by C J Timms
Sterling, to his credit, flushed bright red, then took a long drink from his beer. An awkward silence settled over the campfire.
‘I’ve got one,’ said Yip, breaking his silence ‘Never have I ever lived off the money of a drug kingpin.’ He looked straight down the line at Swan.
‘Frak you.’ Swan said, throwing her drink at Yip. She rose from the fire and stormed off. Yip drained his hip flask and walked away from the fire also.
‘Going to stretch my legs.’
Sterling tried to revive the drinking games, but the mood was gone. Gale shifted over to sit next to him. ‘Listen, Sterling, we’re all trying to get along on this team. Have you made amends with Swan?’
‘I apologised, didn’t I? I bought her a cactus.’
A scream rang out. A metallic taste filled Gale’s mouth, and pounding filled his ears. Gale jumped to his feet and summoned his harpoon.
A hungry mouth, the size of a cement mixer, erupted from the ground and bit at Hotaru. Gale rammed his harpoon into the open jaws holding them back. The creature had a black bulbous body with rubbery flesh and an eyeless face. A leech, he realised. A leech the size of a truck.
Titus roared and leapt onto the beast, bringing out his can of Aerogard and spraying it into its mouth. The monster shrieked and bucked, throwing Titus from it. Gale’s harpoon dislodged, the leech screamed and then disappeared back into a tunnel in the earth.
Titus held up the Aerogard. ‘I told you it works on everything.’
‘Form a circle, backs to the fire.’ Gale yelled. ‘Yip, Swan, get your arses back here.’
Gale scanned the darkness looking for his team. Swan skidded to a halt by the fire, Slagblade out and covered in black ichor. Yip was nowhere to be seen.
They all drew weapons around the fire, staring at the ground. The twins wriggled their toes, sensing vibrations in the dirt? Gale saw something darting through the shadows, outside the flickering firelight. A murky brown bear-like beast but with a long neck sinuous neck.
‘Come on, Yip, get back to safety.’ He cursed, watching the beast charge into the night.
Something exploded into the House Solvent fire and then the House Laurels group. Their eyes swung that way, then vibrations rumbled underneath them.
A leech erupted from the ground, lunging at Bella this time. Bella tucked and rolled. Sterling and Swan swung at the creature but collided with each other. Swan shoved Sterling off her.
‘Rule fifty-two, a man charges in.’ Titus roared charging at the beast with a steel bbq fork, hurling the still hot BBQ in front of him. The BBQ collided with the creature and sizzled its flesh. The leech swung its body and smashed Titus sideways into a nearby tree, knocking him out cold.
Gale gritted his teeth. ‘Swan, Sterling, pull your head’s in and work together. Sterling, drag Titus back to the fire. Bella, Hotaru, cover him.’
The twins nodded and bent low, the flames flickered then swirled around them. The fire rolled up their ankles, their calves then leapt to their hands. The flame took on a green and orange glow.
The twins charged forwards, fire trailing off their hands and feet. Bella somersaulted into the air while Hotaru slid underneath the beast. They dragged the fire across the leech's hide, setting it ablaze. The leech caught fire and screamed its fury. The wyldflame turned it into a burning pyre that shrivelled up and collapsed in front of them. Hotaru made finger-guns and blew the smoke off them.
Well…that was neat.
‘Gale, the other campsites.’ Swan said. The other campsites were being swarmed by leeches. They’d camped atop a nest of some sort, and the centre was where the other fires were. They needed to make a unified front.
Hotaru stepped up, fire danced on her bare feet and hands. ‘Bella will hold this fire. I will help you gather the others.’ Hotaru swirled her hands in front of her conjuring a lamp on a chain that she spun and shot flames forward.
‘Not just carnies then?’ Gale said
‘Dancers, fire-dancers that is.’ Hotaru grinned. ‘Keep up.’
Gale and Hotaru charged into the night. Gale speared through a leech with harpoon, seeing its toxic black blood run onto the ground. Anger swelled up inside of him, he was meant to hunt.
He speared through another, then another, fighting his way side by side with Hotaru to the bonfire for House Baxtro. Hotaru spun on her hands, spinning her legs in a circular kick, sending a wheel of flame into the leeches. The students rallied to them.
