Chapter 21 - Part 9

Cold.

What does it mean, that this is my only reaction?

Cold.

No, my reaction is numbness, emotional cold. If I feel no fear, it may be because of Ois, but if I feel nothing, it is because of me.

As if by themselves, his eyes turned up the beach, then down. The great fiendish animals were far off, but efficiently cutting off any chance of escape. Iron Orphan didn’t want to look, he wanted to close his eyes. Put them back into their semi-organic containment units. He didn’t want to see them come out of the defile, either. It was failure. In an hour, maybe two, they would be surrounded. All the pain, all the death, even murdering that lousy King, was for nothing. They had no way out.

How do I know if I did anything, in the long run?

How do I know anything at all? Why did I ever think I could do this when I am less than a year old?

Cold.

“Hey, wake up, you sluggard!” yelled Delegado. Orphan focused, and realized that the half-orc had been trying to talk to him for the last minute or two. “You in there, Orphan?”

“Yes,” Orphan said at last, coming out of his despondency somewhat. “Yes. What? What is it?”

“What do we do?” Delegado asked.

“Why are you asking me?” Orphan retorted.

“You’re in charge,” Thomas said.

“I don’t want to be,” Orphan said. “Look where I’ve led us! We’re going to die! And for what?”

Ois cleared her throat. “Don’t worry,” she said in response to the warforged’s glare. “I am not about to give you another lecture about the Silver Flame.” She had given up on that since leaving Ashtakala, since her one-time pupil had refused to speak with her. She had talked to Delegado about little things, over the past few days they had always seemed to find time to discuss the inconsequential, but she hadn’t preached to anyone. “I simply want to discuss our situation. Logically.”

“We have no scrolls, no potions, no arrows, no throwing weapons, and only one horse unless you’re going to conjure yours up again,” Orphan retorted. “They will be here in an hour, maybe two, and maybe some will teleport in early. All of you are tired and hungry and we aren’t going to last long once it starts. What did I leave out?”

“You can’t just give up,” Delegado said. “We have a riddle that we all memorized, a riddle that we have to solve.”

“Oh excuse me while I check some tomes out of the library,” Orphan said sarcastically.

Delegado swung a fist at him. Orphan caught it, and restrained himself from breaking the half-orc’s arm.

“Looks like you aren’t dead yet,” Delegado said, pulling his hand back. “Now think. Can you get to the Shadow Marches? You don’t need to breathe, maybe you can swim under the tide.”

“I’d die in that water,” Orphan said. “We tested it. It’s freezing. I’d last longer than any of you, but I would die.”

Thomas flexed his muscles and shifted his grip on his greataxe. “We will all die, and our flesh will be carrion,” he said.

“You finally talking to me?” Delegado asked. “Because you pick the strangest things to say sometimes.”

“Yeah, I’m talking to you,” Thomas said. “And you,” he added to Ois. “We’re going to die, and I need someone to kill the stormstalk after I go, so I’m talking to you.” The stormstalk glared at him balefully.

“I never lied to you about the Silver Flame,” Ois said sadly.

“Don’t start,” Thomas said. “Just don’t.”

“Orphan, let’s get it together and have a plan,” Delegado said.

“Alright,” Orphan said. “How about giving a message for Feather to deliver to Blood Crescent?”

“It’s too cold, he isn’t made for this weather,” Delegado said. “And he’d get eaten by something. Otherwise I’d have sent him away earlier.”

Orphan considered this. “Maybe we can charge down one beach, and I can hold off some of the things while the rest of you climb the cliff. Once up there Ois can summon her steed and you can keep moving. You’d have to go, too, you might find enough food to live off of the land, or at least get to the Labyrinth.”

Ois shook her head. “I am not the climber, Orphan, I am sorry.”

“Those cliffs are covered in ice,” Delegado said. “I don’t know that I could, either. Certainly not before something with wings came by. Those cliffs are almost seventy feet in height.”

“Do you have a better plan?” Orphan asked.

Before Delegado could respond, there was a shimmer, and a gaunt demon teleported in. Orphan recognized the swept back horn. “Babau!” he yelled. “Beware the acid skin!”

The babau slashed at Orphan, gouging him, and then turned and cut Ois. Ois gasped as the babau’s claws slashed over her old facial scar. Blood flew from her face as muscles were shredded, revealing her jaw and teeth. She fell to her knees, clutching her opened cheek as the fiends drew nearer.