A Warrior's Path Page 34

  Three shapeshifters in her immediate vicinity, two directly in front of her and one to her left, advanced toward her. She eyed them cautiously as they spread further apart to flank her. She held her sword before her and stepped back, trying to keep all three of them within sight. They saw her creeping backward and decided to close the gap quickly. They all shot forward and attacked her. She swiped her blade in front of her from left to right and heard two satisfying clangs as two daggers were turned aside while the third, poorly timed and poorly aimed, flew wide of the mark. They went at her again, this time a little more discordantly than the last. The one directly in front seemed to stretch out its arm impossibly long for an overhead attack, which Su-Ni defeated with an overhead twirl of her blade. Her block came down to the left in time to catch a slashing attempt from the one on that side. She took a bruising hit to the ribs as the right opponent failed to get through her armor with his weapon. Su-Ni retaliated by swinging her sword into its face.

  The effect her successful hit had was not one she would have entirely expected. Though it seemed her sword was embedded halfway into its head, the creature merely leapt away howling and seeming no more inconvenienced than she was by the hit it had dealt her. For her clever hit she was rewarded by the other two with a series of fervent hacks and jabs. The one in front of her knocked the wind from her lungs while the other searched for a weak spot in the leather under her ringmail. When she finally brought her blade around to deter these two, the third sprung toward her and slashed at her leg.

  Searing pain almost toppled her. She cried out and fell to one knee, swinging her blade out defensively. The three shapeshifters seemed to be making a snickering sound as they went to descend upon her. She suddenly wished desperately that someone in this throng of battle would come to help her, but all her allies seemed much occupied. She could not see Denlin or O'eintsu through the shapeshifter in front of her. There was a light trickling down the front of her thigh as her wound pumped out a bit of blood with every throb of her heart. She gritted her teeth, relaxed her focus to take in as much of the periphery as possible, and she waited.

  The one on her right twitched first, and her sword was there. She did not turn her head to focus her attention on the block, she simply trusted her instincts. Adrenaline was thick in her veins as she reacted to the instantaneous motion of the other two shapeshifters. Her sword rang off the dagger of the right one, then twirled under to come diagonally up to meet the attack from the left. She finished what seemed to be a single, flowing move with a straight cut across from left to right that intercepted the opponent directly in front of her. The shapeshifter had been attempting to use its natural abilities again to attack in a way impossible to most other races. The move ended in the creature pulling back a dripping stump.

  Su-Ni did not let her attention be drawn to the appendage that fell to the ground, which was especially fortunate because she would have been distracted by the way it simply melted away into nothing. The shapeshifter that had lost the hand seemed most distressed about it. It backed away horrified, and the other two gave it a momentary glance, though they were not too eager to take their eyes off the warrior who had just done this to their comrade, and for whom they had just gained a measure of fearful respect.

  With a surge of strength and confidence, Su-Ni pushed herself back onto both feet and brandished her sword threateningly, but paled when she saw the injured shapeshifter grow another hand right before her eyes. She noticed that the flesh around the hand was a bit lighter and that the creature still seemed none too pleased, but these facts did nothing to help catch her fleeting optimism. She looked worried as it and its companions advanced on her again. Adopting a more defensive stance, she steeled her expression and tried to force herself to maintain her confidence. After all, the fight had gone well so far.

  As it turned out, Su-Ni did not have to force too hard. Suddenly, the middle shapeshifter pitched forward face first into the ground. With the chaos around her, she hadn't heard Denlin's staff crack the back of the creature's skull. Before the beast even hit the ground, the young warrior had swung the butt of the staff under his right arm and brought the length of it whipping toward the face of the creature on that side. It went flying back as he twirled his weapon overhead to reverse direction and mirrored the move on his left. He stood in a crossover stance with the staff still out to his left. His eyes flitted from side to side. He was ready to spin around and level anything that wasn't human.

  O'eintsu stepped around him, giving the master staff wielder a wide berth. When he came within Denlin's eyesight, he raised an impressed eyebrow. Coming from O'eintsu, that was a strong reaction. He called out above the din, “Save some for me!”

  Denlin looked around at the battle. “There are plenty!” he retorted and sprung off to assist more allies.

  Su-Ni got a quick nod from O'eintsu, and she noticed the slightest hint of a grin on his lips as he ran into the fray after Denlin. It was clear to her that the two were very much in their element. She looked down at the three shapeshifters that lay in a heap at her feet and wondered if she should make sure they were dead or run in after her companions. Despite the fact that she understood the consequences of hesitation in battle, she could not bring herself to pull back the head of one of the unconscious and defenseless creatures to slit its throat. She decided to find a more mobile enemy, one that would give her immediate justification to kill it. There was certainly no shortage of that; all she had to do was take a few steps.

  On the western front, not far from where Urietsin had experienced his brush with death, the most elite group of senior officers were holding their own. Reniu, Pei-Shi, Komeris, and General Etrusin formed an impenetrable ring of bladework. The first two officers, Reniu and Komeris, each wielded two of the curving broadswords that were so common in Kesitul. The captain and the Pei-Shi, however, each brandished two of the more traditional blades of the empire, still curved, but much more narrow and elegant. Between them their eight blades wove a blinding, intertwined defense. The motion confused their enemies, and most did not see the attack when it shot out randomly from the blur of metal gleaming in their eyes.

