Bloodletting Part 2

by Peter J. Wacks

  The blaze of Tetra’s fury drew his attention back. He wanted to find a way to help Tetra not be so angry. But how? He didn’t know very many good jokes, and most of the ones he had heard in the Admired camp didn’t make much sense to him. He figured Tetra was too old now to try tickling him. To use his Affinity he needed to work with what was already there.

  He perked up. Games! Games always made people happy. Malec had told him to try and lose every now and then, so maybe if he let Tetra win, it would help him feel happy.

  He pulled out the leather bag of stones he’d brought from the Admired camp. Rising, he went over and shook it near Tetra’s ear. “Hey, want to play Round Robbing while we wait?”

  Tetra glanced up, anger flashing to annoyance for a second. Then this calmed, and he shrugged. The anger was still there, under the surface, but Pavil was happy that Tetra was at least willing to humor him. “Sure. Why not?”

  Pavil sat down opposite him and started counting out stones. “What kind of stakes do you want?”

  Tetra frowned. “Stakes? Since when does Round Robbing have stakes?

  “It’s the way we played it in the Admired camp. I like it. Jaimson says a good wager always makes games more interesting.”

  Tetra glanced at the cave mouth, then back to Pavil and sighed. “All right. A wager. Like what?”

  Pavil gave this some thought. “Do you do chores back at the castle?”

  “Sometimes.”

  “Okay. If you win, I have to do all your chores for a day.”

  “And if I lose?”

  “Then you have to go a whole day without being angry. Can’t say or do anything angry and can’t have any angry thoughts.”

  Tetra’s blinked in surprise. “Pavil, I don’t know if I can do that. I can try, but I just don’t know. My anger … never mind. I’ll try, okay?”

  Pavil nodded and stuck out his hand. “Deal.”

  Once they shook, Pavil doled out equal stones and they started. They played for the next half hour, going back and forth with guesses. While Round Robbing sounded simple in its goal, just guessing the number of stones your opponent held, Pavil had learned all sorts of tricks from the Admired to complicate things. Ways to bunch up the pile so others couldn’t estimate how many it held. Ways to make it look like you grabbed certain stones, but really left them lying there. Even how to quietly drop stones after they’d been picked up. The last trick sometimes felt like lying or cheating to Pavil, but it had been the only way to win with some of the Admired.

  At one point, Tetra nearly held every last stone. Pavil sneaked a stone back from his wager pile, making him guess wrong and give half his lot back. Then, after a few turns, he made a hasty calculation and blurted his guess—realizing his mistake right after he did. That cost him almost a dozen stones.

  Finally, they came to a round where each had wagered their last pieces. Tetra wore a sly grin as he displayed his fist, but Pavil knew for sure he held five. He opened his mouth. Hesitated.

  “Six.”

  Tetra opened his hand. Five.

  Pavil pretended to be disappointed, but paid more attention to Tetra’s mood. A gleam of happiness fluttered within him. Not enough to balance out the anger, but at least a shift in the right direction. The game wasn’t distracting Tetra from the cave, or his sister, but the normalcy of being with a friend was helping. Pavil gave the happiness a slight touch with his affinity, encouraging it to grow and fix in place.

  “Looks like you’ve got some chores coming your way,” Tetra said, grinning.

  “I’ll beat you next time,” Pavil said, scooping the stones back into the bag. “Count on it!”

  “Maybe. But I’ll be wagering a whole week’s worth of chores.”

  “Then I’ll make you tell me every happy memory you have from Jaegen if you lose.”

  Tetra’s smile went lopsided, and Pavil realized he had pushed it a little too far. He looked up as the older boy rose. “Did I do something wrong?”

  Tetra shook his head. “No. I just need to be alone for a little bit.” He patted his shoulder. “Thanks, Pavil. This was fun.”

  Pavil touched his emotions as he headed off to one side of the clearing. The immediate anger had lessened, yes, but it still smoldered, and he worried what it might do to Tetra if it ever burst into full flames.

