Return To Sky Raven (Book 2)

by T. Michael Ford

  “The Nova are up to something and we want it stopped. Do your job and you will be richly rewarded. I might even throw in the soul of that red-haired swordswoman you desire so badly. But continue to fail me, and you will be cast aside and get nothing!”

  “The Nova will not prevail, Mistress!”

  The Kerr smiled, exposing all those black, sharpened teeth. “They will not prevail in either case, Lifebane. I intend to turn this miserable rock of a planet with its stinking Nova-built fortress into space slag. But I do love it, and it’s so much more satisfying to see the heroes of good fall short and sprawl in the dirt. To see the shame in their eyes when they see everything they hold dear die bleeding in the dust as if it had never been. To know their abject failure has doomed everyone and everything on their world!”

  Chapter 11

  Alex

  We mounted our horses and trotted off into the deepening night. Along the way, Maya, Winya, and I had a long soul-baring chat through the conduit. Eventually, my stubborn dark elf grudgingly forgave her best friend for trying to save her life; and by the second hour of the trip, they were chatting along again like nothing had happened. I felt a warm pulse through the conduit from Winya, like someone giving you a fond hand squeeze. By dawn, we were approaching the dark elf capital.

  The first rays of the morning sun were at our back as we were all grouped on the top of a small rise looking down into the lowlands below. We had just travelled along the road traversing some fairly modest hills and canyons. But the land was changing rapidly. The road we had followed all night had now reached its destination, snaking down the hillside and ending at a huge wooden gate set into a stone arch. On either side of the gatehouse, stretching in an encompassing arc, was a fifteen-foot-high hedge wall. My old village had had one similar to this one; it’s a very dense living structure, and the plants that make it up also have poisonous thorns so most wise creatures give it a wide berth. Typically, the elves will build up wooden scaffolding on the backside to provide places for their archers to rain havoc down upon any attackers; and this one was no different. From our vantage point, I could see over the wall into the city itself.

  The Capital beyond looked nothing like the simple village where I grew up. It was primarily low wooden, and the occasional stone, buildings set into a grid pattern. The generous size of the streets spoke of the primary mission of this place, which was trade with other races. Maya had warned me not to expect a huge castle or keep arrangement here; for the dark elves, the dark forbidding forest behind the city was their castle. The Capital was used for trade and diplomatic purposes so you would find more warehouses than noble manors here. Flowing alongside the southern edge of the city was a slow, wide river; and there were a number of large flat-bottomed freight-hauling boats tied up to docks that indicated even more trade options.

  Unfortunately, there would be precious little trade going on until the five to six thousand unwanted guests in the form of skeletons and zombie warriors in the process of mounting a full frontal attack were eliminated. The wall was ably manned by several hundred dark elf archers, both men and women, who were rapidly firing into the undead mob tearing into the hedge wall with rusty swords, falchions, and bare hands. Instantly, I saw two flaws in the dark elf defense; one, poisonous shrubbery has no effect on the undead, and two, arrows really don’t damage skeletons and zombies enough to stop them. The hedge was taking a lot of damage, and it didn’t take much imagination to realize that the wall would have huge gaps torn through it soon.

  Maya winced, taking in the tactical situation as she is far better at it than I am. She turned to me from her position on Kaima’s back. “I need to get down there into the city and find my parents, if they’re even here. Do you think you can take some of the pressure off the main gate?”

  “You go and find your family, we can take care of ourselves. I think between Nia, Jules, Lin and the horses, we can become a pretty good nuisance.”

  Maya smiled with a trace of worry on her face as she reached across and drew me in for a quick kiss. “Just remember, Magic Boy, getting yourself killed is not an acceptable way to weasel out of meeting my parents.” She replaced her helm, and with a giggle of excitement, swung a leg over the side of her mare and slid down. Activating her stealth mode, she ran off down the hill.

  Wow, get kidnapped by a demon and trapped in an alternate universe just once and everyone assumes you’re helpless. Wrenching my view away from the windswept grasses where I last saw my dark elf, I turned to the druid girls.

