by Narro, B. T.
“Ask them what the enemies look like compared to allies. I need to know in order to help.”
So he asked. Terren shouted back to him, “Humans of Kyrro will be in light blue. Can’t say what the enemies are wearing until I see them. Colors of Tenred are black and red, though. It will most likely be that.”
Zoke translated for Vithos.
The unmistakable sounds of killing and dying grew to a roar.
“No more light, Effie,” Terren said after the final turn that brought them to the top of the enclosed stairway. “Keep your voices down.”
After her light went out, there was still just enough illumination to see the stone beneath Zoke’s feet. Looking for the source of the light, he found a wall ahead that was shrouded in darkness except at its bottom, where light was seeping into their cave.
From outside, one Human’s voice came through louder than the sound of steel and screams. “Fall back to the tunnel. Fall back, Kyrro!” Then boots stampeded from Zoke’s left to right.
Vithos bravely started toward the small opening until Terren tugged on his shirt. “Wait,” Terren said loudly enough for them all to hear through the sound of the boots outside. Zoke didn’t need to translate. Vithos stopped on his own.
“Effie, Reela.” Terren turned to them, crouching to let down his bag and check on a knife strapped to his ankle. “You’re not trained for battle. Inside our own walls is one thing, but I don’t know what’s out there. I can’t force you into such an unpredictable situation when you have no experience fighting.” His eyes lifted to Zoke. “Zoke and Vithos, I don’t know what kind of training you have, but you’re not forced to come. If I don’t return, keep going to the Slugari.”
Effie and Reela spoke at once: “I’m coming with you.”
Zoke finished translating and asked Vithos what he wanted to do.
“We’re with Kyrro now,” the Elf told him. “We can no longer choose our battles, just change their result.”
He was somewhat surprised to find his friend so dedicated to Kyrro. It almost seemed as if Vithos wanted to prove that he was no traitor—that just because he’d switched sides once didn’t mean he was likely to turn again. He never got to choose his side in the first place, Zoke realized. He was forced into the tribe through false information. Now, he must’ve chosen a side, and he isn’t one to change his mind. Never has been.
Zoke didn’t feel the same. Yes, being with the Humans for now was his best option, but that could change. He even saw himself back with Zeti and the other Krepps in the future. Does that make me more of a traitor than Vithos? I cannot let that be.
“We’re fighting as well,” Zoke told the Humans.
A light broke in behind them. Zoke spun with his sword ready only to find Steffen making the last turn into their cave with some sort of glowing object in his hand. “So am I,” he said.
“Put out that light!” Terren whispered loudly. “What is that?”
Steffen turned his hand upside down. The liquid became a glowing waterfall, going out as soon as it hit the ground. “Just a potion. The stairs were too dark without it.”
“You don’t even have a weapon!” Terren’s whisper had become angry. “Stay here. Everyone else, follow me and stay together.”
Without waiting for a response, Terren drew his sword and crept past Vithos. As Zoke followed, he could hear Steffen behind him fumbling through his bag.
To squeeze under the opening, the Humans needed to lie down and crawl through. A dismal realization popped into Zoke’s thoughts when he was lowering himself to the ground to follow: How will Kyrro know I’m on their side? The moment they see a Krepp, they’ll attack.
The opening put them into a small cove. Tall edges of the mountain came up on all sides except in front of them, where there was a thin crevice—the only way out.
Terren was leaning into the crevice for a glimpse. He then snapped back, pushing everyone behind him until they were all clustered around Zoke in the opposite corner.
“Do you hear all the men rushing this way?” Terren gestured toward the crevice. His voice was a loud whisper. “They’re all from Tenred, possibly a hundred or more. They’re running past us, chasing our allies into a tunnel.”
Zoke did hear them going past, but the sounds of their shoes against the stone had begun to quiet. The noise of battle moved with them, stopping somewhere past the opening to their cove.
