Chapter Nine
The Riders' camp now looked more like a war zone than a base camp for a marauding band of brigands. Tents were burning, dozens of Gatherers were running around setting more tents ablaze or battling with the few Riders who were protecting the camp, and the smoke in the air was so thick that Keo started hacking almost as soon as he stepped outside. It didn't help that the sun was high in the sky now, its rays falling hard and hot, but Keo had to ignore that so he could focus on escape.
Keeping his head low and covering his mouth and nose with one hand to protect them from the smoke, Keo dashed forward through the camp, running around or between ruined tents and the fires that ate at them. He jumped over the burned corpse of a Rider, his eyes focused on the trees surrounding the camp. If he could just make it to the trees, then he would be home free.
But when Keo was about halfway from the tent, he heard the twang of a bow and instinctively ducked. An arrow flew over his head, causing him to look in the direction from which it came and spotted an archer—probably a Gatherer, based on the fact that he wore a similar leather coat to the other Gatherers—standing not far from him.
This archer, however, was not content to remain at a distance. He quickly advanced on Keo, drawing and firing arrow after arrow from his quiver, forcing Keo to go on the defensive by dodging or deflecting arrows with Gildshine. The archer shot fast, which made it impossible for Keo to find an opening in which to escape, although he did have a moment in which he was amazed that the archer could apparently see him through the smoke and flame of the camp.
One of the arrows grazed Keo's shoulder, making him wince, but he managed to dodge the next one. The archer was now only a few feet away from him and had run out of arrows, but rather than run away, the archer threw his bow aside and drew a sword of his own from his belt and then charged at Keo with it held out before him.
Keo blocked the blow with Gildshine, but the archer—perhaps swordsman was a better description of him now—struck again and again. Keo just barely blocked each blow, which came at him so fast and so furiously that he was still on the defensive. He had no idea if the swordsman held some sort of grudge against him or if he simply thought Keo was another Rider, but in any case, Keo had no time in which to think about it because of the speed and ferocity with which the Gatherer struck.
But then the wind changed direction and suddenly the smoke was blown into the eyes of the Gatherer. The Gatherer ceased attacking and looked away from the smoke, which gave Keo the opportunity he needed to slash at the Gatherer. Gildshine cut through the Gatherer's chest without difficulty, causing the Gatherer to shout in pain, but Keo followed that up with a kick to the gut, sending the Gatherer sprawling to the ground.
Keo did not wait to see if the Gatherer would get up and continue to fight. He ran toward the trees again, gripping his grazed shoulder, his eyes tearing up from the smoke and his hacking and coughing becoming worse and worse. He expected the Gatherer to get back up and come after him, but he did not hear anyone chasing him, and soon he was back in the trees, running as quickly as he could, not bothering to be quiet or stealthy about it, mostly because the sounds of explosions and fighting from the camp masked whatever sounds he may have been making as he fled.
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Keo did his best to get as far away from the Riders' camp as he could, but the combination of fatigue from his fight with the Gatherer, his bleeding shoulder, and the smoke that had gotten into his lungs forced him to find a place to rest for a while. He found a couple of trees that grew so closely together that their roots were intertwined and, after making sure that no one could see him from the other side of the trees, went and hid behind it. He slid to the ground, coughing and hacking, despite his best efforts to remain silent in case anyone was following him.
To deal with his shoulder wound—his most immediate problem—Keo ripped off a portion of his sleeve and wrapped it around his wounded shoulder as best as he could. It would not be a good, long term solution, but it would have to do until he could have an actual healer look at it. Besides, the wound he had taken was not that deep, nor had the arrow hit anything vital, so perhaps even without a healer to treat it, the wound would heal on its own if Keo gave it time.
It was the lung damage that might be the biggest problem. Although the air in the forest was a lot clearer here than in the camp, so clear that Keo's coughing and hacking was starting to subside, the fact was that Keo knew how badly smoke could damage someone's lungs. Once, a house in New Ora had caught fire while Keo was running some errands. The house had burned down, but its owner, who had been inside it at the time, had been saved, only to die shortly afterward due to all of the smoke he inhaled. Keo was now afraid of smoke himself because of that, as he had been there when the man died from the smoke.
