“Do you remember anything?” Sasha said as she checked his pulse and looked at his eyes.
“I don’t think so. The last thing I remember was a tree and that I was scared… because we were running from…”
Keither tried to get up but Kovos held him down. “It’s ok,” he said.
“No it’s not, no it’s not! I looked into its eyes! We are not ok!”
So much for hoping Keither wouldn’t remember.
“It’s going to be fine,” Kovos said soothingly.
“No it’s not, Kovos. I’m going to die out here and it’s your fault—your fault I came with you to warn Legon, your fault we left Salmont.”
“Keither, I’m-”
“You’re what? Sorry? You’re sorry for me getting beaten, sorry for me watching someone die, sorry for all this?”
“I don’t know what to say other than-”
“There is no ‘other than’! This is your fault that I am out here! If you want to go get yourself killed for Legon and Sasha that’s fine, but you didn’t need to bring me into it!” Presumably, Keither was only kept from yelling due to a massive headache.
Kovos looked hurt. “Look, I can’t change what has happened, and I told you that I was warning Legon about danger.”
“Then why did you drag me along? Couldn’t you tell that I didn’t want to be there? Or did you want proof for Emma that you weren’t a horrible person and that you cared about people other than yourself?”
Kovos’ face flushed and he gritted his teeth. “No, I didn’t drag you along so I could make my girlfriend like me, Keither. You wanted to come and then changed your mind. I wasn’t going to let you go walking around in town with royal guard around.”
“Oh yeah, and why is that?”
“Because you are helpless, that’s why. You don’t think before you act, you don’t worry about consequences. How many times have I had to pull you out of a sticky situation that you put yourself in, huh? How many?”
“You only care about yourself. Don’t blame me.”
Kovos laughed coldly. “Only care for myself huh? Is that what you think? What have you ever done for someone else, Keither? Tell me, when have you helped at home? When have you ever tried to pull your weight? This has been the most I’ve seen you work in your life, and even then it’s what, taking down a tent? Oh, never mind, you gave up some fat to help Legon keep your ungrateful hide alive.”
* * * * *
Kovos felt anger seething in his body. He wanted to hit Keither, wanted to smack him in the mouth. After all the sacrifices he’d made for his younger brother…. But still, it was his fault that Keither was out here, and he hadn’t been a good person. He felt himself deflating. Kovos knew he was hard on the boy, and it was obvious that Keither hated him. His own brother hated him. It was etched in his face. But how could he change that now? How could he show him that he did care and that he loved him? Legon brought him back to reality.
“Shut up you two,” he hissed.
“But…” Keither was cut off by a hand to his mouth.
“We have company.”
Kovos heard the sound of many feet coming their way. From the trees in front of them, men in full armor spilled into their little clearing. They were found. Their training took over. Arkin and Legon took their places up front while Sara frantically readied arrows for Sasha. As they approached, he felt Legon’s magic making his muscles tighten with extra strength. Light glinted off his sword as it was unsheathed and he saw out of the corner of his eyes the shine of the fenrra.
An arrow hissed by him and buried itself deep in a soldier’s shoulder. He felt the animal inside him coming to life, the one that obliterated thought and feeling. The one that felt no pain. The berserker. Before he let it take him one thought bubbled in his mind, “You will never see Emma again.”
With that, the rage took over and he lunged forward with a yell and brought the blade across his front with incredible speed and force. It sliced the man in front of him across the belly, spilling his intestines on the forest floor. The world was in slow motion with the enhancements being made by the two Venefica flanking him. He pushed the falling man aside and closed in on another.
* * * * *
Keither stumbled over to the horses and retrieved Legon’s giant cleaver. His job was simple: keep enemies away from Sasha and Sara. He came lumbering back up, still feeling dizzy from hitting the tree. Sara was handing arrows to Sasha at break-neck speed, and Sasha in turn was shooting them at the oncomers. Keither noticed that she wasn’t shooting to kill, but rather to injure and incapacitate. He started as flashes of emerald and purple illuminated the clearing. Legon and Arkin were fighting with magic. He looked to see Arkin snap a man’s neck with a bolt of green magic. Legon followed suit by firing a blast of amethyst light, obliterating half of a man’s pelvis.
