Hunt For The Hero (Book 5) (2 page)

CHAPTER 3

The
Draykis locked his arm around my neck and dragged me down. Now I was drowning. Maybe. I could hold my breath for a long time compared to others. But in this case I was choking and I didn’t have a good breath from the start.

I drove my elbow into its ribs. Jammed my head under its chin.

Its grip slacked.

I twisted away
, swam to the surface, burst from the waters, and sucked in more air.

“Urp!”

The Draykis dragged me back under. Its huge arms were wrapped around my legs and its great weight was pulling me down into the black depths.

I grabbed it
s face and pushed my thumbs into its eyes.

It let go.

I kicked it in the face.
Then I slipped behind it and locked my arms behind its neck and squeezed with all my might.

It rocked and reeled in the water. I held on.  I wasn’t sure if these things needed to breath
e. They were strange. Living but dead somehow. Life reincarnated in an evil form. I squeezed harder.

Crack!

Its body went limp. I released it and was watching it float towards the bottom when I noticed something twitching in the waters above.

Sasha! Bayzog!

I could see their feet chained at the deep pool’s edge to a ring hooked at the bottom. Bones were layered on the bottom. Skulls and whole skeletons. I cut through the water and popped up right beside them. Sasha’s eyes were widened and her mouth was filling with water. 

“Hang on!
” I said.

“
Nath, there is no key,” Bayzog said. “You’ll have to break them.”

I dipped below the surface
, wrapped my hands around the chains and braced my feet on the bottom.

I put every ounce of energy I had into it.

The metal groaned. My bones popped and cracked in the water.
Come on, Nath! Do it!

The chains held fast. Sasha
swam down beside me and Bayzog did as well. I could see their eyes. They weren’t pleading. They weren’t helpful. They were forgiving. They placed their arms on my shoulders and grabbed each other’s hands. Sasha smiled a little as if saying, ‘It’s all right. You tried your best.’

Noooooooo!
Pull, Nath, pull!

My
Dragon heart pumped. My energy surged. I put everything I had left into it.

The chain snapped.

I pushed them up out of the water and onto the ledge, where we all lay coughing and gasping. I was the first to gather my breath.

“Brenwar and Shum!”

“Let us help, Nath,” Bayzog said, coughing and trying to stand.

“
Do you have any idea where they are?”

There was a blank look in his violet eyes. He shook his head.

I dove back into the pool and swam across.

Fang lay on the ground
, and I snatched him up.

“Wait!” Sasha said. She pushed her soaked hair out of her face. “
I have a spell that might help.”

“You can’t cast through
those iron shackles,” Bayzog said, showing the heavy cuffs on his wrists.

But good
wizards always have something up their sleeves.

“Hurry!
” I said.

Bayzog led Sasha along the rim of the poo
l and stopped in front of me.

“What do you have in mind
?” Bayzog said.

“
I created a spell that I’ve kept on my tongue since I was a girl who feared getting lost.” She kneeled down. “And if I ever got lost, I’d summon a pathfinder to lead towards something good. There’s nothing good in these caves, I figure, save us.”

“Do as you will,” Bayzog said, taking a place along her side. He placed his hand on her shoulder and nodded.

Sasha closed her eyes. Her lips didn’t move, but sound came out. Sweet. Peaceful. A humming from her throat.

I was tapping my foot.

Wizards take a long time to cast spells in many cases. I just hoped this wasn’t one of them.

Her body quivered. Her tear-
drop face tightened.

Ping!

A spark of light appeared from nowhere and hovered before her. It grew and glowed into a small sphere of light a little smaller than my hand. Its light was pink and yellow and it pulsated. Sasha opened her eyes and held out her hand. It dropped on her palm like a colorful dandelion.

“Find anythin
g good but us,” Sasha whispered to it, “quickly, Pathfinder.”

It lifted up and darted away back through the tunnel I
’d come through and disappeared.

I was looking at Sasha and she said, “What are you waiting for? Get after it
! We’re right behind you.”

