The Guardians' Blade
Chapter Sixteen - The Lost Underground Highway

Soryn and Grong led the company from the main entrance and into one of the other tunnels. This particular tunnel widened out after a while to allow the group to ride two abreast comfortably. There were no lights so they had to carry flaming torches with them. Boar made it his business to ride beside Serraria as he was getting more suspicious of Rakkath as time passed by. He glanced over at the girl a couple of times before trying to strike up a conversation with her. “How are you finding the trip so far?” After he said the words Boar felt they were lame, but it was too late, he couldn’t retract them.

“It is well. I am getting to visit and find out about each race. I am learning about their culture, especially in the area of decision making.” Serraria lifted her chin slightly when she said that. She was still smarting from the lecture she had received from Sir Krammer. She thought she had done the right thing.

“Indeed, some of these races have complicated cultures. They aren’t always straight forward.” Boar smiled as he thought of his own kin, than looked back at the girl. “But you were brave enough to bring them to the actual point, rather than letting them argue over things that didn’t have a lot to do with the question asked of them.”

Serraria blinked then smiled as she looked over at Boar. “Thank you.” She nodded. “I know there will be obstacles in my learning about the various races, but I think with just a small amount of time among them I can gauge just what might make them reconsider things, especially when survival is the key issue.”

Boar thought on that a moment. He had to wonder why this girl was here, sometimes. She spoke as though she was not of this world and was studying everyone she came across. For a moment he even wondered if she was a spy for another powerful race, and was gathering information to prepare for an invasion. He rubbed a gloved hand at the back of his neck and shook his head slightly at himself. That kind of thinking was foolish. The first idea was more logical. She was learning about the races here, obviously sent here for a reason, though he couldn’t fathom why and still didn’t know exactly where she came from. He was pondering having a talk with Dovelin, as he knew that the White Lady had been spending a lot of time with Serraria, talking with her. And he also knew Dovelin held more knowledge about the races within the Golden Realms than any of them, due to her work.

Further up the line, Kain rode alongside Soryn. The Omarian Ranger had a few things on his mind, Rakkath among them. He glanced over at the tall Guardian. “So once we get the Dragons on side, we are finished? Four out of five races are willing to help defend the mountain pass. That is good, right?”

“It is.” Soryn nodded. “And if we are lucky, they will send enough troops to help us hold the pass, not just a handful.” The Guardian smiled slightly as he looked ahead. The torch in his hand cast light only to a certain extent. Outside the circle were shadows that could have been anything. He had felt the hair stand up on his neck a few times. “I was not surprised when the Omarians refused. They are the youngest race in this realm.”

Kain blinked at that those last words. “Youngest race?” he asked, looking a little perplexed.

“Yes.” Soryn nodded his head. “I have been talking with Dovelin. The Peacekeepers have recorded much of the history of the races within the Golden Realms. There are actually six, but the sixth race has never been seen to actually prove its existence.” He shifted slightly in the saddle before continuing. “The first to arrive on the scene were the Dragons who settled the Drakebare Mountains; than the Krillion, a mostly unknown race that is said to live in the forest of Tarkil. Next to arrive where the Krysalith who split into two factions and settled in the forests of Kilimanjari and Silvaria.” He glanced over to Kain. “The Mar’quie came around the same time, and finally the Men came from the east via the land of Mistral and the great sea.” He smiled slightly. “Thus they are considered the youngest race.”

Kain ran a hand through his thick hair as he digested this information. He chuckled to himself at this revelation. “I can now see why Omarians would be considered the spoilt brat in the group. We are the youngest and the most likely to throw temper tantrums if we don’t get our own way.”

Soryn grinned and nodded in agreement. “There you have it.”

Kain suddenly touched Soryn’s arm before murmuring softly, “I’m not sure if it’s the firelight or shadows but I thought I saw something up ahead.”

Soryn looked sharply at Kain. He held the torch up a little higher, in an attempt to cast some more light, and he blinked as he thought he saw some movement as well. He quickly drew his destrider to a halt and called out to the rest of the group, “Stop!”

Kain nodded and dismounted. Taking a torch from Grong, the Ranger moved forward to probe into the darkness ahead and see if it was just his eyes or if there was something in these tunnels.

“Wait!” Serraria suddenly called out as her senses sparked with danger, but it was too late. Kain let out a shout as he was set upon by two Sidhra, forcing him to drop the torch, draw his sword and fend them off. He staggered back. He could see them now, the beady red eyes gleaming in the darkness beyond the reach of the torchlight. He hastily backed up to the horses clutching a hand to his right arm and turned to look up at Soryn.

“I don’t know how they got in here, but there are countless Sidhra ahead.”

Soryn frowned and turned in the saddle to call out to Grong, “Nearest exit?”

