Goddess of Lies, page 17
part #3 of Requiem for Fallen Gods Series
“Then say nothing. Good luck.” Raven spun on his heel and left. Before going to the castle, he searched for the local temple of Alnil.
All he found was a shrine. The round, wooden house featured decayed benches and an old, stone altar sitting beneath the symbol of the sun. He stepped in. In the air inside the shrine floated aether, purposeless. He reached out, and the aether responded. By his will, it all flew inside him, refilling his reserve, filling his body to the brink.
He knew not why he could gather the aether the followers released when they prayed to Alnil. But he did not care. He needed every bit of strength he could get for tonight and if abusing a faith for a dead god helped, he was willing to do it. Plus, if Alnil wanted the aether from his worshippers, he should had come around to collect it himself.
***
Raven spent the rest of the day by taking care of Kayleanne. Fever held her, making her tremble even when she slept. He wished he could had bought her more time. But Miranda was bound to come to finish her off the moment her strength recovered, which would be by the sunset, at the latest.
When the sun started dropping off the sky, he woke her up and formed the best smile he could. “We need to go.”
She turned over, grunting in pain as she showed him her back. “Let me rest for a bit more. We can go in the morning.”
Raven shook his head, grabbed her by the shoulder and raised her from the bed. She didn’t resist as he dressed her into her armor. “Can you walk?”
Kayleanne tried to stand up but shouted out in pain the second she put pressure onto the wounded leg. Raven raised her into his arms and carried her to the attic. Hundreds of demons, twisted abominations of birds, rested within. They screeched and swarmed toward them as soon as he opened the door. Two twelve-feet-tall harpies landed before them, glaring at Raven.
Kayleanne stretched out her hand, and the harpies bowed. She put her hand onto a harpy’s forehead. “I’ve kept you hungry… I am sorry. Go feed. Take everyone, leave the city, and feed.”
The harpy screeched, and the demons burst out through the windows, covering the sky with their wings.
When the last demon left, Kayleanne exploded into tears. “I always… I wanted children. I cannot bear them myself, so I tried to make them out of… my demons. I failed, but… they are still my creations. I don’t want them to die, but… I want to live more.”
With a heavy heart, Raven carried her to the courtyard without speaking a word. He wished he saw another way.
Led by Bismund, her knights awaited them dressed in their finest armor, sitting on the remaining horses. Raven carried Kayleanne to a horse they had prepared. She whistled. With a thundering boom, a humongous albino griffin, Grimbeak, landed nearby.
“Tell him to fly high above the clouds,” Raven said. “They will shoot him down if he’s low or if you mount him.” To fly away would typically be the easiest escape for Kayleanne. But Merewen had a pair of wings of her own and a bow strong enough to shoot down the griffin. He had no doubt the Order watched the city for precisely that, to catch Kayleanne if she ever tried to fly away on her griffin. One of the many traps the Order had in place.
Kayleanne sighed, but instructed Grimbeak as he told her to and let Raven put her onto the horse. They had to tie her to the saddle, for she couldn’t sit straight. Raven took the head of the formation and motioned them forward. They rode out of the gates into the sunset.
***
They rode through the night by the eastern road then north toward the north-eastern fortress. Kayleanne was delirious for most of the journey, trembling in the saddle. He wished he could help her. He led her horse, hoping to get into the fortress so she could rest. They spent the entire night on the road. The land around them turned from plains into highlands with an occasional mountain. As the rode up the hill, Kayloku Pass opened before them, a T-shaped cleft that led toward the north-eastern fortress.
Grimbeak descended next to them and shrieked.
With a painful grunt, Kayleanne straightened in her saddle. “Palai soldiers… northern exit… Palai knights… east exit.”
Bismund turned to Raven, his face pale. “Orders?”
Raven’s mind raced. They were trapped. Their horses were too exhausted to head anywhere other than to the fortress. The soldiers to the north were there to stop them while the knights would attack them from behind, sealing their fate. A simple, but an unavoidable trap. He had no solution.
