He underestimated Rellizbix’s desperation. He overestimated their sense of honor.
The message from Rellizbix could not have been clearer. A pyramid of severed heads stared open-mouthed at those who entered the fort. Men, women, the minute faces of the young, stared with accusation at the returning warriors. Tongues lolled from their mouths, hosting flies and all manner of insects within. Lidless eyes rolled upward, yet Raegith felt them all focus on him, begging him for answers he did not have. At the top sat the dilapidated remnant of Magda’s bruised and charred head.
“This looks like everyone inside the fort.” Helkree stood beside Raegith as his army fell apart around him. “This took time, Grass-Hair. They lingered among our dead in order to do this.”
One of the Rathgar women tore away from the crowd and slammed into the mound of skulls, digging furiously to find a particular one. Within seconds dozens of others worked beside her, demolishing the monument their enemy left them.
“Elements be merciful. What atrocity is this? Even the infants?”
Raegith turned to see Ariadne staring forward, her hand clamped against her mouth.
“Naoko’s head is in there somewhere, but I cannot look for it.” Hitomi dropped to her knees, but waived off Helkree’s offer for support. “Someone needs to look for Makata, as well. I can’t be here; not when my head should be among the others.”
“I will search out my daughter and my husband myself.”
Raegith and the others turned to see Kimura stalking through the gate. Grime coated her face and she gripped her katana in her right hand.
“Those who dance in the sun created this sacrilege. They are the ones who must pay… all of them.” Kimura turned her gaze on Ariadne and shifted her stance.
Raegith shifted in front of Ariadne. “Calm yourself, Kimura. Aridane was not a part of this.”
“How do you know that? You’re so fond of picking up strays among our enemy. How can you be sure this Mage didn’t summon men to her rescue? How do you know these monsters among us remain loyal to you, Grass-Hair?” Kimura raged in front of Raegith, barely containing herself. “For the good of the Greimere; for me… execute them. Execute every one of them, Grass-Hair.”
“Even Zurek?” Indie asked. “He forged that weapon for you.”
Kimura turned on her sister with a snarl. “And his head is not among the others. Even you are smart enough to know why.”
“He could have escaped, like the Gimlets,” Indie replied.
“Then he is a coward,” Kimura screeched. “They are all cowards and Grass-Hair disgraces us all by allowing them among us.”
“Easy, Kimura,” Helkree rumbled. “You’re going too far.”
“I have not gone far enough!” Kimura thrashed like a cornered dog snapping at anyone who came near. When Helkree did not challenge her, she sheathed her katana and turned away from them. “I am going to the Naga home to clean Goji’s body. Do not disturb me and do not disturb the remains of my daughter if you find them. I will tend them myself.”
Kimura stopped and turned back to Grass-Hair, madness in her eyes. “Your compassion towards your old nation compromises every one of us. When this is over, I am leaving you and this pathetic empire to pursue vengeance on my own. I was a fool to follow you here.”
The Naga left the mourners in shock as she disappeared inside the building where the day before she had left her daughter with her husband. No one followed her.
Trembling with both rage and remorse, Raegith leaned toward Beretta at his side and whispered. “What do I do?”
The Infernal retainer moved close to him so that others would not hear their warlord in his moment of weakness. “Gather those who are able and secure the fort. Focus on maintaining order and do not allow your emotions to overcome you until this evening when you are alone.”
“Look at this, Beretta. All these heads belong to someone I just killed with my lack of foresight.” Raegith gulped against the bile rising in his throat. “How can I go back to leading...”
“Because you must,” Beretta interrupted. She placed a calming hand on his shoulder. “Set the emotions aside for now and focus on your tasks.”
Raegith stared at her for a moment. “How is this so easy for you?”
Beretta stared back without expression. “My kind are not known for their strong attachments to mortals. However, I have been serving them for a long time. It is not as easy as I am letting on, Grass-Hair.”
Raegith gathered several Urufen and Rathgar who dried their faces and followed him in securing the fort. Rellizbix would be foolish in leaving behind an ambush, but Beretta was right: they had to make sure. Ariadne and Chev’El accompanied them, eager to be away from the grieving warriors.
