Elven Legacy

Chapter 115

Viper

Still reeling from the agony that spiked through her as Berserker, White Fang and Sky had all been mutilated by Jaden's arrows, she allowed herself a moment to gather her wits.

She swept a palm across the side of her face, catching a tear of pain that had been welling at the corner of her eye, camouflaging the gesture into the tucking of her hair behind her pierced ear.

To her right, Master Juna stepped slightly forward and asked, "Are you all right, Neila?"

Sunyi's fucking sake, will he ever stop calling me that?

Uncertain whispers rippled across the men and women behind them. They could all see the strange disturbance in the air, that odd glimmer which seemed to catch the scant sunlight without quite reflecting it. The wind keened off the hills to the north, and Viper got this chilling impression that not even that could penetrate Noah's defenses. Something about the way their travel-worn clothing didn't so much as flutter.

Impressive, sure. But how long could he hold it?

She sniffed, straightened her back, flexing her neck to the side as though stretching before a brawl. Which might very well be the case.

Sparing Juna only a tiny nod, she let her eyes slant back up to Jaden. She cleared her throat and smiled.

"Well, that was cute." She summoned again her best Azurian, "Got our little revenge, did we? How did it feel?"

No answer.

Jaden had an arrow to his bow, but slightly lowered. Beside him, Noah held a knife in one hand and in the other a steel ring that glinted like bronze and copper in the sunlight, before a cloud cloaked it again.

Fine, have it your way.

Viper hardened her voice, "This is your last chance to surrender. Tell your friend to come with us, and the rest of you walk away."

It happened in a split-second.

Jaden raised then shot his arrow. At the same time there was swift motion to her left, something pale and marked flicking upward and closing in mere inches from her neck.

Blood Eyes caught the arrow at the very last moment, because she could feel the cold steel point pressed against the fragile skin of her neck. She couldn't swallow. Her heart hammered with the disorienting realization that she'd almost died. Blood Eyes tossed away the arrow with obvious disdain. It stirred particles of dust upon tumbling on the road.

Frantic apprehension rose palpably from her fellow wielders.

She thanked Blood Eyes with a sidelong glance. No time for words right now. He acknowledged it with a nearly imperceptible nod.

But she swallowed down a lump of emotions that words couldn't have expressed anyway. He was her friend, when it really mattered.

Viper reached back with her right hand and grasped her shamshir's hilt. The elegantly curving, freshly-sharpened blade scraped out of the scabbard and sliced the air before her with a satisfying whoosh, dark silver in the clouded air.

And that was the signal.

Behind her, Master Juna, Blood Eyes, and a hundred more unsheathed their swords, all crafted by the finest blacksmiths in Chyulin for the empress's elite protectors. The blades hissed across the air in perfect unison, vibrating and singing in her ears.

Viper's gaze fixed on Jaden and his companions, as doubt sneaked its way across their faces. There was something unsettling about their synchronicity, she knew.

All fell silent again, but it was a pregnant silence, an ominous hum, like thick humid air heralding a storm. Viper's demons may have been incapacitated, but most of the army still had theirs. Faithful, loyal to the death, snarling, at the edge of their paws and claws.

Ready to pounce.

Viper spoke again one final time, no longer in Azurian – fuck that, Jaden got his chance. No, she spoke in Chyulin now, with all the strange, elegant beauty of the language that baffled many travelers with its inflections, different from all others on the continent. Viper had learned it at twelve years old and had never quite lost the lilting Laethi accent from her youth.

She reached deep inside herself for her reserves of magic. She still had Black Kiss, her scorpion demon, who remained unscathed. Borrowing from him, she fed eerie strength to her voice, making it echo so as to fully reach all the women and men at her back.

"Demon Blessed of Chyulin, listen to me! These strange enemies facing us now may be powerful, but so are we!"

She turned to face them, raising her blade in the air, and she sensed the excited assent shivering throughout the ranks.

"Our empress is counting on us! She is watching! Make her proud!" Her shamshir now pointed to the city wall in the distance, and the white stone watchtower looming above it. Her fellow wielders shouted in eager agreement as they raised their blades in the air with her.

Viper wore a grim smile as she added, "Together, now, we fight. Trust me, their shiny little bubble won't hold us back." Cruel smirks appeared on many faces, matching her own as she finished, "Capture them alive . . . if possible."