James West - Crown of the Setting Sun

“I hoped you would have more time for your reunion, but you must hurry,” Ba’Sel said.

Looking for Zera, Leitos asked, “Where is she?”

Ba’Sel gave him an unreadable look, then pointed to a man firing arrows into a plump sack. Something about the man’s posture caught Leitos’s attention. The man who turned was the last he expected to see. His mouth fell open in disbelief when his grandfather’s gray eyes found his.

“Leitos!” Adham cried, hastily stuffing the arrow he had been about to fire back into the quiver at his waist. He sounded less hoarse than Leitos remembered, and he looked stronger. He caught Leitos in his arms.

Leitos awkwardly returned the embrace. Of Zera, there was no sign, and despite his joyful surprise, he wondered why Ba’Sel had never said outright that his grandfather was waiting and not the woman who had rescued him from the Hunters.

The next Leitos knew, he had sat down at his grandfather’s feet, his legs too weak to hold him. He tried to say something, anything, but confusion ruled his mind.

Adham squatted down, his eyes showing concern. “Are you injured?” He ran his hands over Leitos’s shoulders and arms.

“You … I thought….” Leitos’s words dried up and he drew back to get a better look. Ever had Adham been emaciated, and he was still thin, but now he looked younger, his flesh filled out. Even his wisp of shoulder length white hair was thicker and shot through with streaks of iron gray.

“I saw you die,” Leitos muttered, unsteadily gaining his feet. Leitos backed a step away, then another. “Are you a … a spirit?”

“He is no spirit,” Ba’Sel said.

“You need water, food, and rest,” Adham said.

“I saw you die in the mines,” Leitos insisted. “How can you be here … unless-”

All weariness drained away, and he lurched clear. “Who are you?” he spat.

“You know me,” Adham said, raising his hands to show he meant no harm. “I escaped the mines soon after you did. It was a terrible battle, but we drove the slavemasters back. Others fled with me, but in our search for you, the desert took our kindred, one by one, until only I remained. The Alon’mahk’lar who survived the rebellion drove me far to the north. In time, I was able to escape.”

Leitos shook his head, unable to believe his grandfather was alive. But he was. There could be no question that the man who stood before him was the same who had raised him.

Slowly, Leitos approached his grandfather, heart swelling, tears brimming. He caught the old man in a fierce hug, feeling as though a part of himself that had been long dead was blossoming into new, vibrant life. Adham returned the embrace.

At last they broke apart, and Leitos faced Ba’Sel with a hopeful grin. “Where is Zera? Have you hidden her away somewhere?”

“There is no time to explain,” Ba’Sel said distractedly. “If our enemies have not found their way into the lower passages by now, they soon will.”

“Is she safe?” Leitos asked. “At least you can tell me that.”

Ba’Sel raised himself up to his full height. “I share your concern,” he said stiffly. “She is as a daughter to me.”

“But is she alive?” Leitos pressed.

“I have little doubt that she is,” Ba’Sel said.

Before Leitos could ask anything else, Ulmek trotted up with a harried expression. “Word has come that Alon’mahk’lar have passed under the Arch of Tracien and are converging on the Gates of the Sleeping Jackal.”

“How many?” Ba’Sel asked.

Ulmek swallowed. “ Hundreds . An equal force marches from the south. Thank the gods that neither group is led by their wolves. Nevertheless, we have little time before they attack.”

“How could they have found this place?” Adham demanded, sounding as he had the day he rose up to challenge the slavemasters, like a king of men. “Unless one of your own has betrayed you?”

Ba’Sel and Ulmek shared a look with Adham that verified his unthinkable question. Adham cursed under his breath.

“If you can use that bow,” Ba’Sel said, “there is a place for you in our ranks.”

“It has been a long time,” Adham said, raising the double-curved bow before him, “but my arms and eyes have not forgotten its use.” He took a deep breath. “You have given me refuge, and now I must ask you to extend that courtesy to my kindred. Keep Leitos with you … and keep him safe.”

Ba’Sel said, “There is nowhere safe, and the most dangerous place at the moment is among our number. But I give my word, I will guard Leitos with my life, as long as it lasts me.”

“You told me your snares could hold off an army,” Leitos protested, unable to believe what he was hearing.

Ba’Sel shook his head. “An army that has no knowledge of our defenses would suffer great losses, but-”

“But since those who betrayed us and were removed from our order are among the demons that attack us,” Ulmek said, grinding his teeth in rage, “those traps are all but useless.”

“We are caught,” Ba’Sel admitted, looking between Ulmek and Adham. “I did not believe we could be, but we are. To make our stand here ensures our deaths, to the last. Yet, even if we flee, many of us will perish.”

“A few of us can stand,” Ulmek said grimly. “Our counterattack will serve as a diversion so the rest may escape. You are our leader, Ba’Sel. Take our brothers from here. I will stay behind with a few others.”

Before Ba’Sel could argue, the heavy door blocking the entrance to the lower passages exploded in a blast of indigo fire. One moment Leitos was looking between Ba’Sel, Ulmek, and Adham, wondering how things could have turned out so badly, and the next moment a hot fist of fire and smoke smashed into him. He floundered on his back, ears ringing. Shards of splintered wood and twists of iron rained down around him.

As the worst of the smoke began to clear, Ba’Sel roared and faced the invaders. One side of his robes blazed, but he entered the fray with sword bared. Ulmek shouted something over his shoulder, then joined his brother against two wolves struggling to squeeze through the narrow doorway. Growls became agonized yelps as the two men attacked, swords slashing.

“Get up!” Adham shouted, his voice muted to Leitos’s ears.

Leitos struggled up and followed after his grandfather. They did not retreat far before Adham turned back. No fear marked his expression, nor did he hesitate. As the chaos spread, Leitos’s only dazed thought was to wonder just who his grandfather had been before the Alon’mahk’lar had chained him.

Adham circled to one side and nocked an arrow. He waited until Ulmek and a smoldering Ba’Sel danced back a pace from their foes, then fired the shaft. The arrow streaked into the eye of the nearest wolf. Still jammed tight against its companion, the beast let out a terrible squeal, and began swinging its great head back and forth. Another arrow flashed into its bristled neck. The creature’s remaining eye dimmed, and blood spilled over its lolling tongue.

Ba’Sel charged in again, Ulmek by his side. They hacked at the wolves, steel ringing off thick skulls. Leitos’s insides turned at the reek of crushed bone and spilled blood that flooded from the carnage.

“Is that all?” Ulmek challenged when the wolves went still. A wild light glazed his eyes, and he gave the nearest wolf another swipe with his sword. His laughter, harsh and bellowing, mixed with the steel’s clang to make a brutal, ugly song.

A dozen brothers had come near, weapons held ready. The two wolf corpses began to shift and slide. Something was pushing against them from behind. The gathered brothers fell into wary stances, forming an arc of edged steel, spears, and drawn bows poised to attack whatever came through the doorway.