CHAPTER FIFTY ONE: THE CHOICES A MAN HAS TO MAKE

The battle raged through the entire clearing. All around Calin, swords clashed and cries of pain pierced the air.

But only one thing was at the forefront of his mind, to get to Ta-Reen; to make the gypsy pay for his treachery.

As Calin moved through the small battle field, he dodged to and fro the weapons of other gypsies busy in their fight.

He aimed to where Mictoria was fighting Ta-Reen. The closer he got, the more it became apparent that, the display of the small gypsy woman fighting was nothing less than spectacular.

She was twirling with her short sword and golden dagger in a dance as ancient and deadly as the world.

Her feet and arms swept in intricate patterns as she dodged and deflected the heavier blows from Ta-Reen’s larger sword. Her layered skirt spun in an arc through the swordplay, never hindering her once.

She parried every blow with great efficiency. The growls that came from the traitor, was filled with frustration.

With a grunt, the man swung hard in a vertical chop, which turned into a feint as the blade twisted into a horizontal arc; clearly to try and catch Mictoria off guard.

But with a lightning fast move that astounded Calin, she dropped her left knee and dagger hand to the ground in a rush. Her body spun, allowing her forearm to dip and touch the surface before she twisted under the passing sword.

In her momentum, her free right leg came up with a burst. She pushed her whole body weight off the ground with her one hand and kicked out at Ta-Reen.

The boot struck his face with great force, sending him up and off his feet to the ground. He careened and scrambled to regain his footing. Mictoria finished her twirl and landed gracefully on her feet.

Calin stared astonished. The scene in front of him seemed impossible. Yet, he had seen it with his own eyes. He moved faster towards them.

Ta-Reen was glaring at Mictoria as he aligned the sword into a position that pointed at her smaller form.

With a move that seemed to be a charge towards Mictoria, Ta-Reen rushed towards her. She slipped into a stance that could parry a charge, with her blades low.

But Ta-Reen jumped all of a sudden. A jump that was higher than Calin expected.

The sword, with his weight behind it, came down in a mighty blow on Mictoria. She brought her short sword up just in time to block the blow, but the strength behind it made her stumble back heavily to the ground. A yelp escaped her lips. And her dagger dropped as she gripped her sword arm in an intense grimace of pain.

Ta-Reen strode forward with clear intent to finish her off. But Calin lurched in front of the woman protectively.

“Ta-Reen, your fight is with me. We have a score to settle, you and I.”

He didn’t mask the venom of his own voice. He meant it. Ta-Reen was a back stabbing traitor.

Calin carefully unlatched his cloak and let it drop to the floor, rolling his shoulders in an effort to get ready, his t-shirt was a tight fit, but without the cloak he had little more freedom.

Ta-Reen stepped forward waving his sword while laughing out loud. “Haha! You? Don’t be mad, you don’t stand a chance against me. Now step aside so I can kill my gracious ‘leader’.”

With a shake of his head Calin brought both swords up and said, “No, you won’t touch her.”

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“No?” asked Ta-Reen and then the man sighed, “You are really starting to annoy me... Alright, let’s play.”

With that, the man surged forward and slashed at him. Calin was barely able to bring up one of his swords in time to deflect the blade. He stumbled to his right, but corrected himself again facing himself towards the gypsy. The speed of the attack made fear well up in him. But he pushed it down.

The man was smiling wickedly at Calin, swinging his sword leisurely. Before lunging forward at him again, this time as Calin awkwardly deflected the blade, though still, the tip sliced over the skin of his fore arm, drawing blood. He yelped and jumped backwards. He flexed his forearm, it stung, but it was a superficial wound.

His confidence was waning. The gypsy was playing with him. Luck wouldn’t keep him alive this time. I need to buy Mictoria time... with that in mind, Calin charged at the man, swinging both blades down.

The man fell to his right knee almost touching it to the ground while bringing his sword up in a swift movement to block both of Calin’s blades over head.

The next moment the gypsy kicked under the clash with his right leg, connecting with Calin’s knee. The impact made Calin fall to his side. He struck the ground hard and his breath kicked up dust as he exhaled with the force. Pain had shot through his hip.

He tried to turn as fast as he could to make sure Ta-Reen doesn’t strike at him from behind.

But the traitor gypsy was already up, standing with a triumphant smile. “See?”

The traitor brought his sword up and struck down for the finishing blow.

Calin didn’t have the strength or the time to lift a sword to defend.

He had lost.

He closed his eyes as the sword came down on him. Pain surged through his collarbone all of a sudden, but the blade stopped and didn’t dig any deeper as a clash of metal made his body jerk.

His eyes flashed open.

To his right stood Mictoria grimacing with the extreme effort of holding Ta-Reen’s sword from digging further into Calin’s body. The traitor was gritting on his teeth trying to kill the boy below him, looking straight at Mictoria in a battle of will and strength.

With a jolt Calin kicked up with as much force as he could muster in the man’s stomach, sending the air whooshing out of him and sent the gypsy sprawling back to the ground.

Without wasting a second Calin jumped forward from his position and landed with his knee on Ta-Reen, slashing down with both his swords.

“DON’T!” Shouted Mictoria.

If it wasn’t for that shout, he would’ve killed the treacherous liar just there on the ground.

He stopped the momentum of his swords just above the gasping man. Fear shone in the gypsie’s dark eyes. Calin shifted the one sword into a piercing stance against Ta-Reen’s chest.

“Why should I spare him? You saw what he did.” Calin couldn’t stop the pain and anger to flow into his voice. It raged too violently within him. All he wanted was revenge, but he waited with gritted teeth over the man for Mictoria’s answer.

The woman’s soft hand came to rest on his shoulder and she caught his eyes.

“Don’t kill him,” She said in a calming tone, “Not you... Vengeance is a poison, a continuing circle that I rather have no one else live through.” She paused, and for a moment her eyes went hard and unreadable. “Especially not you, Nísir.”

Just as quick, her face softened as she continued, “Just look, it is done, we have won... it is not necessary to kill this man. He will be tried for an oathbreaker at our council, as will the others. We will see to it that he never again harms anybody, Nísir. Just don’t kill him like this. It’s not a scar you should bear.”

Calin breathed harder as he listened to Mictoria’s words. He looked around to see what was happening around him. There were three dead young gypsies on the traitor’s side and two from Mictoria’s company. A few injured were being tended to, but besides that, remarkably the rest of the traitor gypsies were already subdued and bound apart from two of the older gypsies who was nowhere in sight.

There had been an entire battle, and everything had gone by him.

Still, even with it over, Calin’s world was filled with despair as he glanced towards where Evany had disappeared and firmly looked at the pinned Ta-Reen. Rage flared in him again as he growled, lifting both the swords he slashed down with every ounce of power he had.

The shock of the swords digging into the ground, next to the man, didn’t shift Calin in the least as he glared with fury into the eyes of that man.

He screamed at the traitor and kicked the large sword away from the man’s reach.

The situation still affected Calin, his breathing erratic as he stared at Ta-Reen and then the silent Gates. Still, as he gulped in lungs full of air with his heaving chest, the last of his rage drained slowly from him. With a calming breath, he looked at Mictoria, his heart full of pain. Words forsook him, but in a soft voice he mouthed.“Thanks...” and walked away.

He grabbed his cloak and donned it, and trotted over towards Kara and Jerry. A scene of a woman weeping, over her son, gutted him. This had all been so unnecessary. For Ta-Reen to go so far just get hands on him... Such a waste of life...

Yet, it only made the reason why all the more mysterious.

Calin silently wondered what now.