viper. The thing stood frozen in time for a moment before falling to the cobblestones, dead where it lay.
Daring to lower her sword for a few precious moments, the princess found that her arms were leaden and that her lungs clawed to capture each new breath. Her mind wanted to keep fighting, but more and more her body refused to obey. She and her forces were exhausted, and to her dismay, seemingly endless hordes of vipers still poured around street corners and down dark alleyways to come and challenge them. The princess’s face and body were peppered with blood and offal, and she knew that her muscles would soon give out. Even so, like her comrades, she had no choice but to fight on. Faegan and Aeolus were somewhere on the far side of the square, still loosing azure bolts, their fingertips long since blackened and singed. The acolyte and consular cadres who had followed in separate litters were doing the same all across the macabre urban battlefield.
Shailiha took a quick look around to see that the Minion corpses seemed at least equal in number to those of the vipers that had been blown apart by azure bolts or cut down by Minion swords or returning wheels. As more Minions landed in the streets, terrified citizens ran madly in every direction as they tried to escape the raging vipers.
Shailiha desperately hungered for a battle report, but Traax had not yet brought one to her, forcing her to wonder if her valiant commander was dead. She knew that to effectively lead this fight, she must understand what was going on around her. But in all this madness, finding Traax seemed impossible. Shailiha had lost track of Abbey long ago, and she had yet to see Khristos. Not finding the Viper Lord worried her, but aimlessly searching through the raging battle would surely get her killed. Knowing that she must learn how her troops were faring, she realized that there was only one way to do it. She would take to the air again and view the battle from above.
Just as she was about to summon some warriors to her side, Shailiha saw another viper coming. She instinctively backed up and lifted her sword high with both hands, readying herself for its attack. Then the deadly viper unexpectedly stopped short and glared directly into her eyes. With its talons outstretched and its strong tail coiled up beneath its humanlike upper body, the thing ominously levered high into the air, then looked down on her and let go a menacing hiss.
Standing her ground, Shailiha knew what the monster would likely do next, for she had seen it happen dozens of times this terrible night. Rearing back, the viper would suddenly launch at her, its talons and incisors flashing as it came. Holding her ground, theJin’Saiou summoned her courage and defiantly glared back.
But rather than charging, the Blood Viper opened its mouth wider, hissing again and exposing its forked tongue. Only too late did Shailiha sense the danger and swivel to one side. As the viper spat its venom, the shock of seeing the acidic poison fly through the air was so great that the danger seemed to come at her in slow motion. Even so, she could not move fast enough.
The green substance flew through the air and hit the left side of her face. Smoke immediately rose from her burning skin, and the pain ripping through her eye was unimaginable. Screaming wildly, she covered her stricken face with one hand while trying to hold onto her precious sword with the other. But the pain was too much and she fell to the bloody square, her sword slipping from her grasp to rattle down onto the bloody cobblestones. Sensing his chance, the viper moved in for the kill.
Slithering forward, the thing reared up alongside Shailiha’s prostrate body to hiss viciously and look down on its greatest victory. The liver of theJin’Saiou would grant it inordinate power.
Bending closer, the thing curiously tilted its awful head back and forth as it luxuriated in the sight of its terrible handiwork. Despite the many dangers surrounding the viper, it knew that this woman of supremely endowed blood was the conquest of a lifetime, and he was determined to savor her. First he would kill her slowly by strangulation; only then would he rip her open and take her liver. Smiling, the thing spread wide its talons and reached down for Shailiha’s exposed neck.
He never saw the silver blur that killed him. Coming directly from behind, the Minion’s returning wheel sliced straight through the thing’s neck, severing its head from its body without stopping. Soaring on nearly unfettered, the wheel careened through the air in a perfect circle back toward its master.
Reaching up, Traax expertly caught the bloody wheel in the leaded glove covering his left hand, then quickly returned it to its resting place at one hip. Running with all his might, he abandoned any thought of his own safety and tore across the chaotic square to kneel beside the stricken princess. When he turned her over and looked at her face, the air rushed from his lungs.
