An Apocalypse Rising Ch. 04

Color seemed to drain from her already fair skin as she looked to Anna, then to the General before speaking. "A dozen," she whispered before clearing her throat and making the effort to raise her voice and focus on nothing but the facts. "A dozen, as reported, sir. Two heavy beasts in front with the rest on either side. Three women, I think, following behind."

She stammered to correct herself before she got the response she suspected her uncertainty would have gotten her. "Definitely three and they look female, and only sort of human."

"How many captives?"

"I counted eight."

Neral glanced at Anna, who nodded. "Good." She quickly assembled her troops and went over the plan. "Hopefully the distraction will work. If it does we'll have a clear run at the heavies. I don't want to fight them any longer than I have to. Dion, I want you to come in hard and loud after our first pass. If you can, time your strike to hit after our first turn. Otherwise, our mages against theirs, and archers rain the pain. And, in the middle of all that, if anyone makes a run at the hostages, we do what we have to protect them; simple enough. Any questions?"

No one had any, so all that remained to do was wait. Neral felt Stenna twitching beneath her. She knew what was coming. She wanted to run. She wanted to charge, but her rider was at peace. This is what she'd spent her life doing. She would move, then her enemy would, then she would counter that in a dance until one saw an opportunity arise from their opponent's mistake and ended it. She surrendered to that truth and waited for her moment.

That moment came with the sound of the wagons on the road. She judged their distance and hers as the seconds ticked by. Slow, deep breaths took her those last few heartbeats until it was time. She felt no different and no one else acted as if they did either, but she trusted the magics would work.

They moved.

They went from stock still to the pounding of hooves into earth at full gallop in seconds. She was pleased seeing that her timing was setting up as she hoped and she'd intercept them at the point she wanted to, putting her cavalry between the wagon and the larger beasts. She leaned into Stenna, drawing her longsword. When she reached the downward slope to the road she saw the beasts turn to look away from their approach.

She aimed her sword to put the tip into a gray and black hide at just the right angle and depth that she wanted. Neral rushed between the beasts and the horses pulling the wagon, causing them to rear and whinny. At the same time sword found hide and dragged across it, bringing anguish from the beast and a wild swing to strike back that just missed. Once they reached the opposite field she wheeled around to see the damage done. Three of the human-sized creatures were already on the ground lifeless from a hail of well-placed arrows. The creature she had struck focused on her despite several deep gashes in his flesh, snorting and howling in rage at the sky.

Her infantry was engaging the other while three of her archers maintained the high ground, striking wherever they had a clean shot. Anna was in the fray, using her daggers to climb the other larger beast while Makleen and Dion engaged it from the front. Deres was in the wagon, using blasts of orange fire from his palms, effectively forming a perimeter around it while the people in it hunkered down. The female versions of the things attacked him when they could but she marveled at the way their bolts seemed to strike but wash over him as though he were armored. He didn't seem fatigued, but she knew magic was finite. If it all dragged on too long it would become an issue.

The beast that had set eyes on Neral began to charge, pushing off on thick hind legs, pulling itself forward with the front ones. It screamed a death threat at her and she urged Stenna forward, meeting its eye. Come on then.

She charged, her troops behind her and the sounds of battle around her. This was her element too. They closed upon one another rapidly as she contemplated a hacking strike near one of the wounds already made in the hopes of widening it. At very nearly the last moment a lash of blue fire from Maylin's fingertips struck its right hind quarter, the acrid smell of burning fur and flesh filling Neral's nostrils.

The beast shrieked and began to tumble. When its belly appeared she opted for another dragging strike, shifting her sword accordingly. It slipped into the hide as she pushed hard, letting the resistance and momentum lift her from her horse. She let go of her weapon and managed her fall, rolling onto her back and upright. Kress, Zynn, and Abren, a battle-grizzled piece of the cavalry struck it again.

In its rage it managed to swipe Abren from her horse and send her flying before Maylin leaped inhumanly to position herself before blue energy blasted from her fingertips, eating its way through the open flesh in the beast's belly. It rose up wildly trying to block it, only to injure itself more as it touched the raging energy. With a final cry of desperation, it fell to the earth with a crash Neral felt in her boots. She rushed to pull her sword from the flesh. "Thank you, Mother."

