by Tora Moon
All of them bowed their head in shame. “Sorry, Alpha,” Maellyn muttered. “It won’t happen again.”
“Good. Time for a change. Put down your helbraughts.” She ignored their disappointed muttering as they obeyed and waved the rest of her squad-pack over, including Laynar.
“Form up with the new ones in between you so they can see someone wherever they turn.” When Maendy hesitated, Rizelya urged her to join them. She looked at their positions and rearranged them until they were to her satisfaction.
“These first forms are similar to the ones you’ve been taught, but then we’ll move to more advanced forms. Learn them well. These will teach your body to move when your mind is busy fighting the monsters.” Rizelya then took position in front. They moved through all the forms once, then twice. Sweat drenched her body and she knew the others were similarly soaked. She indicated to Laynar to take the lead for the third set. Rizelya wandered around her new pupils, making small corrections here and there. Overall, they were picking up the new forms fast.
“Now get your helbraughts,” Rizelya ordered. Aistrun and Eidstrun went to the wall and picked up tall staffs. They didn’t have enough magic to feed into the blades of the helbraughts, but the staffs were good training. She led them through the fighting forms using the helbraughts. Again, the new fighters were picking it up well.
After a short break, she gathered them into a group. She looked at her squad-pack. “You know the training drills. Pick a partner and work with them.”
In a few moments, Rizelya and Maendy stood alone. The rest were scattered throughout the practice arena. Maendy held a helbraught and looked hopeful.
“I know I can’t fight, but teach me anyway,” she pleaded.
If her premonitions were true, they needed as many fighters as they could get. Maendy seemed to be the leader of this little squad-pack and would likely form another one if Rizelya took this one with her. “All right, but you can’t teach others,” Rizelya warned, then winked.
“Of course, I won’t,” Maendy said, nodding her head.
It was after midnight when Rizelya finally called a halt to the training. The new fighters were making good progress. They had moved from forms to partner fighting and then on to attacking the illusion monsters. This time, Rizelya had them work in teams like they would in a real battle, rather than alone. The techniques the new girls used to destroy the monsters were different enough that it was taking Leistral, Dehali, and the warriors some time to get used to it and fall into a rhythm. If they added more of these types of fighters into the fighting-packs, they would need some new training drills for them all.
Rizelya sighed, then shrugged. What was another new thing added to all the others she’d been teaching lately?
The next phase of the experiment would be in a real battle with the monsters. If the monster nests followed the same pattern, it wouldn’t be long before the new fighters were tested.
***
The sun was just peeking out into the world when the sound of running feet woke Rizelya. Groaning, she wrapped a blanket around her and poked her head out the door. “What’s happening?” she asked the first person to run past her.
“All three nests in this valley have somehow formed adult monsters! Hurry, we need everyone.” The woman continued down the corridor, pounding on doors, and yelling for people to get a move on.
Rizelya threw on clothes, swiped a cleaning brush at her teeth, and splashed water on her face. Her hair was still braided from the day before, although several strands had worked loose and were hanging in her face. She’d re-braid it later. Stamping her feet into her boots, she noticed her leg didn’t hurt. She grabbed her helbraught as she raced out and nearly ran into Aistrun. He had his hand up to knock on her door.
“Hey, you’re ready. Good.” He hurried with her down the corridor. “We’ve sent Red leathers and capes to our new friends. There will be enough commotion no one will notice a few extra fighters. If they keep their hoods up until we get to the nest, no one will know they aren’t Reds.”
“Good thinking. We’ll keep them with us. Make sure our people work with them. This will be their first experience with real, live monsters. Damn, I wish we could have worked with the illusions again this morning.”
Pandemonium reigned outside as three platoons of fighters rushed to get horses saddled. Nervous whinnies and shouts filled the air. Their squad-pack, now doubled, had their horses out of the stable and in a relatively quiet corner near the pastures. Aistrun was right; no one was paying attention to their increased number.
“Saehala wants us to go with the second platoon,” Laynar told them when they arrived. “Their nest is the largest and we have the most experience. She sent Gehan to work with us.”
