The Labyrinth of Destiny (37 page)

Suvi sidled up to him and spoke in
a quiet voice. “Do you think they will send another report on the war?”

The little man shrugged. “I do not
know.”

“We did not get a report the last
time we dropped off supplies. Do you think it is going poorly?”

Satosh knew that her questions were
not meant to pester him. She was genuinely concerned for the people she
considered to be her friends. Also, she knew that Satosh had more knowledge of
warfare than he let on.

“They may have simply forgotten to
include the report, child,” he reassured her. “Even if they had no news
themselves, that does not necessarily mean something is wrong. It may just be
that there are more pressing matters and a report will be sent at a later
date.”

Suvi rubbed her arms and stared at
the cliffs of Pevothem. “I hope they send us news. Even if it is bad news, I
would like to know.”

Satosh gave a small smile. “I
should not worry about Adesina, if I were you. That young woman is quite
capable of taking care of herself.”

Suvi didn’t answer, but she seemed
to take comfort from his words.

Several minutes passed as they
waited for Kai to return with the raft filled with L’avan goods. Satosh was surprised
when the Aekuor emerged from the water without the rafts behind her.

Zulimar approached the railing so
he could face Kai directly. “What is wrong? Are there no more materials that
can be spared?”

“There is a letter for you. I’ve
carried it in my mouth,” Kai responded.

The Aekuor tried to look as benign
as possible, but that was difficult for such a creature to do. She brought her
teeth together to keep them out of the way and curled her lips—or, at least,
what might count as lips. There was a bottle tucked beneath her lower lip.

Zulimar retrieved it with admirable
confidence, as if he were often asked to pull something out of the mouth of an
Aekuor, and it no longer concerned him.

The captain of
Zephyr
pulled
the letter out of the bottle and read it quickly. Satosh and the rest of the
crew waited in silent anticipation.

After reading the letter through
twice, Zulimar looked up with a somber expression on his face.

“It seems we have made our last
supply run for this war effort.”

Murmurs ran through the gathered
crew.

Zulimar held up the letter. “This
informs me that the L’avan and Seharan armies have retreated to the borders of
Pevothem, and there they intend to make their last stand.”

Satosh felt a chill settle in his
chest. He had seen enough battle to know what such a statement really meant.

“The refugee camp will be moving
north, and they will remain on alert in the event that the enemy breaks
through,” continued Zulimar. “If the army fails to keep the Scepter of Cha-sak
at bay, we are requested to be at the ready to take on as many passengers as we
can hold and carry them to safety.”

“But Captain,” Satosh said slowly,
“there are thousands of refugees. We can only hold a fraction aboard this
ship.”

Zulimar nodded. “We are to take as
many children as possible while the adults hold back the enemy.”

There was a small gasp from J’ula,
and J’em looked as though he was fighting back tears. “Will they all die?” he
asked in a small voice.

The captain looked at the boy
kindly. “Do not give up hope. There is every possibility that the army will be
victorious. We are only to act as a safeguard for the worst scenario.”

J’em scrubbed the tears from his
eyes and straightened his back. He seemed to be determined to be a good example
for his sister.

“Kai,” said Zulimar, turning back
to the Aekuor, “would you be able to bring the ship closer to the cliffs?”

The sea creature looked doubtful.
“Not more than halfway. After that, it is difficult for even me to pass
through.”

The burly man nodded. “Halfway will
be enough. We will get as close as we can, and then we will start building
rafts. I will send some men ashore to gather wood, and we will prepare to take
as many refugees as possible.”

Kai inclined her head. “I will
inform the L’avan of your intentions.”

“Please do,” replied Zulimar.

He did not wait for the Aekuor to
swim away before he turned to his crew. “Alright, men. Let us get to work.”

Adesina stood at the edge of the
Thieves’ Forest, partially hidden behind an ancient tree. As she waited she
thought of the Shimat tests she had been given as a child, and she smiled
sadly.

She doubted that the Shimat ever
imagined that one of their students would use their own teachings against them.

Then again, perhaps they had
imagined it. After all, the Shimat were taught to expect betrayal and to
prepare against it.

Adesina sighed and brought her
thoughts back to the present. Ravi was standing next to her, and she rested a
hand on his back. Together they watched the grasslands just beyond the woods.

The L’avan and Seharan knew the
mercenaries were following close behind, so they had worked through the night
to make preparations for the battle to come.

Adesina and L’iam, along with every
other L’avan with gold in their eyes, had gone through the ranks of their
soldiers and given each of them a small boost of energy. They could not do
much, but they hoped that it was enough to counterbalance the hard night’s
work.

Torith had finally been sent away,
much to his displeasure. He was to stay with the refugees in their new camp. A
cavalry wasn’t a practical option in the forest, and every horse would be
needed to help the refugees evacuate quickly if the Shimat broke through.

