NexLord: Dark Prophecies (51 page)

Mara spoke to the grinning
priest.  "Hork, you know the truth, do you not wish to
save lives here?”

"She begs ME for the wicked lives of the
demon spawn," he answered in disgust.

"I speak of the lives of these soldiers,"
Mara explained.

Gandarel didn't know what to do; he started
to signal his men to defend
Mara
when the ground began to shake.

"It is too late," stated Mara.

"What is that?” the Corporal demanded.

"That, my fine disbelieving Worthy, is the
mythical Tog army reaching a gallop.  They will be on you
in minutes," Mara explained.

The Bluecoats were frozen, and Mara took that
moment to rise onto her mount.  Yearl and Tocor mounted
at the same instant.

"Captain, you can't withstand them, but you
can retreat into the hills and possibly elude them.  They
are fierce fighters, but they aren't the brightest of opponents,
but you have to act now!"

The Captain saw a massive cloud of dust from
the east and another from the west.  There was panic in
his voice when he spoke.  "Form up the troops!"

His soldiers felt and heard the panic, and it
immediately affected them.

"Don't show panic, you fool!" Mara
declared.  "You can still retreat!"

The Captain didn't even hear her, he started
pointing and shouting conflicting orders to his men and
officers.

Mara trotted forward, forgotten for the
moment.  "Gandarel, we must flee!"

"I will not abandon these soldiers," Gandarel
declared.

Hork
was
confused, he still didn't understand that he was about to
die.  With the sudden realization, a look of complete
panic descended on the High Priest of The Hand.  He
galloped away into the trees.

"Captain, gather your men and follow me,"
Mara tried, but the Bluecoats were in complete disarray, as
soldiers from the rear of the column now rode up in panic.

The Togroths hit from the west
first
and cut into the milling Bluecoats like a
pitchfork through hay.  Any last semblance of order was
destroyed, and the entire troop broke apart and fled in all
directions.  Those who managed to fight were so
outnumbered that they were killed in minutes.

As the Togs hit, Mara grabbed Gandarel's
mount by the bridle and spurred her horse to the south, heading for
the trees.  Tocor and Yearl were with her, and Gandarel's
well-trained Guardsmen followed.  The hurling panic
caused councilman Enolive's horse to run and he was lost in the
flight of the Bluecoats.  Niler somehow managed to get
his horse moving and chased after Gandarel.

As soon as they were moving in the right
direction, Mara let loose of Gandarel's mount, he didn't argue
anymore
but kept following Mara at
a gallop. 

Lor made her decision, rather than wait to
battle the ascending Togroth, once it completed the climb to the
top of the chimney, she opted to descend the opposite side of the
spire.  From their position on the cliffs, the other Togs
could not see that she was climbing down.

Lor descended at nearly
breakneck
speed. She was worried that the one in
the chimney would reach the top too soon, and alert the
others.  Since she had no fear of heights, her mind
stayed on the business of finding hand and foot
holds.  In the time it took the Tog to climb up the short
chimney, Lor descended one hundred feet to the ground at the base
of the spire.  From there she darted from boulder to
boulder
and reached the base of
the main cliffs to the east of the Togs.  Once there, Lor
ascended the cliffs hidden from the sight of the spire and the Togs
on the cliffs, by using a gully to shield her.  When she
reached the top of the mesa she poked her head up and saw the Togs
looking down at the flatlands trying to spot
her.  
Obviously,
the
other Tog had reached the top of the Spire and found her
gone.  She just hoped they wouldn't believe she would
climb back up to where they were waiting.  Lor slipped
over the edge and crawled from cover to cover, keeping an eye on
the Togs on the cliffs and the top of the spire in case the one up
there looked in her direction.

After twenty yards she was in thick enough
brush to run at a crouch across the top of the mesa.

Once she traversed the top and arrived at the
far side, Lor could see the dust of the recent attack on the
Bluecoats.  There were smaller trails of dust branching
out into the tree covered hills and valleys. She figured those were
made by fleeing Bluecoats, or Tog hunting parties. 

