The Last Winter (The Circle War Book 2)

by Matt King

  She scanned the northern horizon, looking for anything that might stand out. Under the intense moonlight, she saw the ruins of a city in the distance. Yes, she thought. That’s where you’d go.

  Her legs crossed the grassland in long strides as she ran under the light of the moon. There was a richness to the air that refilled her energy almost as fast as she could spend it. I could run for days, she thought, and for a while, she thought it would take as long to reach her destination. Eventually she made it to the outskirts of the city. The moon cast its white light on the tops of the buildings that still stood.

  She hid behind the wall of a building next to the main road cutting through the small city. Mounds of soot dotted its streets, a bleak reminder of the devastation masked by Amara’s healing. She sniffed the air coming from the west. It was sweet, but devoid of the animal’s scent, which wasn’t surprising. The beast would be downwind of her prey.

  Best that I do this before my nerve leaves me. She pulled down the golden band holding back her hair. An immediate rush of senses filled her. Drawing one of Dondannarin’s chakrams from her back, she walked with it in hand toward the western side of the city. She looked for an open area near the edge, one where she couldn’t be cornered, and found it near a white building that faced the city center. A long patch of earth ran down the middle of the city, perhaps a meeting area before the attack. It was lined on both sides by thick trees crusted with char. She took a deep breath and walked out onto the glade.

  A steady wind blew, which would only help her cause. She walked to the first tree and brought her arm up. Careful not to let the blade cut too deep, she ran the edge of a chakram across her arm, releasing a thin stream of alkaline-smelling blood. She wiped it against the tree and winced at the stinging pain as the soot mixed with her blood. By the time she stepped away, her wound had healed and the first trap had been set. She moved to the next.

  Once the last of the six trees had been tagged with her blood, she put the chakram away and walked to the center of the grassy field. If she planned correctly, the wind would take the scent of her blood into the city where she hoped the beast was lying in wait. She sat on the ground with her back to the village and closed her eyes, focusing her concentration on the sensory signals flowing in through her hair.

  At first there was nothing but the sound of soot blowing across the blades of grass. She started to worry that she had guessed wrong and that Shadow was out in the endless plain. Or she’s gone back into the storm. Then she felt a signal come through, a quiet movement that came in deliberate waves, like a predator stalking its prey. Finally. She kept still and concentrated on staying calm to make it seem as though she didn’t know the beast was coming.

  As Shadow got closer, Aeris could feel the signals coming off of her in a chorus, desperation and hunger mixed with her regained strength. She could hear her breaths, deep and strong now that her wounds were closed. Aeris waited for the attack with a gnawing urge to raise the fire in her hands. She held it back as best she could while at the same time preparing for a fight in case Shadow couldn’t be tamed.

  Shadow came rumbling into the field, her steps like explosions in Aeris’s ears. Aeris jumped to her feet and turned to face the charging monster. Shadow was nearly on top of her, running on all fours. A swiping claw slashed toward her chest. She dodged in a roll. “Shadow!” she cried out. “Shadow, listen to me!”

  Shadow’s jaws snapped at her, barely missing with each lunge. She stood on two legs and moved in between Aeris and her potential path of escape to the west.

  “August,” Aeris said slowly. “Remember August?”

  Shadow snorted. She bared her fangs.

  “August Dillon,” she repeated. “You have to remember. August. Dillon.”

  With a wild screech, Shadow leapt toward Aeris with jaws open wide. Aeris sidestepped the first blow, but couldn’t move in time to avoid the slashing claw that ripped across her leg. She stumbled to the ground, jerking her bad leg to the side to avoid another slash aimed at her head. She sparked the fire in her hands. When Shadow came lunging for her again, Aeris drilled her charged fist into the side of Shadow’s jaw. The blow made the beast stumble.

  “August!” Aeris screamed.

  Shadow roared back, showing her mouth full of teeth. She charged forward and jumped, bearing down on Aeris with all her claws.

  Aeris steeled herself and held up her own hands. She let loose with two beams of fire, hoping that she had held back enough not to open Shadow’s wounds again. The beast crashed backwards, rolling across the grass.

