From Across the Clouded Range

by H. Nathan Wilcox

  #

  Dasen spent several seconds recovering his breath and his equilibrium. His mind was shattered. He felt like his head was full of wool. He could not seem to hold his thoughts or link together the few that did remain. He could no longer feel his arms and legs, but he was distantly aware that they were bringing him to his feet. He tried to scan the area around him, but his eyes would not focus and his mind could not hold the distorted information they did manage to gather. He began pulling himself up.

  Something hit him hard in the mouth, and he crumpled to the ground.

  He spit blood into the sand that was pressed between his fingers and felt his mind and body return to him. He wished that they had not. The power that had been sustaining him was gone, and the fatigue that it had held at bay fell on him as a single crushing weight. He fought that weight to bring himself to his knees. Pain ebbed from every corner of his body. He did not know if he could stand, so he did not try. He flopped back onto his seat and looked toward the source of the blow expecting to see his death.

  He did not have the energy to fight any longer. He wiped the blood from his split lip and wondered why he was still alive. His eyes finally focused on his attacker, but rather of the warrior or creatures he expected, he saw Teth. She stood over him with fists clenched. Fear, pain, and what could only be revulsion marred her features. It looked like she was going to strike him again. He did not move to protect himself.

  “You bastard!” she screamed. “By the Order, what did you do? Being dead would be better than watching that. If you ever do anything like that again, I will kill you! I swear it!” Her screams collapsed to sobs. She stood over him shaking.

  “I’m sorry.” A whisper was as much as he could manage. He could not stand to see Teth’s disappointment, so he turned his eyes to the sand. “I didn’t mean to do it. I didn’t know what I was doing.” He looked back, found her eyes, and pleaded. “I just wanted you to be safe. I couldn’t lose you like that. You have to believe me. I didn’t want that.”

  Teth stopped crying, but her eyes were marked by huge, salty tears. The sight of those tears hurt him more than the blow. She wiped the tears away, and a small smile appeared on her chapped, blood-stained lips. She held out a hand. Dasen accepted it, and with her help, he rose.

  Teth threw her arms around him nearly knocking him back down as his shaking legs strained to support even his own weight. She pulled him close and squeezed the very air from his lungs. “I don’t care, damn you.” She spoke into his chest. “I don’t care. Just don’t become one of them; don’t allow your hatred to make you into what you hate. Not for me, not for anyone.” She squeezed him again and let him go.

  Teth's eyes turned to the battlefield around them. “All that just to buy us five minutes? You couldn’t have come up with anything that actually got us away from here?” The cutting tone showed that she had forgiven him.

  Dasen followed Teth’s eyes across the field. All around the bloodied pasture, men stood as if stunned. Many of them had dropped their weapons, and no one appeared to be fighting any longer. Most of the men had blank expressions as if they were wondering what they were doing on the field in the first place. They all looked as dazed as Dasen felt. He turned to Teth, but she just mirrored his expression of disbelief.

  The strange lull was mercilessly short. As they watched, the men remembered their purpose. Those who had dropped their weapons hurried to retrieve them before throwing themselves back at their opponents. In seconds, the scene was much as it had been a minute before. Desperate defenders charged into the invaders and were cut down in droves, even without the creatures or governor to drive them on – Oban’s horse wandered aimlessly near the unmoving body of its master. Where the creatures had been, horses stood without purpose as riders like those who had captured them recovered from the silent explosion that had thrown them from their saddles. Moving between those horses was a new group of men who were primarily distinguished by the crossbows they carried. Though both crossbowmen and cavalry were still far off, it would not be long before the bolts began to fall and the riders resumed their charge.

  Dasen looked for Teth. She was already sprinting up the beach to where she had dropped her bow. She picked up the weapon and a quiver, but they both knew it was pointless. The rows of invaders continued as far as the eye could see, but it would only take two bolts to finish them. The situation was every bit as desperate as it had been before his horrible spell. Teth was right. He had sold his soul for five minutes.

  Still, Dasen searched for the answer, sure that it was there. If weapons cannot save us, he thought, and my strange powers are gone. . . .

  Then the Order is our only refuge. The revelation almost made him laugh. He had just created a sacrilege against the Order, now he would call upon its laws to save them. The irony was perfect. Surely, he told himself, the Order does not mean for this to be the end. We have come too far, have survived too much. The Order has left an escape. I know it. All he had to do was embrace that order, trust its laws, and use them to find the way.

  He scanned the water and saw a large vessel making its way down the river, but it was far off and no more reachable than the distant bank to which it clung. He thought about the boat. . . .

  “Cover me!” he yelled, though he knew that Teth had no actual chance of covering him from the crossbows. He stumbled more than sprinted toward the invaders as fast as his exhausted legs would carry him and, in a few seconds, reached the piles of bodies that defined where the battle had taken place before his spell.

  He scanned the bodies as he ran, trying not to retch at the excruciating sight. It struck him just how much the power had shielded him from the realities of war. The smell of death was overpowering. Mutilated bodies were everywhere. Blood covered everything. Sightless eyes stared at the heavens, stared at him. Only the urgency of his errand kept him going, allowed him to continue searching the carnage. After what felt like hours, he saw what he was looking for. He hurdled the bodies of two boys well younger than himself, tried to avoid seeing their faces as he lifted a thick wooden shield from the body of a shirtless invader.

