Episode 7 – Bound by Bloodshed
Valeria woke in the stillness before the morning. Dawn hadn’t quite arrived and she could still see the stars. Beside her, the dying embers of the fire let off a warm comforting glow. She lay there for a moment, unmoving, not yet wanting to get up and assume the responsibilities she knew she would have to. For a time, she was just able to lay upon the earth and bask in the glow of the stars.
She looked around at the others, still sleeping. Abraxas was curled into a ball, rocking slightly, while Malik lay flat on his back a few feet away, his breath coming evenly. She didn’t see Crescent at first. After a moment she found Crescent not lying down, but sitting on a log, staring off into the distance. Valeria remembered that the Tivour didn’t quite sleep. They might not be very active without sunlight, but they didn’t lose consciousness fully. Valeria turned her gaze away from Crescent; the motionless figure made her uncomfortable.
She would have to rise soon. But she wished to delay it for at least a few moments longer. From her bag, which lay near her bedroll, she drew a small, slender sketchbook and opened it up to the nearest empty page. She began to draw, sketching the surrounding campsite, trying to capture the fading pulse of the embers. There was a kind of solace to it. A part of her melted into the parchment and became held within it, like a lightning bug inside of a bottle.
Soon, however, Valeria was pried from her drawing by the noises of the others waking. She slammed the sketchbook closed and stowed it among the rest of her things. Dawn had rolled in without her noticing. The sun’s early light was beginning to wash over the camp. She should already have been working. She rose.
Valeria hurriedly packed away all of her things. Hildegard, a fair-skinned woman with red curls, had already started taking care of the horses. Valeria cursed herself for not getting to that already. She had spent too much time idle.
“Good morning. It’s odd to be on one of these expeditions with a crowd of other people isn’t it?” Abraxas had walked up to her without her noticing and was now examining the waking travelers with an idle sort of curiosity.
Valeria glanced at the others around her, whom she had to leave. Her gaze lingered for an extra moment on Dimmian, who wasn’t supposed to be there and who’d likely make things just slightly more difficult. “Yes, it is a different feeling.”
Abraxas must have caught something in her voice as he asked, “How are you holding up?”
She shrugged. “As well as can be expected.”
He raised an eyebrow at her.
Ignoring this, she instead said, “Don’t worry about me; we need to start packing.”
She had more important things to focus on.
She was focusing on the aforementioned ‘more important things’—examining a chip in one of the wagon wheels—when a ripple of fear made its way through the convoy. The chatters and conversations were suddenly replaced by an uncomfortable silence while the horses began to knicker and whinny in distress. Valeria stood and saw that at the very edge of the campsite stood a deer.
There was purple fur like dappled starlight, and a halo of antlers adorned its head like a crown of bones. Some of its flesh was peeled away, rotting, as if something had been gnawing at its side. Valeria’s heart beat fast. She drew her sword. But, the one from the day prior had disappeared without an altercation. She had hopes that this encounter would be similarly easy.
The forms of three more deer emerged from the forest depths, appearing before them. Her hopes began to dwindle.
One, for the moment just one, of the deer stepped forward. It stamped its hoof upon the ground. It snorted and steam rose from its nostrils. And then the deer stilled and returned to motionlessness. It was unnerving how the deer just stood and watched. Abraxas had one bullet, she knew. If he hit it, and there was certainly no guarantee that he would hit it, it would only incapacitate one of the deer.
Valeria did a double take as she realized that the number of deer had grown. She had not noticed their arrival, only that there seemed to be more of them. She was not sure from where the deer had come. But there was a growing apprehension and horror within her.
She did not know if her group could win if there was a fight.
She looked back towards her caravan, still watching the deer from the corner of her eye. The small group of them was shaking. Some clutched weapons—Abraxas, Malik, Crescent—many others didn’t. She looked at Dimmian, who had readied his fist. He would be slaughtered if he fought. Many of the others were in a similar state. Hildegard, for one, looked terrified, even as she tried to untie the horses from the wagons with trembling fingers.
