by James Dale
"Shit!" Jack swore. He would soon find out. "He says they're surrounding the hill!"
"Mount up!" the Amarian cried, throwing his saddle onto Gilasha's back. "If we hurry, we may yet find a weakness in their net."
Braedan slammed his own blade into its scabbard, quickly following his friend's example. Soon the two men were galloping west down Tanaevar's ancient highway. They had ridden only a few hundred yards when Eaudreuil suddenly skidded to a stop, nearly throwing Braedan from the saddle.
"What the hell?" he hissed, struggling to regain his seat, then lightning flashed and the reason for the Val'anna's abrupt halt was revealed. About a half mile down the road, illuminated for that split second by the lightning, Braedan saw several figures hurrying up the road towards them. He thought for a moment it might be some of the missing Amarians. Then lightning flashed again and he saw it was far, many more than the dozen men that had ridden with them to Tanaevar.
“This way,” Tarsus hissed, and they wheeled quickly about, and galloped off in the opposite direction before being noticed the advancing grim'Hiru.
As the pair thundered back across the hilltop another bolt of lightning flashed to the east and they were brought up short once again as they glimpsed something which turned their blood to ice. During that brief instant, the low ground surrounding the hill appeared to be swarming with sinister shapes scrambling about the ruins.
Before Tarsus and Braedan could depart the hilltop, a series of blinding flashes erupted directly overhead. For several seconds they were a striking silhouette against the night sky. A chorus of howls suddenly pierced the air. The figures below stopped their searching, turned towards the hilltop, and a maniacal shout burst simultaneously from hundreds of throats as the grim'Hiru spotted them. The cry was mercifully drowned out by a rolling thunder clap that shook the earthe, then the storm which had been brewing in the skies above Tanaevar unleashed its fury. A fierce wind came barreling out of the east, pushing before it sheets of blinding rain, and visibility was instantly reduced to only a few feet. Tarsus seized what might be their only opportunity to escape.
"This way!" the Amarian shouted above the chaos, drawing his sword. "We can lose them in the storm!"
Braedan drew his own blade signaling his agreement to the plan, and the two men galloped off to the north. Tarsus took the lead, Gilasha recklessly hurtling the shattered walls of the ruins in his haste to escape during the initial fury of the storm, and for the first time it was Eaudreuil who struggled to keep pace.
After riding two miles, with the driving rain obscuring them from their searchers, Braedan was actually beginning to think that their mad dash would succeed. Unfortunately, the rain had also succeeded in concealing those who sought them, and the two fleeing men rode headlong into a large group of grim'Hiru huddled together against the storm. The startled beast-men shouted in triumph at the sudden appearance of their quarry, but their shouts quickly turned to cries of pain as Eaudreuil and Gilasha crashed into them their midst, trampling several beneath their deadly hooves.
Though Tarsus and Braedan had been caught by surprise at the unexpected encounter, they instantly began to lay about them with their swords, adding to the panic and confusion. The Amarian broke through the melee, his momentum carrying him safely beyond the ranks of the momentarily stunned grim'Hiru. They recovered quickly however, and the gap he'd created with his passing snapped shut behind him, trapping Jack and Eaudreuil in a cluster of beast-men.
Braedan found himself surrounded by a feral maelstrom of snapping fangs and sharp claws. It was like one of his old nightmares had suddenly materialized out of the rain and thunder, but this time it was definitely no dream. He could feel strong arms pulling at his legs and smell the overpowering, musky aroma of the wet bodies pressed tightly around him. Although his sword was a blur of frenzied strokes, cutting through flesh and bone with every swing, there were just too many of them. Grappling hands finally dragged him from the saddle and he was quickly buried under an avalanche of flesh.
Braedan was instantly engulfed in total darkness, unable to breath, hearing nothing and feeling nothing except the foul, snarling mass pinning him to wet earth. Seized with panic at the thought of being crushed to death beneath this suffocating pile, he fought savagely to escape. His fevered efforts succeeded in freeing his left arm and his searching hand quickly found vulnerable flesh. He stiffened his fingers into a claw and thrust them into the eyes of one of the grim'Hiru and was rewarded by a shriek of agony. The press momentarily lessened and his hand instantly found the thick throat of the grim'Hiru on top of him. With a mighty heave, Braedan managed to push it to arm's length. There was a flash of lightning and he received his first terrifying glimpse of a beast man.
