War Aeternus 2: Sacrifices

by Charles Dean

  The spot that Lee had marked for them was actually a bar on the opposite side of the open public square that he had decided to use for his engagement with the Herald. “Your job will be simple: I’m going to need you two to wait there for my signal. He motioned for one of the golems to join the older man, and Dave held the rat in his hands so carefully that it looked like he was picking up a newborn baby.

  “Is this your signal?” Dave asked.

  “Yeah, it is. What’s going to happen is this little flying rodent is going to take off through the door the second it's time for you to move. All you need to do is follow him. Do that, and you’ll be fine. When you’re following him, assume that your orders are to kill the Herald on sight if the little mouse takes to the air and to hide and wait for a flanking opportunity if it stays on the ground. Easy enough, right?”

  Amber grabbed the mouse from Dave’s hand and held it up by its paws. “How does it even work?” She poked it a few times, prompting Lee to snatch it from her and hand it back to Dave.

  “It works very delicately, so stop poking at it,” Lee laughed.

  “Alright.” Amber frowned. “But . . .”

  “Sure. After the fight, I’ll let you play with one.”

  “You have more?” Dave asked.

  “Yeah, he’s Lee, the king of the rats,” Miller proclaimed with a nod. Lee didn’t know if he meant it to sound the way it did, but after experiencing Humans being compared to rodents so often by the racist Firbolg guards, Lee still winced even if Miller’s comment was pretty much in line with the conversation.

  “I prefer to just be called the cheese king,” Lee replied with a smile, shaking off his irritation. “Alright. Lastly, we have the three of us. We’re going to be needing your two groups to follow your courses cleanly and evenly. If you do that, the three of us should be fine. Granted, if you see a Firbolg or Leprechaun on the way to your destination, kill him without hesitation. If we get intercepted, this whole plan will go to hell.”

  “To hell?” Amber asked.

  “Yeah, it’s . . . It’s an expression. It just means we’ll be damned,” Lee clarified.

  “Ah, yeah. Damned. That’s bad. So, go to a bar and kill all the potential enemies on the way to the bar. That sounds easy enough,” Pelham commented. He rotated the map a bit and put his finger over his little circle there, taking a moment to trace the path that Lee had set for them toward the bar. “This shouldn’t be a problem. I like killing, and I like bars. You good too?”

  “Me? Of course I’m good,” Dave chortled. “Though I think I’ll stick to just liking bars. I’m too old to enjoy anyone dying these days.”

  Pelham nodded. “Fair enough.”

  “Okay. So now that we have that worked out, does anyone have any further questions?” Lee asked the group. “Are we all good?”

  Miller, Dave and Pelham looked at the map, and Miller studied it very intently for someone who would be the first to reach his destination and only have to camp the rest of the fight. At last, they all nodded.

  “I’m good,” Miller said.

  “Same,” Dave and Pelham both agreed.

  “Then we move out. Miller, you go first. Dave and Pelham, wait for me here. I have one final task to do before we leave, and I’m going to be relying on your escort just as much as I’ll be relying on your help in the future.”

  “That’s fine, but can I keep the little guy?” Dave asked as he poked the mouse in the stomach. “And can he get drunk? You gonna mind if I give him some beer?”

  “Do you even have any beer?” Lee shot back

  “Oh, yeah, that reminds me: can we have some beer?” Dave asked.

  Lee paused and looked at the approaching army through the golem he was using to scout. I’ve got enough time, not much, but enough. “Uh . . . okay. Here, since this might be our last drink together, and I don’t know which one of you will make it back with me, let’s celebrate early.” Lee produced mugs and a magical brew. He didn’t have too much left--they had been consuming it at a good rate--but he had enough for this. He even pulled out a little bacon, not too much to give anyone post-meal fatigue, but enough to taste and enjoy with the beer.

  “Cheers,” he said after everyone had grabbed a beer.

  “Cheers,” they echoed him. Lee wondered if, without the translation system, the toast would be several people saying the same word ‘cheers’ in imitation of him or whether it would be just a cacophony of individuals’ words clamoring over each other.

  With that done, Lee, Ling and Amber marched over to the field outside the section of wall where General Brigid’s army would most certainly attack. There he waited for the army to reach its stopping point. Even if he had managed to spur the general to war using a forged document, that didn't mean that everything would go smoothly. In fact, since she seemed like an incredibly-competent general, he had full faith that she would stop at a perfect distance from the city’s tall walls to prevent anyone from launching an attack against her while she prepared her own siege equipment. It was only natural. No general, not even Agamemnon approaching Troy, would charge a fortified city without siege towers at the very least, trebuchets and rams at the most.

  This sensible strategy presented a problem for Lee: he needed the enemy to engage right away. He needed them to wage battle the moment they reached their enemy’s walls. Thus, this is where Lee further helped things along. When the army’s march slowed to a crawl, Lee took out one of the three magical sheets of paper he had gotten from the Herald of the God of Storytelling after vanquishing him and began scribbling away on one of them.

