Before starting off, Temms asked if he and the other members of the team could handle my sword. I had become used to this type of request. Warriors had a natural curiosity for unusual weapons and mine were all much larger than the ones they were used to. I took it from the wall against which I had leaned it and handed it over. Temms’ eyes grew wide as he hefted the blade. He had trouble lifting it. He made several attempts to raise it over his head in attack mode but was unsuccessful. They passed it around, each marveling at the weight and size of the weapon. I started to feel a little embarrassed but proud at the same time. When they were finished inspecting the weapon they handed it back. I think they felt more confident of my abilities now.
With a gesture from me the guide that had led me down into the underground passageways turned and led us down further still. He stopped at the entrance of a low tunnel. Instead of rock the tunnel walls appeared to have been dug out of packed dirt. The lad took a glow globe suspended from a stick from its place on the wall and entered. I had to duck my head and crab-walk sideways to clear the low ceiling. About thirty feet in I saw light. The tunnel eventually opened up into a room large enough to hold a dozen people. The area had a damp feel to it and there was a strange vibration emanating from the floor. Two warriors sat drinking from tea mugs at a table next to a long black metal bar. They stood immediately and saluted in the Olvion fashion. I returned the gesture. Temms explained that they were on duty to guard the secret exit. If the enemy were to discover the secret tunnel their job was to push down on the metal bar which would start a land slide that would collapse the tunnel and bury it under tons of rock and debris. The engineering skills of these people continued to impress.
When I indicated we were ready to exit the warriors covered the glow globes with black canvas putting us into absolute darkness. One of them led us into the tunnel by summoning us along with whispers. Using my hands to follow the walls I staggered and stumbled forward about forty yards before I heard a heavy metal bar being drawn up and a door swinging open. Immediately I heard the sound of water…a lot of water… flowing. No, not flowing, falling. The warrior put a hand on my shoulder and directed me forward. I stepped out into a wet spray. I was on a narrow ledge of stone. I moved forward making room for the other members of my team to join me. Small slivers of moonlight peeked through a wall of tumbling water. We were behind a waterfall. It was a beautiful sight with the pale moons behind it.
I followed the ledge in the only direction open to us. About twenty feet later the ledge disappeared into the water. I held my breath and walked through. After a thorough soaking we made it out from behind the falls. The night was not that chilly but the wetness was not pleasant. I wiped water from my eyes and surveyed my surroundings. We were at the bottom of a rock wall. The water from the falls gathered into a small pond in front of us and then gurgled off and down to a small river. One moon above was at a quarter, the other somewhat smaller, and there was just enough light to see big shapes.
Temms took the lead since he had knowledge of where we were and where we had to go. We remained as silent as possible. Our wet clothing and boots squished for about a half mile before drying.
We came to a small rise overlooking the main valley. Hundreds of fires flickered off to our right. To the left we saw the dark shadow of the castle wall from which we had come. We had emerged on the North side of the city walls. The Greys in the camps off to the East were making a lot of noise, a fact for which I was grateful. We all gathered in a circle and I whispered instructions.
“Let’s make our way around their camp to the North. Keep absolutely quiet. If you see people or the enemy hold your fist up like this,” I demonstrated for them. “We’ll evaluate the situation and take the proper action. Be alert.”
We were able to sneak around the large enemy camp. I saw no guards or patrols and was thankful that the beasts were not more security conscious. I didn’t know if that came from ignorance or arrogance. Probably both.
The first hour of our patrol passed with no activity. Once we got around the camps the valley was uninhabited and quiet. We were about a half mile from the castle when Waan held her fist up and crouched. We hit our knees and crawled up beside her. She pointed out to a small orchard and then to her ear. We listened and could just barely hear a rustling sound. Waan silently strung her bow. Both moons’ beams were dim and streaked with shadows from taller trees behind us. After a minute we could make out movement. Two tiny figures stepped cautiously out from the concealing orchard. They were human children. One boy, one girl. The boy carried a bag over his shoulder. They were both barefoot. We watched as they silently tiptoed over the sandy soil. They were heading almost directly for our position.
