by Leslie Chase
Getting to the top of the cliff took too long and hurt too much, but eventually I dragged myself up. Panting for breath I struggled to resist the siren song of the healing trance, pushing myself to my feet and taking a deep breath.
Night had fallen during my struggle with the river, and alien stars gleamed overhead. Finding a route back to the rover would be the easy part of what I had to do now.
Once I caught up with Gurral, I’d have to fight. Swaying from foot to foot I wondered how I’d manage to face one prytheen warrior, let alone the number Gurral had at his disposal.
“No point worrying,” I said aloud. “How doesn’t matter when you have no choice. I will rescue my khara.”
I saw Lisa’s encouraging smile in my mind’s eye and drew strength from it as I staggered towards my fate.
By the time I reached the rover, Gurral’s band was long gone. I bared my teeth in a silent growl, wondering how much further I’d have to make it before I found Lisa again. If they’d left already they must be on their way to attack the valley, which meant I had to hurry. Once they took the human settlement, they’d be much harder to attack.
Fortunately, they’d made no effort to hide their trail. And the humans were with them — their booted footprints were easy to spot. I breathed a sigh of relief to see Lisa’s amongst them.
Following wouldn’t be difficult, and even in my condition I would move faster than them. The problem was, what would I do when I caught up?
Maybe there was something I could do to improve my odds just a little. I made my way to the rover, pulling open the rear door and looking at the meager cargo we’d loaded. The stasis tubes waited, useless to me, but beside lay our scavenged food supply and, more important, Lisa’s bag.
Thanking the fates that no one had taken it, I rooted through the stolen medical supplies. They were labeled in human script, but some of the containers I knew from Lisa’s care in the colony pod sickbay. Spray-on bandages would close my wounds and came with their own disinfectant. I used up two cans of the stuff, hissing in pain as the icy spray stung my wounds. At least I wouldn’t lose any more blood — until the next time I got shot.
The other medicines were harder to identify, and I had no time to experiment. I threw the bag over my shoulder, winced, and pressed on. Lisa might be able to make use of it once I rescued her.
I refused to think about what would happen if I failed. No point in considering that: in that case we’d both be dead and together in the afterlife.
The trail stayed clear, thank the ancestors, and I made good time following the enemy. They had to be cautious, watching for sensors that might alert the human settlement of their approach. I only had to make sure I didn’t alert my prey, and that was a skill I’d drilled into myself until it was like breathing.
My steps made no sound, and soon I heard others disturbing the forest ahead of me. Humans and prytheen, moving together. I bared my teeth, creeping closer and listening.
Somewhere in the darkness a bird hooted, the sound startling the warriors ahead. A beam of moonlight illuminated Dessus’s face as he looked around, almost straight at me.
I froze mid-step, counting on the dark and the foliage to camouflage me. For a heart-stopping moment he stared in my direction, frowning slightly. Then his gaze moved on, scanning the forest with commendable thoroughness.
He knew his job as rearguard, but this unfamiliar terrain made his task difficult and mine easier. I started to move again, step by slow step, moving closer and keeping the trees between us.
Beyond him I heard human footsteps and my heart pounded, so loud that I almost expected Dessus to notice. Lisa must be there, so close now. Almost close enough to touch.
No overconfidence. You’re outnumbered, outgunned. Don’t count this battle won before it even starts. As much as I tried to control my reaction, the fierce joy I felt wouldn’t be denied. I’d found her again, and nothing would keep us apart.
I slipped around a tree, into reach of Dessus, waiting to hear him exhale. With no air in his lungs, he couldn’t cry out when I struck without warning, aiming a punch at the base of his skull to knock him out.
He might not be a scout but there was nothing wrong with his reflexes. Something, some subtle hint, must have alerted him to my presence and he ducked at the last moment. Instead of hitting its target, my blow glanced off his head, knocking him aside, still conscious.
His hand came around in a wild slash that forced me back and he drew breath for a warning shout. Desperate, I leaped on him, my weight forcing him down into the undergrowth, a hand over his mouth.
