Slavers of the Savage Catacombs (8 page)
Read Slavers of the Savage Catacombs Online
Authors: Jon F Merz
Tags: #Fiction, #Fantasy, #Epic, #General, #Historical
C
HAPTER
T
HIRTEEN
Ran’s reaction was immediate and instinctive. As he felt the pressure of the blade pressing into his throat from the left side, he went with it, turned and dropped down underneath. Continuing to twist, he drew his own short blade and cut up at an angle, driving the edge deep into the sentry. The movement took no longer than the briefest of seconds to complete, and the sentry was caught completely off guard. His surprise was only evidenced by the startled gasp as he felt Ran’s blade slicing into his gut and up into his heart even as Ran clamped his other hand over the man’s mouth. The life dropped out of him and he sank into Ran’s waiting arms, where the shadow warrior cushioned his fall even as blood streamed out of the corpse.
Ran carried the dead body away, aware that he was stained in the heavy scent of blood now. He dumped the sentry’s body behind a large rock and then sorted himself out, trying his best to wipe the blood off of his hands and clothes. It wasn’t going to work very well. The blood soaked into the tunic, and Ran wrinkled his nose at the scent of it mixing with his sweat. A hot bath was a long way away at the moment, but Ran permitted himself a moment to think about immersing himself in the scalding water. The soothing effects upon his tired muscles would be wondrous.
But he still had work to do.
Ran moved down the path and into the camp proper. Surveying the scene, Ran counted the bedrolls again to make sure he had the number right. Twelve. To one side of the camp, the horses whinnied softly and stomped their feet. Perhaps they could smell the blood on Ran and knew that he was an outsider. He hoped they would stay quiet long enough for him to make sure the ambush went off without a hitch.
Ran could have stayed in the camp and tried to kill a few of the bandits while they slept, but there was too much risk in it. If just one thug woke up, he’d quickly find himself outnumbered and facing some dangerous opponents. And given the proximity of the bandits to each other, the chances one of them would overhear the death throes of a companion were simply too likely to risk. Better, Ran decided, to make sure that his comrades found the camp and were ready to launch an immediate, overwhelming attack.
He moved back out of the camp via the path and headed in the direction he’d come, hoping that his comrades would soon arrive. It was critical that they attack before the bandits awakened and found the dead sentry’s body. If that happened, any chance of a successful ambush was remote.
Ran waited another hour before he sensed something in the distance. A half mile from the camp, he knew that some sound could still reach the bandits, but he was far enough away that he could coordinate the attack when his friends got there. He heard a grunt far off and then the sound of pebbles clattering down the path. Ran almost grinned. He thought it likely that Kuva was the one who had grunted. Most likely the big guy had fallen.
He moved down the path and, using his ability to see better in the night, counted seven shapes heading toward him in the dark. One of them was farther out in front, moving like a ghost. Ran nodded. Gunj. The smaller man had apparently found his footing, after all, and was driving his followers to make better time than they had earlier.
Ran waited until they were nearly level with him before stepping out into the path. When he did so, Gunj nearly cried out. Ran waved him over, and they squatted beside the trail.
Gunj exhaled in a rush. “I didn’t even see you.”
Ran gestured down at his clothes. “You probably would have smelled me in another moment.”
“What is that?”
Ran shrugged. “Blood. There was a sentry. I had to catch him as he fell or risk waking the entire camp.”
“You’re covered in it,” said Gunj. “Stay in those clothes and you’ll draw every animal in a ten-mile area to us.”
“I’ll get changed after we deal with this camp. They’re all still asleep.” Ran thumbed over his shoulder. “How did everyone else do?”
“Exhausted,” said Gunj. “The distance was a great deal more than we estimated, wasn’t it?”
“Yes,” said Ran. “But it wasn’t until we got into the mountains that we could tell that. From the highway, it looked much easier and closer.”
Gunj took a water skin from his side and drank deeply. He wiped his mouth and then sighed. “Well, we’re here now. We’ve got to give them some rest before we attack, though. Otherwise, they’ll be facing a rested enemy.”
