Chapter 18
760 Words
18
“OUT OF THE QUESTION,” Rasha said. “Are you a complete pumseed? You expect to just walk into their camp, and then you think one of their beasts is going to let you touch their collar long enough to disable it?”
“Not exactly. I’d do surveillance. Just give me a chance to—”
“Isn’t it enough that your parents lost one child? You would risk your own life and leave them childless?”
“I haven’t been a child in rotations.” Ladi crossed her arms over her chest. “This is a solid plan. If I can get one to trust me, we could learn more about them and win some of them to our side.”
“No. We don’t have the manpower right now to send a team, and I won’t risk them getting killed.”
“I can go myself. I’m good at getting in and out of places unseen. They’ll never even know I’m there.”
Rasha snapped.
“No. I won’t bury another partner. Sorry, you’re stuck here in the palace with me. Why don’t you help get these royals off of my back about this winter ball?”
Ladi fumed. Rasha was just like everyone else. No one ever took her seriously. She didn’t want her parents to suffer, but she also didn’t want the beasts to conquer the first kingdom and go after the Twinlands. It was better to take the risk herself than to lose her brother and both her parents. Rasha didn’t understand. This was their only chance.
“Dragons!” A guard shouted. Rasha pulled her swords and ran.
It was true. The bird-men had arrived, and on the backs of the dragons were bull-men. They landed on the grounds and destroyed anything in their path. Ladi was ready for them this time. She’d already set up the pulse.
Ladi held up the remote trigger, and Rasha nodded. She sent word to the fighters to keep them from harm when the pulse went off. The dragons required almost three times the charge to do any damage. Their people would need to stay clear or they could be killed.
Rasha signaled to Ladi to get ready with a three-finger count down. When Rasha reached two, Ladi put her finger on the trigger.
Some of the bull-men on dragons took to the air again. The pulse was ineffective if their feet weren’t on the ground. The beasts hovered above the grounds, picking them off. The small individual shocks and defense tactics didn’t penetrate their thick skins. Rasha signaled their people back, and, in a haphazard fashion, they moved back several paces. It was clear to Ladi they needed to do more drills.
Ladi hurried over to Rasha.
“We need wire ropes,” she yelled.
“Now is not a good time to try taming the beasts.”
“No, for the pulse to work they have to be within the pulse grid!”
Rasha thought for a moment then yelled behind her to the guard.
“Wire!”
They gathered the wire and the archers attached them to their arrows while keeping them securely connected to the grid. The countdown began again, and Ladi waited with her thumb over the controller.
Rasha gave the signal at last. The archers fired their arrows, and they sailed over the beasts as if they’d missed. As the flying beasts struggled to untangle the wires that touched them, Ladi pushed the button, sending the pulse up the wires. The beasts howled and cried out, many of them falling to the ground.
The fighters cheered as the last of the beasts limped away.
Ladi approached an electrocuted dragon. It looked up at her with sad brown eyes.
“What are you doing?” Rasha asked when Ladi rolled out her bag of small metal tools. She picked at the collar, trying to get it open, her hands moving with lightning speed.
“This collar is on a remote mechanism, but I think I can override it.” She smiled when the collar opened with a hiss.
“We’ll be faster next time,” Ladi said, stroking the dragon. It heaved a loud sigh before it closed its eyes for the last time.
“Interesting.” Rasha said, taking note of the way the animal seemed to welcome the permanent sleep.
“The rumors are true. Half of the beasts they’re using are wearing these collars. Meaning that if we can figure out a way to get them off, they really might be eager to turn on them.
“You have a sound argument.”
“That’s why I want to go to their encampment. There might be a faster way to get the collars off, but I need to see them at work.”
“What’s it going to take to get it through your thick skull? You are not going off to the beasts’ encampment alone. Maybe when Jak gets back, I can go with you.”
“I’m not a child.”
“Good, then I won’t need to explain to you again why you can’t go.”
Rasha sheathed her swords and followed the rest of her people back toward the palace.
- Writer
