8
A/N: Here we go. The Next chapter. Thank you Onyx and S for the help in creating the scenes to follow. I must warn you readers. This does get a bit descriptive. If we offend anyone, out apologies.
After breakfast, Kate had been sent back to her room to be locked away once again. Although the dark room had a claustrophobic feel to it, she dared not open the curtains on the window. She knew she was on the third floor and she knew she hated heights with a passion. With nothing to occupy her mind, she settled in the crimson velvet chair and wondered what was going to happen. Certainly, Onyx would meet those men on the battlefield, but how would it turn out? For the first time in days, an honest laugh escaped her: Onyx will surely win the day. Kate had seen Onyx in the sparring ring, fighting through broken bones and bloody gashes. No matter what happened to her, Onyx would take care of Troy and his soldiers.
At that moment, a dark thought entered her head again, one she had not been able to shake since her capture. What if, for some reason, Kate lost her life in this mess? The thought was horrifying. If she was killed, what would happen to Neo? Pain like she had never felt lanced through her heart. She knew without a doubt that her death would destroy the swordsman. He would break down completely, and likely never recover. Onyx would mourn silently, invisibly, expressing her grief in rare fits of fury. Sarah would grieve as though she had lost a sister, as the two were indeed very close. And Veronique? It would mean the dark woman would have lost half of her soul. She and Kate were bonded – they had been more than fifteen years now. Briefly, Kate wondered if Veronique would even survive with her gone. Then she shook her head violently and scrambled from her chair, ridding her mind of thoughts of death.
She paced the room for a few moments, trying to think of something else, anything else. Nothing was forthcoming, but a faint tickle on the edge of her mind made her pause in mid-step. Fear of heights or not, something possessed her to peak out the window. Drawing aside the heavy velvet curtains, she sucked in a horrified breath. Three stories below her, a shifting sea of horses and men filled the courtyard. Supplies were being bundled, and even from her high room, she could hear the clatter-jangle of tack being moved and weapons tested.
"Oh, no.."
What she was seeing so far below was the advanced force. The soldiers were preparing to ride.
Lieutenant Jacobs stared at the swarming mass of men and horses filling the courtyard. Two hundred unranked, uneducated and untested soldiers who thought that their king was the be-all and end-all of justice and integrity. Two hundred absolute fools, under the command of ten sergeants just as foolish as the soldiers they commanded. And, if the rumors were true, he was leading them all into a battle to their deaths.
The two mage-daughters of the dead houses were coming for them. Perhaps, when they met, death would release him from service to the King.
Onyx and the others moved steadily onward as the sun began to rise. The horses, surprisingly refreshed from their brief rest, moved at a steady canter, barely out of breath. Sarah, sitting comfortably in her deep saddle, was staring at the bleak landscape around them, a distant expression on her face.
"Something wrong, Hikari?" Onyx asked, just loud enough to be heard over the rhythmic squeak of the tack and the noise of hoofbeats.
The girl glanced sharply towards her, and for the briefest of seconds Onyx felt the full impact of the silver-green gaze. In a rush, the memory of the first time she had seen that gaze – out of a starvation-thin face streaked with blood and soot, came back to her, and she shuddered at the recollection.
"Nothing's wrong," the girl answered, not noticing her dark half's odd behavior. "I'm just trying to remember this world, having been a part of it, and I don't remember it at all."
"I shouldn't think you would," Onyx answered, frowning. "You were only five when we found you."
When the Yami did not elaborate, Sarah frowned as well. "Tell me."
"Tell you?" Onyx echoed. "Tell you what?"
"About finding us, Katie and myself! I know your past now, I wish to know my own as well."
"Some memories are best left forgotten, Hikari." Onyx pushed her horse forward, hoping desperately to escape the topic of discussion. The memory of the day she and Veronique had found the two girls was still brutally crystal-clear in her mind, and like her own past, it was something she preferred to forget.
Sarah, however, was nothing if not persistent. Urging her own horse forward, she rode the black stallion in front of Onyx's mount, forcing the Yami to slow her own horse to pace.
"No games, Onyx. Tell me about the day you found us."
The dark woman drew a deep breath and exhaled slowly, slumping back in her saddle as her horse continued on at a rolling canter. "As you wish, Hikari. But you must understand, it is not a pleasant memory. Damus can tell you as well," she added, nodding to her other side, were the mage rode silently, listening to the conversation.
"I understand. Go on."
"Very well… Veronique and I, along with Damus and Mirai, were living like gypsies in the forests of this land. Our houses had long since fallen, and now we simply wandered from place to place, content to find food and supplies, not having any true home. Damus had joined with us barely two weeks before – he was the first monster to join us."
Sarah turned in her saddle to glance at the mage, but he kept his gaze resolutely on the road ahead.
"Veronique, Damus and I, along with our mounts and a couple of pack horses, were skirting the edge of a village when we smelled the reek of burned flesh on the air."
"Flesh?" echoed Sarah, utterly bewildered.
"Human flesh," Damus clarified, his face grim. "It was a witch burning."
