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Maybe Angels
Part VI
By Trey
trey@pumkin.globalnet.co.uk
Copyright Trey 1998
See Part I for full disclaimers.
Swords of justice and
Swords of truth
Angels doth salute us
As we ride pure white
With Pegasi sight
Into Fates of love before us
All angels were white. Underneath, they were all purest white.
Knol was no angel. What he did, he did in the interests of hate, of power, of wealth, and Rel saw now how the poison-butterfly had had wings, but was still a black-blood demon.
His eyes leapt with rising lust as his ebony chariot of raven fear thundered through her heart. He sprang, slashing his evil forwards, hell-wards, giving her no time to use attack as defence nor defend his attack. The wound was minor, an upper-arm gash on her unguarded side, but her will purveyed as she twisted round to retaliate. Halos and horns clashed as metal struck metal and sparks of divine horror flashed with virtuous Satanity.
Rel vanquished her partner's slight revocation at her counter-steps, and pressured him to repeal further, but her confidence only aided to rectify his; straining each muscle to work that bit harder, with that much more force. They parried as shadow-spirits danced around them in the haze, growing ever-more desperate to win, yet managing only to equal the other.
But the Amazon's concentration splintered as the mirage of Miaska battled valiantly over her opponent's shoulder; valiant in her effort, but not exultant in her skill. And as Rel fought with her body against Knol, her heart vaulted to her throat as she saw her friend faced against three Dray warriors.
'If there's one last thing you do for me, I ask it be that you find happiness.'
Were they not Ephiny's words? Her happiness in this world relied - no, depended - on Miaska alone...
Knol's heel came from nowhere. She gagged as it powered into her abdomen, knocking the wind from her in one blow. She staggered back, tried to regain her poise, but he struck again, and again. Each kick constituted a cry of anguish from her doubled form, and fresh gleams of delight which fuelled the next. There was no help from the Winged Ones on their clouds; they offered but shrieks of alarm and huddled worry, no holy marvel or saintly saviour.
Rel fell. This time, Xena's arm did not catch her, and she crashed not into the warrior's back, but the unmerciful stone of earth. Every bone jarred trying to cushion her breaking heart, every fibre caring not for the raw pain as she rammed into the ground, focusing all verve on thoughts of Miaska fighting somewhere above her. She couldn't give up, Xena hadn't through the smoke, and she wouldn't now.
Knol was standing a little way off, pitiful sarcasm raising his eyebrows. The blonde set her jaw and gritted her teeth, swallowing back the pain and damming its energy. Then, with slow, resolute determination, she stood. Her eyes were fixed on him as her fingers clenched round the hilt of Toak's sword.
He launched the attack again, but this time she was ready; she dodged left away from his assault, thrusting her blade hard into his rib-cage. He choked, dropping his weapon and falling to his knees as she wrenched it back. There was no joy in the act, it was simply a matter of overcoming a hurdle, a challenge to her happiness, her life. She had to find Miaska.
***
Rift turned from the young warrior he had been tending the wounds of, hearing the yells of his men.
'Knol's dead!'
'Knol's fallen!'
They were drawing back, daunted by the death of their commanding officer, and Rift watched. He saw Amazons strengthen at his loss, saw them rise up with new courage. His wisdom noted the bodies surrounding his Second, so nearly his successor, acknowledged that their defeat be best known by the mouths of those who fought, than by travellers in some tavern.
He mounted his horse, jerking the reins and rearing it high on its haunches, 'Retreat!'
The single call was echoed by nearby Raiders and Drays alike:
'Retreat! Knol's dead! RETREAT!'
The rest were quick to obey, the time for heroism had passed.
***
Miaska sheathed her sword as the two remaining Drays fled in the wake of their leader. She smiled vaguely as Amazons span past her, calling ecstatically to each other through the dwindling smoke. Her vision searched the ruins of her heart; where was -
'Miaska?'
The emotion which tinged her name made the older Amazon's heart leap. Never before had she heard it spoken with such gentle desire, such affection...such love. It was half whispered, half sung, and softly chorused through her soul. The devotion she held for her friend drove her beyond any inner boundaries of conduct or prejudice, their love was not to be lawfully overruled nor judged by anyone.
Rel stood to her left, skin and hair toned black and red, but eyes gleaming with incessant green warmth.
The young Amazon didn't need innocence to veil her now, truth deceived no one. Her past deeds were declared to the world, while she had repented and been granted clemency. She and Rel were together again, their mirrored understanding, their friendship, revived.
Suddenly the blonde's body jolted forward, Miaska moved to catch her, 'Wha...?'
Rel staggered into her arms, blood trickling from her mouth and eyes seizing with pain. Miaska stared with horror at the arrow protruding from her companion's back as Amazons started running to help.
Ephiny was among them. She neared her sister, fighting the urge to gasp at the sight of her friend's injury.
'Find Xena, someone find Xena!' she ordered, turning; trying to locate where the arrow had come from.
Knol grinned as tribe members towered over his half-sitting, half-lying form; the wound in his mid-section draining his life into the soil. Ephiny pushed through her friends, grimacing at the cross-bow still held in his boned fingers. Her lip curled and she drew her sword, relishing the fear as his breathing hastened uneasily.
Xena skidded down beside Rel. The girl was shaking as winter froze her soul, numbing her senses and thoughts.
