Deadly Intentions (Blood Feud - Volume 2) (28 page)

“What would you do?” She asked shortly.

“Make them come to us.” Mina blurted without
thought.

Euri spun around to regard her. “That’s not a
bad idea.” She complimented.

Lesa laughed lightly, looking on her
granddaughter with an expression Mina had never seen before. She
would have called it pride if she were a vain person.

“How would you do that my child?” Lesa asked
kindly.

~

First Centurion Guru walked along the
battlements looking out over the landscape. Of his birthing pool,
he was the largest and most intelligent. He had been promoted to
centurion quickly, and when the call for reinforcements came down
from the Legate he would lead his pool to the front lines. Gueru’s
last round of spells at the hands of the human magicians had
increased his size ten-fold and his body fairly rippled with young
muscle as he gripped his spear tighter.

He cast his eyes to the east as the sun rose
along the roadway. Three distinct shadows cast themselves across
the horizon and Gueru was forced to use his spy glass to credit his
senses. An enormous dragon stood in the middle of the road with a
human on either side of it. Through the spy glass he could make out
the blowing hair and slender frame of two human women. The dragon
wasn’t nearly as big as he had first believed. Gueru roared causing
his soldiers to leap to pick-up their weapons.

“What is it?” A magician asked. The man stood
a full foot shorter than Gueru, but he reeked of power that humbled
the young orc.

“Two human, one dragon. On road.” He said in
his disjointed English. The focus of the spells used on him was
concentrated on size rather than communication skills.

“Take a single cohort out with you and take
them prisoner.” The mage ordered brusquely.

Gueru grunted and leaped from the battlements
as the gates were pushed open. He led fifteen orcs out onto the
road and they jogged at a slow gait towards the three figures on
the roadway. He roared in rage and the cohort increased their speed
to a breakneck speed as they bore down on the two women and bronze
dragon.

The centurion raised his spear in defense as
a whip cracked out from the smaller woman. It tore through the wood
easily, showering him with splinters. He roared again and drew his
sword; it was two feet long with a jagged hilt. Once again the whip
lashed out and ripped the metal in twain. Gueru skidded to a halt
and his cohort stopped short right behind him. For the first time
in his young life, the centurion knew fear. The dragon opened her
mouth and belched a column of intense fire down on them and the
centurion then knew a brief moment of intense pain before blissful
darkness took him.

~

Tristan Vallious stood aboard the Guisian
cutter
Desert Oasis
as it cleanly sliced through calm ocean
waters. Bethia had flown him as far as Delhi where she regretfully
had to leave him. He understood, she had a country to look after
and for a fire dragon water must be quite intimidating. The Prince
didn’t want her to be hurt anyway. As much as he enjoyed her
companionship over the last few months, he would be a travesty if
Terum was without a dragon again.

He had a nice visit with Peria and his son
Jonathan, despite the Rajina’s concerns over her daughter.
Apparently she had left early one morning with Euri and Lesa, and
hadn’t informed anyone where they were bound. If she was with his
sister and Lesariu, Tristan wasn’t overly concerned for her safety.
The Prince knew better than most what his sister was capable of,
and an elder dragon wasn’t likely to come to harm easily.

An hour after his arrival, a ship was made
ready to carry him to Deus. Tristan had been told that the voyage
would take at least a month. The first week at sea they had been
besieged by seasonal storms that reminded the Prince why he hated
traveling by water. For the last fortnight the seas had been calm
and tranquil, and now when the sun rose he could see the silhouette
of the magicians’ island in the distance.

The captain admitted that this had been his
easiest crossing to Deus and by far the fastest as the season
storms had blown them to the north-east at twice their usual speed.
It was estimated that they would reach land within the next couple
of days. The side of the island that faced Guis was a large cliff
that shone white and gold in the setting sun. At the present
distance it caught the sunlight from the setting sun, making it
appear as though a sun rose as the real on set.

“Gods!” The first mate yelled.

