“Good catch,” Rond commented.
They were fifty yards away from the main gate. Thirty-five yards away. The guards with spears cast nervous glances at one another. Suddenly, from the main gate, came a sound of wood popping and bending.
Calypsa’s eyes opened wide, a bright forest-green glow emanating from them. Sweat beaded on her face. Quickly, she chanted ancient, unintelligible mystic words.
The main gate groaned. The men in the watchtowers cried out. The guards on the ground turned. The wood planks in the gate came to life and twisted like snakes. The heavy wooden beam that barred the gate shut slithered out of the brackets and over the ground at the guards. One end coiled back like a snake. It struck, hitting a guard full in the face and knocking the man out cold. At the same time, the main gate doors twisted and peeled back, opening a gaping hole between them.
“She did it!” Nath shouted. “Ah-hah! She did it!” He snapped the reins. “Eee-yah!”
Many of the guards on the ground dove out of the way of the charging wagon team. Another trio of guards stabbed spears futilely into the wood beam that attacked them. The tips dug in but did no harm. A guard, gaping at the main gate with his backside to the oncoming wagon, was plowed over by the horses. The wagon wheels jumped and crashed on the ground hard, causing Calypsa to bounce out of her seat.
Nath grabbed her and reeled her back in as they roared through the main gate.
“We are through!” Rond said with a big smile that didn’t seem to come naturally for the bugbear. “Haha! Freedom!”
Behind them, the stark wooden walls of Slaver Town faded in the dust. Nath stole a glance at one of the watchtowers that overlooked the wall. A guard was waving. Nath recognized the face of Radagan. He wondered if the baker, turned into a guard, had anything to do with Calypsa’s plans. At the same time, he was worried about the battle that brewed within. He was free, but what about all of the other slaves? What was in store for them, and men like Homer?
“We made it,” Calypsa said. The glow in her eyes was gone. She leaned against Nath’s chest.
“We are out,” Nath said. “You did it, Caly.”
“We might be out of the fort, but we are not out of danger.” Rond stuck both index fingers of his right hands forward. “Look! The guards from the slave hunts return!”
Several score of the Slaver Town guards were coming back from their training. The warning horns from Slaver Town had already alerted them that some sort of danger was going on. Many of the guards were on horseback. The rest on foot led several teams of dogs.
“Great Guzan! That’s half of the slaver army!” Nath clutched his bleeding side with one hand. The blood from the stab wound was thick on his fingers.
Seeing the blood on his hand, Calypsa’s eyes grew big. “You are wounded!”
“I’ll live.”
“That is bad, Nath Dragon. You need healing for it,” she said.
“I’m wounded too,” Rond commented. He pointed two of his thumbs at his back. “I have two holes in my back. He only has one.”
“Your back is thicker than a horse’s saddle,” she fired back. Her fingers dug into Nath’s side. He grimaced. “You need this stitched, now, Nath Dragon. Be still while I mend you.”
Leading the horses at full speed down the road, not so far ahead, the Slaver Town forces gathered along the forest road. “There’s no time to be still for anything,” Nath said. “Our enemy is upon us.”
CHAPTER 28
Orcen guards from the slave hunt charged right at the wagon.
“Don’t slow down!” Rond said.
“I’m not!” Nath snapped the reins.
“Nath, you need to be still so I can mend this. You’re bleeding all over the seat,” Calypsa said.
“It’s going to have to wait. We aren’t stopping now!” He handed the reins back to the dryad. “You lead the horses while Rond and I fight.” He picked up the sledgehammer and stood halfway up on the right side of the wagon. In the back of the wagon, Rond picked up two blocks and moved to the left. “It’s time to fight!”
The slave guards hustled into the middle of the road, jamming it with their bodies. They hunkered down with spears and swords in hand.
“Hold on!” Calypsa said. “It’s going to get bumpy! Real bumpy!”
Orcs on horseback, with their tangled black locks streaming behind their heads, rode up alongside the wagon. Nath took a poke at the one closest to him. The hammer cracked the orc in the knee, bringing forth a guttural cry. Spear in hand, the orc jabbed at Nath. He swatted the spear aside with a quick crack from his hammer.
