Lady Carliss and the Waters of Moorue (23 page)

He was unlocking the door to the other unopened cage. Carliss ran over to him.

“We have to get these people out of here. Can you spare eight warriors to guard them through the swamp?”

Branton nodded and pointed to the west side of the pit, where the fighting was the least intense. “Gather them there, and I will meet you with my men.”

Carliss, Si Kon, and Soro quickly organized the other knights to gather and lead nearly one hundred captives to the edge of the pit. More than thirty Silent Warriors gave them cover as they went, but Carliss still had to engage three Shadow Warriors at different times to save the lives of some of the people. As they arrived at the edge of the pit, the prisoners seemed overcome with terror at the prospect of entering the very place they had feared only moments earlier.

“Grab the torches!” Carliss called out to Si Kon and the other knights just as Branton and seven other Silent Warriors arrived. “The lizards fear the light.” Si Kon responded quickly, recovering a sword from one of the fallen warriors and then wrestling a torch from its stand.

The warriors bracketed the people, and the Knights of the Prince spaced numerous torches from front to back. Carliss wasted no time in leading the group out of the pit and into the swamp. Thousands of lizards hissed angrily as she swished her torch back and forth, clearing a path for the people to follow. Carliss heard frightened shouts and screams from behind her as the lizards tried to penetrate the light and the warriors’ defenses.

The Silent Warriors did not falter in their duty to protect the captives. Their swords flew in a constant wall of protection. Carliss held the torch in her left hand and cut through hundreds of lizards with Morning Star. The air around them was filled with the constant sound of shrieking and hissing lizards.

They hadn’t gone very far before it felt as though they were being overwhelmed. The Silent Warriors could not keep the beasts at bay, and the slithering walls of the swamp seemed to collapse upon them. They finally stopped all forward movement and huddled in a single group as Carliss, Si Kon, and Branton and his warriors fought an endless sea of esca lizards.

One of the knights holding a torch screamed, and Carliss looked to see that one of the esca lizards had succeeded in reaching him. The man fell back into the group, instantly reacting to the poison.

“What will we do?” Si Kon called out to Carliss.

Carliss finished slicing through three more lizards. She glanced at Si Kon and could give him no answer. Two more lizards fell to her sword.

If only we had more torches
. Carliss looked up at her torch, then out into the swamp.
That was foolish
, she thought, having just ruined her night vision with a residual bright spot everywhere she looked. But that bright spot reminded her of Petolemew’s shop, and she remembered his black powder.

“Here.” Carliss handed her torch to Si Kon.

The Silent Warriors were nearly overcome, and the people could press no closer together. Carliss reached into her sack and grabbed one of the smaller leather pouches filled with the black powder. She took an
arrow, then skewered the leather pouch onto the arrowhead and held it high before her. A little of the powder trickled out.

“Hold the torch to the pouch,” Carliss shouted above the noise of the beasts. “Then turn away.”

Si Kon brought a torch to just below the pouch, and it exploded in a flash of brilliant light. Everything fell silent—everything except the sound of thousands of six-legged lizards scurrying for cover. The calm stunned the people and the Silent Warriors alike as they tried to understand what had just happened.

“Quickly!” Carliss shouted as she took her torch back from Si Kon. “We must cover as much ground as we can before they return.”

They organized back into their former protected line and resumed their exodus, carrying the injured man along with them. They made good progress, but slowly the lizards returned. After some time they were once again immersed in a fierce battle with the evil creatures. Carliss exploded a second pouch of black powder, giving them another reprieve from attack and a chance to cover more ground.

“We’re going to make it,” Si Kon said, encouraged by their progress.

“Yes,” Branton replied breathlessly, “but thousands of other Arrethtraens will fall to the same evil.”

Carliss looked at Branton and his men, who were breathing hard from their sacrificial protection, and wondered how many Arrethtraens they had already seen fall to Malco’s evil scheme. She knew something had to be done and realized she was the only one who could do it. This was her moment; this was her call.

Carliss gave the sack of black powder pouches to Si Kon.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“Use this arrow with the pouches and continue to journey west. The warriors will show you the way. There should be enough of the black powder to get you to the edge of the swamp.”

“Wherever you are going,” Si Kon said, “I will come with you.”

