"You two should stay here," whispered Agnes. "This is our kind of fight."
Nadine and I nodded quickly. We fed off each other's fear and struggled to keep it down to a manageable level. I was scared and didn't know what to do. Nadine was no better. Staying inside while professionals dealt with what was happening outside seemed wise.
Agnes smiled and patted my arm. She was so much stronger now. She couldn't believe that her disease was gone when we told her and, when she accepted it, she had cried and cried until her husband Ben had burst in and assumed the worst. After calming him down he had joined her and I had sat back and enjoyed their happiness. Nadine and I had tried to help Ben with his problem but it seemed we couldn't grow back what was taken from him. Ben hadn't cared and thanked us for trying. Nadine seemed to think we could help with them getting pregnant, but Agnes wanted no part in it. The last few days had been wonderful here at the farm. The farmhands had joined in a great feast and celebrated Agnes' new vitality and future. Ben and Agnes were such strong leaders and their people had fierce loyalty to them.
Seeing them together on top of the stairs, I was seeing them in a new light. They looked fierce and capable. They must've been something to see in their youth, I thought. I wonder what Reeve Comlin looked like?
They moved to descend the stairs but Nadine stopped them with a word. "Wait. There is something strange about some of them. They aren't...normal. Be wary. Your people are all awake. Some of them are in the stables. Your daughter is working with the horses and fighting them. She's safe and in her bedroom with Dog and Anne."
Ben's eyes went a little rounder and he glanced at Agnes and Franky. "Okay, good to know. Anything else?"
I nodded. "There are about twenty of them outside. Probably four in the stables that I can sense. I feel that there are more surrounding the out buildings. Your people are in trouble, but awake. Careful with the black ones. They...move...a little slower and something is unnatural about them."
Ben grasped my upper arm once and moved quickly and quietly down the stairs. Agnes moved in tandem but stopped mid-stairs and drew her bow. Ben moved to the front door on the opening side and Franky stood by the hinges. They listened briefly. He nodded up the stairs to Agnes and held up two fingers. Franky reached across the back of the door and grasped the doorknob and turned it hard and pulled it open into the front entrance. Beyond the door lay darkness lit a little by the half-moon.
Agnes released and pulled another arrow from her quiver, nocked it, drew the bow and released all in the time it took for three heartbeats. The first man through the door crumpled with an arrow through the heart. The man behind him took a similar arrow but kept walking. He held a sword in his hand and looked up the stairs to spot Agnes. Intent on her, he ignored Ben who stepped out from beside the door and took off the head with one blow of his short sword. Ben pulled the headless corpse through the doorway to clear the door and Franky swung it shut. Blood oozed from the neck but not with the fountain of blood you would expect. Something is very wrong here, I thought. I felt the first man die, but not the second.
Nadine and I rushed down the stairs to the men and examined them. They wore black boots marking them as members of the Sect. I heard Agnes bite back a scream and looked where she pointed.
"He's still alive!" she rasped in horror.
I looked down at the head of the second man. The eyes were moving and the mouth opened and closed. My senses told me that this was not alive. It had no aura. Not anything to link it to life on Earth. A cold feeling ran down my spine and I shuddered. Without warning, Ben drove his sword into the head and its movements ceased. He placed a boot on the head and pulled his sword free.
"What the fuck was that?" Franky whispered.
Nadine had her hand over her mouth and she fought to keep from screaming. Agnes sat heavily on the stairs and placed her bow across her knees. She was shaking her head in disbelief. I looked at Ben and saw only determination there. This was a man used to fighting, but he was shaken. He looked a little white. Nadine turned quickly and threw up the contents of her stomach. The smell of bile mixed with the coppery smell of fresh blood. I swallowed back the bile that rose in my throat.
"I-I don't know," I said and I didn't. "I can't see them with my powers. He's not of the earth. He's separate from Gaea. Even dead animals are still a part of her. Not this man. He is ... not. Does that make any sense?"
