She Conquers, page 16
I sharply suck in air. Shit. I didn't mean to say that. "Um well..." I stumble out.
He growls. "Soldier, you better spit it out now or no matter what happens to me you won't make it back to Sanctuary alive."
I think for a second before answering. Attina won't ever be allowed back into Sanctuary if I tell him her secret. But if I'm honest with myself she'd never be allowed to go back anyway. We left Sanctuary to search for her because I told the commander she was in an alliance with a Fae. Did I really think she would be allowed back in after I proved myself right? There's no way she'd be allowed back in. Well I guess we'll just have to leave Sanctuary together and live on our own. That is, if I can get out of here and find her. No way to keep it a secret now.
"Attina is half-Fae too, Commander," I whisper barely loud enough for him to hear.
"What!" he shouts. "You knew this, and you let her live in Sanctuary! How could you?"
I calmly say, "How could you? You did the same thing with Ned." He doesn't answer and I know it's the end of our conversation, but I need to ask him one more thing. "How many days have we been down here?"
"Only a couple of days."
"And they haven't brought us food or water? Are they trying to starve us?" I'm not truly interested in his answer. I'm using this question so he doesn't find my next question too strange.
"There's water in the corner of my cell but no they haven't brought us any food. I haven't even seen another soul since we were brought here."
I start crawling around my cell. He's right. In the corner of the cell is a medium sized water bucket with a wooden cup floating on top of it. How did I miss this? I checked the perimeter of the cell the last time I was awake. I'm surprised I didn't slam into this as I was moving around before.
"Has anything weird happened since we've been here? Maybe, while I was sleeping?"
"No, the weirdest thing that's happened so far is you telling me I had not one but two half-Fae living in my human stronghold."
I don't answer and he doesn't say more. Nothing strange has happened. Good. But still, the change will happen soon, while we're stuck in here, together.
Fuck. I think as the realization finally hits me.
I wonder how he'll react to it.
This should be interesting.
29
ATTINA
Nocking an arrow, I pull the string on my bow taught. I gaze over at Ned and Allister. Allister now has himself turned backwards on Mylo, mirroring the way I sit on Raven. Ned nods to me and I hear Allister in my head. I told him what was going on. I lock eyes with Ned and bow my head to him.
I shift my gaze back to Allister. Remember, I only have ten Fae feathered arrows. I need to be sparing with them. Don't let me use them too fast.
Also, remember, kitten you can't be sparing if you're dead.
He has a point there. I lean back in the saddle, leaning against the saddle horn behind me. I feel the rope attached to Talon moving back and forth against my back. I glance up and see him erratically flying back and forth. He pulls on the rope and pecks at where it's attached to his leg, trying to escape.
I hear chicken shit, in my head and it makes me nervously cackle.
The werewolf is gaining on us. The earth around us is already shaking from the weight of the beast. I hear a far off noise which reminds me of the cracking noise you hear when you rip bark from a log. I sense how massive the creature is by how its body slices through the air behind us. The beast must be almost twice as big as the one Raven and I ran into around my father's campsite. How is such a thing possible? How could any beast be this unnaturally huge?
Have you seen a werewolf before? I ask Allister.
Not in person. I've only heard stories. Which is why I'm going to follow your lead on this one.
I take in a deep steadying breath as I bring my bow down. This one is gargantuan. I thought I could handle it mostly on my own, but I can't. I need your help. Can you accurately shoot a bow?
He sounds almost annoyed when he answers. I'm the top Fae slayer. Of course I can.
I pull my quiver over my back, putting the arrow in my hand back in it. I need you to come over here and take this from me. I want to try to knock it back with my magic and I need you to shoot at it.
He turns and I watch him say something to Ned. Ned peers over at us and starts steering Mylo toward us. In a flash the three of them are right at our side. It takes a couple of tries, the bouncing from the running horses throws us off a few times, but I do, eventually, successfully pass the bow and quiver to Allister.
