Long, Dark Road

by Bianculli, Susan

That became the signal for a general melee to start. The Sub-leader was startled by my attack, but he still was able bring the shaft of his spear down on my right shoulder. It hurt, but that didn’t stop me from taking him to the floor through sheer momentum. With spears being bad for up close work and him being close to my size and weight, I took advantage of being on top and slugged him in the face. He dropped his spear to grapple with me and, flailing and kicking at each other, we rolled across the floor of the stone pocket circle, ending up against a boulder with me still on top, luckily. He smashed me in the left temple, and I punched his ear with my fist, remembering how sensitive an Elf’s ears were. He roared in pain. Around me I could hear the sounds of fighting going on. I hoped that we had surprised the Under-elves enough that none of my companions had been hurt in the first few seconds. The Subleader recovered quickly and gave me an uppercut to the throat, causing me to choke with pain, and followed it up with a swift one-two punch on each side of my face. Screaming hoarsely, I swiftly brought my hands down, cupping them before they hit, and boxed his ears together perfectly. The scream he let out let me know just how badly I’d hurt him, and he couldn’t stop himself from raising his hands to his ears in reaction. Remembering some pointers from Arghen about close-up fighting, I smashed the heel of my palm upwards against his nose. He let out an even louder scream and tried to curl onto his side away from me despite me still being on top of him. I jumped up and, taking out my sword, drove it into his chest before dashing off to help someone else. I was just in time to land a booted kick on the hip of the Under-elven Captain fighting Dusk, distracting her, so that Dusk could finish her off. Other than that, the fight was over.

  Before Auraus cast spells of healing on all of us one by one, I told her to do me last. While I waited, I knelt down and did what Caelestis had told me to do: I took the image of the person I had killed, held it to me gently, apologized to it, and set it free. That made me feel better. When it was my turn to be healed, I sighed with contentment as the tingle of magic crossing my skin from her casting coincided with the relieving of my hurts. Out of the corner of my eye I saw both Dusk and Ragar stiffen as I relaxed. The explanation for their reaction quickly followed.

  “I would not celebrate your victory so quickly, were I you,” came a new voice.

  Appearing out of the darkness beside one of the boulders was a new Under-elf Sub-leader. Before we could do or say anything, his subordinates appeared on top of the boulders all around us out of reach, pointing their wrist crossbows at us.

  Chapter 32

  “Out of the frying pan and into the fire,” Jason groaned.

  I looked at Dusk, and he nodded at me while miming one hand going down towards the floor.

  “All right,” I said heavily. There was no way that Jason, Ragar, Heather, Auraus, Dusk and myself would all be able to dodge the poisoned arrows from the Under-elven wrist bows. “Sheathe your weapons,” I said to my companions. “They got the drop on us.”

  “‘Got the drop on?’” asked the Captain, momentarily diverted, her confused look echoed on the face of everybody from this world. “What nonsense phrase is this?”

  “It means you surprised us, and it’s generally paired with the words “we” and “surrender,’” I explained.

  Ragar growled at my words, but really, there wasn’t anything non-suicidal that he or we could do. Dying wouldn’t get us to Arghen.

  “Surrender?” asked the Captain with amusement. “Why would we want to take you prisoner? You can give up your information just as easily at the end of a poisoned bolt as in a cell. Then afterwards we can kill you and leave your carcasses lying about for the Deadmongers to clean up, which would save us the trouble of taking you to the city-state. Although we would probably make an exception for the furred one. He looks like a Surfacer,” she finished while looking at Ragar, the only one of our group not in some form of Under-elven makeup.

  “Kill us?” squeaked Heather as Ragar growled fiercely at the Captain’s statement.

  “You sound surprised. Why is that? That is standard procedure in warfare.”

  “But what about taking hostages so you can get your own prisoners back after the war?” Heather blurted out.

  “Are you ill? There are no prisoners in warfare. You either die or survive on the winning side,” the Captain replied.

  “Well, that explains a lot,” murmured Jason.

  “What do you mean by that?” the Captain demanded of him.

  I secretly wanted to know what he meant by that, too. I mean, we all knew that Under-elves were the bad guys who would kill us if they could, or at least, I thought we did, since Heather’s words had been a surprise to me.

