Demontech: Rally Point: 2 (Demontech Book 2)

by David Sherman

  Xundoe looked around. He didn’t see any Jokapcul other than the officers in the camp; they had all gone to join in the battle to the west, even the magicians were gone. Two fires burned among the tents to his right; two more fires burned in the formation of tents to his left. He shrugged off his pack and reached into it for a phoenix egg while he told the two Skraglanders what he wanted them to do. They nodded and soft-footed into the clusters of tents, Muves to the right, the other man to the left. Xundoe waited until they reached the nearest fires, then padded quickly forward. When he closed the distance to twenty yards he stopped and, even though there were no tree branches to deflect his throw, he remembered to plant his feet before he twisted the top of the Phoenix egg. He threw it at the feet of the Jokapcul officers and turned and ran before it hit.

  The egg landed between two of the officers and cracked open. The phoenix rose up and unfolded its wings, turning all the officers into brief torches before the phoenix began to flap its newly opened wings. Its wings set flame to several nearby tents before it lifted its body from the ground and spiraled into the sky.

  As soon as Xundoe threw the phoenix egg, the two Skraglanders each grabbed a brand from a fire and ran along a row of tents, setting them ablaze. While they were doing that, Xundoe ran into the nearer of the two largest tents and immediately found treasure. Not anything so mundane as gold and jewels, but a magic chest! He flipped it open, saw it was full, and hefted it—it was almost too heavy for him to lift. Awkwardly, he lugged it out. One of the soldiers ran up to him.

  “Fire this tent, then take this chest to one of the wagons,” he ordered.

  The soldier gave the chest a suspicious look, but did as he was told.

  Muves arrived just in time for Xundoe to take him along to the other large tent. It also held a magic chest, though it wasn’t as full as the first one. He sent Muves to the wagon with the chest while he ran to get horses. The route to the horse lines took him close to the hospital pavilion. A shout turned his head toward it and he saw Eikby’s healing magician looking at him.

  “Come with me!” he shouted. The healing magician glanced around quickly at the wounded Jokapcul he’d been tending, but needed no further encouragement. He gathered his healing demons and ran behind Xundoe.

  On their way back to the wagon, Xundoe looked west. If any of the Jokapcul fighting over there to the west had noticed their camp was ablaze, they were too busy fighting to react to it.

  The four men quickly hitched the horses to the wagon and climbed aboard. Only then did Xundoe remember there was no way to get the wagon to the narrow valley they were using as a base. He decided that it was important just to get the magic chests away from the Jokapcul. They’d do what they’d have to do to transport them after abandoning the wagon. He lashed the reins and sent the reluctant horses between the burning tents to gallop along the ash-covered road through Eikby’s ruins. They sped straight along the east road.

  “Where are we going?” the healing magician asked, holding tightly to the side of the bouncing wagon.

  “Away from here,” Xundoe shouted back. “I don’t know.”

  “Watch for a track to the left, I’ll show you a place to hide the wagon until you know where to go.”

  A half mile farther the little-used track led to the left as the healing magician had said. Xundoe slowed down to follow it. The track ended at an unoccupied cabin set in a small clearing at the foot of the mountains.

  They unharnessed and hobbled the horses and hid the wagon behind the cabin. Xundoe quickly redistributed the contents of the spell chests. He stuffed as much as he could into his pack and gave some to the healing magician to carry. Then he he closed the chests and called to the soldiers, who lugged them as he led the little group westward along the foot of the mountains.

  Alyline and her Skraglander escort got back to the valley first.

  “What happened!” Doli demanded when she saw the blood on the Skraglanders.

  “Nightbird!” Fletcher called out as soon as he saw them. “We have injuries!” He looked closely at Alyline and the men and realized that not all the blood on them could be their own. He signaled Sergeant Phard forward and turned to Alyline. “Tell me what happened,” he said when the Bloody Axe leader joined them.

  Alyline stood slightly stooped, with her arms wrapped around her. “It worked,” she said with a slight tremor in her voice.

