Lakhoni raised his eyebrows, breathing evenly. He planted his feet, one a half-step behind the other. “More?” Lakhoni forced a humorless laugh. “More than a bug?” Lakhoni centered, calling upon the heat of the fury that he’d been banking for over a year. He let the memories of his murdered village flit across his mind. “Perhaps. But not much.”
Gadnar barked a laugh. “I admit I am impressed that you made it this far, but you have had help.” He swung his strange sword in loose circles, the Rod tucked under his left arm, but ready to whirl out at any second.
“I have family.” Lakhoni filled his lungs and pictured how the fight would go. Gadnar had far better reach with his sword and Rod. The way he’d been able to use both at the same time wasn’t a good sign. “You are a lone man.”
“Lone?” Gadnar laughed again. He stalked forward, moving with the dangerous grace of a jungle cat. “I am a servant partner to T’laloc.” He cast his arms up and out, the Rod in one hand and the sword in his other. He threw his head back and shouted. “We will flood this land and raise an army of obedient dead. Then I will rule this realm when Sintawanxla returns!”
“You are a deluded fool.” Lakhoni drew on the molten fury. His parents. Alronna holding back a collapsing mountain. Lamorun lying still on the ground behind him. “Drunk on bloody dreams of conquest. But you are nothing.”
“I am everything!” Gadnar brought his sword forward and the Rod out and down. Lakhoni finally got a good look at both ends of the legendary stick.
It was an oar. An old, smooth, oar longer than any he had ever seen.
An oar. From the First Fathers. A moment of clarity struck Lakhoni. The First Fathers had crossed the great waters. Was this an oar from the vessel they had used? It had to be a thousand years old. More!
“You’re a man with a sword and an oar.” Lakhoni kept his feet planted, watching how Gadnar moved. He was all fluid, angry grace. Anor had been a fearsome fighter, but as Gadnar, he seemed to have gained in strength.
“I am no man.” Gadnar laughed again as he closed the distance. They were perhaps five paces apart. “I am immortal and will be a god before this day is done.”
“We will see.” As Lakhoni spoke, he spotted the blood dripping from Gadnar’s Rod arm. The cut he had given him earlier.
“The boar?” Gadnar’s lips stretched in a rictus of a smile. “The lizards?” He bared his teeth. “You pushed me over the cliff. And I yet live. I have power beyond your imagining.” He took another step, the sword pointed at Lakhoni. “And this is no mere oar. It is the Rod of the First Fathers. It has power over the waters.”
“Power over water? You mean it can row a boat?” Lakhoni rolled his eyes and stepped to the side, toward the slope to the bowl valley. Gadnar followed. Lakhoni’s hand tightened on his dagger and he kept his breathing even. He would have to be fast. Somehow end the fight quickly. He let his senses quest outward, seeking some kind of advantage or strategy.
“It will raise the dead of the Mapiri.” Gadnar launched an attack, a circling thrust with the sword, followed by a downward swing of the Rod.
Lakhoni danced sideways and twisted, letting both attacks go wide. He shuffled over a loose stone on the ridge and stumbled.
Careful. He had to be careful to not be too obvious. Gadnar’s attacks were a test to see how Lakhoni would react. Every move had to be perfect. As he got clear of the swinging weapons, Lakhoni forced a grin. “The Rod is going to raise the dead? You are more deluded than your brother.” He dodged the next attack, but only just. His right foot slid on the edge of the ridge, sliding down the bowl side for a fraction of a second. “Your brother who died with a javelin in his back.”
Gadnar snarled. “You will pay for his death.” He lunged and slashed with the sword, spinning to bring the Rod around.
Lakhoni smashed Gadnar’s sword arm down as he skipped backward again. He twisted, but the Rod still clipped him on the right shoulder. It flared in pain, then went numb. Lakhoni had to fight to hold onto his dagger. “I watched him die.” He focused on his breathing, controlling each movement. “He begged for his life at the end. Like a coward.”
Gadnar screamed in fury. “You’re dead!” He surged toward Lakhoni, sword moving so fast Lakhoni couldn’t follow it. He flung an arm out to deflect, but Gadnar was too strong. A line of fire opened on Lakhoni’s stomach. Lakhoni wheeled to his right and ducked. The Rod battered his left shoulder. His arm lost all of its strength as pain crashed through him. He stumbled back.