Pathfinder moved fast. My legs churned, winding in and out of the slick corridors.

Behind me, Bayzog and Sasha puffed for air.

“Can you keep up?” I said.

“Just go, Nath,” Bayzog said. He was holding his side and Sasha was too. “We’ll catch up. Save the others.”

It tugged at me. I didn’t want to leave them again. They were practically defenseless
.

“Protect yourselves
,” I said. “There are Draykis about.”

Either Pathfinder was getting faster or I was getting slower because it was hard to keep up
along the caves that sloped up and down. Water rushed over my toes in some places. It was bone dry in others. Every step I expected something to pop. A Draykis, Goblin, Gnoll or something else.

The seconds became minutes
, the tunnels endless catacombs. The small orb of bright color might as well have been lost for all I knew.

“Wher
e are you going?”

My voice only echoed.

My heart thundered in my ears. My friends were dying, drowning somewhere.

Pathfinder slowed
.

I foun
d myself trudging through ankle-deep water and into another cavern where torches hung on the walls. A large pool of water greeted me and water cascaded down from above. Pathfinder dipped into the waters and burned with bright light.

Two figures stood,
heads below the waters, chained to the bottom―and not moving.

My heart stopped. My
jaw dropped open.

“Brenwar!”

CHAPTER 4

Ben s
auntered in and out of the hard-working men and women of the village with a long face. Hammers and saws pounded and grinded the wood. Men shouted back and forth to one another. Ropes hoisted up walls. Logs were brought in by horse-drawn carts, and the Legionnaires stood guard. Everyone was working but him this morning it seemed.

His
head ached and his face was swollen. Every step was difficult. He had bruises and scrapes all over him like he’d been skipped over a gravel road. Whatever had slammed him into the ground was a nasty thing. Strong. Powerful. Familiar. And there had been a smell. It bothered him.

A pair of boys dashed back and forth, rattling their sticks like swords with one another. The
y stopped and stared at him, blocking his path. One’s hair hung over his eyes and the other’s was closely trimmed.

“
We’re going to be Legionnaires,” one said.

“Can
you teach us how to kill Ettins?” said the other, blowing the hair from his eyes.

Ben rubbed
their heads and smiled.

“Not now, but maybe later.”

One kicked at the dirt.

“Ah! I want to learn now.”

Ben squatted down.

“A
Legionnaire has to be patient and able to follow orders.” He looked into their eyes. “Can you do that?”

One nodded, but the long-
haired one said, “My mother’s always giving me orders. ‘Fill the bucket.’ ‘Sheer the sheep.’ ‘Pluck the chickens.’ ‘Skin the rabbits.’ ‘String the beans.’ Blah! I want to get out of this place.”

Ben stuck his chin out a little and bobbed his head. He understood. He
’d been done all those things hundreds of times if not thousands. His home village of Quinley was a little bigger than this one, but the work was still the same. He didn’t hate being a farmer, but he didn’t love it either. If anything, it had prepared him for the Legionnaires. The training was tough, but his body and mind were already used to the work. He’d succeeded where many failed.

“I used to love plucking chickens,” he said to them.

The boy’s eyes widened.

“You plucked chickens?” the long
-hair said.

The other teetered on his toes.

Ben smiled.

“I was the fastest
feather-plucker in the village and I just loved stringing those beans. You want to know a secret?”

They
nodded their heads yes.

Ben looked around and lowered is voice.
“Farm boys make the best Legionnaires. My commander told me so.” He winked. “And I’m a pretty good one you know.”

“I’m
going to be the fastest feather-plucker in my village!”

“No, I am!”

They took off running, tackling and bumping each other all the way back home.

Ben stood
up, stretched his back and smiled. Then he frowned. Giving advice to children made him feel old. And he’d never worried before, but now he was worried about Sasha. He felt responsible, and it left his stomach a little sick. He shuffled along, rubbing the knot on his head.

