The Tek chuckled as he strutted past his first-in-command. “Rasi, huh? Since you here, you must be worthy.” He then spoke something in his native tongue followed by the name Rayles.
The other Tek, the one he called Rayles, swung his sword at Dru’s restraints. Dru thudded to the ground. Rasi took another unsure step.
The head Tek spoke in Epertasian. “I am Commander Zaffka. If you defeat me, you go free.” He lifted his helmet from its position against his hip and fastened it over his scar-covered head.
Dru struggled to his knees.
“He, however,” Zaffka said, “should be punished.”
Panic gripped Rasi’s chest. He ran toward Dru. With the speed of a serpent, Zaffka spun and drove his blade deep into Dru’s chest.
Alina screamed.
Rasi stopped in horror.
Dru stiffened, momentarily, and then collapsed onto his face.
Zaffka turned back with a glare. “Now you know the stakes.”
Rasi stared across the room into Zaffka’s evil eyes.
The two combatants raced at each other, each eager to distribute his own justice. Rasi’s straps crackled above him. Zaffka’s armor hissed around him. The Tek commander outstretched his left arm and it recoiled in thunder. Blood exploded from the end of one of Rasi’s straps.
Zaffka stuck out his other arm and quickly sent another blast. Rasi jerked to the side. The blast grazed his chest, burning him, but he didn’t relent and closed the gap.
He slammed into Zaffka, jarring his own sword loose and to the floor in the process. He wasn’t concerned at the loss of his sword; he knew it wouldn’t help against the armor. Zaffka rolled to one knee and fired another shot.
The projectile clipped Rasi’s thigh. He cried out. His straps grabbed both of Zaffka’s wrists and outstretched them like he was on a cross. Rasi jumped forward, grabbing the Tek’s helmet with both hands. He grunted as he pulled, but it was too tight. Zaffka drew back and kicked him in the balls. Rasi crumbled to his knees.
The other straps wrapped Zaffka’s waist. With a grunt, they hurled him across the room.
No, Rasi yelled in his mind. I need to be close.
Zaffka shook his head, stunned, and staggered to his feet. He slid a bluish blade from his back. Rasi picked up his sword again.
They ran at each other. Zaffka swung his blade and its blue steel sliced through Rasi’s sword like it was made of water. The blade swiped across the top of his head. His straps parted as the weapon soared past, almost cutting them in half.
Rasi yanked Zaffka’s leg, knocking him to the floor, and then leaped at him. Zaffka swung his blade from the ground. Seeing the coming assault, Rasi’s straps wrapped around one of the statues, stopping his plunge short of Zaffka’s sword. His straps yanked backward on the statues, catapulting him out of range.
He landed and planted his feet. His straps strained. He strained. The statue wobbled. The gigantic stone figure tipped toward Zaffka. The Tek sprang to his feet. As the statue tumbled, he swiped his sword blindly above his head, slicing the statue in half. He covered his head with his arms. The two hunks of granite crashed to the carpet on either side of him.
The battle raged with each man giving and taking in deadly competition. Rasi’s face bled; his muscles ached. Zaffka sucked wind and danced away as if stalling. He complimented Rasi’s heart and Rasi spat on him. Zaffka backed away, tired.
This was Rasi’s chance and he lunged. For the first time in the battle, instead of driving forward, Zaffka retreated and tumbled over a chunk of the demolished statue. As he fell, he swung his sword. Rasi’s straps batted his heavy arm away. His magical blade slipped from his hand and landed in the plush carpet beside his face. Rasi landed on top of him.
Zaffka heaved his chest in deep, deliberate bursts. Rasi postured up. He prepared to rip the Tek’s helmet away. Before he could, his straps rose into the air, their attention diverted.
“Get back, Rayles,” Zaffka shouted in Tek, between gasps. “Do not interfere.”
Rasi glanced over his shoulder just long enough to see the other officer back away from the fray. Rasi reached for the blue blade. His exhaustion made it a struggle to even lift the light sword, but he did and raised it high above his head.
