The House of Yeel (24 page)

Jymoor stopped as she saw the king himself
stride out of the keep. A group of men followed in his wake, trying
to put armor on their king as he walked briskly, which was failing
utterly.

“I’m a man of my word. Lead
the way, Yeel. The army of Riken is ready to stand with you and
your allies.”

The squad of squires finally
captured their king and managed to strap on most of his
armor.

“Through this portal,” Yeel
said. “The Crescent Knight and my Companions will join us on the
other side.”

The king donned the last of his armor.

“Send for my horse. Make sure the knights
join us soon,” Aruscetar ordered. Men scrambled to implement his
commands.

Aruscetar raised his arm.

“With me!” he called. The soldiers gathering
in the courtyard cheered.

Aruscetar grabbed his helm and stepped
through the portal.

Chapter 19: Battle under a
Green Sky

Aruscetar stood staring at the green sky.
Jymoor vaguely recalled a time when she found the color shocking.
It felt like long ago.

“It’s beautiful. Yet…well,
alien of course,” Aruscetar said.

“I promise it’s a world
worth fighting for,” Jymoor said. “Yeel and Vot are powerful
allies. You won’t regret this.”

Yeel emerged along with a few awestruck
Rikenese officers and soldiers. He approached Aruscetar.

“Welcome to Ascara-home. Or
almost. It’s very near. I believe your kind can see great
distances? It may be visible from atop these rocks.”

“It will take a while to get our men through
this portal,” an officer said. Though he stared at the landscape
all around, he still had his head. He directed the knights just
coming through to an area away from the portal.

“Perhaps we shouldn’t let
the enemy know you’re here. Hide among these tall stones as long as
you can. Then, attack the rear. That’s how you might be most
effective,” Yeel suggested.

“Yes! I understand your plan
exactly,” Aruscetar said. “We’ll wait until their forces are
committed against the fortress, then charge into them from behind.
We’ll form up here immediately.”

“Then I wish you good luck, as I must depart
and stand with Vot on the bridge. As I understand it will be a
vital choke point for the attack. I have some special weapons
prepared for the conflict.”

“I would go with you, but I
think I’m needed on this side of the battle,” Jymoor said
confidently.

“Yes! We need you desperately,” Aruscetar
agreed.

“Then I’ll see you after the
battle,” Yeel said. “Exercise caution. A battle can be
very—”

“Yes! We know! Good luck,” Aruscetar said.
Yeel moved off toward the mainland.

“Yeel! The fortress is that direction!”
Jymoor pointed out.

“Oh. Yes, of course. It does
go downhill a bit over there. Good point,” Yeel said. He hurried
off.

King Aruscetar rolled his eyes.

“The geniuses are always eccentric in the
extreme,” he commented.

Jymoor said nothing. She was
getting nervous. She remembered her—or her previous self’s—battles
against the Quan. The memories were there in her mind, though a bit
blurred, as if from a dream. She checked her belt for the
sword.

Switch to the sword if the
hunting birds are around.

“Form the ranks, and be
quiet about it,” Aruscetar was telling one of his commanders. “Use
flag commands only, until the charge. Keep the knights here on my
right. We can charge along the beach where it’s more
open.”

Jymoor watched more men at arms pouring from
the portal. The men were grim, but it seemed like there were so
many of them. Jymoor had no idea how many Quan they faced, but she
thought it must be a lot if they hoped to capture the fortress.

“Up here,” Aruscetar said to Jymoor. He
pointed at a tall rock. A scout had scampered up its back face and
motioned to them. Aruscetar scaled the rock easily, even in his
armor. Jymoor, though strong, felt it hard to keep her balance. She
moved up after the king, moving more deliberately. Then she settled
in beside Aruscetar to survey the landscape.

From the top, they could see the potential
battlefield in front of the fortress. Jymoor quickly spotted the
enemy forming up.

“They’re so close. They’re
going to spot us if they don’t…wait. They’re moving
out.”

The army moved forward. Jymoor watched
carefully. She had good eyesight, necessary for her old profession.
The shapes resolved into individual Quan. But the front ranks were
carrying something over their heads.

