The Realms of Animar (37 page)

Countless streaks of black shot through the air as the archers atop the walls began their volley of arrows. On all sides but the front, the carnivores had already reached the pit and had started to cross. The muddy water that had collected in the trench slowed the carnivores considerably and made them easy targets for the archers. Their numbers were limitless however and when one fell another was right behind, eager to risk death for the taste of blood.

Turning her attention to the front of the village she watched in horror as the horde of carnivores reached the Aquans and crashed into them with a swarm of fury. The creatures from the sea fought hard, shifting back and forth between their spectacular animal forms but she knew that they would not last long against an army of such magnitude.

Behind the Aquans a legion of mounted villagers led by Avryn and Guderian charged down the hill along with Caballus and a score of other unmanned horses. They galloped without concern, seemingly immune to fear. With them the hope of the village rode.

After not spotting Mordigal near the village, Trussil reluctantly climbed higher and moved above the heart of the enemy force. Although her eyesight was remarkable, the carnivores were packed tightly together, with very few open spots in their ranks, leaving her task of finding him almost impossible.

She was amazed at the variety of troops that had been gathered. Most were typical carnivores but some were rare and from the farthest reaches of the world. It was then that she understood the utter hatred that drove the man they followed.

Trussil was startled when a whistle in the wind caught her ears. She instantly recognized the sound and quickly slowed her flight and scanned the air around her. It was too late. The vulture was already on top of her.

A skilled aerial fighter, the hideous bird morphed into a wild-eyed man and, in one quick motion, struck Trussil’s left side with a club. A shooting pain erupted in her wing and was followed by a cascade of feathers that floated into the air. Trussil lost her balance and spiraled toward the ground in an uncontrolled descent.

With a wicked grin on his lips, her attacker fell through the air briefly then morphed back into Avian form and chased after her. Trussil tried desperately to right herself but she knew her wing was broken. The wind rushed past her as she continued to plummet downward bracing for the moment that the vulture would strike and it would be over. Not like this. She did not want to go out like this.

A loud shriek pierced her ears. Fearing the end, she closed her eyes just before sharp, powerful talons gripped her back. Then pain overtook her and her world fell to blackness.

***

Alia struggled to ignore the madness around her, the screams and the pandemonium, the chaotic rush of people that passed her as she continued her desperate search for Felia. She did not have time to be afraid. She had to find Thane’s mother and get him to the tunnel. Relief then struck when a familiar voice call her name.

“Alia!” the woman shouted.

She spun around quickly and spotted Felia running towards her.

“What are you doing up here?” Felia asked. “You should be down below.”

“Avryn told me to find you and Thane and get you both to the tunnel. I can’t believe he locked him up. Did you he did that?”

Felia looked away briefly, clearly disturbed by the question. “What else could we do?”

“So you knew?”

“It was for his own good. You just can’t understand.” When she realized Alia was still not satisfied, Felia wiped the rain from her face and continued, “Come on. Let’s get him out of there.”

Together the women ran through the village, past empty homes and storefronts, past the school and the Great Hall and finally reached the makeshift prison. To their surprise, the guards that had been stationed outside of the tiny cell were gone.

They quickly approached the door to the cell and Alia withdrew the key Avryn had given her. “So much for the guards,” she said before she then pushed aside her wet hair and went to work on the lock.

Felia looked around but the area was deserted. “I’m sure they went to join the battle.”

Suddenly they heard cries coming from inside the cell. Surprised, Alia flinched dropped the key to the muddy ground. She knew right away it was Thane but what they heard were not pleas for help or even coherent demands for release. They were the irrational screams of someone gone mad and were accompanied by the obvious sound of thrashing chains.

“Thane?” Felia called out. She then pounded on the door with her fists while Alia recovered the key then continued to work on the lock. “We’re coming!”

Seconds later the door opened and they rushed into the small room. What the women saw immediately stopped them in their tracks and briefly froze the moment to everything but the rain that dripped to the floor and formed puddles around their feet.

