NexLord: Dark Prophecies (49 page)

Lor graced him with a pleasant
smile.  "You will pay for that remark as
well.  I'm going to survive this, just so I can make your
life miserable.  Now, let's climb down from
here.  Once we split up I'll give you a count of six
hundred to get into position around the other end of their
camp.  After
that,
I'll
make the diversion.  When you get the people free, we'll
meet back up at the wagon... any questions?"

"Yeah, who put you in charge all of a
sudden?" Katek asked.

"You did, and this is just the beginning of
your torment.  Now, are there any real questions?"

Dono considered for a moment and then asked,
"What are you going to do for a diversion?"

"Gedin, I have no idea!  I'll think
of something before it is time."

Katek smirked, "Oh, that's just great."

"Hey, I'm the one who will be leading the
Togs AWAY from you; it's my hide, not yours, so please... shut
up."

"As you wish oh leader and thief," Katek
said, backing away from the edge of the mesa.

"I'm going to think of something very painful
for that boy," Lor growled, pulling back as well.

"Promise?" Katek whispered huskily.

"Bastard," Lor muttered.

They split up at the base, as planned, and
Lor started counting to six hundred.  The others had
snuck off quietly to try to get into position.

Four hundred and fifty-five... four
hundred and fifty-six.
Now,
what am I going to do to make a diversion? Four
hundred and fifty-seven...
she thought as she
counted.  
These numbers are going by too fast... four
hundred and fifty-eight...

Lor thought hard while looking around for
possibilities.  She looked at the tall jagged rocks, that
were like ragged teeth cut along the top edge of the mesa, and
considered causing a rockslide, but they were too far away now to
reach in the time she had left.  She continued her count,
and as she neared the agreed total her frustration
grew.  Wild ideas were considered and discarded,
"I'll
strip naked and run through the camp cutting Togroth throats, then
dash out and hide in a hole... but I don't have a hole
ready.  I'll light their camp on fire, but I don't have a
tinderbox.  
As she considered each plan, Lor kept
creeping closer to the camp.  She was already on the
fringes when she ran out of time. Any moment now her friends would
be moving and she had to make her diversion.  Lor spotted
the Togs makeshift corral, with some of the strange horses they
rode standing inside.  She considered a
stampede
but realized there were only about ten
of the large beasts.

Aerin and the other boys were in
position.  He had just finished his count of six
hundred
and was waiting for Lor's
diversion to begin on the far side of the camp.  The
longer they waited the more worried Aerin became.  What
if the Togs had captured Lor?  He kept counting, and when
he reached eight hundred, he figured the time must have passed by,
even if his count had been a little fast.

He signaled with his hand for the others to
follow him, as he started to sneak in towards the human pen in the
middle.  They moved quickly between pieces of cover,
using the occasional bush, log and rock to best
effect.  A group of seven Togs was huddled together
looking at something on the ground before them.  Aerin
had the sudden grim picture of Lor's body lying in the dirt before
those beasts.  Then one of them moved slightly and he saw
that it was a pile of small dried bones.  One of the Tog
barked something and picked up the bones in his large
fist.  He cast them back to the sand before them, and the
others crowded in tighter to get a good look.

Suddenly one of the Tog went completely
upright to its full seven feet of height; it seemed to be sniffing
the air.

The boys froze, thinking the brute had sensed
them.  Aerin looked for a way to
escape
if they had to start running, but he feared the
Togs were faster runners than the humans.

Then the boys saw what the Tog had already
heard; one of their large horses was galloping across the
camp.  Swaying wildly in the saddle, was
Lor.  What was even stranger was the cloud of dust
trailing about twenty feet behind
her.
  The Togs in the group near the boys ran
for the horse, but Lor managed to turn
it
and cut across an opening between this group of Togs
and another group approaching from her other side.  The
dust cloud behind her turned out to be a Tog she was dragging by a
rope around its neck; its thrashing body tumbled into view, as she
made the turn.  Lor suddenly leaned back and cut the tow
rope from her mount's saddle horn.  She nearly pitched
off her
steed
backward
but managed to grab the saddle horn and
wrench herself back onto the galloping beast.  
Togs
were running two directions, toward her and
toward the corral, where the rest of their mounts were stabled.