  At first, he had tried to use his magical ability to envision the ink scrawling across the page in perfect lettering, but the paper resisted any changes from his spirit by sending a small but painful shock back at him. Lee shook out his hand and then pulled out a quill and inkwell so that he could go about it the old-fashioned way. Strangely, the moment his quill touched the page, he knew that he was unable to pull it away. The paper was a magical artifact, and its hold on him was seemingly absolute. He couldn’t stop writing, and one word after another flowed onto the page until both its front and back were complete with the story he wanted to tell. The only problem was that it was far from the ideal story he had imagined. There were several pieces that were flat out contrary to his desires, but it was still close enough for his purposes. He could only speculate that the pieces that had been changed were altered because he had no control over his enemies and their actions or their responses to what he had planned.

  “What did you just do?” Ling gasped.

  A loud whoosh, like the sound of large amounts of air being displaced all at once, drew their attention to a nearby field that lay between the general’s army and the city walls. There, two large dragons rose slowly up from the ground, crawling their way into being as if they were exhuming themselves from graves that didn’t exist and displacing large swaths of land and air in the process. Both the army and the archers on the walls stopped and stood frozen, watching in horror and fascination as if time had stopped. When the dragons, which were each over thirty feet tall, had finally broken through, they raised their heads up, spread their wings out and roared. The cry was so loud and powerful that Lee felt its magical strength from where he was standing.

  “I don’t know,” Lee said, swallowing hard at their majesty. This was beyond any of his greatest expectations. He had anticipated the weak-willed and pathetic, whelp-like drake that he had fought when clashing against the Herald, but these two beasts were so immense that they would have fit in perfectly as the main antagonists of a band of home-seeking dwarves. “I don’t know at all.”

  The two dragons reached back into the earth and grabbed large rocks between their claws before taking to the skies. They flew straight up, perhaps seventy or eighty feet into the air, before adjusting course and swooping down directly toward the city’s walls. They weaved back and forth around each other, spiraling through the sky and leaving trails of spirit in the wake. Even from
far away, Lee knew that those ripples of spirit were thick and dense, just like the ones he used to craft weapons and create healing potions.

  Just as they were about to crash into the gate, they suddenly spread their wings and ground to a halt. The two beasts shoved forward, using their combined momentum and strength to hurl the massive boulders forward like weightlifters would a medicine ball. The walls exploded under the force of the attack, the stalwart defenses that had stood for years shattering instantly. The archers on top were either shredded by stone fragments that were sent flying by the blast or sent careening to their deaths on the ground below, and those who didn’t immediately die from the fall would be trapped under the rubble, but the effect was the same. Huge fragments from the walls went flying back into the city, scattering across homes and buildings alike. Lee was too far away to hear the screams, but he knew that they were sounding off within the mist-like cloud of dust and dirt that shot up into the air.

  But the assault wasn’t finished. The archers who remained on the untouched sections of the wall broke out of their awe-induced torpor and began firing at the dragons, and the massive beasts retaliated by sending two distinctly different waves of breath attacks at their enemies.

  Both of the dragons were straight out of a European myth, having the same stocky bodies, expansive wings and sturdy limbs of that variety of dragon, but they varied from each other in color. The one on the right was a deep dark-jade color, and as he was attacked, he let forth a wave of acidic mist toward the archers nearest him. The corrosive cloud billowed out at the archers, hanging in the air and spreading out slowly. This acidic mist melted the flesh of its prey, leaving behind only the armor and weapons of those it came into contact with behind. The other dragon was solid orange, and a scorching stream of flame billowed out from its maw, incinerating those left in what Lee imagined was a much more humane way than its counterpart. Nevertheless, the dragonfire was equally as destructive. Even the stone underneath the archers’ feet was blackened as the men were turned to ash.

  The dragons let out triumphant roars, sending the few remaining survivors to their knees, clutching their heads in pain. The mighty dragons then took to the skies again. Given the opening that had so suddenly presented itself, the soldiers lined up in formation and readied their shields and spears, doubtlessly terrified but obediently anticipating an order to charge. None came. The beasts’ attack on the city had provided as much trepidation as it did opportunity. This was also the part of the story that Lee hadn’t wanted. This was the part that had been written against his will. He wanted the soldiers to rush through the breach and storm the city recklessly, but he knew that wasn’t going to occur since the storybook page had already told him that no such charge would happen.

  The two dragons, feeling that their invitation to enter the city was being ignored after so kindly opening the door to the city’s visitors, circled around to the area right behind General Brigid’s army at full speed. Anyone would be petrified by those monstrosities, but the soldiers bravely stood their ground, refusing to concede even an inch or turn and run. The dragons let out another roar as they swooped over the lines, and yet General Brigid still refused to order the charge. Frustrated and angry, the two dragons dove into the back line with claws extended and slashed at the troops. After seeing what happened to the archers on the wall, the soldiers finally broke rank and charged forward toward the breach and away from the dragons. Bravery could only be counted on for so much, and they had no faith in being able to handle three-story-tall behemoths that could melt lines of men with a single breath.

