Sentinels: Forsaken Knight (19 page)

“Amador, you bastard!” Anye yelled at him. “I’m glad you’re here! You’ve saved me the trouble of having to sneak back into Delrich to kill you!”

“I’m here on His Majesty’s orders,” Amador replied. “Although I did not expect to find you for some time, your being here has saved
me
the trouble of having to hunt you down like the traitor you are.”

“Me!? A traitor!?” she blurted out. “It was your hand who pushed the blade through the prince’s heart!”

Amador laughed from his mounted position. “And who do you think the people will believe? The
noble
knight who ousted your dear, sweet friend, Sturmwind, and brought home the prince’s murderer? Or the traitorous, rebellious runaway with no honor who fled from justice?” he asked tauntingly.

Anye yelled in frustration at him, but Amadi kept a hand up to hold her back. “Anye, do not let him bait you! That is what he wants!”

“I don’t care!” she yelled. “I’m going to tear off his head and cut out his vile heart!”

Anye pushed past Amadi’s arm and rushed towards her foe without another word, using her rage to fuel her magic, and move like the wind was at her heels.

Amador pulled back on his dragon’s reigns, prompting the creature to rear up on its legs and breathe fire in the woman’s direction. The movement of his spear prompted the soldiers under his command, all of whom with dragons as well, to take to the skies and prevent Anye and Amadi’s escape.

Anye’s magic enabled her to cut through the fire as she ran, leaping up towards the dragon’s neck and grab on. The creature roared in anger at the unwanted rider and swung its head violently to try and shake her off. She held tightly until it tired and she pulled herself closer to Amador, who was waiting with the blade of his lance pointed at her.

The grin Anye saw on Amador’s face was maddening, as if he was enjoying the fight or was insane. He stabbed at her a few times, but the dragon’s movement kept him from aiming properly and he eventually struck the creature itself when Anye moved away. The injury forced it to jerk back and knock both rider and attacker to the ground as it took to the sky.

Anye rolled to her feet as Amador did the same. They each held their weapons towards each other while the remaining riders circled around like buzzards. Amadi used his magic to take out a few of the riders, but their large number made it seem like he had barely put a dent in them.

“So, this is how you want to play!?” Amador yelled as he jumped towards the woman. “You think you can best me!?”

Anye avoided the initial attack and countered with her own swings, each deflected away as well. “Of course I can!” she yelled in his face. “You’ve always been a show off and a pushover with no talent, hiding behind your family whenever things went wrong!”

The two battled, each using their anger and hatred towards one another as fuel for the fight. Anye wasn’t even paying attention to anything around her, leaving her only hints to Amadi’s state being the sound of another dragon or rider falling to the ground in agony.

Eventually the two duelists came face to face again as they pushed against each other’s weapons. “You know, putting the blame on you for that pompous little brat’s death was just the start,” Amador told her. “Now getting Sturmwind out of the way, that tasted sweet!”

“What have you done to him!?” she shouted.

The two broke away from each other and Amador jumped away to avoid a blast of magic coming from the side, the force of which hit Anye and knocked her off of her feet. The impact knocked her new sword out of her offhand and out of reach, and she struggled to breathe as she recovered. Whatever had hit her was powerful and very fast.

“Amadi!?” she coughed as she turned her head in the direction of what hit her. Who she saw wasn’t the boy who had traveled with her from Belrun though, but a woman she hadn’t noticed that was strikingly familiar to her.

“Poor little Anye,” Amador gloated over her. “No matter how hard you try you won’t win. Give up now and
maybe
I’ll let you live long enough for His Majesty to behead you himself.”

“Yes, you’d like that…”Anye replied as she got to her feet. She was missing one of her swords, but she was used to fighting without two anyway. If anything, she was a more effective fighter with only one blade. The second weapon’s main purpose really was to help prevent people from finding out her identity. “Too bad that’s not going to happen!”

As she tried running towards her opponent she felt her body become frozen in place against her will. Her feet had been fastened to the ground and her arms were as flexible as stone. The only part of her body she could move was her head, and that couldn’t swing a sword. She was helpless.

“Did you really think I would let you do that?” the woman said as she approached.

