A Darkness Forged in Fire

THIRTY-FIVE

M ewling cries burst forth all around the soldiers as rakkes charged out of the forest.

It was so sudden Alwyn didn't have time to be scared. He pulled the cork from the end of his musket and ripped the oilcloth from the lock, cocked the hammer back, and fired in one continuous motion. To his amazement the musket worked, the butt slamming reassuringly against his shoulder. A thick cloud of smoke and sparks blossomed in front of him as the musket ball flew forty yards and straight into the stomach of a rakke. He had no time to see if the creature got back up as he scrambled to reload. Other muskets fired and shouts rose from up ahead. The distinct sound of a double roar and detonations signaled Yimt had fired his shatterbow.

"Close up! Close up!"

Inkermon ran past him toward the front, his shako gone, his eyes wild. "The end is here! The end is here! "

Alwyn bit into a cartridge and poured the powder down the muzzle, almost stabbing himself on the bayonet attached at the end of the barrel. Teeter walked up calmly to stand beside him, his musket already reloaded.

"Wait until they're close; too many trees out there."

Alwyn looked up and saw what Teeter meant. Rakkes were screaming and calling to each other from behind the cover of trunks. The first volley had obviously surprised them. Alwyn finished ramming the new ball home and brought his musket up to his shoulder again.

"What are they doing?" he asked, swinging his musket back and forth trying to get a bead on one of the creatures. Like the rakke he and Yimt had killed back at camp, these wore the rudiments of clothes. Unlike the first rakke, however, they also appeared to be carrying clubs. Instead of rushing forward, they started roaring and banging their clubs against the sides of the trees, creating a terrible noise and shaking loose a shower of wet leaves that began falling all around them.

Buuko, Alik, and Scolly came jogging up the path to stand near them. Alik was clutching his stick in both hands and looking all around him. He was clearly terrified, and Alwyn couldn't blame him. It'd be hard for anyone to feel brave wearing just one sock and having a stick for a weapon.

"Why'd they stop?" Alik asked, jumping as another rakke screamed and Scolly fired at it. There was a loud crack and a burst of bark and splinters from a tree trunk. The rakke roared and ran a few steps forward, baring its fangs.

"We showed them who was boss, didn't we?" Buuko said, his voice triumphant as he aimed and shot the rakke in the mouth. The back of the creature's head disintegrated and it tumbled to the ground and lay still. "You should have stayed extinct, you dumb buggers!"

"Get your arses up here, now!" Yimt shouted at them, brandishing his shatterbow and waving them forward. The rest of the patrol, including N'bhat, was grouped around the dwarf another thirty yards up the path.

Alwyn took his hand off the trigger and reached down to grab Quppy's cage. Leaves were falling so thickly that it was getting difficult to see what the rakkes were doing. He stopped halfway, his hand hovering just above the cage. From the corner of his eye he caught a movement. He looked up. Something dark and fast slipped behind a tree.

It wasn't a rakke.

"Hurry up, Alwyn, we've got to go!" Alik said, tugging at his arm as the others began walking quickly up the path. "Hurry-" There was a swish and thunk and then silence.

Alwyn looked up in alarm. Alik stared at him, his eyes wide open in surprise. A thin, black arrow jutted from his neck. His mouth opened and closed a couple of times and then he was falling. Alwyn reached out to grab him as more arrows sliced through the air. Buuko screamed. A musket fired, and then another. Something flew by Alwyn's face. He stumbled and fell over Quppy's cage, shattering the wood as the sreex howled and flapped its wings. Alik's body fell on top of him, momentarily pinning him to the ground.

More screams, the sound of running feet, leaves falling everywhere, and only the occasional musket firing. Alwyn pushed furiously to lift Alik's body out of the way and get to his musket. He saw another soldier fall, his legs twitching as he lay on the ground, a black arrow protruding from his back, but he couldn't tell who it was.

