Blizzard Page 14

  “She has bested me, it is true, many times since we were children. Yet, we will all make sure to provide you training, young master Thedryk.” Xavier granted a large, toothy grin, revealing his stark white teeth between his lips.

  “Now, back to our discussion. Reegan’s little emissary claims what he desires is a treatise, but we all know the falsehood that to be. I suggest we close off all paths into, and out of, the valley. Our scouts have secured all our borders, and all villagers have made…well, they brought life back to this land and made a new home for themselves.” For a moment Zachariah seemed lost in his own thoughts, a mixture of pride and sorrow intermingling.

  “I would agree.” Eliza stirred him from his thoughts. “Winter will be hitting outside these lands soon enough, and we currently have the upper hand with it already covering the land here.”

  “It will give us time to train those who are available here as well. We cannot waste any time; all efforts need to be utilized in preparing the people to be familiarized with the terrain and battle ahead.”

  “How can I help?” Thedryk’s sweet voice piped up from below, determination affixed to his face and voice.

  “You are one we will be training as well, do not forget.” Zachariah kneeled down, holding out his hand to secure the assumed deal.

  Thedryk’s grin overtook his face; even then Eliza could see he would one day become a handsome man, and she smiled warmly, inside and out at the prospect of watching him grow into a fine man. The two shook on their agreement, and all set to work.

  “Who wants to tell the fool the message he will have to return to Reegan?” Zachariah smiled broadly at Xavier and Thedryk.

  “I would love to,” Eliza said flatly.

  “Not you, someone who isn’t expected to be dead is preferable.” Zachariah turned a guilty eye on her, wishing he could give her some satisfaction.

  “Then you, by all means, even though you were supposed to be dead, too.” The two held firm stares at one another before Zachariah cracked a crooked grin.

  “Then Xavier shall, seeing as he is the only one the rat has seen. Let’s have him released from the tombs, then.”

  “The tombs? Wasn’t that a bit morbid, Zachariah?” Chiding and teasing, Eliza began to whisk herself and Thedryk away, her large stomach guiding their way.

  “You two…” Xavier was shaking his head as Zachariah turned back around, facing the man directly.

  “What?”

  “Don’t be blind to your true self, nor hers.” Xavier smiled, cocking an eyebrow at Zachariah.

  “Come again?” He stood, puzzling over his words before his face crinkled in response. “She’s not even sixteen years of age yet!”

  “Still closer in age to you than Reegan.” Beaming, Xavier headed towards the door Eliza and Thedryk had exited through. “Time will tell.” His nodding head left Zachariah to his own thoughts.

  A month passed, and the time arrived. Months early, the midwives were in a panic around Eliza. It was mid-month, October 14, when Eliza gave birth to her daughter, Kareese. It was the only night of that month where the skies cleared, revealing a lunar eclipse, with the brightest star in the night sky of Auria, the star Havernia, shone during its once a millennia arrival as Janice had foretold.

  Hours passed, but Kareese was not delivered until the very peak of the eclipse. Zachariah, Xavier, and Thedryk all waited just outside the bedroom door. Zachariah paced the entirety of the labor, and Thedryk remained a silent companion to Xavier before falling victim to his own exhaustion. It wasn’t until the first cry rang out, sweet as a bell, that Zachariah finally stopped his pacing and stood directly before the door. An hour longer passed before all were allowed into the room.

  Zachariah hung back as Xavier and a sleepy, sheepish Thedryk stood by Eliza’s side, looking at the tiny miracle Eliza held. She looked both her age and not; she was a mother but still a warrior in her heart. A new fire had taken root, and it seemed to blaze between the mother and daughter.

  “Zachariah, come, see my daughter.” She smiled, waiting patiently. He remained hesitantly waiting. “Would everyone please give us a moment?” The room cleared upon her request; no one looked to either but simply departed swiftly and quietly. “What do you fear, Zachariah?”

  “I…” Zachariah swallowed the dryness in his throat, it felt as though sand had been poured forcefully down his throat. “Will she have some part of Reegan within her? Some evil?”

