Victim of Fate (24 page)

"I have Kevard's Sword," Alto reminded her.
"We can do it."

"That thinking got Kevard killed!" she hissed
at him. "You're my champion; you must do as I say!"

Alto stared at her for a long moment. He
shook his head. "No, I must do what I think is right. This is the
best way to protect you and your people."

"You're a fool!"

Garrick held up his hand. "You're both
fools," he growled. "And worse for wasting time arguing about it.
If there's blood to be spilt, we'll spill it, but standing here's
not the way to do it!"

Alto nodded. "Come, back to the main cavern.
We'll scavenge proper clothing and armor for you as we can."

Patrina snorted but said nothing. Alto could
feel her glaring at him as he led the jog back up the passage. They
could hear the echoes of other soldiers in the tunnel, though it
was difficult to tell if it came from in front or behind them. They
had their answer when the tunnel opened ahead of them to the ledge
that led down the cavern wall.

"Hold there!" a man coming up the ledge said.
He wore courtly-looking plate armor and was followed by a group of
several warriors wearing steel breastplates and chain leggings.
"New recruits?"

Alto stopped and stared at him. He realized
he held his sword in his hand again, but at least he wasn't
pointing it threateningly at the man.

"Yes, we just got here today," Patrina
said.

He frowned and reached up to tug at his short
and wiry black beard. "I think not. I've heard of that blade. And
of the man that wields it, or should I say the boy? You've made a
name for yourself, Alto, but you have no grasp of what you've
dabbled with!"

"Are you Kazim?" Alto asked with narrowed
eyes.

The armored man snorted. "Kazim deals with
the rabble here; I have a higher calling. I am Beck, Knight of the
Silver Dragon," he stated while stiffening his back. "Now put that
sword down and come along like a good boy. I can see from the look
in your eyes that you're nothing more than a pawn of powerful
forces at work. Why die for something you don't understand?"

"I've been threatened by a lot of people
lately but so far I'm still standing. I think I'll take my
chances," Alto said.

Beck scowled. "You're foolish and rash, just
like the wizard said. Very well, a thousand gold to the man who
delivers him to me. A hundred if all you bring is his head."

Alto heard Patrina's gasp but the importance
was lost as his own head swirled. A price of a thousand gold for
him? But he was nobody! He turned and saw Garrick drawing his sword
and stepping forward to intercept the first of Beck's minions. Alto
shook himself free of his shock and lunged ahead to protect
Garrick's flank.

Each swing of Alto's blade smashed aside
steel and flesh. The impacts struck reddish flares that made men
cry out and fall back from him, though more pushed from the ledge
behind Beck and others began to arrive from the tunnel they'd only
just fled from. In spite of their strength and ferocity, the three
companions found themselves being pushed towards the edge of the
ledge and surrounded before they could hope to flee back up to the
surface.

"Enough!" The cry of a man echoed over the
battle and caused a lull in the fighting. Alto, Garrick, and
Patrina stood breathing hard and bleeding from minor cuts. The
growing army arrayed against them parted as Beck forced his way
through. "I see Fizzulthorp was right about one thing—you are
irritatingly persistent. Well, then, boy, it's time you learned
you're not the only one with a magical sword!"

Beck drew his sword and slashed at Alto,
cutting through the air so quickly Alto was barely able to move his
blade to deflect it. Beck followed through with more rapid attacks,
knocking Alto back and forcing him off balance. He knew he had to
reverse the momentum but Beck played him like a cat toying with a
mouse, even drawing close enough to backhand him with his left hand
across the cheek.

Garrick roared and leapt at him, chopping
overhead with his sword, sure to split the knight in half. Beck
stepped ahead and used his sword to slap Alto's out to the side.
Garrick's blade glanced off his pauldron instead of crushing
through it as it should have.

Beck turned and grinned at the stunned
barbarian. He kicked out with his leg, connecting with Garrick's
stomach and forcing him to stumble back a step. The northerner
grunted and clutched at his stomach while he tried to replace the
lost air in his lungs.

