by Cheree Alsop
I followed the path between the dunes until it disappeared in the distance. “I don’t know, but we’d better get to the Caves and see how we can help. We can’t be caught out here another night.”
“What about the bodies?” a Luminos soldier asked, a bandage obscuring half of his face.
Axon rubbed his eyes and turned away, but not before I saw the anguish in them for his fallen people. “We’ll have to leave them. There’s no time to waste.”
The soldiers around us cleared the camp with silent efficiency, lifted the Nathos and wounded onto stretchers, then followed us quietly along the path the Sathen had come from. I racked my mind for a plan. It would be a lot more dangerous to do what we intended now that we knew the great number of Sathen we were up against and with the heavy losses we had already suffered. I needed to minimize more losses and trap the entire horde of Sathen. It sounded simple and impossible at the same time.
Chapter 33
“Reinforcements,” a voice shouted from the entrance to Firen Caves.
My heart, which had started to pound heavily as soon as the Caves came into view, threatened to stop entirely at the voice. Chaxa, the Luminos head guard that had whipped me before I was kidnapped, appeared followed by a dozen Luminos in bandages and carrying weapons. I wondered why it looked so strange to me, then realized I had never seen anyone but Duskies at Firen Caves carry more than whips. For the first time, I wondered why I had never used the weapons to our advantage and rebelled, but looking at Chaxa and confronting the old feelings of fear and subordination I had battled every day there, I couldn’t second-guess my actions.
Chaxa stopped a few feet from us; his eyes went from Axon to me and they widened in surprise, then narrowed. “You dare return here?” he growled.
Chaxa was already uncoiling his whip when Axon stepped forward. A growl rolled from him that I had never heard before, one filled with menace and violence and so much venom I doubted anyone who heard it would ever forget the fire that ran through Axon’s veins. “If you ever lay a finger on Nexa or any other Duskie again, I will personally stake you in the middle of the desert and leave you for the Sathen and sand crabs to finish.”
Chaxa’s mouth opened, then he closed it again.
Axon gave a small, humorless smile. “I don’t know if I introduced myself properly the last time I was here. I am Axon Lumarus, Prince of Lumini.”
Chaxa’s eyes grew even wider, which I wouldn’t have believed possible if I hadn’t seen it. He gaped at Axon, then at me, then stared at the men behind us. The head guard then simply turned and walked back into the Caves.
Axon watched until the man disappeared from view. His hands slowly opened from fists so tight the knuckles had turned white. He took a calming breath, then turned to me. “Are you alright?”
I nodded, a lump in my throat.
He touched my elbow reassuringly, then turned to face the other men Chaxa had left. “We have a lot of work to do. I need a complete tour of the Caves before nightfall.”
The Luminos quickly complied, walking Axon through the main rooms of the red rock Caves with quick efficiency. I ignored the memories that threatened to overwhelm me when we passed my chamber, the kitchen, the empty Duskie nursery, the pools, and the medical cavern full of wounded Luminos and Nathos.
Axon asked the question I was loath to. “Where are the Duskies?”
One of our tour guides glanced back over his shoulder. “They were all killed in the first wave,” he said in a nonchalant tone.
I don’t know why the statement sent such a dagger through my heart. We had never been friends. Friendship had been strictly forbidden and reinforced with whips and fists. But they were all I had from my childhood, the only people who truly knew what I went through. We had suffered together and survived together. I stopped walking. The thought of all the Duskies lying dead in the cold burial chamber in the lowest cave made it hard to breathe.
Axon grabbed my hand and held it tight in his own. I closed my eyes and let his strength hold me up. He put my fingers to his lips and his hot breath washed over my hand like a healing balm. “Duskies will never have to survive these Caves again,” he whispered. “No one will.”
I nodded and took a deep breath. I opened them again to see our Luminos guide staring at me with a deeply apologetic look on his face. “I’m sorry, I really am. I spoke callously and didn’t think.”
