“We save as many as we can, Helfria.” Her father scowled at her, but she did not back down. “We designate the towns that can be raided; secretly bloat their storages with bounties so that the Greimere get what they’ve come for early in the war. Then we hit them hard and drive them out, back to their wretched land.”
“We’ve been doing this to the Greimere for a thousand years and you’re shocked that they’re finally playing for real?” Helfria closed on her father. She needed an answer to the question that he kept from her for so long; the key to everything from the war to his change of demeanor all those years ago. “The warlord leading the Greimere is from Rellizbix—
You know him; he means something to you… perhaps even more than I do. Who is he?”
Helfrick locked eyes with Helfria. She knew this answer could wound both of them, but she did not know why. She would wait him out until he told her; she was not going anywhere.
A ruckus at the door distracted her. Cries of anguish followed the quick clash of steel. Suddenly two Paladins burst in the door. Helfrick grabbed Helfria and pulled her behind him as Judge Fahlrick, the man who had delivered news of the Greimere slaughter to the Senate a year ago, entered between his two men.
“Helfrick Caelum and Helfria Caelum, you are both under arrest by order of High Paladin Andronicus. Come quietly or be dragged out.” The Judge turned his gaze to Helfria and he gave her a polite smile that hid the demented pleasure she knew hid silently beneath.
“Helfria, take the door to the rear of the armory.” Helfrick went to the hearth and reached over it, pulling his white and gold Warhammer from the mount. “Find Regulus.”
Judge Fahlrick laughed as his men readied themselves on either side of him. “Come now, your Highness, you’re nearly sixty years old and you haven’t swung that thing in ages. There is no need for you to embarrass yourself.”
“You have children, Paladin?” Helfrick asked, rolling his shoulders out and spinning the hammer inside his grip.
The Judge’s chin swayed left and right with a gentle shake. “Of course not.”
“Then I imagine you’re going to have trouble comprehending the hell you’ve stepped into.” Helfrick called over his shoulder, never taking his eyes off the three Paladins. “Go, Helfria. Do not stop.”
“She’s not leaving Helfrick,” Judge Fahlrick yelled, pointing to Helfria.
Her heart stopped as she watched the Paladin to his left yank a smaller hammer from his side and launch it at her. She could not move or flinch or scream as the metal cap of the mallet speed directly at her chest. She could only hold her breath and tense.
A white and gold blur filled her vision a loud crack snapped her out of her stupor. Her father’s hammer rocked back, thumping her in the breast as the sailing mallet ricocheted, spinning away from her and across a table.
Her father had deflected the attack with his weapon and the three Paladins charged in the same instant. Helfria did not pause or try to help her father. She did not make for the entry and call for help. She turned and ran for the back door, just as he had asked her to.
Behind her, she heard her father roar and the sounds of fighting echoed up the stair well after her. Tears flew from her eyes and her breaths came quickly she raced up the steps. She imagined the three men overpowering her father and ending his life as he struggled to buy time for her. She ran, hoping to catch Regulus and bring help, but there were three of them and the Judge was right; her father had not fought anyone in a decade.
She knew she would only be bringing the guards back to recover a corpse.
Helfria reached the family hall and called out for them; for anyone. The hall felt empty and no one came for her. Her sisters, maids, guards… no one responded. Helfria fought the panic threatening to shut down her body and ran for the stairs. If her mother had any idea what had transpired, she would have pulled everyone up to her room at the top of the keep.
She recognized her sister’s fading scream through the door a dozen heartbeats before she reached it. She turned the knob and slammed her shoulder into the door at the same time.
An armored hand grabbed her and flung her to the floor as she took in the sight of her mother standing at the window sill with a Paladin standing next to her, his sword pointed at her midsection. Her mother screamed for her, but the Paladin kept her at bay. The Paladin who threw her looked down the hall and then shut the door before angling his sword at her.
“You’re Helfria, the oldest? The Senator?” the Paladin asked.
“I’ve changed my mind,” her mother cried, grabbing the blade at her hip and cutting her hand. “Spare her; I’ll do whatever you need me to do.”