Aerin watched as Lor made another turn and
headed out of the camp toward the mesa.  Aerin grinned,
as he watched the Togs leaving their area; Lor’s diversion was
working.  Just when Aerin thought Lor would be home free,
her mount ran back into the camp, through the dust, and Lor was no
longer on its back.

The Togs howled as they too saw she was
unhorsed and went after her, following the dust trail.

Aerin's grin faded, but he didn't have time
to worry about his friend. They only had a few minutes to make use
of Lor’s diversion.  He signaled, and the boys crept
forward at a faster pace.  They could see the pen ahead
of them where the prisoners were standing at the sides watching the
drama of Lor's strange ride.

Lor tumbled to a stop from her fall off her
mount. She
leaped
to her feet, and
did a quick survey of her body, but luck was with her and she
didn't seem to have broken anything when she
fell.  Cursing herself for looking back to check on
pursuit
when she should have been
concentrating on keeping in the saddle, Lor decided on plan ‘B’…
run.  She didn't try to hide or dodge; she just put as
much distance as she could between herself and her inevitable
pursuers.

Ahead the slope of the mesa started up toward
the top.  Lor kept running up the slope, though behind
her she could hear the guttural calls of the Togs as they spotted
their prey.

Gedin save me, the rest of them better
make good use of this or I'll be a very angry ghost when I come
back to haunt them,
 she thought.  The slope made
the going tougher, and Lor could actually hear the sounds of the
Togs feet disturbing the rocks behind her as they quickly closed
the distance.  When she was only fifty yards from the
summit she risked a glance back, though she had been telling
herself not to, since that same idea had cost her a fall from the
saddle.  All she needed was to look back and trip on a
rock.

She spared a quick look and nearly did fall;
it was only her training in controlling her emotions that kept her
from panic.  The nearest Tog was only fifteen feet back
and coming strong.  The next three were about thirty feet
behind him.

Lor put her head down and dug in for her
life, but the steep slope made it feel like she was wading through
swamp mud.  She waited until she heard the intake of the
beast's breath behind
her
before
she whirled and underhanded one of her daggers into the brute's
throat.  The Tog was only four feet behind her when she
let fly.  It howled, sickeningly around the blade, as
yellow blood gushed out of its torn neck.  Lor did not
wait; she turned and kept fleeing up the slope.  Behind
her,
the next three slavering
beasts had closed the distance to twenty feet and Lor only had
one dagger left.

As they neared the pen containing the
captured humans, Katek grabbed Aerin's shoulder and
pointed.  There was a gate into the pen, but a Togroth
stood next to it, looking off toward the mesa.  Aerin
looked around, but
fortunately,
there was only this one Tog in sight.

Quickly he thought of a
plan
and explained it in whispers to his two
friends.  Dono ran low toward the side of the pen and
leaped
onto the wooden poles that
were strapped together making the sides. He scrambled up to
the six-foot height of the wall, where the sharpened poles that
were driven into the ground below pointed up into the
sky.  But instead of trying to go over the difficult
obstacle, Dono made a loud grunt of effort and
leaped
down to the ground, still outside the
compound.

At the sound of his grunt, and the impact of
his feet hitting the ground, the Tog on guard spun and saw Dono
regain his feet and dash away.

With a bellow, the brute ran after him in
chase
.  As the large
black toothed beast passed between two low boulders, Aerin stuck
his quarterstaff out and tripped the running monster.  It
landed on the ground, and Katek
leaped
in from where he crouched behind another rock,
slamming the point of his sword into the beast's back.

