Forged in Fire

by J. A. Pitts

  The two goons holding Frederick dropped him and ran at me. I pulled Gram from her nest and bellowed my best war cry as time slipped a few beats. One of them faltered, but his fellow pulled a blade from his belt and let a feral grin creep onto his face.

  I ran forward, each step hammering a spike of energy and pain through the runes on my leg, driving the beserker to the fore.

  I danced with them, dodging the first, pushing him aside with the shield, and brought Gram up to block the overhand blow from his partner. I spun, brought the shield around sideways, and clipped the second with the edge, breaking his arm. He fell back, cursing. The first turned, swinging his short blade at me.

  I leapt back, instinctively sweeping his thrust aside, passing his blade inches from my chest, and brought the shield up, smashing him in the face. As he staggered back, I stepped forward, thrusting Gram into his throat. His eyes widened in surprise. I flicked my wrist. Gram tore through the cartilage in his throat. Blood sprayed in a wide arc.

  I spun around, catching the second as he swung his blade at my back. I struck him twice, first slashing his arm with a passing slice. Then, I stepped to his right, driving Gram into his abdomen.

  He stood there, rigid as the pain flooded his brain. I jerked Gram back, letting him drop to the ground.

  And the hammer fell.

  It struck the altar with a thunderclap, shattering it into several pieces. The red-robed cultists were blasted off their feet.

  Frack landed hard, crying out; his captor, Tobin, sprawled on his back. The second cultist, Dane, didn’t lose his grip on Frick, but fell with the young troll under him. I didn’t hear a cry. That wasn’t good.

  Justin staggered as the concussion rippled over him. The funneled, processed, and purified energy stored within the altar sputtered from the ruin. He ran forward, hands out in supplication, attempting to scoop up the wasted power.

  I reached him, swinging the shield forward, and smashed him in the side. He stumbled, falling over a chunk of altar.

  Before I could kill him, however, Tobin rolled to his hands and knees, drawing a dagger from his crimson robe. He looked from Justin to me to Frack and lunged at the baby troll. Bad choice. I sprang over Dane’s facedown form and drove Gram into the bastard. Tobin fell, kicking. Several feet away, Frack screamed like only a healthy toddler can.

  Trisha stirred. The magic that fed her bonds no longer had a reserve. Justin was on his own, bleeding away his personal store.

  I spun around for my next target. Justin had the second cultist, Dane, pulled back by the hair and dragged a blade across his bearded throat. The blood that splashed forth covered an unmoving Frick, but a thick pulse of energy rushed into Justin.

  He rose, reaching for Frick. I darted forward, swinging Gram wildly.

  Justin fell back, cursing. Several of his remaining cultists came forward at his beckon, throwing themselves at me, daggers out. I cut the first one down but realized they were beyond their own will. He was controlling them, whether literally or through coercion.

  I batted the second aside, knocking the blade from her hand and kicking her feet out from under her. I turned Gram to the side and clocked her with the pommel. Maybe she’d live.

  In the meantime, another of the remaining cultists scuttled forward and grabbed Frick by one leg. The cultist lurched away, carrying the child like a broken doll.

  I froze. He drew a dagger as he ran. It wasn’t a bleeder like Justin’s, but it looked pointy enough to kill a wee one.

  He slashed wildly as he ran. Frick screamed.

  That was the tipping point. Justin vanished behind several of his people, intent on something they guarded, but the threads that bound Trisha had begun to fall away.

  She rose, roaring her displeasure, and swung her mighty head around, snapping at the cultist who had Frick. The bastard flung the toddler into the air, waving his arms wildly as he tried to avoid Trisha’s bite.

  He failed.

  I dove, dropping Gram on one side, and swung the shield around, belly-up, catching Frick before he hit the ground. Unfortunately, I hit the ground on my arms and chest, knocking the wind out of me and jarring both sets of elbows and shoulders.

  Frick was screaming even more. I couldn’t tell how badly he was hurt with all the other blood over him. I dragged him to my chest, hugging him and making soothing sounds. I stood with him, snagging the shield with my right hand.

  Half of the cultist who had stabbed Frick fell to my left with a squelching plop. I looked up and Trisha was over me, her mouth inches from us, her horrid teeth grinding.

