Matt Archer: Blade's Edge (3 page)

The clock ticked to midnight and all was quiet. I wondered if maybe we had the time wrong. Or maybe the villagers hadn’t been precise enough about the enemy’s path. It’d be a shame to have come all this way for nothing. Then the wind picked up, roaring down the mountain like a herd of stampeding bulls, bringing with it the scent of decaying garbage.

The Kalis were coming.

Chapter Three

T
he wind gusted fifty, sixty
miles per hour, then abruptly stopped. The smell of rot grew stronger, and the hill glowed a wicked orange color. Figures flitted down the mountain, singing in eerie tones, something wordless that set my teeth on edge.

I crept near a fissure in the ice to take a closer look. The women, thirteen of them, wore scraps of some kind of animal hide that barely covered their bodies. They were lean and muscular, dancing barefoot on top of the snow without sinking, and each had four arms, their wrists covered with jangling bracelets. Large, almond-shaped eyes glowed gold in the dark, and their white teeth shone brighter than the snow. Each carried a bow and a quiver of arrows on her back, and a short sword strapped at her side. Good thing we’d bargained on long-range weaponry.

Major Tannen punched the talk-button on his radio. “Go on signal.”

“Affirmative,” was Ramirez’s answer.

The thirteen Kalis slowed as they neared the coins, then stopped. Many of them sniffed the air. I stiffened—could they smell us?

A few gasped in delight and started digging. Lieutenant Johnson and I grinned at each other. Maybe the gold would actually work.

“Go!” Mike said. We stood, taking tactical positions—wielders up front, flanked by our backup. Patterson and Curtis stayed behind. Patterson had his finger on the detonator.

Most of the Kalis ignored us and kept digging, laughing whenever they found a coin, but three looked up. They strode forward and nocked arrows.

“Incoming!” Johnson called as the first volley headed over the ledge—right at me. I ducked behind the icy wall just as three arrows shot into the snow, burying themselves all the way to the fletching. Each one landed less than a foot from where I crouched. I shook my head in disgust; too many close calls today. Time to get busy.

I yanked off my right glove and pulled my knife free of its sheath. It had to have direct skin contact with me to work, frostbite or not. The blade buzzed—telling me to get to work—and I vaulted over the ledge, diving to my stomach as more arrows whizzed over my head. Ramirez was already running at the shooters, drawing his knife as he slid across the snow. In a blur, he stabbed the first shooter he reached in the heart, withdrew his blade, and slit a second’s throat. I scrambled up to help just as the third one nocked an arrow, aimed at my chest and drew. Ramirez threw his knife, burying it in her back. She jerked forward and her arrow shot straight into the sky. The Kali screeched to the heavens as she fell into the snow, which sizzled where her golden blood drained.

I skidded to a halt, catching the teeth of my snowshoes on the ice. “Thanks, Major. I owe you one.”

“You bet.” He pulled his knife free and nodded toward the other demons. “Think we’re in for a fight now.”

The rest of the Kalis had stopped digging, hissing angrily at us. Four gathered their coins and ran back up the mountain. The six that remained stood together, eyes flashing as they looked this way and that. One threw her head back and howled.

“Get moving, kid!” Ramirez said, turning to run after the escaping Kalis.

Patterson and Curtis used their flamethrowers to corral my six between the boulders. The demons crouched, waiting. They paid no attention to the flamethrowers, too busy watching every move I made. The knife had that effect on nearly every monster I met, like they knew what I carried. The blade vibrated and a tingle of righteous anger flowed through my veins. A cold smile tugged at my mouth; the blade’s spirit liked to hunt. So did I.

Digging the spikes of my snowshoes into the ice for traction, I charged.

Two of the women rushed to meet me with swords while the other four hung back to nock arrows. The sword fighters swung steel and fists at my head, but I rolled as I reached them, ducking under their flailing arms. I swept my leg in a wide arc, tripping them up, and the pair of Kalis crashed down on top of me.