Kayleanne smiled. “It’s… all right. You tried… your best.”
Raven gritted his teeth. To try was not good enough. He pulled onto his aether. There had to be something he could do, some path they could take. There was none. His vision shifted.
He saw himself standing before a wall of shimmering light that stretched everywhere he could see. The winged woman who looked like a mirror image of Kayleanne flanked his side. At his other side stood a man, bent over, holding himself by the knees, panting. Sweat drenched his crimson hair that lay around his emerald eyes. Instead of wings, he a crown of horns was sprouting from his head, his armor midnight black with a plain symbol of a cross etched upon the chest.
The man through whom Raven watched turned to the horned man. “Told you getting through was impossible. Especially for a mortal.”
“You are frozen in place by your own rules, Alnil.” The man smiled. “One day, I will break them.”
His vision returned to reality. He pulled on his aether, spread them in an absurdly large globe and turned the mountain’s core into sand. The stone split apart, sliding down to both sides. Screams of men and whining of horses filled the air as the Palai soldiers got caught in the landslide. A path opened to Raven’s left. He withdrew his aether, letting the sand turn back into stone. They rode onward.
From the corner of his eye, he glimpsed a person fly up into the air on wings made of flames. A scowl took over his face. Kayleanne would die from a single arrow. He turned to Bismund, who stared ahead, pale and speechless. “This is where we split. You head for the fortress, and I will handle her.”
Kayleanne grunted with pain as she tried to speak. “You can’t fight her… remember your city.”
Raven put on the toughest face he could. She was right. But he didn’t care. “I fight whomever I please.” He turned his horse and headed to intercept Merewen.
***
A plateau covered by trees topped the hill. Raven leapt off his horse and stepped to the middle of a small meadow. Merewen flew high, sideways to him. He stretched out his aether, filling the air and the wind. He made the wind around her spin, breaking her flight. As her wings flapped to stabilize, he formed a current to throw her to the ground across the meadow.
Merewen landed on her feet, her steel boots digging into the ground. She was taller than him, dressed in full plates covered by spikes with a bow in her hand and a giant maul strapped to her back. “What do you think you are doing?”
He filled his body and equipment with aether, strengthening everything to the absolute limit. “I cannot let you kill her. Not before I talk to Lucas.”
She glared at him. “She’s a demon princess. The only future she will ever have is death, so this is the most pointless sentiment I’ve ever seen.”
Raven unsheathed his sword. Further talking was meaningless. He understood her though, for he would have acted the same were he in her position. Now, he needed to wound her badly enough for her to be unable to go kill Kayleanne, but also light enough that she wouldn’t suffer any permanent damage so Lucas could forgive him wounding his second in command. He had no idea how to do either of that. He spread out his aether into a detection field and recognized she did the same as their fields intersected.
Merewen drew her bow, an arrow of pure flame materialized within, and she released it.
Raven stopped time. All around him froze. The arrow sat mid-air a foot away from his chest.
These arrows were too fast. He walked to her side and readied his shield for a strike. He unfroze time. The arrow boomed through the air, and he hit Merewen in the face with his shield. She softened the blow by raising her shoulder, but it still threw her away, and she dropped her bow. Raven stopped time. He moved behind her, readied himself and let the time flow continue. He hit her with the edge of his shield to the side of her head. It slammed her to the ground. Raven struck with the pommel of his sword at her head.
Merewen whirled and kicked up. He blocked it with his shield, but it pushed him away. She sprung to her feet and drew her massive maul. They circled each other. Raven positioned himself between her and the bow. Blood trickled from her forehead. Raven waited for the blood to flow into her eye. When she moved her hand to wipe it off, he charged.
Merewen met him with a huge swing. He ducked and slashed at her leg. She didn’t dodge. Instead, she spun and punched him. He bent the greave at her calf, but her hit threw him off, making his left arm numb. Raven froze time.
