Immortal Betrayed
the sequel to breath of the immortal
Chapter 9
"Well, well, I see Lel has returned to join the fun!" Didier mocked, low enough for only Tiana and Patia to hear him.
"When this is over, I will see you dead!" Patia gritted through her teeth.
"When this is over, my dear, I will show you what a real man can do!" he breathed into her ear, making her shiver.
"Leave my sister alone, Didier!" Tiana warned defensively.
"What's wrong, moncherrie, afraid of the competition?" he moved his attention to her, blowing lightly in her ear.
"This is your fault we have to stand here and fight these — these things! I hope one of them kills you before I get a chance to seek my own penance on you!" Tiana spat, shrugging him away.
"You'll find it in your heart to forgive me," he smiled. "Especially with him on the way!" he leaned over and touched her stomach. Tiana looked down and placed her hand over his, almost in tears.
"I'd rather see him ripped out from inside me than see the day that he grows up like you!" she eyed him angrily.
Although the rest of the clan didn't bother to notice, Tiana was carrying a child, presumably Didier's. It didn't matter to her now whether the child lived or died because Didier had betrayed her more than she had ever imagined. She knew the truth about her past, his past and it killed her inside to keep that secret. Her great-great-great grandmother bore a child from this evil man (according to stories, he did not survive past the age of three), and he also had his hand in her father's death (along with Syeira's help), so she had every reason to want him out of her life now.
Straining in the dawn light to look out across the grassy meadow at the line of beasts facing her, she knew today would be her last. She knew that her sister needed the chance to grow and mature and lead their clan, better than she ever could in the past. They needed a leader they could respect and trust- two things she had lost in her troubled state of mind and her trysts with Didier. Today she would do whatever it took to keep her sister alive and safe, even if it meant sacrificing her own life and that of her unborn child.
Tiana grabbed her sister's hand, which had ironically been looking for hers. They exchanged a look of many meanings- compassion, love, fear and strength. Tiana took a deep breath before speaking to only her sister.
"I want you to know that whatever happens to me this day, you will be the one to lead our clan to victory and safety."
"But—"
"I am sorry for all the pain I have brought down on us and I was foolish to continue to love a man who did not love me in return. I should have listened to you before any of this happened and I know that you always had our clan's best interest at heart. Can you ever forgive me?"
Patia embraced her sister and whispered into her ear. "I forgive you. I have always forgiven you. You just needed time to forgive yourself. Why didn't you tell me about the baby?"
"I didn't think you needed more pressure on you to protect me."
"Nothing will happen to you today," Patia concluded, looking into her sister's eyes.
As unsure of that statement as she was, Tiana tried to remain calm, for her sister's sake anyway. She nodded her head and watched her solemnly as she stood tall to face the clansmen. Tiana had watched her father prepare this same speech many times; she herself had recited it; and now she listened for what she knew was the last time.
"What we are about to face is a giant, an evil so fierce it must be defeated for the safety of our clan. Fight with strength, with steel, and with honor and we will prevail!"
The clansmen beat their swords against their shields so forcefully, the sound soon drowned out the wind. Didier had to hold his ears because with his acute sense of hearing, the sound echoed louder than he could handle. Slowly, he slipped back behind the front line of warriors, making sure he was far enough away that the sound stopped ringing in his ears.
* * * * *
On the far side of the open meadow, close to the glen, the line of lycans grew larger and larger. To the sound of their own anger, they prepared for battle. Lel tried again to strain his neck to see what was happening but he found the pain too much for him. He crooked his neck to the side though when Armand approached him, smiling as if he had been given the best news of his life.
"Did you want to see them die? I can move you around so you can watch them all be killed one by one!"
"I'd rather see you die trying!" Lel countered, his anger getting the best of him again.
"You'll be sorry you said that!" he growled. He walked over to one of the guards. "Let him go!"
"Are you serious, Armand?!"
"Let him go, and give him a head start," he smiled. "Once he thinks he's going to escape change his mind!"
The guard quickly obeyed, getting to work at untying Lel's hands and feet and letting his body fall to the ground with a painful thud. Lel cried out as some of his wounds were reopened when they scraped against the ground. While attempting to get up, the guard kicked him in the stomach, causing him to fall back down again and clutch his body, writhing in pain.
"No!" Armand shouted. "Let him go back to his clan! They will save him!" he smiled slyly.
Lel got himself up, leaned on the same pole that he was strung up on for support, and started to walk slowly towards the clan. Every few feet or so he would stop, look back, wince in pain, and shift his weight before moving again. At one point, he fell and Patia attempted to run to him, but Tiana grabbed her arm and held her back, knowing that if she ran, the lycans would attack. Lel looked up and caught Patia's eye as he pulled himself up slowly, but just as he had gotten himself to his full upright stance, a lycan attacked him from behind, quicker than anyone could have foreseen.
"No!" Patia screamed, racing towards him, not allowing her sister to hold her back this time.
In a rush of anger and strength, the clansmen rushed onto the open field, their battle cry being heard louder than the rumble of the mountain behind the glen. The lycans returned the cry, racing in for a counterattack. Tiana tried to keep the lycans away from her sister but they attacked from all sides, almost circling the small clan, and knocking her to the ground. Out of no where, Didier came to her aid, beheading one or two as they approached her.
"Cut off their heads! It's the only way to kill them!" he screamed, turning around to slice at another. Grabbing her hand, he helped her to her feet, and when she regained her footing again, she took the blade in both hands and slashed out at one of them, cleanly slicing its head from its body. She quickly made her way back over to her sister, who was desperately trying to protect Lel at all costs.
