A Hollow Mountain (The Brightest Shadow Book 2), page 60
"Well, that's a nice trick."
"What are you doing here, Mohuno?" Tani advanced on him with her sickle knife drawn, repositioning three knives in her other hand. Mohuno, if that was his name, simply shook his head.
"We were working with the mansthein, though I had no idea it would lead me to fight you. I'll call off the attack right away."
"How many others are there?" Though Tani spoke as if she knew him, her muscles remained entirely tense, ready to snap into violence at a moment's notice.
"Not enough to overcome your forces, and the mansthein have mostly died anyway." Mohuno turned away, giving a call to the other raiders, leading those who remained to flee. With one more grin over his shoulder, Mohuno leapt over the village wall and vanished into the mountains.
Tani growled and rushed after him, leaving Laeri standing among the injured.
~ ~ ~
Though Tani knew that it might be a trap, she pursued Mohuno as he and his raiders retreated. She realized that she was alone in her pursuit, the errants holding back to defend against other attacks. That was the more logical choice, especially with so many injured remaining there.
Just as logic was about to convince her to turn back, she saw Mohuno stop and wait for her.
When she reached the ridge where he stood, she kept her weapons aimed toward him. Mohuno simply smiled and sheathed his sword, even putting his hands on his hips as if not remotely concerned that she would attack him. He looked so honestly pleased to see her that it made it difficult for her to maintain her anger.
"If you're here," he began, "does that mean the Hero is as well? This sage is actually someone important?"
"What's important is why you're working with Deathspawn."
"They prefer to be called mansthein, you know." Mohuno shrugged as if it didn't matter to him. "But whatever they call themselves, they have the strength to annihilate all of the villages the Steelbone clan attempts to protect. Their presence here is unbalancing everything, but by cooperating with them, I can defend all my people."
Despite everything she remembered of him, Tani found herself bending to his rationale. "I understand why you would do that, but if you lead them to kill us, we'll fight back."
"Do you think I truly took their cause for my own? Now that I know you're here, I'll make certain that they do not threaten you."
"Is that your plan, then? Play both sides so that you can emerge from this war surrounded by treasures and women?"
To her surprise, Mohuno's endless confidence cracked. He stared at her with something between hatred and pain. "You were right, Tani. I hated you for it at first, but you were right."
"What do you mean?" She carefully straightened and returned her weapons to their places. Though she couldn't truly trust him, she thought she could trust him far enough not to attack her.
"You think I'm going to cry at your feet and beg forgiveness and tell you all the ways that I was wrong?"
"I expect you to give me more than false apologies!"
He took a deep breath and those eyes, which normally clung to her, looked away. "No more women who are scared of me have joined me on the furs."
Tani hesitated, not wanting to hope. Yet the pain she saw there... if she denied him now, it would mean that Veron and the other cynics were right. Though she remained cautious, Tani found herself smiling at him. "I never wanted you to beg forgiveness, Mohuno. I just wanted you to truly defend your people the way you claim you want to."
"And that's more difficult than I thought. I understand." Mohuno turned away from her, crossing his arms tightly and staring out over the mountains. "The Steelbones are the future of the clans, but we cannot become the future all at once. I could not change until my father died, and perhaps my sons will need to wait for my death."
"I don't believe that we need wait for generations to pass, but what matters is that you intend to do what's right." Tani's smile faded as their present reality reasserted itself. "So now we find ourselves on opposite sides."
"No. I do not fight for them, mansthein or Deathspawn. I fight for the Steelbones, all of them. But in this great war between the Hero, the clans, and the mansthein, I do not know how best to protect my people."
"I have some answers, because I've seen this before." Tani stepped up beside him, gazing out over the same stretch of mountains. "The Hero will be victorious in the end, but the battles along the way will be bloody. What we need to do is prevent them from slaughtering those who cannot defend themselves. If you are scouting for the mansthein, could you deceive them?"
"They don't trust me enough for that. But what if I led them to fight roaming bands of men instead of villages?"
"That would be an excellent start. I also thought that we could save lives if we allow the Hero and th-"
"I want something as well." Mohuno turned to her, gaze utterly serious. "I want to meet the Hero."
Tani flinched away from the thought and attempted to swallow her reaction. "Why?"
"Why? You ask me why I want to meet the Hero who stands at the center of the Legend, who the stories say is destined to save humankind and end the Deathspawn forever?"
"I... suppose it was a stupid question." Tani closed her eyes and accepted that if she wanted to work with Mohuno, it would not be so simple. He would have requests of his own, and it was only right for her to mirror his flexibility. "What are your demands?"
"I don't want to exchange demands." Mohuno took a step closer, again nearly touching her, and this time she didn't step away. "We want the same thing, do we not? I need to defend my people and you want to protect those peoples you have adopted. They stand between two ravenous beasts that would love nothing more than to consume them. Only by working together might we save them."
"Then you propose... an alliance?"
"An agreement." Mohuno extended his hand in a strange gesture, nothing like a proper Rhen greeting or even the Oken wrist clasp. Whatever it was, she understood that it represented a commitment she had never seen in him before.