  Fletcher looked about and saw Zweepee on her way, carrying a cloak. He signaled her to come faster. She broke into a trot.

  “Many of the Jokapcul f-followed me. The rest stood and wa-watched.” She nodded thanks when Zweepee arrived and wrapped the cloak around her.

  “Come, dear, come over here and sit.” Zweepee took Alyline by the shoulders, guided her to a fallen tree, and sat her in front of a fire.

  “W-When I got back to my escorts there were b-bandits.”

  Phard picked up the story and told about the eight bandits who had surprised them. “And before we could get out of there, more came, led by Captain Dumant. Remember him, the Blood Sword officer who wanted to assume command after we rescued his squad from the bandit attack?” He spat into the fire. “He must have come upon the bandits when they were still confused by our raid, then organized them for this attack.” He grinned. “He wasn’t expecting to find the Jokapcul in Eikby, I wager.” He briefly outlined that fight. There wasn’t much to tell about the hasty trip back to the valley.

  “What of Spinner and Haft?” Fletcher asked.

  “We couldn’t see that far, but they must have been successful. I think all the Jokapcul still in the camp came out when the bandits attacked.”

  When they were north and west of Eikby, Haft told the Zobrans to continue. He dropped out of the van and went to the edge of the forest to see what he could. When he rubbed her thigh, the Lalla Mkouma turned off her magic. He didn’t know that Xundoe had gone back into the Jokapcul camp and hadn’t seen the fire start among the tents, so he wondered what happened that most of them were burned. To the east of the cleared land he saw some fighting still going on, but the fighting seemed to be the end of a battle rather than the beginning or middle. He couldn’t see who the Jokapcul were fighting, only that there were more than the six Bloody Axes and Blood Swords who formed the Golden Girl’s escort. He waited while the column of people passed by. Spinner was still with the rear guard.

  “Have you seen Xundoe?” Spinner asked.

  “No. The last time I saw him he was with you.”

  Spinner shook his head. “He took two Skraglander Guards and ran back into Eikby. He refused to come back when I called him.”

  “That explains it,” Haft said.

  “Explains what?”

  Haft pointed at the burned tents.

  Spinner looked at the tents and nodded. “I thought I heard a phoenix egg crack open.”

  “Xundoe’s getting brave.”

  Spinner nodded again. “He must be trailing us. We should wait for him to catch up.”

  “No. He knows where the valley is, he can make it back on his own. And if he’s got two Skraglanders with him, they’ll be all right.”

  Spinner looked west, to where the battle was almost over. “You’re right. We shouldn’t split up any more than we already are. Do you have any idea who the Jokapcul were fighting over there?”

  Haft shook his head. “Not unless the bandits got themselves organized a lot faster than we expected them to. Whoever it was, it looks like they took quite a toll before the Jokapcul finished them off.”

  That looked to be true, there were nowhere near the number of Jokapcul visible as there had been when the drumbeat roused them from their tents.

  “Unless more of them are in the forest, chasing down survivors.”

  “Unless.”

  “Let’s go.”

  “Good idea.”

  The trip back to the valley took longer than the night movement had, and Silent dropped out along the way to keep an eye on the Jokapcul.

  The rescued
people of Eikby were staggering with exhaustion by the time they reached the valley, but regained their energy when they saw who was there to greet them. The camp rang with cries of joy as families and lovers were reunited. There was an undercurrent of sobs when other husbands, wives, children, and parents weren’t among the freed peo-ple. Few of those who came to Eikby with Spinner and Haft rejoiced; most members of the company were in the camp when the Jokapcul attacked and those still missing were killed there or during the flight after the first battle.

  Maids Marigold and Primrose had no families to look for when they reached the valley camp. Maid Marigold was the only one of her people spared by the Jokapcul, because she was young and pretty, and they had uses for all the young, pretty women. Maid Primrose had no family. She had been traveling with them two years earlier when bandits attacked their caravan just miles outside Eikby. Only three of the nearly fifty people in the caravan managed to reach the town, and neither of the other two were from her family.