  Aeris pounced with her fists still charged and swept two blows across the side of Shadow’s head.

  “August!” she yelled as she continued to throw blows in between dodging Shadow’s. “Remember him, gods take you! AUGUST DILLON!”

  She pulled her punch back when she felt a change in Shadow. Some of the beast’s anger retreated, replaced with a glimmer of something that she hoped was recognition.

  “That’s right,” Aeris said as she tried to catch her breath. “You remember. You remember August.”

  Shadow pushed her back with a crackling growl. She shook her mane and took a step away. The hunter’s focus and ferocity were gone, replaced by a dull, confused stare. She looked back at the city.

  “I need you to help me find August,” Aeris said, hoping that she could lure Shadow back by repeating his name.

  Shadow looked down at her. For a moment, Aeris thought her orange eyes had shifted back into their hunger-fueled fury, but then they softened again. She took a step toward Aeris. Aeris extinguished her spark, trying her best to relax as the beast’s head lowered toward her. Shadow sniffed her armor first, then her hands. When she stepped back, she flared her nostrils and held her black-scaled head into the wind.

  Aeris spoke gently. “August is in danger. I need you to take me to him. We need to save August.”

  Shadow’s nose continued to test the wind. She gave Aeris a final look before dropping to four legs. She shook her mane with a low, pointed growl.

  Aeris approached her slowly. She gripped a handful of Shadow’s hair, fully expecting the creature to buck her off. When Shadow didn’t move, she pulled herself onto the beast’s back. Shadow stood on all fours and let out a roar.

  Hold on, August, Aeris prayed as Shadow took off across the grassy field. Stay alive. We are coming for you.

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  “Should we take him?” one of the Ysir asked.

  Icomedes shook his head. “No. Law-son is too strong for that, we know. He has already killed one of your own.”

  The three Ysir drew their swords slowly, producing a rolling tinny sound as the metal of the blades scraped against their scabbards. Bear kept his focus on Icomedes. He tried to reason his way through the coming attack. Icomedes would strike first with his soldiers hitting from the sides and rear. No matter how he saw himself reacting, the end result was the same. There was no surviving what stared back at him.

  He drew on his memories before he lost them forever. His mother visited first, small and frail even in her youth. Then he saw his father beside her, smiling and walking without his cane. He wondered what they would say to him when he got to the other side. Would they be proud? Would they forgive him for not being there when it mattered most?

  Then he turned his thoughts to new friends—to August and Meryn. He saw August back at the farm, sitting at the kitchen table poking at cornbread and wondering if it was cake. When he pictured Meryn, his stomach drew tight and he cursed the day the war ever began, because it gave him a woman he might truly love and then took her away without giving him a chance to find out.

  “How will you spend your final moments, Law-son?” Icomedes asked. “Will you die a warrior’s death or will you scream for mercy?”

  The Ysir laughed.

  “Save the head,” Icomedes said, his voice no longer teasing. “When he goes down, take the arms and legs for yourselves if you wish, but the head is mine.”

&nbs
p; Bear reached up and triggered his mask. He looked between each of the men and then finally to Icomedes, who pulled a curved metal face shield from his belt and fixed it to his helmet. His hawk-like eyes stared back through a pair of holes. The thick, woven bands of his mask made it look like the rest of his face was covered in a network of iron vines.

  A black shadow moved over the champion’s shoulder, hidden behind a veil of tangled brush. When Bear looked closer he saw one of the Horsemen’s masks behind the leaves. He’d forgotten about them in the heat of the fight. What were you boys doing, using me as bait? Bait or not, he didn’t have it in him to be angry. He was too relieved to see them again. The brother slowly lifted his hand and flexed his fingers. Bear smiled at the sight of the signal—Get your hands on him.

  Something shot out from the trees and streaked across the clearing, stopping Icomedes in his tracks before he could charge. A small dagger struck the metal band crossing one of the Ysir’s chest. The trigger to the soldier’s cloaking device sparked and smoked. Two more daggers followed, each hitting the same target on the rest of the Ysir. The three hunters clawed at their metal bands and ripped them off to escape the growing flames.

