Deke Brolin Rhol (15 page)

Deo stood there aggressively staring at Palto. He thought that since he was still alive, it was a good sign. Only after several seconds of staring at each other did Palto respond.

“What is the plan then, boy?”

“Very good then,
” Deo said still a little shaken.

Deo quickly explained the plan.
After Deo had finished, Palto looked at him skeptically.

“If I am to understand what you have just told me, then I tend to agree with Kiran. What if Deke cannot hold the transformation of this large beast for such a prolonged period?”

Deo looked at Palto. “Then we will be left with the two of us to fight the army of Phits and we will most likely die along with Jayden.”  

Kaelyn was exhausted. Her arms ached from the constant swinging of her sword and the pounding her body was taking as Issa led her into attack after attack. Both were covered in both blue and red blood splatters. The blue
came from the countless Phits they had slaughtered and the red from the Kaltaures and Ralcriff that lay dead as a result of their collaboration.

Over the last several hours Kae
lyn had come to know her companion quite well. Issa was a true warrior. She could fly at the speed of lightning and if need be, stop in midair at any fleeting moment. In Kaelyn’s mind, Issa was the reason that they still had an advantage in this battle.

Issa was a hundred years old, sixty more than Kaelyn. She had been trained to fight by Palto himself. The fact that their leaders had personally taken on the challenge of training them both was an enormous statement in itself. She did wonder why Palto had
decided that Issa would fight alongside her though. Usually a Lealian and a Pegapire that were chosen to fight together were roughly the same age and had the same experience; it made them a more lethal combination.

Issa had fought in several battles alrea
dy and was very experienced. Kaelyn had fought in only one battle, if you could call it that. It had been just prior to Queen Elissa ordering the Lealians to retreat.  Roland had not allowed Kaelyn to fight in the wars prior to that, saying she was not ready. She, being stubborn and foolhardy, had not agreed and unbeknownst to him, had slipped out of the village one night to find a battle of her own.

As she crept through the forest several miles from Leal she found a group of Kaltaures sharpening their blades for what was to be a feast on a prisoner they had captured. Kaelyn had taken out three of the soldiers with her sword before the other five even realized what was happening. She had begun to advance on the remainder of them when a Ralcriff jumped in her way. Its snarling teeth just missed her face when the chain it had been tied to
came to an abrupt end and jerked the beast back. Kaelyn cursed herself.

When she picked herself up from the ground the Kaltaures soldiers had surrounded her. As they stared at her
, looking her up and down, she thrust her sword forward slicing open the stomach of the nearest one. When she turned around to swing at the soldier advancing on her from behind she was hit in the head and fell unconscious to the ground.

She awoke to find herself shackled to a tree. The beasts were feeding on the prisoner she had failed to save. The grotesque snakes that formed their hair stabbed out at scraps as they shoveled meat into their mouths. Knowing that nobody had any
idea where she was, she remembered what Roland had said and knew he had been right. She had made a terrible mistake and was going to pay for it. They would either enslave her or eat her; neither was a particularly pleasant way to go but if given a choice she would take death. She had heard far too many stories about the way enslaved women were treated by the Kaltaures.

When they finished their meal they unshackled her from the tree and bound her hands to a rope attached to one of the Kaltaures horses. She screamed and cried for them to kill her. They had chosen to enslave her.

The soldiers rode through the woods with her dragging behind. She had tried everything she could to taunt them into killing her but they only laughed. She finally gave up, walking slowly behind the horse and saying nothing while the soldiers tormented her. When they had stopped for the night, they shackled her to a tree again and contemplated who would have her first. She had slowly fallen asleep from exhaustion.

She awoke to her shackles being taken off again and with her last bit of strength she yelled, turned and struck her enemy in the face with her forehead breaking the nose of a Lealian elder. She stood there in shock until seconds later she heard the voice of Roland behind her telling her she would be alright. Upon hearing his voice she had burst into tears
. The Kaltaures soldiers lay dead on the ground surrounding their makeshift campground, the victims of Orler arrows and swords. They had also lost one Lealian warrior in the fight. She had known Salden since she was a small child.

Kaelyn began to apologize profusely to Roland when he picked her up off the ground but he would hear none of it. He never spoke of the incident again. Perhaps he thought she had learned a valuable lesson. None the less she never forgave herself for being the reason behind Salden’s death.

Roland gently guided her through the camp in silence. Eventually, they came to a stop beside a Pegapire. It was the first one she had ever seen and as Roland helped her onto the magnificent animal he introduced him to her as Palto. She learned later that Palto had been the one to find her after Roland had asked him to help in the search. Perhaps Palto had seen something in her that he liked that day, Kaelyn thought, realizing that Palto had now saved her life on two occasions. 

The voice of Issa beckoning
to her brought Kaelyn’s mind back to the battle she had been fighting for the past several hours.

“Krun
tulla have joined the Kaltaures,” she yelled.

Kaelyn looked down to see three of the enormous beasts swiping at Pegapires whenever they charged at the Kaltaures soldiers. It made ground fighting
almost impossible and the Pegapires casualties were climbing. This was an unexpected turn which gave the enemy the advantage. It left the Pegapires to fight mainly with the Phits thereby allowing the Kaltaures soldiers to fire their weapons at will from the ground, with little resistance. Neither Kaelyn nor Issa could think of a feasible strategy. If they retreated, the Lealians would exit the tunnel and eventually be slaughtered without the Pegapires help, but if they continued to fight the Pegapires might well be wiped out. They could not afford any more casualties.

After watching two more Pegapires fall victim to the battle Issa told Kaelyn to remove a wooden horn from her side and
to blow it as hard as she could. Kaelyn lost all hope knowing that this would sound the retreat of the Pegapires.