Tani extended her hand to his, unsure how to take it. He clasped her hand firmly all the same.
Chapter 44
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"Emdore was shocked by the sight of Emlioon's hair beneath her helm and all his fellows told him that she was surely an enemy assigned to seduce him. As the memories of her hair and halberd haunted him, Emdore sought other battlefields and other foes, yet none in the Maenhu could stand against his lance. Emlioon wept, but as she wept, she thought."
- excerpt from The Tale of Emdore and Emlioon
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Celivia had seen a great many glorious fights, exchanges that left both warriors with increased respect for one another. She had seen brutal deaths, but also women who survived and for the first time accepted their own strength. Above all, she had seen the intimate understanding that arose when two warriors fought for nothing but the joy of it. For all that could be ugly in combat, she also saw its beauty.
War, on the other hand, involved more soldiers shitting themselves than she expected.
Currently half her band was groaning above the latrine, raising a horrendous smell that even reached their fire. Other bands seemed to struggle in the same way, but the reason for the illness had yet to be found. According to Ghasfik, such widespread illness wasn't uncommon, though he himself had succumbed, vomiting with the others.
In theory they had medicine to alleviate the symptoms, but Big Ragh had eaten all of their supply on his first day ill and it had only given him stomach cramps. So they were left to cope as best they could, which in Celivia's case meant bringing them water occasionally and otherwise staying as far away from the smell as she could.
When she passed by, Brifik looked up with a grin. "You think we could weaponize all this, Kaen? If we somehow hurled all this shit at the enemy, I think they'd surrender just from the smell!" He laughed so hard at his own joke that Celivia found herself smiling.
"Don't give them any ideas. Just bring them this water and make sure they drink it. Seems like the disease does little harm if you suffer through it."
"Why don't you... oh, you don't want to see everyone's dangly bits." Brifik gave her an exaggerated wink. "I understand, Kaen."
Instead of correcting him, Celivia merely shook her head and moved on. The truth was, she just wanted to be near anyone who smelled something like normal. She spent time with Ghalia and Reina when she could, but both were frequently busy at the front. That left Celivia as an officer, which in this case felt more like minding sick children.
Whatever the core problem was, even Jeraeli's company struggled with the illness. Unfortunately, Jeraeli had retreated far from the smell with her Feras companion, apparently spending all day in bed. Visiting them had left Celivia uncomfortable in a different way, and in any case she needed to remain near her band.
Tani and Slaten wouldn't suffer like that, if they were out there. Yet again Celivia found herself staring out over the peaks, her sense of depth fading into the heights. She made certain to attend every meeting with her assigned captain and always asked about their human opponents. It had given her a bloodthirsty reputation, but she was mostly interested in learning if Melal was present. If he was...
"I think I figured it out." Fijn appeared beside her carrying a crate of dried meat. "This deep in the mountains, our supply chains are suffering. Most of the food is good, but this entire crate is starting to go bad."
"And this can explain the illness all over camp?" She had presumed that the contests among bands, filled with meat dripping fat in the open sun, might have been related.
"There were more than a few crates, spread out over the cohorts." Fijn picked up one of the pieces of meat, strangely slick and greasy. "Some soldiers catch it from each other and the contests probably spread it. But here's the real problem: this crate is a new one. It wasn't just one bad shipment, we're going to keep receiving them."
"We have few enough rations as it is." After trying to think of an excuse, Celivia took one of the pieces and gnawed on it thoughtfully. She didn't even think about chewing in a masculine or feminine fashion until after, when she'd dealt with the unpleasant aftertaste.
"Uh... are you sure you want to do that, Kaen?" Fijn's eyes flicked back toward the latrine.
"My body won't become ill with a bit of food that's going bad. Here's what we do: inspect each new shipment of rations more carefully than normal, then send everything that's bad to me. Hopefully that way we can get enough to eat and no one will get sick."
"If you insist. Makes me want to stop my sein training, if rotten meat is all it will earn me."
"Keep at it if you want to live, Nin. When Ghasfik is feeling better, coordinate with him to move our camp. We need to avoid anyone being reinfected."
Fijn nodded his agreement and left the crate beside her before returning to the others. It was fortunate that he'd avoided the illness, because her work would have been much more difficult without him. Splinters and Huthur were also ill, one of those troubling her much more than the other.
Some part of Celivia felt that she should be rewarded for being a responsible band leader, but no one seemed to care. She simply continued with her training schedule, which now included the poorly dried meat. Even after several days she wasn't used to the taste, but she thought that it was still healthy enough. So long as she had enough food to support her training, the taste didn't matter.
Her band began to recover, but not enough to be ready when the call came for them to move. It seemed that without warning, the Earthbreaker clan had turned and struck the mansthein flank, just where it was weakest. Since everyone was being called, Celivia took Fijn, Brifik, Krafan, and Puga. The rest she would have to hope could finish recovering on their own.
Ghalia had been given a temporary command position, since the conflicts with human raiders had showed that the average band of soldiers couldn't compete. It was technically a demotion from being an independent warrior, yet Celivia found herself frequently thinking about what Jeraeli had said. Surely Ghalia was simply fighting as she thought was best, nothing more.
