Chapter 7 #2
The Void latched onto all that magic and tugged on it, shutting it down piece by piece.
I wielded it like a giant sword, carving a large arc over the river and down to the grassy bank beyond us.
Within that space, the magic was dragged into the Void until it shivered out of existence before our eyes, leaving a wide hole for our ships to sail through. As simple and as powerful as that.
A smile drew my lips wide at what I’d achieved, relief filling me for truly managing it.
“Goshart,” Father barked, pointing at a stout man who was all muscle with little height to even out his broadness. “Head on through that gap.”
“M-me?” Goshart stammered.
“Yes, you. Off you go.” Father waved him toward the hole I’d carved and Goshart released a murmur of fear as he passed by our group.
He stopped right before the gap I’d made, glancing back as if hoping Commander Rake might have changed his mind about sending him through first.
“Keep going,” Father called and Goshart hesitantly tip-toed toward the gap.
Ever-so-slowly, he held a hand out, sticking it through the hole in the barrier and waving it a little to test it. He dabbed at the sweat on his forehead then started walking through the hole, leaning as far back as he could as if he was going under a limbo stick so his head went through last.
He stood upright on the other side, turning to face us with a bright smile on his face. “It’s okay! It’s safe to come through – it’s completely sa – ahhhh!”
“Eské,” I gasped in horror at the sudden violence.
A beast that looked part bear, part goat, part machine slammed into Goshart, its large teeth clamping around his whole body before racing away with him across the cracked ground of the wasteland.
Its curled horns were pure metal, rising above its head into deadly points and the guttering whir in its throat spoke of some deadly contraption within.
“Goshart!” Agatha cried as her friend’s screams carried back to us on the wind. But there was no chance of going after him because ten more beasts came hurtling around a large cluster of rocks and charged right across the river to meet us.
With adrenaline burning through my chest, I unsheathed the sword at my hip, my latest creation a thing of true beauty. She was blue at the hilt, rising to a silver tip on the blade in a gradient and the metal I’d used could cut through bone with one swipe.
I ran to meet the first beast alongside my Father, Ransom and several of the other warriors, its face like a hawk’s, but its body was that of a giant cat with metallic plates of armour welded to its form.
I swung my sword for its throat, but Father pushed me back, knocking me into Ransom and lunging for the beast with his blade.
The beast took two strikes to the head and four more to the neck before Father managed to fell it.
“Hey!” I barked at that kill being taken from me.
Father didn’t look back, whistling sharply at his warriors and the group who had been flanking me closed in tight around me once more.
A crocodilian beast lunged from the depths of the river and caught a man by the leg, hauling him back toward the water and a bloody grave. He clawed at the ground with screams of terror but none of the warriors around me moved to help him, only pushing me further away from the chaos.
I saw a gap between Agatha and Ransom and darted for it, breaking through and sprinting toward the man who was a few seconds from being dragged beneath the river’s surface. I leapt over him, driving my sword down with a punishing force and plunging it right into the beast’s eye.
It released its victim at once, thrashing and letting out a guttering roar, a giant, serpent-like tail whipping out of the water and slamming into my side.
I was knocked off balance, rolling and regaining my feet fast as it lunged for me, bloody teeth snapping.
But I darted to one side and jabbed my blade into its other eye, blinding it fully.
The beast’s tail whipped out of the water again and I leapt over it as it swept across the river bank, slicing my sword down and cutting it clean off.
The beast screeched in horror, thrashing madly and I was knocked onto my knees as it whipped around to bite me.
I splashed backwards through the water to avoid the strike, terror sinking into my chest as I saw my death coming for me. I raised my sword, trying to gain my feet and slipping on the wet rocks.
The beast caught my weapon between its teeth, ripping it from my grip and tossing it onto the river bank. I raised my hand, freezing the water that coated its scaly skin, turning it to shards. The crocodile-like monster roared in agony but it kept coming. Ever hungry, ever determined to destroy me.
With a cry of effort, I forced the ice deeper into its scales, and it staggered at last, slamming down into the water and dying with a guttural sound.