“How very nice of her,” Rizelya said with a grin. “Now we don’t have to steal her away.”
“The second platoon leader wants us to gather,” Laynar said, looking up. “See the teal and purple striped flag? That’s ours for the day.”
“Mount up and stay together!” Rizelya ordered her squad-pack. She smiled with pride when they all stepped into their stirrups and swung onto their horses at the same time, even Keandran. Rizelya hadn’t seen him since yesterday morning. She wasn’t sure how he had spent the day, but it hadn’t been helping with the training.
They rode to join the others at the waving flag. Within moments, the flag snapped forward. Heels struck flanks and the horses raced out of the keep gates at a gallop. They didn’t have much time to get to the nest before the monsters warmed up enough to leave. Rizelya kept an eye on her new pack members. Although everyone learned to ride horses, most didn’t ride as often or as far as fighters. Maellyn had a death grip on her reins and a determined and frightened look on her face. But she stayed in her seat. All the others were riding well. Gehan grinned widely and laughed with joy at the fast run.
Less than an octar later, the platoon alpha clattered to a stop. Down below them the nest roiled with monsters, tentacles caressing spikes. It wouldn’t be long before the monsters left the nest. The platoon stopped far enough away the janacks wouldn’t sense their heat. Rizelya had her squad wait with the horses while she went to the platoon alpha, whom she recognized her as one of Reds she’d trained yesterday, to find out where her pack would be fighting.
“I want your squad-pack to hang back until the control janack is spotted, if there is one,” the platoon alpha told her.
“Oh, there is, I have no doubt,” Rizelya said. She could hear the hum. “I haven’t seen a nest lately without one. They usually send the rest out of the nest first. Are you sure you don’t want to go after the control janack?”
The woman shuddered. “No. I suspect I’ll have plenty of practice later. This nest is huge. I’ll be busy as it is.” She started to turn away to give orders to her other seconds, but turned back to Rizelya. “Keep Gehan safe, okay? She’s here to learn, not to get killed.”
“She’ll be treated like one of my own pack,” Rizelya assured her. If this worked, she planned on taking the new fighters with her to the Clan-Keep, with or without Saehala’s permission.
She walked back to where her squad-pack waited. The horses had been taken to a small ravine to hide them during the fight. “We get the control janack.” She turned to Keandran. “You’ll behave, won’t you? No running into the swamp, right?”
“No, Alpha,” he said sullenly. “Whatever the White Priestess did, I don’t feel antsy being around the monsters like I did before. I should be good.”
She hadn’t known he’d felt like that around the monsters, or more specifically around the control janack. She looked at his pale blue eyes. He was the only one affected by their call and he was the only one with some Blue Talent. She looked thoughtfully at Saffren, then made a decision. They had a few milcrons yet before the fighting started.
“Saffren, walk with me,” she called. The woman looked startled to be singled out, but hurried over to Rizelya. When they were far enough away their conversation would
be private, Rizelya asked, “Do you hear anything or feel different?”
Saffren started to shake her head then stopped. “At first I thought I was picking up on all our nervousness, but now you mention it, I think it’s something different.” She closed her eyes in concentration and then sounding disturbed, said, “There’s something calling to me, wanting me to join it.”
“Can you block the call or resist it? I think it’s the control janack.”
Saffren opened her eyes and frowned. “Of course I can. I don’t want to answer the call. It’s slimy and nasty. One of the things we’re taught is how to shield from all the emotions bombarding us. I’m a strong Blue, so my shields are also strong. Now I’m aware of the call, I can shield from it.” She looked at Rizelya confused. “But how did you know about it? You aren’t a Blue.”
“Keandran is a very weak Blue. We’ve had problems with him suddenly leaving the fight and wandering into the nearby swamp. He just mentioned he felt antsy around the monsters.”
