by Philip Blood
"Are you always this cheerful?" Lor asked.
"It's better than being sarcastic," he noted.
"And here I forgot how wise you were," Lor said, dripping more sarcasm.
Aerin watched the last group of Togs ride out; he noted that there were still a few guards left to watch their camp. As he had remembered, there was a square corral made of round branches interwoven to a height of six feet. The top of the makeshift corral had sharpened sticks pointing up so that it was difficult to climb out. Inside they could make out some huddled forms of people grouped together on the ground.
"See," Lor said, as if she had come up with it, "there are people in there."
"Well, it doesn't look like Gedin is going to save them, so it will have to be us," Aerin decided.
"There are still at least twelve Togs around that camp," Lor pointed out. "And two of them were almost more than we could handle. Although, Katek could use some additional bruises on the other side of his face, to kind of even him out," Lor noted critically.
"Funny," Katek said dryly.
"Lor's right," Aerin said.
"Katek needs more bruises?" Dono asked, puzzled.
Aerin poked his friend in the ribs with his forefinger, "No, we can't take on twelve Togs; I would hesitate to take on three."
"Mighty warriors that we are," Katek said in disgust.
Dono looked at their friend, "Hey, we didn't do too badly, those Togroth things are dead and we're only slightly worse for the wear."
"Tell that to those poor people in the corral, waiting to be celebration dinner," Katek said, pointing at the Tog camp.
Aerin was worried about Gandarel and the imminent attack, but he brought his wandering thoughts back to the problem at hand.
"We're going to need a diversion, to take the Togs out of sight of the corral, while some of us sneak in to free the prisoners."
"Dread take me, who do you think is going to volunteer to get thirteen Togs hot on their tail?" Lor demanded.
"I was thinking of you," Aerin said with a grin.
"Me!" Lor exclaimed, and her eyes shot daggers at Aerin.
Aerin nodded. "You are the sneakiest, slipperiest and most elusive of all of us."
"And the compliments just keep coming," Lor growled. "Now that you have called me a sneaky, slimy, coward I guess that is supposed to make me want to do this... besides, Dono is sneakier."
"He could have called you a thief," Katek noted, "but he didn't."
"Thief?" Lor repeated in exasperation.
"If the shoe fits," Katek noted with a smile. "Look, we have to decide something soon, so are you up to it, or am I going to have to do it for you?" Katek asked.
"Oh sure, you couldn't get away from an amorous grandmother wearing a blindfold. Gedin, do I have to do everything? Fine, I'll do it, but you will all owe me for this! If I die, I'm going to come back and haunt Katek for the rest of his life!"
"It couldn't be worse than you alive," Katek said with an even bigger grin.
Lor graced him with a pleasant smile. "You will pay for that remark as well. I'm going to survive this, just so I can make your life miserable. Now, let's climb down from here. Once we split up I'll give you a count of six hundred to get into position around the other end of their camp. After that, I'll make the diversion. When you get the people free, we'll meet back up at the wagon... any questions?"
"Yeah, who put you in charge all of a sudden?" Katek asked.
"You did, and this is just the beginning of your torment. Now, are there any real questions?"
Dono considered for a moment and then asked, "What are you going to do for a diversion?"
"Gedin, I have no idea! I'll think of something before it is time."
Katek smirked, "Oh, that's just great."
"Hey, I'm the one who will be leading the Togs AWAY from you; it's my hide, not yours, so please... shut up."
"As you wish oh leader and thief," Katek said, backing away from the edge of the mesa.
"I'm going to think of something very painful for that boy," Lor growled, pulling back as well.
"Promise?" Katek whispered huskily.
"Bastard," Lor muttered.
They split up at the base, as planned, and Lor started counting to six hundred. The others had snuck off quietly to try to get into position.
Four hundred and fifty-five... four hundred and fifty-six. Now, what am I going to do to make a diversion? Four hundred and fifty-seven... she thought as she counted. These numbers are going by too fast... four hundred and fifty-eight...
