The Ryle of Zentule

by Michael Green

  He did say we were useless as guards, that his daughter could have done a better job, but he also said, ‘never let them know what you want.’

  “Now isn’t the time,” Staza argued.

  There was a noise on the other side of the bush. They heard a percussive thumping, like dull jackhammers working away.

  “That’s them,” Letty whispered.

  Blue shot up the bush.

  “Halt!” Ahmet called out.

  The noise ceased.

  “Clear the road, Elazene! Or your head will decorate our temple!”

  “That’s a ryle speaking,” Quill said.

  Blue appeared again at ground level. “There are two ravagers out there!” He whispered exasperatedly.

  “How do we fight them?” Staza asked, sounding frightened for the first time.

  “Go for the legs,” Quill responded.

  “Obviously! But the crews will shoot at us while we try to deal with their mounts,” Staza replied.

  They looked at Emma, whose eyes were still wide with fear. Staza snatched Emma’s bow. “Give me that!” She also took a handful of arrows, before turning to Letty. “You’ll have to go for the legs with the Argument while Quill and I try to suppress the crew.”

  Quill was about to speak when a shrill horn blew and the screams of charging Elazene rang out.

  “Now!” Staza yelled.

  They clambered to their feet and rushed out from behind their cover.

  The ravagers were crimson plated with yellow chevrons running down their length. Each was crewed by a handful of brutox. Letty saw crossbows pointing their way.

  Ahmet waved his curved blade at one of the ravagers, which bent low to snap at him with huge mandibles.

  Staza bent the bow with lightning speed and loosed an arrow. It took a brutox at the throat. Quill threw a javelin, but Letty didn’t see if it struck; she was rushing forward at such a clip that she forgot to summon the Argument. She headed straight for one ravager, while the Elazene converged on the second.

  She tightened her grip, and the blade appeared.

  The ravager reared, as if frightened of the light. One of its crew flew off and crashed onto the ground, only to be struck by an arrow moments later.

  Letty swung at the creature’s legs and cleaved a few apart before the pilot regained control and goaded the ravager into snapping at her.

  Letty deflected the vicious mandible with her blade, slicing off a chunk. The creature raised a leg while she was distracted and struck her with such force that she went flying. Letty tumbled against the ground. Her head spun, and a blinding pain shot through her body.

  She heard someone yelling her name but wasn’t sure who it was.

  I should be dead.

  Letty rolled to her hands and knees and saw her breastplate fall away in pieces.

  Even her shirt underneath the armor was ripped. Blood leaked out of the wound above her stomach.

  Without the armor I’d be dead.

  She struggled to regain her footing as an ominous shriek filled her ears.

  A crossbow bolt jutted from Staza’s chest. Letty watched as a second hit her in the shoulder.

  Letty struggled to stand, as she summoned the blade and rushed towards the ravager, which was descending on Staza.

  Letty lopped off another couple of legs before the creature pulled back, lowering its face, and raising the rest of its body, giving its crew a perfect view of Letty. She tried to close the distance to avoid another shot, but the ravager was still too quick.

  Letty could only watch as a brutox trained its heavy crossbow on her. She felt the thud as the bolt pierced her plated thigh armor. The sudden sting of pain forced her down to a knee.

  Seeing this, the ravager’s pilot goaded the creature forward to snap at her. It moved so quickly that she could barely scream before it had her in its damaged mandibles.

  “There, hold it steady!” A snake-like voice commanded.

  Letty saw a ryle wearing golden armor. It wore a full silver helm that featured a crying face, but beneath it she could see the creature’s red eyes. It wielded a blade at once golden and deep violet.

  “It’s a novice! It doesn’t even know to hone its weapon. Watch this!” the ryle yelled as it struck at Letty’s blade with its own. There was a loud crack and the Argument flew from Letty’s hand.

  “We wouldn’t have to exterminate you if you behaved with dignity. Wielding the false Argument is the highest crime, child, and you will be flayed alive beneath Supthoi’s throne for breaking our covenant.”

