Clockwork Legion (Aboard the Great Iron Horse Book 4) Read online

  “Then we know it wasn’t her.”

  Kale turned his attention back to Erin. “How did you survive the raid?”

  “I was out hunting,” she said, holding up her bow. “By the time I returned, the raiders had already done their worst. I came upon a small detachment of ghouls in the woods outside Ravenwood. After killing them, I went home and found…” her gaze went distant and her voice trailed off.

  “I’m sorry,” Kale said. “We came as fast as we could.”

  “Not fast enough. You should go now. It’s not safe for you to be here. You’re putting us all in danger.”

  “First, I want you to tell me where to find these ghouls.”

  Her eyes narrowed. “That’s a fool’s request. You rubes think you can face an army of monsters? You wouldn’t survive a minute. I won’t send you to your death, even if your apathy did doom my kinsmen to theirs.”

  “Can’t you see we’re knights?” Flynn scolded her with an angry glare. “We don’t fear the dead.”

  “Then you are stupid.”

  Flynn moved to dismount, but Kale stayed him with a wave of his hand. It wouldn’t do to have Flynn correcting the girl. Not if they wanted her to cooperate. Not when Flynn needed the same, if not more so. Haughty as he was, Kale knew Flynn was merely acting his age, which wasn’t much more than that of the young woman. He remembered being that age. It seemed distant now, almost a different lifetime…

  “Erin, you know these woods better than anyone,” Kale said. “If these ghouls have an army like you say they do, we should be able to view it from a distance. That should be safe enough. And we’ll pay you for your trouble.”

  Kale pulled a silver coin out of the purse on his belt and flipped it in her direction. Erin snatched it out of the air and held it between her thumb and forefinger, staring at it. It vanished up her sleeve.

  “All right,” she said. “For three more. If the ghouls find us, you’re on your own.”

  “Two more,” Kale said. “And I don’t pay you the rest until you show us this army.”

  She bit her lower lip, glancing back and forth between Kale and Gavin. “It’s too far to walk. I’ll need a ride.”

  “Make room,” Kale said to Flynn.

  The younger knight glared, but he knew better than to openly defy his commander twice in the same day. Flynn still had a swollen cheek, a fat lip, and a bad limp from their earlier encounter. He made room for Erin to climb up behind his saddle.

  “Leave the bow,” he grumbled as she struggled to get the thing strapped over her shoulders. “You don’t need it.”

  “It goes where I go,” she said.

  “What’s a girl need a bow for? You’ve got five knights here to protect you.”

  Erin leaned closer, putting her face close to his. “How much protection is a knight with a fat lip? Is that from the last woman you disrespected?”

  Kale grinned as he watched the two sniping at each other. They reminded Kale of how he and River had been, once upon a time… Of course, they had been young then, and he had believed he could somehow make her love him. Kale had accepted reality since then. It was time to give up on that dream.

  “Which way?” he said.

  Erin pointed the limb of her bow at a trail in the woods south of the farm. Kale narrowed his eyebrows. “South? I was told the Firelands weren’t a threat.”

  “You were told wrong,” she said.

  Kale and Gavin exchanged a glance. Gavin shifted, his saddle creaking under his weight. “You’re sure, lass? I’ve seen those lands, and there’s nothing there but fire and ash. Not even scrub brush.”

  “If you’re afraid, maybe you should stay here,” Erin snapped.

  Gavin grinned and shook his head. “Move out,” Kale said, guiding his mount past the farmhouse.

  They moved at a quick pace for several hours, first riding deeper into the woods southwest of the village, and then gradually climbing up into the mountains along the kingdom’s southern border. By early evening, the terrain had become increasingly uneven, and their steeds lost their footing several times. Their progress became slow and plodding.

  Two hours later, they stopped next to a stream for a quick meal of cold meat and bread. It was dark and chilly, but they had no time for a fire, and there was nowhere to sit except on the hard, rocky ground. They ate in silence, fully alert with the memory of the things they had seen in Ravenwood. They kept their weapons close at hand and their wits sharp. Twenty minutes later, they were back in their saddles and once again climbing.