On the other side of the wagon, Rond hurled stone after stone at the orcen riders. A squared block smote the orc in the chest, knocking the guard out of the saddle. One block at a time, the bugbear kept throwing. “I’m running out of blocks!”
As the horse and wagon thundered down the road, they closed in on the barricade of orcen guards. “This is it!” Calypsa said. “Hang on to something!”
Nath hooked his hand on the handle on the bench. He could see the yellow-whites of the orcs’ eyes grow bigger a split second before the horse and wagon plowed into them.
There was a clamor of hooves trampling over the armor of orcs and their bones. The wagon pitched upward in a violent heave. The horse snorted angrily, thrusting through the ranks of the guards. The wagon slowed then surged forward as Calypsa urged the beast onward. “Eeeyah! Eeeeeyah!”
The wagon bumped, bounced, swayed, and jumped. The guards screamed underneath the bone-crunching horse hooves and wagon wheels.
Nath bopped an orc in the shoulder, knocking the guard clear off his saddle. With his foot in the saddle, the orc was dragged off by the galloping horse. As they cleared the tangled fray of orcs strewn in the road, Nath yelled out, “We’re clear!”
With the slave guards hot on their trail, they raced down the road, distancing themselves from the guards on foot, but not the riders. There were at least a score of the riders left, running with a pack of hunting dogs that had been loosed from their leashes.
One of the orc riders led the pursuit. Black bearded and scruffy, the top brute barked commands in orcen to his men, keeping them out of Nath and Rond’s range. “None escape Slaver Town. Those that do die.” He pointed at four of his riders. “Take out their horses!”
The four horsemen spurred their horses after the wagon. They gained ground on the team of horses quickly. Two flanked one side, and two flanked the other. They held spears high in their hands.
“Don’t let them pass, Rond!” Nath said. “We’ll all go down if they get to our horses.”
Calypsa shouted at the horses in words Nath did not understand. The laboring beasts gained speed.
Rond picked up stones two at a time. With a block over his head, he hurled it at the orc riders. His bottom set of hands handed up another block to the upper set of hands, then grabbed another block. The stones missed the mark. The orc riders started to pass.
“You’re going to have to aim better than that!” Nath stretched out his hammer, trying to get a swing at the orcs passing by him. “Come closer, you cowards!”
Without a glance, the riders gained ground. They were seconds from striking out at the horses.
Nath climbed out of his seat and onto the team of horses. He rode bareback on one of them, eyeing the orcs who stabbed at the horses. He swatted their spear tips aside. “Get away!”
Rond knocked another rider from his saddle with a hunk of block. The second rider slipped up to the front. The orc jabbed its spear into the horse on the left rear side. The beast bucked and whinnied. The wagon lurched. All of the white horses let out a scream.
“Get away from my horses!” Calypsa said. “Stop hurting them!”
The wagon rumbled. For long minutes, Nath, Rond, and Calypsa managed to keep the orcs at bay. They were so preoccupied with defending the horses, they overlooked the other orc riders, who climbed into the back of the wagon. Two of the ringmail-wearing brutes rushed Rond and knocked
him out of the wagon.
Calypsa screamed, “Rond!”
At that same moment, an orc rider jabbed his spear deep in the front horse’s neck on the left. The white horse veered a hard left, leading the wagon off the road, down the bank, and into a steep rut. The wagon crashed. Wood snapped and broke. Nath flew off the horse and into the grasses on the side of the road. By the time he pushed up to his feet, he was surrounded by the wagon’s wreckage and orcs.
CHAPTER 29
Rond hoisted an orc high over his head and threw the orc down hard on the ground. His big fists pumped like hammers, busting into the swarming slavers. Running through the grasses, Calypsa weaved her way through the enemy on nimble feet until she made it to the team of white horse. She started to unhitch the white beasts from the wagon. Three orcs came at her at once.
Without thinking, Nath sprang into action. Running swift as a deer, with the loose chains on his ankles and wrists clinking, he came on the orcs all at once. He turned his hip into his swing. Stone Smiter collided with the first orc that jumped over a busted wagon wheel trying to spear Calypsa. The blow sent the orc backward. The orc landed on the feet of another orc, tripping it. The third orc plunged his spear into Nath’s chest. The metal tip broke off on Nath’s breastplate.
