Making Peace, page 29
One of our Gifted down on the ground lost a contest and was quickly smashed under a large boulder she’d previously been using to batter down the front wall of the property. Another of our Gifted seized control of the boulder and sent it slamming through the front gate, shattering sections of the stone walls and mangling the metal gates.
With a shouted command, the infantry leader directed the swordsmen forming the shield wall to march forward through the broken walls and the twisted gates. They advanced in lockstep, their round ceramic shields interlocked to form a long barrier.
A wave of enemy troops spilled out of several doors on the front of the palace and threw themselves at the shield wall. The clash of the two forces meeting rattled my teeth. People died by the handful, run through with swords or pin-cushioned with arrows. The Gifted on both sides continued their struggle, laying waste to swaths of both sides with flame and ice and stone.
Sen had sidled up to Ina and me while I was focusing down on the yard. He grabbed ahold of my new leather pauldron and shook me to get my attention. “Ready?” he asked.
I thought about it, and shook my head. Sen grinned, then looked to Ina and raised his eyebrows. I saw her nod once, her face pale but resolute. Sen nodded back and turned to Ugly, showing him one raised fist. Ugly nodded back and gestured to the Gifted leader, who gave orders to his squad.
Three of our nano-mages stepped around the side of the outcropping of rock, exposing themselves to the enemy at the same time as they lifted huge boulders from the landscape around us. They hurled the enormous rocks straight into the side of the palace, aiming for the fourth story.
The enemy was vigilant and loosed a stream of arrows which mostly deflected off the incoming boulders, but one batch found its way through. The male member of the Gifted breaching team fell, stuffed full of arrows and vomiting blood. He tried to crawl back toward us, but his last breath deserted him after only a foot or two, and he died staring at me. The boulders were partially deflected by what looked like one lone Gifted from inside, cast downward just enough so they crashed in at the third floor instead.
The smashing and the screaming drowned out all other sound, so Ugly gave a big shrug at us as if to say, Take what you can get. He and Shield moved forward with two more Gifted to join the other two up front. The four nano-mages joined forces to hurl Shield and Ugly at the House, guiding them toward the opening smashed into the third floor. Ugly and Shield landed, rolled across the floor, and came up in defensive positions. They would be alone until we got in there. Enemy troops were already rushing toward them from further inside.
Vapor and Sen were next. Sen almost made his roll but went spilling across the floor. He recovered his sword quickly and rushed to Ugly’s left side to form a wedge with Ugly and Shield. Vapor managed a controlled glide and landed gracefully, sweeping her staff across the floor and raising her free hand into a defensive casting position. She joined the combat already taking place. Blades swung and blood sprayed.
Ina and I were shoved forward by the Gifted leader and I found myself face-to-face with the launching squad. Their dead friend still stared at us with his blood-ringed mouth gaping open. I looked back at the opening in the wall. This is going to be horrible.
I felt my body lifted as if by a giant hand, and then I was hurtling through space. I hit the peak of my arc and I started my descent, hearing myself screaming. Somehow, I managed to hold onto my sword. I hit the floor hard and attempted a roll. It went badly and I crashed, sliding forward to bump against the back of Sen’s legs. He nearly fell backward over top of me. He gave me a kick with the back of his boot to shove me back.
Now I was facing the wrong way, but I saw Ina hit the ground and roll gracefully. She came up looking uncertain, but she already had a knife in each hand. I climbed to my feet with a groan and took my place behind Sen to form a wedge.
Corpses and body parts piled up on the floor around our veteran friends as they proved themselves superior to the First House guards. Numbers would carry the day, though, and there were plenty of soldiers still inside the House. The main diversion force would hold most of the enemy at the front, but we had a lot of work ahead of us in making our way up the remaining floors. Losing an entire floor was going to cost us time. I hoped it wouldn’t cost us lives.
