Chapter 19
They spread weapons out under the pergola, where they'd shared meals. Bows, guns, knives, and magical vials and bottles.
The plan was simple, straightforward, and brutal.
Eren had drawn it out with some of her paper. It reminded her of the football plays coaches outlined, which she didn't understand at all.
"Positioned here, between the seawall and the house, we draw them in. We stay in the open as long as we can," Eren added. "Pulling in what she sends at us, taking them down. If and when we need to fall back, we use the grove for cover."
He glanced at Bertoldt.
"I'll have the vials placed, as you see. Here, here, here, along here. We'll drive them toward those positions. I'll set them off. And the bottles, in these locations, you'll remember to stay well clear of them. Mikasa and Armin can set them off with gunfire, but not," Bertoldt emphasized as he had before, "unless all are clear, at least ten feet. Twenty is better. The flash and power from those will obliterate any dark force, but if you're nearer than ten feet, it'll be blinding. Nearer than that? You could be burned, and seriously."
"We get it, Hoover, big boom, big power." Mikasa continued to check ammo. "We'll keep our distance."
"Be sure of it. Under the cover of the flashes, I'll change my position, and go to the high cliff above the canal."
"We," Annie corrected.
"I've explained what I'll call there, what I'll loose. It comes from me. I can withstand it. As with what's in the bottles, you'll need to be well clear."
Annie merely took the sketch out of her book, laid it out. "I'm there. I'm meant to be. If we question that, we question everything."
"She's right, man." Armin belted on his holster. "I know it's tough, but she's right. You've got to take her up with you. We'll cover you. Count on it. But she's got to go with you."
"It's her purpose." Gently, Historia stroked Bertoldt's arm. "Because you love, together you'll be stronger."
"I don't know about love, but I'm not going to question our resident seer. Sorry, Bertoldt," Mikasa added. "You don't screw with destiny."
"Your word. Your promise," Annie insisted. "Because you won't break it to me."
"I'll take you." The choice was no longer his. "My word."
"Now that that's settled," Mikasa put in, "let's make sure we kick her ass, and her ugly minions, good word, too."
"All over it." Armin slid a second knife in his boot.
"After we kick her ass," Historia began, and made Armin grin at how carefully she enunciated the phrase, "we go here." She looked at Annie's painting. "I know this place, and can swim there. I can get there quickly, and then Armin wouldn't have to take so many."
"Nobody's alone." Armin shook his head. "It's not safe. We go together."
"I can get a plane, but it's going to take a couple more days." Like Armin, Eren slipped a knife into his boot. "And I'm thinking getting gone sooner rather than later is the smart move."
"I've got a place nearly lined up. Friend of a cousin of a cousin's getting it set up. I might be able to get us a plane," Mikasa considered. "I can see if I've got some lines to tug."
"Let me try it." Armin shrugged. "If I can't do us all at once, I can take half of us, come back, take the other half. If it doesn't work, we can try for the plane."
"And the boat?" Mikasa asked, mostly because she got a kick out of seeing it sitting in the yard.
"No big deal there, but I'll wait until after midnight, after the area around it's mostly going to be clear of people."
"I'm not sure it matters." Annie sighted the bow. "We've had three ugly battles, and no one outside of us seems to have noticed a thing. I think what we're doing isn't making a ripple on reality."
"Maybe, but when I was sixteen and training, I dropped down into a strip club in Amsterdam. It caused a ripple. My coordinates were a little off, and well, being sixteen, naked women were always on my mind."
"I like clothes. They're pretty. But for swimming, naked it best."
Armin glanced at Historia, then carefully away. "Okay, now that's on my mind."
"Set it aside, pal. I for one don't want to drop into a strip joint. Sun's setting," Mikasa added.
And a storm's coming, Annie thought.
With the weapons handed out, they brought the rest of their belongings down. If they had to retreat, they'd count on Armin, and leave anything behind he couldn't transport.
They ate, for fuel rather than hunger, as the edginess of waiting overwhelmed everything else.
As the clock ticked toward midnight, Annie stood.
"What is it?" Bertoldt demanded. "What do you see?"
"Hear. I can hear her calling to them. Singing to them. She's gathering."
"Let's saddle up." When Mikasa rose, Historia laid a hand on the dog's head.
"Apollo. We should shut him inside, safe."
"He'll just bust out. I'll keep an eye on him."
