The two boys nodded, Pavil smiling in relief. As everyone moved to prepare, Tetra cast another glance at the cave, anxiety intensifying as Halli drew ever closer. He looked to his uncle as he moved. “Whatever is coming, it’s bad.”
***
Chapter Forty-seven
Halli Bicks
Lack of food and water, plus the suffocating heat of the cavern they’d been held in, had taken its toll on the children. They’d slowed enough for the soldiers and orocs to catch up, and it hadn’t taken long before they had to carry the smaller children. The soldiers all picked up one, while Gnarrl and Fursta took two under each arm. Sven still supported Katerine, and Halli wondered how he still possessed any strength at all. Just hours before he had been exhausted, ready to give up.
The tunnel seemed to stretch on forever, and she even began to wonder if they’d come up the right one. What if the ifrahn had multiple routes and they’d taken the wrong one by mistake? Then daylight glimmered up ahead and the immediacy of their freedom gave her a second wind. They rushed out the cave’s entrance, momentarily blinded by the sunlight.
“Halli!”
She oriented to Tetra’s voice. Her eyes adjusted as figures emerged from the forest around the clearing. One sprinted her way. Tetra slowed as he neared, a mace and sword in either hand. When she could make out his expression, it had filled with rage, and his eyes fixed on something behind her. The orocs, she realized.
“Don’t hurt them!” Halli shouted, spreading her arms to block his charge. “Tetra, they helped us! It’s not what you think!”
The rest of the men surrounded the children. Tetra stepped between Halli and the orocs, who set down the children they’d carried. He was still shaking with rage.
“He was there, Halli.” Tetra’s voice shook with fury. “You don’t know what he did to me. He killed mom and dad.”
“There’s no time for this,” said the man who’d rescued them. “An army of ifrahn will be here any moment now. Tetra, cool your heels.”
The largest man in the group started shouting orders, and people lurched into motion. Uncle Andros? What was happening here? Halli refocused on Tetra, ignoring what went on around them.
“What do you mean, killed mom and dad?” she asked.
“Him.” He pointed his sword at Gnarrl. “He was there. He killed Grandfather. He took you and left me for dead. Isn’t that right, Gnarrl? Right? You remember me, don’t you?”
The soldier who had saved them stepped in front of Tetra. “Stop. Now. We do not have time for this. Tetra, deal with it later. There are lives to save right now.”
Halli looked away and met Gnarrl’s eyes, but he glanced aside in shame. “He speaks truth.”
Halli crumpled at her core. She knew Gnarrl had been there at Jaegen, but to know he’d almost killed her twin.… Had killed her parents and grandfather.… Yet he’d protected her. Risked his life for theirs. She couldn’t form any words and tears burned in her eyes.
“Tetra!” Uncle Andros came over, but Halli was speechless, staring at Gnarrl. “Tetra, you must get the children away from here. Voids take you boy. Go!”
“But the orocs—”
“Reynolds says they’re with us, and we need all the help we can get. Now go!” Andros turned Tetra and roughly shoved him away.
After a last low growl at Gnarrl, Tetra moved off, drawing Halli with him. The other children had already gathered at the far edge of the clearing. She hadn’t even noticed them leaving.
“Dammit, Reynolds, go with them,” Andros shouted.
Their rescuer called to the other man from the tunnel. “Mikkels, go with them!”
They’d just reached the tree line when a horrible scream tore the air.
***
Chapter Forty-eight
Malthius Reynolds
Reynolds turned to the source of the scream. Lady Sibyl’s blacksmith, Thardin, stood with his arms clutching his midsection. A large metal spear protruded from his lower back and blood had already soaked his lower half. He fell beside the cave opening he’d just begun to close. The echoing clamor of thousands of claws rattled from within.
“Defend yourselves!” Andros roared.
A gust of wind blew Reynolds’ hair back as twin vortexes of air swirled into existence before the cave, a maelstrom that tore chunks of dirt from the ground and crushed the rocks at the edge of the tunnel. A hail of projectiles exploded from the cave’s entrance, spinning uselessly in the vortex. A few escaped the violent air storm but were hurled off-target. A javelin flew past, perilously close to Reynolds’ head as he ducked. Sibyl stared at another spear thrusting up from the ground between her feet, and another scream told of someone less fortunate.
