by Ben Wolf
Lilly nodded. Her blue eyes still exuded distrust.
“What happened to you?”
Lilly stared at them but didn’t say anything. The thought that she might be a mute crossed Calum’s mind, but she’d told them her name. And as far as he knew, Windgales spoke the same language as everyone else in Kanarah.
Calum looked at Magnus then refocused on her. “Look, we’re not going to hurt you. We’ll even let you go, if you want. But if you need help, maybe we can help you.”
After another pause, Lilly stood to her feet with Magnus’s help. “I was captured outside my home by slave traders.”
Magnus growled, and Lilly recoiled from him. He held his hand up to her. “Forgive my reaction. It is out of disdain for them and for your plight. Please continue.”
She nodded. “They brought me across the valley and tried to sell me, but I escaped. I remember getting hit by an arrow as I was flying away, but I kept flying. Then my vision began to darken. As I coasted toward the ground to take a rest, I blacked out.”
“You’re from across the valley?” Calum asked.
“Yes,” she replied. “My home is Aeropolis, in the Sky Realm.”
“Calum.” Magnus stared to the west. “Someone is coming.”
All of their heads swiveled at once.
From the northwest, ten men approached them from deeper within the Golden Plains.
“Soldiers?” Calum reached for his sword, and so did Axel.
“No.” Lilly shook her head. “They’re the slave traders who abducted me.”
“Do we run?” Calum asked.
“No, but back out of the field and into the clearing. If we run, they will continue following us. They want Lilly.” Magnus turned to her as the four of them backed out of the grain. “Do not worry. I will not allow them to take you again.”
“Me neither,” Axel added with an overconfident smile.
Calum wanted to chime in as well, but it felt awkward to try to follow up Magnus’s sincere promise and Axel’s goofy addition. Instead, he gripped the handle of his sword tighter, but he didn’t remove it from its sheath.
As the slave traders approached, Magnus squinted. “I do not believe it.”
“What?” Axel looked at him.
“They are the same slave traders who captured me.”
Chapter Thirty-Three
Calum studied the group of slave traders. He noticed four archers among them, which would make the forthcoming conflict more difficult if it came to blows.
“I recognize their leader,” Magnus said. “His name is Roderick.”
Axel shifted his stance. “You’re so strong, though. How’d they even manage to capture you in the first place?”
“I was foolish. They had been pursuing me for days, and I had grown weary. I thought to steal a few hours of rest one night, so I headed into a cave where I expected I’d be safe. I was wrong.”
“So that’s why you don’t like caves.” Axel folded his arms.
Magnus glared at him. “In part, yes. While I was asleep, a dozen of them pinned me down with a large net, and Roderick held his sword to my neck. We Saurians can heal from a lot of wounds, but we cannot reliably recover from mortal wounds without true medical aid.”
“That’s how they caught me, too,” Lilly said. “They tried to get me with a net. I almost escaped, but Roderick grabbed me.”
“They are brutal, treacherous people.” Magnus drew his sword and turned to Lilly. “Today marks their final day of oppressing you or anyone else. That, I promise.”
The slave traders stopped at the edge of the grain, about twenty feet from where Calum and his friends stood in the clearing. One of them, a man almost as tall and as broad as Magnus, stepped forward. He had spiky red hair and brown armor.
“Well, well. I don’t believe my eyes.” He displayed a big white smile. “Never thought I’d see you again, Magnus.”
Calum glanced at Magnus, who didn’t move. The man must be Roderick.
“It is you, isn’t it?” Roderick said. “I mean, all you Saurians look the same to me, but no one has blue armor quite like yours.”
Magnus exhaled a long breath through his nostrils.
“Ah, and there’s our prize. How’s your shoulder, Angel?” Roderick winked at Lilly, and she withdrew behind Axel and Calum. “Oh, don’t be afraid. We aren’t gonna hurt you—anymore.”
“Yeah, you just wanna sell her to the highest bidder,” Axel said.
“You’re absolutely correct.” Roderick leveled his gaze at Axel. “She’s my property, and I’ll do with her what I please.”
