The Far Wild

47 - First Rule Of Being A Hero

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Suni

A skyship! And a big one, too. This wasn’t the Needlethroat, this was something else. A full-sized skyship and, based on the number of ballistae on deck, one that was equipped for war.

Beside me, there was a slight inhale as Senesio spotted it as well.

“Get out of there!” I shouted, waving down to the others on the river. “Go!”

The skyship had already spotted them, though. From my vantage in the treetop, I could see the crew working cranks and preparing for a barrage of javelin-charges.

Maritza and Theo had stopped backpaddling now and were churning the water into a white froth as they fought toward shore. They’d a dozen paces to go and weren’t making much progress. Elpida was still in the river up to her waist, stuck between the others and the safety of the trees.

“Get to cover!” I shouted at her.

She turned and looked back at the shore long enough to wave Demetrias into the cover of the brush, then faced the canoes again.

“No one gets left behind,” she said, then waded forward, farther out into the exposed water.

What was she doing? Adrenaline pumped through me, left my hands twitching, my muscles itching for movement.

I burst into motion without thinking, dropping to all fours and grabbing the branch I’d been standing on. I slipped my feet off of it, then swung down to the next limb and landed with only a slight stumble. The tree shook around me, a rain of leaves breaking free and tumbling away. I paid them no mind, nor the assuredly fatal drop below, as I worked to the side, grabbed the nub of a snapped branch and used it like the rung of a ladder to drop down farther yet.

I faintly recalled a time when I’d been a terrible climber, hadn’t had any trust in myself to not fall and break something. There was no time for such hesitation now.

Movement above suggested Senesio was following, but I was only focused on getting out of the tree. On getting down and helping the others. They were dead meat out on the river. Exposed without any sort of cover.

Gabar was paddling hard, but his canoe was laden down with supplies and he’d started from farther out. He’d a good twenty paces to shore still when the first javelin-charge plunged into the river.

It didn’t miss him by much and I was sure the explosion would kill him, but the powder bag’s fuse extinguished beneath the surge of river water. The charge never detonated.

“Suni!” Senesio’s voice came from above.

“Paddle faster!” I shouted, as if that was going to do any good.

“Suni!”

A hand grabbed the back of my coat and dragged me to the side. My feet lost their purchase, slipping from the tree’s bark and kicking out into empty air. And then I was falling. Except, I wasn’t. Senesio had me by the arm. One good yank swung me a third of the way around the tree’s trunk.

I kicked out until my feet found something steady. Next, my arms. I wrapped them around the rough bark of a branch.

“What was that?” I shouted at Senesio once I was steady.

He pointed back to the branch I had just been on. Two arrows were protruding from it.

“First rule of being a hero: situational awareness.”

What was he on about? It didn’t matter. I didn’t have time for his antics. I dropped down to the next branch—halfway down the tree now—and looked back toward the river.

Another javelin-charge arced towards Gabar. It clipped the side of his canoe, spinning him around, but dipped into the water as well. No explosion followed; the powder bag no doubt submerged.

Meanwhile, Elpida had reached Maritza and Theo. Up to her chest in the river now, she grabbed the front of their canoe and shoved it toward shore. She gave it another push as the aft passed her. The extra speed sent the thing careening onto the muddy shore where it slid to a stop.

A javelin-charge landed in the bank and exploded.

The blast flashed bright in my eyes and I winced, turning away. The sound hit me not a moment later, so loud it echoed in my chest, near knocking me from the tree.

When I looked back, mud and sticks were plummeting from the sky, but Theo and Maritza were still moving, somehow. They’d been knocked into the shallower water, but even as I watched, they scrambled to their feet and stumbled into the foliage, joining Demetrias.

“Swim for it!” Elpida shouted and as I looked, I found her waving at Gabar. “Forget the canoe!” she screamed, wading ever closer.

“I can’t abandon the food,” he shouted back, paddling with a renewed vigor.

Something thunked into the tree beside my ear and splinters bounced off of my cheek. Another arrow, too close!

I ducked on instinct.

“Follow me!” Senesio shouted, then landed on the next limb over, one foot on either side of a v-shaped split of tree branch. “Come on, hero!” He gave a little hop, pulled his feet in, and fell between the fork of the tree. At the last moment, his hands flashed out, stopping his fall as they caught the next branch down.

