Presently, we gawked as Kat was flung clear across the clouds. Violently he spun, only to be snatched by the delighted Harpy who demanded him.
Harmony joined Yuki on the higher step, as wife bent and prayed.
'To me sister!' cried the third Harpy. 'Pass me the man!'
Kat was again thrown through the sky to be caught by the hair. 'Return him at once!' exclaimed Harmony, furious. 'You hear me witches?'
All three women collected high above to discuss our group. The sight of the angelic Harmony Valour seemed to spark their interest, and their joy for Kat went on the wane.
'They're going to drop him.' I muttered. 'Shit, they are…'
The three laughed then started an upward race. They soared until simply dots in the stratosphere, and there, as high as possible, they released our friend to infinity.
'No!' screamed Yuki.
Arms and legs flapping, Kat plummeted, the Harpies not going to save him this time. Without thinking, I collected all the rope slack connecting my waist to Curtis. 'What are you doing?!' he asked, dumbfounded, as I snapped my fingers for the wavering eye of -
'Eddinray!' I yelled. 'Get behind Curtis! You hold on to his back and don't let go!'
The knight obeyed without question, scurrying behind a sitting Curtis and locking his arms around my prisoner's stomach. 'Now what?' bellowed the Englishman.
'Dig in your heels!' I answered, observing Kat's speedy decent, specifically how his body would pass only feet from where I now stood; and seconds before he did, I clenched my fists, sucked in my lips, and took a running leap off the step…
The samurai saw, reached out for my arms and — 'Got you!' I cried, our hands clasping in mid-air.
Dropping now, our connecting bodies smashed against the sidewall of those steps, and the rope connecting me to Curtis instantly strung taut, dragging himself and Eddinray toward the sheer face.
Curtis screamed, and so did I as that rope throttled at our guts, but despite this, I held steadfast onto Kat's wrist, as he dangled over emptiness.
Thinking fast, Harmony came behind Eddinray to add her weight to this anchor. 'Pull back!' cried the knight, desperately clinging to Curtis. 'Back!'
Yuki came also, tugging Harmony's wings as the angel pulled at Eddinray, who pulled at Curtis, who lifted Kat and me from peril.
'Get this fucking rope off!' wailed Curtis, collapsing. 'I can't breathe!'
Kat and I slumped to the safety of flat stone, and there lay in a panting, stupefied mess. 'You're crazy Fox!' Curtis bawled. 'Fucking insane!'
'Where are they?' I asked, eyes searching the sky. 'Where?'
The Harpies were nowhere to be seen, but relaxing was out of the question. Forgetting the crunching pain in my stomach, we set again up the steps, but not before Kat could gather up his swords to face a third wave of arrows. Refusing to hide in the huddle, I removed my own sword and stood beside. 'Together Kat.' I grunted. 'Together.'
He nodded back, then urged the others to pack themselves tighter.
The whistling arrows struck, two successfully beating our shield. I was hit in the thigh and Kat took one in his shoulder. I fell backward and he forward, the fires coursing through our nervous system. Yuki cried, then draped herself over her stricken husband. 'Climb!' he demanded, pushing her away. 'Please!'
In her mania, Yuki did as she was told, climbing the remaining steps as Harmony came under my arm, and Eddinray propped up the other.
'Give me your sword, knight!' begged Curtis, over the chortling creatures swooning around us. 'I must be free of this rope! I'll be killed otherwise!'
'I will not!' he returned, ducking. However, Curtis, with no one to stop him, bashed our group aside and threw himself on top of Eddinray, wrestling for possession of his long sword.
'Leave him alone!' yelled Harmony, kicking Curtis in the back as Kat sat weak on the step.
'Ger off!' cried Eddinray, finding a free hand to wallop Curtis on the chin.
'Look out!' exclaimed Harmony, spotting a forth wave of incoming arrows.
Eddinray covered himself over the reluctant angel as best he could, and before the arrows smashed us, Kat smiled contently to see Yuki out of harms way above, the blood oozing from his nostrils as he struggled to his legs to see off this fresh batch. Faint, I joined him.
'Together.' he gargled.
'This is not the end.' I mumbled back, before feeling a hot arrow penetrate my waist, then another through my wrist. I slouched half-conscious over Kat as remaining projectiles bounced from the path of friends and prisoner.
No fight or sense was left in me; the samurai, however, suddenly got a remarkable second wind. I heard him growl underneath me, as if angered by some extraordinary insult. The bones in his ribcage seemed to rumble, shaking all the melancholy from his system. He placed me delicately onto my back then snapped the arrow from his shoulder, throwing the end away like a used cigarette butt. He then smeared the blood away from his nose, returned the katana to its sheath then stroked the smaller Wakizashi through his fingers. As Harpies reloaded, he aimed up the three with one hand — pulled back the sword with the other — then threw with all his might.
His makeshift javelin was like a shooting star through the furious sky, piercing the black heart of one stuttering sister Harpy.
'Amazing!' gasped Eddinray, while Kat redrew his katana. The injured creature's wings wilted, and she duly dived to her second death, with stunned sisters watching.
'Here!' yelled Yuki, from the highest point in this world. 'Come! Come!'
She had reached the top step and exit as two inconsolable Harpies came to avenge their sister. Kat assisted me over one-step, then the next. Still Curtis fought with the rope knot as we bundled as fast as possible toward Yuki, who abruptly bellowed — 'Behind you!'
A fifth bombardment glided toward our backs. Two arrows battered off Eddinray's armor to leave deep dimples, three more struck the surrounding steps whilst the last sank deep into my calf. I jolted backward with a spray of blood leaving my mouth. Kat ordered Curtis to help me, but refusing outright, he instead used every inch of available rope slack to ascend from all of us. Although the samurai warrior was badly wounded himself, he still had the temerity to haul my body over his good shoulder, and then heave us inch by inch up these last remaining steps.
His humongous effort took us to Yuki and the others before another attack could see us off. Slunk at the very summit of Hell-fire, the steps rose over a swirling storm, sucking the burning air into a fiery Armageddon in the eye. This was a portal containing the evil we were running from, and poking out of this searing hole was the tallest structure in all of Hell — the tip of the 9th Fortress.
A gale blew like God's own breath, while Harpies aimed their arrows. Before us was a wall of stone with a crack wide enough to squeeze through. A wooden notice was perched above this entrance — inscribed in flame, in Latin it read and Harmony translated:
'No light. No chance.'
42. Cold Dead Hands
'I have stopped the bleeding,' said Kat; 'but you'll need rest Fox.'
Sincerity is a thing I would never get used to hearing from Kat's lips. With precise work, he had earlier removed four arrows from my body, sealing the wounds with fire before wrapping them over with cloth.
We where transported to some dripping cave, lit by perpetually burning torches on the rock, and whose descending trail was smothered by night. We would face that darkness later; in the meantime we would heal.
Harmony busied herself by counting the indents over her dozing Eddinray's armor. Curtis kept his concentration to that black burrow we would soon venture. 'No light, no chance.' he mumbled, in a raving manner.
