“That gob o’ yours…shut it!” Khrum asserted, scurrying in beside him. “Ya’ll need more than one pair o’ mitts ta distract this monshter of a yoke! Oh, ‘n’ if we make it through this alive, ya might mention it ta the G.L.A. when we get back.”
In censure of Khrum’s interest towards his own personal gain, with all that was happening here, William rolled his eyes and hung his head.
“They’d never believe it if I were ta tell them that I rebelled againsht the great Sidell du Pòrveth herself! Not in a thousand years! But if they heard it from someone else—namely yourself—well, then I might jusht shtand a chance.”
Assuming William would oblige, Khrum slapped him affably on the knee and grinned, “Good lad! Fair dues ta ya! Now we’d better get crackin’ on, whatever it is, ya plan on doin’! Otherwise that beasht will be coughin’ up the Grogoch’s greasy knots more sooner than we’d like.”
“What if they come back looking for you though?” William sighed crankily, fearing that Khrum may have jeopardized his entire plan.
“Keep your knickers on. I told the Dullahan I was goin’ hidin’ in his saddlebag. By the time that self-centred noddle notices I’m gone, it will be the day that I shtop scoutin’ for a sip. Never!”
“Fine, we’ll stick together!” William tutted, at the same time secretly pleased that he was not altogether alone in this burden. “But you have to do what I say, exactly as I say it, when I say it! None o’ this, ‘swimming after herring’ business again! Deal?”
“Deal. So, ya said ya were goin’ ta dishtract the beast…how exactly do ya plan on doin’ that?” asked Khrum, who was now keen on getting started with William’s plan.
The boy would be outmatched in a clear-cut fight, so he decided upon a tactic which may not have lived up to the standards of the great Mysun Margyle, but may still work in his favour.
“Right,” he said, hunkering down beside the leprechaun, where he began etching a rough map of the city into the dirt. “The gateway is at the east end o’ this city; someplace around this wall here. So that’s what we need to aim for. Hopefully the others will have already gotten there by the time we reach it. Meanwhile, my plan is to use ourselves as bait, and steer Sidell away from everything else. A diversion like. To do this, we’re going to have to use the roads as little as possible, Khrum. Understand? That way it’ll be harder for the behemoth to keep up with us and, in all likelihood, lesser chance of us getting eaten alive when we try to get out. We’re going to have to use the buildings instead; the walls; anything but the roads. Another thing…we’re going to have to be quick about it! Then when the coast is clear, we’ll all slip out when she’s not looking.”
“Ah, so we’re goin’ ta confuse it, ya mean?” Khrum asked, stroking his beard. “Send it chasin’ after its tail like, while we hop from place ta place ‘n’ such?”
Bidding a handshake, William said, “That’s the idea,” and the leprechaun gave it a firm grip.
“Mighty plan, boss! Now let’s see if it actually works.” said he.
“Well, you don’t have to say it like that!” William griped offensively. “It’s as though you’re implying it won’t work.”
Patting the boy’s shin, Khrum beamed a grin and replied, “Ya wouldn’t let some stupid aul’ odds deter ya from havin’ a bit o’ honest adventure, would ya?! Sure it’s no fun if the chances aren’t remote now, is it?!”
“Ah, come on, let’s go!” sighed William. “Just spare me your opinions till we pull through this though, please.”
Khrum turned up his eyes, and muttered, “Ya try your best ta encourage some people ‘n’ all they do is shove it right back in your face! I don’t get it sometimes, I really don’t!”
They dashed out into the open, and both William and his thrill-seeking sidekick heckled as loudly as they could in an attempt to draw that foul witch out. It couldn’t have worked any better, for the behemoth emerged from one of the neighbouring hovels.
“Over here, ya great big twit.” Khrum baited, hopping up and down. “An’ look at the miserable bloody mug on you, ya bet-down aul’ mole ya. Ya couldn’t catch a bloody cold, with your thick-lookin’ face. Nothin but a smelly aul’ wagon, ya are. Bet ye two get real comfy on those chilly winter nights, ha? You ‘n’ that overgrown otter o’ yours!”