  One by one, the Horsemen stepped out of the shadows of the forest. They stood at all corners of the clearing with their hand scythes at the ready and their black masks pointed toward the confused Ysir.

  Bear dug his heel in. “When you’re ready.”

  Icomedes flexed his wings. He came forward in a rush of wind, triggering a brawl that filled the clearing. Bear jumped forward and drove his shoulder into Icomedes’ chest before he could swing his axes, sending them both tumbling to the ground. Bear grabbed hold of one of the axe handles as it came crashing toward his head and wrested it free, bringing it back in a wild swipe toward Icomedes’ head. The broad face of the axe slapped against the side of the champion’s face. A splatter of bright green blood shot out from the gaps in his facemask.

  Beside him, the Horsemen fought the Ysir with a savagery Bear hadn’t seen from the brothers before. One of the Ysir was missing a wing. He held the severed appendage like a shield as two of the brothers moved in to finish him off.

  Icomedes came at Bear with an arcing swing, and Bear threw his weapon across to block it. He swung the axe so hard that it cut through the handle of Icomedes’ weapon as they clashed together. The broken axe head lodged in the dirt. Unfazed, Icomedes threw two quick punches into Bear’s midsection. The blows left him breathless. He tried to keep his grip on the axe, but Icomedes was too quick. He snatched it away with a growl, pushed Bear back with a kick to the chest, and then took to the air, leaving Bear in a cloud of dirt.

  Bear could hear the fights going on around him, but he couldn’t make anything out past the debris. In a panic, he dropped to his knees and patted the ground looking for the broken axe head. His hands came up empty.

  He heard a rush of air just in time to dodge the edge of Icomedes’ blade as it came slicing through the fog. Bear swung around and tried to grab hold of the champion. Still disoriented by the debris, he missed, and Icomedes took him by the leg. The world flipped upside down as Icomedes flew into the air. He tossed Bear up, then threw a driving punch into Bear’s chest that sent him flying backward. He hit the side of a pillar and fell head first toward the island below. Icomedes caught him around the waist and drove him into the ground like a hammer, letting go just before he crashed along with him.

  Bear’s vision slowly came back into focus. His head pounded. Before he could get to his feet, Icomedes hit him with a flurry of punches, focusing his attack on Bear’s ribs and stomach. The punches were crippling, stealing Bear’s fight each time they landed. He stumbled back.

  Just get your hands on him, Bear repeated to himself.

  Icomedes charged. His raptor eyes were wild. He curled the metal coverings of his fingers into a fist and threw his weight behind a punch that caught Bear square in the nose, sending colorful flashes across his vision.

  More punches followed. Bear held up his hands to protect his face. When he did, Icomedes drove a knee into his midsection, sending him to the ground.

  His arms could barely lift his weight. The world spun by in a dizzying carousel.

  “The hunt has ended,” Icomedes said in a rough growl. He took the axe from his belt. “You owe me my prize, Law-son.”

  Bear’s vision focused. Icomedes cocked his axe above his head. Drawing on what little energy he had left, Bear came off the ground and swung his fist into the bottom of Icomedes’ jaw. The axe fell to the ground as the leader of the Ysir went crashing into a pillar. Bear pounced and wrapped his fingers around Icomedes’ neck.

  “Got you.”

  Like he was swinging a hammer, Bear slammed the champion against the side of the pillar so hard, it shattered Icomedes’ helmet. He pounded him into the ground, cracking the thick roots covering the floor. Icomedes’ body went limp. Relentless, Bear kept going, throwing punch after punch into the meat of the Herengei’s belly until he felt like a rag doll in his clutches.

  Finally, Bear took Icomedes by the leg and swung him with every bit of strength he still had. Balenor’s champion hit the pillar and crashed through, snapping the towering rock in half. The pillar fell to the ground with a thunderous crash.

