Mercenary Little Death Bringer (12 page)

Now came the difficult part. There was a
small window fourteen feet above the ground, but it was nearly
impossible to reach unless you had someone else’s shoulders to
stand on and even then you had to jump up from their shoulders to
the ledge of the window and pull yourself up. Then you had to break
the window and pull yourself out without getting cut on the glass.
Fortunately I had broken the glass on accident when I was a toddler
when I had thrown a ball this direction while Favian and I were
playing outside. Later I had come down here and cleared out all of
the glass and had used this as a quick escape when Favian and I
were playing tag. I searched along the wall for the rope I’d tied
to the outside to crawl out, but of course they had removed it
before putting me inside.

I cursed angrily and searched around for
something useful within the cell. I came up with nothing as I had
expected. Favian had probably come down here himself and searched
everything and taken out the rope to ensure that I couldn’t escape.
I was very glad I had hidden the key without him knowing and very
glad I had never told him about it. I grabbed a rock and threw it
across the cell as hard as I could, hitting the cell door in my
anger. I heard yelling outside and stopped moving, afraid someone
had heard me throw the rock.

“Get your swords and shields!” Kato yelled,
“The boundary is being attacked.”

Attacked? Who would attack the elves?

“Squad one to the eastern section. Squad two
to the western. Squad three with me.”

“Who’s attacking us?” I heard Favian ask.

“Ogres. Hundreds of them,” Kato answered.

My blood boiled and I almost yelled to Favian
to get me out, but I bit my tongue. I hated ogres more than
anything else in the world. It was my goal in life to kill them
all. I didn’t care that they were technically a species like humans
and elves. They may have started off good, but over the past fifty
years they had turned evil and needed to die. I waited until I
heard them all move away from the window and then backed up ten
paces, which put my back against the cell door. I didn’t think I
could make it, but I had to. I had to get out. I had to fight. I
took a deep breath to calm myself and then ran forward as fast as I
could. I waited until the last second and then jumped up as high as
I could jump, higher than ever before. I reached with my fingers
and somehow managed to grab the window ledge.

I’d made it! I held in my scream of victory,
so that I wouldn’t alert them to my presence, pulled myself up
slowly and then peered out into the night. The window was at ground
level so I couldn’t see very much except grass and bushes, but it
seemed clear and I couldn’t hear anyone nearby. I reached forward
and pulled myself up and into the window and then out of the hole.
Thank goodness I was still thin or I would have never been able to
fit through the window. I stayed lying down as I looked around,
waiting for any change. Nothing. I jumped up and ran to the right,
hugging the wall of the castle as I neared the armory. There were a
couple of voices, but it sounded like it was only the blacksmith’s
assistants. They were big boys, but they were slow and I could grab
swords and run back out before they could catch me. Of course they
would immediately alert everyone to my escape, but I had to hope
that I could make it out of the main gate to fight the ogres before
they found me.

Fire burned within me, urging me on to
complete this mission. Where had this come from? Why did I feel so
energized? I waited until the blacksmith’s assistants’ backs were
turned and then ran into the armory, grabbed two swords and ran
out. “Wait!” They called. “Stop! You’re not supposed to fight!” I
ignored them and made a mad dash for the front gate. I ran passed
Kato just as the blacksmith’s assistants yelled, “Marin’s
escaped!”

I continued out of the gates, ignoring the
shocked shouts of the guards and then ran into the barrier. The
barrier pressed against me, trying to hold me inside its
boundaries. I growled in frustration and pushed against it as I
heard Kato and the guards closing in on me. I couldn’t let them
catch me. I had to kill the ogres! I screamed in anger and tore
through the barrier, running out onto the open road and stopped as
I came within sight of the ogres.

They were grotesque, fat, sloppy looking
beasts with mildew green skin, dirt brown eyes and stood over
fifteen feet tall. They were completely hairless and wore
loincloths to cover their genitals. They bared their teeth at me,
showing the few that remained and I could smell their foul stench
from one hundred yards away.