“You look as though you could do with some rest yourself.”
Gunj smiled. “I’m not as young as I used to be. Certainly I’m not gasping for air like Yasseh, but my joints are creaking from all the climbing we did tonight.”
“And how is Yasseh?”
“I think his quest for vengeance has given him all the energy he needed to get here. But he’ll still need rest and rations before we fight.”
Ran nodded. “All right, we can take a rest. Let’s get them fed and watered, and I’ll sketch the layout of the camp while they refresh.”
Gunj laid a hand on Ran’s arm. “What about you? This can’t have been all that easy on you?”
“I’m the youngest one here, I think. I’ll be fine. I’ll get some food and water into me as I brief you all. But I’ll be fine.”
Ran had no intention of eating, however. He had found that eating before combat made his stomach upset. If he knew he had to fight, Ran preferred doing so on an empty stomach. But he would take water.
As Gunj gathered the rest of the men around them, Ran found a stick and began sketching the outline of the camp. He looked up into the tired faces and smiled. “I’m relieved to see you all here, safe and sound.”
Yasseh grunted. “You basically ran here, didn’t you?”
“I had some distractions along the way,” said Ran. He redirected their attention to the map he’d drawn in the dirt. “Now, let’s get into this.” He pointed at the small circle in the middle. “The main fire is here. All of them are clustered around it, sound asleep.”
Kuva pointed. “What about guards?”
“Only one,” said Ran. “I’ve already taken care of him.”
“Which means we need to get this attack underway as soon as possible,” said Gunj. “The risk of someone waking up to take a piss is greater. If they discover the sentry is dead, they’ll raise the alarm and we’ll be dead.”
“Figure we hit them from varying angles,” said Ran. “If we can hit them at the same time, then they won’t be able to mount a counterattack.”
“The way they’re arrayed,” said Yasseh, “we could kill them all and vanish before they even realized they were under attack.”
Ran nodded. “It’s pretty straightforward. Kill or injure as many as you can. If they somehow manage to regroup, be ready to retreat.”
“So why are we sitting here jabbering away?” asked Kuva. “Let’s get this done.”
“We thought,” said Gunj, “that you might like a rest.”
“I would indeed,” said Kuva. “But not when there’s fighting to be done. I can rest later, on the way back to the caravan.” He stood and checked his scabbard. “I’m ready now.”
Gunj glanced at Ran and shrugged. “I guess we’re ready.”
“All right. I’ll go first, and then each of you pick two bandits that you’ll kill. When I give the nod, do the deed fast and hard. Make sure your shots are killing blows. If they only wound then we’re going to have trouble.”
Yasseh grinned, but there was no mirth in his smile. “They will all die. Twice, by my hand.”
Ran had no intention of trying to calm Yasseh down. He couldn’t imagine the grief Yasseh must have been feeling, even if Ran knew that Ejul was conspiring against his father. There might be value in Yasseh’s rage. If anyone did wake up and they found themselves facing armed enemies, Yasseh would become even more formidable.
“Let’s go,” said Ran. He led them down the path back toward the bandit camp. They passed the boulder where Ran had hidden the sentry’s body and then fanned out around the campfire. Ran slowly drew his short and long sword and watched as the others did the same. As they drew ever closer to the fire, Ran’s heart ticked up a notch and he forced himself to breathe and calm it back down.
Ten feet from the bedrolls, Yasseh sneezed.
Ran grimaced as the thunderous explosion erupted from the portly merchant. But there was no time to waste. As soon as he heard it, several bandits woke up and started grabbing for their weapons. Ran shouted above the sudden chaos. “Now!”