Keither was having a hard time following the magic battle. Arkin, Kovos, and Legon were like blurs and they easily felled ten men, but more came. One made it by Legon and ran at Sasha. She didn’t see him coming. Keither needed to hit him with the cleaver, but he couldn’t. He was too afraid. He dropped the cleaver and fell back away from the oncoming soldier. Sasha turned to see the man raise his battle axe. It started forward. Keither couldn’t look and covered his face. Then came the sound of someone hitting the ground… was she dead? He looked to see the man lying on the ground, Kovos’ hunting knife protruding from the side of his neck. A voice came.
“Keither!” It was Sara. He looked at her very red and angry face. “Time to be a man. Do your job, got it?”
He stood and took the cleaver in his hands.
* * * * *
Sasha was aware that she had nearly been killed, but thankfully she was almost in a full Mahann state and wasn’t feeling emotion right now. She was taking full advantage of the Mahann and the magic making her stronger. She was acting as the center of the mental network with everyone connected through her. She could sense the changes Legon and Arkin were making to spells, and who Kovos was going to decapitate next. Sara was keeping her busy with a steady amount of arrows which were quickly running out. Keither, however, was not connected. He was too scared; his mind was closed. Not that Sasha would have let him in with his current level of fear. She couldn’t have an unstable emotion clogging her network.
Sasha was aiming for major joints like shoulders and hips. They were debilitating injuries and made the men scream bloody murder. Hopefully there were a lot of conscripts in this group and the screams of their comrades would take the fight out of them. However, the strategy didn’t seem to be working, and a steady stream of new soldiers was filling the clearing. She told Kovos to move over a foot. As he did, she let an arrow go. It flew past the man he was fighting but hit another square in the shoulder, embedding itself in the joint. She continued to fire but paused as she saw a new figure entering the clearing. Not even the Mahann could stop the emotion this time.
A tall man in all black jumped into the clearing. His long silver hair, thin face, grey skin, and yellow eyes struck fear deep into her. The Iumenta had two fenrra in his hands and looked at her. He was about fifty yards away,—well within range. He came forward, covering ten yards in a few steps. She began to rapid fire the arrows at him, not caring about hitting joints, just going for a hit. He flicked the arrows away lazily with the fenrra as he came. Kovos moved in his path, swinging his sword hard. The Iumenta parried the blow and lashed out at Kovos.
* * * * *
Legon was aware that for the second time in his life he was slicking the surrounding trees and landscape with other people’s blood. This came to him after cutting a man’s throat with the tip of the fenrra in his left hand. They now shined crimson with their new coating. He moved forward coming, down close to the ground in between two men. He pivoted on his right foot, swinging a fenrra at a man’s leg, chopping the femur in half and severing the femoral artery. More blood sprayed everywhere. As the leg came free of its howling owner, Legon turned and with the other
blade stabbed the other man. He turned the tip of the fenrra so it effortlessly passed through the man’s ribs, slicing lung and heart.
The soldier’s armor seemed to have little to no effect on Arkin, Kovos, and himself. With the magical enhancements to their bodies, they even cut through chainmail without issue. Still, he was feeling a definite drain on his magic. In the beginning he had been sure that there would only be a few of them, but they didn’t seem to stop. Arkin was using his magic to fortify their bodies from injury, so if a major vein was cut, the bleeding would stop instantly. Sasha was managing the whole thing from a distance, tapping into their minds and using logic to decide the best amount of energy to be used and where.
Suddenly, on the other side of the clearing an Iumenta stepped into view, and Legon felt his body go cold. Even with magic helping them he wasn’t sure they could stop and Iumenta. What if it was a Venefica? He felt Arkin’s emotions boil up in the connection.
Sasha was shooting as fast as she could. He felt more emotions, but this time from Kovos. They were ones of finality and sorrow. His best friend stepped in the path of the Iumenta, slashing hard at him. He was no match, but Legon and Arkin both started dumping copious amounts of magic into Kovos, who was fighting as hard as he could. He was starting to acquire minor nicks and cuts but didn’t seem to care. The Iumenta was backing away. Kovos was winning!