Strange, Annie thought as they moved into positions, two by two on the verdant green lawn, that she could feel so much dread and so much relief at the same time.
The combination left little room for fear. The Fire Star was safe, beyond Marley's reach, she thought. If they survived the night, they would begin the search for the next. If they didn't, someone else would pick up the quest.
She reached out, took Bertoldt's hand. "Whatever happens, I've had more in these two weeks than I ever had or thought to have."
"A ghra." He brought her hand to his lips with a kind of steely defiance. "There's more yet."
"They're coming." She released his hand to swing her bow into position.
They'd come before in swarms, in clouds, but they came now in a tidal wave that blacked out the stars and the light of the waning moon.
And the sound of them filled the world.
Bertoldt blasted light up, illuminating them, the sick yellow eyes and fanged teeth, the spread of razor-sharp wings. She thought it was like watching hell roll over the world. Then she shot her first bolt, and stopped thinking.
They fell like black, oily rain, screamed as they raked the air with claws that gleamed deadly in Bertoldt's conjured light.
Her world contracted into load, aim, shoot with blasts of gunfire echoing, the horrid sound of steel hacking gnarled flesh, the zing of light snapping from Historia's bracelets.
Bertoldt set off the first vial, and in its bloom of light that greasy blood splattered.
And still more came.
She held her ground, even as a thin fog flowed over the ground and hissed like snakes, she fought back-to-back with Bertoldt. But the fog bit at her boots, icy teeth, pushing her back.
"Stay close," Bertoldt shouted, and swept fire over the fog.
It screamed, and it burned.
When her quiver emptied, she used her knife, her fists, her feet to clear a path so she could grab up bloodied bolts and reload.
Another vial exploded, and again, and still more gushed from the black sky.
"It's now." Bertoldt grabbed her hand, then shouted for Mikasa to set off the first bottle. "Hold on," he told Annie, and wrapped his arm firmly around her waist.
It wasn't like flying, somehow she'd thought it would be. It was like riding a rocket, so hot, so fast, all blurred with speed.
Then she was on the promontory with him, as she'd been in her dreams.
"Stay behind me, or I swear I'll send you back." He pulled her against him. "Whatever happens, stay behind me." His mouth crushed down on hers in a kiss as full of heat as the flight. "I love you," he said, then turned to call the storm.
She thought she knew. She'd dreamed it, hadn't she? Again and again. But she hadn't known what he'd call, what he could rule, what he could risk.
Power shook the air, the ground, and the sea below as he lifted his arms.
"In this place, in this hour, I call upon all worlds of power. What you are, bring to me across the land, across the sea, to rise and rage with furious might and rid the world of this blight. Roar the thunder!"
It boomed like cannon fire.
"And with your voice rip them asunder. Hot blue flames of lightning spears."
It tore out of the sky, electric blue and blinding.
"To burn all darkness that appears.
"Whirl wind across their flight and send them spinning into the night. Pour the rain in white-hot flood and drown them in their own black blood."
She'd fallen to her knees, rocked by what he unleashed. The wind shrieked around her, tore at her clothes even as the wild rain plastered them to her skin.
Through the gale she could see flashes below, the bottles with their blind light exploding, the slashing lights, then sudden strikes of lightning.
And hundreds, perhaps thousands of those winged bodies spinning, tumbling, falling with screams that rang in her ears.
And yes, he was the storm. He burned as blue and hot as the lightning he called, arms raised high, that wild light flaming from his fingertips.
On a peal of laughter, she batted a spear of lightning aside, grabbed another and hoisted it like a lance.
"Do you think your puny powers can stop me?" Her voice boomed, like the thunder. The taste of triumph iced into fear. "I am a god. I rule the dark, and your light is nothing but a dying flame against my power. I will drink your blood, sorcerer, and suck the seer's mind empty."
She glanced down when the light exploded below.
"And when I'm done, I'll cut the others to pieces for my hounds to feast on. Give me the star, and live."
His answer was to fling another blue bolt, one that singed the scales of the beast she rode. It shrieked and reared up in pain.
"Then die, and when I feed on you, I'll simply take what's mine."
The lightning turned black in her hand. When she shot it toward Bertoldt, Annie cried out, the sound smothered by the storm. He pushed a wall of light against it, and the clash had even the rocks trembling.
