Marci and I watched the soldiers prepare for the night. There were large communal cook pots and campfires. The blockade and camp layout were identical to the ones he had trained with in the academy. For 200 soldiers there should be 10 cooks and 10 cooking pots. By the smell drifting up to the trees it would be a stew tonight. Standard army procedure was to forage first and only use brought supplies when necessary.
A dark and twisted idea began to form in my mind. I almost discounted it immediately before remembering the sobering position I was in. There were 200 professional soldiers down there against myself and 8 guards to defend the mine. I shivered involuntarily as I thought of the description of the Banshee Briar.
Banshee Briar - Small purple flower that blooms in the late fall near hot springs. Poisonous when ingested.
As far as I knew this wasn’t a common plant found in the Eter mainlands. The poison would be slow to be identified by the camp alchemist, there may not be an antidote on hand. Poison was a regular component of Eter army planning. Infiltrators trained extensively in its uses and camp alchemists regularly brewed them and their antidotes.
How would I get the poison to the cooking pots without being seen? I began spying through the trees down to the camp to try to find a path to one of the pots. If I could get to one of the pots it would incapacitate around 20 soldiers in a best case scenario. The soldiers would be eager to eat tonight, the temperature had dropped sharply and a brisk wind was beginning to blow.
Marci gave a chirp from my shoulder and sent an image of her holding the briar and dropping it from her claws. My little genius companion could easily cover the distance to the pots and back without risking retaliation. She was still small enough to not register as a threat, especially in the low light. We scrambled down the tree and performed a few practice runs using small sticks and a target on the ground. Marci was able to hit the target without slowing after 10 tries. It would have to be good enough.
Wasting no more time, I laid out the Banshee Briars on the tree branch well above the camp. Marci grabbed the first two bundles with her talons and readied to take off for the rightmost pot. We had settled on that one as the first test as it was farthest from the tree I was hiding in. I projected confidence, trust and pride. She nuzzled against my hand before jumping off and spreading her wings.
She made quick time approaching the pot and from up in the tree I couldn’t confirm if it landed in or not. She circled over to the next pot and dropped again before returning to my side. A quick mental image from her showed the briar landing directly in the pot. She hurried off to drop the rest of the Briars in the cooking pots before anyone could notice. She returned to the tree a few minutes later radiating satisfaction.
The dinner bell rang out over the camp in three sharp chimes indicating the first shift's turn to eat. Eter army camps ate in four shifts so that the camp was always ready for enemy aggression. Soldiers ambled over to the cooking pots and received their portions of stew while Marci and I watched. I held my breath, wishing I knew more about the Banshee Briars. How fast would it work? What were the effects?
There was a loud commotion around the first pot that Marci had hit. There was a soldier down on the ground near there grasping at his throat. He flailed for a few minutes while I watched in horror. Knowing the possible consequences didn’t make it any easier to see them. The alarm bell sounded through the camp, one harsh chime. Every soldier rose to their feet and manned their posts, the camp going to full defensive positioning.
Several soldiers were down now being tended to by the medic and alchemists. They would try the common poison antidotes and a mix of herbs to heal them. Eter medic were fairly advanced before the framework, I could only assume they were even more competent now. I couldn’t let them heal the soldiers before the poison took effect. With a heavy heart I grabbed my bow and sighted the first medic I found.
My arrow traveled true and struck the medic through the neck. Three more were shot down before the alarm bell rang through the camp again and all non combat personnel, including medics and alchemist, retreated to the tents. Standard army tents were made of a thick leather that would stop arrows until they were severely damaged. There were more bodies on the ground and more arrows sprouting from them. The defenders of the mine had joined in, the battle for the mine had begun in earnest.
There was a garbled cry from below me as a mangler took its first victim. Looking down I saw the ground swarming with soldiers from the army camp. As expected it hadn’t taken long for them to track the source of the arrows. The tree I had chosen was close enough to its neighbors to jump between branches. I fired off arrows as the opportunities presented themselves for a clean shot and traversed the trees as I had watched the forest apes days before.
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More cries went up from the manglers, poppers and trippers catching the army of Eter off guard. Notifications were pinging in my vision constantly, I whisked them away with a thought, unable to afford the distraction. Marci let out a panicked cry from her spot on my shoulder and hopped off as an arrow passed by far too close. I searched for the archer before I heard the sound of another arrow incoming and bolted to the next tree.