Lor thought hard while looking around for possibilities. She looked at the tall jagged rocks, that were like ragged teeth cut along the top edge of the mesa, and considered causing a rockslide, but they were too far away now to reach in the time she had left. She continued her count, and as she neared the agreed total her frustration grew. Wild ideas were considered and discarded, "I'll strip naked and run through the camp cutting Togroth throats, then dash out and hide in a hole... but I don't have a hole ready. I'll light their camp on fire, but I don't have a tinderbox. As she considered each plan, Lor kept creeping closer to the camp. She was already on the fringes when she ran out of time. Any moment now her friends would be moving and she had to make her diversion. Lor spotted the Togs makeshift corral, with some of the strange horses they rode standing inside. She considered a stampede but realized there were only about ten of the large beasts.
Aerin and the other boys were in position. He had just finished his count of six hundred and was waiting for Lor's diversion to begin on the far side of the camp. The longer they waited the more worried Aerin became. What if the Togs had captured Lor? He kept counting, and when he reached eight hundred, he figured the time must have passed by, even if his count had been a little fast.
He signaled with his hand for the others to follow him, as he started to sneak in towards the human pen in the middle. They moved quickly between pieces of cover, using the occasional bush, log and rock to best effect. A group of seven Togs was huddled together looking at something on the ground before them. Aerin had the sudden grim picture of Lor's body lying in the dirt before those beasts. Then one of them moved slightly and he saw that it was a pile of small dried bones. One of the Tog barked something and picked up the bones in his large fist. He cast them back to the sand before them, and the others crowded in tighter to get a good look.
Suddenly one of the Tog went completely upright to its full seven feet of height; it seemed to be sniffing the air.
The boys froze, thinking the brute had sensed them. Aerin looked for a way to escape if they had to start running, but he feared the Togs were faster runners than the humans.
Then the boys saw what the Tog had already heard; one of their large horses was galloping across the camp. Swaying wildly in the saddle, was Lor. What was even stranger was the cloud of dust trailing about twenty feet behind her. The Togs in the group near the boys ran for the horse, but Lor managed to turn it and cut across an opening between this group of Togs and another group approaching from her other side. The dust cloud behind her turned out to be a Tog she was dragging by a rope around its neck; its thrashing body tumbled into view, as she made the turn. Lor suddenly leaned back and cut the tow rope from her mount's saddle horn. She nearly pitched off her steed backward but managed to grab the saddle horn and wrench herself back onto the galloping beast. Togs were running two directions, toward her and toward the corral, where the rest of their mounts were stabled.
Aerin watched as Lor made another turn and headed out of the camp toward the mesa. Aerin grinned, as he watched the Togs leaving their area; Lor’s diversion was working. Just when Aerin thought Lor would be home free, her mount ran back into the camp, through the dust, and Lor was no longer on its back.
The Togs howled as they too saw she was unhorsed and went after her, following the dust trail.
Aerin's grin faded, but he didn't have time to worry about his friend. They only had a few minutes to make use of Lor’s diversion.
He signaled, and the boys crept forward at a faster pace. They could see the pen ahead of them where the prisoners were standing at the sides watching the drama of Lor's strange ride.
Lor tumbled to a stop from her fall off her mount. She leaped to her feet, and did a quick survey of her body, but luck was with her and she didn't seem to have broken anything when she fell. Cursing herself for looking back to check on pursuit when she should have been concentrating on keeping in the saddle, Lor decided on plan ‘B’… run. She didn't try to hide or dodge; she just put as much distance as she could between herself and her inevitable pursuers.
Ahead the slope of the mesa started up toward the top. Lor kept running up the slope, though behind her she could hear the guttural calls of the Togs as they spotted their prey.
Gedin save me, the rest of them better make good use of this or I'll be a very angry ghost when I come back to haunt them, she thought. The slope made the going tougher, and Lor could actually hear the sounds of the Togs feet disturbing the rocks behind her as they quickly closed the distance. When she was only fifty yards from the summit she risked a glance back, though she had been telling herself not to, since that same idea had cost her a fall from the saddle. All she needed was to look back and trip on a rock.
