by E. A. James
Tanak followed his brother. Margila fell in near Praila. She was just another soldier in this army. They could share close intimacy in private, but once he took command of others, she became a cog in a much larger mechanism. She dedicated her strength and her spirit to the greater purpose.
The whole group climbed the stairs to the courtyard. The day bloomed all around them into the highest reaches of the sky. The sun touched the mountain tops and set their snowy tips on fire.
The Archduke stood across the courtyard with Katya and Tanak’s brother Waru. The other factions crowded to receive their orders. The Archduke turned toward Ralo and Tanak coming with their people. His face burst into a brilliant smile of love, relief, and pride in his sons.
At that moment, a phalanx of Axis ships screamed over the parapet. They unleashed their guns on the citadel. Stones jumped out of their places. The parapet crumbled. The spires imploded and folded in on themselves before ballooning out into clouds of dust and debris.
Deafening concussions rocked the whole city. Deadly fire ripped across the courtyard. The Raveniss scattered in all directions. The Archduke roared to his people, “Fall back! Fall back to the fortified keep.”
Margila looked around for Tanak. He stood across the courtyard next to the door leading down to the staircase. He waved people through it. He darted out into the line of fire to help anyone who stumbled or fell or hesitated. She put out her hand to grab hold of his outstretched arm.
Another formation of ships screeched across the sky with their guns blazing. Rockets pounded the citadel. Rubble flew in all directions. Margila crouched in place and covered her head with her arms when another blast exploded right in front of her. It tore a massive stone out of the ground and flung it down within inches of her cowering form. It left a pile of rubble that blocked her path. She couldn’t reach Tanak. She couldn’t get away.
An engine whined behind her. She glanced back over her shoulder to see one of the ships angle down to land on the roof behind her. She launched herself up. She had to get on her feet. She had to find a way beyond this debris. She had to get to Tanak and join the others taking shelter inside.
She had no time to think. She levered her legs under her and vaulted up onto the first stone. The pile towered over her. Could she ever reach the top? Would she ever see her people again? Would she die right here, within sight of safety?
She scrambled up the pile, one hand over the other. One stone after another fell away. She was almost to the top. One more handhold and she would be there when the hiss of rushing air drew her attention behind her. The ship’s door opened. Another flood of soldiers would pour out of it, and she had nothing to defend herself.
Soldiers didn’t pour out of it, though. The ship stood silent and still with its door standing open. Was it empty? She paused in her climb to stare. Then a single person emerged from the shadows inside, a person whose Axis uniform didn’t quite fit his body.
He strode across the courtyard and stopped at the base of the rubble pile. He squinted up into the sun at Margila. “You might as well come down. You can’t get away.”
Margila couldn’t believe her eyes. “Marcus!”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Marcus’s eyes burned in their sockets. Was this the man she once loved, the man she wanted to marry? She hardly recognized him. His eyes sank dark and brooding in their sockets. They skittered from place to place without seeing anything.
He stretched forth a skeletal hand. “You’re coming back with me. I’m here to take you home.”
Margila stared at him in horror. Go back? Never!
“I went crazy after you left. I couldn’t forgive myself for letting you get away. I should have killed that dragon when I had the chance. I won’t make the same mistake again.”
“You never should have come here, Marcus. Tanak is my whole life now. I’m sorry what passed between us had to come to an end, but it’s over now. I can never go back to the life I had with you.”
He spoke in an obsessed fever. He barely saw her standing in front of him. “I never stopped thinking about you. After you left, I couldn’t eat or sleep for days. I couldn’t find any peace until Major Bloodkist came and enlisted me to help him take this place. I told him I would only come if I could bring you back.”
Margila started away from him. “I’m not going back to the village with you. This is my home now. You should never have come here. This whole battle is wrong.”
He bared his hideous teeth. “We’re here to rid this planet of the Raveniss. We won’t give up until we destroy every person in this city. If you don’t come with me now, you’ll die along with the rest of these vermin.”
“You have no right to call them vermin. They never did anything to hurt human beings until our people hunted them to near extinction. The Raveniss are a peaceful people. I only wish I could say the same thing about you.”
He didn’t listen. He darted forward and grabbed hold of her wrist. “You’re coming back with me. I didn’t come all this way to go back empty-handed. I’ll take you back with me if it’s the last thing I do, and after we leave, the soldiers will destroy this place and everyone in it. You should be thanking me for saving your life.”
She kicked and scratched at him, but he wouldn’t let her go. He got his meaty arm around her chest and hauled her back toward the ship. “Let me go, Marcus! I don’t want to go back to the village.”
He held her in a death grip. “That’s just your sickness talking. We’ll cure you of that when we get you home.”
She twisted around in his arms to catch sight of Tanak. Did he see what was happening to her? Was he fighting for his own life somewhere?
She caught sight of him across the courtyard. He was already halfway through the door leading down the stairs. She called out to him, “Tanak! Help me!”