As soon as Allister has the bow and quiver he flips the quiver over his back, somehow he gets it situated perfectly over his sword, and smoothly pulls out one of the arrows I made with Hazel's feathers. Remember to be sparing with those. He doesn't answer though, he turns his face toward me and exaggeratedly rolls his eyes instead. I ignore him. Tell Ned he'll have to kill the Solis for you two.
I watch as he does what I ask, but as soon as he's turned back forward the ground shakes violently enough we both almost fall off of the horses we're astride. When I've caught myself, I gaze forward and can barely see something gray in the distance.
It's only a small gray blob at the moment, but I know it's because the thing is so far away from us. As it runs, a massive tree behind it smashes down into another. It ran into a tree and ripped it out of the ground so violently, it made the ground underneath Raven shake enough to almost knock me out of the saddle!
My mouth goes dry.
We're screwed.
We can't outrun this thing.
I call to my powers. A wall of earth forms directly in front of the werewolf, but it smashes right through it like it wasn't even there, boulders flying through the air. My eyes shoot open, and I forget to breathe for a second. I pull the earth out from under the werewolf, well I try to. I don't compensate for how fast the creature is moving. By the time my power reaches where the werewolf is, the crater I create is only under his back feet. He stumbles for a second but easily pulls himself back up, out of the hole with his front feet.
Allister says, Try again.
This time I account for the beast's speed and watch as the werewolf falls down into a gulley of my making. He disappears from sight for a second and I peek over at Allister with a huge grin plastered on my face.
That wasn't as hard as I thought it would be.
But almost immediately after I have the thought, the ground splits sideways from where my crater is, and I see two paws hold onto the edge. Then all of a sudden, like an arrow shot from a bow, the creature shoots up into the air. It almost gets level with the treetops before it deftly lands, not missing a step, and continues chasing after us.
This thing is tenacious. Allister whispers in my mind like he's in awe.
I'm unhappily surprised by its speed considering how massive the animal is. You would think it's massive weight would slow the thing down, but it doesn't slow it one bit. It's graceful too, maneuvering around thick trees, but mowing over the small ones as if they're not even there.
In a blink of an eye, a sheet of ice is formed in front of the werewolf. It notices it a second too late and loses any chance it had to jump over it. The beast's front legs cross and it stumbles forward, slamming its face on the rock hard water in front of it. It's body slides forward on its face and chest, the momentum of it throws the werewolf's back end over its head and it goes tumbling tail over head. It doesn't stop until its back slams hard into a giant tree. I watch as its body slides down the tree into a crumpled pile.
I don't have control over water very well yet, so I peer over at Allister who's sitting up ramrod straight with a giant, shit eating grin on his face. I smile back at him. That was awesome. He should be proud.
I gaze back to where the werewolf landed and watch as it gingerly untangles its limbs and sits up on its butt. The animal shakes its head like it's clearing his head and then his eyes immediately focus back on us. He howls once before he's off like a flash, chasing us again. Raven jumps left and a Solis barely misses her butt. I pull my sword out and quickly slice the thing's head off before re-sheathing it.
He's getting too close. You think you can hit him from here? I ask as I turn and pointedly stare at the bow in Allister's hands. Those Fae feather arrows shoot faster and farther remember.
Allister answers, Yeah, I can do it.
I'll try to slow him down. Try to hit him in the neck. His skull is probably too thick to penetrate, and you probably won't be able to hit his heart through his rib and collar bones.
Will do, he says, and I can hear the focused determination in his voice.
I take in a deep, steadying breath and try to focus all my attention on the air around us. I concentrate on hardening the air behind Raven. I push it and fold it in on itself like I did when I made the air bandage for Allister's arm when he got cut down by his soldier's sword. The only difference is this time I'm having to deal with about twenty times as much air. I feel all over the air wall I've built in front of me, searching for any weak spots. I don't find any, so I send the air wall forward, toward the werewolf.
