There were already a few boats moored here; enough to take the gathered Efrans over to the island with the humans on it. I explain to them my general plan, and Allvor offers some suggestions. I tell him I’ll take them under consideration. While we talk, a few of the others gather the weapons of the dead and load them onto the boats before heading off.
“Before we head out, may I borrow your medium?” The small Catman; who I come to learn is called an, ‘Ir,’ asks.
I hand over my wand; currently stuffed in my pocket. She taps her forehead.
“Let all tongues be as one; oh thou goddess of language and air.”
“What does that spell do?”
“It evokes the powers of the god that Lyk served; Athet, the Wanderer. It allows the user to hear, and speak all languages.”
“That sounds useful.”
“It is. Here, let me cast it on you so that the spell that the apostle cast on you doesn’t wear out before we’re finished here.”
The Ir stood on its tiptoes and I bend my head down. It taps the top of my head with my wand, and I feel a kind of warm air rush through my body. At the same time, I feel something snap within me, as if a piece of wire had just been pulled, and the persistent feeling of being watched that bothered me at the very edge of my subconscious fades.
“There, all done.”
The Ir smiles as it heads to join the others.
“I’ll be the intermediary between us,” she motions to the other creatures, “And your kind.”
I nod, as she and the others set off to join the general and my father with the other freed slaves. I take the last skiff and set off to liberate the smaller islands floating in the air. On the third of the five islands, another watchtower looked over the floating river, and once again I shift into Shadow’s form to hide, and, much like the other island they fire an arrow with a piece of rope going through it, and pull it to shore. I wonder: is this just a procedure to deal with boats floating down the river with no one on them so that they didn’t fall off the edge?
Once more, I hop out and deal with the single ratman there as quietly as I could: an earthen spike impaling it through its groin and up out of its collarbone. It was unable to scream as the spike had deflated its lungs. Orchards of those red-berried trees that I had seen below mask my approach towards a ring of flickering light. There, guards overlooked animal-headed Efrans on ladders leaned against these trees, picking the red berries and placing them in small buckets hung around their necks; all illuminated by torchlight from burning torches staked to the ground. Nearby two skiffs bumped against one another loudly as they sat tied down in the river at a small dock. This helped mask what little noise I make.
I circle around this small gathering to make sure that there were no other guards hidden in the shade of the trees. There weren’t. All in all, there were five prisoners and six guards. Those up the ladders seemed like children; given their small stature. Two Irs, and three deermen. I should finish this quickly. That feeling of being watched that I had passed off as a symptom of being in foreign lands for too long, or exhaustion fading, and the soft snapping sound that occurred once the Ir replaced the apostle’s language spell had me worried. Was it possible that he was keeping an eye over me somehow? If I stopped to think about it for a second; a cold sweat would begin to form on the back of my neck. I step out of the shade and into the circle of light. All of the eyes of the guardsmen turn towards me.
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Six hard-packed soil spikes jut out from the ground; only two of them managed to get run through, however. Two of the dogmen managed to detect what was happening and hop out of the way avoiding fatal damage; though one still had quite a bit of flesh torn through as the spike ran up its hip and spine. One of the spikes crumbled as soon as it tried to pierce the hide of one of the ratmen. Too high of a level for hard-packed soil, or was he wearing armor beneath the folds of cloth? The other spike failed to manifest completely and thus crumbled before forming. Damn, I suppose that’s my fault. Splitting a mana stream into six was still pretty difficult.
I retreat back into the trees and hear the pursuit of the living coming after me. I duck behind one of the trees, shift into my normal form, draw my wand from my pocket, and duck out from the tree.
“You that binds the all, move for me.”
Aether rushes forth from my wand and strikes the nearest pursuer in the face; stopping it in its tracks as it flips onto its back onto the ground as if it had just run into a clothesline; its muzzle smashed in like a soda can under the weight of a car tire. The one directly behind it stabs forward with its spear, I spin in towards the tree, and the point stabs into the dark. I grab hold of the shaft and pull the creature with all my strength into the tree. It's not enough force to kill it, but it is enough force to stun it and disarm it. Jabbing its own spear through its throat was what killed it.
I throw the spear like a javelin into the head of the next one; the ratman that the spike broke against. It’s larger than the normal ones; looks more like the ratman that flanked the mage in the sewers that day that I called upon Zeus. This one carries a large axe which it uses to batter the spear away. I draw my kris, and in the brief moment it's blinded by its parry, I stab it into its flank. The curved blade sinks in into the hilt.
Not deep enough to hit anything fatal. Something I come to realize as the large ratman cocks its arm back and swings down at my head. I push my forehead forward and absorb the blow; feeling my teeth and neck shake at the force of the impact. This guy was a little weaker than the Captain Dogman who had pinned me on the paths below the outpost in terms of Strength.
“You Shades who live within these blades, and answer to these words. I let loose those aweful wards, and send you to my prey.”
One of the crystals glows brightly, and the creature’s eyes flutter as a purple light emits from the stab wound. From its mouth pours out a purple smoke as its body crumbles onto the ground into a twitching mess. I stomp on its temple and sheathe the dagger. All that was left was the lucky one. It trembles and tries to retreat as I step forward. It barrels through the ladder with one of the children on it; knocking it back toward me to slow me down as it attempts to retreat to one of the boats. The child screams and barely manages to grab hold of one of the larger branches near the top of the bottom of the tree. It had already fallen at least a dozen feet at that time; through small twigs and branches. It trembles as it tries to hold itself up.
“Ik!” One of the other children cries out from their ladder.
The Ir child falls, and I rush forward just in time to catch it and place it safely on the ground, before pursuing the ratman to the skiffs. It works quickly to untie one of the boats at the docks when I catch up to it. You were going to drop a child on me to slow me down, huh? Using children as labor? As weapons for your own cowardice? Anger wells up in me. You nearly caused the death of this child in a fall? Well, let’s see how you like falling.
I grab hold of its tail and yank it away from the dock. It kicks and thrashes in an attempt to get free as I pull it along the ground. Its fingers and claws dig small trenches in the soft soil as I drag it through the orchard towards the edge of the island, overlooking the inky black lake below furthest away from the sight of the outpost blaring in light below.
“Please! I’m sorry!” It screams and pleads.
Ah, right. If I threw it off now it would scream and alert the outpost. I let it go, and it tries to run away again. That is stopped as I stomp on the base of its tail. I pull the belt off of its pants and force it into the creature’s mouth to act as a muzzle, and tied it off on the back of its head. It tries to scratch and claw at me; as it had dropped its weapon in its fearful retreat, but it’s all futile. What little blood it manages to draw, I heal immediately. There was a chance that he used his hands to pull off his muzzle, I suppose.
“By the order of Gob, king of the spirits of the earth, I order you, oh gnomes, seize my enemies.”
A hand of hard-packed soil reaches out from the ground and wraps around the creature’s middle; pinning one of its arms to its side. Eh, good enough. I break the base of the hand, and, using its tail as a leash, I yank the ratman forward and toss it off the edge of the floating island into the black night.