Children of Chaos - Book 1

“Death…. It came very easily to me.”

They came in the middle of the night. Dark shadows sneaking over the dunes, barely discernible in the blackness of the night. If it weren’t for Khai, they would have been upon us before we even knew they were coming. Bandits, known for attacking villages and plundering them, and now they were coming for us.

I ran out of the tent when I heard the alarm bells, heading directly for the edge of the camp, where the warriors were taking up formation. I had been taught how to fight at the Reservoir, but this was the first time I would actually have to use what I had learned. There were perhaps thirty of them, all standing straight and tall, their faces impassive as they faced the oncoming threat. They didn’t look afraid or nervous at all, which was exactly how I was feeling.

Only when I arrived did it occur to me that I didn’t have any weapons. I hadn’t brought any with me from the Reservoir, and in my week with the Shemsuddin, I hadn’t needed any. Until now.

I spotted Khai at the very front, a bow held loosely by his side, his shoulders straight, his face grim but confident. I started to make my way towards him, but a hand grabbed my arm, holding me back. Irritated I turned around and came face to face with a tall blonde woman.

“No child.”

Her voice was condescending, maybe even annoyed and I felt anger bubble up inside of me, as my cheeks flushed with embarrassment. I was no child! I was eighteen! I had trained to fight since I was twelve years old! Who was this woman to call me a child?

“I can help”, I said, my voice strained, my body tense, ready to break free from her hold. She gave me a skeptical look, her eyebrows raised. A loud shout startled both of us, and we turned towards the sound. The bandits must have decided to give up being sneaky, when they had seen the warriors awaiting them, and were now coming at us head on.

I turned back to the woman, determined to make my case, but she wasn’t looking at me. Her eyes were fixed on the advancing enemy and her lips were curved in a wicked smile.

“Take this child. I will not need it.”, she said as she handed me a blade, her eyes still fixed on the scene in front of us.

I accepted the dagger with a small nod of thanks, but she never saw it. As soon as the dagger had left her hands, she turned away from me and headed to the front of the line, her body tense with anticipation. She was the only one who didn’t look like she’d been carved from stone. The only one who seemed to be looking forward to the battle with something like excitement. To me, she seemed just a bit insane.

The bandits were less than a hundred steps away from us when Khai suddenly moved. It happened so fast I nearly missed it. His arm shot up and an arrow left his bow, landing at the feet of the enemy leader. The leader came to a sudden stop and with him his men.

“Stop and you’ll live”, Khai called, his deep voice bridging the distance effortlessly. I felt a shiver run down my spine. I had never heard him speak like that before. There was no warmth in his voice, no laughter, just a cold and sharp warning.

His words were met with laughter.

“Surrender, and you’ll die quickly.”, the leader called back, his voice mocking.

Khai just nodded, a grim expression on his face, and with that single movement it began.

The bowmen let their arrows fly and the air itself seemed to burst into flame, as those kissed by Esh raised their hands in one synchronized motion, letting fire fall from the sky. The bandits cried out, some crumpled to the sand, brought down by either flame or arrow, but most of them advanced just the same. The two fronts clashed, filling the air with the sound of battle cries and metal meeting metal, and without knowing how, I was in the middle of a raging battle.

One of the bandits, a wiry man with vicious glinting eyes, sprinted towards me. He must have thought me an easy target because his lips were twisted in a confident sneer. His blade came down on me in a flash of silver and struck my dagger, making my arms shake from the blow. As I blocked an oncoming knife with my dagger I realized just how different a real fight was from the training sessions I had undergone at the Reservoir. This was real, and if I messed up, I would die.

I clenched my teeth, and took a quick step back, trying to size up my enemy. The man was skinny, but judging from the blow I had just blocked, he was also strong. He had long straggly hair and a matching beard. Lucky for me he wasn’t very tall, maybe a head taller than I was. He sneered at me, revealing a pair of decaying teeth and I wrinkled my nose in reflex. Why did bad guys have to be ugly?

“Playing with Papa’s knifes little girl?”, he mocked in a leering voice as he jabbed at me yet again.

I ignored the comment and turned to the left, scarcely avoiding his blade.A quiet grunt escaped my lips and adrenaline started coursing through me. What did I know about him that could be used to my advantage?

His swings were careless, carried out with too much force and not enough precision, but he was quick. I brought up my dagger yet again, blocking a jab that would have split my face in half. The blow made my arms ache, but I held. It was time to stop defending and get in a jab of my own. I twisted out from under his blade and took two steps back.

He came at me yet again, holding the blade over his head with both hands, but this time I was ready. I dipped under the oncoming blade and thrust my dagger up in one strong fluid motion. The dagger sunk into the soft tissue of his stomach, warmth pouring over my hand and dripping down my wrist and elbow. I ignored the nausea and swiped it to the side, gutting him.

His eyes widened in shock and pain, as he dropped his blade and collapsed forward. I quickly yanked the blade out of his gut, still ignoring the nausea that swelled up in me, and stepped to the side, letting him fall to the ground. He landed face down in the dirt, as I stood over him, my blade and hand covered in blood. My hand started to shake.

I had never killed anyone before.