"What is one for otherwise, child?"

Bryana, disheveled and a little bloodied from nicks and cuts from metal and claw, had moved quickly to engage the last of the things that controlled magic, absorbing the frantic strikes as the distance between them closed. Bryana knew the other was new to magic. It was in the wonder in the other's eyes pondering how Bryana still stood.

Bryana dodged the last two blasts artfully before closing one hand on the throat of the thing before burying a dagger just under the breastbone. Bryana watched life fade from the yellow eyes as even the obsidian skin seemed to lighten. The creature seemed almost pleased at its end. "You will become Hers."

Bryana fought the urge to spit in her eye. "I think not."

"Then die."

She raised a brow and pushed the dagger downward relishing the look she saw in its eye and the tremble in its body. "After you."

She smiled, revealing razor-sharp teeth before looking to the sky. "I...am...Hers."

In a way she couldn't explain, those words left Bryana chilled to the bone.

Bryana felt the life leave it before letting it fall. Turning, she saw Deres leaving the wagon as Neral moved up while the rest of her soldiers made sure the dead were dead. Bryana hadn't realized how concerned she had been until seeing them well lifted her heart. She met them, seeing Neral catch her breath with Deres looking at ease with all that had just transpired.

"Good job with the mages," she said. "Are you both all right?"

They nodded but Bryana corrected her. "They weren't mages, any of them."

"Then what was it they were throwing around?"

"Oh, it was magic, no question. Deres told Neral. "It's that they weren't mages. They had no mastery of it. They had no understanding of how to alter a spell as it's being cast or anything else I'd expect even a novice to be somewhat aware of. I suspect that they are simply conduits. I think that Drexa's tapped them into the ley lines somehow to let them do simple things like bolts, basic shields...corruption."

Neral didn't like that corruption could be classified as a simple thing, but she knew firsthand how easy to manipulate most people were, particularly with magic. "So they are tied to her?"

"They are above the beasts, but not by much."

"Casualties," she called out.

Kress answered happily. "Few wounds here and there. Fatalities are all of them and none of us."

Neral filed all of what she'd been told away in her mind as she went to the wagon with members of what looked to be two families together, fear and bewilderment common themes on all their faces. What appeared to be a father with a rough beard eyed them with distrust. "What are you?"

She inclined her head. "I am Neral Jaye. I and those with me have come to stand against what sweeps across your land."

He looked around. "Just you? That's all?"

Maylin stood straighter. "I will point out that you and yours are alive, so it's a start."

He shied away momentarily, suitably shamed. "You're right. Thank you. Thank you all. I am Voren, this is my brother Bix, and our wives and children. They've been going from town to town, taking...killing... changing good people into...things." He struggled not to crawl into himself. "Who are they? What do they want? Who is 'she'?"

Neral noticed that Maylin had walked off down the road with purpose before turning her focus back, not wanting to get into the finer points. "Just someone who needs to be stopped."

"Mages, too. You fight to stop the others?"

Deres kept the measured tone he used on patients. We are mages and we fight to end her. You have nothing to fear from us."

They seemed to accept that for the simple fact that if they were being lied to there was little to be done about it.

Neral spoke again. "Is there anywhere you can go? Where were you trying to reach?"

He shook his head, his voice more fragile with the children as traumatized as they were. We were just running. There's nowhere to go. They're everywhere. We thought if we got to the mountains there would be places to hide."

"She's there somewhere, so stay away from them if you can."

Maylin returned, one stone from the road in each hand, the rocks and her hands covered in blood from the beasts. They all watched as she stood with them, eyes closed in silence as the blood left her hands, seeping into the stone until both appeared clean once again. Opening her eyes, she looked to them. "Take these. You may well be safe at the trading post for a time since they seem to want to return to where they came. These will glow when the creatures are near. You should have warning enough to stay ahead of them."

He seemed hesitant about taking them at first, fearful of the magic they held, but he let one drop into his palm and Bix did the same.

