The Destroyer Book 2 (38 page)

The Elvens spoke between each other, their voices excited by the possibility of an attack or being punished for their companions' desertion. I saw the four humans decide that they would not come upon a better opportunity for revenge, so they left their place of concealment and crept toward the two guards.

Alexia perched on the roof of the house where the men hid. She looked over in my direction and put a hand up to her ear and then pushed her thumb downward before touching her ear, signaling that she thought they were loud, but the Elven's hadn't noticed their advance.

The man in the lead of the humans had a thick crop of dusty blonde hair. Unlike the other three men who looked like they might shit themselves or run at any moment, his face was locked in calm concentration. He carried a wood axe, another a pitchfork, and the other two had makeshift clubs. I hoped the humans would be able to kill the Elvens before the reptilian bastards drew their own finely crafted weapons.

I couldn’t help but hold my breath as the humans neared their prey. Perhaps I should have moved closer, but I figured that Alexia could slaughter both of the guards easily and I was curious to see how the brave men would fare against the Elvens.

"Should I engage?" Alexia signed from the roof.

"Let's see if they are successful. Jump in when you wish." She nodded, and her grin grew with pride.

I was impressed with how near the four men got before their discipline faltered. They were about four feet away when the man at the back raised his weapon and let out a war cry that was a mix of insanity and panic. Then they charged.

Maybe the man believed his screech would terrify the two Elvens, but I knew better. Compared to normal humans, Elvens were more than three times as fast and twice as strong. The guards looked surprised for half a second, which was an eternity to Alexia and I, but not even a fraction of a blink to the humans. By the time the leader of the men was close enough to swing his axe, the Elvens had already drawn their swords. Alexia decided she needed to intervene now and began an elaborate flip off the roof of the long house, her lithe body twisting in the air like a spider dangling from silk.

I jumped down the slope and sprinted toward them. I figured the fight would be over by the time I got there, but I wanted to be within melee range just in case.

The male Elven blocked the clumsy swing from the leader's axe and shoulder charged him, knocking him over like the human was made of bundled straw. The female Elven was the better warrior, she side-stepped the inexpert thrust from the pitchfork and cleanly decapitated the man wielding the farming tool.

Then Alexia landed with her short sword buried into the top of the Elven's skull. The force of the impact took the blade down halfway through the bitch's back and sprayed her thick crimson blood everywhere.

The remaining Elven warrior did not react to Alexia’s landing or the death of his companion. He deftly whipped his sword around with a horizontal cut at Alexia’s shoulders. For a brief second, I worried that she had not seen the attack coming. Of course, Alexia did not need my concern. She spent countless hours sparring with Thayer, me and the rest of our band. Even our worst warrior could defeat most Elvens. Our training was intense and effective. We were all deadly and ruthless.

The blonde woman bent slightly at the waist and the weapon harmlessly swept over her shoulder blades. I had reached the melee by now and planted a firm jump kick into the Elven man's ribs. I heard several of them break and the man let out a surprised scream. The force of my running attack should have sent him sprawling, but the human that he had knocked to the ground grabbed the Elven's ankles. The guard flipped over like a coin and smashed his face into the dirt.

Alexia was already in the air and landed on the Elven, sinking her long dagger into the man's neck.

Then our enemies were dead.

The blonde woman and I crouched down and looked back toward the road where the other two guards had gone. They should have been dead by now, but we didn't want to take any chances.

"How many guards are there?" Alexia asked the blonde man on the ground.

"Four. The other two went up the road." The man didn't hesitate with his answer.

"Hold," I commanded, and the three men left alive lay still on the floor. We waited for another minute in silence. Alexia and I didn't expect any more resistance, but we knew how much a mistake could cost us.

Then we heard the faint hoot of a dove from up the road a few hundred yards. It was the signal that the Elvens were dead.

"Get up," I commanded as I examined the three humans. The leader stood shorter than me by half a head and was as lean as a whip. I saw dozens of veins pushing out against the skin of his bare arms. The other two men were in poorer shape. They were probably only in their early twenties but looked much older due to malnutrition.

