Red Prince

by Jared Garrett

  The man, his face already pale from blood loss due to the injury in his side, blanched. He put a hand out. “No, please.”

  “Just keep away,” Lakhoni growled, the pain in his leg adding to the anger in his voice.

  “I wish Gadnar would just fall off a mountain and be done with all this.” Simra’s hand gripped the stone in his leg, sending ripples of pain up into his back.

  “If you’ll hurry up, we can do exactly that.” Lakhoni sucked in a breath as Simra’s grip tightened on his leg.

  “Hold still.”

  “I am.” The stone in his calf shifted as she began to pull. Lakhoni willed his breathing to slow. Waves of burning, throbbing pain streamed up his leg and down to his foot. Lakhoni cleared his head and centered, flattening his hands against the ground. He forced his clenched stomach muscles to loosen. “Do it.”

  A sick, sliding sensation, immediately followed by an explosion of pain, made his vision darken. He fought back to the light and opened his eyes, his breath coming in jagged bursts. He shoved down on the urge to grab his leg and squeeze hard to make the pain go away. Fiery throbs coursed up his leg, spearing into his hips and stomach. Lakhoni’s jaw hurt from clenching so hard.

  This would pass. It was only pain and pain was temporary. Focusing on a dark gray rock forming part of the doorway of the hill hut across the slope, Lakhoni dug deep and tried to find a place to put the pain. He took mental hold of his breathing, picturing his heart and lungs. A tight, slow breath felt harder and more painful than falling down the outside of a temple. He filled his lungs and held the breath, then let it out slowly. It felt shaky. He did this again as Simra worked on his leg. A cold breeze swept down from the mountain, bending the yellow and purple flowers that grew amongst the grass and stubby, dark trees around the village. Another breath. Hold it. Let it go slowly. The sky was gray and mottled. The smell of the exploded black powder was mostly gone now. Another breath.

  “How are you doing that?”

  Lakhoni turned and met Simra’s eyes. All was crisp and clear. Controlled. Pain still blazed up his leg, but it was if some other part of Lakhoni’s mind was dealing with it. He licked dry lips and kept his hands flat against the ground. “Doing what?”

  “You went completely still.” Simra was wrapping a tough bandage of worked vine around his leg. “Doesn’t that hurt?”

  “Yes.” Lakhoni kept hold of the tight focus he had found. Had to keep the pain away. This wasn’t over yet. “But it’s just pain.”

  “I just pulled stone as long as my thumb out of your leg.” Simra tied off her bandage and looked over Lakhoni’s body. “Any other mortal injuries?”

  A thin smile stretched Lakhoni’s lips. He gathered his strength. “No.” He met Simra’s gaze. “We need to go after them.”

  “Yes, we do,” Simra said. She helped him to his feet.

  A hot, molten throb jabbed into his calf, sending pain all over his body. Lakhoni put weight on the leg and found that the big, tight bandage Simra had put on felt as if it were giving him support. He would be able to walk. Running would have to wait. He cast an angry look around the village, making sure to meet the stunned villagers’ eyes. “I would ask you to stay behind and out of danger, but I don’t trust these people.”

  “And I would say no.” Simra followed Lakhoni’s gaze. “Why aren’t they attacking us?”

  “Because they’re cowards.” Lakhoni spat into the dirt as they began walking up the slope. “They saw what we did to their people and their master just betrayed them.” The pain in his leg was sharp, but he could manage it. He leaned into the slope and lengthened his stride. It was only pain.

  “I don’t understand how Gadnar convinced them to follow him.” Simra’s arm at his lower back felt firm and strong. She matched his pace.

  “Some people are weak-minded.” Lakhoni kept his attention on the path ahead, but continuously checked the hills and slope up to the right that led steeply up the mountain. “They will follow any who offer a shiny reward.” The rumble Lakhoni had been hearing grew clearer as they ascended the rocky, grassy slope. There was a river up ahead. With a waterfall or something. Where were Lamorun and Alronna? He went faster.

  “It sounded like they believed Gadnar was working with some god.” Simra’s breath came in strained bursts. “Like he was going to rule the world after something big happened.”

  “Molgar always spouted off about an inheritance.” Lakhoni leaned forward and pushed harder, forcing his legs to move. Up ahead, all he saw was more slope, with clouds of mist rolling off the mountain side perhaps a hundred paces away. Definitely a waterfall. “Gadnar and Molgar think they’re special.” He gulped a breath. “They’re not.”

