Bastial Steel (29 page)

There was a circle of charred dirt around the bodies of two men, all the grass in that area disintegrated.

“Lightning.” Cleve realized.

The three men who were left seemed to have realized it as well. Two of them threw off their helmets. The other was the old man, pointing and shouting orders that Cleve couldn’t hear over the wind and rain.

Whatever was to happen needed to be soon. The storm was raging. Lightning could strike again, and maybe this time it wanted a taste of Cleve’s sword. Jek was holding his wand out, steadily moving toward the three men.

Then Cleve noticed two more were coming from behind the three men in front of them. They were smaller, and one was a girl hollering at the top of her lungs, chasing after a boy.

The kids who we met earlier,
Cleve realized. The boy had a sword now.

“Enri stop him!” the girl was shouting.

The boy ran by the three men, who were just turning around as he passed them. To Cleve’s amazement, the boy ran right at Jek.

“Stop,” Jek tried to tell him, beginning to back up but keeping his wand steady. “Stop right now!”

Cleve ran to intercept the boy, slamming a shoulder into him to knock him off his feet. From the corner of his eye he noticed the three men coming at him now.

“That’s my grandson!” Enri screamed. One of them was struck by Jek’s fireball before he reached Cleve. A second one turned to chase after Jek before he could shoot another.

Cleve knew he only had a brief moment to deal with Enri if he was to protect Jek from the man running toward him and the boy, who was now back on his feet. So Cleve ran at Enri and slammed his Bastial sword into the old man’s weapon as hard as he could, knocking it from his hand. With a quick spin, he brought his sword down across Enri’s chest, opening up his flesh.

There was another flash of lightning somewhere nearby. The boom of thunder almost took Cleve off his feet. But he kept his balance and ran after the man going at Jek. There were only two attackers left now, and one was the boy.

The girl was still screaming, “Stop! Stop! You have to stop!”

But no one listened, so Cleve certainly wasn’t going to, either. He didn’t even know who she was referring to, him or the boy.

Luckily, Jek was quick, ducking under the man’s swing and coming back toward Cleve for protection.

The boy then engaged Cleve with the man close behind him.

Unwilling to kill someone so young, Cleve blocked the blow of his sword and hit him in the face to knock him backward and hopefully daze him.

The other man took out a knife and threw it at Cleve. He had to duck to avoid it. The man followed his knife attack by running at Cleve and jumping through the air before Cleve could get back upright.

Barely getting his weapon up in time, Cleve did manage to block the assault.

“You’ve lost!” Jek shouted. “Put down your weapons!”

“Do it!” the girl screamed in agreement. “Please stop.” She was crying so hard it was louder than the violent wind.

But the man and the boy didn’t stop.

“You killed them,” the boy said, clearly not dazed and gritting his teeth as he stepped overconfidently toward Cleve. The boy screamed as he swung his weapon through the rain and wind. Cleve rolled forward to go between the boy and the man coming from his other side.

He heard the boy scream and the man curse. Turning, Cleve saw the boy fall to his knees, grabbing his chest. Cleve had seen no burst of light, though. He didn’t know what Jek had done to them. But then he noticed the man dropping his weapon and crouching over the boy, cursing even more now.

“You stabbed him!” the girl yelled.

“It was an accident,” the man replied.

By then, the boy had fallen on his back. Jek and Cleve cautiously approached.

The girl was there first, weeping.

Cleve couldn’t find Nulya. He figured she’d run off when she heard the lightning. He whistled before he took the time to lean over the boy and check his wound. His little chest had been pierced deeply.

“It missed his heart,” Cleve said. “He may live with the help of a chemist.”

The boy was gasping in fright. “I don’t want to die! Please! Help me! Help me!”

The man shot up to look around. “Where are the horses?”

“Scared by the lightning,” Cleve answered. He stood and whistled again for Nulya.

“Please…please…” The boy sputtered out between gasps. “Don’t let me die.”

The girl fell to her knees and wept over him.

“Jek, can we get some light to look for our horses?” Cleve asked.

Jek had just come back with his bandana and backpack. “I found them, already,” he said, leaning over the boy for a look. “They’re coming now.” He took a shirt from his backpack and tied it around the boy’s chest to put pressure on his wound. “Our horses will be here soon. We’ll take you back to the village.”

Cleve and Jek’s mounts came then. Cleve positioned himself to lift the boy, but the one man left jumped to his feet and grabbed his sword from where he’d let it fall.

He pointed the weapon at Cleve. “You will not take him anywhere. Give me your horse, and I’ll bring him to the village.”

Cleve considered killing the man right then. There was no time to argue, and his anger made the idea tempting.

Luckily, Jek spoke first. “Shut up. Put down your weapon and shut your damn mouth. You will not take our horses, and you will die if you threaten us again.”

The man lowered his sword. His shoulders slumped.

“Hurry!” the girl screamed.

The boy was shaking now, gasping wildly. Tears were rolling down his cheeks.

“Put him on my horse,” Jek said, climbing on and then reaching out his hand.

Cleve picked up the boy and carefully put him on Jek’s saddle.

They rode off while Cleve jumped on Nulya.

“I’m coming with you,” the man stated.

“You’re walking back.” Cleve was about to give Nulya a kick, but the girl grabbed his leg.

“Please,” she pleaded, still weeping. “Take me back with you.”

Cleve pulled her up by the arm. She grabbed his stomach to hold on as Nulya started galloping after Jek’s mount.

There was another strike of lightning, and this one Cleve actually saw. It hit a tree on the mountain behind the village, catching it on fire. Thunder followed, building and building until Cleve felt it rumbling within him. Jek’s horse and Nulya both stopped, rearing up and whinnying in fear.