It was my turn to stare. I recognized the guard and he knew me. He had never participated in my punishment or any of the other cruel acts at the Caves, but he had been raised with the same animalistic outlook regarding Duskies. The fact that he seemed truly sorry helped more than I could express. I nodded and Axon kissed my fingers again reassuringly, then motioned for the Luminos to continue with the tour. I forced away the overwhelming sorrow rising in my chest. It wouldn’t help anyone if I broke down now.
By the time we finished our tour, I could tell by the pallor of Axon’s cheeks that night was falling rapidly. He leaned against a pillar of red stone in the meeting chamber and looked at the ground in front of him with distant eyes. Other members of our party and several of the surviving uppers from the Caves, including Chaxa, also stood and sat in silence around the chamber. No one could agree on an idea to trap the Sathen, and the longer we debated, the closer the next attack came.
“They could be here at dusk,” Dereter, a Luminos commander I recognized from the upper levels said unnecessarily.
“So you recommend just waiting to be slaughtered?” Dathien asked, a bite of sarcasm to his tone.
“I have a plan,” I said quietly.
Everyone looked at me and I levelly met the mixed looks of vehemence and disgust from the inhabitants of the Caves. Dathien stepped closer to my side and they looked away. Axon’s eyes locked on mine and I knew he guessed my thoughts before I spoke them because he shook his head. “We’re in this together or none of us.”
I returned his gaze calmly and willed my pounding heart to slow. “We'll set the remaining mining explosives on every level of the Caves, lure the Sathen inside, then trap them and kill them all in one blast. Everyone else will hide behind the tents at the top of the dunes where the Sathen don’t seem to travel.” He was already shaking his head again, but I continued on, “I’ll get the Sathen to chase me into the Caves, then someone will trigger an avalanche that will close off the main entrance.” Axon pushed off from his pillar. I concluded, “I’ll escape through the kitchen hatch and someone can close off that exit before the Sathen can follow me out, then we'll blow the explosives.”
“No, never,” Axon said fervently. “You’re not doing it.”
“And someone else can?” I challenged.
I met his eyes and he looked away. I turned back to the others. “I’ve been through every tunnel here a million times. I know these Caves inside and out and I am the best one to do it.” I glanced at Chaxa with a faint rise of defiance, but he refused to meet my eyes. “Besides,” I said, turning back to Axon, “The Sathen attack at dusk and dawn, so it has to be a Duskie that does it, and I’m the only one who knows the Caves.”
Pyth stepped forward. “You can't do it on your own. The Sathen will enter the Caves if there are enough people for them to eat, otherwise they might be distracted by the smell of those on the dunes and go to them instead.” He crossed his arms. “We leave some Duskies to defend those on the dunes, and the rest can help lead the Sathen through the Caves. It'll be necessary to get them as deep into the Caves as possible, so the more targets they can chase and the more lost we can make them, the better.”
I shook my head before Axon could agree. “You have a wife and children waiting for you in Lumini, and there’s no way you could learn these Caves fast enough. The exit might be blocked and you would be lost and killed before anyone could save you.”
“The same could happen to you,” my Duskie Lieutenant challenged.
I tried to listen to reason. I didn't want to put any more lives in danger than was necessary, but Pyth was ri
ght. I couldn't do it alone as much as I would have preferred to. “We involve as few Duskies as we can, and everyone gets out of their exit as soon as possible.”
“Exactly,” Pyth agreed.
“And I go the deepest. My knowledge of the Caves could mean life or death for all of us. It has to be me.”
The Lieutenant nodded. “You'll teach everyone their exits, and we'll wait for you at yours and blow the Caves as soon as you escape.”
“It'll be the best way,” I agreed. “We'll need to rig the other exits so when the Duskies leave they can block them so the Sathen can't get through.”
Axon laced his hands behind his head and stared at the ceiling as if hoping a different answer was written there. “There has to be another way.”
I touched his arm. “We don’t have time to figure it out if there is. The Luminos would need torches to navigate the Caves, and there’s no guarantee that the Sathen will attack at night for the Nathos to help. It has to be the Duskies; we can do this.”