The Quan approached the water. They held long
flotation devices. They looked like pontoons with shields hammered
on the top to protect them. Four powerful Quan carried each one
overhead.

“They know they can’t rely
on the bridge alone. They’re going to attack by sea at the same
time,” Aruscetar noted. He looked back out over the Rikenese
soldiers.

“Perhaps three quarters of our force has made
it through the gate. None too soon.”

As the Quan below approached the sea, a pink
mist sprayed out of the ground all around them. They put up their
arms, alarmed. Most of the Quan set down their pontoons, breaking
their ranks. They stood, waiting. When nothing happened, their
leaders urged them to pick the pontoons back up.

“What manner of attack was that?” demanded
Master Kasil. “Poison spray?”

“I have no idea,” Aruscetar said. “But it was
completely ineffective.”

“Wait…I see
something!”

A huge head atop a serpentine neck appeared
from the sea. Then, another. And another. The heads were huge,
large enough to swallow even a Quan whole, Jymoor thought.

“That is Yeel or Vot’s
doing,” Jymoor said rapidly. “Somehow the mist has attracted those
awful sea monsters.”

“So huge! Dragons!” Aruscetar bellowed.

“They’ll eat the
Quan!”

Even as Jymoor said it, the monsters
attacked. The long necks snaked forward to snatch up Quan from the
beach. The Quan started to fight back, hurling javelins at the sea
monsters.

Meanwhile, a legion of the flightless birds
stormed the bridge. Huge Quan in heavy armor were ready to come in
after them. Jymoor watched the charge on the bridge. She saw Yeel
and Vot standing in the middle. She felt a bit of panic, seeing
Yeel so close to the front.

Then a huge ball of fire engulfed the bridge
where the giant birds were concentrated. A plume of black smoke
obscured the scene, but Jymoor could see the light from more bursts
of flame.

“You’re right about their
power. I see that now,” Aruscetar said.

Dozens of missiles began to fly from atop the
fortress. Most looked like fenlar, though Jymoor caught side of at
least one much larger missile, probably launched from the ballistae
she remembered seeing on the outer walls.

“Now’s our time,” Aruscetar
said. He turned to an officer down below. “Prepare for the attack!
Knights charge, followed by the men-at-arms.”

“The archers?”

“No time! Send them in behind.”

A soldier brought up
Aruscetar’s horse. It had a metal plate over its head and a broad
plate covering the front of its chest. Aruscetar carefully stepped
down onto it from the rock. The huge warhorse accepted the weight
readily. Someone handed him his helmet.

“I’m leading the knights’
charge. Should I fall, save Maristaple at any cost,” he said. His
horse bolted off toward the other knights.

Jymoor scrambled down the rock, half
climbing, half falling. She heard the hooves of horses moving out
and knew it must be the knights. She scrabbled around the rock to
join the men-at-arms moving forward with their halberds ready.

“Wait! Jymoor, with me!”
Kasil cried. “You see that litter over there at the back of their
line? That’s a leader.”

Jymoor felt joy at seeing her sword master
bedecked in studded leather and a thin longsword. She was really
starting to feel like she belonged here with these
familiar-yet-strange people. Jymoor spotted the construct Kasil had
pointed out.

“That must be one of the
Meridalae,” she said. “I’m with you!”

Jymoor looked around where
many of the Companions clustered nearby.

“Companions! With us!” she called. The
Companions surged forward to join them. They moved out as one.

Jymoor’s heart beat wildly.
She held her fenlar and matched the pace of those around them. She
felt sure it was only the power of the moon armor that gave her the
strength to keep up.

“Just a bit slower, or we’ll
be winded,” Kasil warned. She was breathing heavily.

They slowed a bit. Jymoor took a peek around
through the wide visor. The Companions were still with them. Many
had heavy armor, even shields.

As they closed to within
fifty paces of the litter from behind, a few Quan caught sight of
the attack and ran to intercept. Jymoor didn’t get a good look at
the commander in the litter. She saw a long arm pointing to the
fortress, doubtless issuing commands.