Dessus struggled in my grip, and someone called out his name in the dark. I winced, pinning him and slamming his head into the ground until he stopped moving. Taking a blade from his belt, I crept towards the other rearguard.
He called Dessus’s name again, concern in his voice, and I cursed. As soon as he was sure Dessus was missing, he would raise the alarm. I had to silence him while I still had the chance. I moved quickly and quietly towards the voice.
“Starless Void, Dessus, where are you?” The other prytheen asked, and this time I recognized his voice. It was Ervas, Rarric’s friend. Soon he’d stumble over Dessus’s body. I took a deep breath as he drew close, steadied myself.
Ervas was no fool, and he’d drawn his own blade. Advancing cautiously, his eyes never stayed still, flicking across the forest looking for an enemy. But like Dessus he didn’t have the skill he needed. Every prytheen warrior knew how to hunt, and most liked to claim that made them an expert.
But I was a scout. I’d trained for these moments of quiet violence for longer than some of Gurral’s warriors had been alive. And no one would see me if I didn’t want to be seen.
Ervas walked past, so close he could have reached out and touched me. The shadows hid me from view and his gaze slid away. As he moved on, I grabbed him from behind, sliding my stolen blade into his side.
His body spasmed and went limp and I lowered him to the ground. Listened for sounds of alarm. Nothing. The woods were quiet as before, slow footsteps breaking the silence as Gurral marched on.
Those two had been the only ones behind the humans, I realized as I paid attention. The rest were out front, their attention on the forest ahead. No one paying attention to my khara, no one stopping me reaching her.
I slipped forward, silently creeping among the humans, and found her easily. Eyes on the prytheen ahead of her, hand on her brother’s shoulder, she made her way slowly through the forest.
My heart skipped a beat at the sight of her. Uninjured, as beautiful as ever, but carrying a grief that hurt to see. Her every step looked painful, and I knew how badly she mourned me. I’d have felt as bad if I thought her dead, and I wasn’t sure I’d have the strength to carry on.
The temptation to grab her and her brother, to slip away into the night, was strong. I’d exhausted my energy reserves, and there were still far too many of Gurral’s warriors ahead of me.
But I knew that was a false hope. Yes, we could vanish, but where would we go? With two humans in tow I wouldn’t beat Gurral to the valley. And we had no supplies for a trek elsewhere.
Worse, I knew what Lisa would say. We’d led Gurral to the edge of the valley’s defenses, we had an obligation to stop him. My khara was fierce and noble and she would not want to abandon her kind to the mercy of a killer.
Nor did I. As much as I wanted to slip away, I knew we wouldn’t be able to live with ourselves afterward.
As I moved forward I wished I could talk to Lisa, make sure she was alright. To show her I was alive. But the guard she followed was too close for me to risk it. He’d hear me if we spoke, and even if I just showed myself her reaction would give us away. Putting myself in Lisa’s place, I doubted I’d have been able to keep quiet if I suddenly saw her again after being separated.
I didn’t dare risk it. Instead, I slipped around her, near enough that I almost touched her. She never even looked up, eyes focused on the figure ahead.
&
nbsp; I followed him too, moving just a touch faster than him. Just enough to catch up slowly, coming close enough to reach out…
At the last second, he heard me behind him and started to turn. My hand clamped over his mouth and my knife sliced across his throat before he made a sound. I ducked into the trees as he slumped to the ground, the harsh scent of blood filling the air.
Eventually Gurral would notice his troops were going missing, but until then I’d thin his numbers. When I finished, my khara would be free and her people safe. Either that or I’d die trying.
23
Lisa
I’m not sure when I realized that I couldn’t hear the guards. The change was subtle, but the prytheen following us weren’t as quiet on their feet as Torran. The silence behind me made it clear that Ervas and Dessus had disappeared.
It wasn’t easy to resist the urge to bolt for freedom, but I didn’t dare alert the other prytheen. Maybe if we just stop, let them carry on without us?