Still more and more men entered the area. Their camp must be somewhere nearby. Legon could only see one way out. It was going to knock him out, but it was their only hope. He felt magic building in him and also sensed Sasha’s apprehension. The spell was simple, really; it was just going to shred twenty or so men in the area. In the pause Arkin could help Kovos and kill the Iumenta. If they were lucky, when others arrived to see so many of their own dead and a slain Iumenta, they wouldn’t pursue.
He felt the magic hit a point that it hadn’t ever reached before, even more than the other day when blocking the dragon. He released the spell, pointing the palm of his hand at the rushing soldiers. Time stopped in that instant. He saw an orb of lavender magic form in his hand and start to leave. It was size of his head and tear-shaped. The tear was a translucent purple with bright veins of lilac glowing around it. The smaller end stayed connected to his palm. He’d never seen magic like this before. It always had moved so fast; this was beautiful. It continued to stretch, the tiny bit connected to him. Then, moving like water, it snapped back to him, covering his hand and moving up his arm.
He tried to scream as he felt his skin tear and bone shatter. His eyes were on fire. All he could see was magenta light. He felt all of his spells failing as Sasha franticly attempted to disconnect his mind from the others. The pain was unimaginable. He wanted to die. He tried to cry out, but time was going too slow and he couldn’t open his mouth. He opened his scorched eyes to see the smoke that must be his own body burning from the magic. He begged for mercy in his mind and felt something tugging at his consciousness. A deep voice told him that he was worthless, but that he would be made better. He remembered his dreams then, and felt for hope, felt for Sasha and her love. The smoke in front of his eyes cleared to reveal a massive wall of glittering diamonds. They where white and radiated light. A horizontal seam in the wall opened to reveal a violet blue eye the size of a shield.
Chapter Sixteen
Distance
“When people look at my sister, they often don’t see the pain of those early days, the days without comfort or solace; but I do, and I love her for them. Had she not had the strength to endure then, where would we be now?”
-Excerpts from the Diary of the Adopted Sister
Sasha frantically worked to disconnect Legon from the others. The moment the spell reverberated back on him she felt raw magic course down the connection and with it, pain. All of Legon’s spells failed simultaneously. She needed to disconnect him so that Arkin could adjust for being one Venefica less than before. She severed Sara’s connection, seeing her friend fall to the ground. Lastly she cut her own. She looked at where Legon was supposed to be, but all she saw was blinding lavender light. She covered her face with her arm and fell back. She hit the ground, causing the back of her head to buzz.
The light faded, and in front of her stood a figure that resembled her brother, but it couldn’t be. He was the same size as Legon with the same clothes and hair, but his skin seemed to have a slight glow to it. Or maybe it was the light. She looked to his ears, which were rounded before but now were tapered at the tops, and from the side his eyes looked slightly larger and more almond shaped. More . . . Elven.
She marveled at the Elf Legon standing in front of her. Perhaps it was the sound of men screaming ‘Elf!’ that made her look. She didn’t know. She turned to look at Kovos and the Iumenta, who both stood stalk still, mouths gaping. Then, at the same time, they seemed to realize that there was no longer magic protecting Kovos. He slashed out at the Iumenta, who caught the blade with a flick. She saw Kovos’ muscles twitch with magic as Legon reestablished the connection with him, but too late. She could only watch in horror as the Iumenta’s other fenrra came across Kovos at his neck. Time ceased as Kovos’ head separated from his body as he fell to the ground.
* * * * *
Keither watched in horror as his brother’s body fell to the earth. Pain erupted from his knees as he hit the ground himself. Legon cut a man in half and was now on the Iumenta, but the outcome of their fight did not matter.
The Elf and Iumenta were flitting around the clearing at amazing speeds, the fenrra just a shiny blur. A steady spattering of blood was coming from the fenrra, not from fresh wounds, but from the blood of the slain now being flung off by the tremendous speed at which they were being swung.