“I’ll kill you then raise you as one of my slaves.” Gadnar kept coming, slashing and whirling the Rod. Lakhoni skittered back, fully on the defensive. He stumbled as he ducked a killing blow from the Rod. “You and your brother.”
Lakhoni needed his left arm to move. But his shoulder still throbbed in agony. He clutched at the stone he’d picked up, willing his damaged arm to wake up. He fell backward. “Might as well raise your brother too!” He forced strength into his left arm.
“Not before I make your sister a slave again.” Gadnar’s sword and the Rod whirled in perfect harmony. One swinging in while the other came back around. The man’s face was red with rage as he charged forward.
Lakhoni put his dagger hand down to stop from falling completely to the ground. He threw an arm out to deflect the sword, only just pushing it wide. The Rod came in fast. Lakhoni stood faster and lifted his dagger arm. The Rod slammed into his side. Pain exploded in his ribs, but the fury in Lakhoni’s core absorbed it. He pinned the Rod to his broken ribs and threw the rock he held in his left hand at Gadnar’s face.
The heavy stone hit Gadnar square on his nose, smashing it and rocking his head back. The sword’s swing wavered and Lakhoni released the Rod and spun bringing his dagger up and in.
He buried the obsidian dagger in Gadnar’s armpit.
Gadnar screamed in pain. The sword fell from suddenly lifeless fingers, clattering to the ground. Lakhoni finally saw what gave it the strange appearance. The hilt was formed of two snakes, whose heads wrapped around the base of the blade.
Lakhoni danced backward, dodging his brother’s still prone form and reaching for the massive, rock-spiked cudgel.
“You think you’ve won?” Gadnar’s laugh was wet and rough, clogged with blood from his destroyed nose.
Lakhoni spun around, holding the heavy cudgel out to the side.
Blood dripped from Gadnar’s nose, streaming from his chin down his chest. The Rod leaned on his shoulder. His eyes gleamed red as he reached for Lakhoni’s dagger, which was buried to the hilt in his right armpit. “I told you.” Gadnar jerked the dagger out. Blood poured from the wound, but Gadnar paid it no heed. He lifted his right arm and clenched the fingers of his right hand. “I am more than a man.”
Fear clawed at Lakhoni. That was impossible. His dagger should have severed the muscles needed to make that arm work.
He forced the fear away. Impossible didn’t matter. He would end this conflict here on the ridge or die trying. He watched Gadnar as another rumble began to shake the mountain. This was bigger than before. Stronger. A massive, sharp crack split the air with a noise powerful enough to deafen.
Alronna!
Fast as lightning, Gadnar threw Lakhoni’s dagger at him. Lakhoni twisted. Too slow. His own dagger buried itself in his stomach.
The rumble exploded into huge tremors that shook the ridge. Pain pulsating in his stomach, Lakhoni saw the river fifty paces beyond Gadnar suddenly disappear. The ridge on both sides of the river disintegrated, with massive crashes as rocks the size of a hut fell crashing away with the water. The cavern inside the mountain had to have flooded within a second.
Alronna.
Lakhoni’s throat tightened, but he fought the grief away. Later.
Crashes and explosions sounded without end. Simra and Hilana. Great Spirit let them have gotten to safety.
Gadnar’s blood-soaked smile approached, the Rod whirling faster than Lakhoni’s eyes could follow. “You’re next.”
Fury expl
oded through Lakhoni. Lakhoni dragged Lamorun’s cudgel. His dagger hilt bounced as he stepped, causing a sick, digging sensation in his stomach. But he knew it would be worse to pull it out right now. “Come and get me.” He forced his breath to come in gasps. He lifted the cudgel, but let the head hit the ground. He hunched, feigning weakness.
Gadnar laughed and charged.
Lakhoni, silent as death, swung the cudgel up and around. The Rod slammed into his left side. More pain. It didn’t matter. He smashed the cudgel, spikes first, into Gadnar’s side.
Gadnar stumbled to the side. He blinked, gasped, and stepped back, surprise mixing with the pain in his expression. “You…”
“I am just a man.” Lakhoni lifted the cudgel and swung it over his head, then down, halting it exactly parallel to the ground. “A brother. A son. And I have tricks too.”
“You faked weakness.” Gadnar stalked forward, already seeming to regain his strength. “Smart. But not enough.” He twirled the Rod and sprang at Lakhoni, trying to force him backward.
