"Is that bad?" Alto asked.
Namitus chuckled and shook his head. "Yes," the rogue said. "It's very bad."
"How do we fix our 'stink'? " Alto asked.
"Take time. It'll wear eventually. You eat the food the island provides and that'll help. Leave the armor behind and maybe rub yourself in some local plants to mask the soaps and oils you've used."
Namitus was the first to scowl. "Want us to roll around on a dead animal while we're at it?" the rogue asked.
Carson looked thoughtful for a moment. "Might work, until something thought you smelled tasty that way." The tracker chuckled and shook his head. "No matter. If you're leaving, I'll do my best to keep you safe. Come on, though. Let's hurry before something comes looking for us."
"Where is this cave?" Alto asked as he edged closer to the cliff.
"Just over the edge and down maybe ten feet. Plenty of hand and footholds, even a ledge at the edge of it. Watch me. I'll show you and then come back up to cover our tracks."
"I'll go first," Namitus offered. "Save you the trouble."
Carson eyed the slender man up and down. "You sure?"
Namitus chuckled. "I think I'll manage."
"He can do it," Patrina confirmed. "He led us down a few hundred feet of wall under a mountain once."
"Under a mountain?"
"Long story," Alto said.
Carson snorted. "I bet it is. I look forward to hearing it. Go ahead, Namitus, and lead the way."
Namitus walked up to Alto and flashed him a smile before he turned and put his back fully to the ocean, crouched down and slipped his leg over the edge of the cliff, and then his other one. A moment later, he lowered himself smoothly beyond view.
Alto and Patrina leaned out, holding onto each other's hand and shoving their bodies inland as far as they could while still seeing over the edge.
"Another long story?" Carson asked as he stared at the two nervous people.
Patrina offered him a thin smile. "You have no idea."
He grunted and shook his head. "Hurry up. Or do I need to give you a push?"
"I'm down!" Namitus called up to them. "It's not bad."
Alto pulled Patrina back and then slipped his pack off his back. He pulled out a rope before putting it back on, and then he handed one end to Patrina.
"A rope?" Carson blurted. "It's like twelve feet!"
"Have you ever been lashed to a timber hanging over the edge of a cliff into the lair of a dragon for days on end?" Patrina snapped at him.
Carson's mouth opened and closed a few times before he shook his head and waved his hand. "After you, good lady," he said.
"Thank you." Patrina tied the rope tightly around her waist and then turned to put her back to the ocean. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. When she opened her eyes, they found Alto's.
"You'll be fine," he reassured her.
"I know," she said. The white in her cheeks told a different story.
Patrina knelt at the edge and backed over slowly. She jerked her foot about rapidly until she found a nook to wedge it in, and then she did the same with the other. Alto had to force his hand to loosen when she finally lowered herself over the edge so the rope would pull through it. Each passing minute left him aching to rush to the edge and look over it to see if she was okay. When he could take no more, he felt her pull on the line.
Alto clamped his grip down on the rope, earning a strangled grunt from below. It was followed quickly by Patrina calling up, "Alto, I'm down. Let go."
He relaxed his grip and grinned, ignoring the sudden heat in his cheeks. His heart slowed in his chest, leaving him light-headed with the sudden relief of tension. Then he realized it was his turn. Alto nodded to himself and glanced at Carson. The tracker had a grin on his face.
Alto's cheeks burned hotter. He turned away and started towards the cliff's edge when Patrina called up to him again. "Tie the other end around your waist. Namitus and I will hold on."
Alto started to tie it when he realized he'd be dooming them all if he fell. "Me in my armor? I'd kill us all."
"We can hold you!" Patrina insisted.
Alto shook his head and dropped the rope on the ground. He'd let them think it was on him for a little bit. He turned and squatted down, focusing on the ground and on what he could see and feel. He knew better than to look beneath him as he slipped one leg and then the other over the edge.
"Are you coming?" Patrina asked.