Valeria stood between her people and the deer. She held her head high and her blade aloft. Her feet were planted and she did her best to express no fear. But she wasn’t quite sure what she would do. She drew her sword, prepared to fight off all of the aberrations if she needed to. Her hands shook.
“Don’t.” It was Abraxas, urging her not to place herself in the front of the group.
She ignored him, saying, “I need to protect them. I have a duty.”
There was a sad, resigned, little sigh and then a tap on her shoulder. Abraxas passed her a glass vial filled with swirling sands. “It’s a dust storm in a bottle. This dust is designed for abrasiveness and obscurement.”
And there it was: a chance. Valeria took it and uncorked the bottle. She reached out with her mind, with her heart, curling the fingers on her right hand. The gemstone matrice on that arm shone with a blinding golden light as she released a torrent of Spirit. Dust burst forth from the bottle, spiraling into the air. It expanded in a flurry.
Behind her, she was vaguely aware of the others stepping back and shielding their faces, protecting their eyes from the onslaught. She did her best to keep the dust storm ahead of her, but there was only so much that she could do. Valeria had not lost control of the dust storm—it was her Spirit being channeled into it—but she could not focus on its every individual grain. Though she commanded the dust storm, she could not control its every individual edie or current.
Valeria called for the others to depart, to head towards Briarknoll where they’d have some protection. But she could not think amidst the flurry and could not be sure whether she said the words or merely thought them.
Swirling sands ripped at her clothes and tore at her skin. She could feel the blood welling up from a dozen different painful cuts. She thought she could make out the deer backing away, though she couldn’t quite be sure. A vicious vengeance beat within her heart.
The shadowy forms of two deer darted by her side, trying to get behind her. She channeled the fury of the storm towards them, not willing to let them reach her people who stood behind her. The deer shied back as they were pummeled by dust. A grim satisfaction filled her.
But the power of the storm lessened, and she could feel her control slipping. She was quickly running out of spirit, one gemstone after another growing dim before winking out. No longer could she command the entire whirlwind; streams of sand slipped from the dust storm before falling upon the earth.
There was a hand on her shoulder. Cold glass touched her skin. She couldn’t quite make out his words, couldn’t piece together enough of her consciousness on the person speaking before her. And the Sculos had no lips which she could read. But she felt a tug backward, a comforting pressure, and the message was clear.
Valeria stumbled backward, the dust storm still raging in front of her, still slicing at the deer, though she had no idea how much of an impact it had. As more of the dust slipped from her command and the torrent lessened, she became more aware of her senses. She could now feel the sting of her wounds, the thin rivulets of blood that dripped from her hands, her legs, and her face.
The last golden glimmers in her gemstones died.
Before her, the storm still billowed, fueled by inertia and the last vestiges of her power. It would not last much longer. She turned and looked at Malik who stood next to her.
“We need to get going.” He started pulling her in the direction that they had come from earlier; Briarknoll was scarcely 20 paces from them.
“The deer—”
“I don’t see them anymore, do you?”
She gazed towards the forest where the deer had appeared. There was hardly a trace of them aside from scattered footprints.
“But where are they now?”
Malik shrugged. “Probably still close. We need to get going.”
Valeria looked around her, and Malik, as if he knew what she was thinking said “I told Abraxas to take the others as I’d be able to offer better protection than he would. He wasn’t thrilled, but he caved—because he’s Abraxas.”
She tried to walk and ended up staggering forward. It was as if all of her strength was drained at once. Blood ebbed from one hundred cuts. Malik slung her arm around his shoulder, helping her onwards.
“I’m fine.” There was a sharp pain in her chest as spoke.
He just looked at her blankly. Malik stepped aside and let her try to walk on her own. She began to fall. He moved to support her once again.
They traveled, for a minute, slowly making their way toward Briarknoll. Her movements were still labored, her feet still unsteady. As they walked, Malik kept turning his head about, hand on his hammer, on guard for any threats.
They were also to the nearest building when a shadow of movement caught her eye. There, not twelve paces from her, was another of the deer. It was standing amid the village, twisting its head around as if it were searching. She stopped and even held her breath as if that would do her any good. It didn’t seem to notice them.