  “He’s safe,” I said to her, holding the child to me.

  Smoke rose from her snout and she sniffed loudly, raising the hair on Frick’s head. She twitched, pulled her head away from us, and roared into the night.

  Only there was an answering roar.

  This one from high above the plateau. I looked up, past Trisha’s bulk, to see a white dragon perched on the mountain’s peak, gleaming against the sky.

  Holy mother … Nidhogg.

  Eighty

  The remaining cultists fled, screaming. Even Justin’s charisma and power could not keep them with him. Nidhogg, the mother of all dragons, fell from the mountain, casting a swathe of fear so strong two of the cultists threw themselves off the edge of the plateau, screaming.

  She unfurled her ancient wings to catch the wind, soaring toward us like something out of Revelation. Da would be wetting himself about now. I cringed as the fear rolled over me, but I could not stop, could not panic.

  I rolled, holding Frick to my chest with my shield arm, and scrambled back to pick up Gram. Trisha, who’d swung her head upward at Nidhogg’s call, turned back to me, roaring. She lunged, her great jaws clacking shut a foot from me.

  “Come on, Trisha. I know it’s you.”

  She swung one wing forward, missing me by a mile, but it gave me an idea. I ran forward, getting inside her weapon zone. She was a lousy dragon fighter. She barely realized she had a tail. I’d have been clobbered if I’d tried that move with Jean-Paul. As it was, I was inside her extended danger zone.

  Nidhogg pulled up at the last second, clipping Trisha.

  Trisha roared, falling to her knees. One great wing bent, broken. She turned her long neck to bite at Nidhogg, who was already gone, circling around for another pass.

  I took my chance. Even carrying Frick, I had to risk it. I figured I just had this one shot. If I screwed up, Nidhogg would kill her.

  Trisha whimpered and struggled to her feet. A dragon whimpering is a pretty pathetic sight, let me tell you. I took my chance. I placed Frick on the ground and said a quick prayer. As I ran forward, Gram beat a rhythm inside my skull. Kill, maim, destroy.

  I shuddered, willing my hand to do my bidding, not the blade’s.

  Trisha fell, smashed to the ground by Nidhogg. I lunged forward, swinging Gram with both hands, and cut through the talon on Trisha’s paw, just above the ring.

  The world exploded.

  For a minute, I couldn’t hear anything but the ringing in my ears. Then I heard Frick screaming and tried to sit up. I still clutched Gram in my fist. Trisha lay a dozen feet away from me, naked and human once again. I went to her, knelt to her side, and felt for a pulse. She wasn’t breathing.

  “Come on, damn it!” I yelled, shunting Gram into her sheath. “Wake up.”

  I straightened her, tilting her head back, and gave her two quick breaths. Then, I slid over and placed the heel of my palms between her breasts, just above her sternum. I hated giving CPR. Thirty cartilage-crunching compressions with “Staying Alive” echoing in my head, then two more breaths. Nidhogg didn’t attack, and Justin was nowhere to be seen, bastard.

  Trisha had to live.

  I was on my third set when she kicked once, then vomited. I turned her head to the side, pulling her shoulder off the ground. She retched a second time, then fell back, panting.

  Her eyes fluttered open, but they did not focus. “Babies,” she whispered, a
nd I laughed out loud. “They’re alive,” I said, squeezing her shoulder. “Let’s just hope we make it out of here.”

  She coughed, and I rolled her onto her side, pushing one of her legs out to keep her from rolling over. Her wing had been broken. Now that she was human again, I didn’t know how that translated. Broken ribs, maybe? Her spine? Crap—and I’d moved her. Piss-poor first aider I was.

  Her left hand was butchered, however. The last two fingers on that hand were gone, cut away by Gram, but in the transformation, she wasn’t bleeding. The hands looked as if the fingers had never been there.

  I went to Frick, picked up the crying child, and took him to Trisha. She held him to her and wept.

  Nidhogg roared from above us, and I looked over. She landed on the far side of the plateau and nosed down, pushing Frederick Sawyer’s body with her snout. He twitched. He was not dead after all. I didn’t know whether I was disappointed or relieved.

  I climbed to my feet and went to get Frack. Gram screamed in my head, begging, pleading me to attack the dragons. I ground my teeth and hunched my shoulders against the pressure.

