Chapter 18 – The Body

Syl kept her bow at the ready as she crept down the tunnel. Flickering blue light danced on the hewn stone walls from around a corner ahead. She stopped to listen, but no sound other than the scuff of the group behind her reached her ears.

Syl turned her head slightly and gave a nod to signal her intentions. Then, without a word, she quickstepped ahead and rounded the corner with her bow drawn.

The collapsed room wasn’t much of a threat.

The collapsed body, on the other hand, got her attention. Syl dropped her bow and rushed over to the man lying face down in a pool of his own blood. Her hand shook in trepidation as she reached out and rolled the body.

“Is it…?” Dena asked from behind her.

The lump in Syl’s throat stopped her words. Her body forgot how to breathe as conflicting emotions battled for control.

“No,” she said when she finally found her voice. She didn’t recognize the man’s face. “It’s not my father.” The flood of relief left her drained, then the guilt followed.

She was thrilled this dead man in front of her wasn’t her father. But he might be somebody else’s father. Syl knew she shouldn’t be happy to find a different dead person, but somehow she was.

“Do you know him?” Dena asked her.

“No,” Syl admitted.

“Damn. That’s Jurik,” Edar said. “He works out at Teb’s farm.”

And just like that, Syl’s worry returned. “Teb’s farm?” she repeated.

“Yeah, but he doesn’t live out there,” Edar went on quickly when he saw the look on her face. “He actually lives just a bit up the road from where we took the path leading to this cave. Probably would have reached his place within thirty minutes if we didn’t turn off.”

“What killed him, Syl?” Rogar asked, turning her attention back to the matter at hand. Her mind had started wandering back down that ‘what if’ road. She really needed to stop doing that.

“Blood loss,” she said as she focused on the body in front of her. “This wound, here,” she pointed at his leg. “This is what killed him. Looks similar in size and depth to the injury Galli suffered.”

“So the Lake-Wolf did it?” Rogar asked.

“Can we stop calling it a Lake-Wolf?” Leeze asked. “We all know it’s an Anihazi.”

“We don’t know that at all,” Rogar shot right back and threw up his hands.

“It doesn’t matter what we call it,” Dena cut in. “Lake-Wolf or Anihazi. It’s killing us either way.”

“You said his name was Jurik?” Syl asked Edar, ignoring the argument.

“Yes,” he answered.

“About thirty minutes up the road?” she went on. “Well, at least we know his coming here didn’t summon the Anihazi. The wound wasn’t deep enough for him to bleed out quickly, but he didn’t wrap it properly. See here?” She pointed to an amateur bandage on his leg. “That plus the exertion kept the wound open. If he’d just stayed still and wrapped it properly, he probably could have survived.”

“But he was running from whatever attacked him,” Dena filled in. “Lake-Wolf or Anihazi,” she looked at Rogar and Leeze pointedly when she said those words.

“Correct. Given how long it took us to follow the path, that timeline makes sense for him to bleed out.”

“Why does that matter?” Edar asked.

“Because he was attacked long before he ever came to this… whatever this is,” she gestured at the room she’d ignored in her rush to check the body.

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” Kule said from the far corner of the room.

“It always makes me nervous when Kule finds something,” Dena sighed, but the group went over to join him. Despite the cave-in, the room was almost as big as Syl’s house, and the half-dozen sconces kept it well lit. Even if it was a little eerie the flames were all blue.

“What is it?” Reylo asked.

Kule pointed to the corner of the room, and none of them could mistake the pile of blankets. “He’s known about this place for a while, I think,” Kule said.

“Ooooh,” Syl, Dena, Rogar, and Reylo all said at the same time.

Edar wasn’t paying any attention to them, and Leeze just looked confused.

“What?” Leeze asked. “He came out here to sleep?”

“So young. So innocent,” Kule said, and gently touched Leeze’s face. “So naïve.”

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

She slapped his hand away. “What are you talking about?” she asked dangerously.

“He didn’t come out here alone,” Dena said with a wink.

Leeze’s eyes widened as understanding hit. “Ooooh,” she said.

“So, would coming out here to hook up make the Anihazi angry?” Kule asked nobody in particular.

“This place is sacred. Forbidden,” Edar said, obviously shocked by the realization. “They wouldn’t…”

“Obviously they did,” Syl cut him off. “But why would he run all this way? With that injury? And why would the Anihazi let him?”

Rogar eyed her at her word choice, but didn’t say anything.

Syl couldn’t keep calling it a Lake-Wolf. Not anymore. There were too many questions pointing towards something more than a simple beast. And that didn’t even include her odd connection to it.

“Weapons,” Reylo said, crouching down near the body. “There are some arrows here,” he said and held up a handful. “I count maybe two dozen. Must be more buried under here,” he pointed towards the caved-in area.

“He came all this way for arrows? He didn’t have any at his house?” Kule asked.

“Maybe he got attacked on the road?” Rogar suggested. “Knew the arrows were here and thought he had a better chance of getting to them?”

“No bow,” Syl said. “At least I don’t see one. Anybody?”

“Nothing over here,” Kule said from near the blanket.

The others shook their heads.

“If there are arrows, he must have figured there’d be a bow too,” Reylo said. “Syl, why don’t you take some of these?” he said, and offered a fistful of arrows. “To replace what you used saving me last night.”

“Thanks,” she said and took the arrows. She put several of them in her quiver and then offered the rest to the others. “Take a couple. Can’t hurt to make sure we all have enough arrows if we run into it again.”

