Bones of the Empire

by Jim Galford

  “I will push for a day’s break when we reach the surface,” she whispered, keeping their pace fast so the others stayed out of earshot. “I owe you an apology, and so long as we’re down here, I will be too on edge to give it properly.”

  “We all could use the break,” he admitted, tightening his grip on her hand.

  Smiling warmly, Feanne added, “Yoska says we have another week of underground travel, with only two or three more places we can stop. We must make the most of the few places we can get out of this awful place.”

  The passage curved around as the daylight grew brighter. Soon Feanne let her other hand drop, dismissing the ball of magical light she had been using. They rounded another large curve and then stopped abruptly as they faced a black-robed woman standing in the entrance to the passage.

  “Hello again, rodents. Having a lovely day together, traipsing through the mines, hand in hand?” came the woman’s soft voice, which Estin recognized immediately as Liris, the Turessian who had hunted them halfway across Eldvar.

  From what she had told Estin when she had been bragging in the moments before trying to kill him the first time, Dorralt had assigned Liris one specific task: to hunt down anyone related to the prophecy, with a particular preference for wildlings. If she found them, she was given free rein to kill them however she saw fit, and that was something she seemed to enjoy immensely. Each time the group had eluded her, she had grown more relentless.

  “Liris,” Estin hissed, eliciting a giggle from her as she folded her hands, leaning against the edge of the arched exit from the mine. “I thought you’d be gone longer. Your master done scolding you for letting us raise Turess?”

  Liris lowered her hood, letting her long brown hair fall over her shoulders. The series of tattoos around her eyes somehow stood out, even with the light behind her casting her face in shadows. The human woman’s soft face belied the brutality she had inflicted on their group more than once in the past few months.

  “Dorralt insisted, I’m afraid,” she replied, motioning to something outside the mine that Estin could not see. “He thought his dear brother might come this way. Very predictable. I find it interesting that the six of you made it into our lands and then walked right into the most basic of traps. You make me think I have been trying too hard in the past. Should I have simply left out a bowl of milk or cheese or something? What do your kind eat, anyway?”

  Estin glanced over his shoulder as Feanne let go of his hand and braced herself to fight. Behind them, the others had just come into sight, and at the rear of the group, Raeln was facing the dark behind them, pushing the group toward Estin and Feanne. A second later, Estin saw two more Turessians come into the light of Dalania’s spell, cutting off any easy escape.

  At his side, Feanne bared her fangs and shifted to block Estin from rushing at Liris.

  “Here is how this is going to work,” Liris went on, smiling pleasantly at them. The other Turessians quickly forced the group together. “Turess goes with us and home to his brother, who misses him something fierce. The wolf is mine, for a messy butchering at a time of my choosing. The rest of you can attempt to run while I dissect the dog. I will let you run until his body ceases to amuse me. You have declined my offers in the past and it has ended poorly for all of you.”

  Placing a hand on Estin’s shoulder as she came up behind him, Dalania whispered, “I can help all of you run faster and slow them at the same time. You may be able to slip past her. Run as a group. On three.”

  Behind him, Estin heard Dalania faintly tap the wall once, twice…

  On the third tap, Feanne charged, running hard for Liris. Estin raced after her, hearing the others right behind him. The Turessian was ready for them, but Feanne was faster than she was, slapping aside the woman’s hand as she tried to ready a spell and then tearing off part of her face with claws far sharper than they looked. With a kick that Estin recognized from Raeln’s training sessions, she knocked Liris over backward, clearing the tunnel as the rest of them caught up.

  Breaking out into the light, Estin finally saw who Liris had motioned to. A dozen rotting corpses stood in an arc around the entrance to the mines, all holding crossbows aimed at the tunnel. They were trapped between the zombies and the Turessians. The moment those Turessians gave the order to fire, the undead would kill them all.

  Estin checked behind himself and saw they had everyone outside the tunnel except Raeln, who had turned and rushed at the two Turessians following them. Before Estin could react, Raeln slammed into one of the men, taking him off his feet. Rolling off the man, Raeln kicked Liris in the face as she tried to stand.

