Chapter 25 #2
“Blades of any kind will work against Sanguirs. Slice them. Stab them. Anything that’ll make them bleed.
They're faster than they look, and they can jump. If you don't remember anything else about them, remember they’re attracted to blood. Don’t get cut.
Don’t bleed near one. They can smell fresh blood and they’ll swarm toward it. ”
Being of the female persuasion, I ran a quick mental confirmation that there was no chance of me bleeding for at least another week or two. Check.
“We’ll need at least five people working to repair the damage to the outer perimeter while the rest’ll focus on taking out the Sanguirs.
The priority is getting the outer perimeter sealed back up.
The defenses in place near the top of the perimeter will handle the remaining Sanguirs for us.
For those who are volunteering to take down Sanguirs, you'll be following my orders. There are built-in entrances in the perimeter to allow access to the miasma. When I give the order to fall back, you’ll all fall back behind one of those.
” Zevrial locked eyes with me and sent me a meaningful look. I gave him a mocking salute.
No problem there, I had no intention of staying on the beach with monsters from the miasma any longer than necessary.
“Don't show off. More Sanguirs will keep coming out of the miasma the longer we stay near the shoreline, so we’ll be moving in quick, and getting out quicker. Follow orders, you’ll come out of this alive. Weapons will be provided to volunteers.”
A few hands immediately went up, including Talissa and Georlan. I raised my hand too.
The wind was still wailing as I yanked my hair into a severely tight braid, unwilling to let it hinder my vision. I’d need every edge.
Another round of murmuring began as everyone in the courtyard started talking at once.
Henrik leaned toward me as I sealed the end of my braid. “Why would you do that?” he whispered, face stricken. He shook his head. “Nevermind, better you than me.”
“My family lives near Jakavra,” I said.
He shook his head again, but I didn’t have any spare amity left in me to explain love and loyalty to him right now.
Instructor Weavir pulled a barrel out of the Fitness center, filled with daggers and knives. I and a few other volunteers moved toward it, carefully pulling sheathed blades out of the container.
“One per person. Handle first,” Instructor Weavir said gravely, demonstrating how to attach the sheath to his own woven belt, then removing it and repeating the demonstration as more trainees stepped forward.
I slid a dagger part way out of its covering, the inky black glinting before I slipped it back in. I’d only seen a handful of Starshell daggers at the Reformatory on the Sentinels, as everything made from them was incredibly rare and valuable.
Rosa stepped up beside me, selecting a dagger from the barrel. “Fancy hardware,” she remarked.
“You can say that again,” said Talissa, securing her knife at her waist. “I’ve never even seen one of these, let alone held one.”
“Just another privilege of volunteering to die young,” I joked.
“Hey knock off the gloomy shit.” Talissa faced me. “It’s not working for you.”
I pulled in a steadying breath. “Sorry, just nervous,” I said.
Rosa patted my shoulder. “Who isn’t?” Talissa begrudgingly nodded.
To my surprise, Veridiana joined the group of volunteers, elbowing me to the side as she retrieved a dagger as well.
“Not as scared as the civilians will be if the Sanguirs break through,” Talissa muttered.
“I’m not afraid of some mist worms,” Veridiana disagreed.
I stepped out of the way so more people could reach the barrel.
“This is just an early taste of the action we’ll get to see as Voyagers,” Talissa said. “And practicing against what we’ll actually be facing out there is a plus, not a minus.”
Two others I didn’t know, and Georlan joined us.
“This is the best part of being a Voyager,” Georlan selected his weapon quickly, smiling at us. “Facing down fiends, saving the day, returning to glory.” He held up his sheathed dagger for emphasis.
Zevrial’s warning about showing off rang in my ears.
“Yeah, who wants to just collect seashells for a living,” Veridiana added.
“Volunteers, with me!” Zevrial shouted. I turned and saw him striding toward the opening entrance, his predatory grace making each movement look practiced and planned.
Maybe it was.
He’d traded his bow for twin daggers at his hip. I followed him out the gate with the rest of the volunteers. There were a mere fifteen of us in total.
Without anything further, Zevrial began to sprint.
Our haphazard human hoard ran to the Jakavra coast line, chasing after him until we reached the first perimeter.
This was the closest I’d ever been to the inner perimeter. It was incredibly tall, a banyan wall with a walking platform at its zenith. I gazed up and up, trying to see how high it stretched. It was higher than I could free climb.