It hurt him. She felt his pain, felt some of the power he wielded drain. One of those tongues slashed out, barely missed his heart. The effort to block it had him staggering.
"I can't hold her, Annie. I need to send you down. Tell Armin-"
"No!" On a sudden burst, she shoved to her feet. Though he burned against the dark, she flung her arms around him. "Take what I have, what I am. Take it, feel it. Use it. I love you. Feel it."
Annie threw herself open, poured everything she was out for him. She knew his power, the breadth and depth of it, and his courage, his fear, but only for her. Just as she knew Marley's contempt, knew what the god would say before the words followed her roar of laughter.
"Love? Only mortals bow to love. It has no power here."
You're wrong, Annie thought, and shut her eyes. It has all the power.
She felt it flood and flash through Bertoldt, clung to him even as she quaked from it. What he hurled out now exploded like the sun. The beast pawed the air as it tried to escape from it. With eyes gone mad, Marley tried to drive it forward, but the next blast had it crying out in shocked pain as it tumbled toward the sea.
Dazed, Annie's legs went to water, and she slid bonelessly to the ground. Overhead, the stars blazed back to life, and the moon sailed clear and white.
When Bertoldt dropped down beside her, power still shimmered around him.
"I'm all right." She groped for his hand, and what they'd made together sang along her skin. "Just need to... Get my breath back. You hurt her. She's gone. You hurt her."
"We." He pulled her up, cradled her, pressed his lips to her cheeks, her temples, her mouth. "We. You were right, all along, faidh. I needed you here. I would have failed without you with me."
"The others. We need to see if anyone's hurt."
"Just hold on to me."
She linked her arms around his neck. "I will. You can count on it."
Blood spread like black shadows on the ground, splashed like dirty rain on blooms and blossoms. The scent of it, of sweat, of scorched grass hung in the air. But everyone Annie cared about stood, battered, but alive.
Mikasa, her hand resting on Apollo's head, holstered her gun. "Was she riding a freaking Cerberus? Three-headed hellhound?" she elaborated.
"She was, or her own bastardized version of one." Bertoldt stepped to her, laid a hand on her cheek, on the angry red burns that scored down it and over her throat. "You didn't keep back far enough."
"Tell me about it. Your nuclear holocaust shot me back a good twenty feet. I'm not overly vain, okay, maybe I am. Either way, I'm hoping you can fix it. Hurts like a bitch," she began, then let out a long breath. "Or did. Thanks."
He'd used what he could to ease the pain, and would do more once they'd regrouped. "I have potions that will make your face as pretty as ever."
"While you're at it, you could give me a little boost there. Anyway." She looked around the battlefield. "I'm hoping you can fix this, too. I'm not going to score us another place if we leave things like this."
"I'll see to it. Other injuries?" Bertoldt asked, though Annie was already examining a nasty bite on Historia's shoulder.
"Minor." Ere spoke up. "Once we lit those charges, they went down by the hundreds. And after she focused on you, what came at us was more a suicide squad to keep us busy."
"You kicked her ass." Armin pulled a bandanna out of his pocket, wrapped it around his bleeding forearm. "It was one hell of a show."
"Don't get cocky." Mikasa gave him a hip bump. "We'd better square everything away here, and get gone. Any sense she's coming back at us tonight, Ann?"
"She was shocked, and in pain. Enraged, but stunned Bertoldt could not only hold her back, but hurt her. No, I can't believe she'll come back tonight. I can't feel her at all now. She's closed in, closed off."
"Licking her wounds." Mikasa gave Apollo's head a rub. "Let's do that, too. I'm going to give Apollo some water, and a great big treat."
"I'm getting a beer." Eren headed off behind her.
"Still some of your bolts scattered around. I'll police as much brass as I can in the dark, find the bolts."
"I'll give you some light for that," Bertoldt told Armin. "We'll get this cleaned up after I've seen to Mikasa's burns. They seem to be the worst of it."
They turned as one at Eren's shout.
It bulleted out of the sky, wings spread, talons curled, straight at Mikasa. She reached for her gun, pivoted to shield the dog. Before she could clear her holster, Eren shoved her aside.
Though he drew his sword, the creature buried fang and claw into his chest before he could strike.
It screamed in triumph as he fell, as the hilt slipped from his lifeless hand.
As the others charged forward, Mikasa yanked the thing away from Eren with her bare hands, heaved it away. And drawing her gun with a hand sliced and gashed from its wings, emptied her clip into its body.