  “Because that isn’t how it’s done where we come from,” Jason said.

  “Be-because we’re Surfacers. We’re all Surfacers,” Heather added.

  The Captain looked sharply at all of us then, and nodded to herself when she realized the truth of our words. “Ah,” she said, “That explains why the double quad advance group was trying to capture you. I admit that this was a finely balanced decision for them to be making. You are dressed as Under-elves so it is quite obvious that you are an advance party of the Kelsavaxians. But you are Surfacers, and we need Surfacers.” She frowned all of a sudden. “I just had a thought. Did you have anything to do with the mass Surfacer escape recently?”

  I gulped and lied, “No, what Surfacer escape? And why do you need live Surfacers anyway?” I hoped that the Under-elven Captain could not read faces because I was sure mine was probably giving me away.

  She tapped her foot. “There is too much that is odd here. You are Surfacers, but you are disguised with substances that make you resemble Under-elves. Mostly. You say you have no idea about Chirasnivians needing Surfacers, but you are here at the same time we are at war with Kelsavax over Surfacers. And most importantly, you have managed to kill one of my quads, which means you are not ordinary Surfacers, but are skilled in warfare.” She paused, and I started to sweat.

  “No,” she finally said with regret. “Though we do need Surfacers, you have too much wrong with your story to make me comfortable taking you to the Exchange.”

  My eyes widened in fear, and I shot a look at Jason. If I was going to die right now, his was the last face I wanted to see. He locked gazes with me, the desperation on his face mirroring mine.

  “Quads,” she began.

  Just then an Under-elven scout came running up. “Captain! Captain, the enemy is coming!”

  Disbelief in her tone, she said, “The Kelsavaxians? Now? How?”

  “I do not know, but they are coming down the tunnel and will be here soon!”

  “Everyone, attention!” she commanded with imperiousness. In the silence that followed, the faint tramp of many feet could be heard whispering through the cavern.

  “Souls-be-dammned!” the Captain swore, then shot a look of pure hatred at us. “You. You had to somehow be responsible for this, are you not?”

  None of us dared to answer. Not even Heather. The sound of boots breaking into a run became loud.

  “We need to retreat. Quads, kill them now so their Kelsavaxian comrades can find their worthless bodies!” she ordered harshly.

  Fortunately for us before the Chirasnivians could fire, the Kelsavaxians boiled into the cavern like a swarm of angry hornets. The Captain, ire in her amber eyes, quickly withdrew from our boulder area and formed her quads up and beat a strategic retreat. They fired their crossbows at us as they left, but miraculously none of us was punctured by a bolt, though several bounced off our armor. My friends and I scooped up our packs hurriedly and headed towards the Kelsavaxian line.

  “This way,” Dusk cried, waving his hand to get our group to follow him towards the side of the cavern wall.

  A few of the invaders swerved off from the main group to follow us, but backed off when they saw the rope knots we waved at them. They rejoined the Kelsavaxian warriors already running down the corridor that led to the Chirasnivian front gates. Beh
ind the very last rank of warriors was the Conductivus, his white robes fluttering violently as he swept swiftly by us with his honor guard. They were committed now, I guessed, if the Conductivus was going to risk himself up close to the fighting.

  Dusk said, “Now it becomes difficult, Lise. We are going to have to sneak through the middle of an active battlefield to get into Chirasniv.”

  I gulped. From my history lessons in school I knew how dangerous that was in the first place, made even more dangerous in the second place since there wasn’t much room for evasive tactics by us because the fighting was happening in a tunnel. A big tunnel, sure, but a tunnel all the same.

  “We don’t have much choice,” I said grimly. “Either we do it now, or we wait for the outcome of the battle. If we wait and if the Chirasnivians win, because, let’s face it, this is their home base, then we will have lost our chance of slipping in to rescue Arghen, so I say we go because I am afraid of what might happen if we don’t. If any of you would rather wait until the battle’s outcome, that’s your prerogative, but I’m leaving now.”

  I turned away because I didn’t want to face the possibility of any of my friends refusing to come with me. A fair-skinned hand was placed on my shoulder.

  “You are leader, Lise,” Dusk said solemnly. “Where you lead, we follow. Even though you have made a couple of questionable leadership choices lately.”

  “If they were questionable, why didn’t you stop me?” I challenged.

