He licked his lips as Jethallin stared at the suckling baby and then a smile crept across his face. "Well, this isn't quite what I imagined, but I suppose that was just a fool's dream after all. I think I can help you and your daughter out just fine. Let's take care of a few things and then I'll be happy to share a little extra water and food with you."
Jethallin forced a smile on her face and nodded. She kept her hands free of her hidden knives to resist the urge to stab the lecherous man. She was learning how to fight but her body was still weak. For now, she would do whatever she had to so they could survive. Later, after she'd regained her strength, she'd make things right again. She just had to make sure she had a chance at a later.
She shifted Jennaca to the other side and hushed the feeding baby. "There, there, sweetie, let's not be greedy. We don't have much but for a nice man willing to help us, we can both share a little."
The man's smile turned into a lecherous grin. He turned and held out an arm, inviting her deeper into the ruins. Jethallin smiled back and walked ahead of him at his request. She moved through the small crumbling city and turned when he told her. In the dark, she nearly missed the stone wall where several skeletons hung from chains or ropes while others lay crumpled on the ground. She kept walking, pretending she hadn't seen it, and vowed to do whatever it took so that her fate was different.
Chapter 22
"Are you sure this is right?" Celos asked as they rode their horses through the rocky hills inside the forest's edge.
"Saint Leander gave his blessing when I fought that elf prince," Aleena reminded him. "How can you doubt such a sign?"
Celos nodded. "He approved of your actions; none can doubt that. This feels different to me. We march into a nation of people we do not understand. People who have no history of war or strife."
"They do have a history of violence among Queen Rosalyn's people," Aleena said.
"As do we," Celos argued.
Aleena sighed when Moonshine whickered and flipped her mane. She agreed with Celos even though she'd been struck by two of the elven arrows. Both wounds were shallow and almost healed on the mystical creature. She bit back her retort and forced herself to take three breaths before speaking. When she did, it was in a calm tone. "I felt much the same on my first visit. I sought to talk with them and negotiate a truce, but they attacked us. I spared one of their number and even healed him. Then sent him back in search of peace. Their response killed more of Graak's men and some of our noble steeds."
Celos frowned and glanced down at the stallion he rode. His old horse, a faithful mount he'd had since becoming a squire, had been put down. "Graak seems so eager to press forward."
"He's lost many men and been injured himself by the elves. These are people who are learning to behave in a civilized manner, but they are not that far removed from savagery," she reasoned. "It is not surprising that he would act in such a way."
"It is that savage behavior that gives me pause," Celos said.
Aleena opened her mouth to respond when a cry went up. Ogres responded and started to move forward through the woods while goblins were rushing back towards them. Aleena counted three before one went down, an elven arrow in his back. She slammed her visor down and drew her sword. "The battle is on," she said to her companion.
"So it is," Celos grunted as he readied his own weapon. He raised his sword overhead and turned back to the knights riding behind them. "Knights of Leander, to battle!"
Aleena urged Moonshine on and led the charge across the uneven ground. They thundered down from some hills and saw what looked like a wide and dry gully where waters ran from the highlands in the spring thaw. It was filled with the bodies of fallen goblins and ogres now, many still moving and trying to climb out and attack or fall back and escape.
On the other side, the side of the gully rose half the height of a man before it leveled out into the forest floor again. Elves were gathered in the tall pine trees and along the side of the gully. When Aleena first appeared, the elves focused on her, sending arrows that whistled past the charging knight or bounced off her armor and made her ears ring with the sound of impact.
"Ride on, Moonshine," Aleena urged her mount. "In Leander's name!"
Moonshine moved into the gully and across it with such speed and grace the unicorn seemed to be dancing. Her feet found clear ground between bodies time and again until she leapt and cleared the far bank. Aleena swung her sword and slashed aside the first elf with a bow they encountered.