Just great
, Lor thought,
now I will
have to keep dodging more Togs to get back to the
wagon.  I hope that Aerin doesn't head those escaped
prisoners THIS way.

She descended the cliffs and started making
her way down the slope toward the wooded hills.

It was nearly dark when Aerin led their group
of refugees into a clearing and found a group of fifteen
Bluecoats.  The soldiers were hiding in the clearing and
watching to the southeast.  Aerin stepped into the
clearing from the
northwest
and
startled
the soldiers who
leaped
to their feet with drawn
weapons, only to relax when they saw his human form.

"What are you doing out here,
boy?"  a soldier demanded, and then the refugees came
into sight behind Aerin.

"We helped these people escape from the food
pens of the Togroth camp that is over that way," he said,
waving
in the general direction of
the Togroth camp.

"We were attacked by those beasts hours ago,"
the soldier exclaimed.

Aerin looked around.  "Where are
the rest of your men?"

"Dead, for all I know.  We haven't
seen any others for some time.  There were ten or twenty
thousand of those things!"

Dono looked at the obviously scared soldiers,
some were wounded, and all of them had a shocked look behind their
eyes.  Their once pristine uniforms were torn and dirty
from crawling through brambles and hiding in the
dirt.  Sweat and bloodstains were caked with mixed
dust.

"What are you going to do?" Dono asked the
man who seemed to have taken the lead for the soldiers, though Dono
saw no sign of rank on his uniform.

"Gedin's blood, I don't know, look for the
Captain once these devils have left."

Aerin considered the refugees and the wounded
soldiers.  "You'll never find your captain out in these
woods, and the Togs are going to be hunting."

"Well, I suppose you have an idea," the
scared man growled.

"I think your captain will fall back to the
city
if he's
smart.  There is protection behind the walls and medical
aid for the wounded."

"That's a good idea, Boon," seconded another
soldier with a wounded arm in a makeshift sling.

"Yeah, well maybe it is and maybe it
isn't."

One of the farmers came up to join the
conversation.  His clothes were in rags and his wife and
two small children were almost clinging to him.  "Sir,
could you help us get back to the city?  We're starving
and there ain't no food."

Boon
growled
but nodded.  "All right then, we're going to fall back to
that city.  We'll wait for full dark and then make our
way."

Aerin
nodded
and went to talk to his friends.  When they were out of
casual earshot from the Bluecoats Aerin spoke in a quiet
voice.  "I doubt these guys are going to let some young
boys go off on their own, but I'm not going back to the
city.  We have to get to the wagon in case Mara comes
back."

Dono nodded.  "OK, what about the
people we rescued?"

"The soldiers should get them back to the
city
now
if anyone
can.  I say our job is done," Katek stated.

Aerin nodded, "Yes, and I'm worried about
Lor.  We'll check the wagon first and if she's not there,
we go out for her, agreed?"

"Right," Dono stated, "but how are we
going to shake these Bluecoats?"

"Just wait
until
dark and then we’ll slip off back the way we
came.  They won't follow us, they're too scared," Aerin
noted.

Katek grinned.  "They need to be
toughened up by Mara!  That would put some starch in
their uniforms!"

Both Dono and Aerin grinned.  For
some reason, even though they knew Mara had gone to warn the
Bluecoats, they weren't worried about her surviving the
attack.  There was something strong about their old
teacher. Besides, they figured Tocor could take all 4,000 Togs if
it came down to it.

As darkness descended, Aerin told one of the
farmers that they had to leave to go back and look for their
friend, and to tell the others not to worry about
them.  The farmer thanked the boys for all of them and
said he would take care of it.   Then the three boys
slipped off into the night.