  “Are you two ready for this?”

  “Oh yeah!” Lin confirmed excitedly. “It’s about time we got to take out some undead ourselves; you and Maya always hog all the action.”

  “Is there anything you can do as druids to repair that wall before it goes down completely?”

  Jules thought for a second and then answered, “Yes, I could encourage it to re-grow itself and maybe get some ironwood to grow through it as well to give it more strength, but I will need to get right up to the wall to make it work.”

  “Ok, this is what we’re going to do. Nia and I will charge down and blow a hole through the undead line. You two follow in our wake and get set up to do your wall repair. Use Kaima and Reggie to keep them off you while Julia is casting her stuff. Lin, you are free to open up some holes and crush any undead that come close to Jules. Can you do that? Hopefully, the elves will see that we’re trying to help and not fire on us.” Both girls nodded determinedly as they stifled some giggles and tried to look tough.

  Nia and I laughed at their expressions; those two just don’t have the faces to look mean and dangerous, which I guess could work to their advantage in life at some point. “Ok, you two will be riding on Kaima so keep each other safe.” The girls nodded excitedly.

  I walked over to Kaima and started brushing her down. “Ok, Kaima, I’m trusting you to keep them safe. They aren’t the fighters Maya and I are, so if things get too heavy, get them out of there and find a secure place, got it?” The horse tilted her head and puffed a cool stream of blue flames across my face.

  With that out of the way, I helped the girls mount up; Lin was in front with the reins and Julia was latched on behind her. But even though Lin was holding the reins, I knew who really was in charge here. Julia called out, “Reggie is here and ready to kick some butt! Apparently, he has about the same tolerance for undead as this lively lady does, and by that I mean like none at all!”

  I was about to remount Somnus when I heard three loud crashes in the distance. Rising from behind a hill to the north of us were three huge flaming fireballs that sailed across the sky. Trebuchets? Here? Two of the donkey cart-sized burning objects landed inside the city, and from the amount of smoke and debris they generated on impact, there would be buildings on fire. The third just missed the main gatehouse and stuck like a meteor outside, taking out a dozen or more undead, the flames pushing back many of the horde. Crap, this changes everything; if we allow the siege engines to do their work, they could pound the entire Capital to dust and ash in a couple hours. Fortunately, they are slow to reload.

  I swung up into the saddle on Somnus. “Nia, think you could fly Combat Pixie over to those siege engines and toss a little fire of our own on them?”

  Nia nodded, but grabbed my ear and forced me to look at her, and boy was she upset! “The next time you decide to touch anything amulet-related, evil-related, god-related, or even Nova-related, I had damn well better be on your shoulder or you’re a dead man, you hear me?” The girls giggled, and Nia pointed a finger at them. “Can it, Aunties-in-Law! This is between me and my father!” She refocused on me. “So, do I make myself clear?”

  “Perfectly clear,” I said with a smile.

  “Good.” Tears swelled up in her eyes. “Because I don’t think I can take losing you again. You and Maya are all I really care about anymore, and if I lost you…I don’t think I could live like that.”

  I pulled off a gauntlet and brushed away the tears. “Hey, we’re not
going anywhere without you. So dry those tears, we don’t want your new grandparents to see you a teary mess the first time they meet you, now do we?”

  She smiled a bit and wiped away what she could. “No, I guess we don’t.” She raised her arms and spread her legs and wings, “Combat Pixie!” The metal obediently slid up encasing her in a fine coating of ultra light armor. “I hope they are manned by goblins - I hate goblins!” She muttered as she flew off in the direction of the original sound.

  In the meantime, the situation had become increasingly worse down at the wall and there were several spots that looked like the hedge was in imminent peril of collapsing. The defenders, recognizing the threat of the trebuchets, launched an attack of their own out of a sally port near the gate. First, fifty or so elf guardsmen with swords and shields spread out, using the burning crater in front of the gate as a defense point. This was followed by another fifty or so mounted light horse which thundered out of the port single file and attempted to break through the undead line by laying about themselves with cavalry sabers. I’m sure the original mission was to break through and attack the siege engines, but with bad odds to start with, things were going nowhere fast, especially when ghouls started popping out of the ground to grab the horses’ legs and bring them down.