The underbrush grew thicker on the far side, screening the archers and closing in around the unicorn. Aleena raised her shield to protect them from the arrows while Moonshine's horn took on a silver glow and caused the brambles to part in front of them. She trotted through it and responded to Aleena's wishes without the knight needing to voice them. More of the elves fell, granting relief to the soldiers trying to cross the gully.
Celos and the other knights followed as best they could. Their horses crushed the foliage underfoot and hoof. Whenever possible, they crushed an enemy archer as well. The archers hiding in trees were shaken out of their roosts when the ogres grabbed the pines and wrenched on them with their hands or struck them with massive swords, axes, or clubs. More than one tree fell with a screaming elf marking its passage.
"There!" Celos cried, drawing Aleena's attention from the small group of archers she'd ridden into and killed.
She looked up the hill and saw buildings that seemed as though they were grown out of the forest itself. Smaller huts and halls that were built from living hedges and trees were above them. They'd come across one of the wild elf cities.
"To their city!" Aleena cried out, caught up in the moment. She urged Moonshine forward but she found they had to ride around a hill to catch up to the van of ogres and goblins that had pressed straight through the gully. The knights had spared the ogres and goblins being slaughtered by archers, but she soon learned the cost of their actions was a high one.
Graak's soldiers, with him striding through the town and ignoring the two arrows protruding from his shoulder and back, were butchering everyone in the village. Elves, whether they were men, women, or children, were being slaughtered. A few of the huts smoked with growing fires eating away at the green wood. Aleena stopped beside Celos and stared with him.
"This isn't battle—this is pillaging!" Celos growled.
Aleena frowned. He was right and she knew it, but it was also war and for a people who did not know the civilized way to fight, it was all they knew. "This is war," she answered. "But you are right, this is too much."
Aleena sheathed her sword and guided Moonshine forward at a gallop to where Graak stood like a conquering general among the ruins of his enemy. "Graak, enough!" she cried out. "These are women and children!"
"Their women had drawn bow and sword," Graak snarled at her. "And their children will grow up to do the same."
"This is wrong!" Aleena insisted.
He turned on her, his massive sword held tightly in his fingers. "This is what happens when you fight Graak!"
Aleena stared at the ogre until he turned away and strode off to kick in a small house himself. She turned to Celos and lifted her visor so he could see her narrowed eyes. "Fight Graak?" she asked.
Celos lifted his visor and shook his head. "I've seen men tremble the closer they get to battle," he said as he moved his mount closer to her. "And rarely I've seen some men overcome with the lust for it. These ogres are more like that. They thrive on the violence."
"Their savage nature," Aleena said with a nod. "But they've come so far! This is—"
Celos followed her eyes as she trailed off and saw an ogre that had captured a screaming elf girl. He grinned as he wrestled with his breeches and dragged her off behind some of the huts. "Such spoils of war are never condoned," he said through clenched teeth. "Although the leaders of soldiers often look the other way."
"Not this time!" Aleena snarled before she slammed her visor down. Moonshine launched into a gallop
through the small town, veering around ogres and dodging elves and goblins alike. She rounded the hut and saw the ogre tearing the girl's clothes off before he flipped her over and held her hips in both his massive hands.
Moonshine ran straight at him and lowered her head. Her horn sparkled with a light that seemed more ominous and purple than it was silver right before she plunged it deep into the ogre's back. He howled and jumped forward. The elf was sent sprawling off to the side.
The ogre rapist rolled from where he'd fallen and rose up as far as his knees. One hand reached around to the bloody hole in his back. Moonshine swung sideways so Aleena could glare down at the brute. "You will not do such things!" she spat at him before she buried her sword in his skull. She wrenched it free and let his corpse twitch on the ground.
Aleena turned but saw that the elven girl had fled into the forest. She frowned and then turned back as Celos rounded the corner of the hut and reined his horse in. She saw in his eyes that he knew what had happened. "Prisoners," Aleena called out to him. "Ask for surrender. We can spare as many as possible that way."
Celos hesitated and then nodded. "We'll try, but I've never seen such bloodlust. It frightens me."
