Seven Swords by Michael E. Shea (the speed reading book .TXT) 📕

HE KNOWS. Susan’s voice was faint in Jon’s mind and made him shiver. HE KNOWS ABOUT THE MINES. HE KNOWS THEY’RE IN THERE.

San’doro stood, his face hidden under his black hood. Vrenna flicked her saber, blood and rain droplets flew off of it in a mist. Adrin beat the rain from his hat and wiped the blood from his face leaving red streaks over his eyes. Then he pulled his hat on tight and refastened his leather neck guard.

“We have to go,” said Jon. “They know where the villagers are.” Something exploded in the village, a sealed house or a barn, sending a pillar of green fire into the night air. Jon saw it illuminate the Old One, the titan god watching their struggle like the swarming of ants. What battles had this titan seen? What secrets did it keep hidden in its depths?

The Swords began their trek west under shadow avoiding the eyes of the demons below.

“Do they follow?” Jon asked Susan in his mind. She did not reply. He panicked for a moment. What was happening to her? What was this battle doing to her?

NOT YET. Susan replied just when Jon thought she had not or could not hear him. THEY KILLED THORN.

Jon stared at the green fires below. The bodies of the fallen Sticks littered the ground. How many were left? How many more must they kill?

“Susan, move into the caves,” thought Jon.

They reached the summit and the mouth of the northern mine shaft. Ca’daan waited for them.

“They’ve gone insane in there,” said the brill farmer. “You will not want to go in there. They do not understand. They are panicked. They saw their lives lost in that burning town.”

“The Sticks know the villagers are in the mine,” said Jon. “They will be here soon.” Ca’daan looked at Jon and then the others. He nodded.

Jon turned to Adrin. “You and San’doro will go to the north passage. Vrenna and I will hold the south. Fight them at the mine entrances and pull them into the mine. When they reach the support shaft, shoot or break the barrel. Severn dug trenches and holes near the support. It will only take a moment for the shaft to collapse so run to the main chamber as soon as you break the barrels.”

“What then?” asked Adrin.

“There is another deeper tunnel that leads higher on the mountain. We can escape from there. We can hope most of those that remain are caught in the mines.”

“Buried once again,” said San’doro.

Jon looked at the desert ghost, unsure of the look in his eyes. “Yes,” said Jon. San’doro held his gaze and then nodded.

Adrin and San’doro began the hike to the north passage. Jon turned to Vrenna. She donned a boiled leather breastplate with a high collar guard on her left shoulder. She slipped her palm spike into her right glove and put long daggers in each thigh-high boot. She had strapped two short swords to her back, one over each shoulder. Her scorpion-hilted saber hung low on her left hip. In each hand she carried a small war axe. She had thrown away her cloak and tied her hair back into a topknot to keep it out of the way. She looked at Jon and smiled. She looked like she could face all the Sticks by herself.

Jon checked his guns and reset the paper capsules of powder and shot at his sides. His two ramming rods were set, each ready to slide a fresh paper capsule into the guns in a mere moment. It would give him four good shots before he had to spend any significant time reloading.

THEY’RE COMING, Susan’s voice spoke in Jon’s head.

Below, a string of green torches began snaking its way up the hills. They would be here soon. Vrenna climbed into the rocks and faded into the shadows. Jon looked for Adrin and San’doro but saw neither. They were too far up on the rocks, he thought.

Jon waited.

Jon saw a stream of green torches trailing up the northern path as well. Jon had hoped that Adrin and San’doro would face no other man but it appeared both would be busy.

Jon could hear them riding on the path towards him. Thick leather boots fell on the gravel next to iron-shoed hooves. How many came? A dozen? Fifty? How many were left?

Jon saw the shadow of the first horse and the white sharp teeth of the first rider shining in the night. Jon wasted no time. He replaced the white sharp smile with a black ball of lead. the man toppled over backward and rolled down the rocky slope. Jon fired again and a horse reared, throwing its mortally wounded rider.

Three more riders came behind them. An axe whirled through the air, cleaving into the deep muscle of the first rider’s shoulder. A second axe planted itself into the skull of the second. The third turned and hurled a spear into the shadows from where the axes had come. Jon heard the sound of metal on wood as Vrenna had cut the spear out of the air.

Jon saw Vrenna hurl herself at the fifth rider, both short swords held across her chest and over her shoulders. When she hit the horse she pulled each blade across, scraping them together and shearing the rider’s head from his shoulders. She landed beautifully, knees bent low and one leg out in front, swords ready. The footmen attacked her three at a time. She dodged a halberd strike, parried another spear, and broke the tip of her left sword off in the breastplate of another. Her second blade locked cross guards with a Stick broadsword. Vrenna drew the dagger from her left boot and buried it in the sword wielder’s temple.

Jon had taken Vrenna’s amazing diversion to reload his pistols. Now he fired them into the mass of Sticks that continued to charge up the trail. There are many, he thought, but not enough. Some are missing. Regardless, he decided, they must fall back.

“Vrenna, we move,” said Jon. Firing into a screaming noseless fiend who charged him with a heavy wide-bladed sword.

Vrenna parried another sword strike and planted her remaining short sword under the chin of her opponent until his cap came off and balanced on the tip. She then kicked him hard into the swarm of Sticks that remained. She scooped up the broadsword, a fine blade of waved steel with an ivory skull on the base of the hilt. Then she and Jon fled into the mine shaft.

Torchlight painted the walls orange and shadows shifted in the darkness. The mine walls were smooth and square given the ease of shaping salt rock. The ceiling of the tunnel rose two heads taller than Jon, arched near the top.

Jon turned and fired twice out of the cave’s entrance. Then he and Vrenna ran down the tunnel. An alcove had been carved twenty steps from the main support and the barrel. Vrenna looked it and smiled.

“Stay in the alcove until I fire, then cut down the first two on your right to block them from your escape. Then fight your way to me. I’ll yell before I break the barrel so be ready to run or it will collapse on you.” Jon reloaded as Vrenna slipped into the alcove.

“Susan, how is Adrin,” thought Jon. There was no answer. “Susan,” he thought again and again nothing. Jon looked back deeper into the mine almost considering running down to find her. Panic welled up