Hotaru spun, kicked and punched. She summoned her own weapon, a wicked-looking chained brazier that flew wide around her, increasing her reach. With the Baxtro students gathered to them, they pushed on. The Solvent fire had been overrun without the twins and Flint there. They pushed onwards to the Eternus camp. Again and again, they pushed back the leeches. They picked up a few standing canuteian monk students at their camp.
Another leech fell to flames, Gale ripped his spear from it and cursed. No sign of the Blood Knight, just these things.
They reached the House Laurels fire and saw Alisdair had kept them all close. The house Laurels members had held behind walls of shifting sand, Alisdair manipulating the ground beneath them. Bodies of leeches lay cut apart by their magic. Bodies withered husks dehydrated by Alisdair’s powers. The pricks hadn’t gone to help anyone.
Hotaru collapsed by the flames. ‘Are you alright?’ Gale asked.
Hotaru gave a weak grin, her Script tapped. She slumped onto his shoulder. ‘Yeah…takes more than that to burn out good wyldfolk. This is my idea of a good date.’ She winked.
Gale chuckled. Then he felt the grasping damp take hold and his lungs shuddered. He fell to hands and knees.
The rest of the Lighthouse joined them at the largest bonfire. With the last of their strength, Bella and Hotaru sent the fire shooting up into the sky. A raging signal fire. Signalling the other smiths.
Gale sat, his back to the fire and scanned in the Vibe. He could sense it out there, the red wraith, the Blood Knight. The Blood Knight had gotten behind their lines and attacked the supply train. They must have laid a false trail and doubled back. Frakking oldest trick in the book.
A shape limped into the bonfire’s light. Yip, covered in bite marks, toxic black blood covering his clothes fell to the ground.
‘Where the bleeding heck were you’ Swan asked Yip.
‘I work best in the dark.’ Yip muttered then passed out.
‘Noone will recognise your greatness in the dark,’ said Sterling. ‘Only monsters in there.’
Gale - Hunter becomes the hunted
Dawn took its sweet time turning up. Students huddled around the smouldering embers of the campfire, half slumped on the ground, the other half holding weapons with shaking arms. Thirty freshmen had been assigned to guard the baggage train, half were left standing. The others alive but unable to fight. Script would heal the injured with time.
Time however was not on their side.
His current patient Flint, like most of the standing, had the severe burns of Script pushed to its limits. At least no-one had burnt out completely. Only House Laurels and the Lighthouse had all its members battle-ready. Gale rubbed the raw red skin on his forearm and turned back to his task. He didn’t need Script to fix everything. He just wished he had some anaesthetic, how had they marched into battle without pain killers?
Flint slouched back against a tree, his radius tenting the skin of his forearm. Sweat beaded on Flint’s forehead, his jaw clenched. Yip handed Flint a stick to bite down on. Gale held up three fingers, Yip grabbed Flint’s arm.
‘Three, two…’ Gale pulled hard. With a clunk, Flint’s radius fell into place.
‘Hmmph’ Flint grunted and passed out. Man of few words, was Flint. Gale liked blokes of few words, meant they didn’t complain much. Gale slowly moulded a cast over the bone to keep it straight.
Yip wrapped the cast in bandage. ‘They’re slow bleeding us. Want to feed on us for as long as possible, frakking leeches.’
Gale nodded, they
needed to be moving fast. With most people’s Script tapped out, they were down to basic first aid.
Hotaru slipped past his shoulder, in between patients. She laid a hand on his shoulder. He felt a brief flicker of Script and his burns receded a bit. Hotaru gave him a fleeting smile, then staggered. He caught her on his shoulder and laid her down.
‘Rest,’ he said. ‘You had a hot date last night.’
Hotaru grinned and caught her breath on the ground. She fell into a shallow sleep. Bella and Hotaru had a particular talent for healing. They had, however, been slipping IOU notes into the pockets of the injured.
‘You sure we want to stick around, mate?’ Yip whispered to him. ‘I can get us back but not with the wounded. Don’t get me wrong, I want to help them, but at a certain point, you gotta look after yourself first. I ain’t gonna die for the cause. This ain’t a reason to burn out.’