I physically feel it in my chest as the wall slams into the werewolf's face. It throws its head back like it's been smacked. But his reaction, and him slowing down a bit is the only response I get from the beast. I guess slowing it down is better than nothing.
Try to shoot a regular arrow at it first. We need to experiment, and those Fae feathered arrows are too precious to waste.
He switches arrows and I hear, Done. Now what?
Shoot!
He looses an arrow aimed at the beast's neck. I see where the arrow will hit my wall and open up a spot big enough for the arrow to fit through. By some miracle I calculated correctly, and the arrow makes its way through my hardened air wall. It flies at the werewolf and the creature barely ducks its head, causing the arrow to bounce off of its chin, breaking the arrow in two.
Wonderful. Regular arrows will be a waste on this beast. We'll have to do what we can with the ten Fae arrows we have. How much farther do we have until we make it to the wall of the Eastern Fae stronghold?
I don't know for certain, but we must be close by now.
All of a sudden I'm hit hard on my right side. I crumble to the ground in a jumble of appendages and metal. I'm surprised my armor doesn't crunch into my body anywhere, it melds like a glove over my body even when it's thrown in such extreme angles. A body lands on top of me and all I hear is snarls and growls as I roll over on top of the Solis who has my arm grasped in its mouth. Luckily, it grabbed on to me where the armor covers my arm, just the weight of its body flung me off of Raven.
"Attina!" I hear Allister scream as the pounding feet of the werewolf gets closer by the second.
I lift my arm and the Solis's head comes up with it. I take the Solis' head and slam it to the ground. The Solis's teeth break against my armor, blood pours down the corners of its mouth, but it still holds on. I pry my arm out of the thing's now toothless mouth and I'm shocked by its beauty. The Solis is a woman. Her red, matted hair must have flowed down to her hips when she was a human, but now it lies in knots. Her body is tiny and has curves in all the right places. But her eyes are what make me hesitate, they're the most captivating hazel I've ever seen. Bright green eyes with deep brown pockets in them lock on mine as she claws at me trying to get some kind of hold on me.
As I stare down at her, Allister flies past me on the ground and shouts, "Get in the fight, Attina! What are you doing!"
His yells bring me out of my reverie. I reach down into my boot and pull out the dagger Ned gave me when we left Sanctuary, sorry for what I'm about to do to this woman. I've never been totally okay with killing Solis, something about it has always felt wrong. I'm not sure why but something about this woman makes me feel more wrong for killing her. "Sorry," I whisper to the woman as I close my eyes and slam the dagger into the Solis's head.
"Attina!"
I spin around just as Allister and the werewolf are meeting. He slides past the werewolf on his knees and slices at the thing’s legs. At the last second it jumps away. I pull my sword out and race over to where Allister is standing back up, sword at the ready.
Being as big as it is the wolf doesn't have to use much power to jump exhaustingly far away, but the Solis are still around us, crowding in on us. They simply stand there in a circle around us like the dinner bell rang and we're the main course. I take a chance and glance over to where Ned and Raven were running seconds ago. Glad to see they were finally able to turn around. Running as fast as they were, with their Fae speed, it isn't easy to safely slam on the breaks and completely turn around. Racing to Allister's side, I push my back up against his sturdy back.
Behind me, I hear the wolf slamming through the thick trees back toward us. Underneath, I feel trees being ripped from the earth, his weight making easy work of removing even some of the thickest ones.
In front of us, the Solis still just stand there, bent over, staring at us. Some are missing limbs but what's strange is they all have legs. In the past when we've run into Solis, even hoards of them, there were at least a couple with missing legs who only happened to run into us. Some drool like they're starving, but they all pant like they've been chasing us for awhile. Pushing their bodies to the absolute limit. I wonder how long it takes for an undead being to tire like that.
What are they doing? I ask Allister behind me, Why aren't they attacking us? They appear worn out but how is such a thing possible?
