Bones of the Empire

by Jim Galford

  “This is as absurd as Turess’s stories,” Liris said, rolling her eyes as she moved with him. “Keep talking to yourself, wolf. Your friends die as we delay.”

  “Pride will ensure that you will fail dramatically. A wise warrior is humble and accepts that he can die. He will die when he is no longer ready for his foes,” Raeln replied, citing the third lesson he old man had impressed on him.

  Liris lunged, but this time Raeln was ready. He parried with his shield and spun to increase the speed of his blade. The metal sliced across Liris’s leg, cutting nearly to the bone. She winced and stumbled away, her leg healing as she moved.

  “The fourth lesson,” Raeln continued, glancing toward Mairlee, who smiled back at him, “is that a wizard depends on their magic as much as a warrior depends on his weapons. Deprive your enemy any advantage and you can endure forever. A warrior without a weapon is helpless if they do not know what you do.”

  Throwing down his sword and shield, Raeln stepped into Liris’s next charge. Hooking her arm, he locked her shoulder using her arm as a brace. Shifting his grip, he held her wrist as he applied pressure to her elbow. The joint snapped loudly, and Raeln released her.

  She came around screaming, her sword far from hitting him. “Damned flea-bitten beast!” she screamed, cringing as her elbow righted itself with another pop. Flexing her arm as she circled him, she added, “Just because I feel pain does not mean you can ever win! I can heal from anything. My master has made me a god!”

  Raeln waited patiently, keeping his eyes on the ground at Liris’s feet. He would know how she would attack before she did, if he was careful. Sure enough, he watched her weight shift to her lead foot as she prepared to attack, and he moved first, simply pushing her over backward.

  She hit the ground hard before rolling onto her hands and knees and scrambling out of his reach. “Nice tricks, dog,” she spat, raising her sword and taking it in both hands. “Embarrassing me does not win you the battle. Sooner or later, you will tire and make a mistake, or I will see your friends die in my mind and receive my master’s order to incinerate you where you stand.”

  “If you thought you could, you would have already,” Raeln said, smiling.

  A distant howl that sent shivers down Raeln’s spine came from the depths of the temple. Faintly, he could hear the sound of weapons hitting one another and the occasional boom of magic going off. He forced himself to ignore the noises, knowing his own sense of guilt would cost him if he listened too long.

  Liris lifted one hand to begin a spell, but Raeln was ready. He closed the gap between them and grabbed the hand she intended to use to point at him. Yanking it by the fingers, Raeln twisted and broke her wrist and all four fingers. Her pained, momentarily dazed expression let Raeln know she had lost the spell she was concentrating on. That was all he needed to know to fight her. She was as weak as any other wizard once all of Dorralt’s aid was mitigated.

  Raeln saw the sword coming at him as Liris recovered. Not wanting to lose his advantage, he sought absolute calm within himself, like he had when fighting the Turessian child months before. The blade was no different than any other spell. It had weight and could be stopped the same way as any other weapon.

  Knocking aside the sword with his forearm, Raeln raked Liris’s throat with his other hand, tearing open her skin with his claws.

  Liris choked and put both hands to her throat, the sword vanishing with a puff as her concentration broke.

  Steam floated past his nose, bringing him the scent of burning fur, but he had done what he had hoped. He eyed his arm where he had blocked the weapon and saw the skin was blistered and burned, though that was the worst of it.

  Recovering, Liris took a swing at Raeln’s head with her empty hand.

  He leaned, easily avoiding the clumsy punch. He quickly backed away from Liris, getting himself on better footing and putting himself out of her reach.

  “I’m not done with you, beast!” Liris hissed, reaching down and manually popping her fingers back into place, one at a time. The very fact that she had to do so told Raeln her ability to recover was not nearly as great as he had thought. He realized that every time he hurt her, she had recovered a little more slowly until she fled or he had. Without Dorralt directly aiding her, that seemed to lessen even further. “If I can’t hit you, I’ll make sure I don’t need to!”

