Chapter Forty Two
Trottingham; Plaza
Rarity
My mind locked down, and I couldn’t process what I was seeing. The few agonizing seconds between events each felt like a lifetime. First the sword, bloodied to a degree that it appeared to have been born that color, flipped out of her body cleanly. She began to fall backwards from Rytas, having no remaining balance. With his sword hand, he swiped at her with two fingers, and in one quick move removed the Icarus Charm from her neck.
At last, she hit the ground roughly, a stunned expression on her lifeless face, and the reality of the situation finally hit me. She’s dead... He killed her... All at once, everything snapped into focus, and all I could see was myself and Rytas. My grip on the rapier tightened, and I screamed his name in anger.
He turned, and looked genuinely surprised to see my small party. I expected the coward to look afraid of us, since we had ruined his plan, but instead he merely wore an expression of us being an inconvenience. I hadn’t met him many times before, but there was something in his eyes that I was sure wasn’t there before. Something was driving him this time, and it wasn’t his own selfish, sneaky desires anymore. His eyes seemed darker, his stance lower, his face more determined and deadly.
All the intimidation in the world couldn’t have stopped me then, though. He just killed my mother, and would pay with his own life for it. I was ready to charge, as were both Opal and Blake, but he spoke before any of us made a move:
“So, you pieced it together, did you? I must say, I think you made it here in record time, and for your effort, I congratulate you. Now, Blake.” He made a half step forward, but stopped when he saw all three of us respond in turn. “Is this the truth of it? You’ve elected to betray me now, to cast your lot in with your now orphaned, utterly doomed friend? Even when you know what is at stake here?”
I looked to Blake out of the corner of my eye. From the tone Rytas used, it sounded like he knew Blake knew more than he was letting on. Blake responded with strength he didn’t feel. “I’m not like you, dad. My thirst for power doesn’t get in the way of what’s right. I refuse to let you get away with such horrible ways of getting ahead in the world, and I won’t abandon my friends. Sure, I want power too. But when I get it... I’ll do it with my friends at my side.”
“Enough of this.” Opal said between clenched teeth. “You have no defense for what you’ve done now. We’ve all just seen you kill Cybel, and you’re going to pay for it!” Without bothering to wait for a response, she leapt at him with sword swinging. He parried with his own sword, jabbing at her with his elbow. She flinched back slightly, and Rytas took advantage of it, swinging wide from the side. His scimitar was parried with another: Blake jumped in and blocked, spinning to get behind him. Opal’s sword raised behind her, swinging in for an overhead strike.
Rytas moved faster, sticking his leg out and twisting to the side, kicking Blake clear off his feet. He rolled at the end, springing up right behind Opal, scimitar poised to strike. I made my move now- I ran up quickly, shield arm raised, and made a dive for Rytas’s sword arm. His back was turned to me, so he didn’t see me until I was almost on him. His sword pulled away just in time, but I got what I really wanted.
I sprung to my feet next to Blake, sword up behind me, the Icarus Charm hanging from my hand, reflecting the light from the afternoon sun. I held out my other hand to Blake, and helped him to his feet. Opal had sprung to her feet again and was keeping Rytas busy, so as one Blake and I nodded, and slipped on the two charms.
At first, there was no effect in mine, though Blake’s transformation was once again immediate. He jumped back into the fray, claws and sword blazing, leaving me alone. I had never used the charm in the past, so I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to feel, but I was sure it wasn’t nothing. I was about to remove it and shove it in my pocket, to just keep it safe and do without, when I began to feel a sharp pain in my back. It grew rapidly, and I dropped to my knees, the pain blinding. I couldn’t reach the spot on my back where it was coming from, but with a short cry it abruptly ended.
My heart raced when I opened my eyes, and saw myself silhouetted against the cobble street. To the sides of the shadow, the sunlight was beautifully distorted, pastel-y colors refracted onto the ground like shards of colored glass. I could scarcely move, but I did give an experimental twitch from my back, and I was thrilled to see the distortion move in response. It worked... I have wings!
I was pulled back to reality by the silence that had befallen the city. Indeed, it seemed only one fight was still going: Opals’ and Blake’s swords colliding with Rytas’s. All the other soldiers seemed to have retreated or gone to tend to their wounded, because while many still remained to watch the final fight, none of them were fighting each other any longer.
Tearing my gaze away from my new wings, I hefted the sword again and jumped into the combat, filled with new energy. I hadn’t learned to fly on the wings yet, so I was still on foot, but I still felt incredibly light and agile, and was able to move faster than I thought was possible. I thrust forward with my rapier, whipping it back quickly when Rytas made a move to block, and sliced around instead. The steel flashed past his guard and cut through his clothes, drawing blood.