He put his hands on my shoulders and pulled me close so that he stared at me, his icy blue eyes intense and almost angry. “You can’t keep sacrificing yourself.”
“You do,” I whispered.
His eyes widened and he looked as if he wanted to argue, but he finally closed his eyes and shook his head. “I don’t like this,” he said quietly.
“Neither do I.”
His face took on a pained expression. “Are you sure you can do it?”
I nodded despite the fact that I wasn’t sure at all. “We need something to lure the Sathen to the Caves. We can’t guarantee they’ll attack.”
“And that’s a bad thing?” Chaxa asked with heavily laced disdain in his words.
I glanced at him. “We have to force them to attack when we’re ready, and not leave it up to them. We also need something to draw them deep into the Caves. Chasing the Duskies might lure them in, but we need something to keep them there.”
A small Luminos cook from the Caves cleared his throat. “Blood.” Everyone looked at him and he swallowed. “The Sathen are attracted to blood. We could line the halls and have something waiting for them in the bottom caves that would draw them down.”
“But we don’t have any animals to use,” a Luminos soldier said quietly. “Too bad we didn’t bring a lamak.”
Commander Jashen stood up. “The other Sathen. We slaughtered hundreds of them. Dragging their bodies here will lead the horde and we can pull them to the bottom caves. We already know they don’t care if they eat each other or anything else. They just want meat.”
Axon let out a slight breath that meant he accepted the plan even if he didn’t like it. “Commander Jashen, take your men to the Sathen’s bodies and bring them back as quickly as possible. Lieutenant Pyth, gather the Duskies and lay out exits through the Caves. Nexa will be along shortly to help out.”
Pyth nodded. “We'll start working on it.” He left the room with his two Duskie commanders, Kennik and Erion, following.
Axon turned back to the Luminos from the Caves. “Follow Pyth and rig a way to close the main entrance; make an avalanche with rocks from the caves. Place a second one at the kitchen exit, and rig the other tunnels so they can be set off as soon as the Duskies leave the Caves. We don't have much time until sunset, so the faster we work, the better.” He gave me a stern look to hide the worry that shone in his eyes. “You'd better start teaching your Duskies the exits. The shorter the route, the better. It'll be a high-stress situation, so the more confident they are about their escape, the less likely they'll be to panic when they're being chased by Sathen.”
Chapter 33
I left the meeting room and gathered all of the Duskies together. It didn't take long to plan out the routes, but precious time was spent running each Duskie through their own cave path until they felt comfortable doing it alone. I set up short routes for those who were wounded, and longer ones for the Duskies I knew were fast and able to defend themselves if something went wrong. Everything depended on the Duskies getting out before I did so that we could blow the explosives the instant I left the Caves. But I knew as well as anyone that the Sathen didn't comply very well with plans.
I made my way to the bottom caves and watched Tadson, a older Luminos who used to lead the mining, as he made some finishing touches to the explosives. He tied several fuses together and slipped a leather strap around them to hold them down. “How much more time do you need?” I asked.
He glanced at me and the expression in his torch-lit eyes warred between disgust and reluctant acceptance. “Not much longer. The other caves are set and I’ve shown your Lieutenant how to work the trigger.”
I stood and studied the walls. Dozens of tunnels branched away, some to dead ends and others to exhausted mine shafts. None of the tunnels had been used for a very long time, and even I hadn’t been down most of them. I thought of the pain of the Caves and the uselessness of their existence. I was glad they wouldn’t be around much longer.
I turned and walked back to the main tunnel, but Tadson’s voice stopped me. “You sure you know what you’re doing?” he asked in a low voice.
I glanced back at him, but his attention was on the fuses. “I’ll do what I can.”
“It might not be enough.”
I let out a breath. “It’s better than sitting around and letting them pick us off at their leisure. At least we’re doing something.”
He sat back on his heels, his eyes still on the fuses. After a moment, he glanced at me. “You won’t be the only one glad to see these tunnels gone for good.” His lips lifted briefly in what could be taken for a smile before he turned back to the fuses.
