The Huntresses' Game

by Joe Jackson

  “What put out the fires?” Aeligos asked.

  “Alamarise. Apparently, he’s got a different sort of breath than his kin, something I’ve never seen before. But I’ll let him explain it if he comes back in for the night,” she answered. “As for me, I’m not used to running around in plate armor, so I’m going to see if I can get some rest and be up before dawn.”

  “We’ll handle things from here,” Colonel Prescott said. “Thanks for your assistance.”

  Kari saluted him respectfully in the demonhunter way, and she led Aeligos up to the bedrooms. The innkeeper gave them an efficient domicile with a double bed, and they turned in with nary a word. Kari spent a few minutes lying on her side, praying quietly to Zalkar and Sakkrass, asking that when they attacked the fort, that angel would be sent to help again.

  *****

  Kari was, as usual, awake long before dawn. She crouched at the edge of the camp’s perimeter, watching out into the woods for any signs of danger. Soon, the sun would begin its ascent, and the three-pronged attack would strike at Fort Sabbath. She had opted to travel with the main column, serving as heavy armor and a front-line combatant despite what the Colonel would have preferred. Even Aeligos wanted Kari in the back, urging her to let the infantry do its work so she could slip in when the opportunity presented itself.

  She chewed absently on some roasted almonds, waiting for the rest of the camp to wake up and prepare to march. Most of their belongings would be left here, keeping them light on their feet in the final approach and then the attack. Fortunately, with the fort in its ruined state, they didn’t need siege equipment. This would be primarily a battle of attrition, but one that a solid shield wall and coordinated strikes could help mitigate.

  Aeligos wasn’t with her. He had gone with the northern flank, and Colonel Prescott went with the southern flank. Major Ingram was with Aeligos as well to act as liaison between the rogue and the Masks. Kari required no one to confirm her orders to the central column; they had witnessed her bravery the night before last, and Colonel Prescott had spoken highly of her with many of those under his command.

  With the sun about to rise, Kari gave the order to move. The column advanced in squads, with a trio of scouts out ahead to watch for traps, ambushes, or the dragon lurking among the trees in his humanoid form. The forest was slightly misty and eerily quiet, but no reports of trouble came from the scouts, and the column moved ahead at a steady pace. The plan was not to attack all three sides at once, but to hit first the north, then the south, then the west, and then Alamarise would attack from the east if and when Zaliskower made his appearance. In theory, it would send the bulk of the defenders to one side first, and then they would gradually thin out to meet the assaults on all sides. On that note, the first team to strike would be the shield bearers.

  Kari prayed quietly as they marched, asking Zalkar and Sakkrass to watch over Aeligos and keep him and everyone else safe. She likewise continued to pray that her angelic watcher would be there again, and lend her whatever aid she might need to put this situation to rest. She was a bit saddened to think of finally “killing” Annabelle, but she had to believe she’d be doing her old friend a favor, if there was even anything left of her in that shell. Zaliskower was another matter altogether; with any luck, he would flee for good once Annabelle was destroyed and the fort was in their hands.

  After a couple of hours, they reached their target. There were no sounds of combat yet, and the men stretched thin to keep from being spotted in a large group. They used the forest for cover, and Kari walked back and forth along their front line, ensuring everyone was as out of sight as possible. From the bits of the fort she could see through the trees, it didn’t look like the walls were manned, but that didn’t mean they didn’t have eyes on the forest. She would keep her men out of sight until she heard two engagements, and then they would hit hard and fast.

  Kari’s plan was to get inside and split her forces to flank both the north and south. Being pinned in the center wasn’t usually a good idea, but she was confident the thralls would be stretched thin fighting on two fronts. If any remained to guard the walls, Kari’s force would overwhelm them as quickly as possible and then proceed as planned. At the very least, neither Aeligos nor Colonel Prescott had protested her idea, so she figured it wasn’t terrible. She knew enough about battle to be prepared for the entire plan to fall apart after five minutes, though, so she was prepared to adapt as needed.

