Ice Blink

31: Battle

Nuna ran like the wind. The boy hadn't stopped wailing, but she barely heard him over the terrible noise of the battle as it raged on behind them.

The safe house was a shack on the highland plateau. When she reached it the door swung open, and the old Chief aimed an arrow at her before realising who she was. He relaxed and Nuna passed the child over.

"His mother is dead," she said.

He just stared at her, too numb to feel.

Nuna turned to the slope. The battle was a mass of darkness on the other side of the sprawling village, the distant screams making her cringe.

Was that Amarok? Or Niju? They could be dead already, and she wouldn't know.

The shack behind her was full of women, children and the elderly. If she huddled with them like a coward while the others died, if she obeyed Amarok's orders...

She couldn't do it. She couldn't.

Although nerves crackled along her skin, robbing her of breath, she took a step back to the carnage.

When she reached the bottom of the slope, she found a stack of crates that once held fish and scrambled up and onto the roof of a hut to view the battle from above, keeping low to avoid being spotted.

"We need to lead them into the largest ditch!" Iki was shouting as he ran along a street beneath.

"How do we do that?" Niju disentangled himself from a tussle nearby, his voice drifting up to her. "We can't take them to the other side of the village."

"We need everyone to retreat in the same direction so they'll follow!"

They turned to Amarok, who was fighting three men at once closer to the heart of the battle, his sword flashing and plunging.

"Amarok! Retreat!"

"Call the retreat!"

He knocked a soldier to the ground and his eyes found the other men long enough for him to shake his head fiercely. Then he dove back into the fight. He wouldn't stop until he was forced to.

"He doesn't understand!"

A war horn blasted the air and Nuna's eyes widened in horror. There were more of them. More reinforcements arriving to end them in one fell swoop.

Toklo appeared beside Niju, covered in scratches. He let out a moan of despair, but Niju's teeth flashed in the sunlight. A grimace? No, he was smiling.

"Have you lost your mind?"

A new wave of people flooded the battlefield, and in the centre of it all, Amarok's raised sword caught the light like a beacon.

"Takaani! To me!"

The leather-clad warriors fell upon the enemy soldiers. These were men and women from Illulik.

With a whoop, Toklo threw himself back into the fight, closely followed by Iki, whose hair was a flash of white weaving among the black.

Now the fighting seemed more evenly-matched, and as they ducked, dodged and parried, Amarok fought to get to their side. They worked together, forcing the soldiers back step by step.

Extra help would not force the soldiers into the ditch. A big diversion would be needed for that.

"Amarok!" someone called.

"Tanat!" Amarok spun to look at one of his Takaani, eyes filled with light. "Well met, Captain."

"We caught up just in time!" the captain said breathlessly, dodging a sword swipe. "Sedna sent us to keep the peace here a month ago."

"Help us end this."

"It would be my pleasure."

From her vantage point, Nuna could see orders spiralling like ripples through the ranks, and eventually she realised they were emanating from one man: their leader. An insane idea trickled into her mind.

This was possibly the stupidest thing she would ever do.

Nuna spotted a bloodstained bow and quiver discarded on the street. She dropped down, her shins barking, to snatch it up, clambering out of the fray again before anyone could spot her. The enemy seemed much too distracted by the huge, strong arrivals.

As she nocked an arrow and drew, grimacing at the tautness of the string, her hair tore free of her braids in a sheet of rippling black. She paused, and so did the leader, as he gazed around at the battle with satisfaction. Perfect. She fired.

A god smiled upon her. The arrow went straight where she had aimed: into the leader's neck, making him drop like a stone.

"The General!" an enemy shouted. "The General is down!"

"There!" someone howled.

Eyes flashed to Nuna, who stood stiff as a scared rabbit.

"Get her!"

Propelled by fury at the death of one of their own, they surged towards her.

Nuna ran, jumping from rooftop to rooftop, wood cracking and breaking away beneath her feet. Arrows whipped past her, but she was a moving target. Adrenalin numbed her to every feeling and she had never moved so fast in her life.

With a roar, the Takaani converged behind the enemy, driving them west.

"Argh!" The enemy leaders' feet broke the ice surface and they plummeted into the ditch. The rest of the soldiers fanned out around it, turning back to face the main force.

"It's them! It's the Inua!" one cried, spotting Iki.

"Well, now we're in deep shit," Iki shouted, his words reaching even Nuna's ears.

If word got out of the resurrected Inua, if Mortu heard about it, he'd send people to crush them.

The soldiers turned and ran to the ridge south of the village that marked the top of a sharp slope. They were fleeing. Was that where their camp was? Scrambling down from her hut, Nuna met Toklo's eyes, frowning. Were they really ready to admit defeat?

"After them!" Tanat shouted, and a roar rose from the Takaani. They ran, jostling and pushing Nuna's friends with them, but she didn't miss the furrow between Niju's eyebrows as he was swept along with them.

Toklo grabbed Nuna's arm, forcing her to run with them, and soon she was gasping for breath.

They reached the ridge when she realised something was wrong.

The snow beneath their boots turned black and grey as if streaked with soot. Feet crunched against it, and it sounded wrong.

"Wait – wait!" Nuna shouted, but her words fell on deaf ears.

Over the heads of the Takaani clambering down the slope, she spotted a semicircle of waiting soldiers with a leader positioned a little in front, holding a torch aloft.

"Stop!" Amarok's cry was lost as the Takaani ran faster.

Niju whipped around and his eyes met hers through the chaos.

The leader dropped the torch. The black substance ignited, and with a rushing, roaring sound that tore through Nuna's skull, the world exploded.