  Letty heard a snap and an arrow struck the pilot, who had the ravager’s antennae wrapped around his wrists. The force of the impact knocked him back, and his weight tugged hard on the antennae, which elicited a shriek from the creature.

  Letty slipped free from its grasp and fell heavily into a large bush by the road. The ravager tipped over and collapsed.

  Letty saw Ahmet and his allies had somehow mounted the other ravager and had successfully defeated its crew, though they couldn’t work out how to pilot it.

  “Spiders, shoot those Elazene, I’ll finish off the rest!” The ryle commanded, brushing the dust off his robes.

  His remaining warriors trained their weapons on Ahmet and his Elazene, who ducked down.

  The ryle, however, found himself facing Dean, who leveled his mace.

  Letty struggled to free herself from the bush. In the effort, she saw that both Quill and Staza were down, with bolts sticking from their bodies.

  “Dean! Don’t try to fight him!” Letty yelled.

  The ryle scoffed and sliced the mace in two before grabbing Dean by the hair and throwing him to the ground. “Don’t make me kill you; I’d rather have a prisoner,” the ryle said as it rounded on Emma, who was fumbling with her bow.

  Finally, Letty tore herself free from the thorny bush and raced towards her Argument. The small marble had rolled to a halt on the road.

  Ignoring Emma, the ryle intercepted Letty with a swift kick, forcing her to the ground.

  “No wish to see the golden city? You want to die here on the road?” The ryle mused.

  An arrow bounced off the ryle’s armor, and he raised a hand to slap a charging Dean off his feet. Dean drew a dagger and moved to strike, but the ryle laughed and slapped him across the face with such force that Dean stumbled backwards, dropping his dagger.

  “Aren’t you embarrassed?” The ryle yelled through his sputtering laughter. “All the rebellion in this blood! It only reinforces our conviction to see you exterminated. Don’t you understand?” The ryle asked as he pulled Letty’s helmet off. His eyes brightened at what he saw. “You aren’t Elazene.”

  “No,” Letty said, reaching for the revolver. “We’re from the surface.”

  The ryle made a curious face as Letty fired a bullet into his throat.

  Dean cheered, but nearly choked on the blood streaming from his nose.

  “Shut up and get him off me!” Letty commanded.

  Emma and Dean pulled Letty from beneath the ryle’s corpse. Letty paused long enough to see that Ahmet and his men had thrown dozens of javelins, killing the last of the brutox, but they still could not pilot their captured ravager.

  “I don’t know how to get us down!” Ahmet yelled. “I have minoe in the cart! You must heal your friends before they lose too much blood!”

  “I’m not an idiot!” Letty insisted as she stumbled to the cart and saw Blue looking at her. He held up the strap attached to the canteen full of the healing liquid. “Thank you,” Letty said, taking the canteen and racing to her friends.

  She struggled to remove Staza and Quill’s plated armor, noticing several new nicks and dents as she went. A couple bolts made it through, but imagine how bad it would have been without the armor.

  Once the wounds were healed, Ahmet asked that his minoe be thrown up, so he could treat his neighbors.

  Dean obliged. Letty was too distracted by the Caspians, whose breathing had finally normalized.

&
nbsp; “I’m fine,” Staza said, still lying on the ground. “How’s Quill, is it bad? He keeps getting shot, the idiot.”

  “I’m fine,” Quill groaned. “I should really write a poem about being hit by a crossbow bolt. The experience is like nothing else.”

  “Your turn,” Emma said.

  “What?” Letty asked, and then saw her thigh. “Oh, that.”

  Their personal store of minoe still held enough for these last wounds. Letty endured the treatment and was grateful for the armor, remembering her first run-in with a crossbow.

  “Wait, the Argument! Where is it?” She cried.

  Letty stood and returned to the ryle’s corpse. She saw the hefty purple orb lying not far from his claws.

  A bullet works well enough.

  She shivered, realizing that they had all nearly died.

  Dean reached into his pocket and produced his inhaler. Staring at it, he muttered, “I haven’t needed it since we got here.”

  “Probably something in the air,” Emma said.

  Ignoring her friends, Letty spotted the Argument and ran to pick it up.