  Ducking and turning, Raeln narrowly avoided a blast of flame cast by one of the other Turessians. He lunged at the man, punching him hard enough that the man’s head snapped back. Any mortal would have died from that punch, but the Turessian’s neck twisted back to its normal position with a sickening pop.

  The idiot was trying to slow three Turessians by himself so the rest of them could run. It was precisely what Estin had expected and the last thing he wanted to be right about. The moment Raeln had told him to run in case of trouble, he had imagined something just like this.

  “Cover us!” Estin shouted as Turess, Yoska, and Dalania ran past him. He drew his swords and ran for Raeln, feeling rather that seeing Feanne beside him as he went.

  The Turessians only had eyes for Raeln as he dodged among them, his sword and fist darting from one of them to another before they could recover. He was fast, but they were immortals, barely even feeling the wounds he inflicted on them. He stood no chance without help.

  Snarling, Estin slashed at Liris with one sword, opening the side of her face as she was trying to cast a spell at Raeln. He spun, driving his other sword into her chest and twisting it. Yanking it free, he tried to come around for another strike, but she had already recovered.

  Liris slapped aside Estin’s swords with enough force that his hands went numb and the weapons fell from his grip. With a grin, she slammed her palms into his chest, hurling him backward. The impact felt as though he had run into a stone pillar, and the landing was little better. He tumbled, trying to minimize his injuries as he slid across the uneven rock-strewn ground, sweeping his tail around himself to absorb much of the impact.

  Coming up onto a knee and trying not to fall over again, Estin saw Feanne was struggling. The Turessian she was fighting had cast something that had burned Feanne’s leg, and she limped as she tried to keep ahead of his attacks. Beyond her, Raeln was fighting the third Turessian, both hands locked around the robed man’s neck and shoulders. From the look of Raeln, he was using every ounce of his strength to hold that grip. Despite towering over the human, Raeln’s thick arms were shaking.

  Liris backed away from Estin, looking to the undead with the crossbows. Grinning wickedly, she called out, “Now!”

  “Run!” Estin shouted, raising a hand toward the closest undead. He summoned his magic in the hopes that he had enough strength to deflect their bolts. Once he would have been able to stop a volley in such a small area, shattering the bolts before they could hit anyone. A dozen loud snaps went off at almost the same time, and Estin collapsed as pain flared through his shoulder, his spell unraveling as quickly as it had formed. Thankfully the pain masked the nausea that threatened to make him fall. What he could see was that many of the crossbow bolts had gone wide thanks to his magic, but he had been close enough that they had hit him anyway. His companions appeared uninjured—a small blessing.

  Scrambling to his feet, Estin could barely see through his pain as he stumbled toward the others. The first people he managed to make out were Yoska and Dalania, with Yoska dancing through the undead with his knives, keeping them from attacking Dalania, who moved swiftly with him, trying to keep herself out of the melee and also keep from holding Yoska back.

  Past Yoska, Feanne dodged a swing from Liris, though her attention was largely on Estin as she ran. Feanne practically ran into him, hooking his arm and dragging h
im toward the undead archers. With a bestial snarl, Feanne tore through the only zombie that tried to stop them, severing tendons in its arm to cripple it as they kept going.

  They raced down the slope of the hill, both trying not to fall in spite of their injuries. Occasional flashes of magic going off behind them gave Estin some idea of how close the Turessians were. Each time Estin tried to turn and look for the others, Feanne pushed him even harder, making it difficult to keep his paws under him.

  They ran until they broke line of sight of the mine, coming down the snow-covered hill toward another abandoned village, Feanne still supporting much of Estin’s weight. The bruises on his ribs from Liris made it difficult to breathe, and his whole right arm felt as though it were soaked with warm water, right up to the throbbing point at his shoulder where he was willing to bet a crossbow bolt still protruded. With the old ache of his hip from when he had broken it years prior, he was not sure how much farther he could go, but he clenched his jaw and pushed on.

