Sekali, "The Sister City"
Chapter 73
It was a steady, downward slope into the mountain with no side tunnels branching off into mysterious paths. It was a single tunnel that led the four into the dark of the mountain. At one point, the slope became tortuously steep, as if they descended the mountain itself from the inside. Down they struggled, taking care not to trip on the many traitorous rocks, taking care to notice the great holes opening up at either side of them here and there. Finyat stopped for a moment and produced a pair of hand claws that would help him maneuver more easily on the slope.
They could not see the top of the cave after a couple of hours’ descent into the mountain; but now holes at either side of the widening, natural hallway set the group’s nerves on edge. At their passing of one of these openings, there was a distant hiss and a growl. Shortly after, there were the distinct sounds of a battle some distance into the tunnel. It did not last long, then a silence followed, only to be broken by the sound of ripping flesh and the snapping of bones as the winner of the contest fed.
Returning once again to the task at hand, they slowly and cautiously began to descend once again. As they made their way, they came upon a trail, cut from the rock in the faint form of switchbacks, that became more kept up and distinct as they followed it down.
As they descended the trail, they came upon a ledge overlooking an encampment in the middle of which burned a bonfire. They began to hear sounds, as of a great and heavy hammer striking an anvil, as they traveled down what seemed endless switchbacks.
Finyat edged up to the precipice on all fours, like a spider creeping silently upon its prey as Uther quickly equipped his enchanted axe. Sekali pulled free his blade and watched as Finyat vanished over the lip of the path that led directly into the camp.
A large humanoid figure silhouetted against the glow of the fire below could be seen making its way up the switchbacks. Within a few short moments it reached the ledge where the company had arrived. They all had just enough time to reverse their course to remain hidden from view. Uther seemed eager as he spun his axe slowly in his muscular hands, and gritted his teeth firmly. He looked truly savage, unlike what Sekali had seen since they had banded together in company.
Sekali quickly positioned himself so that he could witness Uther’s eyes alter from the beginning. Sekali had seen his unnaturally darkened eyes before, though only after Uther’s eyes had changed and then watched to see how they returned to their natural state. As he watched Uther, who was peering in silence back along the way they had come, Sekali witnessed the pupils of Uther’s eyes steel over, as if suddenly shifting to a dark-gray color that encompassed both his pupils and retinas. It was quick and sudden, and if Sekali had not looked for such a change, he would never have see it. As the darker gray deepened to a solid black color, he noticed the intake of breath as Uther grinned just a little more than usual.
An eagerness filled Sekali as his vision focused upon their visitor. He knew that Aria was affecting him with an energy; he felt the power of her abilities as she locked eyes with him. She squinted at him and looked toward a potential situation. Turning, Sekali focused upon the intruder. He set himself against the stone, attempting to mold himself into its surface and spoke in a hushed whisper, “Are we the intruder?”
He felt Aria’s hand upon his right shoulder as she prepared for a fight. Quickly she placed a hand upon Sekali’s arm, and neared his ear. Rising up on her toes, she whispered, “There is nothing honorable here. Trust me, Sekali.” Sekali slowly nodded once, barely a movement.
Sekali peered unseen from the column of rock that shielded them from view and waited to see his next foe clearly. He could not see Finyat, but knew he was close at hand, no doubt preparing to strike in his own way.
Smoke drifted up and across the path, past the large humanoid that was silhouetted against the smoke and light of its own fire. Through the drifting smoke it stalked, hunched slightly, almost the height of two grown men. Its eyes darted this way and that as it raised its head up and sniffed, as if it could smell them. It stepped fully through the smoke to reveal an ogre, fully plated and helmed, a massive broadsword at its side. Upon its left arm it held a large and crude shield. It knew something was not right, for it slowly stalked up the switchback seemingly fully alert, its gnarled hand seizing a great hilt. With a quickness that surprised Sekali, it ripped the great, jagged blade from its sheath and bellowed.
“Affa! (elf!).”
Two others answered the same guttural word from below, causing a commotion there.
They all froze in place, ready, as the first ogre swiftly lowered itself and stalked forward in their direction. It slapped the back of its neck viciously as it broke into a full charge. It raised its blade high; it knew they were there. Its large eyes darted here and there in the shadow as it moved up the bend of the switchback to investigate.
