Cracking a smirk, I asked smugly, “Who’s ready for some sweet vengeance?”
✽✽✽
Immediately after the good news, we all rushed back. Well, the lamia did while Fell, Meriel and I just hitched a ride. Even so, I could feel the jubilation radiating off the snake-women like high voltage off a transformer. We did double time until we got to the temple, where I gave the news to Nolala, and then made a rough sketch with a rock and a wall. Not wanting to make things overcomplicated, I explained that the overhang of the cliff caused tension along the surrounding rock, and once Luppa introduced a crack big enough, all that weight would cause a catastrophic failure along the cut.
To demonstrate the idea, I grabbed a stick from the woodpile near the hearth. The stick flexed when I applied force. Using my knife, I cut a little notch then flexed the stick the same way. Only it broke the second time.
Nolala sat upon her coils at the forefront of the audience I gathered after starting the lecture. It felt like I was presenting my final to a professor, and it wasn’t an exaggeration to say that my very future hinged on her approval. Thankfully, she gave the thumbs-up. Having that matter settled, we worked out the fine details, opting to go out tomorrow during the early hours to work under cover of night. By the time dinner was prepared, all the planning concluded, leaving nothing but the actual work left. There were so many giddy smiles and hopeful faces that it made eating difficult.
A part of me was tempted to remind them that a big enough chunk may not break off, and our efforts would only be a slight nuisance for the Null, but thought best to cross that bridge when it came. The lamia have endured under the evil incarnate for over two months; giving them a little hope wasn’t too irresponsible of me.
Since the plan called for it, our little squad retired to bed early. Though, Meriel Fell, and I did stay up a smidge longer for a… mini celebration. The following morning, however, was nothing but business and focus.
With the route committed to memory, the lamia got everyone to the cliff in no time. Since last night, Luppa discussed her capacity and revealed that she could probably work for four hours at a time before depleting her magic reserves.
Considering the proximity to the enemy, it was decided only four people would be outside at all times: Luppa and three others to keep watch. In the case things go tits up, the other two would run back to the temple to relay the news, then seal off the way to keep Corruptions from following them. We may be overcrowded considering that Luppa was doing all the actual work, but nerves were running high as it was; knowing people were around to help and protect her would take the edge off; it certainly did for me.
Fell, Nuna, Luppa, and I crawled out to the icy air of the early morning. The near pitch blackness added to the near-choking bad mojo radiating off the Marker that was a literal stone’s throw away. Once Fell and Nuna took point on either side, I directed Luppa to the edge where I wanted her to start. The priestess was nothing more than a vague silhouette in my eyes, but I still somehow managed to see the conviction in her eyes. Laying flat to the ground, she got to work.
This new world has been deathly quiet since my arrival. For once, there was ambient noise aside from the odd gale. And it reminded me of how everything I knew changed.
Over the cliff and far down below, I could hear them. Random, unnatural growls, hisses, and roars crawled and bounced off the valley. The ephemeral whispers carried far from the valley, giving the illusion as if they were coming from ghosts that haunted the mountainside. Good thing I knew better; in fact, it felt reassuring knowing monsters gathered around the Marker like flies on shit. Even if I can’t knock that dark spire over, at least there’s something to be crushed.
The thought of crushing those monsters like ants under a boot chased away some of the unease, but I kept a stagnant pool of it in my gut. Stress and fears keeps one vigilant and alert. Luppa was just a vague shape from where I crouched; Fell and Nuna were practically invisible. That was good. None of us stood out. In fact, it was so quiet and dark that I felt alone on the cliff. And that was how it felt for the next four-ish hours.
Luppa worked from one side of the cliff to the other, following the fifty-foot path I indicated. The little channel she carved out was three inches wide and about four inches deep. It sounded underwhelming, but the fact that she did it with nothing but her hands and without making a sound was more than impressive. And the priestess really put in the effort.