He faced the bandit he’d seen in the tavern giving Ejul a hard time. Perhaps he was the new leader of the group. Maybe he’d even been the one to give the order to kill Ejul. Ran didn’t know, and he didn’t care. The bandit rushed him with a huge battle-axe, swinging it up and over his head to try to cleave Ran’s head in two. Ran threw his short sword directly at the man’s chest, causing him to lurch to one side to avoid the blade. As he did so, the weight of the battle-axe pulled his balance, and he stumbled. Ran charged in and cut down on the wrists, severing them before turning his long sword and cutting back up at the bandit’s throat. Ran watched his blade cut into the thick neck muscles and then keep going. Even as the bandit’s head lolled at a horrible angle to one side, he was already dead on his feet. Ran let the body fall away and turned to meet a new foe.
A smaller man wielding two slim daggers surged at him, slashing his knives across his body at crisscross angles. Ran kept his distance and waited for the man to commit his energy to a strike. But the bandit seemed content to stay back, trying to poke and slash at Ran only. The effect was a bothersome fury of would-be cuts that lacked any real commitment or strength behind them to turn them into mortal wounds. In his periphery, Ran could see melee breaking out all over the camp. He hoped his men would be all right, but in the meantime, he had to deal with the double knife wielder.
Ran edged his back toward the rock wall of the mountain, hoping his attacker would think he was retreating. He followed Ran, still waving his blades in front of him. Ran drew to within three feet of the wall and then stopped, using his sword to keep the attacker at bay. The attacker, thinking Ran had run out of places to flee to, now launched an aggressive attack. In the midst of it, one of the slashes became a stab aimed right at Ran’s throat.
He’d been waiting for that. As he saw the blade plunge in, Ran sidestepped and dropped the point of his sword. Putting his weight behind the cut, Ran flipped the blade horizontally, and, as the attacker’s weight came down, Ran stepped through, cutting with all his strength. The edge of the long sword sliced through the bandit’s clothes and into his belly. Ran kept moving, severing the bandit’s entrails and leaving behind a horrifying gaping wound. The bandit fell forward onto his feet, desperately trying to collect his guts and put them back into his belly. Before he could do anything, he fell over to his right side and lay forever still.
With two of the bandits killed, Ran glanced around. He saw more bodies scattered by the fire, and his men seemed to be making short work of their opponents. One of the other security guards had chosen a huge fellow to take on, but Kuva stepped in and calmly ran the big beast through. As he dropped, the security guard stabbed him the throat to seal the deal.
Yasseh, for his part, was calmly going around to all of the deceased bandits and plunging each of his family daggers into their hearts. Ran frowned. Overkill did little to excite him. It was unnecessary and a wasteful expenditure of energy better saved for a legitimate reason. But even while he himself would not do such a thing, he found he couldn’t really be too judgmental about Yasseh’s actions. The merchant had warned them, after all, that he would do exactly this.
Ran heard Kuva yell out and saw that the burly warrior had three men trying to cut him down. Ran dashed over and cut through one of the attacker’s legs before the man even realized what was happening. Ran cut his legs off at the knees and then flashed his sword around to land a killing cut at the base of the man’s neck.
Kuva roared and swung his massive broadsword around him like a tempest. His blade smacked the two other attackers away, and Ran helped him finish them off.
Sounds of battle tapered off and then died entirely, save for Yasseh’s repeated dagger thrusts puncturing the air with the wet smack of steel meeting flesh. Ran looked around and saw that two of his men were nursing wounds, but neither seemed serious.
Kuva laid a hand on his shoulder then. “Thank you.”
Ran smiled. “That didn’t go exactly as well as I’d hoped it would go.”
Kuva shrugged. “Definitely a bit more explosive and not as surprising, huh?”
“Something like that.” Ran let out a sigh and only then realized how tired he was. He’d been going since the evening of the day before and here it was about to dawn over the surrounding area. He’d had nothing to eat and only a little to drink. He’d come miles across the land and finished by fighting off some formidable enemies.
“Now there’s just the quick hike back,” said Kuva. “At that point, we can all rest.”
Yasseh had finished his grisly duties and sat on the muddy ground wiping his blades clean.
Ran called over to him. “When we get back, we could all do with a bit of a rest before we push on.”
Yasseh smiled. “That sounds like a good idea.”
“We can wait a day?”