"Who are you?" the blue-eyed man asked my friend. She smiled to him and turned to face me.

"I'm Kaiyer, this is Alexia, and we are the O'Baarni."

"How did you kill the Elvens so easily?" He glanced back to Alexia again with astonishment in his eyes. She shrugged and looked at me. The woman didn't like meeting new people.

"We can talk about that later," I said to him." We are freeing you and your fellow slaves. I assume they are gathered in these houses?"

"Aye. We have been planning an escape for the last few months. One of my friends was going to start a fire in the main house of the Elvens, then we would overpower the guards and escape."

"What?" he asked after Alexia and I exchanged a look of bewilderment.

"We started a fire, actually," I said to him.

"I don't care who started the fire. We are ready to go. We are planning to escape north. These people think I can lead them to safety. I don't know what I am doing, but I'll die before I disappoint them." The man smiled and pushed his fists together nervously. It brought back a memory of me fleeing my old home. Of course then I had a group of elite and empowered warriors accompanying me. This man just had endless courage.

"We will help, friend. That is our purpose here. I didn't catch your name."

"Gorbanni. You said your name was Kaiyer, and this lovely lady is Alexia. Correct?" We both nodded. Alexia didn't like to be reminded of her beauty. She did not smile.

"Let's meet your followers." I gestured toward the long houses.

"We are simple folk. Servants, farmers, and some ranchers. We don't know how to . . ." He sighed as we walked toward the dwellings. The other two men looked at Alexia in speechless awe.

"What service do you perform for the Elvens?" I heard the nervous whispers in the long houses. Many of them were fearful that Gorbanni's plan had failed and they would shortly be slaughtered.

"I cook for their soldiers,” he said.

"Do you enjoy it?"

"No. But there are far more difficult jobs and sometimes I can sneak food to my friends." We made it to the door of the long house. I could tell from the sounds inside that most of the men and women hid there.

“I don’t need a cook. I need warriors. More than warriors, I need leaders of men and women. Someone others can look to in times of hardship and desperation. Someone who can inspire. Someone with enough balls and insanity to convince a group of half-starved, weak humans that they could overpower their Elven masters and lead a revolt.” He grinned, still a little stunned. “Are you interested?” The man’s blue eyes lit up as I spoke. This was one with mettle. If he was this brave now, with no reason to be, after he was changed and trained he would be an incredible leader.

"We want freedom. At any cost."

"Your first assignment is to support what I say in here. Do you have any family amongst the slaves?"

"No. My parents were killed many years ago by Elven horsemen who grew bored attacking straw targets. My sister committed suicide after she was violated by guardsmen every night for months." He choked the words out.

"We understand. Our anger and need for revenge fuels us as well. You will have a home with us, and then you will have your freedom. Introduce me to your people. Tell them my name and that I will lead them to safety." I nodded to the door and he quickly opened it.

The scent of unwashed bodies in a tight space slammed into my sensitive nose when I first entered. I could also smell sickness and my eyes darted to the far corner, where someone must have gotten so nervous that they vomited. There were over eighty men, women, and a few children. Gorbanni was the fittest out of all of them and looked like he may have been providing additional food to help keep the rest alive. Disgust filled my stomach. How could the Elvens rely on us for all of their base needs and still treat us this way? Their horses were probably treated better.

“This is Kaiyer.” The humans in the room stared at Gorbanni in confusion. They had expected him to die. They had expected the next person to walk through the door to be an Elven guard who would use force and death to punish and scare them away from ever attempting another revolt. Gorbanni had not only survived, but brought back hope. "He and his companion killed all the guards. He has promised to lead us from this place."

"Your leader Gorbanni speaks the truth.” I paused to watch their expressions. Their faces were full of fear and surprise. "We have killed all the Elvens in this estate." I paused again after I let the words slowly flow out of my mouth. There was disbelief.

