by Marius Thue
“Thoke!” she screams.
Thoke reacts immediately, pushing the ravages away as he makes his way toward the gate at high speed. Dorkas seems to hesitate for a moment before slowly pulling back and disappearing into the darkness. By the time Thoke gets there, he's completely gone from view.
“You must hunt him down,” Serk pleads to Thoke. “He might cut us all down before we make it back.”
The ravages have not given up and are running up toward them.
“But if Father goes after Dorkas, then the ravages will cut us down. They're too many for us,” Rhekir objects.
“Fine, I'll hold them here, and then Thoke can pursue Dorkas,” Serk suggests.
“You won't last for long, I'll join you,” Gerak breaks in.
“No, the children need all the protection they can get,” Serk says. Terot needs your help as well. Who knows what you might meet on the mountain. I have a plan anyway.”
“We need to act now, so just do it!” Thoke commands before running after Dorkas.
Neera, Rhekir, and Gerak grab the children and begin running at a brisk pace. Terot has to dig out the last of his strength in order to keep up.
Serk rushes toward the gate at full speed while the ravages do the same from inside the village. He jumps up and grabs one of the torches, runs to the nearest hut, and throws it in. The dry skins catch fire immediately.
The ravages stop as the fire rises in front of them. Serk manages to sneak back to the gate in the confusion, grabs the other torch, and throws it into a nearby hut.
It seems as if the ravages panic for a moment. They stand there whimpering before once again beginning to pursue Serk.
Hoster stands up inside the hole while the two ravages circle around him. The female ravage lunges out, but Hoster blocks her spear with his own. Hoster remains defensive, trying to gain some time to think.
The female ravage attacks again, and Hoster once again blocks it, but this time he also steps forward and kicks the legs from under her. For a heartbeat, Hoster notices her for the first time. Behind the black stripes, there's a near naked woman, he finally realizes. It makes him think about how many he has killed without noticing. Breasts have always been a favorite of his, so his brow wrinkles finding it quite odd.
He has no time to dwell on the thought, however, as the male ravage comes charging. This time Hoster thinks fast. He pulls out his dagger with his left hand and throws it in his face. He falls down screaming as the dagger broke all the ravage’s front teeth.
The woman kicks up, right into Hoster's groin, making him fall down to one knee. A cruel jape, he feels, probably punishment for the thought about her breasts.
She kicks again, this time at his head, but now Hoster grasps her foot and throws her down. She rolls around and grabs some dirt from the wall. The cold, hard soil hits him in the face and some gets in his eyes. He grunts and tries to get it out, when she stabs him in the gut with her dagger.
Hoster falls to his back, and the woman gets on top to finish the job. Another cruel jape, he thinks. If this is how it ends, he's inclined to laugh himself.
From above, Janeg jumps on top of the toothless ravage while stabbing him in the neck. He pulls the woman off Hoster, and they begin to roll around on the ground. Both lose their weapons in the struggle. With a firm grip, Janeg wraps his arms around her neck and begins to squeeze. A few heartbeats later, she's unconscious.
A slash of the throat and both ravages lie bloody in the pit. Hoster remains on his back, coughing up blood. The japes have gotten to him, and he can feel a smile broaden his face. Janeg will have to figure out something clever if he wants to get Hoster out of the hole.
Serk runs around inside the village, desperately trying to find a path free of smoldering fire. The flames have overtaken the village and has spread all the way to the palisade.
The ravages have either burned inside their huts or have run away from the deadly fires. Serk gets to the gate by the sea, where he sees Janeg come climbing out of a hole.
“Serk what are you still doing here?” he shouts when he spots him.
“I could ask you the same thing,” Serk replies.
“Hoster was chased down into this big hole. He's badly injured, so we need to find a way to get him out,” Janeg says. “We can do what I tried before, but it might work now that you can help. I stacked those two ravages on top of each other, which made me able to reach the edge. I still had to jump, and I barely made it, but if we push this big rock in, I might be able to stack the ravages on top. Then I’ll lift Hoster up, and you pull him out.”
