Valkyria (5 page)

He could hear the footsteps of horses
approaching, as well as the drops of rain that seemed to try and
make them. They were closing on their prey, but they had chosen the
wrong prey to hunt.

“
Well now,” he heard
someone say, they voice brittle and unpronounced. “Looks like we
found ourselves a good one here, doesn’t it?”

“
Two riders and four
horses? I guess we got ourselves a Lord here,” said a second voice
more brittle than the first. A chorus of laughter erupted as the
footsteps of five men splashed in the new puddles that surrounded
the coach.

“
I bet the old fool is
hiding inside, pissing his pants right now,” said the first voice
again. They really had chosen the wrong prey. “Let’s take a look
shall we?”

The curtain of the carriage slowly
opened, a blade poking through first, but it was followed by a head
of unkempt hair and an odor for more suited to pigs. Firethorn fell
straight, as did the man’s crown, the saw-blade tearing through his
neck like butter. The body, however, slipped back to the floor,
causing a large gasp and then silence to emit from each of the
bandits. Seran leaped out of the carriage, Firethorn at the
ready.

“
You bastard,” screamed the
second voice, which belonged to a rather lanky young man who seemed
to be more skeleton than living being. He swung at Seran with great
speed though.

Seran blocked with Firethorn, but the
bandit drew a second dagger from inside his jacket. Seran grasped
the thief’s arm with his own off hand before leaping back to
uncross swords.

A swing came from behind. He rolled to
the ground, Firethorn grazing the lanky man’s left leg, before
rising to his feet once again. This time the lanky man span round,
his sword ready to return the favour. Seran jumped into the air,
launching his foot into the man’s face knocking him to the
floor.

He landed, driving the tip of Firethorn
into the man’s heart before tearing it back out again. One down,
only two were left. He started toward the larger bodied man,
knowing he would be far slower than the other, who was average in
build. He was right. The fool hadn’t even unsheathed his blade when
Firethorn sprayed his blood.

The last one, however, was far luckier.
As Seran span, the bandit’s dagger cut through his face deep enough
to bleed but not enough to actually damage the Dragoon that much.
Firethorn rose up and into the thief’s stomach before eating its
way upward. Crimson sprayed all over the Lord Dragoon but he simply
smiled. He hated fools who can only take what others
earn.

“
Great,” he said aloud as
he looked at the horse riders. Climbing back into the carriage
section of the coach, he collected his, coin purse and letter from
Alexandria. From the chest underneath his seat, he took his black,
wide trimmed hat and cloak that was as dark as night. Flinging both
on, he stepped outside and untied the horses from the coach,
climbed atop one with his belongings and slapped the other on the
rear.

As the horse sped off into the
approaching darkness of the storm, Seran gazed up to let the rain
touch his face and wash the cut. He gave a slight kick to the side
of the horse he had saddled and off he went toward Karayol
Port.

*~*~*

6

EINAR

The rain had picked up, falling like a
land slide. Each drop of water felt like a stone thrown to the face
as Einar and Alexia dragged the old cart through the forest. It had
gotten stuck in the gravel and sludge more than twice as the soil
became ever more soaked. The slight breeze that had started as they
left Saylae had twisted and transformed into a wild and ferocious
stream of ice cold air that seemed to follow them every
turn.

The sun had retreated behind the dull
grey lining that had covered the sky, as if putting the day to bed.
The forest seemed angered by the situation, shadows barely reaching
out from their wooden masters but the seemed to be warning Einar of
something.

Birds sang in the trees, but their song
was melancholic and lonesome, as if a young girl singing her final
words, unsure of what awaited her when she finished.

“
What happened to
that?”

Alexia’s voice ripped through the
orchestra of blue tits and lightning like a sword. She was pointing
at a trunk that had fallen across the road to Caim. The wood smoked
and smouldered at one end but at the other it appeared newly grown.
Einar stopped and put the cart down as he surveyed the
area.

“
Well we certainly are not
getting home this way,” he said. He glanced around in every
direction before spotting a small patch where the grass gave way to
the soil. “Let’s try going up there and then coming back around
again. The canopy is thicker over there as well, so the rain won’t
be as strong.”

“
Do you not see how dark it
is there?”

Alexia had always been afraid of the
dark. It was more than a little annoying for Einar to sleep with
the lantern on every night, but if he put it out the arguments that
followed were always worse.

“
Of course I do,” he said,
“but we have no other choice.”

“
We could leave the cart
here and come back for it later with some help to move the
tree.”

Einar glared at his little sister, not
sure if she really understood the consequence of the action she had
suggested.

“
There is not a single
chance that it would still be here when we came back, and we
definitely cannot afford another one. Just to pay for it we would
need at least four adult wolves, but how would take them to the
markets with no cart?”

Alexia had started shuffling from one
foot to other whilst looking at the ground. Her eyes were avoiding
Einar and her face had turned a tomato red. Einar waited for a
response but was denied one, so he lifted the cart by himself and
turned it toward the clearing in the grass.

“
Very well, we’re going
this way,” he said as he started to pull the cart up the small
track. He knew Alexia would follow if he went by himself, and sure
enough she did.

The track itself was little more than a
swamp road. Water rushed across the dirt as if it were fleeing some
great monstrosity. The bird song slowly faded as the final light of
the sun seemed to retreat and distance itself from the
world.