Beck's sword was back in time to block a
clumsy slash from Alto. Alto felt his sword repelled by Beck's
weapon, almost as though the man had caught it and thrown it away
from him. Alto stared in shock as he realized they could not win
this fight.

"Now you understand why you are a peasant and
I am a knight," Beck taunted him. "There is no replacement for
years of training and a proper bloodline. What's worse, I
understand your father's a farmer? And to think you had the
audacity to think you had the right to challenge my order!"

Alto let his eyes fall and saw that the edge
of the stone ledge he stood upon was only a few feet behind him.
Perhaps if he could enrage Beck and make the man charge him, he
might trip him or find a way to force him over the edge? He looked
back up, lest his plan be guessed.

"You're not finished yet, are you? I'm above
such things, but think of the hardship your lady friend will endure
once you've been captured. These men are angry and I fear they'll
take out their frustrations on her. I can kill you at any time, but
I'll give you this one offer. Throw down your sword and I'll see to
it that she's released free of harm."

"Don't you dare," Patrina growled.

Alto glanced at her. She was bleeding from
the wounds she'd received fighting without armor. Nothing
life-threatening, but her dress and small clothes were dirty,
bloody, and ruined. Her outfit alone had probably been worth more
than he'd earned working on his father's farm his entire life.

"Alto, I won't let you give up," she hissed
at him. "I'll gut you myself for being a coward!"

Beck laughed. "Such spirit! That's the mark
of nobility, boy. Not the meek eyes of a sheep you've got."

"I'm not a sheep." Alto turned to stare at
him. "Even the wolves know enough to fear me. You keep offering
deals. I think you're little better than a penned-in bull. Full of
heat and blowing hard, but you're still stuck in a pen waiting for
the next cow to be brought in so you'll feel like a man."

Beck stared at him with his cheeks growing
red. He straightened and then relaxed, even dropping his blade a
few inches. "Clever, boy. But pointless. I think if you won't drop
your sword, I'll cut off your hand so you don't have a choice. That
should show you your place!"

The blaring sound of a horn sounded to their
right. It echoed off the cavern walls and caused everyone to
cringe, save for Patrina. She gasped and spun, and then pointed and
shouted, "The Kelgryn have come!"

With a cry of war, Teorfyr led the charge
down the ramp towards the gathered soldiers who surrounded the
three companions. A standard-bearer rushed behind him, moving his
flag just enough for Alto to glimpse Tristam, Namitus, Karthor, and
Kar in the jarl's van.

Alto grinned and turned back to Beck. He
looked left and right but found the man had disappeared into the
shifting masses. In his place, his plate- and chain-armored men
pressed forward and hoisted their weapons.

"Hope you got your wind back," Alto cried out
to Garrick.

"Was about to take a nap," the barbarian said
as he hewed a man in half with a mighty swing. He jerked away from
a swinging blade that slapped against his hip and then punched the
warrior in the face.

"Don't be fools," Patrina yelled at them.
"Hold them off until my father's men get here!"

Alto nodded. It was a good plan but there
were a lot of enemy soldiers and his arm was getting tired after
the abuse Beck had put him through. He clenched his teeth and
fended off a strike. He would hold the line; there was no
alternative.

"This is your idea of rescuing my
daughter?"

Alto jerked his blade out of the belly of the
man he'd skewered and turned his head to see Teorfyr smash aside a
clumsy thrust from a spear and kick the spear wielder squarely
between the legs. The jarl finished the crippled man with a
downward chop to the back of his neck.

"We ran into problems," Alto managed between
breaths.

"I see. Fall back, lad, there's too many for
us to hold. We'll need to retreat."

Alto turned back to the fray and saw a curved
sword flashing in time to cut off the arm of a man lunging towards
him. The point of the disarmed weapon still dug into his
mail-covered side but it left little more than a bruise.

"Don't know how you survived this long
without me," Namitus said with a grin.

Patrina cried out, drawing Alto's attention.
He turned to see her smash the hilt of her sword into the face of a
man who had grabbed the shoulder of her dress and yanked hard
enough on it to tear it where it was laced across her chest. He
fell back from her assault and was finished off by Teorfyr's sword
in his chest and Garrick's blade slamming into his back and
crushing his spine.

