“They’re not? What can be worse than giant wolves with rows of sharp teeth?”
“Sand devils...it is part of the reason I revealed myself to y’all, besides saving you from the wolves, that is.”
“I’ve got no idea what a sand devil is.”
“Be glad about it. They’re the stuff of nightmares, at least for those who call this forest home. Locally, they call them Kzaktors, which means something like burrowing blood-critter; but we ended up with sand devil in the Terran language, mainly because these creatures look like they come straight out of hell. We’ll actually be crossing their territory in a bit, but we’ve seen them to the south, too.
“While we traveled through the area, we noticed the wolves gave up pursuit. We thought we’d caught a lucky break, never thinking about what made the wolves actually give up. Then…the first night, people started disappearing. They seemed to vanish into thin air, until we started to find ripped off limbs in different places. One time, we all heard this horrific scream, but searching only turned up a few stumps of flesh which might have been fingers.”
Raylan saw Sebastian’s face pale from the memory of the horrors. The thought alone made it hard for Raylan to swallow.
“It took us two days to figure out something was taking these people at night, so we set up men to guard the camp inside, in addition to the ones already on the perimeter. That night, two of the men were doing their rounds, when a movement in the sand drew their attention. Something shifted under their feet in the loose sand.
“One of them suddenly sank into a sandpit and started screaming. By the time his friend pulled him out of the pit, both lower legs were already gone. Because of the scream, everyone saw the creature pop up for the first time.
“Its body, the length of a man, was similar to a giant centipede. It rose from the sandpit and thrust itself onto its denied meal. Its head had a row of multiple beady eyes on each side, with four small antennae on the top of its head. Its mouth split open in four directions, showing a gaping hole with rows of small, razor-sharp teeth lining all the way into its throat. Next to the mouth, it had two enormous pinchers, while it had six larger and dozens of smaller legs all the way down its body. It ripped right into both thighs of its victim with its pincers. The blood-soaked sand and the screams only attracted more of the blasted things.
“Everyone started panicking and running. Another three people were grabbed before the rest of the group ended up on a rock formation.”
Raylan looked at him in disbelief.
“You can’t be serious? Something like that exists?”
“I swear it’s the truth.”
“It must have been terrifying, but how did you all escape?”
“After another two days and nights on the rock formation, someone finally got up the nerve to test their reaction to a stick. We noticed they were a lot less active during the day. One of the creatures tried to grab the stick but fell back screeching. It looked like the light hurt its eyes. And, its movements slowed down considerably during the daytime. So, we took advantage of the daylight and made a hasty escape. Most swore never to go back there, anymore.”
“I can only imagine,” said Raylan.
After that, Raylan grew silent, for a while, to process things. If Sebastian had not shown up, who knows what such creatures might have done to their group…or Galirras.
They spent the night on a large branch which had developed a flat surface near the trunk. With a small campfire after a long day’s walk, Raylan quickly drifted off to sleep. His last thought went out to Galirras, as he wondered what the dragon had done during the day.
The next morning, they got an early start, and after the lunch break, Sebastian informed them they were making good time. They should reach the food depot before the sun set too low. He praised them for the quick study they were with walking in the trees.
“It’s like walking on the deck of a ship,” said Raylan, once they were on their way again. “I quite like it.”
“I’ve made that comparison myself, a few times,” said Sebastian with a smile.
“That’s right, you mentioned before you saw many strange creatures when you were sailing. Is that how you ended up here? By boat?”
Sebastian gave a small nod.
“Yeah, that was many summers ago. My father put together a crew to discover untouched riches at the other end of the Great Eastern Divide.”
“Many failed at making such attempts,” said Raylan.
“But that didn’t stop him. I’d served on his ship ever since I was twelve summers old. I was one of the ship’s best rope climbers, apart from this one little kid on our last trip.”
“So, what happened?”
“I was fifteen when we set sail. For weeks, we followed the coast of the Dark Continent, looking for a good spot to land. But the rocks were vicious and the currents treacherous. One day, heavy weather forced us to find shelter in a bay. During the night, we were raided by a large group of heavily armed men. They were covered—arms, chest, face—in tattoos. Most of the crew were instantly killed…my father amongst them.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
It was the only response Raylan could give.
“It was a long time ago…” he said, without sounding convincing, as he gave a smile that showed no happiness.
Sometimes, Sebastian would still wake up in the darkest moments of the night, reliving the attack, seeing the butchering all over again, even after all those years.
“They took the younger ones with them and torched the ship. They didn’t even check for valuables…just torched it and let it burn. Those who hadn’t been killed, the wounded, were left to the flames.”
Raylan saw Sebastian clench his jaws.
“Where did they take you?”
“We ended up with a small group of prisoners in a crammed city. It had an immense palace, looming over it. The palace was as black as a starless night. I’d never seen stone like that before in my life. It seemed like every person in that city was afraid. It was like you could taste the fear in the air.”
“Did they keep you in the city?”
