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Lilly walked next to me through the trees in the predawn light. I hadn’t slept well, wondering if they’d be able to track the werebat back to its lair. Lilly’s warning about where there was one werebat there was probably more hung heavy in my thoughts and dreams.
Cloud Runner set the pace ahead of us with Ormb trailing by several strides. Behind him River Runs Down and Enchanter Jonas came next, followed by Grand Wizard Seelain and Fleet Hoof.
Lilly asked me, “Aren’t you glad you’re not a healer like Star Before Moon is?”
I nodded, remembering the healing ceremony. Inside Star Before Moon’s tent Ormb and I held Enchanter Jonas on his stretcher in front of her. The healer’s tent was larger than a centaur family’s tent, but I didn’t think she had a mate or children, or foals. Like the inside of the few centaur tents I’d seen, it was sparse of decorations and possessions, other than things like pelts to be worked, sewing equipment, and wooden dishes.
River Runs Down and Strong Back had stood on either side of Star Before Moon. She chanted, closing her eyes. Her words were like a song with a repetitive rhythm that might lull an alert sentry to sleep. Then she placed her right hand on Jonas’s leg, and ran it the length of his red and infected wound. Already sweat from fever had afflicted him.
Jonas flinched but didn’t cry out. But, as his wound faded, Star Before Moon did cry out. Her piercing shriek startled me. Her chant ended, she broke out in a sweat and River Runs Down and Strong Back leaned against her and held her up.
Lilly saw it first on her. She stepped close and whispered for me to look. The centaur healer’s left rear leg bore a wound mirroring Enchanter Jonas’s. He was unconscious. The centaur healer was nearly unconscious, her eyes rolling up in her head as she began chanting again, faster with an alternating rhythm. River Runs Down chanted too, helping her keep focused.
After a moment, a female centaur came in and directed us to carry the healed enchanter out. I gave my half of the stretcher to Lilly and stayed in case my healing skills were needed. I doubted they would be, but it seemed like the right thing to do.
It was hard to stand and watch Star Before Moon in pain, struggling. It took a half hour for her to complete the healing ceremony, the healing spell fixing her leg and breaking the infection and fever. Time seemed to stretch much longer than the half hour.
The entire time it took for Star Before Moon to recover I thought about Grand Wizard Seelain watching me struggle, suffer and fall unconscious while I strove to heal Enchanter Jonas. She had to endure without being able to help, knowing that both of us might die in her arms.
A change in direction that took us steeply downhill brought me back to the present, pushing my thoughts on healing and the centaur ceremony from my mind.
Cloud Runner began leading us along a shallow stream. Long-legged insects skittered across the water in the slow moving elbow turns while minnows darted between the rocks for deeper parts.
I rested my left hand on the pommel of my sword while stepping over a log lying across a narrow section of the stream. My sword was better now, at least for slaying lycanthropes. After the healing ceremony, I’d watched River Runs Down’s magic assist the tribe’s hammering blacksmith infuse silver taken from the tips of several long javelins into my sword’s blade.
It wasn’t magical, and wouldn’t hold an edge as well as it once had, but Lilly assured me she wouldn’t want to be cut by my sword’s remade blade.
“Thinking about your fancy sword?” Lilly asked.
Her question shook me out of my thoughts, reminding me she’d asked a different question a moment before. “Thinking about a lot of things,” I said.
“They seem kind of primitive,” Lilly said. “Living mostly in tents and all. But like with magic and blacksmithing and growing things, they know an awful lot.”
I nodded again, recalling the impressive apple and peach orchards we’d walked through on the way to where they’d tracked the werebat. Following a bat, even a large one, though the night was an impressive feat. The only person I ever knew who might’ve been able to do it was Private Shaws, one of the king’s infiltration soldiers. He was dead now. I wondered if I would soon be the same. I wondered if Enchanter Jonas or Grand Wizard Seelain would someday be thinking back about me in a similar way.
“You ain’t talking much,” Lilly said. “Maybe I should talk to Ormb.”
“Sorry,” I said.
“All I can say is that Colonel better help us after all we’ve gone through.”
“You’ve met him, Lilly. I don’t think our struggles will concern him much.”
“Yeah,” she said. “Ain’t he like a couple thousand years old?”
I nodded. “You saw where he came from.”
“We’re just a blink of an eye to him.” She smiled. “I bet he’ll remember you, Flank Hawk.”
“I don’t know why,” I said. “But I bet his gargoyle assistant remembers you. Not many care to tangle with stone creatures.”
“You scared, Flank Hawk?” she whispered.
I shrugged, then nodded. I’d faced worse than a werebat, much worse. But not in the dark, in a cave, not knowing where it—or they—might come at us from. How I felt didn’t matter. It had to be done. Every day meant more gains by Fendra Jolain’s forces. And more dying by ours.
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CLOUD RUNNER POINTED downstream where the creek widened just before curving underneath an eighty or ninety foot cliff face. Where the cliff’s base met the stream, two oval holes emerged with their bottom lips just below the stream’s surface. Spread several feet apart in the limestone, one was about three feet wide and the other closer to four. They were dark, like a pair of mismatched eyes staring out from a flat, moss-speckled skull buried in the rock.
