by James Somers
Bon, Marissa, Daniel and the others stood outside of the village lodge where Jale had been captured not long before. They waited for Sellik, one of the elf men escorting them, to emerge from the lodge. He appeared from the shadowy doorway, his long blonde hair pulled behind his head and held by a bronze circlet. Sellik’s face betrayed the grim scene left inside the lodge.
He nodded and the others understood his meaning. Everyone had been killed. Bon asked the question he had hoped never to need to ask. “Is my son dead as well?”
“He was not among the dead,” Sellik said.
Bon breathed a sigh of relief.
A call resounded from the sky: a bird of prey on the wing. Daniel watched the sky and spotted Meineke coming into view overhead. He was moving fast, diving down toward the village.
Daniel stood about twenty yards back from the lodge. Marissa had asked Louie to keep him away from what was surely going to be a horrific sight.
One of Louie’s Cherubs, Bob, gave him a nod from the lodge entrance. Daniel saw it and the grim look Louie returned. “They’re all dead, aren’t they?” Daniel asked.
“Yes, lad, they’re all dead.” There was no use sugarcoating the truth as far as Louie was concerned. Daniel didn’t react the way Louie might have expected him to. He considered that the lodge was probably a more grisly reality than he could imagine, but he was not afraid. He felt genuine compassion for the people. Their lives had been wasted and that was a terrible reality. If only someone had been able to save them.
Meineke swooped down from the sky just up the village road from the others standing next to the lodge. Daniel ran past Louie. The cherub jumped up, surprised until he also saw Meineke land near the others on the dirt road. Meineke pulled up at the last second to soften his landing. He hopped a few paces on his razor sharp talons, wings out, acting as airbrakes. Then he morphed before their eyes into the Wil they all knew and perhaps a few even loved.
“Marissa!” he panted. “There are metamen up ahead on the seashore path and they’ve got Jale!”
Bon roared his contempt for the creatures, startling some of the others. “Where are they, Meineke? I will tear them to pieces if they have harmed my son!”
Marissa bent down to the Wil’s height. “Were you able to discern if Jale is alive, Meineke?”
“They’re about a mile up the road. I’m not sure of his condition. They had Jale fastened to a beam between four of them. He didn’t appear to be conscious.”
The great cat sneered again, his fury welling up to a point almost beyond his control to restrain.
“How many are there?” Marissa asked.
“I saw twenty of them moving north in a line along the seaside road. But I also saw fires a few miles up from their position. Some of the other villages may be under attack by more metamen.”
The men and elves gathered closer to Marissa as she stood up and considered the information. One of the men, Han, spoke softly to her. “We need not engage the metamen, Highness. If we are killed trying to save one of our party, then who will find the Wielder and defeat Mortis?” Some of the other men nodded in agreement.
Bon growled his disapproval. “Jale is my son, Marissa! I will not abandon him to those accursed cyborgs. If you are unwilling to risk the quest, I concede to your wisdom, but I will not leave him. I cannot.”
That a debate on leaving Jale behind even existed surprised Daniel. “I’ll be going with Bon to rescue his son!” he said to everyone’s surprise, including Bon.
Before anyone reproved the boy for his spirited outburst, Meineke hopped to Daniel’s side and seconded the motion. “I’m with Bon and Daniel too!”
Then Louie stood forth, as though he might chastise the two of them himself, but he did just the opposite. “Well, I’m not staying behind while a long-winded Wil goes off to rescue the young cat. He might talk the poor metamen to death.” Louie strode over beside them, winking and grinning at Daniel and Meineke just before he turned to face the others. Mickey and Bob, the other cherubic warriors, quietly took their places next to their captain.
Marissa smiled at the defiant group—a great cat and five halflings with more heart than a hundred men. “Gentlemen, I cannot say that your decision is the wisest course of action, but I concede that in my heart I cannot bear leaving Bon’s son while we have a hope of saving him.”
Bon and those on his side of the road smiled at the princess. The men still did not agree, but Marissa was in charge and that was that.
THE RESCUE
Marissa, ever the master strategist, like her father, had produced a plan very quickly for Jale’s rescue. Everyone had a role to play, even Daniel. Beyond the last known position of the metamen raiding party, there stood a swathe of trees which grew between the rocky hills below Mt. Balor and the sea. The seaside road followed the edge of the Waron through these green pockets and through the trees in particular.
They had to reach these trees where the path went through them before the metamen did. Marissa had selected Meineke and the cherubic warriors for this part of the rescue. They all possessed natural flying ability that could get them ahead of the metamen in haste. The problem of getting Jale out of harm’s way, once the battle ensued, still remained. Provided the young panthera still lived, it would be no easy task lugging around an unconscious twelve hundred pound cat. Daniel had been selected to help with this task.
Daniel stepped up into the wooden wagon found in the village. He took his place on the bench seat. A control lever to his right side operated a coaster brake, but the reins were missing. He wouldn’t need any.
Bon grumbled in low guttural tones, making no attempt to hide his great displeasure over his given assignment in Marissa’s rescue plan. The princess finished cinching the last buckle on the harness which connected the great cat to the wagon.
“A great pantheran king reduced to pulling a cart like a mule,” Bon grumbled.
“You want to save your son, don’t you?” Marissa gently chided. She patted his neck and Bon sighed with reluctant acceptance. “Good then. You know I wouldn’t ask it of you if the metamen had spared any of the livestock. But we have to be able to carry Jale out safely. And if he lives, then he’s surely been tranquilized.”
Bon’s tone changed then. “Marissa?”
“Yes?”
“Thank you for taking the risk to go after him.”
The Bard Princess smiled and turned to the others. “Louie, it’s time.”
The cherub captain ruffled his wings out from under his split-back cloak. The silky white wings matched his gentle features. “Right, lads, you know what to do!”
Bob and Mickey also unfurled their wings, and the three cherubs took to the air swiftly and gracefully. Meineke followed right behind them, morphing back to the form of a predatory bird. He launched into the air and soon caught the others despite their short lead.
Marissa turned back to Bon and Daniel with the wagon. “All right, Bon, give us a good lead before you set out after us with the wagon and try to keep the noise to a minimum. We’ll approach in stealth ahead of you and engage the metamen after Meineke springs the trap on them. Daniel, I want you to help Bon. Once we have Jale loaded into the wagon, you can steady him during the escape.” She handed the boy a short sword. “Use this on any metamen who try to get into the wagon with you or who attack Bon while he’s attached to the wagon.”
Daniel took the sword, his first, and set it next to him on the wooden seat. He nodded to Marissa, but suspected that this was an unnecessary position and one meant only to give him something to do. Beggars can’t be choosers, he thought. I certainly don’t have the abilities these warriors have.
“We’ll take it easy on our speed and give you enough time to engage the metamen before we approach with this rattle-trap,” Bon said.
Marissa turned to her three elf bodyguards and the six human men, then they began a steady jog down the dirt road. If all went according to plan, the metamen would be walking slowly, having Jale’s weig
ht to bear. This would give Marissa time to catch them from behind with Meineke and the cherubs ahead of them in the trees.