The Duelist 6, page 7
“It’s not something I ever really wanted to be,” I confessed. “To be honest, the responsibility of it all terrifies me more often than not. But… I’m also starting to see I couldn’t be anything else. Like coming here changed me somehow.”
“If that is the case, I am glad for it,” the raptor-man said, and hearing the respect in his voice eased another part of me that felt bereft without the avian-siblings by my side.
I knew if I had to pick a second Second, it would be Sskern.
“How much farther until we’re there?” I asked Thas over my shoulder.
“Not too far,” he said. “It should just be--”
The man cut himself off so abruptly I slowed us to a halt.
“Thas?” I questioned, and then I turned to look at where he was pointing.
“Smoke,” he said, and because everything in lower Terr had a dark backdrop, I had to squint in order to see the black plume of smoke rising from over the ridge.
And then the screams could be heard.
Chapter 6
The six of us ran the rest of the way up the switchbacks and over the ridge toward the sounds of terror and chaos. Sskern and I were in the lead and had already armed ourselves, and we were followed closely by Thas and his impressive halberd.
However, when we ran through the town’s wooden gates, it was clear the mine-folk were under a different type of attack.
“More water!” A man who looked like a stockier version of Sskern’s velociraptor subspecies hauled a bucket full of water out of a trough and handed it to the person next to him in some sort of assembly line.
The line of people passing buckets back and forth led to the burning building near the center of the town.
“What is that building?” I shouted at anyone who would answer me.
“It’s the hospital!” a frantic woman screamed. “There are still people inside!”
“Shit,” I muttered. “Sskern, Thas, we have to help. Zoie, you and the sisters help out here. See if there is a better way for you to put out the fire.”
I flung my cloak around the lower half of my face in order to shield me from the smoke, and then I plunged into the flaming structure.
“We should split up!” Sskern yelled over the roar of the inferno.
“Good idea!” Thas agreed, and we agreed that they would take the right and left of the two-story building respectively, while I tackled the center.
The staircase buckled when I put my weight on it, and I tried to be as light on my feet as possible. About halfway up, I discovered this was futile, and with a series of loud cracks, the entire structure gave way.
I just managed to leap myself to safety, but then I had to frantically roll over to put out the flames that had started to eat away at my cloak.
When that crisis was averted, I stood up as best as I could and immediately started coughing at the thick smoke.
This was going to be the biggest problem, I could tell. Especially since all of the smoke was billowing upward.
I had to make this quick.
“Hello!” I yelled out, and I instantly regretted it as the hot air scorched my throat and filled my lungs. A coughing fit even worse than before wracked my ribs until I felt like they might fracture.
“H-Help!” a distant voice sounded out from the end of the corridor I was facing, followed by a weak cough.
“I’m coming!” I called back through the cloak I had pressed up against my nose and mouth. Which meant the words came out horribly muffled and useless.
I just needed to focus on conserving my oxygen and staying as low to the floor as possible.
“Please hurry! My grandpa is sick!” I turned another corner and ended up inside a room that must have been the main area where they kept all the sick and dying. It was empty now save for a pair of figures huddled as close to the ground as possible.
“Hello?” I said again.
“Over here!” a young male voice said, and I was able to see how the scrawny kid’s grandfather was missing a leg and was obviously not going anywhere too fast. “They said they would come back, but the bastards never came back!”
“Hold on, sir.” I brought one of the old man’s arms over my shoulders while the kid grabbed his other arm.
“K-Kept telling him to go,” the old man wheezed.
“As if I would leave you here!” the kid said as he angrily swiped his electric-blue bangs out of his eyes, and then he jerked when I tried to take us down the corridor. “Wait, where are you going?”
“The stairs have collapsed,” I said. “We need to find another way out.”
“Follow me!” the kid said. “My name is Neelix, by the way.”
“Alex,” I replied, and after the introductions were had, we all put our heads down in order to push through the thick smoke.
The flames licked hungrily up the walls and caused the mortar between the logs to crack and crumble. In a little while, this whole place would be a structural nightmare.
An ominous groan sounded through the crackle of the fire, and the upper floor was beginning to come unmoored until it felt like we were running along a pier that started to sway due to our actions.
“Quick!” Neelix shouted through the tunic covering his mouth and nose, and then he steered us down a corridor toward the left.
“It’s a dead end!” I shouted and tried to swing us around, but Neelix stopped me.
“Service entrance!” He shouldered open a hidden panel in the wall that revealed a narrow staircase that seemed mostly devoid of heat and smoke.
As far as choices went, this was as good as I could have hoped for.
Crash.
“Let’s go!” I hurried us into the narrow stairwell, and together the three of us made our way to the lower level.
“Alex!” Sskern’s voice could be heard somewhere in the smoky depths.
“Can you get your grandfather the rest of the way out?” I asked Neelix.
“Yes, I got him!” the boy said, but I waited until I was sure they were both out and being taken care of by the crowd.
“Alex!” Sskern bellowed again.
“I’m coming, Sskern!” I jumped over a smoldering fallen beam and thundered down a hall where I encountered the obvious problem.