  The sounds of fighting came from the north, and Kari motioned for her men to stay hidden and as calm as they could. She gave the signal for an equipment check, anything to get their minds off the sounds of battle for a moment. Armor straps were pulled, weapon sheaths were checked for ease of draw, and bow strings were tugged lightly so as to avoid any stray strum sounds from alerting their enemies to their presence.

  A dragon’s furious cry went up, and Kari’s hackles rose. It was earlier than expected for Zaliskower to get involved, but she figured he wasn’t going to sit idly by and see his fortress get overrun. Her mind started to consider the reason they would have drawn Kari here specifically, but the answer occurred to her only moments later: they wanted her lifeforce to feed off by leaving her in that otherworldly fortress. Zaliskower wanted Kari, but the rest of these men would be little more than a snack – physically or in terms of lifeforce – and so he had to get involved and dispatch them quickly.

  Kari had to trust that Alamarise would intervene now, and keep the undead black dragon from turning their entire attack force into thralls. She couldn’t see what was going on in the skies, but she kept her cool and motioned to her men that it would soon be time to move.

  More sounds of battle came from the south. Colonel Prescott and his men had engaged. The Red Mask numbered only seventy-four strong after the casualties two nights before, but it felt like a lot in this situation. Twenty-five were hitting from the north and twenty-five more from the south, with the remainder waiting in the wings with Kari. The sounds from the fort started to become chaotic, and Kari realized something had happened, and all was not going according to plan.

  “Let’s move!” she shouted, and it began.

  The Red Mask advanced behind Kari, who was a little slower for wearing plate armor instead of her usual lightweight paluric suit. The western wall was unguarded, as expected, but Kari directed two squads to secure the towers, and for her squad of archers to mount the walls. As she and the remainder of her force took to the central courtyard, she saw what was causing the chaos: Zaliskower’s breath had turned a number of the Masks into thralls already, and there was another figure involved in the fray.

  It was Annabelle.

  Kari didn’t have time to consider the implications of a vampire that could walk in the sunlight. She directed her men to split up as planned, and rushed to engage Annabelle. She was instead knocked from her feet by a rush of wind as Zaliskower landed hard in front of her, his wings creating a vortex in the courtyard. He took in a deep breath, sucking Kari’s hair toward him, but she scrambled on all fours and used her wings to launch herself upright. She dodged out of the way of his fiery breath, which began to melt the wall itself, and then dashed in to try to get a few cuts at his long neck.

  She was knocked to her back by another rush of wind as he reared up and took flight again. Kari wondered where Alamarise was, but she had other issues. Annabelle was upon her in an instant, and it was all she could do to parry the vampire’s attacks and try to get back to her feet. Tumureldi had taught her well, and defense was always her primary focus, so she was able to stymie her enemy until she got back to a standing, ready position.

  “How the hell are you able to walk in the sunlight?” Kari spat.

  “Oh, you truly are a moron, aren’t you?” Annabelle sneered. “I don’t know what’s more pathetic: that you haven’t figured any of this out yet, or that you expect me to explain it.”

  The vampire backed up and narrowed her eyes in concentration, and Kari saw that many of the fallen thralls and
even members of the Red Mask were answering her call. They rose to their feet, though those who had suffered great wounds were not as agile. A few that were in worse condition shambled more like zombies, but the implications were clear: until the dead were completely destroyed, the vampire and dragon could continue using them as minions.

  Kari ignored the vampire’s taunts, but she couldn’t ignore the thralls. She worked to her right to keep from being pinned between all of them. She stepped in and riposted when opportunities presented themselves, but unlike previous encounters, Annabelle fought beside her minions this time. Her longsword bit through Kari’s armor, leaving a stinging gash in her side. It forced Kari in the other direction, but the demonhunter realized in the process that she was being foolish.

  “First squad, to me!” she called. Heads up on the walls turned in her direction, but the archers were leery of shooting their leader by mistake. The infantrymen holding the closer tower spilled forth, though, and came to Kari’s aid.