“Issa, if I blow this horn my people will be doomed!” Kaelyn screamed through the wind.

“And if you don’t mine will, and yours will follow. We must regroup, Kaelyn. We have lost too many already. Without the Lealians we stand no chance. It is not what either of us wants, but we both know it is what we have to do.”

Kaelyn could not argue and sadly put the horn to her lips. She was about to sound the retreat when she noticed a large portion of the Kaltaures army beginning to run south toward the tunnel. She looked over to see her people, hundreds of them
, storming onto the fields of Aura toward the Kaltaures.

“Issa, they have arrived!”

“Then we have hope,” Issa said while reengaging the battle with renewed faith.

The Lealian
s who were well adapted for ground fighting had quickly formed two platoons. The front platoon clashed with the Kaltaures soldiers using swords while the second fired hundreds of Orler arrows toward their enemy. 

The climate in the battle changed within minutes. Most Kaltaures soldiers were no match for
the Lealians who were masters in swordsmanship, and the Kaltaures army who had been taken by surprise, were losing soldiers by the dozens after falling victim to the Lealian archers.

Kaelyn could hear Issa communicating with the other Pegapire
s telling them to join with a Lealian when they had the chance. It was not an easy task though as the Phits continued to relentlessly attack and the Kruntulla had now moved over toward the Lealian ground troops. This was balancing things out again. The Kruntulla, although not very smart, had skin as thick as a tree making it difficult to cause damage with any weapon.

Several Pegapire
s had seized the chance and were able to join with Lealian archers who still remained a safe distance from the Kruntulla. This allowed the archers to fire on the Kruntulla at short distances causing at least some damage. But it was not enough. The majority of their arrows simply bounced off the Kruntulla’s skin. It was hardly even slowing the beasts down and the ground troops were suffering because of it.

“Kaelyn, we must deal with the Kruntulla. The only way to kill
it is to penetrate the skin and sink arrows deep through its brain. We must make an outlet for the archers to fire at,” Issa said as she circled high above one of them.

“What do you have in mind?” Kaelyn screamed back.

“A sword will cut through the layers of skin. We have to create a hole, take a patch of skin off its head and then penetrate it with as many arrows as we can.”

Kaelyn knew what that meant. Issa could not fly close enough for her to use the sword on the Kruntulla. It meant she was getting off.

“Okay, get me as close as you can.” Kaelyn said without hesitating.

Issa was not surprised to hear Kaelyn’s response. She was impressed with the young warrior. Kaelyn reminded her of another Lealian she had fought with in several battles leading up to the retreat, named Hallin. He was three times Kaelyn’s age and could handle any weapon that was put in his hands. 

She remembered the last time they had fought together, it was outside Aura. They had been walking along a pathway toward the stronghold near the base of Mount Sibileo. There were nine of them, eight Lealians and her when they were attacked by Ralcriff and a troop of twenty or so Kaltaures.

Hallin had heard the Ralcriff coming out of the forest and alerted the rest, thu
s giving their small contingent the chance to prepare and find cover. As the Ralcriff leapt from the forest and down a dirt bank toward them, they were met with arrows. The Ralcriff had not stood a chance with the seven Lealians on the ground along with Issa and Hallin in the sky piercing their wretched bodies with arrows.

It had also allowed Hallin and her to spot the Kaltaures soldiers following behind them. Hallin instructed the Lealian warriors on the ground to circle back around the Kaltaures and attack them from all sides using their swords. The forest was too dense to use bows. It was a short battle that the Kaltaures lost. Hallin was a brilliant strategist and he had taught her this skill over their time together.

Issa remembered what happened next all too well. She and Hallin had met back up with the Lealians on the ground. Everyone’s spirits were high after coming out of the fight victorious. A young warrior was reenacting how he was able to take out two Kaltaures soldiers on his own when he suddenly evaporated in a stream of flames. Phanthus had planned his assault well; everyone was now scattered and in the melee that followed, Issa could not find Hallin.

She flew through the sky and was able to spot and s
afely remove two of the Lealians from danger. She returned to save more only to find four of them burned to death. Still, she could not find Hallin and did not know yet whether he had survived or not. She flew in mad circles around the burning forest looking for any sign of him. So intent was her vigil on the ground that she did not see the Phit coming up behind her. She had no time to react before her wing had been broken causing her to crash to the ground breaking her legs.

She lay
there helplessly and watched as two more Phits flew down to finish her off. When they drew close one suddenly dropped from the sky, an arrow embedded in its gruesome head. She had looked over to see a badly burned Hallin running toward her. He had discarded his bow after using his last arrow and had no other weapons. She tried to lift her head in an effort to fend off the remaining Phit but she could not move for the pain. She could see her time was near, the Phit was going straight for her neck, its gaping mouth was dripping saliva, anticipating the taste of blood. She closed her eyes waiting for its teeth to penetrate her exposed skin but it never came.

When she opened
them again she saw Hallin hanging from the jaws of the Phit in midair wildly punching at the beast. He had managed to get in between her and the Phit. It was over in moments for him and she screamed when the Phit dropped his lifeless body to the ground and circled back toward her. 

It was n
ot her time though. The Lealians she had saved had managed to alert other troops and they arrived in force, killing the Phit before it came within reach of her. Phanthus had long since disappeared. She was taken back to Tamon. Her broken bones mended quickly but she could never erase the memory of Hallin dying such a horrible death to save her.

Kaelyn was now standing on Issa with her sword at the ready. “Issa move closer!”

She did, narrowly missing two Phits that had approached them from the side while her mind had been elsewhere. When Issa saw them both fall to Kaelyn’s sword she refocused herself.  “Kaelyn, once you have opened the wound on the Kruntulla, jump and I will be there to catch you. I will not let you down.”