Chapter 18 – The Battle and the Promise
Shocked doesn’t even begin to describe how I felt. Pure sick waves of fear and anger flowed through my body. I wanted to cry, scream, and throw things. And that didn’t come close to how Alye must’ve felt. Sitting in front of me, I could see her jaw drop and her hands go tight on Philipia’s spikes, nearly cutting her palms. The midget was practically giving off torrents of potent fury and betrayal. Without any preamble, she drew one of her swords and screamed, “AUBREY, YOU *censored*!!!!! I CAN’T BELIEVE I FREAKING KISSED YOU!!!”
I decided to save the “I told you so” for later. No point in getting decapitated.
At the opposite hill, Aubrey’s expression of disgust deepened and an ugly sneer melted his features into something horrible. With another blast from the horn, he quickly aligned up all his troops, four times the number we had. I didn’t know how we could possibly win this.
But suddenly, a commotion broke out from the rigid ranks of Aubrey’s soldiers, and with a sudden movement, two hundred of the mail-clad men broke rank and pounded away towards us, arms waving without weapons. One man was holding a white flag and I recognized him. He was the messenger who’d delivered Lord Delroy’s summons to war. As the two hundred guys ran up, Philipia gave a loud roar and I leaped off her back. “STOP right there! What do you want?”
“To join you!” the guy holding the flag of truce gasped out, recovering quickly from the dash across the snowy landscape.
What?
WHAT?
A gasp and whispers flitted through the crowd and several dozen of our women fighters ran forward, hugging some of the soldiers. Their husbands, apparently.
“But why?” I demanded.
“Because if we follow Aubrey and he defeats you,” one replied as he wrapped his arms around his wife, “our families will suffer even more than they do now. I will NOT let my children starve because I didn’t have the courage to stand up against Delroy.”
A loud cheer rose from our new recruits and I gave an evil grin to Aubrey, who I knew could see it and who knew exactly what was happening. His face was contorted with fury and he sounded the horn again. I turned and directed our new soldiers to stand in front of the sword-wielding villagers so they would have added protection. Then I faced the battlefield and waited for what was next.
With a piercing cry of rage, Aubrey kicked his horse into a rear and plunged down the field, leading his six hundred soldiers. We answered with a louder yell and held our ground. I heard Lunae giving sharp commands to our archers and the tightening of bowstrings. The villagers looked tense but wonderfully proud and strong. And before Aubrey’s forces could come any closer, Philipia flapped her wings and rose up into the air, hurtling towards the running men. With a massive roar, flames suddenly erupted from her mouth, melting the snow and burning everything the fire touched. A dozen men collapsed and started frantically beating the flames out, hard to do with their bulky armor. Philipia kept circling and spewing fire while I pelted the soldiers with bursts of blue, stunning several. The charge continued, however, and I turned my eyes to our forces. Lunae was racing along the line of bowmen/woman, and with a single sharp word, they loosed their strings and sent the sharp arrows flying. A curtain of flame from Selene shot up as the arrows soared, igniting the tips and making them several times more potent. Several soldiers stumbled into the snow and didn’t get back up.
I have to admit, that sight made me feel sick. I averted my eyes and just tried to stun as many soldiers as my magic to get. Still, our assaults weren’t stopping Aubrey’s soldiers from making progress towards the hill. As they gradually closed the gap, Philipia swooped down and spat a final blast of fire that stopped them for a few seconds so she could land in front of our ground forces. I swiveled in my seat and faced our recruits, who unflinchingly were waiting for the signal to charge.
“This is it!” I said softly. “This is the moment,” I added in a louder voice, “for us to get out from under Delroy’s thumb! We can do it!” A rousing shout followed. We have to.
Lunae drew her bowstring tight, a beautifully carved longbow, and shot an arrow lit by Selene towards the approaching soldiers. Redmond drew his sword, followed by every other villager and our new soldier recruits. Alye had both her swords high in the air, and we waited for only another half-second. And then we charged.
Philipia tore down the hill, hurling snow everywhere, and quickly turned to sweep more snow in the way of our enemies. Screaming villagers followed while those who had horses galloped swiftly towards our opponents. And with a crash and clang of cold steel, we met.