She spared a quick look and nearly did fall; it was only her training in controlling her emotions that kept her from panic. The nearest Tog was only fifteen feet back and coming strong. The next three were about thirty feet behind him.
Lor put her head down and dug in for her life, but the steep slope made it feel like she was wading through swamp mud. She waited until she heard the intake of the beast's breath behind her before she whirled and underhanded one of her daggers into the brute's throat. The Tog was only four feet behind her when she let fly. It howled, sickeningly around the blade, as yellow blood gushed out of its torn neck. Lor did not wait; she turned and kept fleeing up the slope. Behind her, the next three slavering beasts had closed the distance to twenty feet and Lor only had one dagger left.
As they neared the pen containing the captured humans, Katek grabbed Aerin's shoulder and pointed. There was a gate into the pen, but a Togroth stood next to it, looking off toward the mesa. Aerin looked around, but fortunately, there was only this one Tog in sight.
Quickly he thought of a plan and explained it in whispers to his two friends. Dono ran low toward the side of the pen and leaped onto the wooden poles that were strapped together making the sides. He scrambled up to the six-foot height of the wall, where the sharpened poles that were driven into the ground below pointed up into the sky. But instead of trying to go over the difficult obstacle, Dono made a loud grunt of effort and leaped down to the ground, still outside the compound.
At the sound of his grunt, and the impact of his feet hitting the ground, the Tog on guard spun and saw Dono regain his feet and dash away.
With a bellow, the brute ran after him in chase. As the large black toothed beast passed between two low boulders, Aerin stuck his quarterstaff out and tripped the running monster. It landed on the ground, and Katek leaped in from where he crouched behind another rock, slamming the point of his sword into the beast's back.
It howled and rolled, but Aerin rapped it hard on the forehead, and Katek ran it through the heart.
The beast stiffened and died.
Dono was already running back toward the gate, where the penned up humans were at work trying to open it. As Dono arrived he told them to get back, and then with a cut of his sword, he severed the dry leather thongs that had been knotted to keep the gate shut.
"Follow them!” he exclaimed to the ragtag group of cattlemen, farmers and their families, that were pouring out of the Togroth meat pen. Aerin and Katek beckoned, and the scared people ran toward the waving boys. Dono brought up the rear, looking back for signs of pursuit, but all of the other Togs were after Lor. He sent a prayer to Gedin to protect his friend and then ran after the people they had rescued.
Lor scaled the rock face like it was the road to heaven and the gates were closing above. She just managed to climb past handheld weapons range, as the chasing Togs arrived below. The first one tried to leap up and skewer her, but his sword’s tip just missed her moving foot, as she went to the next hold. Lor kept climbing. In a moment, one of the beasts thought to throw a dagger, but she was high enough by then that it didn't reach her. Lor could really climb when her life depended on it.
She still wasn't out of danger. The Togs consulted, and then two of them started climbing up after her while the other seven, that had now arrived, moved to a place where they could ascend to the top of the mesa between the massive boulders that Lor was climbing.
As Lor climbed she thought about what she was going to do. She wished she had a bow, and then worried about the Togs using one on her. It didn't seem any of them had thought to fetch one from the camp yet, but eventually, they would. Lor suddenly remembered the set of steel balls that Tocor had made for her, and cursed her luck when she remembered that she had left them in the wagon. Lor knew she would have to elude the Togs without her special missiles, and before they fetched their own bows, or she was done.
Lor considered pointing out the fleeing humans to the Togs; they were plainly visible now from this height. All the brutes had to do was turn and look, and they would see their precious dinner running away, but Lor was worried that the humans were in too bad of shape to move quickly. Even though they had a head start, the Togs might catch up. She wished her friends good speed and kept climbing; she was nearing the top of her boulder.