“I should have gone with them,” he said to himself. “I should be the one to find her. Dragon’s probably mad.”
He adjusted his sword belt on his hips. “I can’t fail again.”

He rubbed the bump on his head. It felt like a toma
to was growing under his skin. Garrison said it was the winged ape that had grabbed him and tossed him like a fish. But Ben wasn’t so sure. There was something about Garrison that didn’t seem right. Ben had asked his friend several times what he’d seen and what had happened, but the story seemed to go back and forth.

“I’m not sure.”

“It was an ape, like they said.”

Ben knew Garrison wasn’t telling him
everything. Dragon had taught him a bit about liars. ‘Just watch their eyes,’ Dragon had said. ‘Their hands. Sometimes they fidget a little. And sometimes, if you’re wise, you can just tell. Your gut will tell you.’

Garrison
’s story, though a bit inconsistent, did seem sincere. His eyes and hands were steady. Maybe too steady. But what would Garrison have to hide?

Ben’
s stomach rumbled. He decided to head back to the lodge room and dig up a biscuit. He could smell them better in the air the closer he came. Hot. Buttery. Village or no village, these people were gonna make their biscuits. He patted his tummy. “Well not all of my body has to be unhappy.”

Walking along he noticed a
man making his way through the tall grasses in the distance. It was Garrison.

“Say, where’s he going?” He rubbed his chin. He was hungry, but more curious. Something about the way Garrison moved bothered him. His friend checked over his shoulder a couple of times
and disappeared over the dale. “I’ve a feeling I’d better find out.”

CHAPTER 5

I dove in
to the pool, cut through the water and grabbed the chains. I didn’t look at either of them. I couldn’t. Brenwar and Shum’s chains ran through a metal ring in heavy stone and the pool was littered with bones at the bottom. I pulled at the chains. They were thicker. The stone bigger. I don’t think Kryzak had any plans for them to survive at all. I dug my feet in and pulled again. The metal didn’t groan or twist. The ring in the stone didn’t loosen.

Nooooooo!
 

I felt a hand tapping me on the shoulder.
I jerked in the water and faced Brenwar. He was still alive. He slid Dragon Claw out of Fang’s hilt, stuck it between the links and twisted. I slid Fang between the links as well. Its steel was unbreakable. I was turning the blade, twisting the links in the metal, when something else happened. The chains crystalized like ice, stretching from one link to the other.
Yes!
I kept twisting. So did Brenwar.

Snap. Snap. Snap.

The metal links busted away. I grabbed Shum, pushed him to the surface, and swam for the edge.  Brenwar crawled out of the water, gasping for air.

“Dwarves can hold their breath longer than any mortal race, but that was pushing it.”

The Ranger was limp in my arms. Lips pale blue. His eyes were closed and his body was cold.

“Shum,” I said, slapping his face. “Shum, wake up
!” I pushed on his chest.

Brenwar stood over me as I sat on the pool edge and squeezed my shoulder.

“He’s gone, Nath. He’s gone.”

“No,” I said, looking up,
“he can’t be.”

I’d seen Brenwar’s mad face plenty of times in my life, but never
his sad one. Beard dripping, his expression was long, eyes wet. He rubbed his nose and sniffed.

“I tried everything to save him,” he said. “But those chains would not give. I’ve never seen
anyone die like that before. Such evil, Nath. Such evil.”

I hit the wall.

“Noooooo!”

Bayzog and Sasha appeared on the other side of the pool, mouths gaping. I could hear what they were saying without the words. “Is he?”

I just shook my head and wiped the hair from his face. Our friend, Shum, had died.

I lifted him up in my arms and headed back for the tunnel. Everyone stepped aside
with long faces and followed.

“Let’s
get out of here,” I said with determination.

Tears streamed down Sasha’s face
. “Pathfinder will lead us out.”

