9.
It took
much of the night to clean Volk wounds. With Pyrrho again having
disappeared, the other three had just about managed to carry the
injured man into the barn where a fire and two skins of fresh water
had been arranged by Niv, along with a few stubby candles. The three
then set to work on Volk; the two women familiar with battle wounds,
if not of this magnitude, while Onatas called upon his studies in the
field of Elder medicines. They laboriously picked out the tattered
remains of Volks clothes from the wounds, along with very many tiny
metal balls, each causing Aesara to frown as she collected them in a
small pouch. Then using hot water and a mash of plants Onatas had
prepared they bathed the big man as best they could, before wrapping
his torso in makeshift bandages; each of them giving up parts of
their attire in the process. For the later part of the night their
efforts were accompanied by a soft mewing from the big man,
occasionally punctured by a cry of anguish. It unsettled Niv, but
Onatas thought it a good sign.
By dawn
all four of the people in the barn had settled into an uneasy sleep.
A fifth person slunk in an hour after sunrise.
“Time
to rise and shine” but Pyrrho’s tone was a long way from jovial.
He placed a number of items on the uneven floor, then moved over to
the embers of what had been the fire. By the time the others had
started to stir, he had the fire going again and a tin of water
heating up above it.
“Where
did you get to?” Aesara rubbed her face as she sat up
“Here
and there. Conducting enquiries. See the lie of the land. The usual”
he busied himself with the hot water, adding in some of the fruits of
his expedition.
“Good
that you could have a nice stroll while we were trying to save your
man here” she nodded at the still laying form of Volk, who now had
Onatas lent over him, checking the larger man’s dressings while
rubbing sleep from his own eyes.
“I’ve
been trying to prolong the lives of all of us. We all work in
different ways, remember?”
“How
can I forget?”
Niv
interrupted, “you’ll be prolonging my life if that is what I
think it is” she’d moved over to smell the bubbling concoction
above the fire “how’d you get it?”
“A
caravan had been hit by the Drakhan over the other side of the
valley”
Aesara
suddenly looked worried, Pyrrho caught her expression, “don’t
worry sis, not the university. Just some other poor sods. Anyway,
they’d left behind some supplies, seemed more interested in the
bloodletting” he looked down, another morning’s worth of
indelible, brutal images engraved in his memories. A catalogue of
future nightmares. He shivered.
“What
else did you see?” Aesara asked solemnly, for the first time
detecting the dour mood of her little brother.
“Decimation,
no other word for it” he’d stopped stirring the brew, Niv moving
in to take over. “The slaughter on the Steed’s hill, I had to see
it for myself, make sure yesterday actually happened”
“And?”
“It was
even worse up close.”
“How’d
the Drakhan manage it? How did they then conceal it?” Aesara was
puzzled
“The
first question, I know not. The second, I have an idea” Pyrrho
replied
“Go on”
“One of
the Drakhan infantry you, well, dealt with yesterday was still alive.
We went for a talk” the emphasis on “talk” made Aesara
shiver slightly, she feared what her brother was capable of when in
his current mood.
“He
confessed the Drakhan’s secrets?”
“He
didn’t know them”
“Oh”
Aesara slumped a little
“Don’t
you see? That is how they did it” Pyrrho came to stand in front of
his sister. “The infantry knew nothing of the plot. They were
handed these odd devices on the morning of the battle” he pointed
to the small pile of Drakhan artefacts he had collected and brought
back to the barn. “They could barely operate them though, that’s
why they took so long outside the barn yesterday. That’s probably
why Volk is still with us, the device did not work as intended”
“How do
you know how it was intended to work?” Onatas had been listening
keenly while he worked on Volk
“I, er,
saw a more effective execution on my, er, stroll” he looked from
Onatas and back to Aesara. They shared a worried look.
“So
that why the grunts at the Drakhan camp we infiltrated were so down?”
Niv too had been listening “they didn’t know what the leadership
‘ad up its sleeve?”
“Exactly.
Even the officers weren’t fully away of the plan, just that
victory was at hand. Which was why we got nothing from them” Pyrrho
finished, no one else spoke for a time. Niv passed around the tin,
using a glove from the pile of Drakhan effects to protect from the
hot surface.
It was
Onatas that eventually broke the silence, “so what were
those things they used yesterday” he eyed the pile at the centre of
the barn.
