Chapter 19 – The Promise Fulfilled
I couldn’t believe it. This just couldn’t…couldn’t be true. Slowly, I touched Redmond’s right hand, which lay in the snow. The last vestiges of warmth were fading and his eyes were still open, but blank and without life. Tears streaming, I carefully closed his eyelids and allowed every bit of emotion to flood my soul.
Never again would I hear his laugh.
Never again would I see his eyes twinkle in mirth.
Never again would I listen to his jokes, giggle at his ideas, or appreciate his sense of humor.
Never again thank him for everything he’d done for us.
We were all silent, grouped around his still body, which lay peacefully in the swirling snow. At last, with a roar of rage and pain and grief all mixed together, Philipia reared her head back and sent an enormous mushroom cloud of writhing fire into the mocking gray sky. In the light of the fireball, I chanced a glance at the other hill, where Aubrey stood mopping blood, Redmond’s blood, from his green dagger. And I felt a sense of deep satisfaction when I saw him turn his gaze to the huge column of flame that split the air and recoil with a faint look of fear.
Wiping the tears away with trembling hands, I stood slowly, feeling only two things: grief at Redmond’s all-too-swift death, and boiling, raging, consuming fury and hate towards his murderer. Facing the hill upon which our enemies were gathered, I raised my staff and looked over my shoulder at the people grouped behind me. Philipia nodded, tenderly gathered the fallen jester in her claws, and placed him at a smooth part of the hill where no footprints marked the snow, out of the way so he could lie without disturbance until we came back to put him to rest.
Assuming we survived.
Our group reformed a line, cavalry directly behind Philipia and archers in back with sword and spear wielders in the middle. Lunae, brushing tears from her eyes as fast as she could, collected her bowmen and women in perfect rank, a beautifully straight line with flawlessly aligned archers, all poised to fire. As I looked at the faces watching me and Philipia, I saw anger, sadness, pain, and little happiness. But I saw something I didn’t expect.
I saw a lingering presence of hope. And that sight fortified my spirit and bolstered me. I faced forward and leaped up onto Philipia’s back, taking one last look at the villagers and friends who gathered to face down Aubrey and his men. Our half hour lull was almost up. It was nearly time.
Aubrey’s horn screamed in the air like an angry beast waiting for its prey.
Philipia answered with a deafening roar that sent shivers down the tight ranks of Aubrey’s men. And as I shook my staff in the air, two words escaped out of my mouth.
“FOR REDMOND!”
“FOR REDMOND!” the villagers yelled in response, and we charged.
In an almost blind fury, we ran as one, a single solid mass of anger and daring hope that ate at the distance between the two hills. Arrows from Aubrey’s archers rained down but Philipia and I deflected or burnt most of them and Selene managed to get the surviving missiles. The sound of Aubrey’s horn announced his signal to charge and we stared straight ahead at the approaching soldiers, raising their swords and shouting. We shouted back and brandished our weapons, daring them to come closer.
Our sides met and the fight began anew. But something was different this time. Driven by hate and anguish, we ripped through their forces like scissors through soaked paper. I jumped off Philipia’s back at the first opportunity and landed right on a soldier with a crash, sending him tumbling to the ground. Quickly, I seized his weapon and tossed it to a villager who’d just lost his sword. Soldiers loomed up before me but I blasted them away with a cry and a burst of azure. Fire streamed from the sky as Philipia leaped into the air and soared overhead, breathing fire at every opportunity. When I saw two villagers desperately trying to hold off at least five well-armed soldiers, I leaped into the fray and stunned two of them, knocking a third off balance so the villagers could attack them. Turning my gaze away, I scanned the mass of fighters for Aubrey, but in this mess, I couldn’t tell and he wasn’t making himself visible. Pushing my way past others, I stormed towards the hill from which he’d launched his troops and fought my way to the top where I could have a reasonably clear view.
Once there, I gazed down at the battlefield, where to my surprise and great pleasure, we were doing well. I dared to take a second to catch my breath and recover a bit of energy.
It almost killed me.
Suddenly, I felt a sharp prickle at the back of my neck and noticed a faint green mist in the corner of my vision. I turned quickly…
…and barely managed to block a sharp, emerald green dagger that had been plunging towards my unprotected back.
Panting and straining with effort to keep the blade from my skin, I stared deep into the poisonous, vividly green eyes of Aubrey, who glared back with a mixture of hate and disgust. With a gasp, I shoved him away and held my staff in front of me, staring at him. A fountain of loathing and wrath spread all throughout my body and every detail of Redmond’s murder flashed in my mind. I met his gaze with a blazing anger of my own and spat, “You are a freaking monster, you filth.”
He barely even blinked at the venom in my voice, lashing back with a cutting retort, “He was my jester and he betrayed me. The pathetic boy deserved to die.”
“DON’T YOU DARE CALL REDMOND PATHETIC!” I snarled, every syllable dripping with lava-like rage. “AT LEAST HE HAD THE ABILITY TO CARE ABOUT OTHERS AND NOT JUST HIMSELF!”
