Page 15 of Fog of War
“This is abattle,whelp,” Maranba spat. “And I’m taking the Muru for avira.Are all of you so stupid you don’t see the greatest prize in our midst?” His chest stuttered, the acidic light of his stare piercing me. “And she smells sofuckinggood.”
Panic reduced me down to a single, horrifying reality. That Maranba was going to take me whether I wanted him to or not.
“You–” Leonide hiccuped. He clutched his chest, breath coming in shortened, halting gasps. “Can’t– Gab–Gabbie run–”
Maranba laughed, picking up one of his hatchets. “Aw, poor boy. If you’re alreadyhrummingwhy don’t you find someone else to spend that on?” He aimed his hatchet.
“Gabbie, go!” Leonide managed.
I sobbed out of anger and frustration, trying to stand. But my leg wouldn’t bear any weight at all, and my arm was weak. It didn’t hurt, but I knew it was in bad shape. I kept scooting, as fast as I could, trying to disappear into the fog. But the powder. I moaned in a panic, brushing frantically at the powder glowing on my clothes and skin. If I got rid of it, I could hide under the fog.
Maranba lifted his arm to throw his hatchet, then turned his attention back to me. He aimed it, snarling, and I lifted myarms with a shriek. He wasn’t going to hit me with it, was he? I wasn’t built like a venandi. It would kill me.
A huge body slid into the fog next to me, panting and out of breath. Maranba’s hatchet made contact with the champion, knocking him sideways with a roar of frustration. He hadn’t been aiming at me after all.
“Paladus!” Leonide hauled back on Maranba’s shoulder plates with a heave, his chest vibrating more desperately with every breath. “Go! I–can’t–”
I looked up at the champion over me and continued trying to scramble back. He yanked Maranba’s hatchet out of his chest where it cleaved my handprint in two.
“Are you okay?” Paladus breathed, crawling after me like an axe to the chest was nothing.
Hyperventilating, I shook my head in tiny, stuttering movements. “No, I’m not okay!” I shrieked at a whisper. I hit his chest again twice, grimacing through the full-body panic. He wrapped one talon around my shoulders and pressed my face into his chest where it was warm and the sounds of fighting were muffled. He groaned with a deep inhale in the crux of my neck and shuddered it out.
“Shit,” he swore to himself.
“I need an ambulance. Police! Please, Pal-Paladus…” I begged, digging my fingers into the grooves between his plates. He shook his head. “I don’t want him to touch me.”
The Ferulis champion tightened his grip. “We’ll figure it out. I’ll get you a medic. But Tetradi didn’t do anything illegal so we have to stay smart,” he rumbled.
Ice shivered through my blood, draining the color from my cheeks and the strength from my limbs. Paladus eased his arms around my shoulders and thighs, then lifted me up at the same time he took off at a dead sprint.
“Stealing is–allowed, just not done anymore,” Paladus told me to distract me from the rough agony. “It’s Satoris’s job to defend you. Tetradi is chall–challenging your clan–for their standing.”
A hatchet zinged through the air, brushing my mussed, matted hair. Paladus stopped short, sliding in the unknown terrain beneath the fog. He opened his mandibles wide and displayed his rows of fangs in challenge.
Augora jogged up with a wince. “Sorry,” she breathed, glancing between us. “I thought you were Tetradi.”
Paladus’s mandibles fluttered, bothered by the trail of loud, buzzing drones following in our wake. “You need–to take her,” he strained. “Take her before I–”
Augora declined with a snap of her mandibles. “My clanmates are out of commission, and your sister has challenged Leonide. They’ll converge soon, as long as Maranba is distracted.” Her eyes landed on my battered and bloodied face, and a soft thumb rubbed across my cheek. “I can’t protect her by myself, and I can’t stay much longer.”
I held Augora’s hand to my cheek with shaking fingers. Why couldn’t she stay?
She was blurry, but I saw her warm smile. “Everything will be okay, Gabbie. I’ll hold them off.”
A call went up into the air. Paladus’s arms tensed around me, and he handed Augora one of his hatchets. “An extra.”
“Hold them off?” I whimpered.
Feet pounded the ground nearby. Maranba’s angry shouts rose above the war drums. Augora turned away as a shadow erupted from the darkness in a shroud of cloth that covered the glowing powder. She met the Tetradi’s hatchet blow with a counter, knocking the assailant off their feet as another entered the fray.
Paladus vaulted the crystal boulder and slid to his haunches, listening to the fight. His chest stuttered beneath my quaking fingers, a vibration simmering in his chest. It loosened my muscles, heated my skin, just the tiniest caress and I knew now exactly what it was. Exactly why Augora couldn’t stay.
Satisfied that they were preoccupied, Paladus lowered his head with a grimace and bared his fangs.
“Maranba–is–” He held his breath for a long stint, then let the breath go, panting. “Near.”
“Do it,” I rasped. “Quick! Please...”