"I thought nothing scared you?"
"I fear for these elves," he explained.
Aleena grunted and directed Moonshine back out into the main road through the small town. More buildings were burning and the small bodies of elves littered the ground. She swallowed down the bile in her throat and moved ahead to see what she could do to stop the butchering of innocents. The same innocents who she had counseled war against only a day before.
"Graak!" she shouted as he emerged from a hall with his sword dripping blood. "Stop this slaughter! This is not what your queen wanted!"
He snarled at her and raised his sword. Aleena's hand went to her blade she'd sheathed and rested on it until he blinked some focus back into his eyes. His snarl remained. "The queen demanded no mercy if they fight. Others must learn!"'
"This is not what she meant!" Aleena persisted. "You have to relent. Accept their surrender. We will—"
"You think you know the queen's mind?" Graak laughed at her. "This is what we were told. You take it up with the queen and leave us."
Aleena glared at him for a long moment and saw that the ogre would not back down. "Fine, but I'm taking all of the knights of Leander with me. You won't have us to protect your anymore!"
Graak laughed again. "Puny knights," he scoffed. "Run and hide. We don't need you."
Aleena's nostrils flared at his insult. She bit her lip and turned Moonshine away from him. She rode up to Celos, who watched the exchange from astride his horse. "When I return, he'd better pray that she doesn't allow me to take his head as punishment for the wrongs he's committed!"
Celos nodded. "Let's hurry, before too much damage is done."
Aleena followed Celos as he gathered the knights and turned them about. She wondered how much more damage they could possibly do. Her thoughts turned to Queen Rosalyn and she wondered if Graak was right. Had the queen ordered this wholesale slaughter? Did she know what Graak and his men were capable of? They were capable of learning and of behaving, but the depths of their savagery was even more disturbing. If Rosalyn knew, had Aleena given the ruler her approval too quickly?
Chapter 23
"I've seen it all now," Mordrim barked when the companions and Thork emerged onto the street from the warehouse. Jethallin had slipped back into the tunnels that led through the Shadows and made her escape with her daughter.
Namitus and Kar did a double take and then shook their heads. The city guard was gathering in ever-increasing numbers, but they weren't pushing forward yet. A horde of the giant rats lay between the companions and the soldiers. The rats that were led by an armored goblin that sat astride a massive rat and held a strangely curved sword in one hand.
"Bonky's keeping dem back," Thork said. He brandished his spear overhead and the goblin returned his salute by waving his sword back.
"We'll have their entire army in our way before long," Kar grumbled. "There's no hope for reaching the palace!"
Mordrim clenched his fists and snorted. "I'll find a way. It was the guards who let Snork be killed and I promised I'd take them down for him."
"Then you go fight them," Namitus said. "And Kar and I will slip through in a diversion."
"Now wait just a damned minute," Mordrim spat. "I mean to be there to aid Lady Patrina too!"
"Shut your moufs!" Thork bellowed. He turned and walked towards the guards. The rats parted around him as he passed through their ranks, and then he waved at the soldiers of Mira. "Ey der stoopidz! Me is Thork and me has to get to yous's palace. Dese guys is coming wif me, so yous should get out of da way."
A few of the guards turned to talk to each other but none of them moved. A man wearing a steel breastplate with the symbol of Shazamir on it stepped forward. "I am Captain Toralius. You will throw down your weapons and disband these, er, vermin, immediately!"
Thork stared at him and started laughing. "Yous's stupid. Thork's gonna bash yous first!"
"Thork," Kar cried out while he walked forward. The rats didn't part for him, forcing him to stop short. The troll and the leader of the guard were staring at him. Kar cleared his throat. "Captain, these rats bear the plague. None of us wishes you, your men, or the people of Mira harm—"
"Speak for yourself," Mordrim offered from behind the wizard.
Kar scowled and continued as if the dwarf hadn't spoken. "As I was saying, if you let us proceed, no one need fear any harm."