Calum glared at him. “She’s not your property.”
“I beg to differ.” Roderick tilted his head. “When I found her, she was all alone. Cold and hungry. I rescued her, fed her, gave her shelter. I even—”
“You held her against her will.” Calum’s grip on his sword tightened again.
Roderick raised an eyebrow, then he shrugged. “What’s the difference?”
Axel drew his sword and started toward him, but Magnus caught him by his collar.
“O-ho! Did I say something you didn’t like?” Roderick held his hands out to his sides. “Hey, I’m not such a bad guy. I could’ve done anything I wanted to that girl after we found her. Anything.”
Axel strained against Magnus’s grip, but he couldn’t get free. Calum didn’t blame him. He wanted to rip Roderick apart, too.
Roderick put his left palm out toward them. “Easy, easy. Like I said, I could have done anything I wanted to her, but I didn’t. You know why?”
Calum’s stomach churned. He didn’t want to guess at the answer.
“Because I can get more gold for her if she’s unspoiled.”
Now Calum brandished his sword and took a step forward.
“Calum.”
Calum stopped, but he didn’t take his eyes off Roderick.
“He is mine,” Magnus rumbled.
Roderick squinted at him. “Is that right, Magnus? Because last I checked, you belonged to me, and I sold you to a group of the King’s soldiers several leagues north of here.”
Magnus just stared at him.
“But I’m willing to let you and your friends go if you hand over the girl.”
“No,” Calum and Axel said in unison.
Roderick frowned, then smirked. “The alternative, of course, is that I take her back after killing you and your two human friends.”
“Try it,” Axel said.
Magnus didn’t move except to narrow his eyes and exhale a hiss through his flared nostrils.
“You know, I may not kill you three after all. Magnus still has plenty of value, and you boys have some flavor in an otherwise bland world. It’s usually more of the King’s purview to enslave humans, but in your cases, I think I’ll stake my own claim.”
Roderick drew his sword and motioned to his men. The four archers raised their bows and nocked arrows.
“Last chance,” he said.
One of the archers yelped and dropped to the ground. An arrow protruded from his neck.
Everyone looked at Lilly, who stepped forward with a bow in her left hand and rubbing her injured shoulder with her right. “I’m not going back.”
Roderick pointed his sword at her. “Go get her. Leave the lizard to me.”
The three remaining archers launched their arrows, but Calum and Axel managed to dodge them.
Calum turned back to Lilly. “Stay back and cover us. We’ll protect you.”
She nodded and pulled another arrow from her quiver, wincing but undeterred.
The slave traders with swords charged past Magnus toward Axel and Calum. Axel parried the first blow that came at him then ducked under the second.
A slave trader swung his ax at Calum’s head. He sidestepped the blow and cut the slave trader down with one vicious slice.
Another slave trader jabbed at him with a spear, and Calum parried the blow. The slave trader’s second lunge seemed like an over-lunge at first, but at the last second, t
he slave trader drew a dagger from his belt with his left hand and jammed it at Calum’s throat.
Calum blocked the stab with his sword and gripped the shaft of the slave trader’s spear with his left. They locked in a grapple, but neither could overpower the other.
Something moved to Calum’s right—one of the archers taking aim at him.
Calum shifted his weight and forced the slave trader to the right as the archer let loose another arrow. Instead of hitting Calum, it zipped through the air and plunged into the slave trader’s lower back. He dropped his dagger and released his grip, and Calum ran him through.
As the archer drew another arrow from his quiver, Calum switched his sword to his left hand and snatched the spear from the dead slave trader’s hands with his right. The archer let the arrow loose, and it whistled by Calum’s ear.
The archer jerked another arrow from his quiver and nocked it in his bow as Calum cocked his right arm back. He’d been practicing his throwing technique ever since the fight with Tyburon, and he’d gotten pretty good at it. Now he’d find out if he could do it in the heat of battle.
The archer fired at Calum, who dove to the right. The arrow skipped off of Calum’s left shoulder-plate as he hurled the spear. Calum hit the ground on his side, but the spear plunged into the archer’s right thigh, and he also fell.
