Night 10: Is He Dead Yet?
Kayden followed Paca through the winding alleyways, looking around for every sign of danger. “Are you sure we’re going the right way?” he called.
Paca nodded impatiently and gestured him on, toward this apparently secret way out of the camp. Kayden wasn’t sure that Paca could really get him out, but it wasn’t like he had a choice.
“Here,” the boy said eventually, as they emerged out of the alleyways onto the edge of a chasm. Kayden looked in both directions, but there was no bridge visible to either side, which meant no guards.
“Well, this is very nice, but there’s still a storming chasm in the way.”
Paca grinned. “Well, that’s as may be, but if you’ll just follow me a bit further, that chasm won’t be in the way no more.”
With that, he moved off along the cliff a little bit, until he came to what was kind of a corner of the plateau, and Kayden couldn’t see any further along the edge because it was blocked by buildings.
“Hush now, mister,” Paca said. “There’s a guard station right around that bend, and you don’t want to run into them, I think.”
“Indeed I do not.”
“So come on, then! Down into the deeps.” And he neatly climbed down off the plateau and seemed to almost cling to the side of the cliff, until Kayden realized there was a series of handholds cut into the stone.
Paca started down immediately, and after a moment Kayden collected his wits and followed.
Halfway down, he had to stop. He was still wearing his half-shattered Shardplate, and it was impeding his climbing. But he forced himself to keep going eventually, thinking of the guard station above.
Ten feet above the ground, his hand slipped, and he fell with a loud thump. He groaned.
Paca’s worried face appeared above him. “Mister, you okay?”
Kayden nodded dizzily and slowly got up, eventually noticing the sound of shouting.
He looked up in alarm, and there was a guardsman at the top of the cliff, peering down. “Storm it!”
He grabbed Paca’s hand and ran down the chasm, not really caring which way he was going. Behind him, there were more shouts, and then a sound he dreaded: the hiss of arrows, landing around him.
“Run, Paca!” he said frantically. “Get away!”
The lad shot one frightened look at him, then nodded, darting into a crack in the walls that Kayden couldn’t hope to fit into. Kayden just kept running and running.
An arrow hit his leg, shattering one more piece of Shardplate, and finally his Plate gave out like he’d been dreading all along. There was a turn up ahead into the space between two plateaus that hadn’t been covered in archers yet, only a few strides away, but his Plate wasn’t supported. It was all he could do to remain upright.
He looked at that crack in the walls. Then slowly, deliberately, he picked up one leg, and stepped forward. Step. Step. Step. Arrows fell around him, but none of them touched him.
And he reached the chasm, and drove himself down it, one step at a time, only barely outrunning the archers’ arrows. Then, at last, he collapsed into a heap... and noticed that there were no arrows falling. He looked around, turning his head as much as he could manage, and no faces lined the chasm edges. He’d done it! He’d outrun them!
He slowly began to take his Shardplate off, one piece at a time. It was too shattered to do him any good now. Then, once he was free of its confines for the first time in more than a day, he simply lay beside it on the hard rock of the chasm floor, and slept. He didn’t know where he would go from here, or if he’d be able to survive. But now, thanks to Paca, he had a chance. And somehow, he would survive, and someday he’d go back. But for now, at least he was safe. And that was enough.
Kynedath was lynched, but didn't die! Again...
Votes:
Kynedath(3): Zas, Twei, Macen
I am going to have to extend this night cycle once again by 48 hours, my apologies.