“Leave this place or die!” I yelled as my
fury ignited and a fire I hadn’t known lived within me spread
throughout my body.

“We’ve come to take you,” one of the ogres
said. “Come peacefully and we will not slaughter the elves.”

“The only ones about to be slaughtered are
you!” I screamed as I charged forward. The ogres screamed back at
me and the stench of their breath stole my breath away for a moment
before I plowed on and started hacking at them. Ogres were the only
beasts that made me lose control. They had killed my family when I
was a toddler. They killed innocent people and ate their bones.
They were murderous beasts and I had taken it upon myself to make
it my job to kill them. As I hacked off arms and heads my blood
boiled and a smile split my face. This was when I was truly happy.
This was the time I relished.

The ogres swarmed around me, but the only
thing they gained by their closeness to me was their death. Ogre
bodies piled up around me and their blood coated my swords and
splashed along my arms, chest and face. I finished off the twenty
that had been in front of the main gate and ran to the right,
towards the battle raging on the eastern side.

“Marin!” Cesar yelled at me, “Return to the
castle at once.”

I ignored his call. I only had one thing to
do. Kill the ogres. A group of elf soldiers stood between me and
the ogres. They didn’t see me because they were preparing to
confront the ogres in the other direction so I jumped up and did a
front flip over the top of the soldiers, landing on my feet in
front of them. Some of the soldiers gasped in shock while others
backed away. I sprinted forward and attacked the ogres before me,
ignoring the elves.

The sight of them falling before my blade was
intoxicating and I wanted more. I needed more ogres’ deaths! With a
swiftness I had not known I possessed until then, I slew the fifty
ogres on the eastern side in only a couple of minutes and then ran
on to reach the southern side. I rounded the corner and saw Favian
standing amongst the ogres, killing again and again, but there were
at least one hundred and fifty ogres and he was greatly
outnumbered. I smiled wide and ran into the swarm of beasts,
slicing and hacking and killing.

I heard Favian talking to me, but I ignored
him. I would not be denied this chance. I would not be denied this
opportunity to rid the world of so many ogres at once. I slew the
last ogre and dashed away before Favian could grab me from behind.
I could hear the elves behind me, following me, but they didn’t
matter. I reached the western side and was saddened to see only ten
ogres left alive, Kato’s blade having finished off the rest.

I ran forward and pushed Kato aside so that I
could finish the last of them. I killed nine of them quickly and
then faced off with the last one. He met my eyes and growled. “You
were supposed to come alive. You have killed too many of mine to be
allowed to live now though,” he said angrily.

“I will kill you all before I cease to exist
on this planet,” I told him, “I will rid the world of your putrid
existence.”

“If you think you are so tough then come at
me, little girl. Let me see what you can do with those blades.”

“Marin, stop,” Favian said from behind me.
“You need to calm down.”

“Please, Marin, listen to him,” Father
said.

“I do not listen to those who stand in the
way of my path, even if I love any of them. I do not listen to
those who would hold me back from my destiny,” I growled as I spun
around to face them. I felt abnormal. I felt taller and faster and
better than ever before. I felt amazing and yet the words that came
out of my mouth were foreign and yet seemed right. Where was all of
this coming from?

“What is your destiny?” Father asked.

