Death Flag

by Richard Haygood

  More and more of the archers seemed to realize that he was bearing down on them, but it didn’t change the fact that he wasn’t going to turn away. He heard the thundering start up behind him again, and he knew that the stone golem had finally run out of boulders to hurl after him and given chase.

  Madison met the first man at a run. The archer pulled his bow up in front of him with an arrow nocked and ready, but he never drew it back. Madison slammed into him shoulder first, and the man went flying backward, barely slowing him down. Madison then picked the next closest target to his right and thrust his sword forward with a single arm as he skidded to an unprompted halt. The tip of the blade just barely caught the man in the base of his throat, but it was enough. The man dropped his bow and clutched at his throat even as the blood began pouring from the wound.

  He felt several arrows bounce off his chest and his shoulder, and he knew that he had to keep moving. He presented too easy a target standing still. He turned to his left and brought his sword around in an overhand attack, slashing down at the man from above. The archer threw his bow up defensively, clearly trying to block Madison’s heavy-handed attack, but it was no good. Madison’s sword cleaved through the wooden bow and down into his shoulder. The man collapsed to his knees, screaming out in pain, and Madison pushed past him. He feinted like he was going to go for the next two men, a duo who were standing side by side, and they instantly shied away. He took the opportunity then and ran as hard as he could away from the archers.

  His feet pounded underneath him as hard as his heart in his chest, and he watched the forest get closer by leaps and bounds. He cast one last look behind him just as he hit the tree line, scanning the hillside behind him for any sign of Warren and the others, but he didn’t have nearly enough time to find them. What he did see quite clearly, however, was the stone giant as it reached the first cluster of archers. Its long, craggy arms smashed down into a man from behind and sent him flying through the air. He saw the beast raise its arms above its head and go for another man, and then Madison broke into the forest and had to pay attention to where he was going instead.

  He had been dodging boulders for the past few minutes, and now he switched his focus to dodging trees. He tore through the underbrush as quickly as he could, heedless of the thorns and sharp plants that snagged and tore at him as he went, and he was once again thankful for the suit of armor he wore. Anyone following behind him would easily be able to follow the trail of plant carnage he left behind, but he didn’t care. He knew that he’d lose them as soon as he could, and it would give Warren a starting place to look for him if nothing else.

  Madison eventually slowed into a small jog as the woods started to grow thicker, but he continued to press forward as hard as he could. He was still determined to make up as much time as possible, and he had absolutely no way of know who, if anyone, was following along behind him. The sounds of the rampaging giant and the group of archers disappeared, but that didn’t mean that someone wasn’t back there.

  After traveling for what felt like hours, he finally found a place to stop. He had come across a small stream about half an hour earlier, and he had decided to follow along with the hope that it was flowing in the right direction that he wanted to go. He knew that he was still headed in a southeasterly course, but he couldn’t be certain how far off target he might be without Warren there to guide him. He was confident that he’d eventually make it off the second tier just so long as he continued on in the same direction, but that didn’t mean it was the most efficient way to get down. He had trudged in and out of the stream on several different occasions, hoping that it would help hide his footprints just in case someone really was following along behind, and that was when he happened to find the ideal place to sit and rest for a while.

  The stream made a sharp right turn, running around a cluster of trees before resuming its former course, and it had carved out a good portion of the bank on both its sides there. The far bank had given way, exposing the roots of the closest trees and creating a sort of shallow cave. It wasn’t more than a few feet deep at most, but Madison was able to climb inside as long as he took his armor off and wedged himself in. It wasn’t the most comfortable position ever, but he was protected from almost every angle. The only way anyone could possibly approach him was if they followed the stream, and he had a perfect view in either direction. Even then, he was protected from view by the exposed roots, and someone would have to be looking directly at him to know that he was even there.

  Satisfied that he was as safe as he could possibly be, Madison took out some of his remaining jerky and chewed on it slowly while he rested and waited for the others to catch up.

  -----

  The rain started up again within the next hour, but it was little more than a drizzle that fit perfectly with an otherwise-dreary day. The hard, driving rain from the day before seemed to have passed on, and it was likely just a small shower passing through before clearer skies took over. Maison sat back in his small cubby underneath the trees, embedded into the back, and watched the shower while managing to stay relatively dry. He gave up on eating after he had his fill, so he was left with little to do other than reflect on everything that had happened and everything that was about to happen while worrying about the others. So much had changed over the course of the last few days that it was hard for him to keep up with it all despite the fact that he had been there and lived through it.

  Before too long, however, Warren came looking for him. Madison actually spied the young woodsman before he found Madison, a small accomplishment for him and a success for his hiding spot, and he gave the younger man a shock as he crawled out of the dirt cove and plopped down loudly in the streambed. Warren jumped nearly a foot high, pulling his bow and nocking an arrow, but he didn’t attack when he saw who it was. Madison doubled over, laughing to himself at the archer’s reaction. It was childish, and he knew it, but he couldn’t resist.

  “Really?” Warren asked exasperatedly. “With everything else going on out here, you don’t have enough to do without scaring me half to death?”

  “Hey, look!” Madison began defensively. “You’ve got to learn to get your laughs in when you can. You can’t always take things too seriously.”