She shook her head. “Your family… these people… need you to lead them out of here, and you will need all of the warriors as well. Akiyma waits along the river, north of Moorue. If I am not there by morning, get the people to Brimwick Downs. Sir Norsington will help you.”

Si Kon looked at Carliss with great concern in his eyes. She put a hand on his shoulder.

“I have to take care of something, and only I can do it, my friend.”

She reached into her vest and gave Si Kon the four harvested swamp lilies. “Crush up the root of one and give it to the knight who was stung. Do the same for any others who fall. If there are any left by the time you get out of the swamp, please try to get them to Dalton…” She paused, realizing it was probably too late, then forced herself to continue. “He is being taken care of by Petolemew, who lives just outside of Pembrook.”

Si Kon took the flowers and placed them in his tunic. “I will, my lady.”

Carliss turned about and launched back into the swamp, willing to sacrifice everything to stop the evil of Malco before his wicked plot could spread farther into the kingdom.

VALIANT KNIGHT

Taking out Malco’s castle would require thousands of knights and cost many lives. Carliss was alone, so she set her course for the source of Malco’s evil…the esca lizard nest area. The torch she was carrying gave her enough light to move at a relatively good pace through the night. She soon came to the wall of trees and vines that told her she was near the nesting area and was amazed at how unhindered by the esca lizards she was. She figured that most of them had been drawn to the pit for the evening feeding. In the distance, she heard the clash of battle still raging there.

Carliss secured Morning Star through the leather straps that ran across her back and drew her bow. She set the nock of an arrow in the string and paused for a moment, trying to prepare herself for what was to come. She knew there was a strong chance she might not make it out alive. The swamp lily seemed to have made her immune from the attacks of the smaller lizards, but she suspected things might be different in the nest area. The mother lizard was large and fast, and Carliss knew that most creatures fiercely protected their young. The mother esca lizard would be no different.

“Give me courage, my Prince,” she whispered, then entered the nest area.

Carliss held the bow with her right hand, her forefinger pressing tightly against the shaft of the arrow to hold it in place. With her left
hand she held the torch and searched the nesting area, unnerved by how quickly the light of the torch seemed to be swallowed by the darkness of this place. Her heart was pounding, and she felt the rush of blood in her cheeks and ears. It was a constant battle to keep her fear under control as she went.

She carefully made her way to the center of the area. Something scurried just to her left, and she snapped her head to look. The shadows danced from the flickering torch, but that was all she saw. She found a niche in one of the larger nests in which to set the torch; then she drew her sword and thrust the tip into the ground beside her. She grabbed the string of her bow and drew some comfort from having her hand ready to draw and release in an instant.

Carliss hoped the light of the torch would be enough to keep the mother lizard away and yet help her see to the fringes of the nest area to spot the beast. She studied every tree trunk and vine that fell within the circle of light cast by the torch, but she could not make out the mother lizard. Carliss wondered if the nocturnal creature was hunting or perhaps had joined the rest of the lizards at the pit.

After a long, anxious, and fruitless wait, she decided to venture a few paces away from the torch, hoping to get a closer look at the periphery of the nest area. She took two steps, knelt down, peered into the darkness, and then froze. Tingles ran up the base of her neck as she sensed the presence of great evil only inches away. She slowly turned to her left and glimpsed the horror of the night unfold in an instant.

The mother lizard’s mouth was wide open,
revealing rows of sharp teeth against a pink-white fleshy throat. It lunged, clamped down on Carliss’s left arm, and began to drag her off into the darkness. Carliss screamed against the severe pain, but her chain mail and vambrace held. She dropped her bow and beat against the animal’s thick leathery hide, but to no avail.

Thud!
Carliss felt one of the barbed antennae smash into the spaulder on her left shoulder while the other just skimmed past her face. She grabbed a loose vine as she passed by one of the nests and pulled with all her might against the giant lizard, but she was no match for its strength. She knew another strike was imminent and that she probably would not be as fortunate a second time. The torch and her sword were now ten paces away, and she wondered if there was any hope of surviving at all.

Carliss reached for her long knife and plunged the blade into the neck of the lizard with all her might. It hardly penetrated, for it hit the bone of the creature’s jaw. The lizard snapped its head to the left without releasing its grip on Carliss, and the force of the movement nearly broke her arm. She screamed against the pain but rallied to try once more.