The Darkslayer: Chaos at the Castle (Book 6) (34 page)

“Stop them, Billip!” Jubilee said.

He waved her off.

Crack!

“Ow!”
Brak exclaimed.

Crack!

“Ow!” Georgio moaned.

Nikkel stood over them
, his father’s club in his hand.

Both young men panted for breath. Brak wiped the dust and blood from his nose
, and Georgio popped his dislocated finger back into place, grimacing.

Something tugged at Billip’s heart as he saw Nikkel standing there with
Mikkel’s club in his hand. The strapping young man would be a spitting image of his father in a few more years.

Rubbing his head, Georgio said, “What did you do that for, Nikkel? I was winning.”

“Were not,” Brak said. “I’m so hungry.”

“I’m hungrier,” said Georgio.

Nikkel, who’d been glum and quiet ever since they left, showed the slightest smile.

“Well, Nikkel,” Billip said, “
You found something, didn’t you?”

Nikkel shrugged his muscular shoulder
. “I think so. Come on.”

***

Following Nikkel and Billip, Georgio glanced over his shoulder from time to time. Jubilee sat on Quickster’s back, frowning and holding her stomach. The girl looked like she hadn’t eaten in days, and her hazel eyes were sagging. Beside her and Quickster, Brak walked in long slow strides, but he was able to keep up, eyes forward, chin up and casting a scowl at Georgio before looking away.

Georgio clenched his fingers in and out of a fist. Even though he healed quickly, they were still sore. Hitting Brak was like hitting rock. The man, or young man, whatever he was, was tough. Unnaturally so, but so was Georgio.

“What are you looking at?” Jubilee said. “You’re fortunate, you know. Brak could have killed you. He was holding back.”

Georgio turned and stopped.

“You want to walk or ride?”

“I’m a Royal
, you should know,” she said, folding her arms across her scrawny chest.

Georgio rolled his eyes. Jubilee had made it a point to mention
that at least a dozen times since they left, and he was getting sick of it. And if she was a Royal, how’d she wind up with them?
Venir’s right: all Royals are a pain in the arse. 

“Quickster is mine
, little girl, and if you don’t mind your mouth, I’ll have him buck you from the saddle.” He glared at her and put his fingers to his mouth, ready to whistle.

Jubilee looked away and mumbled something under her breath.

“What was that?”

She tightened the cloak around her body and said nothing.

He glared at Brak.

The big man stood at Jubilee’s side like a watchdog.

“You three quit boogering around, else we’ll leave you!” Billip said. “And don’t tempt us! We’d all have been much better off if we left you to begin with!”

Georgio didn’t even bother to run
and catch up. He didn’t have the energy, and it didn’t seem that Jubilee or Brak did either. Instead, they followed the men up ahead, one ravenous step after the other under the blistering heat.

As for Brak, Georgio still hadn’t sorted out all of his thoughts on him. He hadn’t even seen the big man smile as of yet, and that disturbed him. Brak’s face was familiar
. Like Venir’s but different. If it weren’t for the man’s blue eyes, he’d have little resemblance at all. Brak was quiet, whereas Venir was loud. It just didn’t sit well. Other than that, when they weren’t fighting over food, Brak was alright.

He put his canteen to his lips. Nothing came out. “Ah…”

And of all things, the two of them could only talk about food, and that’s what got them in trouble to begin with. Staying on watch one night, while the others slept, they got caught up with themselves, talking about food and eating most of it the same night. When Billip woke them up the next day, he was furious. Not only had they fallen asleep, but almost all the rations were gone. It seemed one had been blaming the other ever since, and they were taking their guilt and hunger out on one another.

Ahead,
Billip and Nikkel stood on top of a ridge, talking to each other and pointing downward. Georgio climbed the rocky hill and stood between them.

“What is it?” Georgio said, looking over the ridge.

A field of cacti lay below: some tall, others round, some three times bigger than a man.

Georgio held his rumbling stomach.
“So, Nikkel found some cactus. I don’t see how that’s of much help to us. Maybe the round ones would help, but there’s no way to get to them. What are we supposed to do, Nikkel? Feed on Cactus needles?”

Billip shot him a look
. “There’s game in those needles, Boy. All we have to do is roust it out.”

“And how do you suppose we do that?” Jubilee said with a smug look on her face. “And what kind of game are we talking about
?”

“Pheasant
, antler rabbits, and foxes to start,” Nikkel said. “Not to mention the water in the round husks.”

“There’s no way to get to them!” Georgio said. “It’s impossible. Let’s just keep moving north. All we’ve done now is waste time by moving east.”

All of them were hungry and weary. Eyes were tired and full of grit. Their clothes and armor coated with Outland dust so thick you couldn’t tell what color they were. They’d have been better off staying with the caravan, but Billip had talked them away from that. Now they stood, baking in the sun with nothing to eat or drink but sand and needles.

“Get your bows ready
.” Brak lowered himself over the ridge like a giant-sized sloth.

Jubilee jumped from her saddle
. “Brak! What are you doing? Get back up here, Brak! Get back up here!”

“You fool, get up here!” Billip shouted. “We don’t even have a plan yet
! There’re snakes down there, vipers and such. Step in a nest of those and you’re in for! Slat, he’s still going in.”

Brak ambled down the incline another thirty feet before he stumbled and roll
ed into a wall of needles at the bottom. Groaning, he got up and started to growl.

“Hungry.” He pulled Tonio’s sword from its sheath. “Tired of being hungry.”

Georgio looked at Jubilee and the others, swallowing. “What’s wrong with him?”

There was a wild look
to the man. An inferno erupting within. The man Georgio had wrestled with moments ago was gone, replaced by something else, something savage.