Half the ceiling had collapsed and blocked the room the Regent was in, and through some of the debris, I could see a few others also trapped behind him.
“Alex, there’s no other way out!” Sskern yelled and then was forced back from the flames.
“Hang on, I’ll figure something out,” I told him as I looked around for something that could help me clear the large structure.
If only I had something I could use as a lever.
“Ambassador?” a welcome voice sounded from far away.
“Thas! Thank Mercedes, follow my voice, and bring your weapon!” I kicked a few chunks away but then had to jump backward a moment later to avoid some more falling pieces of ceiling.
“We’ve got to hurry,” he said and brandished his halberd. “The fire is out of control, and the building won’t last much longer.”
“Is everywhere else clear?” I asked.
“Yes. The building is empty except for you.” Thas jammed the blunt end of his weapon under the part of the ceiling blocking the door.
“Together!” I said as I gripped the wooden staff along with him, and we both used our body weight to lever up the obstruction. “H-urr-y!”
The gap Thas and I created was just big enough for two people to scramble out from underneath, but Sskern and one other person were still on the other side. With the help of the other two, they were all able to get the last person out followed by the Regent before Thas and I lost the battle with the heavy burning structure.
“Woah!” Sskern exclaimed when the thing came crashing down.
“Run!” I yelled when more of the roof began to crumble, and all of us made a mad dash to get out.
One of the townspeople behind me tripped, and I doubled-back to help her. We were the last two out, and we made it just before the whole building finally gave up the ghost and collapsed in a burning heap.
The townspeople gasped and cried out in dismay as the flames continued to devour what used to be the hospital.
“What is the meaning of this?” A large man with a hard domed head similar to a WWII army helmet pushed his way to the front of the crowd. “Outsiders? In Minetown?”
“I can vouch for them,” Thas intervened as he barged in front of Sskern and me.
A profound silence enveloped the crowd as the dome-headed man glared down at Thas with his arms crossed over his chest.
“Where is the Lieutenant?” he asked. “We received word from his entourage that he was only momentarily behind. They neglected to mention the guests that were coming happened to be non-Terran. Is this Zerr’s doing?”
“I don’t presume to know what Leader Zerr’s plans are, but I do know these men are honorable, and I have personally offered my assistance to the Regent and the Ambassador,” Thas said as he mirrored the other man’s posture to a T.
Their similarities in that moment made me realize this must be Thas’ father, and the Captain of the Mines.
“Ah, Sskern,” the captain sneered at the raptor-man.
“Tharfin,” Sskern replied with a respectful, if not curt, nod.
“I assume this… Ambassador…” Here he gave me a very pointed once-over. “Is something of your doing? You do something to my Lieutenant, and bring Outsiders to burn down our buildings in order to get us to abandon our homes?”
Wait. What? Didn’t all Lower Terrans want to ascend?
“We’ve been over this before, Tharfin,” Sskern sighed. “My goal isn’t to force you to abandon your home, it is just to find another home where your people can thrive.”
“All that would do is bring us closer to Up-ish tyranny,” the captain growled. “At least their control is lessened from afar.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure of that, Father,” Thas said. “Did you know your very own Lieutenant was a treacherous backstabbing bastard? He lured us into the Petrified Forest and into wolf-men territory. We had to leave behind two of our original party due to him.”
“And what became of him?” Tharfin questioned.
“I killed him, sir,” I spoke up, and I tried to give off the impression I was respectful, yet firm. “And I would have done it again if I had to. My instinct was that if the Lieutenant made it back to your town before us, he likely would have told you something to turn you even more against us. I feared the moment my people and I showed up, you would strike us down first and ask questions later.”
“So, that is the reason you have set the fire.” The suspicious Captain took a step into my space, but I wasn’t intimidated. “What a deceitful distraction!”
“There’s no way I could have done so,” I replied in a neutral voice. “We’ve all just come from the Valley, like Thas said.”
My statement seemed to give the captain pause, and his orange reptilian eyes narrowed in a glare as he visibly worked through the obvious logic. Before he could come to his own conclusion, however, someone shuffled their way toward the front and spoke up.
“He ran in and saved grandpa and me,” Neelix said, and despite the crack in his adolescent voice, he still squared off against the man who was easily four times his size. “We all almost died. Why would he set the fire and then run in to help save us?”
“Maybe it is a ruse in order to win our favor,” Tharfin said.
“But the fires started fickles ago,” Neelix said gently. “Remember, Uncle?”
Tharfin scowled down at his blue-haired nephew and then eyed Thas.
“You say Vili was duplicitous, yet you don’t have proof aside from your words,” he said, and although he seemed to be giving in to reason, he still held on to his suspicions like a dog with a bone.
“Maybe this can act as your proof?” I responded and pulled out the ball of clay wrapped in leather cloth. “Take it and see for yourself.”
The dome-headed captain snatched the parcel from me and let the cloth fall to the ground. When he had the dry clay ball sitting in the middle of his palm, he froze as his eyes flashed up to mine.
“What is this?” he asked, but the expression of fear on his face told me he knew the answer to that question already.
