Get up lad! roared Sir Bearach. Run!
With effort, Fionn shifted his weight to stand, though his muscles failed him. All he could do was watch helplessly as Morrígan strode towards him.
The girl made an elaborate gesture and a torrent of rain poured down over Fionn. He raised his hands to protect himself, but the moisture on his body quickly turned to ice, freezing him in place.
“Once more, our paths cross,” said Morrígan. Her voice was that of an adolescent girl, a stark contrast to the horrors she had wrought.
Fionn’s jaw was frozen shut. More moisture from the rain encircled him, encasing him in a thick layer of ice, like a crystal. Slowly, it began to rise, lifting him from the ground.
“Do you truly believe you can stop me?” she said, eyes locked on Fionn as he rose. “I want you to see what I am capable of, and I want you to despair. For even without an army of my own, I’ll throw back this one, and anything else Penance can manage!”
Fionn was now some twenty feet over the ground. Up here, her destruction was clearly visible, with a wide circle of injured and dying infantry all around her. More ice poured down onto the battlefield like arrows from the heavens. Morrígan stood amidst it all.
It's over, thought Fionn. She’s toying with us, like a child would with ants.
Look! said Sir Bearach. They’re coming!
Fionn glanced to the far end of the battlefield. A hundred elk and horses of the Triad’s cavalry came bursting from the forest: great, armoured beasts galloping through trees. Shimmering knights rode upon them, with huge lances and halberds in hand, all pointing towards Morrígan. The girl’s back was turned to them, as if unaware that the might of the Triad, the strength of the Simians, the last of Humankind, all massed, converging towards her. Lieutenant Bernice led the charge, clad in heavy plate of blue steel just like her steed, a great elk, with antlers spanning the length of two fully grown Simians. Many more knights followed. They charged into this new hell Morrígan had created, but they did so without fear or hesitation.
Fionn’s heart soared at the sight. Morrígan still didn’t seem to notice, and all it would take would be one lance, one of those blessed, brave knights to hold fast and end all of this for once and for all.
As the riders approached, Morrígan’s wings unfurled.
What Fionn had thought was a cloak was instead great, black-feathered wings emerging from Morrígan’s shoulders. Once covering her body, now they stretched out, like the branches from a blackened tree. Morrígan raised her arms, and the wings beat, causing her to rise above the ground. She rose until her eyes were level with Fionn’s. Far below them, the charging cavalry came to a lurching halt, some riders falling from their mounts.
“The Truth has been hidden from us,” she said. “I will kill every last man, woman, and child to learn it.”
A rumble came from beneath them. At the edge of the clearing, the ground appeared to shift, bulging upwards.
No, thought Fionn. What is she doing?
The ground shook again, this time more violently than before. Beneath the feet of the cavalry, a fissure formed. Then, like a yawning beast, the ground opened up.
Those in the centre fell right in, disappearing into the blackness below. Others tried to flee, but the cracks grew wider, until those running were consumed too.
Fionn look on helplessly as elks, horses, Humans and Simians alike shrieked, calling for help as the earth itself betrayed them. Walls of dirt rose high around the perimeter of the clearing, then moved inwards, closing in on those who had managed to outrun the crevasse.
Soon, the entire battlefield was consumed by the terrible cavity, as every soldier, knight, and animal that braved the charge against Morrígan fell into it. Now only Fionn remained, floating above the carnage, face to face with the Godslayer.
“You are nothing,” she said, reaching a hand to Fionn. Slowly the ice that encased him started to melt. “The Crown, the Church, the Triad, are all fleeting things in the face of the gods themselves. But I will rise above them too.”
Fionn’s body was abruptly freed from the prison of ice, and he found himself helplessly tumbling towards the ground.
But the ground was not there to greet him.
Far he fell into the pit, in silence and darkness. Then with a cracking thud, he landed on something hard, like steel. It writhed beneath him. Voices groaned and called and cried out all around him.
Bodies. He was surrounded by bodies, helplessly lying broken in this dark chasm.
I need to get out, he thought, scrambling to stand. Only now did he notice the pain in his legs, his arms, his back. Bones were surely broken, but a growing, pounding fear in his heart made it difficult to him to pinpoint exactly where the pain was.
He looked upwards towards the light, so far away. He reached for it, in vain, for he may as well have been trying to reach for the clouds.
Then, from either side of the hole high above, dirt began to trickle down upon him.
In the air, Morrígan now floated and stared down into the mass grave. Amidst the sound of desperate screams turning hoarse with terror, her cold smile was the last thing Fionn saw before the dirt covered his face. Before the walls closed in.
And the light faded.
***
“No,” muttered Farris, his knees growing weak.
By his side, Nicole remained silent. Along with the rest of the soldiers who had waited at the camp, they could do nothing but watch as the ground opened and swallowed the army that rode out to meet the girl.
“Fionn,” muttered Farris. “Plackart….”
“What do we do?” asked Padraig. “How can we fight her like this?”
Concerned mutters ran through the rest of the soldiers. Some Farris recognised from the Churchguard, those who had rode out under his command.
My command, he thought. I brought them here. To fight without plan. To lose without hope.
Crippling anxiety shook Farris’s chest once more, bringing water to his eyes. His lower jaw quivered, and another wave of terror moved up his spine.
She’s coming. She’s coming for the rest of us.
“We still have the Reapers,” said Nicole. “We make a last stand at the temple, to protect the Lady.”