“Nah, actually we didn’t stay there for long. They moved us to work deep in some mines, not allowing us to breathe fresh air for days. It was hard labor, filthy and unhealthy work. Lots of people just gave up in those dark tunnels. The light of life never returned to their eyes. By the time we finally managed to escape in a revolt, I’d left my childhood years behind me. It’d been almost four years since I’d seen the sky…”
Raylan could not imagine being stuck underground for so long. He needed the open sky. He loved the freedom of the open ocean, surrounded by nothing but miles and miles of possibilities to go where you wanted. Those tunnels would have felt like a death sentence.
“…when we broke out, I tried to take as many of those bastards’ lives as I could; but we had no real weapons and, more importantly, we needed to get out quickly if we wanted to live. I think we were lucky to make it out alive, and I intend to make the most of still being alive.”
“They didn’t come after you?”
“Of course they did. We were relentlessly hunted by the dark forces. Some were caught. We split up into smaller groups to avoid mass capture. Most of us were far from anywhere we’d call home, and the mountains and the forest proved a dangerous place with all the wolves, bears and other creatures. It was nothing short of a miracle that we found that cove when we did.”
“You never wanted to return to Aeterra?”
“Wanted, yes. Could, no. Our group consisted of not only men, but women, young children, and the elderly. They would never have survived such a long journey, under the constant fear of being recaptured. When we stumbled upon the clearing, most of us were exhausted, in need of rest. I think we might have lingered too long. Some of us got too settled. It felt safe, and most of us didn’t want to give up that feeling.”
“How did you survive?”
“By doing what was necessary. We hunted,
gathered, scavenged, stole, built, you name it. We stole from enemy outposts, but only if there was little chance of being discovered. It has been difficult, but most of our group is able to find happiness in just being alive. We even had a few new additions over the years, some freed slaves but also a handful of newborns.”
“They were never able to find you?”
Sebastian shook his head.
“We’ve been very careful, only taking the risk of exposure if it was really necessary. The sand devil territory has worked in our favor for all these years, I expect. The nearest enemy outpost that we know of is a week’s walk from here. This food storage depot is fairly recent, I believe. It’s the closest we have to our settlement now. The last few seasons, it’s actually been easier to move around and raid things, like stockpiles and warehouses. The soldier patrols have barely been present, for some time now. Maybe we’ve just been forgotten.”
Sebastian’s face grew darker.
“I’ve been asking for more direct action. I want…I need to hit them where it hurts. I tried to convince the council that now was the time, but I’ve received a lot of protest. Their fear of being discovered is still greater than their desire to get even, or to help the other slaves still left in the mines. Some seem to have forgotten how awful those mine tunnels were. Perhaps running into you means that I can convince everyone to take the next step, to fight back, to secure our freedom or, at least, to return home to Aeterra.”
“I don’t know about that. We’re in more than a pickle ourselves, at the moment. We’ve been on the run for weeks. Aren’t you afraid of drawing attention by helping us?”
Sebastian shrugged his shoulders.
“I’m sick and tired of hide and seek all the time. I want to take action, but I can’t force them to join me, and I can’t do anything alone. I guess we’ll see when we get back.”
“It seemed like Svetka wasn’t really looking for a way home. She seems like a difficult woman,” said Raylan.
“Svetka can indeed be difficult to reason with, sometimes, but she has the best in mind for the entire village. She’s very well respected and one of the key people that made it possible for us to escape during the slave riot.”
“So, she was a slave, too, right? Why doesn’t she have the mark on her cheek, like the rest of you?”
Sebastian stayed quiet for a moment, as if deciding if he should react or not.
“It is the practice used for women who are used as entertainment for the soldiers,” said Sebastian, eventually. “She doesn’t often speak of those times, but she has spent a lot of nights in unwelcome company, with no means of refusing. It’s one of the main reasons why she helped organize the uprising. Not every woman would be able to live through such days without losing herself.”
The sun was setting slowly when Sebastian signaled them to quiet down and huddle up. A little ways ahead, he pointed out a small cluster of buildings, surrounded by a wooden wall. Two sentries were visible in front of the gate, but no soldiers seemed to be on the walls.
As they moved closer and circled around the compound, Raylan pointed out a number of horses present on the inner yard.
“They weren’t there some days ago,” said Sebastian.
Now that they were closer, they heard men laughing and some flute music playing.
Sebastian pointed to one of the back structures.
“That’s the food storage depot.”
“How are we going to get there now, with all these people around?” asked Raylan.
“We’ll have to wait until things quiet down. Once the night turns toward morning, we’ll have a better chance of getting in unseen.”
“So, how will we get in,” said Gavin. “I’d like to know the plan before we get started.”
“We will use the trees to get as close as possible. I would suggest we work in teams of two, like we normally do. Instead of hooking the rope to the branches, we will leave the pack up in the trees and hook the rope to our harnesses. One person in the team will be in control of the descender. That way the sound of the pack’s moving parts will be kept to a minimum up in the trees. The other person will hook the rope into his harness and lower himself into the compound.