Tristan looked at the first mate to find the
woman’s face drained of all color as she pointed to the south.
Behind them a wave at least twenty feet in height rose like an
ominous giant. His eyes widened in shock as the wave bore down on
them like a lioness closing in on her prey.

“Trim sails! Turn us into that monstrosity
now!” The captain shouted over the roaring of the wave.

Sailors scurried up the masts and ropes with
impressive speed; they tied off the sheets and quickly lowered
themselves back down the deck where they tied themselves to the
masts and rails. Time seemed to slow to a crawl as Tristan watched
in morbid fascination as the ship seemed to stall, and then slowly
it turned to face the wave. They rode the wave up to its peak at an
odd angle, straightening out as they crested the wave. Tristan
reached out and wrapped his arm around the netting running from the
base of the rails on the starboard side up the mast.

“This is why I hate sailing.” Tristan
muttered to himself.

The ship lurched forward and began the
descent; they fell for what felt like an eternity. The ship rose
again, crawling up another wave even higher than the first. Four
sailors flew past the three masts and off the back of the ship. The
water was all that stopped their screaming as they hit with bone
wrenching power. Again they crested a wave, and as the ship leaned
over the top Tristan could see the brown mud of what must have been
the ocean floor. As they sped to their doom the Prince thought in
detached relief that he had left his fine bow in Guis.

~

“Something’s wrong!” Mina shouted in a hoarse
voice as she shot up from her cot.

The room was dark and empty. Her wounds had
been tended to and a thick green poultice stung her arm. She tried
desperately to grasp at the image that had woken her though it
slipped away as quickly as it had invaded her mind. Mina tried to
recall how she came to be laying here on this cot.

After the first wave of orcs had been
defeated, a second and a third wave came at them. Each one was
progressively smaller and easier to destroy. Then the magicians had
begun to attack them from the walls. Lesariu leaped into the air
and attacked them directly. Forces were unleashed that forced Mina
to avert her eyes from the intensity of the exchange. When the
spells had worn off, a better part of the fort wall was a
smoldering ruin.

The large bronze dragon grasped a hold of two
of the magicians; one of them had erected a protective field around
himself. She launched the pair of them in a high arc towards the
princesses. The first one, landed lightly a few feet in front of
them, still facing the dragon. He died as Mina’s whip lashed out
and tore him in two. The second still had his protective spell in
place, which repelled three blasts from the end of Euri’s staff. He
had spun around to receive a blow to the head from the end from it.
He reeled backwards, taken off balance by the mundane blow that
breached his defenses. Mina whipped her
Dragon’s Fist
at him
and tore his head from his shoulders in a shower of blood. She had
breathed deeply, steadying her nerves. Then a flash of light was
followed by utter darkness.

Mina rose shakily to her feet, looking around
the room she was in. Slowly the contents of the small chamber came
into focus and she wondered if she was a captive. She slowly made
her way over to the door and pulled at the latch, while it was
caked with rust and grime it relented under the pressure she
applied to it. Mina pulled the door open and walked out into a
simple wooden hallway.

Choosing a direction at random, she walked
down the hall, using the wall to steady her shaky legs. There was
an intense odor to the place, almost like moss and mold mixed
together. It was both acrid and sickly sweet; a few weeks ago it
would have been enough to cause her gorge to rise. Now it merely
made her light headed as she fought to make her legs function as
they should.

A large gaping hole in the side of the
hallway showed the smoldering destruction that was once the east
wall of the fort. Even now flames still gathered about the base of
the wall, engulfing bales of straw and wooden crates. She felt ill
used and sore from her head to her painted toe nails. A hand
touched her shoulder and Mina spun, almost losing balance as she
did so. Euri smiled at her and began to speak.

Her lips moved, but Mina couldn’t hear the
words coming out of her mouth. Her eyes widened in dismay as she
noticed she couldn’t hear the fires, or the small explosions as the
nests caught fire. Tears welled up in her eyes and Euri pulled her
into an embrace. The silence was oppressive it was as though
someone had her tightly wrapped in canvass. A large explosion went
off and it shook her balance, she clung to Euri for support.