That might work. The warriors would press on without us, unknowing, and Malcolm and I would slip away into the night. Only, then what? Surviving in these woods alone wouldn’t be easy, and we had nowhere else to go. With a lot of luck we might be able to retrace our trail all the way back to the colony pod. More likely we’d be eaten by some monster in the woods.
Perhaps whatever had gotten rid of the prytheen rearguard that should be guarding us.
I chewed my lip, looking around into the darkness with more interest than I’d managed before. Carrington was a dim figure in the dark, and the prytheen I’d been following was…
Nowhere to be seen. I swallowed. If we were being stalked by some terrifying predator, at least it had started with our enemies. Heart pounding, I pulled Malcolm closer and forged ahead. I didn’t have any better idea of what to do.
When I came across the body, I wasn’t surprised. What did surprise me was that his throat had been neatly cut. A knife wound, clean and simple, not an animal attack. Feeling a little nauseous, I crouched and pulled a blade from the prytheen’s belt and passed it to Malcolm, keeping one for myself. My brother kept his eyes off the body, shaking like a leaf.
Somewhere in the darkness, a voice cried out in sudden pain and fell silent.
A sudden flurry of activity followed in the dark as the prytheen realized they were being hunted. Gurral shouted something, a challenge or a demand, and the others answered.
A roll-call, I realized. And I grinned as I counted the replies. Fifteen voices called out. There should have been more than twenty. Whoever was out there had been busy.
My heart thumped with a sudden hope and I swallowed, trying to keep it in check. It couldn’t be Torran. No matter how badly I wanted it to be him, no matter how much I longed for him to save me, it couldn’t be him.
But part of me didn’t believe that. That part of me was certain who was hunting the prytheen and didn’t care what logic said.
It doesn’t matter, I told myself, tugging on Malcolm’s arm and pulling him back into the woods, away from Gurral’s voice. No need to get involved in this fight, whoever or whatever might be attacking.
Lights came on in the dark, those prytheen who had flashlights illuminating the forest to try to catch their attacker. So much for the stealthy sneak attack, I thought with satisfaction. But one flicked in our direction, shining across me and Malcolm, and a prytheen advanced on us. The glare of his light blinded me, and I raised my hand to shield my eyes.
“Drop the knives,” he shouted, raising one of the stolen rifles at us. Does he think I did all this? I almost laughed. The idea that I’d been able to kill all those prytheen would have been funny if it didn’t look like it was about to get me killed.
Malcolm’s knife clattered to the ground and I dropped mine too. The figure stepped towards us.
And then a figure stepped out of the shadows next to him, appearing as if by magic. A blade gleamed, red and wet, in the beam of light, before sliding in under our attacker’s ribs.
With an awful, gurgling gasp, the rifleman dropped to the forest floor. His flashlight fell, tumbling, and for a moment I saw the man with the knife clearly.
Unmistakably.
Torran.
I gasped, heart soaring. It was him; I’d never mistake him for anyone else. Bedraggled, injured, bandaged and blood-stained, he’d come back for me.
Our eyes met, just for a moment, and I knew that I should never have doubted him. Of course he’d come back for me. Nothing would hold us apart for long. I couldn’t believe I’d doubted my feelings, and all I wanted to do was run to him, embrace him, hold him in my arms.
Tend his wounds and make him better again.
Before I took a step, another laser shot cracked through the woods, burning light cutting through where Torran had stood. He twisted aside, rolling into cover as another shot burned into the tree next to him and lights shone in our direction.
I gawped, and the next shots would have cut me down if not for Malcolm. My little brother tackled me into the cover of a fallen tree as the prytheen blazed away blindly.
Malcolm whimpered, a strained noise. Looking at him, I saw panic and glee fighting for control and hugged him tight, trying to steady him. He might have saved my life, but now he panicked as the prytheen tore the forest apart looking for Torran.
Carefully, cautiously, I peeked over the tree trunk, looking around. No sign of Torran of course — if he didn’t want to be seen, he wouldn’t be. The prytheen turned this way and that, lights flashing wildly through the dark and trying to catch him. As I watched, a knife spun through one of the beams, hitting a gunman in the neck. The prytheen dropped like a stone, blood spraying.
