The Defeat of the Silver Witch - Chapter 1 - Part 1

Chapter 1: Betrayal - Part 1

The crude steam powered vehicle bumped slowly down the heavily rutted road. Black clouds of coal smoke belched from its smokestack and it swayed perilously from side to side at every irregularity in the road. However, there was little chance of its lone occupant being thrown off. Shackled between two heavy wooden uprights on a platform at the rear of the engine, Kiara, called the Silver Witch by her enemies, yanked helplessly at the chains that held her, her waist-length blonde mane whipping about her in her frenzied attempt to escape. Treacherously betrayed by the one man she trusted, she had been stripped of her weapons and armour and wore nothing but a scrap of cloth that barely covered the most intimate area of her body.

She would have screamed in rage had she been able, but a leather-wrapped bar gag prevented her from uttering anything coherent; eliminating her ability to call on her powers. The engine was accompanied by a parade of jeering, shouting Orcs. At long last they had their most feared enemy at their mercy and they made the best of it. Just yards away the cruel enemy she had held at bay for half a decade rode parallel to her, mounted on a massive morgortuk, a huge quadruped twice the size of the largest horse. The powerful animal stood three yards tall and was formidably armed with huge tusks that jutted from its mouth and still others that protruded from its boney forehead. From its back its half-Orc rider grinned down at her in triumph.

"Give it up, Silver Witch," the Orc chieftain sneered, commenting on her violent attempts to escape. "You will not be free of those chains unless I wish it. And that will not happen until I have taken full enjoyment of that perfect body. Nothing now stands in my way. All of Varnia fall before me and you are mine to do with as I wish."

Kiara knew that his boast was not quite accurate. He still did not know the location of her greatest weapon; the mystical Stones of the Moon, ancient artifacts that gave their user incredible power. And she would never tell him where they were; not even if he stripped her skin from her body and roasted what was left of her.

Ignoring his advice she strained once more at the chains that held her. Normally her ability to draw on her powers would have enabled her to snap the metal bonds as if they had been straw, but without her voice she had been reduced to little more than normal strength. She was still a formidable warrior; tall and strong with powerful arms and shoulders, and long, exquisitely muscled legs. But she was completely unable to break the shackles that held her helpless and exposed before her sneering captor.

"You will be my ultimate prize," Mortok continued. "I will force those elegant legs apart and take you until you scream for mercy and then I will take you again and again until you finally react the way a woman should. And when I have finally succeeded in doing that I will force you to tell me the hiding place of the Stones of the Moon."

That is not going to happen, she thought. Nothing he can do will make me give him access to such terrible power.

Mortok grinned, revealing his fighting fangs. It was as if he had read her thoughts. "You are thinking that you will not tell me the whereabouts of the Stones. But you will soon be glad to tell me anything I ask."

For a brief moment Kiara felt hope flare within her. If she was allowed to speak.... But she knew that Mortok was not stupid enough to give her back her voice.

Mortok jabbed his goad into the flank of the morgortuk, pushing the beast into a gallop. It thundered ahead, its long strides carrying him quickly out of sight.

Where are they taking me? Perhaps Mortok simply wanted to display her to his troops, but she suspected that he had something else in mind. The Orc chieftain was nothing if not inventive when it came to tormenting his enemies and what he had done to her so far was mild compared to what he usually did to his captives.

But of course he wants me alive. Dead I can tell him nothing, and dead I will be before I give him the faintest clue as to the whereabouts of the Stones.

She knew that resistance meant facing brutal torture. But the Stones were the last hope of humanity. Without them they faced a cruel future beneath the yoke of the Orcs.

A drop of water splashed onto her face. And then another. Rain. As the drops fell more quickly she raised her face to the sky allowing moisture to fall into her open mouth. She had been given nothing to drink since being taken prisoner and was weak from thirst. The first hours of travel had exposed her to the full heat of the afternoon sun, and the moisture had been sucked from her body.

The rain increased in intensity, cooling her overheated body and allowing her to gulp down enough water to slake her thirst. But now she faced another trial as the rain continued to fall, turning her waist-length blonde hair into a sodden mass that clung to her body and chilled her nakedness. Soon it was a full-blown downpour that scattered her jeering escort and left her even more miserable than before.