I moved to follow, but the tree was positively swaying now and my balance was off. I near tumbled to one side, but caught myself, then swung down, arms burning from the cuts and scrapes of rough bark against my skin.

I landed with a thunk on a thick, lower branch. Senesio was a pace to the side, easing around the trunk to keep it between him and the archers.

“You can’t eat if you’re dead! Forget the food!” Elpida’s urgent calls rose from the river.

She was still in the water, swimming now, and reaching toward Gabar. He was halfway to shore but his canoe was riddled with arrows. The shield on his back boasted more than a few as well.

A javelin-charge slammed into the canoe. Right in the center, beside Gabar, punching through a sack of hardtack.

“Out!” Elpida shouted.

Gabar leaned to the side and rolled into the water. Or, I had expected him to. Instead, he’d a bucket in hand. He dunked it in the water, then leaned forward, tilting it toward the hissing fuse.

Elpida lunged in the water, grabbing the side of his canoe and pulling down.

The javelin-charge exploded in a blast of fire and light. Boiling, white water shot straight into the air as splinters of wood and burning sacks of supplies were flung in all directions.

“No!” I shouted.

“Suni!” Senesio was on the far side of the trunk now, waving me over. “We have to go!”

Gabar was gone.

Elpida was gone.

But, no. There was a body in the water, bobbing face down. Gabar? Elpida? I couldn’t tell. Didn’t care.

“This way, you idiot!” Senesio called again.

I ignored him. Instead, I rose to my full height and, without thinking, dived from the branch.

Time seemed to slow.

I near cleared a smaller tree, broke through its highest branches as I passed. Then the shore was below me. Then the river. Then right up on me. I hit it like a stone and the air burst from my lungs. Water exploded up my nose, into my ears. Bubbles surged around me as I plunged to the river bottom. I hit it hard—my fall only slowed so much by the water—then started floating back toward the surface.

I caught a breath of air, tuned out the burning in my nostrils, and ducked back beneath the water.

The wreckage of the canoe was just in front of me, the rear third all that remained in any recognizable piece. I kicked, moving past it to where the shape of a body was sinking. I caught it by the shoulder, spun and kicked toward the surface.

Whoever it was surprisingly light, or maybe it was just the adrenaline, giving unnatural strength to my muscles.

I broke the surface and pulled the incapacitated person with me.

Gabar. It was Gabar.

I made to kick toward shore, then stopped. Something was wrong. Gabar’s arm was gone. And, oh no.

Ancestors above.

His arm was gone and so was every bit of him below the chest.

I cursed and let go. What was left of Gabar tipped to one side and slipped back beneath the surface.

There wasn’t time to mourn. Not yet.

Elpida. Where was she? The thought cut through my panic and I sucked in a lungful of air and went down again. Arrows struck the water after me, punching through, then slowing down, streams of bubbles trailing them all the while.

Elpida. She had to be here! I kicked to hold position a pace below the surface. I spun, squinting to see through the tannin-stained water.

Nothing.

There was nothing but debris and a rain of arrows. And worse, with every kick I stirred up the mud beneath me until it was swirling all around, turning the river black as night.

My lungs were burning. Still, I turned and searched, sure I would find her.

Nothing.

Come on! I kicked toward shore, swimming like a frog and wincing at the burning in my chest. The arrows still punched through the water, but they were back where I’d last submerged. Probably the archers couldn’t see me.

I broke the surface mid-stroke and choked down more than a bit of water as I gasped. I looked left, then right, then was back under. Still no Elpida. Still nothing but mud and debris and arrows.

And then something flashed in the dark. Elpida’s belt buckle? Her sword’s hilt? Some shiny piece of her outfit revealing where she was?

But, no. There was no body attached to the thing. No Elpida anywhere nearby. Just one of her flasks, bobbing on the surface.

I snatched it in hand, then turned toward shore. I came up in a stumbling sprint, fighting the sluggishness of my legs in the water. Shouts and cries came from above and behind. The skyship’s crew, turning toward me, no doubt. Drawing back bows, taking aim.

The water shallowed to my knees and then I was at a full sprint. Senesio was ahead, in the foliage, waving me in.

I dived into the bushes, rolling through a patch of saw palmetto just as the first arrows came down. They crashed through the canopy, tearing holes in taro plants, bouncing off of branches. In moments, the javelin-charges would follow.

We didn’t wait for them. Senesio took off at a sprint and I followed, zig-zagging deeper into the wilderness.