“We’re not sparing any of you, except the heir.”
Helfria looked over and noticed her young brother, Kranston, rocking back and forth in the corner, his arms hugging his knees and his face like marble.
“You cannot kill Helfria, she’s a Senator,” her mother begged.
“She’s a Caelum.” The Paladin jerked his sword free from her mother’s grasp, severing her fingers. Helfria and her mother both screamed and reached for each other as the Paladin slammed his arm into the Queen and knocked her backward and through the window.
Helfria went still and quiet as the sound of her mother falling came to a sudden end.
Helfria felt her muscles lock up and she could only stare out the window after her mother.
“Let’s get the last one up and out the window without any marks this time, dumbass.” She heard the Paladin standing over her speaking to his partner, but she could not move or react. Her mother was dead at the bottom of the keep. She knew the absence of her other sisters meant her entire family lay crumpled at the base of their home. Soon, she would join them.
“Come on, grab her and then we’ll take the boy to the High Paladin.”
The Paladin who murdered her mother stepped down from the window. “Why are we sparing the boy? The Caelums need cleansed and it’s not like the High Paladin needs a legitimate claim to the throne; the Fates have already given that to him.”
“There are still lots of non-believers out there; some of them powerful people.” The Paladin standing over her grumbled as he lifted her to her feet. “Look, he’s got a plan and he’s smarter than you are. So how about you keep the faith and shut the fuck up?”
She wanted to run to her brother then; to give him one last hug before she left and he carried on in this world, for as long as they allowed, all alone. She wanted to let him know that she loved him and that Father loved him. She wanted to give him something to fight against the fear, but she could not break out of her own terror.
Kranston would be left to the devices of these devils in holy armor and she could do nothing. Her words, the sharpest weapon in her arsenal, would not come.
“Helfria, run!”
The small voice cried out as two hands wrapped around the Paladin’s sword hilt and ripped it away. The Paladin turned to find Krantson on his feet and swinging the sword with all of his might.
“Shit.” The Paladin yelped, using his armored gauntlet to parry the strike. In a practiced movement, the Paladin reached to his side with the other hand, pulled his hammer from his belt and swept it into Kranston’s temple.
“No!” The cry came from the Paladin holding her, even though her silent lips mouthed the words. “You idiot. Is he dead? Aww, dammit, he’s bleeding everywhere. Did you really have to do that?”
“He came at me with a sword.” The Paladin yanked off the damaged gauntlet and examined a deep cut across the top of his forearm. Blood streamed down to drip from his elbow. “Little fucker almost got me. Fuck, that hurts!”
“A stuttering twelve-year-old got the drop on you. How did you get chosen for this detail?”
The door of the room splintered open and Helfrick entered like a raging beast. The Paladin holding Helfria managed a warning cry before the white-gold hammer crashed down on his helmeted head. The metal crumpled around the man’s bursting skull and his
body buckled in the middle like a cheap nail being driven in at an awkward angle. Helfrick tagged the broken Paladin with a thrust kick that sent his body careening over a dresser.
The Paladin who killed her mother and brother retrieved his sword and held the hammer in his off hand at the ready. Helfrick’s wild gaze found Kranston’s body on the floor below the man and his eyes lost focus.
The King’s wail could have ripped apart the fabric of this world as he charged the Paladin. Helfria ducked in fear and awe as her father thrust his hammer forward like a spear, between the Paladin’s weapons. Helfria remembered stories from General Tiberius and her uncles about her father’s otherworldly skill on the battlefield. Her grandfather, a vain man, had once told her as a tiny girl that the last seven generations had not witnessed a King as physically dominating as Helfrick Caelum.
Her father had stagnated with age and the dust of ten years still clung to the crevices of his weapon, but when Helfrick struck the Paladin it was like everything else in the room stood still but him. The Paladin did not have time to dodge or put up a defense. In one instant the rampaging King occupied a different section of the room; in the next the head of his hammer slammed into the Paladin’s chest.