He stabilized, walked to her wounded side and unfroze time. She whirled after him. He hit her in the throat with the edge of his shield. She gurgled on blood but rammed into him with her shoulder. Air flew out of his lungs upon the impact. She pushed him in front of herself until she smashed him into a tree. The spikes of her armor dug into his breastplate and pierced the gambeson beneath. Raven kicked her with his knee and slid to the side to slash at her face with the flat side of his blade. Merewen avoided with a spin and countered with her maul. Raven stopped time, freezing the maul barely an inch from his face.
Cold gnawed at his insides, a mark of his aether running out. He couldn’t do much more of this. He leapt to her side and unstopped the time. As the maul missed, he hit her to the back of her head with his shield. The impact knocked Merewen to her knee. Raven let go of his sword, grabbed her head with his hand and slammed his knee into her face. Merewen withstood the blow, grabbed his ankle and spun. She lifted him like a ragdoll and smashed him into a tree. He braced for the follow-up hit, but instead, Merewen rolled forward, grabbed her bow, drew and unleashed an arrow at his chest. Pain exploded through him. His mind blanked. The tree snapped behind him, and he landed on his back.
Merewen wobbled and spat blood. She ducked, spread out the wings of flames and bolted up into the sky with a single beat.
Raven stopped time. He focused his strength into his legs, ran up a tree, jumped and spun. He let the time unfreeze. He smashed his shield into Merewen’s face in vertical countermovement. She crashed into the ground, rolled and drew her bow. Raven whirled midair to dodge the incoming arrow. The arrow hit his shield and knocked it out of his hand.
He landed next to her. Merewen drew for another shot. Raven faked a charge but turned it into a slide. The arrow missed him by an inch. He tackled her legs. She let go of her bow and punched him as she fell. Raven weaved his head to avoid. He caught her hand after her fist hit the ground, leaped to his feet and caught her armor behind her neck. She hit him with her elbow to the side. Pain shot through Raven. He gritted his teeth, grabbed her by the belt and raised her above his head. Raven ducked, and a crack echoed through the air. Her spine broke over his knee.
He dropped her on the ground and rose. Utter horror twisted her face as she kept shouting with pain. Without a word, Raven picked up his sword, shield, and walked to his horse. Every move hurt while his skin started turning blue as his aether reserve ran out. But Kayleanne was safe. With a smile, he mounted his steed and left to find Lucas.
18
Miranda
Miranda sat in the crenellation of the wall of the north-eastern fortress, watching Kayleanne and her escort approach. No sign of Raven or Merewen. Not that it would had mattered. With a smile, she noticed Kayleanne was bound to her saddle, pale and trembling.
This was bound to be fun. She motioned her men, all dressed into the armor of the soldiers Kayleanne sent to this fortress beforehand, to open the gate, acting as if everything was in order. When the knights were almost in the gate, she flicked her wrists, and her men raised the prepared row of sharpened logs. The first row of the riders impaled their horses onto the sharpened logs while the ones behind crashed into them.
The horses whined, and men screamed. Miranda soulstepped to the nearest knight and sliced his throat with her sickle. She whirled to crush another knight’s head with the weight. Her soldiers poured out from the fortress, stopping the knights from remaking the formation.
The exhausted knights were no match for her soldiers, whom she sent to the fortress the moment she received the blueprint. A massacre followed. Miranda headed to Kayleanne, who untied herself from the saddle and fell from her horse. She wobbled up to her feet, using her sword for a cane. Bloody foam spilled out of her mouth while elegant horns sprouted out from her forehead, and a tail weaved out behind her.
Miranda motioned her men to stand aside. She focused and two wicked horns sprouted from her forehead. “End of the line.” She soulstepped to Kayleanne’s side and kicked her in the knee. Kayleanne threw up her blade in a desperate slash. Miranda ducked under the sword and swept her feet. Kayleanne spun as she was falling and cut downward. Miranda weaved from the blade, twisted mid-air and kicked down at Kayleanne’s head. The kick slammed Kayleanne’s face into the ground. Kayleanne tried to roll and slash. Miranda raised her leg and stomped onto her head. Kayleanne’s body went limp under Miranda’s boot.
Miranda withdrew her horns and glanced at Larissa, her second in command. “All dead?”
