Chapter 11
The Empire arrived nearly a week later. During that week my hometown had been evacuated. Valora came to stay with me and she did her best to avoid Le` Than. They sent a messenger to request a meeting and I responded that I would meet with them. I took Skyler, Le` Than, my personal guard, and the representatives from the other six clans. We shifted to our armor and flew to the place I had met with them before.
I noticed that the same general I had met with the last time was there with some others that I didn’t recognize, but judging by the rank they were wearing I guessed that they were the personal guard for the other new face that was there. He seemed young, about my own age. He had shoulder length raven-black hair and a pale complexion. His ewes were the color of a storm cloud and he was wearing the rank of a Prince of the Empire.
He nodded to me, “My father sends his regrets that he was unable to make it here himself. He had more pressing matters to attend to then this execution.”
I smiled at him, “How kind of him. It is regrettable that he was unable to attend the execution of his army, but perhaps the day will come that he will be able to attend his own.”
He frowned, “That’s not what I meant at all. It was…”
“Yes, I am aware of what you were implying. Did you come here to trade insults in a pleasant manor, or was there a purpose to all this posturing before we find out who wants this piece of ground more?”
The general laughed, “I told you she was blunt, your Highness.” He looked at me, “The reason for this meeting is to give you a final chance to surrender to the justice of the Emperor for the murder of a Lieutenant in his Army. You will be given as fair of a trial as we can manage. If you do not we will be forced to take you by what ever means we can.”
“As fair of a trial as you can manage huh? How fair of a trial do you think I can get seeing how it is illegal for me to even exist. Your Lieutenant trespassed onto my land and attempted to kill me. My guard and friend died in my place, General. Furthermore, I claim the Eastern Wastelands as Kier Territory with the boundary set at five miles past the city of West Fork. That would make you an invading army, General. My city is outside of the lands claimed by the Empire by at least four miles, so why don’t we discuss the issue of you bringing an invading army into Kier lands.”
“So you are going to play that card. It appears as though we are at an impasse. You claim to be a sovereign nation and we claim you as part of the Empire and subject to our laws. I guess we will have to settle our differences in a time honored fashion. I will see you on the battlefield.”
“Then the battlefield it is.”
We both started to leave when the Prince spoke up, “I did not call this meeting to an end. You both will stay where you are.”
I looked at him then back at the general and raised my eyebrow. I turned back to the Prince and smiled as I walked up to him. I got as close as his guard would let me and stopped. I slowly spread my wings and launched myself into the air, knocking him on his but with the down draft of my wings.
We flew back to my city. I looked at the representatives of the Clan Heads, “Notify your Heads that everything is going as planned.” The nodded and went their separate directions. I looked at Skyler, “What is the status on that prison?”
“It will be done in about an hour. It is amazing what two hundred thousand Kier are capable of.”
“Good. Start the next phase. I will see you at the surface in half an hour.”
He nodded then veered off. I continued on and met Sasha. She smiled, “Phase one is done. We ready to start the next phase?”
“Not quite. Things are almost in place. I will let you know when to start phase two. We are not going to have a very large window to do this so we are going to have to move fast when we start.”
“I understand. Send me the signal when you are ready. My people are standing by.”
“Good. Did Mary Ann make it here ok?”
“Yes. She is in the nursery with the children.”
“Very good. Send my messengers to my office.”
“They are already on their way.”
I smiled, “Your good. Keep it up.”
She smiled back, “It’s my job to be this good. I’m going to go wait with my people.”
“Ok. I will let you know when we are ready.”
I got into my office and found a line of my messengers there. I started sending them out as fast as they could move with instructions to act only when I gave them the signal. I sent a thought to Le` Than, “What is the status with the lake?”
“We are through here. We also have a Wing of Wave Dancers standing by. Is Sasha ready with those Stompers?”
“Yes. She has a Wing on standby waiting for the signal.”
“Good. I hope this works.”
“You and me both.”
I checked the time then headed to the surface to meet Skyler. He smiled when he saw me and wrapped his arms around me. I leaned into him and looked over the army that had gathered at my doorstep.
I sighed, “If they would just go away it would make this a whole lot easier.”
“Yeah, but it wouldn’t be nearly so much fun. After all, how often do we get a chance to pull off a prank this big?”
I laughed, “I can almost hear Mr. Stensen, ‘What in the nine hells did you two do?’ If only getting sent to the pricipal’s office was the worst that could happen.”
“Yeah. Well, If wishes were cows we all would be eating steak.”
“Too true. I almost feel bad for that army down there.”
“Yeah. Not enough to stop the plan, mind you.”
“Oh, no. Not even close.”
I sent a thought to one of my messengers to begin and waited. Storm clouds started rolling in. The sky grew darker and I smiled then looked at Skyler, “Shall we?”
“Lets.”