Tinker shivered in her pouch and sent me a wave of warning.
A snap sounded from our right. The children froze. Waan snatched an arrow from her quiver and nocked it. Temms and Crain slowly and silently drew their short-swords. I wrapped the leather thong from my mace tightly around my hand.
A minute later there was another sound. It was a soft grunt. I could hear the little girl trying unsuccessfully to stifle a sob. The boy folded his arms around her. Then the Greys sprang. There were eight of them. They bolted from the cover of high grass, growling with triumph. The children screamed and ran in our direction.
I put a hand on Waan’s shoulder and pointed. She stood and loosed the arrow. The Grey in front of the pack dropped to his knees and howled in pain with a shaft buried to the feathers inside his chest. The children saw us at same time the beasts did. The kids sprinted as fast as they could run. The Greys pursued. Waan was able to drop another with an arrow to the throat. But I could see that the kids wouldn’t make it to us in time. I stood and charged with Crain and Temms right behind me. We passed the children as they made for Waan. The six remaining beasts howled their fury and attacked. They carried the crude metal swords and double-headed axes they favored. The two on left side had wooden shields. I directed my attack at them.
With me running at top speed we met with a crash of metal and wood. My size and weight took them by surprise. I smashed into the lead beast’s shield with my shoulder. My momentum knocked him backward and off of his feet. The second one leapt forward holding his shield high and ready to thrust his sword underneath. I met him with a two-handed overhead strike with my war mace. The heavy weapon, aided by all of my strength, shattered the shield, broke his arm and drove him into the dirt. His other shield-bearing comrade quickly recovered his footing and charged me. I dodged a wicked slash of his axe and answered with a backhanded sweep of my club. He was able to deflect it by keeping his shield at an angle and tried to take off my leg. I hopped back, giving him some respect. He was a much better fighter than any of the other Greys with whom I had tangled so far. The grey brute seemed to be encouraged by backing me up. He screamed and tried to hit me with the edge of his shield, quickly backing it up with another axe attack. I hopped back twice letting each swing of his axe arc past harmlessly. When he raised his axe for another try I darted forward and grabbed the shield with my left hand, shoving it upward. With my right I swung the mace with all of my strength, catching him at the knees. He upended and hit the ground heavily. I followed up with a stomp to his chest and a final smashing blow with my club. He stopped moving.
But now two of their brothers were at my back and too close for me to avoid their sword slashes. I blocked one with my forearm guard. But the other was already bringing his weapon down at my head.
A streak of white burst forward from the pouch at my waist. Tinker leapt onto the Grey’s head and started tearing at the unfortunate beast in much the same manner that she had savaged the snake that had tried to make a meal of her. In full battle fury she had attached herself to his neck with the claws in her feet and was using her upper claws and needle-sharp teeth to visit mayhem upon his face. Blood and tissue went flying up into the night air as the Grey tried to dislodge her.
I turned to finish the Grey whose sword attack I had narrowly blo
cked. He had brought the weapon back up for another blow but I shot a hand up and around his throat and squeezed with all of my strength. He dropped to his knees with his eyes bulging. A quick blow with the mace silenced him for good. I ran to help Tinker with the other Grey but he was now on hands and knees, crawling on the ground sightlessly searching for a weapon with which to get Tinker off of his back. She had apparently blinded him and was now trying to dig her way into his spine. I pried her off of the beast with one hand (she really did not want to let go and a generous portion of grey flesh came off in her mouth) and, with the other, I ended his suffering.
I looked over to see if I could help my team mates. Temms had his short-sword in one hand and a knife in the other. As I turned I saw him impale the Grey’s slashing sword arm with the knife while simultaneously driving the sword into the creature’s chest.
Crain parried a sword slash from his opponent, dancing away easily. When the beast tried a second attack Crain feinted a slash then turned it into a thrust. The Grey took the blade into his abdomen and squealed like a banshee. He turned to flee but an arrow burrowed into his back before he could take the first step. He staggered and fell. I looked over and saw Waan, the children behind her, the bowstring still twanging in her hands.