  “Come and see for yourself, then. Don’t cower in the corner. You are more than that.” She chastised him openly when it was just the two of them, as she had been prone to doing since they had first met. Memories flooded Zachariah of their time in training, their time together in this new and familiar land which they all had come to call home. He stepped forward, trying to break the chains of fear. A blessing and a curse. What curse she could be, or be cursed with, was what he feared.

  As he crested the end of the bed he slowed, seeing the dark brown head of hair from behind the oatmeal and orange colored blankets she was encased within. All the more patiently Eliza waited as he closed the gap of the final steps. There, within Eliza’s arms, sat a being so perfect he found himself speechless.

  “Come here.” Eliza leaned forward slightly, a small gasp of pain escaping before she could capture it.

  “Stop! I’ll get her. Please, Eliza, just sit back and rest.” The blood-stained sheets were still bundled in a wicker basket at the other side of the bed. He could smell the metallic odor drifting across the expanse of the room, reminding him of the rigors Eliza had just endured. Though he had not heard her scream, the blood spoke in volumes for her. Imagining the injury, he leaned towards Eliza and took up the small offering of Kareese into his arms.

  “She’s…weightless.” Zachariah sat down carefully onto the bed next to Eliza, pulling the blankets down slightly to reveal her full face. Blue eyes fluttered out from between long, dark lashes. “They’re like the deepest lake,” he whispered.

  “She is perfect and blessed.” Eliza was looking out the window, into the night sky that shifted color as the eclipse passed.

  Zachariah sat smiling down at the perfect form he held. “I will help you raise her. I will raise her as my own.” Looking to Eliza for approval, he found her pale face breaking into a tear-induced smile.

  “I would expect nothing less from you, Zachariah.”

  AN ACRID ODOR carried on the breeze. It was death. I knew it well before we came upon the bodies. The smell of a decaying corpse, one alone, holds a sickly-sweet odor that nauseates you. The larger the body, the stronger the evidence that invades your senses. My eyes watered, stomach turned at the overwhelming stench, and I forced myself to swallow back down the vomit that had arisen. I pulled the black cloth up my face, covering my nose and mouth, and I took in three deep breaths. Chamomile, peppermint, eucalyptus, and other faint scents filtered out all that tried to penetrate the mask.

  Hell had been unleashed on our little corner of the world. The fear was growing that demons—what had once been a myth of religious fanaticism now proved all too real—had spread across all of Auria, to the other lands beyond our shores and seas. Lord Reegan, the man once adored and beloved, had unleashed the nightmarish hoard upon our lands. My mother, Eliza, and my protector, Thedryk, had ridden with me to the first outpost we had marked protecting our little piece of heaven. At fourteen years of age I was a perfected weapon, a cherished daughter, and promised to my protector.

  Our horses stopped short, rearing up and back, just before the small town’s outer limits. Their sense of the danger was fully understood on our part as well, and the demons that ran rampant through its dirt streets feasted upon the townspeople. Two days, we had been only two days away, but received word too late. Smoke had been seen in the sky, those billowing testimonies to the graves that would be needed for a whole town.

  Yet not all were dead, as we heard a scream stretch out in a strained manner. The owner of that scream was a man being dragged by one arm from
a building by one of those demons. Distance was a small inconvenience, but I could see the man clearly. Dirty light brown hair, fallen to his neck and cheeks, covered his eyes, a long light brown shirt matted with the mixture of his decaying, dried blood and vomit. His pants reached only half calf, equally caked with blood and mud, and revealed parts of his legs had been bitten off. Jagged teeth marks identified the soft tissue had been nibbled away, not fully removed, and rot had set in swiftly. Movement along his leg meant maggots had already begun their own dietary pleasures.