They're all undead; it shouldn't be possible, he answers. But before I really have a chance to think about it one of the bigger and obviously stronger Solis screams a guttural cry. Then, I feel the werewolf's big paw land right in front of Allister. I turn my head to where Ned and Raven are racing with all they have back to us, but there's no way they'll make it in time.
30
ATTINA
I scream back at the Solis as my eyes float over his gash riddled face and tattered clothes. My eyes sticking to his clothes though, because unlike most Solis I've seen. His clothes are tattered like he was poor without enough money to have them properly mended, not like he's been aimlessly roaming about for years, tearing them on branches as he goes. This one is different somehow.
As the screech leaves my voice I plant my feet wide, parallel with my shoulders, giving me the most solid stance possible. I lift my hands into the air, putting all I am into my powers, focus on the earth around us, and close my eyes.
Even though I'm focusing everything I have into this, I can still barely hear Allister behind me yell, "Attina!"
When I open my eyes I see the damage I've created. A gully surrounds me and Allister. It almost completely encircles us. There's barely enough of a bridge left to allow Raven and Mylo to get to us. The Solis are nowhere to be seen and I can barely see the werewolf off in the distance, where it must have jumped away from the earth falling around it. I can't even see its actual body. I spot trees falling down in a circle off in the distance and know it's already pursuing us again.
I fall to my knees, exhaustion taking over me. I see spots in my vision. And my head gets light right before Allister's warm hand is on my back, holding me upright. "Attina, are you all right?"
I struggle but I manage to get my sword back in its sheath as I answer him "I'll be fine, I just over did it."
Hazel screeches above us, "Hang on, Ned's almost to you Attina."
I nod but the movement makes me nauseous. I'm not sure how it happens but I'm being lifted up onto Mylo's back in front of Ned. I hear his calming voice. "Hey kid. You're gonna be okay."
I don't answer him before I hear Raven's angry voice next to me. "Girl you do not get to pass out on us, we're almost there."
We're moving again and I hear Ned beside me, he must be leaning forward. "We saw the castle spires, hang on a bit longer kid. I got you."
But as his last words leave his lips, I feel the thunderous pounding of the werewolf's feet behind us once again. Snarls of the Solis reach my ears from somewhere far off. It takes effort but I turn my head to gaze over at where Raven and Allister run next to us. Allister is turned around in the saddle. I peek under Ned's elbow and see ice spikes ripping up from the ground, slicing into the werewolf. But the werewolf isn't slowing down. He manages to catch the bigger spikes in his mouth and brush the other ones off like they're some sort of annoyance.
I turn forward and see what Raven and Ned were talking about. I can see the spires of the Eastern Fae castle ahead of us, peeking through the forest. It's hidden well. I can tell the roof is black but the rest of its covered in moss. It blends in with the forest surroundings perfectly. I bet someone could walk right by and not notice it. I smile, happy we made it, but before I can revel in my happiness I feel the snapping jaws of the werewolf on the air right behind Raven. I turn and see Allister's sword slam down on the werewolf's head, making it back off and shake its head. Blood streams down its face, but not enough to seriously slow down the beast. In a second he's running again and right on Raven's tail.
I peer forward and my heart drops as I realize we can't see the castle walls yet. Even if the Fae were to somehow come to our aid, by some miracle, they wouldn't make it in time. We're on our own and we've run out of time. The werewolf's jaws snap again and Raven cries out as the tips of his teeth make contact. Blood spurts from Raven and my heart drops as she almost falls to the ground. Her back leg has been torn into so badly she can't really run anymore. She's running as well as she can with three legs, but it's not much more than a quick hop. Only being able to use three legs is a death sentence for any horse.
My mount is about to die.
The werewolf is going to eat her along with my mate.
I scream out, "No!" Under me, Mylo squeals out along with me. He slows, but Ned kicks him in the side, willing him to keep running. Ned clamps his arms down on me
