The sound of a fire stone sparking was heard and a soft flame came to life, illuminating the room. The two men started a discussion, in Kovian, which was, from the sound of it, quite heated. One of the men had his sheathed sword in hand. The conversation got so heated, he slammed his sword, bang, on top of one of the crates and left it there while his hand wildly moved through the air, emphasizing his words. The sound made Raylan slowly move sideways to peek between the crates and to see what was going on. He saw Sebastian do the same. As the two soldiers came into view, both their eyes grew wide with recognition.
On his armor, Raylan saw the small diamond-shaped emblem, twinkling in the oil lamp’s light. As the soldier turned, the light of the lamp also illuminated the soldier’s face. It was the skinny commanding soldier that they had faced at the stone arch.
What the hell’s he doing here?
The argument went on for some time, while Raylan tried to keep his heartbeat from growing too loud, forcing himself to take slow, shallow breaths. Finally, the commander and the other soldier concluded their discussion, blew out the lamp and snuck out the door again.
Raylan and Sebastian each let out a breath, simultaneously.
“We need to get out of here. That’s the guy that has been chasing us all this time,” whispered Raylan.
“The long, skinny one?” asked Sebastian. After a confirming nod, he added, “That…was High General Corza Setra. If he is chasing your group, you’re in some real trouble. He’s one of the most ruthless High Generals in the dark army. You have no idea what kind of evil he is. He was often found in the mines, experimenting on slaves. I even heard their screams when I was working in the furthest tunnels.”
“Yeah, well let’s not hang around, let’s not allow him find us,” said Raylan, as he boosted Sebastian upward through the roof hatch.
He was about to jump up, when the clang of the door startled him. As he turned around, Corza burst inside and reached out to pick up his sword from where he left it on the crate. The High General froze as he saw Raylan standing there.
“You!”
Raylan briefly glanced at his sword, while still holding open the hatch in the roof. He would never get it out fast enough, and he would expose Sebastian and the cables, too.
No other choice.
He ran straight at Corza. His only way out was through the door that the High General blocked. As Corza scrambled for his sword, Raylan ran at him, planning to smash his full body weight into his obstacle. Grabbing the small sacks with seeds from around his neck, he hurled them at the High General’s head. The sacks missed their target, as Corza dodged out of the way. Hitting a crate, the sacks ripped open as an eruption of small seeds flew through the air.
With the sword too far away now to be of use, Corza went for his alternative, a long straight-pointed dagger from the side of his belt. As Raylan slammed into Corza, he felt a sharp pain cut along his leg. Corza crashed sideways into the crates from the impact, and within moments, Raylan was out the door.
Outside, he quickly looked around.
No other soldier...? He must have returned to the main house.
His hand pressed on his leg where the dagger had cut him. Blood ran down his leg. He did not have time to stand around and wait for Corza to call for help. He had to find a way out.
He heard one of the horses whinny nearby and hurriedly limped in its direction. As he crossed the inner yard, he checked over his shoulder and saw Sebastian go up into the tree. He barely had time to make a quick hand gesture to go up faster, when Corza came running out of the food storage depot, screaming things in his native language.
Raylan had never untied a horse so fast. He had to hop a few paces, as the horse sped toward the gate; and he barely got into the saddle, as his leg gave way. As the sentries entered into the courtyard to see what all the shouting was about, Raylan spurred his horse straight past the two surprised guards. He was out of the gate, and into the forest, within a heartbeat.
Distance, I need distance, he thought, as he steered the horse through the forest.
He heard the shouts of his pursuers. The shouts were accompanied by the barks from dogs. Things went from bad to worse.
Raylan ran the horse to the point of exhaustion, but could not outrun the hounds on his tail, nor his pursuers on their tails. He had no idea where he was going. He circled back a number of times, trying to escape; but every time, the dogs kept up with his direction changes. They were gaining on him.
