The moment I arrived here in Kaveg I fought the five because I had this choice; kill them or let my love die. My new choice was kill Fierell or let my love, his country, and my child die. I thought Caldonia and the smile came to my lips.
I stepped around him and took Annie's muzzle in my hands to stop her licking. "Go to the cliff! You won't have to jump." I pointed and pulled on her ear.
As Annie limped away, I turned and fixed a knot in the skirt draped over Geoffrey's neck. "You remember the last time you wore my skirts?" I laughed. "You stole them from me at Forte and pinned me down with them." I slipped the sword from his hand and whispered in his ear. "You should have kissed me then."
I kissed Donja, called him a name, and strode off to help Annie use the cliff to get airborne. The last thing I ever said to him was, “Fool.”
Annie got away, but barely. Another arrow grazed her tail and sank into the waters just as she caught the wind and soared up and off into the clouds. I made sure she had a firm grip on the air current before I drew my sword and turned to stand alone facing seven leather-armored soldiers. I was dressed in what Kavegans would consider undergarments since Geoffrey had taken my skirt and I had shucked the unwieldy overshirt. The five men stopped short and mocked me for it as did one of the women. But the seventh, she ran at me giving no thought to my clothing, or indeed my weapons.
She was the second person I ever killed, if you count that thief in Chicago. She had no defensive skills and I sliced her head off before I knew what I’d done. I simply stood my ground, may have even stepped towards her as she ran aiming for my chest. I tuned out my heart and thought in stage combat terms not of my left shoulder but of my three. For that whole night and day I thought not of body parts and killing, but of numbers and choreography.
I caught the forte of her blade with my sword, bound it down, and swung at her neck with Geoffrey’s sword, preparing to step behind her and trap her blade as she blocked my swing. I would then use her as a hostage against the other six. Only, she didn’t know I had two swords.
So wearing blue blood in my braids and her red blood on my bloomers, I faced the silent remainder of her group.
I spun one of my swords dramatically. It was Geoffrey’s sword I swung. A glop of the dead woman's blood flew at the leader of the group. It splattered on his armor and I gagged.
Swallowing hard and trying to hide my revulsion with bravado, I laughed and walked towards the guy. “Oh good, a target.”
They ran. Idiots. There is absolutely no way a single combatant can best six. About ten feet away, a second in running time, the woman apparently had the same thought. She stopped and turned back to fight me. The blood splattered leader and another guy followed her. The three who’d been running ahead of her continued their retreat. I crossed in a few steps, trying to maintain my fearless rep. None of them raised their swords but I kept mine ready.
“Who are you fighting with?” she asked.
I had no idea who was fighting who over what. I figured I was on whatever side was defending Geoffrey’s castle, but I didn’t know who that was so I improvised. “I’m fighting with the dragon. You?”
“I’m liasion of the third arm on Tgeha’s second wing. If you come with us, we won’t kill you."
The leader added, "We will kill the dragon.”
I brought up my second sword, “Got another offer?”
He brought his own sword en guarde but still delayed, “You die.”
I rolled my eyes in a show of exasperation, although I was actually looking over their heads at the quick work being made of the other three guardesmen and judging the distance between the villagers causing the carnage and our little tête-à-tête. “I rode in on a dragon. What makes you think I can die?”
The liaison blinked. She was buying every bit of my bullshit. But the leader, their front in Kavegan terms, was not impressed. He'd already been humiliated by me, so he attacked. But one angry guy didn't worry me. Just so long as the other two didn't join in.
The front was more adroit than his companion had been. He had a plan; to get inside my defense and trap one of my sword arms. It wasn’t difficult to outwit his maneuvers but I had to avoid them and keep him between myself and the other two.
The one time I got surrounded I allowed my attention to be split and he nicked my bicep. It stung something fierce, but I didn’t have time to let it distract me. I threw myself in a roll at his legs and knocked them from under him. While he tried to keep from falling, I came out of the roll behind him and severed his Achilles tendon. He went down.
