The Last Heroes Before Judgement (7 page)

Lazarus shoved him back into the cart, but he held up Kru for a shield, so I got it next.

“And you. You think you’re some kind of hero? She would have been just fine without you getting yourself locked up. Do you have any idea how bad Sloan got after you took his leg? All you did was make life harder for me, and for her, and for everyone else. ”

He spun away from us and laid his bedroll down beside Major Bloodaxe’s cart.

“Mate, I cannot wait to get one of those. The Drakkah are real, brother. Glorious.”

“We are the Drakkah, Senjay. It’s up to us to stop the next invasion.”

“Ah, what can they do to us? We’ve got the hilts. We’ve got all the power. It’s too late for them now, ‘boy-o!’”

After getting settled in, Senjay fell asleep almost immediately. Kru wanted to stay up with me.

“I had a long day boy. But, honestly, it was the best day of my life.”

“Krrru!”

“Saying your name is a good trick boy. I’m sure the harlot’s will give you all the yummy treats you can eat.”

I had no treats for him, but the puppy was happy with snuggling for warmth. I watched the stars twinkling in the open sky long after the fire went out. I pushed snow on it just to be sure and covered us with my shell to keep out the morning dew. There were too many nightmares for me to fit into one night, so they all took turns kicking me awake and stealing me back for more.

Kru woke up early to properly celebrate his initiation into solid foods. We were the first ones to crunch about the plateau on the light layer of snow, sharing one of the few tree without a sloth. The steeds were too hot to accumulate snow as they had laid in a pile for warmth. Hopping up much more loudly, they smacked their horns into pine needle branches to melt the frost. When they shook the snow off their backs they dug under the carts after clean grass, horns smacking into the wood loud enough to wake the rest of the valley. Major Bloodaxe stepped down onto the ground with bare feet just as the sun crested the mountains. He stretched, releasing so much steam that his red hair could easily have been mistaken for a small flame.

“Where’s my little harlot cake boy-o?”

“Kru. Come. Here sir.”

“Ah yes, c’mere sweetness.”

He whispered through a yawn and the dogs understood to stay quiet as well. They jumped down and woke Lazarus to assist the puppies. The older dogs, Tommy and Timmy, decided Kru was already grown and took him for a scouting run around the camp. He barked up at a sloth, but it was only once.

“By the light of day, he picked up on convoy security awful quick. I might just have to keep him. Hmm, a brood of smaller dogs would be easier to feed. Na, they can’t even jump out the cart without a hand.”

The Bloodaxe finished speaking to himself and woke the other Majors before going to put on his boots. Major Talon waved me over to the Swiftblade’s cart without any formal introduction.

“Boy. Come. Yes you, come.”

“Take off the goat. Yes fool, do this. Good, now turn.”

She must have heard us at her cart after all. When she saw my back, she pretended to vomit, and then slammed her ice cold hand down on my shoulder. I flinched but she was only hopping down. She had no shame, and almost no clothing on her body. I focused on looking only into her eyes while she got dressed right there in front of me.

“You look disgusting. How many girls were you caught with? What is the total?”

“Ma’am, Leiza was only the one. And, my name is Matthius.”

“Ugh, don’t salute me slummer. I want to know about that scar.”

“It was only three lashes ma’am.”

She scowled at me and put on her shirt. I looked away and put on my vest but she stopped me and tried to wipe the scars off my skin with another angry glare.

“Liar. I said- how many?”

“Ma’am, I’m not lying. Sloan just used a nine-talon.”

She snorted and spit. Then she tried to take a deep calming breath, but it ended with a low growl that scared the nearest sloth to the other side of his tree.

“When they send you to Dante’s Isle, tell the harlot’s Bertrada approves of your face.”

“Yes ma’am. Thank you ma’am.”

She slammed her hand down on my shoulder again and walked over to kick Senjay awake. I was shaking my head and wondering what she meant when I realized Major Swiftblade had been watching the whole time. I had just admitted to cheating him with damaged goods.

“Sorry sir, I didn’t see you there. Uh, careful fraternizing with that one, the grey skins hate that even worse.”

“Because she is a white woman?”

“Y-yes sir.”

“Should I be afraid? Am I in danger? Are the authorities coming for me?”

When Major Swiftblade laughed it was the loudest noise of the morning and it caught everyone’s attention. He jumped out of his cart, holding out a string, and using me to hold himself upright.

“You think you’re the first boy to earn the whip? That is the difference between us then- I will kill any man who tries.”

His message was more easily understood, as his punishment had indeed been much more severe. His back had been torn into deeply over and over, with years of healing in between the layers of scar tissue. We were smiling at each other and comparing scars, but everyone else was turning away in shock. When he was through having a laugh, he held his stomach and drew down his tone with a long sigh in the way the old men do. Then he pulled the string, making the tent collapsed in on itself, and handed the string to me.