“He’s so weak I doubt anyone taught him to shield. He wouldn’t pick up very many emotions.” Saffren gazed at Keandran, rubbing her upper arms. When she looked back at Rizelya, her eyes were haunted. “He picks up more than he shows. He gives me the creeps. He reminds me of a man I knew when I was a child. He had the same pale, watery blue eyes. The only emotion he could pick up and feel was pain. He enjoyed hurting people. He started on animals and then progressed to people. The alpha had to put him down, like the rabid dog he had become.”
“We caught Keandran purposefully hurting the horses. It’s why he rides the brute Tejen. He can’t bully him.”
“Watch him carefully, Rizelya,” Saffren warned. “He hates you … and your entire squad-pack.”
Rizelya could hear the sounds of fighting and the hum was getting loud enough she couldn’t ignore it any longer. “We need to go. It’s time.”
They ran back to the squad-pack and they all hurried to the nest. The control janack hadn’t shown itself yet. There were already three janacks surrounded by Reds and warriors. Another one boiled out of the nest along with six brechas. This was the biggest nest they had fought so far. Now she could see the control janack. It remained in the nest while four brechas stalked in front of it, for all the world looking like guards.
They stopped a few feet away from the edge of the fighting. Rizelya looked over at Saffren. “You okay?”
Saffren nodded, her face tight with strain. “It’s just much stronger the closer we get to that thing. Ah, there, got it.” Her face relaxed. “Ready to fight, Alpha.”
Dehali and Gehan worked together and within moments a new type of cold-air shield was up. It formed a tunnel around the fighting, leading directly to the nest. Another cold-air shield was going up around the nest. Rizelya nodded at her team and they ran through the tunnel to the nest. By the time they reached the nest, Rizelya had her fire shield up. The control janack screamed in frustration while the brechas widened their perimeter trying to sense them.
They only had three warriors to assist eight women. Her squad-pack broke up into teams. Leistral and Eidstrun were in a group with Gehan, Raeleen, and Saffren. Dehali and Keandran were with Laynar, Maellyn, and Grazeen. Aistrun and Rizelya formed the third team. She prayed Keandran wouldn’t run out on them.
Although she wanted to watch how her new squad-pack fought, the screech of the control janack reminded her she had a job to do. Giving Aistrun the signal to attack, she ran toward the control janack.
She rolled under a flailing tentacle before it could crash down on her. As it began its upward swing, she jumped on it, riding it up until she could leap from the tentacle onto the head. Her helbraught was already so filled with fire magic, flames were licking the blade. This one was so busy directing its minions, it didn’t try to stop her. She severed the protrusion, gritting her teeth against the howl from the controller of the janack, and thrust her helbraught deep into the monster.
“Blowing!” she yelled as she leaped from her perch toward where the protrusion had landed. She rolled and got to her feet in a run toward it. She tried something like what Gehan and Saffren did and directed her magic out through her helbraught. A gout of flame erupted from the end of the blade and engulfed the protrusion.
This time as the protrusion was destroyed there wasn’t the searing pain as the woman screamed in rage. Rizelya sank to the ground, waiting to pass out, as monster bits rained down around her. She looked around in surprise when it stopped and she was still conscious.
She started laughing when she saw the state of the monsters around her. One brecha was boiling on one side while the other side was turning to stone and crumbling. The front half of another one was rotting while the back was molten lava. She turned to see the other two brechas had suffered similar fates.
Her experiment worked! Other Talents could—and did—kill the monsters just as effectively as the Reds.
***
It was a celebratory group that rode back to Strunven Keep. They didn’t have any casualties and only minor wounds while all the monsters from the nest had been destroyed.
Rizelya’s experimental group had made quite an impression on the rest of the platoon. Apparently most of the rest of the fighting had been over by the time they fought the last two brechas and everyone had seen them.
Rizelya dropped back to ride next to Saffren. “How are you doing?”