His anger was ice cold, more frigid than the snow we stood in. “You are the most useless little THING I’ve ever seen if the most you can do is yell at me. I suggest you back your words up with action.” And he dove for me, but I was ready, parrying his attack and kicking him in the shin, managing to get him off balance. But he quickly recovered and without warning, flung a missile of green crackling energy at me, which caught me in the chest and shot me backward into the snow. I gasped for breath and struggled to get to my feet, every last muscle in my body screaming in pain. As I staggered slightly, Aubrey laughed, a chilling sound that frightened me and made me realize that I was in far over my head.
“What rank are you?” he asked, laughing in derision.
“What are you talking about, you freak?” I shot back, steadying myself.
“Magical rank, idiotic female. Witch, I’d say, judging by your meager grasp of the art.”
That riled me almost as much as his insult to Redmond. “For your information, you prissy-headed fiend, I’m a sorceress.”
His mocking smile only deepened. “Warlock.”
Something stirred in the back of my mind, a phrase I’d heard or a sentence I’d read. A sorceress has the equivalent power of a sorcerer and is therefore directly below the rank of warlock. Directly below the rank of warlock…
I had no chance. The only thing that would change was how long it would take him to cut me into pieces and fling me into the air as disassembled atoms. Still, even though I knew there was no way I could beat him on my own, I had to try. I could not just surrender and let him kill me without a fight. So with a deep breath and a quick flicker of hope that everyone else would do well, I raised my staff and gave a small smile. “I can’t beat you and I know it’s stupid to try, but I’m going to try anyway. Because the longer you’re up here, fighting me, the longer you’re away from the battle and the longer your soldiers go without direction or magical help. I know I’ve already lost, but I want to take at least a piece of you with me.”
His face twitched faintly into something like surprise but it swiftly transformed to his derisive smile. We faced off, circling one another, waiting to see who would strike first. Finally, I guess his patience wore thin and he lunged for me, brandishing his dagger. Fortunately, I was ready for him and countered with a thin blue missile that knocked him sideways, but he managed to stay on his feet. I took a chance and swiped at him, striking him in the left arm with a beam of focused magical energy, which almost made him holler. But his retaliation was swift and I only avoided his next attack by flinging myself to the right and dodging the blast of green. I wasn’t so lucky the second time and screamed as a wave of pain scorched my shoulder. Blinking back tears, I gathered my remaining reserves of strength together and loosed a pure blue blast right as his head.
Yet he countered with a discharge of his own green and the two forces met, both of us straining to push the energy towards each other. Sweat was starting to pour down my forehead and my arms shook horribly as the green inched closer and closer to me, waves of heat and cold erupting around us. I knew I couldn’t last another minute.
But something made me look up. I couldn’t see well through the ocean of blue and green, but was something coming behind Aubrey? Something small and wielding two swords…?
“YOU SCUM!” a familiar voice screamed and slammed into Aubrey, breaking the flow of magic from both sides. I stumbled backward, refusing to believe what I saw. A loud roar from above drew my bewildered gaze. Philipia. To the side, Selene was approaching, fire spewing forth from her lit hands and a gaze that could burn stone was turned at Aubrey. And the person who’d knocked into Aubrey?
Alye.
“I HATE YOU!” she yelled, dashing towards him with swords drawn and ready. He barely succeeded in shooting her back with a green blast and his eyes were taking on a look of terror. Without warning, he encased himself in a green bubble that he apparently hoped would protect him from our attacks.
He hadn’t counted on us all striking at once.
Selene raced over and started pouring fire onto Aubrey’s shield, while Philipia hovered overhead and abruptly contributed her own fire, which covered the entire top and left side of the bubble. Exhausted but now determined, I started shooting bolts and streams of blue energy at the shield, azure tendrils wrapping around it and starting to chip away. As the fire and magic continued, I saw with satisfaction that cracks were forming and Aubrey’s expression was turning to one of panic.
At last, with a harsh shatter, the shield broke into tiny little snippets of fading green. Aubrey, sweat trickling down his face, turned and attempted to run. Alye put a stop to that.
Marching forward with a look of death, she swiftly knocked his dagger away and brought up her two swords to his throat. He halted and gave her a glare that would’ve melted her into a puddle if he could have.
With a crash and a roar, Philipia landed, shoving her long, scaly face right into Aubrey’s pale one. The man attempted to back up but Alye shoved her swords closer to his jugular. He was trapped.
I fell to my knees, limbs shaking with exhaustion and relief. Below me, the battle had halted at the sight of the magical duel, and now Aubrey’s forces were flinging their swords down in defeat. Without their leader to direct them, they had no will to fight. I gave a long, shuddering gasp and buried my head in my hands, pouring out my fear and sadness in the form of tears. A cold touch on my shoulder made me jerk my head up. Elspeth was standing next to me, having streaked up the hill in lioness form. She gave me a grin that made her freckles stand out even more than usual.
“We won…Aren’t you going to give a speech?”
I gave a hiccup and shook my head. I’d had enough speeches to last for a long time.
Redmond, I thought silently as I felt myself collapse in exhaustion, we did it. We kicked his butt.
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