White Angel

by R A Oakes

  Contributing to the wall’s demise was the fact that nothing at all was now holding the two halves of the fortification together, the stone archway above the entrance having been snapped in two. And although the front gates had remained closed and locked, with the hinges on the right side still being bolted to the intact half of the fortification, the hinges on the left side had been ripped apart severing the last connecting link.

  As the ground began shaking, Lord Pensgraft’s horse and many others reared up on their hind legs, while warriors nearest the fortification stumbled around trying to keep their balance.

  “Look!” Lt. Nantaric shouted filled with enthusiasm and excitement. “This is exactly what King Ulray’s written instructions had said would happen.”

  Everyone was watching breathlessly as the collapsing half of the fortification teetered precariously above the ravine seemingly reluctant to take the plunge. But as the edge of the cliff began giving way, the wall tilted just a bit more, putting it past the point of no return.

  Finally, with a mighty groan, the doomed half of the fortification fell off the mountainside.

  Striking nothing on the way down, the cliff literally being a straight drop, the huge wall silently awaited its fate. However, the ravine was so deep that when the fortification did finally end its downward journey, the sound of the crash was muffled and the rubble hidden from view, a cloud of dust filling the base of the chasm and hovering in the air.

  Pulling their eyes off the devastation, Lord Pensgraft, General Tark, Captain Jeriana and Lt. Nantaric grimly observed the thousands of gargoyles visible now that half the fortification had disappeared.

  “Lt. Nantaric, you and your men will lead the charge,” Lord Pensgraft said. “Captain Jeriana, you’ll break through the stone slab over there uncovering yet another tunnel similar to the ones you’ve used at the other fortifications. By now, the winged apes might not realize you’ll still be attacking them as before, so inflict as much damage as possible.”

  “With pleasure, my lord,” the warrior woman said.

  “Also, tell your archers to lay down a protective cover for Lt. Nantaric’s warriors, so they can reach the fortification without being fired upon by the enemy’s own archers.”

  “Yes, my lord,”

  “And have General Tark’s warriors use their shields to provide you with cover again until you’re inside the tunnel.”

  “Whatever you wish, my lord.”

  “General Tark, use the catapults to lob a few containers of oil over the remaining half of the fortification to remind the gargoyles that they’ll all be in hell very shortly.”

  “Yes, my lord.”

  “And have the army follow closely behind Lt. Nantaric and his men.”

  “Absolutely, my lord.”

  Thrusting his sword high into the air, Lord Pensgraft shouted, “For your loved ones, that they might live free, let us finally put an end to the rampant madness of gargoyles. For those of you who dream of achieving a life that’s both safe and secure, well the time is now and the place is here. Now send these gargoyles into the abyss. Attack!”

  Immediately, Lt. Nantaric and King Tarlen’s personal guards rode forward on their warhorses screaming battle cries. It was the last fortification they had to get past before they could be reunited with their king, the man they had raised since he was just a boy of six.

  Captain Jeriana’s archers began cutting down the gargoyles most exposed by the fallen half of the fortification. But once the king’s personal guards engaged the enemy, the women turned to follow their sisters who had already broken through into a new tunnel and were running the length of it.

  Eager to catch up, the archers gripped their bows and raced through the entrance.

  Chapter 29

  Dominion Castle, halfway around the perimeter of the outside walls.

  More gargoyles, hundreds more, were fleeing into the castle seeking refuge from the razor-sharp spears that kept shooting up from the walkway floor as King Tarlen, Genevieve, King Ulray, Chen and her warrior women, Captain Polaris and 20 members of the king’s personal guard, Tenacity and her village women, Jewel, Flame, Lord Grenitar, Chaktar and 140 tigers were wreaking further havoc on the demoralized winged apes.

  News of Swarenth’s having murdered General Takanar, coupled with details of the warlord’s attack on Balzekior, along with rumors that the old hag had lost her powers or was greatly weakened, were further undermining the resolve of Swarenth’s warriors. Faced with being skewered by spears on the walkway above or clawed by enraged tigers in the courtyard below, an increasing number of gargoyles could see no reason for sacrificing their lives for Swarenth, a warlord who’d always used cruelty and terror to control those around him.

