Days of High Adventure (13 page)

Staying right where she crouched, the woman pulled a dagger from a sheath tied to her calf and held it up in the air. Turning it to catch the moonlight, she waited a moment, then put it back in its sheath. Then she waited.

Amanda winced. Clearly, she w
ould have to face this. Slowly, she reached into the folds of her cloak to pull her wand from her belt. Then she saw another form come into view. This one was a dark-skinned man, dressed in armor similar to the woman’s. He, too, carried a large blade, and moved almost as silently as his companion.

The woman touched her finger to her nose. She glanced to her companion, who merely nodded, gripped his sword, and turned Amanda’s way.

Her heart stopped. She couldn’t believe it. “Eric?”

Both prowling warriors turned to the voice, shifting their guarded stance. They looked ready to pounce. While the woman’s face was set in grim seriousness, though, the man’s eyes were wide with surprise.

“Eric?” she asked again, her voice becoming desperate.

The man’s face turned from surprise to disbelief. “Amanda?” he replied quietly.

She let the invisibility fade. The woman warrior didn’t drop her guard. Eric didn’t, either, but he no longer looked ready to spring. “Ohmygod,” Amanda breathed, her eyes welling up with tears, “Eric, put down the sword, it’s me.”

He stood up straight. The sword turned away. He blinked in surprise, looking at this girl who, other than her cloak and sandals, was dressed only in a silk bikini top and a short, silken skirt slitted up both legs. It was dark, but even so, Eric found that this young woman barely resembled his friend. Yet he had changed, too. “Amanda?” he asked again.

Amanda rushed forward, throwing her arms around him. She buried her face in his shoulder, laughing and sobbing uncontrollably. “Oh god, I was so afraid I’d never see you again.”

Turning to glance at Fallon, Eric saw his lover and partner looking at him with a quizzical expression. He held his hands up to protest his own confusion. “Keep your voices down,” Fallon hissed. “Noise carries at night. We’re too close to their encampment as it is.”

Hesitant at first, Eric finally put one arm around Amanda, holding her close. “How do I know it’s really you?” he asked.

She sniffled, then let out a tearful laugh. “If I was a
zombie, I’d already be eating all of your spicy brains.”

Eric snorted.
He put his other arm around her. “I was so worried about you,” he said. “I’ve been looking for you for weeks!”

“I’m fine now,” Amanda said, letting go only to hug him again.

“You look, um...” Eric faltered. Even in the moonlight, he could see how much she had changed. He’d never have called Amanda unattractive, but he could understand why she was frustrated with her figure and her weight. “You look good?” he managed.

“We should pull back,” Fallon noted, “unless you want to let others into this conversation.”

“She’s right,” Eric said quietly, “we’ve gotta move. Are you alone out here? Do you have all of whatever stuff you’ve got?”

“I’m good,” Amanda said. “All set. Just not so good at stumbling around in the dark.”

“Hang on to my hand,” Eric said. “It’s pretty flat out here, but I’ll help you. Fallon?” he asked. He was guiding Amanda away even as he spoke.

“I’ll be right behind,” his companion murmured.

“Who’s...who’s this?” Amanda asked.

“This is Fallon,” Eric said. “She’s, um...” He found himself at a loss for words. They hadn’t really discussed titles. Fallon was all about being direct and speaking plainly, and as a result he had no idea how to address this tactfully. Notably, she wasn’t offering any suggestions. “She’s kind of my girlfriend?” he ventured.

Amanda stumbled. Fallon snorted in protest. “I am no mere girl!” she hissed.

“I didn’t mean...oh God,” Eric groaned.

“You have a girlfriend?” Amanda asked in disbelief.

Fallon’s brow furrowed. “What does that word mean?” she demanded.
“That I am a mere girl? It sounds diminutive.”

Eric looked back at her apologetically, quickly finding himself flustered. “It means I’m in love with you and we’re sleeping together but we’re not married,” he
explained quickly.

