part0089

S olomon led the trek into the jagged hills of the Spine. The Henchmen, including Clarann and Melris, moved through the night like a snake slithering up a rut. All of them were in full armor but no helmets as they made the rugged climb.

Down on the battlefield, the King’s Army attacked at first light. Led by the King’s Guardians, under the queen’s orders, the soldiers stormed the channel leading into the Spine. They had no choice but to engage as the chopper flying overhead, with dragon riders in tow, whittled away at the army with machine-gun fire and bombardments of grenades.

Abraham could hear the explosions and clamor of battle as the brave soldiers marched forward to their doom. They would be slaughtered if some sort of help didn’t arrive soon. He searched the skies. Simon, where are you?

He tried summoning the Fenix with whistles and calls but to no avail. Possibly the Elder Spawn had moved on. Still, he kept trying by concentrating. He didn’t want to make more noise after they crossed a gap and started down the other side of the mountain. The journey took hours, and the longer it took, the more soldiers died.

Solomon flagged him down.

He slipped up to the front ranks, where he met with Tark and Dominga. She carried a spyglass and handed it to Abraham. They were on a ledge that overlooked a chasm five hundred feet down. The channel deep in the middle made for a perfect roadway.

He put the spyglass to his eye. “Blazing saddles.”

The channel road dead-ended at the entrance to the tunnel leading inside the lair. Tanks were positioned down the road thirty feet apart as far as he could see. Gond savages and Tiotan soldiers in suits of chain-mail armor were positioned along the road and hidden in the rocky shelving above them. Hundreds were there in all, but thousands would be needed to penetrate their strategic positioning.

“It doesn’t look good, does it?” Solomon said.

“We can kill them,” Horace said.

“If we can sneak in behind them, we can fight our way in. That’s the only way I can think of,” Abraham said. He turned his ear toward the sky. “Everyone get down.”

The Henchmen pressed against the rocks as the chopper flew overhead. It hovered for a long time then moved back down over the channel.

“Do you think they saw us?” Clarann asked.

“Doesn’t seem like it. Listen up, everyone. We need to make our way closer. Follow me.”

Abraham led the way down the slippery slope. The company wouldn’t be entirely defenseless. In addition to their weapons, they’d managed to pack away some grenades and assault rifles from the fallen dragon riders. The company made it within two hundred feet of the tunnel entrance.

The morning mist and shadowed canyon shielded them from the sun. Now, they were within earshot.

“Horace, get a message down to Melris and Iris,” he said.

The Elderling and the mystic were at the far end of the company.

“Tell them we are going to need some cover.”

“What sort of cover, Captain?” Horace asked.

“Fog. Smoke. They should know—something subtle.”

A minute later, fog spilled over the rocky ledges where the Henchmen waited. It came from Iris’s and Melris’s fingers. It wasn’t enough to fill the huge chasm, but it would do for better cover.

Abraham nodded his head at Sticks, Shades, Dominga, and Tark, who weren’t wearing the heavy armor. “Lead the way, but if it gets too hot down there, fall back behind us.”

“Aye,” Tark said.

“You’re the boss, Captain,” Shades added.

Silently, the group crept down the mountainside.

The chopper came flying up the channel with six dragon riders in tow. They made a beeline on Abraham’s position. The fog created by the mystics was blown out of the channel. The chopper hovered right in front of the Henchmen. The alerted Gond and soldiers popped up from their hiding spots and climbed the mountain by the score, with blood in their eyes.