I scrambled out of the river, taking deep breaths as I snatched my sword from the ground and bathed in the adrenaline following my victory.
Father was wielding the river to drown two of the beasts and a group of his warriors were working to overwhelm the others.
My veins buzzed with excitement, the thrill of the kill setting me ablaze. I locked eyes with another monster headed my way, its body skeletal and horse-like while its boar’s head was covered in metal plates.
I ran to meet it, my teeth bared and heart thundering out the call of war.
For the first time in weeks, I felt alive.
Like I’d finally found the place I belonged.
But as I swung my blade for a second kill, Agatha grabbed hold of me, yanking me back and pushing me between a throng of bodies.
Three warriors collided with the beast, fighting madly with it in a fray of bloodshed and determination.
They finally cut it down, seizing my victory from me while a group of warriors held me back.
“Let me go!” I demanded, throwing elbows and jamming my heels into their feet, but they only tightened around me.
Ransom was among them, knotting his fingers around my arm and I snarled at him, lunging like a feral cat and aiming a swipe for his face.
He knocked me back before I could scratch him, so I jammed my knee up between his legs instead.
He croaked and fell to the ground like a sack of mouldy potatoes, standing tall one second then fallen the next.
He curled in on himself at my feet and satisfaction filled me as he clutched his balls in his hands.
But I still had several more warriors to fight off.
Father called out in victory and I looked up, pausing my fist which was readying to punch Agatha in her turnip of a face and finding the final monsters dead and the warriors retreating.
“Return to the ships!” Father called out, his voice amplified and echoing across the hills.
My bloody sword hung from my fingers in disappointment. I elbowed past Agatha and she let me go at last, my scowl fixed permanently on my face. I stalked back to the White Mare, heading up the gangplank and waiting for Father there.
He was one of the last to board and the ship sailed smoothly forward the moment he stood beside me and the gangplank was pulled up.
“Good job,” he commended me. “Now go rest, my child. We will be at Coalmere by sundown. Then you will have more work to do.”
I grabbed his arm before he could leave and he glanced at me with a flicker of irritation in his eyes, but then it was gone. “Call off your warriors. I won’t be corralled like that. I’m born to fight. I killed one of those beasts single-handedly and I could have done more.”
“You think I would risk some rogue monster killing you? I will protect you at all costs.”
Warmth spread through my chest, but a sing-song canary in my head told me I was a delusional idiot to fall so easily for his pretty words.
“I appreciate that, but I want to fight. I’m capable of looking after myself,” I insisted.
“Of course you are.” He patted me on the arm. “And you will have your chance in a true battle. There was no need for you to get caught up in that skirmish.”
I relaxed a little, relieved I would get my chance. Of course the plan was seeking surrender in enemy lands, but it would come to a fight here and there. I had no doubt our enemies were laying plots to attack us soon enough.
“Onward!” Father called, heading away from me as the White Mare sailed through the hole I’d made in the barrier.
I could see the corners of the gap already reigniting and I imagined the boundary would heal itself soon enough, but the Void had secured our passage.
From here, we could travel all the way to the barrier at the verges of Pyros and then we would make our way to the first city to conquer.
It was going to be a beautiful victory. A thing of legend. A marker of our coming dominion.
And I would be remembered as the sole reason for it all.
Coalmere was a ghost town.
Not a single Flamebringer to be found.
At first, we had suspected a trap, that they would lurch out from the grey stone buildings and launch fire at us from all angles. But the attack never came.
Our army spread out to search the city, from the empty streets even right down to the sewers, but no one was here.
“They’re on the run,” Father decided, a satisfied smile pulling at his mouth.
We stood in the town square where a large iron brazier at its centre lay dormant, the ash cold.
Plenty of the warriors had turned to pillaging, stacking up piles of any valuables they found but there was very little to claim.
The people who had fled this place had taken almost everything with them.
A few of our people had used water magic to blast apart some buildings, but it was all a little pointless considering this city was ours for the taking. No resistance.