Shadow
skidded
to a stop upon hearing a gurgling cry from one of the
soldiers.
Instantly afterward, the ground shook with Aliyn's impact, scattering
rocks,
dust and blood in all directions.
She
moved, turned to run back over to the fallen dragon and help, but a
strong
hand clamped onto her shoulder. Her only reaction was a deathly
glare
as she looked back to whoever actually had the gaul to stop her from--
Roan's
remorseful eyes met hers head-on. How it pained him to do this,
how
it absolutely hurt to have to say it, but... "We've got to go."
Evyn
felt a sharp agony in his stomach as though those words had been driven
through him. "Can't we do any--"
"We have
to go now." Roan asserted almost fearfully. There
was
no time to stand here and explain. Startled looks were passed
back
and forth, only forcing them to linger. "I'm sorry, but there
will
be more, and they will not stop coming until we're all dead or
captured."
"We
can't just leave!" Taerlyn exclaimed in a harsh whisper. She was
all fear, all terror--half because she was certain Roan was telling the
truth.
"I'm
sorry." He attempted again, trying to find the words
quickly.
"There are thousands more, and we have to get out of here before they
come."
Only
to reflect his words, a slight movement caught their attention.
It
was a line of several dozen soldiers to join in the battle with their
dead
comrades, coming up over the lip of the valley they'd just escaped
from.
Armor clad, swords waving, rushing and calling and raving...
Shadow's
eyes narrowed. God damn it. They couldn't
stay.
They wouldn't survive. It might well require too much time and
healing--fuck,
there was another line of soldiers approaching from just around and to
the side of the valley, too!
So
he was right. So they'd... have to run. They were being
forced
to leave another behind, another that was still thrashing with
everything
she had in her. But if they didn't, if they stayed... they could
not afford to be captured or killed. They could survive injury,
but...
for how long? She and Roan, they could heal themselves.
Maybe
the others, too, but... their energy levels wouldn't last. After
the bridge incident, they'd discovered what being totally drained could
do. They couldn't afford that here and now.
That,
fucking, sucked. Shadow broke a little with the surrender, unable
to speak. She couldn't bring herself to hear the sound of her own
voice at that point. Only a nod, a small and unfelt
gesture.
She shouldered her share of the supplies, made sure Adrian was holding
on tight, and they followed Roan with all the speed they could
manage.
Even with the stamina they'd acquired over their journey, they wouldn't be able to run all through the night. Granted it was still broad day, but the thought wormed its way in to Shadow's mind regardless. It was almost welcome in contrast with the one that had been there before--abandonment. They'd just... they'd left Aliyn there to her death. The very thought brought more weight upon her as she sat straight down on the ground, trying for just a moment to catch her breath before they continued. The more distance put between them and the soldiers, the more they'd be able to rest later. If they could rest later. If there was a later to rest in.
Ugh, what a thought. They lingered only long enough to catch their breath, then continued. It felt like a fucking death march. And all the while in the far distance, Shadow could swear she heard the soldiers following behind, hollering with the excitement of slaughter.
Roan had absolutely no desire to tell her that she heard correctly, alright. They'd be damn lucky to be killed if they were surrounded. Maybe the soldiers worked that way, but Aunger didn't; and, in the end, it was the bastard king that ran the show in its entirety. The very idea was making him much more nervous than he cared to think about.
Evyn's old wounds ached with the run. Though that may have had to do with the equipment he carried more than anything, it didn't help matters. He couldn't shake the feeling that it no longer mattered where or how much they ran. In all likelihood, they were already surrounded. The castle would be swarming with more soldiers, and the ones in pursuit would eventually catch up. He hoped and prayed his adrenaline would stay up well enough to be of any help at least.
Taerlyn was getting tired. She wouldn't even admit it to herself, really; she was smallest of all of them. She also had absolutely no need to have been running or working in the fields in her life before any of this. Slim but bare of muscle was not the best situation to be in, given the events. She would not stop or give in, though. She'd follow and she'd help, dammit.
Shadow tried in absolute vain to convince herself that she did not hear anything ahead of them. It was just an illusion, something brought on by the heat and the running. As the trees thinned then stopped abruptly, opening into a bare field of dead crops, however...
