Keira
FOUR YEARS LATER
Towering beside her, Gareth took another enormous bite out of his apple.
If anyone had the right to complain, it was him, marching in his armor, his massive sword slung over his back.
He was likely baking under that dented helm.
Yet she’d not heard a sour word from him all morning.
She supposed it was a carryover from his time in the army.
He and Rhea, who led the caravan beside Lilith, had served together and were more accustomed to keeping such a pace for days on end.
He’d already sung Dance of the Moon Maidens and Night in Crimson Hollow, and had just finished The Fool and the Flounder, a comedic ballad about a fisherman who catches a talking fish.
The flounder continually talks itself into being released by promising to lead the sailor to beautiful women or great treasure.
However, there’s always a trick to it. The women are a group of sirens, and the treasure is guarded by a kraken.
In the end, the fisherman survives, stranded on an island.
The fish returns to gloat over its victory, only for the fisherman to eat it before it can make any more promises.
However, his song was cut short by the ringing of Knox’s twin blades as he drew them from their sheaths.
“To arms!” Rhea called from the front not a second later.
Keira saw the rustling of the branches at the forest’s edge, only a moment’s prelude to the madness that followed.
What came next was a chaos of drawn blades and frightened horses as a wave of squalling goblins broke the treeline.
Around them, the journeymen fought to keep control of the animals, others taking what cover could be found either behind, under, or within the wagons.
Keira turned her attention away from them as she set her focus on the rushing mob.
They’d been hired to protect the caravan, which would mean keeping the goblins at bay from pilfering and maiming as they pleased.
It was a job they did very well. Gareth’s thick frame stood before her, his mammoth sword, which Keira could barely lift, held high before him.
The sun glinted off his helm as the goblin horde rushed down the hill, their ranks already dropping one by one, victims of Lilith’s lethal accuracy.
Their odds were certainly favorable, even against the goblins’ overwhelming numbers. They could take them, just not all at once. Keira attuned her senses beneath the earth. The soil was rich and verdant, strong. She soaked in its power as she located the ancient roots nestled within.
At her command, they sprouted forth, bursting from the ground.
Many of the small creatures were caught within the tangle, like flies in a web, leaving the others to weave around to avoid it.
It would buy them some time, Keira thought as the first goblin found itself woefully acquainted with Gareth’s blade.
Keira then busied herself with striking down the ones who managed to slip past his reach with motes of frost and fire.
“More coming!” Lilith’s call sounded over the caravan, punctuated by the strangled sound of another one of her arrows meeting its target.
Keira turned her attention from the goblins she’d ensnared, squealing like frightened pigs in the hopelessly gnarled roots, to the treeline where a second wave was indeed rushing down the slope, at least another dozen.
Gareth grunted as he pulled his enormous blade clean from the chest of the last unfortunate interloper and planted himself again between her and the oncoming horde, her figure dwarfed by his immense shadow.
Seizing the moment’s opportunity, Keira glanced up the train of merchant carriages.
Just ahead of them, Knox and Florian were still fighting back to back, Knox with his twin blades and Florian his rapier.
They were similar in build, though Knox’s form was slightly more muscled.
Their movements were quick and better suited to the sheer numbers facing them than Gareth and his brutish sword.
Knox’s lips were drawn in a snarl as he took the majority of the oncoming goblins, his blades flying in fluid, savage arcs.
At the end of the line, Keira could barely see Rhea standing alone.
Her wide eyes stark against her dark skin.
She had tied back her braided hair, though a few coils had fallen loose in the skirmish.
Her body moved fluidly through practiced and powerful motions, her glaive spinning around her as if they were of one mind.
Keira had always admired her skill, and her weapon- she’d never seen anything like it.
The long polearm was topped with a double sided blade.
Instead of coming to a taper like a spear, the crest fanned out into a deadly crescent.
As she watched, Rhea brought the glaive through a wide swing, the momentum of the blade removing the head of an oncoming goblin clean from its body in a single stroke.
The next was taken out by an arrow before it could even reach the road.
It took Keira a moment to pinpoint Lilith’s slight frame. It was her yellow blonde hair that gave away her vantage point, perched on top of the wagon as naturally as a cat, thinning the herd one by one with her bow.
A subtle shift in Gareth’s stance brought Keira back to focus.
She reached out her tangle of roots to ensnare more, but only captured one as the others parted around the obstacle.
The second wave hit them in a greater rush than the first. Gareth swung out, ending one brutally, but allowing several others past his guard.
One even managed to hike itself up onto the wagon.
Keira heard the merchants inside calling out in fear as it whacked against the side with its crudely chiseled axe.
A thorny vine shot from her outstretched palm.
It coiled around the goblin’s neck first and then the rest of its small body.
The goblin fell to the ground, writhing against the thorns as they continued to constrict its body.
Hot pain scored her back as a blade tore her skin.
Thankfully it did not embed itself in the muscle.
A growl escaped her, the sound altering as her form began to swell.
By the time she turned to strike the offending creature, her hand was the powerful paw of a bear.
She saw the goblin’s yellowed eyes widen in shock just before she batted it aside.
The rest of the battle was a blur of blades and teeth until it was finally still.
Keira glanced around, her great flanks panting from the effort.
Beside her, Gareth was breathing heavily as well, his stance relaxed against his sword staked into the bloodied earth.
Ahead of them, Knox was plunging one of his swords into a goblin’s prone chest. In the distance, one of Lilith’s arrows felled the last of them as it ran for the cover of the treeline.
Keira allowed herself to revert back to her natural form.
She surveyed the several cuts marking her arms and sides, the line of uneven teeth on her thigh.
The familiar magic worked over her skin, the burning, needling pain as her body stitched itself back together.
Yet as the discomfort subsided, the damage had receded into a ghost of what it had been.
Just as Keira was about to see if anyone else required her attention, she heard her name.
“Rhea needs you,” Lilith called. She was no longer on top of the wagons but was kneeling at Rhea’s side. Rhea was propped up against the wheel, her weapon still in hand, lying beside her.
Keira made her way over hastily, the others parting to make way.
The injury was immediately clear, a nasty stab into her thigh.
It was bleeding liberally, staining Rhea’s dark brown skin with red.
She studied the wound, careful to touch it only as necessary as Rhea’s face screwed against the pain.
Given the depth, she would not be able to heal it fully, but she could certainly get her back on her feet, even if it would mean a few days of limping.
Rhea tensed as the magic took hold, Lilith taking her hand tightly until the sensation passed.
“You good?” Gareth asked, his arms crossed and brow heavy.
He’d removed his helm, revealing the cropped brown hair and scarred face beneath.
His blunt nose was crooked from a break that had set long before Keira had known him.
Gareth was not the most expressive person, but after two years, Keira had taken this particular scowl to mean concern.
“I’ve had worse,” Rhea said a little breathlessly, though she was already testing her leg.
“You need to be more careful,” Lilith scolded.
“So says my wife, the paragon of caution,” Rhea snorted.
“I think that went rather well,” Florian said from behind them, flashing a winning smile as if this had all been a spot of good fun.
Gareth grunted, and Keira rolled her eyes as the doors of the many wagons opened slowly, the merchants finally daring to peek out to see if the danger had passed.
“I need a drink,” Knox said, sheathing his twin swords.
At least they could all agree on that.