  I slammed my face shield down. “Everyone ready? Ok, let’s give them hell!”

  ……………………………………………….

  Maya

  I didn’t want to leave him, not after what we had just been through. But the warrior in me also recognized that trying to protect him too much would just result in putting us both at risk. Besides, Alex was only standing for it as much as he was out of concern for my and Nia’s still raw feelings.

  Approaching the back of the undead line, it was easy to slip by them unnoticed. Skeletons and zombies really don’t form battle lines so there are always huge gaps to be exploited. Most of the action seemed to be around the main gate, so I chose to go a bit farther south toward the river and found a section of actual stone wall. Winya activated one of her charms on the suit and I was able to climb up and over as if my hands and feet were sticky. So this must be how a gecko feels when he climbs a rock. I dropped down inside the wall and started my search; I had to find my parents. Winya seemed to understand and was keeping a close eye on Alex for me so I didn’t get distracted by worry.

  Once inside, it became clear that the Capital was bigger than I thought and a working knowledge of dark elf villages doesn’t equate to finding ones way around a major city. As a child, I never wanted to get any closer to people than necessary, so I never accompanied my father or mother on their trips here. Winya suggested that I look for really big buildings because big equals important, but all I seemed to find were warehouses and stables. It seemed like I wandered for a long time and I considered becoming visible and asking for help, but I didn’t think the white armor was going to make me any friends here, at least right away.

  I was about to head toward the main gate area reasoning that my father, as a clan leader, would probably be leading some of the defenses of the city, when a huge whistling ball of flame sailed over me and crashed into a wooden building a hundred yards or so away. Great, now the enemy has siege engines! I heard two more impacts out of my line of sight. Things were going to get a lot grimmer around here with those in the mix. Flames were already rising out of the dying warehouse and yelling and screaming elves were racing everywhere with buckets and sand. Thick heavy smoke was starting to rise above the city and tensions were high.

  “According to Alex, Nia is already working on the trebuchet problem,.” Winya said calmly.

  The people here were also on high alert; guards were running for the walls, and it seemed like anyone who could lift a weapon was eager to fight alongside their friends and family. What can I say; we’re a combat-orientated kind of people.

  Screaming bloody murder, a small group of children suddenly burst around a corner running for their lives, but they seemed to have come from the river side of the city, not where there were fires or where the fighting was at its peak. I sped up and looped around in the direction they had come from in the event there was a break through. Less than a minute of dodging down irregularly laid out streets and alleys at a jog, brought me down to the docks area of the river. Barges were tied up along small piers to keep them out of the current and make loading possible. The general condition of the low wooden buildings was a bit below those in the other parts of the Capital I had passed, but considering the use, all were still functional. There was a commotion down the block as I exited the alley I had been following. I found twenty or more ghouls had crawled up out of the river, circumventing the walls, and were attacking the rear areas where the elderly and children were being kept away from the battle. A few city guards and one female fighter seemed to be the only ones rallying to fight them off. The fighter seemed familiar, and that’s when I caught a glimpse of the weapon she was using, a red spear! Mother?

  It was her! But I didn’t have time to get sentimental at this point; two of the guards with her went down to ghoul slashes, and she was effectively surrounded by the horrid beasts. The only thing keeping her from being overwhelmed immediately was that she was using the heavy spear more like a staff than a pointed weapon. But even swinging it in a circular manner about her wasn’t going to stop them for much longer. Another guard went down in a fountain of spraying blood, and Mom was alone in the fight.

  “Winya!”

  “Already on it. Dropping stealth mode; you will be visible now. Crossbow is ready, with a new feature I think you’ll like.” Winya appeared in my hands in her crossbow form, but this time she looked different.

  “Finished this when you were sleeping. Ten-bolt racks for rapid fire; mind you, we lose a small portion of velocity, but it shouldn’t matter too much against ghouls.”