  At last, the clouds parted and the moon’s pale light shone down, revealing the line of black cliffs off to their left. Kale called for a halt. He turned in the saddle, examining their surroundings. The air was cool now, filled with the scent of baking evergreen needles and some other evasive scent that reminded him of sulfur. The wilderness off to his right was an ocean of black treetops, the peaks of the tallest trees thrusting up into the sky, silver starlight glinting off the branches.

  “How much farther?” Kale said, turning to face Erin.

  She leaned out from behind Flynn, scanning the terrain ahead of them. “Just a few more miles. There’s a path between the cliffs up ahead, but it’s a steep climb.”

  “We’ll leave the chargers here,” Kale said. “They can’t handle this rough terrain.”

  Gavin sighed. “It’s for the best, I suppose. If we wanted to go much farther, we’d have to rewind these horses by hand.”

  “I didn’t know that was possible,” said Kale.

  “It’s possible, but it’s not a job you want to do. You have to run a long iron bar through the key, and get three or four men pulling on it at once. Very carefully, of course.”

  “Is it dangerous?”

  Gavin gave him a grim smile. “When I was a child, I saw two men trying to wind a horse without any help. One of them lost his grip on the pipe. It broke his arm, and crushed his partner’s skull. Then the pipe got loose and shot out of the keyhole like a bullet. Embedded itself so deep in a wood post that it’s still there today.”

  “Let’s not do that,” Kale said, dismounting.

  The others climbed off their horses and Erin moved to the front of the line. “This way,” she said, starting to climb the path. “Keep moving or it’ll take all night.”

  Flynn leaned close to Hector and whispered, “Looks like we’ve got a new commander.”

  “She’s got guts, I’ll give her that,” Hector replied.

  The trail narrowed as they climbed, and it became progressively difficult to pick out the path in the shadows of the cliffs. Gavin stumbled more than once, and Kale was beginning to worry about the elderly man. He was tempted to say something, but was unsure about how to broach the subject without hurting his friend’s feelings.

  The path straightened out then, and a small meadow-like clearing opened up to their left at the base of the cliffs. A tiny stream ran down the face of the cliffs, creating bubbling waterfalls here and there before it cascaded into a pool at the bottom.

  “This is the place,” Erin said. “We have to climb the cliffs here. This stream is safe to drink. You should refill your canteens.”

  The knights followed her advice, except for Flynn, who stood back waiting impatiently. “You should drink,” Erin urged him. “The climb ahead is difficult.”

  “I’m not thirsty,” Flynn said.

  “Then at least fill your canteen.”

  He held it up. “It’s still full. I don’t need to drink every ten minutes, like these old warhorses.”

  “Who you callin’ old?” Gavin said, wiping the sweat from his forehead with a damp rag. “I’m in the prime of my life. Just give me a quick nap, and then I’ll straighten you out.”

  Erin laughed and Flynn couldn’t help cracking a smile. Kale, who had been kneeling at the stream, attached his replenished canteen to the hook on his belt as he rose to his feet. He approached the cliffs, gazing up the slick stone face.

  “We start here, in the waterfall,”
Erin said, pointing to a ledge in the stone. “From there, the path moves to the left, toward that cleft up there.”

  Kale followed with his eyes as she pointed the way. When he saw the degree of difficulty in the climb, he turned to the group and said, “I don’t think we all need to go. Flynn, you’re with me. The rest of you wait here.”

  “Hang on now,” said Gavin. “I was only joking about that nap.”

  “I know that, but it’s a steep climb and the more people we have up that cliff, the greater the chances of something going wrong. Besides, if we have to leave in a hurry, it’ll be better with fewer of us scrambling down those rocks.”

  Gavin glanced at Hector and Bathus. None of the three seemed happy about the decision. They had all been looking forward to seeing this so-called army of ghouls.

  “I say Gavin should stay,” said Bathus. “After all, he is our elder, and therefore deserving the most respect… but not the rest of us.”

  “Respect,” Gavin spat. “What’s that got to do with it? You’re not even making sense.”

