‘We make that our aim, then,’ Killop said. ‘If we’re assuming the lizards are here to build mines, then we lie low until they pull the bulk of their army out.’
‘If they pull it out,’ Kelly said.
‘They can’t keep, what, eighty thousand soldiers down here indefinitely,’ Killop said. ‘Must be costing them a fortune. No, they’ll leave some garrisons, that’s for sure, but most will be packing up and heading home once all the clan armies are beaten, and we’re the last.’
‘By the end,’ Kylon said, ‘the slaves sent to Rahain will outnumber whatever free folk are left down here. In the struggle to come, we mustn’t forget them.’
‘Fuck them,’ Keira said. ‘They’re slaves. What normal person would rather be a slave than die fighting?’
‘What about the bairns that were taken?’ Kallie shot back at her. ‘They never had a choice. Must be hundreds, thousands of the poor wee things.’
‘The whole future of our people,’ Killop said.
‘What will the lizards do with them?’ said Bridget.
‘Put them to work, probably,’ he said. He looked over at Keira. ‘Do you think they have any idea how our powers work?’
She snorted. ‘I doubt it.’
‘You’re all forgetting something,’ Kyleen said. Her face was strained from the pain of her leg injury, and she had lost a lot of blood.
‘And what’s that, hen?’ Keira said.
‘Pyre.’
The squad sighed.
‘He didn’t save my sister,’ Lachryn said, ‘and she believed in him the most, out of any of us. She was the first to fall.’
‘He’s testing us,’ Kyleen said. ‘We must keep our faith in him.’
‘Aye, you do that, hen,’ Keira said, raising an eyebrow at Killop.
‘Bridget, Lachryn,’ he said, ‘relieve those two at the door, please.’
The pair nodded and got to their feet. A few moments later, Conal and Kalma sat down.
‘The lizards are still outside,’ Conal said. ‘Just keeping watch, though.’
‘How you feeling?’ Killop asked his sister.
‘Nearly ready, wee brother,’ she said. ‘What I would do for a wee shot of whisky, but. I don’t suppose any of you arseholes can make a lassie’s dreams come true?’
Kylon frowned, reached into the inside pocket of his long leather coat, and brought out a small flask.
‘No fucking way!’ Keira grinned. ‘How? Never mind, just pass it here.’
‘This really is the last of it,’ Kylon said. He unstoppered the pewter flask, took a small swig, then held it out for Keira.
She drank.
‘Proper Lach stuff as well,’ she sighed. ‘That’s it settled, I’m definitely having yer bairns now.’
‘And what fine, strong, beautiful bairns they’ll be,’ Kylon said.
Koreen groaned. ‘My fucking leg.’
Conal went over and checked on her. He turned and shook his head. ‘She’s in a bad way.’
‘We’re not leaving her,’ Killop said. He stood. ‘Right, let’s get to work breaking up these crates. We need to make three things: a stretcher for Koreen, shields that’ll stand up to a crossbow bolt, and everything else goes to making a fire.’
The squad rose and began pulling the crates apart. They re-used the nails to fasten together five shields, unwieldy and heavy, but enough to form a wall four paces wide when held together. Koreen was lifted and placed onto a makeshift stretcher, while all of the odds and ends and broken fragments were tossed into a growing pile in the middle of the room.
Finally, they removed the crates that were barricading the door, and broke them up, their wood thrown onto the pile.
Keira stood by the door, stretching her neck muscles and rolling her shoulders. Killop picked up his shield, and looked over at her. She nodded.
‘Light it up,’ Killop said to Lacey. ‘It’s going to get hot in here, so everybody, back up against the walls.’
Killop crouched over by the wall on his left, with Kallie taking shelter behind the large shield with him.
She kissed him.
‘We’re going to make it,’ she said.
Lacey got the fire going, and the room heated up. Keira started to move her left arm like she was juggling one-handed, and the fire formed into glowing spheres, dancing above the roaring flames.
Keira signalled to Lacey, and the young Lach woman took hold of the door handle.
She looked up at the mage, ready.
