The Chronicles of Heaven's War: Burning Phoenix (39 page)

Yes, few did not fear Godenn, but
none
did not recognize him except… except some of those
standing in Mihai’s camp. ‘Oh well...’ Godenn shrugged. He would
pick out their curious eyes later, while giving them insight and
knowledge into who he is. Now he best be about his business.

With a grunt, Godenn jumped down onto the
burning sands. In his hand, he held some kind of a long cable or
line, its other end vanishing into the darkness beyond the door. He
looked around, grinning, holding the end of the cable high, waiting
for the crowds to quiet. When satisfied, the man turned his
attention to the open doorway and slowly began to back away from
the car, pulling on the cable as he did. Eventually, like an
apparition rising from the netherworld, a tiny creature manacled at
the wrists and ankles emerged from the darkness.

Mihai carefully studied the bony skeleton
standing in the doorway. What kind of an abomination was it, some
new biologic creation designed by the enemy’s demented minds? No,
no, this must be one of the Zephath’s crew, but who? So badly
disfigured the person was, one could not tell whether it was a man
or woman, the wounds on the body so severe it made gender
identification impossible.

Godenn jerked on the cable, the person
crying out in agony as the collar’s inner spikes tore into its
neck. That cry... That cry... The voice was so familiar, so
hauntingly familiar, and Mihai’s face clouded as understanding
began to awake within her heart. She gasped at the possibility. Was
this her ward, her child, her little one?

A wail rent the air when Mihai fully
comprehended the identity of the person standing in the doorway.
“Sirion! Sirion! My child!”

At that instant, Godenn pulled hard on the
cable, yanking Sirion from the boxcar. The girl let out a howl that
was quickly muffled as she hit, face first, into the burning sand.
Godenn pulled hard again on the cable, but Sirion did not move.

This was the moment Asotos had been waiting
for. He smiled. Now to make the woman snap... He looked at Mihai,
laughing, “Worthless piece of
shit
, anyway! Better off
dead!”

Screaming, Mihai started to lunge at Asotos,
her hand grasping for the sword at her side. Then everything went
crazy.

Mihai’s had taken less than a step, her hand
barely gripping the hilt of her sword, when she was slammed hard
from the side, followed quickly by a searing pain in her right hand
as it was wrenched away from her weapon. Tendons snapped and bones
cracked as Trisha grappled with Mihai, spinning her around and
smashing them both into Anna, all three tumbling into a tangled
pile.

Trisha crashed down on top of Mihai, staring
into Mihai’s shocked face. “That is enough of you!” Trisha snarled.
“
Fool!
If your sister lives, it is no thanks to you!”

There was a sudden report of a gun, quickly
followed by several more, all in quick succession. Asotos, a silly
grin fading from his face, watched dumbfounded as the head of one
of his guards disappeared in a cloud of crimson vapor. Before he
could blink, three more of his soldiers suffered the same fate as
the first. The four men had been in too much of a hurry to carry
out orders, their knives failing to reach the throats of intended
victims.

Legion never got to signal his army of
soldiers and storm-troopers as he had intended. Instead he found
himself staring down the barrels of a shotgun pointed directly at
his face. Wisdom dictated he stand down, the hooded soldier’s
fingers squeezing the double triggers, her eyes begging him to
move.

Godenn looked up when he heard the first
sharp report, his thumb about to press the detonator. He found
himself staring into the eyes of the gray-cloaked man off to his
right, holding a double rifle, pointed directly at him. Godenn had
long learned to live by instinct. No need to die this day. Quickly
dropping the cabled detonator, Godenn jumped back, his hands
reaching high, a worried smile on his face. The hooded man did not
shoot, but he did not lower his weapon either.

In less than a heartbeat, Garlock had
reloaded his double rifle and was pointing it directly at Godenn,
the bloody results of his first two shots being a convincing
argument for Asotos’ lieutenant to abandon his plans of killing
Sirion. He, and another dozen of his gray-cloaked confederates,
stood guard against any further mischief from Asotos’ company.
Armed with double and automatic shooting weapons, Asotos’ assembly
of bowmen would be no match for the gray-cloaked warriors.