Only one rider continued to shadow the cart. Kiara could not see him from where she stood, but she knew he was there and her anger and sense of betrayal was profound. Edmund, her once-upon-a-time lover and the man who had promised his loyalty to her cause. Instead he had delivered her into a clever trap; isolating her from her allies and leaving her to fight Mortok alone.

It had been a brilliantly arranged ambush, turning the tables on her by using her own tactics against her. For two years she had fought a ruthless and bloody guerrilla campaign, using her mystical abilities to take on forces much larger than her own and deal the invading Orc army defeat after defeat. In hindsight she should have realized that Mortok's victory was inevitable. His forces outnumbered hers by a factor of at least fifty. Only her magic and a strategy of brilliant hit and run raids had given her any chance.

That was the reason she had turned to Edmund in the first place. As skilled and inventive a warrior as she was, her little band had no chance against the larger, better equipped Orc armies. Edmund, as ruler of Roxhambin, offered the something she desperately needed; recruits for her cause, and a safe haven from which she could operate.

It had worked for a few months. Roxhamblin's remote locate in the Mountains of Despair made it an almost impregnable stronghold; one that even Mortok hesitated to attack. She had taken Edmund as her lover; binding him to her she thought by a bond stronger than any political agreement, and from the safety of his mountain bastion she had launched savage attacks against Mortok's Orc armies.

She had struck everywhere Mortok was vulnerable, hitting supply depots, sabotaging bridges, ambushing patrols, wiping out isolated Orc outposts, and attacking and destroying supply caravans. Each raid in itself did not amount to much, but taken as a whole they eventually drew Mortok's attention.

His response was to send a full army against her, but by that time she had retreated into the mountain fastness of Roxhamblin, a kingdom approachable only through a maze of canyons that offered hundreds of ambush points. Mortok's casualties were enormous and his army limped back from the attack with nothing to show for its efforts except thousands of dead and wounded.

However, there was more than one strategy available to Mortok. He might not be able to reach the Silver Witch in her lair, but he had the numbers to seal off Edmund's mountain kingdom, preventing anything from getting in or out. Kiara continued her raids, but Edmund found himself completely cut off from the outside world, the weak economy of his tiny kingdom strangled.

She should have seen his betrayal coming. But love works both ways. She thought Edmund bound to her through the strength of their physical relationship. She forgot that a man like Edmund might have weaknesses that could be exploited by her enemies. In short she had not reckoned with Edmund's profound cowardice or his even more profound sense of greed. Kiara didn't know how much Mortok had offered Edmund to betray her; but it was probably more than his miserable little barony made in several years. She had not the slightest inkling of treachery when he had supplied her with information that sent her on the road to betrayal.

It had begun when a messenger arrived while she and Edmund were planning the next raid. She had no idea that Edmund had ordered the messenger to arrive at that exact moment.

"I have news, Majesty," the messenger said as he went to one knee before the king. "A spy in the Orc camp has revealed that Mortok is planning a surprise inspection of one of his forward camps. His planned route will take him near Greenstone Canyon."

Kiara was familiar with the messenger. He was called Glendor and was a trusted member of the spy network she had established to track Mortok's movements. She had used his information to launch several successful attacks. "Greenstone Canyon," she had murmured moving to the map spread out on a nearby table. She jabbed her finger at the map. "That would take him within five leagues of our most forward camp. How many troops accompany him?"

"I don't know, my lady," Glendor answered. "But it is rumored he plans to travel quickly. I doubt that he will have an escort of more than a few hundred."

"Still too many," Kiara muttered. "But this is too good a chance to pass up. If we could capture or kill Mortok his empire would shatter into rival factions. The Orc terror would be over."

"It is too dangerous, my love," Edmund objected. "We cannot afford to lose you in some desperate attempt to kill Mortok."

"As you well know I can look after myself," she replied. "Mortok will not expect an attack as he will believe his movements to be unknown to us."

Edmund had protested further, but he had never managed to dissuade her from any action once her mind was made up. With a force of one hundred picked warriors she moved to intercept Mortok.

The camp Mortok planned to visit was a heavily fortified position guarding the crude track that issued from Greenstone Canyon. It was one of the many camps he had established to blockade Roxhamblin. It was located on a hill overlooking the road and consisted of a garrison of over two hundred Orcs and Humans. Surrounded by a stockade it would not be easy to assault. But Kiara was sure of success; confident that her mystical powers would compensate for the small size of her attack force as they had done so many times before. Two days before Mortok was to arrive she and her warriors moved into Greenstone Canyon and waited.