  Though the four warriors fought tirelessly, and were very successful at hitting their opponents, they did not seem to be very effective at disabling them. While many shapeshifters received various slices and cuts, none of them really seemed bothered by the hits. In fact, by the reckoning of the experienced officers, the number of wounds they were noticing did not seem to match up to the number of hits they landed. Also, the longer the four fought, the more their talent seemed to attract the attention of the enemy. As the battle progressed they each found themselves faced with multiple opponents, and the ring around them was thickening.

  They all understood what was happening. The shapeshifters could tell that this small group of warriors were among the most skilled, and thus were likely to be one of the bigger problems out here on the field of battle. They were concentrating their focus on these soldiers so that they would not have to deal with them later, once they were tired from facing the many easier to kill humans. It was Pei-Shi, however, that first noticed that it was not just the crowd around them that was thickening.

  “I think they are getting bigger!” she shouted to the other three.

  Komeris kept up a brilliantly twirling defense as he tried to pay attention to the size of the creatures. He noticed that one seemed to leap onto the back of another, and the next thing he could see was that the beast did seem to be slightly larger. “They're joining together!” he exclaimed more to himself than the others.

  It quickly became apparent to all four of them what was going on. In a matter of a few minutes, they had gone from fighting a crowd of these nasty creatures, to ducking the swings of a few massive monsters. Five of these giants, gray and faceless, towered eight to nine feet over them and blocked out most of what little light the day had to offer with their thick, stooping bodies. Fortunately for the four elite, it took a bit of adjustment in coor
dination for the shapeshifters to control such a formation. They took the brief opportunity to break out from the circle where, had they stayed, they would have waited to be crushed like bugs.

  They all had to run in somewhat separate directions, but Komeris was able to join back up with the general almost immediately. They ran together a few steps and heard heavy pounding behind them. They looked back and saw three of the huge shapeshifter giants beating after them, while the other two trampled into the crowd of fighting warriors, presumably on the tail of Reniu and Pei-Shi. The two soldiers looked at one another and silently agreed that they could not take on three of the creatures by themselves.

  That problem was answered momentarily by a reverberating roar of many strange voices behind them. They stopped dead and turned to stare agape at one of the giants, completely engulfed in flame. The flailing thing seemed to come apart as individual shapeshifters struggled to get away. The other two enormous creatures backed away in horror, not wanting a stray ember to land on them.

  As the giant disintegrated into its separate parts, another sound rose from the crowd. It was difficult to make out at first, but as it spread across the field, it became louder with the sound of many voices.

  “The Shionen,” Etrusin realized for the third time this battle.

  Indeed, almost every elf on the field were echoing the same chant. The two other giants that had been so eager to get away from their companion were struck from above by crackling bolts of crimson electricity. Both of the juggernauts exploded as each individual Fiu-Het separated from the formation forcefully. They were either dead or momentarily paralyzed. At this the entire shapeshifter army's morale plummeted. Unnerved by the continuous and effective Shionen chanting, not to mention the fiery demise of so many of their brethren, they decided to flee. Most of them took to the sky, while some others near the edge of the battle sprouted additional legs and galloped or sprinted off.

  Many of Kesitul's soldiers tried to follow, but as they could only ever be bipedal, wingless creatures, they could not keep up. They gave a triumphant roaring cheer as they chased after their fleeing foe in vain. They stayed for a long time after, watching the last of the strange creatures fade from sight, and they were slow to return as they congratulated one another on a well-fought battle. They seemed reluctant to turn their eyes back east, away from the soon to be setting sun.

  “That was too easy,” Komeris remarked to the general as he watched the men and women plod back to the field where the battle had been.

  Etrusin looked to where many elves were tending the seriously wounded and lamenting the dead, both human and elf. “It was hard enough,” he returned with a firm jaw. “Get them to help the Shionen, then meet me in my tent.”

  Captain Komeris watched sympathetically as his general stalked off. He understood that Etrusin was keenly feeling the loss of every soldier, human and elven, that had fallen today. It could have been considerably worse, and would have been if the battle hadn't ended so quickly. Komeris knew his general was not thinking that way. He knew that, after Reisothin had been slain, he hoped that any soldier still alive would only die of old age and not at the hand of another enemy of the empire. The captain tried to feel reassured that Etrusin would not blame himself for those premature losses, and he prayed that the battle really could have been that easy.

  * * *

  Dusk brought on the frantic return of the Fiu-Het to the waiting army of King Orbein. At first the humans watched excitedly as they saw the quickly darkening sky fill with the shapeshifters in bird form. Their excitement turned to foreboding as their allies landed. They could sense the tension and fear in the frightening creatures. They scurried back and forth, murmuring to one another furtively and did not approach any of the humans with an explanation. It took Orbein's imposing presence and powerful voice to still them.

