Defiance (Rise of the Iliri Book 3) (27 page)

Chapter 29

They surged forward.  Sal pulled her swords from the sheaths at her back and made a straight line into the enemy, Jase beside her as he'd sworn to be so many times.  They flew past the Anglian pikes and, like a hammer, the Blades hit the Terrans.  Sal's sword slipped so sweetly beneath a man's helm, his flesh parting before the edge, and she felt the maast surge.  Jase cleaved through the arm of another, and her desires screamed in her head.  Roo grabbed a horse's throat, the taste of blood filling her senses in a way Sal had never experienced before, followed by Hwa's teeth piercing the thin resin helm of the rider.  The man's jaw cracked beneath the grauori's strength – and the maast gripped them all.

The Blades cleared whole swaths of the battle as if reaping a crop.  The Anglians cheered them on.  Raven's sides soon became as spotted as Arden's with the blood and gore splattered across both mounts, and still, they pushed.  Sal lost track of how many men they killed, feeling she needed just one more.  As the blood soaking her hands congealed, her grip on her weapons became even more secure, and she swung harder, Jase stayed always at her left as if an extension of her. 

Suddenly, they had no more soldiers before them.  The iliri had pushed across the front and come out the side.  Spinning their horses, the pair began to wade back in when Hwa's voice screamed in their heads,
Make for the King!

Across the side, an organized line of Terran cavalry charged straight for the Verdant Shields – and Dominik.  Sal put her heels to Arden.  The mare lunged forward, feeling her rider's panic.  The iliri hacked gracelessly at anyone who came between them and their duty.  Raven leapt and kicked out, crushing a man's skull and knocking him from his saddle, and still they waded through the bodies.

We won't make it!
she told the grauori, pushing Arden harder and taking risks she normally would've considered unacceptable. 

I'm here,
Roo said, the taste of blood seething in her mind.

Sal could feel Hwa not far behind.  In the distance, a white streak leapt and pulled a man from his horse, and Sal tasted the joy of Hwa's kill.  The need to match him took over.  She cut at a man, her blade slicing through the slit in his helm – not killing him, but he screamed and fell from his horse.  Another Terran crossed in front of her, and Sal sat back, asking Arden to rear.  The mare's hooves lashed out, dazing the man.  Arden's pinned ears warned the enemy horse away, the steed trampling its rider as it fled.  When Arden landed, her ears flicked forward again, seeking another aid, and Sal urged her forward – ever forward – making for the King's side.

She was almost there when pain screamed through their heads.  Roo's yelp carried across the field.  With their minds open, each of the Blades felt the blow to the little female's side, the pain so sweet Sal couldn't control herself.  She frenzied, all traces of control gone as she pushed toward her packmate.  Jase screamed and spurred Raven, shoving his mare into the man before him, and the Terran horse fell.  Raven jumped over it and Sal followed, thinking of nothing but death.  Their blades flew.  Both iliri growled as they cut through the enemies until Roo's mangled body was before them. 

Jumping off her horse, Sal ran the last few feet, ready to kill the human lurking over her friend.  Growling, she launched at him, pulling the big man to the ground.  One sword dropped forgotten from her hand, and in her feral haze, Sal automatically reached for the steel knife at her back.

A split second before the edge severed the man's throat, he cried out, "Laetus, Kaisae!" turning his head to the side and looking away. 

Sal gulped at the sweet air, seeking a familiar scent, and found it.  Ilija.  Her instincts told her to kill the threat, Sal knew the man beneath her.  She shoved him away, searching for her sister.  Seeking to stop the pain flooding her mind.

"Sal?" Ilija gasped.

She put her knife away, grabbed her black sword from the ground and crawled across the dirt without acknowledging him.  She didn't have time.  Roo was right there and had to be protected.  The Kaisae was supposed to take care of her pack, not get them killed!  Only a meter away, Roo lay gasping, her waist cleaved open.  Desperately, Sal reached for her mind, begging her friend to survive.

I feel them, Sal,
Roo told her.
  The pups are coming.  Raast is ready,
Roo panted in her head,
but I think Rhyx is hurt.  They're coming, Sal, and it's too soon.

"Get me a medic!" Sal screamed, true terror in her voice.  Roo's hind legs sprawled limply and the bitch's intestines lay against her belly.  Beneath her skin, the pups moved violently.  "Ayati, please!" she begged the world.

Ricown dropped beside her on his knees, and his hands checked Roo's body.  Sal heard Ilija grumbling softly to him, but Ricown answered back, "I don't care if she guts me, damn it!  Roo's my friend!"

A small crowd was gathering around them in the middle of the battle, blocking the enemy lines.  She could feel Hwa tearing men apart to reach his mate.  With Roo holding their minds wide open, Sal barely noticed when the King knelt beside her.

"Take my horse.  Get her to my pavilion and find the best physician.  I don't care what it takes, take care of her!" Dom ordered, shoving Ricown toward the grey mare.  "Ilija, help me get her up to him, and you," the King pointed to another Shield, "help Ricown.  Do whatever is needed, is that understood?" 

Ricown mounted, and the two Verdant Shields pushed their horses close.  Together Dom and Ilija lifted Roo's body, trying to be as gentle as possible but it wasn't enough.   The grauori's scream of pain pulled at Sal's maast – then the link went dead.

"She's pregnant, the pups are coming," Sal yelled at Ricown.  He nodded once before spurring the grey mare back toward the camp.