The taunting worked without question. Outraged by their mockeries, Sidell drove her spurs into her demon’s ribs and it exploded on, nostrils firing red.
“You ready?” William asked, eagerly shifting his weight from toe to toe.
Khrum glared boldly at the oncoming creature, and growled, “Born so!”
William nodded, and as Sidell charged in, they both yelled, “NOW,” dove out of the way, and tumbled to safety.
The behemoth slid past them and stumbled into a wooden stall, which came crashing right down on top of the creature and its mistress. The beast shook off the debris, found its feet, and charged at them again. Khrum clambered up onto William’s shoulder and readied himself for the chase.
“I think we’ve gotten her attention anyways!” he smiled, though nervously.
“How dare you humiliate me!” wailed Sidell. “You shall pay with your blood on my tongue!”
William drew a breath, and uttered to himself but one word— focus.
He then darted off-road and, summoning his skills procured in Làn Chùrdal, he ran vertically up the side of a dilapidated domicile, as though disregarding the very laws of gravity, then flipped backwards onto the lip of a brittle wall behind him, where he crouched and steadied. His movements and his timing were both equally as impeccable.
“Woah, Redmun really did teach ya a thing or two, didn’t he?” Khrum said appraisingly, as he gripped firmly onto William’s sash. “Now…let’s see what ya can really do.”
With a brazen grin, William asked, “Is that a challenge, Khrum?”
“By God, is it ever!” the leprechaun said excitedly.
Fuelled by a sudden surge of a searing resolve, William broke into a sprint and zipped across the wall, setting due course for the eastern wall of the Barren City. And so, the game of cat-and-mouse truly commenced.
Perishing all urges of taking to those open streets, William sprang nimbly from walls to rooftops, never halting to ponder. In one continuous sequence he conquered the beginnings of that municipal gauntlet like a cat. Be it vaulting through open windows, swinging from pole to post, banner to ledge, or wall-running into lofty freefalls, he evaded that barbaric behemoth at every imaginable turn. The creature was so livid that it hardly stopped either; sometimes ramming clean through confines, or clawing over rooftops. It was never long pursuing, however, before it tripped up, slipped, or otherwise ran out of steam. Nevertheless, it surrendered not.
William evaded this monster so gracefully that it was something to witness indeed. All his training came into play. Every little sliver of his strength and dexterity was poured into his escape. Not to mention how fluent it was; somersaulting over large gaps, only to slide through tight crevices before bounding, without hesitation, through derelict voids, where he then legged his way, sidelong, across more withered confines, and over further hazardous pitfalls. Khrum could hardly contain himself.
He was so excited, in fact, that he kept taunting his enemy; firing out insults like: “C’mon! Is that all ya got? I’ve seen corpses rot faster, ya useless bag o’ badgers! Do ya want us ta wait up for ya or what? Give ya a chance? C’mon, get the heart pumpin’, ya flippin’ flabby mess.”
William could feel the same thrill palpitating within, but he kept his head straight. He needed to. He was doing too well to mess it up now. Sometimes he glimpsed the gateway of the eastern wall nearing. Thankfully, the Barren City was not as broad as it was long.
He embraced the tenacity that was guiding him; to a point where it almost felt easy for him. He was wise enough not to underestimate Sidell, though…or her demon beast for that matter. Thus he kept his wits as solid as his footing. Yet one could only wonder if his plan, to
begin with, was already enough of an underestimation than William would’ve liked to admit.
As the world flew by, William spotted his friends every so often. They were slinking through the back roads close by. Wren looked so anxious, but Stell was there to encourage her. In fact, they all appeared troubled. More troubled than they should have been, William thought. Like they were second-guessing their route. But the lad had enough to deal with, so he just kept moving.
“Do not test me, boy,” sneered Sidell, galloping after him. “My powers could rip you limb from limb. Or could it be that you actually want me to break you slowly!”
“Can’t be any slower than the rate you’re goin’ at, silly cow!” Khrum rasped, his fingers twiddling by his ears.
“We shall see!” hissed the witch, as though ominous schemes were now concocting in her devilish mind.
