The Sword of Retribution

Departures - Part 4

They passed several more towns and villages during the next four days as the Ukranian soldiers led them east, but they never saw any settlement that looked as though it had more than about a thousand inhabitants. When Thomas asked the Corporal whether they had any proper cities, he found that he had to explain what a city was, after which the soldier replied that there was no point in building large, permanent settlements since they had to periodically abandon their homes whenever the Llanoks sent their slaves in to attack them. "It takes only a coupla daays t' cut the poles an' weave the grass t' build our huts, so when the kimmats come we simply abaandon them, carrying all our possessions on our baacks. The only permanent buildings we have be the iron foundries an' brick works, an' they be roight near the centre o' our land whar even the kimmats hardly ever go." The kimmats were the Underworlders' name for the blue skinned humanoids the Llanoks kept as slaves.

"So you never fight the kimmats at all?" asked Thomas incredulously. "You just run whenever they come?"

"Roight," replied the Corporal. "We only foight t' hold them off while the women, children and old folk get paacked up an' ready t' leave, an' then we try t' escort 'em out. We can't foight 'em, there're always too many o' them. Thousands an' thousands, an' they bring all koinds o' monsters wi' 'em anall. Renders, darkdelvers, the lot. Sometoimes they get organoised an' attack from all soides at once so there's nowhere t' run, an' then we 'ave t' fight our way through 'em t' open up an escape route fer our folk. They often manage t' take hundreds o' our folk, though, an' take 'em back away from the guardstones t' feed t' the Llanoks. The last toime that 'appened to our village were when moi grandpa were a boy, although I 'eard it 'appened in Arrowroot just a few weeks ago, an' arrowroot be jest a few days walk to the south o' us."

"By the Gods!" exclaimed Diana, pale and shaken by the Corporal's words. "And we were thinking how idyllic life was down here."

"So when this priest from the surface comes doon 'ere, telling us that e's gonna help us foight back against the Llanoks, we were filled wi' joy, thinkin' that the baad toimes were over, but all e' does is get 'em all aangry wi' us an' then clear back t' the world above, leaving us t' foight the kimmats all alone. Thar'll be another roundup any toime now, an' there's nothing we c'n do t' stop it except move further east an' hope they don't try t' follow us. Oh well, many o' us will survoive. We always do."

"Why don't you all just move away somewhere else?" asked Lirenna, wide eyed with horror. "Somewhere where they can't find you?"

"Thar be no such place," replied the Corporal. "The only places whar they couldn'a get us are the redlands, ruled by the devil men, an' they say that the fate o' those caught by them is even worse than the fate o' those taken by the Llanoks. There be no escape. We must simply accept our fate as we have aalways done, and learn t' foight so that, whenever they come for us, we can keep as many of our people as possible out o' their hands."

"You could come with us, up to the surface," suggested Matthew. "We never have any trouble with Llanoks up there."

"No, just the Shadowarmies," said Thomas glumly. "If the enemy is victorious and the Shadow spreads across the whole world, the Underworld may soon be the only place where humans can survive, unless Charlie's right and the Shads come down here next."

"But it's still a fighting chance," protested Matthew. "Better to have a fighting chance against the Shads than just wait down here to be rounded up and slaughtered. What kind of a life is that?"

"He's right," said Lirenna to the Corporal. "You know the location of the exit from the Underworld. Why haven't you all gone ages ago? Why wait here for the kimmats to come again?"