by J J Hane
Azrael remained unmoved. The only sign that her verbal assault had any impact on him was a slight narrowing of his eyes.
Margot stalked up to him, getting right in his face. “You betrayed us all! I will duel you, right now, in front of all of these witnesses! You are not fit to be our leader!”
A stocky man with a shock of greyish hair stepped forward, carrying a long spear. “Are you out of your mind?” he demanded. “We are on the verge of victory here!”
“Didn’t you see the Archangel?” Margot asked, keeping her eyes on Azrael. “We are on the verge of annihilation, brought here by our ‘fearless’ leader.”
“I have done more to bring down the Martyrion than any hundred chieftains before me,” Azrael replied. “I will accept your challenge. We will deal with this swiftly. The rest of you: keep moving. We have a city to burn.”
“Wait!” I shouted, stepping forward. “If you get any closer to the city, they will destroy you all!”
“If they could have destroyed us,” Azrael said, “they would have. Their weapon is broken, thanks, as I understand it, to you. That display of power a moment ago was their last effort to hold back the river of our might.” He studied me, then Serenity.
“Ah. I wondered where you had gotten off to, Serenity.”
“You betrayed us all,” Serenity growled. “If Margot hadn’t already claimed the right to kill you, I would do it myself. How many died because you thought they weren’t useful?”
Azrael very carefully did not look around when he spoke to his followers. “Kill these children. I will take care of Margot.”
Several men moved forward simultaneously, swords or spears raised. Evidently, they did not want to waste precious bullets on us. It seemed somewhat ironic that the device to call down the Archangel’s fire, meant to help me convince the outlanders that they could still be targeted, was the convincing proof to them that they were safe.
There was only one last chance for us to avoid death. “Is everyone aware that you knew the Archangel was going to kill everyone at the mall? Are you really the leader they want?”
The man in front of me, carrying a jagged sword that looked like it had been made from the torn metal of an old freeway sign, missed a step.
“He betrayed us,” Serenity called out. “He let everyone die at our home, and now he’s leading the rest of you to your deaths, too.”
“You don’t have to die!” I shouted. “I’ve spoken to the Martyrion Council! They won’t fire the weapon if you turn back!”
The man before me adjusted his grip on his sword, but he didn’t swing. “You spoke to the council?” he asked.
“Yes,” I replied hastily. “I was able to get back to the city after we got away from the slaughter at the mall. There was a man in the city who betrayed the Martyrion. All he wanted was to destroy your people, but he’s been stopped. You can still walk away from this.”
“Listen to the boy!” Azrael called out. “You heard what he said: the Martyrion wants to destroy us all. As long as that city is standing, we are subject to the whims of their good graces. I say we strike now, before they can get their defenses back up. Many of us will die in this battle, but if we can get into the city, it will be more than worth it.”
“You can’t possibly believe that you’ll get close enough,” I said, incredulous.
Azrael’s gaze was locked on Margot as he replied. “I am willing to die for this cause. I am willing to risk everything, sacrifice everything, for this chance to preserve our people.”
I could hear the certainty, the sincerity, in his voice. In that moment, I realized something more alarming about Azrael than I had ever realized before. I had assumed, throughout my experiences over the past few days, that the man was obsessed with power. Azrael, I had believed, was driven by a desire to rule, to control everyone and everything that he could.
That was certainly part of it, but the truth rang clearly in his voice. I saw why everyone followed him, despite his violence, or maybe because of it. He truly, deeply believed that he was doing the right thing. He wanted power not just for power’s own sake, but to do what he thought was right.
I realized that he wasn’t materially different from Abraham Holt, traitor to the Martyrion. Despite all appearances to the contrary, inside they were the same: violent men trying to do what they thought was right. Killing to save. Both sides were taking lives because they thought that would end the conflict. All it was doing was making things worse.