“Why are there no Gimlets among the dead?” Ariadne asked Raegith.
“Gimlets are survivalists and averse to confrontation,” Beretta replied. “They would have escaped the fort the moment they noticed the threat and they are nimble enough to do so. It will take months to round them all up. They will avoid this place until a Boss leads them back.”
“Not all of them.” Freya and the Urufen accompanying Kimura approached, returning from beyond the walls of the fort. The dark-haired Helcat walked into Raegith and held onto him, burying her face in his chest.
Freya wept with barely a noise as Raegith held onto her. She would have been with Kimura when they entered the fort. The young Urufen had been one of the first to see what Rellzibx had done to their defenseless people.
She pulled her head away and wiped at her face. “We’ve already done a quick search of the place. We found a dead Gimlet near assembly yard, right out in the open. I guess the soldiers thought him a rodent. They didn’t bother adding his head to the others.”
“A Gimlet caught in the open?” Beretta asked. “How bizarre. Gimlets have an unnatural sense for danger.”
Freya shifted her stance and avoided eye contact with the Infernal.
Beretta noticed the change in the Urufen Helcat and moved closer. “I know that for most of us they are difficult to distinguish, but did you happen to recognize the Gimlet.”
“It wasn’t hard to figure out.” The dark-haired Urufen looked up and met her gaze with tight lips before replying. “He’s still underneath the statue where they killed him. I’m sorry, Beretta.”
Beretta tensed as if something had stung her. “Ardyx? That can’t be right. Ardyx has escaped danger on numerous occasions. A Saban in armor could never have caught him.”
Freya spoke softly under the glare of the Infernal. “I don’t think they snuck up on him.”
“What are you saying? You think he just stood there?” The Infernal strode forward, past the Urufen, toward the courtyard. Raegith called after her, but when she ignored him he groaned and followed her.
“Beretta, a lot have died here. There is a lot to do...” Raegith caught up to Beretta as they reached the courtyard. Reagith looked past her to see the lifeless body of Ardyx strewn on the ground below the statue of Beretta he had been working on. The little tool belt around his waist and the goggles atop his head confirmed Freya’s assessment. Ardyx’s body lay limp against the base of the statue, facing outward. His arms splayed outward to the sides and his hammer sat just outside the reach of his minute fingers. The upper right side of his skull sagged and leaked blood and fluids that had mostly dried and stained the ground beneath him.
The soldiers appeared to have gone after the statue with hammers. The entire upper body had been knocked off and reduced to rubble. Only Beretta’s navel jutting up from the stone block remained.
Raegith’s shoulders dropped. The losses continued to pile up for all of them.
Beretta walked up to Ardyx and knelt down. Raegith approached to comfort the Infernal, but backed off when a blast of heat overwhelmed him. Her green, flaming hair brightened and drops of emerald lava fell to the ground, sizzling and popping the stone.
“Why didn’t you run?” she moaned. “It was just a statue; it wasn’
t real. You could have made another one.”
“What’s happening to her?” Ariadne asked.
“Beretta, please calm down. You’re putting off a lot of heat.” Raegith pushed forward, enduring the intensity of her flames to get closer.
“Stupid Ardyx always.” Fibbitch joined Raegith along with a dozen other Wolf Riders. “Ardyx just stand there with killers coming? Why he not run?”
“Ardyx is dead? Why he not run?” Other Gimlets from the war party gathered around, all repeating Fibbitch’s sentiment, much to his evident annoyance.
“Why you not run, Ardyx?”
Raegith felt the heat intensify and he reached down, grabbing the Boss Gimlet by the shoulder. “Fibbitch, get them to stop.”
“Fibbitch can’t. Gimlets very dumb and easily confused by this. Even Fibbitch kind of confused.”
“We jailed him.” Beretta spoke up, cradling Ardyx’s little body as his hair began to singe and burn away under her heat. “We beat him and threatened him and tried to cast him out. He never stopped.”