“You see this tall mountaintop?” Terren pointed to a triangular peak jetting into the sky a hundred feet ahead of them. “The mountain flats up here stretch for miles, but many natural gaps in the stone make it so only one route is available between two points. There’s a tunnel through that tall mountaintop. It’s the only way from our current side to the other side of that peak. Kyrro has been pushed back through the tunnel, and Tenred is following through from our side. That means we’re behind the enemy.”
Steffen crawled through the crevice they were huddled around. He and Terren exchanged some words in a stern tone, but Zoke was too busy translating for Vithos to catch it.
“Tell them I’ll stun the enemies,” Vithos said. “We’ll all run in and finish them off before I’m drained of energy.”
“And how long can you manage to stun them all? There are over a hundred men,” Zoke asked.
“Not long for that many, I admit. Maybe enough to cut down twenty. If I had more time to rest it could be more.”
“But there’s no time.”
“What are you talking about with Vithos?” Terren asked.
“He wants to run in first,” Zoke said in common tongue, “and stun them all with psyche,” Zoke quickly continued before Terren could consider it. “But he won’t be able hold the spell for long. The moment it wears off, they’ll turn and swarm us.”
“Unless they can’t find us,” Steffen added. He held a glass bottle in each hand. “Mix these together and it’ll create enough smoke to make the whole mountain look ablaze.”
A quick silence followed with everyone’s eyes on Terren.
“How certain are you the potion will work?” Terren asked, reaching for the bottles.
“Absolutely certain,” Steffen replied.
“Fine. Vithos and I will go in first,” Terren said, pointing to the crevice that led out of their cove. “Alex close behind, watching our rear for anyone coming for us. Effie and Zoke, we need you both looking for archers off to the sides. Take them out. Otherwise, we’ll be shot down as soon as the smoke clears. Reela with Effie, Steffen with Zoke.”
Terren had transitioned into a plan so quickly Zoke didn’t understand how his mind could work that fast. Suddenly, he remembered Terren had mentioned training for situations like this.
An eerie chill ran down his back. Humans may be more prepared for battle than I thought.
Zoke gave the dagger from his belt to Steffen and readied his bow.
“Steffen,” Terren said. “How long does the smoke take to work?”
“It’ll start smoking the moment you pour one bottle into the other.”
“Fine. Listen, everyone.” Terren leaned toward them and moved a glance through each of their eyes. “If we don’t kill the attackers from Tenred, it could be us and the rest of our allies behind that mountaintop who die. You can’t hesitate when you get an opportunity to take out an enemy. Some of them will be women, but the moment you give them a chance, they’ll burn your nipples off with a fireball. Tenred isn’t going to think twice about driving a knife through Effie or Reela’s stomach, so don’t do the same for them.”
“What’s he saying?” Vithos whispered.
“Kill or be killed,” Zoke replied.
“It takes so many words for that?” Vithos was surprised.
“And don’t let your nipples get burned off,” Zoke added, to give some credit to Terren’s inspiring speech, but Vithos just glanced at his chest curiously.
“On my lead,” Terren said, walking toward the opening.
Terren mixed the bottles, peeked out, and heaved the
mixture. He spun back behind cover to wait, readying his sword.
Zoke noticed everyone tensing their muscles. They were still, waiting for the order from their leader. Zoke looked to Vithos and received a nod from the Elf.
“Endure,” Vithos whispered.
“Endure,” Zoke replied, feeling a rush of strength that set his eyes hard and ready.
Chapter 54: Smoke
ZOKE
Zoke never heard the sound of the smoke potion breaking. The clatter of steel was too loud for that. But then, like the dying swell of thunder, the clatter faded into nothing.
A wave of panic replaced it, growing louder with each breath Zoke took. The Humans were shouting unintelligibly, and many of them began coughing.
Terren held three fingers…two…one. Upon dropping the last finger, he darted out with Vithos and Alex behind him.
Zoke ran out next with Steffen trailing him, adrenaline erasing all fear. He was hungry for blood.
Zoke quickly realized the smoke did look like that from fire but far thicker. There was an enormous cloud of it in front of the tunnel. It was spreading in every direction, leaving only a few Humans outside of its reach—archers and mages, from what Zoke could see. My targets, he said to himself. Time was against them. He knew he had to be merciless. Otherwise, the smoke would clear and Vithos would be slain along with the rest of them.