A crackling and groaning sound filled
the atmosphere, sending a shot of ice down Einar’s back as it
became increasingly more difficult to see. He glanced at Alexia,
terrified that she would have vanished like the happiness of the
forest, wondering if he were in some kind of nightmare and would
wake up by the broken trunk again any minute.

The trees seemed to have moulded
themselves into claws and talons ready to strike at anything that
moved. The bushes rustled as the wind grew stronger still. He was
sure something was moving around them, but it had become so dark he
could hardly see his own feet.

“
You are lost, dear
friend,” said a deep voice with no body. Einar stopped, his skin
cold and his hair standing on end. “Why have you come to this
domain?”

His head turned in every possible
direction trying to see anything in the darkness, but to no avail.
Alexia was shaking, placing a hand on his and gripping
tightly.

“
Who goes there?” Einar’s
voice echoed countless times, fading into the distance.

“
Fear not, dear friend,”
said a second voice, for more feminine than the previous one. “We
are here to guide you. Follow our voices and you will be lost no
more.”

Einar looked at his sister, not sure
what to do. Her eyes were open wide and her body trembling, but she
nodded so he lifted the cart once again and followed the voices as
they repeated the words “this way” again and again.

The forest itself seemed to be darker
than possible, and Alexia tripped over a root that had escaped the
soil. She cut her arm on a rock but Einar helped her back up and
they continued on. The rustling of the bushes grew closer by the
second, and he was sure someone was watching them.

The cart rumbled and rocked over stone
and soil as the rain seemed to break through as if the canopy had
vanished. Einar had to constantly pull his feet out of the soil as
they sank with each step.

As they followed the disembodied voices
he noticed a slight glow of orange coming closer with every
movement. The light danced about as if it were alive, and in the
darkness that had taken the forest it was a sight for sore
eyes.

That was, until they finally reached
it. The light was a fire; a fire consuming a large farm house.
Screams echoed from within the two storey wooden box. Einar
instinctively dropped the cart and rushed to the front door,
smashing it down with his shoulder before a wisp of flame shot
toward his face.

It didn’t burn. He didn’t feel a thing.
That was when he noticed there was no heat coming from the house.
Confused, he entered and moved toward the screams, Alexia entering
behind him. They made their way to the kitchen, when they found a
large wooden table covered in freshly placed food and a large
kitchen built on a single wall that was burning far faster than
wood should do.

On the floor lay a young woman, her
hair dark and her dress long and turquoise, yet slowly blackening
in the fire. Einar couldn’t move, he just gazed at the woman with
his eyes so far open they could have fallen out. Alexia tried to
take the woman’s hand but as she reached forward a strong gust of
wind filled the room and knocked both of them off their
feet.

“
Mother,” said Einar before
the ceiling support beam finally gave in to the flames and dropped
toward him and his sister. Everything went black.

When Einar finally opened his eyes
again, he and his sister were back on the main road to Caim
Village, the meat cart still with them and still holding their
chicken and bread.

He stood up, looking around before
helping Alexia to her feet. She was still trembling.

“
What happened?” Einar
couldn’t find an answer to give her. How could they have come back
to the same place?

“
My arm,” said Alexia. “My
arm’s not cut anymore!” Einar looked at her arm and saw she was
right. It was as if there had never been any injury
whatsoever.

“
What in the world is going
on here?” He searched around in his brain for any possible
explanation but found nothing. Instead his legs just complained. “I
do not understand this. For now, let’s just get home. We’ll think
about this after we rest.”

“
That’s a good idea,”
agreed Alexia. “My legs feel as though they will fall
off.”

“
Mine as well, and I don’t
think we will be able to understand this by just standing
here.”

They picked up the cart yet again and
slowly continued onward toward the village gates that approached
from the distance.

Yet there was something wrong, Einar
was sure of it. He couldn’t shake that same feeling that someone
was watching them.

*~*~*

7

NATE

The constant whine of the rotary blades
was making the young engineer’s head pound like a tribal drum.
Smoke filled the room and tar covered his originally pearly white
overalls. The sounds of hammers beating metal rang in his ears as
the other men rebuild parts of the old machine. Water continually
leaked in through the pinprick holes in the wall, so Nate knew they
were still at sea.

“
Every day a new toy play
with, isn’t that right Nate?” The engineer span around, his ash
covered hair fluttering upward before returning to rest on his
shoulders. He removed the dusty old goggles from his face and
smiled.

“
Charles! How have you
been?”

Charles stood tall before Nate, his fur
lined jacket reaching to the ground, swinging in the scorching wind
that blasted its way through the workshop to reveal the leather
pantaloons underneath, and the skinned hide shirt on his torso. He
always seemed to dress in the most inappropriate clothes according
to Nate, but nevertheless he was good man and a great
friend.

“
I have been in Arwindown,
talking to the Peak Lords about this little project of
ours.”

Nate felt his hair stand on end. He had
been awaiting the news that would surely follow for almost three
months now.

“
I explained the idea of a
small, high speed airship designed to retaliate against the
battleships. They asked a lot of very strange questions about the
shape of the body and how we would make the engine small
enough.

When I told them we already had the
engine at the right size, they were astonished at best. How is the
baby running anyway?”

“
Well… Slowly at the
moment. The rotary blade doesn’t want to spin fast enough for the
size because the rotary motor is designed for large systems.
However, apart from that it runs fine. I’m just waiting for the men
on deck to finish raising the iron giant from the water so that I
may salvage the rotary parts from there.”

Charles tilted his head to one side
before glancing around the workshop. He placed a hand on Nate’s
shoulder with a smile on his face.