I sent the signal to the rest of my messengers, Sasha, and Le` Than to begin phase two. We pulled out our binoculars and watched as all of their supply trucks suddenly sank into the ground as if the earth had turned to water. At the same time the storm cut loose and in the chaos the tents of the Prince and all of the generals sank into the earth. Sasha stepped out of the rock next to me with a smile on her face.
I looked at her, “How goes it?”
“That was the most fun I’ve had since Ja` Lynn went to the Academy. We missed two of the generals. They weren’t in their tents like they were supposed to be. We did get the Prince and the general you spoke to earlier. They are in the prison now. Why did you build it to cancel out our abilities? It was a pain in the butt trying to drag some of those old bags into a cell.”
“I might need to use it one day for my own people. If I’ve learned anything it is that if there are more then three Kier in any given space for more then an hour, one of them is going to start a fight. This way I can just toss them in a cell for a few hours and they can duke it out without tearing down the whole city.”
“Good reasoning. Ready?”
“Yep. Let’s finish this.”
Sasha took our hands and pulled us through the earth to the front lines where the rest of Clan Sa` Tain had gathered. Le` Than joined us and gave the signal for the Fire Breathers to get to work. They targeted all of the remaining ammo and the weapons that were being held. Within a few minuets we had the Imperial Army nearly leaderless and unarmed.
We walked forward to offer them a chance to surrender. One of the remaining generals walked a few steps in front of his army and stopped within eye sight of us. I saw him smile slightly and felt a brush of energy. I saw him raise his arm to give a signal and said, “Bloody hell.” I threw up the strongest barrier I could just in time to deflect several rocks the size of my head. I yelled, “THEY ARE KIER!!!” and called in my blades. I just managed to block a strike that would have taken my head off and fought back with everything I had.
I finally fought my way free and took to the sky. I looked over the field below and saw several others from both sides do the same. It was utter chaos below me. I wasn’t able to look for too long because I had three Imperial Soldiers fast approaching me. I sent thoughts to Skyler, Le` Than, Sasha, and my guard to let them know where I was and dived toward the approaching soldiers.
I released my wings at the last minute and sliced through the wings of two of them then used air to shoot myself back up at the third one. He wasn’t expecting me so I was able to gut him as I passed by. I called my wings back in and headed toward a group of Imperials that were chasing down one of the De` Cain Warriors.
In some ways this was both easier and harder then the fight to become Heir. It was easier because I didn’t have to hold back. I could kill them and feel no remorse. It was harder because they would happily kill me as well.
I saw a Patrol of Imperials move to cut me off. I swore and took myself into the storm clouds that were still rolling overhead. I could feel the static dancing over my body as I cut through the clouds. I couldn’t help but smile and think about how I would love to fly through a storm when I’m not trying to survive. I felt movement below me and saw the Imperial Patrol searching for me. It didn’t seem as though they could see very well in the storm.
“Strike the shepherd and the sheep will scatter,” I muttered to myself. I positioned myself directly over the commander of the patrol and released my wings. I dropped on top of him, dragging him into the clouds, and called in a dagger to slit his throat. I spread my wings again and let his body drop as I ducked back into the storm. After that the three Quads of that patrol were fairly easy to drop.
I took a peek below the clouds and saw that the battlefield was mostly empty so I drifted back to my city and dropped out of the storm. I let them know that I was alive and on my way back so that I didn’t have to fight my own people. Skyler and Sasha were the first two to find me and they forced me to sit in front of a healer to get checked before they would let me go anywhere. It was then that I realized I had been bleeding. I said, “Bloody hell.” Then the world went dark.
I woke up laying on a bed the smelled too clean feeling like I had been run over by a train then prepared for mummification in my sleep. It appeared like the truth wasn’t too far from the feeling. I couldn’t sit up due to the restraints holding me down. So I lifted my head up as far as I could. My entire upper body was wrapped with blood seeping through in several places. My left upper leg, lower right leg, and the entire right arm were in similar conditions.
My movement caught the attention of one of my guards. He went to get the nurse while the other guard, Ja` Lynn, came closer to me. He stopped outside of my reach and asked, “Are you finally back with us?”
“Of, course I am, why the hell am I strapped to this bed?”
“For all of our safety. We tend to become violent when we push ourselves that close to death. You continue to surprise me. I didn’t think you would come back this soon.”
“What do you mean by ‘come back?’ I haven’t gone anywhere.”
“You went unconscious. Your other side came out during that time.”
The nurse came in and interrupted whatever else he might have said. She looked at him, “Out. She’s alive and aware so go destroy a dummy or something.” She looked at me, “And you are something else aren’t you? Bloody amazing you were even in the air at all with all the blood you lost. Just like a Warrior, that is. Too bloody hard headed to know when you lost enough blood to die. Have a conversation with death and tell him to piss off, did you? Well let’s take a look at these bandages now that you aren’t trying to kill me and all.”
