by Jamie Davis
“Are you alright? Do you want to talk?” Mona asked.
“I’m fine. Kareena lived a long life and ruled her empire well for the most part. I wish she’d lived long enough for us to show her that her great-granddaughter still lived, but there’s nothing I can do about that now. This clinches it, though. We need to move. Things have been set in motion that will make it much harder on Cari, now.”
“What do you mean?”
“Think about it, Mona. The Empress is dead. That means Timron will be crowned unless we can get the princess there first. Once he’s on the throne, it’ll be difficult to dislodge him. Once Cari finds out, she’ll realize that, too.”
“How long do you think we have? I thought Timron was in hiding somewhere here in the west country.”
“That’s the rumor. It means this whole quest has just become a race to get the next ruler on the throne first. Pack your things, Mona. We’ve got to slip out of the city tonight.”
“Where are we headed and how will we get there?”
“Tandon. As to how we get there, the Colonel is letting the fishing boats out of the harbor to bring in their catch. He has to in order to keep the town from starving while his troops are here. I had Stefan make prior arrangements with one of the fishing captains to run us up the coast to Tandon just in case of a situation like this.”
“I’d better pack up my tools and gear. There are a few things I need from the smithy to continue my work while we travel. Heath, will you accompany me back to the shop? I might need to take a few of your tools with me if that’s alright.”
“Of course, Mona. You can have whatever you need.”
“Good, thank you.” Mona grabbed her cloak. “Hal, I’ll be back before midnight. We’ll gather young Stefan from the inn by the harbor where he’s been hiding out and slip past the curfew patrols. That way we can all be at the harbor before dawn.”
“Perfect. We’ll sail out with the fishing fleet to get the morning’s catch. With luck, we’ll be back in Tandon inside of a week.”
Mona nodded and wondered what Cari was doing as they prepared to set out after her once again.
Chapter 8
Cari ducked under the officer’s saber thrust, snapping her own blade out straight as a steel extension of her left arm. The thin rapier thrusted into his abdomen.
As the officer doubled over, she pulled her blade free and swung in with her other hand plunging her dagger through his neck. She must’ve severed his spine because he collapsed in a heap at her feet.
3,500 experience awarded
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw one of the Imperial Marines raise his musket to his shoulder and aim it in her direction. Diving forward, Cari got behind a tree just in time. The bullet took a chunk of bark off the tree right where her head had been seconds before.
Knowing the marine had to reload, Cari charged from behind the tree to take him out. He was fumbling with this ramrod and didn’t see her coming until it was too late.
Within seconds she was on top of him knocking him to the ground and killing him with a single dagger thrust to his chest.
2,500 experience awarded
Remaining down on one knee, Cari slowly raised her head above the surrounding brush and scanned the forest, searching for the rest of her party. The attack had come without warning and scattered them as they ran into the trees to escape the ambush.
The naval officers and their marines, who’d disembarked ashore from the Frigate anchored in the cove, had pressed deeper and deeper into the troll’s mountain forests every day. They had not given up the search for the crew of the schooner anchored in the cove beside their ship.
This last attack had pushed deeper than ever before, catching Cari and her friends by surprise as they followed a group of trolls to a safer encampment farther into the mountains.
To her right, she caught movement out of the corner of her eye. About a hundred feet away, Francesca finished off one of the marines with a hacking slash of her saber. Cari called out to her. “Where are Percy and Jaycee?”
Francesca shrugged then pointed a finger over her right shoulder indicating she thought they were somewhere behind her in the forest.
Cari didn’t think that was a good thing. From the sound of the fighting around them, it seemed like the imperial forces, under the control of one of the Duke’s pet naval officers, were all around them now, interspersed through the trees. “Break off contact here, then go find them. You search that way. I’ll back up and search over here.
Francesca nodded and trotted off into the trees. Cari rose to a crouch and started backing up through the brush, keeping low and hidden in the thick bushes beside the trail. There was fighting all around her. She heard the bellows and grunts of her troll companions. To them, this was a desperate fight to protect their homeland and their invited guests.
She didn’t smell smoke, which was good. It didn’t appear that the marines had come prepared with fire this time. Even though there were not that many trolls with Cari’s party, they were holding their own and, with their regenerative abilities, they’d be powerful allies.
“Cari?” Helen’s voice sounded from behind her. Cari turned to the left, keeping an eye forward for any incoming attacks. As she worked her way around a rocky outcropping, Cari spotted her first mate behind a tree. Several imperial marines lay dead around where she hid.
“I’m looking for Percy and Jaycee. Have you seen them?”
“No. We got separated when they hit us on the trail. It was all I could do to fight off the ones that had me cornered.”
“Same here,” Cari said. “I saw Percy grab the princess by the arm and run off into the woods away from the attack. I’m worried some of the marines might have swung around to the east, anticipating we’d run away from their initial assault.”
“That’s not good, Cari. What do you want to do?”