The three of us kept him penned in, but he still wasn’t giving in any time soon. Even with the augmented strength and speed granted to two of us, he was still able to keep up and land just as many effective hits, and even while outnumbered he held his own. He fought with a rage and determination almost inhuman, but wasn’t invincible.
With a great spinning attack, he threw all three of us back, and I was launched high into the air. I soon ended up upside-down, and saw the ground rushing towards me. I uttered a silent cry, anticipating the impact ahead of me, but it never came. With a start, I realized that I was now hovering a foot off the ground, my wings keeping me bobbing gently. As soon as I was conscious of it, they stopped and I fell, but scrambled back up quickly.
Opal and Blake were pulling themselves to their feet, bruised and battered much worse than I was. Rytas stood alone in the center of the plaza, his scimitar a blur of silvery blue steel as it spun threateningly around him. None of his soldiers made a move to help him, but he didn’t seem to need it: he clearly had complete control of the situation, and the three of us would not be able to overcome him like this. His original plan had been shot to pieces, but he didn’t seem bothered by it any longer, and only sought to finish what he started.
I lifted the sword again, my tired arms yelling in protest, and inched closer to my enemy, the man who had killed my mother in cold blood. Seeing I was the only one left fighting, Rytas devoted his full attention to me, and the crowd watched as the two of us stared each other down. This was it. One of us wasn’t walking away after this.
Screaming his name, I leapt off my feet and let my wings carry me towards him. He wasn’t expecting me to launch at him like this, and he was only just able to block my first strike. I dropped to the ground an instant afterwards, and landed a successful slice at his legs. He kicked me away and dove at me, sword blazing behind him, and I rolled out of the way just as he swung at me. From my position on my side next to him, I thrust the sword right at his stomach, and grimaced as it sunk in.
Rytas screamed in rage and rolled to his feet, slamming me in the chest with his elbow in the move. I stumbled back from the impact, and wasn’t able to block in time as he swung the scimitar across my front. The small chest piece I wore saved me that time, but a bloody gash still formed on my right shoulder, and the pain made me drop my sword.
The demon didn’t slow down. Another strike sliced just under the chest plate, a stinging move just strong enough to draw blood. The hilt collided with my stomach, and I fell backward. He stood over me, pausing only half a second before finishing me, and in that moment I saw my life flash before my eyes. I did the only thing I could do now, and closed my eyes.
But instead of the sword coming down on my head, I heard Rytas cry out in pain. Did Opal or Blake recover enough to stop him? When I opened my eyes, he had staggered back a few paces, and was clutching the shaft of something sticking out of his shoulder. It was a simple wooden object, with feathers attached to the back and a spear tip atop, making it resemble a large arrow. But with the shaft too short in comparison, I knew it couldn’t have fired out of a bow. It looked more like a large throwing dart.
“Rytas...” A voice from behind me choked out, probably through clenched teeth. I doubted Rytas would be very interested in me any longer, so I risked a look back. Near the very vendor stand we had started at, mom’s lifeless body in his arm, crouched a man of about nineteen or twenty years. In his other hand was some kind of leather sling, hanging in the air above him, and I knew he was the one who threw the dart. His hair, an olive green shade, was short but shaggy, save for one lock hanging long over his right shoulder, and though his eyes were shaded, I could see the glint of tears on his face.
“Rytas!” He screamed, his voice beyond broken. In that moment, I knew true fear: this man’s rage seemed to fill the whole plaza, and the air seemed to shake with anger. Laying mom’s body against the wall with extreme gentleness, he stood and faced Rytas, who was beyond terrified. From his back the man pulled a long, double-headed spear, and gripped it with both hands.
Eyes still shaded, he stalked forward, mouth twisted in an enraged grimace. Rytas wasn’t an idiot, and backed away slowly, knowing he didn’t stand a chance against whoever this was. Wordlessly, the man jumped forward, spear swinging in insane arcs, and Rytas’s parrying sword soon flew away from his grip. The spear pulled back in slow motion, and in a heartbeat thrust forward, straight through all his armor and out the other side.
Time didn’t slow this time, like it had when mom was taken. The man only waited a second before pulling the spear back out, Rytas’s limp body collapsing to the street, blood pooling around him. No one else moved, only stared with eyes wide at the event we had just witnessed. For a moment, I thought the threat had passed- Rytas was gone, thanks to this stranger, and we were safe.
All that came crashing down when he spoke again, his voice shaking. He addressed the crowd as a whole, none of whom knew what to do. “I’ll make you all pay for what you’ve done... I’m going to wipe house Leo clean off the face of the earth for taking Cybel away from me!”