Swallowing anxiously, the leprechaun turned timidly to William’s ear and whimpered, “So…um…how’s about we pick up the pace a little, ha? Ya know, so we can be sure that we actually do get away, fully intact…all our bits ‘n’ pieces shtill connected ‘n’ in full workin’ order.”
Charging through those brittle structures with a skull as sturdy as lacquered stone, the beast howled, refusing to let his prey win and thus failing his uncompromising mistress. Sandcastles would have proved sturdier, the way he was barrelling through them.
Nalpaltharán, who was driven by a thirst to please, closed in on its victims. Closer, closer, and closer. William tried speeding up, but was already tiring after his vigorous outset, not that it mattered. For Sidell’s eyes had rolled back into an unnerving blackness and was burning into William’s flesh like a thousand white-hot needles.
He’d been reeling across a wooden girder when it happened, and through the blistering sting of the witch’s fix, his joints seized up. He couldn’t move. He tried fighting it, but he just wasn’t able. Sidell was cursing him, and there was nothing William could do to stop it.
Khrum shrieked in terror, “William, lad! Ya can’t shlow down here! She’ll bloody-well catch us! An’ I don’t really want ta get nabbed after all the grief I’ve been givin’ her! C’mon, pluck up! We’re nearly there! We’re nearly at the gate.”
Inept were his pleas because, having all but totally congealed, William tumbled from the high girder and crashed to the ground, winding himself in the process.
“What will it be?” Sidell laughed, slowly approaching them. “Throw you to the grips of insanity? Deprive you of your senses? No? Bathe in your guts, perhaps? Yes. That sounds amusing! I’ll cleanse my boots with your disgusting little innards.”
She twisted her fists and William curled up into a ball. He wailed in agony as he felt his guts contorting within. He’d never felt pain like it before. He thought his intestines were going to burst into a puddle. Just then, Sidell flailed into an agony of her own. Two arrows had loosened, simultaneously. One into her collar, one into her ribs.
“Leave him be, dù Porveth!” growled Stell, arriving on the scene with the others stacked behind him.
“Great shot, Stell!” Wren praised, when she noticed the Elf deploying a special-looking arrow.
Wrought from fine ash, with a tip of bejewelled bronze, he nocked it.
The Grogoch, mesmerized by its beauty, gasped, “Stell! What’s that?”
“‘Twas given me by a wizened old rambler, many years ago when I was guarding the Bastion. I traded it for the last of my fruit. Myself, I was almost starving at the time. Yet, after hearing that this magical arrow could instantly drain the life force from its mark no matter how precise a shot, I willingly made the trade. Ever since, I have been saving it for Briggun or the likes. Let us hope she flies true.”
Aiming with supreme accuracy, he fired this magical bolt into the wind. Everyone stopped in awe. Suffice it to say, the Elf was indeed distraught when he saw it whorl into the air like a burst balloon, only to fizzle away into some flimsy sparks before it could so much as reach its target, let alone drain the life out of it. The others were just as dismayed. Crosco was flat-out embarrassed.
“Well now,” the Elf frowned, looking crookedly at his bow, “that was disappointing! Old codger swindled me!”
“Try a normal arrow then. Quickly!” Icrick cried, worried that Sidell might cast a spell of her own.
“I have but two left,” Stell said, “and little could they stagger her force. We must make with the opportunity that we have.”
Beckoning to William and his leprechaun as Sidell writhed in her efforts to wrench out the arrows, Stell cried out, “Swiftly now, you two! Those arrows will not hold her for long. We can make this exit of yours if we hurry.”
No more than fifty yards away, William spied a window of blue light lengthening from the passageway of those city outskirts. Could they breach it without their enemy following?
While Sidell was not yet aware of their intentions, she was disinclined to take any chances and reacted anyway.
She pried the arrows from her flesh and screamed out angrier than ever, smiting all surrounding buildings into a blinding haze, blocking our heroes off. To make extra sure, she summoned a cruel ring of fire, a hundred feet around. They’d never reach their ever-precious exit with this in the way.
“Fools!” she claimed, as she circled her enemies with all the more hatred than before.
Her injuries made her stagger, but she could handle it.
