines Curse.” Their formative myths posit Zeus Cloud-Gatherer as the one who placed their ancestors under the curse, and drove them from their homes. The Telkhines were, after all, surfacers from the isle that we call Rhodes, but was at one time called, Telkhinis.
—Michael Henderson, notes
* * * *
Kassandra kicked out of the stirrups of her orca, into the open, in front of the Rexenor army, trying to take in the mass of the king's forces forming up a mile away. She could make out their center block and wings, six of them, by the glowing orbs casting light over thousands of helmets and glistening black and white killer whales, a mass of blazing stars in the pure night of the abyss.
Her eyes darted to every corner of a rough ellipse-shaped formation of a dozen different kinds of soldiers and weapons, and she felt the charge in her skin like electricity, a tightening in her muscles, certain that if she touched anyone at that moment they would burn to cinders in her hands.
That is a beautiful array, Lady Kassandra. Andromache was watching everything through some remote hookup provided by Eupheron. I must admit House Dosianax knows how to fight. Knows how to assemble an army. Are you ready to face it?
Kassandra felt sick, the legs of a lobster unfolding in her stomach. Part of her felt horrified, wanted to curl into a ball, pee in her armor, and close her eyes. At the same time, her excitement doubled, a thrum in her bones, her fingers fidgeting with her sword.
"Why am I enjoying this?"
That is me you feel.
"Oh.” Kassandra pointed high on the right side of the battle array. “What is that blur of light there?"
Something in the water. Perhaps a chemical, a poison, something the king is planning to use against us.
"What about them?"
Armored barges, crossbow platforms. Watch them. They will be moved into position somewhere in the middle of the battle. Beside them, and at the ends of four of the six wings, he has arranged his phalanxes, many-sided, with sarissas. Dosianax favors shorter, stouter poles, but Tharsaleos is unusual in his ability to absorb new techniques and weapons. The phalanxes can form a ring, wrapping around itself, points out, that can roll right through our infantry—and even do well against orcas.
"How do you know all this?"
Andromache laughed grimly at the obvious. I was part of your grandmother, Pythias, and she married him.
Kassandra found her eyes closing, sorrow weighing them down.
You could say that I know the man ... intimately.
Her eyes snapped open. A shudder of disgust swept through her. “Gross. Too much info, Andromache."
Keep your head on the battle. This will begin at any moment. What unusual weapons or defenses do we have that you have not shown me?
Kassandra's voice came out in a croaking whisper. “Sunglasses."
Andromache made a mildly disappointed humming noise. Something you and Eupheron have cooked up?
"You could say that."
Good. More?
"There's always Ochleros."
That is what the toothed whales are for.
"I know."
Toothed whales—the mightiest wrestlers in the sea. Bring them if your enemies bring one of the sea daimones against you. For all his stupidity, King Tharsaleos is an experienced strategos. A king among them. Perhaps fooled elsewhere, but not in battlespace.
"We must send Ochleros out early, then."
You have learned. Kassandra felt Andromache smile inside her. That
was your thought alone—and the correct strategy. The loss of one so great late in the battle will destroy us. Better to let him go before the Rexenor confidence and spirit fades.
"Right,” said Kassandra firmly, kicking back to her orca. “Let's review our side."
Lead the way, Lady Kassandra.
Nicole crouched in the stirrups behind her, a crossbow resting in the crook of her arm, fingers tapping the stock nervously. She grabbed the saddle-ring just in time as Kassandra signaled the animal and they shot straight down, right along a line of Rexenor orcamen.
They cheered as she passed, shouting battle cries, and she reached into the water with one hand, as high as she could, because Andromache told her to.
Kassandra arranged her army in four wings, long lines like spokes on a wheel, with Ochleros drifting in the center, the hub. She soared to the end of the downward face, and then shouted for all wings to rotate a quarter turn.
She watched the faces of the Rexenor men and women she passed, nods and secret smiles, quiet “milady's,” knuckles white on reins, hands lifting to drop cheek guards into place, eyes like stained glass, smoldering, fearful, shiny bright dots of light reflecting the galaxy of the king's army a mile away.
As Kassandra flew past the tail of the wing, one old soldier, a zoarches—commander of a team of orcas—raised a pair of pink cat-eye sunglasses, a souvenir from the battle on the surface against the Olethren.
Nicole tapped her on the shoulder. “They've all got sunglasses."
Kassandra nodded, pointing along the wing that now stretched out in northwest direction from the hub. “Me and Ochleros picked those up over the summer."
A dull boom sounded from the enemy ranks, followed by a sharp flash of blue a little left of center. Kassandra kicked her orca around, turning its nose toward the streak of fire hurtling at her southwest wing.
Something new Tharsaleos is using. Let us get closer.
She kicked after it, hoping to get near enough to see what it was. Over her shoulder, she felt Nicole tensing, rising a little in her stirrups to aim at the little brick at the head of the straight line of fire.