  “Fiu-Het!” he boomed at an unnatural volume. When they froze almost instantly, he continued at a normal level. “Tell me what has happened.”

  A rather large shapeshifter with a hump on his back that accentuated his race's normally hunched stance stepped forward. This one seemed to have taken over for Agucho and was definitely very much more suited to the position of leadership. “You said they would be easy prey,” he spat fluently in the king's language. “You sssaid they would be terrified of us and flee at the very sssight!”

  Orbein grimaced. “From your mutterings I will assume they did not,” he replied dryly.

  “We had them in the beginning,” the shapeshifter sneered at the human, “but then balls of fire erupted from the sssky and swallowed many of us. They used some sssort of magic on us. Between that and the biting arrows of the elves, we could-”

  “Elves?” Orbein interrupted curiously. So, the mythical race had joined them, as Agucho had said.

  “Yes, and I'll wager they had a lot to do with the fire and lightning that drove us away,” the Fiu-Het said angrily.

  “No!” another voice shouted from the ranks of the shapeshifters. A much smaller one of their race ambled forward and added his own testimony in an accented and somewhat squeaky hiss. “It wasss men who made fire. Old man with gray hair helped them. They could not make big fire without him. Elvesss helped later.”

  “He's right,” said another, more capable speaker. “A group of wizards of some sort stood around a large, decorated...cone. I heard them chanting, but I didn't believe they were causing the fire. I began to suspect after the old man appeared and it got worse. I was certain when the elves joined in the chant and ran us off.”

  “Old man?” the king repeated significantly. He seemed to be thinking very hard. “It couldn't be the same,” he almost whispered.

  “You know this fiend?” the current leader of the Fiu-Het army asked disbelievingly.

  Orbein looked up with a snap. Behind his eyes the gears of his mind cranked lightning fast. He forced himself, with much effort, to keep a grin from spreading across his face. Instead, he furrowed his brow and pasted on a look of concern. “Gayossha's murderer...” he said dramatically.

  There was a mixed reaction of surprise, awe and anger among the shapeshifters. The king had to bite the inside of his lip to keep from smiling. “In Gayossha's final breaths he revealed his killer. I am sure Agucho would have pointed him out to you, but sadly he met the same fate as your prince. Thus, I am sorry to say that it must be me to tell you what he could not. Your prince, as he lay with blistering scorch marks on his back, screamed for the retribution of his death. He called for the destruction of the wicked empire and the death of the old man of Eastmountain!”

  It took a few moments for the shapeshifters to convince themselves of the connection. Those who spoke the king's language translated the revelation to those who did not. In minutes the whole lot of them looked as angry and ready to kill as they had when Vethisir told them about the supposed ambush that had led to Agucho's death. Their unexpected defeat of earlier was forgotten in a fresh wave of fury toward the empire that had taken so many from them. Orbein's plan had worked brilliantly.

  “My allies,” the king shouted. “I know you must be tired, but come with me. Let us go now together to this enemy and vanquish them once and for all. Surely they will not be able to best us while we are united.”

  “No!” shouted the large Fiu-Het commander. “Give us until sunrise, then we will join you on your march.”

  “But under the cover of night we will-,” Orbein began.

  “No!” the shapeshifter yelled more insistently. “In the morning.”

  The king bristled at the interruption. But, he reminded himself, lashing out in anger at these beasts was not likely to inspire loyalty from them. Realizing that he would not change the shapeshifter's mind, and knowing that his patience would pay off, he nodded. “Very well,” he relented. “I understand. You must rest.”

  “We need no ressst,” the big shapeshifter hissed. There was a calmness in his voice that would have frightened any other man. “When I return in the morning, we will all set out
. Then we will see how the battle faresss.” With that he stepped away and several other shapeshifters followed in his wake.

  'Even better,' thought the king slyly.

  * * *

  It was unusually quiet in the encampment where the soldiers of Kesitul rested after the day's battle. Many of the warriors, tired from the endeavors of the day, slept soundly. Some, for whom the adrenaline still quickened their pulses, sat awake and alert, but quiet, as if straining to hear the slightest sound. Yet others assisted the Shionen with the wounded and prepared the dead, who were fortunately relatively few. The quiet mood did not make it feel like a field of victory. Rather it was somber, with an air of watchfulness.

  Kiusu sat, as he often did since he and Urietsin joined General Etrusin's warriors, on the edge of camp in a deeply meditative state. He had been this way for several hours, which was also not unusual. Moving with the flow of existence, the old man was releasing the fatiguing negativity that came with handling the horn of Reisothin. He was finally beginning to feel relaxed when Urietsin stepped up with an uncertain expression.

  “What is it, Swift One?” Kiusu asked without even looking up.

  Urietsin sighed hesitantly. “Seishin, something was not right today. I...” The young man sat and put a hand on his head as if to coax out the difficult thoughts.

  The relaxation Kiusu had managed to achieve fled quickly. “What was it?” he asked, concerned.

  “I don’t know,” the Swift One admitted with a frustrated shrug. “I was in a bad situation, fighting an enemy. I felt sure I could get out of it, but when I tried to reach out with my mind, nothing happened.”