Rise of Legends (The Kin of Kings Book 2) (14 page)

Arrows flew by as Reela and the bear came up on Effie’s side. Wilfre cursed at them, but Steffen called back, “Stay low and shut up.”

Steffen stopped behind a tree, and Effie, Reela, and the bear met him there. Effie could hear no more arrows for the moment.

“Help me, you cowards!” Wilfre yelled.

Steffen shushed him, and Wilfre’s shouts turned to moans.

“We’re just going to leave him?” Effie asked, not keen on the idea but not totally against it, either. She had no idea where the archers were, but it seemed as if they were in no position to shoot behind this tree, at least for now.

“Reela, can you—”

“No, Steffen, they’re too far for me to sense anything with psyche.”

“Can you make the bear attack them?” Steffen pointed in two directions. “They’re this way and that way based on the direction of the arrows.”

“Yes, I should be able to. Give me some time.”

“Come back. I’m hurt,” Wilfre whined like a helpless child. “Please, you can’t abandon your leader.”

“Quiet!” Steffen cupped his hand around his ears to listen for their enemies.

“I’m ordering you to help me!”

“Shut up,” Effie hissed. “They might be waiting for us to help you.”

If Wilfre heard her, he didn’t care. “Get out here now!”

Another arrow seemed to impale Wilfre, though she couldn’t see exactly where it had struck his twisted body. He screamed and then moaned and cried. So at least he was still alive.

“There,” Reela said as the bear rumbled off in search of the archers. Effie strained her ears to listen as the animal’s heavy footsteps trailed off. Then she heard a roar in the distance. Screams followed.

“Everyone out,” Steffen said, running to Wilfre. Effie and Reela quickly followed. They grabbed the liaison by his limbs and carried him back toward the tree. “Keep going past it,” Steffen instructed.

So they carried him for a while longer, Effie’s arms burning from the weight. Soon they set him down on an even stretch of grass in a copse of trees. Effie made light. There were arrows stuck in him near the shoulder, low on his leg, and deep into the meatiest part of his arm.

“All right,
now
you’re going to need the caregelow,” Steffen said in a calm yet hasty tone. “But I have to get the arrows out right after you take it, and you must keep quiet so they don’t find us, if they’re still alive. Reela, can you keep him from feeling pain?”

“Not completely.”

Steffen sat Wilfre up and held a small vial with a gulp of caregelow in it to Wilfre’s mouth. He slurped it down noisily in his haste, then whimpered like a scared child as Steffen laid him on his good shoulder. Effie began to empathize with him when Steffen slowly and strenuously began pulling out the arrow in his shoulder, and she could hear his muscle tearing.

“I can do this without the light, Effie,” Steffen said as he closed his hand around the next arrow. “Just make sure nobody is coming after us.”

Effie gladly looked away from Wilfre and into the darkness surrounding them. He groaned loudly as Steffen worked.

“You need to be quieter,” Steffen instructed.

Wilfre took a few breaths and sounded surprisingly strong when he spoke. “Give me something to bite on.”

Effie unstrapped her belt, folded it, and put it up to his face. He strained his neck forward and clamped his teeth down onto it.

The belt worked wondrously. His sounds were muffled while Steffen pulled out the third arrow. Then Steffen promptly retrieved his bandages from his bag as if this was an ordinary ordeal. He had Reela put pressure on the open wounds as he worked on them one at a time.

As Effie strained to peer into the darkness, she heard something. She pointed her wand at the sound and began drawing in energy, but when the bear showed himself, she let the BE disperse. The beast had taken three arrows, and both hind legs were stained with blood.

He trudged over to Reela’s side and collapsed with a grunt, though he was still alive. Effie could feel his hot breath on her as she walked to stand in front of him. The bear groaned loudly, clearly in pain.

“We have to help him,” Effie said.

“Eff,” Reela chided, “he’s going to die.”

“He might’ve just saved our lives! We should at least give a moment of thought to helping him.” The bear’s groans became louder. “Reela, can you tell him to be quiet for now?”

Before Effie could react, Steffen drew his dagger and impaled it deeply into the bear’s head. The creature’s moans ceased instantly.

“You bastard!” Effie swung at Steffen with one fist after another, but he moved into her and pushed her down, pinning her so she couldn’t get up.

“We don’t know whether he killed Tauwin’s men, Eff,” Steffen said, practically emotionless like the cold bastard he was. “He was making too much noise, and I don’t think I could’ve saved him.”

Feeling how much stronger Steffen was, she was forced to give up. “Get off me.”

He obeyed and hurried back to Wilfre, who finally looked to be relaxing somewhat, most likely from the caregelow.

Reela helped her up. She saw that Steffen’s hands had left bloodstains on her arms and shirt.

“Even if the caregelow had saved the bear’s life,” Reela said, “I don’t know what it would’ve done to his mind. It could’ve undone Sanya’s spell, meaning he might’ve turned on us.”

Effie found herself petting the bear’s corpse. She fell into a heavy depression and had to stifle sobs with a clench of her stomach.

“How many more are going to die before this is all over? We had a great king. We were happy. He was going to choose someone who would rule as well as he did.” She forced herself to step away so she would stop petting the dead animal. “Tauwin deserves to suffer for eternity for what he’s done. Sanya as well.”

As exhaustion caught up to Effie, she realized that everyone else must be just as tired.

“Wilfre’s still bleeding too much,” Steffen said grimly. “I need to cauterize the wounds. First we need to move again, and then we’ll make a fire.”

Reela sighed. “We’re not going to make it to Trentyre before daylight, then.”

CHAPTER TWELVE

The sound of Basen’s footsteps was lost in the echoes of everyone’s whispers behind him.

“What can you sense with psyche?” Alabell asked Annah with her hand firmly holding onto Basen’s.

