Valiant

Chapter 50: The Death of Chat'thakka

I awaken to a suffocating expanse of rawhide wrapping around my body and muffled shouting. My muscles strain and twitch against the tanned shackles to no avail. Biting back panic as my lungs begin to tighten, I relax my tensing body, and am rewarded when the leather remains propped up giving me a minuscule bit of space.

Starfyre is pinned to my side, but I am still bound to the table. And yet, Isaac had not spent years tutoring me for nothing. Contorting my hands, I squeeze them from the bindings. My lungs scream for air as they suck in smoke and leather. Taking Starfyre in one hand, I position its blade point up against the leather, giving me more room. Then, I unshackle myself and needle the Blade of Dawn through the leather and into the world. I gasp, and the odor of burnt meat assaults my nostrils, almost causing me to choke.

The stars shine upon the caldera, and the wind is a biting chill, promising the earth the kiss of snow. Fire lights up small areas around me. My eyes latch on to Beck. His tongue lolls from his mouth, and one eye is half open. I would have snickered at the stupid expression on his face were his body not lying four cubits away, smeared in ash and blood. Beck's head had been hewn from his shoulders.

Untangling myself, I dry-heave onto the remains of the tent, shaking my head to collect my thoughts. I heave again, and this time, a little vomit snakes its way up my throat and onto my tongue, where I spit it onto the earth. I rise, turning my back to Beck's mangled body as a whooping noise and the pounding of hooves greets my ears. A rider displaying a spiked cap and a gore-stained lance bears down on me, grinning evilly in the firelight.

The world stops for a second as I grip Starfyre close to my chest, ignoring the man's excited war-calls. I know not who this man is, but any man who would attack an easy enemy is no friend of mine. My blade bites deep into the horse's front leg, just above the knee. With an ungodly screech, the beast plummets, and the man is thrown onto the tent. I end the horse's misery with a swift jerk of the two-handed sword , leaving the body twitching in the dust and ash and the Sword of Heroes tainted with the blood of the courser.

The man's fall seemed to have been cushioned by the rawhide tent, and he rises, stumbling as he rips his sword from his back scabbard. By the time he looks up for me, all my might has been put behind the weapon whistling through the air towards his head. He has no time to dodge, and his head crumples from the impact. His brain sprays in dark chunks onto the tent, and he immediately falls, jerking and vibrating against my steel.

The shouts are now discernible as screams of terror. Adjusting my gauntlet, I follow the noise, keeping Starfyre at the ready by my waist. My muscles drag at me insistently, moaning about sleep and rest, but my mind is sharp and awake. My palm is buzzing against my blade so hard that it is a conscious effort to maintain my grip upon the hilt.

Then, screaming, a man hurtles out of the black toward me, taking me at the shoulder. I hiss in fury, twisting my body around him, struggling to bring my steel up to meet his flesh. I barely miss a dirk coming at my left flank, letting it scrape off my armor. I stumble, busying my hand at the arm wrapped around my chest. His hands are tight upon me, and his roaring cries of war stab into my ears.

With a muffled shout, he backs away as my elbow finds his ribs. Then, eyeing my blade, the man turns tail and disappears back into the night. Coward, I snarl to myself, rubbing the bruise on my left hip.

I turn, and in the respite, horror augments the flavor of vomit on my tongue. Hundreds of people lie in a greasy, burning piles upon the caldera. Men in pointed hats toil between the piles, throwing bodies, dead and dying, onto the fires with merciless efficiency from wooden cage in the center. Their spears finish the squirming wretches who dare try and escape the flames, and their spearheads are a searing orange caked with brown for the effort.