"No, lad," said Ben gruffly. "This doesn't make any sense at all." He pointed his sword at the black boots worn by the first corpse. "Sect?"
I nodded. Ben grunted.
Cries could be heard all over the farm now. The sound of swords clashing became more and more frequent and urgent. Outside the house, a battle raged. I used my vision to scan the house and found two men at the back door just inside the kitchen. More surrounded the house and tightened their net.
"We're surrounded," I said. "Two in the kitchen. I can sense both. They're...normal?"
Nadine reached out and took Agnes' hand and pulled her to her feet. Agnes nocked an arrow and drew her bow and angled herself around the stairway and headed toward the kitchen. Franky followed behind her. Ben watched them go but kept his ear to the front door.
"Lad, keep the information coming. Don't stop."
"Al-alright," I said, my voice shaking. "Agnes and Franky are almost at the kitchen. The two men are still inside the back doorway. They're just standing there and listening. She shot one! Now the other. They're dead. Dear Gaea, she's fast."
"She's the best in the Realm she is. My Agnes is the best."
"She's staying in the kitchen covering the door. Franky is hovering near her. Three more are approaching the back. One normal, two...not normal. What do we call them? Um, two more coming up the front veranda. Normal."
Ben nodded and moved beside the door jamb keeping the door clear.
"Nadine, can you watch Agnes and the back? I'll watch the door here."
"Yes, I'll move closer to Agnes and tell her what's happening." Nadine didn't wait for an answer and disappeared around the stairway toward the kitchen. I sent Careful! down our bond and felt her respond with Of course, stupid.
I sensed the two outside the front door approach. "They're on the doorstep. One has his hand on the doorknob."
I watched the doorknob turn and the door swing wide open. On the other side stood a black boot. He saw me and cried out "The Target! Here!" He raced through the opening only to be sliced open across the stomach by Ben. The man screamed and collapsed over his ruptured mid-section. Ben hadn't moved and the second man burst through and was pierced through the side deep into his middle. The sword withdrew with a wet sucking sound and Ben lifted the blade up and drove it through the man's neck cutting his scream off. Ben stepped forward and drove the blade under the first man's skull and silenced the screams.
"Are there any more of them?" he asked but I didn't have time to answer him.
Men were being killed in front of me and I felt their life fade from their bodies. Behind me, I saw Agnes drop the first man through the back door, an arrow straight through the heart. The second man without an aura stepped into the kitchen. An arrow blossomed in his heart but he kept moving. He didn't even flinch. A second arrow hit the forehead and punched through. The man fell forward without a sound. Behind him, a second non-aura stepped across the door jam. Nadine whispered something to Agnes and an arrow blossomed from the man's skull. He, too, dropped without a sound and lay still. I could see eight more men behind the house and six more in front. Half were the non-aura types. "Will! Where are they? Snap out of it!"
"S-six more in front, two are without auras. They aren't moving any closer. In the back eight more, four without auras. They're just standing there now."
"What else?"
"What do you mean, what else?"
"What else is happening on the farm? Can you sense it?"
"Y-yes, sorry. I see..." I looked out over the stable, which was silent now. Eight men with auras stood outside the stable door and we
re lighting a torch. Over at the out-buildings, I could sense twenty more men. They were fighting the farmhands, the sound of steel on steel now loud in the night air. Ben's people fought with such skill it was a marvel to watch. They were outnumbered two to one and yet they held the enemy at bay. "Um. Men are over at the stable. They are lighting a torch. Fighting over at the out buildings. Twenty to ten of your farmhands."
Ben winced. "Only ten? Any more of my people anywhere?"
I looked but found only the dead and wounded. I shook my head. "They are the only ones still standing." I reached farther out and picked up the other farmhands, twenty or more racing to close the main building. They were too far out and told him so.
"Who are they, Will? Black boots. The Sect, right?"
"I think so," I said. "I don't know who else they can be."
"My crew," he said and I could sense the crushing emotion that threatened to topple him. "After so long. We were safe here."