I never have been one to back down with anybody, but this nurse bloody well had me wanting to cower by the time she had checked all of my cuts and bruises. She had a constant rant about how I was too bloody dim to know when I was supposed to be cut bad enough to hurt and how Warriors were all the same. Pushing themselves to the brink of death then expecting the healers to patch them back up to do it all again. Then she went off about how officers were the worst lot and the higher rank they were the worse they got.
She paused to take a breath and looked me in the eye, “You bloody Heirs and Clan Heads are the worst lot of them all. Who the hell is supposed to lead us if you go and get yourselves killed, huh? Tell me that.”
“I…I uh… um… When can I go back out there?”
She raised an eyebrow and this time I really did cower. She folded her arms, “When you can do a double back flip from a standing position with out feeling any pain. And no wings either.”
“But that will take forever. My people need me out there to lead them.”
“Your people need you to be alive even more and that will only happen if you stay off the front lines. No more arguing. I will leave the restraints off for now and let that annoying boy in that has been demanding to see you ever since he plopped you almost in my lap and ordered me to save you. I give you this warning. If you make any attempt at all to get out of bed I am going to strap you down so tight I will have to stick a feeding tube down you throat because you won’t even be able to open you mouth enough to be spoon fed.”
She walked out and Skyler was next to me in nearly the same breath. I wrapped my arms around him the best that I could. Our lips found each other and it was a long while before we stopped for breath. I had him help me sit up and had to hold my head for the dizziness to pass. I looked at him, “You gotta help me get out of here. I’m going crazy already and I just woke up. Not to mention the nurse from the deepest level of hell. Why did you leave me with her?”
“She was the only one who wasn’t actively helping someone else. Besides, I’m not sure if it is a good idea for you to leave just yet. She said that you were going to need your rest.”
“I can rest better if I’m doing something, like fighting. How is it going out there?”
“It’s going. After the chaos of last week and the thought of loosing you we finally manager to get back into Patrols and Quads. We almost lost it when we thought we were going to capture unarmed humans then all of the sudden we were fighting Kier. Seeing you hit the cloud bank then watching bodies rain from the sky did boost morale significantly though.”
“Please, it was only one Patrol and it didn’t take that long.”
He laughed, “It was more like half a Wing that went up there looking for you. We had thought they had taken you until you dive bombed us.”
“There’s no way. That’s beside the point though. Help me up. I need to get back out there. Speaking of which, why are you in here?”
He helped me stand up, “Because we agreed to a temporary truce so that we could recover our dead and wounded. I’m still not sure this is a good idea.”
“As long as the demon nurse doesn’t catch us it is a wonderful idea.”
We made it out the door of the room and halfway down the hall when I suddenly felt a sharp prick on my back. I turned to see what had pocked me and saw the demon nurse standing behind me with a grin on her face and a needle in her hand. I said, “Bloody hell.” and the world went black again.
I woke up to the start of the longest week of me entire life. True to her word, I had a tube stuck into my mouth that went down my throat. I was strapped to the bed in a nearly vertical position and couldn’t even twitch my fingers. I tried to open my mouth, but my jaw was wired shut and I had a brace on my head that wouldn’t let me look side to side. Even the brace was strapped down.
The nurse from hell, who I later found out was named Anna Marie, was waiting when I woke up. She smiled at me and said, “Now you know that I will do exactly what I say. This week, you belong to me while your body recovers. After that we will discuss if you will return to the battle or not. As I cannot trust your guard to keep you here they are not allowed in this room. Relax, my Lady. I’ll take good care of you.”
It was that moment that I discovered exactly how difficult it was to shudder when I was strapped down tight enough that I couldn’t even twitch. That entire week was filled with pokes, pricks, prods, and long stretches of time that all I could do was blink. When she finally determined that I was well enough to take the head brace off I thought I had died and gone to heaven. It was then that I made the mistake of trying to reason with her. One word of advice, never try to reason with a healer when it comes to your health. They don’t play fair.
I was finally able to talk again so I looked at her and said, “Look, Anna. We are both adults here so I am going to get to the point. We are both going to make each other miserable if we keep on the way we are. I need to get back out there to lead my Warriors and do my best to get myself gutted, and you are going to do your best to make sure that the only kind of battle I see before I’m fully recovered is the fight I will have with my socks when they get turned around backward.”
She folded her arms and said, “Go on.”
“I was wondering if there was any kind of accelerated rehab you could do to get me out of your hair and back to the battlefield where I belong.”
A slow smile spread across Anna’s face that made my other side cower then disappear into the dark corners of my mind. She said in the sweetest voice, “Oh, there is. I will guarantee you this. You are going to hate me by the time I am done with you.”