She dropped down beside Eren, uselessly pressed her hands on the tearing wounds on his chest.
"No, no, no, no! Get me some towels. We need to put pressure on this, stop the bleeding. Bertoldt, you have to do something."
"Ah, God." Like her, Bertoldt knelt by the body. "Ah, God," he said again. "It's too late. He's gone."
"Then bring him back!"
"That's beyond my power." Gently Bertoldt touched her arm, but she yanked away. "I can't turn death, darling."
Weeping, Historia sat, cradled Eren's head in her lap, stroked his hair. "Can we do nothing? Armin, take us back, even a few minutes, before..."
"Yes!" Eyes full of tears and rage, Mikasa jerked up her head. "Do it. Do it now."
"I can't." He crouched, and though she shoved against him, wrapped his arms around Mikasa. "Death can't be changed. If I took us back, it would happen again, no matter what we did. I can't."
"That's bullshit. This is bullshit. He's not supposed to be dead." She looked at Annie now, who stood, tears gleaming on her cheeks. "It's not right."
"I don't know. I can't see. I...only know we all risk our lives for this. But-"
She broke off, shaking her head. She felt something, but didn't understand it. Struggling to, she knelt beside Bertoldt, took Eren's limp hand in hers.
"No one dies for me. We try something, anything, goddamn it, before it's too late." Mikasa shoved Armin aside, once again pressed her hands on Eren's chest. "She doesn't get to take one of us. She doesn't get to win."
There was a movement, a ripple, under her hands. Eren drew in a deep, harsh deep.
"He's alive!" On a stunned sob, Mikasa grabbed Bertoldt's hand, pressed it to the wound. "Do something."
"He doesn't need to," Annie murmured as life, and pain, flickered back into Eren's eyes.
"Christ," he said in a voice as raw as his breath. "Stop shouting, and get all this bloody weight off my chest. It's bad enough."
"You were dead, man." Armin hunkered back on his heels while Historia pressed a weeping kiss to Eren's head. "As in doornail. That's no shit. Is this a zombie thing? Because I sure as hell don't want to shoot you in the head."
"Don't be an idiot." On another painful breath, Eren pushed up to his elbows. The deep and vicious wound on his chest began, or continued, to heal.
"Glad you're back, that's pure truth. Not a vampire," Armin speculated. "You spend plenty of time in the sun."
"You're an entertaining man, Armin," Eren shuddered, set his teeth.
"There's pain. I can help there."
Eren shook his head at Bertoldt. "It's part of it. Has to be. It'll pass. Where's my sword?"
"I've got it." When he sat up, Mikasa put it in his hand. "I appreciate the save, but why aren't you dead?"
When he looked at her, Mikasa hastily swiped tears from her face.
"I wouldn't have been, briefly, if you'd reacted quicker."
"You blocked me, Jaeger, shoved me before I could draw and fire. If-"
"You can't die," Annie spoke quietly. "I'm sorry, but I was trying to find a way, some way to help, and when you were...between?" she suggested. "You were so open, and it just flowed out and into me. You can't be killed."
"I'm so glad!" Historia beamed at him. "I'll get you a beer."
"You're a sweetheart, but maybe we can take this inside. In case there are any other stragglers. Not dying hurts like a motherfucker, and I'd like to avoid a second round tonight."
Bertoldt rose, offered a hand to help Eren to his feet. "An Immortal Spell. It's forbidden," Bertoldt began.
"Don't blame me. I'm no witch. You want the story, I'll give it to you. But I want that beer."
"You need a fresh shirt," Annie pointed out.
Eren looked down at the blood and gore staining his. "Yeah. I'll get one."
"I need my kit, and something for those burns," he said to Mikasa. "And now your hands. We'll have the story, and then it's best if we clean the grounds. And go."
"Fresh shirt, medical supplies, beer, clean-up. Check. I'm going to touch base with my contact, nail down just where we're going."
Within minutes, they gathered in the kitchen, with Bertoldt tending Mikasa's wounds.
"How'd you cut up your hands?" Eren asked her.
"She pulled that thing off you with them," Armin told him. "Just yanked it out, then shot the hell out of it."
Over a long sip of beer, Eren studied her. "Looks like we're even then."
"Since you can't die, yeah, I'd say we're even. So let's hear why."
