Once it was unlikely the mercenaries would be able to hit me from so far away, I left cover and ran toward the dark lump on the sand that had to be Sifuso. When I got there, he was a mess. Scales had been broken off in clumps, revealing red flesh beneath. He’d been beaten and stabbed repeatedly, and by some miracle, he still breathed.
“Sifuso, can you hear me?”
“Barely, but I live.” Then he let out a wheezy laugh. “Stuck me up here.” He moved one weak claw to his chest, then touched his belly. “But lacertian heart are lower, here. Dumb orc thinks my body is dumb like his is.”
I didn’t know anything about lacertian biology, but even I could tell he was going to die if we didn’t get him to a healer fast. “We’re going to take you to the nuns of Saint Olga for a healing. You just rest.”
“I was not coward. Know I did not run from this fight. I tried to hide the treasure. Did not… run… Just did not expect… them… here…”
It was surprising he cared what I thought of him as he faded out. “I know. You did good.”
Except Sifuso had already passed out.
Trax padded up to me, chewing on a different arm. I could tell because the last one had been thick and covered in tattoos. This one was skinny and plain.
“The lizard has drastically slowed his pulse. That is how his people bury their bodies and hibernate to survive the winters in cold realms. I suspect this state will help keep him from bleeding to death.”
“Who’re you eating now?”
“You said to search the bodies for weapons. Danny had this.”Trax held out the simple ice wand to me.
I took it. “That doesn’t explain how Danny’s arm ended up in your mouth.”
“The wand was in his hand. I was distracted.”Trax spit out the severed arm. “The traitor tastes of shame and failure anyway. What now?”
Rade and Krachma were already checking our boats, but even from here, I could tell the damage was extensive. “While we fix those somehow, I need you to tail Gerzog to see where he lands. Stay out of sight. Then come back to give us a tow.”
“I shall do so. However, you may wish to expedite your repairs as much as possible.”Trax took two big steps and dove smoothly into the waves. Within seconds, his back fin disappeared beneath the surface and he was out of sight.
“We’re going to anyway, but why?”
Trax was fast on land, but he was a whole lot faster under water, and he was already so far away that the mind pictures I received weren’t nearly as booming as usual. “The monsters we fought earlier were nocturnal. They will likely receive reinforcements and return after the sun sets to reclaim their nest.”
I looked toward where the afternoon sun was getting lower in the sky.
“Well… shit.”
Twenty-Eight
Isure wasn’t going to get my deposit back on the rowboats.
The two we had arrived in had not only received a great many bullet holes, but one of the mercenaries had hit them with some kind of purple caustic spell that scorched and crumbled big parts throughout. However, the single rowboat brought by the previous group of less fortunate adventurers had only been shot a dozen or so times below the waterline. We set about cannibalizing our boats and used the wood and nails we salvaged for some hasty repairs. We didn’t have any proper tools, but an axe that can chop people can also chop wood, and the steel butt cap of a bargemaster’s pistol makes a decent hammer. Just make sure it’s empty first.
With the sun going down, we’d loaded our wounded aboard, crowded in after them, and then set out upon the bay, only to immediately begin taking on water because our repairs weren’t nearly as good as we’d thought they were. We used the pot Bognar had worn as a helmet to continually bail us out.
We could have put in more time and done more thorough repairs, but the big bulbous eyes that kept popping out of the water all along the beach—waiting for it to get dark so they could attack—had been an excellent motivator to get a move on.
It was very crowded in the boat—which had been shoddy before it’d been shot—to the point I was worried we would capsize. We’d lost two passengers and gained one, but that one was very small, so we managed to fit in the one boat, barely.
After a few minutes upon the water, I got so frustrated at the leak soaking my legs that I tried to use Danny’s wand to plug it… the idea being that if that hole was frozen solid, no more water would come in. Except Danny’s spell was one I’d not had the chance to practice much, and all I managed to do was turn the water that was already in the boat with us into an even colder slush.
Thankfully, the mutants didn’t come after us. They scrambled up the beach, rushing to check on the safety of their eggs. The last thing I could make out before we got too far away was the monsters feasting on the corpses we’d left behind.
Sifuso remained unconscious, but Trax had probably been right about how lizardmen hearts worked, because he didn’t appear to be getting any worse. Bognar, on the other hand, wasn’t doing well at all. He was in a great deal of pain, and his skin had become paler than mine, and I’d come from a land without direct sunlight. If he got to Rade’s complexion, he’d be dead soon afterward.
“I saw a church to the saint of fishermen not too far from the docks,” I told everyone. “I don’t know if they’ll have a healer there, but it’s Bognar’s and Sifuso’s best chance.”
Azarin agreed. “Most healing magic is Life-based, but there’s some water spells that heal too. Surely a saint of the sea will have someone who knows one of those. We’ll carry them there fast as we can.”