  Zaliskower flew over again in a rush of wind, incinerating a couple of unlucky archers on the top of the wall, but Alamarise was close behind him. The dragons’ breath didn’t seem to have any effect on each other, but if Alamarise couldn’t drive the black dragon away, he would decimate Kari’s allies. She just had to hope her silver dragon friend could do his part.

  Annabelle killed one of the Red Mask and raised him as a thrall almost before he’d even spilled to the ground. She set her minions on Kari and then retreated to the doors of the keep. From there, she beckoned for Kari to follow her. Then she disappeared inside.

  Kari helped her companions kill the thralls upon them. “Cut them apart!” she shouted. “I know these were your friends, but they’re just going to keep getting raised until we leave nothing to be raised. Do it!”

  Her companions were hesitant, but they dismembered their fallen comrades as ordered. It was a horrible thing to do, but no less horrible for Kari to have to order it done. These were not faceless enemies, but the bodies of their dead companions they were butchering. Kari may not have known many of the Red Mask personally, but that didn’t ease the guilt of having to order their bodies desecrated so. And above all, she had no time to worry about it.

  So what’s the trap? Kari wondered. Why does she want me inside, away from all of her companions?

  Kari shrugged off the thoughts. “Return to your posts until further orders,” she said to her companions. They made their way back to the tower, and Kari looked north and south to see where she was most needed. The north seemed to be where Zaliskower had used his breath most effectively to turn his allies on each other, so she headed that way. In the back of her mind, she just hoped Aeligos hadn’t been hit by that inky, life-draining cloud again.

  Aeligos was just fine; Kari found him in moments as she proceeded north. He had his men organized in a defensive formation, almost like a phalanx, utilizing the shield wall they’d brought in case of archers among the thralls. Well-protected, his men were inflicting heavy casualties among the vampires’ minions, and were able to steadfastly deal with those of their number who’d been turned. It seemed like that was the biggest downfall of his defensive scheme: they were packed tightly together for Zaliskower to breathe upon. But they had come through it fiercely, and were turning things to their advantage again.

  Kari slipped to her knees when a rush of wind hit her back and then a thunderous crash slammed the ground behind her. She turned and brought her blades before her prone form, and started to extend that aura of faith. Zaliskower didn’t breathe upon her, though, opening his jaws wide to either snatch her up or simply swallow her whole. Kari tried to get some leverage from her rump to keep him at bay with her swords, but it wasn’t possible. He may have been solid onyx, but those teeth were startlingly white, massive, and sword-like, and coming straight for her.

  There was a bright flash between them, and Kari’s jaw dropped as her little guiding light made yet another appearance. This time, however, it was brighter, more congealed, in a vaguely humanoid, winged form. Zaliskower shut his eyes tight against the being’s radiance, and let forth a monstrous roar that had Kari pressing her hands to her ears and screaming to counter the deafening sound.

  The black dragon’s roar was multiplied when Alamarise landed upon his back, biting into his neck hard, and the two began to struggle. Kari scrambled away and got her feet under her, and did the only wise thing in that scenario: she put distance between herself and the crushing weight of those two massive, reptilian beasts. She wanted to help Alamarise, but she would be little more than a casualty – likely a very flat one – if she got too close while they thrashed about.

  The guiding light was gone when Kari looked back, but it had served its purpose. Kari was thankful that Kimlerin had warned her, as little as it affected her decisions directly, and she silently thanked Zalkar and Sakkrass for her angelic benefactor’s intervention. With Alamarise and Zaliskower fully engaged in their deadly wrestling, Kari turned and made her way quickly to Aeligos’ defensive formation.

  She hewed and dismembered those she could engage, calling out to her allies that it was the only way to keep their former companions – and the other thralls, for that matter – from being used against them again and again. It was gruesome work, and many of the Red Mask were not up to the task, but Kari couldn’t fault them for it. Plenty of them were, and they at last broke their enemy and began to slaughter them in a rout. With Aeligos’ defensive formation holding and beginning pursuit, Kari made her way to the south.

