RE: Monarch

My nerves rested on the edge of a knife. I’d been in countless situations where the slightest misstep meant death. It took a while to overcome the fear that came with the possibility of losing my own life. The last few years in the sanctum had beaten that fear out of me.

But the fear that others might die because of my mistakes haunted me just as strongly as it had at the beginning. Every death was a reminder of what I’d lost. A fragment of a perfect future, torn away.

Eckor looked, understandably, like a man who’d just been informed there was an unknowable number of explosives throughout the camp.

“You’re able to use void at range?” I asked, trying to pull him back to the moment.

“From around here to that wagon.” He indicated a wagon under repair, around thirty span from us. “I’m the only one in the Brand who can. Or was, anyway. Guess I’m not in the Brand anymore.” He muttered, walking alongside me until he spotted a chipmunk in the grass. Eckor froze in a motionless standoff, hands out to either side, face utterly serious.

I grabbed him by the sleeve and yanked him towards Maya and Melody, noting the sterling silver ring with a green gem on his finger.

“What about ‘act normal’ do you not understand?” I whispered.

“It was coming right at me.” Eckor hissed back.

It wasn’t. Unless there was a fragment of Eckor, buried in the ground.

“We… pass various trials before they grant us entry.”

“Actual combat experience.” I reiterated. “Riot suppression, anything.”

“Not unless you count sparring.” Eckor said, then mused to himself. “Though most of the time I just stood there, and they threw spells at me.”

Elphion.

I told myself it didn’t matter. So what, he was green. No point in fantasizing about how things could be. I needed to work with what I had.

“Void mage?” Maya asked.

“Yes. This is Eckor.” I made the hasty introductions, then turned to Melody. “Your men in place?”

Melody wrung her hands. “… Yes.”

“Why is she hesitating?” I asked Maya before directly addressing Melody. “Why are you hesitating?”

“I may have told them the truth?” Melody cringed. “Not on purpose. It just didn’t feel right deceiving them.”

I turned, searching for the nearest hunter bearing Melody’s family crest. A grizzled man with white hair was brushing a horse. The motion looked awkward until I realized why. He held a crossbow loosely in his right hand, and his eyes were locked on a cottontail rabbit hopping lazily through the clearing.

Several hunters stood on top of the armory wagon, their faces grim. One caught my eye and pressed a fist to his chest in a silent salute.

“I didn’t want to incite panic.” I said slowly, “But it seems you have that covered.”

Pride shone through Melody’s expression. “They are accustomed to difficult prey, my prince. Many take a yearly absence to travel to the Northends and bring back frost bear pelts. Which we pay handsomely for, of course. All that to say, I cannot take credit for their nerve.”

I glanced at Maya. She’d been the one to bring Melody to me. At the time, I saw it as nothing more than a backhanded maneuver, a way to voice her irritation without saying it.

“I’m glad we met when we did.” I said honestly.

“The pleasure is mine.” Melody curtsied. “It is not often my house serves the crown so directly.”

An errant neigh drew my attention. Lord Erebus had arrived, three archers from his honor guard in tow. One was astride a white horse. Eerily white, as if it might be fully visible in the dark. He eyed the odd group before him, then seemed to shrug and slide off his horse, handing me the reins.

“The stage is set, your grace.” Erebus gave me a solemn nod. Kerai flanked around him and heeled at my leg.

“They know when to sound the alarm?”

“Immediately after your signal, not a second earlier.”

Doubt gnawed at me as I surveyed the camp. There were so many troops. So many potential swords and bows to augment the small force we’d already gathered. But they were worthless if I couldn’t trust them and didn’t understand their motivation or the division that sundered them.

“Ready to summon?” I asked Maya.

“He’s already complaining about being used to herd humans.” Maya rolled her eyes. “But yes.”

“You’re certain the primary force will branch off?” Erebus asked.

“Completely. Though I don’t understand why.”

“I can guess.” A darkness crossed Erebus’s face.

“Remember. Everything with four legs is suspect. That includes horses. If you see a horse without a saddle, stay fucking clear.”

A nod went around the group.

I took the second horse’s reins and drew it towards Eckor. “Speaking of horses. Can you ride?”

Eckor looked the giant beast up and down, with a fearful expression that answered the question before he opened his mouth. “Is there anything… um… smaller?”

“You’re with me, then.” I gave both horses a quick estimation, handed Maya the reins to the shorter stallion, then mounted the faster-looking horse. I gave Maya a meaningful look. “Try to hold off on healing the wounded until we know for sure we’ve delayed their attack.”

“Understood.”

“Kerai,” I spoke to the beast directly. “It’s open season on everything in this camp you’d normally eat—other than humans, elves or dwarves. Dig in.”

Kerai scanned our surroundings, and drew low to the ground, heading off towards the east end of the camp.

The pale white horse beneath me trotted slowly towards the clearing at the camp’s center. Eckor wrapped his arms around my waist tightly, and I was half-certain I heard him whimpering.

“With me?” I asked.

“I’m with you.” Eckor said. His voice was shaky but resolute. That was the best I could ask for.