More soldiers arrived and I didn’t have time for more conscious thought. Sen ducked under a spear thrust, parrying it upward over his head. I leaned forward over Sen and drove my sword into the attacker, opening his throat. He gurgled and staggered sideways into his comrade who had been lining up a strike at Ugly, causing the spear to fly wildly. Ugly stepped in and opened the second man from groin to ribs with an upward cut from one of his massive short swords.
I heard a groan to my left and spun around to find Ina pulling her long knives free from a man’s back. He fell to his knees and she stepped back, letting him topple over. She looked at me uncertainly and I gave her a grin, feeling the adrenaline surging through me. After a moment she returned it with a smile of her own, hesitant but genuine. We both turned our attention back to the fight.
Shield blocked three spears with her ceramic shield and Vapor stepped in, casting her free hand outward. Ice shards flew from her fingertips and embedded themselves in men’s faces, blinding many of them and sending them staggering backward clutching at their ruined flesh.
Ugly lunged into the group and cut them open without mercy, ripping their torsos and limbs apart with his heavy blades. Sen covered his back, deflecting blows and inflicting wounds where he could. I followed suit, striking at the wave now crashing against Sen and Ugly, Ina at my side. I would deflect a sword or spear with my longsword and she’d step in, cutting at the soldiers’ exposed bellies, groins, or legs. The air grew thick with the stink of blood and the expensive floorboards were slick under our feet, but we advanced slowly across the floors toward the main staircase in the center of the House.
At the main stairs, Ugly and I paused to look over the railing. Far below us, the troops of the Second House had breached the front doors. Something had torn a massive, ragged hole in the front of the building. Instead of flooding in, the troops were holding back and drawing their foes out. It was only a matter of time before someone realized this was only a diversion, but up until now we’d killed every witness who had seen us.
Our stealth ended with a shrieking cry from up above. I looked up to see a Gifted casting her hands down at us. Flames erupted from her hands and billowed through the air toward us. Shield lunged in front the inferno with her enormous kite shield held horizontally and deflected most of the flame. I could feel Vapor chilling the air around us, dampening the flames edging around the barrier.
Ina lined up a shot and hurled one of her small knives, taking the Gifted woman square in the chest. She screamed and plummeted forward over the fourth-story railing, falling to the first floor and landing with a greasy, splattering sound.
Archers moved forward into the dead nano-mage’s vacated place, and we hastened up the staircase. Arrows pinged off the ceramic barrier as Shield covered us.
This was the fourth floor: the final landing before the Hegemon’s private throne room above us. We needed to cross the floor toward the back of the building, get through both rooms, climb the double stairway, cross the bridge, and breach the fortified doors.
The fourth floor was like Hell itself. Blood was everywhere, and dead serving girls lay sprawled across the floorboards. Two of the Hegemon’s enormous guards stood waiting for us with ten soldiers. My feverish brain imagined the girls had made a dash to escape when Ugly had given them a chance to surrender, and had been cut down as traitors.
I had no idea if I was right or wrong but, in that moment, I could easily believe the worst of these monsters. I had ceased to see members of the First House as people; now they were just rabid creatures who killed indiscriminately, butchering as suited their purposes. Their leader, the originator of this madness, stood at the top of his tower, orchestrating this orgy of death and butchery. I would do whatever it took to end his madness.
Enemy troops surged forward against our formation. Shield and Ugly met the main force and deflected almost every attack. I saw Ugly take a grazing hit from a spear carving across his cheek. His back arched and face turned to let most of the impact drift past him.
I came up beside Ugly, ducked under his arm, and thrust my sword up into his attacker’s ribcage, skewering organs. The soldier screamed and swung the shaft of his spear at me, but Shield caught it on her kite shield without missing a beat in her own battle. Her mace smashed a man across the wrist, and his bones shattered. The edge of her shield caught him in the windpipe and he grasped at his throat, gagging. Ina stepped in and thrust her knife into his belly, working it back and forth for maximum damage before ripping it out.
One of the huge men reared up above me out of nowhere. His downward strike with his greatsword knocked my sword from my hand, and it went clattering across the room. His huge greatsword swung again and smashed into my breastplate, knocking the air from my lungs. I felt ribs crack, and I collapsed to one knee.
