“Fascinating behavior,” said Ghevont, who helped keep my camel-decoy near me. “I wonder if they know what happened with the last chukurn? Or does being in a group increase their intelligence? Aranath doesn’t know if they often work together, does he?”
“He doesn’t. He does know they won’t stay wary for long. This desert doesn’t have the food they need to sustain themselves. Even with the animal offerings, they must be starving.”
The sand-sharks appeared to be circling closer to us, foot by foot. I was getting anxious and began inching my way toward them. The heavy dust trails they kicked up had me feeling as though we were in the eye of a sunny typhoon, and all we could do was wait for its tumultuous winds to break for us. An unseen cue finally had the storm rapidly contracting. The worms continued their circular pattern in their new haste, making it difficult to determine where a worm was going to end up.
As before, I tried being proactive. Towing my nervous mule behind me, I broke from the defensive line to approach our ravenous enemy. The continuous tunneling through the hard soil generated a steady thunderclap that grew louder and louder. The soles of my feet felt the dull rumble increase with it. Since I was certain releasing the mule prematurely would simply have it run deeper into the camp, I had to keep hold of it longer than I liked.
When one of the dirt waves crossed eighty feet in front of me, I let the rope go and insisted the mule go forward by jabbing its hindquarters with my sword. The animal whinnied away from me, too pained to notice it was heading straight for the sand wave. The worms on the opposite side must have attacked sooner than mine did, as the area behind me erupted with the crackling hums of spells being cast and launched. With no word from a nearby Thoris or human screams forcing a review of the battle, I reserved my focus on what was ahead of me.
The worm’s wave turned toward the mule. To prevent the mule’s wits from turning it back, I threw an explosive stone and ignited it over its head. The little blast actually seemed to confuse the damn thing and stopped it in its tracks. All the same, by the time it perceived the netherworld hunter, it could do little more than turn around before it was sucked below ground. I waited a moment longer until releasing flames no known creature had yet learned to overcome.
Mimicking the first worm, this one surged upward, a shallow moan going up with it. Flames bared through its open beak. The chukurn hooked its head and then flung it sideways. A ball of fire catapulted out of its mouth. The cautious worm had evidently held its food in its beak or mouth longer than the first, giving it the chance to cough up its devitalizing indigestion before it inflicted the intended mutilation.
Flames and smoke still sprang from its feelers. To extinguish it, the worm dove back into the ground, twirling the sand and dirt around it in the miniature earthquake it induced in its thrashing. I didn’t know what it would do next, but I knew I’d be too pissed off to care what I attacked next.
Walking backwards, I exclaimed, “Ghevont! Remove one of the packs!”
When I reached him, the scholar dropped the heavy pouch at his feet. I went behind the camel and jabbed the point of my sword in the same place as the last animal. The distressed beast kicked its way forward, heading for the still churning soil. The blending ground suddenly shot toward the camel and tripped it up. A fountain of sand exploded alongside the newest bait. The chukurn’s fuming upper form, eight feet wide and thirty feet tall, slammed down on the struggling camel. I briefly thought about triggering the camel’s remaining pouch, but since I didn’t imagine it would do much damage, I picked up my pack of stones and ran toward the worm.
The chukurn was sliding back down its hole, but I wanted it to stay above ground. “Earth spell! Hold it!”
A pulse of sand tightened around the chukurn’s powerful body. There was no way Ghevont and Thoris could prevent a determined worm from breaking the hold, but the resistance seemed to puzzle it. It then detected something approaching it and, despite me being out of its range, bashed its head down to either crush or antagonize. Neither one happened. I needed its beak to open again, but it stubbornly kept it sealed. Noticing some of its body had stayed over the compressed camel, I ignited the dragon stones scattered around it. The flames convulsed the worm’s body, opening its jaws wide enough for me to toss in the pouch.