It took all my willpower to stop my hand from shaking and to turn towards the battle again. I didn’t have time to dwell on the fact that I’d just gutted a man like a fish. The fight was still raging on around me, and I had to be careful. I’d been lucky with this guy, he had obviously been inexperience and not too bright. I mean seriously, who attacked like that? He’d left himself wide open.

I looked around, searching for my next opponent when my eye caught Khai. I’d never seen anything like it. He was fighting three bandits at once. Two short blades rested in his hands, but he moved so fast that they were no more than silver blurs. Despite the fact that he was fighting three men simultaneously, who were all taller and bigger than him, he seemed to be handling himself with ease. He moved with a speed and grace that I’d never thought possible.

Back at the Reservoir Aidan had been the best fighter we had. He was fast and strong and danced around his opponents with ease. Every time I’d gone up against him I’d lost within seconds. Now, as I watched Khai I suddenly realized that what we had learned at the Reservoir was nothing. Sure, Aidan was good, but Khai, Khai was absolutely amazing.

Suddenly the fight was over, the three men were on the ground, their eyes cold and empty, and Khai stood in the middle of them. He turned towards me and his eyes caught mine. The emotion I read in them startled me. There was a deep sadness in his eyes. Then the moment passed and it disappeared, replaced by a fierce determination as he turned towards his next opponent.

“Duck child”, sayd a voice behind me, and I obeyed instinctively, barely avoiding the arrow soaring through the air where my head had been. My heart thumped in my chest and I spun around.

The blonde woman, the one who had given me the dagger, thrust her sword through the archers stomach, yanked it out and came towards me.

“Are you trying to die? Standing there and staring like an idiot!”

I had no reply for that. She was right. Watching Khai fight had nearly cost me my life.

“Thank you.”

I looked her straight in the eye, trying to convey that I meant it, and she huffed.

“Fight or get out of here.”

With those words, she spun around and attacked a small group of bandits with a bold fierceness. After a split-second's hesitation, I followed her.

After that, the fight didn’t last much longer. I killed another man, again with more luck than skill, while the blonde woman took out the rest. They had been the last bandits standing; the others had either fled or were dead.

We hadn’t lost a single warrior, although some had suffered minor injuries. The bandits hadn’t been a match for the well-trained warriors of the Shemsuddin. I looked around at the carnage around me. More than twenty bandits had left their lives here, and another dozen had fled. But for us it was not over.

Everyone helped as we gathered up the bodies and piled them all up. I had never really thought about this before, but, of course, they couldn’t just let the corpses rot outside of the camp. I was of little help for this task, and when the fire wielders lit them up, I turned away and threw up.

A firm hand pulled the hair out of my face as I emptied my stomach. I turned around and smiled weakly at the blonde woman. She held out a bottle of water. I took a swig, and spat it out, trying to get the taste out of my mouth.

“You did fairly well child”, she said with an approving nod.

I took another swig to avoid having to reply.

“You’re that stranger they found in the desert aren’t you?”

I nodded.

“I’m Amara.”

She held out her hand and I took it.

“Kyra.”

“So where are you from?”

I wasn’t sure how to answer that. I was hesitant to let people know that I was from the Reservoir. Maybe the Elders had spies here, but then I took a deep breath.

“Grew up in the Reservoir.”

She gave me an odd look.

“The Reservoir? Is that that weird hippie community where they believe in all those Gods?”

“Yeah.”

“Hmpf. Don’t like that bunch. Thos Elders are dusty relics in my opinion. Why’d you leave?”

She sure was blunt, wasn’t she? But the question wasn’t one I wanted to answer. Suddenly all I wanted to do was get away, no longer see the dead burning bodies, no longer smell the blood. I searched for words to say when I suddenly felt a warm hand on my shoulder.

“Could I steal Kyra away for a second?”, Khai asked politely, and Amara shrugged as she walked away.

I let Khai steer me away from the fire and the stench of burning bodies, barely aware of my surroundings. We came to a stop by one of the oases near the camp, and he turned me so I was facing him.

“I saw you fight today. You did well”, he said, as he looked at me.

“I killed two men.”

I hadn’t meant to say that. I’d meant to thank you, but I didn’t feel like I’d done well. I felt cold, and nauseous. Suddenly my body started to shake, and I started breathing faster. A part of me realized that I was having a panic attack and felt embarrassed, but I couldn’t stop myself.

Khai’s warm hands came down on my shoulders, and I felt a soft calm wash over me. I looked up at him. His azure blue eyes were looking into mine

“How do you feel?”

“ Dirty. And sick. I don’t think I could ever get used to this.”

“Good.”

I looked at him in surprise, as he smiled at me, his eyes wandering off into the distance, towards the slowly rising sun. The fight must have lasted longer than I’d realized.

“Killing is a horrible thing. It’s nothing we should ever get used to.”

“But you’re a warrior.”

“Yes, I’m a warrior. But I don’t fight because I like to kill. I fight because I want others to live. I fight for my tribe, my people, my family, and my friends. Did you hear me at the beginning of the battle? I offered them a way out. I wish they’d taken it.”

His voice sounded tired, and in his eyes I saw that same sadness that I’d seen when he’d killed those three men. I let his words sink in, thinking them over in my head. I looked at him, his skin starting to glow golden in the light of the rising sun, and felt something like admiration rise up in me. I closed my eyes and sighed.

“So do I.”