The canyon was the perfect hiding place. It contained large deposits of low quality jade which accounted for its name. A small stream splashed down most of its length, running between sheer walls that rose several hundred yards. An enemy force approaching the entrance to the canyon would find itself marching into a narrow defile barely wide enough for five men to march side by side. The mouth of the canyon was also high enough that a scout near its entrance could easily watch the hill fort Mortok was expected to visit.

"I will take the forward post," Edmund volunteered. "With luck I will see Mortok before he reaches the safety of the fort."

Kiara nodded. She didn't like Edmund exposing himself to danger, but she dared not show favouritism; not even to her lover, if she expected the men and women who followed her to expose themselves to similar danger. She watched as he and two others moved to the mouth of the canyon and then disappeared into a grove of trees. As the vegetation closed about him she experienced a strange sensation that this would be the last time she would see him. A chill ran down her spine. She had experienced similar premonitions before and always there had been something to them. She shook it off. He had done this many times before and to call him back would demean him in the eyes of those he commanded.

He'll be back, she thought. She didn't know how true that was, but not in the way she expected.

The sun had moved only a short distance in the morning sky before the attack began. It was announced with the arrival of a huge fireball that landed right on the edge of the camp. It exploded, sending burning liquid splashing over several warriors unlucky enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Kiara knew at once what it was. It was a missile launched from a steam-powered catapult. She had seen such fiendish weapons used before and knew what she had to do to deal with them. She rushed forward and shouted in the ancient language of the mages; a language so old that its original meaning had been lost and now remained only as words of power.

"Dghapff!" A wall of air pushed out from her and hurled the blazing fireball out of the canyon. But it was too late for three of those who had been struck by it. Two were dead and the third was writhing in pain from his burns.

But there was no time to use her healing skills to help the fallen warrior, a second fireball rose from the Orc fort. Two catapults. A heavy investment for so small a stronghold. Even as the thought ran through her mind a third fireball rose behind the second. Incredibly it seemed that the Orcs had three catapults in the fort.

She ran to the mouth of the canyon and shouted a second spell. "LMUTGBR POIUT!" The fireball was caught in mid-flight and hurled back the way it had come. She shouted again and turned the third fireball back on those who had sent it.

Black smoke mixed with streams of orange fire rose from the Orc fort. Even from where she was Kiara could hear the screams of the Orcs and men inside its walls.

Kiara panted from the effort of repelling the attack. Using such powerful magic used a great deal of energy and although her powers of recovery were far beyond those of ordinary warriors it still required considerable effort; especially the two spells she had hurled over the distance to the fort. But there was no time to rest. Somehow the Orcs knew that Kiara and her warriors were in the canyon. They must have had a scout watching the position although Kiara had sent two warriors ahead to scout the canyon before moving into it. Whatever the reason they had clearly been discovered and now had to deal with the situation.

It was either retreat or carry the battle to the enemy and there was never any doubt in Kiara's mind as to what she would do. "Attack," she shouted. She rushed out of the canyon, intent on closing with the fort and using her power to smash through the walls. Without the slightest hesitation her warriors followed her.

Kiara presented an astounding vision. With her long blonde hair streaming behind her she rushed down the slope toward the fort. She brandished her favourite weapon, a double bladed polearm. Each blade was the length of her forearm and she whirled the weapon above her head as she ran. As was her custom, she wore minimalist armour, preferring to rely upon her powers to ward off enemy spears and arrows. As a result she wore only a light filigree of metal over her breasts and a white skirt split up the sides to reveal most of her long legs. Her only other attire was a pair of sandals that matched the colour of her skirt and silver bands on her wrists and biceps.

However, it hardly mattered what she wore. Her purpose was to close with the enemy as quickly as possible and wipe out the garrison before the steam catapults could be reloaded. She could deal with them, but fighting a long-distance duel was not to her advantage.

It quickly turned out, however, that fighting this battle was not to her advantage. She was halfway to the fort when the gates opened and hundreds of Orc soldiers rushed toward her. They were joined by hundreds more on both flanks; soldiers who had been lying hidden in trees that lay to either side of the canyon; the same vegetation that Edmund had disappeared into.