The patter of raindrops on leaves began.
Cloud Runner whispered, “In there.” Then he pointed near the cliff top. “Several fissures, maybe connected.”
I handed my spear to Strong Back and said to Cloud Runner, “Help me remove my armor.”
Grand Wizard Seelain was whispering into Lilly’s ear. Lilly nodded and began removing her clothes. Then she stepped up next to me. “Remember, I go in first. I can find it.”
I nodded as they took my breast and backplate and set it against a tree. “Don’t try to take it yourself,” I said, reminding her of our plan. “One on one it’ll tear you up.”
“They’ll probably tear us both up.”
“They only saw one?” I asked Cloud Runner.
He said, “Yes,” and signaled for me to step close. With two fingers he spread black lines on my cheeks. Horizontal on the left and vertical on the right.
I didn’t know what it meant and at that moment didn’t really care. Grand Wizard Seelain handed me my helmet. I slid it on and buckled it tight under my chin.
“Be careful,” she said.
I checked my gauntlets, making sure they were pulled on tight as possible. “Did you tell Lilly that?”
“I told her to listen to you.” Seelain made sure my dirk in its sheath was secure on my right forearm. I figured crawling through a narrow cave, if I needed the dirk, I might not be able to reach my boot. The grand wizard took my leather-clad hands in her pale white ones. “I have no illusions that either of you will heed my words.”
“Did you say something to Ormb?”
She frowned, and started to say, “You know he is unab—”
She stopped when she saw my smile. “I’ll tell him for you,” I said.
I looked around. Lilly crouched behind several bushes. I knew what she was doing—allowing to happen. Enchanter Jonas was just completing his spell upon two leather cords. Sweat rolled down his face, mixing with rain drops as he chanted the last words.
He tied one leather cord around Ormb’s left wrist and tied the other to mine. “Yours will begin glowing in five minutes,” he said to me. “Its illumination will increase for ten minutes and then fade away over ten more minutes. Ormb’s will begin in twenty minutes and last for twenty, just like yours.
“Thank you,” I said, and then explained what Enchanter Jonas said to Ormb.
“I wish I could be of more assistance. I could go in Ormb’s place.”
“No,” I said and glanced down at the nearby, staring black holes. “I’m not sure how far Ormb will even be able to follow.” I gripped the enchanter’s shoulders. “Ward the grand wizard well in my absence.”
“Make it a short absence.”
With that, Lilly, in her beast form, came up next to me. The centaurs watched her with both hesitation and curiosity. I stroked her dark brown fur and stared down into the dark muskrat eyes. “Take it slow,” I said.
She bowed her head once and began making her way through the trees down toward the stream. I signaled to Ormb, “Let’s go. Oh, and Grand Wizard Seelain said for you to be careful.”
The trog grinned and turned to wave back at Seelain before extending his weapon back toward her as a sort of salute.
The centaurs had provided him three of their silver-tipped javelins, which he’d lashed together. His job was to watch our rear, offer advice, and make sure anything that got past us didn’t get past him.
A stiff breeze brought dark storm clouds over our heads and the light rain became a downpour. I followed Lilly while checking my sword in its scabbard. Ormb strode close behind me. Lilly’s muskrat form sniffed at both entrances before selecting the larger one, scuttling in and disappearing in the shadowy darkness. I crouched, ducked my head and followed her in. After crawling on hands and knees for several yards, an opening to my left came into view. Scant light from the second smaller hole showed that the two had merged before jutting upward. Lilly was already climbing up into that deeper darkness. The crevice started wide but quickly narrowed, making me feel like a cockroach climbing up a corroded scabbard.
The walls were damp and dark and my sword’s scabbard scraped along the side as I pressed my back against the wall, looking up into the darkness. I guessed I’d only gone about fifteen feet up. There was no way Ormb would fit.
I didn’t want to warn the enemy, but my noisy climbing probably already had. “Wait, Lilly,” I whispered.
Finally, Jonas’s cord tied to my wrist began to glow. Lilly was already fifteen feet above me, still climbing. Only fifteen feet—she probably had gone slow.
“Ormb,” I whispered downward. “Too narrow for you.” He nodded and removed his cord, tossing it up to me. Reaching down between my legs I caught it on the second try. Then I climbed, trying to find purchase with my boots while grasping and clinging to cracks and small fissures in the gritty stone. Bits from Lilly’s climb sprinkled down on my face. A rancid, acidic smell hung in the quiet air. It reminded me of rats, but stronger.
A larger opening, making me think of a merging vein, spilled into the shaft we climbed. The vein was wet, beginning to trickle with water. Still, it gave me good enough purchase to continue my climb. Ormb would have fun looking up.
A female voice from somewhere above yelled. It wasn’t Lilly’s. Even if she had been in human form it was too shrill. It sounded muffled, and in a language I didn’t understand. Some of the words might’ve been like what the Colonel’s men spoke but the distance and cave’s distortion made it difficult to know for sure. Although Ormb might know, he was too far away to ask. Even as the shouting ended, it reminded me of an angry bird threatening a cat nearing its nest.