  Warren snorted derisively in response, making his opinion clear without actually saying anything. Madison knew that he had bruised the other man’s ego, so he didn’t push it too far, but there was no way he had been going to pass up a chance like that. Plus, it was good to keep the woodsman on his toes. If Madison had been an enemy lying in wait, Warren likely would have been dead before he ever even knew that there was someone else besides himself there—and that was likely the very reason he had turned a bit sulky afterward.

  “You said you found somewhere for the others to lay low a while?” Madison asked as he followed the other man through the woods. He figured he may as well change the topic of conversation and give him something to think about other than his bruised ego.

  “That’s right,” Warren answered. “And there’s a fair bit more space than what you’re apparently used to.”

  “You might be surprised,” Madison retorted dryly. He expected the verbal jabs, so there was no way Warren was going to get to him with something so simple. “Did you guys have any trouble getting away after I did? I honestly felt a bit bad about taking off like I did, but I figured it was for the best. There were way too many of those archers for us to deal with, and I expected a few of them to peel off after me and give chase. Was hoping that it would increase your odds a fair bit.”

  Warren snorted again, and Madison hoped it wasn’t becoming a habit for him. “Just wait,” he said smugly. “You’ll see.”

  Madison raised an eyebrow questioningly even though Warren couldn’t see it from ahead of him, but he didn’t say anything. A short time later, Warren led him to the cave he had been talking about. It was a fair bit larger than the one they had used as a hideaway the day before, and he was assaulted the moment he walked inside.
Shayna seemed to have been pacing the floors, ready and waiting, and she pounced on him almost immediately, beating her tiny, balled-up fist against his chest and doing everything short of openly screaming at him.

  “Idiot!” she cried. “Why would you do that? Stupid, stupid, stupid! I should have known that you’d pull some senseless stunt like that!”

  “S-stop. Stop. Stop!” Madison insisted, struggling to grab control of her hands. He only managed to just get control of her wrists and stop her from pelting him over and over when Erin walked up in a huff and took over where her sister had left off. The girl looked up at him with an angry scowl, stamped her foot, and then pointedly turned and walked away before sitting down, crossing her arms over her chest and staring at the cave wall.

  “Wow. That bad,” Madison asked. It sounded horribly sarcastic, but he didn’t quite mean it that way.

  “What were you thinking?!” Shayna demanded. “You could have been killed! You should have been killed! The fact that you’re alive only proves that you’re too dumb to die!”

  “That . . . might actually be the case,” Madison agreed, fueling her anger even more. He shrugged dismissively and let go of his hold on her wrists. “I saw an opportunity, and I took it. That’s that.”

  “That’s not that!” she said, stamping her own foot. “What did you think? That we would just be happy about it? ‘Oh yay, our hero, charging into a brigade of archers ready to die so that we might live! How brave!’ How stupid!” She punched him again for emphasis, and he didn’t bother trying to block it.

  “Look,” Madison said flatly. “I’m not going to apologize for doing what was necessary in order to keep you safe. I’d do it again if I was put in the same position, and I’ll do it again next time if it comes up again. I get the fact that you’re all basically used to looking out for yourselves first, but that’s not how it’s going to work for me. We’ve come this far together, and I’ve already come close to losing every one of you. I can’t stomach the idea of something happening to any of you because of something I did. So, if that’s going to be a problem for you . . . Well, get over it.”

  Shayna watched him, and a bevy of conflicting emotions flickered across her face that looked like it ranged between anger and outrage and then shock and confusion. In the end, her anger deflated. She harrumphed loud and went to sit next to Erin, though she sat with her back against the wall instead of facing it. “I don’t get you,” she muttered quietly, and Madison chose to ignore it.

  Warren snickered, obviously satisfied at the small berating Madison had received, and Madison chose to ignore that as well.

  “Alright,” Madison said, once again changing topics in the hope of giving them all something else to think about. “We’ve got a few hours to burn before dark, so take some time and rest while you can. I want everyone ready to go as soon as the sun goes down, so eat, drink, sleep, and do whatever you need to do now so that you’re ready to go tonight. I wish we had time to survey the camp first and figure out where and how the guards are stationed at the very minimum, but I’m afraid we don’t have the time for that. Just like before, we’re going to have to roll up, push in blind, and hope for the best.”

  “I could scout ahead now,” Warren offered. “It’s not too far until we’re off this tier, and I don’t think the encampment is too far past that. I should be able to make it there and back before you guys are ready to go tonight, and it would give me a chance to scout out the terrain as well so that I know which way offers us the best approach.”

  “No,” Madison answered, shaking his head. “I appreciate the offer, but you’re as tired as everyone else, and you need your rest too. What we did last night was paltry against what we’re going up against today. This camp . . . It’s huge. It’s big enough that we could get lost in it if we let ourselves, and I want everyone to have their wits about them when we go in. One mistake from any one of us might mean the death of us all.”