Before them, his hand still chained to the wall, was Thane. He did not acknowledge their presence but only continued to struggle with the shackle attached to his right wrist. He twisted and tugged, screamed and groaned, completely ignoring the blood that trickled down his arm. Although every attempt at breaking free of the chains had clearly failed he nonetheless, as if having lost all understanding of logic and reason, continued to reach out to a small table across the room. He was enraged, overcome by a desire for something out of reach, possessed by a need for the objects sitting atop the table, the two swords given to him by the Aquans.

“Thane!” Felia yelled. She withdrew a key from her pocket and tan to him. “Sweetie, sweetie. It’s us. Calm down. Calm down.”

Her desperate attempts failed to calm the rabid prisoner. Lost in madness he pushed her arms away, sending the key flying from her grasp and tumbling across the room.

Alia stepped between Thane and the swords he so desperately longed for in an effort to capture his attention. It was then that she was able to look upon his eyes, his once beautiful eyes that she so loved but to her horror had somehow turned to glowing spheres of pale blue light, free of all other coloration. He seemed to look right through her, past her rain-soaked clothes and through her beating heart that wanted nothing more than to soothe him. His mind, she then realized, was lost.

“Alia!” Felia cried. “Alia we have to get him out of here.” When the girl did not respond, she repeated her plea, this time holding out the palm of her hand. “We have to get him to the tunnel. Give me your key.”

Alia placed the key in Felia’s hand and watched as his mother went to work on the shackle. Just as she heard the unmistakable sound of the latch clicking free Alia realized what would happen next. She sprinted across the room toward the swords, just as Thane wrestled free of the chain. In the blink of an eye, and without a hint of his intent, he vanished and then appeared beside the small table where he quickly grabbed the swords. Alia reached out to him and barely touched his shirt when suddenly, without warning, they were gone.

***

The darkness released its grasp on her mind and Trussil slowly opened her eyes and took in her surroundings. The rain pelted her face as it fell through the trees overhead and she could feel the wet ground beneath her back. She was in the forest near Avryndale although this provided no comfort for she had no idea how she had arrived.

Hearing movement nearby Trussil quickly sat up, instantly sending a fiery pain through her left side that caused her to cry out in agony. She reached for her shoulder and found a massive gash from where her feathers had been ripped earlier.

“Take it easy,” a man said. “You have a nasty wound there.”

Alarmed, she turned and saw a stranger looking down at her. Atop his pleasant face, which currently held a curious smile, was a bright red clump of hair that sent her mind spiraling backwards as she struggled to place the familiarity she felt for the stranger. He was adorned in long brown pants and a thin white shirt that clung to his muscular frame, soaked by the water that continued to descend upon them.

“Who are you?” Trussil asked. She then remembered the attack and panicked, “You’re the vulture that attacked me!”

The man folded his arms and looked around. He then knelt down beside her and said, “I killed it actually, at least I’m pretty sure I did. A spear through the belly probably did the trick.” He then leaned in and reached for her shoulder. “Here, let me take a look at that wound.”

She pulled away. “Who are you? One of Airulli’s men?”

The stranger laughed. “Hardly!” he declared. “Quite the contrary, I was hoping to run into him and reward his hospitality. I don’t suppose you know where I can find him do you? Hiding from the battlefield I take it? Or did he send his dear sister to do the dirty work?”

The man’s sarcastic tone shocked Trussil. His tone was that more of a boy than a man, perhaps he was younger than he appeared.

“He is here,” Trussil said softly while her mind sped through distant memories. Lightning struck in the form of a realization of who stood before her. “Merik!”

Merik smiled and stood up. “Funny, I thought you had forgotten me.”

“Forgotten? Hardly. But how? You…you…”

“Died? No. Cast aside maybe. Forced to leave my home and abandoned by my family and friends. Yes. But dead, no. Not yet any way.”