Helfria heard the air leave the man’s lungs as he sailed into the wall and fell to the floor. The Paladin recovered quickly and popped up to his knee, but Helfrick descended on him like a storm cloud swelling with hatred. The King brought a kick into the man’s face that lifted him up. Helfrick grabbed him by the collar of his dented armor and slammed him into the wall with such force that the Paladin dropped his weapons. With a deafening roar, he swiped his hammer across the side of the Paladin’s head, sending his helmet flying and his body to the ground.
“My girls!” Helfrick’s voice cracked with strain as he lifted his hammer over his head and rocked it down on top of the man’s head. The Paladin’s cranium disintegrated in a pulpy spray and the stone floor cratered below it.
Helfrick lifted his hammer again and brought it down on the corpse. “My boy!”
“My wife!”
Three hammer strikes rendered the Paladin’s armored corpse unrecognizable. Helfrick looked around for other threats and then released his hammer to fall to the floor with a momentous clang. He shuffled to where Krantson lay and collapsed beside the boy. Helfria could not tell if her brother still lived, but the wound to his head leaked more than just blood and he grew paler by the second as Helfrick scooped Kranston into his lap.
“My boy. Oh no… no, no, no. Not my boy.” Helfrick’s destroyed voice struggled through his wails of anguish. “Not like this. He’s done nothing. Fates, don’t take him like this.”
“Father?”
As he sat there, rocking Kranston and wiping the gore-soaked hair from the boy’s face, Helfria saw the horrendous damage her father had taken. His right eye had swollen shut and bruises covered half his face and arms. A wound on the crown of his head flowed blood down the back of his neck. His nose clung to his face and his jaw seemed misaligned.
Helfria crawled up to her father. Up close she could see that Kranston was gone, but Helfrick continued to quietly jostle him, trying to wake him.
She grabbed his face and turned it to look at her. “Father, he’s gone. We’re not safe here.”
Helrick’s eyes flickered up with rage and his body tensed. Helfria turned, wondering if her father still had enough in him to take on even more Paladins. When she saw Gaius standing in the doorway, a sword in his hand, she bared her teeth. How could he?
“Fates, no.” Genuine horror filled the Senator’s face and he looked to Helfria. “Your sisters? The Queen?”
Helfria broke down. Gaius was not with the Paladins. He had come for her. “They’re dead.”
Gaius rushed to her side, pulling her close. He then looked to Helfrick. “Highness, are you okay to move? Andronicus has the entire city distracted during this coupe. No one knows.”
“You do.” Helfria lifted her head and shied away from him. “If everyone is ignorant of this, how are you here?”
She felt a hand on her arm and she turned to see Helfrick. “Gaius is with the 1st, Helfria. He has always been with the 1st, from the moment I reassigned him.”
“I don’t understand. Assigned him to what?”
“The Senate.” Gaius gave her a remorseful look. “Your father needed a man on the Senate; a soldier. I will explain it all later, but you can trust my loyalty to the crown. I need to get you both out of here.”
“Just her.” Helfrick released her arm and went back to caressing Kranston. “This is all my doing. I have failed everyone. I will go no further.”
“No, I’m not leaving you,” Helfria yelled, grabbing her father and shaking him.
“I’ve lost contact with General Regulus, but there are others from the 1st waiting on me. I’ll get her out and to my home. They won’t find her there.” Gaius took Helfria’s hand. “Come on Helfria, we have to go.”
“They’ll find you anywhere in Rellizbix, Gaius.” Helfrick shook his head and closed his eyes. “The only place they won’t find you is in the Wilderness… with the Greimere.”
“What?” Both Helfria and Gaius had the same question.
“The answer you’ve been looking for; the identity of the Greimere Warlord… his name is Raegith Caelum. He is my firstborn son and your half-brother.”
Helfria withdrew her hand and shook off Gaius’s attempt to reach her. Too much information had attacked her mind in the last hour and she struggled to keep air in her lungs and darkness out of her vision. This news threatened all off that. Did she know this man at all? Did she know anything, or was everyone but her in on an elaborate joke?