“Why don’t you just say that?” Fallon frowned. “Are you embarrassed?”

“What? No! I just—I just wasn’t sure how else to say it!”

Amanda had stopped in her tracks.
She watched the pair in disbelief. Seeing her longtime nerd buddy with a woman like this, regardless of how physically fit he looked in the moonlight and after all the other craziness that had happened, simply didn’t compute.

For her part, Fallon looked at Eric with a puzzled expression, too. Finally she turned to Amanda. “He is mine,” she said simply. “Do you need to know more about it?”

“No no no,” Amanda said, shaking her head. “I’m good. It’s all good.”

“Keep moving,” Fallon grunted, waving them on.

Eric glanced at Amanda as he got walking again. “She’s kind of direct,” he mumbled.

***

“Once the rest of the main force enters the tunnel, we could likely slip around the remaining dogs easily enough,” Fallon said, gesturing to the assortment of soldiers and slaves who remained in and about the dig site below. The majority of the army had already headed down the main tunnel. From the looks of things, very few would stay behind to watch after the horses, carts and other baggage. The slaves were gathered in a large group, all left sitting down in the morning sun under the watchful eye of several archers. “The question is whether or not we want to.”

The three of them crouched low in a rocky outcropping just beyond the periphery of the campsite.
The army invested little of its strength in perimeter patrols. A few sentries had been sent out to walk the grounds, but Eric had spotted them right off, allowing for easy evasion.

“Whatever Bel-Danab wants is down there in that temple you saw,” Amanda whispered. “He’s invested too much into this for us to allow him to get it.”

“Yeah, but you didn’t see the snake-guys that came flooding out of it,” Eric frowned. “They killed and ate pretty much everyone in sight. I mean you can see the wreckage around here.”

“Hence marching in with an army,” Fallon shrugged. “I doubt that he expects a warmer welcome from them than his digging crew received. Watch...see how the tail end of the army moves? They’ve likely met with resistance already.”

Her observation was spot-on. The posture and attitude of the columns of soldiers entering the tunnel shifted dramatically over a few brief moments. Movement slowed, but in answer to calls moving back and forth along the line, those at the rear began to push forward against their comrades further up ahead. The pace slowed, but the effort increased as the army tried to employ its sheer weight of numbers to break through inside the cave.

“Well,” Amanda grimaced, “doesn’t really change what we’ve gotta do. Slip in there
after the army, kill the bad guys, take that asshole’s Magic MacGuffin Staff and get the hell out.”

“What’s in that cart covered in cloth?” Eric asked. It sat near the entrance, still ringed with soldiers and priests of Set.

“Virgins for sacrifice, most likely,” Fallon shrugged.

Eric and Amanda shared a short glance. “Right,” Amanda nodded. “
Free the virgin sacrifices,
then
slip in after the army, kill the bad guys, take the Magic MacGuffin Staff and get the hell out.”

Fallon frowned in confusion. “What does that mean? MacGuffin?”

“It means I’m lampshading,” Amanda muttered.

“What?”

Eric buried his face in his hand. “It means she’s talking about this like it’s ridiculous, because it is,” he explained.

“They’re about all in there now,” Amanda said. “How close do you think we could get without being spotted and causing a fight? Just walk right in?”

Thinking for a quiet moment, Eric finally cocked his head at a curious noise. He slipped over to the side of the outcropping, looking down the rise to spot a small patrol of soldiers armed with bows and spears passing close by.

He turned back to the other women with a grin. “One does not simply walk into Mordor.”

***

“
Christ, this fits so wrong I almost wish I had a chainmail bikini,” Amanda muttered as she walked alongside Eric and Fallon into the camp. About the only thing that didn’t feel silly about the stolen armor and accoutrements was the cloth mask over the lower half of her face and the black helmet on her head. She looked only vaguely, remotely male in the uncomfortable ensemble. “This thing is killing me. Who the hell named it a breastplate?”