Now there were ten arms in this dog pile and I didn’t much like being outnumbered eight to two. It was like being trapped in a trash compactor bent on squashing me whole. Fists pummeled my chest and shoulders, hands groped for my throat and one tried to kick me in the crotch. Pissed, I socked her in the jaw, then head-butted the other one and wriggled out of the mess to get my knife hand free. A few quick thrusts of the blade and golden blood ran through the snow, sending up sulfur-scented steam.

Ugly voices screeched and the four archers surrounded me. An arrow flew past my left ear. I scrambled behind a small rock face as six more arrows rained down. Ramirez shouted at Schmitz while unearthly wailing filled the air and metal clanged against metal up the mountain. Sounded like Ramirez had his hands full with his four. No help there. Where was Mike, or Johnson for that matter? When I peeked around the side of the rock to find them, two arrows whizzed by my head. Wherever they were, my support team couldn’t get close. I was pinned down.

I peeked around the drift again, and the Kalis all nocked arrows, laughing in my direction. Yep, I was screwed. The knife sighed in my head, like it was disappointed in me.

“What?” I snapped. “I’m cornered, armed with a knife at an archery range. A little help might be nice.”

A diversion.

“How?”

Three, two, one…

Out of the shadows, Johnson tore over the icy ledge and sprinted across the field to tackle one of the shooters from behind, sending her bow flying. The others scattered as they rolled together. The Kali punched him square in the nose and blood spurted everywhere. He was knocked unconscious, but his broken nose gave me just enough time to leap on her back and slice it open. With a screech, she crumpled.

Two of the remaining archers scrambled backwards, sliding in the bloody snow, trying to find a place to get down and shoot. The third kept running, looking for something along the ground. I threw the knife at the closest one before she could ready an arrow and it slammed into her chest as if it were laser-guided. Uncle Mike raced our direction. He rammed into the second Kali just as she loosed an arrow, throwing off her aim. The arrow disappeared into the night sky. Free to rush her, I yanked the knife out of its latest victim and pounced, slipping the knife between the Kali’s ribs.

Finished, I stood, wondering where the last one had gotten off to.

Mike stood as well. “We need to bring Johnson in.”

I nodded, still scanning the battlefield for the missing Kali while he went to drag Johnson to a safe place. Nothing but bodies. Maybe Ramirez had gotten her. Shrugging, I turned to see if I could find the rest of the team.

There was a whistling noise, then an arrow landed inches from Johnson’s side. Mike and I dropped to the snow, covering the lieutenant’s prone body with our own.

“If I get up, she’ll come after me,” I said. “Then you can get Johnson out of her line of fire.”

Mike grunted as another arrow missed us by less than a foot. “Only plan we have. Be careful, or you’re in trouble, got it?”

“Yes, sir.” I jumped up, trying to get a bearing on the Kali as Mike dragged Johnson behind a drift. A shadow flitted about the bodies, bending, stooping. Another arrow flew my way. I flung myself to the ground, but not fast enough. White-hot pain sliced through my right bicep. My hand weakened and I dropped the knife into the snow. An arrow lay just behind it. They’d finally drawn blood.

The last Kali laughed and nocked yet another arrow, taunting me in a language I didn’t understand. I got the gist, though; her voice sounded like frozen corn syrup—brittle and way too sweet. I crawled behind a rock just as she shot and the arrow buzzed over my head. Lying panting on the snow, I tried to figure out what to do next, but the next shot didn’t come. I hazarded a look—the Kali was rummaging among the bodies…and the quiver on her back was empty. That’s what she’d been looking for. Spare arrows.

I picked up the knife and came out to face her. The handle felt clumsy in my left hand, but it’d have to do—I wasn’t letting her get away. The Kali ran, searching, as I stalked her direction. She discarded arrow after broken arrow, unable to find something useable. I tensed up my left arm, hoping I could make it work well enough to get me out of this mess.

Reflex,
the knife whispered in my head.

“Quit talking in code, would ya? I’m a little busy.”

It didn’t answer.