Calum jumped to his feet, charged over to the archer, and finished him off with his sword.
“Calum, behind you!” Axel’s voice split the air.
Calum whirled around, but the incoming slave trader dropped face-first to the ground before Calum could react. An arrow protruded from the center of his back.
Twenty feet beyond the downed slave trader, Lilly lowered her bow and rubbed her injured shoulder again.
Pretty handy to have an archer on their side—especially one so pretty.
Calum smiled at her, perhaps a bit longer than he should have while in battle, then he engaged the next slave trader.
Lilly watched a now-hatless Adgar and Gammel fall under Calum’s and Axel’s swords, respectively, along with the three remaining archers who’d attacked them as well, but Luggs had managed to get past them. Now he approached Lilly with his dagger in-hand—the same dagger he’d used to kill Colm.
A bandage around his shoulder bore a dark red stain from where her arrow had hit him last night. Luggs bared his revolting yellow smile at her as he stalked closer. “You’re comin’ back with me, and this time, you’re mine. Now that Roderick’s got his money, he’s got no reason to stop me.”
Lilly nocked an arrow and aimed for the center of his chest. This time, she would hit him with a killshot. “Not a chance.”
She let it loose, but Luggs shifted his considerable weight out of the way, and the arrow disappeared into the sea of grain behind him. Lilly nocked another arrow, but Luggs had closed too much distance. She leaped into the air, pulled back her bowstring—
Luggs caught ahold of her ankle and jerked her downward.
Terror seized her chest, but she didn’t let go of her arrow this time. She wouldn’t go back. She couldn’t. Luggs wouldn’t get his filthy hands on her ever again.
As Luggs pulled her toward the ground, she adjusted her aim and stared him right in his wretched eyes.
“This is for Colm.” Lilly let her arrow fly, little more than two feet from his face.
Luggs’s eyes widened, and her arrow plunged into his left eye. His mouth hung open, he released his grip, and he toppled onto his back, dead.
Lilly shot three more arrows into his chest just to make sure.
Ever since he’d been captured, Magnus had yet to face a truly worthy opponent. Now, as he stalked toward Roderick, Magnus realized he might, in fact, be outmatched due to Roderick’s hidden advantage—unless Roderick had rid himself of it.
“Do you really want to do this?” Roderick sashayed toward Magnus with his broadsword scraping the dirt behind him. “You know I’m at least as strong as you are. Maybe stronger.”
“Are you?” Magnus challenged.
“I still have it. I haven’t sold it like I told you I would.” Roderick grinned and raised his sword, ready. “So you know I can kill you.”
Magnus squinted at him. Regardless of Roderick’s strength, Magnus couldn’t let him continue to operate as a slave trader any longer. And more importantly, for the sake of all Saurians, he had to recover what was rightfully his. “If you have it, I will take it back from you.”
“You’re welcome to try.” Roderick swung his sword.
Magnus blocked the attack, but the force of the blow shook his arms all the way up to his shoulders. Unbelievable.
Roderick swung again, and Magnus parried. They exchanged blows until Magnus ducked under a slash and whipped his tail at Roderick. It smacked against Roderick’s shoulder and knocked him to the ground, but he recovered before Magnus could take the advantage.
“You always were a tricky one with that tail.” Roderick clanked the pommel of his broadsword against his chest and smirked. “Strength or otherwise, I guess you still have that advantage, small as it may be.”
He jabbed at Magnus, then moved in close. Magnus deflected Roderick’s left fist with his elbow and halted Roderick’s next slash by catching his wrist in his left hand. Roderick locked his left hand around Magnus’s right wrist, and they grappled for control.
At first, Magnus controlled the struggle, but Roderick pushed back until Magnus’s knees buckled. He growled and tried to wrench Roderick’s arms to the left, but he couldn’t.
Roderick smirked at him and delivered a kick to Magnus’s chest that sent him skidding twenty feet back into the wheat field. Magnus jumped to his feet quickly, but found he didn’t need to.