Adesina finally spotted the
mercenaries riding over the small rise that lead up to the forest. It was the
harrying force that had ridden before the main army, and there were no more
than two thousand of them.

Adesina turned to the Rashad
messenger who was standing deeper in the woods. “Tell the king that the
mercenaries are half an hour away.”

The Rashad bowed her golden head
and dashed away to deliver the message.

Let us assume our positions.

Adesina nodded at Ravi’s unspoken
words and made her way back through the trees.

The long mound of dirt that had
been formed only hours earlier was now covered with young plants, as if it had
been there for years. No one would look at it and know that it had been made
for the purpose of defense.

Adesina hopped over the mound
lightly, and settled down next to the soldiers who were waiting on the other
side. She spotted her brother and moved next to him.

“You returned,” she whispered with
a smile.

E’nes grinned. He had taken a very
short leave of absence to visit his family and meet his newborn child. “I only
just got back.”

“I thought Wren’na would tie you up
and keep you from fighting,” joked Adesina.

“She wanted to, believe me,” said
E’nes.

“How is the newest member of the
family?” inquired Ravi.

The proud father’s face glowed with
happiness. “The baby is a boy. En’ver is so excited to have a brother. We named
him Med’gar, after Wren’na’s grandfather.”

“I am sorry that you were not able
to be with her during the birth,” Adesina said sincerely.

E’nes became a bit more serious. “I
am, too. However, Wren’na said she would forgive me if I promised to be there
for the baby’s first birthday.”

Adesina found that she couldn’t
smile, even though her brother clearly said it to be humorous.

“I will do all that I can to make
that happen,” she promised.

E’nes reached out and squeezed her
hand. “I know you will.”

The Rashad messenger from earlier
reappeared through the trees and made her way over to where Adesina was
sitting.

“King L’iam says that you are free
to proceed, and he wishes you good luck.”

“Thank you,” responded Adesina, and
the Rashad moved to where she could observe the fighting and report back to the
military leaders.

Now all they had to do was wait.

Adesina’s estimated time for the
arrival of the enemy mercenaries was almost exactly correct. She could hear the
sound of hooves and jingling bridles as they approached, and she peeked over
the mound to watch.

The first lines of mercenaries,
which consisted of the cavalry, rode into the woods with minimal caution. Their
swords were drawn and they looked around, expecting an attack.

A snap rang through the air and
several dozen horses, along with their riders, fell into a deep trench that had
been covered with a lattice of sticks and leaves. The cries of surprise became
howls of pain as the men landed among the sharpened poles at the bottom.

There was confusion in the ranks as
the mercenaries on foot came to a sudden stop, and that confusion nearly turned
to chaos as the Seharan archers loosed their arrows from their platforms in the
trees. The shafts fell like a deadly rain among the soldiers who were hesitating
on the south side of the trench.

The mercenaries were on the verge
of panic, and Adesina could almost see their thoughts. The men in danger of the
archers had only three choices—they could stay where they were and die, they
could try and push back through the ranks behind them, or they could jump over
the trench and try to reach safety.

Of the three options, the latter
was the most likely to have any effect.

Several men made a running jump
across the barrier. Some of the soldiers were struck by arrows mid-air, but
several of them landed on the other side safely.

Seeing this, the rest of the
mercenaries began to follow.

Adesina signaled to the L’avan who
were waiting at the top of a ridge to the east. She did not need to look for an
acknowledgement, because their attack began immediately.

The young queen could feel the
swell of
vyala
rolling forth. A sharp wind whistled through the trees,
strong enough to whip up the loose dirt that had been left by digging the
trench.

Adesina ducked down behind the
mound to avoid the stinging wind that incapacitated her enemies. She used her
own
vyala
to continue monitoring the progress of the attack.

Mercenary soldiers stumbled
blindly, trying to shield their eyes from the grit flying through the air. Half
of the Seharan archers pivoted in their platforms, and turned their arrows on
the soldiers who were now trapped on the north side of the trench.

The trench itself was filled with
the bodies of those who had fallen, and the mercenaries on the other side
needed only to stumble across the corpses. The rain of death slowed to a stop
as the Seharan archers began to run out of arrows.

As the archers lowered their bows,
the L’avan on the ridge let the blinding wind fade. The sudden stillness was a
signal to Adesina and her soldiers behind the mound.

Adesina drew Falcon and shouted,
“Forward!”

She led the charge over the mound
and down to the scattered and confused enemies below.

There were no Shimat among this
branch of the Scepter of Cha-sak. Adesina supposed that the demon had not
thought it necessary to send any of his elite fighters to preoccupy the L’avan
and Seharans while the main army caught up.

Whatever the reason, the absence of
Shimat made the fight easier for Adesina.

Her ornate breastplate and purple
half cape made her stand out from the other defending soldiers, which still
made her a target. However, she was faced with ordinary soldiers rather than
highly trained assassins, and that simplified things.