  “He thinks you’re senile as well,” Flynn said, grinning at them.

  “You’re not helping,” Kale snapped. “My decision is made. Flynn and I will scout ahead. The rest of you stay on guard and make sure no one cuts off our escape.”

  “Aye, aye, Commander,” Gavin said in a cynical tone. Kale ignored him. He crawled onto the ledge at the lowest level of the waterfall. The cold water splashed over his boots and the legs of his breeches while he searched for his next handhold. As he was looking, Erin scurried up the ledge next to him and went racing past. Kale watched her as she leapt agilely from ledge to outcropping and back again, moving from side to side as she scaled the sheer face of the cliff. She paused a few seconds later to look down at them.

  “Are you coming?” she said.

  Kale heard the others chuckling behind him. “Maybe you should stay down here with us, old timer,” said Gavin. Kale snorted, and started to climb.

  Erin made it to the top in less than a minute, but it took Kale and Flynn considerably longer. Kale told himself his armor and heavy weapons slowed him down, but a nagging voice in the back of his head pointed out that Flynn was right on his heels all the way up. The difficult truth was that his youth was behind him, and the sheer rock face was a painful reminder of that fact.

  Near the top, Kale reached for a rock that gave way as soon as he put some weight on it. His hand slipped, and the rock went tumbling down.

  “Watch out!” he called out, but it was already too late. The rock struck Flynn on the forehead, leaving a long gash. The young knight grunted as blood began to flow from the wound.

  “Are you all right?” Kale said.

  “Fine,” Flynn growled. “Just keep moving.”

  Kale pulled himself over the ledge and rose to his feet. He found himself standing on a broad plateau a hundred yards across. The moon stood behind him, and the sky to the south was dark. A shadow seemed to cover the land. Kale heard Flynn grunting behind him, and he bent over to offer the young knight a hand. Flynn ignored the offer, and finished the climb without assistance.

  “Over here,” Erin said, standing near the southern ledge.

  The two knights joined her. They found themselves standing at the edge of a two thousand foot drop straight down. The land below was dark, illuminated here and there by the orange glow of volcanic rivers. A warm breeze washed over them, and Kale nearly gagged on the stench of sulfur and burning tar. His eyes watered and his lungs burned, but he stood unmoving, scanning the terrain.

  “There,” Erin said, pointing to the southwest. Kale looked, and saw nothing but barren, volcanic land. Then he realized that something was moving down there. He moved along the edge of the cliff, searching for a better perspective. As his eyes adjusted, he began to separate form from shadow. There were figures down there, moving in the darkness, he realized. People. And something tall, some sort of tower, perhaps.

  “I’d kill for River’s scope right now,” he said.

  “Hector has one,” said Flynn.

  Kale turned to Erin. “Would you mind? You’re the fastest.”

  “No problem,” she said, “but it’ll cost you extra. Speaking of which, you haven’t paid me yet.”

  She held out her palm. Kale rolled his eyes. He opened his purse and counted out three more silver coins, and a copper. Erin made them disappear, and then she hurried back towards the cliff.

  A silence fell over the two knights as they stood waiting. Kale thought perhaps he should say something to Flynn, that he should find some way to make things right between them. On the other hand, Flynn had decided to challenge Kale’s authority, not the other way around. As much as Kale wanted to be friends with the other knights, he knew that first and foremost it was his job to make them obey and respect him. If they couldn’t do that, then ultimately they would have to abandon their positions, or find a way to remove Kale from his. That would be easier said than done. He was getting pretty good at watching his back.

  Erin returned, interrupting his thoughts. She handed Kale the scope and he stretched it out to full length. He put it to his eye and zeroed in on the area they had been watching. Somehow, the lenses of the scope almost seemed to magnify the starlight, giving him a brighter, sharper view of the scene than he had expected.

  Kale’s jaw dropped, and his face paled. He lowered the scope. “We have to go,” he said. “We have to go, right now!”

  “What is it?” said Flynn. “Let me see!”

  Flynn reached for the scope, but at that moment, they heard a shout coming from behind them.

  “Ambush!” Gavin cried out from the bottom of the cliff.