  Bear released his grip. Icomedes lay bleeding at the base of the pillar’s stump, crippled and unconscious. Bear grabbed the axe from the ground. He used it to lop off both of Icomedes’ wings.

  The fight had taken nearly everything Bear had. His chest burned. His body tried frantically to repair and renew, and yet he’d spent so much that he wondered if it would ever totally heal. Still, he knew this was his only chance to end it. He called on his arms and legs to push one last time. With the axe still in his grip, he curled his fingers around Icomedes’ neck and squeezed to keep him unconscious, dragging him with one hand to the nearby cliffside. Icomedes’ feet dangled over the edge with nothing but the rolling surf beneath him.

  “NO!” a voice screamed from above.

  Bear looked to the sky. The clouds gathered, piecing together a patchwork of hazy white streaks until they formed the face of Balenor. He was immense, easily dwarfing the island.

  “You can’t do this,” he boomed. “Please, I’m begging you.”

  “It’s over,” Bear said between heavy breaths.

  “This is the only champion I have. If he dies, I die. You have to understand, I only did this to save lives!”

  Bear kept his grip around Icomedes’ throat. “You did it to save your own.”

  “No. NO! Meryn is the one trying to get us all killed. I was working with Amara to end this war.” His stare fell. “To save Soraste.” Suddenly the god’s eyes gained life again. “Tell me what you want,” he said. “If you spare his life, I’ll give you anything. Anything!”

  Bear looked over his shoulder. The Horsemen emerged from their fight battered and bruised, but still alive. Behind them, the three Ysir lay dead on the clearing floor. The Horsemen slowly made their way up the hill to where he stood.

  “There is one thing you can do for me,” Bear said, turning to face the god again.

  “Anything!” Balenor replied. “Name your price.”

  “I want you to bring Meryn here.”

  The expectant look on Balenor’s face morphed into hesitation. “To what end?”

  Bear cocked the axe over his shoulder.

  “No! Don’t. I will call to her, just…please, promise to spare his life.”

  “You have my word.”

  Balenor’s face dissolved as the clouds broke apart. Bear stood on the edge of the cliff, watching the sky for his return. A loud crack of thunder ushered the arrival of a portal so brilliant that it outshone the sun overhead. A long shaft of light erupted from its surface. It came screaming down toward the island. Bear tightened his grip on Icomedes in case Balenor tried anything. He had to turn away from the light crashing beside him. The intensity was blinding.

  When the light died down, he turn
ed to see Meryn. Her blue eyes scanned him. “Are you all right?”

  He nodded.

  A second portal opened as Balenor made his return. He landed on the opposite side of Bear, materializing in a whirlwind of light.

  “I have upheld my end of the bargain,” he said, ignoring Meryn’s icy stare to look only at Bear. “Release him, please.”

  “Balenor, you are a disgrace,” Meryn hissed.

  “Release him,” Balenor said to Bear, ignoring her. His eyes darted nervously to Icomedes’ body dangling over the rocky shore below.

  Bear glanced back to the Horsemen, then to Meryn. She nodded to him. Do it, she spoke through his thoughts.

  His fingers tightened on the axe handle. Drawing on every bit of strength he had, he reached back and swung the axe through the middle of Icomedes’ torso. The champion’s lower half fell away, tumbling toward the surf below. Bear held the torso for a disbelieving Balenor to see and then tossed it over the cliff along with the axe.

  “No!” Balenor screamed as he watched the body fall. He gripped his thin strands of hair and fell to his knees. “You promised!”

  Bear faced the god. “Now you know how it feels.”

  A white mist hung where Icomedes’ body had been. Meryn held out her hand and absorbed it, closing her eyes and breathing deeply as she drew the mist into her body. When she opened her eyes again—brilliant and rich with light—she focused them on Balenor. “Amara should be called,” she said. “Will you do it or shall I?”

  Balenor’s breaths quickened. He got to his feet and backed away from the cliff. “I won’t…” he said, mumbling as he stared at the water. “I won’t…”

  In a flash he broke apart and reformed as a shaft of light. He rocketed into the air, escaping through the clouds.