Serk cannot think of anything better, so they both push the large rock into the hole. Janeg then jumps down and does as he said. He barely manages to haul the big Hoster up with him.
Serk lies on his stomach over the edge of the hole and drags the old chief out. They seat him next to another slightly smaller stone. Hoster is barely awake. With hazy eyes, he looks up at the now clear and starry night sky.
Janeg and Serk both run to find a burning log so they might sear the wound shut. Serk comes running back to Hoster, log in hand. He sits down in front of him and begins to remove his pelts. Janeg comes over and places one hand on Serk's shoulder.
“You can stop now. It's over,” he says in a soft voice. “The Wolf Chief howls no more.”
Serk looks up at Hoster, who is still smiling up at the stars. He holds one hand in front of his mouth and feels no breath.
“We'll make a sled and pull him back home with us. We can't let him rot here,” Janeg says.
The warm air of the burning village feels good against the cold night. They remain with Hoster as they rest for a bit.
“Hoster Half-beard, his name should have been,” Serk says as he regards the chopped up beard of the once great chief. “But Hoster Wolf Chief has a nice sound to it, I guess.”
Janeg and Serk share a look of agreement mixed with sadness.
Thoke is on his way up the steepest part of the mountain. Dorkas must have gone this way as the tracks in the snow remain fresh. One set of footprints turns into two as they walk side by side up the mountain. There's blood spatter everywhere, indicating the other person must be cut in some way. The tracks lead him further up toward the highest peak on the mountain.
Thoke comes on an especially steep part of the mountain and has begun climbing. After a while, he gets to what appears to be a plateau. With both hands, he pulls himself up and looks right at Dorkas standing above him. Dorkas first steps on his fingers, now without any kind of smile on his face, then he kicks Thoke's hands of the edge.
Thoke goes tumbling down the mountainside before coming to a stop in a heap of snow. He gets to his feet and shakes the snow off. His shoulder hurts, but that's not the worst part. For a first time in years, Thoke feels completely and utterly exhausted. He gazes up at all the progress lost, having fallen more steps than he can estimate.
Neera and the others are closing in on the top of the ridge. They have finally gotten above the tree line, which means they will now shortly be within view of their own burned village.
The journey has gone smoothly enough, but Terot is beginning to grow as pale as the snow they walk on. A break is needed. Gerak presses a rag of caribou skin to his brother’s wound.
Terot lies down while Neera gathers the children together. The night is cold and the small ones are at risk of catching it in their lunges. The touch of spring from the previous day seems to have retreated. Rhekir helps Gerak seal Terot's wound as tightly as possible.
Down in the forest they hear a twig break under someone’s foot. Rhekir stands up and looks down into the trees. “Someone's down there,” he says. “Go ahead. It might be Serk, Janeg, and Hoster. If not, I'll buy you some time.”
“Be careful, my boy,” Neera says as she pulls two of the children into her arms. “Don't fight them. Keep your distance and lure them away, if you must. Then you come after us.”
Gerak picks up the other two children, meaning Terot has to walk the
rest of the way on his own. Rhekir remains while the others disappear into the darkness. His eyes have adjusted to the absence of light. The moon is half full in the sky, making visibility weak but not as bad as it could be.
The sound of rattling noises gets closer. Rhekir holds his spear tightly in both hands. Fear spreads from his chest and into his hands as he shakes uncontrollably, making him have to fight to hold on to his spear. In front of him, a familiar face appears from between the trees. It's the man his father shot with an arrow before the ravages attacked their village.
Teemo's stripes of coal have been smeared across his bony body and blood seeps out of the wound in his chest. He looks pale and would have looked even paler if it wasn't for the coal.
He grabs a dagger from the inside of the pelts covering his left foot. With a scream, he runs at Rhekir in full sprint. Rhekir holds out his spear, not quite knowing what to do. Stabbing at your enemies in the heat of battle was pretty easy to figure out, but a one-on-one confrontation is something different entirely. Fear has completely engulfed him. It seems to have made him unable to even flee.