Gale scratched the back of his head. Swan and Sterling were still standing. Titus had a wicked lump on his head but was back to his usual self. Well, usual for Titus. They could move and move fast if they didn’t have to pick anyone else up. Nearby, Hotaru started snoring.
‘We look after our own.’ Gale said. ‘That includes all our colleagues, whether or not they’re dickheads. Reef knows the system ain’t looking after them.’
‘Even Alisdair?’ Yip asked.
This leadership business was damn hard. What would Tony Robbins say? What would Brene Brown do? Gale touched the copy of ‘Lifting Great Weight’ in his pocket. Gale held out a hand and tilted it from side to side, the universal sign of a hard maybe.
‘Gather round.’ Gale yelled.
The standing first years gathered to him. The Lighthouse. Bella from Solvent, picking up her sister and plopping her down next to her. Two komodo’s from House Eternus, Hsien he recognised from the entrance exam. Others he didn’t recognise. All of House Canute was down.
House Laurels had all its members standing.
‘Where is Alisdair?’ Gale asked.
Brock, a mountain of muscle from House Laurels, shrugged and looked away. ‘Sleeping.’
‘He must be tired from all that help you gave us last night.’ Hotaru said.
Brock and the other House Laurels members shuffled their feet. ‘He gave the orders. Stay by the fire.’
Hotaru spat to the side then poked Brock in the gut. ‘Sometimes, the person in charge gives the wrong orders.’
Gale unfurled a map on the ground. ‘We’re currently fifteen kilometres North of the reality fracture. The seniors are an unknown distance North of us. Yip can you calculate how far ahead.’
Yip frowned. ‘No, too many variables, I don’t know how far the seniors can travel in a day. That said, the bonfire the twins lit should have been seen within a ten-kilometre radius based on height and elevation.’
‘I don’t suppose anyone knows how to make a reality fracture?’ Gale asked. Everyone shook their heads. Only Sawbones, specially trained fracturesmiths, could do that.
‘Well, then our only option is to beeline for the fracture. There’s no defensible structures out here, those leeches will literally bleed us dry.’
‘Did you bastards take my map!’ said Alisdair. He stormed over from his tent, unscathed from the attack. Alisdair butted into the circle. ‘ I heard you talking about running away. Our orders are to guard the baggage train, and someone will come to find us. The best thing to do is stay put.’
‘If someone was coming, they would have sent a scout already.’ Gale said. ‘Use your head.’
‘Well what crackpot scheme are you proposing?’ Alisdair said getting up in Gale’s face.
‘We dump the baggage and use the carts to carry the wounded.’ Gale said.
‘Frak that, I’m not abandoning all the cargo we were sent to guard, this is my expedition. My job is to supply the main group.’ Alisdair said.
‘And a frakking top job you’ve done too.’ Swan said. ‘Captain numbnuts.’
‘Shut up, you piece of slag.’ Alisdair said. Swan reached for her blade, and Gale held her back.
‘The situation has changed Alisdair,’ Gale said through gritted teeth. ‘We’re sitting ducks out here. We barely survived the night with thirty of us, with fifteen we’ll be cut to shreds.’
‘I’m in charge of this mission Knott, and my orders are that we’re staying here.’ Alisdair said.
Flint spoke up, ‘Your words are piss in the wind, you did nothing last night.’ Hsien, the Komodo, nodded in agreement.
Alisdair held up a fist and sand spiralled around it. ‘This happened because we have a Trenchwalker. That’s probably how they found us. This is a field operation, and I’m in command, we’re staying here, and that’s my final order. Anyone who goes against it is considered committing treason…and you know how Giltynan deals with treason.’
Ake’s blank eyes flashed through Gale’s mind. The rolling blue fog consuming him. The Grafting, Giltynan, was itching for an excuse. Gale locked eyes with Alisdair. Then he smiled. He rotated his hands twice behind his back. Yip nodded slightly.
‘As you say Alisdair, you’re in command.’ Gale said.
Alisdair stared Gale down for a moment, then turned back to everyone else. ‘All right…Now I want groups of three to start….’
