The Last Stand (The Eleven Years War: Book One)
Chapter Nine

Elise stared up at the ceiling of herroom in the church, listening to the pattering of the rain on the roof as shetried to fall asleep that night. She felt sick, sick and numb from everythingthat had happened to her in the past few days. Within the space of five days(had it really only been that long?) she’d met Olrick, been saved by him twice,learned that her brother had been killed, met the monster that had invadedcountless countries and was beginning to take over her own, buried her ownfather; none of it felt real to her. She kept thinking that none of it couldpossibly be happening: this wasn’t something that happened in real life.However, what was happening to her couldn’t have been more real.

Shewas fairly sure that she’d managed to fall asleep, because the next thing sheknew, she was hearing a commotion outside her bedroom door.

Elisesat up and rubbed her eyes, confused. What was going on? It sounded likesomeone was breaking into the church…

Fearseized her. She got out of her bed, walked over to the bag filled with some ofher belongings, and pulled out the small knife Milo had given her before heleft for training out of it, just in case. As the noise died down and all grewquiet outside, she unsheathed the knife and stared at the door, mentallypreparing herself to hurt whoever she would replace on the other side.

Finally,her bedroom door began to creak open. She pointed her knife at the door,squinting at the door as light from a lantern flooded her room. Standing in herdoorway was a thoroughly soaked figure clad in a dark gray cloak and two swordsstrapped to a belt around his waist. Alistair stood behind him, still dressedin his bedclothes.

Elisehesitated, slowly lowering the knife. It couldn’t be him, could it?

“O-olrick,what’s going on?” she asked. Even though she knew that she wasn’t in immediatedanger, she still felt fear rising up inside her.

“Ineed you to hurry and get dressed,” Olrick said. His voice was steady and calm,but it was all too easy to see the fear in his eyes. “We need to leave; now!”Without another word, Elise yanked a dress on from her bag on and tied hercloak around herself while Olrick and Alistair turned around in order to giveher some privacy.

Onceshe was dressed and ready to go, she stepped outside her room, where Olrick waswaiting. When he heard her coming, Olrick and Alistair turned around.

“Doyou two want a blessing before you go?” Alistair asked. Olrick hesitated, thenshook his head.

“Idon’t think we have the time for that,” he said sadly. Alistair nodded inunderstanding.

“Then,I guess this is goodbye,” he said. Elise had a sinking feeling in her stomach;she didn’t want to think of this as a goodbye. That would mean that she’d really be abandoning everything she’dever known, something that she really didn’t want to think about. “I’ll lightcandles for each of you.”

“Thankyou,” Olrick said. He looked over at Elise. “Are you ready?”

For a few seconds, she found herselfhesitating to answer: how could she possibly be ready to leave behindeverything she’d ever known? She eventually found herself nodding, though.There was nothing left for her, there; the Giskens had destroyed everythingshe’d ever known.

Thetwo of them stepped outside.

Thenight was dark and cold, filled with the sound of the rain pelting the earthand distant thunder claps as another spring storm passed through the town. Thehouses were dark as Thaos’ other inhabitants tried to sleep, the dark smokecoming from the chimneys being the only signs of life. For a few seconds, thetwo hid behind the church as Olrick looked around, searching for Giskens. Therain soaked their clothes, chilled them to the bone. Elise found herselfwrapping her thin, dark green cloak around herself tighter, trying to getherself warmer, but it didn’t work.

Finally,after a few seconds, the two ran out from behind the house and towards theneighboring home.

Asthey ran, Elise looked to the side to see what Olrick had been staring at. Standingat the far end of the town was a group of Giskens, patrolling Thaos’ streetsfor people breaking the curfew. They were talking to each other, seeminglyoblivious to the fact that both of their prisoners were escaping.

Somethingcaught on her foot just as she was about to reach the safety of a nearby house.The next thing she knew, she was landing in the mud with a wet smack, her anklethrobbing painfully.

Theblood drained from her face as the Giskens began shouting at her. She was theonly one they’d seen, though, and Elise found herself praying that Olrick wouldkeep running so they wouldn’t catch him, too; Elise knew that she’d be in deeptrouble when they caught her, but Olrick… if they caught him trying to escapefor a second time, they would kill him.

He didn’t keeprunning, though. As she scrambled to her feet and the Giskens ran towards her,Olrick came back for her. He pulled her up to her feet and the two beganrunning for the main road that led out of the town.

Elisehad never run so fast in her life, and despite that, she found herself laggingbehind Olrick, who ran faster than anyone she’d ever met. He didn’t let herfall too far behind; he had a white knuckle grip on her arm as they ran out ofThaos, with the Giskens following close behind. The mud sucked at her boots,dragging them behind, the shouts of the Giskens got closer and closer with eachpassing second; with each wet footfall, they became closer and closer togetting caught. She knew it; he knew it.

Finally,after a minute or so of running, Olrick pulled her ahead of him and stoppedrunning. He pulled his sword out of its sheathe and turned around to face theGiskens.

