Give the Devil His Due (The Sanheim Chronicles, Book Three) (54 page)

“It’s over,” Quinn said, looking down. “We surrender.”

*****

Kate barely dodged the blow from Carman’s spear, ducking out of the way at the last moment.

Her mind was a whirlwind of activity. She could see Quinn approaching Sanheim and knew Quinn’s plan was simply to delay him as long as possible to buy them more time. She thought it would work, knowing how much their nemesis loved to gloat.

But she could also see Parker struggling against the mass of trowes and caorthannach that seemed about to overrun his band of spiders. She watched as one of the tree-like creatures spat fire at a spider, engulfing him in flames.

The sound of gunshots filled the air. She saw a man bayoneting a dusio through its chest, only to be struck from behind by a mortlat.

Kate caught another blow from Carman on her shield, a grim realization in her head.

We’re not going to last much longer,
she thought.

“Come on and fight me,” her opponent yelled. “I can see your heart isn’t really in it. Have you given up already?”

Kate hadn’t given up, but she was distracted. She kept waiting for their reinforcements to arrive. How much time did Clinton and Carol need? She worried whether everything had gone according to plan or if something had happened to them.

She saw Carman aim her spear, but couldn’t move out of the way fast enough. A jet of green fire hit her full force, sending her flying into the air. She had become more practiced at responding to it, however. Even as she flew backward, she regained her balance and landed on her feet. As Carman ran toward her, Kate let out a piercing scream aimed only at her opponent.

The force of it knocked Carman back, but she concentrated and her mental shield appeared. Kate thought about ordering some soldiers to fire at her while the shield was up, but there were precious few men left around her and they were all otherwise engaged.

Kate tried to keep screaming, but she was drained. As soon as she stopped, Carman rushed at her again, attempting to jam her spear into Kate’s gut. Kate caught it on her shield and counter-attacked, but Carman deflected the blow.

Their fight was emblematic of the larger struggle. No matter how she tried, Kate couldn’t find an advantage. She had improved at sparring with Carman, but the two of them were evenly matched. By now, they had also learned each other’s tricks.

In her mind, she heard Quinn confront Janus about spying on them. She thought Quinn was in danger of overacting.

Carman tried to level another blast, but Kate brought up her shield in the nick of time. The spell rebounded off the shield, hitting a kelpie nearby.

“Why don’t you just give up already?” Carman taunted. “Beg for mercy before Lord Sanheim. I’m sure he would enjoy listening to your pleas.”

“That will never happen,” Kate said. “We will never surrender.”

Hold on for just a little while longer,
Kate thought to Quinn, and she prayed they hadn’t already run out of time.

Carman took advantage of Kate’s apparent distraction. In a movement as quick as lightning, she suddenly swept at the banshee’s legs. The move caught Kate off guard. She fell down and landed in the dirt.

Carman was on top of her in an instant, kicking Kate’s sword away with her foot. Her other foot stepped down on Kate’s shield arm, pinning it to the ground. Carman aimed her spear carefully at Kate’s head. A green light surrounding the spear glowed brighter and the witch looked ready to finish off her enemy for good.

Yet she looked unnerved to stare down and find the banshee smiling at her.

Kate had heard the call in her mind just a few seconds earlier.

Kate?
Carol thought.
I’m sorry it took so long. But we’re ready. We’re in position.

Order the retreat,
Kate thought to Elyssa, Buzz and Parker. They had already started to move, anticipating what was about to happen.

A second later, Kate felt a rejuvenating surge of energy from the followers Carol had brought her. The power spread through her weary body even as she lay on the ground.

As Carman loomed over her and prepared the killing blow, Kate opened her mouth and screamed.

Carman was totally unprepared, clearly thinking her moment of triumph was at hand. Kate watched as blood started gushing from Carman’s ears and nose. Her eyes became bloodshot and she seemed to have trouble seeing. Carman tried to fire off a bolt of energy, but no longer appeared to have enough concentration to mutter the spell.

Kate stopped screaming, but the witch stood in a daze. The banshee grabbed the spear from Carman’s hands and turned it around.

Quinn?
Kate thought at him as she watched him kneel in front of Sanheim. What their nemesis couldn’t see, of course, was that Quinn was smiling too.
The cavalry has arrived.

Carman seemed immobilized. While Kate still lay on the ground, she jammed the spear through the witch’s throat.

*****

Sanheim felt Carman’s death immediately, staggering backward as if he’d been hit by a hammer in the chest. The audience around them reacted in confusion and distress. Sanheim momentarily went to his knees just as Quinn was rising to his feet.

The grin on Quinn’s face grew wider.

“You know what? I’ve changed my mind,” Quinn said, looking around at the startled crowd.

Sanheim looked up with rage on his face.

“You killed her,” he said. “That’s not possible. That can’t happen.”

“It is and it did,” Quinn said. “But that’s not even the best part.”

Sanheim’s confusion registered on his face. There were murmurs in the crowd. Only Janus seemed to share Quinn’s glee.

“This changes nothing,” Sanheim said. “My armies will still beat you.”

“Take another look,” Quinn said.

He pointed to the thick forest on the far side of the battlefield, well behind the enemy’s position. A solitary, familiar figure emerged from the line of trees.

Sanheim looked with surprise from the figure to Quinn.

“I don’t understand,” he said in confusion. “How can that be?”

More figures emerged from the forest. At first there were a dozen, then twenty or thirty more. Soon hundreds began to pour out of the cover of the forest, gathering into formation.

“So many,” Sanheim said softly. “Kyle Thompson only had a few hundred scarecrows. Where did you find these?”