“A mile ahead,” was the Mar’quie’s response.

Soryn scowled and looked at Kain. “We’ll have to fight through them to the exit.”

“That’s going to be difficult, there’s very little room.”

“We’ll take turns.” Soryn dismounted and patted his faithful destrider before he turned to face the way they were heading and was quickly joined by Boar. The two Guardians strode forward with swords drawn. Storm and Millianyia followed on horseback, with bows in hand, ready to fire whenever the Sidhra got too close to the animals.

Raja let out a light snort, tossing his large head a couple of times. He didn’t like the idea of the Sidhra in the tunnels. He turned his head to look over at his fellow destrider, the large black that Boar rode who called himself Striker. Striker was almost as reckless as his own rider, his nostrils were flared and he pranced slightly as if wanting to get out there in front and lash out with his giant hooves at the monsters in the cave. But both knew that they would hinder their rider’s more than assist them at the current moment, so the two attempt to be a wall between the Guardians and Kain and the women behind them.

Lady Dovelin quickly dismounted and hurried to Kain’s side. She pressed a hand over his wound and whispered softly, her hand glowed pale blue for several moments before the pain and discomfort faded. When she took her hand away, the wound was sealed though a scar was left behind. Kain nodded his thanks before motioning back towards her horse. “Get up, my lady.” He rejoined the battle up ahead, not one to be left out of the action for long. Some of the Sidhra were getting past the Guardians and their feisty Destriders. He was joined by Ryu while Tarn and Rakkath fell back to protect the White Lady.

Serraria screamed when a couple of Sidhra reached her and tried to pull her down out of the saddle. She kicked and punched, managing to shake loose from their clawing grip, and struggled to get back up on her horse. But another Sidhra grabbed at her and tried to drag her down the tunnel. Tarn turned, noticing this, and hurried after her. Millianyia shot at the Sidhra, killing it with an arrow. She called out, “Soryn! Soryn! They are going after Serraria!”

Soryn paused a moment in the fighting to rethink the situation. He cast an eye over the group. Almost everyone was involved in dealing with these insane creatures except for Lady Dovelin. She was sitting peacefully astride her white steed quietly praying and the dark beings seemed to be making a wide berth around her, shying away from the aura of prayer. Soryn decided to take advantage of this, “Tarn! Get the girl to Dovelin! Put her on the horse behind her. They don’t like the Peacekeeper, they are staying away from her!”

Tarn nodded before grabbing Serraria’s arm and running her over to where the Peacekeeper was, quickly helping the girl up onto the horse behind the White Lady. Serraria was not too happy about this. She was more than prepared to argue with Tarn. “Why are you doing this? I want to fight.”

“You can’t fight if you’re the one being taken away from us,” snapped Tarn as he gripped the girl’s leg. “Keep the Lady safe,” he stated firmly. “She cannot fight, and they’ll kill her if they get through her barrier.”

Serraria for once took note of the Lady, and felt the peace emanating from the woman as she continued to pray in a focused manner. Serraria licked her lips as she looked around, seeing her various companions engaged in battle, and only Tarn and Rakkath seemed close enough to keep the Lady safe. She nodded as she looked back at Tarn. “All right.”

Tarn relaxed at that, glad he wouldn’t have to argue with the girl to get her to stay put, before slapping the horse on the rear, to get it to move forward. Rakkath quickly grabbed at the bridle to jog along in front, with his sword drawn ready to deflect any attempts to attack the lady or Serraria as they passed. He moved quickly to where Grong was holding his ground with ease, marking the tunnel that lead up to an exit out of the underground highway.

Soryn smiled grimly as he saw the Omarian and Dark Krysalith escorting the girl and the White Lady quickly towards Grong, before returning his focus to the battle at hand. They had lost all but two of their torches and were fighting in almost pitch darkness by now. He also had a feeling that apart from the destriders, they had lost the rest of the horses except for the mount of the Peacekeeper. This could slow their journey down a little, but still the main point was that all of the company survived and got out of the Underground Highway in one piece.

Boar was holding his ground well, but then darkness and shadow was his strength and the cursed creatures were realizing that and starting to avoid him. Alixa had a torch still, which she was using as a second weapon, swinging it in wide arc as she had found that the Sidhra didn’t seem to particularly like fire.

Ryu also had a torch in his hand as he tried to fight against the Sidhra with his sword at the same time. He was a little clumsy, but seemed to be managing at present, though he didn’t seem to be as ambidextrous as other members of the company.

Millianyia and Storm had been forced to dismount as their horses had suffered injuries from the cruel claws and weapons of the cursed Sidhra. They were now on foot, at times using their bow, and other times having to use their swords when the creatures got too close for comfort.