  Warren nodded his acceptance and then sat down on the wall opposite from the girls, leaning back and closing his eyes. Shayna and Erin exchanged a glance, and then Erin turned around, and the two girls leaned up against one another, each using the other as a sort of makeshift pillow. No matter how angry or irritated they might have been, neither of them gave him so much as a word of argument. They were apparently as tired as he thought they were, and he could hear the quiet, rhythmic sound of someone breathing in their sleep after only a few minutes.

  Madison had entered a sort of strung-out state where he knew that it was going to be impossible for him to get any rest no matter how hard he tried, so he didn’t even bother. He couldn’t even remember the last time he slept—he thought it might very well have been the night before they left K’yer Utane—and he had been relying on the medicinal effects of the Rush ever since then to keep himself awake and going. That had been days ago. He wasn’t nearly as on-edge and hyped up as he had been before, but he knew that he didn’t need to lie down and sleep either. He very much doubted that the drug would let him anyway.

  So, he sat at watched the rain as it petered down outside the cave, much as he had next to the small stream, and he focused on keeping his mind clear of thoughts. Just like with his normal meditation, he knew that taking some time to clear his head would do him good mentally—even if not physically—and he wanted to be as prepared as he could, just as he advised the others.

  -----

  Afternoon turned to dusk rather quickly with the combination of rain clouds and a thicker canopy overhead, and he waited until he was certain that it was night before he woke the others.

  They each roused quickly, though with red-rimmed eyes and sluggish movements, and he could tell that they needed several more hours of rest that he couldn’t allow.

  “Eat and drink now,” he advised them. “Once we start moving, I don’t know if we’ll have the chance. We don’t know who or what is out there waiting for us. Speaking of which, what was that thing earlier, Warren?”

  “Thing?” he asked, his sleep-addled brain confused by Madison’s ambiguous question. He was focused on trying to mix together some water with a bowl of dried oats and didn’t seem to be able to think and stir at the same time. “Oh. Oh! That was a stone golem. I think that’s what you mean?”

  Madison nodded.

  “Well, stone golems . . .” Warren seemed genuinely puzzled by the question, as if he didn’t know where he was supposed to start. Madison didn’t get any of the evasive vibes he normally did whenever Warren was trying to avoid a question, so it was possible that he just didn’t know how to answer. Or maybe it just took a minute after him waking up for his brain to start working properly. “There’s not really a lot to say. They’re a subspecies of golem. They generally live alone, though some live in small groups, and they’re not commonly found anywhere except in the high, high mountains up north. No idea what that one was doing there. They’re not too bright, they’re extremely territorial, and they will fight you for just about any reason you can think of.”

  “Any idea what happened to it after I ran off?” Madison asked.

  “You mean: Did it continue its rampage against the archers? Absolutely,” Warren responded, somewhat happily. “That’s how we were able to get away so easily. They were so busy trying to fight it off that they didn’t even pay us any mind at all.”

  “Hmm . . . I wonder what they were doing here,” Madison questioned aloud. “I wonder if they were looking for us or if they were just stationed there to guard against anyone moving south off of the highest tier.”

  Erin shook her head negatively, and Madison wasn’t sure which she meant. “They were just there to stop everyone from going up and down? I guess you overheard something while they had you in that tent?” He avoided outright saying ‘while you were a prisoner,’ and phrased it as delicately as he could with the hopes that it didn’t upset her. She nodded her agreement without any signs of an emotional breakdown, so he had to assume that he was going about things alright. He never knew what was go
ing to set her off, and he didn’t want to do that.

  A short time later, they were on the move again, once again heading down and southeast. It was slightly slow going at first, but they were all fairly accustomed to following the person in front of them at this point. Warren and Shayna both possessed the uncanny skill that allowed them to see rather clearly in the dark, and Madison was trusting enough of Shayna at this point that he was simply able to follow her movements based on hearing. He had wanted to avoid traveling in the dark if at all possible, but now that they were farther down the mountain, he felt that it was safe enough. They crossed beyond the second unofficial demarcation between the terraces, and it wasn’t nearly as eventful as the last had been. The terrain was barely any different from that above, and it was truthfully little more than a steep, heavily-forested hillside that they were able to traverse within several minutes.

  He became ultrasensitive to every little sound as soon as they were down, but they ended up traveling for almost half an hour before anyone spotted anything that was cause enough for alarm. Warren drew up short, coming to a halt rather quickly, and pointed through the forest directly ahead in the same direction that they had been moving and then held up one finger.

  Madison silently nodded his understanding and then pointed at Warren and back at himself. Warren pointed to himself in response and then disappeared into the dark. The trio waited for several long and tense minutes before Warren returned. He put a finger to his lips in order to signal for them to remain as silent as possible and then pressed on. Around ten minutes later, he drew up short again, this time holding up two fingers. Madison pointed at the archer and then tapped Shayna on the shoulder, indicating that they should go together this time.

  Madison would have preferred to do it himself, but leaving it up to the assassin and the ranger was the logical choice. He had known that before as well, but he figured he’d give Warren the chance to opt out if he had wanted. Warren had given him a bit of a lecture after the fight on the mountain about killing someone in cold blood, and Madison hadn’t been sure how he was going to deal with this now. However he managed to rationalize it, the two showed up a few minutes later, and Warren once again nodded that the job was done.