Jim’s face turned white as a sheet. Tim had the feeling the man might have been sneaking away for a nooner with one of the ladies on the farm. Not that it was any of their business what two consenting adults got up to in their spare time. He was about to suggest they should go on the tour and save the man a little embarrassment when a wail of misery filled the air.
Brother Colton stepped back from the door in shock but moved out of the way quickly enough that he didn’t get barreled over by ShadowLily and Cassie as they stormed through the farmhouse’s front entrance.
Jim didn’t move out of the way fast enough and wound up sitting on the patio after Cassie shouldered him out of the way. Tim still didn’t know what was going on, but a scream like that didn’t come from a pleasant nooner. Something was wrong. It was the kind of wail you’d expect to hear from someone who had been locked in a house for ten years or had just seen someone die.
Holy shit. Tim motioned for everyone to follow the ladies inside.
A woman huddled in a corner sobbing. Blood covered her hands, and only someone dealing with intense grief could make the screeches coming from her throat. The sheer emotion the woman gave off made his knees feel weak. Tim felt an intense desire to flee the room. He’d never been great at dealing with the emotional stuff, but maybe he could help in another way.
Solving problems was kind of his specialty.
A young man was laid out on white linens on the dining room table. At least, they used to be white. Now the color matched the blood-stained towels that littered the floor around the corpse. While some of the young man’s wounds had been stitched closed, others were still exposed. Tim didn’t know a lot about weapon wounds versus animal, but these certainly could have been claw marks.
Or maybe talons.
It was starting to look like Jessi was right. At the very least if the farmers weren’t dealing with a harpy, there was something else out here that clearly needed to be dealt with. Tim wasn’t sure why he was surprised. It was like Eternia to slip in a little extra work before they reached the next zone.
Goddess going to do what a goddess is going to do.
Looking at the boy on the table now, Tim felt kind of bad that he had hoped for some action. It was one thing to kick evil’s ass and bask in the loot shower and infinite praise of the people you helped. It was another thing entirely to see the reactions of the victims' families when their loved ones weren’t coming back. It certainly made the situation feel more real. Tim wouldn’t wish the kind of agony that woman was going through on his worst rivals, let alone a lady who worked to feed the kingdom’s hungry.
Brother Colton took one look at the boy, and his face turned red. By the time he rounded on the foreman, the priest’s face was almost purple with rage. “What is the meaning of this?” The fury rolled off his words like an old-time southern preacher working his parishioners into a frenzy.
Jim held his hands out in front of him as if to ward off a blow. “I thought they were telling stories, trying to get out of doing a full day's work.” All the energy seemed to drain from the man in an instant. He slumped against the wall, slid to the floor, and cradled his head in his hands. “I was so wrong. I never thought anything like this would happen.”
Brother Colton moved to Jim’s side and placed an absolving hand on his shoulders. “There is still time for you to redeem yourself in the eyes of Eternia. Take them to the harpy, and I will see to this young man’s body myself.”
Turning away from Jim, Brother Colton knelt and helped the grieving mother to her feet. “Would you do me the honor of accompanying me for a cup of tea?”
The woman looked dazed. “Yes,” she stammered.
“I would so love to hear about your son and what made him such a valuable member of the temple’s faithful.” He smiled warmly at the woman in a way most people wouldn’t be able to do in the face of such a tragedy. “When we finish our tea and our stories, I will see his soul delivered into Eternia’s waiting arms myself.”
“You would do that for my son?” the woman stammered with appreciation. She pulled Brother Colton into a warm embrace. “Thank you.”
Brother Colton returned her hug, looking slightly embarrassed. “I only serve at Eternia’s will. It’s what she would want me to do.” Brother Colton escorted her out of the room and toward the back of the house and the kitchen.
Cassie had Jim up on his feet and pinned against the wall. “Pull yourself together. We’ve got work to do.”
“You saw what that thing did to Gary. I don’t want to go out there and end up like that.” Jim tried to break free of Cassie’s grip, a look of pure panic in his eyes.
Their tank’s grip might as well have been made of iron. Try as he might, Jim couldn’t get away.
Tim stepped forward before things could devolve further. “So you know where the harpy is?”
“Of course not.” Jim sounded flustered. “I thought the stories were all bullshit. No one’s seen a harpy in a thousand years!”
Cassie slapped the man. It was more of a snap out of it slap than one with any real violence behind it, but it did the trick.
“I can show you where Gary was working today.” The panic fled as his mind started working on the task at hand.
Lorelei patted the bow on her back. “Just get us there, and don’t run off.”
Tim was starting to think things might be going a little too far. There was always a possibility that Jim really thought it was all bullshit, and he didn’t send those people out to die so they could meet their quota for the day. Although the foreman had clear and concise evidence of an attack right in front of him, and the yard wasn’t full of workers.
Holy shit! Where were the workers?
Moving Cassie gently out of the way, Tim addressed Jim directly. “You did recall the rest of the workers, right?”
