by J. Thorn
“Now this is a fair fight.”
I could hear the men snickering at Emil’s words. They would enjoy watching me die, and I wasn’t about to let that happen.
With a right hook, I swung at Emil. He ducked and laughed.
“Again. C’mon, Rayna. Again.”
The blood rushed to my face as I snarled and came at him with a left hook. He leaned back and my fist caught nothing but air.
“Not like back in the yard, is it? I’m not going to be embarrassed by you ever again.”
One, two, three more punches. I even tried a roundhouse kick that would have impressed my friends at the Troll, but none connected. Emil had learned how to fight, and given his size, I didn’t think I could beat him. Until I saw it against the fence.
My quiver.
I rolled through the puddles and grabbed the last arrow before coming up in front of Emil. I was able to drive it into his shoulder just as he spun to the right. I heard him wince and, for the first time, I felt a sliver of hope, that maybe I could beat him, but I wouldn’t do so by following the rules. I’d have to fight on my terms, to my strength.
“Damn!” Emil staggered backwards and the other guards raised their swords. “No,” he said to them. “She’s mine.”
I could tell he was hurting, and I still felt wobbly from crashing into the fence. We’d stood, staring at each other, but neither of us made a move.
“I belong to nobody.”
I swung, and this time my fist connected with Emil’s chin. My hand tingled and then surged with a throbbing pain, but it’d hurt him, too. He staggered and I heard groans coming from the other soldiers.
“That’s it. I’m gonna kill you and then I’m gonna burn the rest of this village to the ground. You’ll die and be wiped from this world like you never existed.”
A soldier to Emil’s left handed him his sword. He spit, straightened his shoulders, and looked at the palm of his hand covered in his own blood.
“You’ll bleed. But you’re gonna hurt first.”
He swung the broadside of his sword so that it connected with my face. I fell into the fence and tasted the warm, coppery blood in my mouth. The rain came harder and he stood over me, blocking out the gray skies above.
“I won’t give up.”
His fists came down in lightning bursts, sending sparks and floaters across my eyes. I sat up, my eyes rolled back, and I turned to vomit. Emil’s men laughed, their mocking words floating back to me in a swirl of sounds. Thunder rolled through the valley and Kora’s villagers cried out as the slavers continued to cut them down.
Emil punched me again and again until blood filled my mouth, dripped from my nose, and ran into my eyes.
“Goodbye, Rayna.”
45
“Rayna. Get up, Rayna.”
The figure loomed over me. Why did Emil want me to get up? So he could knock me down again? Part of me wanted to fade out, to be done with all the pain and struggle.
The man bent down, my vision cleared, and I saw a face. Baylock’s.
“You have to get up or we’ll all die here.”
I sat up with Baylock’s help. He’d put a hand on my back and pushed me into a sitting position. My swollen eyes burned, and my entire head throbbed.
“She’s here.”
Baylock seemed to be talking in riddles. I felt sure it all made sense to him, but I was struggling to catch up. I put a hand to my forehead and the motion sent a wave of pain from my nose to my feet. I looked through the rain and saw a woman upon a horse. I blinked, not believing it at first.
Wyllow.
She rode through the battle, swinging a club at the guards and slavers while others from her clan flooded the village. The few survivors from Kora’s village fought alongside her as if they were all part of the same clan.
“What happened?” I asked Baylock.
Then I saw Emil. He’d been fighting off two men, and made eye contact with me.
“Wyllow came back. And she brought her clan to fight.”
“To fight Kora’s people?” My head began swirling, trying to piece it all together. Saul had hated the Solaris. At first, I’d thought it was an invasion but now I realized that’s not what Baylock meant. Wyllow had brought her people to fight with Kora’s, not against them. The former enemies now stood shoulder-to-shoulder, battling Emil’s men.
“No. To take down the slavers. And by the looks of it, the fight is almost over. They’ve either surrendered or died. Well, most of them.”
I followed Baylock’s eyes to Emil. The man stood there—slumped to the side and bloody, but with a rage burning so hot in his eyes that I had to look away. I stood up.
“I have to finish him.”
“No, Rayna. You’ve taken shots to the head and you’re bleeding—”
“Get out of my way.” I shoved Baylock to the side and took a step toward Emil. “Don’t tell me what to do.”
I lifted my chin and stumbled toward Emil. I could see him laughing, raw gums where his teeth had been, and his nose was bloodied.
“Drake will crush you. You’ll never escape alive.”
Wyllow’s villagers and those from Kora’s who had survived began to gather as the last of Emil’s men gave up. Several had run off into the woods, but most had stayed and fought to the death.
“These people want to tear into you. I should let them.”
He laughed and then coughed. “After I break what’s left of your face.”
