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The Wings of Death
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The Wings of Death |
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Ron
Administrator
Member Rara Avis
since 1999-05-19
Posts 8669Michigan, US 
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The Cast
What has gone before: Six people have been dispatched, in a too small boat, down the Solden River, to seek reinforcements for an impending invasion from the North. Throughout the trip, and even before, Arron and Yoni have grown closer, flirting with romance, much to the consternation of Danar who is in love with the young scout. In the previous chapter, the group was attacked, facing impossible odds, and Arron was encouraged to fall back rather than join the fight. Danar believed Arron could, through his unique meditatons, become One With The Sword, achieving a mytical bond that had taken Danar his entire life to find. Yoni has earlier proclaimed herself Arron's Shield and remains behind to guard him while he meditates. Yoni desperately side-stepped the approaching, arcing saber of one vampire, knowing she had no chance to effectively block it, and prayed to Isis with all her heart that all three of her attackers would pursue. When there had been only two against her, both unarmed, she had resolutely held her position between them and Arron. She was his Shield against danger, and her blade had woven an impenetrable wall of moving steel around him. When the third vampire had joined the attack against her, armed with a curved sword, Yoni knew she was in grave trouble. These were not typical vampires. Open sores marked their faces, deep pits of raw flesh through which she could easily see bone and wet muscle beneath. They were stronger than she, nearly as strong as other vampires she had faced in the past, and her arm already ached from the few sword blows she had deflected. But they were slow compared to others she had fought, lacking the animal grace and agility that would have made them almost unstoppable. Their clawed attacks were jerky, uncertain, only slightly faster than the movements of a normal human. They had flown too long in the light of day, she guessed, and the sun had marked them, burning their unholy flesh and weakening them. And, too, it had driven them mad. There was no intelligence in their wide, blazing eyes, no craft or cunning in their vicious attacks. Their jaws hung slack around deep growls and animal snarls, lips and teeth dripping saliva so thick it was nearly a white froth. Yoni had never been able to sense what was inside a vampire, but she nevertheless knew these were being driven by unbearable pain and ravenous hunger. These were being driven by madness, a madness their unreasoning battle cry gave a name. "Fiandor!" She twisted, turning, slashing at the unarmed vampire to her right with a lethal stroke to its neck. It flung itself back, escaping the deadly blade and giving her room to complete her step to the side of her armed opponent. The curved saber flashed by her side, missing by scant inches, and she instinctively reversed the direction of her sword to knock it aside. Against a human the block would have gained her precious seconds to complete her maneuvering, but her undead opponent was too strong, hardly feeling the resounding block, and recovered from his stroke too quickly. It swiveled in place to face her, to again strike at her, and she found herself trapped between its saber and the unarmed vampire that had been to her right and was now at her back. Worse, the third vampire, had ignored her gambit and now had an unobstructed path to Arron. From the corner of her eye, Yoni saw a fourth vampire detach itself from the hoard and run in her direction. It was as if the stink of her impending failure were drawing enemies to her when she was least able to deal with them, and she wanted to scream in frustration. Yoni didn't fear death. It had been a presence in her life since she was old enough to remember, and she had long since come to understand she would die violently. That was simply the way of her world. But she had never expected it to be like this, in a battle she couldn't possibly hope to win. She hadn't expected to die feeling so helpless. Yet she could not simply give up because she didn't like the odds. Arron was depending on her. Yoni feinted to her right, unsure whether the creatures still had enough intelligence to be fooled, then struggled against her own momentum to retrace her steps to the left. She had to get around the armed vampire, back to Arron, and she didn't have time to trade even a single blow. She could almost feel the vampire to her rear moving closer, almost sense its deadly claws descending towards her unprotected back. Had the armed vampire been left-handed, she was almost certain she could make it. But it held its sword in its right hand, to her left, in the very direction she needed to move. And it was too close. The vampire extended its blade, cutting off her escape, thinking to impale her as she tried