  ***

  Chapter Forty-four

  Halli Bicks

  As the ifrahn approached the cage, the children drew closer to Halli and Laney. Gnarrl and Fursta stood between them at the front of the cage, expressions still strained as they fought their fear of being roasted alive. Katerine had her arm around Sven’s neck, and they all waited as the serpentine warriors arrived and glared through the bars.

  One flicked a forked tongue. “Use your magics and we burn all. Run, and we burn all. Speak, and we burn all.” It tapped a talon on the bars. “Step away.”

  Once Gnarrl and Fursta did as told, it melted the metal band holding the cage door closed. The ifrahn opened the door and waved a claw at the children. “Come.”

  The youngest began to cry.

  “Silence, hatchling!” the ifrahn screeched. “Come!”

  Halli stepped forward, guiding by example, and the children followed slowly as she crossed the small gap between the cage threshold and the stone outcropping. The ifrahn turned and clattered away. The children grouped around Halli, Laney, and Sven as they exited the cage. Tentatively, they followed the ifrahn, who marched them back through the tunnels and across the ledges which had brought them to the cage. Gnarrl and Fursta remained a short distance behind them, with three ifrahn at their backs.

  A large gathering of ifrahn assembled around them, jeering and mocking as they were escorted to what she knew to be their deaths. It didn’t matter. She had heard the order to dump them at the edge of the forest. She just had to hope that the ifrahn didn’t want to carry their bodies. If they could get to the steppes, one or two of them might be able to escape and carry word into the human lands.

  The crowd dispersed as they neared the long ledge which led up the tunnel and back to the forested cave entrance. Once they reached the ledge, ten armored monsters remained with them.

  Halli fought to retain her composure. Tetra’s proximity shone bright in her mind and her fear for him began to grow. Was he inside the forest? Had he survived the slaughter of Jaegen only to come for them and die at the hands of the ifrahn? Tears rolled down her cheeks as she tried to will him away. Even with Gnarrl and Fursta’s help, the ifrahn were ready for any escape attempt, and the slightest resistance would consign the others to a horrible, agonizing death. An immediate death.

  Please, Tetra, forget us. Run! We’re already dead. Run!

  They passed the last alcove along the ledge and started for the tunnel mouth. Sven marched on, supporting Kat, trying to look brave. Laney met Halli’s eyes, naked fear in hers. It wasn’t fair. The children didn’t deserve this.

  A blur of motion whipped through the ifrahn. Two of them gurgled and grabbed their throats. Three just dropped to the ledge and lay still. The two in the lead turned quickly, spiked ribbons flaring out, hands raised, eyes glowing. Halli braced for the fire … but their hands detached at the wrist and blood spurted from their necks. Spikes floated gently through the air, attached to scraps of ribbon, then fell. She glanced back to see the three ifrahn behind the orocs already fallen.

  The blur slowed and coalesced into a man wearing leather and iron armor, holding a bloody sword. He stood motionless as the last ifrahn crumpled to the ground. He appeared frozen for a moment before he drew frantic gasps. A sheen of sweat glistened on his forehead and his hands shook.

  Shakily stepping forward he nodded to the tunnel, rasping, “Run.”

  Halli and the others stood locked in place by disbelief. Then a horn resounded through the cavern, startling them into motion. They parted and flowed around the man, running. Sven had picked up Katerine, her arms around his neck as he darted ahead. Halli stopped when the man stepped past the chi
ldren toward Gnarrl and Fursta.

  “No,” she cried. He stopped, eyeing the orocs menacingly, an expression they returned. “They were captured protecting us.”

  He looked at her and then back at the orocs, waging an inner struggle. At last, he turned away from the orocs, though he kept his sword out. “Come on. Hurry.”

  They raced through the tunnel. The cavern below swarmed with ifrahn as the horn continued to sound. The man stopped at the bend just inside the tunnel, where the children waited.

  “Keep going,” he urged, before looking to Gnarrl. “Can you collapse the tunnel behind us?”

  The oroc looked to Halli, not quite understanding. She quickly interpreted for him, ignoring the man’s surprise at her command of Rocmirian.

  “Not the entire tunnel,” Gnarrl said. “It could bring the length of it down on us. We can close the mouth. It may slow them down.”

  She translated this, and the man nodded.

  “Do it.”