When we retreated into the safety of the tunnel, a little out of breath and needed to lie down before making the return trip. By the time we did return, Luppa had curled up by the hearth in the common space and slept right there. The other lamia took it upon themselves to bring her blankets, pillows, even curling up with her to provide extra warmth. The Isusi really looked after their own.
By the time the next morning rolled around, Luppa was well-rested and raring to go. And aside from ominous sounds in the distance, the second excursion went much like the first. The little trench only grew a smidge deeper and wider, but it was still progress.
Grand monuments and empires can take lifetimes to build, but, with the right circumstances, they could easily fall within a day.
Aside from resting between missions, I started talking more to the other lamia, helping when I could. Tes and Rabea, the other highly experienced warriors of the Isusi, handled their own teams who ventured out to gather supplies, hunt, and keep tabs on the immediate area.
I told them of the area where the girls and I first set up camp, and where I killed the Prowling Terror. Turned out that the bear-monster’s meat was very good bait, especially once it had the chance to decay. Thanks to my information, they not only secured a lot of fish, but they also had a lot of bones to make arrowheads.
As I helped shave sticks for shafts or cleaned meat for drying or pickling, the women would talk, ask questions, and share details of their life. Honestly, I didn’t like talking about home. One part was because they couldn’t comprehend a lot of the things mentioned, like when I brought up that I was a tank crewman for the army. After several minutes of trying to explain, I ended up describing a tank as a mobile steel fortress capable of blowing things up from very far away. A few chided me for making it up and saying it was just fantasy. The irony.
The other part was that I didn’t like thinking about home. Something that could only be described as a chill settled in my chest whenever they asked questions about my family or childhood. Thankfully, the lamia were quick to pick up on that, so they withheld their curiosity. A simple gesture, but one I silently appreciated.
Through talking with the others, I learned more about Elesrora and the neighboring cities and towns. One major thing I’ve gathered so far was that this world, along with others, was very low tech. There was some conflicting information like the fact that no one knew what electricity was, but running water and centralized heating was fairly common in developed areas.
The Isusi adhered to a primitive way of living, but they engaged in trade and support for their neighbors, and they periodically travel to Elesrora. They use metal weapons and tools, consume grains from traded from farms, read and write, and know of sanitation and medicine. Fell and Meriel told me more about their home, saying that Scintillion, as well as other words, were about the same with their technology.
A strange thing I learned through talking with the other lamia was that a fair portion of them grew up in the developed regions. When they made the journey to become women, they fell in love with their roots and decided to stay.
Wren was actually the daughter of a very wealthy spice merchant, who also happened to be the sole exporter of some very rare spices available nowhere else. I was expecting some rebellious story where the young healer ran away, but I was way off. Wren’s mother, Lydia, actually visited regularly and provided the Isusi their salt supply.
Speaking of parents, when I asked about the absence of men in their group, there was a lot of laughs and salacious smiles. Apparently, the Isusi tribe was one of t
he groups that were strictly a matriarchy. As I’ve been told, they’re more orthodox in their beliefs, maintaining a careful barrier with the outside world to preserve their way of life. They traded, maintained contact, helped neighboring lamia and non-lamia villages alike, and traveled to other worlds, but most always return. In a sort of Amazonian fashion, every five years, they would welcome a handful of worthy men to serve as temporary husbands. After a year, the men would return home and the lamia would raise their daughters.
It didn’t quite make sense at first, but the more I spent time with them, the more I understood their sense of community and the deep care they held for their heritage; it was nostalgic. Coming back to them every day after being so close to evil reminded me that there was still life. It also reminded me that there was something to lose. The Isusi may live a simple life, but it was a rich and beautiful one that deserved to continue.
At the start of the fifth day, I looked at Sanvi, Nuna, and Luppa in a different light. Seeing them back and support me for a borderline suicidal plan spoke volumes of the care they had for their own.