Teemo throws himself at Rhekir, who misses his thrust and gets knocked down. Teemo ends up sitting on Rhekir’s chest, raising his dagger to strike down. As it comes down, Rhekir grabs his arm and holds it back.
The sharp flint dagger comes dangerously close to Rhekir's nose. Teemo might be scrawny and sickly, but he's more relentless than anyone. At the last moment, Rhekir manages to push him aside.
Teemo quickly gets back to his feet, but he has lost his dagger. Rhekir scrambles for his spear and holds it up against him. Teemo drops to his knees while holding his hands up in submission.
“Don't kill me!” he screams. Rhekir holds his spear as steady as he can. “Thoke is going to walk right into a trap. Dorkas intends to throw your father off the cliff at the peak. Your father will die if you do nothing. Just let me live and I'll show you the way.”
Rhekir turns to look up at the steep cliffs at the top of the mountain. Before he manages to react, Teemo is on him again. Rhekir loses his spear as they roll around in the snow. Teemo tries to jab his thumbs deep into Rhekir's eyes.
Rhekir manages to stand up and keep his eyes closed, unharmed. Teemo still hangs on, however, now wrapping his legs around Rhekir's waist. Under his feet, Rhekir can feel rocks protruding from the snow. He steps a bit further along before jumping up and throwing himself forward. Teemo hits the ground with a crack.
Rhekir feels the ravage’s arms and legs go limp and gets to his feet. A pool of blood begins to form on the rock, under Teemo’s head.
He looks up at the mountain again and at the tracks Thoke and Dorkas left behind as they began their ascent. If Teemo was telling the truth, even if only to get an advantage in the fight, his father is in deep trouble.
His mind goes back to his sister and the thought of having done nothing to keep her safe. All he did was save himself. He then decides it's better to do something rather than nothing. If he hurries, he might make it up in time to save his father.
CHAPTER 24
Thoke climbs up yet another steep slope. The rock is black, cold, and dry. No snow sticks to it as the wind always blows it right off.
He pulls himself onto a shelf, thinking the top must be right above the next one. He's been thinking that for the last four shelves, though. His furs are saturated with blood, but they still give him some protection against the cold.
It's dark, but the half-moon makes it possible to see the edges. Where Thoke is climbing, he feels no wind, which makes him think it must be blowing on the other side; the wind always seems to blow somewhere this high.
With a powerful leap, he jumps up and finds himself on top of the mountain. This time the top actually was the next shelf. He looks around, seeing it's quite flat up here. There are two small hilltops on each side with a seemingly shallow pond in the middle.
He was right about the wind. It blows quite heavy up here. His hair flaps in the wind. The braids Neera made comes in handy right now. Dorkas is nowhere to be seen, and the wind is too loud for him to hear any other movement.
The second set of footprints lead another way, further down before the snow gives way to sheer rock. The tracks that were headed this way must have been from Dorkas as the others are much too small.
Thoke walks up on one of the small hills to see if Dorkas may have descended on that side. The rock appears to be pitch black during the night, even though the moon is partially lit. On his way, Thoke steps into the pond, thinking it might be frozen solid. He feels it and realizes it's warm to the touch. Slightly bewildered, he walks on.
From the hill Thoke can see both villages. Dorkas's village stands ablaze and even Thoke’s village still burns some. The last of the huts are about to burn down and large areas of the surrounding forest have caught on fire as well. It’s the biggest fire Thoke has never seen, as if the entire mountain is on fire.
Thoke walks to the edge in between the hills and looks down. Dorkas couldn't have climbed down here. It’s a straight drop to the rocks below. Not even Dorkas could have survived a fall that high.
Suddenly something hard hits him in the back of his head, a strike so strong he can barely remember having felt anything similar. A high-pitched whistle rings in his ears and his vision becomes blurry. He tries to move his feet forward, but they won't listen.
“Why couldn't you just have stayed gone?” Dorkas shouts. “My village could have been greater than any of the southern ones. Those people adored me, worshiped me. All you needed to do was to stay away.”