The Elf and the two tall male Humans already had disappeared into the smoke. He could hear screams of death but saw nothing of it. Zoke darted left out of the cove, putting him on the opposite side of the smoke as Effie and Reela.
He lost sight of the archers and mages he’d found earlier. The smoke had engulfed them. He pulled Steffen farther toward the outskirts of the smoke and found an archer moving in the same direction to escape it.
Zoke readied his bow and shot. The arrow whizzed by his target’s shoulder. Zeti had always been better with the bow. He was tempted to throw it down and run at them with his sword, but his target—along with two others coming out of the smoke—turned and found him. They scrambled to load arrows.
“Go to the smoke!” he shouted to Steffen. They dashed toward it, getting inside just as he heard an arrow fly by. He gave the bow to Steffen and the quiver as well. “Watch behind us,” Zoke said, drawing his sword.
“I don’t know how to use this!” Steffen replied.
“Pointy end of arrow goes out, pull back string, and aim.”
Zoke moved toward where he’d seen the archers last. He’d never been in smoke so thick. He couldn’t see farther than he could spit, so he tried to listen instead, but coughing and dying were in every direction. There was no way to hear anything else.
He came behind a male Human wearing a black leather tunic with red stars. Tenred, Zoke knew, remembering what Terren had said about their colors. The Human was frantically looking in every direction, eventually turning to see Zoke and Steffen.
“A Krepp?” he spoke barely loud enough to hear. After the initial shock, his eyes tightened, and he scrambled to load an arrow. But Zoke ran to him before he could shoot, slicing his sharp sword across the Human’s chest. The blade severed the man’s bow and cut open his tunic as well. Without a thought, Zoke took another swing at his neck, taking his head clean off.
“Behind!” Steffen shouted as he fumbled with an arrow.
Zoke spun around to find a man with a black robe pointing a wand at them. It started to glow just as Haemon’s claws would before he burned a Krepp. Zoke saw he was too far from the mage to stop him, and Steffen’s arrow had fallen in his attempt to load it. Without thinking, he turned his back and jumped in front of Steffen to protect him from the fireball.
It felt like a giant had ripped a tree from the ground, lit it on fire, and slammed it into Zoke’s back. The force of it picked him up off his feet for a blink, knocking him into Steffen and sending them both to the ground for a roll.
Dazed, Zoke slipped getting to his feet. He managed it the second time and looked back, but the mage was out of view for the moment.
Just after turning back to give Steffen a glance, Zoke saw him driving his knife into the stomach of someone. It was a man in Tenred garb holding a sword over his head. Another heartbeat and that sword would have been stuck down across Zoke’s chest.
The attacker fell to his knees, letting the sword drop. Steffen took a step away, leaving the dagger within his enemy. Zoke grabbed the man’s sword with his free hand and held it toward Steffen. He wouldn’t accept it. He might not even have seen it. Steffen’s eyes were locked on the man he’d just stabbed. Without any time to spare, Zoke checked again on the mage but found no one. His back was raw, stinging with pain.
“Take it,” Zoke said, forcing Steffen’s hands around the sword hilt.
By then the smoke was no longer thickening but starting to clear instead. No, not yet. Zoke dashed toward where the mage had shot him, only to find a burned corpse on the ground.
With the smoke thinning, Zoke could see farther now and spotted Effie and Reela ahead of him. They were backing up toward him, looking somewhere else.
Rushing forward, Zoke soon saw what they did—three men with swords trudging their way. Zoke leapt in front of them with his sword pointed. The three enemies stopped and whipped back their heads.
“What are you doing here, Krepp?” one of them asked.
“He’s the short one with the Elf. The traitors,” another answered. “We’re to watch for them after taking the pathway.”
“Good,” the first replied. “That makes our job easier.” He came at Zoke.