The Vorten could only keep it up for so long. They had to engage the ifrahn at close range before being shredded by their Archon techniques. Once they clashed, arms to arms, projectiles would be as dangerous to them as the humans.
The projectiles spewing from the entrance stopped, and several ifrahn shot out into the open. The vortexes caught them and flung them high into the air. The fall wouldn’t kill them, since they could slow themselves down, and that would make a new set of problems soon enough. Reynolds grunted. It would be raining ifrahn. Hopefully they’d land far away and couldn’t skim, the technique some human Archons used to travel at high speeds.
Then the vortexes spun away into wisps. “That’s all they’ve got,” Jaimson shouted.
Helm in place, Bealdred approached the cave and planted his feet, war hammer at the ready. “Fall back! Leave the opening to me!” His voice boomed through the clearing. The joints of his armor began to glow red.
Two more ifrahn shot out of the cave. Bealdred stomped once and the two ifrahn tumbled forward as the ground beneath their claws became no denser then air. With a single wide swing of his mace, he crushed them both with a single blow, their bodies folding in on themselves.
More ifrahn swarmed from the cave. A lance shot up over Bealdred’s head, too straight and fast to be a miss. Reynolds knew what would happen next. He slowed time and moved to intercept. The lance shifted directions midflight and speared down at Andros, propelled by an ifrahn Affinity. Reynolds knocked it aside with his sword, and the lance shattered. The pieces landed inches away from skewering the captain, but somehow Bealdred had been faster, lightening the weapon as it flew over him.
Reynolds released his hold on time, absorbed the backlash, and charged, slowing time again. He was already beyond his limits, but it didn’t matter. He was dead if he didn’t push, even though he’d probably kill himself pushing this hard. This time he deflected another spear before it impaled one of the Admired Volcons. Shapes whipped around him as time caught up. He snatched a breath, seeing the pile of ifrahn corpses growing before Bealdred. Then he charged again and leapt into the fray.
***
Chapter Forty-nine
Malec Haldenfeld
Malec ran all out. The sounds of the battle at the cave reverberated through the forest. He and Sven had a brief moment to exchange shocked looks and smiles before they refocused on their dash through the woods. A part of him protested, screaming its refusal to believe that they had survived everything so far only to die now.
The stink of the orocs running in front of him dragged fearful memories back the surface. He hadn’t smelled their musk since he and Pavil had escaped. Part of him agreed with Tetra. Why should they trust them after what they’d done to Jaegen? But the beasts carried three children apiece, and the group moved faster for it.
The treetops above the group parted with a thrashing of limbs and branches. Two ifrahn dropped to the ground behind them.
The orocs set down the children they carried, and the male shouted, “Go!”
Malec scooped up one child as he ran by, while Halli grabbed up another. Tetra looked as though he’d stay, but Mikkels pushed him on, also shouting, “Go! Let them handle it.”
The orocs rounded on the ifrahn as the humans raced on, and the roars of their cla
sh added to the chaos.
It wasn’t long before they began to stumble and fall from exhaustion. Malec picked up another child and swung her onto his back. They broke through a line of trees and found themselves before a rearing cliff that stretched out of sight in both directions. Small waterfalls trickled down the rock in several spots.
“What do we do?” Halli asked as she tried to catch her breath.
Mikkels studied their surroundings. “We stand here. The little ones are too tired to go any further. I want you all to hide behind that rock.” He drew his sword and pointed it at a giant boulder near the cliff base.
“We can help you,” Tetra said. Laney and Pavil guided the children to the boulder, Sven carrying Kat moved that way as well. Mikkels started to protest, but Tetra clapped him on the shoulder. “We started this together. Let’s finish it together.”
Mikkels huffed a laugh and faced the way they had come. He jabbed the sword into the ground and pulled the bow off his pack, quickly stringing it. Malec watched as water swirled around Mikkels, floating out of his clothing. Thin streams darted out to the waterfalls and the mass around him pulsed, growing rapidly. “I don’t suppose any of you are Volcons by any chance?”