(Author’s note:
Double-barreled, rifled
shotguns were most dangerous, being capable of firing a wide
variety of cartridges. Designed off weapons used in the Lower
Realms, they could be loaded with shrapnel, explosives, rifled
rounds, or solid, round-ball shot. Used extensively during the
King’s War by the Navy and Marines, they gained a reputation in
legend far beyond their practical worth. Oh yes, at close range
they were devastating, but in regular combat were consider inferior
to standard long weapons
.)

Planetee heard the grunt behind her just
before being swept off her feet and crushed against Eutychus’ body.
She had little more than reached out to assist Mihai when her world
painfully turned upside down. As the explosive reports of the guns
sounded in her ears, she felt the sickening crunch of cracking
ribs. Through a dizzying blindness, the woman watched, helpless, as
Trisha struggled Mihai to the ground. Then her world went black,
she remembering little more of the following events.

Someone, watching from behind a sand dune as
the chaotic scene unfolded, cursed the person knocking Mihai to the
ground. “Why can it not be seen for what it is? Evil...evil, I say.
The fight was upon us for saving the day. The traitor has stolen it
from us.” Seeing there was nothing that could be done for the
moment, the frustrated warrior slid her sword back into its
scabbard and hurried away, promising to remove the trouble-maker at
a more convenient time.

Lowenah lifted her head as if smelling the
breeze. In her mind, she watched the warrior depart. She frowned,
shaking her head. “There is trouble afoot if something is not done
soon. I must see to fixing it when we return home.”

Her face in Mihai’s, Trisha growled
contemptuously, “Do you think my words were that of a
fool
when I told you to remain silent and your sister might live?
Hell
hunts our very souls as I speak! Now shut your mouth
and do as you’re told, and some of us might survive the day.”

Mihai blinked in confusion and surprise.
What was going on? Who was this creature whose crushing weight was
stealing away her breath, this she-woman with the strength of ten
men, breaking her wrist with bare fingers? Groggily aware that
something far beyond her understanding was going on, she dumbly
nodded to do as Trisha ordered.

At that instant, Trisha felt a disruption in
the harmonics. Someone was signaling the distant ships, undoubtedly
calling for support to renew the battle. Looking up at Eutychus,
she shouted, “War is upon us!”

Dropping Planetee unceremoniously into the
sand, Eutychus turned and roared, “Hestemi agon! Hestemi agon!”
translated, ‘Stand to fight! Stand to fight!’

Shouts of “Strateuo! Strateuo!” (
To war!
To war!)
filled the air as hatches opened in the two lead
wagons, disgorging dozens of Marines, brandishing the same kind of
weapons carried by the gray-cloaked soldiers.

At that same instant, Trisha clutched her
throat, shouting. “Kapnos Apoluo Oros! Kapnos Apoluo Oros!” (
Let
the Mountain Smoke! Let the Mountain Smoke!
) Getting Eutychus’
attention, she pointed toward the wagons.
“Deliver Hell to
Heaven!”

Eutychus nodded then turned to the
teamsters, bellowing, “Anistemi Neossos Anaireo!” (
Rise up to
bring death, oh birds of prey!
)

The teamsters dove for the horses, pulling
pole pins while cutting traces. In seconds, they were driving hard
the teams, shouting out warnings to clear the way as they raced for
the rear of the lines.

No sooner were the horses clear than the
distinctive wail of turbines added their contribution to the
tumultuous din. Servos whined as wagon sides fell away to reveal
armored, gravity gun-trucks mounted with rapid-fire machine guns
and solid projectile, automatic cannons from navy fighters.

Eutychus hurried forward to assist Trisha
onto her feet. He pointed toward the enemy ships. “They come like
ants to war.”

Trisha looked over her shoulder, smiling.
“They come too late. Look!” Eutychus turned just in time to see
three ships of war skimming in low over the horizon.

Trisha then turned to a very confused and
distraught Legion, shouting above the noise. “Call off your host or
we all die here this day!” Without waiting for his reply, she
turned, bending low to assist Mihai.

Garlock let out a howl as he stumbled
backward, spinning around and crashing to the ground. A crescendo
of shots rang out. Two of Legion’s archers fell, meeting the same
fates as their former comrades.

Trisha bolted upright, shouting at the crews
of the gun-trucks. “Take ‘em out!”

Legion screamed, his hands flailing, “No!
No! I’ll stand them down! I’ll stand them down!”

