The Exodus Sagas: Book II - Of Dragons And Crowns (45 page)

She rushed at a fast march through the spire haunted alleyways and shadows of castle walls. Paying no mind to the slick cobblestone streets or massing puddles, Angeline kept moving east through the city. The presence came and went, yet cons
tant enough to the lady of the Knights Soujan, keepers of
the G
ods and Goddesses
,
to know
that she was being followed.
All her training under the sacred mountain had given her a depth to her senses, senses derived from the ear
th, the wind,
the moons,
and nature itself. The sleeping mistress of the earth and the fey had blessed her with the ability to reach out to the spirits and whispers that no mortal was even aware of.
Every one of those senses told her that something unnatural was close and approaching, something or someone that she had felt before. Angeline turned the corner next to a large domed and abandoned temple
to Alden
, drew her sword, and waited as the presence came closer.

Rats scurried past along the gray stone wall, on a mission for food and shelter. Nothing but the faint drone of the taverns and travelers disrupted the silence in the alley, yet Angeline was ready for what she knew to be there. A figure moved in the dark recesses of the shadow of the dome behind her. The Soujan Knight stepped from the wall and stood in the middle of the broken street to face her pursuer. “I am Angeline Berren of Kivanis, who is it that dares hunt me?”

“It is you who has been tracking me, mysterious one. This time, you do not have an entire city behind you
. We are alone.” t
he dark figure drew a blade, then a second one and strode toward the woman that he knew to be more than a city guard of Vallakazz. What she was
, he still did not know, but
intended to find out.

Angeline never spoke her title, devotion, or the secret order of which she w
as ordained. The Knights Soujan
had been hunted and killed thousands of years ago with the rise of Alden and the persecution of other faiths to the north and west. The sole remaining temple was under Soujan Mountain, and that too, was a secret t
hat carried more importance than
even her life. She looked as the faint moonlight hit his face, and then she
remembered. The black swirls and marks of a curse, the pale elven skin and pointed ears, his dark hair and green menacing eyes, she knew this assassin
. Knew him
from the Temple of Golden Mercy in Vallakazz where he was hunt
ing Gwenneth and her companions, where he had murdered a priest and many of the White Spider.

“You will not find what you seek here, I assure you. Only a quick death awaits you in this alley
.” Angeline bowed her head slightly. Closed her eyes for a moment of silent prayer to Seirena
and Megos
, and stepped forward.

“
If I had a platinum coin for every time I hear
d that, I would be king
.
Let us see who finds death faster, shall we?
” Kendari held his off-hand longsword reverse as always, and Shiver out in front on guard in his right hand
, the magical heat rippling in the shadowcast air
.
The Nadderi swordsman knew this woman had been following him since their brief encounter in Vallakazz. To Kendari, it was no mistake that she crossed his path again; and if it was, he would only be erring on the side of safety.
Either way, they had an unfinished duel long overdue.

Angeline stepped forward, sword held out high, steps direct and balanced, and the wind at her back. She could feel the air surround her and it let her know in her cleared mind that it was there to help guide her. Her senses could feel a tangible evil surrounding this cursed elf, and her focus strengthened to her movements
, the sacred sword in her hands. She glared at
the
assassin that was approaching her in the alleyway. Her calm and unblinking blue eyes fixated upon the wicked green eyed stare of her opponent.

Kendari circled to his left, his right foot sidestepping over his left as he twirled the hot edge of his longsword over and over in his hand. Angeline kept the circle moving in the exact same manner, step by step, waiting for his blades to move but watching his body movements for the signs
of when he would strike. He stopped, lowered his blades, and hung his head with a smile. His posture
went
completely lax and unguarded, as if he did not wish to fight all of the sudden.

“This is ridiculous, really. I have not even introduced myself, which is very disrespectful to us both.
I am Kendari of Stillwood and-
” Kendari feign
ed to sheath one of his blades
then dove forward in a double bladed lunge. His attack missed her ribs by hairs, the backheld sword cut across at her abdomen which she barely parried. Shiver cut up toward the woman’s face, and her blade turned up into a cross parry as she backpeddaled further down the alley.
The Nadderi swordsman had tried to catch her off guard, but her reflexes were fast and her senses very
active; this woman could not be fooled easily.
He did not let up, crosscutting with his reverse held longblade with the heavy pyramid pommel, then quickly turning with his heat emitting longsword into arcs and slashes toward her upper body. Each attack was met with the two-handed blade of the woman as she withdrew with constant secure steps.

Steel rang in rapid consecutive blows as the lady of the Knights Soujan felt the air help guide her defenses against the twin blades of the marked elven assassin.
Angeline took a deep breath in, holding it tig
ht and sensing her body lose it
s weight to the ground just enough for her arms and legs to keep pace with her assailant. She felt the stone send small vibrations as to the change in pressure from the Nadderi elf’s movements, allowing her to know his movements as he made them. Her sacred blade moved with her senses and inhumanly quick reactions. The tip of the hand-and-a-half sword pointed down to stop the low cuts from his left, while she raised the crossguard and length back and forth to deflect the precise attacks from the elf’s right.

Fearing and seeing Kendari’s edges getting closer past her blade, Angeline rushed backward into the wall and placed her left boot heel on the worn and mossy stone.
As the double sword wielding blademaster pursued, she pushed off the wall and hurled through the air. Her sword twirled in her hands, deflecting Shiver’s hot edge and nearly taking off the head of the ducking Nadderi
elf. Her body turned in midair
and her boots landed firmly on the opposing alley wall
standing impossibly vertical
, fifteen feet later. Another jump from her sideways stance that defied gravity sent her into a flip that ended behind Kendari. Her blade was already cutting and arcing on the advance against the shocked assassin as her feet hit the cobblestones
like feathers
.

