Into Darkness

62

Richard moved in a low crouch from one thick growth of vegetation to another, relieved that, since they were coming in from an unexpected direction, they had managed to get down close without being spotted. He knew that the closer they could get before they struck, the greater the surprise, the more confusion it would create, and the more effective the attack would be.

Vika was close behind him as he silently slipped through the moon shadows, going from cover to cover. He had told the Glee to stay back a little because he wanted room to draw his sword and fight. If he had the chance, he would rather use his bow to take the goddess down from a distance than engage in close combat with her. He already had an arrow nocked and ready.

He had learned to fight Glee, but he had no idea what her capabilities might be. She was taller than the others, so she very well might be stronger as well. But Richard was also tall, a little taller than the rest of the Glee.

The biggest problem would be their numbers. It would be hard to take out one individual, the goddess, if masses of her followers were charging in all around him. It would be much better if he could simply drop her with an arrow and then they could deal with her followers.

It tended to take the fight out of followers when they saw their leader be the first to fall. If he could, he wanted to dispirit them by killing the goddess first, before he had to fight the rest of them, or before the Glee with him had to engage in battle. He wanted the important part over first. He knew, though, that in battle things rarely went as planned. In such unfamiliar territory, that made the situation even more difficult.

So far, they hadn’t seen any sleeping Glee, but they were still some distance from the areas of water. The ground back where they were was muddy, but Sang and Iben had said that the Glee favored sleeping in the wet water weeds on the banks and often partly in the water.

All of a sudden, there was a loud squeal, and it wasn’t from a Glee.

Richard turned just in time to see something low crash through the thick brush close to him. He heard grunts and high-pitched squeals. When he spun to the sound, he saw several Glee upended, their legs knocked from under them as they were flipped through the air.

He just caught sight of a bunch of piglets scattering through the underbrush in every direction. Almost immediately he saw the sow charging through the brush to protect her young. The sow was bigger than any wild boars he had ever seen. The tusks were enormous, and no doubt lethal. The sow charged at the Glee with Richard. Fortunately, they were all able to dive out of the way just in time.

The piglets’ piercing squeals seemed to be all the louder in the stillness of the night. The sow let out angry snorts as she wheeled and charged the Glee before racing through the dense brush toward the squeals from her young.

The boar was not the problem, though. The squeals and screeches of all the piglets were the problem because the sound pierced the quiet night air.

Richard heard the warning cries of the Glee rising from their sleep, furious at discovering other Glee sneaking up on them in a surprise attack. He saw frightening numbers of the dark shapes rising up everywhere out of the swampy areas and then the shadowy shapes of all the Glee were suddenly racing toward them.

Searching frantically, he finally caught fleeting glimpses of the Golden Goddess as she raced through the dark masses of Glee. Iben had been right. There was no mistaking her. Her long legs carried her faster than any Glee Richard had seen before.

Richard tracked her as he let the first arrow fly. Although the aim was true, it hit another Glee that got in the way of the shot at the last second. She charged ahead without pause, pushing some of them out of her way as she wove through the throng of her followers, clearly infuriated. The same thing happened with the second and then the third arrow as others passed in front of the arrow before it could get to her.

Richard realized that his plan to take her down at a distance with an arrow was not going to work. There were simply too many Glee in the way to have any hope of getting a clear shot and she was closing the distance fast.

As he momentarily lost sight of her, Richard threw his bow to the ground and drew his sword in a rush. The unique sound of the blade that had been touched by the world of the dead rang out across the swamp. That clear, pure sound could easily be heard above the mass of angry howls as it announced the arrival of a lethal rage of its own.

Some of the advancing Glee in the front stopped in their tracks at the sound as those behind kept coming, packing them together even tighter. Maybe some of them had heard that sound before, or heard descriptions of it from returning Glee, or maybe the danger it represented was simply obvious.

Off to Richard’s right, Iben raced out ahead, calling out, bent on urging the Golden Goddess to stop and listen, hoping to stop the battle before it could begin.

The goddess suddenly burst through the throng of dark Glee and with one powerful swipe, tore out Iben’s throat.

Shrieking her anger, she turned and raced toward Richard even as he was charging toward her.

As they came together, she swung at him with a claw. He dodged to the side and it just missed his face. Without pause, he brought his blade around and severed the claw before she could withdraw it. The sword flashed in the moonlight and just as quick the other claw was off.

She stopped dead in her tracks as her big black eyes blinked in stunned surprise.

While her followers had gone to Richard’s world to fight, she never had. Because of that, she was all angry bluster and intimidation without the fighting skills or experience to back her threats. She had never come face-to-face with anyone like Richard who was not intimidated by her.

Before she could react, Richard was already using all his strength to power the blade around in an arc. It severed her head in one clean strike.

The goddess’s head, as it flew up and back, made one slow turn through the air as strings of blood were pulled around after it. Glee stood frozen as they watched what they could never have imagined.

The clawless, headless Golden Goddess dropped straight down as if she didn’t have a bone in her body.

The crowd pushed back to be out of the way as her head completed several revolutions in midair before it thudded down heavily on the rocks in their midst and took a few odd bounces before rolling to a stop. Her stunned followers backed out of its way as if it might bite them, or yell at them.

All the howling rage and fury came to an abrupt halt.

A number of the Glee with Richard cried out then and fell to their knees around Iben’s body. Their distress at his tragic death was sad to see.

Richard immediately turned to the threat from the goddess’s followers, expecting a furious onslaught of claws and teeth. Instead of charging in to fight them, he stopped as he saw them slow to a stop. They all briefly gazed down at the body of the goddess before moving on to come forward and stare at the dead Iben.

Glee wrapped in water weeds protectively surrounded their dead friend, many on their knees beside him, weeping. They all crowded around, reaching out to touch their friend, clearly devastated that he had been so violently slain by one of their own kind.

After Sang, grieving, had gently touched Iben’s body, he stood in a rush to face the enemy. Tears of rage ran from his large black eyes, his third eyelids trying to blink them away, but more continued to flow.

He gestured angrily with a claw down at Iben’s body.

“Look at what you have done! This is what you all wanted? Look at what you all have done to one of your own kind! Look! Glee should never harm Glee! Never! Your Golden Goddess did this! You all did this! You are all responsible!”

If Glee could look shamefaced, those Glee watching him standing over the body of his friend certainly did. Many hung their heads. Others looked away in disgrace.

“This is what you wish for our world?” Sang cried out as he swept an arm out in anger. “This is what you wanted? This is your way, now? To kill other Glee?”

Other grieving Glee behind Sang stood after touching the body to gesture down with a claw, demanding that the enemy look at what they had all been a part of.

“Is this how you want to live now?” one of the others asked as he got up from kneeling by Iben. “This is what fills your hearts? This is what you wanted? Your own kind to be murdered? This is what you all would do to other Glee? To us? None of you are as good as this one was. He rushed forward because he wanted to tell you all to please stop your ways and return to the way we have always lived. But you instead killed him! What kind of beasts have you become?”

The guilty Glee stood around, watching but not interfering, some holding their claws behind their backs, while others hung their heads, all of them clearly not knowing what to do.

The fight had been taken out of them.

Finally, in the unbearable predawn silence, one of the enemy slowly approached and pointed with a claw. “You are covered with water weeds. Is that so that you were able to cross the drylands to come in and surprise the goddess?”

Many of the Glee who had come with Richard nodded.

Then, the masses of Glee that had been hanging their heads began to step forward and do the strangest thing.