The clatter of all of their supplies being dropped to the ground was instant. No longer a need for words, the weapons were picked up and prepared (Evyn dropped the pummel behind in favor of the ax presented to him freely), all under the sound of their heavy breathing and the grunts and metallic swishes of the three or so dozen elite soldiers in front of them. They were all grinning with those awful yellow teeth, all preparing to take a chunk before capture.
Roan wished to hell he'd learned more magic. Anything elemental would help them out. These guys were just men, after all. Unfortunately, all they had were the four of them and some weapons to counter. Hopefully it was enough.
The group was pressed closely together, waiting. It was simply understood; let them come. It'd be utterly insane to have made the first move against so many opponents. Not that "sane" or "insane" mattered anymore. They were just words.
Katana selected as the first weapon, Shadow was not fucking around here. One lunged for her and she reacted instantly--Adrian was nudged lightly over to Taerlyn's shoulder, since her weapon was distance. Herself, eyes of fire ignited with the raw need to escape alive--she took a step forward and ran the man through, slicing out from his side rather than bothering to pull back. Obviously that one was fatal, so she let him drop to focus on the next.
Taerlyn took the hint and moved back, letting the other three be her wall. She carefully loaded the bow and shot over them and through the spaces between their bodies. It was then that she discovered the twinges of a previously hidden instinct: knowing where they would move and when so she wouldn't shoot her friends by accident. It was a good thing to have, most certainly. She got the feeling that somehow Adrian was helping her along just by sitting there on her shoulder, watching closely--but it wasn't a thought to hold onto at that moment.
Two more advanced at once, but between the ax, katana and straight sword, they fell away in a shower of blood. Several arrows found targets in throats, rapid-fire.
Again, a common knowledge was immediately understood by watching the body language of the soldiers: they'd stop advancing one by one all too soon. The three comrades who composed the wall slowly stepped out, spreading and taking advantage of their position to take out a few more of the morons who tried to rush them. It wouldn't last for long. The smarter ones were staying behind, waiting for their opportunities. Damned if that wasn't enough to make them worry.
Maybe... if they advanced just a little bit more, that would bring the bastards out. Totally silent, instinct driven, the difficult decision was made. They'd have to make the attempt to catch them off guard. Worth a try, especially in this situation. Taerlyn stayed behind, arrows ready to fly, and the others advanced several steps, slashing all the way there.
Well, that succeeded to get several more of the soldiers out of hiding and bleeding on the ground. And it did indeed grant some of the ones in the back license to take hold--but that was not a good thing. The group's leader being common knowledge by now, one of the soldiers approached just too close and too fast. Granted that the first strike was deflected, but the truth was simply that he'd had more training and more mass. He brought the curved blade down again with such brute force that there was no way Shadow's hands could hold onto the katana any longer; the sword rocketed from her grasp with a horrific agony running from fingertips to shoulders. Her stance weakened, she stumbled on the dry and dying earth, trying to regain her foothold but being unable to get a good enough position to dodge--
The soldier laughed once, hard and vicious, and thrust the blade through the left side of her chest, just between ribs. He could smell victory as strongly as he could smell her blood, and turned the blade until he got a satisfying crack and a sharp cry of pain.
"Bastard." Evyn hissed through his teeth, bringing the ax up and taking the soldier's head off. Blood sprayed, staining everything with yet more red. His vengeance had distracted him, letting another sweep past his side to take Roan off guard. Luckily he caught his mistake quickly enough, bringing the soldier down from a deadly slice through the spine.
Then came the unfortunate reminder that the ones in the back were smarter. The victory and bloodshed was enough of a distraction to slip through. Even the landing of an arrow in his thigh wasn't enough--adrenaline and the kill raced through the soldier as he darted toward Taerlyn.
She saw it, alright--too late. She fell back, impaled on his blade. And in her arms... oh god, in her arms... Adrian was just a ball of orange as Sandy had been in the seconds before she'd disappeared. The little beast shrieked, cried out in fear and confusion, and as Ter's bloody fingers tried to grasp at the form, it simply disintegrated.
Evyn was too shocked, too horrified to react. He was dead still for only long enough for one of the soldiers to seek him out. Too fast, too quickly, unable to move or even see the attack--he was on the ground in seconds, helpless from the harsh impact of being struck with the heavy hilt of a blade between his shoulder blades.