  Therefore, even though Swarenth was a sadistic monster, and in spite of the fear he’d instilled in his warriors over the years, the anger and disappointment his troops felt towards him was growing rapidly. Their warlord’s steadfast refusal to share in the risks and dangers they had to endure was a strong source of resentment. Swarenth’s warriors imagined him being in the castle’s highest tower feeling safe and secure, at least for now.

  But far below Dominion Castle’s throne room, pressure on the winged apes continued to intensify. Flame and Jewel were on a rampage, flying so close to their enemy that the gargoyles’ tunics were catching on fire sending them screaming inside the castle towers desperate to avoid being incinerated.

  While still straddling one of Lord Grenitar’s giant tigers, Chen made a quick assessment of the situation and shouted, “Be careful not to get overconfident. Remember, never underestimate the enemy. And never, ever, assume victory.”

  Pointing her sword at the fleeing gargoyles up ahead, the black leather panther shouted, “I want all Tenacity’s village women to listen up. These are the males who’ve been savagely raping you and your friends over the years. They’ve taken pleasure in your pain, now take pleasure in theirs. Cut them down!”

  Seeing the army of angry women bearing down upon them, the terrified winged apes began abandoning their posts in huge numbers, some trying to warn their fellow warriors up ahead calling out, “Crazed women riding giant tigers are all over the place. And the walls are booby-trapped. Get off them while you can.”

  “How many invaders are there?” a gargoyle yelled back.

  “We don’t know, but they seem to be everywhere. The castle’s lost, run for your lives!”

  In actuality, there was a total of just over 340 humans and tigers responsible for scaring the daylights out of these fleeing gargoyles who were now tripping and falling over themselves in their eagerness to retreat. Way up ahead, gargoyle warriors were clearing off the outer walls even before the humans and tigers had gotten anywhere close to them.

  However, not all gargoyle warriors were seeking refuge inside the castle towers. Without realizing it, Chen’s forces were driving hundreds of winged apes along the base of the outside walls channeling them towards the front gates. And many were heading in that direction willingly, fiercely determined not only to get away from spears and tigers but to get completely out of the castle. These winged apes were unaware that the front gates had been destroyed and that Lord Pensgraft and his warriors were getting closer to the top of the mountain. All they knew is they wanted out.

  However, an unexpected consequence of clearing the outer walls was that Aerylln would soon be sandwiched between two mobs of desperate gargoyles, one being anxious to escape the human army advancing up the mountain trail, and the other being this flood of gargoyles Chen was inadvertently sending in the direction of her stepdaughter.

  Back at Dominion Castle’s front entrance, Marcheto, Prophet, Zorya, Baelfire, White Angel 19 and the White Angels from the future were occupying the very spot where these two rivers of winged apes were about to converge.

  “I feel energy building up and intensifying along the western side of the castle,” Marcheto said to Prophet. “Something’s heading our way.”

  “More gargoyles
?” the tiger warrior angel asked. Prophet had been so infused with light energy from Marcheto’s earlier incantation in the tiger compound that the formerly invisible tiger angel could be seen and heard quite clearly.

  “If it’s gargoyles, there must be an awful lot of them. I’m sensing a flood of energy coming at us from maybe a quarter-mile down in that direction,” Marcheto said pointing west.

  After Chen and her combined force of humans and tigers had headed eastward along the castle’s outer walls, Marcheto and Prophet had assumed the job of keeping the gargoyles stationed along the western side of the castle from following them and attacking from behind. To accomplish that, Marcheto had used an incantation to create a force field sealing off the western outside wall and the inside courtyard next to it. The force field was also preventing gargoyles along the western side of the castle from attacking the front entrance, something Marcheto viewed as being even more important since both he and his girlfriend were helping to guard it.