“Help me to my feet,” Trussil said. Merik then held out a hand and pulled her up. She then continued, “How did you survive? What happened? You look older-“

“It’s a long story, perhaps for another time.” He then looked to the sky. “Listen, I need to get back to the fight. Lucky thing I recognized you when I did. I’m sorry you are on the wrong side of this affair.” He then turned to leave.

“Wait! You can’t go back out there. Help us, help me. Please.”

A look of amusement blanketed his face. “You are kidding I hope. Fight with Airulli? Never. Actually, he will be shocked to learn that the weak, broken outcast he discarded is now the leader of the flock currently dispatching his men with ease.”

“How could you do this to us? Why? What have these people done to you?”

Merik pondered her words then replied, “Done to me? Nothing. Our kind survive by hunting, it is who we are. We make alliances when necessary. Granted, Fatalis did not exactly portray what we would be fighting correctly. We thought we were taking out a legion of barbarians, not chubby farmers.”

“This is my home now Merik. I helped build this place and these are good people. They would have never cast you aside. I left the day you jumped from that platform. I too died that day. My whole world changed.” Her eyes watered with tears that mixed seamlessly with the rain that trickled down her face. “Please. Please help us.”

The smile on Merik’s lips slowly faded and for the first time he looked at her with sympathetic eyes. “You were good to me Lady Trussil. You were the only one, but you were good to me.”

“This is my family Merik…my life. You don’t know how hard it was for me to return to Ovion and ask for help. That is how much these people mean to me.”

Merik looked to the clouds as if pleading for guidance from above. The rain cascaded down upon his face while he pondered his next move.

Agonizing moments slipped by that seemed to last forever. He then returned his gaze to Trussil.

“I cannot fight alongside Airulli,” he said before raising a hand to quiet Trussil. “However, I cannot cause you suffering either. There will be consequences for me. Fatalis will come for my head but I will take my men and leave.” He then stared into her eyes and his tone became sharp. “Listen to me now. My troops are just a small piece of what he has. Even without them your people don’t stand a chance. You should come with us. You will die if you stay here.”

Trussil shook her head. “I cannot leave. This is my home now. I will stay to the end.”

Merik shook his head then turned to leave. A funny smile then marked his lips and then he looked over his shoulder and asked, “Still teaching?”

“Of course. What else would I do?”

“Good.”

Before Trussil could say anything else, the man hopped into the air and morphed into a large red and brown-feathered hawk and shot into the air above and, in a matter of seconds, vanished through the thick treetops.

***

Blending in as one of their own, the wolf worked his way through the hoard as he methodically stalked his prey, pushing through hungry soldiers in both human and animal form, all biting and chomping at the air as they longed to taste flesh. Unable to wait for their opportunity, some had even turned on their own, unable to control the need to kill building within. Such was the life of the carnivore. Blood ruled everything.

Mordigal’s senses were overwhelmed, filled with the sounds and smells of battle and dulled by the constant downpour. As he pressed onward through their ranks he realized that at any moment one of them could recognize him and alert the others. Fortunately, most of those present were mercenaries, recruited after he had left. Nonetheless, if he was spotted, he would be swarmed before he could even raise a dagger.

He tilted his head when a familiar odor struck him. He turned to the right and worked his way through the angry soldiers who scoffed at his efforts. Then, as quickly as it had appeared, it was gone. He had to find it again. He pushed on and quickly detected it once more, this time much closer. He picked up speed and pondered his attack.

He peered through the carnivore horde and spotted Fatalis just up ahead. With just one death the army would crumble. He could not fail.

As Mordigal moved in, a figure stepped from the crowd and blocked his view of Fatalis. Even before he looked at the face he knew it was Ash. Mordigal took a step back and growled.

“Hello dear brother,” Ash said, holding a sword to his front.

Mordigal shifted to human form, lowered the hood of his cloak and quickly scanned the soldiers around him. None had paid them any attention, yet.

“My fight is not with you Ash. Let me pass.”

“Let you pass? The man who betrayed me and killed the woman I loved? You really have lost your mind.”

“Are you talking about Ellyn?” Mordigal asked.