The Eternal Blade Saga Book 2, Chapter 21: Unchained

“Nienna, look out!”

Alena waved and pointed frantically in my direction as she jumped up and down. Before I could turn my head to see what she was trying to direct my attention to, something hit me and sent me tumbling forward. I tried to position my arms under me to cushion my fall, but my wrists were still shackled and I fell awkwardly on my left shoulder and hit my chin. The force of the collision forced me to lose my grip on the crystal scepter. It slid across the frozen ground, right between the beast’s paws. I groaned as my mouth filled with the metallic taste of blood.

My shoulder ached, the dull pain radiating down into my arm. Taking in a deep breath and uttering a silent word of encouragement to myself, I started to push myself up, but before I could get to my knees, strong hands gripped my throat. I coughed and wheezed, fighting for air as the wolf stamped its mighty paws wildly in front of me. The beast growled and snapped its jaws at one person, then another. Without a master, it seemed confused with what to do with itself, not sure who to attack or who to listen to. Trying to ignore the deadly beast for the time being, I focused on prying at the grip tightening on my throat, hoping my one problem wouldn’t become two. I really didn’t want to be strangled and eaten alive at the same time.

Thankfully, whomever was strangling me must have lost interest in my death, because they suddenly gave up and pushed me aside. I caught sight of Lord Aedan’s longcoat as he crawled along the frozen ground past me on his hands and knees, toward the crystal scepter. Awkwardly sliding myself forward, I reached out and grabbed onto his boot. As soon as I had a decent grip on the cuff, I pulled but my fingers slipped on the well-oiled leather. I spat a curse at the shackles I still had on and grabbed again, but he shook me off and I lost what little grip I had.

“Get off of me you dark witch,” the lord growled, and he struck me hard against my shoulder with his boot.

I cried out as I was forced onto my side from the attack, unable to quickly stabilize myself with my hands still bound. My confidence in stopping Lord Aedan from getting his hands on the crystal scepter waned. I needed to get the damned shackles off. They were getting me nowhere.

“N-need some help over here!” I forced out the words. My past life did not leave me accustomed to asking for help and it was a hard habit to break. As soon as the words left my lips, I engaged in an internal battle with myself over whether calling for help was the right thing to do, but I had to believe that it was. It was obvious that I couldn’t stop Lord Aedan by in the current state I was in. It was time to exorcise a little humility.

In the distance, I heard Alena’s voice carry out an order and in a flurry of frozen tissue mass, Alena’s golem raced toward us and sought out the corrupted beast’s leg, attacking with its large, blunt claws. Quint followed behind the golem with swift, long strides and picked his bow up from the ground. Without slowing, he loosed an arrow at the wolf’s muzzle. It snarled and shook its head wildly from side to side and pieces of ice chipped free as Quint’s arrow rained down onto the ground around us. Using his momentum, Quint fell into a slide, colliding with Lord Aedan’s shoulder with his boot and pushing him back from the scepter and from me.

I could now freely go after the scepter. Doing my best to get my knees under me, I tried to scoot myself forward by using my shackled hands. It felt ridiculous and I imagined I looked like a grub crawling along the ground, but I was making progress. As I inched along, I tried not to pay any attention to the violent corrupted beast nearby who was ripping into Alena’s poor golem. It was only doing its mistresses’ bidding and would surely meet its fate soon.  But that was its purpose, and even if her golem fell, Alena had the skill to raise it again.

A feeling of victory came over me as my fingers finally reached the scepter. I took it in hand and immediately scrambled to my knees, commanding the wolf to stop. Suddenly the whole cavern quieted. The wolf remained still as it stared intently at the golem, growling as Alena’s minion continued to attack the beast’s leg. A relieved smile spread across my lips as I caught my breath and gathered myself to my feet. My legs were shaky from the ordeal, but I managed to side-step out of the way, just in case the wolf managed to find a way to ignore the scepter’s enchantment.

“Kill it,” I ordered.

“NO-,” Lord Aedan roared. Quint had the lord pulled up to his knees as he held his bow firmly against the man’s throat and his sword lay on the ground off to the side. Pulling back on his bow, he cut off the rest of the lord’s words and the two men struggled against each other, but having the upper hand, Quint held firm.

Clarkus let out a triumphant, but pained roar as he pushed himself to his hind paws. Holding his wounded arm close to his chest, he picked up his sword with his other paw as he glared contemptuously at the corrupted wolf.