“I sent Francesca back in the other direction from here. Why don’t you head off to the left and back through the woods and see if you can find them? I’ll go back and run straight up the middle and see if I can find Chrrrak. He might’ve seen them.”
“Got it. Where shall we meet if I find them?”
“Chrrrak said he was leading us up the trail to a plateau with a large oblong boulder pointed at the sky. He called it ‘the finger.’ Let’s meet up there. Just keep going up the trail until you find it.”
“Alright.” Helen gave Cari a thumbs up gesture and headed off into the woods to the left.
Cari moved around from behind the tree the two of them had been using as cover and spotted more movement coming from in front of their position. There was a flash of red uniforms through the trees. It meant more marines moved through the woods ahead. This attack was more extensive than she thought. This was much larger than a random patrol. Clearly, they’d planned this attack carefully and brought enough force to hammer it home. She needed to find Percy and Jaycee and get out of here fast.
Backing away from the tree, Cari turned and ran as quickly as she could back towards the central trail. She had to find the troll chieftain and check to see if he knew where the kids were.
A gunshot sounded to her right and a bullet splintered the low-hanging tree branch next to her shoulder as she ran. It was followed immediately by two more shots from behind her.
Cari heard one bullet as it flew past her ear. It sounded like an angry bumblebee buzzing by her.
The second bullet was on target. The shot slammed into the back of her right leg.
Cari tumbled to the ground in agony as her leg gave out beneath her.
Health damage — health -22
Cari rose to her uninjured knee and tried to examine the wound. There was an open hole in the front of her leg. The bullet had passed through the muscle and not struck bone. It was bleeding profusely but not spurting. It didn’t look good but she could keep going, though more slowly than before.
She considered for a few seconds using the regenerative ability she’d gained when she bec
ame a blood-sibling with Chrrrak the last time she was here. She decided she was better off saving it for when she might really need it later on.
Sheathing her dagger and slapping her hand down over the wound to try to stem the bleeding, Cari got back to her feet and limped along as fast as she could go. She was almost back to the main trail.
A grunt and a bellow to her right told her one of the trolls was locked in combat with someone.
Cari headed over that way and saw Chrrrak engaged in hand to hand combat with two Marines. One of them had his bayonet fixed on his musket’s barrel. He used it to punch the sharpened point into the troll chief’s shoulder. The force of the blow pressed him back against a tree.
The marine drove forward, trying to pin the troll in place.
The other marine swung a cutlass with two hands. He hacked at Chrrrak’s already injured leg on the opposite side.
The huge troll swung wildly with his talons trying to attack and drive the marines backward. He was in so much pain, and so sorely injured, he wasn’t doing much to stop them.
Cari, seeing an advantage, charged forward and hit her friend’s two opponents from behind.
Gritting her teeth through the pain in her leg, she ducked her shoulder and slammed into the back of the marine wielding the cutlass. He fell to the ground with a grunt. His cutlass skittered away across the dirt out of reach.
Cari rolled to her feet, grunting at the throbbing ache as she put more weight on her injured leg. Luckily it held her.
She stabbed downward with her rapier trying to catch the man while he was still on the ground.
He was faster than she expected, though.
The marine rolled back to his feet and dove in the direction of his lost cutlass. He came up with it in his hands.
He grinned at her, a couple of his teeth missing, and said, “You’re the one we are looking for. There’s a pretty price on your head. Where’s the little girl?”
“Somewhere you’re never going to find her.” Cari drew her dagger and dove in with a series of vicious attacks with both blades. Chrrrak would have to handle the other marine by himself. She had little doubt he would be able to do so.
Her attacks drove the marine backward for a second, then he regained his composure and pressed forward. His defensive moves shifted to attacks as he countered her forward motion with strikes of his own. Both of them managed to land blows within seconds of each other as Cari stabbed him through the shoulder, while his cutlass hacked down into the side of her lower leg.
Health damage — health -10
Cari nearly fell to the ground after the hit. It was the same leg with the bullet hole in it.
Growling, she forced herself to maintain a fighting stance and parried the next attack with her dagger making him swing wide.
It was the opening she needed.
She thrust her sword home through the marine’s heart.
Judging from the startled expression on his face, he expected her to fall first when he hacked into her leg.
2500 experience awarded
Cari turned to help her friend, but Chrrrak had already finished off the other marine. He limped over to her as he pulled the bayonet from his shoulder with a grunt.
“Cari fight good. We were surprised. Where are friends?”
“That’s what I’m trying to find out. Have you seen the boy and the girl?”
Chrrrak managed a pretty good approximation of a human shrug and shook his head.
“I have to go find them. I told my friends to meet up at the rock you called The Finger farther up the trail.”
“That good. We stop attackers here Go. Find friends. Meet at finger rock.”
Cari nodded and limped across the trail in the direction she thought Percy must’ve taken Jaycee. She thought she heard an attack coming from the side and she darted behind a tree ready to hack down the pursuer as they ran past.
She leaped out and managed to barely stop her blade from hacking into Francesca’s neck. The woman was racing through the forest past Cari’s hiding place.