Keira’s left hand was weaving now, and the globes of flame rose to the ceiling, and drifted above the doorway. She nodded to Lacey, and the Lach opened the door a foot wide. Keira lowered her hand, and the burning spheres shot through the gap, some rushing right, the others left. Lacey slammed the door shut, and threw herself down into a crouch by the wall, as Keira fell to her knees in exhaustion.
There was a woomph, and screams from the corridor. The heat was intense within the room, and Killop was soon covered in sweat.
He counted to a dozen in his head, then got up.
‘Shields,’ he said, ‘into position.’
The five carrying the new shields formed up into a line, Killop in the centre. Lacey pulled the door open, and Kelly led the way out, her shield held up. Kylon followed, then Killop, Conal and Lachryn.
Out in the corridor the air was thick with acrid smoke. At least a score of corpses lay scattered over the floor, some burnt to ashes, others still smouldering.
The five shields got themselves into a line, facing left, and the others came out. Lacey was holding Keira up on her own, as Kyleen was limping and needed to support herself. Kalma and Bridget were carrying Koreen’s stretcher, while Kallie and Domnan guarded the rear.
‘Go,’ said Killop, and the shield line started running forwards, the others following.
Their boots crunched over the blackened bones of their dead enemies, as the squad hastened down the hallway. They reached the door and found a ramp heading down into the heart of the caverns. The noise that was travelling up from below almost caused Killop to stop. Cries and screams, and the sound of steel. They jogged down the ramp, then descended a wide and long stairway, the stone steps sagging and worn. The sound of fighting grew nearer as they approached a level section, which opened out into a large cavern.
Killop called a halt, and gazed at the devastation ahead. The Rahain had passed through, leaving the floor littered with bodies, clothes and broken furniture.
Killop said nothing, but started to run again, and the squad followed. They stepped over the bodies of fallen clansfolk, shot with crossbow bolts, or killed with sword blows. Many of the dead wore Lach or Brig leathers. They ran for one of the cavern’s tunnel exits. Once there, they followed it until it opened out onto a balcony running the length of another cave, some twenty feet below.
Killop gasped as he looked down. The cavern was teeming with people, both clansfolk and Rahain, scores of whom were struggling hand to hand with Lach civilians. Children and elderly folk were everywhere, and the Rahain were pressed together, lashing out with their swords at anything that got close enough. Hundreds more Rahain were pushing into the cavern, and the crush inside was immense. The noise of screaming filled Killop’s ears. Kallie was aiming over the side of the balcony with her longbow, but the masses below were mixed and intermingled, and she didn’t loose.
‘Thank fuck we’re not down there,’ Bridget whispered.
Killop started going again, and they followed, running along the balcony, each trying not to look down.
They moved through more tunnels, following Kallie’s lead, until they came to an area that the Rahain had not reached.
The caverns were deserted, but a noise from his left caused Killop to halt. A group of thin and sullen black-clad warriors were watching from a small cave.
‘Hai!’ one of them shouted. ‘You seen the lizards?’
Killop stopped. ‘Aye,’ he said. ‘Back there.’
‘Then why you running the other w
ay?’
‘The temple’s fallen.’
‘Hey!’ said another one. ‘It’s the twin-killer!’
Several of the Domm warriors unsheathed their swords and emerged from the cave.
Killop shook his head. ‘You’re not getting him.’
The Domm rushed them, making for Domnan. Killop roared, and charged. He pulled out his sword, dropped his big clumsy shield and went for the lead Domm, hacking him down before he could turn to face him. The other Domm surrounded Domnan, and he fell, cut down by his own folk. Kylon leapt into the fight, spearing a Domm through the ribs, and slashing the throat of another with his sword. Bridget shot one with her crossbow, and Kelly got the last of them, punching a knife through his chest.
She rushed to Domnan’s side, but his life had ebbed away. Kelly wept over him. Kallie put an arm over her shoulder, and her sister leaned her head in, sobbing.
Kylon looked angrier than Killop had ever seen him. His face, usually so cool, was red with rage. He ripped his spear out from the chest of the Domm, and spat on the body.
