Out of the Faold (Whilst Old Legends Fade Synchronicles) (26 page)

An eerie
hush
fell over the beach,
interrupted by the injured crying out. The thunder died. T
he surviving fighters stared at the small girl
and her entourage
pe
rched on boulders on the hillside. Glory
still radiat
ed
sparks of light in the dimming dusk after pulling a stormful of lightning toward her.
She
licked both her palms, smoothed her hair down and muttered, “Awful static.”

Pearl cheered at Glory and hugged her. Both girls dashed into the woods, Coral calling after them as she followed. Amias and the Marshalls checked the dead Sisters the Siri had dispatched into the underworld
. They searched the trees. More Sisters were found, most huddled in fear. Others wer
e simply bodies already hunted.

Amias called out to Coral, having lost sight of her. Kel was on the trail of Pearl and Glory, w
ho were sticking together
hand in hand as they ran through the woods.
Denon motioned to Amias to his left, so he dashed off in fear she’d been separated
from them
. He emerged from the trees into a path that ran onto the beach at the
lower
end and up into the trees at the other. Coral stood facing a Kusira Sister standing ten paces from her. The woman looked like she was pleading with Coral but he was too far to hear and although he yelled for her neither woman responded. The Sister fell to her knees then screamed as she lurched sideways then back and out of si
ght
. Coral stepped forward, looked back at him and held her hand up as if to stop him from coming forward. She too, slid sideways and then forward into nothingness. Amias’ cry penetrated the woods. He ran down the path to where she’d been, begging the gods to allow him passage. He screamed at them, fought with them in his mind when they tried to speak, fell onto his knees.

Kel and the others broke through the trees at a run
. Krisa
ran down the path, Pat in tow
.

Coral had stepped onto the path following the sound of crying. The Kusira woman was running down toward the beach but stopped when she saw a figure emerge behind her from the corner
of her eye. She stared in fear.

“I
just want to go,” she pleaded.

“We can’t send you back,” Coral told her.

“I saw…back there,” she cried. “That’s not…not of my god.”

“No, it is of our gods.”

“He is going to be angry. He wanted this land.”

“He can’t have it.”

“Take me to your gods, please,”
the woman begged, falling forward onto her knees.
“They will have mercy if they know what he...”

The woman screamed. Coral watched as the Sister got pulled one way then the other, disappearing into
the
gods’ world. Though it wasn’t right. It wasn’t her gods’ world. It wasn’t grey and opaque. It was ruddy brown. The Sister’s image had jolted into a liquid muddy brown world. Coral looked behind her to see Amias advancing. She held her hand up to stop him in case he
would
try to stop her. She needed to find out what was happening. With concentration on that brown smudge on the world the Kusira had left behind she pushed herself,
forced her way after the woman.

Coral’s feet landed into what felt like thic
k syrup. It was putrid, filthy.

A voice
growled at the woman
as
she writhed on the floor in agony
, screaming
.
“You want to abandon me for another, do you? You forsake me because you lose a battle?” Her form rose
to stand, out of her control
.
She gasped a rattling breath then simply dissolved into a mist of red that hung in the air for seconds then exploded. She was absorbed into the reddish mud of the world. Coral stood perfectly still
feigning no control
. The voice took form. He wasn’t opaque. He was more liquid than solid. He slid toward her in his muddy world, tall
and slim
,
hairless
, with well-defined muscles. He wore only a wrap around his
waist
to his knees. He w
alked around her, studying her.

“And who are you?” he demanded. “What are you?”

“I am a representative from the gods of
Danycia
,” she stated, showing no fear, though she trembled inside expecting to be vaporized any moment.

“A representative…,” he repeated. “
Why are you in my world?”

“I was curious.”

“Curious?” he demanded raising his voice. “You are interfering.”

She didn’t respond. She thought of the others, Amias was undoubtedly worried he’d lost her. He would blame himself for allowing the kiss. How she loved that kiss. And the men. They would blame themselves if she was gone, for not having protected her.  The three precious girls would charge ahead and fight a mighty battle as fiercely as any vete
ran soldier faced by the enemy to get her back.

“The man,” the god whispered in her ear, much too close for her comfort. “He doesn’t touch you. You are a woman and he doesn’t touch you.”

She thought of his hands holding hers and his
scruffy chin against her skin.

“You can stay here. I’
ll touch you,” he told her, running a liquid hand down her back. “
I’ll give you anything you want, power, riches, teach you things your gods haven’t taught you. Why do they teach those children when they can have you? You are special, aren’t you? That’s why you came here. I c
an give you more than they can. What is it you want?”

Before her formed an arch. Through the muck and mire of this god’s world she could see her people. He
r
man, her girls, her friends
.

“What is that?” this god raged beside her. “What are you? Get out.”

Coral stepped forward. The god gaped at her ability to move. She focused on Amias still on his knees in anguish at her disappearance. She focused on the three girls standing around him. And with a forceful pull she yanked them
into this god’s world with her.

