by Heath Pfaff
Everything was well kept and neat, but as the Unth gathered it soon became apparent that there were not that many of them living in the city itself. Even as more of them came together, Xandrith guessed that maybe less than one in a hundred of the buildings actually had anyone living inside. The Unth city was a well preserved husk of what it had been built to be. When it was built, it had was built to house future generations of child bearing families, a civilization of creative and intelligent people etching out a living on the fringes of existence. At some point that dream had died, and they’d stopped building the city and just left it as it was. It was enough for them to live in, and that was all that mattered. This was what servitude to the Wellspring meant for a creature that wasn’t a god.
It had been a half hour since they’d arrived at the city. Xandrith looked out at the road which faltered abruptly just beyond the city, and then further. There was a dark blotch on the edge of his vision, an as of yet unidentifiable anomaly.
“They’re coming.” Xandrith whispered to Haley, inclining his head in the direction they’d come. She squinted into the distance, a look of worry falling across her masked face like a shadow. It was one thing to know trolls were on their way, and quite another to actually see them coming. They didn’t have much time left.
The assassin glanced at the Unth. The entire huge group of men and women were talking in hushed tones so that only a dull, incomprehensible whisper floated through the air. It was surreal to see so many people in one place and hear so little noise. If it wasn’t for the wind whipping through the city, the entire place would have seemed dead. Maybe it was dead. If it wasn’t, then it might be before too much longer.
Some of the Unth broke off from the main group and ran towards the edges of the city, out by the road. They stood out there for a time, looking out onto the snowy slopes beyond. One of them came running back, and shortly after another. Moments later the entire group of Unth were moving silently towards the outskirts of their city. They were taking up defensive positions. Finally they were ready to take some kind of action.
Xandrith tried to guess how many of them there were. He guessed thousands, maybe three or four thousand. That wasn’t nearly enough. The trolls outnumbered them by nearly a hundred to one. Maybe an Unth with their magic could account for a good portion of that number, but there was no way they could kill the trolls fast enough to keep them from the city.
The Unth numbers began to thin out as they spread themselves around the edge of their city, and the further apart they got, the more pathetic their effort to defend the whole thing seemed. There weren’t enough of them. If they surrounded the entire city, they would be too thin everywhere. They would be too thin even if they even tried to surround half of their city, or a quarter. They began to weave magic, ripping shards of crystal from the ground into fields of dangerous spikes and deadfalls. They were building defensive structures, but they were shaping them out of the crystals that Xandrith had already told them had failed. He shook his head sadly. The Unth were doomed. They didn’t know how to adapt to this new threat, and they were unwilling to listen.
The only plus side was that Haley and Xandrith had been left completely unnoticed as soon as the troll threat was verified. For the Unth that seemed like a rather large oversight, but it was one that Xan planned on taking advantage of. He stood up, still incredibly sore and stiff, but feeling better than he had when he’d first sat down.
“Come on.” He said to Haley, and then he started to walk towards the center of the Unth city. Somewhere ahead of him the pull of the Wellspring was calling.
“What if we run into more Unth?” Haley asked.
Xandrith shrugged. “We’ll avoid those that we can, and kill those that get in our way. It’s time for us to act like everything depends on our success. It does. Everything depends on our success. We don’t get to be nice any longer.”
Haley gave a sharp nod of her head. Even through the mask he could see the tension settling on her shoulders. “How are we going to stop them at the Wellspring?”
“I don’t’ know yet. I have an idea, but it’s only a rough frame work.” Xandrith admitted. “I believe the god-thing keeps his knights close to him, and he uses Kassa to control them. When they arrive to take the power, we’ll take the knife from Kassa, and I’ll put the pointy part in the troll god. I’ll probably do that part multiple times. Just to be safe.”
Haley looked at Xandrith incredulously. “That’s your full plan?”
“This is the first time I’ve ever stopped the end of the world.” Xandrith replied dryly. “If you have a better idea though, I am open to new possibilities.”
Haley scrunched up her face. “Well, Kassa isn’t just going to hand you the knife.”
Xandrith winced internally. That had already occurred to him. “We’ll have to take the knife from her. It doesn’t matter if she won’t give it up. We need that blade, and we can’t let Kassa keep it from us.”
The young woman’s expression soured immediately. “You’re going to kill Kassa?! Xandrith, you can’t. I know how you ...”
“I don’t want to! If I can avoid killing her then I absolutely will, but if it becomes a question of killing her or not recovering the knife, we both have to do what we’ve come here to do.” Xandrith’s voice had turned rough. He had to fight to stifle the emotions that were burning through him. She wasn’t Kassa anymore, and he just had to keep reminding himself of that.
Haley put her hand in Xandrith’s and squeezed tightly. “Alright. We’ll do what we’ve come here to do.”
Xandrith nodded once, sharply. He cleared his throat and, after giving Haley’s hand a return squeeze, released her grip. “I’ll need you to protect me from magic while I work. The god-thing is going to be protected, but he’ll have to come out to access the Wellspring. If he could access it without touching it he’d probably have done so already. I’m going to do everything in my power to slip that knife into his ribs, and I need you to make sure I live long enough to do that.”