A Quan came toward Jymoor,
its thick sword raised. Jymoor closed fearlessly and sidestepped as
she watched the sword come down. She helped deflect the blow
further with the shaft of her fenlar. The range was too close to
stick the Quan with the barb of her weapon, so she simply thwacked
him across the back of his head, sending his helm flying. Another
Quan attacked her so she had to stab at him rather than finishing
the wounded one. Then she threw the fenlar at the throat of a third
enemy and drew her sword.

Master Kasil yelled and
stuck the Quan next to her clean through. Blood spurted across
Jymoor’s legs. She caught sight of a Quan too late. A tremendous
blow to the armor knocked her back. A vague memory surfaced. Her
previous death.

I remember that pain.

Jymoor stood stunned. As the
Quan readied to finish her, the spear of a Companion plunged into
one of its eyeballs and out the back of its head, sending gore
spurting out. Someone helped steady her. Jymoor gripped her sword a
bit tighter and continued forward.

The Companions had carved
through the makeshift defense of the enemy leader. Jymoor
approached the litter. The Quan standing nearby, presumably the
litter carriers, had weapons but no armor. As she closed in, Master
Kasil at her side, Jymoor finally saw the leader. He stood up on
the vehicle.

“Moon protect me,” she
said. It wasn’t a
he
, it was an
it
.

A huge gash of a mouth crossed the entire
head, filled with a hundred white needle-teeth. A single eye was
the only feature above the mouth. There was no white to it: the
entire eye was glossy black. The thing was even taller than a Quan.
The shoulders were broad, like a man, and heavily muscled. It had
dark blue skin. A long mace of bone, ending in a heavy knob,
dangled from its long arm.

“That’s one ugly—” Kasil
cried.

The thing screamed in anger. The horrible
mouth was so wide it looked like the top of its head would flop
off.

Kill it kill it kill it!

Jymoor felt herself move
toward it as if she was disembodied. The creature swung. Jymoor
took the mighty blow and staggered. She thrust with her sword,
grazing the monster’s side.

Its awful mouth came down.
The sun was blocked out. Jymoor heard the nightmare sound of dozens
of tiny teeth scraping the outside of her helm. She felt
needle-stabs of pain in her neck and her eyebrow. She must have
screamed, but she heard only the intolerable scraping. Jymoor
released her helm strap with her left hand. Then her helm was
pulled off, still in the thing’s mouth. The giant bluish thing rose
above her and spat the helmet out.

Jymoor took a deep breath of
the thick air. She released a battle cry from her parched throat.
Her sword swung up in a quick slice. The creature’s right arm went
flying away. Jymoor grunted in effort. Her sword came back down.
The thing’s left arm dropped to the ground.

It screamed again, but this time, it was a
less frightening, more pathetic noise.

Jymoor thrust, impaling the awful monster
through the chest. As it collapsed beneath her, Jymoor stepped onto
its chest, holding the pommel of her sword which stuck straight up
at the sky.

Was that really me? Did I just kill it?

“Well done,” Master Kasil called to her. “But
next time just thrust and be done with it. Also, pull your blade
back out right away. You may need it again very, very soon.”

Great moon, is this a battle or a
lesson?

Master Kasil caught her look and laughed.
Jymoor heaved her blade out and collected herself for more
fighting.

***

The last of the war birds had burned and died
on the stained stones before Yeel. But the creatures were simply
replaced by the next threat: heavily armored Quan.

“Is their armor primarily
iron based, or perhaps it’s mostly copper?” Yeel asked
quickly.

“Iron,” Vot replied. “I’m
thinking the same thing you are.” She handed Yeel a stuffed bag of
powder.

“Oh! You brought more than I have,” Yeel
said. Both of them started to swing the bags around on the end of
long, powerful tentacles.

Ascarans charged by on the
bridge to meet the Quan. They held the attack at first, but Yeel
judged it couldn’t last. Yeel and Vot launched the bags, sending
them hurling forward over the bridge. Vot’s struck right at the
front, where Ascarans fought the advancing Quan toe to toe. Yeel’s
missile struck farther back. The containers burst upon impact,
covering the Quan and a few of the Ascarans in front.