I knew I couldn’t just ignite them as before and let it be. I needed to fan the flames. Focusing on my training, I stood as still as possible and linked my prana with every rune I sensed within the chukurn’s mouth, who was now spinning to both douse the fire and break the spells’ hold. When everything but its sixteen foot long beak slipped back down, I poured a good chunk of my refined prana into the stones. The dragon flames burst forth, but I didn’t lose immediate control. As the chukurn rushed upward again, I sent a dense bubble of prana into the flames, turning it into an inferno that cracked the chukurn’s beak. The taxing effort spun my brain and forced me to fall on my hands and knees.
The most pitiful bellow I ever heard left the worm’s body, but I didn’t have the energy yet to see what it was doing. I did feel Ghevont place a hand on my shoulder and cast a kind of healing spell that transferred part of his prana into me. It would take a master to actually refill my spirit reserve, but he helped stabilize the prana I still carried. With the aid of a firm hand offered by Thoris, I stood up to see where my next steps should take me.
From the worm’s hole, something that sounded like a hollow belly grumbling for food throbbed below the sand. The chukurn was there, but with an enfeebled beak, I doubted I had to worry about it burrowing with dangerous speed anytime soon. Surpassing the weak whimpers of the chukurn was the shrill wind carrying the thumping effects of casting. A sweep of my eyes behind me showed that the other three worms had, either through human tactic or chukurn perseverance, closed tighter around the ruins. This had the effect of limiting their hulking movements, but they were also closer to the noncombatants.
Much of the action transpired to the northwest. Two of the worms were close together there, with one getting its flogging head blasted by every element. I don’t know who managed it, but a thin green gash extended several feet past its beak. The second had gone under and was trying to circle behind the defenders to get to the panicking animals, but swirling earth spells deterred its trajectory. Both were being engaged by most of the pirates, including my father, a few mercenaries, and the tribal men.
The majority of the mercs were in battle with the chukurn straight to the west. In its effort to sweep away the human annoyances, the worm used its long tail like a thick whip. One of these lashes of the tail sent somebody crashing against a corner of a ruined structure. Sophia stood on a pile of rubble at the center of the ruins and fired her arrows at any part of the worm that came inside her bow’s scope.
Also aiding the sell swords was Gerard, his knightly code urging him to help those he believed needed it more, I’m sure. Imagining myself having to tell a freshly motherless Odet that someone else she cared for was dead urged my steps toward the young knight. I had the ability to summon a few more dragon stones, but not the prana to take possession of their flames again. I thus didn’t have much of a strategy beyond supporting those who still carried the capacity to cast their spells.
Getting nearer a scene jumbled by the grimy wind had me seeing that Yang was part of the western group as well. He and Gerard were among a group of two other mercs retreating from the worm’s latest floggings when I caught up with them.
With a glance, Gerard studied my face and said, “I suppose you don’t have much of your special fire left.”
“No, but I do know we can stop them if we can break their beaks.”
“That won’t be easy. This one won’t even show us its pretty face.”
“It will, and we all have to focus on its beak when it does.”
The cagey chukurn persisted in implementing its rear appendage. It still tried eating us by sucking the sand we stood over, but as long as we paid attention to the swelling ground, we easily avoided its suc
tion attacks. I didn’t like us wasting valuable energy on its tail alone, but I couldn’t think of a way to force its head to the surface.
After ducking out of the way, I rolled backward to analyze the battleground. Yang was running straight for the front end of the worm. He stopped midway across and splayed his hands on the ground. Using an earth spell, the ground around him began pulsating up and down, as though he were beating a drum. The wave of sand veered toward this enticing beat.
“You don’t think…” I told Thoris.
“I’ve seen crazier tactics.”
“Did they work?”
He ran faster toward his crewmate.
Yang didn’t react to either Thoris’ calling his name or to the sand wave going under him. The pirate was swallowed in a puff of sand. Everything on our end paused for a few seconds.
Nothing happened until the mist of earthen powder completely blew away, prompting the worm to head right for us. We didn’t take a step back before its head broke out from its lightless underworld. Sticking out from the center of its beak arose three glistening spikes of ice. The great worm shook its head, trying to fling these barbs off its face. It then smashed the ground with its body, rolling itself right for us. More of its body emerged in the process.
