Morgan Rice: A Grant of Arms

“—and watch as it slowly burns the skin off your bodies.”

The group of Faws rose up in a chorus of gleeful laughter, obviously delighted at the spectacle that was about to come. Their laughter was like the chirping of small birds, and it grated on Reece’s nerves.

A dozen of these little orange creatures rushed forward and stood facing their leader, who was bigger than all the others and who sat atop a wooden post. The leader said something in a language Reece did not understand, and the others turned and stared at Krog.

“They have decided to kill Krog first,” Centra said. “They say the weak must always be sacrificed first.”

Krog gulped, writhing to break free.

“Still think it was a good idea to come down here?” Krog called out to Reece.

Reece could not allow this; he knew he had to do something fast.

“Take me first!” Reece screamed out.

The Faws grew quiet as Centra translated.

“Why should they take you?” Centra translated back.

“Tell them that their gods are wrong,” Reece called out.

Centra translated, and there came an outraged gasp.

A Faw stepped forward and pointed his dagger in Reece’s stomach, hard enough to cause pain. But Reece was undeterred.

“Tell them that great gods require the sacrifice of the strong!” Reece called out, desperate. “Not the weak! You do your god a great dishonor to give him the weak. I am the strongest here. Take me first!”

Centra translated furiously.

There came a long pause, as their leader stared back coldly at Reece. Finally, he nodded at him with a look of respect.

“Perhaps you are right in this,” Centra translated. “Yes, you will do just fine.”

The Faws let go of Krog and instead turned to Reece.

“Leave him be!” Krog called out.

But the Faws ignored him, and they marched for Reece.

“Pssst!”

Reece heard a hissing noise, and he turned to see Indra, about ten feet away. Her wrists were moving behind her back, ever so slightly, and he looked closely and noticed she held a small dagger hidden in her palm. As she rubbed her wrists up and down, one strand at a time she was severing her twine. They had not bound her ankles, as they had the others, probably because she was a woman.

Indra gave Reece a knowing look, and he gave her one back. When the time is right , he whispered to her.

She nodded back knowingly.

The Faws came up behind Reece and hoisted his pole out of the ground with him still tied to it and carried him through the air.

They marched with Reece and the pole over their shoulders, getting closer and closer to the molten pit of lava. As they approached, just feet away, Reece felt the heat growing so strong he had to turn away his face.

Reece was brought closer and closer to the edge of the precipice, and as they raised him high, he felt himself about to be hoisted over the edge.

“It has been nice having you as our guest!” Centra translated.

The chorus of grating laughter, like chirping birds, came again.

Suddenly, there came a scream, and Reece was surprised to realize that it was not his.

Reece saw a dagger lodged in the temple of one of the Faws beside him, who collapsed at Reece’s feet.

Reece looked over and saw that Indra had freed herself, and had thrown the dagger expertly and killed the Faw.

Now was his chance. Reece spun around, the pole he was bound to still attached to his back, and whacked the other Faws hard in the ribs with it, sending them hurtling backwards, screaming, into the glowing lava.

Reece sank to his knees and leaned back against the dagger lodged in the Faw’s head. He yanked it out with his fingertips and quickly cut the ropes binding his wrists, then his ankles, freeing himself from the pole.

Several more Faws rushed forward to grab him, but they were surprised as Reece rose up, free, dagger in hand. He stood and charged them, slashing their throats, and stabbing others in the heart.

Indra broke into action. She ran over and freed all the others, cutting their ropes one at a time with her spare dagger. The other Legion wasted no time: they grabbed their weapons and fought back furiously.

The Faws, though vast in number, were half the size, and not fierce fighters. Their great strength was in numbers, but not in combat. They poured out of the woodwork, from every possible direction, like angry ants, and leapt on their backs with their claws and sharp teeth, causing scratches and bites.

But Reece and his men were undeterred, brave warriors who had faced worse, and they each managed to fight and push them all back.

Dozens of Faws fell all around them.

Yet still the Faws kept coming, thousands of them, pouring in from all sides of the cliffs, from caves. There came a never-ending stream, and Reece realized this would not be easy. Despite their strength, they were vastly outnumbered. He had to act fast. He had to retrieve the Sword and get them all out of there as soon as he could.

Reece turned, scanning for the Sword, and saw that the boulder was well up the side of the Canyon, and still being hoisted. He had to stop it. He could not let it reach the top.

“Cover me!” Reece yelled.

Elden, O’Connor, Indra, Serna and Conven rushed forward, circling around him, clearing a path for him with their swords as Reece charged for the canyon wall. Reece let out a great battle cry and slashed furiously with his sword, as he cut his way through dozens of Faws, the crowd getting thicker by the moment.

Reece finally reached the Canyon wall, and as he did, he leapt up onto a foothold in the slippery rock, and climbed his way high enough up the Canyon to be out of reach of the Faws. The boulder with the Sword in it was perhaps twenty feet above him, and Reece realized he needed to sever the rope. He drew his sword, leaned back, and prepared to chop it down.

Suddenly, a Faw scaled the wall, grabbed his ankle, and yanked Reece backwards. Reece slipped; he went falling through the air and landed on the ground, on his back, winded.

Reece glanced over and saw the boulder was now too far out of reach, the ropes too high for him to cut. And now the wall was swarming with Faws. He’d lost his chance.

He had an idea.

“O’Connor, your bow!” Reece shouted, as he fended off his attackers.

O’Connor kicked two Faws out of his way, and followed Reece’s glance and saw what he was getting at. O’Connor reached back for his bow and took aim. He fired off a shot, aiming for the rope, as Reece had intended.

It missed by a foot. O’Connor was attacked by more Faws, knocking him to the ground, and Reece and Elden rushed forward and killed them.

“Help!” Krog called out.

Reece turned to see Krog doing his best to fight them off, but limping heavily on one leg. Two Faws were on his back, trying to bite his neck.

Reece rushed forward, as did Indra, and at the same time they each knocked a Faw off, Reece using the hilt of his dagger, and Indra stabbing one in the back.

Krog looked at Reece with gratitude.

Reece rushed back to O’Connor’s side, helping fight off the Faws and helping him regain his feet.

O’Connor grabbed his bow, took aim once again, hands shaking, and fired three more shots with his last three arrows.

On the third and final shot, there came the sound of snapping twine, as he landed a perfect, impossible shot.

There came a great whooshing noise, and suddenly the boulder came hurling down, like a meteor from the sky, and crashed into the Canyon floor with a huge reverberating thud.

Reece was elated. They had stopped it from rising to the wrong side of the Canyon wall. Now they had to get it and get out.

“The Sword, quick!” Reece called out.

He and his men fought their way towards it, through the Faws, attacking left and right, until they finally all made their way to the boulder. Elden and O’Connor held the front line, fighting Faws off, while Reece and the others reached down and tried to hoist the boulder.