No! Edmund must have run right into the ambush! But there was no time to think about that now. She and her warriors were out in the open with more Orcs than she could count rushing at them from three sides. There was only one thing to do and that was to retreat to where they had been and hope the narrow confines of the canyon would allow them to fight off their assault.

A trap. And I ran right into it. If the Orcs had waited just a few moments longer before attacking....

She called on her power, compressing the air around her just as a shower of arrows and spears descended upon her and the warriors around her. "Back," she shouted. "Back to the canyon."

She renewed the shield several times before they reached the relative safety of the canyon. The effort left her breathing hard and bathed in sweat, but she had saved the lives of the warriors that followed her.

The Orcs piled into the canyon after her, but they ran into a wall of metal. While Kiara kept off the rain of arrows and spears her warriors cut down Orc after Orc until there was a pile of bodies at the entrance to the canyon that was so deep the attackers had to clamber over them to continue their assault. But still they kept coming, giving Kiara no time to recover, and her warriors were dying as well. Already their desperate defence had left almost half of them dead or wounded. They could not keep up such a resistance much longer and she finally decided upon a desperate ploy. "Force them back and then on my word retreat," she ordered. "Form up once again a hundred yards back. Make sure that it is at least a hundred yards. I need room for this to work."

Not sure what she had in mind, her loyal warriors surged forward, pushing the Orcs back onto the barrier of corpses. "Now!" Kiara yelled.

Her warriors rushed back and she retreated with them, dropping the shield of compressed air as she did so. A hundred yards from where she had started she halted and gathered all of her power into her. For a few seconds she let it build and then she released it all at once.

An explosive wall of air rushed down the canyon, its narrow walls compressing it even more. It picked up everything in its path; boulders, bodies, trees and shrubs, fallen weapons, and even the water of the stream itself and hurled out of the mouth of the canyon in a gigantic blast that killed every living thing in its path. It was like the firing of a gigantic gun and it shattered the Orc army.

It also left Kiara completely exhausted. She went to her knees, unable to stand while her warriors ran to her side. "I'm all right," she gasped. "Just give me a few moments to recover."

She could feel her strength slowly returning, but even as she was helped to her feet several Orcs appeared at the mouth of the canyon. They were not as thick as before, but there were still enough to mount a charge toward what was left of Kiara and her band. Her warriors leapt to her defence, giving her still more time to recover and Kiara picked up her polearm. Her strength had returned, but her power was depleted. It would return, but she needed time to fully recover and she did not have the luxury of being able to rest. Shouting her battle cry she rushed forward and joined in the hand to hand combat.

She whirled amongst the enemy like a blonde demon, her weapon scything down enemies as she drove deep into their ranks. Inspired by her example her warriors redoubled their efforts and pushed into the Orcs. The Orcs fell back under the onslaught and then began to retreat. In a few moments the retreat had turned into a route as the remaining Orcs turned and ran. Too exhausted to follow, the victorious Humans watched them run. And then their supposed victory vanished as Orcs piled into them from behind.

Kiara and her remaining warriors had almost no time to react to the fact that somehow the Orcs had managed to get behind them. They fought frantically for their lives as they were engulfed on all sides by the enemy. One by one they fell, until only Kiara was left. She spun like a whirlwind in the midst of her enemies determined to die fighting. But she was not granted that wish. Instead of trying to kill her the Orcs threw themselves at her, ignoring her slashing blades in an effort to take her alive. She killed and wounded more than a dozen of them before one Orc managed to catch hold of her hair. He jerked hard, almost pulling her off her feet and then her weapon was seized. While Kiara struggled to get it back another Orc grabbed her right arm and then another caught hold of her legs. Struggling frenziedly she was lifted off her feet, her body held by a half dozen Orcs. Then ropes were produced and it was all over. She was bound hand and foot and a gag was stuffed into her mouth. In that condition she was carried triumphantly from the canyon to the fort, and it was there that she was placed upon the catapult platform on top of the steam engine and chained in place. Only then did Mortok, who had apparently watched the entire battle from a distance, put in an appearance, and only then did Kiara catch sight of Edmund riding with the Orc chieftain.

Betrayed. Edmund's perfidy filled her mouth with bile. She had been led neatly into a trap and she had not had the faintest inkling of its coming. Now she rode above all of her enemies utterly defeated.

Continued in Chapter 1 - Part 2

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