“Once on the ground, any sacks of food will be hooked on the rope and lifted into the trees. The signal will be three short pulls in order to start manually reeling in the rope; in the meantime, the person on the ground waits, in hiding, until the rope is lowered again. Depending on the food we find, we should get a full size sack for each person to carry back to the settlement. We will focus on grains and slow spoiling food.”
“Also, if we find any seeds whatsoever, we take those, too, if only a couple of hands full. The garden platforms can use some fresh crop seeds,” added Twan.
“After we have enough sacks, the men on the ground will be reeled back up—one by one—to minimize any noise, and then we’re off,” finished Sebastian.
“It’s not a bad tactic,” said Gavin, “if you can stay hidden. What is your fallback plan?”
“We’ve never had any trouble before,” said Twan.
“Not good enough,” said Gavin, as he shook his head. “You need an exit strategy, in case things go wrong. And where is your entry point, precisely? As far as I can see, there is no other door besides the one in the front of the food storage depot and that faces the inner yard.”
“Why don’t we go in through the roof? No one is on the walls. They don’t have a tower. The roof is not that high, and there is a latch in it on the far side. It will be out of sight of the main gate, and the lighting is low…there should be enough cover of darkness to stay put. One or two people can be lowered into the hatch, and then they can pass the food up onto the roof. The others can hook them up to the cables,” suggested Raylan, before Sebastian could answer.
“You took the words right out of my mouth,” said Sebastian, smiling.
“As for your exit strategy, enemy contact means getting out of there as soon as possible. The rope should be ignored, if possible; we don’t want to risk them knowing we move through the trees. Retreat on ground level, toward the west, back in the direction of the settlement. It won’t be easy to keep up in the trees, but we’ll try to cut ahead and set up a cover ambush with our crossbows,” added Sebastian.
Raylan saw his brother think on this for a while.
“That’s not much of a reassurance,” spoke Gavin.
“We all know it is a risk, but it is how we’ve survived for a long time. We know what we’re doing,” said Sebastian.
“And who’ll go down into the compound?”
“I want two of my guys up in the trees, so that we experienced men controlling the descenders if anything goes wrong. Three of you can help man the other descenders and move the food out of the way as it is brought up. The other two will need to come down with us. It’s up to your lot to decide who that’ll be.”
“I’ll go down,” said Raylan, right away.
“I have no problems with heights either…not anymore, at least,” said Ca’lek, volunteering.
They spoke some more on the precise details of the plan and spent time practicing knots, tying the cable and using the mechanisms of the descenders. They used the remaining time catching up on sleep, until it was time to move. Otis offered to take first watch.
By the time the moon had fallen halfway in the sky, the sounds from the compound had finally died down. Everybody was getting ready. Raylan secured the cable to his harness and stepped up to the edge. It took his mind some time to convince his body to take that final step and hang into the harness; but before he knew it, he was dangling a hundred feet above ground. It was a strange sensation to have no control over your movement as he saw Rohan control the lever that let him descend softly toward the compound.
They landed on the roof of the food building with the softest of thuds, something to be admired as the person doing the lowering was quite a long way from there. They unhooked the cables and passed them to Otis and Ivar. Raylan, Ca�
��lek and Sebastian moved toward the hatch in the roof to get it open. As they pried the blade of a sword into the crack in the hatch, the wood creaked loudly. They all froze. No reaction was heard. They pushed open the hatch and quickly lowered themselves into the food building, disappearing out of sight.
After his eyes adjusted to the dark surroundings, Raylan saw there was a lot more food present than they would be able to take with them.
“Why is all this food here?” he whispered.
“You’ve got these kinds of food stores all over the roads of the Dark Continent, although most are far from the coastal areas. They’re used to feed soldiers on patrols, to act as food reserves or as temporary stops for traveling replacement forces. They’re usually very well stocked and too good of an opportunity to pass up on.”
They quickly chose the sacks for the first haul and lifted them up through the hatch in the roof. Otis and Ivar hooked them and gave the signal to reel in the first ones. Raylan saw the sacks disappear into the darkness with little fits and starts. Sebastian had been right though, no whirring sound was heard from the packs nor from their men up in the tree.
Working in the back of the storage depot, they moved quickly, checking crates and sacks for the most useful food to take. After the second haul, Ca’lek returned to the trees again, slowly ascending upward. Shortly after that, Otis and an extra sack on Ivar’s cable went up. And after that, Ivar and another sack.
Checking two of the last crates, Raylan and Sebastian saw a big sack with seeds. Grabbing two empty sacks and tying them together to hang around their necks, they scooped in as much seeds as possible.
As they walked to the back of the storage depot, a loud clang startled them. They heard the door open and barely jumped behind a few stacks of crates in the back of the storage room, before two dark silhouettes walked inside and closed the door.
Windcatcher: Book I of the Stone War Chronicles Page 26