Zaffka whispered, “In my day, boy,” pant, pant, “I’d have killed,” pant, “a freak like you.” Then he wheezed and coughed.
Rasi curled his lip. Well, it’s not your day. He flexed for the killing blow. However, something stopped him before he delivered the strike. It was a sinking feeling in his gut, a feeling he had learned to listen to over the years. It was Zaffka’s cough. Something had changed in it. The corner of the Tek commander’s lips curved upward as his cough melded into laughter.
Rasi hesitated.
Zaffka’s eyes lowered to Rasi’s waist. Rasi followed his gaze.
He got me.
The Tek’s fist and his noise-making weapon was jammed against Rasi’s gut.
There was no turning back. Rasi drove the blade downward but Zaffka’s arm flinched before the killing blow could be delivered. He didn’t feel the blast as much as he heard Alina’s scream. His body kicked back violently from his foe. The sword slipped from his hands and flew into the air. As he sailed backward, the world slowed around him. His adrenaline masked the pain of the new hole in his gut but it couldn’t overcome the knowledge of his failure.
Before he landed, one of his straps lunged, snatched the magical sword’s hilt from the nothingness, and whirled it around. Zaffka’s eyes opened wide. The end of the blue blade disappeared for an instant on one side of Zaffka’s armored chest and then reemerged from the other. Like a true warrior, he didn’t make a sound.
Rasi landed against the soft carpet. He wrapped his arms around his bleeding gut and curled up in agony. With all of his strength, he lifted his head long enough to see Zaffka sway before smashing face-first against the floor. Rayles rushed to his leader.
Rasi caught his breath. He summoned his deepest will. He couldn’t let Alina down, not when they were so close to victory. He pushed at the ground, somehow making it to his feet. He doubled over and almost crumbled. His strap dropped the sword before him and wrapped around his gut. Rasi winced, bent over, and picked up the weapon. Alina stared from her knees. He staggered to her and lifted the blade. With a single slice, her chain was severed.
He turned his attention to Rayles with a scowl. The Tek knelt beside his commander while keeping his eyes on Rasi. Rasi limped to him. The blood rushed from Rayles’ face as he held his open palms out in surrender. Rasi raised the sword.
Alina screamed, “You will not execute that man. He surrenders. He is our prisoner.”
Though Rasi didn’t want to listen, he knew she was right. He knew killing the unarmed Tek would not bring back Dru, or the thousands of other Epertasians and Liths. The Tek officer should be tried and hanged in Thasula’s town center for all to see.
He looked at Dru, dead on the floor. He looked at his lover’s battered face and his heart broke. He stared into her eyes and her soul and feared she would never be safe. He sighed.
I’m sorry, Alina.
He twirled and thrust the cursed blade through the Tek’s armored chest and black heart. Alina gasped and turned away.
“Rasi, why?” she cried.
It is what he deserved.
He reached out to her but she turned away. “We are better than the Teks,” she said. “We show mercy; that is what makes us Epertasians.”
I told you that you didn’t want to see this war. I told you to stay back but you refused. I did what I needed to do for your kingdom, for your people, for you. I would do it all again a thousand times.
“You don’t understand. It isn’t that we had to kill. We are in war, I understand that. But we can’t kill in cold blood. There has to be some respect for life.”
I kill, Alina. You knew that when you accepted my offer to lead your soldiers. You needed me to save your kingdom and that is what I did.
; “I know and I am grateful but I’ve never seen you so…” She searched for the right word,“heartless.”
This is who I am.
“No! It’s not, Rasi. I’ve seen your kindness.”
And now you’ve seen my hatred.
Somewhere deep within, he wanted to apologize, to tell her that he was just angry and didn’t mean his words, but he did what was needed and, damn it, she should see that.
She lowered her head, turned away, and marched toward the door. Rasi coughed and dragged his forearm across his mouth, leaving a trail of blood matted in the hair on his arm. He wiped it against his hip so she wouldn’t see.
She waited at the door without looking back. He sucked up the pain in his gut and his heart to hoist Dru’s body over his shoulder.
