Chapter Eight

Chapter Eight

Alexa's Point Of View

We could hear Esmyth's army as we got closer and closer to the Battlefield of Blood but we didn't slow down. I spared a glance at my family. Alex and Tristan were walking hand-in-hand, their faces proud. On my other side Adalyn and Dakota were walking next to each other, their faces determined. We were ready for this. It would be our first real battle with Esmyth and his armies but we were prepared to fight them. I stared at Alex and knew that we would win this battle, even if we didn't win any of the rest. Even if this was our last - our only - stand against Esmyth I knew we wouldn't fail this time.

As we reached him Esmyth smiled cruelly. He was confident to the point of arrogance. That would be his downfall. I looked around at his minimal forces and realized that he didn't have as many men as we'd first thought. Really, there were only six of them. But he'd performed the Multiplying Spell and had created an army out of six people. That would be another downfall. If we could kill the real soldier we'd kill all of it's clones.

"You're foolish to think that you're going to beat me." Esmyth said when we were within earshot.

"No," Alex said, her voice cold. "you are the foolish one. If you think for one minute that we're going to be beat by you then we oughta have your head checked before we do battle. I don't like killing stupid creatures. Even evil ones."

Esmyth laughed. "It's going to be a shame when you're dead. I'm rather going to miss your pathetic attempts at insults."
Alex yawned. "Whatever. Can we get the fight started? I'm rather sick of standing here staring at your disgusting face."

"As you wish."

There was a flurry of movement as Esmyth's men came hurling themselves towards us. Without glancing at my sisters I began screaming spells, both Ancient and Modern. Quite a few times I managed to kill the clones with the Fire Shooter Spell. (Apparantly getting hit in the chest by a ball of fire can kill you.) By the time five minutes had passed we'd killed over half of Esmyth's army. Alex had killed three of the original soldiers, dropping Esmyth's size down from a sixty to a thirty. Zach was battling another clone with Tristan right beside him. A few seconds later there were no more soldiers. Now was the time for my sisters and I to fight Esmyth.

"Guess what time it is?" Alex snarled at Esmyth.

"Time for me make my depart I'm afraid. I will leave you with a gift, though. Just a little taste of what's going to happen to you. To all of you."

Before any of us could even open our mouths to speak he flicked his wrist at Raven, who he had been keeping tied out of sight. He had brought her to stand in front of us when it was clear that he was not going to win and I could only guess what he planned to do now. A second after his wrist flick Raven gave a startled cry and dropped to the ground. Alex screamed in fury but Esmyth had vanished.

We all dropped down beside Raven. She was dying. That much was obvious. But she was awake, waiting to say her final words. She looked around at all of us and smiled. Her smile showed that she was proud of us, proud that we were the ones that her prophecy had spoken of. When she spoke her voice was stronger than a dying woman's voice should have been.

"You are going to save our world. I know you will. And you will survive. All of you. I am proud to have known you."

Then she looked over at Adalyn and smiled warmly.

"Adalyn, your time will come at the very end of this war. You will have a difficult decision to make but you will make the right one. It will be you, Adalyn, that defeats him once and for all. Trust your judgement to make the final decision. It will serve you well."

After giving us one final smile her eyes closed for the final time. We sat at her side for a very long time, staring numbly into Raven's face. It seemed like some horrible nightmare but I knew it wasn't. This was reality and reality wasn't nice.

Another endless moment later Alex gave a loud cry of grief and launched herself into Tristan's arms. He held her against him as she wept, his eyes never leaving Raven's face. For a long time after that, her scream was the only thing I could hear. It echoed in my mind, filling me with more grief than I'd ever thought my soul could hold...