Many centuries ago the Hiru race may have indeed been human, but there were scant traces of that heritage left on this one's face. Under its broad, sloping forehead were hairless, bony ridges which had perhaps once served as its brows, and in the center of its face was a flattened, swine-like nose dominated by two flaring nostrils. On either side of that misshaped mound of flesh were the beast-man's eyes, wide set and yellow, with silted, feline pupils. Its left eye was covered with a milky white film as if it were diseased, but the right was clear and burned with madness.
When it saw Braedan's horrified gaze the grim'Hiru's thick, bulbous lips stretched into a hideous grin of triumph, revealing a mouth filled with stained, pointed teeth. With a short barking laugh, the grim'Hiru contemptuously slapped Jack's hand away from its throat and his arm was quickly pinned once more.
Enjoying his prey's apparent weakness and his own seemingly easy victory, the grim'Hiru hungrily licked his lips with a slender black tongue and slowly leaned forward until Braedan could feel its fetid breath hot on his face. It opened its jaws until a gaping maw bristling with deadly fangs filled his vision.
Braedan was helpless, unable to prevent this horrible end. But the end did not come. Distracted by some sudden commotion, the beast-man straddling him grunted in surprise and sat up just as a mountainous shadow hurtled the pile. There was a flash of silver and the grim'Hiru’s malformed head leapt from its shoulders, spinning off into the night. Its headless body gave one spasmodic jerk, stiffened, and fell forward, blinding Braedan with streams of hot, black blood.
A split-second later something crashed into the pile and the grim'Hiru warriors wailed in terror as powerful hooves began landing among them, crushing bone and trampling flesh into the rain-soaked earthe. The pressure on his arms and legs abruptly vanished as the surviving beast-men fled terrified into the darkness.
Braedan pushed the headless body of the grim'Hiru away from him with a groan, rolled over onto his side, and vomited in disgust. When there was nothing left, he wiped the thing's foul blood from his eyes and found Eaudreuil standing over him protectively. A few feet away, Tarsus and Gilasha splashed to a halt and the Amarian leapt from his saddle.
"Are you injured?" Tarsus asked breathlessly, seeing his friend covered with blood. He pulled him from beneath the stallion and helped him to his feet.
"No," Braedan replied, spitting several times to rid his mouth of the last nauseating taste of bile and grim'Hiru blood.
"Can you ride?" he asked, handing Braedan his sword.
"I think..."
"Then do so," the Amarian said, almost throwing him onto Eaudreuil's saddle. When Tarsus was convinced Jack wasn't going to fall from Val'anna's back, he leapt onto Gilasha and they were ready to move once more. But harsh shouts and the howling of wolves could suddenly be heard coming from their intended direction as the grim'Hiru fleeing from the wrath of the angry stallion's hooves apparently stumbled into more of their fellows and sounded the alarm.
"What now?" Jack asked. "If we run into more of those bastards, we might not be so lucky next time.
"Damn!" Tarsus hissed angrily, upset his plan had failed so badly and nearly gotten Braedan killed. "Back to the palace hill. We'll wait for the storm to lessen. When we can better see how they are spread out around the rui
ns, we'll make another run for it."
They galloped back towards the high ground, on the way narrowly avoiding one group of grim'Hiru when Eaudreuil sensed them through the driving rain, and charging directly through a smaller knot of three or four so quickly the beastmen never knew what hit them. They arrived on the hilltop without further incident, and once there, the storm's intensity diminished almost immediately.
Fortunately, the hill was devoid of grim'Hiru and the pair quickly made their way to the immense stone archway where they dismounted. Braedan coaxed the two Val'anna stallions to the ground then he and Tarsus lay down beside them, becoming two more slabs of stone on the rubble strewn hill.
Far to the west there were distant flashes of lightning and the faint, muffled rumbling of thunder as the storm seemed to be moving on. But Braedan sensed the worst was yet to come. It had become eerily quiet, like the calm in the eye of the hurricane, but above them clouds still boiled, thick and surging as if they struggled to hold back the deluge still lurking within. The very air seemed to be humming with tension, actually causing Jack's hair to stand up on his neck.
