Kingdom's Vice Series: A Voyage of Vengeance ( #2 2015)

Chapter Forty-Three

Khan was the first to die.

He spent his last moments fighting off the others who had freshly turned and had resolved to eating him alive. I look to Duhamas who wears the same look of horror as I do. He looks to Redermarke, who draws his sword instinctively as Gweyntarr cradles their child desperately. She looks to the sky, as if looking for some sign of hope, of some celestial beacon. And she finds it.

"Look there!" she exclaims, eyes beaming up at the sunlit sky. She points with one hand, the other wrapped around their child. "Look! Riders! Riders in the sky!"

Redermark follows her hand and spots them. He slides an arm around her and pulls her close. Duhamas makes his way to stand beside me. "It appears our hope has been restored," he says quietly in my ear, "Our King still thinks of us."

I smile a little. "Indeed,"

He nudges my shoulder, "Alec will do what he can in your stead and in the King's if need be. Whatever is going on back home, they will find a way to defeat it. When we return, we will aid them in whatever way we can, Skaya."

I nod, not entirely convinced, but its a fanciful thought, at least.

"Daeras," he reminds me, still smiling as he draws his sword. He looks to Redermarke again and puts a hand on his shoulder. "Come, let us hold them off together." My brother nods and follows. Duhamas looks to me one last time as I take a bow from Khan's corpse. "Take them," he looks to Gweyntarr, "get them away from here. Send a signal to Darvik. They will descend." I nod and take Gweyntarr's hand. We run.

"Where will we go?" Gweyntarr asks again, for about the fifth time. I'm sure if her child could speak it would ask the same too. I keep pulling her behind me as she struggles to keep up. We dodge savage attacks along the way. One of them, frothing at the mouth, comes staggering after us, clutching our skirts. I turn and swish the skirt aside, my feathered arrow fixed to the string of the bow. I close in and aim. The feather tickles the tips of my fingers as I prepare to release. Taking in deep breaths, I wait as the figure staggers again.

"Call for Darvik!" I yell at Gweyntarr. "Alert the legion. Now."

She looks to me, "What about you?"

I fight the urge to scoff. She never cared about me. Until now.

"Just go!"I snap at her, "I'll hold them off. Get as far away from here as you can. Make sure that Darvik sees you! If you see Duhamas, tell him..."

I turn again to look at her one last time, only to see her fleeing in haste. She may not have been the kindest in Alleria, but she knows how to follow orders. I recompose myself and straighten my stance as the Flesher comes ever closer, gnawing and growling, yearning for flesh.

"Stay, beast!" I yell at it as it makes slithering noises with its teeth, "I said stay!" I tighten my grip on my arrow and prepare to release it. I don't want to kill it, I never wanted to kill anything in the world, unless it harmed those I love. And beasts like these threaten everything I hold dear. I fear not death, though I do fear pain. It looks at me with a kind of pleading, I notice and it is now when I finally put the pieces together. I know who this is. I know those eyes, the same eyes that gazed upon my husband's face a long time ago, in infancy and in innocence. Erena.

"Erena?" I call out to her, hoping that the sound of my voice, the sound of her name would somehow soothe her, dampen her hunger, "Erena, listen to me. I don't want to hurt you."

She froths again and crawls on her hands and knees, "To eat, to eat, the marrow..." she begins, "to lick the bones of marrow and vein,"

"Erena," I say, firmer still, "Stay where you are or I swear I will shoot. I do not want to be the one to tell Alec, but if you do not stop now, I will shoot you. And you will die." Then she pauses, as if contemplating her future, the one she could have had with him, in another life.

"Alec," she whimpered, "Lost love, Alec. Stolen, Alec. Married, Alec. Betrayed, Alec." She eyes me keenly, "Ruined, Alec! You took him from me, witch you are! Cursed you are to darkness and ruin! May fire swallow you one and whole and no howl may mourn you!"

She lunges and I release the arrow before I even have the time to blink, to think it through. I didn't have to think about it, I shouldn't have to when it comes to this. If she lunges at me, I respond. If in danger, I must react; fight. But what use is defending yourself if you know you cannot die? The thought burdens me. she stumbles in front of me, howling in pain, though her chest still rises and falls and death will not have her. Not yet. I bend over her and pull the arrow out of her shoulder, where it stung just below the collarbone.

"I'm not going to kill you," I say to her in a hiss that is far too sharp, even for my own liking, "I'm going to take you to him, to Alleria." Erena closes her eyes and succumbs to a silent sleep. How long it will last I do not know. That's what scares me. I turn back to the way Gweyntarr ran and see her waving her hands in the air and a pair of white wings envelope her and take her away into the clouds.

They have finally come.