Reina's absence, on the other hand, was quite concerning. Dangerous as Reina could be, she was also fragile. Celivia found herself thinking more about her old friend than the half of her band that she had left behind when they began to march.
After days of tedious logistics and shitting in the woods, they hit the edge of the war without warning.
Celivia heard the screams first and saw soldiers dropping ahead of them. The humans were throwing spears from the northern flank, so other bands received the worst of the ambush, but now raiders howled down at them even as the second volley of spears soared overhead.
As she drew her whip, Celivia shoved Krafan to the ground just before a spear passed where he had been standing. There was no time to check on him, not with the raiders having closed. And Puga... damn Puga was charging back, as if his spear and shield alone would do any good against sein trained warriors.
She launched herself after him, colliding with a raider who rushed at his side. The impact startled the man more than her, so in a flash Celivia's knife was in his chest, her tail through his thigh, and her nails across his throat. When he crashed to the ground she leapt off the body.
Fijn and Brifik had wisely raised their shields with a tree at their back, so they were close to safe. But in the time it had taken her to catch up, a human had backhanded Puga, breaking his shield and sending him sprawling. He would have already been dead if other mansthein hadn't moved in to menace the raider.
Her strike took the warrior in the side, but this time her blows failed to penetrate deep. Not only could he keep fighting, an instant after he shoved her away, another human struck from nowhere. Though Celivia's reflexes were better than the raiders', she still struggled to deflect his wild axe swings with her knife. Her tail lanced out and stabbed his stomach several times, but he just kept coming, driving her back and nearly over Puga's body.
Celivia barely managed to land on the other side and released her whip in a focused strike. The raider ducked beneath it, as expected, but as her sein flowed down her whip it lashed around his weapon arm. Though the blades only dug into his skin superficially, they were enough for her to pull him off his balance and into position to cut his throat.
He pushed on despite the rush of blood, slamming his free hand into the side of her head. She tugged her whip again and stabbed him in the chest, but he only pulled back for another punch at her face.
This time she dodged aside, sank her teeth into his arm, and tore away part of the muscle.
With both of his arms disabled, the human finally fell. Celivia realized that Puga was on his back, staring at her in something like horror. Though her first impulse was to assist the other band, she saw that the injuries she had dealt the other raider had allowed the soldiers to fend him off with their formation. With the fighting around them stilled, Celivia bared all her teeth in a smile and offered Puga a hand up.
"These humans are tough, Nin. You need to stay in formation."
"So... so I see..." Puga accepted her hand, still staring at her. He would take some time to accept the reality of combat, but she thought that he just needed time to rest.
Meanwhile, the other three members of her band caught up to them, looking around themselves nervously. Without strong instincts, they were right to fear, as humans might appear from the forested hills at any moment. Celivia sensed none, but even she could be taken off guard, so she gestured for them to follow her cautiously.
At the top of a small hill, she was able to look over the current battlefield. It seemed that the first strike had been on a narrow ledge, many soldiers pushed off the side. The battle on the higher ground had gone to the mansthein, but below it was a slaughter. Few of the humans had died in the fall, so now they savagely finished off the fallen mansthein. Worse, the survivors below would soon advance on the upper position, and at a glance Celivia thought they were severely outnumbered.
Then she realized that someone was streaking toward them. She drew her whip before she realized that it was Reina. The other woman skidded to a halt, eyes wild, and spoke in a hoarse whisper.
"Celi, you have to pull back. They're coming."
"We retreat to that ridge!" Celivia gave the command to her band immediately, but as they moved, she bent closer to Reina. "What do you mean? What's happening?"
"This is what I'd hoped to stop... the commanders were tired of the humans ambushing us, so they brought a countermeasure..." Though Reina didn't finish her thought, Celivia understood.
At that moment, the howl of the Bersk echoed across the valley. She actually saw the ripple through the trees as they entered seinrage and scythed forward, falling on the human raiders in a storm of blades and screams. Since attempting to enter the battle at its height would be foolish, Celivia could only watch the carnage below.
The Bersk struck without regard for their own safety, ignoring injuries even more relentlessly than the raiders. Some who were impaled stopped moving, and decapitated raiders fell immediately, but the majority on both sides survived, tearing into one another and rendering the valley a bloody mess in a few heartbeats.
Realizing they were overwhelmed, many of the raiders attempted to flee to the upper ground... which was the worst thing they could have done. The Bersk relentlessly pursued them, now free to hack at limbs without fear of reprisal. As the battle surged toward their position, bodies struck the side of the ridge so hard that stones were dislodged.
Celivia heard a cry from her right and turned just in time to see Brifik stumble and fall over the edge.
She should have jumped immediately, but for a moment she only stared. Though he struck his head and shoulder on the way down, his equipment saved him from an immediate death. Considering that he tumbled toward the carnage, death might have been a mercy.
Though Celivia heard Reina whisper "Celi, no" she still found herself rushing after Brifik. She was too late to defend him immediately and several fleeing humans closing on him. Just as they raised their weapons to cut him down, a pair of Bersk hit them in a whirlwind of blades that sent limbs and gore flying in all directions.