Running out of trees to jump to, I scrambled down to the ground and it became a foot race. Several arrows sped past me as I sprinted deeper to the forest. Marci had remained in the sky and I could feel her traveling in the opposite direction. I wasn’t sure what she was doing but I hoped she would stay safe. I needed her to be safe.
Turning occasionally to fire back at my pursuers forced me to slow my pace. If they couldn’t catch up they might turn around and assault the mine. Better for me for them to think they were facing multiple opponents behind them. Stopping to wait behind a thick tree trunk, a group of the soldiers caught up. I heard them stop short and cursed myself, they must have a tracker with them. The tracker would see that my path stopped at the tree. My dagger was in my hand as I readied for close combat.
The first to round the tree was a large man with heavy armor and a sword. My eyes went wide as I realized I wouldn’t be able to fight him in that heavy armor with my dagger. How had he traveled so far so fast wearing that? My mind was scrambling to think of an alternate plan.
“Surprised are we? Little late to change your mind.” He gave a vicious grin and advanced. There was no chance of winning in close combat against the heavily armored infantry.
“Wait!” A choice rang out from behind me, I jumped, not having heard anyone approach. “He wears our uniform, look, it's been modified but it's definitely a stryker uniform, looks like it's from the third.” A strongly built woman advanced out of the darkness.
“So he killed one of us and stole the uniform, who cares?” The swordsmen replied. “We can ask his corpse where he got it.”
I felt the cold sensation of Identify wash over me. “It’s the kid from the leaderboard, as the mayor said. Sylar. The King wants him alive.” The woman replied. The mood changed instantly as the swordsman brought up his shield, another moving up behind him. There was an archer off behind them a dozen feet with an arrow trained on me.
There was a strong urge to explain myself, that it was all a mistake. The cold look in the eyes of the soldiers told me there was no point. In their eyes I was a killer, and it was true. Just tonight I had killed so many soldiers, that it was in defense of the mine wouldn’t matter to them.
Seeing an opening between the trees I dashed away at full speed. Without my pack I could run faster than anyone or anything I had ever met. An arrow smashed through my shoulder, barbed head sticking out the otherside. The pain was agonizing, almost enough to make me lose my footing and go down. There was no room to slow down and remove the arrow so I pulled my arm down close to prevent excess movement and continued to run. I could hear the sounds of my pursuit following me, not closing the gap but not falling off.
My health bar was down to about 3/4, the arrow in my shoulder sending shocks of pain with every step. My health potions we're back in my pack hidden in the brush. There was no way to loop around and get to them without first losing the strykers. If the composition was whole there would be a tracker among them that would be able to easily follow my trail even without the blood flowing from my shoulder. My footsteps were slowing and I was beginning to feel light headed, there was a new notification in my vision near my health bar.
Warning! You have been poisoned! You will continue to take damage until source is removed and poison has abated or antidote has been applied!
The arrow was poisoned. The stryker had chosen retribution for the cooking pots with a poisoned arrow. It wouldn’t be a lethal one if the King wanted me alive. My health bar was down to half and it was getting hard to run, my breath becoming ragged. I checked my map to orient myself and I was halfway to the hot springs where I had harvested the fateful plants. My best hope was to lose the soldiers in the deep forest and find a place to rest and heal.
A few minutes later I had to stop running, my breath coming in gasps and my health down to 60/189. There was nowhere near me to hide and no point with the tracker behind me. The woman that had Identified me was the first to catch up. She kept her distance and kept her sword drawn. Her squadmates caught up shortly after, forming a defensive position. It reminded me of the Cave Bear that had waited for me to succumb to my injuries instead of closing the gap. The strykers knew I was poisoned and knew I didn’t have the antidote. They didn’t have to risk melee combat, they just had to wait. It was a smart plan, a small part of me proud to have been a stryker even for a brief moment.
I took a deep breath and grabbed my dagger from its sheath. There was no chance of winning this fight, that was true probably before the poison as well. After all of this, it would end here in defeat. Without my presence would they let the people of the mine live? They had committed treason in the eyes of the mayor, would that be enough to condemn 50 people? My health ticked down to 55, slower now that I was standing still.
There was a loud, angry shriek from the sky and Marci appeared after a furious dive. She planted herself on my shoulder and spread her wings shrieking again. She projected anger, hatred of the soldiers. She turned her head and projected love and hope to me. I tried to project it back but it felt hollow. She sent me a thought over our bond and I was able to interpret it this time as a single word.
“Time.”