  No! You’re not the boss of me.

  Frack had his head buried in his hands, quivering with fear. I knelt next to him, ignoring Nidhogg. Having Nidhogg at my back was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. But Frack needed me. I cooed to him, reaching out. He didn’t lower his hands, but he didn’t fight me. I picked him up and stood.

  Jesus, he was heavy. Trisha must have arms like a power lifter.

  My neck itched as I ignored Nidhogg, but I needed to get these kids to their momma; that was my new mission. I just hoped Frick wasn’t too badly wounded.

  I took Frack to Trisha and placed him in Trisha’s arms, next to his brother. He calmed almost immediately.

  Nidhogg growled, and I looked up.

  Justin was backing toward the edge of the plateau with Jai Li in his arms, a dagger to her chest. He’d been going so quietly, he’d have gotten away if not for Nidhogg.

  I stood, picked up the shield, and drew Gram.

  “Let the girl go,” I said.

  Nidhogg roared behind me.

  “She dies,” he said, his hands shaking. “I have not come this far to be thwarted by you meddling fools.”

  Thwarted? Seriously. Does being an evil SOB make you talk like Snidely Whiplash?

  I stepped toward him, and Jai Li cried out. It hurt my heart, that guttural cry. “I cannot kill you enough,” I said.

  He laughed, and I saw a line of blood appear on Jai Li’s neck. He was using a bleeder. No matter how slight the scratch, it would not clot, the wound would not close.

  “I’ll cut you down,” I promised him. “I will cut you into pieces and then burn the pieces.”

  Jai Li stopped struggling, but her eyes flitted from me to the dragon behind me. She was determined, that angel child.

  “I love you,” I said.

  “Fool,” Justin barked, his head thrown back with laughter. “She will die, and you will have nothing.”

  Jai Li turned her head, the dagger pressing into her neck, and she bit him.

  Justin screamed, the knife slipping from his hands, and Jai Li fell to the ground.

  “No,” I yelled, rushing forward. I smashed him with the shield, and he stumbled back several steps before falling. Before I could lunge after with Gram, another form rose above him.

  Trisha.

  I don’t know where she picked up the fallen blade. She had murder in her eyes, and, for a moment, I thought I’d have to kill her to protect Jai Li.

  Justin must’ve thought the same thing for a moment as he reached toward her, a lurid grin splitting his face.

  “Bastard,” she said, swinging the blade. She took his hand off just below the wrist.

  “What?” He pulled back the stump, confused. “Trisha, help me.”

  “Oh, I’ll help you,” she said, kneeling onto his lap. She grabbed the back of his head and held his face upward to hers. “You lied to me; you used me.”

  She pushed the blade into his abdomen, pulling him to her as if in an embrace. “You should suffer for what you’ve done,” she said, jerking the blade upward.

  Justin coughed, blood flowing down the front of him.

  “You made me evil, you fucker.” She spat on him and stood, letting him fall backward.

  He held his remaining hand up to her. “But I gave you power!”

  She stepped back, watched him slump over, watched the blood flow from him. When he stopped moving, she stepped forward and brought the sword over with both hands.

  I pulled Jai Li to me, keeping her face away.

  Trisha hacked him, four, five blows, until she stood with his severed head. This she carried over toward Nidhogg and tossed it at her feet.

  “Fuck you and your kind,” she screamed, flinging the blade at the great white dragon. “Kill me, you bitch!” And she stepped forward.

  Then, the babies wailed. I’m not sure why they’d been quiet up to this point, but the second Trisha stepped into Nidhogg’s shadow they let rip.

  Nidhogg looked from Trisha to the crying twins. Trisha looked over, torn between her own anguish and suffering and the needs of the children.

  “For Christ’s sake, Trisha,” I shouted. “Go get your kids.”

  She looked back at Nidhogg once more, who jerked her birdlike head toward the sound of the crying babies.

  Trisha stumbled to them, falling to her knees, pulling them to her chest.

  Nidhogg looked back to me, ignoring Trisha and the troll toddlers.

  I nodded to Nidhogg once and turned back to Jai Li, putting my body between her and Justin’s butchered form.

