The Heartstone Saga by Archibald Bradford (short novels in english .TXT) 📕

gripped Milly’s wrist so hard it hurt and gave her a look tinged with fear, a rarely seen expression on the giant’s face.

“Take him and go!”

“Wha-”

“Go now and don’t look back!” The Gigas roared as she squared off against the woods, putting her diminutive frame between whatever was coming and everything she loved in the entire world.

The shaking ground had gotten so much worse, trees swaying from side to side, some even cracking from the strain.

The Minotaur took her words to heart and tossed him over her shoulder like a sack of breakfast, ignoring his objections as she ran, Erica close behind while Ophelia took to the sky, leaving Nina standing beside the dead girl.

If they had delayed even a moment, it would have likely proved fatal for one or more of them as a host of dark eyed Ogres poured from the trees.

The Gigas crouched into her battle stance with her arms spread wide and sucked in a breath.

“COME ON!”

The shockwave of her challenge rolled across the ground, tearing up the scrub grass growing in the fields before hitting the approaching wave of Ogres.

But their weight and rage were enough to lean into it, because they were mountains too.

Just, you know, smaller ones.

So Nina raised her hammer and lunged forwards, desperate to keep the attention of the Tenebrae away from her squishy bond-mates.

It worked.

For Nameless watching over Milly’s shoulder it was like witnessing an avalanche falling on his littlest love as the ten-foot tall Ogres met in battle with the lone Gigas.

A tiny spark of red amidst a mob of blue flesh.

Nina would never admit it, not even to her bond-sisters, but it broke her heart that she couldn’t afford to hold back on the fallen girls: fifteen against one, and each Ogre was easily more powerful than a half dozen Amazons without the enhanced strength of being a Tenebrae.

If they were back in the arena, she would bet on the Ogres.

Chapter 46:Full Circle

As the Aegis neared the town of Wayfelt, they soon found evidence of Evadne and the girls she had with her; homesteads that had been ransacked, buildings damaged or even destroyed with claw and fang, and families massacred, too stubborn to abandon their land.

“How do we even recover from this?” Ginger asked aloud, not seeing an obvious answer for herself.

Her Harpy’s reply was immediate and unflinching.

“By kicking ass and returning as heroes. Obviously.”

But the redhead sighed as they left the barn to rejoin the main force, shaking her head at their commanding officer to communicate that they had found no survivors.

“Not what I meant baby. Just… look around.”

“At what?”

“At the crops! Most of the fields we’ve passed haven’t been planted. And the ones that have-” Her throat closed with grief.

The fields that had been planted were inevitably the ones where people had chosen to stick it out, and had thus been killed when the Tenebrae had swept through the area on their way to Wayfelt.

“The growing season is far from over.” Baron called out, overhearing their conversation as they rejoined the group; “And plenty of people’s lives remain more or less normal, to the west anyways.”

He stopped talking though when he noticed Ginger giving him a funny look.

“What?”

“Nothing, just didn’t see you as the type to be all comforting and stuff.”

Baron’s ears turned red and he scowled at her, but his expression softened when she took his hand in hers.

“I’m sorry about your loss by the way. I don’t think I’ve gotten a chance to say that yet. I always looked up to her, even before I joined the Aegis.”

Margaret Bloom was his maternal grandmother, and like many families, Baron’s had been forced to mourn for her.

He nodded curtly, but said nothing.

“You know, if you want, I could have Celeste sit on your face.” She jokingly offered; “That always makes me feel better.”

The Harpy ruffled her feathers and shook her head.

“No way! No offense to tall dark and handsome over there, but his face looks way to rocky for me to perch on!”

“High cheekbones are hot!” Jenny disagreed.

“Don’t die, either of you. I want to kill you myself later.” Baron grumbled by way of farewell, his amused Raiju following him.

Not long afterwards they reached their destination.

The town of Wayfelt sat within a depression between the banks of a slow moving river and a large forest that extended all of the way to Kettering.

The very woods where Nameless rescued his first Tenebrae, Erica, and subsequently bonded to her and thereby pissed Miranda off.

As fate would have it, they were also the same woods where his father and Kriss’s mother had fought Evadne, two decades prior.

They approached from the northwest though, so the land they moved through was mostly cleared for farming.

Now their forces were arrayed at the top of a gentle rise, looking downwards across unsown fields towards the river sluggishly moving through the remains of the silent buildings.

Most of them had been destroyed by the Tenebrae, but a few were still standing.

“I don’t see any movement.” Alcaia pointed out.

Miranda sucked air between her teeth as her eyes scanned for their quarry.

“The scout placed them here less than an hour ago.”

“You can cover a lot of ground in an hour.” Myrina reasoned.

Like her warleader and her sisters, her face was painted for battle, their imposing figures made all the more so with the fierce patterns.

Volka was frowning and gnawing at her lip, but oddly she had one eye behind them towards where the medics and Dryads were setting up in preparation for the coming conflict.

“What is it?” Booker asked her.

The Valkyrie shook her head slightly.

“I don’t know, I’m waiting… there!”

As one they looked to see Nameless and his girls