“You knew that they were going to destroy our people?” one of Azrael’s generals asked. The man was a little younger even than Azrael, thin with a patchy beard and numerous scars visible on his face and neck.
Azrael’s teeth clenched, his jaw muscles tightening. “Are you going to listen to these traitors and their pet from the city? Or are you going to trust me?” Azrael glared at the warriors he had ordered to kill us. “Do as I command!”
They exchanged uncertain looks as murmurs spread through the crowd.
“Are we going to fight?” Margot asked, smug now. “Or are you just going to stand there?”
Azrael met Margot’s eyes again. This time, his fury was evident, his self-restraint slipping. His calm façade disappeared, replaced by a visible madness.
“Very well. May the Reaper be our arbiter.”
I had expected some sort of formal duel, with rules and chosen weapons, maybe people acting as referees to prevent cheating. A dueling circle would have made sense. Instead, the duel began without further warning, as though Azrael’s words had been a ritual phrase to initiate it.
The young chief of the united tribes threw a kick with such speed that I barely registered it. Margot, with the advantage of years more experience, had just enough time to brace herself, rocking back as Azrael’s boot slammed into her chest. She stumbled back a step, her own sword already coming up to strike.
Azrael used the force of his kick to propel himself back, out of Margot’s reach. In a smooth motion, he dropped his long coat along with its holstered guns, exposing his scarred arms and torso. In the same movement, he whipped out his long, jagged dagger.
Margot thrust with her blade, nearly running the sharp tip into Azrael’s chest. At the last possible instant, he flicked her blade aside with his, moving to get inside her guard. The general let out a feral growl, twisting her body to bring her full strength into a slashing motion that forced Azrael to back off.
Margot pressed her advantage, striking out twice as Azrael retreated, but the chieftain was faster, deflecting each blow mere centimeters from his body. The pair fell into a pattern of striking and retreating, blades clashing, ringing loud in the dark woods. Every eye was on the fight, although I wasn’t sure exactly what the consequences would be if Margot emerged victorious.
It became clear, as the two circled one another, striking, parrying, that Margot was wearing down faster than her opponent. She overextended herself at one point, earning a shallow cut on her forearm. Another time, she only just managed to deflect Azrael’s dagger as he drove it toward her heart, opening a gash in her shoulder instead. While I didn’t know what would happen if Margot won, I knew for certain that we would not survive if she lost. If Azrael killed her, he would certainly kill us, as well.
I also knew, with a concrete certainty, that if I tried to interfere, I would be dead before I could blink. Both combatants hated me, and it would be easy for either of them to deal a fatal blow if I got close to the fight. I wished desperately that Abishai had given me a stunner. I had the device Hoskins had given me, but it wasn’t necessarily very accurate.
Still, if I could prove that the Archangel was ready to fire…
I realized that everyone had backed away from the fight, giving Azrael and Margot space to dance with their blades. People kept shuffling back a little further to allow the two a little more space, then a little more. Sparks flew from their blades, sometimes carrying little droplets of blood as they nicked one another.
No one was really watching m
e. All eyes were on the battle. With a nervous glance around me to make sure nobody was going to take off my head for moving, I carefully drew out the tablet, scanning my fingerprint, hunching awkwardly to scan my retina. I hastily entered the code, hoping that no one would look my way to see the little glowing screen. Flickering torches cast the scene in a yellowish light that helped to drown out the blue of the tablet. I couldn’t risk holding the device up for a good target, so I just held it against me, pointing it vaguely toward the center of the clearing.
I stopped before activating it. If I did, Azrael and Margot could both die. Maybe even some others, as well. I might have already killed one man. Could I do it again? Should I? In the movies, killing was something that the heroes often did without second thought about whether or not it was acceptable. Standing there in the dark woods, knowing what I was about to do, having seen the destruction caused by the Archangel…. It was much harder than I had expected.