“They didn’t work so well last night,” Leeze said.

“Didn’t they?” Syl countered. “It ran off. We chased it off. We can survive this.”

“Jurik didn’t,” Leeze said, and nodded at the body behind Syl. She couldn’t point with both hands on her necklace.

“No,” Syl admitted. She could see the others faltering. Doubting. She felt it too, but she wouldn’t let it stop her and she couldn’t let them see it. She needed to make them understand they had a chance. They’d gotten this far.

“He didn’t. But he didn’t have people looking out for him. That’s the difference. As long as we stick together, we’ll make it through.”

“How can you be so confident about that?” Leeze asked, teetering on the precipice between despair and hope.

“Because nothing is ever easy. If I want something, I know I need to work for it. And I’m willing to,” Syl said. “This isn’t any different.”

“The Ka-Sho is easy for you,” Leeze countered.

“Because you don’t know how hard she practices. I’ve known Syl since I was three,” Dena interjected. “And do you know what she was doing the first time I met her? Can you guess?

“Yeah, Ka-Sho. She works on it when she thinks nobody’s watching. She pushes herself harder than anybody else here. She refuses to be anything other than the best at it.”

“But, you’re already so talented, why would you go so far?” Leeze asked, but one hand had left her pendant.

“Because talent alone isn’t enough. Being good at something won’t get you very far. Not unless you’re willing to put the work in to make yourself great. And that’s no different than living.

“If we want to beat this Anihazi, if we want to live, then we need to work for it. I’m willing to do that. That’s why I’m confident.

“Are you willing to work for it?” Syl asked the others.

“We’re here, aren’t we?” Dena said.

“And we know better than to bet against you,” Kule said. “Especially Rogar.”

“It’s always going to be me, isn’t it?” Rogar sighed.

“You’re the one who thought you could take her,” Kule said with a smile. “Several times.”

“I didn’t know she worked so hard at it,” Rogar mumbled. “If I’d known…”

“How about you, Leeze?” Syl interrupted the banter. It would never end if she didn’t. “Are you willing to live?”

“You’re being so dramatic,” Leeze answered flatly.

Syl didn’t let up. Leeze needed to say it. She needed to believe it, or she’d break when they needed her most.

“Fine, fine. Yes, I’m willing to live,” Leeze said. When Syl’s expression still didn’t change, Leeze sighed and answered more seriously. “I can’t believe in me like you can, Syl. I don’t have that confidence in myself. But,” she held up both hands to stop Syl from saying anything. “I can believe in you. I haven’t known you as long as Dena, but I followed you out here because I trust you.

“Dena’s right. You make things happen. That’s what’s different about us. Maybe I can learn to be more like you, but that’s not for right now. For right now, I’ll trust you. I’ll follow you. I’ll believe in you. And I won’t disappoint you.”

Silence followed Leeze’s declaration, all eyes on her.

“Wow,” Kule finally said, and Leeze glared at him, daring him to make a snarky remark. “No, really. Wow.”

There weren’t words for what she was feeling, so Syl stepped forward and wrapped Leeze in a hug. “Thank you,” she whispered.

Was that really how her friends looked at her?

Better not let them down, she thought.

When Syl finally let go of Leeze, Edar spoke up. “We should leave, now that we know what happened here. The next rest station is just past Jurik’s house. We can make it in a few hours.”

Syl looked at Edar, and then the rest of the group. Her eyes lingered on Reylo, the only one sitting down. “No,” Syl said. She wanted to be out there looking for her father, but he wasn’t the only one counting on her. She was responsible for her friends too.

Her next words were some of the most difficult of her life. “We should stay here for the night. It would be well after dark by the time we found the rest station, and we don’t want to make ourselves any more vulnerable than we have to.”

“We can’t stay the night,” Edar said. “This place is forbidden. Look what happened when Jurik stayed here,” he pointed first to the blanket, then to Jurik’s dead body.

“We don’t know that caused this,” Syl said.

“You said yourself it was the Anihazi killing people,” he shot back.

“Anihazi, maybe, yes,” Syl admitted. “But that doesn’t mean I think he, or any of us, were responsible for it. Maybe it just found us on its own.”

“Don’t you want to find your father?” Edar said, changing tactics.

“Of course, I do. More than you know,” Syl said evenly. “But I also don’t want a repeat of what happened to Reylo.”

“I’m fine,” Reylo said and stiffly stood up.

“No, you’re not. Sit down. Now,” Syl said in her best Enna-voice. Reylo dropped like a rock. “Maybe you don’t feel it, but the Anihazi didn’t chase Jurik in here. There has to be a reason for that. Maybe it’s these strange torches,” Syl pointed towards the blue flames. “Or maybe it’s something else. But whatever it is, I think we’re much safer staying here for the night.

“We’ll leave again with first light,” she said decisively, for everybody’s benefit.

“What if I say I’ll go by myself?” Edar asked, testing her resolve.

Syl sighed. Time to keep her reputation up. “Then I’ll stop you. For your own good.”

Edar ground his teeth, but he didn’t try to leave. “I don’t like this. It’s wrong,” he said.

“It’s not the choice I would’ve made in a different situation,” Syl offered. “But it’s the right choice now.”

“If this brings more Anihazi, it’s on you,” Edar said, but sat down.

Syl turned to the others. “Any other objections?”