"Just a minute," he said. It bought him some time before she checked on him. That meant he was committed. He narrowed his focus and moved as quickly as he dared, reaching for one foothold and handhold after another until he felt a narrow ledge beneath him. He looked to his left and saw the cave, and then shuffled along the ledge until he looked in the dark cave and saw Patrina and Namitus leaning back and holding the rope.
"What—where's the rope?" Patrina asked as she relaxed.
Alto reached down and grabbed onto it, and then pulled it until the other end fell past them. He hauled it up, coiling it as it went. "I couldn't bear knowing I pulled you both in with me if I fell."
Patrina stepped up to him and glared at him. She lifted her fist, making Alto flinch, and then pointed her finger under his chin. "I will never, ever strike you," she hissed at him. "But you should know that I want to do so very badly right now."
"Why?" Alto asked. "Because I don't want you getting hurt because of me?"
"Because you dare to think I could live my life without you in it!" she answered. "The saints put us together for a reason, Alto. I'll stand at your side in life or in death, it doesn't matter which. So don't you dare ever think to spare me by putting yourself in danger in my place. We face it together or not at all."
Alto opened his mouth but Patrina raised her finger and pushed it against his lips. "All I want to hear you say is, 'Yes, my lady.'"
Alto grinned and kissed her finger. "Yes, my lady."
She smiled and nodded once in satisfaction.
Namitus cleared his throat and asked, "So, um, what about me? Does that mean—"
"No!"
Alto and Patrina looked at each other, surprised at their simultaneous response, and then burst out laughing.
A scuffle at the entrance had them turn to see Carson slipping around the edge of the entrance and into the small cave. He pulled up short and stared at them. "I missed something, didn't I?"
Alto and Patrina locked gazes again before smiling and turning back to the ranger. "It's going to be a long night of telling stories," Patrina said.
Carson grinned and walked past them into the back of the cave. "I've got some fresh coconuts and a few oranges that should still be good back here. We can eat and talk."
"No meat?" Alto walked back to see what he'd stashed away behind the rocks he was moving.
"It doesn't keep. Making a fire is a pain. Even when I can start one, the smoke draws interest. Sometimes I risk it, but usually I eat it raw."
Alto felt his stomach twist at the thought. From the look on Patrina's face, he saw she felt the same way.
Namitus moved to the entrance of the cave and looked over the edge. "Too far to do any fishing from up here, even if you had a line."
"I've shot a few fish with an arrow before," Carson said. "Not from here, mind you. All in all, it's just easier to eat what the jungle provides. The trees don't fight back much."
"Much?" Namitus asked with a chuckle.
Carson turned and nodded. "Well, there was—watch out!"
Namitus spun in time to hear a roar that made him flinch. A black hand wrapped around him and yanked him out of the entrance, and then disappeared. Alto grabbed his sword but stopped after a couple of steps. Namitus was gone.
Chapter 12
"Bucky! Damn you, ape! Not again!" Carson howled as he bumped into Alto on his way past.
The light coming into the cave was blocked again by the upside-down head and neck of the ape. Bucky glared at them and snarled, showing his teeth. He grunted a few t
imes and hammered a hand or a foot against the cliff wall before he pulled back and away. They heard him scuffling against the side of the cliff again and then nothing until Namitus cried out for help.
"I'm going," Alto said as he rushed to the entrance.
"You can't!" Carson grabbed his arm and tried to hold him back. "Bucky's using him as bait! He's done this before."
The warrior yanked his arm free. "He picked the wrong wolf to trap," Alto spat before he swung around on the ledge and grabbed a handhold. He started pulling himself up, his mind focused on Namitus and not on the long fall to certain death below.
Alto pulled himself over the edge and saw where the grass had been trampled down. It was an easy trail to follow. Alto drew his sword and started after the ape, plunging through the squashed undergrowth until he ran into a wall of greenery. Alto stopped, surprised at the sudden absence of tracks. He turned around and wondered whether the ape doubled back.
Bucky was a monkey, or at least related to one. Alto turned back to the thick vegetation and looked up. Sure enough, the trees of the jungle were nearby. Close enough, perhaps, for the ape to leap and grab a limb.