He spun around and fixed his eyes on Marcus dragging her toward the ship. She extended a hand toward him, but Marcus clapped his hand over her mouth to stop her calling out again.
Tanak launched himself out of that doorway faster than the eye could see. He dashed across the courtyard to intercept Marcus. A feral roar tore out of his mouth, and his eyes flashed, but at that moment, another figure stepped out from behind the ship to block his path. Margila caught her breath at the sight of the gold braid and decorations adorning the man’s fancy uniform. It was Major Bloodkist.
Tanak never stopped. He catapulted straight toward the Major with both hands outstretched. He would barrel through the Major and rip Marcus limb from limb. Nothing could stop his preternatural flight.
He struck the Major with all his strength. His hands closed around his throat to choke the life out of him, but the Major raised his arms against Tanak’s chest. With one powerful blow, he sent Tanak flying backward onto the paving stones.
He slammed into the ground, but he bounced up on his feet again in a flash. He dove for the Major a second time, but this time, he never got within range. The Major saw him coming. He pulled a small handheld weapon from his waist and fired at Tanak.
Margila screamed. She put out both hands to her own true love, but she couldn’t break free from Marcus’s maniacal grip. With every step, he dragged her closer to the vessel intended to spirit her away from the only place in the world she wanted to be. Once he got her inside and took off into the sky, she would never see Tanak or the Raveniss again. Of that, she was most certain.
She couldn’t let that happen. She fell on him with might and main. She clawed the hands holding her. She kicked him in the shins and gouged at his eyes. She had to stop him. For a moment, she succeeded in slowing him down. He had to stop walking toward the ship and concentrate on subduing her. He gave her a few well-aimed punches in the ribs and face until she stopped fighting.
She dared turn her frightened eyes across the courtyard. Was Tanak alive or dead? She saw him lying on his back on the ground with Major Bloodkist standing over him. The Major aimed his weapon at Tanak, but Tanak made no move to get away. The Major’s arm s
tiffened in readiness to fire. His finger moved to cover the firing mechanism.
At that moment, Tanak whipped out his left leg and hooked Major Bloodkist around the ankle. With one kick, he knocked the Major flat on his backside. The gun flew out of his hand. At the same moment, Tanak rolled over on his stomach and planted his hands on the paving stones.
He didn’t jump to his feet, though. Faster than thought, his neck lengthened, and his head shot out toward the fallen Major. His legs bent forward at the knee, and hooked claws scratched the paving stones. His skin changed color from pink to greenish purple. Great leathery wings unfolded from his back and beat the air with savage blows.
The Major slipped in the act of getting his feet under him. He pawed at the ground to gain a purchase in his haste to crawl backward to get away from the massive dragon looming over him.
Tanak lowered his head to within inches of the Major’s face. He let out a ground-shaking shriek that sent chills up Margila’s spine. The Major cried out in terror in spite of himself. He kicked and fought to get away, but for the life of him, he couldn’t decide whether to crawl backward on his rear end or whether to turn his back on the dragon to stand up and run.
The minute he got one foot on the ground, Tanak flapped his wings. The wind drafting off his wings sent the Major tumbling to the ground again. Every inch of ground the Major covered brought Tanak pounding after him. His green head bobbed on his long neck, and his tail lashed the air with wicked hissing noises.
Tanak made no attempt to stop the Major scrambling backward to his puny little gun. He followed at close range, and when the Major rounded on him with the gun aimed, Tanak drew himself up to his tallest. He reared back on his hind legs with his wings outstretched.
He covered half the sky, and his shrieks of rage rent the heavens. Margila ducked low in Marcus’s grip. She couldn’t watch this, but she couldn’t take her eyes off Tanak.
The Major leveled his gun at the dragon and squeezed the trigger. At the same moment, Tanak dropped to the ground on all four legs. His head swung level with the Major, and he let out a powerful blast of orange flame. The fire incinerated Major Bloodkist in a blazing inferno. The gun vaporized in his hand, and within seconds, nothing remained of him but a trail of smoke wafting away on the breeze.
Marcus must have seen the whole thing, but the instant Major Bloodkist disappeared, he redoubled his efforts to get Margila to the ship. He hooked his elbow around her neck and set off across the courtyard at a smart pace. She tugged at his arm, but there was nothing she could do. She could barely breathe. She could just summon enough lung power to croak out, “Tanak!”
He slammed one big hind leg down on the ground, and the whole courtyard shuddered under his weight. He brought down a front leg and moved closer to Marcus. One more step and he would cut off Marcus’s only avenue of retreat.
Tanak bent his head low and opened his smoking mouth to burn Marcus to a crisp the way he burned up Major Bloodkist, but at that moment, Marcus jerked around. He grabbed Margila by the arms in a crushing grip, and he crouched behind her. He held her up in front of him to shield himself from Tanak.
Try as she might, Margila could not get away from him. She aimed her kicks backward and jerked her arms right and left until they ached. Marcus only tightened his grip. Tanak wouldn’t attack as long as Marcus hid behind Margila. He backed toward the ship. He would get airborne with Margila inside, and Tanak would have no choice but to let him fly away with her.