Three riders came into view, led by the dogs. The sound of the horses echoed through the forest, as their hooves stomped through the soft layer of needles on the ground, running past the trees and rocks. The dogs were right in his wake, snapping at the horse’s legs.
Raylan pulled the reins to change direction, but instead of the given command, he felt himself suddenly launched forward as the horse stumbled and crashed, headfirst, into the ground. Raylan tumbled a few times before sliding to a stop. Scrambling to his feet, looking for the dogs that had been following him, he felt a jolt of pain in his leg and pressed his hand on it again. His horse must have tripped over one of the dogs, or missed a step because of the dog’s biting.
There!
Two dogs with wide thick heads raced toward him. Their white, short-haired pelts glimmered in the moonlight. As they approached the horse, one went around and one jumped over the fallen animal. Blood was visible under the horse as it thrashed around, trying to get up again. Raylan braced himself, automatically reaching for his sword; his hands found nothing but an empty belt.
Things suddenly happened at lightning speed. Raylan saw Corza and two other soldiers on horses come around one of the bigger tree roots. The dog, which had jumped over the horse, barely touched the ground when a spray of dust flew in the air, swallowing up the dog. The high-pitched yelp made the other dog hesitate, for a fraction of a moment; then it, too, disappeared into an explosion of sand and dust.
Before the riders could react, their horses saw the danger and skidded to a halt. The front horse, having too much momentum, toppled forward and threw its rider off in the process.
“Kzaktor!” shouted the soldier still on his horse, as the other soldier scrambled to his feet.
For the first time, Raylan saw the creature clearly. It came up next to the second fallen horse, in a cloud of dust, and dug its enormous pinchers into the soft belly of its prey. Sebastian’s description had not done the creature justice. It was a squirming bundle of teeth, legs and ring-shaped body pieces all stuck together. The horse was quickly dealt with, and as soon as it stopped moving, the creature dove back into the ground.
Corza and the other man tried to keep their horses under control, but it was nearly impossible, as the animals went mad with fright. Corza was thrown backward, out of the saddle, while the other soldier was flung sideways. His foot was still stuck in the crampon as the horse took off. Raylan saw a trail in the sand dash after the running horse, as the soldier was dragged across the ground, helplessly.
Another sand devil rose from the ground and killed Raylan’s horse, while the three men stood frozen on the spot. Raylan looked around, searching for a safe way out of this. A rocky formation, only forty feet away, could be a safe-haven.
But will I be able to reach it?
Suddenly, the soldier yelled loudly and then ran, in a panic. Instantly, the sand on the ground shot toward him as he tried to run off. Raylan did not hesitate for a moment; he dashed the other way. Shifting right, to dodge a patch of moving sand, he used a few small rocky patches to keep out of the sand as much as possible. Making one final jump, he reached the rock formation, out of breath. Checking behind him, he saw the sand move beside the rocky edge of the boulder.
Safe.
As he dropped on his back, panting, he suddenly remembered he had not been alone. He shot back up, looking for Corza. The High General had followed Raylan’s example, seeing as the soldier had volunteered himself as bait by running. However Corza had ended up on one of the large tree roots of a nearby tree.
As they looked at each other, the distance was less than a hundred feet, but it might as well have been a hundred miles. What became of the soldier, he did not know.
But Raylan would not be safe there forever; the sun would come up soon enough, and Corza would be able to come at him. The High General had the clear advantage, as he still had his sword, and Raylan’s leg obstructed free movement.
As Raylan tried to come up with a plan, Corza looked at him.
“We meet again, young soldier. I believe Raylan was your name, right?” said Corza. “It’s clear you’ve got nowhere to go. Why don’t you give up and go with me, quietly?”
Raylan did not answer. Looking at Corza, he felt his anger rise.
“What’s with that look? Have I done something wrong?” Corza said, laughing. “Tell you what…if you tell me where you hid the egg…I’ll let you go. No harm done.”