“Let’s put this dog in the ground where it belongs,” he growled as he raised his blade toward the beast. Even though he was trying to hide it, by the way his body was slumped and the way he wrinkled his muzzle, it was obvious the wounded charr was suffering. He limped his way towards the wolf, struggling to keep his blade upright. His overall presence seemed diminished, but he didn’t stop. Mustering all his strength, Clarkus presented himself to the wolf, fueled by his unwavering determination.

The sounds of bootsteps rose up behind us and I turned to find a flood of Inquest escorting Lady Eira into the cavern. Her usually perfectly crowned blonde curls now hung in a mess around her shoulders and her lips were set in a deep frown. As soon as she saw Quint holding her husband at bay, she flashed a murderous gaze in my direction and I could feel the burning intensity from across the cavern. I immediately sought out my axe and found it where I had left it before leaving with the Byrnes, but when I went to reach for it, the shackles pulled at my wrists. I was still bound.

“Clarkus.” I called out to the charr. Holding my axe awkwardly in one hand, I quickly shuffled over to him. My legs were still a bit wobbly and I was concerned that if I had sprinted, I’d end up on my face. I held up my shackled hands for him to see. “Can you help me out of these first? We’ve got company.”

He looked past the beast, towards the cavern now filling with Inquest. With a low rumble, the charr nodded and we crouched down low. I placed my shackled wrists on the ground, pulling them apart as best I could to allow space for him to strike. Before I could utter any sort of request or advice, Clarkus brought down the pommel of his greatsword hard with a surprisingly clean precision despite his condition. The metal gave underneath the force and the red glow ceased. I pulled my sore wrists free from the device and rubbed them as I offered him a quick word of thanks.

“Be careful, she has the device,” Lord Aedan warned and then shot a disapproving glance back over his shoulder as he struggled against Quint’s bow.

“I told you not to let that device out of your sight!” A tall asura scolded. He wore dark red and black leathers and his short ears poked out two side holes of his black helmet. Uttering a frustrated grumble, he removed his helmet and threw it to the ground where it clattered and slid off to the side. “You should have let us handle the testing. What have you done to it?”

I could feel my blood start to boil from the heat of my severe hatred for the asura. “Torx, you little sh-.”

“Ah, Commander. Still alive I see,” Torx sneered. “Pity. Was hoping to send you off by way of your friend, Sir Fendall, but I’m afraid I’m all out of explosives.”

“You’re going to have to try harder then,” I challenged. My hand started to ache and my joints stiffened as I squeezed my axe’s grip so tight, my knuckles turned white

More Inquest filed into the cavern, blocking the exit. Each one was armed and wearing similar red and black leathers and all their attention was focused on us. We were outnumbered, but we weren’t outgunned.

I held up the crystal scepter and flashed a smirk at Torx. “I wouldn’t do anything rash if I were you,” I warned.

Baring a mouthful of small, sharp teeth, the asura scientist let out an angry cry and stomped his foot as he looked up at Lady Eira. “You let her have it?”

“I didn’t just hand it over,” she argued as she looked down to meet Torx’s gaze. “And if your employees had better aim, we wouldn’t be in this mess, now would we?”

“Oh, for Grenth’s sake,” I murmured as I looked aside at Quint. Tired of the bickering, I held the crystal scepter up towards the corrupted wolf and opened my mouth to speak, but before I could utter a syllable, a shot rang out and I felt the impact against the scepter. It was severely cracked and no longer emitting a constant soft, blue glow. The light sputtered on and off as the device struggled to function. I looked back over to find Torx holding a laser rifle, a satisfied smile on his thin lips. Wisps of smoke wafted upward from the barrel as the weapon cooled down.

“If we can’t have control of the subject, then no one gets control,” he said, uttering an unsettling laugh.

“We’re going to have to fight through them if we want out,” Alena said. She waved her staff at her minions, calling them back to regroup around her.

Alena was right. The Inquest were blocking our only way out and now we had a corrupted wolf, free from any master and eyeing Clarkus with a malicious gaze. My hands started to ache from my tightening grip on my axe and the scepter. I adjusted my grip and slowly backed up, trying not to make any sudden movements that would prompt the wolf to attack.

“Now if you’ll kindly unhand our employer,” Torx said as he directed a small grouping of Inquest to offensive positions surrounding Quint and Lord Aedan. He then handed his rifle to another

I shot a quick glance over at Quint and nodded, while still keeping the wolf in my sight. “Let him go.”

He hesitated at first, then released the highborn lord, but not before nudging him firmly in the back with his boot and sending him sprawling onto his hands and knees. If we weren’t under the stress of having a killer wolf ready to attack and a small Inquest army blocking our only way out, I would have laughed at the undignified sight.