“Are we nearly there yet?” called out Ryu as he ducked a wild axe blow and hit the Sidhra in the face with his torch; watching as the creature clutched its face, wailing, and hastily retreated.

“Almost,” called out Soryn, as he quickly glanced towards where Grong stood, the only one of them left with a torch. “Just a few more feet to go,” He flashed a grin over at the young Ranger. “You can do it, Ryu.”

Ryu smirked at the Guardian’s odd sense of humor, while lashing out with a boot at another Sidhra, kicking it in the chest and spinning around to stab another with his sword. “Why does it seem that the more we kill, the more appear?”

“Because the more we kill, the more come at us from the tunnel.” Boar called out. He was standing further ahead of Grong and was carefully constructing something. Using black powder stuffed into a tube, he had jammed it into a crack in the wall. Then he used string to make a wick before calling out, “Everyone get to the exit!”

“What are you doing, Boar?” shouted back Alixa. She couldn’t see where he was, as he was beyond Grong’s torchlight. “Where are you?”

“Going to buy us time,” he called back. “Get to the exit tunnel now!” Boar lit the wick.

Soryn grabbed Ryu and ran towards Grong. Millianyia and Storm glanced at one another and followed suit, joined by Alixa. Tarn and Rakkath started to lead the Peacekeeper’s horse down the exit tunnel as quickly as possible, while Grong waited for the others to reach him, before he started down the tunnel himself. They were halfway down the tunnel and just able to make out the light that marked the way out when the ground beneath their feet shook, and rocks began to fall down around them.

“CAVE IN!” roared Grong, and he sped up, snatching Storm and Millianyia as he caught up with them and sprinted for the tunnel opening with the others hard on his heels. A plume of dust shot out of the tunnel exit followed by the Guardians and the Rangers, all coughing and gagging as they tried to catch their breath and clear the dust out of their lungs.

“What just happened?” rasped Tarn as he wiped his face with a cloth. He looked around then back at the others. Everyone was covered from head to toe with grey dust. He grinned and tossed the cloth at Millianyia. “Here, you look like a grub.”

Millianyia caught the cloth and wiped her face with it before throwing it back at him. “And you look like you aged overnight,” she commented. His hair was currently ash grey.

Soryn quietly made a head count of the group to make sure they hadn’t lost anyone in the cave-in. But there was one short, and he knew who that was. Boar was missing. “I have a feeling that Boar caused the cave-in,” he said finally, trying to dust his uniform down as best he could.

“That was a really stupid thing to do. He could have killed all of us,” Ryu scowled. He had lost both sword and torch in the mad dash out of the tunnel.

“No – actually it was a good idea. In causing a cave-in, he has blocked the Sidhra from reaching the Thilbare Clans. They are contained northwards” Grong said. Arms folded over his chest, he regarded the Omarian.” He looked towards Soryn, “Though it seems you have lost your underground highway for the present time.”

“What is more important is that we are alive. We’ll regain the Highway again soon enough. I knew we were cut off in one sense but didn’t realize just how bad it was.” Soryn sighed. He hated admitting to a losing position, and this only drove the importance of their task home. They would have to rely on reinforcements from the other races whether they liked it or not. He moved towards where his destrider stood, smoothing a hand over the large beast’s neck as he asked softly, “How are you, Raja?”

“I believe I am lame,” The beast turned its head to regard his rider. “I will need several days to recover. I cannot put weight on one of my legs.”

Soryn nodded and patted the thick neck a couple of times. “We’ll get you to Ramoth.” He moved to a saddlebag and dug out a map, which he proceeded to look over. Grong moved to join him, tracing a route through the mountains to where the Guardian wanted to go. “It will be several days on foot, but it is the best route to take to Ramoth.” Soryn was thankful for the Mar’quie’s mountain knowledge. “Thank you. All right every-one, seems we are walking from here on in. Let’s try to set a good pace.” Putting the map away, he reached for the reins of his faithful steed prepared to set off.

“Hey … leaving without me so soon?”

Serraria looked around, still on the white horse behind Lady Dovelin. Her eyes widened as she pointed to where the Guardian had appeared. “It’s Boar!” she shouted.

Soryn and Alixa turned and hurried over to where the Shadow Warrior stood leaning against a rock. “Boar, are you alright?”

“Oh, just some scratches and bruises.” Boar lowered his head. “I … lost my destrider, I’m afraid.” He rubbed a hand at his chest. “But I’ll be fine.” It hurt a little at the loose of Striker. The beast had been his constant companion since he had become a Guardian. He had learnt lot about teamwork, among other things with that creature. Especially opening his eyes in regards to the animal’s in this realm. Just because they couldn’t talk like the Destriders, didn’t mean that the animals were dumb and stupid.

