Lady Carliss and the Waters of Moorue (22 page)

“Scream, and you’ll die in an instant,” the deep voice whispered in her right ear.

Carliss knew immediately that a Shadow Warrior had her in his grip. She felt like a fool for allowing the grief of the situation to overcome her normally keen awareness. But she still had Morning Star in her grip, and she decided she would not give in to these evil brutes without a fight.

She quickly rotated her hand about the handle of her sword so the pommel was now near her thumb, then slammed the pommel back into the face of her assailant. He yelled and released his grip on her. Carliss dove forward and repositioned her sword as she spun about to face her enemy—or enemies, for two warriors had come to take her. One now knelt on the ground with his hand to his face, blood trickling through his fingers, while the other covered him with a drawn sword. Both warriors wore chain-mail coifs and shirts, leather gloves, and leather leg armor, so that almost every inch of their bodies was covered.

The second warrior advanced, and Carliss prepared herself. She had never faced the sword of a Shadow Warrior before. From Dalton’s description of his battle with Lord Drox, she was up against a powerful force.

The first blow came and Carliss met it, gave, then countered quickly, not allowing the warrior to back her into an unrecoverable position. The ferocious volley of cuts and slices that followed obviously frustrated her opponent. At one point Carliss deflected his cut and countered so quickly that he had no choice but to use his forearm as a shield against her blade.

Carliss’s sword impacted the chain mail without damage, as she expected. She slid her blade forcefully across his protected arm as quickly as possible to recover her defensive position and was shocked when the warrior screamed and recoiled. His chain mail had been severed, and a deep gash in his arm was bleeding profusely.

Carliss glanced around her, breathing heavily. The first warrior was on his feet again. She readied her sword for another attack, concerned now that she would have to face the blades of both warriors—and who knew when more Shadow Warriors would arrive.

They looked at her through steely eyes, clearly amazed that one young female Knight of the Prince had held them off this long. The warrior with the injured arm raised his sword, his face full of fury. Just as he was about to strike again, the other warrior grabbed his arm.

“Stop!” he commanded. “You’ll not win. You’re fighting the Morning Star!”

The other warrior’s fury vanished, and the tip of his sword slowly fell as he stared first at Carliss, then at her sword. The warrior with the bleeding head pulled his fellow warrior back and spoke in hushed tones to him.

“She’s the one who escaped!” Carliss heard him say. The warrior she’d been fighting turned and looked at Carliss again, disbelief in his eyes.

“Impossible,” he said. Carliss saw him grip his sword more tightly, as if he wanted to resume the fight and finish her off. He whispered something back to his comrade, then disappeared into the swamp.

The injured warrior felt his head and looked as though he was struggling to focus. Carliss heard a crashing sound behind her and knew that other Shadow Warriors would be on her in an instant. She was trapped between the warriors at the pit and another contingent of darkness that was surely on its way to seize her. Either way, her feeble rescue attempt was over.

She looked for an avenue of escape, but it was too late. She saw movement in the trees behind her assailant, but this time it was not caused by the esca lizards. Warriors were closing in on all sides.

“The King reigns…and His Son!” Carliss called out. She raised Morning Star to make a final stand.

Just as she pulled back on the mighty sword, the warrior held out his arm, and a familiar shriek filled the air. Carliss stood frozen as an esca lizard launched from a tree limb toward the warrior. It latched onto his outstretched arm, and the antennae recoiled, ready to strike.

The warrior dropped his sword, grabbed the lizard by the body, and ripped it from his arm. The lizard shrieked angrily, but only for a moment. The warrior threw it to the ground and stomped his heavy boot in a crushing blow to the lizard’s head.

The warrior looked up at Carliss.

“I hate those things!” he said. “The King reigns indeed…and His Son!”

Carliss’s jaw dropped. “Who are you?”

“My name is Branton,” the mighty warrior said just as three others stepped through the trees to join him, their eyes all fixed upon Carliss.

“Is she the one?” a warrior asked. “The overcomer?”

Branton pointed to Carliss’s sword. “She carries Morning Star, sir. We mistook her to be a Vincero, but she fights like the Prince. There can be no other explanation.”

Carliss realized with relief that she was in the company not of Shadow Warriors but of Silent Warriors. Their talk of her made her uncomfortable, however, for she had taken the sword out of necessity, not for some noble calling they seemed to think her capable of. Just then she heard an eerie horn blast from the direction of the pit.

“What is that?” she asked, not yet daring to turn away from the warriors.

The warriors’ faces all took on a countenance of great sorrow.

“Evening falls,” the commanding warrior said gravely. “That is Malco’s call to the esca lizards to be fed.”

“No!” Carliss exclaimed. “How many prisoners will die?”

“We’ve only just discovered this pit of horror,” another warrior replied, “but from what we’ve seen… all of them.”

Carliss felt a righteous anger rise up within her like never before. Chills began in the hand that held Morning Star and flowed through her body until she could not be still. Her eyes narrowed.

“Why haven’t you stopped it?” she demanded.

The mighty warrior of the King stepped forward with a ferocity that matched her own. He spoke through clenched teeth.