Lord Aedan got to his feet and joined Lady Eira and the safety of the Inquest, but not before uttering a sharp word at Quint. With a sharp little wave of his hand, Torx ordered the other Inquest to retreat.

“Now, if you’ll excuse us, it’s time for us to go. Enjoy playtime with your new pet.” Torx’s large green eyes shone as he smirked. It took every ounce of energy I had to stop myself from throwing my axe at his neck. I wasn’t certain if I would get another chance, but if I made an unexpected move now I could excite the wolf and spur the Inquest to fight, causing a serious situation we may not walk away from.

Instead, I clenched my jaw and watched Lord Aedan and Lady Eira leave the cavern with Torx and the Inquest in tow.

“Uh, Commander,” Clarkus called. The corrupted beast was slowly stalking him back into a corner. Its injuries didn’t seem to slow it down. If anything, its wounds had made it angrier and Clarkus had done most of the damage. I looked at the scepter, only to find its light had gone completely dark. I shook it, hoping that some of the connections were still active, but it was dead.

I motioned for Quint to move in close behind the wolf with me while its attention was on Clarkus. He joined me at my side, an arrow notched and readied. By now, Clarkus’ back was pressed up against the wall. He had his greatsword held up in front of him, but no amount of steel would protect the charr from the corrupted beast. I waved at Alena to get her attention and the asura nodded, understanding my intent when she saw our weapons raised and ready.

“Take it down!” I commanded.

We met the wolf head on in battle, driven by our determination to live. I immediately began hacking away at the beast’s hind leg, chipping away at the ice crystals shielding its skin. A threatening growl echoed throughout the cavern, followed by a snarl as he snapped his mighty jaws at Clarkus. The charr swung his blade, cutting into an exposed section of the wolf’s lip. The beast roared and shook its head violently as it kept snapping at Clarkus, intent on tearing him apart. Despite being injured, the charr warrior held his own while taking the brunt of the attack, giving the rest of us opportunity to attack, but I wasn’t sure how much longer he could last in his wounded state.

Then Clarkus slipped and fell to the ground, weakened and past his holding point.

In that brief moment, I watched in horror as the wolf latched on to Clarkus’ injured arm, biting down on part of his blade as well. The edge of the weapon cut into its jaws, but it didn’t seem to care. The beast never let up, not even when blood started dripping freely onto the ground.

I found it harder to breathe and the edges of my vision shadowed over, but I didn’t stop swinging my axe. Clarkus wasn’t going to last much longer. We had to bring this beast down. Alena’s voice echoed in my head, telling me not to hold back, telling me to let go. This time I listened. I don’t remember when I had finally cut into the wolf’s flesh. Everything started to become a blur and the only things that registered were the need to keep swinging my axe, Alena’s voice, and my thundering heartbeat. I let everything else go.

My skin started to prickle. By now, I was covered in ice from what I assumed was from the wolf. It must have been melting because droplets were running down my face, my arms-everywhere. I had hacked off so much, but I wasn’t done. Somewhere in the distance, a voice called my name, but my focus remained on the beast. I swung and I swung, unaware and uncaring of anything else around me, until I felt a tugging on my shoulder.

Expecting one of Torx’s cronies, I spun around and pushed back the figure standing before me.  I raised my axe and was ready to strike, but instead I found Quint on the ground clutching his arm against his chest. His features were twisted in pain. As vision started to clear, the world came back to me. Horrified, I put a hand to my mouth as he exposed his arm. It was covered in ice crystals and frost.

“I-I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to,” I whispered, barely able to get the words out as I stumbled backward. My arms felt cold and stiff and when I examined them, I found them covered in ice crystals like Quint. I reached out for something to steady myself as I started to grow lightheaded, but there was nothing to grab onto and I stumbled over my own feet, barely catching myself before falling. My heart raced and I could hear it pounding in my ears. I had listened to Alena and allowed myself to let go while attacking the corrupted wolf, but at what cost? While enraged, I hurt someone I cared about. If I did it again, who would be next?

Oh gods, what have I done?

“Nienna,” a familiar voice called to me, snapping me out of my spiraling thoughts.

I looked over and blinked a few times, not sure I was recognizing the person who was moving swiftly towards me. The woman’s black, curled pony tail bounced with every step and she holstered a pair of pistols behind her back. “Danae? What are you doing here?”

“Rescuing you, but it looks like we weren’t needed.” Her gaze fell upon something behind me. I turned and looked to find the wolf now a lifeless slump, its shoulder completely severed.