Just when she started to give up hope, Tanak turned away. He let out a stronger jet of flame than she’d ever seen, but he didn’t aim it at Marcus. The flames licked around the vessel. For a brief, lingering moment, the vessel withstood the onslaught. It stood firm while the flames flickered over its shiny metal hull. Then, piece by piece, it blew away in the blasting hot wind. Its front end turned to glowing particles, and the particles sailed off in a shimmering shower of golden sparks. They fizzled out in the cooler air behind the ship.
The front end dissolved and vanished. With a powerful puff of breath, Tanak disintegrated the rest of the ship, and it ceased to exist.
Marcus stared in wide-eyed wonder at the place where the ship once stood. For just a moment, he relaxed his grip on Margila’s arms to watch his precious ship fly apart into dust. She yanked free and ran toward Tanak. When Marcus recovered himself, he stood alone, face to face with the dragon.
Tanak bellowed at him in rage. Marcus could do nothing but stand there and await his fate. Tanak took one last step toward him. His shadow blocked out the sun and cast Marcus into darkness.
At that moment, the screech of dozens of engines whined over the horizon. Dozens of ships raced across the sky, all heading south. They rocketed away at top speed to disappear into the mountains, but before they could get far, more than a hundred dragons soared over the battlements in hot pursuit. They shot their fiery breath at the fleeing ships and destroyed those in the far rear.
Margila raised her face to the sky. A laugh and a shout of joy broke from her lips. The dragons covered the whole sky with their magnificent wings. They cleared the mountains of these menacing vessels and left the citadel cleansed at last.
A crowd of soldiers burst through a gap in the wall and charged into the courtyard, but they paid no attention to the dragon standing there. Raveniss chased them into the open and surrounded them with rifles aimed. The tide of battle had turned. The soldiers waved their arms and shouted to the fleeing ships, but it was too late. Marcus leaped forward and ran into their midst.
One last ship tagged behind the dragons. It raced after the fleet in search of its comrades. It hovered over the citadel and the courtyard. It sent down a whirlwind of crackling energy that surrounded the soldiers with Marcus among them. Before Margila or Tanak could react, it transported him and all the soldiers up into itself and flew away.
A moment later, the dragons returned. They sailed around the shattered spires and surveyed the surrounding countryside. In twos and threes, they banked toward the ground and landed. They changed back into people, and so began the long, arduous job of rebuilding after their battle.
Margila turned around to embrace her dragon, but she found a man standing at her side instead. She regarded him with stunned surprise. Would she ever get used to him changing so fast while her back was turned? Then her surprise fell away. She threw her arms around him in grateful relief.
They both spoke at once. “Are you all right?”
He touched her cheek. “I’m fine now that I have you back. Who was that madman?”
“A madman is exactly what he is. He wanted to take me back to the village. He didn’t want to believe my only home, my only life, is here with you.”
Margila leaned in and kissed Tanak passionately.
“What now?” Margila asked curiously as she pulled back from the kiss.
“Now, we mourn, and then we will rebuild as we always have,” Tanak replied. “Our people are resilient, this is not the first time we have faced these circumstances.”
“Then, I will help, and together we can start again,” Margila said.
“Yes, together,” Tanak smiled and leaned in once again to kiss Margila and lose himself in her embrace.
THE END
FATE SWORN
CHAPTER ONE
Light swooped through her eyelids and kissed the forefront of her mind.
Leonie jolted in bed, her eyes snapping open.
A star—its fire a soft blue and its center a pure white—languidly spun in the center of her massive bedroom. Its glow brushed over all the furniture, gleaming against such a magical force.
Leonie’s heart leaped to her throat and twisted. Arms trembling, she scooted back and then sat up. She stared—stared—at this small star as her mind raced with frantic questions. The star wasn’t warm, wasn’t blinding—it just…
It twisted and stretched vertically. The blue burst out of existence and the white withered into a dark gray.
Leonie jumped back, arms raise
d in a feeble defensive position.
You know better, she thought to herself. She tensed her arms and clenched her hands into steady fists. Then she took a deep breath in preparation to scream for the guards outside her door.
The gray blob shuddered, curled, brightened—and then it formed into a shape of a giant man with a broad chest and hairless flesh. The man’s eyes, taller than they were wide, sparkled despite the dullness within the pupils.
Leonie choked on her scream, her insides freezing over.
“Mathsus?!” she thought as a silver light wrapped itself around the giant man—acting as a robe.
The giant man—no, the god floated some centimeters off the floor and blinked. “Young Duchess of Asawiss, I call upon you.”
Leonie threw herself to the floor and bowed. “Mighty god of fate, I bask in your glorious presence.” She blinked owlishly at the floor, her knuckles pushing against it as she struggled to remain motionless—to not tremble. “I—I’m humbled, so humbled. I do not know why you have come to me, but I’m honored by your presence.”