Valeria crouched, hoping to escape below its sight, and her legs screamed. She crept forward, wincing at every little noise they made. Malik was behind her. She wondered where the others were, worried for their safety even as she did her best to move unseen. There was a hole in one of the buildings, surrounded by charred wood. She darted inside, landing on the floor with a muffled thump!
Malik landed beside her with a modicum more grace.
She lay there, sprawled upon the floor, heart beating so loud she feared the deer might hear it. There was movement next to them, a shifting amidst the rubble of the ruined house.
“Valeria?” It was Dimmian, a worried smile sliding onto his face. “You made it back here. We were worried—well I was worried—about you out there.”
Valeria spoke in a tone of forced calm, cutting off his rambling. “Dimmian, what’s going on here? What happened.”
“Well, we ran from the deer when you held them off for us. And you did great we- we couldn’t have made it without you. But we could see some of the deer approaching on the other sides. I wasn’t able to keep track of what was going on with the others, but I assume they darted into houses like I did. The deer, they’re still out there, looking around this place. I’ve had to dart between three separate buildings already to escape detection.”
“Okay. We need to rally our people and get out of here.” Already Valeria’s mind was turning. They would need to grab all of the people from the disparate buildings they found themselves in without attracting the deer’s attention. She would have to make it work.
She poked her head up and peered through a crack in the building. She took in the whole of the ruined village. There were the deer, some standing eerily still, others nosing through the ruins. It seemed that they were hunting. At least, that was her best conjecture.
All of a sudden, as one, the deer turned their heads towards one of the houses. Four of them approached it.
Valeria held her breath. A part of her wanted to run out and bring aid to wherever was in danger. And yet she knew that the most that she would accomplish would be getting torn apart as well. She had no Spirit left, no ability to do anything. Once again she was only able to watch.
The deer charged into the house, leaping through a shattered window. She could no longer see what was happening. She could only hear scrambling and the sound of hoofs upon the wood. There was a blow, and she tensed up waiting for the screaming, the sound of breaking bones and torn flesh. None came.
Her attention turned to the standing deer, the ones who had been watching the house in question. All of them ceased their watching and began to wander about the village, nosing at the discarded rubble. She could only hope that this meant that no one had died.
She thought, for just a moment, about the hopes everyone had had for their expedition to Penomier. Now the carts had been abandoned and the horses had run off. The lumbar wouldn’t make it to Penomier and neither would it return to Verdant. The most they could hope for was getting the group of them back home intact. How far they had fallen from their previous aspirations. She had failed them.
But ruminating on that would do little good. She tried to quash her fears and guilt and self-doubts until they could fit inside one of the tiny bottles that Abraxas carried with him.
She turned her focus toward the immediate issue. There was a long building, possibly the remnants of a mayor’s house or something similar, at the far end of the village. It was large enough to hold all the members of the party and would be a useful point from which to gather everyone.
Valeria ducked back down.
“Malik, Dimmian, do either of you have any Spirit?”
“I still have almost a full sleeve of Vapor from the Magistrate,” said Malik.
“And I have about a wrist of Smoke” added Dimmian.
“Well, we can’t do much to increase that, but we’ll see what we can do.” She turned to Maik and clasped her palm around his arm. “You had my back out there. Thank you.” Her expirus began to dim as Spirit flowed into him. “From hand to heart.”
“From soul to deed.” There was a character to the way Malik said those words that Valeria couldn’t quite discern.
The process continued, with Dimmian sheepishly thanking Valeria for not kicking him out of the group. She accepted his thanks with a raised eyebrow and received half an arm of Smoke. The gemstones on her right arm glimmered a soft purple.
She then looked at Malik half-expectantly. He shifted and looked a bit uncomfortable. “I don’t have an expirus. You’re out of luck.” It sounded almost like a challenge.
She shrugged, feeling slightly abashed. “It’s something that can’t be helped.”
Valeria turned to the two of them. “We need to regroup and gather everyone. ‘I’ll take Dimmian and head to the left. Malik, you head that way. We’ll try to grab everyone and meet up at that building right there.” Here she gestured at what she thought used to be the mayor’s house. “Hopefully we’ll have everyone.”