“Katerine is,” Pavil called from behind the rock.
“Does she know how to dampen?” Mikkels asked.
“I’ve never done it before,” Katerine’s voice wavered over. “But is that what I felt when we left the cave?”
“It is,” Mikkels said. He drew the bow back and water speared out from the mass floating around him, forming an arrow and sliding into place on the drawn bow.
“I can try—” Katerine’s words cut off as three more ifrahn dropped through the canopy. One landed near Malec, and he turned to face it.
The ifrahn’s wide mouth seemed locked in a permanent smile that displayed rows of fangs. It gurgled and hissed, raising its iron spear. He grabbed hold of the metal weapon with his affinity as the creature flung it. The spear slowed, jumping back and forth as they wrestled for control of it. The creature growled and brought up its other hand.
The weird armored robes it wore sprang to life of their own volition, and ribbons unwound from the garments. Heavy arrow tips weighted the ends of the ribbons and they spun outward in a whirlwind of motion. One of the tips grazed Malec’s cheek, slicing it open, and he fell back with a cry of pain.
The creature hissed and spread its arms wide. As its eyes glowed, Malec found he no longer feared the flames roaring towards him. He stood, wiping the blood from his face. With a backhanded motion he polarized the iron in the creature’s scales and watched as its robes became his weapon, the arrow tips slamming back into the serpent’s hide. Malec grinned as he realized just how much metal these ifrahn were bringing right to him. Without consciously knowing what he was doing, Malec stepped forward, magnetizing the ground. Rocks and flecks of metal ripped from the earth and began to float around him.
He pointed at the hissing ifrahn. A year’s worth of pain, loss, suffering, and rage boiled out in an instant and roared from deep in his gut.
“I … will … end … you!”
***
Chapter Fifty
Tetra Bicks
The ifrahn thudded to the ground in front of Tetra. It carried no weapons, and the chunks of armor, bound to its skin by deep red ribbons and cloth, glinted silver. Its reptilian gaze whipped to the side, alighting on the boulder that hid the children. Tetra yelled at it, clashing sword and mace in challenge.
The ifrahn darted forward at the sound. Tetra stepped in to meet it, grinning. He could see other ifrahn clearing the forest, but he had an enemy at hand, someone else, another creature, who had hurt those he loved.
His enemy paused, perhaps wary of the little human who looked eager to fight. It stretched out a claw, and a boulder twice the size of Tetra’s head leapt from the ground toward him.
Whirling his mace in an arc, he slammed it into the boulder. As the two objects impacted, Tetra shifted all of the density into his mace, leaving the rock lighter than a feather. The mace pulverized the rock, leaving chips of stone and pebbles flying behind Tetra. A second rock, the size of his torso, was hidden behind the first. He threw himself backwards, hitting the ground just in time for it to hurtle overhead. The rock slowed and reversed directions, soaring at him again. He rolled as it slammed into the earth where he’d been. It rose again as he got to his feet and sailed his way. It was starting to glow red.
Tetra reached out with his affinity and tripled the boulder’s density. It dropped, and the ifrahn staggered back several paces, metal-clawed talons digging into the ground as it struggled against the added weight.
Not letting it recover the advantage, Tetra charged. Lowering his density, he used the boulder as a stepping stone and launched himself through the air. He screamed his pain and fury as he flew at the startled ifrahn. It raised its other hand, and a blast of fire spouted at his face as the arrow-tipped ribbons came to life and slashed at him. A gust of wind struck and extinguished the flames while Tetra lightened the small blades till they bounced harmlessly off him.
Laney, he thought. Sword and mace poised, he increased their density as much as possible and brought them down.
The ifrahn raised its hands in futile defense. Its head exploded beneath the mace, while the sword sheared through its armor, shattering bone and cutting through its whole body at a diagonal. The mace continued down, pulverizing armor and flesh.
The ifrahn’s ruined upper body flopped aside. As Tetra’s feet hit the ground, he released the extra density in the weapons and restored his to normal. He kicked the still-standing lower half of the ifrahn away and spun to face the next enemy.