  Feanne slowed as they neared a group of horses tied off on a copse of trees outside the village. The whole area stunk of death, but Estin saw nothing left behind to guard the Turessians’ mounts. At their approach, the three animals looked up from munching on some brush that stuck out of the snow. Feanne turned Estin and headed for the animals, still almost dragging him.

  “We need to find the others,” Estin gasped, but Feanne nearly yanked him off his feet. “Feanne!”

  Stumbling to a stop, Feanne turned to look at him, and he realized she was barely hearing what he was saying. Blood covered much of her torso from two crossbow bolts, one in her side, between her ribs, and the other just below her collarbone. The burns across her thigh were blistered, and most of her fur there was blackened, making him wonder how she was walking at all. Swelling around her jaw hinted at other wounds her fur hid, as well.

  “No time,” Feanne said, panting. She stumbled and nearly fell. “Get on the damned horse.”

  “Feanne, we need to save them,” he pleaded, but she grabbed his shirt and dragged him toward the horse.

  “He gave us an order,” she hissed, catching the horse’s reins before it could avoid her. “We run. We will find them after we recover. Get on the horse, Estin. We don’t have long before Liris catches up.”

  “No.”

  Without warning, Feanne rounded on him and punched Estin in the face. The last thing he felt before he blacked out was feeling the snow chilling his back and tail.

  Chapter Two

  “Taken”

  Struggling for every inch of ground, Raeln fell back toward the tunnel as Liris hurled a bolt of lightning past him, scorching his arm and side. He turned away from the blast, avoiding the crackling energy, twisting again as another Turessian stabbed at him with a sword Raeln was certain had been Estin’s. The blade passed closer than he would have liked, hitting the stone archway hard enough that both the sword and stone shattered. Magic or raw strength, these three had a distinct advantage over Raeln and he could only evade them so long.

  “Please! There has to be another way!” Dalania cried, making Raeln’s heart sink. He had not seen her in a bit and had hoped she had run with Turess, Estin, and Feanne. That made him fight even harder, knowing he needed to buy time until she ran…if she would run. He had to hope Yoska would drag her off sooner or later.

  Raeln kicked the nearest Turessian against the wall as Liris lined up another spell. He could not keep ahead of her much longer—soon she would kill him where he stood. It would only take one spell and he would be done for. He knew full well what a wizard could do, and he had to keep moving or he would be at her mercy.

  Snarling, Raeln ducked under Liris’s hand as she raised it and came up with his elbow under her chin. He knew he could not really hurt her—not for long—but stopping her spell from going off would let him live a little longer so the others could run. Before Liris or the others could regroup or recover, Raeln spun and ran for Dalania’s voice, trying to get to her before Liris decided to kill her out of spite, not that Dalania had proven to be any threat so far.

  What felt like a wave crashed into Raeln’s back, hurling him forward onto the snowy ground. He slid, scraping up everything from his nose to his toes, his back aching from the impact. Only a few feet away, Dalania stood barefoot on the sloped ground, backing down the hill slowly toward where the others had run, staring at him with fear. He could see she would not leave him…he would have to keep fighting or Dalania would get herself killed beside him. He could accept dying, but not if one of the people he was watching over died first.

  Behind Raeln, the creak and pop of crossbows being reloaded warned him that he had little time left. Between the spells of the three Turessians and the remaining undead archers, the entire area where he and Dalania stood was about to become deadly.

  Raeln struggled to get up, but his back flared with pain, slowing him. He stumbled toward Dalania, hoping if nothing else he could get between her and the archers. When he fell, she would have no choice but to run. It was a bleak way to address the fight, but one he had known might come. That had been exactly why he had given Estin and Feanne the orders he had. Someone had to live or the entire journey was pointless.

  From the corner of his eye, Raeln saw Yoska reappear among some sparse trees behind the undead archers. He darted through them, slashing at the nearest crossbows, cutting the strings and causing them to fire wildly. He even managed to kick the weapon from one corpse’s hands. The man might be old, but Raeln could not fault his skill.

  A blast of flame from one of the Turessians washed over the area, reducing the snow to steam, and Raeln spread his arms in a vague hope of shielding Dalania. Almost at the same instant, the remaining crossbowmen fired.

