The Keeper's Codex: Ashen Memories

by A. D. Wills

  “Do it Sappo, launch the first shot,” Snillrik said whilst locking their eyes on the guards through their monocle.

  Sappo hesitated if only for a second, before he pressed down on the latch activating the chunk of glynt Snillrik had embedded inside the device.

  The device launched the loaded boulder into the sky, hurling far above the rooftops, and crashed down a few feet in front of the guards along the edge. It was just enough to send shattered pieces of rock everywhere in front, but the sound was muted down below, and none were the wiser aside from those up along the edges.

  “What the hell was that!?” One of the guards asked, while the others looked around, but in the dark, they couldn't see Snillrik up on the roof with Sappo.

  “Those damn villagers must have done something,” another guard noted.

  The guards advanced further into the city together, and actually worked better than Snillrik had thought. Not just a handful of them, but all of them angrily marched into the streets hunting for the culprits, but with their weapons already unsheathed in hand. They weren't about to be so lax.

  “Wonderful work, Sappo, now another, but this time push the device back. We still need to lead them in closer,” Snillrik ordered.

  Sappo hastily loaded up another, and turned the crank, before launching it once more. Again, the boulder crashed just in front of the guards, as Snillrik predicted, and again, the guards took the bait in rushing further in.

  “Spread out and find whoever is throwing those damn rocks!”

  The guards fanned out across the streets and searched the rooftops, but the villagers weren't about to let them get close to Sappo and Snillrik.

  When the first group of guards passed by, some of the villagers pulled them into the alleyways in an ambush. They were as silent as they could be, knocking out a handful of guards over the heads before tying them up and dragging them off to the side, but unfortunately not without some of the villagers getting slashed by frantic guards struggling to break free. Luckily, none of them seemed to be fatally wounded, and continued detaining the guards, group by group without much trouble.

  “Just a little closer, and we can send the signal to Caden and the others.” Snillrik observed, waiting for the opportune moment.

  Sappo couldn't believe his eyes at how well everything was going from up top. There were still plenty of guards marching freely, but detaining every last one of them wasn't in the plan either. They knew they couldn't manage that. Workal's guards outnumbered them even now with those detained, but their numbers were certainly dwindled down to the point where it might not be such a hopeless endeavor to fight them.

  Maybe we can do this after all... Sappo thought.

  “Send Caden the signal, Sappo, this should be far enough,” Snillrik saw the chance.

  “Got it.” Sappo nodded, climbed down the ladder, and bolted out toward the Inn as fast as his big legs carried him.

  Upon arriving at the Inn, Sappo made his way to the back, saw the closed up hatch, and slammed his burly furry fists on the door a few violent times just for good measure.

  Waiting underneath, Caden, Zasha, and the others heard the banging from Sappo echoing down throughout the tunnel.

  “There it is!” Caden shouted out, even though everyone else clearly heard it.

  Chryssa pulled the lever to the vents right away. She didn't want to spare a single moment of time in the window they had.

  “Everyone let's go, stay close!” Chryssa yelled out, leading the pack through the tunnel.

  Compact together, the hundred or so all moved through the tunnel, and turned left in a hurry. Any moment the steam could shoot in, so they couldn't lag or mess this up even a little but. But just as planned, they arrived in the pocket nearest to the quarry wall. It wasn't very spacious, forcing everyone in against each other—worsening the already sweltering heat, but it was better than their skin being melted off by the scorching steam.

  Seconds felt like minutes passing by at a time, waiting for the next burst of steam, when a growing rumbling whistle crept from deep within the tunnels. The steam vented in, shot through the tunnels, and roared by all of them in the pocket—blasting them with an unbearable wave of heat, but it worked.

  The wall busted open, blasting sheets of rubble down the side of the quarry walls, and a shrouding cloud of dust from its entrance right by one of the walkways leading up to the edge.

  Down in the quarry, Workal shot out from his seat in his hut, his heart nearly jumping out of his congested chest. “What was that!?”

