I took a deep breath and tried to calm my racing heart. I need some air.
I gathered up the pack and geode lights, just in case, and crawled out the tunnel. The lightning ricocheted down the tunnel eerily as I crawled toward the entrance. Thunder grew louder and louder as I rounded the bends. My leg was significantly better, and I could even push off it fairly often, rather than dragging it in my army crawl, without wincing too much. My headache was almost nonexistent.
As the tunnel’s mouth flared open, I saw a shadow pass below the tunnel’s entrance, just hidden by a large boulder that the game trail wound in front of. I scurried out and tucked in behind the boulder.
If it were Jase, he would have come straight to the entrance. I did not want to be trapped in the cavern, that was for sure. Was it the Bordash? Or was it other Curans, meeting us in the salt caves, as agreed?
Two more shadows were on the game trail a little further below the lip of the tunnel's mouth. There was a ledge that was pretty defensible, the boulder blocking most of the access to the tunnel. I could defend this spot pretty well with just my darting knives and dagger if needed. But, it really depended on the type of weapons they had, too…
I looked around for better options. The game trail wound further up the mountain and squeezed in between some even larger boulders that anyone bigger than my small frame wouldn’t be able to fit through. While the shadows were occupied down below, it was my chance to flee through there. It was my best shot to get away from the caves and being cornered.
Telepathy didn’t work inside the salt hills, but maybe once I was up above them and on the granite boulders, it would…
I snuck up the game trail and through the boulders, my cloak shielding me from the heavy rain, but my boots occasionally slipping in the steep salt slopes, slick with the rain. I had to set up a better scouting spot tucked into this vantage point. It was a great hiding spot because there was little likelihood any of them could fit through here (I barely did) and hopefully there would be trails to the top.
I looked back over my shoulder just as one of the men found the tunnel entrance. He was definitely Bordash.
Shit… I hurried through the boulders and would up on top of the salt hill, hid under some scrubs, and watched the scouting party from my ledge. It had an overhang and small cavern itself, surrounded by boulders and scraggly trees, but much better cover and less access for them.
Unfortunately, I hadn’t realized there was already a Bordash scout there.
He jumped on me as soon as I stepped into his haven.
"Fuck!" I yelled, and my knife was immediately in my hand, slashing at his throat. He leaned away, dodging back, slipping under my arm, but then I was firing three more knives with telekinesis toward him from my hip sheaths, and they embedded into his side. He flung them back out at me, but I hinged them in the air to switch around back at him, his blood flung so wildly arrested in the air that it peppered my face as it whipped around and changed direction. I was more precise this time, and he dodged one, but the other two entered his right eye, and he sank to the ground, screaming, but then I was on top of him, slashing his throat with my dagger and slumping his body to the side as he gurgled on his blood and curled into himself to greet his final moments.
I stared at him, breathing hard, pulse racing, sweat dripping down my cheeks, hands clammy, dagger streaming red onto his tunic, and then wiped my sleeve across my face to clear his blood off my cheeks. I shoved him aside and looked down at the others near the tunnel entrance. There were five of them, and they were looking up at me, alerted by their comrade's screams.
I flung myself backward as they lasered knives up at me in unison. This was no longer a hiding place; it was a last stand.
Be brave… I focused all the intention I could on Jase's mind and used a pinch of my emotion to build some Will to send a telepathic thought, hoping the overhanging salt wouldn't block it. As I prepped what I could say to Jase, trying to think of a code, a rain of knives thudded all around me as the Bordash below lanced metal razors into my hovel. I raced backward and threw wild telekinetic blocks every which way, knocking the knives back down the cliff.
“They’re here!” The thought was more a scream than a refined, contained code but I shrugged it away. It didn’t matter at this point.
I could sense he received it, but he didn’t respond. My heart was in my throat. One of the Bordash knives nicked my arm, and I caught it with my other hand and then swiftly spun it around to throw it back down the cliff again, directing it telekinetically. I rolled the now completely dead Bordash toward the edge of the cliff and set his body up as broadly as I could, which was pretty effective, blocking more than half of the opening.
Jase’s words came loud and strong into my mind, warming my mind, my heart, my soul, and tingling my body. “I’m coming for you. Be brave.”
I breathed a deep sigh of relief. He would be coming for me. We would fight them together. I could be strong and hold them off until then. I knew I could. I was strong. I could do this. He wouldn’t have believed in me if I couldn’t do it.
“And look at this guy.” I nudged the dead Bordash with the toe of my boot. “My first kill.” I immediately compartmentalized to avoid