“Oooooh,” Jubilee
said. She took her place beside Billip. “I’ve seen this before.”

In a clap of thunder, Brak turned from man to monster, hacking furiously through the impassable wall of needles.

“He’s gone mad,” Billip exclaimed, readying his bow.

“No, he’s gone berserk!”
Nikkel said.

“RA
WR!”

Georgio hopped back.
The maddened sound of Brak’s voice rose the hair on his arms.

Brak hewed through the green cacti and needles like tall grass. A wild man.

“That fool’s bound to get snake bit in there!” Billip said, drawing his bow string alongside his cheek. “Look!”

Three antlered rabbits, bigger than cats, darted across the valley of cacti.

Twang!

Clatch-Zip!

One rabbit tumbled into the dust with two holes in it.

“You got him!” Jubilee shouted.

“Nikkel, you shot mine!” Billip said. “You take the rear; I take the front.” He nocked another arrow. “That’s how Mikkel and I used to go.”

Nikkel cranked back the
line on his crossbow.

“Got it!”

A silence fell.  They all watched the rustling of the towering cacti swaying back and forth, many falling down under the sub-human roars of Brak the Berserker.

“What kind of man fights cactus?” Nikkel exclaimed, eyeing Jubilee.

“A hungry one. A very hungry one.”

“Georgio,” Billip said, “Get down there and fetch that rabbit before a fox gets it.”

“But…” He looked toward the path Brak had created. “What about—”

“Get your hungry arse down ther
e! Run back up here if you’re scared!”

A bloom of pheasant burst out of the
cacti and into the air.

Clatch-zip!

“Hold your shot, Nikkel!” Billip said, “You have to wait till they clear the grove. Slat. Do I have to do it all myself?”

Twang!

Twang!

Two rock pheasants spiraled out of the sky
, falling along the jagged rim.

“Get down there!” Billip ordered, nocking his bow and searching the grove.

“RAWR!”

Georgio’s boot
s slid over the slope, over the loose rocks and dirt, until he hit bottom and fell on his back. “Blast it!” He plucked needles eight inches long from his arms.

A dozen feet away, the rabbit lay just outside the cacti, an arrow and bolt in its belly and thigh.

He glanced down the path that Brak had hewn down. Cacti lay fallen and torn, leaving an ugly path behind, but there was room, just very little. He plucked another needle from his thigh.
I must look like a porcupine by now.
He grimaced.

“Toss up the rabbit,” Nikkel yelled, his black face glistening with sweat.

“I will!” Aggravated, Georgio snatched it up off the ground and slung it up the hill. “Happy now?”

Nikkel disappeared, but he could see Jubilee
’s eyes peeping down at him over the lip of the ridge.

“Go get Brak,” she ordered.

Georgio yelled back up, “You go get him!”

“You’re already down ther
e, Stupid! Besides, you ate all the food too! So go fetch it!”

“A
w, I’m going!” He stomped off into the cacti.

She was right, but he wasn’t very comfortable going after Brak, no
t after the last look he’d seen in the man’s eyes. It wasn’t human. It was something else. Something that rent flesh from bones with its teeth or bare hands.
He can’t kill me. He can’t kill me. Could he eat me?
He shook his head.
He would have to be hungrier than I am, to eat me.

Tip
-toeing his way down the path, he was twenty yards in before he heard Brak’s mad snarling and mutterings again. It tickled his spine.

“Brak,” he
said, barely audible.

White
-knuckled hand on hilt, he took a deep breath and forged ahead, painful needles biting into him time and time again. He could hear Billip calling out for him.
If they want me, they can come and find me themselves.

“Blasted needles!” he cursed, wiping the sweat from his eyes. There was no avoiding them, no matter how much he tried
, and they burned too.

Twenty feet deeper, he twisted and turned.

Ahead, a small clearing opened up, with Brak standing in the middle, plucking a yellow fruit from a plant Georgio’d never seen before. Two at a time, Brak was stuffing them in his mouth, chomping and squirting the pulp down his chin and jaw. The man had more needles in him than Georgio could ever count. They were in his face, his arms, thighs… Tiny droplets of blood ran over his face and down his clothes. It was painful to look at. How Brak ate only fruit and no needles, he didn’t know.

“Alright Brak, you win
; you’re hungrier than I am.” Georgio sheathed his sword. “What kind of fruit is that anyway?” He got closer. “I’ve never seen it before. It might be poisonous, you know.”

Turning, Brak snarled, raising his sword.

Georgio froze.

“Easy now! Go ahead, eat all you
want. I can wait.” Georgio plucked some small needles from his meaty forearms. “But save some for everyone else.”

Brak kept eating, grunting and swinging his sword.

“That used to be my sword, you know. Venir gave it to me.”

Brak didn’t understand. His face was still sub-human, a wild animal ready to strike at any moment.
Georgio didn’t care. He was too hungry. Too tired. He sat down.

As ten more fruit disappeared down Brak’s
throat, the sword in his arm lowered, and the growling stopped. Stuffing another fruit in his mouth, Brak blinked at Georgio and held his hand out. “Hungry?”

Georgio nodded, extending his hand.

“Good,” Brak said, tossing it over. A smile riddled in needles crossed his lips.

A long shadow rose up beh
ind Brak. It was a snake. Big, thick and hooded. Eyes like emeralds and a red flicking tongue.

“Brak, look out!”

Brak turned, but too late. The snake sank its fangs into the back of the big man’s shoulder.

Georgio jumped to his feet and ripped his sword out.  

Two more snakes slithered from beneath the cacti, rearing up and blocking his path.