Chapter Two

Kaiya had never seen a Faoii breastplate marred by blood before. But here Faoii-Leigh stood, her braid disheveled and her armor soaked in crimson. Red droplets flicked from her fantoii as she barked for silence.

The Cleroii, mouths gaping, stopped their song. Its power drifted in the breeze like shredded ribbons before it disintegrated. A heartbeat passed before a roar of leather, metal, and shifting bodies sounded through the room as dozens of fighters shot to their feet, standing back-to-back with piercing eyes. Kaiya pressed her shoulder blades against Mollie’s, who straightened in response. All eyes turned to Faoii-Leigh, whose voice rang out with venom and battle lust.

“We show no fear, Faoii! We do not lose, and we do not fail! We are Faoii! We have trained to be the hand of justice! We are prepared for this enemy!” Faoii-Leigh’s voice sounded like clashing swords and broken chainmail as she struck her fantoii hilt against her shield with each new phrase.

“Faoii-Leigh,” Preoii-Aleena began, pulling her own blade from behind the grand statue, “where is Faoii-Caril?” Faoii-Leigh did not quite look at the Preoii.

“She has fallen.” Kaiya was near enough to see the tears in Faoii-Leigh’s eyes. “They appeared so suddenly. There was no time . . .” Faoii-Leigh’s voice trembled for a moment before she steeled herself. “May the Goddess grant her better battles.”

A murmur ran through the room. Though young, Faoii-Caril was ascended—accomplished enough to have her rank placed before her name. If she had fallen, could the young, unascended maidens stand against her enemy?

“Is there time to gather weapons, Faoii-Leigh?” a young voice rang out. Faoii-Leigh opened her mouth to speak but was drowned out by Cleroii screams. She turned and raised her shield just quickly enough to block the blow of one of the burly invaders who swarmed through the open doorway. No one had seen them approaching through the glassless windows. Faoii-Leigh and the others who jumped to her defense tried to hold their own, but it didn’t take long before they were overpowered by the swell of invading bodies and shoved across the marble floor. Faoii-Leigh took the brunt of the blow with her shield, and Kaiya thought she saw the hardened warrior rise again, but couldn’t be sure with the swelling horde between them. Above the din, Preoii-Aleena’s voice called out, “Faoii! Form ranks!”

The remaining students squared their shoulders and stared down the rows of armored men who were already forming their own ranks at the front of the room. There they stood, posed for battle but eerily silent. Kaiya’s gaze roamed over the motionless lines of soldiers. Who are they? What are they waiting for? Each invader wore a horned helm adorned with a scowling, demonic faceplate. A few of the youngest girls shrank back from the blood-soaked blades they wielded, but Kaiya only bristled. Behind her, Mollie gasped.

“Kai. Third row in. Is that a Faoii?” Kaiya peered at the sea of metal bodies. A hundred masked faces stared impassively back. Her eyes narrowed at the smaller warrior that Mollie had indicated before she shook her head.

“No. A child soldier,” she finally said through gritted teeth. And then: “Goddess grant you a good battle, sister.”

“I will be at your back until the end.” As meek and quiet as Mollie often was, there was no doubt that she was Faoii. Her voice betrayed no fear, and her shoulders were squared. Even without a weapon, she was far from weak. Kaiya pulled her lips back in a tight grimace and glanced around. Dozens of other girls stood tense and ready, posed to strike at Preoii-Aleena’s command. A bristling tension vibrated through the room.

Tensed to spring, Kaiya trained her eyes on one of the masked invaders but stopped short. Someone else had entered. Tall and lean, with dark skin and pale eyes, this new man did not match his soldiers. Intricate tattoos covered his bare crown and torso, and his booted feet pounded against the marble floor, wordlessly barking for silence. Even the rustle of his robed waist was apparent in the sudden, deathly quiet. A moment passed before several girls around Kaiya broke free of his trance and sprang.