There were nods all around.
“Alright, let’s go.”
Malik moved far more swiftly and silently than she would have expected and had soon departed. Valeria tried to sneak through one of the holes in the building but winced as she tried to move. Her pain had lessened and she didn’t think that she was still bleeding, but she had forgotten what state her body was in. With every movement, the hundred cuts on her body burned. But, it wasn’t so bad that she couldn’t move she told herself.
She darted into an adjacent building, followed by Dimmian. Neither of the two were as graceful as Malik had been, though for Valeria that was mostly due to the state she was in. After entering the new building she took a moment to look at her new surroundings and to listen for any approaching deer. She didn’t hear any threats.
The building they were in used to be a house. There were the remnants of a small table where the family likely ate together. A torn and burnt carpet lay draped across the floor. There was a rocking chair, notable because of the way it was relatively untouched.
She and Dimmian were lucky in the fact that the wall between them and the center of the hamlet was mostly intact. As long as they kept low, they most likely wouldn’t be seen. Valeria called out to see if there was anyone in the building. But her voice was quiet for fear of detection.
There was no response.
“Alright, let’s move on.” Valeria looked at the next house in front of them. The only secure way out of their current building (besides, of course, the gaping holes that faced the center of the village where the deer were) was a small hole in the side of the building, just small enough for her to crawl through.
After that, the shell of a building lay not far ahead. It, however, was more fragment than building; it didn’t have holes so much as it was made of holes. Its walls had almost been completely destroyed, with only a few blackened pieces sticking up from the ground.
Waiting any longer would only prolong her worry. She fell upon her hands and knees and began to crawl through the narrow gap. Valeria, on her hands and knees, crawled across the ground. She could feel the uneven ground strewn with rubble pressing into her arms, reopening some of the cuts. When she reached the cover that was the next building, her forearms were dotted with pinpricks of blood. But still, she stood and dusted herself off.
Dimmian soon stood behind her. She was surprised by the stealth with which he moved—it was either that or her senses were dulling and she was becoming distracted. She hoped desperately that it was the former, and tried to make herself believe as such.
It was not until they snuck into the next dilapidated building that they found someone. It was a few moments after they had entered when a patch of ground next to her rose and assumed the form of a person. What Valeria had at first mistaken for tangled weeds was, in fact, the crouched form of Crescent. Finally— she had found someone!
“So, you’re alive. What’s the plan?” Crescent spoke in an almost matter-of-fact tone. Valeria appreciated this.
“We’re trying to gather everyone and meet in the large house towards the west end of Birarknoll.”
“How are we getting everyone? I don’t know how far we’ve scattered.”
“Well, Malik is also picking his way through here and gathering people.” Valeria looked at Dimmian and Crescent, the only two people she’d found so far. And Dimmian didn’t even quite count. “I hope he’s had better luck than I have.”
“Well, we’ll still get everyone.”
For a moment, Valeria considered setting up a search pattern. She’d be able to do the calculations and send off Crescent to different locations so as to find everyone faster. It was the smart, intellectual thing to do like she’d been taught by Mackrin and the Magistrate. And yet…
In an instant, she weighed her options. If Crescent split from them, they would cover more ground and be more likely to find everyone sooner. More than that, they would be in smaller groups and would be less likely to be discovered by the deer. However, and this was mostly a gut feeling, she worried that if they split up they would be unlikely to find each other again. She couldn’t take that chance.
“Everyone, let’s go.”
But, as Valeria looked at Crescent, the first real person she’d found, one of the people she’d led on this disaster of a mission, she felt the need to say something. Reaching out her hand, a quaver in her voice, she said “I’m sorry. I promise I’ll get us out of this.”
“You’re not the only person that wants to see all of us get out of here, okay? We’re all going to make sure this turns out alright.”
“I know, but I have a duty.”
Crescent raised an eyebrow. “Yeah, well, I’ve survived this long without you or your duty. You need to trust us.
The Magistrate put me in charge of this expedition; I can’t let anything happen to any of you. I got us into this, so I have a duty to get us out of it.”