“Good.” I tugged the reins, and the pale horse slowed to a stop. “I need a second set of eyes. See the hunters? They’ve spread out amongst the potential threats. If there’s a single target, they’re good to go. If there’s more than they can kill in a fell swoop, they’ll signal us.” As I spoke, I felt my heart sink. More than a third of the visible hunters were signaling, arm held in a fist at their side, index fingers extended.

“Beside the mobile armory.” Eckor said. When I followed his gaze, there was a hunter lounging next to the cart, signaling. Though instead of a single finger, he held four fingers out.

“Good catch.” I nudged the horse with my knees, and we trotted towards the hunter.

Slowly, as if it were nothing more than a casual stretch, I held one arm skyward. A spark gathered at my fingertip, traveling upward in a lazy arc, then exploded in a halo of violet.

Now.

The unified twang of a half-dozen bowstrings filled the air. Soldiers and workers alike paused, distracted by either the sounds or the light show overhead. I drove my heels into the horse’s sides, kicking into a full gallop.

Erebus and his archers raced towards another group of signaling hunters. Up ahead, the hunter by the armory cart successfully felled a buck with a crossbow bolt. Instead of reloading, he pulled a dull short sword from his waist and lashed out at the remaining targets.

A buck danced away from him, a doe in its wake. The buck’s face expanded, its once narrow, angular face altering into a curve as its body ballooned.

Dammit.

Larger creature, larger payload. I was almost certain. It might be possible to incinerate it, as I had the rabbit, but by the time the spark arrived, it would already be at critical mass.

The gems that decorated the dark gold armor of my left arm glinted. An unhinged idea struck me. Xarmos said the armor augmented my demonic gauntlet, mana gems arranged in such a way that I could potentially absorb larger spells that backfired otherwise.

“Take the reins after I jump,” I commanded. “Do whatever you can to stall the doe!”

“Jump?!” Eckor yelled. “Where are the hell are you going?

“Pull back to stop; guide its head in the direction you want to move.”

“Wait!”

I timed the movement carefully, jumping up and planting my feet on the saddle, using the wind to balance me as the horse’s hooves pounded against the ground. Up ahead, the buck expanded, sides ballooning out, red fissures traveling down the length of its flesh. It would detonate in moments.

I leapt from the horse, directly towards the buck, fighting every instinct I had to put my feet out and catch myself. Instead, I dove headfirst, left arm extended.

Contact.

I caught the buck around the neck. My left hand plunged into its expanding flesh. The flesh gave way, and I saw the fire within.

No.

I pulled with the gauntlet, draining mana from the spell.

It differed from catching a projectile. I had to think of the deer as a spell itself, rather than a living being. For a moment, I thought it might detonate, regardless. That my interference was too late to halt the inevitable result.

NO.

The gauntlet hummed, chitin screeching in a high keen. I felt it strain, dark material extending from my shoulder towards my chest. The buck screamed as the magical energy left it, flooding my gauntlet with raw power.

It writhed in my grip, trying to struggle free. I knew if it broke contact for even a moment, this would be over. I bore down, the muscles in my shoulder screaming.

One of the gauntlet’s gems exploded. Then another. The six remaining were pulsing with vivid red light.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the doe expanding. It was unaffected by void—or Eckor had choked.

At least, that’s what I thought, before Eckor came sailing out of the sky, screaming. He bounced off the doe, sending it sprawling, and landed hard. His hands glowed violet as he staggered toward the fallen doe. Seconds later, my horse ran by, circling around the chaos.

The madman jumped.

From what I could tell, Eckor hadn’t jumped so much as fallen off the horse, in an untrained imitation of the maneuver I’d pulled.

Eckor wrapped his hands around its neck, tears streaming down his face. “Is this a bad time to mention that I really, really, like animals?”

Kerai sprinted past us with agile grace, closed on a rabbit and killed it with one bite.

The respite breathed hope into me.

“Doing great, Eckor!” I called. The buck struggled under me for a moment longer and fell still. My gauntlet was vibrating with power. I needed to release it before it backfired.

“You’ll fund my research?” Eckor said, suddenly.

“As promised.”

Eckor bore down, thumbs pressing into the doe’s throat, and whispered something that sounded like, “Sorry, friend.”

The doe snapped at Eckor with blunt teeth. Lightning exploded from his hands, and the doe seized. I stared for a moment. He was still channeling void.

A simultaneous channel?

The second element wasn’t much of a surprise. Among my father’s forces, the Crimson Brand was the elite of the elite. A rare few of their higher-ranking mages had already achieved a third awakening. But channeling and weaving spells from a single element took immense focus and concentration. Using two at once was unimaginable.

While the resulting shock wasn’t particularly strong, as the doe was still fighting to tear itself away from Eckor, that did nothing to diminish the fact that somehow, he’d still managed it.

I mantled over the fleshy remains of the buck and drew my sword, waiting until the doe’s throat was exposed. A single, precise strike sent it plummeting to the grass-covered ground.

With the immediate threat gone, Eckor was left holding his soiled sleeves skyward, away from his body, looking profoundly disturbed.

“Great work,” I told him.

“Research grant.” Eckor muttered to himself. “Totally worth it. Totally and completely worth it.”

