The Bladed Tiger's Empress, page 19
part #1 of Claiming Her Empire Series
“No, Hayden. She is fully capable of defending herself and the temple,” Kayda interrupted.
“She is still in training,” Hayden pressed, his voice half desperate with concern.
“Most of the warriors here are.”
Hayden took a breath to argue further, but Marilla laid a gentle hand onto his forearm. “She’s right. I know you’re worried, but I have to do this. I have to do something.”
Hayden searched her face, his serious emerald eyes jetting from side to side as he looked from one golden-brown eye to the other. “Okay,” he finally whispered, swallowing the worry creeping up his throat. He took her soft, delicate hand into his rough and callused one, squeezing harshly as he forced the words out, “I’ll be close, gathering the warriors and helping prepare for an attack. I’ll join you on the wall and scout with you when I am able.”
“Won’t be long, Princess,” Blythe added, his skin still pale and hazel eyes blackened with a sickly sort of hollowness. “The temple is always prepared for an attack, it’s part of our training.”
“So there won’t be much preparation for Hayden to make,” Vince agreed, brushing shoulders with Blythe.
Marilla nodded numbly, craning her neck towards Hayden as he slumped down to sweep his lips briefly over hers. “I’ll be there soon.”
“I’ll be waiting,” she promised before Kayda helped her slip into her bow and mount the wall surrounding the temple. The walls that had felt claustrophobic to her now felt like protection even as she climbed up the jutting out bricks until she was sitting above the temple, twisting in the wind the walls had blocked. She felt exposed, but she supposed that was the point. She had to be exposed to see an attack coming from the distance.
“Keep your eye on the horizon,” Kayda ordered. Her voice was commanding, filled with confidence, but Marilla saw deep within the depths of her crystal eyes a real fear. This would be her first battle as commander, probably the first attack against the temple itself.
They really needn’t have rushed preparations however, it was days before the attack they were urgently preparing for arrived. Days of exhausting themselves trying to be ready when they should have been resting. Days of Marilla shivering on the wall with Hayden joining her when he could, but in the end no one was ready for Frederick’s attack. No one was truly prepared for his entire army to break down the stone barrier guarding the temple.
Frederick may have been a ruler much like Marilla’s father, but he did not underestimate the temple of warriors. If anything, he overestimated them.
13
Bloodthirsty Lioness Reawakened
It was dusk when they came. Marilla watched the sun set, the light dying over the horizon when she noticed the distant flicker of flames.
Torches.
Marilla slung her bow from around her shoulder and loaded an arrow. Kayda had ordered her to discretely raise the alarm if she were to see any activity, any sign of a hostile attack. Marilla turned, taking her eyes off the approaching flames and leveling her bow directly at the bell that hung in the courtyard of the temple. Taking aim had become surprisingly easy with all her practice, and when she released the bow string the arrow pinged off the metal bell once. The sound wasn’t alarming yet everyone beneath the wall turned and looked at it then turned to her.
There was a slight lull from confusion to alarm, but then everyone was running for the wall save one warrior who rushed to ring the bell in earnest. Marilla searched the crowd of warriors, some scaling the wall with their bows and quivers to join her while others came to defend their home on the ground. Her eyes flashed from face to face in her search of Hayden’s. He’d join her on the wall, she knew. He wouldn’t leave her alone once he heard the bell. That settled her stomach slightly, knowing he would be there soon to defend her.
She spotted Vince and Blythe’s near identical forms among the fray. Blythe held a double-bladed rod, sharp points hanging on each side with the handle in the center, while Vince twisted a chain around his palm. Following the steel chain, Marilla could see a heavy iron ball on the end, ready to be wielded through the air.
Marilla jumped when fingers wrapped around her forearm, tugging her attention away from the warriors who were lining up against the approaching flame. “You need to go, now,” Kayda ordered her from halfway up the wall. Hayden stood firmly rooted to the ground, his blades out and shoulders tense.