Snarling at the lost time, Alto hacked his blade into the foliage and plunged into the gap his magical blade opened. In seconds, he was through the weeds and stumbling into the darker jungle beyond. He blinked and grunted when a dark shape slammed into his chest. He flung his arms and legs, trying to stop himself from falling. A heartbeat later, he realized he wasn't falling: he was trapped in the hands of one of the apes.
Alto hacked with his sword, cutting into the black-haired arm of the ape that held him. The high-pitched shriek as the ape flung him to the ground told him that Bucky hadn't attacked him; it was one of the female apes. Alto rolled and managed to come up on a knee before the ground shuddered from another female ape landing beside him.
Alto swung his sword and hacked into her ankle. She howled and leapt away, only to tumble and crash when she landed. She bent a tree with her weight before she fell away from it. The ape that had first grabbed him swung her hand at him, trying to recapture him. He jumped back but her thick-nailed fingers grazed his leg.
The impact from the glancing blow was enough to twist the warrior and send him into a tree. He grunted as he hit it but managed to grab on to keep from falling. He was ready to push himself away when he was hit from behind. His armor saved him from being crushed but the impact knocked his head into the jagged bark and stunned him.
Alto tasted blood and felt a numbing warmth spread over his face. His sword slipped from his fingers and with it some of his strength. The warrior's legs buckled but he held on to the tree and forced himself to focus on regaining his sword. He shook his head and started to kneel down to grab it when the ape smashed him into the tree again and he knew no more.
* * * *
"Move!" Patrina snapped as she tried to push past Carson.
Carson grabbed her. "You, too? You're both daft! You can't go out there. I won't let him take you all!"
Patrina spun and clobbered Carson with a steel-gauntleted fist to the side of his head. He staggered back and hit a wall before he fell. He stared at her, one hand on the side of his head. "You said you wouldn't hit!" he sputtered.
"I said I'd never hit Alto," she corrected him as she stepped out onto the ledge. "You were in my way."
"He'll kill you!" Carson shouted at her. "Just like he killed everybody else!"
Patrina clenched her teeth and promised herself that she owed Carson another fist to his face if she survived to face him again. She pushed him from her mind and focused on climbing up the cliff until she could peer over the edge. She saw nothing but smashed plants amid the greenery that bordered the jungle.
Patrina finished pulling herself onto the top of the cliff and took a moment to look around. She heard a heavy thud and then the sound of wood cracking or breaking. Patrina drew her blade and ran into the path made by the apes. She stopped a moment later when the harsh cries of the apes reached her ears. She heard grunting and a few more thuds that made the hair stand on her arms, and then the jungle grew quiet.
Patrina pushed ahead and reached the wall of plants that had a narrow path cut in them. Alto had gone through there, she knew. She parted the flowering stalks with her hands and stepped through them. On the far side, she blinked to adjust her eyes and crouched down with her sword raised to defend herself. By the time she could pick out the details among the shapes, she realized she was alone.
Patrina stood and looked around, trying to make sense of the scene. The trees were large and numerous, but not so much that anyone would be hiding behind them. Certainly not a creature as large as Bucky. She saw a tree that was bent at an angle, its roots breaking free of the ground on one side. Elsewhere, the ground was scratched and dug up. Her eyes adjusted further and let her see a dark spot on the already moist ground. She went to it and knelt to touch it, only to bring up fingers red with blood.
"They're gone."
Patrina spun about and saw Carson standing in the narrow passage through the weeds. She walked over to him, sheathing her blade on the way so she could grab his hide shirt and yank him closer to her. "You kept me from helping him!" she spat.
"I saved your life!"
Patrina ignored him and twisted her hand on his tunic, drawing it tightly over his chest. "You're going to take me to them and you're going to help me rescue them. Not in the morning—now!"
"You're mad!" Carson hissed at her. He grabbed her hand and pushed on it while pulling himself free. He pulled his tunic down until it rested comfortably again and then he shook his head. "Do you want to die?"