  So when Maids Marigold and Primrose reached the valley they immediately began looking for Spinner and Haft. As did Alyline and Doli.

  The Marines arrived with the rear guard. The people they’d just freed began crowding around them, enthusiastically giving thanks for their rescue. Spinner and Haft didn’t stop to accept the crowd’s adulation. They thanked the people for their appreciation and tried to press on. They needed to find Alyline and Sergeant Phard and find out what happened with the diversion.

  Maids Marigold and Primrose reached their heroes just before Alyline and Doli did and threw themselves on their saviors.

  Haft was looking quite pleased with himself when Alyline stepped in front of him. “Just the person we’re looking for!” he exclaimed. “As you can see,” he waved his right arm at the crowd, “our part of it went well, and yours must have also. What happened?”

  Alyline looked at him expressionlessly. She shifted her gaze to Maid Marigold, took in the bruises on her face and arms, and the torn bodice that was again threatening to expose her breast, and back to Haft’s grinning face. If he hadn’t been so pleased with himself, he would have recognized Alyline’s expressionlessness as a clear sign of danger and begun planning his escape. But he was, so he didn’t.

  “I’ve seen you. You’re one of the leaders. I’m Maid Marigold.” She let go of Haft’s arm and held out her left hand to Alyline. She read Alyline’s lack of expression better than Haft did.

  Alyline ignored the hand. “You better pin that up, you’re about to expose yourself.”

  “Oh!” Maid Marigold drew her hand back and tried to tuck the drooping flap in more securely.

  “I won’t ask if you did that, Haft,” Alyline said coldly. “I don’t think you did.” She slowly shook her head. She spun on her heel and walked stiffly away.

  Confused, Haft stared at her receding back.

  Maid Marigold watched her curiously. “You’re one of the leaders,” she said nervously. “She’s one of the leaders.” She looked at him plaintively. “Are you lovers?”

  “Lovers?” The word was almost a croak. “Her? Me? Lovers? Absolutely not!” He blinked several times and shuddered.

  She leaned closer to him.

  A few yards away, Doli, racing to throw herself into Spinner’s arms, skidded to a stop and gasped, staring wide-eyed and openmouthed at that, that—that woman with her arms wrapped around Spinner’s neck, smothering him with the kisses he never allowed her to smother him with! Even worse, he seemed to be enjoying it as his body was twisting against hers and his hands gripping her arms!

  Slowly, fists clenched tightly at her sides, she drew herself to rigid erectness. With great effort, she got her breath under control glaring at them grimly for a moment longer before emitting a banshee scream and springing forward to wrench that, that—tavern wench off the man who was rightly hers!

  Maid Primrose cried out when a hand roughly grabbed her shoulder, yanked her from Spinner, and almost threw her to the ground. She staggered then regained her balance. Her eyes darted about in terror, expecting to see Jokapcul charging through the camp. Instead of Jokapcul, she was confronted by a screaming woman.

  “You get your hands off him, he’s mine!” Doli stalked forward. “I don’t know who you think you are,” she snarled, “but you stay away from him. He’s spoken for.”

  Surprised and flustered, Spinner took a moment to collect himself. “Doli—” His voice cracked and he tried again. “Doli! What are you doing? We just rescued her from the Jokapcul.”

  She spun on him. “She’s the one you spent that night with in the inn, isn’t she?”

  “Ah—”

  “Don’t deny it, I can see it in your eyes.”

  “But, Doli, you know I—”

  “Don’t you ‘but’ me, Spinner. You not only cheated on me, you cheated on that Alyline, too!”

  “Spinner,” Maid Primrose recovered enough to speak, “is this woman your lover? Were you unfaithful with me?”

  “No! No, nothing like that.” He held his hands up defensively. “She’s not my lover, she’s never been my lover!”

  “That’s not from lack of opportunity!” Doli spat.

  Maid Primrose grabbed Doli’s shoulder. “You’re not his lover,” she said angrily, “yet you attack me for kissing him after he rescued me?”