We’d taken too long with the first group. I waited, tense, for the resulting explosions. One came from the south end of the camp.

None followed.

My jaw worked in surprise as I surveyed the would-be battlefield. A few hunters were still finishing up, pulling their blades free of various animal corpses. It shocked me to see several guardsmen doing the same. I couldn’t believe it. Any moment, several animals we missed would explode, and the drephin would attack in force.

Nothing happened. The alarm sounded. This time, everyone reacted as I’d expected them to the first time. The camp moved in one panicked mass, civilians and soldiers alike retreating towards the circled wagons and carriages in the center.

“… airn.” An errant breeze carried a fragment of my name. I turned and saw Maya galloping full speed towards a small group of drephin. It was a partial relief to see they weren’t a part of the greater attacking force. They were in varying states of transformation, and still kept certain aspects of their animal forms.

That relief faded as I realized they were headed directly towards the clustering forces.

I harnessed the air, jumping up onto the horse and racing to intercept. The drephin were quick on their feet, but no match for Lord Erebus’s warhorse. I cut them off, only a dozen span from the circled wagons.

The drephin slowed. They looked around them, as if they’d only just realized how quickly the tides had turned.

One stepped forward. “Scion,” he hissed.

“It’s over,” I said harshly. “If your people were coming, they’d already be here. Surrender.”

The leader of the pact held my gaze. But a few of the drephin in the rear nervously glanced towards the mountain. I flicked my eyes in the direction they were looking. The leader with the staff from last time was nowhere to be seen.

“We know how the king treats his prisoners,” a woman in the back hissed.

“Coincidentally, I know nothing of your folk. Not for lack of desire. If you surrender here, you’ll be treated well. As the first envoys of your kind.”

The man in front turned his back to me, facing the others. “Our goddess has spoken. Should the scion live, the desecrator will finish what was started long ago.”

My gauntlet shuddered with accumulated power. Images from the first time around flooded me. The drephin, obliterated by fire, screaming. I wanted dearly to stop this from escalating into a slaughter.

But I recognized the determination in their expressions, after the leader spoke. The iron in their resolve. Even in the face of death.

“Please. Don’t.” I knew my words were futile.

Most of them rushed forward. One remained where she was, off to the side, hands balled into fists, eyes closed. The flesh of the others bubbled and expanded—

I held out my left hand and released. The recoil was massive, and I felt the telltale pop of my arm twisting out of socket.

When the smoke cleared, the remains of the drephin painted the landscape in a gruesome crescent that could have almost passed for art, if the ink it drew from wasn’t so ghastly.

Behind me, the mass of humans cheered. The cheer slowly grew into a roar. Some even chanted my name.

But I couldn’t look away from the survivor. The drephin woman, who stared down at the remains of her companions. Her mouth worked, widening, until a horrified shriek ripped from her throat. She screamed, her fingernails tearing streaks down her face.

Behind her, Erebus came to a stop and raised a fist. One of his archers—still mounted, took aim at the woman.

I shook my head. Erebus hesitated, then slowly lowered his hand.

With a burst of mana, I called the wind, relaying a message directly to the woman’s ear:“Run.”

She turned and fled. I told myself that this was better than the previous outcome. That instead of taking heavy losses and obliterating the drephin, we’d taken minimal casualties and waylaid them.

Maya maneuvered her horse, coming to a stop beside me. She looked harried and exhausted, but otherwise unharmed.

“Thanks for the heads-up.” I told her.

Maya glanced back at the army clustered behind the wagons. “Not sure it mattered much. They were running into a killbox.”

I shook my head. “If the archers coordinated and cut them down at a distance? Perhaps. But if any soldiers got antsy and rushed into melee, there could have been significant losses. Put my arm back in?”

Maya dismounted, grabbed my left arm and pulled it out to the side. A nauseating pop followed a flash of pain, and I flexed my fingers.

“Despite knowing their abilities, it’s hard to believe they’d use their own people like that.” Maya said.

“Bad soldiers are, more often than not—”

“A reflection of their commander.” Lord Erebus fell in line beside me. He was still watching the drephin woman flee. She’d made good time and was only a few span from the treeline. “Still, I’m not sure showing her mercy was the wisest course. She will not look kindly on you for sparing her, and whatever leadership they have pulling the strings will be far better informed to our capabilities than they once were.”

The woman disappeared into the darkness of the Everwood.

“It wasn’t mercy, bannerlord,” I said grimly.

“No?”

“Call it intuition, but I have a feeling our attackers won’t give up so easily. If we killed their entire first wave, we’d remain in the same situation we started in.”

“Ignoring the initial losses, they’d retain the initiative. That much is true. But..” Erebus stared at me as if I was mad. “You intend to track an elf through the hells-blasted Everwood?”

He didn’t know, of course. That I’d spent the last few years tracking equally dangerous prey in far worse conditions. “She’s running scared. Traumatized. If she’s smart, she’ll double back a few times, maybe change forms if she has the mana to burn. But after that? She’ll lead me straight to the source.”

“Where you’ll what?” Maya challenged. “Take on their entire army?”

I sheathed my sword. “Cut the head off the snake.”

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