  Angren stumbled around, and scurried over to the window. “Sir, there has been a breach into the quarry...” Upon sticking his head out the window, he noticed the villagers charging through the gaping hole punched through the dirt wall, down the now torn up walkway.

  “How could you fools just let something like this happen?” Workal shouted back at Angren. His eyes bulging, and veins threatening to pop out of his thick neck. “Answer me dammit! How did these worthless shits get into the quarry, and why aren't the guards up top doing a damn thing about it?” Workal smashed his fist against a tiny side table—shattering the table to tiny pieces, and sending the projector onto the floor.

  “Somehow the guards above haven't noticed, but I'm not sure why, my Lord...” Angren replied, confused, but mostly frustrated he didn't have any answers for his precious Lord.

  Workal shoved Angren out of the way, and stuffed his big head through the window, but not one single guard could be seen along the edge of the quarry. “Those worthless fools, they have one job to do—one measly little fucking job!”

  “Surely they are on their way back after hearing that blast. Perhaps they went on patrol to inspect suspicious activity, sir,” Angren tried to calm Workal, but it wasn't as if he was all too sure of anything either. Even if they were investigating something, Angren didn't think it to be necessary for all of them up there to check.

  “Then they better damn well be back soon, or I'll have their heads when this little rebellion is quelled, which it will be. If Lord Judocus finds out I've lost control here all due to those worms...” Workal stared in horror at the thought—a looming Divine Lord Judocus lording over him with whatever stern punishment he saw fit.

  “If we can stop this revolt quickly, Sir, Lord Judocus doesn't need to know this ever happened,” Angren suggested, gladly willing to always serve Workal.

  “Then get those slaves back—don't let them take a single one of 'em from us, and kill every single one of those rats who burrowed their way in here while you're at it. I don't care how they got here, and I don't care where the rest of the guards are. Just fix this mess, Angren. Grind these worms into the dirt where they belong. Show them the meaning of rank."

  “Consider it done, sir.” Angren bowed his head with a pleased smirk. It's been a while since he was called upon to take action, and relished upon getting the chance to prove his worth.

  As sure as Workal sounded on the outside, he had a nagging sense of nerves creeping up behind his neck—a voice of doubt pecking at the back of his mind like a pesky woodpecker. Everything was happening so fast, and so unexpectedly. If the guards above were here, they would be fine, but as things stand, they're vastly outnumbered.

  Workal's men tried holding the line for now, keeping the villagers at bay, and stymie their charge, but the villagers were already breaking through with relative ease—threatening to overrun the guards sooner than later if nothing changed.

  Caden, Zasha and everyone else with them took quick advantage of the confusion setting into the guards who remained inside the quarry. Before the guards could even do anything to defend, they already took some of the freed captives back some way up the walkway to be tended to by Chryssa and a few others helping her out.

  Chryssa wanted to be out there fighting alongside the others, but she knew she was of more use tending to the injured being the closest thing to a healer they had. As focused as she was on healing everyone else, she looked up every so often at the chaos
below, wondering if her parents would be next to return, if they would be found at all. But no sign of them yet.

  “It looks like I might have given Workal too much credit when I thought that he would show himself right away...a spineless coward to the bitter end.” Zasha ground her teeth down.

  “He'll have to show himself eventually,” Caden said with confidence.

  “Hopefully before any of the soldiers return,” Zasha expressed some doubt.

  “Don't worry, I know Snill and Sappo will take care of 'em,” Caden said brimming with confidence. “We've just gotta do our part now.”

  Caden and Zasha pushed deeper in the quarry with some of the villagers to fend off the guards, while the others carried some more freed captives back to Chryssa.

  They were all handling themselves admirably, taking full advantage of catching the guards by surprise before they could arm themselves—rushing, tackling, and doing anything at all. It wasn't pretty. Many of the villagers sought to kill Workal's guards, ripping at their eyes, clawing them as tears poured down their faces screaming at the guards if they remembered their fallen loved ones even a little bit. They finally let their pent up hatred and fear pour over that's been begging to be let out.