As its eyes locked with Uther’s, who growled, with a spastic motion it fell forward to its knees, sucking in a choking breath. It dropped its blade to the stone and collapsed to the ground with a thud that shook the ground as the other two ogres came charging through the scattering smoke. They bellowed in rage as they caught sight of their twitching comrade and charged up the trail. Once again, one slapped its leg viciously and continued up after them. It fell close where the other had fallen. The last one advanced, spying out Uther and Sekali. It bellowed in great wrath as it lashed out with its jagged blade to take them both with a single stroke.
Uther ducked, stepping under the massive blade with a grunt and planted his axe into the leg of the ogre, drawing blood, but its plated armoring turned the damage of his stroke almost completely.
Sekali lowered himself, angling his blade to deflect his attacker’s blade, succeeding in causing the large ogre blade to careen from his own blade and impact the rock above him, sparks striking through the air between their weapons. The damage to the rock above sent debris showering upon him. The impact of his swing threw Sekali off balance, foiling a counterstrike. He fell to one knee and quickly stepped to the back of the enraged ogre for a safer position, as Uther backed up two steps, securing a good foothold and a defensive stance.
Aria leapt into the ogre’s chest as it turned fully upon Uther, her blade flashing a brilliant golden hue as it pierced her foe. As quickly as she struck, she pulled free her blade and leapt back, holding it high, tip pointing at the ogre to await its next move. Blood dripped from the tip of her katana as the ogre screamed, striking out at her in vain. Then it took a step forward and raised its blade high as its eyes rolled upward. It fell to the ground as it struck down at her in a last defiance to take her. Aria instantly moved into its attack and stepped off to the side, slipping past her enemy. She pivoted as she moved past the ogre, always facing it. The cut of its blade angled down past her, striking stone as it fell to the ground. She looked down upon the ogre, her sword angling for the finishing blow. But the battle was finished as both Sekali and Uther leapt upon it, driving their weapons into its back deeply.
“Ha!” Uther screamed in victory, even as the sound of a great beast in the dark of the caves ahead screamed out in challenge to the them.
Aria cleaned her blade and sheathed it in one smooth motion, dropping to the ground beside the ogre.
“Quickly, we haven’t much time. They tend to be attracted by battle down here. Search them and the camp quickly, and let us be gone.” Finyat’s voice came up from below them.
“I am searching out the camp now!” Uther grimaced.
“Well, I suppose you will report there is nothing . . . even if there is something, thief!” Finyat laughed wickedly, making Aria smirk, a twinkle forming in her eyes. She looked at Sekali.
“I’ll bet you never get half of what he scavenges.”
Sekali shrugged and opened a pouch he had pulled, with some effort, out from under the ogre’s leg.
“This is my first mission with him. I don’t really know him that well.”
Aria started in surprise at his words. “Strangers from the south shall come . . .” She whispered.
Sekali glanced up at her as he moved to the other side of the body, checking for valuables. Aria pulled her pack quickly from her back and opened it. She grabbed the three swords and lowered them in point first and let go. Both Uther and Sekali had no time to watch the marvelous workings of Aria’s backpack.
“How much does your grand backpack carry?” Uther’s question made her smile. It looked as though she were enjoying herself.
She looked at Uther. “If we wish to chance another encounter right on top of this one, we can take each piece of the ogre’s armoring and keep them. They have metal value. I can store a large chamber of items within this.”
Finyat appeared suddenly from out of nowhere and touched the pack, as if trying to feel what she had just put within it. “I want one . . . bad.”
Aria started and then laughed. “You are good, Finyat, very good. But this one is mine; get your own, master assassin.”
Finyat beamed a smile up at her and winked, “You know you love me.” He clambered silently back over the edge, and into the ogre camp. His voice came back to them. “You all love me.”
“Finyat, if you find any kohakk down there, it’s mine!” Uther bellowed, to which a growl invaded the cave, not far distant from them.
Sekali stood and walked to the ledge, readying his blade. He could not see what made the sound.
A deep hiss issued into their area as a small gray dragonlike creature with no wings stalked up into the fallen ogre’s camp, challenging everything it saw. It knocked over a barrel and froze, tongue extending from its slightly open mouth again and again as it tasted the air about it. Then it spotted Sekali and leapt up on the ledge in one powerful leap, snapping at him with jaws that looked like the Ashen Serpent in the Wastelands. Sekali fell back a few steps, basing his next move on the positioning of his comrades.
“Incoming!” he screamed, warning the others as the creature launched a renewed effort to take him down. The attack was swift and deadly, forcing Sekali to fight for his life.