  “Because a good leader needs to learn how to deal with mistakes made, and your mistakes were not going to get us immediately killed,” he replied.

  Oh.

  “To finish what I had been saying,” Dusk continued, “although I have found some of your decisions to be questionable, I find I cannot fault you for the decision of an attempt to slip through the battle.”

  Murmurs of agreement, plus Ragar’s louder one, made me lift my shoulders with pride. I had not been wrong, and my friends were going to support me. I turned and gave them a relieved smile.

  “All right then, let’s go carefully,” I said.

  “May I give some advice to Ragar first?” Dusk asked.

  Curious, I nodded.

  Looking straight at the mountain-cat elf, he said, “No engaging any Under-elves. If one comes at you, deflect them and keep running. This is no time to get separated from us and Heather.”

  Ragar, opening his mouth to say something, shut it again at Heather’s name, and nodded a not-quite sulky understanding. Auraus made a subtle motion to the pep-me-up potion at her side at me.

  “Oh, right! Good idea, Auraus,” I acknowledged. “Let’s all take a couple of sips of the energy drink before we do this.”

  We drank, and as the high octane stuff hit my system I put us in the same traveling order we’d been in before: Dusk in front, me next, Jason after me, Auraus, Heather, and Ragar for rear protection. Once again Dusk nodded approval at me. We moved out, the battle raging somewhere down the tunnel in front of us sending back echoes off the walls all around.

  I prayed. Caelestis, I know you can’t hear my words, but I hope you can feel my emotions. I’m scared and worried. Please help us however you can, if you can, so that everything works out for the best.

  I could only hope that for the best would be that all of us, plus Arghen, made it back to the surface together in one piece.

  Chapter 33

  It didn’t take long before we came up to where the Conductivus stood with his guards in the rock tunnel, before him a solid row of Kelsavaxians waiting for their chance to break into the battle. I wasn’t expecting that. I’d been thinking the fight would be more of a melding of enemy forces all the way through, like in the medieval clashes I’d seen on TV. But what made for good TV viewing didn’t seem to apply in real life. One of the Conductivus’ guards turned an eye towards us but made no move to either stop us or shoo us away. Dusk came to a halt anyway, and I tapped him on the shoulder from behind.

  “What should we do?” I asked him. “I don’t see how we can keep together and get through this, do you?”

  He turned around and shook his head at me. “No, Lise, I do not. The best we can do is to go through separately, or maybe in pairs at the most, and meet up on the other side.”

  “But what if not all of us make it?” I asked, worrying already.

  He looked at me solemnly with his amber eyes. “That is a risk beings take in battle—that not all might make it through to the other side. But that is the chance taken when fighting for something you strongly believe in.”

  Or in this case, someone, I thought. Arghen. I sighed while gathering everyone in behind the Kelsavaxian line, and told them what Dusk and I had just talked about.

  Heather looked at Auraus. “I don’t suppose,” she started to ask, but Auraus was already shaking her head.

  “No, Heather. I know of no magic, except maybe god-level or dragon-level magic, that would stop a battle long enough for us to get through it unscathed.” She frowned. “Bascom might have, though.” Her shoulders slumped.

  I couldn’t stop a flinch at her words. Bascom, the guy responsible for setting up of the Surfacer trade to the Under-elves in the first place and who had personally tried to kill me and about half the people I traveled with, was directly responsible as far as I was concerned for our present predicament. I briefly wondered if he would get sadistic pleasure if his soul ever found out just how much trouble his life continued to cause us. I noted that that Heather looked a little nauseated at hearing his name. Ragar on the other hand smiled a small fierce smile, no doubt remembering that it was at his claws that the Ogre mage had met his end.

  Dusk put his arm lovingly around the Wind-rider’s shoulders. “Do not go comparing yourself to that piece of offal! You and he are vastly different in both age and experience. When you get to be more what his age was, you will be able to cast larger and more impressive spells, too. Do not doubt it.”

  I heard the subtle emphasis on the word “was,” as if he was reminding Auraus that despite all his power, Bascom was no more. Auraus took heart from his words and straightened up.

  “We do need to get through,” she said thoughtfully. “What if each being runs along the side wall of the tunnel, and I cast a shield spell on their other side, the one that faces the battle? It will stop a few sword blows before shredding, and it might last long enough to get us to the gates.”