Sarah looked slightly ill, but Onyx waved the mage to silence and continued. "We heard a sound from a small cave near the boarder of the town," she continued, utterly calm. "At first we dismissed it as a wild animal, but after a short time we realized it was a human voice."
"Who's?"
"Yours, actually," the dark woman replied. "Veronique and I went into the cave to investigate and found you and Katie there, both bloody, both wounded. Katie was scarcely alive. Someone had struck her in the small of the back with a shovel."
"That scar – that's where she got it?"
Onyx nodded faintly. "For several weeks, we weren't certain she would regain the use of her legs. You, on the other hand, were very much awake, though wounded, and holding a small dagger." Onyx grinned briefly, one of her overlong canines flashing white against her red lips, then vanishing again as she sobered.
"Finding the two of you, two young children cast out by people too fearful to accept you, reminded Veronique and I of our pasts, and reawoke in us the desire to have a true home. Somewhere there would be no war, and no prejudice. A place where we could be free." There was a nostalgic smile on her face when she finished, but Sarah's thoughts were occupied.
"Does Katie know about all that?"
"No," Onyx answered quietly. "It never came up. She still carries the scar, as you know, but Veronique believes that some things are best left forgotten. She was only four at the time – I doubt she recalls anything about it."
Sarah nodded, deep in thought, then asked the question that weighed most heavily on her mind. "Onyx, why were we thrown from our town as children?"
The Yami glanced back at her, leaning back in her saddle as Masabi half-slid down a gravelly slope. "For the same reason we were, of course. You had majic."
With that, she urged her horse forward onto level ground and into a gallop, leaving a stunned Sarah coughing in her wake.
Silently, Jacobs motioned the twenty sergeants forward. Each one, tense and waiting on his horse, jostled to get closer to him; he stilled them all with a glare. Using silent motions of his hand, he directed each man to move his squads into ambush positions around the small valley. Four squads slightly east. Two slightly west, as there was a rocky hillside in that direction that would give them an advantage. Two more further west and higher up, so that they could come in from behind and box in the witch-woman's troops when they came.
The remaining two squads, with Jacobs at their head, fell back slightly to either side of the roadway, prepared to ambush. There was nothing left to do but wait.
"We haven't got time to wait!" Sarah, incensed, flapped her hand down hard against her sword hilt. The sudden impact caused the tip of the scabbard to swing upwards, striking Trinity in the hip. The stallion gave an indignant snort and kicked out with one hind leg, forcing Cadiban, Celtos' stallion, to leap aside.
"Sorry, Trinity. Onyx - "
Deeply involved in scanning the terrain, Onyx did not answer, but quietly rolled up the map she'd been holding and tucked it back in her saddlebag. "To arms, everyone. Dian, Amystria, you two remain here. Stera, Silvis, stay with them."
The monsters obeyed instantly, and the air thrummed softly with the sound of bowstrings being plucked and swords drawn. Sarah, balancing her crossbow on her hip, glared at her darker half.
"Where are we, Onyx?"
The Yami casually drew her own sword, swinging it gently in one hand, then switching it to the other, remembering it's weight and balance. "Oh, a couple of hours from the castle." Sliding the sword away again, she raised her hand, waving the group into a swift canter. "Harun, get airborn!"
The Harpy's Brother took of in a swirling rush of wind; his horse, well-trained, continued to move with the rest, not breaking stride.
"Onyx, what are we riding into? An ambush?"
"Indeed. About two hundred men, if Katie's information is correct."
Behind them, Susa let a wicked grin overtake his face, blue-white lightening crackling around him. "Those soldiers don't stand a chance."
The soldier on watch didn't have time to cry out. A single arrow, precisely shot, struck him in the left eye. He was dead before he struck the ground. Jacobs snapped his head up, a cold horror washing over him as he saw the dark-shadowed figures approaching them. At their head was a woman in bright armor, wielding a ruby-hilted sword, her eyes blazing like emerald fire. He saw her mouth move, uttering a single command, perhaps – and then they attacked.
The hum of Celtos' bow string was still audible as Onyx reined her horse in, gazing dispassionately at the poorly-hidden men to either side of the road. "Spare their horses," she ordered flatly, and Damus shook his head, bemused. Onyx raised her sword above her head, the sun flaring brilliant on it's blade, and they attacked.
All around Jacobs, men were screaming. Some purple-clad demon in a man's form was blasting black lightening from his palms, scorching through the soldier's chests, melting their armor, burning their faces to unrecognizable degrees. One woman, a girl really, was wielding a crossbow with surprising skill, striking down his men as quickly as they could rise. A golden-haired male fought at her side, deflecting arrows with his sword, his inhumanly beautiful face terrible in the bloody sunlight.
One of the sergeants leapt from beside Jacobs, ignoring his horse, and charged into the fray on foot – as though he thought that would help him! A female warrior struck him down before he got two paces, with a diamond blade through his throat. The ground beneath their feet was soaked with blood now, Jacobs realized, watching with horror as the brown earth turned red. Half his force was reduced to corpses. He heard a scream from beside him and turned, then leapt backwards in horror. One of his soldiers was writing on the ground, shrieking in agony. A man, if it could be called a man, was standing over him, all glowing white eyes and white hair and white lightening flashing from his fingertips. Before Jacob's eyes, the flesh of the soldier blackened and burned, splitting open as his blood boiled, and finally his screaming ceased. And then the creature turned its gaze to Jacobs.