The mature priestess especially had my utmost respect and gratitude. The way she moved revealed how taxing it was to drain her magical reserves for several days straight. Wren and Fell informed that it took longer than resting for half a day to fully restore one’s stores, and for someone at Luppa’s level, her body wasn’t used to the load. Wren always looked tired because she rarely gets the chance to rest before she has to heal someone fully. Apparently, healing magic was one of the most advanced disciplines one could take. Though Wren drained her reserves more rapidly, her body had grown used to the strain through experience. Luppa was older than Wren, but she never had to use her magic so extensively before.
When I wasn’t looking around the darkened mountainside or the starry night sky, I kept a close eye on Luppa as she gradually worked down the now foot-wide channel. When I learned that draining one’s magical reservoirs to low can be fatal, Luppa’s well-being became a concern. She didn’t seem like the stubborn type; a martyr, maybe. The high-risk sign of magical exhaustion was bleeding from the orifices. Should we see bloody tears of a bloody nose, we’d pack up and give her a few days to rest up.
After giving the area and sky a thorough evaluation, I looked back at the carved-out channel. Clouds masked most of the moon’s luminance, but my eyes adjusted to the low light. With how things were looking, so long as the priestess doesn’t keel over and we don’t get spotted, another week or so will put us in the unstable territory. Once we’re at that point, Luppa will use her magic to produce a protrusion within the crack to work as a wedge.
Step two will take longer because coaxing stone that way uses more juice. Her process was a trillion times faster than nature, so I couldn’t exactly be impatient.
A smile slipped onto my face at the promise of success. I shouldn’t be counting my chickens, but I felt sure this was going to work. The cliff was roughly a triangular prism in shape. The cut mark was fifty feet wide, the point of the cliff was about sixty feet from that, and the ideal height of the chunk to fall should be about forty feet.
Assuming I didn’t butcher the guesstimation on the square root, that would give a volume of fifty-four thousand, five hundred and forty-three. My guesstimation on the weight of a cubic foot of stone is about one-fifty. Multiplying those two together should give about eight million, one hundred and eighty-one thousand, five hundred and thirty-four.
Not even adding gravitational acceleration from free-falling into the Marker, the sheer force the cliff should generate on contact would be so beautifully grievous. Hard not to feel so confident when math gave such promising figures. Even if I flubbed the numbers a little, about four thousand tons of stone smacking into that thing would fuck something up.
It has to.
A small pop to my side interrupted the introspection and got me on full-alert. Luppa, Nuna, and Fell snapped their heads toward the general direction I stared. Nothing moved down the narrow path along the cliffside, and I didn’t see or hear anything flapping form above. Playing the sound back in my head, it almost sounded exactly like a single pop from bubble-wrap.
Not wanting to tempt fate, I gave the signal to slip into the tunnel where Sanvi and Meriel were waiting. By the time I stood, a crack like a god clapping its hands had sounded, then the ground had rumbled. My ringing ears picked up a cacophony of roars echoing up the valley following the sharp snap. The ground under my feet continued to shift and rumble as little fissures spiderwebbed on either side of Luppa’s cut.
Too soon.
Since every monster in the valley heard the splitting cliffside, I abandoned the rule of silence and yelled, “Tunnel!”
Everyone snapped from their shocked lull and raced to the tunnel. Nuna dove in, with Fell getting dragged along by holding onto the lamia’s tail. I took a firm hold of Luppa’s end, and she dragged me down the tunnel like I was rider who got their foot stuck in the stirrup. The bumpy ride down the slope banged my knees, but it was better than falling with the cliff.
As soon as we were all in the tunnel, Sanvi rushed forward and demanded, “What’s happening?”
I only managed to open my mouth when the tunnel around us trembled violently. The last thing I heard was cracking, and then the roar of the earth falling around us.
Chapter 17
The world came fluttering back in a series of blurs and blobs. With my ears ringing and head throbbing, it wasn’t clear who I was or where I was for several moments. And like flipping a switch, clarity slammed into me like a fist, and I was able to hear Meriel.
After blinking my eyes through the dust, I saw her kneeling over me with her hands around my collar, like she had been trying to shake me to sense. A coughing fit snuck on me as I tried to see through the thick dust cloud, the crystal's red light making seeing difficult.