I followed the light
. Numb. Angry. This was my fault. My friends were pawns set up to torture me and now one was dead. It could have been all of them. They insisted on protecting me, but I couldn’t protect them. I sniffed and my eyes watered. I wanted to cry. I wanted to kill. I felt cold.

There was evil here. Death and decay, but there was something else. Something I
’d missed before.

D
ragons.

Somewhere. Caged.
I could feel them. Smoke rolled from my nostrils. This wasn’t over yet.

Unmolested
, we made it out of the tunnels and into the pouring rain. An evil echo of laughter followed us out. We all looked back, then at one another. I kept peering down the tunnel.

“We stay together,
Nath,” Brenwar said, “We can go back in later. We should head back to the village and give a proper burial.” Brenwar sniffed. “He’d want that.”

Jaw clenched, tears in my eyes, I whirled.

“I’ll do what I have to do!”

“One of us is dead,” he barked back, “do you want to see another? We came for Sasha. Our lives for hers. Shum knew that. He died with honor. Now don’t dishonor him and get more of us killed. That fiend has you
rattled, Nath.” He tossed Dragon Claw into the dirt at my feet. “We can get him later. We need a plan.”

He was right, but I didn’t care. I plucked Dragon Claw out of the ground and stuffed
him back in Fang’s hilt.

“Then you can stay here,” I said, stepping towards the tunnel.

Thoom! Thoom! Crack!

An Ettin pushed through the trees
, uprooting them. Both heads showed ugly sneers. It wore an anchor and chain around its neck.

“Time to eat,” one head said, looking at the other, patting its belly.

“Ah,” the other head said, “it seems they’ve prepared an Elf for us. Mmmm-mmmm-mmm. They’re the most delicious.”

It stepped closer.

Brenwar, Shum and Sasha were still shackled and weaponless. I moved in front of them.

“One step closer, Ettin, and you’re dead
,” I said, holding out Fang.

The Ettin towered over us
, hands on hips, laughing.

“HA! HA! HA!”
 

Smoke rolled from my mouth. I bent over and took a swing
, sinking Fang into its wrist.

The Ettin howled
.

I struck again
, dodged and sprinted through its legs and chopped into the back of its heel.

It roared
, teetered, screamed, and brought down the anchor.

I
dove out of the way.

Smash!

It tore out a clump of boulders and scattered them like ninepins.

I dashed under it
s thigh and stabbed it behind the knee.
Come on, Fang!

Glitch!

I hoped it would freeze or something.

B
ut the Ettin only screamed and brought the anchor down again.

Crash!

It missed.

“YOU’RE FAST! BUT YOUR FRIENDS ARE NOT!”

It stomped after them.

Brenwar, Bayzog and Sasha scattered.

“THEY RUN LIKE CHICKENS! SLOW ONES!”

“Over here, Ugly!” Brenwar yelled, waving his hands over his head.

It went after Sasha. She’d disappeared behind a large rock. The Ettin picked it up like an egg.

She screamed.

It laughed, looked over its shoulder and hurled the boulder at Brenwar, hitting the stone he hid behind. The Ettin reached down for Sasha. Fingers clutching at her tiny frame.

Something exploded inside me.

Slice!
Slash! Slash! Stab!

I ripped into the back of it
s leg.

It arched it
s back, arms wide and started howling in fury.

Slash!
Slash! Stab!

Bayzog appeared.
He swept Sasha up in his arms and scurried her away.

The Ettin
’s arms flailed for balance and it toppled to the ground like a great tree.

I jumped on its chest and r
aised Fang over my head with two hands.

“
Nath, no!” Brenwar yelled, rushing toward me.

I drove Fang into its heart.

All four eyes popped open and the beating under my feet
came to a sudden stop. Its anguished stare was frozen and its arms fell limp at its sides.

Silence and rain filled the crater.

I sheathed my sword and hopped down.

“Ye didn’t have to do that,” Brenwar said, limping over, “I could’ve you know.”

I headed for the tunnel.

“Where do you think yer goin’?”

I didn’t reply. I didn’t stop either.