Yasseh shrugged. “A day won’t make any difference in the price of my goods. And since I’ve gotten vengeance on my son’s killers, I see no reason why we can’t take a day to give Ejul a proper burial and then rest up for the long trip ahead.”
Ran could have fallen asleep right there. But he only smiled and said, “Good.”
C
HAPTER
F
OURTEEN
After a day of full rest, Yasseh ordered the caravan back on the road west. A convoy journeying back to Chulal passed them in the opposite direction, and the occasion was marked with a brief stop and exchange of news. Ran hung back, hoping to keep his face away from any prying eyes that might mention the presence of a Nehonian when they reached Chulal. The last thing he needed was Tanka learning about his presence on the caravan.
When the two convoys parted ways, Yasseh resumed his position at the lead while Gunj dropped back to ride with Ran for a while.
Ran set Ryu loose and watched as the falk soared skyward. “Any interesting news from the other convoy?”
Gunj frowned. “The usual, for the most part. Reports of bandits and thieves robbing along the trade route. It’s nothing we haven’t heard before, although they did also mention coming upon the wreckage of a small caravan about twenty miles from where we are right now.”
“Wreckage?”
“The wagons were burned. But there were no bodies. It still smolders, apparently.” Gunj sighed. “We’ll probably see the smoke within the next few hours, I would expect.”
“Do bandits around here routinely set fire to the wagons when they’re done?”
Gunj shook his head. “No. It wouldn’t make sense for them to do so since they’d need to be able to haul away whatever they stole. Burning things usually means something far worse than mere bandits.”
“Like what?”
Gunj eyed him. “Slavers.”
“They take the caravans as slaves? For what purpose?”
“Does it matter? They’ll throw you in chains and march you anywhere they can sell you. Out here on the road, things aren’t necessarily as civilized as they might be in the safe confines of a city. At the trading posts along the route, you can find just about anything you might want to purchase. That includes humans.”
“I can’t imagine it.”
“Imagine what? Being a slave?” Gunj took a drink of water and then let the water skin fall back against his saddle. “Most people probably can’t. I don’t imagine very many picture themselves being a slave when they’re young. But the nature of the world works in mysterious ways. The gods have their own plans. And so often they don’t tell us what they are. It can happen to anyone, I’ll tell you that.”
Ran thought about his own life. When his parents were killed he had wandered for months before finding his way to the fog-enshrouded peaks of Gakur and the shinobujin school that became his home for the next nearly twenty years. Was he slave to the whims of the clan elders back in Nehon? Ran wasn’t locked in chains and unable to move about, but there was a part of him forever indebted to the Nine Daggers clan for saving his life and giving him the skills he possessed now.
He sighed. And yet he’d already shirked that duty in favor of following the whims of his heart.
“My parents were slaves,” said Gunj. “I was born into it.”
“You?” Ran shook his head. “How can that be?”
“It just was. My father and mother were taken when their town was captured. They were sold into slavery. Fortunately, they worked for a wealthy family who treated them fairly well—at least as far as slaves go. And when my mother was pregnant, they took care of her. I grew up friends with the head of the family’s son.” Gunj paused. “We were close friends. And while I was not permitted to attend the training he received as a warrior, I always made it a point to steal inside and watch him going through his lessons. It got to the point where I started mimicking the movements until I could hold my own with a sword.”
Ran sensed there was more to the story, but Gunj fell silent. Ran wondered whether it would be wise to press him for more information. But then Gunj cleared his throat and chuckled a bit.
“You all right?”
Gunj nodded. “Just remembering. There were some good memories in those times. Bad ones, too. Unfortunately.”
“If you were a slave, how did you get free?”
“I ran away,” said Gunj. “But it wasn’t that I wanted to. I had to.”
“Had to?”