  The reins shook in my hands from the horror as I watched the demon stop in the middle of the street; another demon came rushing in to try to snatch away the snack of a man. No, these were not the first demons I had seen, but this one had wings, and the shock would not dissipate. The first demon, dragging the man along, seemed oddly short in stature compared to its width. The eyes were a glassy black, as though made of the material but without the fragility. No, they are not as weak as humans in that way, I considered. Grayed skin hard as rock appeared smooth, aside from the definition of muscle, with the only weak spots under the arms and just at the nape of the neck. The feet and hands held three digits each, easily six inches long in length with an additional three inches of black, razor-edged nails. Its mouth was a protrusion of long, sharp, jagged teeth from a nearly conical beak, a yellowing that lightened farther away from the base. With ears curiously small for the large size of its head, it had the acute ability to pick up any and all sounds, and this one in particular had a viciously long tail that appeared to have barbs that lined it down to the heavily knotted end. I mused but a moment how it seemed color coordinated from its nails to barbs.

  “Watch for those identifiers. Their weapons are produced from their body; their nails are their strongest ally. Should they have any other protrusions, such as horns, barbs, spikes of the same color, you can be assured they are equally as strong as the nails.” Zachariah’s words resonated within me at that moment.

  The approaching demon, much smaller in comparison and lacking the ability to fly, met that tail head on, unable to accept the blow and survive. I felt myself gasp as the demon seemed to explode on the spot. A certain awe also followed watching the exchange, an understanding that one demon was not quite as adept as the other. I had expected the smaller demon to dodge, but there lay the blackened butterflied remains.

  Three more similar to the first sprinted around the ruined buildings, crimson bodied, small beady eyes of black, a face almost human in structure if not for the elongated snout, paired with hunched legs reminding me of a dog. They were quick, but they were without intelligence. Each met the same fate as the first in quickly quelled cries, with only the third meeting its final quarry and latching onto the man’s leg. The man’s scream became only slightly more pronounced, and for a moment I prayed the shock would take him to Heaven. The state of his body made it clear he would not survive much longer. The first demon punctured the last demon through the side chest cavity. A pathetic, wailing whimper issued forth for a moment. Inevitable death was not wasting its time. The first demon slung down the limp body; a thud sounded out with a liquefied slap.

  The tail shattered the others, their bones cracking and disintegrating under the pressure. In comparison, I realized the demon was far larger than I had anticipated. Looking to my mother and protector, I recognized my need to recompose myself. I was being drawn into fear as children are, letting it paralyze my body as the mind registered the events. A quick flash of embarrassment and anger washed over me, head to toe, before I spurred my horse forth. I could feel the horse’s hesitant lunge forward, but it did not deny me my request. Drawing both blades, I readied myself as the gap closed; Mother and Thedryk were following immediately and fanning out for the forward assault.

  The flash of blue-silver from my mother’s blade caught the fading sunlight as dusk closed in upon us. This was the time for demons to awaken, their most powerful hours yet to come. Thedryk had drawn his spear; the long dark weapon reflected no light but enveloped it, trapping it within. We went into this battle knowing what must be done, the best formation to take down those we had intercepted previously. The dying man, still within its grasps, tried to call out to us then. For help, I had assumed, but that had proven incorrect. He had been trying to warn us, not knowing who we were. As all three of us were cloaked with only our weapons truly visible, it was no surprise he should try to warn us away.

  Arriving first, as always, I dismounted my horse mid-stride to roll and pop up into a full-speed run. I was the quickest, the distraction as per usual. The demon, I found, was massive. How did I misjudge its size, so? I had a moment of panicked recognition as its tail swung towards me. I leapt up and over the tail, expecting the first line of defense, as did Thedryk.

  Dismounting, Thedryk was only slightly slower than I, but he was quick enough to reach the end of the tail which he pierced with his spear through the soft tissue just above the tip’s base. Thedryk had managed to pierce his spear clear through its tail, deep into the ground. The demon’s tail was a threat no longer, and its scream pierced the sky and all our eardrums. A reflex from the demon in its own shock caused it to twist and jerk at first, resulting in only louder screams of disapproval and pain, before it turned its terribly intelligent eyes upon the two of us. In its pain, it had gripped the dying man’s arm so tightly it snapped beneath the three digits, causing the man to cry out one last time before succumbing to the shock.