Thanking them, they parted ways with Neral and her company, heading back to the outpost for lack of anywhere better to go. After healing the wounds of the party, Neral and hers set out again. Maylin shook her head from her place and behind Deres and bemoaned certain events. "I fail to see why you wanted me to heal you while still leaving you with the scar, Pel."

"It's a mark of survival. It's a mark of honor," Pel said from her place with her sisters in the infantry. "Some mark their flesh in ink to make statements about who they are and what matters. These are our statements that, with our flesh, blood, and pain we are warriors for Erette."

The exclamation of solidarity was reflexive, so much so the Neral was barely aware of having participated.

Misha spoke up from her place in the cavalry unit, her light brown hair kept in a bun that, it seemed at least, never came undone. "There is, of course, the men."

"And none too few women," Kress added with a dirty grin.

Maylin let loose an embarrassed smile. "Do I even want to ask?"

Neral was still feeling good about being able to save a precious few with no losses of her own, so she was willing to play a bit. "You see Maylin, female soldiers are somewhat...sought after by the men of Erette, regardless of class. It is generally seen as a coup to gain one's favor. For some it goes so far as fetish. For all, they seem to enjoy...counting and kissing tours. The more scars, the more fun to be had. So they say."

"Ah. You certainly are a strange lot."

"No stranger than you to us, mage from a fairytale land." Hennis told her, braids swaying with her horse.

Maylin tilted her head. "Fair enough."

Bryana had been quiet since the fight, speaking little during the ride or even through dinner. When she did, even her wit seemed muted. It started to worry both Deres and Neral, but rather than confront her both at once, Deres told Neral he would speak with her as they set the wards for the evening. He watched her weave her practiced hands, then she watched her watch him. "What is it that's on your mind, Deres?"

"What makes you think something is?"

"He asked as if she were not aware of his every expression and mood." She looked annoyed without quite managing to fully embrace it.

"Since the fight you've seemed...uneasy, is the word, I suppose."

"Have I?"

"She asked as though he were not aware of her every expression and mood."

Her arms moved a bit more sharply and quickly at the admonishment as they made the perimeter, but she decided not to draw it out. He would use his charm and the gentle sweetness of his voice to melt her, dragging it from her anyway. Either way, the feeling of exposure wasn't entirely comfortable, even with him. She took solace in that she felt safe enough for it to happen at all. "I have been."

Her eyes went to that moment as if seeing it fresh "I looked into the eyes of that thing as it died and I saw... mindless happiness. It wallowed in what it had become and the evil it had done. It reminded me of...me. The scale may have been different, but we were the same. I know that I was not so different than Drexa."

"You said 'were', and that matters," he said. "You have a life beyond that past now."

"After you changed me. Without that, who knows what I would have done? Who knows the pain I would have caused? I remember her."

He was nearing the last of the layering behind her to complete the circle. "Changing as was done to you is never taken lightly. That's why so few in Adar are allowed the knowledge of how to do it, and it's always seen as a last resort. Some who required it were so wracked with guilt after that they lived alone until death after their amends were made. That was their right, but you used that foundation to build something. You are a kind soul today and that is more a testament to you than the change."

She finished her work and stood, holding her wrist in front of her, half-hugging herself. "Corruption is such a simple thing, Deres, you know that. Most people live on the edge of it, even if they are so certain of their own decency that they don't see it. People live their lives on the edge of evil." Her self-loathing made her bring her eyes to the ground. "I almost took Neral. I almost ruined her I hurt many before her."

"Most people aren't evil, Bryana," he said, closing the distance to her, placing his hands on her shoulders, feeling the anxiety come from her in waves. "For most life is hard, and where it's not hard it's tedious. If you come in and offer them the easy path they'll take it. Then, before they know it, they've done terrible things to stay on it."

"As for Neral, that was a different person and she knows that. She loves you. She hasn't seen you that way, really, since that first night. You had done evil things yes, and even to her, but...she never really knew that person."