He yowled in rage at the intruders. Amias stood up slowly, turning his head to seek her form in the
mud
. Glory and Pearl rushed to her side, Pearl clutching her hatchet. Krisa melted into the murk
beyond where Amias stood
.
The god rais
ed a hand and pointed at Amias.

“What are you doing here? What are you people?”

Coral stepped forward again and stated, “Repre
sentatives of the gods of Danycia
.”

He narrowed his eyes at her and spat, “There are no gods of
Danycia
. You want to be a goddess? Is that what you want? Only I can do that for you.”

The god grabbed Coral by the back of her head and forced her against him. She felt her body enter a thicker muck that caressed her
entire body at once, like a thousand snakes writhing
against her
. More solid parts of him probed her. Fingers on her skin, touching her bones, her organs. Tongues sought out her insides. His voice, like a whisper in her head, “He doesn’t touch you. Let me touch you and you will be my goddess. You are pow
erful. We can rule everything.”

Coral dropped. She slid through him to the ground. The god staggered backward as he faced Amias, who had his palm up facing the god. She shuddered and stood, backing up, repulsed by what she’d felt of this god. She could barely contain the contents of her stomach with the thought he may have forced himself on her before Amias could have loved her.
If he had taken her, she would be gone forever.

The god grinned at her with lust, knowing what she thought. He stretched a hand in her direction and she could feel it, though she was a dozen steps away, traveli
ng up her thigh.
It grasped her thigh.
It stopped.

Under
the god’s
feet appeared a black pool of blood. Black stains ran down his wra
p dripping into the growing puddle under him
. His eyes and neck bulged with pain as he teetered forward, retching
long strings of saliva
. From the muck beside
him a small form dashed forward. W
ith a great wide arc the blade of a machete sliced through the air and into his neck, sliding through with ease.
The pieces of his body fell.
From the
decapitated head
flowed more black blood into the
filth aroun
d them. A strand of putrid yellowish green wa
ste floated up in front of them like a snake about to strike.
Glory
swept her arms back several times, pulling it into itself, forming a
ball. She paused staring at it.

“Glory,” she whispered to an unasked question. And it exploded into millions of vibrant red, pink and orange dust part
icles that shimmered then died.

The muddy world shifted. It felt as though it started to drain, making them heavy, pulling them downward. Coral grabbed onto Amias’ arm and pulled the girls into her skirts. She yanked everyone as hard as she could past the mud and finally back into the path, the fresh air, an
d the arms of the Marshalls. They
rushed forward
to help their staggering forms.

Covered still in mud, Amias pulled Coral to him in the tightest embrace he could without hurting her. In her ear he whispered desperately, “I thought I lost you.”

“You almost did,”
she told him honestly and heard him let
out a sharp whine of distress.

Amias stepped out of the trees at the boulders leading to the beach of the isthmus. The horses stomped in excitement
at recognizing their riders
. Coral and the girls looked
out over the mess on the beach;
bodies, blood, pits carved by lightning.
Men still clashed farther away where a boat tried to come to land. Coral stared at a spot on the sand where perhaps thirty Kusira women were gathered. They all sat, silent and shakin
g, surrounded by Siri warriors.

Coral stepped forward. The girls followed. The women watched them. Into the water they walked, letting the mud wash away from their skin, from their dresses and hair. Amias joined them.
They scrubbed each other clean. Amias splashed Pearl in play and sh
e ran up to the beach laughing.

She turned to taunt him but stopped and the smile left her face. Coral spun to look behind her. The mud they’d washed off had gathered and rose up out of the water into a twenty fo
ot image of the god.

Pearl
lifted
her hatchet
in
to
her fist
and bellowed, “We already killed you.”

The god’s image turned to Pearl. Rage showed on his face as he realized she was the one who had attacked him first. He reached out a hand. Coral screamed, knowing what he was capa
ble of, even without true form.

“I…will
.
..kill
...
you…again!” Pearl
shouted and with each word
took a step forward swinging. She
cleaved
at
the muddy form with
her Marshall hatchet,
its parts
staggered with
each concussive blow
.
The Kusira sisters convulsed with each stroke.
The mud dissolved
back into the water
gone for good
.

“Oh, Pearly!” Glory cheered rushing to her friend. “That was marvelous.”

Coral stood, drenched and in sh
ock, staring at the girls.
The Sisters on the beach lay shaking having just witnessed the death of their god, having him ripped from their souls.
The fighting stopped.
Siri stepped from the trees. The King’s soldiers on the beach lay down their weapons and fell to one knee. The Kusira warriors fell to their knees beside them. All watched the group of Marshalls, the three small girls and their lady guardian
as they emerged from the water.

A general rode forward on his horse barking orders to secure the Kusira
. He dismounted his horse, rushing forward to help Coral steady herself in the waves as s
he walked up into the dry sand.

“Lady Doran,” he said breathlessly. He shook his head in wonder. “Captain!”

“Thank you, General,” Coral smiled finally catching her balance on dry land. “The girls. Girls come.”