The other two attacked together.
I ran through their offensive to pull them away from the immobile but still sword-wielding front. When they turned to follow me, they saw my reinforcements. The villagers who joined me were bloodier than I. They dispatched all three without so much as a how do you do.
“How’re you doing, lady Ananda?”
I was at a loss for a moment, wondering how this woman knew my name. She stood half a hand taller than I with sandy brown hair and dark brown almond eyes. She reminded me of, “Oh! You’re Toss’ Tren from Torscreek.”
Her bond muttered “Say that five times fast.”
Tren ignored him. “That’s right lady. Why don’t you come with us. Krt saw Geoffrey running off into the trees so no doubt he’s up to some good.”
I turned to see Krt’s familiar face, an unfamiliar grin brightening his haunted eyes. He let me pull him into a hug. I searched over his shoulder as I held him.
“Where’s Toss?”
Krt shrugged and shook his head slowly, the grin gone.
“My brother's around somewhere. We’ve all been split from our wings.” Tren explained. “We’re just working together to get back to the Elders. We’ll hear your tale later. Right now, our side needs a hero.”
She took my elbow and herded me through the ragged crew of villagers with her. I nodded at her bond, Raum and at others I recognized from our stay in Torscreek way back when we’d first left Forte.
“I’m no hero, Tren, and I’ve never been in a battle before.” I followed unsteadily as she steered us through a muddy field past a few small smoking cottages filled with screaming wounded.
“Neither have any of us. The only one with any contact at all with major warfare, if rumor has it right, would be this dTella woman and she...”
“I know, was a toddler. Where are we headed?”
“We're going to the map." She conferred with Krt for a moment before he took point, leading us through the battling villagers of Kaveg. Not all were on our side. Many of them were fighting to overthrow Geoffrey. Tren guarded my side as we marched and explained to me as best she could. "Word started spreading through Kaveg that Tgeha was marching his wings north to confront Mobious. We get news pretty quickly in Torscreek being so close to both Voferen and Forte and as we encourage our young to go on travels much as our Geoffrey has been on. Our kids know their duty to keep us informed."
I could see we were heading towards the great gates in the wall around the city which were still closed. Even though we were trying to stay near the wall and skirt the battle, Tren's tale was interrupted several times by attacks on our crew or the need to reinforce other struggling villagers.
Tren continued as she could. "Word came that Tgeha was tired of the regent’s inability—"
I interrupted. "Where is Mobious?"
She gave me and then the wall such a look of anger that I was relieved to be distracted by a quick skirmish. We prevailed and I watched the Torscreek villagers spread the news of my dramatic arrival as they had been doing during each encounter. They said that I had tamed the dragon, delivered Geoffrey into Kahago, and single-handedly killed seven of Tgeha’s personally trained guarde. They were out to turn me into the cavalry. They also spread the hush hush news that Geoffrey was off preparing a great coup. The people shed weariness and despair like cloaks from their shoulders at receipt of this news. They looked to me in awe and I heard whispers of ‘the queen�
� as I passed. One bold elder nodded at me as if to give me his approval, commenting that, “Mobious had it right after all.”
I was shocked to see such an old man fighting and stopped dead in my tracks to look around at the demographics of our 'army' of villagers. Tren, wiping her blade clean, pushed me on.
"Tgeha, the lord of Stray Tor, was done waiting for Mobious to contain the increasing destruction of the dragon and intended to force the issue. Word followed soon after that Fierell was supporting Tgeha and would be heading to Kahago to attend the meeting as one of the blood. Well, we know a little something about that woman so we kept our eyes open and sent a few of our better fighters off for a vacation in the big city." She growled at the wall again. "When our eyes returned with news that Fierell had passed north of us with several hundred armed and armored companions, we broke out the reserves and marched here ourselves." She paused to grab a child running by and tell her that Geoffrey was coming.