“This way,” Zevrial called, herding everyone toward a gated passage on the side of the wall. There were foreboding spikes on the bottom, facing the outer perimeter.
We hurried through.
Beyond, the outer perimeter became visible.
It was then I realized I'd never seen the outer perimeter before.
Rising up in a sturdy wall of cobbled basalt, it was taller than the grandest cathedral spire, with pointed metal spikes jutting out near the top.
Even so, the inner perimeter dwarfed it in scale.
The outer perimeter looked at least as thick as five palm trees.
Small stone doorways had been built into the structure, although it looked like they were spread at least a mile or two apart.
Discolored stacks of stones were visible at intervals along its length.
A cart full of dark rock with several more filled barrels rested next to the wall. The fruits of prisoner labor, fresh from the mines of Mount Kael. I could still feel the gritty powder on my skin, sweaty hands wrapped around a pickaxe as I strained to break more ore loose from solid wall.
Nails cracked with veiny roots and shards of stone. Struggling under the crushing weight of a human life.
Blood. So much blood.
I stomped down the memory. I wasn’t there anymore.
From here, I could see two massive blistered edges where the hydra had eaten through the outer perimeter.
In between those melted edges was a gaping hole, with a direct visual of the sea of miasma beyond it.
The hole was barely big enough for a person to fit through, but it was plenty big enough for Sanguirs to squeeze through.
The edge of the miasma where it met the sand was unnerving.
It foamed and bubbled, faint wisps of smoke rising from it and being carried off by the fierce wind, the smell more astringent and cloying and foul.
It was simultaneously alien and unsettling.
Corrosive gossamer waves crescendoed before curling back.
Sinister shadows swayed beneath the waves. Shredders.
The miasma moved almost like the water of Lake Mirae, lapping against the edges of the shore.
It was mere feet from the bottom edge of the outer perimeter.
It couldn't be typical for it to be this close, even if this was high tide. Low tide would only be the difference of a few yards. Any strong wave would be enough to reach the perimeter with it like this, and the winds were still brutally strong.
The conversation between Zevrial and Instructor Garcien returned unbidden to my mind. When the miasma tide recedes, they'd said. It had to recede back farther than this, right?
A chilling plausibility occurred to me. The look they'd shared between them had been conspiratory. They'd known. Just like I knew now, too.
The miasma tide wouldn’t recede far enough out to explain how close it was.
The miasma was rising.
Fear sank icy nails into the pit of my stomach.
There wasn’t time to linger on the thought, the space between the inner and outer perimeter walls was small. We were fast approaching the gap in the outer perimeter wall.
Puddles of miasma glistened on the ground as we approached. I kept a healthy distance from any sand that appeared too shiny. Any contact with miasma would eat through my flesh a lot faster than a Sanguir or Shredder. It would kill me faster, too.
Then I actually looked at a Sanguir.
They were even more grotesque than the picture my imagination had conjured.
Slick meaty organs were visibly moving through their translucent veiny skin.
Festering meat glimpsed through smoky quartz made flesh.
Sharp bloodied denticles of teeth formed a triangular shape visible on the underside of each rounded head.
Five sunken hollows rimmed the front of their head; eye sockets, I assumed.
A slimy trail of scum shadowed behind them as they moved.
The wet suckling and slurping noise their bodies made as they lurched forward was horrifying.
There were dozens of them.
I stood frozen for a second, shock, revulsion, and fear warring for supremacy.
Zevrial was already running toward two of the creatures through the open stone doorway, knife drawn. He moved like a living weapon, fluid as he sliced and stabbed his way through. Blood spattered him as he cut them down.
There were ten of us fighting, since five people were fixing the perimeter, against easily forty Sanguirs. I ran the numbers in my head. We needed to kill at least four leeches each.
Veridiana and Georlan rushed beyond the outer perimeter, joining the fray.
A big part of me didn't want to go past the boundary of the outer perimeter, or anywhere near those things. But that was fear talking, and I needed to be brave. For my family, and everyone else who lived beyond the inner perimeter.
Stiffening my spine, I ran toward the nearest Sanguir, off by itself on the side beyond the colored sand of a resin-trap. Pulling out the primitive dagger I'd been given, I jerked my arm out as I bent to slash at it. It turned toward me, slick body crunched as if preparing to spring.