Fingers on triggers, the gunners waited on
further orders from their commander. She told them to keep their
weapons charged, adding, as she pointed toward Legion, “If there’s
mischief, he goes first!”

Hands high, Legion backed away, sidling up
to Asotos, who stood there in a daze of confusion and frustration.
Only now was he even beginning to grasp what was happening, while
at the same time, with the horses gone, he could see clearly the
source of the haunting music, the woman being the mesmerizing
beauty he remembered. His mind torn between the turbulent mayhem on
his right and the ghost of visions past to his left, the man was
temporarily thrown into a state of perplexity, unable to react to
either situation.

Trisha motioned Jonathan to tend to Jebbson
and then turned to the marine captain, pointing toward the
hostages. “Go bring them. Shoot anyone who stands in your way.”

A dozen Marines, accompanied by six or so
gray-cloaked soldiers, guns held high, rushed over to the hostages.
No one stood in their way, having already observed that these
people played for keeps.

Trisha then nodded to Eutychus, who stormed
off to retrieve Sirion. Pushing his way past stunned guards, the
giant made his way straight for the girl, angrily shouting at
Godenn as he approached on a run, “Get out the way,
pimple
,
or I’ll smash ya!”

Stunned by Eutychus’ open threat, and seeing
the fires burning in the
madman’s
eyes, Godenn jumped out of
the way just before being bowled over. He was baffled as to the
boldness of this man. Godenn could barely remember a time when he
had been shown such callous disregard to the point of feeling his
life in danger - a long, long, time.

Eutychus bent low over Sirion, softly
calling out her name. He reached down with bare hands and ripped
the collar off from around Sirion’s neck, tossing it at Godenn’s
feet. Glaring at Godenn, Eutychus snarled, “Git,
you
, or
I’ll put that thing around your fat neck and push the trigger, too!
Now git!”

Godenn did not need to be warned twice. He
turned and, at a waddling run, made his way for the safety of
Asotos’ side.

Turning his attention to Sirion, Eutychus
gently rolled the woman over and carefully brushed the sand from
her face and mouth. He feared her already dead, but chose not to
believe it. Cradling her head in his arms, he began to sing a sweet
little lullaby she had once sung to him.

Jebbson rolled over with a groan and slowly
sat up. He pulled pieces of the shattered jillson bolt from a torn
hole in his flannel shirt. Holding the broken arrow point in his
hand, he mused, “Didn’t work as good as expected, but still
worked.”

Jonathan saw through the ruptured shirt
another quilted garment of some sort that appeared undamaged.
Before he could cuss the man out for scaring them all, Jebbson
requested to be assisted up. Standing straight, Garlock smiled,
looking over at Trisha, calling out, “Good to go, Captain. Good to
go.”

Trisha replied with a satisfied smile and
then turned her attention back to Mihai.

All these momentous events had occurred in
little more than a minute. Asotos was only beginning to come to his
senses concerning what had happened, the man not yet comprehending
the depth to which his carefully planned mission had now
failed.

As he dumbly stared out at the ruination of
his glorious plans to capture Mihai and retake the Palace, a
ghostly voice, echoing derisive laughter, filled his head. “Do you
see them now - my little darlings - do you see them now?
Yes...yes... They have come to you from beyond their graves, beyond
your reach,
your seedlings
, little shoots of their father,
your wretched offspring
, your Children of Damnation. Raised
up from the depths below they have been, still befouled with that
world’s stink they are, to bring a ruin to your world here. Full of
hatred and vengeful desire they are. Do you believe now that my
little darlings live? They live...”

Asotos cursed the voice in his head, telling
it to depart and stay out of his business. Laughing again, the
voice replied merrily, “As you have commanded...” it quickly fading
in his mind.

Forcing his attention away from the
mesmerizing beauty that was making such hypnotic music, Asotos
turned to view conditions on his right. Gone were his hostages
except for Sirion, who was still being tended to. Dead were several
of his soldiers. Legion was standing back with his hands held high
in surrender, and…and…and everything was just in a shambles. Less
than a kilometer away, three ships of war floated low in the sky
while two gravity gunships hovered above the sands just behind the
enemy’s line. Soldiers, ships, war? This was not supposed to be!
Just a lone woman charging his line, and then his people charging
to the slaughter of the Erithia’s children - that was the way it
was supposed to be.