  He fainted, thank God. I couldn’t help but feel the guilty relief. From the corner of my eye, my mother’s movements peaked as she readied herself into position. The demon, eyes firmly affixed to me, Thedryk, and the spear that had inexplicably shackled it in its place, took only seconds to consider its options before dropping the man entirely and becoming a flurry of motions. Thedryk was prepared, however, as were my mother and I. As the demon turned to tear out the spear, Thedryk ripped the spear out, making certain to drag it up the length of the tail during his retrieval, leaving a long open wound. The demon’s black blood seemed endless as it spilled over both sides of the gaping wound, with a cloud of steam streaming from the flow, the cut deep.

  Thedryk easily outmaneuvered the demon, and as it tried to swipe its left arm across to snatch its assailant, it met my daggers. I removed two of the three digits on its left hand while cutting a clean line down its wrist. More steam wafted off from the gush of black blood; through my mask I could smell a hint of sulfur, pungent. With a swift kick back, I barely missed its right arm that swung towards me in a wide arc, too slow. As the demon reeled back from the painful surprise I had dealt on the left side while trying to attack with the right, it found itself imbalanced, leaning too far to its right and began a rapidly increasing fall. My mother did not waste the opportunity for her mark and rushed in from her unnoticed position. As her path crossed Thedryk’s, his gathering the crumpled mess of a man and hers all the more quickly reaching the demon, the two exchanged grimaces as the sound of the demon’s scream rang out.

  “It’s calling for reinforcements!” I tried shouting above the cacophony, but my words were drowned. As my mother made swift work of scaling the demon’s body, she swiftly struck her blade clean into the demon’s underarm, angling the blade in a way that carried it up into the short neck and wide head. She buried her blade into the demon up to its hilt and then just as quickly recoiled the blade and leapt backwards off the monster. That same dark blood and sulfur steam shot out through the opening the sword had created, a jet stream that barely missed coating my mother. I watched in momentary worry as she crossed the elbow of her arm over her own mask. Barely a few minutes had passed since we had engaged the demon, but it had not been annihilated fast enough. From the bowels of the village came a call, similar to the demon that lay before us, as well as several smaller cries in comparison.

  “We have to leave, now,” my mother commanded.

  “But what if there are more people here? What if there are children?” The desperate panic that took hold
of me filled every molecule of my body, overcame my soul, and drowned my reason. I was already in motion, heading into the fray that could be heard answering the dead demon’s call.

  “Kareese!” My mother’s voice matched the emotions I felt but did not stop me. Instead, Thedryk’s pole swung before me, knocking me across my abdomen, winding me.

  “I’m sorry, my beloved.” Thedryk had set aside the dead man and was instead lifting me up into his arms as gently as he could. He blew a whistle that rallied our horses back. “You are too precious to throw your life away on what is clearly a defeat.”

  I opened my mouth to refute his claim, but nothing but a choking gasp escaped, which forced me to shut my eyes against the rolling wave of pain and rising vomit. I struggled against the reflex to heave the few contents of my stomach into my closed mask.

  At that moment, I felt the truest betrayal, my heart furtively believing in the possibility of people, children, still alive. Grasping at the edges of the light cloak he wore, I pulled, my only plea I could muster with my free hand, as the other was knotted and buried in my stomach. The first breath I sucked in, painful and sharp, was accompanied by a distant scream. Children screaming.

  Thedryk and my mother shot looks to one another. “Eliza, take her.” He set me down on my feet, passing my hunched body over to my mother’s support.

  We watched as Thedryk took up his spear and took off in the direction of the scream. Though I had clung desperately to his cloak, knowing he should not go in alone, he tore away without notice of my feeble attempt to accompany him.

  “Kareese, let’s mount up.”

  With no way to properly speak, I only nodded and worked on straightening myself. Strength was returning to my shocked frame, and I took several deep breaths, coughing heavily to try to shake away the pain. The sound of Thedryk fighting unknown forces just beyond the corner he had turned seemed closer than either of us had anticipated as we exchanged worried glances.