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Chapter 38



Ashok had entered the valley and immediately begun killing.

He didn’t announce himself this time. Instead he moved silently in the shadows between the trees. Alternating the Heart of the Mountain between aiding his hearing and his vision to pick out all the sentries, and then to give power to his limbs to strike them with incredible speed, ending their lives before they could make a sound. Each life taken brought him a few yards closer to home.

Snapping a lookout’s neck got him a sword. He drove that sword through the back of the next guard’s head and that gained him a spear. A spear thrust earned him a crossbow.

As he crouched in the bushes between the corpses he saw that there had to be thousands encamped in the valley ahead of him. It didn’t matter. Every warrior in Lok could be in his way and that still wouldn’t have kept him from his obligation.

Except Ashok couldn’t fight them all. He needed to get as close to the tunnel as possible before they raised the alarm.

The Akershani had dug several big ditches to steal the rebels’ water. Of course their defenses had let them down. Ashok had warned the rebels to never count on water. It was the home of hell and even in its purest form remained deceitful and fickle by nature.

The drainage ditches were mostly empty now, and deep enough that they would be shadowed from torch light, so Ashok jumped down into one and began crawling through the mud.

The closer he got to the lake, the more warriors he could hear. They were all around him, standing on the banks above, but their attention was elsewhere, and he kept crawling through the shadowed muck. Every warrior he managed to pass was one less he’d have to fight his way through to get home.

There was a great deal of noise ahead. The army was excited. Ashok risked lifting his mud-covered head over the edge long to see the source of their joy. A pair of birds, dark and unnatural as demon hide, descended from the sky and returned to their human forms as they touched the ground. The wizards were wearing the green and gold of Great House Akershan, and the air around them crackled with dissipating energy cast off by their transformation.

Ashok didn’t even need to call upon the Heart to hear the wizard’s words, since they were delivered with such boisterous pride.

“We have delivered Bharatas to our enemies. The bearer of Akerselem is inside, killing them all!”

As the wizard’s words were repeated across the valley, a thousand warriors cheered.

Ashok was out of time.

The entrance was a mere fifty yards away, across the now empty lake bed. From the look of it, a great many casteless had been pressed into service to clear the path. They looked haggard, worked near to death. Rather than exterminate the casteless as ordered by the Capitol, these warriors would use them up first, and then kill them. There had to be a great many casteless laboring inside the tunnel to create such a gigantic pile of debris outside.

“The way is partly clear. We can see the other side,” an officer at the mouth of the tunnel declared as he received the message that had been passed down the line. “First paltan is squeezing through now! Everyone else form up. You’ve got your marching orders. Let’s go.”

The eager soldiers began pressing toward the entrance.

Between Ashok and his goal were at least two paltans of warriors, excited to be sent up the tunnel to finally put Akershan’s troublesome rebellion to the sword. Despite being surrounded by swordsmen, the two wizards remained the most immediate threat. The rest of them he would count on darkness, confusion, and speed to carry him through.

“Bharatas drowns their crater in blood!” one of the two wizards boldly declared, right before Ashok’s crossbow bolt pierced his belly. Ashok had been aiming for his heart, but the mud upon the string must have slowed its velocity.

The other wizard saw the bolt hit his companion and reflexively grabbed for the demon bones dangling from his sash, only Ashok had hurled the spear as soon as he dropped the crossbow. The spear went all the way through the wizard and burst out his back.

Ashok was out of the ditch and running before even the sharpest warrior realized what was happening. The nearest turned just in time to see a flash of steel, and then Ashok was crashing through them, colliding with armored bodies. There was no time to fight them. This was pure desperation, and Ashok called upon the Heart to grant him all the strength it could. He snatched a sword from an unsuspecting man’s scabbard, and then laid about him on both sides.

All the closest soldiers saw was a being made of mud rushing between them, and then their comrades falling and squirting blood. Those farther away just heard clanking and cries of surprise and pain. Ashok specifically targeted the ones carrying lanterns or torches, because with each one of those to fall, the darker and more chaotic it became.

These men were merely obstacles between Ashok and his duty. They reacted, but too late. He dodged a thrust and ran his sword across that one’s wrist. He rolled beneath a sword, slashing a warrior’s legs as he came back up. He shouldered another one aside, and then kicked another in the chest. The instant after that one hit the rocks Ashok leapt over him to slam into the final rank. A man grabbed his arm, but the hand could find no purchase on slippery mud-coated skin. The final man met him, steel to steel. It was a risalder who had been ready to lead from the front, but Ashok knocked his blade aside with one sword, and slashed his throat with the other.

Angruvadal was angry within his chest.

He’d gone through that paltan like a worker’s plow through soil, without getting so much as a scratch upon him. Sprinting toward the entrance, he spun one blade behind him to block a thrown spear he hadn’t even seen.

Just like the old days.

The warriors at the entrance met him bravely, but Ashok hit them like a sea demon. Swords flashing faster than they could even hope to track. He turned aside a spear thrust and cut the back of that warrior’s hand, crashed into another to hurl him back against the stone, and dropped the last one with a vicious slash across the thigh.

Casteless who had been forced into servitude screamed and got out of his way as he ran up the tunnel with all the might of Akershan chasing right after him. Ashok sprinted as fast as he could, leaving his pursuers behind, practically flying between the unfortunate casteless.

“It is Fall!” shouted one of the casteless at the entrance who had seen Ashok cut down the guards. “The Forgotten’s warrior is here!”