Suddenly Sen was standing over me and trading blows with the huge guard. But Ina was way across the room picking apart the enemies harrying Vapor. With no one to watch over him, Sen took a spear in his left shoulder, and his parries grew sluggish as the wound dragged him down. Our battle partner system was breaking down.
I wasn’t the only one who noticed. “Back in formation!” Ugly bellowed.
Ina’s head jerked up and she spotted Sen and me in dire straits. She gestured to Vapor, and the two of them dashed over to us. Sen and Vapor linked up again, and Ina stepped in to watch over me. She started to give me an apologetic look but I waved it away, the wave turning more frantic as I tried to call her attention to an incoming strike. I managed her drag her out of the way of a spear thrust. Without pausing, she pushed off of my shoulder and spun into a slash, her knives whistling as they cut the air. She tore into the man who’d tried to kill her. His throat sprayed a crimson plume of blood as he crumpled to the floor.
The huge man who’d accosted me was still after Sen, but Vapor was guarding her wounded partner. Her eyes shifted hues faster than the beat of a hummingbird’s wings as she whirled, augmenting the strength of her body with the power of the Gift. With a roar, she batted the giant man’s greatsword aside as if it were a feather.
The giant swung his sword horizontally to cut her off at the knees. Instead, Vapor leapt into the air and then… hung there. Both the huge man and I stared dumbfounded at her, which was unfortunate for the huge man because Vapor used the time to drop her staff, clasp his face with both hands, and gouge her thumbs into his eyes.
The giant screamed and thrashed but Vapor held on with both hands, her feet scrabbling for purchase on his chest as he swung her around. His enormous hands closed over her arms and tried to snap the bones, but her augmented strength was too much for him.
A rime of ice formed around Vapor’s fingers, and the giant’s entire body shuddered. With a pop, two razor-sharp chunks of ice burst out through the back of his skull. Vapor dropped to the floor in front of him and shook the frost from her hands. The blunt ends of two icicles sprouted from his eye sockets. With barely a sound the huge man fell to his knees and rolled limply onto his side, dead.
Vapor stumbled. Then her eyes flashed, the lights going brighter for a moment, and she stood up straight again. I couldn’t begin to guess at what absorbing all the power from that orb had done to her, but it seemed to have some positive benefits to it. She caught me looking, winked, stuck out her tongue, and showed me two fingers. V for victory! She used one foot to kick her staff up into the air and caught it, eyes already searching for her next opponent.
Shield was taking a hard battering. The other giant, a bald man, had backed her against the railing. Ugly was smashing through enemies to get to her but was too far away to help.
The bald giant smashed downward in an overhand strike, and Shield raised her kite shield to catch it. The blow connected and she absorbed it, but the giant lashed out with one foot and kicked her in the ankle. The ankle turned at a bad angle and Shield staggered, her eyes wide. The armored greaves Shield wore probably prevented the ankle from snapping, but the injury looked excruciating. She bared her teeth and tried to circle to get her back away from the railing, but the giant wasn’t allowing it. He pressed in on her.
I’d regained my breath and launched myself into an attack on the bald giant’s flank, trying to draw attention away from Shield. He kicked out at me and caught me on the forehead, his sharp boot drawing a gash and launching me backward. Bones popped and muscles screamed as I hit the floor, bouncing and rolling before I came to a stop. I wiped blood out of my eyes with my sleeve and climbed back to my feet.
The bald giant hadn’t even come after me. He was determined to finish off Shield. I knew if she fell, our formation was finished. Even if that hadn’t been the case, there was no way I was going to let anyone finish my friend. Half blind with my own blood, I waded back in.
Between the two of us, Shield and I managed to keep the bald giant busy. He didn’t have time to lash out with direct hits. Instead he fended us off using his sword, mailed fist, and metal boots. He was a solid match for us, and I felt my arms tiring. Blood poured into my eyes, and it took all my agility just to keep his strikes from getting through. Shield was limping on her ankle, and he was shifting faster than she could move, preventing us from flanking him.
