Page 54 of Inferno
Once they were nearly to the other side, Nerik dared to let himself believe that they might just make it. The warriors chasing them were a fair way back, and if Stanley had managed to get things set up, the unicorn might have a chance. Of course, Nerik would have to get off the creature’s back before it emptied three barrelfuls of water over itself, and then probably hide out in flame form until the warriors left.
But so many plans of late had gone awry, and just as the unicorn’s hooves were hitting dry ground, this one proved to be no different. Another two warriors burst out of the ferns ahead of the unicorn, and Nerik cursed as he realised they were likely the second half of the team they’d run into back down the road.
“Hold there, you foul beast!” one warrior yelled, brandishing his sword at the unicorn.
Nerik saw what was coming before it happened, and for the next few seconds, he seemed to be watching the world move in slow motion. The unicorn reared up, stunned and terrified by this new attack. It twisted as it did so, to avoid the warrior’s blade, and in that instant, Nerik lost his hold on its mane. The water swirled beneath him, cool liquid rushing along in a stream of certain death. The shore was barely a metre away, but with the angle Nerik was falling, there was no way he was going to manage a landing on dry ground. Okay, he would just have to improvise and hope for the best.
He twisted as he fell, and in a small miracle, he managed to land on his feet. His legs immediately went numb, but he thrust himself towards the shore in the bare instant he had before his legs crumpled beneath him, completely soaked through. His body landed hard, on solid ground, rather than in the water, and for a second or two, he thought he might have avoided the worst of it.
But he hadn’t taken into account the unicorn. The creature stumbled backwards on its hind legs, lashing out at the warriors. And the inevitable outcome of that was that it tripped on a rock, five hundred kilograms of terrified equine landing in the shallow river with an almighty splash. Water soaked the ground all around Nerik, and his breath caught, a sharp, choking feeling hitting him as his lower body was drenched. That was it; he was as good as dead. With numb hands, he dragged his body forward and away from the river. His lower half was little better than dead weight now, but deep inside, a tiny ember still flickered. Gods, he just needed some fuel. But all around him, the ground was wet.
The unicorn stumbled to its feet, and Nerik heard the warriors surrounding it, shouting and stomping. He paid them little attention. There, just a foot or so ahead of him, was a pile of dry leaves, too far from the water’s edge to have been soaked by the unicorn’s splashing. He dragged himself forward, collapsing gracelessly on top of the pile. It took him a moment to manage to open his abdomen. He blocked out the sounds around him, along with any thought about the unicorn or the men, and concentrated. He felt the dry leaves slip inside. Would it be enough to save him? He wasn’t sure. He lay there, drawing in painful breaths to give the ember enough air to burn. A thorough drenching twice in one week… Damn it all, he was getting very, very tired of skirting the edge of death so often.
A long moment went by, and then Nerik felt a rush of relief as the handful of dry leaves did their job, providing vital fuel for the ember to reignite. He dragged himself another foot, absorbing a decent pile of dry twigs this time. They fell into the flame created by the leaves and began to smoulder. His limbs felt heavy, with far too little heat to fuel his body, but at least his fire hadn’t gone out. He would need more fuel to dry out the water, but he was in with a fighting chance…
But then Nerik felt the cold sting of sharpened iron against his neck, and he froze on the spot. And then a voice asked, “By every god in the heavens, what the fuck are you?”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
“You’re the ugliest motherfucker I’ve ever seen,” the warrior said, disgust thick in his voice as he stood over Nerik, all too ready to cut his head off. Unfortunately for Nerik, that was one of two certain ways to kill an infernal, the other one, of course, being to douse them with water. Infernals didn’t have a physical brain, in the way that water-based life forms did, but they still had a mind, a seat of consciousness that was located in their head, and as such, cleaving head from body would result in death, just as surely as it would for a human. “What the hell are you?”
“No threat to you,” Nerik said, not looking up from the ground. Defeat was heavy in his voice. He knew well enough that the warrior was not going to listen to him, and that one way or another, he was on his way to a meeting with Alfrix, the Destroyer. The only question was would it be fast or slow, painless or agonising.
“Oi, Hallix! Come take a look at this,” the warrior standing over Nerik called, and he thought he recognised the voice as Bril. “I’ve never seen one of these before. What do you make of this?”
Nerik eased onto his side – a non-threatening movement, and potentially one that could be seen as a form of surrender. But as he did so, he managed to absorb another handful of sticks through his abdominal wall, providing more fuel for his fire. If he could get enough wood inside him, he would be able to generate an external flame. And then it would be quick work to kill the warriors, burning them alive and leaving Nerik alone to flee into the forest. He cringed at the idea. There was already far too much death surrounding the gate, and he was loath to create more. But if it was his life or theirs…
“You stay still, you little shite! Or I’ll run you through!” Nerik stopped moving, abandoning any thoughts of acquiring extra fuel.