I smiled. “You already know, don’t you King
of the Elves?” Father looked at me in bewilderment and then I heard
the ogre move behind me. I spun around in a perfect three hundred
and sixty degree turn, my arms out and my swords raised, slicing
his head off and sending it flying through the air. The ogre’s body
fell and I smiled. I felt a slight disappointment and said, “I have
killed them all. I only wish there had been more.” I turned around
and confirmed that there were no ogres left alive and then my
body’s energy disappeared and I fainted.

~~~~

CHAPTER SEVEN

I woke up in the healer’s quarters, strapped
to the bed. I sighed loudly. “Must we continue to tie me to
things?” I asked as I looked around for anyone.

Father and Favian walked inside the room and
stood facing me with matching worried looks on their faces. “How do
you feel?” Favian asked.

“I feel irritated. How come the barrier kept
me from leaving the Elven Kingdom?” I asked. “Why did I pass out
when I hit it?”

“That’s the last thing you remember?” Father
asked. “You remember running into the barrier and then nothing
else?”

I nodded my head. “Yes. Why? Did I do
something embarrassing?” I looked at Favian who looked paler than
usual.

The healer, a kind old female elf named Lila
with white hair which was always in a single long braid that hung
down her back walked inside the room. “How are you feeling?” she
asked me with a smile.

“Hungry and frustrated,” I replied.

Father whispered something into the Lila’s
ear and her eyes widened in shock. “She remembers nothing after
that?”

Father and Favian shook their heads. “What’s
going on?” I asked. “Why are you all acting like I did something
crazy?”

Favian sat down on the edge of my bed and
said, “You didn’t pass out from the barrier Marin. You broke
through it and fought the ogres.”

“I did?” I asked in shock. “Well, did I win?
I don’t feel any cuts of bruises.”

“Yes, you won,” he said with a smirk.
“Actually you defeated them all by yourself. You defeated over two
hundred ogres by yourself.”

I stared at him in disbelief and shock. “Why
don’t I remember it?” This was frightening to me. What if I had
gone crazy and attacked the elves? What if I had hurt Favian in my
trance?

Father shook his head. “I’m not sure. You
talked to us as well, but you were not yourself.”

“What did I say?” I asked.

“That’s enough. She must have suffered some
type of memory loss and we don’t want to push her too far,” Lila
said sternly.

“Why don’t I remember?” I asked myself. “Why
can’t I remember what happened?”

“Lila, undo her bonds,” Father said.

“Father!” Favian said in shock, “You can’t
let her go. She’ll return to the Academy.”

Father nodded his head. “Yes, she will and
that is exactly what she needs to do. It is clear that no matter
what we try she will escape. Besides, it is clear that she has a
destiny to complete.”

Favian’s jaw tightened. “She could be
kidnapped or killed.”

Father put his hand on his son’s shoulder.
“Then you had better return with her to protect her.” He stared
deep into Favian’s eyes and said, “We must not keep her from her
destiny.”

Favian glanced at me and then sighed. “I
understand.”

“I don’t!” I yelled. “Why are you acting like
you know of some destiny I have when I do not!”

“We don’t
know
your destiny, but we
know you have one,” Favian said, “He’s right that we can’t keep
someone from completing it. If we did you would end up resenting
us.” He gripped my arm, “And I could not live with myself if you
hated me.”

“Stay here for the night so that we can be
sure you’re alright and then tomorrow morning you can both head
back to the Academy. Deal?” Father asked.

My head was swirling with all of this
craziness. First the elves kidnap me and lock me in a dungeon and
then I kill over two hundred ogres by myself and cannot remember a
single event. I nodded my head to Father and stood up as soon as
Lila unstrapped me. I hugged Favian and then Father. “I know you
were trying to protect me, but you cannot keep me locked in a
dungeon. Thank you for understanding.”

“You’re welcome. And go easy on your Mother.
She only wants what is best for you.”

I smiled. “I know.”

I followed behind Favian and Father out of
the healer’s room and down the hall. I was about to follow Father
to the dining hall, but Favian pulled me to the side and stared at
me. “Are we okay?” he asked.

“Are you going to lock me up in the dungeon
again?” I asked.

He sighed. “No, but you must understand why I
did it?”

I nodded my head and hugged him. “Thank you
for caring so much about me. I was very mad when I was down there,
but whatever happened during that battle has really calmed me and
allowed me to see things more clearly.” Though I wished desperately
to remember that battle. How had I killed two hundred ogres by
myself? How was that possible?

“You truly frightened me,” he whispered as he
hugged me back. “I did not like seeing you that way. It wasn’t
you.”

“Now you know how I felt during our battle in
my trial.”

He sighed. “Let’s promise not to fight again,
okay?”

I pulled back from our hug, held out my hand
and he shook it. “Deal,” I said with a smile.