"I'm not afraid of death," Patrina told him.
"Seems like a good thing to fear," Carson muttered. "Unless you're crazy, which you must be. You came here of your own will, after all. So if you're not afraid of death, what are you afraid of?"
Patrina turned away from Carson and studied the battleground again. "I'm afraid of living if I can't have Alto at my side."
Carson shook his head again. "Look, you said you came on a boat, right? Well, here's what we do. We go to your boat and get more men. Or maybe send them to bring back an army. Bucky's been fighting for survival since the ship I was on was wrecked by a storm, eight years past. He collects people and plays with them the way a cat plays with a mouse. When he's tired of them or they can't amuse him anymore, he kills them."
Patrina clenched her jaw to help her fight the blurring in her eyes. She blinked and turned away, her eyes going to a closer tree with the bark scuffed and broken near the ground. "They're not dead yet?"
"Not yet," Carson agreed. "Probably."
Patrina nodded. She moved closer to the tree, trying to figure out what it was about it that bothered her. She saw more blood on the bark, but it was blood that was at her height, not higher up. She bit her lip and tried to swallow so her heart would drop back into her chest. She was about to turn away when she saw something lighter against the dark ground behind the tree.
Patrina knelt and picked up Alto's sword. It was warm to the touch and almost felt as though it was alive with an inner energy. There was blood and hair on the blade. Thick, dark hair. The hair of Bucky or one of his females.
"You will take me to him," Patrina turned to him and said. "Now. Tonight."
"Your friend walked into an ambush!" Carson hissed. "Bucky's smart—he'll set up more of them. We can't follow him, not yet."
"Do you know where they're going then?"
Carson hesitated and then nodded. "He has a few places they sleep, but when he has a captive, he always takes them to the castle."
"An ape in a castle," Patrina mused without humor.
"He's got a fondness for it. I don't know why," the ranger said. "Nothing else lives there, at least as far as I can tell. I don't dare go in. I've only seen it from a distance."
"Tonight we go in," Patrina said.
"I won't take you!" he refused. "Not at night. In the morning, we can head that way, but
tonight we need to find a safe place."
"There are no safe places," she snapped.
"They could smell you. Probably been watching you, too, like I was."
"Fine!" Patrina set Alto's sword against a tree and stripped off her gauntlets. She dug at the clasps and buckles when they didn't do as she wanted until she let her breastplate fall to the ground with a muffled clang. Her pauldrons and greaves followed, and then the remaining harness and doublet that had chain and metal plates sewn to it for extra protection.
The kelgryn princess stood before him wearing her padded small clothes and boots. She buckled her sword back on and then picked up Alto's broadsword. The warmth of the hilt in her hand calmed her. She bit her lip and nodded. "Are there leaves and mud I must roll in too? A pool I must bathe in?"
Carson gaped at her until she spoke. While her disrobing seemed improper, Patrina knew she was still fully clothed. Even her smallclothes covered far more of her body than the finest of dresses worn among the Shazarim.
"Well?" she demanded. "What else must I do to get the stink of civilization off me?"
The ranger jerked out of his near stupor and said, "There are some weeds we can crush so you can smear the juice on your skin." He shook his head again. "Do you have a sister?"
"A sister?" Patrina asked with a furrowed brow.
"I've never met a woman as devoted and strong as you," he said.
"Then you've never met a woman."
He clamped his mouth shut after letting a sharp laugh slip out. "It's been years, I admit. I was little more than a boy when I came here, but even so, I've never known anyone who would risk so much for someone else."
"You haven't seen anything," Patrina promised him. "Now let's go."
Carson sighed and turned back to the weeds. He pushed a few aside until he found the broad bladed stalks he was after. He broke one off and turned back to Patrina. Once he saw he had her attention, he crushed the stalk in his hand and showed her the juice in his palm. "Rub this on your face, hands, neck, or anywhere the skin is exposed. In fact, rub it on your clothes and your skin beneath them, too."
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