Heavy footsteps came closer, then Nerik felt the end of another sword poking at him. “No idea what that is,” Hallix said. He was one of Nerik’s least favourite warriors, arrogant and boorish, while hiding behind a veneer of importance. “Just kill it. We can tell the captain about it later.”
“I don’t think we should,” another voice spoke up, and Nerik could tell it was Henrick, Hallix’s twin brother. The pair of them were as bad as each other… but in this case, he might just have to thank Henrick for saving his life. Depending on what he said next, of course. “It looks weak. Not fighting back, not doing anything interesting. We could take it into town.”
“Are you out of your mind?” A fourth voice joined the discussion, and Nerik risked peeking up at the men standing over him. The newcomer was Calium, the young lad whose parents had so recently died of Friday fever. He looked tired, despite it being only six days into the twenty-three day cycle of battle. Normally, that level of weariness didn’t hit until at least day fifteen. “Captain Leefe was killed by a demon just a couple of months ago. And you want to drag this thing into town and display it in a cage, when we have no idea what it is? What if it’s dangerous? What if it kills someone, like Leefe was killed?”
Hallix snorted. “Leefe was most likely killed by a hellhound. Or something else that can breathe fire. A rogue dragon, maybe? But look at this thing. It’s as weak as a day-old puppy.” He nudged Nerik’s side with his boot, and it was only the fact that Nerik was currently drenched in water that stopped Hallix’s foot from catching fire. If he’d tried that when Nerik was at full strength, he’d have ended up with serious burns.
“Nonetheless, we don’t know what it is,” Calium insisted. He was taking the wiser course of action, and as much as Nerik would have admired him for it on another day, today, he was silently pleading for the man to shut the hell up. Or at the very least, for him to be outvoted by the others. Being locked in a cage was bad, with the usual end result being a public execution, but the alternative right now was getting his head cut off, and at least if he was locked in a cage for a day or two, he might have time to come up with a plan to escape. Here, with no fuel and no fire, he was as good as dead.
“We should take it into town,” Henrick repeated. But before he could say anything else, a loud whinny got their attention, and everyone turned to stare at the unicorn. Even Nerik dared to look around, as he realised that the warriors hadn’t actually killed it. He’d been so focused on keeping himself alive that he’d just assumed they’d have slaughtered the poor thing.
But instead, the unicorn was prancing about as one of the other warriors tried to fit a makeshift halter over its head. They already had a rope around its neck – now that its flames were out, due to its impromptu dip in the river – and they were trying to secure it properly.
“Fucking hell, get that thing under control, or I’ll run it through,” Hallix demanded.
“I want to take it back to town,” the warrior said. Nerik didn’t know the name of this one. “There’s been talk of capturing a unicorn and taming it, like they tamed the dragons. Captain Renfold said that if we could capture one and put its fire out, he’d consider it.” The warrior sounded excited about the idea, and once again, Nerik was torn between admiration and exasperation with the young man. Capturing and taming unicorns was a firm step forward in saving them from slaughter at the gate, but at the same time, this man was too young and too naïve to have a hope in hell of successfully doing so himself. He was the sort who would rush into some reckless plan without thinking and get himself killed. And in this particular instance, Nerik wasn’t sure whether that would ultimately benefit the Chalandrians, or make things harder.
So far, the unicorn had been relatively subdued, largely as a result of the three swords pointed at it, but now it was becoming agitated, no doubt objecting to having a crude halter controlling its head.
Nerik let down his mental barriers, hoping the unicorn would notice and forge a connection with him. A few moments passed, while the warriors tried to calm the creature, then Nerik felt the tell tale intrusion into his mind.Cooperate with them,he told the unicorn urgently.If you do, they’ll probably let you live.
Probably?the unicorn asked, sounding none too happy.That’s not very reassuring.He pulled his head back, trying to break free of the rope, but he only ended up running his back end into a sword. He jolted forward again as he felt it.
There’s been talk of taming unicorns like they’ve tamed dragons. You’ve heard about that, right?
Preposterous,the unicorn said.Vreki aren’t dragons, and trying to tame them is a ridiculous-
You can play along, or they will kill you,Nerik interrupted what was no doubt going to be a long and pointless diatribe about the misunderstandings between humans and vreki.There are plenty of people in Minia willing to help you, but they can’t do that if you’re already dead!