Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="barsoomcore" data-source="post: 1552826" data-attributes="member: 812">"Wei-Yong, what do you think? Can we get past them?""Sure, as long as Shan doesn't try to barbecue any of them.""Mm, barbecued raptor. Hey, is anyone else hungry?"Li Fa gritted her teeth as she considered their options. Their mounts grew more and more skittish as the big predators closed in on both sides. Wei-Yong held her bow down by one side. She refrained from lifting it, still worried about unseen watchers who might notice that the daughter of the upper-class merchant she was supposed to be looked awfully practiced with a hunting bow. Ming-Wa groaned."I don't know how helpful I can be, Fa. I'm pretty worn out."The battle against the dragon had cost Ming-Wa dearly. The slender woman clung to her saddle horn to keep herself upright. Fa looked forward.They'd followed the dry canyon floor from the elevator for another few hours with no sign of pursuit. Even Wei-Yong was unable to catch a hint of anyone following them. This worried Fa deeply. And now it seemed they had stumbled into a pack of raptors, big two-legged beasts, agile and ferocious and smart. With Shan badly wounded, Ming-Wa out of commission and Wei-Yong unable to use her skills. And as so often happened, Li Fa's skills with the dangerous forces of the Shadow Realm would put her friends in more jeopardy than the predators ever could.The pack closed in on both sides, heads low, gauging the reaction of the prey. Fa urged her mount forward, sternly controlling its desire to bolt. The others followed but she could tell it was only a matter of time before either the pack attacked them or one of the mounts panicked. Either way, disaster.Two of the creatures approached Tong Shan, sniffing loudly. Her wounds would attract their powerful sense of smell. Fa gestured to Wei-Yong."We have to protect Shan! I don't care if that assassin sees. Do something."Shan swung away from the stalking predators. At first Fa thought her injured friend had collapsed, but Shan grabbed a heavy rock off the ground and then levered herself back into her saddle. She gave a casual heave and the rock cracked one of the beasts across the skull with a hollow clonk. Shaking its head, the creature retreated. As did all the others.Shan grinned at Fa."Protect me? Hah."Fa rolled her eyes."Let's move on. We can make another good march before nightfall, I think. And keep an eye out in case those things come back.""Hey, Guang Ling. You got any food in that fancy bag of yours?"*****"Shan! What are you doing?"The big woman looked back into the cave where Ming-Wa stood glaring at her."Collecting firewood.""Because...?""Barbecue...?""Fire...?"Shan stood thinking for a minute. She scowled."Right. No fire."She stomped back into the cave they'd found. The canyon darkened quickly as night fell, and though the peaks above them still glowed with the last rays of sunset, the canyon floor lay indistinct and gloomy. Inside the shallow cave Fa and Wei-Yong arranged sleeping furs. Fa looked up as Shan's silhouette blocked what little light had been coming in through the cave mouth."Shan, will you lie down? You need to rest.""I feel fine."Guang Ling scuttled away as Shan swayed in place. The clerk watched nervously as Fa and Wei-Yong took their injured friend's arms and guided her to the furs."Just lie down. You'll feel better in the morning.""Fine. I feel fine.""Yes, we know. Just lie down now."Once the big swordswoman was snoring quietly, the others sat and studied each other's faces in the growing dark. Wei-Yong dug the heel of her boot into the sandy floor of the cave and scratched behind the ears of Dau Li, her wolf."What if they catch up with us in the dark?"Guang Ling's eyes radiated worry, but Fa just shrugged."We'll handle it, Wei-Yong. You know we will.""But Ming-Wa needs sleep, and Shan's no good-- ""I heard that.""Go to sleep, Shan."" -- and I can't use my bow..."Fa looked the cave over. She nodded towards the opening."If there is trouble, get everyone to the back of the cave. I'll handle it.""Fa...""I'll handle it."*****Dawn came late to the canyon floor. Burogerk studied the landscape before the cave opening. He noted the traces of passage on the sand and rock that indicated five figures going inside. Five mounts tethered behind the scraggly shrubs that did little to screen the entrance. Without looking back, Burogerk made two quick gestures with his left hand and scurried further down the canyon to take up a position beyond the cave entrance, just out of the line of the opening.He did not take his eyes off the dark cavern opening as his compatriots filed into position. Maliss himself slithered across to only a few feet from him. Burogerk controlled his uneasiness. The pay was good, and the chance to kill Lohanese was always welcome, but a boss whose lower body coiled and rippled like a giant serpent's was hard to get used to.Maliss looked over his group. Burogerk's powerful sword arm at his right side, Alrughf's sorcery by his left. The other two sorcerers arranged near the cave, and the archer up above, ready to pick off that troublesome psion. The fools slumbered in their cave. Not even a lookout stood to warn them death had arrived.He smiled and nodded to Alrughf."Wake them up."