“Not
entirely sure” Pyrrho moved to the pile and nudged one of the
staffs with his boot “this is obviously some kind of weapon, where
as this…” he picked up the Drakhan officer’s tube “this, I
don’t know. The glass that was in it broke when the Drakhan, er,
fell down”
“A
telescope” Onatas said simply
“A
what?” Aesara queried
“It’s
an Elder navigation device. Let’s them see far ahead”
“Sounds
like some black magic to me – far sight?” Niv had backed a little
way away from the instrument
“Sounds
like the reason they made me out when I was in the top of the barn”
Pyrrho brightened slight, perhaps he wasn’t losing his abilities
after all.
“How’s
it work?” Aesara had moved across to the pile of goods, crouched
down and picked up the telescope. Niv let out a small hiss, but
Aesara continued to hold the long tube. Fragments of glass tinkled
out of one end.
“Our
archives on it are incomplete. We think the Elders were able to shape
glass, to make it bend light to their whim”
“The
Elders could bend light, but then got trashed by The Previous? Makes
you wonder what those Previous skanks got their hands on” Niv
almost growled.
Aesara
frowned, but then said “anything else of interest” as she turned
to survey the remainder of the loot.
“Some
kind of fancy SPEAKING TRUMPET” Pyrrho had held up another Drakhan
device, holding it to his lips like he’d seen the officer do. The
volume in the confines of the barn was painful and Pyrrho dropped the
machine in surprise.
“OW”
complained Niv, her dislike for the strange technology further
cemented.
“You
could wake the dead with that thing” Volk groaned, the others span
toward him.
“Hey
big man, how you feeling?” Niv almost skipped over to him
“Like a
Previous sprite burrowed in through my belly, then burst out of my
chest”
“Not
that far off” Pyrrho laughed, “good to have you back with us
though” it was a close to sentimental as he got “should have
listened to Aesara, mind” before heading right back to cynicism.
“I’d
a been fine if they hadn’t a cheated with their Previous magic”
Volk attempted to sit up, but Onatas silently urged him back down.
“Elder
technology” Aesara stated, she had little time for people’s
suspicion of The Previous. “And we need to find out how they got
it”
“Why do
we?” Pyrrho enquired “I mean you probably need to go back
babysitting your Professors, and I am, how would you put it? I am an
independent contractor”
“You
want to work for the Drakhan?” Aesara sneered “think they’ll
want you after the work you do for the Steed? Did for him” she
corrected herself.
“There
are other factions”
“None
that will withstand the force that the Drakhan now appear to have
access to. No one will, especially, as you put it, my Professors”
“So
what do you propose our next step is?” Pyrrho was absent-mindedly
playing with the broken telescope
“Same
as it was before we got here. You take us to the redoubt, we see how
many, if any, of the Steed’s forces made it back, see what they
know”
“Ok”
Pyrrho hated it when his sister was right, old feelings of
frustration re-emerging.
“Is he
fit to travel?” Aesara looked over to Onatas, the apprentice have
busied himself applying fresh -- well less dirty -- dressings to
Volk.
“We
won’t be marching double time, but he should be ok. We need to get
some proper treatment in any case, and I presume the redoubt will
have a hospital?”
Aesara
smiled, not just at Volk’s prognosis, but also the emerging
confidence in the apprentice, Onatas. Maybe the academics weren’t
such a waste of space out in the real world as she’s always
suspected after all? But she’d need to save the introspection for
later, there was a task at hand.
“Ok,
we’ll be safest to move at night then” she turned to Pyrrho “you
can still get us there in the dark?”
“Skulking
in the shadows, isn’t that what you accused me of before? Well,
with that much skulking, one becomes adept at travelling by night”
Pyrrho smiled, before another realisation eroded the satisfaction at
getting one over on Aesara. “But we’ll need to move from here.
Anyone comes looking for our missing Drakhan friends and the pools of
blood outside the barn are a bit of a tell tale.”
“Where
then? Can’t be too far if we want to avoid being in the open with
Volk for too long” Aesara frowned in concentration, a look mirrored
by her brother.
“Hang
on” Pyrrho was the first to arrive at a potential solution. “What
if I was to tell you there was a place not far from here that
provides excellent cover from prying telescopes, is comfortable, and
as an added bonus, any passing Drakhan will never dare investigate?”
he enjoyed the puzzled look on Aesara’s face.
One
person who was not puzzled was Volk. Not puzzled, but certainly
alarmed; “Oh no, no way Pyrrho. You ain’t takin’ me to that
Previous haunt. No way”
Onatas
and Niv expressed similar reservations about hiding in The Previous
building, if differing radically in the amount of swear words used to
describe them. However Pyrrho cared not for their opinions. There was
only one other that really mattered currently. He looked towards his
sister, raised an eyebrow.
“Ok”
she replied.
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