It was still ominously dark, but now that the rain had temporarily ceased, visibility had improved considerably. Unfortunately, this only revealed the desperateness of their situation. Below them in the ruins, the grim'Hiru who had been forced into hiding by the storm's fury were beginning to stir once more. The surrounding countryside became alive again with sinister shadows, all slowly making their way to the hill where they'd last glimpsed their prey.
"Over there," Tarsus said quietly, and pointed to the west where a more immediate danger was revealed. The grim'Hiru patrol which had forced them back across the hilltop initially had been stopped by the storm like the others, but like the others they were now moving again. They were less than one hundred yards away, marching straight up ancient highway towards their hiding place at the foot of the stone archway.
"How well can these things see?" Braedan whispered, thinking that if they remained perfectly still, the beastmen might pass them by in the dark.
"The night will not hide us," the Amarian sighed, guessing his thoughts. "They're accustomed to the gloom of their mountain caves. Even if they couldn't see us, the wolves with them would sniff us out. We shouldn't have come back here. I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking clearly. We would have been better off taking our chances in the storm."
"It's too late to worry about that now," Braedan replied, his mind whirling as he tried to think of some other plan. "We'll...we'll just have to stay here and use the archway for cover. When they're almost on us we'll spring from behind it and ride like hell right through them. They'll be too surprised to do anything about it but howl."
"Their archers would shoot us down before we'd ridden fifty yards," Tarsus answered dejectedly.
"Then you come up with a plan!" Jack hissed. "But whatever we're going to do, we'd better do it fast."
The grim'Hiru patrol would be on them in less than a minute.
"Stay down," Tarsus ordered, and with a flick of Gilasha's reigns, he and the Val'anna stallion rose together.
"What the hell are you doing?" Jack asked.
"I'm going to draw them away," the Amarian replied. "When they come running after me, you ride west until you find Tereil and the villagers. I'll meet up with you later."
"What the hell do you mean you'll meet me later?" Jack hissed. "You just said their archers would cut us down before we'd gone fifty yards?"
"There's no time to argue," Tarsus cried.
"Oh no!" Jack argued just the same as he realized Tarsus’ intentions. "I'm not going let you ride off alone to be slaughtered like you're precious Galekindar!"
"Farewell Jack Braedan!" the Amarian smiled.
"No!" Jack cried, but it was too late.
Tarsus pulled back on Gilasha's reigns and the Val'anna reared majestically, then bolted off down the hill at a gallop. Braedan scrambled to his feet and stared in horror as the Amarian charged recklessly towards the grim'Hiru patrol, apparently planning to bowl right through them. But Gilasha slid to a halt only a few feet from the beastmen, splattering their startled front rank with a great shower of mud.
For a breathless, eternal second, the grim'Hiru were so stunned by his actions they could only stare at the mounted Amarian. Then Tarsus drew his sword and waved it above his head.
"Elar Amar! Elar Galekindar!" he shouted. "Arise Amar! Arise Galekindar!"
The spell was broken and the grim'Hiru raised their weapons as one and charged with a bloodcurdling yell. Though Tarsus had almost made the fatal mistake of stopping too close to the patrol, Gilasha saved them, springing out of the clutches of the surging beastmen with a single bound. Then they were racing back up the hill with the shouting grim'Hiru right behind them.
The Val'anna could have easily outdistanced the slowfooted beastmen but Tarsus held the stallion back, wanting to keep their attention focused completely on him as they passed the stone archway where Braedan was hiding. When Gilasha raced by, the Amarian turned to him with a look of horror on his face, and Jack suddenly realized he was standing exposed in the open. He turned and dove for cover behind Eaudreuil an instant before the grim'Hiru patrol came running past.
Though the ground literally shook from the pounding of iron shod feet, the attention of the grim'Hiru was rooted on their fleeing prey only a few maddening paces ahead of them. They did not notice the two recumbent forms at the base of the archway.