He finally lifted Alik out of the way and was reaching for his musket when a rakke slammed it down with a large wooden club, smashing his weapon to pieces. Alwyn yelled and rolled the other way as the club came down again where he had just been. He got up to his hands and knees, scrambling up the path toward the sound of shouting. If he could just make it to Yimt he'd be all right. He saw Buuko's body and musket and lunged for the weapon, swinging around and pointing it at the rakke lumbering toward him. He squeezed the trigger and prayed that it was loaded.

The musket bucked in his hands and the rakke went down without a sound, the club tumbling from its grasp.

Two more rakkes loomed out of the forest, cutting off his route to Yimt and the rest of the patrol. They seemed to sense that the musket was unloaded and moved toward him, their white eyes bulging.

At that moment Kritton appeared, a musket in one hand and a blade in the other.

"Shoot them!" Alwyn shouted, pointing at the rakkes.

The creatures paused and turned. Kritton stood still, looking back at Alwyn. One of the rakkes made to move toward the elf and Kritton simply turned and ran.

Mind-numbing fear turned to rage in an instant. "You coward!" Alwyn screamed, startling the rakkes just a few yards away. The rakkes roared and turned back to Alwyn. It was only after Kritton had vanished that Alwyn realized the blade in his hand had been a drukar.

Yimt. It couldn't have hurt more if he'd been shot.

Nothing mattered anymore. Alwyn rose to his feet, screaming and lunging at the nearest rakke, driving the bayonet deep into its chest. The creature collapsed, tearing the musket from his hands as it died. Alwyn looked at his bare hands. He was left facing a rakke with nothing but absolute anguish. With no reason to care, he jumped forward, placed a foot on the dying rakke's chest, grabbed hold of his musket and heaved. It came free with a terrible scraping sound of metal on bone. He pointed it at the second rakke and saw that the bayonet was twisted. With no time to reload, he spun the musket around and grabbed it by the muzzle to swing like a club.

The second rakke paused and turned to look over its shoulder. Alwyn followed its gaze, expecting to see a gloating Kritton.

An elf stood in the space between two trees. Its face was gray and creased like wind-scoured rock. At first, Alwyn thought it was missing its left ear tip, but then he saw that it was there-just pitch black, like the two wet black eyes that stared unblinking at him, drawing the very warmth from his body.

Alwyn shuddered when he realized it had no eyelids. The orbs were forever open, forever seeing.

Its every feature was twisted, as if a giant's hands had pulled it apart and then reassembled the tattered shreds. It wore an overlapping garment of blackened leaves and oily fur held in place by thin, steel-colored vines wrapped tight around its limbs. Bony hands with fingers like black spider legs held a great curving longbow that looked impossibly to be made of iron.

The elf drew back the bow, its eyes never straying from Alwyn's. A noise like steel on slate pierced the forest as the bow was drawn to its limit, a thin, black arrow notched in place. It turned its head slightly and sighted down the shaft of the arrow.

Alwyn lurched forward. There was a metallic twang, the rush of torn air, and the shattering impact of the arrow hitting the stock of the musket. The musket flew from Alwyn's numb hands as something bitterly cold jabbed him in the chest. He stumbled and fell to his knees. Alwyn reached up with one hand and grabbed the section of arrow that now protruded from his body. It was like trying to hold fire. He began shivering violently. His hand fell away, a strip of skin tearing off as it did so, but he could no longer feel pain.

The rakke sensed its moment and rushed forward, knocking Alwyn to his back. The forest canopy flickered and swayed. Leaves tumbled down like snowflakes, revealing one side then the other; light-dark, light-dark.

The rakke stood above him and raised its club over its head. Alwyn tried to get to his feet, but his strength was gone. He was so cold.

The rakke lifted its head and screamed into the air. It was a hideous, triumphant sound. It lowered its head and the club began to fall when something came in from the side of Alwyn's vision.

The rakke fell apart, cloven in two. A shadow stood over it, a long sword held easily in its hands. A cloak of midnight black shrouded it so completely that Alwyn had a difficult time keeping it in focus, but he knew his savior all the same.

"Thanks, Meri," Alwyn murmured, closing his eyes and letting the cold take him.