We had to leap out of the way to dodge a flattened fate. Almost everyone else was located at the safer tail end, but Malu needed some quick thinking to avoid being squashed to a pulp. He decided to run at the rolling mass and used a burst of air to help him jump on top of the worm. Then, with a precarious balance, the mercenary made his way to the tail end and dove off.
The chukurn’s body stopped rolling to contract and curl up. This constricted form next sprang outward. It was incredible to witness something longer than a small ship use such built-up energy to maneuver itself so suddenly. It whirled its head to the west, its tail snapping toward us. All of us ducked out of the tail’s path. Some of the sand grains I kicked up went into my eyes, forcing me to stay down a few seconds longer to wipe them out. Those extra seconds on the ground turned out to be fortuitous. The tail had come swinging back.
Thoris saved Ghevont by tackling him to the ground. However, Gerard on my left and one of the mercenaries to my right were barely picking themselves off the ground. My instinct told me to swing my leg under Gerard, getting him quickly back on the ground. He probably could have dodged on his own, but I wasn’t taking any chances. The inept sell sword did not react in time. He soared for a hundred feet before becoming one with the nameless sand particles I already associated the mercenaries with.
The beast stopped spinning and grumbled in deep rumination. It was beginning to roll again when the mercs near its head started hurling more spells, but knowing this would only serve to start another round of monolithic wriggling, a word from Malu stopped them.
“You still in there, Yang!?” Thoris asked the worm’s still slowly rotating head.
A muffled “Yes” answered him.
“Just try not to get swallowed! We’ll get you out in a minute!”
“Is that one of your men?” Malu asked Thoris when he met him near the head. “Crazy bastard.”
“Get the others to help with the other two worms. Tell everyone to break their damn beaks.”
Not long after the mercs left, taking Sophia with them, the chukurn’s tail acted up again. It punched and twisted into the ground, making a hole it slinked backwards into.
“Crap,” said Thoris. “Yang! It’s trying to go back underground! Get out now!”
“No!” said Gerard. “Wait until it goes almost all the way in! We’ll all then combine spells to break open its beak!” To us, he explained, “It’ll just thrash around if we attack now, but we should be able to hold its head long enough for Master Hur to escape once the rest of it is confined within the hole.”
Thoris reluctantly agreed with his assessment. It was a dawdling suspense watching the worm bury its seventy foot length in reverse, about a foot a second. Having no spell to contribute in the pirate’s breakout, I started receding from this circumstance to have a head start on the others, but I keenly observed the proceedings unfold. Just as the beak pointed skyward, Thoris, Ghevont, and Gerard combined earth spells to squeeze the sand around the chukurn’s head.
“Now, Yang!”
One of the ice spikes shot outward, creating a wider hole when the thicker back-end of the icicle burst through the beak. The worm quivered and was able to drop a few feet lower, but the earth spells held it tight a few seconds longer. A slash of Yang’s curved sword made the hole broader still. The worm broke the casters’ hold and rapidly descended. Yang himself jumped through the weakened section of the beak just before the cavity disappeared. I expected him to be slimed up with worm fluids, but the mouth of a living chukurn was apparently as dry as a dead one. The quiet pirate nodded when asked if he was all right.
We went to reinforce the already prevailing humans. It drained everyone’s physical and spiritual energy, but one of the remaining worms had its beak cracked. The other seemed to hear the abject moans of its wounded brethren and took them as a sign that it too would be suffering if it persisted in its attacks. The healthiest chukurn thus withdrew, though its dust trail could be seen roaming the distance. While the one with the cracked beak still had the ability to burrow, it was far too slow to become a threat. This debilitation, however, didn’t manage to halt its attacks until ten minutes after its companion had left. It then slothfully excavated three hundred yards of ground before stopping entirely.