Surprised, I waited to see if he would explain, but when he didn’t, I turned and jogged back up the tunnel to check on the others.
“Are you almost done?” I asked Commander Jashen.
“Almost,” he said, his voice exhausted. I followed him along the bloody path through the lower levels where chopped up piles of Sathen parts had been left in various areas. The scent of blood and refuse was so strong I could barely stand to walk through the room. If that didn’t lure the Sathen down, I didn’t know what would.
I left his team and climbed up next to Pyth on the rocky hill above the kitchen exit. The red mountains in the distance caught the last rays of sunlight. The shadows along the sand matched the ones below his eyes. “How much longer until you’re ready?”
“This is the last one,” he said, his voice tight as he pulled the rope taut. He tied it to a short, scraggly shrub whose roots had sunk deep to reach the limited moisture of the desert. I followed the rope to the pile of boulders he had placed carefully above the exit from the kitchen. The red rock boulders were held in place by two long, thin pieces of red rock that had once been a table in the dining cave and were split much to Chaxa's pain and my enjoyment. The red rock panels leaned precariously against two stakes tied to the rope. I had only to yank on the rope when I exited the kitchen to send the rock avalanche into the tunnel. It wouldn't hold the Sathen long, but Pyth would stay outside the exit and blow the Caves as soon as I triggered the avalanche.
I touched Pyth's shoulder. “I need you to promise me something,” I said.
He gave me a calculating look. “Depends on what it is.”
I smiled. “You know me too well.”
He shrugged. “Comes from surviving too many battles together.”
I nodded, but I needed him to do what I asked without question. I straightened and looked him in the eyes, my expression serious. “Lieutenant Pyth, I need you to trigger the explosives if I don't make it from the Caves after the others are out safely.”
Pyth's eyes widened. He looked like he wanted to protest, but I cut him off. “That's an order, Lieutenant.”
He took a breath, then nodded. “As you wish, Commander.” Emotions flooded through his eyes, but I turned away before he could voice them. I had promised he would make it back to his wife and child, and though he hated the fact that he was t
he only Duskie not leading Sathen through the Caves or defending the sleeping Nathos and Luminos, it was of the greatest importance that he was ready to blow the Caves whether I made it out or not. I walked away and heard his frustrated sigh behind me, but knew he would do what he needed to in order to defend our people.
We helped the Luminos up to the tents on the dunes after the Caves were ready and the explosives were set. Axon settled on the sand and put his forehead against mine, closing his eyes with a sigh. I breathed in his desert and wind-swept scent and it calmed my heart like nothing else could. “You know that if anything happens to you, you won’t be long alone.”
My heart slowed. “And why is that?”
He opened his eyes and stared into mine. “Because I’ll die of a broken heart.”
At any other time, his words would have sounded poetic and dramatic, but the honesty in them struck me to the core. I nodded, my forehead still against his. “I’ll do my best not to kill us both.”
He gave a small smile. “You do that.” He took another steeling breath. “It kills me to let you do this,” he said weakly.
I kissed him. “You know we don’t have a choice. I’ll be here when you wake up.”
“Promise?” he pressed, fighting the sleep that tried to take him away.
“I promise.”
He shook his head, still trying to come up with a different solution.
“There's no time, love,” I whispered. I leaned down and kissed him softly on the forehead.
“There has to be another way,” he replied, his voice so quiet I barely heard it.
“Trust me,” I pleaded softly.
He nodded and let his eyes close.
I motioned for Pyth and Commander Kennik to follow me, and we slid back down the side of the dune and made our way to the Caves. Forty Duskies followed us armed with swords and routes to safety after they entered the Caves. We left behind twenty Duskies under Erion's command to defend the Luminos and Nathos in case our plan went awry, twenty Duskies hid at the entrance to the Caves to take down any Sathen that didn’t fall for our trap, and twenty more hid behind the Caves at the kitchen exit to kill any that escaped, but there weren’t enough Duskies in any group to survive if something went wrong. Destroying the horde of Sathen was the only promise of safety we had.