“You should study more U.S. history,” Quinn said. “It was Kate who reminded me of the battle, but I’ve always enjoyed the story. In the face of an overwhelmingly superior force in Chancellorsville, Virginia, Robert E. Lee did the one thing a general should never do. He divided his army.”

“No,” Sanheim said. “You never said anything to Janus. I would have known.”

Quinn and Janus smiled at each other.

“Nicely played,” Janus said to him. Quinn took a small bow.

“Thanks for managing a few warnings,” Quinn replied. “The Lando reference clinched it.”

Janus laughed.

“It was the best I could do,” Janus said.

“I interrogated him,” Sanheim said. “No one can lie to me!”

“Oh, he told you everything we told him,” Quinn replied. “But you wouldn’t understand his movie references even if he told you. I admit it took me a while to clue in that you were using him. Janus told me several times about a girl — he made a point of it. You don’t think I know how you work? Why send Janus to help me in the first place? Because you knew I would trust him implicitly. You even made sure he ‘saved’ me from the burning pit. I wonder if anyone even goes into that pit or if it’s all there for show. Anyway, once I figured out Janus was working for you, we kept critical information from him. By the time we planned the battle, I told him only what I wanted you to hear.”

Sanheim stared at the two of them in shock and then turned back to watch the battlefield. The figures from the forest were now in battle lines, thousands of them arrayed together. They galloped forward at the same moment, descending into the valley below.

“I sent nearly half my force away so they could meet up with Carol and flank your army,” Quinn said.

“It was scarecrows,” Sanheim said in barely a whisper. “It was supposed to be a few hundred scarecrows.”

“Yes, but scarecrows aren’t my thing,” Quinn said. “I gave Carol the power to change them into something else, something closer to my heart. I made them what has haunted and fascinated me since I was a boy.”

Even after Carman’s death, Sanheim’s army was still pressing its attack, trying to destroy what it thought were the last remaining elements of Kate’s soldiers. They didn’t hear the pounding hooves behind them until it was too late.

The figures were all dressed exactly alike, their cloaks flying out behind them as they charged. Even from the castle, Quinn could hear the sound of blades being drawn as one in a single moment. Some of the enemy heard it too. They turned around and began screaming.

Quinn watched as thousands of Headless Horsemen descended on the enemy army in a fury.

Chapter 43

It was beyond a defeat; it was a rout.

The enemy still outnumbered their attackers, but when thousands of Horsemen descended upon them, it no longer mattered. Buzz watched his old axiom come true right before his eyes. If Sanheim’s troops had gathered their strength, they might have been able to fight them off. But the mental game was lost. The sight of so many demons bearing down on them sent most of the enemy into a blind panic. They had seen the damage just one Horseman could do; now he was multiplied more than ten thousand fold.

Some enemy soldiers were cut down as they tried to fight. Others were trampled as they attempted to flee. Buzz saw Parker shoot a web after one trowe trying to get away, then watched his own soldiers rallying forward in a final advance.

In rapid succession, the enemy regiments broke down and then disintegrated entirely. Most of the creatures on the field became far more concerned with getting away than fighting.

Finally, some realized their fate and began to raise their hands in the air. The remaining caorthannach raised their twig-like arms; the kelpies leaned on the ground. All of them looked terrified at what would happen, but once a few started, a movement quickly spread.

Soon all who weren’t trying to run away had surrendered.

The battle was over. Against all odds, Kate and Quinn’s army had won.

Buzz watched Kate lean over Carman’s body, ensuring she was truly dead. He approached her.

“We won,” he told her.

Kate turned to him, a banshee covered in the blood of her enemy.

“Yes,” she said. “But this fight isn’t quite over.”

She looked up to the castle.

“Quinn’s up there?” he asked.

She nodded.

“I need to go,” she said. “I need to help him.”

“Go,” he said. “I’ll manage things here.”

Kate turned to leave, but Buzz put a hand on her shoulder.

“It was an honor,” he said.

Kate hugged him, apparently forgetting she looked hideous as the banshee. Buzz didn’t mind, though.

“The honor was all mine,” she said.

“There’s one more thing,” he said when they stepped apart.

He looked around the battlefield. He saw a few points of resistance as a few die-hards tried to fight on. But mostly, he saw enemy creatures standing still with their arms up or on their knees.

“What do you want me to do with them?” he gestured.

“Kill them,” came a voice from behind them.

Buzz was unsurprised to see Elyssa there.

“You leave them alive, they’ll always be a threat,” Elyssa said. “You’ve won the battle, now win the war. Finish these creatures off. No one will dare to oppose you again.”

“You know, I’m almost glad to hear you say that,” the banshee said. “I don’t know what the future holds, and you might be right. If we leave them to live another day, they might turn on us later. But I won’t go down that path again. I won’t make the same mistake twice.”

She turned toward Buzz.

“Let them surrender and treat them well,” she said. “You can put guards on them, but I want everyone to know: they are not to be harmed.”

“You’re making a mistake,” Elyssa said.

“Maybe,” Kate said. “But I won’t begin my life here by slaughtering those who have surrendered.”

Buzz nodded in agreement.

“I’ll make sure they’re safe,” he said.

Buzz watched as thousands of Headless Horseman raced by. In a flash of light, the banshee turned back into Kate again. She put her fingers to her lips and whistled. One of the Horseman turned back and rode toward her. It didn’t look any different from the others, but somehow Buzz could tell it was Carol. Buzz reached up and clasped her hand for a moment. Then Kate climbed on the back of her horse. She nodded at Buzz and Elyssa.

“Please take me to the castle,” Kate said. “I have a god to fight.”