She nodded. “General.”
A shriek pierced the air. Miranda looked up to see a colossal griffin descending at her. She soulstepped to its side and kicked it in the head. The beast crashed into the ground, unconscious. Miranda stared at it for a moment.
Miranda motioned to Larissa. “Chain that thing. I’m keeping it for myself. Also, arrange half of yourselves to look like Kayleanne’s soldiers defending the fortress and the other half like us laying siege to it.” As her second in command nodded, she walked back to Kayleanne, ducked and lifted her over her shoulder. She walked into the fortress where her soldiers had prepared a provisory camp when they arrived yesterday.
She carried her into the keep, and then down into the cellar. There, a four by four feet large cage covered by runes lay prepared. Rick was ducking by the second cage, carving runes into the bars. Miranda motioned to the open cage. “Is it strengthened?”
“Yes.”
“The prince isn’t coming to join us, so don’t bother with the second one.” Miranda stuffed Kayleanne into the cage, locked and flipped it, so the opening lay on the ground. She turned to Rik afterward. “Keep her alive, but don’t give her more sustenance than she needs not to die. The cage should be unbreakable, but I still don’t want her to regain her strength.”
She did not wait for confirmation and left.
The upper keep of the fortress was but a ruin, but Miranda soon found a not-completely-decayed bed. She lied down, closed her eyes and focused on the amulet of Palai that hung on her neck. Within her mind, she said the phrase to summon Lucas, ‘For my battle ends at dawn, the last dawn of my soul, the dawn of the thousand suns.’
***
Miranda sat up in her bed in her soul chamber, which looked like a massive hall filled with pillows and furs. Candles and burning incense lay spread over the room, which borrowed the air an intense blend of scents Miranda loved.
Lucas arrived soon, appearing out of nowhere with a grim expression on his face. He wasted no time with pleasantries, and asked, “To what do I owe the honor?”
Miranda respected his choice and went straight to business. “Raven managed to convince me not to kill Kayleanne before talks to you. So I stuffed her into a cage and need new orders before that’s decided.”
A smile split his face, one happier than what Miranda expected it to be. “Well done. I need you to take three legions and set an ambush in the Werewood Forest. Merewen is to take the rest of the army and head to Wandermere, where she shall reunite with me.”
Miranda’s heart leapt up to her throat. “Sounds like the south went to hell. Is Luna all right?”
“She’s alive.” He stretched his neck. “Which is something you could help me with. Come.”
Miranda’s eyes widened, and her breathing sped up. “What happened to her?”
“There was a major battle where her company ran into Astril. The healers put her body together, but she refuses to wake up from the coma. Maybe you could solve that.”
“Oh.” Miranda jumped to her feet and walked to him, tears sparkling in the corners of her eyes. The mere image of Luna fighting Astril was sure plague her dreams for the upcoming nights. In a straight fight, nobody could beat Astril, much less Miranda’s cute, little puppy. “Let’s go.”
Lucas caught her into his arms, holding her like a princess. Aether burst from him, and they blasted into Limbo in a current of darkness. In the infinite depth of the Void, soul chambers of people from the reality shone like stars on a cloudless sky. She loved Limbo.
Despite not learning how to dream-walk to reach anywhere useful, Miranda often came to Limbo while sleeping only to gaze out of her soul chamber. Seeing the vastness of the Void filled her peace. The world and the universe were so vast she could not wrap her mind around it. In comparison, all the crimes and atrocities she had committed in her life, all the lies, murders, thefts and massacres felt petty in comparison. Not that they could have been forgiven, but perhaps they simply did not matter much in the grand scheme of the existence. She liked to believe that.
They arrived at Lucas’ soul chamber in less than an hour. Other dream-walkers would require days to move that far, but not him. His chamber was but a black hole devouring all light in its vicinity. Nearby floated a cube made of bones while next to it was a sphere made of a nightmare of blood, claws, and teeth. She recognized all three of them.
Miranda motioned to the cube of bones. “Really? You are trying to bang her?”
