The Lord of the Crows

Part 26 - Lost

The corridors stretched indefinitely, intersecting, branching, getting lost deep into the mountain, leading us in circles. On that day, in the Lagrena's underground, more Crows were killed in mutual conflicts in the dark than by our enemies. Weeks after they pushed us out of the city, the people of Lagrena threw the corpses of the lost Crows over their walls.

That day, I was among them. Among the unfortunate ones who mistakenly separated from the main forces and ended up wandering aimlessly through the corridors, hoping that they would be lucky and break out either back into the city center and into the very heart of bloody conflicts or to the cliffs above the shores of the Lake Winter, because even by jumping into the abyss, towards to the dark and eternally cold surface of the lake, we might have had some survival chances.

There were seven of us at the last crossroads when they attacked us, when the torches went out completely and when, after a while, I realized that I was alone, in a narrow corridor through which I could barely move, but which did not stink of blood or their smell. The breeze, barely perceptible, broke through the rocks and brought with it the scent of freshness. At the other end of this tunnel, there was a salvation.

I was just starting to break through, slowly and sideways, when I heard shouts, screams and the familiar swearing and mumble.

"I could have continued down that path and escaped, but I didn't want to save only myself. I recognized his voice, I was sure it was him, and I decided to go back for him," I shook my head. "Damn ... Holy Crow! He was my best friend, I couldn't let him down."

I tried to remember where I had gone, groped around, tripped. The scream that broke out made me run and ...

The flickering light of the torch illuminated the scene which almost made me vomit.

"What are you doing ?!" I yelled.

Two crossbows aimed at me at the same time. I stepped out into the dim light and Merul lowered his weapon and immediately started swearing:

"Go to hell! I could have killed you, you fool!"

"Anyone could have killed you two idiots if he had come this way instead of me! What the hell are you doing with all these corpses?!"

He moved to the side and grinned at his comrade.

"We were not going to die without having a little fun."

At first, I thought they were completely out of their minds, but then I spotted them. Bloodied, beaten, half-naked ... A boy and a slightly older girl pressed on a pile covered with already clotted blood.

"You can help yourself, but be careful, the girl bites. Ugly almost lost his neck when he tried."

He leaned over and grabbed one of them, ripping off his clothes.

"He grabbed ... a child, a boy, not older than eight, nine by the neck and ... I lost my shit, Daina. At the time, my eldest sister had a child of that age. The previous autumn, the estate of her husband was attacked by some robbers, and only thanks to my father's squad staying at her house ... Neighboring estate was not so lucky and what I saw there ... I", I shook my head, and closed my eyes. "At that moment, I didn't see Lagrenian enemy in that boy, I didn't see the danger, I didn't see that one day he would grow into a warrior who would bring us death. I saw my sister's child. A child. Unprotected."

I don't remember how it happened, I just remember the distorted scream that came from the man standing next to me, when he realized what I had done and the feeling of the weight of the limp body of the man whose neck I was squeezing with my hands. I turned to him to meet the raised crossbow.

"She saved my life. The girl, still a child, threw herself at him and knocked him over one of the corpses. She stabbed his own knife into his throat."

She stood up and turned to me, clutching the blade pointed at me. I put my weapons down and slowly lifted my hands, quite prepared to die of that same knife, and mumbled: "I will not hurt you".

She stepped aside, toward the boy lying curled up on the floor, still clutching the knife tightly, when out of the corner of my eye I saw the outline behind her. I jumped forward, grabbed her, picked her up and pulled her aside. I felt a burning pain in my left shoulder, when an arrow fired from close range went completely through it and broke out on the other side and heard a scream. When I looked down, I had something unusual to see. The tip of the arrow pierced the girl's skin and plunged into the flesh just below the collarbone. She pulled away from me, tearing both the skin and flesh from the jagged tip and picked up the knife again.

I turned around, ready to defend myself, but life had already left him. I cursed myself for negligence and went to pick up my crossbow. She squeaked and pointed the knife at my neck.

"For Crow's sake, child, I won't hurt you!" I repeated, this time in Lagrenian, and moved away from her, trying to pull the arrow out of my shoulder.

"I'm not a child, I'm fifteen. And let me help you, Crow, or you'll break it."

I jerked so surprised by the answer, and she managed to approach me from behind and pull out the arrow before I could scream out in pain. Sweat swept over me and I just cursed, clutching the hilt of my sword. I was ashamed to whine in front of a girl two heads shorter than me.

"Check the boy," I muttered, pressing against the wound to stop the blood.

"We have to get out of here."

I turned and raised my eyebrows. The boy stood up, fully dressed, though torn and dirty, and stared at me. I bent down and tore off part of the tunic from one of the corpses. My blood soaked my uniform, and if I don't stop the bleeding soon, the two Lagrenian children in the darkness of these hallways will be my least concern.

"Do you have any idea where to go?" I asked.

The girl whispered something in his ear, but he just shook his head.

"There is the passage to the Winter not far from here", the boy said.

"I know, I came across it before I heard you and decided to come back. Are there any other hallways, because I'm not sure any of us is capable of surviving the jump."

He shook his head.

"They all lead back to the city. But there are a lot of Crows there."

I smiled, sourly.

"It suits me."

"With that wound on your shoulder," the girl said, "if anyone comes across these two first, you will be just as suspicious as the two of us."

"So, I listened to them, I don't even know why, because now that I think about it, I don't believe that anyone would suspect, and went down the corridor that led to the lake. But when we broke out on the very edge of the abyss, while measuring the chances of our survival, the girl got sick. I caught her at the last moment not to collapse into the abyss and darkness," I sighed, and caressed her hand hugging me. "It was only then that I realized how much she was actually injured and that a good part of the blood on her was actually her own blood."