  Colonel Prescott’s forces were more than holding their own. Unencumbered by any allies being turned to thralls, they were systematically eliminating their enemies. Kari found it fortunate that the thralls seemed limited in their intelligence. They gave little thought to self-preservation, and though they seemed to remember some tactics from their former lives, without Annabelle or Zaliskower to direct them, they didn’t work cohesively or know what to do when things turned against them.

  Soon enough, all of the thralls were down and the courtyard belonged to the Red Mask. Zaliskower and Alamarise had taken flight again, and the last Kari saw of them, the great silver dragon was chasing his undead kin to the north. Kari felt it had all gone too easily for some reason; was it because she had hesitated to do this very thing in her prior life when she first came to destroy Annabelle? What had kept anyone from doing this very thing for so long?

  They didn’t have an angel and a silver dragon with them, of course, she thought.

  Colonel Prescott called for a head count of survivors, but kept archers stationed on the walls, and squads at each gateway. Forty-seven of the initial seventy-four Red Mask warriors had survived the siege. It wasn’t a pretty result, but it certainly beat many of the alternatives. The adventuring company had suffered heavy losses since Kari’s first meeting with them, but if the rest of this encounter went as she hoped, they’d be able to say something no one else had before this day:

  They’d helped defeat Annabelle Sol’Ridachi and her army of thralls.

  Kari looked at Colonel Prescott, and he nodded. “If you want us to storm the keep all together, just give the word, ma’am,” he said. “And do you need that wound looked after?”

  “No need, already done. And I think I’ve got this,” Kari said. “Give me half an hour, and if I’m not back, storm the keep. This could be a trap, but it’s personal at this point. I need to go kill my sister now.”

  Aeligos nodded, and with that, Kari marched toward Zalkar’s destiny for her.

  Chapter XVI – Sisters of the Blade

  Kari entered the keep, its musty dankness now triggering memories. She remembered the first time she came here, when she’d discovered her friend’s terrible fate. So little had changed on the surface since then, and yet so much was different. There was something malevolent about this place, some dark history that pervaded its stone walls. As Kari mounted each step, her ears straining to detect any trace of movement from her now solitary enemy, she took in every d
etail of this tomb.

  There were the shredded remnants of tapestries here, testament to the fact that it was once the fortress of a band of thieves who changed their ways. Kari wondered what had happened to them. Was it the black dragon that had destroyed the fort and its occupants, and claimed the place as its own? Where did Zaliskower come from? How had the dragon been turned into a vampire? How was any of this possible?

  Kari allowed herself a small smile. How differently her mind worked these days, looking not just at the immediate problem, but at the web of trouble that spread from it. Zaliskower and Annabelle were her priorities here, but they had come from somewhere, and that source was another problem Kari had to investigate. She thought of her mate and children, though: it wasn’t necessarily her problem to look into, but she would have people sent to do so.

  She reached the top of the stairs, and there stood Annabelle in the center of what was once a great room. Its exiting doorways were collapsed now, destroyed along with much of the fortress, and even its hearth was caved in and useless. Destroyed, rotted furniture crowded the corners, with rubble making the footing treacherous near the former doorways. Still, there was more than enough room for Kari to confidently duel her former partner without fear of getting tripped up or pinned, unless she made an incredibly silly mistake.

  Her greatest challenge was an ironic one: Annabelle now wore the very armor that helped make Kari such a fearsome foe to her enemies. While Kari’s defensive brilliance was based more on the style Suler Tumureldi had taught her, armor that was impervious to cutting and stabbing certainly helped. Now Kari had to deal with an enemy that would have those same immunities. She could try to bludgeon Annabelle with kicks, punches, or hilt strikes, but the vampire was no slouch; she recalled every bit of her training as a demonhunter, and had added to it over the long centuries. Trying to fight her with martial arts while the vampire was wielding two blades would not end well for Kari. As it stood, the vampire had even made her wings disappear, however she was doing that, in order to most closely follow the fighting routines she had when she was alive, and to give Kari one less unarmored target to strike.