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Dave was startled out of a sound sleep by the sudden pressure of a hand clasped over his mouth. Someone was shaking him. When he sat up, Arlana, who was beside him, also began to stir. Linder removed his hand and put a finger to his own lips. In the dim light Dave watched as Linder crawled to the back of the dell, then turned and motioned for them to follow. Arlana led; Dave brought up the rear.
At the back of the dell, the cliff walls narrowed to a slot, which had been carved by the little stream that flowed into the dell. Linder was already well up the slot, groping his way from one foothold to the next. They followed Linder up to the lookout notch on the side of the steep butte. The others were already crouched there, looking south to the swamp and northwest to the mine.
Dave touched Linder’s arm.
What’s going on?
Linder was visibly startled by the contact telepathy, but he sent a thought back by forming the words in his mind.
We’re not sure. We can hear several hundred heavy bodies moving through the grass. All I can see are large blobs. Al is using his night vision goggles to get a better look.
Dave wormed his way to the edge of the shelf and peered over. The moon had already set, yet the starlight was sufficient to make it seem, with his Ancient vision, that he was watching at late twilight. He gasped at what he saw. Several hundred enormous men, perhaps four meters tall, were moving rapidly through the grass toward the mine. They were covered with hide armor and carried spears with shafts the size of saplings. At their sides swung two-meter scimitars. On their forearms they wore leather sleeves bristling with spikes. Their heads were the most disquieting thing about them. Although their bodies were much taller and broader than ordinary men, their heads were of normal size. These disproportionately small, helmeted heads gave them a grotesque appearance.
What are they going to do?
The formidable troop quickly passed their butte several hundred paces to the west and continued straight on toward the mine. As they passed, the leader began to lope at an even more rapid pace. The others followed his lead. They didn’t yell, but the thump of their feet and the swish of the grass as they sped on interrupted the stillness of the night. About three hundred meters from the mine, shouts of alarm sounded.
Dave pulled his binoculars from his pack. A gravel and rock ramp extended from the mine opening to a road that bent north. The invaders reached the base of the ramp. The first of the huge men charged up it with a deep-throated animal roar. A few of the guards who were positioned at the top of the ramp put up a token resistance, looking like children fighting grownups. The enormous men skewered them easily with their long spears. Other guards threw down their weapons and ran for the mine. The giants cut down several of them. Soon the fighting moved into the mine itself. Screams could be heard echoing from the depths. The screams went on for more than an hour, followed by a silence equally terrifying.
Dave looked at his friends. Al kept swallowing. Linder’s mouth was set in a line. Arlana had changed her skin to the palest color possible and was averting her eyes.
Then, Dave saw the flickering shadows of several large bonfires in the mine entrance. Harsh singing and coarse laughing began. This went on for another hour. Dave could hear shouts and the occasional scream. After another twenty minutes, chained slaves and soldiers—who were being whipped by the giants—came out of the mine entrance pulling a wagon piled high with corpses. They rolled it down the ramp and pulled it across the grassland towards the swamp. A second wagon followed the first, and a third followed the second. Around these marched the giants, each with several human heads—some as many as a dozen—strung on a rope hanging over his shoulder. Dave watched as the huge warriors threw away the bones they had been chewing on, and drove the captives with the captured wagons back towards the swamp.
The giants approached the edge of the swamp. Through the sparse trees Dave saw the living prisoners push each wagon onto a raft in the moat. There were many more rafts than wagons. Soon the prisoners poled the rafts into the swamp, and drifted out of sight. Several of the smaller giants had collected the ropes with fresh human heads on them. These trophies were added to the skulls already hanging at the edge of the swamp.
Dave felt sick.
Al groaned. “Those poor slaves in the mine.”
“While we were escaping from the swamp,” said Linder, “we saw huge footprints. They must belong to those giants.”
“Now what do we do?” asked Larsen.
“We need to get out of here,” said Linder. “Initially I wondered why Bigelow wasn’t guarding those black swamp oaks. Now we know. He deliberately planted them where no one in their right mind would search, but it also means he can’t leave a guard outpost here to watch them.”
“What you say makes sense, Linder,” said Al, “especially since Bigelow wouldn’t know about the Radio Frequency Identification Tag. He wouldn’t expect us to find the black swamp oaks in Georgia.
“Friend Linder,” said Hanomer, “I don’t think we can just leave. What if there are some survivors left in the mine? I think we have to go there at least to check.”
“But what about the patrols and the supply wagons?” asked Linder. “If they spot us, our best advantage will be lost and the hunt will be on.”