I leaped off Philipia’s back to give her more maneuverability and Alye followed, knocking off one mounted soldier and stealing his horse, which she happily charged around with, bashing her sword against several heads. Around me were the furious cries of villagers who let every fiber of anger out on Aubrey’s soldiers, and the snow was starting to change color. Philipia was striking out with her deadly black claws and long tail, flinging soldiers into the air like beanie babies.
Out of nowhere, a spear hurtled towards her leg. Thinking quickly, I flung out my staff and telekinetically seized the missile, tossing it to one of the nearby villagers. I was in a mosh pit of death. Whirling, I slammed my staff against one soldiers head and whipped back around to blast another one with blue magic. From the cries and yells surrounding me, we were making progress.
The soldiers may have had more professional training and better armor, but we had pure fury, rage, and a fire-breathing dragon. Quite frankly, there wasn’t much of a comparison. Looking around quickly, I saw Elspeth darting around the clogged field in her favorite form, a lioness, leaping onto soldiers and knocking them over or biting and clawing at those who tried to attack her. On the other side of the field, Selene was in full-blown ball of fire mode, swirling in flames and roasting anyone who came near. I resolved to stay away from that area.
Without warning, something exploded.
A burst of fire and snow sliced up and flung several people flying. I struggled to get up from the snow and ran to the nearest victim, one of our villagers. Matthew, I remembered. He was lying in the snow, staining it red, and I looked at his limbs. Oh god. Oh god, I was going to be sick.
Both of his legs were a burnt, bloody mess, looking like he’d stepped on a landmine. I screamed for Philipia and she swooped over, seizing the groaning Matthew in her claws and dumping him at the top of our hill, where Violet and several helpers were tending to the wounded. As I looked back to the battle, feelings of nausea and confusion raged. What had that explosion been? Land mines wouldn’t be invented for another few centuries! But the attack of another sword-wielding soldier knocked all contemplation out of my head. I had to focus or I was going to get hurt.
“LOOK OUT!” someone hollered and I looked up, seeing something hurtle towards me. It took me a couple seconds to figure out what it was, and another half-second to realize I didn’t HAVE a couple seconds to deliberate. It was coming towards me…I didn’t have time to stop it. I screamed and flung my hands out as if to beat it off.
Another explosion, but this one much smaller and sounding muffled. Cautiously, I raised my head and looked over my huddled-up arms. A flat, curving sheet of blue covered my front and head and I saw small metallic fragments buried in the sheet. I’d made a shield somehow, protecting me from the blast and nullifying a lot of the damage that…thing had caused. But I knew what it was. It was a grenade.
HOW? Where were these futuristic (compared to Medieval) weapons coming from? They were off by several centuries!
Once again, I had to jerk myself back into reality and out of theory zone. Three soldiers at once ganged up on me and I took several steps backwards out of reach of their lunging swords and spears. I raised my staff and blasted one, knocking him over, but that still left two to deal with. They dived at me, swinging their weapons, and I felt a cold touch of steel slice against my side. Screaming, I blindly lashed out, slamming one in the head and sending a blue missile toward another. He was caught right in the chest and hurtled backwards into the snow, where he lay motionless, barely breathing.
I looked down at my torn shirt. Red blood was leaking from the cut in my left side but the wound wasn’t deep. Still, I needed help and started running, bashing past everyone and stumbling up the hill. I finally made it and kneeled down in the snow, clutching my bleeding side. Violet dashed over and dragged me toward her medical supplies. Using the clean, freezing snow to sterilize the wound, she pressed on the incision with ice cold cloths. I hissed but managed to stay still. The girl swiftly tied bandages around the wound and gave me a reassuring pat on the shoulder.
“You’ll be alright. It’s a clean cut and not that bad.”
“Okay,” I replied and got to my feet with an effort. But then my head swam and all the stress, fear, and revulsion came pouring out of me. I stumbled forward and started puking.
Violet held my hair back until I was done and forced a glass of melted snow down my throat. I gasped for breath and nodded at her. “Thanks. I needed that.”
Smiling faintly, she helped me stand and forced me to be still for another minute until I could move without getting dizzy. But she was getting flooded with patients and I had to go help. Looking down the field, I gasped.
We were starting to retreat.
The soldiers pushed on our ranks, attempting to scatter villagers so they could pick them off. Philipia was surrounded by jabbing spears and her wings were pricked. Alye charged around the field but couldn’t beat them all off from her dragon friend. I HAD to get down there NOW. Before it was too late.