A solid hit from the sledgehammer sent the burly orc to the grave.
“Help me get these horses free, Nath!” Calypsa shouted at him. Two of the horses were freed and galloping away. The last two were locked up in the harness. One of them had red blood on its hip.
“You free them, I’ll fight,” Nath replied, as he set his heel while more riders came at him. His first instinct was to let the horses be. They needed to abandon them and run, but he had a gut feeling Calypsa wouldn’t have anything to do with that. There was hurt in her eyes. She’d give her life to protect them. “Just make it quick!”
“I can’t unlock this harness. It’s stuck!” she fired back. “Help me!”
“If I help you, who’s going to help me!” An orc flung a spear through the air at Nath. Nath caught it with his free hand and flung it back. The spear hit the orc in the ribs. The slaver guard fell from his horse.
Calypsa rushed to Nath’s side. “Free those horses. I’m too weak for it.” Her eyes locked on the orcs. “I can handle these sweaty-nosed pigs.” She put her fingers to her lips and made a shrieking whistle. The branches in the trees of the surrounding forest came to life with the quick flapping of bird wings. Birds, big and small, shot out of the leaves, descending on the orcs’ faces in a massive flock.
Horses reared up. Bodies twisted and fell.
Nath worked on the harness. It was a metal contraption that twisted during the wreck. The wounded horse lay on its side, kicking. The other horse was on all four hooves trying to pull the wagon. Nath saw the problem. There was a pin that linked the horse harness to the wagon. There was too much pressure on it to be popped free. With the wagon and harness in place, the wounded horse was trapped underneath.
“I wish I had Fang,” he said. The blade’s keen edge would hack through the metal in a couple of swings. As the birds frenzied in the air like small feathery clouds, he looked at the head of the sledgehammer. The gem tip didn’t glow so brightly. It was as if its power was gone.
“It looks like you have expended all of the hammer’s charges,” a voice said that wasn’t at all familiar.
Nath’s head twisted around. A little man was sitting on the blocks that had spilled out of the wagon. He was a grungy, hairy fella who looked like he was part gnome and part woodchuck. Nath instantly recognized the odd person. He was the part gnome, part varmint, part hermit that called himself a hermix. The hermix had helped Nath escape from the woodland tangles that Calypsa put him in. Nath had forgotten all about him. “Ruffle? What are you doing here?” He fixed his attention back on the pin and raised the hammer to strike it. “I hope you are here to help.”
“Where did all of these birds come from?” Ruffle said, swatting at a blue jay with his little hands as it zoomed past his face. “Go away, you flying varmints!” Ruffle’s bushy eyebrows crinkled when he spoke. He sounded like an old man when he talked. “Anyway, I am here to collect the debt you owe me?”
“Debt?” Nath started tapping the pin from the bottom side with the end of his hammer. He recalled an agreement he made with Ruffle saying he would help him in exchange for his freedom. “Yes, well, it’s going to have to wait. As you can see, I’m very busy.” Hammering away, with stiff strokes, the pin started to give. “Almost have it.”
The birds, once as thick as storm clouds, started to dart away.
“Hurry, Nath, my power fades,” Calypsa said as she stood beside the wreckage of the wagon. The orcs were regaining control of their mounts. Their leader barked out new commands, and the riders paired up and began to unfurrow nets. “Free my horses!”
With a strong final whack from the hammer, Nath popped the pin free. Setting the hammer aside, he grabbed the harness, maneuvered it, and worked it free. The standing horse bolted. The wounded horse came to its feet and trotted away, then looked back at Nath and gave what seemed to be a thankful whinny. Nath picked up the hammer. He saw the pleased look in Calypsa’s eyes, and said, “Let’s get out of here!”
“Ahem!” Ruffle said. The little man hopped off his pile of stone and teetered over. “Nath, it is time to leave. You agreed to help me when the time comes. Did you not?”
Looking down at the hermix, Calypsa said, “Who is this strange man?”
“It’s Ruffle. He’s a hermix,” Nath replied.