*****"Goddess preserve us. There's... six of them out there. And that one's got to be this Maliss character. Look at him. He really is half-snake."Wei-Yong peered through the shrub as their enemies arranged themselves out front. Fa listened carefully."I'll look later. Where are they?""The snake guy's right in front of the cave, with a swordsman on his right and a scrawny little bastard on his left. They're all gwailos. Two more unarmed folk over to the right, about... twenty feet out.""In a line? How far apart are they?"Wei-Yong craned her long neck."They're coming along this wall of the canyon, yeah, one ahead of the other.""You said six.""There's a gwailo with a crossbow hanging from the cliff wall about twenty feet above the snake guy."Shan muttered."We can take them.""It's been one day, Shan. We need to keep them occupied for two more days. We can't just kill them all."Shan muttered some more. Ming-Wa looked away."I'm feeling better, Fa. Maybe I can --""You stay back. Everyone, get back."Nobody questioned Fa's command. Even Shan retreated to the rear of the cave.Fa stepped outside.The snake-creature sneered at her."What are you supposed to be, a nun?"He was bigger than a man, hairless, with dark green scales and a long serpentine body. His disdainful expression carried nothing but contempt. Fa matched him sneer for sneer."I am a divine servant of the Goddess. She Who Rules Over All. From her court in the Imperial City of Zuyang she has sent us forth to protect this woman. Return and report failure to your master, or else die here and now. I will speak no more words with you, inhuman assassin."Maliss grinned."Or not."As he drew breath to command his minions to attack, very complicated calculations took place inside Li Fa's skull. Inky tendrils swarmed up around in a sudden blossoming of darkness as she sent her mind down the precise pathways of sorcerous logic, forcing her will upon the deadly power even as she summouned it into existence. Dark energy shrieked at her and hungered to destroy, but her mind stood unclouded and performed the complex operations that bound the Shadow Realm to her desires.Sorcery was a dangerous and difficult path to follow. Just attempting to learn the basics was more often than not fatal to the student. Very few ever lived to acquire Fa's degree of mastery. From the back of the cave Fa's friends watched in horror as the black nimbus around her expanded towards them, killing everything it touched.One of Maliss' companions squeaked a terrified oath as Fa unloaded. Twin explosions of earth and rock and dust rippled outwards from where she stood. One tore along the canyon wall to blast the two sorcerers there up off the ground, tearing them to shreds as they screamed. The other blasted straight across the canyon floor to where Maliss, unprepared for such sudden violence, stared.The rumbling wave slammed into the creature, sending him flying against the rock wall, and he watched in disbelief as his bodyguard, Burogerk, was thrown headfirst into a boulder. Maliss screamed.As soon as the bolt struck, Fa knew her second attack had not been good enough. The crossbowman had gotten off a shot and she spun from the impact, falling to her knees with a painful grunt."Fa!"Wei-Yong made to run forward, but Fa threw a hand up and her tall friend pinwheeled backwards into the cave."Get DOWN!"She'd missed the scrawny little gwailo sorcerer. Fa gritted her teeth as his spell went off.The cave erupted in a sudden fury of noise and darkness and choking dust. Fa felt herself lift off the ground and slam into some hard rock. She heard her friends yelling, Shan cursing of course, and their mounts dying noisily. Spitting out dust and shaking her head, Fa got to her feet and looked out what was left of the cave entrance.The canyon floor now looked as though ambitious farmers had tried to plow the solid rock, with surprising success. Dark furrows of blasted stone and dirt crossed the defile and dust hung in the air in the aftermath of sorcerous battle. She saw the sorcerer, stumbling and choking. There was no sign of Maliss.She noted the crossbowman in his high perch frantically trying to reload his weapon. She gestured and he shrieked, clawing at his chest as his ribcage flexed outward. His chest tore open and his bloody heart flew across the canyon to slap into Fa's hand. She dropped the sticky, dripping organ into the dust at her feet as his torn body plunged earthward. Glowering with poorly-held-in rage, Fa stalked across the canyon to Alrughf. Alrughf looked up as the sorceress came towards him. He'd heard that Lohanese women were expert sorcerers but the frozen ancestors of his tribe could not have warned him strongly enough. She was a demon. She'd cast two spells before he could even get off his first. She'd taken hold of the Shadow Realm as though it were something she did every day.He cowered as she held up a bloodstained hand."Don't hurt me."She slapped him."You're a very bad barbarian."</blockquote>

Verification