***
2. DECLARATIONS
“What are your orders, sir?”
The sound of Savitz’s grinding teeth echoed in my ears and put a smile on my face.
“Sir, their wagon is escaping. Should we pursue them?”
“Take three squads from Kohl’s platoon back to the fork, and lead them West,” he barked down to the questioning soldier. “Find the girl with the braided black hair and bring her back here, alive. Kill the others.”
“Right away sir,” the soldier replied, flashing a quick salute. “What should we do about—”
Two sharp cracks and a shriek of pain sent the soldier to the ground as his legs buckled at sickening angles. Savitz’s horse whinnied nervously and shied away from the man as his nearby comrades rushed to assess the situation. A ripple ran through the column of men as the agonized cry of the crippled soldier set them on edge. Savitz let out an aggravated growl and pointed down the road to where I stood, a few hundred yards away. “Lieutenant Kohl, send out the wagons. I want that man dead.”
The sea of soldiers parted to reveal a caravan of familiar transport wagons, each filled with a full squad of ten men in heavy armor. Savitz watched them pass by from atop his destrier, then turned his back on me as he began to retreat into the column. His warhorse made it three steps before the tortured screams of a dozen men filled the air, and he spun to find the lead wagon engulfed in a crimson wildfire. The horse that pulled it panicked and broke free of its lashings, leaving the wreckage an impassable blockade in the center of the road.
Men broke ranks and fled in all directions as the second wagon in line joined the conflagration, adding another group of screams to the choir. “Stop! Hold ranks!” Savitz commanded, to middling effect. He began a charge forward through the smoke and fleeing men to the front of the column, but only made it halfway before his horse seized up beneath him and toppled over, throwing him hard into the dirt. The horse remained motionless on the ground for a moment, then suddenly regained its senses and ran off in the opposite direction.
The commander rolled to his knees, grasping the shoulder he landed on with a grimace. He took a moment to climb to his feet before stalking forward to stand in front of the men that remained in formation. “Damn you, Lux,” he shouted, enraged, “enough of these tricks! Quit being a coward and face me like a man!”
I closed the distance between us in a few seconds, stopping just far enough away to send a cloud of dust billowing over the commander. “I think you’ll come to regret that, sir.”
He coughed as the dirt settled over him in a fine layer. “Always so cocky,” he spat. “Whatever illusions of power you think you have will shatter, here and now. I defeated you in Atsal with a dozen men and took you prisoner. This time, you won’t be given that mercy. Not after what you’ve done.”
No mercy. My mouth curled into a grin at the thought. “You seem to have forgotten, Savitz. You didn’t beat me in Atsal; I gave myself up willingly when you threatened the life of an innocent girl. A habit you clearly insist on upholding.” I waved my hand at the burning carts behind him. “Do you honestly think you stand a chance against me now that you lack your trump card?”
“This perversion of the Primal Fire won’t save you against the full might of the Third Company,” he warned me sharply.
“How many of those men do I have to slaughter before you realize the mistake you’ve made?” I took a step forward and drew my sword from its sheath, pointing it at his face. “I’ll give you this warning only once: tell them to retreat, or I will massacre every man under your command.”
Savitz spat in the dirt between us. “If you think I would retreat after what you did to my s—”
“Do NOT misunderstand me, commander,” I interrupted. “These are your last few minutes alive in this world. I am not giving you a chance to leave; only the men who follow you. You lost that right the moment you gave the order to murder Marin Sesaude.”
There was a soft click followed by a mechanical whirring somewhere to my right as a crossbow fired a bolt directly at my head. I slid deftly to one side, dodging the attack and turning to face my assailant in a single move, and was delighted to find one of the crossbowmen who had shot Marin was the culprit. A bolt of energy raced out towards him, snaking up his body to the base of his neck where it burrowed through to his spine. With a flash of my sword the energy activated, and the man’s eyes rolled into the back of his head as his vertebrae shattered to dust.
The tenuous link I shared with the soldier through my mana immediately flared with the intense, familiar pain of the void. My scarred hand tingled with sudden energy, and the primal desire that lurked deep within my mind awoke for the first time since my fight in the Attetsian plaza.YES.
No. I withdrew my energy from the lifeless guard and used it to overwhelm the presence, forcing it back to the dark corner it came from. You don’t get to control me anymore. The hunger disappeared as quickly as it had arrived, and my mind returned to a focused calm. The exchange was nearly instantaneous, and I took a moment to give the remaining bowmen a knowing look before I returned my attention to Savitz. “What, nothing to say in your defense?”
“I don’t need to defend myself to you.” His voice quavered with an overwhelming rage