“Run!”he yelled. For a few seconds, Elise didn’t follow his instruction; she stoppedand watched him as he began to stall them.

She’dknown that he could hold his own, but it wasn’t until then that she saw justhow well he could handle a sword. He ducked and wove around Giskens as hefought them, like these skilled swordsmen were nothing but children: he matchedparry for parry, blow for blow, fast enough that she had just started taking inone move as he finished another. Even so, she could see past the strong façadehe put up. She could see him wincing in pain with each blow he blocked, shecould see that every swing pained him; if he kept it up, he was going to die onthat muddy road like some sort of animal, all so she would be able to have afew minutes more of freedom.

AfterOlrick had fought the fourth Gisken, Elise found her own prophecy coming true.The next one he faced off was Blair, and though it lasted longer than any ofthe other fights, she knew that he wouldn’t be able to win. About a minute intothe fight, Blair smacked Olrick on the side of his head, hard. He fell to theground on his stomach, not moving.

Elise’sblood turned ice cold as she stared at Olrick’s unmoving body. Had Blairmanaged to kill him? After a few seconds, she saw some signs that he was stillalive: he began to moan quietly as he slowly lifted himself off the ground, hisarms shaking.

“Why,isn’t this a familiar situation?” Blair asked, his voice eerily calm. It sent achill up her spine as he rolled Olrick onto his back with his foot. He steppedon his neck and held his flame-edged sword over his head. Olrick kicked,squirmed, tried to pull Blair’s foot off of his neck as he choked, but none ofit worked. He was stuck, right where Blair wanted him. “Are you going to begfor your life like that other whelp of a Watchman?”

Awarm tingling began to erupt in Elise fingers. When she looked down at them,she saw small, flickering flames dancing between them.

Realizationand determination began to bloom inside her. For the entire week, Elise couldonly stand there and watch as awful things happened to people she cared about.She’d watched as Bram and the Giskens mercilessly beat Olrick, she’d allowedthem to kill her father, she was powerless to help Milo; however, this time,she could do something. She would dosomething.

Justas Blair went in for the kill, Elise threw the flames at him as hard as shecould.

Thelargest ball of flame she’d ever created – no, ever seen - flew out from her hands, taking with it every ounce ofwarmth and strength she had. Time seemed to slow as the bright, orange tendrilssnatched at Blair’s clothes and set them alight.

Elisewas faintly aware that Blair had started screaming, however, it soundedmuffled. She began to shiver, colder than she’d ever been before, and small,black dots began to dance in her vision. She hadn’t even realized that she’dfallen to her knees until she saw Olrick running toward her.

Thelast thing she remembered was Olrick yelling her name before she passed out.

No, Olrick kept thinking as he heldElise’s cold, wet, limp body. Please,Gods not again! He pressed his ear to her chest, hoping – praying – that he hadn’t managed to getMilo and his entire family killed within two weeks of each other.

Hecould feel her chest rising and falling: she was still alive.

“Isshe alright?” Instinctively, Olrick turned around and pointed his sword at thevoice’s owner. It was Finn, the young, Gisken captain who usually got put incharge of watching him when they weren’t busy interrogating him. He seemed tohave his heart in the right place, despite the fact that he was a Gisken; hedidn’t even lift his sword to defend himself, the bastard.

“Idon’t know,” Olrick said as he sheathed his sword. He picked Elise up andstood, despite protests from his injured shoulders. He could feel her shakinglike a leaf in his arms.

Blair groaned as hecontinued to roll around in the mud, writhing in pain. They looked over at him,Finn with fear, Olrick almost sympathetically. Both of them, he was sure, werefeeling sick at the scent of burnt flesh. Finn gently picked him up, doing hisbest to not touch the burns. When he heaved Blair over his shoulder, making himshriek in pain after having his burns touched, he looked like he was on theverge of throwing up.

“We need to get thesetwo back to Thaos,” he said. “They need to see a doctor.”

Olrick found himself hesitating. Thiswhole incident had added a whole new problem into the situation, one that wasbig enough that he found himself rethinking his entire plan. They were, originally,going to escape to Asfalis, the town just a few miles up the road that was hometo the headquarters of the intelligence section of the army. Now he foundhimself beginning to reconsider that plan. Elise looked like death: she was stonecold, like a corpse, her body shook, her skin was the color of flour; as far ashe knew, she would die before the night was through if he didn’t get her to adoctor, soon.

However, there wasthe problem of being recaptured if he were to go anywhere near Thaos to beconsidered, as well.

Finally, he shook hishead.

“You and I both knowwhat will happen if I step foot into Thaos again,” he said. “I think I’ll takemy chances.” He could see that Finn desperately wanted to argue with him, buthe didn’t. He simply closed hiseyes and sighed.

“Good luck,” he said.Olrick nodded.

“You two.” With that,he turned around and began running down the road towards Asfalis, Elise cradledin his arms.