“You must be insane, if you think that I will give anything to you,” Raylan answered, while he got up to look around the rock formation he was on.
“Ah, he speaks,” Corza taunted. “How did you get here, then? Where are your friends? Did my wolves get the better of them?”
Raylan saw Corza grinning.
“Not really…your wolves should both be laying at the bottom of the river, somewhere,” said Raylan, in his most indifferent tone.
He saw the anger rise on Corza’s face. As Raylan looked around, he saw that a few small rocks actually led around the tree roots, out of sight of Corza’s prying eyes.
As he jumped off the other end of the rock, Raylan balanced himself on the small stone patches. Skipping from one to another, he heard Corza call after him.
“You can’t run far, boy! I’ll find you. That egg will be mine, and I will put you so deep in the mines, you won’t see any sunlight for the rest of your life.”
Moving around the corner, he saw that Corza was right. As he stood on the last stone, there was nowhere else to go. Even the tree roots were no help there. But he refused to return and give that weasel the satisfaction.
Let him wonder where I’ll be. Once first light breaks through, I’ll just have to make a run for it.
“Raylan, you’ll never make it,” Corza shouted. “Before long, reinforcements will be here. The Kzaktor will be dormant again, and I’ll have my hands on you faster than a whore can lift her dress for a bag of gold.”
As the night went on, Corza kept yelling at him, trying to get a reaction. Raylan almost spoke up a few times, but bit his tongue, looking everywhere for a way out.
As he saw the moonlight fade away and the small patches of sky started to show its morning colors, he was ready to make his move. He picked up a rock and threw it some way out. Instantly, the sand snaked toward it and the rock was swallowed into the ground. He would have to wait longer.
As he let out his breath, slowly trying to think, his ears registered a soft sound.
“Pssst…”
Looking around, he did not see anything.
“Pssst….up…here…”
The language was poor Terran. As he turned around, he saw Otis, dangling along the side of the tree, only fifteen feet above him. A smile broke out on Raylan’s face.
Without a sound, Otis went back up into the tree. Once up there, he lowered the cable down again, allowing Raylan to attach it to his harness. Raylan gave three small tugs to the cable and immediately he felt the cable tighten, as he was lifted off his feet.
As he ascended toward the lowest branch, he kept close to the tree trunk, so Corza could not see him. The sun was coming up, and by the time he pulled himself onto the branch, he saw a number of soldiers on horses approaching their position.
Corza finally left his safe refuge, ordered one of the soldiers from his horse and mounted up, right away. They moved around the tree where Raylan had waited the entire time and found nothing. Corza was furious.
“Find him!”
They heard him bark orders as the soldiers sped off in different directions. While Raylan followed them with his gaze, Otis quickly packed up his backpack and quietly motioned Raylan to follow him back to the others. It was clear Corza wouldn’t be able to find him any time soon.
It was midmorning by the time they all found each other again.
In order to find Raylan, the group had decided to split up to cover more ground. They made sure one of the descender carriers was always in visual range of any person that did not have one. By following the chase noises, they had set out in the most likely direction, trying to keep up with the horses on the ground.
“It was a good thing you circled back a number of times, or the distance would have been too big to bridge,” said Sebastian.
As they had moved away from the known tree paths, they moved a lot slower, as they needed to traverse at different heights and search for suitable routes to follow in the general direction of the chase. In the end, it had been Corza’s own shouting and taunting that had helped Otis locate Raylan on the far side of the tree.
Gavin grabbed Raylan by the back of the neck with both hands and pulled him forward, touching foreheads.
“You just have a knack for getting into trouble, don’t ya?” Raylan heard his brother say.
Raylan laughed, sheepishly.
“Sorry about that…”
“Just be thankful you didn’t end up in Corza’s hands. I promise you, you wouldn’t have liked the company,” remarked Sebastian, as they quickly redistributed the food haul into equal loads.
“You know who he is?” Raylan asked. “He’s the same person who attacked us, some weeks ago. He turned on his own group, before sending out these monstrous wolves made of stone after us.”
