Isle of the Ape

by Jason Halstead

  Chapter 22

  "What's happening?" Patrina hissed after she'd turned away from the castle wall and stared over the jungle to the west. They'd heard the ape's roar and heard as much as felt Bucky's response to it. The great ape had run down the road towards the jungle with one of his females close behind him.

  "The clearings are where a lot of animals hunt," Carson whispered. "That's why I avoided them when I brought you back here. That must be one of the apes and she sounded angry."

  "They always sound angry!"

  Carson shook his head. "They talk, just as you and I are, but they have their own way of doing it."

  "You speak ape?" Patrina's eyes rounded in amazement.

  Carson smiled. "I don't speak it, but I can understand it a little. That was the sound of a very angry ape. She challenged something."

  "What? We're all up here."

  "What indeed," Carson asked. "The apes are the rulers of this island; nothing dares contest them."

  "Thork?" Patrina wondered aloud.

  "Thork?"

  She shook her head. "It's a long story," she said. "And we've been handed an opportunity. If Bucky's gone, why don't we go through the gate?"

  "One ape hunting on the island, two running through the jungle—that leaves two more apes. One or both are probably guarding Bucky's captives."

  Patrina nodded. "Makes sense. Let's keep going then."

  Carson crept along the narrow mesa between the decaying castle wall and the edge of the cliff. He had to step over a few areas where the rock had broken away, and then he paused to wait until Patrina navigated the obstruction. They made it to the northwest corner of the castle without problem. Once there, they found the square tower base was within inches of the edge of the cliff.

  "Now what?" Carson asked her.

  Patrina grabbed Carson's arm at the wrist and leaned out over the cliff. She stared down and frowned. It was uneven but without ledges or reliable hand or footholds to scale it horizontally. She turned, still leaning out over a long fall, and stared up at the tower.

  "Are you a good climber?" Patrina asked after she used Carson's arm to pull herself back in next to the tower. "I've seen you in trees, but what about stone?"

  Carson turned and looked up. He frowned and then nodded. "I can make it."

  "Will your rope hold?"

  He scowled at her. "Will my rope hold? You insult me!"

  "You'll know when I insult you," she told him. "Now get up there and lower your rope down."

  Carson pushed her back until they were next to the wall. He moved to the corner where the castle wall joined the tower and began to pick his way up using the small cracks and holes carved out by wind and rain.

  "Hurry!" Patrina hissed up at him when he paused too long looking for a hold.

  Carson didn't respond aside from moving his foot much higher on the wall and then stretching to reach a handhold. He gasped as some stone crumbled and slipped, but his foot held. Patrina let out her pent-up breath and turned to look at the jungle behind her. She squinted but the setting sun was in her line of sight and ruining her vision.

  Patrina jumped when something hit her on the chain link strap looped over her left shoulder. She spun and looked up. Carson was leaning out from the top of the tower and motioning her up. The rope swung in front of her.

  Patrina kicked off her boots and grabbed the rope. She dug her toes into the cracks in the wall and pulled herself up by the rope. She looped it around her forearm with each upward step until she let Carson help her pull herself over and onto the top of the tower.

  "Now what?" Carson whispered once he'd pulled the rope up and looped it around his chest.

  Patrina crawled across the tower on her hands and knees and peered between crenellations. She couldn't see beyond the next tower, but she could see a little bit of the courtyard. What she saw was empty. She turned her head to look back and saw Carson's lips hung open and his eyes were boring into her. Not her face, rather, but at her legs and bottom.

  Patrina's eyes narrowed. The skirt that protected her hips and thighs was doing little to protect her from his lecherous gaze. "Memorize it," Patrina growled at him.

  Carson jerked and shifted his gaze to her eyes. His tanned face was already turning a darker shade. "I did—"

  Patrina cut him off and spat in a low but venomous voice, "If I ever catch you showing such disrespect, I'll burn out your eyes myself!"

  Carson's gaze fell to the tower and he nodded. "I'm sorry."

  She backed up and moved to another gap between crenellations, this one near the southeast corner of the tower. She stuck her head out far enough to leave it exposed for a second, and then retreated. Carson was still staring at the roof of the tower, she was happy to see.

  "One ape, sitting near the manor," she whispered to him.

  "Only one?"

  Patrina nodded. "That's all I could see. Not many buildings up here. I think it's safe."

  "Now what?"

  "He was on the northeast tower, but the wall was broken next to it," Patrina remembered.

  Carson nodded. "That's where he keeps them."

  "You've seen this before?"

  "Long ago," Carson said. "I had to know, so I sneaked up near the gate and saw from the outside."

  Patrina frowned and looked away. She slipped Alto's sword off and unwrapped her axe.

  "What are you doing?" Carson asked as Patrina slipped the belt back across her chest.

  "We're going to kill an ape," Patrina said.

  "You can't!" Carson rocked back on his knees and shook his head. "They're too strong!"

  "You told Bucky your arrow probably wouldn't kill him. That meant they can be killed. And you're going to help me," Patrina said.

  "You're daft!"

  Patrina shook her head. "No, I'm taking control of my fear."

  "Fear? No, this is madness. That ape is over twenty feet tall and could crush either one of us! I've seen them do it; it's not pretty. Would you like your arms or legs pulled off? Your head squashed under their foot? They're stronger than you can imagine."