"A witch. Being magical doesn't stop insanity. She was mad. She would lure young men, use them, then kill them for sport."
"A black widow witch," Mikasa said.
"One of the young men was my brother. Barely twelve when she took him."
Instinctively, Historia wrapped her arms around him. "I'm so sorry."
"I hunted her. That was my purpose, my only purpose. To save him, destroy her. I bargained with an alchemist, gave him all I had. He created the sword, to end her. When I found her, my brother was near death, beyond the saving. Twelve, and dying in my arms, he who had never harmed a soul. My grief was beyond even my rage. He begged me to kill him, and I couldn't. I couldn't do what he asked of me. That is a regret I can never undo. So he died in agony while I grieved.
"She smelled it, that grief. Savored it. I fought her, blind with it, beyond feeling that rage, certainly beyond fear. When she knew I would end her, she used it, and cursed me with the spell. I would watch everyone I loved die. I would see them bleed and fall in battle, suffer from disease, wither and fall of old age. I would never know the release of death, but only the death of all I touched."
He polished off the beer, pushed the bottle aside. "I took her head with the sword, and bore my brother's body home, to his mother's weeping. He was the youngest of us, and I the oldest. But I hadn't saved him, I hadn't given him what he asked of me at his end. And the curse rooted in me."
"When was this?" Bertoldt asked him.
"In the year 1683."
"Man, you're old." Even as he said it lightly, Armin put a hand on Eren's shoulder, squeezed "Sorry about your brother."
"You would regret it if you'd given him what he asked," Historia said. "You would carry that as you carry the regret of not doing so. It wasn't a battle you could win."
"It's done, and long ago." He looked over at Annie. "You think I should've told you this before. You're the first I've been with, fought with, on this quest. The habit of secrecy is hard to break. I can tell you that after tonight, after the battle, I'd decided to break that habit and tell you, as I've told you now. I don't blame you for not believing that."
"I do believe it." She let out a sigh. "And now, we know, each of us, who we are, and what we have. The real unity will come from that. I believe that, too."
"Can we take a minute?" Armin asked. "To just lay this out. We've got a witch, a seer, a werewolf, I like that word, okay?" he said with a laugh before Mikasa could growl at him. "A mermaid, an immortal, and a time and space traveler. Think about it. We're like the freaking Avengers. That bitch goddess is going to lose, big time."
"On that really excellent note-" Mikasa handed him a piece of paper. "The coordinates for our digs in Capri. Why don't we do what we have to do, get that boat out of here, get the jeep back, clean up our mess, and head out for round two?"
"All about it, and you know what? It's damn well going to work. We've got it going," Armin decided. "We'll close up shop. Next stop, Capri."
They saw to the practicalities, the duties.
In the deep night with its swimming moon, Annie looked out one last time over the sea. Bertoldt took her hand, lifted it to his lips on a way she knew would always make her smile.
"We'll come back one day, as you said."
"I'd like that. I'd like to stand on the promontory with you again, under the stars, on a warm summer night when everything's quiet, and as far as we can see, there's peace."
"You're my light, Annie. My star and my peace." He touched his lips to hers. "Are you ready?"
"I am. For everything."
Together they went down to the terrace to join the others.
"Apollo's snoring inside. The neighbor's coming to take care of him first thing in the morning, feed the cluckers." Mikasa glanced at her watch. "Just a couple hours now. I'm going to miss that dog."
"Dawn's close. If we're going to do this," Eren said, "we should do it now."
"Bring it in, everybody." Armin gestured for them to move closer. "Grab hands and hold on to your hats. This is going to be a hell of a ride."
Annie looked up into Bertoldt's face, laughed.
And it was a hell of a ride.
In her cave, Marley seethed. She'd eased her pain, but no matter how much blood, how much potion, how much will, the streak of gray remained snaking through her dark hair. Lines fanned out from her eyes and mouth.
She broke another mirror, and cursed. And her tears ran like blood down her face.
They would pay for marring her beauty. They would pay for defying her. No matter what world they ran to, no matter what magics they devised, she would follow, she would destroy.
She would not rest until the stars shone only for her.
Picking up her globe, she ran a hand over it. There were ways, many ways. She had only to choose another.
As she looked, as she watched, she smiled. And began to see, began to plot. Began to laugh.
And there it is. Thank the gods! Hope you're ready for Book 2. I don't own anything
