Metal and Flesh (The Rohvim, Book 1)

7.2 Scream

The Swordmaster turned and hacked his way through another group of unlucky stone-faced soldiers. Dizzy, Aeden dropped to his knees, lookeing down at the blood oozing out of his shoulder. His arm hung limp, but he willed himself back to his feet. He turned and ran back to the buildings that faced the courtyard, looking back to see the awful plight of the defenders. Half had fallen already, and those still standing were drowning in the sea of invaders. He prayed silently as he continued his run, bumping into a man running the other way. The man grabbed him and put a hand on Aeden's head. Bewildered, Aeden looked up, and saw the master healer's face, eyes closed, in deep concentration.

   Seconds later, he opened his eyes and forcefully commanded: "Find your family! Gather who you can! Get to the front gate, and make for the city of Ramath! Go now!" Before Aeden could react, he ran off towards the tangle of combatants still battling in the courtyard.

   The line the defenders had formed was now long breached-hordes of stone-faced soldiers rushed past the dwindling city guard and remaining nobles' men. Aeden resumed his dash to the south. He looked down and saw that the bleeding had stopped and the wound had partially sealed. It ached, but the searing pain was gone and the feeling restored to his hand.

   He sprinted south, sword raised to hack through any stray enemy soldier he encountered. The eleventh through the twentieth nobles' warriors now were having their turn at the invaders, taking them down in ones and twos, ambushing them from the alleys and side-streets, but Aeden did not turn to the left nor right as ran straight south towards the Markham estate. He raised his eyes and watched the southern city wall. From a distance he could see a steady stream of invaders haul themselves to the top of the wall and jump down. His heart surged into his throat as he realized that the whole time he had been defending the gate, the rest of the army had been vaulting over the city walls, filling the city from all directions. He came upon a group of soldiers with their backs turned to him, concentrating their attack on a pair of defenders. With just four quick strokes Aeden felled them all before continuing his mad dash. He caught a glimpse of himself in a store window as he passed-Madam Rutkin's Confectionary-his breath caught as he saw the grim figure soaked in blood. He looked down and saw that his own blood had run down his left arm, but the rest of his body was bathed in the blood of his victims. He pressed forward, encountering at least thirty more attackers in groups of threes and fours, swiftly killing them all before he finally arrived at the Markham estate. He gasped. There in front of the estate, past the gates and swarming all around the grounds, the enemy pressed on the beleaguered defenders. He saw the desperate men and women successfully cut down many invaders, but they were overwhelmed. The enemy seemed to be concentrating more on the estate than on any of the smaller homes he had passed on that street. He sprang forward, plunging into the chaos within the estate's gates. He lopped the head off an attacker, sparing a fallen woman who had raised her sword in a feeble defense. He helped her to her feet, and she looked at him, exclaiming, "Champion!" and smiled broadly before crying out, "Look out!" He wheeled around and blocked the strike of another stone-faced man and whirled his sword again, chopping the arm clean off and finishing the deed with steel through the poor soldier's chest. He worked his way through the courtyard, assisting the besieged wherever he could, running this way and that, seeing the numbers of the onslaught slowly diminish. When he could count no more than twenty attackers remaining, he left them to the ten or so defenders still standing and ran to the mansion. The doors had been bashed in and he heard commotion inside. He encountered more enemy soldiers in the front receiving area and sliced his way through them, looking down the great hallway, the massive crystal chandeliers dominating the huge airspace above him. The view was a grizzly scene of chaos. Fifty or so people fought one another, stepping through a mass of bodies on the floor, which was one large shallow pool of blood. He looked down around him and saw the wreckage of bodies: elderly men and women, armored defenders, enemy soldiers, and many children.

   A rage built inside of him, pushing aside previous feelings of intense purpose and a little fear. He heard a woman screaming, and his gaze flashed across the great hall. He saw his mother covered in blood, dealing death to a group of soldiers surrounding her. Her grey hair was tied back in a ponytail now tipped in red that whipped around and around as the woman spun and lunged and hacked, stone-faced men and women falling all around her. She screamed with every blow, a crazed, shrieking scream that disturbed her son. He charged forward to his mother, skewering several soldiers, and came to her side. He reached her as she felled the final woman soldier, and she spun around, readying her sword to strike him, but froze as she saw his face. She collapsed into his arms, screaming.

   "My baby! My baby! My baby!" She went on and on, Aeden eyeing a few soldiers that were drawing closer.

   "Mother, I'm ok. Let's get out of here, now!"

    She did not move. "My baby! My baby is dead!" she screamed into his chest, sobbing. The realization finally dawned on Aeden, and the rage released itself. He heard his own blood-curdling cry as he dashed toward the nearest soldier, cutting him down and moving onto the next, and the next, and another, then another. Within a minute, he had worked his way around the vast room, purging it of the filth he saw before him. At last the room lay quiet, except for the moans of the wounded and the weeping of the living. He stood over the broken body of his last victim and yanked his sword out, breathing rapidly, blood dripping from his fingers and sword. He turned and saw his mother clad in her armor, sword still in hand, lying on the ground still screaming. He rushed to her.