  Liris raised her hand, and Raeln readied himself to avoid whatever she might throw at him. Instead of flames, shards of ice, lightning, or anything else Raeln had seen over the years, all he felt was a gentle breeze and heard a thump. Then he saw the depression in the snow all around him. When he reached out, his fingers touched a solid dome-like wall.

  “Ever seen what happens to an animal in a box with no air holes?” Liris giggled, slowly walking around him to admire her work. She steered wide of Mairlee, who seemed to be paying more attention to the temple than to Liris or Raeln. “A trick Dorralt showed me only recently. No air will come in or out. Enjoy your last cage, while you still can breathe. Now I can stall as long as my master needs. If I cast the spell correctly, you will be awake for nearly an hour in there, waiting for the end.”

  Snarling, Raeln punched the magical barrier. His hand glanced off as though it were as slick as ice, leaving a streak of blood across the solid air.

  Liris laughed and sat in front of him, clearly ready to wait out his remaining minutes. To Raeln’s dismay, Mairlee put her hand on the glowing blue barrier that held her back, shaking her head.

  He was going to die entirely alone. Somehow it felt fitting. There was nothing he could do and no sense raging. Instead, Raeln let go of his anger and waited. Lowering himself to his knees, he forced himself to slow his breathing and meet Liris’s eyes as she stared expectantly.

  Minutes passed slowly. More than once, Raeln saw Mairlee’s attention shift as she wove her hands through spells that seemed to either fail or be intended to help others farther off. Eventually, even she began pacing, keeping a finger on the magical barrier as she traced it slowly around the temple. Then, with a flicker of her body, Mairlee vanished. Raeln could not be sure if Liris noticed, but he knew it did not really matter.

  Five or ten minutes later, two wildlings Raeln had not seen before came around one of the hills near the temple, well behind Liris. Both were deer, and they stopped abruptly when they saw Raeln and Liris, their noses twitching as they tried to figure out what was happening. They nervously looked between Raeln and Liris.

  Raeln tried not to watch the deer directly, praying Liris had not noticed his attention on them in the first place. The wildlings would know better than to attack a Turessian, and he would be dead long before Yoska or any of his troops came back. With luck, the two deer could find someone else to deal with Liris.

  To Raeln’s surprise, they cautiously approached, making certain they were directly behind Liris as they walked, ensuring she would not see them. When they got about halfway to Raeln, the two deer—a man and a woman, he realized—stopped and searched through some of the fallen bodies from his soldiers’ charge to the temple. The man picked up a sword, while the woman stuck out her tongue, shaking her head. Frowning, the man wiped the blade clean on the corpse. Then they both nodded and began sneaking toward Liris again.

  Raeln tried to think what he could do. Liris would butcher the two deer. He had to warn them, but Liris was watching him too intently. He could not so much as shake his head without her seeing it. He had to hope they would realize the folly of what they were about to attempt. He prayed they would run.

  Thankfully, Liris lowered her eyes as she picked at several tears in her robe about the time the deer got within twenty feet. While she was distracted, Raeln pointed at the deer and shook his head frantically. The two deer cocked their heads in opposite directions, then nodded vigorously at him. They had no idea what he was trying to tell them. They were as good as dead, and there was nothing he could do. He clenched his hands in frustration and returned his attention to Liris when she looked ba
ck up at him.

  The buck came up slowly behind Liris, somehow managing to keep his hooves from making any real noise on the snow. He inched forward, raising the sword overhead with its point aimed at Liris’s back. Meanwhile, the deer woman looked as though she was about to be sick and covered her eyes, even as she continued to sneak closer with the man.

  Liris continued to stare up at Raeln while the sword steadied behind her. A slow smile spread across her lips, and Raeln realized that the deer’s shadow hung across Liris. Long antlers were clearly visible against the white snow. She already knew.

  “Run!” Raeln shouted, but Liris was faster.

  Rolling to her side and grabbing the sword as it came down, Liris pulled the man off his feet, knocking him down face-first beside her. The other deer screamed and started to run, hesitating as the man tried to get up and run too. Before he could, Liris took his sword, hopped to her feet, and pinned him under her boot.

