Extinguish
Between the aquatic mountain and Sangfoul
before the attack
A fire burned in Evanshade’s heart as he lined up with his fellow soldiers, preparing to attack Tao at the mountain’s other side.
But his hatred was not directed at Tao or any of the freed Meridian slaves, serving as a pitiful makeshift army.
Rather, the hatred in Evanshade’s soul was directed at himself and his people. And it wasn’t hatred for what they had become, but instead, for what they had always been.
But have we truly always been this? he thought. Or were we born different? Did we have different souls at birth and chose to be murderous at heart? He stared down at his tailfin, something he knew he had been born with. But a tailfin didn’t make him a serpent, did it? And serpents weren’t evil unless they chose to be.
Malistour swam up behind Evanshade, startling him as he spoke. “What of your wife, Evanshade? Has she been felled by some unknown ill?” A clumsy grin crept across the massive man’s face.
Evanshade gritted his teeth, clenching his double bladed trident in his hands. “You know very well what has become of her and my child. Do not goad me, Malistour.”
“You have taken their lives then? Very well! I did not know if you still had it in you!” Malistour swam away quickly to inspect the rest of his warriors, but not before etching a shallow slice in Evanshade’s back with his trident.
He stared ahead, unflinching as he nullified the pain with thoughts of Illala and Equilious.
Venge float in the waters beside him, adorned in black spiked armor. He laughed at Evanshade’s expense. “You should never have kept that wench!” Venge smiled his grin of sharpened, pointed teeth. “Why would you take in one of a lesser race? It’s like fucking with one of the slaves!” He laughed wickedly again.
Evanshade yearned to run him through right there and then, but he knew that if he did, Venge’s father would have his head for it. Dealing with both of them would have to wait.
But if loving Illala makes me lesser in their eyes, then I am proud to be who I am, he thought. And then, after a few moments, something else came to his thoughts. If I was born as sin-filled as my people are, Illala has helped me to become a better being than that. He bickered with himself in his own mind. But if I am truly a better person, then why am I accompanying my people in attacking Tao? I should have left with Illala when I had the chance.
Daylight faded from the water, then lightened again, as Evanshade looked down at the trident in his hands. Whose blood will spill upon this weapon before day’s end? he thought.
Malistour burst through the crowd behind Evanshade, his massive tail whipping and beating against the warriors he passed. “May the blood of all legged creatures spill upon our weapons this day!” Malistour shouted as he charged up the mountain before them, rising quickly toward its peak. “May the blood and flesh of our enemies wither in our hands!”
Malistour’s army charged up the mountainside behind him, Evanshade and Venge at their lead.
To Evanshade, Malistour’s body looked like a massive half-shark, half-whale as it curved and dipped over the mountain’s peak. Soon Evanshade followed Malistour with Venge and led the rest of the army in their wake.
Tao and his makeshift group were barely visible now, at the bottom of the mountain before them. They bustled back and forth as they saw Malistour leading the overwhelming army toward them, caught unawares by the attack.
The tailfinned people of Sangfoul blanketed the mountainside as they swept down.
“Spare no life!” Malistour boomed back to his followers behind him, before charging into the group of legged creatures. He stabbed one Meridian through the heart, then twisted another man’s head clear of his shoulders with his other hand. With a spin of his trident he sliced off the legs of two other men, and they writhed as they sank to the depths below. “Is this what you bring me, Tao?” he laughed deeply.
Evanshade watched close by as he dueled with another freed Meridian slave. He attempted not to injure the man while keeping his own body from harm. Meanwhile, Tao dueled with two Sangfoul warriors not far away, and for a second seemed to meet his eye.
No, he wasn’t looking at him, but rather, Venge.
“Come to me, coward!” Tao called to Venge as he stabbed one of his attackers in the shoulder, causing him to retreat. “You murdered my son, but now I come for you. Today you will pay for my son’s death!”
Venge grinned, flashing his sharp teeth. “Palistaise!” he yelled to Tao’s other opponent. “Let the old man through. Today the father will also die at my hands!”
Tao’s second opponent swerved and swam off to attack another close by.
Unhindered, Tao bolted for Venge, as his comrades were skewered and beheaded all around. Screams echoed through the depths, as the waters turned bloody with slaughter once more.
“No!” Malistour grabbed Tao’s neck with his massive fist and ripped the man’s trident from his hands. “You are mine, Tao!” He bent Tao’s legs behind his back, and cracked his spinal cord in half, before raising Tao high above his head. The man’s legs hung limp beneath him and he screamed inaudible noises into the water. “You dare to attack me? You may have bested Evanshade in Meridia, but here you die!” Malistour stretched Tao out before him, swept his massive tailfin up, before finally slamming it down to slice Tao’s torso in half.
Blood spit into the water.
Bile churned in Evanshade’s stomach as he watched Tao’s hate-riddled eyes roll in the back of his head, his severed body floating down to the ocean floor.
“Kill them all!” Malistour shouted.
The warriors of Sangfoul slaughtered the remainder of the Meridians and Banealians in Tao’s group in what seemed to be a breath. Screams echoed all about the mountain wall, and then silence filled the depths.
Malistour grinned while wiping crimson blood from the tips of his trident. “Is that all the fight Meridia and Baneal have to offer?” He spun and peered around in hopes that he would find a survivor somewhere that he could bloody his trident on once more. “I did not think much, but I thought better of them than that!” He turned to his son. “Venge! Come to me!”
Venge dove to his father’s side quickly.
“Where is this second group you discovered? I do not see them!”
Venge’s tongue swirled behind his sharpened teeth as he spoke. As arrogant as he was, he bowed to his father as he replied. “I do not see them either, father. They must be hiding on the seafloor in the distance or in one of the series of caves and tunnels which surround Sangfoul.”
A light flickered in Malistour’s eyes. “Perhaps I have spoken too soon! They may not put up a fight, but it appears we have a hunt on our hands! This day could yet prove interesting!” He thrust quickly upward with his tailfin so that he could better address his people. “Search all the waters beyond this mountain and the caves and tunnels those waters lead to! There is yet a group of Meridians and Banealians we have not slain, and I wish to have their heads by nightfall!”
The warriors of Sangfoul stilly watched their leader.
“What are you waiting for? Find them! Report here when you discover where they are!”
Quick as they could, the warriors of Sangfoul scurried into groups and swam off to hunt their second group of prey.
Evanshade led a group of three. Neither of his companions was experienced or warriors he had known before. That was fine because he knew that if they did happen to come upon Illala and the others, he would have to sacrifice their lives to keep them quiet.
Only Malistour and Venge waited behind.
Once Evanshade’s trio had swam beyond earshot Malistour spoke as quietly as he could to Venge. “Follow Evanshade,” he instructed his son. “I do not trust him. He knows things he has not shared.”
“Yesss, father,” Venge hissed through his teeth. “If he deceives us, his blood will be mine.”
35