His brother was dead. He saw the head roll away from his body which still held that ridiculous sword in a limp hand. He felt hot tears rolling down his cheeks and he was aware that his throat hurt. He was screaming himself hoarse, but he didn’t hear the sound. Sara and Sasha were clinging to him, trying to drag him back to the horses. Arkin was attempting to clear a path as the two non-humans fought, pushing themselves to kill the other. Keither hoped they did it. He hoped that Legon would kill the bastard.
A knife flew by him, nicking Sara’s arm and causing her to yelp. He heard that sound. He looked at Sara’s arm now with blood running down it. He looked at his brother, the one who had protected him his whole life, who had tried to make him a man. The one that would never let bad things happen to good people. He had proved that with Sasha. Rage filled Keither. Rage at what he had been through, what Sara had been made into, and what the Iumenta had taken from all of them. His hand was still on the cleaver and he gripped it with white knuckles. Now the scream was not that of loss but of a terrible drive to stop those that had hurt the people he loved. To kill all of those that murdered in the name of the Queen.
Sara let go of his arm, and Keither ran forward, raising the cleaver. One of the morons looked at him coming and smiled, thinking he was going to get an easy kill off of this fat kid. Fat he may have been, but under that fat was the muscle that carried it all. The man attempted to block with a flimsy metal shield. The cleaver dented it and the man’s arm gave way. Again and again the cleaver came down. The shield was a wreck of what it once was. Again the cleaver came down, removing the pathetic hunk of metal from its owner. Now the look of amusement was replaced with one of terror. The cleaver came down again, hitting at the base of the man’s neck, crunching and slurping as it came out.
Another man was at his side raising his own weapon. Keither jerked the blade out of one and hit the other in the ribs, dropping the screaming man to the ground. This time the blade was stuck, but no matter. He was next to his brother’s body. He reached down and grabbed the sword with the ridiculous flames on it, but they weren’t ridiculous to him anymore. Now he understood, now he saw them for that they were. Arms grabbed around him and he saw Arkin pulling him to the horses.
“The bastard is using magic!” he thought. A
rkin pushed and pulled him to the horses, but he resisted. Finally, the look on Sara’s face made him reluctantly get on.
* * * * *
Legon was now very aware that he was no longer human. He saw his surroundings in sharp clarity. Colors were more vibrant, minute details in the world were now clear. He would have continued his appraisal of the world if it weren’t for his current situation. He was also aware that his spells had stopped when he had changed. His magical power should have been drained, but it was far from tapped out. He could feel it in every fiber of himself. He saw Kovos and an Iumenta, and with that sight clarity was restored. He tried to fortify Kovos…too late. He saw the tip of the blade passing along the back of Kovos’ neck as the rest of it removed his head. As Kovos fell, Legon’s eyes met with yellow ones and an ancient bloodlust filled him. He went to move to the Iumenta, and a soldier stepped in front of him.
Legon slashed hard with the fenrra, cutting the man in half at the waist, the blade passing through like butter. He sidestepped the organs splattering on the ground and moved to the Iumenta, who in turn was coming at him. The Iumenta seemed to move slower to him now. He realized instantly that Elves were faster. Both lashed out at each other. The Iumenta parried with his left fenrra, as did Legon. The sound of the metal clanging was incredible, but his ears were stronger now; the clanging didn’t bother him. They began to stab and spin, leaping from side to side, sometimes jumping to low branches and then over their opponent. He never knew that he could move like this, but even so his new physical abilities did not give him an edge.
The Iumenta was a match to him in everything but strength. Legon was stronger, but he was larger too, so no surprise there. Legon poured magic into himself, trying to give him an edge. Still, no matter how fast or strong he was, the thing in front of him had hundreds of years of experience on him. He was losing ground and fast. He was aware of Arkin in his head telling him it was time to go, but the Iumenta was not going to let him go without a fight. An idea came to him then, one that he should have had a while ago. He shot a bolt of magic at the Iumenta’s feet, making a stone explode. His opponent flinched and backed away, and Legon slashed across his chest. The tip on the fenrra grazed him but nothing more. The Iumenta backed away further, ordering his men to rush forward. Legon crossed the clearing in a few steps. He couldn’t help but think how handy being an Elf could be. He jumped on to Phantom and turned away from the clearing.