  “But you said, back when we were first working our way through the trapped tunnel near the parley room, that you can’t cast more than one of those at once,” I objected.

  “True,” she replied. “What if I did it in a series?”

  Heather said, “You mean, everybody has to run the gauntlet alone?”

  Auraus said, “I do not see any other way that might work.”

  “No more arguments. Just do it,” I said to the Wind-rider, cutting off any further protest Heather might have had.

  “I will count out a hundred beats in my head, and then the spell will be dropped so I can cast it on the next one to go,” she warned. “I will, of course, be the last to cross.”

  “Send me first, Lise,” Dusk urged. “I have a good chance of surviving the test of this idea.”

  I frowned, not liking the way he’d worded it, but I said nothing as I gave him my nod of approval. Auraus looked worried as she softly cast the spell. The tingle of her magic whispered across my skin, and every member of my party reacted to it in one way or another.

  I slid a glance over to the honor guard and the Conductivus because I was curious to see what the reaction of the Under-elves would be to magic being cast. I was surprised to see that the warrior who apparently had assigned himself to keeping an eye on us didn’t react, except to spit and silently mouth the word “abomination.” But that looked more like a reaction to her casting magic than to the magic itself, although that may have been because the shield couldn’t be seen. I made a mental note to ask the Wind-rider about that later. Dusk, by virtue of his rope knot, shoved his
way past the honor guard into the mass of Chirasnivians and disappeared from sight.

  “How will we know if he makes it or not?” I asked Auraus with worry.

  Her soft reply was, “We will not.”

  Ragar wanted to go next in case he needed to help Dusk along the way, and I agreed. When Auraus’ hundred count was up, she dropped Dusk’s spell and recast it for Ragar. Once again the only Under-elf to observe what we were doing was that one honor guard. I watched him very closely this time, and it still didn’t look like he’d been affected by the fresh cast magic like the rest of us.

  Huh.

  Ragar yanked his hood down and shoved his way into the mass of Under-elves in front of us. Since he couldn’t be mistaken for anything other than a Surfacer, the crowd of warriors parted for him reluctantly. Aura started her count, and before I could ask who wanted to go next, Heather volunteered. She went in her turn, and then after Heather’s count was done, Auraus turned to me and Jason.

  “Who is next?” the Wind-rider asked.

  “Lise, you should go,” said Jason. “That way if something happens on the way, I can back you up.”

  I looked at him with an “I-can’t-believe-you-just-said-that” kind of look, and said lightly but with a slight edge to my voice, “Don’t you mean that you should go next, so I can back YOU up, Jason?”

  Jason blinked. “Wow. That was kind of sexist of me. Lo siento, Lise.”

  I smiled at him. “Thanks. Now go on, Jason. It’s your turn.”

  Jason shrugged and turned to Auraus, who did her magic. Jason gave me a swift kiss “for luck” before disappearing like all the others before him.

  A one hundred count later, Auraus looked at me. “Ready Lise?”

  “Ready.”

  Auraus’ spell’s tingle ran across my skin and pooled on my right side. I shoved my way through the Under-elves, who gave way with growing annoyance from my group’s constant interferences. Eventually I got through to where the fighting began. It was madness. I plastered myself against the left wall of the tunnel for a moment, looking out at the seething mass of beings bouncing around like bubbles in a soda bottle that had been shaken up. Conscious of the limited time I had, I dashed forward. It was a hellish run. I jumped over bodies, ducked under sword swings meant for other being, shimmied around fights, ran from Under-elves pursuing me until they were interrupted by other Under-elves looking for a fight, and slid by weapons hoping to skewer me. I kept being saved by Auraus’ spell, leaving Under-elf after Under-elf in shock behind me as their attacks bounced off seemingly thin air. The run felt like it lasted forever, but I would have sworn it was shorter than a full count of a hundred when I felt the protection pop at a careless sword blow not even originally aimed at me. The two story bronzed gates standing wide open were in sight, however, so I ran like mad for them hoping to find my friends already across the battlefield. I broke free of the melee without a scratch and saw Dusk, Ragar, Heather, and Jason waiting for me just in front of the gates. Jason took a step forward, held his arms wide, and I ran right into them.