He would kill them all.
Every last one.
***
Chapter Fifty-one
Kellian Mikkels
Kellian knew he couldn’t take on three ifrahn at once if it came to close quarters combat, so he kept it at a distance. Pulling on the water from the waterfalls he pushed his abilities to the limit, crafting arrows and firing rapidly at the oncoming ifrahn. The creature kept dodging, which suited Kellian fine. Each of the arrows was connected to him by a thin stream of water. His affinity wasn’t strong enough to control water without touching it, so he kept all the water in the clearing below the cliff connected with an intricate web.
He only hoped the boys held their own until he could help them. The fight was getting more dangerous by the second as more ifrahn cleared the trees and carefully positioned themselves to charge the fighting humans. Kellian fired arrow after arrow, but few found their marks as the ifrahn pushed obstacles in the paths of his arrows.
All according to plan.
He ducked, using most of the reservoir of water he was pulling to form a shield over his back as a massive blade slammed down on him. He faced a brute of an ifrahn, as tall as an oroc and wielding a two-handed great sword. By the way it studied his movements, it knew how to use it, too. He fired off a couple more arrows, completing his web. He was almost out of energy, and the focus of keeping up the web of water threads was draining him fast. A second chop from the massive sword the ifrahn wielded was followed by dozens of splashes as the creature’s sashun blades sliced at the water shield Kellian maintained.
He was about to lose control. It was now or never. “Tetra, duck!”
Tetra threw himself to the ground and Kellian stepped to the side, dodging a third blow from the ifrahn and pushing his water shield into the threads crisscrossing the glade. With one last burst of energy he thinned the edges of the water threads till they were sharper than a razor, then he merged the threads, flattening them like sheets till they joined, three feet above the ground.
It was too much. Water splashed to the ground, mixing with the blood of the reinforcements joining the first three ifrahn. Using the water as a massive scythe had worked, shearing the approaching enemies in half. Kellian sucked in a lungful of air and forced exhausted muscles to move. His strength was drained, but he
must keep fighting
The last ifrahn bulled forward, slashing at his head. Kellian sluggishly stepped into the strike and angled his blade, redirecting the hit. The great sword slid off and struck sparks off the rocky ground. Kellian’s counterslash rebounded from the ifrahn’s strange armor. It backhanded him, metal gauntlet crushing a cheek as it sent him spinning.
A cyclone of rocks and debris spun around them. “Kill you slow for killing sandmates, human.”
Dazed, he barely managed to keep his sword in hand and rolled. Another attack clanged against the rocks. He staggered to his feet, trying to shake his head clear. A talon scraped against his sword and his hand started to burn. He tried to summon dampness from his clothing to soothe the heat, but it failed to come. Struggling against the burns, he readied his sword again. The beast was toying with him.
The ifrahn swept in, swinging as it came. He dove under one slash and came up behind his opponent. The ifrahn whirled, still attacking, driving Mikkels back into the water. Kellian struck, dipping into everything he had.
Thick tendrils of water coiled around the great sword and up over the ifrahn’s body. Its surprised roar cut short as water smothered its mouth and nostrils. It writhed, clawing at its face with a free hand, but its talons just passed through the liquid without breaking the film. Its legs sagged. Then it balled a fist, and the water covering all but its sword arm froze, severing Kellian’s control.
He knew the creature wouldn’t fall victim to the same trick again. He rushed in, loosing a battle cry, his vision so blurry now that he could only see a vague shape. The ifrahn smacked the hilt of its great sword against its own chest, shattering the icy shell. The shards of ice exploded and flew at Kellian, pelting him full in the chest. They threw him back against the cliff. His head struck stone and he fell to hands and knees, sword dropping beside him. It was too much.
His head throbbed, his stomach felt like it was trying to consume the rest of his body, and his vision blurred as he fought to stay conscious. He just wanted to sleep. Struggling to look up, he saw Tetra’s sister staring over at him in horror. The ifrahn came into view behind her, sword raised.
Bloodletting Part 2 Page 21
