The Heartstone Saga

by Archibald Bradford

  Baron’s ears turned red and he scowled at her, but his expression softened when she took his hand in hers.

  “I’m sorry about your loss by the way. I don’t think I’ve gotten a chance to say that yet. I always looked up to her, even before I joined the Aegis.”

  Margaret Bloom was his maternal grandmother, and like many families, Baron’s had been forced to mourn for her.

  He nodded curtly, but said nothing.

  “You know, if you want, I could have Celeste sit on your face.” She jokingly offered; “That always makes me feel better.”

  The Harpy ruffled her feathers and shook her head.

  “No way! No offense to tall dark and handsome over there, but his face looks way to rocky for me to perch on!”

  “High cheekbones are hot!” Jenny disagreed.

  “Don’t die, either of you. I want to kill you myself later.” Baron grumbled by way of farewell, his amused Raiju following him.

  Not long afterwards they reached their destination.

  The town of Wayfelt sat within a depression between the banks of a slow moving river and a large forest that extended all of the way to Kettering.

  The very woods where Nameless rescued his first Tenebrae, Erica, and subsequently bonded to her and thereby pissed Miranda off.

  As fate would have it, they were also the same woods where his father and Kriss’s mother had fought Evadne, two decades prior.

  They approached from the northwest though, so the land they moved through was mostly cleared for farming.

  Now their forces were arrayed at the top of a gentle rise, looking downwards across unsown fields towards the river sluggishly moving through the remains of the silent buildings.

  Most of them had been destroyed by the Tenebrae, but a few were still standing.

  “I don’t see any movement.” Alcaia pointed out.

  Miranda sucked air between her teeth as her eyes scanned for their quarry.

  “The scout placed them here less than an hour ago.”

  “You can cover a lot of ground in an hour.” Myrina reasoned.

  Like her warleader and her sisters, her face was painted for battle, their imposing figures made all the more so with the fierce patterns.

  Volka was frowning and gnawing at her lip, but oddly she had one eye behind them towards where the medics and Dryads were setting up in preparation for the coming conflict.

  “What is it?” Booker asked her.

  The Valkyrie shook her head slightly.

  “I don’t know, I’m waiting… there!”

  As one they looked to see Nameless and his girls sprinting down the road towards them, quickly catching up.

  “Never a good sign.” Miranda sighed.

  Five minutes later they passed the medics and reached the command group, the Myrmidons protecting it parting to let them through.

  “I felt your distress, what is it? Where is Nina?” Volka demanded, eyes wide with worry.

  Nameless’s heart was pounding in his ears from the desperate flight from the Tenebrae; through their bond he could feel Nina’s battle rage, but little else.

  “Nina’s fighting a whole bunch of Ogres!” Milly explained while he fought to catch his breath.

  “Trap! It was a trap! The dead Ogre was bait.” Erica added unhappily; “To draw her away.”

  “Then it worked.” Xalanth rumbled unhappily; “Dominar, look to the village.”

  At the Dragon’s direction, Volka turned from her bond-mates and looked down the gentle slope towards Wayfelt; at first dozens, and then hundreds, of Tenebrae began to emerge from within the ruined buildings and the trees beyond them.

  “Longinus! Form ranks!” Queen Julia ordered immediately, her daughters echoing her; “Hold the high ground at all cost!”

  The sound of marching Antlions came from everywhere as the perfectly ordered legions did as their queens directed, placing their shields together to form a barrier between the Tenebrae and those they wanted to kill.

  “By my goddess’s very breath, there are so many of them.” Volka mumbled as she took stalk of the horde.

  “Aegis! Form up behind the Antlions, support them!” Booker ordered; “Kavanaugh! Get them moving!”

  The instructor nodded and quickly repeated his orders, until a mass of white and grey uniforms, accompanied by an even larger mass of assorted monster girls, moved quickly into position.

