Even Hell Has Knights (Hellsong) (46 page)

The six Carrion warriors were spread out on the rocks around him. Sinna was a bit higher than the rest. Pyle hadn’t expected her to be such a good climber. If she wanted, she could have outdistanced them all. Maybe not Hale, if he was unencumbered, but as it was he had a hundred or so pounds of dead weight strapped to his back. As Pyle watched, one of the hound’s legs twitched.

Almost dead weight, anyway.

Pyle couldn’t blame Hale for choosing the lower route. It had certainly looked promising. Even with the trouble they were having, they would still probably save time crossing the cavern’s bend. If Hale was right, and the settling hadn’t taken out the ledge he spoke of, they should be able to rest in just a few minutes. The stone here was slippery, however, and Pyle would be surprised if they all made it across Giant’s Tunnel alive. For the first few hundred feet his fear had masked the pain. Now he was too tired to be afraid.

He had to be careful when he looked for handholds using his right hand. Two of his nails were missing, and the pain would blind him if the tops of his fingertips touched the stone. Sometimes he didn’t even have a choice. The swelling on his forehead throbbed mercilessly, giving him a pounding headache and making the world swim around him.

He saw the hound kick again.

It’s starting to wake up.

Hale was looking over his shoulder in alarm. The hound was enough of a burden asleep. Awake, its unbalancing movements could well cost the Carrion man his life.

“We’re coming around the bend,” Hale shouted. “Keep your eyes sharp.”

The man wasn’t lying. Pyle could see more and more of Giant Tunnel’s back wall as they climbed. It would not be long before Turi would be exposed.

“I see the ledge!” Sinna’s shriek sent spasms of pain pulsing through Pyle’s head. “The settling didn’t take it.”

Hale shouted something else, but a waterfall was streaming down from the ceiling right next to him, so his voice was lost in the din.

Pyle did his best to use the same handholds Hale had. The settling and the water had weakened the rock enough that some of the more promising outcroppings couldn’t hold his weight.

The ones that can handle Hale and the hound should be fine for me.

Pyle stopped. The next section of stone was particularly smooth, and a small stream, perhaps three feet across, made sure that it would be slick as well.

Now how did Hale make it across that?

He took a deep breath and looked out across the cavern.

He could see the right corner of the back wall now, and the ledge wasn’t too far away either. Pyle looked back the way he’d come. It certainly wasn’t any distance at all compared to how far they’d climbed already. He glanced down to the churning sea below him.

Jesus.

“I see him!” One of the soldiers shouted.

“Where?” Hale had found a solid foothold and was leaning back to get a better view.

“Near the corner, about a hundred feet over.”

Pyle saw the young boy for just a second, moving across the stones.

He’s almost at the bottom.

Turi was in trouble now. He was going to have to climb up nearly an eighth of a mile, climb sideways nearly twice as far, and then cross the tremendous waterfall before he could make it to the exit. And all of that had to be done while nominally within the range of the Carrion shooters.

We’ve got you boy.

He turned his attention back to the climb. Hale must have used a handhold on the other side of the stream. Pyle gritted his teeth and shoved his right hand deep into a crevasse. His arm shook with his agony as his unprotected fingertips were pressed into the sharp rock. Tears formed in his eyes. Pyle shook his head to clear it, reaching out with his left hand to try and find something to grip across the water.

He tried one prospect, but the stone was slick, and at a bad angle. If he were to put all his weight on that stone, he would surely fall. Blood trickled down his forearm, coming from his fingertips and collecting in the crease by his elbow.

Whatever pain I feel, Turi is feeling it worse. He’s got bleeding feet, no food, no chance for sleep, and he’s all alone.

The sound of a stone skittering across the wall caught Pyle’s attention. Pyle blinked away the tears from his eyes. At first he thought the rock had come from above him, from one of the Carrion soldiers, but a second rock flew in. It was definitely coming from out there in the cavern. Pyle looked across to the far wall. He couldn’t see much because much of his vision was blocked by the waterfall which had drowned out Hale’s speech earlier.

Then he saw another stone, coming from the back right corner of Giant’s Tunnel, sailing through the air at them. It got caught in the falling water and disappeared.

“Is that coming from the boy?” Sinna shouted.

“Yeah,” Pyle answered.

“Kid’s got one hell of an arm,” one of the soldiers noted.

Fucking idiot.

“Kid’s got a sling,” Pyle shouted back.

“Where’d he get a sling?”

“His robe, maybe.” Pyle watched the next rock.

It wasn’t aimed for them. Turi was firing at the far wall.

“Can he hurt us with it?” the soldier asked.

“He’s got pebbles, not sling bullets,” Pyle squinted his eyes, trying to focus his blurry vision on the far wall. “His aim’s going to be bad. And the air will take the speed out of his throws anyway.”

“Well, why’s he throwing them?”

If you’d shut the fuck up for a minute I might be able to figure it out.

He saw another of Turi’s slingstones. He watched it travel through a maze of falling water to impact again with the far wall. Pyle searched around that area. He saw something move.

Dyitzu.

There were two of them, traveling along a ledge across from them. Pyle could tell that they weren’t sure where the sling stones were coming from.

Turi’s next shot was back towards Pyle’s direction. The dyitzu watched the rock fly.

That little shit.

“Move!” Pyle shouted.