The look of panic returned to Jim’s face, although this time it seemed to be fraught with concern. “We have to hurry.”
Tim made sure the man focused on him. “Jim, how do we get them back here?”
Pointing to something behind Tim and out the front doors, the foreman stuttered, “There’s a bell.”
“Cassie,” Tim said as he guided the man over to a seat. The foreman was clearly not cut out for dealing with anything more stressful than someone showing up late for work.
“On it.” The tank moved toward the door, JaKobi trailing behind her.
Looking down at the man, Tim tried to remember something about how to snap someone out of a daze. He’d read enough military science fiction to know that the way they did it in the books was to give them work. Military men couldn’t think about their impending doom at the hands of alien forces when they had to lug crates around the cargo bay, now could they?
“Jim, we’re going to get everyone back here, but that’s not the only thing. We’ll need you to get them inside and organized. We need to know if everyone is here and if not where they were supposed to be today.” Tim laid a hand on Jim’s shoulder and hit him with a Healing Orb. “Can you handle that for me?”
The foreman came around. “I can do that, but we need to do something about Gary.”
ShadowLily looked at the young man on the table and shook her head. The look on her face was one of regret. The lines created by her frown might as well have said, if we only got here sooner.
“This obviously isn’t where everyone lives. Is there a dining hall or a bunkhouse that can hold everyone?” She looked at Jim. “If we can direct them there, we can give Brother Colton time to handle things properly.”
“Whatever you need.” Jim looked at the body and down at the floor. “How could I have been so stupid?”
Clapping her hands snapped the man out of it before he could wallow. “Let’s get out there and get ready for the farmers.”
“You’re right, of course.” Jim moved toward the door, a little confidence coming back with each step. “We’ll get them in the dining hall and lock it down.” Jim looked at their party for a moment, t
hen at the men and women running toward the buildings. “Maybe we should send word back to the temple, in case you can’t handle the monster yourself.”
JaKobi moved away from the ringing bell. “We’ll handle it.”
Cassie dropped the ringer. “Plus, you might have noticed the guy inside is kind of important. While no one might come looking for us, if Brother Colton doesn’t return soon, someone will come for him.”
“In other words,” Tim put a hand on Jim’s back and guided him out to meet the first arrivals. “Stay inside and don’t come out until you get the all-clear.” Jim nodded in understanding, and Tim continued, “If you would be so kind as to point us in the right direction, that would be great.”
Jim turned in a slow circle, clearly thinking about the workers and their assignments for the day before pointing off in the distance. “He was working in that field, but at the far end closer to the hills.”
The entire party turned and followed Jim’s extended finger.
Now they had a direction to go and knew for a fact there was a monster waiting for them. It was time to do what they did best and kick some ass. Turning until his eyes rested on the tank, Tim gave her a little bow. “Care to lead the way?”
Cassie stomped forward and pushed her way past him. “You’re such a pussy.”
JaKobi snickered as he followed in her wake.
“Me squishy, you buns of steel.” Tim grunted like a caveman. He pointed at Cassie, then in the direction Jim told them to go. “You, go do steel things.”
Lorelei rubbed his head affectionately as she walked by. “Don’t worry. You can hide behind me, tough guy.”
“I might take you up on that.” Tim grinned. “But Cassie might take better care of me if I hid behind JaKobi.”
ShadowLily slapped Tim’s ass as she walked past. “I don’t know about that. You should never underestimate the man's ability to upset her.”
“Lorelei, I hope your offer still stands.” Tim grinned as he followed the others.
“Try and keep up.” The ranger dashed forward twenty feet in the blink of an eye.
Guess that’s a no.
Tim felt good about their chances. The team seemed focused and ready to roll. The harpy didn’t stand a chance.
Chapter Nine
Khalid’s words rang in Neema’s head like a gong in the temple.
Do not fail.
Had it really been ten years since he had saved her from the monster that killed her mother? She didn’t feel any differently, but she’d changed from a teen into a woman. From a girl into a warrior. There were those amongst the nobility who needed to pay for their crimes against the people they swore to protect.
One day the resistance would see to it they did.
Neema kept her pace slow and deliberate to not draw any attention to herself in the mostly open streets. Worshippers on their way to squeeze in their morning prayers before a long day of work rarely moved faster than a snail's pace and almost never in the kind of large groups that would have made hiding easier.
By the gods, she hated moving slow.
She liked to run ever since Khalid had trained her in the ways of the hunt. There was a reason she could shoot a dove from the sky while sprinting across the sands, and it wasn’t because she liked walking. Now when their land’s entire future depended on her mission's outcome, she had to move as slow as a turtle.
Oh, how the gods loved their tricks.
At least this mission didn’t have to be completed in the heat of the day. Sometimes a girl had to be thankful for the little things. It wasn’t that she was a delicate flower that wilted under the sun’s intense rays. It was more that she hated how the sand stuck to her skin when she was sweaty. As anyone who had lived in the desert or who had been to one of the great seas could attest, once you got sand in some places, it was damn near impossible to get it out. If things went well, she’d be back to Khalid before the heat of the day had time to make her skin a sticky trap for it.
