Bloodlust (23 page)

Smoke 'em out.
While the dwarves lived within the stone, deep in the earth, the barbarians carved their dwellings from boulders on top of the soil. The fire would not harm the marketplace or any of the dwellings, and especially not the fortress.

She reattached her silverbow to her back. To her surprise, a few trolls were trying to put out the fire from their comrades, but several had already charred to death. Flames eagerly ascended the tree trunk, smoke billowing toward her. Satisfaction filled her as, through watery vision, she spied numerous patches of fire spreading throughout the land.

Swan-diving, Ivy leapt off the branch. Her feet collided with a troll's back. He crumbled to the ground and would stay there as her dagger pierced his spine. The mini fires grew and engulfed more of the land. To some extent, it forced the trolls closer toward the fortress, but it also took out many of them, far quicker than if she had not started them. A few fiery trolls ran from the fight, shrieking as their skin melted.

Smoke made it difficult to see, but she didn't need her vision to fight. Sounds guided her — the whiz of a weapon hurling toward her, the breathing of her opponent, grunts, howls, the screams of the dying. Her arms never stopped moving, longsword in one hand, dagger in her other. The thudding of her heart matched the thudding of her weapons against either flesh and bone or blade or armor.

When the Bloodlust rose within her this time, she didn't even think about it. It coated her closer than her skin, and she embraced it like a lover. Blood would rain.

Small fires ringed by stones encircled by tiny trees dotted the outer fields of Ordisium. The goliaths and goliathas sat on the lowest branches. Although small, the sturdy branches could support the weight of even the heaviest of goliaths.

Lukor traveled to each fire, talking with the goliaths gathered there, determining who was on his side and accepted his leadership.

Karrina's steady gaze drew his attention at the next fire. She gestured to the empty tree branch beside her. At the other stone tribunes, Lukor hadn't bothered to sit, but he did now, eagerly. His muscles were tight, and he needed to relax. The feast would be ready soon, and then he would have an hour or two of sleep before meeting with his goleaders to determine their route and plan of attack.

"How are you all?" Lukor gazed at the other five goliaths.

"We had been talking," Karrina answered. "About you."

His lower back ached, and he rubbed it. "Speak freely."

"Where were you? When the other leaders were being massacred?"

He met her gaze without flinching. "I am here now. That is all that matters." The need to explain himself grew within him, but he squished it like a duggle bug. He did not need to be second guessed.

Karrina nodded and licked her lips. "I, for one, am glad you are back."

Lukor bared a faint smile and turned to address the other goliaths, but they had all left.

A hand touched his knee, and he almost jumped. Karrina leaned in so close he noticed a green ring surrounded her brown eyes. "You and I, we could make certain the goliaths do not ever have to fear that their leader will be short lived."

The warmth of her touch burned through his pants. He shifted his leg slightly to try to deter her, but her hand remained.

"Why should there remain a line of succession?" she continued. "Why not—"

"Our ancestors formed the line of succession for a reason."

"It's archaic."

"It's reasonable."

She sidled closer somehow. Her branch must be as wide as it was tall. "Would it be so terrible to contemplate something new?"

He snorted, and she pulled back, her teeth reflecting the firelight. Tradition was all they had. Several humans and dwarves had united around the same time, giving rise to the first goliaths. The first goliatha born grew up to become the first ruler. The others, her successors. As the goliath line grew, the current ruler added someone to the end. Far more fair than declaring one family royalty when nothing special coursed through their blood to make them more superior than their fellow species.

"Not everyone is happy with you." She stared at the fire.

"I did not expect global happiness."

"What did you expect?" In the shadows of the night, her dark skin looked almost black. Unlike most goliaths, she had almost no lighter shades of green.

"I... I do not know." The admission was painful. Being ruler was not easy. Perhaps staying here, in Ordisium, would be better than rushing off to war, especially with his people so divided, their loyalty in question. Some he had already spoken to had been quiet, and he knew they preferred Karrina to him.

"Everyone knows you hate the barbarians," she said quietly, a hint of compassion in her voice, tinged with a clear warning.

"What do you want from me?" he asked abruptly.

Karrina stood and approached him. He held still as she placed her hands on his cheeks, but when she lowered her face toward him, he jerked back and scrambled to his feet.

"You have eyes for someone else?" There was no sadness in her eyes. No love either. Perhaps she did want power, more than he had first thought.

He opened his mouth to say, "No," but couldn't. His first thought had been of Ivy. Her firm, muscled body, slender despite her power. A beauty to behold when she fought.

She's killed goliaths,
he reminded himself.

So have I.

"Who is she?" Karrina asked, her voice strangely soft.