“TANYA!” Redmond yelled as he saw me racing down the hill. “Are you alright?”
“I’m fine; go help Philipia!” I hollered back, reaching the base of the mound and starting to run faster. The jester-turned-warrior nodded and stormed through the crush of people until he reached those who were trapping Philipia, me on his tail. Together, we managed to cut a hole large enough for our resident dragon to get wing room to fly. She stretched out her wings and I leaped on while Redmond remained on the ground. The two of us hurtled through the air and Philipia began to breathe fire again, ringing in soldiers behind a fiery wall. Redmond looked up at us and winked, laughing. With Philipia back in control, we all started pushing back at Aubrey’s forces, shoving them towards their hill.
But where was Aubrey himself?
I glanced down and my eyes bugged open. I saw a familiar blond head smashing away villagers with a wave of his hand and a flare of green. He was making for Redmond, quickly and without relent. “REDMOND, LOOK OUT!” I screamed.
Too late.
The jester turned and his eyes widened. He brought up his sword but Aubrey ripped it out of his hand with tendrils of deadly jade. And then the blonde-haired fiend drew a dagger.
Sickeningly green with a blade of emerald stone, he brought it up and tore past Redmond’s shield, and with a final thrust, he plunged it directly into Redmond’s stomach. But that wasn’t enough. Crackles of green electricity flowed out of Aubrey’s hand and right into the blade, circling and shocking Redmond. The jester yelled in pain and I yelled with him. Philipia swooped down, hoping to retrieve the jester, but with another swift movement, Aubrey gathered all the green energy together and blasted Redmond straight into the air. Philipia roared and flew straight up, barely managing to catch the falling jester, who dangled limply in her claws. She tore through the air and landed on the hillside, gently laying him into the snow. I leaped off her back and kneeled down next to him. His eyes were closed and his breathing swift.
A blow from Aubrey’s horn made my blood run cold and I looked up. He was back on his horse and gave the retreating villagers a wicked grin. “I am halting this fight for half an hour. You may gather your forces back together, but after half an hour, we shall resume. And you will die.” He laughed, a sound that sent shivers down my spine, and led his soldiers, many bleeding or burnt or limping, back to his hill.
Our people ran back up to us, many in a sorry state. Clothes were torn, faces were bruised and bleeding, and bandages covered many a wound. We had lost maybe a hundred or more, and that didn’t count those whose injuries would prevent them from fighting more.
I turned my gaze to our jester, who was still and seemed barely alive. Violet knelt down, took one look at his wound, and her face fell. “I can’t fix that. I’m sorry, but I can’t heal magic wounds. I’m sorry.” She stood up and I felt my stomach lurch, but I had to try.
His wound was huge, a mix of red liquid and green mist that flowed all over the ugly puncture. Hands trembling, I brought up my staff and gently placed it on the wound. Redmond gave a sharp twitch but otherwise didn’t move. Forcing myself to breathe in a regular fashion, I reached for my magic and directed it to knit the broken skin back together.
It wasn’t working. The blue tendrils of energy would move toward the wound and then the green smog would shove it back. I tried again and again, but I couldn’t. Whatever magic Aubrey had used to hurt Redmond also could block healing magic. I bit back a sob of frustration and tried one last time, but a quiet voice stopped me.
“Let it be.”
“Redmond!” Alye cried, slumping down to her knees. Philipia gave a soft growl and cradled his head gently in her claws. He coughed and opened his eyes.
“Hello…I…seem to be….popular,” he whispered, noticing the group surrounding him. Lunae, Elspeth, Selene, Kymber, Violet, Alye, me, and Philipia, the main members of the Rebellion. We all watched him, tears starting to form.
“Oh god Redmond, I’m so sorry, but I can’t heal you!” I sobbed. “And I didn’t get to you fast enough! I’m so sorry!”
“For heaven’s…sake…” the jester retorted, scrounging up something resembling his old laugh, “…it’s not the…end of the fight…We can still…win.” He coughed again; he was fading fast.
“Redmond, stay with us!” Kymber pleaded. He turned his gaze to her and then swept it over all of us.
“When I’m…watching you from…the pearly gates…make sure you…get Aubrey back for me…and I hope you…to use your terms,” he nodded to Alye, me, and Philipia, “…‘kick his butt’…” He gave a small smile, and the sparkle went out of his eyes.
Redmond, our jester, our friend, was dead.
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