“You didn’t get us into this. The deer appeared out of nowhere. You couldn’t have known.”
“This, all of this, was my idea. I—”
“All of us wanted this.”
“If you want to help anyone, you need to stop arguing with me about how guilty you are and get a move on. It’s time to go. Give it a rest; none of us blame you, right Dimmian?”
Dimmian nodded emphatically.
Valeria felt mildly abashed. “Okay, let’s go,” she said in a small voice.
They darted between the next two houses without much event. Valeria thought that she had seen a figure moving in the buildings across the street, also moving in time with them. She thought, or maybe she hoped, that it was another member of her group. But she didn’t dare to call out to them for fear of alerting the deer. There was one prowling the intervening street, picking its way through the rubble.
The deer was oddly persistent as if it knew they were hiding along that street. Not for the first time, she wondered if the deer were smarter, not just more aggressive. They seemed more intelligent and more coordinated. But she couldn’t think over the sound of her beating heart.
The three of them were passing through houses more quickly now, already becoming more accustomed to moving stealthily. Valeria had only just barely registered the layout of the building, the remnants of a general store, which she found herself in—tattered curtains, a table that had collapsed after one of the legs had snapped, a fallen wooden beam, a section of sunken ceiling, now-empty shelves, rotting countertops, a cabinet with a cracked door, a small wheelbarrow—before she had passed through it, only making the tiniest of noises. Both Dimmian and Crescent followed closely behind.
But her swiftness didn’t mean a total disregard for caution. Before she began her exit from the building, she peered words the next building in front of her as well as the street which lay to her right. Her breath stilled as she spied the deer not five paces from her. She ducked back into the building. But she could still hear its approach, could even hear the air being sucked into its nostrils.
Her whisper was frantic, far removed from the calm and composed figure she had done her best to portray herself as. “Get back. We all need to get back.”
The three of them scrambled backward, looking for any form of shelter. They were lucky, then, that there was so much rubble in the building. Crescent dived under the collapsed ceiling and remained still while Dimmian frantically followed her. There would not be enough room for a third.
So, Valeria curled up as tight as she could and fit herself into the cabinet. To do this, she needed to take off her sword and lay it on the ground just outside. There was no time to hesitate. She held the door closed and peered through a crack on the door. The cabinet sat upon the ground, and so she was treated to a view of the deer’s legs next to the wheelbarrow as it stepped into the building.
Valeria held her breath like a prayer, hoping to the stars that the deer wouldn’t notice them. The room was filled with tense silence, broken only by the distant sounds of the deer’s hooves on the broken floor. Each step felt like the hammering of a nail into a coffin. She backed the remaining few inches until she hit the back wall of the cabinet as if that would do some good.
The deer sniffed the air, its head turning in different directions as if searching for something. Valeria’s muscles tensed, ready to act if the deer came closer. The cabinet felt like a flimsy shield against the threat.
She couldn’t hear Crescent and Dimmian and hoped that they lay perfectly still, hidden among the ruins. Valeria wished she could see their faces, and gauge their reactions, but the narrow opening of the cabinet door limited her view. All she could do was wait and hope that the deer would lose interest and move on. She wondered if the other two were as afraid as she was. She wished that she could be there for them.
Time seemed to stretch, each second feeling like an eternity. Valeria tried to focus on steadying her breath, not wanting to give away their presence. The deer lingered, its movements deliberate and unsettling, as if it were stalking them. She wished that she could hold her sword in her hands. It would give her a modicum more surety.
The deer wandered closer. She could make out its nose now, even see its intake of breath. It was better for the deer to attack her instead of the others. She continued to tell herself that as the deer drew closer. Could it sense her? Could it smell her? Did it know? She reddied herself, preparing to thrust open the door and grab her sword.
But still, she waited, not wanting to reveal her location is she could avoid it. Still, the deer walked closer to her.
Without warning, the deer turned and left, its hoofbeats resonating against the floor. Moments later, there came the sound of screaming from across the street. Valeria immediately pushed the cabinet door open and got her hands around her sword. Already there was a terrible feeling as she knew what had to have happened. Whoever had been hiding across the street had to have been found.