Serenity, however, had grown up in a culture steeped in violence, one in which personal survival often seemed to require killing others. Standing close to me, she was the only one who seemed aware of what I was doing. She was also a fast learner. Without hesitation, she snatched the tablet from me, pressing the little targeting reticule.
“What are you doing?” I hissed, grabbing the device back from her. It was already running the lines of code, sending the signal up to the satellites. I didn’t know how to stop the program from running. It was already too late.
“I’m saving us all,” she replied. “You’re lucky I’m here to do it.”
I didn’t have a reply for that. I didn’t know if I should be happy that she did it, or mad, or what. I closed the screen, putting the device back into my pocket.
“We should probably warn them,” I told her. I didn’t have any energy left for feeling. Maybe I could be angry at her when everything was over.
“Why?”
I blinked at her. “I don’t know if you’re joking…”
Serenity just shrugged.
I shook my head. “Either way, we probably shouldn’t be standing here. Neither should anyone else. When the Archangel fires…”
“Agreed,” Serenity replied. “Would you prefer to get your throat opened by a sword, or get a spear in the gut?”
I shot her an annoyed look. “We don’t have much time.”
Margot and Azrael clashed again, leaping away from each other after three strikes so quick that I couldn’t tell who was attacking and who was defending. They prowled around each other, eyes ablaze with fury. Margot was limping, having received a cut to her right thigh. She was breathing heavily, but her sword didn’t waver. Azrael, for his part, was covered in a thin sheen of sweat, though he might have been out for a light jog for all the strain he was showing.
Serenity whispered to me, “It will be over in a second. Unless Margot gets really lucky, there’s no way she’s getting out of this.”
We needed to buy some time. I looked up at the sky, wondering how soon the Archangel would be calibrated to burn away this little clearing and anyone unlucky enough to still be in it. If Azrael finished Margot off, he would come after me next.
“Azrael!” I shouted, stepping forward, closer to the dueling pair. Neither of them reacted.
“The Archangel is about to fire!” I yelled again. “Face it: you’re plan failed. Everyone who stays here is going to die.”
“What are you doing?” Serenity hissed, grabbing my arm. “It’ll kill you, too!”
“I’ve called down a strike on this area,” I continued, looking around at the warriors who were watching. Azrael’s eyes flicked to me for an instant. “If you run now, you will all survive.”
Margot used the chieftain’s distraction to her advantage. She lunged, thrusting the blade out with one arm. Azrael sidestepped and twisted, the sword opening a gash along his abdomen.
It wasn’t deep enough. With his left hand, he caught Margot’s wrist. Flipping his dagger around in his right, he drove the blade into Margot’s chest just below her right shoulder, slamming his forearm into her like an iron bar. The former general let out a gasp of pain, stumbling back and landing on the ground. With a contemptuous kick to her face, accompanied by an audible crunching sound, Azrael stepped past the fallen woman, walking with long, rapid strides.
Straight at me.
“I will burn your city,” he said as he closed the distance between us. I backpedaled, but quickly found my path blocked by Azrael’s warriors. “Every man, woman, and child will suffer the same fate your people have doled out to mine.”
He raised the bloodied dagger, his own blood black in the flickering torchlight. His dark eyes reflected the fire, his burning rage made physical.
There was a sudden, bright white light. All around me there were gasps and shouts of terror, but Azrael paid no attention. I put my hands out in an instinctive effort to protect myself. He slipped past my defenses, seizing my throat with his free hand, pulling his knife hand back to stab me.
A spear of energy pierced the dark skies above, slamming into the ground a few meters away. The shockwave of released energy and scalding hot air, so close this time, slammed Azrael into me, picking us both up and sending us flying through the air.
Chapter 23
I assumed, some time later, that gravity was still functioning, as I was lying on my back. It seemed like a reasonable starting assumption from which I could reconstruct the world around me. Above me, the clouds had parted, revealing a universe of stars beyond the scraggly branches of the bare trees. There was a warm, metallic taste in my mouth that I eventually realized was blood. My ears were ringing from the sound of the explosion, the noise of people running and shouting just barely penetrating the fog in my brain. My whole face hurt, like the cool wind was carrying tiny blades across my exposed skin.