A wave of heat burst from the Infernal, driving the others back as she continued speaking to no one. “His head was full of shapes and colors and beautiful images and he kept trying to give them to us… and we beat him for it. Any of us would have stopped; but he didn’t. And when monsters came at him with swords and armor, to destroy his art, he should have fled; but he didn’t. He did not run.”
“Back up, Fibbitch. Get them all back.” Raegith and the others retreated, holding up their arms to shield them from the growing blaze. “Beretta, stop this!”
“He must have been terrified. Gimlets don’t do this; they don’t give up their lives like this. They don’t stand their ground against giants.” Ardyx’s body turned to ash in her hands and a green inferno erupted all around her, sending the warriors and Gimlets for cover. “He knew he couldn’t beat them. He knew they would break his statue anyway. He did not run.”
The stone behind her melted away, along with Ardyx’s tools and even the ground below her. Beretta’s flaming wings expanded and grew, dripping searing raindrops of her Infernal blood as they stretched. Raegith could barely make out her form in the brilliance of her blaze. With several flaps, she lifted into the air, sending flames across the nearby building walls and curling across the ground. As she rose above the walls of the fort, wind caught her and she spun away, over the fort and off into the East.
Gimlets scattered as warriors scrambled to douse the flames.
“What the hell just happened?” Helkree grabbed Raegith and spun him as others attended the flames threatening to overtake the area. “Where is she going? Did we just lose our fucking Infernal?”
“Everything is falling apart,” Raegith mumbled. “This is how it all ends.”
Helkree slammed her open palm across his face. Raegith instinctively lashed out with a straight punch, but stopped it before it landed.
“Despair later, Grass-Hair, but not here,” Helkree said, cutting into him with her crimson eyes. “There’s a lot of hard shit coming. The Greimere still looks to you on how to endure it. The only way we’re falling apart is if you let us.”
Raegith looked past Helkree to the approaching forms. Hitomi led the remaining Helcats and Brimgor across the courtyard. Black soot around her eyes streaked down her cheeks, but resolution hardened her face.
“What are your orders, Warlord?” Hitomi had cast aside the hopelessness from mere minutes ago that had kept her from even entering the fort. Having a task brought back Hitomi the general. Behind her, the others wore the same mix of grief and determination.
Raegith’s Helcats were not ready to give up on the empire.
Allowing Hitomi to give the orders, Raegith evacuated the Greimere from Fort Augustus. They filed out the gate to find a place among the trees to rest so they could mourn away from the death. Raegith pulled warrior mothers from atop the headless corpses of their children. He watched as Indie carried a despondant Lokai warrior in her arms the same as a mother would carry a child. The hulking Rathgar could have dragged men in each hand. Instead, she scooped them up and cradled them as they sobbed into her armored bosom.
Raegith did what he could, but left the commands to Hitomi. No one said anything to him but he could feel their doubt and rage. He had taken nearly the entire fighting force with him to sack the bridge and left their home nearly defenseless. It had seemed acceptable at the time. A smaller force had defended the fort against Hitomi’s assault for weeks. Raegith could not fathom how the fort had been taken so easily in such a short time. He could not even imagine how such a force could have advanced so far into the Wilderness without being detected.
He looked at the bloodstains high on the walls, where his Kyudouka had been killed in their positions from inside the fort. Nothing about this made any sense. It had to have been some kind of trick. Izanami could “jump” from place to place in an instant. Did someone within Rellizbix have this ability?
“Survivors!”
Raegith came out of his trance at the shout that was picked up by others. As people rose and looked southward, Raegith ran forward, joined by Helkree and Hitomi.
From the forests to the south, groups of Rathgar, Urufen and Lokai emerged. Some had managed to escape the fort afterall. Cheers went up and cries of joy as several warriors found their loved ones among the survivors.
Then a group came forward that caused Hitomi to break into a sprint. Indie followed behind her and then Raegith and Helkree ran forward, as well. Hitomi cried out and lunged forward, scooping Makata into a tight embrace.
