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21 - Something For Mothers To Scare Their Children With

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Theo

“Get to the thicker jungle!” I yelled as I ran, encouraging the others onward.

Leaves rained down on all sides and the canopy shook and writhed, dancing madly as javelin-charge after javelin-charge plunged through it. Some hit branches, and deflected to the sides. Others didn’t, stabbing into the soil with resounding thunks. No matter where they found their mark, the explosions always followed. Echoing, booming, deafening. Driving us farther and deeper into the jungle.

“This is insanity,” I murmured under my breath. Whatever had happened to the good ol’ days? I ducked as a hail of burning soil rained down on me. I’d much preferred a time when dodging an arrow or javelin meant you were safe. Now the blasted things just blew up in your face. And not to mention the noise. Ancestors above, but they were loud. My ears had given up hearing anything but a high-pitched, incessant ringing. Which, admittedly, was better than the smell.

The jungle around us was filled with acrid smoke that stung my nose and clawed tears from my eyes. Squinting through the pain was all I could do to keep sight of those ahead.

The sun had been sinking in the west when the skyship had appeared over the river, and now it was almost gone, leaving the jungle in an ever-dwindling half-light. Made it near impossible to see. But at least it marked the end of what had been up there as one of the worst days of my career.

Another volley of javelin-charges detonated in earth-shaking explosions, and I was near thrown from my feet, staggering several steps before regaining my balance.

“We need more cover!” I could barely hear myself through my explosion-deafened ears. “We need more cover!” I yelled again, not sure if Elpida had heard me the first time.

“I heard you the first time!” she shouted as she ran, then broke left around a thicket of brush. “We’re working on it. Just follow the others.”

I looked ahead at the rest of the group. Could just make out their backs through the smoke and the brush.

Follow the others.

I set my sights on them and meant to do just that. Tucking into a sprint, squeezing my legs for everything they were worth, I gained some ground.

A downed tree appeared ahead stretching across the path at waist height. I pushed off it with one hand, throwing my legs over the trunk, then continued forward.

Sweat poured from me, but the rushing wind snatched it and whisked it into the air. Left a trail any predator could follow, probably. Not that I had time to worry about that now.

I jumped over a patch of dense nettle and landed with a splash in a puddle of ankle-deep water.

Gotta keep moving.

I sucked in a deep breath and prepared to run on. As I did, a shape appeared from the smoke; stumbled up next to me. The helmswoman, Maritza.

Even as she approached, and through my ringing ears, I could hear her breath was coming hard. Ragged. She was doing her best to keep up, but she wasn’t as young as the rest of us, nor as in-shape. Not that I could blame her. The life of a helmswoman could hardly have prepared her for this chaos— running through the Far Wild, trying to focus between getting blown to pieces by a javelin-charge and lost in the endless brush of the jungle.

“You got this, Maritza,” I said as she drew up next to me. My instincts were kicking in now, pushing aside my own pain, my own exhaustion, to help those under my command. “Almost there, eh?”

Maritza nodded at that, but hardly had the breath to respond.

In all reality I didn’t have a clue if we were almost there, but it was what I was telling myself, and what Maritza needed to hear.

“Almost there,” I reassured her, and we kept running. “Come on, keep up. We can do this.”

“You... you hear that?” Maritza managed between gasping breaths.

“Hear what?”

“Silence.” She slowed even more, then stopped entirely. The jungle around us was thicker now. And darker, too. But best of all, it wasn’t exploding.

We were in far deeper jungle now and, stopping to look up, I realized the canopy above was so thick the Needlethroat must have lost us. I relaxed for the first time that day, truly relaxed, and let out a long sigh of relief.

“We lost them,” I said, then flashed Maritza a smile. “Told you we were almost there.”

“You were right,” she said, doubled over, hands on her knees. “Thank the emperor.”

No javelin-charges tore through the canopy. No explosions ravaged the jungle. Instead, there was silence. A beautiful, long, blissful silence. A crying shame it was shattered moments later.

Elpida was stomping towards us, mouth turned down in her perpetual frown as she arrived.

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“Come on,” she said, waving us ahead with all the patience of a child on their birthday morning. “The others are just ahead. We’ll catch our breath there.”

And thankfully, we did. I couldn’t go much farther, and certainly Maritza couldn’t. At this point, I was past lying to myself.

The others looked in about the same shape, most of them collapsed on the ground and panting. As was becoming frustratingly usual, however, Oz, Elpida, and that murderous braggart, Senesio, looked unwinded.

“Theo! Maritza!” Sergeant Kyriakos dragged himself over to us, wiping his face with a rag. He offered the sopping thing to me and I declined with a shake of my head. Drowning in my own sweat was enough without adding someone else’s to the mix.

“Maritza, you did good back there,” the sergeant said. “And I don’t just mean the running and all. You landed the Stormcrow in enough of one piece to keep us alive.”

“Just doing my job, sergeant,” she gave the appropriate response, but I could tell she appreciated the praise.

“When we get back to Lekarsos, I’ll talk to command about it. Should earn you a commendation, at the least.”

A commendation? Maritza’s eyes went wide at that. “Thank you, sir. I’m honored.”

“You deserve it,” he said. A moment later, a shadow overtook his features. “I’ll need to write to Aristos’ family, too, of course.”