I pushed Malcolm’s head down, keeping him from watching. This wasn’t anything for my little brother to see.
Gurral snapped a command in prytheen and his remaining troops fanned out in the direction the knife had come from. I swallowed. The odds against Torran were still long, and if someone got lucky that would be the end of this. Plus he was already badly hurt: facing Gurral in a head-on fight might go badly for him.
I knew Torran wouldn’t let his wounds stop him from facing down every one of these bastards if he had to, even if it killed him. That would be too much for me to bear. I had to help, had to do something.
“Stay here,” I whispered to Malcolm before creeping out of cover. I kept low to the ground, crawling in the dark towards the fallen prytheen’s flashlight.
It wasn’t the light that interested me, though. I wanted his rifle.
The weapon felt heavy in my hands as I lifted it, heavier than I remembered. I tried to shake off memories of the last time I’d used a rifle but it wasn’t easy. Trying to distract myself, I checked the weapon. The trigger guard had been snapped off making room for the prytheen’s larger finger and it didn’t feel safe.
That was alright. I didn’t want safe, I wanted something dangerous to my enemies. Pulling myself into cover, I looked around for a target in the darkness.
In the woods, someone shouted, a mix of pain and triumph. Metal clashed, and the prytheen rushed towards the sounds. My breath caught as I tried to remember my lessons. A shadow ran through my sights and I squeezed the trigger more by instinct than design.
The laser bolt tore into the prytheen warrior, sending him tumbling to the ground. I gulped and rolled back into cover, not wanting to stay in one place. Given how good the prytheen’s senses were, that just seemed like an invitation for them to catch and kill me.
Not that I would be safe crawling through the brush, but if I kept moving at least I’d be a harder target.
Can we win this fight? I tried to keep that question pushed deep down out of my mind, but it wasn’t easy. And the obvious answer was no. Just the two of us against far too many enemies, Torran was badly injured, and I had so little idea of how to fight. Eventually one of us would run out of luck unless we tried something different.
I took a deep breath, rolled into the hollow beside a tree, and tried to think. Kill
ing Gurral and all of his men seemed like an impossible goal, but the prytheen wouldn’t give up while they could still win.
So stop them winning. I blinked as an idea occurred to me. For Torran and me and Malcolm, this fight was everything. For Gurral, though, it was just a distraction from his actual goal. He wanted the valley, not us.
What if I can keep him from getting that?
That gave me a goal I might be able to do something about. Maybe. I’d still need to be lucky but at least I knew what I was doing. I just needed to find my target.
Fortunately, that was an easy task. He’d be the only prytheen with glowing lights attached to his belt.
My hands shook as I looked around the tree, raising the rifle slowly. I bit my lip, the pain helping me focus as I sucked down ragged breaths. Lights moved through the trees, prytheen shining their flashlights around wildly. There were less of them now — either Torran had been busy whittling down their numbers or some of them preferred to stumble in the dark rather than advertise their position.
Or both.
It wasn’t easy to stay still and watch, keeping my breathing as steady as possible and waiting for a moment. I’d only have one chance at this, if that, and the longer it took the more likely that someone would spot me. Or worse, catch Torran.
There! I saw Arvid by the glow of the wristbands at his waist as he moved from cover to cover. I raised the rifle, took a deep breath and let it out. My hands steadied and a strange calm descended on me as I watched him through the scope. I focused on this moment harder than I had on anything in my life, the thump of my heartbeat deafening as I lined up the shot. All I could think of was the moment I’d first seen Torran through my crosshairs. The moment all of this had started.
Something must have alerted Arvid. Perhaps he heard my breathing, Perhaps he somehow felt my attention. It didn’t matter. His head whipped round, mouth open in a snarl, eyes wide as he looked into the darkness and saw me. A hand moved in a blur, knife spinning towards me as my finger squeezed the trigger.