Lakhoni stood his ground. He deflected the Rod painfully off an arm and pounded the cudgel into Gadnar’s other side. He pressed the attack, taking glancing blows, ignoring each new pain as it erupted. Gadnar planted his feet and jabbed the Rod forward. Lakhoni smashed it down and twisted around, snapping a kick. Gadnar took the kick and threw an elbow. Lakhoni’s nose broke, blood flowing down his chin.
Gadnar slammed Lakhoni’s dagger deeper into his stomach with an incredibly fast strike, then brought the Rod around. It clipped Lakhoni’s head and bounced off the hilt of his katte, still strapped to his back. Lakhoni’s vision darkened.
No. He couldn’t keep this up. Gadnar was too strong.
Lakhoni pivoted, dodging a crushing swing and deliberately missed Gadnar. He let the cudgel carry him around, appearing off-balance. Gadnar lunged and Lakhoni dropped to one knee, grabbing the cudgel with both hands. He threw himself up inside Gadnar’s attack and smashed the cudgel under Gadnar’s chin.
Gadnar’s head snapped backward. But the Rod slammed into Lakhoni’s left arm. He heard a crack. Before he could recover, Gadnar’s foot crashed into Lakhoni’s knee. Lakhoni’s leg wavered, then collapsed. He brought the cudgel up in time to ward off the Rod, but Gadnar’s knee slammed him in the chin.
Lakhoni fell backward, dropping to one knee again. Agony burned all over his body. Ribs screamed and felt like they jabbed at his lungs each time he took a breath. He dug for the fury deep inside. Gadnar was not going to win. No matter what it took.
“You are nothing.” Gadnar’s smile was still bloody as he shook his head and raised the Rod for a killing blow. “Nothing.”
Lakhoni shoved the cudgel weakly upward. Gadnar laughed and slapped it aside with the end of the Rod. In a flash, Lakhoni snatched his dagger from his stomach and slammed it straight up through the soft flesh behind Gadnar’s chin.
Gadnar dropped the Rod as the blade pinned his mouth closed. His hands flailed at the hilt of the dagger, trying to get a grip on the slick thing to pull it out.
Lakhoni used the cudgel as a crutch and forced himself to a standing position as blood poured from his stomach. He caught the Rod as it fell from Gadnar’s hand. He held it up for Gadnar to see. “Raise an army? With this?” He dropped the cudgel and took the Rod in both hands and raised it high. Then with a scream that shredded his throat, Lakhoni snapped the Rod over his knee, his gaze never wavering from Gadnar’s. “Good luck.” He threw the two pieces over the edge of the ridge, sending them clattering down the rocky mountainside.
Gadnar finally got a grip on the dagger and jerked it free. His words were hard to understand. “You will pay for that.” Gadnar lunged at Lakhoni.
Lakhoni dodged and desperately shoved Gadnar aside. He bent, lifted the cudgel, then stood, whirling it around as hard as he could. He slammed it into Gadnar’s chest, burying the stone spikes. Lakhoni let go of the cudgel. It stayed embedded in Gadnar.
Gadnar’s eyes gleamed. He laughed gutturally. “Fool! You should have gone for the head.” He reached for the cudgel’s handle and got hold of it, pulling hard.
Lakhoni didn’t hesitate. “As you wish.” He pulled his katte from his back and swung the razor-sharp blade hard and fast.
Gadnar’s head rolled off his neck and bounced down the rocky mountainside.
The man’s thick body wobbled, then dropped to the rocky ridge.
Lakhoni pulled his brother’s cudgel, freeing it from Gadnar’s chest.
Pain tore at him from every inch of his body as he lowered himself carefully to Lamorun’s side and put his hand on his brother’s back. He was breathing.
Exhaustion dragged him down hard. Even sitting hurt.
Lakhoni pulled himself from his stupor as rain began to fall. The cool water washed down his face, waking him. He tipped his head back and caught some rain in his mouth. There was still enough light to see by, but full dark couldn’t be far away.
The back of Lakhoni’s seat shifted and groaned. Lamorun scooted painfully out of the way as the rain seemed to revive Lamorun. His brother pushed himself up, then carefully turned over and lay on his back. His eyes blinked against the rain and he scrubbed at them, one hand going to the side of his head that the Rod had hit. “Lakhoni?”