Crossing his blades to stop the heavy assault of the green robed warrior, Kendari could not help but be amazed at
her movements. “I must know…” h
e feigned to kick her in the abdomen as their blades locked, but she turned to the left and returned with a boot heel of her own right into his chest which sent him backwards and stumbling. He caught his breath, “…where did you learn to do that?”

“Why?” Angeline kept her offensive mindset, stepping up quickly on the elf as he regrouped and tried to distract her with conversation.

“S
o I can
identify and
kill any other flying humans, it’s just not natural.”
Kendari spun low with his left blade in close to her thighs, then drove subsequent piercing attacks with Shiver at her chest. As he parried them all, his reverse held longsword cut across her forearm, then his heel turned sideways and planted into her stomach
,
followed
by
a final spin
full circle ending with a downward stroke that glanced off of her bastard sword and sliced down her thigh. As she fell back onto her rear, Angeline’s blade came up just in time to stop the finishing cut meant for her throat. The Nadderi swordsman was face to face with his enemy, blades crossed inches in front of them as he pushed his blades into hers with all his weight.

Angeline felt the hot blistering from her bleeding leg, the sting in her cut forearm, and had not caught her breath from the kick to her diaphragm yet. Her arms barely holding him back and starting to tremble as her shoulderblades touched the cobblestone
, Kendari ontop of her with death in his eyes. S
he felt and saw four figures in the alley behind the back of the cursed elf, not twenty steps away. She looked into the
murderous eyes of Kendari, whose
gaze was not on her but ahead down the other end of the overshadowed city street. “We have attracted som
e attention here.” s
he stuttered out from her fluctuating lungs that fought to regain some air.

“White Spider is my guess. They won’t leave a witness.
Five in front of us, how many behind?” Kendari whispered over his defeated foe.

“Four, three of them are hiding something small in their hands and stepping forward very cautiously. I can sense poison on the wind.
Any ideas?
” Angeline whispered back.

“Two in front have crossbows aimed. I will roll you to our left and throw you up at the wall. You take the four in the rear, I have the
five ahead. We meet another night
and
I will
finish you
then
. Agreed?” The Nadderi swordsman glanced at the
strange female warrior, noticing her blue eyes blinking and a slight nod of agreement.
Kendari thought about taking all nine himself and killing her right then, but in his precarious position, he decided otherwise.

“Agreed, but the outcome may well be different.” Angeline tightened her muscles and prepared to roll out of the middle of the alleyway and hurl herself at the wall once more.

“I hope so, for your sake. Ready?”

“Ready.”

Crossbows raised and fired, poisoned knives hurled through the air, and dark agents of the deadliest organization on three continents moved in on the surrounded pair of warriors.
Kendari turned onto his shoulder and threw the woman he had just bested in battle across the alleyway directly at the wall of the abandoned temple. Her body turned through the air
, spinning with blade and hair flowing behind, and heels landing on
the side of the stone temple.
The Nadderi elf kept rolling after his throw, keeping low to the ground as blades and arrows skittered across the wet cobblestone to where he and Angeline had just been a moment ago. Wind rushed past the cursed swordsman, pulled from the alley to h
is previous female enemy. She
hovered with a forward momentum guided by the circling gusts under her feet that seemed to move at her command.

“I must
learn to do that.” Kendari kicked his feet out and down, flipping to a low stance from the ground and charged down the alley toward the five agents of the White Spider.

Angeline Berren dove straight at the four black clad thugs that blocked the rear of the alleyway as the wind whipped her hair and green robes around her.
The four men drew rapiers and shortblades then moved to surround the woman that had been fighting with the elf they intended on collecting the bounty on.
The maiden of the Knights Soujan cut across in a rapid set of sweeping attacks that kept the distance between she and the four men with shorter swords. Two of them moved in with lunges of rapier tips regardless and the steel blades were knocked aside from the furious flashes of the Agarian woman’s bastard sword. The two other masked bounty hunters moved along the wall to flank her and keep her pinned, shortswords and daggers in hand. A mighty thrust from Angeline reached into the
chest of one of her opponents causing him to withdraw and fall to his knees clutching the wound. She glanced to her left as she backed into the abandoned temple. Angeline saw a flash of black armor and steel in the midst of the other five, now four, men standing around Kendari. Feeling herded and trapped, her only chance to survive was to get into more open ground that the old building hopefully kept beyond the rotted door she kicked in with her boot heel. The three agents of the White Spider followed her inside, assuming to catch their wounded female victim either way she went.

The Nadderi swordsman ducked another swordcut from the rapier, then another. He heard the head hit the s
tone street, then the body, his second dead
adversary. He turned and thrust his backheld longsword behind him into the gut of a human agent that had snuck around him. The man screamed in pain, and Kenadri ripped the blade out sideways as he continued his low crouched assault, dancing and weaving in the dark of night between the men. He parried one attack with Shiver, and counterattacked with a crosscut into the bounty hunter’s thigh. The hot edge of the
longblade in his right hand slashed across his chest deep, sending the man tumbling backwards with sizzled flesh and bleeding lacerations that dominated him with painful groans as he dropped his
rapier. The cursed elf rolled again, landing upright with his back against the wall. He looked at the two remaining White Spider hunters of the city streets and smiled, then to the dead man without a head and their two allies squirming in the throes of terminal wounds at their feet. “I say that evens t
hings a bit, would you agree?” h
is shining green eyes stared with a wickedness and smile that chilled the two remaining swordsmen.