incantation, Jaquele raised the sword high above her head and plunged it into the unconscious girl.
Lian’s heart sank, the other girls with her who were sobbing before, now started wailing loudly.
Blood was now sipping from the canoe and mixing with the pool’s silvery water beneath. Suddenly, Jaquele and then Pato both turned to stare past the bound girls to the nearby channel between the two cliffs.
Lian thought she heard some sounds coming from the direction the Salmanto were staring at. Now, she was sure she heard sounds…sounds of clashing of steel and shouts of battle.
---
Themus, Hlare and Isendy were charging through a pack of the Salmantos’ henchmen on their way to the river up ahead.
Now Isendy created a wall of fire that blocked their adversaries from them. Hlare who had pin-pointed the location of two henchmen before the flame came up sent two arrows flying through the fire, two bodies fell at the other side. As the fire began to subside Themus jumped through with a fierce yell and swung his blade above the shoulder of another henchman; the head fell to the ground.
Hlare sheathed her bow, unsheathed her two scimitars and followed Themus. Isendy was right at her heel.
Themus jumped backwards just in time to prevent a spear from penetrating the left side of his torso. He grabbed the handle of the spear of his attacker and plunged it through an enemy on his right. He then sunk his own blade into the wielder’s neck.
Isendy was now levitating a couple of feet above the ground and three fiery balls of flame, a foot in diameter, revolved quickly around him. He swung his arm toward at enemy and a ball left his side and was sent flying at the enemy who screamed and writhed on the ground as the flame engulfed him. Another fiery ball instantly formed beside Isendy to replace the spent one.
Hlare was poking her scimitars into belly after belly; as one raised his spear to attack her she sunk one blade into his centre, she did the same to a woman who swung at her and missed. An enemy swung his blade down at her before she had time to dodge; she formed an X with both scimitars to block the blow and was forced to her knees. He attempted to raise his spear and attack again but Hlare stuck both blades into his gut before his spear could land.
Now only three henchmen stood between the warriors and the pool ahead. They were shaken and stood a fair distance away from the warriors as they stared frightfully at them.
Suddenly one turned to run in the opposite direction and the others followed. Isendy launched out all three fireballs and each landed squarely on an enemy, quickly ending their lives.
The trio progressed to the pond and saw the two remaining Salmantos, both were standing beside the canoe in the bloodied water. Pato was carrying a goblet that seemed to contain the eerie mixture of blood and some silvery watery fluid.
The two guards with the remaining three girls fled at the sight of the warriors that had defeated so many of their comrades.
Whilst still holding the goblet Pato spoke “I believe you are here for a girl, which one?”
“We want Lian of the Velcan village” Hlare answered breathlessly “Just give her to us and we’ll be on our way”
“What became of Gandil?” Jaquele asked in her unusually calm tone, despite the situation.
“You need not spare him thought. Not evermore” Isendy answered whilst still airborne.
Pato took the goblet to his lips and began gulping down the fluid.
Jaquele who was staring blankly at the pool before now turned to face the trio squarely.
“I would have allowed you leave with the girl but Gandil must be avenged”
Pato had finished his drink and was now laughing hard, his small shoulders heaved up and down as he did so and his eyes were glowing. He suddenly pointed at Isendy. An eerie darkness crept over the spot where Isendy levitated and a split second later a massive lightning bolt struck him from above.
The hood of Isendy’s cloak was flung back upon impact to reveal his badly scarred and aged face. It had an expression of utter shock on it.
Hlare and Themus watched in despair as their monk, now blackened from the blast fell from the air and lay perfectly still on the ground.
With a scream Pato directed both arms at Themus and Hlare. The eerie darkness instantly crept over them. Themus jumped backwards and saw the flash of light hit the ground in front of him, Hlare somersaulted to her left and let an arrow fly at the same time the bolt struck by her right side.
Pato evaded the projectile by levitating himself. He was now relentlessly sending bolt after bolt at the two, all the while Jaquele just watched, perhaps she felt Pato would not want her interrupting or perhaps she wanted to see Pato’s new powers after drinking of the product of the ritual.