“Fold it neat. Wrap it tight. Tie it off. Tuck it away.”

“Yes, sir.”

He held up his hand and raised his brows to be sure I knew he was serious about maintaining his gear, though, cleaning and returning his shovel should have proven just that.

“Sir, fold, wrap, tie, and tuck.”

He nodded and walked into the tree line while I hopped up in the cart. The short cart walls had been drilled into and the tent pegs fit perfectly. The string was loose, but I saw how he had looped it through the ceiling pegs for a quick collapse. I stacked the pegs up onto the covers but had learned they only fit properly if the covers were first stacked and folded in thirds. I had Major Swiftblade’s tent tied off and tucked away before Senjay had finished waking, so I did the same for Major Talon. Lazarus helped Major Bloodaxe strap the steeds to their breech lines and pulled the carts into position back on the cliffside road.

“Here you are boy-o. Since you like dogs so much, bury all the piles of dung, and the horse apples too. You’re in the commandoes now, get used to leaving no traces- like you did with the fire pit.”

“Sir, yes sir.”

Major Bloodaxe handed me his shovel and Senjay helped me to find our targets. He was not ready to talk but he did groan a few words about breakfast while we circled the plateau. He rubbed his eyes and dragged a branch of pine behind us to cover our tracks. When I returned the shovel, I pet Kru one last time, and we all met behind the last cart.

“Good morning my sleepy little turtles. How’s about we make some nice hot soup to get the day started proper? Ready and down, yes the snow is cold, but not for long. Just push harder.”

The Bloodaxe got down with us and pushed just as hard. Though his skin turned pink from the cold wind, he still left his shirt in the cart where Tina was using it as a bed. We matched his breathing and his pace- until he suddenly stopped. He pointed his nose up and sniffed at the air like one of his dogs. Major Swiftblade saw it first.

“A messenger approaches. Short pony, one man, one dog.”

“Sloan.”

“Sir, you know the underpriest? You know why he’s come?”

My breathing was out of control. I jumped up so quickly it gave me the spins.

“He’s here to take me back to the Tonneys. I won’t let him. He’ll die first.”

“Calm down boy. You will not assault a priest while in my charge.”

When the bulky fighting dog barked at us, the Bloodaxe’s dogs jumped from their cart and raced to form a blockade in front of their master. They stood on their hind legs and tried to push him off the cliff, but he bullied past them and snarled until he had me alone with my back to the cart.

“You see this? I won’t go back! And as for you, dog, I got two hands and you’ve only the one jaw. Nickolas taught me what to do with a beast like you. C’mon, lunge, if you dare.”

I moved my hands around the beast’s head in opposing circles and he quickly became dizzy and aggravated. He snapped and blew his nose, and then changed targets. When he dropped his head, I saw that the usual spiked collar of the underpriest’s dogs was concealing a new adornment. The dog was wearing Leiza’s purple Lokah pearls. I could not reach them safely, but I began trying. Kru leapt from the safety of his cart and rushed to block. I barely grabbed him before the beast could snatch him up in his drooling jowls.

“Sloan!”

“Keep silent boy. If either of these dogs makes a move- I will handle it.”

Behind the cart, Major Bloodaxe was flexing in anger and muttering about the priest in between gulps of air. Priest Second Class Sloan slowed down his approach and trotted his little pony with a swagger. Major Bloodaxe clearly knew the man, and he shook with a rage from some previous transgression. His black curls were already going grey, but the smile he wore on his face was that of a spoiled child. He delighted in daring men to kill him, and every one of the womenfolk as well.

“You dare to pass my convoy on the road? State your purpose priest, now!”

“Well, well, well, Carol you made it out of prison. And just in time to return my property.”

“Carolus! Cut him down.”

“Ah, Bertrada returns as well. Perhaps you have forgotten wench, you do not speak to men unless first spoken to!”

Sloan laughed to himself and circled around the cart beside his fighting dog. His knee was still wrapped around a brace, but the swelling had subsided enough to hide under his pant leg.

“Good boy, Sinner. You found the boy. Drop that snack and return that UNF gear. You’ve got such a long walk back to the mines, Matthius, we really should get started.”

“Holy priest, the boy is in my charge,-”

“Do not open your mouth to me you black demon.”

Major Swiftblade laughed from the surprise and leaned back in the cart seat with supreme confidence, while Sloan spit over the cliff and his face flushed red. I threw up my open hand and spoke calmly.

“I will go easy, you filthy priest.”

“A wise decision boy.”

“However, you must first answer one question.”

“No, we will not be having eggs.”

“How did Sinner come by Leiza’s pearls?”