  Volka’s concern for Nina weighed on her heavily as the Tenebrae fanned out to mirror the Longinus’s formations, but she had to push it to the side.

  Nameless felt her do it, and even though he understood why, it still broke his heart.

  “We can do nothing but trust in Nina now. Paul! Get the volunteers back to support the medics!” She looked then to the three hundred monsters that had answered her call, already divided into three groups; “Tiana, Lilly! Safeguard the right and left flanks! Alcaia, support the middle!”

  “Your will be done Dominar!” The warleader called.

  Soon more shouts went down the line as people and monsters got themselves where they were supposed to be.

  “How are they so in control?” Dawn Morrow demanded, the host of Tenebrae still forming; “It’s like they are waiting for something.”

  Gripping his crutch tight, Booker’s good eye narrowed as he scanned over the challenge laid before them.

  “Or someone. Evadne seems a likely suspect.”

  Nameless was far too preoccupied worrying about his Gigas to add anything to the discussion, so Ophelia put her arm around him and whispered in his ear.

  “I have to go and join the medics now dearheart. I’m afraid for her too, but we need to focus on what is in front of us. And let’s be honest, if there is anyone in the world we shouldn’t be worrying about right now, it’s Nina!”

  __________

  They should have been worried about Nina, because Nina was getting her ass kicked.

  If the Ogres in the city had all attacked Xalanth like this even she would have been in trouble; the Dragon was able to stop so many only because the city wasn’t so open and her prey were too distracted trying to change that.

  Plus she could fly.

  Nina was flying too, but only because an enormous blue foot had just struck her in the chest, sending her into the air with enough force to topple a number of trees before she set down again.

  The fighting had spilled back into the woods that the Ogres had come from, partially by design, partially by luck.

  Nina needed the trees: they were the only cover she had, though the Ogres were finding them useful too.

  After recovering from the kick, Nina brought her hammer up to block a projectile ripped from the forest and cast at her from one side.

  Somewhere in her mind she wondered if Milly would find it amusing watching her dodging chunks of the surrounding trees, just as the Gigas once had her do.

  The fleeting thought didn’t stick around long, the giant too focused on using the momentum of her latest dodge to spin and bring her hammer with unyielding force against the ankle of the Ogre currently trying to pound her massive fist through her back.

  The creature howled in agony and toppled off of her useless leg but the reprieve was short lived as another came from the other side and swung a log up and into her ribs and gut, driving the wind from her lungs with a grunt and sending her into the air again.

  Though the Gigas maintained an unyielding grip on her weapon, it still hurt like a motherfucker.

  “Good hit.” She wheezed as she regained her feet and brought her hammer back up with two hands despite the pain in her side.

  It was a good hit: she felt the crackle of a couple of ribs yielding to the blow and had most of her breath knocked out of her.

  Her face was bruised and covered in blood, too much of it her own, as she scanned her remaining opponents.

  The once idyllic woods next to the field were now fraught with destruction; eight blue-skinned bodies were strewn about, along with dozens of fallen trees and de
ep divots in the land where the angry Gigas had brought her hammer down with all of her strength.

  Each Ogre that she felled was a weight on her soul that she already knew she would never recover from. It was one thing to kill someone in a fair fight, or who had really pissed her off, but these poor girls were not to blame for their shadowy state.

  Tears brought about by an equal measure of rage and grief streamed down her cheeks.

  She had managed to halve their number, but her hammer arm was shaky and her eyes burned with the mixture of blood and sweat on her brow.

  Meanwhile the rage of the Tenebrae she fought continued unending as they readied themselves for another assault.

  The only reason she was still alive was because of that rage: they weren’t coordinated at all, shouldering each other aside to reach her, each wanting the kill for themselves.

  And the arena-hardened Nina was smart enough to use that against them.

  “Come on! I’ve got shit to do!” She roared out another challenge at all of them.

  They charged.

  Abruptly a wall of green force enveloped them, causing them to trip and stumble into each other within the sudden trap, their faces mashing almost comically against the translucent barrier.

