Ander - Part 5: Subchapter 45
45
Hyker stopped dead in his tracks. "Hey, Ivio. Stop for a second."
Ivio did so, but reluctantly. "Whaaaaaat, what is it!?" he moaned, hopping up and down, stamping out a hole in the snow.
"Something's not right here." He swivelled his ear, listening intently, but all he could hear was the breeze sighing along the walls of the training grounds.
"You're just stupid!" Ivio spat. "Stupid stupid stupid! Let's get the spears and go! I wanna stick that piece of trippin' filth so bad! Stick 'em right in the face, Hyker, in the face! You have no idea! Just take it and stick it in deep and twist it and spin it around inside his stupid ugly f-"
"Shut up." Hyker looked to the sky, at the crescent moon shining almost directly overhead, then at the walls, looming ahead of them like rows of spiky teeth in the darkness. There were odd shapes everywhere; striking posts, sparring dummies, targets covered in snow, any one of which could be hiding a sneaky villain in its shadow. He sniffed, but the only scent to meet his nose belonged to Ivio, who had somehow managed to work up a sweat even on a night as frigid as this. As for the snow, the only footprints in this place were the ones at their backs.
So why did he feel so uneasy?
"We're gonna be late!" Ivio hissed. "Are you coming or not!?"
Hyker was just about to concede when his eye did fall on something peculiar.
All the weapon racks were empty, every last one of them. The axes, the spears, the clubs, the bows and arrows, all of them were gone.
Save for two spears jauntily sticking out of the snow near the wall, their hafts pointed straight up at the moon.
Waiting.
"Where did all the weapons go?" Hyker asked. It was a perfectly reasonable question, and yet it only made Ivio slap his forehead in frustration.
"Don't you know anything!? Snow is bad! It makes the metal rust! That's why they pack 'em away on nights like this! Stoooopid!" Ivio was almost shouting now, and Hyker had to gesture furiously to get him to lower his voice again. "Anyway," the dolt continued, whisper-shouting in the dark like a raspy old hag, "the Chieftain made preparations for us. I can see the spears right there."
"I still don't like it. The Chieftain never said anything about this. And with all the racks empty, we only have one option to choose from. I feel like we're being led down a shoot."
"You're jumping at your own shadow, you coward! I'll get the spears myself, and I'll prove to the Chieftain I'm way more capable than you! So there!"
"Wait, you idiot!" Hyker said, but it was no use. Ivio was already off, stomping through the snow, headed straight for those suspicious wooden shafts. "Pffft, fine. Go ahead, see if I care. If there really is something going on here, you'll be the one on the receiving end, not me."
Ivio made a rude noise (Pleh!) and slapped his butt, waving his tail in the air.
Hyker growled underneath his breath and wished for a good rock to throw. He might have done it too, had it not been for his desire to end this surprisingly unpleasant task as quickly as possible.
Ivio reached the spears, pulled them out of the snow and spun around with the most infuriatingly triumphant grin plastered all over his hyperactive mug. "Ha! Told you so, Hyker! Told you sooooo!"
Hyker did not move. He did not even breathe. His suspicions, his half-assed edgy feelings, all of them were suddenly confirmed the moment Ivio pulled those 'spears' out of the snow.
They didn't have any heads. Ivio was standing there, holding nothing more than a pair of sticks.
And that's when he saw the shadow rising up from the other side of the wall, a pitch black silhouette in the night with shining white dots for eyes, like stars.
"Ivio, move!" Hyker's warning came in time, but instead of heeding it immediately and getting the hell out of the way, Ivio did what came naturally. He looked back, and the second it took for his neck to twist around was all the time the apparition needed.
It leapt from the top of the wall, its hair streaming out behind it in the wind, and slammed full force into his back, knocking him to the frozen ground in a puff of snow.
"Ivio!"
The fool was lying flat on his stomach with a look of outright terror on his face, the sticks he had so haughtily retrieved scattered at his sides. There was a long, serrated dagger against his throat, shining like silver, and perched atop his back, her fangs bared in the moonlight...
Nilia.
"This is how it's going to work," she said, speaking in that eerily calm voice of hers that always gave Hyker the creeps. "Ivio, if you make a sound, you die. Hyker, if you make a sound, Ivio dies. Ivio, if you move a muscle, you die. Hyker, if you move a muscle, Ivio dies. Any questions?"