She turned to him, fear in her eyes. "Be careful, my love. Both of you. It's easy to turn. I think of you down that path to what I used to be and...I'm not certain I could fight you. I looked into her eyes and I saw that path again like a whisper in the wind and it frightens me. I'm not certain I could stand to see that in your eyes, much less you as some twisted thing I couldn't recognize as mine."

He pulled her tightly to him, his own heart breaking at hers laid bare. "But we have one another, Bryana. We'll take care of each other as we always have. In some ways his may be our hardest test together thus far, yes, but we're together for it." He brought her chin up, "Even though we shouldn't have been but are because someone would have followed me anyway."

She found something happy and took hold of it tightly, wrapping her arms around him the same way. "Call it a rebellion. Do you not know all about those? I have been meaning to ask your mother about yours."

He became playfully defensive, swatting her lightly on her behind. "My mother exaggerates."

"Perhaps tomorrow I shall find out. I know Neral wants to know, then we can discuss it."

"By 'discuss' you mean 'torment me with forever.'"

"Forever is perhaps too long a time. Decades certainly."

He leaned in more closely ."I am just going to kiss you to shut you up."

"Can't keep that up forever, Master, though you are free to try."

His lips met hers and put forth his best effort but when it came time to settle with her two before the crackling fire, for a long time, as she watched the red and orange embers flit away she made certain that she was as close to them both as she could be.

***

The night wore on as nights on watch tended to no matter the circumstance. Pel and Hennis walked one half of the encampment while Dion and Elan walked the other. These circumstances were certainly not ordinary so it stressed them all more than it might have otherwise.

"This whole place is wrong," Pel said, literally trying to shake off her disquiet.

"Show me where a mage trying to wipe everyone from the world is normal and that's a place I never want to go."

She raised her lamp as her eyes stared outward into the blackness. "It's not even that. Well, it's not just that. But everything is wrong: the sounds of the animals...the birds...even the bugs. It's all wrong. It's all too different for me."

"Stop thinking about it," Hennis told her, her stride measured as she followed a couple of paces behind. "Worrying about how different everything is from home keeps you from figuring out what is and isn't normal here. We'll get home, then you can worry about all your normal bugs."

"There is no normal here," she said, shaking her head vehemently. "If there is, none of us knows what it is. It's all poisoned by the witch."

"And that's why we're here." Hennis affirmed to herself as much as to Pel. "We're here to stop it, or at least keep it from spreading."

A series of fast clicking sounds could be heard not too far from them along with a rustling of the bushes. Pel didn't jump, but it seemed to startle her all the same, though her green eyes took in the world in such a way that she always seemed awed. "What was that?"

Hennis raised her lantern to peer into the darkness. It's an animal or something."

Pel moved her head this way and that to try to get a look, still unable to see anything in the inky black."It's the 'something' that concerns me."

"Don't let it. The wards will let us know. If it comes near us, we kill it. Otherwise, leave it be."

"You trust that magic? It's magic that's ruining this place. I trust my eyes, ears, and sword arm."

The bushes in the distance seemed to crackle again and Pel took a step forward, leaning towards the sound. "I'm going to check that out."

Hennis put her hand on Pel's shoulder. "No, you're not. There's no reason to. It's not bothering us."

The young were just that. With no experience under their belt, all they wanted to do was react. "Yes, let's just wait until it leaps from the dark and lops a head off." She pushed the hand from her. "You do not outrank me, Hennis."

She pulled back, scolded, but she wouldn't yield. "If you really feel the need to go look, we should at least tell the general that there is something to cause concern."

"There's no reason to wake her."

Rank or not, Hennis made no effort to hide the irritation in her compact features. "So is it something or nothing?"

"That's what I'm going to find out."

Hennis wanted to tell the general, but she simply couldn't bring herself to lose face before Pel. She needed to show trust to get it in return. "This is stupid, Pel. I don't know if you're just trying to prove to yourself you're not scared, but this is stupid and you're being stupid. Leave your post to go look if you must, but if I lose sight of your lantern for even an eye blink, I'm calling for help."

Pel contemplated chastising her again, but the look on the other's face made it clear that, rank or not, this was her line in the sand. That and she realized she probably would be in trouble at that point anyway. "Fine."