Roderick sauntered toward him with his broadsword down again, smiling.
Magnus glowered at him. Roderick had always been arrogant, but that would end today. Strength wasn’t the only way to win a battle, especially against a stronger opponent. He would find a way to defeat Roderick.
Magnus leaped forward and swung his sword, but Roderick blocked the blow with his sword and delivered a stunning left hook that almost dislocated Magnus’s jaw.
Roderick’s sword knifed toward Magnus’s gut. Had Magnus not shifted his body in time, it would have skewered him. Instead, the blade glanced off his abdominal armor.
Roderick pitched forward, and Magnus grabbed him by the throat. One jerk of his wrist, and—
A gauntleted fist smacked Magnus in the side of his head, and he lost his grip on Roderick. Then a kick under Magnus’s chin blacked out his vision.
He swung his sword in a wild arc to put some distance between Roderick and himself, but his sword clanged against something hard.
When his vision reset, Magnus saw Roderick’s broadsword flashing toward him. He ducked, but the blade smacked into his helmet.
The force of the blow alone would’ve killed Magnus if he hadn’t been wearing his helmet, let alone the blade cleaving through his skull. As it was, he dropped his sword and toppled onto his side in the grain, stunned.
By the time Magnus regained his cognition, Roderick stood over him.
“Told you I was stronger.” Roderick raised his sword over his head for a final slash.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Magnus lurched upward and caught Roderick by his forearms, stalling his mighty overhead swing, but no matter how hard he pushed, Roderick’s blade still sank toward his neck.
Magnus’s tail swept Roderick’s legs out from under him, but he landed on top of Magnus and mounted him, pinning him to the ground. All the while, the edge of Roderick’s sword inched ever closer.
“I meant what I said, Magnus. I don’t like to waste money.” Beads of perspiration dotted Roderick’s forehead. “Surrender. I’ll let you live, and I’ll sell you to someone nicer this time. You don’t have to die.”
“Never.” Magnus strained, but no matter how hard he pushed, no matter how considerable his Saurian strength was, he couldn’t stop Roderick
’s pressure. The quivering sword continued to descend toward his throat.
No. He would not die here, not at the hands of a slave trader. Not before he reckoned with his past and with those who had harmed him. His vengeance would not stall today; Roderick would fall first, soon to be followed by the rest of Magnus’s enemies.
“Strength cannot be the only asset you rely on in a fight.” Magnus clenched his teeth and pushed back.
“Funny thing for you to say now, with my sword at your neck.” Roderick laughed. “Looks like I’ll always own you, one way or another.”
“Remember…” Magnus strained to get the words out in time. “…how you said my tail was my only advantage?”
Roderick’s gray eyes darted to Magnus’s tail, which he’d already pinned down under his left knee. “Yeah?”
Magnus smirked. “You were wrong.”
Roderick scowled. He jerked his sword down even harder, but at the same time, Magnus yanked Roderick’s arms down toward his chest. Instead of it cleaving into his neck, the edge of the sword skidded off of Magnus’s breastplate, and Roderick’s torso pitched forward, toward Magnus’s open jaws.
His teeth fastened on Roderick’s exposed neck, and he bit down hard. Metallic blood splashed across Magnus’s tongue, but he didn’t release his vice grip on Roderick’s throat.
Roderick gurgled, convulsed, and let go of his sword to try to tear Magnus’s teeth from his neck, but it was already too late. Within seconds, he stopped moving altogether.
Magnus pushed him off and stood up. He spat out the blood in his mouth and stared down at his vanquished foe. “So much for you owning me.”
He spat a glob of Roderick’s blood in the dirt next to his head, then he reached down toward a pouch that hung from Roderick’s belt.
Calum breathed quick breaths as he and Axel finished off the rest of the slave traders. They made made eye contact, then turned back to Lilly. She nodded and slung her bow over her shoulder.
All in all, they’d made a pretty great team. Calum hoped she’d consider sticking around now that her pursuers were all dead. They could use her in spats like this.