“He was illegitimate; a freak birth from a Twileen whore I visited on leave. I didn’t think that was possible with someone like her. Regardless, he was half Twileen and couldn’t be named a Caelum Prince, much less heir to Rellizbix. We covered him up, shut him away in the Northwest until he was a man.” Helfrick continued stroking Kranston’s head, but now he looked Helfria in the eyes. “I sent him into the Greimere nearly fifteen years ago to deliver the new Treaty that would ignite my first Invasion as King. He was supposed to come back and then live out his days on the Cerulean Coast as a hero. Something went wrong; the Invasion began as planned, but Raegith and his escort party never returned. I thought him either dead or captive, so I ordered Tiberius to bring war to the Greimere to find him.”
“But Tiberius returned victorious,” Gaius said. “He didn’t find your son and the Greimere obviously didn’t kill him.”
Helfrick sighed. “I don’t know what happened. We all thought Raegith dead. I told his mother as much and even tried to avenge him. And then war started up again, without a treaty, and Tiberius ventured back to the Greimere only to come face to face with Raegith at the head of their army.”
Helfrick looked up at Gaius. “They did something to him… turned him into a demon. He killed Tiberius in open combat, with his bare hands. Raegith sent his armor back… I could see the imprints of the boy’s fist in it. He thinks I abandoned him down there and his hatred for me, it seems, is limitless.”
“Then that’s the absolute last place we should go.” Gaius shook his head and pointed out the window. “Worst case scenario, Helfria is still a Senator here and Andronicus can be bargained with.”
Helfrick ignored Gaius and looked at Helfria. “Find Raegith. Bow to him. Bring him news of my death. Tell him… tell him that I’m sorry. Our time in the sun is over, my daughter. Seek refuge in darkness.”
Helfrick looked down at Kranston. “Raegith is your only hope for vengeance.”
“I can’t leave you,” Helfria said. “You can tell your living son what happened. You can make this right.”
Helfrick did not speak. Instead, he motioned his hand forward and in the next instant, Gaius yanked her off the ground and out the door. She screamed and fought him, but Gaius remained resolute in his orders and she could not overpower him. Helfria’s last vi
sion of her father was of him slumped, defeated, over the corpse of his youngest child.
Chapter 37
Raegith stood atop the highest landing of his Spire looking out over the buildings. Many of the living quarters were mere huts, but the armory and forge were fully stone. The engineers had re-marked the outer wall three times before finally coming to a consensus and beginning the framework. Resources arrived from every farm and town for a hundred miles. Settlements that had existed since the first Invasion were stripped bare and erased. Raegith held no sentiment for them. Every town in the Wilderness represented a centuries-old sham devised to de-claw his people and render them docile. Destroying those settlements and using their bones to build his Citadel seemed fitting.
Below, an open courtyard served as the training grounds for his Greimere army. Many of them drilled through their pregnancies until the time for birth drew near. Twileen tribes he forced under his banner sent midwives to him by the dozen. Their skill in keeping mothers alive through birth quickly made them invaluable assets as the Greimere sought to quickly rebuild their population. Greimere babies cried very little, but a few of their wails could be heard from the large nursery to the east of the Spire.
Black smoke rolled from the top of the armory and Raegith watched little Belathid shovel coal into a cart. Zurek had taken her in after the sacking of Augustus and Indie became her mother and mentor. After the loss of Magda, a few other Rathgar tried to take on blacksmithing duties until Raegith discovered the Crimson Banner had a master smith among them. Braccus now lived at the Citadel with his family and worked the forge for the Greimere.
Many Rathgar regarded the Twileens and Sabans harshly, either out of fear or hatred. Raegith found himself implementing a similar system to Rellizbix when it came to citizenship. All Rathgar, Lokai, Urufen and Gimlets were naturally part of the Greimere, but those he had conquered needed to prove their worth. This was not just Raegith’s law; but how the Greimere saw life in their new home. They regarded the conquered people of the Wilderness no differently than slaves at first. Only the Stone Seers received different treatment.
Wrath of the Greimere Page 28
