by Jamie Davis
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 became 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 Jay
cee 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.
A minute later the message appeared across her eyes:
* * *
Health restored — health +60
* * *
Francesca’s eyes widened when she turned around from checking the kids. She’d known her captain could heal herself quickly, but she’d never seen Cari do it in person before.
“Pretty cool, huh?” Cari said. “Believe me, I wish it was something I could teach others to do. I guess it’s just something that runs in my family.”
“What? The ability to do impossible things?”
“Yeah, something like that.”
Cari turned and walked to where Percy still guarded the princess. “You did a good job, Percy. You kept the princess safe.”
“Jaycee is my friend, Captain. I wouldn’t let anything happen to her. She’s like a little sister to me.”
“Percy was so brave, Cari. You should have seen him when he fought that first Marine who found us running through the forest.”
“I’ll bet, Jaycee. Are you alright?”
“Yes. It’s all been kind of scary, though.”
“Understandable. Come on, we’re going to head back towards the trail. We’ll try to catch it a little farther up the mountain past the fighting down here. We’re going to meet Helen at a place called finger rock.”
“I heard Chrrrak describe it,” Jaycee said. “Is it really a finger made of rock?”
“No, Jaycee. I think it’s just a rock that looks like a finger. It’ll still be pretty cool to see in person though. Let’s get moving.”
The four of them started back towards the trail, Francesca keeping to the rear and watching behind them while Cari led the two children up the mountain. They could still hear the sounds of fighting behind them, but they ran into no one else as they headed up the mountain.
Chapter 9
It took the four of them five hours to climb the mountain trail up to a narrow ledge with the finger-like rock jutting up from it. It was easy enough to spot and Cari hoped that was a good sign. They hadn’t seen any evidence of Helen on their way up the trail so they hoped she was just lagging behind a bit.
The trek was challenging, especially with the few injuries she still had despite her regeneration earlier. “We’ll settle down here for a little bit and rest,” Cari said, easing herself down to sit on a small boulder by the trail. “We’ll wait for a little while and see who catches up with us.”
“Let’s hope it’s friends and not more of those marines,” Francesca said.
“Agreed. Why don’t you settle down over where the ledge opens up to the trail? You should be able to find a spot that will give you cover while you can still see down to the nearest bend in the path. That should give us some warning if any enemies come.”
“Good idea. I’m on it.”
“Where is Miss Helen?” Jaycee asked.
“She should be along in a little while,” Cari said, trying to hide the worry she felt for her friend.
“I hope so,” the little girl said. “She has my dollies in her backpack.”
Percy grinned at Cari. The little girl’s innocence was refreshing sometimes. Cari hoped their time on the trail didn’t change that as they took her back towards the capital.
Nearly an hour after they arrived on the ledge, Francesca waved Cari over. The lookout pointed down the trail. “I saw some movement down the trail where I can see some of the other twists in the pathway in between the trees. I’m not sure if they were friends or foes, though.”
“Keep your eyes open. Have you re-loaded your pistols?”
“First thing I did, ma’am.”
“Me, too.”
Cari settled down on one knee to watch the trail beside Francesca. It wasn’t long before someone came around the bend in the path below them.
Cari let out a sigh of relief. It was Helen.
She limped a little bit but didn’t appear to be too severely injured. Cari stood up and walked to the edge of the trail, waving to her first mate.
Helen spotted her and waved in return, increasing her speed a little bit as she climbed up to where they sat.
“Helen, it’s good to see you. I was beginning to worry a little bit whe
n you weren’t here ahead of us.”
“I ran into one of the senior officers from the marine company as I broke away from the fighting. I caught him by surprise and I was able to cut him down before he called for help. I searched him and found this.” Helen held out a folded paper. There was an imperial seal on it.
Cari took the paper from Helen and unfolded it.
* * *
From The Crystal City and the Stewards of the Empire of Fantasma.
* * *
This announcement is to be posted in all corners of the Empire, as well as announced by town crier for three days following its arrival.
It is with regret that we must inform the people of the Empire of the untimely death of our Mistress and Empress, Kareena the First.
She succumbed to a sudden illness and died peacefully in her sleep. We mourn her passing. The Empress is dead. Long live the Emperor.
* * *
Cari folded the paper. This wasn’t good news. “Did you read this?”
Helen nodded. “Should we tell Jaycee?”
“We’re going to have to at some point. I’m not sure now is the time though.” Cari handed the paper off to Francesca when she looked at them both with an eyebrow raised in question. The woman unfolded the paper and read the announcement. Her face became grim.
“This kind of makes what we’re doing all that much more important, doesn’t it, Captain?”
“That’s putting it lightly, Francesca. We’ve got a lot to do if we’re going to get Jaycee to the capital before her Uncle Timron is crowned Emperor.”
“There’s no sign of any date for the coronation on the announcement,“ Helen observed. “That probably means he’s not yet reached the capital. We heard he was in hiding somewhere here in the western part of the empire. It’s likely that he will be finding out about this at the same time we do.”