Miaska glanced up. Her tears speaking more than any language, any speech, ever could; the dark warrior knew the requisition. She knew what Rel meant to the other Amazon, knew because it to be what Gabrielle meant to her.
Her fingers examined the damage, she had seen worse, but still her mind prayed silently that she be guided in this task.
Her bard appeared from the crowd, only Xena seeing the hidden shock which passed through her eyes as she grabbed some rags from a sister Amazon and prepared to aid in any way she could.
'We'll have to break the shaft.'
Gabrielle nodded.
Rel felt her hand being squeezed tighter in Miaska's. The blood-loss was blocking her hearing, and all became a regression of empty silence and deafening sound. She couldn't hear Xena, didn't prepare for the violent thrust of pain as the arrow head ripped through the front of her stomach; her scream threw thunder-bolts through the angel-heavens and ice fractures of tears.
Her breath became rasped, the agony too much for her mortal body to withstand.
'Get the rags ready!' Xena commanded.
Amazons clustered round the undenied blonde, constructing a living wall of concern, of shelter.
The Warrior Princess snapped the arrow-head and braced herself. She gripped the shaft with one hand and Rel's shoulder with the other...then pulled.
Arms and faces flashed across the young Amazon's vision as she felt herself jolting into wild seizures. Darkness shattered light, shards of sin cleaving her soul and slashing at her bloodied fingers-tips which still grasped frantically at life.
Ephiny and Gabrielle both assisted Xena in her despairing attempts to stop the bleeding, but the wound was far beyond even her healing powers.
Rel's shudders slowed, but were enlivened in the hearts of every other in her company.
'C-Cadii, t-t-take Toak's....Toak's Rite...'
Cadii, one of Toak's closest friends in life, was somewhat stunned by the request, but accepted quickly - acknowledging that Time was not looking upon them favourably.
'No, Rel...you're going to be - we're going to be...' Miaska trailed, her silver tears reflecting those of the cloudless angels.
Xena had never felt as helpless as that moment. There were two lives here, two - not one - didn't anyone understand that? She felt herself looking into the eyes of the seven-year-old child. There had been two lives then too, why hadn't she seen it? If the tides were reversed, if it were Gabrielle lying there now...
How could she have been so blind?
Of all the lives to wreck, of all the people in the world, why was Rel lying there and she, alone, the killer? It wasn't just nations she destroyed, but families, friendships, and even now - even now, as she tried so hard to fight her past - still it continued the bloodshed.
'We'll always be together,' Rel whispered to Miaska, 'a-always.'
'Rel, no...don't leave...please...don't leave me...I - I...' angels wailed around them, 'I need you.'
Gabrielle rested her arm on Xena's as Miaska sank closer to her soul mate.
'How am I suppose to go on without you? I won't, I can't...please - please Rel, stay. Stay with me, don't leave, now - ever.....please...'
Rel smiled at the beckoning angels, '...always...'
*****
Xena stared down at the mirrored moon below her. In the distance, somewhere behind, drums beat, Amazons danced, and fires buzzed in the shrine as the tribe was forced to retreat to its sanctity; their village all but ashes.
The Vindasha had gone ahead, and despite the decreased numbers, the ones remaining seemed to want a way of escape from the loss of life.
Xena wasn't among them. There had been nowhere to bury the 28 dead Amazons, so a pyre had been built for each, made from the charred wood of their home, and pushed out across Xerisus lake. They drifted now, flames of hope burning high into the blackness as the dark warrior watched.
She could pick out Rel's, the fire leaping highest, strongest, but then that was always Rel.
The soft rustle of moving grass ushered Gabrielle's sombre shadow from the night. She sat next to her friend on the moss-cushioned log, and one might have assumed the scene to be much the same as that in the Amazon hut, but no. There was no discomfort, no avoidance; just pure understanding.
'It's beautiful.' the bard noted, watching the flames dance on the water. They were appended by dozens, hundreds, of tiny wax angels, candles taken from the shrine and released by each member of the tribe.
Xena merely nodded.
'Rel's with her brother now, Jason, he'll look after her.' came Gabrielle's assurance.
The warrior's silence broke as she smiled, 'Oh, I don't think Rel needs looking after by anyone.'
Her friend seemed not convinced, 'We all need someone.'
Xena's smile faded. She couldn't see Miaska, but she knew she was down on the lake shore, alone.
'Will I ever be free, Gabrielle?'
The question didn't throw the bard, for her thoughts ran so closely to Xena's that she could almost hear them before they were spoken. The warrior was thinking of all her victims, all the Rels of the world she still had yet to face.
She didn't reply immediately. The gentle night breeze wrapped itself around the pair, its coolness making their skin tingle as their thoughts swirled through the fire, water and velvet-clear sky.
'Rel forgave you.' she finally answered, 'If you are worthy of forgiveness, you're worthy of freedom.'
Xena mused over her friend's words, listening to the mournful wolf cry glide across the lake.
'But you know,' the bard continued, 'that you have to forgive yourself, to free yourself.'
Xena sighed as Gabrielle's head rested on her shoulder, could she forgive herself? Maybe. Maybe one day. But whenever that day came, whenever that era dawned, she and Gabrielle would be waiting, together...always.
Life of death and
Death of life
We live in love
We die in strife
Until we touch their silver wings
And innocence becomes us