“I’ll make sure nothing hurts you.” Haley said, her voice firm with conviction.
“Don’t push yourself too far. I only need to get the knife and get to the god-thing. Beyond that it doesn’t matter what happens. Anything that stands in our way dies. Don’t hesitate, and don’t ever use just enough force. I know I trained you to not over exert yourself and always maintain an avenue of escape, but this isn’t a typical assassination mission, Haley. We give everything. Anything that tries to stop us gets our full wrath, and then we move on to the next obstacle quickly and violently. If we have to leave enemies behind us to go forward, we’ll do that.”
When she replied, her words were heavy and firm. “I understand.”
Xandrith hesitated, but there was one more thing he wanted to tell her before they reached the Wellspring. He stopped, and a few steps later Haley stopped as well, looking back at Xandrith with a curious expression.
“Haley, I love you. Not the way you want me to, maybe, but I love you so much that thinking about what is ahead of us is killing me inside.” The words were difficult, and Xandrith felt like a fool as he said them, but he wanted her to know. He needed her to know that someone cared about her deeply.
“Xan ...” Haley replied, a blush coming to the fox mask. “I love you too. Thank you.”
Xandrith dipped his head and then started walking again. “Come on. The end is just ahead.”
The road ended abruptly at a downward spiraling walkway that encircled a deep hole in the ground that was thirty wide paces around. Xandrith looked over the edge as they approached. There was a blue-white light glowing at the bottom of the hole. He could feel a tug on his mind as he peered downward at the spiraling crystal walkway.
“I think that’s it.” He said to Haley. They hadn’t seen any Unth in the city on their way, but Xandrith thought he could see figures moving around at the bottom of the spiral.
“That’s definitely it.” Haley answered quickly. “I feel like it’s pu
lling me down there.”
“Be careful. Look at what that thing did to the Unth. I don’t’ think we want to end up like them. I don’t think they’re really capable of doing what is necessary anymore. They’re obsessed with this damn thing.” He gestured at the hole. “I guess we’d better get down there. We need to find some place to hide until the troll god gets here.”
“What if Kassa doesn’t follow him into the hole?” Haley asked, and it was a valid concern.
“I think he’ll bring her with him, and possibly some of the other knights. If you can, I want you to snap their bindings to the bone weapons.” He intentionally ignored answering the question. It was a complication that he didn’t have a solution to at that point. “Can you do that at a range?” Xandrith asked.
Haley thought about it for a moment before nodding. “Yes. It was difficult the first time I did it, but I think I have it down now. Once I figured out what to look for and how to do it safely it went much easier.”
“Good. I want you to do that as soon as they get close enough for you to do so. That will add to the confusion and help us get through this.” Xandrith paused for a second before adding. “If you get time, after you’ve broken the knights free, see if you can help Kassa. I know she’s not the same as them, but your magic is different. Maybe you can do what I couldn’t.”
“I’ll try, Xan. I was going to try before you asked.” Haley answered sheepishly.
Xan smiled. “You’re a good person, Haley. Sorry you had to meet me.”
Haley’s face grew stern. “Never be sorry about that. You gave me back my life, and if it ends here, fighting for this cause, then it will still have been the best thing that ever happened to me.”
Xandrith didn’t know how to reply to that, so instead he started down the spiraling walkway. It was narrow enough that he leaned in towards the wall to be certain he didn’t misstep off the edge. At least the pit was built in such a way that the trolls couldn’t pour into it. Things would be hard enough already without having to fight what was left of the horde after the Unth finished with them.
As they circled lower in the pit Xandrith was able to make out more details. At the center of the perfectly round hole was a pillar of crystal, blue-white instead of pink, which stood about four feet tall and was wide enough around that it would have taken two people joining hands to encircle it. It glowed bright enough to light the entire pit, but other than that it didn’t look spectacular in any way. Its looks belittled its power, though. Xandrith could feel the cursed thing calling to him like a siren, beckoning him to touch it, to be close to it, and he’d seen Haley shooting it glances as well.
The assassin wondered if it affected all people the same, or if an affinity for magic made it more compelling. It wasn't a power that any human could ever completely make use of. The volume of energy would burn anyone who was foolish enough to try to a cinder, and that was if they could figure out how to tap the Wellspring at all. Xandrith wasn’t sure how the Unth did it, nor did he really care to find out.
The Unth were, however, going to be a problem. As Haley and Xandrith got closer to the ground, the Unth noticed them and formed a half circle facing the descending strangers at all times. They didn’t look remotely friendly. There were ten of them, and Xan knew a military formation when he saw one. They were readying an attack.
“Be ready.” Xandrith warned Haley.
“I am.” She replied quietly.
The attack came suddenly, and with an explosion as Haley countered the first person to cast a spell. The explosion blew the man off his feet and slammed him to the ground several feet from where he’d been standing, but Xandrith found himself suddenly lifted into the air and dragged out over the pit. One of the damn magic users had gotten a hold on him. A second later he was dropping. The fall to the ground wasn’t fatal, but it was far enough that he hit and the breath was knocked out of him. He struggled to get up, trying to draw air into his lungs.