  "I can imagine," Patrina stated. "I was swung through the air by one of them and thrown when I cut her arm. Then Bucky grabbed me. I know what they can do."

  Carson shook his head. "This is impossible! I won't help."

  "You will help," Patrina told him. "There's a lot of blood on your soul, Carson Twoblade. You can't bring your shipmates back, but you can put an end to this suffering and do what you should have done all those years ago."

  Carson opened and closed his mouth a few times. He jerked his gaze away from Patrina's and stared out over the jungle towards the setting sun. He rose up slowly and stood before he took his bow off his shoulder and fitted an arrow to the string. "All right, I've lived eight years on borrowed time; it's time I paid it back."

  Patrina stared up at him and then stood. She turned and saw the female ape's head over the remains of the two-story manor. The ape was looking to the northeast so it didn't see them. "Trust in us, Carson," Patrina said to him. "You'll have many more years to live."

  "Get down there. I'll draw her attention so you can sneak up on her. Cut at her ankles if you can, then when she's down we can finish her," he advised.

  Patrina nodded and crawled back to the southeastern edge of the tower. "Loose your arrow when I drop," she said.

  Patrina twisted around so her feet went between the stone blocks first. She backed up farther and then lowered her hips over the edge. She hung suspended for a moment and then slid farther so that only her left fingers kept her dangling. She looked down and sucked in a last breath before she relaxed her fingers and let gravity claim her.

  Patrina stumbled to her feet after rolling, favoring her good leg. She yanked her braid away from her face and shook her head. The roaring in her ears wasn't coming from her, she realized. It was the ape. Broken rocks pinged off her armor. The ground trembled a second later, announcing the landing of a chunk of stone the ape had thrown at the tower. P
atrina clenched her teeth and took off at a run to slip between the manor and the wall.

  She barely made it before the ape rounded the corner, grunting and howling in rage. It pounded the tower, sending rocks and dust flying. One hand grabbed a crenellation and tore it off. Patrina jumped back as it landed less than five feet from her. She took a deep breath and heard another roar as another arrow impaled the ape's face.

  Patrina bolted from cover and swung her axe in the mightiest two-handed grip she could manage. The blade sliced through the ape's hair, skin, sinew, and bone on its left leg. Patrina kept running and circled away from it, limping with each step. By the time she turned her head back around, she caught the ape crashing to its knee and both hands. It shouted and tried to lunge at her, but its ruined foot foiled the attempt. A fresh arrow slammed into the back of the ape's head.

  Patrina ran towards the ape now and ducked to the side as her meaty hand grabbed for her. She spun and hacked into the back of the ape's elbow with her axe, and then tried to jump back when the ape yanked its arm back towards her. Trina was brushed by it and sent rolling until she came to rest against the base of the manor.

  She lurched back to her feet and had to dive to the side to avoid the ape's other hand that tried to slam her into the ground. The damned creature was as fast on its hands as it was on its feet! She rolled up to her feet and ran away, putting enough distance to pick her angle. Several more arrows cushioned the ape's head and back. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw someone on the northeast tower waving and shouting, but she blocked him out.

  What mattered was the ape and how she was going to kill it. She was gasping for breath and her leg trembled beneath her. The ape picked herself up and used her hands and remaining good foot to rush towards her. Patrina took a step back out of fear of the rushing monster, and then realized that there was no retreat. She had to face the ape and every second she delayed gave Bucky time to come back with reinforcements.

  Patrina let loose one of her father's primal war cries and charged the advancing ape. Her knee buckled after half a dozen sprinting steps, sending her crashing to the ground. Her axe stayed with her through the collapse, proof that more than training was at work. She grabbed it and braced the shaft against the ground as the ape's fist came down on top of it.

  The ape roared and ripped its hand away. Patrina felt her shoulders nearly jerked out of their socket as she held her grip on the axe. As it was, she was lifted off the ground before the spike on the axe fell free of the ape's hand. She stumbled and barely managed to keep her feet when she landed.

  She looked up at the ape and saw her looking down at her. The massive black lips parted to show her its teeth. It roared and raised its good hand to swing at her. Patrina dove forward, somersaulting on the ground and slipping inside the ape's reach. She emerged from the roll and leapt into the air, thrusting with her good leg to give her the drive she needed. She swung the axe overhead and buried the blade in the ape's lower abdomen.

  Patrina's grip never failed her, which meant for a timeless moment she hung in midair between the ape's legs. The female ape's hands went to her wound, knocking the axe free and dumping Patrina to the ground. The ape fell back and tripped on its bad foot, crashing into the eastern wing of the manor house.

  Patrina rose up and limped over to the ape. The wounded ape grunted and screeched while rocking from side to side on the ground. The kelgryn warrior princess walked around the ape, taking care to go extra wide in case it tried to swat at her again, and then approached her from her head. The ape twisted her head and looked at her. Her lips twitched and quivered and, for a moment, Patrina saw pain and fear in the ape's eyes.

  "No!" Patrina forced the sudden empathy away. It didn't matter how intelligent the apes were. This ape had tried to kill her and Carson. It would have killed Alto and Namitus if it had the chance, too. She heaved her axe overhead and let it fall with every last muscle her body held behind it. The blade cleaved the ape's skull and kept going until it slammed into the ground beneath her.