"How come I'm the one who dies in all those scenarios!?" Ivio squeaked, all his macho bravado quickly evaporating into thin air.
"Because you're the one with a dagger at your throat, and if you ask another stupid question like that, you die."
"Ack!"
"Yeah, I've got a question," Hyker said, maintaining constant eye contact. It was the quickest, easiest way to let a woman know her place. "What makes you think I give a damn about that runt you're sitting on?"
Nilia pressed the dagger just a tiny bit harder against Ivio's throat, making the edge disappear amidst the messy tangle of his neck fur.
"Hyker, don't say stuff like that! I think she's serious!" he moaned like a little bitch, tears slowly leaking from the corners of his eyes. Hyker was amazed the fool hadn't wet himself yet.
"So am I, Ivio. Now be quiet, the grownups need to talk."
"You gotta get me out of this!" By the Cora, he simply would not shut up. And he was so cocky just a minute ago. "You'll get me out of here, right? You're my buddy, right? You won't let this crazy she-wolf stick me, right? Right!?"
Nilia bent down and whispered in his ear: "If you speak another word, you die."
Ivio shut his eyes and made the strangest noise Hyker had ever heard, almost like a frog being strangled. Lucky for him, Nilia didn't count that as a word, and he remained in the realm of the living. At least for the time being.
"Well, Nilia?" Hyker said, spreading his arms wide. "I'm sure you're not a total idiot. Surely you must realize how much trouble you're in right now? All I need to do is yell out, and you're as good as dead."
Ivio's eyes flew open. Hyker could see the fool wanted to yell at him not to do it, but he was banned from speaking, and neither could he shake his head or else he'd slice open his own neck. So he just lay there, his eyes bugging out of their sockets, mouthing the word 'No!' over and over again. It was actually rather comical.
"So you really don't care of your comrade dies?" Nilia asked. "Then I guess there's no reason for me to keep him alive."
"Hnnnn!!" Ivio whimpered, shutting his eyes again, but Hyker only chuckled.
"The only reason you didn't slit his throat the moment you landed is because you already know what will happen if you do. A dead hostage is a useless hostage. The moment Ivio dies, there's no reason for me not to run through the village, screaming my head off, bringing the wrath of the entire tribe down on your head."
"Then why haven't you done so already? You said you care nothing for your comrade, so what's stopping you?"
Hyker's smile faltered a little, but he wouldn't let this uppity bitch get the better of him. "I don't care about that snivelling brat, but I do care about doing the job my Chieftain has entrusted to me. And while we're on the subject, how did you find out about us anyway?"
"I keep my ear to the ground."
Hyker saw red. His lips peeled back into a snarl and the stubby flap of skin that used to be his left ear twitched in the wind. "Was that a jab at my ear, you disgusting bitch?"
"Oh please, your missing ear is the least abhorrent of your facial features, simply by virtue of it not being there."
"You have a really annoying way of speaking, you know that?"
"So they tell me."
Ivio struggled against Nilia's grip and started to say something, "Hyker, b-" but was quickly stopped when she dug her knee into the small of his back and wrapped an arm around his neck, pulling the entire upper half of his body back into a half-choke. "-eeergh!"
"What did I tell you about speaking, Ivio?" she said, lightly tapping the tip of her blade against his jugular.
Ivio moved his lips at a frantic pace, apparently reciting some kind of silent prayer. It was probably a good idea for him to get right with the Cora, because in all honesty, Hyker did not believe the kid would make it through this alive.
"What do you hope to gain by doing this, Nilia? You threw your life away the moment you decided to ally yourself with traitors! For the past two months you've been a walking, breathing corpse, living on borrowed time. So let me ask you, how is this helping you? You're just slitting your own throat."
"Maybe."
"What are you trying to do!?"
"Nothing much."
"Because right now we're both stuck!"
"Evidently so."
"Is that it? We just stay out here till dawn? Is that your master plan?"
"No. Just until you get knocked out cold."
"Huh?" Hyker frowned, then noticed Ivio's frantic prayers weren't really prayers at all. He's been mouthing the same two words over and over for the past minute, and those two words were: Behind you!
Hyker turned around and came face to face with one of the burliest Wolves in the entire tribe, Sorrin, and he was holding a giant rock over his head.
"I'm not sorry for this."
Hyker heard the dull, cracking sound of the stone colliding with the top of his head, and after that everything just went black. He was unconscious before he even hit the ground.
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