It howled and rolled, but Aerin rapped it
hard on the forehead, and Katek ran it through the heart. 

 The beast stiffened and died.

Dono was already running back toward the
gate, where the penned up humans were at work trying to open
it.  As Dono arrived he told them to get back, and then
with a cut of his sword, he severed the dry leather thongs that had
been knotted to keep the gate shut.  

"Follow them!” he exclaimed to the
ragtag
group of cattlemen, farmers
and their families, that were pouring out of the Togroth meat
pen.  Aerin and Katek beckoned, and the scared people ran
toward the waving boys.  Dono brought up the rear,
looking back for signs of pursuit, but all of the other Togs were
after Lor.  He sent a prayer to Gedin to protect his
friend
and then ran after the
people they had rescued.

Lor scaled the rock face like it was the road
to heaven and the gates were closing above.  She just
managed to climb past
handheld
weapons range, as the chasing Togs arrived below.  The
first one tried to leap up and skewer her, but his sword’s tip just
missed her moving foot, as she went to the next
hold.  Lor kept climbing.  In a
moment,
one of the beasts thought to throw a
dagger, but she was high enough by then that it didn't reach
her.  Lor could really climb when her life depended on
it.

She still wasn't out of
danger.  The Togs consulted, and then two of them started
climbing up after her while the other seven, that had now arrived,
moved to a place where they could ascend to the top of the mesa
between the massive boulders that Lor was climbing.

 As Lor climbed she thought about what
she was going to do. She wished she had a bow, and then worried
about the Togs using one on her.  It didn't seem any of
them had thought to fetch one from the camp yet, but
eventually,
they would.  Lor suddenly
remembered the set of steel balls that Tocor had made for her, and
cursed her
luck
when she
remembered that she had left them in the wagon.  Lor knew
she would have to elude the Togs without her special missiles, and
before they fetched their own bows, or she was done.

Lor considered pointing out the fleeing
humans to the Togs; they were plainly visible now from this
height.  All the brutes had to do was turn and look, and
they would see their precious dinner running away, but Lor was
worried that the humans were in too bad of shape to move
quickly.  Even though they had a head start, the Togs
might catch up.  She wished her friends good speed and
kept climbing; she was nearing the top of her boulder.

When she stood on top of the tall rock, Lor
immediately checked on the progress of the Togs coming up around
the long way.  They weren't in sight yet, so she leaned
down and checked on the two Togs climbing up the rock
below.  They were halfway up the side of the rock.

Lor grabbed some of the small rocks lying
around and started dropping them on the two bloodthirsty creatures
climbing up.

The small stones just bounced off the brutish
Togs, though they looked up at her with hatred in their beady red
eyes. They kept coming.

Lor resorted to the largest rocks she could
lift.  After two misses, she finally knocked one of the
beasts from the rock and it fell to the hard ground below.

Lor went for another large rock, but to her
dismay, she saw the seven other Togs approaching swiftly along the
top edge of the mesa.

Desperately the young girl looked for a way
to elude the slavering beasts.  The cliffs continued in
the opposite direction from the Togs, and Lor could see one spire
of stone that stood away from the line of cliffs, and it stood
taller than the rest.  It was about three hundred yards
away.  Lor abandoned the rock she was going to drop on the
remaining Tog, climbing up from below, and she started running
along the edge of the cliffs toward the spire. She had to leap
several gaps between broken stones, as she fled along the broken
cliffs.  Behind
her,
she
heard the pack of pursuing Togs call out hunting cries as they saw
her fleeing.

Since the Togs were running along the edge of
the mesa, instead of navigating the broken cliff edge, they were
gaining on Lor.  As she neared the lone spire she
realized that the gap between the cliffs and the spire was larger
than she had thought.  When Lor finally reached the place
where the gap was narrowest, between the lone spire and the cliff
face, the Togs were nearly even with
her
and turned to start out onto the
rocks