Lovely Dark Things

TWENTY-SEVEN (ISELEN POV)

It feels weird being away from Ruby. This is not the first time she leaves me alone to carry out a direct order from the Queen, of course, and I'm always surrounded by guards or acolytes that protect me... but I never feel a 100% safe is she's not close. And she's far away now, down there on the plateau, riding a giant lizard next to her father. I can't see her clearly but I can see the Black Guard banner and the amours shining like polished jet under the sunlight. The brides of the God of War are standing right behind them, their sensual bodies are covered with more clothes than usual, chainmail and thick leather doublets to protect themselves, but they're still slim, beautiful and dangerous... I hope they'll be lethal enough too.

I feel overwhelmed and awkward and not only because Ruby is not here with me, to be honest, but because I'm about to give a command that will send thousands of warriors to their death: humans, elves and maybe dwarves too. Gotrek and his people are in charge of the back line and will finish off the wounded enemies, I know they wanted to be on the frontline with other soldiers but they can't run as fast as elves with long legs and wouldn't be able to come back before their mates light the fuses at the cave entrance and the dynamite goes off. No one taught me this at the university, books only talked about military strategy and casualty figures, but these are real soldiers I met in person, I even like some of them, some others hate me but I don't like to see them dying on this battlefield anyways.

The entire army gathered on the plateau is an impressive sight: knights, infantry, archers, sailors that will fight on dry land, for a change, and the King will join them with his dragons in the sky too. Colourful banners fluttering in the wind... The lives of all these people depend on me right now, lot of them will die in battle in a few minutes, but most of them will survive thanks to my plan... if it works. In front of them, on the other side of the plateau, there's a bigger army, powerful and strong monsters and warriors that are mocking us. We'll see who laughs last... I grab a spyglass from my backpack and take a look while the Queen stares at me puzzled from her winged horse.

"Do you want to try it?" I ask moving closer to Sulepeth and the Queen takes the telescope, fascinated, while the horse sniffs my cape expecting to find candied fruit. He knows I always have a treat for him so I rummage in my pockets till finding a small piece that he eats in one bite, greedily.

"This is interesting, our corsairs have something similar but this one is lighter and smaller... Did you carve the crystals?" My Lady asks handing me back the spyglass and I nod.

"Yes, but it's not perfect. It's hard to carve crystals without the technology available in my world. Everything looks blurry, I wanted to know if crows and harpies were getting closer but I can only see black spots in the sky..." I admit and the Queen smiles.

"You should ask your friend Gotrek for help, dwarves are good at carving gems and crystals. Don't worry, dragons have a sharp eye and Seraphon will tell us if those winged creatures are flying closer." The dragon cuts the Queen off, growling, and her son raises his hand to order Ariel's eagles to follow him. "Here they are, demons have started to move... Everything will be all right, Iselen, the God of War is supporting you."

"I hope so," I whisper while watching them flying away. I wave my hand at the squires and they blow the horns, the sound echoes against the mountains, getting amplified. The allied army is moving on slowly, as I asked them, to give our enemies enough time to reach the centre of the plateau. It's possible that the demons on the back line don't fall inside the hole since there aren't caves under the entire surface but they'll die too because I have a little surprise ready for them, no one expects it, not even the King or Queen. Only Gotrek knows about it... and called me crazy before laughing his ass off.

I'm trying to focus on the battle, above all on our enemies' lines to check where they are, but I avert my eyes often looking for the Black Guard banner. I know Ruby is an outstanding assassin, no one handles those long knives better than she does, she'll survive and will be back in my arms because she promised it... but I can't help feeling anxious and praying for the best. I think the gods are wrong, there're lot of things that are worth saving in this world and my girl is one of those, I won't let them take her away from me because of their stupid games.