When had things gone to plan?
Neema nodded to a woman she passed before continuing up the street. She reminded herself to slow her pace again, but her feet had problems obeying the order. It might have been her nerves getting the best of her. She needed to calm down. Sneaking past the sleeping soldiers at the gate had been easy enough, and all she had to do now was deal with the guards at the temple.
The temple guardians weren’t exactly the finest warriors. They were more like brawlers who found a purpose. Still, the men were fiercely loyal to the priests and wouldn’t be shy about defending them from Jabari’s men if it came to it. There was no love lost between the two factions.
That was the thing with Jabari the loathsome. He wanted complete control, and the priests were the one thing that kept him from having it. It wasn’t as if their city’s ruler could stand before the people and claim he knew the gods better than their priests. No one would believe such madness.
Not yet, anyway.
That was the thing with tyrants. Their rule didn’t require the populace's belief to be there. They ruled because they had the power and the soldiers to keep it. For a man like Jabari, the fear was always insurrection, so they answered every problem with ruthlessness. The man was simply too dense to realize the harder he squeezed the people, the sooner his demise would surface.
There was a certain point where people break. At first, it might seem like the bad things happened to the poor or disenfranchised, but it doesn’t take people long to wake up to the reality it's happening to all of them. Kick some dogs, and they scurry away, kick the wrong one, and it attacks.
The scroll she was going to collect would give them the chance to stop hiding and provide an opportunity to fight back.
The resistance was small, and gaining a meaningful foothold had so far been impossible. They’d been working in groups of five or less since the failure of their last hideout. While such small forces cut down on what they could accomplish, there was a growing momentum in the populace that supported them. Men who had openly laughed in Khalid’s face were now begging for his help. Neema was always impressed by how Khalid never held their previous behavior against them.
When a sheep is lost, it is the shepherd’s job to guide them back to the flock.
He was a better man than people gave him credit for. It wasn’t easy to welcome the people who abandoned you with the open arms of friendship, and yet he’d done it time and time again. Maybe it was his age that tempered his resolve. One day she hoped to have that same kind of silent courage, but for the time being her passions still drove her to make rash and hasty decisions. That might be why Khalid never let her go on a mission alone.
Until today.
When he came into her room and laid out his plan's details, she pointed out a few small tweaks and started to get ready. It would be nice not to be left behind like a pack mule when the others went on missions. She was tired of moving their crap from location to location. Today that would be someone else's job.
Her smile must have lit their neighborhood like the morning sun when Khalid told her this was her task, and hers alone. All the nights she spent firing her bow with bloody fingers until her forearm was so bruised it stayed purple for a month had finally paid off. She was a warrior and a vital part of the resistance.
Everything I ever wanted.
Knowing that the future of the resistance rested in her hands felt good, but it also had her on edge. If any of Jabari’s spies found out about the scroll, the entire mission would turn into a shit show. Making it out alive would certainly not be guaranteed. Obtaining the scroll with the location of a hidden oasis was worth risking her life for. Some things were more important than the life of a single person.
Like the fate of an entire nation.
It’s just a simple task, Neema kept chanting to herself.
Any idiot could pick up a package and return it. She could go to the bazaar and find ten boys who would do it for a copper in less than a minute. While the task itself was easy, she s
till had butterflies in her stomach. The oasis would give them a real chance to fight back and a place to call home. This one little scroll could change their fates forever.
It was funny how quickly the tides were changing. It seemed the wealthy merchants didn’t like having a foot on their neck any more than those who worked for them. Things had been wrong for so long most of the people finally felt backed into a corner. When that happened, a person only had two options.
Fight or submit.
Not everyone was a fighter. It took a certain kind of ruthless courage to go toe-to-toe with another person and kill them. However, there were all kinds of ways to fight back against corruption. Some people did it with steel while others did it with words. More simply contributed money, or supplies, even places to hide. As far as Neema was concerned, they were all part of the resistance.
She’d feel better about today once she had the scroll in hand and was on her way back to Khalid. The man was more than just the resistance leader; he was like a father to her. Deep down he never would have wished this life for her, but after her mother's death in the jaws of the Pharaoh's monster, she had almost been alone. By the morning after their escape, Jabari had slaughtered her remaining family members.
At least she had someone in her life that cared about her. That was more than she could say for most of the orphans of Naroosh. Those poor children often died from hunger or were sold into lives that were worse than death. Neema always found it amazing how many people could walk by starving children without giving them a second glance.
A better life for the people is why they fought.
There was enough wealth in their land to make sure that every belly was full and that no children would die of starvation, and yet it happened daily. That was the very reason she begged Khalid to teach her the ways of the warrior and not force her into a life of submission. Someone had to tip the scales in favor of the little guy.
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