Gunj sighed. “After a while, I got cocky. Young boys always do. I started lecturing the son about the proper way to hold a sword. He didn’t like that I’d been watching his lessons and boasted that he could best me in a fight. I knew I could beat him, so I accepted the challenge. We got two practice swords and went at it. I never meant for it to happen. I just wanted to teach him a lesson. But as we fought he talked down to me. Called my family his pets. I lost control. On his next attack, I countered and struck him in the side. It was deep. Mortally so. I was sixteen at the time. And my friend was the same. He died on the end of my sword, staring into my eyes as all the life spilled from his body.”
He grew quiet again, and Ran knew he shouldn’t say a thing.
“I was a coward,” said Gunj. “Worse, I was a well-trained fool. I let my pride get the better of me when I should have simply shut up and gone home, such as it was. But I couldn’t do that. I was insulted, and I felt that I had to do something to save my family’s honor. Not that we had any, mind you, but I always felt like we ought to be entitled to at least something.”
“It must have been tough being friends with him when his father owned your family.”
“Exactly. I must have been feeling like that for a while because when I snapped, I truly snapped. Of course, I was then faced with the reality of the situation. I ran. I would have been killed for what I did, and I knew it. So without even telling my mother and father, I ran off into the woods and never looked back. Not once. Not ever.”
“But your family . . . ?”
Gunj shook his head. “I assume the worst. No doubt the master of the house would have been so overcome with grief and fury at what I had done that he would have extracted his vengeance upon my mother and father. I don’t kid myself into thinking they somehow survived that. After all, look at what Yasseh did to the bandits in the camp.”
“How did you find your way into his employ, anyway?”
Gunj nudged his horse. “I wandered for what seemed like weeks. Living off the land, that sort of thing. Luckily, my father had taught me a lot about how to survive in the wild. Occasionally, I would come across a farm where I would bed down with the animals for a night. But I kept moving. Always moving. I knew that I would be hunted. Somehow I had to find a place to hide. I’d heard rumors about a temple in the south, so I headed there. No idea why. It wasn’t like I knew what they did there, but it seemed as good a place as any. When you’re panicking, anything can look like it makes sense.”
“Did you make it?”
“A couple of close run-ins with the hunters who had been dispatched to find me, but yes, I managed to find it. From the outside, it looked like a terrible place. Just one tall tower built of dark rocks that seemed to pitch at an odd angle as it reached for the sky. They called it Han-dul-yo. I stood outside the wall that surrounded it and simply stared.”
Ran smiled. “Did they let you in?”
Gunj cocked his head. “As I was standing there, the hunters finally caught up with me. I heard the sound of their horses and saw them galloping toward me. I ran for the wall and somehow—I still don’t quite know to this day how I managed it—climbed over. The hunters demanded that the monks inside release me. The monks told them to leave. That whoever I was on the outside world no longer mattered. I had gotten inside and therefore they afforded me sanctuary.”
“That must not have gone over very well.” Ran thought about the similarities in their upbringing. Not quite the same, but not entirely different, either.
“It didn’t. The hunters attempted to attack the monastery. No doubt they thought that a few old monks would prove to be no trouble for them. They were wrong.”
“What happened?”
“It turns out the temple trained boys in an old fighting art called Han-dul. When the hunters attacked, they were met with an opposing force of men who easily killed every one of them. I’d never seen such skill before. They were masters of both unarmed and armed fighting. I knew then that I wanted to learn whatever they could teach me.”
Ran nodded. He could understand wanting to have such power. It was what had made him excel in his own learning in Gakur. “How long did you stay with them?”
“Ten years,” said Gunj. “They told me they had nothing left for me to learn and sent me back out into the world.” He smirked. “I have to say that I thought for sure that I would be met outside the walls by the hunters. That they had waited for me somehow. Of course, that was ridiculous. And I had little to worry about. I was twenty-six years old and a far different person than when I had gone inside. The only thing that had remained the same was my small stature.”
“And you found no one waiting for you.”
Gunj smiled. “No. So I took to resuming my wandering. For some reason, I had no desire to go back and visit my former home. It was as if that part of my life was no longer accessible. Maybe I just didn’t want to face the memories. I’d come to peace with the fact that I’d acted like a fool and a coward. But I didn’t know how to deal with the guilt I might feel knowing my actions had caused my parents’ death.”