to pass. She could not block it, could not try to move the blade with her own, not against the undead's vastly superior strength. Nor dared she back away, trying to dance around the blade, not with another vampire at her rear. She could avoid the sword only by moving farther to her right, abandoning Arron, leaving him defenseless against the third vampire and the rapidly approaching fourth. And that she would not do. Recklessly, Yoni flung herself to the ground, beneath the saber, almost to the feet of the armed vampire. She hit the ground hard, grunting as the breath was forced from her lungs, her back within easy striking distance of the undead's sword. She rolled to her left, towards Arron, intent on reaching his side, thinking to use her own sword against the vampire's legs as she gained a little distance. But she was too slow. As her shoulder blades touched grass on the first roll, her eyes locked on the gleaming steel racing towards her face. She tried to raise her own blade to meet the vampire's, but knew it was hopeless. Riveted by the approaching death, she almost mistook the blur that flew over her head for another of the vampires. Only when it collided with her attacker, only when the descending sword jerked abruptly away, did she realize it was Arron. Except . . . it wasn't Arron. Not the same Arron, at any rate. A different Arron. Before the first vampires had attacked, she had followed him into the depths of where ever it was he went. She had sensed his surprise, his feelings of safety, quickly followed by an almost unreasoning fear. She knew he fought a battle she could not see. But then the first of the vampires attacked, and Yoni had been intent on protecting him from what she could see. She had lost contact. And the man before her now, the man that had just saved her life, wasn't quite the same man she knew as Arron. Yoni scrambled to her feet, ready to defend Arron's back as he fought the armed vampire in her stead. But she immediately saw he wouldn't need her help. The armed vampire was already destroyed, its pock-marked head still rolling in the wet grass, and Arron's sword was on an uninterruptible course for another vampire's neck even as he effortlessly rolled to his feet. Thunk. His right foot lashed out to his rear, impossibly fast, impossibly high, hitting the remaining vampire across its forehead with enough force to knock the creature from its feet. The fourth vampire arrived, charging with a deadly, unstoppable momentum, but Arron easily and almost casually avoided the attack, leaving his sword in his place. The charging undead continued past Arron, still running, leaving its head where it had met the edge of steel. Thunk. The vampire Arron had kicked had only begun to rise, snarling on its hands and knees, when Arron swiveled a full one hundred eighty degrees with outstretched sword. Another thunk, another head rolling over blood-stained grasses. Arron uncoiled. That was the only word she could imagine to fit the way the tension immediately released his body. One second he was a deadly force, a lethal animal, a magnificent cat protecting its litter. The next he stood amidst the carnage he had wrought, relaxed, his bloody sword leaning lightly against his bare shoulder. He smiled at her, a thin smile unreflected in his brown eyes, and for a brief instant she sensed the Arron she knew and was coming to love. There was the same mix of conflicting, complicated emotions boiling beneath the surface: the hard anger moderated by gentleness, the pain eased by undiscovered love, the relentless intolerance tempered with understanding. It was as if he were a single man shaped by multiple pasts, driven by many different heritages. And there was fear within the mix, too, a constant fear that was like a blade with a thousand sharp edges. He feared for her safety, he feared for his own life, he feared he could not escape this world, he feared his son would never understand his father's abandonment. Arron even feared her love. But then the emotions and fears were submerged as his smile wilted and he cast a quick glance over his shoulder. And in that instant, Yoni realized why this was Arron and not Arron, realized what had changed within him. The incredible well of strength she had always sensed in him was no longer so deeply buried. This was still Arron, Yoni realized. This was Arron unchained. "It's not over yet," he said, his voice carrying little of what she knew he felt. His left hand went to the knife at his waist, the one Petar had named Blodisan, and withdrew its inky steel into the dying light. "Stay here. Stay with Petar and protect him." He was gone before she could answer, loping swiftly towards the battle raging around Danar. Yoni could see neither Rand nor Keli, and Danar was visible within a ring of surrounding vampires only because he stood a head taller than any other. The hoard of undead had driven him nearly to the water's edge, kept at bay only by the steel web he wove about himself. But it would take only a single crazed vampire flinging itself through the