Kaira~ Empress of the Seventh Sanctum

Chapter Four

“Kaira!” Zachariah ran towards his sister sliding on his knees to support her head.

She looked dazed and confused.

“Come on get up! We have to go!” He half lifted half carried his sister while sch cried out in pain. A crude arrow was lodged deep in her thigh. They were in a rock clearing with sharp rocks on either side. A small patch of woods were right in front of them, Zack could hear the screeches of some beast in the distance. By now the castle would’ve been alerted of the runaways it was only a matter of time before they were caught. Zack strained as his sister somehow grew heavier. As the trees grew closer, an arrow flew past his head and he almost dropped Kaira, he chanced a look back and wished he hadn’t. Atop an ungodly beast sat an equally horrifying figure. The beast screeched again, and charged the siblings. Zack dragged Kaira into the trees and set her down behind a large rock. He stroked her cheek when he saw she had passed out from the pain. Determined to keep her safe he withdrew his sword and headed back towards the beast. By now another one of the warlords men arrived and they talked in a guttural language. They scanned the tree line for any sign of the runaways, Zack ducked around them and approached them from behind. Shakily he inched towards the trained savages, he held his sword as Brother Noel had instructed him. He didn’t have much training but he knew his way around a sword and knew how to use them.

“Hey! You bastards, turn around!” He shouted, the beasts snapped around and the savages smiled.

The first one charged him and the beast was something from nightmares. It had six long spider-like legs, each leg had sharp claws to help it crawl over the rough landscape. Tentacles adorned its beak like face, it was as tall as a horse and was covered in spindly hair. The first man drew his sword and raised it above his head while yelling. As he neared, Zack twisted and jabbed the beast in the side, black blood oozed from the beast as it fell to the ground throwing the man to the ground before he could rise Zachariah was at his throat, he slid his sword through the man's throat and with wide eyes the man bled out. Before the man's last breath his companion was on Zachariah grabbing him by the hair and dragging him across the ground while riding his beast.

Zack grabbed at the man's fist to no avail, he brought his hand up and clumsily cut the man's finger enough for the man to let him go. He tumbled to the ground and rolled to a crouch. He ran behind the beast and slid under it bring his sword up covering himself in the black goo.

The beast fell smashing the second man into a wall of rock. Blood poured from his mouth and Zack scrambled forward plunging his sword into the man's back.

“Zack?” Kaira called when she came to, her leg was killing her and she was all alone in a darkening wilderness. She tried to stand but she sat back down with a huff. A long black arrow stuck out of her leg and dried blood surrounded the wound. She heard a branch snap and whipped her head around to see Zack scrambling to her side, he was covered in blood and looked like hell.

“Zack! What happened are you ok?” She knew it was a stupid question and checked him over for wounds but he swatted her away.

“I’m fine, it's not my blood.We need to get going more men will be here soon once they see the carnage out there. This is going to hurt.” Luckily the arrow went clean through her leg, Zack snapped the arrow head off and slipped the arrow through the leg. Kaira screamed as blood bubbled from the wound. Zack ripped off a piece of the blanket that was packed in the satchel and wrapped her leg up.

When she stood she limped but the pain alleviated a bit, with Zack's help they made their way through the thick mountainous brush, the night air amplified the sounds of the wildlife.

A branch snapped, a howl filled the air, Zack and Kaira slowly made their way deep into the mountain. As the ground sloped up Kaira found it increasingly difficult to keep up with her brother.

“There's a clearing up ahead we’ll stop there for the rest of the night and start against dawn.” Zack helped Kaira into the clearing and set her down against a tree. He pulled out the rest of the blanket and wrapped her in it.

“I’m going to go and see where this leads, Brother Noel said there was a village about a few days ride from here, but this high up we might be able to see it.” He rifled through the satchel and withdrew a knife and handed it to Kaira.

“But Zack the village is in the complete opposite direction as the Far Keep.” He looked at her than her bloody leg.

“You need to see a doctor, maybe the village has one or knows of one either way that's where we have to go right now, you’re too injured to walk through the mountains and Brother Noel gave the impression that the Far Keep isn’t somewhere we want to go.” Before she could say another word he took off leaving her alone in the dark wilderness with only a knife to protect herself.

Men… she muttered to herself, she dozed off and when she came to the pain from her leg was enough to make her heave. She looked around and the early morning sun danced around the leaves as the breeze picked up. Zachariah was nowhere in sight, with a grunt she held the tree and stood up favoring her leg. She found a broken branch and used it as a crutch.

She limped in the direction she had seen her brother go and dread filled her, he was suppose to be back by now. A hundred different scenarios filled her head, he could’ve been killed by a wild animal or those men could’ve found him.

“Zack?” She squeaked as she inched closer to the dark underbrush.

She heard running and jumped back snapping her crutch in half and landing hard on her back kicking up dirt.

“ Oh! Kaira, are you ok? Sorry I followed animal tracks all night and found a stream that if we follow it it’ll lead down the mountain.” He held out his hand and she just glared at him. She wobbled to her feet and brushed herself off,

“Will you stop leaving me alone, what if those men came back and killed me, I couldn’t have saved myself with this puny knife.” She huffed.

“I had to, otherwise we wouldn’t know how to get out of this maze of trees, just come on.” He grabbed the satchel and crashed back through the bushes, she reluctantly followed.