  “Now now. You are still needed, little girl.” A familiar lilting voice called out.

  Nina let out a groan when she realized the identity of her saviour.

  But her arms were heavy from combat, and her soul was even heavier from the consequences of it.

  She fell to her knees with a sob.

  Chapter 47:

  Wily Witch’s Wiles

  The sun shone down on the arrayed Aegis and monster girl forces, the beautiful sky a stark contrast to the grim scene below.

  Around a third of the gathered force was now made up of Antlions; a solid wall of shields between them and the Tenebrae, their discipline and order instilling confidence and hope in the ones behind them.

  And at the very top of their hierarchy was their fat lord, Barnabas Rosenbaum Longinus, standing in the midst of the command group near his queen and their daughters, though he was letting them do all of the commanding.

  With Ophelia having left to join the medics and Volka preoccupied preparing for the worst, Nameless, Erica, and Milly were somewhat at loose ends as the Empath waited for a chance to save the dark-eyed girls facing them.

  Without taking his eyes off of the assembling Tenebrae, the lord of Longinus reached out one pudgy hand and patted the younger and thinner man on the shoulder.

  “Steady lad. My Julia has never failed in her life. And neither have my daughters. Steady.”

  The pronouncement was out of place coming from the chubby uniformed consort, but the distraction of his words actually helped Nameless hold his nerve.

  He’d felt Nina’s fight end, and could feel her being ravaged by the guilt of it, but at least he knew she was safe, even if he would feel a lot better to have her at his side again.

  “What is with those medals anyways?” Erica asked out of nowhere.

  “Medals of prowess!” The lord of Longinus puffed up his chest to better display them as he spoke.

  Milly looked him up and down, her eyes lingering on the short sword hanging on his hip.

  “You... don’t look like much of a fighter.” She suggested with as much tact as she could.

  “What? Oh!” He blinked in surprise before figuring out what she meant, his thick fingers playing with the hilt nervously; “Wouldn’t know what to do with the silly thing! No, not that kind of prowess.”

  “My lord is a master of cunnilingus.” One of the Myrmidons proclaimed from nearby; “Each medal on his chest was awarded for his accomplishments in that field.”

  Again Barnabas’s chest puffed up with pride.

  “It’s all about the alphabet.” He smugly assured Nameless.

  The younger man turned and glared at Erica, who blushed and pretended to be distracted by fiddling with her many knives.

  “I fucking knew it.” He mumbled bitterly.

  The distraction was short lived as the last of the dark girls emerged from hiding, thousands of Tenebrae now arrayed against them.

  “They’ve been busy.” Booker noted, resignation in his voice as he measured the enemy ranks with his one good eye.

  “How did Jonathan do this? It’s beyond insane...” Sadie breathed.

  Xalanth let out a low growl and put one arm on her shoulders to comfort her.

  Nameless could feel it in the air: despair gripped the Aegis and the volunteer force assisting them.

  “It doesn’t matter how! It’s on us to fix this!” He shouted with far more courage than he felt.

  “Master... a lot of people are going to die today.” Erica said quietly.

  With the house of Longinus on their side, the Aegis and their allies outnumbered the Tenebrae, but it would be foolish to think that they could be stopped without bloodshed.

  “We do what we can to keep that number as low as possible.” Miranda swore with determination, though her voice was shaking a bit.

  She might be a veteran Aegis operative, but this was way beyond anything she’d ever dealt with.

  To counter the rising alarm, Volka unleashed the entirety of her aura.

  “It is our duty to save as many as we can, they have rage and strength but we have numbers and skill!” The Dominar flapped her golden wings and drew herself several feet into the air as she addressed them all; “Warriors of the Aegis! Never forget the oaths that you have taken! We will stop those girls down there not only because it is our duty but because it is what they would have us do! Your ancestors are watching you! Stand firm!”