  A rocky hillock protruded from the mountain, forcing them to angle slightly to the left to get around it. Twenty paces ahead, movement in the waterfall mist caught Lakhoni’s eye. “It’s them!” He broke into a rough, slow jog. Each time his foot hit the rocky ground, pain clawed up his leg. He ignored the pain and pushed on.

  “Careful with your leg.” Simra kept pace with him. “You shouldn’t run.”

  “I’m not.” Lakhoni had to speak around controlled gasps.

  The hazy movement ahead became a jumble of figures coming together and breaking apart. Shouts and grunts cut through the rumble of the waterfall. A roar sounded.

  Lamorun. Worry for his family spurred Lakhoni faster.

  “Careful!” Simra said again, reaching for him.

  Lakhoni shook her hand away, sorry for the rough treatment. “I have to help.”

  Then they were in the mist. Alronna had her back to him, jabbing the sword at the dark figure whose face was obscured. Lamorun faced the figure and brought his cudgel back for a swing. Lakhoni searched desperately as he drew closer. There! Hilana was on one knee, hand to one side. The same side that had been slashed open in the cavern by one of the halkeen.

  Opting for what little stealth he could muster, Lakhoni circled around behind the burly, dark figure they were fighting. Gadnar swung a long, odd-shaped sword. It was thin and straight, but in the mist from the waterfall, it appeared to have some kind of wave to it near the hilt. A long, smooth piece of wood was strapped to his back.

  As Lakhoni circled, he watched Lamorun and Alronna, trying to gauge their rhythm. They didn’t have one. Gadnar parried Lamorun’s heavy swing down and the cudgel slammed into the ground. Alronna drove her sword at Gadnar’s side, but he twisted. His left fist punched the Sword of Nubal aside and he darted his blade at Alronna. She flinched back, one hand going to her stomach where he had gotten her. He was so fast!

  Roaring, Lamorun charged forward. He swung upward, aiming for anywhere on Gadnar’s side. Gadnar bent to the side and parried the clumsy swing up. But it was a feint and Lamorun pinched Gadnar’s sword arm between his chest and muscled arm, holding it in place.

  Gadnar’s sword twisted uselessly. Lamorun howled and slammed his head into Gadnar’s. Gadnar dodged a little, but his head snapped back.

  Gadnar’s left hand whipped down. Alarm burned into Lakhoni. Lakhoni jerked his dagger out. He pushed forward and screamed. “Gadnar!” His leg nearly collapsed. He was too slow! Lakhoni shoved the pain aside and threw himself at Gadnar.

  Gadnar’s left hand jabbed into Lamorun’s side. The taller man roared in pain and released Gadnar’s sword arm, stumbling back. Gadnar shot forward, aiming a killing strike at Lamorun’s chest.

  Lakhoni slipped, but still scored a light cut down Gadnar’s leg. Gadnar’s slash went wide, cutting Lamorun’s shoulder open. Lamorun roared again and swung his cudgel. Gadnar twisted away. Alronna’s sword caught the man in his chest, but not deep enough to kill. He reeled away. Lakhoni saw his chance. He shoved off the ground, his dagger leading. Gadnar got his arm in the way and pushed Lakhoni’s strike wide.

  Lakhoni bulled forward before Gadnar could bring his sword up. He slammed into the man’s midsection with his shoulder. Something whistled over his head and smacked into Gadnar. The man yelped and stu
mbled back. Lakhoni pushed harder and slipped his dagger behind Gadnar’s leg, slicing at the soft flesh behind his knee. Gadnar stumbled back again hissing in pain. His leg wobbled.

  A roar came from Lamorun. Somebody – Alronna? – screamed. The whistle of weapons passed above Lakhoni’s head as he kept the pressure on Gadnar, pushing him back. He caught the man’s powerful wrist before Gadnar could drive his sword into Lakhoni’s side. Gadnar screamed, furiously trying to score a mortal wound. Lamorun’s cudgel slammed heavily into the man’s chest. He screamed wordlessly.

  Lakhoni drove Gadnar back again and slashed once more. The edge of the mountain was two paces away. Heavy mist billowed from the huge waterfall. A figure scrambled behind Gadnar, catching his legs.