I protested to Raum, "She doesn't even have boobs yet! And there are ancient elders here!"
He nodded sadly. "Most of the youngest and oldest are from the village here, Voferen, Sapproach, and Paceree. We have the kids redistributing weaponry from the wounded and they're running an information relay from camp to camp where the elders are planning our defenses."
From what I could see, the arsenal Raum referred to included all manner of weapon from a stove pot—wielded with tactical brilliance by an eighty year old man who also got his cane into it—to what looked like an iron quarterstaff with pyramids of sharpened blades tipping the last two and a half feet on either side. In addition to these doubtful tools the runners were being sent off with the fabricated story of my heroics to tell the groups further out in the battle. As Tren sent her on I heard pre-puberty girl screaming about the tamed dragon as she zigzagged fearlessly through the clash of blades and what have you.
Tren caught up and continued her summary. "We left Torscreek and got here in time to reinforce the wing of Kahago civil guarde Mobious sent to escort Fierell and Tgeha to the city.
"The wing was, of course, attacked by their guests and we lost many friends in that first hour. But word spreads quickly through Kaveg and other loyal villages and shales sent along their best to support Geoffrey’s regent. The villages that recognized Geoffrey when he visited them were the first to send support. Scentrier, Halif, Tyurae, Phelat, and Weary. The Nouiebos spilled its hidden residents like rats in Geoffrey’s defense. As word was drummed through the forests that Tgeha and Fierell had attacked Kahago’s escort, more villages sent us their best. Geoffrey’s cousin Kierri is on the east somewheres. A runner from the southwest tells us that the great retired Girard brought the entire village of Sapproach who were joined by nearly all the folk of Paceree. Their young, old, ill, and encumbered are organizing food and healers."
We passed through a double row of defenders into a small encampment free of fighting. The Torscreek villagers lowered their guard as kids came to us offering water, food, and healing. Tren pulled a crumpled pile of papers from the pouch at her hip and handed them off to a pimply-faced boy who limped away with them making good speed despite his crutch.
The encampment was backed up to the city gates. A group of our villagers were attacking the gate, though trying to break it or climb it I couldn’t tell.
Tren saw me notice them, “We think Fierell enchanted the gates and the city. We've heard nothing from inside the walls, nothing from Mobious since he sent the escort wing. It's as if they don't know that there's a battle going on out here."
She led me farther into the encampment. "But we control the gates for now. And thanks to the irregular arrival of our makeshift guarde, we have the attackers surrounded. But they have the advantage in weaponry and training. Most of them have been preparing for this battle. And they are slaughtering us." We were approached by a young girl and Tren drank deeply from the pitcher she offered. Then she handed it to me. "We’re hoping that news of the dragon tamed will dissuade at least the southern villagers who are fighting with Tgeha if not some of his actual guarde.”
“But Annie isn’t tamed." I handed the pitcher back to the girl and stopped Tren before she could stride on. "Annie isn't responsible for any of the reported damage. She's never hurt anyone.”
“Annie?” Tren turned away to take a peach from the girl.
“The dragon."
The peach dropped as both Tren and the concessionaire stared at me.
"She’s intelligent. She doesn’t want to hurt us. She doesn't breathe fire. And she's just a child. It’s all been propaganda, by Fierell I'd bet.”
The girl squeaked out, "It's been flying for eighty-seven seasons."
I explained, "but they live for like five hundred years and she was just hatched when they volunteered to go to sleep."
The girl didn't wait for instructions. She shoved the pitcher and bag of fruit into Tren's hands and ran off screaming for all the runners to join her. I took myself over to the roped off space where it looked like three elders were drawing in the ground. Tren bent to pick up the peach and followed.
“This is as near a map of the fight as we can arrange. Runners update our elders as news comes in. Ask them what the symbols mean or just what you want to know. Boush can tell you anything you need to know about the history of the fight so far.”
“Nice to see you again, sir.”
