Rise of the Firebird (58 page)

Søren’s anger roared in his ears and he attacked Vasilli with all the rage of his people.

Mychal’s torso was running with blood by the time they had reached Baba Yaga’s tent. Aramis and Lif killed the guards and Anya hurried inside. There was a scattering of furniture; a chair, a desk, and a camping cot, but there was no crate.

“It’s not here! She must have it with her.”

“Can you feel where she is through her magical signature?” Aramis asked.

“There’s at least a hundred magic users out there! I will pick them all up and scramble my brain.”

“Baba Yaga and Yanka aren’t in their glamours anymore,” Yvan pointed out. “Their magic will be raw and working to feed their armies.”

“We need to go, Anyanka, this camp is getting swarmed,” Eldon shouted as he and Kullervo killed two Darkness shamans as they frantically tried to better him.

“Fuck it,” Anya said and let down all of her shields. In a moment, she was drowning in a sensory overload, the magic being used overwhelming her. However, there were two of them burning hotter and brighter than all the others.

Anya screamed as she pulled her shields up again. “I found them,” she panted. “They are watching the battle from the western tree line.”

“Come on, I’ll clear an opening,” Mychal said and they waded back into the madness. Along the way, they’d been separated from Esbjörn, Katya, Aleksandra and Izrayl. Anya hoped that they were still alive but they couldn’t waste time to go searching for them.

Anya saw a cluster of Illumination and Darkness guards standing next to each other, watching the battle. A flash of white flickered behind them and Anya grabbed Yvan.

“There they are! See their guards?” she said. Yvan left her with Aramis as he passed on the message to Mychal and the demon hunter changed direction. A crack of thunder and flash of green blew apart a cluster of Illumination soldiers that had been blocking their path. Eldon moved through the destruction he had caused.

“Hurry, Anya, stop them!” he said, “Destroy them!” She didn’t have time to thank him or say goodbye as she drove her blade into the nearest enemy and kept going.

By the time the guards spotted Mychal, he’d already taken down two of them. Anya saw Baba Yaga and Yanka’s faces as they both contorted with identical fury.

There was a pulling sensation in the air as they both took a magical breath in at once. Anya grabbed Yvan’s and Aramis’s hands and power roared through her. Whatever awful thing they cast at Mychal fizzled under the wall that enclosed around him.

Anya was vaguely aware of soldiers trying to attack them but being incinerated as soon as they got too close. Fire was flicking in her fingers as she let Aramis and Yvan go but kept their magic connected. Baba Yaga and Yanka tried to make sense of what was happening and fumbled for the magic to counteract it.

“You both have sort to control this world and make it your own,” Anya said, her voice an echoing combination of the four of them. “You’ve broken sacred laws that have been in place since the worlds were created. You could’ve used your power to benefit the land and its people but you chose the path of greed and revenge. For your crimes against myself and both worlds, I strip you of your power.”

“You little slut! You don’t have the power or authority to judge me!” Yanka rushed towards her, arms outstretched. Anya twisted her hand around the pulsating black and grey light inside of Yanka and plucked it out of her. She screeched in agony and fell down on her hands and knees. Mychal’s sword fell, cleaving her head from her body before she could stop him.

Baba Yaga backed away, but Anya reached out and her power wrapped tightly around her and dragged her back.

“What gives you the right to be executioner?” Baba Yaga struggled.

“You killed my parents and my grandfather. I have
every
right to be your executioner. I’m not going to kill you, Baba Yaga, but you are going to wish you were dead.”

Anya sent her power into Baba Yaga’s body and pulled at the weaving of her magic. The heat of the firebird scorched the threads and Baba Yaga screamed and struggled.

Anya closed her eyes and said, “I summon the Lord of Tuonela to come to me so that I may settle his debt.” A cold air brushed over her and she opened her eyes to see Tuoni beside her. Anya dropped Baba Yaga to the ground. She was an old woman now, a clump of bones, hair and rags.

“Good morning, Anya,” Tuoni grumbled. He wore no glamour but stood before her in his full power.

“As we promised. Take her, do what you like to her. Never let her leave the shores of Tuonela or it’ll be you I come for next.”

“Rest assured where I’m going to put her, there is no escape.”

