Chapter 2 Nothing To Lose

Kari let out a breath he hadn’t known that he had been holding. Nerves and apprehension made themselves known, and he kicked Aster forward before they had time to paralyze him.

He made his choice hours ago, and now it was time to face the music.

The horse bounded forward and Kari could hear the blood pounding in his ears along with the muted drumming of Aster’s hooves on the grassy carpet underneath them. He pulled on the reins, slowing to a halt in the middle of the field and watching the flurry of activity as the enemy soldiers tried to figure out what he was doing and what was going on. It was rare for a lone person to approach such an army, especially one clearly from the Aithyean front lines.

He waited. He had time after all. All the time in the world, really.

The more confused they were, the longer they took, the more time he brought for Ilwe. Eventually, a large group of mounted soldiers cautiously made their way forward and Kari swung out of his saddle, gently rubbing Aster’s sweaty neck in goodbye.

“I’m sorry, Aster. You were a good horse. Thank you for carrying me so far,” he whispered before striding out in front of her.

The soldiers were rapidly getting closer and Kari took a deep breath, closing his eyes and focusing. The image of his Daiyan power appeared before his eyes, a tranquil pool of water similar to the rivers that used to flow through the forests near his home. Rocks lined the edge and bottom of the pool, along with soft earth and grassy banks. The surface of the liquid was covered in a thin layer of ice patterned with jagged fractures.

Overall, it was beautiful and deceivingly idyllic.

He mentally drew from that pool of liquid and felt the ice crawl through his veins with a thrilling chill. The air around him dropped in temperature and the blades of grass around his feet frosted over. He pushed out and felt the frost racing out in front of him towards his opponents.

Kari opened his eyes while continuing to draw from his reserve of ice. He could faintly make out his tattoo glowing silver under his long sleeves at the edge of his vision. It pulsed brighter and brighter the more power he drew and held onto.

His whole body thrummed with the icy chill his element brought to him. He let the breath he was holding out and lashed his hand out in front of his body. Large spikes of ice erupted from the frost underneath the soldier’s feet and tore through the unprotected underbellies of their mounts.

Kari flinched at the horses’ screams as they writhed in agony.

I‘m sorry. I am so, so sorry but I can’t have your masters get any further.

Death always twisted his gut with unpleasant feelings and the poor horses were innocent beings. He was usually used to help patrols retreat when they came upon enemy forces or for defense from arrows by erecting ice walls.

This would be his first time killing.

He was offering himself up in sacrifice for this deed in protecting his people, so he would just have to shut the blood and pain and fear out. Hopefully, he wouldn’t live long enough to question if the ends justified the means.

Several men didn’t get up after that initial burst, either trapped under their mounts, crushed by panicking hooves, or caught by the sheer force of the ice slicing through weak points in their armor. The sounds of the horses and the yelling and cursing from the men were shrill and grating in his ears. His fingers twitched with the need to cover them and block it all out.

Instead, he pushed out with his ice again and like geysers, they spewed forth from the ground with devastating force. The way the shards glittered in the sunlight would be beautiful if he could ignore the implication of the red blood oozing down the ice. Morbidly beautiful perhaps.

If only he could block out the screams. There were far more human voices in the cacophony now; screaming, sobbing, begging. The sounds were like physical pressure in his ears, ripping their way into his skull.

He caused this. His ice, what felt like the very essence of his soul had caused such pain and loss of life and this was only the beginning.

Kari’s stomach heaved, threatening to spill its contents onto the ground but he couldn’t stop. Not now. It was too late to do anything but see it through to the end.

Pushing himself away from his horse, Kari staggered forward as more soldiers approached the stricken group in a rush. Blearily, he made out archers in the distance, bows drawn and getting ready to fire. He mentally spread the frost across the grass in a larger arc in front of himself in preparation for needing a fast shield. For some reason, pushing ice out from the frosted-over ground had always been easier to him than the flashier way of shooting ice directly from his hands.

Right now, he needed to conserve as much power and energy as possible for as long as possible so he could buy the most time with his life. He wasn’t going to be selling his life cheaply, that was for sure.

The arrows were finally let loose and a sweeping gesture of his arm brought forth a wall of ice to cover himself.

An ear-splitting scream sounded from behind him and Kari stumbled. Aster. He couldn’t bring himself to turn around and see the arrows that had sailed over his wall to hit his innocent steed. He couldn’t bring himself to put the creature out of its misery either and perhaps that was the cruelest thing of all.

Anger welled up- at himself for his choice and at those who were invading his country, his home, those who had forced his hand- forced this series of heartbreaking choices. Kari grabbed onto that anger. It was a cold rage, so cold it burned and he let the feeling infuse his being until he could no longer see, no longer think but the anger.

And then he unleashed it.