“You were young,” said Ran.
“I was old enough,” said Gunj. “But no matter. As I said, I resumed wandering the countryside. I walked everywhere, testing myself when the gods saw fit to put opponents in front of me who thought they could defeat me. I saw small towns and big cities and just kept moving. I don’t know what I was searching for. Peace, maybe? Probably not. More likely I was looking for something I could call a home.”
“You could have done anything,” said Ran. “Why not travel the world?”
“I needed money,” said Gunj. “And I wasn’t going to start my new life by stealing. So I started looking for work. The trouble was, no one wanted to hire me. Because I’m smaller than most men, they never even gave me a chance. It was around that time I found my way to Chulal. I met Yasseh one day when he was arguing with another merchant who was trying to cheat him. I saw right away that Yasseh was being cheated. But this other merchant thought that since Yasseh was an outsider, it somehow gave him the right to rob him.”
“You stepped in?”
Gunj smiled. “Let’s just say I managed to convince the other merchant that cheating Yasseh was not the best thing to do. He agreed.”
“And Yasseh hired you?”
“Not right away. While he was grateful, he wasn’t completely convinced. So he set up a bit of a gauntlet for me. Ten men all offered a big bag of gold if they could best me. None of them were successful, and I took the bag of gold for myself.”
“Yasseh must have loved that.”
“I’ve been with him ever since. He treats me fairly, and I have no complaints. Until you arrived, I was pretty confident that there wasn’t anyone better trained than me out there. You certainly put that theory to the test.”
“My teachers were always fond of telling me that there is always someone out there who has been training longer, harder, and better than you. It’s tough to remember that, but I’ve found it to be true. Humility can keep you alive.”
“Confidence isn’t always a bad thing,” said Gunj. “Provided you know how best to use it.”
“Indeed.”
Kuva’s voice rang out from the head of the caravan. “Smoke!”
Ryu’s squawk overhead came a moment later.
Gunj frowned. “It seems we have arrived even earlier than I expected.”
“Or the traders had their distances off,” said Ran. He eased his horse forward until he was next to Kuva and Yasseh.
In the distance, Ran could see the smoldering husks of wagons. His right hand dropped to the hilt of his sword.
Gunj frowned. “Be on your guard. Kuva, put two riders out on our flanks. We don’t want any nasty surprises coming up on us.”
Kuva signaled for two men to branch out from the convoy. The rest of the caravan eased closer to the scene of devastation. As they rode closer, Ran spotted two bodies amid the burning wrecks, but their skin had been incinerated somehow. They were as black as the smoking wood that remained of the wagons.
“Not as small as what the traders led us to believe,” said Yasseh. “It’s possible this is another caravan?”
Gunj shrugged. “It’s possible, but they would have been seen by the other convoy. More likely they got the distance wrong and we were closer than we thought.”
Ran scanned the area. Something felt strange about this. As his eyes swept the ground, he caught something twinkling underneath a wagon husk. He slid from the saddle and walked over. As he did so, Ryu swooped down and squawked once before settling on his shoulder. Ran looked at the falk. “You sense it, too, don’t you?”
Ryu squawked and took flight again, leaving Ran with his thoughts as he drew closer to the gleaming object. It caught the sun’s rays as it lay partially buried in the dirt.
“What is it?” asked Gunj.
Ran knelt in the soft earth and plucked it free. Bits of earth clung to it, but he brushed those aside.
And then felt his stomach lurch.
The ring was small. Too small for any of his fingers. It had been made for a smaller hand. Ran remembered seeing it as if it had happened only yesterday, when, in fact, it had been nearly two months ago in the forests back in Nehon.
“Ran?”
He glanced back at Gunj. “Yes?”
“Are you all right? You look as if you’ve seen the dead.”
I hope she’s not dead, thought Ran. He glanced at the ring he held and then squeezed it tight. It belonged to Princess Cassandra.
