The Mercenary's Valkyrie: Book One

Hades

The black orbs that were once the Captain's eyes now held no sign of humanity. Dark energy had begun wrapping itself around her body in smokey claws. There was no more time for reasoning, no more time for anything–

Her hands raised Thanatos above her head before it came crashing down. An arc of pure darkness shot forward in a spear of smoke and death. I rolled away moments before it sliced clean through the corner of a stone building like it was cheese.

I filled my own hands with bright white energy and sent quick sparks firing towards the dark captain closer to the underworld than this realm... The shield greedily sucked in the energy and wrapped her in yet more blackness. Think, think, thin–

The blackness came for me now in a creeping wave of darkness. If I cannot use energy on her then perhaps I'm aiming for the wrong target... I called bright thick bolts into my hands before sending them crashing onto the wooden pier that docked her ship and herself...

It exploded into splinters and embers before dropping her out into the ocean below. For moments no sounds arose. I edged closer with two damandium blades drawn. The only sounds were that of the crew of bears rushing to finalise the ship for travel.

Then a hand grabbed my ankle. I flinched to wrench away but could not. Blackness crawled rapidly up my leg, my torso, my arms... I felt my limbs and body go ice cold, to empty, to weightless.

Enough. I drove both blades down into the arm that gripped me and buried them deep into her forearm. No scream followed. Not even a pained expression. She grinned savagely through the blackness and ripped us both upwards into the night air, we sailed a few dozen feet into the night before she yanked both blades out of her arm and sank them into my legs.

I screamed louder than I had ever caught myself. They felt coated in liquid fire, in a lethal poison, in a total relentless agony I fell back to the ground. I crashed onto the stone hard. My immortal power the only thing keeping the fall from killing me... my head span for the second time this night and I couldn't even send the thought to make my legs move. Damandium is meant for killing immortals... I was hardly half of one.

I grit my teeth and glared up at the captain as she moved  with that lethal grace. The predator dropped into a crouch with blackness rolling off her in waves.

"Tayah, my sweet. I am afraid this is where your life changes."

I spat out blood before baring my teeth, "Did no one ever tell you that monologues kill more painfully than the blade?"

She let out a cruel laugh.

"None had the honour but you my apprentice."

"Your–what." I demanded.

"A woman of your reputation knows that one doesn't incapacitate in battle without reason. If I wanted you dead my dear, you would be well on your way to the birthplace of this magnificent artefact." She murmured in a silky voice. But it was only repulsive when partnered with depthless eyes.

"The relic must have heightened your insanity." I got out through the pain of the blades still very inside my legs.

As if just noticing, her eyes flicked down and she let out an empty laugh.

"Where are my–" She yanked them out.

I screamed loudly enough to send sound to the far waves.

"–manners." She finished unbothered.

Sounds rose from behind as guards had been alerted  to our battle at last. Pikemen and bowmen in light leathers and white tunics ran towards the pier by the dozen, but the Bear Clan were already taking protective formation in front of us.

She tutted before me, drawing in her face closely. She drew up my chin in her hand, "The things I do for you." She murmured before dropping a nod and watching crossbows and throwing knives from the Bears find their targets in immaculate accuracy.

I growled deeply at her.

"I love when you purr for me." She whispered, as she drew her hand away. "Kill them all." She called dismissively. "We leave when the last man falls." She drew to her feet and strode down the remaining half of the pier with her dark cloak swaying behind. "Oh, and do bring my beloved little half-immortal." She called over a darkly cloaked shoulder.

My eyes snapped to the colossal man with scars running across his cheeks with death in them. He did not hesitate. I let out a shout in pain as he ripped me from my prone and bloodied position and threw me over his shoulder. The bleeding had lessened since the blades were away but my power could do nothing more for the immortal wounds.

"You follow a monster, are you aware or just spineless?" I spat.

Silence from the dark rock. Nothing but the fading number of city guard dying at the blows and arrows of a lethal crew. He kept up  a swift pace up the boarding plank. The giant black sails were ready to be lowered and the deck all but clear for departure.

A horn rang out at the head of the ship and the hulking black figures returned from the fight in a swift retreat. My vision was then cut short as a door was closed behind us and he stomped down the narrow but decadent wooden hall. A lock turned and he strode into a room with a large ornate bed and plush rugs. He dropped me onto it in a heap and I resisted the urge to cry out. I hadn't kept track of how much blood had left me.

"What am I doing here! Where is the captai–"

The door slammed. Leaving me wounded. Alone. Outnumbered and on a ship with a destination that was unknown. How would the others find me now?

Despite everything my greatest anxiety was that the Valkyrie lay somewhere drained of power. She wasn't wounded, didn't seem to be when I had left her in the protection of a coughing John and Kaden. My feelings for her spiked cold to run through me considering her too weak to return to her normal self. She did not hesitate in giving me far more of her than necessary. Not a moment. Was that really required of the Valkyrie? Did she give herself like this when helping another mortal ascend? It felt like I knew the answer. The moments we had shared. The spark in her eyes when I teased or flirted with mischief. I even caught hidden smirks between loud and rude conversations with John or Kaden. She was always a guardian, a protector and potentially... I couldn't form the last thought. I had it locked away for so long I could not draw down those walls.

The boys were smart, they would hunker down and lie low. Standard procedure for our group as we ran into trouble. The Valkyrie all but helpless in the scorched continent until this power returned to her... when it did I would send up a prayer that my own wounds were manageable.

But what she would do the moment my trail ended here... when my galloping horse came to a stop and bodies littered the edge of the pier like toys. What would she think when she smelled my blood at the edge and saw the destruction of otherworldly power.

Gods. I had not seen the full depth of her power. Perhaps it was the captain making such a hasty retreat for good reason. For the true immortal that would come for me in shimmering armour and an immortal killing spear.

A Valkyrie.

 * * * * *