Roan felt his being fill with rage. He let it go with a guttural cry and a wide sweep of his sword, slicing three apart and dead almost instantly, and another two within range spraying blood and screaming. He could not escape the two obscenely long throwing daggers criss-crossing his direction, however. One landed in his thigh, the other deep through the right side of his abdomen. Unbalanced and wounded beyond his capacity to heal instantly, he fell.
What life Shadow had regained was knocked to hell after seeing all of that from the ground. Ter, Adrian, Evyn, Roan--unholy, completely and totally without anything good or right or peace... And to add even worse to that, the cries of the soldiers that had been tailing them was close enough to know that, if she dared to look over, she'd be able to see them approaching. The edges of her vision had begun to darken, causing the sky to look like it was fading out. Her hearing also seemed to be going, quiet swishing overcoming what was once near silence. But, blinking, she realized slowly that her illusion was quite a bit more than that. The sky was definitely getting darker. And the sound was definitely there, definitely real, thrumming and getting closer...
The sight of what waited over the horizon stole what breath she had left. The sky, was filled, with dragons. Hundreds of them, by the look of things, flying together so closely that they blocked the light behind them. All colors, all sizes, all strange and glorious shapes and patterns of scale and fur and feather--all flying toward them, breaking up and spreading out as they approached with the sound of giant wings flapping.
The soldiers that remained alive gawked. A look of fear overcame some of them, and a lust came over the eyes of others. Whatever the reaction, this battle had gotten a hell of a lot more interesting, very quickly.
Some of the smaller creatures at the front of the living cloud dove, landing on their hind legs and wielding weapons like a human would. Axes chopped, war hammers collided, swords connected and shimmered with blood. Larger dragons behind them dove and tore with their talons, roaring with all the ferocity of the great beasts they were. Yet more landed in front of the advancing army just emerging from the trees.
A huge beast, white with black and gray tiger stripes and possibly twice the size of Aliyn, dove from the middle of the group and landed in a bouncing stop beside those that he was sent to protect. Circling his body around their injured party, he encased them in his wings and raised a reptilian talon, murmuring something in a seemingly impossible language. A familiar ball of blue fire erupted from his palm outward, encasing the bleeding comrades--but this was of a different sort. In a burst of warmth and tangible relief, it healed them entirely and absolutely; even shattering the unwelcome things that had entered the flesh, leaving them perfectly unharmed and unmarred. In a growling, deep voice he announced, "Get on, quickly. Before more magic is used."
Questions. Fuck, a million questions--that they couldn't afford to ask at that very moment. They rushed up the beast's sides, finding the scales to be quite a bit harder than Aliyn's had been. His body was covered entirely in nothing but the white or striped scales, save his wings. Wonder of wonders, they were feathered like a bird's and just as striped as his body. Grasping onto the sharp but not too terribly uncomfortable back, they hung on for dear life.
Satisfied that the hold was strong enough, the dragon began to run. It reminded Shadow very much of a high speed escape from the law in a specially equipped racing car, in fact. That thought was replaced by being on top of a great and powerful jet plane with a mouth that snapped at soldiers in the way. Things blurred past at a rate too fast to see, too quickly to understand. The "runway" must have been almost a mile long by the time the proper speed was reached, wings spread out into the air, legs compressing for just an instant before that amazingly powerful leap rocketed them off of the ground and into the air. But it sure as hell didn't end there--there was the first huge flap after that. It was like a roller coaster, dropping down, shooting up, then up and up and sideways and down, before finally just plain up, into the sky, above the battlefield.
Queasy, sad and upset (but no worse for wear in the physical sense), they looked down below them. It was a battle of truly massive proportions, the carnage seen even from their increasing distance. That really only made them feel a little more nauseous.
"I am Marqueh of the Chaste Desert." The dragon announced through his breath in a gritty, deep voice as he started soaring. "A friend of Aliyn, and an ally of yours."
Shadow swallowed at that introduction. They didn't have much of a choice but to take his word for it at this point. "It's not that I'm not extremely grateful..." she began delicately, "But, what happened back there?"
Marqueh turned his head just enough to look at her before he spoke. It was an old habit of politesse, to look at one before answering a question. "Aliyn and I, we have a connection." He answered simply enough, giving them the general idea. "Friend", "connection", it didn't take much imagination. "I received... impressions from her earlier. I felt there was no other choice but to gather the rest of the willing and engage the army. We came as soon as we could."