At the wagon, Tocor was just mounting up, and
Yearl was reaching for his horse's
bridle
when Mara held up her hand and pointed toward the
woods.  Yearl stopped and then listened for a moment
before he moved. He was faster than could be believed, as he
suddenly slipped off and disappeared into the
woods.  There was a yelp, and all of Gandarel's Guardsmen
reached for weapons, but when Yearl appeared he was escorting a
red-faced
Aerin,
Dono,
and Katek.

"I hate it when he does that," Aerin
muttered, glancing at Yearl beside him.

"And where have you been?"  Mara
asked, in that tone of voice that Aerin knew so well; he was in hot
water and Mara was determined to see him cook.

But Aerin was worried about Lor, and anything
else, even his own hide, was of less importance to
him.  "Is Lor here?"

Mara raised an eyebrow at
him
but answered.  "No, I had hoped
she was with you miscreants."

"Well, she was," said Dono, drawing out the
last word.

"I think I better hear this from the
beginning," Mara noted, pointing for the three of them to take
seats around her.  She continued standing with a scowl on
her face and her hands on her hips.

"But we need to go look for Lor!" Aerin
stated.

"If she is lost, she'll come this
way
if not then we'll find her in a few
minutes.  I can't help if I don't know what happened,"
Mara explained.  "Now start telling."

Katek took up the narration, taking blame
square on his shoulders for instigating the scouting
mission.  Mara glanced at Aerin during part of that
explanation and broke in, "Was the plan yours, Aerin?"

Aerin nodded.

"I thought so, it sounded like you,
continue," she ordered.

Dono took up the narration for a while,
detailing the battle with the Togs on the mesa.

Thereafter Aerin told of the rescue, and the
meeting with the Bluecoats, followed by their escape and return to
the wagon.

"And now I'm leaving to go and find Lor, she
might have been captured by the Togs," Aerin declared.

Gandarel nodded, "I agree, we've got to
rescue her!"

"And I didn't know you really cared,
Gandarel!" Lor said, stepping into the clearing.

Mara didn't even look up from her students,
though they all
leaped
to their
feet.

"Lor, you're alive!" Aerin exclaimed in
relief.

"
Of course,
she is, she has been listening from that bush for the past ten
minutes," Mara said, pointing.

Lor grinned, "I wanted to see what lies you
guys were going to tell
about
me."

"And did they?" Gandarel asked.

"Nope
they
told it pretty straight, but I'll fill in the rest."

"This ought to be ripe," Gandarel noted.

Lor gave him her innocent look, "I ALWAYS
tell the truth; you know that."  With that
statement,
she told her story.

Mara was quiet
afterward
.  Though they had disobeyed her
order, it had been for a good reason and she knew she wasn't
training these kids to be timid.  In essence, it was
Mara's own fault that they had no fear of sneaking into a Togroth
camp.  She knew they had far more dangerous things to
accomplish in their future.  She just hoped they survived
long enough to reach those challenges.

To the surprise of all her young
students,
Mara said, "Well done."

"Well done?" Niler Corbin said
incredulously.  "These children sneak off and nearly get
killed by monsters, and you say, well done?"

"These 'children' killed two Togroths in a
straight up fight, and then managed to rescue humans from a Togroth
feed pen.  The girl then killed another FOUR all by
herself.  I doubt all the Bluecoat
soldiers
together managed to kill that many
Togs.  These are young warriors; they stopped being
children some time ago."

The shoulders of Mara’s students straightened
at the rare public display of their teacher’s pride.

Niler sputtered, but Mara ignored
him.  She turned to her students.  "Now I'll
fill you in on what happened with us."  She told them the
story of her meeting with the Bluecoats.  Gandarel noted
that there were a few things not mentioned, but he chalked it up to
a difference in what they remembered.

"Now what?" Dono
asked
when all the accounts were finished.

Mara smiled.  "Now we move on west
without the Bluecoats.  The survivors will probably do as
that other group
did
fall back to
the city."

Niler Corbin shook his head, "We'll do
nothing of the sort.  We're going back to the city, where
Gandarel will be safe!"

"There is no safety there, or anywhere, for
Gandarel, only paths he can choose," Mara countered.