Yip murky-stepped into the air above Alisdair and brought a rock down on his head. Alisdair collapsed to the ground, knocked out cold.
‘It looks like he passed out from his injuries...must have taken a blow to the head during the night….’ Yip said eyeing off the first years one by one. Everyone gave him a slow nod. Their lives were on the line here. Alisdair was going to get them killed. Gale looked over the passed out Alisdair, that was future Gale’s problem.
‘I vote for heading back.’ Yip said. Everyone slowly nodded, even the House Laurels members.
‘Gale,’ Yip nodded, crossing his arms.
‘Right,’ said Gale…put on a show…confidence is everything. ‘I need everyone loaded into the wagons as fast as possible, ditch anything that isn’t vital for the next forty-eight hours. We’re burning daylight and once it's dark those things will be back. I want a perimeter around the wagons. Yip, I need you scouting ahead, Hotaru, Bella you sweep ahead with him. Titus and Hsien are rear guard.’
‘What you want us to do?’ Asked Brock from House Laurels.
Gale considered the relatively unscathed House Laurels members. ‘You’re going to help me pull carts.’
The cluster of students broke apart.
‘Sterling, Swan, a word.’ Gale said,
He took them aside, Gale pointed at Sterling. ‘You, apologise one last time.’
He pointed at Swan, ‘You...accept the apology, you don’t have to be friendly but bloody hell we need to be able to work together. You aren’t each others enemies, the enemy is the blood-sucking leeches.’
Sterling reached out a hand, Swan stared at it.
‘Well…I suppose you did buy me a cactus.’ Swan clasped Sterling’s forearm and pulled him in.
Then she kneed him in the balls. ‘Now we’re even.’
Sterling, eyes watering, gave a thumbs up.
‘Now what do you need us to do?’ Swan asked.
Gale pointed to the carts. ‘Let's see what's in these supply wagons.’
In the wagons, they found a reasonable stock of food, clothing, some medicine. Yip flagged them over from atop one of the carts. Yip had found a hidden compartment in the fourth wagon that contained a box full of Salt, definitely Ionhome Salt too and not the salt from the city they’d passed.
‘Ignore it’ Gale muttered, ‘Aint worth our trouble.’ He was reminded of their recent trip to the Salt mines. Then he forgot all that as the last wagon’s contents caught his eye.
‘Alright….now we’re talking.’
Swan heaved on the wagons, even her Locomotyr enhanced strength was wearing thin. She was hauling a group of Canuteian monks on her wagon. They marched hard through the day in a state of weary alert, weapons drawn
at creaking branches or broken twigs. The ruins they’d camped in came into sight. Larc popped out of her pocket.
Larc said.
‘Do you ever make bloody sense.’ Swan said.
Larc popped her head out of her pocket.
‘What,’ Swan asked.
‘We could use the ruins as cover.’ Swan suggested, the stone would be reefing hard to burrow through for the leeches. Gale nodded.
They circled the wagons in the ruins and constructed a hasty barricade. They huddled in expecting an attack at any time. Swan stood a lonely watch, walking a circuit around the camp. She bumped into one of the other guards Hsien, offering something to Bella and Hotaru. Bella stomped away, but Hotaru took something from Hsien. Hsien snorted a white powder.
Larc muttered.
Swan kept walking her circuit past, Hsien his eyes dilated, his shoulders perking up. She’d known that some of the others were using Salt. To pass exams, to stay awake, to study and train. It kept you awake, made you strong. Risky though, burnout was a fine line to walk. She made eye contact with Hotaru and Hotaru turned away. Well, she wasn’t her mum. Whatever kept them awake tonight. Better that than the leeches.
Larc said.
Swan walked her circuit through the watch, retracing old ground over and over. A torch in the darkness. A burning symbol of defence. A heavy burden on her shoulders.
Larc twittered.
Swan smirked. Reef, she was turning into such a grim frakker.
Gale pointed to the carts. ‘Let's see what's in these supply wagons.’
In the wagons, they found a reasonable stock of food, clothing, some medicine. Yip flagged them over from atop one of the carts. Yip had found a hidden compartment in the fourth wagon that contained a box full of Salt, definitely Ionhome Salt too and not the salt from the city they’d passed.