Dorkas kicks Thoke in the gut while he still lies on the rock. He flies several steps along the mountaintop, landing in the knee-deep pond, making water splash high into the air.
“You always ruin things for me. It's as if you can't even help it,” Dorkas continues. “First you took my chance to become chief after Thorkar, and now this. My village was beautiful. It kept people safe and fed. But now it's gone, because of you.”
Dorkas jumps up and slams his knee down toward Thoke, who gets away at the last moment, making Dorkas hit nothing but water and rock. His vision is beginning to clear up, and the whistling has started to fade.
“You should have kept away, Thoke. I never wanted this war!” Dorkas shouts even louder than before.
“You killed Larii!” Thoke growls. “That was all on you. Don't you make yourself believe any differently.”
“No! Do you have any idea how many women in my village lost their children? Most never lived to see more than ten years. Why are the gods like this, do you think?” Dorkas stands in the knee-deep water, holding his hands out. The moon reflects on the surface in front of him. He only wears some straps on his upper body again, defying the cold air around them. “Just ask them. This is where they live after all.” Dorkas holds his hands out and smiles that smug smile again. “Renai can't have children, so we took what the gods stole from us.” His smile fades as quickly as it appeared. “Larii got in the way, and for that I am truly sorry.”
Thoke lunges at Dorkas, giving him a flying punch in the face. Dorkas falls over but grabs Thoke and lifts himself back up. They stand with locked hands, both trying to wrestle the other to the ground. After a few heartbeats they both break their holds and throw a right-handed punch at the same time. Their fists touch each other’s chests at the very same time, sending them flying toward a hill on either side of them. Both smash into the rocks with a synchronous crash.
“We were best friends, Dorkas. We were brothers!” Thoke roars while trying to get back to his feet.
“We were like brothers, Thoke. There's a difference,” Dorkas yells back. He also attempts to stand straight. “Something you reminded me of every day. I was never Thorkar's son, just an insignificant attachment to the tribe. As if I were just any other boy.”
“These powers have made you mad, Dorkas,” Thoke says, shaking the nonsense from his head. “This ends now.”
“Ends? Ends? No, no, my old friend. This has j
ust begun!” Dorkas roars before leaping toward Thoke, who does the same. They both float through the air, meeting right above the pond.
Thoke lands a fist on Dorkas's jaw with a powerful impact, making Dorkas land on his back right near the steep cliff of the mountainside. Thoke jumps on to his feet in the pond, water splashing off everywhere. The water is no longer knee deep as it now barely reaches above his ankles.
Thoke steps over to Dorkas, grabs his throat in a tight grip, and lifts him in the air.
“I don't want to do this, Dorkas, but what other choice do you give me? Death follows you everywhere you go,” Thoke says, feeling sadness spread across his face.
Thoke remains standing for a while, feeling like he can't let go. Might his old friend still be in there somewhere? Did the gods do this to him? Perhaps killing him is wrong.
Dorkas takes advantage of Thoke's hesitation and kicks him in the stomach. He frees himself from Thoke's grip, but falls backwards over the edge. At the last heartbeat, he manages to grab Thoke's leg.
“Help me!” he pleads. “My friend, my brother, please. Pull me up!”
Thoke stands looking at him for a while, Dorkas’s legs flailing to find a hold in the rock. When he looks into Dorkas's eyes he begins to think of the silent Hiro with his bald head and body. Another of the gods japes, perhaps. He thinks of the mighty Garnek and the always friendly Mekar. He thinks of his dear little Larii, with eyes and hair just like his mother and brother. They all fell victim to Dorkas's madness. Perhaps he doesn't deserve to live and cause more harm.
“Can we survive such a fall, Dorkas, even us?” Thoke asks, looking down at the rocks over one hundred steps below and the frozen pond close by. “Landing in deep snow is one thing, but if you fall straight down here, you'll meet nothing but rock.”
Dorkas looks around with despair in his eyes, clearly trying to find a way out of this predicament. His face suddenly turns crooked.
“Skarn is alive!” he exclaims. “Your brother yet lives. I've seen him. I can lead you to him if you just help me up!”