AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“And so are we. If it’s your land, you haven’t made much use of it. Still, you’ve got no need to defend it from us. We’re not here to fight you.”
He smiled wide, showed the gap of a missing tooth. “Why would you? You’re outnumbered. Skinny girl with a big sword, best go back the way you came before we have to hurt you.”
“You know what?” Tonia cocked a hip, set a hand on it in a gesture of defiance. “I don’t like being threatened for walking in the woods. You?” she said to Fallon.
“No.”
Faol Ban slipped out of the trees, growled low in his throat. As the big man pivoted, drew back on the bow, Taibhse swooped down, gripped the arrow in his talons.
“If any of you threaten what’s mine, you’ll regret it.” She spoke to her spirit animals quietly in Irish. The wolf slipped into the shadows; the owl perched on a high branch. “Is this how you treat strangers who cross your path?”
“Strangers who try to take what we have, sell us into slavery.”
“We don’t steal, and we free slaves.”
His lip curled over the missing tooth. “Skinny girls with a wolf and trained owl free slaves?”
“Are there magickals among you?”
His face hardened, and despite the owl, the wolf, he drew another arrow out of his quiver. “Go. While you can still walk.”
Fallon pushed out power, just a leading edge. As she did, as the big man and the people behind him stepped back, she heard a baby’s quick cry.
She pulled back quickly. “You have children with you.”
Face fierce, he grabbed a spear from the man beside him. “You’ll never take them.”
“Oh, for the sake of all the gods. We don’t harm children, or take them. Wait.” She held up a hand, rippled the air between them, and drew her sword. She thrust it up, filled it with light so it gleamed silver.
“I am Fallon Swift. I am pledged to defend the light, to protect the innocent. I come to destroy the dark, to tear down all who seek to harm those who seek peace. With this sword, I will lead into battle those who choose to follow me. And we will cut down all who stand against us.”
“She’s damn good at it, too,” Tonia commented. “Come on, people. You’ve never heard of The One?”
“Just a story. A tale told to children around the campfire.”
“No.” A woman, a child gripping her hand, a baby in a sling at her breasts, pushed through.
“Liana, get back!”
“No.” She laid a hand on the big man’s arm. “I told you it wasn’t a story. Kilo, why won’t you listen? You’re The One.”
“Yes. And I see the light in you, your elfin blood.”
The woman had eyes as dark as night. Her dusky face bore a long scar down her left cheek.
“And in you.” Fallon crouched down to the level of the little boy with hair as dense and soft as a black cloud. “Do you see me? Do you see the light in me?”
The boy giggled, then pressed his face shyly to his mother’s leg, peeked out.
“He’s hungry.” She called Laoch. When the alicorn landed in the clearing, people gasped and murmured, drew closer together.
“We bring no harm, no threat. Tonia, there’s a peach in my saddlebag.”
Tonia brought it to her, kept her gaze, cool and even, on Kilo’s face.
“Is it all right?” Fallon asked Liana.
“Yes, yes, of course. Thank you. Say thank you, Eli.”
He whispered it, still shyly clinging to his mother. But he reached out to take the peach after Fallon mimed biting into it.
When he bit into it himself, his wide eyes and the long mmm as juice dripped down his chin made Fallon laugh.
“It’s all I have, but we can bring you more.”
“Why?” Kilo demanded.
Still crouched, she shot him a look of sheer annoyance. “Because your boy doesn’t have to be hungry, your people don’t have to be afraid. Because we’re not your enemy.” She straightened. “I’ll ask again. Is this your land?”
“We’re camped here, until we move on and camp somewhere else.”
“How many are you?”
When he folded his arms, Liana sighed. “Kilo, if you won’t trust her, trust me. I see who and what she is. What they are.”
“Thirty-six,” he muttered.
“Eight are children,” Liana added. “And one will bring another into the world soon.”
“Do you have medicals with you, healers?”
“I do what I can,” Liana said. “But I’m not skilled enough. The one who’s pregnant needs to rest. So we stopped here, only a few hours ago. Don’t you see the miracle, Kilo? Only a few hours ago.”
“There are no miracles.”
Fallon lifted an arm, and the owl landed on it. Faol Ban walked out of the woods to stand at her side. She gestured to Laoch. “A leader, even a stubborn one, should believe his own eyes. Would you stay if you had supplies, defenses, more people and weapons? If the shelters here could be made to serve?”
“A moving target’s harder to hit.”
“How long do you want to be a target?” she retorted. “How long do you want your children to be targets? If you stay, I can and will send supplies, weapons, more people who can train yours how to fight, how to plant, how to fish, how to build a community, and one with security. Milk,” she said to Liana. “Fruit, vegetables, blankets, clothing.”
“What do you want for all this you’ll bring?” Kilo demanded.
“An army. War’s coming. I’ll build that army whether you go or stay. I’ll bring supplies whether you go or stay, because your people need them. Whether you go or stay I’ll build here, in this place, because it serves my cause. And if you stay, or wherever you go, I’ll fight for you. She’ll fight for you,” she said, laying a hand on Tonia’s shoulder. “The army we raise will fight for you.”
“In other words, lead, follow, or get out of the way.” Tonia shrugged. “To keep it simple.” When he gave her a curled lip, she pushed forward, slapped a fist on the brick wall of his chest.
“Let me tell you something else, asshole—”
“Tonia—”
“No, fuck diplomacy. Skinny girls, my ass. That skinny girl led this skinny girl and an army of people who aren’t big, giant dicks to Arlington, and won.”
“Bullshit” was Kilo’s response as others muttered and murmured.
But someone else shoved through. He, too, bore scars, and limped as he leaned on a staff. But the hand that gripped Fallon’s arm had strength.
“Arlington? They took my sister. They left me for dead, and took her. The PWs. They took her to Arlington.”
“When?”
“We found Sam last winter,” Liana said. “He was badly hurt. We didn’t think he’d live.”
“But you didn’t leave him behind. You helped him.”
“Maybe not a complete asshole,” Tonia mumbled.
“Your sister? Is she magickal?”
“No. Please. She’s Aggie. Agnes Haver. Please, they took her.”
“If she was there, we freed all the slaves. I’ll find her, and I’ll bring her to you. I have the names of everyone we got out. We took Arlington,” she said to Kilo. “And more than sixty who fought with me died to free those like his sister. They fought and died to take a place of torment and cruelty and bring the light. Do not dishonor the dead. If you can stand here and do that, you’re not worthy to lead or follow. So you can get out of the way.”
She stepped back, drew her spirit animals to her. “I’ll send supplies, and if they held Aggie in Arlington, I’ll bring her.”
She nodded to Tonia. They flashed.
“The man’s a freaking giant,” Tonia said the minute they stood behind Fallon’s house. “And a total dick.”
“Still, he’s kept over thirty people alive, including kids, and when he came across a half-dead stranger, didn’t just move on. One way or the other, the location works. We’re going to start building it a lot sooner than I’d thought. Gotta follow the signs
when they smack you in the face.”
“Who do you figure to send up there?”
“Poe and Kim. Their kids are old enough to go, or to stay in the barracks for a few weeks. Or months, depending. Poe and Kim? They’re tough, smart, experienced, and they won’t take any crap.”
“You got that. Plus, Poe?” Tonia shot out a grin. “He’s not a freaking giant like that Kilo, but, man, he’s totally ripped. That gets respect from dicks. And Kim’s logic-genius brain will do the rest. So. I’ll talk to them.”
“If they don’t want to go—”
“I have a feeling they will. It’s just the kind of challenge they’d go for.”
