“It’s over,” Seo-ah said, putting an arm on Nick’s back. Nick wasn’t sure if she did it to stabilize herself after the fight or just because she wanted to support him. She leaned into him a little, the two of them taking in the sight of the blood-red landscape.
The hot crimson sea soaking into the white snow, melting the top layer of soft powder before cooling enough to saturate the layer beneath, reminded Nick, in a twisted way, of the shaved ice he used to see as a kid in the summer. He felt like he was walking across one such cherry-flavored cone as he and Seo-ah made their way to the knights.
Even though, a moment ago, they had been celebrating like they were about to throw a party, chanting out their thanks to the Lady, to the Goddess, to the Black Witch, and whatever other glorious epithets they had attached to her, they now stood quiet and somber, looking down. Nick could tell what they were looking at: several of the dead bodies at their feet, their own companions.
One such body, gored through the middle, looked like it was the captain of the knights, his armor etched with runes, just like the leader before.
“Throw the horse!” Reggie shouted, trying to repeat the knights’ earlier victory cry and raising his weapon in the air. There was a brief moment of silence as Nick and most of the knights within earshot turned and stared at him before he mumbled, “What? They were all shouting it. It sounded cool. I thought I’d shout too.”
“You probably got the pronunciation horribly wrong,” Topaz guessed with a shrug. “I made that mistake a lot with Russian.”
“Yeah . . . the knights said, “For the lady”; you said, “Throw the horse” . . .” Nick explained.
“I couldn’t have been that far off,” Reggie grumbled.
“Don’t worry. You’ll get it next time,” Christina told him, hugging his arm for a moment and causing even more stares as Nick wasn’t the only one that hadn’t realized their relationship had solidified enough for PDA to be a thing.
“Alright, alright, enough of the talk. We’ve rescued the Black Witch’s soldiers, but we’re nowhere near the battlefield. We need to get moving,” Nick said, raising his arms as he signaled the driver to where they were.
“Do you know where we’re going?” Maria asked as she struggled to get all the blood and melted snow off her blade so she could re-sheath it.
“Nope, but they do,” he replied, nodding at the knights and mages.
“Well, as much as I like traveling with them, they’re on foot, and if we’re going to make time, we need to be in the vehicle,” Seo-ah pointed out as Will pulled up in the large SUV. He then hopped out, went to the rear hatch, and began to unload healing items and other post-battle supplies for the group without even being told what to do.
That’s true, Nick thought, as he turned to the leader of the knights. “Hey, what were you all doing outside of the walls? Where is the castle?”
“We were doing what you were doing: hunting down the monstrous slavers. We left before the siege began and then waited for the seventh day, today, as Our Lady instructed, and then began to hunt and slay the foul beasts.”
“If you’ve been hunting down their supply chains, then where are the freed slaves? Shouldn’t there be hundreds and hundreds of people with you?” Nick asked, looking around but not seeing a single one, brushing over the fact that the Black Witch had known about the siege before it began. She likely knew for the same reason he knew about the Red Death and the Endless Night: she’d lived through them before.
“We couldn’t risk the enemy retrieving them, so we hid them in the tunnels of the underground base we had built while we waited for the day of the hunt to begin,” the knight explained, surprising Nick with how thorough the Black Witch’s plans were. He had to reason that in order to predict the exact moment the siege would begin, and where the supply chains were, she must have been through this scenario several times, and this was only her latest regression.
Nick wondered for a moment what would happen if she regressed again: if the timeline would carry on, if he’d notice at all, or if he’d be as oblivious as everyone else as the whole world simply reset itself. It was a terrifying thought, that everything he did might be undone in an instant because of someone he hadn’t even met yet, and he’d be none the wiser.
“Alright then,” Nick began, putting aside his thoughts on regression and forcing himself to focus on the topic at hand, “what were your next orders?”
“We have none,” the knight commander admitted. “This is where we’re supposed to die. She said we’d be overwhelmed and meet our deaths here but that our service would give our world a chance at life. That we still breathe must be proof that she was just testing our faith and dedication to the cause—since Our Lady sees and knows all.”
As the last words left the knight’s lips, several of the others raised their blades again, chanting out once more, “For The Lady!”
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“Okay, ‘the lady’ aside, we need to know where the main citadel is. We need to reach the fortifications and reinforce the Black Witch,” Nick told them, “but we don’t know where she is, or which way to go.”
“Then I can show you,” the knight said, pointing off to the south. “They are just over there, besieged on all sides by the monstrous abominations of this world. Since we have no further orders, and you have saved us in the hour of need, clearly you were sent by Our Lady, so we will lead you there.”
Nick paused for a moment, considering the options as he eyed the large number of knights. “How . . . How long is it to get there on foot?”
“It shouldn’t be more than an hour’s journey,” the man told him.
“We can do it quicker,” a female knight to his right jumped in. “If we march at the fastest pace, we can reach it in three quarters of an hour. No! Half that time! If the lady needs us, we must make haste!”