Shailiha was near death, the left side of her face ravaged by the viper’s venom. Smoldering and hissing, the terrible venom was still doing its awful work and burning deep craters in her skin. Traax hurriedly removed a kerchief from beneath his armor, but when he tried to wipe away the venom, the cloth also started to hiss and steam, forcing him to stop.
Reaching down, he touched the side of her neck. He found a heartbeat, but its rhythm was weak and slow. Just then theJin’Saiou started to regain consciousness, and her burned eyelids fluttered open. Screaming and writhing in exquisite pain, her one good eye beseechingly looked up at Traax. As she did, the Minion commander tried his best to hide his shock.
Shailiha’s left eye had been nearly destroyed.
The eyeball was pitted and glassy, and vitreous fluid ran from it, crazily tracing down her severely pockmarked cheek. Traax could easily tell that the eye was blinded, and he sadly guessed that it would never again see the light of day. As her good eye moved frantically about, her damaged one did not copy its movements, telling Traax that the muscles of the affected eye had also been damaged by the viper’s venom.
Screaming again, Shailiha madly reached out to grasp Traax’s shoulders. There was only one thing to do, he realized. Quickly overpowering her with his strong arms, he wrestled her back down atop the bloody cobblestones.
“Forgive me…” he said quietly.
Reaching out, he used two fingers of one hand to find the carotid artery on the right side of her neck, and he pressed hard. Eight seconds later the princess was again unconscious. Picking her up in his arms, Traax unfolded his strong wings and took to the air.
“IS SHE DEAD?” AEOLUS ASKED.
Faegan did his best to wipe the tears from his face, but even more came to take their places. “Yes,” he answered simply, his voice little more than a tremulous whisper. Taking his eyes from the shrouded body lying before him, he sadly looked around.
After much hard fighting, the battle had finally been won. The last of the Blood Vipers had been corralled, and incensed Minions were eagerly beheading them on Faegan’s orders. Khristos had not been among the dead, nor had anyone reported seeing him. That realization continued to deeply worry Faegan despite his overwhelming grief.
He and Aeolus had loosed azure bolts at the enemy until they had nearly collapsed with exhaustion, killing hundreds of vipers in the process. The acolytes and consuls who had also rushed here from the Redoubt had killed many more. Four loyal acolytes and seven worthy consuls lay dead, not to mention the still uncounted Minions who had also perished. Each surviving mystic had suffered venom burns and talon wounds, some of them serious.
Much of the stricken neighborhood remained aflame, but the Minions were battling the fires. Faegan watched as throngs of citizens wandered aimlessly through the bloody streets in search of loved ones. The sounds of crying children, neighing horses, wildly barking dogs, and groaning citizens and Minions still filled the air. Duvessa and her warrior-healers were doing everything they could to stem the suffering, but they too were exhausted and could only do so much. The gutters ran red with blood, bodies and body parts littered the shiny cobblestones, and hungry flies were already gathering atop the corpses. As the news of the singularly important death spread, all the surviving mystics and hundreds of spent Minion warriors had congregated to mourn the shrouded corpse lying in the street.
Faegan wearily moved his chair closer. Her courageous death will long be remembered, he realized, and her life’s story would resonate in everyone’s consciousness for longer still. How can we possibly tell Tristan and Wigg about our failure to protect her? he wondered. Will either of them ever trust us again? Still unable to believe, with a trembling hand he reached down and pulled back the makeshift shroud.
Abbey had died quickly, they told him. She was last seen fighting three vipers at once, and she had succumbed to their attacks before Minion warriors could reach her. She bled out quickly from the viper talons that had slashed at her throat, then she had fallen to the ground, where her innards were ravaged by the terrible beasts. Finally some frantically struggling warriors reached her and ensured that the vipers responsible for her