Perhaps they would be okay. They had to be okay.
But she knew that that wasn’t the case. She pictured the deer falling upon someone, the person’s form crushed under its weight, the deer bending down its head to tear flesh from bone, a mouth wet from blood. She wondered who it might be: Abraxas, Malik, Hildegard. Every option was horrifying. If it was Emily—she was still a kid…
Valeria couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe. Behind her, Dimmian and Crescent removed themselves from the rubble. She didn’t look back at them. Instead, her feet carried her forward so that she could see the building that the deer had entered. There were five or so now, and she could just barely make out the body beyond all the monsters.
Valeria remembered a time when she had been a little girl, still under the direct tutelage of Hill Mackrin, when she had been in a cart in Penomier. There, she had sworn to herself that she would never be powerless again. And yet here she was. Valeria watched, unwilling to turn her eyes away.
Silent tears rolled down her cheeks, falling upon the earth. Someone was dead. She had failed them. Something twisted up inside her until it broke. The moment stretched into an eternity as she gazed off towards the lifeless body on the ground. There was nothing that she could do.
She caught a tangle of red hair that almost blended into the blood that pooled around it. And she knew that it was Hildegard.
Crescent placed a gentle hand on Valeria’s shoulder. “I’m so sorry, but we need to keep moving; we can’t stay here. Let’s gather the others.”
Valeria nodded numbly, wiping away the tears on her cheeks. She took a deep, shuddering breath and forced herself to focus. “You’re right. We- we will mourn later. For now, we need to find the others and get out of here. We will not let her sacrifice be for naught.”
Again finding her purpose gave her strength. She would keep it together and lead her people back home. She couldn’t fall apart, at least not yet. There would be time enough to mourn later. She needed to stay strong until then.
They passed through the next few buildings without event. Perhaps the deer were distracted by Hildegard’s final sacrifice. Valeria tried not to let it weigh too heavily on her mind. Yet, still, it was there, gnawing at her. She wondered how long that pressure on her mind would last, perhaps only until she lost someone else.
But there were to be no more deaths. Valeria took the head, took the first risks, and her company trailed out behind her. But they were moving, always moving, not wanting to stop lest they were caught.
And, at last, they made it to the rendezvous point. Abraxas and Malik were already there waiting. Abraxas wore a haunted expression and there was a certain character to the way Malik carried himself that expressed the same emotion. But Abraxas smiled when he saw them.
Then Valeria did a quick mental count of everyone who was there and noticed who was missing.
She heard a shriek from the outside street. Already, she knew who it was. Valeria turned and saw the deer all looking at a house just a few from the mayor’s building. And they began to rush towards it. Emily had been discovered, now, when they were all so close to freedom. Again, she was left powerless to do anything and would be forced to watch someone else die.
Her fingers curled around her sword. There was a chance, if she fought, to save someone’s, a child’s life. It was only a chance and nowhere near a good one.
But she wasn’t powerless. And she couldn’t bear to see someone else die while she just sat and watched. Not when they were so close, not while she could do something.
“All of you, stay back. Abraxas, Malik, take charge, use this distraction to get out of here. I’ll see if I can join you later. Don’t wait for me.”
Valeria left them then, striding out from their hiding spot, not waiting to hear anyone’s replies. She didn’t wait to hear them try to convince her to take an alternate course.
As soon as she stepped into the open, half of the deer snapped their heads towards her. She was being stupid, throwing everything away. But for some reason, at that moment, it didn’t quite seem to matter to her.
She had a duty, after all.
She ran, she knew not how fast, and within a few seconds, perhaps too many seconds, she was at the house where the screams had emanated. There were deer behind her, chasing and deer in front of her, maybe eight in total, but she didn’t have time to worry about that. She smashed through the rotting wooden door and saw the 17-year-old girl cowering before a deer. Emily was still just a child. Someway, somehow, by some power, Valeria would save her.