  He pulled up the shield and turned toward Teth as the first quarrel flew past his face. It was followed by others whizzing like bees around him. He pulled the shield over his shoulder in time to catch two bolts that were destined for his back. The bolts hit the shield with enough force to knock him from his feet but failed to penetrate the thick wood. He rose slowly, stumbling as his legs fought his commands, and ran on. Soon bolts were falling around him like rain. He heard them beat on the shield like hail. He ran for all he was worth, praying that the shield would be enough to keep the deadly rain at bay. His legs wobbled under the strain of his sprint. Each bolt that hit the shield threatened to send him to his knees, but his feet somehow found the ground and pushed him on.

  Bolts were whizzing around Teth when he reached her. She had given ground until she was standing in water to her thighs. She watched the sky trying to dodge the projectiles, her bow long forgotten. Dasen yelled at her to run, but she did not look away from the sky.

  “Where am I supposed to run? Have you already forgotten that I can’t swim?” Dodging a bolt by a fraction of an inch, she spared a glance at him and saw the shield he carried. “That’s great, but that shield is only going to protect us for so long.” She flinched as a bolt nicked her arm, leaving a long gash that welled with blood.

  Dasen did not try to explain. He grabbed her hand as he ran by and pulled her into the river. The water exploded around them as it rose up their legs, but they did not stop. The rain of arrows gave way to the sound of hooves churning the water. The water rose, and their momentum slowed. The horse sounded like they were on top of them. It was now or never. Dasen threw the shield out in front of them, clenched Teth’s wrist, and dove into the water.

  Plunging beneath the current, he held
onto Teth and kicked until his lungs were burning and Teth was struggling to pull her hand from his grip. His head rose from the water but was blocked by something hard, so he altered his course to come up just to the side of the shield. He grabbed the great plank of wood and searched for Teth. She was already there, clinging to the shafts of two bolts, panting for breath. A desperate scan of their surroundings showed that they were alone. The invaders were concentrating on the few defenders that remained, had lost all interest in them.

  Dasen laid back in the water and felt relief rush over him. They had done it. They had done the impossible and done it without the help of his hell sent powers.

  He brought his feet under him to push them farther into the river, but they continued to fall with no sign of the bottom. Panic hit him at the loss of that security. He grabbed the shield for support and felt it plunge beneath the surface. Teth gasped as the shield fell, but its decent soon stopped, and her gasp became a sigh of relief.

  Dasen pulled his feet back up, taking his weight from the shield, and started to kick. He had not expected them to be out so far, but it appeared that the current was pulling them away from the bank as it carried them toward the city. The last remnants of the battle still raged on that bank, however, and it was still far too close for Dasen’s comfort. He wanted to be as far as possible from the fighting and the burning shell of the city that would soon be upon them.

  A quick scan revealed the flat-bottomed barge hugging the far bank. “I think we should try for that barge.” Dasen's words were soft, little more than a whisper, but Teth retracted from them in shock. Her knuckles were white for the grip that she maintained on the short bolts that jutted from the top of the shield. “They may take us all the way to Wildern if we can make it to them, and we need to get farther into the river in any case.” He put a hand on Teth's back. “Do you think you can help me kick?”

  Teth let out a long, shaking sigh and nodded. Dasen brought his hand from her back and pushed two strands of wet hair over her ear. Her lips trembled, but he did not think it was from the cold. He searched for something more to say but could only manage to stare into her stormy eyes.

  “I don’t have much left.” When Teth’s words finally came, they trembled and slurred as if she could barely form them. “I’ll try.”

  “Just hang on,” he assured. “I'll turn us around. Do what you can.”

  Teth nodded her approval – or was she nodding off to sleep. Dasen slowly turned the shield so that she was facing the opposite bank. He gladly left the battle behind and positioned himself next to Teth so that their hips were touching. He kept as much of his weight off of the shield as possible, and it actually rose as they kicked. Soon, they had reached the middle of the river and could barely hear the sounds of battle over the rush of water around them, but they did not catch the barge. It used a small sail and oars to pull itself past the city until it was lost from sight

  With the barge gone, Dasen told Teth to stopped kicking. They focused on keeping themselves low as the city slid by. Thoren was still clouded by flying creatures, and destructive magic still rained down on the buildings that the unchecked fires had not consumed. At the city docks, creatures used claws, teeth, tails, and fire to destroy the wooden structures along with the hopes of those seeking an escape. The unholy beasts waited until a group had almost reached a ship before they dove out of the air and smashed it. They trapped another band on a shattered dock and left them to burn. They capsized a fully loaded ship just as it pushed off. Their only goal was despair, Dasen realized. The creatures only destroyed the docks to make the people on them suffer. It was too unimaginable to watch.

  He turned to Teth. Her face was an agonizing mix of revulsion and exhaustion. He slipped his arm around her waist and pulled her close to him in the water, felt her warmth through their damp clothes. “Don’t watch,” he whispered. “We’ve seen enough.”

  For once in her life, she listened. Teth turned her eyes from the city, and they both watched the far side of the river where they were ironically passing the Ronigan estate. That side of the river was a vision of tranquility. The river seemed to be a boundary to the creatures. They did not venture past the docks. Anything in the river was safe, and the few small boats that got away were ignored.

  Dasen thought about trying for the far bank, but the current seemed to want them in the middle of the river, and this time, he was willing to trust that the Order knew what was best for them. Occasionally, they kicked to avoid the larger pieces of debris that might draw attention to them, but for the most part, they just floated, hanging on to the shield and each other for all the support they needed. Teth slept. Dasen wished he could, but his memories would not allow it, so he held her, kept her safe, and tried to forget.

  Chapter 41