The door opened to a hallway full of Tek soldiers. Rasi entered first, scowling at them. They parted. As he and Alina passed, the Teks dropped their weapons and poured into the ballroom.
The fortress jerked and jostled and came to a stop. Rasi led Alina down the stairwell.
An Epertasian soldier met him at the rear doors. He took Dru from Rasi’s shoulders.
“They freed us,” he shouted. “The chains released and we were free.”
Rasi grinned, hiding his pain.
The walk back to Havens Ravine was sluggish and agonizing. The other soldiers pleaded to carry him, but he refused. During the long march, he caught Alina’s occasional glance but she refused to give him any more than that.
Maybe one day she would see why he did what he did. Or maybe one day he would see why he shouldn’t have. But this wasn’t the day.
CHAPTER 71
LEANDER
Seven moons had passed since the war. Terik met Alina outside of the prisoner camps that covered the vast farmlands.
“Your Highness, good to see you.”
“You as well, Terik. What are the numbers?”
“We count twelve thousand, give or take. Countless thousands more escaped to their boats and to the sea.”
“How do the prisoners behave? Do they resist?”
“Actually, no. They have been model. But there is something else. You won’t believe this, but they’ve sent a spokesman who has miraculously learned our language in the time he has been here. He is young and very cordial.”
“Bring him forward and I will meet him.”
Terik waved his hand. One of his guards disappeared, returning a few moments later with a stocky young man. His hands were bound behind his back. He knelt before her, eyes to her feet.
“Rise up, sir,” she said and he did. “What is your name?”
“Leander, ma’am.”
“Well, Leander, what have you to say?”
“Queen, we ask mercy. The soldiers you keep here were forced to serve at young ages and do not …” he searched for the words he wanted, “harbor… ill will to you and your people.”
“Leander, I appreciate your words. However, you have killed many innocents and cannot be trusted.”
“We were obeying orders. We had no choice.”
“That doesn’t erase what you have done.”
“I agree.” He hesitated. “But if you give us mercy, you will not regret it.”
Alina pondered his words. “I came here today with a solution. I have no want of killing you, yet we haven’t anywhere to keep you. And therein lies our dilemma. So I have decided to exile you to the southern islands of Torick, where you will be free to pursue your lives however you see fit. But you will start your civilization from nothing and if we find that you prepare for violence, we will attack you and destroy you.”
“You are a just queen. We have no desire to go home in disgrace. We will live in peace on your islands, I assure you.”
“We will be watching you, Leander.”
CHAPTER 72
QUEEN ALINA OF EPERTASE
Alina wondered if every soul in Thasula was in attendance for the celebrations in the royal gardens. The streets around the castle were packed with people hoping for a chance to say they were there on such an auspicious occasion.
Children chased each other through the crowd with wooden swords and strips of shredded red rags tied around their necks.
“Stop, you filthy Teks,” they each shouted. “I am Rasi.”
“No, I am Rasi,” another child would scream.
Alina grinned from the stage. She felt overwhelmed with pride, knowing these were her people and they were now safe. She addressed them. “Epertasians, Liths, and Lowlanders alike, we have come together in this time of need to defend our world in the face of an impossible tyranny and we have come away victorious.”
She glanced at the side of the platform as she had a hundred times since she’d arrived. Even after everything, a part of her hoped Rasi would be there but each time she looked, she turned back as disappointed as the time before. “We are here this day to celebrate our warrior heroes who have led us in our struggle. We will remember those who have fallen and mourn them as we should, but we must also know that their sacrifices were not in vain, that their deaths gave us back our freedom.”
She introduced many soldiers from Jarrah to Andon to Tate and Masera. She spoke of Dru’s bravery and Terik’s undying loyalty. She told stories of Paisel’s tragedy and thanked Aidric while he sat in the crowd, out of his infirmary bed for the first time.
She called Simcane and his team forward. The crowd erupted in applause. Simcane knelt. She felt the vibrations from the crowd’s roar in her chest like the beating of a massive bass drum. Once the people quieted, she told of what Simcane and his men had done, though their legend had already spread and the people could probably recite the story better than she.