  Lakhoni shoved as hard as he could. Somebody else slammed into Gadnar above Lakhoni.

  Gadnar stepped backward. One foot slipped off the edge. He teetered and his sword flailed in circles while his other hand grabbed for nothing.

  Lakhoni pushed again.

  Gadnar stopped flailing. He tipped backward and his eyes—blood dripping over them from a cut on his forehead—met Lakhoni’s. They glowed red in the mist. His mouth stretched in a rictus of a grin even as he toppled over the edge. “See you soon.”

  The words hung in the air as Gadnar fell and was swallowed by the mist.

  “Ancestors burn you!” Lamorun slammed his cudgel into the ground at the edge of the cliff. His chest heaved and blood seeped from between the fingers of the hand he held tightly against his side. His shoulder bled freely where Gadnar had sliced him.

  Hilana tried to get to her feet. She was on her knees, bent over where she had scrambled to in order to trip Gadnar. Lakhoni pulled her up. Her other hand was clenched against her ribs, just like Lamorun.

  What was it with Gadnar and Molgar and stabbing people in the side?

  “It’s too much to hope that he’s actually dead, isn’t it?” Alronna put her arm around Hilana and helped her stay upright.

  Lakhoni clenched his teeth against the pain in his leg. His chest and shoulder hurt from slamming into Gadnar. The man was built like a boulder. “Unless he smashes into rocks down there…” he trailed off, shaking his head. “He fell. It’s water. We didn’t see him die.” Frustration coursed through him, tasting sour on his tongue. “He’s not dead.”

  Simra appeared next to Lakhoni and peered over the edge. Clouds of mist swirled. Water cascaded from far above, crashing down with relentless force. Simra clutched two big rocks against her chest. She flung one, then the other, down into the mist. “I hope these crush your head!”

  Lakhoni blinked. The cut on Gadnar’s brow. From a rock Simra had thrown? “Simra?”

  She turned to him, tears pouring down her cheeks. “Why won’t he just die?” A sob broke through her. “Why?”

  Lakhoni wrapped Simra tightly against him, holding her as she trembled and her tears soaked his chest.

  “This is bad.” Alronna slid her sword into its sheath to get a closer look at Lamorun’s side.

  Lamorun’s breathing was heavy. Lakhoni had thought it was because of the fight, but his face had lost some color. Blood dripped down Lamorun’s side, running down his leather breeches. His cudgel was stuck in the ground where Lamorun had slammed it and now he held both hands tightly against the bleeding wound.

  Simra sniffled loudly and pushed away from Lakhoni, scrubbing her face. “Let me see.” She reached for her pouches with one hand and pulled Lamorun’s hands away.

  Lakhoni looked away. He’d seen that injury before. On Cho. In the cavern. And the cavern had become Cho’s grave. Alronna had pulled Hilana to a moss-covered rock several paces from the cliff edge. “How is she?” Lakhoni sheathed his dagger and knelt next to his sister.

  “I’m fine,” Hilana said. But her face was paler than Lamorun’s and blood was already soaking through the cloth Alronna had torn from her shirt to hold against the wound.

  “It won’t stop bleeding.” Alronna cast a worried look at Lakhoni. “How’s Lamorun?”

  “The same.” Lakhoni’s chest tightened with anger and fear. He couldn’t lose anymore. Gadnar and Molgar had killed too many. No more.

  Alronna growled and ran a quick hand over her cheeks, wiping away tears. “Why do they always do the side?”

  “They know it kills.” Lakhoni wished he had the words back. But it was true. It was the cruelest way to die—something vital deep inside cut open where it would not heal. “But it won’t. Not this time. Simra can fix it.” He lurched over to Simra, the pain in his leg throbbing, but manageable. She was hunched and working on Lamorun’s side, wiping blood away with a cloth dipped in a cavity of stone nearby that held clear water which must have come from the falling water. “How is it?” Lakhoni kept his voice pitched low.

  He glanced at the small cavity of clear water. Something poked at his memory, like a thorn stuck in a sleeve of his tunic.

  Simra’s expression was grim. “It's really deep and and I can't make the bleeding stop.”

  “He got Hilana like that too.”

  “I will do my best to slow it down.” She let out a long, sad breath. “I don’t know what else to do.” Lakhoni stared at the small wound in Lamorun’s side as Simra pinched it and drew a thread through both sides.