Emil ran at me and threw a jab that glanced off my cheek. My skin stung, but his blow lacked the force it had held earlier.
“Please give up so we don’t have to do this.”
He responded with a roundhouse, his fist missing by several inches this time. I bent down and picked up a club before taking a step toward Emil.
“Hit me,” he said.
So, I did. I put all of my weight into each blow, landing them on his face like he’d done to me earlier. I kept swinging, and soon Emil had dropped to his knees, his face so swollen that I couldn’t tell if he was conscious or not. I wanted to beat him to death, to make him pay for all the pain he’d caused, and the lives he’d taken in the prison and Kora’s village.
That’s when I heard my grandfather’s voice.
Anyone can show compassion to their allies. Leaders show it to their enemies.
I dropped the club.
“You’re not letting him live, are you?” The bloodlust in Baylock’s eyes made me shiver.
This is what violence did to men. This was the infection of war.
“I am.”
All the fighting had stopped. The men and women still on their feet had surrounded us, watching the fight between Emil and I unfold. He swayed back and forth on his knees, offering one or two square blows from the grave.
“I knew you were nothing but a weak little girl.”
The word had come roughly from Emil’s bloody mouth, and I almost reached down for the club to bash his brains in for good. Instead, I laughed and took a step back.
“This little girl just beat your ass. Again.”
I heard Baylock giggle.
“But we’re not done yet.”
“Would you shut up and kill me already?”
I believed that Emil had a death wish in that moment. He wanted to die, and I wasn’t about to give him anything he wanted.
“Get up.”
“Why?”
“I said to get up.”
I heard men talking—some thought I should kill him while others wanted to lock him up and make him suffer for everything he’d done. I felt sure Emil would have preferred that, had he known what was coming.
“Go east, as far away from here as you possibly can.” I looked around at the slack-jawed faces staring at me. “You were a prisoner too and I believe everyone deserves a second chance. Don’t ever come back here. Do you understand?”
Emil nodded. I punched him in the gut.
“Say you understand.”
“I understand.”
The cro
wd split as Emil stumbled toward the gate. The rain had stopped, and the clouds parted.
“I don’t want to see your scarred face ever again.”
He kept walking as others rushed to my side and began treating my wounds. Baylock pushed them back.
“I’ll take care of her. Tend to the others.”
They all turned and walked back into the village, Kora’s and Wyllow’s people side by side. I’d started to follow them when Baylock put his hand on my arm.
“Wait,” he said.
He came forward, his arms outstretched. I fell forward as his arms wrapped around me. Then I closed my eyes, hearing the beat of his heart and feeling the warmth of his embrace.
“I’ll never let you go,” he said.
I drew back slightly, gazing up at him through the rain.
“I know.”
He smiled, lowering his chin and brushing his lips ever so slightly against mine.
46
“She’s breathing.”
I looked at the man tending to Kora on the road in front of her home and I realized that this was probably the best news he’d shared in hours. It would be days before they knew for certain how many would survive their injuries, but dozens of bodies lay bloodied and broken in the mud. The battle had decimated nearly everyone it touched. They always did.
“Will she make it?”
The man shrugged, choosing not to answer my question. Kora began to move as we watched, groaning as she struggled to look at me.
I smiled.
“Hey there.”
“Hey.” Her lips spread into a weak smile. “What happened? Emil, did he—”
“Emil won’t be a worry any longer. He’s delivering a message to Drake. It’s over.”
Kora sat up, wincing and knocking away the hands trying to keep her still so they could bandage her wounds. We turned at the same time to see another bloodied warrior approaching.
“Wyllow?” Kora shook her head. “Why? I accused you of murder. Our clan history. I don’t understand. Why did you come and fight with us?”
Wyllow pointed at me.
“The note she wrote me made me realize what was at stake if we didn’t come together. We may have been enemies in the past, but we don’t have to be in the future. Our people shed blood here, and now we have a sacred duty to protect the lives we saved. It is what the Solaris believe, whether you like it or not.”
Kora shook her head, looking from me to Wyllow.
“We thought you left us. Deserted. I had myself convinced you turned and ran.”
“I did, but I planned on coming back all along.”
With the help of two villagers, Kora stood up. She raised her chin, wiping tears from her cheeks with the backs of her hands before looking Wyllow in the eye.
“Thank you.” The words came in a slow, dry whisper. “I’m sorry for what I said about you and for accusing you of something you didn’t do.”
“Is this the one?” Saul came walking over. The old man’s beard had been dyed red with blood and he was missing his cane, but he looked otherwise unhurt. “The one who rode into battle to fight alongside their enemy?”
I stepped forward. “Yes. It was Wyllow who brought her clan to your village.”
In a flurry of white hair and robe, Saul engulfed Wyllow. He hugged her, and cheers went up from those who had gathered around.