“Cover your nose and mouth with cloth,” I wheezed, then pulled my shirt over my mouth. “The dust particles will scar your lungs.”
Visibly was shit, but I could see that the little hole we used for the cliff had collapsed, along with the other end of the tunnel. And groaning amidst the rubble was Sanvi.
“Fuck,” I breathed out.
Realizing we just had a cave-in, I whirled around to see how the others were. Meriel was watching me with what looked like a piece of her pants covering her mouth. Just past her in the other light crystal’s glow was Fell and Nuna, who were leaning over Luppa. The path back to the temple was partially obstructed, but not completely blocked off. Six narrow pillars had sprouted on either side of the tunnel, each one holding up the now horribly cracked ceiling.
Seeing the others alive allowed me to focus on Sanvi. To make up for the crystal's limited detail, I dug out my flashlight and clicked it on. To my horror, I saw Sanvi’s left arm sandwiched between two rocks. Blood seeped out of the crevices and dripped off her elbow.
Sanvi removed her mask and coughed a few times before looking at her arm. With a long sigh, she commented, “At least it wasn’t my strong arm.” She stopped to have another coughing fit.
I ripped off a section of my shirt and tied it over her nose and mouth.
“It’s going to be okay, Sanvi,” I said as calmly as I could.
“Get something to tie off my arm before you cut it off,” she replied weakly. “I should make it then.”
I cupped her cheek and forced her amethyst eyes to mine. “We’re not cutting off your arm. Not yet, at least.” A giant slab didn't slam down on her arm; it just happened to get caught between a few beach ball-sized stones. The blood wasn’t flowing endlessly, and it wasn’t bright red. “Sanvi, I know you’re in pain, but I need to work with me. Do you feel your fingers?”
Tears slipped along her dark cheeks. “I… I don’t know.”
“Just try rubbing your fingers together, or try to see if you can feel the rough texture of stone.”
She choked back a grunt, then held her breath as I saw the muscles of her partially exposed fore
arm work. She gasped, and her chest rose and fell heavily.
“I can… I can feel them.” She swallowed heavily and took another moment to catch her breath. “They’re numb and tingly, though.”
I patted her cheek. “That’s good. That’s very good, Sanvi. Fell, Nuna?” I called over my shoulder. “How’s Luppa?”
“She raised stone columns to protect us,” Fell answered in a fretful voice despite her best efforts. “She coughed up a lot of blood before passing out. I don’t think she went past the point of no return, but her reserves must be dangerously low.”
At least she was alive.
“Are you two okay?” I asked.
“Just cuts and bruises,” Nuna answered.
I wiped the sweat and fine dust off my face. “Okay, you two start moving Luppa.”
“We’re not leaving—”
“Please, Nuna,” I interrupted in a direful slip. One silent breath later, and my composure was back. “I’m going to do everything I can to save Sanvi’s arm. It may take a little while, but I’m getting her back. Luppa needs help now. We’ll all catch up later, okay?”
A long while passed before she answered with a deflated, “Fine.” She slithered over Luppa and around Meriel then wedged herself between Sanvi and me. Reaching down, she took Sanvi’s free hand and planted a kiss on it. “See you soon.”
Sanvi gave a tight smile and squeezed down on Nuna’s hand before releasing it. Nuna cupped my and Meriel’s cheek before slithering back to trade places with Fell. The fox-woman gave the three of us a kiss on the cheek. Then the two began the process of dragging the unconscious priestess through the tight corridors back to the temple.
With those three on their way, I focused on the issue at hand, freeing Sanvi without amputating her arm. To get started, I set the flashlight aside and startled carefully, pulling away loose stones then handed them off for Meriel to set aside. With Sanvi being on her side and almost against the wall, we wouldn’t have the foot room to heft the large rock sandwiching her arm safely. Even if we could move it by hand, one wrong slip and it could smash the pinned lamia’s head. The only option was to pry it out of the way.
Heart of the Resonant- the Soldier's Tale Page 23