"Hello, Lieutenant," it rasped, a manic grin on its wild features. "Care to die?" Then a bolt of lightening struck Jacobs in the stomach, and all he could do was scream.
The battle was over swiftly. In less than half an hour, the ground was littered with the dead and dying remnants of the King's men. Not one had been spared injury, and most were already dead. Those who still clung to life would not hold it for long.
Onyx herself walked among the bloody bodies, searching for one in particular. She found him, lying on his back, between two corpses charred beyond recognition. He was still breathing, but it was shallow and harsh, and blood bubbled in his mouth with every exhalation. Up close, she could see that he was from one of the Noble Houses – his dark skin and hair marked him as it did her.
Gasping, Jacobs stared up at the woman. She was very tall, with an icy, noble face. Her eyes were hard as granite, but he saw agony beneath them. Green eyes, set into a dark face like his own. Some of her black hair had come loose from it's braid, and he could see blood splashed into it.
Weakly, he lifted one arm to salute her. "Hail… cousin," he whispered, blood bubbling from his mouth. Pity flickered once on her cold features, and she dropped to one knee beside him.
"Hail, cousin," she returned, saluting him with far more grace than he'd displayed.
"You are… the mage daughter… of the stories?"
A slow nod. "I was Victorianna, once, child of Horse."
"Jacobs… of Fox.." His breath was coming in harder and harder gasps now, and he raised one trembling, bloody hand to clasp hers. "I… am dying, Victorianna. I would ask the… the final mercy of you."
The dark woman hung her head. A single crystalline droplet splattered against his breastplate. He blinked once, and that crystal glitter was replaced by a watery silver gleam. Glancing down, he saw a gold-hilted dagger in her right hand.
"Go well into the next world, my cousin," she whispered, and the dagger flashed down.
"Where is she?" Damus, white-faced and frantic, reined Marshilo in next to Trinity. The silver-maned stallion was frantic from the smell of blood; it was all Damus could do to keep him from bolting.
Sarah didn't need to ask who he meant. "She's over with the Lieutenant," the girl whispered, her eyes closed and her face white with pain. An arrow shaft protruded from the back of her knee – it had struck at the flex-point, where there was no armor. Damus, knowing that she was all right for the moment, twisted in his saddle to see around Sarah's mount. At the other end of the battlefield, he could see Onyx staggering to her feet, blood splashed across her breastplate and up her right arm.
"Rianna!" Damus shouted, waving to catch her attention. The woman looked up, raising her left hand in acknowledgement.
"Damus… Sa-chan," she answered wearily. Despite her obvious exhaustion, her voice was steady. "Have the least injured monsters go through the soldiers. Give the final mercy to whoever is left, and attend our wounded."
"And what will you be doing?" Sarah demanded, her eyes still closed as she tried to fight down pain.
Onyx ignored her, as she had a tendency to do, and began climbing the low hill towards a towering oak tree that shaded part of the battlefield. If one was riding from the castle, the oak was directly in your line of sight. Standing in front of the ancient tree, Onyx drew out her dagger and began cutting into the gnarled bark.
Sarah shook her head and reined Trinity around, drawing her sword as she did so. Damus dismounted his own skittish stallion, and began walking into the bloody field.
Within a few moment's of Onyx's order, the least-injured monsters were moving between the fallen enemy soldiers. Those that had survived the battle were given the only mercy left – their injuries were all mortal, all agonizing.
Still, and end to suffering seemed a weak excuse for driving a sword through the throat of a fallen man.
It took perhaps a half an hour to finish field-treating worst of the injuries sustained by Onyx's team. Not one of them had died, but all were bleeding from some wound or another. Celard cradled a broken arm. Neo had a gash on his temple that was raining blood into his eye. Damus, although he had not realized it at first, had a deep wound in his arm from an enemy sword. Gartic, knocked from his horse in a moment of distraction, had landed hard on his shoulder and hip, and was limping badly on his right leg. The other injures were little worse than this, but no better, either, and all in all, it was a very sore and bloody group of monsters that began mounting up to ride back to where they had left their medics.
"Are you going to attend to that arrow, Hikari?" Onyx, limping slightly herself, leaned against her horse as she walked.
"I… yeah." Curling her hand around the arrow's head, the girl clenched her teeth and yanked. The arrow came free with a horrible, wet sound, and a spurt of blood followed it. Exhaustion had depleted Sarah's energy so much that she could only heal the wound halfway, but it was still enough for her to ride back.
Neo, meanwhile, sat on his horse with his eyes closed, focused on sending a message through to Katie. We met the ambush. All of the soldiers are dead. We need to pull back and recover from our own injuries, but we're all right. We're coming for you, Kojika. I'll see you soon.
As the group rode away from the bloodied field, Sarah glanced back over her shoulder at the trunk of the ancient oak. Carved deeply into that hard wood were two distinct symbols; the rampant stallion that was Onyx's crest, and below it, the head of a snarling wolf, the symbol of the girl they had yet to save.