The Kali found an arrow and drew it taut. I heard Uncle Mike and Patterson shouting something incoherent as they ran toward me. They wouldn’t make it in time and there wasn’t anywhere left for me to go. I kept on the move, wondering if I should throw the knife and cut her bowstring. The knife would hit its target; I just didn’t think I’d beat the arrow to the punch.

A buzz filled my head. Tendrils of foreign thoughts latched onto my brain and my left hand tightened around the knife’s handle.

The Kali aimed the arrow at my heart. The world disappeared in a dark tunnel as my vision focused down on her. Filled with sudden, overwhelming rage that wasn’t my own, I stood up straight and glared at her. The knife throbbed in my left hand. How dare she attack the two of us?

Wait...the
two of us
? The two of
who?

Uncertainly flickered in the Kali’s golden eyes. She shot her last arrow straight at my chest. This close, the arrow should have pierced my heart in a fraction of a second and come out through my back. Instead, my left arm yanked upward in a blur, knocking the arrow off course and cutting the shaft in two. The pieces flew to either side of me.

I raised my eyebrows. When did I get so fast? “You missed.”

She drew her sword with a shaking hand. My pinpointed vision zeroed in on the pulse beating in her throat. No sound but the roaring in my ears, no scent but Kali blood. The instinct to fight overrode everything, until nothing remained but that artery. The Kali swung her sword, and I deflected it with my blade. Sparks flew, but I couldn’t have cared less. Light flickered and everything got blurry around the edges…

Matt left the building.

Through a haze, I could feel my body moving faster than it should. The knife’s voice became louder than my own.

Oh, listen how the demon screams for her master. My boy will send this dark agent home.

The Kali was panting as she backed up against an ice wall. Cornered, she lifted the sword one last time, barely able to hold it up. A final swing and I caught her left arms, twisted, yanked her close. Something cracked, bones; then her sword fell. The artery in her neck beat and beat and beat, calling.

Strike her down.

I obeyed.

“Damn scary, I’m telling you what,” Schmitz was saying. “You guys remind me never to piss off Archer.”

I sat, back against a rock, covered up by a foil survival blanket. I still gripped the knife, not able to put it down. Its power continued to zap my veins; letting go would’ve hurt and my head throbbed enough as it was. Patterson and Curtis were taking care of Johnson, who was sprawled out to my left, and they were using snow to reduce the swelling in his nose. He had come around, but was pretty groggy. He kept trying to bat the snow-filled bandage away, saying something about his mama. I felt bad about the whole thing. If I hadn’t gotten pinned down by those archers, maybe his nose would be okay. Next time I’d have to be more aware of the terrain.

Uncle Mike came over to survey the damage. I tried to stand but my head felt like it might explode so I gave up.

“We get them all?” I asked.

Uncle Mike knelt at my right side. “Sure did.”

“I do anything weird?” Dumb question. Of course I had. Just because the knife had ridden shotgun in my head didn’t mean I couldn’t remember that I’d gone all loco.

“Matt, you decapitated that last Kali,” Mike said, his voice full of concern. “Then you walked over to me, shaking like crazy, and said ‘Mission accomplished, sir.’ After that, you sat down right here and didn’t say another word.”

“Well, it worked anyway,” I said, feeling defensive. The villagers who could sleep tonight wouldn’t care that I’d turned into some kind of monster-killing machine on their behalf. And I’d sat down because my head hurt when the knife released me. He couldn’t blame me for that, right?

Mike looked away for a bit. “It worked, that’s true, but you acted like you were possessed. Scared me to death.”

The knife buzzed in my hand, almost like an apology.

I smiled; that hurt too. “We got carried away. We’ll try to behave next time.”

“You just said ‘we.’” Uncle Mike stared at me, his face stern. “Next time, try to remember where the blade ends and Matt begins, okay?”

“Yes, sir,” I said, squirming a little. I must’ve looked like a freak. How had the blade gotten so much control?

“Good.” He dropped the Major Tannen bit and squeezed my shoulder before heading off to organize the team.

I watched him go, then whispered to the blade, “Next time, not so much, okay?”