Baba Yaga howled as Tuoni grabbed her by the hair and dragged her through the veils and into Tuonela. Anya’s power shot out through the armies and found Vasilli. Without any words or ceremony, she tore his magic from him. Søren would do the rest. She turned to Mychal and he offered her the sword.

“Anya? What-” Aramis began.

“I am sorry,” she said. Without turning around, she flung them both backwards and broke their connection. Before anyone could stop her, she swung the Sword of Heaven and cleaved the game in two. The world went white and she was dead before she hit the ground.

Yvan came to moments later. His ears were bleeding and his vision wouldn’t clear. The first sound that reached him was Eldon screaming in a high and agonised Welsh. Aramis’s distraught and bloody face appeared above him, he was saying something but Yvan couldn’t hear him over Eldon. He struggled to sit up and as his eyesight cleared, he saw Eldon on the ground with Anya.

“No…” Yvan slurred and scrambled across the bloody earth.

“It was meant to be me. It was meant to be the sacrifice. It was meant to be me,” Eldon was saying over and over. Aramis laid a hand on Yvan’s shoulder but he yanked him off.

“Give her to me!” Yvan shouted and the two men backed away. He pulled Anya’s lifeless body into his lap as sobs started to shudder through him.

Blood trickled from her mouth and ears, her hands burned from where she had clutched the sword. Mychal bent down and picked up the sword from the smouldering remains of the game.

“You knew what she was going to do!” Yvan accused him. “You gave her the fucking sword and you didn’t even try to stop her.”

“Anya did what she had to do in order to end this. I couldn’t have stopped her and neither could you,” Mychal said calmly. “Look around you. The fighting has all but stopped and the Powers are all dead. She achieved what she had to.”

“Get away from me,” growled Yvan as fire enveloped him, “Now!”

Mychal left Yvan and Aramis to their grief and went to find Aleksandra. Darkness and Illumination soldiers were still fighting in clusters but most had stopped when they had seen their leaders fall.

“So she did it,” Søren emerged through the crowd carrying Vasilli’s head.

“Yes, she did it,” Mychal nodded.

A smile broke out over Søren’s bloody face, “I knew she would, I’m going to give her this. She will like it. Where is she?” Mychal didn’t answer and Søren’s face dropped. “Mychal, where is she?”

“The western tree line,” he answered softly. “Aramis and Eldon are with…they are with her and Yvan.” Søren dropped the head and ran.

Mychal had known that they’d been separated from Izrayl, Aleksandra and Katya but he refused to stop. He had a job to do and didn’t have the luxury of worrying. Now as he searched through grounds of the dying, the wounded and the confused, he began to feel afraid.

“You look tired, demon hunter,” a man appeared, blocking his way. Four others joined him. The Sword of Heaven hummed in his hand.

“Today is the wrong day, demon,” Mychal hissed.

“We were invited by Yanka,” they said as one. “She told us where we’d find you and the woman. Her flesh is going to be sweet to eat, demon hunter. I hope she screams your name as I cut it from her.”

Mychal attacked, the sword burning through them as he hacked and slashed with furious, righteous rage. He hit them until they were nothing more than bloody chunks.

“Aleksandra!” he shouted as he pressed through the crowds. None of them could stand up to a demon attack. He could feel them now, closing in on him from all sides. “Aleksandra!” he shouted again.

“Mychal, over here!” Aleksandra was waving at him from on top of a packing crate on the other side of the trashed Illumination camp.

“Aleki!” he exclaimed and tried to push his way toward her. She smiled happily and waved again. Her arms dropped and her eyes went wide as claws pierced through her chest and stomach. Katya screamed and rushed the demon as it tossed Aleksandra aside.

The demon ignored the bullets piecing his black, leathery flesh and he grabbed hold of Katya in one clawed hand and crushed her torso. Mychal shoved the people out of his way, trying to get through as Izrayl attacked the demon in his wolf form. The demon brought its other fist down on Izrayl’s skull and the great wolf dropped to the ground. Mychal launched himself at the demon, slicing its bloody arm off its body.

