XIV

From the sounds of battle and men screaming from various directions, it was clear to Yoreno—and worrying—how scattered the crew had become. Dantera lead their group forward toward the commotion, practically leaving them all in her footsteps.

Yoreno vaulted over a fallen log, his friends and Hans behind him. She must not have seen movement on her left, because Yoreno stopped short as two men from the other ship stalked up a trail leading to the level ground above the cliff.

“What are they doing?” Dell asked.

“I don’t know,” Yoreno said. “Sorkika, follow Hans.” She nodded her ascent. “Hans, can we have a couple of your men?”

“Of course,” he said immediately, motioning to the two men who were to follow Dell and Yoreno up the trail. “The rest, on me! We got to assist Dantera!”

“Aye!” they called.

“Come on!” Yoreno said as he made for the trail. Turning his head, he called out a wish of good luck to Hans and Sorika. Following in the direction of those men, he stamped up the trail, grasping tree roots and branches so he wouldn’t fall.

The trail was steep and the climbing slow. Once he crested the top, Yoreno turned and assisted Dell by offering him a hand. “You’re heavy.”

“No heavier than you are,” Dell said. Then he turned and helped the two sailors that had come with them.

Yoreno bared his steal once more and stalked forward, looking for enemies to attack. There were none in their immediate area.

“Where are they?” Dell asked as he glanced about.

“It doesn’t matter,” Yoreno said, leading the way along the cliff face. There as a lot of underbrush and trees up here, so the moving was slow. Yoreno stalked forward, certain he would catch the two men.

He pushed a branch aside, the large leafy cover making it hard to see by. Something made a sound up ahead. He crouched low, holding his sword in both hands, ready to attack or defend should the need arise.

Yoreno turned, motioning to Dell and the two sailors that there were men ahead and pressed forward. He leaned over a fallen tree, pivoting over it on his hip as he moved toward the noises.

The underbrush thinned, revealing movement of at least five or six men.

And then a monster howled with rage through the trees. Yoreno glanced back to Dell, his friend’s eyes widening. The howl had come from their front. Yoreno stalked up the rugged forest terrain and through the bushes. There he found five men surrounding a cage with wheels.

He came up short when he realized the monster in the cage was Herokelus—his likeness similar to that of the statue he had seen a day before.

The men turned and saw Yoreno. He charged them, his sword hilt raised up high near his shoulder. Two men came forward and he slashed at the first man in an arc that took his blade down and then back up, his sword taking the man in the upper hip. He jerked, cried out and fell as his ally rushed Yoreno.

Then Dell lunged forward and took the man in the neck with a thrust of his own sword. He grasped at his wound and fell squirming with blood.

Yoreno would have finished his first attacker then and there, but the three other men before him set his hackles to rising when one man dropped a wickedly-curved sword on the grass in front of the cage while the other two unlocked and opened the door to Herokelus’ cage.

The man who had dropped the sword dashed away, Yoreno’s two sailors rushing after him while the man who had opened the cage was grabbed by the monster’s six-fingered grip and crushed, his screams horrible and high-pitched enough to send shivers up Yoreno’s spine.

“Gods almighty!” Dell muttered breathily as Herokelus, two heads taller than either of them and built like a gladiator of ancient times, stepped out of his cage.

He looked at them, his abnormal mouth opening in a snarl as he bent and picked up his sword.