Chapter 11:
Unexpected Help
Jira (March) 29, 1538
Twenty-eight days into Prince Terosh’s Kireshana journey
Prince Terosh’s Campsite, Eastern Edge of the Riden Mountains
An anotech warning flooded Prince Terosh Minstel with adrenaline, dashing hopes for a peaceful day. Kicking off his blanket, he drew his kerlak pistol and leapt to his feet. An instant later, three blue energy beams punched holes though the center of his abandoned blanket.
Stun beams.
The thought reassured Terosh, but he tossed the pistol to his left hand and drew his kerlinblade as well. Wielding two weapons could be tricky, but he wanted the offensive edge of the pistol and the defensive edge of the kerlinblade. The blade cast a white glow on the immediate area. His eyes probed the early morning shadows, adjusting to the kerlinblade’s added light.
Two energy beams came at him, and Terosh dodged. Though impossible to see, he sensed two darts flying toward his back. He ducked, and the darts shattered against the mountainside. Spinning, he sent three energy beams at the new threat.
“Stay your weapon,” called a man from his left. “We seek an audience.”
“Odd place to hold court,” Terosh said. A scan showed him four attackers arrayed in a semi-circle around him and a fifth watching from the side. Retreating a step, he felt the mountain against his back.
This is bad.
He could pin two attackers with pistol shots and maybe fight off a third with the blade, but his chances of successfully challenging four—or five—attackers were very slim.
“We wish you—” began the left attacker.
Shouting, Terosh lunged at the speaker and fired his pistol. Stun beams meant the attackers wanted to capture him, but he refused to become a hostage.
The beam grazed the man’s right shoulder. The attacker grunted, stiffened, and collapsed.
Score one for Belcross’s special powerpacks. One down, four to go.
Terosh might have redirected his flight toward the second attacker had he not sensed stun beams from three directions. He’d been told the anotechs would protect him. Though grateful for the warnings, he didn’t like relying on things he couldn’t understand. Twisting in midair, he caught two beams with his flat energy blade and let the third pass underneath his body. His arm tingled as the blade’s surge protectors compensated for the energy influx.
More blue beams struck at him. Terosh dove left to avoid one but it grazed his right arm anyway. He broke the fall with his left arm, twisting to spread the force across his back. The impact knocked the kerlinblade out of his nerveless hand. The dead man switch shut the blade down before it landed next to him.
He rolled away from more shots until someone tackled him. Terosh’s numb arm left him at a disadvantage, but Master Colander’s hand-to-hand combat lessons took over. His first punch after standing slammed into the attacker’s ear. She yelped and hit him in the gut. Her voice startled him. Chivalrous instincts told him not to hit a woman. The hesitation cleared when she smashed him in the mouth. The blow knocked his bottom lip against his upper teeth, splitting the lip. Internal morals straightened, Terosh caught the woman’s right arm, jerked her off balance, and flung her into the cliff wall. The woman rammed the mountain headfirst and slumped to the ground.
Before Terosh could celebrate, someone else tackled him. He hit the ground hard with the other man on top. Reaching up, he locked arms with the attacker. The exertion woke up his numb arm. They teetered like that until Terosh pushed the man left, rolling them dangerously close to the cliff’s edge.
Below, the fluffy green treetops beckoned Terosh to jump and let them cushion his fall. He and his attacker rolled, and Terosh found himself on the bottom again. A glancing blow off his right ear clouded his mind and sapped his strength. He shook his head, knowing he had to end the fight soon.
A dagger appeared in the man’s hand and swept toward his neck. Terosh tried to edge away from the cliff without letting go of the man’s hand. They struggled for an endless moment, Terosh pushing up and his attacker pressing down, the dagger caught between them.
A red beam blasted the ground by Terosh’s head, startling him. His attacker cursed, pushed off Terosh, and hurled the dagger at the beam’s source.
“Traitor!” shouted the attacker.
Two red beams caught the man full in the chest. His legs folded, and he tumbled backward off the mountain.
The fourth attacker, a young man who looked vaguely familiar, stared in disbelief at the fifth man then leapt over the cliff.
Terosh struggled to sit up, not understanding what had just happened. He tried to think where he might have met the young cliff diver before.
“So much for honor among assassins,” he commented.
“I have a different master than they do.” The last attacker leveled his kerlak pistol at Terosh’s face. He wore dark clothes like the others, but something told Terosh the man had two weapons besides the one pointed at him.
Kerlinblade. Banistick.
Only Royal Guards, Melian Maidens, and Rangers used the collapsible, staff-like weapons. Since the man was probably not a Royal Guard and obviously not female, that left only one choice.
I thought the Rangers were on our side!
“And what does your master want?” Terosh had trouble reconciling the image of a Ranger with the idea of a threat.
“I wish to capture you, but I don’t intend to give you to their masters. Turn around and kneel.” The man adjusted his kerlak pistol back to stun.
“No,” Terosh said. The fourth attacker’s escape method looked more appealing by the second.
The man holstered his pistol and drew a kerlinblade. It flashed to life with a soft yellow glow. He opened his mouth to speak but never got the chance.