“You’re not fine.” Alixa scolded him, interrupting his thoughts. “Why do you always have to do stupid things?” Then she smiled and gave him a sudden hug that almost choked the breath out of him. “Come on, you can ride with me for a while until you feel better.” She proceeded to drag him over to her Destrider.

Boar grunted but smiled as she helped him get up into the saddle. “It’s nice to know someone cares,” he commented and winced when Alixa slapped his knee. She was smiling though, happy that he was alive. “Ouch, what was that for?” he demanded grumbling and rubbing at his knee.

“For scaring me,” she snapped, though she was still smiling. She grabbed the reins to lead her Destrider off along the path that Grong had pointed out to Sir Krammer.

“Women, I’ll never understand them,” he muttered, though he relaxed a little once the destrider was underway. He nearly jumped out of his skin when he felt a gentle touch to his arm. Turning his head, Boar found Lady Dovelin riding at his side, with a grinning Serraria sitting behind her.

He soon felt the reason for the White Lady’s touch. The healing warmth from her fingers seeped through the chain mail and cloth he wore and into his flesh, muscles and bone, and rapidly spread up his arm, into his chest, and down to his thigh and knee. His hurts faded away beneath her warm healing prayers. He sighed in pure relief. “Lady, you are a wonder.”

“I am only doing my job.” But she smiled back at him in that gentle way she had about her. “Besides, we cannot have a Guardian such as your-self injured. We need everyone at full strength, as these mountains are not the safest to travel through.”

Boar groaned and dragged a hand through his braided hair. “For just once, I would like to travel safely through these mountains. Just once! Is that too much to ask?”

“Perhaps you should ask the Wolf King that?” Dovelin glanced up at the sky, a sky that was growing darker by the day. “And I feel that one day soon we will be able to.”

Boar also looked up. It was strange to come from inside a mountain, and to have wind in one’s face and see the sky again. One forgot about time underground, but above ground time showed its presence with the rising and going down of the sun each day. “It’ll be night soon.” He called out to Soryn. “Are we going to camp soon? Or push on and travel by night?”

Soryn considered the question. “We’ll find a spot to camp. I don’t think it wise to have a campfire tonight.” Not after the recent attack they had just survived. He also felt that these mountains were now more dangerous than before.

Boar nodded. It would mean a cold night but it would hide their current location, “Right.” He couldn’t help but shiver slightly even though he didn’t feel the cold as badly as some. But knowing that the Sidhra had gone for Serreria directly, he had to wonder just what the go was. Rakkath had fought them off just as eagerly as all the others. Was it just a plan for Rakkath to prove himself as a member of their company and not be held in suspicion? Boar dragged a hand over his face slowly. He was tired, and grumpy and probably would think differently in the morning. Therefore he didn’t argue when they found an off shoot from the path they were following, with high cavernous walls that would offer shelter from the icy chilling wind. With no fire it would be very cold tonight. Though with Raja and Dovelin’s horse kind enough to let them all crowd around and snuggle up against the warmth of the animals, they were able to find some warmth against the night. But it was a very long night, what with the whistling of the wind in the rocks, the shrieks and cries of the Sidhra in the distance and the menacing howls and whispers of the other beasts known to wander the mountains at night.

Rakkath knew that tonight he wouldn’t be able to sneak away to make his report, they had gotten away from the sidhra barely unscathed, they were literally unhorsed save for two and trying to survive the icy cold winter night in the mountains. He glanced over at the girl who was shivering against him and after a hesitant moment shifted to wrap his heavy cloak around them both, to help her stay warm and to ward off the night air. He glanced up, and saw a robed figure watching from the distance and almost wanted to laugh. He shook his head slightly as he snuggled down with the rest of the group. There would be no lies, no stealthy sneaking around tonight. Tonight was simply a matter of survival, although he had a feeling if Malificent reported what she had witnessed than there would be no attacks tonight while they got some much needed rest in this tiny mountain alcove. The Wolf King didn’t want the girl dead, he was sure of that now. She was proving beyond a doubt she was very different to anyone he had ever met. While she was willful and stubborn, she had a way of reaching out and manipulating people to do what she wanted. For a just cause, but still she had the voice of a nightingale and the temper of a lioness. He was learning quite a lot about her. But he had to wonder just how far the Wolf King was going to push her to get what he wanted. Her time was running out, and Rakkath was starting to think better of what he had been ordered to do. But would he be able to go against the Wolf King and warn her in time? He was still debating over this with himself and had yet to come up with a conclusion over whether to continue with the masquerade or to come clean and let her know that he had been just using her all this time. Time would tell, and he sensed that Boar was onto him. He wouldn’t be able to keep this charade up for much longer.

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