  However, Lord Pensgraft didn’t know his daughter was about to be caught between two hordes of retreating winged apes. And Chen had no idea she was participating in the potential destruction of the youngest White Angel, as well as those from the future. Even Swarenth, perched high above in Dominion Castle’s throne room, couldn’t see what was happening.

  But Balzekior knew.

  Using her demon eyes, the conniving old hag was witnessing the dual retreat and thinking, Now isn’t this a pleasant surprise?

  Eager to be part of Aerylln’s demise, the old crone strained to overcome her nearly debilitating fatigue, dredging up the last of her destructive energy and transforming into a red- hot, fire-breathing lava woman engulfed in flames.

  Earlier, before Aerylln destroyed Balzekior’s underground lake of fire, the old crone had possessed the ability to change into a towering 30-foot-tall lava monster, but in her weakened condition the demon woman could barely manage half that size. And though clothed in flames, Balzekior was no longer the raging bonfire she once had been.

  Bitterly disappointed, Balzekior looked with hatred at the youngest White Angel, who she felt was responsible for all her troubles. Clenching her fists and letting out a loud roar, the lava woman leapt off the balcony of an upper-story window looking very much like another fire creature, Flame, Chen’s “bodyguard.” However, Flame was made from the hot coals of a wood fire, whereas Balzekior’s lava monster was composed of molten rock. This made her bulkier, heavier and denser and, in her weakened condition, also meant she couldn’t fly.

  So Balzekior literally fell like a stone, a flame-covered stone, lighting up the nighttime sky and wailing hideously the whole way down. After landing in an explosion of smoke and flames as molten rock crashed against the stone courtyard floor, she began laughing at a surprised Marcheto and asked, “Do you really think you can hold me back, with only your pathetic, measly energy shield separating us?”

  Immediately, the young wizard experienced a dark chill creeping through his soul. It was like being near a putrid, decaying body, a rotting corpse giving off a horrendous stench. He felt like vomiting.

  Balzekior pounded her fists against Marcheto’s energy barrier, laughing once more, and asked, “What’s the matter? Don’t you have the stomach for this kind of thing? I thought you were supposed to be Eldwyn’s heir. What a disappointment you must be. What a waste of the time and effort he put into training you.”

  Marcheto tried to break away from this perverse, insane creature, but she’d locked onto his inner consciousness somehow and continued her assault pumping spiritual sewage into him.

  “What’s the point of pretending you can change anything here?” Balzekior taunted. “In a short while, you’ll be dead. See all those gargoyles running along the base of the wall? Well, they’re heading right for your precious energy shield. How long do you think you can hold against that onslaught? You’re finished. You’re done for. It’s over.”

  The young wizard was certain he was drowning in a sea of madness. He felt an undertow sucking him down and began blacking out. But then Balzekior made a mistake, the same mistake she’d made when fighting Chen for control of Crystal Castle.

  She threatened Aerylln.

  “Don’t kid yourself, whether your girlfriend’s in angelic or human form, she can be defeated,” Balzekior laughed. “She has weaknesses like everyone else. I’ll get to her, but I won’t kill her. I’ll capture her and give her to Swarenth as a present. When he’s done with her, I’ll have Aerylln servicing gargoyle warriors. A lot of them.”

  “She’ll never do that,” Marcheto tried to shout but, close to collapsing, only managed a barely audible whisper. Yet even so, he was determined to somehow stop the lava woman from harming his girlfriend, the only woman he’d ever cared about, the only woman who was truly good for him. She wasn’t the easiest person to get along with, being so headstrong and opinionated, but he had come to respect her intelligence and her judgment. There was no one else like Aerylln, at least for him.

  “Maybe not at the beginning,” Balzekior said undeterred. “But there are worse things than being a whore for gargoyles. I’ll torture her so badly that when I stop and have her service some winged apes, it’ll seem like a reprieve.”

  “You’re sick.”

  “You have no idea. By the way, speaking of illness, how are you feeling?” Balzekior asked smiling wickedly while continuing to exert her depraved, penetrating influence over the young mystic.