Not a single one of us stood on their feet after the immediate danger passed. Every chest heaved, not caring that we breathed in the sand the wind gusted at us. Lorcan quickly took stock of the situation, confirming that every pirate’s head was still working. Menalcus suffered a broken arm and Aristos had drained his prana to the point he fainted as soon as the last menace turned around to leave. Despite the injury, it was Menalcus who carried Aristos back over his uninjured shoulder.
Both guides also survived, but Banering’s left arm dangled at his side. As for the mercenaries, three had been killed by body or tail and another was swallowed whole. I sensed some animosity grow between pirate and sell sword, as I was certain the paid men had noted the pirate’s tendency to aid one another over any merc.
Three facts prevented the strife from reaching a contentious level. Firstly, the mercenaries weren’t unified or skilled enough to threaten a seasoned pirate crew. The second was knowing that the untimely deaths of their associates meant more coin for them in the end. Of course, it was still a long journey to reach that end, making it the final reason no one would get at each other’s throats. If we wanted to survive the last march out of the Hadarii, then every able bodied warrior was going to be needed.
With at least one healthy worm still in the area, we couldn’t spend any time resting or going over growing grudges. We assembled the animals that had strayed from the ruin and forced our weary legs to slog through what remained of the unconquerable desert.
Chapter Twenty-Four
No one noticed we had lost a sariff pouch until a full three days after the chukurn attack. This was half our remaining supply. If we didn’t want capricious barbarians to respond poorly to their share of missing sariff, then our only choice was to avoid them altogether when the plants ran out. All the energy we expended in the worm fight also compelled us to exhaust our dwindling food cache. A feeble mule had to be killed a week after noticing the lost sariff to provide meaty nutrients for a few days.
Four days after that and we met with a roving tribe. We ended up trading much of our sariff for a collection of hardy cactus fruits. As it turned out, less than three days later, we ran into a large trading caravan with a much more varied stock of grub, some of which included literal bugs. A handful of seeds and roots for each of us was all we obtained on trading the little sariff we had left. As soon as this transaction finished, we created scout teams to look out for any sign of barbarian activity, our goal being to elude them at all cos
ts.
The scout teams, which almost always included the guides, were largely successful in steering us away from more of their ilk, but not always. One windy night suddenly had forty tribesmen warriors flanking one side of the main group. All had their bows or spellbound arms trained on us. Luckily, Fardin’s rough understanding of their dialect allowed the enchanter to talk them down a little. The tribal warriors apparently believed we might have been sell swords hired by a rival tribe to fight them. Fardin convinced them that our goal was academic, but as a sign of “goodwill,” we were obliged to give up six of our best animals.
The mercenary treasures had to be moved to the remaining beasts. Since the added weight meant they could no longer carry people, basically everyone had to travel on foot the rest of the way. Only Fardin and his assistants could get away with riding the less burdened camels more often than not. Our weary legs needed longer rest periods, but having fewer animals at least meant less food to feed them. In fact, with the constant threat of barbarians and our desire to see civilization again, we reduced the number of times we stopped to let the animals graze on whatever plant life we came across.
Encounters with barbarians still occurred, but we were good at sidestepping the bigger groups, so these minor happenstances never escalated into anything serious. It helped that a group of over two dozen tired, dirty, irritated warriors was not a group one wanted to piss off. My experience with long treks on foot and familiarity with teeth-splitting pain gave me the fortitude to endure the final leg of our journey. Indeed, I felt as though I could leave everyone behind if I upped the pace by another mile an hour. I resisted the urge to go at my own speed, however.
As for everyone else, their states varied between solid health and suffering severe bouts of heat stroke and malnutrition. A few mercs underwent the worst symptoms, but Menalcus also needed to be treated for exhaustion, which likely came about due to the extra energy his broken arm needed to heal itself. His comrades gave up rations of their food and water to keep the big guy from passing out, but it still required four days of diligent observation before he was really out of danger. These sicknesses slowed us down somewhat, but we weren’t going that fast to begin with. All in all, the slowdown probably didn’t add more than a couple of days to the journey.
The Dragon Knight's Curse (The Dragon Knight Series Book 2) Page 22