“Stone wolves? Are you sure they were made of stone? Were there ghol’ms, too?” Sebastian asked worried.
“Ghol’ms? What are ghol’ms?”
“Stone statues, black as night…but they move…they…live,” Sebastian explained, while searching for the right words to describe the walking terrors.
“Svetka once said that her father told her a story when she was little…this was before she was captured and made a sex slave. Her father used to travel a lot when she was little, coming back with all kinds of stories. This particular one was about an ancient religion in the southern regions of the mid-continent.
“This religion had a guardian of red clay to protect the innocent from harm. But the guardian was corrupted by the men who sought power and it went on a rampage. It was eventually calmed down by a peasant woman with the purest devotion to the religion’s god. The guardian then crumbled and formed the mountain that oversees the red earth plains in that region.
“That guardian was called ‘gholem’ or ‘ghol’m’. That’s where we think the name comes from, but these things are no guardians…they’re too good at destroying…everything…”
“Well, we fought a stone warrior before encountering the wolves, if that’s what you mean,” said Raylan, “but we saw only the wolves; no stone warriors were there when he tried to capture us...Why? Who is he?”
“Like I said, that’s High General Setra…Corza Setra. He climbed up the ranks by killing and backstabbing, and, apparently, because of his skill with strategic planning. Or so everyone told me in the mines. He’s got no regard for human life, whatsoever……especially if that life is in the way of whatever he wants at the time. He visited the mines and quarry often. And after each visit, new stories of terror would always buzz around in the tunnels.”
Sebastian looked at them and let out a sigh.
“You’ve made yourself a dangerous enemy, if he’s got it out for you, personally. This man has experimented on humans to find out what makes us tick and how to greatly extend suffering in the process. He is thought to have created the ghol’ms, although I personally think he just took credit for someone else’s work.”
“He created them? How can a man even do that? Is it some kind of magic?”
“It might as well be. No one knows how it works, precisely. But by piecing
things together from stories, we know life is taken to give life to the statue.”
“We’ve seen this. One of the soldiers sacrificed himself before the statue started to move,” said Raylan.
“Well, that’s not what is normally done. They can sacrifice anybody to get the statue moving.”
“How do you know all this?” asked Gavin.
Sebastian looked at him with hollow eyes.
“Because they forced us to make them…That’s the purpose of the mines. It is a ghol’m production site…”
Both Gavin and Raylan fell silent at this point. The idea of more of these statues being created somewhere was a very unpleasant thought, and it was clear Sebastian did not feel fully comfortable talking about it.
“We better get moving. We still have a long ways to go,” he said, while getting up.
Chapter 12
Sacrifice
Galirras looked up at the sky. With the wind gently blowing, the leaves parted enough for the stars to be seen every now and then. He heard people softly talking. The nighttime meant minimal lights and low sounds. Most of the people in the tree settlement remained indoors or went to sleep early.
The young dragon tried to do the same, but he could not sleep anymore. He had just woken up from a dream and felt restless. He did not know precisely what he had dreamed about, but it felt like he was awakened by a song.
He had been feeling uneasy ever since Raylan left. It was very well pleasant to talk to Xi’Lao and he enjoyed meeting Galen, earlier that week. But, they were merely brief distractions from the fact Raylan was not here.
Galen had told him all about the wolf attack he survived. The dragon heard the story before, multiple times, from different people, but he did not want to be rude and interrupt. The large man grew tired after his recollection of events, and Richard had coaxed him back to bed—to rest up and to be ready, in case they would be leaving when Gavin, Raylan and the others got back.
The problem was that Galirras was not allowed to move at all. His body grew restless and it became more difficult to find a comfortable position on the platform. He was under permanent guard even when he slept, but at least they were not constantly pointing their crossbows at him, anymore.
Windcatcher: Book I of the Stone War Chronicles Page 27