Almost imperceptibly Mina heard the faintest
of voices in her mind.
Can you hear me child?

It was the voice of her grandmother, and she
could hear it as though she was standing right in front of her.
Mina pushed Euri back and looked around in confusion. On the other
side of the destroyed courtyard Lesa came around one of the support
columns, looking straight at her with concern on her face.

Mina, can you hear me?
She asked
again.

The Guisian Princess nodded as her
grandmother picked her way through the burning nests of dead orc
women and children. Euri looked at her sympathetically while still
holding her at arm’s length.

Are you alright?
Euri spoke in her
mind.

It was as though she was standing in a cold
dark room and the voices were warm breezes blown in through unseen
windows. While the silence was deafening, their voices were
comforting and helped to keep her from feeling alone. She nodded
hesitantly again and Euri’s face betrayed her guilty feelings. Mina
reached out with her hand and stroked Euri’s cheek, shaking her
head as a tear fell from her eye. Try as she might, she couldn’t
send any thoughts of her own back so she tried to communicate with
her expression that Euri shouldn’t blame herself. The younger woman
embraced her again, hugging her tightly as she sobbed. Mina felt an
odd sort of detached feeling of guilt for causing such heartache,
and despite her own disability, she found herself comforting the
younger princess.

How are you feeling child?
Lesa asked
gently.

Mina forced a smile in reply. It was clear
that the two of them felt intense guilt at her injuries and she
felt it was unfair to make them suffer more than they already had.
“I’m fine.” She must have shouted because the women flinched
slightly. “What happened?” She asked in what she hoped was a lower
voice.

An image was pushed into her mind’s eye and
she witnessed the flash that hit her. It was little more than a
burst of light that one of the magicians had cast. It collided with
her and sent her flying backwards into a tree. The sound the blast
created was incredible, like a thousand thunder claps sounding at
once. Euri staggered to the side, falling down, stunned.

The mage floated down from above where he had
cast the spell and stalked towards her. Lesariu swooped in from the
right as he raised his hands over his head to finish Mina. The
bronze dragon was pelted with hundreds of tiny bursts of light from
the magician. They left angry black smoldering spots on her
pristine scales. Even so, she picked him up and tossed the mage
into the air. Lesariu angled her head upwards and shoot a column of
searing fire at him as he began to fall, his ashes caught on the
currents of the wind.

We found you with blood coming out of your
ears and various scrapes and wounds. Eurydice patched you up as
best she could.
Lesa said softly.

Euri pushed herself back, holding Mina at
arm’s length.
I’m sorry.
She pleaded.

“It’s not your fault, sister of my heart.”
Mina hoped she whispered, holding the young woman close.

We’re done here if you’d like to return
home.
Lesa offered sadly.

Kelp clung to his shield and the scales of
his black and red armor. Slowly he trudged along the rocky beach,
picking his way around the wreckage of the Guisian cutter.
Everywhere he looked were broken masts, ripped sails and bodies
torn apart by the rocks and ferocity of the waves. Not for the
first time, Tristan wondered at the wisdom of the choices of his
life.

Above him the steep cliffs of the western
Deus coast loomed, foreboding and impassable. The harsh cliffs
extended up beyond his ability to see; only birds found little
crevices to build their nests in as they flew in and out of his
visual range. Sighing, he continued his trek along the rocky
beachfront.

After what seemed like hours he’d picked all
of the loose, dry kelp and seaweed from his armor and weapons. The
sun rose high in the sky, drying what little of his was still wet.
It wasn’t that he had expected the trip to be uneventful; it was
the time that such petty distractions cost. Not to mention the
lives of those around him. As always, his enemies underestimated
him. Perhaps it was his age, their past victories over him or just
the arrogance that came with being a high and mighty sorcerer.