City of Steel (Chaos Awakens Book 3) (12 page)

"I need strong arms and backs."  Xandrith called again.  "There is a horde of trolls on the way, and if we don't get moving quickly then this accident will be the least tragic thing that happens today.  Do you hear me?" 

"They hear you, but I don't think they're of any mind to help." Xan's own voice startled him for a moment. He looked to his left to see the younger version of himself peering into the wrecked cart. "They've gone through too much already. These people are broken."

"Broken or not, if they want to live they have to keep moving."  Xandrith replied, realizing as he did so that anyone who could hear him would think he'd lost his mind. 

"I'm not sure they want to live. Look at their faces. They've given up."

"They don't get to give up. If you're alive, you don't get to quit." Xandrith turned to a man near him who was staring blankly at the horizon. "Start gathering the survivors together, I'm going to go see to the other carts." The man didn't respond. Xandrith balled his fist and punched the man in the side of the head. He didn't hit him as hard as he could, but the blow still knocked him on his ass. The color seemed to flood back into his face as he hit the ground, his cheeks going red and rage filling his eyes. "Get your ass off the ground and help the survivors!" Xandrith shouted.

The man looked on the verge of becoming belligerent, but Xandrith stepped over him, a horned beast towering over a fallen man. "We've all lost a lot, and some have lost everything, but these people, these survivors, need someone to do what needs to be done. We can mourn when we reach the end of the road, but for now we will keep fighting. Now get your ass up off the ground and start helping the survivors."

The rage fled the man's face.  "My son..."  He whispered, looking back at the wreckage. 

"Wouldn't have wanted his father and all of his friends to be torn apart by trolls.  Get up, be strong for him one last time.  Be the father he would have been proud of.  There are other children here who will have lost their parents, and they'll need an adult to be strong for them.  You can fall apart later."  Xandrith didn't have children.  He had Haley, and she'd turned her back on him when the cursed axe had taken control.  He couldn't begin to understand this man's pain, but one thing he did understand was not giving in to despair. Giving in wasn't an option. 

The man nodded numbly and got up.  Xandrith didn't know if he would hold out, but he at least he was moving again.  The assassin turned his back on the first cart and began moving towards the second.  Unlike the first, it hadn't flipped entirely over.  It was on its side, the momentum from the crash mostly dissipated by the snow it had plowed up in its slide across the ground.  It was still heavily damaged, but nowhere nearly as bad as the cart Xandrith had been riding on.  The occupants seemed to be in somewhat better condition as well. 

Xan's ever-present shadow spoke from beside him.  "The trolls will be here soon.  We need to get these people moving as fast as we can.  The fact that they haven't sounded that head-splitting horn again isn't a good sign.  My guess is that they only used it to create havoc amongst us.  It probably has the same effect on their people, so now that their own army is drawing nearer they won't use it again. We have little time left."

Real Xan gave a nod of agreement.  That made a lot of sense.  "Gather your survivors together.  I need some people to help me get this cart turned back on its wheels.  Who can help?"  The assassin called to the people of the second cart.  They'd already begun to gather together.  There were people who were obviously seriously injured, and Xan spotted more than a few dead, but they seemed to have weathered the crash far better than those of Xan's cart.  A few men separated from the ground and took up positions around the cart.

"Is anyone in good enough condition to run to the other carts?"  Xandrith asked as he took up place next to the toppled cart as well.  A young woman who’d positioned herself to help lift the cart raised her hand.

"I can do it, sir."  She said in a weak, shaking voice. 

Xandrith looked her over.  She was maybe sixteen years old and covered in bruises and scrapes, but apparently in passable condition.  She looked scared, but there was a determination in her eyes that Xandrith recognized as a deep pool of strength.  If she lived to adulthood, this kid would be someone to reckon with. 

"What's your name?" Xandrith asked.

"Raina, Mister Trast."  She replied. For a moment Xan saw Haley in the girl, they were so different the comparison wasn’t really fitting, but she had that sort of determination about her. She shivered as a chill breeze swept the mountain pass and it broke the spell that had settled over the assasin. No, this wasn’t Haley. He couldn’t afford to start making new friends now.

