Empire of Ashes

Chapter XCI - Into the Abyss

This makes five chapters in one week so I'm just going to take a bow real quick. You'll get the new ones literally as I finish writing them. There's only about 8 left now, so if Tem's going to do some zombie-style revival as y'all seem to be hoping, he'd better get a bloody move on.

That night, when we stopped, there were no arguments. None of us had the energy. We had left the realm of exhaustion behind us at some point that afternoon, and now we were exploring the place beyond where thoughts were jumbled, incoherent messes and even sitting up was a chore.

It didn't help that we hadn't eaten. Glyn had managed to steal oats for the horses, but the only food we had was a pouch of jerky and a pair of miserable-looking apples. All of that was saved for Melia, of course, and the rest of us went hungry for a second day running, and my stomach punished me with sharp, merciless cramps.

The soldiers behind us were a constant, terrifying presence. Whenever we were on flat ground, we could see their silhouettes in the distance — three dozen dark smudges with smaller smudges running in front. The dogs. The damned dogs. We could hear them howling as they cast for our scent. It was hardly necessary. The ground here was as soft as butter and we were leaving a helpful trail of hoofprints for the Anglians to follow.

It was the hour after dusk, and it was so dark that we couldn't ride any further without one of the horses tripping and breaking a leg. We were hoping the Anglians would have the same problem because if they didn't stop for the night, we couldn't either. For the first hour, we had to leave the horses saddled and keep a careful watch on the horizon.

We were sat in a tight circle, all facing inwards except Glyn, who had been tasked with the watch because he had the sharpest eyes.

"What are our options?" Fendur asked. He was having trouble keeping his eyes open, which was his own damned fault.

"Kill the dogs, disable the horses, or hope we can outrun them," Anlai recited dutifully. "We certainly can't fight them."

No, we certainly couldn't. There were ten of them for every one of us. They wouldn't even need to kill us — they could take us prisoner and drag us back to Belmery for drawn-out public executions if they wanted. I suspected they wouldn't bother. Our heads would be example enough.

The Iyrak shook his head to the first option. "They don't need the dogs. I could track a mouse across this bog, let alone five horses."

"The horses, then," he said. "I could do it tonight."

"You don't stand a chance of getting into their camp without waking the dogs," Glyn scoffed. "If we had a bow, perhaps we could pick them off from a safe distance, but we don't."

"I agree," Melia said hurriedly, "that is too risky."

What a wonderfully impartial assessment from someone with so many years of experience in this line of work.

"That leaves us with 'run,'" Anlai pointed out. "Because there is little else we can do."

"We need to do something. Harcliffe is another three days' ride," Fendur pointed out. "We would be hard-pressed to stay ahead of them for that long. They will have fresh horses every time we pass a town."

"Why are we going to Harcliffe and not the Pass?" Melia asked, sitting up a little straighter.

Anlai and Fendur exchanged a heavy look.

"No more secrets," I told them wearily, and it was the first time I had spoken all day, so the words came out hoarse and scratchy.

"No more secrets," Fendur agreed, and he even managed a half-smile. "There is a ship bound for Sierra at the full moon. It will stop at Harcliffe for a night, and we intend to board there."