“Is the fort clear? Are we safe?” Zurek asked in the Greimere tongue as Indie embraced him and lifted him into the air.
“Zurek. You’re here?” Raegith asked, pulling on Indie’s arms to get her to let go of the constricted man. Raegith sighed and clasped the Rung’un’s arm. “Of course you’re here. You’re Greimere. I shouldn’t have doubted.”
“He saved our lives, Grass-Hair.” Tamyth walked forward, bowing her head at Raegith. “The soldiers who came spared no one and we were too scared to leave the orphanage. If Zurek had not come, the children...”
Tamyth could not finish her sentence. Instead, she turned away and focused on a crying Lokai girl, bidding the rest to come out from hiding.
Raegith gripped Zurek by the back of the neck and pulled the man close, touching forehead to forehead. “So much for the worthlessness of Rung’uns. You didn’t just save these children, Zurek. You have saved the soul of this empire.”
“These kids have seen a lot, Grass-Hair. Too much. The Rathgar girl is having a rough go of it.” Zurek pointed to Belathid, who gripped a bloody hammer in both of her hands. “She killed one of them to defend the little ones… and me. She’s barely twelve.”
“She’ll come out of that,” Helkree said, looking Belathid over. “I did.”
Raegith released Zurek back into Indie’s arms and looked around at the survivors as they came forward. None of them were warriors. Most of them appeared to be wet nurses and artisans; young teens with light feet and an intimate knowledge of how to get around the fort unnoticed. Only a fraction of those Raegith had left behind escaped the onslaught. He wondered why Rellizbix had not ridden them down as they fled.
“I need witnesses.” Raegith climbed atop Indie’s shoulders and yelled out over the crowd. “Who did this to our people? Who can describe them? Step forward!”
Several survivors made their way through the crowd and the Helcats escorted them to the side so that Raegith could take their testimony.
“No one saw them approach, Warlord,” one survivor said. “No warning went out. Everything was fine and then suddenly dozens of Sabans in blazing armor were inside the fort.”
More survivors came forward with descriptions of the attackers. They told of men in polished steel armor, with swords and shields. Many drew the same hourglass symbol into the dirt that Hitomi had identified. All of the Sabans carried hammers similar to the one Belathid had taken from the man
she killed.
“They weren’t from the Regiments,” Zurek said. “There were no Hunters or Mages among them; just Sabans. The one Belathid killed spoke of a ‘Judge’ that would determine what to do with me.”
Raegith rubbed his face against the exhaustion setting in. He looked around at the survivors mourning alongside the warriors, trying to make sense of this new threat. If they weren’t regimental soldiers, what were they? Who had sent them? How did they infiltrate the fort undetected in shiny armor?
Raegith caught sight of little Makata. She still held the kunai that her father had passed on to her in his final moments. Figuring this out could wait; Kimura could not.
…
“I told you not to disturb me and you call me out here with him in your presence?” Kimura stormed out of the building, katana in hand, and headed toward Zurek.
“Momma!” a tiny voice called, causing Kimura to stop almost as if seeing a ghost.
Kimura abandoned her katana and bolted forward, falling to her knees as Makata jumped into her arms. Raegith stood alongside Zurek as the others remained outside of the fort. The Rung’un metallurgist had tried to stay away from the fort and Kimura’s wrath, but Raegith needed him. He needed a way to pull Kimura back into the empire and to keep her from assassinating Ariadne and Chev’El.
After a few minutes, Kimura held Makata’s face in her hands and spoke to her. After a few words between them, Kimura jerked backward at something the little Lokai said. “What?”
Makata turned, leaning back into her mother’s embrace and pointed at Zurek. Kimura stood and steadied Makata, then strode toward Zurek.
The Rung’un stood on shaky legs as the Naga leader loomed over him. She stared down into his eyes, holding him paralyzed with a look. “You were there?”
Raegith tried to intervene, but Kimura lifted a hand at him. He held his tongue. Zurek continued to face her, despite the tremors in his body growing, and nodded.
Wrath of the Greimere Page 20