The Human may have been taller, but his strength was half what Zoke was used to. The man screamed and swung his sword in an overhead arc. Zoke blocked the blow with his sword and kicked his attacker back with a hard heel to his stomach.
The other two came from either side, raising their swords to attack at once. A fireball flew past Zoke’s shoulder into one of them, and the other dropped his weapon and fell to his knees, groaning with pain.
Zoke drove his sword through the chest of the one who’d fallen and then looked over toward the one hit by the fireball. He was still, dead.
The last one was the first man to attack them. He ran toward them valiantly with his sword high, but he too stopped short, crying out in pain and dropping his weapon. His scream was cut short when an arrow zoomed past Zoke and into the enemy’s chest.
Zoke turned around to check on the three Humans behind him. Effie had her wand out, Reela’s hand was propelled forward, and Steffen had two shaking hands on the bow as if letting go could kill him.
“I didn’t take the sword,” Steffen said with a quiet, startled tone.
“Keep the bow. It’s yours,” Zoke answered. He’d always wanted a good reason to get rid of it. “The smoke is clearing. We must hurry to find the other archers and mages.”
With the others following him, Zoke ran toward the outer reaches of the smoke, figuring those with long-range weapons would try to stay out of it.
He was right. He found five enemies—four archers and a mage. They were clustered together fifty feet from Zoke and had searching eyes. Steffen and the others emerged from the smoke to join him. That’s when they were spotted. One of the archers pointed, and they all aimed their weapons.
“Effie!” Reela shouted.
“On it,” Effie replied. She snapped her wand and a burst of light came from it even brighter than it had been in the tunnel below. “Take cover behind this rock,” Effie instructed as she ran.
Zoke saw the pillar of stone she meant to hide behind. It was five steps from them. He grabbed Steffen’s wrist—for he hadn’t moved yet—and nearly tossed him behind the pillar as he ran there himself. Zoke felt the hot wind of a fireball sailing over his head just before he was behind the pillar with the rest of them.
Effie grabbed Reela’s hand. “Too far for psyche?”
“Yes. I couldn’t give them more than a tickle from all the way over here.”
“We have to kill them now,
” Zoke said. “Once smoke clears, friends die.”
“I hope they’re still alive,” Steffen said.
Zoke spat in disgust at the comment, but Reela spoke before he could say anything of it. “Vithos is. I can feel him. So the rest probably are, too.”
“Not for long if we stay here,” Zoke said and whipped his head around the pillar. The archers were staring back at him with arrows at the ready. They fired as he brought his head back again. Four arrows zipped by. “Any other smoke potion with you?”
“That was the only one I had. It takes too many ingredients. Taviray flower and bat feces in one, sugar and—”
“Steffen, we get it,” Reela said to stop him. “Effie, got enough juice for one more spell?”
Zoke didn’t hear a response, so he glanced at Effie. The mage was sitting with her back against the stone pillar. Her mouth hung open, sucking in air. Her eyes were closed.
“She’s meditating,” Steffen said.
Reela knelt down in front of her. She put her palm on Effie’s cheek and whispered, “Eff, we need you.”
The mage opened her eyes, shut her mouth, and climbed to her feet gingerly. “I have something we can use, but after this I’m spent. Let me focus while I cast. One mistake and this explodes in my hands.”
Zoke kept his eyes on the smoke. It was dissipating as he watched. For each breath he took, he could see a foot farther. The ground was littered with corpses dressed in red and black. He checked back on the mage’s progress. Effie had her wand pointed into a cupped hand. A yellow glow came from it with green laces of dancing smoke. With squinted eyes, her head followed her wand around.
Finishing, she let her shoulders slouch. She passed whatever it was to Reela.
“Throw it at their feet.” Effie pushed out her words through breaths of exhaustion. “Run in after it’s thrown. Careful not to squeeze it too tightly.” She let her body melt to the ground, allowing her back to rest against the wall once again. “Better do it quick. The Sartious barrier is already mixing with the Bastial Energy inside. It’s about to explode.”
“I can’t throw well,” Reela said, giving it to Zoke. “Here, hurry.”