Their battle cries were barely past their teeth when the invader waved his bloodstained blade, knocking them back with a crackling force. They landed heavily and remained still.

Kaiya grimaced as one girl skidded back to land at the base of an adjacent pew. She could not even bend over to close the lifeless eyes.

What magic is this? What could kill Faoii so readily? No one was trained in magic outside the monastery. Only Faoii were worthy of Illindria’s greatest gift.

She stared, more angry than horrified, as the tattooed man passed his immobile army and walked purposefully toward Preoii-Aleena.

“You are not welcome here, Croeli-Thinir.” Those that had been preparing to attack stopped uncertainly. The Croeli were gone, exiled generations before and decimated by their own brutality. Even mentioning the banished order was considered taboo among the Faoii.

The smiling invader did not reply. Preoii-Aleena moved toward him, her sword raised, but he only lifted his arm toward the open-domed roof and tore it back down with a violent jerk. Lightning struck the Goddess’s ivy helm with a resounding boom.

The Faoii watched, horrified, as a single crack jagged its way down mighty Illindria’s head and body. It jolted with sporadic movements before finally stopping at Her unshod feet.

Time froze as the Eternal One stood serenely, smiling at all Her children . . . before shattering into a million pieces of powdery dust.

The explosion caught Preoii-Aleena full-force, flinging her across the room and into a far wall. Kaiya lost sight of her as the army of burly men suddenly moved, swarming out into the pews, hewing down those who met them in the early morning light. She and a hundred other Faoii screamed their defiance at the coming horde.

Chaos exploded in the chapel. Every woman, be she Faoii, Cleroii, or Preoii, launched herself into the battle. Battle cries and healing songs clashed against each other in the air as the women rushed against the invaders. Kaiya and Mollie joined the swarm, flowing between men and women alike. Even without needing to speak, they knew their goal.

Kaiya had already dropped her whetstone. She dodged beneath a man’s wide swing, then straightened and rammed the blade of her dagger into the soft flesh beneath his jaw. The screams of the dying echoed in her ears as she lunged past another sword. Bracing down, Kaiya pushed an opponent’s shield upward and, with Mollie’s help, forced it forward into his mouth. Blood and teeth splattered the floor.

Another took the fallen man’s place, and Mollie slid forward to break his kneecap with her booted heel. Kaiya finished him off with a head butt that drove his nose into his brain. The stench of blood and death surrounded them, but Kaiya only squared her shoulders, intent on finding a man she couldn’t yet see over the crowd.

The swarm got denser as Kaiya and Mollie neared their adversary, but they saw Faoii-Leigh hacking her way toward the sorcerer. Awed at her strength even without a shield mate, the girls pressed harder. The number of bodies behind them was insignificant compared to the mound that surrounded the stoic mage and his crackling blade.

Dozens of lifeless eyes stared at Kaiya as she danced her way around another man. This one moved too slowly, and as he lunged, she brought her knife down on his arm, piercing it before jumping up and using her entire body weight to snap the bone. She tore the brutish sword—criukli, she vaguely remembered from one of the classes she thought she’d slept through—from the man’s limp hand and sliced at him again. His gauntleted fist clattered to the floor.

Undeterred, Kaiya spun, her arm outstretched, aiming for the weak armor encasing his neck but was stopped by a violent kick to her abdomen. She stumbled, trying to focus around suddenly empty lungs and teary eyes. This new opponent had already brought his foot back down to better stabilize the man that Kaiya had injured, and his eyes only momentarily flicked to the bloody stump cradled to his comrade’s chest. Then he refocused his gaze on Kaiya, and the fury there was palpable. Using his shield arm to support his wounded comrade, the new warrior swung a jagged criukli over his ally’s shoulder, aiming for Kaiya’s head.

Kaiya ducked. Without a shield to protect her, it was her only choice. But too late did she remember to shove Mollie out of the way. She tried to bring her sword back up to block the blow, but it had already passed her.