"Raina, I want you to run to each of the carts and gather the survivors together. They need to come up to this cart as soon as possible. You need to move as fast as your legs will take you. We’re out of time. Trolls will be upon us any moment now."

Raina nodded her head once, looking out over the landscape at the other fallen carts. 

"Go!"  Xandrith snapped, and with a start she jumped into motion.  She moved like a scared rabbit, skittering across the snow top with surprising agility.  Xan only watched her for a few moments before turning back to the issue at hand. 

"Everyone get under this side of the cart." Xandrith called. "I'll give a count of four and then we'll all lift as one. It's important you don't give in once the cart starts to lift. If you let go or fall back, the cart will come crashing down on those who've held their place and there will be even more dead to deal with. Are we understood?"

A general note of agreement swept through those who'd come to help.  There weren't a lot of them.  Xandrith wasn't sure how heavy the cart was, but he would have liked at least another five or six able bodies lifting just to be safe.  There wasn't time to waste, though.  They needed to get the cart righted and ready for travel.  

"Alright, all hands to positions." He called. "Are we ready?" Nods and words of affirmation came back to him. Xandrith started the count. "One." He braced his own grip at the center of the wagon, his powerful claws clasping the wooded frame. At his side his illusionary alter-ego had taken a grip as well. "Two. Three." He prepared the muscles in his legs and tensed the muscles in his arms. "Four, go!" They lifted. The grunts and groans of straining men and women filled the frosty air. There was a brief moment when Xandrith wasn't sure they had enough strength to move the heavy cart, but the desperation fueled effort began to lift the cart from its side. The first half of the lift was the hardest. It was as though the vehicle wanted to stay dead in the snow where it might never have to face the rigors of the road again. Xandrith poured his all into the lift though, and the cart began to lift. Once they gained momentum it lifted into place with surprising ease, and once they were past the apex of the lift the cart’s own weight pulled it back to its wheels. It creaked and groaned as it settled back on all four wheels.

Xandrith put aside his elation and set about the next important task.  "Who knows how to operate this thing?  I need a driver." Xandrith expected to find a volunteer quickly enough.  He'd even allowed himself to hope that the original driver had survived the crash, but it became apparent quite quickly that they were in trouble.  None of the men and women at the cart knew how to operate the mechanna transport. 

Other people began to poor in, sent by Raina from the other carts.  Xandrith questioned them as they arrived, trying to find someone who could aid their cause.  He received naught but blank stares in reply to his questions.  They'd gone through all the effort of righting the cart, but now they had no one trained in its operation.  Far in the distance from the direction they'd traveled, a war horn sounded. Its chilling call echoing through the still mountain pass.  The trolls were coming. 

"That doesn't sound good."  His younger version remarked. 

"Pile everyone aboard this wagon!"  Xandrith commanded.  He dashed for the seat normally occupied by the driver and hopped in.  There were a dozen different levers and buttons.  A deep blue light glowed at one end of the console.  "Shit, shit, shit."  He noted. 

"Press the blue thing."  Young Xan offered. 

Xandrith pressed the blue glowing button, but it didn't move.  More and more people were gathering around the cart, pushing themselves inside to the point that the entire contraption was stuffed well beyond full.  People hung from the top, clinging together to hold tight. All the eyes that weren't looking back down the road towards the coming troll horde were watching Xandrith as he tried to learn the mechanna controls with no prior experience. 

"They're coming!"  Someone shouted from behind the assassin.  A surge of panic passed through him. 

"That light should be purple."  A female voice said from beside Xan in the place where his illusionary friend should have been.  He looked to his side and Raina had crawled onto the bench seat next to him, sitting where his doppelganger had just been.  She was pointing to the blue light.  "Here." She said, and then her hands were sliding across the controls, moving the position of sliding switches and poking at the buttons.  The blue light blinked off and on three times, and then when it came back on it was purple. 

"You know how to drive this thing?"  Xan asked incredulously. 

Raina shrugged, looking down at her feet. "My father was the driver."

Xandrith moved to the side and pulled her to sit in front of the controls.  "Get us moving!"  The earth had begun to shake beneath their cart.  The trolls were nearly upon them. 