Uther cursed, bellowing a challenge as he charged against the great reptile. With all his might, he slammed into the side of it, throwing it off balance just enough to give Sekali the opening to balance and strike. Together they maneuvered to flank the dragonling, yet their weapons were only of half-use against its scaled hide, which protected it from their weapons.
It turned upon Uther, snapping and rising up four times again his height, clawing and lashing out with its tail against Sekali at its back. Aria stood back and closed her eyes, chanting intensely as the battle raged.
As she chanted, the three felt drawn to battle. Sekali felt power and might enter into his entire being. He surged forward, unleashing well-placed strikes, attempting to weaken his enemy. Uther snarled, backing up enough to give him a moment’s warning as the mighty creature attacked him. It was not an easy fight, but with Aria’s chant it seemed much easier to land strike after strike against the beast.
“You’re mine, worm!” Uther snarled, as his axe bit deeply into the bridge of its nose as it snapped at him.
The beast recoiled, hissing in rage, fury and pain. It leapt over Uther, who met it coming down on him with his axe, just as a dart struck and penetrated its left eye. With all its weight, it slammed its body down upon Uther, driving him hard to the ground and crushing him to the rocks beneath, as Sekali pierced it twice deeply in its back-side.
The dragonling pawed to remove the dart as it screamed in fury, catching Sekali with its powerful tail, sending him hard into a boulder behind. Another dart hissed through the air, but was turned by its protective hide.
Sekali glanced over at Aria, who had fallen to her knees in obvious pain. She had taken the damage Uther was inflicted by; she was weakening. With all his strength he leapt upon a nearby rock and launched himself up onto the dragonling’s back, piercing it through its mid-section. Instantly it rolled, throwing him to the earth, but his blade struck true. The dragonling could only claw at the ground in a feeble and vain attempt to regain its feet, as Uther leapt to his feet snarling in rage.
Uther began raining blow after blow down upon its head with deadly accuracy, beheading it with his mighty strokes. He bellowed to the unseen cavern roof above, holding his great war axe high in victory as he planted a foot into the beast’s thick neck.
Sekali stood and retrieved his blade and began cleaning it. He glanced over at Aria and made his way to her, limping slightly.
“M’lady, are you hurt?”
Sekali’s tone made her smile and shake her head. “No, no, I will be fine. The wounds she caught her breath, “that I take upon myself are different from the wounds you would receive; and they heal much faster.”
She stood slowly and limped over to a rock and sat herself down, wincing in pain. She looked at Uther and watched him bellowing in victory. After a few moments she stiffly walked over to the ledge. As she stopped, she overlooked the ogre encampment, and cocked her head a bit, listening.
“We seem to have defeated all hostiles in the vicinity. Good. Sekali, Uther, Finyat, we must leave this area now. The scent of all this blood will attract . . . things. We need to find the dragonling’s lair. They are collectors, and we could get lucky.”
After they had finished scavenging what valuables and coins they could find from the ogres, Aria had them place all in her magical pack. She pointed the general direction from which the dragonling had come and they headed off to search out the area, Aria leading the way as she stooped and probed the cave floor before her. With her tracking expertise, they soon found the lair.
At the side of the cavern wall, they found a smaller tunnel and headed cautiously into it. It spanned about one-hundred paces back into a good-sized chamber wherein many corpses lay strewn about, chewed and defiled by the dragonling. Quickly they all split up and gathered all they could find, which was not much. Finyat found a pack full of rotted and dried rations from some poor, unlucky adventurer making his way too close to the lair. Uther found some white-gold pieces in a torn sack. Sekali found nothing, and Aria was cursed with the same luck. Soon she gave them the signal that it was enough, and led them back out into the main hall of the cave, turned right and found the cave leading them deeper into the mountain.
Aria drew close to Finyat and began to talk with him quietly.
“Finyat, now is the time for us to put away the torches. Use the glass ball on the chain I gave you. The word to speak is Vessen. As you speak it, think of the intensity and color of light you would want, and it will be so. Speak ‘Vessen’ once again, and the light will adjust to what you need.” She smiled at him as he reached into the dark folds of his outer cloak and retrieved the Light Orb.
As he beheld the orb, he grew intensely fascinated with it. For a moment he merely looked at it. It seemed as though he was mesmerized by its beauty. Taking the chain, he held the Light Orb high and spoke the command word quietly. “Vessen.”
The orb illuminated a very faint red light. Finyat nodded in satisfaction and held the ball between his thumb and two fingers and began to creep into the unknown; an unknown that his kind thrived upon.