  Doli covered her face with her hands and bawled. “He doesn’t want me,” she wailed. “He only wants her!” She took her hands from her face and turned around, pointing. She kept turning, but didn’t see Alyline anywhere. “That Golden Girl, she’s the only one he wants, and she won’t have him!”

  Maid Primrose turned on Spinner. “You pine for someone else, and you took me when you couldn’t have her?” She stormed right up to him. “Am I just some convenient vessel you relieve yourself with when you can’t get what you want?”

  “But that’s not what happened.”

  The two women turned to each other.

  “He betrayed you and this other woman?”

  “He used you?”

  “The nerve of him!”

  “That beast!”

  Doli suddenly noticed Maid Primrose’s bruises. “Oh, you’ve been hurt! Come with me, let me take care of that.”

  The two walked off together, arm in arm like old friends.

  All around people were staring at Spinner and Haft.

  Xundoe and his party came in with the healing magician a couple of hours later, sweaty and weary from a long trek with heavy burdens. So far as they knew, the Jokapcul had made no attempt to follow them.

  It was after sundown when Silent returned.

  CHAPTER

  TWENTY-FOUR

  Just a week earlier Eikby had had a population of more than two thousand people. Including those the raid had freed, barely a thousand people had found refuge in the valley—and more than a hundred of them were from the company. Some of the townspeople were known to have fled east before the Jokapcul arrived and it was certain that some who fled north deliberately bypassed the valley to head for Princedon Gulf on their own. There were likely other terrified people still wandering in the forest west and north of the valley. But all of those combined were only a fraction of the missing thousand. The people just brought in confirmed that most of the missing had been killed. They also told what they had been constructing.

  “It was an elaborate pyre,” Plotniko, the master carpenter, explained to the leaders of the company. “The Jokapcul commander told me through an interpreter that the pyre was modeled after the principal castle of their king. King wasn’t the word he used, it was a title I’d never heard before, but it meant king. It was a great honor, he said, for conquered dead to be cremated in a replica of the king’s castle.” He shook his head. “They slaughtered us. How could anything after that be thought of as an ‘honor’?

  “I saw the bodies lying about, those that hadn’t been burned in the houses and buildings when the Jokapcul torched the town. Swordsmen and archers stood outside the burning buildings to drive
people back inside when they tried to escape the flames. Still, hundreds of people were killed in the open. I don’t know how they decided which of us they would kill and which they would keep alive to do the work they required. The way they chose seemed completely random. I was with Master Builder Stupnikow, hiding in a stone storage shed when they found us. They dragged us out and threw us at the feet of an officer. Their leader said something. I looked up and saw him point at Stupnikow. Two of the soldiers plunged their swords into his back. Then the officer spoke again and pointed at me. I was certain they were going to kill me then. But they didn’t. Instead, two of them grabbed my arms and yanked me to my feet. They dragged me to a growing knot of people inside a circle of mounted lancers. Many people screamed and cried; we thought they were going to murder us for sport. Instead, they kept us to work the fields, gather bodies—and to build that pyre.”

  He looked at them with haunted eyes. “Somehow they found out I was the master carpenter. They gave me plans and put me in charge of building the pyre. It didn’t take long to realize the pyre I was charged with building was far bigger than was needed for the dead we were gathering. It was big enough for all of the dead—and for all of the living. I only hoped they planned to kill us first and not simply herd us into that place before they lit it.

  “I knew there was only the ghost of a hope that someone would come to drive the Jokapcul away and rescue us, but I never gave up on that ghost. So I made sure the work went slowly. Maybe it was too slow; they killed workers every day to frighten the rest of us into working faster.

  “Then someone attacked two nights ago and they suffered severe losses. Was that you?” He smiled wanly when Spinner said it had been. “Some of them started killing us, but their officers made them stop. They needed us to build a hospital pavilion and carry their wounded to it. It was the first time since they first attacked that we’d seen them care for their own wounded. No one told us why. But the attack, your attack, told me we were going to be rescued. I didn’t expect the rescue to come so soon, though, and for that I and all the others who survived thank you.”