In my experience, cats usually backed off from a really belligerent bird. We couldn’t back off. Also, in my experience, even if pressed, a cat usually won but didn’t come away unscathed.
Lilly’s climbing pace picked up even as the shaft narrowed, making it hard for me to bend my knees unless I turned them sideways. Uncomfortable. And using my arms to climb became more tiring and difficult. I placed my right hand between my chest and the wall, holding myself in place while I found better footing. Holding up my left hand I allowed the cord’s glow to illuminate the tunnel above. I could just barely see Lilly’s black scaled tail dangling downward as she climbed, using her four feet for purchase at every angle possible, sometimes using her back for support just as I did.
She was waiting. Why? Was she close to the werebat’s lair?
“Take it,” I said, climbing fast as I could. “Don’t wait for me.” The shouting meant the werebat wasn’t in its beast form—at least not yet. Unless it had weapons, Lilly had the advantage.
Then I heard clattering, rock striking off rock, and Lilly squeal. She shifted and skidded back for a second before bursting upward, climbing again. Several flat rocks clattered past her, one glancing off my helmet and tumbling off my shoulder. “Rocks!” I shouted down to Ormb. First in Mainland—on accident, then in Sea Spittle.
Two more rocks about the size of plates but twice as thick fell. They must’ve hit Lilly, because there wasn’t much room in the shaft, and they struck me with less force than they could have. My steel helmet deflected and my padded armor absorbed the impacts.
The second cord began to glow. I hadn’t even noticed the first had begun to fade.
We pressed upward, past another vein opening, this one dry, and then Lilly slipped forward and from my sight. I recognized her murmuring squeal matched by ear-piercing screeching. Scraping and the sound of tumbling and tussling against the rocks followed. The werebat had shifted to beast form!
My arms were weary but I climbed, almost slipping twice, reaching a ledge that opened onto a shelf. It was like an internal section of the hill had split, dropped about three feet, and then settled.
The first thing I spotted was a ball of tumbling fur, black and brown rolling away. Screeching filled my ears. Then a black creature, the size of a cat, winged and bounding like a squirrel came at me as I scrambled to get my feet in place to thrust myself onto the shelf. Shining eyes, dark and red caught the glowing light. Exposed teeth, fangs darted into my face. Whether tooth or claw, something drew blood across my cheek and forehead before I could knock it away. I stumbled back, almost losing my footing.
It came back at me like a magnet to iron. At the last second I ducked my head. It struck my helmet, biting and clawing madly. I grabbed it—slammed it on the rock, once, twice. It bit through my gauntlet. I threw it back into the darkness, away from me. It came on again. This time I slashed out with my dirk as it leapt. It squealed in pain like a shrill dog whistle and flopped about, bleeding.
I took the chance to thrust with my legs and roll onto the ledge just before the werebat fell upon me. Fetid breath and long fangs assaulted me. I dug my head into its shoulder to protect my face and neck, and kicked over, rolling us away from the ledge. It was fast and stronger than me, and slick with blood. Blood! Was it mine, Lilly’s or the werebat’s?
Our rolling ended with it on top of me. I drove my dirk through the werebeast’s shredded wings and into its ribs. It bit down into my shoulder. No stinging pain arose from the wound. Only numbness.
I strained to pry its head from my shoulder and couldn’t. I stabbed again, but its hand—claw—grasped my wrist. I stopped trying to pry its head away and instead sought out its eyes with my thumb and drove it deep into the vulnerable socket.
That worked. It rolled off of me and backed away, seeking shadows and darkness. Hunched over I drew my sword and crawled after it. It stared back at me with its one good eye and released a wailing screech, causing pain in my ears and head. I shouted back, I don’t know what, and launched myself at it just as it bunched to attack me.
It knocked aside my sword thrust, but I expected that—bait to give me an opening. When the werebeast came down on me with fangs bared I fell back and drove my dirk up, into its jaw and twisted. The werebat tumbled and thrashed. I kicked it off me and sent a sharp sword thrust into its side. Not deep, but I twisted and turned the blade. It rolled over and I scrambled on top of the dying beast. I sent my dirk’s blade deep into its remaining eye.
It was dead—just quivering limbs.
I looked about and spotted another set of dark red eyes, watching me from their narrow corner of darkness. The second infant werebat squealed and ran on all fours for the shaft. I caught it with a hack of my silver-edged sword and finished it with a second stroke.
I searched the cave area again, trying to catch my breath. Sharp, acid feces, fir, blood and sweat all taken in. No more enemies, so I crawled over to the pile of fur that had to be Lilly.
My own blood dripped into my left eye, but I still felt no pain from the cut above it. Not in my shoulder either, although blood seeped into my padded armor. The scratches on my cheeks, those stung.
Bites and scratches scarred Lilly’s face, shoulder and side. Bare skin showed where fur had been torn from her body.
I’d sent her against the werebat alone. She weakened it so that I could finish it. Now, I had to get help for her. I could try a spell to stop her bleeding, but first I needed to get help.
Leaning over to the ledge I shouted down the shaft to Ormb. “Send Jonas up here. With rope.” I added, “Hurry!”