  I should just use these bastards to kill the enemy Herald, Lee thought as he watched the mayhem. Even I wouldn't stand a chance, so how could that guy? How could anyone face one of those dragons?

  “I’d be careful about that,” Augustus’s voice popped into Lee’s head. “Your tasks were to unite the town and to grow in rank. If you take the easy way out now with that piece of paper, all your scheming will be wasted. You might kill the Herald, but you’ll only gain governance over a worthless scrap heap of a town.”

  Is that the only reason I need to be careful? Lee asked, wondering what other regulations went with the pages.

  “Well, that and the limitation of the page itself. A well-told story can change the destiny of men, but it cannot change the fate of gods,” Augustus said.

  That’s nonsense. That’s exactly what it has done right here. Without this story, you and this Goddess of Ice would both be alive tomorrow. Now, one of you two is damned to die today.

  “I don’t think any fate is certain until it’s written in the history books,” Augustus added ominously.

  The god’s words echoed through Lee’s mind in the usual cryptically-unsettling manner that any of his warnings did, disquieting his heart and sowing apprehension in his mind. Is this all going to be for nothing? Lee thought as rows and rows of troops rushed forward to avoid the two dragons that spurred them onward, leaping behind and slashing at the stragglers.

  General Brigid was trying to organize her troops and salvage the situation. She straightened the broken lines even as they rushed forward, spacing out the troops and turning the tides of madness back into order. She couldn't get them to turn around or stop, but to her credit, the general was able to make their attack look surprisingly organized.

  “For His Majesty! FOR THE DRAGON KING!” she shouted as she charged her horse toward battle, and the soldiers all repeated her words in unison. Their cries blended together, equaling the power and volume of the dragons’ roars, even if their voices carried none of the same magical energy.

  The troops started funneling through the hole the deadly beasts had made when they reached the wall, General Brigid leading the way. Lee wanted to stay and watch, but his plan had to be completed. The dragons, having forced the army forward so that they were sandwiched between the city and their ferocious claws, dove headfirst back into the ground and vanished into the grass without so much as destroying a single blade in the process. Their massive forms seemed to tunnel back into whatever earthen grave they had initially crawled out of until they disappeared from existence.

  “Let’s go,” Lee said, beckoning the two women at his sides as well as the golem he had used to scout out General Brigid’s troop movements. The four quickly moved to collect Dave and Pelham before continuing on toward the town. One of the golems had flown on ahead, scouting the town and searching for the Herald, and it had just managed to spot the Firbolg. Lee wasn’t sure he’d be able to recognize the Herald, but the unique clothes he wore, the way people treated him, and the cold bursts of magic he gave off made it obvious who he was. Spurring the charge had taken longer than expected and cost more troops than Lee had initially planned, but at least one part of his machinations had gone smoothly. He had identified his target, and everything seemed to be right on course.

  After parting ways with Lee and Pelham at the bar, Lee’s small group proceeded to the middle of the square, the area in which Lee hoped to intercept the Firbolg Herald, and he began setting up traps as quickly as he could. He strung out tripwires and hooked them to some of the large crossbows he had left over from their time hunting the Cragaboom before he was arrested. He didn’t have much time to work with, so he had to do his work quickly. He ordered Amber and Ling to keep the park clear from bystanders until his main guest arrived, so the two of them worked in concert to kill any unlucky Firbolg or even Human that came their way.

  Amber had leveled up her proficiency in Sneak even faster than Lee, and she was able to make great use of the skill as she bounced between targets, killing her prey as easily as if she were chopping up tomatoes on a cutting board before melding into the shadows and disappearing.

  “You almost done?” Ling asked anxiously, holding her bow at the ready in case anyone came into sight who shouldn’t be there.

  “Yeah, almost,” Lee answered. “Just one final touch.” He set about preparing the last trick he had up his sleeve, something he had been saving fo
r an occasion just like this one: bottles of oil with cloth shoved down into them. They were a rough approximation of a Molotov cocktail that he had learned how to make thanks to BluTube. The fuel wasn’t as flammable or explosive as something from the modern era, where purification methods were vastly superior, but it would be enough to get the job done. He opened half of them up, removing the cloth and spilling the oil across the road the Herald would travel. Then, so that it wouldn’t be obvious, he collected some leaves from around the park and kicked them around so that they covered up the oil.

  “You’re evil. You know that?” Ling remarked as she watched Lee work.

  “I’d like to think I’m quite a nice guy.” He responded with a nonchalant shrug, but her words stung, causing him to lose what little joy watching the majestic dragons and the charge of the beautiful general had given him. “He’s almost here! Get back and hide!” Lee motioned for both of the girls to disappear.

  Lee positioned himself in middle of the road just shy of where he needed the enemies to stop and firmly held onto his shield as he waited for his opponents. The wait stretched on for what felt like an hour as he watched them approach him through the eyes of one of his golems. The enemy troops marched in perfectly-synchronized order, four rows of five led by the Firbolg leader, who looked exactly like Miller and emanated rings of icy cold as he walked. His troops were dressed in standard black leather armor, and each carried a small shield and spear.