“And you.” Saul released Wyllow and turned his magnetic smile on me. “You were prepared to give your life for us.”
I stood there, unable to find the words to describe how I was feeling. Saul continued.
“Your leadership skills are far greater than any I’ve spent a lifetime developing. Will you stay here and help us rebuild?”
Baylock, Kora, Wyllow, and all the villagers from both clans stopped. They looked at me and waited. I could have said what they wanted to hear, but that wasn’t what needed to be said.
“No.”
A gasp was followed by hushed words.
“I can’t stay. None of us can. Emil will deliver the message to Drake and then he will come for vengeance. I only bought us time, nothing else.”
Saul shook his head and spoke to the others. “She’s right.”
“We won’t be able to defend ourselves against the army that Drake can gather from inside the prison’s walls.” Wyllow raised her hands and sighed. “We can’t stay here, and we can’t go back to my village. We’re out of options.”
“Unless…”
I waited, realizing the fate of dozens, possibly hundreds of people, hung on my next words.
“Unless you come with me back to Seattle. Some will die on the road and there will be a battle waiting for us, an even more violent one than we waged today. But if we defeat Lord Corvus and take the Nest from the Crows, we can all live the rest of our lives free of war and poverty.”
An older woman stepped up from the crowd. Her snow-white hair had been slicked back against her scalp, accentuating the sharp features of her face and the ice blue in her eyes. She wore black from head to toe while a leather scabbard hung off her hip.
“I’m Aurora, head of the Solaris. Wyllow believes in you. Therefore, I believe in you.” She looked at Saul. “But we have decades of hostility between us—”
“That ended today.” Saul reached out and took Aurora’s hand amidst a chorus of clapping and cheers.
I didn’t want to dampen the moment, but I knew that time was moving, and it was not on our side. Depending on how quickly Emil walked, we had but a few days until Drake discovered that he’d lost his product and his army. To me.
“Our only hope is to the west.” Kora had spoken for me, and Wyllow nodded.
The late afternoon sun reflected off the mountains and, for a moment, it drew my attention skyward. There, soaring toward the western horizon, was my bald eagle.
“True. But please understand that Lord Corvus is a force of darkness, a man without a soul who will do everything he can to not only defeat us, but to destroy us and wipe my people from the history of the Lowlands. Our odds of beating his well-armed and trained army is slim. Most of us will die.”
Saul sighed. “Trading an old enemy for a new one. We shall. Aurora?”
“Almost certain death. How could we refuse?”
The two former enemies turned allies embraced and I saw the smiles on the faces of my friends, Kora and Wyllow. Behind them, Baylock winked at me.
“Then we will bring the fight to Corvus.” I looked around, thinking of Asher and everything I’d lost… but now with hopes of reclaiming some semblance of my life.
When I raised my head again, the eagle was gone. And my grandfather whispered from the mountaintop so that only I could hear it.
Coming Soon
Revolution
Stone the Crows Book Three
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About J. Thorn
J. Thorn is a Top 100 Most Popular Author in Horror, Science Fiction, Action & Adventure and Fantasy (Amazon Author Rank). He has published two million words and has sold more than 185,000 books worldwide. In March of 2014 Thorn held the #5 position in Horror alongside his childhood idols Dean Koontz and Stephen King (at #4 and #2 respectively). He is an official member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, the Horror Writers Association, and the Great Lakes Association of Horror Writers.
Thorn earned a B.A. in American History from the University of Pittsburgh and a M.A. from Duquesne University. He is a full-time writer, part-time professor at John Carroll University, co-owner of Molten Universe Media, podcaster, FM radio DJ, musician, and a certified Story Grid nerd.
For More Information
www.jthorn.net
[email protected]
About Zach Bohannon
Zach Bohannon is a horror, science fiction, and fantasy author. His critically acclaimed post-apoc
alyptic zombie series, Empty Bodies, is a former Amazon #1 bestseller. He lives in Tennessee with his wife, daughter, and German shepherd. He loves hockey, heavy metal, video games, reading, and he doesn’t trust a beer he can see through. He’s a retired drummer, and has had a beard since 2003—long before it was cool.
For More Information
www.zachbohannon.com
[email protected]
About Kim Petersen
Kim Petersen is author of The Ascended Angels Series. A paranormal thriller about angels on earth, love and demons. Her debut novel, Millie’s Angel received a gold award in the 2017 Dan Poynter’s Global eBook Awards. She lives in Australia where the sun shines most of the year and she secretly wishes for more rain. She loves to explore the meta-physical aspects of life, and the universal bonds of love and friendship – then finds expression through creating works of urban fantasy, paranormal and dystopian fiction.
For More Information
http://bit.ly/kimpetersen