“But what about—”
“If they catch you here it will prove their suspicions and we will all be slaughtered for treason. Go, now!”
Obediently, Marilla dropped down onto the ground and slunk over to Hayden. “I’ve prepared two horses for you down by the river,” Kayda said quickly, her steel claws already extended. “Perhaps when all this dies down we can be reunited, until then be safe.”
Marilla’s throat felt dry and despite her better judgment, she pulled Kayda into a hug. “Be careful.”
“Is that an order from my true empress?” Kayda snorted, hugging her quickly then shoving her away before she could answer. “Go!” She nodded to Hayden who took Marilla’s hand, tugging her through the castle walls and beyond the fray of gathering warriors.
“Hayden, slow down,” Marilla whispered, even as the forest pulled them in. She nearly tripped over the cloak Hayden had pulled firmly around her, hood up.
Hayden turned to her, looking past her through the trees to where the temple’s warriors were still lining up to defend their home. To defend her home.
Kayda came to stand before the gathering warriors, watching the flames approach with an unyielding glare. Frederick’s army slowed, the horses pulled to a stop violently and tapped their hooves against the charred ground with annoyance. Marilla didn’t recognize any of the warriors supposedly from the castle where she had once lived.
None of them were Frederick at least.
“We have heard that the treacherous general who stole the princess away has sought refuge here,” declared the current head of Frederick’s army. “Harboring a fugitive is considered treason, and by Emperor Frederick’s orders we will arrest all those involved.”
“There are no fugitives here,” Kayda said gruffly. “Just my temple’s warriors and the sick. Some mysterious illness swept through our training camp recently, so I’m sure any fugitives would have moved on to avoid it.”
“Lucky,” sneered the soldier, and Marilla saw one of Kayda’s forehead veins pulse.
“Quite,” Kayda snorted through gritted teeth. “We wish only to serve the new emperor.”
Marilla didn’t hear the enemy soldier’s response because Hayden pulled her farther into the cover of the forest, assuring her that Kayda had it under control. Marilla felt her gut clench at those words. The anxious way Hayden was pulling her away felt ominous.
Frederick’s soldiers didn’t care if a crime was committed or not. To be safe, they would fight.
They hadn’t gotten deep enough into the forest for Marilla to miss the sounds of battle behind her. She froze, her blood chilling at the familiar sound of clashing steel, “Hayden—”
“They can handle themselves.” There was doubt in his voice, but also the overwhelming need to protect her. She was his everything. His everything, and he needed to get her somewhere safe no matter the cost. She felt it, felt his desperation through their conjoined palms, but it was her life to risk, not his.
But it’s our fault, it’s because of us, she wanted to say. After hiding while her father was murdered and fleeing to save herself, she had promised herself that she wouldn’t run anymore. She wouldn’t hide from danger if someone needed her help.
Kayda and the others needed her help.
Planting her feet firmly into the dirt, she ripped her hand free and when Hayden twisted to retrieve it he was met face-to-face with Marilla’s bold eyes of fire. “They need us, Hayden,” she said once, her voice hard, unshakable.
“Princess,” Hayden pleaded.
“Kayda was right, I’m not a princess anymore.” She turned at that, her hair catching on the breeze and blowing the hood from her face. “So I will not hide like one.”
She pulled her bow from over her shoulder and sprinted back towards the temple, her caramel hair streaming behind her and catching the last rays of twilight through the leaves. Hayden, though terrified, felt his lips pull against his cheeks. He smiled and felt his anxious energy turn to adrenaline. Whether she considered herself a princess or not, she was still his princess, and he would protect her and fear for her and be proud of her. She was the only one who could pull all those emotions from him at once.
She was a force to be reckoned with, and now the whole kingdom would know.
Marilla burst from the trees and into the battle of soldiers against warriors. Bodies already littered the ground before her. The temple’s warriors were fighting at half capacity, still exhausted and sick with poison. More temple warriors lay dead than Frederick’s soldiers, but she tried not to notice as she strung her bow and shot into the crowd, making the body count more equal.