She asked Simcane, “And where do you go now?”
“Oh.” He paused before continuing. “I thought I’d do some farming. I owe an old man a great debt.”
“Then I will know where to find you if ever I have the need.”
“Of course, my Queen.” He bowed as did his team.
She thanked a priest from Joseph’s church for his sacrifice.
“What about Thairen? Is anyone here to represent him?”
Simcane pressed his lips tight and shook his head as if saddened. “To be honest, I don’t know if he had anyone we could notify.”
“That is a shame. Well, I will accept for him and will never allow his memory to die.”
Alina grinned at Gillian and Willum as they held hands. They grinned shyly back. Alina finished her speech with an announcement that a week of celebration was to begin at once. Parties broke out throughout Thasula and likely all of Epertase.
James helped her from the back of the stage. “Should you tell them?” he asked. “The people, I mean?”
“No, no, not yet,” she answered and gently rubbed her belly. “It is still early. We’ll keep it secret for now.”
“Where is Commander Rasi?” he asked. “I thought surely he would attend.”
She looked to the side of the stage, lowered her head, and turned away.
CHAPTER 73
A NEW BEGINNING
On the outskirts of Thasula near Terik’s home was a small field of mostly wild grass and weeds. In the middle of the field lay a patch of deliberate openness. At the edge of the cleared brush grew a young maple sapling. Its frail, leafless branches drooped sadly as it tried to build enough strength to survive the coming winter. Terik and his wife Celia stood arm in arm and pointed to the tree. Rasi looked to where they pointed.
“Farewell, my friend,” Terik said, offering his hand and then climbing onto his steed.
His wife wrapped her arms around Rasi and squeezed tightly. She whispered, “I’m sorry for all you have been through,” and kissed him on his cheek. She pulled her head away and looked into his eyes with kindness that showed she meant what she said. “You are always welcome here.”
Rasi nodded. He knew he was.
She climbed onto her horse and she and Terik clopped back toward their home. She glanced over her sho
ulder one last time as they disappeared beyond their barn.
Rasi stood motionless. A bundle of seven long-stemmed, freshly cut roses wrapped in a plain tan cloth nestled in his arms. His mind told him to go to the tree but his legs held him back like they were afraid. He looked around for validation, but he was alone like he’d always been.
The invisible wall that held him back crumbled with his first step. By the time he reached the maple, he was almost at his knees.
A small piece of jagged wood hung against its frail trunk. Carved in the wood was an epitaph: “Here lies a most beautiful and kind woman with her unborn child. Her name was Edonea and she was a friend. She will be missed by all who knew her. The Year of Matthew 992-1012”
Rasi dragged his finger gently along the letters before collapsing to his knees. The vibrant green grass surrounding him was free of weeds and wildflowers, a flawless demonstration of the gods’ brilliant visions. The grave site was freshly trimmed and long cared for with hard work and love. As he looked around, it was a patch of beauty in an otherwise ugly field.
Rasi plopped onto his rear like an incredible weight had been lifted. He let loose tears that flowed like the waterfalls by his home on Shadows Peak. He didn’t try to stop them.
Only the gods knew how much time passed before Rasi regained control of his emotions. He didn’t know and didn’t care. He ground his palms against his eyes until the wet blur was gone.
I’m going home to Puimia to see my parents and I won’t be returning. I need to tell you something before I go, something very difficult for me. I have thought about both of you every day since the day you died and have mourned you greatly. But it is time for me to move on, to live again. I needed to tell you goodbye and that is why I’m here. If there are gods above, I will see you both again one day and I long for that meeting.
He sat in silence while the suns streaked across the sky. Finally, when he gathered enough strength, he pushed to his feet.
He set the roses at the head of the grave and then lightly kissed the wooden plaque. As he started to walk away, he paused and turned back to the tree. I love you both and always will.
Light of Epertase 01: Legends Reborn Page 32