When the last of them had passed by, Braedan sprang to his feet again, watching the chase. Horrified, he saw that many of the grim'Hiru had bows strapped across their backs, and prayed they were more anxious to get at the Amarian with cold steel to realize how easy a target he presented. But as soon as he thought this, several of the beastmen stopped running and began slipping off their bows.
Though Tarsus' life was about to be sacrificed so he could escape, Braedan suddenly found he could not simply ride safely off to the west. Too many people had already died because of him. There was too much blood on his hands. If he died here now on this lonely hill however, there would be no one to claim Yhswyndyr and stand against Graith when he awoke to march on the west.
How many others in Aralon would die then? Measured against the fate of an entire continent, what was the life of one man? But if he stood idly by and watched while his friend was feathered with grim'Hiru arrows, would he be able to live with himself afterward? How could he ever hope to be the savior of all Aralon when he could not even save the life of his only friend?
It only took him an instant to decide. Eaudreuil was already at his side, impatiently waiting for him to mount. He vaulted onto the Val'anna's back and drew his sword as the roan leapt forward. There were only four of them, about twenty-five yards away. Their backs were to Braedan as they hurriedly attempted to string their bows, totally unaware of the danger bearing down on them. He and the Val'anna were among them before the grim'Hiru knew what was happening.
Eaudreuil trampled one, riding over it without ever slowing. Jack killed another, his sword slicing completely through its thick neck as they went thundering by. But the other two grim'Hiru were on either side of them, too far apart to take both at once. Jack quickly chose the one on the right and Eaudreuil wheeled about and rode him down before he could run ten paces. Unfortunately, the last beastman was unfazed by the surprise attack and Jack turned just in time to see him finish stringing his bow.
Braedan kicked Eaudreuil's flanks and the stallion surged forward, but it was like the stallion was running in molasses. The scene unfolded in surrealistic slow motion as the grim'Hiru calmly notched an arrow and drew back on the bow string. Unmindful of the Val'anna barreling down on him, he took careful aim at the fleeing Amarian. Half a second before he was crushed beneath Eaudreuil's hooves, the beastman released the deadly bolt.
Braedan watched in horror as the arrow flew straight and true, burying itself high in Tarsus' left shoulder. The sudden pain caused him to pull back involuntarily on Gilasha's re
igns and the Val'anna reared in surprise at the unexpected command.
For a heartrending second, it appeared the Amarian would recover control of the stallion, but the pursuing grim'Hiru were too close. One of the beastmen leapt onto Gilasha's back behind Tarsus and the added weight unbalanced both horse and rider, sending all three tumbling backwards to be buried under a wave of flesh.
Jack shouted in horror, and his anguished cry alerted the grim'Hiru that someone else was on the hill. Several turned away from the melee which had engulfed the Amarian and ran toward him.
For one frantic second, Braedan foolishly considered charging into the fray and hacking a path to the fallen friend. Though he shuddered at the thought of abandoning Tarsus for the grim'Hiru to ravage unmolested, he realized such a recklessness couldn't save the Amarian. Though it would selfishly ease his conscience on his way to the grave, it would only defile Tarsus' heroic sacrifice and his life would be ended in vain. With a howl of despair, Jack turned Eaudreuil and fled the hill.
He could hear his pursuer's hoots of laughter following close behind him as he rode away and tried without success to block their cries from his mind, concentrating on the rhythmic pounding of the Val'anna's hooves. It was useless. He could not ignore the grim'Hiru’s gleeful taunts at his decision not to face them. Sensing his torment, Eaudreuil tried to outrun the sound but throughout the ruins, other beastmen also took up the call. Soon it was joined by the piercing howls of wolves and the taunting shouts became deafening.
Their cries were like a thousand spikes driven into his tortured heart, each accusing him of cowardice for leaving his friend. Finally, Jack could no longer stand their derisive laughter. He pulled sharply on the Val'anna's reigns and the stallion skidded to a halt. Standing in the stirrups of his saddle, he drew his sword and words suddenly leapt unbidden from the desolation of his soul. The same words of challenge Tarsus had shouted only minutes earlier. "Elar Amar! Elar Galekindar! Elar Amar! Elar Galekindar!"
Over and over he shouted until eventually his voice seemed to cut through the tumult of the grim'Hiru cries. For one brief, unbelievable moment, their taunts grew still.