A pebble slammed into the ground in front of the man, prompting him to move. He leapt left just in time to avoid being flattened. Cursing, he pulled his cloak’s hood tighter around his face and fled.
***
Reia landed hard next to the attacker. She would have landed on him if he hadn’t moved with incredible reflexes. She experienced a moment of horror as she realized that anyone capable of moving that fast could surely kill her in a straight fight.
To her surprise, the attacker hissed a curse and ran.
Apparently, nobody wants to fight me.
The thought was ten percent complaint and ninety percent confusion.
A shout from Prince Terosh warned Reia in time to duck a dart.
The new attacker, a woman, leaned heavily against the cliff face.
“I need to speak to the prince.” The woman’s shooting arm wavered, but her eyes burned with intensity.
“Nothing’s stopping you, but put the gun down,” Reia replied. She stepped between the prince and the dart gun.
You make me nervous. How hard did you hit your head?
The two women regarded each other.
Looking past Reia, the woman set her eyes upon the prince.
“When the time comes—”
A strangled cry cut her off.
Reia snapped her attention to the man who had previously been doing a very good impression of a dead guy. He staggered to his feet looking drunk. His eyes wandered then rolled back into his head so only the whites showed. His head sagged, making Reia worry it might fall off. He held a kerlinblade loosely like he didn’t know what to do with it.
“Morgan! No! We want him alive!”
Each of the woman’s shouts punctuated a rapid and disconcerting change within Morgan. Every muscle in the man corded, and his hands tightened around the kerlinblade. Something black washed over the whites of his eyes.
The woman fired, and the dart struck the man’s chest. He twitched like he registered the pain but took a shaky step forward anyway.
“Kill,” Morgan mumbled, sounding unsure of himself.
“Morgan, what’s wrong with you?” The woman’s question was a horrified whisper. Her stunned tone and expression told Reia the voice didn’t belong to Morgan.
“Forget Morgan. Follow orders,” spoke Morgan’s body.
“We want them alive. We want them alive,” the woman chanted.
Reia wholeheartedly agreed with the woman.
Morgan’s body sagged like a malfunctioning puppet.
“No! Friend! Kill!” His body jerked as it warred with his brain. He lifted his kerlinblade and staggered toward the female attacker.
Great, now he’s not even making sense.
Reia moved between Morgan and the woman, hoping she stayed out of it. Getting shot by the woman she was saving would be pathetic. Reia prayed her banistick would hold up against the kerlinblade as the first overhand blow jarred her whole body. The fight might have ended right there had the prince not fired six energy beams at Morgan.
Three beams struck true, but the man merely staggered with the impact and laughed.
Reia swung hard with her banistick but he backed out of reach.
“You have no idea what I’m capable of,” he declared.
The note of awe hit Reia.
“Neither do you,” she said.
“You’re obviously not Morgan, so who are you?” asked the prince.
“I am Maledek.”
The name meant nothing to Reia.
“You’re far from your area of fame,” the prince commented.
“It was time to move on. Look, I’ve learned to kill without hands. Shall I demonstrate?”
“No!” Reia and the prince shouted together.
Maledek laughed.
“Any volunteers? How about the lovely young lady?”
Reia thought he meant her until a cry from the woman behind her said otherwise. She whirled and found the woman looking stricken. Her face had drained of color, and her hands clutched at her throat.
“Shall I strangle her, break her neck, or stop her heart?”
Reia was speechless.
“Stop!” Terosh exclaimed. “It gains you nothing to kill her.”
The woman tensed then collapsed, legs folding beneath her.
“Next,” Maledek hissed.
Suddenly, Reia’s skin crawled with unseen things. The sensation lasted several terrifying seconds. An invisible hand gripped her throat, stopping almost as soon as it started. A chilling scream tore through her. Spinning to face the thing using Morgan’s body, she saw him cradling his hands against his chest.
“No. No. No. Not fair!” Spittle flew from the creature’s mouth and his eyes turned white again.
Reia’s mind swirled with questions about the man and why whatever he had done failed with her and succeeded with the other woman.
Tears streaming down his face, the man straightened his shoulders and twisted his neck as if it needed to crack. His kerlinblade flashed up in a salute before he attacked.
Reia blocked the first three blows, but her strength ebbed with each strike. The prince attacked the man with a series of swift strikes that forced Maledek to defend himself. Reia mostly stayed out of it, adding a strike here and there if the opportunity presented itself.
Maledek turned his attention back to her. She blocked a high strike aimed at her neck then a low one aimed at her side. The force of the next blow almost knocked her banistick back into her right shoulder. She twisted and avoided her own weapon, but the maneuver opened her to a devastating punch to her left ribs.
Stumbling back, she watched as Maledek attacked the prince. They exchanged several strikes before a kick sent the prince spinning toward the cliff’s edge. Maledek’s blade began following the prince. Throwing herself forward, Reia aimed a strike at the attacker’s wrist. It changed the blade’s direction so that the broad, flat edge caught the prince’s back at a glancing blow.
Reia didn’t think the blow was hard enough to drive the prince from the cliff, but to her surprise, he leapt away. Groaning, she barreled past whatever inhabited Morgan’s body and dove off the cliff, attaching her banistick to her waist mid-flight.
A blood-chilling scream followed her.
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