Cleve felt the girl’s grip come loose as she fell.

When Nulya was under control again, Cleve saw Jek had fallen, along with the boy, who’d been in front of Jek on his saddle. Cleve yelled at the girl to get up, practically throwing her on the saddle behind him when she offered her hand, and then galloped over to Jek.

He dismounted and knelt to pick up the boy again while Jek got back on his horse. But Cleve was struck with numbness.

No, not now!

Instead of falling on the boy, he did manage to turn enough to avoid him. He tried to fight the paralysis, but he couldn’t even speak. All he could do was utter a whimper.

The boy was either silent or unconscious by then. Cleve couldn’t lift his head to see for himself.

He felt someone kicking him, at least he thought he did. “Get up and help him! What are you doing?” It was the girl. She pulled his hair now—
that
he could feel.

Strength was returning, and he popped back up. Taking a breath, he scooped his arms under the boy and put him on the saddle in front of Jek. They were off again.

For some reason, the girl was still kicking and punching him. So he turned and grabbed her wrist, dragged her to Nulya, got on himself, and then pulled her up next.

She was still pounding his back and crying as they started catching up to Jek’s horse. It seemed as if she was yelling at him, but no words were clear enough to understand through her weeping.

“Stop,” he told her. “Or I’ll throw you off this horse.”

She didn’t let up. “You want him to die! You’re playing games, and he’s bleeding to death. I should throw
you
from this horse.” He felt her hands grab his sides and start to push, pull…frantically she was swaying his body in all directions at once.

Cleve couldn’t turn behind him while Nulya was galloping. He barely could look at the girl over his shoulder without falling off.

“Stop right now!” Cleve screamed.

She was using all her strength by then. He could feel it. And he was going to fall soon.

He managed to slow Nulya to a halt before the girl was successful. He jumped to the ground in preparation of removing her safely from his saddle, but then the girl tried to grab the reins and speed off.

Fortunately, he quickly was able to get her little wrists under control. He moved them both to one hand so he could use his other to scoop her legs, putting her stomach on his shoulder.

She screamed and thrashed, nearly making him lose his grip on her. But he managed to get her on the ground without throwing her down and jumped back onto Nulya, leaving the girl there.

With her screams dying out from the noise of the wind, Cleve could hear himself breathing heavily. Guilt came next, twisting inside of him hard. He thought about going back for her but decided against it.

He had other things to worry about, like what the villagers were going to think when he and Jek brought in the dying grandson of their apparent leader.

Chapter 25

If it wasn’t for the light from Jek’s wand, they no longer would’ve been able to find the wooden fence of the village. The darkness was too thick, the rain so hard it was as if Cleve were standing beneath a waterfall.

Jek was stopped at the wall of the village. Cleve could hear him screaming, but not what about until he got closer.

“How do I know he isn’t dead already?” someone shouted from the other side of the wall.

“He’ll be dead soon if you don’t let us in!” Jek screamed back. “He needs a chemist. He’s bleeding out.”

Cleve let out a hand to catch the rain. As he’d expected, it had started to hail. Lightning struck somewhere. Thunder scared the horses once again, but not enough to make them throw Cleve or Jek from their backs.

“Where is everyone else who went out looking for you two?” a different man shouted from behind the wooden gate.

“They attacked us,” Jek replied. “Most are dead. And if you don’t let us in now, this boy will die with them.”

Cleve wished he hadn’t removed the girl from his saddle. She could’ve convinced these men with her incessant weeping to open the gate.

“Throw your weapons over and we’ll let you in.”

“My sword doesn’t leave my hand,” Cleve said firmly.

The hail was giving him a beating. Nulya stirred, and he worried for her.

“I’m about to put this dying boy here and leave,” Jek threatened. “Or I can bring him inside and take him to your closest chemist.”

There was muttering between the two men behind the gate.

“Hurry,” Jek said.

Cleve heard the sweet sound of a bolt being undone. The gate was pulled open.

“Give him here,” one of the men said, lifting his arms toward Jek. Cleve barely could make out his silhouette as Jek let the light from his wand go out to hand over the boy. The man ran off with the dying child, disappearing into the night within seconds.

Cleve looked around within the walls but soon found it to be hopeless. He couldn’t see anything.

“You tell me what happened,” someone said from Jek’s far side. “Or I’ll kill your horse right now.”

“You do that, you die,” Cleve said, moving over for a glimpse of the man. He had a knife held to Jek’s horse.

Jek reached out and grabbed Cleve’s shoulder in a firm embrace. “It’s alright.” He looked down at the man holding the knife and took a slow breath. “We told you already, we were attacked by your people. We defended ourselves, and now most of them are dead.”

A flash—lightning somewhere. Thunder roared. Cleve barely could keep Nulya under control. She wanted to turn and run away from the village, but he kept her steady by pulling tight on her reins and telling her to stay calm.

A familiar voice yelled from behind, “Don’t let them leave! They have unpunished crimes.” Cleve found the last surviving man to be the one shouting. The crying girl was with him as well, holding onto his arm.

Cleve wasn’t sure how he wanted to handle this, so he looked to Jek.

“Where is he?” the girl asked, tugging on Jek’s leg to get his attention.

“I handed your boyfriend to some man who ran off with him,” Jek answered. He pulled his leg away from her grasp petulantly. Cleve figured Jek was just as angry as he was about this whole thing.

Cleve thought it best to try leaving one more time. “We have committed no crimes,” he said. “We defended ourselves and that’s it. The boy was cut by one of his own, not by me nor my friend.”

“Who?” the man with the knife to Jek’s horse asked. “Who cut the boy?”