“Mikhaʼel, you’ve become weak and pathetic like all the other humans,” the wounded demon hissed laughter. It let out a high-pitched shriek and the ground ripped open. Demons came pouring out of it and the Illumination and Darkness stopped fighting each other and ran in fear.

Mychal’s hand gripped his sword and spear. Let them come. He had nothing left to lose now. The part of himself he had always been so afraid of, the part that always struggled to get out, was finally set free. Fury strengthened him as he looked over the swarming mass and he threw himself into it.

Yvan was still holding Anya as Kullervo came running towards them. “Get up, Yvan! The camp is being overrun!” he shouted. “Bring the body, I don’t care but we need to go now.”

“What is happening?” Eldon demanded.

“Fucking demons everywhere. We need to get out of here.”

“Where is Mychal?”

“He jumped into them! I saw it. They killed her and now he’s lost it. Forget him; he can take care of himself.” Kullervo hauled Yvan to his feet. “Aramis, carry the body.”

Aramis scooped Anya up and they started to move. Kullervo was half carrying Yvan as he struggled to stand up right. They’d barely made it twenty metres before the creatures surrounded them.

“Let go,” Yvan said and pushed Kullervo towards Aramis. “Stand still and protect the body.”

“Yvan, don’t sacrifice yourself, not after she saved you,” Eldon demanded.

Yvan ignored him and let the firebird rage out of him. The demons halted their attack when the firebird cried out. Then it was on them, a bird stretched to the size of man. It clawed them apart before fanning a white blaze that scorched the skin from the bones. When he saw that his companions were safe, he soared high in the sky.

Beneath him, the demons had surrounded Mychal who was tearing them apart faster than anything human could. The firebird plummeted towards the earth, picking them up and shredding them in its talons. It felt Yvan’s pain and its own anger at Anya’s death. It swooped, slaughtered and burned until only Mychal remained.

It flew back to where Kullervo, Eldon and Aramis had carried Anya’s body out of the scorched land and onto a bed of pine needles deeper into the forest. As the firebird descended, it shrank to its normal size. Aramis and the others moved away as it landed on top of Anya’s corpse.

“Shouldn’t we shoo it away or something?” Kullervo asked as he wiped the tears off his face with the back of his hand.

The firebird ignored him and it look inquisitively down at her. It started to sing a song of mourning and Aramis sat down on the ground next to Kullervo and Eldon, weeping like a broken child.

The firebird stretched its wings out down over her shoulders and arms so it was lying chest to chest with her. Its song changed to a spell and it let its ancient power sink into her. The firebird had been dead many times and it knew its way back to life.

Voskresheniye
, the firebird commanded.

Mychal came back to himself standing on top of the broken bodies of men and demons. He stumbled backwards out of the butchered mess as it started to burn.

“Alexandra,” he muttered as he tripped and stumbled back to where he had last seen her.

For a moment, he could’ve almost convinced himself that she was sleeping. He looked away and picked up Katya instead, placing her gently next to Izrayl. They’d all died trying to save each other and they deserved a better death than at the hands of demons.

He finally summoned the courage to crouch down next to Aleksandra’s body. He closed her jacket to cover up the huge holes inside of her. Carefully, he smoothed the curling dark hair away from her face. Her eyes were still the gorgeous blue that he loved so much, but the spark behind them that made them shine was gone. His shaking fingers brushed her lids closed.

The tremor in his hand spread up his body, the scream in him building. He didn’t know what he was without her to tell him, and to guide him back when he was too far into the blackness of his own mind. The deeper side of him opened his mouth and let out an almighty cry.

Those that had drifted back to the camp covered their ears and fell to the ground. The windows in the remaining vehicles shattered and the ground quaked. He saw Søren trying to get close to him, blood dripping from his eyes. Mychal held onto Aleksandra and continued to scream until Søren’s fist hit him in the face and the world went black and quiet.

Voskresheniye
… a voice echoed through the warm darkness.
Voskresheniye
.
Voskresheniye
. She knew the voice. She yearned for it and stretched herself towards it. Searching. Silent scream. Pain, breath, life.

Anya was burning as she woke in her broken body. The firebird was a part of her, its wings melted into her arms, its torso in hers. She was burning from the inside with a primordial fire. A fire that brings life. Rejuvenation. Resurrection.