Bael and I tore back along the path as fast as we could. Please be wrong, please be wrong, please be…no.
We broke through the tree line in time to see Soudal get pinned beneath a giant Q’el. Its mouth wrapped around his neck and Soudal’s head is torn from his body. I screamed and the Q’el turned to me, its eyes pinning me in place. Gold eyes…an irregular. Much larger and much faster than the average Q’el, only seasoned soldiers take on these ones. But Soudal and Threnchal have been part of the armed forces for years… We joined as one big group…one irregular wouldn’t have gotten the jump on those two.
“Threnchal…” Bael, his voice was barely above a whisper. I dragged my eyes to look at where his shaky hand pointed to. My heart thundered loudly in my chest.
Please, oh please let it not be what I think it is. My knees buckled beneath me like I’ve been punched in the gut. Threnchal… My treasured, childhood friend; my friend…
A familiar face, mouth still wide open with terror, lay by the ladder, his arms were still in position to climb up. I followed the line of his body until it stopped at his waist. Blood poured from the severed body and bile rose in my throat. I placed a hand over my mouth.
I’ve seen enough dead bodies to last me several lifetimes. But after every battle, after every fight, after every scrap and after every scout, we’d come back to one another and take care of each other. These boys were like brothers to me. I’ve known them since I was six.
Silent tears streamed down my cheeks. I’ll never be able to get that image of them out of my head. They should never have gone like this… How will I tell Eske or Astra? … Especially Astra…
Movement caught my eye and I stared at the second and third Q’el as they rip and tear at the legs of my precious friend. I held back a sob as they too, look up and fear turned my blood cold. Wait…Two more irregulars?
They began to slowly stalk toward us, their lips curling back over bloodied teeth. But I couldn’t move. They were dead… We had made a pact. We were all going to die old in our beds surrounded by our family. This wasn’t how it was going to happen… I couldn’t hold my head up any longer and I dropped my head into my hands as a shudder ripped through me.
“Aida, we need to move, right now.”
But I couldn’t. I tried to say it but it came out as a wheeze. “AIDA!” he roars, but I didn’t even flinch. “Oh for the sake of the Mother’s mercy, MOVE IT!” Bael grabbed my arm, forcing me to stand up and move as we made a mad dash for base camp. My vision went in and out of focus and all I could see was Threnchal’s face, Soudal’s lifeless body. I stumbled over rocks and ran from left to right, trying to keep focus on Bael up ahead of me. Tears blurred my vision and I madly tried to blink them away. A roar, it sounded only a few feet away from me and I felt my mind try to switch gears. The blood dripping from the Q’el’s mouths entered my mind and it took every ounce of mental strength to shove it aside and try to concentrate. I pushed forward and caught up to Bael just as we passed the midway check point. The snapping of bones and tearing of muscle echoed in my ears and my mind, but the thumping of my horn against my body brought me out of my thoughts and into the present. The camp… they needed to know. I grabbed for the horn at my waist and brought it to my lips, blowing as hard as I could. The sound echoed, and I blew it again, then a third. The nearby watch towers send up red smoke signals and not more than a mile away, I saw the green smoke from camp, signalling that they had received the message.
The sound of galloping horses grew louder, and I looked in the direction of the nearest tower to see three horses heading our way; one with a rider and two without. He sent both horses over to us and we grabbed hold of the reins, throwing ourselves up and onto them as we pushed them forward. I looked behind and used the gift to find that the Q’el were slowing down well behind us. Red eyes appeared alongside the golden ones of the irregulars. But it wasn’t just one or two; scores of them started appearing from nowhere. I stopped and turned the horse around to get a better view of the gathering army. Even more irregulars and more normals…hundreds of them gathered within seconds and soon, I was staring an unbeatable mass of monsters. The biggest of them stepped forward and…smiled? But Q’el can’t smile? Animals can’t smile full stop! It… it smiled like…like it was intelligent. Like somehow… it knew it was going to win.
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