  His brother’s breathing came evenly, his face hard. “The snake stuck Hilana?” A smear of blood crossed Lamorun’s face, from just above his right eye to the left corner of his jaw. “We will go and find him. Then finish him.” Lamorun cast about, his eyes alighting on his cudgel.

  Lakhoni nodded, meeting Lamorun’s hard gaze. His eyes already looked sunken in a face that was growing paler by the minute.

  “Rinse this out for me.” Simra handed Lakhoni a soft, wet cloth, red with Lamorun’s blood.

  Lakhoni dipped it in the cavity of clear water and squeezed it out over the edge.

  The clear water.

  Illiana. The Water Pure. “That’s it!” Lakhoni handed Simra’s cloth back to her. “How much can you slow the bleeding?”

  Simra gave him a questioning look. “What? Why?”

  “Don’t you remember?” Lakhoni closed his eyes, concentrating. What were the exact words Illiana had spoken as they left? “Illiana. The priestess? As we were leaving, she said if Gadnar found the Water Pure, he would be healed and made immortal.”

  “It’s just a legend,” Simra said. She completed another stitch. Lamorun didn’t even flinch as the needle pierced his skin.

  “This is all just a legend!” Lakhoni waved his arms crazily. “Gods and cursed water and a ghost boar and Alronna’s totem. And then there’s the Rod and Gadnar should be dead but we know he isn’t. It’s all happening and we’re in it. And this is the only chance they have!”

  “What are you shouting about?” Alronna turned from her kneeling position. “I need help here.”

  Hilana was leaned back against the rocky mountain side. Her eyelids fluttered. “If you would quiet down, I could rest.”

  “Hilana!” Lamorun’s booming voice was still strong, despite the blood he’d lost. “Do not sleep, woman!”

  “Simra,” Lakhoni spun and faced his betrothed. “We slow the bleeding as much as we can then we go. We find the Water Pure.”

  Simra cut her thread and crossed the rocky ground to Hilana. “But we could spend a lifetime searching this mountain and never find magic water.” She threw a tightly rolled bandage at Lakhoni. “Wrap him.”

  Lakhoni caught the bandage. “Or we could spend their lifetime doing nothing else here.” Lakhoni began work on Lamorun. “Which won’t be long.”

  “You talk as if we don’t have a choice in this. We are right here.” Lamorun held the bandage against his wound as Lakhoni wrapped. “Make it tighter.”

  Lakhoni obeyed. “Sorry.”

  Simra dropped to a knee as she worked on Hilana. “You have a point.”

  “I know how bad this is,” Hilana said. Her voice was not much louder than a whisper. “He did it when he heard you
coming.” She coughed. “I don’t know why he took me. Maybe as a hostage. But when Lamorun simply attacked, he knifed me.”

  “There is no dealing with a snake like that,” Lamorun said.

  “No,” Hilana said. Another cough interrupted her. “I know. I don’t blame you.”

  “You speak as if you’re ready for death!” Lamorun growled. “We are not dead, yet, crazy woman!”

  “I say we go,” Alronna said. She leaned in and kept pressure on Hilana’s wound as Simra worked. “If it’s real, we’ll find it.” The stains left on her face from her totem paint were almost completely faded now. All that was left were faint lines that highlighted her strong jaw and sharp nose.

  “Exactly,” Lakhoni said. He pulled the bandage tightly around Lamorun’s stomach. “What else is there?”

  “There is also Gadnar,” Lamorun said. He helped Lakhoni tied the vine bandage off. “But the Water Pure is his goal. So we get there first.”

  “If it’s there,” Simra said. She tipped her head toward the mountain. “I’m sorry. I want to believe it’s real. But the mountain’s so big. What chance do we have?”

  Lakhoni yanked Lamorun’s cudgel free from the ground and let Lamorun lean on him as they crossed to the women.

  “Okay,” Simra said. She turned and met Lakhoni’s eyes. “I just heard myself. You’re right. It’s the only chance we have.” She indicated Lamorun and Hilana. “But if they climb this mountain, the bleeding could get worse.”

  “We die fighting or sitting,” Hilana said. Her voice was a rough rasp, but there was still iron in it. One of her hands moved weakly to a pocket in her breeches. “I still have some of those berries.”

  “Berries?” Simra looked around for understanding.