"Get him back to the village!" she cried out.
"But what about you?" her sister protested as Tiana blocked another blade from slicing down on top of them.
"I'll be fine! I'll follow you back and make sure you get there safely!" she shouted back.
They both got Lel safely to his feet and leaning on Patia's shoulder and the pole for support. Tiana was able to fend off anything that tried to attack them as they made their way through the fighting. When they had gotten themselves a safe distance behind their clan's line of defense, Tiana stopped and turned to face her sister.
"I've got to go back," Tiana spoke softly to her.
"Please don't go," her sister begged her.
"Make sure Lel survives! Take him to the medicine man and get his wounds bandaged up as quickly as possible!" she ordered her sister as she turned and headed back to the front line.
Lel tried to speak. "She won't survive."
"Don't say that! She will live and so will the child she carries!'
"What?!" he mustered, hurting himself in the process.
"I'll tell you about it later. Let's just see what the medicine man can do about those wounds."
* * * * *
"Tiana! Look out behind you!" a clansman shouted to her just as a lycan attacked from the side.
Didier did his best to pull the beast off of her but another attacked him from behind. Clansmen fought to the best of their abilities, beheading as many of them as they could within reach, but there were just too many. Tiana tried to counter the attacks, slashing her blade out into the air, when it suddenly collided with Armand's, throwing her off-balance and knocking her down.
"So you're the one we were told about!" he smiled at her, holding his blade firmly at her chin.
"I hope you were told that I would be the one to kill you!" she replied, slowly getting up, her blade face down in her hand and his still at her neck.
"Ha!" he replied.
He pulled his sword back and sliced through the air effortlessly, colliding with hers, which she had poised and ready. The force of the impact sent her blade careening through the air, landing several yards away, in the middle of most of the action taking place around them. Under normal circumstances Armand may have allowed her to retrieve it, but today he was ready to kill, not fight for sport. Didier saw her in trouble from the corner of his eye and raced to her side as fast as he could but another lycan attacked from the side, catching him off-guard and tackling him to the ground. They wrestled for a few minutes before Didier came out the victor of the fight.
He watched as Armand stared Tiana down, pointing his blade again at her throat. "For a mighty clanswoman you are nothing but a pathetic gypsy girl!"
"You mock me with only words! Why don't you just kill me then instead of wasting your breath?!" she challenged.
"Very well," he sighed, pulling back the blade and thrusting it towards her body. As if in slow motion, she shifted her body to the right, the blade missing her shoulder by inches. She spun around quickly, striking him in the back of the head with her fist as hard as she could, knocking him out cold. Crying out in pain and shaking her fist, she watched him collapse to the ground, just as Didier had reached her side.
* * * * *
"I have to get back and fight," Lel argued, trying desperately to get up. Patia gently pushed his body back down again and simply shook her head.
"Shh, just lie still and let the medicine man's herbs heal. You don't want to reopen the wounds anymore."
"Patia, may I talk to you for a minute?" the medicine man asked, ushering her outside.
"I'll be right back," she said, softly kissing Lel's forehead. "What's wrong?" she asked when they were far enough away from Lel that he couldn't hear.
"He has lost a lot of blood and he has been scratched severely on his body," he solemnly confirmed.
"Will he live?" she gulped, not sure she wanted to hear the answer.
"He will but I can't tell yet the extent of the damage."
Just then Lel stood in the entranceway, bracing himself against its frame. Before he collapsed, Patia ran up the steps to catch him and allowed him to lean on her shoulder for support. She led him carefully back to the bed and helped him lie down, taking great care not to touch his wounds. When he was situated, she simply laughed at his incessant impulse to continue to play the hero.
"You've got to lie still or you won't heal!" she scolded, pouting at him.
"I should be out there helping with the fight, not lying here unable to move!" he argued again.
"You nearly died! Stop playing the hero and lie still! You'll reopen your wounds and bleed to death!"
Garridan ran up the steps and burst into the hut, out of breath and panting like a dog, interrupting their lovers' quarrel. "The… mountain… is exploding!" he was able to get out.
Patia looked up at Lel, worry on her face. "We've got to get everyone out of the village!"
"What can I do?" Garridan asked after finally catching his breath enough to speak.
"Carefully round up the rest of the clan and get them onto the boats," she ordered, the feeling of being in charge giving her new strength.
"The boats?!" Lel cried, wincing in pain as he tried to get up again.
"We've got nowhere else to go but the sea! If we retreat inland, we'll be attacked for sure!" she argued.
"Then to the sea it is!" Garridan replied with fervor, racing out of the hut to do as he was told.
"We have to make sure Tiana remains alive," Lel commented, causing Patia to turn to face him.
"She'll survive. If there's one thing she's unruly good at it's surviving," she replied.
"Help me up. I think I'm ok to go back," he demanded.
"You are in no condition to go out there and get yourself killed!" she tried to protest, but miraculously he got up from the bed and steadied himself to walk to the entrance to the hut.
"I feel fine," he replied, looking back at her. "I'll return with your sister. Besides, if what you said was true, her child must be protected, for the father's sake as well!"
"But—" but before she could protest and explain things better to him, he was gone.
"I think you have found your answers, child," the medicine man replied, placing a protective hand on her shoulder. Patia did not want to believe for a minute that Lel was the father of her sister's baby but all she could do was fight the anger and the tears.