Her mind began to slip into a sort
of mechanical trance. She moved gracefully through the trees, wielding her
Blood Sword with surgical precision. Yet she was able to do it without really
thinking about it. She was concentrating on what she was doing, but at the same
time she was not truly aware of it.

It was rather disconcerting to her
that she was still able to fight in such a manner. It had been years since she
had counted herself among the Shimat, and yet the training came back to her as
if it had only been a few weeks. She knew that she was not at the same level of
skill that she would have been if she had kept up with her Shimat regimen, but
the core of her training remained.

She would never be completely free
from her past, and she had come to accept that about herself. That didn’t mean
that it wasn’t uncomfortable—sometimes painful—to know that the Shimat
organization had shaped her.

Someday you will simply see your
past as the path that has led you to where you are. Your regret will fade to
nothing.

Adesina almost found herself
smiling. Even in the midst of battle, Ravi took the time to give her comfort
and wisdom. She could see that he was fighting with a spear-wielding mercenary,
but his compassionate heart was with her.

“Eternal life to Lord Cha-sak!”

The passionate scream jolted
Adesina out of her introspection. She turned to face the man who was rushing
toward her with his sword upraised.

She lifted Falcon to fend off the
blow, but she found herself being severely pressed. It wasn’t that the man was
overly skillful, but he fought with such frantic energy that the L’avan queen
found herself taking a step backwards.

Adesina frowned as she defended
herself. She had never met a mercenary who was devoted to a master, only to the
coin that was being paid. Most of them were soldiers who had been disowned by
the countries of their birth and left to take whatever work they could find.
There were occasional wars among the other nations of the world, and trained
fighters were always welcomed by either side.

It did not make sense for a
mercenary to use Cha-sak’s name as a battle cry.

After the initial surprise of being
pressed so fiercely, Adesina found her stride in the fight and quickly gained
the upper hand. She knocked the man’s blade aside and gripped his wrist.

“Who are you?” she demanded.

“My name does not matter,” panted
the man with a wild expression in his eyes. “My life does not matter. You are
the great enemy of Lord Cha-sak, and I would gladly give my life to see yours
end.”

The man wrenched himself away from
Adesina’s grasp and renewed his attack.

“Why?” she asked as she stopped his
sword with her own. “Why would such things matter to a mercenary?”

“I am no mercenary,” spat the man
with rabid contempt. “Those who take money for the honor of serving Lord
Cha-sak are more vile than those who willingly oppose him.”

Adesina’s mind whirled. She had
assumed that Cha-sak’s only supporters were the Shimat and those whom they had
hired to fight. According to this man’s words there was a third group of
soldiers, potentially more dangerous than the others.

Mercenaries would fight as long as
they were paid. Once the battle was over, though, they would leave to find
another conflict where they might be hired. The Shimat organization, while
dangerous, was limited in number. Adesina did not doubt that she would be able
to eventually root out the entire organization with the help of her allies.

But there was much more danger in a
group of followers dedicated solely to Cha-sak—people who were willing to do
his bidding even at the cost of their lives. Such fanatic devotion was not easy
to eliminate, and it would be difficult to predict the actions of such a group.

Adesina began to press the man in
return, her mind moving as quickly as her sword. She soon found an opening and
leapt to the side, her blade slicing the tendons in the man’s legs.

The man screamed in agony and fell
to the ground.

Adesina leveled her sword at him,
resting the tip against his chest. The man stared at her with fervent hatred
glowing in his eyes. He was breathing heavily, but he spoke clearly.

“Lord Cha-sak is the destiny of
this world, and his Scepter shall bring all of humankind to its knees. He will
conquer with a blaze of glory, and all who oppose him shall burn.”

Adesina suddenly felt a wave of
pity as she looked down at the man. “You are wrong,” she said softly. “Cha-sak
is a demon of Darkness, and he will be destroyed by the Light.”

“Never,” shrieked the fanatic.
“Lord Cha-sak will live forever. He will shape the universe with the power of
his mind. He will turn our world from its path of self-destruction and use it
as a tool to build his kingdom.”

Adesina didn’t have a chance to say
anything in response. The man reached up and grabbed the blade of her sword,
pulling it down to pierce his own chest. He died almost instantly, his face
still twisted in an expression of grotesque adoration for the demon who had
sent him there.

“Ma’eve?”

Ravi slowly approached her from
behind.

“Ma’eve, the fighting here is over.
The last of the advance force has retreated, presumably to regroup with the
main army.”

Adesina nodded, but her thoughts
were far away.

Ruon had convinced her that killing
an Immortal was wrong—so wrong that it put her own soul in jeopardy. She had
briefly considered merely putting Cha-sak back into the realm where the other
Immortals now waited.

After hearing the words of the dead
man before her, she knew that wasn’t an option. Cha-sak was like poison to the
mind, and he had to be eliminated.

Adesina had to be certain that he
would never come in contact with another living soul again.