  I looked into Jai Li’s face, stroking her hair with one hand while blood seeped from her wound. “Hang on,” I said, trying to remain calm. I tore a strip of cloth from my shirt and pressed against her wound.

  I lifted her, keeping the pressure on the side of her neck while not cutting off her flow of air. “Need to get you to a doctor,” I said, hugging her to me. “You hang on.”

  When I stood, Nidhogg watched me, her birdlike head turning from one side to the other. “Protecting Frederick?” I asked her. “Is he so important?”

  She just watched me, turning her head silently.

  “Your prerogative, I guess.” I kept walking, keeping my head turned toward her. She was not moving, did not attack me or make a move to Trisha. The troll kidlets had stopped crying.

  There were seven final cultists, men and women who fell to their knees, hands behind their heads. I ignored them as well. May they burn in hell.

  Before I got to the edge of the plateau, several people jogged up, then came to a screeching halt. Stuart, Qindra, and a few others. Farther back, a bloodied and wounded Mr. Philips limped along, leaning on a large branch. He had a dogged look on his face, one that spoke of blind determination and a fervor born of loyalty and love.

  Katie was not with them, nor were many of the other Black Briar folks.

  “Qindra,” I said. “She’s been cut. He used a bleeder.”

  She hurried over and placed her hands on Jai Li’s face. The girl beamed, her smile ashen and gray, and her blood ran down my arms.

  “Set her down,” Qindra said, holding her hand out to Stuart. He helped her kneel, keeping her steady.

  I lowered Jai Li to the ground. There was so much blood.

  “I need my wand,” she said, “but if wishes were horses…” she trailed off, looking around. “Does anyone have a gun, some bullets?”

  “Yeah,” Paul said, stepping forward. He was with Marla, hand in hand, weaponless. He pulled several rifle shells from his pocket and held them to Qindra, who took one. She bit the tip, where the lead was, and twisted it back and forth several times. It was pretty damn hard.

  “Here,” I said, taking the bullet from her. I lay it on the ground and took out Gram. Cutting through the lead was simple.

  She took the bullet and pulled the bandage away from Jai Li’s neck. S
he sprinkled the gunpowder into the wound, which was barely bleeding. Not much blood left, my mind ranted.

  “Hold her,” Qindra said, looking at me.

  I leaned over, placing my hands on Jai Li’s shoulders.

  Qindra snapped her fingers and a spark of fire erupted. The gunpowder burned quickly, and Jai Li screamed for a second before passing out.

  “That should stop the bleeding,” she said, her face a sheen of sweat and fear. “She needs a hospital.”

  “Where’s Katie?” I asked.

  Stuart shook his head. “Jimmy’s looking for her.” He had a horrified look on his face. He didn’t say more, but my insides did a somersault. He was scared and didn’t want me to hear his fears. I kept my hands on Jai Li, afraid if I moved, I may collapse. Katie was okay. She had to be. I couldn’t think about that, couldn’t let that into my head.

  “She’ll be fine,” I said, swallowing hard. “She’s too awesome.”

  Qindra laughed gently, and it was loving, didn’t make me want to punch her in the face. Very much, anyway.

  Mr. Philips passed us, glancing once at Jai Li, and turned toward Nidhogg. He didn’t pause, just kept his plodding way to his master. Nidhogg growled once, but he kept his head bowed and plowed onward.

  When he got close enough, he fell to his knees, examining Frederick.

  “You will live,” he said. For the first time, I heard a tremble in that always-stoic voice.

  Eighty-one

  Gram continued to echo in my head, but holding Jai Li seemed to act as a filter. While anger rolled, filling me with fire, I tamped it down. A shudder wracked my body as the anger faltered. My will. My life. I did not need to succumb to the beserker. Not every single time.

  “Stuart,” I said, looking up. “Trisha’s back there,” I nodded toward the mountain. “Frick was stabbed, but I don’t think very badly. Kid has tough skin.”

  He motioned for Paul and Marla, who jogged with him toward the mountain. I brushed the hair from Jai Li’s face. “Hang in there, kiddo. We’ll get you to a hospital.”

  I slung the shield over my back and picked her up in my arms.

  Nidhogg made a coughing sound, and I turned to her. “We’re safe,” I said to her. “Borders secured.”