“Not much. There are too many minds all around us.”

Jackrie’s voice came from the back of their group. “You must be sensing the Fjallejons within the mountains.”

Or it’s our enemies, if they killed the Fjallejons to take these mountains.

The threat of soldiers coming up on their heels forced them to hurry up the interminable stairs, and Basen’s legs were beginning to tire while his back was aching from hunching to avoid hitting his head. But then the tunnel opened enough for him to stand upright. He picked up speed with great relief.

Finally, he led them up one last turn and saw the end. “Almost there,” he called over his shoulder. But as he got closer to the top of the enclosed stairway, it looked as if there was nothing but a wall after a few steps on even ground.

“Jackrie,” Basen called softly, some panic coming out through his tone.

She pushed through, took one glance, and her face fell. “There must be some way through.”

“Could we have passed the right route?” Basen hadn’t been watching the walls for a hidden passageway like the one that led them into this enclosed stairway.

“Terren told me just to follow the stairs to get to the top of the mountain.”

Basen heard the distinct sound of someone in their group unsheathing his sword. They all fell quiet to listen.

He couldn’t see past Annah and Alabell behind him, but the two women seemed to be speaking with Cleve and Peter farther below. Suddenly Alabell turned and put a finger over her lips. She motioned with her other hand at Basen’s wand. He stopped making light.

In the darkness, they waited. Basen heard approaching footsteps, the echoes deceiving him into thinking the source of the sound was already upon them. The dim glow of light barely reached them as it twisted up from down below. He started to push his way around Alabell and Annah to get to the front so he could fight, but when he came to Peter, the warrior shoved him back.

“Stay,” Peter whispered aggressively.

Basen grudgingly obeyed.

“Cut that light,” someone said from below, and darkness descended upon them.

Basen could make out only whispers. Whoever they were, they were close.

Then Basen heard nothing for a while except Annah’s sharp breaths. She was standing on a step just above him, her mouth right at his ear. She sounded terrified.

He folded his body sideways until his ear touched the cold stone step. He heard soft clicks of what had to be footsteps.
They’re treading carefully now. They must realize we’re here.

Echoes in this enclosed stairway were so severe that he feared even a whisper might be heard, but he had to risk it.

“They know we’re here,” he murmured with his ear still pressed to the ground.

Someone roughly pushed his hand down on Basen’s back to quiet him. He assumed it to be Peter.

“I found a way through,” Alabell whispered.

“Where?” Jackrie asked.

“There’s some space at the base of the wall.”

“Then let’s go.” Basen rose to a standing position, wobbling in the darkness and finding Peter’s muscular shoulder for balance.

Before they could take two steps, light burst on them. It was just as Basen feared—a swarm of enemies standing within the same short straightaway of stairs, but too far to engage in melee combat, a mage at the front. They were well prepared for this distance, while Basen’s group had put their warriors at the front, and they had no time to load arrows on their bows.

“Jackrie!” Cleve yelled, but she was already leaping over Basen and Peter to get to the front, flicking her wand in the process. Cleve caught her by her stomach and legs and held her as she formed a sartious energy shield.

The fireball everyone knew was coming exploded into the floating green energy. It sizzled like meat falling onto a hot pan, yellow sparks washing over from the middle out.

“Down!” Peter ordered. Cleve and Jackrie ducked, and he shot an arrow just over their heads. It might’ve singed Cleve’s hair before it flew down the stairs and caught the enemy mage. He fell backward into the rest of his group, the enclosed stairway too narrow for them to get out of the way.

The light went out, but Basen had seen enough. There were at least ten of them, and the last thing he wanted to do was fight in this tight space.

“Follow Alabell,” he said, making light for his party.

They hurried to the wall a few steps behind them. Alabell was already there, crunched and pointing at its bottom. “We can crawl through here.”

Basen shined light directly upon it and found that she was right, though it was a tight squeeze.

Annah went first, and even her petite body couldn’t fit with her backpack on. She took it off and slid through hastily. Alabell was next. Then it was Basen’s turn, but the sounds of enemies rushing up the stairs stopped him. He looked behind him to ensure Jackrie, Peter, and Cleve were coming. The two warriors shot arrows as Jackrie stood nervously behind them, trying to find a way to shoot a fireball without hitting them.

Some ways down, the frontmost enemy led his group while holding a tall shield. Cleve’s next arrow pierced the shield, though it didn’t get much through.

“Duck, Cleve,” Jackrie told him, then shot a fireball over his head. It sounded like a rock against metal as it pelted the shield, knocking the man backward. But he was caught by his group and stayed on his feet. Enemy archers behind him loaded their own arrows, though it didn’t appear they could shoot until the man holding the shield got out of the way. More of Cleve and Peter’s arrows struck the massive shield, preventing the man from moving it.

Basen gathered all the bastial energy he could and hurried down the steps until he was right behind his group. He squeezed between Jackrie and Peter, then shoved Cleve’s massive torso against the wall to fit through. Now in the clear, Basen cast a fireball that was so large it skipped off the steps and bounced against the ceiling before enveloping the shield and the man holding it.

Screams erupted as the fireball exploded. Basen was blinded for a moment, his eyes unused to such bright light, but then he saw that the stairway was clear. There were no bodies to be found, however. Screaming came from down below as dancing light created shadows around the bend. That meant at least one man had caught on fire.

“Hurry,” Jackrie said.

They followed her to the very end of the stairway, where each of them scooted after her through the opening at the bottom.

It was not a tunnel, as Basen had first feared, for his shoulders were already clear of the ceiling by the time his knees were beneath it. He crawled out to find himself surrounded by natural stone walls, the starry sky above him. It seemed to be a small alcove atop the mountains. He noticed Alabell standing near their only way out, a thin opening where two corners of stone almost met.