From Ashes and Snow

Silver Pledge

Chapter Fourteen: Silver Pledge

The air was rife with uncertainty. These soldiers had wielded weapons before, many had probably even taken the life of another, but they seemed to shrink at the guttural cries piercing the night. The sound rose and fell like a bad note played from a broken instrument. The Captain stood with them, with eyes of cobalt and steel resting on the horizon.

"Quiet."

Archers had materialized on the roof, darkly clothed but I imagined that their hands shook just like mine as we waited. We were all mortal. Fyr stood behind us all, a tiny figure among the men and women dressed in steel and armed to the teeth. She wore only a simple armour, but held her bladed staff with a calm efficiency, her eyes burning with a dangerous calm. She was whispering things under her breath that even my ears could not pick up, but her eyes flashed to mine and her expression warmed for just a moment.

Another cry rang out, closer this time and I knew that our time was up. My eyes closed for a moment as the icy feeling sunk deep into my bones once more. I thought of the faces I loved so much- smiling and happy faces that belonged no more to this world. Kendon's face was the last in my mind, along with Vanya's when I opened my eyes. If I died, I would die seeing their faces.

My hands stopped shaking, a terrible calm settling inside of me as our waiting finished.

"Can we have dinner after this?" Kohen broke the silence, turning towards the Captain slightly. "I am quite hungry."

"We are about to fight!

"I can't eat before I fight." Kohen protested. "My stomach goes all tight and I feel like I am going to ..."

The Captain growled, but a low thrum of laughter ran through the group and when the Zentin's eyes flashed towards me, I understood. His eyes brightened for a moment, before his ears slicked back and he faced forward once more.

From the shadows they emerged, like twisted sentinel beings of ash and smoke. Behind them, the cries had faded, and the silence of night flooded in around them. They were skeletal thin, with long awkward limbs and needles point claws that curled in as they observed us silently. Every inch of them seemed to fade into the night, except their eyes that glowed in shades of emerald, topaz and blue. Death clung to their skin, but in their eyes was a remnant of something I didn't care to figure out.

I hated them.

Hated the way they just stood there, breathing softly and watching us. How it could have been any one of them climbing the sacred walls of Dratlan. The ones who tore flesh from the bodies of the people I loved, slaughtered them like pigs and left them there to die in the snow.

I hated them because they hadn't killed me there as-well and now I was left with the promise burning in my heart to avenge the people I loved. Their eyes, in one simultaneous movement, snapped to me and their mouths opened to reveal a mouth of glistening teeth.

The impasse broke and they were shrieking, launching forward. Behind me, arrows sailed in the darkened sky, raining metal and wood down on the slithering creatures. They cut through the horde and I readied myself.

The first one came at me with a mouth stretched wide to rip my throat out. The Alelang blade cut through its shoulder, dark blood spurting into the air as it gave a pained shriek. Near me, the Captain had a brutal and merciless fighting style, yet moved so gracefully that if the weapons and Nirani were taken away, I could imagine him dancing.

Behind me, fire woke, and heat snapped and roared. The Nirani shrieked as fire rained down upon them as the Magister twisted her staff, her mouth whispering words faster and faster and her tiny palms burned as she spat fire. My attention flickered towards her, half in shock. How could a human produce such magic, while some trainees struggled for years to master even the basic flame? Her column of fire moved with her, twisted around her like a shield and she barely even cast it a gaze as she aimed fire over our heads with a flick of her hand and a twist of her staff.