“It was around your Lieutenant’s neck,” I said just in case there was any doubt.
Tharfin’s nostrils flared, and he crumbled away the clay until the medallion was winking with its malicious shine.
I’d never seen a person do a better impression of an erupting volcano until that moment, because when the small silver thing was revealed, the captain went nuclear.
“Raaaaaaaaa!” the man bellowed as he crushed the medallion in his shaking fist. “How has this Up-ish poison invaded my town! It must be the Outsiders!”
“No, Father!” Thas jumped in and restrained the captain when he made a mad lunge for me.
I backed us up and made sure the girls were all behind me and my outstretched arms.
“Tell me!” Tharfin bellowed as he shook his son’s arms. “Are you being forced against your will to abide by these lowlifes? Why else would you have come back after you made your position clear?”
“Give me the medallion, it is altering your judgment,” the other man said and pried the trinket from the captain’s fingers.
“No--!” The two of them struggled for a moment before Thas managed to take the object from him and throw it down at my feet.
I snatched it up along with a thick handful of clay so I could ball it up inside an insulating cocoon once more like it was radioactive or something, and the leaking radiation caused Tharfin to go batty.
Once the thing was out of sight, an instant change came over the captain, and he slumped a little like a deflating hot-air balloon.
“Alex, give me the object,” Anwaar said, and I handed the ball of clay over to her. She rolled it between her palms so it was a perfect sphere and concentrated until her hands flashed a brilliant red. When she was done, she handed me the sphere, but instead of moist clay, it was now a smooth ceramic without a trace of even the silver of the chain.
I grabbed the fallen scrap of leather cloth and wrapped the ball up tight.
“Now me,” Amaya said and held out her hand. “I will hold it and neutralize its effects.”
“Are you sure?” I asked. I figured if this dark material could affect the captain so viscerally, then it would definitely affect the sensitive augur-woman.
“I am more than,” she said, and I didn’t have to question her further.
She was as strong as she was sexy. But even so, I would keep an eye out for her just in case.
By Anwaar’s glance, I knew she and I were on the same page, and I breathed a little easier at handing over the vile thing.
Meanwhile, Thas was speaking quietly with his father, who was now looking pale and washed-out despite his dark scales. His orange eyes blinked in bewilderment as he glanced around, and then he finally focused on his son, who was still murmuring to him.
After a few more moments of their inaudible conversation, Captain Tharfin clapped his son on both shoulders before they knocked their skulls together in a violently fond way that made my own head ache just by watching.
“I’m guessing that’s a good sign?” I nudged Sskern.
“Most definitely,” the raptor-man said even though he rubbed at his double-ridged head in sympathy.
Both men then burst out in uproarious laughter a split second later, and the crowd gasped.
“Uncle?” Neelix ventured and shuffled closer.
“Ah, lad,” Tharfin said and hooked an arm around the kid’s narrow shoulders so he could give him a hug. “I am sorry if I’ve seemed…”
“It’s okay, Uncle,” he responded before he hugged the captain full-on with his face buried in the other man’s chest.
The hard exterior that once chiseled Tharfin’s face into such harsh lines began to chip under the onslaught of Neelix’s innocent hug. With a visible sigh, the captain closed his eyes as he lightly touched the back of his nephew’s blue head, and when his eyes opened again, they landed on me.
When Neelix finally stood aside, the large man nodded once with a small jerk of his square chin, and then he clasped his hands behind his back before heading over toward me.
“You must forgive my haste,” he said with a small cordial bow. “It appears I have misjudged the situation, and I am now aware I owe you my thanks. You not only saved my father and nephew, but you also brought my son back to me. He claims you saved his life, and the debt I owe you is tremendous.”
“Please, you don’t owe me anything,” I said as I held up my hands. “I really am just here to help.”
“So my son has told me, which is still a concept I am trying to get my head around,” he explained. “You are unlike anything we’ve come to know of Outsiders, and the fact you have aligned yourself with the Upper Echelon was an added blow.”
“Captain,” Sskern said. “I know my people have done wrong by you and yours. But I am back now, not only with another Ambassador who has ties with other noble people, but I am also back as Regent to the throne under Sentinel Griss.”
“The Sentinel has taken the throne?” Tharfin arched an eyebrow. “It seems as if it takes longer and longer for news to reach us all the way down here these days. Did he finally have to slay his brother in a disgraceful Duel the way the Up-ish do?”
“My father had been ailing for some time due to the mind-control being wrought on him through Senna, his Chamberlain,” Sskern answered. “It was a relief for him to invoke the Passing Rite onto Griss.”
“And what of Regent Sskorn?” the captain interrogated.
“He succumbed to the same metal alloy your Lieutenant was corrupted by,” Sskern stated matter-of-factly even though I could see the pain around his eyes. “He, too, invoked the Rite and passed his status along to me. Things are changing in the Upper, Captain. That is why I have also brought Ambassador Brightwood along with me. He is proof Terrans and other Aventollians can work together in harmony, and that what we’ve been led to believe about Outsiders is mostly a myth.”