The very way he spoke of it... it made Shadow shudder a bit. The carnage would not leave her mind--there were undoubtedly many dragons that would be injured severely, not to mention killed. They all had families, friends...
"It was our choice entirely." Their ride assured, picking up the impression of her thoughts. After all, she and Aliyn were closely connected. It only made sense he'd be able to get a little bit from her, as well. "We had already agreed to fight when the time came."
From below all of a sudden came an eruption; not of the smoke and fire sort. It was magic, pure and simple. For a moment a whole section of landscape behind them ignited in brilliant red-orange, the sizzle of what could only be that kind of power seeming to drift into the air. Indeed they were glad to have gotten out of there before that shit was broken out.
"I can look after your sleep." Marqueh continued, making a wide and tilting turn around a cliff side. "I can find food for you. And I can deliver you to the castle. But I cannot help you beyond that."
A brilliant shudder went through Roan's shoulders--he had the distinctly unpleasant idea that the dragon was not unwilling, simply unable. If they were "delivered" right to the castle... there was no doubt that would be suicide for the creature.
The realization was a shared one, however; just another mental blow. Taerlyn delicately wiped the tears that had formed in her eyes from such a thought and pretended that the moisture hadn't been there at all. That was quite the heroic thing to do, but she sure as hell wished no one had to make such a sacrifice.
Evyn... well, Evyn was just hanging on. Everything was a little too still, too silent. He wasn't going catatonic or anything (he hoped), but... he just needed to be able to not have a reaction. Any reaction would have been draining. From screaming to crying--it would have taken too much out of him to stop once he'd started.
Shadow was certainly along the same lines. I shouldn't have such ego. She tried in vain to joke with herself. She felt damn shitty, and somewhat responsible for the whole mess. It felt like all of those dragons were killing and dying just for her family's sake. That was not as romantic as it was supposed to be, according to many low quality books. She would not back down. She couldn't possibly. She might not be the reason all of those creatures behind them had died--were dying--but she was going to do every fucking thing in her power to make it all right. Aunger had damn well better be ready to die; this all went beyond personal.
And then, with another turn, they saw it. Still distant, but close enough to get a scope for--the castle. And it was indeed immense. It seemed to blot out the very mountains behind it, reaching so far into the sky that the turrets looked like they were touching the clouds. In fact, they probably were. The spread was massive, the height seemed impossible even by sky scraper standards, and all of it was a dull gray stone. From their distance, it appeared smooth; but as they neared it, the surface of the stone seemed... uneven, somehow. They were still too far away to really see anything clearly, but there was most definitely something... "off" about it.
Roan cringed and closed his eyes for a moment, his head swimming with things he could not suppress. It was like just being this close to the madman was bringing pain to him. He breathed steadily, blocking everything else out until there was only that breath, in and out, steady and flowing. He could do this. He would do this. And Aunger would die by one way or another. If he was really lucky, he'd get to do it himself. His shaking, white-knuckled fist was comforted by a light hand resting on top of it.
Here came the whole damn Ides of March, alright. Shadow supposed they'd get some sleep and a meal, and then... Ides of March. Tied to the stake, nailed to the cross and off we go. Heroes, martyrs and morons, unite.
Evyn watched closely, uneasily. It wasn't the fact that they were close to... "their destiny". No, that hadn't been such a big deal for a while, really. It was that they seemed to be central to... everything. He and Ter... well, they were important, yes. But almost out of the range of fire, in a sense. He was worried. He was desperately scared. He set one hand firmly around a scale and wrapped his free arm around his biological sister.
Taerlyn was still midway through trying to control herself. The tears were still flowing, but they were few and far between. She made no sound of crying, and had no real desire to sob. At this point, though... what more could she do?
Shadow's eyes ghosted Evyn's, and they smiled halfheartedly at one another. How sappy. How cliché. It didn't really fucking matter at this point, though. "Come 'ere. Group hug." She joked.
Marqueh chuckled deeply underneath them, turning once more and heading for a rocky bluff overlooking the castle. It was safe enough until they needed to leave. Those that survived the battle behind them would be joining by sunset to act as defenders. Until then he was quite certain all effort would be placed on trying to raise the death toll on the other side.