There were many warriors scattered throughout the tunnel to oversee the casteless. They were holding lanterns aloft, trying to figure out what the source of the noise was below them. They probably assumed that it was their brethren, roaring for the fight, until Ashok barreled straight through them. They were fortunate he was going too fast to pause long enough to take their lives.

“Fall!” That casteless cry was echoed up the tunnel, words traveling faster than Ashok could run. “Fall has come to save us!”

“They’re going to kill you all when this work is done!” Ashok bellowed. “Fight them! Rise up and fight!”

His own words surprised him, for the final chains of the Law had snapped.

“If you are to die, die as whole men! Fight!

The casteless looked down at the stones they’d been passing down the line, and with nothing left to lose, they began attacking the warriors. The tunnel behind him exploded into desperate violence.

The end was just ahead, where the Akershani elite would be serving as their army’s spearhead. They would be their house’s best, in armor, training, and ferocity, marching in after the bearer to systematically annihilate all resistance. Ashok knew the routine, for he’d led such charges many times himself in service of the Law.

From how few torches were burning ahead, most of the elite paltan was already through, which meant the rebellion’s defenses had shattered. Knowing Thera, she would refuse to hide behind the Sons. To defend their home, she would insist on being at the front.

Ashok ran faster than he ever had before in his life.

The exit had been blocked by piled stones, but a hole had been created, the width of a narrow door. The soldiers’ attention was forward, on their prey, hungry for battle. They didn’t even hear him coming. He drove both blades into two different spines. He crushed another against the wall, smashing the soldier’s helmet against the concrete hard enough to crack the skull within. The final warrior who was passing through the cut, Ashok crashed into his back, and rode him to the ground, stabbing.

Then Ashok was back in the Cove.

The spillway was filled with bodies. Akershani warriors were all around him, with many more climbing up the embankment toward the terraces, eager to slaughter rebels.

Lying before him, with belly split open and bowels spilled upon the ground, was the Keeper of Names.

“Keta!”

Ashok slammed a pommel into the nearest warrior’s throat. As his victim collapsed, choking, in an armor-clanking heap, the rest turned to face him. The defenders were dead or gone. The spillway was shoulder to shoulder with fighters, and there were more on the embankment above. Two dozen spears were pointed his way, and behind those were even more swords. There was no darkness to hide in. Surprise was gone. Even Ashok couldn’t defeat this many ready and skilled foes, armed only with weapons of normal steel.

Sudden whips of fire cracked through the ranks. Warriors roared in pain as flesh seared and furs ignited. One of the warriors was snatched from atop the embankment and lifted into the air, screaming, in the talons of a massive black bird. Fifty feet up, it let go. Figures appeared from seemingly out of nowhere, striking at the warriors, and then vanishing back into nothing. A warrior was engulfed in a cloud of stinging insects and thrashed about as they crawled inside his armor to tear at his flesh.

“The rebels have got wizards!” their risalder warned. “Watch for—”

Ashok crossed the spillway and split the officer’s jaw from the rest of his face.

A man in casteless rags appeared at Ashok’s side, wielding an entire demon femur like it was a club. He swept his other hand down in a hard motion; the air seemed to bend, and five soldiers were pulled from feet and sent flying back, as if yanked by invisible ropes.

It was the slaves they’d freed from the House of Assassins.

As the wizards mercilessly ripped the elite paltan to pieces, Ashok rushed to Keta, and fell to his knees in the spreading pool of blood. “Keeper, I have returned.”

Keta was alive, but barely. His eyes were unfocused. His breath was a rapid, shallow, panting. Dropping his swords, Ashok pressed his hand to Keta’s abdomen, but saw that he was done for. A normal man couldn’t survive such a terrible black steel wound.

Ashok pulled him close. “Keta, can you hear me?”

“Ash…Ashok?” Despite the pain and fear, there was hope in his voice. “Ashok? You’re alive?”

“It’s me.”

“I prayed for a miracle. The gods always provide.” All the color was gone from Keta’s face. “Save our people.”

“I will. You rest.”

“I see…I see…” Keta stared past Ashok, up at the stars, out past the stars. “It is not a great nothing. It is…glorious. I’m not afraid.”

“You never were.”

Then Keta, the Keeper of Names, died in his arms.

They had met with mad whisperings through the window of a prison cell. This man had tried to become his guide and had instead become his friend.

Ashok would not fail him.

The world came rushing back. As wizards slaughtered warriors, Ashok lowered Keta’s body, gathered his stolen swords, and rose. He thumped the nearest wizard on the shoulder, and she spun around, scared out of her wits and ready to whip him with beams of fire, but luckily she froze when she recognized him. The fire that was curling around her arms disappeared with a puff of smoke.

“It’s the one who freed us!”

“I am.”

“Hurry.” She pointed toward the terraces. “The assassin has gone up the road to kill everyone.”

Assassin. Of course, the bearer would seem as terrifying to them as their old harsh masters. It appeared the slaves were simpletons no more. Whatever curse Sikasso had put upon them had somehow been broken. They would have to do.

“I will deal with him. More soldiers are coming up the tunnel. Can you stop them?”

“We are awake, but weak, and only starting to remember who we are.” The woman reached into her pockets and pulled out fistfuls of demon. “Will this be enough?”

Ashok hoped so and raised his voice so all the wizards could hear. “Children of the Lost House, you will let no warriors past this point! Thera saved you from Sikasso. Keta’s people took you in and gave you a home when you could neither think nor speak. Hold this ground or they will all die!”

The wizard woman gave him a grim nod, then engulfed the end of the tunnel in fire.


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