The orc fell with a knife in its back. Gill stepped forward, still hidden by the shadows, and grabbed his knife. “Don’t forget yours.”
Alex reached over to pick up the knife. Her hands were trembling, and she was struggling to breathe. She realized her shirt was covered with blood, and her face was wet and sticky with it. The acrid smell of copper filled her nostrils. “We…we did it,” she mumbled.
Gill came over, grabbed Alex, and hugged her tight. “Your first one?” he asked.
Alex nodded as she hugged Gill back. He pulled away and held Alex’s chin in his fingers. “If we don’t kill them, they’ll kill us. It’s that simple. They will kill you, and they will not hesitate. Neither should you.”
Alex wiped away a tear and smeared blood across her face. “Yeah, yeah. Come on.”
“Hold on,” Gill said as he leaned over the orc Alex had killed. “Take this.”
Gill pulled the orc’s head away from its body and tossed it to Alex, who caught the head, surprised she hadn’t jumped back in disgust. “This’ll help get Brath off your back.”
Alex leaned over and grabbed the orc’s rifles. “And this is just being practical,” she said.
“Good point. Let’s see what else they have.”
Alex and Gill looted the orcs’ bodies and found three knives and two scimitars, but other than weapons, the orcs didn’t have anything on them. Then they made their way back to Jollies, Manny, and Brath.
When Brath saw the two of them coming back, he shakily asked, “Is that you guys?”
Alex tossed the orc’s head at Brath, who grabbed it out of the air before realizing what he had caught. He dropped the head and jumped back. “What the hell?” he yelped.
Gill came up beside Brath and handed him a sword. “That was Alex’s,” he explained. “Cut straight down to the bone. Nearly decapitated him.”
Brath looked at Alex, his eyes wide and filled with awe. “Oh, that’s… I mean, that’s pretty cool,” he said.
Alex tried not to look too smug and shrugged. “Just figured we needed to be able to catch our breath before we go back out there,” she said. “And we can’t do that with orcs snacking in here.”
Manny rubbed his face with his tentacles. “What exactly were they snacking on in there?” he asked.
“Manny, this is not the time to be thinking about food!”
“Well, when is? I’ve been starving since we got kicked out of here.”
Alex sighed as she realized Manny’s body was probably burning more energy than usual since he was supporting both Brath and Jollies. “All right, go grab something to eat but hurry back,” Alex said.
Manny didn’t wait for Alex to say anything else. He rushed off, severing his ties with Jollies and Brath, who squeaked when their eyesight disappeared. Alex had completely forgotten how close Manny had to stay to keep the connection going. It looked like he had to stay even closer if he was running two at the same time.
Alex sat down next to Brath and took his trembling hand. “Hey, Jollies, could you get brighter for me?” Alex asked.
Jollies didn’t answer but started to glow a deep blue as she fluttered over to Brath and Alex, who let go of Brath’s hand. “Can you guys see all right?” Alex asked.
Jollies landed on Alex’s knee. “How did you do this?” Jollies asked. “It’s been fifteen minutes, and I already feel like I’m losing my mind. This was your entire life?”
“It’s not that bad if it’s all you’ve ever known. I never thought twice about it. I’ve heard of people losing their sight later in life, and that seems horrible. But this? It’s all I ever knew.“
Brath stared into the darkness. “Yeah, this is pretty hard. Must take a lot of guts to decide to jump on a dragon without even being able to see five feet in front of you.”
“Makes it a lot harder when people are treating you like a lazy freak.”
Brath didn’t bother meeting Alex’s eyes, but he nodded to show he understood what she was saying. “Yes, it would. So, what’s the game plan?”
Alex wasn’t expecting an apology from Brath, just an acknowledgment and she had gotten that. They could worry about their squabbles later. For now, they had to figure out how they were going to make it to the dragon stables with a Wasp’s Nest full of orcs.
Manny came floating back toward the group, quietly munching on whatever grub he’d found. “We could take the service tunnels,” Manny suggested. “They’re not quite tunnels, more like invisible hallways. It’s what all the extra regular staff use.”
“Extra regular?”
“Like the cooks, cleaners, things like that—the staff who don’t interact with students all the time. Can you imagine how annoyed the lunch lady would be if people tried to talk to her about lunch when she wasn’t working behind the line? She’s already pretty irritable.”
Gill pulled up his HUD and looked through the schematics of the Wasp’s Nest. “How do we get to them?” he asked.
“There should be an entrance somewhere in the back of the kitchen. We should be able to follow them all the way to the stables.”
Alex stood up, sheathed her knife, and slung the rifle over her shoulder. “All right, what are we wasting time for then? Let’s get going.”
Chapter Three
Alex and the group made their way to the back of the kitchen. They had to tell Manny to stop grabbing more food, but the harder they tried to stop the Beholder, the more they found themselves grabbing food.
Stress was making everyone hungry.
Alex had only just stopped shaking since her encounter with the orc. She had managed to put up a brave front for Brath, but now she was replaying the whole scene in her head.
Alex was glad she had had her eyes covered. She didn’t want to imagine what the gory mess would have