Two spears made of pure ice flew over my head. The huge man rocked back on his heels and raised his sword and his fist to block the ice lances, barely managing to do so. The ice shattered with a tinkling sound, and ice shards tore into the bald giant’s flesh. I glanced over my shoulder and saw Vapor with one frost-rimed hand still pointed at her brawny target.
Shield pressed her attack. His eyes wide and his nostrils flaring, the huge man turned to focus on Shield. Her ferocity forced the giant to back up a step.
I rushed to press this unexpected advantage, but Ina screamed from behind me, “Bel! Down!” The command was so unlike her normal manner that I dropped to one knee without thinking.
I felt Ina’s small boot in the center of my back right between my shoulder blades as she used me as a vaulting platform to launch herself into the air. She sailed across the space between her and the bald giant. His head was turned to the left, looking at Shield but trying to keep me in sight. He must have seen something coming because he tried to turn back, but Ina was far above him, coming down at an angle none of us had predicted. I saw her twist her legs and rotate in the air so she was flying feet-first up and over the bald giant. Her hands slammed down with both long knives. The blades pierced into the giant’s upper shoulders, one on either side of his neck, and he roared in agony.
Ina came down with both feet on the small of his back, using the knives as handles to maintain her perch atop him. The giant made a move to grab at her with his free hand. The movement of his enormous muscles snapped one of Ina’s blades off inside his shoulder. Ina left her intact knife where it was and kicked off into a backflip, arching her back and landing perfectly six feet away from her enemy. She tossed the hilt of the broken knife aside and drew two new knives from holsters on her thighs, bringing the blades up into a guard position.
The wounded giant fixed his murderous glare on Ina and stormed toward her, leaving his back exposed. Shield and I had our opening. I rammed my sword into the bald giant’s side, sinking it to the hilt. Shield caved in the back of his skull with her mace. Blood spurted from the wound and covered the side of her face.
The huge man dropped to one knee, dragging my sword with him. He made one last swipe at Ina, but his strength failed him and his hand fell to rest within an inch of the toe of Ina’s boot.
I retrieved my sword from the giant’s corpse. “With acrobatics like that, Ina, maybe you should have joined the circus.” I turned to grin at her, but stopped when I saw what she was doing.
Ina was arranging the bodies of the dead serving girls into more dignified poses and closing their eyes. Tears ran freely down her cheeks. I supposed she had known the women, had served with them. Maybe she’d been hoping to get them out.
Ugly and Sen finished off their last foe. Vapor reached a corner of the hallway and glanced around it. She ducked back as a flurry of crossbow bolts flew past. I heard Ugly say something to Shield, checking on her injury, as I moved to join Vapor. Sen was beside Vapor, the two of them working as one again. Ina followed me, eyes scanning among the dead for any sign of danger. Vapor beckoned me over.
“I can open a window for you,” she said. “It won’t look like much, but I promise the bolts won’t hit you. Lean around the corner and see what they’ve got.”
I nodded to let her know that, yes, sure, I’d stick my head around a corner and take a face full of crossbow bolts. The crazy thing was, I trusted her when she said she wouldn’t let them hurt me. So, I looked. A flurry of bolts greeted me, but a swirl of wind knocked the bolts away. The tips of the missiles whistled past my face with only inches to spare. Through the swarm of bolts, I saw a length of bridge with ten crossbowmen at the other end staggered into two rows, one row kneeling and one standing. Already the first row was reloading, the row behind holding their fire to cover the reload. The worst of it was the three serving girls in black maid uniforms. They were being held out in front of the enemy ranks as human shields. I ducked back as more bolts clattered around me.
Vapor lifted one hand and wiggled her fingers, raising her eyebrows at me in a question.
I shook my head. “Three servants,” I said.
Vapor’s face darkened, her brows knitting together in anger. I heard Sen make an angry rumble. Ina said nothing, but the rage on her face spoke volumes.