Raina didn't hesitate.  Her hands zoomed across the controls and in seconds the cart started forward, slowly at first, but it gained speed steadily.  Xandrith jumped from the driver's seat and moved to the roof.  He had to weave his way through the mass of people clinging to the cart for dear life.  When he reached the back of the cart he got his first look at the trouble they were in. Hundreds of trolls were surging down the mountain pass in their wake, gaining ground quickly as they came.  Some of them ran, and some rode upon strange creatures. The beasts were larger than a horse, but with the slim musculature of a feline and heads like one of the great lizards, long, narrow, and full of teeth.  Their bodies were slick, sparsely covered in what looked like orange feathers.  Xandrith had never seen their like before, but they were fast.  The trolls were closing the distance even as the cart crept up to its max speed. 

Xandrith worked his way back to the front and dropped down into the seat beside Raina. "Are we going as fast as we can?"

Raina tapped a gauge with a needle that was bouncing back and forth between two numbers that meant nothing to the assassin. She seemed to notice his blank look. "That measures the stress on the drive gears. If we push any further than 4000 on those gears they could start shredding themselves. At that point we won't be moving at all." She pointed to another gauge. "This is our power throughput from the energy coil. We aren't at maximum yet, but the added weight is making it more difficult to get up to speed. The best I can do is adjust our power output higher as we gain more speed and take the pressure off the gears, but if we have to stop in a hurry the entire cart is going to fly apart at the seams. The brakes aren't made to handle this kind of load."

Xandrith nodded, getting the general gist of what Raina was telling him.  The cart was doing all that it could.  "The trolls will be on us in a matter of minutes if we don't find some more speed, Raina.  If you know any tricks, now would be the time to put them to use." 

"Have people rip the furniture out and throw it behind us. Anything that's heavy that can go will help us get moving quicker." Raina suggested. "I'll push the limits a little harder, but it's a risk."

Xan put a hand on her shoulder.  "Do what you can.  I'll see to clearing out the cart."  With that, the assassin jumped back to the roof.  Everyone was trying their best to get a view of the approaching horde and it took Xandrith a moment to gather their attention. 

"Listen up!" He shouted several times before people seemed to be looking in his direction.  "If we want to get away from those trolls, we need to start throwing everything that isn't attached to the cart over the side.  We need to lower our weight or they're going to catch up to us, do you understand?" 

He didn't have to ask twice about it. In moments items began to fly off the side of the cart. He opened the hatch into the cart and told those inside the same thing. They were packed in so tightly that it took them a bit longer to get organized, but soon they were ripping up benches, cots, and anything else that they could get a hold of and throwing them out the doors and windows. Xandrith closed the hatch and stood back up.

A black shafted arrow slammed into the face of the man standing next to him, ripping through his eye to protrude out the back of his head.  His remaining eye blinked once and then he fell over dead as screams filled the air.  More arrows followed, at first just a couple, but soon they were falling all around the cart in a deadly rain.  Those trolls riding upon the quick footed mounts had closed to within arrow range and they weren't wasting any time.  Luckily their shots were mostly random fire.  Hits were pure luck at the speeds and distances they were dealing with. 

"Throw the dead over the side!"  Xandrith shouted.  It wasn't a nice thing to do, but this was survival.  The loss of the extra weight could only help.  To their credit, those around him immediately set about the grim business of throwing their dead friends and family from the cart.  Desperation was driving them, but panic was buried just beneath the surface.  Xan could see it ready to explode at any moment.  A scream sounded from behind Xandrith in the direction of the driver's seat and a cold chill passed down Xan's spine.  Raina.  Xan turned to go and check on the young woman who'd been forced to take her father's place and nearly tripped over a man pulling the hatchway into the cart open. 

"There isn't room in there."  Xandrith snapped at him, but it was no use.  With the arrows raining down around them, there would be no way to reason with the terrified.  The man pulled the door open and dropped down inside to escape the rain of arrows, falling on the heads of the people crowded in below.  Four more people were right on his heels, but Xan didn't have time to fight with them.  Chances were that there would be more injuries and deaths inside the cart, but how did you explain that to a group of people being targeted by bowmen?  An arrow flew past Xan's right ear, missing him by only a few inches.  He cursed under his breath and made his way back to the driver seat.  The crowd atop the wagon was thinning.  The dead and those foolish enough to cram themselves inside were clearing space.