“We don’t have to wear th
is long,” Fallon replied. “It’s just to get us close.” She walked beside Amanda, similarly dressed in the clothing and armor of the men they’d just slain outside the camp. The barbarian carried the bow she’d taken from one of the fallen in her left hand. A quiver of arrows was slung over her shoulder.

Eric walked in front, toting a spear in his right hand. He looked the least abnormal in the armor, though even his
fit poorly. They strode through the camp, doing their best to look casual about it. No one seemed interested in stopping them, though out of the corner of her eye Amanda could see more than a few of the slaves looking at them oddly.

Nearer to the muslin-covered wagon, they could hear the
rumbles of battle echoing up from the tunnel beyond. They could also make out the silhouettes of three women within the cart, all of them sitting quietly and only occasionally moving. The soldiers and priests who ringed the cart watched warily as Eric and the others approached.

“Why do you break from your patrol?” asked one of the soldiers. He stepped forward, plainly displeased at this irregularity. The jewels on his helmet implied that he was an officer.

“News from beyond the camp,” Eric said, getting closer.

“What news?” the officer demanded. “Where is your salute?”

By way of answer, Eric leveled his spear with a snap movement before plunging it into the officer’s chest. The force of his thrust pushed the spear’s head straight through the man’s armor, his torso and out his back.

The rest of the guard detail was quick to leap to action, but Amanda was quicker.
The thunderous blast of her spell knocked every foe on Eric’s right off their feet. Several went flying back while others fell where they stood.

Fallon spun around, nocking an arrow and looking for any target at all. She didn’t have to look long. The nearest soldier soon found himself clutching the shaft that flew into his gut, impaling him straight through his armor. The man next to him drew his sword as he rushed forward, hiding behind his shield, but took an arrow to the leg for his trouble. Fallon finished him with another shot as he fell. She didn’t pause to assess the damage; there were too many other targets for her bow.

With Amanda clearing the men on the right and Fallon watching their collective backs, Eric had only to deal with the few men on their left. One was a priest, who tried bravely to attack Eric with his curved dagger and fell to Eric’s sword for his trouble. The others were well-trained fighters; Eric turned to take a swinging blow from one on his shield, still slung over his left shoulder, while parrying desperately against the other.

A swift feint and sweeping leg from the first of Eric’s opponents had him on his back. He banged his helmeted head on a rock as he fell, then took a cut from another that slipped just deeply enough through his armor to draw blood across his chest. Two more men
came up from behind them, too, having rounded the other side of the cart to join in the battle. It was all happening too fast.

A
blinding stream of light and color over flashed Eric’s head. The rainbow seemed to burst straight from Amanda’s fingers from where she stood beside him, washing over the men in a dazzling rush. The late-comers staggered and fell; Eric’s immediate foes blinked and shook their heads, but withstood the assault on their minds.

The confusion brought on by Amanda’s spell was all the distraction Eric needed to save himself. Eric swung his blade in a low arc that chopped straight through the leg of the man to his left. Eric forced himself to his feet as the soldier fell screaming, recovering in time to trade blows with the man who’d cut him. In the exchange that followed, Eric suffered a bruising blow to his shoulder that thankfully didn’t pierce his armor before he finally ran his foe through.

Turning from his skirmish, Eric found that Amanda and Fallon were taking care of the remaining soldiers scattered among the camp quite handily with spells and arrows. Several slaves broke and ran; most flattened to the ground and covered their heads. Moments later, the only soldiers left alive either lay clutching their wounds or fled into the desert.

“Are you okay?” Amanda asked, seeing her friend bloodied and battered.

“It’s not true what Jason said,” Eric grunted, shaking his head. “Armor totally helps.”

“Maybe for you.” With the fight settled, Amanda finally had a chance to free herself from the restrictive bits of hardened leather tied tightly around her. She slipped free of it piece by piece as she moved over toward the gathered slaves. Removing her helmet and the mask around her face, Amanda cast her gaze over the frightened men and women to figure out whoever looked the least panicked.