Ruffle raised his little voice. “The time has come, Nath Dragon. You agreed to it!”
The orcs had their nets spread out. One pair trotted their horses toward Rond. Another set advanced on Nath and Calypsa. Ignoring Ruffle, Nath said to Calypsa, “We need to fight or run. I’m all for running.”
She took his hand with trembling fingers. “We must make it to the woodland! I’m weak, but should have enough power to hide us. Rond! Let’s go!”
Ruffle screamed, “The time has come, Nath. I mean now! You come!”
“If you want me, you’re just going to have to keep up.” Hand in hand, Nath and Calypsa aimed for the tree line. Just as Nath’s knees started to churn, the air shimmered all around him. The scenery changed. He stood at the foot of a snow-covered mountain with icy winds in his face. “What just happened? Calypsa! Rond! Where are you?” he screamed.
“I’ll tell you where they are; they are where I left them!” Ruffle said. The hermix was half sunk in the snow. “Nath Dragon, your time has come to help me, not them.”
“You have to send me back, Ruffle! They might be captured.”
“Not my problem or yours,” Ruffle said. “Besides, what do you care? They stole from you before. They are thieves. They deserve where they are going.”
Nath dropped on his knees. His voice echoed through the snowy valley, “Noooooooo!”
***
Calypsa froze in her tracks. Her hand was empty. Nath was gone. She slowly spun in a circle. “Nath, where are you?” All she saw was Rond rushing toward her. The riders bore down on the bugbear. They flung the weighted net over top of him. She screamed as another net was dropped on top of her. The orcs, using clubs, beat them down and dragged them all the way back to Slaver Town.
CHAPTER 30
Nath followed Ruffle into the forest tree line at the base of the mountain. The snow-covered branches rustled under the weight of the squirrels and other varmints that jumped from tree to tree. The brisk winds tore through the branches with a biting wind, dusting up the snowflakes from time to time. The hard ground beneath the pines, oaks, and elms was brown, covered in an icy sheet of snow over the pine needles and acorns that had fallen. The ground crunched underneath Nath’s feet as he followed Ruffle up the steep hillside. His teeth clattered, and the wound in his side still burned. The blood from the wound Foster had given him had caked up over his ribs.
“Ruffle, you have to send me back,” he
said, trudging along after the spry little man that moved like a varmint himself. “My friends are in danger. I need to go back and help them. This is wrong!”
“The robbers?” Ruffle looked back over his shoulder at Nath with a sparkle in his dark eyes. “Why would you care about them? They are thieves. Trust me, I know. They only want to use you to get your items from the Black Hand. Nothing more than that.” The hermix disappeared behind a tree, then he popped his head around. “Will you hurry? You move very slow for one with much longer legs than I. And much bigger feet too!”
“I’d like to take my feet to the back of your hind end!”
“You should be thanking me,” Ruffle fired back. “I saved you from yourself.”
Nath pushed his way underneath some low-hanging branches. A clump of snow fell onto his neck. He flinched. “Gads, that’s cold! Ruffle, I don’t know what you have in mind, but you’re going to pay for this!”
Ruffle’s short legs churned on. Up the slick slope he went, weaving through the trees only to vanish from time to time.
Nath trudged along, trying to make sense of what had just happened. He had no idea where he was, but he guessed it was far north. He’d flown on his father’s back very far a few times and even passed fairly close to the snowcapped mountains, but he’d never touched snow before. It was pretty, but the chill it gave, he didn’t care for. “How in Nalzambor did you bring me here? Wherever this is!”
Ruffle didn’t answer.
There was a lot of confusion rattling around in Nath’s mind. How did Ruffle, who for all appearances seemed rather harmless, manage to transport Nath from one side of Nalzambor to the other? The scruffy little man, covered in fur like some sort of animal, wore nothing but a shabby burlap robe that only covered his chest to his knees. He carried nothing and had tiny hands more like an animal. How could he have the power to transport Nath through space? And on top of all of that, how did Ruffle know where Nath was and how to find him?
Enslaved: The Odyssey of Nath Dragon - Book 2 (The Lost Dragon Chronicles) Page 9