Behind her, Mollie’s skull split open under the sword’s weight. She dropped limply, her final battle cry unspoken.

Kaiya could only stare as Mollie sank to the ground, her green eyes open and unseeing. All training, all anger, all fear was forgotten. Something landed heavily against her chest, but she barely felt it, did not try to catch herself as she fell. Instead, she simply lay where she was and stared at her best friend—her lifelong companion, eyes wide above the growing pool of her own blood. This was not a reality Kaiya could accept or understand. This wasn’t right. Her vision swam as a furious rage pulled at her brows.

It felt like ages passed before Kaiya realized she was on her feet again. “I am Faoii.” The words rang out of her mouth as her sword launched at the nearest horned helm. She didn’t even know if it was Mollie’s destroyer or if he had turned to fight a different Faoii. It didn’t matter. She blamed them all. “I am the harbinger of justice and truth.” Blood sprayed. “I am the strength of the weak and the voice of the silent.” Mollie’s eyes stared at her, her mouth white and partially open. “My blade is my arm, and as such is the arm of all people.” Another Faoii fell to her right, brought low by a Croeli blade. “Wherever I am, there will a weapon against injustice always be.” She cut down a struggling man that lay broken to her left. “And with this weapon, I will protect the weak and purge all evil in the land.”

Through the fray, Kaiya caught the glint of the ivy helm of an ascended Faoii somewhere toward the end of the hall. She quickened her onslaught. “I will be ready to perform my duty for the weak at all times.” She heard a hint of a healing song rise above the noise in the room, but it was cut short. “And through this, I shall remember that all things are sacred and all souls worthwhile.” She held her blade still just long enough to allow a young Cleroii to pass under it before slashing down at an attacking Croeli. “But my blade will be held above all, for it protects all, and shall be a part of me.” The flash of an ivy helm again, closer now. “For I am Faoii. My tongue will never forget the words of truth, for when I speak, then will the Goddess hear.” She passed a piece of Illindria’s broken statue. “And I am only Faoii in Her presence.”

She continued forward, screaming now, unaware of what she hit or whether she herself was injured. “I am the Weaver of the Tapestry. I see the threads through all the world and guide them with the Goddess’s eye.” Blood oozed from a dozen superficial wounds, but she felt none of them. “Above all, I am Faoii, and my blade will sing with the voice of every throat that has cried out against injustice and dance with the steps of every innocent child!” She could see the sorcerer now, above the heads of fighting armies, and could see the ivy helm of her comrade, too. “I will lead the choir, and the voice of my sword will deafen the ears of my enemies.” Her voice rose to a fervor she wouldn’t have believed possible. “For I am Faoii!”

She was there now, swinging her sword at the head of the tattooed destroyer. The glistening ivy helm that had served as her beacon moved just barely as Faoii-Leigh struggled to push herself back up, one arm clutched to her bleeding side. But the seasoned Faoii was not dead yet, and her eyes flashed as she straightened. With a painful heave, she brought her bronze shield up just long enough to block the sorcerer’s blade, still crackling with magic, as he swung it toward the screaming Kaiya.

Kaiya’s blade, slick and gleaming crimson, collided with the tattooed head. But no blood sprayed. There was no crack of bone or splattering of brains. Instead, the sword rang out with the sound of a grand bell. It echoed through eternity.

As the chime faded, it seemed to Kaiya that the entire room was deathly silent except for the soft laughter of this unnamed fiend. She blinked. The chapel was gone. The girls, the sunlight, the Goddess. All gone. She was alone, and the biting air of a winter that hadn’t come yet clung to her body with icy fingers, pulling at all parts of her except for a spot of warmth that swelled outward from her belly. She looked down and blinked again. Surely that knife covered with blood was not coming out of her stomach. Surely that red ooze was not her life covering the floor. Her vision dimmed and tilted. Surely that laugh was not still ringing in her ears . . . Surely . . .

Next Chapter: Chapter III