He searched fervently for another handhold with his left hand. He didn’t find anything promising. He reached out with his foot, trying to find a crevasse he could jam it into.

The first few dyitzu’s fireballs were already coming. One buried itself in the waterfall, but another just clipped it. Half extinguished, the remaining ball of dyitzu fire spun out of control until it slammed into the side of the cavern.

“Use the water for cover,” Hale ordered.

More of the fire came shooting in, missing by a wide margin. The next set was closer, though, and one fireball landed right above Pyle.

Fuck.

Pyle reached into the stream itself and found a handhold. He pulled his body into the water. His left foot found some support, and he used it to let go with his left hand and search for another handhold.

There, that’s what Hale must have found.

He tried to get a good grip, but his fingers, now slippery, couldn’t cling to it. More fire came in, impacting above him. Some of the fire was mixing with the water there and began streaming down towards him.

Pyle tried another hold, but the stones fell away. Steaming water and dyitzu fire poured over his right hand, singeing his unprotected fingertips. A scream escaped from Pyle, but he dared not let go. He remembered burning his face off.

The fire is your friend.

He reached back to the last handhold he’d tried, not caring how tenuous it was. He clung to it with all his might and moved through the stream. The water poured over his body. His left hand slipped, and he reached out with his right, slamming it down on a jagged rock. The stone cut into his palm, but he didn’t care. He lifted himself, letting the sharp stone edge cut deeper into his hand until it caught on his bones and tendons. Finally he found another solid handhold. Shortly thereafter he was able to find a place for his feet as well.

I’m alive, but my right hand may be useless soon.

He made his way as quickly as possible behind the cover of the falling water. That brought him nose to nose with the groggy hellhound.

Well hey, fucker.

Hale turned and gave him a grim smile.

“What now?” Pyle shouted.

“There’s no way we can make it to the ledge with the dyitzu there,” Hale answered. “And what’s worse, we can’t make it back, either.”

God damn.

More rocks slid down next to Pyle. At first he thought it was Arturus at work again, but they were coming from Sinna as she scaled cliffs above them.

She came to a point where she must have been in the dyitzu’s line of fire. She drew her
Beretta pistol.

“They’re out of range,” Pyle shouted up to her. “You’re just wasting bullets.”

She fired anyway. Pyle couldn’t see how well she did because of the waterfall, but one of the Carrion soldiers whistled. She fired off another round. And another.

Wait, she’s not aiming at the dyitzu.

Her bullets were landing near where they had last seen Arturus. One the dyitzu ventured a fireball out that way.

“Go on,” she ordered, and Pyle could hear her smile in her voice. “I’ll cover you.”

Aaron and Johnny stood guard while Galen finished hogtying the dyitzu.

“We’ve got to get you some pants,” Aaron told the near naked hunter.

Johnny smiled and nodded, adjusting his ammunition belt over his boxers.

The dyitzu was still breathing but certainly not conscious. After braining the thing with the back of his rifle, Galen has made an incision in its throat. Aaron guessed he had cut its vocal cords.

“They’ll scatter their slaves at the first sign of trouble,” Galen was saying. “That keeps the roving bands of dyitzu off of their trail. Confuses the local hounds, too. Good news is that will work for us. Don’t shoot any of them. Trust me, they won’t attack. The only thing they’ll be interested in is finding a different priestess to protect them.”

“What’s the dyitzu for?” Huang asked.

Galen ignored the question. He tightened the knots around the dyitzu’s wrists enough that it was brought back to consciousness. It tried to scream, but only a slight gurgling came out of its throat.

“It’s harder to kill a Carrion Born than it is to kill one of us,” Galen said. “Now don’t ask me why, because I won’t tell you. It is enough that you know this is true. Make sure you fire multiple shots into each target if you haven’t got them in the head. They’re armed with shotguns and pistols and that makes them strong in the close tunnels. We’re better in the big ones, but in the Carrion, we can’t afford fighting there. Try to keep your distance, nonetheless. Almost all of their shotgun rounds are going to be buckshot, so the farther back you are, the more time their volleys have to spread.”

“Yeah but the dyitzu—”

“Whatever you do,” Galen again ignored the hunter, “don’t shoot the priestess, or we’ll find ourselves doing this all over again. Any questions?”

“The dyitzu?” Johnny asked, both eyebrows raised.

Aaron answered for Galen. “It’s the first sign of trouble.”

The hound had awakened. It growled constantly and fought against the ropes that bound it. Hale paid it no attention, his eyes fixed on the back wall. Pyle had deliberately set himself up on the ledge to be as far away from the beast as possible. Even drugged and toothless, as the hound now was, fighting with a four legged animal on a slippery stone precipice didn’t seem very promising.

He wasn’t sure what had happened to the dyitzu. Perhaps Turi had managed to kill them, or maybe Sinna had just scared them away. Pyle didn’t care which so long as they didn’t come back with some friends. He felt extremely exposed on this ridge.

“He’s been down there a while,” one of the Carrion soldiers shouted over the rush of the water. “Maybe we should offer him surrender. He might be willing to take it.”

“Hell,” Pyle answered, “stay in this cavern too much longer, and I’ll be willing to surrender to him.”

“Quiet,” Hale ordered.

“We should send two of us out there,” Pyle suggested, ignoring the order. “Maybe we can flush him out.”