Blythe and Vince fought side by side, their backs covered as Blythe spun his double-edged spear. Vince flung his chained ball of iron at a passing soldier as he rode a harnessed stallion for the temple entrance.
The chain wrapped around the rider’s throat, the iron ball securing it as Vince ripped the rider off the steed’s back. He landed in the dirt with a loud thud as another rider advanced on Vince. Marilla took aim with her arrow, releasing a puff of air before firing into the threat’s heart. She didn’t have the opportunity to consider what she was doing, adrenaline made her hands shake and her brain foggy. In that moment she knew only to protect and defend.
“Thanks, Princess,” Vince breathed as the soldier hit the ground beside him.
Kayda grabbed Marilla’s arm and wrenched her around to face her. “I told you to go!” she snapped.
“Clearly it made no difference,” Marilla spat back, gesturing to the surrounding battlefield. Frederick’s soldiers had reached the wall and were breaking it down with fire from their torches. Pitch snapped across the stone walls and lit to smoke out those still within.
Kayda’s eyes rounded with horror as one wall crumbled beneath a catapulted stone, the rocks falling into the temple and crashing through several buildings. Rubble which had once been walls and homes lay beneath the enormous catapult stone. Shrapnel sprayed into the air to join the smoke that gathered in the sky.
“Kayda,” Hayden said quietly from where he stood guard behind Marilla. He sounded defeated, in mourning. His home demolished.
Kayda didn’t look at him, too preoccupied staring out over the battle, the fire catching and spreading as the sickly temple warriors were beaten back. “Retreat!” she finally called reluctantly. “Retreat!”
The warriors immediately started backing towards the trees, their blades still clashing with the soldier’s but drawing back and away from their home. Marilla beckoned to some of the young warriors. There weren’t many younger than twelve or thirteen, but they fought with the same level of ferocity to defend the only home they’d ever known. Marilla took their hands however and dragged them back and away from the possibility of death. The temple was evacuated at least. Everyone had been fighting, so no one was caught inside the walls when they came down. No one was caught beneath the rubble. Frederick’s soldiers chased them into the trees instead but stopped when the temple warriors crossed the river.
From there they could still see their home burning. Watch the smoke rise and hear the crack and cheer of the catapult and soldiers as another building fell.
These people, Marilla’s new family, were just like her now. Always orphaned but now refugees, fugitives in their own kingdom. Powerful, well-trained, enraged, homeless fugitives.
Frederick had made his second big mistake.
They watched silently from the cover of the woods as smoke gathered into the sky thick enough to block the ascending moon. The smell of ash and fire burned their noses as they witnessed with limp expressions or tears in their eyes.
“Commander?” asked one of the warriors who had first escorted Marilla and Hayden to the temple. His companion was nowhere to be found. “What is our next move?”
Kayda stood rigid and silent as she watched the sky, not stirring to answer the warrior since she had no answer to give, but Marilla did.
“Isn’t it obvious?” Marilla asked in her stead. “We storm the castle.”
Kayda did turn at that, her eyes narrowed into slits. “Of all the bullheaded, reckless things to say.”
“Maybe, but our only other option is to run and I’m tired of it.” She looked out over the defeated warriors covered in blood and soot. “I was confined within the castle, sheltered from everything outside but I’ve come so far since then. I’ve traveled and seen new lands, trained with weapons and met so many people who hated my father and the way he ruled. I saw citizens and families suffering, had suffered because of my father’s unwillingness to help them. It made me feel so helpless and frustrated, enough to be tempted to turn my back and start a new life up on these mountains, but now Frederick has woken me from my selfish dream again. He has made me realize how many people I hold dear and strive to protect above even my own life, so I’ve realized I cannot hide, not anymore.” She turned her blazing eyes onto Hayden. “It’s time to return and take my rightful place as Empress.”
