Page 36 of The Witch who Trades with Death
Chapter Thirty-Six
The nightmare’s claws sank into her armor, piercing the thick wool and drawing blood as it flew into the open air, over the heads of Blue Battalion and the imperial troops. Khana had no time to observe the raging battle as she tried to wiggle free, but only caused more damage to her shoulders which her excess aji had to heal.
She stopped, calling herself an idiot. She’d survived a much higher fall with magic.
She inhaled the nightmare’s life force in a single gulp. It died mid-air, and gravity claimed them both. They plummeted to the ground.
Khana coughed. She pushed the creature’s corpse off her and pulled herself to her knees. No bones broken. Even the scratches on her shoulders were healed. And she still had a lot of glow left. Somewhere along the way she’d lost her helmet.
The relief died quickly when she looked up and realized where, exactly, the nightmare had dropped her. Behind her, she could hear spears on shields as Blue Battalion clashed with imperial soldiers. But in front, she faced a sea of boiled leather and pointy Reguallian helmets.
“…hi?” she said.
They sprang into action. One man tried to gut her with his spear, but she blocked with her shield just in time. Pain bloomed in her side as the man behind her got her under her ribcage, setting a fire in her chest and pushing all the air out of her lungs in a pained gasp.
She gritted her teeth and forced a breath in, the longest draw she’d ever taken.
The three men closest to her dropped dead. Khana pulled the spear out of her side, letting it heal, and stood. A reckless swordsman came at her. She held up her shield and let him push her back toward the high mountain wall, where no one could sneak up on her. She breathed in, and he dropped to the ground.
That’s how I survive this, she realized, backing up until the rock wall brushed against her armored shoulder. Take the life force of anyone who attacks and make your way back to the Ghura.
That plan immediately failed when the soldiers, wise to her tricks, resorted instead to throwing their spears at her. Luckily Ghuran shields were so big, and she was so tiny, that when she crouched and hid behind her wall of layered animal hide, almost every part of her was covered. Spears and knives clanged against the shield, a couple of metal tips poking through.
Khana hoped to wait them out; for them to disarm themselves fully and then attack. But all hopes were dashed when they picked up rocks and continued their assault. Their projectiles pounded against the shield. One of them grazed her temple, drawing blood before the wound healed. But the aji wouldn’t last forever.
She desperately wished Neta was here. Or Sava. Haz. Anyone. They’d know what to do. They’d give her strength, bravery, a plan. She was just a scared girl.
The assault grew as more and more soldiers realized what was happening. More rocks dented her shield and bloodied the bits of her arms and legs she couldn’t protect.
“Just keep throwing until she stops glowing!” one shouted. “We’ll give her to the emperor as a prize!”
Rage, fear, and panic spiked through her at the thought.
The rage won.
With a blood-curdling scream, Khana charged the Reguallian soldiers, shield-first. Someone scored a hit on the back of her head with a rock, but she barely noticed the injury. She breathed in.
Bodies dropped like flies around her as she absorbed the aji of everyone she could get close to. Within minutes she’d cleared the area of soldiers who had seen her fall from the sky. Her next victims only knew that a witch had somehow gotten behind their lines, and they reacted by throwing spears. Khana once again ducked behind her shield and breathed in.
Her skin glowed brighter than she’d ever seen it. She was washed in vibrant red, yellow, black, and orange. Her blood vibrated. She could see the Ghuran soldiers behind her now, cutting down the Reguallians with axe and spear. From the mountain wall on her right, archers rained death from above. To the left, Ghuran units threw Reguallians over the sheer cliffs.
Where’s the imperial witch? Khana wondered. Yamueto never sent an assault without at least one witch to heal and lead. So where were they?
An arrow slammed into the back of her shoulder, pushing out those thoughts and bringing her to her knees. With a sigh, Khana grabbed the bloody arrowhead and ripped it out. The enhanced necrotic strength made it as easy as plucking a flower. A very painful flower. The agony blinded her for a moment before the injury healed itself. She turned around.
Reguallian archers, who had previously been firing at the Ghuran archers on the rock wall, now aimed at her. With her skin glowing brighter than the moon on a clear night, she was the obvious target.
Imperial foot soldiers stayed away from her, their commanders holding them back until the archers took care of the problem. But she had no interest in punching further through their lines. She turned and ran to safety toward the Ghura.
The enemy was so close to the front lines they hadn’t noticed her, too busy fighting to stay alive. She came up behind them and inhaled, hoping Sava and his archers wouldn’t mistake her for a Reguallian. At least she could make things a little easier for Phramanka and the other Ghura before hiding behind them.
She lost count of the number of soldiers she killed, but she’d created a void of dead soldiers that the Blue Battalion surged to fill. Chief Phramanka slapped her on the back with a “Tend the wounded!” before disappearing into the fight, leaving Khana safely behind friendly lines again.
Khana quickly located some of the most injured and got to work. A man with a spear in his gut got back up and joined his comrades to fight. A woman with a bloodied head blinked up at her, poking at the spot where her brain had previously been visible. A woman who’d lost an arm… did not regrow the arm; that was impossible, as far as Khana knew. But she did stop the bleeding and ensure her survival.
The Ghura suddenly stopped advancing and cheered. Khana looked up and saw the Reguallians run over snowy rock, risking a slip off the cliff rather than onto a sword.
By now Khana was almost down to her own aji, her skin’s glow barely visible in the sunlight. She was exhausted, like she’d run ten miles in a single afternoon. She skipped over a few minor injuries, ignoring their calls to heal broken arms or skinned knees, and found one with an arrow in his chest. She pulled it out, wincing at the very loud screaming directly in her ear, and healed it.
As soon as that extra aji was gone, every remaining thread of strength left. Nausea and dizziness took over, worse than when she was a child spinning around in circles watching the sky twirl until collapsing. She turned away from her patient and threw up her breakfast – well, what little she’d been able to eat that morning.
Boots appeared in her vision as she retched again. She spat and looked up, meeting the raised eyebrows of Chief Phramanka.
“You look like you had a bit of an adventure,” she commented. “I thought we ordered Red Battalion to the back.”
Khana looked down at herself. The chief was splattered with blood and gore, her spear covered in the stuff. It felt like Khana should be, too, but she wasn’t. She’d killed, what, two dozen? Fifty? A hundred? But the only red on her armor was her own.
“Night creature got me,” she murmured. “Plucked me up and dropped me out here. I got back as soon as I could.”
“If you had lingered and punched a larger hole in their ranks, we’d have been done an hour sooner.” Phramanka handed her a waterskin. Khana took it gratefully and savored a few mouthfuls, washing out her mouth and spitting. “But thank you for handling the wounded. Their families will be very grateful.”
Khana nodded, taking a proper drink. “Why wasn’t there a witch? Yamueto always sends one.”
“Same reason he sent a fraction of what he could have,” the chief explained. “He’s testing our defenses. Seeing what tricks we have up our sleeve.” She pointed to the distance, to a ridge behind the Reguallian lines. Khana had to squint, but she could just make out a tent and some human figures.
“I can’t tell if it’s smart or cowardly,” Phramanka mused. “Staying all the way back there while your soldiers suffer and die. Eventually, they’ll come down to play.”
Khana held the waterskin in limp hands. “If Yamueto didn’t know I was here before, he will now.”
Phramanka nodded. “A perfect chance to get revenge, don’t you think?”
“I don’t want revenge,” Khana said numbly. “I just want him to leave me alone.”
The chief made a face. “Do you really think he’ll do that?”
She looked at the field of snow and bodies, and knew it was only a fraction of what was to come. “No.”