  As a violent wave of nausea swept over him, Marcheto dropped to one knee gagging, yet kept firm hold of his wizard’s staff and maintained the force field separating himself and the others from this flaming lava woman. But with his strength failing, the young wizard knew he couldn’t endure much longer.

  White Angel 19 had heard Balzekior’s threats and was trying to ignore them, but when she saw how badly the flaming lava woman was hurting Marcheto in spite of the force field’s protection, she rode over to her boyfriend, put a reassuring arm around his waist and lifted him up onto Zorya’s back.

  Turning to the lava woman, the youngest White Angel said emphatically, “You’re wrong, Balzekior. I’d never willingly accept mistreatment.”

  “Yes you would, eventually. If I took you captive and gave you to Swarenth for a few days by himself, he’d break you mentally and physically, even without my assistance. There’s nothing you could do about it.”

  “Oh, yes there is. There’s plenty I could do.”

  “Not without a weapon to defend yourself. You’d have no sword, no knife and no arrows.”

  “I’d have my courage.”

  “That wouldn’t help you.”

  “Sure it would. Swarenth has a quick temper and is easily angered, isn’t that true?”

  “You’ll be finding that out for yourself,” the evil lava woman snickered.

  “I’d taunt Swarenth mercilessly and humiliate him. He’d kill me even before getting my clothes off. If he became blinded by rage, maybe I could get my hands on a weapon, and then I’d fight to the death with it.”

  “You talk big for a little girl.”

  “I’m White Angel. I’m not so little now.”

  “It makes no difference. You might act brave, but if Swarenth had you in his clutches, you’d do anything to stay alive, anything.”

  “That’s what you did, isn’t it? You sold yourself out, didn’t you?”

  “Shut up.”

  “You’re talking about yourself, aren’t you?”

  “I said shut up!”

  “You’ve wasted your life, Balzekior, haven’t you? Listing all the bad decisions you’ve made would be virtually impossible but wrecking other people’s lives won’t help. What will is accepting personal responsibility for your poor choices. However, you’ve turned your back on the Creative Light and chosen to live in total darkness. No one forced you to go that route, it was your decision, and that makes it your responsibility. And you keep making the same mistakes over and over, don’t you? You’ll never learn.”
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  “White Angel, nice girls like you make me sick. All you do is spread lies. You say things will get better, but they don’t. You talk about a brighter day tomorrow that never comes. In reality, the only constant is pain. The only truth is suffering. Nice girls like you breed unhappiness and dissatisfaction. You talk about things that never were. And you promise things that will never be.”

  “Balzekior, you’re so blind. It’s like you’re totally surrounded by fresh snow, and the reflecting sunlight becomes so intense it can cause temporary blindness. The darkness you see all around you isn’t caused by a lack of decency in the world but by an abundance of it. The darkness isn’t reality. It’s a temporary condition, a serious one to be sure, but not permanent.”

  “Your lies are full of venom, and your words are invitingly optimistic but poisonous.”

  “Poisonous to you, maybe, but reassuring to those who cling to their hopes and dreams, even in the face of horrific odds.”

  “You can’t get to me. I’ve been practicing deception for a lot longer than you. I was around 500 years ago when Baelfire was born, and I’ll be around long after you’re dead.”

  “The only one you’re deceiving is yourself. You’re an endless cycle of failure, aren’t you?”

  “You little whore, I’ll kill you!” Balzekior shouted as she pounded both fists against the force field.

  However, while White Angel 19 was confronting the flaming lava woman, Marcheto’s mind had a chance to clear. Summoning his strength, he shoved his wizard’s staff forward and rammed his force field up against Balzekior knocking her completely off balance.

  “Okay, now drop the energy shield,” White Angel 19 said to her boyfriend who immediately complied.

  Leaping forward, Zorya slammed into Balzekior sending her crashing against a stone wall across from the front entrance. Prophet then jumped onto the flaming lava creature sinking his teeth deeply into her shoulder. Being made primarily of light, the tiger angel didn’t feel the searing heat pouring off Balzekior and savored the sweet sound of his enemy crying out in pain.