  “Just in time to give Raeln a little more of a show,” Liris said softly, and the wildling man struggled and frantically tried to get away. “I do hope your friend can run quickly. She will be next.”

  Without another word, Liris raised the sword and brought it down like an axe, cutting the deer’s head from his body. He twitched once and went still.

  The female deer backed away, shaking her head as she stared at the body. Tears rolled down her muzzle. She stopped, standing perfectly still with disbelief on her face.

  “Idiot wildlings,” Liris muttered, hurling the sword toward the deer. The weapon clattered as it hit the ground only inches from her hooves. When the deer still did not run, Liris picked up the male deer’s head and threw that at the girl too. “Do I even need to bother killing you? You’re a child and not worth my time. Go play elsewhere and let me watch my pet wolf die.”

  Liris turned to Raeln again, putting a hand against the barrier right in front of him. Slowly, she wiped a small amount of blood from her glove on the wall and smirked at him through the smear.

  Raeln’s calm broke instantly. He could not hold himself back. He beat his hands against the barrier until his knuckles had gone numb. Only then did he collapse, unable to push himself any further. Another death and it was his fault—again.

  Less than twenty feet away, the deer woman knelt down and looked at the male deer’s bloodied head. Raeln no longer even cared what Liris was doing. All he could see and think about was that deer wildling, with her huge eyes staring unblinkingly at the head. She would begin weeping any moment, and Raeln knew it would destroy him. He had managed to ignore Liris through months of taunting and attempts on his life. He had nothing left he could do.

  His heart broke for the young woman, whose nose twitched endlessly as she fought to stop her tears. He knew that feeling well enough to recognize it in another. The man must have been her husband or mate. Raeln watched as her entire world collapsed, as the cold reality sunk in that he was gone. He had gone through that same series of emotions when Greth lay dying in his arms. There really were only two possible responses…

  The deer woman picked up the sword, still coated on one edge with her husband’s blood. She stared at the weapon a long time. Raeln waited for the screams, the sorrow he thought had to come. Instead, resolutely, she marched toward Liris, no longer even trying to be stealthy. She stopped right behind Liris, adjusting her grip on the heavy sword in an effort to lift the tip over her head. Her arms shook with the weight.

  “Child, walk away while you still can,” Liris said, watching Raeln. The deer hesitated, her ears flattening as she let the sword drop an inch or two. “Do not forget what we did to your children. I am more than happy to do the same to you. Yes, I recognize you from my sister Allati’s memories.”

  The deer straightened her shoulders. Clenching her jaw, she raised the sword again with a little less effort. She swung it as hard as she could. It hit Liris in the shoulder with the clean edge barely hard enough to be a serious wound to a living person, let alone something like Liris.

  “I warned you,” Liris said with a deep sigh as she turned around and got to her feet. “Do you know what venison tastes like? No? You will soon enough. I intend to feed your mate to you before I choke the life out of…”

  While Liris ranted, the deer drew back and swung the sword again, this time hitting Liris’s shoulder with the edge that had killed her mate. The weapon struck bone and the deer lost her grip, letting the sword fall to the ground at her feet. With a look of utter hopelessness, the deer closed her eyes and stood there, waiting for Liris to attack her. The woman raised herself up straight, leveling her shoulders as she accepted her death.

  Raeln punched the barrier again, his calm shattered by the desire to save at least one person. As before, his hand glanced off the dome ineffectually.

  Liris took the two steps necessary to put herself face-to-face with the deer. She went to raise her right arm when it abruptly went limp at her side. Liris stared at her arm with a look of utter confusion. Backing away, she tore at her robe, opening the hole where the sword had cut her moments before.

  To Raeln’s amazement, a deep and badly infected cut remained on her shoulder. As he watched, the blackening skin spread slowly and bits of Liris’s flesh flaked away. Blood ran down her arm, not slowing in the slightest. Raeln had seen similar wounds on his sister when Dorralt’s magic had stopped keeping her alive. It was as though the sword had somehow weakened Liris’s bond with Dorralt.

  The deer opened one eye and then the other as Liris ripped away part of her robe to tie a quick tourniquet. The deer woman knelt carefully, trying not to be noticed, and picked up the sword she had used moments before.