Saffren smiled at her. “Quite well, actually. Better than I thought I would. The monsters don’t have any emotions except all-consuming hunger. I wasn’t bothered with ending their hunger by killing them. It was much easier after the control janack was killed and I didn’t have to block its call any longer. If it weren’t for the control janack, I think other Blues would do all right fighting the monsters. However, with it around, I suggest only strong Blues who have very good shields get anywhere close. Its call is powerful. Posairs with weak Blue Talent wouldn’t be able to resist it.” She looked at Keandran, who rode ahead of them. “It’s no wonder he cannot. The call appeals to his twisted senses.”
“If the call is so powerful, why are only Blues affected and not the rest of us?” Rizelya was now worried they would have to fight more than just the monsters. So far, she was the only one who heard the damned hum.
Saffren thought about it for a while, and then answered, “Because it’s an emotional call of yearning. All the fighters I know have a strong sense of pack, of belonging to something greater than themselves. The call is alluring to those who don’t have that; it promises someplace where they belong, fit in, and are wanted.”
“What is the call of the control janack trying to do? Lure them away from the group and kill them individually?”
“Yes, it’s a lure. Whether to kill them or something else, I don’t know.” Saffren looked as confused as Rizelya felt.
“Then we make sure no one with weak Blue Talent fights the monsters,” Rizelya decided.
“More than that,” Saffren added, “there can be no fighters who don’t feel they belong with the pack. It will take those as surely as a weak Blue.”
“Well, we’ve learned quite a bit from this battle.” She grinned at Saffren. “We learned you and the others can fight and we learned more about the control janack. A good day’s work.”
A short time later, the platoon rode through the keep gates. The other platoons were already there, unsaddling their horses. The two new keep alphas, Saehala and Saehalstrun, were waiting for reports on the porch of the Keep House. They were still dirty, and a smear of blood ran down Saehala’s cheek from a spatter of monster ichor. Her eyes narrowed in anger when she saw the women riding with Rizelya. Saehala angrily gestured to Rizelya to join them.
Rizelya dismounted and gave Kymaya’s reins to Leistral. She limped a bit as she walked. The running and jumping during the battle had made her bad leg ache again. She hoped it was muscle strain from the days of inactivity rather than a new surge of narhili poison.
“What’s the meaning of taking non-fighte
rs with you?” Saehala demanded, fists on her hips, her face rigid with anger. “They could have been killed. You were very irresponsible.”
“No, I wasn’t, Saehala,” Rizelya said defensively as she walked up the steps. “They were there to fight, just like we discussed yesterday.” She couldn’t hold back her excitement even in the face of Saehala’s anger. She stepped closer, grinning. “You should have seen it. Their magic works wonderfully to kill the monsters. Gehan and Saffren boiled one side of a brecha while Raeleen turned the other side to stone. Grazeen had the front half of her brecha rotting while Maellyn turned the back half into lava. Not one of them hesitated. It worked.”
“My girls did well, then?” Maendy anxiously asked, stepping out of the shadows. “None hurt?”
“Not a scratch or burn. They did a very good job,” Rizelya assured Maendy. She turned to Saehala and Saehalstrun. “I want to take them with me to Strunlair Keep for the clan meeting Keshanal called. We need to show the other territory alphas other Talents can fight, not just the Reds.”
“What clan meeting?” Saehalstrun asked, eyebrows furrowed.
“Oh, damn. With everything else happening, I forgot to tell you. Keshanal has called a clan meeting for the first day of Sandar to discuss the new control janacks and the rest of the unusual monster behavior.”
“That’s eight days away,” Saehala exclaimed. “We shouldn’t leave the keep so soon after the challenge.”
“But we must,” Saehalstrun disagreed. “We must tell the Clan Alphas of our challenge and the reason. We needed to go sooner or later.”
Saehala sighed unhappily. “You’re right. I’d prefer it to be later though.” She looked at Rizelya. “We’ll go with you to Strunlair Keep.”
“It was expected. And Maendy’s girls?”
The keep alphas looked at each other and then shrugged. Saehala, still unhappy, answered, “Of course. You talked us into the need for this experiment. Our approval may help with the others. If we’re to reach Strunlair Keep with time to rest before the meeting, we’ll need to leave in the morning. There’s much to do before then.”