When she stood on top of the tall rock, Lor immediately checked on the progress of the Togs coming up around the long way. They weren't in sight yet, so she leaned down and checked on the two Togs climbing up the rock below. They were halfway up the side of the rock.
Lor grabbed some of the small rocks lying around and started dropping them on the two bloodthirsty creatures climbing up.
The small stones just bounced off the brutish Togs, though they looked up at her with hatred in their beady red eyes. They kept coming.
Lor resorted to the largest rocks she could lift. After two misses, she finally knocked one of the beasts from the rock and it fell to the hard ground below.
Lor went for another large rock, but to her dismay, she saw the seven other Togs approaching swiftly along the top edge of the mesa.
Desperately the young girl looked for a way to elude the slavering beasts. The cliffs continued in the opposite direction from the Togs, and Lor could see one spire of stone that stood away from the line of cliffs, and it stood taller than the rest. It was about three hundred yards away. Lor abandoned the rock she was going to drop on the remaining Tog, climbing up from below, and she started running along the edge of the cliffs toward the spire. She had to leap several gaps between broken stones, as she fled along the broken cliffs. Behind her, she heard the pack of pursuing Togs call out hunting cries as they saw her fleeing.
Since the Togs were running along the edge of the mesa, instead of navigating the broken cliff edge, they were gaining on Lor. As she neared the lone spire she realized that the gap between the cliffs and the spire was larger than she had thought. When Lor finally reached the place where the gap was narrowest, between the lone spire and the cliff face, the Togs were nearly even with her and turned to start out onto the rocks
Lor had no choice now; she had to try for the spire. She ran a short distance toward the approaching Togroths, and when they were only twenty yards from her she skidded to a stop, and then reversed her path. They let out a howl when she turned. Lor ran toward the large gap between the cliff and spire with all her youthful speed. She leaped with her strong leg muscles and used the skill she had honed over her entire youth on the High Road of Strakhelm. She flew out over the hundred-foot fall below, her mind on a single goal of cheating gravity to land on the shallow ledge that was next to a vertical crack in the wall of the spire. For a moment she thought she had enough momentum, but then her forward speed slowed too mu
ch, and gravity pulled her down. She slammed into the cliff face hard, bruising the whole side of her body, and cracking her left hip into the stone. Her hands caught the lip of the ledge above and she managed to cling on through the pain of that hard impact.
Behind her, she heard the Togs barking and knew she couldn't afford to hang and wait for the pain to lessen. Wincing, Lor pulled herself upwards and rolled up onto the ledge. She got to a crouch and looked back toward the Togs. Four of them were slowing, but two were running toward the edge for a leap.
They made the leap nearly at the same time, their faces snarling in hatred for their human prey. The Tog in the lead leaped the large gap cleanly and sailed toward Lor's ledge. But the second one slipped at the edge of the cliff, and its leap was too short.
Lor didn't even hear the scream of terror from the falling Tog; she was too busy fighting for her life. As the other Tog landed on the ledge, Lor met him in a leap that could have taken her off the cliff to fall to her death. She launched her body up sideways so that she met the Togroth with her feet, rebounding off its large chest and killing its forward momentum. The Tog outweighed her, but Lor's momentum added impact as she struck its chest. The impact caused the Tog to lose its balance, and it flailed its arms wildly for a moment before falling.
Lor landed on the ledge and watched the falling Tog disappear over the edge. She just pulled her foot back in time, as its grasping hand tried to grab hold as it fell.
A thrown dagger struck the rock next to her, and Lor scrambled to her feet. A glance showed her two more Togroths raising daggers to throw. Without even looking for a hold, Lor swung around, and into the deep vertical crack, just as the two daggers arrived, striking the stone where she had stood. In the natural chimney Lor braced her back against one side, and her feet against the other, using pressure from her legs to keep her in position. She started to climb by inching her back up the stone wall and then moving her feet up to match. It took a while, but eventually Lor reached the top of the chimney and climbed out onto the top of the spire.