  Raeln stood trembling as the flames died around them. Aside from the pain from his earlier wounds, nothing felt different. Looking down, he found Dalania with her hands toward the Turessians, her face twisted with strain and her eyes glowing faintly. He glanced over his shoulder and saw a faint transparent wall cooling from a red shimmer, with seven crossbow bolts embedded in it. As he watched, the barrier vanished and the bolts fell to the mud.

  “Dalania, run!” Raeln insisted, but Dalania grabbed his arm to help him try to stay upright. “Go!”

  With her free hand, Dalania motioned toward the nearest Turessian, slamming him against the mine wall with magic. As soon as he hit the wall, thick green vines erupted from the stones, wrapped him and squeezed. For all the strength of the Turessians, he appeared unable to extricate himself quickly.

  Raeln tried to turn to fight in an effort to slow the remaining Turessians. As he came around, the other Turessian man picked up a rock and threw it. It hit him in the stomach far harder than Raeln had thought a small stone could. With a choked gasp, Raeln stumbled, feeling blood running down his side from a hole an inch below his ribs. He could not breathe well enough to speak or shout and felt as though he were drowning.

  Dropping to his knees, Raeln had difficulty keeping track of the others as his head pounded. He was only barely able to register seeing Yoska slammed into a tree by Liris and then thrown to the ground, as two undead leaped onto him. Yoska curled up as the zombies beat at him, clawing for his face and trying to bite at his arms.

  Dalania stepped past Raeln. She was going to die, Raeln knew it, but he could not make himself stand with the stone in his stomach. Closing his eyes, Raeln refused to watch her be torn apart by the undead. He had failed his group, but he could not let himself watch as another innocent died while he was unable to help.

  Roars filled the area, followed by a deafening crack of thunder. Raeln lifted his head slowly and found a group of heavily armored six-foot bug-like creatures had erupted from the ground and were fighting the undead. The Turessians were hurling spells at the beetle-like monsters while Dalania dragged Yoska away from them and back toward Raeln.

  “Get back up!” Dalania told Raeln, grunting as she struggled to pull Yoska, who was groaning but barely movin
g. “My friends won’t hold them long. Raeln!”

  Raeln forced one of his feet under him and tried to stand, but he could not find the strength. Looking down, he saw blood was seeping steadily from his side, soaking his hand, running down his leg, and staining the snow all around him. He tried to shut out the pain and get up anyway, but his body refused to obey.

  “I said, get up!” Dalania repeated, putting a hand on Raeln’s shoulder. Strength flooded his body immediately and the pain subsided. “I’m not going to be able to talk reasonably with them…we need to go.”

  His breath rasping in his lungs, Raeln got to his feet, grabbed Yoska, and hoisted him over his shoulder. The stone still pressed against his stomach muscles, making it hard to breathe, but whatever Dalania had done was allowing him to ignore it. He ran, making sure to stay a step behind Dalania the whole way down the hillside so he was the target of any attacks.

  Within minutes, Raeln felt his strength ebbing and the pain returning. His pace slowed quickly, but Dalania was also slowing as they made their way from the hills to a rockier area of the region, where Raeln hoped they could hide for a time. He began to limp as his whole body ached. It was a struggle to even stay upright, but the stony rises ahead were beckoning him, and he knew he had to make it that far.

  Raeln made it to the first section of snow-free ground before he collapsed, barely managing to spare Yoska from being dropped on his head. Yoska groaned as Raeln set him down hard. The moment Yoska hit the ground, he clutched at his ribs, which might well have been broken after the beating Raeln had seen him take.

  Straining just to take in enough air to stay conscious, Raeln tried to check Yoska’s wounds, but his shaking hands would not obey. He fell onto his side, staring off in the direction Dalania had gone, hoping to see her come with a horse or some other beast that might carry them away in a hurry. Instead, she reappeared a minute later, walking slowly toward them with her hands in the air. Behind her, a group of ten black-robed humans followed, two with hands raised toward her, their gloved fingers crackling with lightning.