“Lamorun.” It was as if speaking got Lakhoni’s thoughts moving again. The cool rain mixed with the warmth of the blood still draining from his stomach wound. He put a hand to the hole and pushed hard.
“Gadnar?” Lamorun moved his head carefully, looking around.
“Dead.” Lakhoni forced himself to his knees. His head swam. His left arm didn’t want to move much. His body cried out as if it had been trampled by a thousand giant boars.
“You?” Lamorun levered himself to a sitting position slowly, hissing in pain.
“Yes.” Lakhoni reached for the cudgel and propped it against the rocky ground of the ridge. He pushed, trying to stand. No good.
“How?” Lamorun turned his head, studying the ridge. He caught sight of Gadnar’s headless body. He sat up straighter. “Oh. Well done.”
Lakhoni snorted. It hurt his broken nose. A lot. Well done. “Not if we both die up here.” He tried again to push to his feet. This time he got one foot planted and levered himself up. His left knee felt…wrong. It wouldn’t hold much weight.
“Agreed.” Lamorun moved gingerly, trying to stand.
“Lamorun.” Lakhoni hobbled to his brother, one hand using the cudgel as a crutch, the other pressing against his stomach, trying to staunch the flow. His head felt… loose. Not a good sign. “Your leg is hurt. Be careful.”
Lamorun nodded and spotted Gadnar’s sword where he had dropped it when Lakhoni stabbed him under his arm. “Hand that to me?”
Lakhoni moved slowly, but finally delivered the sword to Lamorun. Lamorun examined the blade. “This is what he used to cut me?”
“Snake sword.” Lakhoni offered a hand to help Lamorun up.
“Keep that hand on your wound, idiot!” Lamorun swatted Lakhoni away and pushed until he stood. He swayed for a moment, blinking fast and groaning. “To the Water Pure?”
“Yes.” Lakhoni looked around for his dagger. He found it at Gadnar’s lifeless foot. He wiped it off on the man’s breeches, then sheathed it.
“Where’s the Rod?” Lamorun pressed a hand against the deep cut on his leg.
“I broke it.” Lakhoni studied the slope down to the bowl valley, which was mostly grays and blacks now as the light faded. “Threw it over the edge.”
“You’ve been busy.” Lamorun pointed at a less steep area of the slope. “That might work.”
Lakhoni hobbled toward the path. “I’m going to need help.”
“Me too.” Lamorun paused and looked what had been Gadnar over. “He’s not coming back from that, right?”
“Right.” Lakhoni started down the path. “Let’s move. We need to find Simra and Hilana.”
“Where are they?” Lamorun took small steps, leaning heavily on the sn
ake sword.
Lakhoni told Lamorun about the events in the cavern as they picked their way down. They worked together, each stumble and step sending bolts of pain all through Lakhoni’s body. Lamorun grunted and groaned the entire way down. They rested halfway to the Water Pure, finding some low tree branches to sit on.
“Alronna was in there when it broke through?” Lamorun stared at the river, which was significantly reduced in size. It flowed much faster as well, crashing down its much more angled course now that the ridge and cavern were gone.
Lakhoni swallowed, the edges of his vision darkening with tears. “Yes. She held it back.” The pain in his throat was never going to leave. Which was only right. A small price to pay. “I hope it was enough.”
“It was enough.” Lamorun’s eyes stayed fixed on the fast-flowing river as tears washed down his cheeks, mixing with the rain. “She would not fail in that.”
They got moving again, leaning on each other as they crossed the wide bowl valley.
“They were supposed to get to high ground,” Lakhoni said after a long period of mostly silence, punctuated by pained groans and grunts. “Simra and Hilana that is.”
“We will find them.” Lamorun reached the edge of the Water Pure first. He dropped the sword into the grass at the edge of the pond.
“Lamorun, wait.” Lakhoni peered at the pond. It looked the same, but something didn’t seem… “Do you see that?”
“See what?” Lamorun turned to face Lakhoni, wincing.
“No rain is hitting it.” Lakhoni tried to get the idea of the strange, wondrous water to fit in his head, but he couldn’t. No rain drops landed on the water, even though the rain poured from the sky as if held back and finally let loose after a long wait.
“That is…” Lamorun trailed off, holding his hand out to catch the rain.
“Impossible?” Lakhoni let the cudgel fall and turned his back to the water. “This is all impossible.” He fell backward, preparing for an impact with the water.
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