“We are bound here by the actions—and inactions—of the King’s people. The call to free the people from Lucius’s prisons does not belong to us but to the Knights of the Prince!” The warrior pointed threateningly at Carliss. “We have waited for Morning Star to be given!” The warrior’s muscles tightened, and he looked like a vessel of great destruction waiting to be unleashed. “Are you the one?” he demanded.

Just then the eerie horn blasted again, and Carliss could take it no more. She imagined Si Kon, Takara, Kei, Mariko, and the others being torn apart by the horrid esca lizards. She glared back at the commanding warrior.

“I am no great knight or mighty warrior, though you might wish me to be, but I will serve the Prince and fight for His people to my last dying breath. And I will not stand by to watch the horrors of Malco be accomplished this day!”

Carliss turned and ran toward the pit of Despon Swamp with the valiant power of the Prince resonating in her heart and in her great sword. She did not wait for help nor care if the warriors followed. She jumped across a shallow pool of muck-green water and dashed between the dangling vines. She saw subtle movements going the same direction and knew the lizards were gathering.

The hissing grew in volume as she approached the pit. Then she sensed something large moving beside her and realized it could not be a lizard. She glanced to her right and saw four massive Silent Warriors matching her pace, brilliant swords drawn and ready. She looked to her left and saw three more join her.

“The King reigns!” she called out.

“And His Son!” came the reply of dozens of deep voices.

With every step she took, more mighty warriors rose up out of the cover of the swamp and joined in her charge to the pit. Carliss felt momentarily cheered… until she saw the glow of the torches ahead and began to hear the cries and shouts of a tormented people.

“Kei!” Carliss heard the distinct voice of Si Kon cry out and knew she must move faster.

By now Carliss was leading a wave of warriors that seemed to flow back from her like a wake as far as she could see in both directions. She saw esca lizards attack some of the warriors, but their chain mail and leather armor protected them, and they were not hindered by the fruitless attacks of Malco’s lizard demons.

Carliss broke through the line of torches just in time to see two Shadow Warriors dragging Kei to the near edge of the pit. Other warriors were dragging more captives to various spots along the edge of the pit.

“The King reigns!” Carliss shouted again, this time as a battle cry.

The entire area erupted in a unified response from hundreds of Silent Warriors and also from captive Knights of the Prince: “And His Son!”

A continual wave of Silent Warriors spilled into the light of the pit from the darkness of the swamp. The Shadow Warriors were momentarily dazed by the assault, but an alarm soon rose and the two stone buildings emptied themselves of vicious dark warriors. The air filled with clashing swords and anguished cries from the prisoners. The esca lizards’ hissing turned to thousands of deafening shrieks.

Carliss brought her blade immediately to bear on the two warriors who held Kei. One drew his sword to fight Carliss, while the other continued to drag Kei toward the waiting lizards. She tried to cut him off, but the blade of his fellow warrior hindered her way.

“Carliss!” Kei cried out as the warrior neared the edge of the pit, where Carliss saw a slithering, hissing mass waiting for its food.

The Shadow Warrior before her laughed as he held his sword ready to defend the evil act of his accomplice. Carliss pulled Morning Star far back and unleashed a cut that flew with all of her strength behind it. The warrior raised his blade to stop it, but Morning Star cut clean through the warrior’s grisly blade, continuing on to sever first the armor and then the torso of the evil warrior. He fell instantly to the ground.

Carliss jumped over his body and thrust her sword through the other warrior just as two lizards struck out at Kei. Carliss grabbed the girl’s arm and yanked her back, slicing through one of the lizards in one quick motion.

“Look!” Kei pointed. Two other warriors were just about to throw another woman to the lizards just twenty paces to their left. She was screaming in terror against the horror of her demise.

Carliss thrust the handle of Morning Star into Kei’s hand, whipped her bow off her back, and quickly set an arrow in the string. She aimed, released, and was already drawing back a second arrow when the first sank solidly into the side of one of the Shadow Warriors. The other warrior looked briefly about for the threat but only saw the tip of the arrow just before it penetrated deep into his chest.

Carliss set her bow back on her shoulder and recovered Morning Star. “Come, Kei.” She led the girl back to the domed cages. The Shadow Warriors were now all completely occupied with their fight against the King’s Silent Warriors… a battle resumed from across the Great Sea.

How long will this war last?
Carliss wondered.

Nearly all the captives who had been offered to the lizards had made their way back to the cages, which now seemed to be the only safe haven from warriors and lizards alike. Carliss found Si Kon and the rest of the Followers in one of the cages. She unlocked the cage, and Si Kon and Takara embraced their daughter with the joy of restoration.

“Carliss … how did you …?” Si Kon looked around in wonder at the raging battle of powerful forces.

The Silent Warriors seemed easily to be overtaking the Shadow Warriors who guarded the pit, but then Carliss saw a contingent of Malco’s warriors enter the battle from the direction of Esca Prime. More Silent Warriors joined from the swamp, and the fight seemed to escalate beyond anything Carliss had ever seen. This place… this time… this battle seemed to hold great significance for both forces.

“We must get the people out of here,” Carliss shouted.

“Yes.” Si Kon nodded. “But how, Carliss? The lizards will kill us all!”

Carliss looked about.

How?
She echoed his question in her mind.

ESCAPE FROM THE PIT

“Branton!” Carliss called out to the warrior she had hit earlier.