  “Thanks, girl; you’re the best!”

  ”Seriously, I know. Now let’s save your Mom!”

  Winya kicked lightly as we fired bolt after bolt down range, moving forward, shooting with only a light pause when Winya reloaded. I found myself not even having to aim much at all, just fix the location I wanted the bolt to impact in my mind and Winya handled the rest. I didn’t see a single bolt miss its target. Despite Winya’s comment about loss of velocity, I couldn’t see it; the bolts plowed through the ghoul skulls nicely. I would have loved to see the look on Mother’s face when the undead started flipping backwards and dropping like flies around her, but I was concentrating too hard on the results.

  In less than a minute, it was over. The last creature’s braincase shattered nicely as a metal quarrel shot through it, and its body dropped like a string less marionette. Suddenly, I was face-to-face with a woman I hadn’t seen in over seven years. She had an astonished look on her face as she slowly surveyed the piles of ghouls that surrounded her. Winya withdrew the crossbow and settled back into her less threatening bracelet form encased seamlessly in my white armor.

  My mother was still the same beautiful woman I remembered. Same skin tone and facial structure, same commanding presence. Most people say I look just like her when she was younger, but I don’t see it. She has a dignity and air of maturity that I can only someday hope to copy. She was dressed in a full leather armor that showed off her still fine figure as she bent down to check the pulse of the guards who had gone down around her; unfortunately, they were all past reviving. Straightening up, she shook her head sadly, and finally her green eyes focused on me curiously.

  She looked surprised to see me standing there and I wondered if she even recognized me; then again, I was still wearing my helm. “Thank you for the assistance, lady paladin, but I was not aware of any of your order within our walls.” She shifted Gwiwence to a non-threatening, but still ready, position. “Please identify yourself and state your intentions here.”

  What the…seriously? I smiled in my armor, paused, and stated in a clipped, business-like voice. “My name is Maya, only daughter of Fae
ron and Renalla Talmin, high chieftain of the flint bands of my people.” Then I ripped off my helm so she could see my face. “And I’m not a paladin, I’m your daughter!”

  That did the trick and I thought she was going to pass out right there. “M…Maya?” my mother stammered, even absently letting Gwiwence drop to the ground from her hand.

  I could feel the tears running down my face. “Yes, Mother, it’s me. How many ghouls do I have to kill to get a hug around here?”

  Shakily, she whispered something as she ran to me, wrapping me in her arms and drenching me with tears. “We heard about the attack on the mage school and feared the worst; they said no one made it out alive. But here you are, and just look at you, you’re so beautiful!”

  We were both still hugging and crying as I tried to explain. “We were there, but my friends and I were able to get a few hundred out safely.”

  “I don’t care right now; you’re here and safe. That’s all that matters to me.”

  “Um, I hate to interrupt, but we should move. Looks like more dark elves are here as well as more undead.”

  I tried explaining that to Mother but she didn’t seem to care. “I’m not leaving you.” She looked around taking in the situation as even more guardsmen arrived. “Besides, dear, it looks like things are under control here now.”

  One of the newly arrived guards rushed up and bowed nervously to my mother. “Are you injured, my Queen?

  “Queen?” I echoed. My mother dismissed the guard with thanks, but I noticed four more standing off a ways watching us with professional concern. She grasped me by the arm and led me to a quiet area.

  “Maya, a lot has changed since you left, but even more so recently. Your Father is now the King.”

  “But he was like twentieth in line-of-succession when I left!” I protested in disbelief.

  “Yes, well, our association with Duke Pharmon took a heavy toll on nobility and commoner alike. He threw our warriors into poorly planned battle after battle, treating us no better than the undead fodder that makes up most of his forces. Our losses were staggering, now we barely have enough military left to defend ourselves. The previous Kings were blamed by the Lifebane for every failure, and it cost most of them their lives. Up until we broke free of his tyranny, it sadly became common for a newly-crowned King to commit suicide rather than risk his soul to the Lich! Your father changed all that by defying the Lifebane and leading us on a path away from his tyranny.”