Anye turned her face to look at the familiar, young looking woman. She was dressed in a hooded black robe with ornate gold and silver jewelry, and her long blonde hair rested over her shoulders and down over her chest. “You…I know you…”

“It’s so nice to see you again, Lady Everdyne,” she said. “I do hope you’ve been well.”

Amador continued to grin madly as the pair approached the helpless woman. Amadi had disappeared somewhere in the chaos of the dragons surrounding them, possibly dead.

“Now, Kiya, don’t waste your breath on her,” Amador commented. “She’s beneath us.”

“But she’s so helpless, my sweet,” the woman replied. “Just look at her, she’s simply frozen with fear.”

“Kiya?” Anye asked. The name brought back the memory of who the woman was. Kiya Sturmwind…you’re Glenn’s…”

“Yes, I am…or was,” Kiya confirmed to her as she placed a hand on Anye’s cheek to look at her face. “Hmm, I can see why the fool was taken with you, though. You’re quite pretty.”

“What? What are you talking about?” Anye replied.

“Enough, Kiya,” Amador growled. “Finish her off and let’s get on with it. I need that seal broken.”

Kiya smiled lightly and gave a soft laugh. “As you wish, darling.”

“
Darling
? You betrayed Glenn for
him
!?” Anye tried to yell. “Why!?”

“Dear, Glenn is a foolhardy weakling with a false sense of honor and pride,” Kiya told her. “I’ll send him your way soon!”

“I would doubt that!” Amadi shouted from beside them just before launching a boulder at the woman with his powers.

Kiya had to stop what she was doing and get away from the flying rock unless she wished to be flattened on the spot. Anye still remained frozen and helpless though, unable to fully see what was happening. Amador saw the opportunity to strike down the red haired woman once and for all fading though, and rushed towards her. The spell binding her broke soon after he began his sprint due to Kiya losing her concentration, and she was able to parry his lunge in time.

Anye felt her anger boil to the point that she started attacking without reserve, or mercy, channeling magic in to her body and increasing her strength and speed. It wasn’t the same as Enlightenment, but it felt similar. Each swing of her sword bounced harder off of Amador’s lance as she drove him back. She noticed him starting to become confused at the sudden change of strength and speed, and that served to her advantage.

Amadi had a mages duel with Kiya off to the side, exchanging volleys of magical energy with the woman and keeping her away from Anye and Amador. The unit of lancers under Amador’s charge had either been defeated by Amadi as they circled around or fled in fear for their lives. Either way it was only the four of them who remained in front of the colossal ancient tower.

“What is this!?” Amador yelled at her. “You’re not a battle mage! You shouldn’t have this much power!”

Anye concentrated to the point that her magic began to enter the enlightened state, making her eyes glow faintly. The power was intense but she hadn’t been able to master controlling it like she needed to, and it felt unstable. What she
did
have control over looked like it would be more than enough to deal with her adversary, though.

The pair exchanged attacks back and forth for a time with sword and spear, but even with Anye’s increased strength Amador continued to prove to be difficult to cut down. She wasn’t sure, but it felt like there was something guiding his hand not unlike Anye’s newfound abilities. That made using the magic more strenuous, and she found herself commonly using protective spells if Amador started gaining the upper hand. The entire experience proved to be draining, and the moment she started displaying signs of fatigue was when Amador pushed his offensive even harder.

“Why won’t you die!?” Amador lashed out at her.

“Because a bastard like you doesn’t deserve to kill me!” Anye replied.

“Bah!” Amador pushed back from Anye unexpectedly and jumped up towards the tower away from her.

Anye was confused but the moment of pause let her hear Amadi as he shouted painfully after what sounded like an explosion of some kind. She turned her head quickly to see the smoke rise from what was assumedly a fire spell, and Amadi tumbling to the ground with Kiya standing triumphantly above him.

“Amadi!” she shouted, but before she could do anything Amador used the distraction to leap back down next to her and hit her with a hard knee to the gut, knocking the wind out of her and breaking her concentration to the point that she lost control of the magic she was using. Not a second later, he stepped back and kicked hard with the bottom of his foot to her chest. The force of the impact caused her hand to release the grip on her remaining weapon and she tumbled towards Amadi, landing near the boy in excruciating pain.