  Gnarrl and Fursta both knelt, digging their fingers into the stone like it was loose dirt. Thick spikes grew from the rock in layers until they formed a wall of stone over the entrance. Halli shivered. It looked like a jagged maw had just eaten the entire cavern beyond.

  The man’s voice pierced the darkness. “Let’s go before they melt it down.”

  ***

  Chapter Forty-five

  Kellian Mikkels

  Kellian tried to track the time, but it proved difficult to do in the sunless tunnel. Several times, he almost went back for Reynolds. He shouldn’t have left him in the first place, major or no. Alleen paced before the ice, clearly feeling the same way.

  Then a clamor of voices and stamping of many feet echoed up the tunnel. Alleen started to turn to run, but then heard the same thing Kellian did. They were human voices. Young human voices.

  “Hurry up.”

  “I’m tired. Do we have to keep running?” The voices were soft, but he could just make out the words.

  “We have to. Run, kids.” It was Major Reynolds’ voice.

  “It’s them!” Kellian whispered.

  “I hear it, too.” Alleen held the volamp against the stalagmites and amplified the heat, pushing it into the water till it melted. Kellian spotted what she was doing and moved it to the sides of the hole, readying it to reseal the ice waterfall.

  The flickering light of Reynolds’ volamp bobbed into view, illuminating a swarm of smaller figures in front of him. The children were covered in grime, hair disheveled, tears cutting clean streaks down their faces.

  “He did it,” Kellian murmured. “I can’t believe it.”

  “The poor things,” Alleen muttered.

  Kellian lifted his volamp high. As the children closed and slowed, he waved at the hole in the ice. “Keep going! Don’t stop until you reach the surface. Go, go, go!”

  Reynolds approached with another young woman. Kellian immediately spotted the resemblance to Tetra. This must be his sister. The children bunched up for a moment before filing through the wall.

  “Mikkels!” Alleen drew her sword as two orocs charged up the tunnel behind Reynolds. Kellian readied his blade.

  “They’re with us,” Reynolds shouted. “No time to explain. Get through the ice. GO!”

  Reynolds passed through, followed by Alleen. With a dark look at the orocs, Kellian slipped over as well and then stood aside as the beasts squeezed through sideways. Once everyone cleared the way, Kellian and Alleen finished refilling the hole until it was a solid wall once more. No sooner had they finished than the semitranslucent wall lit up brilliantly from the other side and the cave shook.

  “They’re purging the tunnel,” Alleen whispered in horror. “If we’d been on the other side we’d be ash.”

  As the glow brightened, they turned and fled, fear lending speed to their strides.

  ***

  Chapter Forty-six

  Tetra Bicks

  Tetra stood to stretch his legs and adjusted the brace. Malec sat against a tree, toying with his sword, while Pavil stood with Uncle Andros’s group on the left side of the clearing. The scouting party had been gone at least an hour, and his patience had unraveled to its last thread. His uncle’s arguments for his staying above made sense, but it didn’t change his desire to be part of the action. Tetra fought a heavy sense of foreboding, knowing much of the feeling originated from Halli—though this only worried him more.

  His palm felt wet. Glancing down, he blinked in surprise. He had been balling his fist so hard that his nails had cut into his flesh. He raised his hand and sucked on the cut, then wiped it on his shirt.

  Bealdred approached with a water skin. He’d been walking the clearing’s perimeter, checking on the Admired guards. When Tetra shook his head at the offer of a drink, the blacksmith poured water over his own head and let it dribble down his face before wiping it away with a meaty hand. Everyone had lapsed into silence as time ticked on and the scouting party was gone longer and longer. Even while lightened by his affinity and in such a mild spring day, the man’s armor had to be hot.

  Tetra frowned at the cave and quietly spoke. “What if they run into trouble, Bealdred? What if they need help?”

  Bealdred blinked as water trickled from his thick hair. “Don’t worry, git. Reynolds ain’t the kind to go rushin’ into somethin’ stupid.” He thought back to the battle at Drayston. “Well, he won’t be stupid without a good reason, anyway.”

  “Have you ever fought ifrahn?” Tetra asked.