“Have you seen them?”
“No, ma’am. But there’s a whole bunch of additional marines coming up the trail behind me. I ran this way to try and find you to give you a warning.”
“That’s not good news,” Cari said. “We’ve got to find the kids. Let’s split up again. We’ll keep searching. The plan is to meet up farther up the trail at the rock Chrrrak called The Finger. He said it’s on a ledge with a tall oblong rock pointed at the sky.”
“That shouldn’t be too hard to find. I’ll see you there, Captain. I’ll head off this way. You go to the right.”
Cari smiled and patted Francesca on the back, then ran off to the right looking for the kids. She’d gone about fifty yards into the woods when she heard a young girl scream. Despite the pain in her leg, Cari increased her speed, running as fast as she could, even though the searing pain brought tears to her eyes.
She checked to see if she could do better and use the burst of speed skill, but her power-up bar had not yet reached full combat mode. She couldn’t access that ability yet. Still, even injured she was pretty fast.
Cari ran at a full sprint into a small clearing to find an officer and a marine facing down against Percy with Jaycee behind him backed against a rock outcropping. They were cornered.
Cari noted there was a dead marine on the ground nearby. Percy had done well for himself protecting the princess so far, but he was going to get killed if Cari didn’t get in there and stop this attack.
Charging at the two men, Cari yelled, “I’m right behind you, assholes. Why don’t you turn around and fight someone your own size?”
The naval officer and the marine spun around just in time to catch Cari’s double attack on their weapons. She tried to take them both out with one move, but it didn’t work.
The officer batted aside her rapier blade with his saber. The marine used the stock of his musket to parry her incoming dagger.
Then it was Cari’s turn to backpedal and avoid the follow-up attacks. She broke from the first of the attacks and used her acrobatic dodge skill to dive forward in a roll that got her underneath the attacks from both the bayonet at the end of the musket and the officer’s saber. Bouncing back to her feet, grimacing through the pain, Cari turned and came up ready to fight again, this time with Percy and Jaycee behind her.
“Let’s see how the two of you do now that you can’t gang up on two children. Come on boys, let’s party.”
“I got one of them, Captain,” Percy said from behind her.
“I see that. Good work. Stay there and keep Jaycee back.”
The officer darted in from her right.
At the same time, the marine lunged forward with his bayonet at her midsection from the other side.
Cari had to make an awkward move to get one of her blades in front of each weapon and she was only partially successful.
She managed to knock away the bayonet thrust with her sword, but her dagger was unable to completely block the incoming saber slash. It scored a long wound across her back. It felt like fire running from her shoulder blade to her midsection.
Health damage — health -15
Cari hissed at the pain but shrugged it off. She tried a riposte attack against the bayonet-armed Marine. He made a desperate move to swing his musket back into position and block her, but Cari was able to dive under his guard and come up in front of him while she stabbed downward into his thigh with her dagger. He groaned at the pain of the attack but managed to bring the stock of the musket around and club at Cari’s shoulder with it, knocking her backward.
Health damage — health -8
Cari felt a tingling sensation on the back of her neck and brought up her rapier and spun around just in time to knock aside the incoming saber attack. Her prescience skill had let her know the officer was launching the attack from behind her. Once again, she thanked that particular skill for warning her of incoming attacks before they happened.
Continuing her spinning move, Cari brought her sword around and launched a swirling barrage of attacks that the marine was unable to fend off. She thrust once through his shoulder and a second time through his throat, finishing him.
2,500 experience awarded
The officer snarled when his attack missed and started to back away after Cari killed his companion.
She turned and sneered at him. “You’re not going to get away that easily. Now that you’ve seen who I protect, I have no choice but to kill you where you stand.”
“You’ll try,” the officer said. “I have survived worse than you.”
“I doubt that. Don’t you know, I am the Dread Raider Cari.”
The officer’s eyes widened at hearing the name. He increased speed backing up.
Cari realized he was trying to reach the cover of the trees around the clearing. She knew if he got to the tree line, he might make his escape. With her injuries, she couldn’t outrun him.
The officer turned in that instant and ran for the tree line. She realized he was going to beat her to the trees and the cover they offered. Cari had already fired both her pistols, so she wasn’t going to be able to get him that way. She was afraid she’d lost him when Francesca stepped out from behind a tree and thrust her cutlass into the officer’s chest. He never even saw it coming. He fell to the ground his eyes locked wide in surprise as they glazed over in death.
“Good work, Francesca. We couldn’t afford for him to get back and tell them we were here, he’d also identified the princess.”
“All in a day’s work, ma’am.” Francesca pointed at Cari’s leg. “You’re injured, Captain.”
“Yeah, and it hurts like a bitch, too. Give me a second. Go and check on the kids.”
Cari concentrated on her skills menu, bringing up her inherent skill to regenerate sixty health points, once a day. Now was as good a time as any to use it. She was going to need to be at or near full strength if they were going to run up the trail and climb the mountain far enough to reach finger rock.