“Enough of this!” Amador yelled angrily as he and Kiya walked towards the defeated pair. “I’m going to what I should have done in Mitus and kill you like the whore you are!” As Amador approached, he raised his lance in the air above Anye’s chest with the flame-shaped blade pointed down, and smiled as if possessed. “Good bye, Anye!”

Time felt like it stood still as Amador and Kiya loomed over them. The glint in his mad eyes, the spear in his hand, the dragon descending towards them from the sky, it all seemed motionless and silent until she realized the dragon above them wasn’t Amador’s, and was much,
much
larger.

The lancer’s glee turned to befuddlement and then rage again as the shadow being cast from the dragon above them grew in size rapidly. He spun, and as he swung his weapon in time to make a loud clanging sound as it collided with another lance of a design Anye hadn’t seen before.

The dragon overhead roared loudly as it flew towards them, much more loudly than Amador’s beast or any of the others from before. It was the same roar she had heard the night she and Amadi were on the western island. It was a massive creature with a wingspan the width of at least ten horses. Before it got too low, it pulled away, and a man leapt from its back down towards the small group.

Amador couldn’t move out of the way of the descending person fast enough, and he took the brunt of a kick to his chest. He sprawled into the dirt while the new assailant quickly shifted his attention to Kiya. Anye could barely see her savior after the beating she took, coupled with the dust and sweat that had fallen in her eyes, but she could tell he was fast and quite strong. He moved next to the woman before she had a chance to cast any kind of spell and, using some sort of magic, launched her away from them and into the rock wall behind her. His hand reached out without moving his feet or twisting his body, and the lance that Amador deflected away spun through the air, flying into his hand.

“I was wondering when you’d show up, Sturmwind,” Amador coughed as he got to his feet, wiping blood away from his lip.

“Glenn…?” Anye whispered as she struggled to breathe.

“You must have a death wish, Amador,” he answered. His voice was low, and trembled slightly with fury.

“Not today,” Amador replied. He stood squarely against his rival, but kept his distance knowing that if he were to fight him after his battle with Anye he’d likely lose, no matter how powerful he had become. “I think Kiya and I will take our leave of you pests.”

“Glenn dear, it’s so nice of you to visit me,” Kiya commented as she got back up.

“Silence, witch!” Glenn yelled as he pointed his spear at the woman. “You’re lucky I don’t cut you down here and now.”

“Now is that any way to speak to your wife?” she joked.

“You’re no wife of mine, you never were,” he replied quickly. “Leave, both of you. I won’t say it again unless you want Eisenzahn to dine on your corpses tonight.”

The giant dragon that had nosedived towards Amador when he had Anye within his grasp came down from its place in the air beside Glenn and roared. Unlike the dragons commonly found in Delrich’s army, or Amador’s rare colored black dragon, this one had a light blue hint to its scales and stood at least three times the size.

“Have it your way, Sturmwind,” Amador said. “I may have lost here today, but you’ll see that it matters little compared to what’s coming!”

Amador’s dragon flew down and landed next to the beaten knight, allowing him to climb onto its saddle. Kiya used a form of levitation magic to fly over towards them and climbed up as well, wrapping her arms around his torso as she looked seductively at Glenn.

“Goodbye, dear,” she said as the dragon took to the sky. “We’ll be seeing you soon.”

Glenn watched silently with the point of his spear still pointing at them until they flew out of sight, at which point he lowered the weapon and turned to quickly kneel down beside Anye.

Anye managed to focus her vision a little more. She could tell that Glenn wasn’t wearing the same armor he had been issued when he was promoted to captain, but little else was clear. Her blurred vision stung in her eyes and she desperately wanted to clean them or at the least wipe them off.

“Anye?” Glenn called out. He knelt down and lifted her in to his arms to cradle her as he spoke. “Anye, speak to me!”

“Glenn…?” she managed to say. “It really is you.” The pain in her stomach had started to fade but it still hurt to speak, and the cuts on her exposed skin stung from the dust sneaking in.

“Hold on,” he told her as he laid her down. He turned his head to face the blue dragon with him and yelled, “Eisenzahn!"