  “Keep hitting her!” Raeln shouted, though he could see neither woman was paying attention to him anymore. “It’s your only chance! Keep fighting!”

  Swearing as she finished tying the cloth around her arm, Liris ran toward the temple. The deer did not follow, instead standing still, holding the sword as though unsure what to do.

  Raeln pushed against the barrier that trapped him and found it gave slightly, feeling slightly squishy. The harder he leaned into it, the more the magical wall felt as though it was bending. Stepping back, Raeln made a fist and took a deep breath to shed his anger and frustration. Concentrating all of his strength on one swing, he punched the barrier and felt it shudder and fall back from the blow. With a crackle and hiss, the magical wall collapsed and fresh air rushed in around Raeln.

  “Give me the sword,” Raeln said.

  The deer hurriedly handed it to him, apparently glad to be rid of it. She immediately ducked behind him and pushed him toward Liris.

  Eyeing the weapon, Raeln tried to figure out what was different about it compared to all the ones he had tried using on Turessians in the past. It was absolutely nothing special. In fact, he was reasonably certain it was made either by the same smith or in the same fashion as the one he had just used against Liris. The only difference was that this one was covered with the deer’s blood. It had to mean something.

  Tucking the sword into his belt, Raeln ran after Liris. As he went, he dug the claws of his right hand into his left arm where the burns from Liris sword had left the flesh thin. He tore at the skin until he felt blood run over his fingertips. He quickly repeated the action with the other hand, forcing himself to ignore the pain he inflicted on himself. If there was even a chance he was right, the pain was more than worth it.

  Raeln reached Liris and she attempted to speed up, but he was far faster. With a bestial growl, he slashed her back with his claws, knocking her to the ground. She tried to get to her feet, but Raeln kicked her down so he could watch her wounds. Liris attempted to roll onto her back to defend herself, but Raeln kicked her in the side, keeping her on her stomach.

  None of Liris’s wounds closed. Not the one inflicted by the deer’s sword. Not the claw marks on her shoulder blade.

  “This is why you’re killing all of us?” he demanded, kicking Liris hard in the side again. She laughed that off,
but when he raked her arm with his claws, she shrieked in agony. “You’ve been hunting us for hundreds of years because we were what could kill you? Our blood? That’s all it was?”

  “I had no idea,” Liris gasped, clutching her arm to her side and trying to pull herself away with her good arm. Sliding up to the temple wall, she pressed her back to it. “Dorralt didn’t tell us. He wanted us to hate you, not fear…”

  Raeln leaped on her, ripping and tearing with his claws while Liris screamed for mercy. Gradually, he managed to slow his anger. He stopped, backing away, and the deer wildling woman came up beside Raeln.

  Liris cowered in a ball, trying to shield her face. She trembled, whimpering as she glanced longingly toward the temple doors, only a few feet away. “Mercy, please!” she whined. “I’ll never hunt wildlings again. Just let me abandon Dorralt. He’ll kill me himself. I’ll tell you where he’s hiding in the temple. Anything…”

  Raeln looked down at the little wildling woman, and she shook her head. Without a word, she turned and walked away, crossing her arms as she went. There was a strength in her that Raeln had to envy. He had not handled Greth’s death anywhere near so easily.

  “Mercy?” Raeln asked, kneeling beside Liris. “You want me to show you mercy?”

  “Please,” she begged, hiding her face under her torn, bleeding arms. “Dorralt lied to all of us. Let me go and die alone.”

  “I spent my whole childhood hearing about the honor of treating a foe with true mercy.” Raeln shoved her arm out of the way so he could see her face, squatting over her so she could not slide away. When she tried to push him back, Raeln easily overpowered her, pinning her arms against the wall as he brought his face near hers. “Today, I will do what someone would have wanted me to do. He made it perfectly clear how I should handle something like this. He told me about how one must be allowed to face their death on their own terms.”

  “Yes…please. You’ll never see me again. Dorralt is already moving the anchor to another. There’s no reason to kill me. Do what your friend wanted and show mercy.”