She swung her sword at the deer, striking with deftness and grace as she had been taught. Valeria jabbed her sword towards the deer’s side. But it reacted even before her blade began moving. It twisted around and caught her blade between its antlers. She grit her teeth and drew her sword backwards, placing it into a guard position. Then she used the deer’s movement to quickly position herself between the deer and Emily.
They were surrounded now, backed up against a wall. Four deer stood before them, with more waiting behind. Antlers lowered; feet stamped. Perhaps this was an ending for Valeria. But if it was, at least it would save Emily, she hoped.
The deer were surprisingly reticent for dumb violent beasts, not quite attacking her immediately. Perhaps none of the deer wanted to be the first to die. One struck, punctuated by a shriek from Emily behind her. In the faintest moment when Valeria’s gaze had darted towards her left side, the rightmost deer had attacked.
There was a flash of gleaming steel, and she had caught the antlers upon her sword, diverting the deer’s head away with a flick of her sword. From there a quick thrust towards the deer drew blood, a thin stream of purple welling up. A deer screamed.
With the dead deer, there was an opening for them to escape. In a single instant, Valeria weighed her options. Backed against a wall and surrounded, they had little chance of escape. However, in this position, they didn’t need to worry about attacks from behind. It was probably their safest position if they were to victor, a chance that was seeming to grow fainter. She thought for a moment about sending Emily away while she held off the deer. But Valeria didn’t quite know if she could hold off all the deer. And if Emily was followed… everyone else could die.
She glanced to her side, where the deer were breaking towards her. She fell upon her training with Mackrin and the Magistrate. It had been centered on blocking and parrying, on holding your defenses until the enemy made a mistake. She was glad for it now. She kept the deer back through a series of deft parrys. But they came from all sides, and her attention was divided. It was hard to find openings and take advantage of mistakes when one was being attacked from all sides.
An antler grazed her forearm, reopening some of her cuts before bouncing off of the gemstones there. She grit her teeth against the pain before parrying the antlers of another deer. To her left, she saw that there was an opening made as the deer tried to strike above her. She blocked the attack with her sword before sending her blade through the deer’s head.
But their prospects seemed no better. There were more of them, always more of them, drawn from stars-knew-where. She tried to block a deer attacking from her right, but her movement was too weak and her blade glanced off. It tore at her side. She screamed. But the adrenaline carried her on.
Some of the deer broke off for no discernible reason, turning to flee. No sound or movement that she could detect had caused it. But there was no time to question her good fortune. The deer that were left flinched for reasons she could not discern. But she was able to take advantage of the deer’s momentary falter. Even as the deer readied themselves to charge, they fell to her blade.
Because the deer had fallen, her gaze became unobstructed. She saw Malik wielding his hammer, bringing it crashing down upon a deer’s skull, shattering its crown of antlers. Crescent wielded a pair of daggers and was in a desperate dance with another deer. Elsewhere, Dimmian held a makeshift cudgel while Abraxas lined up his gun.
They had disobeyed her; they were risking their lives for her.
“Emily, can you stand?”
The girl rose onto shaking feet. “Yes.”
“Good. We’re going to get you to Abraxas; he’ll protect you. You hear?”
“Yes, Valeria.” The girl looked up at her with an adoration that she didn’t deserve.
The two women hurried over to where Abraxas had positioned himself next to one of the buildings on the outside of the melee. Valeria ran with her swords out, her gaze constantly shifting across the battlefield searching for any threats. She would not let Emily die at this point, not when so much was being risked by the others.
But then they reached Abraxas and a semblance of safety. There was a weary smile on the boy’s face as he spoke. “They said they weren’t leaving you. I- I’m sorry. I thought that this would be the best way to support you. I’m not going to leave you.”
“Thank you,” she said as she turned to rejoin the battle, “please keep Emily safe.”
Their group had turned the tide, so to speak, accomplishing much more than she ever could by herself. She felt a kind of shame at this, both due to her inability and her reluctance to accept help. Emily might have died due to her inadequacies. There was no time to dwell on this for many were fighting for their lives, pressed back by the deer. Every one of them was risking death.
