motion with their limbs in a manner Brynd didn't understand.
It was perhaps a salute, or perhaps some religious gesture. Seemingly they recognized Jurro, which Brynd pointed out to the Dawnir.
'They know me?' Jurro stared dumbly.
'From their reaction to you, they're familiar with either you, or your breed.'
Brynd wondered what this might mean to one who spent so long hidden in a dark chamber away from prying eyes. Now, to have another creature actually recognize him.
Nelum, ever curious, said, 'Say something to them, Jurro. See how they react.'
As Jurro bent forward the pair of aliens shied away from his direct gaze.
'What do you think, Nelum?'
'Obviously they know what he is, so I'll bet that wherever they came from, there are more of Jurro's lot.'
'Want us to kill them, sir?' Lupus enquired.
Brynd shook his head. 'Probably more useful alive.'
Thunder sounded on the horizon and he walked away to squint through the snow. In this monochrome landscape, it was difficult to locate the direction of the plangent sound.
Then he spotted, to the north, a thin line of black.
Barely noticeable, on the furthest hill.
The only patch of darkness against the grey landscape and pale sky.
'Nelum.' Brynd summoned him and pointed. 'More of the same, d'you reckon?'
Nelum regarded the horizon. 'It looks that way… shit. They'll destroy us, that number of them. We'll have to get back to Villiren. Fast.'
'It'll take us hours to reach the ice sheets again.'
'Not necessarily so. We took a meandering path here, took plenty of stops.'
'Yes, fair point.'
Brynd gave the orders for the two surviving creatures to be bound, alive, but requested Blavat to use some relic to knock them unconscious. All she could really manage was to reinforce the chains that confined them. That would have to do for the moment.
He returned to check on Apium, who was now fading from consciousness. Brynd had noticed that the shell had been removed.
'You got it out?' he asked the cultist.
'No, it disintegrated while we tried to extract it. The remaining part's still inside him. I'm sorry.'
Apium opened his eyes as if hearing this news. 'Commander.' The word emerged as barely more than a breath.
'Hang in there. We'll get you strapped on your horse and you'll be all right.'
Blavat tugged at Brynd's shoulder, hissed, 'But he's going to die. We'll never get him back in time. He'll die.'
Brynd stared into her eyes with a feral intensity that made it perfectly clear who was in charge.
'But the serious wounding is internal. It's his lungs and-'
'I don't give a fuck. I'm not leaving him here. Numb his pain.'
With that he returned to mount his horse, then rode around the remaining group giving orders for an immediate retreat to Villiren.
*
Apium coughed blood onto the horse's neck, and when that happened you knew things weren't looking good. The rhythm of the gallop was making him feel even sicker, and he had to keep stopping, holding the others up. Brynd was constantly looking round to check if his friend was all right. Truth be told, it was as if he was thieving every last breath just to stay alive, and Apium hadn't a clue how many more hours he would last.
A piece of shell. Just a piece of fucking shell.
It was funny, in a strange way, now that Apium himself knew he was dying, how it seemed to trivialize these final moments. Another irony was that he didn't feel inclined to tell them about the hole in his boot, or about the frostbite that must be destroying his left foot almost as quickly.
'You want to get up behind me?' Brynd asked at one point.
'No, I'm fine. Leave me behind if you need to.'
'Leave you with that lot? You must be joking.' Apium followed Brynd's gaze off into the distance.
The black-shells had now gathered behind in enormous numbers, a huge line of them now clearly visible. If fifty had taken so much effort to kill, the thousands in pursuit would surely destroy them. Apium was desperate not to hold up the others.
The effect of Blavat's relics consistently failed, and it felt as if he was inhaling knives.
They didn't train soldiers for this shit.
*
It went on for hours, this stop-start nightmare chase through the dark. The creatures just kept on coming, and as the Jamur soldiers finally arrived at the ice sheets, the number of enemy had merely increased.
Everyone was beginning to fear that they would never make it to the longships in time, and Apium felt the burden of Brynd's soft glances towards him.
'Blavat,' he wheezed, unexpectedly.
Surprised, the cultist woman steered her horse closer to his. 'Yes, captain?'
'Those brenna devices,' he whispered.
'What about them?'
'They're primed for our men to use them, aren't they?'
'They're ready to use, yes. What about it?'
Another deep breath that sliced through his insides.
Apium said, 'They work in a chain reaction, yes? I think I might be of some use. In getting you lot away from here.'
'I can adjust them so as to work in unison, sure. You really fancy taking that lot on by yourself?'
Nothing in her tone to suggest she cared too much, but then why should she? Only Brynd was keeping him with them. 'Yes. Now we're on an ice sheet… once I let you all get far enough away, I can detonate the devices so as to cut them off. Once we've put water between you and them, you're safe to get back to Villiren.'
'And you?'
'We all know about me. Now, line up those devices.' He painfully steered his horse towards Brynd.
Apium told him briefly of his intentions.
'That's insanity. We'll get you back.'
'Who's the crazy one, Brynd? Who's the one kidding himself?'
The look in Brynd's eyes said everything that Apium already knew. He didn't want to fail a friend, but it just wasn't practical.
'What do you want me to say?' Brynd grunted.
'You're supposed to commend me on a good plan. At least this way my fat carcass will be worth something.' Then, seeing Brynd's expression of dismay, 'We're fucking soldiers, Brynd, just pull yourself together.'
They shook hands, holding their grip longer than necessary.
'Now… fuck off out of here while you still can,' he wheezed, forcing a smile.
Apium said brief goodbyes to the men, who stared in confusion. Then he accepted the brenna devices from Blavat, who quickly instructed him in their subtleties.
Into the darkness, he rode for a quarter of an hour until he was face to face with the enemy, with nearly every sharp breath seeming penultimate.
He unwrapped all the brenna devices. He dropped one to the ground, hearing it ping on the ice. He turned his horse sideways, dropping the others in as straight a line as he could manage, while the pain became unendurable. He deposited the last brenna device in the snow, knowing they were all linked up in whatever way Blavat had configured them.
From the clinking and rustling sounds, the enemy had begun to approach.
Sliding from the saddle, Apium gave the last-placed device a gentle twist at its top, barely able to see it in the pitch-black of night.