William took Khrum and limped over to his companions, who were hiding behind a great fallen bust of Anun. It wouldn’t take Sidell long before she sniffed them out through the dust, however. They needed a plan.
Wren was the most fazed by all this, but she was so glad to have William back, too.
“William!” she exclaimed. “Praise be to God, you’re all right.”
“Don’t count your chickens yet,” he winced, holding his thigh. “Our way out looks blocked and, as far as I can see, that pretty much rules out Miack’s exit too. So what are we supposed to do now? I’m so sorry for getting ye into all o’ this! I thought I could steer Sidell away. I thought being brave might help me with the Wrythus. But it didn’t exactly work like I’d hoped. I should’ve known better. It’s all my fault.”
“No, no! You’re wrong, William,” said Icrick, waving his Distometer about. “The exit we were shown was a fake. For when we were taking your route, I adjusted my Distometer to track Miack’s coordinates as well…just in case we ended up needing it! It led to a lair, William…not an exit. We could see it. Sidell’s lair most likely. Full of bones it was.”
A safety arrow loaded and drawn, Stell said, “Yes, desiring to exhibit integrity or not, it turns out that Miack was an agent of evil after all; getting us to trust him just enough so as to lead us into more danger. Such low levels of deceit sickens me. Taking his promise was a poor call of judgment on my part, I apologize. Luckily, not all of us proved so trusting. Otherwise Icrick here would never have looked ahead, and who knows what else could be waiting for us in that lair? Yes, you did the right thing, William! And, by God, did you show us courage. Well done!”
So, you see, William’s valiant act was not done entirely in vain after all. He had faced his fear and, while they may not have bypassed danger entirely, it still fared out quite well, because his secret exit wasn’t all that far away from where they were. As for the Wrythus…well…the boy simply felt like he needed to do more to prove himself. Without aid the next time, perhaps.
After a moment’s search, Sidell bore closer to their position. Her nose was impeccable.
“Ahem…perhaps we should, again, just focus on our troubles at hand, if you would be so kind?!” Crosco whined.
Humble Ifcus kept a look out for their next hiding place, but he was too agitated to think straight.
“We will make it through this plight yet, my friends.” Stell pledged. “I do not know how…but we will!”
Psyching himself up, The Body gripped onto his great battle-axe, while Crosco moaned, “Why did I ever let you talk me int
o coming along on this suicide mission in the first place? Why didn’t I just remain in the peaceful west? I should have my head examined.”
“Bit too long out of the guillotine for that brainwave, aren’t ya?” Khrum snapped. “Now, either zip it, or show some guts, horseman. Because this is no time to be whingin’!”
“From day one you’ve done nothing but infuriate me, Khrum! So, make one more remark about my affliction and I shall see to it that you carry a head of your own.” Crosco leered, with chilling sincerity.
Sidell started clanking her weapons together. The warmer she got, the harder she clanked.
“Stop bickering, you two.” Wren interrupted, reddened with aggravation. “We aren’t the enemy here…she is! And if we don’t stick together now, then we will be no better off than the poor folk who used to colonize this city! So just stop it, will you?”
By then, Icrick was almost entirely invisible, but William and Stell recognized his hairy paw beckoning them towards a constricted pathway between two stables, across the road.
“She’s nearly onto us, you lot! Let’s try down there,” his voice said. “It’s better than being stuck out here in the open.”
“Right you are, Icrick.” Wren said, and glaring at both Crosco and Khrum, she growled, “You two! Shape up and quit fighting! Now, do as I say, and follow the Grogoch, this instant!”
At a loss for words, both Khrum and The Head glanced at one another, embarrassed for being addressed like the spoilt brats they were.
William threw a rock over Sidell’s head. She whipped around in alert, whereupon they followed Icrick into the refuge of the city’s alcoves. But she was onto their little ruse, quickly enough.
“You may not, and will not, leave here without my permission, do you hear? There is no place you can run where I will not find you. Mark…my…words.”
They cast off her venomous threat and continued on their way.
Those tight alleyways proved a close fit for all. Particularly for Crosco, who had a great deal of bother trying to squeeze through with Ifcus on his shoulders…but, with some elbow grease, he soon managed it.
The Other of One: Book Two Page 27