“We’ve been watching them for a couple of days,” said Al. “The first wagon won’t arrive until a couple of hours after sunrise. If, by chance, they do surprise us, we’re armed and there are only a couple of guards with the supply wagon. We can defend ourselves or scare them off. I agree with Hanomer, we can’t just leave those slaves at the mine. I think we have to take the chance and rescue any that survived. What if they’ve been chained up and left to starve?”
The debate went on for a few more minutes. Linder gave in when Dave and Arlana sided with Al and Hanomer, but he still insisted they visit the mine, then immediately make their way to the cliff edge.
Together, they descended into the dell and broke camp. When they were ready to move out, Chartrand climbed up to the lookout that faced north to see if anyone was coming down the road. When he reported that the road was still clear, the group hurried across the grassland to the mine.
Linder led them at a rapid walk interspersed with short jogs. Dave kept up without difficulty, despite the twenty-kilogram pack on his back.
My work with the Guardian Cadets is paying off.
Even marching at double-quick time, it took about twenty minutes to get to the base of the mining butte. They reached the road, which bent around the rock from the northeast. The dirt road climbed a steep ramp made of rubble to a flat area. At the back yawned an opening about twenty paces high. The stench of death filled the air. Three bonfires were still smoldering and piles of clothing and armor were stacked beside the entrance of the mine against the cliff face. There were still some bodies around, but everywhere Dave saw bloodstains and gnawed bones.
Taking off their packs, the group readied their weapons.
Al went directly into the mine. Pulling his flashlight from his pack, Dave followed. Arlana and Hanomer were right behind him. After about twenty paces, two galleries split off to the side, one heading left and one right. More bodies. There was not a sound except the faint tinkle of water dripping into a pool. The main shaft then split into three narrow galleries.
Al went into the right gallery, Arlana into the central one. Dave was about to follow her when he heard a faint cry in the Common Tongue. “Help me. If anyone be there, please help me.”
Dave went left. This gallery opened up a small chamber with crudely made iron picks, shovels and pry bars scattered about. Four more bodies were lying on the floor with ghastly holes in their chests. The cry was coming from a small crack on the right side of the chamber. It became louder and more insistent as Dave’s flashlight beam played off the wall. A trickle of water had cut a channel into the rock and formed a pool at the bottom of a ten-pace deep shaft. A spindly, bedraggled figure was standing beside the pool.
Dave shone his light on him. His face was a mass of hair so that Dave could not tell where his hair stopped and his beard began. His skin was dark, the color of soot. The figure shielded his eyes and then clasped his hands saying, “Praise be, ye be not a Necroan.”
Dave shouted, “Over here.” In less than a minute Al, Arlana, and Hanomer were standing beside him.
“Who are you?” asked Dave.
“My name be Tandor—you don’t be lookin like Meglir’s soldiers.”
“What do you know of Meglir?” asked Al.
“He be the new lord of this province. I be his slave and have served Meglir and the lord of Seth before him for twenty years. Rescue me and I be to servin’ him still.”
When Tandor saw Hanomer’s face, his eyes went wide. “Ye be not with Lord Meglir, are ye?”
Dave looked at Al and Arlana. They both nodded, so Dave took a rope from his belt and tied a bowline hitch onto his line. Hanomer climbed down into the pit. Dave lowered the loop down to Hanomer. “Sit on the rope, Tandor and I will pull you up.”
“Thank ‘ee yer lordship.” Hanomer helped Tandor drop the loop over his head so he could sit on it and Dave hauled him up. It was easy work; Tandor was light.
This poor guy has been starving for a very long time.
Dave broke out a piece of bread and hard sausage and gave them both to Tandor who ate ravenously saying, “Thank ‘ee yer lordship,” over and over again between bites. Dave, Hanomer, Arlana, Al and Tandor made their way back to the mine entrance. The others were already waiting there.
“We found nothing,” said Linder. He stared at Tandor stuffing bread and sausage into his mouth. “Who’s this?”
“This is Tandor,” said Al in English. “If we’ve checked everywhere, we’d better move east before someone comes down the road. Tandor’s eyes visibly widened as he heard them speak, but he said nothing and continued eating.
“So Tandor,” asked Linder in the Common Tongue, “how did you survive when no other slave did?”
“The pool I be standin’ beside in the little pit be deep. When the Necroans be comin’ I slide into the pool and hold me breath till they be gone.”
Led by Linder, the group hastened down the ramp and followed the road. Dave could see the sun already creeping above the horizon in the east. The road bent northeast, so Linder led them due east. Tandor, in the middle of the group, tried to keep up, but soon fell on his face.
Al knelt beside him and revived him with a drink from his canteen. Linder looked at Tandor and then back at the road.
Dave looked anxiously north. We’re so exposed here, he thought. A wagon could come along any time now.