Sowing Dragon Teeth
Page 27
She rocked back to face the gathering figures. She wiped away at the gory mess covering her face. She blinked again and again. It was the Kathulian army. Dozens of men on horseback. Some had dismounted and approached her with their blades drawn. How could she fight them? The Kathulian host surrounded her.
They were so many. She slumped with exhaustion, beaten, defeated. But as her leg brushed against the dragon she remembered and drew herself up tall. “No one will say that Aisha was slain by you, you pack of cowards! They’ll remember me, that I slew a dragon!”
She blinked away the dripping blood. Movement rallied along the rim above the Kathulians and Aisha wondered how many of her enemies were gathered here. She would die, she knew it as surely as anything. But they could not take her glory from her. She had gained her revenge on the immortal murderer of her father. She would die a legend of her nation, and that could never be stripped away.
“That was impressive,” answered a Kathulian officer in shining armor. “I have tracked you for uncounted miles and innumerable days and now to witness a magnificent display that few would believe. The death of a dragon by a mortal’s hand. But you are an enemy and must die. But first, where is the princess Diamanda?”
“Dead.”
“How? Where?” he demanded.
Aisha beckoned to the mountain behind her. “She was slain on the mountain by the bandit Catlo, her lover.”
“You lie!” declared the officer. “My wife was known by no man but me!”
Aisha realized she was facing the captain, Nergal. The same who had ridden to the very gates of Catlo’s fortress and demanded the princess returned for a swift death. She had not known he was the husband of that awful shrew. “Believe what you will. But she is dead, and the gods know her lusty appetites.”
Nergal moved closer with his sword raised. “You will retract that terrible slander before I cut your tongue out.”
Aisha could barely keep her head up, but she managed both a chuckle and to spit in his general direction. “Go to hell,” she managed. “I am a dragon slayer and that’s more than you’ll ever be, you cuckolded Kathulian dog!”
“Archers!” Nergal, raised his arm to signal his men as he strode out of the line of fire.
“Wait,” said Aisha. “Give me a clean death. I am a dragon slayer after all.” She tossed her sword a few paces away from herself.
“I can give you that, but only if you will retract your wicked lies.”
“I retract my lies,” muttered Aisha, bitterly.
“About my wife,” urged Nergal.
Aisha coughed blood. “I retract my lies about your wife.”
“Thank you. Where can I find her body?”
“At the zenith of the mountain in a final chamber before it opens into the caldera,” said Aisha with another cough. Her right hand slipped to her belt facing away from Xargon and she touched the pommel of her knife.
“Thank you.” Nergal stepped closer and raised his sword. “I will make this quick. It brings me no pleasure, but even the heart of an infidel hero cannot be allowed to beat.”
He brought the blade down as Aisha dodged aside and stabbed upward with her own knife blade, catching the heavily armored knight in the visor. Blood poured out behind the hilt and she had not the strength the wrench it free. Nergal fell into a pool of his own blood.
“Your wife was the worst woman I ever knew,” grated Aisha. “I pray for your sake, you do not meet her in the seven hells of Jehenna.”
Nergal’s men gasped at his sudden death and charged forward enraged, shouting, “Kill the infidel whore!” A hundred men ran at her screaming hatred and bile.
Aisha she laughed to herself at her final triumph. She sat and leaned against the dragon. This was a good place to die. Father would be proud.
The air filled with the sound of wind and the hard thwack of denting armor. She looked up, arrows of all makes pin-cushioned the Kathulians. Stones flew from slings with deadly purpose. Leopard skin wearing men speared them at the rear to the right, while far to the left the hyena and jackal people attacked. The small shapes on the far side of the perimeter were Umoja archers attacking the Kathulians! They cheered, “Umoja! Umoja! Umoja!” as they loosed their slings and arrows at the foe and the grand host of Kathul went down in a violent bloody rout.
Tribes charged down from the hills, Umoja archers, Leopard people with long spears and feathered headdresses, and even Bamulas wearing jackal skins and lion mane cloaks, all of them racing forward in a bloodcurdling fury as they tore apart the Kathulian army.
Aisha reclined upon a broken leg of the dragon as if the dead beast were her very own throne, and to the oncoming tribes, it was so. When the last Kathulian had died and his heart laid bare and open, the barbaric warriors of the diverse tribes came and knelt before Aisha, bowing their heads in supplication. This strange-eyed woman who slew a dragon was a message from the heavens to lay aside their petty feuds and become one.
She was their warrior queen.
Live more Adventures in this savage world in the books: BRUTAL, FIERCE, MONSTERS, The Slayer, and Walking Through Walls available now! Aisha and Ole will return in IRON MAIDEN – Coming Soon!
also, WRATH and The USURPER are releasing soon in the new year.
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Thanks for everyone who gave me encouragement and help. Thanks especially to my wife Melissa, Holli Anderson, J Caleb Clarke, Anna Stansfield, Adam Smith, Niels Adair, Dave Butler, Jason King, Paul McNamee, Jason Waltz, Todd Vick, Ernie Jessop, Scott Allred and some others that I am sure I am forgetting right now. All the Best.
About the Author:
James Alderdice aka David J. West writes dark fantasy and weird westerns because the voices in his head won’t quiet until someone else can hear them. He is a great fan of sword & sorcery, ghosts and lost ruins, so of course he lives in Utah in with his wife and children.
You can visit him online at:
http://david-j-west.blogspot.com/
https://twitter.com/David_JWest
http://david-j-west.tumblr.com/