Of course, I didn't inhale nearly as much smoke as he did, Keo thought. So I am probably going to be okay as long as I don't inhale any more smoke. I should focus on getting back to the Gatherers' camp now and rescuing Dlaine.
Keo forced himself to get up. He was just about to leave when he suddenly heard two sets of footsteps crunching across the leaves and twigs of the forest floor nearby. Not knowing who it was, but suspecting that it was either a couple of Gatherers or a couple of Riders, Keo gripped Gildshine in both hands and stood against one of the trees. He held Gildshine up, listening carefully to the footsteps as they came closer and closer to his hiding place.
When the footsteps sounded too close for comfort, Keo stepped around the tree and swung Gildshine as quickly as he could. But just as he did that, he saw Gildshine flying toward Dlaine's head, but it was too late for Keo to stop.
Thankfully, however, Dlaine was fast. He ducked, causing Gildshine to fly past his head, and then snapped, “Damn it, Keo, what was that for? Almost took off my head there.”
Lowering Gildshine, Keo coughed hard for a moment before saying, “Dlaine? I thought you were back in the Gatherers' camp. I thought you were one of them trying to sneak up on me.”
Dlaine, who had both his and Keo's packs strung over his shoulders, shook his head. “I escaped. Or rather, Jola here saved me.”
Dlaine gestured at a spot just to his right, but as usual, Jola was invisible. Still, Keo did see the leaves crunch where she stood, which was how he knew for sure that she was standing right there.
“Jola?” said Keo. He hacked loudly before regaining control of his throat. “Where was she while we were at the hands of a woman who threatened to take our manhood away?”
“Said she got confused and lost in that earlier fight between the Gatherers and the Riders,” said Dlaine. “Said all of the noise scared her. But she managed to find me all on her own and even managed to retrieve our packs from the Gatherers' treasury. See?”
Dlaine hefted the two bags on his shoulders. “And they have everything in them still, too, including the potion I need for my daughter. Isn't Jola the greatest?”
“I have to admit, that is pretty good,” said Keo. He patted his chest and coughed slightly. “Why did you come here?”
“Because Jola suggested we look for you, of course, after I told her where you went,” said Dlaine.
“You mean you guys really care about me that much?” said Keo.
“Nope,” said Dlaine, shaking his head. “Frankly, I just wanted to take my stuff and run, but Jola thought you might still be able to help us, so I agreed to go look for you and make sure that you hadn't been brutally murdered by the Riders.”
Keo's shoulders slumped and thought, Well, that explains why he didn't ask me why I'm coughing. “Oh. Well, I guess that's better than leaving me to die, anyway.”
“Right,” said Dlaine. He suddenly ducked when an explosion sounded from the direction of the camp. “What was that?”
“Celeresis led a group of Gatherers to attack the Riders' camp while I was trying to kill Yuras,” Keo explained. “I was just supposed to be a distraction for the actual attack, you see. It didn't really matter whether I actually killed Yuras o
r not.”
“Figured as much,” said Dlaine, shaking his head. “Celeresis didn't strike me as the kind of woman to rely on people she doesn't know to do her dirty work, at least not entirely. What's going on at the camp now?”
“The Gatherers and Riders are fighting each other to the death,” said Keo. “So are Celeresis and Yuras.”
“So that means we should get the hell out of here before any of them try to come after us,” said Dlaine.
“Right,” said Keo, nodding. “But aren't there any Gatherers coming after you already? I mean, surely they must know that you and Jola have escaped.”
“I think they're too distracted by their fight with the Riders to even know I escaped,” said Dlaine. “Granted, this one guy did notice, but we knocked him out and hid him in the bushes where no one could see him. But once he gets up, we'll probably have all of the Gatherers on our tail, so that's why I think we should leave as fast as possible.”
“All right,” said Keo. “Then let's go.”
***