I said nothing. I watched the emotions play across him. He fought them down and one emerged and he looked sharply at me.
"You brought them here. To my door. You brought this upon my people."
I could say nothing to that. He was right and the guilt and horror of that descended on me. I fought to find a response. Something to deny the horrible truth. I felt the horror from Agnes and Franky. Nadine struggled to stay calm. She wanted to run and leave all this death behind her. The copper smell of blood filled the house.
Katherine and Dog appeared at the top of the stairs. Katherine had her hand twisted into Dog's neck fur. Her eyes looked wild and far away. Dog whined and pressed up against her leg.
"Da," she cried. "They killed three of the horses and the stable hands. They slaughtered them. Cut them down without anything but glee in their hearts. I fought them. The horses did. I k-killed them, da. They're setting fire to the stables but I got the horses out the back. Da, some of the men that attacked are dead already but they walk! They walk, da! It's not possible!"
I was startled and realised she spoke truth. The men were dead but walked. How do you fight something that is already dead? I wanted to join Nadine and run and run from this farm. I had brought so much death here. I couldn't forgive myself. I had to leave so that these people could be left alone. I opened my mouth to say the words when a loud voice from outside stopped me.
"Will Arbor! I know you are in there. You and the other demons. The two women. Come out and face God's wrath. I command you in the name of the Father!"
I looked confused at Ben. He gritted his teeth and beckoned his daughter down the stairs to him. I reached out with my vision and saw a man on horseback standing outside the front door about thirty feet back. The man and the horse were not of the Earth. They were black holes in the life that surrounded them. The wrongness of him flooded me and stole my breath. I watched the enemy behind the house circle round to join the man at the front. Nadine spoke to Agnes and Franky and they joined us in the front hall.
"Who is that?" asked Nadine looking at me. "How does he know you?"
"I have no idea," I said. I saw the look of doubt from Ben and anger flared within me. "I swear! I've never met this man. I have no idea how he found me!"
Katherine touched her father's arm. "Da, it's true. He doesn't know. He's scared like all of us."
Ben glared at me and turned to Agnes. "Our crew is almost wiped out." He pointed at me. "He says there are only ten left standing by the out-buildings. The others are coming but too far out to help."
Agnes wiped away a tear and embraced Ben. "I know, love. Nadine told me. What do we do now?"
"I don't know." Ben looked at me. "He says two women demons? He means Nadine and my daughter?"
"I think so. I think he thinks druids are demons. It's the name the Church gave the draoi during the Purge."
"How would he know my daughter is a druid?"
"He must sense it somehow, otherwise, I don't know. I'm sorry. I don't understand any of this."
The voice from outside yelled out again. "Will Arbor. Come face your final judgment. I killed your mother, boy. I will finish the job, by God's will. Come out! Bring the demons with you!"
At his words, shock, then rage, filled me. This was the man who killed my mother? This was the man that hunted my mother and I and then struck her down like an animal? My body shook. Before I could think I had opened the front door and strode out onto the veranda. All my grief from the past ten years flooded back to me. The years alone and afraid, hidden from people. Living off the land and harbouring with wolves. It all came back in a flood and I needed to strike this man down. Outside the flames from the stable lit up the night like day. Long shadows flickered across the entrance-way. Before me, sitting high on horseback, was a thin short man, narrow of face with a sharp beak of a nose. He sneered at me and raised a crossbow and pointed it at me.
With a flash of recognition I returned to the night my mother was killed.
My mother and I stood near the edge of the woods. We had been running for what felt like hours. As we neared the edge, a figure rose from the bushes in front of us. My mother gasped and stopped me with an arm across my chest. She positioned herself between me and the man. I was strangely calm. I knew I should fear this man but I couldn't seem to feel anything.
Time seemed to slow. My mother tried to hide us. I knew how she did it. She bent the light around us and hid us from view. She did it now and then moved us sideways. I heard the snap of a string and the whine of something moving fast. My mother staggered.