I checked on the first Grey I had struck to see if he was still a threat. He was dead, his head laying in an unnatural angle on the sand.
For a micro second I reflected on the change in my life. One moment I’m a working stiff living in a rented apartment and eating take-out five days a week. Next moment I’m locked in mortal combat with man-eating sub-humans on an alien world.
But I had no time for my self-reflection. The noise of our clash might bring more Greys to our location and we had innocent children to get to safety. I had Temms lead us back to our hidden entrance to the castle. We moved as quickly as possible while staying silent. The children were terrified but understood the need to keep quiet. They were real troopers. We snuck around two smaller camps of Greys. When passing the second camp I saw an unusual sight. There were about a dozen fires with the beasts gathered around eating and fornicating. Males and females both inhabited the area. But what caught my attention was a huge wagon. It was actually a large barrel on wheels. It was still hitched to eight great lumbering animals which appeared to be a cross between African water buffaloes and hippos. They were each twice the size of the Olvioni horses and had thick blunt horns (I was later to learn that the Olvionis called these animals burdenbeasts). The barrel-wagon must have held hundreds of gallons of water. It struck me then. This was the answer of how they were supplying the huge numbers of raiders with water which Ruguer had mentioned that question at one of our meetings. They were very simply filling these wagons with water and transporting it to their troops. The question now would be where they were loading up.
We picked our way quietly around the camp and continued on toward our secret entrance to the city walls. We dared not risk any light and were struggling to make it while keeping the children quiet and unafraid. At last we reached the waterfall. I gestured that I would go first. I cringed at the bite of the cold water and stepped through. On the other side I shook water from my eyes then froze. A spear head was poking my throat. In the darkness I could not see who or what was wielding the weapon. My hand went to the mace in my belt.
“Apologies, Sub-Commander!”
My stomach dropped back down from my throat to its customary position in my abdomen.
“We saw your silhouette outlined by the moons,” the voice said. “We…we thought it was a bear.”
Of course the warrior used the Olvioni word for that beast but Tinker made the translation from her pouch. I had to laugh.
“Relax, good warrior,” I answered. “I have been called much worse. I commend you for your awareness.”
By now Temms and the rest of my crew were passing through the falling wall of water. The children were in a state of near-shock. I had Waan tell one of the sentinels to take them up to the castle proper for treatment. I would have wanted to take them myself and personally handed them over to Dwan. But the night was still somewhat young and we had time to make a few more patrols before dawn. If there were more innocents out there I wanted to find them before the grey monsters did. I shivered at the thought of what would have befallen those beautiful children had we not been there for them. Before departing I gave the guards a message for Ruguer about the barrel-wagons. You never knew what would turn out to be important and I couldn’t really count on being alive to tell him myself on the next day.
We struck out again when Waan returned. I was getting used to the feeling of being damp and chilly. All told we made three trips out and back. On the second we found six people, three couples who had hiked here all the way from the outer fringes of the valley. They were starving and dehydrated. We almost had to carry them to the city. On the next foray out we found no refugees but spied a small group of four Greys hunkered by a fire. They were probably shirking their duties. I would have passed them by but I could tell my team really wanted a chance to draw enemy blood. I figured it would be four fewer monsters lurking in the darkness to intercept fleeing refugees. I gave my eager troops their wish. Waan dropped two of them before they even knew they were being attacked. Temms and Crain dispatched the others. The whole affair took about five seconds to execute. I walked up looking at the result. Four dead raiders and we had hardly made a sound. I smiled. This was a good team.
But dawn was just around the corner now so we skulked our way back to the waterfall. Once inside I was told that a meeting was gearing up in Zander’s salon. I was requested to attend. That meant my dream of dry clothes, a hot shower and a little tickle-time with Dwan would have to wait. I sighed heavily and followed the young lad who had been waiting for my return. Before I left the sentinel warriors told me that a total of twenty one refugees had been recovered by three roving patrols. The number made me feel a lot better. Twenty one people who would not wind up on a Grey One’s serving trough.
