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Bracken was handicapped because he couldn’t take flight without signaling reinforcements to attack. He was a menace to our enemies either way, but not if we were ambushed. Kiar was useful and superhuman and had a quick mind to match but was not able to defend or fight against hundreds of nocs.
And when we got the stone… I shook my head. Alhayda was like a prisoner of war with our current arrangement, a hostage. He was a liability, a threat willing to turn on me as soon as I snatched the stone and brought it back.
This may be the worst way to start a battle I’ve ever had the misfortune of leading.
“Come,” I said, nodding as we reached the ground. “We must reach the stone and be out of the valley before the sun sets, or we’ll be outnumbered.”
Bracken and Kiar followed willingly.
As we crept through the wide-open field, the sleeping forms of nocs became clear and more abundant.
We fell silent, trapped on all sides by slumbering beasts. I treaded carefully over the monsters waiting to devour me. Strange noises kept clawing at my mind, and I cast wary glances back up the cliff where Clem stayed behind.
The sun danced against the cloudless horizon, at its peak, when we reached our destination, I came to an abrupt halt, got to my knees, and started digging.
Bracken and Kiar dropped down next to me, helping me. All of us using our bare hands.
Between us, it didn’t take long for my fingers to grasp at the treasure chest, a dainty little jewel box that I had last handled years ago when I had been given the task of hiding it.
All this time, it had remained safely hidden right under the noses of those who battled on this very soil.
Until now, I thought, glancing back at my nocs who stared down at me in wide-eyed wonder.
Sucking in a sharp breath, I sliced my palm, squeezed down, and drew blood. I had been given the power to open this box by the emperor’s witches, to act as the emissary of our God in Emperor Gaulu’s holy name.
Now it was time to–
“Sun!”
I spun around at the sound of Clem’s voice, shocked, just as a large shadow eclipsed the sun. A nightwing! The strange owl-like noc that was rare even on the battlefield.
It swooped toward us, but Bracken intercepted it mid-air.
Clem dove out of the way, trying to reach me.
Why is he here?!
One nightwing shouldn’t have forced him out of his hiding place.
Clem lit up, his black orb-like eyes turning bleach white in a flash as he swooped too close to me before being knocked aside by another nightwing, seeming to appear from nowhere.
I lunged for Clem, but Bracken was faster, grabbing him, his foot on the nocs chest as he split the thing’s body apart with his claws. The sight was gruesome, but I turned away to focus on unlocking the chest and grabbing the stone.
No sooner did I have it in my hand was I knocked aside, another nightwing slamming into me before Kiar or Bracken could take it down.
“Batu Sun!”
Huh?
My eyes opened slowly, sure my ribs were crushed by how hard I wheezed. Charging towards me was the noc king, but he was upside down. Or was I?
Alhayda howled, eyes wide, flooded red like his pupils had exploded. “Protect the stone!”
My ears were ringing, disoriented, disillusioned with my carefully laid plans. Something wasn’t right, but I didn’t have time to think as a flash of a falling star hit the ground near my hand.
Snatching the moonstone before it could roll away closer to Alhayda, or worse, into the nightwing’s claws, I took off with it in my palm in the opposite direction. My body screamed in pain, but I did not relent in my retreat. I had to protect the stone and figure out what the hell was going on.
However, it wasn’t long after I cleared the shattered remains of the chest and started running that things fell apart completely.