  I must learn the hone. His blade was multi-colored, not just purple, and it even looked solid, where my blade looks like flaming light. When the purple and silver blades meet, there is a loud crack and we always lose ours, while they keep theirs. Maybe the manual—

  “Mmmmhh!” A curious sound caught Letty’s attention.

  She heard a muffed voice.

  She approached the capsized ravager, which, though it wasn’t moving, didn’t look dead. A large bag had fallen off the ravager and was writhing on the floor.

  Letty tore into the bag and found a young Elazene man staring up at her. He was bound and gagged.

  “Ahmet! I’ve found your boy!” Letty yelled as she freed him.

  “Glory be! Jeva! He’s alive?”

  “Yes!”

  Once free, Jeva leaped to his feet and thanked Letty before rushing to the sound of his father.

  Ahmet was so desperate to reach his son that he was trying to climb down the ravager.

  “No! No, Ada! You’ll break your neck! Tug thrice on both antennae. I’ve seen them do it.”

  One of the other Elazene did as Jeva said, and the ravager bent its many knees right as Ahmet stumbled to the ground.

  “Ada, you fool!” Jeva yelled as he pulled his father to his feet and embraced him.

  “Your mother will kill you!”

  “Are you crazy? She’ll kill you first!”

  A moment later, Letty found herself surrounded by her friends, though they all leaned on one another for support. Everyone was silent as the father and son yelled their stories back and forth. They blessed and cursed each other for their self-sacrifice.

  “But father, stop your tears. This a joyous moment.”

  “You first,” Ahmet said, relaxing.

  “Please, introduce me to our friends.”

  “Ah,” Ahmet said with a start, “of course, forgive me. These young warriors found me in an unseemly state, outside a goblin stronghold. Here are two children of the snake—ahh, Caspians, Staza and Quill.”

  Jeva took Staza and then Quill by the arm in introduction.

  “These others are true surfacers.”

  Those words caused a commotion among the Elazene.

  “Well, they are clearly not our people, but how can you be sure they are surfacers?” Jeva asked.

  “You can see it in their eyes, they know the sun, they know the moon, more than we.”

  The Elazene stared for a long time at Letty, Dean, and Emma.

  Jeva nodded. “Perhaps they are.”

  “This one is Dean. He attacked the ryle with a mace, and then with a dagger.”

  Jeva laughed. “Fearlessness is remembered, but it is better to live, I think. Be more careful when you next give yourself to battle.”

  Dean was astonished by the praise.

  “This is Emma. She killed the pilot,” Ahmet said.

  An approving murmur ran through the Elazene.

  “I was aiming for the ryle,” Emma said, bashful at the attention.

  The Elazene laughed uproariously.

  “Really?” Letty asked, remembering how close she was to where that arrow struck.

  Emma shrugged, not keen on ruining the joke.

  “This—most unlike anything we would expect of a surfacer—is Letty,” Ahmet said with a flourish.

  Jeva slapped his father’s hand away and shook his head disapprovingly. “No, father, she is a Voice of God, the Child of Sky.”

  Ahmet’s eyes widened at his son’s words. “The Child of Sky?” he repeated skeptically, before turning to Letty, “Girl,” he said, “will you please fly for us?”

  Letty blinked.

  “Ada! She is just born, but look, a surface Seeress, with a scape pair and a surface pair at her side, two seers and two lewed. She bridges the span, bearing Argument and firelock, and she killed a ryle champion using both. Her builder is even blue as the sky!”

  Blue did not appreciate the attention. Ahmet made no retort, and the Elazene concurred with Jeva.

  “What does he mean?” Letty asked.

  “Ahh…” Ahmet seemed afraid to speak.

  Blue clambered up to rest on Letty’s shoulder.

  The Elazene nodded respectfully to Blue, who returned the gesture before whispering into Letty’s ear, “They think the Dead God of the Seers has personally taken time out of his busy day to move your arms and legs in the battle. More specifically, they consider you the next iteration of the Child of Sky, a warrior saint, one of many they venerate and hope to see again. Though they expected you to arrive flying, and with a great host of warriors and weapons from their kin on the surface, they are still convinced by these other ‘signs.’”