Themus jumped unto a tree-size rock to evade a bolt, he then did a backflip away from the rock as the eerie darkness fell over him again. Whilst he was in the air, the rock exploded to thousands of pieces.
Hlare, who was six feet to Themus’ left, leapt backwards to avoid a bolt and whilst in the air sent two arrows at the airborne Salmanto, she sent another one at him as she landed on her rear and then rolled sideways to avoid another bolt. Pato easily dodged right, left and then dropped down two feet to evade the last arrow.
Suddenly, Themus saw an opportunity. “Stay hidden so he can’t see you” he shouted at Hlare and began running at Pato with ample speed and determination.
Pato was forty feet away and seven feet in the air now. As Themus drew nearer, Pato kept aiming both arms at him and the darkness kept sweeping over him but he was always a few feet away as the bolts struck.
When he was a few strides away, with a warrior’s shout, he made a giant leap into the air and with both arms he tried to send his sword through the Salmanto’s stomach.
Pato hastily levitated higher, managing to elude Themus. At that instant, Hlare leapt out from behind a nearby tree and let two arrows fly across the path of Pato’s levitation. One went into his small stomach and the other pierced the front of his neck and poked out from the back.
As Pato choked, he began to slowly drop to the ground. As Themus waited below to give him the final blow he noticed from the side of his eye that Jaquele no longer was where she was before.
“Don’t let her drink the water” he screamed as he saw she was reaching for the goblet the dying Pato had drunk from.
As Jaquele stretched out her arm to pick the goblet floating in the pool, Hlare shot an arrow straight at her neck.
In a blur of movement, Jaquele was out of the pool and behind Hlare. Hlare had an expression of confusion as she felt a sharp pain at her back.
“No!” Themus yelped as he watched the scene unfolding before him.
Hlare stood rigidily, eyes wide open, and Jaquele stood behind her, one hand holding the blade that stuck into Hlare’s back, her other hand supporting the goblet as its content were emptied into her mouth.
Themus felt something wrap around his right leg and turned around sharply to see the bloodied Pato grasping his leg with his left arm and aiming his right arm at him.
As the ground around him darkened, Themus frantically dragged himself backwards with Pato still clutching to him. The bolt hit Pato squarely on his back, blackening the small body instantly. The residual current from Pato’s body swept through Themus, who fell to the ground and began convulsing.
Meanwhile, Hlare lay face down on the ground; a pool of blood was quickly forming around her body. Themus’ convulsion had now abated but he could not move and he felt excruciating pain throughout his body.
As he lay facing at the sun above, misery filled his heart.
They had failed. His comrades were dead and he was soon to join them. Would this last Salmanto let Lian go? That would be very unlikely.
Themus knew he had only seconds left to live. He managed to turn his head to the direction where the last Salmanto stood.
Jaquele stood over Hlare’s body and stared at Themus with glowing eyes. She was fifty feet away.
Then suddenly she was ri
ght next to him. Themus didn’t know whether she sprinted to him or just teleported. Before she drank the fluid he had seen a blur when she moved but now it was as though she just teleported.
“Just let Lian go” Themus murmured weakly as Jaquele squatted beside him, knife in hand.
“You and your companions have sealed her fate” was the calm response.
Themus caught a movement ahead. It was Hlare, she was not dead. Instead she was slowly dragging herself on her belly towards the pool. She was now just a few feet away.
Themus must have expressed his shock because Jaquele turned and saw Hlare.
Themus reached out for his last reserve of energy and caught Jaquele by the wrist and held tight so she would not go after Hlare. It was the wrist that bore the knife. Jaquele immediately used her left arm to support the right as she struggled to thrust the blade into Themus’ chest.
They struggled for several seconds and Themus, already weakened from the bolt and the battle with Gandil, began to budge under Jaquele’s weight and force. The blade drew nearer and nearer his chest. With a visceral scream he forced the blade away from his heart as it penetrated flesh and bone.
Now, all strength gone,Themus lay spread-eagled on the ground. Jaquele pulled the blade from Themus’ left shoulder, raised it above her head with both arms and aimed it directly at Themus’ heart.
Then she hammered it down. But then she stopped in mid-air, the knife just a few inches away and just remained in that position. Themus could see fear in her