Turn Me Back!

Episode 15 - The Right-hand Army

The bandit captain is easy to track. We merely follow the sound of his wheezing. Unfortunately, the thick blanket of smoke distorts the sound, so I'm under the impression that we're still a few metres away when I creep around the corner of a tent and crash right into the back of him. I bounce off his buoyant buttocks, rebounding into Kayla, who ends up on the floor with me on top of her.

The bandit captain turns and glares at us, then windmills his arms furiously in a series of incomprehensible gestures. His lackeys watch with mystified expressions on their faces. Finally, his patience cracks. "Snuff them, you nitwits!" he squeaks, pointing towards us.

A chorale of piercing shrieks splits the air from somewhere behind him.

"Idiots!" yells the bandit captain, clapping his hands over his ears. "This is the reason we had to stay silent!"

The bandits look recalcitrant but they nevertheless draw weapons then fan out, moving purposefully towards Kayla and me. She and I scramble to our feet. I draw out my longest knives and stand ready, locking eyes with the nearest bandit. He's wielding a cutlass and is apparently partly deaf because the wailing screams don't seem to be making any impression on him. He leaps forward, swinging his weapon at an angle designed to catch me at the neck. I duck, letting the blade swish over me. He carries on the swing in a bid to hit Kayla, but she spots it coming and it glances off her sword. I drop one of the long knives I'm holding, pull out a smaller one and throw it, getting the guy right in the heart. He drops, gurgling.

Kayla's already facing off with another attacker while two more men are heading towards me. In one smooth movement, I snatch my first blade from the floor and dive forwards as if I'm planning to go between them. They both bring their weapons down to stop me, meanwhile I roll through the legs of the one on the right. Before they can react, I leap to my feet and plunge my knives into their unguarded backs.

Out of the corner of my eye, I see movement coming my way. I'm forced to relinquish both knives in the dying men and fling myself sideways to avoid the next man's attack. As I recover my footing, I get a better look at him through the drifting smoke. This is the guy who captured my hair not so many hours ago! I'm going to enjoy killing him.

He's wielding a club and, with chilling speed, retrieves it from the cratered ground where he'd missed me and swings in my direction once more. I leap towards him and duck under his arm, wrenching at the knife hilt in the nearest body. It's stuck and doesn't come free. Darn! I roll to my feet without it. I've only got a couple more throwing knives up my sleeves. I'll have to make them count.

The club-wielding man is coming at me again, holding his weapon in readiness. I can see from the glint in his eye that he remembers me too. I flick a hand exaggeratedly, making it look as if I've thrown one of my remaining knives. His eyes flit over to follow the imaginary blade's path and that's when I actually throw the knife hidden up my other sleeve. It gets him in the gut. Serves him right for falling for a where's-the-ball trick!

He bellows in pain and drops his club, clutching at the wound, but stays on his feet. It's clear he's far from defeated. I could throw my one remaining knife to finish him off, but then I'd have no weapons left. That's usually the moment when you find out that your assailant had friends. Angry ones.

By this time, the shrieking from the prisoners has died down to more bearable levels and is harmonised by the bass groaning of the man I've wounded. I shuffle sideways, keeping one eye on him, and tug again at the knife in the nearest body. It's well and truly stuck in there. What sort of weird rib arrangement does this corpse have? Glancing over, I see that Kayla is manoeuvring around a body lying on the floor next to her and seems to be holding her own against the last remaining bandit.