Sloan cackled with such a force he scared his own pony. It shuttled sideways and bounced off of Major Bloodaxe with a fearful whinny. I blew the air out of my nose, and blinked as hard as I could, but the red shadow still crept out of his eyes- and Sinner’s- and kept growing.

“Well boy, someone had to identify the body. I’m afraid she leapt from the cliff behind the bath house, with a few of the other young harlots, and was reduced to bits. Not much left with all the dogs in Ulfbar going hungry, but a black Cairan with Lokah pearls is not easily mistaken. Lucky the pearls went unharmed, no need for them to go to waste.”

I did not have the strength to call him a liar, or even to stand any longer. Senjay and Lazarus had to be restrained by Major Bloodaxe, but I dropped to my knees. The sun no longer willed me to continue and the red shadow washed away with my tears. Sloan and Major Talon were screaming at each other in Old Slorrick. I could not translate and I did not try. I saw only Sinner, and he, like all alphas, do not take kindly to being looked in the eye. I slowly placed Kru on the ground, and reinstated the dizzying spinning of my hands.

My left hand I stretched out further to use for bait. Sinner licked his jowls preparing to bite down. Before his uncles could circle the cart, Kru made the first move. He bit down on Sinner’s left arm with all his might, but the thick fighting dog did not show even the slightest sign of pain. He grabbed Kru before I could. I crawled after him as he dragged Kru under Sloan’s pony and threw him off the cliff. There was no time to think, or hesitate. With all my might, I dove over the edge. I managed to grab Kru’s tail between my fingers and pull him tight to my chest. Then we raced down to the valley floor together.

Rushing air blew the red shadow completely from my eyes and turned the cliff side argument into a dull buzz. I heard only the little puppy whining with fear and he could not help but to pee on my already disgusting goat skin vest. I was not there to help Leiza, but, even if my body was crushed on impact, saving Kru would be an honorable death. We hit the canopy at an angle and crashed through many frozen branches. Hitting the ground knocked the wind out of both of us, still, we did not stop. The steep slope supported few saplings and their weak roots gave way under our weight. The shell slid on the ice fast enough to throw us back into another free fall on the last hill and I made the mistake of trying to breathe. We hit the valley floor hard and stuck right in the snow. The air was pushed from our lungs all at once. After a few gasps, I checked us both for broken ribs and blinked up at the blue sky.

“Look Kru, that phoenix thinks we’re dead. Or is it an owl?”

A large figure came swooping in on us but his screech sounded more like a howl. I made ready to kick it away, just in time to realize what had happened. I flipped us over to use the shell for cover. Sinner had been thrown over the edge in retaliation and, though he just missed us, he splattered blood and guts all over the place. I peeked out and saw the horrific seen and for a moment my eyes saw Leiza’s body instead. Then the noise from the high road echoed down.

“Matthius! Where are you?”

“We’re here! Tell Tina I saved Kru! We made it!”

“Good job boy-o. Now, get to the Moser by sun down or I’ll have Sloan all to myself.”

The scuffle with priest Sloan ended with him fleeing in terror- and rightly so. Major Bloodaxe shouted orders to his steeds and they immediately gave chase.

“Wait! What about us? There’s no way up without a rope! Senjay! Lazarus!”

The convoy had orders to move and I was once again left behind. I had never been outside of Ulfbar but I had seen enough Lantos issued maps to know the glaciers molded the landscape in great waves. The high road would have to arc north for many miles and we would likely find another plateau at the next tip.

“Well Kru, we’ll have to walk west all day but we should catch them in time for dinner.”

The puppy was not ready to be coddled. He was just as angry as I was, and just saying the word ‘dinner’ made him hungry. The snow was light enough to let him down and he sprinted west up the first hill without hesitation. I started to follow, then stopped and turned back to Sinner. His body was splayed on a felled stump and the bloody mess covered everything around the corpse.

“Too bad, no need to waste them and all.”

I spit at the words of the underpriest and walked into the circle of death. I pulled the necklace off of Sinner, careful to avoid the spiked collar. The scavenger birds were already having an aerial battle for rights to the delicious meal but it made me want to vomit. Kru had taken the hill and barked from its crest in triumph.

“Well, someone finally waited for me.”

I set off after him and he decided to wait no longer. The trees had no leaves so at least he did not disappear into a shadow. I caught up to him when he stopped to pee on yet another tree.

“Hey boy, I think these would look better on you.”

Leiza’s pearls were long enough to loop over his tiny neck three times. He tried to shake them off at first, so I distracted him by sprinting away. He gave up and followed. The purple swirls added just the right amount of color to his black and grey coat. We took turns running past each other and the necklace made it much easier to keep an eye on him. Our legs were still celebrating having survived the fall and they carried us for hours- even without constant sunlight.

“Keep pushing boy. If we hurry, we might even catch Sloan first.”