  Jeva pointed at Letty’s waist, “Would you raise this weapon, so we may see?”

  “The revolver?” Letty asked, pulling out the gun.

  The sight of it caused a stir.

  “What’s going on?” Letty asked.

  Blue shook his head and sighed, “They will call for a convention of the disparate Elazene chiefs to discuss your ascension into sainthood.”

  “What?” Letty yelled.

  “The men you see before you will be considered witnesses and will likewise have their names and stories written next to yours, if they beatify you, that is,” Blue said, tiredly. “We should really get going, before any of this starts.”

  Jeva stepped forward from the group of Elazene. “The discussion may take months, though I am certain. You are the Child of Sky, your last body died ignobly, subdued by the Usurper, but I sense victory stands at your side.”

  Usurper?

  Ahmet and Blue scowled at the religious speech, while Jeva and the other Elazene were confident.

  Letty didn’t know what to say.

  “How may I serve you?” Jeva asked.

  Letty shook her head and laughed nervously.

  “Please, don’t reject my offer.”

  “Letty,” Emma butted in, “we need to get to Degoskirke.”

  Jeva heard this and looked at his father.

  “It is true, they go to the city,” Ahmet said.

  “Well,” Jeva replied with a smile, “let’s go in style.” He gestured to the ravager.

  Half an hour later, they had loaded their equipment, forcibly hauled Emma and Dean onto the monstrous creature, and Letty had batted off the scores of questions lobbed at her by the religious Elazene.

  “Tell my wife I’ll be back in a few days, and take the other beast to Gylan! He’ll know how to heal it!” Ahmet yelled to his neighbors as his son piloted the healthy ravager.

  The other Elazene waved and cheered as the ravager backed up, then made a wide turn. The dips of the land next to the road translated into a bumpy ride.

  “Letty, don’t let them get to you. It’s just like when those people in suits knock on the door,” Emma said.

  Dean leaned in and whispered, careful of Jeva an
d Ahmet. “I’d ignore them too, but it’s hard to, when they say that you’re a saint, or something.”

  “Yeah,” Letty agreed, “but there’s something else. Staza, Quill,” Letty called the Caspians to her. “What did he mean when he said the Usurper killed my last body?”

  “I don’t know,” Staza answered. “Don’t tell me you’re taking this stuff seriously.”

  “If they had God-powered saints, they would have won the war centuries ago,” Quill added.

  Letty cringed, but felt like she needed to know more.

  “Ahme—”

  Blue raised an insistent paw and shook it at Letty. “You don’t want to go down that road,” he said, “they’ll have you leading an army, and you’ll be dead at the walls of Yyonvere in less than a month.”

  Blue’s admonition had a tragic ring of honesty to it, and Letty decided to let her curiosity die.

  Sometime later, Ahmet walked back from the helm to sit with them. “You will have to leave what remains of your skins with us.”

  “What?” Emma asked.

  “He means the armor,” Staza replied.

  “We will have it mended and anointed, perhaps we can have it sent to you. You might be needing it again soon,” Jeva said from the pilot’s position. “You go to rescue another warrior?”

  “Yes, he’s another Seer,” Letty spoke loudly, over the rumble of the ravager, “he also fights with the Argument.”

  “Ah!” Jeva yelled. “Hear that, Ada! There is another! Two zealots stand as we speak! Perhaps your friend is another ancient! You must bring him to speak to our people!”

  “As soon as I can,” Letty said sadly.

  Ahmet watched as she spoke and knew that she was only humoring his son. She felt ashamed and looked over the side.

  It’s many times faster than the cart.

  “How quickly will we get there?” she asked.

  “Before prayers tonight!” Jeva said, an almost permanent smile stuck to his face as he looked over his shoulder at them.

  During the ride they enjoyed a meal, though Ahmet couldn’t cook on the ravager, and they had to resort to packaged food, which the Elazene found fascinating, if not tasty. They removed their armor and helmets only to have Ahmet tut at them.

  “This will never do,” he said.