"There is no one." How could he even think of Ivy in such a fashion? And yet when he stared at the fire, he could see her dancing within the flames, lithe and fluid, passionate and full of life. Captivating purple eyes. A single scar on her face. More marred her backside. He recalled water trickling down her hair as she bathed. He found himself imagining—

No. How could he think such thoughts? She was a barbarian. A goliath killer. The enemy. Nothing more.

"Lying to yourself will only bring you misery. Why not try for happiness?"

"The golock does not have the luxury of happiness."

"Oh, but I disagree. He could have all he wants. And more." She reached toward the collar of her leather dress.

Lukor dipped his head toward her in farewell. "I have much to do tonight."

He did not wait for a response and moved from stone tribune to stone tribune at a much faster pace. At one where only goliathas sat, each flirted with him. He found himself comparing each to Ivy, ridiculous as that was. Ivy's skin was tanned, a solid color, without light and dark markings. How strange he had thought her face when he had first come across her. It felt like so long ago, even though they had known each other less than a moon's cycle.

The goliathas' compliments he accepted, but their offer for him to stay he declined. As he walked toward the next stone tribune, he spied two forms in the darkness. His hand went to the axe at his side until he realized it was a couple and what action they were engaging in. Tracing along another's dark markings was almost a magical moment for goliaths, an experience he had never felt. Goliaths mated for life. Several had gone mad with grief when their loved one had died. After losing Lucia, Lukor couldn't bear the thought of growing close enough to someone to even look at their markings closely.

Ivy didn't have any.

Why could he not stop thinking of her?

Because he knew well the chances that he would see her in the morn and he knew not how he would react or she. The idea of fighting barbarians did not frighten him, but the idea of fighting her made him more than a little uneasy.

Sleep did not come to him that night. He and his goleaders marked a map of their course. Then he changed into his armor, the bronze completing him. Shortly before the first rays of purple sunlight shone upon the land, the armed goliaths and goliathas mounted their war hogs and rode on to war and freedom.

The sounds of the battle faded away as Ivy wounded trolls, hacking her enemies, trying to carve her way closer toward the fortress. Yet more and more trolls barred her path. The thrill of the Bloodlust still consumed her and controlled her arms, forcing the enemy back. A few dents and nicks marred her armor bodice, but she felt no pain, whether because none of their blades had touched her or if she was in the midst of war too much to feel it she didn't know.

A drop of wetness touched her face. Not blood. Rain.

No clouds had dotted the sky earlier, and none did now, but a torrid of raindrops fell. At the top of a nearby, non-burning tree sat a figure. Ivy jumped onto the head of the short troll in front of her and walked across the field on their shoulders to reach the tree. With ease, she climbed until she could get a good look of the person.

An elf. He looked strangely familiar, and Ivy almost let go off the trunk when she recognized him. The elf was identical to the one she had spoken to in the Spirit Realm, the one who had foretold the end of her people.

Ivy threw her dagger at the elf, but he flicked his hand and the knife flung harmlessly into the crowd of trolls. The drenching rains extinguished her fire's handiwork within seconds.

We barbarians will be defeated.

No.

She refused to give up.

Once more giving into the Bloodlust, Ivy jumped down from her perch. The instant her legs touched the ground, the rain stopped. Her feet slid against the mud, and she shoved her sword through the nearest troll. Blood trickled from his nose, reddening the extra bone all trolls had through their septum.

The sound of marching distracted the trolls around her, and she quickly killed them for their lack of self-preservation. Dimly, through the haze of Bloodlust, she caught one word from a troll.

"Goliaths."

Ivy continued to attack, thrusting her sword at every heartbeat she heard, ending them, killing and slaughtering everyone. Blood flew back toward her face and clothes each time she brought her sword up and prepared for another strike.

The whiz of a weapon coming toward her backside had Ivy whipping around, bringing her sword in a wide arc. She sliced into the troll's stomach and kicked his body out of the way, his mace coming nowhere near her as he crumpled to the muddy ground. The thumping of heartbeats rang loudly in her ear. She had to stop them. Silence was her aim.

Her cloudy vision recognized one sight. A goliath dismounted from his war hog. She knew those markings, did she not? His tall form. Huge muscles. Green eyes. The thudding of his heart... Did she want to end it too?

Coming out of Bloodlust voluntarily Ivy had never attempted before, not even after shoving that monstrous boulder away. Then she had focused on insects and rock-rats, their heartbeats and once she had ended them, she had come out of it naturally. Now, she forced herself to return to her senses, halting the Bloodlust at its height. The sensation of her body being torn from limb to limb washed over her as tears soaked her cheeks. Such pain she had never experienced before. Agony stretched across every limb. Still, she fought on, ignoring the goliaths, striking the trolls, killing them through her own means, and not through Bloodlust.

A solid form, almost like a stone wall, pressed against her back. She ignored it and pressed on, the longsword spearing through not one but two trolls at the same time.