  However, the archers just below Workal's hut were left unchecked, and now armed.

  Moments away from safety and freedom, a showering sheet of arrows coated the skies, and rained down on a group of fleeing villagers carrying some freed captives, cutting every one of them down. Not so much as a twitch. Just like that, their lives snuffed out with ease.

  “Those bastards...so they'll shoot them from behind?” Caden stopped, and turned back toward the line of archers without thinking twice.

  “We can't lose our focus, keep pushing ahead!” Zasha shouted out to Caden, but her voice fell on deaf ears, and ran after him.

  Caden watched helplessly as the archers continued to cut down group after group of villagers running back to the tunnel trying to outrun them. They couldn't do anything against them from down below without any projectiles of their own. Even if they rushed them up top, they'd be cut down before reaching them.

  Even if he wasn't sure to be in range, Caden grabbed his boomerang, and hurled it at the line of archers, nearly throwing himself onto the ground. His boomerang looped around, and knocked the bows out of a couple of their hands, but not all of them. Caden didn't relent—pulling out his launcher, and shooting above their heads, completely missing them all.

  The archers laughed down at Caden with cocky little smirks, as they went to grab their bows Caden knocked away from them on the ground.

  Caden gave the line a hard tug and pressed the sides of it to retract it from some loose overhanging boulders protruding from the quarry wall above.

  The archers turned around, and looked up in horror seeing rocks crack and crumble, before outright collapsing and cascading down in a miniature landslide—encasing those who didn't manage to jump off and break their legs from the high fall.

  “Next time fight face to face, you cowards!” Caden looked back to see the next group of villagers safely returning slaves in droves.

  When Caden backed up a few stumbling steps to catch his boomerang on the come around, he was right in the face of a guard about to cut him down.

  Zasha swung her claymore down at the attacking guard to make the save, nearly cleaving him right in two, blood spraying to the crunching of his carved up bones. “Idiot, don't ever turn your back to the enemy, and never run off on your own like that. You'll risk getting others killed doing stuff like that."

  “Sorry, I just couldn't let them get away with that. At least you were here, right? Guess I owe you one,” Caden joked, trying to lighten the mood amid the chaos.

  “I count two times now you owe me,” Zasha reminded Caden. “Now, Let's go. Like you said, we have to do our part and draw Workal out of his hole, and get to the rest of the prisoners. That's how we win, remember that.”

  “Right, it looks like we have a bunch of them too. We should be almost there.” Caden looked back at everyone gathered atop the walkway, Chryssa with her hands full tending to the others who needed it most.

  Zasha and Caden ran toward the far side of the quarry in search of any remaining captives, when they heard panicked shrieks echoing their way. They stopped in their tracks, and turned to see Angren cutting down villagers in droves like it was nothing—as if he were pruning his crops. Without so much as a bit of resistance, Angren easily cleared a path for the guards with him, kicking the bloody corpses of their former captives to the side.

  “Go, fetch the freed rats, and kill anyone in your way,” Angren ordered, cold and calculated. Despite the chaos, the loud noise and disturbances, none of it bothered him one bit.

  With Angren emerging, it looked hopeless for the villagers. Against the guards they were able to hold their ground and even push ahead little by little with their numbers, but Angren was a completely different challenge to the poorly armed villagers. It didn't matter how many tried to maul, and overwhelm Angren, he would simply brush them off like the flies they are to him. This was a properly trained lieutenant. They didn't stand a chance.

  “That's gotta be that lieutenant the guard told us about.” Caden tightly gripped his boomerang. “I swear I'm going to make him and Workal pay...” Caden went to shoot off toward Angren on sheer instinct and anger, but Zasha yanked him back.

  “No, you go off and free the others. I'll take care of him,” Zasha sharpened her eyes at the sight of Angren. “When I cut him down, Workal will have to reveal himself, and we can end this for good.”