There was another explosion, and then a streak of dark as Haley flew down the rest of the spiral walkway and charged at the Unth. Xandrith couldn’t get himself moving again, but he reached to his hip and grabbed the knife he’d bought for Haley, the one he’d been carrying for so long now. He flipped it in his hand and sent it flying at one of the Unth. Even staggered his aim was true, and the man fell to the ground, blood pouring from his neck as he died. There was another explosion and then Xandrith heard Haley scream. He roared and got to his feet, pushing forward through the black flecks that filled his eyes.
He drew his Unth blade and pressed the gem on the side. A moment later one of their attackers was falling separately from his head. His breath was finally returning to him.
A rumbling under Xandrith’s feet gave him all the notice he was going to get that something was amiss. He dove to the side as a crystal spike tore up from the ground and filled the place where he’d just been. Xandrith rolled across the floor to the first Unth he’d killed and grabbed his knife from the dead man’s neck. He sprang backwards as the ground trembled beneath his feet, narrowly avoiding another spike as his arm snaked out and released his dagger again. This shot wasn’t as well placed. It tore into the side of one of their attacker’s faces, staggering her, but not putting her down.
Xandrith dove after his knife. A bolt of energy surged through the air in front of him, and the assassin had to take drastic measures not to run into it face first. He dropped flat to the ground as it surged overhead, and then pushed up hard with his arms to get back to his feet. His leg protested, but he forced it to work as he sprang the last few feet to the female Unth and tore her apart with his knife.
He spun to face his next attacker, but there weren’t anymore. Only he and Haley still stood amidst a pile of dead bodies. Haley was walking from body to body, planting her axe in the head of any that weren’t clearly dead. They had the time. She was doing what was necessary. Don’t leave an enemy at your back if you don’t have to.
Xandrith walked stiffly in her direction. “Are you alright?” He asked.
“I’m fine.” Haley replied, but she looked shaken.
“Haley.” Xandrith spoke her name with a firm authority driven by his concern.
The girl frowned and shrugged. She stood up straight and moved her left arm that was covering her lower abdomen. There was deep hole running into the side of her abs. Xandrith couldn’t’ tell if it had torn her stomach or not, but there was no doubt it had done some serious damage.
“One of those damn crystals.” Haley said quietly. “I felt the ground shake but I didn’t know what it was.”
Xandrith looked around and saw that one of the spikes protruding from the floor was tipped in blood. He could tell by looking at it that the point had gone nearly all the way through Haley. Xan tried not to let his worry show on his face, but he must have failed.
“I’ll be alright. Barely hurts.” Haley told him.
Xandrith stepped closer to Haley and bent down to look at the hole. There wasn’t any stomach acid visible, but the spike had clearly done some damage. He didn’t know enough medicine to understand the extent of Haley’s injuries. He knew it was good that her stomach wasn’t opened, and that as an assassin he wouldn’t leave a man for dead with that wound, but he also knew she was badly injured.
“We should bandage this and you should rest for as long as you can.” Xandrith finally said. He reached for his pack and shuffled around it looking for something he could use to treat her. He had a shirt which he tore a large section from, and then he cut a strip from the bottom of his cloak.
Haley stood still, but Xandrith knew the posture of someone who was hiding pain. Haley’s axe took away some of her pain, so the fact that she was clearly hurting made Xandrith nervous.
“This is going to hurt a bit.” He told her as he shoved the shreds of shirt into the hole in her abdomen. He needed to stop all the bleeding he could. Haley made a sound that was close to a whimper and shrunk back from Xan. She reached out and steadied herself with his sho
ulder.
“This isn’t how I wanted you inside me.” She said in a shaky voice.
Xandrith couldn’t help himself. He gave a dry laugh and sighed. “You’ve spent too much time with me, Haley. Your sense of humor is awful.”
“Hah,” she replied. “Other people just don’t get it.”
Xandrith drew the band of troll leather from his procured cloak around Haley’s injury. It wrapped twice, and he pulled it tight enough that he knew it was uncomfortable for the girl. It had to be done though. Haley groaned as the makeshift patch was tied into place. Xandrith looked at his work with a frown. It wasn’t great.
“Sit down, relax for as long as you can. I’m going to find some place to hide these bodies.” Xandrith gestured at the corpses.
Haley was shaking her head as Xandrith spoke. “I should help. We don’t have a lot of time.”
“No.” Xandrith insisted. He stepped over to the girl and picked her up. She gave a groan of pain, but didn’t resist as he carefully lowered her to the floor and placed his pack under her head. “Rest. You won’t have much time. I’ll find a place for us to hide.”
With that done, he set immediately to work on scanning the area. The circular chamber was almost completely barren, but he did manage to find two separate offshoots on the side that opened into small rooms that had benches carved into the walls. One of the rooms was on an open wall with no cover, but the other exited right below the spiraling path and was barely visible from the central room. Xandrith wasn’t sure what purpose they served, but he was happy they were there. He could stash the bodies in the one on the far side, and he and Haley could hide in the one in the shadow of the stairs with some cover. It wasn’t perfect, but it was the best plan he could come up with.