Tristam moved beside Alto, allowing the two
warriors to fall into their comfortable routine of protecting one
another's flanks while fighting their adversaries. "Glad you caught
up with us," Tristam offered.

Alto risked a glance at him before returning
his attention to the growing horde before them. The stone ramp was
filling up with other enemies. The daunting force of humans was
reinforced with groups of ogres, trolls, and goblins. They were
pouring out of the other tunnels in what seemed an endless
supply.

"You heard the jarl," Tristam said. "We fall
back. Live to fight another day. Seems you found a sweet spot here;
we'll need to return with reinforcements."

"We'll never step foot in here again if we
run," Alto said while parrying away first one blade and then
another. Namitus darted around the two of them, slipping between
defenders and striking out to wound or kill whenever an opportunity
presented itself.

"Then we don't come back; at least we keep
them bottled up," Tristam said. "Can't be much food in here—we
starve them out with a siege."

"Tunnels run through these mountains,"
Patrina yelled over to them over the din of steel against steel and
the screams of the wounded. "You won't keep them here nor will they
go hungry."

"But we'll live a lot longer," Tristam
pointed out.

Alto launched a furious offensive, making his
arm burn and his lungs heave for want of air. It drove the
attackers back and left one man rolling in his own blood. He turned
and located Namitus nearby, slicing the hamstring of a warrior with
his scimitar. "Namitus! I need you."

The rogue slipped back over to him. "It's
good to be needed."

"Can you think of a way I can get down
there?" Alto nodded towards the cavern floor.

"Jump?"

"Never mind," Alto growled. He turned back to
the warriors who were rushing to fill the void he'd created moments
ago. He heard nothing further from the rogue and, after chancing a
quick search for him, couldn't find him. He clenched his teeth in
frustration and fought on in spite of the increasing weight of his
sword.

"Enough," Teorfyr said, surprising Alto. The
jarl had managed to move around behind him and then up beside him.
"Fall back; you're tiring and each parry comes slower."

"I can't leave!" Alto said.

"Lad, that's an order from your liege!"
Teorfyr snapped.

"Wait, what's that?" Tristam turned and
asked.

A sword smashed into his arm and side,
sending him sprawling from the impact. Tristam's chain mail held
but he cursed from the pain of the strike. Alto slammed the
attacking warrior with his blade in a clumsy backhand swipe, paying
no attention to the damage the strike caused. It gave the attacker
pause, which was what Alto needed to steady Tristam and pull him
back to his feet with his free hand.

When Alto looked up, he saw that Teorfyr's
warriors had filled in the gaps in the line, giving him and Tristam
a moment of peace in the eye of the metal storm. "I'll explain
later," Alto said. "We have to get Patrina out of here."

"If that means we're going, I'm all for it,"
Tristam said while reaching up to massage his arm. "Damn if that
didn't make my whole arm tingle."

"Better that it's tingling and not lying on
the ground beside you," Kar pointed out.

"Wondered where you'd gotten off to," Tristam
accused the wizard with a scowl.

"This way!" Namitus cried out to them.

Alto turned and saw the rogue was kneeling
beside the edge of the ramp. He saw a rope that was tied in a loop
around a jagged break in the stone. The other end dropped into the
cavern below out of his line of sight. Alto grinned and ran over to
inspect the work. He clapped his friend on the shoulder and then
turned to see Tristam, Kar, and Karthor staring at him.

"You're mad then," Tristam said. "I should
have known as much when I heard about the unicorn."

"We have to destroy those forges," Alto
argued. "With the battle up here, they'll be undefended!"

"For once I agree with Tristam," Kar
said.

"No!" Trina pushed through to stand next to
Alto. She looked at the rope and then up at Alto. She nodded to the
young warrior and smiled. "It's not just our lives at stake here.
My people and yours will be hurt or killed if we don't do
this."

"Not my people," Tristam reminded her.

"Think of the reward," Alto said.

"Reward?" Garrick asked. He wiped sweat from
his brow and grinned.