“Every Elven you have ever known is dead. Every Elven who has ever harmed you is dead. Every Elven who has raped you is dead. Every Elven who has killed your friend, your brother, your sister, your mother, your father, your child, is dead. But their kind still enslaves ours elsewhere. We will save them, as we have saved you, with your help.”

"How can this be?" One of the older women spoke from the front of the room. I looked to Gorbanni and raised an eyebrow.

"Grety, the two of them easily killed two Elven guards. I have never seen anything like it. They move so fast that I could only see blurs. There are more of Kaiyer's people here as well. I believe what he says," Gorbanni said with absolute confidence, though he had seen no evidence of us killing everyone in the camp.

"You are all free now," I continued, "some of you know who we are. You have dreamed about us all your lives. You have cried at night and asked for a way to fight back. All of you have wished for the power to protect yourself and the ones that you love. Their suffering weighs on your conscience and causes you more agony than our oppressors ever could." They nodded and some of them wept.

"We are small now. But we will grow. We will teach you how to fight, how to kill, and how to ease the suffering that you feel. Then we will move across this world and do the same for all of our kind, freeing them and teaching them. During this process, we will extract a terrible revenge on the Elvens, returning every agony we have endured thousands of times. Tonight we began by burning their nursery. Your enslavers watched their children roast before their eyes and then we killed every last pointy eared bastard in this place." There were gasps from the room and the whispers started again. Some believed me, but most didn't. The idea seemed impossible to them. It would have seemed impossible to me had I still been the young stable boy I was.

"Most of you believed that Gorbanni would fail tonight, so you did not prepare to leave. But we are leaving at once, walking through the carnage we brought to this place, and traveling through the wilderness to our home, where you will learn to fight. Where you will find justice and revenge. Where you can serve the loved ones you have lost."

I looked over to Gorbanni. He stood up as straight as an arrow, tears rolling freely down his cheeks.

"Follow me now. We are the O'Baarni and this day will be the start of our salvation and the Elvens’ nightmare." I turned and walked out the door with Alexia behind me. We made it a few dozen yards before the door opened and they followed us out.

"Walk slowly, but don't look back," I instructed Alexia.

Behind us the humans gasped at the sight of the two Elvens Alexia had butchered. Now they started to believe.

"Kaiyer!" Gorbanni caught up to us. I didn't turn around, instead letting him move up next to me. "I think they are all coming."

"We are heading to the main area of the estate. They will see what my warriors have wrought. Then they will commit to following us, at least for a few days. The travel through the wilderness will be hard. You must keep their spirits up and continue to reinforce the vision I gave them. Can you do this?"

"Yes!" He nodded and smiled, suddenly realizing he had tears on his face. His cheeks flushed and he quickly wiped them away with the dirty cuff of his shirt.

"Don't be ashamed of your tears, my friend. I've cried buckets of them." He grunted and looked back at his people.

We took ten minutes to walk into the main area of the estate. Most of the buildings had finished burning and the thick scent of smoke and roasted flesh hung in the air.

Between Thayer's team, Alexia's team, and my small group that had held the perimeter, we had forty O'Baarni in the main square. They were still stacking up Elven bodies and looting supplies.

Our warriors must have seemed quite impressive to the humans. Each man was a walking wall of muscle and sinew. The women were lean but strong and moved like mountain tigers. It was easy to put on brawn when the Earth healed all tears, breaks, and sprains in a matter of hours. The O'Baarni spent most of their days training, exercising, and building our home. Their eyes burned with a zealous purpose and every task was performed with the efficiency of someone who had executed the movement thousands of times.

"Everything is good, Brother." Thayer broke off from his team to give me an update. His smile made his scarred face almost look handsome and beads of sweat rolled down his shaved head. He looked at Gorbanni and nodded.

"Gorbanni, this is one of the leaders of the O'Baarni, Thayer." They shook hands, Thayer's enveloping the smaller man’s like he had crushed a small bug.

"Nice to meet ya." He turned to me. "We'll be ready in three minutes. How many are coming?"