I saw the man looking for us. My mother turned toward me and I saw the bolt in her chest. Blood poured out of her mouth and I knew that it was bad. She looked at me, fear across her face, I felt despair. The first emotion I had felt in days. It bubbled up inside me and I nearly cried out.
"Mom?" I asked. "Are you all right? Mom?"
"Run!" she gurgled around the blood. "Run and don't stop. Run and stay hidden. Hide who you are. Promise me!"
"Mom, what's wrong?" Despair grew stronger. My mother sank to her knees and I knelt down beside her.
"Promise me!" she gripped my arms so hard they hurt.
"Mom?"
"Promise me!" she hissed. "Hurry!"
"I-I promise, mom," I sobbed once and swallowed. I felt tears flowing down my cheeks. I felt like I was underwater. No strong emotions but the one that threatened to overwhelm me. "I promise! Now get up. Let's go. Come. Hurry."
"Run! Run! Go now while I can still hide you. Hurry!" My mom fell to the ground on her side and her eyes rolled back. "Run," she whispered and I felt a push of her power on my muscles, trying to get me to move.
I looked up and saw the man coming closer. A thin man, with a narrow face and a sharp beak of a nose. He was searching the ground and coming closer; his crossbow reloaded and the bolt tip glinting. I stood up and ran as fast as I could and kept running.
A little while later the cloud over my emotions snapped clear. My mother was dead. I collapsed to the ground and wailed. Blackness like no other descended on me.
The man across from me was the same man who had killed my mother in cold blood and left me an orphan in the world. The same man who had set in motion all the pain in my life. He sat there so smugly. So much evil fixated into one person.
I started to run toward him, screaming in rage, when I saw him release the bolt from his crossbow. I heard Nadine scream in fear behind me and time, once again, seemed to slow. I felt a push from behind shoving me to the side. Ben Rigby crossed in front of me, pushing me out of the way of the bolt. I watched the bolt strike him in the chest. Blood exploded into the air and I heard Ben grunt once. I fell to the ground and watched Ben twist lifeless in front of me to lay across the stairs on his back staring sightlessly upwards. The bolt had punched through his heart. I felt his life flicker and then extinguish. I was powerless to help him. My magycs could not replace his heart. Ben was dead. He died saving me.
I screamed in futility. "No!"
The man on the horse looked from
Ben to me and started to laugh. His men formed a half-circle behind him and I could sense humour from those with auras. Over at the out buildings, the battle still raged. Ben's crew now only numbered eight but the enemy was down to fifteen. Agnes cried out her husband's name and rushed to his side and pulled him onto her lap. She kissed his face and cried his name and tried to wake him. I heard Franky and Anne stop Katherine on the porch and heard her cry of "Da!" ring out loud into the night. Rage and sorrow flooded me and I struggled to try and get to my feet. Nadine rushed to my side and kept me down. She held me tight and turned her head to Seth.
"What are you?" she yelled at the man. It seemed to startle him.
"I am Seth Farlow. The leader of the Sect of the Church of the New Order, demon."
"You are an abomination!" screamed Nadine. "You are not of this Earth. You should not exist!"
Seth blinked and looked lost for a moment before resolve hardened his features. "I have hunted demons for ten years. You seduce, twist reason, and offer naught but temptation. You are the abomination and a blight to this world. By God's grace, I am charged with striking you down where you stand. You three are the last of the demons. With your deaths, my life's task will be complete. Come forward and face your fate."
Nadine cried out and turned to hide herself in my arms. For her whole life, she had fled and hid from the Purge and now here it was before her. I felt her anguish. Her fear. Her hatred.
Katherine ripped free of Franky and Anne and knelt by her mother and held her and her father. Dog sat beside her. All of us were on the veranda, exposed, helpless and at the mercy of this insane man and his unnatural men. I reached out with my senses and felt my powers slide off him as if he wasn't there. He was like his horse and men with no auras. Dead. Lifeless. But moving and talking. There was nothing I could do.
Leaf and Branch (New Druids Series Vol 1 & 2) Page 71