web to turn the tide, and Yoni doubted even Arron could save the valiant swordsman without help. She cast a quick glance to her rear, to the boat, to Petar. Her brother would be safe enough, hidden in the bottom of the boat. Her friends needed her more. She had covered only half of the twenty feet when she began to think maybe she had been wrong. Maybe Arron could save Danar without her help. He hit the ring of vampires like a tidal wave, cutting down four of their number before they even knew he was upon them. When they scattered beneath his onslaught he never hesitated, never gave them a moment's respite, but attacked immediately to his left, heedless of leaving his back exposed. Three more vampires crumpled, headless, and another screamed hideously as Arron's knife slashed a wide gash across its chest. Through the thinning ring of undead, Yoni spotted her friends. Rand was down, laying with his face hidden in bent grasses, with Keli dropped to one knee beside him. The priestess's left arm dangled uselessly at her side, covered in blood, and Danar stood over both like a protecting giant, like a statue that would not be moved by any power on Askaris. Suddenly, Arron was in trouble. Three vampires, all armed with curved swords that mimicked Arron's own, attacked simultaneously from three sides, halting his seemingly unstoppable forward progress. Yoni was close enough now to sense Arron's confidence, his lack of fear, as she watched his weapon dart from sword to sword, blocking all as if they were one. Watching his movements, the incredible speed and precision of his sword arm, Yoni almost shared in Arron's feelings of invincibility. She had seen Danar fight, had watched Benat after he became One With The Sword, but neither were more than dim reflections of what Arron had become. Yet, even he could make mistakes and Yoni realized Arron had too long ignored the vampires he had left at his back, perhaps thinking Danar would be there to protect him. Five of the undead were rushing to leap upon Arron, and Danar was occupied with three others, unable to move from the sides of Rand and Keli. She screamed Arron's name, trying to be heard over the deafening shrieks of the Blodisan-wounded vampire, and redoubled her effort to reach the battle. There was no time for finesse. There was no time for strategy or tactics, nor even time for her own defense. Her blade cut deeply into the lower back of the trailing vampire, severing its spinal cord and cutting it nearly in half, and she rushed past it, into the swarm of vampires, knowing the wound would only slow it for a moment. She swung to her left, the tip of her sword slicing deeply into a vampire's face, missing her mark, then reversed the direction of her blade to attack a vampire to her right. Her aim was better, taking the undead directly in the throat, but her reach and strength were both insufficient. The vampire gushed a waterfall of rancid blood, its head flopping to the side, held only by a thick thread of bone and muscle. She felt claws rake her left arms, felt pain lance its way clear into her shoulder, and again reversed the swing of her sword to deal with the vampire she had missed, hurting it only enough to get its attention, enough to enrage it. The vampire had moved closer to her, too close, and she had no room to swing her blade. So she cocked her right arm, slamming it forward, driving the tip of her sword into a cavernous mouth and through the vampire's skull. She felt the hilt yanked from her hand as the vampire lurched to the ground, taking the sword with it, nearly pulling her along. Something hit her in the middle of the back, high and incredibly hard, taking her breath and pitching her forward. Her legs could no longer keep up with her torso, and the ground rushed up to meet her. She hit on her right shoulder, felt something break, then her skull slammed into the ground and she was rolling head over heels, like a broken doll. She felt a foot kick her in the side, taking what little breath remained in her lungs, and she reached, grabbed, wrapping her arms around the leather boot, wanting only to stop its owner from reaching Arron's back. Yoni struggled to hold on to consciousness, struggled to hold on to the boot. It was hard to breath. But if she released her hold, if her arms surrendered to the weakness she felt, there would be another vampire attacking Arron, another vampire trying to kill him. So she held. A weight hit her, landed hard across her curled back, a body sprawling across her shoulders and head. The boot she held lurched, twisted, and she felt the vampire attached to the foot crumple to the ground. Still she held, refusing to let her captive escape. The weight across her shoulders and head disappeared. Fingers wrapped around her wrists, gently, pulling her arms apart with a strength she couldn't hope to resist. But she tried. "Yoni, let go," she heard from a great distance. "It's over," Arron whispered, his mouth inches from her ear. "You can let go, now." He lived! She stopped struggling, releasing her stubborn hold. Arron