The boy guided me up into the higher floors of the castle. We passed through a richly decorated hallway and vestibule and stopped before a set of large wooden doors. The doors were guarded by no fewer than four warriors. Tensions had obviously increased lately. Upon seeing us approach two guards opened the doors. Inside were about twenty people. Pulg and Layann were there, standing against the wall. They looked as damp and tired as I was. I made my way over to them and they nodded. Zander rose and the murmured conversations stopped.
The room was circular and a bank of long windows lined the wall behind the king. The rest of the walls were painted a bright green. There were three golden chandeliers hanging from the ceiling each bearing two dozen glowing bulbs. The opulence of the room did not dispel the atmosphere of unease.
The king saw us against the wall.
“Let us make a place at the table for the leaders of our patrol teams. They’ve been out all night and have earned a seat. Can we get them some towels also?”
There was a quick shuffling while some moved away from the table making room for us. I was a little embarrassed at the attention. An elderly woman left via a side door and returned shortly thereafter with a stack of linens. I took two and used one to rub my hair and face dry. I draped it over my head like a hood and then withdrew Tinker from her pouch.
I almost laughed. I was used to my little friend being fluffy and white. The term “drowned rat” passed through my head as I saw her wet fur and dripping face. She gave me a look that I took to be a warning. I put my lips next to her ear. “You insisted on coming.” I said. A wave of irritation washed through my brain. I wrapped her in the second towel and massaged her fur, coaxing the water from it. A second later she vibrated on my lap.
I noticed the room had grown quiet and saw that Tinker’s appearance had captured everyone’s attention. I was used to this reaction. Zander rapped his knuckles on the oval desk before him.
“Sorry to get everyone here so early but we may have been provide
d with an opportunity.” He pointed to myself and the other two patrol team leaders. “Our patrols noticed several large wagons out by the Grey’s camp last night. They are very large and appear to be there for the purpose of obtaining and distributing water to their fighters.” He sat and ran a hand through his hair. It looked to me like he had not slept. He took a sip from a silver-leafed tea mug. I looked around for a mug for myself and saw that the towel lady was heading our way with a tray of mugs and honey. Zander finished his sip and continued.
“Now normally this would not be of much interest to us. But we may be able to turn it to our advantage.” He pointed at Ruguer who was sitting across the table. Ruguer nodded back and began speaking. I noticed he didn’t stand. He, too, also appeared exhausted.
“You all know the issues,” he said. “We have tonight and tomorrow night to come up with a way to attack and seriously reduce the number of invaders that are outside of our walls. They surprised us with a quick advance by a smaller force. This force is keeping us bottled up inside while the larger force advances on our position. I intend to make them pay for their actions. The king and I both agree that we must hit the smaller siege force while it is deprived of the protection of the larger body.” The King’s lead warrior rubbed his eyes before continuing. “We have the numbers to wipe them out. That’s not the problem. The problem is that we have to do it without suffering so many casualties that we can’t defend the city positions adequately when the main body of invaders arrive.” Now he did rise and walked over to the windows, looking out while he continued.
“If we had more time we may have been able to come up with a more…elegant solution. But time is one thing we don’t have. Indeed, the main body of Greys might even arrive tomorrow before evening falls.” He turned back away from the windows and looked at the room’s occupants. “The situation with the water wagons is not new. Every siege force has to have a way to provide the occupying raiders with food and water. It is simply unworkable to have your fighters leaving their stations to travel to water sources several times per day. At any given time you would only have about half of your force in place. So the wagons aren’t new. But our plan is.” At this Ruguer beckoned to one of the warriors at the doors. He ducked outside and came back in with a white cylinder about eight inches in diameter and a foot or so long. He set the object on the table then resumed his post at the door. Ruguer picked it up.
The Olvion Reality (The Chronicles of Olvion Book 1) Page 21