“Lady.” The flirtatious elder of Tyurae eyed my flat tummy but asked nothing. “Perhaps you will play for us when this is over?”
“Absolutely. Tell me, does that map tell you where I might find dTella? Or Tgeha?”
“I can find Tgeha.” A teenage boy with a variety of knives hanging from his belt, his legs and sheathed on his arms approached and crouched by Boush’s side.
“If you can get me to him, I can convince him of Annie’s innocence.” I just hoped that would be enough to turn him against Fierell.
Our attention was taken by the arrival of a runner unable to speak for lack of breath. Tren helped to calm the runner down and drip some water down her dry throat while Boush conferred with the boy, Stiles, and the other two elders playing in the dirt. They showed me both where Tgeha was believed to be on the northeast side and how I would go about getting deep into that part of the battle.
“Fire!”
The runner had gained enough breath to power her message. She reported that Fierell’s forces had been seen setting fire to the forest west of the city and the flames had cut a large contingent of our supporters from the fight. The villagers were losing the battle against the blaze and people in that sector were burning. Ours and theirs alike. Word was spreading through the ranks that the flame had been the work of the recently seen dragon.
One elder turned and calmly put an arm around the messenger's waist, getting coordinates from the child as a runner was sent to start a bucket brigade from Girard’s invalid support troops. Tren led me away to her wing who were assigned to get me Tgeha.
Her crew had all returned to the Elders when they were separated and the boy with the knives, Stiles, turned out to be our runner.
“Lady,” Tren made me focus on her, “Stiles is good at getting us to our assignment with the least prior involvement, but he is hard to follow. You follow me and let Wolf watch your back..”
I was shocked to see the musician I’d planned to trade songs with in Tyurae waiting quietly behind me, holding a sword instead of a loate. As Tren led us out of the encampment, Wolf reintroduced me to the cook’s daughter, Wyckham. She had sheared off her blond hair and had a vicious twinkle in her brown eyes.
“Tren is our fearless leader.” A familiar red-bearded guy in his thirties jogged up to me as we circled out along the edge of the battle and grinned, teasing.
“That’s Toss,” Tren said over her shoulder. “Ignore him when you can, which won’t be often.”
"I know Toss." I hugged our old friend, grateful to see him alive.
“Tren, Lady,” Krt interrupted the reunion.
“Nanda.” I corrected him.
He nodded, but kept pointing to the west, “It’s raining.”
Water was falling from the sky over the now clearly visible fire, but it was not rain. I looked up further. There was Annie, spitting water from a safe height. I grabbed Tren’s elbow.
“Tren, get me to Tgeha now.”
But when we turned I saw Arinaud, leader of the five.
I thought of Forte's crypt and shoved my way into the fray around the asshole despite my crew's protests. Before his guarde saw me, I had ripped great big wounds in two of the men. Someone behind me finished them off. I thought sure my yells and the screams of his troops would have pulled at least a glance from Arinaud, but he was deep in conversation with someone I could not see. A villager attacked his back as I took down the one man still guarding him, but Arinaud was quick. He turned and sliced through the villager woman’s arm. She brought a dagger down with her other hand, but it only ripped the collar of his shirt as he turned away to pull his sword free from her arm and drive it into her belly. She spit blood in his face as she died with the point of his blade sticking out of her back.
He bent over the woman and behind him I saw Fierell. She was not dressed as magnificently as when I had last seen her and if I hadn’t memorized her eyes, I might have mistaken her for just another of the black leather clad guarde. I pointed with Geoffrey’s sword, parrying a cut with mine and screamed, “Fierell!” If she hadn’t looked, she might have escaped from me. But as soon as she identified herself, she was surrounded by villagers on our side.
I watched in horror as they fell dead around her. She barely moved and our people erupted in blood. Her guarde moved in to protect her and a few of them died similarly. I kept my distance.
Geoffrey's Queen: A Mobious' Quest Novel Page 27