All the temple warriors exchanged glances then, all except Hayden who looked at Marilla with love and admiration, and Kayda whose expression was pinched with ferocity, her eyes glassy. Marilla never doubted that Hayden would follow her until her dying day, but she hid her uneasiness at Kayda’s silence. Kayda was a wild card, Marilla wasn’t certain what she would decide but Vince was the first to declare his allegiance to Princess Marilla followed by Blythe and some of the other temple warriors though most waited for Kayda, their first loyalty to their commander.
“We will march with you,” Kayda finally declared after consideration, a sudden and intense bloodlust alive in her eyes. “We will hunt with you, and this false emperor will be our prey.”
All the warriors were in agreement then. Their home was destroyed, they had nowhere else to go and so they reverted to their most basic training: follow their leader and obey her command. They were just mindless soldiers then with no thirst for revenge or purpose beyond following their mistress’ every order. Something they had been trained for from the very beginning.
These warriors were now Marilla’s mercenaries, her army and legion and she would earn their respect and undying loyalty in time though those she had already won over she had a plan for. Not all of them were blind soldiers, some were fierce leaders and she would use them as such.
Marilla looked back over her shoulder again at the scene of smoke and ash, a former home destroyed to send a message. To send her a message that she wasn’t safe anywhere.
Frederick had now stripped Marilla of her home twice, but this time she intended to fight back.
Just as the last time Marilla had fled without warning, she had nothing but the clothes on her back. Though she was more fortunate to have her bow and dagger stashed in her boot, this did nothing to provide shelter. She could smell rain on the air so the warriors expertly gathered materials from the forest and began building a makeshift shelter. They pounded sticks into the ground then stacked them overhead layered with leaves. It took time, but by midnight they all had a safe place to sleep for the night.
Kayda counted the warriors and reported several missing, Francine among them. She had fallen in the line of battle, weakened by toad oil as the rest of her comrades had been. There was little time for grief however, and Hayden assigned guard duty to those who remained while Kayda gave scouting orders. Soon the entire camp was split into three teams, one would rest while the others scouted or guarded, and at some point they would switch so everyone received well deserved rest during the dark hours.
Hayden sat down beside Marilla by the fire. He had assigned himself guard duty first so he could wait up by the burning embers. “I’m guessing I’ve been assigned to—”
“Rest, Princess,” Hayden confirmed, and Marilla snorted.
“Typical,” she sneered playfully, watching the fire crackle over the logs. They would have to kill it soon so the light didn’t attract Frederick’s soldiers. The dancing flames drew a thought from her, she remembered something Kayda had said to her that she had never addressed with Hayden. Now didn’t seem like the appropriate time, but somehow it also seemed like the only time with death all around them, lingering like a shadow. “Kayda told me during your training here that you spoke highly of me.” From the corner of her eye she saw him look at her, and though she remained focused forward she felt her cheeks heat under his gaze. “She hinted that you may have loved me then.”
There was a pause between them where she could just hear him breathing evenly. She was grateful for that, his even breath despite the day’s deadly battle. She hadn’t realized how terrified she had been for him and her new friends until the adrenaline of the fight had subsided. It was paralyzing, her fear for his safety. It greatly outweighed her fear for her own.
“It may come as a surprise to you, Marilla, my princess, but you’re the only one I want,” his husky voice filled the void finally, and Marilla held back a pleasant shiver despite her skin feeling well heated. “Have always wanted,” he continued at a whisper and leaned forward to press his lips into her hair.
Her breath caught and her eyes closed. “Can’t I stay up a little longer?” she asked in a whisper, sneaking some seduction into her tone.
She felt him swallow against her. “Have you eaten?”
A smile pulled at her cheeks as she teased, “Not well enough since leaving the castle.”
He chuckled and stood, holding his calloused hand down for her. “Well, I couldn’t deny my princess a hearty meal.”
She smirked at him as she took his hand and let him pull her to her feet beside him. “Hunting?” she asked innocently.