I sighed at that, at the thought of our fallen comrade. For all of his faults, he’d been a good soldier. Not quite a friend, but with time, who could know? Now, I never would.

“I’d hoped you would help me with that, Theo,” Sergeant Kyriakos said.

“Me?” I frowned. “I’ve never been one for pretty words, sergeant.”

“Nor me. Maybe, between the two of us, we can come up with something to comfort his family, though.”

“I’ll try my best, sir.”

The sergeant patted me on the shoulder, then looked away. I followed his gaze, and it was then I saw the wall of jungle before us.

Though, jungle wasn’t the right word. We were in a jungle already. No, what I was looking at was something different. Something older, almost. And, though I wasn’t sure exactly how, something fouler. Whatever it was, it just felt wrong.

“We call it the Thick,” Oz said from a few paces away as he caught me staring. “A jungle, still, but a different sort than the one we’re in now.” I’d expected to find fear in his voice. Or a sense of reverence, at least. Instead, there was only excitement. Something wasn’t right with that boy. He’d spent too much time around Elpida, probably.

“The Thick?” Maritza rolled the name around on her tongue.

As she did, I found I was having a difficult time pulling my eyes from the dense foliage. Not that there was much to see. In the jungle, at least, you could see through the first few paces of brush. With the Thick, however, it was so, well, thick as to be solid. One great mass of green leaves, coiled vines, and drooping, gray moss, gently swaying in the wind.

“I always thought that place was just a tall tale,” Leda said, walking up to our group. “Something for mothers to scare their children with, and all that.”

“It’s real, alright.” Suni had also joined the conversation now, and was staring at the wall of darkness ahead of them. It was becoming increasingly difficult to see in the failing light, but not even that hid her haunted look. Her eyes were distant and... fearful?

“It’s real, and best left undisturbed.”

“The voice-snatchers,” Leda said, as if pursuing some morbid fascination. “Are they... ”

“Just stories?” Oz asked, drawing in a breath as if excited to answer.

“We shouldn’t be this close,” Suni said, interrupting the guide. “We need to leave here before nightfall. Which way is the outpost?”

“Northwest.”

“Which would be... ” Suni aligned herself with the setting sun, then turned slightly right. It left her facing directly into the Thick. “No.” She clenched a fist. “We’ll go around.”

Something rustled in the Thick, then Elpida emerged from within.

“Keep your voices down. I can hear you twenty paces in.” She produced her flask and took a long drink. When she was done, she wiped her chin with the back of her hand. “And you’ll need your energy, anyway. We’re pushing on for another hour or so. Drink some water, catch your breath, then grab your packs. We’re heading in.”

“Around, you mean?” Suni asked. “It’ll take longer, but from what Professor Symeos has told me of that place... I’m not going in there.”

“It’s five days if we go around.” Elpida capped her flask and tucked it inside her jacket. “And then two more to the outpost. We barely have the food for half that. More importantly, we don’t have the time.” She nodded up to the canopy above us. “Those wretches on the skyship followed us all the way here. Just because we’ve temporarily shaken them doesn’t mean it’ll stay that way. I guarantee they’re launching a search party as we speak.”

“They won’t find us out here, surely.” Suni gestured to the dense brush and encroaching darkness.

“I’d rather not wait around to find out. We’ve a head start on them now, but we haven’t lost them. It wouldn’t take anything more than a half-decent guide to follow the trail left by a group this big.” Elpida turned to the Thick. “But we cut through there, and there’s no way they follow us. We cut through there, and they lose us for good.”

“Yeah, that’s because we won’t be coming back out.” Suni looked around at the rest of the group. “Is no one hearing me? There’re wendiguars in there.”

“Look, I don’t like it either,” Sergeant Kyriakos said, stepping forward. “But facing down an entire skyship crew with three shields, a couple bows, and a handful of swords is a death wish. Not to mention we’ve all run ourselves ragged. Fighting isn’t an option. We have to make it to the outpost.”

Elpida nodded in agreement. “If we go now, we’ll only be in there for a day.”

“In and out, Suni,” Senesio said, slapping a hand down on her shoulder. “No big deal.”

Suni pushed the hand off her shoulder and paced several steps away. The fear was still obvious in her eyes.

“What’s her deal?” I asked, voice low as I turned to Senesio. “What’s she afraid of?”

“Wendiguars,” he said as if that made any sense.

I frowned at the name. “Wendi-whats?”

“Voice-snatchers,” Leda said. “But they’re just a story. They don’t actually exist.”

“That’s the spirit.” Oz gave us a smile. A smile, I realized, that was all too easy to see. A soft, orange glow was illuminating his face.

“Torches,” Sergeant Kyriakos said, seeing it at the same moment. I snapped around to find the brush glowing behind us. Light oozed out from the jungle, still too distant for me to discern individual torches, but drawing closer with every breath.

“Our dramatic escape continues!” Senesio declared triumphantly. “Onwards, then. To Clearwater Outpost! But first,” he dropped his voice dramatically, “into the Thick!”

“On your feet,” Elpida shouted, though she hardly needed to. Everyone was already up and running. We disappeared, one by one, into the Thick, as Oz waved us through.

I paused just before entering, to steal one last look up at the canopy. My gaze found only a few meager glimpses of the sunset sky above. Forcing my focus back to the Thick, I sighed, then sucked in a deep breath, and plunged in as Leda fell in step beside me.