Foremost was Dimmian, who stood with the kind of courage only held by the foolish. He held a thick tree branch in his one and only arm, trying to ward off one of the deer. He seemed undeterred by the blood that poured from his leg. His erratic waving of his club did serve to ward off the deer, but only temporarily. Valeria supposed that she did appreciate his enthusiasm, and she demonstrated this by rushing towards his aid.
Before she reached it, as if propelled by some unholy sense, the deer whipped its head towards her so fast it appeared to break its neck. Its attention focused on her. With sword and furry she fought the deer. She drew upon the lessons she had been taught, on the precision which she had honed. For a single moment, she glanced at her comrades, those who had taken up arms beside her, and she knew that she would let none of them die. She would embrace perfection.
Dimmian struck at the deer from behind but delivered only glancing blows. A swift kick from the deer’s hind legs nearly sent him sprawling. But this briefest moment was what Valeria needed to slay the deer. An unearthly sound rang out as it fell.
Valeria helped up the fallen man. “Abraxas can take care of you,” she said.
“No, I’m fine.” And Dimmian, despite his faults and his lack of skill, stood determined. He was eager, still willing to fight. And he would, inevitably, get himself killed. There was a reason she had not wanted him to be brought along.
But the battlefield was no place for argument, so she found herself saying, “Then you can help Crescent.” The Tivour was fighting alone and fighting recklessly; she looked close to ruination with every exchange.
“Yes, Ma’am.” And Dimmian scampered off.
There was one other combatant; Malik was the one fighting with the greatest prowess. He stood before three of the abominations, his hammer gripped in steady fingers. His footsteps seemed almost that of a dance—deliberately, gracefully, carrying him across the battlefield as he kept the deer at bay. Every footfall was intentional. He was doing exceedingly well, appearing to be in his element. Though the deer were not yet dying, Malik’s motions didn’t slow; he seemed to be winning the war of attrition. He was proof that she should have accepted aid.
But a fourth deer drew nearer, and Valeria didn’t know if he would be able to handle it. Sword in hand, she sprinted forward to head the deer off.
There was a sound like thunder, and something shot past her shoulder.
A scream broke through the dead village as one of the deer fell. There was no time for Valeria to glance towards Abraxas, where she knew that she would see bone-white fingers clamped around a now-unloaded gun. All she could do was whisper a word of thanks that she knew he wouldn’t hear. She stepped forward to join Malik.
But his dance carried him away from her. “I have this.” The words were barely a grunt.
And, despite herself, she trusted him and let him be. So she turned to the last remaining skirmish.
Crescent fought both fiercely and wildly, her movements reckless. She brandished knives which had been hidden stars-knew-where. Fighting upon the battlefield with only daggers was tantamount to a death sentence; they provided no reach, causing Crescent to get close, far too close, to the deer’s pointed antlers. Every exchange brought the Tivour perilously close to the deer. Valeria watched as, with a strike of its antlers, a deer skewered Crescent’s arm. Although, causing only a slight reaction in her. Dimmian was there as well, only adding to the frenzy.
There the two combatants fought the deer in a mess of scarlet and twisted vines and purple blood that dripped like starlight, of dagger and cudgel and bone. Already Valeria was at their side. Crescent’s smile seemed to broaden as she redoubled her efforts, again darting closer to the deer. She provided an opening for Valeria.
Steel crashed against bone before sinking into flesh. And the deer was dead.
Around them, the battle was dying. They had victored; they had saved Emily without any losses.
If they had done the same for Hildegard, would she still be alive?
Valeria did her best to push such thoughts aside. There would be time to mourn later. For though the immediate danger had passed, the echoes of the battle still lingered in the air. The survivors gathered together, battered, perhaps broken but alive. Relief mixed with exhaustion, and yet, there was a glimmer of resilience in their eyes.
“We need to move,” Valeria said, her voice firm. “It’s time to head back, we’ll need to tell them that the mission failed.”
There were nods all around, among those who had fought with her, rescuing her when she felt herself beyond hope.
There was a hand on her shoulder, and she heard Abraxas say, “We’ll always follow behind you.”
She didn’t turn back because she didn’t want them to see her face streaming with tears.