Killop looked at his squad, a feeling of crippling helplessness almost overcoming him. So much death, and nothing he could do to prevent it.
‘Come on,’ he said. ‘We’re nearly there.’
The squad started moving again, leaving Domnan’s body where it had fallen. As they reached the end of another long tunnel, they heard shouting coming from the rear, and saw that Rahain soldiers had spotted them. Killop picked up his pace. Keira had yet to recover, and Lacey was starting to struggle on her own, so Kallie took the mage’s other shoulder as they ran through the maze of tunnels.
‘Here!’ Kallie shouted at last. They entered a small chamber. They couldn’t see any Rahain behind them, but the sound of their approaching footsteps echoed through the tunnels. Kallie passed Keira for Conal to hold, and pushed aside an empty set of shelves leaning against a wall. In the space behind was a dark opening, leading upwards.
‘This is it,’ she said.
‘Quickly,’ Killop said. ‘Kallie first, shields last.’
He turned his own shield to face the entrance to the chamber, and the others lined up next to him.
Kallie leaned up and kissed him, then ran to the tunnel and clambered in. Within seconds she was gone. Bridget and Kalma went next, carrying Koreen on her stretcher, then Lacey, Keira and Kyleen.
‘Kylon, Conal, go,’ Killop said. The two to either side of him dropped their shields and ran back to the tunnel, leaving Killop with Kelly to his left, and Lachryn to his right.
The sound of footsteps grew louder.
‘Swords out,’ Killop ordered, as the Rahain burst into the chamber. Crossbow bolts thudded into their shields, sending them back a pace or two, but they held their line intact. The Rahain rushed them, their swords flashing, and biting into their shields, which started to come apart under the blows. More Rahain piled into the room, and surrounded them. Lachryn was cut off from the other two and went down under a dozen blows.
Killop threw his wrecked shield into the mass of oncoming Rahain. He lunged out, slashing and hacking, and sending soldiers dying to each side. Soon he had carved a space round him, which he shared back-to-back with Kelly, where the Rahain wouldn’t tread.
Kelly and Killop circled round, facing outwards, their swords bloody.
‘Let’s rush them, boss.’ Kelly said, her voice washed in loss.
Before he could reply, the ground beneath their feet shook, and they were thrown to the floor. As it stopped shaking, the mass of Rahain soldiers around them reloaded their crossbows. One approached, glanced at them, then turned his gaze to the tunnel entrance. He walked up to it, and laid his scaled hand on the stone lintel. A rumbling roar built up, and a cloud of dust blew out of the tunnel entrance as the masonry vibrated and collapsed. The grinding noise shook the whole room, and Killop and Kelly lay on the floor with their hands over their ears, their eyes closed.
The roar subsided, and dust filled the air, settling on every surface. Killop looked up. The entrance to the tunnel was blocked with rubble. His mind clouded over with pain and anger as he thought of Kallie and his sister, and the rest of the squad, somewhere in there, buried under the weight of the mountain.
A semi-circle of Rahain crossbows were aiming at them, each bolt levelled and ready.
‘Killop,’ Kelly said, a tear rolling down her face, ‘I’ll not live as a slave.’
She looked him in the eye. He didn’t know what words to say, but nodded back at her.
Kelly sprung to her feet and leapt through the air at the ranks of Rahain, and died, falling to the floor with six bolts in her body.
Killop stared over to where Kelly lay, made his decision, and leapt up, his sword in his hand, but before he could take a step, a crossbow bolt slammed into the back of his right thigh, throwing him to the ground in a spin, as several more bolts flew through the space where he had been a second before.
He fell onto the blood-stained stone floor, his sword clattering away, and saw Kelly’s lifeless eyes facing him. He closed his own, grimacing in pain from the wound in his leg, and waited for the end.
He thought of Kallie. He thought of his sister.
The blunt end of a crossbow smashed into the side of his head.
