Part 18

The battle had persisted till the afternoon; the sun was red like the blood-stained ground as it began to descend behind the horizon. Persha watched everything from the window of her room. It was utter chaos outside and from what she saw; Malacca was in a dangerous position. The force of Suldam was significantly lessened by the earlier actions of Paris and Rhozen but still they were vastly outnumbered. A number of Malacca's allies had fallen even before the wars had started, Persha speculated that it was Suldam's doing as well, and the few who had not were only contacted the day before and would take time before they could arrive. Suldam on the other hand had all their allies with them, though no other standard aside from the silver leash and collar was shown, the number of men they had outside was much too large for any one guild to occupy.

Persha ached to fight and help turn the tide for Malacca but she wasn't permitted to leave her room. Adella had stationed a knight and a wizard, both female, outside her door to guard her. She made it a point that they were female saying that if men were left to guard her, their egos would get in the way and they would sheep-headedly try to apprehend her themselves, get knocked out in the process, and they would never know that she had escaped until it was too late. Persha felt like a common criminal locked up in a dungeon for crimes she did not commit.

There was a knock on the door and Maharet came in "Are you okay Persha?" she asked tilting her head to the side like she always did when she asked questions. Persha nodded apprehensively before she spoke "I thought you were trying to telepathically break into Suldam's guild link?" she asked

"I was, but their own telepaths can match our every move, some of our own have begun have had nose bleeds or fainted from the strain of it all." She brushed her green hair away from her face and Persha noticed that Maharet didn't wear her engagement ring. "You can wear your ring Maharet, you don't have to take it off for me." She told the sage

Maharet's eyes lowered and she fingered her pocket, no doubt wear she kept her ring. After a few second she took it out and wore it on her finger. Her expression was washed with guilt as she did. "I'm truly sorry Persha," she said.

Persha closed her eyes trying to hold back her tears, she knew why her friend had kept the ring from her- it would remind her of Jared. Flash backs flooded into her mind once she saw the ring come out of Maharet's pocket.

Jared stood in the forest held back by the two Suldam knights; Ituralde had her by the wrist with a look in his eyes that shouted spiting murder. Then what happened after Persha didn't know. Jared had saved her, she remembered him tackling Ituralde to the ground then calling to her to run away. She ran without thought, after Ituralde's agonizing revelation about Jared she couldn't even move, but she heard Jared's voice and followed what he said, he ran and left the love of her life, who had just saved her, in the hands of the enemy.

Maharet suddenly let out a terrfying scream and snapped Persha back into reality. The sage screamed and clutched at her temples before she collapsed on the floor. The scream brought the guards to enter the room before Persha could run to her friend's side.

"What happened lieutenant?" asked the knight rushing beside Persha, who was already checking Maharet for signs of vitality. She checked the sage's heartbeat, it was eratic and her extremities twitched uncontrollably. Her nervous system had been attacked, no doubt telepathically, through the link. Somehow Suldam had found a way to amplify their telepath's powers. "Quick, bring her to Abenander or Adella!" ordered Persha. The knight saluted and lifted Maharet over her shoulder and exited the room with the wizard trailing behind her.

Before they even disappeared behind the door frame the entire guild castle shook and a huge bolt of lightning crashed down on the outer walls. The window in Persha's room was shattered by the resulting flux of air that the lightning heated to over-expansion. It immediately occurred to Persha that Maharet wasn't the only one who was so deeply connected to the guild link, a number of other sages maintaining the land protectors most definitely met the same fate as Maharet, and now that they were unconscious the land protectors would begin dissipating. If Rhozen was one of those stationed to the telepathic brigade, there would be a high chance he would be since he was the most powerful telepath in the guild. Malacca would be severely crippled in the field of battle- that is if she still didn't fight. Persha looked outside her door to see that the knight and wizard were only beginning to regain themselves, Persha stood up and jumped out of the previously shattered window. Her hair and the sheer silk shawls of her dancer's garb whipped above her as she descended four stories down from the window of her room. People began to notice her; ally and enemy alike; she was a beacon to her friends and a warning to her enemies. She was going to war.

Thoughts began to stream across her head again but she pushed them away, there was only one thing she could allow to cross her mind. "Forth into war the cavalry charges, I am a Red Stallion!"

She was a few meters above the ground, if she didn't do anything to save herself she would surely die. Just when she was about to fall to her death she reached for her rapture rose and flicked her wrist. The whip flew upwards with such precision that it seemed that it was an extension of Persha's person. The whip wrapped around a neck of a gargoyle allowing Persha to swing safely down to the ground. She flicked her wrist again and the whip released from the gargoyle and coiled back into her grasp ready to be used.

The first Suldam emerged from the great breach in the wall, he was an assassin. He turned the corner of the wall but before he could cross into the caste Persha lashed her whip. The thorn encrusted whip coiled around the assassin's face, its thorns sinking into his skull. Persha pulled the whip back making the assassin's neck turn at high speed and break. The Suldam guildsmen who saw what Persha did to the assassin were hesitant at first, but then they thought that they would be able to overwhelm her by attacking all at once.

Persha cracked her whip at the floor, these ingrates were underestimating her again- it had happened the last guild wars and those who made that mistake paid for it with their lives. Persha was prepared to fight to the death to protect her guild, until her last breath she would hold back whoever tried to enter this breach.