“No, no, no.” Nick held up his hands to slow them down a bit. “We need to make haste but not so much that we leave ourselves vulnerable. Lead the way, and we’ll follow you all on foot.”
“Why are we walking when we have a big, beautiful four-wheeled vehicle with heating to carry us?” Topaz grumbled, looking longingly at the SUV as Will hopped inside.
“We’ll go on foot, Topaz,” Nick stated again sternly as he watched the woman go from wishful to downtrodden and moping.
“Fine. If the boss says we’re going on foot, we’re going on foot,” Topaz huffed. With a sigh, she stored her grenade launcher and crossed her arms.
The rest of the group didn’t even bother protesting, whether they understood the importance of being able to react quickly should a battle break out or just didn’t think Nick would budge.
“Are you ready to depart? We need to make haste. The Lady must be counting on our arrival,” the female knight from earlier asked, pressuring Nick as everyone formed up into two groups, Nick’s team breaking into two columns as they followed the knights, who had broken up into rows of ten.
———
“How much farther?” Topaz called from behind, her voice barely audible over the howling gale that had arisen.
Nick just rolled his eyes as he kept walking. This was the fifth time Topaz or Reggie had asked the question, and he had given up on replying. Instead, he just trudged on, pushing through the harsh, sporadic winds as he followed the knights through a mountain trail. As they reached the crest of another icy ridge, Nick’s breath froze, caught for a moment in his throat as he stared out at the valley below, where the great citadel of the Black Witch stood. Its massive walls of ice, metal, and polished stone gleamed in the weak sunlight, a fortress of frozen majesty that would look more at home as the final tomb of a great lich than the last bastion of humanity.
“Wow,” Maria whispered, coming to stand beside Nick. "It's a lot bigger than ours.”
He nodded, unable to tear his gaze away from the sight as he moved forward. The only thing that marred the city’s enchanting grandeur was the boundless number of beasts besieging it. He knew how powerful that force was—and the fate that awaited it—as his eyes passed over the ice bridges that spanned the rivers to the north and east, the ones he’d created by the enemy in his dream.
After looking out at the horde of foes, he turned his attention to the knights and mages, watching those in front and beside him, trying to see what their reaction would be, if they were expecting that many enemies. He knew, as it stood, that the citadel would fall, but he didn’t know by how much, so he studied their eyes for a moment, trying to discern if there was horror or hope in them. To his surprise, there was neither. There wasn’t even a dull acceptance of their fate.
As they stared at the sea of predators surrounding the citadel, they merely gripped the handles of their blades and magical staves tightly, hoisting their weapons into the air as they yelled out, unprompted, “For The Lady!” with a zealous fervor that even the most ardent cultists might only dream of having in his own realm.
“What . . . What are you doing?! Quiet! They’re going to notice us!” Nick quickly tried to hush them as they stood at the top of the crest. His blood ran cold as he watched many of the thousands and thousands of enemies slowly turn their attention toward Nick and his knights.
“They had already seen us long before the first sword was raised. You can tell by the way their eyes go red, preparing for battle even in the darkest night. We were already seen, so we might as well be heard,” one of the knights closest to Nick said with a twisted smile on his face as he raised his sword like he was prepared to take on the entire enemy army alone. Nick was sure the man would attempt it one way or another.
“The bridge,” Seo-ah said, pointing at the nearest massive ice structure. “There is only one large bridge on the north side.”
"Good eye," Nick responded, understanding instantly what Seo-ah was suggesting when she pointed to the bridge. It was, after all, their only hope for victory in the face of the thousands and thousands of beasts. As he turned to address the group, feeling like he was having to practically yell to be heard over the wind, he began to issue his orders: “Listen up! We are charging to the bridge. Time is short, and we need to reach it before it’s too late. Mages, be ready with spells to reinforce our path. Knights, form a shield wall the moment we reach the bridge. Adele, Topaz, whatever healing you can do, focus on that. Don’t waste a single bit of magic on offensive spells. Reggie, all your mana needs to go into your armoring skill. Mr. Walters, Arnold, Lou, we’re going to be counting on you three to intercept any of the big boys. We’ve got a long battle ahead of us, but we will survive it!”
Maria, looking more than a little scared, began to protest, “But . . . Nick, even if we—”
“Maria, we don’t have time for buts! We charge!” Nick shouted as he ran to the bridge as fast and hard as his legs could carry him. He knew the enemy knew where they were, he knew they would react soon, and he knew that he didn’t have time to hesitate. This was his one and only chance to survive. If they turned around and ran, they’d be eaten alive by the four-legged beasts. Running would be like trying to escape a galloping horse. If they stayed where they were and tried to fortify themselves, they would be surrounded, and it would be a fight just like the one they just finished, only infinitely tougher. That bridge was their only hope, and Nick knew it.
And he suspected they all knew it. He didn’t even have to glance back to hear the thunderous sound of heavy feet striking snow behind him and the loud yells declaring victory before first blood had even been drawn.