lived, and that meant the vampire she held must be already destroyed. He had destroyed this enemy, destroyed all the enemy, and she had given him the time to do it. His Shield had protected the Avenging Son. "Don't try to move," Arron said softly, his hands leaving her wrists to brush hair from her face. Through a haze of pain, Yoni opened her eyes, sensing and responding to Arron's desperate and urgent fear. She could feel his quiet anger, seething beneath an overriding terror. His fear was for her, she knew. It was a raw fear, a fear kept in check only by a stronger concern. A helpless fear. Each shallow breath, every movement of her chest, brought a sharp agony. The pain told her she had been hurt. What she sensed in Arron told her she was dying. Her tongue touched her lips, trying to wet them, coming away with a taste of blood. Why should her mouth feel so dry if she was spitting blood? "Arron?" she said, the word sounding like a bubble popping in her throat. She wanted to tell him not to be so afraid. She wanted to calm his fears, to halt the burgeoning panic, to bring his unreasoning mind back to what was important. He was the Avenging Son. He would save all of Askaris. That was what was important. Not her. But she had too few words, too little strength, too much pain. And she had something else that needed to be said, something just as important, something maybe even more important. "I love you," she whispered. "Hush," he said, tears streaming down his cheeks, his hand gently stroking her face. "Don't try to talk. Lay perfectly still and don't try to talk." Yoni smiled. In spite of his words, she could feel his heart. She knew he understood. He believed her, and that was somehow very important. The Avenging Son thought there was no one that had ever loved him. But Arron believed her. "And for God's sake," he said as she closed her eyes, "Don't go to sleep." |
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| © Copyright 2001 Ron Carnell - All Rights Reserved | |||
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Sunshine
Administrator
Member Empyrean
since 1999-06-25
Posts 63354Listening to every heart |
You're on a roll...hitting all the dares.... Thanks for this, someday I hope to see the beginning.... |
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Poet deVine
Administrator
Member Seraphic
since 1999-05-26
Posts 22612Hurricane Alley |
ARGHGHHHH... Did she die? Come on Ron don't do this! BTW - you are a wonderful writer. I could 'feel' this piece - and was holding my breath at the end....so just tell me ok??? |
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Ron
Administrator
Member Rara Avis
since 1999-05-19
Posts 8669Michigan, US |
Sharon! You already read the chapter that follows this one. Okay, so it was a bit over two years ago, in the old blue screen forum - but that's no excuse for forgetting!  |
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Poet deVine
Administrator
Member Seraphic
since 1999-05-26
Posts 22612Hurricane Alley |
Sigh............................... I apologize for not remembering.  |
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LoveBug
Moderator
Member Elite
since 2000-01-08
Posts 4697 |
Beautiful!!!!! SO BEAUTIFUL!!! Oh, I SOOO want to read the rest of this! I'm about to dare you to post the rest of it!  "Men judge generally more by the eye than by the hand, for everyone can see and few can feel."-Machiavelli |
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Dusk Treader
Moderator
Senior Member
since 1999-06-18
Posts 1187St. Paul, MN |
Ron, you need to post more! I love this, absolutely love it! If I could get my hands on the other chapters I would without a doubt read it. I could feel the action around all around me. Wonderful, absolutely wonderful! "There's nowhere to set my aim |
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Nan
Administrator
Member Seraphic
since 1999-05-20
Posts 21191Cape Cod Massachusetts USA |
I'm smilin'... It smells a bit like lilacs around here...    |
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Poet deVine
Administrator
Member Seraphic
since 1999-05-26
Posts 22612Hurricane Alley |
Let's tie this all together! |
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vlraynes Member Rara Avis
since 2000-07-25
Posts 8229Somewhere... out there... |
Wow! Ron, you are an amazing writer! Had someone told me that I would read a story that included fighting with and killing vampires, and that that story would keep my interest, I would have said, "Not gonna happen". Well, guess what. I would have been wrong...lol. Not only did this keep my interest, but now I'm hooked. I want to read more of this story and I MUST know whether or not she survived.  Are there any other chapters of this posted here? I may have to do a little searching and try to find out. Enjoyed this muchly, my friend. "...until you have read the verse on his heart, you have not truly met the poet. ~vlraynes [This message has been edited by vlraynes (12-27-2002 12:27 AM).] |
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