A hushed murmur rose among the soldiers and the gathering crowd. Several times the word "plague" was said loud enough to be clear among the buzzing spectators. Captain Toralius frowned and glared at both the wizard and the troll. "Bringing pestilence into Mira is an act of war! You will all be killed for this!"
Kar sighed and opened his mouth. Diplomacy was lost, it seemed. He could still urge them to flee, he reasoned. Before he could issue his warning, the troll acted.
"Toralishus goes first!" The troll swung his spear in the air and gestured towards the officer. Wisps of shadow gathered in the air and streaked towards him, darkening the air around the captain. A moment later, a buzzing sound that was altogether unlike the conversations of the frenzied crowd could be heard.
Toralius cried out and swung his hand through the air. He swung again and again and stumbled. "What unholy blight is this!" he shouted as blood ran from his face and insects stung, bit, and crawled across his flesh. He gagged and coughed and stumbled to his knees. A moment later, he rose up, retching and beating at himself. He struggled to rip his breastplate off but couldn't manage it with the constant distraction of the horde of insects.
Thork guffawed and watched him stagger as he ran away towards the river. "Who's next?" the shaman asked. The sky darkened as thousands upon thousands of insects answered his summons and swirled above them.
"By the saints," Namitus whispered.
The gathered people broke away and ran screaming from the streets. A few soldiers tried to hold their ground but most of them saw what happened to their captain and rushed away as quickly as they could. Those farther away moved with them or ended up pushed aside and run over. Among the guards who remained or were too slow to leave, Thork unleashed the swarm.
Between the insects and the rats, it was a matter of minutes until the gathered forces of Mira were either routed in full or in various stages of consumption by the creatures heeding Thork's magic. He turned and cackled while the light green radiating from the tip of his spear grew brighter and brighter
"That was horrible," Namitus whispered when only the buzzing of feeding insects remained.
Thork chuckled. "Dem had da chance to go," he said.
Kar frowned. "Quickly, let's go. Before he finds a reason to unleash more of Jarook's favor upon the town."
"Dis way!" Thork cried. Bonky was waiting astride his rat as Thork led them through the streets. He pulled the p
ipes he'd played earlier out of his pocket and started to blow on them when he shrugged and glanced at Namitus. "Here yous go."
The rogue caught the pipes and marveled at how they'd survived the troll's ownership. The delicate wooden tubes and soft reeds were unharmed and even looked to be in excellent condition. He tucked them around his neck and under his shirt, thankful that he'd found a replacement for his pipes that he'd lost when the Order had captured him.
The goblin and troll moved through the city at a speed that forced the others to jog to keep up. The commoners who saw them screamed and fled. Of the soldiers they encountered, many turned away, either having heard the news or possessing enough common sense to realize only death would be their reward. Of the soldiers who sought to stop them, Thork's magic struck them down by causing them to burst with acid in their veins or blinding them with cataracts. Others he left with oozing sores and no strength left to stand on their own feet.
"You're a terrible person," Namitus said as he ran behind the others.
Thork turned his head enough to grin and wink at the rogue. "Dem has it coming. Plus dem sure is skared of Thork now! So's da other stupids dat sees dem!"
Namitus scowled and kept his mouth shut. The last thing he needed to do was incur the troll's wrath.
Winded and with aches in the backs, legs, and sides, they arrived at the palace to find it guarded by a full twenty members of the royal guard standing outside of it. Thork walked towards them, gesturing at the others to stay back.
"Where's Shazzy?" the troll demanded.
The guards looked at each other and one said, "There is dissension in the city. You're probably the reason why. Give yourselves up and you might find mercy."
Thork gestured at him and a bolt of dark magic streaked through the air so fast even the men who had witnessed it doubted their eyes. It struck the speaking guard and threw him back through the ranks of armored warriors and into the wall of the palace behind them. Thork gestured again and the man came flying back out and into the dusty courtyard between them and the palace.
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