“Shiite… cover your ears!” Thorn shouts as she rummages in her bag. “They've brought a damned banshee with them!”
From her satchel, she produces a thick, black candle and thrusts its end into the dying bonfire. The wick catches right away and sputters out a gleaming, white light. The candlelight continues to brighten, and the sense of panic and dread melts away from the group.
“Bloody amateurs… a simple thing to counter,” she mutters. “We need weapons of silver to destroy that creature. She can eventually overpower this talisman.”
“No,” the Sergeant says with force, “we are leaving now! The moon is almost set, and we are out of time! Go, now!”
He leans around the corner of the battered stockade wall and begins to fire off measured shots from the big .45. Vince joins in, launching arrows as fast as he can reload them.
Olivia and Thirax take advantage of the distraction to slip out of the sundered gate and off into the darkness together.
Hayes fires his gun dry, the slide locked open. “Well, I'm out…”
Thorn stands and stares at a figure off in the distance. Her sharp elven eyes widen in fear and confusion as the carriage draws closer. “But this cannot be… I saw him die! Skemend murdered him and then disappeared with his body and his head…”
“Not something to worry about now, sweetheart. We have to get out of here,” Haynes says as he grabs her arm and pulls her behind himself.
Lord Dullahan stands atop the wagon, clad in night black, charred armor, his head nestled under his left arm, encased in its helmet. His amplified voice roars over the open field, “Grimarm the Harrow! Fetch me those escaped slaves and kill their leader.”
The trees and foliage at the far edge of the clearing seem to bleed out redcaps. They crawl from the roots in a ragged fashion until they form a line. Grimarm and his monstrous hound, Cu Sith, step out in front of the line.
“All right boys, we've got our marching orders! Let’s hunt us some humans!” He pulls a large, sharp cleaver from its sheath and leads the charge.
Fifty mercenary killers begin to charge across the field, gathering speed as they go. Their battle cry is beginning to rival the banshee's wail. The very ground shakes with the ferocity of their charge.
“Grayson, lead the way! RUN!” Haynes shouts as he draws his sword, determined to be rear guard for what’s left of his people. He swings around to the right at a sudden fast movement in his peripheral vision. He checks his swing as he recognizes Nian and Des. The pair race past him without a word, a look of terror on both their faces. They make it into the globe of light from the candle but continue past into the caves, catching up with the others. Haynes smiles to himself in relief and follows them in.
The group descends into the gloom of the cave and navigates the rough hallways by the torches on the walls. Haynes tries to block the path behind them, tossing tables and barrels into the path, but it doesn't feel like enough. The best it might do is slow their pursuers down by a few steps, if that at all.
Finally, they see a silver-white glow up ahead around a bend. Grayson calls out a challenge, and Miles answers it. The group bursts into a small chamber. The walls and ceiling are rough-hewn stone. At the far wall, an irregular puddle of solid silver acts as a threshold for a silver Arch raising seven feet high and about five feet wide. The Arch itself seems to have grown out of the silver floor, almost like the way a quartz crystal would grow from a rock. The center of the Arch is dark and obscured, but the silver arc glows softly with an internal light.
“We tossed a few rocks through and nothing seemed to happen; they just disappeared," Grayson says to their group.
“Well, we're gonna find out right quick with that horde of redcaps bearing down on us!” Desmond says, agitated.
“Okay, you first!” Grayson says with a small bow and a grin.
Colt makes an exasperated sound and grabs a torch from the wall. He marches to the gate and thrusts his hand and the torch through the Arch. The flames seem brighter, illuminating the stone cave on the other side. With a shrug and a wink, he steps through. Looking around, he steps away from the gate and turns back. With an excited grin, he waves everyone through. The light of the gate flickers for a moment but then steadies, a little dimmer than it was a second ago.
“I think we are running out of time; we must hurry!” exclaims Thorn.
With no more hesitation, Miles leaps through with Jesse still over his shoulder, followed by Des and Vince. Nian looks past Haynes, a question on his face. Haynes gives him a shove toward the gate as Jimmy jumps through.
“No time for questions! I'll tell you on the other side, now move!” he tells the large Gnoll and gives him another shove. Grayson jumps through next while Nian relents and follows.
Thorn balks right in front of the gate. “I don't know if I can do this… leave everything behind, my whole world, my life…”
“If you stay, they'll likely kill you or put you in prison, right?” Haynes asks. The sound of the redcaps tromping down the stone floor of the cave is starting to reach them.
“Well, yes… but—”
The Sarge ducks one shoulder low and scoops the tiny elf off her feet and onto his shoulder. She gasps in surprise as he marches toward the gate.
“You’re with us now. Nothing bad will happen to you as long as I'm alive.”
Without a second glance, he steps through the gate with the elf on his shoulder.
Her protests are lost in the distance. A moment later, the gate flickers and dies.