Her mind was silent.  Too silent.  Only the sounds of battle crept in, and that wasn't enough.  In the distance, grauori called out with their eerie howl, and she tried to reach for her friend, hoping it was Roo.  But her mind slammed up against a wall.  For the first time in months, the link was just gone, and no amount of straining could reach her friend's mind.  She tried again, grasping for anything.

A soft touch met her and gently pulled Sal's mind into a link.  Automatically, she reached for Jase, and the linker followed her mental hands.  Embracing the Ahnor, whoever it was settled his mind right beside hers and then eased them into the fold.

Laetus, Kaisae,
the male mind said. 
Be welcome among the grauori.

Her awareness expanded as more minds joined, their senses mingling together.  Another entire group slipped in, then more, and minds began to meld with Sal by the dozens.  Like sparks of emotions and senses, they were spread through the trees and grass around her.  She knew everything, could see it all, and had eyes everywhere she needed.  Sal's violent maast pulled at them, and Jase's added to it.  The grauori minds reached for their lust, savagely excited for the death this battle offered.

"Maast," Sal breathed as she regained her feet, aware of nothing but the minds of so many grauori linking with her own.

"What is it?" Dom asked, grabbing her.  "Sal?  Kaisae?"

A single, bright spark raced away, pulling itself from the maast to chase Roo's ember. 

"The grauori are here."

"In the King's tent, Sal," Ilija said, stepping before her eyes to point back toward camp.

"No.  All of them."  

Her eyes refocused on her friend, then she snarled viciously and jerked her head around, seeking the men in purple.  The need to kill them smothered everything else.  She wanted them
all
to bleed.  All of her did, echoing back into the abyss of the link.  On her left, Jase growled.  Side by side, they pulled their blades and ran, forgetting their mounts, ignoring their friends, seeking nothing but death.

Dom tried to grab her, but Ilija stopped him.  "She's not human, sire.  She almost killed me earlier.  Come on.  You're on foot, let's get you behind some lines." 

The humans turned to retreat – but stopped, staring in awe.  Out of the trees, an avalanche of white poured down, racing over the hills on four legs.  Silence fell across the Anglian camp as the beasts ran, weaving between soldiers without so much as a glance.  Until they reached the battle line.  Their pale coats turned dark as the animals waded through the deep mud, their growls too low to hear, but each man felt the rumble in his chest.  In the midst of the beasts, Sal and Jase swung and killed, slicing horses legs and rending men apart as if wolves themselves.  The grauori wave passed the men in green but tore through the Terrans.  Screams marked their passing – and the Anglian army began to cheer.

Sal knew nothing but death and anguish as she made the enemy pay for her friend.  The maast engulfed her.  She became little more than a cell in the organism that devoured men who threatened them.  Her hate became amplified.  The defiance of an entire species flooded through her.  Hundreds of deaths assaulted her senses and her need for more swelled until there was nothing left to kill.  She sought something to satisfy her.  Finding nothing, she hacked at an injured man, growling at him as she did so, unaware of the fear in his eyes as he died.  As gently as they had come, the minds left.  Bright flashes of consciousness faded in groups until she was left standing with Jase, knee deep in mud and death, and her pain flooded back to her.

Sal slowly sheathed her weapons and stared at the carnage.  Men screamed in pain, their mutilated bodies betraying them, and grauori slunk across the field, dispatching some in their jaws, others kneeling before men to help. 

"Maast," Jase whispered.

"Ya," a voice said behind them, and the iliri turned.  A nacione female stood looking up into Sal's eyes.

She knelt, and the grauori did the same, both meeting as equals.  "Laetus, Kaisae," Sal whispered to her.

Laetus to you, Kaisae of the iliri and the humans.  I am Orassae of the grauori.  We are well met.

Sal dipped her head in acknowledgment. 
I thank you.  I know war is a human thing, but they threaten us all.  If they knew about you -

The bitch cut her off. 
They should know of us.  The Kaisor respects us, and for the first time, we are treated as true people.  Your packmate lies on a king's bed, with a king's healer and one of my own, treated as a friend, not as a beast.  For this, tell him we will fight. 

I will, Orassae,
Sal said. 

And let us show these beasts what we are.  Send one back, let him tell the story of the grauori.

Sal agreed completely.  Seeking a Terran soldier who'd be well enough to survive, she strode across the battlefield.  A grey male moved with her, and somehow Sal knew he was a healer.  She looked at the bodies, discarding most as too far gone until she found a young man, his face shredded from grauori jaws, his armor rent by Anglian blades.

"This one," Sal said, pointing.

The healer knelt at his side, growling as he touched the human.  He exhaled, and the Terran's eyes went wide, then began to track.

"Close your eyes boy.  You're about to be the only man to survive this," Sal snarled at him.

The kid gasped for breath, but the grauori stopped before the soldier was completely healed.  Sal nodded to the aufrio male, and he trotted away.  Then she knelt next to the boy.  In a few moments, he opened his eyes, a tear streaming out as he stared at her blood covered face.  Her defiant eyes glared at him with no sympathy.

"I am iliri," she said, and he nodded.  "Humans made us from them.  They are the grauori.  Say it."

"Graw ori?" The kid asked, and Sal nodded at him, her face cruel.

"You have seen what we can do.  We bring
death
.  We have powers you can not imagine.  The Emperor wants to destroy us, not because he is a god, but because he fears that
we
are," Sal said, watching the kid's eyes.  Terrified, he nodded at her, showing he understood.

"Today, you will live.  Return to your army, boy.  Follow the foothills and you'll find them.  They're riding in the path you left.  Tell them.  Bring them here and show them, but do not crest that hill," she pointed at the rise her army camped on, "or we will make you pay for it.  Do you understand me?"