  Chapter 9

  Kale scrambled over the ledge. His movements were reckless and uninformed in the darkness, but he somehow managed to move from ledge to outcropping without falling and breaking his neck. Emboldened by his success, and overcome with the battle frenzy, he put on a burst of speed.

  Kale moved left and right, zigzagging down the face of the cliff. He latched onto a stone and lowered himself to this next handhold. Putting his weight all on one foot, he caught a ledge of sharp stone that protruded out of the cliff wall. As he shifted his weight, the stone gave way. It went out from under him, and the sudden weight ripped his hands free. Kale went tumbling wildly down the face of the cliff.

  Stars and darkness flashed through his vision. The wind rushed in his ears. He struck an outcropping and bounced off. The motion sent him tumbling sideways, spinning out of control. His head swam, and he closed his eyes, waiting for the inevitable crash at the bottom. Death was but a fraction of a second away.

  Something struck him full-on across the chest, driving his breath from his lungs in a loud oomf! Branches slapped at his face. He felt an unmistakable length of a juniper’s trunk beneath him, slowly bending under his weight. Instinctively, the warrior latched onto the tree with both hands and held on for dear life.

  His full weight came to bear, and the roots creaked as they strained to support him. His gaze darted left and right, searching for another handhold to latch onto before the tree collapsed. In the pale moonlight, he saw a sharp stone angled out of the sheer cliff face less than two yards off. Just out of reach, but if he could stretch a little…

  At that moment, the juniper’s roots gave way. The trunk yanked free of the stone, and Kale went tumbling. Almost instantaneously, the twenty-foot freefall ended in a catastrophic landing. He heard a grunt and felt the unmistakable crack of bones as someone broke his fall. The air rushed from his lungs and Kale thrashed, struggling to refill them. The world spun. Dark shapes loomed over him. He saw flashes of silver in the moonlight, heard the cries of battle, and the sounds of ringing steel.

  Kale rolled off the broken body beneath him, and clambered to his knees. His breath came in shallow gasps. His broken rib screamed with every inhalation. He could make nothing of the body next to him in the darkness, save that the man was almost certainly dead. Kale prayed it wasn�
��t one of his companions. He pushed to his feet, drawing one of the two-handed swords from the baldric on his back.

  “There!” a voice shouted. It was Gavin. Kale saw the knight’s shadowy figure pointing across the clearing. He drew his gaze in that direction and saw a dark shape lumbering at the base of the cliff. Kale shook off his pain, and rushed to meet the attacker.

  As he closed in on the figure, it heard him coming. The creature turned on him with an animalistic snarl and Kale froze, sword held high in the air. The moonlight fell across the creature’s horrific, decaying face. Chunks of rotting flesh revealed a hollow opening under its cheekbone and around the left eye. Somehow, the organ remained in place, swiveling madly in its broken socket. A brass hinge held the jaw in place, gleaming under the starlight.

  It lunged at him, fingers outstretched, claw-like nails groping for his throat. Kale let out a horrified gasp as he pushed the ghoul’s arms away. It latched onto his left arm and snapped at him like a crazed animal. The ghoul’s rotten teeth clamped down on his vambrace, and Kale heard the shrieking noise of broken teeth sliding across hardened steel.

  He shook his arm, trying to free himself from the creature’s grip, but it held fast, clinging to him like an iron vice. With a look of absolute revulsion, Kale brought down the pommel of his sword on the ghoul’s head. The decaying skull shattered, exposing rotting brain matter and black, coagulated blood. The ghoul relaxed its grip, and Kale fell back a step. With a flick of his wrist, his blade flashed across the creature’s throat. The decapitated skull rolled off to the side as the body collapsed in front of him.

  Kale heard a shout and spun to see Erin standing on a boulder at the base of the cliff. She released an arrow and it flew past him, embedding itself deep into the chest of another attacker. He stepped sideways, bringing the tip of his sword upward through the creature’s jaw. The point of his blade erupted through the top of the ghoul’s skull. As he withdrew the blade, the creature crumpled to the ground. The axe in its hands clattered across the stones.