The War God's Wife

Chapter 21: Revenge and Revival

It was all set.

After months of carefully planning and setting up everything, the time had come.  The blonde bastard had returned, looking shaken and overwhelmed.  The man had heard shouting, from the old geezer and the bastard both, but it didn't matter.  The man had blocked off the paths that diverged too much.  Narrowing the options to just one:  his.

All that was left was to wait.

His hands were sweaty, and he wiped them on his pants.  He saw they trembled and squeezed them in annoyance.  Eagerness gnawed on his stomach.  On instinct, he strained his ears to hear some sound to indicate that the bastard Tel'mak was on his way.

Suddenly, there was a guttural roar, like the primal roar of some beast wounded to death.  There was a flash of light that turned the world into black and white for an instant, and then a ground-splitting boom followed!  The man's shout of pain was lost to the noise of the thunder, and he covered his ears with his hands.  They rang and ached, to which the man spat out several curses and profanities, though he could not hear it.  Drawing a drop of energy from his Well, he pressed it against his ears, willing the energy to speed along the healing process.  After a moment, he could hear again.  He froze.

Footsteps.

He licked dry lips and dried his newly-sweaty palms again.  His heartbeat thundered in his temple as he heard the footsteps race faster and faster towards where he hid.  Calling up more energy, he pooled it into balls of darkness in his hands.  Mentally, he prepared to cast lines to the trap spells he had in place.  The footsteps were so loud.  He steeled his nerves, took a deep breath, and leaped out.

Shouting the focus word, he threw the bolts of shadow and triggered his traps.

I raced up the path, travelling deeper and further up the hill.  I needed to see her.  To tell her.  I love you, and I choose you.  I choose you, Calli!  She couldn't have gotten that much of a head-start; I could catch her.  No, I needed to catch up to her.  Desperation and longing fueled my legs, and I pounded up the dirt road faster.  Faintly, I heard a shout up the road and the faint crackle of magic.  And then I smelled it.  I skidded to a stop.  My eagerness made a hard right into panic.

The scent of iron . . . .  No.

Calli.

Quick as a gust of wind, I sprinted forward.  In my mind, I was begging to anything and everything--gods, storms, sea, sky--to but spare my love.  To spare Calli.  As I ran, the scent of iron grew stronger and stronger.  I rounded the next bend.  My heart stopped, and the voice inside screamed in anguish.

CALLIENA!!!!

She was lying on the ground, hair splayed out in the mud.  Her eyes were dim and glassy, staring off into the rain clouds without seeing them.  Her chest, riddled with black arrows made of ink-dark energy, only faintly rose and fell.  Her breath was but a ghost of a rattle in her throat.  The left side of her face was scorched and ruined, burned by magic fire.  Her legs were kicked out in unnatural positions, indicating she had fallen back when she was struck, collapsing where she was.

And kneeling over her was a man in a black robe.

He looked up, as if alerted to my arrival.  My gut twisted.  I knew that face.  I knew that hideous wound on his neck.  My horror gave way to pure rage.  I let my Well pour out energy into my body.  Every.  Last.  Drop.  My whole body glowed, and my eyes and symbol shone out white like a lighthouse lantern.