With a great effort, I managed to sit up, looking around in confusion. There were a few torches lying on the ground. Most of the light came from a burning tree that the Archangel had hit.
Hands touched my shoulder, making me flinch away. Azrael’s look of unadulterated hatred just before the blast was burned into my retinas.
“Whoa there, city boy,” Serenity said, grabbing my arm. “One night out with the tribes and you start turning violent.”
I forced myself unsteadily to my feet. “Are you okay?”
Serenity laughed. “You’d better hurry up and get back to your city before you get a splinter. You’re softer than a baby.”
Get back to the city? That sounded good. But I couldn’t because… What was it again?
Oh. Right. Exiled.
“Where’s Azrael?” I asked instead of responding. I looked around frantically. There were hundreds of shadows rushing away into the woods, most people staying clear of us.
Serenity scowled. “I think a couple of his cronies grabbed him and carried him off. That blast knocked him unconscious, or you’d be dead now.”
I grunted in acknowledgement, not quite mollified by the answer. If he was still alive, he could come back for us. Not to mention the fact that everyone currently fleeing from the Martyrion had a very legitimate grudge against the city, of which I was the only representative on hand for punishment.
Serenity seemed to understand. “We should probably get you out of here before somebody decides to finish what he started.”
“Agreed,” I replied. I turned, lost my balance for a second, then started walking.
“Where are you going?” Serenity asked, catching my arm again. “This way.”
The girl, who must have been in extreme pain herself, led me through the woods in the opposite direction that everyone else was running. Within minutes, we were alone in the darkness, distant shouting the only sign that there had been anyone here. We picked our way carefully over twisting roots and uneven ground, neither of us speaking.
The army had fled. After everything I had gone through, everything I had seen and done, it was finally over. The Martyrion wasn’t going to wipe out an e
ntire race of people.
“That was incredible,” Serenity said at last.
“Sorry?”
“The Archangel,” she replied, her voice hushed, almost awed. “Growing up being afraid of it, seeing it night after night, and then being the one who uses it… Raphael, that was amazing!”
“I guess,” I said, uncertain.
“You guess? We just stopped your people from completely annihilating mine! We just used the most powerful weapon in the entire world. How can you not be…? I don’t know, excited about that?”
I didn’t look at her. “What happened to Margot?”
Serenity was quiet for a moment.
“Is she dead?” I pressed.
“No. It might have been better if she was.”
“What happened?”
“She was close enough to the blast that she’s going to have more scars, if she survives. She’ll think it was you who fired the weapon, but she’ll blame me since she can’t go after you once you get back into the city.”
My stomach dropped. “Um. About that…”
“Can you bring me with you?” Serenity asked. She was trying to sound disinterested, like it wasn’t a big deal, but I could still hear the hope in her voice.
“Um. No, I…”
Serenity shook her head. “It’s fine. I didn’t think you would. I guess I’m a criminal there, or whatever. After everything that’s happened, I doubt your people will be welcoming anyone from the tribes for a long time.”
“Well, kind of, but that’s not…” Saying it out loud was surprisingly difficult, as if just saying it made it more real. I took a deep breath, which hurt like hell. “I’ve been exiled.”
“Wait, what? What does that mean?”
“It means…” I took a deep breath. I could feel tears of panic welling up in my eyes. I definitely did not want Serenity to hear the shaking in my voice. “It means that I can’t go back. It means that I can never go back.”
My breathing started coming in short, shallow gasps as the truth of my situation really settled in. How was I going to get food, water, shelter, or even clothing? Where was I supposed to go? Out of all the useless, random things they taught us in school, not one single class had ever been devoted to the kind of survival skills I was going to need.