  “Aye.” The large man stared of at the canopy of the forest as memories sparked. “I have, git.”

  “What’s it like? What are they like?”

  Bealdred sealed the water skin and sighed. “Messy an’ hot. Dampenin’ don’t work all that well against their Archon abilities, since they can launch things well outside of range.” His gaze grew distant, his voice just above a whisper as he viewed a battlefield years past. “Seen whole companies turned to piles of black bone and armor. All at the hands of a few ifrahn Archmagi. We Dreadknights was the only ones left standin’ in a sea of death. The day the twelve of us took the field was a bloody day. Messy.”

  “What’d you do?” Malec asked.

  Tetra glanced at the boy, not noticing he’d walked over to listen.

  “We killed ’em. All of ’em. That was the end of the Scaladrin war.”

  “Wasn’t that over twenty years ago?” Malec asked.

  Bealdred just nodded.

  Tetra had heard the stories of the Scaladrin war, the last major military conflict Promencia had waged. He started to ask more, wondering what Bealdred could tell them that might confirm some of those stories. Then the sense of Halli’s presence shifted.

  He focused on their bond, trying not to be swept away by her fear, trying to clarify what he felt from her. Halli had gone on the move again, coming closer. He took a staggering step in his uncle’s direction.

  “Whoa there, git.” Bealdred steadied Tetra with a hand on his chest. “Whatcha feelin’?”

  “They’re moving,” Tetra said. “They’re getting nearer.”

  The man’s expression turned grim. “Get to your uncle.”

  Tetra sprinted across the clearing, the others close behind. Andros stood as he neared. “What is it?”

  “Halli’s coming closer,” Tetra said, breathing heavy.

  Andros motioned to Jaimson, Sibyl’s second-in-command. “Go get the others. We may have trouble on the way.”

  Jaimson darted off.

  Jaimson returned with Sibyl and the other Admired, who gathered around Andros.

  “At least one of the children is coming closer,” he said. “I pray this means the rest are with her. We’ve no idea what condition they’ll be in, but it’s a safe assumption that ifrahn may pursue them or may even be escorting them. Either way, our priority is to get the children clear and collapse the entrance as soon as possible. I want Vorten ready to kick up a wind that will knock ifrahn projectiles off target.” He looked at the Admired as h
e issued the orders. “Our Volcons should be dampening as soon as the children leave the cave. How large an area can you each cover?”

  The two Admired Volcons looked at one another. The one named Sanji spoke. “We can cover a little over two hundred paces together.”

  Bealdred and Andros looked astonished. “Which one of you’s the Archmage then?” Bealdred asked.

  Sanji shook his head. “Neither. We use a special technique to make it possible.”

  “Hm,” Andros grunted. “I shall have to have you show me how that works once we have survived the day.”

  “We will see,” Sanji said.

  Andros eyed them a moment before continuing. “Thardin, you’re our only Tecton. Do you think you can close the cave?” The Admired blacksmith grunted in the affirmative, and Andros continued. “Be ready to do so then. Everyone else, be ready to fight and keep the Volcons protected. Bealdred will lead the assault.” Andros looked at Tetra, Pavil, and Malec. “Except you three. I want you three as runners. Should we fall or fail to you must bring word of what we see here to Drayston.”

  “I’ll fight with you,” Tetra said. He knew that his uncle was just trying to protect him. If there was trouble coming from below and it was enough to overwhelm them, there was no way the three of them would be able to escape it.

  Sibyl sighed off to the side, shaking her head, but he ignored her. He had no intention of running away while his friends and uncle faced danger.

  “No, Tetra. Enough of your pigheadedness. You’ve disobeyed and risked the lives of all here. You will do as I say,” Andros said, just as doggedly. “You must lead Halli and any other children away, especially if there’s any fighting. You came here for them, and they’ll need you to get them to safety. Understand? How would you like it if they arrived just to see you die in front of them?”

  Tetra rocked back at the force of his uncle’s words, then finally dropped his gaze. His uncle was right. He had to protect the others, not just satisfy his lust for a fight.

  Save her …

  “Get in position,” Andros said. “Pavil … Malec … stay with Tetra.”