Chapter 34
Fire Mountain
Temple, Fire Mountain – 10th Day, First Third Spring 504
For five days Killop sat alone in the mud of the internment camp, nursing the wound in his leg, and his shame at having been captured. He had hardly spoken to anyone since he had first awoken, face down in the mud, but he had promised himself that as soon as he was able to walk unaided, he would attack the Rahain and escape, or die in the attempt.
The bolt had been extracted from his leg, and the wound bandaged up. It was healing, since the Rahain ensured the prisoners were fed, and given water. However, without any shelters or toilets, the whole camp stank, and people had to be careful where they stood, or sat, or lay down at night. It was worse when it rained. The softened ground became a sticky, rancid bog that sucked folk in to their knees.
None of the other prisoners seemed to recognise him as the mage’s brother, which suited him fine. He was filthy, his clothes ragged, his hair and beard dirty and matted and, like all the others, he had been disarmed. He didn’t look like he was important, or like he was a commander, and he was content to slide anonymously into the mass of other captives. Every evening more arrived, dragged out of the caverns under the temple, and thrown among those the Rahain deemed fit enough to be enslaved.
The majority were Lach civilians, though there were some Kell and Brig also. Few Domm were present, with only a dozen warriors from that clan having been captured, while the rest were rumoured to be holding out in the caves. The Rahain had built a large square enclosure in the narrow valley beneath the temple, using their huge shields to wall the prisoners in. The land had been churned up, first by the bombardment from the stone throwers, then by the thousands of Rahain as they had advanced for the final assault, and now by the dirty, despondent and leaderless captives.
Further down the valley, dozens of wagons were being re-assembled, after having been hauled in pieces all the way up from High Threeways. The prisoners stared at the wagons as they were put back together, stories having circulated about earlier in the war, when similar wagons had been seen carrying their cargo of slaves back to Rahain. Killop knew that if he didn’t try to escape, then he too was destined for the wagons, and a life ahead which he couldn’t begin to imagine.
Killop noticed movement at the gate. Strange, he thought, as it was only midday. It wasn’t time to be fed, and the temple-clearing patrols had hours before they were due to return. He sat on the muddy bank, next to a deep gouge in the earth where a boulder had smashed its way, and watched in silence. The Rahain lined the top of the wall with crossbows, pointing down at the prisoners, and the gate was hauled open. A company of crossbows massed at the entrance, leaving a narrow space through the middle of their
ranks. Out of this space, the new arrivals staggered. Once through the entrance, the gates swung shut again.
Killop rose to his feet, and squinted his eyes to see.
Three young women, one using a crutch, and a young man.
His breath caught in his throat, and he ran limping towards them.
His big arms embraced Kallie, and lifted her into the air.
‘Killop!’ Conal cried. ‘You’re alive!’
Kallie gazed up at him. They held onto each other, and Conal, Bridget, and a limping Koreen crowded round like children.
‘I can’t believe you’re alive,’ Kallie said. ‘I thought you… my sister?’
‘I’m sorry Kallie,’ Killop said, shaking his head. ‘Kelly and Lachryn died defending the entrance to the tunnel.’
Kallie started to cry, and she buried her face into Killop’s chest.
He kissed the top of her head, her red hair against his lips. He guided them away from the gates, and over to the bank where he usually sat. Kallie was still sobbing as he knelt and dug up a spare water jug that he had buried to keep out of the sun. He pulled the stopper off, and passed it around.
‘What happened?’ he said, as they sat next to him.
‘We were almost through the tunnel,’ Conal said, taking a drink, ‘when the ground shook, and the roof caved in on top of us. We pulled each other free, but Kyleen had lagged behind, because of her knee, and she was buried under a tonne of stone.’
‘I don’t remember any of that,’ Koreen said, her left leg bandaged at the thigh. ‘All I know is that I woke up lying in a shelter somewhere on the mountainside, and had food for the first time in days.’
‘Kallie had been out hunting,’ Conal said.
‘And Keira?’
‘She’s gone,’ Kallie said, looking up with tears falling down her cheeks, ‘and Kylon, Lacey and Kalma. They took off yesterday morning, to scout a way round to the north, but the lizards found us before they got back.’
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