  Caden wanted to take down Angren and Workal more than anything, but he knew Zasha was right. “Alright, but you better kick his ass.”

  “I plan on it.” Zasha clutched hold of her hilt, and dashed off toward Angren in an effort to cut him off from the others.

  Caden continued ahead toward the far side of the quarry, and frantically searched around, but there weren't any signs of any captives yet. Racing around the quarry on his own, he eventually came across a trench that you would only be able to see directly above, perfectly level with the unforgiving rocky terrain.

  “There they are,” Caden said out of breath, and noticed a thin walkway leading down into the dark trench.

  Caden felt a sweltering suffocating heat surrounding him, as though he was descending into a volcano. Suddenly, a geyser shot out from the bottom, forcing Caden to shield his face and turn away—feeling the piercing heat melting the skin off his back, and reopening the whipping wounds as he screamed out in anguish.

  Drenched in sweat, burned, and out of breath, Caden plowed ahead. “Whoever's down there's been dealing with this way longer than me."

  Reaching the bottom of the trench, Caden saw tied up captives behind an enclosed cell, all of them piled up, drenched in pools of sweat that had actually washed the dirt off their faces, as they all lay collapsed on the piping hot stone floor, panting heavily for a gasping breath of desperation.

  “Who...” Was all an older man with a rough beard could utter in a weakened dry voice.

  “Shut up and save your strength, I promise I'll get you all out of here.” Caden rushed to open the cell door, but it was predictably locked shut. Caden lashed out and kicked the lock before him, but again, with no luck.

  Caden took out his launcher, and aimed right at the lock, shooting out the line, and popping the lock clean off from the door.

  “Finally! Alright, we've gotta get out of here, come on,” Caden flung the door wide open for them all. “Trust me, everything's gonna be fine.” Caden provided a bright smile the villagers needed to see right now, the kind that gave them all hope to hang onto—the kind that they thought they might never see again.

  They didn't know what was going on. All they knew was this was someone who wasn't Workal freeing them, doing everything they can to help. And that was more than anything they've seen since Workal came here in the first place.

  “Are you all able to walk?” Ca
den asked.

  “If it means getting out of here...we can manage...” The same old man said, standing up with wobbling legs without help, and everyone else followed suit, purely walking on their will to survive.

  They might have nearly been sapped of all their strength being held captive in the weighing heat, but they weren't entirely broken, not yet.

  “Good, then let's go, this will all be over soon,” Caden continued assuring them all as best he could.

  They all gingerly moved along, but they managed to get up the walkway, and inched their way up with Caden following behind at the back to make sure no one would fall behind. Once they made it up top, they looked at scene around them painted with bloodshed, loss, and chaos.

  “Just what is going on?” the old man asked. He didn't know what to feel more of, happiness, relief, or a weighing sadness at the cost of his fellow villagers laying strewn about the quarry floor.

  “We'll explain later,” Caden hurried them along. “Come on, follow me, we've gotta get to Chryssa.”

  “Chryssa? My daughter is here?” The old man's eyes pooled up with tears.

  “Yeah, and she's helping everyone on her own up there. She's the one who put this together, and called us. So save your tears until you get to see her again, and make sure to thank her, alright?” Caden led the way through the quarry, back to Chryssa.

  Caden couldn't help but glance over at Zasha dueling it out alone against Angren, sending her all the hope he could her way. As much as he wanted to help her, he couldn't leave the villagers, and had to believe in Zasha. They both had their own parts now, and Caden stuck to it.

  Zasha arrived just in time to prevent any more unnecessary deaths at the hands of Angren. As much as Angren tried to shove Zasha to the side, and get to the villagers carrying the newly freed, she always stopped him and kept attention. She wasn't going to let Angren treat her as if she was someone to overlook.

  “I'm your opponent, enough trying to run away.” Zasha gritted through her teeth, clashing with Angren's thin sturdy sword, holding him back while the others ran to freedom.