  She flapped her wings and alit on the ground slightly in front of the Antlions to show that she was not afraid of the coming fight, her sword of light appearing at her side for her to draw and hold aloft, her glowing figure a fierce beacon of hope.

  Shoulders that were slumped firmed up as the gathered men, women, and monsters tightened their grips on their weapons and shook off their gloom while the last Dominar’s aura filled their hearts with the courage they so badly needed.

  There was a sudden disturbance down amongst the gathered Tenebrae, and a moment later Jonathan emerged from the dark-eyed horde.

  “Well this is a hell of a thing! What took you so long?” He shouted across the field, a hint of smugness in his voice.

  After finally coupling with Evadne, the dark Empath had become convinced that he had all but saved her, more determined than ever before to finish what she started so very long ago, so that he could finally begin his life with her.

  “Jonathan! Stop this madness! Let us save them!” Sadie’s voice faltered as she called out to him, barely carrying back to her one-time protégé.

  “Is that Sadie?” He lifted his hand to block the sun in his eyes as he searched for her; “Been a while, teacher mine. But don’t you see? I am saving them! This is the day that we have been working towards! A day that will never be forgotten! After today, no one will dare to push a monster girl so far! Fear will keep humanity’s darkness and cruelty at bay!”

  “Oh you fucking moron!” Erica screamed at him, her face red and her tail puffed up with anger; “This won’t accomplish anything but heartbreak!”

  She knew exactly what those girls endured.

  But Jonathan wasn’t swayed.

  “Poor little girl, I will save you too!” He promised.

  He raised his hand, and there was a collective intake of breath.

  A moment later he dropped it, and the controlled rage of the Tenebrae was suddenly unleashed with a deafening roar.

  Volka took to the air again, shouting out orders as she did.

  “Queen Julia! Hold them at bay until we can find a way to stop this! If needs be, we might have to restrain every single one of these girls!”

  A daunting proposition, but the way she said it made it seem possible.

  “Your will be done, Dominar! My daughters! Do not sully our name
this day!” Julia proclaimed loudly from behind the line as she raised her fist; “Legionnaires! Brace!”

  In unison the five colonies of Antlions fitted their shields together and bent one knee to shift the wall of treated wood and iron towards the mass of charging monsters.

  Each of them had set aside their traditional spears and swords in favour of simple cudgels; it put them at a severe disadvantage, but their aim was to subdue, not kill.

  “Aegis!” Instructor Kavanaugh barked out, not to be outdone; “Canisters at the ready!”

  Behind the shield of Antlion bodies lost-tech measures were being readied.

  “No stingers!” The lost-tech instructor continued; “The wind isn’t on our side. Focus on control and containment!”

  “My warriors!” Alcaia called out as well; “Subdue the Tenebrae! Beat them into the ground if you have to! For the Valkyrja-datta!”

  A great ululation came from the Amazons on the field, their natural battle-lust rising in their blood.

  Nameless actually blushed at being used as a battle-cry, but what was he going to do, ask them to stop?

  The thunder of the charging Tenebrae grew ever louder as the charged up the gentle slope.

  __________

  Nina came to her senses to find an unpleasant sight waiting: the Witch Olena sitting cross legged beside her.

  “Ah fuck I’m dead.” She whined.

  “Not yet. But you tried ever so hard.”

  The Witch’s tone wasn’t sarcastic but Nina felt the bite of it all the same; it was much like she was consoling a child for failing to achieve a sought after goal.

  Oh but sweetie you were sooo close!

  Bitch.

  “How long have I been out of it?”

  “A quarter hour at most, it seemed that you really needed to have a good cry.”

  Deeply uncomfortable with being talked down to so obviously, Nina got to her feet, though she winced at the pain in her side from her ribs.

  “Thanks for the rescue weird lady. But I have to go, I need to find my family.”

  “Yes you do.” Olena agreed; “The fighting has already begun, and if we do nothing I fear the worst.”